Don't touch that dial!

[Wild Root]

Now some of the High dollar sets that I mentioned.

The first two I think are very nice examples of early and mid 30’s Scott receivers. The last one is a great example of what many people of status would request to have made. A custom wood cabinet that was designed to show off the chrome platted 18 tube chassis. Scott also made a set that had 48 tubes which is pictured at the bottom. You could buy a Scott, or a new car for near the same price! Big money then, and even bigger money today!

E.H. Scott.

 

[wackyvorlon]

As an aside, for anyone interested in 40/50s radio, there's a radio station out of Windsor, Ontario, Canada that still plays mostly music from that period - even has radio shows on after 10PM. The station is 580 CKWW, and their website is http://www.580ckww.com

I do beleive that they have a stream of the station on their website.

 

[Chad Sanborn]

One of my all time favorite TV shows, started on the radio.
The Lone Ranger!
Another famous radio show that was made into a move in the 1990's was The Shadow! The Shadow, was written by a man named Walter B. Gibson. Gibson got his start in the radio business as a magician. Another magician to shake up radio was Orson Welles. His broadcast of War of the Worlds has to be one of the all time greatest publicity stunts.
Last but not least, Joseph Dunninger, was a mentalist who performed many times on the radio. Reading the minds of listeners who would call in to the station.
Unfortunately, TV took the audience away from the radio. People could now see what until then they had to imagine. In much the same way, motion pictures took the life out of vaudeville.

Chad

 

[Wild Root]

Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men.....? The Shadow Knows!

Ah yes, the Shadow! That was a great show too. I saw the movie and well, it was fun but in many ways could have been done a little better I think.

The Loan Ranger, man that was a very popular show back then. Also Sgt Preston of the Yukon was fun listening.

Ah yes, The War of the Worlds! What a ruckus that caused! Originally aired on October 31st 1939 Halloween night! I’m sure that’s just what every one wanted to hear that night. It caused nation wide panic and there were mad letters pouring into radio stations all over the US.

Any one here ever hear of a show that lasted only 5 or so years? It’s called X Minus One. It was a truly intriguing science fiction program told stories of the future. It only lasted from 1950 to 1955 or so. That show had some good writers!

As radio shows transitioned over to TV, the last true radio drama was I believe in 1962 or 63. After that, the radio would never bee the same again.

Well, I would love to listen in on that Canadian station! But, I'm just a little out of range I'm afraid.

Rob.

 

[Kent Allard]

Any one here ever hear of a show that lasted only 5 or so years? It’s called X Minus One. It was a truly intriguing science fiction program told stories of the future. It only lasted from 1950 to 1955 or so. That show had some good writers!

You just named one of my two favorite radio shows ever. I have a complete collection of the series on MP3 and play them while I'm working around the house. They adapt Heinlein, Bester, Bradbury and a bunch of other classic stories as well as some originals.

 

[Wild Root]

Sweet! I knew there was another X-1 fan! Good to hear.

Ever hear "Honeymoon in Hell"?

Root.

 

[The Wolf]

return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear

I'm a huge fan of old radio shows, actually I'm only 5'11".
For comedies: Jack Benny, George and Gracie, Fibber McGee and so much more.
Suspense, The Green Hornet, Lux Radio Theatre, The Whistler, The Casebook of Gregory Hood, all great stuff.
I use to get old-time-radio on KNX and KABL but the reception was poor.
I've been buying the cassettes of radio shows for years.
Now here's the irony, despite my dislike for the 1950s, I prefer the television show of "The Lone Ranger" to the radio show. It might just be that Jay Silverheels had more to say on TV. Tonto of the radio pretty much just said "Ugh". Even The Lone Ranger's grand-nephew's sidekick's dialogue was better on the radio (Kato that is).

As always, your devoted servant,
The Wolf

 

[gandydancer]

Back in the 70's Pepsi Cola was sponsoring some replays of old radio shows. I was tinkering with an old Zenith TransOceanic radio I had aquired and listening to one of them. A friend came by and commented that he had not heard the Shadow since 1952.

I replied, "This radio was made in 1952".

Not often you get a straight line like that.

 

[Wild Root]

From what my Grandmother told me what their first radio looked like I think this is close to what they might have had. She told me that you could lift a lid and see all the tubes in side. Also she said that the shape looked some what like a mantle clock. Well, that speaker is close to that shape and the cabinet has a lid on it. It's a late 20's Radiola by RCA.

Maybe it's the one she told me about. Sure would like to find out so I could find one like it.

Root.

