A Homemade Radio Show, For a Friend Out at Sea

Has it really been a month since I posted? I need to work on that, I guess. Anyway, hopefully, today's fascinating and entertaining main item will make up for the lost time. And what's more, I find that in my haste to get last month's final post up in time, I made an error in the timeline of my Scotch Tape Box series, and skipped two designs entirely. I want to get this up while I have the time, but I'll rectify that oversight next time.

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I was contacted back in August by Scott F., who wanted to pay tribute to a late family friend, Brian Nelson, of Chicago. His suggestion (and offer) was that I do this by sharing an example of the sort of thing Nelson did, back in the late 1960's, for Scott's dad, who was out at sea with the navy for much of the decade. In the simplest terms, it's an attempt to create a faux radio broadcast, featuring a mix of the music of the day, and some of the records that Nelson liked and loved, and those which he believed Scott's father liked and loved.

This tape is from 1968. Going into a bit more detail, as you'll hear, the "broadcast" includes a summary of the previous year's enormous Chicago snow storm (known forever more as "The Big Snow"), which seems to be excerpted from a real radio station's presentation about the storm, two phone calls to mutual friends, in order to capture their voices and thoughts on the tape, and brief comments from members of Nelson's family, who happened by the room while he was recording. It's a big production, clearly (see below) using quite a bit of equipment, and the final product is a bit of a mish-mash of music radio style, local news, audio letter and a few other things.

Scott F. offered up the following information:

Brian Nelson was one of my dads best friends, if not his best friend, for years. Brian Nelson was the ultimate audiophile. He built his own mixing consoles, modified the preamplifiers and amplifiers he used. In the day, 4 JBL L100’s with 4 Ionovac tweeters powered by a modified Phase Linear 400 that produced a kilowatt total audio. This tape was made in the period of time where Brian was starting to get his equipment up to speed and having been in broadcasting school he was honing his chops making tapes for my father who was serving our country aboard the USS Lawrence from 1962 to 1968. This tape is one of my favorites of the bunch and I hope all that listen to it can enjoy his humor, creativity and craftsmanship. His record collection numbered into the tens of thousands and were all carefully indexed using his own numbering system typed on index cards in library style drawers. I am going to take a guess that Brian would have been 23 or 24 at this time.

The tape Brian sent was a 2400 foot reel, meaning the ability to tape record just over an hour on each side, at the preferred speed of 7 1/2 IPS, And that's what we have here - more than two hours of one friend, involving other friends and family, and sharing the music they loved, in order to entertain a friend at sea. I think it's great fun and very sweet.

Download:

Brian Nelson Side One
Brian Nelson Side Two

Play:





Many, many thanks to Scott.

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Before going on, I want to thank those who confirmed that last month's Jack Paar recordings were from June 14th, 1962, with part of the June 15th show at the end. I'd also like to thank the person who suggested that the Coca-Cola ads were meant to suggest all the things you could be doing, and doing more effectively, while drinking a Coke. And yet another person seems to have confirmed that the short tape of ads I posted likely comes from the Fairmont, West Virginia area. Thanks to everyone for your great comments!

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It's been awhile since I shared another example of the unexpectedly large number of recordings I have of shortwave broadcasts from Australia. I no doubt bought a batch of them all in the same place, but at some point, that batch became separated, and I keep coming across them. These are utterly charming segments, and they strike me as a unique and sort of sad illustration of just how much the world has changed in the ensuing 40-50 years. There would be no point in shows like this "Mailbag" today. Also heard is a bit of another show.

Download: More Australian Mailbag
Play:

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Finally, it's time for our Very Short Reel of the month. Again, pulled out at random, it's features three ads from The Kidney Foundation, indicating how great it is to be alive.

Download: The Kidney Foundation - It's Great to Be Alive (3 Ads)
Play:

And here's the paperwork that came with the ads: