
 SEE INFO SECTION AT END OF THIS DIGEST FOR UNSUBSCRIBE AND OTHER INFORMATION. 
	  	         === Last Update 1/17/95  ====





	    [removed]   Volume 96 : Issue 113


Articles in this issue of [removed]:

	 Bobby Benson, taped shows & etc
	 Hake's and radio premium prices
	 KDKA Recreation
	 Museum of Radio & TV, LA
	 Re: first radio broadcast
	 W. Cooper, E. Chappell
	 That KDKA 1920 recording
	 BBC and Suspense
	 BBC & Suspense
	 William Conrad
	 Address
	 Carl Amari  3-24-96 Shadow program
	 Lets Travel
	 Conrad and Suspense
	
	 RealAudio

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

Date: Tue, 26 Mar 1996 12:07:50 -0500
From: FabFicBks@[removed]
To: otr@[removed]
Subject: Bobby Benson, taped shows & etc
Message-ID: <960326120749_455239892@[removed]>

Hi Everybody,
     Thanks to all who mentioned and responded to the querry about Bobby
Benson.  The two shows I have had for many years are "the Three Wise Monkeys"
and "The Face of Jabakia" (or however that might be spelled).  Several people
responded that they had one or the other of those shows, but only one lead
developed to a source who may have five or six more.  I hope so, I really
liked that show in the early fifties, and even into the middle and late
fifties when it turned mostly into a talk and music program.
     Max mentioned that he believes the reason that many radio shows from the
fifties produced on tape have not survived is that the cost of tape was high
and it was easy to recycle the tape.  This makes some sense, and it might
have been true in some cases, but I'm not so sure this is really the
situation for the majority of taped radio programs.
     First, considering the production costs of most radio shows, the cost of
tape was not a significant factor.  It might have been slightly more
expensive than cutting a virgin transcription disk, but not very much more.
 In addition, the advantage of tape was that if a mistake was made during the
taping, the cast could stop, redo the lines and continue right on from the
point the error was made without stopping the tape at all.
     At the end of the taping session the director might have the actors redo
a scene if he was not satisfied with it, tape still running mind you, and
after it was all over and done with the tape editor/director would sit down
with a sharp razor blade and a splicing frame and simpily cut out the bad
parts and splice the tape together until the final product was as it should
be, and that version was then aired.
     By the time the finished tape was done it might have a hundred splices
in it, and was cut down to fit the specific length needed for half hour or
whatever the proper broadcast time might have been.  Nobody used pause
editing, and nobody bothered to tape over bad parts of any show performance,
they used marks with chalk, and cut with razor blades until the final product
was comple and satisfactory.
     There may have been some supersisition that taping over parts of a
master tape would produce an echo effect or background, which is why splicing
was always used.
     My understanding is that the master tape was run off a large spool
covering (for a half hour show let's say) about an hour and a half's worth of
tape, or even more, in case there were many problems and many retakes.  From
this large hub of tape the final version emerged a day or two or three days
later, ready to broadcast.
     There would be no realistic way to tape over that show and use the tape
again unless the actors for the next show turned in a perfectly timed,
absolutely accurate broadcast quality program that wouldn't run over the
length of that already cut and spliced tape.
     In addition, many of those taped shows were probably saved to be
recycled for syndication, Armed Forces broadcasts, Canadian or other country
broadcasts, not to mention copies for ad agencies, copyright purposes or
whatever.
     My point is that there should be a bunch of this stuff around.  I don't
think recycling the tapes was what happened to those old shows.  They may
have been tossed out, or recycled by other personnel to put music onto for a
private collection, or something, but I find it hard to believe that some of
this stuff isn't sitting around somewhere waiting to be discovered and
enjoyed.  I certainly hope so anyway.
     On another subject, prices on old radio premiums may never be
stabilisized.  The prices in the Tomart premium catalog were off the day they
were printed.  As the author clearly stated in his foreward info, the value
of a radio premium depends entirely on what someone is willing to pay for it,
not rariety, not how nifty it is, or anything else.
     Many great premiums go for little or nothing because there is no demand
for the things, and many premiums that dealers (particularly grasping,
greedy, evil and satanic antique toy dealers, with whom I come in contact
quite often, spawn of the devil each and every one, thank you) believe are
worth a mineature fortune, sit unsold year after year because nobody in his
right mind will pay the ridiculious price they have on the item(s).
     Considering that the number of people who collect premium as vs the
number who collect and enjoy otradio is rather small, it would seem that the
laws of supply and demand ought to hold sway, but alas, very often they do
[removed] case.

---Bob Jennings

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

Date: 26 Mar 96 12:10:51 EST
From: Lee Levan <[removed]@[removed]>
To: Airwaves <otr@[removed]>
Subject: Hake's and radio premium prices
Message-ID: <[removed]@[removed]>

Hello all -

Several issues back, I mentioned an upcoming Hake's guide to character
collectibles which will contain some radio premium reference information.  At
least a couple of posters since have indicated that the prices are likely to be
above market,  judging from (I'm paraphrasing) the prices Hake's charges.
  
