Newsletter # 26
June 2010
Hello everyone
Welcome to our latest update on what's happening, our first in a few months now
Since we started this project, we've been encouraged and delighted by the global response from many thousands who share our vision to celebrate radio heritage and its connections with popular culture and nostalgia....and to step in and save ephemera and other radio related artifacts....see our latest success story later on in this newsletter!
Celebrating Popular Culture
New right now, Radio in Papua New Guinea, a documentary you'll find at http://www.rnzi.com/ (Mailbox audio for June 14) Diamonds of the Dial the story of 75 year old heritage radio calls in Australia.
Updated editions of the famous PAL Radio Guides for the entire Asia-Pacific region, new radio book reviews and other content you'll find now at http://www.radioheritage.net/ .
Use the Google Search button to dig out stories about stations, people and places you're interested about.
AM Radio gets airplay in the popular press
Thanks to Bill Hester, one of our supporters, here's a link http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/124955-am-gold-82/PO to an article written by Canadian Jay Somerset at http://www.popmatters.com/ .
It's about 'The Day the [AM] Music Died' - a well researched look at how oldies music just sounds different on AM radio, and how new artists and the decline in talk radio may just be combining to bring back music to the AM radio dial.
Actually, Radio World magazine in the USA, http://www.radioworld.com/ has an ongoing series of features about AM radio which we highly recommend reading, and in their latest June 16 edition (available free online) you'll also read 'QSL From Long Ago And Far Away' [page 4] and Keep the Heritage Alive, (page 33), two items about the Radio Heritage Foundation and the value of keeping old radio ephemera.
There's also a nice feature by James O'Neale in the same issue [page 34] called, I Remember the Power of Night-Time Radio, which remembers the 50kW clear channel signals that covered the US radio dial, a theme we'll be exploring ourselves at www.radioheritage.net shortly with a nice feature from the afore-mentioned Bill Hester.
We'd also like to thank all of you who continue to send in photos, stories, magazine and newspaper articles and more, such as those from Phillipa Downie whose Dad helped establish commercial radio in New Zealand and then went on to be the first manager of 2AP in Apia, Samoa.
Keep digging these gems out and send them on to us to share!
Constant Calls in a World of Fads, Fashions and FM
Talking of gems, you'll enjoy one of our recent features, Diamonds of the Dial, which looks at the 40 Australian heritage AM stations that have broadcast with the same callsign for at least 75 years!
It's also miraculous to find 40 station owners willing to keep their original station callsigns instead of flipping calls for the latest fad or fashion!
The same exercise for Californian AM radio stations found only about 5 or 6 that met the same criteria...75 years on the air with the same callsign, amongst them KFI and KNX both in Los Angeles and KXO El Centro.
FM is getting older by the day
Of course heritage isn't just restricted to AM radio, there's also FM which has now been around for some 70 years in the USA, and even 60 years in Australia (if we include the long forgotten early ABC-FM broadcasts from the 1950's)
One from the Yes! Success Files
Explaining the cultural value of radio heritage has its challenges. The University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand recently decided to auction off the original pioneer transmitter used in the first AM broadcast in the country just to clear space (and no doubt to make a few dollars), luckily the public outcry from local citizens and organizations such as the Radio Heritage Foundation led to a very rapid retreat from the idea. We're pleased they followed our advice to lease the equipment to a local museum instead.
It's one of a growing number of success stories we're quietly chalking up behind the scenes, and if you'd like to volunteer some time to protect items of radio heritage in your community, drop us a line and tell us more about what you'd like to keep safe for future generations.
Thanks for your donations
The worldwide financial crisis has been having a tough impact on our finances and therefore our ability to get more content online.
Last year we raised US$3500 in donations, paid 20% of our bills and put in 2000 plus hours of unpaid time on our work, so we really need your words of encouragement, annual supporter donations (US$10 or more), and sponsorship or partnership of specific projects, such as meeting operating costs, funding some of those unpaid hours, and more features and articles at http://www.radioheritage.net/
Will you help?
You can donate online right now, and also choose some of the radio books and CD's we've got available, buy your books, music and magazines through our online Amazon store and support our Google Ad advertisers.
I really recommend Keith Richardson's book and CD package (Never a Dull Moment) for a highly entertaining inside story about early Top 20 radio in the Pacific and great tales from behind the mike. I talked with Keith just today and his health is not so good and he also tells me he's down to just a few copies of his book left, so don't leave it too late to get your copy from us.
In the meantime, thanks for your ongoing support and do visit http://www.radioheritage.net/ to refresh your radio memories!
Warm regards
David Ricquish
Chairman
(Rachel Baughn, MT)
June 2010
Hello everyone
Welcome to our latest update on what's happening, our first in a few months now
Since we started this project, we've been encouraged and delighted by the global response from many thousands who share our vision to celebrate radio heritage and its connections with popular culture and nostalgia....and to step in and save ephemera and other radio related artifacts....see our latest success story later on in this newsletter!
Celebrating Popular Culture
New right now, Radio in Papua New Guinea, a documentary you'll find at http://www.rnzi.com/ (Mailbox audio for June 14) Diamonds of the Dial the story of 75 year old heritage radio calls in Australia.
Updated editions of the famous PAL Radio Guides for the entire Asia-Pacific region, new radio book reviews and other content you'll find now at http://www.radioheritage.net/ .
Use the Google Search button to dig out stories about stations, people and places you're interested about.
AM Radio gets airplay in the popular press
Thanks to Bill Hester, one of our supporters, here's a link http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/124955-am-gold-82/PO to an article written by Canadian Jay Somerset at http://www.popmatters.com/ .
It's about 'The Day the [AM] Music Died' - a well researched look at how oldies music just sounds different on AM radio, and how new artists and the decline in talk radio may just be combining to bring back music to the AM radio dial.
Actually, Radio World magazine in the USA, http://www.radioworld.com/ has an ongoing series of features about AM radio which we highly recommend reading, and in their latest June 16 edition (available free online) you'll also read 'QSL From Long Ago And Far Away' [page 4] and Keep the Heritage Alive, (page 33), two items about the Radio Heritage Foundation and the value of keeping old radio ephemera.
There's also a nice feature by James O'Neale in the same issue [page 34] called, I Remember the Power of Night-Time Radio, which remembers the 50kW clear channel signals that covered the US radio dial, a theme we'll be exploring ourselves at www.radioheritage.net shortly with a nice feature from the afore-mentioned Bill Hester.
We'd also like to thank all of you who continue to send in photos, stories, magazine and newspaper articles and more, such as those from Phillipa Downie whose Dad helped establish commercial radio in New Zealand and then went on to be the first manager of 2AP in Apia, Samoa.
Keep digging these gems out and send them on to us to share!
Constant Calls in a World of Fads, Fashions and FM
Talking of gems, you'll enjoy one of our recent features, Diamonds of the Dial, which looks at the 40 Australian heritage AM stations that have broadcast with the same callsign for at least 75 years!
It's also miraculous to find 40 station owners willing to keep their original station callsigns instead of flipping calls for the latest fad or fashion!
The same exercise for Californian AM radio stations found only about 5 or 6 that met the same criteria...75 years on the air with the same callsign, amongst them KFI and KNX both in Los Angeles and KXO El Centro.
FM is getting older by the day
Of course heritage isn't just restricted to AM radio, there's also FM which has now been around for some 70 years in the USA, and even 60 years in Australia (if we include the long forgotten early ABC-FM broadcasts from the 1950's)
One from the Yes! Success Files
Explaining the cultural value of radio heritage has its challenges. The University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand recently decided to auction off the original pioneer transmitter used in the first AM broadcast in the country just to clear space (and no doubt to make a few dollars), luckily the public outcry from local citizens and organizations such as the Radio Heritage Foundation led to a very rapid retreat from the idea. We're pleased they followed our advice to lease the equipment to a local museum instead.
It's one of a growing number of success stories we're quietly chalking up behind the scenes, and if you'd like to volunteer some time to protect items of radio heritage in your community, drop us a line and tell us more about what you'd like to keep safe for future generations.
Thanks for your donations
The worldwide financial crisis has been having a tough impact on our finances and therefore our ability to get more content online.
Last year we raised US$3500 in donations, paid 20% of our bills and put in 2000 plus hours of unpaid time on our work, so we really need your words of encouragement, annual supporter donations (US$10 or more), and sponsorship or partnership of specific projects, such as meeting operating costs, funding some of those unpaid hours, and more features and articles at http://www.radioheritage.net/
Will you help?
You can donate online right now, and also choose some of the radio books and CD's we've got available, buy your books, music and magazines through our online Amazon store and support our Google Ad advertisers.
I really recommend Keith Richardson's book and CD package (Never a Dull Moment) for a highly entertaining inside story about early Top 20 radio in the Pacific and great tales from behind the mike. I talked with Keith just today and his health is not so good and he also tells me he's down to just a few copies of his book left, so don't leave it too late to get your copy from us.
In the meantime, thanks for your ongoing support and do visit http://www.radioheritage.net/ to refresh your radio memories!
Warm regards
David Ricquish
Chairman
(Rachel Baughn, MT)
