Subject: [removed] Digest V2002 #265
From: "OldRadio Mailing Lists" <[removed]@[removed];
Date: 7/13/2002 5:17 AM

To: <[removed]@[removed];

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

                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2002 : Issue 265
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      Postings about CBS                    [ William L Murtough <k2mfi@[removed]; ]
      Soda or pop                           [ "glen schroeder" <gschroeder10@char ]
      all day otr                           [ "Michael Scott" <video7@[removed]; ]
      Suspense                              [ "Mike Malone" <mmalone@[removed] ]
      root beer                             [ "Mark Kinsler" <kinsler33@[removed] ]
      Re: Singing Detective                 [ Ga6string@[removed] ]
      CBS News                              [ bourdase@[removed] (Mike Paraniuk) ]
      SOFTDRINKS - SODA POPS                [ "jay ranellucci" <jayran33@hotmail. ]
      FM Development and Edwin Armstrong    [ "Patrick McNally" <pcmcnally@hotmai ]
      "Calling All Cars" Rio Grande Gasoli  [ "jay ranellucci" <jayran33@hotmail. ]
      Bart Marshall                         [ "Irene Heinstein" <IreneTH@[removed] ]
      Tonic, anyone?                        [ "Richard Carpenter" <sinatra@raging ]
      Fibber McGee's telephone number       [ Dennis W Crow <DCrow3@[removed] ]
      Gale Gordon-Help                      [ lynn wagar <philcolynn@[removed]; ]
      Fizzies                               [ "glen schroeder" <gschroeder10@char ]
      RE; CBS Chirps                        [ mbiel@[removed] ]
      CBS Radio today                       [ "Ed Ellers" <ed_ellers@[removed]; ]
      Abbott & Costello Episode 11-4-43     [ Bruce Forsberg <forsberg@[removed]; ]

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

    Date: Fri, 12 Jul 2002 16:55:26 -0400
    From: William L Murtough <k2mfi@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Postings about CBS

    First about what was referred to as CBS Chimes. Actually they were the
    audio of pulses. This was the CBS Netalert system which advised the
    network stations of various events. They were numbered from one to nine.
    The member stations had small black boxs which displayed numbers from I
    to 9. The executives of the stations usually also had the boxes at their
    homes in case of a news emergency. These pulses could also start
    recorders at stations and insert local comercials into sustaining network
    newscasts. The network would play non-commercial, recorded announcements,
    such as public-service, in those slots.

    Also about Sam Spade. It started at CBS in 1946. I was the engineer in
    Studio 1 at  KNX in Hollywood with Lud Gluskin and the staff orchestra
    feeding the music cues to the"on premises" theater studio from which the
    program originated.

    A lot was said  about Vernor's Ginger Ale but no mention was made about
    their radio programs over WTAM in Cleveland in those early days. Actually
    the product was made by a troupe of dwarfs somewhere up in a mountain
    hideaway. The drink was always a favorite at Euclid Beach Park on the
    shores of Lake Erie. I was surprised when I moved East in 1936 that they
    also had a plant in Jeresy City.

    Bill Murtough

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

    Date: Fri, 12 Jul 2002 16:55:41 -0400
    From: "glen schroeder" <gschroeder10@[removed];
    To: "otr" <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Soda or pop

    Hi list.

    I've always gotten a kick out of the soda or pop thing.  When I was growing
    up in Milwaukee it was called soda. It still is. When I moved to Madison in
    1979 everybody here called it pop, and still do.  It's still soda to me.

    As far as the real thing song for Coke being a hit record, I don't think it
    was, but in the early 70's there was a record called I'd Like to Teach the
    World to Sing by The New Seakers that was taken from a Coke commercial. I
    have the 45.

    Love Dis List.

    Glen Schroeder

    Madison WIo.

