Some Great Jingles, London Nightlife, High School Radio, Talking to Australia, Some Cute Kids, and the Sports of 1971

HI! 

I'm gonna dive right in! Let's start with a lovely little tape which is labeled, as you can see below, "Agency Jingles - Background Music", and on the side of the box it is further labeled "# 53":

And of course, it's also labeled with a complete listing of the tracks, most of which - but not all - are in fact instrumental music for radio commercials. There are some vocals mixed in, though. I have no idea what agency created these or exactly when they are from. All of the information I have is in the scan, above. But these are great!

Download: Agency Jingles - Background Music # 53

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Now here is a bit of programming, from the BBC, that I find absolutely fascinating. It is an edition of what was apparently a weekly show, one which captured as much as possible of what was going on in world of entertainment and theatre in London. Again, this was captured on a weekly basis, with new material every week, some of it from records, but mostly recording specifically from this program. I have found, in my collection, a tape containing three episodes of this show, "London Mirror", from late in 1961, all but this first one complete (this one is missing the opening theme). The variety heard in these forty-some minutes is truly impressive even if, rather than play that icky Elvis Presley, they instead had a bland rendition of his latest hit performed by an in-house conglomeration. In fact, rock and roll music (and its creators) is conspicuously absent among the otherwise fairly broad picture of night life in London reflected in these shows. Many of you (well, me, at least) might be most intrigued by the segment featuring Goons great Harry Secombe, as this appears to be a recording of him made specifically for the show, and perhaps not available anywhere else. The person who recorded this show even cut out the newspaper ad for the program, which captures all of that variety in a very small space: 

Please let me know if you'd like to hear more of these - as I said I've found three and there may be more.

Download: London Mirror, 11/18/61

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Now, let's fly from London to Turlock, CA, some time in the late 1970's, and what was then the local high school radio station, where someone was trying - very poor attempts, to my ears - to make some promos for said station, KDBG. 

Download: Working on a Promo for KDBG Radio, Turlock High School, Turrlock, CA

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But that's only part of what's on this reel - if it wasn't, I'd have used that segment for a "very short reels" presentation. No, the rest of the tape contains an episode of another student's country music programming, including, for the last several minutes, what was apparently the stations very own mix of some odd, humorous country material, ending with a peculiar take on the country standard "Still". 

Download: Country Music on KDBG Radio, Turlock High School, Turlock, CA

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And now, here's a moment in time. I have a bunch of tapes from a professional band - nowhere on them does it seem to specify who they were, just the number of "men" in the group and the event captured on the tape - in concert at "The Elks' Ball" at the end of January, 1959. I have unfortunately misplaced the box for this one, but that's what it said, along with that reference to "nine men" or whatever it was. Their repertoire is pretty well all over the map - everything from "The Peter Gunn Theme" to "The Walter Winchell Rhumba" to "Misty" to "Oh Johnny Oh". Download this one and listen to it sometime while you're working around the house. It's about 72 minutes long. 

And again, if you dig this, let me know. I have more from this ensemble. 

Download: Unknown Band - Performance at The Elks' Ball, 1-30-59

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For those of you who enjoy Audio Letters, here's one from a man in Maine to a friend in Australia: 

Download: Audio Letter from Maine to Australia

Play:

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And now it's time for our "Acetate of the Month". And I gotta say, as brief as this is (67 seconds), it's one of the sweetest, even the most adorable, things I've ever shared here. This record scores a 10 on the "authentic cuteness" scale. It's titled (by me, anyway, there is nothing written on the disc itself) "Two Children Play-Act a Visit", and I don't think anything further needs to be said. Enjoy!

Download: Voice-O-Graph 6 Inch Recording Disc Acetate - Two Children Play-Act a Visit

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~~

And finally, a very short reel. Here is a child of the early '70's, clearly from Pittsburgh (or at least a Pittsburgh fan), giving a short play by play of the 1971 world series, before cutting in with a bit of radio, then being generally boisterous (with at least one other child, I think) and finishing with a bit of basketball play by play. Interestingly, both the Pirates and the basketball team end up with 14 runs/points. 

Download: Unknown - Baseball and Basketball Reports, 1971

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A Passel of Jazz Stars, A Turkey Give Away, The Biggest Hit Shows of 1963, Some Chatty Girls, Beer and Cars, and the Approach of Christmas

 Greetings! A belated Happy Thanksgiving to all of my American readers/listeners, and a giant THANK YOU to everyone who stops by to read and listen, on this date and any other. 

