Quad on AM in 1976, seems unlikely. I wonder if that station was experimenting with stereo broadcasting at the time? If they ran a QS or SQ quad synthesizer I suppose Quad broadcasting might of been possible! Oh the unfulfilled possibilities!!I never had the chance to hear a station that broadcast quad, but I just found proof that some, in fact, did!
A buddy of mine had an old Top 40 sheet from WSPK, Poukeepsie, New York, from January of 1976. In the logo on the letterhead, they ID themselves as "stereo/Quadraphonic".
I've never seen this before... thought I'd pass it along. Anyone know of any other stations that broadcast quad?
Clark
BTW, I'd love to have heard the segue from the Sweet into Andy Williams!@:
KLOS was notorious for synthesizing quad from stereo sources. Just check through Billboard magazine from the time period. California Jam was not broadcast in Quad, only in stereo although KLOS probably upmixed it to quad. Check out this link Quad Radio Discography and read the explinations for Cat Stevens, California Jam & Rick Wakeman and you get the picture.
All it took to hear SHE in quad was either a quad receiver, or a stereo receiver with an external QS/RM decoder connected, and the two additional speakers. Zeta4 used the SQ system. Both stations had encoders to convert quad reels and CD-4 records to their matrix of choice
I wouldn't consider that to be Disco but a lot of music toward the middle of the seventies started getting that sort of funk proto-disco feel.
Misterbee, I even have a video of CalJam where it says "broadcast in quad on KLOS" on the screen. HOWEVER, it is not correct. Years back I contacted a man named Norm Abrams (I think) who was one of the two people credited as mix engineer for the show. He was adamant that no quad mixes were done. There was a mono mix done for the tv, and a stereo for the FM simulcast. Hopefully someone will locate the audio someday, which would most likely be hiding in one of Dick Clarks archives (if there still is such a thing).
I think that is the problem with pigeon holing music to one category or another. Im my mind "Rock the Boat" is in no way disco, not even proto disco. If I had to categorize it I might call it soul or even pop. I've long considered Bee Gees - Jive Talkin’ to be the first disco type record (that I was aware of), but I'm sure that it's not. That record for me was a big departure in that groups style (and I didn't like it). Still even that record is not exactly what I would consider to be disco.
It may or may not be "disco," which evolved over time. But it IS considered the first disco song to make it to number one on Billboard's hot 100 chart.
