3YB Radio Play and Advertising, 1948
After leaving the Army at the end of World War II, Denzil Howson returned to working within the Argus Broadcasting Services and was posted to radio station 3YB in Warrnambool (a rural town about 4hrs drive south-west of Melbourne).
Warrnambool was a long way from head office in Melbourne and there were opportunities for local initiative, innovation and experimentation.
Here we present two recordings made in April 1948 and recorded directly to acetate disc by Jack Brittain (see Technical Notes below). There are no details about where the recording was made, although Denzil notes in his “Home Recording Album 1938–1950” that “many half hour and quarter hour plays from 3YB were recorded on this equipment” — suggesting the play “The Intruder” may have been recorded in the 3YB studios for broadcast.
Teresa Howard (née Madden) who was on the staff of 3YB appears in both these recordings.
Radio advertisements for J.C. Brittain
J.C. Brittain was an electrical repair business in Warrnambool operated by Jack Brittain and in these radio advertisements we hear both Denzil and Teresa reading parts. Whether these were real advertisements or just practice exercises is unknown.
Listen Now: Click the play button on the audio player:
Download: Click here to download an mp3 (3.3mB).
The Intruder: A Radio Play for Two (or three)
In this short radio play, probably written by Denzil, Joan is played by Teresa Howard, while Denzil plays two parts — Joan’s husband, Tom, and the intruder.
Listen Now: Click the play button on the audio player:
Download: Click here to download an mp3 (13.3mB).
Technical Notes on the Disc Transfer and Audio Clean Up
Before the era of tape recording, disc recorders and acetate discs were the most common sound recording medium.
Denzil had designed his own disc recorder which was built by his father (E.S. Howson) during the latter part of 1938 and the early part of 1939. (Denzil’s “Home Recording Album 1938–1950” contains detailed descriptions of the recorder, associated equipment, and its use in this period.)
Early in 1945, Denzil sold the disc recorder to Mr Jack Brittain, proprietor of a Warrnambool electrical repair business. who reassembled it, using a 16 inch turntable, a new motor for driving purposes, and a new cutting head.
The recordings presented here were made on that disc recorder.
This acetate disc had suffered deterioration, in part due to damp storage conditions, which has induced mould in parts of the surface. These patches are responsible for the cyclical “swishing” noise. In addition, there is considerable general “groove noise”. (See section below “Deterioration of Acetate Discs”)
The disc was recorded at 33⅓ rpm and “inside out”, meaning that the disc recorder was configured to start the recording on the inner grooves and to cut the spiral recording groove moving outwards to the periphery of the disc. This is opposite to the standard convention with gramophone records.
The Restoration Process
The disc recording was transferred on a Garrard 401 turntable with SME 3009 Mk II tone arm and an Audio Technica VM670P cartridge feeding a NAD phono preamplifier and then into a Solid State Logic SSL2 audio interface. The audio was captured using Audio Hijack on a Macintosh Pro laptop.
Due to the condition of the disc, the noise level on the transfer was severe. The result achieved here is largely due to the remarkable “Dialog Isolate” module in iZotope RX version 11, which can isolate human speech from non-speech content. This requires a compromise between reducing noise and losing some of the high frequencies.
Restoration with iZotope RX version 11 used the following modules:
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Hum Removal at around 100Hz.
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De-Click.
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Dialog Isolate.
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Leveler.
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Spectral Repair of background noise between dialog.
Another side-effect of the Dialog Isolate module is that music playing beneath dialog is also attenuated. To deal with this, the cleaned up audio from iZotope RX was placed into Logic Pro X and gain automation was added to smooth out the level differences at the transitions between music and dialog.
The last minute or so of the recording becomes progressively more noisy and we can still hear “modulation noise” on this dialog, despite the best efforts of the digital processing.
Deterioration of Acetate Discs
The following excerpt describing deterioration of acetate discs is from the website culturalheritage.org:
“Prior to the advent of magnetic tape, instantaneous recordings were made chiefly on acetate discs. The chemical makeup of these discs, therefore, had to be a compromise between ease of engraving and the quality of the recording that resulted.
“Since the 1930s, most blank acetate discs have been manufactured with a base, usually aluminum (although glass was used during the war years and cardboard for inexpensive home recordings), that was coated with nitrocellulose lacquer plasticized with castor oil. Because of the lacquer’s inherent properties, acetate discs are the least stable type of sound recording.
“Continuous Shrinkage of the lacquer coating due to the loss of the castor oil plasticizer is the primary destructive force. The gradual loss of plasticizer causes progressive embrittlement and the irreversible loss of sound information. Because the coating is bonded to a core which cannot shrink, internal stresses result, which in turn cause cracking and peeling of the coating.
“Nitrocellulose acetate decomposes continuously and over time reacts with water vapour or oxygen to produce acids that act as a catalyst for several other chemical reactions. As with most chemical reactions, these reactions are accelerated with elevated temperature and humidity levels.
“Shrinkage of the lacquer coating due to the loss of plasticizer is the primary destructive force of these discs. Excess moisture will accelerate plasticizer loss. Acetate discs decompose continuously, and over time react with water vapour or oxygen to produce acids that in turn act as catalysts for several other chemical reactions. One of these is the release of palmitic acid, a white waxy substance. Acetate discs are very susceptible to fungus growth. Excess heat will probably accelerate the loss of the coating adhesion.”
By Gilles St-Laurent, Music Division, National Library Of Canada, January 1996:
https://cool.culturalheritage.org/byauth/st-laurent/care.html