By request, the twelfth episode in the series, “It’s Higgins, Sir” aired September 18, 1951, a summer replacement series for Bob Hope’s Pepsodent program starring Harry McNaughton, Vinton Hayworth, and our good friend Pat Hosley.

Jerry Haendiges, he of The Vintage Radio Place and the original source of this series, has provided us high-quality masters of this entire series from which to create the MP3 files; while we’re distributing 32kbps MP3 files of these programs, you can find excellent-quality audio CDs at his website - go to the order page and use #40960 B for this episode. (Also, high-quality MP3s of this program are also available from Jerry in his MP3 Catalog.)

You may stream the show using the player below, or download it with the link. Remember, by subscribing to this blog with any podcasting client (iTunes, Juice, etc.) the shows will be automatically downloaded to your computer or MP3 player!

 It's Higgins, Sir - Mr. Roberts' Business Trip [29:44m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I have to let you know I’m dealing with some domestic stuff here, and realize I’ve been too busy to keep up with the podcast, etc.

But on the bright side, I’ve also been too busy to argue with people; for some reason, this week everyone and their dog wants to pick a fight with me. Since I have real, honest-to-goodness work I need to deal with, I’ve been simply blocking everyone from the server who feels the need to be snappish with me. I’d rather miss out on their complaints (good grief, some people expect me to sit at the computer all day long without getting paid just so I’m available to do whatever they need whenever they want it) than have to deal with arguing with ‘em.

(Yeah, I realize I’m whining now, so I’m going to block myself for a little while. ;)

Recently on the Internet OTR Digest there was a discussion about the show Can You Top This?, an audience-participation program where the listeners could send in jokes to tell; the panelists would then try to top the laughter level as measured on the meter, which would determine how much money the joke-sender would receive.

Our friend Jim Widner, he of the Radio Days website, provided a collection of episodes he’s acquired from the Net for running on this podcast. This episode is labled from April 21, 1942 and has as its first topic “Restaurants.” (Note the original encoder [not Jim] did a rather poor encode, sampling at 11kHz and encoding a mono file in joint stereo, so apologies for the poor quality of the file. I’ve learned that trying to “fix” things like this makes it even worse, so I am providing the file as-is.)

You may stream the show using the player below, or download it with the link. Remember, by subscribing to this blog with any podcasting client (iTunes, Juice, etc.) the shows will be automatically downloaded to your computer or MP3 player!

 Can You Top This? - First Topic, Restaurants [30:12m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

As most of you know (at least if you read this space), the Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention was held last weekend. While there’s way too much good stuff from the weekend to discuss in this brief posting (I’m dealing with car inspection today, yippee), I wanted to at least get up here a short video clip of one of the guests, Erin Gray (Buck Rogers, Silver Spoons) talking about an actor I thought was consistently underrated, Robert Urich (the only Spencer: For Hire, Vega$, Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice).

 Erin Gray on Robert Urich: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I received a request through the “Contact the Webmaster” button over there on the sidebar for episodes of Fibber McGee and Molly; while I usually post more…obscure programs (I know, I probably shouldn’t, but I’ve been collecting so long I sometimes get bored with the same old Suspense and Jack Benny Programs I’ve heard time and time again, so I’m always looking for oddball programs that you, gentle reader, might not have taken the time to hear before), how can I refuse a request?

But there were no specific episodes in the request, so I was in a quandary - which ones to podcast? One of the most amazing things about being me, running the Internet OTR Digest and all, is that while I am not an expert on any particular program, I almost always know experts for any given show. In this case, I contacted Al Girard, he of the Unofficial Fibber McGee and Molly web pages, and asked him which episodes he would recommend. From his list, this is the chronologically next episode having aired November 3, 1942. Enjoy!

 Fibber McGee and Molly - Duck Hunting With LaTrivia [26:53m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This morning on The Bob Edwards Show, David Kipen promoted XM’s new collaboration with the National Endowment for the Arts, The Big Read. Mr. Kipen is very, very enthusiastic, and I certainly understand why since having XM promote the program dramatically increases the number of people who know about it. But let me give you the other side of the coin, one Mr. Kipen either isn’t aware of, or frankly doesn’t care about since his focus is not on the radio side.

First, let’s examine the entire idea that books-on-tape promote literacy. Horse-pucky…books-on-tape are entertaining, and great for those long commutes, but they have nothing whatsoever to do with literacy. We as a society read less and less, and salving our souls by saying, “well, I heard a book the other day…” is just plain silly.

So why would XM make this collaboration with the NEA? Oh, heck, that’s simple; they want to make money. I saw this nonsense coming long before now, ever since the marketing agreement with Audible begat the annoying This Is Audible sales-pitch masquerading as a radio program. Audible, for those who have just returned from the 1980’s, is the company that has made a fortune making books-on-tape available to the Internet masses for a fee, complete with restrictive Digital Rights Management designed to limit the freedom the customer has with the items they purchase. (I will never understand why the modern consumer is so determined to allow businesses to dictate to them what they may and may not do with the items they purchase, but there it is.) This collaboration is a method for XM to promote their partner Audible and to make money of purchases made through the company…it’s pretty much that simple.
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The Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention is next weekend, and for those of you in the area who might be on-the-fence about attending this great three-day event, I thought I’d show just a few clips from last year’s freshman version.

And if you are planning to attend, please stop by and say hello…I’ll be the rotund guy behind the video camera, probably swilling coffee or chugging down an energy drink. ;)

 Highlights of MANC 2006: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

From the Associated Press: Feds OK Fee for Priority Web Traffic

The Justice Department says Net Neutrality, that is requiring Internet providers to provide the same service to all hosts instead of throttling service to competitors, is a Bad Thing. Can you remember the days when the Justice Department protected the consumer against big business instead of protecting big business against the consumer? (Thanks to Stewart Wright for the pointer!)