| Hi, We are going to explain some things about this site that may be new to some of you. John and Sheila Peterson |
What is a MP3 ?
Basically, MP3 (MPEG1 Layer3) is a file format for compressing sound into a small file with hardly any loss in quality.
High quality uncompressed digital audio files use a lot of storage space. A 1 minute clip of CD quality uncompressed audio takes around 10Mb of storage. MP3
encoding can squeeze or compress the same audio clip into a 10th of the space with no loss in quality.
How can I play the radio shows on my computer?
There are different players you can download for free. Windows Media Player will work for most of the shows. I have found that some times for some reason a
show will not play on Windows Media Player but will play on a Winamp player. Winamp is my preferred player.
Can I listen to the radio shows on something besides my computer?
Yes, the problem is manufacturers have to catch up with the computer world. Some car CD players now play MP3s. We bought a DVD player for our home that
plays MP3s. Almost all of your older CD/DVD players will not play a MP3 file. There is all kinds of portable players. Smaller ones that you can carry in your hand or
bigger ones (jam boxes) that have detachable speakers. It depends on how much money you want to spend and your needs. Look around before you buy. You
can load them into iTunes and play them on and iPod, also.
Some times the shows are not clear or the beginning /ending is missing. Why?
When you click on to an Old Time Radio show you are clicking on to a piece of history. In 1945 there were fewer than 7,000 working TV sets in the country and only
nine stations on the air; three in New York, two each in Chicago and Los Angeles, and one each in Philadelphia and Schenectady, N.Y. It wasn't until the mid 50s
that television started to take off. What you had was black and white and a bad image. To buy a television was something big. People didn't feel they had to have
one yet. We still played outside, board games, read books and listened to the radio. It was not until 1965 that color TV booms at NBC and leads the way. By year's
end, 96% of NBC's nighttime schedule is broadcast in color, along with all major programs, sports events and specials.
The only reason these programs exist today is because recording engineers for the networks cut what are called "transcriptions" of the shows with a gigantic
record-cutting machine as they were being broadcast live. For example, CBS New York would cut one and CBS Hollywood would cut one, and if something
happened to either of the two or both, that show would no longer exist. After the "extinction" of dramatic radio from the United States during the sixties, the
networks decided no one would ever want to listen the shows again and began throwing them into the dumpsters by the thousands. It is a little known fact that
many of the programs you're hearing on this page would not exist if radio fans had not literally picked them out of dumpsters. The fact that we can listen to these
great shows is a small miracle.
The next time you listen to a radio show dated from 1930's to 1950's imagine no television around and this show is coming from your AM radio (which is your only
form of media entertainment).
Basically, MP3 (MPEG1 Layer3) is a file format for compressing sound into a small file with hardly any loss in quality.
High quality uncompressed digital audio files use a lot of storage space. A 1 minute clip of CD quality uncompressed audio takes around 10Mb of storage. MP3
encoding can squeeze or compress the same audio clip into a 10th of the space with no loss in quality.
How can I play the radio shows on my computer?
There are different players you can download for free. Windows Media Player will work for most of the shows. I have found that some times for some reason a
show will not play on Windows Media Player but will play on a Winamp player. Winamp is my preferred player.
Can I listen to the radio shows on something besides my computer?
Yes, the problem is manufacturers have to catch up with the computer world. Some car CD players now play MP3s. We bought a DVD player for our home that
plays MP3s. Almost all of your older CD/DVD players will not play a MP3 file. There is all kinds of portable players. Smaller ones that you can carry in your hand or
bigger ones (jam boxes) that have detachable speakers. It depends on how much money you want to spend and your needs. Look around before you buy. You
can load them into iTunes and play them on and iPod, also.
Some times the shows are not clear or the beginning /ending is missing. Why?
When you click on to an Old Time Radio show you are clicking on to a piece of history. In 1945 there were fewer than 7,000 working TV sets in the country and only
nine stations on the air; three in New York, two each in Chicago and Los Angeles, and one each in Philadelphia and Schenectady, N.Y. It wasn't until the mid 50s
that television started to take off. What you had was black and white and a bad image. To buy a television was something big. People didn't feel they had to have
one yet. We still played outside, board games, read books and listened to the radio. It was not until 1965 that color TV booms at NBC and leads the way. By year's
end, 96% of NBC's nighttime schedule is broadcast in color, along with all major programs, sports events and specials.
The only reason these programs exist today is because recording engineers for the networks cut what are called "transcriptions" of the shows with a gigantic
record-cutting machine as they were being broadcast live. For example, CBS New York would cut one and CBS Hollywood would cut one, and if something
happened to either of the two or both, that show would no longer exist. After the "extinction" of dramatic radio from the United States during the sixties, the
networks decided no one would ever want to listen the shows again and began throwing them into the dumpsters by the thousands. It is a little known fact that
many of the programs you're hearing on this page would not exist if radio fans had not literally picked them out of dumpsters. The fact that we can listen to these
great shows is a small miracle.
The next time you listen to a radio show dated from 1930's to 1950's imagine no television around and this show is coming from your AM radio (which is your only
form of media entertainment).
