Over the years I have always been fond of music. Besides radio we had 8 track tapes, cassettes, albums and CDs. When I was very young I always listened to the radio. AM at first. I used to listen to KDKA Pittsburgh PA. Which was the first commercial radio station. WWVA from Wheeling WV. A 50,000 watt station during the day and had to shut down their power at night. The story behind that is in the early days of aviation airplanes used radio stations as navigational aids. So certain radio stations were designated as clear channel radio. These stations continued to broadcast at 50,000 watts for 24 hours. Besides their usual programming they had a carrier beam with which the airplanes could lock into without listening to the program. When the other stations lowered their power at night these stations had incredible range. I would listen to WABC from New York City, WLS Chicago, or WGAR Cleveland on a regular basis. I remember picking up WGAR Cleveland in Titusville FL on a car radio in the seventies. The airliner of the day was a DC 3 which cruised at 200 miles per hour but could be assured to make 180 in a headwind and bad weather. So that is what schedules were based on. This system started in the 1930s.
Then came FM radio. FM was actually developed by an Army Major. For the most part it does not have the range of an AM broadcast. But generally does not suffer from bad weather such as thunderstorms. The frequency response is much greater. Making almost an album like sound quality. Their typical effective range is about thirty miles. But also broadcast in stereo. They did experiment with AM stereo in the 1980s. I am not sure if they still do this. FM ruled in the seventies and eighties. With this came album rock stations which with you could illegitimately record an album to 8 track or cassette. It was good. So many people now listen to their downloaded music. But a lot of us still listen to radio.
As with most things I am wrong. I thought that the 8 track tape was older than the cassette. The cassette is actually a year older. Developed by the Dutch company Phillips. The 8 track was developed by Leer (of Leer Jet fame) Ford and Chrysler corporations. You just buy this 8 track. You could play it in your car or home. You could listen to what you wanted without a turntable. The sound quality varied. From decent to poor. But you were jammin'.
Then cassettes came to popularity. I made the upgrade in the car in 1979. Cassettes were smaller and easily recorded. They had good sound if you bought a quality tape. In the day when I would buy an album I would put it on a cassette. Put the album away to keep it nice and clean. With the passing of my 1989 Chevy Blazer I no longer have a cassette player in an automobile. However I still have two JVC home cassette decks. This allows me to record tape to tape. By the way. JVC stands for Japan Victor Corporation. The Japanese arm of RCA which means Radio Corporation of America. Who owns or owned NBC. The 1978 JVC deck retailed for $289 then. Not a cheap date. But is still working to this day as I am listening to it as writing this post. Not so expensive if you spread that out over 36 years!
Now we move to albums. To me this is the standard with which all sound recording is based. A needle in a groove. A warm analog recording that a digital recording cannot replicate. Remember that digital is 0 1 on off. As is any of your computer applications and everything else that is digital. On or off is how it works. The best sound reproduction comes from an album with a tube type amplifier. This can be very expensive so most of us have to use a transistor based unit. I still have some albums and a Technics turntable (Panasonic) that works just great. I really like the sound. It does take an effort to use. Pull out the album. Clean it. Clean the needle. Make sure the speed is correct. Album cover used to be a form of art. That is a neat looking album cover. Got to buy it.
I was at a Radio Shack in 1982 and this guy was demonstrating this new thing called a CD. He played it. Took it out of the player and threw it on the floor and stepped on it. Then reinserted into the player and sounded great. No warps or scratches. What a deal. Ultra sharp sound. In the beginning all CD players regardless of brand name were made by Phillips and NEC (Nippon Electric Corporation).
Now I see all the young and not so young listening to the music on their smart phones. Being entertained used to be a treat. Now it just seems like something that we need all the time. Do your self a favor and have some quiet time. As I am not. Listening to some old tapes
