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

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

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

Download: Baseball Excerpt

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

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

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

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

ACE contributed the following: 

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

Snoopy adds the following: 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Download: A Set of Five PAMS Sales Packages

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

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

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

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

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

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

Download: A Pentecostal Revival Meeting, Featuring Brother Green

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Download: A Baritone and a Soprano Rehearse with Piano

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

Download: Two Men Checking the Microphone and Then Discussing Something

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Radio, Radio and More Radio

When I went to select things to post this time around, I sort of found that I had a LOT of various radio-related items - an abundance of them it seemed. So I decided to nothing but RADIO in today's post. 

All of the tapes featured here are recordings made of actual radio broadcasts, except the first one. And this first one is probably my favorite of the batch - just ten minutes or so of what I've called "1970's Ads and Music Beds". Presumably these all came from the same company, but I do not know who was behind this tape, or why it has completed ads paired with background music for ads. It just is. Enjoy!

Download: A Short Compilation of 1970's Ads and Music Beds

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Here's one I've labeled "Religion News, Circa 1956". Perhaps someone out there can narrow it down further: 

Download: Religion News, Circa 1956 

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And now, from more than a decade later, and from a far more Earthly realm, here is The Old Redhead, also  no doubt known to many in his orbit as "The Old Jackass", Arthur Godfrey. I have shared other Godfrey segments before - just click on the Arthur Godfrey tab below or put his name in the search at upper left. Like those previous segments, this comes from the waning days of Godfrey's radio show, in this case June 4 of 1969. Let's listen in: 

Download: The Arthur Godfrey Show, 6-4-69

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Just over two years ago, in this post, I wrote about a tape of a program called "London Mirror", saying: 

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 recorded specifically from this program.

I later shared another episode from the same tape. While both of those tapes were dated well (by newspaper clippings in the box), the third episode on the box was not identified in any way. But as the other two were from the second half of November, 1961, I'm guessing this is from the following week, or shortly thereafter. I continue to find these tapes fascinating. 

Download: London Mirror - Unknown Date, Probably Late 1961

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Now here's an odd one, and I wish I had this entire program - some of it was erased by something far less interesting. It's a radio drama presentation of the story of "Rumpelstiltskin". And I really don't know anything more about it. I do think it's very worth hearing. 

Download: Radio Production of 'Rumpelstiltskin' (Incomplete)

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This next tape is labeled "Brief Excerpt from WOR, June, 1963", and indeed is what it is. But I should also mention that the sound quality starts out absolutely abysmal and gets steadily better throughout, but never approaches "good" quality. The segment starts with a mention of a 1964 gift catalog, but either that was extremely pre-mature or this is actually from two different recordings (which I doubt) because the sports report is definitely from late June of '63. 

Download: Brief Excerpt from WOR, June, 1963

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Now, what compilation of radio would be complete without a lengthy (perhaps over-long) AM radio tribute to musicians from the Big Band era. Well, I run a full service site here, so I have just what you were looking for. A radio station called WHEL, at 1570 AM, in New Albany, IN, ran a tribute the Dorsey Brothers and their various bands. That station's is now known as WLRS, and was only WHEL for 13 years, ending in 1978. My guess is that this tape comes from closer to the end of that period. Here is a 77 minutes excerpt of that Dorsey presentation: 

Download: Tribute to the Dorsey Brothers on WHEL, 1570 AM, New Albany, IN

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And now for our Acetate of the Month. This one is a short, vintage recording from radio station WJJD in Chicago. This AM station existed for some 63 years in Chicago, before rapidly switching call letters three times in four years. It is now WYLL. It is possible, or even likely, that the last 68 seconds here actually comes from another station, as WJJD had a country format at the time (it was later Chicago's first Top 40 station). This segment is, admittedly, very badly recorded and hard to listen to, but it does keep with this post's theme of radio material. 

Download: Audiodisc 6 inch Acetate - WJJD, Cowboy Song, Piano Instrumental

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And finally, a Very Short Reel. I have previously shared segments of country music programming from WEEP in Pittsburgh, and here is just a bit more of that station, However, this is a brief segment of the nationally syndicated Mutual News (including a commercial) as heard over WEEP from some time between 1966 and 1968, based on the news heard. Perhaps someone else can narrow it down closer based on the news reported. I have been unsuccessful in trying to do the same. 

