Sponsor (Jan-Mar 1962)

always has the correct time ready to play when it is called on. Regular news and weather broadcasts are fed into the system direct from the WRIT Action Central News department. Editors can cut into regular programing for fast breaking stories. The WRIT news staff has found that this system allows them more time for gathering and writing news. Promotion announcements and station identifications are also fed from cartridge units. WRIT's personalities prerecord their comments and topical information just a few hours in advance so that the station maintains the fresh "live" sound that has made WRIT a powerful personal medium in Milwaukee. Endless variety and contrast are possible through the complex brain that combines the program components into a smooth, flawless broadcast, without pause or hesitation. WRIT's staff has been able to add many new services as a result of the extra personnel time available through the use of this equipment and still reduce operating costs. The end effect has been a better station at lower costs. WRIT also uses the punch card system developed at WIL for its traffic and billing departments. The°%alaban station serving Dallas, KBOX radio, uses the WRIT "Pre-planned Programing System" for broadcasts between midnight and six a.m. The unit is not as complex as the one in use at WRIT because it does not encounter as many variables in this time period as WRIT's unit does during a full 24 hour a day schedule. The automatic equipment in use at the three Balaban stations is as varied as the programing designed for these communities. Each community has specific needs and preferences that must receive special attention. The operation of each station is keyed to these needs. Many other new devices are being checked for possible use in our stations, some may possibly be used in the future. After a device proves to be technically sound, it must meet one basic requirement, "Will it offer equal or better broadcast service than the method now in use?" If the device can meet this test, we then decide to purchase it, if it will also offer operational economies that will permit the addition of new machines, com munity or advertiser services. The challenge that faces radio today is to enlarge our audience and service to the community above present peaks, where "automation" makes this possible, the broadcaster must use it, for this is the very essence of his responsibility. ■ FM STATION IN THE BLACK (Continued from page 85) pletely by automation. A single employee operates the entire FM station from 9:00 a.m.— after the morning split from AM programming—until midnight. The music cartridges are loaded into one ATC 55 and announcements loaded into the second unit. A cartridge containing a series of IDs is inserted into the single deck ATC unit. Music, public service, commercial announcements and station announcements are broadcast automati AUTOMATION in am and fm has been successful: Vernon Nolle at ]\'JBC. cally throughout the day. The single staff member on FM, who is actually employed .onjy -about half-time for this purpose, Is free to record additional music on cartridges, keep his music up-dated, prepare commercial and public service announcements, as well as perform certain routine functions such as preparing the program schedules. This employee also may act as a fill-in announcer on the AM side. In short, the half-time man employed for FM plus the automation equipment provides fifteen hours of automated broadcasting per day, which would normally have to be accomplished by about three employees. FM programming provides for six announcements each hour. No programs are sold. The announcements are sold by contract that requires a minimum of thirty announcements per month and scheduled on a rotation basis. WJBC FM began broadcasting in 1949 and the station was automated beginning September 1, 1961. For the first time we are now operating FM at a profit. Within the next sixly days it is expected that this operation will be adding between $20,000 and $25,000 gross revenues to Bloomington Broadcasting Corporation at an extremely modest cost— basically the cost of a half-time announcer, power and depreciation. Beginning on January 1st, WJBC FM automation is employing a new device just being introduced by ATC —namely, automatic program logging. Each tape cartridge that contains information required to be logged is coded at the time the program material is recorded. When announcements, IDs, and program information are broadcast, automatic program logging de-codes the identification of the program material and prints this information on a tape along with the exact time the event was broadcast. In this manner automation of programming becomes more meaningful because now it is no longer necessary to have one employee in a stand-by position purely for the purpose of recording entries in the program log. Bit-by-bit the various mechanical and automatic innovations add to a single, smooth broadcast pattern. At WJBC AM and FM one staff member can efficiently operate the multiple equipment, including two way mobile facilities, without leaving the studio microphone. This one man can handle regular AM programming, monitor and log both AM and FM transmitters, incorporate tape cartridges from the network or other sources through the playback mechanisms, establish contact with the mobile unit and perform all switching functions. Our next step will be to automate WJBC AM for periods ol from 2 to 3 hours at times in our schedule that lend themselves to automation. It no longer makes sense to have a creative, skilled and well-paid announcer spending all of his time in a control loom doing mechanical operations when his efforts could be so much more productive elsewhere. sponsor/u. s. radio • 26 march 1962 91