Subject: [removed] Digest V2003 #2
From: "OldRadio Mailing Lists" <[removed]@[removed];
Date: 1/2/2003 6:40 AM

To: <[removed]@[removed];

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

                                The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                                  Volume 2003 : Issue 2
                             A Part of the [removed]!
                                     ISSN: 1533-9289

                                     Today's Topics:

      Imagination Theatre                   [ lawrence albert <albertlarry@yahoo. ]
      MUSICAL PROGRAMS                      [ "Henry R. Hinkel" <hinkel@[removed] ]
      Words at War: a critical review--cor  [ Howard Blue <khovard@[removed]; ]
      WCBS breaking format                  [ "Ed Ellers" <ed_ellers@[removed]; ]
      2003 anniversaries                    [ Bill Jaker <bilj@[removed]; ]
      Hank Williams a ham?                  [ EdHowell@[removed] ]
      Re: Young People                      [ "Alan R. Betz" <abetz@[removed]; ]
      Hop Harrigan and Ted Osborne          [ "Don Frey" <alanladdsr@[removed] ]
      Re: Long running OTR shows            [ "MICHAEL BIEL" <mbiel@[removed]; ]
      Long-running Paul Harvey News         [ "Philip Chavin" <philchav@[removed] ]
      Re: Hank's Last Night                 [ John Mayer <mayer@[removed]; ]
      First radio broadacst of Rose Bowl    [ "Jim Hilliker" <jimhilliker@sbcglob ]
      Long running OTR shows                [ "Andrew Godfrey" <niteowl049@[removed] ]
      long running radio shows still on     [ leonardfass@[removed] (Leonard Fass ]
      "Happy Birthday To You"               [ "A. Joseph Ross" <lawyer@attorneyro ]

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

    Date: Wed, 1 Jan 2003 15:29:30 -0500
    From: lawrence albert <albertlarry@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Imagination Theatre

     Henry Howard wrote:

>     Imagination Theatre is written by Jack French and
>     usually produced
>     by Jack or his wife Pat.

    Ok, here we go again. Jack French has nothing to do
    with Imagination Theatre, The Show is produced By Jim
    French (no relation) and for the most part directed by
    Pat French.

>     The series has been on the air at least since 1996,
>     producing
>     a weekly show.  Some are studio productions, others
>     are recorded
>     before a live audience.

    This is correct. The shows are not old time radio and
    all of the commercials are new. Both Imagination
    Theatre and the series that appear under that umbrella
    title are under full copyright and can only be sold by
    authorized dealers.

    See [removed]

>     In addition to stand alone programs, IT has produced
>     series that
>     include:
>     Test Drive, Peggy Delaney, Midnight Cab,  Flynn,
>     Becker, Harry Nile.

     Well one out six is pretty bad. Of the shows
    mentioned above only Harry Nile ia a regular feature
    on Imagination Theatre. Where Mr. Howard came up with
    the others I haven't any idea. The other regular
    features outside of the stand alones are, Kincaid, The
    Strangseeker, The Further Adventures of Sherlock
    Holmes, Dameron and Call Simon Walker.

>     You can hear 2 or more hours a day on XM Radio, or
>     find a station
>     that carries it weekly.

    As far as I know this is correct. For information
    about Imagination Theatre go to the web site mentioned
    above or go to [removed].
           Wishing everyone a grand New Year.
               Larry Albert
               Associate Producer/Operations Manager
               (ain't titles great)
               Jim French Productions

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

    Date: Wed, 1 Jan 2003 15:41:55 -0500
    From: "Henry R. Hinkel" <hinkel@[removed];
    To: "Old Time Radio Digest" <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  MUSICAL PROGRAMS

    For Tim Lones  --  Re:  Tennessee Ernie Ford

    You will find a list of 24 Tennessee Ernie Ford 15-minute shows from 1952 at
    [removed]#3725
    Guests on his shows were Molly Bee, Sue Thompson, Buckey Tibbs, Lou Dinning
    and others.

    For Andrew Godfrey  --  Re:  Live Remotes

    You can listen to over 80 Big Band live remote sound clips at The Big Bands
    and Other OTR Music Bulletin Board at Lou Genco's Old Time Radio Website at
    [removed]
    These sound clips are opening announcements and part of the first musical
    number in the program.

    For Neal Ellis  --  Re:  World's Fair 1964

    Go to  [removed]#0725
    There are 10 Guy Lombardo remotes from the World's Fair in 1964 listed as
    well as broadcasts from the Hotel Roosevelt and The Riverboat in New York,
    Tierra Verde, Florida and The Tropicana in Las Vegas.

