Sunday, January 30, 2011

Radio Waves: Parker's passion: 'Remembering Radio'

Radio Waves: Parker's passion: 'Remembering Radio'

The hair is white or gone; the faces are lined with eight decades or more of life. But they break into broad smiles as they recall their adventures on the radio. And, as they tell stories for the new documentary "Remembering Radio," their voices sound like they must have sounded coming out of the speakers of those console sets that were standard furniture in American living rooms of long ago.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/01/07/PKEG1H137N.DTL#ixzz1qZ0UyM6I

Friday, January 28, 2011

The Green Hornet Inspires: Radio Heroes of Yesteryear That Need Video Games

The Green Hornet Inspires: Radio Heroes of Yesteryear That Need Video Games


Do you know what evil lurks in the hearts of men? Well, you might not know, but The Shadow sure did. Long before the Alec Baldwin movie that I secretly love, The Shadow was the star of pulp novels, comic books, film serials and of course. Radio. In fact, the Shadow was on radio in one form or another from 1930 to 1954! That's 24 years of crimefighting. Orson Welles even provided his voice for part of that run. He inspired heroes like The Green Hornet and Batman, and there were two failed attempts to bring him to television Series. There was a cancelled Super Nintendo title, and a pinball machine from the movie, but you know what this guy needs? A good video game.u know what evil lurks in the hearts of men? Well, you might not know, but The Shadow sure did. Long before the Alec Baldwin movie that I secretly love, The Shadow was the star of pulp novels, comic books, film serials and of course. Radio. In fact, the Shadow was on radio in one form or another from 1930 to 1954! That's 24 years of crimefighting. Orson Welles even provided his voice for part of that run. He inspired heroes like The Green Hornet and Batman and there were two failed attempts to bring him to a television Series. There was a cancelled Super Nintendo title, and a pinball machine from the movie, but you know what this guy needs? A good video game.  READ THE FULL STORY

Should NBC finally apologize to Mae West?

January 3rd, 2011 by Matthew Lasar
But I’ve got another condition to consider—asking NBC Universal posthumously apologize to Mae West for banning her from its radio network almost 75 years ago.  READ THE FULL STORY . . . 

Thursday, January 27, 2011

‘American Radio Networks’ Disappoints, by James E. O'Neal

‘American Radio Networks’ Disappoints, by James E. O'Neal

One in a series of occasional articles reviewing notable new or recent books about radio.

Jim Cox is a retired college professor who has written a number of books with radio as the subject matter. “American Radio Networks: A History” is his 18th book.

In this 2009 work, published by McFarland and retailing for $45, Cox takes the reader back to the very beginning of time as concerns the interconnecting of radio stations for the purpose of carrying the same program simultaneously.


I was looking forward to reading this one. While there’s a lot of information available in the way of early radio station history, the same isn’t true about the networks that linked many of these stations to the large broadcasting centers in places such as New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.

Cox does present a lot of interesting and useful history about stations and networks, but as I continued to read, I began to be a bit disappointed. READ MORE . . . 

Corwin Found the Music in Words, by Vic Cox

Corwin Found the Music in Words, by Vic Cox

On a Sunday evening in New York in October of 1938, Norman Corwin labored over a program he was about to direct in a live broadcast for his new employer, the Columbia Broadcasting System.

It had been six months since CBS hired the former journalist to direct and produce a soap opera and three weekly series of dramatizing science, living history and citizens at work.

The 28-year-old Corwin toiled quietly. However, the floor below his Madison Avenue studio was the scene of a swirl of activity. Orson Welles and his Mercury Theatre of the Air were broadcasting their pre-Halloween version, as Welles phrased it, of “dressing up in a sheet … and saying ‘Boo!’”  Read More . . . http://radioworld.com/article/corwin-found-the-music-in-words/4540

Sunday, January 16, 2011

'The Green Hornet' Tops Weekend Box Office - Speakeasy - WSJ

'The Green Hornet' Tops Weekend Box Office - Speakeasy - WSJ: "‘The Green Hornet’ Tops Weekend Box Office"   “The Green Hornet” topped the weekend box office, pulling in $34  million, according to early estimates from Hollywood.com. Read More . . .