A Very British Set of Recordings from 1961 and Radio Shows from the Folk Revival Era

It's been a really hectic month and as I always strive to get two posts up every month, I'm going to do so here by being very brief with my comments, here on the last day of such a short month. I do have some people to thank and comments to copy but that will have to wait until at least next time. 

And aside from this post's "Very Short Reel", today's post comes entirely from two rather wonderful tapes. And everything in this post was aired on the radio, albeit in (for the two primary tapes) two very different parts of the world. 

The first of these tapes is one of a large number of recordings of the BBC that I acquired many years ago, all of them recorded at the ultra slow speed of 1 7/8 IPS on five inch reels, usually with one or more handwritten inserts and or items cut from newspapers. In this case, these are recordings from 1961, and here's what was in the box: 

And here are the very segments on that tape (there are actually three - one didn't make it onto the slip of paper). 

First up is a very detailed reporting on what was essentially a parade, but one with some extremely complex and traditional portions, broadcast live during the Queen's Birthday celebration (always held on the second Saturday in June, as I understand it, although that was not the Queen's Birthday). The even is actually titled "Trooping The Color", and you will hear the details of that activity during the recording.

This seems to have been a very visual event, as parades tend to be, so a radio broadcast of it is a bit odd. But there does not seem to be video of this full event - I can find only a handful of stills and some brief film of a few specific moments. So this may be the only full documentation of the event. Presumably, those who took part in this rigmarole did so every year. Wow. 

Your narrator is Robert Hudson. 

Download: "Trooping the Color" at the Queen's Birthday Parade, 6-10-61, Narrated by Robert Hudson, on the BBC

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Next up on this tape is a large sampling from the Royal Variety Performance in November of that same year. This was the annual event that the Beatles would appear at, two years later, during which John Lennon told the royals to "rattle your jewelry" to the next song. 

This is not the entire event - unlike the parade recording, visual-only acts were cut out, as were some of the other performances. I'm guessing quite a bit was cut out, as the show apparently ran quite long. Sammy Davis, Jr., for example, is mentioned, but not heard. There actually IS video of some of these performances, which aired on a US special hosted by Jack Benny, and which is available on YouTube (and which does include Sammy Davis, Jr.), but not everything on this tape is in that video. 

Download: Various Artists - BBC Broadcast of Highlights of the Royal Variety Show, 11-6-61

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Not listed on the sheet inside the box, and perhaps the most charming and historically interesting thing here, is a 1961 rebroadcast of a 1957 program put together and hosted by Fritz Spiegl, on Mechanical Musical Instruments - those created many many years before the harnessing of electricity. 

Download: Fritz Spiegl Presents a Program on Mechanical Musical Instruments on the BBC (From 1957, Rebroadcast in 1961)

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The other lengthy tape I am featuring today was made in Chicago in 1960, and featuring two shows - one unidentified, from an unidentified station - and one legendary and from a legendary station. They are both shows primarily featuring folk music, although both of them branched out into comedy, satire,  Broadway and other areas at times. 

The first, short segment of the tape is the segment I know nothing about. It is presumably a Chicago station and presumably from around the date of the larger segment shared below. It ends suddenly after a few minutes. If anyone knows what the source is of the last record played - the horrendously annoying proto-rap number between husband and wife - please let me know. I hate it, but I'm also fascinated to know what it is. 

Download: Fragment of Folk Music and Variety Show on Chicago Radio, circa summer, 1960

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The rest of this lengthy tape is taken up with a recording, in its entirety, of a broadcast of WFMT's "The Midnight Special", dated, according to the box, as being from July 23, 1960. This is, as I mentioned, a legendary program, started by Mike Nichols (yes, THAT Mike Nichols) in the early 1950's, and continuing to this day, although like the true folky that I am, I have to add that it's been a shadow of its former self since at least the late 1980's, and especially since the passing on of it's two long-time hosts, Norm Pelligrini and Ray Nordstrand, some years after that. I'll just say this: just because a singer-songwriter plays acoustically, doesn't make that singer-songwriter a folk singer, or make the resulting songs into folk songs. Just as an example: Steve Goodman, no matter how great you might think he was (and I admittedly don't think he was great), was not a folk singer. The subsequent hosts of the show don't seem to understand that. Anyway, I wrote a much longer piece on The Midnight Special, making the same point there, when I featured another episode of the show, in 2022. 