I feel the need to offer a mild defense of Hake's here (I suppose in order to
justify my hoping the guide will contain useful pricing information).  Hake's,
as far as I know, has no retail outlet (they used to participate in some
antiques and collectibles shows, but I haven't seen them there for several
years). What they do is run a mail-in and phone auction.  In their catalog, they
publish a predicted range for the winning bid for each item.  I try to keep a
fairly close eye on the radio premiums and those predictions are usually pretty
accurate.  Hake's publishes a followup list of items which fail to reach their
minimum projected bid and seldom is a desirable radio premium among them.  So it
seems to that while Hake's does realize high prices for their radio premiums,
those prices are not above market, but are, by definition, market prices.

Anyway,  that's my understanding of the situation; I welcome comments or
corrections.

Lee Levan 
[removed]@[removed]

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

Date: Tue, 26 Mar 1996 11:55:51 -0600
From: bensmanm@[removed] (Marvin R. Bensman)
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: KDKA Recreation
Message-id: <v01540b01ad7dde1a4e10@[[removed]]>

>There has been some debate as to whether this recording [1920 excerpt of
>KDKA] >is orginal or a recreation, anyone know for sure?
>
>Bill Harris

It is most definitely a recreation as there was at the time no thought nor
useful way to record off-the-air material. It was not until abouut 1923-24
that some methods were devised to record material of performances.
Remember, that electrical recording did not take place until radio began to
develop as the two technologies went hand in hand.

Also, the accuracy of the recreation is also in doubt among scholars of
radio history. The wording is a bit unusual for "the first broadcast."

Westinghouse knew about who was listening as it was former military-trained
wireless operators, a few people who had bought sets at Horne Dept. store
and a number of male children who were into wireless (Scout badge, etc.)
plus those few folks they had given sets to for the event. Probably a bit
up to a thousand or so.

The reason KDKA got such good national publicity was the deal they worked
out with the Pittsburg Post to cover the story. After all, Westinghouse was
a big advertiser in the area. The Detroit News did not get picked up by
most newspapers for the same program stunt as they were a newspaper so why
would any other newspapers print something that led to the question, why
didn't you do that.

************************************************************************
*Professor Marvin R. Bensman, [removed], [removed]                              *
*Department of Communication; Office Phone: (901) 678-3174 or 678-2565 *
*University of Memphis        Fax: (901) 678-4331                      *
*Memphis, TN 38152                                                     *
*E-mail: BensmanM@[removed]                                       *
*
*
* See: [removed]  *

************************************************************************

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

Date: Tue, 26 Mar 1996 13:19:07 -0500 (EST)
From: SAH@[removed]
To: otr@[removed]
Subject: Museum of Radio & TV, LA
Message-id: <01I2SNQ7E7JM8X0703@[removed]>

     Its been a few weeks since the west coast edition of the Museum of
     Radio & TV has been open in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles.  Has anyone
     been in for a visit and if so able to make a report?  

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

Date: Tue, 26 Mar 96 15:40 CST
From: JeffM@[removed] (Jeff Miller)
To: otr@[removed]
Subject: Re: first radio broadcast
Message-Id: <m0u1gU4-000Y4QC@[removed]>

Regarding the KDKA 1920 broadcast, Bill Harris wrote:

>There has been some debate as to whether this recording is original
>or a recreation, anyone know for sure?

The recording was aired in a report on the CBS Evening News at the
time of KDKA's 50th anniversary, and the on-screen caption indicated
it was 1930 re-creation.

The re-creation may be somewhat inaccurate since it uses the phrase
"this broadcast," whereas it is doubtful the word "broadcast" would
have been used as a noun in this sense in 1920.  Also, there is some
question over whether the broadcast went out under the call KDKA or
8ZZ.

This does raise the question of what is in fact the oldest surviving
radio aircheck.  I believe that someone here a while back suggested
it was a Harding speech.  I am not sure which speech he was referring
to; it could have been in 1922 or 1923.  If, however, Harding's
speech was broadcast and recorded on-site, one could argue that this
was not really an air check.

There's a brief recording around which is supposed to be from WEAF's
8/28/22 advertisement for the Queensboro Corporation, sometimes
considered to be the first radio commercial.  To me the tape sounds
like a re-creation, but that is only a hunch on my part.

Jeff Miller
part-time, WGUL Tampa-St. Petersburg
full-time, Gulf High School, New Port Richey, FL

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

Date: Tue, 26 Mar 1996 15:41:16 -0600
From: John Henley <jhenley@[removed]>
To: otr@[removed], [removed]@[removed]
Subject: W. Cooper, E. Chappell
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>

Mike Hamm asked,
>I really like the show "Quiet, Please".  Does anyone have any information
>on Willis Cooper (writer) or Ernest Chappel (star)?

