Voice of Victory

I first heard of this film courtesy of the website Ominous Valve. The film begins as many military propaganda films do with explosions and platitudes. Then it takes a strange turn explaining the glories of radio transmitters. This is worth seeing.

Scheidel's Electro-theraputics

By definition electro-theraputics means the treatment of disease or disorder by electricity. This may sound like any other common gri-gri, like homeopathy. It's not. Electro-theraputics reached the height of their popularity before 1920. Most of the treatments involve applying shocks to the rectum, urethra, vagina, testicles and every other cavity and orifice you don't want to imagine at the receiving end of a Taser. Even radio equipment was criminally misused by these quacks.

Take for example the induction coil. Early Induction coils existed before 1840, these were the work of Charles Page, James McGauley and Nicholas J. Callan to name a few productive tinkerers. But even in those early days it seemed to be used more often for sportingly shocking ones own body and unwitting test subjects. Both Page and Callahan shocked themselves often and deliberately in the study of these early induction coils. Neither of them believed this had any medical value. The one above appears to be the one patented by Henry Voelkner of Detroit as US456746 in 1891.

William Scheidel had his own induction coils which were advertised in quackery catalogs such as The Friedlander Company Catalog. Mr. Scheidel founded the Scheidel  Coil Company company in Chicago in 1901, and while he did manufacture legitimate early X-ray equipment he never could let go of shocking peoples' testicles.  The 1917 edition of the book Hawkin's Electricity writes simply of these devices "These are employed chiefly for the application of currents of varying voltage, strength and frequency and wave form to the patient..."

There were also medical rectifiers used in ways that were never approved by the FDA such as the Scheidel-Western Anti-Acid Interrupter. The book Hawkin's Electricity they describe it thus:

"In this type of interrupter an alkaline  solution is used. By using an aluminum plate in place of the lead plate, it acts as the alternating current both as a rectifier and an interrupter. It consists of steel and aluminum electrodes in an alkaline solution, the combination or cell acts as a valve, permitting the current to pass from the steel to the aluminum  plates, but not in the opposite direction (from the aluminum to  the steel). In this way a uni-directional current is obtained,  on which an electrolytic interrupter will operate."

So it sounds like a real rectifier at first but really it's just a battery. Batteries produce DC power, which is unidirectional. It does not rectify any signal per se, but it can still be used for shocking people in the genitals. That may sound like hyperbole, but the very next page in Hawkin's Electricity details the metals for intra-uterine electrodes, urethral electrodes and the proper technique for applying current to hemorrhoids. These people were sadists. More here.

Transcription Mystery Disc #189

This one is hardly a mystery. This disc was made by a home recorder not flipping channels but flipping records. He or she can clearly be heard at about the 2:15 mark flipping their 78 rpm record quickly, but not quickly enough to avoid having a short gap between songs. That kind of gap would never have occurred on a radio station. It's labeled in pencil with just three words "All Over Now."

All Over Now


The first song is "All Over Now" I recognize the lyrics from the Nat King Cole version but this is done by some great girl group but I'm afraid I don't recognize them. These lyrics are trite and have been recycled a lot over the last half-century so it's nearly un-googleable. The second track is a bit noisier but I can't figure out  who that is either. If I could figure out the song I'd have a date but lacking that.. this one remains unknown.

Lafayette Radio Electronics

Back in the fifties and sixties, Lafayette Radio Electronics was a retail and mail-order competitor for Radio Shack, Allied Radio, and even Heathkit. They no longer exist. Lafayette was based in Syosset, New York and sold consumer radios, radio kits, ham equipment, CB radios, and components of every shape and sort. More here.

Wholesale Radio Service Company was founded in 1921 by a 21-year old kid named Abraham Pletman in New York City. Their first paper catalog already had 80 pages. Remember, back in the 1920s most of the radio technology we take for granted was freshly patented. So the retail devices were very pricey. But a radio geek could make their own devices one component at a time evading the patent problem and saving money.  They started using the Lafayette brand as early as July of 1931. Lafayette Radio Electronics became a booming mail-order catalog business. They advertised heavily in major U.S. geek and gearhead magazine like Popular Mechanics, Popular Electronics and Stereo Review. But the big draw in the 1960s was their monster 400-page electronics catalog it had everything under the sun. It was the yellow pages of geek...and it was free. More here.


In 1939 following an FTC action they dropped the "Wholesale Radio Service" name and change to "Radio Wire Television Inc." Apparently back then retailers couldn't claim to be wholesalers. But throughout the years "Lafayette Radio" became more prominently displayed on the catalog cover.

They even opened their own retail stores. The earliest of these appeared as early as the 1950s around New York City. Their 1965 catalog listed a dozen stores in all.  Pletman died in 1973 and the company veered off the tracks. Their 1975 catalog mentions the existence of over 100 stores. That foot note does not indicate which are owned and which are franchisees. In that same time period Radio Shack opened thousands of stores. Lafayettetook some bad gambles on media and radio formats that changed or failed costing them money in bad inventory. Lafayette filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January 1980 and a dozens of stores closed over night. They liquidated their stock to pay debts and =Circuit City bought many of theirr original NYC area stores.

AUDIOVISUAL HERITAGE DAY!

