ORCATS

This web site uses an embedded media player requiring javascript capability so that you can listen online without downloading if you prefer. Look for any place you see a small arrow (play button) next to a link. You can click on it and it should open the media player and begin playing immediately (for broadband connections). You can pause the playing or stop it depending on what you want to do.

If you want to download the file, you need to "right click" on the link (not the button) and select the "Save as..." option that pops up in the menu and select on your own computer where you want the file to be saved.<

Now you can read the latest ORCATS Spring Newsletter online! Simply click on the link below, but you must have the ability to read a pdf data file. If you prefer to download and read it on your own PC, Right Click and select "Save Link as or Save Target as on your pc and select a location on your hard drive on where to save it.

Spring Newsletter

An article recently appeared in Albany Times Union newspaper online about a discovery that an archivist at the Schenectady Museum & Suits-Bueche Planetarium found in the basement on a low shelf. The boxes contained a bunch of film cannisters that were sound recorded on a pallophotophone from what was described as 1920s radio broadcasts. With the help of a couple of engineers, a machine was built that could read the film and bring the sound to life. The article is on the Times Union web site at http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=942480. The sound clip they provide is Thomas Edison in his ancient creaky voice speaking. The site uses what is called flash audio to listen. In case you do not have flash capabilities on your computer, I am including an mp3 version here you can listen to instead.

Randy Riddle, who writes a blog in which he provides mp3 copies of the transcriptions he purchases through auction, has provided two excellent copies of a January 1947 episode called "Overture in Two Keys." Oddly, there are two versions, one of which is possibly a rehearsal version. The quality of the two copies are probably the best out there and I've made them available for you to download. Randy's blog, by the way, is Rand's Esoteric OTR.

Here is version one, most likely, the aircheck.

Here is version two, most likely, the rehearsal.

Introduced to their customers in the March 1930 ENARCO National News, The National Refining Company started advertising on radio as many other companies of this era did. By February 1931 they were on 14 radio stations and airing on every night. You were now being entertained by the EN-AR-CO Motor Oil Orchestra, White Rose Gasoline Quartette and The EN-AR-CO Tenor, Irving Kaufman

This recording "Motor Oil Review" is the last 15 minute of a 30 minute program believed to be broadcast on the radio between October 1930 and September 1931.

For more on this recording, see this web site!

Here is a previously lost episode from and Armed Forces Radio Network program called Melody Round-up, which for this show featured Lum 'n' Abner spinning songs from mostly the Riders of the Purple Sage and reading dedications to Armed Forces personnel.

Recently, Randy Riddle who has a web site devoted to providing mp3 versions of his transcription disc collection, posted a complete episode of the Suspsense story "The Rescue" starring Jimmy Stewart. It is an AFRS version of the show from April 19, 1951. What was previously available had the last ten minutes missing (and that is what is in circulation).

This version is complete! You can download it directly from here if you right click on the link and select "Save as..."

If you just want to play it, and you see a little arrow just to the left of the link, you can click on it.

Sometime back, I came across a blog that offers mp3 copies of radio programs, some of which are previously uncirculated, that were made directly from Electrical Transcription. The blog is run by Randy Riddle, who over the years (and still) bought ETs offered via eBay and other auction sites. Randy generously has been making copies available and tries to offer some history on the programs themselve. His site is located at Rand's Esoteric OTR. One of the programs he recently made available was a long lost copy of Orson Welles in Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Lost Special" on Suspense.

Recently, Brad Kay discovered for sale at one dealer's table a stack of ETs that were programs from 1931! The programs were essentially musical infomercials for various products, but these were in pristine shape. Turns out they were discovered behind a wall in a warehouse in Chicago being torn down. The discs were in a crate still in their original sleeves. The dealer selling them had no idea of their value to fans of old time radio as the dealer's table was at the annual BixBash in Racine, Wisconsin where fans gather to honor Bix Beiderbecke and his genre of music. The programs include: The Radio and Television Institute Revue: an informercial for the Radio and Television Institute for a home study program; The Marmola Entertainers: Marmola was a weight-reducing pill that came under disrepute by false claims by its maker; The Foodtown Pops Revue: Foodtown Pops was a breakfast cereal; The Nesco Royal Cooks: the National Enameling and Stamping Company made Kerosine cooking stoves; The National Flower Festival: held during Armistice (WW1) day; Jim Brown's Entertainers: The Brown Fence and Wire Company sponsored a musical show of old time music (performed by big city musicians) with some nice mountain style music.

Check out this web site for an interactive look at the radio logs from the New York Times, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times.

Some of you might know about the Old Time Radio Researchers Project. This is the group that is attempting to find the best quality mp3's of complete series, provide additional information and package them altogether in an archived file. They also produce a newsletter. It is pretty well done and you can find back issues here at one of their web pages.
If you have a highspeed line, you can also download some of their released projects on the public site called the Internet Archive. Click here for a list of a lot of old time radio available for download. I warn you that some of these downloads take a long time. I plan on putting many of them on the ORCATS hard drive.

Some of you might have heard this before or even have it, but I came across this promo for the Superman radio series from back in the late thirties possibly (it's not dated). If you don't have highspeed you might not want to download this as it is over 10 megabytes in mp3 format.

I knew that my old shortwave listening days had finally become respectable when I came across this web site - The Conet Project. They have organized a set of recorded CDs of the old spy numbers that one has heard for years (50 or so) via shortwave radio. I used to be fascinated by these back in the early days of the cold war. It's funny to find that so many people are now discovering something that has been out there for so long.

Bill Jaker mentioned in an email that "a copy of one of the oldest known airchecks, a 1925 experiment in international broadcasting. RCA's station WJZ in New York tried to rebroadcast a musical program from 2LO, the pioneer BBC station in London. The signal was actually received at an RCA listening post in Belfast, Maine" If you were unable to get to the site he mentioned, you can get the file here. Just right click on the link and select "Save as" and then give a location on your own computer.
Belfast, Maine Relay Broadcast.

Here's the web site address.