70'S QUAD FM SYNDICATIONS AND SIMULCASTS-OTHER THAN BBC, KBFH

[krkier]

Here in Germany a lot of obscure record labels are literally flooding the market with live radio recordings from the USA. They seem to imply to use the original source, but to me they sound more like recorded tapes off the radio.
Maybe we should take attention if not one or the other concert recording is indeed a quad one.

-Kristian

 

[fizzywiggs41]

Here in Germany a lot of obscure record labels are literally flooding the market with live radio recordings from the USA. They seem to imply to use the original source, but to me they sound more like recorded tapes off the radio.
Maybe we should take attention if not one or the other concert recording is indeed a quad one.

-Kristian

I hear ya, quality over quantity is MUCH preferred.

 

[Ranasakawa]

The Steely Dan broadcast "Live At The Record Plant-KMET " is broadcast in quad as the announcer/DJ states at the end of the concert.

"Thanks Sansui Quad"

This is one of the bands rare live concerts , the concert to promote the release of PRETZEL LOGIC and contains one tune (the last) never released on Steely Dan records.


broadcast from L.A. 20/ 3/74 in QS.

I have a SBD recording from this concert in stereo

 

[Fourplay]

The Steely Dan broadcast "Live At The Record Plant-KMET " is broadcast in quad as the announcer/DJ states at the end of the concert.

"Thanks Sansui Quad"

This is one of the bands rare live concerts , the concert to promote the release of PRETZEL LOGIC and contains one tune (the last) never released on Steely Dan records.

broadcast from L.A. 20/ 3/74 in QS.

Just as an aside, Steely Dan concerts in the 1970s were not quite as rare as is often portrayed. You can see a list of their performances then and more recently here:

http://www.broberg.pp.se/sd_concerts.htm

Somewhere I have an interview with Skunk Baxter talking about SD live shows in the 70s. They were a very tight band, and great to hear live, as the show above proves. There was a 1976 or 77 tour planned, and then scrapped. Makes me a little sad...

 

[quicksrt]

I saw SD twice in the 70s. The 1973 performance is not on that list. I'll have to email the keeper of this data sheet with my date / venue and scan of ticket stub I of course saved.

It was the Countdown tour, Las Vegas, NV at the Ice Palace. Amazingly tight and rocking show. Nothing like the later tours, much more energy.

The second show was at the LV isConvention Center also in Vegas. Another amazing performance. That was for the Prezel Logic tour in 1974. This concert in on that spread sheet.

So sad how all the great shows I saw in the 70s and very early 80s were never topped. I've seen great things since, but nothing better than those really hot show early on.

One cool thing for me personally, is my first two concerts were Grand Funk and Ten Years After. They were both mind blowing for a young kid. Then in the 90s I got to see each of these bands again on their final tours with all original members included. It kind of took my concert experiences full circle.

I'm glad I started going to concerts early, 12 years old, otherwise I would not have seen some of the hottest acts. Like Yes performing CTTE. That's a good one to have in the memory banks.

 

[fizzywiggs41]

@fourplay,

Thanks 4 the link.They did an awful lot of promo tours looks like, but what a gap in touring years. No doubt they got fed up with the tours for a time.
Always wondered why "Made In America" was never released by Warner's in DVDA or even dvd.
Now mind u we did get "Two Against NYC" and it's a very tight performance and superb surround, via DTS .


@quicksrt,


Never got to see Grand Funk but TEN YEARS AFTER......oh yea !! Twice in my hometown, in my early teens.Alvin Lee was a god with his fret work and alot of fans he and TYA made here.

 

[fizzywiggs41]

Proctor and Bergman -Live From The "Bottom Line"


Don't know for certain whether or not this is or contains Sansui's QS encoding.-However---

Live From The Bottom Line was a quad broadcast out of N.Y. and had simulcast QS programs and more importantly was in syndication throughout the mid (74 ?) to late 70's and possibly included early 1980-s .








