Introducing myself here -- former broadcaster for Voice of America, fan of classic audio, especially portable cassette decks and minidisc. Live in Maryland.....nice to be here.
Welcome Daniel. There have been a few discussions on here as to what field recorders broadcasters used to use, so any insider information would be interesting.
Thanks -- briefly, in the old days radio journalists used to use a variety of cassette machines. The TC-D5M and Pro models were used by those who insisted on XLR mic inputs. Marantz PMD series machines were also used but were known to be more vulnerable to physical damage and internal issues. The WM-D6C was also used, but the work horse for many of us was the TCM-5000 which had separate MIC level controls enabling use of two microphones for interviews. Another classic many of us used was the C-104 and C-105s by Superscope, but these were very heavy! The C-105s can still be found today, often in LNIB or NIB condition, though increasingly rare.
Welcome! Great information, it's cool hearing about that little niche of portable recorders. I have a small collection of "field recorders;" when I was a kid, recording units were considered the cream of the crop and didn't become widely available on the used market until 10 years ago or somewhere around then. My buddy is in radio and tells me all of the people he's interviewed over the years using portable equipment, it's too bad our equipment can't tell the stories of where they've been, I'm sure some have been in interesting situations.
Welcome to the party! It's fun to think we may have heard your voice on the radios we all like so much!
