Great AM audio during its heyday

[A Joseph Ross]

On 6/8/2012 11:24 PM, Chris Hall wrote:

> For younger readers or those whose memories have faded, if you want to experience what a well engineered AM radio station sounded
> like during the fifties through the mid seventies watch an episode of “Diners drive ins and Dives” on the Food network. The music at
> the start and as segments begin and end will give you an idea of just how wonderful AM sounded until a bevy of bad PD’s demanded
> the meter on the modulation monitor resemble pure DC with absurd audio processing.
> During the fifties the idea was to make your AM station sound like the Seeburg or Wurlitzer juke box at the local drive in or Ice cream parlor
> the sound was so infectious it almost made you dance.
> Great AM radio was done by recreating this identical juke box sound coming out of the speakers on car radios especially the high quality Delco
> radios in GM cars, they were so good that Chrysler used them in their Imperials and Ford used them in their Lincolns in addition
> to Studebaker in all their products. The idea was to duplicate that same party feel wherever you listened and not only did it work but it worked extremely well. Rich, full and thumpy, like the way the brilliant German musician Bert Kaempfert crafted the bass in all his music.
> During my early years in radio not only did AM sound this way the first top 40 FM stations had this great sound made even better with extended frequency response along with stereo. I am happy to say I was CE of one of the very early top 40 FM stations that sounded this way, It also was loud because it was very full and rich.
> Thanks to the US government destruction of Delco/Delphi, GM cars no longer use equipment from the most advanced and highest quality manufacturer
> of car audio.

I suppose in those days, it didn't hurt that more AM radios could 
produce that kind of full sound.  I still have the Philco 
radiophonograph that my father bought in 1947, and it still sounds as 
good as it did then.  At least on WJIB anyway.  Or when I use a patch 
cord to play old radio shows into it.

-- 
A. Joseph Ross, J.D.|92 State Street|Suite 700|Boston, MA 02109-2004
617.367.0468|Fx:617.507.7856|http://www.attorneyross.com