Subject: [removed] Digest V2005 #98
From: [removed]@[removed]
Date: 3/27/2005 10:10 AM

To: [removed]@[removed]

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

                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2005 : Issue 98
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                 [removed]
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      RKO radio                             [ "A. Joseph Ross" <lawyer@attorneyro ]
      Captain Midnight's Pocket Locator     [ skallisjr@[removed] ]
      OTR Show With Best Sound Effects      [ "Harry Machin Jr" <harbev5@earthlin ]
      "How [removed]"                           [ Kermyt Anderson <kermyta@[removed]; ]
      Best SFX                              [ Robert Cockrum <rmc44@[removed] ]
      Sound Effects:                        [ "Bob Taylor" <shadowcole@[removed] ]
      Did Phil Harris play an instrument    [ "Jim Hilliker" <jimhilliker@sbcglob ]
      Re: Best Sound                        [ "randy story" <hopharrigan@centuryt ]
      Eleanor Roosevelt Commercial          [ "Andy Ooms" <oomspine@[removed] ]
      Ms. Roosevelt commercial              [ "Andy Ooms" <oomspine@[removed] ]
      Re: Happy Easter                      [ "Irene Heinstein" <IreneTH@[removed] ]
      Best Sound Effects                    [ ilamfan@[removed] ]
      Re: "OR" and 1440                     [ Hal Stone <otrjug@[removed]; ]
      Re: "Green Acres"                     [ Dixonhayes@[removed] ]
      Re: best sound effects?               [ Dixonhayes@[removed] ]

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    Date: Sat, 26 Mar 2005 22:17:17 -0500
    From: "A. Joseph Ross" <lawyer@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  RKO radio

>     Date: Fri, 25 Mar 2005 16:07:57 -0500
>     From: "[removed]" <asajb2000@[removed];

>     I can't recall for sure, but WHDH 5 and WHDH 850 were both owned by
>     RKO as well.

    No, WNAC/WRKO and WNAC-TV, channel 7 were owned by RKO General, originally
    General Teleradio, a subsidiary of General Tire and Rubber.

    WHDH-TV, channel 5, along with WHDH AM and FM radio, were owned by the Boston
    Herald-Traveler.  When they lost the Channel 5 license in 1972, the
    Herald-Traveler was shut
    down, and the name and plant were sold to the Record-American, owned by the
    Hearst
    corporation.  The Record-American was renamed the
    Herald-Traveler-Record-American,
    eventually shortened to the Herald-American.  When Hearst sold the
    Herald-American to
    Rupert Murdoch in the early 1980s, the paper was re-named the Herald.

    Sometime in the late 1950s, WNAC-FM, which was simulcasting the AM in those
    days,
    became WRKO-FM, originally with an automated ID that came on over the AM
    simulcast.  In
    the mid-1960s, when the FCC required stations in large markets to have
    separate programs
    on FM for part of the broadcast day, they did automated rock & roll, about as
    cheaply as
    they could, for the minimum time required by FCC regs.

    To their surprise, this attracted an audience and inspired them to replace
    the middle-of-the
    road format on WNAC with a Top-40 format, changing the call letters to WRKO.
    Channel 7
    continued to be WNAC-TV until RKO General lost the license in 1982.  The new
    owners, a
    group of local investors, changed the call letters to WNEV, but a few years
    later, they bought
    WHDH radio and changed channel 7 to WHDH-TV.  In the late 1960s, WRKO-FM
    became
    WROR, with an album hits format, and then an oldies format.  It's now WBMX.

    The original WNAC operated on 1260 kHz, but that station was sold around 1953
    and
    became WVDA and later WEZE, and now WMKI (Radio Disney).  I believe the
    transmitting
    facility is still the one that was originally WNAC.

    In 1953, the owners of WNAC bought out WLAW in Lawrence, which operated at
    680 with
    50,000 watts, from a three-tower transmitter in Burlington, near the present
    site of the
    Burlington Mall on Route 128.  The WNAC call letters and programming were
    moved to that
    transmitter, and for many years, the station IDed as "WNAC, Boston and
    Lawrence."  That
    transmitter is still in use today as WRKO, which is now all talk.

    The original WHDH radio 850 is now WEEI, using the same transmitter that used
    to be
    WHDH.  The original WEEI 590 is now WEZE.

