Old Fashioned Radio Mystery Radio Recordings
The Golden Age of Radio, also known as the old-time radio (OTR) era, was an era of radio in the The states where it was the dominant electronic abode entertainment medium. It began with the nascency of commercial radio broadcasting in the early 1920s and lasted through the 1950s, when television gradually superseded radio as the medium of selection for scripted programming, diverseness and dramatic shows.
Radio was the first circulate medium, and during this period people regularly tuned in to their favorite radio programs, and families gathered to heed to the domicile radio in the evening. According to a 1947 C. East. Hooper survey, 82 out of 100 Americans were found to be radio listeners.[i] A multifariousness of new entertainment formats and genres were created for the new medium, many of which after migrated to television: radio plays, mystery serials, soap operas, quiz shows, talent shows, daytime and evening variety hours, situation comedies, play-by-play sports, children's shows, cooking shows, and more than.
In the 1950s, television surpassed radio as the most popular broadcast medium, and commercial radio programming shifted to narrower formats of news, talk, sports and music. Religious broadcasters, listener-supported public radio and college stations provide their ain distinctive formats.
Origins [edit]
During the first iii decades of radio, from 1887 to about 1920, the technology of transmitting audio was undeveloped; the information-carrying power of radio waves was the aforementioned equally a telegraph; the radio bespeak could be either on or off. Radio communication was by radiotelegraphy; at the sending terminate, an operator tapped on a switch which caused the radio transmitter to produce a serial of pulses of radio waves which spelled out text messages in Morse code. At the receiver these sounded similar beeps, requiring an operator who knew Morse code to translate them back to text. This type of radio was used exclusively for person-to-person text advice for commercial, diplomatic and military purposes and hobbyists; broadcasting did non exist.
The broadcasts of live drama, comedy, music and news that characterize the Aureate Age of Radio had a precedent in the Théâtrophone, commercially introduced in Paris in 1890 and available every bit late every bit 1932. It immune subscribers to overhear on live phase performances and hear news reports by ways of a network of telephone lines. The development of radio eliminated the wires and subscription charges from this concept.
Between 1900 and 1920 the first technology for transmitting audio by radio was adult, AM (amplitude modulation), and AM broadcasting sprang up effectually 1920.
On Christmas Eve 1906, Reginald Fessenden is said to accept broadcast the first radio programme, consisting of some violin playing and passages from the Bible. While Fessenden's role as an inventor and early radio experimenter is not in dispute, several gimmicky radio researchers have questioned whether the Christmas Eve broadcast took place, or whether the date was, in fact, several weeks earlier. The beginning apparent published reference to the event was made in 1928 by H.P. Davis, Vice President of Westinghouse, in a lecture given at Harvard University. In 1932 Fessenden cited the Christmas Eve 1906 circulate event in a letter he wrote to Vice President S.K. Kinter of Westinghouse. Fessenden's wife Helen recounts the circulate in her book Fessenden: Builder of Tomorrows (1940), eight years after Fessenden's death. The outcome of whether the 1906 Fessenden broadcast actually happened is discussed in Donna Halper'south article "In Search of the Truth About Fessenden"[2] and also in James O'Neal's essays.[3] [four] An annotated argument supporting Fessenden as the world's first radio broadcaster was offered in 2006 by Dr. John S. Belrose, Radioscientist Emeritus at the Communications Enquiry Centre Canada, in his essay "Fessenden's 1906 Christmas Eve circulate."[five]
It was not until after the Titanic catastrophe in 1912 that radio for mass advice came into vogue, inspired start by the work of amateur ("ham") radio operators. Radio was particularly of import during World War I every bit information technology was vital for air and naval operations. Earth War I brought about major developments in radio, superseding the Morse code of the wireless telegraph with the vocal communication of the wireless telephone, through advancements in vacuum tube applied science and the introduction of the transceiver.
Later on the war, numerous radio stations were born in the United states of america and set up the standard for later radio programs. The first radio news plan was broadcast on August 31, 1920, on the station 8MK in Detroit; owned by The Detroit News, the station covered local election results. This was followed in 1920 with the commencement commercial radio station in the United States, KDKA, being established in Pittsburgh. The first regular amusement programs were circulate in 1922, and on March x, Variety carried the front-folio headline: "Radio Sweeping Country: one,000,000 Sets in Use."[six] A highlight of this time was the first Rose Bowl existence circulate on January 1, 1923, on the Los Angeles station KHJ.
Growth of radio [edit]
Circulate radio in the The states underwent a flow of rapid alter through the decade of the 1920s. Technology advances, better regulation, rapid consumer adoption, and the creation of broadcast networks transformed radio from a consumer marvel into the mass media powerhouse that divers the Gilt Age of Radio.
Consumer adoption [edit]
Through the decade of the 1920s, the purchase of radios past The states homes continued, and accelerated. RCA released figures in 1925 stating that 19% of United states of america homes owned a radio.[vii] The triode and regenerative circuit made amplified, vacuum tube radios widely available to consumers by the second one-half of the 1920s. The advantage was obvious: several people at once in a abode could at present easily listen to their radio at the aforementioned fourth dimension. In 1930, 40% of the nation's households endemic a radio,[8] a effigy that was much higher in suburban and large metropolitan areas.[7] The superheterodyne receiver and other inventions refined radios even farther in the next decade; even as the Smashing Depression ravaged the country in the 1930s, radio would stay at the center of American life. 83% of American homes would own a radio by 1940.[nine]
Government regulation [edit]
Although radio was well established with United states of america consumers by the mid-1920s, regulation of the circulate medium presented its own challenges. Until 1926, circulate radio ability and frequency use was regulated by the U.Due south. Department of Commerce, until a legal claiming rendered the agency powerless to do so.[10] Congress responded past enacting the Radio Act of 1927, which included the formation of the Federal Radio Committee (FRC).
