[BC] AM Stereo - Timing IS everything

[John Lyles]

I was sitting in Bob Streeter's office in Ft Wayne,  when Magnavox was seemingly the chosen AM stereo system.  Had been interviewing to work there, on the project as I loved AM. Then, the FCC decision reversed, and 
Magnavox ("Magotbox") lost favor. I didn't get the job, and ended up getting hired by Bob Weirather and Geoff Mendenhall at a new transmitter company in Quincy. This changed my own career path as I moved into 
high power RF amplifier design and transmitter system engineering at 88-108 MHz. Have worked in the field ever since (although not in broadcast anymore). We were in the fray of it (AM stereo) at BE in the early 80s, 
learning the details of Harris, Motorola, Kahn, Belar, Magnavox, while not investing in any one system (smart move). We watched all the infighting between pundits. When Motorola seemed like the winner, Geoff took a 
bunch of us up to Schaumburg to meet with Norm Parker and the Motorola gurus. BE (and Delta Electronics) took the first licenses to build Motorola-compatible transmission gear.  Stan Salek, Bill Ammons, Ed Anthony and I each
build little boards to sample the MC13020 and 13022 ICs and I ended up having a very fine Alpine car stereo with the additional AM stereo decoder of my own design for years. 

It's still wierd how that change of decision by the FCC dramatically affected my own path, but I'm sure others share similar stories. 
John Lyles