BASEBALL for Opening Day, Wife Beating Songs for Children, Life at Home in the Mid 1950's, Jazz from Charlie's Party and Beyond, and the Cow Goes Moo

Hello! 

I forgot to add this when I posted this, but I have tapes for sale. I also forgot to publicize the last two batches, which sold earlier this month. But these are still available. Nothing posted to this site is on any of the tapes listed in that auction. 

And now: Let's jump right into things. Major League Baseball got an early jump again this year, with two teams starting the season today in Japan, while the rest of the teams are still playing Spring Training. My Chicago Cubs - the ONLY team that matters - have a two game series of games that will count against the Los Angeles Dodgers - who have been the Spawn of Satan since at least 1976, maybe 1973 (I'm not sure about earlier) - before both teams go back to Spring Training. 

In honor of the Cubs opening the season, here are their Artificial League (AL) Chicagoland cohorts, the White Sox, heard over very poor reception in a game against the Tigers, perhaps from 1962 

(I'm guessing 1962 because the other side of the tape was a poor recording of part of the second 1962 All Star Game, at Wrigley Field. That broadcast, in full and in better quality, is on YouTube). 

I suppose it's possible that this broadcast is also out there already somewhere, but I have no idea how to find out if it is. I'm sure someone out there will know - much quicker than I would - how to date this recording.

Regardless of the appalling lack of CUBS in this recording, it's still a lot of fun. Plus, it's always amazing and encouraging to me, when I hear old baseball broadcasts, to realize how little has changed about the game, in the (in this case) roughly 62 or 63 ensuing years. That is, except for the damnable Designated Hitter rule, which is no Spawn - it is the direct work of Satan himself.  

Download: White Sox at Tigers, 6th, 7th and 8th Innings

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I was quite pleased and surprised to find a nearly complete episode of a show featuring Alan Mills from CBC radio on an otherwise nondescript reel the other day. With my folk music background and my history of working with children, Mills' voice was very familiar one to me, and this show was called "Folk Songs for Young Folk". 

I mentioned up there how baseball seems to be eternally the same in a lot of ways. Well, here we have the opposite: In what could not be a more clear example of how much times have changed, this show - which I'm guessing is from the late 1950's - is largely focused on songs about marital discord, including every grade school child's favorite subject, wife beating. It's all handled with the most pleasant and avuncular good humor, too. 

Download: Folk Songs for Young Folk with Alan Mills on the CBC

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The next three segments all come from the same tape. And as much as some - perhaps many - of you may find the first part too sickly sweet, I found it deeply endearing and memorable. It is an edited version of a considerably longer tape, a tape which mainly features the cries, gurgles and other sounds made by an infant named Paulie in late November, 1955. 

I have come across many such tapes - in the days before video cameras, I think it was fairly common for parents to audiotape their newborn's utterances. But that's not the focus of the segment heard here. For whatever reason, halfway through the side of the tape, the child's mother, Betty, begins thinking out loud about the baby, about his father and grandfather, about his development so far, etc., and.... well, like I said, I found it extremely touching. I hope you do, too. 

Download: Mommy Betty and Baby Paulie, 11-28-55

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On the other side of the tape are more baby recordings, from February of 1956, then, the following curious little segment, in which Betty complains that someone who borrowed the machine may have damaged it in some way (the recordings sound fine to me) and it order to test it, she will read from the Sears Catalog. Not, mind you, the products and prices, but rather, the advertising copy no doubt on the first few pages, telling the customer how wonderful Sears is. And for someone simply doing a machine test, four minutes seems sort of... excessive? 

Download: Betty Tests the Machine by Reading from the Sears Catalog

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After she's done expounding on the wonders of the Sears company, for the rest of the reel, we get to hear a fairly wonderful example of what local radio sounded like, circa 1955. I'm guessing 1955 as that's when the baby recordings started and this is what those recordings were erasing, at least up to the halfway point or more of side two. In this case, it's the long-lived, but now defunct WMAQ in Chicago, with a bit of midwestern daytime radio, typical of the era. 

Download: A Few Minutes of WMAQ, Chicago, Circa 1955

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The biggest chunk of tape I have for you today is the entire contents of a tape which came in a box that looks like this: 

The back of the box (below) says "Dixieland and Other Jazz From Our Annual Studio Party for Charlie Miller" featuring - I think I'm reading this right - Guy and Lenore Preston. If those names mean anything to anyone out there please leave a comment. Otherwise, I'm just going to let this go without further comment. 

Download: Dixieland and Other Jazz From Our Annual Studio Party for Charlie Miller, 1-7-73

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Now to my ears, where there is a definite break in the recording - at the 62:20 mark - the music returns with what sounds like a different session, even a somewhat different band, so I have broken that part of the tape out as a separate track, indicating that I think it's just a jam session from the same (or more likely, a similar) band. I could be wrong, of course, but that's how I separated out this tape. 

