Hit Parade

[W. Gray]

Rudy,

Just read your January 2, 2008, Opinions column concerning the program Your Hit Parade.

Every week Snooky Lanson, Dorothy Collins, Eileen Wilson, and Gizelle McKenzie: How could we forget them?

I never did learn how a guy came to be named Snooky.

[Rudy Taylor]

Yes, I well remember those singers.  My wife actually has a better recall of the names than I do.
I personally was a keen fan of The Lone Ranger. I always felt it was better on the radio than on
television where it looked so fake.

Radio has always fascinated me because it requires contemplation on the part of the listener. It
requires your involvement if you're going to be a good radio listener.

For instance, if you heard the following script on the radio, you could imagine exactly what
the scene might have looked like:

"Cutting through the choppy waves, beneath a stormy sky, the battleship leaned to and fro,
its portholes pulling in water like suction pumps. Over the loudspeaker could be heard the voice
of the captain who screamed, 'abandon ship!' At that point, steel doors started slamming and
sailors scampered to the upper deck railing, each of them wearing pink life preservers with frilly
white lace around the edges. The ocean quickly turned to a chocolate milk shake and the ship slowed
to a crawl, its engines now quiet.

Three monsters, heads emerging high above the ship, hissed and roared, hurling marshmellows
in all directions. The captain returned to the bridge, stood on his head and yodeled to the music
of a Swiss band whose members consisted of a 500-pound man with five ears, two lovely women
wearing no clothes, one monkey beating on a coffee can, and a zebra that was trying to play an accordian.

Suddenly, the clouds opened and all the sailors looked skyward. There, in the turbulent clouds,
was the face of Bill Clinton who wagged his finger and shouted, 'I never sipped a milk shake with
that woman, Miss Lewinski!'  Three huge buzzards flew overhead and all were shot down by a
2 ft. tall man whose face bore a striking resemblance to Bob Dole. The battleship restarted its
engines and slowly chugged into the distant sunset, leaving a trail of chocolate syrup in its wake."

See, forum friends? You couldn't do that with television or newspapers, could you?

Only radio can spark your imagination.

[archeobabe]

I was born after radio had its golden years.  But I found a site that you can order the old-time radio programs on CD in the MP3 format.  The site is The Radio Lady.  Another site is RUSC that for a fee you can download any old time radio program to your computer.  I have several programs on CDs which includes:  "The Shadow", "Sam Spade", "Perry Mason", "Phillip Marrow", and others.  I enjoy listerning to them.

[W. Gray]

Brace Beemer played the Lone Ranger on radio.

Our family had a radio in the kitchen and the entire family always stayed seated after dinner and listened to the Lone Ranger on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evenings and the Cisco Kid on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Sirius radio plays the old Lone Ranger episodes on its family channel at around noon each day.

Although we all respected Clayton Moore as the TV Lone Ranger, he was a terrible actor and all outdoor closeups were shot on terrible looking indoor stages.

How he earned that job is beyond me. When a little kid notices the bad acting, something has to be wrong.

One TV episode was shot entirely outdoors and that was a special one-hour program that explained to all the kids just how the Lone Ranger became the Lone Ranger.

When Warner Brothers, brought the Lone Ranger in blazing Cinemascope to the big screen, Moore's acting seemed to improve and it was really refreshing that the closeup outdoor scenes were all shot on location.

[Judy Harder]

Rudy,

I grew up with the radio. Dad went into the navy in 41 and I was born in 42 and mom
raised me alone for 3 years....

while raising me and trying to make sense of her life with dad in the service she had the
radio on as often as not.

Music has always been my life.. With Amos n Andy and the Lone Ranger and Inner scantum and all
those wonderful programs.

I even enjoyed your sample of what a modern type program could be  like.
Thanks for the memories......I even remember the Hit Parade and spent a lot of time listening and later watching it.

AOYP

[sixdogsmom]

Remeber the hilarious attemps to change the presentation of 'This Ol' House' week after week after week? Rock and roll effectively murdered that show, they just couldn't sing 'Rock Around The Clock', and 'Heartbreak Hotel'. I still listen to the radio a lot in the car. Does anyone have sattellite radio, and do they like it?

[W. Gray]

We received Sirius free for a one year trial period on our new auto purchase last year.

We will be subscribing when the trial runs out.

Besides listening to the previously mentioned Lone Ranger, both of us like the Broadway channel.

We now only listen to one AM program, a morning talk show that started in Denver more than 20 years ago.

[Rudy Taylor]

We have Sirius Radio in our car and we love it!

[sixdogsmom]

How much to subscribe?

[patyrn]

We got a new car and a 3 month free subscription to XM Radio.  It is WONDERFUL!!!   We subscribed to it when the trial was up.  For Christmas I got my husband an adaptor for his vehicle on the same account, and so now he can enjoy it when we're not on the road together.  He loves the old-time radio shows.  I like the music with no commercials, especially the 60s or any other genres that happen to be appealing at the moment.  No static--no searching for stations in rural Kansas/Oklahoma.   Sports are  on lots of channels too.     We got a 3-year committment and it's about $10 a month, I think.