Subject: [removed] Digest V2020 #65
From: [removed]@[removed]
Date: 12/13/2020 10:18 PM

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

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

                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2020 : Issue 65
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                 [removed]
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      Copies of the Digest                  [ "B. J. Watkins" <kinseyfan@hotmail. ]
      Tune into Yesterday Issue 91          [ Graeme Stevenson <graemeotr@[removed] ]
      Re: Archiving the Digest              [ "Jim Widner" <jwidner@[removed]; ]
      archiving digest - how to convert fr  [ Travis Conner <Chargous@[removed] ]
      Charlie and OTR                       [ Richard Fish <fish@lodestone-media. ]
      More OTR Digests available            [ "Jim Widner" <jwidner@[removed]; ]
      Captain Midnight's Final Radio Fligh  [ <skallisjr@[removed]; ]
      Test project for the archive          [ Vince Long <vlongbsh@[removed]; ]

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

    Date: Sun, 13 Dec 2020 05:24:58 +0000
    From: "B. J. Watkins" <kinseyfan@[removed];
    To: oldtimeradio Digest <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject: Copies of the Digest

    I have lots of Digests saved in my email these past 19 years. But I want to=
     share with you a wonderful discovery! [removed] has a wayback machine. I=
    f you search for Charlie's old column Nostalgic Rumblings you'll find blogs=
    .[removed] From there you can enter [removed]
    umns/struts/ and find all of the Struts and Frets columns that Harry Bartel=
    l posted in the Digest. Who knows what else you might find there!=

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

    Date: Sun, 13 Dec 2020 12:09:26 +0000 (UTC)
    From: Graeme Stevenson <graemeotr@[removed];
    To: OTR Digest <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject: Tune into Yesterday Issue 91

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    Hi. Issue 91 of ORCA's Tune into Yesterday magazine is now available. The main
    issue looks back at the CBS series 'Escape' ( reprinted with permission of
    Keith Scott ), and Dave Goldin looks back at some of the famous people he
    worked with as a radio engineer. The Supplement with this issue looks back at
    music in old time radio: classical, dance band, swing, and light. A free
    sample copy is available ( in the UK only, due to high postage costs abroad )
    from our membership sec John Wolstenholme: ORCA, PO Box 1922, Dronfield, S18B
    8XA
    Cheers ! Graeme

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    Date: Sun, 13 Dec 2020 13:33:44 +0000
    From: "Jim Widner" <jwidner@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject: Re: Archiving the Digest

    Jim Beck asked:
    "Besides a searchable archive, if someone is able to produce one, an archiv=
    e like what Jim Widner created
      for 2001 and 2002 could be stored on the Internet Archive. Each year and/=
    or decade can be made available
      as a downloadable zip folder."

    I suspect it is not possible anymore as I recently tried to see if I could=
     get an older one. It appears
      that Charlie might have that disengaged unless a special request came in. =
    You can get the most recent
    ones, I believe, as the area on his server where it came from has those, bu=
    t I tried to get even a group
    several years old as a test, but it failed.

    I do currently have, like Vince Long, digests going back to 1996. I go back =
    to the days of Compuserve and
    GEnie and rec. [removed], none of which exist anymore. You can find rec=
    .[removed] on [removed],
    but no old time radio. I downloaded once the broadcast material, but it all =
    newer items mostly dealing with
    those who were in the broadcast industry in the late 2000s.

    A very brief history for those who weren't around in those early days: one=
     could go to Compuserve, GEnie,
    and [removed] for old time radio discussions. I met Lou Genco there =
    who told me once he used to lurk
    a lot. GEnie was great because the discussion was more lively than the othe=
    rs. Then Bill Pfeiffer decided to
    ramp up the discussions as he was the moderator of [removed]
     That became the OTR Roundtable. He
    briefly ran into issues in 1998 and so Charlie stepped in to host "temporar=
    ily" a digest until Bill's situation
    was straightened out. When it was everyone decided that having two digests=
     was not a bad thing and it continued
    that way until Bill died in 1999. Charlie was able to work out taking over=
     Bill's Roundtable and integrated it
    into his own Old Radio Digest. And then we were one.

    I do have my 1996 Digest in html format already and can post it, but it is=
     from pre-oldradio digest days. Again,
    I am generally retired from a lot of that activity, but can post it as soon =
    as I can get it all organized.

    I am sure we can get all archives back to 1995 judging from what people hav=
    e posted here. As someone else mentioned
    (perhaps Vince Long?) it is just too much to make it a truly searchable arc=
    hive - at least by me. The idea of
    gathering them all and posting them ultimately on [removed] is a worthwhi=
    le project and maybe we can get that done.
    I thought at one time of putting them out there, but obviously with Charlie =
    still running his digest, I thought it
    best not to do so as he seemed to have things in hand.

    My gaps are mostly after 2002 as I stopped archiving them, but it appears t=
    hat others who can donate them are available.

    Jim Widner

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

    Date: Sun, 13 Dec 2020 11:29:29 -0500
    From: Travis Conner <Chargous@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject: archiving digest - how to convert from Eudora

    I have

    9-29-1999 to 11-16

    <gap>

    11/12/2000 to present.

    It appears I have some early ones that Vince Long doesn't have, but how
    do I convert a Eudora mailbox to text?  Or mass save emails to txt?

    We will all miss Charlie.  He did a lot for us, loved his family, loved
    OTR, loved I Love A Mystery.  Although Bill started the list, Charlie's
    done it since c. 1999.

