GREETINGS FROM BOSTON

Shown, the A500 console in a WMBR studio, Wheatstone circa 2000.

These Technics turntables at WMBR are still turning out some great tunes!

Before IP audio, and long before the Boston shuffle when WBZ 1030 changed hands to iHeartMedia and WBZ 98.5 joined Beasley by way of the Entercom-CBS Radio merger, there was Wheat. Pubcasters WGBH 89.7, WBUR 90.9 (Boston University), WERS 88.9 (Emerson College), and WMBR 88.1 (MIT) installed Wheatstone analog consoles back in the day, and a few of those consoles are still in operation today. Jay ran into this old friend to the left at WMBR 88.1 on the MIT campus. The Wheatstone A500 console has been operational at WMBR for more than 30 years, having outlasted several generations of dorm-room mixtapes! A500 consoles go all the way back to the 1983 AES convention, when we introduced it as “the cleanest sounding console in broadcasting” (old timers might remember our 10KHz square wave demo at the show).

WGBH, Boston’s flagship public broadcaster, runs on Wheat.

This BMX board originally made by PR&E, the assets of which were later acquired by Wheatstone, is still operational in the WMBR studio.

Over the years, Boston stations moved to our first-generation digital networked systems (our Bridge router and Generation Series control surfaces) and later, our WheatNet IP audio network. WGBH 89.7 went full “future” in 2006 with our first-generation networked system, which Jay found still running in the pubcaster’s studios two decades later. More recently, our AoIP system found its way into WBUR 90.9, where WheatNet IP audio networking and LXE consoles reside today along with ScreenBuilder screens customized for NPR shows like Here & Now.

Shown, WGBH studio with Wheatstone G series console with routing and logic through the Wheatstone Bridge router network (right).

WheatNet IP audio networks and consoles are now found in Boston iHeartMedia stations and Beasley Boston stations (including 98.5 The Sports Hub, read WBZ, Ultimate Team Sport) and over the years, have been installed at stations near and far, including La Salle University, University of Massachusetts, Boston College, Curry College and at the facilities of our many commercial and TV clients.

And so it continues. Shown to the right is a photo that Jay snapped of a Blade I/O unit in the rack at Beasley Boston’s 18-studio facility completed a few years ago by Inrush Broadcast Services. This Blade has been running continuously for almost three years next to LXE consoles that put in 18-hour days for The Sports Hub, covering games back-to-back for the New England Patriots, Boston Bruins, Boston Celtics, New England Revolution, and Boston Red Sox.