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What Was The Last Radio Program You Heard?

RW Observer

New in Town
Messages
18
Location
United States
I do most of, if not all my radio listening on Shortwave, I just enjoy the acoustics of the broadcasts as well as the content offered from various international broadcasters. Today I just finished listening to the BBC World Service, sometimes I'll listen to the English Services of Radio Romania International, Radio France International, China Radio International, Radio Japan and Radio Kuwait, those are usually my favorites. In the afternoon's I'll sometimes listen to the music that the Voice of America has to offer.

The other day I heard a pirate station called Radio Casablanca that had a great variety of 1940s music, it's always a pleasure to hear that on shortwave.
 
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LizzieMaine

Bartender
Messages
32,962
Location
Where The Tourists Meet The Sea
Listening to a real heartbreaker -- the Brooklyn Dodgers visiting the Phillies at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia on Sunday, September 29th 1957, the last game the Brooklyn Dodgers would ever play. They had closed out at Ebbets Field the previous Thursday, and a meaningless weekend series against the Phils would ring the curtain down on baseball's most beloved franchise.

The mood of the broadcast is funereal -- the official announcement of the move to Los Angleles wouldn't be made for another week, but everyone knew they were leaving, and the fast pace of the game makes it clear everyone just wants to get it over with. Vin Scully and Jerry Doggett go out of their way to make this sound like just another routine broadcast, but their enthusiasm is perfunctory and forced. They would become beloved figures on the West Coast, but at this point in time they were both dreading the move, especially Scully -- a native New Yorker who, like virtually everyone in the Dodger organization whose name wasn't Walter F. O'Malley, really didn't want to leave. But what did loyalty to the public or tradition mean in the lure of the almighty California dollar?

Over their last five years in Brooklyn, the Dodgers earned a clear profit of more than $1.8 million, making them by far the most profitable club in baseball. Thanks for nothing, Whalebelly.
 

LizzieMaine

Bartender
Messages
32,962
Location
Where The Tourists Meet The Sea
Sunday night at 8 and it's the Chase & Sanborn Hour again, still the most well-rounded of radio's variety programs. Tonight's broadcast is that of November 5th, 1939, featuring as guest stars the strapping young leading man Jackie Cooper and snappy-talking screen favorite Glenda Farrell. Don Ameche is off on vacation, so he's replaced as master of ceremonies by singer Nelson Eddy, who is in fine form as usual. Edgar Bergen and Mortimer Snerd have performed a routine about Mortimer's home town of Snerdville, but Charlie McCarthy is mysteriously absent. And Chase & Sanborn Dated Coffee in the new silver bag is a real change for the better, so they claim. (Consumers Union Reports is less enthusiastic, rating it only "not bad.")
 

Stanley Doble

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,808
Location
Cobourg
3 1/2 hours ago listened to part of a Gunsmoke episode on AM740 the Toronto nostalgia station. From 10 to 11 they play an old drama, then a comedy program. Don't know the date but recognized Howard 'Floyd the barber' McNear as Doc.
 

LizzieMaine

Bartender
Messages
32,962
Location
Where The Tourists Meet The Sea
The 9/24/40 broadcast of "Information Please." IP is my favorite way to spend a Monday night, but this particular program was a disappointment. Moderator Clifton Fadiman was out sick, and panelist Franklin P. Adams stepped in at the last moment to replace him for the evening. Although FPA is engaging and witty when he's on the panel answering questions submitted by listeners, he's a flop at running the show --lots of awkward pauses, and he didn't seem to get the hang of the necessary repartee, especially when dealing with Oscar Levant. Really makes you appreciate how difficult it is to be an effective moderator for a panel program.

After that, a testimonial dinner/roast from 10/30/37 honoring Eddie Cantor on the occasion of his twenty-five years in show business. Tapdancer Bill Robinson gets the biggest laugh of the night when he surveys the crowd, made up largely of Cantor's old show-biz cronies, and comments "Guess I'm the only Gentile up here this evening..."
 

LizzieMaine

Bartender
Messages
32,962
Location
Where The Tourists Meet The Sea
"An Open Letter On Race Hatred," a searing CBS documentary from 1943 about the Detroit race riots. Produced by the gifted William N. Robson, who got the rough end of the blacklist during the early fifties before rebounding to a long career with the Voice Of America. The documentary is narrated -- powerfully -- by Jackson Beck, better known as the narrator of "The Adventures of Superman."
 

plain old dave

A-List Customer
Messages
474
Location
East TN
The Talking Machine Show on WWCR shortwave. Seems... proper to clean 1920s vintage Smith and Wessons while listening to contemporary music to them....
 

Julian Shellhammer

Practically Family
Messages
852
Haven't listened to OTR for a while, with the exception of a smackerel of Vic n Sade, and a similar solo sample of Candy Matson, but I salute you, LM, for inaugurating a thread about the dominant medium during The Era.
 

Julian Shellhammer

Practically Family
Messages
852
On a long drive today, re-listened to Candy Matson; turns out it was one of two audition shows. Missing was the distinctive tag, "Yukon 2-8209." Also another Box 13, the one about suspected insurance fraud.
 

Joe50's

Familiar Face
Messages
79
1951 father know best. fathers surprise organization
Nothing like hearing Cathy and bud joke about how Jim surprised them on vacation with a new green interior painting resulting in them needing new living room furniture, trying to install a smoke alarm inside the stove , and then when they stop talking jim mentions They have a big surprise at home. And they find out he reorganized the house and decided to lock the the cupboards and basement then put the keys in a desk drawer and hiding the desk keys where he couldnt remember right as a friend came by to see if his golf course membership check is ready, which he subsequently put with the keys in the desk
 

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