Audio tape rescue - Videokarma.org TV - Video

Dave A · #1 01-02-2015, 07:45 PM

Back in October, an old friend passed away. One Bill Campbell...the "dean" of Phila sports broadcasters. I have known Bill for 35 years and that is just only half of his history. He arrived in Phila in 1942, eight years before I was born, and went on to be the play-by-play on radio for the Sixers (including Wilt Chamberlain's 100 point game), Eagles, and Phillies. He was still doing commentaries on KYW radio this last summer from home on a DSL connection

He was a little guy but huge in Phila broadcast history and a good friend. He was gruff in person but never forgot you.

When he passed, his family gave the Phillies all of his old tapes for our archives. I grabbed the one R/R tape in the box. The cassettes are also being restored including the Wilt game. I dug out an elderly Sony TC-280 deck and oiled it up to working. The 1/4" tape was paper tape on a 20 minute reel. Not vinyl. I have never seen paper tape and it did what I thought it would do. It broke many times after 65 years. I fixed them with a knife and scotch tape.

The tape was a mystery to us at the Phillies. The recording is the 8th inning of a game on July 4, 1950. The second half of a double-header and clearly Bill. This was 12 years before he became the Phils radio announcer. Checking the Phils staff that may remember, we think this is an audition tape recorded in a meaningless game. Why else would there be a recorder at Shibe Park?

His announcing style is so 1950 by a rookie announcer. There is no mention of the type of pitch. "Ashburn comes to bat at 1 for 5....(long silence)...strike"

It is a wonderful bit of broadcast history. I will be working to post this at the Phillies website and at broadcastpioneers.com

Stay tuned. DA

Dude111 · #2 01-03-2015, 07:12 AM

Wow good for you!!!!!

Its sad to hear he passed away

ChrisW6ATV · #3 01-05-2015, 01:47 AM

Fascinating story.

NoPegs · #4 01-05-2015, 02:13 AM

Awesome effort and great success!

I'm curious, when the tape was breaking, was it breaking coming off the feed reel, at the capstan, or on the takeup reel side of things? I've never seen paper tape personally, but I knew it existed, mainly for recording things that you never really planned on having to replay but needed to keep for a while just in case.

Electronic M · #5 01-05-2015, 01:14 PM

Early plastic tape can be comparably fragile (ask me how I know).

If you can, always use a belt drive based player on early tapes as there is less tension on them from a belt drive than what they would see in a 3 motor deck.

EdKozk2 · #6 01-08-2015, 03:55 PM

Was paper used as the backer instead of e.i. mylar on the recording tapes ?
Was there a ferro-magnetic coating on the paper tape ?
Just curious.
Ed

Dave A · #7 01-08-2015, 08:07 PM

More on the tape. I added a few photos of a bit of a broken end. You can see the white paper with a jagged paper break and the oxide break on the back different from the paper break. The box it came in suggested "a plastic ribbon" but that was not the case nor mylar. The box is later.

If you just bend the tape, it cracks like an egg. Mylar would be more forgiving.

NoPegs...it broke if I looked at it sideways. Mostly from the feed side when the feed drag was tight. More oil loosened it up to play with few splices after.

Ed...it is clearly paper from the photos. Paper thinner than a Saturday NY Post with the oxide on the recording side. You can see the paper tab break beyond the oxide where it split separately.

We got the recording in to our computers and cleaned it up EQing it and pulling out a small AC hum from the day.

I will post the Broadcastpioneers.com listing when it happens. Thanks for the encouragement from all of you. It is special to me to recover this bit of history from my old friend recorded before I was born.