Okay, so this question gets asked often, and the answers are usually the same handful of websites.

All together now, are there some GOOD sources for OTR?

Okay, sometimes the material from Tennessee Bill's is okay, sometimes it's not, or happens to be lacking. It's free. Then there is OTRCAT, whose library is much more complete, but of course you need to buy the CD's -- not free, but it's a good deal considering the price per episode. Most other sites I've found have much less -- both in content and quality.

But a case in point: The Cisco Kid; each episode contains at least two ads for Butternut Bread. Complete recordings are out there, as I hear them on Bill Merritt's streaming radio station all the time, and they're always there. Yet the versions on Tennessee Bill's has them cut out and the program shortened. The OTRCAT sample episode has awful audio with serious problems. Are good quality, complete episodes available anywhere?

I have good luck locally with the Radio Spirits when radio was shows. One could record them if they wished? What I have found is that 60 show cassette sets Radio Spirits offered are sometimes as cheap as 4.99 a set on ebay. I have about 7 different sets by them and they are for the most part very high quality sound.
On line there is a radio site that list all the radio shows new and old that are available for downloading. Two names that come to mind is Radio Drama Resources and Radio Drama Revival. Most all the connected shows listed will have yet more links for shows. I have discovered some very fine new productions though those sites. They also have links to vintage shows. Too bad that not many radio stations take advantage of these high quality programs.. The only new show we get around me is the Twilight Zone shows on the same station that carries the Radio Sprits shows. When RAdio Was is the name of the program and they run it about four nights for two hours here on a small local station. The station has lousy advertisements and varying sound levels but still worth it.

Larry

I'll have to try these out -- haven't heard of them so far. I know of Radio Spirits but selection is limited.

It seems available OTR comes in three flavors -- (1) original, right off the transcription, and possibly audio-processed with software, (2) same thing, cleaned up but with original ads and possibly other "non-essential" material removed, and (3) whatever somebody gave them, probably recorded on a cassette from a microphone, off-speed and barely intelligible. The stuff you pay for has a better chance of being higher quality, but much of it is the same thing -- and there's no sense in buying what's already available for download.

What I want is the ability to make up some recordings of OTR, to be played at demos and events -- complete with commercials, station breaks, to make it sound exactly as it would have back in the day. This is much harder to do than it would appear; major audio differences between programs, and scarcity of some of it -- does ANYBODY have a decent-quality "Bulova Watch Time" clipping? Gather it up, make it flow without sounding like it's cut-and-pasted. I've got Sound Forge software which is excellent for cleaning and mixing audio, but I'm far better off with material that's halfway decent to begin with.

As for programs to go into my collection, naturally I want them "complete", cigarette ads, Victory Bond promotions and all, for historic value.

I realize some material originated transcribed without ads, and surviving copies of some wartime shows came from AFRS disks, but the vast majority was recorded "live", and should have the entire half-hour or so intact.

Gary,

Many of the old radio shows I have as you say have both set ups. Some had no commercials such as shows sold to radio stations to insert their own. Others are removed for who knows what reason. But many have their commercials in tact. Its what I prefer as well. Sometimes some of the shows have commercials while other in the same set which must have come from different sources don't. Many of the Radio Spirits shows have commercials, but again not all. The sound quality is normally pretty fine. Only a few of the ones in those sets I purchased are difficult to hear well. Usually most are nearly as if they are broadcast now.
I have also had good luck with many private sellers who put out shows for a while like Radio Memories.

When I first discovered that people actually still had access to some long gone shows I used to get them on reel to reel from people. Most of the time they were so difficult to understand that it made it trying to listen. I was really surprised when later on they started using original disc copies as the source. At that point often it was just as it was originally. Those old collectors all traded them around and each time they got worse. Most all of those are no longer used as mediums for copies unless there is no other way..

Most Jack Benny shows have the Lucky Strike commercials or the Jello ads. My Glidersleeve shows have Kraft foods. The early shadow shows have Blue Coal ads. Lux Radio has lux soap. Rexall sponsored Phil Harris and Alice Faye. Lots of others, just have to try them and see. That is why I still like the Cassette Format . Some pretty good bargains floating around out there in those.

Larry

Also try http://www.archive.org/

Lots of stuff here, not just OTR. This is where I got about 75% of my current collection, before I discovered other sources.

I bought a lot of radio shows on CD several years ago and while the price was right the quality on many is lacking.

I dug them out the other day to put on Micro SD cards for my MP3 player and wound up with a real project on my hands! With just over 200 episodes of Escape I've spent hours weeding out the bad and finding better copies. I have found four (free) sites to seek better shows from:

http://tennesseebillsotr.com/ (Tennessee Bill's website is no longer valid)

https://sites.google.com/site/calfkille ... odownloads

http://timespast.ning.com/

http://www.jezner.com/old_time_radio/escape/index.php

http://www.archive.org/details/oldtimeradio

Nothing new about the above sources because I found most of them by searching through this forum. I'm not looking for perfection, just shows that have decent audio that I won't have to strain to listen. My process goes something like this:

I do a quick listen to an episode and decide if it sounds decent (not muddy or muffled). If it doesn't I download the same episode from one of the above sources until I eventually find one that is better to replace it with. It is a slow and painful process when I have hundreds of shows to eventually weed through.

I don't mind paying a reasonable price for decent shows, and Alan has highly recommended Radio Showcase:

http://www.radio-showcase.com/

The problem is those are a little too expensive, with only two shows per CD. I'd like to find a happy median and find a source of decent quality shows at a reasonable price. I guess I'll have to try a handful of the OTR suppliers out there and see how their quality rates.