I'm going to start with something I think is pretty special, and which I don't think is readily available elsewhere (although I admit I could be wrong about that, but I have looked). Short clips are available on YoutTube and elsewhere, but this is nearly the entire dang thing. 

It's the third of at least four "Timex All Star Jazz Shows", which aired on CBS in the late 1950's, and featuring a roster of some of the biggest names in Jazz from the '30's, '40's and '50's. The first and second of these shows seem to be more well represented online than this one, the second one actually came out on vinyl, and at least elements of the first and second one were available at one time on CD. But this third one seems much rarer. 

Anyway, if you're a fan of jazz, this is undoubtedly right up your alley. While the more progressive movements in jazz present in 1958 are not represented here (and I wish Dizzy Gillespie, for example, had been invited), it's still, as I said, pretty special stuff. 

Download: The Third Timex All Star Jazz Show - 11-10-58

Play: 

~~

As long as we just celebrated Thanksgiving, I thought the time was perfect to share this short segment, in which we hear a radio station in Fairmont, West Virginia, doing a rather goofy Thanksgiving Turkey Give-Away. These are from an actual broadcast. Rather, this is a work tape in which the calls are edited together with ads, and prepared for airing at the times indicated in the introductions to each call. The gimmick behind this giveaway is worth the price of admission. I do not have a date for this recording.

Download: Fairmont, West Virginia, Thanksgiving Turkey Give-Away Phone Calls

Play: 

~~

Those of us of a certain age - and I'm not sure what that age is - will remember when the fall network TV season was not only announced with a flurry of ads and promos, but also led off with each network previewing their fall shows with an hour long special in which each show was highlighted. I previously shared an ABC production of this type from 1964, and here, now, is a similar type program from CBS, presented in late September, 1963. CBS had enormous success that year, as nine of the top ten programs of the year aired on that network. 

Download: CBS Opening Night - Preview of the Coming Season - 9-23-63

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For those of you who enjoy fly-on-the-wall recordings, I have the self-explanatory "A Few Girls Talking, Circa 1960". The recording quality here is far from the best - you really have to turn up the sound and listen closely to make out what's being said at times, and the last two minutes or so of this 15 minute segment is sort of a hodge-podge of silence, near silence and fragments of conversation. But.... this sort of thing is gold for me. 

Download: A Few Girls Talking, Circa 1960

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And now for our Acetate of the Month. Here's a two sided record from radio station WNEB, in Worcester, Mass. On one side, a folky-type guitar strummer sings about Harr Ford, and his vocalizing is heard on either side of the sales pitches on three different ads, dated for April 29th, 1961. 

On the flip side are two fun, fun ads for Schaefer Beer, ads which not only promote the beverage in question, but also for an upcoming Jimmy Durante television show, a program which aired on August 9th, 1961. 

Download: WNEB (Worchester, Mass) Acetate -Three Harr Ford Ads, 4-29-61

Play: 

Download: WNEB (Worchester, Mass) Acetate -Two Schaefer Beer Ads

Play: 

~~

With Thanksgiving over, it's getting to be that time. What better way to ring in the Pre-Christmas madness than with a "Very Short Reel" featuring the Kings of Radio Jingles, PAMS, with two different collections of Christmas Jingles for two different radios stations on the same reel. First, there are 50 seconds worth of jingles for WWDC (in Washington D.C.,  of course), and then more than two minutes of jingles for KLIF (in Dallas), ending with several jingles that countdown to the big day. 

Download: PAMS - Christmas Reel for WWDC and KLIF

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"The Sportsman's Friend", The Hits of 1954, A Bit of Art Linkletter, More Shortwave, "Sing Baby Sing", and More!

Howdy, Y'all, 

I have another motley batch of seven slabs of vintage reel to reel recordings for you. I'm delayed this time around by a minor eye injury which made looking at a computer screen (which I have to do for work all day) increasingly uncomfortable, meaning I did little online outside of work for about a week. It seems to be all better now. 

But enough about me. Let's hear even more about Lucky Lager. Somewhere along the road of life I managed to take possession of a whole batch of Lucky Lager related reels, and if this group of sixteen ads on the them of "Sportsman's Friend" is not the best of the lot, it's close. 

Download: Lucky Lager - 16 'Sportsman's Friend' Ads - 1969

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~~

Next up, yet another in my now-diminishing batch of previously unshared Shortwave recordings, this one - as most of them have been - is a recording of Australian programming directed at the American market. 

Download: Australian Scene - August, 1974 (Via Shortwave)

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~~

And now here's a tape which, under most circumstances, would have been my showcase share, right at the top of the post. It's a broadcast of some station's rendering of the top hits of the week, done in very much the style of "Your Hit Parade" in which the songs are played at random, with the ranking number given, rather than being a strict countdown. 

Two things resulted in my burying this down a few spots in this post. First, it's programming from about June of 1954, which was certainly one of the less scintillating moments for pop music in North America. But even more so, the sound quality is wretched. I mean, the shortwave recording above, is also in terrible quality, but that's expected in such a recording. This seems to have been recorded during a thunderstorm or something, and the station doesn't seem that well tuned in, either. If it wasn't for the nature of the tape - a genre I just love (the hits of the week) - I might have passed on sharing it at all. Hope you find it worth listening to, despite the quality. 

Download: The Week's Top Hits, Circa June, 1954

Play:

Here's the relevant bit of the tape box, even if the sticker on it is inaccurate - everything here is from 1954: 

~~

Switching gears pretty aggressively now - and that's a good way to put it, as I'm sure this man switched a few gears in his time - here's a brief excerpt from an episode of "Art Linkletter's House Party", a wildly popular television show which ran for almost two decades. In this segment, he interviews "The Fastest Man in the World", Lt Col John Stapp. The segment does a good job of explaining that title, and if you want to read more about Stapp, you can do so here. 

Download: Lt Col John Stapp on Art Linkletter's House Party

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~~

Are you, by chance in the mood for a bit of supper club style music? Well, if so, I have just what you've been waiting for - about 18 minutes of a guy named Jack Wells, performing in front of what seems to be about eight people at most - dropping the name of blind balladeer Al Hibbler at one point - with a handful of songs. 

Download: Jack Wells Plays a Few Songs

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~~~

Here's one sort of thing that I just love, and that I sometimes hear from others that they enjoy, as well, It's the family home recording, in this case, a bit of a hodgepodge. Adults are heard discussing the recording process itself, and having other innocuous conversations. Children sing songs and are interviewed by the parents. In between the segments are moments of older recordings. An article about a speech by Vice President Nixon is read. A statement about being unable to stop smoking follows, although it veers off into other subjects, after a while. Finally, a brief audio letter finishes the tape - although it seems odd that such a letter would be on a tape filled with family material, and that it would not be recorded on the length of tape actually needed for what the guy wanted to say (it runs out, mid-thought). 

Download: Recordings Around the House

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And finally, our "Very Short Reel" today comes from the Mountain Home Schools of Arkansas, where, at some point, there was a production of a show called "Sing Baby Sing", and here we have three promos for that show. 

Download: Three Promos for the Mountain Home Schools' Production of "Sing Baby Sing"

Play:

1953 Radio, Some Jingles, More from Japan, The Age of Jetomation, and Some Swiss Shortwave

Hello, 

This won't be news if you read my other blog, but... 

 Last time I posted, I mentioned being short of time, and that I'd be brief in my comments. Little did I know how much time I would have starting the very next afternoon. For it was the next day that I learned that due to COVID's effect on my agency's finances, my position was being eliminated, effective immediately. After 29 years with my agency, I am out of a job, and this is the first time in about 40 years that I've neither been employed or in school. Hopefully, it will be just a hiccup in time, but who knows. 

~~

Before I get to today's features, I wanted to share a link sent in by a reader. Back in January, one of my offerings was a "very short reel" featuring Judy Codlin's demo reel. Well, sadly, an anonymous poster recently sent a link to Judy's obituary. which is here. 

~~

Today, I have another typically varied set of recordings for you, which I hope you'll enjoy. And I'm starting with one from 1953, not because I think it's the most interesting, but because it allows me to continue a series I thought I'd completed, the Scotch Tape Box series. 

I do think this tape's contents are interesting enough, but I especially wanted to share this box, which is of a style I'd never seen before, and which I therefore overlooked in my series. At this point, Scotch was still differentiating between paper and plastic backing, meaning that this is probably style # 3, and from no later than 1951, as all styles from after that point did not specify the type of backing, since they had all been switched to plastic. Here it is: 

And what is on that five inch reel of tape, I hear you ask through the ether. Well, it's a recording that appears to date from 1953, a broadcast on station KROK, in Rockford, IL, of a classical concert, primarily featuring the Peer Gynt Suite, with narration, along with a short performance afterwards. Not the most scintillating thing to hear, but recordings from this period are very, very rare. Plus, at the end, there is some other material, including commercials and the start of a newscast. The mention of the war having ended would seem to place this near or in July of 1953. If nothing else, I encourage you to listen to the last few minutes captured here. 

