Music Till Dawn on WEEI

[Dan.Strassberg]

I think the use of wire instead of tape would have been theoretically
possible but the likelihood of its being anywhere near reliable enough
seems nil. Tangles and knots, which would have been impossible to
straighten out in real time, would seem inevitable. I don't know the
diameter of magnetic recording wire, but it was quite thin. Since it
was made of a ferromagnetic alloy, it was nevertheless extremely
strong and seemed possessed of a mind of its own (kind of like garden
hose but no more than about 1% of the diameter). Remember, too, that,
as a practical matter, recording wire was essentially impossible to
splice. Tangles were an absolute nightmare! The perfect medium to make
grown men break down in tears and babble incoherently. Such problems
with wire gave rise to the rapid ascendency of magnetic tape.

-----
Dan Strassberg (dan.strassberg@att.net)
eFax 1-707-215-6367

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jim Hall" <aerie.ma@comcast.net>
To: "'Boston Radio Interest'"
<boston-radio-interest@rolinin.bostonradio.org>
Sent: Tuesday, February 26, 2008 4:39 PM
Subject: RE: Music Till Dawn on WEEI


>I received yesterday the new book that's just out on Jerry Williams.
>It's
> really quite impressive. Apparently when his show was about to start
> on
> WMEX, he insisted he wanted to put the caller on the air (instead of
> the
> host repeating what the caller was saying), and the Richmond
> Brothers had to
> come up with the delay mechanism. Apparently Max Richmond did not
> want to
> spend money on tape recorders, so he jury-rigged something with old
> wire
> recorders. I haven't gotten to the WBZ years in the book yet, but
> what I've
> read of the book so far has been very interesting.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: boston-radio-interest-bounces@tsornin.BostonRadio.org
> [mailto:boston-radio-interest-bounces@tsornin.BostonRadio.org] On
> Behalf Of
> Ron Bello
> Sent: Tuesday, February 26, 2008 4:27 PM
> To: kvahey@comcast.net
> Cc: Boston Radio Interest; Dan.Strassberg
> Subject: Re: Music Till Dawn on WEEI
>
>
> All talk shows at WBZ had at least 1 union technician in the 70s.
> Both Calling All Sports and Jerry Williams were done in a large
> studio
> (with room for guests) had a technician and producer in the adjacent
> control room.  Delay via magnetic tape on an Ampex with head
> positions
> reversed was in adjacent control room.  There was also a technician
> in
> master control.  About the only time he did anything during this 6
> hour
> block was during the news.  Larry Glick used the same studio as the
> jocks
> for daytime music shows.  His producer and delay were in master
> control.
> The only thing Glick ran were his sound effects.
>
>
> At 06:42 PM 2/25/2008, kvahey@comcast.net wrote:
>>One byproduct of WEEI being owned by CBS was increased labor costs
>>at
>>every major Boston station.
>>
>>IBEW local 1228 mandated that all technicians had to be paid the
>>same
>>rate and working conditions that WEEI received and that was the rate
>>paid at WCBS.
>>
>>Well this didn't sit well with Westinghouse and they devised a
>>system
>>to eliminate union jobs. The WEEI contract stated that a technician
>>must operate anything with a VU meter. So WBZ whipped up combo
>>boards
>>with no VU meters and made the jocks run them.
>>
>>I believe Jerry Williams was the only talent that had a board op as
>>he
>>demanded it. Glick ran his own board. BZ still had a union tech in
>>master control who babysat the delay system.
>