UNESCO has named October 27th 2013 as Audiovisual Heritage day. The day is intended to raise awareness of the significance of AV documents and to draw attention to the need to safeguard them. More here. Their press release is below:

The world’s audiovisual heritage of sound recordings and moving images are extremely vulnerable as a result of factors ranging from neglect, natural decay to technological obsolescence, as well as deliberate destruction. 

Consequently, UNESCO has made it part of its mission to raise public consciousness of the importance of preservation of these recordings through the World Day for Audiovisual Heritage. In adopting 27 October as the World Day for Audiovisual Heritage, UNESCO, in cooperation with the Co-ordinating Council of Audiovisual Archives Associations (CCAAA) and other institutions, has helped to raise the profile of the issues at stake and focus global attention on the fragility of this heritage. 

Annually, archives around the world join together on 27 October to celebrate audiovisual archives with activities that not only highlight the vulnerability of this heritage, but celebrate the often unheralded work of the heritage institutions that protect it. All of the world's audiovisual heritage is endangered. 

Therefore the World Day for Audiovisual Heritage and the Memory of the World Programme, have become the two key actions for UNESCO and the world to honour preservation professionals that help to safeguard this heritage for future generations despite the many technical, political, social, financial and other factors that threaten its survival. 

UNESCO encourages everyone, everywhere to join us in celebrating 27 October by showcasing their precious collections so that present and future generations can enjoy the treasures that are our shared audiovisual heritage.

Over all of Spain, the sky is clear

To use the medical jargon, radio has some off-label uses.We listen to the radio for entertainment and information. We hear and interpret an audio message for the most part just as it is intended. But in some rare cases a single phrase is imbued with more meaning. I can think of two cases where a radio broadcast was used to trigger immediate military action. Only one is well known, well-documented and a part of the accepted historical cannon. One was in 1975 in Vietnam; you can read about it here.  The other was in Spain in 1936 and is apocryphal.

In American history, war is often taught and understood as a battle between good and evil and between two diametrically opposed sides. The truth is usually a lot messier, and the Spanish Civil War stands as a stark example. The short version is that it was fought from July of 1936 to the Spring of 1939. The primary sides were the Republicans, and the Nationalists. The Republicans were loyal to the ruling establishment (a post-monarchy elected government), and the Nationalists, led by General Franco. If you don't remember Franco, just know that he was a fascist dictator similar to Mussolini who sided with Hitler in WWII. The Nationalists won, and Franco ruled Spain for until his death 36 years later.  Other groups involved in the fighting the war included Socialists, Communists, the Basque, Catalonian separatists, anti-fascist Anarchists and even"Carlists" who favored power for a family of royal lineage. You can read more here.

So as the story goes,  a signal was broadcast by radio to trigger the Nationalist Military Revolt in Spain on July 17th 1936. The words were "Over all of Spain, the sky is clear" In Spanish this was probably rendered as "En toda España, el cielo está despejado."  The story is short and lacking in detail. In 1936, broadcastingn was only 13 years old in Spain and there was no municipal or government owned radio networks. Most texts put Spain as having fewer than 60 stations total at that time, most low powered and clustered around major cities like Madrid and Barcelona. Most historical sources claim this was broadcast on"numerous" radio stations. The places where the "Falange" was successful were rural and highly Catholic provinces. It is probable that the signal was carried on private or amateur stations, in towns where later "autorizadas" operated semi-officially in support of Franco. At the start of the war Franco was in the Canary Islands so it's likely there was a broadcast there as well.

After the revolt began, the government responded by closing all low powered stations, and suspending all amateur radio activity. All radio official news broadcasts were carried on Radio Union in Madrid and Barcelona and the shortwave station EAQ in Aranjuez. Loyalists also controlled EAJ2 and EAJ at Barcelona, though at times they just broadcast an empty carrier wave to prevent the rebels from using those frequencies. Franco already held Radio de Castilla Burgos and was seizing amateur equipment to broadcast propaganda as well.

In 1937,  the municipal station in RNE (Radio Nacional de España) was founded in Salamanca. It's first transmitter was a 20 kW Telefunken and was a gift from Nazi Germany to the Franco government. After the war ended it became the primary source of propaganda all other stations mandated to carry it's daily news bulletins. After Franco died in 1975 censorship was curtailed, and democracy came to Spain and the bulletins ceased and RNE slowly re-made itself into a more BBC-like entity.

Zeke Clements was not a dwarf

Marlon "Zeke" Clements was not a dwarf. He just played one on the big screen. In 1937 Clements yodeled the part of Bashful, in Walt Disney's 1937 version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. To be clear, Scotty Mattraw was the speaking voice of bashful, but when Disney needed Bashful to yodel they used Zeke. Apparently even in the 1930s they couldn't find a single voice-over man to handle both the voice over and the yodeling parts. He wasn't always a dwarf however, he also appeared as a singing cowboy in several B-Westerns.

Over his career he performed as both under his stage name Zeke, the Alabama Cowboy and the Dixie Yodeler. Clements was born in Warrior, Alabama in 1911. His music career began in 1928 when he joined the touring show of Otto Gray and his Oklahoma Cowboys touring show. The band was formerly known as McGinty's Oklahoma Cowboy Band. McGinty had been a real-deal cowboy and a Rough Rider under Roosvelt. Graywas more of a band manager which is probably how they ended up on the National Barn Dance at WLS-AM in Chicago. they had been playing on KFRU-AM in Bristow, OK, and KFJF-AM in Kansas City. The barn Dance had only started in 1924, so in these early regional years of radio they were genuine celebrities. Gray actually made the cover of Billboard.