Turning again to the handy-dandy collected Variety obits, I glean the following:

Wyllis Cooper - born 1898 or 99.  With NBC Chicago, 1930.  Originated
"Lights Out."  Screenwriter for Universal and Fox, 1936-40:  credits
include Son of Frankenstein, Mr. Moto Takes a Chance.  
Briefly manager of radio dept., Compton Advertising Co., NYC.  During WW2,
special consultant to Sec'y of War; wrote and directed "The Army Hour."
Entered TV 1949 with "Escape" (writer?).  1951, produced and directed
"Stage 13" for CBS.
Wrote for Radio Free Europe.  Died "after long illness" in High Bridge, NJ,
6/22/55.

Ernest Chappell:  his obit is short, so I'll quote it.
"Ernest Chappell, 80, veteran radio and television announcer, died July 4
[1983] in North Palm Beach, Fla., after suffering a stroke last month.  He
was known as the spokesman for Pall Mall cigarets for 27 years.
"Chappell was also host and star of 'Quiet Please,' a radio mystery series
in 1947-48."

I can add that like many other radio actors, Chappell sometimes appeared as
a supporting actor on the Perry Mason TV show.

John Henley
jhenley@[removed]
ph  (512) 495-4112
fax (512) 495-4296

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

Date: Tue, 26 Mar 1996 22:17:08 GMT
From: bilj@[removed] (Bill Jaker)
To: [removed]@[removed]
Cc: billhar@[removed]
Subject: That KDKA 1920 recording
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>

In our last adventure, Bill Harris again raised the question of whether the 
recording of Leo H. Rosenberg delivering the election returns over KDKA is 
an actual "aircheck" from 1920.  It most likely is not, since there was no 
good means of electrical recording available at the time (darn!).  My guess 
-- and this is only a guess, but maybe it will help -- is that it may date 
from the year 1940.  On the 20th anniversary of KDKA's election night 
program, NBC invited Rosenberg to participate in the reporting of the 
Roosevelt-Willkie race.  The recording -- which everybody now seems to have 
heard -- may have been done for that event.  I think it even  more likely 
that KDKA itself recorded it many years after the fact.

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

Date: Tue, 26 Mar 1996 18:14:06 -0500
From: Jim Widner <jwidner@[removed]>
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: BBC and Suspense
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>

>Regarding drama on BBC, I am especially interested in a series called
"Appointment With Fear".  
>John Dickson Carr wrote a lot of the scripts, and some were rebroadcast in
America on "Suspense". 
> Some of these shows were: Menace In Wax, The Body Snatchers, The Bride
[removed] the list goes 
>on and on.  However, there were a number of "Appointment With Fear"
episodes that were only heard 
>on the BBC.  Some of these were: The Dragon in the Pool (Feb-3-44), The Man
Who Was Afraid of 
>Dentists (Feb-10-44).  There were lots others.  
>

I don't believe these are re-broadcasts on Suspense. The series always used
its own 
actors and productions, though it might have used the same scripts.  

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

                                                 

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

Date: Tue, 26 Mar 1996 18:15:33 -0500
From: Jim Widner <jwidner@[removed]>
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: BBC & Suspense
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>

>Regarding drama on BBC, I am especially interested in a series called
"Appointment With Fear".  
>John Dickson Carr wrote a lot of the scripts, and some were rebroadcast in
America on "Suspense". 
> Some of these shows were: Menace In Wax, The Body Snatchers, The Bride
[removed] the list goes 
>on and on.  However, there were a number of "Appointment With Fear"
episodes that were only heard 
>on the BBC.  Some of these were: The Dragon in the Pool (Feb-3-44), The Man
Who Was Afraid of 
>Dentists (Feb-10-44).  There were lots others.  
>

Forgot to mention in my previous post that there is a biography of
John Dickson Carr in which it talks about his writing for Suspense.
It does not mention that these were first written for BBC then 
imported over.

Can't remember the name of the book, however.

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

                                                 

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

Date: Tue, 26 Mar 1996 18:24:38 -0500
From: Jim Widner <jwidner@[removed]>
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: William Conrad
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>

Marty Dzik (marty_dzik@[removed]) wrote:

>Does anybody know how many Suspense shows that William Conrad starred in? And
>a listing of those?
>
>I'm sure many of you will agree that William Conrad has to be at the top of
>the list of great radio voices.
>

According to my Suspense log from Randy Eidemiller and Chris Lembesis, Conrad
appeared in a starring role 16 times. As to the actual shows, I'd have to go
through their whole log to find out all of them.

