REMEMBERadio

The Green Hornet

2012-01-31T01:47:00.000-08:00

On January 31st in 1936, "The Green Hornet" was introduced by its famous theme song, "The Flight of the Bumble Bee". The George W. Trendle radio production was first heard on WXYZ radio in Detroit, the same radio station where "The Lone Ranger" was performed. You may remember that the title character in "The Green Hornet" was really named Britt Reid. He was, in fact, supposed to be the great nephew of John Reid, the Lone Ranger. The Hornet stayed on the air for 16 years. Wikipedia: American radio and television masked vigilante created by George W. Trendle and Fran Striker, with input from radio director James Jewell, in 1936. More. | SHOP The Green Hornet

From out of the west...The Lone Ranger

2012-01-30T03:33:00.000-08:00

On January 30th in 1933, "The Lone Ranger" was heard for the first time on WXYZ Detroit. The famous radio western was not sponsored for most of the first year, until Silvercup Bread came aboard in November. It gradually built a network, and ran for 2,956 episodes before ending production in 1955. George Seaton (Stenius) was the first voice of the Lone Ranger. Jack Deeds and Earle Graser followed in the role. However, it was Brace Beemer [photo] who is best remembered as former Texas Ranger, John Reid. On radio he played the part of the black-masked Ranger, fighting for frontier justice, for thirteen consecutive years.

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Beat The Band NBC Radio

2012-01-28T00:20:00.000-08:00

On January 28th in 1940, "Beat the Band" made its debut on NBC radio. The band was that of Ted Weems and his 14-piece orchestra, who were joined by Elmo "The Whistling Troubadour" Tanner, and Country Washington. One other star of the show was a barber from the Pittsburgh area, who would record many hits for RCA Victor from 1943 right into the 1970s. His name was Perry Como.

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The Guiding Light was the longest running radio-TV drama in history.

2012-01-25T03:27:00.000-08:00

On January 25th in 1937, NBC radio presented the first broadcast of "The Guiding Light". The program became the longest-running story line in daytime drama. The show remained on radio until 1956. "The Guiding Light" began its long run on CBS-TV in 1952, and ended in 2009.

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I Love a Mystery

2012-01-16T04:34:00.000-08:00

On January 16th in 1939, the shrill siren call of radio's "I Love a Mystery" was heard for the first time as the show debuted on NBC's West-Coast outlets. Creator
Carleton E. Morse already had an esta blished hit in a completely different genre, 'One Man's Family.'

Wikipedia

Amos 'n' Andy

2012-01-12T01:54:00.000-08:00

On January 12th in 1926, "Sam 'n' Henry" debuted on Chicago's WGN radio. When they moved to WMAQ two years later the show was renamed "Amos 'n' Andy" and the voices of its creators, Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll played to huge depression-era audiences via NBC radio. Although the players were white, the characters were supposed to be black. The popular radio show would attract over forty million fans during its radio tenure which ended in 1948. (Gosden and Correll returned to radio with the "Amos 'n' Andy Music Hall" on CBS radio [1954-1960]).

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I Love a Mystery

2012-01-06T01:27:00.000-08:00

On January 6th in 1939, Carleton E. Morse of One Man's Family fame, introduced his second-best known radio creation, I Love a Mystery afternoons on NBC's West Coast network. It went national as a nightly strip that October and ran for five years. A 30 minute weekly series titled I Love Adventure aired for 13 summer weeks in 1948 on ABC. In 1949 ILAM was revived with a New York cast (including Tony Randall) and ran for 15 minutes nightly for the next 3 years on Mutual. Carlton Errol Morse (June 4, 1901 - May 24, 1993) was a Louisiana-born producer/journalist best known for his creation of the radio serial One Man's Family, which debuted in 1932 and ran until 1959 as one of the most popular as well as long-running radio soap operas of the time. He also was responsible for the radio serial I Love a Mystery. A radio legend, he experimented with television and published three novels. Morse is considered by many to be one of the best radio scriptwriters.
In 1901, Carlton was born in Jennings, Louisiana, to George and Ora Morse. In 1906, his family relocated to a fruit ranch at Talent, Oregon, and when Morse was 16, they moved to Sacramento, California. After graduating from high school in Sacramento, Morse went to the University of California from 1919 to 1922 but did not graduate. Instead, he dropped out and returned to Sacramento, beginning a career as a journalist with the Sacramento Union.

Wikipedia | SHOP: I Love A Mystery

Bob Hope first heard on radio

2012-01-04T02:57:00.000-08:00

On January 4th in 1935, Bob Hope was first heard on network radio as part of "The Intimate Revue" with Jane Froman, James Melton and the Al Goodman Orchestra. The variety show, sponsored by Bromo Seltzer, lasted only fourteen weeks, but Hope's association with NBC continued for more than half-a-century.

Wikipedia | The Pepsodent Show | SHOP: Bob Hope

The Shadow Knows what evil lurks... Lamont Cranston

2012-01-01T18:39:00.000-08:00

The Shadow debuted on CBS Radio, July 31, 1930, as the mysterious narrator of the Street and Smith radio program Detective Story Hour. The series was later heard on The Mutual Radio network with Orson Welles. After gaining popularity among the show's listeners, the narrator became the star of The Shadow Magazine on April 1, 1931, a pulp series created and primarily written by the prolific Gibson.

Radio History | Wikipedia | Search Amazon.com for The Shadow

Oldtime radio New Years Shows

2011-12-29T13:37:00.000-08:00

REMEMBER the oldtime radio dramas and comedy series from the 1930's through 1950's with some of their best programs for the holidays. Click into one of them now on the player..........

On December 11 in 1944, the Chesterfield Supper Club debuted on NBC radio.

2011-12-11T03:21:00.000-08:00

The Chesterfield Supper Club, an NBC musical variety radio program (1944–50), was also telecast by NBC from 1948 to 1950. Perry Como, Jo Stafford, Peggy Lee and many other stars of the day shared the spotlight on the 15-minute show that aired five nights a week. The show was sponsored by Chesterfield cigarettes.

Wikipedia

Lights Out

2011-12-07T03:00:00.000-08:00

Lights Out, for which writer Arch Obler also acted as host. Praised as one of broadcasting's top talents, he is regarded today as a key innovator of radio drama. Obler was an American actor, playwright, screenwriter, novelist, producer, and director who was active in radio, films, theater, and television. He generated much attention with his radio scripts, particularly the horror series Lights Out, and his work in radio remains the outstanding period of his career. Praised as one of broadcasting's top talents, he is regarded today as a key innovator of radio drama. Radio historian John Dunning wrote, "Few people were ambivalent when it came to Arch Oboler. He was one of those intense personalities who are liked and disliked with equal fire."

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December 4, 1933 Ma Perkins heard nationally for the first time.

2011-12-04T02:12:00.000-08:00

On this day in 1933, one of America's great radio soap operas made the leap to the big time. Ma Perkins moved from WLW Cincinnati to the NBC-Red network. The show proved to be so popular that it was later carried on both CBS and NBC simultaneously!

Ma Perkins (sometimes called Oxydol's Own Ma Perkins) is an American radio soap opera which was heard on NBC from 1933 to 1949 and on CBS from 1942 to 1960. Between 1942 and 1949, the show was heard simultaneously on both networks. Oxydol dropped its sponsorship in 1956. The series was produced by Frank and Anne Hummert with scripts by Robert Hardy Andrews, Orvin Tovrov and others. Ma Perkins began August 14, 1933 on WLW in Cincinnati. On December 4 of that year, it graduated to the NBC Red network. On NBC and CBS the series ran for a total of 7,065 episodes. "America’s mother of the air" was portrayed by actress Virginia Payne, who began the role at the age of 23 and never missed a performance during the program's 27-year run. Kindly, trusting widow Ma Perkins had a big heart and a great love of humanity. She always offered her homespun philosophy to troubled souls in need of advice.

Wikipedia | SHOP: OTR Episodes

Calling All Cars, CBS Radio

2011-11-29T03:27:00.000-08:00

On November 29 in 1933, one of the earliest police 'true crime' radio dramas Calling All Cars debuted on the CBS West Coast network. The writer was William N. Robson, who later would be the celebrated producer of Suspense. Calling All Cars is a classic among police dramas and one of the earliest of the genres. Believed to be a precursor to the popular police drama Dragnet, Calling All Cars portrayed the true crime stories of the Los Angeles Police Department.

Radio Series available at OTRcat

The Grand Ole Opry from WSM

2011-11-28T00:19:00.000-08:00

On November 28 in 1925, "The Grand Ole Opry" debuted on WSM, Nashville under the name "WSM Barn Dance". The program was the brainchild of program director George D. Hay, who had run a similar program on a Chicago radio station. Hay also was also responsible for renaming the program the Grand Ole Opry in 1927. The Grand Ole Opry has remained a Saturday night tradition on WSM to this day, and is country music's most famous institution. The Grand Ole Opry is a weekly country music stage concert in Nashville, Tennessee, that has presented the biggest stars of that genre since 1925. It is also among the longest-running broadcasts in history since its beginnings as a one-hour radio "barn dance" on WSM-AM. Dedicated to honoring country music and its history, the Opry showcases a mix of legends and contemporary chart-toppers performing country, bluegrass, folk, gospel, and comedic performances and skits. Considered an American icon, it attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the world and millions of radio and internet listeners. The Opry, today part of the American landscape, is "the show that made country music famous" and has been called the "home of American music" and "country’s most famous stage.

