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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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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More Baseball For All Star Week, A Few Short Speeches, Songs by Mike and Songs at Home, More Supreme Court and ALVIN!

It's All Star Week. And what better time of year to share yet another tape of early 1960's baseball, including part of an All Star game broadcast. 

Here's what was recorded on the first side of the tape. Most of this is game played between the White Sox and the Tigers in Detroit on July 3rd, 1962, but there are a few interruptions by other recordings, including a few double recordings along the way at another speed. And even more oddly, unless I miss my guess, it sure seems like this side of the tape begins near the end of the game mentioned, and then a short time later, it's early in the same game, and we hear the progress of the game from that point forwards. I'm not sure how that happened, but I didn't mess with this tape in any way, aside from adjusting the sound levels here and there. 

Download: (Mostly) Chicago White Sox at Detroit Tigers, 7-3-62

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The other side of the tape contains a recording of the national broadcast of that year's second All Star Game (yes, they had two of them for a few years), at Wrigley Field. Again, there are a few (fewer, though) interruptions by other material herein. 

I'm sure this recording is available elsewhere online, and in significantly higher quality, but I've chosen to share this recording because it has a few local ads amidst all of the national ones (many of which feature player endorsements of various products) and because it has a local break-in at one point for a news bulletin about a local, at-that-moment-in-progress criminal act. 

Download: (Mostly) The Second 1962 All-Star Game at Wrigley Field, 7-30-62

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For those of you who are not enamored of baseball (although I can't fathom that such people exist), or of these somewhat hard to listen recordings, I will add that, at the moment, I am not aware of any further baseball recordings in my collection. That said, I may find more tomorrow!

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Three posts ago, I offered up a woozy radio broadcast of speeches made by members of Toastmistresses. Today, I have another tape of speeches, made more informally - and rather randomly - by what seems to be a similar group, this time a group of men. This doesn't seem to be a Toastmasters group - the name of the group is said at one point - I think - but I can't make it out. These speeches - and some of them barely qualify as such - certainly seem more off the cuff and less prepared than other things I've heard from participants in Toastmasters. 

Download: Members of a Toastmasters-Type Group - A Few Short Speeches

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I came across a tape which contained a greeting card with the following documentation inside: 

This therefore appears to be a demo reel by someone named Mike Davidson. The tape opens with a short testimonial (the beginning is missing) from someone clearly trying to sell someone else on this person's talents, and then the songs listed are heard. At some point, this tape of recommendation (or perhaps a copy) found its way back to the artist, and he seems to have sent it on to someone else, with an addition: As indicated by the handwritten note at the bottom of the typed list, there is a second version of one of the songs, arranged and produced later than the original version, which Mike Davidson apparently thought was a considerable improvement on the original. 

I have been unable to find out anything about this songwriter/performer, so maybe he never "made it" to any degree, but if anyone out there knows who he is/was and what happened to him, please share that information in the comments. 

Download: Mike Davidson - Songs by Mike Davidson

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Here is what the outside of the card looks like - the picture is shared upside down so that you can see the writing on the back

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In my last two posts, I featured the first two in a three episode series of "Continental Classroom" episodes, from February of 1963, all about The Supreme Court. Here is the last of the three programs I found on that reel. Actually, the most interesting thing here may be the short segment of the start of The Today Show from that same date, which was captured after the Classroom episode ended. 

Download: Continental Classroom - 2-14-63 - The Supreme Court, Part Three - The Court's Work Load (and a bit of The Today Show)

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Now here's something which I just love. I don't know how much those of you out there enjoy it, so I don't force feed it to you, but if this site was just for me, there'd be something like this every single time I came across it. 

Basically, it's people at home, playing instruments and singing, for their own enjoyment. I should clarify that it's people who are capable of playing and singing well, and not things like our pal Pete, from a bit earlier this year. I don't mean to say that these are virtuosos, but this is a lovely little listen for those who enjoy down-home folks making down-home music. 

At various points in this recording, there is ukulele, guitar (sounding like a mandolin at times), simple drumming and a recorder-like instrument (I'm not sure that's what it is), along with the singing.  There are several songs performed during the nearly half hour of music, including "Memories Are Made of This" (one of the greatest songs ever written, and done here simply and very sweetly), "You Tell Me Your Dream", "Chinatown", "Bye Bye Blues" and "Who's Sorry Now", among several others. There is a conversation early on, about some local radio performer and his take off on "The Old Philosopher", as well as a lame joke about Mayor Daley of Chicago, but once that's over, it's music, music, music.

That is, until about the 28th minute. I will say no more, besides to say that the last three minutes and ten seconds are something else entirely - several something else's - and that it's best if I let you listen without telling you what to expect. 

