Subject: [removed] Digest V2003 #165
From: "OldRadio Mailing Lists" <[removed]@[removed];
Date: 4/19/2003 5:27 PM
To: <[removed]@[removed];

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


                            The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                              Volume 2003 : Issue 165
                         A Part of the [removed]!
                                 ISSN: 1533-9289


                                 Today's Topics:

  Re: Spacy cadet Jeff                  [ hal stone <dualxtwo@[removed]; ]
  Re: Cincy Convention                  [ hal stone <dualxtwo@[removed]; ]
  Re: OTR DEALERS                       [ hal stone <dualxtwo@[removed]; ]
  on hoarding                           [ benohmart@[removed] ]
  mp3 debate                            [ "Jeff Quick" <jeffquick@[removed] ]
  Easter Birthdays                      [ Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed]; ]
  Hummerts                              [ otrbuff@[removed] ]
  Filter Booths                         [ William L Murtough <k2mfi@[removed]; ]
  places to download MP3                [ Kurt E Yount <blsmass@[removed]; ]
  old time bumper stickers              [ Clifengr3@[removed] ]
  Baldi                                 [ Osborneam@[removed] ]

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

Date: Sat, 19 Apr 2003 14:15:09 -0400
From: hal stone <dualxtwo@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Re: Spacy cadet Jeff

OK. I promise. This is the last time I will shamelessly promote my book here
on the digest. (What? Do I hear a chorus of cheers in the background?)

But I "take the fifth". I'm not personally suggesting you rush to the
website and find out about it. I'll let Cadet Jeff, (who I had the pleasure
of meeting at the Cincy Convention), do the hard sell.

I got a chance to meet Hal & purchase a copy of his book.  For any of you
who have not had a chance to pick this up yet, I highly recommend it.  I
ended up finishing it up in two sittings & have to say it was  one of the
best books I have read on OTR in a very long time.  Hal keeps it light, but
sprinkles some fascinating facts along the way.   (OK Hal---you can send me
that 5 bucks you promised me now:)

To which I reply to Jeff. "Don't hang by your thumbs waiting" :) But I do
appreciate such nice comments. I mean, honestly, I find it most gratifying
that so many people have expressed such positive reviews.

But just in case there are any other Digest subscribers who might be
interested in getting a copy, now is the time. We had a great response from
people who purchased the book at the recent Cincy convention, and we have
some copies left that we plan to bring to the Seattle Convention in June. I
don't plan on ordering any more from the printer, so when they run out,
that's it.

You can go directly to our website for the ordering information.

 [removed]

Once there, you can
A) Print out the order form and use check or money order
b) Use the paypal link on the order page for credit card payment
c) use the toll free number to order and again use a credit card,

>From this point on, The lovely wife Dorothy is going to concentrate on book
store sales, and other options, until the inventory is gone.

Thanks again Jeff, and to all the others that purchased a copy, I'm glad you
enjoyed it. Performers live for positive reviews. I've discovered "authors"
are no different.

Regards

Hal(Harlan)Stone

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

Date: Sat, 19 Apr 2003 14:15:17 -0400
From: hal stone <dualxtwo@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Re: Cincy Convention

My thanks to Dan Hughes for posting his charming daughter Karen's Cincy
Convention report on the family website.

Warning to Hal Stone, Bob Hastings, Jim Skyrm, and a host of others:  if
you spent time with Karen this weekend, you may not want to read her
report.  It will make your heads swell to the point that getting though
doorways may be difficult.

Amen, to that! :)

I must now publicly thank Karen for all the nice things she said about me.
I enjoyed working with her, and find it so refreshing to find such
intelligence, graciousness, and sophistication in one so young. When I meet
such young OTR fans as Karen, I am convinced the OTR hobby will continue to
grow and prosper.

Hal(Harlan)Stone

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

Date: Sat, 19 Apr 2003 14:15:51 -0400
From: hal stone <dualxtwo@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Re: OTR DEALERS

I have been reading with interest the thread about dealers charging for
their shows, and one Digester's opinion that everything should be free.

Here's my take on that. (For what it's worth).

the hobby of OTR collecting is no different than any other hobby where
copies of items have a dollar value. There are costs involved in
accumulating such things. Not to mention time and effort in cleaning up old
transcription and tapes that have been previously duplicated without regard
to "quality".

Why should this hobby be any different than stamp collecting? If one wants a
"mint" quality stamp, with perfect perforations and centering, you pay
handsomely for it. If you want quality, or something rare, you pay for it.
But then again, some people are content to collect junk stamps, with tears,
heavy cancellations, missing perfs, etc., just to fill a space on the stamp
album page. Everything is relative.

