I STILL Love Radio

Sound Effects for War Horse

2012-01-04T19:44:00.000-08:00

The New York Times yesterday published a Carpetbagger blog post about the lengths to which filmmakers went to create specialized World War I sound effects for the recently released movie War Horse.

The film's sound designer Gary Rydstrom says it best, and could easily be describing an approach to sound effects for vintage radio dramas:

“What I usually do, out of laziness, is I do a lot of my recording around my house. The golden rule of sound design is, it doesn’t matter what a sound really it is, it matters how it works in the movie, how it makes you feel. It doesn’t matter that it’s a vacuum cleaner.”

Makes me want to fill a sock with corn starch and squeeze it repeatedly until I think I'm out for a snowy walk.

Radio Geek New Year's Eve Delight

2011-12-11T21:30:00.000-08:00

There's no other way to describe this audio-only YouTube clip. It is truly a Radio Geek New Year's Eve Delight (and received via shortwave, no less). I recorded it myself in the early morning hours of December 31, 1999 at home in Seattle when it was approaching midnight (and the year 2000!) in New Zealand. We hear from various reporters stationed around NZ. Then, midnight comes, and we end up in Auckland where NZ's own Split Enz are playing a live concert to ring in the new millennium. A bit more information is included in the YouTube description.

With this post I bid Happy Holidays to Radio Geeks everywhere!

November Radio Round-Up

2011-11-02T11:21:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy autumn, but here's a quick round-up of recent radio and radio history-related happenings:

1. Norman Corwin RIP. I wrote a short post for the Aircheck Blog of the Western States Museum of Broadcasting about my brief interactions with Mr. Corwin (shown in a photo from the New York Times) over the years.

2. Seattle Radio Theatre took part in a national radio drama project called Sleepy Hollow: The Ride Across America last week. I wrote and directed a 60-minute adaptation of Washington Irving's classic story, which an amazing cast performed live at Town Hall Seattle and which was also broadcast LIVE on AM 1090 KPTK. Complete audio is available here. I also spoke with Lee Callahan at KPTK about the nexus for the show and the concept behind the script a few days before the broadcast.

3. Prairie Home Companion's Tom Keith RIP. Read his New York Times obituary here and a find a written and audio tribute from Prairie Home Companion here.

4. I've enjoyed appearing a few times in the past month on local news/talk station KIRO 97.3 FM. I've talked about local history and culture, including local historical context for the "Occupy" movement and the local panic reaction to the 1938 broadcast (on KIRO AM) of "War of the Worlds."

Profile of Yankees' Radio Man John Sterling

2011-10-03T09:47:00.001-07:00

Here's a short post linking to a New York Times piece from over the weekend about Yankees' radio man John Sterling (photo from NYT).

Stories about radio personalities are so rare in the old-school media, I thought it was worth passing along, and it is an interesting slice-of-life. And, I suppose it's inevitable that a Yankees' broadcaster would be a much-loved and much-hated figure, as foreign as that feels from the Seattle viewpoint.

Anyhow, just thinking about baseball on the radio makes me miss Dave Niehaus that much more.

Late Summer Radio Round-Up

2011-08-26T12:27:00.000-07:00

Here are four quick items:

1. For fascinating live and local coverage of the impending arrival of Hurricane Irene, I'm particularly enjoying the live stream of WCBS 880 AM from New York City. There is no better medium for local extreme weather emergencies than local AM radio, and the fact you can listen to a remote live stream via the web is pretty cool. (BTW: Alex Silverman, late of KIRO in Seattle is anchoring at the moment as I write this).

2. The most recent episode of This NOT Just In (the history radio series I do for KUOW in Seattle) is about the Beatles' 1964 visit here. Listen here.

3. KUOW's Weekday program with Steve Scher broadcast live from Town Hall Seattle a few weeks ago, and I produced a short behind-the-scenes video.

4. I was at the American Girl doll store near Seattle a few weeks ago and stumbled across a radio sound effects demonstration (related to one of their dolls whose character/backstory is set circa 1940). This radio stuff pops up in some pretty surprising places. The demonstration was not attracting a big crowd . . .

(Posted by Feliks Banel)

I Still Love Radio . . . But I Now Love Other Audio Appliances, Too!

2011-07-24T23:56:00.000-07:00

Hi, radio. Feliks Banel, editor of I STILL LOVE RADIO here. I wanted to let you know, before you hear it from someone else, that I do still love you, but just not in the same way. The truth is, I’ve been using other audio appliances—mainly an iPhone (but sometimes a WiFi radio, too)—for nearly a year now. I think you understand why.

I also gave up listening to commercial radio (and especially talk radio) at the end of 2010. I don’t miss it, and my days are far less cluttered with advertising, hyperbole and polemic pseudo-debates than they used to be. Nowadays, I hear the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s weekday morning program out of Vancouver via my iPhone or the WiFi radio. The CBC is great—no commercials or even underwriting announcements, and the weather reports for Vancouver are close enough to apply for weather where I live in Seattle (and the run-up to the Stanley Cup and the unfortunate riot made for good vicarious appreciation of local winning sports culture). On Saturdays, I still rarely miss NPR’s Weekend Edition with Scott Simon. But, again, I usually hear it on my iPhone. The iPhone is pretty convenient—if a little slow to “tune in”—but the sound is great and the charger means I never have to replace any batteries.

I do sometimes still listen to standard terrestrial radio in the car, but I switch around through so many different stations (mainly to miss commercials), that I don’t really listen to any one station long enough to feel connected to it. And I play a lot of CDs in the car, too, and plug in an aging iPod for longer trips.

So, I’m taking a break from the I STILL LOVE RADIO blog. I started it two years ago and kept up regular musings for about a year or so. During this time, in addition to writing about radio for the blog, I also did pieces about broadcasting for Crosscut and broadcasting articles and videos for the Seattle PI. Last year, I spent six months appearing twice weekly on KOMO Newsradio in Seattle, on the ambitious but short-lived “9-2-Noon” program with a feature called “Not Quite History.” I also became producer and host of the series This NOT Just In on KUOW, and have continued to produce and direct live radio drama broadcasts during the holidays.

Thus, I hope you can see that I still believe in what I would call "remote propagation of audio content" as a medium of expression and that I always will. And I still think that good old-fashioned, terrestrial radio did some incredible stuff in the past. I’ve got countless hours of historic recordings and a basement full of books about radio history that I’ll probably never part with, and I'll keep working on the Aircheck blog for the Western States Museum of Broadcasting and writing about broadcast history here, there and in other places, too.

But I just can’t credibly say “I STILL only LOVE RADIO” anymore. And so, this is Feliks Banel for I STILL LOVE RADIO, signing off . . . for now.

West Coast D-Day Radio Round-Up

2011-06-18T14:28:00.000-07:00

I've written about 1944 West Coast D-Day radio coverage a few times in the past in these I STILL LOVE RADIO posts:

Bob Hope Sat Up All Night By The Radio (JULY 2009)

NBC Radio Coverage of D-Day (JUNE 2010)

So, this year it seemed like a good time to produce a segment for KUOW-FM as part of the series "This NOT Just In":

This NOT Just In: D-Day On The West Coast

In other news, the CBC Radio One Vancouver coverage of the riots that followed Game Seven of the Stanley Cup Finals was excellent. I hope to prepare a post (with links to a decent aircheck) sometime in the next few weeks.

Radio Earthquakes, Rural Basketball, Less News

2011-03-07T07:36:00.001-08:00

Here's a very short post with links to three recent pieces for other sites:

1. How the 2001 Nisqually Quake rocked LIVE RADIO in Seattle (for the SeattlePI.com), including in-studio video re-enactments by Dave Ross of KIRO and Steve Scher of KUOW.

2. A surprising "discovery" of rural high school basketball on the air near Spokane, WA, for the Aircheck Blog at the Western States Museum of Broadcasting.

3. Ruminations for Crosscut.com on KPLU recently dropping hourly NPR newscasts.

That's all for now . . .

BBC World Service Coverage of Egypt Situation

2011-02-02T10:53:00.000-08:00

This is a short post to commend the BBC for putting radio to work doing what it does best in its coverage of the developing situation in Egypt: live reports from journalists on the scene, expert analysis from a range of qualified and articulate speakers, and live phone-ins from regular folks around the world.

Good old terrestrial BBC radio broadcasts to Egypt were even more critical a few days ago, when Internet service there was disrupted by the government, leaving Facebook and Twitter off limits and useless.

In many cities around the US, public radio stations carry the BBC on one of their HD subchannels. Via the web, you can get the live BBC World Service radio stream here.

Whatever audio appliance you use, get it now and leave it on to witness aural history as it unfolds once again.

Challenger, Columbia and The Media

2011-02-01T11:28:00.001-08:00

With the double anniversaries of Space Shuttle tragedies in the past week, it was worth going back and looking at the media coverage of the failed launched of the Challenger and the pre-landing disintegration of the Columbia.

How Seattle radio station KIRO covered the Challenger (with help from CBS) is the subject of a piece published by Crosscut.com last Friday.

NPR host Scott Simon's recollections of covering the breaking story of the Columbia make up the bulk of a freelance radio piece I produced last week.

It seems like the Columbia was lost twice: once on the morning of February 1, 2003 in the skies over Texas, and again in the vortex of other news that week that has made this Shuttle tragedy an orphan of recent history. President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair met at Camp David to discuss Iraq the very same morning the Columbia was lost, and Colin Powell addressed the U.N. Security Council regarding weapons of mass destruction a few days hence (and both of these events were key to the run-up to the Iraq War about six weeks later).

And, finally, a round-up of links to decent YouTube clips of Shuttle disaster coverage is included in this post for Aircheck (the blog I edit for the Western States Museum of Broadcasting).

January I STILL LOVE RADIO Round-Up

2011-01-16T16:44:00.000-08:00

It's been a busy winter so far, and I've been slow to update things here at ISLR. Here's a round-up of recent activities:

1. Continuing to write about radio and TV for the Western States Museum of Broadcasting's AIRCHECK Blog

2. Wrote a piece about the demise of Seattle's Smooth Jazz FM station for Crosscut.com

3. Wrote a piece about Fisher Broadcasting fending off a takeover from a Canadian firm for Crosscut.com

4. Produced a piece for KUOW FM about radio coverage of John Lennon's murder, and a piece about post-Pearl Harbor radio blackouts on the West Coast

I'm also excited to be working on a large-format photographic history of Seattle broadcasting for Arcadia Publishing (for publication later this year), working with the Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI) collection and grateful to Dave Richardson, who generously provided me with the research he gathered for his 1980 book Puget Sounds.

Several individuals from Seattle's radio and TV past and present have already provided or pledged photos from their personal collections, and I'll be doing more reaching out in the next few months. Please let me know if you have photos you're willing to share, or if you know of images that would be a good fit for this project.

Seattle Radio Theatre's New Facebook Page

2010-11-28T20:36:00.000-08:00

This item just in from the Self-Serving, Self-Promotional Desk of I STILL LOVE RADIO: we've just launched the Seattle Radio Theatre Facebook page.

The page includes images from last year's production of It's A Wonderful Life (the Lux Radio Theater version); a video clip and a link to complete audio of the October 2010 production of Dracula (the Mercury Theater version); and details about our upcoming Christmas production.

This year's live holiday broadcast will take place on Friday, December 10 at 8pm at Town Hall Seattle.

And Now For Something Not Completely Different: More BBC Cover Art

2010-11-08T11:15:00.000-08:00

As promised, here are more covers of BBC Hand Books/Year Books from the World War II era (and immediately afterward). I don't have a complete set of dustjackets, and am missing the middle years of the war (if you have the dustjackets for 1942, 1943 and/or 1944, please let me know--I'd love to see the artwork and include in a subsequent post--please scan and send my way if you can).

It's interesting to examine the progression in how the war was perceived, as depicted on these covers.

The earliest edition shown here (from January 1940) is fairly obvious in its depiction of common implements of the Phoney War--a radio (though not one of a size you'd likely carry with you over to France), a helmet, a kit bag. By January 1941, one could argue the war (which had taken a turn for the worse in the previous months) isn't even acknowledged, though the radio tower seems to be the only source of light (hope, optimism, etc.) for the otherwise darkened globe.

By January 1945 (in spite of the Battle of the Bulge), the Allies are well on their way to victory, and the cover art already looks pretty victorious.

The 1946 edition is, perhaps, the most haunting--a solitary dove of peace takes flight above a bombed-out city. By 1947, the cover art is almost jubilant, with fairy musicians floating about and above the crowded London streets (though if you look closely, you'll see that a "lorry" has pinned a pedestrian on the street in front of Broadcasting House--not sure what that's all about).

For more radio-related cover art, please check out these earlier I STILL LOVE RADIO posts:

THE ART OF RADIO

RADIO WITH PICTURES

REMAINDERS: MORE RADIO COVER ART

Dracula Audio from AM 1090 KPTK

2010-11-01T18:58:00.000-07:00

Click here for audio from last Friday night's spooky live broadcast of the Mercury Theater On The Air version of Dracula, as performed by Seattle Radio Theatre and produced and directed by me at Town Hall for an audience of 300.

Special thanks to Pat Cashman (splendid as Orson Welles as Dracula and as Arthur Seward), Tracey Conway, Steve Wilson, John Maynard, Jim Dever, and Chris Topping for so ably playing (in some cases) multiple roles (including howling wolves and baying hounds), and to Rob Jones for perfect accompanying music and to Curtis Takahashi for authentic, period-appropriate sound effects (which were all manual--nothing was pre-recorded).

Seattle Radio Theatre is also grateful to Wier Harman and his staff at Town Hall Seattle for serving as home to our live radio drama broadcasts since 2007, and for being willing to give a Halloween show a try this year.

The audio linked above is courtesy of AM 1090 KPTK, Seattle Radio Theatre's official broadcast partner--with on-site engineering by Teurth Tran and oversight by Paul Van Erem.

The actual live broadcast on Friday, October 29 at 8pm--in glorious monaural AM replete with static and other atmospheric disturbances--sounded even better and even SCARIER!

LIVE Radio Drama this Friday in Seattle: DRACULA!

2010-10-26T10:46:00.000-07:00

Come on down to Town Hall Seattle this Friday, October 29 at 8pm for a live performance and broadcast of the Mercury Theater version of Dracula!

This was the program that kicked off the Mercury series in July 1938, a few months before the infamous Mercury production of War of the Worlds. This Drac is pretty scary, but is appropriate for a family audience.

Tickets for this first-ever Halloween-inspired production by Seattle Radio Theatre are available here, or stay home and listen to AM 1090 KPTK. Those who do show up in person will get to take part in pre-show festivities and sample white powdered-sugar doughnuts and other season-appropriate snacks.

Featured in the cast are Pat Cashman as Orson Welles as Dracula (follow that?), plus Steve Wilson, Tracey Conway, John Maynard, Jim Dever, Lee Callahan and Chris Topping. Live music is by Rob Jones, with live sound effects by Curtis Takahashi (using equipment provided courtesy of the Radio Enthusiasts of Puget Sound).

Advance warning: this year's Christmastime Seattle Radio Theatre production will take place on Friday, December 10, also at Town Hall Seattle.

The Art of Radio: 1930s BBC Year Books

2010-10-07T06:50:00.000-07:00

I recently came upon a collection of annual books published by the BBC beginning in 1928. Known (varyingly) as "year books," "hand books" or "annuals," they were issued every year from the late 1920s to the early 1950s, and then for another 20 years or so from the mid 1950s to the mid 1970s.

The books contain a wealth of (okay, probably biased!) information about BBC programming, engineering and management as well as some terrific historical context. The earliest editions also feature some terrific period advertising for radios and non-broadcasting related products and organizations.

While the written material is a great resource for anyone interested in BBC history, the artwork featured on the covers (of the dustjacket, or "dustwrapper" as they say in the UK) in the first two decades is absolutely unbelievable.

Please enjoy this sampling of covers from the early 1930s. I'll plan on posting some additional covers from the WWII years later.

Aircheck: The Western States Museum of Broadcasting Blog

2010-09-10T07:54:00.000-07:00

One reason for the continued quiet here at ISLR is that I've begun creating posts for the newly launched Aircheck: The Western States Museum of Broadcasting Blog.

The Western States Museum of Broadcasting (WSMB) is affiliated with Southern Oregon University and Jefferson Public Radio. They have an amazing collection, and are working to build a permanent home with exhibits and public programming.

Please drop by Aircheck when you can. Today there's a short post about Charles Herring, the first TV newscaster in Seattle (and the first TV newscaster north of Los Angeles and west of Minneapolis).

Sleepy August Update: Simulated Radio, KEXP, etc.

2010-08-06T06:55:00.000-07:00

The quiet summer continues at ISLR HQ, with a few minor exceptions. Apologies in advance for this sleepy August self-promotion:

Simulated Radio: Seattle Rewind from SeattlePI.com

Seattle Rewind podcasts highlighting Pacific Northwest history (and produced by yours truly) are now available via iTunes. This weekly audio feature (part of that 21st century school of audio production that I like to think of as "Simulated Radio") can be streamed here, or you can sign up for a free iTunes podcast here. Each episode is also paired with a photo gallery of historic images from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer archives prepared by Casey McNerthney.

KEXP on Crosscut.com

Debate continues in Seattle about what will replace the Fun Forest, the ailing amusement park left over from the 1962 World's Fair (I'm a fan) at Seattle Center. I wrote a piece for Crosscut today about the intriguing live venue that Seattle not-for-profit radio station (and online global indie music powerhouse) KEXP has proposed for the site. For background on similar initiatives, I spoke to Roger LaMay at WXPN about World Cafe Live, as well as to representatives of Mountain Stage and the Grand Ole Opry.

Washington News Council Blog Post

Seattle writer (and long-distance runner) Heidi Dietrich was kind enough to write a post earlier this week for the Washington News Council website about my history-fueled media projects.

