[QuadList] ACR-25 Vacuum Column

[Scott Thomas]

Like I said before, when I was at WCPX in Orlando, the ACR-25 was already long gone, replaced by the ACR-225. I did get one interesting story about the ACR-25 though.

Apparently, when one of the vacuum column blowers failed, it was replaced with a... vacuum cleaner! Never heard which model. I had a mental picture of a Kirby grafted into the thing. Until I saw the YouTube video of the ACR-25 in operation, I had no concept of how the columns worked. Amazing stuff.

Scott Thomas

On Feb 3, 2010, at 11:37 PM, rabruner at aol.com wrote:

> You could play 10 second spots back to back in the TCR as long as they were the only two spots on the break.   The rule of thumb we lived by was you could play two ten seconds events on a break as long as they were first and last, like a :10 promo going into a break and a :10 ID coming out of it or, the only two things on the break. The midbreak in Hee Haw used to be an interesting challenge for the TCR a :30 local avail, a bumper off the reel to reel a :10 local HFC CM, a :30 second spot a :10 ID and back to the show, often into a rollover in the next position on the tape. Always a little bit of nail biting, but the machine would do it.  We would play the show on the TR-60, which was the SPU for the TCR and it would automate back and forth between the R-R and the carts very cleanly.  You had to reject out of the ID to get back to the show on time, because the position only allowed :02 for ID, but we did it every week with no problems. 
>     I was told RCA tried a number of tricks to speed up the cycle time, like dumping the tapes unrewound, and speeding up the belt, but none of them proved practical.
>     The TCR had its eccentricities, but it we shouldn't forget some of the pitfalls of the ACR like welding the reel to the inside of the cart, breaking the little plastic hook that pulls the cart into position, and oh, the column lamps failing just before a spot cluster. Also in the machine we had here, the 5 HP blower was not above failing, usually late on Sunday afternoon . . .
>  
> Bob Bruner W9TAJ
> Engineer In Charge
> Maintenance and Design
> WTTW/Chicago
>  
> 773.509.5468
> bbruner at wttwl.com.
> 

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