Toward the end of the long run of “Celebration Rock,” the program was recorded in its own studio. Or, as close as we could come to having our own place.
To go back to the first recording sessions in 1968, the CR forerunner “Showcase” was aired from the somewhat classic (not classy, mind you) studio of WBBL which was housed in the basement of the church that put WBBL on the air in the 1920’s. But as I noted in one of the earliest accounts here, WBBL didn’t have equipment for suitable recording a fast-paced rock show. Thus, I was invited to use the neither classic nor classy studios of Union Seminary’s WRFK-FM; the first couple of years I recorded the show there and carried the two 7″ reels of full track mono tape to WBBL for airing on Sunday nights.
WBBL’s studio looked like a 1940’s radio station. Almost everything in the studio was of the same era, with the exception of two slightly more recent Ampex tape recorders. But the main studio console, turntables, mikes, etc. were truly vintage. On the other hand, WRFK at that time had a conglomeration of various pieces of communications equipment. Ampex tape decks like those of WBBL were in place, but turntables were far more up-to-date, able to play the 45’s that “Showcase” required. On the other hand, WRFK’s console (mixing board) was, the story goes, a refugee from a Navy ship communications console, rescued from scrap, and refitted for WRFK’s use. As I’ve mentioned previously, the equipment there didn’t always work exactly right, and the studio was only available when the part-time station wasn’t actually on the air. That did work in my favor, in that I could record any morning, which gave me more freedom than I was to have later at more modern studios that were available for my use, but at odd hours, usually very late at night.
So, for a couple of years, I found a welcome at WRFK. (To be sure we don’t miss a stop on the tour, I remind you that for the summer of 1968 I taped the program at WLCY in Tampa, FL while on a summer seminary internship.) After weekly trips to WLEE to pick up records (remember, WBBL and WLEE shared the 1480 frequency, with ‘LEE being the big “rocker” in town), the program director there asked if I’d like to record in their production studios. That was a big deal for me at the time. For one thing, it meant that I would have access to the station’s whole music library (not just the current file of scratchy duplicate hit 45’s used for record hops), and I would be using “state-of-the-art” recording equipment. I also got a kick out of the fact that the P.D. both trusted me to use his studio, and that he enjoyed some ownership in my program, wanting it to sound as good technically as anything else WLEE aired.
The downside was that I had access to the production room only when station personnel weren’t using it for their own purposes such as recording commercials, station promos, or news shows. I recall that Saturday mornings were set up for me to be there, but I always had to vacate if a staff member had work to do. I should note that producing an hour-long program takes far longer than an hour. I often had no idea what I was going to do when I arrived at the station. Other than a few of my own records, I depended on WLEE’s library and hit list, so I wouldn’t have a clear plan for my studio time until I had browsed the station’s music. There were times that I had recorded an interview outside the studio (using a cheap cassette recorder and later a very professional Uher Report-L portable reel-to-reel recorder), and that interview would have to be edited and dubbed to tape cartridges (“carts”) in order to weave the segments into the program. That sometimes took hours. Then there was the time it took to listen to records, trying to find a lyric line I could spin into a comment or meditation. (Deejay promo copies helped with one shortcut: the exact length of the song and the talk-over time were printed on the labels. Talk-over time was amount of instrumental opening before a singer’s first line was sung. The trick, and for some deejays the only natural high they got in their daily work routine, was talking over the music right up the the split second when the lyric started. To finish your rap — song intro, station promo, weather, whatever — too early was sloppy; to finish too late, that is to talk over the first line of the song, well, that was unprofessional!)
My time in the studio then was many hours each week, and with my young children home from school on Saturday mornings, I missed some very important time with them by taping at WLEE. When my friend Guy Spiller (who worked part-time at WLEE) heard about my need for an alternative studio, he offered his private studio, a well-equipped room in his family’s home. Guy grew up around broadcasting and was (still is) an engineering genius. His studio, though not soundproof, was full of equipment he had rescued, bought used, or purchased new, everything from old RCA mikes, new QRK turntables, huge old Ampex recorders, and a bevy of cart machines. Since “Celebration Rock” by this time was being syndicated in stereo on 10 1/2″ tape reels, I would produce the hour-long show and then set four of those big Ampex’s rolling at once to make copies. Guy said I could use the place anytime I wanted. So, one week it would be Tuesday afternoon. Another week, Monday night. And on many mornings I would show up and Guy would be sound asleep in his bedroom adjacent to the studio. (I rarely woke him. I kept the room levels down and the headphones up.)
This arrangement worked well for me, though I often felt like I was breaking into his house by sneaking in the back door at odd hours. I remember that the basement was a little damp, too. One morning as I was recording the program, I saw something drop from the exposed beams overhead. Weird. What was that? There on the notepad where I had written my Neil Diamond script was a small wet tree frog! He made one hop toward the spinning turntable but I scooped him up before he (or she) rode the tone arm to the tune of “Cracklin’ Rosie.” I sent him back outside, and only then did I shudder at the surprise of it all. And I did wonder when the next frog would fall into my lap. Being a total professional by now…the audience would never know.
The beat goes on…with three more studios to visit, including the generous gift that led to our own CR home.
Next time.
