What's an EKKO Stamp ? - AM/MW Radio Reception Verification Reports
D Peter Maus wrote:
David Eduardo wrote:
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"David Eduardo" wrote:
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Why not just record the station as proof you received it?
EKKO stamps ended after The War, and until the 60's, recording was
impractical. In fact, even in the 60's it was not a good idea...
most tapes
made in that era deteriorated rapidly. Most of my prized audio IDs
did not
make it into a more advanced media as the tape flaked... some nice
ones like
HCRE1 855 and CX28 were lost that way, although verified by letter
or card.
There were wire recorders. Very durable. You could also record on
vinyl
records.
Have you checked the price of a wire recorder, in today's dollars?
They cost more than a car did when they were available.
Oh, you're so full of ****, you're scary. You can pick up an Armour
type wire recorder in pristine condition at a high end antique shop
for less than $300.
Cost. Past tense. When they first came out, they were in the price
range of a cheap car.
Full of ****. Present tense.
Webster-Chicago model 181, $98, 1953.
Webster-Chicago model 80, $149, 1948.
Even Henry Ford wasn't selling cars for that.
My point is that the average DXer in the era could not afford a wire
recorder. Or a disk recorder. Keyword: average.
Keyword: Horse****. Recording gear was in the same cost range as the
receivers of the period.
Many receivers were far and away more expensive. Even Bill Halligan
was building rigs costing more than the cost of a top line wire
recorder. We won't even go where Oscar Hammarlund's prices were.
Home recorders recorded to an acetate, sometimes vinyl (higher end
blanks which were available later) coating on an aluminum substrate.
Those were also not expensive.
If you don't recall one, your experience is lacking.
By 1959, when I started, the only place we saw disk recorders was as a
fading way of sending spots to stations. When I got to Ecuardor, all
agencies sent spots out on disk; we were the only one of nearly 300
stations that did not play the disks on the air, dubbing them instead
to cart.
I'm glad I never had to have the recorders in a station.
So, you admit you don't know what you're talking about. Thank God
I lived to see that.
As for expense...again, not VERY expensive. I have one by Meissner
that was less than $130 new.
That was when minimum wage was less than a buck. In other words, the
home recorder cost a mont's take home pay. That is not cheap.
Again, your experience is lacking. A good radio cost that, and more.
Recording toys were fairly common. Not free, by any means, but hardly
out of the price range of someone who wanted one.
And we had a pair of professional machines at WEW.
The miserable daytimer in St Lousi?
The pride and joy of Charlie Stanley, and the poster station for FCC
attention. Yes, WEW. The station with more dial positions than a 40's
Zenith FM. The station with more shared frequencies than Heidi Fleiss's
cell phone. WEW. The station that had to monitor it's program line,
because WABC came over the top of the air monitor in late afternoon.
Yes, THAT WEW.
$149 was 2 weeks pay in 1948.
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