Subject: [removed] Digest V2001 #342
From: "OldRadio Mailing Lists" <[removed]@[removed];
Date: 10/25/2001 9:03 PM
To: <[removed]@[removed];

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


                            The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                              Volume 2001 : Issue 342
                         A Part of the [removed]!
                                 ISSN: 1533-9289


                                 Today's Topics:

  re Schwimmer                          [ John Henley <jhenley@[removed] ]
  New Radio Spirits catalog             [ bkeller@[removed] (Bob Keller) ]
  Pam from Bakersfield-request for OTR  [ SacChief@[removed] ]
  Making Your OWN 16" Turntable         [ GEORGE WAGNER <gwagneroldtimeradio@ ]
  The Green Hornet question             [ AandG4jc@[removed] ]
  Wire recordings                       [ "Ted Kneebone" <tkneebone1@[removed] ]
  Two o'clock, EWT                      [ "Ted Kneebone" <tkneebone1@[removed] ]
  From the FOTR [removed]           [ Charlie Summers <charlie@[removed] ]
  A GREAT BIG "THANK YOU!"              [ "Owens Pomeroy" <opomeroy@[removed]; ]
  Re: Wire Recorders                    [ "James B. Wood, [removed]" <woodjim@ ]
  Wire recorders                        [ "Mark Kinsler" <kinsler33@[removed] ]
  Ike's First D Day Broadcast           [ Bill Harris <radioguy@[removed]; ]
  The Great Mr. Hinckley                [ Wich2@[removed] ]

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

Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2001 23:26:10 -0400
From: John Henley <jhenley@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  re Schwimmer

Elizabeth expained,
[Tello Test] was more a franchising promotion
than a syndication package, and was developed in Chicago in the late
1930s by an entrepreneur by the name of Walter Schwimmer.

Wow, that's the first time I've seen or heard Schwimmer's name
in a very long time.  But I do believe I used to see it every day
when  I was 10 or so, on the credits for the old Cisco Kid tv
show with Duncan Renaldo.  I wonder if it was Schwimmer's idea
to film the thing in color at a time when there were essentially no
color sets for sale?  Not strictly on topic, I know, but it made me sit
up and say "[removed]"

John Henley
jhenley@[removed]
ph  (512) 495-4112
fax (512) 495-4296

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

Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2001 23:27:54 -0400
From: bkeller@[removed] (Bob Keller)
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  New Radio Spirits catalog

I don't want to get a Radio spirits flame war started, but I just received
their new catalog and I'm pretty impressed.

It is in a large format size, and while there didn't seem to be much that
wasn't in the most recent "digest" size book, I was pretty impressed with
the look and the layout, and think that this is a pretty smart try at
generating some interest in OTR from the outside of the hobby.

The careful use of some great images from OTR's past, as well as what are
probably some movie stills, mixed with the text and nice graphics, will
probably do wonders in snagging some new people into the hobby, possibly
from the AMC/Fox Movie Classics/old movie crowd, or casual folks who buy
through catalogs like Signals.

I imagine that once favorably exposed to OTR, I imagine they'll start
looking for sources of supply in addition to Radio Spirits, so other
retailers should benefit as well.

I have a professional foot in another hobby with demographics similar to
OTR - I work for a model railroad magazine focusing on old and new toy
trains (Lionel, American Flyer, Marx and all the new O and S gauge
manufacturers). This year our magazine cranked out an "intro to toy trains"
booklet, and a booklet covering all aspects of model railroading (scale,
garden, and toy trains) for the general public, with the goal of drawing in
more people by clarifying the hobby's past and present. So when I saw the
new RS catalog, and then scoped out all the background text, I thought
"Shazam, they've done an intro booklet!"

So let me give a tip of the hat to Carl Amari and staff, I hope this equals
more people coming into the fold for [removed]

Bob Keller
Waukesha, Wisc.

