Subject: [removed] Digest V2007 #248
From: [removed]@[removed]
Date: 8/27/2007 10:18 PM

To: [removed]@[removed]
Reply-to: [removed]@[removed]

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

                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2007 : Issue 248
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                 [removed]
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      Thanks Lee                            [ "Don Jensen" <dnjkenosha@[removed]; ]
      Jimmy Osbourne/Kathy Fiscus           [ "Bill Knowlton" <udmacon1@[removed] ]
      Re: WEAF and "toll broadcasting"      [ Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed] ]
      Radio in Newark NJ                    [ "CJervert" <cjervert@[removed]; ]
      First radio bdcst                     [ <verotas@[removed]; ]
      Looking for Murrow Newscast 1947-195  [ Dan Gediman <dan@[removed]; ]
      WW II themed shows                    [ "Scott A Eberbach" <saeberbach@eart ]
      Happy birthday to us                  [ <otrbuff@[removed]; ]
      networks and their affiliates         [ "Bob C" <rmc44@[removed]; ]
      WW II themed radio shows              [ <vzeo0hfk@[removed]; ]
      Re: The Coasters Searchin' [removed]     [ Alan Bell <alanlinda43@[removed]; ]
      Paddy's 70th birthday                 [ crow8164@[removed] (Dennis Crow) ]
      Billy Mill's Orchestra                [ Frank McGurn <[removed]@sbcglobal. ]

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

    Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2007 01:37:40 -0400
    From: "Don Jensen" <dnjkenosha@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Thanks Lee

    Thanks, Lee, for all the background on Tennessee Jed.  Of particular
    interest  to me, and I did not know it until you mentioned it, was that
    Raymond Edward Johnson had a recurring role.  Raymond is one of the numerous
    radio stars to come out of my town of Kenosha, WI.  During my 34 years as a
    newspaper guy -- yes, we are of an age, I was born in 1935 --  I interviewed
    Raymond a number of times.  A really nice guy, but I would have loved to
    have asked him about that role and that show.

    And, ah yes, indeed it was Wilderness Road with the Weston family and Dan'l
    Boone.   I recall that now.  And I suspect that it was my faulty memory, for
    it does now seem to me that you're right, it was Wilderness Road, not
    Tennessee Jed, that was interrupted for the Roosevelt death announcement.
    I'd thought it was Bob Trout, but perhaps it indeed was John Daly.  I was
    listening to the radio in my Dad's car, parked in the driveway when the news
    flash broke in.  As to the opera program, I wonder if it might have been a
    local Chicago show getting a summer tryout that never made it to the
    network.   I would be interested in knowing, though, if there are copies of
    Wilderness Road programs around.  Several people have privately directed me
    to sources for Tennessee Jed, and many thanks to them.

    Anybody interested in some of the clear channels all night or late night
    music hosts.
    I once was a real nightowl and a long distance (DX) radio listener.
    Everyone knows Franklyn MacCormack I guess, but how about Jay Andres
    (Chicago also, WBBM??  I may have the spelling wrong) with his all night
    classical music pgm.  And then there was WRVA Richmond's late night guy,
    Alden (Aldon?) Arrow (unsure of spelling, but pronounced AY-row.  These
    would be circa late [removed]
    --Don Jensen

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    Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2007 10:11:47 -0400
    From: "Bill Knowlton" <udmacon1@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Jimmy Osbourne/Kathy Fiscus

    According to the Encyclopedia of Country Music, Jimmie Osbourne took his own
    life on Dec 26, 1957 at the age of only 34. He was apparantly dispondant
    over his waning career in radio, records and performing, as well a marital
    problems. OTR content: Osbourne was an alumnus of the WLS National Barn
    Dance and the WLW Midwestern Hayride.

    Osbourne's biggest hit was, of course, "The Death Of Little Kathy Fiscus,"
    recorded in 1949 while he was a deejay in Lexington KY. He donated half of
    its proceeds to a Kathy Fiscus memorial fund.

    BILL KNOWLTON, "Bluegrass Ramble," Sundays: 9 pm to midnight (EDST) over
    WCNY-FM ([removed]) Syracuse, WUNY ([removed]) Utica, WJNY ([removed]) Watertown NY, also:
    [removed]

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    Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2007 10:13:08 -0400
    From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Re: WEAF and "toll broadcasting"

    On 8/26/07 11:07 PM [removed]@[removed] said:

>     All of this, to me, suggests that these were commercial efforts, [removed]
>     attempts over the air to persuade the public to purchase something.  Once
>     the new idea caught on, WEAF officials reneged on a previous hard-line stand
>     against advertising and permitted it, in limited quantity, starting August
>     1922.  (WEAF's first pitch pronounced the joys of residential apartment
>     living.)

