------------------------------
The Old-Time Radio Digest!
Volume 2002 : Issue 54
A Part of the [removed]!
ISSN: 1533-9289
Today's Topics:
Morman Choir [ William L Murtough <k2mfi@[removed]; ]
Re: British Comedy and AM's limitati [ Michael Biel <mbiel@[removed]; ]
Good Old Days of Radio [ sojax@[removed] (Roger S. Smith) ]
BIshop Sheen [ dougdouglass@[removed] ]
Re: Mercedes McCambridge [ John Mayer <mayer@[removed]; ]
Re: Glenn Miller's Disappearance and [ Robert Kirk <isobar@[removed] ]
bbc book [ "Ed Carr" <edcarr@[removed]; ]
MP3 playlists [ Richard Carpenter <sinatra@ragingbu ]
Jell-O Ice Cream Powder [ "A. Joseph Ross" <lawyer@attorneyro ]
PROGRAM SCHEDULE for THE OLDE TYME R [ HERITAGE4@[removed] ]
Today in radio history [ Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed] ]
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 10 Feb 2002 12:23:31 -0500
From: William L Murtough <k2mfi@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Morman Choir
I wonder how many of you witnessed a bit of old time radio on Good
Morning America (TV) this past Thursday morning when they broadcast a
selection by the Morman Choir from the Salt Lake City Tabernacle. The
choir was a regular broadcast on CBS (Radio) for many, many years. In
those days Frank Asper was the organist. J. Spencer Cornwal directed the
choir. Richard Evans emoted the "spoken word from the cross roads of the
west". After Evans died, my friend, Spencer Kinard, replaced him. A dream
come true for Spence, who had worked at one time for CBS news in New
York, and was a Mormon. He had joined the staff of KSL. What amazed me
was that the recent broadcast still had the delightful crisp sound that
I recall from the old days. At that time I attributed it to the fact that
they were using Western Electric "saltshaker" (633's) mikes. However they
must be using newer models so the sound quality must have been due to the
acoustics of the tabernacle.
Circa 1950 the choir originated a broadcast from San Bernardino,
California, in celebration of a Western Week. Although they brought
their two regular KSL engineers with them, who actually mixed the
program, CBS assigned me to be present for the Friday rehearsal and the
Sunday broadcast. The origination site was a very plain Methodist Church.
Also they assigned a second engineer Vince, to help me do nothing. He
was with me on Friday and had a habit of "taking over" so when he saw a
portly gentleman walking down the aisle he jumped to conclusion that it
was the pastor of the church and greeted the stranger in a very religous
manner. The stranger replied with a string of profanity at being been
mistaken for a minister. It was the Tabernacle organist, Frank Asper.
Vince clammed up from then on. On Sunday my aide was engineer Joe Sweiger
who realized that he wasn needed, so returned to the truck and caught a
nap. (Joe dated back to the days when he was the engineer on the Paul
Whiteman program).
Long live the Mormon Choir!
Bill Murtough
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 10 Feb 2002 13:02:42 -0500
From: Michael Biel <mbiel@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: British Comedy and AM's limitations
Thanks to Sandra Skuse for her wonderful analysis of the Foster and
Furst book "Radio Comedy 1930-1968"--it was exactly what I was hoping
for when I asked for reactions. And on the subject of the lacking of
subtle aural effects in British radio drama:
From: "S Skuse" <sskuse@[removed];
I believe the simple truth of it, though, is that AM broadcasts give
the listener at home a muffled performance, at least compared to FM.
The subtleties of the actors' performance in the studio, clear to us
on a cassette tape which has been copied direct from a transcription
disk, would not have been so clear to someone listening on an old
fashioned AM receiver. Sandra Skuse
Although many digesters will recall our discussions that here in the
[removed] AM radio was not necessarily restricted in its high frequency
transmission--and never until recently was there any restriction by
law--in England and most if not all contintal countries it is a
different story. Their AM stations are short-spaced at 9 KHz.
separations: 540, 549, 558, 567, etc. And there are multitudes of
different countries with soverign governments which all had to be
accommodated in the same band. So there were legal restrictions on
transmissions of audio high frequencies to avoid overlapping onto the
adjacent channel--perhaps requiring a [removed] KHz cut-off. So even with a
high quality wide-band radio there would be a noticalble difference in
the sound quality of a European AM station vs. its FM transmission.