Download: Brief Fragment of Mutual News on WEEP, Pittsburgh

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Even More Pittsburgh Football, The College Bowl, What Schools Need, A Preacher at Work and at Home, and the Man On the Farm

I did a bit more digging into the pile of tapes that had that near-complete classic playoff game and found the following reel - most of this game had been erased by a recording of the broadcast of John Kennedy's funeral (and I assure you, I've run across at least a dozen recordings of that, in my collection), but when it was over and the machine was shut off, the end of a game from almost exactly two months earlier was there, between Pittsburgh and the St. Louis Cardinals, and here is that broadcast recording: 

Download: St Louis Cardinals at Pittsburgh Steelers - 9-29-63 - Most of Fourth Quarter

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And while we're on the subject of "entertainment options that sometimes have the word 'Bowl' attached to them", here is a neat tape I found containing two complete episodes and one partial one (minus commercials) of the show "College Bowl". The reference to the "Bay of Pigs" incident having happened exactly three years earlier nicely dates the first of these shows to April of 1964, and the remaining two shows are clearly the next two in sequence. 

I sincerely doubt you would find a team of college kids today that could answer as many of these specific questions, as are answered correctly here. If nothing else, it certainly plays up the change in focus of a typical college education between then and now. 

Download: College Bowl, April & May, 1964, Two and a Half Episodes

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Now let me ask you something. Are you, like so many of us are, concerned about the future of the Sherman Schools? That's the sort of thing that keeps me up at night. Here's a man whose doing something about it - he's presenting his thoughts on the needs and future expectations of the Sherman Schools. Thank goodness. 

Actually, I was pleased to hear that this wasn't some sort of reactionary screed, but that this guy actually sounds pretty progressive. 

I will also note that, for whatever reason, he taped some segments at full volume and other segments at an extremely low level. I have attempted to bring the softer segments up in volume to something close to the average of the louder segments, but there is a lot of white noise or hiss in there, as a result. 

Download: Comments on the Needs and Future Expectations of Sherman Schools

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I find a LOT of tapes with religious services (almost always Christian services) on them - typically, if they are full services, they are either of the Catholic/Episcopal/Lutheran structure (all very similar in content) or of the Baptist and/or Fundamentalist structure. Usually, the only thing that varies, and which might be interesting (to me at least, and with the exception of special services such as baptisms) are the sermons. 

The tape below (after a bit of harmonizing) captures parts of three speeches. I'm not sure I'd call them all sermons. The first one is a sort of homily made up of a parable. And I will say it's one of the least convincing parables I can imagine, as the "punchline" is a major letdown - I thought to myself "THAT's what you were leading up to? Really?" The rest is more typical sermonizing.

This tape is dated April 10, 1971 and the sticker on it also indicates it was recorded in Hinsdale, IL (see below). But I'm fairly certain that there are at least three separate services excerpted here.

Download: Segments of Various Sermon and Church Services

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On the other side of this tape is a unique documenting of a three-way phone call, complete with the operator assistance at the start. Presumably at least one of the participants is from the family that included the preacher heard above, but whoever this is, they were making a call that involved the Chicago suburbs, the Phoenix area and perhaps some third location. 

I found this tape delightful. The conversations are interesting (I wonder what was being shipped to Arizona, and why it had to be picked up so far from Phoenix), and the best part, the kids - most likely cousins - talking with each other. 

The tape ends with a brief bit of religious singing. This is probably my favorite tape in today's offerings. 

Download: A Three Way Phone Call to Arizona and a Some Religious Singing (plus)

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And now it's time for an Acetate of the Month.

Nearly five years ago, I posted "The Porter Heaps Collection", of a bunch of 1940's and 1950's radio shows that the former organist at my church had given me upon his retirement. One of those - probably my favorite, was "Man on the Farm". And in my collection, I was lucky enough to acquire an acetate version of a 1952 episode of "Man on the Farm", half of the show on one side of the disc and half on the other. 

If I'd been around, and old enough, to enjoy radio in the early 1950's, I suspect I'd have been a big fan of "Man on the Farm". 

Download: Columbia Reference Recording 12 inch Acetate - Man on the Farm, 10-4-52, Part One

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Download: Columbia Reference Recording 12 inch Acetate - Man on the Farm, 10-4-52, Part Two

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Very Short Reels will return next time around. 

Happy May, everyone. 

The Return of KRAP Radio, A Bit of Basketball, Sound on Sound, A Good Friday Sermon, Commercials and PSA's

HAPPY EASTER!

