------------------------------
The Old-Time Radio Digest!
Volume 2003 : Issue 2
A Part of the [removed]!
ISSN: 1533-9289
Today's Topics:
Imagination Theatre [ lawrence albert <albertlarry@yahoo. ]
MUSICAL PROGRAMS [ "Henry R. Hinkel" <hinkel@[removed] ]
Words at War: a critical review--cor [ Howard Blue <khovard@[removed]; ]
WCBS breaking format [ "Ed Ellers" <ed_ellers@[removed]; ]
2003 anniversaries [ Bill Jaker <bilj@[removed]; ]
Hank Williams a ham? [ EdHowell@[removed] ]
Re: Young People [ "Alan R. Betz" <abetz@[removed]; ]
Hop Harrigan and Ted Osborne [ "Don Frey" <alanladdsr@[removed] ]
Re: Long running OTR shows [ "MICHAEL BIEL" <mbiel@[removed]; ]
Long-running Paul Harvey News [ "Philip Chavin" <philchav@[removed] ]
Re: Hank's Last Night [ John Mayer <mayer@[removed]; ]
First radio broadacst of Rose Bowl [ "Jim Hilliker" <jimhilliker@sbcglob ]
Long running OTR shows [ "Andrew Godfrey" <niteowl049@[removed] ]
long running radio shows still on [ leonardfass@[removed] (Leonard Fass ]
"Happy Birthday To You" [ "A. Joseph Ross" <lawyer@attorneyro ]
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 1 Jan 2003 15:29:30 -0500
From: lawrence albert <albertlarry@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Imagination Theatre
Henry Howard wrote:
Imagination Theatre is written by Jack French and
usually produced
by Jack or his wife Pat.
Ok, here we go again. Jack French has nothing to do
with Imagination Theatre, The Show is produced By Jim
French (no relation) and for the most part directed by
Pat French.
The series has been on the air at least since 1996,
producing
a weekly show. Some are studio productions, others
are recorded
before a live audience.
This is correct. The shows are not old time radio and
all of the commercials are new. Both Imagination
Theatre and the series that appear under that umbrella
title are under full copyright and can only be sold by
authorized dealers.
See [removed]
In addition to stand alone programs, IT has produced
series that
include:
Test Drive, Peggy Delaney, Midnight Cab, Flynn,
Becker, Harry Nile.
Well one out six is pretty bad. Of the shows
mentioned above only Harry Nile ia a regular feature
on Imagination Theatre. Where Mr. Howard came up with
the others I haven't any idea. The other regular
features outside of the stand alones are, Kincaid, The
Strangseeker, The Further Adventures of Sherlock
Holmes, Dameron and Call Simon Walker.
You can hear 2 or more hours a day on XM Radio, or
find a station
that carries it weekly.
As far as I know this is correct. For information
about Imagination Theatre go to the web site mentioned
above or go to [removed].
Wishing everyone a grand New Year.
Larry Albert
Associate Producer/Operations Manager
(ain't titles great)
Jim French Productions
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 1 Jan 2003 15:41:55 -0500
From: "Henry R. Hinkel" <hinkel@[removed];
To: "Old Time Radio Digest" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: MUSICAL PROGRAMS
For Tim Lones -- Re: Tennessee Ernie Ford
You will find a list of 24 Tennessee Ernie Ford 15-minute shows from 1952 at
[removed]#3725
Guests on his shows were Molly Bee, Sue Thompson, Buckey Tibbs, Lou Dinning
and others.
For Andrew Godfrey -- Re: Live Remotes
You can listen to over 80 Big Band live remote sound clips at The Big Bands
and Other OTR Music Bulletin Board at Lou Genco's Old Time Radio Website at
[removed]
These sound clips are opening announcements and part of the first musical
number in the program.
For Neal Ellis -- Re: World's Fair 1964
Go to [removed]#0725
There are 10 Guy Lombardo remotes from the World's Fair in 1964 listed as
well as broadcasts from the Hotel Roosevelt and The Riverboat in New York,
Tierra Verde, Florida and The Tropicana in Las Vegas.