This is a special episode of the special, because in the studio and performing several songs live were local folk legends George and Gerry Armstrong. I'm actually not much of a fan of the sort of English balladry and Appalachian folk music they specialized in, but I know a lot of folk fans eat this stuff up, so hopefully those of you who enjoy folk music programming will find this episode extra wonderful. Plus, they played an extended bit from Shelley Berman (who was also not, by his own admission, a folk singer), and how that be bad? (Answer: It can't.)

Download: WFMT, Chicago - The Midnight Special, with Special Guests George and Gerry Armstrong, 7-23-60

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And here's a Very Short Reel. This advertisement for Dairy Queen is not dated (aside from the four day window it was to run), and the station isn't identified but it was selling the "Chicken Strips Country Basket", so if anyone knows when that was a thing, feel free to write in. 

Download: Campbell-Mithun-Esty - Chicken Strip Country Basket (Dairy Queen)

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A 1971 Radio Announcer Demo, One Last Visit from Antony Bilbow, Talking to Roy, Music at Home, It's Daddy's Birthday and He's the Most Tip Top Top Cat!

Happy Valentine's Day Weekend - I love my reader/listeners, and I love this hobby. 

Dee-Jay Announcer Demo Tapes always seem to be pretty popular around here, so I will start with a vintage 1971 tape compiled by Chuck Martin. I featured him in part of my "Very Short Reel" in my very last post, but here he is again in a somewhat lengthier tape. He was reading ads in that previous tape, but here he is doing the full DJ thang. However, I've just noticed that, while that previous tape had jingles from KHJ, the Chuck Martin section was apparently from WNHC, New Haven, as is this aircheck. This station is now a public radio station, is part of Yale University and is now known as WYBC.

Download: Chuck Martin - Announcer Demo Reel on WNHC, October, 1971

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The three sets of stories by Antony Bilbow that I've shared have been quite popular, at least with some reader/listeners. You will find the other three posts, and this one, at this link. Sadly, this is the last of the four sets of stories I will be able to offer, as their ain't no more. Last summer I received two comments, on anonymous, one from Sunnymanchester, both containing information about the shows. I have combined those comments here:

The Antony Bilbow recordings seem to have been regularly featured in the "Morning Story" slot on the BBC's Light Programme throughout the 1960s. Many thanks for making them available! Going by the listings for "Morning Story" on https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/ many of which include the story titles - it looks like it's a compilation of these recorded over several years, not necessarily in chronological order. The series was originally called "Worthington" when it started in 1954, but by the mid 60s it included other stories, including Bilbow reading a few by other authors.

Thanks for that information! 

Here for his swan song, Antony Bilbow.

Download: Antony Bilbow - Stories on English Radio, Volume 4

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Now, for those who enjoy audio letters, I have something I think is very special. For those who don't, feel free to move on. 

More than seven years ago, I made the top feature of one of my posts a tape from a man named Roy, living in Alaska, circa 1957 or 1958. That post is here, and here is what I wrote at that time. 

I will let the delights and idiosyncrasies of this tape reveal themselves to you, but I do want to add that I'm pretty sure that I own the tape he was responding to!!! That'd be a first, I think, and if I can find it, it'd be a wonderful bookend with this tape. Everything he mentions from "your tape" (i.e. the one he previously received) sounds familiar to me, so I just need to track it down. 

Well, it took longer than I might have expected, but here is that tape. Listening to this one and then going back and listening to Roy's tape is sort of like hearing a conversation that took place over many miles, nearly 70 years ago. 

