Brunswick radio tone test record (1929)

[Jeff238]

Continuing with the theme of the dealer demonstration records, from May 4, 1929 here is the Brunswick radio broadcast tone test record.  This record is interesting in that on Side 1 we have an actual direct line recording of a live radio broadcast.  It only runs a little over four minutes but transcriptions of live broadcasts from this period are scarce.  Side 2 of the record features the same broadcast as received by a Brunswick radio receiver.  I would imagine that the Brunswick engineers would have adjusted and tuned this radio for its best performance, but the reproduction is not really comparable to the direct line recording on Side 1.  The frequency response limitations are obvious as well as a few noise bursts and what sounds like a heterodyne whistle near the end of the recording.

 

Perhaps when the dealer demonstrated this record the differences were not so obvious as it would have been played on a Brunswick Panatrope phonograph of 1929.  As good as these machines were they are not up to modern equipment standards.  Here is a YouTube video (not mine) of a restored Panatrope Model 31.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4GKK2PCwJs

 

I hope you find this peek into 1929 technology interesting.