AUGUST BLOWOUT POST - EVERYTHING MUST GO

 Greetings, my friends. 

I'll tell you a little secret: this site is a LOT of work. I have, at one point or another, listened to everything I post. And if it's been a while and I want to share something interesting, I listen a second time. And all that listening, and all that writing and all that linking takes a lot of time. 

I don't mind, and I'm certainly not complaining - I am overjoyed that I've found a way to share my lifelong fascination with reel to reel recording with those who appreciate my finds. But sometimes it's overwhelming to try and get out two posts a month in the style that I prefer. 

Plus, I did an inventory last month, and I found that, over the years (going back to the WFMU days), I have - in my file named "not yet used" - nearly 400 discrete sound files that I've made from reel tapes, all of which I at least considered for this site, and WFMU before that, which are, as you might guess, "not yet used" on this site. And that number continues to grow, as in a typical month I newly save more items than I share. 

So I'm thinking that when I'm short on time, I will just put up a big batch of files, with little text - perhaps those things that I don't have a lot of explanation to give, or just things I think are interesting enough to share, but perhaps not worth the time it takes to type out a bunch of words. Paradoxically, it will be easier to share 12 files without saying much of anything, than it is to write a bunch of words about five files. So that's what's going to happen here. 

Please let me know what you think of this format. If you like the idea of getting more content and less blather from me, my feelings won't be hurt. And if you find this to be just too much at once, let me know that, as well. 

But first, just a bit of housekeeping. I received a very interesting note from an anonymous poster, yesterday, with regard to what I labeled as "Walkie-Talkies" in my last post. Well, I stand corrected. Here's what was written to me: 

The "walkie talkies" are actually CB radios. The dutiful use of call signs (K- or W- followed by two letters and four digits, different syntax than amateur radio calls) would seem to date this well before the "Breaker Breaker" craze of the mid 1970s. If I was to guess, I'd say mid- to late-1960s.
Unfortunately all of the FCC's records of CB radio call signs were apparently destroyed in the 1980s once the nearly-always-ignored requirement to obtain a CB license was finally put to rest. Otherwise, you might be able to identify some of these talkers!
Even recordings from the 1970s craze are rare, so these pre-craze reels are especially rare and fascinating to hear as the original pre-internet "social media."

Thanks for that clarification and history lesson. Most interesting!

Oh, and I also added a really nice newspaper clipping to that same post, one that was in the box that contained the WRC 40th Anniversary highlights. 

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I'm going to do things upside down today, before I get to the main "blowout post" I described above, and share the three items which fit in with my regular features. 

First up, here's the contents of a neat, 12-inch acetate, in our "Acetate of the Month" feature. And with school starting for most children between last week and next week, what could be better than Miss Arlene greeting her room full of Kindergartener. On one side of the record, she greets them - and they greet her - in English, and on the other side, they greet each other in Spanish. 

Download: Kindergarten Class - Miss Arlene Greets Children in English

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Download: Kindergarten Class - Miss Arlene Greets Children in Spanish

Play:

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And let's get that "Very Short Reel" out of the way, too. It looks like, during the 1958-59 season, CBS TV ran various re-runs under the title "Stars In Action", or rather, "STARS..... IN.... ACTION!!!!". Here we have what I believe is the recording of various voiceovers being put onto the backing music. 

Download:  "Stars In Action" Main Title Voiceovers

Play:

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And now, nine more items, some of them quite lengthy, from my collection: 

By chance, a bunch of the files I chose are recordings of TV shows. So let's stay on the TV side of things to start. Here is the sound off of an entire TV special, a preview of ABC's fall, 1964 Prime Time programming, hosted by Bing Crosby. Crosby himself was the star of a new ABC sitcom that fall, one which didn't make it to the end of the season. 

Download: 1964 Preview of ABC's Fall Season, Starring Bing Crosby

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Now, did you ever wonder what a random woman speaker might have said, in 1970, about what the job of secretary of the future... say, 1980... would consist of and look like? Has that thought kept you up at night? I know it has for me. So I was relieved to find this 43 minute speech, on a tiny, three inch reel of desperately thin recording tape, recorded at 1 7/8 IPS. 

Download: Unknown - The Secretary of the Future, 1980, as Predicted in 1970

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Or perhaps 55 minutes of Fiddle Music, played by 90 year old Aunt Rose, with a much younger male relative on piano, recorded in Maine, among other spots, is more your speed today: 

Download: Fiddle Music with 90 Year Old Aunt Rose, from Maine and Elsewhere

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Here's that tape box: 

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Returning to TV, here are some "wild track" recordings (Raw tapes, I think) from an ABC program about Japan, from the 1960's: 

Download: Wild Track Recordings for ABC program on Japan

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And here's a portion of that tape box: 

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The next tape almost qualifies as a "Very Short Reel". The title pretty much explains this 5 1/2 minute segment: Robert Recites His Lines and Plays His Accordion, Spring, 1958

Download: Robert Recites His Lines and Plays His Accordion, Spring, 1958

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And guess what, there's writing on this tape's box, too!