People in the stamp collecting hobby often trade among each other. And
usually to fill gaps of issues that they don't have. Really common stamps
can be given freely when one has lots of copies. But usually, trading is
done on a per value basis, or purchased at below catalogue value among
friends in the hobby.

It's one thing to make OTR shows freely available to others, when they are
common and have no intrinsic dollar value. But when a dealer purchases OTR
material, and skillfully fixes the quality, and then is willing to make
copies available at a fair, competitive price, he has every justification to
recoup his costs before someone downloads or copies the material, and
"pirates" the show without consideration of the dealers investment.

Why shouldn't that be obvious?

Hal(Harlan)Stone

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

Date: Sat, 19 Apr 2003 15:05:31 -0400
From: benohmart@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  on hoarding

I can understand the thoughts on hoarding shows, since much time and sometimes 
money is spent on making shows listenable. I myself have no shows that have never 
been heard, but I do have a lot of Information that's not been available. And I have 100+ 
hours worth of interviews of various people related to otr or the families of otr 
performers. For me, these interviews are Very valuable because often they make up 
the jist of a book. As there are more books than readers in the world, an author or 
publisher, I think, has a right to try to get a person to buy a book, since the media of 
audio and video are more popular now. Having singular information to put in such works 
is the most important 'edge' we have over the other forms of entertainment. Of course 
with dvds putting on so many extras these days, I wonder if that edge will be lost in the 
future. Probably not. 

However, as I've stated here before, I've NEVER found an interview with Walter Tetley. 
Are they being hoarded? I don't know. From my experience in writing his biography 
([removed]) he just didn't give interviews in later life. But surely he 
gave SOME at SOME point, apart from the brief quotes in newspaper articles. If I didn't 
have his scrapbooks, there would be no book. But if there IS a hoarder - somewhere! - 
who has an audio or print interview with Walter Tetley, please get in touch. You shall be 
rewarded for it.

The sharing of information, I would say, is at its peak. The internet is still like the wild 
west. Most things are free and unregulated (which is causing a lot of grumble and pain 
in the music industry). But there will come a time when taxes and laws will start making 
the internet like another type of reference book, which will have to be paid for or 
borrowed. 

Ben

The Bickersons Scripts book
[removed]

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

Date: Sat, 19 Apr 2003 19:09:06 -0400
From: "Jeff Quick" <jeffquick@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  mp3 debate

After reading the many interesting posts on tape vs mp3, I decided to give
my (somewhat long winded:) opinion on the subject.

Any of us who has downloaded or traded low bit mp3's know that many of the
shows are of inferior quality than the tapes or audio cds that can be
purchased from a reputable dealer.  In my opinion the reason for the low
quality can be traced back to a number of things.

When hobbyists found they could trade OTR on the net a few years back, the
general consensus was that a encoding rate of 32/22 was a good compromise in
quality vs size.  For most shows, this encoding rate will retain **most** of
the original quality of the source tape.  What killed the quality of a lot
of the files, was not the low bit rate, but the encoding software &
techniques used.  Digital recording was a new medium for most of us & many
encodes were captured at too high or too low a volume level. Too low of a
volume level caused major hiss when pumped up to a listenable sound, too
high a volume level caused clipping & distortion. Some of the encoding
software itself was to blame.  We have all heard that annoying "wheep" sound
in some mp3 files. This is caused by the encoder running out of computer
processing power & a digital " hiccup"results. With faster computers &
better encoding software, this particular problem has started to go away.

Then we get into some of the sound "enhancing" filters that were worthless
or used incorrectly. All of us who have listened to low bit rate mp3's have
heard the underwater "wishy" sound. This is the result of running too heavy
of a hiss filter on the file. The bad techniques used go on & on and the
inferior sound captures were spread across the net like a cancer.

All of the mp3's encoded are obviously not from low generation tapes that
many of the tape dealers use as masters.  As any of you know who traded
reels & tapes in the past, not all tapes are of pristine sound.  An mp3
encode of a 10th generation dub will obviously not sound as good as a 2nd or
3rd generation tape that a dealer may offer.

The so called "tape purists" have a legitimate beef after listening to some
the poor encodes being offered on the net.  IMHO--don't attack the mp3
format, insist on better encoding techniques.

 If digital capture from tape is done correctly, the final product can be
superior to the source tape.  Digital cleanup enables us to remove hiss,
humm, pop & crackle & low or high (clipped) recording levels.  The key to
all of this is to know what filters to use & how heavy to run them to not
affect the original sound.  I save my encodes back as wav files for
archiving & then encode to a fairly high bit rate mp3 (128/44)  At this bit
rate, no quality is lost.

