Research Projects

Friday, April 25, 2008

A Complete Broadcast day Sept. 21, 1939

This was an interesting find. In 1939 the radio station WJSV recorded an entire broadcast day.
WJSV originally went on air in 1926 as WTRC based in Brooklyn, NY. It was named for the Ttwentieth district Republican Club. Interestingly enough that batch of Republicans were also members of the KKK. The federal government ran them out of New York City.

A year later it moved to Arlington, Virginia, as 1470 WTFF-AM. It was named for The Fellowship Forum, the Klu Klux Klans newspaper. Soon after flipping calls to WJSV; now named for the papers publisher James S. Vance.In 1932 CBS bought the station ousting the bigots in bedsheets and cleaned house. They changed the city of license to Washington D.C. and changed its call letters to WTOP-AM in 1943. But while it was still WJSV in 1939 on September 21st an entire 19 hour broadcast day was recorded. Starting at 6 a.m. and running through 1 a.m. a veritable time capsule was created.
The project was at the behest of the the National Archives. But this was no random selection. PD Harry C. Butcher was a naval aide under Eisenhower, and it was he that first named FDRs fireside chats and his start reporter Robert Trout that introduced the president each week. The Schedule looks like this:

6:30 Sundial with Arthur Godfrey (music)
8:30 Certified Magic Carpet (quiz show)
8:45 Bachelor's Children (soap)
9:00 Pretty Kitty Kelly (soap)
9:15 The Story of Myrt & Marge (soap)
9:30 Hilltop House (soap)
9:45 Stepmother (soap)
10:00 Mary Lee Taylor (soap)
10:15 Brenda Curtis (soap, featuring Agnes Moorehead)
10:30 Big Sister (soap)
10:45 Aunt Jenny's True Life Stories (soap that Bob & Ray loved to parody)
11:00 Jean Abbey (news for women)
11:15 When a Girl Marries (soap)
11:30 The Romance of Helen Trent (soap)
11:45 Our Gal Sunday (soap)
12:00 The Goldbergs (comedy)
12:15 Life Can Be Beautiful (soap)
12:30 Road of Life (soap)
12:45 This Day Is Ours (soap)
1:00 Sunshine Report (news)
1:15 The Life & Love of Dr. Susan (soap)
1:30 Your Family and Mine (soap)
1:45 News
2:00 President Roosevelt's Address to Congress (speech)
2:40 Premier Edouard Daladier
3:00 Address Commentary (news)
3:15 The Career of Alice Blair (soap)
3:30 News (news)
3:42 Rhythm & Romance
3:45 Scattergood Baines
4:00 Baseball: Cleveland Indians at Washington Senators (sports)
5:15 The World Dances (music)
5:30 News (news)
5:45 Sports News (news)
6:00 Amos and Andy (comedy)
6:15 The Parker Family (comedy)
6:30 Joe E. Brown (comedy)
7:00 Ask-It Basket (quiz)
7:30 Strange as it Seems (true stories)
8:00 Major Bowes' Original Amateur Hour (variety)
9:00 The Columbia Workshop - "Now It's Summer" (drama)
9:30 Americans at Work (true stories)
10:00 News (news)
10:15 Music (music)
10:30 Albert Warner (news)
11:30 Teddy Powell Band (music)
12:00 Louis Prima Orchestra (music)
12:30 Bob Chester Orchestra (music)

You can stream it here or download it here. WJSV calls now reside on 90.5 in Morristown, NJ on a high school station. They have no affiliation with the KKK, The Fellowship Forum or CBS radio. the public domain focal blog Counter Clock, also visited this subject. It's worth the read, and they lumped the audio together in one download for your convenience. .

1 comment:

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