Download: Jamming with the Band from the Charlie Miller Tape

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Here's part of the back of the box: 

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For our very short reel, which is the homiest of home recordings, I have come up with a title which, I think, summarizes the contents nicely, without anything else that needs to be said. 

Here it is!: 

Download: Four Minutes at Home - Two Songs, An Interview, and the Cow Goes Moo

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Five Segments of Music on the Radio, 1965-1973

This is going to be a fairly simple post. I decided to gather together some of the tapes I've listened to lately which contained radio programming which primarily featured music and share them here, one after the other, with my typical sort of comments in between. There is AM and FM reflected here, Country, Top 40, Christian and what later became known as "Music of Your Life". As indicated above, the recordings on the tapes are each from somewhere between 1965 and 1973. And between them, there is just under six hours of radio recordings here. 

I'll start with a tape of just over 20 minutes, as heard on an unidentified station in 1967. I actually think it's a bit odd that the DJ never, in the course of this recording, mentions the station call letters - unless I somehow missed it. That's almost unheard of. I'd say that perhaps this was a syndicated show, but then, at the start of the segment, the DJ mentions that he's on tape today, indicating that he was usually broadcasting live. I do enjoy the small segment where he indicates that his upcoming scheduled live appearance has been cancelled, seemingly because not enough people showed up to the last one!

Download: Country Music Radio - Unidentified Station, 1967

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Staying in roughly the same time period - in this case, it's 1966 - we flip down the dial to WILS, a powerhouse Top 40 station in Lansing, Michigan. This 45 minute blast from that epochal year is not the ideal aircheck - the sound quality is poor, very poor at times, and whoever was recording the songs did not always record the DJ patter. 

This is not the case of a tape which has methodically had the DJ chatter eliminated - I have plenty of those and they are not terribly interesting, aside from hearing what regional hits there were in a given time and place - but it's not a straight-through recording of the station, either. There are lots of edits, more in some sections than others. But I found it highly enjoyable anyway, if not as enjoyable as some other tapes of this sort. And I hope you'll enjoy it, too. 

Download: WILS-AM, Lansing, MI, Spring, 1966

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Now for the longest segment here, nearly two and a half hours, which I believe is actually segments of multiple broadcasts. The station was WYON, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, just about 70 miles down the road from WILS in Lansing (above), and this is the station that had the early version of "Music Of Your Life", although I don't think that format ever featured the likes of John McCormack, or some of the other artists heard here. 

As you'll hear, this programming, in this case an evening show called "Afterglow - Music Just For You", featured a pretty wide variety of popular music, even though things such as Rock and Roll and R&B/Soul were completely avoided, and very little Country Music was heard, either. 

That sounds limiting, and yeah, sure it is, in a way. But on the other hand, here we have The Clancy Brothers, Lawrence Welk, Lobo, The Mills Brothers, Jan Garber Andy Stewart (a double play of Andy Stewart!), Perry Como, Harry James, Lenny Dee and Big Tiny Little, among dozens of others. 

This one is also somewhat choppy - ads and newscasts are cut, and plenty of times DJ patter is cut as well, but in other spots, the broadcast is heard for several minutes uninterrupted. Well, we can't have everything. 

Download: WYON, Grand Rapids, MI, Circa 1973 - "Afterglow - Music Just For You"

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Moving Way Out West, two years earlier, and into another type of broadcast altogether, here we have a show which aired on KHOF, Los Angeles, on November 11, 1971. At that time, the station was apparently owned by FBN - "The Faith Based Network", and here we have 35 minutes of their morning programming. Commercials and other things which aired that morning appear to have been edited out - there are short gaps between the segments (which I cut down to the merest of seconds here). It was Veteran's Day, of course, but why would that be mentioned within a religious show, huh? I'm also puzzled by what makes trumpet solos religious (I know, I know, the original song being played is a religious song, but still...). Otherwise, I have nothing else to say. 

Oh, yes I do. This came to me on one o' them big ten inch reels, complete with a sheet indicating what was on the tape. That's reproduced, below. I also have at least two more episodes of this show, from that same time period, if anyone is interested. Actually, I have them even if no one is interested. 

Download: Religious Music Programming from KHOF, Los Angeles (FBN - The Faith Based Network), 11-11-71

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Finally - and perhaps this is the most fun of the five tapes - here are some recordings made in Pittsburgh in 1965. There are two stations reflected here, both featuring the Country Music of the day, and I caught the names of Roy Scott on WPIT (730 AM), and Bobby Hudson on WEEP (1080 AM). Wikipedia tells us that WPIT was, and still is, a Christian radio outlet, but clearly, in 1965, anyway, they offered Country Music for four hours every afternoon, and horse racing coverage (and perhaps other sports) in the evening. WEEP, which is now WNNL, began playing Country Music that very year, 1965, and became a powerhouse in the format. 