In 1933, he joined  singer Texas Ruby as member of the Bronco Busters. The book The Cowboy in Country Music by Don Cusic claims that in 1934 Zeke was the first Opry act to wear cowboy clothing. It's unclear if this was his first appearance on the Opry, or just his first appearance with the Bronco Busters... or just the first clad in chaps and boots. I find that "first" claim dubious. However, this was before the era of singing cowboy movies. Gene Autry's first cowboy movie began a year later, in 1935. Though Autry and Clements had both been on the National barn Dance by 1929, it's clear that Autry popularized the clothing fad. You can't see the outfits on the radio.

After the Opry, Clements also spent time on WHO-AM in Des Moints and WHAS-AM in Louisville.  The book The Encyclopedia of Country Music claims that it was while playing on the Hollywood Barn Dance on KNX-AM, that Zeke answered the Disney ad for a yodeler. But the Hollywood Barn Dance supposedly only ran from 1943 to 1948. This is long after Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was released. Only one of these things can be true. By all reports Ruby  was supposed to audition for a role as well but was too drunk. In 1939, Zeke broke it off with Ruby and went back to the Opry. He continued to be a successful songwriter for the rest of his life writing hits for both Eddy Arnold and Red Foley. He died in Nashville in 1994.

Transcription Mystery Disc # 188

 While watching the waveform unwind itself across my screen I thought; the signal to noise ratio looks really good. And it was so. The recording still has a hum that's indigenous to the recording. There is a bit of record crackle beside that but it's quite listenable. This 6.5-Inch Recordio has held up quite well.

Peg O' My Heart


It's dated to 10-5-47, making it 66 years old this month. The text above that date reads "Peg By Norm New Year by Tom"  I have no idea what that means. But the recording is of the song Peg O' My Heart. The song dates to 1913 which predates this recording by another three decades.The singer performs the song accapella, and gives his name at the start as "Norman Givens" before he breaks into song.It's also worth noting that he sounds just a little drunk.

La Colpa De Ella Radio

In 1497 Giovanni Cabotto sailed to North America. He was sponsored by the English who refer to him in their text books as John Cabot. He was probably the first Italian in America. Subsequently around 5.5 million Italians immigrated to the U.S. from 1820 to 2004. By 1880 Italian-language newspapers began circulating in New England cities with large Italian-American populations, like New York. 40 years later the process repeated itself with radio.

The period following that has been called the golden age of Italian-language radio. From 1920 to 1950, it was possible at almost any hour to find some kind of Italian radio broadcast. New York City for example,  had four stations (WHOM-AM, WOV-AM, WEVD-AM, and WBNX-AM) which carried significant Italian programing. Other smaller markets with population densities also had their own local outlets.In Philadelphia Italian radio programs aired on Philadelphia’s 10-watt WABY-AM, which is not to ignore the programs on  WPEN-AM in Philadelphia and WAAB-AM in Boston

In New York, Italian-language radio began in 1916. That year WGL-AM was bought by John Iraci, a Sicilian-born importer. Iraci changed the call sign to WOV-AM.  The last movement in that era was probably the flip at WHOM. In 1946 two Italian newspapermen purchased WHOM and converted the programming to Italian. In between those two bookends it's important to note that there was political suspicion of Italian-language programming because of Mussolini's fascism, and role in WWII. In 1935, at the height of WWII, Italy nationalized Radio Bari and Radio Roma, putting them under the direct control the Ministry of Press and Propaganda. They began airing anti-British messages. Signs were put up in US Cities "Don't Speak the Enemy's Language."  It didn't just mean German and Japanese, it also meant Italian. Under the Sedition act, U.S. agents rounded up Italian nationals suspected of disloyalty.

Only when the pope threw his weight behind the allies did that American prejudice finally fade. (Not that there weren't pro-fascist broadcasts in English, ex. Father Coughlin) but race played a notable role in that era.) Over the subsequent decades,studies by Churchhill (1940) and Roche(1982) found a huge change in the listening habits of ethnic and particularly Italian-American citizens. They sampled groups in New Jersey, New York and Providence and found that successive generations were markedly less likely to listen to ethnic programming. They essentially proved that their cultural Americanization was a rapid process.

In the early 1950s Italian radio was in decline. Even WOV began to change. Programs like La Rosa, La Famiglia Rinaldi, Buon Pranzo, La Colpa E' Della Radio, and Donna Billonia faded away. The few FM stations carrying Italian-language programming gave hours to the Italian programs while AM stations began to take aim at Hispanic markets.  In New York WHBI-FM and in Philly’s WDAS-FM took on Italian-language programs. But As FM rose in prominence over AM, those hours dried up as well. Ethnic programming migrated back to AM, but the decline was terminal.

Telegraphic Codes

I've written a bit about Telegraphic codes in the past. You can read about one here. But I recently came across a list of other telegraphic codes. These are for the most part utterly obscure and I will spend years searching for more information, possibly to no end. I can't emphasize this enough... there were hundreds of these code books, each with numerous improved, expanded, specialized and updated editions.Not all of them were in widespread use (some surely weren't used at all). To the contrary, most of them appear to specialize in niche-markets. There were code books for mining, leather, shipping, lumber, stock prices and many others. As archaic as this practice is, some code books remained in print into the 1940s!

