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WJSV Complete Day - Single Episodes

by: Old Time Radio Researchers Group

Publication date: 2011-02-28

Usage: Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0

Topics: OTRR, Old Time Radio Researchers Group, Old Time Radio, OTRR Single Episodes, WJSV Complete Day, WJSV Complete Broadcast Day, WJSV, Complete Broadcast Day, September 21, 1939, 09/21/1939, 21-Sep-1939, 1930s, 1939, OTRR - 2011-02

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

Notes

OLD TIME RADIO RESEARCHERS GROUP

This is a production of the Old Time Radio Researchers Group located at Old Time Radio Researchers Website (www.otrr.org) and the Yahoo! Group Old Time Radio Researchers.

It contains the most complete and accurate version of this series in the best sound possible at the time of creation. An updated version will be issued if more episodes or better sounding ones become available.

This is the Single Episodes Page. The Non Certified Release may include extras not found here. It is located at OTRR Non Certified Release. This Single Episodes page is provided in case you want to sample the shows. Note that in many cases, file names have been modified from the original OTRR names to conform to archive.org naming requirements.

If you are interested in preserving Old Time Radio (OTR), you may wish to join the Old Time Radio Researchers Group at Yahoo.

Relax, listen, and enjoy!

OTRR Definitions:

OTRR Certified Accurate -- A series that is Certified Accurate indicates that all the episodes are properly identified and labeled but that the series does not contain all known extant episodes.

OTRR Certified Complete -- A series that is Certified Complete is the highest level of certification available under the OTRR Certified Standards. This certification level implies that all the files in the series are Certified Accurate but also indicates that the series is as complete as possible – it includes all extant episodes.

OTRR Non-Certified -- A collection of shows that has not gone through the OTRR Certification process.

Addeddate: 2011-02-28 13:06:18

Boxid: OL100020404

External_metadata_update: 2019-03-30T19:54:38Z

Identifier: OTRR_WJSV_Complete_Day_Singles

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Reviews

Reviewer: PhillipHeasley1 - - January 28, 2024
Subject: Time capsule--War in Europe

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.

Reviewer: Bruce Baskin - - March 6, 2023
Subject: Two things worth noting...

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.

Reviewer: MrWimple - - February 27, 2013
Subject: New Source Available

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

Reviewer: robertsradio - - October 20, 2011
Subject: History

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.

Reviewer: Abdulwadud - - August 16, 2011
Subject: Great job! Ten stars!

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).

Reviewer: Indeterminacy - - March 6, 2011
Subject: Intriguing document

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!

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