[BC] Splicing

[Carl Strathmeyer]

I have mentioned before on this list that I was a summer vacation relief
engineer for KQV in Pittsburgh during college. This was the late 1960s, and
KQV was the ABC O/O top-40 station in town. They wanted to satisfy two
conflicting goals: (1) play lots of songs to keep the teen listeners happy,
and (2) leave lots of time open for money-earning spots. The PD's answer was
to shorten the songs. Unfortunately, this was the era of really long album
cuts. One of my jobs these several summers was to take new releases (for
example, Beatles tunes from Sergeant Pepper) and get them down to under 90
seconds. I did that by splicing out entire verses and choruses in the manner
Tom described. Done well, you couldn't hear the splices. You would have
thought the studio released a special extra-short mix directly off the
master tape. I used to ride the city bus home, and I'd hear the teens
complaining (vehemently) that the station wasn't playing the full album
version. I just sank into my seat and didn't announce that I was personally
the culprit!

 

At 60 years old, I still have a scar on the knuckle of my left pinky finger
from a misguided slash of the razor blade during one of those splicing
sessions.