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      Please Read Information Boilerplate at the End of This Digest
                          Last Updated 10-28-96

[removed] Digest				Volume 96 : Issue 502

Table Of Contents: 

	 Re: Variety in radio
	 Jimmy Durante
	 RE: Radio Variety
	 Investigative Reporting On The Radio
	 OTR variety
	 It's Not OTR But Shortwave's Got A Lot To Offer
	 Rodney Dangerfield

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Date: Fri, 27 Dec 1996 09:57:22 -0800 (PST)
From: Paul Bogrow <bogrow@[removed]>
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: Variety in radio
Message-ID: <[removed]@[removed]>
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

Mark Kinsler <kinsler@[removed]> wrote:

> A few things that television had that old-time radio didn't, at least from 
> what I've learned on this group:
> 
> 1) Investigative news reporting
> 3) Cooking shows 
> 6) Health-related shows

Surely pre-TV radio had these!  I'd appreciate hearing some specifics,
which I unfortunately can't supply, though the names E. Murrow, M. M.
MacBride and C. Fredericks come to mind. 

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

Date: Fri, 27 Dec 1996 15:29:08 -0400
From: John M Eccles Jr <jeccles@[removed]>
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Jimmy Durante
Message-ID: <[removed]@[removed]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

I have been wracking my brains for the past few days trying to remember
the origin of Jimmy Durante's "Good Night, Mrs. Calabash" line, as
someone had posted this question a few days ago.

According to Irene Adler in her book "I Remember Jimmy, The Life and
Times of Jimmy Durante" the line originated on his "Camel Caravan" show
and was meant as a farewell to his wife, Jeanne, who passed away while
he was on a tour.  She insisted he go even though she was ill and
Durante felt guilty about not being there when she died.

Does anyone have any further proof as to this story's truth or a
different version of how the line originated?  I would be curious to
hear.

I hope everyone on the OTR Digest had a wonderful Christmas and I wish
all my fellow OTR fans a Happy and Healthy New Year.

John M. Eccles, Jr.

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Date: Fri, 27 Dec 1996 22:34:47 GMT
From: lgenco@[removed] (Lou Genco)
To: otr@[removed]
Subject: RE: Radio Variety
Message-ID: <[removed]@[removed]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

A couple of issues ago,  joseph <joseph@[removed]> wondered which medium
had more variety - radio or TV.  Replies thus far seem to display both
opinions.  Now for some facts.

You can get an idea about today's TV variety by perusing your favorite
TV programming schedule.  First, count the channels (particularly if
you have cable or satellite); then remember that there were far fewer
"hearable" radio stations in The Golden Age.  The typical radio
listener would get about as many AM broadcast-band radio stations as
today's typical non-cable, non-satellite TV viewer gets channels.  If
that listener were out in the boonies, he/she would probably be
limited to the powerhouse "clear channel" stations at night.

Now that you have an idea of how much you could hear "back then", lets
look at what types of shows were being broadcast.  Check my www site
for the broadcast schedule of WSJV	- Washington DC.  Be prepared for a
short trip through the twilight zone, because that schedule is for
September 21, 1939.

A typical day's schedule had (in today's terminology) a magazine
format breakfast show, several soaps, some family sitcoms, comedy
shows, news reports, on-scene reporting, news commentaries, variety
shows, amateur shows, docudramas,  plays (radio drama), dance music,
and popular music.  Sports events were also covered in season.  And
yes, there were indeed cooking shows ("Kitchen Klatter" was supposedly
one).  There may not have been pirouette by pirouette descriptions of
ballet, but there were several symphony orchestras on the air, and
there were plenty of great sportscasters that painted excellent word
pictures of lots of sports events.

Is that schedule much different from today's TV show schedules?

Now, if you are wondering about how many radio programs fell in each
classification, I'm sure Jay Hickerson would appreciate your
purchasing his 500 page book, listing some 6,000 different radio
programs that were broadcast during "The Golden Days" of radio.
Compare that with your monthly satellite magazine!

Today's cable or satellite surfer has many more channels to watch than
the 30's - 40's radio listener had stations to which to listen,  but
the fundamental programming is still the same.  Perhaps a better
question would be related to -quality- rather than quantity.  How
often do you miss a show on one channel because there was one equally
as good on another, in the same timeslot?  You probably don't need
your calculator to crunch those numbers!

	Sure, go ahead and open the box --- Pandora's sister.