Wikipedia

November 25 FBI in Peace and War

2011-11-24T17:00:00.000-08:00

On this day in 1944, The FBI in Peace & War began a 14-year run on CBS Radio. The weekly crime drama was identified by its distinctive theme song, Prokofiev's Love of Three Oranges, played to a martial beat. Wikipedia: The FBI in Peace and War was a radio crime drama inspired by Frederick Lewis Collins' book, The FBI in Peace and War. The idea for the show came from Louis Pelletier who wrote many of the scripts. Among the show's other writers were Jack Finke, Ed Adamson and Collins. It aired on CBS from November 25, 1944 to September 28, 1958, it had a variety of sponsors (including Lava Soap, Wildroot Cream-Oil, Lucky Strike, Nescafe and Wrigley's) over the years. In 1955 it was the eighth most popular show on radio, as noted in Time: The Nielsen ratings of the top ten radio shows seemed to indicate that not much has changed in radio: 1) Jack Benny Show (CBS), 2) Amos 'n' Andy (CBS), 3) People are Funny (NBC), 4) Our Miss Brooks (CBS) 5) Lux Radio Theater (NBC), 6) My Little Margie (CBS), 7) Dragnet (NBC), 8) FBI in Peace and War (CBS), 9) Bergen and McCarthy (CBS), 10) Groucho Marx (NBC). Martin Blaine and Donald Briggs headed the cast.

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November 16 in radio history

2011-11-16T03:08:00.000-08:00

ON THIS DAY in 1896, Jim Jordan, the man behind the iconic radio sitcom Fibber McGee & Molly, was born.

Together with wife Marian & writer Don Quinn, in the mid 1930's he created the form of most broadcast comedies that followed, with regular characters and running gags.  Fibber McGee's overstuffed closet, created only through sound effects, is one of the great memories of 'old-time' radio.  The show ran for 25 years, until the latter stages of radio's golden age.  Jordan died Apr 1, 1988 at age 91, due to a blood clot to the brain.

On this day in 1899,  radio personality Mary Margaret McBridewas born in Paris Missouri. She started an advice program on WOR radio in 1934, and took it national with first CBS in 1937, NBC in 1941, ABC in 1950,and back to NBC 1954-60.  Along the way she mixed in her own unique style interviews with figures well known in arts, entertainment and politics. She died Apr 7 1976 at age 76.

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Kate Smith sings God Bless America November 11 1938

2011-11-11T01:35:00.000-08:00

On this day in 1938, radio star Kate Smith sang God Bless America for the very first time. It would later become her signature song. Irving Berlin penned the tune in 1917 but never released it until Miss Smith sang it for the first time on her popular radio show. Smith was a major star of radio, usually backed by Jack Miller's Orchestra. She began with her twice-a-week NBC series, Kate Smith Sings (quickly expanded to six shows a week), followed by a series of shows for CBS: Kate Smith and Her Swanee Music (1931–33), sponsored by La Palina Cigars; The Kate Smith Matinee (1934–35); The Kate Smith New Star Revue (1934–35); Kate Smith's Coffee Time (1935–36), sponsored by A&P Grocery Stores; and The Kate Smith A&P Bandwagon (1936–37).

The Kate Smith Hour was a leading radio variety show, offering comedy, music and drama with appearances by top personalities of films and theater for eight years (1937–45). The show's resident comics, Abbott and Costello and Henny Youngman, introduced their comedy to a nationwide radio audience aboard her show, while a series of sketches based on the Broadway production of the same name led to The Aldrich Family as separate hit series in its own right in 1940.

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Big Band remote with Benny Goodman

2011-11-07T10:18:00.001-08:00

Benny Goodman Camel Caravan radio show from Earle Theatre Philadelphia 02/14/1939. With Johnny Mercer and Martha Tilton.
Link:
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A LIFE IN RADIO WITH ORSON WELLES

2011-10-30T05:20:00.000-07:00

On October 30 1938, Orson Welles triggered a national panic with a realistic radio dramatization of a Martian invasion, based on H.G. Wells' "War of the Worlds."

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2011/10/30/The-almanac/UPI-81351319959800/#ixzz1cGJQLQsH

A groundbreaking radio biography set to air on the 73rd anniversary of the infamous WAR OF THE WORLDS Martian hoax is bringing a wealth of rare broadcast recordings by legendary CITIZEN KANE filmmaker Orson Welles back to the airwaves -- many for the first time in over 60 years.

AIRBORNE: A LIFE IN RADIO WITH ORSON WELLES is a new, full-length work by documentarian R. H. Greene. The show will air twice in Los Angeles over the 2011 Halloween weekend via 89.3 KPCC (89.3 FM), one of the nation's premiere news stations. A special podcast edition of the program, with 20 minutes of additional material, will be posted to the KPCC website at KPCC that same week.

According to Greene, Welles' vast body of radio work has been reduced in public memory to his single 1937-38 season voicing the popular radio superhero THE SHADOW and to Welles' legendary broadcast of THE WAR OF THE WORLDS, a docudrama adaptation of the H. G. Wells "Martian invasion" classic that caused widespread panic when it first aired as a Halloween prank in 1938. Culled from over 400 vintage radio recordings, Greene's new documentary showcases the eclectic nature of Welles' radio achievements.

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Orson Welles - War Of The Worlds - Radio Broadcast 1938 - Complete Broadcast.

The War of the Worlds was an episode of the American radio drama anthology series Mercury Theatre on the Air. It was performed as a Halloween episode of the series on October 30, 1938 and aired over the Columbia Broadcasting System radio network. Directed and narrated by Orson Welles, the episode was an adaptation of H. G. Wells' novel The War of the Worlds.
The first two thirds of the 60-minute broadcast were presented as a series of simulated "news bulletins", which suggested to many listeners that an actual alien invasion by Martians was currently in progress. Compounding the issue was the fact that the Mercury Theatre on the Air was a 'sustaining show' (it ran without commercial breaks), thus adding to the program's quality of realism. Although there were sensationalist accounts in the press about a supposed panic in response to the broadcast, the precise extent of listener response has been debated. In the days following the adaptation, however, there was widespread outrage. The program's news-bulletin format was decried as cruelly deceptive by some newspapers and public figures, leading to an outcry against the perpetrators of the broadcast, but the episode secured Orson Welles' fame.

Fanny Brice was radio's 'Baby Snooks' (October 29, 1891 – May 29, 1951)

2011-10-29T01:54:00.000-07:00

Fanny Brice (October 29, 1891 – May 29, 1951) was a popular and influential American illustrated song "model," comedienne, singer, theatre and film actress, who made many stage, radio and film appearances and is known as the creator and star of the top-rated radio comedy series, The Baby Snooks Show. Thirteen years after her death, she was portrayed on the Broadway stage by Barbra Streisand in the musical Funny Girl and its 1968 film adaptation. From the 1930s until her death in 1951, Fanny made a radio presence as a bratty toddler named Snooks, a role she premiered in a Follies skit co-written by playwright Moss Hart. With first Alan Reed and then Hanley Stafford as her bedeviled Daddy, Baby Snooks premiered in The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air in February 1936 on CBS.
She moved to NBC in December 1937, performing the Snooks routines as part of the Good News show, then back to CBS on Maxwell House Coffee Time, the half-hour divided between the Snooks sketches and comedian Frank Morgan, in September 1944. Brice's longtime Snooks sketch writer, Philip Rapp and David Freedman, brought in partners, Arthur Stander and Everett Freeman, to develop an independent, half-hour comedy program. The program launched on CBS in 1944, moving to NBC in 1948, with Freeman producing. First called Post Toasties Time (named for the show's first sponsor), the show was renamed The Baby Snooks Show within short order, though in later years it was often known colloquially as Baby Snooks and Daddy. Brice was so meticulous about the program and the title character that she was known to perform in costume as a toddler girl even though seen only by the radio studio audience. She was 45 years old when the character began her long radio life. In addition to Reed and Stafford, her co-stars included Lalive Brownell, Lois Corbet and Arlene Harris playing her mother, Danny Thomas as Jerry, Charlie Cantor as Uncle Louie and Ken Christy as Mr. Weemish. She was completely devoted to the character, as she told biographer Norman Katkov: "Snooks is just the kid I used to be. She's my kind of youngster, the type I like. She has imagination. She's eager. She's alive. With all her deviltry, she is still a good kid, never vicious or mean. I love Snooks, and when I play her I do it as seriously as if she were real. I am Snooks. For 20 minutes or so, Fanny Brice ceases to exist." Baby Snooks writer/producer Everett Freeman told Katkov that Brice didn't like to rehearse the role ("I can't do a show until it's on the air, kid") but always snapped into it on the air, losing herself completely in the character: "While she was on the air she was Baby Snooks. And after the show, for an hour after the show, she was still Baby Snooks. The Snooks voice disappeared, of course, but the Snooks temperament, thinking, actions were all there."

Wikipedia | VIDEOS | SHOP: Fanny Brice

October 24

2011-10-24T01:46:00.000-07:00

On this day in 1929, one of radio's first "really big shows" The Fleishmann Hour starring Rudy Vallee was broadcast for the first time over NBC radio. Actually, the Rudy Vallee show had several different titles over the years, all of which were referred to by the public as The Rudy Vallee Show. Megaphone-totin' Rudy and his Connecticut Yankees band were mainstays on radio into the late 1940s. The Fleischmann's Yeast Hour (also known as The Rudy Vallée Show, The Fleischmann Yeast Hour, and The Fleischmann Hour) was a pioneering musical variety radio program broadcast on NBC from 1929 to 1936, when it became The Royal Gelatin Hour, continuing until 1939. This program was sponsored by Fleischmann’s Yeast, a popular brand of yeast. The person responsible for this major step ahead in broadcasting was NBC executive Bertha Brainard, who became head of programming for NBC in 1928. She began pushing for singer-bandleader Rudy Vallée to host a variety series by explaining that only a woman could understand the appeal of Vallée's voice.

Hear and BUY: OTRadio's The Fleischmann's Yeast Hour Shows
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Ellery Queen

2011-10-20T02:56:00.000-07:00

On radio, The Adventures of Ellery Queen was heard on all three networks from 1939 to 1948. During the 1970s, syndicated radio fillers, Ellery Queen's Minute Mysteries, began with an announcer saying, "This is Ellery Queen..." and contained a short one-minute case. The radio station encouraged callers to solve the mystery and win a sponsor's prize. Once a winner was found, the solution was broadcast as confirmation.

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Norman Corwin 1910 - 2011

2011-10-19T01:21:00.001-07:00

Norman Lewis Corwin (born May 3, 1910 - October 18, 2011) was an American writer, screenwriter, producer, essayist and teacher of journalism and writing. His earliest and biggest success were in the writing and directing of radio drama during the 1930s and 1940s.

