Subject: [removed] Digest V2003 #237
From: "OldRadio Mailing Lists" <[removed]@[removed];
Date: 6/14/2003 7:56 PM

To: <[removed]@[removed];

    ------------------------------

                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2003 : Issue 237
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      OTR on TV                             [ lawrence albert <albertlarry@yahoo. ]
      Today in radio history                [ Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed] ]
      Radio Returns?                        [ PFornatar@[removed] ]
      Hairston Family                       [ "Don Frey" <alanladdsr@[removed] ]
      June 15th birthdays                   [ Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed]; ]
      Network Audio Line Quality            [ Mark J Cuccia <mcuccia@[removed]; ]
      Color radio and color screens         [ Richard Carpenter <sinatra@ragingbu ]
      Arthur Godfrey and Scott Joplin       [ leemunsick@[removed] ]
      Color Radio                           [ "A. Joseph Ross" <lawyer@attorneyro ]

    ------------------------------

    Date: Sat, 14 Jun 2003 12:33:56 -0400
    From: lawrence albert <albertlarry@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  OTR on TV

    Craig Wichman wrote:

>       I love DRAGNET, especially in its first incarnation. But am I the
>     only one out here who thinks Ed O'Neill was a good choice, and
>     is doing solid work in a solid (if not perfect - but then, does
>     anyone recall the lesser episodes of the 60's DRAGNET?) new version?

          No Craig you're not alone in thinking that Ed
    O"Neill is doing a good job. As a matter of fact I've
    become a big fan of the show. As Jack Webb was the
    focal point of his version of Dragnet, so Ed ably
    handles the same position on this new version. To my
    mind he's perfect for the role.
        Since I'm not a shy person I'm going to give my
    opinion of redoing other OTR shows for TV. Frankly
    after spending some time reading posting after posting
    I came to my personal conclusion that the only way a
    new version of any OTR show on TV would please most
    collectors would have to be one that was done in
    exactly the same style as the original. Which of
    course would be ridiculous. These shows were a product
    of their times and the writing and production style
    were a product of those times.  To redo an OTR show
    today it would have to be updated to appeal to the
    viewer of today. And to do that, for many of the
    shows, it could mean jettisoning much of what made it
    popular originally. To an OTR fan such an act appears
    to be tantamount to format treason.
        I can't imagine any African-American actor of
    today willing to redo Amos & Andy with the dialog and
    characters of the original. The gentle literate comedy
    of The Halls of Ivy would never sell in todays market
    with its emphasis on sex and on one joke on top of
    another. And besides, as has already been pointed out,
    most of the formats of the better OTR shows have
    already be redone again and again.
         Charlie said "...if they do it [removed]" Well for
    OTR collectors "they" will never get it right unless
    they dig up the original actors and scripts and do the
    shows without any changes at all. That being the case
    why not just listen to the tapes, CDs or MP3s and
    forget about it. OK Gunsmoke just might be the
    exception.
                  Always ready to spout off
                       Larry Albert

    ------------------------------

    Date: Sat, 14 Jun 2003 12:34:06 -0400
    From: Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed];
    To: otr-net <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Today in radio history

       From Those Were The Days --

    1922 - A [removed] President was heard on the radio for the first time.
    President Warren G. Harding dedicated the Francis Scott Key Memorial and
    was heard on WEAR in Baltimore.

    1950 - Harold Peary played the leading role of The Great Gildersleeve
    one final time. Willard Waterman took Peary's place in the role.

       Joe

    --
    Visit my homepage: [removed]

    ------------------------------

    Date: Sat, 14 Jun 2003 12:34:21 -0400
    From: PFornatar@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Radio Returns?
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

        Instead of talking about which OTR show would make the switch to
    television, isn't it time to do the reverse.  Economically, going back on
    radio would
    cheaper and it would certainly do wonders to clean up some of the scum that's
    there now.
        Most of television is "soap opera" oriented. What better place than back
    to the place of its birth.
         It would also be a wonderful learning opportunity for actors, especially
    some of  those of today who can't speak the language [removed] many times
    have you heard  exspecially??  OTR stimulated the imagination and demanded
    listening skills rare today in [removed]  In forty years of teaching, I
    found that listening skills were probably those least taught and most needed.
         You can still bring radio with you, and you don't have to watch it.
    That's why I'm listening more now (old shows) than I ever did.

