BRC BROADCAST SERVICES
P.O. BOX 158

DEARBORN HEIGHTS, MI 48127-0158

This of course, is  Bob’s BRC BROADCAST update!
My world consists of everything broadcasting and audio, past and present.

PRESENT DAY RADIO…

I remain an Engineer at Specs Howard School in Southfield (now part time).   A lot of details of my life have changed as a result of this status.  For example, I’ve become more active with Southfield Public Schools’ WSHJ-FM, where I am the designated Chief Engineer, and there’s a small resurgence of my “old-time” radio interests.

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THIS BLOG SITE WILL CONTINUE IN A LIMITED CAPACITY.

My former co-worker, and former Marketing Manager at Specs Howard, Shelly Maki was mostly to blame for setting this up and giving me the first nudge for creating some content.   Shelly was a bright spot at Specs and a creative dynamo!  So thanks Shelly for that “nudge” and for being who you are. You are missed.

If I’m half-way-decent at what I do, I always attribute my best work to the people who I’ve been lucky enough to work with.  They don’t necessarily have to TEACH me anything – sometimes just a 
 

hint of encouragement is all it takes.  Or if they have an idea or particular style I like, I will sometimes borrow it and try to make it even better.   This list of people for me has gotten too long to list.  Sometimes they come back from the past to re-visit.  That continues to happen.  When it happens, I realize how important they were and perhaps still are. 

TOPICS TOPICS TOPICS!
You gotta have topics for a radio show or a blog site.  I’ve been in radio in some form for all my adult life, but I have a lot of opinions and thoughts on other more mainstream stuff as well.  I’m not sure what my next hot topic we’ll be.  Perhaps readers can suggest one.

SUPPLEMENT #3 (old-time radio) FOR 2012 IS READY.  Copies are available from my Facebook site:  Facebook.com/bobdoesradio   It includes Kraft Music Hall with Al Jolson, Suspense, Sherlock Holmes, Jack Benny and others. All shows are recently re-mastered to digital formats.  

HISTORY: BRC was begun as a mail order business by Bob Burnham in about 1976. We originally offered reel to reel and cassette tapes of old-time radio shows to the general public.  The logo, in use for over 20 years, resembles a fully restored 1936 Atwater-Kent model 356 “tombstone” style radio which is in our office.  I’m is also a broadcast engineer “at large” based in Detroit.

NAME CHANGE: BRC PRODUCTIONS is now BRC BROADCAST SERVICES!  This applies to ordering all old-time radio or nostalgia products and services.  This became effective June 2012.

OLD WEBSITES TAKEN DOWN:  All past websites are No Longer Active. This includes both brcradio and brcproductions.

CURRENT DOMAIN:  Still active is brcbroadcast however, there is NOT yet a website behind the e-mail.

E-MAIL CONTACT:  You may contact us at [email protected].

NO FAX OR VOICE:  We have also discontinued past fax and business office numbers.

MAILING LIST:  We snail mail printed old-time radio supplements about four times per year.  We can also e-mail via .pdf format.  There is no cost, however, we appreciate an occasional order.

FREE SHOWS:  BRC Broadcast maintains a free public dropbox from which free shows or other special audio can be obtained.  Although complete shows may be included, these are intended as samples to our CD or mp3 products.

DROPBOX:         Links will be provided as they are added. There is no cost or obligation to playing or downloading any of these shows.  Click on any link to access.

Some of the free audio currently available is:

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/19032620/Suspense%20excerpt.mp3

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/19032620/AU_REVOIR_SHOW_CLOSE_Ben_Bernie.mp3

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/19032620/SUSPENSE_301_08-05-1948_An_Honest_Man_Charles_Laughton.mp3

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/19032620/SUSPENSE_741_03-09-1958_The_Chain.mp3

CONVENTIONS:  Periodically, we make product available at a reduced price at selected conventions.  Those conventions are determined on an individual basis and may change from year to year.  This will be announced in our supplements.   

SPECIAL REQUESTS:            Although we maintain an archive of over 15,000 of the most popular (and not so popular) shows, we do not generally do custom recording.  This is due to the multi-step digital restoration process that all shows are given before they are made available. 
 

This legendary ABC Radio broadcaster (70 years in the business) has died at age 90. 

Paul Harvey wore a sportcoat and tie to work everyday just because he felt it helped him to "keep his edge."

Maybe so.  He represented the end of an era where you couldn't get on radio unless you worked at it.... for YEARS...and YEARS... and especially when many didn't even make it on the air unless they were the best of the best.

The guy was a legendary daytime staple at half the stations where I worked.  At some stations, he got tape delayed, but the show always ran, and the outcue was always....   


 "Paul Harvey....<long pause> Good Day!"

It sometimes sounded like he was chuckling under his breath during the close.

We all loved to do imitations of him, but if you actually listened to the show, you got hooked on his style and his no-nonsense approach to news as well as lighter stories.

The comedy skit we might have laughed at (but not at Harvey's expense) is a program of all bad news (as there seems to be so much of today) and the show would end:


"Paul Harvey.... <VERY long pause>  Bad Day!"

He was not afraid of controversy and the show was decidedly upbeat from the very opening:

"Hello Americans!  This is Paul Harvey!  Stand by...  for News!"

The inflection on "news" almost made him sound giddy with excitment that here he was getting set to open another show.

Maybe you thought he was a goof, but once you got into the content of the show, you could tell that here was a hard-core serious broadcast journalist who simply had that extra flair that no one else had.

Paul Harvey...<pause> ...you rocked the broadcast world.  Thanks for your years of dedication.  Good Day!