Wikipedia

User:Teblick/Online Resources for Old-Time Radio Research

< User:Teblick

The Purpose of This Page
The Internet offers a variety of resources that can be useful to people doing research related to old-time radio. In addition to using general search engines, a researcher might benefit from using specialized search engines and out-of-print publications such as radio annuals/yearbooks/directories and radio-oriented magazines from years past. Recordings, logs and scripts can also be useful. The list below is a work in progress. If you know a useful resource that is not included in the list, please add it. If you have comments that might help others as they use resources listed here, please add them. Eddie Blick (talk) 22:19, 20 July 2014 (UTC)

Note: It is obvious from some of the titles below that this list has grown beyond the original "Old-Time Radio Research" focus. Work on some articles related to film and television has led me to find and include resources related to those media, too. Perhaps someday I will change the title of this page to show a wider scope than OTR.

Search Engines edit

Awards searches edit

Academy Awards Database edit

ASCAP Awards edit

BAFTA Awards edit

Clarence Derwent Awards edit

Directors Guild of America edit

Dove Awards edit

Drama Desk Awards edit

Edgar Awards search edit

Emmy Awards search edit

Golden Boot Awards search edit

Golden Globe Awards search edit

Grammy Awards search edit

Humanitas Awards edit

New York Drama Critics Circle Awards edit

New York Film Critics Circle Awards edit

OBIE Awards edit

Outer Critics Circle Awards edit

Peabody Awards edit

Pulitzer Prizes edit

Screen Actors Guild Awards edit

Silver Spur Awards edit

Theatre World Awards edit

Tony Awards search edit

  • Search for Tony Award nominees and winners Scroll down to find the search module on right side of page. Enter any parameters before typing name in search box; otherwise, the search box will be emptied and the name will have to be entered again.

Volpi Cup Award list edit

Writers Guild of America edit

Halls of Fame edit

American Sportscasters Hall of Fame edit

Country Music Hall of Fame edit

Hollywood Walk of Fame edit

National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum's Great Western Performers edit

  • [1] Scrolling list in alphabetical order midway down page on left.

National Radio Hall of Fame edit

National Sports Media Hall of Fame edit

North Bay Musicians and Entertainers Hall of Recognition edit

Palm Springs Walk of Stars edit

Songwriters Hall of Fame edit

Theater Hall of Fame edit

Vocal Group Hall of Fame edit

Western Performers Hall of Fame edit

Classic Images magazine edit

ZapMeta edit

UNZ.org edit

Internet Broadway Database edit

Playbill search edit

BBC search edit

  • BBC Genome Project "This site contains the BBC listings information which the BBC printed in Radio Times between 1923 and 2009. You can search the site for BBC programmes, people, dates and Radio Times editions."

Specialized versions of Google edit

Features: Allows fine-tuning of search with regard to domain, file type and other criteria without having to remember syntax for using those same criteria.
Features: Searches books and magazines available through Google Books. Buttons and boxes allow narrowing search using a number of parameters.
Features: Ignore the search results that appear from the above link and type search term(s) in the search box after the text ("site:news.google.com/newspapers") that appears there. Google will search its vast archive of newspapers for your terms, providing links to occurrences that it finds.
Note: If anyone has a more direct way of reaching Google's newspaper search, please post it. This way is the best that I have found. Eddie Blick (talk) 20:48, 19 July 2014 (UTC)

Searches of old publications related to radio edit

Features: More than 1 million pages of radio-related documents can be searched from this page. If you want to eliminate some publications, switch from the default "All" check box and instead select specific publications by checking their boxes on the page. Links to results will appear in the list of hits. Clicking on either a page's image or its link will bring up a PDF of that single page.
Features: This search engine includes some of the same documents that American Radio History has, but MHDL searches tap into the Internet Archive site. Finding results can be more difficult, because when one clicks on the "Read in Context" link, often the page that appears is not the one in the preview. The user then has to "turn" the publication's pages in the viewing window to locate the one containing the search term.
Note: The search can be fine-tuned by clicking on "Advanced Search Options" at the top of the results window and using the items on the resulting page.
Features: Here you can search the publications held by the Old Time Radio Researchers group. Publications can be searched by using the "Person," "Program" and "Article" tabs in conjunction with the search box. Publications available include OTR-era magazines, newsletters of OTR organizations and catalogs from companies that sell (or sold) OTR programs.

RadioGOLDINdex's special features edit

  • RadioGOLDINdex" offers extensive logs of radio programs (see "Logs" section), but it also features two unusual -- and useful -- services:
Database Search by Artist Name: (http://www.radiogoldindex.com/goldin1.html) An alphabetical approach lets you select an artist associated with old-time radio by the first letter of his or her last name. Clicking on the name will take you to a page that lists "all the programs in the radioGOLDINdex database which credit this artist."
Note: Once you are on the page of artists, you might want to use your browser's search feature to locate the last name. Scrolling down some of the pages can take a bit of time.
Database Search by Date (http://www.radiogoldindex.com/goldin2.html) On this page, a chronological list of years begins in 1922 and goes through the current year. Clicking on a year will take you to a page with a chronological list of dates from that year. Clicking on a date, in turn, pulls up information about certain programs broadcast on that date.

Discography of American Historical Recordings edit

Basic Search (http://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/basic/search) See tabs on page for other search options.