These segments are a bit more cohesive than the tapes shared above, but commercials, news and some chatter has still be excised out by whoever recorded this material. There is enough sports reporting that the tape can be narrowed down to September of 1965 (Joe Torre was suspended for bumping an umpire). And there are a couple of magical jingles here. The simple one at 37:30 for the weather report is one of my favorite jingles ever. 

This is right about the point that the trends in Country Music starts losing me - I'm much more a fan of the 1950's sounds than the dominant styles heard here - with the exception of the phenomenal Roger Miller, who is not heard here. Even still, I found this hugely entertaining. Enjoy!

Download: Country Radio, September, 1965 Roy Scott on WPIT and Bobby Hudson on WEEP

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Very short reels will return next time!

Some Great 1950's Jingles, Bobby Helms in Canada, Recording For the Fun of It, A Glee-Free Glee Club and More!

Let's start off with what I'm guessing will be the most popular offering from today's posting. This tape is labeled as being a group of highlights for someone named Joan Wile, who is featured on each of the records on the tape. Happily for all of us, these recordings turn out to be some absolutely wonderful and vintage radio jingles, from stations all around the country. The tape box had a mailing address for Ms. Wile on it (not copied in the scan, below), in a very fancy location in Manhattan, with a zone ("New York 19") rather than a zip code, marking this as being a tape from prior to 1963. Listening to these jingles, I'm guessing the late 1950's is more accurate. 

And they are simply magical. At the end of the tape, as indicated in handwriting on the box (below), and on the other side of the tape, is a single commercial, in this case for a anti-dandruff concoction with the deadly sounding name of "Dandricide". Unfortunately, this commercial is not quite complete AND has a short gap in it, as well, as you will hear. But still pretty marvelous, you-shoulda-been-there sort of stuff. 

Download: Joan Wile - Radio Station Jingle Demo Reel

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The provenance of this next item is a bit hard to discern. It is an interview with country singer and one-time (short lived) pop music star Bobby Helms (along with, briefly, his wife), by someone whose name might be Armel Shaw, which is a guess at the spelling. The interview is from Canada, and was recorded while Helms was performing in a local venue, probably in 1967. 

However, it doesn't seem to be from a single radio station. Rather, it appears to be that Mr. Shaw was a freelancer who perhaps simply recorded interviews with the stars as they passed through town and then sent the tapes out to radio stations - perhaps (again perhaps) with some sort of arrangement in place whereby they would play them, perhaps just in the hopes that they would do so. I dunno. 

After the interview the tape contained much of the contents of a 1967 Helms compilation album, followed by the brief bit you'll hear at the end, asking folks to record their comments on the interview. This seems to indicate that the tape was passed from station to station, rather than individual tapes being sent all at once to all stations (since he asks that comments be recorded only after other commenter's recordings as bypassed). A very peculiar method of getting one's work out to the listening public. 

Download: Armel Shaw - Canadian Interview with Bobby Helms, Circa 1967

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Now here's a fellow who, I'm guessing, had either a brand new console organ for his living room or a new tape recorder, or perhaps both. And, as he says (and I've titled it) he's going to try it out for the fun of it. Things get off the ground swimmingly with the most disjointed version of "Alley Cat" that you've ever heard. Near the end of this performance, he curses his playing and comments that "I started out wrong". He remained wrong, too, but doesn't seem to have noticed. This segues into an equally scattered, equally beat-less version of "Ramblin' Rose" (I do note that there definitely is a beat in the accompaniment, but there is no attempt to follow it in the melody). A short song I don't recognize follows, and then, after a brief discussion, "On Top of Old Smokey" in another tempo-challenged rendition finishes off the set. 

Unknown - Trying Out the Home Console Organ for the Fun of It, Once

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In the box for a 10 inch reel of tape I found the following concert program: 

Yes, the Vanderbilt Glee Club. I often find that Glee Clubs were, in the past at least, engaging in performances of material that have nothing gleeful about them. This would be one such example. There is no date anywhere on this sheet or the box. 

Indeed, on the tape is that exact program. Only it's not from the concert - or if it was, no one attended, or else no one was impressed enough to applaud. More likely this is a recording of the program - either of a rehearsal or a deliberately recorded run through in order to have a good copy of that program. So there is no audience. This tape is in mono in this sound clip because I do not have a machine that plays two track stereo, a fairly short-lived format which existed from about 1957 to 1960 or thereabouts. 

