Ishmael Reed, African-American novelist, poet, and publisher, was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on February 22, 1938. Reed moved with his mother to Buffalo, New York in 1942. His mother worked in various wartime industries and Reed attended public schools, graduating in 1956. He also played violin and trombone and began writing a newspaper column on jazz for the Empire Star Weekly when he was thirteen. He enrolled as an evening student at Millard Fillmore College, the night school division of the University of Buffalo, and worked as a clerk at the Buffalo public library during the day. His writing ability was quickly recognized, and he moved into the bachelor of arts program at the University of Buffalo. He withdrew in 1960 because of a "dire shortage of funds" (Gates) and a "wide gap between social classes" (Gates). To escape "the artificial social and class distinctions that he associated with American university education," (Gates) he moved to Buffalo's Talbert Mall Project. Daily exposure to systematic poverty cycles in the projects led him to political activism in the civil rights and Black Power movements.
Content types:
Performed music, Spoken word, Two-dimensional moving image, Text, and Still image
Formats:
Pressed LP disc, LaserDisc, Open reel tape (unknown material), Analog audiocassette, VHS (including SVHS and VHS-C), Betamax, Text document, Photographic print, and Microfilm
Extent:
Approximately 20 recordings, microfilm, 65 feet
Repository/Collector:
University of Delaware Library, Special Collections
With over 300,000 recordings on tape, disc, cylinder, and piano roll, the Historical Music Recordings Collection is both the depository for University of Texas at Austin recordings and those of select orchestras, radio stations, national and international arts organizations. Named collections within the HMRC include: Irving Feld Radio Dramas; UT Radio House Transcription Discs; Mary Henrietta Chase Collection of Bing Crosby Lacquer Discs; KUT open-reel tape; Longhorn Radio Network open-reel tape; KMFA "20th century Romantics"; Austin Symphony Orchestra; Houston Symphony Orchestra; HMRC-CDs; 16-inch transcription discs (general collection).
Content types:
Performed music, Sounds (Other than music & language), and Spoken word
Formats:
Pressed LP disc, Pressed 78rpm disc, Pressed 45rpm disc, Lacquer disc, Optical disc (including CD, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD, DVD-R, DVD-RW, VCD), Metal disc, LaserDisc, Cylinder, Analog audiocassette, Digital compact cassette, Digital Audio Tape (DAT), Polyester open reel tape, Acetate open reel tape, Motion picture film, VHS (including SVHS and VHS-C), Betamax, U-matic (including U-matic S), Text document, and Piano rolls
Extent:
300,000 items
Repository/Collector:
The University of Texas at Austin, Fine Arts Library
Papers of Dore Schary, a playwright, motion picture executive, and activist in Jewish and liberal political causes documenting both his personal and professional life. Included are general correspondence; microfilmed scrapbooks; scripts and production material for plays and motion pictures; records pertaining to MGM; non-dramatic writings, speeches (many in recorded form), and an autobiography and a family memoir; home movies and photographs; correspondence, reports, lists, financial records, and speeches from his tenure as national chairman of the Anti-Defamation League and subject files on other organizations with which he was involved such as the American Civil Liberties Union, the American Jewish Committee, and the Democratic Party; and personal and biographical information. Documentation in the production files varies but may include correspondence, notes, variant drafts of scripts, clippings, financial records, publicity, stills, designs, and casting information. Records of Schary's years as executive producer, studio head, and vice-president at MGM include reports of executive meetings, correspondence and memoranda, and scattered financial reports. Also present are papers pertaining to the career of Schary's wife Miriam, painter M. Svet. The collection is arranged in four parts: the Original Collection, the 1968 Additions, the 1977 Additions, and the 1981 Additions. The Original Collection dates 1923-1962 and is organized in these categories: Biographical and Personal Material, General Files, General Writings, and Production Files. The 1968 Additions date 1933-1952 and consist of Production Files only. The 1977 Additions date circa 1920-1980 (though primarily 1956-1977) and again contain Biographical and Personal Material, General Files, General Writings, and Production Files, as well as a new category, Anti-Defamation League Files. Finally, the 1981 Additions date 1924-1980 (primarily 1974-1980) and include the same categories as the 1977 Additions plus a separate category for Disc Recordings. The Original Collection includes other disc recordings, and tape recordings are present in all but the 1968 additions. Some records are present only in microfilm format.
