Subject: [removed] Digest V2002 #383
From: "OldRadio Mailing Lists" <[removed]@[removed];
Date: 10/1/2002 9:27 AM

To: <[removed]@[removed];

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

                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2002 : Issue 383
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      re Fred Berneys post VHS recorders f  [ "Ellsworth Johnson" <eojohnsonww2@a ]
      DVD players and MP3                   [ "Frank Phillips" <frankphi@hotmail. ]
      Hal Stone and S&M                     [ JackBenny@[removed] ]
      Radio, The Shadow and Our Increasing  [ SanctumOTR@[removed] ]
      Those Websters Anagram Trivia         [ Sandy Singer <sinatradj@[removed]; ]
      Re: common actors                     [ hal stone <dualxtwo@[removed]; ]
      Last day of OTR                       [ Bryan Wright <bswrig@[removed]; ]
      Re: WOTW -- The Other Listeners       [ Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed] ]
      WOW Recreation                        [ Davidinmemphis@[removed] (David) ]
      Regarding the APEX model AD3201 MP3   [ Richard Fisher <w9fjl@[removed]; ]
      Arise Sir Sherlock                    [ "david rogers" <david_rogers@hotmai ]
      Re: DVD Players and MP3               [ Shenbarger@[removed] ]
      DVD players and MP 3                  [ "Peter H. Vollmann" <vollmann@hawai ]
      'Kind of Savvy, Kemo-Sabe             [ jameshburns@[removed] (Jim Burns) ]
      "All Things Considered"               [ "Russ Butler" <oldradio@[removed] ]
      Today in radio history                [ Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed] ]
      Re: DVD players for MP3               [ Ga6string@[removed] ]
      Betty Grable-Harry James DJ Show      [ Jandpgardner@[removed] ]

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

    Date: Mon, 30 Sep 2002 19:54:42 -0400
    From: "Ellsworth Johnson" <eojohnsonww2@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  re Fred Berneys post VHS recorders for
     [removed] much more.

    Folks hi-fi VHS machines have separate heads for audio. The audio is
    overlayed over the video but you aren't going to record any video if you are
    using the machine for audio only-- so there is no tracking problem.  No way
    . Bear in mind they are practically giving away hi-fi VHS recorders
    nowadays. I have seen them for below $ 100. in places like Costco.

    Believe me  where else and how could you make a 6 hour audio recording at a
    frequency response of 20 to 20,000 hertz on a $ [removed] VHS video tape .and
    there is no threading to have to do. There is no other way. Or you can make
    an 8 hour tape in the T-160 tapes for a price like $ [removed] each.
     This is not common knowledge so must be the reason it is not well known. I
    spent 40 years in the retail and wholesale electronics biz and handled the
    best of the lines of recorders such as Grundig and Sony. in the
    50s--60s--and part of the 70s.

    I further predict that DVDs are going to almost put video recording machines
    out of biz. .Some major stores have already discontinued handling
    prerecorded VHS video tapes. If you want to own one of the best of VHS
    machines buy a Super VHS recorder. You can now buy The JVC brands for
    approx. $ 150 and not long ago you couldn't touch one for  less than $ 350
    to $ 500. They have video resolution of about 400 lines compared to ordinary
    VHS of only 240 lines. You have to see it to believe it.

    Ellsworth Johnson
    Spokane, Wa
    eojohnsonww2 @[removed]

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

    Date: Mon, 30 Sep 2002 20:51:06 -0400
    From: "Frank Phillips" <frankphi@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  DVD players and MP3

    Having just recently purchased not one, but two DVD players I think I can
    shed some light on the subject.

    First of all -- the DVD players that will successfully play all American DVD
    disks have a logo on the box that shows a glove with a number 1 in it.

    If it doesn't have that logo (and many cheaper ones don't) it won't play all
    American DVDs. We found out the hard way when my wife bought a Disney DVD
    that wouldn't play. Through research we learned the above information. The
    purpose is to avoid illegal imports of foreign produced DVDs into America.

    Now, the dheaper DVDs that do not have the globe with the 1 logo seem to do
    a better job playing MP3 files on CD. At least my old DVD player did.

