Educational screen & audio-visual guide (c1956-1971])

At left Merrill Snyder, critic teacher, and Eorl Norris prepare molded egg-crate separotors to be odhered to the wall of the rodio sound room in the Appalochion High School. At right critic teacher Bill Ross wotches Tommy Owsley and S. G. Tugman operate the turntoble and amplifier-mixer which is connected with Radio Station WATA in Boone, North Carolina, by means of a 600-ohm line. The laboratory high school has hod local radio programs for severol years, but teachers and students had to go to and from the station until their own egg-crate sound room was built. From Egg k\m to Sound Room by J. R. SHAFFER FROM egg-crate separators to a modern radio .sound room may seem a big step, but .\ppalachian High School, Boone, North Carolina, has a new acoustically treated sound room to prove it's possible. Bill Ross and Merrill Snyder, two critic teachers at the Appalachian Laboratory Higli School, dreamed it up; and they made it a reality by working nights and Saturdays with students interested in getting first call on a disc jockey's job. Ross is program manager, and Snyder is the engineer, business manager, carpenter, and painter. Over 760 molded egg-crate separators were used on the walls and ceiling of the 7x15 foot sound room. These were obtained from the Wilson Feed Store in Boone and from the Lovell Poultry Products in North Wilkesboro, who received them originally from Canada. These fiber squares were stuck in place with linoleum seal and carpet Mr. Sluiller is Director of Audio Visual Education at Appalachian Hi<^h School, the Laboratory School of Appalachian State Teachers College, Boone, North Carolina. tacks, with .Appalachian High School students doing most of the work. Originally the sound room was planned for the purpose of having an acousticaily treated room in whicli to make tape recordings for radio station W.\T.A in Boone. Ralph Tugman, station manager, suggested that the school be connected to W.AT.A directly with a 600 ohm line. Now it is possible to broadcast directly from the high school over station W.\T.\, thus saving Ross and his students many trips to and from the Boone radio station. The sound room is also used to make high fidelity tape recordings, to tape narration for silent 16mm moving picture films, and to make sound actompaniment for slide showings. Material gathered from many .sources on individual tapes and records can be edited onto a master tape in the sound room. During his quarter of student teaching, Boyd Dougherty, VV.\T.\ radio engineer, designed the e(|uipnient from odd parts and hel]jed Snyder with the original test runs. Dougherty declares that programs from the liigh school sound room are quite as good as those originating from the studios of W.\T.\. The Dougherty-Snyder radio team built a turntable from an old library table and three-speed record player that was donated to the school. They built a two-way mixer which enables students to speak over the microphone and have the record player or tape recorder plugged in at the same time. In this way sound effects can be dubbed in on any live program, and a much greater variety of material can be presented than if only live programs were used. Bill Ro.'s regularlv tapes commercial TV and radio programs for educational use, and he can be seen carrying his tape recorder and alligator clips home at the end of any school day. He uses current materials in his speech and dramatic classes, and he lias trained students to broadcast sporting events, moderate discussion groups, and conduct extemporaneous interviews. The largest single investment in the sound room was for the microphone (an Electrovoice. Model ()50 .Microphone, purthased through .Allied Radio in C:hicago). .\ high quality microphone is used because of its extreme sen.«itivity and high fidelity in all tone ranges. Money for this microphone (around SlOO) was obtained from the student store, which supports many student activities of a school-wide nature. 276 Educational Screen