Welcome to the December 4th,
Trautmann stands tall in radio engineering
The chief technology officer of Cumulus Media is the recipient of the Radio World Excellence in Engineering Award.
HDPE fix
High-density polyethylene solves a repair problem for Hal Kneller.
Get a license
Mark Lapidus writes that navigating intellectual property can be as confusing as dating.
Why the delay?
James O’Neal offers a brief history of timeshifted programming in radio’s earlier days.
Vol. 48 No. 25 | December 4 2024 www.radioworld.com
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Jeff moves on Littlejohn steps away at iHeartMedia
Paul McLane Editor in Chief
In this issue we celebrate Conrad Trautmann, the 21st recipient of the Radio World Excellence in Engineering Award. If you have worked with Conrad you know how deserving he is of this recognition. Our profile starts on page 5. Meanwhile I also want to share that the fifth recipient of that award, Jeff Littlejohn, retired from iHeartMedia last month.
One of the U.S. radio industry’s best-known and most influential engineers, Littlejohn, 58, stepped down from his role as executive VP of engineering, though he will continue in a consulting role. Steve George succeeded him.
As I wrote on the Radio World website, Littlejohn’s decision brings an end to what iHeart described as an “extraordinary 32 years” with the company. It began in 1992 with a job as chief engineer in Cincinnati for what was then American Media. It became Chancellor Broadcasting, which merged with Evergreen Media, which purchased Capstar, which was renamed AM/FM Inc. and eventually was acquired by Clear Channel, subsequently renamed iHeartMedia.
“He rose through the ranks as he helped expand the company after the 1996 Telecom Act,” the company said in its announcement.
“He was part of the team that created the first version of the iHeartRadio App and worked with Toyota and Ford on the first integration of iHeartRadio.”
More recently, it said, he helped spearhead a modernization of iHeart’s studio facilities and conversion to cloud-based audio systems. In addition to our award in 2008, Jeff received the NAB Radio Engineering Achievement Award in 2014. He also has been chair of the NAB Radio Technical Committee and active in national engineering issues. For instance this summer he was among the
Jeff Littlejohn
engineers who met with FCC officials to discuss virtualization of the EAS system, in a meeting facilitated by the NAB.
As the biggest commercial radio company in the country, iHeart’s management decisions are watched closely. Last month it carried out a number of job terminations to cut costs, as has been widely reported. We learned that Alan Jurison, iHeart senior operations engineer for the Technical Operations group, was among those let go. So this clearly is a time of transition and downsizing even within the company’s technical arm.
But Jeff told me that his retirement came on his own initiative and was something he’d been talking with his bosses about for some time. He is looking forward to being able to travel internationally and to do more cycling; next summer he plans to participate in a 600-mile ride from
Seward to Fairbanks, Alaska, to benefit the Fuller Center for Housing.
His consulting role for iHeart is an active one; and he means to stay involved with advocacy work with NAB, FEMA and other organizations. “I want to see the industry continue to thrive and grow,” he told me.
Meanwhile Steve George will manage the overall technical operations, systems and engineering teams that support iHeart’s 860 broadcast stations in 160 markets. He began his career at iHeart in 2001 as a market chief and has been a regional director of engineering, regional VP of engineering and most recently VP of engineering and systems.
Jeff said Steve is well prepared for the role and that the two of them have worked together almost every day for the past five years, through the many changes at iHeart dating back to the pandemic.
Right Steve George
Writer Randy J. Stine
A gentleman and an engineer
Conrad Trautmann is the 21st recipient of the Radio World Excellence in Engineering Award
There wasn’t a single computer in the building. It was the early 1990s. Conrad Trautmann was the chief engineer at WSYR(AM) in Syracuse, N.Y.
“Not a computer in sight and no automation. The closest thing to a computer was the Okidata printer connected to the AP wire in the station’s newsroom.”
He finds it remarkable how technology has changed in those intervening years. “Hard to imagine, when I look back. Now it’s the cloud and AI doing music logs. It’s been quite the leap to where we are today. It’s been a great opportunity for all of us to learn and adapt.”
Conrad Trautmann is the recipient of the Radio World Excellence in Engineering Award for 2024–25. He is chief technology officer for Cumulus Media, reporting directly to President/ CEO Mary Berner.
“We’re saluting Conrad for his work as a member of Cumulus’ executive team and his innovations and leadership in broadcast engineering and information technology,”
Radio World Editor in Chief Paul McLane said.
“This includes his role helping to lead the company through technical challenges that were presented by the pandemic; his exploration of how new technologies can advance business goals; his willingness to test how new radio programs and services can enhance radio’s prominence in the connected car dashboard; and for modeling how a radio engineer can serve our industry through developing expertise in areas such as digital platforms, AI, cybersecurity, real estate management and purchasing.”
remarked on Trautmann’s role as “an invaluable mentor and technical resource” and “a true gentleman who can communicate with a group of engineers one moment and then walk into a boardroom and present such a level of confidence like no other.”
