PAMS, PAMS, PAMS! Plus an Audio Letter, A Few Rehearsals, Old Time Religion, Frito-Lays, and More!

Right off the bat, I want to ask the sports broadcast fans out there if I have something special, and if so, I will feature it soon. I will share a short excerpt here. The recording is of a national broadcast of the seventh game of the 1960 World Series, which is considered one of the greatest games in history. It is not the entire game - a couple of the late innings were not recorded and then we pick up again in the ninth. But I'm assuming this material is not rare. 

What may be rare is that this is the armed service radio broadcast, and in place of the commercials, there is commentary and analysis by two other announcers, one of whom I think might be Red Barber. They act as if they are giving these observations live, in place of the commercials, but I suspect that the program was prepared, after the fact, for broadcast to the troops. If this is worth sharing, I'll do so soon. Let me know! Here's the excerpt: 

Download: Baseball Excerpt

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And now for a lengthy side trip into the land of comments. 

I thought when I got caught up on comments not long ago that it would be quite awhile before I would need to do the same again. But there have been a LOT of interesting comments since then, so I'm going to compile them once again. If you don't want to wade through them just look for the squiggle ~~ which is where the offerings will start. 

First, I will address a request from Kyle, who let me know about which networks' JFK assassination/follow-up/funeral coverage is not already widely circulated and asked if I had any of this material. The short answer is "I don't know". When I'm done listening to something I don't plan to share, it typically goes in a big box downstairs, and I don't really recall what I may have heard or not heard.  I'm literally talking about hundreds of tapes, not all of which are even marked. Going forward, I will definitely keep an ear out for those networks, when I invariably come across more JFK material. 

Radio posts seem to be among the most (if not the most) popular. Certainly, my lack of research results in a lot of responses. The recent post "Radio, Radio and More Radio" got all sorts of feedback, some of which I will repost here, but if you want to see all of it, just go back to that post. All of the following refer to elements of that post.   

ACE contributed the following: 

Very interesting London Mirror recording for the following reason: I think it's an end of year review because mention is made of Moon River being 'high in the hit parade'. Well in the UK that entered the charts week ending 18 November 1961 and was the Christmas Number 1 that year. However the La Vallerossa song puts the timeframe back to early March 1961 as the presenter references their opening week, but from what I find out March 61 was when the did dates in the UK, maybe longer, can't say but that went so well they mined an album from it.

Snoopy adds the following: 

On the 1970s Ads and Music Beds tape, shazam tells me 1:03-1:56 and 1:57-3:13 are pieces from an album "Six Moons of Jupiter" by a John Hill, evidently originally released in 1971, re-released 2008. I like the jazzy solo sax piece at 1:57, "Ganymede"; it sounds so out of place from all the cheeseball ads.

Chad also narrowed down information on yet another item from that post: 

The notes about Grace Lutheran Church of Somers Point, NJ building a new parish hall narrows this down to 1955 as backed up by the church's history as listed on their website: http://mobile.gracelutheranspnj.comcastbiz.net/history. The news about protests in Mississippi following Emmett Till's murder and comments from newly crowned Miss America Sharon Ritchie further narrow this down to September 1955. The news story about five preteens who extensively vandalized the New Carondelet Baptist Church in St. Louis and, quote, "made page one news" is probably the best way to pinpoint the date. The congregation still exists but their website is off line.

Eric offered a wealth of information about various aspects of that post. I have edited this comment here - if you want to read more about the case missing girls, go back to the post. It is sad and maddening: 

The WOR broadcast is from June 27, 1963 as the sports report refers to the White Sox beating the Yankees 6-0. Before that, there is also a commercial for TV Guide mentioning Donna Reed and Carl Betz on the cover which was the June 29 issue.

The Mutual Newscast is from the week of July 19-23, 1965. The story about the missing Texas University co-eds refers to Susan Rigsby and Shirley Ann Stark who disappeared Sunday, July 18th and the newscast says they disappeared "Sunday" meaning this is still the week following the Sunday it happened. 

There were also two comments identifying the date of the tape containing news reports on the riots in Greece, each of which identifies a different date. Apparently there was more than one riot. Have a look at the original post for those offerings. 

That's all for that post - like I said, quite a bit. On to others...

Someone called "The Rabbit" made a comment - which is worth reading in its entirety on the post - about the instrumental version of theme song to the Top Cat TV series and the fact that this series was and is wildly popular in Venezuela. 

Eric also had something to say about the Magna-Tronics Sales pitch in this post: 

To give you an idea of what went into a Magna-Tronics setup, the April 8, 1963 edition of Broadcasting magazine lists Tape-Athon's "new automatic program system" designed to work with what Magna-Tronics was selling, a four tape deck system with built in timers and a switcher for 32 hours of continuous programming with no repeats.I'm sure the hardware paid for itself...at least it better, at $2,489 in JFK bucks.

A brief segment of radio station WGN in this post, resulted the following, from Frenchyak: 

The Freddy Martin song on WGN is Penny Whistle Blues from 1952, a cover of a South African song by Willard Cele from 1951. Very cool!

Andrew offered up this comment on a segment featured on this post from almost four years ago: 

The real name of KMUN's Polly "Columbo" was Polly Smullin. Her husband William was a pioneer broadcast operator in the Pacific North West.

Andrew (perhaps the same Andrew as above) went back to a post from more than six years ago, and in addition to wishing me the best (thank you), he shared this: 

The second of your "Can I Help You" programmes was broadcast on the BBC Home Service on Sun 25th Mar 1962, at 1:40pm.The programme strand, which offered information and advice on legal, social, and financial problems, first aired in 1947 and, as far as I can tell, came to an end in 1970. 

In my most recent previous post, I got the date on some beautiful music programming wrong, and if I'd been paying attention, would have gotten it right, as an anonymous poster let me know: 

At about the 22:45 mark of the WVNJ recording there's an ad for the "Chevrolet 68 Savings Explo" (a savings explosion!!) which suggests the year is actually 1968.

But my favorite comment - and I really didn't know folks cared so much - came after that most recent post, which I put up after an unusually long break of 26 26 days, due to having been really busy during July. I was deeply touched by this anonymous comment. It said: 

Good to see you back - glad all is well. The closer the end of the month came the more concerned I was.

Thank you for all the comments, but especially for that one. 

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A good percentage of those reading this site will be familiar with PAMS, the Dallas area radio jingle factory which was the Gold Standard in radio jingles, promotion music and other aspects of radio - particularly, but not limited to, top 40 radio, especially in the 1960's. 

What I have here is a compilation tape I found that has five of the sales promotions for five different PAMS packets of jingles on a theme. Perhaps these are all available out there in their entirety, in which case sorry to be redundant, but I have haven't been able to find that these are all out there - I haven't even found any one of them intact as heard here. Perhaps I'm just not good at searching. But in case I'm right that these are already floating around, I thought I'd share them here. 

Download: A Set of Five PAMS Sales Packages

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Next up, for those who like audio letters, here is a fun one, or at least I think so. A visitor from England, Mrs. Phillips, records a conversation with her American hosts, who seem to have visited her a few years earlier (if I hear it correctly, perhaps during Queen Elizabeth's coronation, in 1953). This was meant to go right away to a couple named George and Virginia, but Lou (who is heard of the tape) forgot to send it, so he recorded a lengthy apology as well as additional bits of news and gossip on side two of the tape, and included a note saying so: 

I've labeled it May, because that's when it was sent, but the main part of it was recorded in March. Here's the tape: 

Download: Audio Letter, May, 1956 - 'Lou's Tape #7 - Talk With Mrs. Philipps

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This next one could have been a "Very Short Reel" feature, but since I have an even shorter one this week, I thought I'd put it up here. It's just an unidentified radio station in 1957, on which a few hits of the day are played and the recordist captured enough DJ patter to make it worth offering it up here, despite the distortion heard pretty much throughout. 

Download: Brief Excerpt from an Indianapolis Rock and Roll Station, 1957

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I know I have at least a couple of reader/listeners out there who enjoy hearing vintage religious related tapes, including services (and if you have something you are partial to, feel free to share, and if I have it, I'll keep it in mind to feature it). So here is an hour or so of what I believe is a 1950's pentecostal revival type service, featuring a certain Brother Green. 

Download: A Pentecostal Revival Meeting, Featuring Brother Green

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Next we have a tape from the Cinema Recording Corporation, the raw tapes featuring the sounds for (presumably) a television ad for a product that the company bought in 1961 and discontinued in 1973: Red Dot Potato Chips. I've never heard of them before. If anyone can figure out exactly what was going on visually in this commercial (or these commercials) feel free to comment. 

Download: Cinema Recording Corp - Frito-Lays Red Dot Ads Raw Tapes

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The next two offerings feature rehearsals, but other than that fact, they really have very little in common. Part of the back cover looks like this: 

So presumably the child heard warbling off-key, for the first 160 seconds here, in a few different songs,  is Johnny. I think it's cute - in fact, I'd rather listen to this 50 times than hear a batch of children who have had every natural bit of their singing ability trained out of them sing something like "Tomorrow". You, however, may well find it amazingly annoying. 

Speaking of child choirs, Johnny gives way to the "Jr Choir Hughes", whoever they may have been, for the last eight or so minutes of this tape. These kids are definitely rehearsed, but thankfully, they are not "trained" and they sing with their natural, exuberant voices. They sing a few songs, including the gorgeous "Brahms Lullaby" a few times. And despite the organ being a bit too loud and distortion creeping in here and there, I love those natural voices. Not as much as on the second best album ever made ("Through Children's Eyes") or on the astonishing, otherworldly and beautiful track heard at the 25:40 point in this video (okay, now I'm teary, and I probably will be for the rest of the night - happens every time I hear that). But still, it's very much in my wheelhouse. 

Download: A Young Child Sings, Then a Youth Choir Rehearses

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Recently, I came across a batch of tapes, many of them recorded at the professional speed of 15 inches per second, and all of which contain recordings of a pianist accompanying, and often teaching/offering suggestions to, a few singers. I thought I'd sample one of them here, one which primarily features a baritone but in which there is also a soprano present, who also sings a bit. If there is any interest in hearing more of these, let me know. There were about a half dozen, of varying lengths. 

Download: A Baritone and a Soprano Rehearse with Piano

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And here's a "Very Short Reel", perhaps one of the more pointless ones I've shared. This was the only thing recorded on a seven inch, 1800 foot reel (i.e. 90 minutes of recording time available at the least, at standard speeds, and as much as six hours of recording time at the lowest common speed). What's more, this was recorded at the start of the second side of the reel, as it came to me, which is extra weird. As it says, it's just a couple of guys checking the microphone and then talking about.... .something. 

Download: Two Men Checking the Microphone and Then Discussing Something

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Vintage BBC Documentaries, The Return of Joe Gerossi, Unusual Sounds, Some Wild Piano, and Christmastime Is Here Again

Two posts in six days!!! Christmas must have come early! (And that's actually foreshadowing for this post....) 

I'll start with something off the beaten path. Here is everything that's contained on a reel of tape made by someone in England, featuring three programs, two documentaries and a show about policy. 

The first show, taking up about the first 27 minutes of the tape, is a documentary about the story of sound coming to the movies. The second was labeled on the tape as a review of Queen Elizabeth's 1961 visit to Africa, although the program expands into a more general review of many aspects of the Queen and her reign. This program mentions her tenth anniversary on the throne, so must actually have been broadcast in 1962. Most likely, all three shows are from 1962 (I can't seem to find the tape box at the moment, as I digitized this one some four years ago.) Finally, starting about an hour and 14 minutes into the tape, a program called "Conference", which in the episode heard  here was concerned with British Defence Policy (given that the show and the person recording it were English, that's how it was spelled on the box). The tape runs out before this show ends. 

Download: British Radio Potpourri - History of Sound Film, Queen's Visit, British Defence Policy

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Next, do you remember Joe Gerossi? The gregarious barber who I have featured three other times, here, here and here? Well, here I have a bunch more from Ol' Joe. And although this is the fourth such posting, it's labeled "Volume 2". Why? Because this one features Joe and his friends and perhaps family, and is thus more of a sequel to the first posting than to the other two (both of which largely or entirely featured Joe on his own).

Let me just say: This Tape Is A Mess. The sound goes in and out, there are problems with the speed of the machine recording it in spots, and there are other spots where newly recorded material did not fully erase older material (which was a problem on another one of Joe's tapes, too - he must have had a lousy tape recorder!). There are some truly winning moments here, and some others which go on too long, or should never have been kept in the first place. But I think Joe has some fans, so I thought I'd share another batch of recordings that he made. 

Download: Joe Gerossi and Friends - Various Recordings, Volume 2

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Incidentally, this reel came with THREE different slips of paper claiming to contain descriptions of what was on the tape and in what order. I present them here in case you'd like to see if you can tell who is who, and what is where: 

 

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This next segment is a five minute oddity I've labeled "Unusual Montage of Late 1970's Media Sounds". I have no idea for what purpose this might have been created, and aside from that, I think the title suffices as an introduction to this interesting compilation of sounds: 

Download: Unusual Montage of Late 1970's Media Sounds

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AND NOW - with the exception of a short reel at the end - IT'S TIME TO MOVE INTO CHRISTMAS MODE!!

I have so many Christmas related items that I won't possibly be able to squeeze them all into one post in the middle of December. So with Advent beginning in three days, I'm going to get ahead of things and share four Christmassy items with you.

I'll start with the one which, to my ears and in terms of what I prefer, is by far the most interesting of the next four tapes. In it, a man, perhaps a patriarch, for lack of a better term (or perhaps not), spends some time "Interviewing the Family on Christmas Night". I find this fascinating and endearing, and I hope you will enjoy it, too. 

Download: Interviewing the Family on Christmas Night

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For those of you who enjoy manly men singing Christmas music with Mitch Miller's idiosyncratic echoey production - with a few female vocals thrown in - here is a Christmastime episode of "Sing Along with Mitch!: 

Download: Sing Along with Mitch - A Christmas Episode

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And here's a tape of three songs - none of which are related to Christmas - but which were offered up as an sort of musical Christmas Card by some unknown folks, folks who very likely were living in Indiana (on 52nd Street), from the sound of things. At first I thought this was a musical audio letter to someone ("Honey") who was far away, but upon a closer listen, I'm pretty sure that the male singer present IS honey, and that the woman who speaks first is addressing him following a return from.... somewhere. The sound quality is more than a bit rough, but the homey qualities and the clear affection in the voices of all involved make this a sweet, short offering.

Download: Merry Christmas to Honey - Three Songs

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And finally, a neat little tape (well, I think it is, anyway) of a rehearsal of Christmas Songs by a high school choir. I picked up several tapes of this group some time ago, in a batch of tapes purchased from God knows where, and this was the first one I listened to. 

Download: A High School Choir Rehearses Christmas Songs

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This is all it says on the box: 

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Finally, it's time for our "Very Short Reel". This one is sort of intriguing. This is a small reel of tape, containing a recording of two piano pieces, recorded at the professional speed of 15 Inches-Per-Second. Only the second piece is identified (on the side of the box), listed as "Down Yonder", but the first, shorter piece is clearly "Who's Sorry Now". The pianist on the first piece is listed as Tom Slade, and the second piece is listed as a duet between Tom Slade and Milton Jackson. The performance of "Down Yonder" is upbeat, and jazzy, rollicking, features elements of other familiar tunes, and is just a whole lotta...... 

Wait, Milton Jackson? Surely not the legendary jazz musician? I doubt it, but I can't figure any way to determine this one way or the other. The date certainly makes it possible, but that's hardly an unusual name.

Here are two images from the box. This was, unfortunately, one of the tapes whose boxes got damaged in a pipe leak in my basement several years ago. For the most part, the tapes were undamaged, as is true for this reel (reel to reel tape tends to be pretty hardy), but the box is a mess. 

Here is the side of the tape box, which is admittedly hard to read in this scan. It reads Tom Slade (Down Yonder) 10-13-54

And a portion of the back. Again, hard to read. It says: 

Reel # 3, 10/13/54, 15 IPS

1. Tom Slade, Piano

2. Tom Slade and Milton Jackson, Piano

And here's what it sounds like!

Download: Tom Slade and Milton Jackson - Who's Sorry Now and Down Yonder - 10-13-54

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