As to the mp3 vs tape debate---an mp3 can sound as good or better than an
original tape if it's encoded & cleaned correctly. Unfortunately, there is a
lot of (excuse the term) "crap" floating around out there.  Most mp3
hobbyists who encode don't take the time or have the ability to get a good
capture.

Some of the old time tape dealers are starting to offer audio CDs of their
tape collections.  I think this is the best thing since sliced bread:)
There is no longer the fear of tape degradation with a digital copy.  Having
our shows preserved this way will ensure the sound will be the same 50 years
from  now as it was when it was 1st copied to disk.

The problem is that the free mp3 files have caused the dealers sales to
suffer.  I'm all for free OTR and make my collection available to anyone who
wants it. [removed] have spent a lot of money in the past purchasing
missing shows & upgrades to my collection from various dealers.  Without
these guys around, our conventions would cease to exist & the vast holdings
of some of these dealers will never get converted to digital format for long
term preservation.

Go for the free MP3's, turn on your friends & relatives to the wonderful
world of OTR, but do your part to support your local dealers.  I would hate
to see the thousands of low gen tapes end up rotting away or in the trash
after the dealers are driven out of business.

I too was a little disturbed by the anti-mp3 comment made by one of the
presenters at the last convention. I brought two buddies who are heavy into
mp3 with me to the show. They both spent money at the show to support  our
dealers as well as the convention itself by purchasing raffle & dinner
tickets.

As much as many of us would like to put the "genie back in the bottle", free
music & OTR is not going to go away.

Do we want to alienate the mp3 crowd and keep the conventions welcome to
tape purists only?  The next generations of OTR enthusiasts are getting
their 1st taste of OTR via mp3. Are we that narrow minded that we can't
welcome these guys to the show? Not all, but some of the mp3 crowd are
willing to spend money to get premium sound from our dealers. I think we are
shooting ourselves in the foot by alienating those who will carry OTR into
the next generation.

Jeff Quick

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

Date: Sat, 19 Apr 2003 19:10:22 -0400
From: Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Easter Birthdays

Happy Easter list!

If you were born on the 20th of April, you share your birthday with:

04-20-1893 - Harold Lloyd - Burchard, NE
04-20-1897 - Gregory Ratoff - St. Petersburg, Russia
04-20-1904 - Bruce Cabot - Carlsad, NM
04-20-1914 - Betty Lou Gerson - Chattanooga, TN - d. 1-12-1999
04-20-1924 - Nina Foch - Leyden, Netherlands
04-20-1939 - George Takei - Los Angeles, CA

Ron Sayles
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Make your day, listen to an Olde Tyme Radio Program

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

Date: Sat, 19 Apr 2003 19:11:17 -0400
From: otrbuff@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Hummerts

Ryan asks in digest #164:

Does anyone know if a biography has been written about
Anne and Frank Hummert? I have not been able to find
any work devoted specifically to these radio giants.
If one does not exist, is someone planning on writing
one?

I plead guilty, Ryan.  For years I noticed that nobody had done so.  Last
year when I spent a couple of weeks researching another book in the
Hummert Collection at the American Heritage Center I stumbled on enough
of their correspondence and other artifacts, plus tens of thousands of
their scripts, to finally make a biography on their lives a doable
venture.  Having also located some members of their extended family plus
offspring of individuals in their employ it seemed only natural to pursue
it.

"Frank and Anne Hummert's Radio Factory:  The Programs and Personalities
of Broadcasting's Most Prolific Producers" will be released by McFarland
& Co. later this year.  It contains some rare photographs, five
appendices, a bibliography and index and will sell for $[removed]  You may
order the book now from McFarland at 1-800-253-2187.  It's currently
listed on the web site at [removed].

Those eccentric Hummerts influenced no less than 125 separate series on
radio, creating and producing most of them, including dozens that were
aired simultaneously.  At a given time their programs offered more than
100 new (non-repeating) chapters per week.  Contrary to popular opinion,
less than half (61) of those features were soap operas.  Some of their
offerings were just as popular in other realms (think "Manhattan
Merry-Go-Round," "Waltz Time," "Jack Armstrong," "Terry and the Pirates,"
"Mr. Keen," "Mr. Chameleon," "Hearthstone of the Death Squad," et. al. ad
infinitum).  The pair devised some of the most recognizable advertising
jingles ever created, some still as popular today as they were 70 years
ago.