McLane said the award also honors him for his service to the Society of Broadcast Engineers — at the national level and in his local New York Chapter. SBE recently elevated him to its highest rank of Fellow. His nominations for Fellow
Radio World also salutes his work as an industry thought leader in groups like the Radio Technology Committee of the National Association of Broadcasters.
Recipients of the Radio World Excellence in Engineering Award represent the highest ideals of the broadcast
The author profiled Jim Dalke last month.
engineering profession and reflect those ideals through contributions to the industry.
He is the 21st recipient. Other recent winners include Steve Shultis, Roz Clark, Jason Ornellas and Dave Kolesar. Last year’s honoree was Alan Jurison.
“Visionary”
Trautmann, 61, holds one of the industry’s top engineering jobs.
Cumulus is the third-largest U.S. radio company by revenue, according to BIA Advisory Services, and owns approximately 400 radio stations in 84 markets. Trautmann is responsible for its broadcast distribution, operations and IT, as well as its real estate portfolio and capital budget.
Excellence in Engineering
“What truly sets Conrad apart is his unwavering commitment to supporting others, demonstrating what progress and growth look like for everyone — an undeniable testament to his character,” Mary Berner told Radio World.
“His enormous passion for the industry, vast and evergrowing knowledge base, exceptional leadership and countless contributions have significantly transformed not only our company but the entire industry as well.”
Berner called him “visionary.”
Below Visiting the press briefing area at the Pentagon in 2015.
Kim Guthrie is a strategic advisor to iHeartMedia and a former president/CEO of Cox Media Group. But in the 1990s she was a first-time general manager and Trautmann was her chief engineer.
“I learned a lot about the technical side of the business from Conrad and he was never afraid to tackle the smallest task of a project or to suggest an improvement for our operation,” she said.
“Rarely do you find a teammate that is as well-rounded as Conrad Trautmann. He is resourceful, smart, efficient, innovative and forward-thinking – ‘typical’ traits you might find in a ‘typical’ engineer. However, the other side of Conrad is truly his force-multiplier: Conrad is also patient, kind, thoughtful, eloquent, and a superb strategic thoughtpartner and ally. I consider him a true friend.”
Seeking understanding
Cumulus Media has corporate offices in New York City, but Trautmann has worked from his home in Connecticut since the pandemic. The arrangement saves him multiple hours of commute time each day.
“My days primarily consist of Zoom or Teams calls all day, so I can do that from anywhere. I do interact with people all day long but it’s remote; and the people I interact with are not in New York anyway.”
Trautmann grew up in Lindenhurst on Long Island. He studied electrical, electronic and communications engineering technology at Farmingdale State University of New York, where he was chief engineer for the campus radio station. He spent six years as a machinery technician in the U.S. Coast Guard.
He began his broadcast technology career in the 1980s as CE at WEBE(FM) in Westport, Conn. — during which time he authored his first article in Radio World — and was later
Above At the Olympics for Westwood One in 2004.
Excellence in Engineering
CE for stations run by ML Media Partners, Cox Radio and Clear Channel Radio.
He joined Westwood One in 2000 as EVP for technology.
Trautmann has experience in project management, people management, and capital and operational budget management. A particular skill is his ability to take highly technical topics and make them understandable for everyone.
“I never play the ‘I’m-smarter-than-you’ card on technology; I don’t think that ever helps matters. I try to educate people so they do understand a bit more.”
Trautmann manages a team of engineers and IT staff. Cumulus has a regional structure for its radio markets, with eight regional directors of engineering and eight regional directors of IT. His direct reports include the head of software development and business systems, two VPs of engineering, the head of IT infrastructure and security, the
Above Westwood One Engineering and Operations team members on the Broadcast Center roof, 2001.
of BSI automation, and the head of real estate and telecommunications.
He aims for a collaborative style of management.
“I like to look for ways to help those who report to me to be successful in their roles and look for ways to break down barriers to help them do their jobs.”
Trends that are playing out across the U.S. radio industry are true at Cumulus. Updating equipment and technology has been a primary focus in recent years, from replacing legacy and failing equipment to finding more efficiencies in station clusters, especially post-Covid.
“We proved in short order it was clear we could work remote. We realized we don’t need all that real estate any longer. That’s been responsible for a lot of the consolidations we are doing and moves to smaller spaces. The fact is that many of our stations that supported 150 employees now support a fraction of that, but they are still
“What truly sets Conrad apart is his unwavering commitment to supporting others. ”
head
Excellence in Engineering
Above Working on a remote for WEBE.
able to put out a quality product thanks to the technology available.”
Digital experiments
As a rule of thumb, he says, many of the company’s broadcast facilities have cut their footprint by about half.
Cumulus also no longer owns most of its broadcast towers, having sold many several years ago to Vertical Bridge; now it leases space on them.
These days, he spends much of his time not only on real estate issues but on cybersecurity.
“Having the right people in place who know and understand where the attack vectors are is crucial. We have great people who know how to protect us. We’re a Microsoft shop so we also depend on them to give us guidance about vulnerabilities. We also are a member of the Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency. And we belong to a media information sharing group that collaborates on current cyber threats.”
Meanwhile, the use of artificial intelligence across the company’s business segments has been guided from the top.
“We tell our employees to use it as if they were on a chat board or social media platform. You have to be careful not to share confidential information because we know AI learns off that.”
Cumulus has authorized the use of Microsoft Copilot for its employees to use as an AI tool, he says. The company hasn’t ventured far into voice cloning but has explored it.
“There are AI tools that have our interest. Some of the spec spot generators hold a lot of promise. We are interested in anything that can help our efficiency.”
An experiment with all-digital HD Radio on the AM band ended recently. In 2021 the company launched “Digital AM 1230 HD” on WFAS(AM) in White Plains, N.Y. The 1 kW station was just north of New York City and could be heard in the northern suburbs of the top media market in the United States.
But this fall Cumulus turned off the station and returned the license to the FCC. Trautmann says the experience with the MA3 mode was informative.
“It was wonderful to see what it did to the signal. It essentially doubled the range of the signal. Plus, the quality of the sound when you devote the entire channel and all the bandwidth to digital, it sounded as good as any streaming station — on par with FM I think,” he said.
Thus he considers that experiment a success from a technology standpoint. “It showed all-digital MA3 can work. As far as the business component, being a 1,000-watt AM competing in the shadow of New York City is tough.”
In another technology initiative, Cumulus this year launched radio formats on two HD Radio channels in Nashville, curated by Super Hi-Fi’s AI-based Program Director platform. The channels are viewed by Cumulus as a testing ground. The formats are broadcast on the HD2 and HD3 channels of FM station WGFX.
“It has gone well. What we learned is that it’s possible to feed an HD channel directly from the internet. The stream comes from Super Hi-Fi. We could have fed the transmitter directly with the digital audio if it hadn’t been for EAS. We had to break the stream audio out to go through the external EAS box in order to be compliant.
“The point is, once EAS can be virtualized, that component could be added to the computer or the transmitter. Everything you need to do an over-the-air broadcast, even the processing, can come in via an internet stream and be handled by the software.”
Cumulus uses Triton for streaming audio and Omny Studio for podcast storage, Trautmann says. “Our main focus is being everywhere we can be for delivery. We have a digital team that manages most of that,” he said. The audio
Excellence in Engineering
streams of its stations and podcasts also are available on TuneIn.
As part of his Cumulus responsibilities, Trautmann oversees technical aspects of the company’s Westwood One network, which produces nationally syndicated sports, news and entertainment content. Trautmann says the network is looking eventually to move distribution completely to the internet.
“People have been asking me for 15 years: ‘Why can’t we distribute over the internet? Netflix does it.’ What people don’t realize is that radio station studios all have their own environment. You can’t just send out an app and say this is how you are receiving your content from now on. It has to be reliable. It has to have the closures. We have to serve a wide variety of clients.
“The receiver fleet we have deployed on all of our stations right now is internet-capable, so we are looking at moving 100% to the internet, or at least partially delivering content, especially non-live events, that way.”
Westwood One also provided one of his career highlights: working the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics, where he oversaw on-site technical aspects of the network’s coverage.
“Literally media from all over the world were there. It was an amazing event; and to have every country in the world covering it really makes you appreciate the significance of it.”
POTA
Trautmann also occupies an unusual position for an engineer: He serves on the radio board of directors of the National Association of Broadcasters in the designated seat formerly filled by CEO Mary Berner.
“I was very intimidated when I was first asked to serve. I wondered if I belonged in the room with every top radio executive in the country,” he said.
“But after the first meeting, and how welcoming everyone was to me, I feel like I am a good representative for Cumulus. I think bringing the technology expertise to that room is a good thing. The NAB’s (CTO) Sam Metheny is the only other technologist in the room for those meetings, so this is an opportunity to bring the technology component to the board.
Above Conrad Trautmann at WEBE in the mid-1980s. Cart tapes are stacked in the foreground.
“Conrad is also patient, kind, thoughtful, eloquent, and a superb strategic thoughtpartner and ally. ”
“Being at these meetings and being able to contribute the technical aspects of the challenges facing our industry is important. I think they need more technical representation, honestly.”
Cumulus, he said, is “the most employee-focused company” he has ever worked for.
“Every decision is filtered through ‘How does it affect our employees?’” he said. “They are very conscious about trying to make sure the employees are being taken care of and that this is a good place to work. That way we’ve been able to attract good employees.”