    --
    A. Joseph Ross, [removed]                           [removed]
     15 Court Square, Suite 210                 lawyer@[removed]
    Boston, MA 02108-2503           	         [removed]

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

    Date: Sat, 26 Mar 2005 22:17:37 -0500
    From: skallisjr@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Captain Midnight's Pocket Locator

    This is addressed primarily to the radio engineers and ham radio
    operators on the list.

    During World War II, on the Captain Midnight program, the Secret Squadron
    established a base in England.  They had a liaison officer from British
    Intelligence.  Sir Alan Brundage.  He provided the Secret Squadron with
    several pieces of covert equipment, including one called the Pocket
    Locator.  What was told about the Pocket Locator was tantalizingly
    incomplete, but established certain factors.

    According to the show, the Pocket Locator was originally developed as
    part of a field communications device for British operatives, but it was
    never finalized.  However, it seemed ideal for Secret Squadron
    activities.  It was small, able to be carried in a pocket, and it worked
    silently, using a flashing light or lights for communication.  In the
    early 1940s, to be sure, it used subminiature radio tubes rather than
    transistors.

    I have discussed this a bit in the first Appendix of my Captain Midnight
    book, but that doesn't quite end the story of the Pocket Locator.

    After World War II through the close of the 15-minute serial  format, the
    Pocket Locator was in use.  In the episodes called, "The Return of Ivan
    Shark," the Pocket Locator was mentioned, with Chuck and Joyce receiving
    and deciphering a message about the new, Key-O-Matic Code-O-Graph, the
    1949 model.

    All of this before transistors.

    Given pretransistor technology, the Pocket Locator couldn't have had
    worldwide range.  A pocket portable would need a repeater-amplifier
    located within its range.

    I'm hoping that someone with the requisite radio engineering knowledge
    and skill could help us retrodesign a working Pocket Locator using 1940s
    technology.  Please contact me directly at skallisjr@[removed] with any
    help. We do have some subminiature tubes.

    Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.

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

    Date: Sat, 26 Mar 2005 22:44:21 -0500
    From: "Harry Machin Jr" <harbev5@[removed];
    To: "Old Time Radio Digest" <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  OTR Show With Best Sound Effects

    "Gunsmoke" without a doubt.  You can hear a man
    dismount from his horse!  Just a suggestion of the
    creak of the saddle and the man's body reaching
    the ground.  One example of many such sound
    effects that lets me "see" the show.  I would also
    add that "Gunsmoke" is OTR at its finest!  There's
    no better radio show.
    _________________
    Harry Machin Jr
    harbev5@[removed]

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

    Date: Sat, 26 Mar 2005 22:44:31 -0500
    From: Kermyt Anderson <kermyta@[removed];
    To: OTR <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  "How [removed]"

    Does anybody have any of the BBC occasional series "How [removed]", written
    by and starring Stephen Potter and Joyce Grenfell? It ran from the
    early 40s through the early 60s. I just heard a snippet on the BBC
    documentary "The History of Radio Comedy" (which focuses solely on
    British comedy, but which is well worth listening to). It sounds like a
    delightful series, very low key and underplayed--more like Ethel and
    Albert or Lum and Abner than the vaudeville variety shows typical of
    the BBC during the war. There's a brief description of the series here:
    [removed]~[removed] . If anybody has any
    episodes to trade or sell, please let me know.

    By the way, several people here mentioned the classic BBC radio series
    The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Season 3 just aired last year,
    and was really quite good. Snippets of it were up to standard of the
    original. I believe Series 4 is going to be released next month. These
    two series, which use the original (surviving cast), were based on the
    book post-radio books, and developed with Douglas Adams' involvement
    and cooperation. (He even has a speaking role in Series 3--one of the
    highlights of the show!)

    Kermyt

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

    Date: Sat, 26 Mar 2005 23:06:09 -0500
    From: Robert Cockrum <rmc44@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Best SFX
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    Another case of hitting the "send" button before my thoughts were all down.
    But I should have mentioned Dragnet as well. Some would say those weren't
    sound effects per se, but natural sound.

    Despite the sometimes annoying footsteps in police headquarters or the
    courthouse like echoing clippity-clops of horses, other examples were
    exceptionally vivid because they were real. From comments on this list or
    having read it somewhere, I believe the story is that Webb did record
    portions of the scripts as if they were TV on location.

    Thus, again trusting memory, the Christmas show about the little boy who shot
    his friend with a .22 rifle ... we hear birds, the squeak of a gate, the
    sound of a light plane overhead ... and when Webb calls HQ from a phone
    booth, it has that hollow "in a barrel" phone booth sound to it.

    "Effect" or "natural," they were great.

