Axia Behind the Cellar Door
Dan Overy is Group Technical Director for Celador, a U.K. entertainment company that made a name for itself with the hit TV game show Who Wants to be a Millionaire? The company produced the original British version of the franchise from 1998-2007, and had major success again in 2009 with another millionaire-themed production, the award-winning film Slumdog Millionaire.
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Music Licensing and PPM Grunge
John Stephens with netcaster theroots.fm talks about music webcasters closing down due to the huge hike in music licensing costs. And Dave Anderson joins Chris Tobin and Kirk Harnack on the additional audio grunge produced by Nielsen’s new Enhance CBET PPM Encoder. Are we driving away the audience we wish to measure?
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Newfound Simplicity with Axia, AoIP at Canada’s Newcap
Copper wire is expensive, so when Shawn Basha - Newcap Radio's Director of Engineering in the Canadian province of Newfoundland & Labrador - removed thousands of feet of the stuff, he could have made a killing on eBay. How did he excise all that wiring infrastructure and make operations more efficient? With a little help from Axia in what was quite a substantial overhaul of wiring and equipment alike.
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Vintage Audio: Yaesu FRG-7
The hobby of short wave listening is not dead. OK, there aren't as many choices as there once were. Many European short wave broadcasters have abandoned their transmitters and towers in favor of online streaming as the economic slowdown strangled the budgets of many operations. Still, there are enough stations out there to keep the hobby alive. So, put on your bellbottoms as we go tripping back to the 1970s to check out a Yaesu FRG-7 communications receiver, affectionately nicknamed the 'FROG 7'.
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Vintage Audio: Technics RS-686DS Portable Cassette Recorder
The last installment of Found in the Attic examined the Uher 4000 series of portable reel recorders, which were widely used by radio news departments before cassette recorders were common.
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Vintage Audio: AC VTVM
A good AC VTVM is an essential tool for troubleshooting analog audio gear, and was also needed for the annual FCC proof-of-performance measurements back in the day. B&W 410 and HP 403B meters were frequently seen on the bench at many stations, but an equally-impressive but less remembered device was the Navy ME-6D/U. This installment of Found in the Attic recalls this often overlooked AC voltmeter.
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Vintage Audio: RF Test Twofer
It's hard to believe in this day of digital technology and broadband RF strips, but at one time a solid understanding of tuned RF circuits was an essential part of electronics troubleshooting, as well as to getting your FCC First Class License. Today, the grid-dip meter is all but forgotten, but it was, and still is, an essential item in the RF engineer's toolbox. This Found in the Attic is another twofer, and looks at both the Millen 90651 Grid-Dip Meter and Heathkit HD-1250 solid-state dip meter.
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Vintage Audio: Uher 4000
Back in the days when every radio station worth its salt had a news department, broadcast equipment catalogs had a section for remote news gathering equipment. Included were items like the indestructible EV-635A microphone, mic flags, NiCad batteries and chargers, telephone couplers and of course, portable recorders.
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Vintage Audio: Taberamp Record Electronics
From the late 1950s through the 70s, Ampex 350 and later 440 recorders were a staple at practically every radio station in the country. They were legendary for their battleship-quality construction and long life. Ironically, that was also part of the problem. 350, and later 440 record-playback electronics were alive and well for many years after their audio specs had passed their prime.
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Vintage Audio: RCA Victor 45-J-2 Turntable
An earlier installment of Found in the Attic examined the ATC-Collins P-190, the first commercially produced cart machine. The point was made that the fast-paced Top-40 format would not have been possible without this device. The same can be said for 45 RPM records. The difference is that the cart machine was designed for radio from day one, while the 7-inch record began as a consumer medium. It wasn't long though, until it became the mainstay of Top 40 music.
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