More Catch Up

West Philadelphia Orchestra - WPO

Shugo Tokumaru - Exit

Magical Beautiful - Right Rock

Ljova and the Kontraband - Mnemosyne

the Dark Romantics - Heartbreaker

After War of the Worlds

Tonight many stations will run the traditional re-run of the Orson Welles version of the War of the Worlds radio play from the Mercury Theater. On rare occasion stations re-create it completely. I read somewhere that another brave station is attempting it this year. In my pre-senile dementia I have forgotten who. I could tell you the story of the panic... but what' more interesting is the legal mumbo jumbo that followed.

October 30th 1938 Orson unleashed his version of the H.G. Wells classic tale. His version interspersed faux programming with news bulletins, and live feeds. It drove listeners into a panic. It seems absurd, but in an area centering around Princeton, Trenton and Grovers Mill New Jersey there was actual mass hysteria. But people beleive Fox news too. The mob is maleable.

When he signedd off the program police, newsmen, were waiting for him. An irate mayor from a midwestern city was on the phone. He was in doo doo. some staff his in the bathroom. Other staff set abotu destroying scripts and tapes to get rid of the evidence. It was then that Orson was told that some listeners had actually comitted suicide in sheer terror over his tale. He left out the backdoor.

Orson Welles was 23 years old when he decided to make a radio play of the H.G. Wells' classic, "War of the Worlds." He was by all reports, amused and pretty pleased with himself over the chaos. Through CBS he issued a statement of regret. But by November he was bragging about the telegrams he got from listeners that loved it.

H.G. Wells was still alive at the time and he issued a statement suggesting the format of the radio drama violated the license for it's use. he didn't actually pursue legal action of course. He was just seeking to distance himself. The City Manager of Trenton, Paul Mornton complained directly to the FCC. The drama had been set in his city, and used some of it's real landmarks and locations. It was there that the worst panic occurred. Orson had to do a press conference to chill out the irritated mobs of gullible idiots and irritated bureacrats. Some accounts claim that one FCC offical called Orson a "Radio terrorist" but I have NO COMTEMPORARY SOURCE.. so let's call that apocryphal.

The FCC in the end tacitly agreed that peopel are idiots and gave CBS a little swat on the wrists. But there was one single concession:

"In order that this may not happen again the program department hearafter will not use the technique of a simulated news broadcast within a dramatization when the circumstances of the broadcast could cause immediate alarm to the listeners."

Radiolab did a version this March. Download here.
LA Theatre Works did one in May. Download 15-minute clip Here.

Catching Up

I covered a few days over at Stranded in Stereo while the boss was off at CMJ. I link my slandering, pandering meandering below.

Bang! Bang! Eche! - Concert Review
Starfucker - Concert Review
Teenbeaters - "Formative Years" series

Charlie Tuna

Not the Starkist mackerel on the can of Tunafish. I mean Charlie Tuna L.A. radio personality at KRTH. Art Ferguson first became Charlie Tuna at KOMA in Oklahoma City. The nickname was a hand-me-down from DJ Chuck Riley who moved on to other pseudonyms.

I only first heard of the big Tune last fall. KBIG added a slightly deeper playlist to their Hot AC format. They didn't want to go all the way to adult hits, but they wanted to tweak thigns a bit. They tweaked Charlie righ tout the back door. They cut all their DJs and went all automated. Somhow "MY fm” didn't involve any me in my. But Clear Channel didnt' can Charlie, immediately. Thus ended a 7 year reign at K-BIG.

What I didn't know was that Charlie was also on 930 KHJ-AM back when it was "The Boss." That original team at The Boss still hads a lock on Los Angeles, they are the kings of the airwaves.

The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce honored Charlie with a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1990. he was the first of the KHJ staff to get one. In 2008 he was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame.

It was in 1967 that Charlie scored a slot at KHJ. He debuted on Thanksgiving Day. He never really left LA after that. He had a non-compete that sent him to san Diego KCBQ for 6 months. But, in 1972, he moved over to 1500 KROQ-AM back in LA. It was attempting a wild top-40 format we'd think of as Classic Rock now. But the station had a rocky start, had trouble paying the DJS, the station even went off air at one point. In 1976, the FCC told it's owner Gary Bookasta KROQ would lose its license if they didn't resume broadcasting. KROQ went back on-air. It was much too unstable for Tuna. He bolted and got a gig at KKDJ in 1974. He eventually became management.

