A Year End (and Decade End) Countdown, Some Great Old Ads, More From the Muir Family, An Audio Letter, A Brief Recital, and Touch Tones!

Happy almost New Year's Eve! 2026 can't get here quickly enough. Let's hope it's a damn sight better than 2025. As John Lennon once sang, "Can't Get No Worse".

As I like to do, when I have one available at the end of a year, I am leading off with a countdown the major offering for this week's post. More than four hours of a show called "The Dynamite Decade", hosted by the small man with the large pipes, Charlie Van Dyke, as heard on the last day of the '70's, on WRBR, South Bend, IN. 

This is a unique end-of-the-year countdown, in that, as its title indicates, it's also a summary of the decade of the 1970's,. with various comments from, and songs by, the hitmakers from throughout those years, in the midst of also counting down the 100 biggest hits of 1979. 

This is not the entire show, which I'm guessing was at least six hours long, but it does capture from the 80s into the high teens of the countdown. Unfortunately, whoever taped this edited out most of the commercials. 

Enjoy this flashback to another, more enjoyable end-of-the-year. 

Download: OPUS 1979 - The Dynamite Decade - with Charlie Van Dyke - WRBR, South Bend, 12-31-79

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Ads are always popular around here, and the older, the better (well, that's what I think, anyway). Here are eleven ads for a store called "Oliver Wright's Appliance Company" in Knoxville, Tennessee, from May of 1966. 

If you look up the address, you'll see that this is now an industrial area, and that this particular address is virtually underneath a short highway - "Hall of Fame Drive" - one that was built pretty recently, according to a bit of research I did. But if you look at page three of this little high school newspaper, you'll find that Ol' Oliver was doing right by the high school, and advertising in their paper. 

Download: Eleven Ads for Oliver Wright's Appliance Company, Knoxville, TN, May, 1966

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Apparently this tape was originally used for a broadcast by someone named Dr. Howard Kershner, and then later was an audition tape. A shame we'll never hear either of those. 

Then again, Dr. Kershner seems to have been affiliated with Liberty University. So.... maybe not. 

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And now, something I alluded to in my last post, when I shared some not terribly good family singing, and said I had something much better, in the same vein, in the pipeling. 

This is a return to the Muir family. Back when this blog was new, just over ten years ago, I shared a set of recordings by the Muir family which I just loved. This is a family in which clearly, all of the members knew how to play instruments, and knew how sing in good old-timey, ragged-but-gorgeous harmony. That post came when I was typically just sharing one tape per post, and I separated out all of the individual songs, something I've not done in quite some time. You can find it here. That wholly amateur guitar/piano/trumpet version of "You Tell Me Your Dreams", in that offering, complete with lots of bum notes, still just hits me straight in the heart, and makes me wish I'd known these people. 

Anyway, I have just recently discovered that I have another tape by the Muir family (along with at least one non-Muir family member or friend). In this case, there aren't a lot of different instruments heard. Instrumentally, it's all piano, including a couple of piano solos and a bunch of songs sung by the family choir, the vast majority of them Christian in nature. A man sings baritone alone on a few of the tracks, and a soprano sings another. Those don't really resonate with me, but when the children sing - I'm a sucker for children singing naturally (i.e. not stage-trained), it's pretty wonderful. And when everyone sings together, it's magical. 

At times, it's clear that everyone knows their parts and that they have no doubt sung these songs countless times. The harmonies in the first song sung together, particularly from the five minute to six minute mark are sweetly gorgeous. And the song at about 15:30, "Years I Spent" (which I know from a thoroughly magical recording by someone named Joan Creary), is sung in a thick, and complicated harmony that gives me chills. It's identified here as being called "At Calvary".

I recognize that this isn't for everyone, and plenty of people love stuff that I just can't stand, but this is the sort of thing I listen to when I want to get all those technically perfect but utterly soulless Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston records out of my brain. 

Download: A Selection of (Mostly) Christian Songs, Sung and Played by the Muir Family

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Here's the back of the tape box: 

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Not a lot to say about this next one. I've labeled it "Audio Letter to Larry" and although the speaker does identify himself, I'm not sure I've made out his name correctly, so I'm not even going to try. The sound quality isn't awful, but it's not very good either. I tried to improve it a couple of different ways, without success. 

Download: Audio Letter to Larry

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Here's a tape which features a piano player and violin player in recital. For some of this short performance, there seems to be two violists and at other points, only one. I mostly included this because of the final piece, a rendition of "Jamaican Rhumba", a tune I've known since infancy, as my family had two, very different renditions of it that we would listen to a lot - a story which is far longer than I'm going to share here. I know nothing else about this recording. 

Download: A Short Piano and Violins Recital

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And finally, a "Very Short Reel". Here's an itty-bitty bit of tape explaining in detail - with auditory examples - exactly which tones - at what two combined hertz - make up the ten numbered spots on a touch tone phone. This tape is missing its beginning and runs out as the "Zero" tone is being heard. It is labeled "Touch Tones by J.I.S.", as seen below. 

Download: A Telephone Company Tape - Touch Tones By J. I. S.

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Christmas Through and Through, Volume Three

It's that time of year again! Today's post is Christmastime, all the time. 

I'm going to start with my very favorite type of Christmas tape to find - the home recording of a family members enjoying Christmas and/or Christmas music. In this case, it's The Van Sickle Family, singing their way through about a half hour of Christmas songs and a variety of other songs. Along the way, a very small child recites "A Visit From St. Nicholas", with some help. Technically, only about half of this tape is Christamassy, but "Christmas Nearly Through and Through" doesn't have the same ring to it. 

The family members heard here are not the greatest home recorded singers you'll hear on this site (in fact, in comparison, I have some wonderful, if ragged, harmony singing cued up for an upcoming post) from a different family - but the love and fondness and good feelings come through in every moment of this tape. (And despite what it says at the very beginning, this is not Jeannie's birthday party.) 

I can't find the tape box for this one right now, but it did indicate that these recordings were made, for the most part, in 1951. 

