Re: [ARSCLIST] "Aircheck" history

[David Lennick <dlennick@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Tom Fine wrote:

> Thanks for all the research Rod! And others too. This is fascinating. I wondered why so many big
> band performances were captured in air-checks, but I think I now know -- the transcriptions were
> made by and/or for the sponsors, who would generally sponsor an entire program. Studios in NYC that
> did a lot of commercial work often offered air-check service, which was recording from a tuner in
> the control room to a professional quality tape or disk.

Or in the case of Melotone Studios, a tuner that nobody bothered to check and which drifted constantly.
I've heard some ghastly work from them, on a series of airchecks of Nelson Eddy programs which someone
paid the studio to record (in the days before home tape recorders).

Sometimes a client or publisher would order up an aircheck of only one song, possibly as proof of
publication (?). In one famous case, a songwriter was given a copy of a broadcast of her song, played as
a favor by an orchestra leader she knew, and the aircheck was given to a fellow named Dorsey. Ruth Lowe,
Percy Faith, "I'll Never Smile Again". The disc still exists.

dl