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Disc Recorder |
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Wire Recorder |
Tape, produced a remarkably noise free signal.
In 1948 my dad bought radio station WAYS' old wire recorder...for $25 bucks.
I used it for years to practice “trying to sound like a radio announcer,” my passion at the time.
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Wire recording from Ed's attic |
I brought it up to Virginia where it sat in a box for another 10 years.
Recently a radio engineer friend of mine, whose hobby is rebuilding obsolete radio station equipment (He built an exact copy of the radio studio and all the equipment of the first station he ever worked for....complete with a working transmitter.in his home.) happened to mention that he had just completed rebuilding an old “wire” recorder and it was working perfectly.
I couldn't resist digging out that old spool of wire.......and asking him to see if anything was on it, and, if so, make a CD of it.
It turned out to be the third radio show I ever did at WGIV. My father had recorded it off the air.....in the fall of 1952.
Lets go to the tape!
I mean, WIRE:
(Theme song, Washington and Lee Swing....up and under)
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Ed 1952 |
Training all of our thousand watts and the 1600 kilocycles we open our show with “Water can’t quench the fire of love....”
I was dreadful. The records I selected were almost as bad.
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Jack Campbell |
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Bill Bullard |
Neither said very much, but then my questions to them were pretty lame.
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Neil Jones 1952 |
I gave special mention to the finalists in the just concluded “I Speak for Democracy” contest:
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Barry Clark 1952 |
Linda Hughes, Tech
Jimmy Sample, East Mecklenburg
Joe Hass. Harding
Barry Clark, Central
Doris Ann Williams, Clear Creek
Vernon Greg Jr., 2nd ward
James Jones Jr. Myers Park
Melvin Boyce, Pineville
Dorothy Greer, Plato Price
Jeanette Green, West Charlotte and
David Foley, O’Donahue
One of the records was "Why Don't You Believe Me," by Joni James (who was new enough at the time for me to say "some call her Johnny, and some say Joni.")
Another was Jambolia by Homer and Jethro:
Jambolia and a pizza pie and a bowl of soup beans,
Potted ham and a can of chocolate covered sardines,
When we sing, it sounds just like a cat and dog fight,
But we don't sing for money.......just for spite.
Mercifully, the show was only 30 minutes long.
It made me realize that memories are best stored in our minds, not on some cold electronic medium.
That small spool of wire also reminded me that now, as I'm winding down my radio career, I'm going out the same way I went in......broadcasting news of Central High School. The only difference is the tools I'm using.
Those thousand watts and 1600 kilocycles have been replaced by the station known as CHS54.net. -Ed