Subject: [removed] Digest V2002 #448
From: "OldRadio Mailing Lists" <[removed]@[removed];
Date: 11/20/2002 6:19 PM
To: <[removed]@[removed];

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


                            The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                              Volume 2002 : Issue 448
                         A Part of the [removed]!
                                 ISSN: 1533-9289


                                 Today's Topics:

  Today in radio history                [ Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed] ]
  "Making Waves": Radios as High Art    [ Peter Kinder <pdkinder@[removed]; ]
  OTR and Satellite Radios              [ leemunsick@[removed] ]
  videocopies of convention             [ "Wright, Cheryl" <CWright@[removed]; ]
  Wartime OTR on TV                     [ "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@ ]
  XM Satellite                          [ "joe@[removed]" <sergei01@earthli ]
  Re: Satellite Radio                   [ Habegger <amej@[removed]; ]
  Satellite Radio                       [ sojax@[removed] (Roger S. Smith) ]
  Bracken as archy the cockroach        [ Bhob <bhob2@[removed]; ]
  Shinbone Alley - Eddie Bracken?       [ Joyce Brabner <jbrabner@[removed]; ]
  re: JFK                               [ chris chandler <chrischandler84@yah ]
  Radio Crime Fighters, Again!          [ Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed]; ]
  NBC JFK coverage                      [ "Ed Ellers" <ed_ellers@[removed]; ]
  Philips and Norelco                   [ "Ed Ellers" <ed_ellers@[removed]; ]

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

Date: Wed, 20 Nov 2002 08:59:30 -0500
From: Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed];
To: otr-net <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Today in radio history

>From Those Were The Days --

1929 - The first broadcast of The Rise of the Goldbergs, with Gertrude
Berg as Molly, was heard on the NBC Blue radio network. Later, the title
would be shortened to The Goldbergs. Mrs. Berg, incidentally, wrote the
first scripts for the 15-minute program and starred in the show -- for
$75 a week. The program continued until 1945 (it returned for one season
in 1949-1950). Gertrude Berg brought The Goldbergs to TV in 1949,
entertaining audiences with New York style, motherly phrases like,
"Button up your neck. It's cold outside."

Birthday:
1913 - (Juliette) Judy Canova  died Aug 5, 1983

  Joe

--
Visit my home page:
[removed]~[removed]

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

Date: Wed, 20 Nov 2002 08:59:57 -0500
From: Peter Kinder <pdkinder@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  "Making Waves":  Radios as High Art

	For those who may visit downtown Minneapolis in the near future,
there's a "don't miss" exhibit in the lobby of the Wells Fargo Center at 7th
& Marquette.  It's a collection of radios from the 20s to the mid40s the
likes of which I've never seen.  From a six-foot-tall wooden clock radio
modeled on an art deco skyscraper to a Bakalite table radio with classic
Bauhaus lines, each denies that form follows function.

	"Making Waves" is a wonder and well-worth a detour from the stores
on the Nicolett Mall.

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

Date: Wed, 20 Nov 2002 09:07:54 -0500
From: leemunsick@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  OTR and Satellite Radios

Bill Harker raised the point of the two Satellite Radio systems having OTR
channels, and seeking opinions as to which is better.  I think you'll have
trouble with this, Bill, as I doubt anyone has both systems.  While I don't
really know, I imagine there is very little difference between XM and Sirius.

Our sales person at Best Buy in Lynchburg VA is named Ryan Portnoy ("As in
'Complaint'?" I said, and he immediately agreed).  We have found him to be
very knowledgeable across a broad vista of products sold there, including
video equipment, computers, etc.  He's been a terrific source for us in
various areas.  His opinion was that the XM system was a tad better, so we
went with his recommendation and bought the XM system.   Presently, Sirius
has 100 channels, XM 101.  I imagine more will be added to each in time,
just as occurred with TV satellite dish systems.

