Episodes
Saturday Mar 05, 2011
rand's esoteric otr on hiatus
Saturday Mar 05, 2011
Saturday Mar 05, 2011
As I mentioned in a post a few weeks ago, I have several things going on with my job and family. So I'm going to be stepping away from the blog for a time. I may be posting an occasional show or interesting recording, but not on a regular weekly schedule as I've done in the past. I appreciate all the kind words, comments, and research folks have sent my way over the past couple of years. I'm still interested in pursuing old time radio research, and I'm thinking about heading in a different direction with my old time radio work, so feel free to send an email, if you're so inclined and are interested in talking over some ideas.
Tuesday Feb 15, 2011
Goodwill hunting ... a little story ...
Tuesday Feb 15, 2011
Tuesday Feb 15, 2011
Looks like this week's posts will be delayed a few days because of some work and family commitments - the last two episodes of "Monticello Party Line" and some other goodies will be going up soon. Instead, I'd like to offer up an amusing little old time radio collecting story. You might recall this odd 45 rpm box set posted a couple of years ago on the blog.
Pressed by RCA, the set contained three records - 7" 45s - that contain a full episode of the crime drama "Night Beat". It's unusual in that it also contains a promo announcement, after the opening of the show, inviting potential sponsors to pick up the program. I found the set at the Burlington, NC Goodwill thrift store - I think I might have paid 50 cents for it. A few months after I put the show from the set on my blog, I was contacted by a gentleman from Montreal. He had an original NBC reference acetate of the first audition episode of the series - a rare find indeed. So, we set up a trade and I posted that disc on the blog. Fast forward to this week. One of the readers of the blog, Thomas, noted in a comment that the "Night Beat" promo 45 set is something rather unusual. You see, around 1949, when the set was created, there was a promising young commercial artist who was designing magazine ads and some album covers. His name: Andy Warhol. Thomas had found the "Night Beat" set in a museum catalogue of record covers designed by Warhol. Turns out it's collectable as a piece of art. Thomas also pointed me to another otr related lp from circa 1950 that had similar cover art by Warhol currently on ebay, "The Nation's Nightmare", which contained two CBS news programs about the country's drug problems. Well, the story gets better. I contacted the gentleman in Montreal about his find. Turns out, he was the author, Paul Marechal, who put together the original exhibition featuring Warhol's album covers - the "Night Beat" set I traded him is the one that Thomas found in the book. Paul believes that the "Night Beat" set I found is the only copy to surface - he's going to donate it to a Warhol archives, along with some of the other rare Warhol works he discovered in his research. My guess is that it turned up in Burlington, NC because it was given to an employee of Lorillard or RJR Tobacco, both located in the Triad NC area. Oh - that Warhol lp of "The Nation's Nightmare" that Thomas saw on ebay? Moral of the story - look carefully at memorabilia you find at Goodwill. You might go looking for an old radio show and be taking home a work of art instead. More new shows in a few days. randMonday Jan 10, 2011
Some recent comments and thanks
Monday Jan 10, 2011
Monday Jan 10, 2011
Big thanks go out to two listeners for their generous donations - Robert and Harlan. I really appreciate your support for the blog! A couple of recent comments on the blog are worth a look. Reader Capt shares a link to a series of several other VA Hospital Christmas shows that he has in his collection. And Dave Dawes offers up some info on the recordings featured in Skinner's Romancers, Pgm 2 and Pgm 3.
Monday Jan 10, 2011
Some changes on the blog
Monday Jan 10, 2011
Monday Jan 10, 2011
I hope everyone had a safe holiday break. We're back with new shows for 2011. You'll notice some changes on the blog in the next few months. With family and work commitments, and some other projects I'm concentrating on, I'm probably going to cut down on the number of shows I post each week and the schedule may get a big irregular at times. In some cases, rather than running a series of discs over a few weeks, I might post the series at once to archive.org and put a link here to the collection there. I'm seeing is that there are less transcription discs out there for sale. I'm not sure if this is one of those "lulls", or if people are selling them in other ways than ebay or similar outlets. What I've tried to do each week is present discs in a series, with a post of a show in better sound that might be in circulation, and something that's previously uncirculated or "lost". I'm just picking up on less network and major syndicated series that are uncirculated for the collection, so you'll start seeing some more esoteric shows pop up from local stations and some ephemera and fewer of the major drama and comedy shows from the networks. I'm also getting a bit more picky about what I pick up for the collection, since I've got over 500 discs and I am running out of space to store them properly. So, the otr blog isn't going away - just going through a few changes over the next few months.
