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	  	         === Last Update 1/17/95  ====





	    [removed]   Volume 96 : Issue 212


Articles in this issue of [removed]:

	 WENN there was no affiliation
	 Re: Remember WENN WHEN?
	 Re: [removed] then [removed]
	 Re Blacks on Radio
	 Buster Brown Gang and Connie Haines?
	 WWW Page mentioned in Computer Life
	 Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar
	 Computer Life
	 We are looking for Scripts!
	 Radio Soap Opera Theme
	 Re: When WENN?
	 Re: Remember WENN

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

Date: Fri, 14 Jun 1996 11:20:19 -0500
From: vintage@[removed] (Andy Blatt)
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: WENN there was no affiliation
Message-Id: <v01540b00ade73eb7a0b4@[[removed]]>

A question was mentioned in the last Digest regarding what local stations
did when the big network stations and affiliates had their heavy hitters on
the air
(such as Jack Benny).  I'm not sure about the rest of the country, but in
NYC a lot of the non-affiliated stations were in fact loosely affiliated
with other like stations in other markets or with stations that were owned
by the same company and as far as I know, they counterprogrammed against
the big shows.  For instance in NYC there was the Liberty Broadcast Network
and WNEW-AM (1130) was supposedly owned by Ed Wynn and affiliated with some
ad-hoc network.  WNEW broadcast heavy news and big bands, some of it live.
This station employed one Herb Morrison.  He was sent to New Jersey to
cover the explosion of the gaint zeppelin The Hindenburg on May 6, 1937 in
Lakehurst, NJ  and the station played music in-between the reports and that
was the first recorded instance of the music and news shows  (regularly
scheduled together) that were to become a staple of am radio in later
years.  WNEW also employed Martin Block of "Make Believe Ballroom" fame.
(WNEW is now WBBR owned and operated by Bloomberg as their financial-news
flagship).

Andy Blatt
VINTAGE BROADCASTS
42 Bowling Green
Staten Island, NY 10314
1-800-418-1445

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

Date: Fri, 14 Jun 1996 11:34:23 -0400
From: GOpp@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: Remember WENN WHEN?
Message-ID: <960614113422_134934894@[removed]>

The first scene of the first episode of Remember WENN takes place on 
October 31, 1938-- the announcer makes a comment about the Halloween 
prank that Orson Welles played on the entire country the previous 
evening.   

- Gregg Oppenheimer.

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

Date: Fri, 14 Jun 1996 13:00:05 -0400
From: Michael Carraher <carraher@[removed]>
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: [removed] then [removed]
Message-ID: <[removed]@[removed]>

>One of the things about the 'WENN' show I wonder about [removed] notice
>that they don't appear to take any 'network' [removed] any national
>feeds at all.

Just because we don't see them taking network shows, doesn't mean they 
don't.  WKRP only showed two DJ's, although some scripts implied there 
were others (Rex Erhard -- often absent -- did middays, and Moss Steiger 
-- depressed and suicidal -- did the overnight shift).  We do see the 
WENN characters in the lounge/green room or in the writer's room.  
Possibly these scenes occur while the station carries network programs. 
 In one episode, the staff goes out to lunch while a Pittsburgh Pirates 
game is broadcast.  In another, an ET (electrical transcription - a big 
18" 78 rpm record - is being broadcast).

>While I know it's only a TV [removed] often wondered about stations of
>that era that weren't lucky enough to carry the big feeds from New
>York.

In the pre-TV era, there were far fewer AM stations than now.  There 
were four national networks (NBC Red, NBC Blue -- later ABC, CBS and 
Mutual).  In addition national feeds were supplemented by regional 
networks.  As with TV through the 60's, independent stations only 
existed in major cities.

Before World War II much of network programming was live Variety Shows 
and Big Band broadcasts -- with dramas and sitcoms growing in dominance 
in the 40's.  Dramas and sitcoms in the early 30's were low budget 
programming.  No need to pay for a full orchestra or big name performers 
or comedians.  As on WENN, dramas and sitcoms could be done with an 
ensemble of a few unknowns who worked cheap (often playing multiple 
parts), sound effects, an organist or foreign (royalty-free) recordings 
for musical bridges in shows.  In 1932, movie theater operator George W. 
Trendle purchased WXYZ in Detroit, then a CBS affiliate not making 
money.  He dropped CBS and to save money filled his schedule with 
locally produced, dramas, comedies and soaps performed by people 
recruited from Wayne State University and a local theater group.  WXYZ 
operated as an independent stations until one of its programs, about a 
masked man on a white horse, was picked up for national broadcast by the 
then-new Mutual Broadcasting System.  

In addition, during the OTR-era as now, syndicated programming was 
widely used by independent stations.  Sitcoms, dramas and musical 
programs were shipped to stations around the country on ET disks.  Some 
smaller stations in remote areas, not hooked up to network lines, also 
received network shows via transcriptions.  These disks allowed many OTR 
episodes to be preserved.