    WEAF's efforts have been exalted for the wrong reason -- but nonetheless,
    they were vital to the development of commercial broadcasting, because
    WBAY/WEAF was the first station to be established *specifically* for the
    purpose of what AT&T officials referred to as "toll broadcasting." This
    wasn't simply a matter of taking a few dollars under the table for a
    plug, or announcing that phonograph records were being provided by Joe's
    Music Store, but rather, the advertisers themselves would be fully
    responsible for how their air time was to be used -- the station
    functioning merely as a hired hall. The initial announcement of AT&T's
    entry into broadcasting, a press release issued in January of 1922, makes
    it explicity clear that far from taking a stand against advertising, the
    new station was intended from the start to fully embrace it.

    "The American Telephone and Telegraph Company will provide no program of
    its own, but provide the channels thru which anyone with whom it makes a
    contract can send out their own [removed] have been many requests
    for such a service, not only from newspapers and entertainment agencies
    but also from department stores and a great variety of business houses
    who wish to utilize this means of distribution."

    *That* was the concept that was revolutionary, not the simple idea of
    advertising on the air. Unfortunately, that fine point has been lost in
    subsequent popular histories of broadcasting -- it wasn't "the first
    commercial" that was important at all, but rather the concept of an
    entire station devoted to "toll broadcasting" that was essential, and
    AT&T does deserve full credit for the first successful implementation of
    that idea. That idea would go on to become the very foundation stone of
    commercial network radio.

    Elizabeth

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

    Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2007 10:10:07 -0400
    From: "CJervert" <cjervert@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Radio in Newark NJ
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    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

    Does anyone remember the radio show that was broadcast from a theatre in
    Newark NJ that I think was called Lofts or was sponsored by Lofts Candy
    around 1930. And are there any saved recordings from that time.

    Claire

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    Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2007 11:12:08 -0400
    From: <verotas@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  First radio bdcst

    Congratulations to Jim Cox on his dissertation about WEAF (NBC red in NYC,
    later WNBC-WRCA and vice-versa).  Excellent!

    Among us Jerseyans someone is circulating one of those long "Did you know
    about ---" lists, in this case extolling the history and many firsts of New
    Jersey.

    One item therein which threw me was the statement that the first radio
    broadcast came from Paterson NJ.

    Huh?

    Can anyone splain this?

    Bestus, Lee Munsick                      That Godfrey Guy

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

    Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2007 11:13:39 -0400
    From: Dan Gediman <dan@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Looking for Murrow Newscast 1947-1950

    Folks,

    I am the executive producer of NPR's This I Believe series, which is based
    on Edward R. Murrow's early 1950s radio series of the same name. We are
    working on a documentary about Murrow's series for airing this fall on
    public radio. To illustrate a section of the documentary dealing with
    Campbell's Soup's sponsorship of Murrow's radio work on CBS, we are trying
    to find any of Murrow's newscasts from the period when Campbell's was his
    sponsor, which, based on research I have done on the Internet, would have
    been from September 29, 1947-"late 1950". If you know where I might find
    such a newscast, all I'm looking to use is a short, perhaps 10-15 second,
    clip from the very beginning of the newscast, where an announcer mentions
    the Campbell's Soup sponsorship. I'm assuming it will be something like "And
    now Campbell's Soup presents Edward R. Murrow with the [removed]"

    Any help that any of you can provide me in this quest would be most
    Appreciated.

    Thanks in advance for your help.

    Dan Gediman

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

    Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2007 12:00:11 -0400
    From: "Scott A Eberbach" <saeberbach@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  WW II themed shows
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

    Hi All,

    As per the recent thread about shows that had wartime storylines. Fibber
    McGee and Molly's sister program (for lack of a better term) The Great
    Gildersleeve had a number of programs dealing with the war effort on the
    home front. I recall episodes such as changing the oil furnace into coal,
    inviting servicemen to Thanksgiving dinner, writing to servicemen, as well
    some shows dealing with [removed] as a side issue within the
    storyline itself. Shows such as Fibber and Gildersleeve during the war years
    are so interesting to listen to and to feel the patriotism of the country
    during such a difficult time. Makes me proud to be an American!

