Crosley Broadcasting Corporation

[wonderwrench]

I was looking through my dads old magazines and found some interesting stuff IMO anyway. I though others may get a kick out of them also so here is the first installment.

Broadcasting magazine did a salute to Crosley Broadcasting Corporation in 1962 for Crosley's 40 year anniversary. Below is a copy of the complete article. I just love the part that talks about WLW the highest fidelity radio station. Not even today has anyone matched what Crosley did in 1959. WLW's frequency response was from 17 hz to 21.5 khz +- 1 db with no more than .3% THD. Crosley was responsible for so many innovations there are too many to list. You will just have to download and read for your self.

Download the PDF http://www.4shared.com/file/56074395/e46...Years.html

Download the DOC http://www.4shared.com/file/56074940/2c3...years.html

**Warning the above files are large**

[Michael Dennis]

Yup, have to agree. WLW even put out a snazzy QSL card in 1971, plus they sounded great on my RME 45.

Mike

[Texasrocker]

...ah,.. the great memories of WLW orig 500KW "The Nations Station"!

not only was Powell Crosley a great pioneer/innovator in early American Radio/TV, he was a great businessman also! He also produced the low-cost Crosley automobiles, and early home refrigerators & other appliances! Few men (early broadcasters) ever acheived his success!

Much of the vintage WLW tube-type orig 500kw WLW Transmitter still exists on same orig location!! The WLW Tower is still in use, with modern day xmittr equip housed in the same bldg!! You can get a tour?..., as I did, last time I visited the site in Mason, Oh.

Luckily, the WLW engineer & his family lived on-site in the old house that used to be the offices, and was more than happy to let me go in, & take photos also!! Very nice people indeed still employed by WLW!!

For a great read, click below!
http://www.hawkins.pair.com/wlw.shtml , or do google search for http://www.hawkins.pair.com much WLW info there as well as photo of only 1 still existing Border-Blaster tube orig made for XERF !! That tube is still on display at "Continental Electronics" located in Dallas who built the orig "Doherty" design 1 megawatt transmitter to "up the ante" on WLWs orig power output, south of the border (Acuna,Mx) for Dr Brinkley's "goat gland" operations! The same RCA engineers that built the 500kw WLW transmitter in Mason, was called by Dr Brinkley, to build a "much better AM transmitter",... and that they did!! The FCC sure didnt like it either!!

If your ever in the Mason, Ohio area, call ahead, and get a tour of the "Nations Station" orig Transmitter site if possible!! Seeing all that orig WLW vintage 500kw rig is "priceless"!!!!!

[Ron Ramirez]

I find it amazing that WLW was broadcasting hi-fi in AM at one time.

Of course high fidelity was/is possible on AM. If it had not been, sets such as Philco's High Fidelity models, and those from competing manufacturers, would not have been built and sold.

It truly is sad that AM's potential has been wasted, and AM has become much like an unwanted stepchild.

I blame our good old FCC for screwing up AM. Too many stations were put on the air, and then the "cure" was to reduce allowable frequency response. Do a Google search on NRSC sometime.

Our country does not need so damned many AM stations on the air. I think a better "cure" would be to make 1/4 to 1/2 of them go dark, then...reverse the NRSC ruling.

Of course, that will never happen. Oh no, let's have IBOC instead, in the hopes that millions of home and car radios will (sooner or later) become totally obsolete. And in the meantime...twenty (or more) stations on every AM channel...

Go ahead, Texasrocker, say it...I know you want to...those three words that only you can say so well...you know, in regards to your favorite Gubmint agency. ;-)

[Texasrocker]

.... I couldnt resist Ron!,...I tried to hold back!.... thanks for the "option",... I gotta do it!!,.... lets ALL "sing along in unison now"!!!......... (to my fav US govt agency!)


SCREW THE FCC!!! (after all, they screw all us dont they?)

whew,.... that felt good!!!

..... and crank up the wattage on those LPAM homebrew AM transmitters! 6L6s in the finals work pretty good for 10 mile coverage (approx 10-12 watts)output if setup correctly, in clear weather daytime operations thu a modified vintage old style coax-fed CB 6 meter band antenna mast, with guywires used as 'radials", and 2 pcs of coathanger wire for "tophat"!

