The Old Radio Times the Official Publication of the Old-Time Radio Researchers

The Old Radio Times The Official Publication of the Old-Time Radio Researchers March 2018 www.otrr.org No. 95 A Primer for Researching that commonly circulate among collectors. It Old-Time Radio, Pt. 1 was research that helped assign correct Martin Grams, Jr. episode numbers for Night Beat. Perhaps the most amusing aspect of radio A little more than seven years ago I wrote a research is the constant five-part article about researching old-time evolution of facts and radio. It focused on where to find archival figures – new materials, tools of the trade, resources to use, discoveries are found and pitfalls to avoid. As computer and practically every day, communications technology evolved, so have and more are waiting to the methods of research, and a revision to those be discovered. original articles is in order. This time I’ve The evolution of condensed the information into this one article, radio research is a primer for anyone who desires to research interesting. The most old-time radio. basic one is general Everyone in the hobby benefits from old-time radio preservation efforts. Whether it is renewing reference books, such as Buxton and Owen’s our membership in an old-time radio club, The Big Broadcast, which paved the way to donating money for the purchase of a 16-inch more detailed works. During the 1960s and electrical transcription disc, or participating in 1970s, such tomes were a fond look back online forums or social media, we all can do with relaxing prose and descriptive contents. our part. A single act of neglect – being Those books attempted to make the unwilling to contribute time and/or money to a Golden Age of Radio come alive again, with preservation project – will destroy the records a fact-filled compendium of memory-jogging of who and what we are as a hobby and as a nostalgia. While those authors had the means of keeping interest in the radio era alive. advantage of interviewing radio personalities, It is easy to find an excuse to not they oftentimes had to rely on faded financially contribute and sit back and reap memories and assorted newspaper clippings – the rewards that others are willing to fund. neither of which proved reliable. These Sometimes it’s not money that’s needed, but volumes were the best that could be had at one’s time. One essential aspect of that time, but ultimately created many myths preservation is research. It is the scanning of and mistakes that new research has since radio scripts at an archive that adds disproven. Still, many of their mistakes perspective to the recordings we have. A persist in current publications. recent effort provided the broadcast dates for In the 1980s and 1990s, old-time radio the four Popeye the Sailor radio broadcasts programs became a lucrative business for The Old Radio Times * March 2018 * Number 95 1 some vendors who sought transcriptions discs Wistful Vistas from vast treasure troves and labored over From the Editor’s Desk professional audio equipment to extract the Ryan Ellett vintage radio broadcasts onto magnetic tape. It was these same vendors who extracted Come with me, children, on a little walk metadata from the disc labels to assemble down memory lane to the June-July 2009 broadcast logs. Many of these broadcast logs issue of the Old Radio Times. After were printed and distributed for collectors, announcing my resignation as editor of the others in the forms of catalogs. This was the e-zine I wrote on the first page of that second phase of the evolution. While issue, “I hope to do more of my own providing more hardcore facts, like the writing and, who knows, the Times may be authors before them, they had limited access back sometime under my editorship.” to archival materials. For many fans and Little did I think over the intervening collectors of this era, dealer catalogs were the nine years that I would actually return to only way they learned about programs and the helm of this publication. With the personalities. The dealers found that the more unfortunate passing of editor Bob Burchett information they provided, the better the sales in January, however, it seemed unthinkable of their recordings. to let the Times simply disappear. Below is a set of definitions that are In addition, the reasons I gave all those required knowledge in going forward with years ago to give up the Times have come researching old-time radio. and gone. Most of my children have now graduated, my doctoral work – and, thus, Metadata – A set of data that describes and my formal education – wrapped up a few gives information about other data. In other years ago, and I have been able to do ample words, an audio recording on a CD is digital research and writing data (or simply “data”) and metadata would So, with no excuses and a deep be the name of the program, episode number, appreciation of the great work Bob – with broadcast date, and so on. This term became his phenomenal desktop publishing talents more popular as “tags” on digital audio files – has done since 2009, I hesitantly agreed such as mp3 recordings. to take back over the ship. If you’ve submitted material lately that Broadcast Log – Similar to a captain’s log has yet to see publication, please feel free on a sailing vessel, a brief list of metadata to resend it to me. Being free, the Times which usually consists of an episode number, has the largest circulation of any hobby script title, broadcast date and (sometimes) publication and its electronic format allows cast. Usually one line of metadata per us to avoid the hard word counts generally broadcast entry. Collectors find these useful required by the hobby’s print outlets. to determine which episodes they need in Just before this issue was wrapped up their collections. the Old-Time Radio Researchers was stunned to learn of the death of founder Jim Episode Guide – Similar to a broadcast log Beshires. Next month we’ll look back on but with much more information including Jim’s amazing contributions to the hobby production credits (writer, director, producer, and what his loss might mean for the future sound man), plot summaries, trade reviews, of this group. trivia, and so on. These can be very helpful See you next time, little chums. for those programs that did not have The Old Radio Times * March 2018 * Number 95 2 announced show titles, and the plots fill in the decade-long boost of reference guides for the gaps where recordings are not known to exist. hobby. (And when “lost” recordings are found, can The Internet, blogs, websites and even help substantiate the validity of the claim, print-on-demand are now viable options for along with researchers who want to publish their broadcast findings. Another option are the old-time date.) radio club newsletters that also have large In 1995, circulation numbers. Connie Without mass distribution, no preservation Billips and project in written form is considered Art Pierce practical. What is the point in digging wrote what through archives, and documenting the may be history of a radio program, only to later learn considered the print run of the book was less than 50? the first true The larger the circulation, the larger the reference preservation effort accomplished. This is the guide focused main reason why selecting the proper on any single platform (i.e. publishing option) is essential. old-time This is why non-researchers who maintain radio collective metadata on websites, gleaned program: The from published reference guides, feel they are Lux Radio providing a service to the community/hobby. Theatre. Published by McFarland Publishing, They are, however, mistaken. In reality, their its 700-plus pages included an extensive efforts cause more damage to the hobby. By history of the program and an episode guide. extracting and reprinting material from Only one episode is known to exist from the published reference guides, they diminish the first two years of the series, so the authors demand and value of those books, consulted radio scripts at a University archive handicapping sales and limiting potential to assemble plot summaries, cast and other distribution. Weigh the options… is posting a information that would otherwise not be list of script titles and broadcast dates on a available to the general public. This can be website more beneficial to the hobby than considered the beginning of the third phase in endorsing a 400-page book documenting the the evolution of scholarly radio research. entire history of that program? Since recordings did not exist, the authors accomplished the next best thing by The Definition of Research preserving those “lost” shows. McFarland Publishing, with mass Research – The systematic investigation into distribution to college and university libraries, and study of materials and sources in order to was for years the only man on the street establish facts and reach conclusions. willing to distribute books about old-time Before we begin with the mechanical radio. Then, publisher Ben Ohmart came aspect of research, we must first evaluate and along. With his Bear Manor Media publishing acknowledge the definition of “research.” Far company, an expansion of radio reference too many people rely on prior published guides (at more affordable prices compared works, and Internet websites, as a source of McFarland’s library offerings) created a reference. This is known as secondary research because it does not refer to primary The Old Radio Times * March 2018 * Number 95 3 sources such as production materials (i.e. There is a difference between a script title inter-office memos, radio scripts).

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