KNOWN RADIO RECORDINGS 1928-1930
*1928
A series of phonograph records released on the Sears-Roebuck "Silvertone"
label purports to feature a broadcast of the "WLS Showboat" program, but
it is a studio recording intended to give the feel of the show, and is
not an actual broadcast.
The widely-distributed "Amos n Andy" sequence in which the two discuss
the upcoming election is from a Victor record, one of several to be
released by the team over the next two years, and is not a radio
broadcast. Ironically, it is this phonograph record most often used by
NBC to represent this series in various retrospective programs, since the
network recorded only a handful of actual broadcasts during the programs
15-minute serial era. Syndication discs of "Amos n Andy" began to be
recorded and distributed by WMAQ, Chicago in the spring of 1928, but
these were not off-air recordings of a live broadcast. Freeman Gosden and
Charles Correll would record the shows ahead of the scheduled air date,
allowing time for pressing and distribution. The shows were approximately
nine minutes long, with each episode recorded on a single twelve inch
78rpm record. Each episode included a bit of redundant dialogue at the
end of the first side to ease the transition between sides. Those
stations with dual turntables would most likely have been sent two copies
of each disc, allowing a smooth blending of the sides. Opening and
closing announcements were done live by each subscribing station, and no
commercials were included. Each set of discs was to be returned to WMAQ
after being broadcast, and the discs were presumably destroyed on their
return. So it is that only a very few of these episodes seem to survive.
Most of those that do date from mid-1929. This was the first series to
be distributed in such a manner, and the project was extremely
successful. "Amos n Andy" achieved national renown long before they
began their network run, and the success of their "chainless chain"
would have significant influence on the industry the following year
??/??/28--"Roxys Gang" NBC Blue Network. WJZ aircheck recorded by the
Edison Company. Another 30rpm Rayediphonic recording, this program was
discovered by Dr. Biel in the archives of the Edison Historic Site in New
Jersey. Edison , Henry Ford, and Harvey Firestone appear on this
special broadcast commemorating the 1928 Chicago Radio Show, a popular
trade exposition.
10/20/28 -- Edison Special Congressional Medal Presentation. NBC Red
Network. WJZ aircheck recorded by the Edison Company. A speech by
President Coolidge is followed by appropriate commemorative ceremonies
celebrating Edison's inventive achievements.
*1929
Following on the success of the syndicated "Amos n Andy" other companies
began prerecording shows for distribution to individual stations, and
most programs dated 1929 currently in collectors circulation that I have
encountered are syndications and not authentic broadcast recordings.
Chicago was the center of syndication activity, with the National Radio
Advertising Company being one of the largest operations, producing shows
for such clients as the Meadows Manufacturing Company, Maytag, and
Brunswick-Balke-Collender. N-R-A-C shows were usually recorded at the
Brunswick Record studios and released on specially-pressed Brunswick
78rpm discs. Columbia Records had a similar relationship with some of
the other syndicated program producers, releasing discs using its
much-touted "New Process." By late 1929 or very early 1930, Columbia
also began releasing syndicated radio product on 16 inch pressings at
331/3 rpm, taking advantage of technology developed for the Vitaphone
talking-picture process.
One 1929 disc that has caused a lot of confusion among collectors is the
"Don Lee New Years Party" recording. This recording was a
specially-prepared Brunswick disc featuring various KHJ performers
distributed by Don Lee to his employees as a holiday gift in December
1929. It is not an actual broadcast.
There are however at least four authentic broadcast recordings extant
from 1929. They include:
1/12/29-- Cascade Tunnel Dedicatory Program. NBC Blue network linecheck,
recorded by the Victor Talking Machine Company. The Great Northern
Railroad sponsored this hour long program, celebrating the opening of its
tunnel in the Cascade Mountains of Washington State. Graham McNamee
reports from Berne, Washington as the first train goes thru, and there
are speeches by President-Elect Hoover and assorted other dignitaries.
Back in New York, Phillips Carlin is studio announcer for musical
entertainment by George Olsen and his Music, along with cut-ins from San
Francisco by Madame Ernestine Schumann-Heink. The broadcast was recorded
in two formats -- 16 inch masters at 33 1/3 rpm, and 12 inch 78rpm
masters. The 16-inch masters preserved the entire program, but it is
possible that portions were edited from the 12 inch recordings. Pressings
of the discs for this program may have been distributed by Great
Northern as a keepsake of this historic event to employees and clients,
and very few sets are known to exist.
2/11/29--Thomas Edison Birthday Tribute. NBC Blue Network. WJZ aircheck
recorded by the Edison Company. Another recording unearthed by Dr. Biel
at the Edison Site. According to radio listings of the day, this was an
hour-long tribute to Edison on his 88th birthday intended as the first
in a series of Edison-sponsored programs. The climax of the program was a
short talk by the inventor himself. Approximately forty minutes of the
program were recorded on two 30-rpm vertical-cut "Rayediphonic" discs --
an experimental long playing modification of the Edison Diamond Disc
system which recorded thirty minutes per side -- but an electronic
failure in the recording amplifier made it impossible to record the
entire program.
10/21/29--Lights Golden Jubilee Celebration. NBC Blue network. WJZ
aircheck recorded by the Edison Company on "Rayediphonic" discs. The
fiftieth anniversary of the invention of the light bulb is observed in
this special program from Dearborn. Michigan. An array of luminaries
including President Hoover pay tribute to Edison and his invention.
Edison himself also speaks, and participates in a re-enactment of the
first lighting of the electric lamp. Albert Einstien speaks by shortwave
from Berlin, but reception is extremely poor. The recording includes the
earliest surviving version of the NBC chimes -- a five note progression
very much unlike the standard G-E-C. The complete one-hour program was
recorded, but a tape copy is in circulation via the National Archives
which has been edited to approximately 32 minutes.
11/13/29 -- Remarks by Eleanor Roosevelt at the annual Seven Colleges
Dinner in New York. WOR, Newark aircheck, recorded at Coumbia
University. Excerpts from this broadcast include a speech by Mrs.
Roosevelt --then First Lady of New York State-- on the importance of
education for girls. I have not examined the recording, but it is most
likely an instantaneous aluminum disc, one of the earliest surviving
examples of this format. The disc is held by Columbia as part of its
Brander Matthews Dramatic Library collection, and a tape reference copy
is held by the Library of Congress.
*1930
Syndicated shows become even more popular, with many companies now in the
field, many with names designed to simulate those of the real networks.
They include Continental Broadcasting, World Broadcasting, Radio Digest
Bureau Of Broadcasting and others. Again, virtually all circulating
programs dated 1930 are from syndication discs. Several "Amos n Andy"
sequences dated 1930 are, again, from commercially-released Victor
records, and are not broadcasts.
RCA Victor's Home Recording system was introduced in October 1930 -- and
broadcast recordings made on this system have been found dating very
close to that introduction. These first home recordings were made on
6-inch diameter blanks with a maximum running time at 78rpm of about
ninety seconds. Larger size Victor blanks were introduced by 1932, as
were machines capable of recording at 33 1/3 rm as well as 78.
1/21/30 -- Speech by King George V at the opening of the Five Power Naval
Conference in London. BBC linecheck recorded by the Gramophone Company
of London for commercial release on the HMV label. This is a fairly
common disc, one of a series issued by HMV of important speeches by the
King. Many of these are broadcast recordings. In addition to this
recording, there is a lengthy series of discs from this Conference in
the Brander Matthews Library collection at Columbia, but I have been
unable to confirm if they are actual broadcast recordings.
3/18/30 -- "Der Lindbergflug" ("Lindbergh's Flight) -- Berlin Radio,
recorded by Berlin Radio. This program is a musical drama by Berthold
Brecht and Kurt Weill, based on the trans-Atlantic flight of Col.
Charles Lindbergh. The broadcast was recorded (probably on steel tape)
for later relay to Radio Paris and the BBC, where translations were
overlaid in French and English. The original 18-minute German language
broadcast is the surviving version, and is believed to be the earliest
surviving broadcast from Continental Europe.
3/19/30 and 3/26/30 -- Coca Cola Program. NBC Red network airchecks,
recorder unconfirmed, but possibly Speak-O-Phone Recording Studio. These
two complete half-hour broadcasts feature announcer Graham McNamee,
Leonard Joy and his Coca Cola Top Notchers Orchestra, and sportswriter
Grantland Rice with interviews of leading athletes of the day. The 3/19
program -- the series premiere -- is an aircheck of WEAF in New York,
and the 3/26 program an aircheck of WEEI, Boston. If these are indeed
Speak-O-Phone aluminums, they're the earliest known: dating just four
months after the company is known to have been formed in Boston. Not in
my collection but known to exist.
8/4/30--Talk By Colonel Lindbergh. CBS and NBC networks. CBS aircheck
recorded by "Electro Broadcasters Corportation and distributed on 2 10"
78rpm records. This is the earliest CBS recording in my collection, a ten
minute speech by Lindbergh on the future of aviation. It was the
aviators first formal radio address, and he sounds decidedly nervous.
Plans called for this program to be relayed to a worldwide audience by
short wave, and Lindbergh actually gave the speech twice--the first time
was shortwaved to the BBC in London, but weather conditions over the
Atlantic prevented it from getting through. The second broadcast, the one
recorded, was intended for stateside listeners.
11/1/30 -- Chicago Civic Opera Company Broadcast Excerpts. WLS, Chicago
airchecks recorded on Victor Home Recording Discs. Two double-sided
discs running about six minutes total, containing fragments from Act II:
Prelude of "Tannhauser." Lotte Lehman, Hans Hermann Nissen, and Paul
Althouse are heard in this earliest surviving aircheck of a U.S. opera
broadcast. No announcers are heard.
11/30/30, 12/22/30, 12/29/30 -- Empire Builders. NBC Blue network,
airchecks of KYW Chicago. Recorder unknown, but probably Universal
Recording Laboratories. Part of a series of recordings of programs from
this pioneering dramatic series discovered in the mid-1980s in the
corporate archives of the Great Northern Railroad. This program,
sponsored by the Great Northern, was a dramatic anthology focusing on
the tales of passengers on the Empire Builder, Great Northerns crack
train on the Chicago-to-Seattle run. It was one of the first straight
dramatic programs on the NBC schedule, and these programs provide an
important window into the birth of network radio drama. The casts
include such well-known performers as Don Ameche and Bernadine Flynn, and
the production values are excellent, putting the lie to the assumption
that all early drama was primitive. Additional shows survive from 1/5/31,
1/12/31, 1/19/31, 1/26/31, 2/2/31, and 2/16/31.
12/7/30 -- Atwater Kent Hour Excerpts. NBC Red network, WEAF New York
airchecks recorded on a Victor Home Recording Disc. One 6-inch
double-sided disc containing ninety-second fragments of Rosa Ponselle's
performance of selections from "Schwanensang" and "Carmen." No
announcers are heard.
Continue
Elizabeth McLeod's Documenting Early Radio Page.
Radio History.