    Travis Conner

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

    Date: Sun, 13 Dec 2020 14:13:19 -0500
    From: Richard Fish <fish@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject: Charlie and OTR

    I was very sorry -- like so many people! -- to hear about Charlie's
    passing. I've been getting this list for so long, I can't remember when
    it [removed] after the Ark grounded on Mount Ararat, I think.

    Charlie's focus and indefatigable efforts over the years have been
    amazing, and this email list has made a wonderful contribution to
    keeping the memories of a fabulous era alive. These days, it's
    particularly heartening to remember a time when vigorous disagreement
    (an American tradition!) didn't completely fracture a basic sense of
    national unity -- isn't it?

    My own involvement with the art form we all love has just had its
    50-year anniversary this year, which is kind of terrifying, but I've
    been very lucky along the way. Mostly, I've been focused on keeping the
    art alive and growing; it's so frustrating to run up against the mindset
    that "radio theatre is old-fashioned, passe, an art that died when TV
    came along." Not true. The art developed before radio (I have radio
    theatre recordings from the 1890s) and the US is the only country in the
    world where it went off the air. Even here, it didn't die, it just went
    back to its original medium, recordings.

    But when I tried to post a few things about new productions, Charlie
    came down on me like a ton of bricks, insisting that this list was
    strictly focused on the Golden Age -- and none of them new-fangled
    productions by johnny-come-lately whippersnappers were welcome, thank
    you very much! I respected this, and have not posted very much since,
    but enjoy reading the posts each time.

    None the more for that, as the Brits say, I'm finishing my 28th year of
    broadcasting The Firehouse Theatre, a weekly radio show that almost
    always includes some OTR productions. Every week I send an email to a
    list of people who want to know what's on the show; it's not appropriate
    to post that here, because it usually includes some new things as well,
    but if anyone wants to be added to the list, email me. The show is on
    our local Community Radio Station, WFHB, but nowadays it streams on the
    internet so you can hear it from wherever.

    It's on 8-10 PM, Eastern Time, every Sunday evening. Streams can be
    found from the station's website and a couple of others, which can be
    more reliable:

    [removed]

    [removed]

    [removed]:8035/stream

    Tonight, the program includes Norman Corwin's 1991 remake of his 1941
    classic tribute to the Bill of Rights, WE HOLD THESE TRUTHS, and a
    lovely program from Christmas 1944 - Cavalcade of America, starring
    Walter Huston. I think it will show that there's more hope for the
    future than the current hooraw in the headlines might indicate. If you
    miss the show, email me and I can send you a link to the audio files.

    And in closing -- the art form (now "audio theatre") is alive and well,
    having a tremendous renaissance on the internet as podcasting,
    attracting a lot of young people. I hope more of them will discover this
    list and the glories of the Golden Age -- it may save them some time
    reinventing the wheel!

    Richard Fish

    --
    "Post proofs that brotherhood is not so wild a dream as those who profit
    by postponing it pretend." -- Norman Corwin, 1945

    "You can get an awful lot done, if you don't care who gets the credit."
    -- George C. Marshall, to my father, 1944

    "A laugh is not something you get. It's something you give." -- me.

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

    Date: Sun, 13 Dec 2020 21:32:09 +0000
    From: "Jim Widner" <jwidner@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject: More OTR Digests available

    In addition to what I had up there already, I've quickly added digests=20
    from 2000 and 1999. The latter is only up through June.  In the 2000=20
    digest you might discover an issue dated from 1995. Not sure how that=20
    got in there as I have no other from that year (1995) and I wonder if it=20
    came through accidentally or something.

    [removed]

    [removed]

    Jim

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

    Date: Sun, 13 Dec 2020 17:41:12 -0500
    From: <skallisjr@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject: Captain Midnight's Final Radio Flight

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    Joe Mackey notes, through "Those Were The Days" --

>     1949   After a decade on radio, Captain Midnight was heard for the final

>     time.

    Captain Midnight began as a syndicated 15-minute-per-episode adventure
    serial, initially sponsored by Skelly Oil.  In the Fall of 1940, Ovaltine
    assumed sponsorship, and introduced the Secret Squadron and its cipher
    device, the Code-O-Graph, which listeners could use to decipher
    end-of-episoode messages relating to the upcoming episodes.
    In the Fall Season of 1949, the program shifted from serial format to
    half-hour complete story programs.  The original actor who played Captain
    Midnight wasn't the 30-minute episodes; the new actor was Paul Barnes.
    Students of the program indicate that the complete-adventure programs
    were not as well written as most of the serial episodes.  The program
    apparently lost much of its audience with the show in its new format.

    Stephen A. Kallis, Jr.
    Sponsored by [removed];utm_medium=uol&utm_campaign=rss_taglines_more

    US Treasury Gets Hacked, Sources Say
    'Disbelief, Disgust, Humiliation' as Family Kicked Off Flight
    Trump: I'm Vetoing That Bill

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

    Date: Sun, 13 Dec 2020 18:49:26 -0700
    From: Vince Long <vlongbsh@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject: Test project for the archive

    I cobbled together a sample project using the 5,000+ issues of the OTR
    Digest that I had saved.  You can step through, issue by issue, search
    using multiple terms, or access by volume/issue. Feel free to check it
    out here:

    [removed]

    I'm not really planning to make this the final solution since I'm not
    interested in maintaining it for the long haul so if someone wants to
    replicate and improve it elsewhere I'd be happy to share what I've done
    with the database files (sql) and the 5000 issues.

    Vince

    --------------------------------
    End of [removed] Digest V2020 Issue #65
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