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

      Please Read Information Boilerplate at the End of This Digest
                          Last Updated 10-28-96

[removed] Digest				Volume 96 : Issue 504

Table Of Contents: 

	 re: Variety on radio
	 Re: VARIETY IN OTR AND TELEVISION PROGRAMING
	 Quality and Variety And Sturgeon's Law
	 XMAS GIFT
	 Variety rebuttal
	 Mutual & Barry Gray
	 Arthur Godfrey biography
	 Investigative Reporting
	 Remember WENN

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

Date: Fri, 27 Dec 1996 22:11:37 -0600
From: Joe Mackey <wmackey@[removed]>
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: re: Variety on radio
Message-ID: <[removed]@[removed]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Thus wrote Mark--
> From: Mark Kinsler <kinsler@[removed]>
> Subject: Variety in radio

> 3) Cooking shows
  I can't cite any one program off hand, but there were several cooking
tips shows on otr, mostly during the day when the hausfrau's were home. 
Usually sponsored by a company involved with food/cooking, such as a
flour company, Crisco, etc.

> 4) Home repair shows and other how-to-do-it stuff
  I remember reading something about this type of show, usually on
weekends.
  I do agree ballet would have been a tough show to do!  :)

               --------New Topic---------

> From: William Miles <bmiles@[removed]>
> Subject: Radio variety
> 
> I agree with Joseph M. concerning radio versus television.  To me, radio did not insult the intelligence of the listener as television does the
   
  I agree.  I can't think of any show where another member of the cast
was denigrated by anyone else.  (There were lots of shows where others
foibles were mentioned in humourous ways: Jack Benny being a tighwad,
Phil Harris bending the elbow, etc.  But none of these degraded or
mocked others.)
  While I haven't heard _every_ commerical that was on radio (who has or
can remember them all?) I have never heard one that insulted the
listener's intelligence.  Oh sure there were many that were trite and
bordering on the redundant and inane, but never insulting.
  Just my two cents.
  Joe

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

Date: Sat, 28 Dec 1996 11:53:24 -0500
From: SanctumOTR@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: VARIETY IN OTR AND TELEVISION PROGRAMING
Message-ID: <961228115324_1189300695@[removed]>

I think there was proabably at least as much variety on commercial OTR as on
commercial broadcast (as opposed to cable) television.  OTR featured many
shows that don't survive or aren't collected today including animal shows
like DON CARNEY'S DOG STORIES and ALBERT PAYSON TERHUNE'S DOG DRAMAS (the
top-rated children's show on NBC Blue during the mid-1940s), and I'm sure
there were plenty of cooking and gardening shows as well.  Network
recreations of news events began not with YOU ARE THERE but back in 1931 on
Time Magazine's THE MARCH OF TIME.  The low costs of radio programming
probably encouraged a wide variety of programming to fill the broadcast day
on local stations (much like public access on today's cable stations).
 Musical variety shows (like The Blue Coal Minstrels) and symphonic series
(like Arturo Toscanini's NBC orchestra) probably don't make their way into
many collections this side of Dave Siegel's (and that's meant as an envious
appreciation of Dave's collection).  Just because most OTR collections are
maintained within fairly narrow limits (dramas, westerns, comedies,
mysteries) doesn't mean there wasn't a greater diversity in the actual
broadcast day. -- ANTHONY TOLLIN    

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

Date: Sat, 28 Dec 1996 12:54:38 -0500
From: Bigkids@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Quality and Variety And Sturgeon's Law
Message-ID: <961228125437_1490518423@[removed]>

In all the discussion of variety on OTR versus present-day TV, I think we may
be barking up the wrong tree. What is variety worth, if it's just a variety
of garbage?

We don't have DSS yet in our house (although our son the sports maven is
pushing for it, and it may yet happen), so we don't have all those hundreds
of channels. There was a great column in this morning's Oakland Trib sports
section, in which the columnist tried DSS surfing in hopes of finding a
particular basketball game. Took him two hours just to surf the available
channels, by the end of which time he discovered that the game he wanted to
see had indeed been shown, but it took him so long to find it that he arrived
just in time for the post-game wrapup.