Download: The Vanderbilt Men's Glee Club - Undated Performance with Organ Interludes

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What comes next on that tape might actually be the second most fun item in today's posting. For the rest of the tape, we have the sort of thing I always identify as a "Hodgepodge" - a motley collection of unrelated recordings in a relatively short space of time. This material was on the rest of side one, and then on the start of side two. 

First, as soon as the Glee Club recording ends, there is a small orchestra flourish, the end of some piece. Then we seem to eavesdrop on a moment during a rehearsal of some sort. It's hard to hear, but the conversation includes a reference to a gospel reading. 

Then, at the one minute mark, someone plays scales on the piano, very heavily and loudly, in octaves, before launching into a sedate version of the hymn "Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty!". And then does the octaves and the hymn again. And again. A total of six times, throwing in a short bouncy version of another hymn (which I can't think of the name of) in the middle. 

Now we're up to minute six and onto the brief recordings on side two of the tape. This section is poorly recorded, with a prominent hum (which I've minimized some). There is some bland background music playing, and a few people have a conversation about the recording they're making and the best way to capture it. After two and a half minutes, the music segues into a classical piece that I'm guessing someone will recognize, and that lasts until the other channel of the Glee Club tape (heard backwards on my machine - which I didn't include) interrupts it, and the Hodgepodge ends. 

Download: Hodgepodge Following the Glee Club Recording

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And now another entry in the David Hollister Tapes. If you don't know what these are about, I explained them in this post, and with today's post, I have now shared four of these tapes. 

This one is dated 6/4/80 and 8/3/80, and as it says of the box, its contents are apparently the practicing of three songs "for <a> contest". The three songs are "One Woman Man" (not the ridiculous Paul Anka song, but an equally ridiculous obscurity), "Travelin' Light (heard in two versions, a shorter version early on the tape, and a version with a lengthy verse at the end of the recording - the later to the two sessions, making me think that the song was expanded on in the meantime), and "Marvelous Massage". 

Personally, I find this material fairly awful - and "Marvelous Massage" to be award-winningly hideous - and I suspect that all three are someone's originals, whether Hollister or someone else. Having heard his other material, my guess is that these songs are the work of the vocalist, who is unidentified on the tape box. I will let the listener make his or her own judgments as to this vocalist's abilities.  

Anyway, I have generally enjoyed the Hollister tapes, and although I didn't enjoy this one, I thought I'd share it as another example of their contents. Please let me know if you do or don't want me to continue to delve into this collection. 

Download: From the David Hollister Tapes - Rehearsals of Three Songs, 6-4-80 and 8-3-80 - "For Contest"

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And now, here's our "Acetate of the Month". This is a ridiculous little record, featuring "The Band of America" conducted by Paul LaValle, playing "The Dwight D. Eisenhower March". Nothing actually too ridiculous about that - he was a war hero and certainly worthy of a march. But as you'll hear, the conceit here is that the man's initials were D-D-E, so the song is based, of course, on a musical phrase using those tones. Yay! Let's march! 

Download: NBC Reference Recording Acetate - Band of America, Conducted by Paul LaValle - The Dwight D. Eisenhower March

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And finally, here's a "Very Short Reel". Here we have someone reading from a book - almost certainly a novel. I haven't done a lot of digging, but with what I did do, I was unable to find what book is being read. Perhaps someone out there knows, or can figure it out: 

Download: Reading from an Unknown Book

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Two Sets of Radio Commercials, A Demonstration in Mono, A Couple of Guitarists, and a Whole Lotta Union Carbide Phone Calls

 Happy New Year, everyone, 

I'm going to start off with a version of what I wrote on my other blog a week or so ago: 

It's been more than three weeks since I've posted, and I suspect that there will be only this one post this month. I'm absolutely Captain ADHD, and thrive on keeping ridiculously busy - I'm pretty nuts when I don't have too much to do - but this last month has just swept my legs out from under me, with a couple of brief but intense illnesses, end of the year madness and work demands. I hope and intend to be back to two posts a month in February. 

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Before I get to this post's features, I want to make reference to a few comments. But first, I want to acknowledge and just generally thank those of you who have written recently with supportive, thankful and/or appreciative comments about the site in general. Those are all deeply appreciated and give me the encouragement to keep up what I do here. Thank you.  

Some specific comments that you may have missed and which shed light on things I've posted. Regarding this post, someone wrote in: 

Re: WEAM. Based on the references to a back-to-school contest and a daytime high of 84, it would appear to be from late August 1963. Specifically the week of August 23, based on the song positions on this survey matching.

http://las-solanas.com/arsa/survey.php?sv=143773

Regarding what is currently my most recent past post, "Snoopy" made the following observation, one which is very similar to something I almost wrote myself, regarding "oldies": 

Back then, 15 year old music was considered Oldies. Maybe I'm just curmudgeonly but if you played 10 songs from 2009 and 10 songs from 2024, I wouldn't be able to tell one from another. 

