4 Channel, Quadraphonic Sound

[bugzapper]

So whatever happened to this sound craze from the 70s. I remember going to a William's Magnavox store out on Plainfield in Grand Rapids to check this out. They had a really small room there where you could stand in the middle and listen to their demo of a motorcycle circling the room. The only radio station that I recall using that technology was WGRD FM. I do have a 4 channel 8-track player/recorder I picked up somewhere along the line but I'm not sure if it still works.

[Deleted User 15506]

I remember when W4 106fm was Quad. I still have a few W4 Quad 106fm t-shirts.

[bugzapper]

I remember when W4 106fm was Quad. I still have a few W4 Quad 106fm t-shirts.

Was that in the Detriot area?

[Deleted User 15506]

I remember when W4 106fm was Quad. I still have a few W4 Quad 106fm t-shirts.

Was that in the Detriot area?

Yes, W4 was a Detroit original. The studio was located on Jefferson Ave. 2930 East Jefferson to be exact, I know that place well.

[bugzapper]

I remember when W4 106fm was Quad. I still have a few W4 Quad 106fm t-shirts.

Was that in the Detriot area?

Yes, W4 was a Detroit original. The studio was located on Jefferson Ave. 2930 East Jefferson to be exact, I know that place well.

Since I'm not in the business and have always lived near Grand Rapids, I had to look up the history of W4....quite a story! I should have counted the number of program changes.

[Deleted User 15506]

I remember when W4 106fm was Quad. I still have a few W4 Quad 106fm t-shirts.

Was that in the Detriot area?

Yes, W4 was a Detroit original. The studio was located on Jefferson Ave. 2930 East Jefferson to be exact, I know that place well.

Since I'm not in the business and have always lived near Grand Rapids, I had to look up the history of W4....quite a story! I should have counted the number of program changes.

Today that building is now used by, The Cannabis Counsel and a group of doctors for medical marijuana. The best years of W4 106.7 were, when Gordon Mc Lendon owned the station.

[SolarMax]

The best years of W4 106.7 were, when Gordon Mc Lendon owned the station.

Before McLendon and WWWW, 106.7 was WDTM, into the late 1960s.
WDTM offered an eclectic programming mix, with classical, jazz, spoken word and anything else they could find a host for. Each of its shows were kind of "free form" within themselves. It was a commercial station, but I think they also solicited direct listener support. I do remember Joe McClurg as one of the hosts, mostly on weekends. WDTM deserves a fan site somewhere, but I've yet to see one and I haven't found any air checks.

[Deleted User 15506]

The best years of W4 106.7 were, when Gordon Mc Lendon owned the station.

Before McLendon and WWWW, 106.7 was WDTM, into the late 1960s.
WDTM offered an eclectic programming mix, with classical, jazz, spoken word and anything else they could find a host for. Each of its shows were kind of "free form" within themselves. It was a commercial station, but I think they also solicited direct listener support. I do remember Joe McClurg as one of the hosts, mostly on weekends. WDTM deserves a fan site somewhere, but I've yet to see one and I haven't found any air checks.

You may want to look up Don Schuster. Don was at W4 when they were an Oldies type station in 1969 or 1970, he might have some pre-W4 history info. I think Don is still in the Detroit area.

[Realist]

I remember riding in my mom’s cousins mid 1970’s Thunderbird having a quadraphonic stereo system. She put a 8 track in and the sound range and dynamics were amazing. You could hear specific different instruments in one speaker clearly

[WOHO]

I thought it was very appropriate that one of the few Quadraphonic stations in the country was WWWW W-4 (4-channel) in Detroit. Had a Toledo DJ friend with a quad system to decode it. Used to be on the cover of the 1972 Lafayette Radio Electronics Catalog IIRC. Also, had 3 competing Quad LP formats, SQ, QS and RCA-CD4 which had a subcarrier rather than a matrix decoding system? However, the easiest Quad route was 4-track reel to reel decks and 8 track players that truly had 8 tracks: two Programs of 4 channels each. It really was a design ahead of it's time as it was close to the Dolby Surround from the VHS days, but more discrete as it was more 4.0 than 3.1 when I heard it. Wonder W4 was quad when Howie Stern was there and they did the format flip?

[Ed Joseph]

I know there were some experiments using C-QuAM to pass Quad audio way back when, and it evidently worked.

[WOHO]

Ed Joseph, let me check with Mr. Motorola and see if he can run some QUAD testing audio over WION next time he's doing an overnight tune-up?

[ChrisWL1980]

WIQB in Ann Arbor (now the current W4) was "QuadRock 103" around 1975-76.

[EdWalker]

I remember when W4 106fm was Quad. I still have a few W4 Quad 106fm t-shirts.

Was that in the Detriot area?

Yes, W4 was a Detroit original. The studio was located on Jefferson Ave. 2930 East Jefferson to be exact, I know that place well.

From a Google Street View of that address, it appears the STL tower/antenna is still there.

[k8jd]

I still wonder about the early stereo esperimants where one chan of audio went over aN AM station and simulcast other channel on an affiliated FM transmitter . I actually saw a few receivers that had dual tuners set up to do the reception of AM/FM Stereo sound.