ARCANE RADIO TRIVIA

All due credit, I found this on the website for Death & Taxes magazine. [LINK] There has been much hullabaloo in the last decade over lossy compression. Early in the time of online audio the loss was very audible. It was pretty crappy actually. Currently the Pono player has been hotly debated as either savior or snake oil among the audiophiles. Even Ars Technica was highly critical. Despite all the discussion what's missing had been an example of lost audio.Today I've finally found that example.

moDernisT_v1 from Ryan Maguire on Vimeo.

The song is Suzanne Vega’s “Tom’s Diner." If you can't recognize it from the audio above try the original version below. A Phd Student in Computer Technologies at the University of Virginia, Ryan Maguire [LINK] subtracted compressed audio form uncompressed audio leaving us the "missing audio" that is lost in MP3 compression. The video is similarly produced from the loss in MP4 compression. It's fascinating. A friend of mine commented.. "It sounds like Autechre."

That was us actually. The United States of America bombed Radio Free Granada. QSR Card from here: [SOURCE] If you want to get really specific, it was Ronald Regan who issued the order. So lets go back in time to 1983. The invasion of Grenada was a small and brief military action. Grenada is a small Caribbean island with a population of under 100,000 people. For comparison that's less than College Station, TX. In 1974, after 400 years of European colonialism, they gained independence from Britain. However, they still retained the Queen as their head of state. There was a faction of course that still wanted real deal, full-Monty independence. It was called the New Jewel Movement (NJM.)

In 1979, while their Prime Minister, Eric Gairy was out of the country the NJM staged a coup. By the time he got home there was a new Revolutionary Government led by Maurice Bishop. On March 13th Maurice Bishop seized RFG and Station Manager Jerome Romain was arrested. Bishop addressed Grenada at 09:48 AM:

"Sisters and Brothers, This is Maurice Bishop speaking. At 4.15 am this morning the People's Revolutionary Army seized control of the army barracks at True Blue. The barracks were burned to the ground. After a half-an-hour struggle, the forces of Gairy's army were completely defeated, and surrendered. Every single soldier surrendered, and not a single member of the revolutionary forces was injured. At the same time, the radio station was captured without a single shot being fired."

Later that year, a faction broke off the NJM and Bishop was arrested. He escaped but was later killed. His death was announced by Austin Hudson at RFG. The Grenadian army decided this was the right time for them to take over, a third "coup" in under a year. The Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) then only 2 years old, decided that they would like the United States to come in and "help." Did I mention that Ronald Regan didn't like their Airport? More here.

Ronald Reagan had taken issue with their airport. He believed it was a threat due to the "Soviet-Cuban militarization" of the Caribbean. For the record that airport was built mostly by the British, but Libyans and Cubans were also employed on the project. The public given reason for the invasion was the protection of 600 American medial students on the island. But it had more to do with the NJM being Marxists and friendly with Cuba. Regan really had a thing about commies, and the OECS were not thrilled either. So Regan sent in the military, cue Operation Urgent Fury. More here.

In 1983 Grenada didn't have a full radio dial exactly. Radio Free Grenada (RFG) had only signed on in 1961. The station was cobbled together out of vintage WWII cast-offs from Britain and from donated parts. It operated on short wave on 15.045 MHZ, 19 Meter Band with a 75,000-watt Soviet-Built transmitter. It only broadcast between 1730 and 2100 hours. More here.

The American invasion commenced at 05:00 on 25 October 1983. The Radio station was empty and off air at that hour. Contemporary reports state that by 06:15 AM, Navy SEALS had blown up the station. Their back up transmitter at Morne Rouge was destroyed by aerial bombardment later the same day. There was nothing left. However, after the American invasion was complete, Station Manager Jerome Romain was finally released from prison. He resumed his post as Director of the Government's Information Services and by 1984 was reporting on their new elections. The Americans installed a new 50-kilowatt transmitter and began broadcasting American rock music under the name "Spice Island Radio." If you want further reading, the book The Grenada Revolution in the Caribbean Present by Shalini Puri covers this story in detail.

There have been a lot of court rulings regarding applications of the First Amendment when it comes to broadcasting. The First amendment is action-packed. It provides freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom to protest, and the freedom of and from religion. Rarely do 45 words on a legal document accomplish so much good.

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Of course Congress has certainly has made laws abridging all of the above. Setting aside all of the times government agencies have abridges the above outside of the law, what they've done with the law is really core to the state of modern media. I can think of many court cases which were significant, but three come to mind that were pivotal. All of them were ruled on half a century ago. See below:

Farmer's Education and Cooperative Union Vs. WDAY (1959)
National Broadcasting Co Vs. The United States (1943)
The United States. Vs. Paramount Pictures (1948)

So let's tackle these in chronological order. In 1943 NBC sued the United States Government.It was ballsy but they felt backed into a corner. In 1941, the FCC established the Chain Broadcasting Regulations. These created a separate set of regulations for network radio stations. The were dismissed by a district court in the State of New York and appealed. The Supreme Court then affirmed the dismissal. NBC got the face-palm. Worse than that, in the ruling the Supreme court affirmed that the FCC governed not only the technical aspects of broadcasting, but the content as well. they wrote:

"Unlike other media of expression, radio inherently is not available to all. That is its unique characteristic; and that is why, unlike other modes of expression, it is subject to government regulation. Because it cannot be used by all, some who wish to use it must be denied... The standard provided for the licensing of stations by the Communications act of 1934 was the "public interest, convenience, or necessity."