The pandemic not only caused a seismic shift in workplace technology, it also gave Trautmann the opportunity to get back into ham radio. He has embraced Parks on the Air (POTA), a radio sport program that encourages amateur radio operators to visit parks and use portable equipment to transmit. “It has taken me to a lot of state and national parks I might never have gone to.”
Trautmann lives with his wife, Dianne, in Trumbull, Conn. They have two daughters, Rhiannon and Katarina.
How does your station display compare to these?
The images shown here are from the Radio World ebook “Recipes for Visual Display” and are taken from a report about in-vehicle visuals published by Quu earlier this year. They provide a visual reminder of the variety that exists in how radio stations appear on new car dashboards in the United States.
To learn which cars and which stations are sampled here, read the free ebook at http://radioworld.com/ebooks
John Bisset CPBE
The author is in his 34th year of writing Workbench. He handles western U.S. radio sales for the Telos Alliance and is a past recipient of the SBE’s Educator of the Year Award. Send your tips Workbench submissions are encouraged and qualify for SBE recertification credit. Email johnpbisset@ gmail.com 14
After the big wind blows
Thoughts on handling hurricane damage
Hal Kneller and I worked together at Harris and later at Nautel. Though he now is retired, he still does contract engineering.
Hal reports that at WSRQ(AM) in Sarasota, Fla., Hurricane Milton took out the glass bowl feed-through insulator connecting the output of the antenna tuning unit to the shunt feed line. A branch from a nearby tree hit the wire, cracking the feed-through insulator, as you can see in the first image.
What Hal discovered was high-density polyethylene. Hal discovered that HDPE is strong as well as resistant to weather and sunlight, and it had the proper dielectric insulating properties at AM RF frequencies.
Doing an internet search, Hal came across Plasti-Block (store.plastiblocks.com), which solved his problem.
Above Hurricane-force winds propelled a branch into this feed-through insulator.
This put the station off the air, as the tower feed was shorted to the ATU chassis through the broken insulator. Hal placed a block of wood inside the ATU to lift the feed and clear the short circuit until a replacement could be made.
Hal writes, “Yes, there are still some shunt feed AMs operating!” He said this station was one of Ron Rackley’s last projects; it feeds a cell phone tower, to which a ground system was added.
After searching eBay for a costeffective replacement without luck, Hal contacted companies that make phasors and ATUs. Some had no stock. One quoted $600+ for a replacement. So he started looking for a block of Teflon to replace the glass bowl feed-through.
Hal didn’t have a suitable bit to cut the 3/4-inch hole for the stainless-steel threaded rod, so the company did it for him. (Plasti-Block didn’t recommend using a wood paddle bit for this purpose).
Using a drill bit intended for metal, Hal was able to cut the 1/4-inch holes for mounting the block to the face of the ATU, though he says a drill press would be better.
The best part is that his cost including shipping, cutting and material was about $81, and the order shipped within a few days. The second and third photos reveal the finished work.
Lacking a block that measured 8 x 8 inches, Hal got a block measuring 6 x 8 x 2 inches that covered most of the screw holes. For the others Hal just replaced the original bowl insulator screws.
Hal concludes that this material seems much stronger than the original glass and so far, through shine and rain, it has worked wonderfully and saved the station hundreds of dollars.
Drilling through counters
Frequent Workbench contributor Paul Sagi in Malaysia saw the adjustable mic track we mentioned in September from our tour of WGEM in Quincy. It reminded him that he needed to drill four newsroom voice-track studio tables to mount AKG mics.
The tables had nice woodgrain veneer tops, supported by sturdy steel frames. The clearance between the mic position and the frame was low, with a variance of only 1/4-inch. The trick was to drill a small pilot hole from below, then use a hole saw from above.
This particular mic was mounted on a gooseneck, fitted with a male XLR connector. The male XLR fit into a chassismount female XLR, which was mounted in the hole on each table. The female connector had a release button, which Paul removed, to prevent anyone from walking away with the gooseneck and mic.
However, the small gap between the mic and the female XLR connector, caused by the removal of the release button, made the mic wobbly.
Paul filled the gap with black double-sided foam tape. One side of the tape was stuck to the mic connector, the other side of the tape was coated with talcum powder, so the gooseneck could be slid into the female XLR connector. The result was a stable connection.
Paul has also followed our discussions about how to block Windows updates, a serious problem for stations using Windows automation playout systems. Paul offers two sites that “kill” or block Windows updates:
www.michaelhorowitz.com/KillingWindowsUpdate.php
www.sordum.org/9470/windows-update-blocker-v1-8/
The Windows Update Blocker does a great job of killing Windows updates, and it’s configurable in a fine-grained way by editing a text file.
Above The finished insulated block installation. Note the caulk that Hal used to weatherproof the installation.
Right
A look inside the ATU, showing the former bowl insulator mounting bolts (to cover the unused mounting holes).