    I think the new RCA unit we bought insists on MP3s recorded at 32 mps or
    more.

    So, alas, and alack we have to make a trade-off.

    To Disney or not to Disney ... that is the mouse!:)

    Frank Phillips

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

    Date: Mon, 30 Sep 2002 21:08:01 -0400
    From: JackBenny@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Hal Stone and S&M

    Hal Stone sez:

>     I deserve 39 lashes.

    I could go a lot of places with that comment, but I'll side with my better
    judgement.  Sorry, Hal.  :)

>     Ok! Who's the blabbermouth? No, I think I know what happened. I'm the
>     blabbermouth. I probably posted that bit of trivia in the Digest eon's ago,
>     and Laura clips and pastes on her wall any mention of her idol.

    OK!  Who's the blabbermouth?!?!

    --
    Laura Leff
    President, IJBFC
    [removed]

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

    Date: Mon, 30 Sep 2002 21:11:26 -0400
    From: SanctumOTR@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Radio, The Shadow and Our Increasing
     Gullibility: The ON-TOPIC Sequel

    I'm afraid I strayed a bit off topic in my previous posting so please allow
    me to try again:

    John Meyer and others wrote about the apparent increase in American
    gullibility and lack of skepticism, in particular the fascination of some
    with The Shadow's "occult" abilities like mental telepathy.  (Actually, the
    word "occult" simply means "hidden" or "secret.")

    I think it's important to remember that less than 100 years ago stockbrokers
    were successfully prosecuted for selling stock in Dr. Lee De Forest's "audian
    tube."  A district attorney was able to convince a judge and jury that radio
    was an impossibie fake "without merit," even after De Forest had been awarded
    the grand prize at the 1904 World's Fair for transmitting a wireless message
    300 miles from St. Louis to Chicago.  And until we developed devices
    sensitive enough to measure waves through the electro-magnetic spectrum (and
    equipment to receive such signals at home), many refused to believe in the
    existance of radio, just as some still insist that the moon landing was faked.

    People were imprisoned because a district attorney was able to disprove the
    existance of radio.  Those brokers were probably extremely lucky that they
    lived in early 20th-century America rather than in Europe during the middle
    ages or even the Renaissance, when the Roman Church and the Inquisition
    sentenced scientists to be burned at the stake for projecting images via a
    camera obscura (and excommunicated Galileo Galilei for maintaining that the
    Earth revolved around the sun and that the Earth wasn't the center of the
    universe).

    Our eyes can view only a tiny percentage of the wavelengths in the full
    energy spectrum, and I think it would be extremely premature to assume that
    we've already developed the technology capable of sensing every type of
    energy that exists, or that we understand all the abilities of the human
    mind.

    Therefore, while I certainly agree one needs to be skeptical of the existance
    of things unknown or unconfirmed, I think it's important that we be similarly
    skeptical when science can't measure possible energies or, to use the title
    of a SHADOW episode, "The Powers of the Mind."  And I think it's even more
    important to be skeptical of "truths" that we've been taught are reality from
    the time we were infants.  It's far harder to question the supposed "reality"
    we ourselves have absorbed than the "alien" realities of other lands and
    cultures.  (The wonderful movie PLEASANTVILLE dealt with how often we limit
    our reality through repetitious habits that prevent us from discovering other
    levels beyond what we've been taught are possible or real.)

    A lot of my perception of reality has been challenged in recent years since
    my friend Will Murray (the former author of THE DESTROYER and new DOC SAVAGE
    novels and NPR radio series) became a professional psychic.  I have, well, a
    hard time explaining how he was able to make two-dozen successful hits in a
    row during a phone call from 250-miles away - including correctly telling me
    the rear right burner on my stove wasn't working and that there was a 5-inch
    crack in the stearing whell of my car - when he hadn't visited me in more
    than a decade and I hadn't owned either the car or the new stove on his
    previous visit.  I have no way of explaining his string of very-specific and
    accurate statements,  I don't pretend to understand such abilities, nor am I
    certain that there isn't some other explanation.  But I do believe we're only
    beginning to tap the simplest secrets of the human mind, and the
    interconnection between ourselves and our environment.