One of the FRC's most important early actions was the adoption of General Lodge 40,[11] which divided stations on the AM band into iii power level categories, which became known as Local, Regional, and Clear Channel, and reorganized station assignments. Based on this plan, constructive 3:00 a.m. Eastern fourth dimension on Nov 11, 1928 most of the land's stations were assigned to new transmitting frequencies.[12]
Broadcast networks [edit]
The final element needed to brand the Gilt Historic period of Radio possible focused on the question of distribution: the ability for multiple radio stations to simultaneously broadcast the aforementioned content, and this would be solved with the concept of a radio network.[13] The earliest radio programs of the 1920s were largely unsponsored; radio stations were a service designed to sell radio receivers. In early 1922, AT&T appear the beginning of advertisement-supported broadcasting on its owned stations, and plans for the evolution of the outset radio network using its telephone lines to transmit the content.[14] In July 1926, AT&T abruptly decided to go out the broadcasting field, and signed an agreement to sell its entire network operations to a group headed past the Radio Corporation of America (RCA), which used the assets to class the National Broadcasting Company.[xv] Four radio networks had formed by 1934. These were:
- National Broadcasting Visitor Ruby-red Network (NBC Cerise), launched September 1926. Originally founded every bit the National Broadcasting Visitor in late 1926, the company was virtually immediately forced to split up under antitrust laws to form NBC Ruddy and NBC Blueish. When, in 1942, NBC Blue was sold and renamed the Bluish Network, this network would go back to calling itself just the National Broadcasting Visitor (NBC).
- National Broadcasting Company Blue Network (NBC Bluish); launched January ten, 1927, separate from NBC Ruddy. NBC Blue was sold in 1942 and became the Blue Network, and it in turn transferred its assets to a new company, the American Broadcasting Visitor on June 15, 1945.[16] That network identified itself as the ABC Radio Network (ABC).
- Columbia Broadcasting Organization (CBS), launched September 1927. An initially struggling endeavor to compete with the NBC networks, CBS gained new momentum when William S. Paley was installed as company president.[17]
- Mutual Broadcasting System (Mutual), launched 1934. Common was initially run as a cooperative in which the flagship stations owned the network, not the other way around as was the case with the other three radio networks.
Programming [edit]
In the menstruum before and after the appearance of the broadcast network, new forms of amusement needed to be created to fill the time of a station's broadcast mean solar day. Many of the formats born in this era continued into the television and digital eras. In the outset of the Golden Age, network programs were almost exclusively broadcast alive, as the national networks prohibited the airing of recorded programs until the late 1940s considering of the junior sound quality of phonograph discs, the simply practical recording medium. As a outcome, network prime-time shows would exist performed twice, one time for each coast.
Alive events [edit]
Coverage of live events included musical concerts and play-past-play sports broadcasts.
News [edit]
The capability of the new medium to get information to people created the format of modern radio news: headlines, remote reporting, sidewalk interviews (such as Vox Popular), panel discussions, weather reports, and farm reports. The entry of radio into the realm of news triggered a feud between the radio and newspaper industries in the mid-1930s, eventually culminating in newspapers trumping up exaggerated reports of a mass hysteria from the (entirely fictional) radio presentation of The State of war of the Worlds, which had been presented as a simulated newscast.
Musical features [edit]
The sponsored musical feature presently became one of the most popular program formats. Nigh early radio sponsorship came in the course of selling the naming rights to the program, as evidenced by such programs as The A&P Gypsies, Champion Spark Plug Hour, The Clicquot Guild Eskimos, and King Biscuit Time; commercials, as they are known in the modern era, were all the same relatively uncommon and considered intrusive. During the 1930s and 1940s, the leading orchestras were heard oftentimes through big band remotes, and NBC's Monitor continued such remotes well into the 1950s past dissemination alive music from New York City jazz clubs to rural America. Singers such as Harriet Lee and Wendell Hall became pop fixtures on network radio beginning in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Local stations often had staff organists such as Jesse Crawford playing pop tunes.
Classical music programs on the air included The Voice of Firestone and The Bong Phone Hr. Texaco sponsored the Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts; the broadcasts, now sponsored past the Cost Brothers, continue to this day around the world, and are i of the few examples of live classical music still broadcast on radio. 1 of the most notable of all classical music radio programs of the Golden Age of Radio featured the historic Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini conducting the NBC Symphony Orchestra, which had been created particularly for him. At that time, nigh all classical musicians and critics considered Toscanini the greatest living maestro. Popular songwriters such as George Gershwin were also featured on radio. (Gershwin, in addition to frequent appearances as a guest, had his own program in 1934.) The New York Philharmonic also had weekly concerts on radio. At that place was no dedicated classical music radio station similar NPR at that time, so classical music programs had to share the network they were circulate on with more popular ones, much every bit in the days of television earlier the creation of NET and PBS.
Land music also enjoyed popularity. National Barn Dance, begun on Chicago'southward WLS in 1924, was picked up past NBC Radio in 1933. In 1925, WSM Barn Dance went on the air from Nashville. It was renamed the Grand Ole Opry in 1927 and NBC carried portions from 1944 to 1956. NBC too aired The Ruby Foley Show from 1951 to 1961, and ABC Radio carried Ozark Jubilee from 1953 to 1961.
Comedy [edit]
Radio attracted top comedy talents from vaudeville and Hollywood for many years: Bing Crosby, Abbott and Costello, Fred Allen, Jack Benny, Victor Borge, Fanny Brice, Billie Burke, Bob Burns, Judy Canova, Eddie Cantor, Jimmy Durante, Burns and Allen, Phil Harris, Edgar Bergen, Bob Promise, Groucho Marx, Jean Shepherd, Carmine Skelton and Ed Wynn. Situational comedies as well gained popularity, such as Amos 'n' Andy, Piece of cake Aces, Ethel and Albert, Fibber McGee and Molly, The Goldbergs, The Peachy Gildersleeve, The Halls of Ivy (which featured screen star Ronald Colman and his wife Benita Hume), Encounter Corliss Archer, Meet Millie, and Our Miss Brooks.
Radio comedy ran the gamut from the small town sense of humour of Lum and Abner, Herb Shriner and Minnie Pearl to the dialect characterizations of Mel Blanc and the caustic sarcasm of Henry Morgan. Gags galore were delivered weekly on End Me If You've Heard This One and Can You Top This?,[18] panel programs devoted to the art of telling jokes. Quiz shows were lampooned on It Pays to Be Ignorant, and other memorable parodies were presented by such satirists as Spike Jones, Stoopnagle and Budd, Stan Freberg and Bob and Ray. British comedy reached American shores in a major assault when NBC carried The Goon Show in the mid-1950s.