“Hal discovered that HDPE is strong as well as resistant to weather and sunlight, and it had the proper dielectric insulating properties at AM RF frequencies. ”
Paul was unsure whether Windows Update Blocker can block the execution of an XML file. He found an XML file in Windows that was used as a timer to initiate Windows Update. He deleted the XML file instead of editing it.
Finally, Paul suggests a visit to www.grainger.com. At this writing the website’s home page features a winterization checklist of supplies that you may need under the headline tab “Prepare for Winter.”
By the way, on Dec. 12 I’ll be giving a free webinar produced by the Society of Broadcast Engineers and sponsored by SCMS, featuring tips and ideas from Workbench and beyond. Particulars can be found at http:// www.sbe.org.
Mark Lapidus is a veteran multi-platform media and marketing executive.
Do you need a license for that?
Consider creating your own material, or hire someone to do it for you
Licensing is almost as confusing as dating. As soon as you’ve figured it out, the relationship changes!
Dating advice aside, let’s stick to licensing challenges awaiting all who work in broadcast and digital media. Note: I have never aspired to be an attorney and I am not playing one here. I have learned these basics through the school of hard knocks, and my objective is to alert you to what should be addressed with your local or corporate legal eagles.
It’s really true: You can’t simply use any image you want on your radio station website nor for your social media channels. Just because you found the perfect photo/image on Google Images doesn’t give you the right to take it, even if you credit Google or the creator of that image. This is copyright infringement and the damages can be significant, as in many thousands of dollars.
More specific pitfalls abound. I caution you not to assume that an image labeled for free use in “Creative Commons” will in fact be free game, as it may not be a commercial license.
Once, I was fined for using an image from Creative Commons that its owner claimed was stolen from a stock company and somehow found its place there. If that’s not sobering enough, a common scam is for
photographers to place an image in Creative Commons and then demand payment when you actually use that so-called “free” image.
Now, maybe you’re thinking that creating an image using artificial intelligence will protect you. Think again, Bucko! That A.I. tool you used may have been trained using images without permission and the result of your A.I. masterpiece is too close to the original to be okay.
But stock images should be fine, right? Maybe. It’s all about the license and how you use it. If you license an image for, say, your website, you haven’t necessarily gained the right to use it on your social media channels unless indicated specifically in the license. Neither may you give that licensed image to someone else to use; that’s a “thirdparty pass through,” and you will not be partying when you get the bill.
Music and content for podcast and streaming licenses are similarly complicated. You may not use music or content that you do not own, unless you create it or obtain proper licensing. Do not assume that because you have an ASCAP/BMI license for broadcast, you are also covered for every other use; that license must specify those rights.
To keep it simple, consider creating your own material, or hire someone who can create it for you and pay them for a license to use it.
One more thing. I’m sure you’ve heard the term “fair use,” which is a legal term that permits the use of copyrighted material without permission under certain circumstances. But it’s still risky to use that imagery, content, audio or video for commercial purposes without knowing the specifics. If questioned, the citing of “fair use” is a weak defense. That said, you may well have standing if using the material for comedy, a new purpose or news.
This is not legal advice. But if I’ve opened your mind sufficiently to realize that, when in doubt, confer with an expert, then I feel good. Sure, James Brown said that, but I can claim fair use because it’s a (weak) joke, used for a new purpose, and besides, who could claim copyright on that everyday phrase?
Roots
Writer
James E. O’Neal
Longtime Radio World contributor and former technology editor for TV Tech.
“Doctor” John Romulus Brinkley pioneered the practice of delaying radio broadcasts via “electrical transcriptions.”
A brief history of delayed programming
“The following program is being brought to you on a delayed basis”
Recording and playout of programming today is easily left to automation and a file server. Thanks to the cloud, that server doesn’t even have to reside “on premises.”
Delaying programs hasn’t always been that easy, though, as it involved handling and keeping track of physical recording media, as well as a conscious effort of the part of operators to make sure recordings got made and aired according to schedules.
At the start
Although he may not have been first to air radio programming on a delayed basis, the infamous Dr. John R. Brinkley the “goat gland man” and operator of “border blaster” XER — was an early adopter of “electrical transcriptions” or ETs. Recorded at 33-1/3 rpm on 16-
inch aluminum-based discs, they were intended for “instantaneous” playback. They provided about 15 minutes of recording time as opposed to the three minutes available on conventional phonograph records.
Brinley operated his renegade station from studios in Del Rio, Texas, with the transmitter located safely out of reach of U.S. regulators just across the Rio Grande in Villa Acuña, Mexico.
As Brinkley’s XER was the source of a never-ending stream of complaints from both U.S. broadcasters and listeners, legislation was soon concocted to put the station out of business by making it illegal to broadcast from a U.S. location via a transmitter located in a foreign country.
