Two "Obscure" Pilots
This evening, just finished digitizing two more of the old "pretend radio shows" my friends and I made in the 1980's. All the shows, under the "Tape & Record Show Enterprises" umbrella were originally recorded on regular "home electronics" onto audio cassettes, later years multiple mics and a low end Radio Shack mixer were involved.
First this evening was a "pilot" for a show, which IF we had done more, would have ran out of steam quickly in my opinion, after listening to that single episode now. It was called "Jerry Sanders Street Beat '85", and was mainly Jerry Sanders and I walking down a street encountering break dancers and soul/rap groups for a half hour. Sound effects of a busy street were dubbed into the background for the "broadcast" version (the version transferred this evening). As I was listening, I enjoyed the trip down memory lane, having not listened to the show since the 1980's, but it was a LAME premise for a "regular" series. Sometimes, my "editing" was really bad at the time, the "street ambiance" drowned out dialog between Jerry and I. Program description from the original file card: Original Broadcast Wednesday, August 21, 1985 at 7:00pm central. Theme Music: Rappin' Duke(Shawn Brown). Join "Magnum J.E.S." and Albert Sims as they walk the streets of downtown West Monroe("virtually" in studio) and encounter groups of breakdancers and singers. Musical highlights include: Beat Street Strut(Juicy), Human Beat Box(Fat Boys), Where's the Beat(Newcleus), and We Want Prince(Sexual Harassment).
Next, another one-off one hour "pilot" called "The Two J.E.S. Mixed". That recording featured Jerry Sanders and James Stricklin (both have the same initials for first/middle/last name) co-hosting and mixing the concept of their individual shows (Jerry Sanders Hit Parade/James Stricklin Song Mirage) into one show, alternating between R&B and rock. Most of the episode was recorded at Jerry's house, you can tell from a lot of the editing. At the time, I remember Jerry had a Montgomery Ward portable boom box. Don't laugh. That thing was a serious portable recording studio. It had dual cassette, inputs in the back for phono/aux, and microphone. Also had metal tape recording capability and Dolby NR. I think I brought the tape home after recording at Jerry's Hillside Drive residence at the time, and added the theme music and trimmed it down to an hour. The theme music might drive someone MAD if they were listening over headphones though. I had the original "James Stricklin Song Mirage" theme playing in the left channel and the "Jerry Sanders Hit Parade" theme tune playing in the right channel. Program description from the original file card: Broadcast Wednesday, July 3, 1985 at 7:00pm central. Theme Music(s): Beep A Freak(The Gap Band)/Can You Feel It(The Jacksons). James Stricklin and Jerry Sanders combine their resources in this pilot music show. Songs include: In My House(The Mary Jane Girls), The Politics of Dancing(The Reflex), Can't Stop(Rick James), Naughty Naughty(John Parr), Let It All Blow(Dazz Band), Stepp Off(Grandmaster Melle Mel and the Furious Five), Der Kommisar(After the Fire), Shine On Me(One Way), Babylon Sisters(Steely Dan), and Video Junkie(The Gap Band).
I know you are thinking, "Why haven't I started transferring Tape & Record Show Enterprises" recording FIRST since the "beginning". Well, the earliest recordings had no friends on mic, those were before friends joined. Back in 1979 to 1981, it was JUST a "Tape & Record Show" with audio from TV shows and records, so no real incentive to digitize those, until I get the "spin-off series" stuff transferred first, after others joined. The early stuff, I have contents listed in file, can be "mostly" recreated any time. The recordings with friends, those CAN'T be recreated!
The order I'm following for the transfers so far:
Earliest "original series" with very few episodes, which was "Randy Haney's Life of Elvis"
Earliest "occasional series" which was "The James Stricklin Happy Hour"
Earliest "occasional specials" which was stuff like the two mentioned above, the "Crystal Warrior", "Evening with Paul Morrison", "Best of FM", "Jacob J. Welsh Whacky Hour", "The E.T. Food Palace", and "TRSE on Location at Skatetown" specials.
To give everyone some perspective, There are still a few hundred hours of stuff with just my friends to transfer to digital audio... the SERIES. There's "Jerry Sanders Hit Parade"(one early episode lost to time, master tape was in Jerry's storage, it was broken into, and "broadcast" copy I made originally is no where in the "archives"), "The James Stricklin Song Mirage", "Paul Morrison's Country Corral", and "The Independent Sampler"(which Dennis Goodwin never ACTUALLY recorded for TRSE, but he had a local public radio show at the time, so I took those broadcasts and trimmed down to a 30 minute weekly series. Still have a few of the three hour uncut broadcasts in the "archives" but not transferred to digital yet).