Here in the States that would be less noticable on a good radio becuase
AM stations often had frequency responces to 14 KHz. Since the 1970s
many radio manufacturers restrict their bandwidth on their receivers to
avoid interference--but this makes the sound quality of AM radio appear
to be lousy.
Michael Biel mbiel@[removed]
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 10 Feb 2002 14:14:19 -0500
From: sojax@[removed] (Roger S. Smith)
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Good Old Days of Radio
In answer to Norm Schickedanz's question as to when the Good Old Days of
Rado show with Steve Allen was done. It was in the early 1970's.
Another radio personality involved in the production of this show was
Frank Bresee. He reveiled this to me in a telephone call on
Thanksgiving day the year before last. I am sorry that I don't know the
exact year. Roger
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 10 Feb 2002 15:57:31 -0500
From: dougdouglass@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: BIshop Sheen
In 1953, Sheen received an Emmy as "Most Outstanding Personality".
Milton Berle, airing opposite on NBC, was asked to comment. Berle said
"The Bishop has better writers."
After leaving television, Sheen was appointed Bishop of Rochester, [removed]
He died in 1979 at 84.
--- Doug
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 10 Feb 2002 15:58:29 -0500
From: John Mayer <mayer@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: Mercedes McCambridge
<BryanH362@[removed]; wrote:
> to those actors like Mercedes McCambridge and Tony Randall who
say radio drama isn't really acting .......
Could you elaborate a little on this in regard to Merecedes ? The last time
I heard her in a radio interview she acted as though radio was her first
love . ...Is she still with us?
I fear I may have overstated the case in making a point about radio
drama involving real acting. Tony Randall has, in fact, sneered at
radio acting but I only recall Ms. McCambridge expressing some
annoyance with fans who ONLY wanted to talk about her radio career
and had little interest in her later acting achievements (her most
famous film credit involving, of course, only the use of her voice).
She was certainly as important to Radio, or very nearly so, as was
William Conrad or Howard McNair. She had an ability to really make
you believe she was feeling the emotions she expressed, could really
draw you in, even when she was doing a kids' show like _I Love a
Mystery_. Many of her contemporaries sounded rather flat; you could
sort of tell they were reading their lines.
I hope she is still with us; I've heard nothing to the contrary. I've
been off the digest for several months and I'm afraid to ask which of
the great voices of radio have been silenced in the [removed]
Somewhere I have the interview she did with Terri Gross - just
because I generally find the show to be a waste of time that could be
devoted to classical music (and I have absolutely NO interest in the
views of Rock Critic Ken Tucker) - doesn't mean she doesn't
occasionally air something of interest. It's just that I'm willing to
give up those shows to avoid the other 90%. When I find the show and
replay it I will better be able to comment on how she really felt
about radio.
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 10 Feb 2002 17:45:15 -0500
From: Robert Kirk <isobar@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: Glenn Miller's Disappearance and Ockham's
Razor
Approved: ctrn4eeWlc
John Mayer says that here is a bit more to the story of Glenn Miller's
plane being hit by jettisoned bombs than idle conjecture, but it still
doesn't sound right to me. for example:
The RAF officer in question [...] a navigator named Fred Shaw, [reported that]
The bombs detonated just above the surface of the water.
How? That implies that the bombs had a proximity fuse or timer fuse.
I don't believe that type of anti-aircraft gun fuse was used in strategic
bombers. Bombs are fused to explode on impact, or with a slight delay to
allow the bomb to penetrate a bunker before it explodes. Some tactical
artillery shells explode before impact to shower shrapnel in the vicinity
of troops in the open, but that has to be real-time for obvious reasons,
not aircraft bombs. [The only time I can think of bombers using an air
burst was the atomic bombing of Hiroshima & Nagasaki where they wanted to
maximize the blast effect of the fireball rather than the residual
radiation of a ground burst].
Watching
them Shaw says he observed, no doubt with dismay, a small plane
buffeted by the blasts and out of control.
