Why is it called a board or console?
Beats me. We all spent many hours behind this board and I'm not sure when it was taken out of service. It worked great. Being a truly dual channel board it was more fitting for the KTHS days when they had the CBS network.
It did come in handy to record a show while something else was on the air. I.E. During the religious block, I often recorded Stan's Record Shop, to play back at 11 PM.
In those days of course. everything was analog. We used a lot of Ampexes except for George in the newsroom preferred an old Magnacorder. If you look closely at the picture of him below, (scroll down several posts) you can see it and some ITC cartridge machines.
Most of the equipment used vacuum tubes. They did have a nice warm sound. Now days, folks pay premium bucks for an RCA 77 D microphone. I have one I'll sell for premium bucks. (No, it did not come from KAAY) I see tube amps and preamps also going for big bucks. Guess solid state is not as great as everyone thought.
2 comments:
The original KAAY board is in the Museum of Science and History in the River Market in Little Rock.
It was there several years ago when I was last there. It is the one that came out of the Channel 11 building. There are also old Channel 11 cameras there. On the wall by the board, there is a letter from President Kennedy thanking KAAY for being a source of information during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Yes, tube gear is making a come-back! I noticed in a radio trade journal back in the '90's where Manley Labs started advertising as building tube amps and radio gear again, because artists and audiophiles wanted that warm sound again!
By the way, being an old radio lover myself, it is widely known that "real radios glow in the dark" (just like that old Zenith bakelite table radio did when I listened to KAAY as a kid)!
Long live tubes! Bud (Ham callsign KC4HGH), Mobile, AL
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