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To:	otr@[removed]
CC:	
Subj:	[removed] Digest V95 #346

 
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	    [removed]   Volume 95 : Issue 346


Articles in this issue of [removed]:

	 Tales of the Texas Rangers kicks ass!
	 Stan Freberg story in Chicago Tribune
	 Texas Rangers, horse trailors in V95 #345
	 sparky, Bear that wasn't, Eager Piano, open reel ref V95 #344
	 Hall of Fame Broadcast
	 Halloween
	 Reel-to-reel versus cassettes

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

Date: Tue, 31 Oct 1995 19:37:52 -0800
From: MikeTimble@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Tales of the Texas Rangers kicks ass!
Message-ID: <951031193751_17596778@[removed]>

Bob Burnham [removed]
<<Tales of the Texas Rangers is only a half notch above Pinto Pete in
<<Arizona which is probably one of the worlds worst westerns <<produced.

Bob, usually I agree with you but, I cannot disagree with you more regarding
Tales of theTexas Rangers. It certainly may not be the very BEST OTR show,
but I definitely think it ranks as one of the best. It certainly makes my Top
10 if not Top 5. It's like a Texas version of Dragnet. While I've been an OTR
fan for many years (probably not as hardcore as some of you out there) I only
recently became exposed to TTR. I was immediately impressed. I have one
collection from Radio Spirits and plan on collecting all of the shows. 

Mike Timble
Chicago
nobody

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

Date: Tue, 31 Oct 1995 19:38:27 -0800
From: MikeTimble@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Stan Freberg story in Chicago Tribune
Message-ID: <951031193826_17596822@[removed]>

HALL OF FAMER STAN FREBERG FINALLY GETS HIS DUE, IF NOT HIS AIR TIME   

   It took a while, but the Radio Hall of Fame finally is getting around to
inducting the self-proclaimed "last radio comedian in America."
   Welcome to Stan Freberg's world.
   "I can't believe I'm finally being inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame,"
says Freberg. "I'm going to be in there with several of my idols, like Fred
Allen, Jack Benny, George Burns and William Paley."

   Freberg, who gained his bittersweet title because his all-too-brief weekly
series died as network radio was dying in 1957, still keeps his hand in
broadcasting through the syndicated "When Radio Was" nostalgia show that's
heard Monday through Friday nights on WMAQ-AM, as well as other projects.
   "There are no places left for a 30-minute show," says Freberg. "At least,
that's what syndicators tell me."
   Five years ago, Dick Brescia, former vice president of programming for the
CBS Radio Network, tried to revive "The Stan Freberg Show," first on CBS and
then in independent syndication.

   "He couldn't clear the time," Freberg says.
   Instead, Freberg started a two-minute commentary that has been syndicated
around the country and around the world through Armed Forces Radio.
   Radio, as Freberg knew it growing up in California, is long gone. And he
isn't necessarily happy about what he hears these days. While shock jocks
like WRCX's Mancow Muller call Freberg an influence, Freberg doesn't pay back
the compliment.
   In a recent issue of the Gavin Report, an industry publication, Freberg
told Ben Fong-Torres he doesn't "have a very high opinion of . . . shock
radio. I think eventually, though, it'll sort itself out. Shock jocks will be
their own worst enemy. People getting up in the morning don't really
appreciate that stuff as much as they think.
   "But I think there's hope. Shock jockism will die off and radio will
survive as a medium. It won't if people resort to playing cassettes and CDs
in their cars and bypass radio altogether. And they will if radio doesn't
watch it."

   Freberg will be inducted Sunday night in ceremonies at the Hyatt Regency
Chicago; the event will be broadcast live on three local radio stations. Also
to be inducted will be the late actress Eve Arden, sportscaster Jack Buck,
executive Edward McLaughlin, Hartford (Conn.) personality Bob Steele,
long-running drama "One Man's Family," actor Lee Tremayne, "The CBS World
News Roundup," and African-American pioneers the late Jesse B. Blayton Sr.,
the late Andrew Carter, Edward Pate Jr., the late Yvonne Daniels, Hal Jackson
and Herb Kent.
   Freberg  also keeps busy doing cartoon voices, including a part on Steven
Spielberg's weekly "Freakazoid" (1 [removed] Sundays, WCIU-Ch. 26)
   "I hope I never grow up," says Freberg, "because I'm still 18 years old
inside."

nobody

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

Date: 01 Nov 1995 10:29 GMT
From: Henry Brugsch <henry@[removed]>
To: [removed]@[removed]
Cc: 
Subject: Texas Rangers, horse trailors in V95 #345
Message-ID: <11011995102902um@[removed]>

I wonder if the author of those scripts was British?
It's not uncommon over here to be stuck behind a horse trailor. The
roads are so narrow, that you can't over take unless you have enough
room in the on coming lane.
I'd have thought that Texas roads would be a bit wider.
-----
   Henry Brugsch
   aka hbj elsewhere, CIS: [removed]@[removed], hbj@[removed]
Give me an alias long enough and I'll mail the world