Content types:
Still image, Two-dimensional moving image, and Spoken word
Formats:
Acetate open reel tape, Lacquer disc, Pressed LP disc, Photographic print, and Microfilm
Extent:
74.2 c.f. (203 archives boxes, 1 record center carton, and 1 flat box), 37 reels of microfilm (35 mm), 26 tape recordings, 231 disc recordings, 55 reels of film, and photographs
The Arthur B. Church KMBC Radio Collection contains multiple episodes of The Brush Creek Follies featuring the Rhythm Riders, Oklahoma Wranglers, and Midland Minstrels. Most of the collection is related to the events of WWII, FDR, and Harry Truman, D-Day invasion coverage, reports on the signing of treaties, the dropping of the atomic bomb, coverage of the activities of President Roosevelt and Eisenhower. Other highlights include broadcast about the Cold War, Harry Truman's speeches to a multitude of different groups, events at the White House, some of Roosevelt's fireside chats, national news coverage, film footage of KMBC's dedication as well as a segment of the Microphone Personalities, recordings of Pun and Punishment (9/22/60), coverage of Truman and Churchill at Fulton, MO, Churchill's famed "Iron Curtain" speech, recordings of the Texas Rangers. Also included are W.S. Hedge interviews Arthur B. Clarke (6/22/66), KMBC's 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins (3/24//48), Church's last KMBC broadcast (1/15/51).
Content types:
Performed music, Sounds (Other than music & language), Spoken word, and Two-dimensional moving image
Formats:
Pressed LP disc, Lacquer disc, Metal disc, and Motion picture film
The Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS) was established by the War Department on May 26, 1942 to entertain, inform and connect troops to back home. The broadcast were also intended to counter propaganda broadcasts by Tokyo Rose, Axis Sally and other radio personalities supported by the Axis alliance. The AFRS network was launched with a five hour broadcast on July 4, 1943. The network quickly grew and by the end of World War II included 300 stations, broadcasting to troops around the world. Programs were distributed to stations on 16" polyvinyl discs that contained fifteen minutes of information. Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Dinah Shore, Frank Sinatra and other major stars of the day performed on the network free of charge as their contribution to the war effort. Radio networks and record labels provided free access their programming and recordings to help develop programming for the network. In addition to bringing the troops programming from networks and the record labels, the service also created original programs like Jubilee which featured African American bands and entertainers. The AFRS network continued broadcasting through Korea, Vietnam and other subsequent wars and conflicts. Now known as the Armed Forces Network, the service continues to entertain servicemen and servicewomen stationed around the world.
The J. David Goldin Collection includes nearly 10,000 radio programs on 16" discs broadcast from the 1930s through the 1950s. The programs include variety shows, radio plays, political speeches, news programs, documentary programs, advertisements, and music programs.
Three Episodes of WNYC’s "Know Your City," 1949-1950 on five LPs. On this quiz show, New York City school children answer questions about their city. The quizmaster is "Aunt Edith," or Edith McGinnis, who went on to become Manhattan’s first Borough Historian. Topics include Flatbush, with John Cashmore, the Brooklyn Borough President, as a special guest; the history of labor in New York City; and the history of the retail industry in New York City.
We have a massive collection of about 50,000 recordings on CD and vinyl, in addition to both digital and tape airchecks spanning several decades. We also have program guides, advertisements, and station produced publications.
Content types:
Performed music, Spoken word, Still image, and Text
Formats:
Open reel tape (unknown material), Digital Audio Tape (DAT), Photographic print, Digital audio file (including MP3, WAV, AIFF, etc.), Pressed LP disc, Pressed 78rpm disc, Pressed 45rpm disc, Optical disc (Including CD, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD, DVD-R, DVD-RW, VCD), Analog audiocassette, MiniDisc, Text document, Printed brochure, and Printed magazine
The Packard collection includes approximately 2,500 discs created, produced, commissioned, or collected by Frederick C. Packard, Jr., during the years 1933-1963. The collection forms part of the Woodberry Poetry Room. While it does not contain a complete inventory of his work, the collection features substantial numbers of discs from all stages of the recording and production process, and constitutes the single-largest aggregate of his recordings of spoken literature. In addition to the discs he created for publication, the materials include rare outtakes; original recordings never reproduced or intended for commercial release; Harvard-related language lessons, lectures, sermons, theatrical, radio, and musical performances; and the voices of Harvard students and professors recorded in his role as Professor of Public Speaking. The collection also features listening copies that Packard (and Woodberry Poetry Room curator John Lincoln Sweeney) created based on exchanges he arranged with the Library of Congress, the British Broadcasting Corporation, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and Radio Éireann.