Download: The Van Sickle Family - Christmas Songs and Other Old Favorites, Recorded Mostly in 1951

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This next recording would, under other circumstances, be my lead offering for certain. However, this material - including its video - has been made available commercially in the past. BUT, I'm including it here because this recording contains the original commercials, and that's always interesting to hear. 

Anyway, it is the sound, recorded off of TV, of Bing Crosby's very first Television Christmas Special, from December 11, 1961. Crosby, of course, continued to host these shows, off and on, for the next 16 years, even managing to host such a show in 1977 several weeks after he had died. 

Anyway, the commercials here are few and far between, but hopefully their presence leads you to agree that this recording was worth sharing. 

Download: Bing Crosby TV Christmas Special - 12-11-61, on ABC

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This one is labeled "A Christmastime Audio Letter to Larry from Charles", and I will let it's charms soothe you without further comment.

Download: A Christmastime Audio Letter to Larry from Charles

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This next one is pretty dang esoteric, and also only partly qualifies as a Christmas-related recording. I've named it "Presentation On Behalf of a Fluxgate Compass Manufacturer, and Recordings Made at That Company's 1951 Christmas Party". The two segments of this 19 minute tape are each almost exactly half of the recording. I am not sure who the man giving the presentation was presenting to, but he hems and haws quite a bit and seems to be speaking off the top of his head. It's a fairly difficult listen. After nine minutes - and the man doesn't appear to be done speaking - we move onto the party, which is considerably more entertaining, with a series of employees doing whatever the term is for the audio version of "mugging for the camera".

Download: Presentation On Behalf of a Fluxgate Compass Manufacturer, and Recordings Made at That Company's 1951 Christmas Party

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Next up, featuring vintage excerpts I found - about 11 minutes worth - of a Lawrence Well Christmas episode. 

Download: Excerpts from a Lawrence Welk Christmas Episode

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And now for an "Acetate of the Month". This brief, unlabeled acetate contains a female lead singer, with chorus, singing "White Christmas on one side, clearly recorded off of the radio. Here it is: 

Download: Unlabeled Black Acetate - Female Vocal with Chorus - White Christmas

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The flip side of this record will not play all the way through. But for completeness sake (even though it's also not Christmassy, here is that 42 second segment: 

Download: Unlabeled Black Acetate - Flip Side of "White Christmas" - Only Partially Playable

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And I'm going to finish this post with a slightly expanded "Very Short Reel" They are usually under five minutes, but I wanted to include one for Christmas, and this one is about seven minutes. It's just a few conversations recorded in someone's home on Christmas. 

Enjoy!

Download: Unknown - Conversations on Christmas

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Were the Village People Still Hot in 1980? Also, a Automotive Interview, The Folks Back Home in 1951, Some Dutch Folk Singing, Two Sermons and a Hodgepodge Like No Other

Belated Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrated it! 

Right off the bat, I'm going to thank reader Chad - who has commented a few times - for publicizing my blog to something called radiodiscussions.com/, and ended up soliciting a few comments which he reposted at the end of this post, on which they were originally commented on that other site. They are a bit long to repost here, but have a look at the comments on that page. At the end of the comment, either Chad or the person who responded to him - I can't quite tell which, but I think it was Chad - asked for more sermon recordings, and a ways down there in this post, I have offered up exactly that. 

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I'm going to start with something I just find.... weird. I have a handful of tapes featuring episodes of something called "The Robert W. Morgan Special of the Week". I featured his program on the group "Chicago" in a post very early this year, and wrote about the host, and the show, at that time. 

As you will hear, this offering is a rebroadcast of an earlier "Special of the Week", originally from 1979, and it aired as part of a series of "Best Of" episodes, in January of 1980. What I find weird is that, for the kick-off episode of that "Best Of" series, they chose an episode about... The Village People. 

Unlike the stars of the other "Specials" I have found, which tended to be about acts with a long history and tons of hits, The Village People had a total of three US pop hits, two of them top ten, and if you want to throw in the dance charts, another couple of hits. Plus, by January of 1980, whether fair or not, The Village People had become yesterday's news, and Top 40 poison, for a wide swath of that format's listening audience, at least in the U.S., where this program aired. The release of and horrendous reception to their film a few months later would drive this point home further. It just seems terrifically odd to me that Robert W. Morgan would start a victory lap of sorts with a show honoring a very minor recording act which already was past its sell-by date. 

Download: Robert W Morgan's 'The Best of the Special of the Week - Featuring The Village People - 1-6-80, WRBR, South Bend, IN

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As I've mentioned far too many times to link here, I obtained some media tapes many, many years ago, which contain the raw sound recordings of many a TV program, tapes I've shared here and at the (now late and lamented) WFMU blog. And some of those posts have featured interviews from the 1960's Howard K. Smith show. The following is another of those, but in this case, Don Dixon is doing the interview (perhaps Smith was on vacation), with someone named John Keats (a common enough name that I've been unable to figure out who this particular Keats was), about new car models, American car buying habits, traffic patterns and related subject. Mr. Keats would have liked to see city dwellers stop driving cars - as he seems to have done - and causing so much traffic. 

One humorous moment comes near the end. As is always the case on these tapes, the director filmed one way (towards the interviewee) and then, afterwards, filmed the interviewer over the interviewee's shoulder to get shots of the questions being asked, after the fact. Mr. Keats, apparently not understanding this, starts answering a question he has already answered, before being told that no, he doesn't need to actually respond any more. 

Download: Don Dixon Interviews John Keats for the Howard K Smith Show

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This next one is a rather unusual selection, both because it seems to simply be an album of songs that someone recorded and also because it may very well be available elsewhere. As such, I've sat on it for literally years before choosing to share it. In the end, I've settled on two reasons to go ahead and share it. 1.) I enjoy it, and 2.) I am utterly unable to confirm that this particular set of songs is available online or on record/CD anywhere. And I've looked. 

It's a short group of songs - perhaps it was a ten inch album - by Bob Davidse, a Flemish host, singer and guitarist who I believe is singing in Dutch here (that Wikipedia link is in Dutch). The key word in the title of this collection - Volksliederen - has translated both to "Folk Songs" and "National Anthems" in various searches. I'm thinking "Folk Songs" is more accurate. Various sites also indicate - not surprisingly, that Davidse also sang South African songs, so perhaps some of this is in Afrikaans. Maybe someone out there will tell me and other readers.

