that horrible BEEP

[Cohasset / Hippisley]

There are two different kinds of "beeps" that I recall.

I was a control room engineer for the CBS radio affiliate in Syracuse during
the summer of 1960 ("WHEN in Syracuse, dial 620....").  At that time the
only beeps I ever heard were what I think Mr. Strassberg is referring to as
the NetAlert beeps.  An "Alert" consisted of a series of equally spaced
beeps that were intended to alert station personnel that something important
was about to come across the network feed.  My recollection (which could
very well be faulty on this point) is that the number of beeps helped define
the urgency of the upcoming feed.  Sometimes the beeps referred to (breaking
news) content in a standard top-of-the-hour newscast, but sometimes the
beeps meant a special news feed was coming during a normally-inactive period
on the network link.  

Later, long after I had left WHEN, CBS Radio added another kind of beep,
which I prefer to think of as a "cricket click"; it was a 2-piece sound that
was used to cue stations to break away from the network, such as at 58:55
past the hour, when we inserted local ads.  I think CBS radio still uses
such a system.  I hated it when they introduced it, and I still don't much
care for it.

Bud Hippisley