Recent Radio Writing Round-Up

2010-07-08T07:15:00.000-07:00

It's been a quiet summer here at ISLR HQ, but here's a round-up of other recent activity:

Seattle Rewind is the name of a new weekly history feature I'm helping write and produce for SeattlePI.com (a Seattle daily that went online-only in 2009). Each episode includes a gallery of historic images from the PI's amazing photo collection, as well as a short audio podcast hosted by yours truly. The inaugural edition from a few weeks ago was, naturally, about Seattle broadcasting history.

The PI also recently published a piece I did about Seattle talk radio. It was meant as a time capsule of sorts, examining the current status of 10 different local talk programs as the radio industry wrestles with change and stares into what could be an uncertain future. I spent most of a day in late April observing each of 10 programs for an hour or so. KIRO FM's Ron & Don had me on their show the day the story appeared, and you can get a podcast of that portion of the program here.

Finally, the second episode of This NOT Just In premiered on NPR affiliate KUOW FM in early June, this time using some forgotten audio related to the 1889 Great Seattle Fire. One more episode is complete (which won't air until December), and I'm pleased to report that KUOW has just ordered an additional 10 episodes of the series. Production on those will get underway later in the summer.

More Radio News in NY Times' "Television" Section

2010-06-26T08:02:00.000-07:00

Just as it happened before several weeks ago, the awkward lack of a dedicated Radio section in the New York Times has again resulted in a goofy looking web presence for the online newspaper of record (left).

This time, the story about NPR Music wasn't even so much about radio (or TV, for that matter) but about the web and other media platforms.

Still, it seems to this writer that a story about an NPR initiative (at least while the "R" is still in their initials, since radio only has 5-10 years left, and it's very trendy for radio organizations to become "media" organizations these days--NPM, anyone?) belongs in a "Radio" section.

Even a section called "Television and Radio" that covered broadcast and online media would be better than the current presentation. Lastly, ISLR's standing offer to oversee Radio efforts for the NY Times still stands.

KOMO Exhibit at MOHAI in Seattle (VIDEO)

2010-06-11T19:22:00.000-07:00

I shot the video (below) earlier this week at a new exhibit at MOHAI. The exhibit highlights 100 years of the company now called Fisher Communications, and was commissioned by Fisher as part of its centennial celebration.

Fisher began in Seattle in 1910 with flour mills, then got into radio in the 1920s and TV in the 1950s. Nowadays, Fisher operates KOMO TV and radio and several other stations in Seattle.

While the exhibit is small, it's rich with colorful artifacts from the golden era of local radio and local TV. It's on display at MOHAI (full disclosure: my former employer) until September 6, 2010 and is definitely worth checking out.

Audiobiquity L-900: Truth Is Strange As (Radio) Fiction

2010-06-11T13:36:00.000-07:00

The I STILL LOVE RADIO staff were intrigued to read Jerry Del Colliano's post the other day on Inside Music Media about a new radio receiver in the works in Australia and China that will be able to receive podcasts via terrestrial signals.

Astute I STILL LOVE RADIO readers will recall last year's fantasy audio appliance review of the completely fictitious Audiobiquity-900, which (in my audio appliance dreamworld) would do exactly what the Australians and Chinese are hoping to offer (and a lot more).

The next challenge is to figure out how to get on the list to receive an advance unit for review purposes . . .

Himan Brown Passes Away

2010-06-06T21:28:00.000-07:00

ISLR is sad to note the passing of radio drama godfather Himan Brown, who died in New York on Friday, June 4 at age 99.

Here's a link to his NYTimes obituary.

We had reached out to Mr. Brown via his granddaughter Melina Brown back in October 2009 with hopes of conducting an interview.

In a prompt and kind email in response to our inquiry, Ms. Brown said, "My grandfather is not able to do interviews at this time. He is 99 years old and not in great health . . . it's impossible for him to talk to anyone who is not an immediate family member or very close friend."

This writer's first regular exposure to radio drama came via Brown's CBS Radio Mystery Theater in the late 1970s, which aired weeknights at 10 pm in Seattle on KIRO (710 AM).

Though I listened in bed and usually fell asleep somewhere in the second act, I have many fond memories of E.G. Marshall's detached yet creepy host persona, as well as the parade of recognizable though not necessarily nameable voice talent who populated the program. For me, a guy like Mason Adams (though I only learned his name later when he was a regular on TV's Lou Grant series) best exemplifies the kind of talent that helped make that show so good.

While Himan Brown's early career is remarkable and his output over the decades is nothing short of prolific, you've got to hand it to him for producing network radio drama as late as 1982. That's pretty amazing.

H HOUR 1944: NBC Radio (promotes its) Coverage of D-Day

2010-06-05T09:02:00.000-07:00

From the I STILL LOVE RADIO archives in honor of the anniversary of the June 6, 1944 Allied landings at Normandy, below please find large jpegs of the first 10 pages of H HOUR 1944.

This pamphlet was produced by NBC in 1944 as an historical record of their D-Day broadcasts, as well as a bit of network self-promotion (and there's nothing wrong with that, of course).

The pages included in this post feature a fairly detailed timeline of NBC's coverage, which has never received as much attention as what competitor CBS did on D-Day (with help from Bob Trout and Ed Murrow, as described in several CBS publications; as well as by CBS editor Paul White in his terrific News On The Air textbook from the 1940s).

I'd love to know more about what the Blue Network and Mutual did on D-Day, but have yet to discover a good source. Please let me know if you can point me toward anything.

On a related note, here's a post from last year, about the West Coast experience of D-Day radio coverage, which was very different from how it was experienced in the eastern United States. And you can click here for audio of a radio program about D-Day on the West Coast that I took part in for KOMO AM-FM.

TECHNICAL NOTE: Though browsers vary, by clicking on the small graphic of each page and then using the "zoom" function (with the little magnifying glass icon), you should be able to get large, readable versions.

The PPM's Granddaddy: The Audimeter

2010-06-01T17:42:00.000-07:00

All the tumult of late caused by the introduction of Portable People Meters (or "PPMs") to the radio ratings game is eerily reminiscent of concerns voiced more than 70 years ago when the "Audimeter" (left) was introduced.

The excerpt below from 1939 (with BOLDING courtesy of yours truly) was pretty darn prescient in its thoughts about what automated ratings tabulation can and can't do, or can and can't reveal to the people trying to make sense of the data and what it means for a particular radio program:

The Audimeter Survey

Excerpted from pages 205-208 of Radio as an Advertising Medium by Warren E. Dygert

(McGraw-Hill Company, Inc.: New York and London, 1939)

Another type of popularity survey which has definite limitations but also certain advantages is the audimeter survey. This is strictly a mechanical survey made possible by the audimeter, an instrument which when attached to a radio set makes a continuous record of the times when a set is turned on and of the stations to which it is tuned.

The audimeter was designed by Professors Robert F. Elder and L.F. Woodruff of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It is about the size of a lunch box and can be placed in any radio, uses little extra current, and by means of a techron clock, a roll of graph paper, and a marking indicator connected to the dial of the radio set actually shows a 2 weeks' record of what stations were tuned in, how long they were tuned in, and how often. The claim for the method is that the type of radio home can be definitely determined and the listening habits of that type definitely recorded. Thus 2,000 audimeters in Class A homes within a given market area would give an intimate picture of that type of home. Obviously how many are listening to each audimeter equipped set, whether they really are listening, whether they can identify the sponsor or his product, are things this automatic survey cannot determine. Nor can one be sure whether Mr. and Mrs. "Class A" are listening or their servants.

Certain listening habits in general, however, can be observed. The number of dial shoppers [presumably what they called "channel surfers" in the 1930s], the number having favorite stations to which they tune first, and also the holding value of an individual program, can often be determined.

For example, in the present Chase & Sanborn program, if a goodly percentage tuned out at 8:15 approximately, it would show Charlie McCarthy and Charlie McCarthy only to be the drawing card. If listeners stayed until after the dramatic production at approximately the halfway point in the program, its holding power would be known. If many tuned out immediately after that, it would show that the attractions on the balance of the program had little holding power. If many tuned out exactly on the half hour, it might show a competing program of greater magnitude or that a half-hour program of this type is all the average listener cares to contract for. The author believes that the possibilities of the audimeter in this connection are worth exploring, particularly for checking the holding power of different types of entertainment and different stars on a single program.

Why was radio so popular in the Pacific Time Zone?

2010-06-01T16:46:00.000-07:00

I came across this surprising diagram (left) on page 105 of Warren Dygert's 1939 book, Radio as an Advertising Medium (McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc.: New York and London). For a better view, click on the image to enlarge.

The chart shows that in the Pacific Time Zone, a whopping 95% of all households (here described as "radio families") owned at least one radio (probably in 1938).

This high percentage beats the Mountain Time Zone and the upper Midwest by 15 points; beats some parts of the south by 35 points; and even beats the urban Northeast by 3 points. I've never seen these data before, and find it very interesting.

Of course, in total number, the Pacific Time Zone had just 2.5 million "radio families," while the Eastern Time Zone had more than five times as many or 13.5 million.

The reader will forgive ISLR's obsession with the West Coast, but what, if anything, explains why radio ownership was so high in the Pacific Time Zone?

Good question, and one that I'm not yet prepared to answer definitively, though I do have my theories.

Chief among these is the relative prosperity of the Pacific Coast throughout the Great Depression (compared to the Midwest or the South, for example), combined with a fair amount of rural, sparsely-populated territory spread relatively evenly between big cities such as Seattle, Spokane, Portland (Oregon), San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Prosperity meant the ability to buy a radio, which residents in many rural, more depressed parts of the country didn't have. Rural entertainment choices (lack of movies, lack of neighbors) gave radio appeal as a household necessity in the wide open West. Proximity to big cities (and network affiliates with powerful transmitters) made radio a practical choice, with nationally-produced entertainment and news programs readily available via consistently good radio signals.

Anybody else have any theories? Geography? Terrain? I'd love to hear any and all ideas.

Gregg Hersholt's Last Day at KIRO (AUDIO)

2010-05-29T09:44:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week, I wrote a piece for Crosscut.com about Gregg Hersholt's departure from KIRO. Best guess is that more dismissals are imminent as station owner Bonneville tries to reverse a ratings slide and battle the "fleeing listener" phenomenon that all terrestrial radio is facing nowadays.

Gregg's last shift was yesterday (Friday, May 28, 2010), and included a tribute prepared by Linda Thomas (featuring interviews with Gregg's wife and children--it's part of the montage below), as well as informal laudatory remarks from Bill Swartz, Rich Marriott and Greg Adams.

In Gregg's final on-air moments, he paid tribute to his current and former colleagues as well as to a number of deceased KIRO alums including Brad Perkins, Bill Gallant, Paul Brendle, Harry Wappler and Charlie Fiano.

Click here for an 8-minute montage of Gregg's final hours on the air (prepared by I STILL LOVE RADIO staff).

Behind the Scenes at Record Bin Roulette (VIDEO)

2010-05-27T19:25:00.000-07:00

Record Bin Roulette is a four-minute weekly audio broadcast and podcast produced for KPLU-FM by John Kessler and John Maynard.

The two Johns pick a theme for each episode and then delve into their sizable collections of music and other audio (gathered at garage sales and thrift stores) to explore the detritus that is (mostly) American aural pop culture.

Click here for the KPLU Record Bin Roulette schedule; the show is also distributed to select stations across the US, and Kessler and Maynard hope to expand the network in the months and years ahead.

I spent some time with the pair in their Seattle studios this afternoon as they worked on next week's episode (featuring songs about crying). The short video takes a peek behind-the-scenes and illuminates the creative process (and the major ProTools flexing) that brings each episode to life.

Don't Forget the Producer Behind Linkletter's Success!

2010-05-27T08:17:00.000-07:00

The staff here at ISLR were sad to learn of uber-broadcaster Art Linkletter's death yesterday (though he may be best known among Gen-X as pitchman for the Craftmatic Contour chair).

Like any great on-air talent, Linkletter owes a measure of his success to the creator/producer of two of Linkletter's best-known programs (House Party and People Are Funny), the late John Guedel.

As his 2001 NYTimes obit describes, the prolific yet little-remembered Guedel also created You Bet Your Life and gave a young Johnny Carson one of his first gigs.

Static: Radio-themed Twilight Zone Episode

2010-05-22T08:03:00.000-07:00

A recent check demonstrates that most episodes from the original Twilight Zone are available for free on the web (many officially sanctioned by CBS and offered via IMDB.com, as well as many posted randomly on YouTube).

The excellent, radio-themed episode called Static is posted in three parts on YouTube; click here to begin watching Part One.

Gunsmoke STILL Beats Law & Order

2010-05-15T17:52:00.000-07:00

The cancellation of the original Law & Order series after 20 seasons has TV writers everywhere comparing the run of the Dick Wolf series to Gunsmoke, which also ran for 20 seasons on TV.

Of course, everybody (?) knows that Gunsmoke began on radio, and ran three seasons before also becoming a TV program (albeit with a different cast). By this count, Gunsmoke handily beats Law & Order for longest running primetime series with a 23-year run.

Heck, if we start counting combined radio & TV runs, there are probably other shows that beat Gunsmoke (like the Jack Benny Program, for instance).

I realize this is a silly argument, but it would be nice to see the radio origins of Gunsmoke called out by a current media writer someplace, if only for additional accurate context. Once again, I am reminded of the bizarre wire story from last year that said the radio-and-then-TV soap opera Guiding Light "predated television."

Until then, I guess there's only one way to handle the killers and the spoilers . . . with a U.S. Marshal and the smell of . . . quality media criticism!

Ten Telling Years: The Mutual Broadcasting System

2010-05-15T14:18:00.000-07:00

So little has been written about The Mutual Broadcasting System over the years, that I was very pleased to recently discover a promotional book published by the original "fourth network" back in October 1944.

It's a large format, hardcover book called TEN TELLING YEARS: THE MUTUAL BROADCASTING SYSTEM. It's ostensibly a history book detailing world events from 1934 (when Mutual was founded) through 1944 (near the end of World War II), and includes a brief essay about each year (actually 11 years, not ten) attributed to Mutual on-air people including Cecil Brown, Boake Carter, Leo Cherne, Upton Close, Cedric Foster, Theodore Granick, Royal Arch Gunnison, Arthur Hale, Gabriel Heatter, Fulton Lewis, Jr. and John Steele.

However, the most interesting material in the book is the "appendix" providing year-by-year highlights of Mutual's expansion and increased program offerings during its first decade (this is not to be considered an impartial source, of course, but is still pretty interesting). The complete text devoted to Mutual's own "ten telling years" is reproduced below.

TEN TELLING YEARS: THE MUTUAL BROADCASTING SYSTEM

1934 Four stations in four top markets join forces in a new kind of network . . . a cooperative network, dedicated to maximum advertising coverage at minimum advertising cost . . . at the beginning, it is WOR for New York, WGN for Chicago, WLW for Cincinnati, WXYZ for Detroit . . . 556,000 watts to cover the most populous centers . . . first MUTUAL programs heard in October . . . by year’s end, the newest of networks carries such advertisers as Wasey Products, Thomas Leeming & Co., Sterling Products, and Horlick’s, introducing that radio perennial, “Lum and Abner” . . . STATION TOTAL: 4 . . .

1935 First program interchange with Canadian Broadcasting Corporation arranged by MUTUAL June 1 . . . over-the-border relations further strengthened when CKLW, Detroit-Windsor station signs up on October 1 . . . MUTUAL’s first transatlantic broadcast brought home September 15 . . . MUTUAL joins other networks to carry World’s Series baseball for the first time . . . WOR opens the network’s first New York playhouse and WGN unveils $600,000 studios for MUTUAL use in Chicago . . . Kay Kyser starts on the road to radio fame via MUTUAL with his “Musical Klass”, the show later known as the “College of Musical Knowledge” . . . Chicago Symphony, under Frederick Stock’s baton, and Alfred Wallenstein’s Sinfonietta round out the year’s program highlights . . . STATION TOTAL RISES TO 19 . . .

1936 Affiliation of Don Lee Network, West Coast’s oldest, most popular web, enables MUTUAL to achieve swiftest transcontinental expansion for any network . . . first Puerto Rican broadcast ever heard in U.S. carried by MUTUAL . . . press salutes MUTUAL for best network coverage of major political conventions . . . Gabriel Heatter makes MUTUAL history with his ad lib reports on Hauptman’s last hour before electrocution . . . new advertisers include 13 from other networks, 20 new to radio . . . client roster numbers General Mills, Ford, Squibb, Philip Morris; agencies include Young & Rubican, Wm. Esty, Ruthrauff & Ryan, Blackett-Sample-Hummert . . . gross billings to the two-million mark . . . STATION TOTAL RISES TO 38 . . .

1937 MUTUAL moves into the Southwest with 5,000-watt stations in Dallas and Fort Worth . . . 23 of the first 30 U.S. markets served—from within—by MUTUAL stations . . . Pacific Ocean spanned by addition of Hawaiian stations . . . Radio Stars cites MUTUAL for “Distinguished Service to Radio”—sole network award of the year by that magazine, saluting such personalities as Ireene Wicker, John Nesbitt, Beatrice Fairfax . . . Philadelphia Orchestra series inaugurated . . . spot news coverage includes coronation of George VI, Hindenburg dirigible crash, Mississippi floods . . . Shirley Temple makes her radio debut over MUTUAL . . . during typical ’37 week, America hears 105 hours of programming piped by MUTUAL to its affiliates . . per-broadcast investments by advertisers range from $316 to $3,600 . . . STATION TOTAL RISES TO 83 . . .

1938 Of the 100 largest U.S. advertisers, one in five uses MUTUAL . . . client list grows to a total of 71, ranging from cigarettes to sheet steel . . . “The Shadow”, for D.L. & W. blue coal, climbs for the first time to top popularity in all daytime radio . . . Red Cross applauds MUTUAL news coverage and funds-appeal on scene of Cincinnati and Memphis flood disasters . . . globe-girdling flight of Howard Hughes reported by direct broadcasts from his plane in transit; scoop scored in Minneapolis when plane returns to U.S. soil . . . special events and sports programs increase 40% over ’37 . . . billings nudge $3,000,000-mark . . . STATION TOTAL RISES TO 110 . . .