Ha!

I generally sleep pretty well, but once in a while I hit one of those
toss-and-turners, and wander downstairs and cable-surf at 2:00 or 3:00 or
4:00 AM, and with about 60 channels on our TCI cable system, there's
generally nothing worth watching. NOTHING!

Even good old reliable AMC seems always to be playing something I've seen a
dozen times at those hours . . . "Flame of New Orleans," "South Pacific," or
a hackneyed western.

I'm sure that a radio channel surfer in 1947 would have had a similar
[removed] or, more accurately, I think one would *probably* have had that
same experience.

Sturgeon's Law says that 90% of everything is crap. Lord knows that's the
case with present-day TV. I suspect it was equally true of even Golden Age
OTR.

When we listen to OTR tapes today, we're doing the equivalent of watching
movies on cassette. We choose the ones we either know we like, because we've
seen 'em before and, er, know we like 'em . . . or they're movies we expect
to enjoy because we know them by reputation, or from Roger Ebert's or Leonard
Maltin's recommendations, or because they feature our favorite stars, or were
made by our favorite directors or written by our favorite screen-writers.

And we don't waste our time on low-probability rentals.

To get back to OTR -- we know that there's a very high probability that any
given "Suspense" episode will be worth listening to. If we're considering Lux
Radio Theatre, we check out the story and the cast and make our choice.

There's nothing wrong with any of this. What we're doing is stacking the
deck, manipulating the odds in our own favor.

As for "intelligent commercials" (an oxymoron, don't you think?) I can't say
that I find the old Blue Coal commercials on The Shadow, or the Roma Wine
pitches or Autolite Battery playlets with Harlow Wilcox that we hear on
"Suspense", to be exactly scintillating.

The thing is, we're selective about OTR, and there was of course a welath of
wonderful material there. But if we're equally selective about modern TV, the
same is true. On a tyhpical evening you can watch a "Simpsons" episode, a
"Seinfeld," maybe a "Dream On" and a "Law and Order." (All on reruns, by the
way.)

Of course there's personal taste involved, but for my money, that's
two-and-a-half hours of intelligently written and well-produced drama,
comedy, social commentary and fantasy. Why, one might even turn one's back to
the tube and just listen to the soundtrack, and imagine that it's a fine
evening of OTR.

And then of course there are shows that we might listen to / watch that are
as funny as Lum 'n' Abner, at least, is not Vic & Sade. I'm thinking of
"Melrose Place." Is this intentional or unintentional high camp? And were the
OTR soaps this ridiculous? I remember hearing them when I was laid up in bed
with one childhood disease or another and really getting involved. But . . .
maybe a nine-year-old would react to Aaron Spelling's product the way I did
in 1944, to "Our Gal Sunday" and its ilk.

Dick Lupoff

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

Date: Sat, 28 Dec 1996 12:56:53 -0500
From: Bigkids@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: XMAS GIFT
Message-ID: <961228125652_1755514524@[removed]>

Of all the gifts I received this year, I think the one that most delighted me
was a copy of Sheldon Leonard's autobiography. I thank the Digest members who
mentioned it and brought it to my attention. I then mentioned it at the
dinner table one night, quite without ulterior motive, but my wife picked up
on my interest and surprised me with a copy of the book.

Oh, joy!

Dick Lupoff

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

Date: Sat, 28 Dec 1996 11:24:42 -0700
From: joseph <joseph@[removed]>
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Variety rebuttal
Message-Id: <l03010d00aeeb15f9b1be@[[removed]]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