In addition to the above he's worked at KGFW, KLEO, KBZT, WMEX, KTNQ, KCBS, KHTZ KRLA, KODJ, KMPC, KIKF, KKDJ, KIIS-AM & FM, KCBQ, and KLAC. I don't think that's every stick in the city.. but it might be a record.

Radio Lady O' Mine

This recording, “Radio Lady O’Mine” probably recorded in 1924 is a nice little Charleston number. It's almost 75 years old now, and is still a fine tune. I suppose writing about the radio then, is like people singing about the internet now.





In the above video the 78 rpm platter Perfect 12154B spins Frank Bessinger's version. It was recorded in August of 1924. Lou gold did his own version later that year on Cameo 6171171. Frank Bessinger is normally credited as the composer, the lyricist as SamC oslow, and/or Bernie Grossman. The arrangement on the Bessinger version is by Jeanne Gravelle. the Book American History in song dates the tune to 1920, but I can't find a contemporary version to confirm that.

William Lucious Graves

I find myself drawn to the smallest, most obscure and irrelevant figures in radio. Most maddening are the ones I never write about. Despite persistent research what I discover most often is that the figure is too obscure to have been written about and all those with first-hand knowledge are most-often deceased.

It's been almost a century now in the great history of radio, and almost anyone that ever heard "Uncle" Billy Graves read poetry on 820 WOSU-AM is probably dead. Professor William Lucious Graves was born in 1893 and died in 1943. He lived just long enough to see the radio the fledgling newborn grow into it's golden era. And more importantly he got to be apart of it. WOSU was on 570 at the time. Youngstown’s WKBN paid for WOSU-AM to move its frequency from 570 to 820 kilocycles in March 1941.

I read the book The Thurber Album by James Thurber and almost missed the radio connection. The chapter dedicated to Graves includes no reference to radio nor the WOSU calls. But in the Photography Gallery, on an unnumbered page was a single image. The caption said:

"Professor Billy Graves was a popular brodcaster whose audiences loved to hear him read prose and poetry over the air."

It dosen't mean it's true of course. But the mic is read, it's not a posed image. He was a writer of poetry, and a brodcaster. He may have been unpopular, but how can we know now? In 1955 A.G. Preist mentioned him in a Beta Theta Pi article.

"William L. (Billy) Graves, Ohio State 1893, warmly devoted Beta who is said to have visited our Theta Delta chapter house more than 5,000 times, was toastmaster at one of the convention banquets of the early ’30’s, after having spent the Summer in England."

He was Beta Theta Pi back when fraternities meant more than innovative drinking games. He taught English, and fiction writing. He was uptight enough to dislike the brutish prose of Hemmingway when it was new. In 1924 Colleris magazine published an article by Frederick L. Collins titled "Everywhere I find a Pal." It was the public debut of Graves. But others disregarded his writing as "sweetly innocous." WOSU-AM by comparison is the oldest continually-operating radio station in Columbus. In 1920, a license was issued to The Ohio State University for experimental station called 8XL.

The image is not dated, but WOSU was originally licensed as WEAO-AM in 1922, only changing the calls to WOSU in 1933. That gives us a big ten-year window and somwhere in that William Lucious Graves was on the radio.

Out Today

Movie Night! part 2

I know nothing abotu this guy, just that he owns a lot of radios. It's a huge, perhaps obscene number of antique radios, AM, FM , shortwave... Over a bed of soft jazz he pans slowly from one to another. It's oddly calming. They are largely European models, Latvian and Lithuanian, but there are some recognizable American models as well. I think his name is Langaitis Zenonas and he is a radioman. His website catalogs them.

FDMA DAMA CSMA PAMA FAMA

TDMA, FDMA, DAMA, PAMA, FAMA, CSMA! What? . Let's just say it's all about sharing. There turns out to be more than one way to multiplex a cat

There are a lot of ways you can cut a little slice of RF. We can start small. Even Stereo FM radio multipexes. Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM) is a form of signal multiplexing. In FM, a 38 kHz subcarrier is used to separate the left-right difference signal from the central left-right sum channel. I expalined that once before. So let's consider other multiplexing protocols. I'll start with satillite then get weird.

