From TRSE, Almost Live...
This evening, I digitally transferred three rare "special broadcasts" from the Tape and Record Show Enterprises audio cassette archives from the 1980's, which were listed on the old handwritten "broadcast" index cards, but I hadn't located the tapes until recently...
"Grand Ole Opry Classics, Pilot. Broadcast Friday, March 20, 1987 at 11:00pm central. Theme Music: Foggy Mountain Breakdown (Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs). A taped two-hour delayed portion of tonight's live "Friday Night Opry" broadcast, sponsored by K-Mart / B.C. Powder / Music Valley Drive, and announced by Hairl Hensley. Music on this almost-live edition includes: Forever And One Day (Hank Snow), One Step Away (Jeanne Seely), The Great El Tigre (Stu Phillips), Tammy (Hank Snow), Too Many Rivers to Cross (Connie Smith), I Care No More (Hank Snow), Fools (Jim Ed Brown), 12th Street Rag (Del Wood), Mean Woman With the Green Eyes (Charlie Walker), Lay The Blanket On The Ground/Wounded Heart (Billie Jo Spears), I Don't Wanna Have To Marry You (Jim Ed Brown).
Presidential Address Live Simulcast. Broadcast Wednesday, March 4, 1987 at 8:00pm central. TRSE provides a special radio simulcast of President Ronald Reagan's response to the Tower Commission's report on the Iranian arms deal. Simulcast provided courtesy Cable News Network, with Bernard Shaw reporting.
Mark Russell Comedy Special. Broadcast Wednesday, June 17, 1987 at 7:30pm central. Theme Music: Happy Days Are Here Again. A live simulcast with PBS from the Katherine Cornell Theater, State University of New York at Buffalo. The political comedian discusses such topics as Jim and Tammy Faye Baker, the Iran-Contra hearings, Gary Hart and Donna Rice, Oliver North and Fawn Hall, and safe-sex."
The "Grand Ole Opry Classics" episode was the pilot for another proposed "Tape and Record Show" standalone spin-off series, featuring an hour of the "Friday Night Opry" as aired earlier that evening on WSM Radio in Nashville, Tennessee. At the time, I had run a wired outside antenna with isolators spaced out (purchased from Radio Shack) and had it connected to the JVC audio receiver I was using then. Using that system, I was occasionally able to pick up the AM station directly, even from here in northeast Louisiana. However, the signal wasn't reliable enough from week to week to rely on it to get a decent recording once a week, so I quickly abandoned the idea. In the pilot, you can hear some audio crackling due to the marginal signal I was getting, even with the outdoor AM antenna. You can hear the signal fluctuating from time to time during the hour. Bad thing about outdoor AM antennas, since they are just copper wires with isolators, you can't really "adjust them" for a better signal while something is in progress, like you might with a TV antenna. The original commercials were left in for the rebroadcast.
Tape and Record Show Enterprises normally didn't do political broadcasts, but since this was such a major story at the time, TRSE pre-empted its regular weekly schedule for the Reagan speech. The Reagan response to the Iran-Contra investigation was the typical Republican waffling on subjects, which continues to this day. I'm positive he knew more than he claimed, but he did his best to pass the blame. More info here for those not familiar with it... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%E2%80%93Contra_affair . Since the speech was only around 15 minutes, it apparently cut into about half of a TRSE "Orbit's Independent Sampler" rerun, which was joined in progress after the speech, the remainder of which is on the transferred cassette.
Finally, even though old in topics, the "Mark Russell Comedy Special" digital transfer might be considered "timely", since he passed away on March 30th at age 90. This was the first and only time a Mark Russell special was simulcast on the Tape and Record Show Enterprises weekly schedule. All the previous Mark Russell specials would appear on the flagship "Tape and Record Show" considerably later than the original PBS broadcast. My memory ain't great, but apparently, according to Russell in the special, Joe Biden was one of the candidates running for President the year of the special, 1987.
"Grand Ole Opry Classics, Pilot. Broadcast Friday, March 20, 1987 at 11:00pm central. Theme Music: Foggy Mountain Breakdown (Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs). A taped two-hour delayed portion of tonight's live "Friday Night Opry" broadcast, sponsored by K-Mart / B.C. Powder / Music Valley Drive, and announced by Hairl Hensley. Music on this almost-live edition includes: Forever And One Day (Hank Snow), One Step Away (Jeanne Seely), The Great El Tigre (Stu Phillips), Tammy (Hank Snow), Too Many Rivers to Cross (Connie Smith), I Care No More (Hank Snow), Fools (Jim Ed Brown), 12th Street Rag (Del Wood), Mean Woman With the Green Eyes (Charlie Walker), Lay The Blanket On The Ground/Wounded Heart (Billie Jo Spears), I Don't Wanna Have To Marry You (Jim Ed Brown).
Presidential Address Live Simulcast. Broadcast Wednesday, March 4, 1987 at 8:00pm central. TRSE provides a special radio simulcast of President Ronald Reagan's response to the Tower Commission's report on the Iranian arms deal. Simulcast provided courtesy Cable News Network, with Bernard Shaw reporting.
Mark Russell Comedy Special. Broadcast Wednesday, June 17, 1987 at 7:30pm central. Theme Music: Happy Days Are Here Again. A live simulcast with PBS from the Katherine Cornell Theater, State University of New York at Buffalo. The political comedian discusses such topics as Jim and Tammy Faye Baker, the Iran-Contra hearings, Gary Hart and Donna Rice, Oliver North and Fawn Hall, and safe-sex."
The "Grand Ole Opry Classics" episode was the pilot for another proposed "Tape and Record Show" standalone spin-off series, featuring an hour of the "Friday Night Opry" as aired earlier that evening on WSM Radio in Nashville, Tennessee. At the time, I had run a wired outside antenna with isolators spaced out (purchased from Radio Shack) and had it connected to the JVC audio receiver I was using then. Using that system, I was occasionally able to pick up the AM station directly, even from here in northeast Louisiana. However, the signal wasn't reliable enough from week to week to rely on it to get a decent recording once a week, so I quickly abandoned the idea. In the pilot, you can hear some audio crackling due to the marginal signal I was getting, even with the outdoor AM antenna. You can hear the signal fluctuating from time to time during the hour. Bad thing about outdoor AM antennas, since they are just copper wires with isolators, you can't really "adjust them" for a better signal while something is in progress, like you might with a TV antenna. The original commercials were left in for the rebroadcast.
Tape and Record Show Enterprises normally didn't do political broadcasts, but since this was such a major story at the time, TRSE pre-empted its regular weekly schedule for the Reagan speech. The Reagan response to the Iran-Contra investigation was the typical Republican waffling on subjects, which continues to this day. I'm positive he knew more than he claimed, but he did his best to pass the blame. More info here for those not familiar with it... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%E2%80%93Contra_affair . Since the speech was only around 15 minutes, it apparently cut into about half of a TRSE "Orbit's Independent Sampler" rerun, which was joined in progress after the speech, the remainder of which is on the transferred cassette.
Finally, even though old in topics, the "Mark Russell Comedy Special" digital transfer might be considered "timely", since he passed away on March 30th at age 90. This was the first and only time a Mark Russell special was simulcast on the Tape and Record Show Enterprises weekly schedule. All the previous Mark Russell specials would appear on the flagship "Tape and Record Show" considerably later than the original PBS broadcast. My memory ain't great, but apparently, according to Russell in the special, Joe Biden was one of the candidates running for President the year of the special, 1987.