I remember back when I was first starting in radio working at npr.
This was in their old studios on M street in Washington, D.C.
and my boss back then and my mentor, Keith Talbott, who, side note, taught me what was possible with radio.
I would not be here without Keith.
Anyway, we were in the studio listening to some recording.
And this was back in the days of reel to reel tape recorders.
And so it was long ago, right?
And back then, any reel to reel tape that you would throw up on a machine at NPR, it would start with, I think it was like 30 seconds.
It might have been a minute of tone.
You know what I'm talking about when I say tone?
What's this sound?
1000 Hz.
This tone actually has a practical function.
If you picture.
Oh, my God, this is really annoying.
Hold on, I'm just going to stop that.
Okay.
If you picture a sound meter with a needle, you know, that bounces up and down every time there's a sound, the tone is supposed to put the needle perfectly at this one spot on the meter where the black numbers end and the red part of the meter begins.
There's like a zero at that spot marking.
This is where you want to be.