Nocturne: a late night program for easy listening.

Nocturne was one of the many programs created and produced by Walter Dixon during his 20 years at WHAM. It aired 6 nights a week from midnight until 1:00 AM.

In keeping with the technology of the day, radio stations employed engineers to assist the on-air personalities. They sat in separate soundproof rooms on either side of a large soundproof window which allowed them to communicate with each other through hand signals or an intercom.

The engineer’s job was to record the program on a reel-to-reel tape and regulate the outgoing sound of the live broadcast. If the program included music selected by the on-air personality, the engineer would cue the vinyl records to the music selections ahead of time. Sitting between two turntables, he placed each needle on the vinyl record next to the selected music. He then rotated each turntable by hand until the needle rested exactly on the spot where the music began thus creating a smooth segue from one selection to the other.

Sometimes Walter would have them use the sound of ocean surf as a segue between numbers. Listen carefully for the sound of surf transitions.