Download: Unknown - Music At Home (and a Bit More)

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For this post's "Very Short Reel".... well, this is more than a bit of a cheat. This came at the end of 35 or 40 minutes worth of someone's recording of the soundtrack to the film "Gigi". The person who recorded the album for later enjoyment (presumably him, anyway), chose to "back-announce" what the listener had just heard by doing a quick, brief "Alvin the Chipmunk" impersonation, and then interacting with "Alvin". Here is that bit of tape: 

Download: Unknown: "Alvin" Back-Announces the Album

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Some Great 1950's Jingles, Bobby Helms in Canada, Recording For the Fun of It, A Glee-Free Glee Club and More!

Let's start off with what I'm guessing will be the most popular offering from today's posting. This tape is labeled as being a group of highlights for someone named Joan Wile, who is featured on each of the records on the tape. Happily for all of us, these recordings turn out to be some absolutely wonderful and vintage radio jingles, from stations all around the country. The tape box had a mailing address for Ms. Wile on it (not copied in the scan, below), in a very fancy location in Manhattan, with a zone ("New York 19") rather than a zip code, marking this as being a tape from prior to 1963. Listening to these jingles, I'm guessing the late 1950's is more accurate. 

And they are simply magical. At the end of the tape, as indicated in handwriting on the box (below), and on the other side of the tape, is a single commercial, in this case for a anti-dandruff concoction with the deadly sounding name of "Dandricide". Unfortunately, this commercial is not quite complete AND has a short gap in it, as well, as you will hear. But still pretty marvelous, you-shoulda-been-there sort of stuff. 

Download: Joan Wile - Radio Station Jingle Demo Reel

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The provenance of this next item is a bit hard to discern. It is an interview with country singer and one-time (short lived) pop music star Bobby Helms (along with, briefly, his wife), by someone whose name might be Armel Shaw, which is a guess at the spelling. The interview is from Canada, and was recorded while Helms was performing in a local venue, probably in 1967. 

However, it doesn't seem to be from a single radio station. Rather, it appears to be that Mr. Shaw was a freelancer who perhaps simply recorded interviews with the stars as they passed through town and then sent the tapes out to radio stations - perhaps (again perhaps) with some sort of arrangement in place whereby they would play them, perhaps just in the hopes that they would do so. I dunno. 

After the interview the tape contained much of the contents of a 1967 Helms compilation album, followed by the brief bit you'll hear at the end, asking folks to record their comments on the interview. This seems to indicate that the tape was passed from station to station, rather than individual tapes being sent all at once to all stations (since he asks that comments be recorded only after other commenter's recordings as bypassed). A very peculiar method of getting one's work out to the listening public. 

Download: Armel Shaw - Canadian Interview with Bobby Helms, Circa 1967

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Now here's a fellow who, I'm guessing, had either a brand new console organ for his living room or a new tape recorder, or perhaps both. And, as he says (and I've titled it) he's going to try it out for the fun of it. Things get off the ground swimmingly with the most disjointed version of "Alley Cat" that you've ever heard. Near the end of this performance, he curses his playing and comments that "I started out wrong". He remained wrong, too, but doesn't seem to have noticed. This segues into an equally scattered, equally beat-less version of "Ramblin' Rose" (I do note that there definitely is a beat in the accompaniment, but there is no attempt to follow it in the melody). A short song I don't recognize follows, and then, after a brief discussion, "On Top of Old Smokey" in another tempo-challenged rendition finishes off the set. 

Unknown - Trying Out the Home Console Organ for the Fun of It, Once

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In the box for a 10 inch reel of tape I found the following concert program: 

Yes, the Vanderbilt Glee Club. I often find that Glee Clubs were, in the past at least, engaging in performances of material that have nothing gleeful about them. This would be one such example. There is no date anywhere on this sheet or the box. 

Indeed, on the tape is that exact program. Only it's not from the concert - or if it was, no one attended, or else no one was impressed enough to applaud. More likely this is a recording of the program - either of a rehearsal or a deliberately recorded run through in order to have a good copy of that program. So there is no audience. This tape is in mono in this sound clip because I do not have a machine that plays two track stereo, a fairly short-lived format which existed from about 1957 to 1960 or thereabouts. 

Download: The Vanderbilt Men's Glee Club - Undated Performance with Organ Interludes

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What comes next on that tape might actually be the second most fun item in today's posting. For the rest of the tape, we have the sort of thing I always identify as a "Hodgepodge" - a motley collection of unrelated recordings in a relatively short space of time. This material was on the rest of side one, and then on the start of side two. 

First, as soon as the Glee Club recording ends, there is a small orchestra flourish, the end of some piece. Then we seem to eavesdrop on a moment during a rehearsal of some sort. It's hard to hear, but the conversation includes a reference to a gospel reading. 

