WJSV Complete Day - Single Episodes
Old Time Radio Researchers Group
WJSV COMPLETE DAY Thursday, September 21st, 1939, radio station WJSV in Washington, D.C., recorded their entire broadcast day -- from sign on, to sign off. This was before the advent of magnetic recording tape, so transcription disks were used. The overall quality of these disk recordings is good to excellent, except for a few spots of noticeable distortion. These transcriptions were transferred to tape in their entirety, except for the ommission of the evening re-broadcast of FDR's address to Congress. You will hear everything as it was the day it was recorded -- that includes the pops and crackles, the station breaks, and the technical difficulties, along with all the music, comedy, drama, news, and advertisements that were aired on September 21st, 1939. Let this be your guide, and your MP3 player be your time machine, as you sit back, relax, and take a trip back to those days when 15 cents would buy a hamburger, a six-pack of Coke costs a quarter, and the future was on display at the 1939 New York World's Fair. Broadcast Schedule WJSV Washington, D.C. Thursday, September 21st, 1939 From: 05:59-06:30 -- Sign On and Sundial - Recorded Music From: 06:30-07:00 -- Sundial - Arthur Godfrey From: 07:00-07:30 -- Sundial - Arthur Godfrey From: 07:30-08:00 -- Sundial - Arthur Godfrey From: 08:00-08:05 -- Arrow News From: 08:05-08:30 -- Sundial - Arthur Godfrey From: 08:30-08:45 -- Certified Magic Carpet From: 08:45-09:00 -- Bachelor's Children From: 09:00-09:15 -- Pretty Kitty Kelly From: 09:15-09:30 -- Myrt And Marge From: 09:30-09:45 -- Hilltop House From: 09:45-10:00 -- Kay Fairchild, Stepmother From: 10:00-10:15 -- CBS News and Mary Lee Taylor Program From: 10:15-10:30 -- Brenda Curtis From: 10:30-10:45 -- Big Sister From: 10:45-11:00 -- Aunt Jenny's Real Life Stories From: 11:00-11:15 -- Jean Abbey From: 11:15-11:30 -- When A Girl Marries From: 11:30-11:45 -- The Romance Of Helen Trent From: 11:45-12:00 -- Our Gal Sunday From: 12:00-12:15 -- The Goldbergs From: 12:15-12:30 -- Life Can Be Beautiful From: 12:30-12:45 -- Road Of Life From: 12:45-13:00 -- This Day Is Ours From: 13:00-13:15 -- Sunshine Report From: 13:15-13:30 -- The Life And Love Of Dr. Susan From: 13:30-13:45 -- Your Family And Mine From: 13:45-14:00 -- News Followed By Albert Warner From: 14:00-15:00 -- President's Address followed by Premier Daladier From: 15:00-15:10 -- Commentary & Analysis On The President's Address From: 15:10-15:25 -- The Career Of Alice Blair From: 15:25-15:30 -- Arrow News From: 15:30-15:45 -- Rhythm & Romance From: 15:45-16:00 -- Scattergood Baines From: 16:00-17:17 -- Baseball - Cleveland at Washington From: 17:17-17:30 -- The World Dances From: 17:30-17:45 -- Arrow News followed by Time Out From: 17:45-18:00 -- Sports With Harry McTigue From: 18:00-18:15 -- Amos 'n' Andy From: 18:15-18:30 -- The Parker Family From: 18:30-19:00 -- Joe E. Brown From: 19:00-19:30 -- Ask-It Basket From: 19:30-19:55 -- Strange As It Seems From: 19:55-20:00 -- Elmer Davis And The News From: 20:00-21:00 -- Major Bowes and his Original Amateur Hour From: 21:00-21:30 -- The Columbia Workshop From: 21:30-22:00 -- Americans At Work From: 22:00-22:15 -- Arrow News & Edwin C. Hill Commentary From: 22:15-22:30 -- Streamline Interlude From: 22:30-22:45 -- The Midweek Review With Albert Warner From: 22:45-23:21 -- Repeat of FDR Speech From: 23:21-23:30 -- Jerry Livingstone & His Orchestra From: 23:30-24:00 -- Teddy Powell Orchestra From: 00:00-00:30 -- Louis Prima Orchestra From: 00:30-01:02 -- Bob Chester Orchestra, News & Signoff
This recording is part of the Old Time Radio collection.
Chapters
Reviews
Two things worth noting...
Bruce Baskin
One is that Arthur Godfrey started at about 7AM because he was late getting to the studio, a frequent occurrence when he worked for WJSV early in his career. The other is that the play-by-play man for the Senators-Cleveland game (which is joined in progress) is none other than Hall of Famer Walter Johnson, who'd spent more than two decades in the Senators organization as a pitcher and manager. 1939 was his lone season behind the mic. Posthumous kudos to the WSJV employee (I'm betting it was the chief engineer) for turning the recorder on early and letting it run up to sign-off. The result is the one known example of a typical broadcast day at a time when radio was the most popular entertainment medium in the country.
Time capsule--War in Europe
PhillipHeasley1
No small task, loading the transcription discs, one after another, for the entire day, and making sure they were recording properly. I believe the day was chosen because of FDR's speech to a joint session of Congress urging repeal of embargo in favor of traditional neutrality, which did not completely bar arms to beleaguered Europe. Hitler had gone into Poland on September 1, less than three weeks earlier, and Britain was at war with Germany. At the time, the U.S. could do little to directly aid the lone major nation still completely free from the Nazis. Note: At the time, announcers were required to state if they were playing recorded music. The Swing Era was at its height.
Intriguing document
Indeterminacy
I only have praise for the OTR Reasearchers Group. Here they have made available an audio document that has been in cicularion for some time, but in much better quality than I have ever seen. Listening to this is like opening a time capsule. You get the feel of 1939 September a day shortly after the beginning of WWII. Some of it is business as usual, an attempt to retain the innocence of the decade, and there is even a baseball game!
History
robertsradio
This collection is a part of America's history shortly before we entered World War II. Somehow the owner of WJSV must have known that America would soon become involved in the conflict taking place in Europe and wanted to record this day for future history. We owe a great deal of Thanks to stations like WJSV for giving us an audio sound of their current time.
Great job! Ten stars!
Abdulwadud
Years ago I downloaded the Complete Day. The sound was not clear at all and it consisted of one hour files without any more info. This new upload is quite different. Clear sound, clear info. Now THIS is a time machine! My rating: ten stars (if possible).
New Source Available
MrWimple
A real treasure trove. A new source has been uploaded which is more complete, much better quality and indexed much better with every single program titled and given it's own separate file. Find it here: http://archive.org/details/001WakeUpMusic