    Hank Hinkel

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

    Date: Wed, 1 Jan 2003 15:42:11 -0500
    From: Howard Blue <khovard@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Words at War: a critical review--corrected
     web site address

    This is a correction of a message that included a faulty web site
    address:

    To see Professor Tim Crook's (Media & Communications Dept., Goldsmiths'
    College, Univ. of London.) review of "Words at War," the first full
    critical review of the book, see
    [removed];L=radio-studies&T=0&F=&S=&P=58

    Professor Crook does not say so, but the book is available directly from
    me at a discount below the publisher's price.

    Howard Blue

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

    Date: Wed, 1 Jan 2003 15:56:39 -0500
    From: "Ed Ellers" <ed_ellers@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  WCBS breaking format

    Mark Kinsler <kinsler33@[removed]; wrote:

>     After I moved to New Haven CT in 1971, I kept the radio in Kinsler Hi-Fi
>     Service tuned to WCBS in New York.  Its all-news format was still quite new
>     at the [removed]

    IIRC it started in 1967.

>     Thus it was a bit odd to hear the heavy-duty news people cut away every
>     morning for the opening trombone theme of Arthur Godfrey, howayuh, howayuh,
>     etc.  It was thus a sad day when the show ended.

    Something else that WCBS continued to do for a while was an overnight music
    program, simulcast with WCBS-FM (*some* AM/FM simulcasting was still
    allowed).  But, a few years later, WCBS refused to break away for CBS Radio
    Mystery Theater, so the network placed that show on WOR instead.

>     WCBS still runs in its original format.  It's now owned by Infinity or
>     someone like that.

    Infinity, which is owned by Viacom, which also owns CBS and Paramount.
    Viacom placed the CBS owned radio stations under Infinity to have one group
    of radio stations rather than two, and placed UPN and the Paramount-owned TV
    stations under CBS for the same reason.  (The other big all-news station in
    New York, WINS -- which actually went to all-news a couple of years before
    WCBS -- became part of CBS when Westinghouse bought CBS in the mid-1990s,
    and is an Infinity station today, yet still goes head-to-head against WCBS
    as an all-news station, as do KFWB and KNX in Los Angeles.)

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

    Date: Wed, 1 Jan 2003 16:41:00 -0500
    From: Bill Jaker <bilj@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  2003 anniversaries

    This year will see many important anniversaries in radio history.

    The year 2003 is the 110th anniversary of the broadcasting industry.
    Yes, something we could identify as broadcasting actually predates the
    invention of radio.  In 1893 the Telefon-Hirmondo (Telephone Herald)
    began operation on phone lines in Budapest, Hungary.  This "cable radio"
    operated about 12 hours a day with regular news broadcasts, stock
    reports, sports scores, coverage of the Hungarian Parliament, talks by
    literary figures, concerts and children's programs.  It was commercially
    supported and lasted till about World War I.  Telefon-Hirmondo might not
    have sounded different from today's radio broadcasting, except that
    before the invention of electronic amplification the announcers - or
    "stentors", as they were called - needed to speak so loudly that their
    vocal chords could only endure twenty-minute shifts.

    It's the 100th anniversary of the first wireless communication between
    the United States and Great Britain.  On 18 January 1903 the Marconi
    station at Wellfleet, on Cape Cod, carried greetings to King Edward from
    President Theodore Roosevelt.  This will be commemorated this month by
    amateur stations W1AA and KM1CC, and you can find out how to tune in by
    going to: [removed]

    This year is the 80th anniversary of the start of network radio in the
    United States.  On 4 January 1923 station WEAF in New York - then owned
    by AT&T - fed a three-hour musical program to WNAC in Boston.  In July
    of that year a permanent line was established between WEAF and WMAF in
    Round Hills, Massachusetts.  The rest is history, and also a lot of
    geography.

    2003 is the 70th anniversary of CBS News.  Despite objections from
    newspaper interests, the Columbia News Bureau was established in
    September of 1933 to gather and report each day's events.  Under the
    direction of Paul White, with Robert Trout as the principal news
    announcer, Columbia became "The News Network", airing three five minute
    newscasts a day.

    This is the 60th anniversary of the American Broadcasting Company - or,
    what would become ABC following the 1943 sale of the NBC Blue Network.
    The details of that transaction have been discussed recently on these
    screens.  While World War 2 was raging it was impossible to buy enough
    equipment to construct facilities for the new network, so ABC programs
    originated alongside NBC's at Radio City until the late 40s.

    A very happy, healthy and peaceful New Year to you all, with lots of
    good listening.
                                           --Bill Jaker

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

    Date: Wed, 1 Jan 2003 16:57:06 -0500
    From: EdHowell@[removed]
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Hank Williams a ham?

    Does anyone know if Hank Williams, Sr. was an amateur radio operator? In 1950
    or so I used to have cw contacts with a Hank Williams who was located in
    Verbena, Alabama. I wish I had kept his QSL card because I have always
    wondered if he was THE Hank Williams. By strange coincidence the Hank I QSOed
    with was not heard after Hank Williams's death. Until a few years ago we had
    a Hank Williams, Sr birthday bash every year at an isolated state park in the
    peedee area of South Carolina. We had maybe 50-60 members, all devoted Hank
    fans. We had a pig picking and a lot of music by those who thought they
    sounded like old Hank. We even had a Hank Williams look-alike contest.
    Devotees came from as far away as Georgia and some had extensive Hank
    Williams literature, clippings, posters, etc. There was a newspaper item that
    showed Hank Williams with connections to Verbena, Alabama but nothing could
    be found to prove that he was a ham radio operator. Maybe someone on this
    list knows. Our Hank Williams, Sr. birthday bash ended as old timers passed
    away.

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

    Date: Thu, 2 Jan 2003 08:14:41 -0500
    From: "Alan R. Betz" <abetz@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: Young People

    Happy New Year all!
      I'm just catching up with the last few weeks of Digests and wanted to
    respond to a post by Don Strong <donsplace@[removed]; from 19
    December, 2002:

>     At about the same time I discovered Jack Cullen on CKNW.

    <At that [removed]

>     Unfortunatly, there isn't any OTR on CKNW anymore.  I suspect that Mr.
>     Cullen is no longer with us.

      Not quite true, although it might as well be.  Jack did indeed pass
    away last year (2002), but there still is OTR on CKNW.  Seven nights a
    week, from midnight to 3 AM OTR shows can be heard.  That is, if you
    don't mind that virtually all openings and closings have been removed.
    CKNW's FM sister station, CFMI, FM [removed] plays complete OTR shows, often
    in remarkably good sound, on Sunday nights from 10 PM to midnight.
      Regards to everyone, Alan.

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

    Date: Thu, 2 Jan 2003 08:15:06 -0500
    From: "Don Frey" <alanladdsr@[removed];
    To: "otr message" <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  Hop Harrigan and Ted Osborne

    Stephen Kallis was commenting on Hop Harrigan. My son gave me for Christmas
    a lobby card of Chapter 5 of a Hop Harrigan serial titled "Hop Harrigan" and
    the episode is "Betrayed By a Madman" (Charlie kicked someone off the digest
    again?) I was wondering if the serial is available. This lobby card
    identifies it as a "Columbia Serial
    Reprint, 1956) which I guess means the lobby card is not original, or the
    serial has been
    re-released or both. Anyhow, does anyone know if one can purchase the Hop
    Harrigan serial anywhere?

    Also, does anyone know if Ted Osborne and Reynold Osborne are related, the
    same
    person or just two radio actors named Osborne.

    Thanks, Don Frey

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

    Date: Thu, 2 Jan 2003 08:14:14 -0500
    From: "MICHAEL BIEL" <mbiel@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: Long running OTR shows

    From: "Andrew Godfrey" <niteowl049@[removed];

>     So the Metropolitan Opera doubles the length of The Breakfast Club
>     by being on air for 72 years as of the first of 2003.

    There is a difference.  The Breakfast Club was on daily 52 weeks a year and
    was produced specifically for radio broadcast.  The Met is seasonal and is
    only on the air once a week for about 16 to 20 weeks a year.  It is a
    broadcast of an event that is not specifically produced for the broadcast
    and would be happening anyway.  The Grand Ole Opry (not mentioned here)
    predates the Met's broadcasts by 6 years (counting when it was called the
    WSM Barn Dance), and although it is also on the air only once a week, it is
    produced especially for broadcast and is on 52 weeks a year.  Some people
    might argue that the Opry also produces non-broadcast productions such as
    the Friday Nite Opry, and that the regular program on Sat would probably
    also exist even if not broadcast.  Well, the Met also has many
    non-broadcast performances during its limited season, but it was well
    established long before broadcasting and the broadcasts only help spread
    its fame just a little.  On the other hand, the Opry started as a
    non-audience studio broadcast and gets ALL its fame from the weekly
    broadcasts.

    So I think the Met broadcasts are in a different category from either The
    Breakfast Club or the Grand Ole Opry.

    Michael Biel  mbiel@[removed]

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

    Date: Thu, 2 Jan 2003 08:25:05 -0500
    From: "Philip Chavin" <philchav@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Long-running Paul Harvey News

        Andrew G. posted recently:

>     "It seems like he [Paul Harvey] has been on
>     radio since I was born in 1944."

        He has, Andrew, he has!  'Paul Harvey and the News' began on WENR
    Chicago in 1944 (by August).  The 11/26/50 starting date for Harvey given in
    John Dunning's book, for example, apparently refers to the coast-to-coast
    network version.

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

    Date: Thu, 2 Jan 2003 08:26:34 -0500
    From: John Mayer <mayer@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Re: Hank's Last Night

    "timl2002" <timl2002@[removed]; commented:

>      It was actually said that Hank [Williams] was on his way from a
>     performance in
>      Tennesee and that he died in Oak Hill,  West Virginia on his way to Canton,
>      Ohio to perform at the Memorial Auditorium on Jan. 1, 1953 . ...
>      If interested, here's a link to the story:

    [removed];Category=11&fromSearch=yes

    Well, people said all kinds of things about Hank's death, and the
    circumstances surrounding his death were certainly a bit outre, but
    his family believes he died in Knoxville. His car was stopped by a
    state trooper, Swann Kitts, in Blaine a few miles east of Knoxville
    for reckless driving. Officer Kitts asked the driver if his passenger
    might be dead as he was pale and blue looking. Assured by the driver
    (a teenager named Carr) that he was just passed out drunk, Kitts
    didn't pursue the matter, but later concluded, after being assigned
    to investigate the matter (unusual in itself as he was also a
    witness), that Williams had, indeed, been dead at the time.

    Williams had not performed in Tennesse but in Alabama for The
    American Federation of Musicians, a group said to have been mostly
    jazz players. He was scheduled to perform on New Years' Eve in
    Charleston, WV, but, due to bad weather and his own ill health,
    canceled his flight there and decided to ride with Carr who was to
    have driven his car for him to his next gig in Canton. He had been in
    bad health all that day, and a doctor had been summoned to treat his
    convulsions; he reportedly gave him morphine, possibly not the only
    dose of that drug he'd had that day. Someone decided to start the
    drive on New Year's Eve; apparently Carr dressed Hank and got two
    porters at the Andrew Johnson hotel to carry him to his car, where he
    was placed in the back seat. BTW, Knoxville acquired the reputation
    of a jinxed town among performers. Rachmoninoff died not long after
    performing in Knoxville, a performance that proved to be his last,
    and staying at the same hotel, and Emelia Earhart disappeared within
    a year after staying there (well, it doesn't take much to get a good
    superstition going). Carr finally became concerned about Hank's
    extended silence near Oak Hill, WV, and sought medical assistance
    there. One medical examiner estimated Hank had been dead about six
    hours; another remarked it appeared he'd been beaten. Carr claimed he
    had heard Hank speak a few words during the trip, but he might have
    been trying to conceal the fact that he had been foolish enough
    (assuming nothing more sinister) to dress up a dead man and take him
    for a ride.

    Most of this information I got from an article in Knoxville's
    alternative (and superior) newspaper _Metro Pulse_, from an article
    by Knoxville historian Jack Neely. The article does not seem yet to
    have been placed in their archives, but the URL for their search page
    is [removed] ; possibly they will post the
    story after the holidays. I was wrong about one thing: the Knoxville
    radio station that Hank is said to have occasionally performed for
    was not WNOX (which Mr. Jim Hilliker and by way of him, Mr. Thomas H.
    White, have informed me is not, after all, the 10th or 12th station
    in the country as locals often claim, but which might be the 150th
    oldest) but WROL, on _Tennessee Hayloft_, a program sponsored and
    hosted by colorful local politician, grocer and showman Cas Walker,
    the man who gave such notables as Dolly Parton their starts in
    Country Music. The late Mr. Walker said that Hank had said he would
    stop by for something of an impromptu performance that day, and that
    he had done so on other occasions, but that he never showed up.
    --

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

    Date: Thu, 2 Jan 2003 08:31:36 -0500
    From: "Jim Hilliker" <jimhilliker@[removed];
    To: <[removed]@[removed];
    Subject:  First radio broadacst of Rose Bowl

    Hi everyone!

