The SPARC Museum is often invited to set up displays in malls, other museums, and various special events. We take items from our collection into the community to promote awareness of the history of radio, the part it plays in our culture, and how we are preserving the artifacts of radio. Whenever appropriate, our approach is to include equipment from our broadcast section, setting it up in the manner of a 50s/60s "Broadcast Remote". Radio stations often did these live pickups, sending us live music from dance halls, or spinning records on location from malls and even furniture stores! It was great promotion for the station and the locations involved.
What we do is to transmit our music (at low power) to the radios on display in the area. We also have begun sending the program on a stream to the internet. If it's on a Sunday, the remote stream is actually broadcast back at the museum.
Events (with Pictures) on this page (click on the description) - or - Return to the SPARC Broadcast News Page
At Brentwood Mall with the 1950s McCurdy remote mixer board
Same board, but in the Gazebo in Maple Ridge
On the porch of the Mission Museum - using the Collins 212-J1 remote from CKWX
In Mackin House at Maillardville's "Fair in the Square" - with the McCurdy 8-mixer board from CJAV
-- Late August, 2002
Pictured is the set-up in Brentwood Town Center in August 2002 for an event that honoured the late broadcaster Jack Cullen for his contribution to the Vancouver radio and music scene. In the 70s, Jack ran a record store in Brentwood Mall, with his own broadcast studio in the rear. In those years, his shows originated in that studio. It was big enought to have a smallish audience of artists and friends as part of the shows. The Northern Electric console he used there is the very one we use now as the museum's master control!
Here's an excellent shot of our "remote", with operator Peter at the controls of our restored McCurdy 1950s remote control board (described in more detail elswhere on this site).
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The setup here for tape machines used a play-only Revox PR-99, left of the console, and an Ampex AG-440 (with a Jack Cullen 16-inch transcription hanging on the back of it). Aside from microphones, the other source is an ITC triple-deck cartridge machine. Since we have all our material copied to tape or carts, this makes a complete programming set-up without turntables. The large mock "cathedral" radio at the front is really only a playback speaker, made years ago by CKNW for their remotes at the Pacific National Exhibition.
Two other interesting items were on display on the table: a Magnecord PT-6 from 1952 (did you notice the CKNW "Top-Dog" logo?), and a Magnemite "portable" recorder that had a wind-up motor, such as on an antique Victrola.
Go back to the topThe Maple Ridge Museum hosted us on August 4th, 2007. That event was the Mayors' Heritage day, held in the Memorial Peace Park. We were located on the Bandstand. As you can see, we had a good sampling of our radios, and an ambitious broadcast operation playing the music.
Left: In the "Gazebo" in Memorial Peace Park. We always get good weather! Right: The operator's position. Our gear here includes the Revox PR-99 (from CFUN) and A-77 (from CJAV, Port Alberni), plus a "Broadcast Electronics" triple-cart deck for the vintage commercials and promos. The board is our McCurdy PE1000 from the 50s.
Go back to the topClick here for more information on Maple Ridge, including the Maple Ridge Museum.
Below, our operating position... This is the first outing for our recently acquired Collins 212-J1 portable remote mixer that once saw service when CKWX was broadcasting the baseball games from Nat Bailey stadium. Feeding it, we have a "Broadcast Electronics" cartridge tape player, and an Ampex AG-600, now in running shape, because we found a new belt for it. The other tape machine is the Revox A-77 acquired from CJAV in Port Alberni. This is the Revox's fourth outing. Also, on the desk, can be seen a wireless mike (ex-CBC) that we use to go out into the crowd for on-the-spot action.
The Collins portable mixer - front panel.
Click here for more information on Maple Ridge, including the Maple Ridge Museum.
The SPARC Museum has participated several times at the annual Fair In The Square event - over the July long weekend. We have some of our nice old radios from our collection on show. To support the display, we run a 'broadcast remote', transmitting music to our radios that were set up at our outside table, to the sound system for the performance stage between shows, and throughout Mackin House itself.
New last summer - we were streaming our live program direct to the SPARC Museum building! Our normal opening museum day is Sunday, and all our visitors, including the visitors from 'KidsWorld', could hear the live remote. Our connection was via the internet, using a TELUS wireless data card in a laptop. The quality was excellent, and there were no 'hiccups'.
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Here we are in these pictures (from July 2006) in Mackin House. Our "studio" was set up in the pantry, with our 'transmitter' site in a car parked outside. The studio consisted mostly of equipment donated by CJAV, Port Alberni. It was taken out of service when CJAV moved from AM to FM - they built new studios and a new transmitter building, and are now known as "The Peak". SPARC even has their old RCA BTA-1S one-kilowatt transmitter, and it's now restored and fully operational at an off-site location! (No antenna, and no licence.)
The board is a clever little eight-mixer McCurdy from the early 70s. The reel-to-reel is our reliable Revox A-77. The turntable is a Panasonic SP-10 Mk II direct-drive. Now, there's a great broadcast turntable - starts on a dime and stops on a dime - and it's a dream for cueing records, even 78s. All of these, including the triple-cart deck, have remote start from the coloured buttons seen on the McCurdy board. The announce mike is an RCA BK-5B.
Go back to the top"Remotes" are further explained in the October/2002 Newsletter, archived on the SPARC News page.
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