that horrible BEEP

[Sid Schweiger]

>>ABC radio always had a tone at five seconds before a newscast
started.<<

Nope.  Ten seconds.  In the ABC Radio air studios, the button that
generated the ten-second warning tone also automatically fired cart
machine #1 exactly ten seconds later, so that's where you put the
opening theme cart (or left it empty, in the case of the FM Network).

>>They also had a tone that would activate an optional alarm at the  
station.  This was used for bulletins or special reports.  I worked at  
two stations that carried ABC news but neither one had the optional  
alarm that would sound when the network sent the special tone.<<

2930 Hz.  It wasn't used much, but I remember well one night when we
used it frequently, once even in the middle of a commercial break:  July
24th, 1974...the evening on which the House Judiciary Committee took its
first vote to recommend impeachment of President Nixon.

>>I wonder if they still have such a thing.<<

I don't believe so.  They now use a continuously running "squawk box"
channel that all affiliates are supposed to leave open in their
newsrooms or control rooms.

Sid Schweiger
IT Manager, Entercom New England
Former ABC Radio Network Studio Engineer