Corwin was among the first producers to regularly use entertainment—even light entertainment—to tackle serious social issues. In this area he was a peer of Orson Welles and William N. Robson, and an inspiration to other later radio/TV writers such as Rod Serling, Gene Roddenberry, Norman Lear, J. Michael Straczynski and Yuri Rasovsky.

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October 18

2011-10-18T06:07:00.000-07:00

On this day in 1943, the first broadcast of Perry Mason was heard on CBS radio. In the 15-minute (Monday-Friday) shows, Perry was played by Barlett Robinson, Santos Ortega, Donald Briggs and John Larkin. The radio criminal serial Perry Mason, based on the novels of Erle Stanley Gardner, was broadcast on CBS Radio from 1943-1955. The series was adapted into Edge of Night which ran on television for an additional 30 years. Wikipedia.

(pictured)John Larkin as Perry Mason and Joan Alexander as Della Street on the CBS daytime radio program. Larkin played the role the longest and was reportedly very disappointed when Raymond Burr got the gig on TV (1957).

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October 16

2011-10-16T01:17:00.000-07:00

On this day in 1939, listeners welcomed "The Right to Happiness" to the NBC Blue network. The 15-minute radio drama turned out to be one of the longest-running radio shows of its kind. It moved over to CBS in 1941, then back to NBC in 1942. Fourteen years later "Right to Happiness" returned to CBS where it stayed until its last days in 1960. Created by Irna Phillips,[photo], The Right to Happiness was originally a spinoff for Guiding Light character Rose Kransky.

Irna Phillips (July 1, 1901 – December 22, 1973) was an American actress and most notably writer who created and scripted many of the first American soap operas.

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October 12 Mr. Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons

2011-10-12T00:45:00.000-07:00

On this day in 1937, the longest-running detective show on radio debuted.
"Mr. Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons" remained on the air for the next 18 years. Three different actors played the title role, Bennett Kilpack was Mr. Keen the longest, and Arthur Hughes saw the final show. Phil Clark also played the part. It was produced by Frank and Anne Hummert. The sponsors included Whitehall Pharmacal (as in Anacin, Kolynos Toothpaste, BiSoDol antacid mints, Hill's cold tablets and Heet liniment), Dentyne, Aerowax, RCA Victor and Chesterfield cigarettes. It aired on the NBC Blue network until 1947, when it switched to CBS.

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October 8 in broadcasting history premiere Ozzie and Harriet on radio

2011-10-08T05:27:00.000-07:00

On this day in 1944, the first broadcast of The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet was heard on the CBS radio network. The show would continue on radio until 1953 and on ABC-TV from 1952 to 1966. When Red Skelton was drafted in March 1944, Ozzie Nelson was prompted to create his own family situation comedy. The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet launched on CBS on October 8, 1944, moving to NBC in October 1948, and making a late-season switch back to CBS in April 1949. The final years of the radio series were on ABC (the former NBC Blue Network) from October 14, 1949 to June 18, 1954. In total 402 radio episodes were produced. In an arrangement that amplified the growing pains of American broadcasting, as radio "grew up" into television, the Nelsons' deal with ABC gave the network the option to move their program to television. The struggling network needed proven talent that was not about to defect to the more established and wealthier networks like CBS or NBC.

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October 4

2011-10-04T00:09:00.000-07:00

Singer Francis Alda

announcer Phillips Carlen

On this day in 1925, a pioneering concert hour of early radio The Atwater Kent Hour was heard for the first time on WEAF New York and an 11-station network which a year later would form the basis for NBC. Atwater Kent was an early line of radios. The Atwater Kent Hour (aka The Atwater Kent Radio Hour) was a top-rated radio concert music program heard on NBC and CBS from 1926 to 1934 with stars of the Metropolitan Opera often making appearances. Classical music was performed by a large symphony orchestra under the direction of Josef Pasternack. Soprano Frances Alda was often the featured vocalist, and soprano Mary Eastman also performed. The opening theme music was "Now the Day Is Over," by Sabine Baring-Gould (words) and Sir Joseph Barnby (music).

Wikipedia

September 30 debut of national Farm and Home Hour

2011-09-30T01:32:00.001-07:00

On this day in 1929, "The National Farm and Home Hour," a rustic variety series which first aired locally for a year on KDKA Radio in Pittsburgh, made its national debut on the NBC Blue network (later known as ABC), sponsored by the Montgomery Ward department stores. Don Ameche and Raymond Edward Johnson were featured, along with music and entertainment by The Cadets male quartet, Jack Baus and The Cornbusters and Mirandy of Persimmons Holler. In 1945 the "Hour" moved to NBC Radio where it remained a part of the schedule until 1958. The National Farm and Home Hour was a variety show which was broadcast in various formats from 1928 to 1958. Aimed at listeners in rural America, it was known as "the farmer's bulletin board" and was produced by the United States Department of Agriculture with contributions from, and the cooperation of, various farm organizations (among them the American Farm Bureau, 4-H Club, Farmers Union, Future Farmers of America and the National Grange). Raymond Edward Johnson and, later, Don Ameche appeared in dramatic sketches in the role of the Forest Ranger.

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William Conrad birthday September 27

2011-09-27T01:37:00.000-07:00

William Conrad (born John William Cann, Jr. September 27, 1920 – February 11, 1994) was an American actor, producer and director whose career spanned five decades in radio, film and television. A radio writer and actor, he moved to Hollywood after his World War II service and played a series of character roles in films beginning with the quintessential film noir, The Killers (1946). He created the role of Marshall Matt Dillon for the popular radio series, Gunsmoke (1952–1961), and narrated the television adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle (1959–1964) and The Fugitive (1963–1967). Finding fewer on-screen roles in the 1950s, he transitioned from actor to producer-director with television work and a series of Warner Bros. films in the 1960s. Conrad found stardom as a detective in the TV series Cannon (1971–1976) and Nero Wolfe (1981), and in the crime drama Jake and the Fatman (1987–1992).

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September 25 TOM MIX Radio debut

2011-09-25T03:41:00.000-07:00

On this day in 1933, America's favorite cowboy, Tom Mix, was heard for the first time on NBC radio. The Tom Mix Ralston Straight Shooters continued on the air until June 1950. Thomas Edwin "Tom" Mix (born Thomas Hezikiah Mix; January 6, 1880 – October 12, 1940 also was an American film actor and the star of many early Western movies. He made a reported 336 films between 1910 and 1935, all but nine of which were silent features. He was Hollywood’s first Western megastar and is noted as having helped define the genre for all cowboy actors who followed. In 1933, Ralston-Purina obtained his permission to produce a Tom Mix radio series called Tom Mix Ralston Straight Shooters which, but for one year during World War II, was popular throughout most of the 1930s through the early 1950s. Mix never appeared on these broadcasts, and was instead played by radio actors: Artells Dickson (early 1930s), Jack Holden (from 1937), Russell Thorsen (early 1940s) and Joe "Curley" Bradley (from 1944). Others in the supporting cast included George Gobel, Harold Peary and Willard Waterman. The Ralston company offered ads during the Tom Mix radio program for listeners to send in for a series of 12 special Ralston-Tom Mix Comic books available only by writing the Ralston Company by mail.

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Jimmy Stewart in The Sixshooter

2011-09-20T04:29:00.000-07:00

Show debuted on NBC Radio September 20, 1953. The Six Shooter was a weekly old-time radio program in the United States. It was created by Frank Burt, who also wrote many of the episodes, and lasted only one season of 39 episodes on NBC (Sept. 20, 1953-June 24, 1954). Through March 21, 1954 it was broadcast Sundays at 8 p.m. Beginning April 1, 1954 through the final episode it was on Thursdays at 8 p.m. James Stewart starred as Britt Ponsett, a drifting cowboy in the final years of the wild west. Episodes ranged from straight western drama to whimsical comedy. A trademark of the show was Stewart's use of whispered narration during tense scenes that created a heightened sense of drama and relief when the situation was resolved.The well-produced Western series ran largely sponsorless for its lone season late in the era of bigtime radio. Chesterfield cigarettes were interested, but Stewart declined the association.

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2011-09-19T01:41:00.000-07:00

On September 19 in 1932, the soap opera "Just Plain Bill" was first heard as an early evening quarter-hour on a regional CBS network from Chicago. It was "The real life story of people just like people we all know." Stories centred around the town barber (just plain) Bill Davidson and his daughter, Nancy, who lived in (just plain) Hartville. It moved to NBC daytime in 1935, and continued daily for another 20 years.

Wikipedia

Father Knows Best is an American radio and television comedy series...PREMIERE: August 25, 1949, on NBC Radio

2011-08-25T03:39:00.000-07:00

Father Knows Best is an American radio and television comedy series which portrayed a middle class family life in the Midwest. It was created by writer Ed James in the 1940s. The series began August 25, 1949, on NBC Radio. Set in the Midwest, it starred Robert Young as the General Insurance agent Jim Anderson. His wife Margaret was first portrayed by June Whitley and later by Jean Vander Pyl. The Anderson children were Betty (Rhoda Williams), Bud (Ted Donaldson), and Kathy (Norma Jean Nillson). Others in the cast were Eleanor Audley, Herb Vigran and Sam Edwards. Sponsored through most of its run by General Foods, the series was heard Thursday evenings on NBC until March 25, 1954.

On the radio program, the character of Jim differs from the later television character. The radio Jim is far more sarcastic and shows he really "rules" over his family. Jim also calls his children names, something common on radio but lost in the TV series. For example, Jim says, "What a bunch of stupid children I have." Margaret is portrayed as a paragon of solid reason and patience, unless the plot calls for her to act a bit off. For example, in a Halloween episode, Margaret cannot understand how the table floats in the air, but that is a rare exception.
Betty, on radio, is portrayed as a status seeking, boy-crazy teenage girl. To her, every little thing is "the worst thing that could ever happen." Bud, on radio, is portrayed as an "all-American" boy who always seems to need "just a bit more" money, though he gets $1.25 per week in allowance (equal to $11.52 today). The actor had an affected "r" (similar to Elmer Fudd, but not quite as pronounced). Bud is in charge of always having to answer the front door, which he hates. He is also shown as a somewhat dim boy who takes everything literally; for example, Jim might say "Go jump in the lake," to which Bud would reply "Okay, Dad; which lake should I go jump into?" On radio Kathy often is portrayed as a source of irritation. She whines, cries and complains about her status in the family as overlooked. She often is the source of money to her brother and sister, although she is in hock several years on her own allowance.

