Phantom Dancer :: 12:00pm 29th Sep 2020
1930s fax machines transmitting via AM radio. Radio Stations used fax machines in 1938 just like radio uses the internet to complement its programming now. This blog being an example…
Faxes were sent over AM radio, not the phone line.
Hear 1930s fax machines in operation on today’s Phantom Dancer – your non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV (and with a whole hour of live 1930s swing radio today).
I bring you The Phantom Dancer every Tuesday after the midday news on 107.3 2SER and online at radio 2ser.com.
1930s RADIO FAXES
On today’s Phantom Dancer, marvel at the ‘pump and wheeze’ sound of 1930s fax machines taken from a recording made in 1938 to introduce WOR New York’s new radio fax service.
As the radio announcer and station engineer tell us, 1930s fax machines were a ‘new breakthrough’ in radio, now able to transmit news and information overnight to subscribers, then printed out by the fax machine in their homes.
About a dozen US AM radio stations in the late 1930s transmitted a radio fax service, with news faxes sent between midnight and 6am when the stations were ordinarily shut down.
Static was a problem. Static from a passing car or lightening could wipe out whole pages of information.
By the early 1940s shortwave and ultra short wave frequencies were set aside solely for the transmission of faxes.
When FM radio was introduced after WW2, some FM stations transmitted radio faxes on their broader bandwidth subcarriers. A page of news and pictures would take 15 minutes to be printed from an FM service.
Lack of public interest in this expensive substitute newspaper technology killed the mass production of home radio fax machines.
However, radio facsimile was still in use for the transmission of weather maps by satellite in 2010.
See the full Phantom Dancer play list below, including the 1938 announcement of WOR’s radio fax service.
Internet source:
http://www.theradiohistorian.org/Radiofax/newspaper_of_the_air1.htm
Greg Poppleton is Australia’s only authentic 1920s – 30s singer. He is also a film and TV actor who has worked with Adrien Brody, Nicole Kidman, John Goodman and many others. This is a repeat posting. The Phantom Dancer can’t be live this week as i’m filming a TV commercial
Band website: www.gregpoppletonmusic.com
Actor and Voiceover: www.gregpoppleton.com
29 SEPTEMBER PLAY LIST
Play List – The Phantom Dancer
107.3 2SER-FM Sydney, Live Stream, Digital Radio
Community Radio Network Show CRN #432 |
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107.3 2SER Tuesday 29 September 2020 |
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Set 1
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Raymond Scott on 1940-41 Radio | |
Pretty Little Petticoat (theme) + Wellesley High Jump
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Raymond Scott Orchestra
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Blackhawk Restaurant
WGN Mutual Chicago 21 Oct 1940 |
Pretty Little Petticoat (theme) + A Symphony Under The Stars
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Raymond Scott Orchestra
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Bermuda Room
Hotel Brunswick WBZ NBC Boston 6 Dec 1941 |
Huckleberry Duck + Pretty Little Petticoat (theme)
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Raymond Scott Orchestra
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Blackhawk Restaurant
WGN Mutual Chicago 1 Nov 1940 |
Set 2
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A New Radio Service | |
Il Pesce e l’Uccellina
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EIAR Orchestra Moderna (voc) Silvana Fioresi and Trio Lescano
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Comm Rec
Rome 1938 |
Facsimile ‘Visual’ Radio
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Interview
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WOR Mutual NYC
9 Feb 1938 |
Set 3
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1930s Local Radio Music | |
Theme + Sugar + On The Lone Prairie + When The Rest of the Crowd Goes Home + Heigh Ho + Theme
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Our Orchestra
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Radio Transcription
Los Angeles 1934 |
Set 4
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1935-36 Radio | |
Open + Ad Music + I Got Rhythm
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Freddy Rich Orchestra
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’Dodge Show’
Radio Transcription New York City 1936 |
Sleep (theme) + On Your Toes
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Fred Waring’s Pennsylvanians (voc) Johnny Davis and Trio
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’Ford Show’
WABC CBS NY 14 Apr 1936 |
Syncopated Love Song
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Nathaniel Shilkret
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KFI NBC LA
1935 |
Set 5
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Swing on 1939 Radio | |
Top Hat Shuffle
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Jan Savitt Top Hatters
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Radio Transcription
New York 1939 |
Basin Street Blues
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Jack Teagarden and Benny Goodman
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’Camel Caravan’
WABC CBS NY 31 Jan 1939 |
You Can Count On Me
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Duke Ellington Orchestra (voc) Ivie Anderson
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Ritz Carlton Hotel
WNAC NBC Boston 26 Jul 1939 |
Man From Mars + Nightmare (theme)
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Artie Shaw Orchestra
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Cafe Rouge
Hotel Pennsylvania WEAF NBC Red NY 21 Oct 1939 |
Set 6
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Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra on the Air | |
Theme + Little John
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Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra
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’One Night Stand’
Casa Mañana Culver City Ca AFRS Re-broadcast 8 Sep 1945 |
Honey Dripper
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Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra
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’Spotlight Bands’
Jefferson Barracks, Missouri Blue Network 23 Nov 1945 Culver City Ca AFRS Re-broadcast 8 Sep 1945 |
I Need a Lift
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Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra
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’One Night Stand’
Casa Mañana Culver City Ca AFRS Re-broadcast 4 May 1945 |
Wham + For Dancers Only
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Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra (voc) Band
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’Jubilee’
AFRS Hollywood 1943 |
Set 7
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The Dorsey Brothers Orchestra on 1955-56 Radio | |
Theme + Opus No. 1
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Dorsey Brothers Orchestra
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Cafe Statler
Hotel Pennsylvania WRCA NBC NY Dec 1955 |
Ridin’ Around in the Rain (voc) Dolly Houston
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Dorsey Brothers Orchestra
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Cafe Statler
Hotel Pennsylvania WRCA NBC NY Apr 1956 |
I’ll Always Be In Love With You
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Dorsey Brothers Orchestra (voc) Dolly Houston
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Cafe Statler
Hotel Pennsylvania WRCA NBC NY Mar 1956 |
Tender Trap
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Dorsey Brothers Orchestra (voc) Tommy Mercer
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’NBC Bandstand’
NBC Radio and TV NY 1956 |
Set 8
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Bop and Cool | |
Broadway
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Charlie Parker
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Birdland
WJZ NYC 9 May 1953 |
Sugar Beat
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Eliot Lawrence Orchestra
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Palladium Ballroom
KNX CBS Los Angeles 2 Dec 1947 |
I Remember Clifford
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Oscar Pettiford Orchestra
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Birdland
WCBS CBS NY Jun 1957 |
Koko + Anthropology (theme)
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Barry Ulanov All Star Metronome Jazzmen
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WOR Mutual NY
8 Nov 1947 |