We liked it so much that we returned 2 weeks later and bought another one
for our car.  We have a base setup in each of two cars, another in our
house, and two receivers.  That took care of Christmas presents from us to
us with love!  The automobile set-up with its antenna is purchased
separately from the radio  One puts it at the highest part of the car's
roof.  It is unidirectional.  One can have the auto system wired in, and
Best Buy does the installation for an extra fee.  Instead, we selected a
cassette-adaptor which one puts into the car radio cassette slot.  This
supplies power to the radio, and connects to the car's amplifier and
speakers.  This means that one uses the radio volume control.  The
transmissions are digital, of course, so totally consistent.  The way we
set things up, we can put either radio into either car base, or take it
inside our house where there is another base which has all the connections
for power and the separate speaker system.  The antenna for house use is
easy to install, and nowhere near as directionally fussy as a TV satellite
dish.  It comes with sufficient lead to be installed many feet away from
the radio itself, if necessary.

The XM satellite receiver is a bit larger than a cigarette pack, and weighs
about the same.  One lifts the actual receiver off the base with total
ease, and just sits it down on another one.  No other action is necessary
to make the appropriate connections.  Each radio comes with a remote
controller, much smaller and easier to use than a TV/VCR or Universal
Remote "clicker".  The receiver display window indicates the number and ID
of the channel to which one is tuned, and the program name and an
additional item.

When listening to OTR, for instance, it will give the program name and then
the star, such as Bob Bailey or Dick Powell.  Music channels give
information about the recording being played, although not in as much
detail as satellite TV.  The XM display only has two lines of program
information.

XM's radio channel is supplied by Radio Spirits.  I believe it runs
24/7.  It has current commercials, most of them for Radio Spirit products
or AudioBooks.  Anthony Tollin informs me that both are owned by MediaBay,
incidentally now located in Cedar Knolls, New Jersey.  This is in Hanover
Township, from which we moved to Virginia two years ago!   We found the RSI
or XM announcer that we heard to be rather irritating.  I don't know if
it's always the same guy.

Just as with your collection, there are programs without original
commercials.  Obviously those tapes have been edited years ago and/or for
the present use,  sometimes IMHO rather badly.  For instance, we heard a
complete story (one week's run) of a Richard Diamond opus, and it contained
many if not all of the same, repeated daily intros, and rehashes.  This
made for a rather mixed-up, annoying presentation.  We felt that the
programs don't necessarily add up to even hours or half hours, so one can't
tell when what will start.  Whether a program listing will become available
to subscribers is not yet known, at least to us.  Actually, I'd prefer the
system of running entire programs, to the practice elsewhere of just
editing out vital parts of original program material so that many minutes
more of new commercials can be inserted and still remain within the
original program length, as is done so often with televised films and their
interminable commercial interruptions.  But then it's not just films.  I
counted the ads and CBS promotions on the Evening News recently and was
appalled.  'Way over a dozen!  Shame on them!

I plan to split the XM signal into a VCR, and grab six-hour chunks of
programming, probably listening to make sure to start at the beginning of a
particular show.  Programs sometimes have current product ads
inserted.  Other programs still contain the original commercials.  When's
the last time you heard of Kolynos?

I imagine there is little difference between XM and Sirius.  We live in an
area with very poor reception for AM, FM or TV, so this is a boon.  We're
traveling from Virginia to spend the holidays with our kids in
Florida.  Having the digital satellite reception will be terrific while
traveling, as the satellite radio "footprint" covers the 48 states, and
there will be no interruptions.  They even have repeaters in cities or
other areas with tall buildings and other blockers of satellite
signals.  How they avoid an echo with that, I don't know.

I think it's no longer terribly expensive.  It's a snap to install.  We
think it's terrific.  XM bills $[removed] per month.  There are many channels
including a whole bunch of music channels, plus ABC, Fox, CNN  and numerous
other news channels.  Oddly enough, the ABC News channel does NOT carry
Rush Limbaugh, to our surprise but no great loss.  It airs Sam Donaldson in
that time period.  It does carry Sean Hannity, and most of the rest of the
ABC talk lineup.  Thankfully, to our knowledge, not Bob Grant.

XM promises a lot of channels have NO commercials.  Others, they vow, will
limit ads to 5 minutes per hour, I think.  Our listening to the OTR channel
assayed more than that, but nothing like "regular" radio and TV
programming.  This is not counting the old, original program
commercials.  Makes me wonder if they go back to the original sponsors if
still in business and get paid to leave those commercials in?  The Kolynos
reference, for instance, was paired with a currently available product from
the same maker or its successor.

