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Andy K S

@akstuhl.assemblag.es.ap.brid.gy

sound, software, media studies; currently developing a book project on automation and art in radio history [bridged from assemblag.es/@akstuhl on the fediverse by fed.brid.gy ]

Posts Replies Media

Andy K S @akstuhl.assemblag.es.ap.brid.gy · 14/01/2025

See also this ad from 1960 for Programatic, an early radio automation entrant (and at first a subsidiary of the Muzak Corporation). From Broadcasting magazine, scan courtesy of @mhdl

Programatic eliminates these hazards for 78 broadcasters:

Scripts? Hard to write, easy to lose.
Live commercials? Fluffed any lately?
LPs? Grooves skip, pickups bang.
ETs? Hard to handle, easy to scratch.
Switches? Sometimes it's the wrong one.
Faders? Too fast? Too soon?
VU? Gotta watch it all the time.
Turntables? Rumble, fumble, bumble.
Microphones? Adjust, adjust, adjust.

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Andy K S @akstuhl.assemblag.es.ap.brid.gy · 13/01/2025

The idea that creative work is overly fussy or technical – and so actually less creative than its automated stand-in – is a well-rehearsed cynical refrain from sonic automation purveyors. Here's a spokesperson for radio automation outfit International Good […] [Original post on assemblag.es]

What more enlightened management
and Program Directors say, however, is that
automation enables them to fully utilize truly
top people, making it possible to really
afford the salaries of such talent. Instead of
laying off DJ's, the equipment frees them to
be better than ever. It's really not all that
creative to sit and spin records and press
buttons to actuate commercials, juggling
the myriads of details, during an entire
broadcast day.

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