         Paul Fornatar in the Seventh Decade.

      *** This message was altered by the server, and may not appear ***
      ***                  as the sender intended.                   ***

    ------------------------------

    Date: Sat, 14 Jun 2003 12:36:24 -0400
    From: "Don  Frey" <alanladdsr@[removed];
    To: "otr message" <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Hairston Family

    With the information on Mr. Hairston, and now more information on the family
    itself,
    I'm wondering if three professional athletes, that I always liked (in the
    50's-60's)
    were/are related. There was "Silent" Hairston, a boxer (deaf) named Eugene,
    I think,
    and a basketball player (NBA) and a baseball player (White Sox?) One of
    those two, one was nicknamed "Happy" Hairston but the first name of the
    other slips my mind. This
    is all my besotted memory can dredge up. Anyone out there able to
    [removed]

    ------------------------------

    Date: Sat, 14 Jun 2003 19:02:47 -0400
    From: Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  June 15th birthdays

    June 15th birthdays

    06-15-1861 - Ernestine Schumann-Heink - Prague, Czechoslovkia - d. 11-17-1936
    singer: "Enna Jettick Melodies"; "Hoover Sentinels Serenade"
    06-15-1909 - Joseph Desantis - NYC - d. 8-30-1989
    actor: Jim Scott "Under Arrest"; "This Is Nora Drake"
    06-15-1910 - David Rose - London, England - d. 8-23-1990
    conductor: "Red Skelton Show"; "David Rose Show"; "Bold Venture"
    06-15-1929 - Lucille Norman - Lincoln, NE
    singer: "The Time, the Place and the Tune"; "Railroad Hour"

    June 15th deaths

    04-25-1918 - Ella Fitzgerald - Newport News, VA - d. 6-15-1996
    singer: "Flow Gently, Sweet Rhythm"; "Jubilee"
    05-18-1902 - Meredith Willson - Mason City, IA - d. 6-15-1984
    conductor, composer: "Maxwell House Coffee Time"; "Meredith Willson/Music Room"

    Ron Sayles
    Milwaukee, Wisconsin
    Hometown of [removed] Kaltenborn and Spencer Tracy

    ------------------------------

    Date: Sat, 14 Jun 2003 19:03:25 -0400
    From: Mark J Cuccia <mcuccia@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Network Audio Line Quality

    Mark J Cuccia <mcuccia@[removed]; initially wrote (regarding the
    pre-NBC WEAF-based radio network owened/operated directly by AT&T):

> >     I understand that AT&T was able to equalize their usually 3-Kc
> >     bandwidth long-distance telephone lines up to "network radio
> >     broadcast" quality *5* Kc bandwidth (which was the STANDARD
> >     for most network radio and network TV audio until either diplexing
> >     then later satellites came about)

    MICHAEL BIEL <mbiel@[removed]; replied:

>     Fortunately this was not true for the radio network lines during the
>     OTR years.  By the middle of 1934 AT&T set up all the main trunks of
>     the network lines from coast-to-coast with a 10 KC equalized bandwidth.
>     I have a detailed 1934 publication from the AT&T Long Lines Division
>     that discusses this.  The secondary lines to smaller towns off of the
>     main trunks had lower quality lines, but they also got improvements as
>     time went on.  But in the 1960s, apparently the radio networks in
>     general decided this was no longer worth it for their now news-only
>     service and cut back to use of 5 KHz. lines with a filtering of [removed] KHz
>     before it left their shop. As I discovered when I moved out of the New
>     York City market in the 60s, the TV networks didn't bother to use the
>     now-available 10 KHz lines for their audio and continued to use the
>     5 KHz lines they had started with.  So unless you were in NYC or LA,
>     network radio and TV audio sounded worse in the post-OTR days than in
>     the OTR days.

