I found this great book on the history of radio shows at a local book giveaway in Baltimore and it is great!
I found this great book on the history of radio shows at a local book giveaway in Baltimore and it is great!
It’s by Frank Buxton and Bill Owen, and it has listings of shows, what the announcers would say…it is comprehensive, and discusses various things used in the industry over the years 1920-1950.
It talks about how big band “remotes” were broadcast and how announcers would be used to warm up the audience to get applause to go on the air, since back then they couldn’t pull up an mp3 of clapping or laughter, it had to be live.
Having a great time browsing through it. It’s just amazing to follow how radio has developed.
Geoff
Carl Blare says
A Keeper
That book found its way into the right hands.
There is a 1932 movie starring Bing Crosby called “The Big Broadcast,” but it is not based on the book of the same name.
ArtisanRadio says
I wandered into a used book
I wandered into a used book store while visiting my son in Ontario some years ago, and found a treasure trove of OTR books. That book was amongst them.
Those two also published a book called Radio’s Golden Age, which has a more comprehensive listing of OTR shows, published by Easton Valley Press in 1966. If you can find it, you should purchase it.
Of course, the bible is On The Air, The Encyclopedia of Old Time Radio, by John Dunning. He also wrote a fiction book (can’t recall the name off the top of my head) that was set in the golden age of radio era of the 40s.
I find it interesting that there is still so much unknown about the history of OTR. And what’s exciting is that new episodes of shows, and sometimes even new shows, are being discovered even today. Or at least being made public from private collections.