Wikipedia | Search Amazon.com for Father Knows Best

RADIO CLASSICS~"FATHER KNOWS BEST" Starring Robert Young~ORIGINAL Broadcasts from Radio's Golden Age! (RADIO CLASSICS on Cassette)

Father Knows Best

August 14 in Radio History

2011-08-12T22:24:00.000-07:00

August the 14th in 1933, Crosley Broadcasting's WLW in Cincinnati premiered the daytime drama "Ma Perkins." Just four months later, "Ma" moved to WMAQ Radio in Chicago and was heard over the entire NBC radio network. Virginia Payne was 23 years old when she started in the title role, operating a lumberyard in Rushville Center. Her children were Evey, Fay and John (who was killed in the war). One of the other characters in the show was Shuffle Shober. Virginia Payne played Ma Perkins for an incredible 27 years -- and 7,065 episodes.

In 1942, Garry Moore hosted a new radio program on NBC. "The Show Without a Name" was an effort to crack the morning show dominance of Arthur Godfrey (CBS) and "Don McNeil’s Breakfast Club" (ABC). A prize of $500 was offered to name the show and someone came up with the title, "Everything Goes".

In 1945, on the day of Japan's surrender ending World War II, CBS radio began the series, "Columbia Presents Corwin". Orson Welles did a special reading about the fall of Japan, titled, "Fourteen August".

August 9 CBS Our Secret Weapon debuts

2011-08-08T22:21:00.000-07:00

In 1942, CBS radio debuted "Our Secret Weapon". It was a program that featured Rex Stout, who countered lies being broadcast by the Axis powers through shortwave radio.

On August 9, 1942, Rex Stout conducted the first of 62 wartime broadcasts of Our Secret Weapon—the truth—on CBS. The idea for the series had been that of Sue Taylor White, wife of Paul White, the first director of CBS News. Research was done under White's direction. "Hundreds of Axis propaganda broadcasts, beamed not merely to the Allied countries but to neutrals, were sifted weekly," Stout's biographer John McAleer wrote. "Rex himself, for an average of twenty hours a week, pored over the typewritten yellow sheets of accumulated data ... Then, using a dialogue format—Axis commentators making their assertions, and Rex Stout, the lie detective, offering his refutations—he dictated to his secretary the script of the fifteen-minute broadcast." By November 1942 Berlin Radio was reporting that "Rex Stout himself has cut his own production in detective stories from four to one a year and is devoting the entire balance of his time to writing official war propaganda." Newsweek described Stout as "stripping Axis short-wave propaganda down to the barest nonsensicals ... There's no doubt of its success." Sunday-night broadcasts of Our Secret Weapon continued through October 8, 1943. (Wikipedia)

Search Amazon.com for Rex Stout | "Our secret weapon"

Jan Savitt Orchestra at KYW

2011-08-06T09:52:00.000-07:00

Trivia question:
What transcription recording is located in the cornerstone of the KYW building 1619 Walnut St. Philadelphia?
Ans:

39714. Jan Savitt and The Top Hatters. September 14, 1937. KYW, Philadelphia. Sustaining. The first broadcast from the new and still incomplete studios of KYW at 1619 Walnut Street. The announcer says that a recording of this broadcast will be placed in the cornerstone of the building. The first tune is "Have You Got Any Castles, Baby?" Bon Bon, Carlotta Dale, Jan Savitt and His Top Hatters. 24:13. Audio condition: Very good to excellent. Complete.

Lucille Ball birthday August 6

2011-08-06T03:09:00.000-07:00

Lucille Désirée Ball (August 6, 1911 – April 26, 1989) was an American comedienne, film, television, stage and radio actress, model, film and television executive, and star of the sitcoms I Love Lucy, The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour, The Lucy Show, Here's Lucy and Life With Lucy. One of the most popular and influential stars in America during her lifetime. Ball picked up radio work to earn side income as well as gain exposure. In 1937 she appeared as a regular on The Phil Baker Show. When that completed its run in 1938, Ball joined the cast of The Wonder Show, starring future Wizard of Oz tin man Jack Haley. It was here that she began her fifty year professional relationship with Gale Gordon, who served as the show's announcer. The Wonder Show only lasted one season, with the final episode airing on April 7, 1939. In 1948, Ball was cast as Liz Cugat (later "Cooper"), a wacky wife, in My Favorite Husband, with Richard Denning. Comedy series radio program for CBS Radio. Featuring Gale Gordon, Gerald Mohr, Jack Edwards and Jerry Hausner. Isabel Scott Rorick was the creator of this 1948-51 series. The program was successful, and CBS asked her to develop it for television.

Wikipedia | Search Amazon.com for Lucille Ball radio

Military training film on a New York radio station, WMCA, owned by the Nathan Straus family, showing its ownership, management and activities. Good view of radio in the era when most stations were locally owned and operated.

2011-08-03T16:26:00.000-07:00

An excellent, yet curious, film showing how small, independant radio stations work in the transition from the Golden Age of Radio of the 1930s and 1940s into the more mechanized process that would arise starting in the 1960s. What makes the film so great is not only the excellent cinematography and scoring, but it also provides great information on how the business of radio operates, emphasizing that it is a business and requires advertisers. The film also has some great footage of scenes in and around the radio station and early 50s New York life.

Donald Voorhees conductor The Bell Telephone Hour

2011-07-27T09:15:00.001-07:00

Donald Voorhees (July 26, 1903, Allentown, Pennsylvania–January 10, 1989, Cape May Court House, New Jersey) was an American composer and conductor who received an Emmy Award nomination for "Individual Achievements in Music" for his work on the television series, The Bell Telephone Hour.
Starting in 1926, Voorhees' orchestra recorded prolifically for Columbia, Edison, Pathe, Perfect, Cameo, and Hit of the Week through 1931, when (apparently) he disbanded.
From 1935 to 1941, and from 1949 to 1953 (with Ardon Cornwell), Voorhees was the musical director and conductor for the radio and television show, Cavalcade of America.
Voorhees also served as conductor of the Bell Telephone Hour orchestra for 26 years, from its first broadcasts on radio in 1942 until its final television episode in 1968. He was nominated for an Emmy Award in 1966 for "Individual Achievements in Music" for his work on the series.
He was also the first conductor of the Allentown Symphony Orchestra. Voorhees served as conductor and musical director of the orchestra from its inception in 1951 until 1983.

Wikipedia

The Bell Telephone Hour (also known as The Telephone Hour) is a long-run concert series which began April 29, 1940 on NBC Radio and was heard on NBC until June 30, 1958. Sponsored by Bell Telephone, it showcased the best in classical and Broadway music, reaching eight to nine million listeners each week. It continued on television from 1959 to 1968. Throughout the program's run on both radio and television, the studio orchestra on the program was conducted by Donald Voorhees.

Wikipedia | Search Amazon.com for The Bell Telephone Hour

Harriet Hilliard Nelson birthday July 18

2011-07-18T07:29:00.000-07:00

Harriet Nelson ( July 18 of 1909 - October 2 of 1994 ) was an actress and singer.

She was born Peggy Lou Snyder in Des Moines, Iowa to Roy Hilliard Snyder and Hazel Dell McNutt. By 1932, she was performing in vaudeville when she met the saxophone-playing bandleader Ozzie Nelson. Nelson hired her to sing with the band, under the name Harriet Hilliard. They married three years later. Hilliard had a respectable film career as a solo performer, apart from the band. RKO Radio Pictures signed her to a one-year contract in 1936, and she appeared in three feature films, the most famous being the Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers musical Follow the Fleet. She was very much in demand during the World War II years for leading roles in escapist musicals, comedies, and mysteries. Although the couple occasionally appeared together in movies, either as a duo (in Honeymoon Lodge) or as separate characters (in Hi, Good Lookin'), they are best known for their broadcasting efforts. In 1944, the Nelsons began a domestic-comedy series for radio, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. It was highly popular and made a successful transition to television. It was one of the stalwarts of the ABC-TV schedule through 1966. The Nelsons' two sons, Ricky and David, were featured continuously on the show.
Wikipedia | Search Amazon.com for Ozzie and Harriet

We are nostalgic about radio

2011-07-14T03:24:00.000-07:00

RADIO NOSTALGIA AT IT'S BEST WNAR Radio am... offers internet listeners a recreation of what radio was about years ago in the "Golden Age". Those over 70 years of age grew up with radio drama and comedy, and still we die-hards can't get enough of "The Theater of the Mind". Station creator David McCrork says "I do hope you find this programming entertaining and a wholesome experience." You can listen via Internet stream.

Home Page | LISTEN

INTERNET RADIO STREAMS

2011-07-11T21:00:00.000-07:00

Philadelphia Radio book

2011-07-07T14:51:00.001-07:00

Just Released: New paperback book about start and growth of radio broadcasting industry in PHILADELPHIA, PA...
Philadelphia radio broadcasting began in 1922, when the city's first officially licensed stations went on the air. Within a few years, what had begun as a small, experimental medium became a full-fledged craze as families listened to live news, sports, and entertainment for the first time. In 1932, the first building designed for radio broadcasting opened on Chestnut Street, coinciding with the golden age of radio that featured live orchestras, soap operas, and imaginative dramas. In the 1950s, a few stations began playing rock and roll, and Philadelphia became known as a city that not only produced hit music but also consistently broke new acts. By the 1970s, FM radio began to grab the majority of listeners, and once again Philadelphia stations were responsible for breaking new artists, such as Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen.
About the Author
Alan Boris is a local radio historian and the founder/director of the Philadelphia Radio Archives. In Philadelphia Radio, he has compiled a collection of rarely seen images from a variety of sources, including Philadelphia radio personalities, listeners, stations, and historical societies.

order here: Philadelphia Radio (Images of America)available at Amazon.com

Ralph Edwards created the game show Truth or Consequences

2011-06-13T03:14:00.000-07:00

Ralph Livingstone Edwards (June 13, 1913 – November 16, 2005) was an American radio and television host and television producer. Edwards created the game show Truth or Consequences, which aired for 38 years on radio and television. Contestants were asked to perform some ridiculous stunt for prizes of cash or merchandise. The show was originally based in New York (with Mel Allen as announcer), but later moved to Los Angeles. Its radio run started on CBS, Edwards' and Allen's home network, then moved to NBC. Its TV run started with a one-time special on July 1, 1941 as part of the inaugural broadcast day of television's oldest commercially-licensed station, WNBT in New York (now WNBC).