Then, at the one minute mark, someone plays scales on the piano, very heavily and loudly, in octaves, before launching into a sedate version of the hymn "Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty!". And then does the octaves and the hymn again. And again. A total of six times, throwing in a short bouncy version of another hymn (which I can't think of the name of) in the middle. 

Now we're up to minute six and onto the brief recordings on side two of the tape. This section is poorly recorded, with a prominent hum (which I've minimized some). There is some bland background music playing, and a few people have a conversation about the recording they're making and the best way to capture it. After two and a half minutes, the music segues into a classical piece that I'm guessing someone will recognize, and that lasts until the other channel of the Glee Club tape (heard backwards on my machine - which I didn't include) interrupts it, and the Hodgepodge ends. 

Download: Hodgepodge Following the Glee Club Recording

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And now another entry in the David Hollister Tapes. If you don't know what these are about, I explained them in this post, and with today's post, I have now shared four of these tapes. 

This one is dated 6/4/80 and 8/3/80, and as it says of the box, its contents are apparently the practicing of three songs "for <a> contest". The three songs are "One Woman Man" (not the ridiculous Paul Anka song, but an equally ridiculous obscurity), "Travelin' Light (heard in two versions, a shorter version early on the tape, and a version with a lengthy verse at the end of the recording - the later to the two sessions, making me think that the song was expanded on in the meantime), and "Marvelous Massage". 

Personally, I find this material fairly awful - and "Marvelous Massage" to be award-winningly hideous - and I suspect that all three are someone's originals, whether Hollister or someone else. Having heard his other material, my guess is that these songs are the work of the vocalist, who is unidentified on the tape box. I will let the listener make his or her own judgments as to this vocalist's abilities.  

Anyway, I have generally enjoyed the Hollister tapes, and although I didn't enjoy this one, I thought I'd share it as another example of their contents. Please let me know if you do or don't want me to continue to delve into this collection. 

Download: From the David Hollister Tapes - Rehearsals of Three Songs, 6-4-80 and 8-3-80 - "For Contest"

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And now, here's our "Acetate of the Month". This is a ridiculous little record, featuring "The Band of America" conducted by Paul LaValle, playing "The Dwight D. Eisenhower March". Nothing actually too ridiculous about that - he was a war hero and certainly worthy of a march. But as you'll hear, the conceit here is that the man's initials were D-D-E, so the song is based, of course, on a musical phrase using those tones. Yay! Let's march! 

Download: NBC Reference Recording Acetate - Band of America, Conducted by Paul LaValle - The Dwight D. Eisenhower March

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And finally, here's a "Very Short Reel". Here we have someone reading from a book - almost certainly a novel. I haven't done a lot of digging, but with what I did do, I was unable to find what book is being read. Perhaps someone out there knows, or can figure it out: 

Download: Reading from an Unknown Book

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Two Sets of Radio Commercials, A Demonstration in Mono, A Couple of Guitarists, and a Whole Lotta Union Carbide Phone Calls

 Happy New Year, everyone, 

I'm going to start off with a version of what I wrote on my other blog a week or so ago: 

It's been more than three weeks since I've posted, and I suspect that there will be only this one post this month. I'm absolutely Captain ADHD, and thrive on keeping ridiculously busy - I'm pretty nuts when I don't have too much to do - but this last month has just swept my legs out from under me, with a couple of brief but intense illnesses, end of the year madness and work demands. I hope and intend to be back to two posts a month in February. 

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Before I get to this post's features, I want to make reference to a few comments. But first, I want to acknowledge and just generally thank those of you who have written recently with supportive, thankful and/or appreciative comments about the site in general. Those are all deeply appreciated and give me the encouragement to keep up what I do here. Thank you.  

Some specific comments that you may have missed and which shed light on things I've posted. Regarding this post, someone wrote in: 

Re: WEAM. Based on the references to a back-to-school contest and a daytime high of 84, it would appear to be from late August 1963. Specifically the week of August 23, based on the song positions on this survey matching.

http://las-solanas.com/arsa/survey.php?sv=143773

Regarding what is currently my most recent past post, "Snoopy" made the following observation, one which is very similar to something I almost wrote myself, regarding "oldies": 

Back then, 15 year old music was considered Oldies. Maybe I'm just curmudgeonly but if you played 10 songs from 2009 and 10 songs from 2024, I wouldn't be able to tell one from another. 

I would also like to refer you to this post, about which (in the comments) Eric Paddon has added a great deal of information, specifically about the WOR segment, including the specific dates of those recordings. There is too much text to copy and paste here without bogging things down, but it's very much worth reading. Thanks, as always, Eric. 

There have been a lot more, and I am quoting here (and below) from comments that are as much as six months old. That's how far behind I've gotten. I'm gonna try to be more up-to-date, going forward. 

