Antony Bilbow Reads His Stories, Mike Starr Reads the News, Great Musicians Vs. Tone Deaf Singing, A Few Soldiers in London, and Not Singing "Let Me Go, Lover"

Howdy, 

I'm back from COVID and ready to share more of my enormous collection! But first, a follow up to my last post. 

For what I'm sure is more than the dozenth time, thanks to Eric Paddon for identifying that the brief clip of Tic Tac Dough that I shared last time comes from February 13th, 1959, and that, while the show had already gone through it's period of being "crooked" by that point, the winner of that show came by his successes honestly. And he won the equivalent of $1.5 million during his run on the show. All of this information is better explained in a couple of comments Eric made on the post linked above. 

Thanks to everyone else who has commented, as well. In answer to a couple of those comments, I will continue to make a priority of listening to and sharing DJ airchecks which are in my collection. 

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To start, something a little different. Many years ago, I bought a batch of tapes which had belongs to a "tape club", a batch of mostly old time radio recordings, which a circle of people who would exchange with each other, each of them labeled - usually with up to six hours of recordings of episodes of one show - Jack Benny, Bob and Ray, Mr. Keen... whatever. I'm sure these tapes became available to me because of the dying out of the reel to reel format and particularly, the growth of the internet - for the most part, nowadays, the contents of most these tapes can be found online, either for free or for sale on multiple websites. I've listened to some of these tapes over the years and some remain unexplored, so far, in my basement. 

But one of these tapes, labeled "Worthington", contains recordings of a BBC program which, as far as I've been able to discover, don't appear to be easily found online - I've found references to them, but nothing else. Technically, the show is not "Worthington", that's just the name of the lead character - a dog - in two out of every five stories. The shows are actually 15 minute stories, read by a man named Antony Bilbow, and written, for the most part, by Mr. Bilbow and his wife. I believe this fellow, 95 years old as I write this, is the same person as you'll hear on this tape. The stories are quite wonderful, in my opinion, and British through and through. They would apparently run in the morning on English radio five days a week, with Monday and Friday's shows featuring stories about Worthington the dog. 

Anyway, the tape is recorded in quarter track mono, six stories to a track, which means I have 24 of them, lasting a total of six hours. Here is the first side, left channel of the tape. If anyone would like to hear more of these, just let me know. 

Download: Antony Bilbow - Stories on English Radio, Volume 1

Play:

Here is the part of the tape box which lists the stories on the first side, left channel, as heard above: 

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Next up, in two segments containing at least three different recordings, we have someone named Mike Starr. He was, if this tape is to be believed, a news man and general voice-over/commercial announcer at a station called WHBM (named after its owner's initials) in Xenia, Ohio. You can read about the station's history and current status here. I say "If this tape is to be believed" because elements of this tape are so amateurish as to make me wonder if this isn't a demo tape submitted to the station. Primarily, I'm referring to the comical level of reverb heard throughout, and the way that reverb gets turned up to a distracting point during the latter parts of this tape. 

Anyway, part one of this offering - by far the longer of the two - features Mike Starr giving a lengthy newscast which, based on a couple of the stories involved, appears to date from January 7, 1967. This is followed, in this same segment by several commercials, the first of which is Christmas related, so cannot be from the same date as the newscast. A couple of the commercials don't even sound like the same announcer to me. And it is during these commercials that the reverb gets cranked up, seemingly at random, a few times. But maybe it's real. What do you think? 

Download: WHBM News and Ads with Mike Starr

Play:

Sorry about the clicking throughout - I digitized this five years ago, and I believe that those noises are on the original tape. If I track down the tape at some point, I will double check and replace these files. 

Anyway, after several unrecorded minutes on that same tape, the following short bit of goofiness featuring a man who I believe is still Mike Starr, interacting with his dog. 

