DAVID STARLING and the SILENT GROOVE
The Music You Never Heard

Not many old-time radio fans stopped to think how their favorite programs ended perfectly—hearing the last note at the last second. At Nine AM weekdays David and I did his Household Hints program from the 'C' Coral studio. We were fed live to KFI. There were prizes for food receipts, written in rhyme. David would read and we added music and commercials. David stood at the announce console. Only the triple-glazed window separated him from my mixer. He could turn his microphone off and on. I controlled his monitor volume and his mike level. I mixed in recorded music and commercials at his cue. We could talk during the pre-recorded portions. Actually David talked to me and I used hand signals.

The Announcer's Console

I kept the two turntables cued up with the upcoming discs. This to say that the correct side of the correct disc on the correct track at the correct speed is positioned a quarter turn from the first sound. When the expected cue was some thirty seconds away I would have the table turning while holding the disc at its quarter turn. When David cued (hand signal) me, I released the disc. It would reach table speed just before it reached sound, I opened the fader at just that instant.

When one table was turning, I readied the other table as described above. With the live announcer (David Starling) and two tables, we could present a continuous uninterrupted program. The perfect ending trick we called, Backtime. David taught me to read the studio clock backwards! Totaling the minutes and seconds remaining in the hour or half hour. The last disc was cued up like the others and at David's cue, I would release it on the spinning table, but with the fader closed. The label gave the running time of the track. David would say, "Start the backtime." (He had subtracted the running time.)

Now we have two tables turning but only one is on the air! While David is closing the program, I slowly open the backtime fader and you hear music behind his voice. At his last word, I bring it up full and let the program end on time! Note; If David needs a table during the back time, I must ready it while he is talking. Afterwards, David Starling always stopped by the mixer door, climbing three steps, to thank me for doing what I was paid to do.

Editor's note: Mr. Weisenberger gave me some information of the NBC red and blue network split regarding KFI and KECA. Both were owned by Earl C. Anthony, a large Packard (auto-mobile) dealer in Los Angeles. The call "KECA" was derived from Anthony's initials (E)arl (C) (A)nthony. KFI was NBC's Red Network; KECA was the Blue Network. The Blue Network was split from NBC and became ABC