I would also like to refer you to this post, about which (in the comments) Eric Paddon has added a great deal of information, specifically about the WOR segment, including the specific dates of those recordings. There is too much text to copy and paste here without bogging things down, but it's very much worth reading. Thanks, as always, Eric. 

There have been a lot more, and I am quoting here (and below) from comments that are as much as six months old. That's how far behind I've gotten. I'm gonna try to be more up-to-date, going forward. 

Anyway, and finally, two frequent commenters, each of whom has his own collection of rare recordings, posted about new "old" finds that each of them has shared. 

Kyle writes: I have found a Christmas home recording from the 1950s

And "OldRadios" has uploaded a radio "Laugh-in" type show called "Funny Birds" to his site at archive.org

In the case of both Kyle and OldRadios, clicking on their names will show you further postings, including more old audio. 

Thanks, guys! 

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Okay, I'm going to start with two fairly wonderful (well, with a significant exception) advertising demo reels. The first one is from Chuck Blore and Don Richman Incorporated, a company headed by two men who seem to be considered legendary in the radio advertising field - look each of them up online. 

This tape has fifteen ads, the last of which is that "significant exception" to the wonderfulness that I just mentioned. That last one is more like a hard slap upside the head. Here's the tape box: 

Download: Chuck Blore and Don Richman Incorporated - Advertising Demo Reel

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The second advertising reel - almost exactly the same length as the first - comes from Don Piestrup, who you can also find online but who does not appear to have been nearly the "name" talent that the above two gentlemen were, although there still exists a Big Band which plays his music. 

This tape features 13 ads, and the box also helpfully guides us in what we're going to hear here: 

Download: Don Piestrup - Advertising Demo Reel

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Here's the rather esoteric front cover of the tape box: 

And the side: 

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Here's something a little different. I have shared several Stereo Demonstration tapes here - in the early days of stereo sound - which debuted on reel tape nearly two years before it became a reality on records - tape recorder companies produced demonstration reels to show off their wondrous machines and the spacious sounds they could produce. 

But before that, tape recorder manufactures also wanted to demonstrate the wonders of reel tape. And so there are some (although apparently not as many) monaural demonstration tapes out there. And this is one of them. It's from the Omegatape company. Side one of the tape provides excerpts from some of the pre-recorded tapes the company currently was offering. 

But then, on side two, there is a series of test tones to be used in some way for head alignment, then a timing test to see if your machine is running at exactly the right speed. (Either this recording was itself flawed or my machine runs slightly fast - which I don't think is the case - as the blips go by in about 58 1/2 seconds.) Highlights from more Omegatape offerings finish off the reel. 

Download: Omegatape Monaural Demonstration and Test Tape

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Here is a booklet which came with the tape: 

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Here is about 21 minutes of what I've called "A Couple of Guitarists Fooling Around and Duetting". See if you don't think that title is accurate. And sufficient as an introduction.

Download: A Couple of Guitarists Fooling Around and Duetting

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Robert W. Morgan was a hugely popular radio dj and personality from the late 1960's until shortly before his death in 1998. For a while in the late 1970's, he produced a syndicated program titled "Special of the Week". How the word "Special" was defined in terms of a program which apparently ran in a regular timeslot once a week is a mystery to me, but anyway, I came across a tape containing more than half of his episode about the band Chicago, and I thought I'd share it here. 

For all of his talk about the band's Jazz-Rock roots and status, Morgan plays precious little here of the Chicago material which falls within that genre. Perhaps it was featured in the earlier part of the program, which isn't captured here. But then again, that would have been the point at which to mention it, not while largely playing tripe such as "Saturday in the Park" and "Just You 'N Me". 

This particular broadcast was aired on WRBR, South Bend, IN, during a fundraising event for St. Jude's Hospital for Children, and there are a few cutaways for information about that event, during the broadcast. 

Download: Robert W Morgan's Special of the Week, Featuring Chicago - 11-16-80 - WRBR, South Bend, IN

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Okay, here is a tape most of you might skip over entirely but others may find weirdly fascinating. It comes from a 10 inch reel, one which only had a small amount of tape on it. But that small amount of tape contained over 100 minutes of recordings, because it was recorded at the rarely encountered speed of 15/16th of an inch per second. 

You know when you see those movies or videos in which a reel to reel machine is barely moving in the background, presumably recording the goings-on in that location? Well, those may be going at 15/16ths or even slower. And that's what we have here. 

These are calls made by and received by a couple of men who were manning the phone at some sort of business hub for Union Carbide. As someone mentions well into the recording, the company had recently installed a recording system which engaged every time the phone was picked up, whether it was for call out or a call in. 

And so, we have all manner of calls into and from the field, as well as, at one point, a call to the wife of one of the men manning the phone, as well as a few other contacts. I won't pretend to have ANY idea what it is that is being discussed - a lot of numbers, percentages, levels and such are thrown about, and a good number of people are attempted to be reached, or call back, or whatever. 

It can be sort of mesmerizing. I did not listen to this all in one sitting, and can't imagine doing so, but the entire recording is fascinating in its own way, a slice of life from an extremely specific time and place, and an unusual glimpse of some people doing some very specific jobs, the likes of which most of us know nothing about. 

(By the way, the first few calls are VERY soft, but the volume increases substantially, to a normal listening level, just after the one minute point. There are a few soft moments later in the recording, as well)

Download: Union Carbide Phone Calls

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And finally, the "Very Short Reel" for this post. This three minute segment comes from a tape wherein the rest of the recordings were exceptionally poorly recorded radio broadcasts, and I mean exceptionally poor to the point of being unlistenable (and I'll listen to just about anything on a tape) and unintelligible. 

I've called this "A Short Conversation At Home", and in it, a man records (and talks to) what sounds like a considerably older woman. Extremely innocuous conversations follow (well, except for one statement about a girl who is prettier than Gail). Then, after the machine is stopped and re-started, she is told not to whine, and then talks about what a nice voice she's been told she has, except that "it sure don't sound like it on that". My assumption is that she had just listened to the previous segment. My assumption is that she'd never heard her own voice recorded, prior to that moment. 

Unknown: A Short Conversation At Home

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Lots of New Year's Fun, A Couple of '70's DJ's, and More John Birch Than I Can Stand

Greetings, and Happy Almost New Year!

I planned to set aside some time in order to be able to make my typical extensive (or even my sometimes typical pithy) remarks about the New Year's Eve-related and other items I put aside for the last post of the year, but I got an infection last week and was laid up in a considerable amount of pain (and did a lot of sleeping) between Monday and Friday of last week, so all of that re-listening didn't happen. 

But since this is a New Year's Eve themed post, I need to get it out anyway, so I will move forward with virtually no comments except for those offered on the two most recently listened to items, both of which feature DJ' Airchecks. 

Here's one called "Don's New Year's Eve Party. It's from the end of 1958, and I will let you discover whatever charms caused me to set it aside as good enough to share on some late December day. Enjoy!

Download: Don's New Year's Eve Party, 12-31-58

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I do have a bit I can say about this next tape, as I listened to it for the first time just last month. It it a DJ Demo Reel, made up of an entire shift performed by the cleverly named "Jack Daniels" at WTMA, Charlston, South Carolina, on 5/2/72. WTMA clearly played the top 40 hits of the day, but also regularly went back in time, sometimes close to 15 years back in time, for oldies. 

This air shift tape is very aggressively "scoped", so it is an extremely choppy listen, but like most of such tapes, there's still enough here to make hearing it worthwhile. 

Download: Jack Daniels Aircheck, WTMA, Charleston, SC, 5-2-72

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This one is just labeled "A New Year's Eve Party". Again, I'm sure there's enough here to explain why I bothered to set it aside for future use. You can discover that sans further elucidation from me. 

Download: A New Year's Eve Party

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My more-or-less "prepared items" - three New Year's items and two Air Checks - were rather short. So here's something long which may well be of interest to some of you. It's a tape I listened to last year, and will never listen to it again. I have, in the past, featured many tapes from a collection of John Birch materials that I unwittingly purchased about two decades ago. Today, it's time for more - a lot more - of their particular brand of idiocy. First, there is an explanation of what you are expected to do and be when you join the Birchers and then, for the balance of this two hour tape, Dan Smoot presents several of his "reports". 

Quoting myself here from a previous Bircher posting, but Mr. Smoot, like most of his brethren, was clearly trying to present Birchers as reasonable people who were alarmed by things happening in the government of the day, while behind the scenes, the larger group's beliefs, desires and plans were off-the-charts batshit crazy.  

I think I still have a bunch of tapes from that batch, so this may not be the end of the road for them, on this site. 

Download: The John Birch Society - What's Expected of a John Birch Society Member & Several Episodes of "Dan Smoot Reports"

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Now it's time for an "Acetate of the Month"! This one has a lengthy and descriptive title which pretty much sums up the contents of its nearly five minute length. I have no date for this item, and nothing was written on it. 