Wikipedia | Truth or Consequences | This Is Your Life | LISTEN to an old air check from OTRCAT

Hollywood Walk of Fame Ralph Edwards #123 Single Trading Card

FRED ALLEN

2011-05-30T13:28:00.000-07:00

Fred Allen (May 31, 1894 – March 17, 1956) was an American comedian whose absurdist, topically pointed radio show (1932–1949) made him one of the most popular and forward-looking humorists in the so-called classic era of American radio. His best-remembered gag was his long-running mock feud with friend and fellow comedian Jack Benny, but it was only part of his appeal; radio historian John Dunning (in On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio) wrote that Allen was radio's most admired comedian and most frequently censored. A master adlibber, Allen often tangled with his network's executives (and often barbed them on the air over the battles), while developing routines the style and substance of which influenced contemporaries and futures among comic talents, including Groucho Marx, Stan Freberg, Henry Morgan and Johnny Carson, but his fans also included President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and novelists William Faulkner, John Steinbeck and Herman Wouk (who began his career writing for Allen). Ironically, in view of his often barbed observations of the medium, Fred Allen was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for contributions to television.

Wikipedia | Search Amazon.com for Fred Allen

Jack Webb

2011-04-02T02:08:00.000-07:00

John Randolph "Jack" Webb ( April 2 of 1920 - December 23 of 1982 ) was an American actor nominated for an Emmy as well as radio and television producer, film director and author, best known for his portrayal of Sergeant Joe Friday in the radio and television series Dragnet. He founded his own production company, Mark VII Limited. Following his discharge, he moved to San Francisco to star in his own radio show on ABC's KGO Radio. The Jack Webb Show was a half-hour comedy that had a limited run on ABC radio in 1946. By 1949 he had abandoned comedy for drama, and starred in Pat Novak for Hire, a radio show about a man who worked as an unlicensed private detective. The program co-starred Raymond Burr. Pat Novak was notable for writing that imitated, almost to parody, the hard-boiled style of such writers as Raymond Chandler, with lines such as: "She drifted into the room like 98 pounds of warm smoke. Her voice was hot and sticky--like a furnace full of marshmallows." Webb's radio shows included Johnny Modero, Pier 23; Jeff Regan, Investigator; Murder and Mr. Malone and One Out of Seven. Webb did all of the voices on One Out of Seven, often vigorously attacking racial prejudice.

Wikipedia | Search Amazon.com for Jack" Webb

"Lopez, speaking"

2011-01-30T00:46:00.000-08:00

VINCENT LOPEZ While historians appear unsure of Vincent Lopez's birth year, probably 1895, it is certain that he was born on the 30th of December, in Brooklyn, NY, USA

Vincent Lopez died 20 September 1975 in Miami, Florida. He was an American bandleader and pianist. Lopez was born of Portuguese immigrant parents in Brooklyn, New York and was leading his own dance band in New York City by 1917. On November 27, 1921 his band began broadcasting on the new medium of entertainment radio; the band's weekly 90-minute show on Newark, NJ station WJZ boosted the popularity of both himself and of radio. He became one of America's most popular bandleaders, and would retain that status through the 1940s. He began his radio programs by announcing "Lopez speaking!".His theme song was "Nola," Felix Arndt's novelty ragtime piece of 1915, and Lopez became so identified with it that he occasionally satirized it. (His 1939 movie short for Vitaphone, Vincent Lopez and his Orchestra, features the entire band singing "Down with Nola.") Lopez worked occasionally in feature films, notably The Big Broadcast (1932). He was also one of the very first bandleaders to work in Soundies movie musicals, in 1940. He made additional Soundies in 1944. Noted musicians who played in his band included Artie Shaw, Xavier Cugat, Jimmy Dorsey, Tommy Dorsey, Mike Mosiello and Glenn Miller.
more Wikipedia Bio | Search Amazon.com for Vincent Lopez

FRED FOY, announcer, dies at age 89

2010-12-23T02:13:00.000-08:00

Fred Foy, an announcer best known for his booming, passionate lead-ins and narrative to "The Lone Ranger" radio and television series, died Wednesday, 22 December 2010, of natural causes at his Woburn, Mass., home, his daughter said. He was 89. He landed the job as the announcer and narrator on "The Lone Ranger" radio show in 1948. The show's live lead-in introduced its masked cowboy hero and his trusted horse with the line: "A fiery horse with the speed of light, a cloud of dust and a hearty 'Hi-Yo Silver!' ... The Lone Ranger!" [video below] Foy was born in Detroit in 1921, graduated from that city's Eastern High School in 1938 and landed a job on the announcing staff of radio station WXYZ in Detroit in 1942. He was drafted into the Army that year and served in an Armed Forces Radio unit in Cairo during World War II. Foy returned to WXYZ in 1945, then three years later won the job on "The Lone Ranger," even stepping into the lead role for one radio broadcast when actor Brace Beemer had laryngitis. The introduction's signature opening line, "Hi-Yo, Silver!" was done by an actor on the radio show. He belted it out for the TV series. [Also done by actor Gerald Mohr] Foy also performed on radio series including "The Green Hornet" and "Sgt. Preston of the Yukon." In 1960, Foy began working for the ABC network. He spent five years as an announcer on the "The Dick Cavett Show" and narrated documentaries. He left ABC in the mid-1980s and later retired to Woburn.

LINKS | Wikipedia Bio
Old Radio Westerns | Search Amazon.com for Radio The Lone Ranger

EDWIN H ARMSTRONG Radio Pioneer

2010-12-18T06:29:00.000-08:00

Edwin Howard Armstrong (December 18, 1890 – January 31, 1954) was an American electrical engineer and inventor. Armstrong was the inventor of modern frequency modulation (FM) radio.
Edwin Howard Armstrong was born in New York City, New York, in 1890. He studied at Columbia University and later became a professor there. He invented the regenerative circuit while he was an undergraduate and patented it in 1914, the super-regenerative circuit (patented 1922), and the superheterodyne receiver (patented 1918).

LINKS | Wikipedia Bio | Man of High Fidelity: Edwin Howard Armstrong, a Biography
Edwin H. Armstrong: An entry from Gale's Science and Its Times

JIM AMECHE, announcer, radio actor

2010-11-15T22:42:00.000-08:00

Jim Ameche (Don's brother) was the first to succeed with a nationally syndicated DJ show in the 1950s. James Ameche (August 6, 1915, Kenosha, Wisconsin – February 4, 1983, Tucson, Arizona) was a familiar voice on radio, including his role as radio's original Jack Armstrong on Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy. When his older brother, Don Ameche, left his position as the host and announcer for The Chase and Sanborn Hour in the early 1940s, Jim took over for the remainder of the show's run. He also was heard as mountie Jim West on ABC's Silver Eagle (1951-55). He was heard on stations in Los Angeles and Palm Springs in the late 1950s and early 60s. For many years he was a popular local radio personality in the New York City area. By the late 1960s, he was working as an announcer on New York's WHN and the TV pitchman for a Longines Symphonette Society mail-order record album featuring clips of old-time radio broadcasts. He really began the tradition continued by John Doremus and Pete Smith. Dinnertime, the end of a long, hard day and time for some easy favorites....

Go to episode of "Here's To Romance" with Jim Ameche. | OBIT

Veteran announcer CHARLIE O'DONNELL dies at 78

2010-11-01T21:32:00.000-07:00

Charlie O'Donnell, the announcer whose voice has opened "Wheel of Fortune" for decades, has died. He was 78. O'Donnell (born August 12, 1932; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) was an American television announcer best known for his work on Wheel of Fortune — the voice of the game show even before hosts Pat Sajak and Vanna White appeared. He died late Sunday 31 NOV 2010 at his Los Angeles home. O'Donnell was a popular radio DJ in New York before starting his television career in Philadelphia with Dick Clark on "American Bandstand." He also served as announcer for Oscar and Emmy telecasts and other game shows including "The Newlywed Game." His signature phrase "Wheeeeeeel of Fortune," could be heard on the show from its beginning with host Chuck Woolery in 1975. He worked on the show until 1980, and again from 1988 until his death.

Philadelphia Broadcast Pioneer |
Wikipedia Bio | Sony Site | Search Amazon.com for Wheel of Fortune

the music of The Lone Ranger radio series

2010-10-29T18:22:00.000-07:00

The most popular radio adventure show in history, The Lone Ranger held an audience of millions spellbound for over two decades. Key to its success was the music used on it-music rendered so beautifully, chosen with such delicate precision, that for half a century listeners have frantically searched for an answer to the question, "What was the music used on the Lone Ranger?" This book answers that question and many more, including, "Who performed it?" "Who recorded it?" "When?" "Where?". Set in Detroit, New York, Hollywood, and Mexico City against a backdrop of cliffhanging events that shaped the broadcasting industry, the story is as great an adventure as any heard on the show itself.