    Scott

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    Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2007 12:00:18 -0400
    From: <otrbuff@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Happy birthday to us

    While plowing through some trivia, I tripped over what seemed a surprising
    fact.  The announcer for the full run (1939-50) of radio's Dr. I. Q., the
    Mental Banker, Allen C. Anthony, and the emcee for the bulk of that series'
    life, quizmaster Lew Valentine, shared the same birthday.

    Anthony, born in Buffalo Aug. 5, 1906, died May 11, 1962.  Valentine, born
    in San Benito, Tex. Aug. 5, 1912, died in June 1976.

    There are probably plenty of other examples that could be given, some who
    even share the same year.  But they simply haven't surfaced for me yet.

    Jim Cox

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

    Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2007 12:37:18 -0400
    From: "Bob C" <rmc44@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  networks and their affiliates

    Does anyone know of a source (preferably on-line) of a
    year-by-year listing of [removed] radio stations' network
    affiliations? Or to look at it from another  perspective, a list
    of the networks' affiliated stations each year up through the
    1950s.

    Bob Cockrum

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

    Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2007 15:46:47 -0400
    From: <vzeo0hfk@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  WW II themed radio shows

    Bill Scherer asked,

>     Can anyone name other shows that had many WWII related plots on an ongoing
>     basis?

    I listed a whole bunch of them on my website: [removed]

    Click on the "Shows" button.

    Howard Blue

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

    Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2007 15:47:33 -0400
    From: Alan Bell <alanlinda43@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: The Coasters Searchin' [removed]

>     The Coasters also had a B side called The Shadow Knows.
>     One of my favorite lines is " You better mind your
>     P's and Q's, and your >M's and N's and O's because the,
>     Shadow knows.  The, Shadow knooows"
>     There's even a laugh at the end of the tune.
>     I love the Coasters.  Both tunes were penned by Leber and Stoler.

    Wow. Just this weekend I had pulled out my old
    Coasters Greatest Hits record and put it on to a CD
    (and iTunes!) and here it shows up on the Digest. I
    remember  hearing that list of names (Sam Spade, etc.)
    in the song when I was in Jr Hi, but not really
    knowing that they referred to radio shows as well as
    movies, novels and so on. BUT, I have to say I NEVER
    (at least then) could figure out what he was saying
    when he sang Bulldog Dummond in that falsetto. It was
    literally decades before I found out.  I thought he
    was saying that somebody was comin' or something. None
    of my friends could either. And even if I could, I
    wouldn't have had any idea who Bulldog Drummond was,
    anyway.

    Also makes me thing of their song,"Along Came Jones"
    which was supposed to spoof all the TV westerns on at
    the time, yet all the references seemed to some from
    old silent movies.

    AB

    _________________
    Alan/Linda Bell
    Grand Rapids, MI

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

    Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2007 15:47:49 -0400
    From: crow8164@[removed] (Dennis Crow)
    To: [removed]@[removed] (Old Time Radio Digest)
    Subject:  Paddy's 70th birthday

    Paddy O'Cinnamon, The Cinnamon Bear, turns 70 on the day after Thanksgiving.
    Portland, Oregon, a major venue for the classic children's serial,  will have
    many celebratory activities.  I'll keep you posted.

    When you play the show this year, remember how long this little bear has
    delighted audiences through the course of most of our lifetimes. If you do,
    Paddy "will be much obliged to you!"

    Dennis Crow

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

    Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2007 17:43:21 -0400
    From: Frank McGurn <[removed]@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Billy Mill's Orchestra

    Bill Scherer asked if there was a way to find out who Bill Mills musician
    were in the 40's on Fibber McGee & Molly.

    I went to my Big Band references book :The Big Bands" by George T. Simon and
    "The Big Band Almanac" By Leo [removed] book don't have any mention of
    Billy Mills.

    I did a Goggle search and found lots of references to Billy, but all were in
    conjunction with Fibber McGee & Molly, from 1938 to 1953
    I have a feeling that Billy had a good paying regular job that kept him busy
    for 39 weeks a year.

    I know that Mill's Orchestra was on the McGee summer replacements Like "The
    Alec Templetom Show" 1939, "Hap Hazard" 1943, "The Victor Borge Show" 1945.
    Mills orchestra was on "The Great Gildersleeve 1941-42 season.

    I did find one member of the Orchestra that was the drummer from 1940 until
    1943 - Spike Jones!

    I would guess that Mills had top musicians who did like the traveling big
    bands did in those years and would love a study job. They were referred to as
    Studio Mucicians. Maybe a student OTR Orchestras could give a better answer.

    Frank McGurn

    --------------------------------
    End of [removed] Digest V2007 Issue #248
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