------------------------------
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
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain
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
*** This message was altered by the server, and may not appear ***
*** as the sender intended. ***
------------------------------
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
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative
X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain
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
*** This message was altered by the server, and may not appear ***
*** as the sender intended. ***
------------------------------
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
********************************************
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]
In the event of a major mail problem, please contact the listmaster via
the web-based contact form available at [removed]
(on the sidebar) or follow/DM CFSummers on Twitter
To Send Mail to the list, simply send to [removed]@[removed]