It snowed a lot in 1945 too...

One again the week has gotten beyond me. It's now Saturday and I still haven't posted last week's radio show. So of course I'll take the time to write and post on the very morning I usually start going crazy trying to get my show materials prepared.

Our all volunteer radio station is once again staking a claim to the majority of my time. I wasn't in charge, or on the Board, for about a year and a half. I must say, it was refreshing to just do my show and not spend time managing the station and its affairs. During that time, the station seems to have paid many of its bills by selling off all of its extra equipment; turntables, an iMac computer, our photo copy machine, etc. The little disasters which took us off the air for most of a week this past December (just after I returned to the Board and its Presidency) ended up costing us a tidy little amount while increasing our monthly budget just as our insurance went up 25%. With an on air pledge week, we managed to make the large initial insurance premium, and we'll be able to pay the rent and insurance for March but after that.... (I'm aware of what the poet said about April.)

When a previous treasurer used to express his worries about our finances, I always told him to trust to the magic of Community Radio. Somehow everything has always worked out. This time, I'm concerned. Actually, I'm worried. Very worried.

We've managed to pay all of our yearly one shot fees and royalties, so now we can settle down and figure out how we are going to raise a minimum of over $700.00 per month. We're in a town of 12,000 people. There aren't that many businesses to hit up for underwriting; most of them are already suffering from 'support nonprofits' fatigue.  I've been heavily involved in this project for a long time. I was directly involved in its creation. I don't want to be the Board President who ends up closing it down.

Last Saturday's show visited the week which included February 22nd, 1945, the date of our featured broadcast from the Victory Parade of Spotlight Bands show. That day the spotlight fell on Frankie Masters and His Orchestra. Masters had a very decent sweet swing organization, basically a society orchestra playing in the ballrooms of swank hotels. He came to fame at the College Inn of Chicago's Hotel Sherman. If the name sounds familiar, it survives in the name of a widely marketed chicken stock originally prepared by the Inn's chef.

Blogger has rearranged these newspaper clippings from that week, and I really don't have time to try to fix it to be the way I want it. Oh, well.

The movies in town on Thursday February the 22nd, 1945 weren't as good as the movies that showed up for the weekend. People forget that in the pre-tv world, movie theaters had one large screen and changed their bills three times a week.

 

Okay, I have to stop for a moment and insert this reissue coming attraction trailer. "Meet Me In St. Louis" has long been one of my most favorite of movie musicals. In the days before home video, I had the resources to collect film. I had (and still have) my own print of this classic. It's such a lovely valentine to an America that existed only in the collective unconscious of Hollywood and therefore our nation. I could do an entire post about it.  I will someday, if I ever get the time.

 

 

 

For more such clippings and various notes about this and that, check out my show's Facebook page. If you don't have a Facebook account, you can access it at this link: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Recycled-Radio/621059471269529
(clicking on a picture in any post opens a slide show.)

If anyone has been following my show based on these posts, please accept my apologies for not getting this done sooner, and so on and so forth. And I hope any listeners enjoy the show.