First, PNW elections were run by committeeman Bob Smith. The slate was shown, a quorum of AES members was counted, and committeeman James Johnston motioned to accept the uncontested slate by acclamation. Seconded by Steve Malott. A call for Yea votes by show of hands was made, and a call for Nay votes (none). Motion accepted.

Moving on with the main program, archival photos showed some of the history of the building at 207 East 30th St, NYC, which CBS used as their flagship recording studio from 1949 until 1982, when they closed it and sold the property for a condo tower. Dan had researched the history of the building which was originally built as the Adams/Parkhurst Presbyterian church in 1875. By 1949, CBS was looking for a large studio, and when Mitch Miller (working for CBS) was shown the place, he liked the sound and said to make no changes at all to the building or decor - no cleaning, refurbishment, nothing - to preserve the acoustics. As Frank noted, the main room was about 100 feet by 100 feet by 100 feet, but somewhat irregularly shaped, with plenty of 1875 architectural elements and subsequent decorations over the years. Several photos of sessions in the studio were shown (Igor Stravinsky and Leonard Bernstein recording with orchestras, Glenn Gould on piano).

A few changes were made over time, such as the control room, which might be odd considering Mitch Miller's directive of "no changes." Comparisons photos showed the old control room (circa 1949-61) vs. the newer, larger control room (through the 1970s) and finally to 1982, as well as some console changes.

An excerpt from Miles Davis' "Porgy & Bess" demonstrated Frank's 30th St. sound of the era, and Frank said he had a good working relationship with Miles, but he didn't enjoy Miles' later, more electronic sounds. Other engineers worked on those.

A 1959 excerpt of a documentary from the National Film Board of Canada showed pianist Glenn Gould and much of the studio itself.

A 30th St. sound excerpt was played, Percy Faith's, "Theme from a Summer Place." Dave Simons noted he loved the reverb. When writing his book in 1999, he found Frank and interviewed him. Many recordings from that era had a distinctive CBS sound due to their use of reverb and their reverb (AKA echo) chamber. It was considered their secret weapon. Frank spoke about finding an unused 10x15x8 storage room in the basement, where he cleaned out a lot of junk and installed an ordinary speaker and a Neumann U47 mic. The sound became much envied in the biz.

Frank said that the studio was painted and cleaned in the 1960s, and he immediately noticed the sound was completely different. Management's first answer was to build a new console, then they decided to build a new control room.

Dan announced his own project to hold webinars for discussing the 30th St. studio, with Frank. Interested people worldwide are invited to participate. Dan also noted that the Steve Hoffman music forums were helpful for finding info on the studio, the music, and even guest Steve Epstein. One of the forum moderators, Matt Luthans, gave a plug for the forum.

After an intermission, some door prizes were awarded.

• 3 swag items from the NAB convention provided by Mike Matesky/Opus 4 Studios - won by JJ, Bob Randolph, Dave Elus.
• 2 DVDs of a previous PNW meeting honoring Frank, won by Dave Campbell and Bryan Hubert

Resuming the meeting, Dan tried to discuss some questions taken from the webcast participants, regarding microphones used, and if Frank did final mixes or not. He explained that he wanted to work all the way to the final mixes, but was too busy doing the live sessions, especially in the days after recordings were done with more than 3 tracks. The multitrack days were more like a factory. Frank was called a "control man," doing the live tracks. Sometimes they didn't know what subsequently happened to the recordings.

A few non-Columbia artists managed to record at 30th St. even though they were not supposed to. Dave Simons told a story about being with Frank and Mitch Miller in 2003, and Frank "confessing" that they'd recorded Frank Sinatra. Mitch was taken completely by surprise.

A video excerpt of Tony Bennett was played, singing the Harold Arlen song, "So Long, Big Time" during the recording session at 30th St. many years ago. Then an audio bit of Tony singing, "If I Love Again." Frank said he got along great with Tony, both being of Italian heritage. A photo was shown of Frank, his wife Collette and Tony Bennett at the NY Copacabana Club, where Tony was performing and had invited the Laicos.

Turning to some of the equipment used, a Neumann M49 mic pops up in many photos, apparently a favorite of Frank's. Photos of various mixing consoles through the years were shown.

Excerpts of the film documentary of the soundtrack recording of the Sondheim musical, "Company" at 30th St. showed much of the studio in the 70s with Frank's co-worker Fred Plaut. Frank is shown doing a final overdub of Elaine Stritch in studio B on 52nd St.

After listening to an audio excerpt of Thelonious Monk playing his "Straight No Chaser", Frank stated that he was a very nice man, unassuming, and gave his musicians just an idea of what he wanted, and he let them fill in the details. There is also a film documentary about Thelonious Monk called "Straight No Chaser," but it's studio scenes were not shot at 30th St.

Steve Epstein started working at CBS Masterworks in the 70s, and spoke about working at 30th St. for many classical sessions. The standard Altec A-7 monitor speakers were replaced with KLH 6s for his sessions. He recalled some deep rumble in the building that had to be filtered out, and radio interference from the nearby Empire State Building antennas that precluded using some microphones.

Dave Simons, speaking from his home, told how he was inspired to make his own home studio reverb chamber after meeting Frank and writing the "Studio Stories" book. While a photo was shown, Dave stuck his head into his chamber and gave us a demo over the phone. Some musical examples were played of Dave's home chamber, as well as some Tony Bennett classics done at CBS' 30th St and 7th Ave. studios reverb.

Finally, Frank retold his account of recording "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" with Tony Bennett. Hearing of his health problems, Tony had chatted with Frank recently on the phone.

It was a long and rich evening, with special thanks due to the Dansound Inc. crew, Crista Rehabilitation Center, and Frank Laico and his family.