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

    Date: Fri, 12 Jul 2002 16:55:54 -0400
    From: "Michael Scott" <video7@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  all day otr
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

    Has anyone attempted to take a day in otr history say a 24 hour period of
    straight time that really occured and put it together - on an mp3 ?   this
    would help us late baby boomers and younger to get an idea as to what it was
    really like.
    Michael Scott
    video7@[removed]

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

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

    Date: Fri, 12 Jul 2002 20:29:43 -0400
    From: "Mike Malone" <mmalone@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Suspense
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

    Marty wrote :

>     Could these phases be realted to whoever sponsored the show at the
>     time?  Did one sponsor pay more and thus there was more money to put
>     into the production of Suspense?

    I have found the shows that occured during the Roma WIne sponsorship that
    started in 1943 to be my favorite shows and seem to have the best actors of
    their era.  I read that they had a much better budget to work with after Roma
    sponsored them and this allowed them more casting liberty.  If you go down the
    list of actors that appeared on Suspense, it is [removed]   Bernard Hermann
    did the musical scores during that phase, eventually going on to doing Alfred
    Hitchcock's musical scores for his cinema releases.  Interesting [removed]
    William Spier was said to do the shows with the actors under-rehearsed,
    keeping them somewhat uneasy.

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

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

    Date: Fri, 12 Jul 2002 20:29:51 -0400
    From: "Mark Kinsler" <kinsler33@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  root beer

    Dad's Old Fashioned Root Beer is still available in Central Ohio.  I saw it
    at the Kroger's, I think.

    Barq's root beer has only recently become a national brand.  It was still
    pretty much a local enterprise when I lived in its home city of Gulfport,
    Mississippi in 1990.  On my bike ride along Pass Road I would pass Peggy
    Barq's beauty salon, so I suppose the family is still there.

    National brands of soft drinks are a relatively recent phenomenon.  Pepsi
    and Coca-Cola were, I think, the only ones for a very long time.  Most
    cities had their own home-town bottler, who concocted his own flavors,
    ordered custom bottles, and did the distribution and the laborious
    bottle-gathering.  I think these local bottlers had licenses to make the
    smaller national brands like Orange Crush.

    Coca-Cola made a big deal out of their bottling plants.  They all had big
    windows through which you could see the great gleaming stainless-steel
    machines that washed and filled the bottles.  It's easy to forget that up to
    the 1960's or so, food processing facilities were not always assumed to be
    clean by the general public.  In the absence of effective antibiotics and a
    general ignorance of the nature of most diseases, cleanliness in any
    enterprise was always a big sales point.

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

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

    Date: Fri, 12 Jul 2002 20:31:18 -0400
    From: Ga6string@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: Singing Detective

    Allen writes:

>     I know that Dick Powell sang a song near the conclusion of his detective
>     show "Richard Diamond", but wasn't there another program billed as "the
>     singing detective"?

    I don't know of one, but I was intrigued to discover that Diamond also sang
    in at least one of the episodes of "Rogue's Gallery," which preceded "Richard
    Diamond, Private Detective."

    Bryan Powell

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

    Date: Fri, 12 Jul 2002 20:31:57 -0400
    From: bourdase@[removed] (Mike Paraniuk)
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  CBS News

    Hi Jim Cox. I have a question. In which city can you not receive CBS? I
    talk frequently with the head of affiliate relations for Columbia
    (stationed in NY at the Westwood One facilities). He likes to know about
    these "holes" as he calls them. Secondly, I will ask him about the
    compensation arrangment CBS/Infinity has with its affils. I hope it is
    not one where the affils pay the network for product. Historically, that
    is why NBC could never count on affiliate clearance for its entire
    network because they made its affils pay, sometimes up to $[removed] an hour
    which was a lot of money back then. CBS had the clever *option* idea -
    free programming but the affil MUST clear. Thus CBS could promise
    advertisers the entire network. This idea was ruled illegal by the FCC,
    I think in 1943 (?). The thing I do not understand is that if
    CBS/Infinity is now making their affils pay, why is CBS Radio at an all
    time high in number of affiliates (well over 400). In 1941, Columbia had
    only 90 afffiliates (but it was more than NBC, at least!).
    [removed] Mike

    + ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
    The sufferings in the world are compensated. Do not be [removed] is
    one who watches over [removed] LUGOSI

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

    Date: Fri, 12 Jul 2002 20:33:21 -0400
    From: "jay ranellucci" <jayran33@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  SOFTDRINKS - SODA POPS