Download: Audio Letter to Roy

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For those down-home folks, here are a couple of fellows playing together, on accordion and guitar. SO I've called it "Accordion and Guitar. I spent most of the day yesterday working on that file name. 

Download: Unknown - Accordion and Guitar

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And now it's time for an "Acetate of the Month". This is a wisp of a record, at 66 seconds it is almost as short as the extremely short "Very Short Reel" below it. This is a Voice-O-Graph record, no doubt made it a both in some sort of store (perhaps a department store or 5- and 10-cent store - something like that). As I've written before, such machines were still around when my grandmother visited us, and we made such a record, circa 1967. 

I suspect this is from several years before that, but really have no way of knowing anything but the date - May 29th - the singer/speaker - "Billy" - and the recipient - "Dad". The sound quality is atrocious, as is Billy's sense of pitch while singing "Happy Birthday". I actually can't make out much of what he says and sings after that song - perhaps some listener will be able to decipher it. 

Download: Voice-O-Graph 6 Inch Acetate - Billy Sings Happy Birthday to Daddy, May 29

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And finally, a VERY short, "Very Short Reel". It would appear that this tape either had its genesis in the Hanna-Barbera studios, or at the very least passed through there. It contains the music bed for the theme to the relatively unsuccessful H-B cartoon "Top Cat" (which only lasted one season), followed by what I assume is "tag" music to be used to introduced or come out of an episode, or perhaps to be heard over the final credits. Any guesses as to who the "T.T." listed on the box (below) is/was would be welcome. 

If anyone has is any doubt that this is the actual arrangement and performance of that theme's backing track, a comparison with the show's opening should convince you. 

Download: Unknown - 'Top Cat' Main Title Music and Tag

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A Remarkable Document of Radio, Television (and a Home Visit and a Church Service, Too) in 1970! Plus, KHJ!

Greetings!

I have something extra special today - at least I find it to be extra special, and I think a good portion of the audience for this site will, as well. I only have one reel (plus the almost mandatory "very short reel") today, but it is just over four hours long and is both a treasure and amazing example of something I might be willing and able to share more of if there is interest. 

For those who don't dig this, I will have a more varied program of taped wonderment next time around. Although this is pretty damn varied. 

The story behind this offering goes back well over 30 years ago, and involves the Mammoth Music Mart. I have mentioned this wondrous sale at least a dozen times in various posts and on the multiple blogs I've written for or current write. The explanation I've given for it is here. 

The short version is that this an immense tent sale, which ran for 25 years on the North Shore of Chicago, with literally all formats of recorded sound for sale, in support of ALS research. And whoo boy did they have reel tapes. I would go there for the whole day with my best pal Stu and both of us would pore over the tapes. 

One of those years - I'm guessing around 1990 - we found that someone had donated a remarkable set of tapes. Perhaps the recordist had died and the family had donated all of his tapes (I'm absolutely going to assume this recordist was a man - precious few women would have been this obsessed with collecting sound). 

And what amazing tapes they were. This person had recorded virtually anything that appealed to him or interested him, off the radio, off of TV, from personal conversations, from in-the-field (i.e. lectures given at national parks while on vacation), and more. He was Chicago-area based, but recorded things when he was in other cities and towns, too. 

He seemed to be particularly interested in advertisements, which crop up repeated between other recordings, often not bothering to record whatever show was being sponsored by those ads. And he also seems to have been more than a little ADHD - recordings of certain things go on and on and then are interrupted by something else, mid thought. Just as you think you're going to hear the whole program - whatever it was - you don't. Other times, he might record something at length - in today's offering, he does this with a Frank Sinatra movie - and then would erase part of it with something else, resulting in a segment of tape that has xx number of minutes of movie, then x minutes of something else, then xx minutes more of the movie. It's REALLY scattered. 

And he also appears to have recorded things on other tapes - perhaps cassettes - and transferred them to his reels, so that the order of things recorded is not always chronological.

He decorated nearly all of the boxes with pictures of albums and performers. Here is the box cover for the tape I'm sharing today: 

 And he kept METICULOUS notes about what was on the tapes, almost to the point of obsession, but not always in the most helpful manner - a page of notes might have the first section of the tape listed on the right hand side, then the second part on the left hand side, the a bit more of the contents listed on the back of the same paper. He also sometimes listed the number (of the tape recorders odometer) where something starts, but other times just wrote in sections ("1" "2", etc.), often, as with this offering, regarding the same side of the same tape. 

Here's the big news - I have hours and hours and hours of this stuff. Between Stu and I, we bought well over two dozen of this man's tapes (this one is labeled "#53", but the ones we own start in the single digits and go well into the hundreds - sadly we were not able to get the full collection). And what I'm sharing today is only one channel (of four) on one tape. The left channels are almost always recorded at 3 3/4 IPS, which on this tape means nearly two hours to a side. The right channels were recorded later, presumably after he got another machine, and they are almost always recorded at 1 7/8 IPS, meaning, in this case, nearly four hours to a side. This tape alone has nearly 10 hours of material on it, and my friend and I have more than 25 of these tapes!

So, if anyone is interested, let me know, and I will do my best to digitize more of these and share them again. Understand, though, that it takes hours to go through these, first. And not all of them are as interesting or as varied as this one, although many are. 

This particular tape comes from the tapes my friend Stu bought (we each bought about half of them). I have had Stu's tapes in my house for about ten years, having promised to listen to them and give them back and, well, I still haven't done that. I listened to all of mine 25-30 years ago, long before digitizing was a choice. Thanks to Stu for allowing me to have these tapes all this time, and for agreeing to let me share this tape. 

In the case of this tape, I have scanned all of the content notes, and they are below. I think I have posted them here in order. Most of what is on this tape is from 1970, but the first material in this offering is from 1969. Some of the highlights, in order (there are myriad commercials listed, during and in between these segments): 

A program featuring the work of young Black poets

Recordings made during visits to Jacksonville and Miami, including some music and other things from local radio, including news of Moratorium day the day before (this was actually in 1969 - the date on the sheet is wrong)

The Frank Sinatra Movie I mentioned

Recordings from a Christmas Eve Church Service

Kukla, Fran and Ollie on Chicago Public Television (this is extraordinarily wonderful - I love KFO)

Al Capp being the A$$hole that he was., or at least had become, by 1969-70.  

Coverage of portions of the 1970 Super Bowl and Post-Game

Part of a Tonight Show Episode

A local Chicago newscast from 1/20/70

Segments of a few sitcoms

A home recording of a visit from a family member

More news, specifically about the end of the Chicago Seven trial

A few more shows, including a documentary on beavers narrated by Henry Fonda. I have not been able to identify that show called "Change" in the notes. 

Recordings of part of an Ecology forum which took place at Northwestern University. 

Here you go - let me know if you'd like me to delve further into this collection. 

Download: 1969-1970 Media Variety

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Well, that was a heavy meal. How about a light dessert? This little tape is pretty wonderful in its own right. It comes from Los Angeles Top 40 powerhouse KHJ. The tape starts with a few internal promos, for special programming and for a contest they were running at the time (this tape is dated 10/18/75), presumably read by Chuck Martin, whose name is on the box (see below). The rest of the tape contains KHJ production music - backing music for sports reports and for news breaks, and then typewriter noises, presumably also for news reports. The tape ends with two PAMS style KHJ "stingers". 

Download: KHJ - Ads, Jingles, Sports Themes and News Backing, 10-18-75

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Post 250: Country Radio in 1965, Some Fun Home Recordings, Pete Returns Yet Again, Right Wing Commentary and The Moritz Family!

Good Day!

This is, to my amazement and pleasure, my 250th post to this site. I had hoped to share something extremely precious to me for this post, but I did not have enough time to do as I wanted, and it will have to wait for another day. Hopefully, another post loaded with a variety of goodies will suffice. 

