Forum Topic
Shep on the Radio
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Solving the mysteries of air dates
Date: 07-31-2006
By: m10bob
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Even though most of the available Shep programs have known air dates, there are still many which are just labelled by subject matter, (which may also be decieving as the same program may have 3 or 4 main subjects.)
The Flicklives.com site has an excellent feature in the show database which helps to narrow down the dates by listing important info, like the names of engineers at different times.
Recently, I obtained an "undated" program called merely "Softball", which I was able to determine is the same as a program called "Midwest Softball", which has a known date, so this riddle was solved (for me any way.
Another problem has arisen in that once listening to an undated program, a listener may label a program by which subject he feels is most important.
Case in point:I obtained a program which is called "Baseball Cheat", but after listening to it, and hearing at least 2 other topics in the program, I am fairly convinced it is really a program called "Mysterious car happenings+Auto shootout+Sky rocket, which aired on 5-2-73..(Checking by the engineer is difficult here as Shep addresses his engineer "Tony", and later a gent named "Jerry".
"Tony" was an engineer who worked with Shep in the Sixties and Seventies, (and may have been more than one person)..
"Jerry"?, He too was an engineer and was noted to work on occasion with other engineers, is this he?......
Regarding the "baseball cheating" incident of the labeeled subject, Shep relates an incident he and his dad observed at Commiskey Park in a game between the White Sox and the Yankees, which is mentioned in no other program that I am aware of, so it is an important program. IMHO..
Mr Clavin has an explanation on his site regarding the accuracy (and sometimes inaccuaracies) of certain of the programs subject matter and airdates..I just find it interesting to sift thru the works to look for clues.....[:)]
In Hoc Agricula Conc
In Est Spittle Louk |
4 |
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08-04-2006
( Reply#: 536 ) |
sheptapes |
I'll take credit for suggesting the search category of "engineers". it seemed to me that it might help identify undated shows if a pattern could be established of what day of the week certain engineers worked.
It probably won't work, since Shep didn't always refer to the engineer by name, if at all. And in the radio biz enginners often work on assignment, without a regular schedule. I'm glad that at least it serves some puurpose in identifying shows, if not actual airdates.
As to "Jerry", he wasn't the engineer, but the producer. He appeared around 1970-71, and was regularly in the studio after that. My assumption is that Leigh was too busy with side projects (appearances, book signings, etc) to deal with the show on a daily basis, and this is when Jerry was brought in.
On the 1971 LP "The Declassified Jean Shepherd" the following credit appears: Special Assistance by Jerry Lambert
I assume this is Jerry from the radio show.
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08-05-2006
( Reply#: 537 ) |
m10bob |
Excellent Max!
IMHO it was a great suggestion..Too bad radio does not give "credits" the way visual media does,but then, where would you put it?
Maybe, if while listening to programs we start listing the dates of the sponsors, we could narrow down some of the undated material.
In Hoc Agricula Conc
In Est Spittle Louk |
08-09-2006
( Reply#: 541 ) |
jclavin |
On the shows for which I've got summaries, music and commercials are 2 items I try to document since they both help date a show. If you do a word search on a sponser or song, all the shows I've documented so far will come up that contain the search word(s)
The search feature is set to search several fields in the database. Title, description, engineers, commercials, music and date.
I am in the process of expanding the database to include news articles and columns written by Shep. This will also be searchable. It's a long task scanning and doing OCR on each of these documents while keeping up with the lawn mowing!
Jim
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08-13-2006
( Reply#: 542 ) |
m10bob |
The entire Shep community owes a huge debt of gratitude to you and Max and Eugene (and a couple of others), for your tremendous efforts (in both time, work, and money),for allowing so much of Sheps' works to be revealed to the rest of us slobs.
Since I joined the ranks relatively late,(after Mr Shepherd's death), I was concerned about some of the "foibles" brought to light by Mr Bermanns' great book, but recently I acquired tapes of a "press conference" Shep himself gave, apparently in 1970, to some high school and college students, and frankly, Shep tells some pretty bold "stories" in this one interview, which really casts light on his credibility,(unless we remember he never claimed to be a chronicler, but a story-teller).
As a professional investigator for many years, I had been able to verify much of his life and Military career,(including time at Camp Crowder), but in this one interview, Shep denies to these kids, his ever being at Crowder,(which I have verified), and a few other points.
(He also denies his loss of faith in radio as a medium, which he certainly did at some point).He did admit to the existence of Flick, Bruner, Schwartz, but claimed the characters in his stories were merely composites of kids he knew(possible), but wrongfully claimed Schwartz had been killed in Korea, when in fact he knew he was killed in WWII,(which he himself had been a participant of,while stateside).
I feel Shep is the most important story-teller of our time,(in America anyway), and in time will more and more be recognized as the equivilent of James Whitcomb Riley, and Mark Twain, (as many of us Shepophiles already feel him to be),foibles notwithstanding.
In Hoc Agricula Conc
In Est Spittle Louk |
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