Transcription Mystery Disc # 140

This is an 8-inch Wilcox-gay Recordio, it has an outer-edge start and spins at 78 RPM. It is unlabeled. It is in decent shape, but has wear from being stacked below a number of other acetate discs. The weight doesn't do much on it's own but weight plus humidity and the opposing lacquer sides can stick to each other producing a tell-tale "orange-peel" texture reminiscent of cheap polystyrene 45s. I ripped the better-looking side first and got a pretty decent rip. The opposing side had a clear center area so I ripped that section as well and it turned out I was completely wrong. The EQ of the "Side A" recording is very flat and it's sound immediately reminded me of AM radio. Then at the very end you can year 1.5 syllables of a DJ breaking in before an adept home taper intervenes by lifting up the tone arm.

It's Time For Music!


The other side starts out with a needle drop, then a bluesy number with clarinet lead then that ZANG! sound that only comes from a reel-to-reel and it jumps to some hot swing jazz. This disc actually has been used at least twice and that sound was where the new recording started. The recording is great and rolls into a second song with a fade that can only be off the radio again. At 1:56 the announcer cuts in and says "The United States Army and United States Air Force... in association with the American Broadcasting Company bring you It's Time For Music, the sounds of _______ and the music of ________."  I really expected it to be Bing Crosby and Ken Carpenter but it's not. Then there's another break in and a much clearer voice says "The preceding program was transcribed."  So it's a dub of a reel-to-reel transcription used in a radio broadcast.  Then another nice jazz number.

"It's Time For Music" was an ABC program that ran around 1949, they played some older tunes, so it's possible that they aired the transcription and this was a tape of their broadcast. Phonozoic lists this as a Wilcox-Gay Recordio Type 3C, with a date of 1947 which fits the time frame well enough.