[BC] Comparing the audio in the Big 50's

[Jim Seaman]

Mike Erickson writes:

> The Gregg was on the MW50 when I got there and the 9100 was on the 317. WHN/WFAN 1050 had been using a Gregg as well. When we purchased the DX50 we got another 9100 (LED meters) and the Gregg came home with me :)
> We turned off AM Stereo for good on Election Day 2000 when the Harris exciter (for the DX50) failed and we went to the internal exciter. We also went off the BE stereo exciter for the 317 backup. I saved both of those from the garbage and still have both. The Harris is working again.
> Before we pulled the 5R1 it was being processed with a CRL SEP-400 and an Inovonics 222 because it didn't love the Orban. WCBS' Gates 10P had a CRL/222 as well. Studio processing for FAN was a Co-operator and later an analog Ariane.

The Gregg Labs box was the only processor on WFAN during the first year or two on 660, its output split to all three transmitters. In my time WFAN was a shoestring operation, and I found it difficult to get money for capital purchases of any kind. People often forget that WFAN was the dog of the Emmis group and was on the verge of being turned off until Emmis purchased most of the NBC O&O stations. Within three years following the frequency shuffle we were one of the top billing stations in the country, but Emmis was still notoriously tight with capital funding. Anyhow, one afternoon the Gregg box failed and I was able to convince Emmis to let me buy a new Optimod 9100. I think we had put both boxes on a changeover switch, but generally the Gregg was on the 317C-2(3) main rig as you described. 
 
Jim Seaman