Liner Notes

Radio news broadcasts from history

We now pull out the final disk of this six record box set filled with memories of radio days past. Back in the days before television when you had to imagine what was being described. To the days of live happenings. Expected and extremely unexpected.

This last LP features many news recordings that were captured as they happened from 1920 through the early 1940s.

So get ready to hear history as it unfolded live to countless listeners around the globe during a time of financial turmoil and approaching world war in Volume 230: Golden Memories of Radio Record 6.

Video Intro

Listen here or on my PodBean Podcast Episode page:

You can check out the video version here or on YouTube:

Go Directly to Any Song or Break on YouTube:

00:00 – Season’s Show Intro
00:49 – Episode Introduction
01:54 – KDKA Election Returns/Pres. Coolidge Presents Charles Lindberg To Congress
05:11 – First Break: Why I chose this record for this episode
07:19 – Eddie Cantor On 1929 Crash/Billy Sunday On Prohibition
08:49 – Second Break: More information about the record, its marketplace value and what condition my dad’s vinyl is in.
12:21 – FDR Is Inaugurated
14:54 – Third Break: Artist Bio
17:07 – The King George V Funeral/Edward VIII Abdicates/King George VI Coronation
21:27 – Fourth Break: this episode’s Interesting Side Note.
24:36 – Hitler Declares War On Poland/Chamberlain Announces War/FDR “America Hates War”/Winston Churchill “Give Us The Tools”
28:23 – Fifth Break: Final Words
30:36 – The Hindenburg Disaster
37:15 – Close

Credits and Copyrights:

See information from the Discogs.com page here

Jack Benny – Golden Memories Of Radio
Label: Longines Symphonette Society – none
Format: 6 x Vinyl, LP, Compilation, Mono, Maroon Labels Box Set
Released: 1969
Genre: Non-Music
Style: Radioplay

We will hear 12 tracks from this album

KDKA Election Returns/Pres. Coolidge Presents Charles Lindberg To Congress (The music world then honored him by naming a dance after Lindy. Check out episode ??? for details on that dance.)

Eddie Cantor On 1929 Crash/Billy Sunday On Prohibition

FDR Is Inaugurated (include some of the most famous words in presidential speech history)

The King George V Funeral/Edward VIII Abdicates/King George VI Coronation

In this segment we will hear from four leaders of three countries from the late 1930s and early 40s. The lead up and declaration of war: Hitler, Chamberlain, FDR, Churchill
Hitler Declares War On Poland/Chamberlain Announces War/FDR “America Hates War”/Winston Churchill “Give Us The Tools”

The Hindenburg Disaster

I do not own the rights to this music. ASCAP, BMI licenses provided by third-party platforms for music that is not under Public Domain.

#radiohistory #oldtimeradio #musicalmemories #musichistory #vinylcollecting #vinylrecords

Here is the Episode Script!

Thanks sweetie and thank YOU for tuning into episode 230 of Spinning My Dad’s Vinyl.

We now pull out the final disk of this six record box set filled with memories of radio days past. Back in the days before television when you had to imagine what was being described. To the days of live happenings. Expected and extremely unexpected.

This last LP features many news recordings that were captured as they happened from 1920 through the early 1940s.

So get ready to hear history as it unfolded live to countless listeners around the globe during a time of financial turmoil and approaching world war in Volume 230: Golden Memories of Radio Record 6.

[Music: KDKA Election Returns/Pres. Coolidge Presents Charles Lindberg To Congress]

You just heard two segments from side one of this record. KDKA Election Returns/Pres. Coolidge Presents Charles Lindberg To Congress.

You remember Charles Lindberg. He of the first solo transatlantic flight in 1927? The music world then honored him by naming a dance after him. Check out Volume 99: Time To Dance for details on the Lindy.

Meanwhile KDKA is an historic radio station. But we’ll come back to that.

Ok…Why this record for this episode?

If you’re a regular listener of this show, you know how much of a radio history geek I am. It will be sad to not have any more records to feature from this box set. But we have heard some great history in the six episodes we explored these great time-honored recordings.

This one is very different from the others in the box set. There is no comedy or theater. There are no sports. There are no variety show radio broadcasts.

These two sides DO include some very important recordings of live broadcasts during the early days of radio leading to the advent of TV.