Anyway, and finally, two frequent commenters, each of whom has his own collection of rare recordings, posted about new "old" finds that each of them has shared. 

Kyle writes: I have found a Christmas home recording from the 1950s

And "OldRadios" has uploaded a radio "Laugh-in" type show called "Funny Birds" to his site at archive.org

In the case of both Kyle and OldRadios, clicking on their names will show you further postings, including more old audio. 

Thanks, guys! 

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Okay, I'm going to start with two fairly wonderful (well, with a significant exception) advertising demo reels. The first one is from Chuck Blore and Don Richman Incorporated, a company headed by two men who seem to be considered legendary in the radio advertising field - look each of them up online. 

This tape has fifteen ads, the last of which is that "significant exception" to the wonderfulness that I just mentioned. That last one is more like a hard slap upside the head. Here's the tape box: 

Download: Chuck Blore and Don Richman Incorporated - Advertising Demo Reel

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The second advertising reel - almost exactly the same length as the first - comes from Don Piestrup, who you can also find online but who does not appear to have been nearly the "name" talent that the above two gentlemen were, although there still exists a Big Band which plays his music. 

This tape features 13 ads, and the box also helpfully guides us in what we're going to hear here: 

Download: Don Piestrup - Advertising Demo Reel

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Here's the rather esoteric front cover of the tape box: 

And the side: 

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Here's something a little different. I have shared several Stereo Demonstration tapes here - in the early days of stereo sound - which debuted on reel tape nearly two years before it became a reality on records - tape recorder companies produced demonstration reels to show off their wondrous machines and the spacious sounds they could produce. 

But before that, tape recorder manufactures also wanted to demonstrate the wonders of reel tape. And so there are some (although apparently not as many) monaural demonstration tapes out there. And this is one of them. It's from the Omegatape company. Side one of the tape provides excerpts from some of the pre-recorded tapes the company currently was offering. 

But then, on side two, there is a series of test tones to be used in some way for head alignment, then a timing test to see if your machine is running at exactly the right speed. (Either this recording was itself flawed or my machine runs slightly fast - which I don't think is the case - as the blips go by in about 58 1/2 seconds.) Highlights from more Omegatape offerings finish off the reel. 

Download: Omegatape Monaural Demonstration and Test Tape

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Here is a booklet which came with the tape: 

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Here is about 21 minutes of what I've called "A Couple of Guitarists Fooling Around and Duetting". See if you don't think that title is accurate. And sufficient as an introduction.

Download: A Couple of Guitarists Fooling Around and Duetting

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Robert W. Morgan was a hugely popular radio dj and personality from the late 1960's until shortly before his death in 1998. For a while in the late 1970's, he produced a syndicated program titled "Special of the Week". How the word "Special" was defined in terms of a program which apparently ran in a regular timeslot once a week is a mystery to me, but anyway, I came across a tape containing more than half of his episode about the band Chicago, and I thought I'd share it here. 

For all of his talk about the band's Jazz-Rock roots and status, Morgan plays precious little here of the Chicago material which falls within that genre. Perhaps it was featured in the earlier part of the program, which isn't captured here. But then again, that would have been the point at which to mention it, not while largely playing tripe such as "Saturday in the Park" and "Just You 'N Me". 

This particular broadcast was aired on WRBR, South Bend, IN, during a fundraising event for St. Jude's Hospital for Children, and there are a few cutaways for information about that event, during the broadcast. 

Download: Robert W Morgan's Special of the Week, Featuring Chicago - 11-16-80 - WRBR, South Bend, IN

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Okay, here is a tape most of you might skip over entirely but others may find weirdly fascinating. It comes from a 10 inch reel, one which only had a small amount of tape on it. But that small amount of tape contained over 100 minutes of recordings, because it was recorded at the rarely encountered speed of 15/16th of an inch per second. 

You know when you see those movies or videos in which a reel to reel machine is barely moving in the background, presumably recording the goings-on in that location? Well, those may be going at 15/16ths or even slower. And that's what we have here. 

These are calls made by and received by a couple of men who were manning the phone at some sort of business hub for Union Carbide. As someone mentions well into the recording, the company had recently installed a recording system which engaged every time the phone was picked up, whether it was for call out or a call in. 

And so, we have all manner of calls into and from the field, as well as, at one point, a call to the wife of one of the men manning the phone, as well as a few other contacts. I won't pretend to have ANY idea what it is that is being discussed - a lot of numbers, percentages, levels and such are thrown about, and a good number of people are attempted to be reached, or call back, or whatever. 

It can be sort of mesmerizing. I did not listen to this all in one sitting, and can't imagine doing so, but the entire recording is fascinating in its own way, a slice of life from an extremely specific time and place, and an unusual glimpse of some people doing some very specific jobs, the likes of which most of us know nothing about. 

