[Dixielandjazz] Stereo vs. Mono?

[Steve & Cathy Pendleton]

Larry (and everyone else),

After the TV experiment with stereo in St. Louis ('57-'58, I
believe) they progressed to a demo in late '58-early '59 where you
used your hi-fi FM radio and the standard AM radio.  This
simultaneous broadcast occurred on Sunday afternoons.  The FM
station was KCFM-St. Louis 94.7 and the AM was, maybe, KMOX or KWK
(remember Ed Wilson, Larry?) or maybe it was another station.

(KCFM taught me the melody to virtually every popular song extant
from the 30's to the late 50's.  I was a studious kid (hah!! too bad
all that studying never stuck) and I enjoyed a lot of indoor
hobbies, and my mother had that station on for part of every evening
and all weekends.)

Anyway, around 2:00 on those Sundays Dad, would fire up the
"Maggotbox" hi-fi radio and record player in the blond oak console,
and he would set our little plastic AM receiver 8-10 feet away.
Before the music started, there was always the demonstration of the
game of ping-pong, the passing train,  two people conversing from
across a room and  the flyby of that exciting new plane (either the
Boeing 707 or Douglas DC-7.)  Then came the St. Louis symphony.
Like you, Larry, this was a poor choice of subject to hype stereo.
Everyone soon got up and found other things to do, anywhere but in
the living room.

We got our hi-fi in 1958, I think.  Our parents wondered why
Famous-Barr  Department Store was having such big sales on them.  A
lot of friends and relatives would come over to listen--hi-fi was
definitely a thrill compared to tabletop radio, esp. when Dad put on
"George Wright At The Mighty Wurlitzer" or similar.    (We were also
the popular home in the community when we got a TV in 1953--but
that's another story.)  However, a couple of months after our new
purchase, stereo came out.  And, as Larry says, it was really no big
deal.  In my limited view of the world then, I don't think stereo
really took hold until us babyboomers started buying rock n' roll 33
1/3 LP albums from our favorite groups to play on our personal
portable stereo record players, and that was '61 or '62.

Thanks for indulging me.  A nice reminisce.  I had not thought about
some of the above for 40 years!

Steve Pendleton