rand's esoteric otr

Hymns and Their Romance - July 24, 1949

We continue entries this week with another lost local radio show from WHBC, Canton, Ohio.  I got these a couple of years back from a collector in the midwest; they appear to be “throwaway” working discs from the station.

“Hymns and Their Romance” is a program featuring Major Charles McCray of the Salvation Army telling the story behind famous hymns.  The organist is Martin Alexander.  The first hymn performed on the show of July 24, 1949 is “Love Lifted Me”.  McCray tells the story behind the hymn “Love Divine, All Love Excelling”.

Our mp3 was transferred from an original 16” Audiodisc lacquer.  I have another episode in the series I’ll post in coming weeks.

For Your Consideration - Pgm 3 - November 9, 1941

Here’s another little local show from WHBC in Canton, Ohio.  I’ve been posting several transcriptions over the past few week from the station that came in a batch of “throwaway” discs that I got from a collector a couple of years ago.

“For Your Consideration” is an odd little program consisting of light music by a small group that sounds like it is played live in the studio for half the show, with the other half a commentary by an unidentified speaker.  Program 3 in the series, broadcast November 9, 1941, deals with the commentator picking up a college-student hitchhiker and ideas around personal convictions, being idealistic versus being pragmatic, and what the future holds for youth that will be our leaders tomorrow.

The series was sponsored by the Timken Company, still doing business in Ohio, and heard Sundays and 1:00 pm.  The show seems to have been carried on a regional radio network, the Ohio Broadcasting Company.  The end of the transcription includes a station id for WHBC in Canton and a time check.

The show was transferred from an original 16” Audiodisc lacquer.

I have one other show, program four, from this series I’ll post in a few weeks.  It’s interesting to hear a program like this broadcast just a month before Pearl Harbor.

 

The Ohio Story - May 3, 1948

Here’s the second episode I have in my collection from the local series, “The Ohio Story”, carried on WHBC in Canton, Ohio.  The dramatized series looked at the state’s history and was sponsored by Ohio Bell.

Blog listener Tim Lones found an original newspaper ad for the premiere of the series on September 29, 1947  - you can download it here.  And here’s a link to a WHBC Radio Tribute Page on Facebook that collects artifacts about the station.

The episode from May 3, 1948 is the story of Ohio heroine “Mad” Anne Bailey, who served as a scout in the Northwest Indian Wars.  Her grave was moved to West Virginia in 1901.

Our mp3 was transferred directly from an original 16” Audiodisc lacquer.  Like others in this group of discs from WHBC, it suffered from palmitic acid leeching.  I was able to clean it up fairly well, but you’ll hear quite a bit of hiss where the leeching impacted the playing surface of the disc.

Basketball - WHBC Lehman v Lincoln January 9, 1948 - excerpt

Here’s another rare local sports broadcast transferred from a set of “throw away” lacquers that originally came form WHBC in Canton, Ohio.

In this post, you’ll hear part one of a basketball game between Lehman and Lincoln High Schools in Canton, Ohio.  (Both high schools, by the way, were turned into junior high schools in the mid-70s because of low enrollments.)  Like the basketball game we heard in the blog last week, this broadcast is sponsored by Sugardale Meats.

This fifteen minute excerpt of the show was transferred direct from an original sixteen inch lacquer Audiodisc transcription.  That’s the last of the local sports events I have from WHBC.

 

Peter Potter’s Platter Parade excerpt - unknown date

Here’s a little five minute curiosity.  I obtained some “throw away” lacquers that originally came from KFWB in Los Angeles dating from the late 1940s.  Among the discs were some that appeared to be tests where engineers were recording short snippets of program material on the cutters.

Among the clips was this five minute excerpt of “Peter Potter’s Platter Parade”, a two-hour disc jockey show carried on the station.  The clip comes from the end of the broadcast and includes part of “Roseroom”, performed by Johnny Kirby, Potter’s theme song, the KFWB station id promoting the Hitchcock movie “Under Capricorn”, a transcribed High Ten detergent commercial, and a time check.

“Under Capricorn” was released in September 1949, so this excerpt probably dates from late that year.

Our mp3 was transferred from an original sixteen inch Audiodisc lacquer - there were no markings on the label area.  The other cuts on the disc were just music excerpts of various types and had no announcements or other identifying information.

 

 

Ohio Story - Apri 20, 1948

We continue our look at some local programs transferred from a collection of “throw-away” lacquers that came from WHBC in Canton, Ohio.

“Ohio Story” was a series sponsored by Ohio Bell.  A handful of episodes of the series are listed at Goldin.

The previously lost episode of April 20, 1948 is a drama that deals with the “Hiram Plan”, a unique 1930s experiment  at Hiram College where students study one intensive course at a time, rather than multiple classes all at once.  The program was carried on a special network of Ohio stations.

Our program was transferred from an original sixteen inch Audiodisc lacquer.  It’s in kind of rough shape, like several of the other discs from this collection, because of lamination leeching and cracking; the sound improves as the program progresses.

