Bob Sirott Gets His Start in Radio, Political Commercial Sessions, Male Ad Voices and More!

I hope you're all ready for another set of interesting items from the archives. Today, we're heavy on the media side of things. 

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Bob Sirott is a Chicago Media legend and survivor of dozens of careers within a career. He has been through too many jobs and media lives to count. For my money, he was at his best in his first big name job, which was as top 40 DJ at Chicago powerhouse WLS for about eight years, ending in 1979. I was enamored of him enough that I made a point of recording his entire farewell show on WLS, which I might share some time here. Since then, he's been on TV and radio and radio and TV in any number of settings, culminating, perhaps, with his current job, holding what was once the single most plum job in Chicago radio: morning drive at WGN.  

Honestly, he ceased to be interesting to me a long, long time ago, and all of those jobs have been more establishment and corporate over the years, which is something I suspect is hard to avoid in such a career. But I respect his longevity, and have fond memories of listening to him as a teenager in the '70's. 

His biography on Wikipedia states his radio start point was on another Chicago station in 1971, but I have, for years, owned a tape that demonstrates that this is incorrect. Because someone filled both sides of an 1800 foot reel - nearly 100 minutes of a Bob Sirott aircheck - from December of 1967, on WRSV in Skokie, just north of Chicago. With his semi-recent hire at WGN, I made a point of digging the tape out to share for everyone. 

At first, I thought it was funny that the owner of the tape labeled it "The Bob Sirott Show", as it seemed to be, largely, simply Sirott doing a faceless job of performing a faceless task: spinning MOR and Beautiful Music records of the era. 

But eventually, it becomes clear that the show did have a "personality", as Sirott gets a few "bits" in, and even re-references one of them later in the show. Oddly, he makes it clear that his was a one-night-a-week job, and even odder (to me, anyway), is that the phones were apparently lighting up with requests for this tedious blandness. Bob Sirott would have been 18 at this time - I sure this was his very favorite music. 

Anyway, it's an interesting listen, to a format of music which hasn't existed in a very long time, and a glimpse into the very earliest days of a very big name in Chicago media. 

(Oh, and I should mention that there is some competing noise, singing, whistling and such on one channel for the first 30 seconds or so. I didn't want to edit out the start of the tape, so I just left it as-is.)

Download:  Bob Sirott Plays MOR of WRSV, Skokie, IL, 12-4-67

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On to something I find even more interesting. The next two segments both come from a tape which is labeled as seen below: 

The box seems to be a set of commercials promoting Democratic Governor Shapiro of Illinois, who had only been governor for five months in October, 1968, in a series called "Mark of Cain", promoting his election to a full term that fall. But that's not really what's featured on this tape. Well, there is one "Mark of Cain" ad, but not four, and the first third or so of the tape is actually made up almost entirely by commercials (from the same election cycle) for the much better remembered Birch Bayh, Democratic Senator of Indiana. Most of the tape is a mixture of raw sessions from the Bayh commercials and finished product, with the single Shapiro commercial edited into the middle of the section, and a few stray moments the could be from something else. 

By the way, Shapiro was defeated, Bayh was re-elected. 

Download: Recording Commercials for Senator Birch Bayh and Others

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And then, in case that wasn't enough, and very happily, in my opinion, someone, surely from the same ad agency, spliced on a presentation of the company's Male Ad Voice Talent, arranged alphabetically, for the first half of the alphabet, anyway. 

I've featured several of these before, both here and at WFMU. As with those previous demo tapes, there are some absolutely hugely famous names heard here, and I find it funny to think that some of the actors heard here - including the likes of Oscar winner Burl Ives - might be able to command enormous fees for movie and TV work, but got to be pimped out along with 20 other guys in the advertising equivalent of speed dating. 

There are also some racial and ethnic portrayals here which wouldn't get past the drawing board today. 

Download: Male Ad Voices Demo Tape, A Through M

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And then there's this little three inch reel

Now, I don't know if this next set of material is rare or collectable at all, but I listened to it for the first time this week and thought it was enjoyable. I know that Ed Sullivan shows have been packaged, repackaged and re-aired in a dozen ways, and some Smothers Brothers' episodes have been released on DVD, as well. But it seems at least possible that these little segments might not be otherwise available, so I thought I'd share the contents of this tape. 

Side one, heard first, features three performers from the October 6, 1968 edition of the Sullivan show, including Flip Wilson and Dionne Warwick, but highlighted - well, at least I think so (and so did whoever wrote on that tape box) - by Tiny Tim's performance, and the introduction of Tim's parents in the audience. The tape runs out, unfortunately, during his performance. 

Side two features an equally short segment from the Smothers Brothers' show from the same night, featuring a sad tune from Nancy Sinatra, a goofy jug band turn from Nancy with Tommy Smothers, and part of Pat Paulson's then-current campaign for president. 

Download:  Ed Sullivan Show (Flip Wilson,  Dionne Warwick, Tiny Tim), and The Smothers Brothers' Hour (Nancy Sinatra and Pat Paulson) - 1968 

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And finally, this posts "very short reel". I have a LOT of tapes from a radio station in Astoria, Oregon. I bought a batch of them perhaps 15 years ago, in one of my earlist eBay purchases. A lot of them have since been sold, mostly episodes of a storytelling radio series. I have shared a few of the "short reels" I got with that batch, and here is yet another one, a PSA sponsored by the clunkily named K-TEK C.N.C. Machines company. This is truly "very short" - just 37 seconds. 

Download: K-TEC CNC Machines Astoria, Drunk Driving PSA, July 1987

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The Girls of 1959, An Audio Letter, A Brand New Feature, and MORE!

Hi everybody! 

Did you get a little snow? We didn't get as much as some, although we've had well over two feet this month. We're about 16 miles west of Lake Michigan. Those closer by got walloped, as has a lot of the country. 