I'm going to start with a sequel to a post I made just over four years ago, in which I shared a tape of some high school students and their fake radio station, KRAP Radio. Well, I recently found another tape of KRAP radio parody material, and thought I'd share it, as well. 

As it happens, in that post, I mention that the students involved in this project seemed to be from High School Radio Station KDBG, and by chance, I posted more material - real radio recordings, not this pretend stuff - from that station in my last post, so clearly, all of these tapes must have come from the same reel purchase, at some point. 

This is far more entertaining than the real broadcasts, I think.

Download: KRAP Radio - The Station That Is Full of It

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And here, for your further enjoyment, is the rest of that same reel - presumably some of the same kids, engaging in some reel to reel weirdness. 

Download: Material After KRAP Radio - Weirdness from Some High School Students

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We are in the midst of the annual insanity around College Basketball. I personally find the idea of caring about a college basketball team - and certainly caring about who wins a college basketball game - bizarre in the extreme. I would enjoy watching college basketball about as much as I would watching golf or soccer: 30 seconds would be more than enough, especially when one could be watching baseball, tennis or bowling (Three Cheers for Jason Belmonte!). Or streaming Monty Python episodes for that matter,

But anyway, in honor of this yearly event, and for those who do enjoy amateur basketball, here's a tape containing, within its 33 minutes of radio recordings, some moments from the 1958 Illinois State High School Basketball Final, some postgame coverage, and then a very short part of a newscast, some of which is also about that basketball game. 

Download: Excerpts From the 1958 Illinois State High School Basketball Final, Postgame and Newscast

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Now here's a tape I really enjoyed, not least because, prior to the late 1990's, every time I recorded one of my songs, I used the tape recording method known as Sound on Sound, where you record one track and then bounce back and forth between the two monaural tracks adding more sounds to your recording. Depending on the machine used, you may end up with a stereo recording in which one track alone has the final additions, or you may end up with one track which contains all but the last thing you added, and the other track which has is delayed a split second and contains your entire production, meaning your performance is in mono. The latter is the case here. 

Whoever recorded these guitar pieces appears to me to have only made a basic track and then overdubbed them once. But they are well done and, to my ears, quite enjoyable. 

Download: Unknown - Guitar Performances Using Sound on Sound, Volume 5

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Here's the list of songs you will hear, from the tape box, although the first song is not "Chattanooga Choo Choo", it's "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe": 

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With today being Easter, and of course Good Friday having just passed two days ago, here is a brief Good Friday sermon. What makes this recording remarkable is that it comes from a reel of paper-backed tape, the likes of which was phased out as a product around 1951 or so, meaning that this recording likely comes from the dawn of reel to reel recording, and is likely somewhere around 73-75 years ago. It ends sort of suddenly, and far from sure it was over when the tape ran out, yet it also ends with several seconds of silence, so maybe it did end like that. 

Download: Unknown - A Good Friday Sermon (From a Paper Reel)

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Here is a short collection of commercials, all of which are parts of series already heard on this blog. However, none of these specific commercials have been shared - just others from the same collection, a huge collection of ads, mostly from the Pacific Northwest, which I bought a few decades ago. 

Download: A Collection of Commercials

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Here is a recording of a radio broadcast of a play written by Woody Allen, titled "God". This is a recording from legendary Chicago radio station WFMT. It starts with a very short excerpt from the play, and then the announcement of the sponsorship, a commercial, a bit of introduction, then the play. There is a break about half way through and the second half of the play. There are credits at the end. 

Download: Woody Allen's "God"

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"Mélange": noun. a mixture; confusion.

I labeled the first half (plus) of this tape "Weird Melange of Sound". See if you agree. A little bit more than halfway through this tape, we hear a moment of an audio letter, and then more randomness, before the audio letter comes back at 7:37 and we hear its contents for nearly six minutes. Most of that duration contains a woman speaking to her mother, talking about her mother-in-law and griping about someone else in her family, before requesting a return tape. 

Download: Unknown: Weird Mélange of Sound, Followed by a Short Audio Letter

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And now, our very short reel. And it is extremely short - 55 seconds - and contains someone offering up a brief tribute to the very clearly remarkable Enrico Toti, a one-legged cyclist and World War I hero who you can read about here. With apologies to Rudyard Kipling and his poem about Gunga Din, our unnamed speaker offers a re-written version of that poem, in praise of his hero, giving it three recitations in less than a minute. 

