Interviews of Joe Hehn
The Joe Hehn Memorial Collection
Joe Hehn was fascinated by radio from his childhood throughout his adult life. He loved the juvenile serials, especially, and planned a research project that would lead to a book about the shows, the premiums, spin-offs, and their role in society. Unfortunately, he never completed the book. There are many documents related to his research in the Memorial Collection. These include scripts and other production documents. Hehn was always promoting interest in the programs and the era throughout most of his adult like. In the mid-1960s, he appeared on numerous local radio programs, and some local TV interview shows. He had recordings of many of these appearances in his reel tape collection. Please be aware that some interviews are in better audio condition than others. Efforts have been made to improve the audio as best as possible and clean out whistles, hums, and other artifacts of AM radio signals and the limitations of home tape recording equipment of that time. Included in the recordings is a 3-part discussion from an October 1965 overnight broadcast of Amazing Randi's show, broadcast over WOR-AM in New York. The sound is listenable but has occasional problems. The three parts are about 3 hours and 30 minutes. Commercials have been removed. Randi was a famous magician and exposer of paranormal frauds took over the overnight slot on WOR from 1962 to 1968 when Long John Nebel jumped to WNBC-AM in 1962. The guests for this broadcast were Joe Hehn, David Goldin who went on to fame as the owner of Radio Yesteryear and became the founder of RadioGoldindex, an important website for information about radio programs and episodes, the legendary Joe Franklin who had a television talk show in New York City from 1951 to 1993, mainly on WOR-TV for those years, one of the longest uninterrupted tenures of a television personality. He also had a radio program that would be best described as a entertainment nostalgia focus. Other participants were Arnold Auerbach and Lloyd Gross. NOTE: The greatest priority for the Memorial Collection is the work being done to restore actual programs of the era. Additions to this interview page will be sporadic. There are very many interviews that were preserved and they will be posted when possible. They provide much insight into the old time radio hobby of that time. * * * These recordings are part of the Joe Hehn Memorial Collection. Mr. Hehn (1931-2020) was a pioneering collector of radio recordings when the hobby emerged in the 1960s. Digitizing his collection of reel tapes and discs is the effort of a wide range of North American volunteers, and includes assistance of some international collectors. The groups supporting this effort with their funds, time, technology and skills are the Old Time Radio Researchers and a small group of transcription disc preservationists who refer to themselves as the "The Knights of the Turning Table."
This recording is part of the Old Time Radio collection.