In 1948 the Supreme Court made this anti-trust ruling and basically decided that Hollywood studios couldn't also own the theaters. It was a ruling against "vertical integration" but also against oligopoly in favor of anti-trust laws. But the ruling also included a very important side reference. Justice William O. Douglas wrote "...moving pictures, like newspapers and radio, are included in the press whose freedom is guaranteed by the First Amendment." This was the first time (I think) that made clear that radio, print and film were all collectively "media" and thus the press and subject to protection under the first amendment. So here was some good to go along with the bad. In 1954 in Superior Films Vs. Department of Education Justice Douglas wrote "...the First amendment draws no distinction between between various methods of communicating ideas."

This was further reaffirmed in Farmer's Education and Cooperative Union Vs. WDAY in 1959. "...expressly applying this country's tradition of free expression to the field of radio broadcasting, Congress has from the first emphatically forbidden the Commission to exercise any power of censorship over radio communication." But what they ruled in this case was that if a political candidate defames another on a radio broadcast, the radio or TV station cannot be held liable for libel. This was pretty important in terms of protecting the free speech of broadcasters. In a speech a U.S. Senate candidate Arthur Townley accused the Farmers Union of being communists. They sued both WDAY and Townley for libel. WDAY found protection under the 1934 Communications act, Townley didn't. More here.

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University seem to have settled on the word "ingestible" rather than edible. I kind of recoiled at the idea, but much to my surprise two years ago, the FDA approved an ingestible radio ID tag. Now, while the FDA is not exactly a reputable organization... they are all we have. So it comes as no surprise they they had no comment when Proteus Digital Health was issued patent #7978064 for a "Ingestible device with pharmaceutical product." The abstract is more vague than you'd expect would be allowed.

"A system and a manufacturing process are disclosed in accordance with the present invention that protect an electronic device and allows for placement or combination of the device within a pharmaceutical product or capsule. The system includes circuitry and components that can be placed within certain environments. The device includes an assembly including an electronic unit, a flexible membrane secured to the unit, and a protective coating."

Proteus has been at this since at least 2007. In that year they applied for a patent for a "Controlled activation Ingestible Identifier." Since then they've also filed on some "Ingestible circuitry" a "Body-associated receiver and method " and a "Miniature ingestible device." Most of that work was developed by Hooman Hafezi. You know where this is going. At some point in the future, you are going to eat a teeny tiny radio. More here.

The reason I bring this up today is a press release from Carnegie Mellon University. A research group there is taking some of these patents from Proteus and developing a RFID system that could be inside pills. These would be embedded with encrypted codes to verify the "provenance and authenticity" of the medication. The idea is interesting, but it does mean that potentially every pill could contain a teeny tiny passive transmitter. Even stranger is imagining your colon full of RFIDs.

Carnegie Mellon alum L. Richard Carley was quick to emphasize that the RFIDs will be teeny tiny. “Think of a grain of salt. A fraction of a millimeter.” And it's certainly true that some people embed RFIDs in their pets. Some have suggested embedding them in their children based on the same logic. (I think it's nutty but that's me.) But the purpose of the pills is not just your safety. A UN report form 2003 estimated that the global drug trade is worth an estimated $321.6 billion." While that number may make you think of certain unsavory characters in your neighborhood, pharmaceutical companies just see their competition. So this technology will also be a tool for drug companies to wield against copyright infringement by the black market. It seems awkward for that battle to happen in your colon but apparently the stage is being set.

This is a Wilcox Gay Recordio. It's undated, unlabeled and like many others it's origin is somewhat in doubt. It has a metal-core, spins at 78 rpm with an outer-edge start and is 8-Inches in diameter. The recording showcases a solo pianist who breaks meter to bang out a few chords seemingly annoyed by what might have been a sound check.

Ode to an Annoyed Pianist

Despite being undamaged by age, the disc is in rough shape. When it was originally cut, the lathe was bumped and it cut snake-like arcs across many of the grooves. This makes it particularly difficult to get contiguous segments transferred to digital. I managed only about a one-minute segment I consider listenable which is posted above.

In 1970 in Chile their presidential election ended with no outright majority in a three-way race. Salvador Allende won 36.2% of the vote. Incumbent Jorge Alessandri won 34.9% and a third party candidate Radomiro Tomic won 27.8%. With that thin margin, the Chilean constitution required the Chilean congress to decide, and after much hand-wringing and horse-trading... they selected Allende. In the prior election, Jorge Alessandri had only won with 31.6% so this was not without precedent. Allende won, but his Socialist-Marxist coalition party— Unidad Popular [Popular Unity] party did not win control of congress. That went to the Partido Demócrata Cristiano [Christian Democratic party]. Despite the power split, his administration was able to apply numerous reforms with varied success.

But U.S. President Richard Nixon didn't care for Allende. He and Kissinger dismissed him as a Marxist, and his association with Fidel Castro didn't help. When Chile nationalized its copper industry, that was the last straw. In September 1970, President Nixon informed the CIA that an Allende government in Chile would not be acceptable and authorized $10 million to stop Allende from coming to power or unseat him. Later, the CIA tried to convince key Chilean military officers to carry out a coup. Later revisionists claimed that the U.S. didn't directly instigate the coup. Nonetheless the events are so well documented as to appear in Wikipedia. [LINK]

You could write a thesis about the factors that led to the end of Allende: the strikes, the rise of the right wing, the CIA funding of opposition groups via the ITT Corporation, divisive public statements by the Chilean Supreme Court.. the situation was grim. But, there was a decisive turning point. On 11 September 1973, the Chilean military staged a coup to depose Allende. From a makeshift studio at the Ministry of Defense, Colonel Roberto Guillard broadcast a short speech outlining the intentions of the coup over Radio Agricultura.

At the time Allende was holed up at La Moneda, the Presidential Palace. He had a live phone line to 1010 Radio Magallane, a radio station aligned with the communists. Radio Agricultura was aligned with the conservatives and at the time was broadcasting only the national anthem. The Air Force had bombed the radio towers of Radio Portales and Radio Corporación and they were off air. On Television all stations were off air except Channel 13 which was broadcasting more statements from Pinochet. Radio Magallanes reported that army troops had encircled La Moneda and gunfights had broken out. Allende knew the end was near and he made his last speech, by phone, over Radio Magallanes. The complete text is here.

"Surely Radio Magallanes will be silenced, and the calm metal of my voice will no longer reach you. It does not matter. You will continue hearing it. I will always be next to you. At least my memory will be that of a man of dignity who was loyal to his country."

Shortly after the speech aired live, Radio Magallanes and Radio Candelaria rebroadcast the recording.
At 10:20 AM, Radio Magallanes went off the air. Later that morning, the military stormed la Moneda and killed Allende. Radio Magallanes never returned, and the truth about the death of Allende didn't come out until 2011. More here.

I read a short blurb, a sales pitch really, that claimed that Victory Belles was the first all female radio program in America. It could certainly be true. It's a very small category in radio history and it's not one that's gotten adequate coverage anywhere. I have one fantastic resource on the topic, but In it's effort to be canonical the Encyclopedia of Women in Radio 1920-1960 by Leora and Luther Sies contains no narrative on the topic.

Victory Belles was a comedy, dancing and musical variety show on KNX-AM in Los Angles. It was hosted by Lurene Tuttle, but had a number of other recognizable names on the team.The Radio Gold Index lists only two known recorded episodes [SOURCE] Both are 30 minutes long, one from December 1942 and one in May 1943. This would indicate that even as a weekly program that dozens of episodes were lost. the best account we have of their activities is actually first hand from Peggy Gilbert who performed on the program and did a USO tour with the group. Her biography, Peggy Gilbert & Her All-Girl Band by Jeannie Gayle Pool, covers much of that time period.

But what were Victory Belles? The USO recruited and screened young ladies to socialize and sometimes work at the USO. In June of 1942, Life Magazine profiled the practice making it look more like a sock hop and less like a blind date. But the ladies were also typists, waitresses on the bases. The program just re-used the jargon. You can actually hear one episode online here. Peggy Gilbert wasn't the only star in the troupe. From those two episodes we have a few names we know appear. I list them below with a short radio bio.

Lurene Tuttle - A vaudeville actress that made the leap to radio whose career was long enough to lead into TV and film. She portrayed most of the females voices on the The Adventures of Sam Spade program. She also appeared on The Great Gildersleeve, Blondie, Brent House, The Cass Daley Show, Duffy's Tavern, Glamour Manor, Maisie, the Red Skelton Show, Suspense, Doctor Christian, Lux Radio Theater. Note.. she later appears on the Dukes of Hazard TV program

Mabel Todd - Probably the same Mabel Todd from the The Komedy Kingdom. Was doign films as early as 1936, seems to have left performing behind by 1946.

Martha Mears - She appears in over 30 films and more than a dozen radio programs including: The Colgate House Party, The Old Gold Program, The General Foods Show, Bob Ripley, Joe Penner, Phillip Morris, Radio Rodeo, and the Dr. Pepper 10-2-4 Ranch program

The Music Maids - a revolving troupe that appeared mostly in films including Hoosier Holiday (1943), Girl Crazy (1943) and Hit Parade of 1943. Notice the tight grouping. At different times the line up included Denny Wilson, Jeanne Darrell, Alice Ludes, Patt Hyatt, Virginia Erwin, Alice Sizer, Bobbie Canvin, Dottie Messmer.It's hard to say which were on the team when they appeared on Victory Belles.

The Taylor Maids - Another trio with a changing line up. They appeared in a few films as well: Cowboy Canteen (1944), Artistry in Rhythm (1944) and So's Your Uncle (1943). A Newspaper ad from 1954 lists their names as Beverly, Patti, and Shirley. It's probably the same trio.

Bea Turpin and her Eight Jills Of Jive - Somewhat obscure. As a group they have no appearances other than on Victory Belles. Bea Turpin appeared in at least one pre-1920 black & white film. In Peggy Gilbert's book the name is given as "Bee Turpin." She reports that Bee played piano. This can be corroborated by radio listings for KFAC-AM in 1934 and 1935 in Sacramento.

Wilhelmina Gould - Even more obscure. SPERDVAC lists her name only on the Victory Belles Episode. Corroborated by Peggy Gilbert, but without detail.

Beverly of "Reveille With Beverly" - Beverly "Ruby" Ross was the start of the 1943 film Reveille With Beverly. It was a flick about a 5:30 AM radio show with swing music, dedicated to the local servicemen. Sound familiar? It was based on a real "Reveille with Beverly" radio show hosted by the very real Jean Ruth Hay. More here.

Ona Munson - Ona is listed as a producer on the program. Just two years later Ona Munson had her own eponymous 15 minute show, the Ona Munson Show, a.k.a. Open House also on CBS. She had appeared in the movie Gone With the Wind in 1939 and was surely the most famous of all the names attached to Victory Belles. Her only other big radio gig was on the program Big Town, which ran from 1937 to 1952. Ona joined the program in 1940 and stayed through to the end.

I'm taking a week off.
See you in March.

89.7 WSHC is the archetypal small town radio station. With 950 ERP watts it covers it's home town of Sheperdstown, WV and little more. It's HAAT is -3 meters, which if you've been to West Virginia makes sense. If you're not going uphill, you're usually going downhill.

The station has been on air since 1949, founded by Dr. Milton Wiksell; himself a graduate of Louisiana State University. Spinning indie gives the year of their first official broadcast year as 1974 [source] It's a fine station airing a mix of AAA, indie rock and old punk rock like only a taste-maker can. As I type now the DJ is spinning some Black Keys. The newspaper, where I found that show advert is the Sheperdstown Good News which was established in 1979, three decades after WSHC. They have a mission statement on their website that reads

"We aim to publish the best little good news paper in the known world and give it away free with the hope and a prayer that it will help cultivate a community of love and goodwill among those who fall under its good spell."

It's funded by the Shepherdstown Ministerial Association. The newspaper is a mishmosh of local business plugs, poetry, prose and art. I found copies of it more-or-less on every unoccupied flat countertop on German Street. It's a rarity, but it's nice to see a symbiotic relationship between local print and broadcast media. You can download the current issue here.

This is a 8-Inch, metal-core, Recordisc. I've digitized one side, the other has a thick layer of waxy palmitic acid which is hard to remove, and renders the audio into a muddy mess on playback. If I was optimistic about the recording's value I'd have spent the time with some Disc Doctor solution and a rag... but I'm not. So today you get just the one side. I'm also trying a new playback service. Feel free to comment on that.

On the sleeve is the name Texas Jim Robertson, in pencil, that may be one of his cowboy songs on the opening. In the middle of the recording at about the 1:50 mark the first tune ends and it becomes clear this is a radio program. Then there's an ad for rolling tobacco that sticks to the paper. You might recognize it.

Mono radio recording by Josefritz on Mixcloud

I'm mixed on the possibility of Texas Jim Robertson performing for the first minutes of the disc. He was a singer of cowboy songs. He recorded dozens sides for RCA in a long but now overlooked career. some of his works are now looked back on as early Rockabilly.This may or may not be him. I don't find his style so compelling that I can confirm or deny the possibility.

Sitting on a hilltop in rural West Virginia, despite the tree cover, I found I had strangely good radio reception. On Sunday in particular I heard the most amazing local programming. I heard emphatic, hollering preaching; eccentric gospel with harmonies sung in peculiar intervals and a lot of bluegrass. I identified as many as I could but there always seems to be a malingering mystery. I include a handful of reception notes with asterisks and distance in miles where notable.

I had one case of impossible reception, a 16w repeater from 90 miles away. It seems implausible. But also I received all 3 HD channels on 101.9 WVAQ well outside it's service contour.