During the swing era, with the growth in interest in big band music, 
independent stations such as WNEW, New York began featuring remote 
big band broadcasts from hotels and night clubs.  These were popular 
and were supplemented by daytime broadcasts of recorded music, such as 
WNEW's "Make Believe Ballroom" with Martin Bloch.  

Before this time, the radio industry resisted the use of recorded music 
and recorded programs in the belief that the audience would demand 
"live" radio -- to hear something as it is happening at a distance -- 
not just records which people could play at home (the FCC actually 
required stations to make an announcement whenever they broadcast 
recorded or "transcribed" material).  With the acceptance of record 
shows on independent stations in the late 40's, radio networks stopped 
doing live re-broadcasts of programs for the West Coast.  Bing Crosby 
left NBC's Kraft Music Hall when the network insisted he appear live and 
began doing a pre-recorded prime time show on also-ran ABC for Philco.  
He also put up venture capital for an entrepreneur to develop audio (and 
later video) tape and got very rich (and was able to spend more time on 
the golf course).  Before the demise of OTR, most network variety shows, 
dramas and sitcoms were taped.  Now you know the rest of the [removed]

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

Date: Fri, 14 Jun 1996 09:26:01 -0700
From: Rick_Botti@[removed] (Rick Botti)
To: wmackey@[removed], otr@[removed]
Subject: Re Blacks on Radio
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>

     Several people have asked if any blacks appeared on radio.
     
     I have a few Amos and Andy half hour shows with several black 
     actresses on the show.  LuWanda Page for one, whom I think played 
     Sappphire.  There are a couple of others as well.
     
     Joe,
     
     Last Month NPR produced a 4 part series on just the subject you asked 
     about. It was very well done and covered (If memory serves me 
     correctly) Blacks in radio from the Golden Era through the sixties. I 
     I do not know if or when it will be played in your area, but I would 
     contact your local NPR affiliate.
     
     You also bring up a good point about the year the show takes place. My 
     understanding was that it was 1939, But in the first or second episode
     one of the charters referred to the Depression in the past tenths. My 
     impression and parents always told me that it didn't really end until 
     WW2.
     
     
     
     Rick Botti 

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

Date: 14 Jun 1996 13:49:26 CST
From: [removed]@[removed]
To: otr@[removed]
Subject: Buster Brown Gang and Connie Haines?
Message-Id: <m0uUdsn-000YBmC@[removed]>

Hi all, I saw a name of a show called "The Buster Brown Gang" the other
day and I was wondering if my kids would like it? Would some one tell me
what the premice of the show was?
Oh yes--one more thing. I don't know if this is the correct spelling of
her name or not but what ever happened to Connie Haines? I have her as a
guest on some Command Performance shows and she also seemed to be on
Abbott and Costello a [removed] got the Impression that she was pretty hot
stuff at the time.

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

Date: Fri, 14 Jun 1996 16:34:20 -0500
From: Lou Genco <lgenco@[removed]>
To: otr@[removed]
Subject: WWW Page mentioned in Computer Life
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>

Frugal OTR Digest readers with WWW access might want to shell out $[removed] for
the latest edition of -ComputerLife- magazine.  Contained in the package is
a "street map" (folded in the fashion that mystifies us all) of "Computer
Life's Guided Tour of Internet Entertainment".  The guide touts itself as
containing "the most innovative and entertaining places online that
guarantee to enhance your merrymaking".

Under their RADIO section, you will read a blurb that indicates "You can
hear ... your favories from yesterday on the Web".  Quickly unfolding the
map, you will see 
OLD-TIME RADIO [removed]
listed between A Prarie Home Companion and KPIG.

But, YOU knew that already ... so you were several steps ahead of the rest
of the crowd.   8-)

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

Date: Fri, 14 Jun 1996 18:43:52 -0400
From: Jim Widner <jwidner@[removed]>
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>

>Steve Kelez of Radio Showcase and I got into a (very) minor debate
>about the name of a Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar episode which I
>purchased from him. He labeled it "The Plantation Matter" and I
>thought it was the "Plant Agent Matter". Steve checked the official
>JD Log and turns out the correct name is "The Plantagent Matter".
>Steve says the hotel is also named the "Plantagent" Hotel, but I
>think it's the "Plantation" Hotel. Whose right, fellow OTR's?
>By the way, being new to the Digest, I'm not sure a plug is
>legal or not, but over the years I've purchased hundreds upon
>hundreds of cassettes from Steve, and not once did I get a bad one!
>Some kind of record, I'd bet.
>

I used to wonder about this too, but most of what I have seen, and what it
sounds like to me is "Plantagent." Even the late Ray Stanich, who was
meticulous in trying to verify does not have a definite answer. The script
was written by John Dawson, if there was a way to find an original. It does
seem to call the hotel in the episode as the Plantagent Hotel.  At best, to
me it sounds like they say "plantagion" and logic would seem to place it as
Plantation since it is supposed to be in the south.  

Obviously, the mystery is not solved.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Jim Widner                      INTERNET: jwidner@[removed]
Dayton, OH                      WWW: [removed]
COMPUSERVE: 74566,3041          
AOL: JimWidner                            

                                                 

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

Date: Fri, 14 Jun 1996 23:25:56 GMT
From: ktrotman@[removed] (K J Trotman)
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Computer Life
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>

Pick up the most recent issue of Computer Life for $[removed]
([removed]), and get a free map of "Computer Life's Guided
Tour of Internet Entertainment".  In it, you will find Lou's Web Site
([removed]) listed in the Radio section!  It's the June 1996
edition. 
Congrat's Lou! 
 
Kevin Trotman 

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

Date: Fri, 14 Jun 1996 09:00:18 -0700
From: [removed]@[removed] (Donald Dortmund)
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: We are looking for Scripts!
Message-ID: <[removed]@[removed]>

     Hi,
        I am a member of an OTR group that put on performances of OTR at 
     nursing homes, churches, schools, etc, WE  are always typing our 
     fingers to the bone transcribing OTR programs. The few places we 
     contacted for transcribed scripts turned out to have very poor 
     selections.
        Please send me and  all information you may have as to where WE can 
     find transcriptions of OTR. Also I have heard about 
     SPERDVAC 'Society to Preserve and Encourage Radio Drama'
     box 7177, Van Nuys, California 91409
     but was told that they were destroyed in a flood in [removed] Can 
     anyone confirm this or does anyone belong to SPERDVAC and can tell US 
     what they charge to join them.
     
     Don Dortmund
     'Those Were The Days Radio Players'
       Norridge Branch

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

Date: Fri, 14 Jun 1996 23:08:11 -0400
From: HKHinkley@[removed]
To: otr@[removed]
Subject: Radio Soap Opera Theme
Message-ID: <960614230810_328731162@[removed]>

To answer a recent query:  The soaper "The Road of Life" used the first
movement of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6 for its theme.

New subject:  I've been having a wonderful time watching a number of OTR
related movies bought at great prices from Nothing's New, 23 Bayhill Shopping
Center, San Bruno CA  94066.  A detailed catalog is available on request.
 The usual disclaimers apply.

Back to lurking mode!

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

Date: Sat, 15 Jun 1996 00:24:11 -0400
From: JanBach@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: When WENN?
Message-ID: <960615002410_135397393@[removed]>

Hello again --

In a message dated 96-06-14 09:19:49 EDT, W Mackey writes:

<< As to the writers comments about WENN being just another "sitcom".  You 
 were expecting a docutmentary on radio [removed]
 I do have a couple of brief comments.  It seems the writers are getting 
 confused as to what year the show is set.  It is my understanding it is 
 about 1937.  >>

Shortly before the series premiered, I read in one of the teaser articles
about Remember WENN that the writers intended to show the station as it
changed over the years -- so now, apparently, the first five or six shows
have covered the two year period 1937-39 and the next four or five shows
should take us right into the middle of our WWII involvement. 
I do hope that, at the end of the series, we are spared the sight of Mr.
Foley as an old sound-effects man, working for  Radio c. 1990, cuing up
tracks of a CD to produce the few sound effects that WENN NewsRadio or WENN
RockRadio or WENN TalkRadio, etc. requires! 

Jan Bach

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

Date: Sat, 15 Jun 1996 00:17:31 -0700
From: joseph@[removed] (joseph)
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: Remember WENN
Message-Id: <v01530500ade796522b90@[[removed]]>

I would like to put out my thoughts on the Howard Rollins episode of
"Remember WENN".

I felt the show was a courageous story on black racism and the place of
black people in pre-civil rights America.

1) The sly allusion to Ralph Elleson's "The Invisible Man". That was dead
on that black people were not noticed in urban society as long as they
played there role.

2) Most white people who considered themselves unbigoted rarely knew any
black people. The closest they ever got was the Steppen Fetchit stereotype
of the movies. I read once a story told by a black man who when he was a
kid listened to Amos and Andy. He found it very funny until he was told
that was him. The scene with Jeff and the Amos and Andy minstrel show
dialogue was dead on.

3) Since most of the people on "Remeber WENN" seem to be from the stage
there unprejudice is more realistic then at first glance. By the thirties
the color bar had crumbled to the degree that black people could play
unstereotypical "negro" roles on stage with whites.

All together a good show that told it's story without preachiness, but good
humor.

Joseph M.

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

    


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---- 
End of [removed] Digest V96 Issue #212