    Hi again,
    All this talk about sodas has not only made me thirsty in this heatwave, but
    reminded me of my summers in Pasadena, CA.  I occasionally, when I had the
    money, would go to our local Owl Rexall and order a Green River.  Anybody
    ever hear of this drink?  The fountain and the drugstore are long gone and
    the only time I again heard of a Green River was when a Sunday newspaper ran
    an article about an old fashioned drugstore with a soda fountain in South
    Pasadena. Since I was going to a SPERDVAC meeting I decided to give it a
    try.  Wow!  they wanted $[removed]  Well I splurged and YUK!! It was terrible.
    Nothing like the old
    Owl Rexall Green River.  Boy, I sure wish I could find that drink again. It
    was sort of lemon green and sweet tasting and I don't believe it had much
    fizz to it.

         Jay

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

    Date: Fri, 12 Jul 2002 21:11:24 -0400
    From: "Patrick McNally" <pcmcnally@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  FM Development and Edwin Armstrong

    Darn!! This is one of my favorite subjects. Unfortunately it's a fairly long
    discussion.

    'll cut it short for this posting.

    Edwin Armstrong invented FM to eliminate "static". Otherwise, it did not
    have an inherently better audio signal. The better quality that we hear on
    FM broadcasting is attributable to the greater bandwidth that is used. The
    entire AM band fits into a bit more that 1 MegaHertz of bandwidth. The FM
    broadcast band goes from 88 MHz to 108 MHz. That's 10MHz. FM broadcast
    stations are allowed a total bandwidth of 200 KiloHertz. AM Broadcast
    stations are required to restrict most of their signal to a 10KHz bandwidth.

    (Tune off center from an AM station and you will probably hear something
    like snare drums on louder instants of sound. Also notice that you can tune
    quite far from the center and still hear the signal hissing and snare
    drumming. More than just an occasional occurrence is illegal. The FCC
    apparently doesn't listen to those stations.)

    For comparison, a single television channel is 6 MHz wide.

    FM accepts the stronger signal on its frequency and rejects the weaker
    signals.
    This and static rejection are the advantages of FM over AM.   FM does not
    have an inherently better audio quality otherwise.

    Search for Edwin Armstrong on Google or AltaVista or other search engines.
    They have tons of information.

    FM was handicapped because it was inherently more expensive.  To be better
    it had to be wideband.  To be wideband it had to be at higher frequencies.
    An FM radio station didn't have an audience so it didn't have money.   An FM
    DJ in Detroit in 1958 made $35 a week.  At that rate the station could play
    long records or tapes (ie: classical music).

    Transistors made portable radios useable.  No one could afford batteries for
    a tube radio.  Trouble is, through the 50's transistors didn't work at FM
    broadcast frequencies.  Then in the early 60's transistors started working.
    Now FM had potential.  Still, you could have bought a station for a song.
    Radios continued getting cheaper.  Then the FCC required that radios that
    sold for more than $15 had to be able to receive FM.   By the late 60's FM
    stations were getting an audience.  They still had low cost DJs and
    "underground" programming and stuff like that, but things were picking up.

    Backing up a bit, all of  radio took a kick in the teeth when television
    came in.  Suddenly none of the stations had any money.  The audience was
    gone.  The advertisers were gone.  Even the AM stations were on their butts.
       All they could do was pay some one to play records.

    This is just a start to my diatribe but I gotta take a break except for one
    comment.  The dumbest thing that radio did was bring in that junk they call
    stereo.  I need a button on my radio to stop it.

