WNYC: Men of Hi-Fi

[Sonik Wiz]

Elsewhere on the forum is a couple of very interesting radio interviews with our own Lynn Olson. These are from the 70's and hosted by Harry Maynard. I just did a quick search & found 4 pgs of results for archived sessions of the show Men of Hi-Fi. There are many episodes relating to Quad. They all seem to be very interesting, asking some questions just as relevant today. I haven't had a chance to listen to these yet, excepting for Lynn's interviews. But I've got rain & thunderstorms all the rest of the week where I live; I know Ill have some time!

 

[Soundfield]

Elsewhere on the forum is a couple of very interesting radio interviews with our own Lynn Olson. These are from the 70's and hosted by Harry Maynard. I just did a quick search & found 4 pgs of results for archived sessions of the show Men of Hi-Fi. There are many episodes relating to Quad. They all seem to be very interesting, asking some questions just as relevant today. I haven't had a chance to listen to these yet, excepting for Lynn's interviews. But I've got rain & thunderstorms all the rest of the week where I live; I know Ill have some time!

Yes, there's some fascinating stuff there - In addition to the more technical ones, I found the ones with the quad record producers (e.g. of "My Fair lady" and Mahler's 4th symphony recordings) a real insight into the thinking of the time.

 

[steelydave]

Agreed, I only listened to the one 'My Fair Lady' one (which features Columbia sales VP Stanley Kavan and the album's producer Larry Morton) but the window in to what they were thinking at the time was fascinating for me. Looking forward to listening to more of these.

 

[Soundfield]

The WNYC archive has prompted a wider thought on radio, which rather than hijacking this thread I've added here:
https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/fo...ifi-programmes-on-the-radio.26503/post-426316

 

[ubertrout]

The one on the Mahler 4th is really interesting - they talk about the recording Dutton-Vocalion (re)issued: https://www.duttonvocalion.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=2CDLX7344. They also talk extensively about how this is similar and different from the Boulez Bartok recording, which Mr. Shepard also recorded.

Edit to add: at the end he mentions going to Chicago in a few weeks to record the Mahler 3rd Symphony, which became this recording: https://www.discogs.com/Mahler-Chic...s-Glen-Ellyn-Childrens-Chorus/release/6767529. Presumably given the tenor of the conversation that was mixed in quad as well? There was never a release...

 

[humprof]

I'm loving these! Partly just because of how men of a certain age and a certain era talk: the tone, the timbre, the pace and the cadences of their voices--it's like listening to Bob and Ray riff on serious stuff. (Although I'm sure Bob and Ray could have had a field day, parodying a program like this.)

I was just listening to the episode about four-channel cassette, where they discuss--even before quad LPs had made it to the market--the fact that digital recording, for both tape and (presumably optical?) discs, was already in development, and how that promised to obviate some of the technical difficulties in getting quad to reproduce well on analog media. In 1971! I don't remember hearing about the advent of the CD until the late 70s, and I think I bought my first Telarc LP in 1979...

 

[ubertrout]

I'm loving these! Partly just because of how men of a certain age and a certain era talk: the tone, the timbre, the pace and the cadences of their voices--it's like listening to Bob and Ray riff on serious stuff. (Although I'm sure Bob and Ray could have had a field day, parodying a program like this.)

I was just listening to the episode about four-channel cassette, where they discuss--even before quad LPs had made it to the market--the fact that digital recording, for both tape and (presumably optical?) discs, was already in development, and how that promised to obviate some of the technical difficulties in getting quad to reproduce well on analog media. In 1971! I don't remember hearing about the advent of the CD until the late 70s, and I think I bought my first Telarc LP in 1979...

Believe it or not, NHK in Japan was demonstrating digital recording using tape as a storage medium in the late 1960s, and Denon began using digital tech for mastering in 1972.

 

[kfbkfb]

May be a little OT, but I recently scanned an article about
using 2 FM Stereo Stations (WNYC-FM and WKCR-FM) for
Discrete Quadraphonic Broadcasts (by Harry Maynard).

Kirk Bayne

 

[Sonik Wiz]

May be a little OT, but I recently scanned an article about
using 2 FM Stereo Stations (WNYC-FM and WKCR-FM) for
Discrete Quadraphonic Broadcasts (by Harry Maynard).

Kirk Bayne

Thanks for scanning & posting. Is it me or does the article really come off as a sales pitch ? The 2 tuner thing has an interesting history. In the late 50's radios (like Sansui) were sold with 2 independent tuners; 1 for AM & 1 for FM. Early stereo had 1 ch on AM & the other ch on FM. And in the early 80's our cable company had an interesting option: hook up a little adapter box & it would transmit stereo audio (very low power) to a nearby FM tuner. This allowed me to watch HBO in splendiferous stereo on my Penncrest boom box.

And while we're getting all nostalgic I found this saved as a fave on YouTube by Chucky3042 where he is known there as Charley Chilla:

THORN EMI FERGUSON MEN OF VISION FILM SHOWING BRITISH MANUFACTURING OF TELEVISION SETS IN THE 50/60S.

 

[kfbkfb]

This may be drifting way OT, however:

http://www.totalrewind.org/revolution/R_cart.htm"Although the CartriVision system was capable of stereo sound..."

IIRC, not one (Quad era - early 1970s) article mentioned the
possibility of SQ or QS encoded Quadraphonic CartriVision
video cassettes.

One of my early 1970s Quad related magazines mentioned a
Color TV + SQ Quad encoded FM Stereo simulcast of a concert
(I'll try to find and scan the item).

Kirk Bayne

 

[Sonik Wiz]

This may be drifting way OT, however:

http://www.totalrewind.org/revolution/R_cart.htm"Although the CartriVision system was capable of stereo sound..."

IIRC, not one (Quad era - early 1970s) article mentioned the
possibility of SQ or QS encoded Quadraphonic CartriVision
video cassettes.

One of my early 1970s Quad related magazines mentioned a
Color TV + SQ Quad encoded FM Stereo simulcast of a concert
(I'll try to find and scan the item).

Kirk Bayne

CartiVision, 1972. Before I read your post I had never heard of CartiVision. Around that time for me it was all about S,D, R&R. I'll see you and raise you one: CartiVision commercial. It was like the Google Empire smart home almost 50 years ago!