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

Date: 01 Nov 1995 09:35 GMT
From: Henry Brugsch <henry@[removed]>
To: [removed]@[removed]
Cc: 
Subject: sparky, Bear that wasn't, Eager Piano, open reel ref V95 #344
Message-ID: <11011995093552um@[removed]>

On Wed, 1 Nov 1995 00:18:21 GMT,
lee_maschmeyer@[removed] wrote about
 >Subject: Sparky associates, Subject lines
> >apologies to anyone who has already seen [removed]
I saw it, it got through before, but neglected to comment, then. Just
for informational purposes, your post made it.
Glad it got posted again, I lost sight of it first time through. >
(deleted)
 >The announcer in the Magic Piano was Vern Smith.  The main other speaking
 >part in Rusty (it might just have said Henry Blaire with:) was Billy
 >Bletcher.  (A guy with a great big voice like that called Billy?)
And, hhow about the woman who was their mother?

I never knew the names, just enjoyed the material. (g>)
 >To my ears (critical within their range, but with no measurable high
 >frequency hearing which is where voices differ), the father in Talking
 >Train sounds more like Billy Bletcher than the announcer (Marvin Miller as
 >someone else said).  If Miller did play more than one part, perhaps it was
 >the train conductor (though I never would have guessed it).
I'd not have thought so, but you never know.

>The father
 >seems to have been minimally closer to the mic, or to have had a more bassy
 >mic.
Yes, must have been to lend him the air of authority. Certainly seems
that way.
The father in both Rusty in Orchestraville and the Train were the same
and therefore must have been Billy Bletcher?
Was his name really spelt with a b? or was that a typo?
if the latter, you must have been in my typing class at Perkins. (g>)
Without these things I'd be dead meat, not being able to spell, and
typing like a ham fisted wassock who can't manage a keyboard.
(I got the worst mark for typing in my years there. Had to take extra
help with the typing teacher).

I think Bletcher has been in a few other things as well, but can't put my
finger on what they were.
Yes!! I have it, He may have been Sargent Preston, or at least in the
show.
One thing, though, was definitely _not_ Marvin Miller.
I have the lp version which was an obvious rerelease of the old 78s of
the Train and the Piano.
I haven't seen a sign of the other records, but do you remember a thing
called
"The Eager Piano?"" Also, "The Bear that wasn't" to change the subject?
I have been looking for this for years, but I think the late '40s pc
cops got hold of it and suppressed it.
Too far left, you know.
The Eager Piano was this hard-done by piano which wants to go to Carnage
Hall with his owner, but has a nervous break down before the event.
Unfortunately, the piano gets condemned to the life of a down and out
piano.
Was very sad for those of us growing up to  it. Most affective stuff.
Re: reel-to-reel.
Yes I agree with the idea that reels unfortunately are a thing of the
past.
I have 3 reel to reel decks, none of which are working right. None of
them record, 2 play, and the third just quivers, shakes, and spews tape
every where.
The best of the 3 (which isn't saying much) is a Realistic tr-3000
is in desperate need of an over haul.
It needs new heads, and doesn't record.
So I think we must all work with the newer technologies. Plus, at least
over here in Britain the cost of reels has become so prohibitive that
there's no advantage to using them.
I miss their convenience. 12 shows on a reel, and storable in a manner
by which they can be easily reached for, and found, like a book.
Not so with cassettes. They remain in drawers, and meld into each other.
I am finding cataloguing of them more difficult.
But, their convenience can't be beaten. Dat?
No, it's still too expensive. But it's a good way of distributing
material to someone with the system.
In the final analysis, though we are all constrained by aspects of poor
quality.
Either the media, the recording system, or the transmission mode.
To get it all right, you must spend more than many of us can afford.
And I certainly include myself as one who hasn't got it all right.
But, there's that quote in the bible, something to do with the laying up
of treasures.
In the final analysis, it can't be easily done.
 >
-----
   Henry Brugsch
   aka hbj elsewhere, CIS: [removed]@[removed], hbj@[removed]
Give me an alias long enough and I'll mail the world

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

Date: Wed, 1 Nov 95 5:50:17 -0500
From: <kmacharg@[removed]>
To: otr@[removed]
Subject: Hall of Fame Broadcast
Message-ID: <444A97300156ACD1@[removed]>

     If this gets posted twice, I'm sorry. I think the first one got 
lost. Did anybody make a tape of last Sunday's Radio Hall of Fame 
broadcast? We here in Ecuador are a little out of range of WGN or WBBM, 
so I couldn't hear it. Thanks. --Ken MacHarg

================================================================

=Kenneth D. MacHarg                            Radio HCJB      =

=Director, English Language Service         Casilla 17-17-691  =

=Kmacharg@[removed]                     Quito, Ecuador   =

=FAX: 593-2-447-263                        Phone: 593-2-466-808=     

=                                                              =

=      HCJB - The Voice of the Andes +++ La Voz de Los Andes   =

=                Heralding Christ Jesus' Blessings             =

================================================================

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

Date: Wed, 1 Nov 95 5:53:24 -0500
From: <kmacharg@[removed]>
To: otr@[removed]
Subject: Halloween
Message-ID: <454A97300156ACD1@[removed]>