Two of these cuts will include words that have lived in infamy.

I’ll try to set up any history surrounding the tracks, but for the most part, I’ll let the recordings speak for themselves.

Just remember, some of the music you will hear is part of the album presentation, not necessarily part of any of the broadcasts.

The next cuts are based on two events. The passage of the 18th amendment in 1919, starting the era of prohibition. And the stock market crash of 1929 leading to the great depression.

We’ll start with that one.

[Music: Eddie Cantor On 1929 Crash/Billy Sunday On Prohibition]

Billy Sunday speaking on why the 18th amendment should not be repealed. It of course was with the 21st amendment ratified in 1933. Before that was comedian Eddie Cantor On 1929 Stock Market Crash.

Now let me tell you about my dad’s vinyl I am spinning for this episode.

Jack Benny – Golden Memories Of Radio
Label: Longines Symphonette Society – no number for this one
Format: 6 x Vinyl, LP, Compilation, Mono, Maroon Labels Box Set
Released: 1969
Genre: Non-Music
Style: Radioplay

We will hear the sixth record, which is side 6 and 7 of the box set. The only record that has consecutive numbers since this set was numbered for the automatic turntable spindle that I have talked about before.

There’s a nice booklet enclosed. I don’t think I can make any coherent use out of those notes and have them pertain to what we’re playing in this episode.

But I did want to read the last paragraph from the message of the Director of the Longine Symphonette Society, Mishel Piastro.

Original recordings of radio broadcasts used to be made on a fragile acetate material. Through the years, often as many as 45 years, the transcriptions deteriorated, were broken, damaged, destroyed, or just plain lost. That any survived as a miracle! And tracing them down was just one of the problems. thus we owe many thanks to many people – What follows as a partial list. I hope we have not overlooked anyone. for this project has been a labor of love for all involved!

Now, I will obviously not read the list of people he is thanking.

Let’s see what prices this record is being sold at on discogs dot com.

$14.99 High
$1.75 Low

$7.65 Average
$7.75 Median

Last sold on May 02, 2023 for that low of $1.75

My dad’s record is in really good condition. I don’t think he played this box set very much. It was certainly a set I did not know he had, otherwise, I know I would have listened to these records a lot.

The records are kept in good shape by the plastic lined paper sleeves. And the box is in great condition, except he has his famous address label attached to the front and the word posted stamped on the back.

The internal booklet is also in good condition.

I will value my dad’s collection at ten dollars.

Next is Franklin D. Roosevelt’s First Inaugural Address delivered on March 4, 1933. It includes some of the most famous words in presidential speech history

[Music: FDR Is Inaugurated]

The name of that track? FDR Is Inaugurated

Here’s where I usually pause for an artist bio. But there is no artist to feature and we’ve already talked about Jack Benny in a previous episode featuring this box set. He really only lends his name to this set to help sales. He doesn’t talk much. The person who does most of the talking is Frank Knight.

This is from his New York Times obituary on October 19, 1973. And I’ll drop that link in this episode’s liner notes.

Frank Knight, who was a radio and television personality in the days of Graham McNamee, Ted Filming and Kate Smith, died yesterday at the Lenox Hill Hospital from burns sustained Oct. 10 in a fire that swept his apartment and was fatal to his wife, Mildred. His age was 79 and he lived at 170 East 77th Street.

Mr. Knight was widely known as the announcer of the Columbia Broadcasting System’s television program “Chronoscope,” sponsored by the Longine Watch Company, and its Longine radio programs “Symphonette” and “Choraliers.”

He had the kind of voice that bordered on the pompous but was very popular. In 1952, Jack Gould, the television editor of The New York Times, wrote that Mr. Knight’s commercials were delivered “with an almost cathedral formality. They tend to induce such a feeling of social inadequacy that a viewer might be forgiven if he found himself wondering whether he was really eligible to buy the product.”

Mr. Knight was born at St. John’s, Newfoundland, and studied at St. Bonaventure College, near Buffalo. After service with the Royal Newfoundland Regiment during World War I, he went to McGill University intending to study medicine but gave it up after a year for an acting career.

Let’s move on to a series of cuts that had to do with England’s royal family in the mid 1930s. A monarch’s death, an abdication, and another ascension to the throne.