Before getting to those, I want to thank a few people who stopped by to comment. In particular, thanks to Josh, who has commented on several postings, ever since getting wind of this site a month or more ago. He is particularly interested in religious recordings, primarily sermons I think, and has left several comments about the various Christian-related tapes I've posted recently. There are too many comments to repost here, but if you look in my recent postings, you'll find at least five comments from him. He also provided links to his own site where he shares sermon recordings, and his own podcast, for those who might like to dive deeper into such things, Thanks, Josh! I will continue to keep you in mind with regard to featuring those sorts of tapes when I find them. 

And quickly - quite appropriately for my 250th post, an anonymous poster let me know that, over a year ago, in this post, I shared my 1000th downloadable file for y'all. Cool! And in answer to a question about the touch tone tape, from JimmyLee, I will share that that particular tape was included in two full boxes of tapes I bought many years ago, all of which were for internal use by Bell Telephone, so I assume it was for some sort of training purposes. I have shared many of those tapes here, over the years. 

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I'll start today with a favorite sort of tape among readers and listeners, the vintage music radio station recording. In this case, it's 50 minutes or so of radio from Canton, Ohio. Most of this recording is from WHOF, which was a country station at the time. I didn't included it in the name of the file, but this is almost certainly from the fall of 1965, as the then-future # 1 (and resolutely awful) country hit "Giddyup Go" is the pick of the week. 

The station is changed a few times, including at least once, briefly, to a top 40 station, and then there is a twirling of the dial in the last few minutes. And then, at the very, very end, we get a piece of what all this radio station recording was erasing - the last few moment of some sort of band rehearsal. 

Download: WHOF, Canton, OH (Mostly)

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Here's a set of home recordings (with some radio and other music thrown in) that I think is pretty interesting and almost stunningly weird in one aspect. It's also REALLY random and so I've labeled it as a "Hodgepodge". I'm going to describe this one in detail, because I think it's worth it. Leaving out a few very short moments in between the longer segments, here's a rundown of what you'll hear: 

A few microphone tests, then a young girl reading some text about tapes and tape recorders. 

A man reading a very bawdy poem, a slightly off color limerick and a shaggy dog story about the old west.

A different man claiming to be broadcasting on radio station S-H-I-T and who tells a lame joke, and another man, identified as being from Shit University, who tells another lame joke, both of them about men having a lack of sexual prowess. 

After several very short things, a stage band plays three songs.

Some radio recordings, including KQV in Pittsburgh (one of the oldest radio stations in the world), including a pop song I don't recognize, a devilish "drive safely" PSA, some DJ patter and the start of a Brenda Lee record. 

A pianist fumbles her way (she speaks at one point, making clear it's a girl who is playing) through "Exodus", fumbles even more so through a piece I don't recognize, then falls back on a little piano piece that nearly everyone knew how to play in the 1960's, and which was popularized as "Down at Papa Joe's" at one point, before playing part of Moonlight Sonata", then cycles through various other pieces, returning to the "Papa Joe's" music after more struggles.

Then it's the REAL high point of this tape. If it was ever your dream to hear a flute player and a trombone play "Danny Boy" together (and at first, not lining up the tune together), particularly with the trombonist trying, and not always succeeding, to play in the upper register of his instrument, this is your moment. 

Back to the pianist, whose work was partially erased by the flute/trombone duo. She's onto the "Heart and Soul" chords (another piece every kid knew how to play on piano in the 1960's). 

Then, a man tells the story of John F. Kennedy from a clear position of clear distaste for the man and his politics, identifying Kennedy as Italian for some reason (using a national origin slur), and ending with a tasteless joke. 

Finally, a man recites a little piece of nonsense doggerel. We're now at Fink university, but before any further silliness can be captured, the tape ends. 

Quite a little compendium, there. It astonishes me that the people who decided to record some off color material chose to do so on a tape that a teenage girl was also clearly using and probably listening to. 