     Well, last night was Halloween, and I never thought that a power 
outage could be useful (we are on our third month of rationing here in 
Ecuador, and are without electricity 9 hours a day, almost every day). 
Anyhow, my wife was teaching her ESL classes, so I lit a candle, got out 
my tapes of "Three Skeleton Key" and "The War of the Worlds." Needless to 
say, it was an appropriate atmosphere, and the two were thoroughly 
enjoyed. I wonder if many [removed] stations carried special programs for the 
season? --Ken MacHarg

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

Date: Wed, 1 Nov 1995 04:03:49 -0500
From: ErikS74342@[removed]
To: otr@[removed]
Subject: Reel-to-reel versus cassettes
Message-ID: <951101040347_94913065@[removed]>

>The thing that we REALLY need to be aware of is the quality aspect. 1/4
>reels at 3-3/4 are bad -- cassettes are better, especially in this day.

>But cassettes are ALSO on the way out!
>CDs are not practical right now, and DAT (Digital Audio Tape) has its
>own set of problems.

>The bottom line is NOTHING lasts forever.  In the meantime, it's
>probably in our best interest to use the best technology we can afford
>for old time radio -- and that technology is NOT open reel quarter
>tracked at 3-3/4 on government surplus tape!

An interesting thought. I'm one of those people who has a couple hundred open
reels purchased from OTR vendors, and who also worries about the longevity of
this storage medium. No, the problem isn't that the tapes degrade over time
(Last year I donated a number of 35-year-old reels to a broadcasting archive
in Spokane, the only surviving recordings of a local TV talent show called
"Starlit Stairway." Before I sent them away, I made copies -- and the tapes
still were in wonderful condition.)

The reel problem, so to speak, with reel-to-reel tapes, is finding the darn
machines to play them on. Production of these machines for the home market
seemed to end about 1980.  I could go on with my own personal horror stories
in trying to replace my father's old 1967-vintage deck -- the speed started
to warble and I discovered that few repair shops are willing to deal with
reel-to-reel machines.

But finally I wound up with a 1970-vintage Sony recorder when a friend bought
a house and discovered it in the basement. I paid $100 to have someone
replace the [removed] and I find myself wondering how long this one is going to
last.

Open-reel decks are still made for the radio station market, but they cost at
least $700, I'm told. A prohibitive cost.

Certainly you can still find old open-reel stereo recorders at garage sales
for $50 or [removed] but I really think the thing that will doom the medium is
the fact that even these machines are wearing out. The internal belts degrade
over time, and you have to pay a good amount to replace them, if they can be
found at all.

One other problem with open-reel storage: None of us really know how these
tapes in circulation today got started, but usually someone who copied them
somewhere down the line had a misaligned tape-head. It doesn't matter which
machine I use for playback, on about one-fourth of my open-reel tapes, on
exactly one-half of the tape, you hear slight-to-heavy  cross-talk from the
adjacent channel. I notice this even on the cassette tapes I've purchased
from the dealers with the slick catalogs and the shocking prices: They're
using the same source material. You know, if someone's going to charge $6 or
more for a one-hour cassette, you'd figure they would seek out the original
transcriptions that still must exist somewhere.

Heck, we all know about these problems with the reel-to-reel medium. So why
do we still  use it? Easy. Price.

Face it, most radio shows you play only once or twice, and it seems kind of
silly to pay, say $3 for each half-hour. When you can get six hours of shows
on a single reel for about $14 or so, suddenly reel-to-reel tape becomes the
only affordable way of buying large numbers of shows. It makes sense to trade
with cassettes -- especially now that dubbing recorders make the whole
process easy. But this obsolete medium offers an advantage if you buy in
bulk.

The way I figure it, the more radio shows floating about in private hands,
the more likely that the art form will survive and continue to be
appreciated.

My recommendation: Keep on buying open-reel tapes, as long as they are
available at an affordable price, and as long as you can find machines to
play them on. It makes no sense to trade on reel-to-reel, when you can't be
sure when your deck is going to expire. For trading puposes, cassettes make
the most sense.
 
Cassettes probably will fade from the scene in another 10 years or so, once
recordable CDs are perfected and equipment prices fall.  Which means you (or
your descendants) are going to have to transfer all of your tapes to a new
medium, anyway. I think reel-to-reel might even have a slight advantage in
this case: By then, someone will have solved the crosstalk problem, by
inventing a computer program that takes the signal from one channel, and
cancels those sounds out of the other. But OTR listeners have learned to live
with crosstalk, and it might not matter that much. The truth is that the two
storage mediums are about equal: Whether you use open-reel or cassettes
today, you can look forward to hundreds of dreary hours of work in the
future.

Erik Smith
Kennewick, Wash.  


  

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

    


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---- 
End of [removed] Digest V95 Issue #346
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