Download: Mike Starr at Home with His Dog

Play:

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Looking backwards into the previous decade, and for those of you who enjoy Big Band music, here is half of an hour long program featuring Harry James, fronting his band on something called "Palladium Dance Time" on July 27, 1954 - presumably, these particular performances of these tunes have not been heard since this broadcast. The reel of tape this was recorded on only allowed a little more than 30 minutes to a side, at 7 1/2 IPS, so that's where the recording ends. 

Download: Harry James and His Orchestra - Palladium Dance Time, 7-27-54

Play:

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And now for the polar opposite to the above. Instead of a half hour of master musicianship, we have a very different half hour.... Yes, it's another recording of someone who absolutely cannot sing, and who recorded himself singing along with various records by Elvis, and a few others, apparently some time in 1959. If you can stand listening long enough, you will hear the same fellow demonstrating that his talent as a vocalist was roughly equal to his talent as a guitarist. 

I don't know why, but I am absolutely fascinated by these sorts of tapes - I have at least three which I believe feature this same guy, but I have others, as well - and I sit and listen to them with amazement, wondering 1.) why anyone, even an excellent singer, would record him or herself singing along with a series of records, and 2.) if this guy had any insight, at least after listening to these tapes, that he was tone deaf. 

I completely understand if this is not of interest, but as I said, it holds a peculiar hold over me. 

Download: Singing Along Badly (and Playing the Guitar Along Badly) With Elvis and Others, circa 1959

Play:

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And now for our "Acetate of the Month". I think this one is fairly self-explanatory: 

A reporter the U.S. Army Radio Service interviewed a few soldiers from Chicago, for playback on a Chicago station (WGES), on June 21st, 1945. Here is that recording: 

Download: US Army Radio Service 12 Inch Acetate - World War II Broadcast - London to Chicago - WGES- 6-21-45

Play:

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And finally, yet another "Very Short Reel". In this case, we have a little girl named Debby (or, perhaps, Debbie" who is being encouraged by her parents to sing a song, specifically "Let Me Go, Lover" (which likely dates this tape to very late 1954 or early 1955, when that song was a hit). Debby would rather pound on her toy xylophone. This goes on for precisely 75 seconds, at which point the recording turns into daddy asking mommy to name all the colors found in their couch, a topic which takes up the final 23 seconds. 

Download: Debby Doesn't Want to Sing 'Let Me Go Lover' and How Many Colors

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Four Disparate Radio Tapes

Today, as indicated above, I have three recordings made of - and one made for - radio broadcasts. But first, a few bits of business:

First up: It was earlier last year that I discovered that a podcast had used one of my most ridiculous songs - titled "A Sailing Milk Moustache" - as the introductory music for their year-end show. I reached out to the person behind the podcast, and, after quite a bit of conversation, ended up doing a lengthy interview with him for one of his episodes, all about my history, in terms of my collecting and, particularly, my humorous songs. I was then invited to be a part of this year's New Year's Eve/New Year's Day special.

Interestingly, the show's general theme is (this is from their website):  "A podcast and Website dedicated to understanding the world in which we live from a Christian worldview perspective", although nothing remotely in that area came up in the two shows I was part of.

My interview can be found here, and the New Year show - which I am only part of sporadically, can be heard here.

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And second, I am indebted to Tony, who recently posted with regard to my recent 1949/1951 home recording post, that, having discerned a reference to Time for Beany, it was clear that this family resided in the Los Angeles area, as that puppet show was a local phenomenon at the time. Thanks!

As a side note, I would encourage everyone reading to find some early Time for Beany, the episodes with Stan Freberg and Daws Butler basically (I believe) improvising the show. There are episodes available in various formats, including youtube, It's among the funniest stuff I've ever seen.

~~

So, on with the countdown!

The most interesting of today's four offerings is probably this mish-mash of recordings off of Chicago radio. It lasts just over 37 minutes, and as far as I can tell, it's all from the AM band, with the exception of a few brief moments of home conversation, made over the earlier radio recordings. The dominant station here is broadcasting an appearance by Governor George Wallace, one of his first appearances after his assassination attempt, at the time of the Democratic Convention, which places this recording definitively in July of 1972. Whoever was recording this day flips back to this news coverage multiple times, and it makes up a good portion of the recording. Bernard Shaw, later to become very well known on CNN, is among the reporters heard. Other stations are heard only momentarily, such as the one playing an Eagles record, and still others are heard for too long for my taste, particularly a bit of religious blather which is fairly far outside my own ideas about faith.

All in all, a neat little time capsule.

Download: Chicago AM Radio, July 1972
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Moving back in time 14 years, here is an 1958 episode of a 15 minute show, produced by the Archdiocese of Chicago, and titled "The Catholic View". This show dates to a point in time when a local Cardinal, Samuel Stritch by name, received a deep honor from the Pope and the Vatican, and departed Chicago with great fanfare, to fulfill his new role, only to encounter unexpected tragedy along the way. I have found at least three tapes (perhaps all from the same collection) recorded at different points in this saga, and this one does not complete the story. If I can find one or both of the others, I will share it next time. The whole thing sounds like something out of a medical drama or even The Twilight Zone, so sudden and severe and unlikely are the highs and lows this man experienced. If you want to get "the rest of the story" a bit faster, you can read a very brief explanation of it at the end of his Wikipedia page, and after that, you can wonder what he might have thought about his niece, Elaine Stritch. 

Download: The Catholic View, May 1958 - Pray for Cardinal Stritch
Play:  

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Next up, I'll offer a bit of explanation. Quite some time ago, I offered up an ad that I found in the midst of a tape of a "Beautiful Music" station, and mentioned that this is where it came from. Someone asked me to post that full segment, commenting that there is very little record of what "Beautiful Music" stations sounded like. Well, I couldn't find that tape - I may well have sold it. I often bundle together tapes which don't have anything interesting (to me) on them and sell them on eBay. But I've found a segment of another station, WBNS in Columbus, Ohio, complete with drab music and equally drab sponsors.

This segment is about 64 minutes long. I believe it's possible that the last 18 minutes are NOT from a radio broadcast, but rather, are all tracks from the same album. There is a sound (at 45:50) which might be a recorder being switched off or back on at that point, and the next song fades in. The final few tracks sound like they could all be from the same album. But I'm certainly not sure.

If anyone wants to hear more of this sort of material, I can post it as I come across it.

Download: WBNS, Columbus, Ohio - Beautiful Music Programming
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Finally, as part of the ongoing "Very Short Reels" feature, here's the next one I pulled out of the stack. It's a simple, 30 second ad for a Disney film that I don't remember ever even knowing existed, "Atlantis: The Lost Empire". That's odd, actually, because in 2001, my girls were 10 and 8 that summer, and likely at least on the fringe of the audience for this film. Or maybe I was just that dedicated to not having to hear "Come Sail Away".

Download: Walt Disney's "Atlantis" - Radio Ad
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It's worth noting that this commercial has to date to the very last point in time that ads were still being provided to radio stations on reel to reel tape. I'm amazed that this was still a thing in 2001.

VIntage Top 40, Military Corn Flakes, Some Silliness and Prize Fights

ANNOUNCEMENT!!! ANNOUNCEMENT!!! ANNOUNCEMENT!!! 

I have four disparate selections from the archives today, but first, I wanted to do a little promotion: 

Some of you own, or are aware of my "The Many Moods of Bob" collection, an album of comic songs which I put together in the late '90's, and which went up online on the Happy Puppy label several years later. Well, since that time, I have continued to write and record both comic and serious songs, although a lot more of the former, recording them whenever I had enough time. And now, after 19 years, this 19 track album is available. It's called "A Few More Plans". 

There's a wide variety of material - songs set to psychedelic style, calypso, jazz, rhumba, gospel, and much more, all featuring my style of humor and songwriting. Three of them have been featured on the Dr. Demento show in recent years. Mostly, it's me: my voice and my keyboard (and a few other instruments in places), but a few tracks feature family members and a friend.

Mixed in are four instrumentals. One of these - the title track - is a fairly insane trip through sound which wouldn't be out of place as the accompaniment to a silent movie. The other three instrumentals are simply revved up versions of songs I've been playing forever. There's also a remake of a beloved, very obscure commercial (of all things), a remake of a song-poem, and a rendition of a song my brother once dreamed, during a nightmare, more than 50 years ago. 

I have been writing and recording songs - serious and decidedly not so - since I was 16 years old, and I believe that, as a set of material, this is by far the best project I've ever produced in those 40-some years, and I would love it if you'd have a listen. It's located here: 

https://bobpurse.bandcamp.com/releases

You can listen to all the songs for free on the site, and read the lengthy notes attached to each song (under "lyrics" - there was no other way to do it), and if you'd be so kind as to buy it (which allows the download of the material and all the notes and the front and back covers), it's only two dollars.

One more thing: I'm not really on social media, for a variety of reasons, and I would very much like it if  - on the chance that you enjoy the material - you'd consider putting up links to my project on whichever of these sites you are part of. If you choose to do that, I'd really appreciate it. 

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First up, and probably the most appealing to the largest number of readers/listeners out there, is a lovely 20 minute blast of vintage top 40 programming from early 1961, at WCOL, Columbus, Ohio. I never get tired of this stuff. 

Download: WCOL, Columbus, Ohio, Winter, 1961

Play:

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Next up, a truly bizarre little story from a woman, recounting a story from basic training that I've dubbed "Kerosene Corn Flakes". The story is told more than once, for some reason, and rather than edit it down, I've decided to share the entire seven minute segment, which came to me on a three inch reel of tape, not marked as to its contents. 

Download: Unknown - Kerosene Corn Flakes

Play:

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I've just noticed that each of my segments for the week, in order, is shorter than the previous one. In this case, we have a group of friends just goofing around and being silly. There are brief renditions of at least three songs here, the latest of which is from 1964, which may help date the tape. I actually wish there was more of this, but it's only three minutes long. And that's all I know about it! 

Download: Unknown - Three Minutes of Silliness 

Play:

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And finally, as promised, the second installment of my "very short tapes" feature. I got a few bits of feedback on this, and it looks like there might be significant interest in this. Again, I pulled one from the middle of the pile, at random, and got two promos for the 1996 Tyson-Holyfield fight, along with the other fights on the card. This was not the "Don't Go Biting My Ear" fight, which was the following year - it was the first match-up. 

Download: Two Tyson-Holyfield Promos

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Give Bobby a Microphone, and He'll Entertain an Imaginary Audience

No, this Bobby isn't me, although what that title applied to me, as well. We'll get to Bobby in a minute. But first, another chapter in my roughly chronological parade of Scotch brand reel to reel tape boxes. The series can be found here, and the most recent post in that series (as of now, anyway) will show you a very spare, almost entirely white (well, cream) box with some black line drawings and a bit of red. My impression, based on the fairly limited number of boxes of this type that I've found, is that that white design was in use relatively briefly. However, it was also in use during a period that very few homes had reel to reel tape machines, and the pros were likely using 10 inch reels (which had a different box - that's for next time).

The next box design flipped the white one on its head, being dominated by black, and in place of the line drawing of a tape, and actual image of a tape.

This is the most "iconic" '50's box, to me - the one I come across over and over again from that era. It is my impression that they used this design longer than any other design of the 1950's or 1960's. If I picture the generic "vintage Scotch box", it is this one. Not only does this box appear to have been in use from circa 1953 or so until the late 1950's, it is exactly in that era - particularly by 1957 or so - that home reel to reel machines became far more affordable, and the number of tapes that I find which were recorded privately, by families, explodes around that time.

