[time-nuts] can of worms: time-of-day in a community radio station

[brucekareen at aol.com]

I have not been carefully following this thread, but it brings to mind experiences with broadcast time systems 40 or 50 years ago.  

Accurate time is critical for operating networks of stations as one second can correspond to a loss of about three words.  Digital displays were (are) OK for engineers and producers preparing to join networks, but very difficult for announcers reading copy and timing their reading to end on time.  For that case the proportional indication of an analog second hand was (is) extremely important.  So we had both as it is difficult for the brain to interpret digital indications while trying to concentrate on other tasks.

In my day major broadcast facilities employed Western Union clocks.  These were synchronized on the hour by a pawl pulling up the second hand at about xx:xx:59 seconds and releasing it at the stroke of the hour.  Many such clocks, all over town, were connected in series through an 80 mA loop to a master pendulum clock at Western Union's area headquarters.

Every 24 hours a Western Union technician would synchronize the area master clock with a pulse from the Naval Observatory. 
About 1973, Western Union technicians went on strike and management personnel were either unaware of the synchronization requirement or failed to figure out how to implement it.  The system's clocks drifted until unusable.  We installed a time standard based upon a Sultzer quartz crystal oscillator that included circuitry to preset and implement leap seconds at the proper time in the middle of the night, along with a WWV receiver for setting the system.  Western Union closed their clock business following that strike.

Another story.  An area radio station decided to forgo the Western Union clocks and install electric wall clocks as an economy move.  Their unionized announcers threatened to go on strike, saying the clocks were a symbol of their professionalism.  Even technical people must consider industrial psychology in the workplace.

Bruce, KG6OJI