Subject: [removed] Digest V2003 #261
From: "OldRadio Mailing Lists" <[removed]@[removed];
Date: 7/3/2003 10:04 AM

To: <[removed]@[removed];

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

                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2003 : Issue 261
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      AM DX'ing                             [ "Bob Watson" <crw934@[removed]; ]
      Finding the BBC World Service         [ jhcollins@[removed] ]
      July 3rd births and deaths            [ Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed]; ]
      George Burns                          [ George Aust <austhaus1@[removed] ]
      OTR Library                           [ "Russ Butler" <oldradio@[removed] ]
      One more OTR book                     [ "Russ Butler" <oldradio@[removed] ]
      "I fell in a vat of chocolate!"       [ Derek Tague <derek@[removed]; ]
      need Total Recorder advice            [ Osborneam@[removed] ]
      OTR Bibliography                      [ "Doug Leary" <doug@[removed]; ]
      BBC World Service                     [ Herb Harrison <herbop@[removed] ]
      Today in radio history                [ Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed] ]
      Have a Glorious Fourth!               [ Derek Tague <derek@[removed]; ]
      Books by Jim Cox                      [ Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed]; ]

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

    Date: Wed, 2 Jul 2003 13:54:26 -0400
    From: "Bob Watson" <crw934@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  AM DX'ing

    I agree with the posters who state that a variety of factors affect distant
    AM reception in this day and age.  I'm not sure when all these factors came
    into play, though.  I do believe that apathy on the part of radio and stereo
    manufacturers has had a lot to do with the decline as well.

    When I was younger, my parents bought a console stereo for the living room.
    Oddly, while we had had a tv set for years, this was the first "big" radio
    the household had ever had.  Before that, the radio had always been a table
    radio or a portable radio.

    By the time we moved into a new house around 1975, the console wasn't used
    by the family much, so I inherited it and it went to my bedroom.  When I
    discovered OTR, it was the console that brought me the most distant stations
    earlier on in the evening.  My portable, which I could keep by my bedside at
    a lower volume later at night, was adequate a couple of hours after sundown.

    Since AM reception was important to me, when it came time to search for a
    new stereo in the mid-1980's, I researched for AM sensitvity.  The receiver
    I purchased was comparible to the old console, I thought.  It was around
    this time that I also purchased a 1934 Philco in working order.  Even with
    an external antenna attached to my stereo receiver, there were distant
    stations that I could only receive on the Philco.  But then, there were also
    stations that I could not receive on the Philco, that my Pioneer could pick
    up without problems, which I always thought was odd.

    When the Pioneer gave up the ghost in the early 90's, I tried in vain to
    locate a stereo with the same sensitivity as the previous stereo without any
    success.  I was told by just about every salesman that "no one listens to AM
    anymore.:"  Still on cold winter nights, distant AM reception was passable
    with the new receiver.  I could still get WSM in Nashville at night and WSB
    in Atlanta in the daytime.  But the test of time actually proved the
    salesman right, as I listened to AM less and less.

    A couple of years later, I switched to a receiver with Dolby Surround to be
    able to play movies and laserdiscs with all the booms, etc.  Big mistake.  I
    didn't consider AM reception.  The radio could barely pick up WSB in the
    daytime.  But I had since purchased a GE 1932 replicia radio whose tuner
    actually allowed me to pick up Jacksonville, FL at that time, so I wasn't
    upset.

    For those of you wondering how far Jacksonville is from where I live, just
    get out an atlas and look for Macon, Ga.  I live about 35 miles to the south
    of Macon.  That's how good the GE was and still is.

    Last year, lighting got the Dolby receiver and I had to do a quick
    replacement.  The AM section on this receiver is practically non-existent.
    I can pick up the station in Hawkinsville, GA which is about 15 miles away,
    but am hardpressed to get much else, at night or in the daytime.

    Not that it really matters anymore.  The apathy towards AM radio also
    includes the owners and operators of a lot of AM stations.  There is very
    little programming to be picked up at night in these parts anymore.  Most of
    it is talk shows.  Just talk shows.

    Thank goodness for the internet.  Good "radio" can still be found on here.

    Bob

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

    Date: Wed, 2 Jul 2003 17:03:15 -0400
    From: jhcollins@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Finding the BBC World Service

    Martin <watchstop@[removed]; wrote:

>     Can anybody out there help [me find the BBC] World Service?

    Try this: [removed]

    [ADMINISTRIVIA: Or to go directly to the BBC World Service, avoiding the
    privacy-invading Yahoo!, see [removed]  --cfs3]

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

    Date: Wed, 2 Jul 2003 17:04:32 -0400
    From: Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  July 3rd births and deaths

    July 3rd births:

    07-03-1878 - George M. Cohan - Providence, RI - d. 11-5-1942
    composer: "The Collier Hour"; "The Ed Sullivan Show"; "The Free Company"
    07-03-1881 - Leon Errol - Sydney, Australia - d. 10-12-1951
    actor, comedian: WENR Chicago
    07-03-1899 - Herb Polesie - d. 6-8-1979
    panelist: "Twenty Questions"
    07-03-1906 - George Sanders - St. Petersburg, Russia - d. 4-26-1972
    host: "High Adventure"
    07-03-1913 - Dorothy Kilgallen - Chicago, IL - d. 11-8-1965
    commentator: "Voice of Broadway"; "Breakfast with Dorothy and Dick"
    07-03-1914 - Gertrude Niesen - Mid-Atlantic Ocean - d. 3-27-1975
    singer: "Songs by Gertrude Niesen"; "Good News of 1939"
    07-03-1915 - Jerry Gray - Boston MA - d. 8-10-1976
    bandleader: "I Sustain the Wings"; "Philip Morris Frolics"; "Club 15"

    July 3rd deaths:

    02-25-1913 - Jim Backus - Cleveland, OH - d. 7-3-1989
    comedian: Hubert Updike "Alan Young Show"; Chester Fenwick "Sad Sack"
    07-18-1901 - Rudy Vallee - Island Pond, VT (R: Westbrook, ME) - d. 7-3-1986
    singer, bandleader, emcee: (The Vagabond Lover) "Fleischmann Hour"; Rudy
    Vallee Show"
    12-22-1885 - Deems Taylor - NYC - d. 7-3-1966
    commentator: "Deems Taylor Music Series"; "Prudential Family Hour"; "RCA
    Victor Show"

    Ron Sayles
    Milwaukee, Wisconsin
    Hometown of [removed] Kaltenborn and Spencer Tracy

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

    Date: Wed, 2 Jul 2003 17:04:47 -0400
    From: George Aust <austhaus1@[removed];
    To: OTR Digest <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  George Burns

    Chris Werner posted an interesting review of the show "Say Goodnight
    Gracie" about George Burns.  Now I realize that Jack Benny was George's
    closest friend but you would think that the producers of the show would
    have used Burns and Allen's theme "Love Nest" rather than Jack Benny's
    theme" Love in Bloom" !:-)

    George Aust

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

    Date: Wed, 2 Jul 2003 17:05:13 -0400
    From: "Russ Butler" <oldradio@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  OTR Library

    Many thanks, Jim.  A terrific compilation of publications and research on
    OTR.  I appreciate your posting of such comprehensive information,....now
    it's off to the library and the bricks and mortar or the online book store!

    Happy (safe) Fourth holiday to the list!

    Russ Butler  oldradio@[removed]

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

    Date: Wed, 2 Jul 2003 17:18:40 -0400
    From: "Russ Butler" <oldradio@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  One more OTR book

    One more book to add to Jim Cox's extensive list is Norman H. Finkelstein's
    "Sounds In The Air: The Golden Age of Radio"  Charles Scribner & Sons, 1993,
    128pp

    The author was/is a public elementary school librarian in Brookline, MA and
    a faculty member at Hebrew College, Boston with two prestigious teaching
    awards.  His late night interview with Norm Nathan on WBZ, Boston (who was
    also an OTR hobbyist) sent me to a couple of book stores the next morning,
    only to pick up the last copy on the shelf!

    Russ Butler  oldradio@[removed]

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

    Date: Wed, 2 Jul 2003 17:19:16 -0400
    From: Derek Tague <derek@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  "I fell in a vat of chocolate!"

    HI Gang:

       Hopefully this is the last go-round about brown-nosing research librarians
    with various calibres of chocolate addressed to my transplanted New Yorker
    friend Chris Werner:

    To which Derek responded:

>         Point taken, Liz; however, do you think if I could afford to buy

    ANYBODY

>     Godiva Chocolates, I would need to supplement my income by taking on
>     free-lance research jobs?

    SO, the real question here is: "Is *Derek* willing to do research for
    chocolate?"

        Not I, Chris, especially in the summertime. But while you're in town,
    check out the shop Myer's of Keswick [pronounced [removed]'s a British
    thing] in the West Village. It's a shop dedicated to selling British imported
    food. As a first-generation British-American, I can assure you that the
    world's chocolatiers are also its best [removed] English & Scottish. Next
    time I'm there, I'll buy you a "DoubleDecker" candy bar.

    Yours in the Cadbury,

    Derek Tague

    [removed]: Maybe Hal "Jughead"  Stone works for "chok'lit" as in Pop's Chok'lit
    Shoppe in the Archie comic books.