Download: Bob Davidse - Volksliederen Met Bob Davidse

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Here's the tape box, so you can have all the song titles, and also in case any of you would like to do more digging than I've done: 

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Now for something really weird. Every now and then I will share a tape that has a changing series of recordings on it, often in the course of less than ten minutes. Typically, these tapes, which I call Hodgepodges, have at least a somewhat clear history to them - someone who recorded over a previous recording, but not completely, or who recorded several short unrelated items over the same section of tape. 

This one, however, mystifies me. Here's the tape box: 

Okay, so at some point this tape contained eleven commercials for Kodak and Kodak products. And there are remnants of those ads heard here. But the off-center pasting of the contents sheet onto the tape box is telling, if accidental. There are few tapes as off kilter as this one. 

After a split second bit of... something, we hear some testing of volume as utilized in the playing of a few instruments. This is interrupted by most of one ad and the start of a PSA, the latter of which stops and starts, before the volume tests resume. Then there is more of the same PSA and some more ads, just a moment of the sound tests. There follows a brief excerpt from "Sgt. Preston of the Yukon" and another episode from some film-noir style narration. This gives way to portions of three of the Kodak ads, in quick succession and none of them complete (although the third appears to be nearly whole) - these are the 8th, 9th and 11th listed ads above, I think. 

After a short difficult to hear section, we hear the first and second of the eleven listed ads, complete, and part of the third one. Then Rod McKuen narrates one of his poems (and I vomit a bit into my mouth), we hear one second of another Kodak ad, and then Rod McKuen sings a bit (Kill Me Now!), and then we hear most of the 60 second Kodak disco ad and all of the 30 second Kodak disco ad. Then there is MORE of Sgt. Preston which suddenly segues into some other sort of drama - for the last 80 seconds or so - featuring a Scottish character and a narrator talking about Halloween night. 

Then it's over. A fascinating listen

Download: A Most Unusual Hodgepodge

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Here's another genre of tape I really enjoy - although I have little insight into how much my audience enjoys it. It's the home recording of people sitting around chatting and playing and singing music. And the older and more old timey the feel the better. Here's part of the tape box from this one: 

So this goes all the way back to the week before Christmas, 1951, just under 74 years ago, although part of it seems to perhaps date from April 8th of that year, as well. I don't have a lot to say here - just an enjoyable 45 minutes with Glenn, Nora, Bill and Bessie. 

Download: Conversations and Singing at Home, 12-20-51

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And now, because Chad - or his correspondent - requested a sermon, here are two, heard as preached by someone named Leonard, the second of which is from 1967. Perhaps they are both from 1967. I can't put my hands on the tape box just now, but presumably it told me - at the time I digitized this - that it was made in Madison Wisconsin. I have not listened to these recently, so I am not going to give a summary, but rather, will just let those of you who are interested, have a listen: 

Download: Unknown ("Leonard") - Two Sermons in Madison, WI, Mid 1960's

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And here's a very short reel. 58 seconds worth, in fact, and it's a radio ad - undated - for the world's toughest rodeo, which was coming to St. Paul very soon, at the time of this ad. The very uncreatively named "Ad Market Productions Inc." created this particular radio ad. 

Download: Ad Market Productions, Inc. - World's Toughest Rodeo, St Paul

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Being a Woman Through the Years, Late '70's Top 40, "The Children's Hour, Some Woozy Sound, Joerg Rothweiler's Greatest Hits and Dick Clark Gets It Wrong

I have a handful of comments to catch up with from the last few months. I got a few thanks for the beautiful music posting - you're quite welcome! Please pay attention, everyone, I really do try to honor requests. And regarding my observation in that post, that a Beautiful Music station I sampled seemed to have no actual commercials in an hour of broadcasting, Chad offered up the possibility of the tape having been edited, but then also added this interesting observation:

I also think most beautiful music on FM stations in the 1950s through 1970s never made much money in terms of advertising. The technology was new and took decades to reach full acceptance and availability especially in cars which were still being sent from the factory equipped with AM-only radios well into the 1980s. I suspect that most were holding a spot on the FM dial until the technology matured, which seemingly took 25 to 30 years from its introduction post WWII! Since AM-FM simulcasting was prohibited at the time, it made sense to put orchestral music on the FM dial for the mature hi-fi audience and left the pop music formats for the transistor radio set.

Eric wrote in to let me know that the WFMU blog, which is where this feature got its start, and which I've linked to own my home page and within many posts, has been taken down, as the host site has gone out of business. Posts are available at the Wayback Machine, but whether the downloads will work from there is a different story. If there's anything at that site that I posted that you'd like to have a copy of, let me know and I'll include it here. 

"Snoopy" and Eric (maybe the same Eric as above, I'm not sure), offered up thoughts on the Kingsport Radio tape, as well as the Death of Eisenhower programming included in this post. I'm going to combine their comments into one comment here. I hope that's okay: 

The Kingsport station is WKPT which as the newscasts show was an NBC affiliate in this era (it switched to ABC affiliation in the 70s). The morning program host we hear after the initial newscast is Charlie Deming who was known as the "Gloom Chaser". He started at WKPT in 1945 and was with them continuously until his death in 1974. If you can get past the first 5 minutes of church choir music on the Kingsport TN radio tape, there's quite a bit of interesting news and commercials from Friday, March 6, 1964; at 27:45 a comedy bit by prolific voice actor Paul Frees. 36:16 changes into something, not the radio broadcast - some comedic theatre, I can't tell what. Really interesting lost media. The NBC specials on President Eisenhower's death are clearly TV audio recordings from March 28, 1969. First, coverage after the news broke and then an 11:30 PM special. Edwin Newman anchors both of them.

Regarding the damaged player piano rolls, from a post one month ago, I wanted to make sure I linked everyone to this insane music that reader/listener Kit linked me to. I absolutely encourage everyone to read about and listen to what was shared in the following comment. 

Gosh, what a spectacular ending to the player piano piece and to your October postings. As if Conlon Noncarrow had a commoner sense of humor.