 

[Johnnysan]

Unfortunately, the Canadian station listed earlier doesn't have streaming audio (or I couldn't find a link to it.) Here is an alternative from St. Louis:

http://www.1041themall.com/features/streaming.aspx

 

[Scuffy]

Old radio shows.

Kent- Where by chance did you come across these MP3's? I've heard a few people mention this before but I have yet to find them. If anyone here is into ham radio- just stop by a ham show or any electronics show and odds are you'll find at least one stand selling many MANY of the old radio shows in MP3 format on cd as well as vintage radios of all shapes, sizes, makes and models. Between my dad and I we have acquired all kinds of nifty shows on cd like this-Amos & Andy and the like. Some of my favorites are actually the advertisements. I love the bits jocks and actors would go through.

I'm a dj at a local adult contemporary station owned by Clear Channel (gone are the days of radio not owned by giant corporations.) We're supposed to get a new station in about a month or so and I'm up for the position of head afternoon jock. It's either going to be country or oldies. I listen to most everything (other than rap and most gospel) and I love doo wop from the 50's but unfortunately the format of most oldies stations have switched from 50's and 60's to 60's and 70's. If it ends up being oldies in format I was hoping to record some ads in the old style, even older than the 50's in that respect. I miss the fun of stuff like that!

Anyway, sorry about all the rambling! Like I said, try out a ham radio show!

 

[Wild Root]

You know, it just makes me sick that all the oldies stations out there play stuff from the late 50s to the late 70's. There is a new station on FM here and it's called JACK radio. They play what ever they want! They don't take requests and they just play what they like and it goes from there.

If there is a way to start a station on a low signal at first then see how it goes, I would love to see the return of classic American music from the 20's to the 50's. With times in the day for classic radio shows and commercials.

I wonder if there is a way to do this with out having to have a sponsor.

Root.

 

[Kent Allard]

http://testbox.cob.rit.edu/

It's a website called "The Cobalt Club". Once you are a member they have a forum for swapping MP3's of classic radio that is no longer under copywrite protection.

 

[Dismuke]

If there is a way to start a station on a low signal at first then see how it goes, I would love to see the return of classic American music from the 20's to the 50's. With times in the day for classic radio shows and commercials.

I wonder if there is a way to do this with out having to have a sponsor.

Root.

Well, this may be involve some amount of shameless self-promotion - but it is at least very much on topic. I have such a station - though it is on the Internet which I consider to be even better than a low power station as it can be picked up anywhere in the world where there is an Internet connection instead of by just a lucky few who happen to live in the right spot. The station is called Radio Dismuke and it plays nothing but vintage recordings of popular music and jazz from the 1925 - 1935 decade. I even have a few vintage commercials thrown in.

You can access the station by going to http://dismuke.org/radio

For those not familiar with 1920s and 1930s popular music, I encourage you to listen in for a couple of hours and give the genre a try. It is unlike anything you will find on today's radio or popular music scene and, trust me, it is highly addictive.

BTW - Wild Root, I noticed in your profile that you collect 78 rpm records. Me too. They are wonderful.

 

[Wild Root]

Ah radio dismuke! Good station and they play some really good stuff.

The only problem with Dismuke is that you can't tune into it on a 1930's tube radio. I have a collection of radios from the 20's to the 40's and would love nothing more then to enjoy a radio drama or enjoy the sound of the big bands on a vintage radio. The PC is a great tool to enjoy ad free radio all over the world for only pennies a day. But, I feel that radio as we know it is doomed due to the internet. What happens when the internet takes over and radio goes away? Well, I'll have over 30+ vintage radios that will work only if there was something to receive.

Are there any small AM transmitters on the market to broadcast one's music collections to their own radios? That would be a way to enjoy my own music on my old radios.

Root.

PS. 78’s, are fun to play. I have some rare stuff in my collection. I’m sure you do as well. Have you any Emery Deutsch (The Magic Bow of Radio) on the Blue Bird label? I have two and one of them is just really sweet. It’s on a RCA Blue Bird Label and is entitled “Troika�. I have never seen another copy and I can’t find ANY Emery Deutsch on CD!!!

 

[wackyvorlon]

If you should be interested, you can purchase low power AM transmitters, or alternately, build one VERY easily. Listen to the station on your computer, then feed the microphone output into the little transmitter, and away you go! You may have issues with it being very quiet, in which case a small amplifier can be built, or one can be adapted.

 

[Wild Root]

Yeah, that's nice but.... I don't know anything about building a transmitter. Tips on where to buy one?

Root.

 

[Dismuke]

he PC is a great tool to enjoy ad free radio all over the world for only pennies a day. But, I feel that radio as we know it is doomed due to the internet. What happens when the internet takes over and radio goes away?

