[78-L] For 78's, What Does Transcription Mean?

[Rodger J. Holtin]

And, there’s another twist to the story. By the early 1950s to say that something was “transcribed…” was actually some point of respectability/credibility. 

To wit, in the very early 1950s my Alma Mater begin a series of taped weekly radio programs that were distributed throughout the US, primarily the Southeast. Some media consultant along with Memphis flamethrower WMAQ who helped shape it and the tape duplicating company all suggested that they include the term “transcribed” in the narration because denoted some level of technical professionalism - kinda like everybody using their www.com as part of their advertising 15 or 20 years ago.  Of course, it didn’t take very many years for that to become old hat and it was discontinued by the middle 1960s. 

Rodger Holtin
78-L Member Since MCMXCVIII

For Best Results Use Victor Needles

Sent from my sluggish old iPhone, which explainz any bad typjng, bad spellimg, nonsensical word choices, delays and all other lapses. 

> On Apr 1, 2020, at 10:38 AM, Donna Halper <dlh at donnahalper.com.invalid> wrote:
> 
> 
>> On 4/1/2020 9:14 AM, Rodger J. Holtin wrote:
>> “Transcription” was used rather euphemistically by the broadcasters for years. The networks viewed anything that was recorded as second-class sound, especially early on. The Hindenburg disaster helped to crack their general outright ban of recordings.  Small stations, of course, relied heavily on them and on commercial phonograph records. Some artists attempted to thwart that and some labels of the 78 days even said “broadcast prohibited,” to little or no avail. “Electrical Transcriptions” were made just for that purpose and they generally sounded much better than commercial 78s - then and now.
>> 
>> Somebody else can probably fill in more details here. There was also a time when anything recorded that was played over the air had to be identified as such so listeners would know that it was not live. I have heard taped programs that were identified as “Transcribed in Chicago..” into the 1960s.
> 
> Rodger is correct. In fact, until 1932, the Federal Radio Commission 
> (FRC) demanded that any time a station played a phonograph record, they 
> had to announce that it was recorded and not live-- there was a belief 
> that "canned music" was bad, and live music was superior, and this view 
> was promoted by various organizations that lobbied for musicians (as 
> might be expected). But it was also promoted by the FRC, some of whose 
> members sincerely seemed to believe that everyone should  hear only live 
> music on the air, rather than being subjected to (gasp) recorded music.  
> Some of this may also have been influenced by the fact that 1920s carbon 
> microphones distorted recorded sound, and some records really did sound 
> bad when played on radio (Edison himself was not happy about this, and 
> he said so).
> 
> When the So-A-Tone broadcasts came along in 1929, these short 
> recordings  (the first ones were about 5-6 minutes, along with a 
> commercial) were some of the first transcriptions on the air.  And there 
> was great controversy around whether stations should use them. Radio 
> owners were very upset at having to constantly announce that a song had 
> been recorded, and as I said, in 1932, the FRC modified its view about 
> announcing the playing of a phonograph record. But identifying a 
> recorded program as "recorded and transcribed" became the norm. I 
> remember hearing this well into the 1950s. It only ended once audiotape 
> came into general use at radio stations.
> 
> -- 
> Donna L. Halper, PhD
> Associate Professor of Communication & Media Studies
> Lesley University, Cambridge MA
> 
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