Old Audio Recordings and Radio broadcasts...

K

KrangPrime

Master Member
What's the oldest one you came across?

I was working on 3D one night and came across benny goodman from 1935, and spent an hour listnening too it. the oldest broadcast icame across was from NYC 1929 New Years Eve.

then there is stuff like this. a complete show from NBC of all places, complete with the familiar sign off.

How did this even get recorded? radio was brand new then. and i doubt home audio recording equipment existed.
 
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NeilT said:
...How did this even get recorded? radio was brand new then. and i doubt home audio recording equipment existed...
Click to expand...

I'm not learned in radio history as some others but I do know tape has been around for a long time. This might have been recorded on tape and sat in archives until it was re-recorded/scanned for digital preservation by whoever was in charge of all that stuff later.
 
There's a Radio Comedy/history discussion show (hosted by Frank Skinner) called The Rest Is History that I've been listening to... Occasionally he plays recordings of historical people that you really don't expect to have been alive when recordings were possible, like Florence Nightingale and Buffalo Bill
 
I came across a recording on Youtube made in 1889 by Helmuth von Moltke, a famous German general from the Franco-Prussian war. He basically talks about the recording device and its significance.
 
Treadwell said:
Yes, magnetic media has been around for about 120 years:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tape_recorder#Magnetic_recording

There were also recordable phonographs used by both the studios/networks as airchecks (and for rebroadcast), and also home versions.

Also see wax cylinders...
Click to expand...


I would have thought tape was a 60's thing, around the era of computer tapes.


Still, I can't imagine it being cost prohibitive to have for the home. most people saved just for one tv if BTTF is any indication ;o)..
 
NeilT said:
I would have thought tape was a 60's thing, around the era of computer tapes...
Click to expand...

A lot of things we take for granted today are far older and far more connected than most people will ever take the time to bother finding out. A real detriment, in my opinion.

The television you bring up, the technology, cathode ray tubes, has been commercially available since the 1920's but it's discovery and uses stretches further back into the 1860's.
 
Well, I don't know if this counts or not (as its probably not the oldest media I've encountered), but it's certain an awesome thing I've come across. A few years back, my Dad and I went to MegaCon. There's a vender that's known as CJ Comics. My Dad and I happen to like his booth because of his deals during Friday and Saturday, and his liquidation sale on Sunday (he sales everything his booth, even the tables that he's using to sale his wares). During the first time my Dad and I came across him, I walked away with a ton of his items from his 25 cent item bins. One of these items was this.

6984551718_9277d411a0_o.jpg


Now, for those that may not know, years ago, in order to promote films, studios actually sent radio stations vinyl records with recordings of the actors and scripts. Basically, what the radio station would do is they would edit an interview together, using the script provided. The script had questions that the DJ would ask, and they would edit in the responses of the actors into it, so that they could have a complete interview to play on the radio. This one is for the movie called The War Lord, with Charlton Heston.

6984552018_619d9d410f_o.jpg


6984552690_a6040a8817_o.jpg


6984553176_f7546929bf_o.jpg


6984553656_0986fd1e5d_o.jpg


6984554126_506b4b26d8_o.jpg


I took the pictures because I came across a vinyl record collectible forum, and I was asking people if anyone knew the collectibility of these, as I had no experience with the collectibility of these types of vinyl (though I have seen one person who sold such an interview record on eBay for about $200, but that was a few years back. Apparently, items like these are rare, even more so if the original studios cleared out the original promotional materials or lost them over the years). But I picked it up because it not only had Charlton Heston's name, but the fact that I haven't seen a whole lot of classic vinyl that is red in color like this. I've thought about hooking up my vinyl record to my laptop and record the audio from it, and do my own little "interview" with Heston about his upcoming film The War Lord and posting it to YouTube just for the fun of it.
 
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Great topic! I've been collecting vintage radio shows since I was a kid. They used to play them for an hour on Sunday nights on a local station. If you're interested in new shows the BBC still does radio drama.

The majority of vintage radio shows were captured for rebroadcast on large acetate "transcription discs". Basically big records that were cut live as the show was performed. They rotated at 16 rpms rather than the conventional 78 of the era. They started using reel to reel magnetic tape to record and distribute shows in the US the early 1950's -- Gunsmoke was one of the first popular shows to be distributed this way. Magnetic tape was much more widely used in Europe and much earlier. There are loads of shows from wartime Germany that were recorded on tape -- lots of live concert broadcasts exist because of this.

Two excellent books on vintage radio are "The Big Broadcast" by Leonard Maltin and The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio by John Dunning.

Cheers!

Dave
 
CB2001 Those interview discs are great!! I was in radio for 14 years starting in 1992. When I started, the station where I worked was still transitioning to CDs and we ran reel to reel shows daily. I have an old promo LP of an interview disc for Henry Mancini that I brought home.

When I left ten years ago (wow, has it been that long) we were transitioning to all digital editing and broadcast.
 
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Don't know if this counts, but in 1991 I was working at Big Lots and we got a POP display for cassette tapes that had remastered radio dramatizations of old movies, along with radio shows from the '30s-'50s. I bought a mess of them.
I don't remember everything I had, but I remember having radio-dramatizations of "To Have and Have Not" and "Key Largo" - both with Bogey and Bacall reading their parts - and the first 10 or so episodes of the original "Lone Ranger" radio show.
Also bought a bunch of old Duke Ellington and Fats Waller and Louis Armstrong and Billie Holliday. All on cassette tape.
Don't have any of it anymore :(
 
My grandmothers birthday is today, so finding some older stuff,

found this..



and this...

they might be wishing 1929 back :)
 
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NeilT said:
I'd ask if you had a flying cart zone for angry dj's, but then you mentioned reel tapes :)
Click to expand...

We used carts too -- waaay past the time that I'm sure most stations had stopped using them, though if any went flying I wasn't around that day lol
 
Not a radio broadcast but cool too ;o)

I think it'd be kind of fun to go to that area of london now and film the exact same angle ;o)

 
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Axlotl said:
Don't know if this counts, but in 1991 I was working at Big Lots and we got a POP display for cassette tapes that had remastered radio dramatizations of old movies, along with radio shows from the '30s-'50s. I bought a mess of them.
I don't remember everything I had, but I remember having radio-dramatizations of "To Have and Have Not" and "Key Largo" - both with Bogey and Bacall reading their parts - and the first 10 or so episodes of the original "Lone Ranger" radio show.
Also bought a bunch of old Duke Ellington and Fats Waller and Louis Armstrong and Billie Holliday. All on cassette tape.
Don't have any of it anymore :(
Click to expand...

There are free APPS for the phone where you can listen to thousands of old radio shows and dramas. Plus podcasts that play old shows. There are hundreds of thousands out there for you to listen to for free and enjoy.
 
CB2001 said:
https://c7.staticflickr.com/8/7106/6984551718_9277d411a0_o.jpg

Now, for those that may not know, years ago, in order to promote films, studios actually sent radio stations vinyl records with recordings of the actors and scripts. Basically, what the radio station would do is they would edit an interview together, using the script provided. The script had questions that the DJ would ask, and they would edit in the responses of the actors into it, so that they could have a complete interview to play on the radio. This one is for the movie called The War Lord, with Charlton Heston.

https://c3.staticflickr.com/8/7057/6984552018_619d9d410f_o.jpg
Click to expand...

So, if i'm understanding this right,

these where basically just pre recorded interviews sent out to radio stations?

I know someone who has a big record collection and i doubt even they have something like this in their cubbards..
 
NeilT said:
So, if i'm understanding this right,

these where basically just pre recorded interviews sent out to radio stations?

I know someone who has a big record collection and i doubt even they have something like this in their cubbards..
Click to expand...

Yes, these are pre-recorded interviews that were scripted for promotional purposes that radio stations could make it look like the actors took their time off to come and sit down for an interview.


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