MOR Playlist from 50 years ago as heard on KBIG AM Radio Catalina

the syndicated "The Great Sounds" from the 1980s featuring the great MOR songs of the past century. Lani Hall had a 1/2 dozen short interview segments, and that's how I first learned that she sang solo on the first Brasil 66 album.
I didn't know Lani did that show too. I have the LPs for Herb Alpert's show. The interviews are here:

 
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My mom bought me a small (it could only use five-inch reels) battery-powered reel-to-reel for...I'm gonna say Christmas when I was 10---so 1966.

If I remember, I used it for two things---taking verbal notes instead of writing things down when I was reading for school (I'm sure I got the idea from executives on TV shows using a Dictaphone--"Miss Jones, take a letter...")----and for practicing to be a radio helicopter traffic reporter, which was the first thing I really wanted to do. The trouble was, it was purely battery-operated (C cells) and by the time you got to the end of a couple of reels, the batteries were running down---so consistent speed over a period of time was never possible.

In 1969, an uncle passed away and I got his Voice of Music 714 stereo reel-to-reel machine.


It was built in 1958 and was one of the first stereo tape recorders on the consumer market. It weighed a ton. Maybe a ton and a half. It could not play upright, so it had to lay flat on the floor, reels facing upward and that took up considerable floor space in my small bedroom. I think I used it for a year or so and then it went into the garage. Judging by my uncle's selection of pre-recorded tapes that I also inherited (all of which appeared to be from the late 50s, including some sound effects demonstration tapes, he probably did the same thing. I never knew he had it until I got it after he passed.

Voice of Music has an interesting history, but I haven't had my coffee yet and don't feel like typing out a summary, so: Voice of Music - Wikipedia

After that, I went recorderless until 1975, when I bought an 8-Track recorder. The Panasonic RS-805:


It was as good as an 8-Track recorder could be, but----we all know that's damning with faint praise. I used it to make what in the cassette years would be called mix tapes because until early 1979, I had a car with an 8-track player. In my new car, I had only AM-FM---and at the time, where I lived, that was enough. I didn't feel the need for tape. 8-Track was lousy and passe' and I didn't fully trust cassette yet.

Apart from a mono AM-FM-cassette portable that I bought in 1976 as a program director to record jocks in my office while they were on the air, I went tapeless until I bought my next car in 1984 and had an Alpine AM-FM-cassette deck installed. That's when I bought a home cassette recorder. A Technics RS-B13:


Boy, did I use THAT! I think I made 43 mix tapes for long drives...pretty much every track I enjoyed from my record collection. Filled three of those briefcase-style cassette cases and kept them in the trunk of my car.

Marriage number one came along in 1988, child number one in 1991 and child number two in 1993 and I just really didn't have time anymore. There were easier and quicker ways to get my music.
 
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My tape recorder was a GE reel to reel. After dad got the big stereo in ‘62 I watched like a hawk to learn how to play records. After a “check ride” I was allowed to use it. I don’t think mom ever played records. I started buying a few records a year or so later.
 
I also began with one of those battery operated portable reel-to-reel thingies, and you're right, the speed variance as batteries ran down made it impractical for anything musical. You see these things if you watch old MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE episodes.

Next, my parents purchased a sturdier, A/C powered, reel to reel. It was monaural, but I was OK with that, not yet being all that big into stereo. I remember this unit was branded as "CBS Masterwork", and being a fan of most of the TV shows on CBS, I thought that was neat. Unfortunately, weeks into ownership, it developed a problem and had to go back to the store. And, unfortunately, they didn't have and couldn't get another. So I ended up with a bigger, clunkier unit and used it mostly to record TV shows with the microphone hanging in front of the TV speaker.

A couple years later came a better mono unit, and then a stereo Sony recorder that I still have and is still working.
 
I'd had a tiny 3-inch (?) reel deck that I used for a couple of years
I'm thinking it had to be 5-inch reels now.

I had the GE portable cassette recorder, then the Realistic stereo deck that I lived with until my mother bought a portable JVC cassette recorder (KD-2J) for remote recording, and I later got the Harman Kardon that I still have to this day (although if I ever had an opportunity, I'd get the flagship CD491 as it's the very last of H/K's classic series of decks).

Reel decks were a mixed bag--my mother's aunt loaned her mono deck to me since she had some family recordings she wanted converted to cassette. (I made my first tape loops on that one. We had a lot of fun with that.) Another aunt gave me two that my cousins had used--one was a mono deck that wouldn't record anything (something wrong inside), and the other was a chassis from a stereo deck that I never could get to work. (My cousin was a recording engineer and had designed and built a few consoles, and I'm guessing he had disassembled this one in his teen years before he went professional.) I finally had purchased a Sony reel deck in the mid 90s, but it had some issues due to age. Replaced it with a Teac that I still have but hardly ever use.

8-Track was a mistake. I bought a Fisher deck I had intended to restore but after fussing with a few tapes and having them get mangled or having the foil splice come loose, I gave up on it.

All digital now, using a portable TASCAM digital recorder, the DR-40. For now I can use it for hi-res needle drops (up to 24-bit, 96kHz), plus I can use it for interviews in MP3 mode as it will run for hours on batteries and an SD card. One day I'll have the better TASCAM recorder, the DA-3000, which can record needle drops in DSD format or up to 24-bit/192kHz PCM, and sits in the rack.

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I didn't know Lani did that show too. I have the LPs for Herb Alpert's show. The interviews are here:


Harry--Thanks for posting the Herb interview. I remember the show and taped it. Lani had around four interview segments which were spread out over a years time as introductions to Brasil 66 songs. I also taped those segments and should dig them up from my tape library and replay them.

I faithfully listened to The Great Sounds which was a weekly three hour show between 1984-90. Then it went off the air. It had a good format with a featured guest, a caught in the act segment of artists in concert, a spotlight on Sinatra and a weekly featured year from the past. And every year there was a great Christmas music show. Sweet memories.
 
Here is another gem heard on KBIG AM in 1971 by the Maestro Burt Bacharach--"Whoever You Are I Love You" from the 1968 Broadway musical "Promises Promises." The score also included "Knowing When to Leave", "I'll Never Fall in Love Again", and the title theme "Promises Promises." This song has such heartfelt feeling, And as a treat you hear Dionne Warwick's voice at the end. For me, Burt was the best American pop composer in my lifetime.


 
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