Subject: [removed] Digest V01 #112
From: <[removed]@[removed]>
Date: 4/10/2001 9:10 PM
To: <[removed]@[removed];

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


                      The Old-Time Radio Digest!
                         Volume 01 : Issue 112
                   A Part of the [removed]!
                           ISSN: 1533-9289


                           Today's Topics:

 Re: Worked in Radio                  ["Steve Wilson" <stevewilson46@hotma]
 AudioLogic boombox w/MP3             [danhughes@[removed]                 ]
 digital exchanges                    [Joe Salerno <salernoj@[removed];  ]
 Re: Magic Island                     [Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed]]
 Lecherous Eyes                       ["David Phaneuf" <dphaneuf@[removed]]
 Alberta Hunter Show?                 ["Ben Holland" <bgholland@mindspring]
 Cape Cod Radio Mystery Theater       ["Ryan Osentowski" <rosentowski@neb.]
 'Horatio Hornblower' Correction      [Tom van der Voort <evan@[removed];]
 Thw Whistler/scariest show           ["Ryan Osentowski" <rosentowski@neb.]
 Peter Appleyard                      [William L Murtough <k2mfi@[removed];]
 CANADIAN RADIO: A SOURCE             ["Owens Pomeroy" <opomeroy@[removed]; ]
 New listing                          [Gordon R Payton <thescifiguy@[removed]]

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Date: Mon, 9 Apr 2001 21:17:41 -0400
From: "Steve Wilson" <stevewilson46@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Re: Worked in Radio

Re: HOW MANY OF YOU OUT THERE -- AND WHO ARE YOU -- ARE     ACTUAL
VETERANS OF [removed] -- YOU KNOW, WORKED IN THE MEDIUM?  I know Hal Stone,
and Lois,of course, and Mike Biel, and Owens Pomeroy.  I think Shiffy.  I
know I missed a bunch of you.  Who else?

Hi! I am new to this forum and this is my first posting. I want my
experience to be educational as well as fun. To that goal I would like to
point out what any good reporter knows, "Always check your sources." Not
every one posting knows wherefore of what they speak. I know of several
collectors who have gotten so caught up in this hobby they actually think
they were on radio or TV or USO tours, etc. This is sad but we as prudent
people should be on guard and check out sources before accepting what anyone
claims.

Now a question, is recording to CD now the accepted method of collecting and
trading? Is there anything that explains the pros and cons of CD vs cassette
vs reel-2-reel?

Steve

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Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2001 00:52:29 -0400
From: danhughes@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  AudioLogic boombox w/MP3

Fred Berney mentioned buying an AudioLogic boombox at Circuit City that
plays MP3s.

I took one of my OTR CDs to Circuit City and it wouldn't play in the
machine.  My guess is that the sampling rate of OTR CDs is too low to
work on this machine.  Fred--can you play OTR CDs on yours?  That is, CDs
that have over a hundred shows on them?

---Dan

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Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2001 00:52:19 -0400
From: Joe Salerno <salernoj@[removed];
To: OTR List <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  digital exchanges

In our last episode, Jean wrote:

You didn't understand what Elizabeth said.

If I have a pristine analog recording and I take great care in recording it
digitally, I will now suffer ZERO degradation by making copies of it and
handing it out.  There will be no difference between my copy and your copy
of it even if you receive a copy of a copy of a copy of a [removed]

Whereas with analog recordings, that is not the case.

Jean, I believe I understood exactly what Elizabeth said. You may have a
pristine recording (all otr started in analog) and you transfer it to a
digital medium it may suffer 0 degradation, but once it is handed out via
the net in compressed MP3, Real, or .asf files, even assuming no one has
tried to do any "noise reduction" on it, all bets are off, and most OTR
trading happens today via the net. The days of mailing bulky open reel tapes
from collector to collector are mostly gone. Anyone trading open reels any
more? Even those trading on CD are doing so in compressed formats. Most web
sites I have seen stream at around 16 kbps, Radio Spirits as an example.
Whereas the sound quality of RS streams is quite good for such a low data
rate, there is some audible deterioration.

I have open reel tapes I acquired from dealers and collectors in the 70s.
Some are not real low generation, but by comparison to even a single
"generation" of a streamed program, they win in the A-B test.

