Saturday morning stereo

[Ted Kendall]

It worked, but I don't remember much of the content except an excerpt from Oedipus Rex which I found pretty disturbing. The producer, Raymond Raikes, was a pioneer of stereo drama, too - one of his more memorable effects was Professor Moriarty throwing a knife at a door, achieved by one SM swishing a stick in front of the mic, one thumping an effects door, and a third twanging a ruler at the same point. Those were the days!

[AC/HL]

See post 11.

[mole42uk]

I remember the stereo trials, must have been 1963 or 1964. My dad did the trial setup but he must have borrowed a tv because we didn’t have one.

[Heatercathodeshort]

I certainly remember the Saturday morning stereo. The TV was our Ferguson 17" console 236T and the radio was a Decca radiogram chassis I had cobbled up. I was about 15 at the time.

It was certainly fascinating to a 15 year old but looking back it seemed a completely pointless experiment. We all knew what stereo sounded like but the idea of using a radio for one channel and the TV for the other just seemed odd.

Dad thought it was total madness and mum was probably right when she said it would only lead to more tangled wires to decorate the living room. Funny how things come true..
Was it really all that time ago? John.

[Ted Kendall]

Half the reason for the Saturday morning transmissions was to give point to the internal experiments the BBC was conducting on studio techniques and equipment. The corporation wanted to evolve its own understanding and philosophy of stereo against the day a practical single transmitter technology should become available, and this policy paid off in the quality of balances transmitted as soon as the multiplex service started in 1966. Arguably, the service did not fully mature until 1972, when the PCM system allowed a uniform quality of transmission across the UK.

[raditechman]

I used to listen to them, I think they were every two weeks. Good quality sound from the TV but I only had MW radio so lower quality for one channel.
I preferred the special effects ( trains, table tennis etc ) to the music.
In more recent years the BBC has tried Dummy head recording.

John

[Ted Kendall]

The BBC first tried dummy heads in the fifties, but moved away from them quite quickly, not least because they would have a Prom audience in fits. Binuaral rigs only really work on headphones, where they can give an immersive experience, as used in Oil Rig (documentary) and The Revenge (drama). These were made using two omnis either side of a perspex disc. TRU played with a similar idea for a Proms ambience mic, using a larger disc. The aim here, if memory serves, was to find a way of using B&K mics in stereo, as these were only available as omnis for several years.

[TALKINGWITHPYE]

Thanks all, I really brought back memories with this one. I didn't know that these experiments went as far back as the fifties. Possibly Northern Ireland were not as far on in them.

[BristolHoxa]

Pebble Mill had a record of drama in Binaural - if anyone has a decent copy of The Fine Tuning of Ivor Gurney (1983) I wouldn't mind a transfer. My early 60s Grundig reel at 3 3/4 ips, although recorded on a new Philips N7150, never would have had the best HF response! Remnants of the effects (WWI banging of tin mugs around you to signal gas, and the poet/musician's mind disturbed by radio waves) still survive this sonic soup. And I still remember aurally these sounds, and gunfire, whizzing around the noddle. Binaural techniques can sound rather two dimensional through 'speakers and of course rely on phase shifting and HF to give the impression, limiting capability compared to discrete techniques. The shape of one's lug 'oles is also an issue - mine are like braised cutlets after headphone use but seem to recognise binaural location info well enough.

[red16v]

Originally Posted by KeithsTV

I remember the quadrophonic transmissions as I took my tuner, amp & speakers round to a friends house and we set it up in time for the late night broadcast. I can't remember much about it except being impressed by a sound travelling diagonally between the front and rear speakers. I think it was around 1973/4.

This looks like the broadcast https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/5c91d7ea...a8f9f158bb044d

Keith

I have a very vague memory that as part of this the BBC transmitted The Who’s Quadrophenia in 4 channel audio. Ring any bells with you or am I completely mis-remembering? I know there is a lot of controversy as to what the studio album ended up being mixed down to - certainly stereo.

[KeithsTV]

I remember very little about the broadcast apart from that effect I mentioned.

Keith

[Davewantsone]

I remember listening to these broadcasts. I do not know of the Third Programme?. The one I do remember was Saturday Club with Brian Mathew on the Light Programme. I always thought it was strange with AM sound on the TV and FM on the radio! I cannot remember which device was the LH or RH channel?

[Hartley118]

Third Programme = BBC Radio 3.

Martin

[Davewantsone]

Originally Posted by Hartley118

Third Programme = BBC Radio 3.

Martin

I know. I did not hear of, or listened to any stereo broadcasts on Saturday morning from The Third programme.

[Heatercathodeshort]

I never listened to the Third programme in mono.. J.

[Hartley118]

The Third Programme was renamed Radio 3 in 1967 ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Radio_3 ) . AFAIK the first experimental stereo broadcast was on 10th May 1958, though the programme schedule is difficult to track down. What I'd forgotten is that the BBC TV sound channel was actually an alternative to the Third Programme for the left-hand channel. The Home Service supplied the right-hand channel.

Of course, back in those days it was unusual for a household to own two radios, so using TV sound for one channel made sense for most of us.

Martin

[dave walsh]

Third Program/Radio 3 [post 9*]. It's a good idea to read the whole thread you know Dave Wigan

Dave Walsh/Ramsbottom

[BristolHoxa]

Originally Posted by TALKINGWITHPYE

Does anyone remember the days before stereo broadcasting on the radio. On a Saturday morning one channel was broadcast on radio 3 I think and the other channel was broadcast on BBC television to give people an introduction to stereo broadcasting wich was coming.

For your listening pleasure, here is a 1962 extract from the test transmissions:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/2warb6i52f...tereo.wav?dl=0

and here is Binaural extract (as I described above):

https://www.dropbox.com/s/52334uleqj...aural.wav?dl=0

Richard

[Ted Kendall]

Originally Posted by Hartley118

The Home Service supplied the right-hand channel.

Possibly on the original 1958 experiment (I don't have the file to hand), but not on the regular Saturday transmissions, as an examination of Genome will show. The Home Service was transmitting normal programme. The Third and TV frequencies had no scheduled programmes on Saturday mornings.

Many stereo experiments parallelled Saturday Club on the Light, as programme budgets for stereo were severely restricted. Items such as Stanley Unwin giving an illustrated talk, providing his own sound effects, were a godsend.

[Tractorfan]

Hi,
A while back, possibly in the 90s, the Beeb were celebrating some milestone or other and broadcast a programme simultaneously on both radio and television, to give the impression that the radio and TV sets were 'talking' to each other.
I think the late Peter Cook was the male radio voice and Josie Lawrence was the female TV voice.
For some odd reason, I only recorded the radio part, and have Mr. Cook speaking and then listening to silences.
Anyone else recall this?
Cheers, Pete.