Some shows originated as phase productions: Clifford Goldsmith's play What a Life was reworked into NBC'south pop, long-running The Aldrich Family (1939–1953) with the familiar catchphrases "Henry! Henry Aldrich!," followed by Henry'south answer, "Coming, Mother!" Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman's Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway hitting, Yous Can't Have Information technology with Y'all (1936), became a weekly situation comedy heard on Mutual (1944) with Everett Sloane and afterwards NBC (1951) with Walter Brennan.
Other shows were adapted from comic strips, such as Blondie, Dick Tracy, Gasoline Alley, The Gumps, Li'l Abner, Little Orphan Annie, Popeye the Sailor, Cherry Ryder, Reg'lar Fellers, Terry and the Pirates and Tillie the Toiler. Bob Montana'due south redheaded teen of comic strips and comic books was heard on radio'southward Archie Andrews from 1943 to 1953. The Timid Soul was a 1941–1942 comedy based on cartoonist H. T. Webster'southward famed Caspar Milquetoast character, and Robert L. Ripley's Believe It or Not! was adapted to several dissimilar radio formats during the 1930s and 1940s. Conversely, some radio shows gave rise to spinoff comic strips, such as My Friend Irma starring Marie Wilson.[nineteen]
Soap operas [edit]
The beginning plan generally considered to exist a daytime series drama by scholars of the genre is Painted Dreams, [twenty] [21] which premiered on WGN on October 20, 1930.[21] The first networked daytime serial is Clara, Lu, 'n Em, which started in a daytime time slot on Feb fifteen, 1932. As daytime serials became popular in the early 1930s, they became known as lather operas because many were sponsored past soap products and detergents. On Nov 25, 1960 the last iv daytime radio dramas—Young Dr. Malone, Right to Happiness, The 2nd Mrs. Burton and Ma Perkins, all broadcast on the CBS Radio Network—were brought to an terminate.
Children'south programming [edit]
The line-up of late afternoon adventure serials included Bobby Benson and the B-Bar-B Riders, The Cisco Kid, Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy, Captain Midnight, and The Tom Mix Ralston Straight Shooters. Badges, rings, decoding devices and other radio premiums offered on these adventure shows were ofttimes centrolineal with a sponsor's product, requiring the young listeners to mail in a boxtop from a breakfast cereal or other proof of purchase.
Radio plays [edit]
Radio plays were presented on such programs as 26 past Corwin, NBC Brusque Story, Curvation Oboler'southward Plays, Placidity, Please, and CBS Radio Workshop. Orson Welles'southward The Mercury Theatre on the Air and The Campbell Playhouse were considered by many critics to be the finest radio drama anthologies ever presented. They usually starred Welles in the leading role, along with celebrity guest stars such equally Margaret Sullavan or Helen Hayes, in adaptations from literature, Broadway, and/or films. They included such titles every bit Liliom, Oliver Twist (a title now feared lost), A Tale of 2 Cities, Lost Horizon, and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. It was on Mercury Theatre that Welles presented his celebrated-but-infamous 1938 adaptation of H. K. Wells's The War of the Worlds, formatted to audio like a breaking news program. Theatre Guild on the Air presented adaptations of classical and Broadway plays. Their Shakespeare adaptations included a one-hour Macbeth starring Maurice Evans and Judith Anderson, and a 90-infinitesimal Hamlet, starring John Gielgud.[22] Recordings of many of these programs survive.
During the 1940s, Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, famous for playing Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson in films, repeated their characterizations on radio on The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, which featured both original stories and episodes directly adapted from Arthur Conan Doyle'southward stories. None of the episodes in which Rathbone and Bruce starred on the radio program were filmed with the ii actors as Holmes and Watson, so radio became the but medium in which audiences were able to experience Rathbone and Bruce appearing in some of the more famous Holmes stories, such as "The Speckled Ring". In that location were besides many dramatizations of Sherlock Holmes stories on radio without Rathbone and Bruce.
During the latter part of his career, historic thespian John Barrymore starred in a radio program, Streamlined Shakespeare, which featured him in a serial of i-hour adaptations of Shakespeare plays, many of which Barrymore never appeared in either on phase or in films, such as Twelfth Night (in which he played both Malvolio and Sir Toby Belch), and Macbeth.
Lux Radio Theatre and The Screen Guild Theater presented adaptations of Hollywood movies, performed earlier a live audience, commonly with cast members from the original films. Suspense, Escape, The Mysterious Traveler and Inner Sanctum Mystery were popular thriller anthology series. Leading writers who created original cloth for radio included Norman Corwin, Carlton East. Morse, David Goodis, Archibald MacLeish, Arthur Miller, Arch Oboler, Wyllis Cooper, Rod Serling, Jay Bennett, and Irwin Shaw.
Game shows [edit]
Game shows saw their beginnings in radio. I of the first was Information Please in 1938, and one of the first major successes was Dr. I.Q. in 1939. Winner Take All, which premiered in 1946, was the first to utilise lockout devices and characteristic returning champions.
A relative of the game testify, which would exist called the giveaway bear witness in contemporary media, typically involved giving sponsored products to studio audience members, people randomly called by telephone, or both. An early example of this show was the 1939 bear witness Pot o' Gilt, but the breakout hit of this blazon was ABC's Stop the Music in 1948. Winning a prize generally required knowledge of what was beingness aired on the show at that moment, which led to criticism of the giveaway show every bit a form of "ownership an audition". Giveaway shows were extremely popular through 1948 and 1949. They were oft panned equally low-brow, and an unsuccessful effort was fifty-fifty made by the FCC to ban them (as an illegal lottery) in August 1949.[23]
Circulate production methods [edit]
The RCA 44BX microphone had 2 live faces and two dead ones. Thus actors could confront each other and react. An actor could give the upshot of leaving the room by simply moving his head toward the dead face up of the microphone.
The scripts were newspaper-clipped together. It has been disputed whether or non actors and actresses would drop finished pages to the carpeted flooring after employ.
