------------------------------
The Old-Time Radio Digest!
Volume 2005 : Issue 123
A Part of the [removed]!
[removed]
ISSN: 1533-9289
Today's Topics:
Dave Ballarotto's [removed] [ "Gary Dixon" <argy@[removed]; ]
NPR / NTR / MAD [ Wich2@[removed] ]
That Big Swede [ Wich2@[removed] ]
Re: Song in WOTW [ Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed] ]
RE: war news [ "bcockrum" <rmc44@[removed]; ]
Re: Best Bet for Bringing Back Audio [ Steve Salaba <dangerdanger@sbcgloba ]
Banned Jokes [ Rentingnow@[removed] ]
Jack Benny items [ JackBenny@[removed] ]
Mary Pickford [ "George Tirebiter" <tirebiter2@hotm ]
Cincy report by Karen Hughes [ danhughes@[removed] ]
Dave Warren Award [ "Derek Tague" <derek@[removed]; ]
Re: Today [ "Paul Adomites" <padomites@ccyberne ]
Re: war news [ Jim Widner <jwidner@[removed]; ]
The audience for audio theatre [ Richard Fish <fish@lodestone-media. ]
Howie Wing [ Jim Widner <widnerj@[removed]; ]
Armstrong Memorial Broadcast [ Richard Fish <fish@lodestone-media. ]
a further thought on modern radio dr [ "Mark Kinsler" <kinsler33@[removed] ]
WW2 radio news [ Michael Berger <intercom1@attglobal ]
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 18 Apr 2005 12:04:39 -0400
From: "Gary Dixon" <argy@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Dave Ballarotto's [removed]
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Dramatic programming or any other form of OTR will never be successful unless
a radio station promotes it heavily and is enthusiastic about it. Just having
a name like Jerry Seinfeld (who many of us don't particularly find all that
funny) as the star or headliner of a show doesn't guarantee an audience.
Unfortunately, most radio stations except a "quick return" in a couple
[removed] then they pull the plug! I still believe that most radio groups
are too chicken to try anything different when it comes to [removed]
this is why many of us have stopped listening to conventional radio stations.
[I have friends in the business who probably would disagree. However, if they
listened to a 12-hour block of their current radio station programming, I'll
bet they'd be bored before the end of the first 3 hours!].
Mr. Ballarotto's 'dismissal of a potential audience' for dramatic programming
isn't entirely valid. If he doesn't believe [removed] to some of our
"over-dramatic commentators and analysts" who dissect everybody from George
Bush to movie stars and sports figures? And if you don't think some of
[removed] are 'over-dramatic'....then what are they?
I'll bet there's audience out there for new forms of programming? But unless
you take a chance and back it up with [removed] will know about
[removed] subsequently, NOT LISTEN!
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------------------------------
Date: Mon, 18 Apr 2005 12:05:19 -0400
From: Wich2@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: NPR / NTR / MAD
From: James Meadows <walthamus@[removed];
I've worked in public radio in central Illinois since the
1980s ... I'm assuming that the audience for radio drama
is ... so specialized that public radio stations can't reach
them efficiently. But I'd be interested in arguments to the
contrary.
Dear Jim-
Thanks for chiming in- it's interesting to hear someone
comment from within The Belly of the Beast.
As a lover of BOTH OTR and MAD, I hate to offend some
of the Old Heads in the field- from BOTH sides of the mic;
but when I hear them rhapsodize about, "when radio comes
[removed]" (as in, "like it was in the Golden [removed]"), I have
a very bittersweet feeling. Because, in THAT sense, it's not
coming back.
BUT as the proud owner of several glowing several-page letters
from NPR's Andy Trudeau, to the effect of, "yours shows are [removed]
I want to find a way to run [removed] maybe sometime, [removed]"
...I WILL give a small asterisk to the contrary of your thesis. I firmly
believe that NPR, BECAUSE OF ITS MISSION STATEMENT, should have
maintained its tiny niche for the Audio Drama- even if only on what used
to be called a "sustaining" basis.
There is always the case for raising the audience's consciousness:
how many stories exist in TV, of landmark shows that were almost
canceled before they caught on? DICK VAN DYKE, 60 MINUTES,
[removed]
One small oasis, that's all I propose. Both new material, and the cream
of the old: how about a cherry-picked run of the best of the digitally
remastered Campbell Playhouses, Luxs, Barrymore's Shakepeares,
[removed] Recognizable -even today!- stars, in recognizable stories;
and, if in "FGRA" / "Ed Carr" quality, with no technical shortcomings.
AND: with a bit of ink spilled!!! The last years that Playhouse ran,
who EVER read, or heard, any publicity for same? I was in High
School when CBSRMT premiered, and I recall FULL-PAGE ads
in Time & Newsweek!
Best,
-Craig Wichman
Quicksilver Radio Theater
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 18 Apr 2005 12:05:50 -0400
From: Wich2@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: That Big Swede
"09-18-1905 - Greta Garbo - Stockholm, Sweden - d. 4-15-1990
actress: "Kate Smith Show" "
Folks-
Can anyone lock this down for me?
As a guy who used to have quite a crush on The Divine Garbo, I've heard this
rumor
for years. DID this broadcast occur, and if so IS there an aircheck of same?
Knowing of Greta's neurosis, I would not be at all surprised if this was a
fake-
a "by proxy" job, along the lines of those times when Hans Conreid stepped
in for a no-show Jack Barrymore.
Well?
-Craig
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 18 Apr 2005 13:22:24 -0400
From: Elizabeth McLeod <lizmcl@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Re: Song in WOTW
On 4/16/05 6:18 PM [removed]@[removed] wrote:
4. After the first piano interlude, there's a bulletin announcing the
meteorite that crashed in New [removed] that, there's a 22 second
instrumental swing dance number performed by "Bobby Millette" at the Hotel
Martinet in Brooklyn.
No where can I find any clue of the composer of this piece nor a title.
Any ideas?
This song is "Love Locked Out," a pop ballad by Max Kester and Ray Noble.
Noble's orchestra had a big hit with this number in 1934, and it was also
recorded by many other bands of the day. Most likely Hermann just reached
randomly into the CBS music library and pulled out the first schmaltzy
hotel-band tune that came to hand.
Elizabeth
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 18 Apr 2005 16:03:35 -0400
From: "bcockrum" <rmc44@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: RE: war news
I'm sure others on the list have better libraries at hand and better
memories, but the only live from the frontlines report I can recall of OTR
vintage was [removed] Kaltenborn's report in the '30s from the Spanish civil war.
All the rest were recordings sent back to London or Rome (late WWII), or
first-hand retellings from back behind the frontlines from whatever
shortwave station was available. Even in the Korean War, recordings were the
name of the game (Bob Pierpoint for CBS comes to mind.)
Other info about wartime reporting can be found in Edward Bliss' "Now the
News" and in Cloud and Olson's "The Murrow Boys." I don't remember which
book and which reporter, I'm thinking it was "Murrow Boys" and Collingwood,
but the story was told of the CBS reporter who let the competition go first,
giving CBS in New York time to catch the signal ... then when his time came,
he would use, say, all but three of his 10 minutes, saying "Hello, New York,
I'll begin reporting in seven minutes," counting down, and also asking any
shortwave listener to call CBS collect and let them know he was about to
report and on what frequency he was using.
Bob Cockrum
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 18 Apr 2005 16:41:53 -0400
From: Steve Salaba <dangerdanger@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: Best Bet for Bringing Back Audio Drama
On the subject of new radio comedy:
I seem to recall quite a few TV sitcoms that could easily be enjoyed with
the picture off and just the soundtrack playing. A lot of sitcoms have
jokes that do not rely on visuals to be funny. I would think that the
scripts could be adapted for radio with little or no editing.
--
Steve Salaba
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 18 Apr 2005 17:29:41 -0400
From: Rentingnow@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Banned Jokes
I remember the Jack Paar joke problem. Where I lived in Wyoming there was a
1 or 2 week delay before the films arrived at the TV station in Billings
Montana.
Does any one remember Bob Hope being banned for a juke about "Pocket pool?"
This must have been about 1947 or there about. Now am curious about the what
the joke was?
I still use the term when photographing the groomsmen (depending on the
makeup of the groomsmen) and explaining the workings of the tuxedo pants
which
have a slit at the top of the pocket to pull down the shirt tail. Of course,
wh
en I mention Bob Hope in relation to the term, many or all of the groomsmen
don't know who I am talking about.
Ah, the educational benefits of OTR. It sticks with one oh so many years.
Larry Moore
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 18 Apr 2005 17:30:31 -0400
From: JackBenny@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Jack Benny items
Patrick writes:
Two items from December 1948 which were concerning Jacks hop tp another
station. One appears to be an unbroadcast special, made for the cbs execs as
a preivew show demonstrating what he is capable of, another seems to be a
transcription circulated among station owners detailing their stradegy with
the recent acquisition of both Amos & Andy and jack Benny. Can anyone here
on the list shed any light on these two items?
Yes, those are items that we released from an anonymous donor last year.
The one is probably the pre-switch Jack Benny program for CBS, and the other
is
a closed-circuit broadcast on the strategy of getting people to remember
switch to their local CBS station instead of NBC to hear Jack Benny. I knew
they'd be ripped into MP3 pretty quickly, so no one orders them from us any
more. Them's the breaks of the OTR hobby.
--Laura Leff
President, IJBFC
[removed]
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 18 Apr 2005 18:02:44 -0400
From: "George Tirebiter" <tirebiter2@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Mary Pickford
Yes, there are surviving Mary Pickford radio appearances. I was going to
refer you to Fair Pickings ([removed]) where they index the
performers they have in their catalog, but their site indicates they are
temporarily not filling orders. Perhaps someone else will advise as to what
dealers currently have MP material available.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 18 Apr 2005 18:03:04 -0400
From: danhughes@[removed]
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Cincy report by Karen Hughes
Karen's report on the Cincy convention is now posted at
[removed]. Several additions pending for the Karen Gets
Hugged page; I'll get 'em up when I can.
Needless to say, we had a great time at the Cincinnati convention, and
since next year is number 20 maybe there will be a gala celebration?
(Not that what happens EVERY year isn't plenty enough!)
And as I told Charlie Summers when he was prone on the floor trying to
get his laptop Wi-Fi connection to lock in, perhaps his position could be
attributed to something other than computing problems.
---Dan
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 18 Apr 2005 21:02:10 -0400
From: "Derek Tague" <derek@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Dave Warren Award
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Steve Thompson wrote regarding the recently passed Cincinnati OTR & Nostalgia
convention:
On Saturday, my wife Rene and I were priviliged to become the second (and
third, respectively) winners of the Dave Warren Award at the Cincinnati
Convention. <snip>
I sent an email this morning to Carolyn Senter
thanking her for introducing us to Dave Warren in 1988. Her lighting the
fire
and Big Dave's stoking it kept us coming back each year. <snip>
The Dave Warren Award was initiated at the Cincinnati convention in 2003 in
recognition
of the late Dave Warren, who founded about a quarter-century ago the Dave
Warren Players,
arguably the first fan-based OTR re-creation group designed to stage
re-creations at OTR
conventions. The DWA celebrates, particularly, those who excel in the
furtherance of OTR
re-creations at conventions. Since the convention's founder & organiser Bob
Burchett and I
originated this honour and being that I was one of the few persons who knew
about Rene and
Steve being accorded these awards ahead of time, I feel that I need to set the
record straight about
a very minor detail.
True, the indomitable Don Ramlow won the first such "Dave Warren Award" in
2003, but his
fellow director (and current overseer of the Dave Warren Players) Gary Yoggy
won the second
one in 2004. I'm sure this was an oversight in Steve's estimation, but Gary
Yoggy was recipient #2.
[I deeply regretted having had befallen to financial problems which prevented
my attendance in
2004 being that I didn't get a chance to witness Professor Yoggy's win].
Therefore, in reality, the Thompsons are DWA recipients # 3 & # 4. I really
only got to become friends
with Dave the last five years of his life, but I'd like eveybody to know that
he thought the world of
Rene & Steve's acting talent. Since, Steve [[removed] still $[removed] for that NY
Times you bought me], you are in
exceptionally good company with Messrs. Yoggy, Ramlow, and your lovely wife
Rene, you'll humbly
stand corrected.
Yours in the black-'n'-blue!
Derek Tague
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Date: Mon, 18 Apr 2005 21:02:19 -0400
From: "Paul Adomites" <padomites@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Re: Today
I've often thought the best format would be a five or ten minute soap/serial
drama that could run several times a day, and then be the subject of
discussion between "dj" hosts and call-ins. (Not to mention on-line voting)
"Do you think Lydia should leave Chuck, or should she return to her abusive
sister-in-law Norbert?" This has the added advantage of knowing what the
listeners want, to either A) please them or B) surprise them.
The whole thing could be very lively. Any program directors interested, I'll
be your writer.
Paul Adomites
And PS, wasn't Cincinnati a gas?
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 18 Apr 2005 21:02:50 -0400
From: Jim Widner <jwidner@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Re: war news
William Vest III asks:
This is probably a silly question but I'll ask anyway. I realize in the
40's that broadcasting was limited (as far as the news was concerned).
However, was there ever radio broadcasts from the war?"
As far as [removed] Broadcasters go, there generally wasn't any front line
news. However, both BBC and CBC news reporters broadcast near the front
where possible. Listen, for example, to Matthew Halton:
[removed]
Jim Widner
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 18 Apr 2005 21:03:19 -0400
From: Richard Fish <fish@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: The audience for audio theatre
Jim Meadows wrote:
I'm assuming that the audience for radio drama is a
specialzed one --- so specialized that public radio stations can't reach
them efficiently. But I'd be interested in arguments to the contrary.
Jim may be right, but I'm not really sure. There seems to be a large
audience ready and waiting which isn't being reached at all.
Audiobooks are a $2 Billion plus per year market in the US alone. Fully
dramatized productions are, in my view and that of many others, much
better than a single-voice reading of words that were written for the
printed page; they're the best use of the medium. Give an audiobook
afictionado a theatre piece, and what are the chances he'll get hooked?
Not everybody, maybe, but in general, how ya gonna keep 'em down with
books-on-tape, after they've heard RT?
The Audio Publishers Association survey a couple of years back found
that eleven percent (11%) of audiobook buyers look for "full production."
MediaBay was, at one point, selling OTR at the rate of $18,000 per day
(wholesale) to CostCo alone.
Talk radio has a huge audience, the OTR community is hardly negligible,
there are all too many blind and sight-challenged people, and all of
these people are people who enjoy spoken-word entertainment, and all
just in the American market.
(English-speaking countries all around the world have an established
audience for radio theatre; what about the export market? Not to
mention non-english-speaking countries, where radio theatre is an
excellent way to learn English as a second language.)
All in all, there are apparently a lot of people who would like to hear
radio theatre, old and new, but don't know how to find it. The APA
figures alone suggest a $200 million per year market in the US, but if
it was happening I think I would have heard something.
So is this an audience that public radio can not reach -- or one it just
doesn't see?
Or does radio now only serve the function of "musical wallpaper,"
instead of Delivering The Product -- presenting programs you actually
sit and listen to?
Richard Fish
--
"Post proofs that brotherhood is not so wild a dream as those who profit
by postponing it pretend." -- Norman Corwin, 1945
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 18 Apr 2005 21:03:43 -0400
From: Jim Widner <widnerj@[removed];
To: OTR Digest <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: Howie Wing
As Jack French noted in his February 2005 post to the digest announcing
the find of the six Howie Wing episodes, once the transfer is complete,
I will be putting one episode on my web site as I have been doing with
recent discoveries over the past year.
Jack and I take the approach as are a number of others that these are
"treasures" to share with the OTR community. We hope to spur others who
might be holding uncirculated programs to share them with the community
while maintaining the necessary preservation needed to keep them in good
shape.
I remind everyone that currently at my site you can find some of these
recent finds including Ted Drake, Guardian of the Big Top, Crime Letter
From Dan Dodge and The Affairs of Peter Salem. All of these were
considered lost previously.
Jim Widner
[removed]
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 18 Apr 2005 21:04:15 -0400
From: Richard Fish <fish@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Armstrong Memorial Broadcast
The following just came in to me; I haven't seen it in the group and
apologies if I just missed a post and it's redundant:
= ==============
Armstrong Commemorative Broadcast Scheduled
Alpine, NJ - Apr 11, 2005 - In commemoration of the 70th anniversary of
Major [removed] Armstrong's first public demonstration of wide band frequency
modulation, Steve Hemphill, owner of Solid Electronics Laboratories, and
Charles Sackermann Jr., the CEO of CSC Management, who is the owner of
the Alpine Tower in Alpine, [removed], will transmit a commemorative FM
broadcast from the Alpine Tower site on June 11 and 12, 2005.
The pair has secured Special Temporary Authority from the FCC to conduct
the broadcast on Major Armstrong's original FM frequency of [removed]
under experimental call sign WA2XMN.
The broadcast program material will consist of David Ossman's dramatic
production of Empire of the Air, which is based on the book by Tom
Lewis. Broadcast plans also include excerpts from a 1941 test broadcast
between member stations of the original New England Yankee Network,
featuring voice recordings of Major Armstrong himself, Paul deMars
(Yankee Network chief engineer) and others.
There will also be a rebroadcast of the final sign off of Major
Armstrong's pioneer FM station W2XMN/KE2XCC, which went dark on Feb. 25,
1954, after Major Armstrong's death. A streaming Webcast of the
commemorative broadcast is also planned.
Additional information about the commemorative broadcast and about the
Alpine tower site can be found at [removed]
= =============
One quick afterword: IMHO, Ossman's radio adaptation of "Empire Of The
Air" tells the story better than Ken Burns' video, and in fact, even
better than the original [removed]'t be a better choice for this b'cast.
Richard Fish
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 19 Apr 2005 00:43:37 -0400
From: "Mark Kinsler" <kinsler33@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: a further thought on modern radio drama
While we're discussing the possibilities of radio
drama/comedy/anything-but-top-40 we might consider the number of people who
listen to television without the picture. Radios that can tune to
television audio carriers are quite common and not, I believe, limited to
the visually-impaired. Depending on the show, you can get a lot out of TV
audio. I imagine that the older radio-oriented TV shows--Perry Mason comes
to mind, as do many early comedies--work out better in this regard.
My current car radio tunes down to [removed], which gets the audio of Channel 6
in Columbus.
M Kinsler
512 E Mulberry St. Lancaster, Ohio USA 43130 740-687-6368
[removed]~mkinsler1
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 19 Apr 2005 07:30:55 -0400
From: Michael Berger <intercom1@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: WW2 radio news
Re the query about war news on radio during the 40s:
MBS had several reports from the Pacific, including
Iwo Jima, with a reporter right on the beach, with
explosions and rifle shots all around. Done with a
wire recorder and released, edited no doubt, several
days later. Murrow also did at least two broadcasts
from bombers over Germany; again taped and broadcast
later, as well as a description of a post DDay
parachute jump over Holland.
The main characteristic of WW2 news reports was that
they were heavily censored, with most interviews with
military personnel sounding as though they were
reading from prepared text. Which in fact they were.
Listen to some of Charles Collingwood's early reports
from North Africa in 1943, or anything by Webley
Edwards from Hawaii.
But listening to the daily reports from 1942 onward, I
am struck by how well they conveyed the general trends
of the battles.
Michael Berger
--------------------------------
End of [removed] Digest V2005 Issue #123
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