88.1 WKJL - Religious
88.5 WYFU - Gospel
88.7 WULV - Religious
88.9 WVEP - NPR
89.5 WVDS - NPR
89.7 WLOL - Religious
89.9 WVNP - NPR
90.1 WCKU - Christian CHR
90.3 WAIJ- Gospel
90.5 WESA - Diane Rehm NPR, Pittsburgh, PA (100 mi)
90.9 WVPM - Classical/ NPR
91.3 WTRM - Religious *poor
91.7 WWVU - College Radio
91.9 WFWM - Classical
92.3 WWHQ - Country
92.7 WGIE - Country
92.9 ???? - CHR/Pop
93.1 WFGM -Classic Hits
93.5 WBTQ - News/Talk
94.1 WQZK - 90s
94.3 WRLF - Rock mellencamp
94.7 WELK - Clapton - "Layla"
95.5 WFGI - Country, Pittsburgh, PA (100 mi)
95.7 ???? - CHR/Pop
95.9 WDKL - Christian CHR
96.1 WJDV - AC
96.3 W242AD (WFDM repeater)
96.5 WKYE CHR/Pop "96 Key Best Variety" Johnstown, PA (100 mi)
96.7 WKMM- Country
97.3 WKWK - Classic Rock Wheeling, WV (130 mi) *poor
97.5 WLTF - AC "On the road again"
97.9 ???? - Christian/CHR
98.7 WOVK - Country Wheeling, WV (130 mi) *poor
98.9 WDNE - Classic Country "Bettys Boots Classic Country Requests" *poor
99.1 WRKW - Rock Ebensburg, PA (95 mi)*poor
99.7 WSHH - AC, Pittsburgh, PA (100 mi)
100.1 WVMD - Religious
100.5 WDYK - AC
101.3 WBRB Country "Geico Advert"
101.5 WORD - Religious, Pittsburgh, PA (100 mi)
101.9 WVAQ HD1 - CHR/Pop
101.9 WVAQ HD2 - Talk
101.9 WVAQ HD3 - Tailgate 107.3 - Alternative
102.3 WFBY - Classic Rock
102.5 WDVE - Classic Rock, Pittsburgh, PA (100 mi)
102.7 WGYE - Country
103.1 WKVE - Rock
*103.5 W278BF WKEY- CHR/Pop "All Request Business Lunch" (90mi) 16w. ???
104.1 WETT - CHR *poor
104.5 WKHJ - 80s Michael Jackson
104.9 WPDX - Talk/Flea Market Program
105.1 WTGD - Rock *Poor
105.7 WOBG- Rock
105.9 WTNJ - Country "State Farm ad"
106.1 WKGO - 80s
106.5 WWLW AC
107.5 WEGW - Rock, Coldwell Bank Ad "Eagle" Wheeling, WV (130 mi)
107.7 WFSP - Oldies

On March 2nd 2015 the studio of Berkeley Liberation Radio was broken into and robbed. All of their equipment including CD players, turntables, mics, cables, mixing boards, cassette decks, computers etc. were stolen. There was also extensive vandalism in the form of broken windows, graffiti and more.

As you might imagine for a small pirate radio station this is a significant financial loss. They are asking for help to replace their stolen equipment so they can return to the airwaves. To make a donation to Berkeley Liberation Radio, go to:

www.gofundme.com/rebuildblr

This stamp was issued in Austria on February 10th, 1973 to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of Interpol. It depicts a radio operator with a transmitter and a Morse key either sending or receiving a document. The connection between the telegraph and Interpol isn't just retro-technology. The Organization's official name is "ICPO–INTERPOL." The acronym "ICPO" stands for 'International Criminal Police Organization, but in French, the acronym would be OIPC.

The word INTERPOL"is a contraction of International Police, and was chosen in 1946 as the telegraphic address. In 1956 they made it official and adopted that as their formal name. With some irony the organization held onto telegraph technology too long —well into the 1980s. As a consequence they have spent the last few decades trying to modernize their global operation across a very technologically unequal world.

Rittenhouse is a name that resonates in Philadelphia. Rittenhouse Square is one of five Philadelphia parks originally planned by William Penn and his surveyor Thomas Holme. Originally called Southwest Square, Rittenhouse Square was renamed in 1825 after David Rittenhouse. Rev. H.B. Rittenhouse may or may not be related to the above. I suspect hes is. Regardless, his surname certainly wouldn't have hurt his prospects in radio. No surprise then he broadcast on at least nine different radio stations.

His book of gospel songs above mentions no call letters. H.B. had no home station of his own. He leased time where he could find it and advertised in local newspapers. One article describes him as preaching at the Church Of The Nazarene in Hagerstown, MD. A movie-radio program guide from July of 1942, lists him on 930 WFMD-AM on Saturday the 11th at 3:15 PM and again at 8:00 PM. He did a Monday through Fridya slot on WFMD at 7:3- AM. The same document lists him at 8:00 AM simultaneously on WFMD-AM, 1090 WBAL-AM and 850 WEEU-AM. He also was working at 1300 WFBR-AM on Wednesdays. The January issue of the same magazine also has him on 550 WSVA-AM.

A 1942 program listing [here] lists him on 1450 WWDC-AM on Saturday October 10th at 11:15 PM. I also discovered a single clipping that he broadcast on WIBG-AM in 1945. Today WIBG lives in South Jersey on 1020. But back in the 1940s, it was on 990 in Philadelphia. Today WNTP occupies that slot on the dial. A 1943 issue of the Frederick News Post wrote "Rev. H. B. Rittenhouse Everyday 1 To P. M. 1240 On Your Dial." The calls aren't listed but then or now it'd be WJEJ-AM.