Encyclopedia.com edit

(http://www.encyclopedia.com/)

Direct Access to Publications edit

  • American Radio History (http://www.americanradiohistory.com) offers direct access to many publications related to old-time radio. As of mid-July 2014, offerings included the following:
  • Magazines & Periodicals -- 15 titles
  • Yearbooks and Directories -- 12 titles
  • Early Radio - Mass Market -- 16 titles
  • Early Radio - Programs and Stars -- 8 titles
  • Radio Logs and Station Lists -- 7 titles
  • Special & Anniversary Editions -- 8 titles

Features: Clicking the link above will take you to ARH's main page, which is divided by types of publications, including those listed above (along with others not related to OTR that are not listed here). Below each heading are icons representing titles that ARH has in that category. Clicking on the icon will take you to a new page showing specific volumes of that title that are available. (Some collections are nearly complete, while others lack many issues.) On the new page you can click on a specific item and have it open as a PDF, or you can download it to your own computer.

Features: The top menu down the left side of the page provides quick access to any OTR-era magazine title on the site, with titles listed alphabetically. Under it, the second menu gives access to newsletters published by OTR clubs. At the bottom, a third section (titled "Magazines Containing OTR Information") contained one title as of this writing.
Notes: 1) In the menus, parentheses after each title indicate the number of issues of that title available. 2)The lower part of the right side of the page lists issues that have recently been added to the site.
  • Internet Archive (http://archive.org) provides direct access to many OTR-related publications, but using them is more difficult than with American Radio History's site. No main page is available for quick access to OTR material; a user must search to find publications. Also, many publications are available only in multi-issue files. (For example, see https://archive.org/details/radiomirro00mac, which contains Radio Mirror issues from January through June, 1945.) In general, finding specific material at Internet Archive tends to be more difficult than finding material in ARH's collection. On the other hand, the multi-issue files make it convenient to peruse several issues in one sitting if you prefer to browse.
  • (https://archive.org/details/americana?and[]=subject%3A%22Radio%22&and[]=mediatype%3A%22texts%22) Access to various broadcasting-related yearbooks and other publications

Recordings of old-time radio programs edit

Countless websites and blogs offer recordings of OTR programs, usually in MP3 format, that can be heard via streaming audio or downloaded to the user's computer. The following are two of the best online resources for recordings:

Features: IA has no main page listing programs. Instead, you need to use the site's search function. Some searches will return numerous hits. For example, a search for "Fibber McGee" returned four pages of hits, ranging from a page containing a single episode to a page containing 475 episodes.
Features: Programs are listed alphabetically by the first letter of the program's title (including "A" -- as in "A Date with Judy" being in the A, rather than D, section). Links in the left column of this page take you to a particular alphabetical section, with titles of program appearing on the right side of the page.
Note: To obtain a useful link for inclusion under your Wikipedia article's "External links," you need to right-click on the program's title (in order to open a new browser tab or window) and then copy the URL from its address bar. If you left-click on the title, the address bar will still show only a link to the first letter of the title, rather than a unique link to the program.

Logs edit

Sites that offer logs of radio programs are listed below.

Features: Use the box containing the alphabet to go to the page containing programs whose titles begin with that letter. On the resulting page, click on any program title that appears as a link.
Note: Fewer logs are available here than from the site above. Those that are here, however, have a wealth of information about programs in addition to their logs. You will often find reviews and other articles about a program, taken from contemporary newspapers and magazines -- sometimes providing additional material for use in your Wikipedia article.
Features: Try to overlook the almost overwhelming animated graphics at the top of this page; instead, scroll quickly to the block containing the alphabet. From there on are links to logs for many old-time radio programs. Click on a title to bring up the program's log.
Note: The logs exist primarily as a sales tool for the site owner. By no means are all of them complete. They are, however, among the best logs available for use with articles on OTR.
Features: This site features a long list of programs for which it has logs. Logs list titles and dates, varying from complete to missing most data.
Features: This appears to be a much more extensive collection of logs than either of the two listed above -- in terms of both the number of program titles included and the amount of information provided for each episode. The link above takes you to a page where, in turn, an alphabetical link will lead you to a new page containing a list of programs whose names begin with that letter. On a program's page, the site notes, "The programs are listed chronologically, partial dates appear first, unknown dates appear last."

Scripts edit

Here are links to three sites that offer scripts from old-time radio shows.

Features: Programs' titles are listed alphabetically. The number of scripts available for each program appears to the left of the program's title. Numbers vary widely, from one to 64 (as this article is written). Clicking on a program's title brings up a page with links to scripts available for that program.
Note: Another page on the site (http://www.genericradio.com/index.php) lists recent additions to GRW's collection of script.
Features: Programs' titles are listed alphabetically, but not always by the show's exact title. For example, The Adventures of Ellery Queen is listed under Ellery Queen -- not Adventures. The number of scripts per program varies widely, from one to more than 50.
Features: Simply Scripts apparently does not have any scripts on its own site. Rather, it provides links to sites that store them. Regardless of that, the site's list of links to scripts is extensive.
Note: The link above takes you to the "A-F" page, based on the first letter of the program's title. A box near the top in the left margin provides an alphabet; clicking on a letter will take you to a page listing programs that begin with that letter.

Other useful sites edit

  • Cafe Songbook contains information about "Songs, Songwriters and Performers of The Great American Songbook."
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