It may also be a case of what kind of degradation you are talking about.
Analog tends to add noise (hiss) and filter frequency extremes. Digital
tends to make recordings have a "gritty" kind of distortion to them. Not the
best word to describe it but the best I can come up with at the moment.

Joe Salerno

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

Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2001 00:52:21 -0400
From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Re: Magic Island

Ian Grieve wonders,

Not much seems to be known about the series, there is even uncertainty about
the number of episodes, I have 128 and Jerry mentions a 129 and 130, but
nobody else seems to know of those episodes at all.  I admit that I have
listened to the end of episode 128 and it doesn't seem to end the series and
it makes sense that there may have been more episodes planned but not made.

"Magic Island" was one of the many low-budget syndicated adventure
serials that flooded the market during the mid-1930s, most likely
inspired by the success of the original "Chandu the Magician"
transcriptions earlier in the decade. Such series were usually sold to
small-market independent stations for local sponsorship, although
occasionally a regional advertiser would pick up such a series for
placement on a "chainless chain" of regional stations. This particular
series was produced by a company called Radio Producers Sales Company,
headed by one P. C. Crandall -- a company which, like a lot of smalltime
syndication companies, had vanished without a trace by the end of the
1930s. Crandall, likewise, appears not to have had a long-term career  --
I can't find any listing under that name in any of the trade directories
to which I have access.

While only 128 episodes appear to be circulating, I think 130 is likely
the correct number. Syndicated serials were invariably packaged and sold
in thirteen week cycles, or multiples of thirteen weeks. At five episodes
a week, two thirteen-week cycles for a six month run would amount to
exactly 130 episodes.

Elizabeth

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

Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2001 00:52:22 -0400
From: "David Phaneuf" <dphaneuf@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Lecherous Eyes

Several readers have commented on the "dressing race" in which the radio
personality stated he could "see" the kiddies getting dressed.  I must
confess, that my first thought upon reading that was a mental picture of a
dirty old man with lecherous eyes peering in on half-dressed little boys and
girls.   And I wondered momentarily what must have gone through the minds of
protective parents or perhaps even of the listening children themselves.
Were they frightened?

Then it struck me that I was reading back into a bygone age the suspicions
and tendencies of our present, more lurid and voyeuristic age.  I suspect
that the problem is not with what was said back then, but with the way we
think today.  In an age that has seen a tremendous decline in moral values,
with a trend toward more revealing and sexually oriented entertainment, it
is not surprising that we would assign a more prurient interpretation to
what was said.  I doubt, however, that neither protective parents nor
listening children heard in Happy Hank's statement anything more than simple
fun designed to personalize the program for children's ears and draw the
children into the action.  Children have a marvelous capacity to imagine,
and often the  distinction between the real and the pretend is fuzzy. My
son, for example, while watching the children's programming "Blues' Clues"
on TV has pointed at the TV screen and shouted to the show's host, "Steve! A
clue!  A clue!" as if "Steve" could actually hear him.  Really powerful
programming has the ability to draw even us adults in -- as for example the
time the dinosaur ate the guy sitting on the john in "Jurassic Park" and I
nearly jumped up and spilled my popcorn.  As far as those kiddies were
concerned Happy Hank _really could_ see them getting dressed, but it was not
with lecherous interest -- just pure, competitive, pretend fun.

And another thing, given our bent these days toward _political correctness_
(which, in my opinion, often goes far beyond what is necessary and justified
into the realm of the extreme and the ridiculous), it is also not surprising
that statements once uttered in pure innocence are reinterpreted as lewd or
offensive.  This is not to say that the lewd or offensive did not exist back
then, for surely it did.   But it is wrong for us to impose on that age our
own cultural biases or ways of viewing things.

Dave Phaneuf

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

Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2001 00:52:24 -0400
From: "Ben Holland" <bgholland@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Alberta Hunter Show?

