Subject: [removed] Digest V2020 #3
From: [removed]@[removed]
Date: 1/20/2020 8:57 AM
To: [removed]@[removed]
Reply-to:
[removed]@[removed]

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                            The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                              Volume 2020 : Issue 3
                         A Part of the [removed]!
                             [removed]
                                 ISSN: 1533-9289


                                 Today's Topics:

  Remembering Stewart Wright            [ Johnny Dollar <johnnydollar@humealu ]
  Non-music programs in FM              [ A Joseph Ross <joe@[removed] ]
  This week in radio history 19-25 Jan  [ Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed] ]
  A request, and a larger question      [ Charlie Summers <charlie@[removed] ]

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Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2020 00:37:48 -0500
From: Johnny Dollar <johnnydollar@[removed];
To: OTR Digest <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Remembering Stewart Wright

Like so many others in the OTR community, I was shocked to learn that my
friend, Stewart Wright had died. Many of us know of his dedication to
OTR research, and many of us have benefited from his generosity in
sharing information. But there was much more to Stewart.
He was proud of his service in the [removed] Army, where he was an NCO in an
artillery battalion. Our conversation invariably included stories of
what could happen when projectiles were fired from a high-power
artillery piece by those who really did not understand their job.
Stewart was proud of his work as a cartographer and geographic
researcher. He would recount how he was scheduled to go to an
observation station at Mt. Saint Helens on a Saturday only to be told by
his supervisor that he was not to travel on the weekend but to leave on
Monday - the Monday after the volcano erupted.
Stewart was also a dogged researcher who could literally find that
nugget of OTR information that he needed. He was protective of his
copyrights, but would freely provide assistance to others, including
myself. I know that when he found previously unknown Johnny Dollar
programs, he took the time to document them for me, even though it took
time away from his scheduled research.
I will miss the 1-2 hour phone calls, the thank you for your service
call on Veterans Day, and all the information he shared with me. But
even knowing that he is gone, I find it difficult to remove his contact
information from my phone - maybe, just maybe. . .
I am sure that Stewart is regaling the actors and writers of his
favorite programs where ever he may be.

John C. Abbott

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Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2020 00:38:41 -0500
From: A Joseph Ross <joe@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Non-music programs in FM
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
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...  Were any of the popular programs
broadcast on FM?  Relatedly, was the later introduction of stereo technology
ever used in an attempt to encourage people to try dramatic radio programming
again?

Since many FM stations simulcasted the programs of their co-owned AM
stations, I'm sure the popular programs were broadcast on FM at least
then.  By the early 1960s, WEEI-FM in Boston was still carrying the
programs of WEEI (AM), but it was signing on at 2:00 PM.  I had an FM
radio at the time and used it to listen to the then-weekday Amos 'n'
Andy Music Hall and the CBS news programs that followed, along with the
nightly Bob & Ray show.  I also listened to the few remaining CBS
dramatic programs on Sunday evening.  I think that CBS's reruns of the
Jack Benny Program were no longer running by the time I got my FM radio,
and I don't remember listening to that on FM, but whatever WEEI had on
at the time during the WEEI-FM broadcast day, including any news,
religious, or talk programs, were carried on FM.

Before I got my FM radio (in December 1958), I had some friends who had
an FM radio, and I remember them turning on WNAC-FM, the NBC affiliate,
where I heard Monitor, including a George Gobel monolog and a brief
episode of "Duffy's Tavern."

--
A. Joseph Ross, [removed] . 1340 Centre Street, Suite 103 . Newton, MA 02459
[removed] . [removed] . [removed]

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Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2020 00:39:08 -0500
From: Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed];
To: otr-digest <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  This week in radio history 19-25 January

 From Those Were The Days -

1/20

1954   The National Negro Network was formed on this date. Some 40 radio
stations were charter members of the network.

1/21

1927   The first opera to be broadcast over a national radio network was
presented in Chicago, IL. Listeners heard selections from Faust.

1946   The Fat Man debuted on ABC. J. Scott Smart, who played the portly
detective, weighed in at 270 pounds in real life.

1/22

1956   Raymond Burr starred as Captain Lee Quince in the Fort Laramie
debut on CBS. The program was said to be in "the Gunsmoke tradition."

1/23

1937   In an article published in Literary Digest, Edgar Bergen
mentioned that he made his dummy pal, Charlie McCarthy, the beneficiary
of a $10,000 trust fund ($180,655 in 2019 dollars) to keep him in
serviceable condition and repair.

1/24

1930   Ben Bernie (Benjamin Anzelwitz) began a weekly remote broadcast
from the lovely Roosevelt Hotel in NYC.

1942 - Abie's Irish Rose was first heard on NBC this day replacing
Knickerbocker Playhouse. The program was based on the smash play from
Broadway that ran for nearly 2,000 performances. Sydney Smith played the
part of Abie. Rosemary Murphy was played by Betty Winkler.

1/25

1937   NBC presented the first broadcast of The Guiding Light.

1944   The character, a black maid named Beulah and played by a white
man, Marlin Hurt, aired for the first time on Fibber McGee and Molly.
The spinoff, Beulah, became a radio series in 1945.

Joe

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Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2020 00:39:42 -0500
From: Charlie Summers <charlie@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  A request, and a larger question

Folks;

   A request came in over the transom for recordings of a singer in the
Providence, RI and Attleboro, MA areas, Gilbert Patten, who may or may not
have done local radio work on WPRO, WARA, or possibly other local stations in
the area during the 1930's to the 1960's.

   While of course it's unlikely anyone here has transcriptions or airchecks
of this particular singer from these specific stations (but if you do and can
provide copies of same, please let me know so I may pass them along!), this
brings up something I have sometimes wondered [removed] any of us actively
collecting local station transcription recordings from the 1930's to the
1960's? (I naturally don't mean DJ airchecks, I mean "real"
[removed] dramas, musical programs, comedies, news, current
events, and such.)

   If so, I'd be interested in a discussion about how one gets started in
this more narrow area of collecting, how one goes about finding these
recordings, and maybe even making some of these programs available to the
Digest so we can hear the similarities and differences between local and
network productions.

   And if not, have you stumbled over any accidentally?

         Charlie

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End of [removed] Digest V2020 Issue #3
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