Re: [IRCA] Broadcast Automation

["Rene Tetro" <rene@xxxxxxxx>]

How I remember those IGM systems.  Remember the Instacarts with 48 cart 
slots?  We had two IGM systems at WPAT back in the 80s...one for AM and one 
for FM.  We ran the same format, beautiful music, on each station.  The IGM 
systems ran on Digital PDP8 computers which had these huge removeable drives 
that were about the size of a 12" vinyl disc and about two inches thick. 
There were two disks in each system - a main and a backup.  The memory 
boards in the computers were about 12X12 inchs and held 16k of memory.  I 
think there were four of them in the machine.  Booting the PDP8's was a 
nightmare because it had to be done in hex using several switches on the 
front of the computer.  If you got the sequence wrong, all sorts of 
craziness would happen.  Then you'd have to power it down and start again.

We had seven reel to reel decks on each system.  Four were used for music, 
two for time announce, and one for voice tracks.  We would change the time 
announce reels for each on duty announcer.  The announcers would pre-record 
their voice tracks, or in certain dayparts do them live.  There were also 
two of the IGM Instacarts in each system for spots, and four ITC SP cart 
machines for voice tracks and other things.

It was all pretty primitive, but it worked well and sounded great on the 
air.  In 1986 we replaced the FM IGM system with a new Media-Touch touch 
screen automation system that ran on IBM AT and XT machines.  The was, of 
course, no digital audio yet involved, so the reels, carts, and instacarts 
became part of the new system.  We were the first station to install the 
MEdia-Touch automation after it went on sale.  It was originally developed 
for the old WEEI Newsradio in Boston.  It took a lot of tinkering and 
bug-fixes to get it right since we were the first 24 hour music station to 
use the system.  But once everything got worked out it was a great system.

I often wished I had saved the old IGM guts just for posterity.  A funny 
postscript to the story is that back in 1990, I was touring the computer 
museum in Boston.  There in a glass case was, lo and behold, a Digital PDP8. 
Now a relic of computer history.

73,
Rene'

Rene F. Tetro
Chief Engineer
Salem Communications - Philadelphia
WNTP-AM / WFIL-AM
117 Ridge Pike
Lafayette Hill, PA  19444
Phone:  610-828-6965  Ext. 41
Fax:  610-828-8879
Email: rtetro@xxxxxxxxx

"Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God." 
(Matthew 5) 


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