    Bob Cockrum

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    Date: Sat, 26 Mar 2005 23:06:34 -0500
    From: "Bob Taylor" <shadowcole@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Sound Effects:

    I really believe that Drag Net has a place here also.  Remembering the show
    at times I have heard Joe Friday pour a glass of soft drink or something and
    heard the fiz. Also I have heard the announcer say, that portions of this
    show were recorded at the scene of the crime to give more realistic sound.

    I have to agree with others that Gun Smoke was right up with the best.

    You know that with all the technology we have today, sometimes things don't
    sound as real when they had a lot less to work with.

    Bob Taylor
    Chalfant Boro, PA.

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

    Date: Sat, 26 Mar 2005 23:50:40 -0500
    From: "Jim Hilliker" <jimhilliker@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Did Phil Harris play an instrument

    After all the discussions recently about Phil Harris and his band/orchestra,
    I want to know if Phil played a musical instrument in his own band, and if
    so, which instrument?

    Jim Hilliker

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

    Date: Sat, 26 Mar 2005 23:50:47 -0500
    From: "randy story" <hopharrigan@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Re: Best Sound
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    Hands down: DRAGNET, GUNSMOKE, & DIMENSION X.

    Randy

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    Date: Sat, 26 Mar 2005 23:51:01 -0500
    From: "Andy Ooms" <oomspine@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Eleanor Roosevelt Commercial

        Is it possible that Ms. Roosevelt did a margarine commercial as a
    wartime effort related to rationing butter?  Nevertheless that would not
    explain her specific brand referral.  And I am not sure that butter was
    rationed, although quite logically it might have been due to military uses
    of it.
    Regards,
    Andy Ooms
    Pine, AZ

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

    Date: Sat, 26 Mar 2005 23:59:13 -0500
    From: "Andy Ooms" <oomspine@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Ms. Roosevelt commercial

        If it was a TV commercial and not a radio commercial, forget what I
    wrote about wartime as I doubt America was watching much TV until postwar.
    Andy Ooms
    Pine, AZ

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

    Date: Sun, 27 Mar 2005 02:09:40 -0500
    From: "Irene Heinstein" <IreneTH@[removed];
    To: "OTR" <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Re:  Happy Easter

    Thomas Heathwood wrote:

>     Happy Easter to all.  Wouldn't it be wonderful if the broadcasting world was
>     still doing the wonderful "live" shows on the holidays as OTR did in "The
>     Golden Age"

    All the Christmas shows are taped in the summer.  I've always wondered how
    they got themselves into seasonal spirit.

    As for OTR live broadcasts.   Does anyone know if they gave the cast the
    holidays off when they started using transcription discs?

    Speaking of Easter.   I know inquiring minds will want to know that --

    Orthodox Christians like me will celebrate Easter on May 1.   Sometimes what
    we call 'American Easter' and Greek Easter fall on the same day.    The
    Orthodox church still uses the Julian Calendar.  When I was a kid my parents
    gave me my Easter Basket on American Easter, but we observed Easter on Greek
    Easter which of course meant lamb and red eggs.   Greeks aren't subtle.  The
    red represents the blood of Christ.

    Anyway, Happy Easter whenever it is for you, and Happy Passover next month.

     -Irene

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

    Date: Sun, 27 Mar 2005 09:30:10 -0500
    From: ilamfan@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed] (OTR Bulletin Board)
    Subject:  Best Sound Effects
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    For some incredibly realistic sound effects (uncannily so, sometimes!), check
    out "The Lineup" - and the episodes from First Generation Radio Archives are
    of the most impeccable quality (that's where I heard these shows first).

    Also, for a bit of ultra-realism (but not OLD time radio) give a listen to
    "Hayward Sanitarium" (recorded with the binaural process, if I remember
    correctly).

    Both are very good series - Lineup is a crime/detective drama a la Dragnet,
    and Hayward Sanitarium is a spooky strange "shudder" show.

    Stephen Jansen
    --
    Old Time Radio never dies - it
    just changes formats!

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    Date: Sun, 27 Mar 2005 09:35:49 -0500
    From: Hal Stone <otrjug@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Re: "OR" and 1440

    All this talk about WOR and it's location at 1440 Broadway brought back a
    flood of memories. Particularly the thread of it being the home of RKO
    Pictures at one time.

    I worked at WOR numerous times, but I sure don't recall on what programs.
    That early period in radio (for me) is sort of a blur. From age 8 to 14,
    (when I began working almost exclusively at NBC), It was a hodge-podge of
    kids roles on CBS, NBC, WOR, not to mention absences away from NY touring in
    numerous Broadway shows.

