Exploring Billboard for Quadraphonic Information

[kfbkfb]

It's looking like radio (and TV) will be something only in history soon - my musings on radio, TV, streaming and surround sound:

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=21234444&postcount=316
It seems like trying to get (audio only) streaming to default to 4.0/5.1 surround sound would be a worthwhile goal given this (almost certain) future for content distribution.


Kirk Bayne

 

[ssully]

AFAIK, the KBFH quad/SQ master tapes were destroyed in a fire...maybe people with home recorded stereo copies could lend them to a record company for remastering...even the lowly compact cassette is capable of good fidelity and would probably be good source material.

the account I've seen is that quad masters were gone...but the original multitrack recordings were stored elsewhere.

*Supposedly* the latter day commercial KBFH releases on CD (so, stereo, obviously) were newly mixed from them, which is why none of those CDs 'decode' to quad.

(I find that new mix story hard to believe given how much they sound like extant bootlegs recorded off the radio in the 70s and 80s.)

And of course, there are 'quad reels' from radio stations, in circulation among collectors. Doesn't seem to be any consensus which particular ones actually decode to quad.

IMO it's a historical mess that awaits definitive sorting out.

 

[jaybird100]

From November 9, 1974:

On November 10. the King Biscuit Flower Hour will present a taped live radio show featuring the Edgar Winter Group and Suzi Quatro.
The show hosted by Bill Minkin (FM only) is in Quadraphonic sound. So you can hear it the way you’d be seeing it.
In the future, shows will be on the second Sunday and the last Sunday of every month. Check the listing below for times and stations.
View attachment 93348

Link to PDF:
https://worldradiohistory.com/hd2/I...Page-0025.pdf#search="live quadraphonic show"

Heard them in quad on WSHE; "She's only rock and roll!" Damn, I miss that station!

 

[Old Quad Guy]

Just a quick note. I’m posting stuff as I find them (in no particular order) that I thought us surround music fans might find interesting. Thanks.

 

[Old Quad Guy]

Exciting news for our friends in the music business

Contrary to rumors, 4-channel is alive and very healthy indeed.

Every month there is an increase in the amount of 4-channel hardware being sold and more and more interest created among people of all ages.

Today almost fifty leading FM stations are broadcasting in QS 4-channel 24 hours a day. Within a span of four weeks more than 20 important new releases by major artists, major producers and major record companies will be added to the list. Altogether there are more than 250 QS 4-channel records available today in the U.S.

The QS system represents the most advanced 4-channel system of today.

It places no restriction on the artist or producer, creates unmatched 4-channel separation, a clear sense of location and a full sense of 4-channel musicality.

It also creates enhanced stereo sound.

Because of the great interest in our 4-channel records, we are listing some of the latest releases on the following page.
[ See post #36. Both ads come from March 8, 1975 ]

 

[jaybird100]

Louis Dorren said they worked hard to get the NQRC testing and report done by late 1975 so the FCC could quickly approve the system that won, for some reason, the FCC waited.

(maybe the FM stereo stations should have used the Electro-Voice Stereo-4 matrix system while waiting - it's simple to make encoders and decoders)


Kirk Bayne

We had two album rock stations in the Miami area back then; WSHE and WZTA (Zeta-4). Both stations were equipped with Sansui QSE-5B QS encoders, which they used to encode discrete sources to matrix, so they could broadcast it. I can gladly say both stations sounded great. One adult contemporary station, 97A1A (WAIA} ran a sponsored quad broadcast, once a week, sponsored by Hi-Fi Associates (now just a memory). The two FM top 40 stations, WMYQ, and WHYI (Y100) had some cuts in rotation. The classical station, WTMI, often played quad records on the air, and they said so.

 

[Old Quad Guy]

Another similar ad, from March 1, 1975:

More than 40 FM stations in the U.S. are today transmitting QS 4-channel stereo up to 24 hours a day.
Obviously, they're on. to the simple profit-making facts. Among them: any 4-channel source, including live recorded productions, discrete reel-to-reel tapes, Q8 cartridges, or even demodulated CD-4 discs, can be fed into the four inputs of the QSE-5B broadcast encoder.
And this lets the listener at home receive the original four channels of sound with more than 20dB of inter-channel separation, when the new QS vario-matrix decoders are used.
More facts:
The broadcasts are fully compatible in 2-channel or mono, too.
And since the amount of software available in any given format is limited, Sansui has developed the QS Quadraphonic Synthe-sizer. It lets the station feed regular 2-channel signals into the encoder and obtain encoded signals for broadcast. They, too, can be decoded at home for startling
4-channel realism.
The point here is that there is a shortage of QS 4-channel records as far as the FM stations are concerned. They're waiting for your QS product.
Has there ever been a better time for you to get into-and profit from-QS?
If you think your competition is getting all the FM exposure now, make the change to QS.
Think about it now. And write Sansui today.
We'll help.