They (B.L.) did have at least one confirmed QS simulcast with Gato Barbieri on the Impulse label , but that's no surprise really.

 

[H.A.L.]

Procter & Bergman, wow! I have that vinyl. Firesign Theatre has at least two surround releases: the 25th anniversary show ("Back from the Shadows" in 5.1) and BOOM DOT BUST ("6-channel surround").

I know that Jefferson Airplane had a quadcast in the Bay area, possibly two. You can find boots of their last official show (of the 70s; '89 reunion tour doesn't count) on the Italian market, presumably from a taped radio broadcast. Boots are in stereo, though.

 

[fizzywiggs41]

Procter & Bergman, wow! I have that vinyl. Firesign Theatre has at least two surround releases: the 25th anniversary show ("Back from the Shadows" in 5.1) and BOOM DOT BUST ("6-channel surround").

I know that Jefferson Airplane had a quadcast in the Bay area, possibly two. You can find boots of their last official show (of the 70s; '89 reunion tour doesn't count) on the Italian market, presumably from a taped radio broadcast. Boots are in stereo, though.

Yes I have that Boom Dot Bust DVDA , but was not aware of "Shadows ".

They may have another around that time. I remember taping a PBS special some many years back .


Have yet to get ahold of their recent release of "Everything You Know Is Wrong " on DVD , which is apparently in DD 5.1. Some week very soon though .

 

[fizzywiggs41]

Some snippets of Japanese FM , Quad broadcasting from 75/76 .

Some noteworthy popular acts performing live in QS. Info from Sansui.

 

[fizzywiggs41]

And a little bit about Frisco and Chicago quadcasting fm.

 

[par4ken]

Not syndication but a really cool FM station. Love the poster, my printer is having trouble with the colours, they blur together looks much better on the computer screen. http://kqiv.apollohosting.com/KQIV/index.htm

 

[steelydave]

I found this 'Sansui New World of Jazz' ad on eBay the other day - didn't realise it had already been posted here, but I tidied it up in Photoshop in case anyone wanted to have a better look at it. It also reminded me that I'd come across a Billboard article about the series in the course of some research I was doing for liner notes last year that had some good info about the recording of the series, which I've included. I also have a text version which I'll include below as it's easier to read than the scanned image I think.

Billboard August 28, 1976, page 46

NEW YORK - Determined to keep the QS four-channel light burning, Sansui Electronics has been active on both sides of the Atlantic. Radio Clyde in Scotland recently tested live quad broadcasts with the Sansui system. and a syndicated series of QS jazz concerts from
Cleveland's Agora Club is airing in 40 major markets.

The current jazz renaissance is the main factor in Sansui's sponsorship of the jazz series, featuring a variety of label artists. It allows local dealers to tie in their own specials with the nationally advertised products on the three commercials per weekly show, according to Ken Hoshino, vice president, marketing and sales.

Each of the 13 hour-long "Sansui's New World of Jazz" shows is being produced and engineered at Hank LoConti's Agency Recording Studio, above his Agora Ballroom.
Taped on Tuesday - "Jazz Night" at the club - each show's 16 -track master tape is mixed through the QS 4-channel encoder for distribution to the 40 FM stations that bought the
initial series.

Each station gets a 2:1 duplicate off an Ampex AG440 unit, on Scotch 207 open reel for top quality replay. Three shows are shipped at time, so that a station is never "down to the last day" on programming, and most are aired over the weekend.

The mixture of stations indicate the crossover interest in the jazz artists, with formats running the gamut from WMMS, Cleveland's progressive rocker, to KKSS, St. Louis soul
outlet; KFSD, San Diego's classical jazz combo, and WRVR New York's jazz showcase.

Initial artist roster also reflects the crossover appeal. After Billy Cobham (Atlantic) kicked off the series the week of July 10, he was followed in successive weeks by the Brecker Brothers (Arista), Weather Report (Columbia), Dave Liebman & Lookout Farm (A&M), Larry Coryell & the 11th House (Arista).