(By the way, the first few calls are VERY soft, but the volume increases substantially, to a normal listening level, just after the one minute point. There are a few soft moments later in the recording, as well)

Download: Union Carbide Phone Calls

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And finally, the "Very Short Reel" for this post. This three minute segment comes from a tape wherein the rest of the recordings were exceptionally poorly recorded radio broadcasts, and I mean exceptionally poor to the point of being unlistenable (and I'll listen to just about anything on a tape) and unintelligible. 

I've called this "A Short Conversation At Home", and in it, a man records (and talks to) what sounds like a considerably older woman. Extremely innocuous conversations follow (well, except for one statement about a girl who is prettier than Gail). Then, after the machine is stopped and re-started, she is told not to whine, and then talks about what a nice voice she's been told she has, except that "it sure don't sound like it on that". My assumption is that she had just listened to the previous segment. My assumption is that she'd never heard her own voice recorded, prior to that moment. 

Unknown: A Short Conversation At Home

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Lots of New Year's Fun, A Couple of '70's DJ's, and More John Birch Than I Can Stand

Greetings, and Happy Almost New Year!

I planned to set aside some time in order to be able to make my typical extensive (or even my sometimes typical pithy) remarks about the New Year's Eve-related and other items I put aside for the last post of the year, but I got an infection last week and was laid up in a considerable amount of pain (and did a lot of sleeping) between Monday and Friday of last week, so all of that re-listening didn't happen. 

But since this is a New Year's Eve themed post, I need to get it out anyway, so I will move forward with virtually no comments except for those offered on the two most recently listened to items, both of which feature DJ' Airchecks. 

Here's one called "Don's New Year's Eve Party. It's from the end of 1958, and I will let you discover whatever charms caused me to set it aside as good enough to share on some late December day. Enjoy!

Download: Don's New Year's Eve Party, 12-31-58

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I do have a bit I can say about this next tape, as I listened to it for the first time just last month. It it a DJ Demo Reel, made up of an entire shift performed by the cleverly named "Jack Daniels" at WTMA, Charlston, South Carolina, on 5/2/72. WTMA clearly played the top 40 hits of the day, but also regularly went back in time, sometimes close to 15 years back in time, for oldies. 

This air shift tape is very aggressively "scoped", so it is an extremely choppy listen, but like most of such tapes, there's still enough here to make hearing it worthwhile. 

Download: Jack Daniels Aircheck, WTMA, Charleston, SC, 5-2-72

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This one is just labeled "A New Year's Eve Party". Again, I'm sure there's enough here to explain why I bothered to set it aside for future use. You can discover that sans further elucidation from me. 

Download: A New Year's Eve Party

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My more-or-less "prepared items" - three New Year's items and two Air Checks - were rather short. So here's something long which may well be of interest to some of you. It's a tape I listened to last year, and will never listen to it again. I have, in the past, featured many tapes from a collection of John Birch materials that I unwittingly purchased about two decades ago. Today, it's time for more - a lot more - of their particular brand of idiocy. First, there is an explanation of what you are expected to do and be when you join the Birchers and then, for the balance of this two hour tape, Dan Smoot presents several of his "reports". 

Quoting myself here from a previous Bircher posting, but Mr. Smoot, like most of his brethren, was clearly trying to present Birchers as reasonable people who were alarmed by things happening in the government of the day, while behind the scenes, the larger group's beliefs, desires and plans were off-the-charts batshit crazy.  

I think I still have a bunch of tapes from that batch, so this may not be the end of the road for them, on this site. 

Download: The John Birch Society - What's Expected of a John Birch Society Member & Several Episodes of "Dan Smoot Reports"

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Now it's time for an "Acetate of the Month"! This one has a lengthy and descriptive title which pretty much sums up the contents of its nearly five minute length. I have no date for this item, and nothing was written on it. 

Download: Audiodisc Unlabeled Acetate - New Year's Eve - White Christmas, Joking and Noisemaking, Let Me Call You Sweetheart

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Finally, our "Very Short Reel" for the end of the year. And again, I listened to this one last month, just after I listened to "Jack Daniels". A DJ going only by the name "Jonathan" seems to have put together a tight demo reel highlighting specific aspects of his work - a phone call from the loser of a contest, a live commercial read and just a bit of DJ patter over the end of a few songs, the starts of a few others, and a prize winning phone call. All wrapped up in three minutes. 

Download: "Jonathan" - Short Air Check Sampler from WGOW-AM, Chattanooga, Tennessee

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Some Esoteric Short Film Music, A Hopeful Rock DJ, Paris and Munich, George Wallace Campaigns and Wally Cox Sells a Soft Drink

Before I get to this week's multitude of items, I wanted to encourage folks to have another look at my last post, specifically the comments. I will not repeat them here, but reader/listener Kyle, who I mentioned in that post, has again linked to some interesting sounds which have been posted by others, particularly at the site at finnley.audio. There are also two comments shedding a bit more light on singer Malcolm Dodds, who's demo of a song was featured in that point. 