In 1960 he married Andy and Betty DeWitt, he was her uncle. He appears to have settled in Friendsville, PA in the 1970s. His name appears in numerous obituaries alive and officiating. I'm certain it was him as he officiated the funeral of Theodore Coddington in the same town in 1974, and Claudine M. McCullough in 1977, in 1985 at the funeral of Ritchey J. Kahl, and Cleda Blanche Coddington in 1989. His wife Betty Rittenhouse died in 2007 at the age of 81.

It's hard to argue that radio as a hobby and as an industry aren't in decline. But I do my best. My latest canary in the coal mine is the toy crystal radio set. You remember the kit: 1 diode, 1 tuning rod, 2 connecting wires, 1 copper wire coil, 1 earphone and maybe a cardboard tube.. maybe some rubber bands and a tuner so some kind; or maybe not. They still make that kit... many different companies do actually. See below.

Makes and models range from hardwood mounted toys clearly intended for adults to flimsy designs made mostly of paper. The difficult level clearly varies, but not one of these costs more than $25, so they fall into the toy category.

Science Store - Crystal Radio Kit
https://store.sciencebuddies.org/Elec_p014/COM-0001-KIT/Crystal-Radio-Kit.aspx

Poof-Slinky - Crystal Radio Mini Lab
http://poof-slinky.com/product/crystal-radio-mini-lab/

Maxitronix - Crystal Radio Kit
http://www.elenco.com/search/searchdetails/crystal_radio_kit=Mjc5

Modern Radio Labs - No 2 Crystal Radio Kit
http://www.modernradiolabs.com/MRL%20No%202%20Crystal%20Radio%20Kit.htm

Peebles - PO-002 Crystal Radio Kit, With a Cylinder Coil
http://www.peeblesoriginals.com/catalog/45.php

Go Labs - Build Your Own Working Crystal Radio Lab Kit
http://www.amazon.com/Build-Your-Working-Crystal-Radio/dp/B000EMB8AA

Xtal Set Society - XS-OB1 Oat Box Radio - Pack 1
http://www.midnightscience.com/kits.html

Flights of Fancy - Crystal Radio Receiver
http://www.crafts4kids.co.uk/flights-of-fancy-radio-receiver/p1310

Artec Build Your Own Crystal Radio Science Craft
https://www.virtuabotix.com/product/artec-build-crystal-radio-science-craft/

I had read of the NBC Slumber Hour broadcasts. It sometimes comes up in allegorical histories of easy listening and beautiful music. The program mixed chamber music with soft smooth vocals. It's announcer was the legendary Milton Cross. But most histories indicate that the program aired nightly from 1927 to 1932. I had always believed that to be the case until I read an irate complaint letter from J. William Traum of Brooklyn , NY. This was published in An April 1931 issue of the New York Sun.

"What has radio broadcasting come to when a station's officials obstinately refuse to rectify an unjustified and outrageous move In spite of enormous protests? The National Broadcasting Company will not restore the full Slumber Hour on the grounds that it has not received enough letters. How false that is may be determined by the fact that the newspapers themselves are full of invective letters. Haven't the listeners, who are the life's blood of broadcasting. Nothing to say even though they have the right behind them? Will the readers of your paper continue to write in and convince the N.B.C. that they will not stand for this disregard of their rights. The situation is becoming far more serious than just the Slumber Hour situation alone. It is becoming a question of good music against bad and the obligations of a station to its listeners."

But Mr. Traum was not alone. The easy listening of the 1970s had it's fans but so did it's 1920s equivalent. Other issues of that paper and others were briefly littered with complaint letters— some fiery, some groveling. But it was the Sun who focused on the story more than others. It might have been an editorial decision or something spurred on by their readers... but it happened. They wanted their smooth sleepy program back.Philip G. Shermerhorn also wrote into the New York Sun newspaper.

"You have published numerous righteous protests against at least the third effort upon the part of the National Broadcasting Company to wrest from the public their beloved Slumber Hour. I think the first encroachment was when they sought to change its character and make it less attractive by interpolating a female who attempted to say something poetic and merely aroused wrath. The second attack was when the Slumber Hour was scheduled to begin at midnight instead of 11 PM, and the third and most recent move to curtail that program from one hour to thirty minutes is being tried out now. We, of our household, desire to take this opportunity of thanking The Sun for giving space and publicity to such protests, and trust you will continue to exert your influence in the public's behalf."

It's also worth noting that the program is believed to be one of two that announcer Milton Cross may have read poetry on. The other was The Silver Flute, a fifteen-minute program billed as "tales of a wandering gypsy." No recordings exist of either show. Early on the Slumber Hour was sponsored by Kellogs. It's house band was the Ludwig Laurier Orchestra. A January 1931 comment in the Country Air column in Wallace's Farmer hinted at the problem. The writer indicated that the NBC affiliates that carried the program did so irregularly joining the program late and/or leaving early. WREN came in from 10:15 to 10:30, then back from 10:45 to 11:00 PM. KDKA, KWK, KSTP, KFAB, and KOA were all named for only running parts of the program, treating it in other words.. like filler. It did not bode well.

In early 1931 NBC cut the program back from 1 hour from 30 minutes. By 1932 they canceled the program entirely. In the years later other programs pilfered the brand name. WIBA ran a program in 1937 named the Slumber Hour with no connection to the original. Other late night soft music programs slowly gave rise to the abomination we now call Beautiful Music.