This list below draws strongly on a Lloyd's Shipping Register of1921. I also used Palmer & Howe's 1906 List of telegraph codes, the digitized code books on Archive.org and the 1911 edition of the Declaration of London which lists off telegraph codes in print at that time. I also referred to the very impressive website of John Mcvey here and some of S.Tomokiyo's writing here. I've omitted police and fire codes as well as non-English language code books from this list for space reasons.

Adam's Cable Codex
Anderson's Expert Cypher Words
Anglo-American Cable Code
Anglo-International Cable Code
Atlantic Cable Directory
Atlantic Cotton Telegraph Code
Atlas Universal Travelers' Telegraphic Cipher Code
Ager's Shipping Telegram Code [LINK]
Ager's Standard Telegram Code
Ager's Alphabetical Telegram Code
Australian railway telegraphic code
AYZ Telegram Code
Broomhall's Comprehensive Cipher Code
Baltimore Export Cable Code
Bedford McNeil's Mining and General Telegraphic Code
Beith's 10-Letter Combinations 
Bentley's Complete Phrase Code [LINK]
Bennett's Cypher Code for Steamship Owners and Brokers
Bentley's Baltic and White Sea Code [LINK]
Berne's Official Vocabulary
Bi-Literal Telegraph Cipher for Code Messages
Billionaire Phrase Code
Bink's Cut-Rate Cable Code
Bishop's Travellers Telegraph Code
Bloomer's Commercial Cryptograph [LINK]
Brentano’s Telegraph and Cable Code [LINK]
British and Foreign Trade Shipping Code
Broomhall Miniature Code
Century Standard Code
Cheeseborough Private Telegraphic Code
Chestnutt, Cooper & Co. Bristle Code
Clare's Telegraphic Code for Black Sea and Mediterranean Trade
Clauson-Thue A.B.C. Universal Commercial Electric Telegraphic Code
Clauson-Thue A1 Universal Commercial Electric Telegraphic Code
Corby's Code for Drapers
Cornforth Telegraphic Code
Crossley's Cable Code
Cook's Unicode
Dieckelmann's Code
D.M. Ferry & Co Wholesale Trade List & Telegraphic Code [LINK]
Dunn's Cypher Code
Durst Telegraphic Code
Figure Code for Stocks and Shares
Gallesi's Commercial Telegraphic Code
Gerrish System Telegraphic Cipher Code 
Gilburt's Tourists Telegraphic Code
Globe Commercial Telegraph Code [LINK]
Glover Brothers Telegraphic Code
Grain Trade Standard Code
Great Western Railway Telegraphic Code
Hamilton's Telegraphic Code of Numeral Quotations
Hancock Telegraph Code
Hartfield's Wall Street Code
Harvey's Cosmopolitan Cable Code
Hawke's Tables for Telegraphing
Hawke's Inland and Foreign Telegram Code
Hawke's Maximum Cyphers
Heath Telegraphic Cipher [LINK]
Heath & Finnemore Private Telegraphic Code
Hendiploun, a Telegraphic Code
Herbert's Universal-Simplex Code System
Hinrich's Shipbrokers' and Steamship Cable Code
Igha Telegraph Code and Tables
Ironscrap Telegraph Code
International Telegraphic Code
Jeweller's Telegraphic Code
Jones's Universal Shipping Telegraph Code
Kraipnos Telegraphic Shorthand
Keegan's International Three-Letter Code
Kerr & Gordon Private Cipher Code
Kendell's Figure Cypher Code
Kolkenbeck's Ideal Code Condenser
Laurie's Universal Code
Lawrie's Pocket Telegraphic Code
Lieber's Standard Telegraph Code [LINK]
Leviathan Cable Code
Lieber's Standard Telegraphic Code
Longford Wire Cable Code
Low's Pocket Cable Code
Lumberman's Standard Telegraphic Code  [LINK]
Maguire’s Code of Ciphers
Mackay's One Word Telegraph Code
Manchester Piece Goods and General Phrase Code
Massey-Harris Telegraphic Code
McNeill’s Code [LINK]
McNichol's Nine Figure Code
Mercury Code
Meyer's Atlantic Cotton Code
Meyer's Anglo-American Cotton Code
Meyer's Commercial Telegraph Code 
Meyer's International Mercantile Telegraph Code
Murray's Insurance and Maritime Telegraphic Code
Marconi International Code
Miners and Smelters Code (aka Master telegraph Code)
Mitchell's Code
Montgomery Code
Moreing & McCutcheon's General Commercial and Mining Telegram Code
Moreing & Neal's New General and Mining Telegraph Code
Musgrove Private Telegraphic Code
National Tube Works Pocket Companion Telegraphic Code
Nattini Codice Telegráfico Commerciale e Mercantile
Pain's Directory Code
Pacific Railway Company Private Mining & Metallurgical Telegraphic Cipher Code
Parker's Economical Code for Piece Goods Code (aka Parker’s Combination Code)
Patakys Telegraphic Code
Penny's Cipher Code
Perfect Cypher Code
Peycke's Abbreviation Key [LINK]
Peycke's Ekonomik Telegraphic Cipher Code
Phillip's Telegraphic Code for Rapid Transmission [LINK]
Pieron's Code Condenser
Piggott's Cable Code
Premier Cypher Telegraphic Code [LINK]
Prentice's Cable Code
Private Cable Code for the Timber Trade by Price and Peirce [LINK]
Repetition Code
Riverside Code
Rohde's Code Words and Terminal Key
Ross-Moss Phrase and Combination Code
Everybody's Pocket Code by W.M. Saunders
Scattergood's Fruit Merchants Cable Code
Scott's Shipowners' Telegraphic Code [LINK]
Schnore's Telegraphic Code
Shepperson's Telegraphic Cipher Code (cotton trade)  [LINK]
Simplex Telegraphic Code
Slater's Telegraph Code [LINK]
Southard & Co.'s Telegraphic Cypher
Spalding’s Telegram Guide [LINK]
Standard Shipping Code
Steven's Engineering Telegraph Code
Stewart's Five Letter Telegraph Code
Stockbrokers Telegraph Code
Sutherlands K.K. the Complete Code
Swift's Private Telegraphic Code
Tahl's Telegraphic Code
Timber Trades Universal Code
Timber Trades Journal New Zebra Code
Tracey's Tenmil Code 
Tybo Code
Unicode Universal Phrase Book [LINK]
Universal Alphabetical Figure and Column Cable Code
Universal Shipping Telegraph Code
V.A.J. Figure Code for Stocks
Victoria Code
Vicker's Mariners and Family Cable Code
Voller's 12-Figure System
Voller's 9-Figure System
Victorian Railways' Telegraph Code Book [LINK]
Watkins' Code, 1881 (aka Shipbrokers' Telegraphic Code)
Watt's Telegraphic Cypher (multiple editions)
Watkins' Universal Shipping Code (multiple editions)
Watson Cable Code
Wray's Telegraphic Code
Western Union (Five Letter)
Wetmore's Commercial Telegraphic Code
Western Union Telegraphic Code and International Cable
Whitelaw's Telegraphic Cyphers with Terminal Order
Widebrook's Code
Williams & Brown Private Telegraphic Code
Wilson's Ship Brokers Telegraph Code [LINK]
Whitelaw's  Telegraph Cyphers
Whittingham’s Skeleton Telegraph Code [LINK]
Wilson's Shipbrokers' Code
Wood's Bohemian Telegraph Code
U.S. Steel Corporation Private Telegraphic Code