1) Investigative news reporting
While no strictly investigative shows (none in newspapers of that era
either, muckrakers were gone) there were plenty of commentators and Murrow.
2) Wildlife shows
Better then wildlife shows, Mark Trail.
3) Cooking shows
4) Home repair shows and other how-to-do-it stuff
One of the early formats was both of the above for rural home consumption
by both gov. and commercial interests. Betty Crocker et al.
5) Science shows (includes wildlife, of course, but Walt Disney got to
   the moon ten years before NASA did).
6) Health-related shows
Unfair as health wasn't a big deal as it is now. But I will admit that TV
is better, remember Dr Brinkley and his goat glands.
7) Ballet (I'm [removed] couldn't resist :-))
NBC Symphony Orch., Arturo Toscannini
8) Business-related shows
Part of the regular news.
9) Wrestling (An early winner on old time television, incl. mud and females)
Boxing was better . The boxing blow by blow anouncers were better than any
picture.
10) Roller derby (same thing).
Wasn't around then. Not as many 'phony' sports then.
Let us not forget unsponsered radio. Which brought us the likes of Corwin,
Reis, Robson, Macliesh, Obler and many more. Don't forget Columbia Radio
Workshop, Mercury Theater of the Air and others. The Shakespear plays and
more.  When was last time you heard of experimental TV?

Joseph M

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

Date: Sat, 28 Dec 1996 16:52:55 -0500
From: bilj@[removed] (Bill Jaker)
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Mutual & Barry Gray
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

The Mike Todd show that Barry Gray panned so thoroughly that Todd bought 
time on his program to keep panning was "Up In Central Park".  The whole 
story is typical of both Gray and Todd, and is told in Barry Gray's book "My 
Night People: 10,001 Night in Broadcasting" (Simon & Schuster, 1975).

Mutual was founded in 1934.

   /////////////////We live in the magnetic age\\\\\\\\\\

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

Date: Sat, 28 Dec 1996 18:06:51 -0500
From: Alan Chapman <[removed]@[removed]>
To: OTR Digest <[removed]@[removed]>
Subject: Arthur Godfrey biography
Message-ID: <199612281807_MC1-DE5-150F@[removed]>

The A&E Biography Monday, Dec 30, 8:00 pm EST, is on Arthur Godfrey.  

I am told it will cover both his radio and TV career.   Arthur Singer, the
show's executive producer, spent many years researching Godfrey and
interviewing Godfrey's peers -- friends and foes alike.  It promises to be
a balanced piece (within the limitations of a 1-hour format); it even
includes an interview with Julius LaRosa, who has no lost love for Godfrey.

Catch it if you can.  No disclaimer -- This is a bias recommendation;  Art
Singer is a friend and member of our Radio Collector's of America club in
Boston.  

Happy New Year all!!   And a special wish for a bright 1997 to Bill
Pfeiffer and Mom!

-- Alan

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

Date: Sat, 28 Dec 1996 23:43:25 -0500
From: Jim Widner <jwidner@[removed]>
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Investigative Reporting
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

>Mark Kinsler <kinsler@[removed]> wrote:
>
>> A few things that television had that old-time radio didn't, at least from 
>> what I've learned on this group:
>> 
>> 1) Investigative news reporting
>> 3) Cooking shows 
>> 6) Health-related shows
>
>Surely pre-TV radio had these!  I'd appreciate hearing some specifics,
>which I unfortunately can't supply, though the names E. Murrow, M. M.
>MacBride and C. Fredericks come to mind. 
>

As far as I am concerned, what the radio reporters such as Murrow's boys
did WAS investigative reporting. Radio programs such as Hear It Now (which
led to See It Now). These reporters were better experts in their field than
any reporters in broadcast journalism today. They not only had backgrounds
other than simple journalism, they had known the many personalities they
reported on. They were able to provide us with insight and discovery about
these subjects. 

Probably Mark means in the current sense of sniffing out things that might
not have been brought to light such as we see on 60 minutes as
investigative reporting.

For me, investigative reporting is seeking out a story and reporting on it
in depth. This happened regularly on radio.

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

Date: Sat, 28 Dec 1996 23:49:30 -0700
From: Jerry Purvis <hqsouth@[removed]>
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Remember WENN
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Hi gang!

This is what I get for not adding on an extra 10 minutes when taping
something. Did anyone tape the special Remember WENN Christmas episode
"Christmas on the Airwaves"? I sure would like to get a copy of it.

Thanks for any assistance you're able to provide.

Jerry Purvis 
hqsouth@[removed]



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End of [removed] Digest V96 Issue #504
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