'70s/'80s Computer Controlled Radio Automation

[Bongwater]

Out of curiosity, what computer operating system did they use? I know some used some type of UNIX. Was there any that used a BASIC type OS.

 

[Kelly A]

Out of curiosity, what computer operating system did they use? I know some used some type of UNIX. Was there any that used a BASIC type OS.

Depends on which system and vintage. Some of the original Autogram automation systems used diode pegs you plug into a time wheel to carry out certain functions. Paul Schafer was really the father of radio automation: https://www.radioworld.com/news-and-business/paul-schafer-was-a-father-of-radio-automation
Cetec-Schafer automation systems were in service at many stations through the 80's. Your neighbor; IGM there in Bellingham (aka B-Hole) essentially ripped off the Schafer design with a better processing system. Most of the automation systems in the day used hex decimal code.
Other automation systems included Gates/Harris and Broadcast Electronics (BE), which used re-branded versions of Schafer and IGM computing, with different tape and cart machine lineups, depending on the format:

Automation Systems – Engineering Radio

www.engineeringradio.us

 

[dc2bluelight]

The IGM 500 system of the early 1970s used a proprietary MOS circulating memory in a controller that handled their Instacart, and could program break sequences. The schematic for the memory controller could cover a large wall. Each step of the "program" included a tray number and a single digit that chose between the next controller step in the sequence, or a return to the music sequencer. The system used a simple stepper relay sequencer to establish music deck rotation, each step programmed with a thumb-wheel switch. Logging information was a set of 5 DTMF bursts on the cart cue track that were decoded and printed on a paper tape along with the time of day. All the electronics were completely proprietary. Even the time clock was a proprietary set of boards made up of TTL counters and 7 segment decoder-drivers. All digital displays were RCA Numitron hot filament numerics. Yes, segments did burn out. They made the logging tone burst encoder too, and silence sensor...probably the most important bit of the whole beast. When the memory controller messed up it would fire a bunch of carts in rapid sequence, almost at once, and since there was only one output from an Instacart, you got them all on the air simultaneously, where they played until either an EOM tone was detected, or enough trays were started to stall a capstan motor (12 carts per motor, 48 carts, pinch rollers, and heads total).

 

[ncradioeng]

The IGM Simplimation system of the 1960's used the "voodoo" diode matrix for programming. That system was designed to use their pre-recorded shows on 14" reels along with Carousels for commercials. The IGM 770 used a DEC PDP-8F minicomputer and a Teletype logger with a paper tape reader attached to load the system program (after you manually entered the bootstrap program via the front panel toggle switches). It had an iron-core memory. Later came the IGM Basic A system that was 8085 S-100 buss based with a CRT and 5-1/4" floppy backup. Both systems were capable of voice tracking with a reel-to-reel machine. After that came the EC, MC and SC controllers that were PC-based.

 

[b-turner]

I recall working with an Autogram back in 1978 consisting of 3 reel to reel decks and 2 twenty-four slot carousels. I pulled out a little drawer that had a metal plate with hourly clock on it. Out from the center where holes, 6 rows of them. There was a hole for each minute of the hour. One would place a pin at the source (1 thru 6) that you wanted to play at about that minute.

There were always issues. We played lots of 30 second spots. Depending on actual time, we might have cobbled a 2 spot break of two 30s and end with a jingle back to music. When that first 30 took you to the next minute, the automation dropped that second 30 and came to the jingle which was on the same carousel your first 30 was on. If that was a 40 second cart, you had to let it cue up, eject and the carousel work around to the right number. Since the automation could detect 10 seconds of silence, the jingle never played and the second spot got dropped because the automation restarted at the present minute ignoring the prior minute.

In a drawer below this, we pinned up the sequence of the carousels by number 1 through 24.

As I recall if we wanted to make sure you didn't have to correct, we just assembled carts with the two spots and jingle and as scheduled, weather, to play as a single carted event. Since the reels had to be changed every 3 hours, we just manually recorded breaks in production 3 hours at a time so we didn't need to babysit

 

[bigdonho]

The Sonomag DP-1 was not so much as a computer based system as a serial switcher with a core memory. It would only store 2064 events at a time and took some doing to fit all of the events into the system to last you through a weekend. Could be loaded by paper tape using a model 33 Teletype, reading the cue track from a cart or manually. Our system had 5 Scully 270s, 6 Carousels and 4 single play cart machines.

It did beat the hell out of a Schafer 800 with all the thumb wheels to program and Cherry switches to program the Carousels.