Hi Randy, Can you tell us which speed these mp3's represent? 33 1/3? 32? Tim Gillett Perth, Western Australia ----- Original Message ----- From: "Randy A. Riddle" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Saturday, January 26, 2019 10:39 AM Subject: [ARSCLIST] An Odd Radio Transcription > In a few weeks on my blog, I'm going to be posting a rather odd > transcription disc I ran into a few months ago. > > At least I think it's a transcription disc. > > It's a ten inch laminated Columbia pressing from Sollie & MacGregor. > It's "Coleman Cox", program 11 on one side and program 12 on the > other. The matrix numbers are MS-1311 and 1312. The matrix also > includes the show title and number and the notations "Time 4:50" and > "Time 4:51". > > Cox was an author from California who published some books in the > 1920s. I found him in some radio listings from the NY Times and the > LA Times from around 1935 where he's described as a "Philosopher". > The shows are odd, in that early to mid-30s kind of way, with Cox just > saying some kind of pithy proverbs with a bell sounding after each > one. The theme song of the show is "Jingle Bells", oddly enough. > Each show runs about five minutes with a proper intro and outro. > > Sounds normal for a 30's transcription so far, right? > > Well, here's the weird part - the disc runs at about 32 rpm. If you > play it at 33 1/3, it sounds like Mickey Mouse and obviously isn't the > right speed. I manually adjusted the speed when I transferred the > disc so it sounded right and checked the actual speed with the RPM app > on my iPhone. > > Anyone hear of an odd speed being used on purpose like this in the 30s > for transcriptions? Was this some kind of production/mastering error? > > If this was intentional, perhaps to save on syndicating a five minute > show on a ten inch rather than twelve-inch disc, I can't see an odd > speed disc like this going over well with station engineers. > > When I first got the disc and previewed it, noticing I had to really > dial down the speed, I thought it might have been mastered at the > British Talking Book speed used about that time, but that was 24 rpm, > which is much slower than what we have here. > > Any ideas on this oddity? I've owned a lot of transcriptions over > various time periods and never run into an off-speed disc like this. > > Here's a link to label scans and mp3s of the content if you want to > puzzle over it for a bit. > > https://duke.box.com/s/ioohdj1uiqifk8yfagshphqzesu1o0qy > > Thanks! > > Randy > > -- > > Randy A. Riddle > Mebane, NC > Cool Cat Daddy Productions > www.coolcatdaddy.com > [log in to unmask] --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus