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The Old-Time Radio Digest!
Volume 2008 : Issue 273
A Part of the [removed]!
[removed]
ISSN: 1533-9289
Today's Topics:
Question on Radio Premiums [ Dick Fisher <w9fjl@[removed]; ]
radio gone bad [ "Bob C" <rmc44@[removed]; ]
The Cinnamon Bear! [ Charlie Summers <charlie@[removed] ]
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Date: Sat, 29 Nov 2008 00:57:25 -0500
From: Dick Fisher <w9fjl@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed]
Subject: Question on Radio Premiums
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X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain
I lived through the golden age of radio and as a kid had many radio
premiums (decoders, rings, pins, etc.). I have now gotten back, thanks
to E-Bay, nearly everything I had as a kid and paid a "premium" price to
revisit my youth. (As the Senator might say "A little play on words son
- words that is!!")
I have Tumbush's book on premiums as well as others.
Now to my question. I have been able to find nothing about how these
premiums were manufactured - specifically once, lets say, the decoder
was stamped out of brass and assembled what was the next step in
production? I am guessing that the decoders were then suspended in a
chamber of some sort and real gold (about one atom thick) electro
statically applied and then the decoder coated with a clear lacquer of
some type. The problem is I would really like to know if this is
correct and if not how did they achieve that beautiful golden color
which wore off quickly if the decoder was used very much. Annie and a
few other in the beginning used silver instead of gold. Again was this
real silver applied the same way?
Any information would be greatly appreciated. Googling the subject in
every way I can imagine brings up absolutely no help.
Contact me off list if you wish and thanks for any help.
Dick
*** This message was altered by the server, and may not appear ***
*** as the sender intended. ***
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Date: Sat, 29 Nov 2008 00:59:16 -0500
From: "Bob C" <rmc44@[removed];
To: <[removed]@[removed];
Subject: radio gone bad
Sorry to say Jim Cox's summary of the sad state of radio in his
fair city is not unique - larger market or smaller. Having once
labored in the field, I can say what passes these days for radio,
radio entertainment, radio serving its community is sickening.
You have four, maybe six radio stations, housed in the same
building, with some of them occupying no more than a closet with
a computer running the shows, playing the music or switching to
various "network" feeds. Not only that, a weatherman over at one
of the TV stations - not a radio staff member - probably comes on
with the forecast - and if it's during one of the early morniing
shows, it's something he actually recorded the night before.
What passes for a local newscaster is a high school or college
kid who might have some potential, but really doesn't cover any
news events - they've got him too busy programming the stupid
computers - which, by the way, are out of sync with the network
so that program openings/closing, commercials beginnings/endings
get clipped. I can't tell you how many times I've tuned in for a
particular program on a Sunday only to be greeted by dead air ...
or in the case of one night, a hum or dial tone, followed by Fox
News on the hour, followed by more hum. They don't answer their
phones. I e-mailed their sister TV station in the same building;
I have no idea if it really did any good, but after 45 minutes
somebody must have kick-started the computer and regular
programming resumed.
There are at least four stations where I live that offer morning
talk shows with local hosts - gosh-awful uninformed coffee shop
kind of commentary on news and events. What this town needs is a
good drive-time news block with reports from people who actually
covered a story rather than rewrite something from the local
paper. But wait - that would cost money.
When you confront station managers about all this, they love to
go on about how they serve the community with a wide variety of
programming, their news, etc. Problem is, it all stinks. Instead
of these conglomerates coming in and buying up everything, it
would have been wise to have kept the old regulations of one AM,
one FM to a company in a given market. If some other stations
couldn't make it, they should have just gone dark - use the
frequencies to open doors at the supermarket ... at least that
would have been a better use use.
Here yesterday (Thanksgiving Day), at least one of the morning
talk shows ran a "best of ..." program. It really is hard to find
a "best" of anything they do. And to top it off, it wasn't a
golden oldie from a few months earlier, it was from Monday, Nov.
24 ... and it was dated because of all the other announcements
they are making about football coverage, etc. It would be nice if
they would just put some effort into their programming. On
another station, instead of their talk show, they were running a
Wall Street Journal morning show, followed in another hour by a
special from ABC Radio about holiday movies - whoopee! But at
least it wasn't a program I had heard just three days earlier.
And people wonder what we find so attractive about listening to
old time radio!
End of current rant. We return you now to our regularly scheduled
turkey leftovers.
Bob Cockrum
Lubock, Texas
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Date: Sat, 29 Nov 2008 01:00:31 -0500
From: Charlie Summers <charlie@[removed];
To: [removed]@[removed] (Old Time Radio Digest)
Subject: The Cinnamon Bear!
Dear Reader:
Hi, everybody! I hope by now you have established a schedule for playing
episodes of "The Cinnamon Bear." Remember, there are 26 installments
(available everywhere, including your local Borders). They should be
programmed between Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day. Research by First
Generation Radio Archives has determined that the very first episode was
broadcast in the USA on Friday, November 26, 1937, so you will be carrying
on a tradition lasting over seventy years!
Your family will thrill to the adventures of Paddy, Jimmy and Judy Barton,
and the Crazy Quilt Dragon, as they search Maybeland for the missing silver
star that goes atop the Barton family Christmas tree. If you don't have the
program tapes, all the clubs and dealers have them, most of whom write to
this list. YES, It is time once again to celebrate THE CINNAMON BEAR, first
heard in 1937.
Charlie helped me make the Maybeland map and the eleven songs in the serial
more accessible to you this year. Just go to:
[removed]
You can print them off and use them as you listen with your kids to the
program. You'll have so much fun.
It is golden age radio at its best, with the actors who are so familiar to
you---Joseph Kearns, Elvia Allman, Gale Gordon, Frank Nelson, Martha
Wentworth, Barbara Jean Wong, Verna Felton, Hanley Stafford, Elliott Lewis,
Lou Merrill, Howard McNear, and the list goes on and on and on.
As Paddy himself says, "I'd be much obliged to you!"
Sincerely,
Dennis Crow
(via Charlie Summers, who reminds you the best-sounding copies of these
programs are available from the First Generation Radio Archives - see:
[removed]
...for more details. --cfs3)
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End of [removed] Digest V2008 Issue #273
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