Hank Hinkel
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 1 Jan 2003 15:42:11 -0500
From: Howard Blue <khovard@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Words at War: a critical review--corrected
web site address
This is a correction of a message that included a faulty web site
address:
To see Professor Tim Crook's (Media & Communications Dept., Goldsmiths'
College, Univ. of London.) review of "Words at War," the first full
critical review of the book, see
[removed];L=radio-studies&T=0&F=&S=&P=58
Professor Crook does not say so, but the book is available directly from
me at a discount below the publisher's price.
Howard Blue
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 1 Jan 2003 15:56:39 -0500
From: "Ed Ellers" <ed_ellers@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: WCBS breaking format
Mark Kinsler <kinsler33@[removed]; wrote:
After I moved to New Haven CT in 1971, I kept the radio in Kinsler Hi-Fi
Service tuned to WCBS in New York. Its all-news format was still quite new
at the [removed]
IIRC it started in 1967.
Thus it was a bit odd to hear the heavy-duty news people cut away every
morning for the opening trombone theme of Arthur Godfrey, howayuh, howayuh,
etc. It was thus a sad day when the show ended.
Something else that WCBS continued to do for a while was an overnight music
program, simulcast with WCBS-FM (*some* AM/FM simulcasting was still
allowed). But, a few years later, WCBS refused to break away for CBS Radio
Mystery Theater, so the network placed that show on WOR instead.
WCBS still runs in its original format. It's now owned by Infinity or
someone like that.
Infinity, which is owned by Viacom, which also owns CBS and Paramount.
Viacom placed the CBS owned radio stations under Infinity to have one group
of radio stations rather than two, and placed UPN and the Paramount-owned TV
stations under CBS for the same reason. (The other big all-news station in
New York, WINS -- which actually went to all-news a couple of years before
WCBS -- became part of CBS when Westinghouse bought CBS in the mid-1990s,
and is an Infinity station today, yet still goes head-to-head against WCBS
as an all-news station, as do KFWB and KNX in Los Angeles.)
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 1 Jan 2003 16:41:00 -0500
From: Bill Jaker <bilj@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: 2003 anniversaries
This year will see many important anniversaries in radio history.
The year 2003 is the 110th anniversary of the broadcasting industry.
Yes, something we could identify as broadcasting actually predates the
invention of radio. In 1893 the Telefon-Hirmondo (Telephone Herald)
began operation on phone lines in Budapest, Hungary. This "cable radio"
operated about 12 hours a day with regular news broadcasts, stock
reports, sports scores, coverage of the Hungarian Parliament, talks by
literary figures, concerts and children's programs. It was commercially
supported and lasted till about World War I. Telefon-Hirmondo might not
have sounded different from today's radio broadcasting, except that
before the invention of electronic amplification the announcers - or
"stentors", as they were called - needed to speak so loudly that their
vocal chords could only endure twenty-minute shifts.
It's the 100th anniversary of the first wireless communication between
the United States and Great Britain. On 18 January 1903 the Marconi
station at Wellfleet, on Cape Cod, carried greetings to King Edward from
President Theodore Roosevelt. This will be commemorated this month by
amateur stations W1AA and KM1CC, and you can find out how to tune in by
going to: [removed]
This year is the 80th anniversary of the start of network radio in the
United States. On 4 January 1923 station WEAF in New York - then owned
by AT&T - fed a three-hour musical program to WNAC in Boston. In July
of that year a permanent line was established between WEAF and WMAF in
Round Hills, Massachusetts. The rest is history, and also a lot of
geography.
2003 is the 70th anniversary of CBS News. Despite objections from
newspaper interests, the Columbia News Bureau was established in
September of 1933 to gather and report each day's events. Under the
direction of Paul White, with Robert Trout as the principal news
announcer, Columbia became "The News Network", airing three five minute
newscasts a day.
This is the 60th anniversary of the American Broadcasting Company - or,
what would become ABC following the 1943 sale of the NBC Blue Network.