FDMA for example shares the available radio spectrum by the communications signals that must pass through that spectrum. The terminology for this is “multiple access.” That's the MA in all those acronyms. FDMA is Frequency Division Multiple Access. In that form of multiplexing, individual frequencies are allocated for each communications signal within the band. It requires high-performing filters in the radio hardware.

Contrast that with Time Division Multiple Access or TDMA. With TDMA the signal is divided into frames, each frame into time slots and each user is assigned a slot. A guard period is used to synchronize this data stream so a single receiver can handle the multiple transmitters. This is used in 2G cellular systems for example.

CDMA is Code Division Multiple Access. This also allows multiple transmitters to share a channel. CDMA uses a "spread-spectrum system." This technology is a tad older than the others, first used in communications satellites in the 1970s. CDMA structures the signal with direct sequencing and frequency hopping. Direct sequencing spreads the normally narrow band information over a wider set of frequencies. A FCC rule change in 1981 allowed it's modern use in WiFi and Bluetooth.

So many acronyms today... DAMA assigns communication channels or circuits based on demand hence Demand Assigned Multiple Access. Requests are issued bu users to a network control system. This is usually done with a pair of frequencies- one transmits, one receives. This is not technically a multipel access system for some as the mangement is near-real time not allowing for concurrent use. PAMA is Permanently Assigned Multiple Access which is almost self-explanatory. It's also called FAMA the F standing for Fixed. FAMA/PAMA is a very innefficient sytesm as the channel remains assigned to the single user whether they are using it or not.

All this multiplexing is messy. It sounds brilliant and efficient but like most inventions by mere mortals sometimes it doesn't work. Sometimes things that are supposed to be sharing a data channel try to use it at the same time. It's called a collision. So we come to CSMA, Carrier Sense Multiple Access. It's a contention protocol. This system detects data collisions by monitoring traffic. The Carrier detects a collision and reacts by staging random time intervals to stagger the two colliding users. Multipel collisions will cause greater and greater intervals of waiting. This is happening on the ethernet network that connects to the back of your PC.

Tower stolen!

Due to the economic pressure of our current recession, scrap metal theft is on the rise. A certain amount of corruption and criminal activity is normal, maybe even tolerated. But recently we achieved a new low. Typically thieves steal copper and brass first, ground wire, coils, electrical wire and water pipes. These fiends stole an entire radio tower.

Now in this case, the Windber tower was no longer used for radio. The tower owner was negotiating with a cellular for the future use of the tower to provide WiMax. So, no radio stations went off air, but we cant assume the thieves knew that.

The group collapsed the 120-foot tall tower by pulling down guidelines of the tower and yanked it down with a truck. They also cut a number of mounting bolts with a torch. Then they cut the tower into small pieces in order to truck it out of the woods and into whatever transport they had arranged. Police suspect ATVs were used. They scored about $50,000 of metal.

Twenty years ago this was the tower for 1350 WBER-AM and the land was known as the Shaffer family farm. Douglas Shaffer still owns the land. The Shaffer family is offering a $1,000 reward for any information leading to an arrest. The police chief said convicted could face felony charges.

The station first went on air in the 1960s as WWBR-AM, which they used through the 1970s. WBER-AM was last owned by Jotocon Communications, which took over operations in 1989. In 1991 they went dark, and were deleted in 1996. It was the same old story, the AM daytimer couldn't compete in the small town with the more popular FM outlets. In January 2004, Southwest Pennsylvania Community Radio applied for a new station to broadcast at 1350 kHz from nearby Geistown, PA. they modified that app in 2007 so it looks like they're pressing forward.

Grace Memorial Hour

Here is a program on the verge of falling into total obscurity. The Grace Memorial Hour was hosted by Dr. Joseph Brown. He is was the pastor and host of the Grace Memorial Hour, in Baltimore, Maryland. Today if you attempt to Google any of those key words you will find bupkis. Just a reference to an internet radio station from 2006.

Here's the full extent of what I know: The program celebrated it's 55th anniversary in January of 2004. In 1975 The Manager of the Program was Stephen Allen Brown. Then as part of the Christian Life LP Series some programs were recorded.

That's right, recorded. I have one LP with an ID number of "RI3433". It came with a post card. The minimalist packaging may indicate this was meant for broadcast, or maybe not. The LP is microgroove, vinyl, so it's clearly post 1950. They abbreviate FM as "f.m." intimating it was perhaps new to them so I'd guess late 1960s or early 1970s.

Using the stations that carry the program we can further narrow thsi down. KDRY-AM first went on air 1963. So that's the bottom end. 1490kc KPAS-AM in Banning California was dark in 1963 due to the death of it's owner but returned and maintained those calls until they were deleted in 1973. History is somewhat compliced by the prior use of the KPAS callsign on 1110 in Los Angles around 1942.

I have no other indications of date. The address given is a P.O. Box currently used by The Manna Bible Baptist Church. Some of the stations listed as carrying the program still exist, others do not. The Book "The WPA History of the Negro in Pittsburgh" makes multiple references to a Grace Memorial Church. There is a Pittsburg station on that list but the link is tenuous.

The recording lacks any references to time, date, station, staff... it dosen't even have an introduction. I only include a sample for reference.

Jean Shepherd lives!

No one that listened to Jean "Shep" Sheppard will ever forget him. His career spanned decades and included tours on WOR-AM, KYW-AM, WLW-AM. He died in October of 1999. But he lives on at a single Class-D radio station in Dudley, Massachusetts. they transmit from the campus of Nichols College.At a barely audible 14 watts, 95.1 WXRB run real rock n' roll 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Today these are considered oldies, but it's not your uptight Jones Network sat-fed oldies format. The WXRB playlist is possibly three-times as deep, and focused on the first 25 years of rock n' roll. I'll admit now that it's automated, but in a very conscious and deliberate way somewhat reminiscent of WRKO's "arko-matic" system. On their own website they say the following:

"WXRB-FM showcases Rock & Roll's FIRST 25 years, to preserve its' place in mainstream America and to bring these special songs to a new generation of listeners, to young and old alike. We're a totally NON-COMMERCIAL EDUCATIONAL FM station, dedicated to keeping this special music alive and available for everyone to enjoy."

But back to Jean Shepard. Every Sunday evening at 11:00 PM DJ Max Schmid hosts the program "Mass Backwards"featuring the voice of the deceased Jean Shepherd. What great shtick for a tribute station dedicated to the love of an era... including one of the DJs, nto just the music. Mass Backwards actually comes out of WBAI in New York.

Radio Stocks

Whether you have an IRA or 401k or even invest directly in stocks you cannot escape the bad news. Every sector is down. It's just been depressing. But particularly hard hit was "terrestrial radio stocks." These formerly promising IPOs are now lining the parrot cage. In 2005 there was some talk of a rebound. Today they're considered a lost cause. CNBC's Jim Cramer trashed them earlier this year in a 7 minute histrionic rant.

I always avoid current events as a topic here. But in terms of radio history: their procession through the stock market is a summary of the changes in the radio industry: the move toward automation, the new competing media platforms, the damn Ipod... You can see it in every rise and fall. It's only this year that Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capital have taken CC private, departing the NYSE. Radio has had four phases in it's first century: The hobbyist phase, the golden era, the post-Television era, the FM era and now... the decline. (Hold your rebuttal until after the last paragraph.)

Clear Channel Communications CCU/NYSE
IPO 7/6/1994 - 29.9
Peak - 11/5/07 - 38.4
went private.. took their stock and went home.


Cumulus Media CMLS/NASDAQ
IPO - 11/16/2001 - 6.99
Peak - 4/23/2004 -22.25
Currently 1.77

Saga Communications SGA/NYSE
IPO - 10/15/1993 - 5.4
Peak - 5/3/2002 -23.20
Currently 4.9

Entravision Communications EVC/NYSE
IPO - 8/11//2000 - 18.1
Peak - 8/18/2000 - 20.0
Currently 1.3

Citadel Broadcasting CDL/NYSE
IPO - 8/1/2003 - 20.09
Peak - 12/26/03 - 22.7
Currently 0.26

Regent Communications RGCI/NASDAQ
IPO - 3/4/2000 - 13.12
Peak - 3/11/08 - 13.68
Currently - 0.7

Cox Radio CXR/NYSE
IPO - 10/11/1996 - 7.2
Peak - 12/31/1999 - 33.25
Currently - 6.85

Entercom Communications ETM/NYSE
IPO - 3/12/1999 - 29.68
Peak - 2/4/2000 - 65.8
Currently - 2.34

Down, down down down way down. But it's not the end. It's a decline owing to an utter refusal to accept a new media model. Automation, mergers, consultants, voice tracking and homogeneous playlists that have converted the early freewheeling FM stations into homogeneous zombie transmitters looping identical playlists. That was cost-effective. It had it's time. That time is over. Change or die boys.