    And now further from mcuccia@[removed]:

    I have read (and heard talk) that in the 1930s era, much of network radio
    was supposedly being distributed (at least the backbone to the biggest
    markets) via 8-Khz bandwidth lines. But around the time of WW-II, and
    probably because AT&T needed the available equipment and circuits for the
    "war effort", the "backbone" parts of the radio networks were downgraded
    to 5-Khz quality lines which most of the rest of the US had already been
    using, although the smallest of markets (especially a great deal of Mutual
    even in mid-size markets) were on 3-Khz (or [removed] Khz) bandwidth either
    because 5-Khz (or broader) wasn't yet available, or else it was too
    expensive for the networks to afford the upgrades for such small market
    affiliates, and the network was only willing to pay for the more inferior
    [removed] lines. Sometimes, in those smallest of rural markets, the local
    station *itself* had to pay Ma' Bell for the last mile(s) connection to
    the national (or regional) "backbones", and for their limited budgets,
    the inferior [removed] lines were much more affordable.

    There is a website (regarding the early days of radio in the San Francisco
    area), which has one of its webpages devoted to network radio audio
    quality, called "That Radio Network Sound", by Fred Krock:

    [removed]~[removed]

    In this article, he mentions that *eight* Khz was the bandwidth used for
    network radio until ... "after World War II" (when they cut back to 5-Khz
    to "save money").

    Most of the OTR that I regularly hear is from the 1940s/50s and even early
    1960s era. There's not a "whole" lot of OTR I get a chance to hear from
    the 1930s era.

    If a program were pre-transcribed (especially for first-run syndication,
    or if it were a source-transcription for archival purposes), you would
    have the original full bandwidth (except for multiple generation
    recordings degrading the overall acoustic quality though).

    But programs transcribed or recorded a distance away from the program
    source would begin to have some "network audio" acoustic quality
    introduced.

    I can't really say that I've heard this acoustic quality on any of the
    programs I've heard from the 1930s and early 1940s era. If any of these
    programs were indeed transcribed off the network line "well outside" of
    the program origination point (usually Hollywood or New York, sometimes
    Chicago, Detroit, Washington DC, even Cincinnati, but also some other
    points as well), and if I'm still not hearing "5-Khz network audio"
    quality, then indeed the radio networks were using 8-to-10 Khz bandwidth
    lines from AT&T (Ma' Bell).

    However, I do hear various OTR from the later 1940s and throughout the
    1950s, where some of the programs have varying degrees of 5-Khz "network
    audio" acoustic quality. I've heard various 1940s/50s era Dragnet
    episodes, Suspense episodes, etc. which are usually airchecks off stations
    well to the east of [removed] or else they are transcriptions (or later
    tapes) off the network line itself, but well to the east of Hollywood.

    There are all of those Suspense, Johnny Dollar, Gunsmoke, Have Gun Will
    Travel, etc. CBS Radio Sunday afternoon/evening dramas of the later 1950s,
    originated from Hollywood, but taped off WROW-590 Albany NY, a continent
    away! Those programs have *intense* 5-Khz network radio audio quality.

    When Suspense moved production to CBS New York in August 1959, and then
    Johnny Dollar moved production to CBS New York in December 1960, until
    both programs ceased new production altogather at the end of September
    1962, any tapes off WROW-590 Albany NY don't really have that "network
    audio" 5-Khz quality, since the line from NY City to Albany NY was a very
    short distance. It doesn't have any of that "network sound".

    However, any early 1960s Suspense and Johnny Dollar episodes, now produced
    in New York, but taped off the line somewhere *west* of New York, such as
    at AFRTS in Hollywood, have the program with *intense*
    transcontinental-length 5-Khz acoustic quality!

    I've heard some early (later 1950s, of course) segments of MONITOR, most
    likely recorded off the network line somewhere well outside of New York
    City, the origination point, and you can hear that "intense" 5-Kc quality.

    In the premiere broadcast of Monitor, those 8 hours from 4pm Eastern
    until Midnite Eastern, on Sunday 12-June-1955, I've heard the "scoped"
    clip, and it seems to be something recorded right there in New York City.
    But there is a brief "we switch you now to NBC affiliate WWJ Detroit",
    for a report on the negotiations between GM and auto workers about to go
    on strike. To *my* ear, I can detect a small amount of that "5-Kc network
    audio quality" -- not as intense as transcontinental, nor even as intense
    as what I can remember hearing on radio/TV here in New Orleans throughout
    the 1960s/70s era, the distance from Detroit to New York City isn't all
    that great, but still enough to introduce a certain amount of that
    "network audio quality" if using 5-Khz quality telco lines.

    In 1978, AT&T (and the "Other Common Carriers", mostly "private" microwave
    companies which had sprung up in the 1960s/70s, and contracted by the
    broadcast networks) and the (major) television networks themselves
    (CBS-TV, NBC-TV, ABC-TV, and even PBS-TV) began to "diplex" (multiplex)
    network TV's audio channels onto (into?) the actual video "channel" on
    co-ax or microwave, giving a *FIFTEEN* Khz bandwidth acoustic quality
    available from coast-to-coast, also actually *TWO* separate channels
    leading to the possibility of Stereo audio or the second channel being
    an alternate language -- INSTEAD of having the network TV audio being
    a separate but parallel standard audio link of 5-Khz landlines.

    I most certainly remeember how in late Winter and Spring/Summer 1978,
    I began to notice how many TV network programs were beginning to sound
    "local", via the New Orleans (and Baton Rouge) affiliates. It wasn't
    necessarily consistant -- I assume that AT&T/South Central Bell and the
    TV network affiliates here were working out the bugs and kinks --
    some nights, I'd notice how one or another TV network might have full
    15-Khz audio on its New Orleans affiliate but not on its Baton Rouge
    affiliate, but the following night, both had 5-Khz audio, etc.

    By June 1978, all three TV networks on both the New Orleans and Baton
    Rouge affiliates were sounding fully "local" with full 15-Khz audio,
    consistantly, and ever since.

    I also remember reading how Texaco was working with AT&T to use a full
    stereo pair of *15* Khz audio landlines, throughout the 1970s, at least
    in the northeast markets, but eventually expanding to more of the US,
    for feeding the Texaco Metropolitan Opera. It was *VERY* costly for Texaco
    to have 15-Khz audio lines (and a pair of them for stereo as well), to
    distribute to as much of the country as they did, according to the rates
    I remember seeing in AT&T's public tariffs books for public viewing in
    the public lobby (bill payment center) of South Central Bell here in New
    Orleans, at that [removed]

    In 1978/79, the "Met" was finally airing on the "public" (NPR) FM station
    as well as the religion-based AM station here in New Orleans in FULL
    15-Khz audio quality. Of course, WVOG-600-AM only had it in mono, and AM
    didn't have the same "true" 15-Khz quality that [removed] could give.
    But even on WVOG-AM, the "Met" had a LOCAL sound instead of any trace of
    "network" audio sound.

    CBS Radio, NBC Radio, ABC Radio, and NPR were still feeding on 5-Khz
    "network style" lines until they all began to go satellite; Mutual came
    into New Orleans on [removed] Khz lines until it went satellite as well,
    although somewhere "before" New Orleans, Mutual came in on 5-Khz lines.
    Even with the [removed] Khz downgrade from 5-Khz before actually getting close
    to New Orleans, I could still "detect" that 5-Khz "network radio" sound
    in the background although it was still sounding like a 3-Kc telephone
    call overall.

    NPR and Mutual affiliates here began to get their feeds via full
    satellite (Western Union WESTAR) by 1980/81; CBS/NBC/ABC Radio affiliates
    here in New Orleans began to receive and broadcast their network program
    feeds via (digital/RCA) satellite by late 1983 and into 1984.

    And the television networks must have gone to full satellite distribution
    around the same time, that late 1983 and into 1984 timeframe since there
    was this "uncertainty" about what would happen with the breakup of AT&T's
    Bell System in [removed] But since network TV audio had been diplexed into
    the video signal with full 15-Khz audio quality since 1978, the switchover
    to satellite wasn't really "noticeable" since the audio was basically
    unchanged, already being a "wideband" quality.

    Mark J. Cuccia
    mcuccia@[removed]
    New Orleans LA USA

    ------------------------------

    Date: Sat, 14 Jun 2003 19:04:06 -0400
    From: Richard Carpenter <sinatra@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Color radio and color screens

       WMEX in Boston was among the radio stations using
    the expression "color radio" for a while. When a
    newspaper reporter asked what the heck it meant, an
    executive said something about exciting, colorful
    programming. In short, it didn't mean an awful lot.

       My family had one of those tricolor gel screens
    that were placed over the black-and-white picture to
    simulate color television. With blue at the top,
    orange in the middle and green at the bottom, the
    screen worked best when watching outdoor scenes in
    Westerns, provided that you didn't mind the cowboys
    being entirely orange. I don't remember why we stopped
    using the screen.