Well, while you're relaxing, whether after digging out or, if you're somewhere warmer, doing whatever you chose to do today, I have a whopping five items for you, including a brand new feature. 

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I'm going to start with a tape that I just love.

It features a family whose name is spoken repeatedly, but which I'm just not sure I have right. When I searched for what I was hearing, the closest common "hit" I got was Laamanen, which is a Finnish name, and that's what I've gone with. Let me know if you think it's something else. 

The prime sections of this 21 minute slice of home life, circa 1959 (based on the pop music heard and sung) is a sometimes raucous conversation between a few girls in their mid-teens - high school age, I'd say. But it starts with a tiny bit of Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, then a longer (but still short) bit of The Chordettes, before a young woman reads instructions for tape recording, with a man (her father, I'd say), speaking in between her two short segments. 

We then get a moment of the idiotic Paul Anka hit "You Are My Destiny" (sample lyric: "you are what you are to me"), and then the group of girls start recording. At first they talk about singing a song, then do so, giving way again to the rest of Paul Anka being ridiculous (well, not the rest of his ridiculousness - that would require another 62 years of tape). 

The rest of the tape, 16 minutes of so, is essentially the girls talking, singing a few songs, telling a political joke which must have been stale even in 1959, and generally entertaining themselves. It's a bit like eavesdropping on a slumber party, and it's the sort of thing that I consider to be GOLD, when I discover it on a tape.  

I say all this knowing that a.) it is probably not for everyone and b.) some parts of it are very badly recorded. Still, I hope many of you find this as endearing and fun as I do. 

Download: Fun at the Laamanen Home

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For those who prefer their home recordings to be more sedate, organized and conversational, I have here a very nice audio letter from a couple, Burt and Jean, speaking to one of Burt's sisters, who I believe is named Bea. 

All sorts of subjects are covered here, from school to religion to... well, the conversation takes many turns and detours, which I won't detail here. This is both sides of a reel of tape, and lasts just under 30 minutes. 

 Download: Burt and Jean - Audio Letter to Bea

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Next up, a very curious tape, just under 14 minutes, which I found as the sole contents of a half-filled 10 1/2 inch reel, recorded at the professional speed of 15 inches per second. And it's a real hodgepodge, some of which is identified as coming from KBTV, Denver, and is from 1965. Transitions are aprubt and seemingly random.  

Among the material - 1.) some portion of a TV show or TV broadcast of a movie. 2.) A moment of a commercial, followed by TV news, including a commercial. This is by far the longest segment, and just as we're hearing about why a drunk driving bill shouldn't be passed it stops, mid-thought. 3.) A moment of an interview. 4.) A weather forecast. 5.) What sounds like the broadcast of another movie - a period drama? 

That's the rundown. Again, a pretty odd bit of tape. 

Download: KBTV and Other Denver Media Recordings, Circa 1965

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And now for my new feature, only a bit off-topic. If you've been reading the comments to my last two posts (and my response to one poster, who posts as Oldradios90, within my last post), you'll know that I've been toying, both in my own thoughts recently, and in response to his request, of adding a feature of some of the acetates I have in my collection. 

As you may (or even likely) know, prior to the introduction of reel to reel tape, the most common home recording mediums were the wire recorder (not very common at all, though) and the home disc cutting machine, which would make the equivalent of records, on what were called "Acetates", although they did not actually contain any acetate. 

Acetates were made in all sorts of settings - recording studios, offices, 'record yourself" booths, the homes of those who had enough money to buy such a machine, and many other settings. As they often feature home recordings, raw performances and media recordings, I have also sought out acetates, and have owned hundreds of them, although I've sold some in recent years (I've always made copies of those I sell - I admittedly have a weird affection for reel tapes - I always want to keep the actual product - but I don't have the same connection to acetates). 

The interest here will no doubt be in those that contain the same sort of interesting things that I feature from reels, and today I have one which I find very interesting, and which also ties into Mardi Gras, which, where I'm sitting, has just under four hours left. 

This is a very specific use of the acetate, from very late in the format's history - 1962. Near and on election day, those supporting a candidate would record pitches to "the people" to be played over a loud-speaker as a car, truck or van carried the record and blared the message out of that speaker, over and over again. These were known as "sound truck" recordings, and what I have here is one for a local, New Orleans School Board election, on July 28, 1962, set to just about the most appropriate backing music imaginable. 

Acetates wear out many times quicker than records, and this one was no doubt played dozens, if not hundreds of times - its condition is not unlike many of the acetates in my collection.

Please let me know what you think of this feature. For now, I'm calling it "Acetate of the Month". 

Download: 7/28/62 New Orleans Sound-Truck Recording for a Local School Board Election

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Finally, our "Very Short Reel" for the week. And I am stretching the concept here, because although this is three inch reel of tape, its contents is twice as long as that of any short reel I've shared to this point. That's because it has material on three of its four tracks - the reel itself, at the speed recorded, only lasts four minutes per side, and the entire recording as you can see, if just under 7 1/2 minutes. 

But what an odd combination of recordings. Two tracks contain German music, recorded, it would appear, off of the radio, while the third track (heard here in between the two German tracks) contains a jingle recorded for The New York Mets, a conglomeration that, my extensive research shows, profess to be a baseball team. However, they're not named "The Chicago Cubs", and they're apparently from New York City, so I have considerable doubts that they actually a legitimate major league team. 

Regardless, this is a lovely ditty, but my favorite thing about this section of the tape is that, after the jingle ends, there is just a tiny, tiny bit of fan cheering - literally the shortest segment possible in order to discern that it is actually cheering - and the appropriate length of cheering deserved by such a team.  

Download: German Radio and "Meet the Mets"

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