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Okay, so I'm going to start with something perhaps a little esoteric and which comes in four parts, but with this posting, I want to acknowledge a great gift I have been given, as well as offer thanks for a previous, similar (if smaller gift). For there is a dedicated reader/listener out there named Charles, who has now, on two occasions, come across a stash of interesting reels, bought them, and then sent them to me (free of charge!), for my perusal and enjoyment. 

The first batch - which I think was between ten and twenty tapes - came my way over 18 months ago, and had been the property of, as Charles said, "a now deceased sound engineer at WABC-TV". I have featured at least a couple of these tapes here, including that Japanese language material I posted last month. But many of the tapes are still sitting where I put them upon their arrival, waiting to be heard. Such is the volume of tapes that I have. A very belated public THANK YOU to Charles for those. 

Charles has not gone at least one better. Perhaps 15 better, perhaps 100 better. I'll have a better idea after I listen to more of the tapes. Because he has purchased, and sent me, dozens of tapes which belonged to a late composer by the name of David Hollister. You can read about him here. Not only that, he has put me in touch with the relative who inherited and who sold him these tapes. She has more tapes, which she is willing to share with me, as long as I make MP3's of them, and she authorized me to share what I find on the tapes. 

So it is that I grabbed a tape off the top of the batch at random and gave it a spin on the ol' reel to reel spindles. I found its contents absolutely fascinating, and hope you will, as well, although I acknolwege, again, that the word esoteric comes to mind. But hopefully I am wrong about that. 

The tape box made it clear that the tape contained two different potential soundtracks for a film called "Organism" made by Hilary Harris. On the first side was what was apparently an original composition, using a variety of common and uncommon instruments (see the box, below). On the second side was a different conception for the soundtrack, a collage of existing electronic music, composed by a variety of composers. Both were created during the last week of January, 1975, one week apart. Here is the box:  

The finished film, which is just over 19 minutes long (a bit longer than each of these proposed soundtracks, can be found in a few different places online, including this one.

Here are the two soundtracks: 

Download: David Hollister - First Tape for Hilary Harris' Film 'Organism' - 1-24-75

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Download: David Hollister - Second Tape for Hilary Harris' Film 'Organism' - 1-30-75

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After the second of these, there was a brief section of microphone tests and piano playing, which I am assuming - perhaps incorrectly - also feature the composer, David Hollister. I am including this  brief segment, and the one following it, for completion sake. 

Download:  (Presumably) David Hollister - Microphone Tests and Piano Playing

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Following that, and until near the end of the reel, is heard the last several minutes of a live performance of an orchestral work, complete with applause at the end. The rest of it had clearly been erased by the material above. Again, I'm assuming this is a work by the same composer, but I could certainly be wrong. Perhaps if so, someone knows what this very interesting piece of music is. The odd part is that, early on in this fragment, someone cut into one channel to insert a few moments of two very familiar pieces of music, one being about as classic of a pop hit as you can get, and the other being a well-known moment of classical music, heard twice, first at a different speed as the live performance, to boot. After those two interruptions, the live performance is heard without further interference. 

Download:   Fragment of a Performance of an Orchestral Work, Presumably by David Hollister

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Thank you so very much, Charles. This is beyond kind and thoughtful and I am immensely grateful. Tomorrow is my birthday - it'll be "When I'm 64" - and this was a wonderful gift, despite not having been intended as such. 

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Here's the sort of thing that always appeals to a good percentage of readers of this site - a Demo Reel from a DJ. In this case, he's Lance Shepherd, and I've been unable to find out much of anything. He had clearly, around the time of the excerpt shared here, worked in a variety of genres, and as he tells someone named Mike, to whom he directs some comments at the end, he really wanted to "get back into rock". Here's hoping he did. 

Download: Lance Shepherd - Demo Reel

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Here's a real oddity (or, if you prefer, a reel oddity), or at least it strikes me that way. When Canada Dry wanted to introduce their new soda pop, Sports Cola, in 1968, they turned to that well known pitchman.... Wally Cox. Now I grew up loving Wally Cox (Hollywood Squares, Underdog, and, for an earlier generation, Mr. Peepers), but he doesn't strike me as having had the greatest of sales-pitch voices or personality. But perhaps that was the joke. 

I am also amused by the sales pitch connected with this product, which was that it has virtually no caffeine. I somehow doubt that would be a big draw today. 

Anyway, in this 30 plus minute recording, Wally and his cohorts go through an inordinate amount of takes to get the ad just right. Of course, we're only hearing the sound - maybe someone kept doing something wrong visually. But the ad isn't particularly well written. Actually, the ad copy for the first section - which they work on for about ten minutes (!) - is some of the worst I've ever  heard. But again, maybe they were going for comic effect. But the sheer number of takes here is mind-numbing. 

You can find a couple of Wally Cox' Sports Cola ads (not this one), here.

If you'd like to invest 45 seconds in a little more homework, type in Wally Cox Best Friend into Google and see who was Wally's best friend, who was also the person was who considered Wally his best friend (and who, after Wally's death kept Wally's ashes with him for the rest of his life). It is not who you might expect. 

Download: Wally Cox Records a Commercial for Canada Dry Sports Cola

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I've done a whole lot of typing about the items I've shared so far, so I'm going to dial it back for the last three. Here is a couple, living in Europe, who returned from a vacation, and described their experiences for posterity in an audio diary. I have featured this couple before, in other tapes made during their travels across other parts of Europe, but this one seems to have been made upon their return home.

Download: Reflections on Our Trips to Paris and Munich, 1968

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On a three inch reel, recorded at the slow speed of 1 7/8 IPS, I discovered recordings which were largely of a 1968 episode of The Smother's Brother's Comedy Hour. Sandwiched into the middle of these recordings, however, was the polar opposite of that show, politically, entertainment-wise and just about any other way you might want to look at it. It was a promotional piece about George Wallace and his 1968 Presidential Campaign, followed by a segment of one of Wallace's speeches. Then it was back to the Smothers Brothers. Here is that segment. 

Download: George Wallace Promo and Segment of a Speech, Summer, 1968

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And now for the "Very Short Reel" for this post. This reel, at over six minutes, stretches my concept of what "Very Short" is by more than a minute, but I've been wanting to share it, and I don't have anything else as good as this, and under five minutes, ready to go.

Anyway, here is a small group playing a short instrumental Irish piece, and then a woman sings a song identified as "The Spinning Wheel", but I found the lyrics here listed as being "Spinning Song", so that's what I named the file (although I now see that there are other performances and sites where the song is called "Spinning Wheel"). The woman's name might be said, right before the name of the song, but whatever it is that the guy says, I can't make it out. 

Both performances are in front of a small audience who respond enthusiastically at the end of each piece. Their appreciation is quite well earned. 

Download: A Short Instrumental Irish Piece and a Woman Sings '"Spinning Song"

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A '79 Demo Reel, A '53 Audition Tape, Demonstrating Stereo, Old Timey Music, Continental Classroom, Etc. Etc.

Your host is back yet again, with another batch of fabulous reel to reel sounds!

To start, here's a fellow named Walt Jackson, working for country station WMPS in Memphis ("68 Country!") in the fall of 1979, and capturing that work on a demo reel, no doubt in order to further his career at a larger or more prestigious station. 

Download: Walt Jackson Demo Reel - '68 Country', WMPS, 9-13-79

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On a related note, here is a fellow named Charles R Hughes, some time in April of 1953, trying to sound like he's already on radio station WFUV-FM, a non-commercial station in New York which was then still relatively new (it went on the air in 1947), but which is still in business today. Or maybe that's "still in non-business" today. 

The clues that he is not already on the station? Well, first, the tape box is labeled as an audition. But also, the stories he is reporting, while all from the early Spring of 1953, are not all from the same date or week. He gathered together some recent stories in order to provide an interesting newscast audition. 

Download: Charles R Hughes - Audition Tape for WFUV-FM, Circa Mid-April, 1953

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Here's that tape box: 

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Next up, here are the sounds contained on yet another one of those "Stereo Demonstration Tapes", the ones which typically came with your new tape recorder to show off what it could do, or perhaps which also might have been used by salesmen in the store (or in the home) to make that final push in a potential sale to a customer. In this case, it's an early effort by a corporation which would later become a powerhouse in the home audio field, Sony. As always, the examples range from sound effects that travel from speaker to speaker to orchestral music.

Download: Sony Stereo Pre-Recorded Demonstration Tape

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And here's that tape (I don't have a box for it)

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And now, something considerably more... homey. Here is a gathering of friends and/or family, in the fall of 1959, working together to perform some traditional music as well as pop songs of the past in a very homely, amateur style, for almost exactly an hour. I'm sure this isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I love this stuff. 

I cannot find the tape box for this just now, but the information on names and the date, below, are from that box. 

Download: Music at Home - Bill, Vernene, Ida and Ralph, 10-9-59

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"Continental Classroom" was an effort by NBC-TV to offer some educational matter to viewers in the late 1950's and early 1960's. Each season focused on a different subject, including Physics, Chemistry, Math and Government. You can read about it here. The 1963-64 season actually consisted of reruns of Government episodes from the previous season. I have a batch of tapes from someone who periodically recorded episodes of the show, and, from that 1962-63 season, here is an episode on "The Legislative Process". If you want more of these, let me know!

