Broadcast industry historical artifact!
These are the "grand daddy's" of the vinyl record world, VERY LARGE, see one of the photographs with one of these 16" records sitting next to a 12" and then the "tiny" 7" vinyl record.
If you think your 180 or 200g vinyl is pretty damn good, these are 350g!
A great "museum piece", something to brag to your vinyl friends about "I bet mine is much bigger than yours!" type of stuff
In the 1940's ~ 1950's they provided a convenient source of program material that ran for a long time unattended, long being 15 minutes each side!
They used a slightly different vinyl formulation called "vinylite" and more importantly, "cut" vertically not laterally as with all "modern" vinyl records. This minimises the surface noise which resulted in better quality audio although it was still monoaural, not stereo!
There is no way in this world you can play one of these on your "standard" turntable although I see some folk who do take great interest in the old transcription turntables, monsters that adorned just about every radio station studio in their day ....
This is a photograph of a USA Presto T-68 transcription turntable - if you have a passion for such things, HERE is a link which should satisfy your need to read more!
Look at that wonderful Pickering arm! Both Presto and Pickering were "the" USA manufacturers for the American broadcast industry, while in Britain a "go to" manufacturer was most often BSR.
I used to have one of the BSR beasts but no more ... I just couldn't see the need and space is a big issue because of all the other equipment I had at the time.
If someone wanted a contemporary, beautifully made turntable, you probably couldn't go past a Trovatore but you will need VERY DEEP pockets (around A$4500)
Here is a photograph of a Trovatore and HERE is a link to a site that offers these in Australia
I did play this on the old BSR transcription turntable "box on wheels" that I used to have and it sounded "fine" but since around the 1990's this transcription record has just been sitting in my library of broadcast curio's
Today I bought it back out and gave it a clean, now that's a challenge in itself! No good trying to use the VPI or Monk cleaner (way too small) so I used a manual cleaner (Record Pro) with my usual vinyl cleaning solution and a soft brush. The record is so large it doesn't fit entirely into the record cleaner but it was enough to keep it stable and by careful brushing and rotating I was able to give it a pretty good cleanup (it wasn't very dirty in any case)
Because the record didn't have an inner sleeve originally, I created a custom sleeve using A3 folder plastic which hasn't leeched at all over the years (thank goodness!) This custom sleeve at least protects the vinyl from the paper dust created by the very large original light cardboard sleeve - I could not dream up a way of creating a new outer card sleeve!
So, with the lengthy background information, let's get down to the nitty gritty of this recording ...
STANDARD PROGRAM LIBRARY
Standard Radio Hollywood
Recorded and produced by RCA Victor, Hollywood
16" Transcription Record
Material: Black vinylite
Weight: 350g
Catalogue# U-187
Play speed 33⅓ rpm
Plays from the Outside
Monoaural program material
There is no "Side 1" or "Side 2" indicated on either label
Each side has the program catalogue number clearly stamped into the vinyl
PMS 074752
PMS 074754
Although the Side number is not indicated, each track is numbered beginning with track 1 on PMS 074752
The vinyl is in good condition, visually inspected (after cleaning) and I cannot see any significant scratches or marks on either side. I would love to have played this record one last time but unfortunately, no 16" turntables here any longer!
The record is protected by a heavy clear plastic custom made sleeve which is then inserted into the original light cardboard outer cover.
SPECIAL NOTE: In one of the photographs you can see Black shadows around the edges on one side of the outer card cover ... why? A fire, that's why. Disaster struck some time ago during a bush fire and this cover (and many others) suffered smoke damage.
THERE IS NO HEAT OR SMOKE DAMAGE TO THE VINYL MATERIAL INSIDE
The genre is Gospel music
CONTENT: PMS 074752
The Songfellow's Quartet
Oh Marie Oh Marie
The Old Refrain
Oh Dem Golden Slippers
Cowboy's Lullaby
Stand Up And Shout
CONTENT: PMS 074754
The Songfellow's Quartet
Too Happy For Words
Marinita
Old Man Oompah
An Old Country Garden
Those Stars In The Blue
This record will be shipped within a sealed clear plastic (non-reactive) packaging and then within a very stiff (3 wall) cardboard "sandwich" to ensure it arrives with the new owner undamaged.
