[Dixielandjazz] AM radio

[Randy Fendrick]

Don't take this wrong but wasn't that  the station from Del Rio Texas, 
which was actually in Mexico, and during the late 1950s trying to sell 
autographed copies of pictures of our Saviour, Jesus Christ?  That is 
how it was advertised.  I remember hearing that story when I was in the 
Navy School of Music in Washington during the late 1950's.  Pat Orres 
who some of you might know from your navy days used to tell a rather 
funny story about that station.
later,
Randy Fendrick
Southside Chicago Seven
Bakersfield Symphony Orchestra
On Thursday, January 9, 2003, at 02:03 PM, Don Kirkman wrote:

> On Thu, 9 Jan 2003 12:59:04 EST, JimDBB@aol.com wrote:
>
>> In a message dated 1/9/03 11:09:49 AM Central Standard Time,
>> dingle@baldwin-net.com writes:
>
>>> Indeed, many of us caught the late nights live broadcasts from NY 
>>> with some
>>> good jazz bands to hear.
> [...]
>
>>> I still have an old Philco radio, tube type, that I had in college 
>>> in E.
>>> Lansing, MI that could pull in about every major station in NY, N.O.,
>>> Denver, Houston, and the famous Del Rio station in Mexico . . . A 
>>> station
>>> in Toronto had a staff orchestra and some good arrangers and did some
>>> marvelous live broadcasts with charts much like the old Alec Wilder
>>> broadcasts. Marvelous players.
>>> We were fortunate enough to live in those times. But then I am not 
>>> un happy
>>> to be still kicking today, even if no longer as likely to receive 
>>> anything
>>> of much musical (jazz) merit on AM.
>
> I'm witchu, Don.  I think XELO and some of the other Mexican stations
> existed solely to sell stuff to USians on those powerful clear channel
> stations.  :-)
>
>>   My parents purchased a huge Philco console that sounded great.
>>   As you point out, Don one could pull in stations from all over the
>> country.  MY question to you and radio afficiandos is...were AM 
>> radios better
>> in those old tube days.  I certainly remember pulling in stations 
>> from all
>> over with fine clarity.
>
> We had an old Kennedy when I was pre-school, and possibly the next one
> was an Emerson.  On winter mornings the radio in the barn played
> stations from Salt Lake City and Tyler, Texas, among others, for the
> cows at our place in central California.
>
> I think one of the big reasons we got distant stations so clearly was
> that there were far fewer stations, and a lot of them went off the air
> at night leaving frequencies clear for the others.  On the AM band
> frequencies cold winter nights really allowed propagation and reception
> we can't hope for these days.
>
> Even when I got to UC Berkeley I had an old AC-DC portable that
> regularly picked up Los Angeles stations at night--as well as LAPD
> police broadcasts.  That's where I first heard of pea pickin' Ernie 
> Ford
> and the remarkable (Jim?) Hawthorne, on a Pasadena station.
>
> Those were the days, my friend.  (Hey, maybe someone could do a song
> about that!)
> -- 
> Don
> donkirk@covad.net
>
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