Download: Unknown: Tribute to Enrico Toti

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Blowout Post # 6

I've been doing these Blowout Posts when I'm finding I don't have the time to check and listen to stuff I want to feature. I'm also using them to make a dent in the ridiculous backlog of digitized sounds that I've made for myself (and yourselves). My "Interesting Reels" file has a sub-file named "Not Yet Used", and it has, at the moment, 376 items in it!

For today's Blowout Post, I went back to some of the older items in that folder, "older" meaning that they are sound files I made quite some time ago. I have, for the most part, not listened to these since the month I made them, which in some cases may be five to ten years ago, and I'm not going to listen to them again now (beside just a taste, in some cases). I'm just going to trust that I was right to think they might hold interest for someone, and slap 'em up there, 12 different items from 11 different tapes, plus our "Acetate of the Month". Just under five and a half hours of sound!!!

That's the story: aside from the titles and whatever I might recall about them, I am sharing these files with barely any memory of what's on them. I only know that. at some point, I thought they were worth keeping, in order to share them some day. Hope I was right! With a few exceptions, I'll have very little to say about them. 

Here we go!

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I'm starting pretty much at random, with a tape containing the sounds from part of a television production of the famous short story "The Lottery", which appeared on a TV show called The Robert Herridge Theater, from April, 1960, close to half way through the show's brief, 1959-60 run. Details of the episode are on this page. This seems to be something of a raw tape from the recording session of the second and final act of the show: 

Download: Robert Herridge Theater - The Lottery

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This one is labeled "Weird Collection of Naval and Gun Rules and Regulations", and I don't know that anything more needs to be said!: 

Download: Weird Collection of Naval and Gun Rules and Regulations

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Here are two family members, a guy and his aunt, who spent some time recording a series of old timey violin and piano square dance style songs. It seems that the man would periodically visit his aunt, who, as he mentions at one point, was around 90 years old at the time of these recordings, and they would enjoy making music together. I think I have a few tapes by these folks, but this seems to be the only one I digitized. 

Download: Aunt Rhoda and Her Nephew - Violin-Piano Square Dances At Home

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Now, if you're like me, you sit around some days unable to stop wondering exactly what are problems of small forest ownership. Yes, that's how at least five or six of my days every month were spent, until I found this tape. It changed my life: 

Download: American Forest Institute - Problems of Small Forest Ownerships

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Here's an audio letter - I don't recall any of the details, really, except that it starts with a child named Ted (hence the labeling of the "performers" of the track), that the children are heard off and on throughout, and that I found both the children's presence and the New Yawk area accents of everyone involved fairly annoying (hence the rest of the track title) - although calling it merely "annoying" barely scratches the surface. 

Download: Ted's Family - A Fairly Annoying Audio Letter

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From what I recall to have been a particularly old reel of tape - from the early '50's - here are two segments featuring a preacher identified as "Brother Brown". First, he offers some fairly typical testimony, and then he engages in a bit of Faith Healing: 

Download: Brother Brown Gives Testimony

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Download: Faith Healing with Brother Brown

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I have, in my collection, a handful of tapes featuring a Chicago radio personality named Buddy Black, who broadcast from the Edgewater Beach Hotel for WGN. I have previously featured a birthday tape he received. Here he is engaging in three on-air phone calls and stocks and finances: 

Download: Buddy Black - Three On-Air Phone Calls

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And no blowout post would be complete without..... well, at least THIS blowout post is not complete without an episode of Sing Along with Mitch. As it says, this is possibly, maybe even probably, from December 14, 1961. 

Download: Sing Along with Mitch - Possibly 12-14-61

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By this point, those who are still with me are almost undoubtably saying, "Wait, I came here to learn about Skinner Sealed Spool Valves. Where's the information about Skinner Sealed Spool Valves?"

Wait no longer. Here's part three. For those of you who missed parts one and two, there will be make up sessions in November at the Hyatt. 

