Origins

     Paul Schafer is credited with automating the studio operation function. After founding Schafer Electronics in 1953 to manu­facture remote-control equipment for broadcast transmitters, Schafer extended the application of this technology in 1956 to program automation. Radio station KGEE used the first Scha­fer automation system to expand its hours of operation and offer nighttime service to its Bakersfield, California, listeners. Capable of unattended operation, Schafer's initial system consisted of two See burg jukeboxes for music reproduction, three Concertone open-reel tape decks for broadcasting commercial announcements, and an electromechanical switcher for storing programming instructions to control the playback sequence.

     Schafer installed an automation system into a motor coach and traveled to radio stations to demonstrate its capabilities. During his visits with station owners and managers, Schafer explained how automation could reduce operating expenses while enhancing the quality of the on-air presentation. Automation systems, he asserted, not only reduced the number of personnel needed to operate the station but also executed programming instructions more reliably and with fewer mistakes than human operators could.

     Schafer's identification of the economic and performance concerns were, in the late 1950s, of relatively equal importance to broadcasters. However, the economic incentive would escalate prominently in 1965 when the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) imposed the AM-FM Program Non Duplication Rule. In its effort to stimulate listener interest in the languishing FM service, the FCC reduced AM station simulcasting by their FM sister stations in the nation's 100 largest markets. A majority of the approximately 200 duopoly stations affected by the rule chose to automate their FM facilities rather than incur the expense of hiring additional announcing and engineering staff. Contributing to the movement toward automation was management's realization that the pool of available talent had been depleted by rapid expansion in both radio and television broadcasting. Demand for qualified personnel had steadily driven up the price of labor during the 1950s. Duopolies in the smaller markets, unaffected by the non duplication rule, were nonetheless enticed into automating when desirable local talent departed for more lucrative opportunities in metropolitan areas.

Equipment

     The manufacture of automation equipment, previously a cottage industry, blossomed during the 1960s. The Radio Corporation of America (RCA) and Gates Radio Company, two prominent broadcast equipment manufacturers, entered into competition with Schafer Electronics. Unlike Schafer's initial design, which had relied upon jukeboxes for vinyl disc reproduction, next-generation systems reproduced program elements with open-reel and cartridge tape machines. This approach provided greater reliability than did the early disc­ dependent systems. More importantly, it afforded programmers opportunities to execute formatics in a manner that more closely emulates the sound of a live, spontaneous broadcast.

     As the sophistication of control switchers grew, tape-dependent systems enabled announcers to develop the technique of voice tracking. In approximately 10 to 20 minutes, announcers could record all of the comments they would normally make during the course of a four-hour, live program. By instructing the automation system to execute their voice recordings at the appropriate times, announcers were freed to pursue other creative activities during their airshifts.

     Adapting a station to automated broadcasting did not, in and of itself, liberate operators from the responsibility of creating a program service; it merely facilitated the execution of programming decisions. Rather than attempting to produce tape­ recorded libraries of music internally, numerous automated-station operators elected to subscribe to the services of program syndicators. In most instances, syndicators supplied stations with base libraries of recorded music, which were supplemented periodically with reels of music of current popularity.

Syndication

     The syndication firm Drake-Chenault, under the supervision of legendary Top 40 programmer Bill Drake, successfully adapted the middle of the road, Top 40, country, and soul formats to automated presentation. By the mid-1970s, approximately 300 stations subscribed to the company's services. The beautiful music format was also used extensively by automated stations. Because its execution emphasized repeated segues between songs, this format was especially adaptable to automation.

     Broadcaster reliance upon tape-based automation diminished during the 1980s. Among the explanations for the decline in automation's popularity was programmers' perception that listeners desired more announcer involvement within the presentation than even the most sophisticated systems could reliably provide. Although voice-tracked programming resembled live presentation, it nonetheless was incapable of emulating for listeners the spontaneity and interactivity they associated with hearing a live broadcast. An alternative approach, in which syndicators delivered live, hosted presentations simultaneously to multiple affiliates via satellite, became the preferred method of automated operation during this period.

     Following the passage in 1996 of the Telecommunications Act, which sharply relaxed radio station ownership rules and led to significant consolidation of station properties, interest in automated broadcasting renewed. Owners who operated mul-tiple stations within markets began to cluster the facilities into single studio complexes. In such situations, automation has enabled owners to share personalities among stations, thereby reducing the number of announcers required to sustain program operations. Systems now store all program elements, including voice-tracked disc jockey commentary, in hard-disk memory. These "jock-in-a-box" systems offer disc jockeys greater voice-tracking flexibility and have narrowed the gap between listeners' perceptions of live and recorded presentation. Clear Channel Communications was making use of this technique in the early 2000s, noting that a small station (say, in Boise, Idaho) could gain the use of an on-air personality for as little as $4,000 to $6,000 a year, far less than paying a real DJ on site. The DJ stays in a major market, yet appears to host local programs in multiple locations. Another trend developing among group-owned stations is to interconnect stations in multiple cities via telephone circuits to a central, or hub, production facility. A single announcing staff is thus able to provide each of the stations within the hub with individualized, market-specific commentary using the voice-tracking technique. Industry representatives estimate that approximately one in five stations now employs systems for either fully automated or announcer-assisted operation.