Download: The Rockford Symphony Orchestra - Peer Gynt Suite and Programming After - WROK, Rockford, circa 1953

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Sticking with the radio theme, here are a whopping 30 Jingles from a station in Southern California which actually broadcasted its format from Catalina Island. The station was/is WBIG, which you can read about here. The sound quality is a bit dicey at the start, but gets better. 

Here are all of those jingles!

Download: KBIG - Radio Catalina - 30 Jingles

Play:

And here is the tape box: 

~~

Next up, it's yet another tape from our young man in Japan, circa late 1960's. I don't have a date on this one, but I know there are people out there who might be able to take some of the comments and narrow down the time frame. 

As with at least one of the other letters I've shared, our man (boy?) in Japan chose to play music in one channel while talking on the other. In this case, the music is actually louder than his letter in several places, playing up the questionable nature of this decision. 

Download: Another Audio Letter from a Student-Soldier in Japan

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And now, it's time for Horizons of Science. See?: 

And when I got this tape, a few decades ago, I was very pleased to hear that it was narrated by Lyle Dean. Lyle Dean's voice is familiar to generations of Chicago area radio listeners, as he worked in news and commercial production at multiple radio stations, for what must have been decades. 

This is a fun little diversion of a program. The things discussed here do not necessarily seem to have been the wave of the future that they are presented as being, at least not under the terms used here, but it's an interesting little program, regardless. 

Download: Lyle Dean - Horizons of Science - the Age of Jetomation

Play:

~~

Next up, a lengthy segment for those of you who enjoy vintage shortwave recordings. Most of those I've come across in my collection seem to be from the same collector, or a few people, anyway, and are recordings of Australian broadcasts. This one, however, from the spring of 1968, is a recording of broadcasts from Switzerland. The sound quality goes in and out here - it's never great, which is often the case with these shortwave recordings, but it's almost all listenable. 

Download: Swiss Shortwave, Spring, 1968

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And finally, here's our "Very Short Reel" for the week. It's a pair of ads for Kronenburgh Beer, from the late spring of 1980. Actually, to my ears, this is simply the same ad twice, but maybe there's a subtle difference that is escaping me, as I'm not sure why the same ad would be placed on the tape twice, back to back. Then again, the sticker on the box does say "Spot", while the handwriting indicates "2 cuts".  

Download: Lance and Enid - Two Kronenburgh Beer Ads - 6-5-80

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And here's the very messy looking tape box: 

Some Suspect Gold Records, 1958 News, An Odd Audio Letter and Moonlight Madness

Good Day, Ladies and Gentlemen, 

Before I get to today's offering, I wanted to respond to someone whose name was listed as "OldRadios90", and who responded to another post, asking me about sharing other vintage recording mediums here. I answered his comment from three weeks ago with a comment of my own, on that post. But I didn't know if it would be better to answer here, and others reading this might be interested, as well. 

Specially, I wrote that I have often thought of expanding this site into Acetates, of which I have many, many (although I've sold some in recent years), and may do so, but I barely find the time to post what I do share at the moment. Still, maybe this will light a bit of a fire under me! As to the other recording mediums you mention, I do not own any of those, although I've always been fascinated by wire recorders. To anyone reading this: if you have anything of this sort you'd like to contribute, I'd welcome having you host a post here. 

~~

A few months ago, I came across this most odd little recording. WVVX was a fairly peculiar station in the far north suburbs of Chicago. It had a tiny signal - probably not reaching very far beyond the north boundary of Chicago - and it was a bartered station (various interests bought time on the station, making for a hodgepodge of programming in various languages), for much of the day, it was a sort of esoteric oldies station, playing a goodly amount of what you'd expect from such a station, but featuring, in heavy rotation, such things as "Rock and Roll is Here to Stay", rather than its predecessor hit "At the Hop", and Cliff Noble's and Company's largely forgotten (even then) instrumental hit, "The Horse".   

I'm not exactly sure what the time frame was for WVVX as an oldies station. I know this tape is from around 1979 or so, and they were still doing the oldies thing when I briefly drove a cab in 1982 - I listened to them all the time during that period. More information about WVVX (no known as WPNA) can be found on this Wikipedia page. 

In this segment, two deejays explain the meaning of a "Gold Record", and also explain that some labels never accepted the accounting that the RIAA would require in order for a record to be certified as "Gold". They then play a medley of moments from he "hits" they believe, after some degree of research (I guess) qualified as Gold Records, over the years, in roughly chronological order. 