The law did address recordings: “No person shall be permitted to locate, use or maintain a radio broadcast
Keystone-France/Getty Images
studio or other place or apparatus from which or whereby sound waves are converted into electrical energy, or mechanical or physical reproduction of sound waves produced, and caused to be transmitted or delivered to a radio station in a foreign country…”
But Brinkley was not deterred.
ETs, coupled with an apparent lack of policing of commerce between Del Rio and Villa Acuña, allowed Brinkley to continue his broadcasts with minimal disruption. As soon as “Doctor” finished recording his latest “Medical Question Box,” the disc could be handed off to a waiting courier for a quick trip across the International Bridge and playback at the transmitter site.
(It’s reported that Brinkley “burned through” so many of the aluminum-based 16-inch discs that homes near the Villa Acuña transmitter site were shingled with the cast-off recordings. Gene Fowler and Bill Crawford wrote about this in their book “Border Radio” published in 1987.)
And while it was not in the strictest sense “delaying of programming,” syndicators used ETs to supply programming to some stations.
However, this practice did not extend to networksupplied programming, as affiliates were not allowed to rearrange broadcast times of shows coming down the net. (Beverly R. Gooch, in the 1999 IEEE Press
publication “Magnetic Recording — The First 100 Years,” writes that affiliates were actually forbidden to record network content, as this was viewed as piracy of network property.)
Aside from copyright issues, the networks frowned on any airing of pre-recorded material due to quality issues associated with early ET recordings. This prohibition was occasionally relaxed in connection with high-profile news events — most notably the recorded description by WLS’s Herb Morrison of the downing of the Hindenburg airship in 1937.
Postwar hodgepodge
It was not until after World War II that mainstream delaying of programming came into its own, spearheaded by the non-uniform adoption of “Daylight Saving Time” in the U.S., which left it up to individual states (even localities) to “spring forward” or not.
Falling under the “unintended consequences” category, this time zone “seasonal affective disorder” created some big problems for networks and their affiliates
If a network aired a show at its regular (non-DST) time, it would be heard an hour earlier than expected in DST locales, causing some listeners to miss the show, and also making advertisers unhappy, with their messages bypassing intended audiences.
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Roots of Radio
Until the advent of magnetic tape recording, radio programs were captured on 16-inch “ET” discs using recording machines such as this Presto model. The power amplifier used for driving the cutting head is contained in a separate case. This device is part of the Gary Alley collection.
Conversely, if the nets adopted Daylight Saving Time, then programming would be received an hour later than expected in areas remaining on standard time.
This requirement for providing programming at “accustomed” times was key in forcing the adoption or regularly delaying broadcasts at both network and local levels.
Fortunately, a lot of the quality issues associated with 16-inch ETs had been resolved by the mid-1940s, and when postwar DST arrived, these technical advances enabled networks to make recordings that sounded almost as good as live feeds.
However, the relatively short 15-minute ET recording time didn’t change, requiring much physical intervention by operators, as well as the worry about creating overlaps and placing breaks in such a way as to minimize noticeable breaks in program continuity.
Magnetic recording
Along with the postwar DST implementation forcing networks to “hold up” program delivery, came a relatively new technology that considerably eased operational burdens when Daylight Saving Time was in effect.
The story of U.S. Army Signal Corpsman Jack Mullen’s importation of several “liberated” German “Magnetophon” tape recorders into the United States at war’s end is well known. However, Mullen’s actions, and his subsequent demonstrations of magnetic recording technology, did set the gears in motion for the emergence of the U.S. tape recording industry.
But as with any new technology, there is always bound to be reluctance in its adoption, and this was borne out when DST delays became mandatory. According to BroadcastingTelecasting magazine at the time, when the nation “sprang forward” in 1948, both ABC, the “new kid on the block,” and old-liner NBC opted to use tape delay. (ABC was already convinced of the value of tape, stemming from its 1946 decision to allow Bing Crosby to record his program “Philco Radio Time.”)
ABC President Mark Woods was especially enthusiastic about tape technology, calling it “the greatest development in sound reproduction in the history of radio.”
Competitors CBS and Mutual remained adamant, however, and stuck with tried-and-true 16-inch ETs at least through the 1948 DST period.
From a perspective of some 75 years, such reluctance to move with the times seems foolhardy and expensive.
Photo by James O’Neal
Roots of Radio
Left
The use of magnetic recording in providing DST/ non-DST program feeds was still newsworthy in 1950, as evidenced by this April Radio & Television News cover story.
Writer James E. O’Neal
More on program delay 75 years ago
One station preserved the bottom line through some creative engineering
Like many stations in the late 1940s and beyond, WTOP in Washington, D.C., was faced with the problem of delaying CBS network feeds. It was a CBS O&O until mid-1948 and likely assisted the network in providing regional delays.