I am afraid the demise of radio - or more precisely, "broadcasting" as we know it - wouldn't bother me very much. With "broadcasting" you only have a few available stations and everything is, therefore, reduced to the widest (which is, sadly, usually the lowest) possible common denominator. That was true back in the 1920s and 1930s as well, of course. It is just that in today's popular culture, especially in the area of popular music, that common denominator has sunk lower and lower into a sewer until all that is left is the horrible noise that most people listen to today because they have never been exposed to anything better. If the day ever comes when high speed wireless Internet is commonplace and affordable, you will have THOUSANDS of radio stations available "narrowcasting" to you in your car or anywhere else you go - many of them operated by hobbyists such as myself who do it because they love the music they play and have no need to pander to lowest common denominators.

I agree it would be sad to see those beautiful old vintage radios unable to pick anything up. But then again, unless you have one of those personal AM transmitters, isn't that pretty much already the case at least with regard to music? What can you pick up on AM these days besides news and talk oriented programming? Maybe some Spanish language stations in certain parts of the country, perhaps some of the horrible modern stuff in smaller markets or some of the "nostalgia" stations you mentioned in a previous posting which play mostly dreadfully dull easy listening stuff and cheesy 1970s pop. Oh, yeah. Maybe once in a blue moon one of those nostalgia station will play "When Radio Was" interrupted by the commentary of that program's crazy announcer. On Live 365.com on the Internet, there are a number of stations where you can hear old time radio shows - with the ORIGINAL commercials intact.

Are there any small AM transmitters on the market to broadcast one's music collections to their own radios? That would be a way to enjoy my own music on my old radios.

There are a few on the market - but they are not as small, compact or affordable as the FM transmitters that you can purchase at darn near any electronics store. You will most likely have to order an AM transmitter by mail. I recently purchased one through the Internet which was only $49 as opposed to another I was looking at which cost $159. Unfortunately, I am having trouble getting it to broadcast very far - which I think is because I don't have a decent antenna set up on it. Once I get my antenna situation taken care of one way or another, I will put up a posting letting everyone know how well that particular transmitter works out. If it doesn't work out, I will give the $159 model a shot. I too have quite a few radios from the '20s through the '40s which work well - but the problem is I do not wish to pollute my house with the noises that they pick up.

PS. 78’s, are fun to play. I have some rare stuff in my collection. I’m sure you do as well. Have you any Emery Deutsch (The Magic Bow of Radio) on the Blue Bird label?

I am not aware of having any by him - though I still have quite a large collection I acquired about a year ago that I have not yet fully sorted through. I will keep my eyes open for him next time I am going through some Bluebirds Didn't he mostly record in the 1940s?

 

[Wild Root]

Emery Deutsch:

I don't know much about him and his musical history. The two records I have of him are from the early 40's.

I have seen some sheet music from him in the 30's and also one Brunswick 78rpm from the early 30's. He played the Violin and I think he was rather good.

About broadcasting:

what they play today, one word: EeeeW! Well, if that's really a word.

I enjoy only a few talk shows on AM here in the LA area. There is one station which moved from 570AM to 690AM. They call them selves the lounge and play some really bad stuff! Most of the time I hear really bad renditions from the 70's or 80's of classic Fred Astaire songs and the like. Who wants to hear those recordings???? Talk about wanting to throw up on the radio! The sponsors are to blame for the play lists! They feel that the people want to hear the recording they grew up with and the original recording is just too old for any one alive today to remember. What ever! It's better and people would like it better if they were given the chance to hear it.

I have sent emails to the program manager at 690AM and told them what I had on my mind. I got a really nice email back telling me that they would love to play more original recordings but they can't because of the restraints placed upon them by the sponsors.

Once I did turn on my radio in my 46 Plymouth which was tuned to that station and as the radio wormed up, the sound of Count's One O'clock Jump came over the speaker! How nice it was to have that happen when showing off to a friend my restored car radio.

I remember only about 10 or so years ago there was a really good station on 900Am KRJB which played the best of the big bands and also some really rare stuff. They stopped playing the music and became a Spanish speaking station just before I bought my first vintage radio.

The golden days of radio are so over and will never come back. Live radio is dead and I think that has a part to do with it. I mean, how cool would it be for any modern band to broadcast live from any given place! People still would buy tickets to see the band, but some would stay home and hear it live.
I'm going to have to look into that AM transmitter. That would be fun I think.

Root.

