Early radio recording

Electrical transcriptions, "recordings made exclusively for radio broadcasting" were widely used during the 'Golden Age of Radio', wherein, they provided material—from station-identification jingles and commercials to full-length programs—for use by local stations, affiliates of one of the radio networks. Physically, electrical transcriptions look much like long-playing records that were popular for decades. Radio networks and affiliates used the ET to time delay east coast programs for playback later on west coast stations. Thus performers did not have to do a second live show for the western time zone. They differ from consumer-oriented recordings, however, in that they were "distributed to radio stations for the purpose of broadcast, and not for sale to the public.... The ET had higher quality audio than was available on consumer records" largely because they had less surface noise than commercial recordings. Recording tape improved the process. WIKIPEDIA | CHARM | Magnetic Tape | AMPEX | cart tapes