The WTOP engineering staff modified these Brush “Soundmirror” consumer audiotape recorders to withstand the rigors of nearly constant use in delaying network programs in periods of Daylight Saving Time. This photo, probably taken around 1948–49, illustrates how the heat-producing electronics assemblies were removed from the tape transports and relocated to the upper shelf. The fan presumably aided in heat removal. A schedule for recording and playback is on the wall behind the transports.
Assuming that at least 10 hours of network program time-shifting was required for each day of the five month-long periods of Daylight Saving Time in the late 1940s, this probably amounted to some 1,500 hours of recordings. (ABC reported their time-shifting operation ran 16.5 hours per day on average, and that more programming was fed out on a delayed basis than went live.)
Expensive proposition
As disc recording gear was in universal use at radio stations then, WTOP certainly could have used this technology for delaying programs.
However, in examining the cost of such an undertaking, it would have been very expensive. One source, the Allied Radio Corp., advertised 16-inch “Audiodisc” professional recording blanks at $3.40 each, or $31 in today’s money. Purchased in quantity they cost some $2.04, about $26 now.
Each disc was good for about 15 minutes of recording time, with four sides needed for a one-hour show.
Assuming that a backup copy was also made and both sides of the discs used, the cost of the four blanks would amount to more than $100 when adjusted for 75 years of inflation.
This cost-per-hour figure does not include the salary of the technician who made, labeled and played out the recording, nor does it include the cost of another consumable, the recording stylus. A “high-end” sapphire stylus was good for perhaps 10 hours, and came with a price tag of nearly $5 when purchased in quantity — more than $60 today. Using disc recording technology for program delay was not cheap.
WTOP wisely elected to handle program delay with six Brush Soundmirror tape recorders. When introduced in 1947, the machines sold for $250 (about $3,200 now), and were a real bargain when compared to the cost of acquiring Ampex’s first production machine, the 200A; it initially carried a price tag of $5,000 (nearly $7Kk now), with a later reduction to $3,000 ($38K). A 1/2-hour tape (1,200
Granville Klink Jr. collection
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ft.) could be purchased for about $2.50 ($32), driving the cost of delaying an hour-long show (with protection copy) to around $125 in 2024 currency.
While it might appear that tape was more expensive than ETs, it actually was far, far cheaper, as it could be erased and reused many times — something not possible with discs.
Recorder/space heater
The downside of using Brush machines for delay was that they were designed as a consumer product and intended only for occasional use, certainly not for operation hours on end.
Above
A close-up of the Brush BK-401 “Soundmirror” transport. The machine did not employ the conventional capstan and pinch roller for regulating tape speed, relying instead on frictional contact between the tape and a rubber-coated roller coupled to the flywheel for maintaining a constant linear velocity. The recorder also ran extremely hot!
The big problem was Brush’s cramming of nine heat-producing vacuum tubes (some models used 10) and three motors into slightly more than 1.2-cubic feet of cabinet space. Exacerbating things even more was the heat buildup in the take-up reel motor due to its being slowed down in pulling the relatively slow-moving tape. The machine ran so hot that it could double as a space heater!
Brush recognized the heat issue in its service manual, and the Scotch (3M) recording tape manufacturer went a step further, warning against the use of plastic tape reels in all Soundmirror applications.
As the WTOP machines had to run continuously throughout the broadcast day, the heat problem was resolved by relocating the chassis units containing recorder DC power supply and power tubes to an overhead shelf. A wall-mounted fan supplied additional cooling for the “hot chassis” units.
James O’Neal. Brush Soundmirror is from Gary Alley collection
Cart memories
I enjoyed the Criss Onan article about the NAB cartridge and the machines that played them (“These Were the Carts of Our Lives,” Sept. 25 issue).
The cart and those machines started my career in radio technology over 50 years ago. I had the fortunate opportunity to spend hours with Jack Jenkins at International Tapetronics Corp. I believe he and Larry Cervon played the major parts in making NAB carts the mainstay of broadcasting for over a decade — from simple spot machines with less-thanspectacular audio, to machines and tapes that delivered reel-toreel performance.
I remember the Fidelipac 300s with their pencil leads for lubrication. Other early carts included the Aristacart, whose engineer demanded removal of the center tape guide, and the Tapex, the cross-your-heart bra of carts. Then Capitol Magnetics and the A-2 cart.
Eventually Fidelipac and Audiopak/Capitol both came out with high-performance carts, the Fidelipac Mastercart and the Audiopak AA-4. The latter had superior tape and became a favorite for all cart formats. Then came the ScotchCart, a 3M product that was introduced with 3M’s purchase of ITC, and ITC’s introduction of the revolutionary Series 99A. Unfortunately the cart didn’t work well with the 99A. The tape
pack was outside of the bulk erase coil in the recorders; and there were problems with grounding the tape due to the fact that the ScotchCart had no pressure pads and the 99A had a ceramic capstan shaft; because ceramic doesn’t conduct electricity, a charge would build to the point where the tapes would bind.