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

    Date: Fri, 12 Jul 2002 21:11:37 -0400
    From: "jay ranellucci" <jayran33@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  "Calling All Cars" Rio Grande Gasoline

    Hello All,

    In listening to a Calling All Cars the other day which was sponsored in the
    Southwest by Rio Grande "Cracked" gasoline, I got to wondering what ever
    happened to Rio Grande.  Were they bought by another gas company like
    Signal, or Douglas?  And what happened to those two? also what did they by
    mean "cracked gasoline"  I thought all gasoline had to be cracked.  But then
    maybe that was something new in 1934.  An interesting note, Calling All Cars
    was written by William N. Robson.
    I'm always amazed how old radio stimulates the "little gray cells".
        Jay

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

    Date: Fri, 12 Jul 2002 21:36:58 -0400
    From: "Irene Heinstein" <IreneTH@[removed];
    To: "OTR" <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Bart Marshall

    Thanks to Harry Bartell for those memories of Herbert Marshall.  I'm not
    surprised that Herbert Marshall was not a good poker player.    He looked
    like a whist and bridge player to me.   But I am surprised that his nickname
    was 'Bart' because that conjures up a western image to me.    Why not
    'Bertie' a la [removed] Wodehouse?

    And I share Elizabeth Minney's curiosity when she wrote:

>     I can't resist:  Does Mr. Bartell remember Marshall's bad luck at poker
>     as an interested *onlooker* to those long-ago games.  OR did Mr.
>     Bartell assume his benignant Father Rojas face (see Big Little Jesus,
>     Dragnet) and beat the socks off poor Mr. Marshall?  :)

    Irene
    IreneTH@[removed]

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

    Date: Fri, 12 Jul 2002 21:38:25 -0400
    From: "Richard  Carpenter" <sinatra@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Tonic, anyone?

       I'm enjoying the current thread about various kinds of soda and the
    terms used to describe it -- soda, pop, soda pop, and even dope. Here in
    the Boston area (and nowhere else, as far as I know) we call it tonic. Or
    at least I thought we still did. When I mentioned the term to a young woman
    I work with, she said, "My grandmother STILL calls it that!"

       As for Coke and cocaine, my understanding (which could be wrong) is that
    a non narcotic part of the coca leaf is still used, or some such.

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

    Date: Fri, 12 Jul 2002 22:02:07 -0400
    From: Dennis W Crow <DCrow3@[removed];
    To: OTR Digest <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Fibber McGee's telephone number

    Did anybody answer Danica Stein's question about Fibber's telephone number?

    The McGees'  actually had two telephone numbers.  Prior to their installing
    a dial telephone, their number was Wistful Vista 1073.  Later, their dial
    telephone, sans Myrt, had the number -- 4336.

    Source of this information is the excellent HEAVENLY DAYS [World of
    Yesterday, 1987], by Charles Stumpf and Tom Price.  Pages 123 and 215
    contain the requisite data.

    As to Doc  Gamble's number, a question Danica also asks, I leave it to
    other readers of the Digest to answer.

    Dennis Crow

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

    Date: Sat, 13 Jul 2002 00:12:43 -0400
    From: lynn wagar <philcolynn@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Gale Gordon-Help

    Hello Everyone-

          I am working on a story about Gale Gordon-from
    too many shows to mention here.  I am trying to find
    some personal information on him and not his career.
    I have tryed search engine Google-Gale Gordon.  Have
    only been able to find information on is careers.
    Can any one suggest where else to look?  If there are
    any Lucy Ball fans out there can you check any books
    you may have and see if any of them have a biography
    on Gale.  Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

    Many Thanks in advance!!!!!!!!!!

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

    Date: Sat, 13 Jul 2002 00:18:07 -0400
    From: "glen schroeder" <gschroeder10@[removed];
    To: "otr" <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Fizzies

    Hi list.

    I'm sorry I forgot who talked about them, but you sure jogged my memory when
    you mentioned Fizzies. I remember them very well when I was about eleven or
    twelve years old in the late fifties. I thought they were pretty good too,
    but my older brother and my parents thought they were awful.