Finding home tapes from prior to 1955 is quite rare - those from 1957 and later are increasingly common as the years go on. Even in my own family, where we'd had a machine since 1952, we only amassed about ten or fifteen tapes to use prior to the late 1950's.- they were expensive! By the early '60's we had about three dozen. This tape design, from one of the biggest manufacturers of tape (along with Audiotape) overlaps that explosion in customer base.

~~~

The "Bobby" in question is one Bobby Berlt, and I love this tape. Bobby is attending an event with several relatives, and has been afforded the opportunity to babble into a tape recorder. When I first heard this tape, Bobby's well-spoken manner and the content of what he says and does led me to believe he was eight or nine. But late in the tape, he mentions that the previous year he'd been too young for Cub Scouts, and that he's since joined, meaning that he's probably five-and-a-half or six, which actually makes his "performance" here fairly impressive and not just endearing.

That's me speaking, of course, I can imagine those who don't work with and/or enjoy children finding this a difficult listen. For 16 minutes, Bobby talks. He talks about last year's vacation, imagining himself talking to an audience of younger children (an audience whose voices he occasionally provides). He provides interlude music, claiming it was to pass the time while he was otherwise occupied, and he talks about this year's trip to see the relatives he's with. Things bog down a bit near the end, when he becomes obsessed with getting his uncle to come over and talk (and when the uncle does show up, he dismisses him after about 45 seconds), then he talks to his aunt and decides he's done.

Bobby Berlt, if you're out there, I'd love to hear from you, and hear whether you enjoyed your performance!

Download: Bobby Berlt - Talking
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Next up, here is a relic from a very different time, sociologically and politically. It's a 24 minute public affairs radio program, produced by the Ohio Farm Bureau, titled "When Neighbors Meet". The reference to Gerald Ford being House Minority Leader places it somewhere between 1965 and 1973. That's about all I'll say about it. Have a listen.

Download: Ohio Farm Bureau - When Neighbors Meet
Play:

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Finally, I'm going to start another little series here, a project begun in part to make myself digitize a bunch of very short tapes that I own. These are typically five inch reels, but which have only a few feet of tape on them - they usually have an ad or two, or some voice actor's demo reel. They are anywhere from 30 seconds to three minutes in length. I have hundreds of them - more than three dozen sitting less than four feet away right now, waiting to be digitized - and I'm going to try and share one within every post. I grabbed one at random, and it actually turns out to be one that is fairly inexplicable - it's not an ad or a demo. It's.... well, listen:

Download: "Malfunction, Malfunction"
Play:

End of June Potpourri

Before I get to this week's posting, I wanted to share with everyone that, as a result of the collecting passion reflected every time I post here - the collecting and sharing of interesting recordings found on reel to reel tapes - I have now been featured on a major podcast called Ephemeral. The story in question is about Merigail Moreland, who I featured at WFMU many years ago. The show is about 40 minutes long, and can be heard here. Please give it a listen when you have the time. I think you'll find it worthwhile.

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And I also thought I would use this last day of June, 2019, to share a few tapes which demonstrate some of the extreme variety I come across when I grab a bunch of tapes for review. These are four fairly distinct recordings, all interesting in their own ways, although perhaps not the most pleasant to listen to at times.

Let's start with the one which is, perhaps, less pleasant to listen to, shall we. I've simply labeled this "Some truly idiosyncratic singing", although you may choose to define it somewhat differently. This segment - less than ten minutes - was virtually the only thing recorded on full length tape (1200 ft - 60 minutes recording time at 7 1/2 IPS) in question. No extra points for getting through the whole segment.

Download: Unknown - Some Truly Idiosyncratic Singing
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Next up, a true moment in time, a moment unlike any we're likely to experience in 21st Century America, or that any of us are likely to have experienced in the last 30 years, I'd venture to say. You see, it's the 1950's, and a new Nestle factory is going to be built in White Plains, New York. A Nestle representative is there from Europe, and the local Catholic Priest is going to offer up a prayer for the event, which is the laying of the cornerstone for the factory. AND: It's being covered, live, on the radio. Those were the days, huh?