1939 One-man campaign by MUTUAL’s Fulton Lewis opens the “press” galleries of Congress to radio reporters . . . World’s Series carried by MUTUAL as a one-network feature for first time in history . . . MUTUAL starts facsimile network in March . . . Hitler’s Reichstag speech, cut from short-wave beam to U.S. by Goebbels’ order, picked up 5 minutes later by MUTUAL, via Afica, for a clean news-beat . . . MUTUAL carries first and only regular British entertainment show, featuring such stars as Bea Lillie, Gracie Fields, Sir Harry Lauder . . . inaugurates policy of recording important foreign talks for rebroadcast at convenient domestic hours . . . twice as many MUTUAL shows are broadcast from Canada as by any other network . . . MUTUAL originates programs from more points within U.S. than any other web . . . STATION TOTAL RISES TO 121 . . .

1940 World War II makes world-wide news, covered continually by 1.041 MUTUAL broadcasts from overseas, including momentous messages from Chamberlain, Churchill, Hitler, King George, Pope Pius . . . total of 65 hours for major political conventions . . . MUTUAL advertisers sponsor largest news hookups ever effected . . . average hookup for all MUTUAL clients expands 50% over ’39 on introduction of Volume Discount Plan . . . WGN raises curtain on “Chicago Theater of the Air” as coast-to-coast network feature starring Marion Claire with Henry Weber, his 50-piece orchestra and top guest vocalists; full hour continuing every week since May 2, 1940 . . . peak daytime ratings won for keeps by “The Shadow” . . . second year of MUTUAL’s solo delivery of World’s Series rides over the fence to Canada, Europe, South America . . . gross billings rise 30% over ’39 . . . STATION TOTAL RISES TO 155 . . .

1941 Year of tremendous uptrends in ratings, facilities, and billings . . . Madison Square Garden boxing bouts, signed by Gillette as an exclusive MUTUAL feature, reach a stratospheric 58.2 rating for Louis-Conn match in June . . . World’s Series baseball, another MUTUAL exclusive, hits 33.6 for an even higher 4-game average than when all networks carried this annual epic . . . station strength multiplies in key markets like Pittsburgh, where WCAE (15 years NBC Basic) replaces a 1,000-watter with 5,000; Baltimore, where WFBR (10 years NBC Basic) replaces a 250-watter with 5,0000; Detroit, where 5,000 watt CKLW makes its voice one-third stronger by moving to a better point on the dial; Philadelphia, where WIP, pioneer independent, replaces a 1,000-watter with 5,000; and in the rest of the nation, where 74% of all MUTUAL stations gain new power, new transmitting equipment . . . alert to all these uptrends, advertisers invest $7,301,000 in MUTUAL time—53% ahead of 1940 . . . STATION TOTAL RISES TO 181 . . .

1942 America, in its first full year at war, tunes to 1,913 war effort programs presented by MUTUAL for 721 hours of air time . . . MUTUAL is first to bring home the voice of MacArthur, in his memorable Australian message after leaving Bataan . . . all 20 stations of the Yankee Network, to New England chain, join MUTUAL in June . . . WHK, Cleveland Plain Dealer station at 5,000 watts, and WPDQ, strongest outlet in Jacksonville, join in October . . . news by MUTUAL every hour on the hour starts other stations on similar schedules . . . the nation tunes to MUTUAL for football classics like the East-West Professional and the Cotton Bowl Collegiate . . . MUTUAL dance bands include 18 of the top 20 rated in Radio Daily poll . . . all 14 markets of 1,000,000 or more population covered by MUTUAL with stations of 5 or 50 kw. With one 1,000-watt exception . . . by December, MUTUAL programming increases more than double all other networks’ . . . STATION TOTAL RISES TO 207 . . .

1943 Miller McClintock takes office as first paid president of MUTUAL . . . new programs developed during the year include “Abe Lincoln’s Story”, rated by Variety as “the finest network program on the air”, and “The Human Adventure”’ scientific conquest brought to life by University of Chicago savants . . . worldwide news coverage expanded by daily reports from a roster of 850 Christian Science Monitor correspondents all over the globe . . . Guild Theatre, completely redesigned, becomes New York’s newest and finest radio theatre for WOR-MUTUAL, followed shortly by acquisition of Longacre Theatre . . . Radio Mil, leading Mexican chain, is added for interchange of radio fare north and south of the Rio Grande including new series by Cleveland Symphony via WHK for both nations’ listeners . . . STATION TOTAL RISES TO 213 . . .

1944 Broader program strides bring to MUTUAL listeners: Jane Cole and Walter Hampden from theater; Claire Trevor and Lloyd Nolan from movies; Sherlock Holmes and Nick Carter from fiction; and , in his first radio series, Sumner Welles from public life . . . three great symphonies—Cleveland, Detroit, Los Angeles—regularly heard on MUTUAL . . . increased tune-in to this network on D-Day doubles that of any other web’s . . . by mid-summer, audience ratings for one or more MBS programs top all other networks’ at same periods every night in the week . . . first nine months’ gross indicates better than $20,000,000 for full year—a solid gain of 45% over the preceding twelve-month . . . STATION TOTAL RISES TO 247. . .

New York: 1440 Broadway

Boston: 21 Brookline Avenue

Chicago: Tribune Tower

Cleveland: Terminal Tower

Hollywood: 5515 Melrose Avenue

England: Coulsdon, Surrey

VE Day and VJ Day on American Radio

2010-05-10T08:26:00.000-07:00

The 65th anniversary of VE Day (signifying "Victory in Europe") passed over the weekend, and the anniversary of VJ Day ("Victory in Japan") is coming up this summer.

I was grateful for an invitation to take part in an episode of KOMO's Beyond the Headlines on Sunday, May 9 that looked back to these important events of 1945. We played several news cuts and talked about American network radio coverage of victory in both Europe and Japan.

As KOMO was an NBC affiliate in those days, most of what we played was from NBC (Ben Grauer, H.V. Kaltenborn, etc.), with a little Mutual (pre-VJ Day false bulletin) and CBS (excerpts from On A Note of Triumph, 14 August) thrown in for good measure.

For additional context (on VE Day), please also see a piece I did for Crosscut.com.

New York Times Radio Review in "Television" Section

2010-05-07T19:23:00.000-07:00

I can't remember the last time that our nation's venerable newspaper-of-record The New York Times reviewed a radio program, can you? Usually their radio coverage consists of puff pieces about Garrison Keillor or political analysis of Glenn Beck or somebody else from the talk radio milieu.

Well, believe it or not, but they actually previewed an NPR documentary a few days ago. I was pleased, but also a little stunned. Funny thing, though, this article about a radio program appeared . . . in the "Television" section!?!?

Hmmmm. I guess that pretty much sums up how the editors at the Times feel about the oldest broadcast medium. This reminds me of the cancelled soap opera last year that "predated television."

It's as if the Times had forgotten their own legendary media critic Jack Gould, who wrote brilliantly about TV and radio for the paper for years. If they'd like to have somebody write more regularly about radio, I'd be more than happy to oblige. Heck, I'd even do it for the "Television" section.

Seattle Broadcasters' Lunch

2010-04-26T14:14:00.000-07:00

Special thanks to Bill Wippel for the invite to last week's Broadcasters' Lunch in Seattle. I've been to a few of these events in the past and always enjoyed myself. Bill performs a much-appreciated service in making the arrangements and getting the word out.

I was fortunate enough to sit next to Don Riggs, who shared some great stories about KFKF, KBES and KOL (which became KMPS the day Don started a 33-year career there in 1975), and about his friend and former colleague, the late Phil Harper.

As the lunch took place a few days after the passing of Harry Wappler, many former colleagues and old friends shared memories of the popular KIRO meteorologist (who was always nice to me when I was first a lowly intern and then a lowly part-timer at KIRO-AM in the early 1990s).

Broadcasters' Lunch Attendees in Photo (photo courtesy Bill Wippel):

First Row (L-R): Esther Druxman, Todd Bitts, Cliff Murphy, Dick Paetzke, Glenn Williams. Second Row: Chris Wedes, Dick Cross, Bob Adkins, Don Riggs, Bill Wippel, David Lee, Andy Gronning. Third Row: Gary Engard, George Toles, Dean Smith, Larry Rice, Dave Severence. Fourth Row: Larry Lomax, Paul Bishop, Duane Smart, Jim Dai, Tom Henning. Not shown: Jack Allen, Vic Bremer, Les Metrovick, and Jack Morton.

On The Radio: Baseball and FDR

2010-04-12T10:06:00.000-07:00

Here are two quick bits about recent radio and radio-related projects:

Seattle NPR affiliate KUOW 94.9 FM is today airing a story I produced for them as part of their very cool initiative, the Program Venture Fund.

The story is the first of a history series, and is a look back at the Seattle Pilots and their one and only Major League Baseball season here in 1969. Audio and more information is available here.

Also today, Crosscut.com published a piece I prepared about the "Radio President" and how FDR's death affected Seattle.

Death of the Radio President

2010-04-11T18:22:00.000-07:00

This Monday, April 12 is the 65th anniversary of the death of "Radio President" Franklin Delano Roosevelt. To mark the occasion, I was invited by Charlie Harger to appear on Beyond the Headlines, a weekly public affairs program on Seattle's KOMO Radio.

We played clips from speeches, Fireside Chats and campaign broadcasts, as well as radio coverage of FDR's death. A full recording of the program is available via this link.

Remainders: More Radio Cover Art

2010-03-18T06:49:00.000-07:00

January's post featuring cover art from books about radio was so much fun, I thought I'd share some more visually interesting pieces that didn't make the first cut. As in the previous post, the bulk of these titles are from the 1930s to the 1940s, with only a few from the 1950s and 1960s.

RADIO WARFARE

Radio's finest hours (and months and years) were during World War II, and these books of radio plays and accounts of how radio broadcasting contributed to Allied victory offer up some proof.

Star Spangled Radio: Radio's Part in World War II (1947)

By Edward M.Kirby and Jack W. Harris

Kirby and Harris are long on anecdotes and short on citations, and the whimsical cover art lets the reader know that this will likely be the case.

War Words (1943)

By W. Gabell Greet

Americans began hearing about some strange and exotic places, circa 1939, as World War II got underway in Europe and the Far East. Thanks to this book and others like it, even the most remote radio announcer had a fair shake at pronouncing the toughest names of places, generals and dictators.

This Is War! (1942)

By Norman Corwin and others

The proud stripes of a wind-ruffled American flag fill the sky, as Allied bombers fly overhead and a tank makes its way into enemy territory for the cover of this collection of war-related radio plays.

On A Note Of Triumph (1945)

By Norman Corwin

Flames burn before a wall of vanquished white on the cover of this copy of Norman Corwin's V-E Day radio play.

WHAT DID YOU DO IN THE WAR, CBS?

The brilliant marketing and communications minds at CBS produced some of the most visually stunning graphics of the war years for the covers of promotional publications. Nearly each crisis and each victory on the battlefield was followed with a print piece describing how CBS coverage brought the news home to America.

Vienna March, 1938: A Footnote for Historians from the Columbia Broadcasting System (1938)

By CBS News

A chilling account of the Anschluss, with Warhol-esque graphics that capture the menacing nature of the Nazis.

Crisis: A Report from the Columbia Broadcasting System (1938)

By CBS News

As the Munich Crisis unfolded and war was averted for another year, CBS (and in particular, H.V. Kaltenborn) went to unprecedented lengths to cover the fast-breaking news. This handsome hardcover edition made sure that no one forgot.

CBS News on D-Day (1944)

By CBS News

While not complex enough to be called a book and too simple to be called a pamphlet, this internal account of CBS' coverage of D-Day nonetheless carries a stark yet effective two-color title. It seems to say that though victory is not yet secured, an important battle has been won (that is, CBS has beat NBC for the hearts and minds of America's radio listeners).

From D-Day Through Victory in Europe (1945)

By CBS News

This paperback book was produced within weeks of the end of the war in Europe, and its simple, clean graphics hit the right tone of victory without overconfidence (as the war was still raging in the Pacific).

From Pearl Harbor Into Tokyo (1945)

By CBS News

Another quickly produced title, this time on the heels of Total Victory.

NBC's FORGOTTEN WAR (WITH CBS)

CBS triumphed over NBC in World War II, with more CBS correspondents becoming household names and more making the leap to post-war television. Who nowadays (besides the vigilant scholar or OTR nut) can name any of NBC's wartime announcers or newsmen?

H Hour - 1944 (1944)

By NBC News

NBC's promotional account of D-Day coverage--coverage which some believe was superior to that of CBS, since, unlike CBS, NBC didn't go back to regular daytime programming (soap operas) on June 6.

RADIO HOW-TO

Radio was an attractive career choice in the 1930s and 1940s, and there was no shortage of books for those interested in learning how-to "radio."

Radio News Writing and Editing (1946)

By Carl Warren

All the icons of broadcasting are present on this cover: typewriter, RCA 44 microphone, household receiver and towering antenna.

Radio News Writing (1947)

By William F. Brooks

From NBC's series of books about radio, this book lays it all out in a bold paragraph right there on the front cover (THIS IS A BAD SCAN THAT I WILL REPLACE!).

Professional Radio Writing (1948)

By Albert F. Crews

Another giant RCA 44 microphone (plus a teeny one down below) all superimposed on a page of a script make it ultra-clear what this book is all about.

Pointers on Radio Writing (1940s)

By Josephina Niggli

I love the unusual color of this otherwise unremarkable book.

NBC Handbook of Pronunciation (1943)

By James F. Bender

You didn't have to work for NBC to speak as if you did, thanks to this 1943 pronunciation guide, including "names and places in the war news commonly mispronounced."

How To Write For Radio (1940s)

By James Whipple

You have to look closely to see the teeny-yet-ubiquitous RCA 44 microphone.

Handbook of Radio Production (1940s)

By Erik Barnouw

Radio uber-historian Erik Barnouw authored several books about radio production in the 1940s, including this very official looking guide.

Dos and Don'ts of Radio Writing (1930s)

By Ralph Rogers

I love the clean simplicity of this cover, with its carbon arc microphone and thoroughly modern font. A timeless design that could have been published yesterday (if anyone was still publishing books about radio writing.

RADIO PLAYS

Printed editions of radio plays became big sellers in the early 1940s, as works by Norman Corwin, Arch Oboler, Stephen Vincent Benet and others became hot publishing commodities.

Oboler Omnibus (1940s)

By Arch Oboler

An unusual photo-collage cover from the 1940s.

THE GREAT AMERICAN (RADIO) NOVEL

There aren't too many well-known novels that use the radio industry as a main setting, but three came out around the same time in the mid-1940s that had many critics scratching their heads at the similarities in plot, character development and dark tone. The Hucksters; Please Send Me, Absolutely Free; and Aurora Dawn all feature disillusioned men making their way in the seamy world of advertising and media, and all have covers worth a second look.

The Hucksters (1946)

By Frederic Wakeman

Wakeman's novel came out first (among the three), and reads like a prequel to Mad Men. The cover is 100% Gothic Gotham, with towering office buildings and taxi cabs cocked like revolvers.

Please Send Me, Absolutely Free (1946)

By Arkady Leokum

Leokum's entry is more about advertising than radio, and its cover feels a bit more hopeful and human-scaled.

Aurora Dawn (1947)

By Herman Wouk

Wouk wrote for several radio shows in the 1940s, and his is perhaps the least dark of the three similar novels.

Of Mikes and Men (1951)

By Jane Woodfin

Jane Woodfin's novel follows a young woman into the radio industry in the late 1920s in what appears to be Portland, Oregon. The cartoonish cover (and several illustrations) are by Paul Galdone.

HEROIC RADIO HISTORY

In the 1960s, books about radio were all about the heroic past, and the cover illustrations made no secret that the glory days had come and gone.

It Sounds Impossible (1960s)

By Sam J. Slate and Joe Cook

The cartoons (or commercial-style illustrations) on the cover of this book feature only what appear to be white men, signaling that it was a look back at what radio had once been.

Geography of Early Seattle Radio

2010-02-17T09:42:00.000-08:00

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer last week published a piece I put together about the early history of Seattle's network-affiliated radio stations that included speculation about why the studios were all clustered around the telephone company building downtown. I've been kicking around the theory since I put together a walking tour of old Seattle radio studio locations back in 2003 for MOHAI.

The reader comments following the article — particularly those from someone identified as "FMEng" — provided much valuable additional information, and I received a number of interesting emails from people with similar interests and/or stories to share. Also, readers of a Portland, OR radio blog were equally helpful in correcting errors in the piece and further illuminating the subject. Lastly, a bit at Blatherwatch put up a flattering link and used a title that was so good, I simply had to steal it for the title of this post.

Space Shuttle Columbia Disaster on Radio

2010-01-29T08:09:00.000-08:00

It's been seven years since the Space Shuttle Columbia was lost over Texas as it sped toward a planned landing at Cape Canaveral on the morning of Saturday, February 1, 2003.

Both NPR and CBS Radio interrupted regular programming to provide live coverage of what NASA described as a "contingency."

I was groggily listening to NPR that morning, and heard the 6:00 am Pacific Time hourly newscast that mentioned Columbia would land within the hour. I was still tuned in (and still groggy) when I heard the 6:40 am Pacific Time headlines that said NASA had "lost contact" with Columbia. That got my attention, and within a few minutes I had aircheck recorders running.

Click here for a recording of CBS coverage via KIRO, and click here for a recording of NPR coverage via KUOW.

I wrote in Crosscut.com last year about my memory of the NPR coverage of 9/11, and compared it unfavorably to NPR's coverage of the Columbia disaster anchored by Weekend Edition Saturday host Scott Simon. In all fairness to NPR and Bob Edwards, 9/11 was a much more complex story with much more serious ramifications and far greater loss of human life. Also, I acknowledge that I'm a Scott Simon fan, and believe he's one of the most skilled radio broadcasters, whether anchoring a regular broadcast or a developing tragedy.

