Welcome!

[DavidEduardo]

Hi!

This section of RadioDiscussions is associated with the www.AmericanRadioHistory.Com website which can be seen at:

https://www.americanradiohistory.com/index.htm

You will find over 5 million pages of magazines and books and publications about radio, TV and related music, engineering and electronics hobbyist subjects.

Most of the publications are both individually and group searchable.

The site is now averaging over 20,000 page views a day. There is so much content that it would be great for users to mention (and link) interesting things they find.

Make comments, suggestions and corrections. There is so much radio history that is otherwise not accessible online or in public libraries; this website tries to open the door to radio history in the US as well as the UK, Australia and even parts of Europe. We are always interested in contributions, too.
​

 

[Gregg.]

Thanks David for your American Radio History website. But I gotta ask one question... How did you get all this info on a website? With thousands of pages from dozens of publications, some dating back 75 years, I can't imagine how you transferred all these printed pages onto a website?

Thanks again!

 

[Ken Gustafson]

TV Quarter Meter Plan, Drug Store Tube Testers, & Rabbit Ears

This is a great site! Good to find a place where someone will listen to my old radio stories from growing up in the 1950s and working in radio in the 1960s. Here are some memories.

Chicago Engineers for Television advertised their Quarter Meter Plan. As I recall, they would put a TV in your home with a coin meter that allowed you to watch TV for a certain length of time for a quarter. Not clear if you ever owned the TV after spending enough quarters or were you just renting?

Drug stores had vacuum tube testers. You took the tubes out of your TV, plugged them into the tester and set switches to the positions indicated in a directory. A meter reading was in the red, yellow or green area. The store would sell you a new tube. Was this measuring anything but emission? Did this cut into the TV man’s work? It may have given him more work because people would break something in the set, or the problem had nothing to do with a tube.

My only retail experience was working one holiday season in an Allied Radio store, later called Radio Shack, now gone. Retired people came in wanting to buy a rabbit ear antenna because they had poor reception with their rooftop antenna. There were overpriced rabbit eats with all kinds of zig-zag elements and band switches and they did not do much for reception. I felt bad selling these things and told folks to have their rooftop antenna checked first. The manager liked me because I had the technical knowledge to help customer select product, but he did not like it when I steered them away from rabbit ears. I don’t think I would do well in the retail world!

 

[PTBoardOp94]

Chicago Engineers for Television advertised their Quarter Meter Plan. As I recall, they would put a TV in your home with a coin meter that allowed you to watch TV for a certain length of time for a quarter. Not clear if you ever owned the TV after spending enough quarters or were you just renting?

The name makes it sound like it was a system devised by coalition of broadcast engineers at the direction of the stations in Chicago. But looking around for a minute, it looks like Chicago Engineers for Television was a retail store that used this mechanism to incentivize customers to pay off their installment payments on their television sets.

 

[TheBigA]

Chicago Engineers for Television advertised their Quarter Meter Plan. As I recall, they would put a TV in your home with a coin meter that allowed you to watch TV for a certain length of time for a quarter. Not clear if you ever owned the TV after spending enough quarters or were you just renting?

There was a similar system in place in some motels around the country. There was a coin mechanism that would allow TV usage for payment. An early version of pay TV. It didn't last long as competition among motel chains led to them advertising "free TV."

 

[TheBigA]

In fact here is a link to pictures of coin operated TVs:

http://www.earlytelevision.org/pay_as_you_look.html

 

[radiocph]

I remember seeing coin-op TV chairs in Greyhound bus stations up until the late 1980s....

https://www.reddit.com/r/OldSchoolCool/comments/86yw3r

 

[Kemosabe]

^ I recall seeing them at airports in the 1970s.

 

[Mitch Brewer]

So glad I stumbled across the link to www.AmericanRadioHistory.Com I've spent the last 2 days looking at back issues of PopComm which was my favorite radio related magazine of the 80s and 90s. Thanks, David!

 

[kfbkfb]

WorldRadioHistory.com was/is a tremendous help in researching 1970s Quadraphonic sound, also, several articles about the CD-4 discrete quad system (for vinyl disc only) published in Audio, High Fidelity, Stereo Review were helpful in the development of an all software CD-4 decoder:

AES E-Library » A New Decoder for CD-4 (Quadradisc) Phonograph Records

CD-4 (or Compatible Discrete 4 Channel) was a short-lived, four-channel, surround-sound system for phonograph records. Developed by JVC in Japan, the system was adopted in America around 1972 by RCA where it was known as RCA Quadradisc. Unlike matrix quadraphonic systems, CD-4 took a more...

www.aes.org

Kirk Bayne

 

[MortSahlFan]

Is there a site like this with older radio broadcasts? I've collected a few myself, some great interviews and would love to share them.

 

[TomásEstefan]

TV Quarter Meter Plan, Drug Store Tube Testers, & Rabbit Ears

This is a great site! Good to find a place where someone will listen to my old radio stories from growing up in the 1950s and working in radio in the 1960s. Here are some memories.

