The big feature here - at least from my viewpoint - is a favorite tape of mine which someone made during the great Chicago snowstorm of January, 1979.
Here we have just over an hour and a half of a radio talk show/call in show, as heard on WNUR Radio, which was and is the radio station for Northwestern University in Evanston, IL.
I was 18 when this show aired, and if I'd known there was a show that sounded like this - free form, incredibly loose hosts, silliness and everything else you'll hear here, I would have made a point to tune in as often as possible. There should be more radio - a lot more - like this. I find this endlessly entertaining, almost intoxicatingly so.
By the way, in the final minutes of this tape, the dreaded tape squeal comes in, at times with a vengeance. Nothing I did - including baking the tape twice, cured this reel of that issue. The last several minutes are rather hard to listen to, as a result.
Download - "Shut Up and Listen" - WNUR, Evanston, January, 1979
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Next, here's a tape featuring just a few minutes from a Country Music station. There's some dreamy guitar, then an odd Spade Cooley offering. There's some DJ patter, followed by Skeeter Davis with the # 10 hit of the week (nicely dating this to 1961), more DJ, and finally, a country singer named Johnny Mathis (not that other one), with a song I've always enjoyed (although this version was new to me.
Download: Brief Excerpt from a Country Music Station, 1961
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Next, here's the sort of tape which will ALWAYS resonate with me. It's a few kids, just having fun with the tape recorder. In the first segment, they try to sing a religious song without cracking up, without success, Then there is a lengthy segment in which one of the kids pretends to be a reporter at Grand Central Station, interviewing kids (played by the others who are present) who are going to ride on the trains. After a very young child sings a few songs, we have an NBC news parody, with "Chet Winkley", complete with commercial parody, as well.
Download: Various Kids - Media Parodies, Songs, Etc., Early 1960's
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And finally, here is our "Very Short Reel" for the week. Here we have the recording of the voice-over for two television ads for new Kodak Instamatic Cameras, complete with recording studio intro and noises. It's amazing what one can do with cameras these days!
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