That being said, I listened to the Columbia recordings this past week and noted a few differences that are worth mentioning:

NASA Audio

CBS keeps the NASA audio feed going in the background, and the anchors (Peter King at Cape Canaveral, joined by Dan Raviv in New York) stop talking during live updates from James Hartsfield of Mission Control as they are happening, giving the listener a sense of being right in the middle of the story. Scott Simon and Joe Palca in the soundproof NPR studio (with NASA beat reporter Pat Duggins in Florida) occasionally play recordings of Mission Control updates, giving their coverage a more remote, delayed and antiseptic feeling.

Speculation

CBS mentions damage to Columbia from external tank foam as a possible cause for the accident as early as 7:30 am Pacific Time (and this was ultimately determined to be the cause). Both NPR and CBS mention and downplay (perhaps even "discount") the possibility of terrorism, especially as it relates to the presence of Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon aboard Columbia.

Eyewitness Reports

CBS provides a chilling live report from Rob Milford of "smoking debris" on the ground in Plano, Texas and a recording of a fire dispatcher describing human remains found on the Texas-Louisiana border (this comes about 7:45 am Pacific Time). Around the same time, NPR takes a more sedate approach, and does a live phone interview with a woman north of Dallas who, along with her cat, was knocked out of bed by the sonic boom, and with a man in Dallas who heard the sonic boom.

TV on the Radio

While CBS and NPR were covering the disaster on radio, the TV networks were also live and wall-to-wall. Anchors on both radio networks occasionally refer to what they're seeing on the TV monitors that are a fixture nowadays in radio studios (recent radio coverage of 9/11, the Miracle on the Hudson and even Balloon Boy all but depended on studio TV monitors).

The "TV Factor" is about the only difference between modern radio coverage of breaking news and the earlier, more robust days of radio journalism that depended on teletypes and telephones. Anecdotally, I would speculate that dependence on TV images likely dates to the JFK assassination and the technological advances around that time that made live remote video coverage more practical.

Only when the story happens someplace really remote (think the Gulf War in January 1991), does a flip-flop occur, and TV relies on what are essentially radio methods dating to the late 1930s: talking to reporters or eyewitnesses on the phone without live visual accompaniment.

While I don't deny that TV gives radio broadcasters valuable visual information, unless you're in your car or otherwise unable to get to a TV yourself, these live descriptions of what someone (albeit a professional journalist) is watching on a screen (rather than what an eyewitness is watching or has seen) sometimes feel a little cheap. Or is that just me?

Radio With Pictures: Iconic Cover Art from Books About Radio

2010-01-17T07:16:00.000-08:00

As I said before in a previous post about the best radio books, it's sometimes more fun to read about radio (history and contemporary issues) than it is to actually listen to radio. For me, this is because much like radio, the words of a good book about radio get inside your head and make their own pictures.

Thus, as part of my ongoing campaign to raise the profile of books about radio, I STILL LOVE RADIO is proud to present the online exhibit Radio With Pictures: Iconic Cover Art from Books About Radio.

Over the past nearly 90 years, hundreds of books about radio have been produced highlighting various aspects of the industry, from gushing biographies for fans to technical manuals for aspiring broadcasters. While you're not supposed to judge a book by its cover, publishers have rarely deigned to neglect the power of the cover to help tell the story inside, to make a book pretty, and (hopefully, for them) attract more readers and buyers. Publishing, after all, is a business (like radio!).

The illustrators, photographers, graphic designers and layout artists responsible for the cover art presented in Radio With Pictures: Iconic Cover Art from Books About Radio are largely anonymous. Each drew on a vocabulary of images that now seems cliche, but that during the period these books were published (mostly 1920s-1940s) were likely fresh and exciting. We see microphones (American carbon mics, RCA 77s, RCA 44s; and BBC-flagged models), studios, sky-scraping transmitter towers and brave broadcasters doing their jobs no-matter-what. It's hard to think of another industry that provides this range of icons, from the tiny and inanimate, to the human, to the gargantuan and electric.

Radio With Pictures: Iconic Cover Art from Books About Radio

Prepared by Feliks Banel for I STILL LOVE RADIO

EARLY HISTORY
Radio emerged a mass phenomena in the early 1920s, and writers and publishers leapt on the ethereal bandwagon.

Radio Drama and How To Write It (1926)

by Gordon Lea
The art for this British book from the 1920s is positively spiritual, as a single person stands atop the earth, broadcasting to the Universe and all its life forms (or those smart enough to build receivers, anyway). A hauntingly simple, hand-drawn pen and ink.

The Electric Word: The Rise of Radio (1928)

by Paul Schubert
This art nouveau-inspired cover entangles rectilinear man-made towers with stars and roiling, fluffy clouds. A great visual representation of how radio was sometimes talked about in this era, as an unseen force harnessed and put in service to man. Illustration by Constance Garland.

THE DRAMA OF RADIO
Throughout broadcast radio's first three decades, drama was a fixture on the daily schedule. While popular comedies and mystery programs of the "Golden Age" are most remembered nowadays, great playwrights and poets also found a home on radio and many published their works as books.

We Stand United and other Radio Scripts (1945)

by Stephen Vincent Benet
The transmitter and towers seen here on Benet's collection are a beacon of freedom for a world at war, a Statue of Liberty of free speech and a free press. The rocky outcroppings look as if they might be the northern coast of Maine, as close geographically to the conflict in Europe as any piece of American soil.

They fly through the air with the greatest of ease (1939)

by Norman Corwin
Unofficial poet laureate and bard of American radio is Norman Corwin, and this book of one of his earliest plays (inspired by the Spanish Civil War) is hauntingly illustrated by Laszlo Matulay.

RADIO AT WAR
World War II was radio's finest hour, and it also inspired some of the most articulate accounts of radio's potential (for good and for harm).

Radio In Wartime (1942)

by Sherman H. Dryer
Sherman H. Dryer's collection of critical essays about American radio during World War II puts a ribbon mic atop a stand in martial formation with flag standards, capped with big and bold letters and all bathed in an eerie red glow. Radio has been inducted, and is marching to battle.

Voices in the Darkness: The European Radio War (1943)

by Tangye Lean
Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom, refugees from European countries overrun by the Nazis are broadcasting back to their native lands with the help of the BBC. We see as much in the brightly lit control room and darkened studio, as the title curves across and bridges the divide.

The Axis on the Air (1943)

by Harold Ettlinger
Swastikas (at least two of them) figure prominently on this frightening cover from the midst of World War II. That the otherwise black and white images are soaked in blood red makes it all the more menacing.

The Complete Biography of Lord Haw-Haw of Zeesen (1940)

by Jonah Barrington and Fenwick
What was menacing in black, white and red photographs, is, in a mostly yellow cartoon, absurd. Jonah Barrington's tongue-in-cheek "biography" of the Nazi broadcaster known as Lord Haw-Haw (aka William Joyce) shows the resilience of wartime Brits through comic illustrations by Fenwick.

Voices From Britain (1947)

by Henning Krabbe
The drama is gone from this collection of wartime scripts, collected after the war was won. We look skyward, following the towering transmitter tower as it points into the heavens.

BROADCASTING LOOKS AHEAD AND LOOKS BACK
From the 1920s to the 1940s, books about radio were a little bit about the present and a lot about the future. By the 1950s and 1960s, they were mostly about the past.

Modern Radio (1944)

by Kingdon S. Tyler
Radio is darn near (pre-Hiroshima and Nagasaki) atomic in this futuristic take on the broadcasting industry published toward the end of World War II.

This Fascinating Radio Business (1946)

by Robert J. Landry
According to the muscular cover art, this post-war look at the radio industry by Variety radio editor Robert J. Landry is all about bright, victorious colors and looking optimistically skyward.

I Looked and I Listened (1954)

by Ben Gross
The whimsical sketches on this book of columnist Ben Gross' reminiscences were created by Paul Galdone, who would not surprisingly go on to illustrate dozens of children's books.

Radio, Television and Society (1950)

by Charles A. Siepman
Radio, television and society were in upheaval in 1950 when this book was published, as the cubist-inspired cover illustration, replete with giant vacuum tube, circuitry and other unidentifiable elements, clearly shows.

On The Spot Reporting: Radio Records History (1967)

by George N. Gordon and Irving A. Falk
Published in 1967, this book romantically looks back to radio journalism's glory days. The cover seems to combine Pearl Harbor and the Hindenburg Disaster and one well-positioned, brave broadcaster.

THE FACE BEHIND THE MIC: RADIO PERSONALITIES
Broadcasting has always been about personalities, and radio produced more than its fair share going back to its earliest days of the 1920s.

Ten Years Before the Mike (1935)

by Ted Husing
We see legendary broadcaster Ted Husing's profile superimposed on a carbon mic, since the man and the tool that lets us all hear him are useless without the other.

I Live On Air (1941)

by A.A. Schechter with Edward Anthony
Early NBC Radio news director A.A. Schechter's tell-all finds a ribbon mic planted like a flag on basketball-like planet.

Hello America! (1938)

by Cesar Saerchinger
The big worldwide carbon mic of CBS was pointed by Cesar Saerchinger (who preceded Edward R. Murrow as European Director of Talks) at all kinds of big heads, including the Duke of Windsor, Benito Mussolini, George Bernard Shaw, Hitler and others.

The Power Behind the Microphone (1941)

by P.P. Eckersley
The BBC's famous ship-like Broadcasting House glows in the background, while a giant BBC microphone in the foreground emits its own peculiar radiation.

RADIO FICTION
It didn't take long for radio stations to become settings and radio people to become characters in novels and films. These are but a few of the many titles produced in the glory years.

Ginny Gordon and the Broadcast Mystery (1956)

by Julie Campbell
Radio was in its awkward phase when this book was published in 1956, that is, all but abandoned by the networks, and not yet an outlet for selling rock and roll records. The painting here shows a stiff, buttoned-down formality.

Go Ahead, Garrison! (1940)

by A.A. Schechter

War rages (albeit without Americans yet) and waters rise (and a football game ensues) as our heroic radio newsman looks on and brings it all to us live from the scene.

By Feliks Banel

Radio and Genocide

2010-01-14T12:57:00.000-08:00

Radio's role in the Rwandan Genocide is the subject of a research paper by David Yanagizawa for Stockholm University. I first came across this in a January 14, 2010 post on the New York Times' "Freakonomics" blog.

That broadcasting can play a role in fomenting violence is a concept virtually as old as the medium, and skillful propagandists exploited radio in support of their respective aims in nearly every 20th century conflict. However, I can't recall any previous research in this field as thorough as Yanagizawa's work appears to be.

Various Dial Positions

2010-01-13T14:51:00.000-08:00

Okay, I'm running out of clever names for catch-all posts such as this that are a round-up of recent items and links. Let me know if you have any better ideas for a title I can use consistently (without getting sick of it).

First, I wrote a piece for Crosscut late last year that wasn't published until a week or so ago. It's called In Search of a New Radio 'Sweet Spot' and is another lamentation over automated radio.

Second, longtime Seattle Supersonics broadcaster Bob Blackburn passed away last Friday. Casey McNerthney wrote a nice story for the seattlepi.com that included a link to audio of a panel discussion I moderated on the 25th anniversary of the Sonics' one and only NBA Championship.

Bob was a panelist and was incredibly nice. At some point, I mistakenly called him "Blob Backburn," and, as my ears reddened in shame, Bob said not to worry, Steve Allen had called him that back in the 1940s when they both were in radio in Los Angeles. Bob got a laugh, and I felt a lot better in spite of my blunder.

Third (and last), here's another piece of cool old radio ephemera, this time a promotional booklet produced by CBS after the Anschluss in 1938 (the official title is VIENNA MARCH, 1938 - a footnote for historians from the Columbia Broadcasting System). The graphics are fabulous, and the booklet itself is a nice synopsis of the crisis and CBS' coverage (including the first-ever "round up" from multiple foreign capitals).

Radio at War

2010-01-12T16:12:00.000-08:00

This is just a short, self-congratulatory post to demonstrate that I have finally figured out how to add images to I STILL LOVE RADIO. I know, kind of lame that it took this long (especially because it is so simple to do).

Anyhow, the arresting artwork below is from the cover of a 1945 promotional publication highlighting the Blue Network, the precursor to ABC (and former secondary network of NBC).

Stand by for more images in subsequent posts!

Insignia Portable HD Radio from Best Buy

2010-01-06T21:09:00.001-08:00

Have you heard about the new Insignia Portable HD Radio from Best Buy?

Nobody has, apparently, including the clerk at the Best Buy near where I live. Okay, he actually had heard of it, but he wasn't sure what it was, and he didn't know if they had any in stock. He typed a few keystrokes, and the computer told him there were three in the store, but it didn't say where, and he couldn't find them. Another clerk helped, and the radios eventually turned up on an unassuming endcap, hanging from a peg way down at the bottom. Let's just say that HD Radio hasn't exactly caught on, at Best Buy (or anyplace else, for that matter).

As esoteric as it is, HD Radio is a neat idea, with better sound than regular FM stereo, and the ability for broadcasters to offer "subchannels" with alternate programming in addition to their main terrestrial signal. The Seattle area is awash with subchannels, particularly via KING-FM, KPLU-FM and KUOW-FM. I'm not sure exactly how many people own HD Radios, but I'd venture a guess that it's a pretty small number.

My Best Buy expedition took place a week before Christmas, when I was inspired to buy a small HD Radio that I could easily plug into my home stereo, so that we could pipe KING-FM's commercial-free Evergreen Channel (KING-FM 98.1 HD-2 and also streaming via their website, if you want to get really specific) and its "all Classical Christmas" format all through the house. I already have an HD Radio in my kitchen that I bought two years ago (the Radiosophy HD100), but it's too unwieldy for this particular application and it doesn't travel well, even just around the house (it has a very LARGE power supply).

The Insignia is certainly affordable at $50, and it performed its "all Classical Christmas" task with flying colors throughout the holidays. The unit is compact (smaller than a pack of cigarettes, if it's still okay to use that as a comparison), and the built-in batteries charge up quickly via the provided USB cable, and the charge lasts at least 10 hours. It has 10 station presets, which is more than enough for most listening areas (I still have two empty presets), though the presets only register the main HD signal of any particular station (and NOT the subchannels). For example, I couldn't make the KING-FM HD-2 channel a preset, I was only able make the KING-FM HD-1 channel the preset and then have to click up the dial one step. The wire to the earbuds (provided) or, in my case, the cable to my stereo, functions as the antenna.

My only complaint with the Insignia is the responsiveness or sensitivity of the control buttons. It seems like you have to first "awaken" the radio by pressing any of the eight or so buttons, and then press the button again to activate whatever it is you're trying to do. Also, it seems like I always have to press the power button (and hold it down and wait several seconds) two or three or even four times to shut the radio off.

Now that Christmas has past, I've taken the Insignia with me on a few writing assignments where I've needed audio isolation, and it's been a snap to plug in my headphones and tune to KING-FM or to Jazz 24 (heard on KPLU 88.5 HD-2 around these parts). Next time I have to take a long drive I'll see what the reception is like between here and Portland (probably pretty good) or here and Spokane (probably non-existent in the Cascades and across most of Eastern Washington).

Meanwhile, I'll be waiting for "all Classical Christmas" to return (and hoping the HD format will still be around) so that the Insignia can get back to doing its real job.

Schorr & Simon as the Clark & Seacrest of NPR?

2010-01-02T18:42:00.001-08:00

A couple of short items about LIVE broadcasting today . . .

New Year Things Considered
I heard part of NPR's live Toast of the Nation broadcast on New Year's Eve and wondered in a Crosscut piece about how to make it better, including bringing in Daniel Schorr and Scott Simon as the NPR equivalent of Dick Clark and Ryan Seacrest.

Evolution of Radio Drama
The old-time radio website RelicRadio.com posts an episode of the Great Gildersleeve every week, and I've been listening now for about six months. The episodes are posted sequentially, and this week's episode is from early September 1945. While all the previous episodes I've heard were recordings of live broadcasts with live studio audiences, this one was done in a studio without an audience. The effect is staggering, as the jokes don't get any laughs (no laugh track back then), and the whole thing comes across as a lifeless struggle. I need to do a bit more research about the 1945 season--appears there was also a new music director, new theme music, etc.

I freely acknowledge that I am obsessed with the superiority of historic and contemporary live broadcasting over the tape-delayed variety . . .

Fessenden Hero Promotion from the CBC Archives

2009-12-27T18:51:00.000-08:00

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) posted an interesting item from its archives the other day. This online video features a chat between Take 30 host Harry Brown and a man named Ray Ireland from October 16, 1979 about Canadian scientist Reginald Fessenden (left).

Ireland (apparently a man devoted to identifying and promoting Canadian "heroes") attempts to elevate Fessenden above Guglielmo Marconi as the true "inventor of radio," but Ireland does not appear knowledgeable enough (about an admittedly pretty complicated subject) to argue his point effectively. Brown muddies the debate with questions about whether the word "radio" sounds Italian (which, from Brown's point of view, would strengthen Marconi's claim to . . . something).

Most sources concur that Fessenden can lay claim to two notable firsts: first point-to-point transmission of the human voice (December 23, 1900) and the first radio "broadcast" (December 24, 1906). I sure think that's pretty darn heroic (and Canadian, too).

As the book Empire of the Air by Tom Lewis (and film of the same name by Ken Burns) postulates, no one person can rightfully be called the sole inventor of radio. Instead, the credit is shared by several individuals working separately from (yet influencing) each other, including Fessenden and Marconi (who are not the main subjects of the book or film), and the three men profiled extensively in the film: Lee de Forest, Edwin Armstrong and David Sarnoff.

In any case, it makes for as interesting a debate in 2009 as it did back in 1979.