Content types:
Performed music and Spoken word
Formats:
Lacquer disc, Pressed LP disc, and Metal disc
Extent:
30 linear feet (90 boxes of discs, 17 boxes of original sleeves, and additional ephemera)
"The Bill Cosby Radio Program" was a daily syndicated radio series of roughly 5-minute comedy inserts by Cosby and produced by Frank Buxton (who also served as the show’s announcer and comedic "straight man"). Along with sound man Gene Twombly, Cosby and Buxton improvised the episodes, which were syndicated to more than 200 top-40 radio stations around the nation on transcription discs by The Coca-Cola Company and distributed by McCann-Erikson (Coke’s ad agency). The show marked the beginning of Cosby’s long association with Coca-Cola and was the debut of many characters from Cosby’s comedy. This collection features twelve radio broadcast transcription discs (one 12-inch disc and eleven 16-inch discs) of "The Bill Cosby Radio Program" containing programs #21-130 (1968 Jan 29-Jun 24) and programs #141-145 (1968 Jul 15). The disc labels contain the original program description and art.
Content types:
Spoken word
Formats:
Pressed LP disc
Extent:
12 items
Repository/Collector:
UMass Amherst Libraries, Special Collections & University Archives
The WTJU recorded music collections highlight a wide variety of rock, jazz, folk, world, and and classical music, with a focus on music not typically heard on commercial broadcast stations. WTJU also houses a largely haphazard variety of station documents, playlists, communications, flyers and other ephemera, and houses a good number of paintings by Steve Keene, a WTJU alum.
Content types:
Performed music, Still image, and Text
Formats:
Pressed LP disc, Pressed 45rpm disc, Optical disc, Analog audiocassette, Photographic print, Text document, and Other
Papers and recordings of radio personality and anchorman Mort Crim, known popularly as the inspiration for the Will Ferrell character in the Anchorman film. Crim was an alumnus of Anderson University and left his personal papers, recordings, and scripts to the University archives, where they are stored.
Content types:
Performed music, Sounds (Other than music & language), Spoken word, and Text
Formats:
Pressed LP disc, Pressed 78rpm disc, Pressed 45rpm disc, Optical disc (including CD, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD, DVD-R, DVD-RW, VCD), Analog audiocassette, 8-track cassette, VHS (including SVHS and VHS-C), Betamax, Betacam (including Betacam SP), U-matic (including U-matic S), Open reel video, Photographic print, and Text document
Dave Sichak is a collector and researcher of country music. His collection consists of a lot of materials related to radio broadcasting such as station produced publications - KMA Guide, KWTO Dial, WIBW Round-Up, and WRVA Dialog, periodicals - Radio Varieties and Rural Radio, and yearbook and souvenir booklets - WLS Family Album. The collection also has sound recordings, books, and photographs.
Content types:
Text, Still image, and Performed music
Formats:
Pressed LP disc, Pressed 78rpm disc, Photographic print, and Text document
Extent:
20 linear feet
Repository/Collector:
Georgia State University Special Collections and Archives
The Don Kennedy papers contain writings, audio recordings, photographs, printed materials, and awards related to Kennedy's television and radio broadcasting career. The bulk of the materials relate to the production of the Big Band Jump radio shows between 1989 and 2013. These include scripts, cue sheets, newsletters, and broadcast masters of the weekly programs. The papers include some full-length interviews with musicians and other big band-era figures that were subsequently edited for broadcast. The collection also includes promotional and photographic materials from his work with television station WATL-TV, 1976-1978; radio stations WKLS FM, 1960-1970, and the Georgia Network, 1972-1982; as well as his time as children's television host "Officer Don," 1956-1969.
Content types:
Performed music, Spoken word, Still image, Text, and Two-dimensional moving image
Formats:
Pressed LP disc, Optical disc (Including CD, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD, DVD-R, DVD-RW, VCD), MiniDisc, Analog audiocassette, Digital Audio Tape (DAT), Photographic print, and Text document
Extent:
22 linear feet, 640 Optical discs, 300 Pressed LP discs
Repository/Collector:
Georgia State University Special Collections and Archives
The Wayne W. Daniel collection contains manuscript copies of his definitive book on the history of country music in Atlanta, Pickin' on Peachtree, research materials, audio cassette recordings of oral histories, black and white photographs, film posters, event announcement posters, posters of musicians, commercial audio recordings, commercial video recordings, and noncommercial video recordings.
Content types:
Text, Still image, Spoken word, Performed music, and Two-dimensional moving image
Formats:
Pressed LP disc, Pressed 78rpm disc, Pressed 45rpm disc, Optical disc, Analog audiocassette, VHS, Photographic print, Photographic negative, and Text document
Extent:
58 linear feet
Repository/Collector:
Georgia State University Special Collections and Archives