    Regarding the item for January 1st from Joe Mackey about the annual Rose
    Bowl football game from Pasadena, CA and the first time it was broadcast
    over the radio:

    I thought I was the only one, or one of the few, who knew that the first
    radio broadcast of the Rose Bowl football game was on January 1, 1923, over
    station KHJ in Los [removed] game was USC vs. Penn [removed]

    You say this came from Those Were The Days?  I wonder where they got this
    from?

    You see, about 4 or 5 years ago, I found this by accident in the Los Angeles
    Times, and then told the folks at the Tournament of Roses in Pasadena about
    it!  They did not know that this was the FIRST Rose Bowl on radio, as they
    had previously thought the 1926 game on station KPSN-Pasadena (Pasadena
    Star-News) was the first Rose Bowl radio [removed], they thanked me for
    sending them this important new information, which corrected what they had
    about the subject.

    Also, the Los Angeles Almanac has credited me for also for coming up with
    the date, 1-1-23 of the first Rose Bowl on radio on [removed] too only had
    the 1-1-1926 game over KPSN as the first time the New Years Day game was
    [removed] of you probably also know that the first national
    broadcast of the Rose Bowl was on NBC on Jan. 1, 1927, using the remote
    broadcast equipment of Los Angeles NBC affiliate KFI.

    January 1, 1923 may also have been the very first time any football game was
    broadcast on a Los Angeles radio station, but I need to research that
    [removed] today is the 80th Anniversary of that broadcast on
    then-500-watt KHJ, The Los Angeles Times [removed]

    Also, I have copies of letters sent by DXers or distant radio listeners in
    the midwest and [removed] were picking up the 1-1-23 Rose Bowl game as
    it got dark back east!  But, they didn't hear the station ID for [removed],
    they mailed the reception report letters to a small Pasadena radio station
    that was off the air at the time!  They were trying to comfirm if this
    Pasadena station, KLB, was carrying the Rose Bowl at the time!  But KLB was
    off the air all [removed] to read those [removed]

    So, I checked in the [removed] Times of Jan. 1, 1923 to find that the Rose Bowl
    was carried over KHJ, and KLB was off the air that day.  This was back in
    1997 or 1998 that I discovered this information.

    Jim

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

    Date: Thu, 2 Jan 2003 08:25:15 -0500
    From: "Andrew Godfrey" <niteowl049@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  Long running OTR shows

      Thanks for telling of more long running shows. It is very interesting to
    know especially the one about the lady on the air since 1941 and the Mormon
    Tabernacle Choir since 1929.
    Andrew

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

    Date: Thu, 2 Jan 2003 08:26:58 -0500
    From: leonardfass@[removed] (Leonard Fass)
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  long running radio shows still on

    amending a note: the metropolitan opera is available live. and only
    live. some of that stations that carry it are npr. some arte not. the
    show is not as old as the posting seems to indicate. the current
    broadcast season started in december. most broadcasts start a 1:30 est.

    [removed]

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

    Date: Thu, 2 Jan 2003 08:34:58 -0500
    From: "A. Joseph Ross" <lawyer@[removed];
    To: [removed]@[removed]
    Subject:  "Happy Birthday To You"

>     Date: Tue, 31 Dec 2002 15:51:38 -0500
>     From: Joe Mackey <joemackey108@[removed];

>     One of the most popular songs to be played was Happy Birthday to You;
>     which was performed in many different languages just to get past the
>     ban. The original song is now, in fact, a copyrighted piece of music,
>     though it wasn't at the time.

    At the risk of starting up a copyright discussion again, it is not posible
    for a piece of music
    to become copyrighted after it has been in the public domain.  So far as I
    know, the song
    (originally written as 'Good Morning To You") has always been copyrighted.

    --
    A. Joseph Ross, [removed]                           [removed]
     15 Court Square, Suite 210                 lawyer@[removed]
    Boston, MA 02108-2503           	         [removed]

    --------------------------------
    End of [removed] Digest V2003 Issue #2
    *******************************************

    Copyright [removed] Communications, York, PA; All Rights Reserved,
      including republication in any form.

    If you enjoy this list, please consider financially supporting it:
       [removed]

    For Help: [removed]@[removed]

    To Unsubscribe: [removed]@[removed]

    To Subscribe: [removed]@[removed]
      or see [removed]

    For Help with the Archive Server, send the command ARCHIVE HELP
      in the SUBJECT of a message to [removed]@[removed]

    To contact the listmaster, mail to listmaster@[removed]

    To Send Mail to the list, simply send to [removed]@[removed]