The Mystery of the Masked Man's Music: A Search for the Music Used on the Lone Ranger Radio Program, 1933-1954

ART LINKLETTER

2010-10-18T01:07:00.000-07:00

Arthur Gordon "Art" Linkletter (July 17, 1912 - May 26, 2010) was a Canadian-born radio and television personality and the host of two long-running United States television shows: House Party, which ran on CBS radio and television for 25 years, and People Are Funny, on NBC radio-TV for 19 years. Linkletter was famous for interviewing children on House Party and Kids Say the Darndest Things, which led to a successful series of books quoting children. A native of Canada, he became a naturalized United States citizen in 1942.

| Wikipedia Bio | OTR: "People Are Funny" | Search Amazon.com for Art Linkletter...

The Lone Ranger - Radio

2010-06-25T03:13:00.000-07:00

ORIGINAL EPISODES OF THE LONE RANGER RADIO SERIES

Search Amazon.com for THE LONE RANGER books, TV and Film

Search Amazon.com for The Lone Ranger Radio Official Lone Ranger Old Time Radio OTR Mp3 Collection on Two Dvds - Offering 1044 Different Shows and Appearances for a Total of 473+ Hours of Listening Enjoyment

The Lone Ranger - Radio

2010-06-25T03:09:00.000-07:00

The Lone Ranger Radio - Googled Search Amazon.com for The Lone Ranger TV

Art Van Damme dies

2010-02-20T07:05:00.000-08:00

Art Van Damme (April 9, 1920 in Norway, Michigan – February 15, 2010) was a jazz accordionist who had many popular albums for Columbia Records in the mid 20th Century. In the Wikipedia bio it is noted he began playing the accordion at age nine and started classical study when his family moved to Chicago in 1934. In 1941 he joined Ben Bernie's band as an accordionist. He adapted Benny Goodman's music to the accordion. From 1945 to 1960 he worked for NBC, performing on The Dinah Shore Show, Tonight, The Dave Garroway Show and other radio and TV shows with Garroway. He recorded 130 episodes of the 15-minute The Art Van Damme Show for NBC Radio. MORE
Tribute Compilation
Available Recordings
Search Amazon.com for Art Van Damme

Vinnie Rattolle's: Screen Director's Playhouse: Saigon

2009-11-03T14:33:00.000-08:00

Vinnie Rattolle's: Screen Director's Playhouse: Saigon

V Discs preserve 1940 radio shows...

2009-08-24T18:16:00.001-07:00

Many pop and Big Band radio programs are available today because they were pressed for listening by servicemen overseas during World War II. Many are preserved and can be heard today.

LINKS

Very interesting program on BBC Radio 2 - "Opp Goes Uncle Sam." It tells the history of the V-Disc program of World War 2 and beyond. You can find it HERE

OTRadio

2009-07-31T09:18:00.001-07:00

SHOP OTR Pograms

2009-07-30T17:17:00.000-07:00

Strange Dr Weird

2009-07-30T09:06:00.000-07:00

The Strange Dr. Weird is a radio program broadcast on Mutual from 1944 to 1945.
Sponsored by Adams Hats, the drama is notable in part because it was a sister series to The Mysterious Traveler, both in theme and its narrator. Maurice Tarplin, who was also the creepy voice of The Mysterious Traveler. Many of the scripts were condensed 15-minute versions of scripts originally broadcast on The Mysterious Traveler.

Wikipedia Summary
Available Recordings

AMC TV Series...

2009-07-27T11:36:00.000-07:00

LINKS
At Amazon.com
YouTube VIDEO Edits
Remember WENN is an Emmy-winning dramedy television series that aired from 1996 to 1998 on the cable channel American Movie Classics. Created and written by Rupert Holmes (with music also by Holmes) and set at the fictional Pittsburgh radio station WENN in the early 1940s, it depicted events (both dramatic and comic) in the personal and professional lives of the station's staff in the era before and during World War II. The show ran for four seasons totalling 56 episodes, including an hour-long Christmas episode. See our links for more including Wikipedia entry.

WTEL's Doug Hibbs

2009-07-26T11:32:00.001-07:00

My old friend and broadcasting buddy Doug HIBBS Sr. passed away on Thursday, July 23, 2009. Bud was 89 years of age. He was born in Phila., Pa., and formerly of Williamstown and West Chester, PA. He lived in Pitman for 40 years. Doug spent most of his life in Philadelphia Radio and in the summer of 1960 he guided me into my career in radio by teaching me the ropes at WTEL. "Philadelphia's clear channel local" is what he used on the air (It made the 250 watt daytime radio station sound a bit exclusive). He was a member of the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia... [Doug "Bud" Hibbs started in the business in 1934 (not a typo). His father put WTEL Radio on the air in the mid-20s. While he was in his upper 80s, Hibbs still worked part-time selling radio time at WVLT in Vineland, NJ.] He was also a member of Clayton Kiwanis, West Chester Exchange Club and the West Chester Jaycees. Doug enjoyed trips to the casino and was a huge Philadelphia Phillies fan. The photo here was taken in the main performance studio at WTEL, SUMMER 1960.

Visit our WTEL, Philadelphia web page

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Tommy Dorsey broadcast

2009-05-16T15:11:00.001-07:00

Tommy Dorsey (November 19, 1905 – November 26, 1956) was an American jazz trombonist, trumpeter, composer, and bandleader of the Big Band era. He was the younger brother of Jimmy Dorsey. His lyrical trombone style became one of the signature sounds of his band and of the Swing Era.

Wikipedia Bio

Albums Available At Amazon.com

Broadcast September 18, 1942:

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Country Hoedown with Eddy Arnold

2009-05-16T12:20:00.000-07:00

Richard Edward "Eddy" Arnold (May 15, 1918 – May 8, 2008) was among the most popular country music singers in American history and helped create the Nashville sound during the late 1950s.
He sold more than 85 million records and had 147 songs on the charts, including 28 number one hits on Billboard's Country Singles chart. Although George Jones had more individual country hits, one authoritative study ranks Arnold as the the all-time leader for hits and their time on the charts.
His longevity was exceptional; Arnold transcended changing musical tastes for more than 50 years, and his later concerts attracted three generations of fans. To some he also served as a role model; in a field often awash with alcohol and drugs, he remained temperate. A member of the Grand Ole Opry and the Country Music Hall of Fame, Arnold ranked 22nd on County Music Television's 2003 list of The 40 Greatest Men of Country Music...MORE Wikipedia Bio - Albums Available At Amazon.com

National Guard Armory Transcription

2009-05-15T23:34:00.000-07:00

Rosemary Clooney (May 23, 1928 – June 29, 2002) was an American singer and actress. She came to prominence in the early 1950s with the novelty hit "Come On-a My House", which was followed by other pop numbers "Botch-a-Me (Ba-Ba-Baciami Piccina)" (a cover version of the Italian song Ba-Ba-Baciami Piccina by Alberto Rabagliati), "Mambo Italiano", and "This Ole House", songs which tended to obscure her talents as a jazz vocalist.
Clooney's career languished in the 1960s, partly due to problems related to depression and drug addiction, but revived in 1974, when Bing Crosby asked her to appear with him at a show marking his 50th anniversary in show business. From the late 1970s until her death in 2002, she recorded a series of albums for the Concord Jazz,[[1]] record label with small ensembles which were warmly received by audiences and critics alike.

Albums Available At Amazon.com

Wikipedia Bio

Stan Freberg

2009-05-14T21:33:00.000-07:00

Who listens to radio? Promotional collection

Search Amazon.com for Stan Freberg

Paul Harvey dies at age 90

2009-03-01T01:12:00.000-08:00

Search Amazon.com for Paul Harvey
Paul Harvey, the news commentator and talk-radio pioneer whose staccato style made him one of the nation's most familiar voices, died Saturday in Arizona, according to ABC Radio Networks. He was 90.

MORE - WEB - IMAGES - SHOP Paul Harvey

California Melodies episode 46

2009-01-17T03:15:00.000-08:00

Search Amazon.com for David Rose Orchestra Our Waltz/Holiday For Strings [10 Inch 78 RPM]

California Melodies 410222 e0046.mp3 - DAVID ROSE

February 22, 1941 Mutual Radio Broadcast

Radio Mystery Drama Mr and Mrs North

2008-12-30T01:52:00.000-08:00

Search Amazon.com for Mr and Mrs North
Mr. and Mrs. North are fictional American amateur detectives. Created by Frances and Richard Lockridge, the couple were featured in a series of 26 Mr. and Mrs. North novels, a Broadway play, a motion picture and several radio and television series. Mr. and Mrs. North was a radio mystery series that aired on CBS from 1942 to 1954. Alice Frost and Joseph Curtin had the title roles when the series began in 1942. Then Richard Denning and Pamela Britton [photo] took over on radio and TV. Publisher Jerry North and his wife Pam lived in Greenwich Village at 24 St. Anne's Flat. They were not professional detectives but simply an ordinary couple who stumbled across a murder or two every week for 12 years. The radio program eventually reached nearly 20 million listeners.

WIKIPEDIA - WEB - IMAGES - SHOP Amazon.com - AUDIO ARCHIVES

WTIC Radio remembers RAY CONNIFF

2008-11-08T12:20:00.000-08:00

Ray recalls his early days in Boston playing trombone with the Society Bands, including Dan Murphy’s Musical Skippers, performing in New York with Bunny Berrigan, Artie Shaw, and Bob Crosby and his eventual glory years at Columbia records...

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Benny Goodman Big Band Radio Remote

2008-11-08T04:26:00.000-08:00

Here is another post of a radio big band remote by the Benny Goodman Orchestra. A broadcast from 6 November 1937 at the Madhattan Room down in the basement of the Hotel Pennsylvania in New York City...

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Johnny Gilbert ~ announcer profile

2008-11-08T03:15:00.000-08:00

Each day, thousands of trivia junkies and elderly folks hear the siren call: “This is Jeopardy!” Johnny Gilbert, the man behind those words, started out as a choirboy at his Lutheran Church in Newport News, Virginia, which led him to pursue a singing career.

