Re: [ARSCLIST] "Aircheck" history

[David Lennick <dlennick@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Lou Judson wrote:

> Slightly off the topic but this must be the place to ask this -
> Listening to an audiobook drama recently, in the story there was a live
> concert broadcast on a major NYC radio station in 1939. Someone (the
> private eye, star etc.) missed part of it and someone called the
> station and was able to get a copy of the program - the same day. Would
> this have been possible then? Wouldn't it have had to be the original
> transcription disc, if any were made? It is a work of fiction so this
> is more fact-checking than actual history, but could that have happened
> in 1939?
>
> Thanks,
>
> <L>

It could have, IF a recording had been ordered or if it had been standard
practice, say in the case of a major orchestra like the NBC Symphony, but Joe
and Jane Public couldn't have called up any station and asked for a copy of any
program....the requester would have to have had shlep, or known someone who
knows someone.

A pre-recording provides the means for Clifton Webb to be in two places at once
in "Laura", and we hear the announcer refer to the program's having come to you
"by electrical transcription" as we watch him die.

dl