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Here's the tape I find the most interesting of all of those I'm sharing today. Your mileage may vary. I have in my collection several tapes recorded by an American couple living, I believe, in Germany, who made several trips to other parts of Europe during the late 1960's and early 1970's, and made recordings each night, while on those trips, summarizing their experiences from that day.In most cases, they used more than one reel - always three inch reels, with the thinnest, lengthiest tape available, and recorded at 1 7/8 IPS, as with the secretary speech, above. Here is their audio diary from 1969, capturing part one of a trip to Spain: 

Download: Audio Diary - Trip to Spain, September & October, 1969

Play:

Here's the tape, and the identification of its contents: 

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Last time around, I offered up some vintage country music television. This time around, it's more of the same, not from the 1950's, but from 1966, specifically, an episode of the Jimmy Dean show from January 16th of that year. 

Download: The Jimmy Dean Show, January 14, 1966

Play: \

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At some point, I came to own a few tapes connected to the Northrup Corporation, one of which you'll now have the chance to hear here. It's a rather odd compendium of various media reports and coverage of Northrup related stories. 

Download: Compilation of Northrup-Related Broadcasts, Summer, 1954

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Here's what that tape box looks like: 

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And finally, the longest of all of the items I'm sharing here, which may be of some fascination to certain readers/listeners, and of absolutely no interest to the rest of you. This is an early 1950's revivalist-style church service, from a paper reel (that is, a reel made prior to 1952 featuring recording tape attached to paper backing). 

Download: An Early 50's Revivalist-Style Church Service

Play:

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Again, please let me know if you like, or dislike, this format. It is definitely a way to get more of what I have out there to you, the reader and listener, but it's also a ton of stuff to listen to. I'd also be interested in knowing which of the categories covered here are of interest, and not of interest, for future posts. 

Some Rare Country Music Television, A 40th Anniversary, Walkie Talkies and THE ROCK RHYTHM SOUND!

 Hello!

My descriptions will be brief this time around. I really want to get a post out, but I usually have time on weekends to do most of my writing. But not this weekend - first Beatlefest in three years! Were you there, too? Maybe I saw you!

Anyway, I'm going to start off with what I found on either side of an ancient reel, which contains some exceptionally rare country music TV recordings. 

First up, I believe, based on the date on the tape, and on what's said during the actual broadcast, that this is literally the first television broadcast of The Grand Ole Opry. The date on the reel is June 11, 1955. Multiple online sources indicate that this show did not become a regular weekly broadcast until the fall of 1955, but that it aired once a month, prior to that, starting the previous summer. So this is the very first episode aired on television. Here it is: 

Download: The Grand Ole Opry Television Show - First Broadcast, June 11, 1955

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The flip side of the tape appears to be something far more obscure, from five days later than the recording above. It is a broadcast, clearly local rather than natural, of something called "The Hillbilly Bob Newman Show". I say "clearly local" as the host of the show actually thanks the local advertiser in his opening comments. Also, and perhaps more importantly, I can find NO reference to the existence of this show online. There are plenty of sites which feature Bob Newman, and even "Hillbilly Bob Newman", but no hits for the name of his show. Unfortunately, nearly all host and/or guest chatter has been edited out of this recording, leaving just the performances, some of them incomplete. But still, this is real time capsule and contains some mighty fine music. 

Download: The Hillbilly Bob Newman Show, June 16, 1955

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Here's a section of the tape box with the relevant information (note that it says "Grand Ole Opera"): 

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And now, a completely different sort of programming. I have a tape which was used to capture several short episodes of a feature which ran on radio station WRC, in Washington, DC, during August of 1963. As it happened, that month was the 40th anniversary of that particular radio station, and, as radio stations are wont to do, WRC memorialized this event with multiple short retrospectives, during that month. My intrepid recorder, whoever he or she was, captured just over 90 minutes of that programming, on a reel of tape. 

It would appear that WRC was, for most of that 40 year period, an affiliate of the NBC network, so these highlights are decidedly LESS locally focused than I would have liked, and less than any other retrospective I think I've heard, being made up largely of "hey, do you remember this network broadcast/broadcaster". Still, it's a neat little bundle of nostalgic flashbacks, and it's worth noting that the there has now been a station in that town on that frequency (it's now WTEM) for 99 years, as of two weeks ago.

Download: WRC, Washington, DC, 40th Anniversary Features, August, 1963

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Here's a really nice insert which was inside that tape box: 

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Switching gears again, for those who are just wild for those walkie-talkie conversations, here is about eleven and a half minutes of walkie-talking conversations. 

Download: A Walkie-Talkie Conversation

Play:

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And now to a "Very Short Reel". This is, admittedly, more than a bit of a cheat. This comes from a full length, fully recorded reel of tape, but a two minute segment of it made me smile. The second side of the tape had a recording of a full presentation, on local Chicago television, of a Mae West movie, complete with the commercials. And this Longines advertisement was heard as one of the commercial breaks. A real time capsule, and, incidentally, not at ALL what I remember Longines promoting and selling, way back when: 

Download: TV Ad for 'The Rock Rhythm Sound' From Longines

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