Subject: [removed] Digest V01 #120
From: <[removed]@[removed]>
Date: 4/19/2001 9:04 AM
To: <[removed]@[removed];

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


                      The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                         Volume 01 : Issue 120
                   A Part of the [removed]!
                           ISSN: 1533-9289


                           Today's Topics:

 Re: "Letter From America"            [Don Hunt <ddhunt@[removed];       ]
 Radio Spirits ...                    ["[removed] pollard" <gpollard@[removed]]
 Horatio Hornblower                   ["J. Randolph Cox" <cox@[removed]]
 Sppace Opera                         ["Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@]
 Re: A real listener                  [norman flagg <nflagg@[removed];    ]
 BOB & RAY                            [HERITAGE4@[removed]                  ]
 Space Opera                          ["A. Joseph Ross" <lawyer@[removed].]
 BUDDY EBSEN LIVE INTERVIEW           [Duane Keilstrup <duanek9@[removed]; ]

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

Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2001 12:37:46 -0400
From: Don Hunt <ddhunt@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: "Letter From America"

Following is a list of websites one can go to for locating "Letter From
Ameica" and other "BBC World News Service" programs via shortwave, the
internet, and on the commercial/US radio bands. By going to the BBC Website
(listed below) I was able, by following the appropriate prompts, to listen to
selected archived
broadcasts of "Letter From America"
Don.



 Re:"Letter Frm America"
 Don Hunt  ddhunt@[removed].
 Wednesday, April 18,2001
Re: Locating Letters From America broadcasts

 Thank you for emailing BBC World Service.
 Although this is an automated reply, your email will be read and your
comments about BBC World Service radio will forwarded to the relevant
programme or department. We regret that we cannot guarantee an individual
reply to questions, but this email contains information and links to
websites which we hope will help you.
 1. ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS
We can email you detailed answers to a large number of questions. For a full
list of these, click here and send a blank message:
 mailto:wsama0@[removed]
2. BBC ON AIR NETWORK Join BBC On Air Network, specially designed to keep
you up to date with all the latest information on a wide range of topics.
Members will receive highlights of what's on BBC World Service radio each
month and programme guides by email. To register for this, open the attached
 registration form or click here and send a blank message:

 mailto:wsama0@[removed]
3. INTERNET
The BBC World Service website at [removed] has

 Finally, we're sorry but we cannot supply transcripts, audiocassettes or
audio files of BBC World Service programmes because of copyright
restrictions. Our news programmes are not transcribed, but a wide range
 of BBC news stories can be read at [removed] Regards

 BBC World Service

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

Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2001 14:53:47 -0400
From: "[removed] pollard" <gpollard@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Radio Spirits ...

I gave up buying from Radio Spirits several years ago. There was at
least one problem with each order, from first to last. A relatively
expensive Sherlock Holmes box-set was mislabeled, for example, and I
already had all the episodes; RS took it back for credit, but I had to
pay the return shipping. Most often, the cassette label had the correct
title, but the show, itself, was wrong; first two or three times, RS
replaced with the correct show, after a while, RS didn't respond. Plus,
there some tapes were recorded on only one side, although there were
title labels on both sides and I had paid for two shows. The problems
went on and on and on, like a bad movie.

	Most pernicious, I think, was passing-off the Austrailian version of
the "Fat Man," which is good in its own right, as starring J. Scott
Smart. This was around the time Charlie Laughlin's book on Jack Smart
was published, so there was heightened interest in the show. There was,
and may still be, only a handful of "Fat Man" shows starring Smart
avaialable. I should've known better, but I bought one tape, just to
see. When I called to complain this was the Austrialian version, not a
Jack Smart show, the fellow who answered the phone was evasive and,
after less than a minute, just hung up the phone.

	I bought from RS for a long time. At first, I put up with the
negligence, but eventually found ways to pass along shows I already had
or didn't want -- as gifts or whatever. There's only so much
inconvenience one can tolerate.

	One time, I got a nasty letter with a corrected order that said the
problem was mine because I couldn't fill out their form right. So, I
started ordering by letter, with a one-item-per-line list of numbers and
titles. No confusion here, just for or five lines of item numbers and
titles. A couple of orders later, I got a nasty letter from the same
person indicating the errors were because I wasn't using their order
form. I think there's a line from "Forrest Gump" that fits right here!!!

	The problem is RS is simply a business. It could be selling the
proverbial widget or a plaque-mounted bass that sings. I came to
understand RS didn't care one bit about "old time radio," whereas I did
and do, very much. Although RS recognized the interest people have in
"old time radio," it could never appreciate what that meant. So, just
hire a bunch of minimum-wage highschoolers, who think getting older is a
sign of weakness that won't happen to them, to dub tapes and fill
orders.

	In the end, lots of promotion keeps the orders coming. I would venture
the typical RS customer places one or two orders and is never heard from
again. Even the most naive customers eventually figures out the
difference between "Jack Benny" and "Boston Blackie."

