Friday, October 1, 2010

I miss the record library...

I was cleaning up and re-sleeving some transcriptions and remembering the libraries.



I don't think the network ever tried to be eclectic, but with a dozen disks coming in every week since 1943 there was a lot of music. I'd go in and listen to a genre I hadn't heard in a while, early R&;B, Western swing, Gospel... totally amazing libraries. The majority of the libraries were mediocre MOR. AFKN in the field stations would have random program disks from the 50s and 60s. "Yours Truly Johnny Dollar" "Bob and Ray" "Date with Chris" there was probably a complete set at the Camp Casey station, at the time I didn't know what they were. In the 1970s and 80s, there were RP and RU disks. RP were to be destroyed after broadcast. RU disks were to be shipped to another station. SCN in Panama had a mostly complete set of library disks. It was the first time I'd heard all of the MAJ Glenn Miller sides. Shuffling through them was always like Christmas for me. AFN had saved a copy of probably every disk ever received. In the early 1970s those were cleaned out. Around the time that the network talent wasn't renewed cds went to the stations and the program vinyl was recalled for the Library of Congress. In 1982 was one of the earlier times they tried that. At SCN we said "No, we need everything we've got." and they let that pass. Now the libraries get their weekly CDs, but they're rebranded Superdisks, the same as used by hundreds of stations in the United States. I’m sure they’re a lot easier to program from, but an era is gone.

1 comment:

  1. I miss my libraries at Tokyo (Yokota AB) and Okinawa (Rycom Plaza).

    When I was at the Navy Broadcast Service detachment at COMMSTA Harold E. Holt, we had an RL music library that stretched back to 1969 (when the base got its closed circuit TV studio). I maintained it up until we started receiving the first Gold Disc CD service from TM Century, along with three T/ASA-procured Studer-Revox CD players.

    ReplyDelete