What turntable did radio stations use in the 70's?

[Durski]

Hi Everybody,

Writing in to ask what turntable was common in radio stations in the mid to late 1970's for playing records?

 

[Fitzy]

Hi Everybody,

Writing in to ask what turntable was common in radio stations in the mid to late 1970's for playing records?

Here in the UK many stations used Gates decks.

 

[Dan ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ]

Gates, QRK, Russco and Rek-O-Kut were the most common as I recall.
Here's a site for some parts: http://russcoturntables.com/

 

[butch4695]

What TT was that ?

 

[jfat]

We used to use "McCurdy" turntables at the Radio Stations I worked at in the early 80's. We also used "Tascam" boards and "Studer/Revox" 1/4" reel to reels. All commercials (spots) were on "Carts" (continuous loop tapes),...then by the "90's" everything was on monstrous hard drives.

Cheers

Jeff

P.S.: Those "McCurdy's" were very light weight and would come up to speed in a quarter turn.

 

[Old1625]

According to what I've found:
"Turntable: VPI Scoutmaster Signature Plus."

My dad had a Garrard transcription table. Not sure how he got it, or why....I had that turntable myself as a kid, and traded it for something later on. (I shouldn't have--but did.) But his getting that TT has to be later than the days he had a radio show on WORL in Boston back in the '30s.

FWIW I do have a picture of a young-looking Daddy face-to-face across a mic with a young-looking Duke Ellington.

Those were the days...

 

[Dr Tinear]

WFMR in Milwaukee used Technics turntables, if I recall correctly. I visited their studio in early 1975 and was surprised to see turntables that looked like the expensive end of the Technics consumer line. They may very well have been SL-1200s.

 

[jblmar]

The above plus Technics SP 10, SP 15, SP 25.
Mostly in the late '70s.

 

[Cadillac Kid]

We had Sparta.

 

[Cadillac Kid]

WFMR in Milwaukee used Technics turntables, if I recall correctly. I visited their studio in early 1975 and was surprised to see turntables that looked like the expensive end of the Technics consumer line. They may very well have been SL-1200s.

I know of at least three stations that also used the SL-1200.

 

[Sam Cogley]

We had Sparta.

OK, I want one of those. Cool table.

 

[KentTeffeteller]

I used Gates CB 70 machines and also maintained them as a combo man at my first job at WATO 1290/WUUU 94.3 in Oak Ridge, TN. Those machines had Gray viscous damped tonearms with Stanton 500 A cartridges. The gear dated from between 1960-1967 vintage. My next job used Rek-O-Kut Rondine Deluxe turntables from 1960. I went from that to WUOT-FM 91.9 and Russco Cue-Masters and Thorens TD 124 and EMT 930 machines. After those machines were retired, I installed Technics SP-10 Mk III turntables with SME 3009 Improved tonearms and Stanton 681 EEE-S II cartridges.

 

[Giveitup04]

I worked at a couple of 10,000 watt AM station's here in Canada, back mid to late
70's, early eighties. McCurdy board's and turntables were the norm. Ampex and RCA
reels were later replaced with Studer/Revox. Turntables were replaced with high end
Technics, but were rarely used, since we were mostly carts. Shure SMB mic's, McCurdy
mic compressors, along with other rack mounted toys ( Ambience Expanders ), single
channel 32 band EQ, and for studio monitor's, Technics SB-4500 spkrs. Oh yes, AM Stereo, go figure! But that's another subject, for another day. Harris Transmitters rule!

 

[midlife]

I had a Technics SL1100 back in the day. Definetely as robust as the 1200 and alot more visually appealing imo. :yes:

 

[steerpike2]

The SABC (South African Broadcasting Corporation) used behemoths that they built themselves. I got hold of one a while back that I'm working on restoring:
http://web.eject.co.za/s8nspawn/hifi/ak/#sabctt

 

[cornwallguy]

I did a radio production gig before going into studio work and the tt i allways saw in the studio was SP-10mk2 ,still one of my fav turntables,quiet -would start on a dime
Ive seen studio gear break down from time to time but never those sp10
never saw the sp15 but i hear some fm's still have those in daily use

 

[electronjohn]

As a rookie jock in December 1969 (Jeez! It's gonna be 40 years on the air in a month!) the small station I worked at had a pair of Gates CB-16 16" transcription tables...complete with Gates arms and GE VR2 carts tracking at about a pound and a half. After seeing so many records mangled by those GEs, I convinced the owner to at least upgrade the arm/cartridge combo. I installed Shure M-236 arms and Stanton 500s and the records were a lot happier. After that, QRKs, Russcos & the like were common...mostly w/Shure arms & Stantons. A little later in the 70s, Technics arrived to save the day. AKer Holst runs a sweet Sparta...I'm on the hunt for one of my own.

 

[dshoaf]

I remember seeing Russco and Gates tables in the stations throughout eastern North Carolina back in the 70s when I interviewed there for jobs. Part of my schooling was to obtain my First Class Radiotelephone license, required for Radio/TV engineering work at the time.

The funniest thing I ever saw was at this one local AM station where all the Stanton cartridges had had Shure stylii force-fit into them. For those of you haven't compared the 2, Shure used a diamond-shaped shaft for their replacement stylii while Stanton/Pickering used a round shaft. In fact, it was the square peg/round hole problem! Anyway, when I asked the head engineer why this had been done, he explained that the Shure stylii were cheaper since all the DJs were just "ham-handed donkeys". He offered me a job working at the transmitter out of town that included climbing the tower to change light bulbs.

I went into the computer business instead.....sorry to go off topic.

Cheers,

David

 

[thedelihaus]

Since I have a penchant for direct drive, I am aware of the Japanese market using Denon decks on many stations, and of course Technics, but also some of the chunky Sonys.

I imagine others were used too.

Ran across lots of Technics in the college radio stations here in the states.

 

[ron-c]

BBC used modified SP10s.

Thanks,
Ron-C