You won’t hear this show anywhere else, since only the San Francisco area ever heard it.
This locally-produced show might exist in collections somewhere else, but I couldn’t find any. I hope you’ll enjoy a look into what a radio station and music were like almost 60 years ago.
On a Sunday Afternoon
Live from KCBS San Francisco
Conductor: Ray Hackett
Vocalists: Stan Noonan, Ardene DeCamp, Jan McCart [sp?], soprano
With the Vernon Alley Trio, and Joe Sullivan (“America’s Boogie Woogie Piano King”)
Host: Eddie Kirk
These were two discs, labeled sides 1, 2, 3 and 4 “of 4”, which suggests it is a one-hour show. Both were also labeled September 14, but that was a Wednesday in 1955. I thought these might be the recording dates, but this show includes weather and road conditions, plus the discs don’t divide the shows at commercial or station identification breaks, so this must have been live.
And it’s not just a show called “On a Sunday Afternoon” in some poetic meaning of the phrase, the way “The Enchanted Hour” was really only 30 minutes long. OASA really did air on Sundays, at 2:30 p.m., according to the San Francisco Chronicle, but it, too, was only 30 minutes. So I’m guessing these were just mis-labeled.
[picture of weather, 1950’s traffic, 77-degrees, Oakland](If anybody has more free time than I have and can date this program based on the weather and traffic reported at the end of the program, please do. We’re short on volunteers around here.)
Finally, I thought at first that this program was just a “disc jockey” program, with an announcer telling us which song was coming next, and a recording would be played. But I would learn from Oakland’s Paramount Theater Music Library that it was a truly live program from a radio station with a real orchestra and singers.
And performing songs from at least 20 years prior. Could you imagine a radio station today, performing popular songs from the 1980’s and 1990’s, live on the air? That gives you an idea how surprised I was.
On a Sunday Afternoon
September 14, 1955a, b
First Song How Are Things in Glocca Morra?
To download the file, click on the picture of the disc label above.
To open this file, type the first letter of the words in the sentence after the words “at the end of the program, please do” above.
Thanks for putting these up. This is the sort of local programming that all too easily vanishes from existence and is known only by fading radio listings on crumbling pages of newsprint. At least we have one example of the show.
You are very welcome, Michael. I’m glad you appreciate it.
And keep in mind that there were four sides, so another episode will be coming to you.