Download: Skinner Sealed Spool Valves, Part Three

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~~

Now here's a radio program about.... Radio Programs. This is one of those things were people sit around talking about how great it used to be. In this case, it's a discussion of Old Time Radio, from a year - 1964 - when what we now call Old Time Radio had only started ceasing to be about six or eight years earlier. The show was called "The Reviewing Stand" and involves a couple of stars of Old Time Radio, as well as the much beloved Franklyn MacCormack. This is the second tape in this post which originated at radio station WGN: 

Download: The Reviewing Stand - A 1964 Discussion of Old Time Radio

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It's time for an "Acetate of the Month"!!! YAY! Here's what today's acetate looks like - sorry one side is a bit blurry:

Anyway, I do not know who these jazzmen are (or were), but here's what they sounded like, on that 10 inch Recordisc, precisely four years to the day before my sister was born, on July 14, 1946. As noted on the label, these are copies of another disc, which likely explains the rather wobbly and low quality sound of the disc: 

Download: Unnamed Band - Blues At Half Price

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Download: Unnamed Band - Lady Be Good

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And as always, let's finish with a "Very Short Reel". Here, courtesy of Impact Sound Studios, is an ad for Quick and Reilly of Palm Beach. AND, nicely tying together the post, the contents of this ad hearken back to the earlier Buddy Black tape, since this deals with investments, as well as to the audio letter, since it features another person with an only slightly less annoying, fingers-on-chalkboard, New Yawk accent: 

Download: Impact Sound Studios - Quick and Reilly, Palm Beach Ad

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Blowout Post # 5

Greetings! 

Last month proved very busy, to the point that, for the first time in over 18 months, I only posted once that month. I'm still catching up on a lot of things, so I'm going to feature another of my "Blowout Posts", with a dozen offerings and, for the most part, very little in the way of explanation. 

But first, I want to review a few comments. Someone named E. Schad has very helpfully put names to two different tapes I featured in two different posts. It seems that they were both from a Capitol series of production music called the Hi-"Q" stock music library. The posts are here and here, and you can find the names of the tracks in the comments of each post. 

In other helpful comments, "Snoopy" has figured out that the second Jesse Coopwood tape heard here is from September 9th, 1951, an anonymous commenter has identified that the audio letter I shared in that same post was recorded about 19 years later, on September 24th, 1970  (see those comments, as well, for more information), and my Star Ads loving pal, Larry, caught something I missed, which is that Kenny Biggs, in this post, gave the date of the recording, at least for part one of the tape, as being yet another September date, in this case, September 16th, 1965. 

Finally, frequent participant "OldRadios90" wrote in to say that he'd acquired one of what he says were  "The first battery operated Solid State Recorders", the Steelman Transitape, which you can see here. Additionally, OldRadios90 shared that he has added more recordings to his archive.org page, which is an extremely worthwhile visit. You can find it here, and also in the links, to the right. 

Thanks to each of you THIS MUCH!!

And now, back to the countdown. 

~~

Let's start with the recording I think maybe will hold the most interest for the largest number of readers/listeners. For here we have the legendary Los Angeles area Disc Jockey, "Humble" Harve Miller. In this clip, it's June 26th, 1965, he is fairly newly landed at KBLA, Burbank, and he's not only spinning the hits, but a few b-sides, a few oldies, and tracks from Capitol's then-latest butchery of a Beatles album, "Beatles VI", which had been released 12 days earlier. There is a very brief gap in this tape at around the 48 minute point - a little bit of a PSA is missed. That's where the small amount of recording from the second side of the tape begins. The entire recording is just over an hour long. 

Download: Humble Harve Miller on KBLA, Los Angeles, 6-26-65

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Almost as popular as airchecks are vintage commercials, and here I have a tape - or rather two tapes - containing a total of five ads for Great Bear Spring Water, from the Rumrill-Hoyt company. Why some of these ads (the first three, all of which were on the same tape) have brief announcer copy before and instrumental music afterwards, I have absolutely no idea. The Great Bear Spring Company was founded in 1888, and surely had a jump of decades on most of those companies who sell bottled water. 

Download: Rumrill-Hoyt, Inc - Five Great Bear Spring Water Ads

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Here is a combo scan of the front of one of the boxes containing these ads and the back of the other one: 

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Okay, so those were my two big shares for the post, I suppose. As noted at the top, the rest of today's offering fall into the category of "Things I Think Might Be Worth Sharing, And Which Some People Might Find Interesting, But Which I Don't Have a Whole Lot to Say About"

First up, some speeches that were made at a large Bell Telephone gathering, presumably a convention, followed by some music heard at that same same event, performed by - of all things - a full mixed chorus (80 members) made up of nothing but various Telephone company employees. Those were certainly different days, corporate-wise, eh? 