For all of their contributions to aural broadcasting, however, Frank and
Anne Hummert could be characterized as perhaps the most reclusive couple
in the industry.  While they presided over an empire that affected the
lives of hundreds of individuals and they demonstrated idiosyncrasies
that were almost too unbelievable to be true, those
multimillionaires--whose names were credited on most of the shows they
produced--preferred to remain in the shadows, seldom subjecting
themselves to interviews or personal appearances and (to my knowledge)
never appearing on the air themselves.  Their lifestyle was ostentatious
and their minions were routinely treated with little respect.  Yet they
fostered methods that were widely practiced by others in radio
broadcasting while literally helping to shape an industry.

Their personal lives are intriguing and read like the soap operas for
which they are best recalled.  This is a fascinating study long overdue
and I believe anyone who explores it will be captivated by the tale of
this most unusual couple just as I was while researching and writing it.
Possibly no other family exerted as much influence on what we heard in
those days at all hours of the broadcast day.  They were truly
unparalleled in their accomplishments.

Jim Cox

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

Date: Sat, 19 Apr 2003 19:12:12 -0400
From: William L Murtough <k2mfi@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Filter Booths

Hal Stone did well replying to the question about "filter" mikes. However
he fell short in describing the "filter" booths. He didn't describe about
the "lousy" odor inside these booths. These units were about four feet
square with a small glass window in one side. The entrance way had a
drape of "monks cloth". The interior was finished with "Ozitte " which,
to put it midly, "stunk". A small homemade wooden horn with an earpiece
from a "headset" as a driver unit was clamped to the microphone to
furnish the audio so that the actor could hear the program. I was the
engineer on a public sevice sustaining dramatic program one afternoon.
The large cast was sitting at a  table in the midst of the first reading
of the script. Sound effects man Jim Dwan arrived and was hooking up the
the little speaker in the isolation booth. When he came out he he leaned
over to the cast mike and commented on the odor. exclaiming "there must
have been a communist meeting in there last night". The cast,as a body,
"froze", and as a body gave him a disdainful look. Jim came into the
control room and admitted that he had pulled a "boner" and would be more
careful hereafter. I might explain that during that period there were
directors who had Communist leanings and would hire talent of their own
persuasion. However this should not be taken as the "norm". In fact it
was rare. As I recall, none of the actors on that program were any of the
regulars that I would have recognized, even though it was a sizeable
cast.

Jim Dwan died many years ago!

Bill Murtough

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

Date: Sat, 19 Apr 2003 19:21:41 -0400
From: Kurt E Yount <blsmass@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  places to download MP3

I may be opening a can of worms here, (for which I am kind of sorry), but
I am trying to kind of put together for myself a list of places to
download free MP3 radio shows.  To level the playing field, I would like
to start with no sites and go from there.  You can kill me later guys,
but right now I can't afford to buy anything but I would like to download
some more shows.  I know this is greedy of me, but look at it as a
valuable resource for all.  Thanks in advance.  Kurt

[ADMINISTRIVIA: Instead of bunches of postings to the list, let's just leave
it at USENET newsgroups (see [removed] and its
ilk for downloadable shows), as well as the searchable website-database
available at Jim's Radio Days [removed] website. If you don't know
what USENET is or how to use the newsreader software available for your
operating system, please contact your Internet provider's help system, since
detailed instructions are almost always available there, and are frankly
outside the scope of the mailing list. (In my copious spare time, I will add
this information to the mailing list FAQ available through the archive server
and automatically sent on subscription, though.)

If you absolutely MUST send your favorite website, please send it privately
to the poster. The Digest _really_ shouldn't turn into simply a collection of
URLs.  --cfs3]

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

Date: Sat, 19 Apr 2003 19:22:00 -0400
From: Clifengr3@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  old time bumper stickers
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

When I was a youth traveling with my family in the Adirondack and Lake George
regions of New York, we went to all the family roadside attractions like
Catskill Game Farm, Frontier Town, North Pole, Gaslight Village and others.
And at each they would put a bumper sticker, with the place name on it, on
your car while it sat in the parking lot.

This free advertising wasn't a "stick-on" sticker however, it was a
cardboard-like sign that was attached to the car bumper with thin wire. It
was the job of a kid in the parking lot to attach one to each car.

The more of these signs you had, the greater your stature in the world of
roadside American touring.

JIm Yellen

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

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

Date: Sat, 19 Apr 2003 19:23:01 -0400
From: Osborneam@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Baldi

Now that the BBC series, "Baldi", has concluded, I'm looking
for two episodes.  The first is from the initial series,
entitled "The Emerald Style" (episode #4, date 01/31/2000)
and the second from the current series entitled "Tempus
Fugit" (episode #1, date 03/15/2003).  Does anyone have
these two episodes?

Please contact me offlist if you do and would like to
trade for them.

Arlene Osborne

--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2003 Issue #165
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