Stuff that was different in the 60s and 70s

[nightshadea]

@TriPolar

Just saw one of those. It’s still 5 to 6 weeks away, starting in August seems to be the tradition here but I don’t think they’ve moved it back any further. I never went to school before Labor Day and back to school ads started in the last week of August. I think this is just because they start the next holiday marketing right after the last one. But they certainly need to get the product in the store earlier than they used to. And there’s a lot more of it too.

school here started the 8th of august …

[Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus]

@John_Mace

I started listening to FM regularly in 1971, so unless this happened more or less overnight, I think you are misremembering. Those FM stations in 1971 were just normal stations without the bubblegum music that made up much of AM broadcasts.

Ray Manzarek remembered that “FM was just starting to happen” at the time of their earliest records, which would mean summer of 1966 (recorded) or early '67 (released). Presumably it did happen earlier in major markets like L.A., SF, or NYC.

[Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus]

@nightshadea

school here started the 8th of august …

Summer is so over, it would seem.

In SoCal near the ocean, we don’t even get reliably sunny weather until July. We went to school in old non-airconditioned buildings, and I can’t imagine what that would be like during the hottest weeks of summer. But then they probably all have AC now.

[Musicat]

@Little_Pig

In the late 60’s, the FM air waves had very few stations. FM radio stations that did exist and played Rock music were referred to as “underground radio stations”. They were usually on air for a few hours per day, generally after midnight until dawn. If they aired commercials, they were usually read by the DJ.

In the late 60’s in a major market (St. Louis), the FM spectrum was so crowded that alternative stations had to fight to even get a broadcasting slot. And the “underground stations” that I listened to were on the air 24 hours, as were all FM stations at that time. I have recordings of them playing music at all hours of the day, not just after midnight. I was there.

In the late 60’s in another major market (San Francisco), the FM spectrum was also full and had no available slots at all. I was there.

[carnivorousplant]

@Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus

I don’t know if that was a problem with the recording or with the playback.

Alignment of the playback head.

[Musicat]

@carnivorousplant

Alignment of the playback head.

Or alignment of the recording head (at the tape production line). Production facilities typically use high-speed duplication equipment and alignment errors are common.

It’s even possible for crosstalk to be injected into the master, as somewhere in the production chain, a stereo source must be made into an 8-track intermediate. Any crosstalk allowed there will be duplicated into every copy.

It’s also possible to have print-through, transferring weak signals from one tape layer to the adjacent one over time, causing a post- or pre-echo depending on how the tape is wound.