Download: Speeches and Music at a Telephone Company Convention

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Speaking of corporations which produced products that many Americans used every single day, The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company produced, for almost exactly 10 years, a series called "The Greatest Story Ever Told", built around the life of Christ - at least to the degree that Jesus, when he spoke in the series, only said those things captured in the Bible. On the other hand, as you'll hear in this episode, there were at least some weeks when Jesus didn't appear at all. 

Download: The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company Presents - The Greatest Story Every Told

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On March 2, 1959, Bing Crosby hosted a television special. The recording heard here is not the complete show, but it's nice anyway. Elements of this show are available on YouTube and other video sites, but I believe the portions heard here contain material not available elsewhere. 

Download: The Bing Crosby Show - 3-2-59

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Now here's a real endurance test. A car full of friends drives from northwest Indiana to Ohio and they  record 90 plus minutes of their conversation for posterity, while en route. For those of you who choose to share their journey, you will be rewarded with a sound clip for the ages, one to use in all of your sound manipulations, when the driver exclaims "Save your farts for Ohio". The man who speaks that line - and who probably recorded this tape - was the same person behind the nudist camp which I've featured in the past, here and here. 

Download: The Schmidt's and Friends Drive to Ohio Via Highway 30, 1964

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Now here's a recording I've labeled "KNPT, Newport, Oregon - Ann and Len Nash at the Hi-Tide Supper Club - Two Episodes, June 25th and June 28th, 1955". And I think that probably sums up everything you need to know about it. 

Download: KNPT, Newport, Oregon - Ann and Len Nash at the Hi-Tide Supper Club - Two Episodes, June 25th and June 28th, 1955

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Here's something just a bit "different". It's an audio letter, but one made up mostly of music. The sender, in Vicksburg, is using music to connect to his recipient, Darlene, in California, with only a few comments thrown in between the songs, indicating some of them have memories attached to them, and others perhaps have lyrics which are meaningful to their relationship.  

Download: A Musical Audio Letter to Darlene

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Back to the Home Recordings we go. Here we have a gentleman who sings in an extremely old-timey style a style I associate with Irish tenors (not that I'd call him an Irish tenor) - and who offers up song after song, along with a bit of conversation with those who he is with, for some 40 minutes or so. 

Download: Unknown - Some Old Fashioned Singing and a Few Conversations

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Now let's travel to Valley Forge, PA, home to an organization of American Baptist Churches, and enjoy a short radio program that group produced at some point, titled "Audio Mosaic"

Download: Audio Mosaic (From the American Baptist Churches, Valley Vorge, PA)

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Only the tiniest of indications of the contents made it onto this box: 

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And as always, we'll finish up with the "Very Short Reels" segment, in this case, since I'm plowing through so much stuff, I'll offer up two. 

First is what I find to be an utterly charming little tape of a small child introducing her father, who then plays a solo on trombone, and then the two of them do a trombone/vocal duet on another standard. He's not very good, and she can't sing at all, but it's still mighty cute, and her little laugh at the end is worth the price of admission. This actually showed up at the very end of a lengthy tape filled with bland recordings of 1950's and 1960's big band jazz, jazz with all of the life sucked out of it, so it was a nice dessert after a bland meal. 

Download: Daddy Plays "All of Me", Daddy and Daughter Sing "Red Roses for a Blue Lady"

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And here is the simply titled, "Two Girls Sing Three Short Songs", to which I'll only add that the second song is actually sung by only one of the girls: 

Download: Two Girls Sing Three Short Songs

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Vintage R & B Radio, Some Religiosity, Savings Bonds, A Letter to Carole, A REALLY Short Reel, and The Oldest Tape I've Ever Owned

  Hello out there!!!

Let's get right to it. I have here something pretty special, I think, although I wish it was longer....

Anyway...

Remember Gary, Indiana? It was once a fairly flourishing working class town, just outside of Chicago, based around the steel industry. More recently, it has been named "the most miserable city in the US". But back when it was more or less thriving, Gary had a popular R & B Radio Station, WWCA, and WWCA had a popular DJ, Jesse Coopwood (although Wikipedia deems him to have been a jazz DJ).

Regardless, I have been lucky enough to come across, in my collection, two short recordings of Jesse Coopwood doing his thing. One is clearly from Fall of 1951, based on his comments about songs by Sylvia Robinson and by The Dominoes, among others, being recent or new. The other one does not have a date which is immediately apparent to me, but maybe someone else can figure it out. 