Finally, I'd like to deeply thank the anonymous writer who confirmed for me that Vaughn Monroe was an exceptionally bad singer. I like your term, "Baritone Sludge". 

And now, on with the countdown!

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I'm going to kick of this post's offerings with a remarkable tape of an episode of "The Columbia School of the Air". In a quick web search, I have found scattered references to this CBS radio show, but nothing in detail. One magazine article from 1946 indicates the show was in its 13th year at that time. 

This episode, as the dialogue makes clear, is from 1948, and this program was transcribed - that is, it went out to stations on a disc, perhaps an acetate. This tape is a recording of that disc - the tape itself is not from 1948, otherwise it would have, by definition, been on a paper reel, but from some time at least a bit later. It came to me in a metal can with the following written on the edge:

This is a radio drama, portraying woman seeking civil and other rights from 1848 to 1948. What I find remarkable about this program is that 1948 was hardly a good time for progressive thought and action, and this program is nothing if not progressive in many ways, not the least of which is in its matter-of-fact portrayal of a Black woman, Sojourner Truth, as simply another participant in the search for equal rights, and an equal to the other women in the room during that scene. But there are several other elements to this programming that pleasantly surprised me, as well. 

Download: The Columbia School of the Air - Being a Woman - Circa 1948

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(This is, by the way, the second tape I've featured from a large stack of metal-canned tapes with that writing on the side. I'm trying to recall what the first one was - something about school, I think - but it's fuzzy, and I'm pretty sure it was not from "The Columbia School of the Air". If I figure it out, I'll update in a future post.)

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I have a lot less to say about the next tape. This is for all of you - and that includes me - who enjoy recordings of any era of Top 40 radio. This nearly 90 minute example is from WRBR in South Bend Indiana, from the early fall of 1979. It's got many of the hits you might imagine from that time period, plus a goodly number of oldies. 

Download: WRBR, Top 40 Radio, 9-16-79

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"The Children's Hour" was a radio program sponsored by Horn and Hardart (the pioneer company in terms of fast food) which ran on radio for more than 20 years, before starting up on TV for at least a few years, in 1948. The Wikipedia page for the program indicates it was only seen in Philadelphia and New York City, and it lasted until 1959. As with "The Columbia School of the Air", I've been unable to find out much of anything else about the show. The show featured juvenile performers, some of whom went on to stardom and/or long careers, in a variety of skits and plays.

What I have here is a tape of just under an hour, containing segments, some short, and some long, from this show. The recording is frustratingly haphazard - songs are cut off, scenes are excerpted without relevance to the larger plot, and one of the lengthier segments seems to be building towards.... something... when the recording is stopped and picked up at a later point, possibly even a later episode. But still, I found it a fascinating listen. 

Then there is this, from the Wikipedia page: "Fred Rogers worked as a stage manager on the show, which he later described as 'terrible' for forcing children to perform."

(Note: I have included a few moments of a performance of "My Funny Valentine" which leads off this tape, just prior to the "Children's Hour" recordings.)

Download: Segments of Episodes of "The Children's Hour"

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Okay, the following my be the very opposite of appealing to the broadest audience possible. Call it "Narrowcasting". I know I have at least one reader/listener (the aforementioned "Snoopy" who loves anything I share that has a woozy or deeply imperfect sound quality to it. And so perhaps I have targeting this solely at one person, but I hope others will find something to enjoy here, too. 

Anyway, every now and then I come across a tape where one set of recordings didn't completely erase a previous set of recordings, so that two completely different things are heard, often at roughly the same volume, at the same time. In this case, we have some classical music which is recorded on the same piece of tape which also contains a variety of spoken word segments from radio station KFAB in Omaha. This 30 minute slice of sound is not precisely what is heard on the tape - I have edited out segments from what was a longer tape, during which the sound of two recordings is not present. That helps explain the difference between this segment and the one just below it. 

Download: Doubly Recorded Segments

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On the flip side of this tape, I found that one spoken word segment - partially heard in the first half of the above recording - was heard backwards, without the classical music interfering. I have turned that segment around and present it here. This segment was preceded and followed by more classical music, which I have removed, leaving the following twelve minutes. There are a few announcements and some commercials and such, but most of this segment features an interview with operatic soprano Helen Traubel, and, as mentioned, much of this interview can be made out amongst the double recordings in the previous segment. 

Download: More from the Tape with the Doubly Recorded Segments - Interview, Etc. - KFAB, Omaha

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And now it's time for our "Acetate of the Month", which looks like this: 

I don't know anything about this besides what you can see above. It features a combo, presumably led by Joerg Rothweiler - perhaps they are the Black Derby's or perhaps they worked at a place called The Black Derby's (either way, that apostrophe seems misplaced, and possibly Derbies would be a better spelling). There are performances of three disparate songs, all done Dixieland style. Maybe someone else knows more about this record and can shine some light on its provenance. 

Download: Midwestern Recording Studios, Inc 10 inch Acetate - Joerg Rothweiler - Won't You Come Home, Bill Bailey, Battle Hymn of the Republic, The Dark Town Strutter's Ball

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And now for a "Very Short Reel". In a few recent posts, I have shared tapes from a relatively new acquisition - a box of tapes of commercials, some of which (including all that I have shared so far) from the Needham Harper Steers company. In this case, we have four ads for the same group of products that I featured in the first Needham set I shared, Mueller's Pasta.

Download: Needham Harper Steers - Four Mueller's Pasta Ads

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And now, for a little something extra. This is the mint on your pillow, the free handful of candies at the cashier's stand, the flowers from the audience after a great performance. It's only "Waffer Thin". It's not really a "Very Short Reel", even though it is extremely brief, as its source is a tape lasting well over an hour.

It's just a moment in time from an episode of a syndicated weekly Dick Clark oldies program, containing a factual error so blindingly wrong and idiotic I'm amazed no one picked up on it before it got out onto the program. You'll hear Dick Clark, being smarmy and know-it-all-y and talking down to his audience as usual, reading his copy and clearly not even noticing that he's just said something astonishingly stupid. That he makes this particularly error (and level of error) while simultaneously regaling the audience about all the names that they should know, but don't, well, that's just icing on the cake.