The problem here is that their research methods seem to have been lacking in, um, research. A few of these records were never even singles, and a fair number of other ones were mid-charters at best, and quite unlikely to have sold enough to have gone Gold. 

An odd project, and odd results all around.

Download: WVVX Plays the Records They Think Were Gold Records

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Next up, here are the remaining fragments of two different recordings from a Washington D.C. radio station, made at two different points in early 1958. The first segment was at the very start of the tape, then was erased by something of far lesser interest, and the second segment was what remained at the end of the tape, after that erasure and less interesting stuff. There is a brief break between the segments. There is an interesting "looseness" to the entertainment report that I have not generally perceived in news broadcasts of that era. 

From the stories told during these segments (the first a newscast, the second a light entertainment report), dates can (sort of) be determined. The first segment is from January 22, 1958, while the second is a bit confusing. It is probably from later that week, as it mentions a film starting on January 27th. Yet it also mentions two films playing in town which, per IMDB and Wikipedia, didn't open anywhere until February of that year. Ah, well. 

Download: WASH, Washington - Two Fragments: News and Entertainment Reports, Early 1958

Play:  

And now we come to something a bit peculiar. This is a audio letter sent from someone named Dick Kenny. It would seem, based on the opening comments, that he is sending this tape to someone he doesn't know well. 

Mr. Kenny clearly considered himself quite the cut-up. Much of the tape is made up of him speaking in the third person, portraying people talking about him, first in impersonation of Amos and Andy, and later - for much of the tape - in a series of phone calls to people involved in sound recording. I assume these calls (and the other material on the tape) were meant as humor, but they are god-awful - dry, repetitive, painfully dull and devoid of anything that has ever worked for people who've made a buck via "Funny Phone Calls". He also beats to death his own (fake) concept of a recording term, "Faggacycles".

I will add that Mr. Kenny seems to have considered himself quite the skilled audio man, and if the sound recordings/effects he offers up (early in the tape) are real, then I would have to agree with him on that, but I have no idea if these were just yet another "bit". A weird tape, to be sure. 

Download: Dick Kenny - A Tape from Dick Kenny

Play:  

And finally, here's today's "Very Short Reel". This comes from a city called Turlock, in central California, but other than that, I don't have a date or a station, as this was unlabeled, apart from saying "Moonlight Madness". This seems to have a region-wide sale, or perhaps a street-wide sale or something. 

Download: "Moonlight Madness in Turlock" Promo

Play:  

Earl Godwin, Fizzola Cola and a Vintage Radio Promo Presentation

Hi,

Last time around, I acknowledged that I had goofed a bit in trying to stay chronological in my presentation of Scotch Brand Tape boxes. Specifically, I quickly realized that I had skipped over two relatively brief designs in indicating that Scotch went from the iconic grey-reel-on-black-background box straight into the good-enough-to-use-to-record-an-orchestra box.

I do believe that the latter box was still from the early '60's, for the reasons I outlined in that second post I just linked, but there were two designs that pre-date it, that also came during the period that my family was not buying new tapes, and again, like the orchestra box, I never saw this design until I began collecting other people's tapes.

This box trumpets the fact that, like maybe tape manufacturers in the late 1950's, Scotch was now selling 1800 foot reels, a 50 % improvement in terms of the length of taping tape available - regardless of the speed used - over the previous industry standard of 1200 feet. It keeps the grey-ish tape motif and the general black background, but also has two (very late '50's-ish) clock images and the phrase "extra play". It's a busy image and one that I find very appealing.

And now on to the first of four items I'm sharing today. And forgive my long road trip to get there. I hope its interesting.

I picked this first item because it came up in conversation this week, with some of the children I work with at my church, and I realized with some surprise that I'd never even mentioned this to my own kids, who are now in their late 20's. I'm not even sure any of my friends have ever heard it.

Part of the conversation with these church kids (ages 12-16) included their reference to everyone having to take music theory at the local high school. That struck me as odd.

I commented that at my high school, only those who believed they would be pursuing a career in music took music theory. And, since I had thought that this was where I would be heading (when I was 14, anyway), that I had signed up for Music Theory as part of my Freshman class load - but that there were only about 15 of us in the class. No one had to take it, and no one outside of the 15 of us did. I was encouraged to sign up as a freshman by the teacher of the class, who knew my family (he also thought a music career was in my future). Everyone else in the class was a Junior or Senior, all of them quite focused on careers in music.