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

Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2001 23:28:57 -0400
From: SacChief@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Pam from Bakersfield-request for OTR
 broadcasts

If Pam from Bakersfield will tune  to KNX-1070 AM every night between 9-10
pm, she'll be able to hear OTR. I hear it clearly almost every nite, and I
live in Sacramento, some 300 miles further from KNX than is Bakersfield. My
son lives in Bakersfield and when I visit him, I regularly pick up the OTR
broadcasts from KNX, which is located only some 115 miles away. bob

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

Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2001 23:28:11 -0400
From: GEORGE WAGNER <gwagneroldtimeradio@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Making Your OWN 16" Turntable

     It's not difficult to jury rig a 16" turntable.
     Find an old three-speed "suitcase"-type record
player.
     Remove the deck, put it on a wooden workbench,
and support it with four stacks of paperbound or
smaller hardbound books.
     The tricky part's mounting the tone arm. Use a
wood vise clamped to the side of the workbench. Fit a
six-inch length or copper (or other) pipe into the
vise.
     Unfold and straighten out a wire coat hanger
(apologies to Joan Crawford!). Bend the wire into an
"ell" shape. Solidly duct tape one end of the coat
hanger to the tone arm, which you've previously
detatched from the deck. Drop the other end of the
"ell" into the pipe in the vise.
     Attach the tone arm leads to an amplifier and/or
your tape recorder.
     My younger brother (today a cutting-edge radio
engineer) invented this technique for me way back in
the mid-1960s, when he was still in high school. Even
after we obtained a commercial 16" inch turntable, we
often continued to use this homemade one.
     It worked just dandy.

     George Wagner
     GWAGNEROLDTIMERADIO@[removed]

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

Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2001 23:28:39 -0400
From: AandG4jc@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  The Green Hornet question

    I asked this question once but got no answer. Let me ask it again.
    Can anyone tell me what episode of The Green Hornet did Britt Ried's
secretary Loran Case (Casey) found out Britt's secret identity? I heard that
in later years of the broadcast that a few people knew his identity a girl
reporter and I think the district attorney knew it, I am not for sure. Can
anyone confirm this?
Allen

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

Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2001 23:30:06 -0400
From: "Ted Kneebone" <tkneebone1@[removed];
To: "Old Time Radio Digest" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Wire recordings

James Wood:  Yes, I understand the keeping qualities of the stainless steel
wire, but my experience with the wire recorders was negative, when they
first came out in South Dakota, about 1948 or so.
    1.  Fidelity and frequency response was poor.
    2.  The editing of that wire was about impossible.  You had to tie a
knot in the two broken ends.
    McDonald's Radio & Appliance store had one of the WebCor (or was it
Webster-Chicago?)  models for sale and our local school bought one.  After
trying to record one school concert, the music teacher suggested we go back
to using our old disc cutter, a Wilcox-Gay Recordio.  I was the student
tecnician at that time.
    The superintendent had me use that wire recorder to record a sound track
for his 16mm movies.  Impossible to get it in synch.  Tape was better, but
still difficult to keep synchronized.

Ted Kneebone
1528 S. Grant St., Aberdeen, SD 57401 / 605-226-3344
OTR:  [removed]

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

Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2001 23:30:53 -0400
From: "Ted Kneebone" <tkneebone1@[removed];
To: "Old Time Radio Digest" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Two o'clock, EWT

Chris:  Can you give us the full citation for this book?  I'd like to try to
locate it.
    "Two o'clock, Eastern War Time."

Ted Kneebone
1528 S. Grant St., Aberdeen, SD 57401 / 605-226-3344
OTR:  [removed]

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

Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2001 00:04:12 -0400
From: Charlie Summers <charlie@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  From the FOTR [removed]

Folks;

   Just a quick note written Wednesday evening a little before Midight
Thursday [removed]

   Made it safely to the Con, stopped by the wine-and-cheese and ran into a
bunch of friends both old and new. Jay is looking rarin' to go, Anthony
and Don are looking forward to directing some great recreations, some of
the stars showed up early this evening, and Fred did get some dinner, I
think, although I didn't directly see him eat it.  ;)

   This is going to be a GREAT [removed] those of you who couldn't make
it, start planning for next year NOW.

   More notes tomorrow!

         Charlie

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

Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2001 11:03:36 -0400
From: "Owens Pomeroy" <opomeroy@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  A GREAT BIG "THANK YOU!"

I would like to thank all those on the digest (you know who you are) from
PA, DE, & VA, who responded to my invatation to our Chritmas recreation of
Miracle on 34th. Street.  Thanks a heap, and hope to see you on 11/17 at
7:30 pm.

Owens





<br><br><br>"Old-Time Radio is like vintage wine. . . it grows better with
age!"
"nostalgia is like a grammar lesson:. . . you find the PRESENT TENSE. . .
but the PAST PERFECT!"