Download: Audiodisc Unlabeled Acetate - New Year's Eve - White Christmas, Joking and Noisemaking, Let Me Call You Sweetheart

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Finally, our "Very Short Reel" for the end of the year. And again, I listened to this one last month, just after I listened to "Jack Daniels". A DJ going only by the name "Jonathan" seems to have put together a tight demo reel highlighting specific aspects of his work - a phone call from the loser of a contest, a live commercial read and just a bit of DJ patter over the end of a few songs, the starts of a few others, and a prize winning phone call. All wrapped up in three minutes. 

Download: "Jonathan" - Short Air Check Sampler from WGOW-AM, Chattanooga, Tennessee

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Christmas (Almost) Through and Through

As I've done just about every year, I am again offering up a Christmas post. The only difference is that one of today's tapes also contained significant (and interesting) non-Christmas related material, so I've tacked that on at the end. 

First, and perhaps most interesting culturally, is this tape I came across somewhere, featuring former first lady (and so much more) Eleanor Roosevelt reading from "A Christmas Carol" to a group of children, as well as some chatter afterwards. This came to me on two tapes, but I've joined them here.  Curiously, this tape is dated 1/25/56, but I have to think that's actually 12/25/56 or something - why would she have been reading a Christmas story in late January. 

Anyway, this recording does not seem to have been shared anywhere, outside of this offering, and I can find no reference to her having read this book on 1/25/56 or on any other date in such a setting, among her published diaries, which can be found online. Perhaps I missed it. Anyway, it's a pretty neat, rare recording. 

Download: Eleanor Roosevelt Reads "A Christmas Carol"

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Next up, a recording I've labeled "Christmas and Winter Songs and Poems with a Young Child", and that pretty much sums it up. Starting with "A Visit From St. Nicholas and progressing through some songs and some conversation, this is, as far as I'm concerned, an adorable recording. 

Download: Christmas and Winter Songs and Poems, etc, with a Young Child

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Now, let's drop in for nearly an hour of Music and Conversation at Senator Smith's house. It's 1951. I think I once tried to figure out exactly who this "Senator Smith" was - I think he was a state senator - but attempts just now to remind myself were unsuccessful. I suspect someone will chime in. 

Download: Music and Conversation, Christmas Night, 1951, at Senator Smith's House

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This one is nothing more than a short excerpt from a radio presentation of some Christmas hymns and songs, complete with a bit of historical information from an announcer. 

Download: A Short Radio Christmas Program

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On one of those tiny, three inch reels, I found this brief compendium of holiday programming, including some moments from the Glen Campbell show, among others. I've been unable to determine the year for these recordings - again, maybe someone else can figure it out. 

Download: The Glen Campbell Show and Other TV Recordings, Christmastime

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And finally, the entire contacts of a tape which starts with a chorus rehearsing some Christmas songs and goes on to include some interesting country music recordings. 

The choir rehearsal is most interesting to me for the presence of a lilting melody which I found belongs to a Mexican hymn, here translated into English. It's quite beautiful and the words are very effective. I only found one website which features the lyrics to this song in English, and that is here. It's called "Pedida de la Posada" or "The Search for Lodging".

Download: A Choral Group Rehearses Christmas Songs

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When that rehearsal is over, most of the rest of side one of the tape contains a short recording of Kenny Biggs playing country music on WEEP. I featured another tape featuring the same singer/deejay about 18 months ago. My tapes have been moved so many times that it's hard for me to know for sure, but perhaps these were from the same collection. 

Download: Kenny Biggs on WEEP, Pittsburgh

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On the other side of the tape are several recordings by a country and western band. There appear to be at least a few different sessions recorded here, but I'm guessing they are all from the same band. Perhaps someone out there will disagree. There was also music from a band on the last few seconds of side one, and I've tacked those onto the end of this section. 

Download: A Few Songs from a Country Band

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Finally, the band music heard above is followed by some VERY poorly recorded material, also from WEEP, and also apparently involving Kenny Biggs. This is music which was broadcast live over that station from The New Aurora Hotel, which was located in the extraordinarily chunkily named "The McKees Rocks Bottoms" area of Pittsburgh. Despite the poor recording - which I've attempted to improve, to little effect - I thought this was worth hearing. 

Download: Country Music from The New Aurora Hotel in The McKees Rocks Bottoms, on WEEP

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I wanted to get this out a week before Christmas, and have failed to do that already, so the Acetate of the month and the Very Short Reels feature will not be featured in this post. 

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!

A JFK Remembrance, A City Councilman's Ad, More Voices from a "Small" Town, A Stereo Sampler, Geraldo Plays for You, and Some Animal Voices

Happy Post-Thanksgiving to all who celebrated it a few days ago! 

As I was sitting at my work desk around 12:15 or 12:30 PM on Friday of last week, it occurred to me that it was almost exactly at that moment on that same date, 61 years earlier, that John F. Kennedy was shot and killed. I shared this thought on Teams with, well, my team, to a big round of no response. 