The final project, that following spring, was to create a product and write (meaning, submit the sheet music) and record a commercial for the product, using at least one change in tempo or style (I'm sure there were other things we had to include, as well). My product was "Fizzola Cola". As I've mentioned here from time to time, my mother was a professional (and coloratura) classical soprano, so she sang on the commercial. I sang as well, and played the piano.

Here is that ad. The volume at various points is not perfect (the conversation at the start is way too soft, for one thing), and the tape has worn out somewhat in the ensuing 44 years, but it's still worth a listen, I think, and I hope you enjoy it.

Download: Bob and Mary Fran Purse - "Fizzola Cola" Ad
Play:

P.S.: I took the second year of Music Theory as a Senior, still believing at that point that I might pursue a music career. Aside from playing trombone in a pit orchestra for one show, being in a few bands for a short amount of time, and working a few times as a folk singer for children, I never actually did anything that looked like someone who was pursuing a music career. But those two classes made a world of difference for me as a musician and songwriter, even if those things turned out to be solely avocations.

~~

As long as I've focused on my family, I thought I'd also include something I came across a while ago that I had no expectation of finding - a recording of my maternal grandfather in one of his radio broadcasts. Earl Godwin was known as the "Dean of Broadcasters", and was part of the crew that would crowd around President Franklin Roosevelt's desk for press conferences - actually getting to sit next to the president because he was so tall when he stood that the other reporters complained.

He worked for NBC's "Blue" network and remained with the network when it became ABC. I never got to know him, as he died a few years before I was born, and had only heard his voice on one recording, an acetate we owned of a radio tribute to him, on his 75th birthday.

So here I was, listening to a tape I had bought, the earliest one (of several) featuring vintage recordings of day-by-day radio broadcast summaries of the goings-on at the Army-McCarthy hearings, when the announcer introduced commentary from Earl Godwin.

Here is that broadcast:

Download: Earl Godwin - Comments on the Army-McCarthy Hearings
Play:

~~~

Staying on the theme of radio (and the 1950's), here's a vintage (1953) promotional piece from CBS radio - a commercial sales presentation. I'd venture a guess to say that the vocal insert at 8:34 was not intended to be part of the presentation.

Download: CBS Radio - A 1953 CBS Radio Commercial Sales Presentation
Play:

~~

And finally, as promised each post nowadays, I have again grabbed a "very short reel" at random and will offer it up here. This one takes a bit of explanation, as it appears this length of tape was used three times, with each new use erasing part of the previous use. Advertised on the box (see below), is the final use, a painfully shlocky white-rap tribute to Webber's Transmission, from 1997, which has to be heard to believed. After that's over, we hear most of what was being erased, a commercial for a then-upcoming "Bride and Groom" show. Finally, in the last few seconds of tape after that partial ad, we hear an announcer guaranteeing our satisfaction, with regard to.... something. All in 108 seconds.

Download: Noble Broadcast of Toledo - Webber's Transmission, Bride and Groom Show, Satisfaction Guaranteed
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A Wonderful Audio Letter from Alaska, circa 1958

First, a big thank you - I am greatly indebted to Tony Hart, who filled in the blanks regarding some the items I posted last week. There is too much information to repeat here, but you can find it all here. Specifically, there is an explanation of why the commercials are most certainly from Canada and not France, as well as a mention of what the fragment of music is from, then there is an explanation and findings from a web digging expedition to find the source of "The Flabby American", and finally, a full translation of the French (Canadian) commercials. THANK YOU!!!!

~~

Today I have a lovely little audio letter, labeled "ROY'S TAPE" on the box, and featuring a young man reaching out to friends and family back home, from his Naval placement in Alaska. 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. That said, and with no further ado, here is Roy, from Alaska, circa 1957 or 1958. 

Download: Roy - Audio Letter from Roy in Alaska

Play:

~~

As an added bonus, here is a pompous little promo for KSYL, in Alexandria, LA. The station was founded in 1962, so presumably this promo is from not long after that, based on its contents. I wonder how they did with that "good music - no rock and roll" format as the decade wore on.

Download: KSYL Early 1960's Promo
Play:

~~

And finally - and I know this is very much overdue - sorry, teach' - here is Dan's final audio project, labeled just that way (plus his last name - available on the actual file name) on the tape box/ The first two minutes are achingly dull, but I'd have loved to hear more that sounded like the last minute or so:

Download: Dan - Final Audio Projects
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