Download: Coverage of the Laying of the Cornerstone at a Nestle Factory
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The third tape I've served up for you is another in a series of tapes I acquired some time ago from various local Bell Telephone companies. In this case, it's the Ohio Bell Telephone company, taking us back to the 1960's (I would guess, anyway), when we all had landlines, and they were all from the same company. Here's an internal training tape demonstrating the many ways that phone service could be... less than adequate:

Download: Ohio Bell Telephone Company - Transmission Impairments
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And finally, for all of you who need a heat pump this week, here is an indication of who you should call. At least, if you're in Arkansas.

Download: Three Arkansas Heat Pump Association Ads
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1960's/1970's Radio-Palooza!!

Howdy folks,

I have the distinct impression that one of the most favored types of posts I put up are those featuring airchecks and other top 40 and related radio. So today, with a minimum of blather from this end, I'm going to share the latest tapes that I've come across that fit this description, or at least come close to doing so. There is one from the '60's, two from the '70's, one from an ancient countdown show AND, as promised, another Christmas related tape.

First up, a set of (mostly) oldies from WBBY, Oldies Radio in Westerville, OH. This is a good, solid 23 minutes or so of broadcasting from that station, mostly featuring '60's music, with one exception. Oh, and somehow, the DJ believes that the absolutely wonderful "Corinna, Corinna", by Ray Peterson, was a pre-rock hit, missing it's actual release date by about six years, at least.

Download: WBBY, Oldies Radio, Westerville, Ohio
Play:

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Next up, a real mish-mash of radio from what appears to be late 1966, in the Washington D.C. area, in a 40 minute segment. There are at least two stations heard here, and I believe the call letters are WPGC and WEAM. Much of it is made up of a countdown show. This is a choppier tape, with a lot of edits and far too little of the DJ's. The varied volume levels heard throughout are also an issue, but it's better than nothing. This is actually what an awful lot of the radio tapes I own sound like. (There are also bits and pieces of a gathering of folks, which was previously recorded on the tape - the first ten seconds is the longest segment of this otherwise-erased material.)

Download: Mid '60s Radio on Two Washington DC Stations
Play:

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Switching gears a bit, here is an obnoxiously in-your-face newscaster, from 1974, on WCHO, from its ridiculously named hometown, Washington Courthouse, Ohio. I do sort of remember newscasters talking like this at the time, and am indescribably glad that this is no longer a saleable style. The news goes on for five minutes, and is followed by a couple of edited records played afterwards, starting with the always hideous REO Speedwagon. The DJ appears to be the same person who was reading the news. His name is Keith Allen, and this was probably one of his demo tapes. (a side note: I accidentally labeled the file here as 1973 - 1974 is clearly correct.)

Download: WCHO News, 1974
Play:

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Taking a step far into the past, here is a nearly complete episode of "Your Hit Parade", featuring (among others) the immortal Snooky Lanson. This episode dates from sometime around late spring or very early summer, 1953, and as usual for this rather bizarrely structured show, features the top seven songs of the week, the bottom six of which are heard in random order, as performed by the show's singers, with only #1 always placed at the end. Remarkably for such a flaccid period in American popular song, there are actually a couple of really good songs in there - I've always been particularly fond of "The Song from Moulin Rouge".

Download: Your Hit Parade, Late Spring, 1953
Play:

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Finally, in a complete change of direction dictated by the season at hand, here's a snippet of tape I was happy to find a few weeks ago, 14 minutes spent enjoying a rehearsal (I think it's a rehearsal) by a male A Capella group, with some barbershop-quartet-like arrangements of Christmas Carols and Songs.

Download: An A Capella Male Chorus Christmas
Play:

Back soon!