I recommend satellite [removed] holiday present!  I heartily
congratulate them for including the OTR channels.  Perhaps we should all
write them to thank them for including OTR, so they know there are
listeners out here.  I plan to do so.  It can't help attracting many new
devotees!  Bravo XM and Sirius!

Lee Munsick         Out here in the vast wasteland

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

Date: Wed, 20 Nov 2002 09:48:45 -0500
From: "Wright, Cheryl" <CWright@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  videocopies of convention

Dear Fellow lovers of old time radio

	My sister and I  have been listening to otr for about 6 years now
and we were heartbroken that we didn't know about your annual convention (
the store where we purchase our tapes never had any info about it!! nor did
Radio Spirits which we sometime order tapes from.  Anyway we will be there
next year and would like to purchase tapes from this year's convention. When
I made inquiries about the convention Mr. Hickerson was kind enough to tell
me about this newsletter. We love it!!!
Please post standing info on purchasing tapes from the convention.
	Also I would like to know how many episodes did Gerald Mohr play
Archie on Nero Wolfe? I have just discovered this series and I think it is
fabulous. I don't know why the cable program just doesn't reproduce them!!
The chemistry between Mr. Mohr and Mr. Greenstreet is wonderful, the scripts
well written and suspenseful. I would like to have every episode they worked
together on I have about 4.

Cheryl W

[ADMINISTRIVIA: The order form for this year's FOTR Con tapes is available at
[removed] -
requires the ubiquitous Adobe Acrobat reader.  --cfs3]

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

Date: Wed, 20 Nov 2002 10:36:19 -0500
From: "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Wartime OTR on TV

John Mayer made some good suggestions on ways to present sound clips of
World War II sound recordings while doing an interview about his new
book.  However, I've thought of some that might supplement John M.'s
suggestion.

There were some radio premiums directly aimed at the war effort,
specifically, the blackout kits and airplane identifiers.  It might be
possible to get images of these to be shown in conjunction with
whatever's going on.

Also, if showing an old radio -- could we please get away from the
cathedral-style radios?  The only genuine one of these I've seen in
household use was at my grandmother's apartment when I was very young.
There were spiffy table model radios in service before the Pearl Harbor
attack.

Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.

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

Date: Wed, 20 Nov 2002 11:07:32 -0500
From: "joe@[removed]" <sergei01@[removed];
To: "OTR List" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  XM Satellite

Bob,

What model home receiver do you have? I understand both XM & Sirius are
eventually going to have such, and there is talk about hardware to receive
both. You would have to sub to both, of course.

Joe Salerno

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

Date: Wed, 20 Nov 2002 11:07:57 -0500
From: Habegger <amej@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: Satellite Radio

I have XM Satellite Radio service in our RV and listen while on our High
Desert
property in So. Cal. I listen to XM's Radio Classics channel on Channel
164. The
quality is good and the selection seems to be good.

My only complaint is to the program announcing voice. It is not to the
quality of
a radio announcer. It is one of an amateur taken out of high school! I
can not
stand listening to his voice for any length of time. Therefore, my
listening habits
to the "Radio Classics" is limited. Too many other channels of quality
listening.

But, what can you expect from a "Madison Avenue" type company. They do
not understand
the REAL world. I have no agenda; just to see the service survive in
spite of themselves.

Dick Habegger
Anaheim, CA

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

Date: Wed, 20 Nov 2002 12:42:33 -0500
From: sojax@[removed] (Roger S. Smith)
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Satellite Radio

I am in complete agreement with Bob Watson's post.  I purchased my XM
Radio about a month ago and really enjoy it.  Out of 100 channels I have
found at least 12 that an ole geezer like myself can enjoy.  I also
purchased the in auto docking station so I can use it in my home stereo
system or in the truck.  This is only available with the Sony radio.
Disclaimer---I do not work for nor [removed]

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

Date: Wed, 20 Nov 2002 12:43:29 -0500
From: Bhob <bhob2@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Bracken as archy the cockroach

In May, Stephen Witty (STAR-LEDGER, New Jersey) wrote what is apparently
the last lengthy interview with Eddie Bracken, indicating that he was a
record-holder with some 15,000 stage performances:
[removed]

The WASHINGTON POST obituary gave that figure as 13,000:
[removed]

I found only one obit mentioning radio's THE EDDIE BRACKEN SHOW. Btw,
how did Bracken fit into the storyline of the mid-Forties DUFFY'S TAVERN
movie?