Movie Night with W6OJ

This is the story of cameraman Clyde DeVinna. DeVinna was a bit of an adventurer. He retired in 1952 finally deciding he was more interested in travel than Hollywood. In 1933 DeVinna was in Alaska filming scenes for the movie Eskimo where he "camped out" in a hut. The gasoline heater was malfunctioning and carbon monoxide fumes began to fill the hut. In this MGM short, the actor Alonzo Price portrays plays the role of real-life cameraman. He makes a distress call on his ham radio W6OJ. A series of radio hams relay the message until help is called.

This is non-fiction. The 1932 Volume 16 issue of QST magazine even covered this in brief. Long Island Podcast also did not one but two episodes dedicated to the tale.

2 here, 3 in the queue and 2 in the mail

I never seem to catch up, new records are always on the way. It's good. It gives me something write abotu other than radio. Those of us that are prone to obsess a little, are well served by branching out. In the mean time I need to begin considering my top 10 for the year.

My Education - Bad Vibrations
Shugo Tokumaru - Exit

Radio Artifact #43

I bought this LP for 50 cents and found out why a few hours later. Inside the sleeve was not an obscure radio program, it was a monophonic Lawrence Welk best-of. So I lack audio this time. I get screwed, we all get screwed. It's listed here for $66. That ain't happening. On May 4th 1965, WTAX-AM held a centennial observance of the President Abraham Lincoln's funeral. The date commemorates neither his birthday, or his assassination. He died April 15th 1865 after being shot April 14th. His wife Mary Todd Lincoln did remain a tenant of the White House until May, but I doubt that's intentional. The important part is that they recorded thsi program and RPC (Recorded Publications Company) custom pressed an unknown number of LPs. There is no insert, and the back is blank. The whole of what I know is on the cover.

In 1923, WTAX-AM was founded in Streator, Illinois by the Williams Hardware Company. they began with only 50 watts on 1210 AM. Today it operates at 1,000 watts. In 1930 Jay Johnson moved WTAX to Springfield, housing it's studios in the Abraham Lincoln Hotel. That was the missing link.

At that time, they shared the 1210 position on the dial with WCBS-AM. In 1941 that was rectified, and the FCC approved a move to 1240 AM. In 1943 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette editor Oliver Keller bought the station and they became a CBS affiliate. Currently it's owned by Saga Communications. They no longer occupy the Abraham Lincoln Hotel. I can't nail down a date for that, but it appears to be in the mid 1930s.
I did find one interesting source that grazes the topic. I found an interview of an early WTAX owner, Shelby Harbison from 1973. The interviewer is Kay McGuire. Shelby actually worked selling radio time at the station while they were located in the hotel. The interviewer asks about the record. Read below, or click on the pdf. Man I want to hear this thing.

Q: Why does a radio station make a record on Lincolns funeral?
A: Well, because the radio station was owned by Oliver Keller and Keller was a historian, this was his key hobby. Keller was also a Lincoln worshiper. He knew Lincoln, studied him. Keller was very active in historical circles, the Civil War round table. Keller really revived the current interest in the Abraham Lincoln Association... Keller also, when it came around to the one-hundredth anniversary of Lincoln's burial, went back researched it and authentically wrote up this playlet...

The Optimistic Doughnut Hour

There was a saying about optimism and pessimism. "The optimist sees the doughnut, the pessimist sees the hole". I was surprised to find a radio show named after it. There's also a poem about it called "the foreman's Grist" but that's 0ff topic. Let's skip ahead to the bit about radio.

I've had to place this together from many sources over a couple years. the program was sponsored by the Davis Perfection Bakery and was a variety stage revue show. There were skits, comedy and a little music of course. If you look carefully, you can see the bakery logo on that truck in the pic.

The house band "The Optimistic Do-Nuts" included Isaac McVea, who unwittingly became the first black radio host in Los Angeles. His son Jack McVea played ukulele in the same band. The program began in the early 1920s. In the cast was a little known actor Sam McDaniel, who played a preacher character, Deacon McDaniel in 1926.

