[78-L] stereo, ca. 1932

[Michael Biel]

David Weiner wrote:
>> I distinctly remember an NBC Perry Como show, probably in 1959,
>> that was broadcast in stereo - they told viewers to put an AM
>> radio tuned to WNBC New York some distance from the TV set to
>> hear the stereo spread. 

From: Michael Shoshani <mshoshani at sbcglobal.net>
> I'm curious as to how they pulled that off, considering that
> the country wasn't blanketed with NBC O&O radio stations
> carrying that other channel.

They didn't have to be NBC owned-and-operated stations, just regular
affiliates, and the country WAS blanketed with these!  (They were
probably in a better position than ABC had been in 55-56 for the whole
season of Lawrence Welk's TV show in stereo.)  During that era I think
that affiliates would jump at the chance to air the audio of the high
rated Perry Como TV show, especially with the publicity.  Actually I
don't remember the Como stereo program, but I do remember the Gobel show
from the previous year and the Disney show from the year after.  I
watched and listened to each of those two in stereo.  It wasn't that
great stereo because of mismatched speakers along with the rest of each
chain, as well as obvious phasing problems, but my regular stereo system
from late 59 also had mis-matched channels for a couple of years, so I
didn't really know the difference back then!  Its one of the reasons why
the Command Persuasive Percussion-type records were so popular, the
system didn't have to be matched to be appreciated.  

By the way, I have the audio of a closed-circuit program produced a few
days before the Gobel program for RCA appliance dealers to tell them how
to use it to sell both color TV and stereo phonographs.  They would go
to the studios of the local NBC-TV station to see it, and probably had
lunch provided by the local RCA distributor.  Vaughn Monroe and some RCA
marketing guy run this program without Gobel.  Not great entertainment
but good info.  

> I'm assuming that this was done the same way FM stereo is done,
> ie sum-and-difference matrixing. As with M-S stereo recording,
> in FM stereo one channel carries the sum of both left and right -
> essentially the mono signal - while the other channel carries
> the difference between the two, or what is either on the left
> or right but not common to both. The sum could be broadcast
> over the television network, thus not depriving the national
> audience of anything important, while the difference could
> have gone out over radio to provide that extra spacious
> three-dimensional stereophonic space-age sound.

Without matrix decoding you do not get stereo from listening to these
two channels.  It is even more phase dependent than regular stereo. 
There might be some way to arrange instruments so that they are in the
difference channel, but that would be easier to arrange by just putting
all non-center sounds into that radio channel.  But I doubt they were
using ping-pong separation on the important talking.  NEITHER the TV NOR
the radio would want to miss some of the talking.  The radio stations
would be pissed off if Perry was only heard on the TV and that all they
got was the surrounding orchestra.  

> I hope Mike Biel is reading this, because if I have something
> screwed up somewhere I would very much like to be corrected.   MS

Hope I've helped, but you are right, we do need to find some paperwork
on how the program was done OR find the tape!  Stereo sound could always
be recorded on even the first Ampex videotape recorder.  All of them had
two audio tracks.  But we could also tell if all we had was a stereo
audio tape, which could have been recorded by an advanced audiophile
like Burt Whyte.  Is his widow still sitting on his tapes?  Robert Angus
would have known.  Maybe Mike Stosich knows.  He had gotten Robert Oaks
Jordan's tapes.  I have a couple of them that were auctioned off, early
stereo stuff from the mid-50s.  All this stuff was happening in Chicago.
   

Mike Biel  mbiel at mbiel.com