A project devoted to preserving and restoring rare episodes of a South African radio series based on the popular UK television series, "The Avengers", has started up their restoration efforts again after a couple of years in hiatus.
The program was broadcast as a five-day-a-week serial and was based on scripts from the tv series using South African actors. At the time, television in the country wasn't well developed, but people got familiar with "The Avengers" through film exchanges, which rented 16mm films much like today's video stores. Radio drama was still a major art form in South Africa, so the tv show was turned into a radio show.
You can see more info on the show and download restored episodes here.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Vicent Dooley ... "invent destiny"
The web video, with its developing conventions and aesthetics, hasn't really impressed me so far. Web series have a penchant for going after a particular demographic (like Lonelygirl) with such gusto that the internal references are obtuse and the characters and plots are, well, kind of boring. In other cases, such as the many video series at crackle.com, they're so poorly acted and scripted that they're painful and embarrassing to sit through like half-baked failed television pilots.
This web series looks more promising. The first video is funny and well written. The lead actor is really creates a character here and has a great sense of comic timing. So, let's meet Vincent, inventor. From California...
More videos are at the YouTube channel for the series.
This web series looks more promising. The first video is funny and well written. The lead actor is really creates a character here and has a great sense of comic timing. So, let's meet Vincent, inventor. From California...
More videos are at the YouTube channel for the series.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Vince Long's paper tape archives
Here's an interesting site that came along in an old time radio mailing list I'm a member of.
OTR enthusiast Vince Long obtained about 100 reel to reel tapes, many early Scotch paper-based tapes, that were recorded of network and local radio shows in the Billings, Montana area in the early 1950s. They're a fascinating look at local radio and what an average listener might have been tuned to at the time. The collection includes many shows not previously in circulation and include music, variety, news and sports shows. All are available in downloadable MP3 format.
http://www.otrannex.com/papertapes/
OTR enthusiast Vince Long obtained about 100 reel to reel tapes, many early Scotch paper-based tapes, that were recorded of network and local radio shows in the Billings, Montana area in the early 1950s. They're a fascinating look at local radio and what an average listener might have been tuned to at the time. The collection includes many shows not previously in circulation and include music, variety, news and sports shows. All are available in downloadable MP3 format.
http://www.otrannex.com/papertapes/
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
... and speaking of robots ....
Found this interesting video of the Sony Aibo, an electronic pet "dog" marketed by Sony a few years back.
Unlike the maker of the video, I just don't think it would be as much fun as a cat.
Robot pets are a big industry in Japan; they're seen as convenient companions for the elderly or in situations where there's not much space in small apartment buildings.
Here's two ads for a Japanese robot cat:
And a video that shows a robotic pet seal named Paro. There's also another video on YouTube showing it interacting with patients in a Japanese nursing home.
Unlike the maker of the video, I just don't think it would be as much fun as a cat.
Robot pets are a big industry in Japan; they're seen as convenient companions for the elderly or in situations where there's not much space in small apartment buildings.
Here's two ads for a Japanese robot cat:
And a video that shows a robotic pet seal named Paro. There's also another video on YouTube showing it interacting with patients in a Japanese nursing home.
Chris Thrash's Rock-A-Fire Explosion
Back in the 1980s, there was a pizza chain called Showbiz Pizza that eventually went bankrupt and merged with Chuck E. Cheese.
The centerpiece of the restaurants was an animatronic band, the Rock-A-Fire Explosion, designed by a company in Florida. The display, which would take up one whole side of the restaurant, was similar to the animatronic robot displays that Disney used in their theme parks.
As these displays have been removed from installations in recent years, a small group of enthusiasts have tried to preserve them. Chris Thrash owns one and does something a little more interesting with it.
Originally, the displays would put on shows of pop songs for kids; Thrash and other enthusiasts reprogram them to play current popular songs.
The videos are funny, but also admirable for the technical skill of the original designers of the Rock-A-Fire and for the new programmers. The Rock-A-Fire, by the way, was originally controlled by a four track reel to reel tape machine and later by VCRs or Apple II computers; those preserving and reprogramming the displays now use a modified Tivo.
First up is a video from YouTube showing what one of the original Rock-A-Fire shows looked like:
Here's a couple of reprogramming efforts. The first is Usher's "Love in This Club". Note: This song contains explicit lyrics that may be offensive to some viewers.
The second example I found is the Madonna/Justin Timberlake song, "4 Minutes". It's not quite as creatively programmed as the Usher track and doesn't use all of the characters in the display.
Each week, Chris Thrash takes bids from Internet viewers on what song they should program next. The funds from the auctions go towards upkeep and preservation of the Rock-A-Fire installation.
http://starsof.com/fans/
There's also several videos by Thrash and others located here:
http://www.programblue.com/list.php
I could see Chris Thrash's Rock-A-Fire Explosion being a musical guest on "Saturday Night Live" or as an opening act for The Gorillaz. (In fact, why not get them to perform Gorillaz songs like this?)