The details of that transaction have been discussed recently on these
screens. While World War 2 was raging it was impossible to buy enough
equipment to construct facilities for the new network, so ABC programs
originated alongside NBC's at Radio City until the late 40s.
A very happy, healthy and peaceful New Year to you all, with lots of
good listening.
--Bill Jaker
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 1 Jan 2003 16:57:06 -0500
From: EdHowell@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Hank Williams a ham?
Does anyone know if Hank Williams, Sr. was an amateur radio operator? In 1950
or so I used to have cw contacts with a Hank Williams who was located in
Verbena, Alabama. I wish I had kept his QSL card because I have always
wondered if he was THE Hank Williams. By strange coincidence the Hank I QSOed
with was not heard after Hank Williams's death. Until a few years ago we had
a Hank Williams, Sr birthday bash every year at an isolated state park in the
peedee area of South Carolina. We had maybe 50-60 members, all devoted Hank
fans. We had a pig picking and a lot of music by those who thought they
sounded like old Hank. We even had a Hank Williams look-alike contest.
Devotees came from as far away as Georgia and some had extensive Hank
Williams literature, clippings, posters, etc. There was a newspaper item that
showed Hank Williams with connections to Verbena, Alabama but nothing could
be found to prove that he was a ham radio operator. Maybe someone on this
list knows. Our Hank Williams, Sr. birthday bash ended as old timers passed
away.
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 2 Jan 2003 08:14:41 -0500
From: "Alan R. Betz" <abetz@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: Young People
Happy New Year all!
I'm just catching up with the last few weeks of Digests and wanted to
respond to a post by Don Strong <donsplace@[removed]; from 19
December, 2002:
At about the same time I discovered Jack Cullen on CKNW.
<At that [removed]
Unfortunatly, there isn't any OTR on CKNW anymore. I suspect that Mr.
Cullen is no longer with us.
Not quite true, although it might as well be. Jack did indeed pass
away last year (2002), but there still is OTR on CKNW. Seven nights a
week, from midnight to 3 AM OTR shows can be heard. That is, if you
don't mind that virtually all openings and closings have been removed.
CKNW's FM sister station, CFMI, FM [removed] plays complete OTR shows, often
in remarkably good sound, on Sunday nights from 10 PM to midnight.
Regards to everyone, Alan.
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 2 Jan 2003 08:15:06 -0500
From: "Don Frey" <alanladdsr@[removed];
To: "otr message" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Hop Harrigan and Ted Osborne
Stephen Kallis was commenting on Hop Harrigan. My son gave me for Christmas
a lobby card of Chapter 5 of a Hop Harrigan serial titled "Hop Harrigan" and
the episode is "Betrayed By a Madman" (Charlie kicked someone off the digest
again?) I was wondering if the serial is available. This lobby card
identifies it as a "Columbia Serial
Reprint, 1956) which I guess means the lobby card is not original, or the
serial has been
re-released or both. Anyhow, does anyone know if one can purchase the Hop
Harrigan serial anywhere?
Also, does anyone know if Ted Osborne and Reynold Osborne are related, the
same
person or just two radio actors named Osborne.
Thanks, Don Frey
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 2 Jan 2003 08:14:14 -0500
From: "MICHAEL BIEL" <mbiel@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: Long running OTR shows
From: "Andrew Godfrey" <niteowl049@[removed];
So the Metropolitan Opera doubles the length of The Breakfast Club
by being on air for 72 years as of the first of 2003.
There is a difference. The Breakfast Club was on daily 52 weeks a year and
was produced specifically for radio broadcast. The Met is seasonal and is
only on the air once a week for about 16 to 20 weeks a year. It is a
broadcast of an event that is not specifically produced for the broadcast
and would be happening anyway. The Grand Ole Opry (not mentioned here)
predates the Met's broadcasts by 6 years (counting when it was called the
WSM Barn Dance), and although it is also on the air only once a week, it is
produced especially for broadcast and is on 52 weeks a year. Some people
might argue that the Opry also produces non-broadcast productions such as
the Friday Nite Opry, and that the regular program on Sat would probably
also exist even if not broadcast. Well, the Met also has many
non-broadcast performances during its limited season, but it was well
established long before broadcasting and the broadcasts only help spread
its fame just a little. On the other hand, the Opry started as a
non-audience studio broadcast and gets ALL its fame from the weekly
broadcasts.
So I think the Met broadcasts are in a different category from either The
Breakfast Club or the Grand Ole Opry.
Michael Biel mbiel@[removed]
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 2 Jan 2003 08:25:05 -0500
From: "Philip Chavin" <philchav@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Long-running Paul Harvey News
Andrew G. posted recently:
"It seems like he [Paul Harvey] has been on
radio since I was born in 1944."
He has, Andrew, he has! 'Paul Harvey and the News' began on WENR
Chicago in 1944 (by August). The 11/26/50 starting date for Harvey given in
John Dunning's book, for example, apparently refers to the coast-to-coast
network version.
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 2 Jan 2003 08:26:34 -0500
From: John Mayer <mayer@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: Hank's Last Night
"timl2002" <timl2002@[removed]; commented:
It was actually said that Hank [Williams] was on his way from a
performance in
Tennesee and that he died in Oak Hill, West Virginia on his way to Canton,
Ohio to perform at the Memorial Auditorium on Jan. 1, 1953 . ...
If interested, here's a link to the story:
[removed];Category=11&fromSearch=yes
Well, people said all kinds of things about Hank's death, and the
circumstances surrounding his death were certainly a bit outre, but
his family believes he died in Knoxville. His car was stopped by a
state trooper, Swann Kitts, in Blaine a few miles east of Knoxville
for reckless driving. Officer Kitts asked the driver if his passenger
might be dead as he was pale and blue looking. Assured by the driver
(a teenager named Carr) that he was just passed out drunk, Kitts
didn't pursue the matter, but later concluded, after being assigned
to investigate the matter (unusual in itself as he was also a
witness), that Williams had, indeed, been dead at the time.
Williams had not performed in Tennesse but in Alabama for The
American Federation of Musicians, a group said to have been mostly
jazz players. He was scheduled to perform on New Years' Eve in
Charleston, WV, but, due to bad weather and his own ill health,
canceled his flight there and decided to ride with Carr who was to
have driven his car for him to his next gig in Canton. He had been in
bad health all that day, and a doctor had been summoned to treat his
convulsions; he reportedly gave him morphine, possibly not the only
dose of that drug he'd had that day. Someone decided to start the
drive on New Year's Eve; apparently Carr dressed Hank and got two
porters at the Andrew Johnson hotel to carry him to his car, where he
was placed in the back seat. BTW, Knoxville acquired the reputation
of a jinxed town among performers. Rachmoninoff died not long after
performing in Knoxville, a performance that proved to be his last,
and staying at the same hotel, and Emelia Earhart disappeared within
a year after staying there (well, it doesn't take much to get a good
superstition going). Carr finally became concerned about Hank's
extended silence near Oak Hill, WV, and sought medical assistance
there. One medical examiner estimated Hank had been dead about six
hours; another remarked it appeared he'd been beaten. Carr claimed he
had heard Hank speak a few words during the trip, but he might have
been trying to conceal the fact that he had been foolish enough
(assuming nothing more sinister) to dress up a dead man and take him
for a ride.
Most of this information I got from an article in Knoxville's
alternative (and superior) newspaper _Metro Pulse_, from an article
by Knoxville historian Jack Neely. The article does not seem yet to
have been placed in their archives, but the URL for their search page
is [removed] ; possibly they will post the
story after the holidays. I was wrong about one thing: the Knoxville
radio station that Hank is said to have occasionally performed for
was not WNOX (which Mr. Jim Hilliker and by way of him, Mr. Thomas H.
White, have informed me is not, after all, the 10th or 12th station
in the country as locals often claim, but which might be the 150th
oldest) but WROL, on _Tennessee Hayloft_, a program sponsored and
hosted by colorful local politician, grocer and showman Cas Walker,
the man who gave such notables as Dolly Parton their starts in
Country Music. The late Mr. Walker said that Hank had said he would
stop by for something of an impromptu performance that day, and that
he had done so on other occasions, but that he never showed up.
--
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 2 Jan 2003 08:31:36 -0500
From: "Jim Hilliker" <jimhilliker@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: First radio broadacst of Rose Bowl
Hi everyone!
Regarding the item for January 1st from Joe Mackey about the annual Rose
Bowl football game from Pasadena, CA and the first time it was broadcast
over the radio:
I thought I was the only one, or one of the few, who knew that the first
radio broadcast of the Rose Bowl football game was on January 1, 1923, over
station KHJ in Los [removed] game was USC vs. Penn [removed]
You say this came from Those Were The Days? I wonder where they got this
from?
You see, about 4 or 5 years ago, I found this by accident in the Los Angeles
Times, and then told the folks at the Tournament of Roses in Pasadena about
it! They did not know that this was the FIRST Rose Bowl on radio, as they
had previously thought the 1926 game on station KPSN-Pasadena (Pasadena
Star-News) was the first Rose Bowl radio [removed], they thanked me for
sending them this important new information, which corrected what they had
about the subject.
Also, the Los Angeles Almanac has credited me for also for coming up with
the date, 1-1-23 of the first Rose Bowl on radio on [removed] too only had
the 1-1-1926 game over KPSN as the first time the New Years Day game was
[removed] of you probably also know that the first national
broadcast of the Rose Bowl was on NBC on Jan. 1, 1927, using the remote
broadcast equipment of Los Angeles NBC affiliate KFI.
January 1, 1923 may also have been the very first time any football game was
broadcast on a Los Angeles radio station, but I need to research that
[removed] today is the 80th Anniversary of that broadcast on
then-500-watt KHJ, The Los Angeles Times [removed]
Also, I have copies of letters sent by DXers or distant radio listeners in
the midwest and [removed] were picking up the 1-1-23 Rose Bowl game as
it got dark back east! But, they didn't hear the station ID for [removed],
they mailed the reception report letters to a small Pasadena radio station
that was off the air at the time! They were trying to comfirm if this
Pasadena station, KLB, was carrying the Rose Bowl at the time! But KLB was
off the air all [removed] to read those [removed]
So, I checked in the [removed] Times of Jan. 1, 1923 to find that the Rose Bowl
was carried over KHJ, and KLB was off the air that day. This was back in
1997 or 1998 that I discovered this information.
Jim
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 2 Jan 2003 08:25:15 -0500
From: "Andrew Godfrey" <niteowl049@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Long running OTR shows
Thanks for telling of more long running shows. It is very interesting to
know especially the one about the lady on the air since 1941 and the Mormon
Tabernacle Choir since 1929.
Andrew
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 2 Jan 2003 08:26:58 -0500
From: leonardfass@[removed] (Leonard Fass)
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: long running radio shows still on
amending a note: the metropolitan opera is available live. and only
live. some of that stations that carry it are npr. some arte not. the
show is not as old as the posting seems to indicate. the current
broadcast season started in december. most broadcasts start a 1:30 est.
[removed]
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 2 Jan 2003 08:34:58 -0500
From: "A. Joseph Ross" <lawyer@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: "Happy Birthday To You"
Date: Tue, 31 Dec 2002 15:51:38 -0500
From: Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed];
One of the most popular songs to be played was Happy Birthday to You;
which was performed in many different languages just to get past the
ban. The original song is now, in fact, a copyrighted piece of music,
though it wasn't at the time.
At the risk of starting up a copyright discussion again, it is not posible
for a piece of music
to become copyrighted after it has been in the public domain. So far as I
know, the song
(originally written as 'Good Morning To You") has always been copyrighted.
--
A. Joseph Ross, [removed] [removed]
15 Court Square, Suite 210 lawyer@[removed]
Boston, MA 02108-2503 [removed]
--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2003 Issue #2
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