Rounding out the series, which will be continued based on initial reaction, are Michael Urbaniak (Arista), Ben Sidran (Arista), Pat Martino (WB), Ronnie Laws (UA), John (ABC), Gary Burton (ECM), Gabor Szabo (Mercury) and Dave Brubeck (Atlantic).

"Sansui's exclusive sponsorship of this show," notes Hoshino, "represents our desire to go beyond the hi fi magazines to reach many more of our potential customers. Jazz isvery popular in Japan and I am really glad to see the amount of interest stations and listeners are showing in our jazz series."

The company produced commercials about the full product line of receivers, amplifiers and turntables, as well as the QS 4-channel receivers and decoders, with local dealers alerted to each week's featured items to tie in their own top items. National advertising backing the series is appearing in a number of consumer music books.

In Scotland, Glasgow's progressive Radio Clyde broadcast its first live quad concerts using the Sansui QS system June 25 and July 2. Special 4-channel mike techniques were used to maximize the quad effect of the "Promo 76" concerts by the Scottish National Orchestra, direct from Kelvin Hall there.

Radio Clyde joined Radio Piccadilly in the U.K., which was the first to conduct QS broadcast tests there several months ago. Both tests were monitored by the Independent
Broadcasting Authority which approved the broadcasts. Other European stations reportedly are keenly interested in the potential of the 4- channel market.

A Sansui QSE-5B broadcast encoder was used at Kelvin Hall and a QS vario matrix decoder at Radio Clyde's Anderson Cross Centre Studios to monitor the broadcast. The listeners - the station's signals have a potential audience of 2 million - were able to receive normal mono reception, widened stereo reception and for those already into the fledgling 4-channel mart in the U.K., the full quad effect.

It seems like by 1976 Sansui knew QS was dead in the water as far as physical media went, but they were still determined to push it as a radio thing. In the same issue of Billboard there's a front page article about how Sansui and CBS were in a legal battle to get the FCC to declare one standard for quad radio broadcasting. Just like everything else, by splitting up and squabbling over the quad radio market, they doomed it to failure. The ironic thing is (and I need to do more research to figure out the correct timelines) that I recall reading that the FCC didn't end up standardising quad radio broadcasting until the early 80s - to say it was a bit late would be an understatement!


The Agora and its owner Hank LoConti are also really interesting - from what I gather there was a mixing studio above the Agora with a 24 track machine (and presumably quad monitoring) where all the mixing of the live concerts for quad radio broadcast was done. Does anyone have a timeline on the SQ 'Live from the Agora' rock & roll broadcasts? Before, after or at the same time as the Sansui jazz stuff?

Also tantalisingly, I came across this article from 2006 that says "LoConti donated the original recording reels — all captured directly from the venue’s stage microphones — to the Western Reserve Historical Society six years ago." So presumably some or all of the old master tapes (or even 24-track multitracks) still exist. I imagine if you wanted to put any of that stuff out now it would probably be a jungle of rights issues and sell about 50 copies, but it's nice to think about at least. Maybe some day there will be a commercial model that makes selling that kind of stuff a viable enterprise.

Here's another article from 2014 about a 1978 Bruce Springsteen concert recorded at the Agora that was released on CD that contains a bit more info about the venue and its live recording capabilities: "Another audio feed went to Agency Recording Studios, upstairs at the Agora. The late Hank LoConti, founder of Agora, tried to convince Springsteen's management to release those Agency recordings over the years, even going so far as to create a limited editon four-disc boxed set to sell them on the project. But the Springsteen camp passed on the partnership and LoConti ended up donating the tapes to the Western Reserve Historical Society."

 

[humprof]

I found this 'Sansui New World of Jazz' ad on eBay the other day - didn't realise it had already been posted here, but I tidied it up in Photoshop in case anyone wanted to have a better look at it. It also reminded me that I'd come across a Billboard article about the series in the course of some research I was doing for liner notes last year that had some good info about the recording of the series, which I've included.