Sunday Dec 19, 2010
Holiday greetings - last posts of the year, comments, copyright
Sunday Dec 19, 2010
Sunday Dec 19, 2010
I'm putting up the last set of posts before Christmas - a new set of shows will go up sometime around New Year's. Thanks to everyone for your kind words of support, donations and corrections to the listings over the past year. Some comments received in the past week are worth mentioning. Tom identified the quartet singing the jingles in the Life of Riley tv production discs as the Sportsmen, who, of course, worked on the "Jack Benny Show". David, in the comments for "The Eddy Duchin Show - Pgm 12", noted he couldn't find program 1 of the series that I had posted on the blog some time ago; the show wasn't tagged properly, so it should show up now if you click on the category for "Eddy Duchin" on the right of the screen. Finally, I'll say I'm amazed that a post I put up in 2008 is still getting comments - many people seem to remember "The Great Crepitation Contest" from their childhood. Around the web, people are still talking about the Radio Spirits takedown notices to archive.org earlier this year. Folks are still talking about the notices on the archives.org OTR message boards and there are still several shows not part of the takedown notices that have been removed by the people who uploaded them, fearful they might be a notice. There's also an interesting blog post I ran into recently that gives another overview of the notices and the problems with otr copyright questions. Have a safe holiday, everyone - see you in 2011.
Tuesday Dec 07, 2010
Thanks and an update
Tuesday Dec 07, 2010
Tuesday Dec 07, 2010
A big tip of the hat goes out to Harlan for his generous donation to the blog this week - hope you continue enjoying the shows! You might notice that the schedule's gotten a little erratic in recent weeks. Besides work and family, I've been working on transferring a number of discs, both for private collectors and the Old Time Radio Researchers Group. But, my own collection isn't being neglected. I'm getting a big group of discs containing some intriguing material from stations in Los Angeles and Ohio and some odd 30's syndication discs you might find interesting. There'll be some curious material popping up on the blog in the new year, including a brief run from a 1930s soap that appears to be previously lost - we'll start that one up after "Monticello Party Line" finishes up in a couple of months.
Friday Nov 19, 2010
Special thanks!
Friday Nov 19, 2010
Friday Nov 19, 2010
A tip of the hat this week goes out to David in California and listener Terrance for their generous donations to the blog. Many thanks! The funds will help - I just arranged to get a group of discs of local radio shows and some obscure syndicated shows from stations in Ohio and California. Stay tuned...
Tuesday Oct 19, 2010
Having some issues...
Tuesday Oct 19, 2010
Tuesday Oct 19, 2010
If you've visited the blog in the past few days, you might have noticed that some or all of the files aren't working. Well, Podbean fixed that this morning, but it appears I can't upload new shows for the moment. Some new programs as soon as things are worked out. Please stand by.... Update - Things seemed to be fixed, but I'm having to re-post everything from last week...
Tuesday Oct 12, 2010
Copyright and sound archiving, a comment on Suspense
Tuesday Oct 12, 2010
Tuesday Oct 12, 2010
I'd like to bring your attention to some wonderful comments from blog listener James who recalls hearing "Suspense" on Armed Forces Radio and a bit about how the BBC created their own series that was similar to "Suspense". If you haven't read it yet, I recommend checking out a recent report from the Library of Congress on how copyright and ownership issues are causing difficulties for libraries and archives in preserving audio recordings. (Boingboing and other blogs have featured posts about the report the past few days.) Of particular interest is the section on old time radio, where they outline issues with how original recordings are so widespread and dispersed among institutions and private collectors. They also outline the many copyright and intellectual property issues faced by institutions and collectors when dealing with the material. You can download the entire pdf document (1 mb) here - the old time radio section starts on page 29. The report is free for download or $30 for a printed copy.
Tuesday Sep 28, 2010
Thanks and catching up ...
Tuesday Sep 28, 2010
Tuesday Sep 28, 2010
A special thanks goes out this week to Melanie A. for her generous donation to the blog - hope you're enjoying the shows! It's been a busy few weeks in my "day job" with the start of school at Duke. I'm still running behind a bit on my old time radio work, but hope to have the blog back on schedule later this weekend. I did find the time to transfer a new series for the blog - eighteen shows featuring Hollywood gossip from 1945, unheard since they originally aired. We'll probably start them when one of our current series finishes up.