Download: Dick Clark Fact Check

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The Return of Lance Shepard, A Soldier in Germany, 1951 Up and Down the Dial, Rehearsing Some Songs and 1981 MOR Radio

HAPPY HALLOWE'EN!

I have a media-heavy posting this time around, with three of the six items containing material that was on the radio airwaves at some point, and nothing remotely connected to ghosts or goblins.  

Deejay demo tapes seem to be pretty popular, so I'll start with one of those. I seem to have picked up multiple tapes from the collection of the well traveled Lance Shepard (AKA Bill Brown), at some point, and have shared one of his reels before. Here is another one, from that bicentennial summer (and at least for some of it, if not all of it, from that bicentennial day) of 1976, from a town that already existed in 1776, Waterbury, Connecticut, "Supermusic C-O", otherwise known as WWCO. Here's about twelve minutes of nearly 40 year old, "scoped" Lance Shepard.

Download: Lance Shepard Demo Reel from 1240 Supeemusic C-O, Waterbury, Connecticut, July, 1976

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For those who like audio letters, here's one that I found particularly interesting. It's from a soldier stationed in Germany (with his family), recorded off and on for three months. At the start, the tape is nicely dated to March of 1970, as the soldier mentions that year's NIT and NCAA basketball finals having occurred that day. Later, his son joins him. By the end of the tape, he has learned that he is being sent to Vietnam, but has a lengthy break in between, during which he will be returning to the states, during which time he will be finding and buying a house for his family, as they will not be going with him. 

Download: Audio Letter from a Soldier in Germany, Recorded from March to June, 1970

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Here's part of the tape box: 

I have at least one other tape of this soldier - let me know if you are interested in hearing that one. 

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I've labeled the next one "Media Hodgepodge, circa October, 1951". It begins with a couple of Country & Western numbers. These are "Rainbow in My Heart", and, after a moment of a commercial (which is then cut), an upbeat, accordion driven version of (of all things) "Somewhere Over the Rainbow". Then we get a bit of an ad for Royal Pudding, before the recording switches to "The Camel Caravan" starring Vaughn Monroe. The songs chosen for this program include a thoroughly awful of "The World is Waiting for the Sunrise". (As an aside, I will never, ever, understand the appeal of Vaughn Monroe's voice.)

At just after the ten minute point, the real hodgepodge begins. We hear the end of a spoken word ad then a sung good morning jingle, then the station is changed repeatedly. We repeatedly hear moments of the masterful - perfect - version of "The World is Waiting for the Sunrise" by Les Paul and Mary Ford, a weather forecast (it's October 17th), what seem to be part of two different newscasts and a community events calendar fading in and out (as well as, briefly, yet another song). A Freddy Martin record is introduced and we momentarily hear two songs at once, before the final section, featuring a man with the moralistic fervor of the typical anti-communists of the day. When he all the terrible things that always occur whenever forms of socialism are in place, I have to wonder if he had any idea about the ways that many of the Native American tribes lived before the Europeans arrived. But maybe that's just me. 

Download: Media Hodgepodge, circa October, 1951

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For those of you who enjoy men rehearsing arias and songs, here is a man rehearsing arias and songs. It's called "A Man Rehearses Arias and Songs". I hope that makes things clear enough. 

Download: A Man Rehearses Arias and Songs

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And now, the good news is I have a nice, long musical aircheck from an American radio station. The bad news is that's from 1981 - not the best year for rock and roll, if you ask me, and what's worse, it's not from a rock and roll station. It's from an Adult Contemporary station. BORING!!! But it's a complete recording of over two hours, with commercials and newscasts and DJ patter intact. The station was in South Bend, Indiana and was called WTHQ (it's now WNSN). The ongoing discussion of whether the space shuttle would launch, as mentioned throughout these two-plus hours, very definitely dates this tape to November 4th of that year, as does the segment about how Guy Fawkes Day is coming up the following day. That's almost exactly 44 years ago! Here's that tape. 

Download: WTHQ, South Bend, IN, 11-4-81

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And as (almost) always, here's a very short reel. This is all that was on this particular 1200 foot reel, one which came housed in a VERY early Scotch design box - the type sold around 1951-52, but the recording cannot be from before 1956 or so, as that's when the latter of the two songs heard premiered.  The songs are sung by a woman, a cappella. That slightly "newer" song is "Around the World" from the film of a similar title, and is heard first, after which are some warblings of "Many a New Day" from "Oklahoma". All in just under four minutes. 

Download: A Couple of A Cappella Show Tunes

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All About the Grand Canyon, The NWB Show (Whatever That Was), A Life Insurance Speech (OOO, Pinch Me!), A Singer Rehearses, A Couple Celebrates and More

I have a bunch of comments, observations and insights that have been received recently, that I planned to start off this post with, but I've been working on this one for five days and want to get it posted. But I thank everyone who has written in, and I will get to them next time. 

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Let's start with a reel made, presumably, by a teacher. It sounds like she was in the Phoenix area, and she opens the tape by explaining why she wants to show local students a film about The Grand Canyon - some of them have never seen it and may not even know much about it. There follows her narration for the film, accompanied by a musical score. This being audio only, we can't see it, of course. I hope all readers out there have had a chance to see it. 

Download: Grand Canyon Film Introduction and Narration

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And here, for your dining and dancing pleasure, are the some folks, also in Phoenix, heard on the tape for ten minutes after the Grand Canyon narration, sitting around and chatting about all manner of things. Conversations about a few government programs and issues, including Head Start, as well as a mention of the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum, pretty effectively date this to the mid 1960's, and no earlier than late 1965. 

Download: Conversation In Arizona Circa Mid 1960's (After the Grand Canyon Film Narration)

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This next tape comes in a box that looks like this: 

And that is all I know about it. This is a neat little tape. It contains a series of relatively short songs, sung by a few men and a few women, accompanied by piano, each track "banded", that is, separated by white leader tape. This is pretty clearly a recording of songs from some sort of performance, but this is not the performance - this is probably a demo or a studio rendition of the show. There are also a few very short tracks - sound effects here, a commercial there. There are a few rough places in the tape, where he jams a bit and/or where there are splices which cut out a moment of sound. I have no idea what this is. Anyone out there have any idea? 