    ------------------------------

    Date: Sat, 14 Jun 2003 19:05:03 -0400
    From: leemunsick@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Arthur Godfrey and Scott Joplin

    Mark Kinsler correctly recalls being exposed to Scott Joplin and ragtime on
    the Arthur Godfrey programs, and he ties that memory to Marvin Hamlisch and
    the 1973 motion picture "The Sting".  The sound track of that film greatly
    featured the compositions of Scott Joplin lovingly juxtaposed and arranged
    by Mr. Hamlisch.

    They undoubtedly added greatly to the ambience and success of the film,
    although the chronological timing is totally off.  Wrong era, the film
    taking place well into the 1930s, and Joplin's music nearer to the turn of
    the century.  But it "sounded right", indeed.  Notice how many
    documentaries on Biography, Discovery and History Channels use ragtime
    music to set "that old time" feeling for a very broad range of eras before
    and after 1900, even up into Prohibition.

    It's entirely possible that Marvin Hamlisch guested on the Arthur Godfrey
    programs at some point, although I am not aware of any such
    appearance.  It's a good tip; I shall contact Mr. Hamlisch and raise the
    question with him.

    It is true that many people were exposed to the great ragtime melodies of
    Scott Joplin through "The Sting".  But there is more to this story.

    I think it's far more likely that Mark's "ragtime exposure" on the Godfrey
    programs was due to Max Morath's many Godfrey visits, rather than any by
    Hamlisch.  Max and Arthur Godfrey became good friends and remained in touch
    for years until Mr. Godfrey's passing in 1983.

    Max Morath for many years pounded away (pardon the pun) for ragtime,
    educating and entertaining his listeners about ragtime by Scott Joplin and
    other great rag composers.  Long before "The Sting".

    I have said for years that the resurgence of interest in and popularity of
    ragtime in the latter part of the 20th Century was due in the main to those
    extensive efforts by Max Morath.  He has stayed at it to this day, through
    his radio and television appearances, many recordings, the wonderful PBS
    series on ragtime which he hosted (and which, so sadly, no longer exists),
    and his various stage shows such as "Max Morath at the Turn of the
    Century".  These were great successes in New York, and continued so across
    the hustings, when for years he took them on the road.  If you've never
    seen and heard one of these shows, you've missed a wonderful treat.  Buy
    the records!

    We at Yesteryear Museum in New Jersey were fortunate to have Max at three
    of our annual Spring benefit shows, brought back by popular demand.  On two
    other occasions we were blessed with appearances by someone who bridged the
    gap between Joplin and Morath, Eubie Blake.  At one, he surprised us with
    the world premiere performance of his "Rhapsody in Ragtime".

    I supposed I could be considered biased about Max Morath, for I was proud
    to work with him on a number of occasions, and we've remained friends.  But
    as a lover of good ragtime and as an historian,  I am most assuredly not
    alone in my considered estimation that ragtime was essentially "brought
    back" by the efforts of Max Morath.

    Someone far more expert and esteemed in the musical field shares that
    opinion, and has voiced it frequently, publicly, and with great sincerity,
    admiration, appreciation, and humility.

    That someone is named  Marvin Hamlisch.

    Lee Munsick

    ------------------------------

    Date: Sat, 14 Jun 2003 21:01:46 -0400
    From: "A. Joseph Ross" <lawyer@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Color Radio

>     Date: Fri, 13 Jun 2003 10:42:35 -0400
>     From: "Mark Kinsler" <kinsler33@[removed];

>     I'm pretty sure that the term "color radio" would have been used as a
>     slogan, and included in a jingle, by many top-40 stations in the early
>     1960's.  The popular (with teens) WHK in Cleveland (1420 kHz) used it, but
>     I doubt that any promotional campaigns like this would have been confined
>     to a single market.

    I remember hearing it on WMEX, Boston and WPTR, Albany in the late 60s and early 70s.
    I'm sure other stations used it as well.

    A. Joseph Ross, [removed]                           [removed]
     15 Court Square, Suite 210                 lawyer@[removed]
    Boston, MA 02108-2503           	         [removed]

    --------------------------------
    End of [removed] Digest V2003 Issue #237
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