Herb Shriner Time

Herbert Shriner  would never have made it big today. Being affable, knowing some funny stories and playing the harmonica wouldn't be enough to put him over the top these days. He was sort of the Will Rogers of Indiana, if Indiana ever needed their own. But comedy was a different animal back then. He was born in Toledo in 1918, and grew up in Ft. Wayne. How he ended up as a radio celeb seems almost by accident.

He began as a humorist, what we now call a stand-up comedian. He played harmonica on radio programs like a Hoosier version of Johnny Puelo. No source gives a specific date as to his first appearance but it's generally dated to about 1940. He was being booked by the William Morris agency. His first regular spot was Camel Caravan, a comedy-variety program. He started there in 1942. That fits well in the time line since by 1952 Billboard was calling him a "TV comedian." What happened in between was WWII. Herb performed for the USO live and on air including The Philip Morris Follies.

In 1946 he was the star of the "Hoosier Radio Round Up," a radio event that was networked 300+ programs across 19 radio stations broadcasting from the Indiana State fair.  The program showcased talent in the Hoosier state. There were appearances by Singing Sam, Herb Shriner, Hoagy Carmichael, Chick Johnson, Ole Olsen and many others. Networked stations includes WISH, WIBC, WFBM, WIRE, WHOT, WHBU, WLBC, WKMO, WASK, WKMO, WKBV,  WKBF, WMLL, WBOW and WOWO. He did it again in1947. After it was all over Governor Ralph gates gave him a medal.

In 1948 he got his own radio show on CBS, Herb Shriner Time. The show also had the Raymond Scott Quintet, singer Dorothy Collins, and announcer Durward Kirby. The Herb Shriner TV Show began in 1949 which ran for 2 years. ABC picked him up for a year in 1951 and that petered out in the Fall of 1952.  CBS picked him up for a third spin in the Fall of  1952. He did a stint hosting a TV game show after that which ran until 1955. In the 1950s he did some comedy LPs, and an all harmonica orchestra which was an abomination. He went back to the night clubs. He retired to Florida, and was killed in a car wreck in 1970.

Jack Paar Uncensored

Jack Parr is best known for his tenure as the host of the Tonight Show. He did a short run guest-hosting the Jack Benny Radio program in 1946 and NBC thought he was their man. They offered him a job as host of the Tonight Show in 1957. Like every other host of that program, he'd done his time in radioland.

Even though it was Quiz shows that made his career and paved his transition into Television Paar scorned them repeatedly. Paar thought more highly of comedy than trivia. He wrote in the autobiography I Kid You Not:

"I couldn't compete with the big quizzes, passing out loot with the abandon of a dying tycoon with a guilty conscience. What concerned me more, though, was that the big money quiz shows began killing off some of the few good comedy shows."

Paar was born in Canton, Ohio in 1918. The broadcasting industry as we know it didn't even exist. His first job in radio was at WIBM-AM in Jackson Michigan. WIBM signed on in 1927. Paar's part-time gig as an announcer wasn't until 1934. He was 16, and they paid him $3 a week to do a news program called The Town Crier. He was fired for getting snarky on air. Paar moved on to WIRE-AM in 1935. He had a short tenure there and at a number of other stations including WJR-AM, WGAR-AM, WKBN-AM, and WBEN-AM.

He got to Cleveland in 1938 to start work at 1220 WGAR-AM. He was the youngest announcer in the CBS network. The station was based in the Statler Hotel. In the basement of the Statler was Otto's Grotto a genuine rock n' roll club which would gain much fame later on. It was on Paar's shift that Orson Welles radio play "War of the World's first aired. Paar fielded the panicked calls and chose to take it off air. His PD ordered it to resume. Paar has to assure people that the world was not coming to an end. He stayed on for 4 more years. He then went to WBEN in Buffalo but was drafted after only two years. After returning from WWII he got his big break filling in on the Jack Benny Radio program. But that wasn't a shoe-in. NBC had a plan and it wasn't for a steady gig. In 1950 he was the emcee of "Take It Or Leave It" another radio game show replacing Eddie Cantor. He worked simultaneously as a substitute on The Breakfast Club filling for Don McNeill. RKO cut him and he ended up on unemployment.

he did another quiz show for CBS called "Bank on the Stars". In 1952 he got his own TV game show "Up to Paar". That was followed by his own variety show "The Jack Paar Show" in 1953, and strangely replaced Walter Cronkite on the CBS morning show in 1954. They canceled that on him too. But it was all well in the end as he took over the Tonight Show in 1957.

Oh, there be wires

In radio we use wires. The microphone is connected to the XLR cable, the XLR cable connects to the volume pot. the volume pot plugs into the mixer slot etc. here I discuss a couple very early wires. remember them the next time a crappy headphone cable shorts out.

Wires connect anything to everything to everyone. In this most recent stage of our technological evolution we have outgrown what copper can do and are moving toward fiber. I hate fiber, because I can't solder it, can't crimp it and in general I am trying not to be a Luddite. In the end you cant plug fiber into an antenna, so I get my way as well.

The very first interior power wiring systems used conductors that were bare or covered with cloth. This was not tractable outdoors or over long distances so we began to experiment with the first real cables. The above slotted block of wood is an early cable. They were called deal tongues. Into those slots early engineers pounded lengths of metal. Metallurgy was uncertain in the era so alloys were impure and irregular in gauge. All the more important that they slathered it in tar to keep out the water. This one is circa 1065 or so from London.

Another early cable was the first underground wire and was a gutta-percha-covered wire. The brown gutta-percha is cracked like crushed amber or resin. Gutta-percha is a resin from the Isonandra Gutta tree that has some properties as an insulating material. it originates in Malaya and was discovered by Samuel Canning. (who later was involved in laying transatlantic cables) More here.

In India, probably with help from the British, half-pipe (or tile) conduits were used. These were much like the terra cotta tiles we see on roof tops but cupped together to make a pipe. the wires ran through them like conduit. These tiles are filled with what looks like a mortar that appears in some examples to be tarry. Tar or pitch seems to have been used in some pieces for joining a collar into the larger end of the next half-pipe. Some pipes are liberally painted with tar inside and out. More info here and here.