Oddly, these obits also mostly ignored Bracken's audio musical drama
character of Don Marquis' archy the cockroach. Bracken first did this
character in the magnificent 1954 Columbia recording of the Joe
Darion/George Kleinsinger ARCHY AND MEHITABEL (with Carol Channing as
mehitabel): "I am only a poor humble [removed] but creative
expression is the need of my soul."

Bracken became closely identified with the poetic cockroach, taking it
from pure audio to the 1957 stage production, SHINBONE ALLEY (with
Eartha Kitt as mehitabel), to TV (1960 with Tammy Grimes as mehitabel)
and finally animation -- the feature-length 1971 animated SHINBONE
ALLEY. I believe Bracken and Channing re-recorded the Darion/Kleinsinger
"back alley opera" for the animated film. There's also a short film on
the making of the animated feature.

The flip side of the 1954 Columbia LP features David Wayne as a theater
cat in "echoes of archy": ("I wrapped myself around his [removed] and I
played Joe Jefferson's beard. Yes, I played Joe Jefferson's beard. No
modern cat could do it. They never could go through it.")

Wayne also did this first as audio and then developed it visually --
using whiskers and a black cape in a memorable performance during a 1956
Judy Garland special.

Bhob @ FUSEBOX NEWSPAPER COMIC STRIPS @
[removed]

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

Date: Wed, 20 Nov 2002 13:41:12 -0500
From: Joyce Brabner <jbrabner@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Shinbone Alley - Eddie Bracken?

I read in Eddie Bracken's obit that he and Eartha Kitt starred in
Shinbone Alley as archy the cockroach and Mehitabel the cat,
respectively.  I seem to remember hearing a version with Carol Channing
as Mehitabel, and Eddie as the roach with one other actor, a  "human"
narrator.  Shinbone Alley was based on the poems and newspaper columns
of Don Marquis.

Anyone know anything more?  Leads to recordings would be appreciated.

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

Date: Wed, 20 Nov 2002 13:41:56 -0500
From: chris chandler <chrischandler84@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  re:  JFK

George Aust recounts:

Jim Widner said  "There really wasn't any real major
news events for television pre 1963".  I think he is
completely forgetting about the Cuban missile crisis
which was a very major news event that went on for
days.

Yes indeed, but it's not the type of out-of-the blue,
technically challenging, fast-moving breaking story I
think Jim meant.  In broadcast terms, TV *and* radio,
the Cuban crisis was a breeze:  talking heads from
Washington and the UN, pre-arranged speeches,
bulletins straight from the wire machines.  And from
the "It Could Never Happen Today" department, the big
news organizations knew EXACTLY what was up many
hours--in some cases a day or more--before JFK's big
scary speech the evening of 10/22/62, but they all
dutifully waited for him to make the announcement,
instead of breaking the story themselves.  The radio
and TV "crisis" coverage that night, therefore, while
undeniably riveting, had actually been carefully
planned well in advance.

But also I don't think that TV reporting then
overplayed the  seriousness of the situation as they
would today.

Modern broadcast news didn't invent hype.  And this is
one area where radio and TV very definitely DID differ
by the early '60s.  TV coverage, perhaps partially due
to the technical limitations we've been discussing,
was quite straightforward and serious, and relegated
to a few select periods of the day.   Network radio
news, on the other hand, by 1963 had come very much to
resemble the cable TV news of today:  the nets had
lots more airtime than they had news to fill it: CBS
for a time had installed a ten-minute newscast on the
hour--EVERY hour; NBC's bottom-of-the-hour "Service at
Thirty" and later "Emphasis" provided even more
exposure for the news operations, creating at times
the same wildly misleading sense of story momentum
and/or crisis familiar to any modern viewer of Fox
News.  Based on what recently seen and hear of it, the
TV coverage of the Cuban crisis would leave you
thinking "Gosh, this is pretty serious."  Listening to
a couple hours of the existing radio coverage would
leave you saying "Lord, the world's gonna end in an
hour!"

