[BC] Formatics

[George Kowal]

Neal Newman wrote:
>  and I took down the FM bays 3 months ago. They are
> sitting in my backyard..
>
> Neal
>
Small world, folks. WPAT was probably the third broadcast combo I worked 
at during my college years back around the mid-70's.
The FM transmitter must've been on Empire before then, during Bob 
Orban's time. It was atop the Chrysler Building when I was there and 
Chief Engineer Kenny Stout later moved it to the World Trade Center 
where it remained until 9/11/01 when the "big bad wolf" blew down our house.

WPAT was quite impressive engineering wise by then. We had one of the 
first automation systems running. When I first started there the boot 
tape was an open reel tape. There was a period of a few months when the 
computer was shipped across the country to Washington state and it came 
back with a hard drive. One of those big ones too. We ran both the AM 
and FM live for a few months while the computer drive was upgraded.

Ken had a practice of placing every new piece of equipment through a 
proof of performance test before it ever became part of the air chain. 
That practice helped keep the audio quality quite stellar. I believe on 
the AM side we had either 2 Gates / Harris or a Gates and a Collins. The 
old FM transmitter at Clifton was a backup for the main at the Chrysler 
building and came quite handy one night when NYC had one of their 
historical power blackouts. The operator on duty couldn't quite figure 
out why he couldn't get the NY transmitter back up, so he switched to 
the one on site until he found out about the blackout in NYC.

I worked a lot with consultant Carl Jones back then at WPAT as the night 
pattern kept Carl and a crew of engineers busy getting it into 
adjustment for quite some time.

There was a period of a few weeks back then when I worked 8 hour 
engineering shifts at both WPAT and WVNJ, another competing station with 
the same format each day. I used to joke that the only sleep I got was 
driving from one station to the other. After listening to that much 
beautiful music each day it took a few minutes to decide if a song was 
rock, jazz, BM, etc.

Bob Tarsio asked about Ken Lamb, he came over to WPAT as Ops manager 
during my time there and I've seen him post on the NY Radio Message 
Board a few times lately. I believe he's doing something at ABC.

Bob also mentioned Paterson, NJ being the target of jokes. I guess being 
an urban city in NJ its in the prime demographics for that.

Uncle Floyd Vivino, an infamous comedian, tv/radio host and former host 
of a daily TV show at a UHF station I once worked at did a benefit show 
a few years ago for a group of us organizing a NJ Radio Museum. Floyd is 
from Paterson. He said the mayor of Paterson asked him when he goes out 
to do his shows to say something nice about Paterson. Floyd said "You 
know I bought my house in Paterson 50 years ago for $12,000 and it kept 
every bit of its value. Today that same house is still worth $12,000." :-)

Neal, if you get up this way sometime when I'm not working, give me a 
holler. I'm just down the GSP about 15 minutes south.

George Kowal  CBNT