April Winchell is an actress, writer, comedian, talk radio host, and blogger. She is best known of all those things for her blog which about 5 years ago pulled off a very clever satire of Etsy titled Regretsy which evnetually culminated in a very successful book deal in 2010. The blog has since been closed but April Winchell lives on. More here.

Besides her fairly famous bloggery, her radio career was the next most fame-inducing act of her career. She hosted a radio talk show program on 640 KFI-AM in Los Angeles radio station. Her program ran for three years and had a growing audience by all accounts. But according to some sources her "irreverent" sense of humor rubbed stuffy Clear Channel executives the wrong way. There was never a clear explanation of what went down. They say she "rubbed people the wrong way" and even Los Angeles Magazine glosses over the topic in saying she was "irreverent and naughty, " but says no more. Her program was cut in November of 2002 when Clear Channel was hard-charging right-wing political talk. Her program was strictly humor. I suspect they wanted more politicking, and less giggling.

After her KFI gig ended, she began to appear the Ask Mr. KABC program, on 790 KABC-AM. By 2005 Winchell was in negotiations with HBO to develop and host a show on Sirius Satellite Radio. But it didnt' go anywhere. After years of negotiating, in May of 2006 she announced on her website that negotiations had stalled out between HBO and Sirius, leaving her would-be satellite program on a demo reel.

Ask Mr. KABC ended in 2007 leading Winchell to begin guesting on the Marc "Mr. K" Germain Show on KTLK-AM. Marc Germain was Mr. KABC on that prior program. So many saw it as the duo continuing on together. But it was something Winchell said that March that got her banned for life from KABC.

You may be aware that the Bill O'Reilly program airs locally in L.A. on KABC-AM. Working at the station Winchell had some great first-hand O'Reilly stories. The man is infamously hot-tempered, and badly behaved. So here his prima-donna behavior made for more comedic fodder. She described an incident she called "Croissantgate." Bill took it poorly because he's a petty and arrogant twat. For this act, Bill got her banned from KABC —for life. Rather than describe the event I'll just quote her blog:

"Apparently, there is no room for store bought baked goods in the No Spin Zone. They must be from a bakery. And they must be baked fresh, very fresh. Which is why he insisted that a baker in Beverly Hills be summoned to create a fresh batch, just for him. Post haste. Because Bill is just folks, you know. A regular guy. He followed that up by demanding that a helicopter take him to Orange County for his next appearance, because he didn't want to spend an hour in the limousine the station had arranged for him. That was too much to ask."

The story isn't that bad, kind of common if he was a grandstanding celebutante. Instead, vengeance makes O'Reilly look even more like a tool then the story ever could. More here and here. It might be coincidental, but Germain's stint with KTLK was cancelled in December 2007 bringing that run to and end. Germain tried skype-casting, a bit of fill-in work at KGO-AM and a side-kick spot on Red Eye Radio out of WBAP, but that washed out in 2011. Winchell did not go with him on that adventure. She had plenty of work back in comedy writing and in her voice-over work. I don't get too excited about radio ads but Adweek still gushes over her, once writing “April Winchell has almost single-handedly reinvented Radio as a red-hot genre.” Sad that just a few years later she'd be banned on one station and cancelled on another. She has not returned to radio since.

I was reading the Collected Letters of Neal Cassady and chanced upon a somewhat arcane reference to radio history. There is a single sentence in a letter to Jack Kerouac from June of 1952 "How's Mombo Pat Henry Shows? Great vacation he's having." On it's own I would have read right over the sentence without considering who Pat Henry was. But the book is extensively footnoted. At the bottom of the page is the key information:

"Pat Henry (1926-1999) was a disc jockey who played jazz on radio station KROW, Oakland, in the 1950s, before founding KJAZ, Northern California's first all-jazz radio station in Alameda, with a transmitter on San Francisco's Russian Hill, in 1959."

Pat Henry was the real deal. His obituary in SFGate focused on his status as a living legend here and here. they called 92.7 KJAZ a "world-renowned cultural institution." Back in 1967 Billboard Magazine was already calling KJAZ and Pat Henry, "the major jazz voice of Northern California." They even go as far as to describe a field of a dozen Bay-Area stations playing jazz programming. The reason all these sources keep specifying "northern" California is that in southern California KNOB signed on as all-jazz, out of Los Angeles in 1957. But dont' think that they were competing. Their signals didn't overlap and when KNOB increased power from 320 watts to 3,500 watts in March of 1958, they threw a big jazz bash and hired Pat Henry as their emcee.

