I have a confession to make. I've become a soap opera addict. At least I can indulge my habit without plopping myself on the sofa for hours. I can catch up on the latest episode while running errands. This addiction has its roots in a five-week business trip to London...
Posted by Michael Bates on May 4, 2018 11:38 PM
A series of encounters led to an opportunity to appear on 612 ABC Brisbane (the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's locally focused station) to talk about the aftermath of the U. S. presidential election. In late October, I was walking in the Spring Hill neighborhood north of the Brisbane CBD, looking for...
Posted by Michael Bates on December 14, 2016 12:27 AM
Here's another "it's my blog, and I don't care if anyone else is interested" posts. Below is some rare newsreel footage from 1951 of the recording of a British radio comedy called Much-Binding-in-the-Marsh. The show began during World War II, and Much Binding was an RAF base in some obscure,...
Posted by Michael Bates on December 21, 2012 12:16 AM
Fans of quick-witted British comedy and verbal virtuosity will enjoy a BBC Radio 4 Extra special about the long-running radio panel show Just a Minute. Just a Minute involves four players and a chairman. The chairman gives a subject to one of the players, who is to speak on the...
Posted by Michael Bates on March 17, 2012 8:37 PM
Over Christmas and New Year's weekend, BBC Radio 7 broadcast all seven of the Focus on the Family Radio Theater adaptations of C. S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia. I've been listening to them in publication order -- I've just finished The Silver Chair. Paul Scofield, who won an Oscar...
Posted by Michael Bates on January 22, 2011 11:26 AM
I received an email of appreciation about the BatesLine entry on Radio's Online History Resource, and I was asked how I find this stuff. In this case, I had done a Google search for Hal O'Halloran -- his name had come up in an email conversation among a group of...
Posted by Michael Bates on August 8, 2010 9:53 AM
Following up some email conversation about Tulsa broadcaster Hal O'Halloran, I came across an online treasure trove of radio history: Radio's Online History Resource. It consists of scans of radio industry publications beginning with the earliest years of the medium: Annual publications like Broadcasting Yearbook, Radio Annual; FCC rulebooks; and...
Posted by Michael Bates on August 6, 2010 2:41 PM
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