Download: Continental Classroom - 1-63 - The Legislative Process

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And now, it's time for our "Acetate of the Month". In this case, it's an acetate which contains what sounds like a College Glee Club running through a series of songs, contained on both sides of an Audiodisc acetate which has nothing written on its label. 

Download: College Glee Club - Unlabeled - One Side

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Download: College Glee Club - Unlabeled - Other Side

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And now, our "Very Short Reel". Here we have a young woman who is overjoyed to have won.... some sort of contest and is very thankful to everyone involved. 

Download: "An Evening That I'll Never Forget"

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Vintage Demo Reels, A 1950's Comeback, Super Bowl Predictions, Shutting Down, and the EBS Gets Musical

 First, let's get this said: 

HAPPY YOKO ONO'S 90th BIRTHDAY!!!

I hope your Yoko Birthday Eve family gatherings went well last night, that they continue apace today, and that your holiday meals this evening will be festive. Remember, for good luck in the rest of the year, be sure to eat some chocolate cake in a bag. 

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Before continuing, I wanted to comment on a segment of my last post. In the middle of that post, I offered up some music from Marge Magenheimer. What I didn't realize until later, is that I'd shared ol' Marge and her music before. But at the time of the earlier sharing, I had no idea who she was, and likely had only heard the one tape (I have at least eight that I've heard since then). So I thought I'd direct anyone who is interested to this post, where I featured a segment of what I called a unknown singers rehearsing a few songs over and over. That's Marge and her friends, featuring some of the same songs as heard in my last post, among others. 

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I have another interesting and varied batch of reel highlights for you today, and I'll start with the set which I suspect will be the most popular of this post. It's a set of airchecks from a deejay with the intoxicating name of Jack Daniels. 

If you research this fellow, you will mostly find a North Carolina deejay named Jack Daniel. This is not the same person. The NC fellow does not appear to be old enough to have been on the air in the early 1970's. In fact, I can find very little about this Jack Daniels, aside from a few mentions deep within radio tribute sites and archived pages of old newspapers. 

Regardless of all that, somewhere along the way I became the owner of two of his demo reels, one dated April 26, 1971, at which point he was at WEEL in Fairfax, Virginia, and a much shorter demo reel from his time (around March of 1970, it would appear) at WINX in nearby Washington, DC. The latter one, as you can see below, was described as a "Humor Show" on the side of the box: 

I do wish that today's top 40 stations (or what passes as top 40 today) would play this much of a mix of old and new, rather than entirely new. 

Download: Jack Daniels' Demo Reel, WEEL, April 1971

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The most interesting thing to me about this WINX tape is that the station had put an absolute flop of a Bee Gees single, "If Only I Had My Mind on Something Else" (from their brief Barry and Maurice only period), into rotation. Daniels even comments on the relative weakness of the song! Oh, and that B.J. Thomas song doesn't sound like anything that would ever have been a hit - that it reached # 26 can only be attributed to it being the follow-up to a massive # 1 record, "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head":

Download: Jack Daniels' Demo Reel, WINX

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Jumping back in time nearly 20 years, here is an ultra rare recording of a completely forgotten television show, "The Comeback Story", hosted by George Jessel. This show told the story, each week, of someone who was once popular in his or her field, who hit a losing streak, but who was now, "BACK". You can read about the show, and its 19 episodes, here. This particular episode, from October 30th of 1953, centers on violinist and bandleader Harry Horlick. The first 15 seconds here appear to be from a recording of a different show. 

Download: The Comeback Story - Harry Horlick - 10-23-53

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Here's a tape I don't recall anything about. It looks like I digitized it close to a decade ago - where the original box is, I haven't a clue. But something on the box, I assume, let me know the family involved was from Georgia. And beyond that, it is self-explanatory - a group of folks singing The Beach Boys' hit "Shut Down". 

Download: Unknown Georgia Family - Shut Down

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I had hoped to have this post up one week ago, but in reality, that was never going to happen. So here, a week late, and in terrible sound quality, is a little three inch reel of tape containing a 1973 recording of Joe Namath discussing the then-upcoming Super Bowl VII, and predicting the outcome: 

Download: Joe Namath - Joe Namath Previews Superbowl VII

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And finally, our Very Short Reel of the post. This is one I just heard for the first time earlier this month, but I knew immediately that I had to share it right away, as it literally made me laugh out loud. Here's a station (or a production team) who took the required introductory text to the Emergency Broadcast System tests, and set them to music, and goofily catchy, silly music at that. Two bits that sound exactly like ads or promos if you aren't listening closely. They are absolutely great, particularly the second, longer one: 

Download: Two Emergency Broadcast System Test Jingles

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