Lou
------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE WWW site for "Old Time Radio":               [removed]
------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Date: Fri, 27 Dec 1996 18:27:46 -0500
From: Radcliffe Bond <radbond@[removed]>
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Investigative Reporting On The Radio
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

I have to disagree about the statement that investigative reporting is
a child of the television age. To my mind, the first real investigative
reporter was Fulton Lewis, Jr. He wasn't one all the time but one must 
consider his investigations into synthetic rubber production and the 
transfer of war material to the Russians as milestones in the history 
of investigative reporting. Think of it - if it wasn't for Fulton Lewis,
Jr., Woodward and Bernstein would be unknown today!

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

Date: Thu, 28 Dec 1995 00:12:38 +0500
From: cbholm@[removed] (c holm)
To: otr@[removed]
Subject: OTR variety
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Well, I hope everyone had a good Christmas and all that.  I'm currently at
home and must check my email by calling long distance back at school, so I
really haven't put my proverbial two cents in recently, but I had to ring in
on this topic.

Is their more variety in OTR than [removed]   I'll say no.  This is my major
reason why:

Look at your TV schedule, lots of detective shows, the NBC lineup of
whitebread sitcoms in New York, Soap [removed] etc. etc.  Sure isn't much
going on this week is there?

Now when you think of radio, you remember all the great shows like Gunsmoke
and Lum and Abner, Dragnet, The Shadow, Suspense, Fibber McGee and [removed]
a veritable wonderland of entertainment.

HOWEVER, what we often forget is that these shows are the best of the best
covering three [removed] longer if you consider Suspense hanging on into
the 60's.  We seem to be comparing the best entertainment of 30 years
against what is on TV this week.  There is no contest there.  Go through
your otr books and see if you can find a sample radio listing, or listen to
that WJSV set from the broadcast day of Sept 21, [removed]  sure is a lot of
crap there.  None of the great [removed] looks a lot like todays tv listings.
(btw the current incarnation of WJSV -- either WTOP or WMAL, I forget right
now -- is near my house.  actually both are.  kinda cool.)

Anyway, I guess my point is if you take the best of OTR and the BEST of tv
and lay them end to end you won't reach a conclusion.  But to consider this
question we need to remember the whole apples and oranges thing.

Christopher Holm
Va Tech - Industrial and Systems Engineering
cbholm@[removed]

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

Date: Fri, 27 Dec 1996 23:47:55 -0500
From: charlie <scharlie@[removed]>
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: It's Not OTR But Shortwave's Got A Lot To Offer
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Banzai-1 asked about new-time drama on shortwave and said to keep it simple
(times and frequencies), so here it [removed]
[removed] to "Monitoring Times."  Pick up a sample copy of the mag at Borders.
[removed] a copy of the "World Radio and Television Handbook" or the "Passport
To World Band Radio."  "Passport" is easier to use for newbies.
[removed] can get the "Shortwave Listener's Guide" at Radio Shack.
[removed] you have access to the WWW, you've got it made.  Try "World Wide Web
Shortwave Listening Guide."  This is a listing of worldwide SW broadcasts in
English and other languages.  You can search by Program TYPES by day of the
week, or LIST programs on at the current hour on the current day. 
       The url is [removed]
You will find short stories, radio drama, book readings and melodrama like
"Unshackled," (look under literary/drama), or you can search for comedy or
whatever appeals to you.  If all you can get is BBC, that's there, too.
AND you may also try "Bob Colyard's SW and DXing Home Page - The DX and
other interesting Program Guide."  You can search for program, time and
frequencies here.
        This url is [removed]~[removed]

I know this isn't otr but we've had this discussion before and determined
that many of the subscribers to the digest ARE interested in hearing
something some of us term "new time radio."  Besides, ya can't say I didn't
warn ya.

"And now, back to 'Rocky Jordan'."

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

Date: Sat, 28 Dec 1996 00:31:10 -0800
From: Mark Reesor <heronimous@[removed]>
To: otr <[removed]@[removed]>
Subject: Rodney Dangerfield
Message-ID: <[removed]@[removed]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Finally got a chance to listen to the Jack Benny Christmas tapes I ordered several months ago. (Been very busy 
the last year or so and was thinking about how nice it would be to have a break -- well now I've got it; the 
newspaper I work for closed recently. Be careful what you wish for!...) Anyway, on one of the shows there was a 
reference to Rodney Dangerfield as a little-known actor. Is that THE Rodney Dangerfield, the comedian? 

Mark Reesor
(former) photog/reporter, Whitby Free Press



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End of [removed] Digest V96 Issue #502
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