ABSTRACT
Records produced during and after World War II by the U.S. War Department for distribution to military personnel. The earliest issues appeared in October 1943, the final ones in May 1949. V-Discs were made of unbreakable vinyl, in 12-inch size; the pressing was done by Victor and CBS. By means of tight grooving (136/inch) a playing time of up to 6 1/2 minutes was achieved, allowing more than one piece to appear on each side. Leading popular and classical artists donated their time for original recordings, and others were heard from contributed matrices. Often the performer would introduce a disc with some spoken lines, in the manner of the old announcements on acoustic discs and cylinders. It is interesting that many of the V-Discs were made during the recording ban ordered by the American Federation of Musicians, the only instrumental commercial records officially created during that period. More than 8 million V-Discs were distributed, and all the matrices were publicly destroyed when the project terminated. [Sears 1980.]
A television or music video equivalent of the disc jockey: the person who announces the numbers. The first veejay was Cathy McGowan in the U.K., who announced the ITV pop program Ready! Steady! Go! in the 1960s.