[Music: The King George V Funeral/Edward VIII Abdicates/King George VI Coronation]
We just heard in order, The King George V Funeral, Edward VIII Abdicates, and King George VI Coronation.

Of course, King George the VI was the husband of Queen Elizabeth who just recently passed away at 96. She was the longest-reigning monarch in British history, serving as Queen for 70 years.

Time now for this episode’s interesting side note and it has to do with radio station call letters featuring the aforementioned KDKA out of Pittsburgh.

In 1912 when the United States and other countries around the world were assigned special letters to help tell their radio stations apart, the government decided to use special codes called “call letters” to identify each station. The U.S. was given the letters K, W, N, and A for radio use: K and W were set aside for commercial stations, while N and A were for military stations. At first, the rules about which stations got K or W weren’t very strict.

On October 27, 1920, the Department of Commerce issued the first commercial radio station license under the call sign KDKA. On November 2, 1920, Leo Rosenberg broadcast the Harding-Cox presidential election returns, marking the first broadcast by a licensed radio station. KDKA got its call sign during a short period when land stations were being assigned K codes that had previously been used only for ships, and once the rules changed, KDKA was allowed to keep its unique call sign.

From 1921 until early 1923, the dividing line between “K” and “W” call letters for radio stations was not the Mississippi River. Instead, the original boundary ran northward from the Texas–New Mexico border. This meant that stations located west of this line received “K” call letters, while those to the east received “W” call letters

In early 1923, the government moved the boundary to the Mississippi River to better balance the number of stations and populations on each side. This change created the system we still use today, where most stations west of the Mississippi start with “K” and those east start with “W”. Some stations that already had their call letters before the switch, like WKY in Oklahoma and WOI in Iowa, kept their original “W” calls even though they were now west of the new boundary.

That’s why you might still find a few “K” stations in the east and a few “W” stations in the west, but most follow the K-west, W-east rule today.

Next

In this segment we will hear three world leaders from the late 1930s and early 40s. The lead up and declaration of war: Hitler, Chamberlain, and Churchill

[Music: Hitler Declares War On Poland/Chamberlain Announces War/FDR “America Hates War”/Winston Churchill “Give Us The Tools”]

There were supposed to be four cuts there, but I never heard the FDR cut. This is what the label listed here.

Hitler Declares War On Poland/Chamberlain Announces War/FDR “America Hates War”/Winston Churchill “Give Us The Tools”

Well, I hope you enjoyed this episode as much as I enjoyed bringing it to you.

These recordings are special and important moments in history. And not just the record I played for you on this episode, but all six of them in the box set. I’m so glad my dad had this collection and I’m glad I got to share it with you.

I don’t remember this album cover from my growing up days in the house.

Because I know I would have listened to it often. The six records of this box set hold some special moments in radio broadcasting history.

The cover is mostly orange, reminiscent of a sunset, which happens to be setting on a small image of Jack Benny, dressed in a suit and tie, holding his violin in one hand and its bow in the other.

The words in several sizes and types of font read A Longines Symphonette Society Gold Medal Production.

Jack Benny presents the treasury of Golden Memories of Radio. Narrated by Jack Benny and Frank Knight. And from top to bottom of the right side of the cover is a golden old fashioned diaphragm microphone and stand, with a golden wire leading off the edge.

The rest of the box is kind of golden in color.

Well, we’ve heard the phrase “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.”

Next we’ll hear some of the greatest on-the-spot reporting ever witnessed.

This report includes another famous phrase that, even though it was used to describe a disaster here, it was also used on one of the most memorable comedy TV episodes in history as well. Think the WKRP Turkey drop.

[Music: The Hindenburg Disaster]

The Hindenburg Disaster

Yes, that’s where Les Nesman came up with that line as turkeys fell into a Cincinnati shopping center parking lot. I know. An odd juxtaposition.

And there you have selections from this great box set filled with great broadcasting memories.

So thanks for tuning into Volume 230: Golden Memories of Radio Record 6

however you did. If you want more information about this SHOW, head over to spinning my dad’s vinyl dot com.

I’ll be back next week with all my skips, scratches, and pops

FOR Volume 231: Simply Belafonte

Until then,
Go with the flow my friends.