But it did remind me of this tape, which I think is perfect to lead off today's post, seeing as how it also aired on an anniversary of that event, and served as a commemoration of that event. Here, from 1968, is that tape: 

Download: Commemoration of the Death of JFK - Radio Broadcast - 11-22-68

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And now, just a bit too late to tie in with the recent election, here are a group of folks making multiple attempts to get a lengthy political advertisement just right. The subject of the ad is a then-alderman in the Chicago City council, a Republican (sometimes, the only Republican) in that Democratic Party dominated council, and apparently quite a thorn in the side of Mayor Richard J. Daley. His name was John Hoellen, Jr. You can read about him here. It took me quite a while - and some help from an outside source - to find out who the subject of this promotional song was, as his name is misspelled on the tape box. Have a look: 

You'd think the people who were hired to perform on a commercial in support of someone who know how to spell his name. On the other hand, I would also agree with the tape box that this material is "Junk". I'm going to say that this was probably recorded in support of Hoellen's 1963 race for re-election to the council, as the song is a ham-fisted knock off of the 1962 hit "Big Bad John". You can get the gist of this session by listening to the first five minutes or so, since the entire tape consists of nearly identical, thudding performances of the same two minute, fifteen second commercial. Most of them were recorded at 15 IPS, the last few were at 7 1/2 IPS. 

I'd have to guess that Hoellen was re-elected in spite of this material, rather than in anyway because of it. 

Download: Unknown - Recording a Political Ad for "Big Bad John Hoellen"

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Just over eight years ago, I posted a set of raw tapes from the production of a PBS television episode, titled "Life in a Small Town". At the time, I wrote this: 

For today, here's an interesting reel, one which captures the raw tapes for a show - I believe a local PBS show from the Maryland area - called "People In Process". I can find no references to this show, but admittedly haven't looked that hard.

The investigation here (such as it is) is into how people in a small town view life in a small town. That they chose the city of Annapolis, Maryland, which is the capital of the state, strikes me as weird, especially given that the town had 30,000 residents in the late '60's and early '70's, which is when I'm guessing this is from. Perhaps it's because I was raised in a town of 4000 people, but 30,000 people isn't a "small town" to me.

Today, I have another reel containing more raw tapes from that same production (actually, a comparison of the two boxes shows this to be the early recorded of the two). Here 'tis: 

Download: People in Process - More Raw Tapes for "Life in a Small Town"

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And here's that box: 

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In the early days of reel to reel recording, and in particular, the early days of stereo (which was introduced on reels in 1957, a year before it made its way onto records), tape recorder manufacturers and companies producing pre-recorded tapes, provided their customers with sampler and demonstration tapes to indicate the wonders of reel to reel sound. I've shared many of these before, and here it yet another, from the Replica label. Replica releases some amazing albums, a few of which are in my collection. But as far as I can tell, they did not dive very deeply into the Reel to Reel market. This sampler's narrator mentions that they had only produced seven tapes so far (each of which is "sampled" here), and I cannot find anything online to indicate that the reel division of their label made it out of 1958, or beyond 8-10 releases. 

Download: New Adventures in Sound - A Stereo Sampler From Replica

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Reaching into the past of this blog yet again, six months ago, I featured some segments from a tape of 1961 BBC musical programming. Here is another segment from that same tape, in this case, "Melody Hour with Geraldo and His Orchestra. Play It, Geraldo! (or should that be "Conduct It, Geraldo"?):

Download: BBC - Melody Hour with Geraldo and His Orchestra- Circa Summer, 1961

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Finally, I'm going to stretch the concept of a "Very Short Reel" today. I started off focusing on tapes which, in their entirity, were under five minutes. Then I started featuring segments of tapes which were under five minutes, even if the segment was part of a much longer tape, and recently I've been pushing that limit to six minutes. Today, I will revert to an entire tape - a large reel with only 7:22 of recording tape on it, but, as noted, will extend the definition of "short" to 7:22. 

And this is really worth hearing. A young man - sounds like he is perhaps in his mid to late teens - starts the tape by impersonating my choice for the worst section of "The Wizard of Oz", that being the "If I Were King of the Forest" segment. He then goes on, for whatever reason, to portray several creatures from the animal kingdom, each with its own vocal delivery and name. That's all well and good, but when he's done, we hear the last few seconds of what he was erasing with his animal talk - a much more serious and rather intimate sounding discussion of a most intimate experience he'd had. I very much would have preferred to hear what sounds like it much have been a pretty fascinating little vocal essay in complete form than hearing the animal bit which erased it.  

Download: A Boy Impersonates a Series of Animals (and a bit more)

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