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The WMCA Broadcasters
The WMCA Broadcasters have quite a discography, most of them pressed into shellac at 78 rpm back in the late 1920s. They released just shy of 60 platters on Columbia between 1926 and 1928. Some were...
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DJ Karen Blixen
During the early part of the 20th century, the interior of Kenya was settled by British and European farmers, who became wealthy farming coffee and tea. This was a problem for the one million Kikuyu...
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The Matinee Merry-Go-Round
That comic above appeared in the June 23rd 1945 issue of Billboard magazine. It was part of a half-page column advertisement plugging ad time on 850 WJW-AM. The following text bragged that Cleveland...
View ArticleRadio Shack is Back?
I keep finding retail Radio Shacks still open and operating. In June of 2015, they entered into a partnership with Sprint (and a hedge-fund) that rescued some 1,700 stores across America. There also...
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DO YOU KNOW THIS MAN?
This is a RPPC (Real Picture Post Card) of a man smoking a pipe beside a microphone bearing the call letters WROW. There is no text on the reverse side and no post mark so it bears no date of any kind....
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Hearth Rack, Ice Crusher, Clock, Sewing Machine, Radio
I saw at a junk shop masquerading as an antique store. It was strange to see this particular assortment of disparate items: hearth rack, ice crusher, clock, sewing machine and radios. But they are all...
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Polyoxybenzylmethylenglycolanhydride
We should address Bakelite one more time, as it's connected to our business at both ends. the genesis of that polymer was the expense of the increasingly scarce imported shellac and in application it...
View ArticleHP Lovecraft
I read recently that the World Fantasy awards intends to discontinue the use of their current trophy, a bust models after the face of writer HP Lovecraft. Their rational is that he was a racist, sexist...
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Earl Fatha Hines on KDKA
I have written often about the beginnings of black radio: the first appearances of African Americans in broadcasts that also demographically target African Americans. There were blacks portrayed on...
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Radio Cookie tin
ModCloth called it a "cool, retro-inspired container." For me it brings to mind the book The Aesthetics of Consumerism by Daniel Harrris. He refers to the qualities we assign to inanimate objects...
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Key West Naval Station - NAR
Naval Air Station NAR,inKey West, FL was located only four miles east of Key West city. It was about 150 miles Southwest of Miami and 90 miles North of Cuba. The naval air station and military airport...
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Morse code via Apple Watch
I first read about this here.Patryk Laurent, cat the Brain Corporation in San Diego developed an application that uses Morse code to send Apple Watch messages. He's an radio ham of course.
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An Unknown Call Sign
I found this posted online for auction. It was listed as "unknown" call letters. As you might expect, that was all too enticing a mystery. Clearly the important part is that mic, since over it is a...
View ArticleDIGITAL RADIO STUDIO
This is a surprisingly complete tutorial on how to build a digital radio studio. We define a radio station in many different ways today. Clyde Broadcast manufacture radio studio equipment in the UK....
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WOKO Soap Box Derby
The WOKO on air today went on the air in 1962 as WJOY-FM. The station was also known as WQCR from 1972 to 1990, when it became WOKO, the country station in Bernie Sander's back yard. It is not related...
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Militia Radio
Whether the presence of militias make you feel patriotic or remind you of Isis, you should know there are non-governmental paramilitary groups in all 50-states. Membership is estimated at between...
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The Jolly Rogers
980 WONE-AM began broadcasting in 1949, when former WING staffer Ronald B. Woodyard left the station, on bad terms. Unlike most stations around Dayton, OH at the time, WONE was an independent. They...
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KPISS.FM
I appreciate a good pirate radio station. But that's not quite what this is. KPISS is an internet radio station. Most of their shows are hosted on Mixcloud. I first heard of them from an article in...
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The Concession Speech
We all know the concession speech: the half-hearted patriotic rhetoric, the fallow optimism, and the trite attempt at closure. The actual wording is moot. They're all the same. But the private...
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