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

    Date: Wed, 2 Jul 2003 17:52:21 -0400
    From: Osborneam@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  need Total Recorder advice
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
    X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain

    Would someone who uses Total Recorder please contact me?  I've
    a technical question.  Thanks in advance.

    Arlene Osborne

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

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

    Date: Wed, 2 Jul 2003 17:52:08 -0400
    From: "Doug Leary" <doug@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  OTR Bibliography

    Huge thanks to Jim Cox for providing the excellent bibliography. It's kind
    of shocking to look at the tremendous amount of effort people have already
    put into researching OTR. And this is all stuff that happened within the
    last 70 or 80 years -- practially an eyeblink in historical terms! How
    quickly history can become lost or obscure. Makes it seem all the more
    important to continue preserving these programs and keeping copies in
    circulation.

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

    Date: Thu, 3 Jul 2003 09:37:38 -0400
    From: Herb Harrison <herbop@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  BBC World Service

    Martin Fass writes about the loss of "BBC WORLD SERVICE" from his cable
    provider.
    I found an online article about the BBC's cutback of service at:
    [removed]
    There's a reference to C-Span and the SAP transmission about 3/8ths of the
    way down in the article.
    I don't know if this info would help or not.
    You can hear the program(s) live via the Internet by clicking on the
    appropriate selection at:
    [removed]
    Also, many local National Public Radio & college stations carry the
    broadcasts at different times of the day. You might check what's scheduled
    in your area.

    Hope this helps,
    Herb Harrison

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

    Date: Thu, 3 Jul 2003 09:39:58 -0400
    From: Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed];
    To: otr-net <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Today in radio history

       From Those Were The Days --

    1939 - Chic Young's comic strip character, Blondie was first heard on CBS.

    1940 - The legendary comedy team of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello debuted
    with their network show on NBC.

    1945 - Victor Borge was first heard on NBC. The network gave the
    comedian/pianist the summer replacement slot for Fibber McGee and Molly.

       Joe

    --
    Visit my homepage: [removed]

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

    Date: Thu, 3 Jul 2003 09:40:36 -0400
    From: Derek Tague <derek@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Have a Glorious Fourth!

    Hi Gang:

       My favourite holiday is upon us & I just wanted to take this opportunity to
    wish all my friends on this here Digest a safe and joyous
    Independence Day!
       After having worked for about 12 consecutive days, I'm too tired for
    picnics or barbecues. I'll probably just relax and watch my VHS copy of
    "1776," one of my all-time favourite movies. It's a tradition for me.
       I'd like to know if any of my fellow ether-ites likewise celebrate the
    Fourth by  annually revisiting something OTR in a patriotic vein. Something
    like Norman Corwin's "We Hold These Truths" immediately springs to mind. I bet
    Fibber & Molly McGee and/or Gildersleeve  each had memorable festivities in
    conjunction with the holiday [or were they both off for the summer by July
    4th?].  Hey, gang, any ideas  so that I  myself can start some new traditions
    next year?
       Although the Bill of Rights didn't come around until much later than 1776,
    we  should all ponder on what an important instrument radio has been in the
    perpetuation of our First Amendment rights to freedom of speech over the past
    200+ years
       So three cheers for the [removed] the magic of radio!

    Yours ever in the ether!

    Derek Tague

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

    Date: Thu, 3 Jul 2003 11:47:40 -0400
    From: Ron Sayles <bogusotr@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Books by Jim Cox

    I read with interest the list of books mentioned by Jim Cox, books that every
    serious Olde Tyme Radio aficionado should have. I agree with him whole
    heartily. However, I think that he should have emphasized his books more. I
    know Jim is not one to toot his own horn, so I will toot it for him. I have
    always thought that Dunning's books were the ultimate source to have. I still
    think that, but I would have to put Jim's books right up there in that
    rarefied atmosphere. I have everything that he has written and I have read
    every one at least twice, I have read "The Great Radio Soap Operas" three
    times. I never liked soap operas, until I read Jim's book. Now I listen to as
    many as I can get. He made me appreciate the gentle art of soap operas,
    although sometimes not so gentle. His "Radio Crime Fighters" is a gem for
    entertainment
    and facts. What a fun read that was and is. "Say Goodnight, Gracie" is another
    gem that he has put out. Entertaining and yet, scholarly. He has also written
    a book called "The Great Radio Audience Participation Show" and with Ralph
    Edwards just turning 90, now is a good time to read that one for the third
    time. You get the idea. Every serious Olde Tyme Radio collector should have
    every book the Jim Cox has written and every book that he will write in the
    future.

    Ron Sayles
    Milwaukee, Wisconsin
    Hometown of [removed] Kaltenborn and Jay Jostyn

    --------------------------------
    End of [removed] Digest V2003 Issue #261
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