The idea for an all-jazz station, according to Billboard at least, was born in Henry's mind in the 26 years he spent working for AM stations in Bakersfield (stating at the age of 18 in 1944), and San Jose and Oakland. Durring his three year stint at KROW Pat started accumulating the hardware for his own station. But KNOB signed on first. It's hard to say definitively but the fact that another all-jazz station was operating only 300 miles away must have emboldened him. Interestingly, that Cassady letter predates KJAZ by 7 years, and his time on KCSM by 5 years. The Cassady family lived at 29 Russell St. in San Francisco, CA. So Neal and presumably Kerouac were listening to Pat Henry on 960 KROW-AM out of Oakland. At the time Pat was about 26 years old... younger than Cassady or Kerouac. His program then ran four nights a week midnight to 6:00 AM, Walter Jamond had two nights a week and the Arthur Murray Dance Studio sponsored all six nights starting in November of 1952.

But jazz didn't stay on top for long. KNOB segued out all it's jazz programming by 1966 effectively surrendering to the cultural groundswell of rock and pop music. While the rest of the jazz programming moved to public radio KJAZ stuck it out. Henry ran the station on the proverbial shoestring budget bartering advertising time for everything down to office supplies. To cut costs in 1962, Henry moved the studios to KJAZ. thankfully the buyer, Ron Cowan was enough of a jazz fan to keep it intact. Though he did relocate the studios to Bay Farm Island in the early '80s. The stations financial problems mounted until 1981 when Henry was finally forced to

But the station became a money pit. In 1994, KJAZ frequency was sold after Cowan deemed the station unprofitable. Loyal listeners organized a fundraiser to keep KJAZ on the air but it wasn't enough. The station was sold and 92.7 FM and the format changed to Spanish music. From 1999 to 2002, they simulcasted the rock format of KSJO in San Jose as KXJO. In 2002 it became one of the nations few dance-formated stations at KPTI, two years later it became KBTB, an Urban station. In 2004 it went back to dance under the ownership of Flying Bear Media as KNGY. In 2009 it changed yet again and is currently a CHR station with the calls KREV.

After the sale in 1999, many of KJAZ programmers and announcers crossed the street to KCSM. Pat Henry could be found there as well, but he'd had a Saturday afternoon show there since the mid 1990s.

These are sales demos. I will admit now that they are all at least a little annoying. But you cannot operate a 24/7 operation without automation anymore. You at least need a backup system more sophisticated than the old Sony 50-disc changer. There are a lot of products in this market space. For small market stations it can even be worthwhile to explore open source options. The Promethus Radio project compiled a nice list here. But you might want something a bit more robust than a hacked link between an iTunes playlist and a fault switch. Brace yourself... unless you are working at KMUD, you are going to need a computer.

iMedia Touch

Google Radio Automation

Enco - DAD

RCS - Zetta (makers of Selector)

The shortwave radio bands certainly have their share of oddities. The station known as UVB-76 is one of my favorites. It's not a numbers station per se.. but it's still interesting. Even it's call sign is a non-sequitur. In September 2010, the station moved and has since used the identification MDZhB, meaning that perhaps the correct calls are UZB-76. But these are not assigned call letters. UZB-76 was a abbreviates in cyrillic Moscow Military District and MDZhB is a callsign for Western Military District of the Russian Federation. But geeks that are into these sort of topics seem to favor the original calls.

The station broadcasts in AM on 4625 kHz from inside the Russian Federation. It broadcasts a short, monotonous buzzing sound repeating at a rate of approximately 25 tones per minute —24 hours a day. This pattern is only interrupted by exceedingly rare voice transmission in Russian. There is endless speculation online about it's origin and purpose. More here, here and here.

Many sources claim the original transmission site was in Povarovo, near Moscow. In 2010 following a reorganization of the Russian military, it's district was expanded into the Western Military District instead of just the Moscow area. To "serve" this larger region, it uses two transmission sites, one in Kerro, near St.Petersburg and another in Naro-Fominsk, near Moscow. Supposedly the Buzzer source is fed to the shortwave site by phone relay.

The first reports were made of a station on this frequency in 1982. What I find most interesting is that thanks to the Coronet project we knwo that not only has it changes calls, but it has also changed the nature of it's buzz tone. Currently it broadcasts a cycle of 1.25 seconds buzzing, then 1.85 seconds of silence. But prior to November of 2010 its buzz tone lasted slightly, and the gaps slightly shorter. It's also been stated that in the past, it used to change to a continuous buzz one minute before the hour. You can hear samples here.

Notably, there are two other Russian stations with similar "formats." One is nicknamed "The Pip" and the other is "The Squeaky Wheel". Like the Buzzer, they both transmit noises in a tight pattern and on rare occasion interrupted that pattern to broadcast coded Russian voice message.

The Audio Lost in MP3 Compression

Who Bombed Radio Free Granada?

The Public Interest, Convenience or Necessity

The Incredibe, Edible RFID

Transcription Mystery Disc #254

The Last Words Broadcast on Radio Magallanes

Victory Belles

VACATION!

The Sheperdstown Good News Radio Hour

Transcription Mystery Disc #255

WV Bandscan

Help Berkeley Liberation Radio Rebuild!

Interpol 50th Anniversary Stamp

Rev H.B. Rittenhouse on the Radio

Crystal Radios Are Still For Sale

The Slumber Hour

The Long Sad Tale of Croissantgate

Cassady to KROW to KJAZ to Cowan to KREV

Radio Automation Software Demos

Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz