Day #35 - 11/19/97 - 8:10PM
Unemployment = Too much late-night TV
So, I went down to Lite 98 today to get acquainted with the studio. It's a pretty interesting setup. A computer program stacks the music and spots up in front of you. Then, you just hit ONE BUTTON each time you want to move onto the next element. (Corey's old man voice here) "Why, I remember when we had to use records!"
When I started in Radio (Mid '70s) , we still used 45s and albums. As a matter of fact, I remember working at some small market stations where the 45s had been played so many times, there were "cue burns" in them. You'd start the record and the first few seconds sounded like SHHHHHHHHHHH because the needle had been cued back-and-forth on the first notes of the song so many times, the groove was worn deep into the vinyl and very little song was left!
I used to work at some stations where your 45s were stacked in boxes and you would manually rotate the songs from front to back. Now it's called "Selector".
Here's a term you Radio folks probably haven't heard in a while: "slip cue". A slip cue is when you put a record on a turntable with the needle just ahead of the beginning of the groove. Then, you turn on the turntable and hold the record in place until you're ready for it. When you let go - and you had to hold it just right and steady - the record would start almost instantly without a WOWWWING sound. This was usually a much better alternative than cueing up a record and backing the turntable around counter-clockwise about 3/4 of the way waiting to turn on the turntable. Since there was a lag (waiting for it to come around that 3/4 of a turn) you'd always have to start your turntable ahead of the end of whatever it was you were saying.
In 1983, I came to Q94 in Richmond for the first time. Boy was I impressed!. All the music was on CART! The second time I came back to Q in 1990, they finally moved all the music to CD.
Now, no turntables. No carts. Just a computer and ONE BUTTON. I'd better start taking better care of my pointer finger. My livelyhood may depend on it!