--------------------------Update--------------------------

I am continuing this research on a page here.

The Media Revolution on FM Radio

This was actually really good. Thank you Steve Wolfson.

PART ONE


PART TWO

Letters of a Radio Engineer to his Son

There was once a book titled Letters of a Radio Engineer to his Son, written by John Mills and first published in 1922, published by Harcourt. You can download it free here, courtesy of the quality literary wonks at Gutenberg.org. It was never printed again commercially, though modern public-domain trawlers do still reprint the book today. It's not a legitimate father-son book. Instead its more of a radio hobbyist instructional written from that point of view. Nonetheless it's rare as hell so we're lucky to find even the digital copy.

Born in 1880, John Mills worked in the Engineering Department of Western Electric and also authored three other science texts Radio-Communication Theory and Methods, Electronics Today and Tomorrow, The Realities of Modern Science, Through Electrical Eyes and their use in Communication, The Engineer in Society, Industrial Research and its Opportunities, and Within the Atom. Actually there probably are more, but it's a common name, those are just the ones I am certain of. Mills generated a large number of patents for Western Electric including some early two-way transmission technology. He was a member of the IEEE, and a long time radio man. How long?  He was on hand in 1915 in Arlington when the first Naval order was sent by Wireless. [Source] In his writings he  proves to be shockingly progressive, a man of science and not politics. I'll quote from The Realities of Modern Science.

"The illustration in question indicates well the manner by which science grows, that is, by accretions or contributions. These have been made in the history of science by many men whose names have long been forgotten or, as in the case of some of the earliest discoverers, by men who probably had no names at all. Such contributions have been made by men of all races and nationalities. In the case of radio-telegraphy it is to be recalled that Maxwell was a Scot, Hertz a German, and Marconi an Italian."

He was originally from the south side of Chicago, and graduated from the University of Chicago in 190. He earned his Master's Degree in Physics from the University of Nebraska in 1904. Mills became a teacher and lectured students at Case Western, and Colorado College. While at Bell he designed the Bell Telephone exhibits at the world's fairs in Chicago, San Diego, Dallas, San Francisco and New York. By about 1925 he was working as the Director of Publications at Bell Telephone Laboratories. He worked in that position for another 20 years before retiring. He became a student counselor at the California Institute of Technology until his death in 1948. 

Transcription Mystery Disc #187

This is an 8-inch metal core, Duodisc acetate. It spins at 78 rpm and has an outer edge start. It consists of a single track well timed to fit, probably through practice. It's labeled in pencil "Take It Back + Change It For A Boy" Then another word... might be Greta. But there is an accent over the "a" and that "G" might be a "Z."   I really hate cursive. The recording is in nice shape and required no clean up so there is good news.

Take It Back and Change it For A Boy


The song is about the foibles of exchanging an unwanted female offspring for a male heir. The singer is a young man with a practiced voice, his guitar work is simple but consistent. In the background you can hear a household, mom and the kids making a racket while he's trying to record this demo. There is no date, and no other information. This make of disc seems to date to the late 1940s so I'm going with that wide net in lieu of other information.

J. Aku Head Pupule

Many people in media take on stages names. It may be to appear more ethnically neutral, but more often it is to make their name simpler, shorter and easier to remember. He was born Herschel Hohenstein, and was using the name Hal Lewis. But on the radio he used the on air name J. Aku Head Pupule.  The word "Aku" is a type of fish, also called a bonito, it's used often in sushi. The word "pupule" is Hawaiian for crazy. Thus Aku Head Puple means Crazy Fish Head.. In 1975 he actually sued Mr. Earle E. Aku for misappropriating his stage-name. At one point in the 1950s it was said that Pupule was the highest paid DJ in the world. Estimates ran as high as half a million dollars a year. This will take some explaining.

A native New Yorker, all accounts have him relocating to Hawaii from San Francisco in 1947. He was playing fiddle as an entertainer on a cruise-liner and jumped ship in Honolulu where he waltzed into KGMB-AM and became an announcer. He was young, and broke and slept on the beach. He was fired for insubordination about 2 months later. He scraped by writing for the Hilo Hattie program and writing for the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU). Then he stumbled into a morning slot at KPOA-AM.

While treating that lucky break a bit too seriously he began identifying the time a little too often. Then he gave it incorrectly. A caller called him an aku-head. He kept the name and his style evolved. He mixed cranky political commentary with pranks, stunts and all the zany bells, buzzers and whistles of a Spike Jones routine.

In 1957 in a publicity stunt, Mr. Akuhead then at KHVH-AM and  Don Sherwood at KSFO-AM switched places. It was said that consternation and hilarity ensued. When Hawaii became a state in 1959 he covered the event with all due seriousness on air. This was only 8 years after he had announced it...in yet another prank.

He moved on to 650 KORL-AM around 1960 then 760 KGU-AM before returning to KGMB in 1965. He remained there for 17 years. He was also on KMVI in that window. Hal died in 1983. He knew he was dying. He read a heartfelt farewell message. But shortly before his death he pranked Honolulu one last time with coverage of a parade which included a fictitious appearance by Tom Selleck. Yes Magnum P.I. jokes to the bitter end.

Toy Transmitters

This idea has really run it's course. With the new popularity of mobile devices with children, hearing their voice come out of the radio loses it's gestalt.With modern technology these transmitters can be the size of a grain of sand. A single component on the tiny circuit board inside your smartphone. But few smart phones have AM or FM transmitters. The iPod in particular actually had an FM tuner chip in the first series but Apple refused to enable it. They saw radio as their enemy. Free content is, and has always been, the enemy of paid content. For all of these forces and many others, these toys are now extinct.  Unless you want to build your own. More here.

Take Sonic Devices in Woodside, NY for example. They were selling the "world's smallest FM transmitter" and advertising it as "half the length of a regular length cigarette." This device was copyrighted in 1968 and advertised from 1970 to 1973 in Popular Mechanics. It was $19.95.  In 1976 they were even named  in federal hearing on Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance by a National Commission for the Review of Federal and State Laws Here was a tiny device hypothetically usable in espionage available for under $20. They stopped selling it in the mid 1970s and started advertising a "lie detector" it was just a galvanometer for $29. It's actually the same device as the Scientologists kooky e-meter. Sonic Devices seems to have closed up shop by 1979.


Imperial electronics was selling a less petite, but equally effective AM transmitter for $12.95 in the same era. Imperial dates back to at least 1968 (possibly as early as 1953), selling security gadgets like light-sensitive alarms. In 1970 they were selling another security gadget, this one using microwaves to detect motion.They too were named in those Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance hearings. But having a primary business in paranoid security devices they backed away slowly from the toy transmitter.

Dolphins of Hollywood

In 1948, John Dolphin, a former car salesman, opened the Dolphins of Hollywood record store. In that era of segregation, when dark skin was so rare in media, here was a man who was a business owner, music producer and the owner of an independent record label. It was located at 1065 E. Vernon Avenue in Los Angeles, CA. His store was open 24 hours a day. Now that's a record shop.

Dolphin didn't build this empire, he bought it. The store and pressing plant had existed under different owners since at least 1919.  In 1950 he started his record label RIH, for Recorded in Hollywood.he released sides by Errol Garner, Scat Man Crothers, the Roberta Martin Singers, Joe Houston and Illinois Jacquet. More here.  Many of these were only sold at his record stores. (most of the label's catalog ultimately ended up in the hands of Decca.)

What Dolphin did that made him unique to the era was to hire white DJs to play black music on the radio. He hired Hunter Hancock and Dick Hugg to play his records and those of other black artists. In so doing he gets credit for popularizing R&B on the west coast and start the careers of numerous, jazz, rock and R&B artists. The store and by connection John Dolphin, were made famous by those broadcasts. Dick "Huggy Boy" Hugg is probably best remembered. He was a DJ on KRKD-AM. He was a white DJ and he broadcast a live rhythm and blues radio show from the front window of Dolphins of Hollywood. The program ran from Midnight to 4:00 AM. Huggy was on air at KRKD in that window from 1951–1955.

Hancock was on KFVD in 1943 playing race records even without Dolphin paying him. He'd previously been on KMAC in San Antonio. In most of his biographies it mentions KGFJ but not KRKD. This is because the station changed calls after 1955. Hancock had an afternoon program broadcast form the same window as Huggy. He started in 1952 and kept it up until he left for a gig at KCLA.  He retired from radio in 1966 after outliving a payola scandal in the late 1950s. (The show gets name-checked in the book Listen to the Lambs by Johnny Otis.)

Huggy later was on KALI, KRLA, KGFJ, KBLA, XPRS and was still broadcasting in his 70s in 2002 on KRTH. Dick Hugg died of cardiac arrest on August 30, 2006 at age of 78. In true rock n' roll fashion Dolphin was stabbed to death in 1958. by a song-writer Percey Ivy, whom he had cheated out of royalties. His widow continued to operate the record label into the 1960s.

Radio North Sea

Before it became Radio Caroline in June of 1970, Radio North Sea was the big pirate pop radio station for Londoners. It was jammed by the Labour government, and later bombed by Norbert Jurgens.  It's story is amazing and worth knowing. I'd start with the short clips below. More here.

Transcription Mystery Disc #186

This is an 8-inch, paper-core, Wilcox-Gay Recordio. It has an outer edge start and spins at 78 rpm. It's fire engine red but so are many others. The disc is in typical condition for a paper core disc which is to say not great. It has a lot of bed noise though that can be mitigated somewhat with a low pass filter. It had no major blemishes otherwise. It's also wholly unlabeled.

 Hawaiian Mystery


The recording is of a man singing and playing lap-steel with considerable skill. His technique is more Hawaiian than country but it's clear he has chops on both genres. The recording is from a radio broadcast, the tail end of the recording has a snipped of the news announcer breaking in. Like the other discs from this batch I suspect it's a recording of WFIL-AM.

Sixteen, Twelve, Ten and Seven Inches

Let's talk about size. Record sales today are on the upswing. All the pundits say it's a fad but one with mysterious staying power. It's the truth. The vinyl sales surge will not last forever. It will plateau, and then slowly fade and the dystopian age of digital audio will reign eternal.

So before it passes let us discuss the origin of each of vinyls incarnations. For the purposes of this list I'm excluding digital recordings in order to eliminate floppy discs, and music box disc recordings. I listed 16, 12, 10 and 7 inches as they were unarguably the most common sizes of commercially available analog audio records. But there were many more. the largest were mostly radio transcriptions. The smallest of records are novelties, usually marketed to children, but there are exceptions. We can start small, very small indeed.

1-Inch
There are no real 1 inch records. Yet there was one 1-inch record released. Courtesy of Slap A Ham records, in 1996, the hardcore band Spazz released a super-limited 78 rpm pressing of "Hemorrhoidal Dance of Death" on a 1 inch disc. By all reports, it contained no music. More here.

2-Inch
A sole 2-inch record was released by Japanese grind-core band Slight Slappers. Unlike the above some purport that this contains some audio. This 1998 pressing was also the work of Slap A Ham records. More here.

3-inch
Emile Berliner created many different size discs prior to 1900 some as small as 3 to 5 inches. He eventually settled on a 7-inch disc as his standard around 1890. More here. But these tiny discs aren't all ancient history. In 2006 the White stripes put out a set of 3-inch records with a limited edition record player made to handle the diminutive diameter. More here.

3.5-Inch
Imperial records pressed a series of children's 78s that were three-and-a-half inches in diameter. Most of these date to just after 1930. You can see one here.

4-Inch
In 2009 the band Mayer Hawthorne released "A Strange Arrangement" which came packaged with a 4-inch vinyl single. A novelty, but a clever one. More here.

5-Inch
Strictly a novelty size. In the 1980s a slew of vacuous synth pop bands released 5-inch singles including Squeeze, Culture Club, Gary Glitter, Cyndi Lauper, and Wang Chung to name a few.  Some modern plants will still press discs as small as 5 inches.

6-Inch
6-inch Little Golden Records made of bright yellow plastic were a common sight in children's playrooms in the United States during the 1950s. It's also worth noting that Young People's Records and Disney also made discs in this size. Numerous instantaneous home recording 6-inch blanks were made most notably  by Voice-O-Graph. More here.

6.5-Inch Disc
Federal Perma Disc, Silvertone,  Recordio, Duodisc and many others all made discs in this size and sold them in packs of 5 for instantaneous home recordings. They remain a common find in the dusty 78 rpm crates.

7-Inch
This is the size of both those early Berliner records from the 1890s and the ever-popular 45s first appearing in February of 1949. Modern punk bands continue to produce a slew of low fidelity 33rpm 7-inch discs for niche consumption. The size is the longest to still be in use with a longevity now of over 120 years.

8-Inch
Recordio, Duodisc and H.O.W.A.R.D. all made discs in this size for instantaneous home recordings. There were also glass acetates in this diameter dating to the mid 1940s. Some early experimental Victor discs were 8-inches in diameter but no commercial releases I am aware of.

9-Inch
Another novelty size. Prior to 1910 Zon-O-Phone released 9 inch shellac recordings that spun at abotu 60 rpm.  In 1959 Seeburg Corp. introduced the Seeburg Background Music System 9-inch record with 2-inch center hole. It held about 40 minutes of music per side, an early attempt at elevator music. Supposedly there were also a scant number of Japanese pressings from the 1980s in this size I know nothing about. More recently, the industrial band Nine Inch Nails released a limited series of 9-inch discs cut from their hit album The Downward Spiral in 1994.

10-Inch
This was the dominant size for the 78 rpm record from around 1910 through 1950. Prior to the 33rpm LP everything was 10 inches. This was commemorated by Bull Moose Jackson with his song "Big Ten Inch" in 1952.

11-Inch
Another novelty size. Sitting squarely between two very common sizes,  it served no commercial function.
In 1980, the British band Alien Sex Fiend were the first band to release an 11-inch record in October 1984.

12- Inch
Columbia debuted the 12-inch LP in 1948. This was preceded by 12-inch V-discs which circulated in the 1940s during WWII. These were of course preceded by Victor who had pressed one-sided, 12-inch records as early as 1903.

13-Inch
Third Man Records has pressed a few "Texas sized records" for singles by both The Raconteurs and The White Stripes. This size is particularly unusual even among novelties.

14-Inch
Victor released at least one, one-sided, 14-inch shellac record in 1903. It held a whopping 6 minutes of audio. There may have been others.  More here.

16-Inch
The first 16 inch discs were pressed by Vitaphone in the 1920s for use in their Vitaphone "talking picture" system. The 33 rpm discs merely provided audio accompaniment to their otherwise silent films. In the 1940s, the size saw a revival for use in radio transcriptions. I own several.

Travel

I am on the road Friday.
I'll be back next week.

1967 WCFL tornado coverage

With Tornado season at it's anti-climatic end this season I happened to find a recording of a WCFL broadcast covering the terrible tornadoes of April 21st 1967 in Oak Lawn, IL. It's a true historical artifact. Give this a listen.

The Arlington Radio Towers

As garish as it may seem, there were once wireless towers standing over Arlington National Cemetery.  The part of the cemetery pictures is marked as the "World War Section" which means both that it precedes WWII and that the image is facing South West. The towers were on the outskirts of Ft. Meyer, which was originally established in the Civil war as Fort Whipple. But it became unique. In 1870, The National Weather Service was founded there by General Albert J. Myer. The first flight of a military aircraft took place there. This was a military base where science happened.

It's just outside the fence of a DOD facility. There is a marker commemorating them which is a bit hard to find. It reads as follows:

"Three radio towers similar to the Eiffel tower were erected here in 1913. One stood 600 feet, and the other two 450 feet above the 200-foot elevation of the site. The word "radio" was first used instead of "wireless" in the name of this naval communications facility.  The first trans-Atlantic voice communication  was made between this station and the Eiffel tower in 1915. The nation set its clocks by the Arlington Radio time signal and listened for its broadcast weather reports. The towers were dismantled in 1941, as a menace to aircraft approaching the new Washington National Airport."

Some sources refer to the three towers as "the three sisters." Some even place their construction as early as 1911. It's difficult to trace it back that far.  It its reputed to be the first such time signal broadcast. In 1915, Creighton University in Omaha, NE built a wireless station just to receive it's time signals. That same year Western Electric used the towers to carry out that aforementioned experimental broadcast received in Paris, 3,900 miles away.  Most of that distance was over water so they tired it in the opposite direction and were received at Mare Island in California, 2,400 miles away. More here and here.

The Navy began experimenting with wireless as early as 1904. By 1909 the Navy had a 1,000 watt transmitter,and were itching for a big tower to plug into it. Given construction dates vary anywhere between 1911 and 1914. At least some of the towers were probably viable in 1912, as it was already in use by March of 1913. Using the call letters NAA, it broadcast a time signal on 113 kHz throughout the 1920s. In 1922 I found a listing for it broadcasting weather bulletins on 5950 meters, and marine forecasts on 2650 meters.  All this with a few hundred watts and a Poulsen arc.The anniversary of their construction was celebrated quietly this past February. More here.

The towers may not be entirely destroyed. They were in stead moved to Greenbury Point  at Annapolis Naval Acadamy in Maryland where they remained in use until the 1990s.  In 1999 three remaining towers (which may not be the original three) were ceded to Anne Arundel County for telecommunications. Last year the support buildings including and the transmitter bunker were demolished. There may or may not be anything left. More here.

Transcription Mystery Disc #185

This 8-inch, metal core Recordisc is recorded on both sides and labeled, sort of.  It bears the single name "KEN" in all capital letters in pencil on one side.  That first side begins with a man introducing some kids singing in a chorus. He speaks very woodenly "Hello Kenny, Edgar and the boys will sing a new chorus for you." the kids sing in harmony though a bit flat. Afterwards a woman reads a story about Mr.s Chipmunk.

Jimmy Sliderlegs


The B-side is a woman reading a very old nursery rhyme, Jimmy Sliderlegs, then plays a bit of piano. The recitation is a warning against the dangers of sliding down the bannister. The melody is the Farmer in the Dell but many different sets of lyrics have been put to it. I've clipped out the woman reading the nursery rhyme. it's quite obscure, dating to at least the mid 1800s,  making it a strange selection for a recording that must date to the early 1950s.