The centerpiece of the restaurants was an animatronic band, the Rock-A-Fire Explosion, designed by a company in Florida. The display, which would take up one whole side of the restaurant, was similar to the animatronic robot displays that Disney used in their theme parks.
As these displays have been removed from installations in recent years, a small group of enthusiasts have tried to preserve them. Chris Thrash owns one and does something a little more interesting with it.
Originally, the displays would put on shows of pop songs for kids; Thrash and other enthusiasts reprogram them to play current popular songs.
The videos are funny, but also admirable for the technical skill of the original designers of the Rock-A-Fire and for the new programmers. The Rock-A-Fire, by the way, was originally controlled by a four track reel to reel tape machine and later by VCRs or Apple II computers; those preserving and reprogramming the displays now use a modified Tivo.
First up is a video from YouTube showing what one of the original Rock-A-Fire shows looked like:
Here's a couple of reprogramming efforts. The first is Usher's "Love in This Club". Note: This song contains explicit lyrics that may be offensive to some viewers.
The second example I found is the Madonna/Justin Timberlake song, "4 Minutes". It's not quite as creatively programmed as the Usher track and doesn't use all of the characters in the display.
Each week, Chris Thrash takes bids from Internet viewers on what song they should program next. The funds from the auctions go towards upkeep and preservation of the Rock-A-Fire installation.
http://starsof.com/fans/
There's also several videos by Thrash and others located here:
http://www.programblue.com/list.php
I could see Chris Thrash's Rock-A-Fire Explosion being a musical guest on "Saturday Night Live" or as an opening act for The Gorillaz. (In fact, why not get them to perform Gorillaz songs like this?)
Monday, December 31, 2007
WLAV 10th Anniversary Show from 1950
Here's another rarity from radio history on the blog today.
A few years ago, a good friend, Bill Blodgett, gave me a vintage Lear wire recorder. If you're not familiar with the devices, wire recorders were a predecessor to magnetic tape recorders used by the military and for some recordings of field reports by reporters during World War II. After the War, they were marketed for home and business use. They recorded audio on a thin wire moving at around 20 inches per second. After only a few years, sales of wire recorders declined in favor of easier to use and edit tape recordings.
I have up a page about the recorder and some of the wires that Bill gave me with the set on my website. Most of the wires contained recordings of song, snippets of radio broadcasts, and events like Christmas or birthday parties and neither Bill nor I know who the original owners were.
Two wires among the recordings contain a rather unusual program. The show appears to have been created, perhaps for a private party, by the staff of radio station WLAV for their tenth anniversary. Below is a link to the two excerpts found on different wires - the program is almost complete when you listen to the excerpts one after another.
The show tells a funny dramatized story about the history of the station, poking fun at WLAV's founder and owner, Leonard Allen Versluis. It also frames the "show" as a broadcast from the ABC network, so I'm assuming the station was an affiliate at the time. WLAV started broadcasting in 1940, so that would make this recording date from 1950. According to Wikipedia, WLAV-AM, located in Grand Rapids, Michigan, is now WBBL, which broadcasts with a sports-talk format.
I contacted the station about the recording, but, with the changes in management over the past fifty-plus years, they didn't know anything about it. They wanted a copy for their collection and I sent it to them.
What surprised me about this wire and some others was the quality - I've always heard that wire recorders sounded rather poor, but this rivals some audio tape recordings from the time in frequency response. The anniversary show appears to have been dubbed either from an acetate or tape made at the station.
If you ever run into old wire recordings or reels of tape, be sure to pick them up and give them a listen - you never know what might turn up.
WLAV Anniversary - Part 1 (1:57, MP3 - 2.7 MB)
WLAV Anniversary - Part 2 (10:48, MP3 - 14.9 MB)
A few years ago, a good friend, Bill Blodgett, gave me a vintage Lear wire recorder. If you're not familiar with the devices, wire recorders were a predecessor to magnetic tape recorders used by the military and for some recordings of field reports by reporters during World War II. After the War, they were marketed for home and business use. They recorded audio on a thin wire moving at around 20 inches per second. After only a few years, sales of wire recorders declined in favor of easier to use and edit tape recordings.
I have up a page about the recorder and some of the wires that Bill gave me with the set on my website. Most of the wires contained recordings of song, snippets of radio broadcasts, and events like Christmas or birthday parties and neither Bill nor I know who the original owners were.
Two wires among the recordings contain a rather unusual program. The show appears to have been created, perhaps for a private party, by the staff of radio station WLAV for their tenth anniversary. Below is a link to the two excerpts found on different wires - the program is almost complete when you listen to the excerpts one after another.
The show tells a funny dramatized story about the history of the station, poking fun at WLAV's founder and owner, Leonard Allen Versluis. It also frames the "show" as a broadcast from the ABC network, so I'm assuming the station was an affiliate at the time. WLAV started broadcasting in 1940, so that would make this recording date from 1950. According to Wikipedia, WLAV-AM, located in Grand Rapids, Michigan, is now WBBL, which broadcasts with a sports-talk format.
I contacted the station about the recording, but, with the changes in management over the past fifty-plus years, they didn't know anything about it. They wanted a copy for their collection and I sent it to them.