All problems were solved with the 99B; ITC couldn’t make them fast enough. The 99B RPSE listed for $5,995 in 1981.
John F. Schaab
Tower of carts
Criss your article was thoroughly enjoyable and certainly brought back plenty of memories. I would like to share my favorite from cart machine lore long ago.
I was working in a midsize-market AM/FM. The AM was live DJs, the FM was a Gates automation system playing easy listening music with six reel-to-reel music tape decks and a 55-stacker cart machine, plus one cart machine solely for station IDs.
The real beauty of the system was the 55-stacker. It was a mechanical marvel, comprising one cartridge playback deck that was moved up and down vertically by means of two large threaded screws to pick out the next commercial cartridge to be played. The motorized screws moved up and down on either side of the cart deck to position it in place to receive the cart from its resting shelf on the front of the machine.
In theory it was simple: Play the first cart at the top of the column when requested, eject it to the empty cart slot, drop the cart playback assembly one space and draw the new cart into the machine, and at the appointed time play it. Repeat the
Right George Eash’s 1956 cart patent.
Right
Another classic: The Spotmaster 400 series cart deck.
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sequence until all 55 carts were played. Reload the machine with new spots and repeat.
The problem arose if the playback deck got ever so slightly out of alignment. It would either fail to draw the cart in, or would not eject it properly.
The rubber pucks that inserted and withdrew the carts, made by Gates, were robust. Problem was, even small misalignment of the player deck assembly would result in the pucks trying with all their might to seat the cartridge; when this failed to happen, it didn’t know when to give up. The carts would literally explode into flying pieces of plastic shrapnel. Run for cover!
The 55-stacker used a heavy-duty motor to drive the screw drives. Because of the high motor startup current, Gates had placed some high-wattage low ohm value surge start-up resistors in line with the AC voltage mains to the drive motor. Simple enough.
But one weekend, one of the surge resistors burnt out. The result was that the whole 55-cart machine was out of service till the electronic parts store opened on Monday. All commercial revenue would be lost.
Not so fast! Broadcasting engineers are pretty ingenious. When I reported for work the chief engineer described the problem and his solution. He determined that the heating coil in the engineering coffee pot was approximately the same resistance as the surge resistor. So he wired it in place of the defective resistor.
My assignment for the shift was to make sure there was water in the coffee pots so the resistor in the coffee pot didn’t burn out. I was on water detail all evening to ensure the pot never went dry. Oh what good times.
Walt Konetsco Retired Foreign Service Officer and Voice of America Field Engineer
The weight of history
Thanks so much for publishing Criss Onan’s terrific article on the history of the broadcast audio tape cartridge machine. What a fascinating story!
Joel had taken the RT-7s as payment for studio time, and he offered them to me for helping to load his trunk. I still have them to this day, and they both work perfectly.
BTW, you can see one of Joel’s credits as a re-recording mixer on the restoration of Stanley Kubrick’s motion picture “Spartacus.”
Steve Hemphill Licensee, WA2XMN Alpine, N.J.
MacKenzie and more
Thanks for your great reference on broadcast cart machines. I started repairing them in the 1970s when a few were donated to our local community radio station. We ran many PSAs, as you can imagine, and carts sure beat reading them live.
I have a collection of recording equipment including BE, Spotmaster and the top-of-the-line Pacific Tomcat, the pinnacle of cart technology. Many similar patents including Cole’s “unireel” and others flooded the industry, with many never getting out of the design phase.
How about a piece on the MacKenzie repeater, which found its way into many stations across the U.S. and Canada?
Matt Laube Vintage Tape/KC8HGQ Williamsburg, Ohio
Criss Onan replies: Thanks for the suggestion. I’ll see what documentation I can find. An increasing challenge is that many primary contacts have passed.
Several technologies attempted to replace the NAB tape cart for spots, including wide multitrack loop, magnetically-coated Mylar disk, cassette, DAT, floppy, 8MM and Bernoulli. However, MacKenzie seemed to be the most viable one.
A catalog image of 99B Series cart machines from International Tapetronics Corp./3M, popular in the 1970s and ’80s. Courtesy www. worldradiohistory. com
Reading it brought back a memory of how I obtained my first personally owned cart machines. In 1972, I worked as a design engineer at Gately Electronics, a pro audio manufacturer and Ampex distributor, in my hometown of Havertown, Pa. One day, one of our customers, Joel Fein, stopped out to pick up some Ampex audio mastering tape for his recording studio. I helped Joel load the Ampex tape into the trunk of his 1960-something Chevy Impala, and I noticed that he had two RCA RT-7B cart machines nestled in each of the Chevy’s rear wheel wells. I asked him about the RT-7s and he told me that he was using them to give his Chevy “Better Winter-Time Traction,” as each one of those machines weighed close to 50 pounds!
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