First this evening was a "pilot" for a show, which IF we had done more, would have ran out of steam quickly in my opinion, after listening to that single episode now. It was called "Jerry Sanders Street Beat '85", and was mainly Jerry Sanders and I walking down a street encountering break dancers and soul/rap groups for a half hour. Sound effects of a busy street were dubbed into the background for the "broadcast" version (the version transferred this evening). As I was listening, I enjoyed the trip down memory lane, having not listened to the show since the 1980's, but it was a LAME premise for a "regular" series. Sometimes, my "editing" was really bad at the time, the "street ambiance" drowned out dialog between Jerry and I. Program description from the original file card: Original Broadcast Wednesday, August 21, 1985 at 7:00pm central. Theme Music: Rappin' Duke(Shawn Brown). Join "Magnum J.E.S." and Albert Sims as they walk the streets of downtown West Monroe("virtually" in studio) and encounter groups of breakdancers and singers. Musical highlights include: Beat Street Strut(Juicy), Human Beat Box(Fat Boys), Where's the Beat(Newcleus), and We Want Prince(Sexual Harassment).
Next, another one-off one hour "pilot" called "The Two J.E.S. Mixed". That recording featured Jerry Sanders and James Stricklin (both have the same initials for first/middle/last name) co-hosting and mixing the concept of their individual shows (Jerry Sanders Hit Parade/James Stricklin Song Mirage) into one show, alternating between R&B and rock. Most of the episode was recorded at Jerry's house, you can tell from a lot of the editing. At the time, I remember Jerry had a Montgomery Ward portable boom box. Don't laugh. That thing was a serious portable recording studio. It had dual cassette, inputs in the back for phono/aux, and microphone. Also had metal tape recording capability and Dolby NR. I think I brought the tape home after recording at Jerry's Hillside Drive residence at the time, and added the theme music and trimmed it down to an hour. The theme music might drive someone MAD if they were listening over headphones though. I had the original "James Stricklin Song Mirage" theme playing in the left channel and the "Jerry Sanders Hit Parade" theme tune playing in the right channel. Program description from the original file card: Broadcast Wednesday, July 3, 1985 at 7:00pm central. Theme Music(s): Beep A Freak(The Gap Band)/Can You Feel It(The Jacksons). James Stricklin and Jerry Sanders combine their resources in this pilot music show. Songs include: In My House(The Mary Jane Girls), The Politics of Dancing(The Reflex), Can't Stop(Rick James), Naughty Naughty(John Parr), Let It All Blow(Dazz Band), Stepp Off(Grandmaster Melle Mel and the Furious Five), Der Kommisar(After the Fire), Shine On Me(One Way), Babylon Sisters(Steely Dan), and Video Junkie(The Gap Band).
I know you are thinking, "Why haven't I started transferring Tape & Record Show Enterprises" recording FIRST since the "beginning". Well, the earliest recordings had no friends on mic, those were before friends joined. Back in 1979 to 1981, it was JUST a "Tape & Record Show" with audio from TV shows and records, so no real incentive to digitize those, until I get the "spin-off series" stuff transferred first, after others joined. The early stuff, I have contents listed in file, can be "mostly" recreated any time. The recordings with friends, those CAN'T be recreated!
The order I'm following for the transfers so far:
Earliest "original series" with very few episodes, which was "Randy Haney's Life of Elvis"
Earliest "occasional series" which was "The James Stricklin Happy Hour"
Earliest "occasional specials" which was stuff like the two mentioned above, the "Crystal Warrior", "Evening with Paul Morrison", "Best of FM", "Jacob J. Welsh Whacky Hour", "The E.T. Food Palace", and "TRSE on Location at Skatetown" specials.
To give everyone some perspective, There are still a few hundred hours of stuff with just my friends to transfer to digital audio... the SERIES. There's "Jerry Sanders Hit Parade"(one early episode lost to time, master tape was in Jerry's storage, it was broken into, and "broadcast" copy I made originally is no where in the "archives"), "The James Stricklin Song Mirage", "Paul Morrison's Country Corral", and "The Independent Sampler"(which Dennis Goodwin never ACTUALLY recorded for TRSE, but he had a local public radio show at the time, so I took those broadcasts and trimmed down to a 30 minute weekly series. Still have a few of the three hour uncut broadcasts in the "archives" but not transferred to digital yet).