By the time the bombs burst, the airplane is well ahead of the impact
point. Maybe the tail gunner could see them land, but not the navigator who
doesn't have a rear view mirror.
[...]"As each bomb burst, I could see the blast wave from it
radiating outwards.
But you only see those shock waves from an explosion in the water or on the
ground.
[...] Eventually, I saw [the plane]disappear into the English Channel."
Apparently, the incident was not reported for some reason.
He saw a plane go into the water and didn't report it at the time? Aviators
go to great lengths to rescue their downed comrades, even as we see today,
and yet he didn't bother? Sounds like something that occurred to him only
some years later over a glass of wine.
Not proof positive, but neither is it simply an unsubstantiated theory.
Rather, simply an unsubstantiated story, brought up years later.
Bob Kirk
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 10 Feb 2002 17:49:31 -0500
From: "Ed Carr" <edcarr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: bbc book
hi
i also have a bbc book that a friend bought me yrs and yrs ago
i read once 15 yrs ago and now it is for sale
called
bbc, the golden age of radio an illustrated companion
1985 $25 and post
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 11 Feb 2002 00:22:15 -0500
From: Richard Carpenter <sinatra@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: MP3 playlists
My advice on how to get a printable playlist with Winamp may have puzzled
some people who could not find the question-mark icon I referred to. On some
Winamp "skins," this button (at the bottom of the player) is labeled "Misc."
Right click on that, then on the new "misc" that appears, then on "generate
html playlist." Presto, voila, and all that -- there will be the playlist!
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 11 Feb 2002 00:22:31 -0500
From: "A. Joseph Ross" <lawyer@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Jell-O Ice Cream Powder
Date: Sat, 9 Feb 2002 20:20:21 -0500
From: "glen schroeder" <gschroeder10@[removed];
Today I was listening to Chuck Shayden on the internet from Chicago, and
he played a Jack Benny show from 1937. It was sponsored by Jell-o of
course and Don Wilson talked about a product called Jell-o Ice Cream
Powder.
I remember my mother using something of the sort in the late 1940s to
make ice cream, using ice cube trays (the metal ones where the centers
are removable) as you described. But we never called it by the Jell-O
brand. I think it was called "Friz" or "Freeze" or something like that.
--
A. Joseph Ross, [removed] [removed]
15 Court Square, Suite 210 lawyer@[removed]
Boston, MA 02108-2503 [removed]
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 11 Feb 2002 09:43:06 -0500
From: HERITAGE4@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: PROGRAM SCHEDULE for THE OLDE TYME RADIO
NETWORK
Approved: ctrn4eeWlc
Shows start airing for one week starting Sunday 2/10: [removed]
Same Time Same Station -
Valentines' Day Special:
Life With Luigi 2/14/50 Valentine's Day at the Pump Room;
Blondie 02/09/49 Alexander's Valentine's Day Dilemma
Family Theater 02/08/56 - Ep. 459 "Funny Calentine"
The Harold Peary Show (Honest Harold, The Homemaker) Ep. 21 02/14/51
"Mistaken Valentines"
Heritage Radio Theatre-
Sgt. Preston of the Yukon 09/27/51 "Uncle Ben"
Guest: Ray Erlenborn - famed network radio soundman - incl. clip w/ Art
Linkletter
Lum & Abner 1943 - 2nd episode of "Opening a Picture Show"
Five Minute Mysteries (Synd) "Is Mike His Dad's Killer?"
Tom Heathwood - Heritage Radio - Boston
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 11 Feb 2002 10:04:20 -0500
From: Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed];
To: otr-net <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Today in radio history
From Those Were The Days --
1940 - NBC presented The Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street for
the first time. The famous
Blue network series included several distinguished alumni -- among them,
Dinah Shore and Zero Mostel. The chairman, or host, of The Chamber Music
Society of Lower Basin Street was Milton Cross. He would say things
like, "A Bostonian looks like he's smelling something. A New Yorker
looks like he’s found it." The show combined satire, blues and jazz and
was built around what were called the three Bs of music: Barrelhouse,
Boogie Woogie and Blues.
Joe
--
Visit my home page:
[removed]~[removed]
--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2002 Issue #54
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