Other interesting stats from this log on Suspense:

Male actor starring most often: Herbert Marshall
Female actor starring most often: Agnes Moorehead
Actor who appeared most often: Joseph Kearns

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

                                                 

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

Date: Tue, 26 Mar 1996 18:40:22 -0500
From: Jim Widner <jwidner@[removed]>
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Address
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>

Sorry to take up space on the digest with this, but
since my hard drive crashed sometime back, I lost the
email address for Tom Miller who publishes the OTR
Gazette.  I really need to get ahold of him.

Email me privately.  Thanks, and sorry to do this via
the digest.

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

                                                 

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

Date: Tue, 26 Mar 1996 19:50:32 -0500
From: VernSchroe@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Carl Amari  3-24-96 Shadow program
Message-ID: <960326195032_362797871@[removed]>

Hi all,

Did anyone in the Chicago area get a copy of Carl Amari's last sunday night
program on the Shadow on tape?  Due either my goof-up or my recorders I did
not get a recording of it!  Being a Shadow collector, I would like to obtain
a copy. Thanks.

Vern

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

Date: Tue, 26 Mar 1996 16:27:52 -0600 (CST)
From: mcmahon@[removed] (Jim McMahon)
To: wdp@[removed]
Subject: Lets Travel
Message-Id: <m0u1hDU-00030fC@[removed]>

Am looking for the Duncan Hines Radio Show "Let's Travel" aired on the 
Mutual NEtwork (1952-1958).  If someone has i contact Louis B. Hatchett, 
Jr. 1220 Taransay, Henderson, Ky  42420  (502) 827-3878

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

Date: Wed, 24 Jan 1996 08:48:55 +0500
From: cbholm@[removed] (chris holm)
To: otr@[removed]
Subject: Conrad and Suspense
Message-Id: <[removed]@[removed]>

>Does anybody know how many Suspense shows that William Conrad starred in? And
>a listing of those?

Marty Dzik

[removed] just about every single episode in the fifties.  Well, it seems like
that at least.  Besides the work with Gunsmoke, Conrad seems to have been a
CBS stable [removed] he shows up in Suspense, Escape, [removed]  I have a set of
60 Suspense episodes (the one in the radio spirits catalog) from '53 to '55
and Conrad is listed as starring in about ten of them, and I remember
hearing his voice in bit parts more often then that.  

chris holm

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

Date: Tue, 26 Mar 96 18:04 PST
From: lois@[removed] (Lois Culver)
To: otr@[removed]
Message-Id: <m0u1kbT-0004jkC@[removed]>

Date: Mon, 25 Mar 1996 23:21:11 -0500 (EST)
From: BOBFABRIS@[removed]
To: otr@[removed]
Subject: A'n'A lodge
Message-id: <01I2RUFQVXTE9BZ48A@[removed]>

The 'boys' around the neighborhood where Amos and Andy lived belonged to
a fraternal lodge, "The Mystic Knights of the Sea".  We know that the
boss of the lodge, the "King Fish" was George Stevens.  Also, that one
occasionally invoked the "Holy Mackeral".  Any more info?  I can't
remember - its been so long [removed]

One that was memorable to me:  Andy, in his office, set up a buzzer which
was to go to his secretary in the outer office, when he needed her.
Accidentally it got set up backwards, and only worked the other way around.
When Andy wanted his secretary to come into his office, he'd yell, "Buzz me,
Miss Blue!"

Lois Culver
Grants Pass Oregon

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

Date: Tue, 26 Mar 96 21:18:00 -0500
From: Gene/Pennie Bauman <genepen@[removed]>
To: "OTR (Write)" <[removed]@[removed]>
Subject: RealAudio
Message-Id: 03175753702336@[removed]

-- [ From: Gene/Pennie Bauman * [removed] #[removed] ] --

Have you read the help in the RA group? You might also try http://www.
[removed]

My brief experience has produced varied results, from not very good to quite
good, depending on the source, but RA doesn't sound as good as .au or .wav.
However, it does have the advantage of being able to play in real time.

I upgraded from RA [removed] to the beta version of [removed] From what they (the RA
people) say, [removed] won't have all the abilities that it would if I had
Windows95 (I have Win [removed] on a 486DX2/66) and it seems to work at least as
well as [removed], maybe better. When I had RA [removed], I added a line to my system.
ini file as they suggested, and that may help,too. I also increased my
buffer size from 6k to 8k and that seemed to help (they say be careful
increasing your buffer size, or the computer may overload). 

One problem that I do have is that it stops playing after a while, on the
continuous feed. Also, time of day seems to make a difference - when not in
prime time, it works better.

Does any of this make any sense? I notice I used a lot of maybes in the
foregoing, but as I said, I haven't done much checking out of sites yet.
Maybe (that word again!) someone more experienced can remark on what I said.

Gene

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

    


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---- 
End of [removed] Digest V96 Issue #113