Download: Early to Mid 1960's Hodgepodge of Home Recordings

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Next, remember Pete? I featured two tapes of Pete, featuring his off key warbling, badly tuned guitar and generally odd ways, here... and here.

Well, glory be, I have found another tape of Pete. This one features a different side of the man, and yet the same absurdities - and some other ones - shine through. Just as on the previous shared tapes, in this case, Pete set out to re-record some of his other tapes onto the four separate monaural channels of a five inch reel. 

My big question here is.... WHO was he doing this for? The impression I get is that he was just trying to consolidate some shorter tapes (or perhaps his favorite parts of some other tapes) onto one reel. But then, he more or less ruins the majority of the recordings by plugging in his microphone and erasing part of the song being heard, in order to comment on the song being heard, or to make mention of what song it is. At one point, during a re-recording of a Lawrence Welk segment, he comes back in to comment that the performer being heard later died in a car crash. And every now and then, when some backwards material (from what he is erasing) pops through, he comments on that, too.

Again, these seem to have been for his own purposes/enjoyment. Did he want to hear interrupted songs, with his own comments (which he presumably would also be familiar with at a later hearing. Also, songs start and stop in the middle of the recording a lot of the time. The recording is amazingly choppy, even without taking into account his interruptions. 

This is a long tape, and surely won't be for everyone, but the sheer peculiarity of it caused me to choose to share it. 

Download: Pete Records His Old Tapes and Comments On Them

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Here are portions of the front and back of the tape box, for anyone who would like to play "Peteologist" and try to make more sense of this: 

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I recently found in my possession a tape which contained, back to back, a series of episodes of a short radio show which aired on the Mutual Radio Network for nearly three decades, a program of commentary by Fulton Lewis, Jr. I read up on him, and it sounds like he was somewhat akin to Rush Limbaugh, if Limbaugh had presented his program as news and had limited it to a few short minutes a day. I strongly suspect that Mr. Lewis' show would not be something I would dial into, were he still in business. Be that as it may, it's an interesting tape and worth a listen for its historical value, if nothing else. 

Download: Several Episodes of Fulton Lewis, Jr's Radio Commentary Program

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And now for an "Acetate of the Month". And this is an interesting little relic, which looks like this: 

The label is the same on both sides, and the recording is the same on both sides, too. The presence of a zone, rather than a zip code, means this recording is from no later than 1963. The song being parodied, "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" was written by my musical, social and political hero, Pete Seeger, in 1955, but didn't enter the national consciousness until 1961, which helps date this little record to somewhere within an 18-20 month period. 

The performers are The Moritz Family, or at least two of them, singing to friends (I'm guessing) prior to their departure from the neighborhood to parts not named. There are two references Kenilworth, IL, a tiny burg (never more than 3000 residents, covering just over a half-mile square) which is very near the town I grew up in, and which was, in the 1960's, sometimes ranked as the richest town in America. 

Presumably this recording was given to The Moritz' friends upon their departure. I no doubt found it in a sale in the same North Shore area where it was recorded, many years later. 

Download: Sound Studios, Inc - The Moritzs - Where Have All the Moritzs Gone?

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And finally, this 250th post's "Very Short Reel". This is a bit of a cheat, but in another way, not. I have very little doubt that this tiny piece of tape, which I found on its own on a reel, was chopped off of another, no doubt longer reel. Why that would be, I couldn't tell you, but the resulting sound of the material that I somehow acquired made me laugh. 

What it contains is a couple of people setting up an interview, testing the microphones, messing with volume, etc., and then making sure everyone's on the same page, and beginning an interview. 150 seconds into the tape, the actual interview begins, but after 20 seconds, containing one question and an "uh" (presumably leading to the next question), the tape ends. 

Maybe they started again for some reason and chopped off the unwanted stuff. I don't know. But the contents heard as this length of tape plays did make me laugh, as if, as I titled it, they set everything up, then didn't actually record the interview. Maybe you'll find it funny, too. 

Download: Setting Up an Interview, Then Not Recording It

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