My wife is reading Alberta Hunter's biography by Frank Taylor, and the
book mentions her NBC radio show. We've been fans of Alberta's music for
several years, but this is the first I've heard of her radio show. Does
anyone on the list have any information about the program?
Thanks,

Ben Holland

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

Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2001 09:58:47 -0400
From: "Ryan Osentowski" <rosentowski@[removed];
To: "old time radio" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Cape Cod Radio Mystery Theater

Hello all,
I have always felt that most newer radio drama cannot hold a candle to the
good old days of radio drama, but I feel there is one exception.  I have a
couple of cassettes of a show called, Cape Cod Mystery Theater.  These are
really well done shows with great sound effects, but the acting isn't half
bad either.  Can someone give me a history of this show and let me know if
copies are available anywhere?
Thanks in advance.
RyanO

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

Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2001 09:58:49 -0400
From: Tom van der Voort <evan@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  'Horatio Hornblower' Correction

      Yesterday I posted a query on a 'Horatio Hornblower' series created
in England.
      I mistakenly attributed the series to Sidney Torch.  My mistake.
Torch (what a  great name for anyone associated with swashbucklers)
composed and conducted the music.  The producer/director was Harry Alan
Towers, who was responsible for 'The Scarlet Pimpernel' as well.
Tom van der Voort

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

Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2001 10:26:30 -0400
From: "Ryan Osentowski" <rosentowski@[removed];
To: "old time radio" <[removed]@[removed];
Subject:  Thw Whistler/scariest show

Hello all,
The Whistler has always been one of my favorite programs.  I do think it is
much better than the Mysterious Traveler, in terms of music, acting and
plots.  Still, someone made the point that the Mysterious Traveler sometimes
dabbles in areas where the Whistler didn't go.  The Whistler is a murder
show, but it deals more with human conflict, both internal and external.  In
some ways, I think the Whistler is more intricate than a show like, Suspense
in this way.
Speaking of Suspense, I think the scariest show I have ever heard is, "The
House in Cypress Canyon," but a close second is a program from a rare series
called, The Hall of Fantasy.  They did a show called, "the Crawling Thing,"
about a group of scientists that create a giant spider.  The sound effect
used as the spider crawls across the floor still chills my blood to this
day.
RyanO

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

Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2001 12:22:07 -0400
From: William L Murtough <k2mfi@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  Peter Appleyard

There was a posting a few days ago from Peter Appleyard. In case you
didn't know, Peter is a very fine musician and conductor. Our paths
crossed many moons ago,circa 1980. He was with a name band that I was
broadcasting via CBS from the Rainbow Grille, high atop the RCA building.
It could have been Goodman or Lombardo.  After the "gig" I had a phone
call from Peter saying that he was leaving to return to Canada and he was
leaving an LP he had just recorded with the desk clerk at his hotel for
me to pick up on my way home. He was conducting a large studio orchestra.
What a great recording! I still have it (on tape). I was greatly
impressed with the record. Also, Peter was a person who I was proud to
have known.

Bill Murtough

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

Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2001 16:51:33 -0400
From: "Owens Pomeroy" <opomeroy@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  CANADIAN RADIO: A SOURCE

Ken, here is some more info for the NL.  I have plenty, can you use it?

Owens





   There is an excellent book on the History of Canadian Radio from the
early Twenties (preceding USA Radio), up to the late 1970's, called "From
Coast To Coast" ; A Personal History of Radio In Canada, written by noted
Canadian Radio personality, Sandy Stewart, & published by CBC
Enterprises/Les Enterprises Radio-Canada, in 1985.  There are stories about
the early pioneering programs and performers who migrated to the USA ; Lorne
Greene, Leslie Neilson, William Shaftner, James Doolin (Scotty of Star
Trek), and Wayne and Schuster a very funny comedy team on radio, that made
the American debut on the Ed Sullivan TV Show.

  It also relates how the Canadian Broadcasters would have special programs
in the 1920's to lure American listeners, such as Foster Hewitt's "Saturday
Night Hockey Games."  The first chapter, called
"How God Created The CBC (with a little help from his friends) is worth the
price of the book. One good thing about Canadian Radio, is they are still
producing radio drama, comedy, variety, quiz, and documentary shows seven
days a week, 365 days a year.  I strongly advise anyone with a powerful
radio receiver with short-wave bands or if you are a ham radio operator, to
tune in to Canadian Radio if you want to really relive OUR HEYDAY.  This
book is a must for any OTR Library.

Owens Pomeroy

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

Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2001 18:04:03 -0400
From: Gordon R Payton <thescifiguy@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject:  New listing

After 200hrs of typing, the first revision of my listing of science
fiction and supernatural radio shows in over two years is now complete.

Anyone may contact me to have it sent to them as a series of 4 very large
email attachments in Word [removed] format. It is not yet available on my
website.

thescifiguy@[removed]

Gordon R. Payton
"The Scifi Guy"

--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V01 Issue #112
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