Anyway, these are precious and rare, and very much worth sharing. Enjoy!

Download: Jesse Coopwood on WWCA, Gary, Indiana, Fall, 1951

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Download: Jesse Coopwood on WWCA, Gary, Indiana

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Now, from roughly the same time period, in this case, from November 30, 1952, and the place is the tiny town of Clever, Missouri. Here is a recording, mostly likely made in/at a church, of a man who is saying some fairly ridiculous and quickly disproven things about the wonders of the Christian Church and specifically its supposed role in causing virtually everything that is good and forward moving in the world.  

I am a lifelong, active Christian, as you might have gathered from the piece about my mom a month ago, but I don't recognize that faith in what I hear from this guy. The number of "facts" that he spews here which are offensive and prejudicial in nature is staggering.

Download: A Man Extols the Wonders and Benefits of Christianity - Clever, Missouri, 11-30-52

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The flip side of this tape contains a home recording - it's not terribly scintillating, I suppose, but it is a bit peculiar and may hold some entertainment value. It's a family, having a fairly loose discussion, while going about their day, regarding Savings Bonds, and particularly one which was bought on behalf of what sounds like a young adult son, some years back. This seems to come from roughly the same timeframe as the religious speech above. 

Download: A Savings Bond Discussion, Circa 1952

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Perhaps you need a palate cleanser after that church speech up there. If so, here is a nice audio letter from a father to his daughter Carole. And I think that's all that needs to be said!

Download: Audio Letter from a Dad to His Daughter Carole

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And now, a real piece of history. On its surface, this may be among the least exiting sounds I've ever shared with all of you. But on the other hand.... I think this is now the oldest piece of playable tape in my collection. 

I recently was fortunate enough to obtain six reels of Soundmirror Recording Tape, produced by the Brush Development Company. This was, I believe, the first commercially available reel to reel tape in this country, appearing not long after the introduction of the format in the US, which I also believe was from the same company. That was in 1946. All of these are paper reels, by the way.

I have not listened to all of the tapes yet, so there may well be something even older on one or more of them. But this is a recording from May of 1948, 75 years ago this month, and perhaps 18 months after the first reel to reel machines came onto the market in this country. So I felt like I ought to share its contents, even if they are more than a bit bland. 

What the tape contains is an organist at a church in Florida playing a series of hymns and other music. The tape is just over 30 minutes long and the sound starts to fade in and out during the last five minutes. But this is the sort of thing that just excites me no end - not the contents so much as its very existence in my collection. 

Download: Mrs. Gibbs Plays the Organ at the Rader Memorial Methodist Church, Little River, Florida, 5-6-48

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And what does a Soundmirror tape box look like? Here is the box, front and back: 

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Now, let's move even a little further into the past, to nearly 80 years ago, and our Acetate of the Month. This is a little eight inch acetate, and while the voices are quite lighthearted, I'm sure it was made and was received with considerably more emotion than is given away by those voices. That's because this is almost certainly a mother sending her birthday wishes to her son who is in the armed forces, during a time of war. 

Download:  Birthday Greetings to Ensign Richard Nash from Mother, 10-6-43, Side One

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Download:  Birthday Greetings to Ensign Richard Nash from Mother, 10-6-43, Side Two

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And now it's time for our Very Short Reel of the post. In fact, I have two, because the first is a ridiculously very, VERY short reel. 

Here, for your dining and dancing pleasure is everything that was recorded on a standard, Seven inch, 1800 foot reel of tape that I scanned a few weeks ago: 

Download: Hello, George

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Since that was so ridiculously short, here's a more typical length "very short reel", this one being the remnants of what was probably once a longer recording. This was at the end of a tape on which was recorded some less than interesting records from the previous owner's collection. 

Download: Testing the Machine and Asking Bobby to Come Here

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Blowout Post # 4

Greetings!

Every month, I make a point of trying to put up two posts. This, I think, goes back to my posting schedule back at WFMU, and it's hardwired into me at this point. In fact, I've only missed that target eleven times in the years of posting, and in some of those periods, I made three posts in surrounding months. 

