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Do you have a question about old-time radio not answered here? E-mail it to me and I will do my best to answer.
1.) What is old time radio? (OTR)
The term "old time radio" generally refers to radio broadcasts from the "golden age of radio." In the United States, most consider radio's golden age to have been from the mid-1920s through the early 1960s. During these years, local stations with a genuine interest in serving their community flourished, and radio networks like NBC, CBS, and the Mutual Broadcasting System offered a wide variety of programs to suit every taste: from classical concerts to dramatic features like The Shadow, Inner Sanctum, Gunsmoke, The Lux Radio Theatre as well as comedy programs like Jack Benny and Fred Allen. The soap opera also developed on radio, and radio provided Americans with the latest news right in their own homes. Game shows, disc jockey programs, science fiction, radio had it all. By the early 1950s, the television began to replace the radio as Americans' main "electronic" source of news and entertainment. Today, fans of old time radio love it for the chance it offers them to use their imagination. The listener plays a key role in each radio drama: it's up to the listener to create the images.
2.) How were old time radio shows recorded?
Today, recordings exist for literally tens of thousands of old time radio broadcasts. However, tape recording was not perfected until the late 1940s--towards the end of radio's golden age. How then, were so many of these historic broadcasts preserved? Recordings for the first decade of commercial radio braodcassting are virtually non-existant because a technique for recording live broadcasts was not developed until the late 1920s. In the late '20s, the radio transcription was developed. Sometimes called the electrical transcription this was nothing more than a specialized phonograph record.  Early transcriptions were composed of an aluminum disc, usually ten or twelve inches in diameter. During recording, a specially designed needle embossed grooves into the soft surface. I say embossed because the needle did not actually cut the surface, rather the grooves were pressed into it. The quality, although not perfect, was quite good for such a crude technique and continued to be used until the late 1930s. Today, aluminum transcritpions are scarce and must be handled carefully. Do not attempt to play an aluminum transcription on a regular turntable with a modern needle! Doing so may permanantly dmage the recording. If you have such a disc and are unsure how to play it, please contact someone with experience in transferring aluminum transcriptions. By the late 1930s, a new type of recording blank had been developed. Instead of embossing a groove directly into a bare aluminum surface, the aluminum discs were now coated with a soft, black lacquer and the grooves actually cut into the lacquer. These discs which continued to be used well into the 1960s are sometimes called (incorrectly) acetates. These lacquer-coated transcriptions offered higher fidelity. Most transcriptions of this type are sixteen inches in diameter and require a specialized oversize turntable to play. Most programs in circulation among collectors come from lacquer transcritpions. During World War II, glass was often substituted for the aluminum base, making them extremely fragile! During the 1930s and 1940s, manufacturers of blank transcription discs tried different materials for the base such as cardboard, but ultimately aluminum proved the most popular. Other types of transcription discs include pressed vinyl transcriptions, which were mass produced, much like commercial phonograph records. These were often used for syndicating a program to many stations, or for delivering recordings of American broadcasts to US troops overseas by means of the Armed Forces Radio Service. Although long-playing records (33.3 rpm) were not commercially available to the public until 1948 (except for a brief failed attempt by Victor in the early 1930s to market such a long-playing record), the 33.3 rpm speed was used for radio transcriptions almost from the start. In the early years, 78 rpm was also used, but 33.3 rpm soon became the most popular speed for recording a radio program because it allowed up to 15-20 minutes to be recorded on one side of a transcription. Consequently, most 30-minute OTR programs were recorded on two transcription sides (often on two separate discs on two turntables to facilitate immediate transfer from one side to another). This explains why many tapes of vintage radio programs may have a few seconds of silence in the middle of a 30-minute show. If you have original transcription discs you would like to have transferred to CD for FREE, please contact the First Generation Radio Archives (http://www.radioarchives.org). They are a non-proft organization and will professionally transfer and restore your transcriptions free of charge.
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