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

[David Reaves]

The WAPE aircheck I captured that winter afternoon in 1976 is interesting for at least a couple of reasons beyond being able to hear that wonderful home-built transmitter:

Not the least, it is a 'time capsule' view into the small part of the world WAPE occupied in 1976:
   - WAPE was by then 18 years old and a fixture in Jacksonville radio;
       though it was soon displaced by FM stations, AM was still dominant.
   - The Greaseman had just arrived, a pivotal point in the station's history.
   - The CB radio fad was being embraced, and the station's sales department
       clearly made the most of it.
   - WAPE and Top 40 in general weren't much removed from easy listening, with
       only a few songs having a strong beat, and those were mostly dance, not rock.
   - No jingles, just sounders and liners.
   - The last gasp of punchy, wideband AM processing (though as is evident, a
       CBS DPE actively doing a number on the upper midrange).
   - Wet T-shirt contests being promoted ;-)

The other thing that the tape reminds me of is the importance of the "Ape Call," that Don mentions below, and the fact that such signature sounds (WABC's bell also comes to mind) on AM radio were truly _evocative_ and visceral. You KNEW it was WAPE as soon as you heard the unique sound of the Ape Call, no matter if you were hundreds of miles away, even if the station was buried in interference. Maybe even _especially_ if the station was buried in interference. That iconic identifier would carry so well, so far with that transmitter, it was almost as though both were designed together for that very purpose. (Nervous Norvus' song "Ape Call" from which the signature was lifted, came out about in late 1956, a little more than a year before WAPE came on the air.)

For all its other sonic advantages, FM seems to have little of the particular sort of aura and magic of long-distance AM of decades past, with its fading, interference and bandwidth limitations, tied intimately with the pop culture of the time. For all its weaknesses, AM radio can play directly into the ear's sensitivity, and such 'classical' AM stations with VERY mid-rangy IDs like the Ape Call seemed to work as though they had a direct connection to primitive centers of the brain.

I'm sure the Ape Call sounds just fine on today's WAPE-FM, but I have a hard time believing it is in any way as exciting as hearing that sound clawing its way out of the mud from a great distance.

Kind Regards,
David Reaves
Recklinghausen, Germany

On Wed, 20 Jun 2012 13:18:50, "D. Wayne Woollard CPBE" <woollard at inreach.com> wrote:
> 
> David::
> Great show.  Even heard a couple of Ape Calls.  Boy!  You can really hear 
> that beautiful monster work, can't you?  Man I loved that machine!  If 
> that's at all Possible.
> <snip>
> Don