    Love dis list

    Glen Schroeder

    Madison  WI

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

    Date: Sat, 13 Jul 2002 00:18:18 -0400
    From: mbiel@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  RE; CBS Chirps

    Let me add a couple of things to Mike Paraniuk's description  of how the CBS
    chirps were used in the West 57th studios in 1988.  I had been there a number
    of times in the preceeding decade and a few things were different.  They had
    a "producer' for each newscast who sat in the studio with the newscaster,
    followed along on the script and kept careful timings,  threw cues to both
    the newscaster and engineer, and triggered the chirps from a little lever
    switch in front of him.  This was in the days before the use of computers
    there (were they really using a computer for the ads as early as 1988???
    Wow!!)  In addition to the cart machines used for the opening and closing
    themes, on a shelf above and to the right of the engineer were 12 other cart
    machines.  There were up to three commercial breaks in a newscast, and they
    split the country into four regions.  The chirp would trigger a set of four
    of those 12 cart machines which would play the ad being sent to each of the
    regions.  Many, many times there were four identical carts used for a full
    national sale.  Rather than bother with a switching arrangement that could
    combine regions (thus risking a mistake if set up wrong for a subsequent ad)
    they merely made dup carts if they needed to play the same ad simultaneously
    for multiple regions.

    There is a possibility that some CBS newsmen might have preferred to use
    producers while others might prefer to cue with their own handsignals, but it
    is equally likely that the use of the producer to give the cues that I saw
    and the newscaster himself throwing the cues that Mike P saw was due to a
    reduction in costs by reducing the staff.  Perhaps Bill Murtough could
    comment on that, and perhaps someone can tell us what the current CBS
    operational practices are in the New York studios.

    Michael Biel  mbiel@[removed]

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

    Date: Sat, 13 Jul 2002 06:57:07 -0400
    From: "Ed Ellers" <ed_ellers@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  CBS Radio today

    Mike Paraniuk (bourdase@[removed]) wrote:

>     I was blessed to be given a personal tour of the New York Columbia
>     facilities which are housed in a former dairy warehouse/factory since the
>     60s. I think it is located on 57th Street in New York City (my memory is
>     slipping since that awesome visit of 1988).

    The CBS Broadcast Center on West 57th Street at 10th Avenue houses both
    radio and TV operations; the news magazine "West 57th," seen off and on from
    1985 to 1989, took its name from that address.  The "new" facility allowed
    CBS to get out of 485 Madison Avenue (this was around the time that the new
    CBS Building was built at 51 West 52nd Street), as well as vacating the loft
    over Madison Square Garden that CBS Television had used since the late
    1930s.

    Jim Cox (otrbuff@[removed]) wrote:

>     It seems, if I'm remembering his explanation correctly, that where CBS
>     formerly shared trickle-down proceeds with local stations that were
>     derived from the advertising the national chain sold, that longstanding
>     policy was rescinded effective May 15.  CBS's new owners (Infinity
>     Broadcasting, a division of Viacom), in its infinite wisdom, now charge
>     local affiliates for providing the news TO THEM!  As a result, numerous
>     CBS outlets suddenly disappeared from the ether.

    It's interesting how history repeats itself.  In 1960, a bunch of CBS Radio
    affiliates bolted because the network wanted to reduce compensation; some of
    them got together in their own (short-lived) network called Radio World
    Wide.

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

    Date: Sat, 13 Jul 2002 06:57:29 -0400
    From: Bruce Forsberg <forsberg@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Abbott & Costello Episode 11-4-43

    I am a big Abbott and Costello fan. I have about 70+ of their radio
    shows but so far I have been unable to locate a show dated NOV-4-1943.
    This was the day that Lou Costello's 1 year old son Lou Jr. drowned in
    their swimming pool. Lou went on to do their radio show that night
    knowing that his son drowned. At the end of the show Bud pays tribute to
    his partner. Lana Turner is the guest. I would love to hear this show. I
    have tried most of the dealers and can't find it. If anyone has a copy
    to spare that I could buy I would appreciate it.

    Thanks,
    Bruce Forsberg

    --------------------------------
    End of [removed] Digest V2002 Issue #265
    *********************************************

    Copyright [removed] Communications, York, PA; All Rights Reserved,
      including republication in any form.

    If you enjoy this list, please consider financially supporting it:
       [removed]

    For Help: [removed]@[removed]

    To Unsubscribe: [removed]@[removed]

    To Subscribe: [removed]@[removed]
      or see [removed]

    For Help with the Archive Server, send the command ARCHIVE HELP
      in the SUBJECT of a message to [removed]@[removed]

    To contact the listmaster, mail to listmaster@[removed]

    To Send Mail to the list, simply send to [removed]@[removed]