[BC] The economy and used gear

[wmroradio at bellsouth.net]

Jerry,
   The daytimer I was at was in a rural area. They made us jocks do all that cleaning stuff to the turntables. I have a BE Mono Board on the air now at my station and it doesn't get any RF in it. I don't know why, I must be lucky. Sounds good real & clean for mono as well.

   At the little daytime only station I worked at when I was younger, our GM fixed the cart machines when they gave us fits or us jocks would try to fix them as well. We only had a contract engineer come out every now and then on the transmitter, but that is where I learned to change tubes, good ole 4-400's. Us jocks learned how to do it to save the station money. Yep, us jocks had to learn to "patch and fix" the wires that broke under the counter top in the studio. Heck, we were young and proud just to be there. I was so proud, that I vacuum the carpet each day! I was about 19 then.

   Now, I sit and look at some of this digital stuff now in my station now, and say to myself, "Yes it saves us several steps, but sometimes, I'm just getting bored looking at it." No beauty to it to the new digital era. The old stuff had style. Perhaps I'm a 46 year old (nut)guy that likes rotary pots, instead of slide faders. I love twisting those ole knobs (ha)!

Best,
   Scott

--
Scott Bailey
President/General Manager
WMRO-AM, Magic 1560
Gallatin, TN

  
> Those "old days" I really don't miss. Most of those items you mention were
> either high maintenance items or really bad quality. The BE Mono board was
> VERY RF-prone--almost impossible to get it "clean" in an RF environment.
> Cart machines--enough said. Russco turntables needed the idler pucks, motor
> shaft and turntable rim cleaned frequently to keep the speed constant, not
> to mention the occasional new idler required. And not to mention the styli
> which needed changing almost weekly.
>