Download: Dub of NWB Show, 10-20-59 - For Club Page (Final Tape)

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Perhaps you would prefer, though, to listen to a 28 minute speech from roughly 53 years ago, given by Tony Cortellessa, to the Franklin Life Insurance Company. If so, BOY ARE YOU IN LUCK!!!:

Download: Tony Cortellessa Speaks to the Franklin Life Insurance Company, 9-11-72

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Here is someone named Eve - I think so, anyway, doing a variety of stage-musical-type songs, including some from the show "Oliver!". The tape box is written on sort of haphazardly. I don't know if that says "Eve Many Songs" or "Eve <her last name> Songs. I think it's "many".

What do you think? And let me know if you want to hear more of people rehearsing songs (or less, for that matter). I have quite a few.

Download: Eve Practices Several Songs with Piano - January 30

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This next one is labeled like this: 

That's a mouthful, and rather than offering comments, I'll let you experience its charms, whatever you find (or don't find) them to be. One warning - after a really quiet section, the tape suddenly gets REALLY LOUD at 21:15. Be prepared. 

Download: Johnson-Mort Wedding Anniversaries, November 5, 1960, at the Miller Home

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And now it's time for our "Acetate of the Month". In this month's episode, Joan records a song ("Always in My Heart") for her absent husband Edward (with Gladys on piano) and then talks to him about how much he is missed. Someone named Jean then sends her love to Tom (who was apparently with Edward). Nothing was written on this acetate so I can't really tell you anything more about it. 

Download: Black and Silver Metal Acetate - Joan Sings a Song for Her Husband and Talks

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Today's "Very Short Reel" is actually another excerpt, which is a cheat, but I really wanted to share this segment. 

First, a little story. When I was little, we had a miniature player piano thingee. I don't quite remember how big it was, or what happened to it, but it had genuine (little) player piano rolls and they really did make it play the way a full sized one does - it was almost more like a music box, due to its size. 

In case you don't know how player piano rolls work, they have spots on the sheet of paper which correspond to all 88 keys on the piano, and there is a hole punched for every note that is to be played. I believe they were made by someone actually playing the piano attached to a machine that would poke the holes, and then additional holes would often be made to add embellishments. There are piano rolls "cut" by Scott Joplin which contain embellishments that render performances that no single pianist could actually ever play. 

As you might imagine, tearing extra holes in the piano roll results in extra notes being played. And, in fact, one of our little piano rolls developed a large tear near the center but off to one side a bit, right near the start of the piece. When you fed that one into the machine, it played the first five seconds or so of the piece, then about 20 keys all slammed their tones, not quite together, but roughly the way you might think a piano falling over might sound. It was quite humorous. 

So anyway.... I found a tape someone made in 1953, capturing a series of player piano rolls fed through their player piano, interspersed with what were, even then, ancient 78 RPM releases. And two of the piano rolls clearly had the same issue as the one we owned. 

What you'll hear here is the woman who introduces all of the rolls and 78's on the tape, introducing the next piano roll, and then the entire roll - well most of it: it would appear that the end of it was damaged and then, most likely, torn off completely before the piece ends. You can hear the woman giggle a little as the odd sounds retreat. I laughed out loud. There is just something devastatingly hilarious about the way it shudders to a stop after such musical eloquence, to that point, as if an actual pianist had been playing and suddenly dropped dead, mid phrase. 

A man then speaks briefly about the wonderful weather they are having - exactly 72 years ago tomorrow, as I post this (wow). Then the woman introduces another piano roll, and THAT one is damaged a few seconds into the song, then is fine from that point on. This second one sounds just like the piano roll we had, with a moment of good music, a few moments of complete mayhem, and then the rest of it is normal again. I've faded it after the goofy part. I hope this makes you laugh as much as it does me. Every... single... time. 

Download: Short Excerpt from a Tape of Piano Roll (with comments on the Weather) - 10-18-53

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Blowout Post # 8! - I Don't Even Remember These Files!

I'm going to try something a little different today, even a bit different from the other "Blowout Posts" I've shared. 

You see, I have well over 300 sound files in my "Not Yet Used" file for this blog, including material I digitized over a decade ago. So today, I'm going to share some of the oldest previously unshared sound files from that "Not Yet Used" file. Everything in today's post, except the last entry, was digitized eight to twelve years ago. 

So for most of these, well, I simply don't recall them well enough to comment without listening again. And I'm not going to listen again, which means I'm just throwing them up, and you, dear reader and listener, can determine which you want to hear, and once you decide to hear them, you can decide if they were worth hearing. I'm sharing 12 files, some of them quite long, plus the traditional "Very Short Reel". My comments will be extremely brief. Perhaps some of you will prefer that. 

I also may have scannable tape boxes with information for some of these tapes, but those are probably packed away or at least filed on a shelf somewhere. If I come across any of them in the future, I'll add them to the post. 

This first one I actually know pretty well what it is, as it's titled "A Conversation with Van Cliburn" - obviously a chat with the internationally renowned pianist. Other than that, you're on your own. 

Download: A Conversation with Van Cliburn

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Here's what some of the radio programming sounded like in Kingsport, TN, in early 1964: 

Download: Kingsport, TN Radio, Early 1964

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For those of you who cannot wait to listen to almost 90 minutes of municipal meetings, especially if they are from Massachusetts and deal with a road upgrade, this next offering IS FOR YOU!

Download: Two Hearings About a Road Upgrade in Massachusetts

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Or Mayhap some down-homey singing, strumming and blowing is more your speed. If so, here is a short, home recorded tape of Vocals, Guitar and Harmonica from a few anonymous guys, with a bit of big band music at the end. 

Download: Vocals, Guitar and Harmonica

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Or perhaps a 20 minute show on a cure for arthritis is more up your alley. Presumably, the original tape ended suddenly, as heard here: 

Download: Dr. Bernard A Bellew - The Cure For Arthritis

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This one is labeled, "Robyn Hurt - Three Faces of Eve" - I assume this was written on the tape box, but given that I digitized this in 2015 or so, it's not surprising that I can no longer find that box: 

Download: Robyn Hurt - Three Faces of Eve

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This one says: "Two NBC Programs After the Death of Eisenhower". Yep, that's what it says. I bet that's what it is: 

Download: Two NBC Programs After the Death of Eisenhower

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This might be interesting - it's an audio letter from Florida to Colorado. I don't recall anything about it, though. If I was in Florida, I would absolutely move to Colorado. Well, I'd move somewhere else, somewhere cooler and saner. 

Download: Audio Letter from Florida to Colorado

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"The Bell Telephone Hour" was a mainstay on television for many years. Here is an episode from 1961 titled "A Galaxy of Music": 

Download: The Bell Telephone Hour, 3-3-61 - A Galaxy of Music

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Here is the endlessly pompous and completely insufferable Earl Nightingale, with a recording called "The Executive Market" which does not seem to be anywhere else online. If anyone ever deserved to be punched in the face, this guy would qualify.

Download: Earl Nightingale - The Executive Market

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Some additional cretinous material from Earl Nightingale is in this post. 

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Are you still with me? Because this is the one I'm sure most of you have been waiting for. It's the famous (perhaps infamous) "Chat Around the House & Fireplace Talk". I'm sure this one will be notorious enough to be discussed next week on "The View":

Download: Chat Around the House & Fireplace Talk

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And just before my "Very Short Reel", I will offer this "Very Long Reel", over two hours of Medical Hypnosis Training from Dave Elman. Sorry, I only have lesson two. You are getting very sleepy at this point. 

Download: Dave Elman - Medical Hypnosis, Lesson 2

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And now, for the only newly digitized item here. It's my "Very Short Reel" for the post. And this is from the same new-to-me box of tapes that I received in late July, which I also featured at the end of this post. It is another group of three ads, just as in that post, this time for Delta Airlines. Presumably, this is from the same company - Needham Harper Steers - as are many of the tapes in that box, but this one was unlabeled, so I can't be certain. But I'm guessing they are, hence the labeling here. 

Download: Needham Harper Steers - Three Delta Airlines Ads

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That's eight hours and 17 minutes of sound files. I hope you found something to enjoy today. 

A Steve Allen Awards Show Recording, An Audition Tape, More Beautiful Music, Guitar at Home

Hello, hello, hello!

Before I get to this post's features, I want to thank a few people for writing in. Well, thanks to EVERYONE who writes in (except the spammers) - I appreciate it more than I can say. 

But two commenters mentioned the Anthony Bilbow stories, the most recent of which I posted last month. They both let me know that these stories were aired as part of a show called  "Morning Story",  part of the BBC's Light Programme in the 1960's, and that it can be researched at this BBC site. It started as "Worthington" in 1954 and ran through the '60's, eventually as "Morning Story".

Also, Chad let me know that the radio portion of the "Humorous Moment" I shared in my last post is from KFOR AM 1240 in Lincoln, Nebraska. 

Again, thanks!

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First up, I have something I think is pretty special, and which I don't think is available anywhere else. This is a recording of an episode of The Steve Allen Show from the day after Christmas, 1959. On that date, the entire show was turned over to Steve announcing the nominees and winners of "The 10th Annual Look Magazine Awards", in several categories, and the comments of the winners,  as well as brief comedy bits with his regular troupe (Don Knotts, Tom Poston, etc.), and a few musical numbers. 

This appears to be the entire show. The sound quality ranges from fairly good to fairly iffy - the last few minutes have very poor sound quality, and there are a few other spots of poor quality, as well. But hopefully, if this is your thing, you can stand the less than pristine sound. I think this is a real find. 

Download: The Steve Allen Show - The 10th Annual Look Magazine Awards - 12-26-59

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KTUR, Turlock, CA, 1390 on your dial, existed at that frequency from 1949 to 1962. Relatively near the end of that period, someone whose name might be Jack Hield (I've probably got that wrong - let me know what you think he's saying) seems to have sent in an audition tape, using some then-recent news stories to demonstrate his skills. Those stories are all from October of 1958, so I'm guessing that's when this tape was made. 

Download: Jack Hield - Audition Tape for KTUR, Turlock, CA, circa October, 1958

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Oh, and how do I know it was an audition tape and not an actual aircheck? Well, I have the tape box, dear reader/listener. And here is the part of that box that has writing on it: 

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And now, here's a treat (?). The following 45 minutes or so contain the remainder of what was on that audition tape reel. And what does that consist of? Someone playing electric guitar - everything from noodling to chord progressions to recognizable songs, at times loudly, at times softly, at times in tune, at other times out of tune. Then, at certain moments, the guitarist sings with his guitar playing. And then, at a couple of points, we are treated to some 1969 Top 40 radio. Best of all (?), some of this material was recorded on the right channel at 3 3/4 IPS, while the above audition is on the same spot on the tape on the left channel, at 7 1/2 IPS, and the audition tape bleeds through, at the wrong speed, making for a delightful listen during that segment. 

Download: Unknown - Some Solo Guitar, Some Singing with Guitar, A Bit of Top 40 Radio

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Here's something multiple people have asked for - I'm not big on the so-called "Beautiful Music" stations which existed way back when, but plenty of folks love this stuff, and when I find it, I always share it. Here's an hour from WTVN in Columbus. This seems to be from around 1961. I am mystified as to how this station made money - there are very few breaks of any sort for the announcer and nothing I would consider a "commercial" during this hour long excerpt - only a promo for their own programming and a PSA for Radio Free Europe. And even those sound canned, as if the entire broadcast was just a tape someone made earlier, or perhaps even a subscription service. Anybody have an idea? 

Download: WTVN, Columbus - Beautiful Music Programming Circa 1961

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And now it's time for our "Acetate of the Month". I think the titles here are completely self-explanatory.: it's a bunch of people singing at home, doing more than a half dozen songs on two sides of an unlabeled acetate. SING IT, GANG!

Download: Unlabeled Black Acetate - Singing Together At Home - Leela Leela, By the Light, My Happiness, Too Fat Polka

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Download: Unlabeled Black Acetate - Singing Together At Home - You Are My Sunshine, Down On the Levee, Working on the Railroad

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And now for a "Very Short Reel". In this case, this is really a "Very Short Excerpt", because it's really just the first few minutes of a tape that I've been exploring this week. It has a bit of an audio letter (maybe almost the whole thing, but it doesn't seem like it), which is then - partially - interrupted by a recording of an orchestral piece. But the original recording continues on for a bit longer, and we hear both recordings more or less at equal volume. Sort of like part of that guitar player tape up there earlier in the post.

As I said, I've continued to listen to this tape after finding this little segment, and there are several more segments where it is doubly recorded, with both music and talking. I know of at least one reader who enjoys such things, so I may share more of this tape, the next time around!

Download: Brief Fragment of an Audio Letter (with Orchestral Interference)

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Some Rare Monty Python, More Australian Shortwave, Mr. Handy and a REALLY Long Tape Few Are Likely to Listen To

Hello everyone, 

I hope you've had a wonderful summer, unless you're in the Southern Hemisphere (like some of the people featured today), in which case I hope you start to have a swell spring soon.

Today I have something I believe to be quite rare. Although I can find a few dozen places online where this recording is referenced, I have been unable to find anywhere that this actual recording is posted or otherwise available. I may have missed something, in which case perhaps this is not as rare as I thought, but even if so, I'm making it available more readily here, I hope, and for free. 

This comes from one of my own home recorded reels, which I am slowly going through to find out their contents. And I've worked my way up to tapes made in 1976, the year I turned 16, and more to the point, perhaps 18 months after my mother and I became extremely early American converts to Monty Python (as I explained partway through this extremely long post). This is, specifically, a recording of the troupe's appearance on the King Biscuit radio show, in May of 1976. 

This performance is from the same series of shows (and same venue, of course) as was released on the "Live at City Center" album that also came out in 1976, with two significant differences. First, it is a different performance - this probably amounts to the most minor of changes from the released album (I haven't compared them), but it is a different show. And second, and perhaps more importantly, it contains a very humorous and self-depreciating introduction from John Cleese. 

I hope that all Python fans enjoy this recording. 

Download: Monty Python's Flying Circus Live - On King Biscuit Flower Hour - 5-9-76

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The other recording on the same tape is less rare. It's an appearance of some of the troupe on "The Mike Douglas Show" that same week in May of 1976. There is a video of part of this appearance on YouTube. It is not the entire segment heard below, and it is in poor video and audio quality, but it is there. This, on the other hand, is the entire appearance, obviously without video but with much better sound quality (although my mom chimes in at one point to explain what's happening). 

Unfortunately, a good part of the visit is taken up with clips from the show and from the movie they were promoting ("The Holy Grail"), presumably to help the squares who watched Mike Douglas get an idea of what and who the Monty Python trouble was. Doubly unfortunate, John Cleese and Graham Chapman - the heart and soul of the troupe, in my opinion, are not present for the interview (Eric Idle isn't there either, but he was always - by far - the weak link of the troupe, for me, anyway). 

Download: Monty Python's Flying Circus Promote "The Holy Grail" On the Mike Douglas Show, 5-14-76

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Somewhere along the line I managed to acquire a whole bunch of someone's tapes of Australian shortwave broadcasts from the 1960's and 1970's. My un-listened-to tapes in my basement have gotten jumbled around several times over the years, so a lot of collections which were once stacked all in one place are now scattered amongst the stacks down there. And so it is that this week, I found yet another tape of Australian shortwave recordings. The recordings only include the day of the week and the date, not the year, but based on those days and dates, and the contents of the broadcasts, I am surmising the first of these to be from September of 1968 and the other to be from nearly exactly two years later. 

The 1968 recording starts off difficult to hear and grows progressively worse - this is not an easy to listen to tape - such are the vagaries of listening to short wave broadcasts. The 1970 tape is considerably clearer in sound quality. 

Download: Australian Shortwave, 9-23-68

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Download: Australian Shortwave, 9-12-70

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Okay, now here's a segment that perhaps only the masochistic among you might listen to. But I listened to all five hours plus of it, so I'll be damned if I'm not going to do something with it. But it is tedious and endless. 

I don't know what exactly was going on here, but what seems to be small group of friends/acquaintances spend nearly four and a half hours (in the first segment), singing songs, some of them multiple times during that length of time, accompanied by a few musicians. A lot of these are old, old songs, some of them probably fairly recent to whenever this was recorded. At one point, there is a lengthy break for what sounds like a meal, and it becomes clear that there are also a few children present. For a good period of time there is no singing and the soft conversations are hard to pick up at time. Then it's back to the singing, which is followed at the end by some goodbyes and final conversations. Enjoy? 

Download: A Group of People Sing a Lot of Songs (and Talk a Lot) for a Really Long Time

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When that segment ends, the tape immediately reverts to what was being erased by that lengthy recording, and that was, MORE recordings seemingly featuring the same people, or at least a similar gang of folks. There seem to be two recordings here, of differing sound quality, and they make up another 40 minutes plus of the same sort of things heard in the other, longer segment, including a lot of the same songs. 

I'm not even going to speculate as to what the event was or who these people are/were. I'm just glad I wasn't there. 

Download: A Few More (Much Shorter) Segments with the Same People

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Well, after that heavy and unappetizing meal, how about some lovely dessert. Our "Very Short Reel" features a radio announcer trying - and most of the time failing - to record a few ads for an apparently legendary and much loved business in Springfield, Ohio, "Mr. Handy", complete with hard-sell backing music. This business just closed five months ago, after 45 years in business

Download: Unknown - Recording Mr. Handy Commercials

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And finally, a mint on your pillow for getting all the way through this post. This doesn't really qualify as a "Very Short Reel", even though it's only 66 seconds long; it was pulled out of a 75 minute tape of (mostly) classical music recorded off of the radio at some point in the 1950's, probably the early 1950's. I faded in and faded out this segment, which was buried deep in the second side of this tape. It is simply a moment that made me laugh, and I decided to excerpt it here and share it with you. What's are the call letters of that station, do you say? And that's all I'll say. 

Download: A Humorous Moment

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