AES New York 2015
Thursday, October 29, 7:30 pm — 9:30 pm (Off-Site 1)
50th Anniversary of the Master Antenna on the Empire State Building
Co-moderators:David Bialik, CBS - New York, NY, USA
Scott Fybush, Northeast Radio Watch
Panelists:
Andy Lanset, Historian, WNYC/WQXR - New York, NY, USA
Shane O'Donoghue, Director of Broadcasting, Empire State Building - New York, NY, USA
Tom Silliman, Electronics Research Inc.
Herb Squire, Herb Squire - Martinsville, NJ
Robert Tarsio, Broadcast Devices Inc.
Abstract:
Limited amount of tickets—first come first served! To attend you must have registered for the Convention and go to the Tech Tours desk on Wednesday Oct. 28th (3pm - 7pm) or Thursday Oct. 29th (8am - 1pm) to obtain your ticket. Do not call AES beforehand—you can ONLY register on-site during the above hours!
On December 9, the Alford master FM antenna that rings the 102nd floor observation gallery at the Empire State Building will mark its 50th anniversary. When the antenna went into service in 1965, it marked a revolution in FM broadcast technology: for the first time, most of a market's FM signals could share a single antenna, sharing costs and reducing the amount of space needed for FM transmission at the market's tallest broadcast site.
The Alford antenna at Empire was the model for master antenna sites in places such as Toronto, St. Louis, Houston, Minneapolis-St. Paul, and eventually back at Empire, where a new master antenna system was commissioned in the 1980s to supplant the original Alford. The original 1965 Alford antenna continues to serve as a backup at Empire, being pressed into service after 9/11 to provide emergency replacement antenna capacity for stations that were displaced from their World Trade Center sites.
This special commemorative event will be held in the 67th floor conference room at the Empire State Building.
Produced jointly with AES and SBE
Watch a video of the "switch throwing" presentation here:
https://www.facebook.com/AES.org/videos/10153364038858585/