History of professional person radio recordings in the Usa [edit]
Radio stations [edit]
Despite a general ban on use of recordings on broadcasts by radio networks through the late 1940s, "reference recordings" on phonograph disc were made of many programs every bit they were being broadcast, for review past the sponsor and for the network'due south own archival purposes. With the development of high-fidelity magnetic wire and tape recording in the years following Earth War II, the networks became more open up to ambulation recorded programs and the prerecording of shows became more common.
Local stations, yet, had always been free to utilize recordings and sometimes made substantial use of prerecorded syndicated programs distributed on pressed (as opposed to individually recorded) transcription discs.
Recording was done using a cutting lathe and acetate discs. Programs were normally recorded at 33 one⁄3 rpm on sixteen inch discs, the standard format used for such "electrical transcriptions" from the early 1930s through the 1950s. Sometimes, the groove was cut starting at the within of the disc and running to the outside. This was useful when the programme to be recorded was longer than fifteen minutes so required more than one disc side. By recording the offset side exterior in, the second within out, and so on, the sound quality at the disc change-over points would match and result in a more seamless playback. An inside beginning also had the advantage that the thread of material cut from the disc'due south surface, which had to be kept out of the path of the cutting stylus, was naturally thrown toward the center of the disc then was automatically out of the way. When cutting an outside start disc, a castor could be used to keep information technology out of the way by sweeping it toward the middle of the disc. Well-equipped recording lathes used the vacuum from a water aspirator to pick it up equally it was cut and deposit it in a water-filled bottle. In addition to convenience, this served a prophylactic purpose, as the cellulose nitrate thread was highly combustible and a loose aggregating of it combusted violently if ignited.
Nearly recordings of radio broadcasts were fabricated at a radio network'south studios, or at the facilities of a network-owned or affiliated station, which might have four or more lathes. A modest local station often had none. Two lathes were required to capture a program longer than xv minutes without losing parts of it while discs were flipped over or changed, along with a trained technician to operate them and monitor the recording while it was being fabricated. All the same, some surviving recordings were produced by local stations.[24] [25]
When a substantial number of copies of an electric transcription were required, every bit for the distribution of a syndicated program, they were produced by the same process used to make ordinary records. A principal recording was cut, then electroplated to produce a stamper from which pressings in vinyl (or, in the case of transcription discs pressed before about 1935, shellac) were molded in a record press.
Armed Forces Radio Service [edit]
The Armed services Radio Service (AFRS) had its origins in the U.S. State of war Department's quest to meliorate troop morale. This quest began with short-wave broadcasts of educational and data programs to troops in 1940. In 1941, the War Department began issuing "Buddy Kits" (B-Kits) to parting troops, which consisted of radios, 78 rpm records and electrical transcription discs of radio shows. However, with the entrance of the Us into World War II, the War Section decided that it needed to improve the quality and quantity of its offerings.
This began with the broadcasting of its ain original variety programs. Command Performance was the offset of these, produced for the first time on March 1, 1942. On May 26, 1942, the Armed services Radio Service was formally established. Originally, its programming comprised network radio shows with the commercials removed. Withal, it soon began producing original programming, such as Mail Call, G.I. Journal, Jubilee and GI Jive. At its superlative in 1945, the Service produced effectually 20 hours of original programming each week.
From 1943 until 1949 the AFRS also broadcast programs developed through the collaborative efforts of the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Diplomacy and the Columbia Broadcasting Arrangement in support of America's cultural diplomacy initiatives and President Franklin Roosevelt'south Good Neighbor policy. Included amongst the popular shows was Viva America which showcased leading musical artists from both North and South America for the entertainment of America's troops. Included amongst the regular performers were: Alfredo Antonini, Juan Arvizu, Nestor Mesta Chayres and John Serry Sr.[26] [27] [28]
Later the war, the AFRS continued providing programming to troops in Europe. During the 1950s and early 1960s information technology presented performances past the Army'south only symphonic orchestra ensemble—the Seventh Army Symphony Orchestra.[29] Information technology also provided programming for future wars that the United States was involved in. Information technology survives today as a component of the American Forces Network (AFN).
All of the shows aired by the AFRS during the Golden Historic period were recorded as electrical transcription discs, vinyl copies of which were shipped to stations overseas to exist broadcast to the troops. People in the U.s.a. rarely ever heard programming from the AFRS,[xxx] though AFRS recordings of Golden Age network shows were occasionally broadcast on some domestic stations offset in the 1950s.
In some cases, the AFRS disc is the merely surviving recording of a program.
Abode radio recordings in the United States [edit]
At that place was some home recording of radio broadcasts in the 1930s and 1940s. Examples from equally early on equally 1930 have been documented. During these years, home recordings were made with disc recorders, nearly of which were simply capable of storing most four minutes of a radio program on each side of a twelve-inch 78 rpm record. Nearly dwelling recordings were fabricated on even shorter-playing x-inch or smaller discs. Some home disc recorders offered the pick of the 33 1⁄3 rpm speed used for electrical transcriptions, assuasive a recording more than twice every bit long to be fabricated, although with reduced audio quality. Office dictation equipment was sometimes pressed into service for making recordings of radio broadcasts, just the sound quality of these devices was poor and the resulting recordings were in odd formats that had to exist played back on like equipment. Due to the expense of recorders and the limitations of the recording media, home recording of broadcasts was not common during this period and it was commonly limited to brief excerpts.