better yet, build 2 setups!! Broadcast on 2 separate usable open AM freqs at the same time!!, grab your favorite 2 vintage Philco receivers, tune em in appropriately , ...
and "Bingo"!!! Your listening to AM Stereo!.. If you feed L-R inputs from a CD player to separate xmitters! Works for me, just dont stay on the air 24/7,or cuss, and the passerbys will only hear one channel (left or right) at a time!
Blame it all on the local high-power Licensed AM stations nearby for causing interference to your LPAM setup!! Simple really!! And lots of fun too boot!!
May long live the memories of the off-shore pro high-wattage AM Pirates broadcast ships located in International waters in the Bering Seas back in the 60s!!... such as Radio Caroline, and Veronica!! Now famous early UK Bands such as the Beatles, Rolling Stones, The Who, & many others had to rely on AM pirate radio broadcasters to get their early music heard! Sometimes it takes "guts" to get your preferred music heard on AM radio! Its always been that way!? Since the FCC is in millions $$$ cahoots these days with todays licensed broadcasters,major recording studios, & "ALL" the clearchannel licensed stations, we listeners still get lots of "rap" from them anyways, just as always!!
I better add the fact that what I suggested as "fun" is also illegal!
So is driving 80 mph in a 70 mi zone, but the FCCs "ticket book" levys much higher $ fines also! My "homebrew" AM stays silent about 363 days a yr! I also had a great older friend, top notch retired USAF radio tech that served during WW2 & Korea help me figure out how to get that type power from a old radio chassis converted to xmittr. The modulation xformers had to be changed to using a Fender amp type heavier wire. We still strive for success in our endeavors on the AM airwaves!I enjoy that part of vintage radio hobby indeed! And I DO respect the FCC laws at the same time!! (well, kinda!)

[Doug Houston]

TEX: How in heck could Crosley be broadcasting on the AM band with the frequencies you've mentioned above? If they went over 10 KC, they'd be splattering over their bandwidth. AM stations just couldn't do that, unless they were the couple of stations in the country whose bandwidth was allowed to go higher. WQXR, New York was one, and I think that another was in L.A..

The sets that would receive wide bandwidth had to have a 10 KC whistle filter in them, to filter out the heterodyne from an adjacent station. Phillco was making sets in late 1932, with expanded audio response (out to 7.5 KC!!). Jim Skinner wanted his sets to go out farther than RCA and Zenith; sort of like Scott. The public didn't know why Philco radios sounded better, but the higher fidelity sold a lot of radios for Philco. The 16 was the first one to have that circuitry.

When I was re-capping My 38-690, there was only one bakelite capacitor in it.Closer inspection revealed it to be a 10 KC filter. You'd better not re-stuff that one!!!

[Texasrocker]

I didnt say Crosley was broadcasting that way. (hee hee) It only works in my own backyard setting up my personal built 2 different low-power AM transmitters, transmitting on 2 different freqs at the same time on AM,anywhere between 55khz & 1600 khz ( both my homebrews LPAM transmitters are fully-tunable, utilizing the onboard fact-orig tuning capacitors on each separate chassis'..., then by listenening back thru 2 different receivers at the same time. And it is only "simulated" stereo at best on any given air-test indeed! ( hee hee)!! It does work though out here in the country where Im located far-away from the big-Citys powerful crowded AM bands FCC licensed xmitters! I was just "kidding" on the true-stereo part! Except, I use a "Y" cable for the input of both my homebrew LPAM transmitters ( with 2- separated isolated-fully independent, 180 degrees apart, outdoor longwire transmitting antennas w-separate pi-tuners networks to match antenna-length with( old spares tuning-condensers), simple pi-network outdoor LW antenna matching designs with L.E.D.S. brightness, to match antennas lengths (dc voltages) from each separate transmitter(s) out thru horizontal-strung separate longwire antennas. From my CD player, the output feeding both separate LPAM transmitter(s) with "Y" RCA cable. I built both my Xmitters from old spare Silvertone Radios chassis that match. I used the early 50s design Silvertone ac/dc type chassis models 2014,2015,2016 type bakelite 6 tube chassis' I found on ebay for "cheap"! They work well for up to about 3/4 mile with 1 full watt tube-type output each!( perfect weather conditions only). Since I run Left channel CD output into my homebrew LPAM transmitter "A" set to broadcast on my local open AM freq 810kc, then run the R channel from my CD player output into my other LPAM transmitter "B"input, broadcasting on another open AM freq 1310, I get "stereo" by tuning into each separate freqs with 2 different AM receivers at the same time, and it sure sounds like "stereo" to me!!! Try it, you'll like it!, and it "works" too!!! And no, my "full spectral bandwidth"of great-audio signals, will never equal those of Powell Crosleys, but at least Im tryin!!I also found using a stereo DBX comp/limiter keeps signals solid when broadcasting into each separate LPAM Xmitter, even with low-power, and modulation can be 100% or better full-time operations!! Adds "punch" over the LPAM airwaves indeed!!I love listenin to all my vintage radios I electronically restore, but I also enjoy the hobby of transmitting into them as well!!Its ALL fun indeed, but I also dont want to advocate breaking FCC rules either!! I live out in the country, and if my 1-watt homebrew xmitters stirs up a fuss anywhere locally on AM, Id be surprised!!