Chicago Engineers for Television advertised their Quarter Meter Plan. As I recall, they would put a TV in your home with a coin meter that allowed you to watch TV for a certain length of time for a quarter. Not clear if you ever owned the TV after spending enough quarters or were you just renting?

Drug stores had vacuum tube testers. You took the tubes out of your TV, plugged them into the tester and set switches to the positions indicated in a directory. A meter reading was in the red, yellow or green area. The store would sell you a new tube. Was this measuring anything but emission? Did this cut into the TV man’s work? It may have given him more work because people would break something in the set, or the problem had nothing to do with a tube.

My only retail experience was working one holiday season in an Allied Radio store, later called Radio Shack, now gone. Retired people came in wanting to buy a rabbit ear antenna because they had poor reception with their rooftop antenna. There were overpriced rabbit eats with all kinds of zig-zag elements and band switches and they did not do much for reception. I felt bad selling these things and told folks to have their rooftop antenna checked first. The manager liked me because I had the technical knowledge to help customer select product, but he did not like it when I steered them away from rabbit ears. I don’t think I would do well in the retail world!

The manager certainly wants you to be personable, but the reality is he or she wishes you knew absolutely nothing about the product. They would rather "train you" to sell products the customer does not actually need: such as a $75 cable when a $15 or $20 cable will work just as well, a $150 power strip/surge protector when a $25 one will do the job, a $175 wall mount when a safety approved $50 mount is just as appropriate, a $38 dollar plastic coated TV loop antenna instead of basic $12 dollar rabbit ears which in many cases will actually perform better depending on a number of factors. And let's not forget to tack on to our $999.99 TV a $300 extended warrenty plan, and if you really want to go for broke you can pay an extra $100 and register to trade in your TV within the next 5 years and get up to $300 credit for it against a new set depending on the condition of your TV, but remember whatever they give you is actually $100 less because you already gave them $100 dollars upfront, just to register! What a racket! Aren't you glad you're not in retail?

A word about indoor antennas, the reason "rabbit ears" might work better in certain instances is because the two elements can be adjusted to cover both UHF and VHF, whereas a simple loop antenna covers UHF only. Although most TV stations, post analog, are on the UHF band, many stations particularly in major markets are running their digital signal on VHF, sometimes on their original channel.

Oh and before I forget, some folks will come running in because their friend or son-in-law told them they need to buy a special "digital" antenna (there is no such thing as a "digital" antenna). In many cases their existing rooftop antenna as you have said, if it's in good condition, will work just fine, unless of course, the wind has blown it in the wrong direction and the lead-in coax is half disconnected, but your manager would NOT want you to ask about that (that's why they want you to be initially unknowledgeable) because they want you to SELL them a roof top "digital" antenna (worth about $30 ) with installation for $150. But hey the customer can get that for just 50 bucks if they join a special service club for $300 annually which will supposedly cover ALL of their household electronics (really?)...yeah, don't worry because it will automatically be renewed each year since to join they must register their credit card...ain't retail wonderful?

 

[DavidEduardo]

The manager certainly wants you to be personable, but the reality is he or she wishes you knew absolutely nothing about the product.

That is a classic system where high tech items are going to be sold by minimum wage staff. In other words, they are taught the "pitch" and can sound convincing because they don't know they are lying.

I started www.worldradiohistory.com about 21 years ago because I got tired of telling people "it was already done, maybe several times, and it did not work... " With actual data online I could bring up in meetings, I was able to show evidence without seeming overly didactic (who, me?).

Just yesterday I corrected a post made by someone who said that in the 60's Knoxville, TN, had only country music on the radio and no station played Top 40. I showed a 1960 ad for WKGN which was "survey proven #1" with its Top 40 format!

Also yesterday: BigA showed someone who claimed a 45 RPM record could only "hold" 3 to 4 minutes of content that there were even 45's with two songs per side and ten minutes of music!

And then there is the vast wealth of misinformation about radio on Wikipedia... 😧

 

[TomásEstefan]

That is a classic system where high tech items are going to be sold by minimum wage staff. In other words, they are taught the "pitch" and can sound convincing because they don't know they are lying.

I started www.worldradiohistory.com about 21 years ago because I got tired of telling people "it was already done, maybe several times, and it did not work... " With actual data online I could bring up in meetings, I was able to show evidence without seeming overly didactic (who, me?).

Just yesterday I corrected a post made by someone who said that in the 60's Knoxville, TN, had only country music on the radio and no station played Top 40. I showed a 1960 ad for WKGN which was "survey proven #1" with its Top 40 format!

Also yesterday: BigA showed someone who claimed a 45 RPM record could only "hold" 3 to 4 minutes of content that there were even 45's with two songs per side and ten minutes of music!

And then there is the vast wealth of misinformation about radio on Wikipedia... 😧

I had some of those EP 45's, usually on RCA. One of which comes to mind is a 6 song collection of classic acoustical recordings made circa 1910 or so by the great Caruso!