Sad Occasion, But Nothing Profound About James Brown's Christmas Death on Radio

2009-12-22T16:05:00.001-08:00

Godfather of Soul James Brown passed away three years ago this Christmas (early Christmas morning, Eastern Standard Time, back in 2006). Network radio news had word of Brown's illness (he'd checked into an Atlanta hospital on Christmas Eve, suffering from pneumonia) at 10 pm Pacific Standard Time here on the West Coast. Just two hours later, Brown's death was reported at midnight Pacific Standard Time.

I tried to come up with something profound or even interesting to say about the way radio reported Brown's death, but I couldn't. But, I still felt like posting this link to a montage of James Brown radio news cuts from ABC News, BBC World Service and CBS News that I just put together today. These cuts were all recorded between 10:00 pm PST on Christmas Eve and 2:00 am on Christmas morning on Seattle radio stations.

Why, you ask, was I recording three different radio news sources on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 2006? It's a long story, naturally, and semi-related to my graduate school application essay from a few years back.

In addition to Brown, other notable musicians have passed away around Christmas, such as Glenn Miller (technically, his disappearance was announced on Christmas Eve 1944) and Eartha Kitt (who famously sang Santa Baby), who died on Christmas 2008.

Brown was a complicated and interesting artist, and he put out some great Christmas music, too. My personal favorite is Let's Make This Christmas Mean Something This Year. Words to live by.

In any case, Merry Christmas from I STILL LOVE RADIO!

More Dial Twisting

2009-12-21T10:12:00.000-08:00

Here are a few short items as the calendar winds down toward the end of 2009:

John Lennon's Death and Radio: Part Two
One reader in particular found that the Crosscut.com piece about John Lennon's death and radio hit eerily close to home, as eloquently described a few days ago in her blog. It's a small world wide web, after all.

Profile at Radio Survivor
Jennifer Waits of the fabulous Spinning Indie radio blog was kind enough to write a flattering profile of yours truly for the also fabulous Radio Survivor blog. I'm still a little creeped out with the "Radio Obsessive" moniker (my official title is "Radio Obessive #4"), but I do appreciate Jennifer's kind and encouraging words. Definitely check out both blogs for their unique takes on contemporary radio issues.

New Curator for Radio at British Library

2009-12-21T09:39:00.000-08:00

This item is from the most recent issue of playback, the bulletin of the British Library Sound Archive:

The Sound Archive has appointed a specially-dedicated Curator for Radio in recognition of the increasing importance of radio and media studies within the UK academic and cultural spheres.

Paul Wilson, who has worked with the British Library's music radio collections for many years, commenced work in this new role in May and has produced a new set of web pages devoted to what is surely one of the world's most extensive archives of radio recordings.

Paul is keen to hear from anyone with an interest in archival radio media or wishing to further explore these unique collections: contact radio@bl.uk or telephone 011 020 7412 7446.

To access the Radio webpages enter search term 'Radio Recordings' at the British Library homepage and follow the appropriate link.

Seattle Radio Theatre Online Video

2009-12-17T10:58:00.000-08:00

The good folks of AM 1090 KPTK pointed a video camera at last Friday's Seattle Radio Theatre production, and the result has just been posted on the radio station's website.

Click here to watch Part One of It's A Wonderful Life. Also, don't forget the rebroadcast of the complete program on radio on Christmas Eve (Thursday, December 24, 2009) at 7:00 pm.

Twisting the Dial: Miscellaneous Radio (and Local TV) Matters

2009-12-15T22:28:00.001-08:00

SEATTLE RADIO THEATRE WRAP-UP
Another year of Seattle Radio Theatre has come and gone, and our tenth annual broadcast was probably the best yet. Thanks to terrific preview stories in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and the Seattle Times, we had our biggest audience ever, with 450 enthusiastic radio drama fans filling the seats at Town Hall. AM 1090 KPTK posted online audio today, and the show will be rebroadcast on Friday, December 24 at 7:00 pm. I can't thank the amazing cast enough, including Pat Cashman, Tracey Conway, Steve Wilson, Chris Wedes, Jim Dever, John Maynard, Lee Callahan, Chris Topping, Dolores Rogers, Katie Cashman, Sophia Banel and Ralph Bevins; plus Rob Jones on piano and Curtis Takahashi performing live sound effects; Wier Harman and his crew at Town Hall Seattle; Paul Van Erem, Apryl Battin and Brittany Collier at KPTK; and the good folks at Not A Number. I hope we can do another show next year and the year after that!

SEATTLE RADIO AND JOHN LENNON'S DEATH
I wrote a piece for Crosscut.com last week about my memories (and crude aircheck tapes) of Seattle FM radio the night that John Lennon was murdered. In my humble estimation, that shared experience via radio was more powerful than a Tweet or a Status Update under similar circumstances nowadays.

KING-FM UPDATE: NO NEWS IS NO NEWS
Just posted on Crosscut.com this evening is a short piece about classical music station KING-FM's ongoing efforts to get over its current crisis. Even shorter version: it seems to me that KING-FM could do a better job of keeping its stakeholders (translation: loyal listeners) informed as to what's being done to address the situation.

JP PATCHES AND STAN BORESON HOLIDAY SPECIAL
Though not really a radio item, I can't resist plugging the holiday TV special I produced (along with Ralph Bevins) for the SEATTLE CHANNEL back in 2006. We had JP and Stan in the studio for short bits to weave together some vintage material, including a 1980 Stan Boreson reunion special produced by Steve Wilson for KING TV, and two separate JP Christmas specials from the 1970s. I'm very proud of the giant cardboard Christmas tree I made, plus the cardboard fireplace that I ordered from somewhere on the web. Also glad we left in the awesome KING production logo preceding the Boreson stuff, and the two Sears commercials in the JP material. Click here for complete online video.

From Pearl Harbor To Elliott Bay: Radio (and other things) on December 7, 1941

2009-12-07T22:38:00.001-08:00

I wrote a piece this week for Crosscut.com about how the ramifications of the Pearl Harbor attack (including radio broadcasts) were experienced in Seattle. I'm also scheduled to appear this coming Sunday, December 13 on KOMO Newsradio AM-FM's Beyond the Headlines with Charlie Harger at 5:00 am, 10:00 am and 10:00 pm Pacific, addressing the same topic (I'll post a link to audio of the program sometime next week).

Seattle Radio Theatre LIVE BROADCAST on Friday, December 11

2009-12-02T09:42:00.000-08:00

Time for a rare overtly self-serving post about next Friday's (December 11, 2009) Seattle Radio Theatre production of the Lux Radio Theater version of It's A Wonderful Life at Town Hall Seattle. Tickets are on sale now for the show that stars Pacific Northwest broadcasting legends Pat Cashman, Chris (J.P. Patches) Wedes, Tracey Conway, Steve Wilson, John Maynard, Jim Dever and Lee Callahan.

The fun gets underway with an audience warm-up at 7:45 pm, and we then go live on KPTK AM 1090 at 8:00 pm for the one-hour program, produced and directed by yours truly (I stole that last line from my former KIRO colleague Jim French). The show features live music performed by Rob Jones, and live sound effects performed (on equipment originally owned by sound effects legend Ray Erlenborn) by Curtis Takahashi of REPS (Radio Enthusiasts of Puget Sound). Since this is a live broadcast, the live audience is part of the show, too, with their laugher and applause (or boos and hisses for Mr. Potter, perhaps). The complete program will also be re-broadcast on Christmas Eve (Thursday, December 24) at 7:00 pm on KPTK AM 1090.

Last year, this (roughly) same cast presented the Lux version of The Bishop's Wife, and you can click here for audio of that live broadcast.

I founded Seattle Radio Theatre in 2000 while working for MOHAI, and then moved it to Town Hall in 2007. This year's show will be our 10th annual production, and I give special thanks to the wonderful cast and crew, many of whom have been involved since the very beginning, for making this holiday tradition possible each year.

JFK Assassination Radio Coverage

2009-11-30T16:09:00.000-08:00

I had the best intentions to write a thorough post about radio coverage of the JFK assassination, but that may have to wait until next year. There are several Dallas radio station airchecks in circulation that are worth taking a listen to, including some available for purchase via the web. Though the event is mainly remembered for marathon national coverage on NBC and CBS television networks (and justifiably so), at its heart, the story was about three shootings in Dallas, and local radio stations there were well positioned to cover it, and did so admirably.

Though I didn't get a chance to write an ISLR post about the radio coverage, I was invited to appear last Sunday on Seattle ABC affiliate KOMO AM-FM's weekly public affairs program Beyond The Headlines to talk with host Charlie Harger about how the event was covered on radio and TV. I also wrote a piece about local reaction in Seattle for Crosscut.com.

Public Radio International's New Board President

2009-11-30T15:58:00.000-08:00

Public Radio International (PRI) recently elected a new president who happens to be from Seattle. Here's a link to a profile of Linda Larson that I wrote a week or so ago for Crosscut.com, which also includes an exploration of the "ecology" of NPR, PRI and APM, along with some speculating about the future of broadcast vs. podcast.

AUDIBLE NIGHT Links Between the Rise of Radio Broadcasting and the Rise of the 20th Century American Christmas

2009-11-15T11:34:00.000-08:00

(Editor's Note: With the holiday season approaching, I thought I'd dust off this paper about radio and Christmas that I wrote five years ago as part of my successful application to grad school (though I ended up choosing to not enroll). My scholarship has improved somewhat in five years and I've edited this material for other purposes, but I also thought it was worth posting the original if only for self-indulgent reasons.)

Two major cultural phenomena ascended to prominence in the United States during the early and middle twentieth century. While each has been studied in isolation from the other, with numerous academic studies and dozens of mass market books, and documentary films and radio programs being produced in the past 50 years, the reciprocal influences and cross-fertilization of and by these phenomena has not been fully explored. It can be argued that the relationship between radio broadcasting and the American celebration of Christmas was critical to the rise of each in the years between World War I and World War II. A survey of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day radio timetables and radio columns in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer from 1921 to 1939 demonstrates the “Audible Night” or a series inextricable links between radio and Christmas, while a survey of key history texts focused on either radio or Christmas demonstrates the cursory study that has been given the two fields as they relate to one another.

Erik Barnouw’s epic three-volume history of broadcasting in the United States briefly mentions Reginald Fessenden’s historic first known broadcast of the human voice—on Christmas Eve 1906 (Barnouw, A Tower In Babel, 20)—and then makes no further reference to the holiday anywhere in the series. Likewise, Michele Hilmes Radio Voices mentions Fessenden, but also digs a little deeper into the cultural ramifications of a broadcast on Christmas Eve:
His choice of material—at this point completely unprecedented, though limited by material—remains eerily reminiscent of what would come to dominate radio in the 1920s . . . An announcer, “quality” music, amateur performance, the Christian religion, and a little self-promotion—a foretaste of things to come (Hilmes, 36)

Susan J. Douglas’ Inventing American Broadcasting presents Fessenden’s seminal broadcast as more of a technical feat than a cultural milestone:

The Christmas Eve broadcast is still considered the first radio broadcast in American history, and a truly dramatic demonstration of the alternator’s capability. (Douglas, 156)

A biography of Reginald Fessenden published in Canada in 1970 equates the miracle of broadcast, perhaps a bit overzealously, with the miracle of Christ’s birth:
Though Reg had no idea that this miracle of the first broadcast foretold a change in the habits of people greater than almost any single event in history, he was overjoyed to have shown the world what his wireless telephone could do, and this on the very night which celebrated another wonder, that which had taken place so long before in a manger in Bethlehem. (Raby, 128)

Books examining the history of the celebration of Christmas in America have paid some attention to radio, though more often lumping radio together with print media and television. Karal Ann Marling’s Merry Christmas describes President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s lighting of the National Christmas Tree just two weeks after Pearl Harbor:
With British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, America’s staunchest ally, at his side, Franklin Roosevelt set the National Christmas Tree ablaze with colored lights, as millions listened to the carols and the speeches on the radio and imagined a beacon of joy and hope shining over a darkened Washington. ‘Let the children have their night of laughter . . . before we turn again to the stern tasks and formidable years that lie before us,’ Churchill told the nation. (Marling, 186)

However, no mention is made of Roosevelt’s presiding over similar festivities during the darkest years of the Great Depression, when radio was a greater novelty and perhaps more influential than in 1941.

One of the earliest modern histories of the Christmas in the United States is James H. Barnett’s The American Christmas, published in 1954. Barnett gives cursory mention of radio and television, but does acknowledges the pervasiveness of that iconic Yuletide tale, Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol on the audio and video airwaves each year. (Barnett, 15).

In a deeper exploration of Dickens’ popular holiday story (called The Lives and Times of Ebenezer Scrooge), Paul Davis describes the annual radio broadcast during the 1930s and 1940s that featured American actor Lionel Barrymore as Scrooge, and quotes from Orson Welles’ introduction of a particular broadcast:
Each Christmas Eve, while the president (Roosevelt) was reading Dickens’ story to the first family in the White House, Barrymore performed his Carol for the nation. Introducing one of Barrymore’s annual performances, probably in the 1940s, Orson Welles characterized the audience as a family extended to national proportions: ‘There is, I think, in all America nothing more eagerly awaited or more firmly rooted in the hearts of the radio family that numbers in millions than this yearly performance of A Christmas Carol. (Davis, 152)

It is perhaps Penne L. Restad who comes closest to recognizing the unique link between radio and Christmas in Christmas in America, though she lumps radio together with all modern (though pre-Internet) media:
Meanwhile, a potent combination of commerce and new communication media had enabled the festival to permeate nearly all levels of American life. In addition to print advertising, radio, movies, books, songs, and television molded its salient images and language into a Christmas more uniform and secular than any preceding it, and found a following for it in every corner of the nation. Under media influence, millions of listeners and viewers experience the same modern Christmas lore simultaneously, the annual rewindings and rerunnings of Christmas programs themselves becoming a nostalgic ritual for many Americans. (Restad, 164)

It is this “uniform and secular” quality combined with the “millions of listeners” experiencing the “same modern Christmas lore simultaneously” (what I would call the “Audible Night”) that I wish to further explore, as I believe that the role of radio and its interplay with Christmas deserves further scrutiny than any of these historians of broadcast and Christmas have given. Understandably, the texts cited (except for Davis) are focused broadly on two very large subject areas: radio or Christmas. However, evidence supporting the mutual influence of radio and Christmas can be found in newspaper archives for any major American city. But first, it’s important to take a step back and examine in detail the first broadcast on Christmas Eve 1906.

Few people nowadays know that the first known broadcast of the human voice took place on December 24, 1906. That evening, Canadian-born scientist Reginald Fessenden transmitted a program of spoken word and music from Brant Rock, Massachusetts. Telegraph operators at shore stations and aboard ships at sea who were accustomed to hearing the dots and dashes of Morse Code, instead heard the voice of Reginald Fessenden in their crude headphones. An Edison phonograph recording of Handel’s Largo was played. Fessenden read from the Bible (Gospel of St. Luke), then played O Holy Night on the violin, accompanying his own singing. He signed off, inviting those within the sound of his voice to listen again one week later on December 31. (Hilmes, 36) Thus, broadcasting (and the basic radio format of talk and music) was born. More specifically, a unique relationship between radio and the American Christmas of the 20th century was begun—a relationship that is arguably represents one of the strangest yet most natural links between a national (and international) holiday and a form of technology.

It is perhaps coincidence that Fessenden’s work on his transmitter was complete in time for the first broadcast to take place on Christmas Eve, though choice of this particular night provided Fessenden (and those who followed in his footsteps in subsequent decades) with unmistakable cues as to what material should be broadcast—the body of work available for any Christian layperson to draw on would far exceed that of nearly any other day of the year. Fessenden was not known to be a particularly religious or irreligious man, but he would have not had to be to choose content for his “program.” While regularly scheduled radio broadcasts were nearly two decades away, the link between the Christmas holiday and radio broadcasting was simultaneously initiated and fully exploited in the very first Christmas Eve broadcast; material presented on radio on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day throughout the 1920s would vary little from Fessenden’s sacred music and spoken word.

While Fessenden’s choice of Christmas Eve may have been coincidence, it seems that as radio matured, Christmas Eve was deliberately associated with many firsts in radio broadcasting in the United States, as well as elsewhere in the English-speaking world. For example, the first broadcast of a play written especially for radio, The Truth About Father Christmas, took place on Christmas Eve 1922 in Great Britain (Hartley, 16). The first broadcast of the Metropolitan Opera with Milton J. Cross took place on Christmas Eve 1931. The first broadcast of the NBC Orchestra with Arturo Toscanini conducting took place on Christmas Eve 1937. (Elizabeth McLeod, via Internet)

Why would so many ground-breaking broadcasts take place on Christmas Eve (and Christmas Day) and not on any other day of the year? There are a few simple reasons that seem plausible. First, since 1890, when Christmas had been recognized as a legal holiday in all states and territories (Barnett, 19), Christmas Eve and Christmas Day had become a time when the majority of American businesses and institutions are closed. Thus, the majority of people are home, and most have time for leisure activities, such as listening to the radio. Second, during the 1920s (and 1924 in particular, the so-called “Radio Christmas” when radio sales eclipsed sales of gramophones and other recorded-music players (Millard, 138) radios were common Christmas gifts (also related to gift-giving, during the pre-WWII years, I have anecdotal, as yet undocumented evidence that American families were more likely to exchange gifts on Christmas Eve rather than Christmas morning as is now a more common practice—thus many new radio sets in the 1920s and 1930s were unwrapped on Christmas Eve in time for evening broadcasts)). Third, Christmas is a holiday rife with content (including some hundreds of years old) that is ideally suited for radio broadcast—poems, songs, stories, plays and biblical passages (and much in the public domain requiring no licensing arrangements and/or fees)—more than any other holiday on the American calendar. It is an interesting exercise to try list similar material that would be appropriate to broadcast on another major American holiday such as Easter, Fourth of July, Hallowe’en, Thanksgiving or New Year’s Eve—the list for these holidays is comparatively short.

