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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