As to Gary's quest to seek out decent shows with the commercials intact they do exist. Blue Coal and extinct gasoline companies come to mind in some of the detective type shows I've listened to in the past. Unfortunately my old source for CD's is also extinct but the quality was lacking anyway.

Edit: I'd like to add another source for OTR shows. Although they aren't free, with a one-time donation you receive a lifetime membership:

http://www.mysteryshows.com/

As with most of the other sites their content and quality is upgraded as better sources become available to them.

Edited 01-29-2013 to update and add links.

Your right there are too many people out here who just keep coping old shows and don't do a good job of it or have bad copies. I tend to not buy from a source I have not had overall good luck with. Some shows will be added if there is no copy that is better in order to have a complete series in order. Again I have found that Radio Spirits shows for the most part are quite clear compared to some. Oddly I used to listen to Old Time Radio show back in the 70's before fancy computer cleaning systems were used. I loved the Phil Harris show that they ran a lot of. It was very clear in those copies the fellow had. When I purchased the series of it from a reputable dealer I liked I get a set that went from way too loud to way to soft and blurry sounding at best. Nothing like the old copies I had made years before. So anything can happen even with a good source it seems.

Larry

Gary,
I have bought CD's from www.RadioArchives.org
with great satisfaction. They usually will send a disk with another type show for free. They have a large selection of stuff.

Jerry F Bacon ♫

I can answer this question; The First Generation Radio Archives is good for commercially available sets.

*However, for some reason OTR audio CDs are almost always overmodulated. I always rip them to wav (rip any CD to wav), and correct the clipped peaks. If it's something from reel (not all the stuff is from ETs I often have to correct the speed as well.

I suspect it must be something in the normalization process or something they use when converting to audio CD? Any vendor on CD is normally 2-5 dB over 0 dB.

I don't understand why even the best vendors/collectors are so careless about the speed. For example, Radio Archives Crime Classics set, which came from a lo-gen reel transfer, averages 2 minutes fast. Once I corrected that, it was an excellent transfer and restoration. Their from-ET sets are almost always spot-on speed.

Assuming the CD hasn't expired, Radio Archives normally has an excellent product.

ALWAYS rip the programs to wav the First Gen and other vendors CDs share the same problems; the color labels will cause the CD to prematurely fail. The CDs will also fuse to the plastic sleeves in the binder. Generally it's a ticking sound on the second show of the CD (as the material towards the edge goes first).

If one has the proper equipment, traditional OTR lending libraries/clubs can ge a gold mine. I like SPERDVAC and RHAC. I do have to invest a lot of time and effort into baking coated reels, though.

Other dealers whom I recommend are Audio Classics, Ed Carr, occasionally Radio Spirits, Redmond Nostalgia (although overpriced, there's a lot of rare obscure stuff).

Per mp3 http://www.oldtimeradioonmp3.com/ is generally very good, although it's Audio Classics stuff ripped to mp3. I went this route with the Lone Ranger, as I did not want to invest the funds and/or the effort to get CDs/wavs of such a large series. However, it suffers from the same problem as do all mp3. If it's ff-speed, you're out of luck. This vendor is still the best mp3 vendor I've tried. I haven't encountered much stuff that's terribly off-speed.

One can also try my mp3 corner here if it still exists. I haven't logged onto the provider I dumped my encodes on in a long time.

If one wants to go the free route, the Radio Researchers are pretty diligent about encodes. I am a radio show perfectionist and demand the best. The ETs aren't available on many shows, so one has to seek a lo-gen reel dub. I demand a show that is perfectly on-speed, has the proper vintage re-equalization, and that is transferred on proper equipment. For example, I was doing some early dubs of the Jack Benny Jell-O program. The turntable hum was horrendous, but I went into spectral view in Audition and took it out. Luckily the dub was otherwise decent. I used the proper vintage re-equalization, took the pains to time-correct it to within one or two seconds, perhaps less of its original intended time, as I do with all from reel shows. Needless to say, I also invested to time to do a transfer from the reel.

I am the type of person who will upgrade. If Radio Archives comes out with a set of the Jell-O Program that is lower-gen, I will purchase it.

I am a radio perfectionist, and will never accept a dub that is edited (no good vendor intentionally rips out any material). Even cutting out the end musical fill on AFRS shows bugs me.

I like learning new things, and I take pride in improving my recordings. I ALWAYS keep a raw, untouched wav of anything I do, as technology always improves.

I went through all of my Jack Benny programs and adjusted the speed. Some were 8-10% off.

Wish there was a better place to put all of your OTRs cliff.

I have downloaded many shows from Old-Time Radio. The quality is all across the spectrum but it's a large selection and all free. Some with commercials, some without, and some Gunsmoke episodes that are just plain screwed up, but overall I've been very pleased.

http://otr-okk.tripod.com/index.html

Larry

I'll give a plug for DadsOTR.com . He is a fanatic for quality and doesn't compress his material. I must have several hundred of his CDs in my collection by now--I store them in four large 440 disk capacity CD carriers and they are almost full! He has a very extensive library, and I've haven't seen anyone beat his prices.

Pete

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Thanks you for the post.
__________________
Watch The Eagle Online Free

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Here are two new links I added to my previous post:

http://timespast.ning.com/

Although they aren't free, with a one-time donation you receive a lifetime membership:

http://www.mysteryshows.com/

As with most of the other sites their content and quality is upgraded as better sources become available to them.