[BC] processing way back when

[Barry Mishkind]

At 04:17 PM 12/19/2006, Kevin Tekel wrote
>Barry Mishkind wrote:
> > What was first used to stop stations from popping off the air on audio
> > spikes?
>
>An engineer with his hand on the gain control. :-)

If you had read the original post, you would have noted that we are 
talking about the time AFTER the manual gain riding was "normal".

--- quote
"A discussion with someone has brought about the interesting 
question: what was the first audio compressor or limiter made for the 
broadcast industry?  That is, after manual gain riding of the 20s and 30s.

I'm talking about long before the Optimod, CRL or DAP.... Before the 
Max brothers.  Before the Collins 26U.

What was first used to stop stations from popping off the air on audio spikes?
---

Many of the early stations went off regularly due to excessive peaks.

Generally, it is assumed that transmitters in the 20s and 30s were 
designed for use typically under a 30% RMS level. That is why, when 
the modulation wars of the rock era blew out many modulation 
transformers, which could not handle the RMS levels of the 
time.  (cf: transformers on wood blocks).