    Perhaps the mystical abilities of telepathy and mind-clouding
    pseudo-invisibility described in Alexandra David-Neel's 1929 book MAGIC AND
    MYSTERY IN TIBET (available in a Dover reprint) that inspired The Shadow and
    The Green Lama are possible.  I'm not saying they are or aren't  just that I
    think we need to be more skeptical of the things we have been taught to
    accept as "truth" in our own culture.  (Anyone care to ask Ray Bradbury or
    Arthur Clarke about the many decades when they were considered crackpots
    because they believed that man would one day set foot on the moon?)

    Wasn't it Sir Arthur Clarke who wrote that any significantly advanced
    technology would appear to be magic to those less scientifically advanced.
    Imagine how skeptical even Sherlock Holmes would have been of voices
    seemingly emerging from the radio either from dozens or hundreds of miles
    away.  Yet I suspect many on this list would today accept such as possible
    and scientific.  Some listers may even claim to have heard such disembodied
    voices coming from some sort of receiving device or modern technology.  Or
    even moving pictures transmitted through the airwaves.

    Too much skepticism, and we might never have seen the development of radio
    and television and radio-telescopes.  And what if certain "Powers of the
    Mind" exist that we do not yet have the technology to measure?  It would, as
    Sir Arthur has stated, seem like magic.

    --Anthony Tollin, who is returning to his study of the strange secrets Lamont
    Cranston discovered years ago in the Orient--

    ("Say, wasn't Tony here on the list just a few seconds ago.  He seems to have
    vanished into thin air -- like a - a -")

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

    Date: Mon, 30 Sep 2002 21:11:41 -0400
    From: Sandy Singer <sinatradj@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Those Websters Anagram Trivia
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

    Thank you for your very kind reception--a lot more Chicago radio in the
    '40s to come, including my favorite Mike Wallace story.

    When That Brewster Boy went West, it was replaced by Those Websters --
    websters is an anagram of brewster.

          [removed]
          A DATE WITH SINATRA

      *** This message was altered by the server, and may not appear ***
      ***                  as the sender intended.                   ***

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

    Date: Mon, 30 Sep 2002 22:30:17 -0400
    From: hal stone <dualxtwo@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Re: common actors

     "Matthew Bullis" asks.

> >     Hello, just wondered if there is a source of info that tells about the
> >     common actors that played in radio years ago?

    Yup! I have just the thing for you Matt. Buy my new book "Aw! Relax
    [removed]!"

    (If the &*^#!&^* printer ever gets their act together.)

    In it, I bet I mention, and tell a lot, about a great many of the common
    actors (myself included) when we all worked together in Network radio years
    ago. :)  Not all mind you, but certainly enough of them. And you'd amazed at
    how many escaped from the relative obscurity of radio performing and went on
    to fame and fortune in TV.  Mathew,I bet you meant to say "obscure" rather
    than "common", right? :) (Lois. Don't pick on my buddy Matthew) :)

    Hal(Harlan)Stone
    Jughead

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

    Date: Mon, 30 Sep 2002 22:35:54 -0400
    From: Bryan Wright <bswrig@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Last day of OTR

    Hi, All.

    I nearly forgot! Today (Sept. 30) marks the 40th anniversary of the last
    broadcast of the last two major network radio dramas, Yours Truly Johnny
    Dollar and Suspense. Apparently, a mention of this was made on NPR today,
    but I missed it and only heard about it from a friend. Supposedly in a day
    or two the brief clip will be available on the NPR Archives ([removed]).

    I think I'll go listen to "Devilstone" [removed]

    Happy listening!
    Bryan Wright

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

    Date: Mon, 30 Sep 2002 22:36:28 -0400
    From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Re: WOTW -- The Other Listeners

    Joseph wrote:

>     Still I could imagine myself then tuning around the dial
>     hitting a scene where something was going on dramatically then
>     silence and the tinkly piano coming and feeling some panic rising
>     inside me.

    One thing I've always found fascinating about the WOTW phenomenon is not
    so much that there were people who tuned in late that were convinced by
    it, but that there were also people *who were tuned to the program from
    the very beginning and still swallowed it.* According to a survey by the
    American Institute of Public Opinion, as reported by Cantril, as many as
    11 per cent of people who heard the program from the beginning fell into
    this category.