    But regarding WOR, (and it's location at 1440 Broadway, I vividly recall
    maybe 5 things.

    Incidentally, to those Digesters who have never been to the Times Square
    area of New York, let me give you a frame of reference for WOR's location.

    I'm sure everyone has seen films of the Times Square area, Particularly the
    odd shaped Building that features the ball (now apple) dropping on New Years
    eve. That's also the building that had a horizontal traveling Light message
    board that would travel around this triangular shaped building with
    "Headlines" of the day.

    Anyway, the building marked the spot (and was like an island) where 7th Ave
    and Broadway (going the same North-South direction) merged, and
    criss-crossed on either side of this structure at the intersection of
    (East-West) 42nd street.

    Anyway, a few blocks past 42nd street, was an unimposing office building,
    (mid block) that was 1440 Broadway. I distinctly recall that radio
    performers referred to working over at "OR", and dropped the "W" in
    conversations. Whereas NBC and CBS had Marquee's or rigid awnings over their
    entrances, WOR had a simple office lobby entrance.

    One other thing I recall was occasionally being hired by an "OR" director
    named Jock McGregor. Jock just happened top be the brother of Ken McGregor,
    who eventually became the last, (and longest running director of the "Archie
    Andrews" program). I don't recall any other Brother team working in radio as
    Network directors. And I know that my long relationship working with Ken had
    no bearing, or cut me any "slack" with Jock. It was simply a matter of being
    "right" for the part and winning general auditions.

    There was one final connection for me to WOR and 1440 Bdwy. And that was
    long after the demise of Radio.

    Someone mentioned here in the Digest that it was also the home of RKO
    pictures. I was privy as to how that all came about.

    Tom O'Neill was the head honcho of the General Tire Corporation. He decided
    to buy RKO from Howard Hughes. It then became RKO-General.

    As it turned out, I was engaged to, and eventually married the daughter of a
    man that who had been in charge of Promotion, Exploitation and Publicity for
    Howard Hughes at RKO. Tom O'Neill brought him into the new RKO-General
    set-up, and he functioned primarily to set up TV advertising campaigns for
    new RKO releases. As my wedding neared, Tom O'neill (nice guy) and through
    my soon to be father-in-law, offered me his estate in Florida as a Honeymoon
    site. I declined, not wanting to be beholden to my new Father-in-Law, who
    was something of a pain in the butt. But later, in my early 30's, I softened
    in that view when he decided that his Son-in-law was worthy of his daughter,
    and would often hire me to direct and put together commercials for some of
    the RKO movies.

    That required me to make many visits to the RKO offices at good old 1440, my
    childhood WOR stomping grounds. Those visits certainly brought back
    recollections of my OTR days.

    Hal(Harlan)Stone
    Jughead

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

    Date: Sun, 27 Mar 2005 11:08:52 -0500
    From: Dixonhayes@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: "Green Acres"
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    In a message dated 3/26/05 9:17:48 PM Central Standard Time,
    [removed]@[removed] writes:

>     Although he is
>     best remembered as the creative mastermind behind television's "The Beverly
>     Hillbillies," "Petticoat Junction," and "Green Acres" (to name a few),

    One AP story I read bent over backwards to point out that Henning didn't
    create "Green Acres," Jay Sommers did (Henning helped cast the show and
    served as
    executive producer), but it doesn't mention that "(Granby's) Green Acres" was
    a 1950 radio sitcom with Bea Benederet and Gale Gordon.  It did, however,
    mention Henning writing for "The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show" and
    "Fibber
    McGee and Molly" on radio.

    Dixon

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    Date: Sun, 27 Mar 2005 11:09:12 -0500
    From: Dixonhayes@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: best sound effects?
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    I knew "Gunsmoke" would be mentioned right off the bat, the sound effects on
    that show are so good, it sounds like you're listening to a movie soundtrack.
    You can almost guess which way a stagecoach and its horses are travelling,
    even though this was all in mono AM.

    I was always intrigued by the sound effects on "Suspense."  What's especially
    good about those is that they often played a role in the plot itself, most
    notably in the chilling end of "Sorry, Wrong Number."  And I'm suddenly
    blanking
    on the name of the other classic Agnes Moorehead play that ends with what
    sounds like a gruesome beheading.

    Dixon

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    End of [removed] Digest V2005 Issue #98
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