Original air date - Phantom Dancer :: 12:00pm 30th Apr 2019

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 one 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. Hear this week's show online after 2pm AEST, Tuesday 30 April. [caption id="attachment_6823" align="aligncenter" width="500"] A 1938 radio fax used to promote personalities on the radio station transmitting it. Three generations of John Gamblings broadcast on New York City radio between 1925 and September 2016.[/caption] 1930s RADIO FAXES On today's Phantom Dancer, marvel at the 'pump and wheeze' sound of a 1930s fax machine 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, the fax service is a 'new breakthrough' in radio to transmit news and information overnight to subscribers with radio 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. [caption id="attachment_6821" align="aligncenter" width="500"] A WOR radio fax from 1938[/caption] 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. [caption id="attachment_6822" align="aligncenter" width="500"] So easy to use, even a child can operate it. A 1938 publicity photo shows a Finch home printer receiving a facsimile newspaper from WWJ in Detroit. (Detroit News Archives, The Radio Historian)[/caption] 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 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTnRGkkFJj0 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. Band website: www.gregpoppletonmusic.com Actor and Voiceover: www.gregpoppleton.com PHANTOM DANCER PLAY LIST 30 APRIL

Play List - The Phantom Dancer 107.3 2SER-FM Sydney, Live Stream, Digital Radio Community Radio Network Show CRN #383
107.3 2SER Tuesday 30 April 2019 After the 2SER 12 noon news, 12:04 - 2:00pm (+11 hours GMT) National Program: ArtSoundFM Canberra Sunday 7 - 8pm 2ARM Armidale Friday 12noon - 1pm and early morning on 22 other stations.
Set 1	Raymond Scott on 1940-41 Radio
Pretty Little Petticoat (theme) + Wellesley High Jump	Raymond Scott Orchestra	Blackhawk Restaurant WGN Mutual Chicago 21 Oct 1940
Pretty Little Petticoat (theme) + A Symphony Under The Stars	Raymond Scott Orchestra	Bermuda Room Hotel Brunswick WBZ NBC Boston 6 Dec 1941
Huckleberry Duck + Pretty Little Petticoat (theme)	Raymond Scott Orchestra	Blackhawk Restaurant WGN Mutual Chicago 1 Nov 1940
Set 2	A New Radio Service
Il Pesce e l’Uccellina	EIAR Orchestra Moderna (voc) Silvana Fioresi and Trio Lescano	Comm Rec Rome 1938
Facsimile ‘Visual’ Radio	Interview	WOR Mutual NYC 9 Feb 1938
Set 3	1930s Local Radio Music
Theme + Sugar + On The Lone Prairie + When The Rest of the Crowd Goes Home + Heigh Ho + Theme	Our Orchestra	Radio Transcription Los Angeles 1934
Set 4	1935-36 Radio
Open + Ad Music + I Got Rhythm	Freddy Rich Orchestra	’Dodge Show’ Radio Transcription New York City 1936
Sleep (theme) + On Your Toes	Fred Waring’s Pennsylvanians (voc) Johnny Davis and Trio	’Ford Show’ WABC CBS NY 14 Apr 1936
Syncopated Love Song	Nathaniel Shilkret	KFI NBC LA 1935
Set 5	Swing on 1939 Radio
Top Hat Shuffle	Jan Savitt Top Hatters	Radio Transcription New York 1939
Basin Street Blues	Jack Teagarden and Benny Goodman	’Camel Caravan’ WABC CBS NY 31 Jan 1939
You Can Count On Me	Duke Ellington Orchestra (voc) Ivie Anderson	Ritz Carlton Hotel WNAC NBC Boston 26 Jul 1939
Man From Mars + Nightmare (theme)	Artie Shaw Orchestra	Cafe Rouge Hotel Pennsylvania WEAF NBC Red NY 21 Oct 1939
Set 6	Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra on the Air
Theme + Little John	Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra	’One Night Stand’ Casa Mañana Culver City Ca AFRS Re-broadcast 8 Sep 1945
Honey Dripper	Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra	’Spotlight Bands’ Jefferson Barracks, Missouri Blue Network 23 Nov 1945 Culver City Ca AFRS Re-broadcast 8 Sep 1945
I Need a Lift	Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra	’One Night Stand’ Casa Mañana Culver City Ca AFRS Re-broadcast 4 May 1945
Wham + For Dancers Only	Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra (voc) Band	’Jubilee’ AFRS Hollywood 1943
Set 7	The Dorsey Brothers Orchestra on 1955-56 Radio
Theme + Opus No. 1	Dorsey Brothers Orchestra	Cafe Statler Hotel Pennsylvania WRCA NBC NY Dec 1955
Ridin’ Around in the Rain (voc) Dolly Houston	Dorsey Brothers Orchestra	Cafe Statler Hotel Pennsylvania WRCA NBC NY Apr 1956
I’ll Always Be In Love With You	Dorsey Brothers Orchestra (voc) Dolly Houston	Cafe Statler Hotel Pennsylvania WRCA NBC NY Mar 1956
Tender Trap	Dorsey Brothers Orchestra (voc) Tommy Mercer	’NBC Bandstand’ NBC Radio and TV NY 1956
Set 8	Bop and Cool
Broadway	Charlie Parker	Birdland WJZ NYC 9 May 1953
Sugar Beat	Eliot Lawrence Orchestra	Palladium Ballroom KNX CBS Los Angeles 2 Dec 1947
I Remember Clifford	Oscar Pettiford Orchestra	Birdland WCBS CBS NY Jun 1957
Koko + Anthropology (theme)	Barry Ulanov All Star Metronome Jazzmen	WOR Mutual NY 8 Nov 1947