    What Cantril points out in connection to this tends to contradict the
    image a lot of people have of how listeners actually listened to the
    radio in 1938: while some may have listened with rapt attention to every
    word, there were a great many who simply ignored the beginning of the
    program out of habit. Cantril theorizes that many listeners may in fact
    have unconsciously developed the habit of ignoring the opening
    announcements of programs because such announcements were generally
    dominated by advertising matter or other information they considered
    irrelevant. And still other listeners admitted that they simply had the
    radio on for background noise, and paid no attention to it unless
    something happened to catch their ear. Under those circumstances, it
    would have been easy for a listener to be sitting right there listening
    to Welles' whole opening spiel without comprehending a word of it.

    Elizabeth

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

    Date: Mon, 30 Sep 2002 22:36:52 -0400
    From: Davidinmemphis@[removed] (David)
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  WOW Recreation

    Have not see this discussed here, and OTR purists may prefer it that way
    but talk show host Glenn Beck is planning a live recreation of the  H.
    G.  Wells War of the World on Wednesday night October 30th from
    8:00-9:00 [removed]  Eastern Time.  He is recruiting volunteer actors and
    Foley artists for the broadcast.  The broadcast will originatie from
    Washington [removed] Details can be found at the show's website.

    [removed]

    Hope the link works.

    Regards
    David Chamberlain
    Memphis, TN

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

    Date: Mon, 30 Sep 2002 22:37:07 -0400
    From: Richard Fisher <w9fjl@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Regarding the APEX model AD3201 MP3 - DVD
     player

    Anyone interested in this unit mentioned in the last digest might want
    to check [removed] for their price on this unit.

    It was at $[removed] on Monday evening.

    I have their Apex 1000 model and it plays low bit rate MP-3 fine and for
    me personally a real plus is that it plays DVD's in the PAL format as I
    get DVD's from Australia and that is their standard format.

    Dick

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

    Date: Mon, 30 Sep 2002 23:22:11 -0400
    From: "david rogers" <david_rogers@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Arise Sir Sherlock

    In response to the question below:

>     Even counting guest appearances, how many "titled" actors were involved in
>     OTR?

    I would like to mention Sir John Gielgud who played Sherlock Holmes and
    Watson was by Sir Ralph Richardson. I do not think that either of them were
    knighted at the time of the performances so I do not know if this counts.
    Of course Sherlock Holmes was written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Does that
    count

    Love as always, David Rogers

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

    Date: Tue, 1 Oct 2002 00:23:55 -0400
    From: Shenbarger@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: DVD Players and MP3

    In a message dated 9/30/2002 3:55:42 PM Central Daylight Time, Eric Gowins
    writes:

>     I wonder whether any one out there has had a good experience with one of the
>      new DVD players that will play MP3s? I've tried a couple without good
>      results when it comes to playing OTR recorded at low bandwidths.

    I have had mixed results too. Earlier this year I began seriously looking at
    these machines with several objectives in mind. They have improved compared
    to last year a great deal, but is seems nobody really has things all in one
    machine that suit one's needs. I had requirements aside from OTR (video
    needs). But OTR was high on my list. The first machine I brought home had
    trouble with 98 kbps transcriptions I had made. This could be an encoder
    problem, but the same recordings play fine on the Rio Volt player. I returned
    that one and got a Phillips DVD724 model and that has been playing fine with
    the following shortcomings:

    1   It can handle bit rates down to 24 kbps but hangs up on anything lower
    2   It has a terrible surround sound simulator for stereo systems (2 channel)
    3   It does not remember where it was in a movie or MP3 disc when you turn it
    off
    4   The titles display on the TV screen using the first few filename
    characters

    The manual says it plays the following, I have not tried to confirm this but,
    those I have tried in this range do play:

        24, 32, 56, 64, 96, 128, 256 kbps & variable bit rate
        fs, 16, [removed], 24, 32, [removed] 48 kHz (sample frequency?)

    I expect "fs" stands for frequency of samples or something similar. I believe
    it pays to make a sampler to carry to the store and ask to see how it plays.

