Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:23 — 13.4MB)
Graham MacNamee hosts to direct the action as we take a look behind the scenes of radio.
A popular radio show was one called Sundown on the Veldt, and it’s star, a South African tells how he encountered a Zulu on the streets of London. The chance encounter led to the Zulu being featured on the radio, and a little bit of matchmaking.
Radio oddities. A broadcast executive hired an elevator man for the quality of his voice, but but his lack of reading skills led to an on air blooper. In days when radio was transmitted through telephone wires, a crossed circuit found a bickering husband and wife’s heated words going over the air.
Well known sportscaster Bill Stern shares how sports events are delivered so quickly and accurately into the listeners homes. A dramatization of the cooperation between participants from players, to coach, to the broadcaster is carried out, even what songs the marching band is to play is important. Hmm… interesting, but Bill Stern was also notorious for his making up vivid details that had no truth at all in them.
A long forgotten radio show, the Maxwellhouse Showboat is recreated in brief, bringing back the beloved stars to sing and perform.
Letters from listeners. Betty Koppley answers the questions including. How baseball games are broadcast, when the announcer isn’t located at the game. Do comedians write their own jokes? Is there any regulation on how the National Anthem is to be played on radio?
A dramatization of people in a medical emergency were rescued at sea by the use of radio. With Morse code flying through the airwaves, and hospitals and ships too far, it’s sheer will power, and fast flying airplanes that save the day.