The lack of suitable abode recording equipment was somewhat relieved in 1947 with the availability of magnetic wire recorders for domestic utilize. These were capable of recording an hour-long broadcast on a single small spool of wire, and if a high-quality radio's audio output was recorded directly, rather than by holding a microphone upwards to its speaker, the recorded sound quality was very good. Nevertheless, considering the wire price coin and, like magnetic tape, could be repeatedly re-used to brand new recordings, only a few complete broadcasts appear to have survived on this medium. In fact, there was little home recording of consummate radio programs until the early 1950s, when increasingly affordable reel-to-reel tape recorders for home utilize were introduced to the marketplace.[31] [32]
Recording media [edit]
Electrical transcription discs [edit]
Before the early 1950s, when radio networks and local stations wanted to preserve a live broadcast, they did so by means of special phonograph records known as "electrical transcriptions" (ETs), made by cutting a sound-modulated groove into a blank disc. At first, in the early 1930s, the blanks varied in both size and limerick, but most often they were simply bare aluminum and the groove was indented rather than cut. Typically, these very early recordings were not fabricated by the network or radio station, only by a private recording service contracted past the broadcast sponsor or one of the performers. The bare aluminum discs were typically ten or 12 inches in diameter and recorded at the then-standard speed of 78 rpm, which meant that several disc sides were required to adapt even a 15-minute program. By virtually 1936, 16-inch aluminum-based discs coated with cellulose nitrate lacquer, normally known every bit acetates and recorded at a speed of 33 1⁄3 rpm, had been adopted past the networks and individual radio stations every bit the standard medium for recording broadcasts. The making of such recordings, at to the lowest degree for some purposes, then became routine. Some discs were recorded using a "colina and dale" vertically modulated groove, rather than the "lateral" side-to-side modulation plant on the records beingness made for home utilize at that time. The large slow-speed discs could easily contain fifteen minutes on each side, allowing an hour-long program to exist recorded on merely ii discs. The lacquer was softer than shellac or vinyl and wore more than rapidly, assuasive only a few playbacks with the heavy pickups and steel needles then in utilize before deterioration became audible.
During World War Ii, aluminum became a necessary material for the state of war effort and was in brusque supply. This caused an culling to be sought for the base on which to coat the lacquer. Glass, despite its obvious disadvantage of fragility, had occasionally been used in before years because it could provide a perfectly smoothen and even supporting surface for mastering and other critical applications. Glass base recording blanks came into general use for the duration of the war.[33]
Magnetic wire recording [edit]
In the belatedly 1940s, wire recorders became a readily obtainable means of recording radio programs. On a per-minute basis, information technology was less expensive to record a broadcast on wire than on discs. The one-hour program that required the four sides of two 16-inch discs could be recorded intact on a single spool of wire less than three inches in diameter and about half an inch thick. The audio fidelity of a skillful wire recording was comparable to acetate discs and past comparing the wire was practically indestructible, but it was soon rendered obsolete by the more manageable and easily edited medium of magnetic tape.
Reel-to-reel record recording [edit]
Bing Crosby became the get-go major proponent of magnetic record recording for radio, and he was the showtime to utilise information technology on network radio, later on he did a demonstration program in 1947.[32] [34] Tape had several advantages over earlier recording methods. Running at a sufficiently loftier speed, information technology could reach college fidelity than both electrical transcription discs and magnetic wire. Discs could be edited only by copying parts of them to a new disc, and the copying entailed a loss of audio quality. Wire could be divided up and the ends spliced together by knotting, but wire was hard to handle and the crude splices were as well noticeable. Tape could exist edited past cutting information technology with a blade and neatly joining ends together with adhesive tape. Past early on 1949, the transition from alive performances preserved on discs to performances prerecorded on magnetic tape for subsequently broadcast was complete for network radio programs.[35] [36] All the same, for the concrete distribution of prerecorded programming to individual stations, 16-inch 33 1⁄3 rpm vinyl pressings, less expensive to produce in quantities of identical copies than tapes, continued to be standard throughout the 1950s.
Availability of recordings [edit]
The corking majority of pre-World War II live radio broadcasts are lost. Many were never recorded; few recordings antedate the early on 1930s. Get-go so several of the longer-running radio dramas have their archives consummate or almost complete. The earlier the date, the less likely it is that a recording survives. Yet, a good number of syndicated programs from this menstruation have survived because copies were distributed far and wide. Recordings of alive network broadcasts from the Earth War II years were preserved in the grade of pressed vinyl copies issued by the War machine Radio Service (AFRS) and survive in relative abundance. Syndicated programs from World War II and later years have nearly all survived. The survival of network programming from this time frame is more than inconsistent; the networks started prerecording their formerly live shows on magnetic tape for subsequent network broadcast, simply did not physically distribute copies, and the expensive tapes, unlike electrical transcription ("ET") discs, could be "wiped" and re-used (specially since, in the age of emerging trends such as television receiver and music radio, such recordings were believed to accept virtually no rerun or resale value). Thus, while some prime time network radio serial from this era be in full or virtually in full, specially the near famous and longest-lived of them, less prominent or shorter-lived serial (such as serials) may have only a handful of extant episodes. Airchecks, off-the-air recordings of complete shows made by, or at the behest of, individuals for their ain individual apply, sometimes assistance to fill in such gaps. The contents of privately made recordings of alive broadcasts from the kickoff half of the 1930s can be of item interest, as little live material from that period survives. Unfortunately, the sound quality of very early private recordings is oftentimes very poor, although in some cases this is largely due to the employ of an incorrect playback stylus, which can too badly impairment some unusual types of discs.
Virtually of the Golden Age programs in circulation among collectors—whether on analog tape, CD, or in the form of MP3s—originated from analog 16-inch transcription disc, although some are off-the-air AM recordings. But in many cases, the circulating recordings are corrupted (decreased in quality), because lossless digital recording for the home market did not come until the very cease of the twentieth century.
Collectors made and shared recordings on analog magnetic tapes, the simply practical, relatively cheap medium, first on reels, then cassettes. "Sharing" usually meant making a indistinguishable tape. They connected two recorders, playing on 1 and recording on the other. Analog recordings are never perfect, and copying an analog recording multiplies the imperfections. With the oldest recordings this can even mean information technology went out the speaker of one machine and in via the microphone of the other. The muffled sound, dropouts, sudden changes in sound quality, unsteady pitch, and other defects heard all too often are almost always accumulated tape re-create defects. In improver, magnetic recordings, unless preserved archivally, are gradually damaged by the Earth's magnetic field.
The audio quality of the source discs, when they have survived unscathed and are accessed and dubbed anew, is usually institute to be reasonably articulate and undistorted, sometimes startlingly practiced, although like all phonograph records they are vulnerable to wear and the effects of scuffs, scratches, and ground-in dust. Many shows from the 1940s have survived only in edited AFRS versions, although some be in both the original and AFRS forms.
