Episodes

Thursday May 03, 2012
GI Jive and KGEI Shortwave sign-off - excerpts - circa 1946
Thursday May 03, 2012
Thursday May 03, 2012
Continuing from our previous post, we hear a brief one minute mp3 from a home recorded 10" lacquer. The other side of the disc contained a ten minute excerpt from a national Basketball League game. This side contained very short test recordings. This particular cut is curious because it's a shortwave aircheck of the opening of Armed Forces Radio's "GI Jive" and the closing of the show with KGEI, San Francisco giving their sign-off. OTR era airchecks are rare and rarer still are sign-offs from shortwave stations of this period. KGEI was owned and operated by General Electric, broadcasting to Latin America and Asia as a commercial venture. By World War II, as one of the few privately owned shortwave stations on the air, KGEI was enrolled to help the US government get balanced views about the War to overseas audiences. It's interesting that the announcer in this clip refers to KGEI as "The Voice of America" - this may have been from the period when VOA was using commercial facilities for its broadcasts. Our mp3 was dubbed directly from a home recorded unlabeled 10" lacquer running at 33.3 rpm.
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