What surprised me about this wire and some others was the quality - I've always heard that wire recorders sounded rather poor, but this rivals some audio tape recordings from the time in frequency response. The anniversary show appears to have been dubbed either from an acetate or tape made at the station.
If you ever run into old wire recordings or reels of tape, be sure to pick them up and give them a listen - you never know what might turn up.
WLAV Anniversary - Part 1 (1:57, MP3 - 2.7 MB)
WLAV Anniversary - Part 2 (10:48, MP3 - 14.9 MB)
Friday, December 28, 2007
NBC Night Beat promo record set
On a recent trip to Goodwill, I found a curious little 45 rpm record set.
After RCA developed the 45 rpm record, they promoted the format as a replacement for 78 rpm album sets and singles. In the late 40s and through the early 50s, they issued album sets in various genres and promoted RCA record changers for 45s that could be hooked up as auxiliary devices to radio sets.
At Goodwill, there were a few of these sets by artists like Wayne King and Vaughn Monroe, but one caught my eye. It was called "Night Beat" and featured an NBC record label. I've heard an old NBC radio drama series by that name, but had never seen a radio show issued on 45s like this. Curious, I picked up the set and checked it out.
The set consists of one complete episode of the show with an announcement aimed at advertisers inserted just after the opening, inviting potential sponsors to buy time on the program. So, this appears to be a promotional set put out by NBC.
listen to MP3 of the opening and promo announcement (2 MB)
I'm guessing that someone at NBC saw it as a chance to promote the series to advertisers in the face of competition from television. Indeed, "Night Beat" was sustained, without a sponsor, for the first few months of its run.
I posted about the set on the OTR mailing list and Michael Biel helpfully provided some additional information about the set. The label and matrix numbers are EO-CX-342 through 347 and the label runoff area includes an "I" notation near the matrix number. According to Biel, "EO" is a date code indicating 1950. The "C" indicates "Custom", pressed by RCA for a special purpose (a "K" would be used if the records were custom pressed for an outside customer). Biel estimates that the master numbers were done early in the year, perhaps mid-January to early February.
The "X" in the matrix number is a problem - usually a "W" was used in this position at the time. Biel thinks this might be a holdover from the "X" used in this position during secret development of the 45 rpm system between 1940 and 1948. The "I" indication is a code for pressings done in the Indianapolis plant.
The source of the recording sounds to my ears like a 16" transcription - halfway through the show, you can hear a side change where the audio quality changes, similar to what might be heard when going from the end of one side of a transcription to the beginning of a second side.
Despite no episode title in the program or on the label, the episode on the records appears to be "Zero", the first show of the series broadcast on February 6, 1950, according to a log of the series.
Anyone have any additional info on the set or seen others like it? Was there other material, like a press kit, also released? Was it sent to ad agencies or advertising departments at some companies?
After RCA developed the 45 rpm record, they promoted the format as a replacement for 78 rpm album sets and singles. In the late 40s and through the early 50s, they issued album sets in various genres and promoted RCA record changers for 45s that could be hooked up as auxiliary devices to radio sets.
At Goodwill, there were a few of these sets by artists like Wayne King and Vaughn Monroe, but one caught my eye. It was called "Night Beat" and featured an NBC record label. I've heard an old NBC radio drama series by that name, but had never seen a radio show issued on 45s like this. Curious, I picked up the set and checked it out.
The set consists of one complete episode of the show with an announcement aimed at advertisers inserted just after the opening, inviting potential sponsors to buy time on the program. So, this appears to be a promotional set put out by NBC.
listen to MP3 of the opening and promo announcement (2 MB)
I'm guessing that someone at NBC saw it as a chance to promote the series to advertisers in the face of competition from television. Indeed, "Night Beat" was sustained, without a sponsor, for the first few months of its run.
I posted about the set on the OTR mailing list and Michael Biel helpfully provided some additional information about the set. The label and matrix numbers are EO-CX-342 through 347 and the label runoff area includes an "I" notation near the matrix number. According to Biel, "EO" is a date code indicating 1950. The "C" indicates "Custom", pressed by RCA for a special purpose (a "K" would be used if the records were custom pressed for an outside customer). Biel estimates that the master numbers were done early in the year, perhaps mid-January to early February.
The "X" in the matrix number is a problem - usually a "W" was used in this position at the time. Biel thinks this might be a holdover from the "X" used in this position during secret development of the 45 rpm system between 1940 and 1948. The "I" indication is a code for pressings done in the Indianapolis plant.
The source of the recording sounds to my ears like a 16" transcription - halfway through the show, you can hear a side change where the audio quality changes, similar to what might be heard when going from the end of one side of a transcription to the beginning of a second side.
Despite no episode title in the program or on the label, the episode on the records appears to be "Zero", the first show of the series broadcast on February 6, 1950, according to a log of the series.
Anyone have any additional info on the set or seen others like it? Was there other material, like a press kit, also released? Was it sent to ad agencies or advertising departments at some companies?
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