As of 2020[update], the Sometime Fourth dimension Radio collection at the Cyberspace Annal contains 5,121 recordings. An active grouping of collectors makes digitally available, via CD or download, large collections of programs. RadioEchoes.com offers 98,949 episodes in their drove, but non all is old-time radio.[37]
Copyright condition [edit]
Dissimilar film, television, and print items from the era, the copyright status of well-nigh recordings from the Aureate Historic period of Radio is unclear. This is because, prior to 1972, the U.s. delegated the copyrighting of sound recordings to the individual states, many of which offered more generous common constabulary copyright protections than the federal government offered for other media (some offered perpetual copyright, which has since been abolished; nether the Music Modernization Deed of September 2018, any sound recording 95 years old or older will be thrust into the public domain regardless of state law).[38] The only exceptions are AFRS original productions, which are considered work of the United States government and thus both ineligible for federal copyright and exterior the jurisdiction of any country; these programs are firmly in the public domain (this does non apply to programs carried by AFRS but produced past commercial networks).
In do, most one-time-time radio recordings are treated equally orphan works: although in that location may yet be a valid copyright on the program, it is seldom enforced. The copyright on an individual sound recording is distinct from the federal copyright for the underlying material (such as a published script, music, or in the case of adaptations, the original film or television cloth), and in many cases it is impossible to decide where or when the original recording was made or if the recording was copyrighted in that state. The U.South. Copyright Office states "there are a variety of legal regimes governing protection of pre-1972 sound recordings in the diverse states, and the scope of protection and of exceptions and limitations to that protection is unclear."[38] For instance, New York has issued contradicting rulings on whether or non common law exists in that country; the most recent ruling, 2016's Flo & Eddie, Inc. v. Sirius XM Radio, holds that in that location is no such copyright in New York in regard to public performance.[39] Further complicating matters is that certain examples in case police force take implied that radio broadcasts (and true-blue reproductions thereof), because they were distributed freely to the public over the air, may not exist eligible for copyright in and of themselves.[40] The Cyberspace Archive and other organizations that distribute public domain and open-source sound recordings maintain extensive archives of old-time radio programs.
Legacy [edit]
United states [edit]
Some old-time radio shows continued on the air, although in always-dwindling numbers, throughout the 1950s fifty-fifty afterward their television equivalents had conquered the general public. 1 cistron which helped to kill them off entirely was the evolution of popular music (including the development of stone and scroll), which led to the birth of the top 40 radio format. A tiptop 40 show could exist produced in a small-scale studio in a local station with minimal staff. This displaced full-service network radio and hastened the end of virtually all scripted radio drama by 1962. (Radio in and of itself would survive, cheers in office to the proliferation of the transistor radio, and permanent installation in vehicles, making the medium far more than portable than idiot box.) Total-service stations that did not adopt either meridian 40 or the mellower cute music or MOR formats somewhen developed all-news radio in the mid-1960s.
Scripted radio comedy and drama in the vein of old-time radio has a limited presence on U.S. radio. Several radio theatre serial are still in production in the Usa, usually airing on Sunday nights. These include original series such equally Imagination Theater and a radio accommodation of The Twilight Zone Goggle box series, equally well as rerun compilations such every bit the popular daily serial When Radio Was and USA Radio Network's Gilded Age of Radio Theatre, and weekly programs such as The Big Broadcast on WAMU, hosted by Murray Horwitz. These shows normally air in late nights and/or on weekends on small-scale AM stations. Carl Amari's nationally syndicated radio evidence Hollywood 360 features five old-time radio episodes each week during his 5-hour broadcast. Amari's testify is heard on 100+ radio stations declension-to-declension and in 168 countries on American Forces Radio. Local rerun compilations are also heard, primarily on public radio stations. Sirius XM Radio maintains a total-fourth dimension Radio Classics aqueduct devoted to rebroadcasts of vintage radio shows.
Starting in 1974, Garrison Keillor, through his syndicated ii-hour-long programme A Prairie Home Companion, has provided a living museum of the production, tone and listener's experience of this era of radio for several generations after its demise. Produced live in theaters throughout the state, using the aforementioned audio furnishings and techniques of the era, it ran through 2016 with Keillor as host. The program included segments that were close renditions (in the form of parody) of specific genres of this era, including Westerns ("Dusty and Lefty, The Lives of the Cowboys"), detective procedurals ("Guy Noir, Private Centre") and even advertizing through fictional commercials. Keillor also wrote a novel, WLT: A Radio Romance based on a radio station of this era—including a personally narrated version for the ultimate in verisimilitude. Upon Keillor's retirement, replacement host Chris Thile chose to reboot the show (since renamed Live from Here after the syndicator cutting ties with Keillor) and eliminate much of the former-fourth dimension radio trappings of the format; the prove was ultimately canceled in 2020 due to financial and logistics bug.[41]
Vintage shows and new audio productions in America are attainable more than widely from recordings or by satellite and web broadcasters, rather than over conventional AM and FM radio. The National Audio Theatre Festival is a national organization and yearly conference keeping the audio arts—especially audio drama—alive, and continues to involve long-time phonation actors and OTR veterans in its ranks. Its predecessor, the Midwest Radio Theatre Workshop, was first hosted by Jim Jordan, of Fibber McGee and Molly fame, and Norman Corwin advised the organisation.
One of the longest running radio programs celebrating this era is The Golden Days of Radio, which was hosted on the Armed Forces Radio Service for more than than xx years and overall for more than than 50 years by Frank Bresee, who also played "Little Beaver" on the Red Ryder program as a child actor.
I of the very few notwithstanding-running shows from the before era of radio is a Christian program entitled Unshackled! The weekly half-hour show, produced in Chicago by Pacific Garden Mission, has been continuously broadcast since 1950. The shows are created using techniques from the 1950s (including habitation-made sound furnishings) and are circulate across the U.Southward. and around the world by thousands of radio stations.
Today, radio performers of the past appear at conventions that feature re-creations of classic shows, equally well equally music, memorabilia and historical panels. The largest of these events was the Friends of One-time Fourth dimension Radio Convention, held in Newark, New Jersey which held its final convention in October 2011 after 36 years. Others include REPS in Seattle (June), SPERDVAC in California, the Cincinnati OTR & Nostalgia Convention (April), and the Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention (September). Veterans of the Friends of Onetime Time Radio Convention, including Chairperson Steven Yard. Lewis of The Gotham Radio Players, Maggie Thompson, publisher of the Comic Book Buyer's Guide, Craig Wichman of audio drama troupe Quicksilver Sound Theater and long-time FOTR Publicist Sean Dougherty have launched a successor event, Celebrating Sound Theater – Old & New, scheduled for Oct 12–13, 2012.