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California Melodies 44

2008-11-02T04:50:00.000-08:00

Faust Waltz
Amapola
I Guess It's Better That Way
MAXINE GRAY sings There'll Be Some Changes Made
Vienna Waltz
OFFENBACH Orpheus In The Underworld
MAXINE GRAY sings It All Comes Back to Me Now
Indefinate Ryhthm

Radio legend Studs Terkel dies at 96

2008-11-02T03:14:00.000-08:00

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All Things Considered, October 31, 2008 · Legendary oral historian, author and radio personality Studs Terkel has died at his home in Chicago. He was 96. Terkel's health had been declining for some time and he was very frail; his son, Dan Terkel, said his condition worsened on Oct. 30, and he died "quickly and peacefully" just before 3 p.m. on Oct. 31.

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BOOKS about early radio

2008-11-01T02:26:00.000-07:00

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1. Sound and Fury
By Francis Chase Jr.
Harper, 1942

Francis Chase Jr. wrote his "informal history of broadcasting" at a time when broadcasting meant one thing: radio. With our lives now bombarded by television, satellite radio, the Internet and cellphones, it is difficult to imagine the technological breakthrough that radio represented and how it transfixed listeners. "Sound and Fury" beautifully captures the significance of radio's arrival and conveys a deep appreciation for the creative geniuses -- Fred Allen, Jack Benny and countless others -- whose radio shows were a watershed of American entertainment. Chase is astute in his appraisals of the earliest radio pioneers, and he wisely perceives that President Roosevelt's "fireside chats" in the 1930s heralded a serious new role for a medium that had once been thought strictly meant for diversion. The people Chase writes about, many of whom have been forgotten, and the conversational narrative style of the book, almost make it seem that you are listening to a great radio show.

2. A Tower in Babel
By Erik Barnouw
Oxford, 1966

The first of the three volumes in Erik Barnouw's towering "A History of Broadcasting in the United States" takes the reader back to the late-19th century, when scientists experimented with technology that would allow them to send sound electrically through the air. His descriptions of the earliest efforts of Guglielmo Marconi, Reginald Fessenden and other inventors bring those brilliant men to life and clearly explain the complex science involved. Though it has been used as a textbook, "A Tower in Babel" is also a model of historical storytelling and provides a fine underpinning of modern broadcasting.

3. Raised on Radio
By Gerald Nachman
Pantheon, 1998

Gerald Nachman was hooked on radio from an early age, and his love of the medium comes through on every page of "Raised on Radio." He describes the book as "a kind of memoir in that many of the shows within these pages were more real to me than my own life." Each chapter is devoted to a particular type of show -- the chapter called "Saddle Sore" discusses western dramas like "The Lone Ranger," while "Nesting Instincts" deals with domestic comedies. "Fibber McGee and Molly," he tells us, "seamlessly blended vaudeville high jinks with radio's cozier atmospherics." In addition to conjuring what it was like to sit at home and feel riveted by the stories emanating from the big box that dominated the living room, Nachman interviews many of the old radio writers and performers, who only enhance the sense that there was a certain magic in that vanished time.

4. Crosley
By Rusty McClure
Clerisy, 2006

Crosley is a highly recognized name in Cincinnati, not just because the Reds baseball team used to play at Crosley Field but also because two brothers, Powel and Lewis Crosley, built a radio business that helped spawn an entire national industry. Powel was the inventor, Lewis the businessman; together they made fortunes early in the 20th century selling auto parts and manufacturing radios. In the 1920s, the Crosleys started a small radio station, WLW, in Cincinnati -- and that's when the story turns fascinating. The book relates how a single company, and a city not located on either coast, could play a central role in radio's development. In 1934, calculating that if stations had stronger signals, then the Crosleys could build radios that were less expensive but still received broadcasts, the brothers were temporarily given permission to turn WLW into a 500,000-watt powerhouse. Author Rusty McClure, writing with David Stern and Michael A. Banks, excels in placing the brothers' pioneering accomplishments within the context of U.S. society in the 1920s and '30s, and the book sheds welcome light on the lives of two important but underappreciated figures of American business.

5. On the Air
By John Dunning
Oxford, 1998

John Dunning's "encyclopedia of old-time radio" is an invaluable resource about the performers, shows, sponsors, history and influence of the medium. We start alphabetically with "The A&P Gypsies" ("exotic music with a nomadic motif; one of radio's earliest, most distinctive programs") and end in "Zorro" country, finding along the way engagingly written entries that reflect a savviness about the shows themselves and their significance to audiences at the time. And Dunning is thorough: The entries include vital information about when and where shows were broadcast, who starred in them, who led the orchestra and other details that any radio fanatic will relish. Essays spread throughout this dense volume provide a commanding overview of the complexities of an entire industry at the height of its influence.

Power of radio panics America 70 years ago

2008-10-26T07:50:00.000-07:00

CBS radio dramatization of H.G. Wells's science fiction novel, "War of the Worlds."

The culprit was 23-year-old Orson Welles and his Mercury Theater players.

While Welles's Martians laid waste to Manhattan, Norman Corwin, a former reporter for the Springfield Republican, was busy in another CBS studio a floor above....MORE
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California Melodies 43

2008-10-26T07:21:00.000-07:00

My Heart at Thy Sweet Voice
DELIUS Dance for Harpsichord
Carry Me Back to Old Virginny
Do I Worry? vocalist maxine Gray
Cari Mia Rhumba
RUBINSTEIN Melody in F
Come Down To Earth, My Angel Maxine Gray
Plantation Moods

NBC Radio recalls big band era

2008-10-11T03:10:00.001-07:00

Big band remotes were a very popular form of radio programming through the 40s and in this collection we have quite a few. These were recorded off-the-air or archived from transcriptions made by NBC radio. This program from 1956 was part of a retrospective series aired on NBC Radio to commemorate 30 years of broadcasting by the network...NBC Logos.

David Rose 'California Melodies 42'

2008-10-05T04:05:00.001-07:00

Juanita
Years From Now
SIBELIUS: Valse Triste
Cantcha Tell with vocalist Maxine Gray
La Paloma
Ruby
Frenesi with Maxine Gray
Opus 6, Number 6 aka Jitterbug Fantasie

Boston Blackie

2008-10-04T17:50:00.000-07:00

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Boston Blackie is a fictional character who has been on both sides of the law. As originally created by author Jack Boyle (born before 1880; died circa 1928), he was a safecracker, a hardened criminal who had served time in a California prison. Prowling the underworld as a detective in adaptations for films, radio and television, the detective Boston Blackie was "an enemy to those who make him an enemy, friend to those who have no friend. "The Boston Blackie radio series starring Chester Morris, began June 23, 1944, on NBC as a summer replacement for The Amos 'n' Andy Show. Sponsored by Rinso, the series continued until September 15 of that year. Unlike the concurrent films, Blackie had a steady romantic interest in the radio show: Lesley Woods appeared as Blackie's girlfriend Mary Wesley. Harlow Wilcox was the show's announcer. On April 11, 1945, Richard Kollmar took over the title role in a radio series syndicated by Frederic W. Ziv to Mutual and other network outlets. Over 200 episodes of this series were produced between 1944 and October 25, 1950. Other sponsors included Lifebuoy Soap, Champagne Velvet beer, and R&H beer.

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Kent Taylor starred in TV Version... intro:

Radio "$50 Shoe shine" episode, Podcast:

Tuxedo Junction Juke Box Pages

2008-09-30T01:29:00.000-07:00

George Spink's handy guide to the 12 Juke Box podcast Pages he has completed on his
Tuxedo Junction Juke Box Pages:

Airmen of Note click here | Available Recordings

Benny Carter click here | Available Recordings

Variety 3 click here

Charlie Barnet click here | Available Recordings

Tommy Dorsey click here | Available Recordings

Variety 4 click here

Count Basie click here | Available Recordings

Variety 1 click here

Variety 5 click here

Les Brown click here | Available Recordings

Variety 2 click here

Variety 6 click here

Simply click on any link to visit that page.

The Andre Kostelanetz papers

2008-09-29T20:35:00.000-07:00

The papers of legendary conductor, arranger and broadcaster Andre Kostelanetz have been donated to the Library of Congress by his estate. Kostelanetz died in 1980. The gift is a veritable treasure trove for students of 20th century music and broadcasting. The archive of Kostelanetz' personal property, papers, clippings, letters, sound recordings, posters, and photographs spans some 73 crates. It documents in detail the career of one of America's most remarkable men of music. The gift from Kostelanetz' estate will complement the gift of scores and parts for many of his arrangements Kostelanetz made to the Library of Congress. His papers will join those of George and Ira Gershwin, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, Lorenz Hart, Frederick Loewe, Alan Jay Lerner, and Irving Berlin, among others in the Library's collection of material belonging to eminent American musicians.

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David Rose 'California Melodies' 41

2008-09-28T03:44:00.000-07:00

FLOTOW's Martha
Deserted City
Walking By The River with vocalist Maxine Gray
The Old Oaken Bucket
RAVEL's Pavanne
All I Desire with Maxine Gray
Ukelele Finale Melody on notes G C E A
Boomp3.com

Harry James 1944

2008-09-22T06:22:00.001-07:00

Casino Gardens -
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California Melodies with David Rose No. 40

2008-09-21T04:56:00.000-07:00

Wagner's Hymn To the Evening Star
Time Stood Still
Rimsky-Korsakov's Hymn To the Sun
It All Comes Back To Me Now vocalist Maxine Gray
Perfidia
Dvorak's Slavonic Dance No. 10
So You're The One vocalist Maxine Gray
Silver Threads Among the Gold

Suspense Agnes Moorehead 'Sorry Wrong Number'

2008-09-20T13:00:00.000-07:00

“Suspense” from February 24, 1944, broadcast on AFRS as program 41, “Sorry, Wrong Number” starring Agnes Moorehead.
Lucille Fletcher's play originally aired on the Suspense radio program on May 25, 1943, with Agnes Moorehead in the lead role as Mrs. Stevenson. The show was reprised seven times, each time starring Moorehead. The final broadcast was on February 14, 1960.