That's not to say the radio coverage was
irresponsible, or unserious, or even particularly
sensational.  It's more a matter of packaging and
"environment".  Where the afternoon radio air ten
years earlier had been full of "Will Helen Trent go
the gas chamber for a murder she didn't commit?"...by
1962 the promotional announcements said things like
"Will Richard Nixon be successful in his political
comeback in these off-year elections?"  A late '50s
NBC afternoon soap was preceeded by a breathless "NBC
News Special Report"--a small private plane has
crashed in some forest, somewhere!  It's almost
comical in retrospect, the the kind of thing that
might not even have been lead-worthy in the town where
it happened--but which was, by the late '50s,  the
radio networks' bread and butter.

It may not be fair to call it "hype", exactly, or even
"overplaying the seriousness" of a situation.  But the
news-as-commodity, news-as-promotional vehicle concept
is not the invention of modern TV.  In fact, it pretty
much saved network radio forty years ago.

chris

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

Date: Wed, 20 Nov 2002 16:12:21 -0500
From: Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Radio Crime Fighters, Again!

OK! I know that it has all been said before and I know that I am beating a
dead horse, but I will risk it.

Because of other reading commitments, I have finally gotten around to reading
Jim Cox's "Radio Crime Fighters." I am astounded at what Jim has done. This is
the consummate Old Time Radio book. It is not only fun to read, but it is full
of facts, important to trivia buffs like myself.

I have heard some people call Dunning's "On the Air" the bible for Old Time
Radiophiles, I don't disagree. However, I do want to amend that. Dunning's
book is the Old Testament, Jim's is the New Testament.
--
Ron Sayles
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Make your day just a little better, listen to Olde Tyme Radio!

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

Date: Wed, 20 Nov 2002 20:12:09 -0500
From: "Ed Ellers" <ed_ellers@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  NBC JFK coverage

Elizabeth McLeod wrote:

Ryan was, I believe, only a local correspondent at this stage of his
career, associated with the local WNBC-TV news staff -- and was only pressed
into service because he happened to be on hand when the news broke.

Dave Walter <fredallenfan@[removed]; replied:

I recall seeing Ryan in the NBC 1960 election night footage at the Kennedy
Headquarters in Massachusetts, so he did, at least at that point, have a
network job. It is possible, however, that he had since become a local New
York newscaster as you mention.

The distinction wasn't that great back then, as NBC News operated all the
O&O stations' news departments; any correspondent could appear on local
newscasts and network programs as needed.  CBS used to work the same way,
but in the mid-1960s they put the O&O news departments under each station's
management; reportedly they were afraid that the FCC would take a dim view
of having local news subservient to the national news organization.  (NBC
News, for example, used to order WNBC not to show certain New York film
footage if it was going to be used on Huntley-Brinkley that night.)

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

Date: Wed, 20 Nov 2002 20:13:12 -0500
From: "Ed Ellers" <ed_ellers@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Philips and Norelco

Henry Brugsch <henry@[removed]; wrote:

The only acception I can think of in those days, was WHRB, the Harvard
college station. They had a full-going half-hour documentary on their summer
riot of 1962, or '63, can't remember which, that was recorded with a
Phillips (Norelco to North Americans) reel-to-reel machine. I know the
machine, it looked like hell, but made phenomenal quality recordings at 1
&7/8s. I couldn't get over the quality of the recordings. I rang up the
station to find out what they were using, and was very surprised.

Actually it was Norelco only in the [removed], where there apparently was a
trademark conflict with Philco.  Philips used its own name in Canada.

The three cardinal rules of consumer electronics:  :-)

- There's only one L in Philips.

- There's no P in Thomson.

- DuMont is spelled with a capital M.  (It used to be two words, but I'm
told that the family no longer uses the word space.)

--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2002 Issue #448
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