 

Carol Adams - July 4, 1949

A few years ago, I wound up with a stack of “throw away” lacquers from WHBC in Canton, Ohio.  These were parts of local shows, programs recorded from the network line for time-shifting and other production odds and ends.  The “Fishing and Hunting Club” episodes from ABC came from these discs.

Now, a special treat.  Local shows in old time radio are rare - often they were just done live and not recorded or might have been recorded and tossed out, since they weren’t needed after the broadcast.

Here’s an episode of a fifteen minute program hosted by WHBC’s resident home economist, Carol Adams, originally broadcast on July 7, 1949.  It’s a nice example of a type of program produced by and for women that isn’t really well documented.

Carol talks about planning meals around the holidays and some background information on varieties of pancakes.  Then she discusses different recipes from a pamphlet of United Nations dishes recently published by the Red Cross in Queens, Long Island.  The pamphlet includes recipes from wives of UN delegates from different countries.  She reads the recipe for a rhubarb pie contributed to the pamphlet by the wife of a delegate from Canada, then an Iranian recipe for Green Beans and Rice, and New Zealand Sausage Rolls.  She gives suggestions for visiting the kids at summer camp, tips for keeping cool during the summer from a dermatologist (including an admonition against wearing girdles during hot weather).  At the end of the show, she promotes tomorrow’s program that will highlight the latest in fall fashions.

I did a little digging on Carol Adams and it appears to have been a stage name.  The June 20, 1949 issue of Broadcasting-Telecasting, on page 78, in their short notes from local stations tells us that “Zetta Horst, known to listeners of WHBC Canton, Ohio, as Carol Adams, and Blake Sommer have announced their marriage.”  I also found a brief article in the Wooster, Ohio Daily Record noting that she and her husband were celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary in 2009.

Our mp3 was transferred direct from an original 16” lacquer Audiodisc transcription from WHBC in Canton, Ohio.  The discs were suffering from palmitic leeching and starting to crack - I cleaned up the discs as best as I could and this one turned out pretty well.

If you’re in the Ohio area and happen to know Blake and Zetta’s family, let them know about this post.  I wonder if they might have recordings of other shows Zetta appeared in.

 

Christmas in California - Dec 24, 1952

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.

 

WCBS "Skin" tape - Feb 12, 1955

Update - click "Read the rest of this entry" at the bottom of the blog post to see an important update on the origins of this unusual tape. In this post, a bit of a mystery.

Some months ago, I got some reel to reel tapes that came from someone that was connected with WCBS in New York.  In a previous post, I uploaded a lengthy excerpt from the October 30, 1957 edition of the "Lanny Ross Show" that came from one of the tapes in the group.

This tape is a 7" Scotch reel recorded in full-track mono at 7.5 ips.  The box is labeled "Skin/LB (piano) - Feb 12 55" on the back.

There's a slip of WCBS memo paper that was in the tape box with a handwritten list of songs.  I can't read the handwriting very well, but it looks like this.  (You can download a scan of the paper here.)

Act I -The Colder Day of the Year -Telegram! -The Whole Crooked Family -It's Cold

Act II -The Ancient Ordering Mermaids (?) -? (looks like "Kedel") -Sabrina -Evening (?) Senior Years -Two of Every Kid (Kind?)

Act III -Poor Before We Know It -Sweet Hong (?) -Hour of the Night/Magic -The Coldest Day/Frak (? - "Finale"?)

Also in the tape box was a standard postcard with the notation "Copy to SS" and someone's signature.  (Download a scan here.)

The tape itself contains different songs played on piano.  There's no announcements or other audio on the tape.  The mp3 in the post is the first song from the tape, or at least part of it - the tape is starting to curl and warp on the outer edges and doesn't have a leader at the beginning.  The reel seems to start in the middle of one of the songs.

I'm not sure if this is connected with some type of special show that was done for WCBS or maybe for CBS Television.  I did some searching on JJ's Radio Logs for 1955, Goldin's radio show database, and on Billboard magazine at Google Books, but didn't turn up any radio or tv show with "Skin" in the title.

Anyone know what this is?

Our mp3 was dubbed direct from a 7" full-track mono Scotch reel to reel tape running at 7.5 ips.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Story Lady - January 10, 1948 - excerpt

"The Story Lady" was a local children's program on WHO, Des Moines, Iowa.  In this post, we hear the last fifteen minutes of the broadcast of January 10, 1948.  The show includes birthday greetings, songs, a segment where the kids try to come up with names for pets of listeners, and a child in the audience with a bad cold who coughs up a lung during the broadcast.

I couldn't make out the name of the host at the end of the program and didn't have any luck finding newspaper articles about her or the show - perhaps one of our readers can help us out with more information.  (Heck, it may be that one of our listeners was in the audience that day.) Our program was transferred from an original WHO single-sided lacquer.  The disc came from a group of local programs from 1948 heard on stations around the country - I think they may have been entries in some type of contest for local programming.