Also tantalisingly, I came across this article from 2006 that says "LoConti donated the original recording reels — all captured directly from the venue’s stage microphones — to the Western Reserve Historical Society six years ago." So presumably some or all of the old master tapes (or even 24-track multitracks) still exist. I imagine if you wanted to put any of that stuff out now it would probably be a jungle of rights issues and sell about 50 copies, but it's nice to think about at least. Maybe some day there will be a commercial model that makes selling that kind of stuff a viable enterprise.

I want to hear that stuff! Let's find--or create--that model! (Or at least let's get those tapes digitized before it's too late...)

 

[quicksrt]

I have some CD-Rs from the Cleveland Agora tapes, someone ran off CD-Rs back in the 90s. The original copies have no breaks, just one long track for the concert. I don't think any are quad encoded but I've never checked. Rush, Runaways, Boston, and so on.

 

[fizzywiggs41]

I have The Four Channel Scene edition which has pretty much verbatim the same article as you got ahold of on Billboard, Steelydave . (including the Radio Clyde article ).


The timeline of when The Agora quit broadcasting in quad, either SQ (live Rock) or QS (live Jazz) would be good to know. And although Sansui for the most part either stopped or just could not achieve/convince any more major recording acts (well.... in North America mainly) for QS Encoding, it is worth noting quad broadcasting was still viable and very much alive for all those stations utilizing encoders.
The NQRC had not yet decided on which format of quad broadcasting was to be the standard and did not reach a final decision until the mid eighties.
They pretty much came to the conclusion that no discrete broadcasting would be formally accepted and vaguely agreed that broadcasting in Matrix quad (any and all matrices) was not a major interference or degradation .

However pretty much all matrix backers (CBS, SANSUI, BBC) had abandoned their quad promotion by this time.





Anway thought I'd post a bit from Sansui's newsletter I found interesting as ABC backed their own FM Stations with QS (of course) and well went with 24 hr broadcasting in quad . KLOS in L.A. that is.


This example KMET L.A.(Metromedia Group) as mentioned in the 2nd last paragraph. They broadcast the Steely Dan Pretzel Logic Concert from the same tour fwiw.
Also were doing The Annual Rose Bowl in QS as the Jan 76 issue mentions.

 

[fizzywiggs41]

And a little bit more on broadcasting in Quad.

From Apr 75 edition of 4 ch Scene. KMET is featured here.

 

[leevitalone1]

I want to hear that stuff! Let's find--or create--that model! (Or at least let's get those tapes digitized before it's too late...)

stuff like this I would not think twice on dropping my $ on! My old station is mentioned here, long after I was gone- it used to be a great radio station but commercialization caught up to it.

 

[fizzywiggs41]

I have some CD-Rs from the Cleveland Agora tapes, someone ran off CD-Rs back in the 90s. The original copies have no breaks, just one long track for the concert. I don't think any are quad encoded but I've never checked. Rush, Runaways, Boston, and so on.

From what I can ascertain or sleuth out of the Sansui trade papers , they started Jan 75 or early 75 as they mention in a 76 article (January) ," the Agora Concerts have been broadcasting in quad for a year now ".

But I don't know when they quit in QS nor SQ .

They do a lot of reprints of articles relating to Quad Broadcasting from a variety of print media sources , anything with a touch of QS in it for promotion purposes.

 

[Mark Anderson]

By luck I ran across this and then fear set in as I wondered where would I look for it. Got lucky, below is the scan
View attachment 27024

Live at the Agora QS Radio Broadcasts has been a topic that I have wrestled with for years and that is why I have not included in the Radio discography. Here's the problem I have had. I have been a collector of shall we say "not authorized" recordings for decades. Radio Broadcast are just one of those I would collect. I have seen or had a number of the shows but none mention anything about quad. Also I could not find anything in regards to actual broadcast dates and which are and are not encoded if any. So I am kind of stuck at each update with what to do with this info when I cannot substantiate any of it.
At this point I am going to add something like what I have written above as a disclaimer. If anyone can provide some evidence that the shows were broadcast in quad I would appreciate it.