Anyway, February is short. And I want to have a post up within the next four hours. So it's time for another BLOWOUT POST! That's where I just shove a bunch of stuff - much more than usual - that doesn't need much comment, and let you have a ball with it. I know there are at least a few out there that actually prefer this mode. I will have very little to say, except for a rant about one of the segments. By chance, this is a very media-heavy offering. Let's begin, shall we?: 

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First up, and what I suspect will be the most popular share for this post, here are 14 great ads promoting Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer, all on the theme of "Give That Man a Blue Ribbon". There is no date on the box (see the scan and photo, below) - maybe someone out there knows when these are from: 

Download:  McCann-Erickson, Inc - Pabst Blue Ribbon, 14 "Give That Man a Blue Ribbon' Radio Ads

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Next, I was very excited to find the following slip of paper inside a tape box:

... and I looked forward to a tape full of vintage top 40 Television. Sadly, much of the tape has been erased by all manner of oddness, some of which is below, and some of which I'll be sharing at a later date, but a small portion of Clark Race's TV show, clearly from 1960, remained on the tape, and that's what I'll offer up here: 

Download: Clark Race Record Hop on KDKA TV, 1960

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The title of this one should tell you everything you need to know, and the tape itself will say the rest:

Download: A Phone Call - Ken Wants to See You

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Okay, here's my rant. Why, exactly, would one spend the clearly excessive time it would take to learn Bob Newhart's comedy act, word for word, pause for pause and idiosyncrasy for idiosyncrasy. I simply cannot fathom it. The material worked because it was Bob Newhart, and because it sounded like Bob Newhart and because there was an audience!

And yet, here we have a sample - and I'm only providing a sample - of a tape lasting TWENTY FIVE MINUTES, in which some bozo mimics Bob Newhart into the microphone. Without an audience, either. I get garage bands covering Paul Revere and the Raiders in 1966. I do not get "covering" Bob Newhart in 1960 or 1961, alone with a tape recorder. It seems borderline psychotic to me. 

Oh, and this is part of what erased that promising looking Clark Race TV Record Hop, by the way. 

Download; Bob Newhart Impressions (excerpt)

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On a short reel of tape, I found two interesting recordings. The first few seconds of the tape had this rather endearing little moment between (I'm guessing) a father and his two sons: 

Download: A Short Interview with Eric and His Brother

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The rest of that same tape - recorded on both sides - was this interview with a New York Policeman, first about a police-sponsored carnival, and then about what I've called "Youth Today". There is a gap in the conversation where the first side ends and the second side picks up. 

Download: Conversation with New York Policeman - Upcoming Circus and Issues with Youth Today

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And here is an example of a show called "Continental Classroom", which aired on Public Television stations in the years before there was a PBS. If this intrigues anyone, I can offer more - I have several recordings of this show on a collection of tapes I acquired at least 20 years ago. 

Download: Continental Classroom - 1-11-63 - The Legislative Process, with Stephan K Bailey

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And if you want to enjoy some music, here's an episode of "The Bell Telephone Hour" from the late winter of 1961: 

Download: The Bell Telephone Hour, 3-17-61 - Much Ado About Music

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One of my favorite childhood Saturday morning TV shows ever was a short lived program based on the nonsense writings and drawings of Edward Lear. I've mentioned it here before, when another of my tapes captured a short segment of the show. Here is a longer segment of "Tomfoolery", from one of my own tapes, complete with little 10-year-old Bobby Purse providing an introduction (and a big ol' sniff along the way):  

Download: Tomfoolery - Saturday Morning Cartoon Show, January, 1971

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Paper reels, as I've mentioned before, were the earliest format of reel to reel tape, before they found that plastic backing worked much better. Any paper reel will be, by definition, more than 70 years old at this point, as they were phased out in 1951 or so. That doesn't mean the recordings on them are all 70+ years old, but most of such tapes do contain recordings of that vintage.

I don't actually have a date for this short reel of paper-backed reel to reel tape. It contains a Sermon delivered at the Diocese of Buffalo. 

Download: A Paper Reel - Sermon at the Diocese of Buffalo

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And now, for our "Acetate of the Month". Here is a recording made just weeks after V-E Day, near the end of World War II, featuring personnel from an American radio station interviewing American Soldiers in Britain, on June 22, 1945. 

Download: 6-22-45 Interview with American Soldiers in Britain

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And now for our "Very Short Reel". Today, I'm offering up three short promos for Evangelist David Nunn, who can read about in dozens of websites. In the case of these promos, we are being urged to listen to "The Healing Messenger Broadcast", which was heard no doubt around the country on various religious radio stations: 

Download: Evangelist David Nunn - Three Promos for "The Healing Messenger Broadcast"

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