Another reason for this inextricable link between radio and Christmas requires a bit more indulgence from the reader. It could be argued that the quality of radio that overcomes time and distance—allowing all people with receivers in a given geographic area to hear the same words and music simultaneously—is analogous to messages sent from a supreme being. The term I would like to propose here is “terrestrial spirituality”; the essence of this concept being the man-made technology of radio being used to communicate with all willing listeners, giving those listeners a sense of sharing in a celebration with others in their own country and overseas. With even more indulgence, it could be argued that a radio broadcasting operation from the 1920s and 1930s comprised a modern “secular nativity scene,” with the studio serving as a barn and manger, and the antenna functioning as the Christmas Star—and the audience an assortment of shepherds and wise men receiving messages both Christian and secular. These relationships and these analogies would have been unthinkable before the rise of commercial radio broadcasting in the 1920s.

It’s important here to address the “commercialism” of Christmas that is often criticized each year by religious leaders, environmentalists and others dismayed by the advertising, shopping and displays of greed that accompany the run-up to the holiday. Radio certainly plays and has played a significant role in commercializing every aspect of American life. However, the broadcasts made on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day enjoy a certain immunity from blame in this instance—the shopping is mostly completed by the time these programs hit the airwaves (though it would be naïve to completely ignore promotional announcements that were undoubtedly made during holiday programs).

To understand the growth of radio broadcasting on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, a survey was made of radio timetables and radio feature writing in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer for the years 1921 to 1939. The quantity of programming offered on these days is astounding, as is the rapid growth from year to year in the number and diversity of programs listed (though one can assume that due to technical difficulties inherent in radio of that era, not all broadcasts came off as described in advance). One can also debate the quality of the content and talent of the performers of the actual broadcasts, particularly obscure musicians and productions of otherwise unknown music or dramas (in some cases, neither of which are heard of again). But these factors are beyond the scope of this survey, conducted with microfilm of newspapers, which plainly shows that commercial broadcasters in Seattle (and elsewhere where local radio stations were ultimately affiliated with the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) and the Columbia Broadcast System (CBS)) began airing “special,” and in some cases, eventually what could be called “blockbuster,” holiday programs beginning in 1921. It also demonstrates steady growth of the number and ambitiousness of such programs well into the 1930s.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer began limited broadcasting from its own station in July 1921 (Richardson, 187). Five months later, the front page of the Post-Intelligencer on Christmas Eve 1921 announced a special broadcast of carols that would carry the “spirit of Christmas” to men “snowed in” and to men “sweltering under the . . . equatorial sun.” The full article read:

RADIO TO CARRY CAROLS TONIGHT
Sounding through the air like the voices of angels that sand at the birth of Christ in Bethlehem, Christmas carols, bringing the same message, “Peace on Earth, Good Will Toward Men,” will carry the spirit of Christmas from the Post-Intelligencer office tonight to the men snowed in in the banked huts in the mountainous North and to men sweltering under the rays of an equatorial sun beating on a tropical sea. The Lotos Male Quartet will sing through the radiophone and through the ether the waves of sound will carry the message. The program will start at 9 o’clock.

“Adeste Fideles” (“Oh, Come, All Ye Faithful”) will be the first number. The literal translation of the title, “Be Thou Faithful,” is the command of the world over to the followers of Christianity.

“Noel,” the French carol, and “God Rest You Merry Gentleman,” the British carol, so often sung in those countries as to be almost national Christmas songs, will follow. Then a typical United States carol, “O, Little Town of Bethlehem,” and closing with the old German “Silent Night, Holy Night,” perhaps the simplest and most inspiring of all Christmas songs. The quartet is composed of Milford E. Kingsbury, first tenor and leader; Harry E. Knoff, second tenor; Thomas E. Sandry, baritone; and Clarence J. Sylliaasen, bass.
(Seattle Post-Intelligencer, December 24, 1921, Page 1)

One year later, in 1922, the Post-Intelligencer’s December 25 edition featured the first Christmas radio timetable, with a special concert (transmitted how, it’s not clear) from Missouri on the Post-Intelligencer’s own “radiophone” station (now known as KFC), and hours (but no program listings) for four other Seattle stations: KZC, KDZE, KJR and KHQ. (Seattle Post-Intelligencer, December 25, 1923, Page 16) The following year, in 1923, the Post-Intelligencer’s radio station, now bearing the call letters “KFJC” offered another special Christmas Eve program:

KFJC TO GIVE XMAS PROGRAM
Christmas Eve will be fittingly celebrated by KFJC, the radio station of the Post-Intelligencer. Miss Annabel M. Trent, whose concerts are always popular events with the radio listeners, will present her group of singers in a program of Christmas carols at 8:30 tonight.

Included among the artists appearing before the microphone will be all the soloists who have made “old songs” so popular in Northwestern radio circles. Both solo and ensemble numbers will be given. Many weeks of preparation have been spent by Miss Trent and the soloists on this special Christmas program.
(Seattle Post-Intelligencer, December 24, 1923, Page Unknown)

On December 25, 1923, KFJC was silent “in observance of Christmas Day,” while two other Seattle stations listed, KHQ and KFHR, offered “Musical programs” and no mention was made of KDZE and KJR (both of which had offered programming on Christmas Eve). (Seattle Post-Intelligencer, December 25, 1923. Page 16.)

By December 25, 1924 (the previously mentioned “Radio Christmas”), the Post-Intelligencer had divested itself of KFJC (Brubaker, 92) but made an arrangement (of which the exact details are unknown) with Seattle station KJR to co-produce programs. The number of Seattle radio stations in the Post-Intelligencer with scheduled Christmas Eve broadcasts was two (though it is interesting to note that other stations were operating in Seattle at this time and that the Post-Intelligencer chose not to list their programming—KFOA is listed most likely because that station’s operator, Rhodes Department Store, was a regular advertiser in the Post-Intelligencer):

HOPPER-KELLY KFOA FEATURE
Hopper-Kelly Company have prepared a special Christmas Eve program which is to be given between 6:45 and 8:15 over Station KFOA, Wednesday evening.

One of the features of the program will be Christmas readings of particular interest to the kiddies by Miss Dorothy Denee Snowden of the Snowden Dramatic School, Seattle. Miss Snowden will read:
“Christmas Prayer to the Master” by Middleton; “My Ships” by Ella Wheeler Wilcox and the famous and much loved “Night Before Christmas” by Clement Clark Moore.

KJR Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Seattle, Washington, 273 Meters
Wednesday, December 24, 1924
Today’s Schedule
4:00—Aunt Bunny the Story Lady.
5:00—Leading Soloists of the Brandon Opera Company in specialty songs for “Spark Plug”.
8:30—Special Christmas Eve program.
(Seattle Post-Intelligencer, December 24, 1924. Page 7.)

While Christmas Eve programming grew in the early years of Seattle radio broadcasting, Christmas Day 1924—the “Radio Christmas”—ironically found KJR again silent. Still, the Post-Intelligencer for the second year in a row listed other broadcasts available to certain Seattle residents—the so-called “DXers”—who were willing to try to tune in far away stations, such as Los Angeles (KNX) and Schenectady, NY (WGY):

KJR Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Seattle, Washington, 273 Meters
Thursday, December 25, 1924
Today’s Schedule
Station KJR will be silent today.

The spirit of Yuletide will rule air throughout the East and West today. Special Christmas music and Christmas programs will be broadcast at nearly every hour of the day.

A play-by-play report of the University of Southern California-University of Missouri football game will be broadcast in the afternoon starting at 2 p.m. from KNX.

WGY at Schenectady, N.Y. will present a cantata “The Hope of the World,” at 5 p.m. Seattle time.

Tune in on Eastern stations and let the editor of this paper know what you receive.
(Seattle Post-Intelligencer, December 25, 1924, Page 6)

In 1925, the local programming available to Seattle residents again expanded from the previous year’s offerings:
Christmas Spirit Will Prevail at Bats’ Broadcast Tonight
JAN NAYLOR HONOR GUEST ON PROGRAM
KJR Concert For Radio Listeners Comprises Wide Variety Of Fun, Musical Numbers
The spirit of Yuletide will prevail tonight at the regular meeting of the Keep Joy Radiating Order of the Bats, broadcasting from their belfry in the Terminal Sales Building over KJR, starting at the usual hour of 10:30 o’clock.

Mose (undecipherable) Grady, who had the honor of being the first to contribute to the Spark Plug part of the Post-Intelligencer Christmas fund, and one of Seattle’s leading photographers, will be initiated into the Bats with all the glory that goes with such an honor.

Jan Naylor, one of Seattle’s most accomplished cellists, will be the guest of honor, along with Clyde Lehman, pianist, both members of Henri Damski’s Puget Sound Savings and Loan Association concert orchestras.

George D. Grant’s E and J orchestra will again be on the job to offer the customers their incomparable jazz numbers and will have a new repertoire for this meeting.

The Misses Betty and Louretta V. Harding and Howard Harding will sing Christmas carols during the evening, with Louretta V. Harding at the piano.

TWO PROGRAMS ON AIR TONIGHT
At least two pre-Christmas programs will be broadcast from Seattle tonight when the Poole Electric company will present a classical program starting at 7 o’clock from KJR, followed by a program by the Puget Sound Savings and Loan Association concert under the direction of Henri Damski.
(Seattle Post-Intelligencer, December 24, 1925, Page 6)

Listings in the Post-Intelligencer also showed the growth of commercialization of radio—in the form of advertising revenue—for the first time including a list of sponsors for Christmas Eve programming blocks on KJR (SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER, FREDERICK AND NELSON, THE POST-INTELLIGENCER, A.A. HOUSMAN AND COMPANY, POOLE ELECTRIC COMPANY, THE PUGET SOUND SAVINGS AND LOAN ASSOCIATION, THE POST-INTELLIGENCER), as well as sole sponsorship of stations KFOA (Rhodes Department Store) and KTCL (New Washington Hotel). (Seattle Post-Intelligencer, December 24, 1925, Page 6.)

The year 1926 finds the first of the Post-Intelligencer’s regular radio columns to appear on Christmas Eve, with a hyperbolic description of radio offerings for the holiday, and much philosophizing about the progress of radio and, along the lines of “Audible Night,” its ability to make “the whole world kin”; put “nations in instant touch”; unite “the family at home at the fireside” in a bond of “common sympathy.” The complete article reads:

RADIO PUTS CHRISTMAS IN AIR TONIGHT
And Yuletide Programs Will Bring Home Benefits of Popular Entertainment Device
With a wealth of fine radio offerings, many symbolic of the season, Christmas Eve affords a melodic feast for all air fans, whether they tune in on local stations or travel afar on the ether waves.

Effort is evident on the part of many broadcasting stations to present radio listeners tonight programs of especially good features.

And at this time, when so many listeners will have new radio sets and so many others will have added improvements to old sets, it might not be amiss to stop a moment and consider all that radio has done, and the wonderful progress it has made in the past five years.

Radio has made the whole world kin. It puts nations in instant touch. Europe listens to American programs. Residents of the Pacific Coast may tune in on Japan.

But of more personal interest than feats in attaining distance is the great good radio has done in a less spectacular way. Probably nothing more conducive to development of home life has ever been presented in history. It unites the family at home at the fireside, and cements it in a bond of common sympathy.

Radio enables its followers to be in close contact with the events of the day. The lone sheepherder on distant slopes is put into direct touch with metropolitan affairs.

Radio has opened new vistas to shut-ins. It even has brought a measure of hearing to the deaf. Its virtues are legion.
(Seattle Post-Intelligencer, December 24, 1926, Page Unknown)

The following year (1927), the unnamed Post-Intelligencer radio editor again waxed on the bounteous offerings of Christmas radio:

VARIETY IS PROMISED ON RADIO BILLS
Coast Network Will Offer Three-Hour Program With Christmas Motif; Special Broadcasts
All that a critical fan could ask for in the way of diversified entertainment is promised on the ether waves tonight with the festive spirit of Christmas adding a pleasing note in almost every broadcast.

The Coast network will have three full hours of program, beginning with a concert at 8 o’clock. A fifteen-piece wood-wind ensemble and a group of soloists will alternate at the microphone. The music will be of the semi-classic group, refreshing and melodious, opening and closing with a short, descriptive poem to the accompaniment of the old-fashioned music box.

Second of the chain programs, going forth over KOMO and KFOA at 10 o’clock, will be a special Yuletide feature. To open the hour, and orchestra will play Olney’s “Santa Claus Overture,” followed by a choral group singing traditional Christmas carols. “God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman,” “Good King Wenceslaus” and the more familiar “Silent Night” are typical of the carol numbers.

Between 10 and 11 o’clock, KOMO and KFOA will carry the final network broadcast, coming as a combination dance and revue program.

More seasonal music will be forthcoming over KOMO during two special broadcasts. At 7 o’clock a one-hour concert, featuring the Totem Brass Quartet and vocal soloists, will be on the air, carried simultaneously by KGW Portland.

Then at 11:15 p.m., the KOMO staff will make merry at their annual Christmas party. The performers are going to have a lot of fun, and all of it will be available to dial twisters. Two orchestras, the Totem Concert and Warren Anderson’s, will add to the jollification. Following the distribution of gifts, the Totem Mixed Quartet appropriately will bring the party to a close with Christmas carols.

A special Christmas program over KPCB, starting at 7:30 o’clock and continuing for one hour, will bring a medley of music under the direction of Marion Elwell. Handel’s “Pastorale Symphony,” from “The Messiah,” will be the opening number played by an instrumental trio. The feature offering will be a cantata, “The Star Divine,” by Lansing, depicting the journey of the wise men to the manger.
(Seattle Post-Intelligencer, December 24, 1927, Page Unknown)

The following year, in a column clearly marked as “Editorial,” the Post-Intelligencer went over the top with praise for radio and its appropriateness as a holiday gift. It is unclear what stake, if any, the Post-Intelligencer had in the sale and manufacture of radios:

Radio Is Christmas Gift Of Real Worth
Editorial
A radio receiving set is the perfect Christmas gift. In the giving it fills all specifications of the spirit; in its continued companionship in radiates felicity after whimsies join the endless procession of forgotten things.

It conjures the harp of Aeolus; it captures the rustle of the garments of the muses; it vibrates to the voice of ether-riding angels; it carries the listener with the Valkyries over the roaring battlefield and on Valhallaward; it thunders with the tympani, coos in lullaby, lilts with the violin, sobs with the cello, instructs with the savant, comforts with the dominic. It fills the boresome gaps of day and charms the home at eventide.

Tennyson visioned the parliament of nations and argosies to fill the air. But Longfellow was subconsciously describing radio when he wrote:

“And the night shall be filled with music,
And the cares that infest the day
Shall fold their tents, like the Arabs,
And as silently steal away.”

Help somebody’s cares to fold their tents by giving a radio for Christmas.
(Seattle Post-Intelligencer, December 23, 1928, Page 10)

Also in 1928, the range and extent of programming increased again over the previous year, with offerings from around Seattle and across the continent:

RADIO AIDS IN CHRISTMAS CELEBRATION
Yuletide Programs From Far And Near Will Be Broadcast Sunday, Monday and Tuesday
The festival of Christmas will find no greater expression today, tomorrow and Tuesday than on the cheery Yuletide programs to be carried far and near on radio.

All local stations and all broadcasting chains will join in sending merry Christmas messages over the air. KOMO and the Post-Intelligencer will present today’s major Christmas festival in music, starting at 9 p.m. Tomorrow evening DXers may hear a pretentious program sponsored by Hearst newspapers by dialing to Eastern or mid-West stations of the NBC chain.

The Hearst song service may be tuned in on KYW, Chicago; WREN, Kansas City; WLW, Cincinnati, or KWK, St. Louis, at 8 o’clock, Pacific time.

ORATORIO BILLED
On Christmas Day the National Broadcasting Company’s Pacific Coast network is going to send holiday greetings in the form of a two-hour presentation of Handel’s “Messiah,” starting at 3 o’clock.

Churches, too, will broadcast their Yuletide services. KOMO today will release Plymouth Church’s morning worship, while KXA is broadcasting from the First Methodist Episcopal Church auditorium and KTW is sending out music and sermons from the First Presbyterian Church. Several other religious organizations have places on the KOMO schedule for today and Tuesday.

From the San Francisco NBC studios today programs will all have a Christmas flavoring. The afternoon broadcast reaches a climax at 4:30 p.m. with a Bible drama, “The First Gift.” The 6:15 p.m. transcontinental broadcast from New York City over KOMO will be all-Christmas music. The Persians likewise will offer Yule melodies at 7:30 p.m.

BIG DAY
KOL has announced holiday music from early morning until the station signs off at midnight on Tuesday. Occupying a prominent place on the evening’s program will be “Tiny” Burnett’s Orchestra, coming before the microphone at (undecipherable)?:30 p.m. Kaal’s Hawaiian Quartet is another ensemble to be featured on Christmas Day. “Henry (indecipherable) The Boss” will entertain KOL listeners at 7 o’clock Tuesday. The (indecipherable) Trio will furnish two hours of entertainment earlier in the day. On Christmas Night at 8 o’clock KXA will offer its biggest holiday broadcast. It will be a two hour program with Arnold Krauss, concert violinist with the (Seattle) Symphony Orchestra, heading the bill. Vocalists assisting will be Eva Gonella, soprano and Ben H. Wold, baritone.

TEN TONGUES IN BROADCAST
Peace On Earth (photo caption)
Two of the ten nationalities which will sing the same message in different languages on the Post-Intelligencer-Totem Broadcasters’ Christmas music program tonight over KOMO. Mrs. Iku Izuta of the Japanese Missions’ choir, left, and Miss Mabel Berg of the First Norwegian Lutheran choirs.
(Seattle Post-Intelligencer, December 23, 1928, Page 10)

The crash of the stock market in 1929 apparently did nothing to dampen holiday spirits among Seattle radio stations or at the national networks of NBC and CBS. Christmas of this particular year featured the first local broadcasts of international feeds, bringing the worldwide celebration of Christmas into American homes for the first time, creating a global manifestation of what I referred to earlier as “terrestrial spirituality”:

P.-I. Yule Program Over KVI Tonight
Station KVI will be the Seattle outlet for tonight’s pretentious Christmas broadcast sponsored by the Post-Intelligencer and associated Hearst newspapers.

