DAN'S OLD-TIME RADIO CORNER - MURDER CLINIC

I still marvel at how little is known or remembered about old-time radio. We know more about the history of ancient Rome than we do about radio shows of the 1940s.
 
And here's another example - a program that is nearly forgotten, though it ran for over a year on the Mutual network during World War II.

The show is Murder Clinic, and it adapted murder mystery short stories into half-hour radio shows.

This episode, Murder at Marsden Manor, features Agatha Christie's detective Hercule Poirot. It was first broadcast on October 6, 1942.

Listen at http://radiofun.info.

DAN'S OLD-TIME RADIO CORNER - ART LINKLETTER'S HOUSE PARTY

This week's Radio Corner show was a needle in a haystack.

Though Art Linkletter's House Party was on the air for 24 years, it seems that nobody saved any of the episodes.

I searched everywhere, and just as I was about to give up, I found the website of the granddaughter of a radio engineer who had recorded an episode of House Party in 1947. The photo is the label of that recording.

You can listen to that record at http://radiofun.info.

DAN'S OLD-TIME RADIO CORNER - ROGERS OF THE GAZETTE

Will Rogers Junior was much like his father - down-home, folksy, and always spouting gems of country wisdom.

And Rogers of the Gazette was the perfect program for him.

Rogers played a small-town newspaper editor who was constantly called upon to solve the problems in his community.

With Georgia Ellis (radio's Miss Kitty on Gunsmoke) as his assistant Maggie Button, and Gunsmoke's Chester, Parley Baer, as the local doctor, there are several voices in this show you'll recognize.

This episode also features Howard McNear, Gunsmoke's Doc Adams and Andy Griffith's Floyd the Barber.

Listen at http://radiofun.info.

DAN'S OLD-TIME RADIO CORNER - PEG LYNCH

Peg Lynch is a national treasure. She's still going strong at 95, and as funny as ever.

She assures us that she comes from a family of good genetic stock, her grandmothers living well into their 100s. Speaking of one of them, Peg says: "She collected three war pensions. Civil War, Spanish-American War, and World War I. And I think she was a drummer boy in the Revolutionary War."

Peg performed last week at the Old-Time Radio Convention in Cincinnati. She was a national radio fixture from the mid-1940s to the mid-1960s, first writing and starring in Ethel and Albert, then writing and starring in The Couple Next Door (same show, new name). She wrote nearly 800 shows over two decades.

Peg and her late partner, Alan Bunce, played a married couple who talked with each other. A simple concept, and absolutely hilarious. But rather than me talk about it, let's just listen to it.

Here are two 15-minute shows: Ethel and Albert, More Storage Space, from June 4, 1945, and The Couple Next Door, Barking Test for Brownie, from May 7, 1959.

Listen at http://radiofun.info.

Here are the winners of the 2012 Cincy OTR Trivia Bowl.

Left to right, Jim Widner, Meredith Granger, Dan Riedstra, and Randy Larson.

Can one of the team members tell me the name of your team? Something like the Ralston Straight-Shooters?

(UPDATE) Meredith Granger writes, "The Tom Mix Ralston Straight Shooters, the only team (I believe) in the history of the Bowl with a name taken directly from otr, and victorious in the inaugural and ultimate contests."

Many of you have seen this, but for the newbies to the board:

Here's a video of me and Karen acting in a Lone Ranger re-creation in Cincinnati the first year we attended. Karen was 11. Note the young Don Ramlow (at the very end)!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihUfzrpwLXo...7tPwV_xLUbBs4quqD4M=

And here's the funniest Lone Ranger story you'll ever hear:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfpZsue5vas

David, from September 1979 to December 1980, I was a DJ / sports director / news director / public affairs director / operations manager / production director / music director / program director (many of those positions held simultaneously) for the real WKRP radio station, just outside Atlanta, Georgia. (Yes, it was a hoot!)

We tried to get three of the TV actors to come down for a publicity appearance, but for some reason, sadly, it never happened.

You're right, it would be great to have them at our convention. I'm guessing they are out of our price range, though, and that raises another question:

Do we want start inviting guests who see it just as another way to make a buck? People who sit at a table and charge 20 dollars for an autograph? Is it possible to expand with younger celebrities, yet keep our family atmosphere where the "stars" and the "common folk" mix and mingle informally during the entire convention?

It's my understanding that a few years ago, Billy Idelson (Rush on Vic & Sade) was invited, but he would not come unless he was guaranteed $4,000 in autograph fees. I wonder if that is pretty standard?