Radio dramas from the golden historic period are sometimes recreated as live stage performances at such events. One such group, led past director Daniel Smith, has been performing re-creations of old-time radio dramas at Fairfield University's Regina A. Quick Centre for the Arts since the year 2000.[42] [43]
The 40th anniversary of what is widely considered the end of the old fourth dimension radio era (the final broadcasts of Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar and Suspense on September thirty, 1962) was marked with a commentary on NPR'south All Things Considered.[44]
A scattering of radio programs from the sometime-time era remain in production, all from the genera of news, music, or religious broadcasting: the Grand Ole Opry (1925), Music and the Spoken Word (1929), The Lutheran Hour (1930), the CBS World News Roundup (1938), Rex Biscuit Fourth dimension (1941) and the Renfro Valley Gatherin' (1943). Of those, all but the Opry maintain their original short-course length of 30 minutes or less. The Wheeling Jamboree counts an earlier program on a competing station as role of its history, tracing its lineage back to 1933.
Western revival/one-act act Riders in the Heaven produced a radio serial Riders Radio Theater in the 1980s and 1990s and continues to provide sketch one-act on existing radio programs including the One thousand Ole Opry, Midnite Jamboree and WoodSongs Quondam-Time Radio Hour.
Elsewhere [edit]
Regular broadcasts of radio plays are as well heard in—among other countries—Australia, Croatia, Republic of estonia,[45] French republic, Federal republic of germany, Ireland, Nippon, New Zealand, Kingdom of norway, Romania, and Sweden. In the Great britain, such scripted radio drama continues on BBC Radio 3 and (principally) BBC Radio 4, the 2nd-most pop radio station in the country, as well every bit on the rerun aqueduct BBC Radio 4 Extra, which is the 7th-near popular station there.
Museums [edit]
- SPARK Museum of Electrical Invention
- Museum of Broadcast Communications
- Paley Center for Media
- Pavek Museum of Broadcasting
- Radio Days "theater of the mind" Museum
Run into besides [edit]
- List of old-time radio programs
- List of old-time American radio people
- Listing of U.South. radio programs
- List of radio lather operas
- Antique radio
- Audio theater
- Carl Amari
- Chuck Schaden
- Music radio
- Radio comedy
- Radio Days (Woody Allen film dramatizing old-time radio)
- Radio drama
- Call up WENN (AMC telly series prepare at an former-fourth dimension radio station in Pittsburgh)
- Soap opera
- When Radio Was
Notes [edit]
- ^ "The Golden Age of Radio | SPARK Museum of Electrical Invention". SPARK Museum of Electrical Invention. Archived from the original on 2019-ten-24. Retrieved 2019-10-24 .
- ^ Halper, Donna (14 February 2007). "In Search of the Truth Virtually Fessenden". Radio Earth Online. Archived from the original on 12 September 2012. Retrieved 23 December 2016.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ O'Neal, James E. (October 25, 2006). "Fessenden: World's First Broadcaster? – A Radio History Vitrify Finds That Evidence for the Famous Brant Rock Broadcast Is Defective". Radio Earth Online. Archived from the original on 29 Jan 2007.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ O'Neal, James E. (Dec 23, 2008). "Fessenden – The Next Chapter". Radio World Online. Archived from the original on September 16, 2009. Retrieved June 29, 2009.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ Belrose, John S. "Fessenden's 1906 Christmas Eve circulate" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 10 January 2017. Retrieved 23 December 2016.
- ^ Sayles, Ron. Erstwhile-Time Radio Digest, Volume 2009, number 51.
- ^ a b "Radio: A Consumer Production and a Producer of Consumption (Interactive Historical Introduction, Coolidge-Consumerism Collection)". American Memory Help Desk. 1995-08-fourteen.
- ^ "Fifteenth Census of the United States: 1930 (Abstract of the Fifteenth Census of the United States)" (PDF). United States Demography Agency. 1933.
- ^ "Sixteenth Census of the U.s.: 1940 (Housing, Volume II, Full general Chraracteristics)" (PDF). Us Census Bureau. 1943.
- ^ "Hoover Advised That He Has No Authority Over the Radio Rules". The Herald Statesman. 1926-07-09. p. 2. Retrieved 2020-10-10 .
- ^ "General Order No. 40 (August 30, 1928)", Radio Service Message, August 31, 1928, pp. nine–ten.
- ^ "Broadcasting Stations by Wave Lengths, Effective Nov eleven, 1928", Commercial and Government Radio Stations of the United States (Edition June thirty, 1928), pp. 172–176.
- ^ Donald Christensen, "Remember Radio?" July, 2012 http://world wide web.todaysengineer.org/2012/Jul/backscatter.asp Archived 2013-01-27 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "National Radio Circulate Past Bell Organization", Science & Invention, April 1922, pp. 1144, 1173.
- ^ "Big Business organisation and Radio" by Gleason 50. Archer, 1939, pp. 275–276.
- ^ "Moving Day For Radio Nears". The Birmingham News. 1945-06-xiii. p. 10. Retrieved 2020-ten-10 .
- ^ Sally Bedell Smith, In All His Glory: the Life and Times of William S. Paley and the Birth of Modern Broadcasting (1990)[ ISBN missing ]
- ^ "Abode". world wide web.museum.tv. Archived from the original on 22 September 2012. Retrieved 30 March 2018.
- ^ "Everybody's Friend: Remembering Stan Lee and Dan DeCarlo's 'My Friend Irma'". Hogan'south Alley. cartoonician.com. 2010. Archived from the original on 2013-03-19. Retrieved 2013-03-25 .
- ^ Cox, Jim (2005). Historical Dictionary of American Radio Lather Operas. Scarecrow Press. ISBN978-0-8108-6523-five.
- ^ a b Cox, Jim (2003). Frank and Anne Hummert's radio factory: the programs and personalities of broadcasting's most prolific producers. McFarland. ISBN978-0786416318.
