This is a restored composite recording, portions of which were orignally presented in a ‘scoped, re-ordered exhibit in The Dan Haber CHUM Collection, on April 1, 2001.
RESTORED-UNSCOPED
You bet, we pay music licensing for each and every play of any musical performance in this exhibit. We are user-supported! Please contribute to REELRADIO today.
Both exhibits are the work of Charlie Ritenburg, who prepared this partially stereo, RESTORED UNSCOPED version for the 1050 CHUM Homecoming event in 2001.
Purists prefer that airchecks be never manipulated, always authentic. The idea of inserting newer, clean recordings of music in older airchecks is not new. It’s very challenging to do, because matching the low-fidelity of off-air recordings with CD’s, or vinyl, is not easy. The results can often be distracting and disappointing, particularly when transitioning from lo-fi mono to hi-fi stereo and back to lo-fi mono. Indeed, the key to the presentability of this restoration is that the original airchecks were made “off the board” at CHUM. They were made at the request of a CHUM secretary who wanted to keep some memories. Charlie’s work on this restoration is flawless – I don’t think anyone could have done a better job.
The original CHUM board ‘checks certainly weren’t in stereo. Further (and this is the most obvious flaw of these restorations) they were made off-the-board, and there was no processing between the board and the tape recorder. This is particularly obvious during the live microphone segments, where distortion is frequently evident. It isn’t unusual for jocks to “pin the needle”. A tape recorder before the limiter takes a tremendous overload.
Still, this hour is great fun to hear, featuring a few rarely heard musical treasures, PAMS jingles and the wonderful humor of Brian Skinner, still wacky and way fun in 2004 – now in Stereo (and only some of it with phase problems, sounds best in BROADBAND at 96Kbps.) Some segments are from before Christmas, and the final segment is from 12/31/1965. Our thanks to Charlie, Kent Spraggett (who originally found the tapes) and contributor Andy Bologovsky.