The program includes orchestra, choir and organ music, coming from St. Ignatius Church in San Francisco, where high mass will be celebrated at midnight.

Ernie Smith has been assigned to microphone duty and will picture the whole colorful setting for listeners. After the service begins, there will be no announcements. Microphones in the choir loft will pick up Christmas hymns. Another instrument at the altar will “catch” the words of the mass.

Tune in to KVI on 394.5 meters (760 kilocycles), at 11:45 p.m.
(Seattle Post-Intelligencer, December 24, 1929, Page 1)

FINE CHRISTMAS RADIO OFFERING
Christmas programs on the radio won’t be forgotten by the fans for many a day. Three international broadcasts are announced for this morning. Two national chains have a wealth of holiday features, and every local station promises good things in the way of entertainment.

Only the forces of nature can upset elaborate plans made by the National Broadcasting Company for linking Europe and America three times between 8 a.m. and noon. At 8 o’clock England and Holland will be listening in for Christmas greetings from New York City. At 9:45 and again at 11:30 the United States will hear from Europe, one program from Berlin and one from London.

KOMO, Seattle’s unit in the NBC system, has scheduled all three transoceanic broadcasts and will transmit them on 325.9 meters (920 kilocycles).

Another morning special will be a carol service over KVI and associated Columbia chain stations at 9 o’clock from New York City. The program lists twenty-two numbers, featuring Henry Burr, recording artist; Ben Alley, tenor; Helen Nugent, contralto; Marie Girard, soprano; Irving Jackson, baritone; a symphonic orchestra and the Columbia Male Trio.

During the noon hour, KVI audiences will hear from San Francisco Don Lee studios. The program is to be a near duplicate of ceremonies held simultaneously in Orange County, California under the spreading limbs of a giant redwood tree. This tree was 2,000 years old when Christ was born.

The radio broadcast will include the reading of a message from Herbert Hoover by Mayor James J. Rolph of San Francisco. Gov. C.C. Young also may speak.

Two dramatic sketches, “By Starlight” and “Some Counted Blessings” are on today’s NBC “Salute” program, coming over KOMO from 4:30 to 5 o’clock.
(Seattle Post-Intelligencer, December 25, 1929, Page Unknown)

The new decade brought more of the same, as well as live broadcasts from Washington, DC of the lighting of the National Christmas Tree—oddly, though characteristic of the 20th century American Christmas, putting a federal imprimatur on a Christian holiday in a country known for separation of church and state. One apparent result of the increase in national and international programs was a decrease in broadcasts that originated locally. This was true year-round at this time, as programming offered by both CBS and NBC increased as more and more advertising dollars were directed toward radio.

WIDE ARRAY ON YULETIDE RADIO SLATE TONIGHT
Two Church Services of Great Attraction; Hoover Message, London Chimes Highlights
Church services in two Western cities, a message from President Hoover, Christmas parties and a London rebroadcast will be radio’s contributions today to the festival of Christmas.

KOL and KVI are local stations scheduled to carry the Don Lee-Hearst Radio Service broadcast of midnight mass at St. Ignatius’ Cathedral in San Francisco.

Similar services at St. James Cathedral, Seattle, with the Cathedral choir of 100 men and boys singing a special program of Christmas music, will be radioed by KOMO.

BIG BEN TO BE HEARD
The midnight programs at St. Ignatius’ Cathedral includes Gounod’s “St. Cecelian Mass” and the “Credo” from Caesar Franck’s mass. Soloists for the service are Margaret O’Dea, who will sing Adams’ “Cantique de Noel,” and May Dearborn Schwab, who will sing “Adeste Fidelis.”

Connection with London will be made at 4 p.m., Seattle time, by NBC, so that America may hear the chimes of Big Ben in Westminster Tower tolling midnight, Greenwich time.

At 1:30 p.m. KOMO will have a program of Christmas choral music sent out from the eighty-first floor of the Empire State Building, New York City.

President Hoover will be on the air at 3 p.m. to open a community Christmas tree program in Washington, D.C., in which Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, congressmen, members of the judiciary and the United States Marine Band will participate. The program will be relayed here by KOMO, KOL and KVI.

CHRISTMAS CAROLS, TOO
From 12 to 12:30 p.m., KOMO will have the principal features of the annual community Christmas tree celebration in Times Square, New York City. Mayor James Walker will be one of the speakers and a chorus will sing Christmas carols.

The English Singers, a concert group from London, will be Christmas Eve guests of NBC’s “Topnotchers,” who broadcast at 7:30 o’clock.

KOL and KVI schedule a CBS program of Christmas carols from 9 to 10 p.m.
(Seattle Post-Intelligencer, December 24, 1930, Page 6)

SANTA CLAUS RULING SPIRIT ON AIR TODAY
All Stations Plan Christmas Programs; England, Germany and U.S. in 3-Way Setup
Radio’s Yule gifts come special delivery today on all wave lengths at all hours. KOMO, KOL and KVI will be outlets for some of the finest network programs of 1930. KJR’s day is the longest, and KOL has the first broadcast.

KOMO will be standing by at 2:35 p.m. for a three-way exchange of Christmas greetings between England, Germany and America. KOL and KVI hope to rebroadcast services at the Parish Church of St. Mary’s in Whitchapel (sic), London, between 10:30 and 11 a.m.

MUSIC FROM THEATRES
KOL begins the day at 6 a.m. with a broadcast of organ and choral music from on of the downtown theatres. Studio and chain releases will follow until 11. From 11 to 12:30, KOL will be silent in deference to station KTW, the voice of the First Presbyterian Church.

Christmas services at Washington Cathedral, Washington, D.C., will be broadcast from 8 to 9 a.m. by KOL and KVI.

Between 1 and 2 p.m. KOMO’s audience will hear the third of a series of concerts by the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra, with Leopold Stokowski conducting. Other NBC offerings to be carried by KOMO are: “The Evolution of Christmas in Drama and Song,” starting at noon; a “Melodies” program at 6:30, featuring Richard Bonelli, leading baritone of the Chicago Civic Opera, and a concert by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, 7:30 to 8:30.

At 3:05 p.m., KOMO will present the Teacup Philosopher in a program of Christmas cheer for shut-ins.

DRAMATIC SKETCH
Nina Kamalian, eleven-year-old pianist composer, is guest artist for a “Seattlight” broadcast over KOL at 4:45. Miss Kamalian has written sixty-five musical works, including hymns, lullabies, ballads, piano studies and “A Christmas Carol.” (sic) She will be introduced at the microphone by Joe Roberts.

Another feature of Roberts’ program will be a ten-minute address, “The Seattle Spirit at Christmas Time,” by Frank Laube, city councilman.

KJR has considerably augmented its staff, and completely revised its Thursday schedule in observance of Christmas. A mixed quartet form Plymouth Congregational Church will sing between 9 and 10 a.m., and again during a Cathedral Hour broadcast starting at 1 p.m.

At 4:30 p.m., KJR schedules a dramatic sketch, “What Is This Thing Called Christmas?” which will be followed by an orchestral program under the direction of Vic Meyers. Henri Damask’s Woodwin (sic) Ensemble, Pearle Dempsey’s Orchestra, and the Fifteen Jolly Friars will be heard in Christmas programs during the evening.
(Seattle Post-Intelligencer, December 25, 1930, Page Unknown)

The year 1931 brought the inaugural broadcast of the Metropolitan Opera on NBC on Christmas Day. It also featured the first mention in the Post-Intelligencer of regularly scheduled variety, drama and/or comedy programs (such as Amos ‘n’ Andy) being broadcast at their regular times, but featuring Christmas themes (rather than being preempted by special programming). This is an important convention that was to be adopted by television programs in the 1940s and 1950s—giving the audience a sense of participating in a national celebration along with the performers (some in character, some as themselves) heard live on the radio on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

WIDE VARIETY OF FEATURES TO BE PRESENTED
Virtually every type of Christmas program adaptable to radio will be heard over the air between noon today and midnight tomorrow.

Operas, oratorios, hymn singing, an parties, symphony concerts, church services, plays and pageants, not to mention music and talks from overseas, will supplant the ordinary schedule of broadcast programs.

Of course, Amos ‘n’ Andy, “Bing” Crosby, Lanny Ross, Rudy Vallee and other favorites of the air will continue in their regular spots, but they, too, give heed to the holiday theme.

Mass To Be Heard
Midnight mass this evening in St. Dominic’s Catholic Church, San Francisco, will be broadcast over the NBC-KOMO network, starting promptly at midnight.

The same chain offers a program at 5 p.m. featuring Mme. Ernestine Schumann Heink, retired opera singer;; a popular musicale, 6:30 to 7, by Lanny Ross, Don Vorhees and others; symphony music, 8:15 to 9:15, by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, and a Christmas party, 9:45 to 10, out of San Francisco studios.

Mme. Schumann-Heink will be guest artist with Vallee’s Connecticut Yankees. She is going to sing “Holy Night” and other songs of the Yule season.

Party At Capital
The annual community Christmas tree party in Washington, D.C., in which the president and members of his cabinet always participate, may be tuned in over KJR at 2 this afternoon.

Music for a dancing party on the NBC-KOMO chain between 7 and 8 p.m. will be provided by Seymour Simons’ Orchestra, playing in Detroit; Emerson Gill’s Orchestra, playing in Cleveland, and Herb Gordon’s Orchestra, broadcasting from the national capital.
(Seattle Post-Intelligencer, December 24, 1931, Page Unknown)

SPECIAL YULE PROGRAMS TO BE BROADCAST
Elaborate Schedules From All Parts Of United States Will Be Sent Over Air Today
Radio’s intangible but precious gifts of the moment will flow today in dazzling array out of the world’s leading broadcast centers.

New York, Washington, D.C., San Francisco—even the guardians of Grant National Park in California, and the purveyors of wireless features in far off London—offer unusually elaborate programs in keeping with the Yule festival. Oratorios, cantatas and other Christmas works of the great music masters will be sung at all hours of the day and night. One opera, numerous plays, and the major outdoor celebrations from the Atlantic to the Pacific are crowded into the day-long schedule of holiday treats for Mr. and Mrs. Radio Public.

OPERA ON AIR
Metropolitan Opera, the finest in America, goes on the air at 10:55 a.m., via the NBC-KJR network, to inaugurate a series of Metropolitan broadcasts. The production today will be “Hansel and Gretel,” sung in German. Editha Fleischer and Queena Mario, sopranos, are tentatively cast in the leading roles.

The first London program today comes at 9:30 a.m. over KOL and KVI. Gilbert K. Chesterton, English historian, will talk on “Charles Dickens and Christmas.”

Britain’s second contribution, 12:40 to 1 on KJR, will be an Aladdin pantomime.

The Grant Park program, originating outdoors in the high Sierras, is scheduled at noon by stations of the Columbia chain. Messages from the President and Governor Rolph will be read, a choir will sing Christmas music, to the accompaniment of Meredith Willson’s Concert Orchestra.
(Seattle Post-Intelligencer, December 25, 1931, Page Unknown)

A further increase in attention given to network programming is shown in 1932. The lead item in (and the headline for) the Post-Intelligencer’s Christmas Eve radio column is, uncharacteristically, devoted to the appearance on radio of a Post-Intelligencer columnist (rather than a nod to the bounty of holiday programming to be featured that night). Another interesting note is the reference to trouble with the landline connection to NBC network programming, and the fallback position of stations in the region sharing local programming to cover gaps.

BRISBANE WILL GIVE TALK ON NBC NETWORK
Arthur Brisbane, noted editorial writer for the Post-Intelligencer and other Hearst newspapers, will address a nation-wide audience tonight on NBC’s Christmas program, “Frank Black in Bethlehem.” He will be heard in Seattle over KOMO and KJR.

The broadcast will begin at 6 o’clock, and will bring Brisbane before the microphone at approximately 6:30. He will be introduced by Merlin Hall Aylsworth, president of NBC. The subject of his address has not been announced.

MARINE BAND TO PLAY
The program of Yuletide music will include numbers by Mme. Ernestine Schumann-Heink, beloved opera and concert contralto.

For the second time this week, NBC service to KJR and other Northwest stations of the “gold” network has been disrupted by band line breaks caused by storms between Dunsmuir and Redding, Calif.

The network has been out since early yesterday, and service is not expected to be resumed until about 11 a.m. Pending restoration of service, KJR will release programs to KEX, Portland and KGA, Spokane, the other members of the “gold” network.

The lighting of the national Christmas tree in Washington, D.C., will be described for CBS-KOL and NBC-KJR audiences from 2 to 2:30 p.m. The program will include music by the United States Marine Band and a large chorus.

Early dialers will hear Christmas carols from England in a special international broadcast over NBC-KOMO from 7:30 to 7:45 a.m.

PARIS MASS DUE
Midnight mass at the Church of the Madeleine in Paris will be brought to CBS-KOL audiences from 3:59 to 4:30 p.m. A dramatization of Dickens’ “Christmas Carol” will be heard over the same network from 7 to 8 p.m.

The singing of carols during the solemn novena to the Infant Jesus at St. James Cathedral will be broadcast over KJR from 9:15 to 10:30 p.m. The last thirty minutes of the program will be sent over the “gold” network of the National Broadcasting Company.

Christmas greetings to all veterans will be broadcast over NBC-KJR at 4:15 p.m. by Louis Johnson, national commander of the American Legion. The entire performance of the Metropolitan Opera Company’s production of “La Boheme” is scheduled for 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. as another NBC-KJR highlight.
(Seattle Post-Intelligencer, December 24, 1932, Page Unknown)

NETWORKS TO PRESENT MANY BIG FEATURES
Christmas Spirit Prevails In All Broadcast; Trans-Atlantic Programs Are Listed
Christmas carols, religious services and other holiday features will make up the brilliant array of national and trans-Atlantic broadcasts to be brought to Seattle today over NBC and CBS networks.

One of the biggest programs of the day is promised NBC-KJR audiences from 9:15 to 10:30 a.m., when the first Roxy Mammoth Symphony is presented.

Composed especially for the occasion by Desidir D’Antalffy, “Voics (sic) of Millions,” an impressive oratorio, will have its premiere. It will be offered by the Tuskegee Negro Choir, the Music Hall Choir and a 225-piece symphony orchestra under the direction of Erno Rapee.

Soloists will be Elizabeth Lennox, contralto; Fred Hufsmith, tenor; Phil Dewey, baritone, and Max Panteleieff, bass. Viola Philo and Amy Goldsmiths, sopranos, will also be heard.

CAROLS BY CHILDREN
Following a half-hour concert by the Salt Lake City Tabernacle choir and organ, CBS-KOL will present an international series of broadcasts from 9:30 to 10 a.m. The programs will come from London, Paris and Berlin, and will feature Christmas carols sung by children.

“A Modern Christmas Carol,” a dramatic program of the present day, will be presented over NBC-KOMO from 10:30 to 11 a.m. From 3:45 to 4:15 p.m. the network will feature a recital by Armand Tokatyan, Metropolitan Opera Company tenor.

Christmas in the spirit of days gone by will be portrayed by “Smiling Ed” McConnell during his program of monologue and song from 11 to 11:15 a.m. over CBS-KOL.

CELEBRATED SOPRANO
With Rosa Ponselle, celebrated dramatic soprano, featured, the “Sunday Circle” program will return to NBC-KOMO at 6:15 p.m. Forty-five minutes later the same chain will present Edna St. Vincent Millay, noted poet, in the first of a series of four broadcasts.

Christmas carols sung in three Scandinavian languages will be broadcast over KOMO from 10:30 to 11 p.m. Choirs from the First Norwegian Lutheran, the Gethsemane Lutheran (Swedish) and St. John’s Danish Lutheran churches will sing.

The spirit of the Yuletide likewise will prevail in most of the other programs to be heard throughout the day over all stations.
(Seattle Post-Intelligencer, December 24, 1932, Page Unknown)

Subsequent years feature the same amount of programming, with a few notable changes to the Post-Intelligencer’s coverage of radio. The timetable was not present in the 1933 Christmas Eve and Christmas Day newspapers as the conflict between the print media and broadcasters over radio scooping newspapers (and the perceived and real threat to newspaper advertising revenue) had only just been settled via the “Biltmore Program.” (Barnouw, The Golden Web, 20-21) The timetable is present again by 1934 when Lionel Barrymore begins his multi-year run as Scrooge. By Christmas 1935 the listings for the first time include foreign shortwave broadcasts.

By 1936, the large number and wide variety of Christmas celebrations broadcast on radio are characterized by the Post-Intelligencer radio editor as “typical”—featuring live programs from around the United States and Europe, and very little in the way of locally-originating programs. Also, the Post-Intelligencer for the first time since makes no distinction in the timetables between local and network broadcasts. Also notable in 1936 is recognition of the deteriorating situation in Europe; this is the year that Pope Pius XII made a “RADIO APPEAL FOR PEACE” in a Christmas Eve broadcast after which he collapsed from exhaustion. (Seattle Post-Intelligencer, December 25, 1936, Page 2) The Post-Intelligencer radio column headline and subheadline on Christmas Eve read:

TRADITION WILL PLAY PART ON YULE PROGRAMS
Typical Christmas Day Celebrations to Be Carried Over Networks by Local Stations
(Seattle Post-Intelligencer, December 24, 1936, Page 23)

The following year 1937 is notable for more drumbeats of war, and for what appears to be the first mention of soon-to-be-legendary CBS broadcaster Edward R. Murrow in a Seattle newspaper, though his name is misspelled. It is also interesting to note that Murrow’s first appearance as a broadcaster on CBS would take place three months later, when Hitler led the Nazis into Vienna. Much has been made of the first use of this so-called “round-up” format of the broadcast on March 13, 1938 that Murrow took part in along with newsmen from several other European capitals, at the behest of William Paley of CBS. With a moderator in London, live reports from around Europe were broadcast back to the United States. (Barnouw, The Golden Web, 77-79) Examination of Post-Intelligencer radio timetables show that the “round-up” term could have been applied to Christmas broadcasts as early as 1930, and it is perhaps CBS’s technical experience with these earlier Christmas broadcasts that made the “round-up” news format possible in 1938.

