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

[removed] Digest				Volume 96 : Issue 273

Table Of Contents: 

	 Group W
	 WENN staff's long hours
	 Spike Jones and crew!!!
	 Chicken Heart: The True Story
	 Chicken Heart

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Date: Mon, 5 Aug 1996 00:25:28 -0400 (EDT)
From: "'A. Joseph Ross'" <lawyer@[removed]>
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Group W
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

> Date: Sun, 04 Aug 1996 02:08:51 -0400 (EDT)
> From: JSEXTON@[removed]
> To: [removed]@[removed]
> Subject: OTR Networks
> 
>    When I was growing up, I remembered that there were several networks
> on our radio: ABC
>               CBS
>               NBC
>               MUTUAL
>               WESTINGHOUSE (Group W)
> 
> The latter may or may not "qualify"as a [removed] Have I listed the
> major US networks?? Was there a "Fox" or "Dumont" network also-as there
> was on TV ??? Best,John (JSEXTON@[removed])

Group W was not a network, but was the name for the group of radio and TV
stations owned by Westinghouse.  The name was discontinued last year,
after Westinghouse purchased CBS, and the Group W and CBS-owned stations
were consolidated as CBS-owned stations.

There was no DuMont radio network.  The DuMont Television Network was
started by DuMont Laboratories, which had pioneered some of the early
television technology.  They also sold DuMont TV sets and believed, in the
1940s, that in order to sell TV sets, they would have to provide
programming for people to watch.  Without the radio experience, supply of
shows that could be transferred to TV, and ready-made station
affiliations, it never did well and was discontinued in the 1950s, when
TV set sales were no longer sufficient to cover the network's losses.  The
company was reorganized into the Metromedia chain of stations.

The Fox TV network is a recent creation of Rupert Murdoch (although he
built it on the remnant of the old DuMont network, the Metromedia
stations, which he purchased.).  It has no radio counterpart.  Nor was
there a UPN or WB radio network.

======================================================================
A. Joseph Ross, [removed]                                      617/367-0468
15 Court Square                                   lawyer@[removed]
Boston, MA 02108-2573                    [removed]~lawyer/
======================================================================

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Date: Mon, 5 Aug 1996 00:30:19 -0400 (EDT)
From: "'A. Joseph Ross'" <lawyer@[removed]>
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: WENN staff's long hours
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

> Date: Sun, 04 Aug 1996 07:27:37 -0400 (EDT)
> From: joe <wmackey@[removed]>
> To: AIRWAVES MEDIA <wdp@[removed]>
> 
> Has anyone noticed the long hours the staff of WENN works?  They sign on 
> at 6/7 [removed] and are on the air until midnight.  Seems like rather long 
> hours to me.
 
I had noticed that, too.  But I think it's a little like the small staff
in the WJM Newsroom on the Mary Tyler Moore Show and a the small number of
regular cops at the 15th Squad on NYPD Blue.  It's a TV convention.
(Though I don't recall seeing them on in the early morning, just late at
night.  So maybe it's not so bad.  Maybe they're the late shift.

======================================================================
A. Joseph Ross, [removed]                                      617/367-0468
15 Court Square                                   lawyer@[removed]
Boston, MA 02108-2573                    [removed]~lawyer/
======================================================================

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

Date: Wed, 07 Aug 1996 08:41:17 -0400 (EDT)
From: JSEXTON@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Spike Jones and crew!!!
Message-id: <01I7ZKNRZMPE8WW68Q@[removed]>
Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII
Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT

   I just found a CD with a bunch of stuff Spike Jones did many years ago!!
Hey,was He great. I think Doodles (Weaver??) did a lot of the talking in the
various selections, including the William Tell Overture which included a
horse race with "Beedlebalm"
  Wasn't Spike on OTR a lot back in the 40's & 50's-or did He just do the records?? I can barely recall seeing His name a lot and think He did "All I Want For
Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth"(Which isn't on the CD).Wasn't He quite popular
in the 50's??? Best,John

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

Date: Wed, 7 Aug 1996 10:10:51 -0400 (EDT)
From: Mark Kinsler <kinsler@[removed]>
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Chicken Heart: The True Story
Message-Id: <[removed]@packers>
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

Dr. Albert Ebeling, who was a researcher at Rockefeller University in New
York and later at DuPont (I think), was said to have kept cells from an
embryo chicken heart alive from 1912 until 1946.  That's a lot longer than
you'd expect them to live inside a chicken, and certainly a lot longer
than anyone had ever kept cells alive in the lab.  The experiments
captured the attention of the press at the time, and I suppose they might
have formed the basis for Arch Obler's "Chicken Heart". 

I don't know if Ebeling's work had been discovered to be bogus at the 
time the show was written.  Turns out that his assistants had been adding 
new cells to the culture every so often in order to keep the old man 
happy.  

                                   Mark Kinsler 

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

Date: Wed, 7 Aug 1996 10:38:22 -0700 (PDT)
From: ulrich@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Chicken Heart
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

In OTR Digest # 272, KENPILETIC@[removed] wrote:

>Bill Cosby may have heard the "original broadcast", but I suspect he
>heard the disc and based his comedy routine on that.  The reason I believe
>he did not hear the actual broadcast is that no copies of that broadcast
>are in circulation, although there are many other Oboler programs
>available.  With the popularity of the Cosby routine, it would seem that
>somebody would have come up with an actual broadcast recording by now.

If my various reference books are correct, Bill Cosby was three years old
when Lights Out began and fifteen years old when it ended. Why would he
have needed a circulating tape of the show? He could have heard it on the
radio. (What a concept!)

>Does anybody have any more input on this?  Does anybody have a broadcast
>date for the alleged "Chicken Heart" broadcast?   Was it on Lights Out, Arch
>Oboler's Plays, or another series?  All we know is that it was an
>Arch Oboler Production.

I can't speak for the actual broadcast, but I definitely remember Cosby's
routine referring to Lights Out. My friends and I used to imitate the
Lights Out opening, based entirely on Cosby's version.

--Charles




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End of [removed] Digest V96 Issue #273
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