The 16" Transcription disc. What was it?

[rasputin1963]

Looking at the Facebook page for one of my favorite 1960's artists,  Nino Tempo & April Stevens.

 

Someone has uploaded a photo of one of April's early recordings from the late-1950's. (See screencap below).  It appears to be a recording taken from a live show,  perhaps a Korean USO Show,  or other military benefit?     The poster below states that it is a 16" transcription disc,   and it plays from the inside-out?    What were these,   and how were they used?

 

Thanks,  ras

 

[MikeRivers]

Well, er . . . they're transcription disks. Have you ever heard the phrase from an old time radio show "This program was transcribed . . . "  Before tape became broadcast-reliable, radio stations usually had disk cutters for recording live shows for later broadcast. It was also where local musicians went to have a record made. A lot of music shows, particularly country music and big band jazz, made its way to transcription disks. They were intended to be used just a couple of times and then discarded but often found they way into the hands of collectors, and in the late 20th century, got issued by small record labels, and sometimes even major labels. The Bob Wills Tiffany Transcriptions is probably the best known of these collections, and there are a few of Hank Williams around.

The 16" disk was so there would be enough surface to record a half-hour radio show (sometimes with commercials, so it was a full half hour). That way the program could be played all the way through without changing disks. 

The inside-to-outside cut has a couple of reasons for being. The practical one was to discurage playing of these transcription disks by those outside the broadcast community (dumpster divers, for example), sort of like the left hand threaded light bulbs that the New York subway used to use to discourage riders from stealing the bulbs. The theoretical reason is that since the rotational speed of a record is constant, there's less groove per rotation near the center of the record than at the outside. This means that distortion can be higher, level must be lower, or both. Since often radio programs start quietly and build up in volume, by starting the cut at a point near the center of the disk that will put the final grooves as far out as possible, they can take advantage of more of the higher level or lower distortion portion of the disk.

[Vito Corleone]

 

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MikeRivers wrote:

 

  Before tape became broadcast-reliable, radio stations usually had disk cutters for recording live shows for later broadcast.

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Interesting how often discs were used even after tape became reliable.   I have a few 33 1/3 RPM 12" discs of radio interviews with bands from the 1970s and 80s (Steely Dan, Heart, a few others) and I used to see discs of programs like American Top 40 pop up in used record stores from time to time.   I was surprised at first because I presumed these would have been distributed to the radio stations on tape rather than LP.