 

[Dismuke]

There is one station which moved from 570AM to 690AM. They call them selves the lounge and play some really bad stuff! Most of the time I hear really bad renditions from the 70's or 80's of classic Fred Astaire songs and the like. Who wants to hear those recordings???? Talk about wanting to throw up on the radio! The sponsors are to blame for the play lists! They feel that the people want to hear the recording they grew up with and the original recording is just too old for any one alive today to remember. What ever! It's better and people would like it better if they were given the chance to hear it.

You have hit the nail on the head as to exactly what is wrong with AM/FM radio today. Everything is aimed at already defined demographic groups and is completely driven by focus groups. Basically radio stations ask people in their target demographics "What do you want to hear?" and if enough people come up with the same answer they then go out and play it for them.

The problem with this approach is that it is the antithesis of innovation. Imagine, for example, if before taking on the task of making widely available and affordable automobiles Henry Ford had gone out and conducted modern-style focus groups. His ultimate conclusion might have been to try and figure out how to make a better buggy whip. The end consumers of a product are often NOT very good at deciding what they would REALLY enjoy because most people are not innovators and are unable to project alternatives to present ways of doing things.

If what one is doing is at all innovative, one cannot usually count on serving existing markets or audiences. What is required is for one to go out and create that market or audience - and that is what conventional radio seems very reluctant to do. Part of it I can understand: in a major media market such as Fort Worth/Dallas, even a crappy "rim shot" signal can cost dozens of millions of dollars. With that kind of money on the line, it is understandable why companies which own stations are very cautious in their approach and are reluctant to venture away from tried and true conventional so-called wisdom. They are under extreme pressure to generate a return on investment for their shareholders.

This mindset is certainly true of the kind of "nostalgia" stations you mentioned. If you listen to the commercials on those stations, you will generally hear lots of ads for laxatives and retirement homes. The conventional wisdom is that the ONLY people who are interested in such music are those who were around when it was first played and that such people are only interested in listening to recordings that became big hits. So these stations have relatively small playlists of a few hundred selections (compared to my station which currently has about 1,700 selections in its active playlist) which are played over and over again year after year after year. If one is lucky, one might be able to occasionally hear something from the late '30s by an Artie Shaw, Tommy Dorsey or Glenn Miller after enduring an hour or so of dreadfully dull easy listening stuff. And as the older generations die off, they play less and less selections from the swing and big band eras and bump up the amount of stuff by the likes of Barbra Streisand.

The notion that the music from the eras that such formats supposedly cover has value and relevance beyond mere nostalgia is utterly foreign to most radio executives - which is why such stations are usually bland. They don't even attempt to recruit in a listenership outside of their target demographics and they figure that the old codgers who do listen in aren't going to go anywhere else.

The reason I am so bullish on Internet radio is because it opens the door for innovation. As a result, an individual such as myself who was profoundly frustrated at what was being offered on AM/FM radio is able to step up to the plate and offer his vision of what he thinks is a better alternative. While there are a few AM/FM stations which devote a few hours a week to a host who plays music from the 1920s and early 1930s, I am not aware of any nostalgia station anywhere in the country that includes such music as part of its normal peak listening hour musical mix. A station like mine which is devoted to nothing but music from that period would be inconceivable.

And one of the things I have learned is that, if one is willing to undertake the task, it IS possible to crate a new audience for vintage music among those who are too young to remember it. Very few of my listeners are old enough to remember the music I play. The music on my station pretty much stops at around 1935. So a person who was only 15 years old at that time would now be 85 years old - and there are not a whole lot of people in their 80s and 90s listening to music on the Internet (though I do occasionally here from some). I do hear from quite a number of people, however, who are in their 20s, 30s and 40s who had previously heard the music from the era in old movie and cartoon soundtracks and became addicted to it after discovering it on the Internet. I also hear from people in their 50s, 60s and 70s who remember listening to their parents old records from the 1920s and 1930s and have wished for all the years since to find a place where they could hear more of the same kind of music.

All of the above mentioned people I have heard from are totally invisible in the eyes of modern radio executives. They are considered statistical freaks who are not worthy of their time or attention.

At some point, the music is going to be freed from its "nostalgia" baggage and be in a better position to stand on its own merits. There is, of course, nobody still around from the era when the music of Mozart, Chopin, Tchaikovsky was new and popular. But such music endures nevertheless because it does have merit. And the recordings made by the great jazz and dance bands of the 1920s and 1930s also have merit. I think eventually younger generations of listeners will rediscover that era and properly regard such recordings as classics in their own right. But, at present, that is kind of hard to expect that to happen when the music that most young people associate with the era is the corny stuff of the Lawrence Welk Show variety and/or the bland and boring crap played over and over again by the AM nostalgia stations.