In the book Don't Touch That Dial, author J. Fred Mac Donald makes a single short reference to the program

"Although they did not flourish on radio, black comedians were also an ingredient of early broadcasting... Thus Ernest Whitman and Eddie Green appeared as a "coon act" on the Maxwell House Show Boat Program in it's first season on NBC. Hattie McDaniel brought her Mammy personality from the Optimistic Doughnut Hour over KNX (Los Angeles) in 1932 to the Show Boat series in the early 19302. "

Hattie McDaniel was a regular on the program as the character Hi-Hat-Hattie. Today she is better remembered for playing a similar Mammy character in the movie Gone With The Wind. It's off topic but of the 300 films she appeared in before her death in 1952, she only got credit for about 80. On the upside she's the only person who has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and was on a postage stamp. But I dwell here because her career began singing with the Melony Hounds on station KOA-AM in Denver.

Other guests on the Optimistic Doughnut Hour included an unlikely list of people: Morey Amsterdam, Minnie Pearl, Willie Best. Hattie McDaniel joined the show in 1931 after her brother Sam McDaniel got her an audition. Her success on the program led to her own show Hi Hat Hattie and Her Boys. She did a saucy late vaudeville comedy and sang. The boys of course were just Sam McVea's Jazz band.

The Davis Perfection Bakery who sponsored all this was just a bakery. Actor Dalton Trumbo worked there briefly as a bread wrapper . The bakery was big enough to appear on a 1932 map of L.A. near Los Angeles City Hall on Temple Street. Another souce lists it at the intersection of 1st. and Beaudry and another location in Sacramento. It was probably a regional chain since it was dolling out cash for radio ads.

The Radio say's it's sorry

Some people might tell you that an apology is a sign of weakness. This may or may not be so. But to do so in broadcasting is definitely not. Whoever has the mic is in charge and do not forget that. until the mic is handed over, apologies are meaningless.

I recently picked up the book "My Bad" and found an entire chapter of radio apologies. Below are a few of my favorites. I implore you to read the book. Note the weasle words, the non-apologies and the truly vile deeds. The chapter is long and detailed.. I may have to do a part II eventually.

"WNEW regrets the unfortunate incident that took place. We apologize to anyone who has been offended, and have taken measures to ensure that it does not happen again."
-Ken Stevens, GM WNEW (New York, NY) after DJs Opie & Anthony spurred a couple to have sex in St. Paticks cathedral on air.

"It's an instance we would like to put behind us."
-Beverly Rice, GM of WDEZ (Wassau, WI) after DJ Terry T asked listeneres to call in and tell Auschwitz death camp jokes.

"Unfortunately I used inappropriate words in describing my concerns. These concerns, especially when taken out of context, sound insensitive and unfeeling. that was never my intent."
-DJ David Gold KLIF-AM (Dallas, TX) after suggesting that a boxcar of illegal aliens that suffocated in a box car enroute to America "gor what they deserved."

"We would like to say publicly that employees involved were told then: this incident was inappropriate and unacceptable. The promotion could be viewed as ofensive and derogatory. We sincerely apologize to our employees and anyone else for any offense that has been taken."
-Steve Bornstein, President ABC broadcasting after KLOS (Los Angeles, CA) DJs Mark Thompson and Brian Phelps gave away garden tools referred to as "Black Hoes" both over the air and to black co-workers spurring a sexual harassment lawsuit.

Mr. Microphone

In 1979, Ron Popeil's company, Ronco, marketed a product named Mr. Microphone. For Popeil this was a tad more complicated than his Chop-o-matic food processor, his smokeless ashtray, cap snaffler, GLH-9 Spray-on hair, pocket fisherman and the unforgettable Ginsu knife set. This required actual adherence to FCC rules.

The guts of the device are simple: batteries, a simple microphone, a whip antenna, and a simple FM transmitter. Mr. Microphone would broadcast to a set station on the lower end of the FM dial. Ron sold over a million of them. It's a perfectly legal device and one that predated that little iTrip FM until that broadcasts your Ipod to your car stereo.

So in a way Ron Popeil is the godfather to that little two pronged device you have in the car. Ron was never in radio, he debuted his first foray into broadcasting was on TV in Tampa, FL on WFLA-TV with a normal 60-second ad for the Ronco Spray gun. He went on to run the same spon in Wisconsin, and Illnois. In August 2005, Ron sold his company to the Denver-based Fi-Tek VII.