 

[Old Quad Guy]

January 11, 1975

Matrix For Home Radios Grows And Matrix Could Beat Discrete To Automotive Market

By CLAUDE HALL
Matrix radio--for the home-is booming like crazy and there's a strong possibility, according to Jerry Le Bow, vice president of 201 Communications, New York, that matrix quad radio may beat discrete radio into the automobile.
Delco is looking at the potential of a 4-channel matrix car receiver right now, Le Bow says.”
Meanwhile, both Sansui's QS matrix quad and CBS' SQ matrix quad have been making valuable inroads into the home ... not only in terms of software, but hardware.
Stan Kavan, vice president of planning and diversification for CBS Records, New York, reports that the list of radio stations requesting quad record service continues to grow and is over 300 strong now.
This includes all formats--classical, pop, and country.
The SQE 2000 CBS encodered, handled through-CBS Labs in Samford, Conn., is now in use or soon will be on around 40 stations, Kavan said. It sells for about $795.
Matrix quad is growing and, as it grows at the street level, broadcasters will more and more be getting to it, believes Kavan.
Le Bow has just made the first quad matrix inroads into Canadian radio on behalf of Sansui. The first Sansui matrix quad station in Canada is CHOM-FM in Montreal.
Recently, Le Bow also added KMET in Los Angeles, WBC in Boston, and KNUS in Dallas to the growing list of 24-hour Sansui quad stations, which now number around 38.
A very important factor in the Sansui campaign is the number of heavyweight rock stations using the system. For instance, WABX in Detroit is broadcasting Sansui 24 hours a day and the chain's KWST in Los Angeles is also a Sansui rock oper-ation. WQIV in New York, KYA-FM in San Francisco, KLOL-FM in Houston-all use the Sansui OSE 5B encoder. Many of the stations are encoding live concerts, demodulating and re-encoding CD-4 discrete disks, or producing their own matrix quad programs, as well as playing matrix disks.
"In each market, the stations are promoting heavily on the air the fact that they are using QS 24 hours a day. Each has found that this generates a large amount of revenue for the station through the Hi-Fi retail stores, as well as the record dealers,” says Le Bow.
So, the potential for a matrix car receiver is there ... at least in many markets.
One observer on the quad scene speculates that, with all of the 4-channel tape cartridge decks currently hitting the market, perhaps there's a possibility of some firm manufacturing a small slip-in unit for quad similar to the small slip-in stereo unit now marketed for ordinary stereo 8-track cartridge decks.

 

[barfle]

Quite honestly, the way they described how SQ worked was a bit misleading. If you believed it all had to do with stylus motions in the grooves, you'd have to believe the system was limited to records. Those inner sleeves were confusing, at best. It was really all in the phase coefficients. The same applies to QS and EV. Since you also own a Surround Master, it's all a moot point. I started with an EVX-4 decoder, added a Sony SQD-1000 partial logic decoder, later added a Sansui QS-01 decoder, which way outperformed the SQ, and then a Technics CD-4 demodulator. That's how I started with quad. I eventually got a Teac quad R2R deck, a Sansui QRX-6500 receiver, to replace the stereo receiver and rear amp that I was using... I was obsessed! Quad rules!

I was an engineering technician at Altec-Lansing at the time, ans the concept of orthagonal signals via phase was comprehensible. Yeah, the idea of a stylus moving circularly was an illustration of how the scheme worked on media that physically represented an atmospheric pressure change, but “analog” and “analogy” are closely related.

And, no, I don’t own a SM, but it’s next on the hardware list. Then I have ti figure out how to integrate it into a “modern” system with limited analog inputs. I have ideas, but that doesn’t make a plan.

 

[barfle]

Another similar ad, from March 1, 1975:

More than 40 FM stations in the U.S. are today transmitting QS 4-channel stereo up to 24 hours a day.
Obviously, they're on. to the simple profit-making facts. Among them: any 4-channel source, including live recorded productions, discrete reel-to-reel tapes, Q8 cartridges, or even demodulated CD-4 discs, can be fed into the four inputs of the QSE-5B broadcast encoder.
And this lets the listener at home receive the original four channels of sound with more than 20dB of inter-channel separation, when the new QS vario-matrix decoders are used.
More facts:
The broadcasts are fully compatible in 2-channel or mono, too.
And since the amount of software available in any given format is limited, Sansui has developed the QS Quadraphonic Synthe-sizer. It lets the station feed regular 2-channel signals into the encoder and obtain encoded signals for broadcast. They, too, can be decoded at home for startling
4-channel realism.
The point here is that there is a shortage of QS 4-channel records as far as the FM stations are concerned. They're waiting for your QS product.
Has there ever been a better time for you to get into-and profit from-QS?
If you think your competition is getting all the FM exposure now, make the change to QS.
Think about it now. And write Sansui today.
We'll help.

View attachment 94018

So what sort of programming is “Bonneville?” Two stations on that list show that’s what they’re playing.

Edit - Four stations!

 

[gvl_guy]

So what sort of programming is “Bonneville?” Two stations on that list show that’s what they’re playing.

Edit - Four stations!

Hmmm. Bonneville was a broadcasting company. I'm going to assume they were all "beautiful music" aka instrumentals since one listed was WRFM in New York. In 1975 I was 16, so I was NOT listening to that station. But I knew about it.

 

[barfle]

Hmmm. Bonneville was a broadcasting company. I'm going to assume they were all "beautiful music" aka instrumentals since one listed was WRFM in New York. In 1975 I was 16, so I was NOT listening to that station. But I knew about it.

Now that you mention it, it seems like I have heard of them. Given my love of motorsports, it seemed unlikely that there would be radio stations devoted to land speed record attempts (Bonneville Salt Flats).

 

[Old Quad Guy]

"The only acceptable way to reproduce the environment is in the manner that it was recorded. Discretely!"
Brad Miller is the successful producer of the Mystic Moods and Sound in Motion, as well as the co-owner of Sutton-Miller Ltd., parent company of Sound Bird and Shadybrook Records. He believes in being discrete.
And, he's always been a non-believer in pseudo-quadraphonics or electronic processing to achieve the four-channel effect. Miller wants his records to be reproduced just as they were recorded. That's important to him.
So is CD-4.

 

[kfbkfb]

Actually, it was on a Bonneville FM stereo radio station (KMBR) that I heard part of an announcement (probably in the 2nd half of 1972) that they were "test" broadcasting Electro-Voice Stereo-4 quad encoded content.


Kirk Bayne

 

[Sonik Wiz]

Actually, it was on a Bonneville FM stereo radio station (KMBR) that I heard part of an announcement (probably in the 2nd half of 1972) that they were "test" broadcasting Electro-Voice Stereo-4 quad encoded content.


Kirk Bayne

Once upon a time I had a friend with his own jazz show on KCUR on the UMKC campus. Visiting & wandering around the studio I noticed a Sansui QSE-5B in a rack mount enclosure. Looking at the rear side nothing was hooked up to it, the power cord still coiled with the factory twisty on it. Eventually the school had a staff only auction & I got the station manager to bid for me. Snagged a QSE-5B for $50!

Anyway what I'm wondering is how many stations that were QS quad capable actually did this? Was Sansui practically ( or literally) giving these away just to bolster their QS radio station list? And were the stations mostly just using these devices for promo, to advertise that had quad capabilities?

I know some actual quad broadcasting is mentioned in this thread earlier. But really it's hard to imagine these stations went to the trouble of getting tapes & a 4ch R2R machine to encode to QS. And even fewer probably zero) went to the trouble of setting up CD-4. Easier just to play a matrix quad record.

 

[jaybird100]

Once upon a time I a friend with his own jazz show on KCUR on the UMKC campus. Visiting & wandering around the studio I noticed a Sansui QSE-5B in a rack mount enclosure. Looking at the rear side nothing was hooked up to it, the power cord still coiled with the factory twisty on it. Eventually the school had a staff only auction & I got the station manager to bid for me. Snagged a QSE-5B for $50!

Anyway what I'm wondering is how many stations that were QS quad capable actually did this? Was Sansui practically ( or literally) giving these away just to bolster their QS radio station list? And were the stations mostly just using these devices for promo, to advertise that had quad capabilities?

I know some actual quad broadcasting is mentioned in this thread earlier. But really it's hard to imagine these stations went to the trouble of getting tapes & a 4ch R2R machine to encode to QS. And even fewer probably zero) went to the trouble of setting up CD-4. Easier just to play a matrix quad record.

That's what many stations did. We did KBFH, in SQ, but we got it on records.

 

[Old Quad Guy]

February 15, 1975

RCA Launches New Club To Spur 'Q' Penetration

By STEPHEN TRAIMAN

NEW YORK-
RCA is launching
a Quadraphonic Record and Tape Club with its Music Service operation mailing the announcement to 200,000 prospects.
The action by RCA is the first major direct mail consumer campaign for CD-4 discrete 4-channel software.
Due mainly to key CD-4 manufacturer support. David Heneberry division vice president, RCA Records music and operation services, expects the "experiment to determine buying interest in CD-4 software" to turn out much better than a low-key test by Columbia House early last year for SQ matrix disks and tapes.
As Bob Walker, JVC hi fi merchandising manager, explains, "This will go a long way toward increasing 4-channel equipment sales and owners' satisfaction by breaking one of the last barriers- direct distribution to consumers in smaller market areas.”
JVC intends to promote the new RCA club, which offers both CD-4

(Continued on page 36)

RCA Launches 'Q' Club By Mail

disk and Q-8 cartridge selections from the entire discrete catalog, through reps to its dealers and also to consumers via return of warranty cards for JVC guad receivers.
Walker says,
"It's vitally important to get more software into the hands of consumers," he emphasizes, "a major complaint stifling 4-channel growth."
He reports that JVC's own use of warranty card returns-offering two free CD-4 disks from the entire catalog has gotten far greater response than expected since it began about two months ago.
Heneberry notes that the initial
mailing includes qualified owners of quad disk and tape players, interested prospects for 4-channel equipment (from dealers and hi fi shows), current RCA Music Service members and other key lists that tested well on a small-sample basis.
The 4-color brochure offers any three of 37 pictured disk or tape selections for $4.95 (retail value $21-$24) on a trial membership with purchase of four at regular price ($6.98-$7.98) in the following 12 months.
Offerings from entire CD-4 catalog (RCA, WEA, Project 3, etc.) will be listed in “Medley” club brochures issued every four weeks. After initial four purchases, same Music Service deal of one free item for every two purchased will apply.
Only key omission from the mailing piece is any special note to the effeet that CD-4 equipment is necessary for discrete quad reproduction of either disk or tape. Heneberry explains that this was not done in the initial mailing for the reason that CD-4 software is fully compatible with existing stereo equipment “and we recognize that some consumers will want to buy Quadradiscs or Q-8 cartridges without an immediate changeover to 4-channel equip-ment.”
Although the Columbia House test for SQ matrix product in a separate club was dropped after what a spokesman termed "disappointing results," the February Columbia

(Continued on page 38)

'O' Club For RCA

House Record & Tape Club brochure offers SQ product to members for the first time. Back cover is devoted to 10 selections on disk or tape at regular $6.98-$7.98 prices for such key artists as Santana, Charlie Rich, Barbra Streisand, Blood Sweat & Tears, Cat Stevens and Lynn Anderson. Sharing the increasing industry view that anything helping get quad software to consumers is a plus for the medium, he wished the RCA effort better luck than Columbia House experienced.
At JVC, in addition to the hi fi division's CD-4 disk giveaway, the Cutting Center in Hollywood has just begun making packages of direct imports from Japan Musical Industries' (JVC Nivico) extensive CD-4 catalog available to dealers and consumers. Included are classical, pop, rock, Latin and mood selections. A special added offer includes all nine Beethoven symphonies recorded for CD-4 in Japan and Europe by the Gewandhaus Orchestra, Leipzig, conducted by Kurt Masur, at $49.
Walker also reports "phenomenal" response to Project 3's direct mailing to JVC dealers offering its entire CD-4 catalog of approximately 30 titles at special promotional prices, with several orders of $800-$900.
Both Heneberry and Walker agree that the new RCA Quadraphonic Club is a key link in the continuing program to get more 4-chan-nel software to the consumer.

 

[Old Quad Guy]

Dedicated to the 5.1 SACD titles we got (and those we didn’t) :

 

[Old Quad Guy]

King Biscuit Flower Hour, broadcast on the 2nd and last Sunday night of every month and
The BBC Presents: broadcast on the 1st and 3rd Sunday of every month presents the very finest concerts recorded live in Britain and the United States

 

[J. PUPSTER]

Another similar ad, from March 1, 1975:

More than 40 FM stations in the U.S. are today transmitting QS 4-channel stereo up to 24 hours a day.
Obviously, they're on. to the simple profit-making facts. Among them: any 4-channel source, including live recorded productions, discrete reel-to-reel tapes, Q8 cartridges, or even demodulated CD-4 discs, can be fed into the four inputs of the QSE-5B broadcast encoder.
And this lets the listener at home receive the original four channels of sound with more than 20dB of inter-channel separation, when the new QS vario-matrix decoders are used.
More facts:
The broadcasts are fully compatible in 2-channel or mono, too.
And since the amount of software available in any given format is limited, Sansui has developed the QS Quadraphonic Synthe-sizer. It lets the station feed regular 2-channel signals into the encoder and obtain encoded signals for broadcast. They, too, can be decoded at home for startling
4-channel realism.
The point here is that there is a shortage of QS 4-channel records as far as the FM stations are concerned. They're waiting for your QS product.
Has there ever been a better time for you to get into-and profit from-QS?
If you think your competition is getting all the FM exposure now, make the change to QS.
Think about it now. And write Sansui today.
We'll help.

View attachment 94018

Just looked up KSFM here in Sac.; didn’t know it was Quad enabled back then of course; but immediately thought of competitor station KZAP ( @atrocity )
and found this article about KSFM history but don’t see any mention of Quad (just wish I had a clue and was Quad enabled back then!) Their playlist looks like most or all artists that had Quad titles out though.

https://www.playlistresearch.com/earthradio.htm