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

Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2001 11:03:59 -0400
From: "James B. Wood, [removed]" <woodjim@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: Wire Recorders

Wire recorders, you say?

Okay, here's the straight scoop on these dinosaurs.
As a junior-hi kid I had one for about three years before
I was able to afford a tape recorder.  In those three years,
I must have gone through about 100 spools of wire
and had maybe one [removed] due to my own negligence.

My machine was a (Sears) Silvertone that my dad
bought in pristine condition for about $40.  Today it
might be worth half that, in decent shape.  I currently
own four wire recorders, which I bought within the last
10 years for an average price of $10 each.  And I've
got wire too.  At least 25 spools of WW-II surplus stock,
and that much again of 'used' wire.  Boy, am I King of
the World, or what?

Jim Wood
Brea, CA

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

Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2001 11:04:21 -0400
From: "Mark Kinsler" <kinsler33@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Wire recorders

I'm afraid that wire recorders aren't the answer to the eternal search for a
truly archival audio medium.  They were, in the considered opinion of
everyone who had to deal with them, a blight upon the land.  Their major
difficulty is that it's very difficult to transfer an adequate amount of
signal to a steel wire.  The oxide-coated tape was adopted because the
medium is far easier to magnetize, and there is a lot more of it where you
want it, to wit, moving across a wide head gap.  This produces a lot of
signal--more than enough to overcome the noise inherent in the process.
Although tape breaks easily, it's a good deal easier to repair than wire,
and it doesn't form tangles.

The problem with tape, of course, is that the binder that holds the oxide
powder (it's pretty much equal to powdered rust) to the tape backing (one
sort of Scotch tape or another) tends to deteriorate.

And records break, and otherwise deteriorate.  And digital media might
deteriorate, or the software that decodes some digital protocol may become
impossible to get, or the circuitry that it runs on might deteriorate.  All
of this has been discussed at length on this list.

What we can do about it is, well, our best.

I was in our college library today looking at some of their collection of
prayer books (it's a Dominican school.)  Darn things were printed in
something like 1608 and they look like new.  There's no particular reason
that those old printers would have guessed right--that rag paper and
whatever ink they were able to make back then would last for hundreds of
years--yet that's what happened.

I suspect that this is what'll happen with audio and video media.  What it
comes down to is that there is utterly no good way to test the durability of
media--there's no such thing as artificial time, despite all of our efforts
at devising accelerated aging techniques.

So search, listen, record, and preserve as best you can.

I was thinking about Elizabeth McLeod's never-recorded early Amos 'n' Andy
shows the other day.  Nobody here has ever heard them, but Elizabeth's
descriptions often make me think that I have.

M Kinsler
512 E Mulberry St. Lancaster, Ohio USA 740 687 6368
[removed]~kinsler

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

Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2001 11:06:50 -0400
From: Bill Harris <radioguy@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Ike's First D Day Broadcast

"Robert Colonna" <Robertc23@[removed]; asked:

I'm trying to find a "clean" copy of Eisenhower's speech to America
announcing that we landed on the beaches in Normandy. The speech begins
with "People of Western [removed]"
It's a CBS broadcast (6/6/44). Unfortunately, the copy I have has lots
of static. Can any of you help?

The reason for the static is because the speech came via
short-wave transmission, I have the same recording taken from the
NBC network.
I don't know if a recording was made at the source at SHAEF in
England, but that would probably be the only source of a static
free recording if such exists. Someone else on the digest may can
answer [removed] Michael Biel? Elizabeth?

Bill Harris

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

Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2001 11:07:59 -0400
From: Wich2@[removed]
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  The Great Mr. Hinckley

Folks-
A "hear, hear!" from this [removed]

When it's time for the annual convention, time to mention the passing of a
radio great or cover the history of a station going off the air, Mr. Hinckley
remains the only working journalist in New York who cares about the City's
radio heritage.

He's also a REAL supporter of this(I know I've used these words
before)STILL terrific medium. Since our debut with Dicken's "Ghost Story
for Christmas" on Max Schmid's BAI show six years ago, David has unfailing
supported Quicksilver Radio Theater in his column. Lots of journalists in
NYC TALK a good game when it comes to loving & nurturing continuing audio
drama- Mr. H DELIVERS.
Hats off!
-Craig Wichman

--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2001 Issue #342
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