Episodes
Friday Dec 23, 2016
Christmas in California - Dec 24, 1952
Friday Dec 23, 2016
Friday Dec 23, 2016
It’s been quite a while since I’ve been posting in the blog. I just haven’t been finding too many interesting transcriptions the past couple of years. But, over time, I’ve built up a bit of an inventory and will start posting them in the coming weeks.
As a little Christmas gift, here’s an uncirculated show I ran into recently. “Christmas in California” is a half-hour broadcast sponsored by Bank of America originally heard on December 24, 1952 from 7:30 to 8:00 pm PST on eleven Columbia Pacific Radio Network stations. (see Broadcasting Telecasting Sept 22, 1952, p 10, “New Business” column).
The show is a Christmas-themed story of the Little Shepherd performed by the Franciscan students at the Old Mission San Luis Rey. The songs are in Spanish, giving a little glimpse into California’s multicultural history. In 1952, the Christmas Eve performance had been a tradition at the Old Mission for many years.
The announcer and narrator for the program is Ralph Story, a popular radio host on KNX in Los Angeles. Story would go on to host the CBS tv game show “The $64,000 Challenge”, in 1956, and later develop a television news magazine for KNX television.
The program was dubbed to digital direct from a 10” microgroove lp that was apparently given away to customers or employees by Bank of America. The matrix numbers are RR-19602 PT1 and RR-19602 PT2. I’m assuming “RR” stands for Radio Recorders, who regularly did recordings of CBS network programming. I’m not sure who might have pressed the disc - the matrix numbers look like a style that Columbia used.
The disc was fairly scratched and there’s one skip in the audio I wasn’t able to overcome, but the transfer turned out quite well.
I wonder what other otherwise lost or unknown shows might pop up on promotional albums like this - I always try to keep a look out for them.
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