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Topic: Portable radios for customer rentals at a drive-in
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Tony Gallimore
Expert Film Handler
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Posts: 108
From: Willis, Virginia, USA
Registered: Jul 2009
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posted 06-12-2012 12:09 PM
A couple of questions as a matter of bringing myself up to date, as I haven't had any association with a drive-in since I worked at one in the 90's. (All indoor since then.) When the transmitters came into use for D/I's, we just added the service and continued to use the field speakers. In fact, we had a few customers who for whatever reason were reluctant to run their vehicle radio's. This was well after the transition to solid state, so it wasn't the problem of the radio pulling so much current that it drained their battery, plus we kept a battery pack and had several employees with cars available to jump anyone with a dead battery. One question is "are these drive-ins you refer to so new that they were built with broadcast capability only, or was the old speaker system abandoned?" We continued to maintain our speakers just the same as previous to the addition of the wireless systems. The speaker post/junction box helped to regulate orderly parking... our field was grass, the ramps gravel and of course no lines for parking, so the posts served several purposes. They even had low voltage lighting in them in addition to the moonlight system. Additionally, I have attended a drive-in where they had mounted horns on each side of the screen and aimed them center field for those who didn't want to use the field speakers or radio. This worked well for theatre patrons, but I'm not sure how the neighbors liked it. In addition, this drive-in accomodated a lot of walk-ins, usually kids not old enough to drive, with benches at the back of the field in front of concessions. That worked well during good weather, but I wouldn't want to be trapped there in a thunderstorm. For this reason, I'm surprised there are many patrons needing to rent a radio at all unless the drive-ins of which you're speaking are newer installations that never had field speakers/posts etc. Just curious... after I retired to my back yard cinema and lawn chair, I just didn't keep up with the drive-in venue.
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Tony Gallimore
Expert Film Handler
![](/ubbmembers/5358a.jpg)
Posts: 108
From: Willis, Virginia, USA
Registered: Jul 2009
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posted 06-12-2012 02:44 PM
Just out of further curiosity, Justin, some of the first AM systems used the pre-existing speaker wiring to the posts as the radiators for the AM signal. What little I remember was it wasn't real efficient and experienced interference from the night time skip of adjacint radio stations, heterodyne, passing cb radios etc. Is it possible your theatre was one of the earlier systems that later converted to better AM technology when it became available? The timing (1970's) would be about right. Because of the interference problems, I read the FCC relinquished their binding regulations and let the AM designs go to a single antenna and let them radiate up to three miles around the theatre, controling that by the power output at the transmitter. With the power boost and better filtering on the receivers, they were able to overcome the interference. I never saw one of those first AM systems in operation, only read about it in Boxoffice Magazine and in broadcast mags, as I was also involved in broadcast engineering too. The old prototypes, I understand, came and went faster than 1950's 3-D. FM, for theatres was introduced around then too, and the FCC mandated all receivers be AM/FM capable. I guess the problem was pretty much solved until the FCC started arguing about which type of FM stereo to mandate. Then it was AM stereo... It's always something with federally regulated electronics, isn't it? Great talking to you guys!!
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