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I started my radio career at the student carrier current station (WMMR) at the University of Minnesota back in the 80s. I got hooked. I got “The Bug.”
I filled several positions over my many years at WMMR, but I was almost always an engineer, fixing, rewiring, installing, etc. I also went on air. It was at WMMR that I met someone who enhanced my knowledge and appreciation of audio.
Karl Eilers was the person that I referred to as “The Great White Father” of WMMR engineering. He had designed and built a large number of the equipment boxes that we used on a mostly daily, or even hourly, basis. He designed a few carrier current transmitters that we used in our system. They had several problems, but they were bullet proof. The boxes could stop a 22 at five yards.
Karl’s on-air studio mixing board was dubbed the HFOF-18 (Hell Froze Over First). Yes he was eccentric, but very knowledgeable. And had a true “Golden Ear.”
I may have been born with just a “Good Ear,” but I tried to learn what good audio was. Karl influenced me in that respect.
Later, when I was a real engineer at a real station (one that actually paid me) I was placed in charge of recording the on-air library for a new format. We took songs from CDs, albums and even the occasional cassette. I was allowed access to a parametric equalizer and the freedom to “set the sound” of the station.
Just to make that long story shorter, I limited the recordings to what the FCC limits every AM. Why record what is going to get ripped away anyway? That, in addition to crowding the limited audio space you already have. The idea is to play in the playground that you have.
I did, however, boost the bass a significant amount. Oldies rock listeners, like most rock listeners, like bass.
I then adjusted the old Optimod audio processor that the station had (I can’t remember the model). I made it sound good in the transmitter building then I went out to my old station wagon with the OEM radio. Then I went back into the transmitter building and did a little more adjusting. Then back to my car to listen to my car’s crappy radio all over the area.
I was fairly happy with the sound within the limits that we had to deal with: the FCC and the crap radios that were/are out there. I just did what I could. Luckily the higher ups weren’t obsessed with the “Loudness Wars” syndrome.
That one leaves no real winners.
Then one night, I happened to be at the studios when a call came in. It was Karl Eilers to say how good our on-air sound was. That sent me to bed with a big warm fuzzy that night.
I feel I should also tell you more about that Golden Ear Karl had.
One year I had arranged a reunion of the WMMR alumni. I ended up sitting way in the back at a table with several past engineers, including Karl. The room was filled with tables of people reminiscing and eating. Our dance/remote system was way up front playing your basic low-level, nondescript music.
Karl turned to me and said “You still haven’t replaced the tweeter on that left speaker.”
How could he know? How the heck could he hear that?
The lesson here is pay attention to your audio sources; know the limits of the devices that your listeners are actually using; don’t just play “audio by the numbers”; and use your ears.
You were not hired just because you can connect up different boxes of equipment with pieces of wire.
Take pride in what you do! No box can do what you can do.
[Related: “Trends in Audio Processing — A Radio World Ebook“