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Benny Goodman's Camel Caravan

2008-09-20T09:26:00.000-07:00

Camel Caravan was a musical variety radio program, sponsored by Camel cigarettes, that aired on NBC and CBS from 1933 to 1954. Various vocalists, musicians and comedy acts were heard during the 21 years this show was on the air, including such talents as Benny Goodman, Georgia Gibbs, Anita O'Day and Vaughn Monroe. It debuted December 7, 1933, on CBS as a showcase for Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra later Benny Goodman's band until June 25, 1936. Five days later, the show was reformatted on June 30 as Benny Goodman's Swing School with vocalists Martha Tilton and Johnny Mercer with Jack Oakie's College added to the hour on December 29. While this aired on Tuesdays on CBS until June 20, 1939, another Benny Goodman Camel Caravan was heard Saturdays on NBC during 1939.

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George Putnam, broadcasting veteran dies

2008-09-12T12:35:00.000-07:00

George Putnam, the pioneer television news anchorman and conservative commentator whose distinctive stentorian voice was familiar to millions of Southern Californians during his heyday in the 1950s and '60s, died 12 September 2008. He was 94. Putnam, who had been suffering from a kidney ailment since December, died at Chino Valley Medical Center, said Chuck Wilder, Putnam's co-host, producer and announcer.

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John Facenda, WIP, WCAU Philadelphia

2008-09-10T09:06:00.000-07:00

John Facenda

PHILADELPHIA (AP) WPVI-TV6 - September 10, 2008 -- The National Football League says it looks forward to defending a lawsuit over the use of legendary football announcer John Facenda's voice. John Thomas Ralph Augustine James Facenda (August 8, 1913 – September 26, 1984) was an American broadcaster and sports announcer. He was a fixture on Philadelphia radio and television for decades, and achieved national fame as a narrator for NFL Films. Through his work with NFL Films, Facenda was known by many NFL fans as "The Voice of God".

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Christmas Day 1953 Philadelphia

2008-09-09T08:21:00.000-07:00

Here is a 23 minute dial spin of Philadelphia radio on Christmas Day in 1953.
To LISTEN click the '>' icon on the left. To DOWNLOAD click the double window on the right of the player and you will be sent to the download page.

For more historical information and audio from Philadelphia radio visit http://www.broadcastpioneers.com/

One Night Stand - Gene Krupa

2008-09-04T05:59:00.000-07:00

Gene Krupa (January 15, 1909 – October 16, 1973) was an influential American jazz and big band drummer, known for his highly energetic and flamboyant style. Krupa was born in Chicago, Illinois on January 15, 1909 and was the the youngest of Bartley and Ann Krupa's nine children. Krupa made his first recordings in 1927, with a band under the leadership of banjoist Eddie Condon and "fixer" (and sometime singer, who did not appear on the records), Red McKenzie: along with other recordings beginning in 1924 by musicians known in the "Chicago" scene. In 1929 he moved to New York City and worked with the band of Red Nichols. In 1934 he joined Benny Goodman's band, where his featured drum work — especially on the hit "Sing, Sing, Sing" — made him a national celebrity. In 1938, after a public fight with Goodman at the Earl Theater in Philadelphia, he left Goodman to launch his own band and had several hits with singer Anita O'Day and trumpeter Roy Eldridge. He continued to perform in the 1960s even in famous clubs like the Metropole near Times Square in New York. Krupa retired in the late 1960s, although he occasionally played in public in the early 1970s until shortly before his death from leukemia and heart failure in Yonkers, New York at age sixty-four.

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Happy Birthday...PAUL HARVEY

2008-09-04T04:15:00.000-07:00

4 SEPTEMBER 1918 - Birth of Paul Harvey, American radio commentator.

Paul Harvey Aurandt, better known as Paul Harvey, is an American radio broadcaster for the ABC Radio Networks. He broadcasts News and Comment on weekday mornings and mid-days, and at noon on Saturdays, as well as his famous The Rest of the Story segments. His listening audience is estimated at 22 million people a week. Harvey likes to say he was raised in radio newsrooms.

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Screen Guild Show...

2008-09-02T07:28:00.000-07:00

The Screen Guild Theater was a popular radio anthology series during the Golden Age of Radio broadcast from 1939 until 1952 with leading Hollywood actors performing in adaptations of popular motion pictures. The show had a long run, lasting for 14 seasons and 527 episodes. It initially was heard on CBS from January 8, 1939 until June 28, 1948, continuing on NBC from October 7, 1948 until June 29, 1950. It was broadcast on ABC from September 7, 1950 to May 31, 1951 and returned to CBS on March 13, 1952. The episode below was recorded early in 1939 and starred Bette Davis. SHOP Bette Davis...

Claude Thornhill band

2008-09-01T09:50:00.001-07:00

Claude Thornhill born August 10, 1909 at Terre Haute, Indiana. Died July 1, 1965, New York City. American pianist, arranger and bandleader. Although the Thornhill band was originally a sophisticated dance band it became known for its many superior jazz musicians and for Thornhill's and Gil Evans' innovative arrangements. The band ceased operation in 1942 when Thornhill entered the military, where he performed with Artie Shaw's United States Navy band, then was revived from 1946 to 1948 in New York and until 1953 on the road. In the mid 1950s Thornhill became Tony Bennett's musical director briefly, then toured with small groups.

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Death Valley Days

2008-08-29T23:41:00.001-07:00

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Death Valley Days was a long-running American radio and television anthology about true stories of the old American West, particularly the Death Valley area. It was created in 1930 by Ruth Woodman and ran on radio until 1945. It ran from 1952 to 1975 as a syndicated television series.

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Announcer Fred Crabe dies at 90

2008-08-23T02:00:00.000-07:00

Fred Crane, a former longtime Los Angeles classical music radio station announcer who achieved a slice of film immortality as an actor who played one of the handsome Tarleton twins in the 1939 movie classic "Gone With the Wind," has died. He was 90.
Crane, who had been hospitalized for a few weeks with diabetes-related complications, died of a blood clot in his lung Thursday in a hospital near Atlanta, said his wife, Terry. Crane was the oldest surviving adult male cast member of "Gone With the Wind," producer David O. Selznick's epic production of the Margaret Mitchell novel starring Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh. Crane became a part-time announcer at Los Angeles classical radio station KFAC in 1946. He continued to act, mostly in television, until the mid-1960s, when he began working full time at KFAC.

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Former DJ Chuck Dougherty

2008-08-22T16:35:00.000-07:00

Through most of the 1960s and well into the 1970s, Chuck Dougherty worked in Philadelphia (WIP and WPEN), except for one year in New York City (WNEW). When asked who his favorite interview was through the years, Dougherty is quick to respond that it was Tony Bennett. "This one time I did a radio show with Tony at WIP in Philly. He was great and it was a lot of fun," he started. "Fast forward to that night and I'm at the R.D.A. Club (in Philadelphia) and there's nobody there, except for two couples and me sitting at the bar. All of a sudden Tony slipped in. And on stage is a combo doing Tony's songs. Tony asks me to be quiet as he slips up behind the kid singing and takes the mic out of his hand. I thought this kid was going to faint." Bennett took over the stage with that kid's band, and proceeded to sing. "Tony gave us 30 minutes, just two couples and me," Dougherty added with a laugh. "He's such a nice guy."...READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

REMEMBERadio

The Green Hornet

From out of the west...The Lone Ranger

Beat The Band NBC Radio

The Guiding Light was the longest running radio-TV drama in history.

I Love a Mystery

Amos 'n' Andy

I Love a Mystery

Bob Hope first heard on radio

The Shadow Knows what evil lurks... Lamont Cranston

Oldtime radio New Years Shows

On December 11 in 1944, the Chesterfield Supper Club debuted on NBC radio.

Lights Out

December 4, 1933 Ma Perkins heard nationally for the first time.

Calling All Cars, CBS Radio

The Grand Ole Opry from WSM

November 25 FBI in Peace and War

November 16 in radio history

Kate Smith sings God Bless America November 11 1938

Big Band remote with Benny Goodman

A LIFE IN RADIO WITH ORSON WELLES

Fanny Brice was radio's 'Baby Snooks' (October 29, 1891 – May 29, 1951)

October 24

Ellery Queen

Norman Corwin 1910 - 2011

October 18

October 16

October 12 Mr. Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons

October 8 in broadcasting history premiere Ozzie and Harriet on radio

October 4

September 30 debut of national Farm and Home Hour

William Conrad birthday September 27

September 25 TOM MIX Radio debut

Jimmy Stewart in The Sixshooter

Father Knows Best is an American radio and television comedy series...PREMIERE: August 25, 1949, on NBC Radio

August 14 in Radio History

August 9 CBS Our Secret Weapon debuts

Jan Savitt Orchestra at KYW

Lucille Ball birthday August 6

Military training film on a New York radio station, WMCA, owned by the Nathan Straus family, showing its ownership, management and activities. Good view of radio in the era when most stations were locally owned and operated.

Donald Voorhees conductor The Bell Telephone Hour

Harriet Hilliard Nelson birthday July 18

We are nostalgic about radio

INTERNET RADIO STREAMS

Philadelphia Radio book

Ralph Edwards created the game show Truth or Consequences

FRED ALLEN

Jack Webb

"Lopez, speaking"

FRED FOY, announcer, dies at age 89

EDWIN H ARMSTRONG Radio Pioneer

JIM AMECHE, announcer, radio actor

Veteran announcer CHARLIE O'DONNELL dies at 78

the music of The Lone Ranger radio series

ART LINKLETTER

The Lone Ranger - Radio

The Lone Ranger - Radio

Art Van Damme dies

Vinnie Rattolle's: Screen Director's Playhouse: Saigon

V Discs preserve 1940 radio shows...

LINKS

OTRadio

SHOP OTR Pograms

Strange Dr Weird

Wikipedia Summary Available Recordings

AMC TV Series...

WTEL's Doug Hibbs

Tommy Dorsey broadcast

Country Hoedown with Eddy Arnold

National Guard Armory Transcription

Stan Freberg

Paul Harvey dies at age 90

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California Melodies episode 46

Radio Mystery Drama Mr and Mrs North

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WTIC Radio remembers RAY CONNIFF

Benny Goodman Big Band Radio Remote

Wiki Bio - SHOP Benny Goodman

Johnny Gilbert ~ announcer profile

Wikipedia Summary
Available Recordings

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