Hypnotoad,
I am a broadcast engineer. Over 33 years experience. When I began, many AM stations used equipment of that vintage in daily on air use. Usually, modernized enough to play Stereo records without damage. Especially when the station was a small town local channel AM. I maintained lots of oldies which were adventuresome to keep in working order then. Tube gear was still very common back then in daily use. The AM/FM combo I began at had this gear, RCA 44DX microphone, Western Union Telegraph Company clocks (Eastern and Central Time Zone), Teletypes for AP, Gates Yard Console, Gates CB turntables, Tapecaster cart machines, Gates cart machines, Telco EBS unit, Magnecord open reel decks, EV Sentry speaker, Dynaco Mk III amp, Stanton 500 AL cartridges. This comprised the AM control room. Transmitter was a Gates BC5P (1960 vintage), audio processing was done with a Gates Sta-Level. We aired Mutual news. The equipment was in use until 2001 with 2 Magnavox CD Players added and an old automation program ran by a PC. Our FM used a Gates Automation System using stepper controls. Had 4 Scully open reel decks, 3 IGM Instacarts, and ran Bonneville Beautiful Music. We had an old Gates Stereo Statesman console, 2 Thorens TD-124 turntables with SME 3009 arms, Stanton 681 EE cartridges, and 2 Ampex AG 440 open reels for backup if the Gates pooped out. We had Tannoys driven by McIntosh MC 30 power amps for monitoring there and RCA 44 DX mics. All Gates/ATC cart machines there. Transmitter was a Gates FM3 with a Gates TE-3 exciter (loved to do spread spectrum). All modulation monitoring for AM and FM done with Belar. The FM went on the air in 1967. We used 2 Gates Level Devils for processing. I remember this gear well as I maintained it for many years.