	It's unforntunate Adventures in Cassettes (AIC) is no longer around,
everyone there knew the product line, well; appreciated "old time radio"
and were more or less among us. The extra cost was worth it: calling-in
an order to AIC was always fun. The quality was also a lot higher, gaffs
rare and quickly fixed with a smile.

						george

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

Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2001 16:15:28 -0400
From: "J. Randolph Cox" <cox@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Horatio Hornblower

Regarding the AVPRO set of 26 (so far) episodes of _Horatio Hornblower_,
I'll have to check these again to be certain, but there are some with the
third person narrator recapping the narrative and some without. As I recall,
the first group of 13 episodes does not have the third-person narrator, but
is narrated by Hornblower himself. The second group of 13 episodes has the
third person narrator as well as Hornblower's first person narration.

I expect the source for the episodes might make the difference -- whether it
was the original network broadcast or a later syndicated broadcast. I
remember listening to the series when it was first aired in this country in
1952 or thereabouts, but I don't recall the third-person narrator from that
period.

I intend to listen to them again in the near future and will time them and
post the results.

Randy Cox

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

Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2001 20:54:13 -0400
From: "Stephen A Kallis, Jr." <skallisjr@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Sppace Opera

Gordon R. Payton asks,

Who can give me the definition and origin of the term "Space Opera"?
This term generally seems to refer to shows/stories that don't need to
take place in space at all. <<

The term originally meant magazine stories involving a lot of shooting of
ray guns, space battles, and the like.  It originated in science-fiction
(as opposed to "sci-fi") circles as a mild derogatory.  The term derived
from "horse opera" films, which were "shoot-'em-up" Westerns.  The term
apparently has been expanded somewhat; but to a purist, it refers to the
kind of stories mentioned above.  A contemporary "space opera" might be
the Star Wars movies.

Some of the best "space opera" stories can be as good as any other branch
of science fiction: E. E. Smith's Lensman Series was a superior one of
these.  Not too many attempts to bring "space opera" to OTR seemed to
work.

Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.

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

Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2001 21:14:07 -0400
From: norman flagg <nflagg@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Re: A real listener

J. Murphey wrote re: noise;

I am one of those listeners.  In fact, for several years I listened to the
"Golden Age of Radio" on the radio (when I could get it) and it reminded me
of my old 1965 transistor radio I cherished as a sixth grader.  In some
ways, lack of static equates lack of "realness" for me.

I live in Tucson, tape OTR from LA station KNX on their two [removed]
re-broadcast   (their 'prime time' airing won't come in due to competing
Mexican stations on the same -or too near- band width) and, like Mr. Murphy,
pick up the fades, static and cut-ins from stations across the border. But
hey, that's part of the fun and it does take me back to listening in the
"Golden Age" when radio's snap, crackle and pop was par for the course.

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

Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2001 22:56:49 -0400
From: HERITAGE4@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  BOB & RAY

Lots of interest lately in Bob & Ray --
We have two CD's with 4 of  the original WHDH - Boston "Matinee" sries and
one early (1951) NBC show.  The WHDH shows were transferred  direct from  ET
disk to master reels.
1. MATINEE  12/07/48 and 12/08/48
2. MATINEE  12/22/51 (short show: 17 mins.) and 03/24/51
    Also: early  NBC 15 min. show  1951.
Drop me a line if these are of interest.  More to come if they are.
Tom Heathwood - Heritage Radio - Boston, MA     Heritage4@[removed]
-----------------------------------------------------------

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

Date: Thu, 19 Apr 2001 08:43:20 -0400
From: "A. Joseph Ross" <lawyer@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Space Opera

Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2001 15:21:04 -0400
From: Gordon R Payton <thescifiguy@[removed];

Who can give me the definition and origin of the term "Space Opera"? This
term generally seems to refer to shows/stories that don't need to take
place in space at all.

I don't know exactly who coined the term, but it seems to be an extension
of "soap opera" and "horse opera."  In science fiction circles, it is
supposed to refer to a space adventure that could easily work as a story
with the science fictional elements removed.  The premier issue of Galaxy
Magazine contained a piece under the title "You'll Never See It In
Galaxy," which compared several paragraphs of Bat Durston on his horse and
several nearly identical paragraphs of Bat Durston in his space ship to
show just how identical they were.  At least one science fiction
magazine's rejection slip calls that type of story a "Bat Durston."

I'm not very familiar with the radio versions of Flash Gordon and Buck
Rogers, but I do think that on Space Patrol, the science-fictional element
was usually quite essential to the story.




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

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

Date: Thu, 19 Apr 2001 10:57:40 -0400
From: Duane Keilstrup <duanek9@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  BUDDY EBSEN LIVE INTERVIEW

Tune in The Yesterday USA Radio Networks for a live interview with Buddy
Ebsen this Sunday, April 22, 5:00 [removed] EST, on the Bill Bragg Show.   Later
that same evening Peter Ford, son of Glenn Ford will be interviewed as well.
Also that same evening on Bill's show Classics & Curios will salute Frankie
Laine on his 88th birthday.  All of this at [removed] or via
satellite, cable, or low frequency FM stations.  Thanks for listening.
Duane Keilstrup

--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V01 Issue #120
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