- ^ Hamlet (Episode 065) (MP3). Theater Society on the Air. Net Archive. 1951-03-04.
- ^ "FCC Bans Give-Abroad Radio Shows". The Miami Herald. 1949-08-20. p. 1. Retrieved 2020-10-10 .
- ^ Bradley, Hanson (30 March 2018). "The Tennessee Jamboree: Local Radio, the Barn Dance, and Cultural Life in Appalachian Eastward Tennessee". southernspaces.org. 2008. Archived from the original on 15 Apr 2018. Retrieved 30 March 2018.
- ^ Fybush, Scott. "Oft-Asked Questions". The Archives@BostonRadio.org. Archived from the original on 2007-04-19. Retrieved 2007-05-16 .
- ^ The Directory of the Military Radio Service Serial Mackenzie, Harry. Greenwood Publishing Group, Westport CT, 1999 p. 21 ISBN 0-313-30812-8 Viva America on books.google.com
- ^ Media Sound & Civilisation in Latin America. Editors: Bronfman, Alejanda & Wood, Andrew Grant. University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, PA, 2012, p. 49 ISBN 978-0-8229-6187-one books.google.com Come across p. 49
- ^ Anthony, Edwin D. (1973). "Records of the Radio Division" (PDF). Records of the Part of Inter-American Affairs. Vol. Inventory of Record Group 229. Washington D.C.: National Archives and Record Services – General Services Administration. pp. 25–26. LCCN 73-600146.
- ^ The Directory of the Armed Forces Radio Service Series Harry MacKenzie, Greeenwood Press, CT. 1999, p. 198 ISBN 0-313-30812-8 "7th Regular army Symphony on Armed services Radio in 1961 performing works past Vivaldi and Dvorak" via – Google Books
- ^ "Armed Forces Radio Services broadcasts". Bing Crosby Internet Museum. Archived from the original on 2007-02-21. Retrieved 2007-05-sixteen .
- ^ "The History of Magnetic Tape". audiolabo.complimentary.fr. Archived from the original on 20 July 2011. Retrieved thirty March 2018.
- ^ a b Bensman, Marvin R. "A History of Radio Program Collecting". Radio Annal of the University of Memphis. Archived from the original on 2010-06-xviii. Retrieved 2007-05-eighteen .
- ^ Beaupre, Walter J. "Music Electrically Transcribed!". The Vintage Radio Place. Archived from the original on 2007-11-09. Retrieved 2007-11-05 .
- ^ "ABC Spends 100G in Shift From Wax to Tape Repeats Archived 2015-03-17 at the Wayback Machine", Billboard, Feb. 21, 1948, p. 6.
- ^ "NBC Drops All Wax Bans Archived 2015-03-17 at the Wayback Machine", Billboard, Jan. 29, 1949, p. 5.
- ^ "Webs' Tape Measure Grows Archived 2015-03-17 at the Wayback Machine", Billboard, November. 5, 1949, p. 5.
- ^ "RadioEchoes.com". RadioEchoes.com. Retrieved 2021-02-eleven .
- ^ a b "Federal Copyright Protection for Pre-1972 Audio Recordings – U.Due south. Copyright Part". www.copyright.gov. Archived from the original on viii March 2018. Retrieved 30 March 2018.
- ^ Klepper, David (20 December 2016). "Owner of 1967 Striking Song 'Happy Together' Lose Copyright Case". Associated Printing. Archived from the original on 21 December 2016. Retrieved 13 April 2017.
- ^ This was a key betoken in Waring v. WDAS Dissemination Sta., a example that determined that a record company could merits copyright on a sound recording nether Pennsylvania law because the recording was specifically designated as non being for radio broadcast.
- ^ Baenen, Jeff (Apr 12, 2016). Goodbye, Lake Wobegon: 'Prairie Home' is getting a new host Archived 2016-04-15 at the Wayback Automobile. AP. Retrieved April 13, 2016.
- ^ Spiegel, January Ellen (2007-09-09). "We Interrupt This Play for a News Message on the War". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2017-07-01. Retrieved 2007-09-09 .
- ^ "Radio Dramas". Regina A. Quick Eye for the Arts. Fairfield University. 2007. Archived from the original on 2007-08-thirteen. Retrieved 2008-04-xviii .
- ^ Chimes, Fine art. "Last Radio Drama". National Public Radio. Archived from the original on 2011-06-04. Retrieved 2010-01-22 .
- ^ "Raadioteater" (in Estonian). Eesti Rahvusringhääling (formerly Eesti Raadio). 2015. Archived from the original on 2015-02-07. Retrieved 2015-02-01 .
References [edit]
- Blue, Howard (2002). Words at War: World State of war 2 Era Radio and the Postwar Broadcasting Industry Blacklist. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 0-8108-4413-iii
- Dunning, John (1998). On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Fourth dimension Radio . Oxford University Printing. ISBN0-19-507678-viii.
Further reading [edit]
- Buxton, Frank, and Pecker Owen. (1972). The Big Broadcast 1920–1950. New York: Viking Printing.
- Delong, Thomas A. (1980). The Mighty Music Box: The Golden Age of Radio. Los Angeles, CA: Amber Crest Books. ISBN 0-86533-000-X
- Dunning, John. (1976). Tune in Yesterday: The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio 1925–1976. Englewood Cliffs, NY: Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-13932-616-two.
- Maltin, Leonard. (1997). The Great American Circulate: A Celebration of Radio'due south Golden Age. New York: Dutton. ISBN 0-52594-183-v.
- Nachman, Gerald. (1998). Raised on Radio. New York: Pantheon, 1998. ISBN 0-37540-287-X.
- It'due south That Time Again, Book 4, edited past Jim Harmon. Albany, NY: BearManor Media, 2009. ISBN ane-59393-118-2.
External links [edit]
- Gunsmoke series on WRCW Radio
- Old Time Radio on-line archive at Archive.org
- Erstwhile Time Radio on Way Back When
- Audio Noir net radio station – complimentary old fourth dimension radio detective & criminal offense shows
- OTRR: Old Time Radio Research group – OTR restoration and preservation
- OTRR Cyberspace Archive homepage – comprehensive OTRR collections
- Golden Age of Radio at Curlie
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