Friday, August 7, 2009

Some OTR Samples


Here is a zip file of a few short OTR samples, recorded at different bitrates and frequencies (just paste the link into your address bar and download, then unzip):

http://www.humyo.com/F/3468529-986584877

All are MONO, of course. I think that my favorite is 80kbts/22hhz. You listen and decide.

FEEL FREE TO LEAVE COMMENTS!

Thank you!

MANC Convention


Be sure not to miss the coolest convention there is for OTR fans - the Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention! August 27-29, Clarion Hotel, Aberdeen, Maryland. Not only Old Time Radio, but tons of cool old stuff: cars, movies, posters, comic books, magazines, cartoons, collectibles, books, an inflatable drive-in (!) and REAL LIVE TV AND MOVIE STARS!

This year:

JAMES BEST
The Dukes of Hazzard
The Twilight Zone
Have Gun - Will Travel
Forbidden Planet (1956)

LEE MERIWETHER
Batman

Time Tunnel

Barnaby Jones

Miss America, 1955

CELESTE HOLM
All About Eve (1950)
Tom Sawyer (1973)
Academy Award winning
actress for her role in

A Gentleman's Agreement (1947)

PATTY McCORMACK
Route 66
Rawhide
Wagon Train
Playhouse 90
The Wild, Wild West
Academy Award nominee for
THE BAD SEED (1956)

BOB HASTINGS
McHale's Navy
Batman
The Twilight Zone
The Poseidon Adventure
(the original 1972 classic)
The Untouchables
Captain Video (TV series)
Tom Corbett, Space Cadet

JOHNNY WHITAKER
A Family Affair
Tom Sawyer (1973)
Green Acres

DIANA SOWLE
Willy Wonka and the
Chocolate Factory

ROSEMARY RICE
Katrin, star of TV's Mama
(a.k.a. I Remember Mama)
Betty on radio's Archie Andrews

DON'T MISS IT!

Saturday, August 1, 2009

Life On the Radio Wave






Here's some single-panel comic strips by "Pinto" Colvig from 1922. This was when radio was really beginning to hit BIG: it was brand-new technology - exciting, unknown, and which happened to fall nicely under that huge umbrella of "things that men like to do" (building / tinkering / climbing / mechanical / electronic stuff)...

Amazing how much work people would do in order to get a little free entertainment!

This creator, Vance DeBar "Pinto" Colvig, was a newspaper cartoonist when he wasn't joined up with the circus, or playing off-key clarinet on the vaudeville circuit. He worked on creating some of the earliest animated cartoons, was the voice of Walt Disney characters Goofy and Pluto and the ("Snow White") dwarves Grumpy and Sleepy and ("Three Little Pigs") Practical Pig, some of the Munchkins in "The Wizard Of Oz", Gabby in "Gulliver's Travels", and Bluto in "Popeye The Sailor". The Disney artists even used his overly-expressive face as models for the animated characters!

He co-wrote the song "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf".

He was the original "voice" of Jack Benny's Maxwell automobile, the hiccuping horse on Dennis Day, and several voices on Amos 'n' Andy.

He was also the ORIGINAL Bozo The Clown.

A lifelong smoker (Shades of Bob Bell and Krusty the Clown), he was one of the pioneers in advocating warning labels about cancer risk on cigarette packages.

He died of lung cancer in 1967.