Transcription Disc #117

I'm no anglophile, but I think this one crossed the pond to get to me.This one is unique in my collection. It was recorded at 33.3 rpm, and is clearly designed for playback with a diamond stylus on a normal turntable. Most transcription disc we come across at recorded at 78 rpm, and meant for the old-fashioned steel needle. The blank is made by the MJB Recording and Transcription Service. This is the same company that recorded Michael Palin and Terry Jones Recorded (of Monty Python) at Oxford in November 1964. There is another MJB in New Jersey but they only came into existence in the late 1980s, clearly not the same company.

The album opens:

"This record contains three songs by my father, James Cavett in 1970. The first is a ballad called "Jocular Jordans" and relates episodes from the history of the village. Every year from it's inception in 1919 an annual supper has been held by the curent members. verses of Jocular Jordans were sung at these suppers by my father in the name of the village bard. Each year for many years a new verse was added, recording some event of note. This version of Jocular Jordans contains the most important verses."

The second song it set to the tune of "Rule Britainia" and is called "Good old Jordans." The third introduced by my father, but composed by another Jordan's worthy Henry Dalton and is set to "Auld Lang Syne."



But I could be wrong. there's a Village of Jordan in New York State and another just across the border into Canada from Buffalo, NY. But with the accents, and the Monty Python Connection... I'm leaning UK, because I think he says "Village of Jordans" referring to the one in Buckinghamshire. Weirdly this happens to be the current hometown of Ozzy Osbourne.

Slew of Reviews

Lackthereof - Your Anchor
Mugison - Mugiboogie
Bang! Bang! Eche! - FRONT PAGE INTERVIEW
Soon: West Philadelphia Orchestra, Free Blood, Shugo Tokumaru, The dark Romantics, My Education, Ljova and the Kontraband, Magical Beautiful

The Empire State Triangle

Despite this blog's name sake, much of what I write about tends to be biographical, or engineering factoids. Not nearly enough is arcane in my opinion. This one is downright obscure, bordering on the oogie boogie category.

In New York City, inside a 5-block square is an area referred to by locals as the Automotive Bermuda Triangle. It is the five block square around the Empire State Building. It is an area where vehicles mysteriously die. The specific borders of the area are unclear but even AAA recognizes that it exists.

“We get about 10 to 15 cars stuck near there every day...You pull the car four or five blocks to the west or east and the car starts right up...." -Isaac Leviev, (Manager of Citywide Towing, the AAA’s exclusive roadside assistance provider from 42nd St. to the Battery)

There are a number of oogie boogie explanations for this of course, but the big theory is that it has a little something to do with it's main 200-foot tower and more specifically the antennas all over it. AAA reports that 10 to 15 cars die on that square every day, an average of 3,000 stalls a year.

So here's the theory. Most of these cars have remote keyless entry. Remote keyless entry systems operate on licensed wavelengths as provided for by the FCC. Some engineers have hypothesized that broadcasts from the Empire State Building can interfere with the remote keyless entry systems of cars. It's like radio jamming. ...And there is some support for this thesis.

Keyless entry does emit a signal from the key fob on your key chain. The RKE system broadcasts an an encrypted data stream which can instruct your over-priced luxury vehicle to start, stop run the defrost or any number of things. But it does so in the 300 MHZ range, that's the top end of the VHF range. This range happens to include FM radio, TV and Aviation. At least two of those three broadcast from 350 fifth avenue. Which one(s) are interfering which which keyless entry cars I do not know. I only have proof of concept.

I understand that the FCC governs channel assignments to prevent these problems. But I also know that they also fine people for violating their licenses and must change laws over time. The FCC reports no complaints regarding RFI around midtown. Many dismiss the phenomena. But it's interesting and it's possible to do by accident. On purpose it'd be downright easy.

FAVICON!

I have learned a tad more HTML mojo and now have a favicon. I will probably change it later but for now it's a teeny tiny version of a mid 1970s HI-Fi logo. If you use a graphical browser, it should appear in your bookmarks and URL bar. If it does not... try hitting F5. If that don't work.. I probably screwed up.Nah, changed my mind. I like this one better.