New Stream: Bob & Ray

Audio streaming continues, thanks to the Internet Archive.  Bob and Ray used to be scattered all over that site, like a finely-marbled cheese.  Then came a purge-- and my impression is that their vast, dispersed B&R archive didn't come through unscathed.

But no matter.  This week's stream is from what seems to be a complete collection of "Bob & Ray Present the CBS Radio Network", which ran for 15 minutes, 5 days a week from June 1959 to May 1960.  We'll be playing that, in one-month installments, every week or so until it runs out. 

New Stream: The Last Hours of Kennedy Radio

Click on a link to the right to enter a lost world; the last hours before our future was stolen from us.
JFK's final tour includes the following stops:

- He fights for national health care, Madison Square Garden, May 20, 1962. (17m)
- Steel executives take a beating in his press conference of April 11.1962. (20m)
- He answers the Birmingham church bombing with a call for civil rights, June 11, 1963. (13m)
- WBAP radio covers his Ft Worth visit on November 21, 1963 (aircheck) (2h 33m)
- The Presidential party arrives at Love Field, Dallas. (25m)
- WLW, Cincinnati OH: November 22, 5 AM to 1 PM (BIG aircheck) (7h 27m)

The WLW aircheck is a real time machine.  The station's format could be described as "AM News and Music", and it runs through its regular November 1963 Friday morning lineup, until things go haywire.  The reason the music sounds weird is probably because the aircheck was made at the slowest reel-to-reel speed of 1 & 7/8 inches per second.  It sounds wobbly as heck, but evocative in a way, especially with the Percy Faith nightmare music at the end.

I'm including Love Field as a separate file, linked here.  It was compiled from two different sources, radio and TV; the latter had the best account of Jack and Jackie breaking away to shake hands with people who were supposed to be fenced out-- the sounds of laughter and airhorns, the announcer saying, "They're coming right up here!"

And of course the President's travel plans for after the motorcade, and a big meeting on Vietnam later this weekend.

Stream: Bob & Ray Present the CBS Radio Network, Part 1

The first month or so of their radio surreality on CBS.  6 hours of 15-minute programs, from the Internet Archive.

Program notes:
- The audio difficulties during Smelly Dave's appearance are on the original tape.  It's not the internet connection. 

Radio Soup, now playing!

10 hours of longer-form audio.
Links and playlist to your right.