    Don Shenbarger

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

    Date: Tue, 1 Oct 2002 01:35:02 -0400
    From: "Peter H. Vollmann" <vollmann@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  DVD players and MP 3

    I just love my RIO-Volt. It plays all kinds of OTR MP3s (only one cd of
    hundreds not accepted). And it has re-chargeable batteries, so when the
    power is low, I just plug it in overnight, and it is ready to go for another
    12-20 hours the next morning. That feature alone makes it a great money
    saver.
    Peter

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

    Date: Tue, 1 Oct 2002 02:06:22 -0400
    From: jameshburns@[removed] (Jim Burns)
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  'Kind of Savvy, Kemo-Sabe

    It may have been Klinton Spillsbury in THE LEGEND OF THE RONE RANGER
    film, but it was the voice of actor James Keach, that you heard, as the
    hero of the west!

    Best, Jim Burns

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

    Date: Tue, 1 Oct 2002 11:03:56 -0400
    From: "Russ Butler" <oldradio@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  "All Things Considered"

    In the final minutes of today's (Monday, 9/30) ATC on National Public Radio,
    there was a nice anniversary salute to OTR - a commentary and brief audio
    clips on the final two, CBS network shows that ended scheduled, old time
    radio forty years ago.  "Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar" and "Suspense" were the
    last programs to close the Golden Age of Radio era on September 30, 1962.
    We've come a long way from when families gathered around the Philco in the
    living room and "listened to furniture talking," as Fred Allen once quipped.

    Coincidentally, or ironically, on the same ATC program was the story of the
    new XM and Sirius Satellite Radio service and how this technology is
    struggling for subscription acceptance.  Also, a segment on a campus
    "wireless" project at U of Georgia to communicate with palm pilots,  and a
    new dictionary definition of that word, "wireless."  NPR makes these
    segments and the entire program available to hear and forward segments by
    e-mail on their website [removed] - select "All Things Considered"  then
    choose EXPERIENCE BY SEGMENT to see the archive run down of a particular ATC
    show.

    September 30, 1982 was the date when the first, expensive compact disc was
    introduced on the shelves in Japan's music stores by Sony, destined to
    replace the LP and vinyl records. They said that the CD technology is
    projected to last only 25 years, then something new will come along - so,
    we've got five years remaining.  At least, satellite radio will have an OTR
    channel,  American songbook and standards music channels even if broadcast
    stations are increasingly not programming these formats anymore.

    Russ Butler  oldradio@[removed]

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

    Date: Tue, 1 Oct 2002 11:04:03 -0400
    From: Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed];
    To: otr-net <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Today in radio history

      From Those Were The Days --

    1942 - Pop Quiz time: Who was the original host of People Are Funny?
    Radio and TV fans might say, "Art Linkletter." They would be wrong. Art
    Baker was the original host.

    Birthday:

    1909 - Everett Sloane, d. Aug 6, 1965

      Joe

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

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

    Date: Tue, 1 Oct 2002 11:04:22 -0400
    From: Ga6string@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: DVD players for MP3

    I bought the Apex 1100W at Wal-Mart for a whopping $58. It's played all the
    MP3s I've thrown at it so far. I'm still, in a many ways, a cassette guy, so
    this allows me to dump any MP3 program I have onto cassette with ease. I am
    quite happy, so far!
    Bryan Powell

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

    Date: Tue, 1 Oct 2002 11:04:46 -0400
    From: Jandpgardner@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Betty Grable-Harry James DJ Show

    Earlier this year a set of 10 16 inch 33 rpm radio transcription discs was
    offered for sale on Ebay, described as being '...for the syndicated Betty
    Grable-Harry James DJ show ...(with) only the intros and dialogue ...(so
    that) the actual tunes were inserted by the local broadcast engineer ...'.
    The discs were sold before I knew of them and I have been trying to find out
    more about this 'syndicated DJ show'.
    I can find no reference to such a show in any of the books I have and none of
    the (usually) knowledgeable people I have contacted knows anything about it.
    I am sure that someone reading the Digest will know when these discs were
    made and broadcast and can give further details of the show.
    My thanks in anticipation.
    John (in England)

    --------------------------------
    End of [removed] Digest V2002 Issue #383
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