The 1937 Post-Intelligencer Christmas Eve and Christmas Day radio columns read:
Christmas Greetings From President Tops Today’s Yule Program
Radio will circle the earth today to give American broadcast listeners closeup glimpses of outstanding Christmas Eve ceremonies.
(Seattle Post-Intelligencer, December 24, 1937, Page Unknown)

King George, Haile Selassie Will Be Heard on Air Today In Christmas Broadcasts
Merry Christmas, radio fans!
And now that the kiddies have gone romping off to show the neighbors their toys, maybe you’ll have a few minutes’ time to red-pencil the programs you consider outstanding on today’s heavy schedule of Christmas broadcasts. The fare is so varied, and there are so many big features, it’s difficult to single out any one that rates above all others.

9:30 to 9:45 a.m.
CBS-KVI
Greetings from Haile Selassie, deposed emperor of Abyssinia. Translation by E.R. Murror (sic), CBS foreign representative.

1 to 1:30 p.m.
NBC-KOMO
“Twelve Thousand Miles of Merry Christmas,” with broadcasts from New York City, the United States House in Paris, station KGU, Honolulu, and Matanuska Valley, Alaska. Americans in Paris will tell how they spend Christmas. Honolulu will present a police glee club program, and the Matanuskans will sing “Silent Night.”
(Seattle Post-Intelligencer, December 25, 1937, Page 8)

The next-to-last year of the survey, 1938, is remarkable for a few important reasons. First, it is the last Christmas before World War II begins in Europe. It’s also the last year that the Post-Intelligencer publishes a radio column (and not simply a timetable with a “Best Bets” sidebar). Lastly, a holiday tradition better (or almost solely) known for its manifestation on television, the Bing Crosby holiday special, makes its first appearance on radio:

RADIO STATIONS WILL FEATURE HOLIDAY SPIRIT
Widely Varying Programs for All Hours to Cover Events In Many Parts of World
Putting Christmas on the air is a man-sized job, but the folk behind the kilocycles seem to have done a nice bit of work for today. There are scores of special features, some of theme spanning the Atlantic, and regular programs will revolve around the day.

Just to give you a few of the many outstanding highlights:
“At Home with the Crosby’s,” NBC-KOMO, 8:15 a.m.—coming from the home of Bing Crosby and showing the reactions of his four sons when they come downstairs to see the Christmas tree and gifts.
(Seattle Post-Intelligencer, December 25, 1938, Page Unknown)

By 1939, the bold internationalism and global interconnectedness of early 1930s radio had taken a step backward, it seems, when considering the dearth of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day programming from overseas. While King George VI’s annual message was broadcast locally, there were no further “pickups” from overseas capitals. Still, it is remarkable to examine 18 years of holiday broadcasting in Seattle and watch it grow from a single male quartet singing for 30 minutes in 1921, to nearly a dozen stations broadcasting 18 or more hours a day in 1939.

This attempt to examine the influence of radio and Christmas is admittedly small and unscientific, and given the scope of its research, it makes some fairly grand claims. Hopefully, it will encourage further study of radio’s role in promoting Christmas and Christmas’ role in promoting radio, as there are several logical next steps in conducting such study. First among these is to examine a wider range of publications in Seattle as well as other cities in the United States, including radio trade publications and entertainment magazines. Conducting a tally of programming hours devoted to Christmas will allow quantifiable comparison to holidays of similar magnitude, and would help “rank” of Christmas against programming during other holidays. It would also be worthwhile to study audience surveys and program ratings from the period to see how audience sizes for different programs compared during the Christmas celebrations over the years. Expanding the years of the study to encompass World War II would likely find Christmas radio programs that better exemplify the concepts of “terrestrial spirituality” and “Audible Night,” as millions of Americans at home kept apprised of developments affecting loved ones overseas through the growing presence of NBC and CBS news personnel (and those overseas tuned in the Armed Forces Radio Service for entertainment from home). Lastly, interviews with the dwindling number of elderly folks who lived through the 1920s and 1940s would provide a human context that microfilm and even archival recordings lack.

The power of radio as a social force to spread information and dictate popular taste, particularly in the 1920s and 1930s, is easy to imagine as much weaker without the Christmas holiday and its abundant, accessible material. Christmas, without radio to broadcast the words, music and plays and live events from remote places, is easy to imagine as a much less significant holiday on the American calendar. Thanks to the innate qualities and mutual influence of and by these respective phenomena, the American Christmas in the 1920s and 1930s was, for those listening to their radios, an “Audible Night.”

Bibliography

Barnett, James H. The American Christmas: A Study in National Culture. New York: The Macmillan Company. 1954.

Barnouw, Erik. The Golden Web: A History of Broadcasting in the United States 1933-1953. New York: Oxford University Press. 1968

Barnouw, Erik. A Tower in Babel: A History of Broadcasting in the United States to 1933. New York: Oxford University Press. 1966.

Briggs, Asa. The Golden Age of Wireless. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1995.

Brubaker, William Hanford. A History of Radio Broadcasting in Seattle Up To The Establishment of the Radio Act of 1927. Unpublished Masters Thesis, 1968.

Crook, Tim. Radio Drama: Theory and Practice. London and New York: Routledge. 1999.

Davis, Paul. The Lives and Times of Ebenezer Scrooge. New Haven, CT and London: Yale University Press. 1990.

Douglas, Susan J. Inventing American Broadcasting 1899-1922. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press. 1987.

Hartley, Ian. Goodnight Children . . . Everywhere. New York: Midas Books/Hippocrene Books. 1984.

Hilmes, Michelle. Radio Voices: American Broadcasting, 1922-1952. Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press. 1997.

Marling, Karal Ann. Merry Christmas: Celebrating America’s Greatest Holiday. Cambridge, MA and London, England: Harvard University Press. 2000.

McLeod, Elizabeth. Old Time Radio Moments of the Century. Via the Internet, posted at: http://members.aol.com/jeff1070/mcleod.html

Millard, Andre. America On Record. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Raby, Ormond. Radio’s First Voice: The Story of Reginald Fessenden. Toronto, Ontario: Macmillan of Canada. 1970.

Restad, Penne L. Christmas in America: A History. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1995.

Richardson, David. Puget Sounds: A Nostalgic Review of Radio and TV in the Great Northwest. Superior Press. 1981.

Smulyan, Susan. Selling Radio: The Commercialization of American Broadcasting 1920-1934. Washington, DC and London: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1994.

Recent Special News Coverage in Seattle

2009-11-07T12:59:00.000-08:00

In the past 10 days, Seattle broadcasters have had two opportunities to cover significant news during the early afternoon period normally filled with talk shows, soaps and tabloid TV.

I wrote a week or so ago for Crosscut.com about radio (and TV) breaking news coverage of Boeing's announcement that it would locate a new factory someplace other than the Seattle area. It was HUGE news around here, where Boeing's been a major economic, civic and cultural factor for decades.

Then, yesterday (Friday, November 6, 2009), a massive memorial service was held for a Seattle Police Officer who was murdered on Halloween. While not breaking news, it was a major community event that all four local TV news departments and both commercial radio news stations preempted regular programming in order to air. I wrote today for Crosscut.com about differences in style and extent of radio and TV coverage.

Here's hoping for more UNINTERRUPTED talk shows, soaps and tabloid TV shows in the weeks, months and years ahead.

BOOK REVIEW Pioneer Mikes: A History of Radio and Television in Oregon By Ronald Kramer

2009-11-03T07:09:00.000-08:00

Published by Western States Museum of Broadcasting and JPR Foundation
Order via www.ijpr.org or 541-552-6301

470 pages $26.95 softcover
300 illustrations, index, selected bibliography

Just in time for the holidays comes a nostalgic look at broadcasting in the Beaver State (that’s Oregon for you non-Northwesterners) called Pioneer Mikes. The beautifully-designed book was written by Ronald Kramer and published by a consortium that includes Kramer’s nascent Western States Museum of Broadcasting in Ashland, Oregon.

The danger in regional broadcasting histories is that they can all start to sound the same—early amateur experimenters playing phonographs beget department store and newspaper stations featuring live music; frequency battles create chaos as competing stations jam each other’s signals; the Radio Act of 1927 remedies some of the most pressing issues; NBC and CBS begin to affiliate with local stations and radio becomes a truly national medium.

Fortunately, Kramer has been so thorough in his research, he’s teased out dozens of stories of both radio and TV broadcasting that set Oregon’s history apart—such as the devastating 1943 KEX-KGW studio fire (that, in spite of the catastrophic damage, kept the stations off the air for only 12 minutes); how a protozoic cable system brought Seattle TV programs to Astoria in the late 1940s; and the toppling of the KGW-TV tower during the 1962 Columbus Day Storm.

Kramer has also gone so wide and deep (with specific staffing, licensing and ownership details for seemingly every radio and TV station that ever operated in the state), that I decided to put Pioneer Mikes to the test. I spent a summer in Southern Oregon’s Rogue River Valley 20 years ago, and listened to daytime-only station KAJO from nearby Grants Pass nearly every day. As a city boy, I was enthralled with KAJO’s folksy birthday announcements and on-air garage sales. Sure enough, page 342 of Pioneer Mikes tells me that KAJO signed on back on August 15, 1957, and that the station is still owned by its founders, the Wilson family.

Further, the perspective Kramer brings to Pioneer Mikes on local broadcasting—particularly regarding the influence of the national networks and how they managed to physically connect to Oregon, Washington and California—is very clearly West Coast. As regular readers of I STILL LOVE RADIO know from previous posts, this is a rarity in any kind of writing about radio history. Kramer appreciates the significance of time zone differences between the West Coast and network studios in New York, and the importance of the many regional networks (some of which preceded the wires which finally connected the West Coast to NBC and CBS).

In addition to encyclopedic details of call-letters, frequencies, sign-on and sign-off dates, Pioneer Mikes is also lavishly illustrated with hundreds of photos and pieces of radio station ephemera. From the image credits, it’s clear that the Western States Museum of Broadcasting is in possession of a pretty cool collection of priceless material.

My only complaint with Pioneer Mikes is that some of Kramer’s research and writing on the broad national stories and issues feels a little cursory, resulting in some muddled though, admittedly, minor facts. For instance, H.V. Kaltenborn’s famous “Munich Crisis” broadcasts in 1938 were for CBS, not for NBC (Kaltenborn moved to NBC in 1940); and Edward Noble, who purchased from NBC the radio network that became ABC, made his fortune with Life Savers, not Wrigley’s Gum (though Life Savers became part of Wrigley's in 2004).

For anyone who’s ever spent time listening to or watching Oregon media, Pioneer Mikes is a great way to learn more about the people and businesses who made it all happen—even if you’ve never listened to KAJO.

2003 War of the Worlds Radio Documentary

2009-10-26T14:19:00.001-07:00

With the 71st anniversary of the infamous War of the Worlds radio broadcast coming up this Friday, October 30, I thought I'd post a link to audio of a 30-minute radio documentary I produced for the 65th anniversary in 2003.

I hosted this program live early on the morning of October 31, 2003 on KBCS-FM in Bellevue, WA (preempting the first half-hour of a delightfully titled program called "Nerd Rock"), and preceded by an airing of the complete original 1938 recording (without permission from the Koch estate, I must now belatedly admit).

Featured are contextual audio cuts, such as Herb Morrison describing the 1937 Hindenburg crash; audio "highlights" from the September 1938 Munich Crisis (including Adolf Hitler and Neville Chamberlain); as well as Ed Murrow a few years later from London during the Blitz.

My favorite part of the show are the cuts from a phone interview I did with Albert Frank, who passed away a year or so ago. Mr. Frank spent his entire life in Concrete, WA (about two hours from Seattle) and was there when the War of the Worlds broadcast and a poorly timed power outage conspired to send at least one woman screaming into the streets (which Mr. Frank witnessed). Concrete was written up in newspapers everywhere at the time for mass hysteria among its residents, and it was a joy to hear about the episode from someone who was actually there.

BOOK REVIEW Waging The War of the Worlds: A History of the 1938 Radio Broadcast and Resulting Panic By John Gosling

2009-10-26T10:06:00.000-07:00

Published by McFarland
Order via mcfarlandpub.com or 800-253-2187

247 pages $45 softcover
34 photos, appendix, notes, filmography, bibliography, index, plus original radio script by Howard Koch
Available December 2009

The 1938 radio broadcast of War of the Worlds has long been the stuff of legend: the 23-year-old Orson Welles and his Mercury Theatre on the Air took a musty Victorian era science fiction story and turned it into a crackling series of simulated news bulletins detailing a Martian invasion of the United States. As the hour-long CBS broadcast unfolded on the night before Halloween—just a few weeks after the Munich Crisis had kept listeners glued to their radios for authentic scary news—many of those tuned in mistook the drama for the real thing and panic ensued.

It reads like urban legend, and feels impossible to imagine by contemporary media saturation standards (where consumers have multiple news sources constantly at their fingertips—literally). But what’s most amazing some 71 years later is that the myth-like story of what happened on October 30, 1938 is pretty much true. While there are sensationalized elements of the story—injuries and deaths among those panicking—that never really happened, the broadcast remains as chilling as described (a complete recording is available here), and subsequent analysis at the time by social scientists (and decades later by media historians) confirm that at least a million Americans believed that they were hearing actual news reports rather than a radio drama.

The phenomenon and attendant facts have been ripe for the kind of comprehensive treatment that John Gosling gives them in his new book Waging The War of the Worlds. Gosling is not the first to attempt to provide a detailed history of The War of the Worlds, but he is the first to so thoroughly document the infamous broadcast, and seemingly all possible context for the imaginary invasion and its decades-long aftermath.

Gosling goes back to London in 1926, when a BBC drama production included simulated news coverage of a labor riot (including the mob’s tearing down of Big Ben). He gives us the blow-by-blow of Welles and company in 1938. He takes us to Ecuador, for a 1949 War of the Worlds Spanish-language broadcast that so enraged listeners, they burned down the radio station. And he takes us to Buffalo, New York and Providence, Rhode Island for similar (though less destructive) broadcasts in the 1960s and 1970s. Along the way, Goslin also goes deep into intriguing questions, including who actually wrote the script: not Orson Welles, but future Casablanca screenwriter Howard Koch.

Gosling is a science fiction expert based in the UK, but generally does not let this get in the way of his mastery of a very American subject. However, there are a few areas where, I’m guessing, Gosling’s thorough though geographically remote grasp of American broadcasting does detract from what are arguably minor points. Gosling characterizes Herbert Morrison, the WLS Chicago broadcaster who made the famous recording of the Hindenburg disaster, as a “local reporter” from New Jersey. And, in an area that’s become one of my personal pet peeves in media histories, Gosling examines the War of the Worlds phenomenon from a decidedly East Coast perspective—considering only the 8pm Eastern Time broadcast and ignoring the fact that the show played at 5pm on the West Coast (and not examining what differences this may have created in listener experiences of the program).

Though Waging The War of the Worlds includes a thorough bibliography and “filmography,” it ironically lacks any listing of available audio recordings. I’d love to hear some of the later broadcasts that Gosling describes (another recent book—called The War of the Worlds, by Holmsten and Lubertozzi—while not as thorough as Waging, includes a CD of the original show as well as clips from other broadcasts). Also, Gosling’s bibliography leaves out one of the best previously published analyses of the broadcast: Robert J. Brown’s 1998 Manipulating the Ether: The Power of Broadcast Radio in Thirties America (also published by McFarland).

Before Waging the War of the Worlds, those interested in a thorough understanding of the topic were required to assemble a variety of out-of-print sources—Hadley Cantril’s Invasion from Mars; Howard Koch’s The Panic Broadcast; as well as memoirs and biographies of Welles and his associates. Thanks to Gosling, one book can now serve as the definitive single source for old-time radio buffs and reference librarians everywhere.

While the American public is not likely to ever be fooled again by a broadcast, one sure way to cause a radio panic in 2009 would be to deprive the serious scholar or armchair enthusiast of their own copy of Waging The War of the Worlds.

Orson Welles, Major Bowes and . . . Balloon Dad?

2009-10-25T08:39:00.000-07:00

I almost always enjoy reading Frank Rich's weekly column in the Sunday New York Times for his deft weaving of cultural and historical references into scathing contemporary comment. So I was especially pleased when I read Rich's column about "Balloon Dad" Richard Heene in today's (Sunday, October 25, 2009) New York Times, where the columnist makes two references to 1930s radio programs.

The first reference is to the much-cited War of the Worlds panic-inducing broadcast of October 1938. The second is to the now obscure Major Bowes Amateur Hour, something of a precursor to American Idol. I credit Rich for his fluency in American pre-television media history, and for being willing to regularly reference programs that few among the living can remember.

In fact, I think it was just last week (or maybe the week before) that Rich's column mentioned another 1930s radio figure: controversial priest of the airwaves Father Coughlin. With all these radio references flying around, I can't wait to see how Rich will work Amos 'n' Andy into a column about the run-off election in Afghanistan ("I's regusted, President Karzai!"); Joe Penner into a column about stalled health care reform ("Wanna buy a public option?"); and Jack Pearl into a column about Speaker of the House Pelosi ("Vas you dere, Nancy?).

On a semi-related media metaphor note, another talented New York Times writer a few years ago (who I've been unable to identify and unable to find online) brilliantly called pioneering 1990s tabloid video perps Amy Fisher and Joey Buttafuoco the "Howdy Doody and Buffalo Bob of Reality TV."

This kind of lively, informed writing is exactly what media criticism needs more of, if only to balance what typically comprises the broadcast beat: puff piece performer profiles and cautionary tales of talk radio that use the word "demagogue."

Otherwise, media criticism may as well be written by Charlie McCarthy.