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In future I'll post new posts here. There's a few there already.

The Blue And The Gray (fragment) 1955

The Blue And The Gray
9th November 1955
Written and produced by Charles Chilton
(last 3 minutes only)

I just remembered I also have a fragment of another Charles Chilton work. The rest of the reel seemed to have been recorded over sometime in the 60's but this remained at the end.  I know that the music from the show was released as a Decca LP in 1961 but I don't know if they used audio from the show or re-recorded it.

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Blood On The Prairie (half an episode) 1963

Blood On The Prairie
Episode 1 (2nd half only)
19th March 1963
(14 minutes)

Written & Produced by Charles Chilton.
The series was 13 episodes.  This is the 2nd half of the first episode, the first half having being recorded over.

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Charles Chilton (who died last week at the age of 95) is of course best known for the radio serials Journey Into Space which ran from 1953 to 1958.  Before this (from 1949 to 1953) he did 6 series of "Riders Of The Range" set in the old wild west.  He returned to a wild west theme with Blood On The Prairie in 1963.  Unfortunately whoever recorded this off air (in wonderful quality I might add) went and recorded over the first half of the episode, but this at least gives us a little taster of one of Chilton's other works.

The Chip Shop, 31st March 1984

This is the only other recording I have of The Chip Shop, from another of my old cassettes...

"The Chip Shop"
Presented by Barry Norman
BBC Radio 4
Saturday, 31st March 1984, Programme 12

(11:12) I had the complete 25 minute show for a couple of years but then copied these highlights onto another tape before re-using the tape.

This weeks show reports from the 9th West Coast Computer Faire in San Francisco.  Includes a speech by Bill Gates who Barry Norman says sounds like Kermit!  Also includes talk by Andy Goldberg of Lexisoft talking about their word processor "Spellbinder", Larry Tesla of Apple talks about software that'll tell you if a piece of writing has enough impact.  Then there's a feature on the DECtalk speech synthesizer (it's the one Professor Stephen Hawking uses) with its different voices, and it can even sing!

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 [The broadcast date is a guess. The 9th West Coast Computer Faire was 22-25th March so the earliest possible date for the show would be 24th March but I feel that's too soon and 31st March is more likely.]

Radio Moscow, 19th August 1991

Radio Moscow
"The First Decision issued by the State of Emergency Committee"
19th August 1991 / 1107GMT
14.5Mhz (Approx. It was only a little radio with a not very accurate dial.)
(15 minutes)

Another one from one of my cassettes.  I recorded this on the first day of the August Putsch, a coup attempt (19-21 Aug 1991) which although short-lived is widely considered to have contributed to the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Instead of their normal programming Radio Moscow were broadcasting classical music which they'd interrupt occasionally to give this message.

More info on the coup on wikipedia.

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The Chip Shop, 14th Jan 1984

This isn't from a reel, and I didn't find it as I never lost it, but it definitely fits the category of old recordings you thought you'd never hear again.  This is from one of my older cassettes that survived not being recorded over (apart from the first few minutes) ...

"The Chip Shop"
Presented by Barry Norman
BBC Radio 4
Saturday, 14th Jan 1984, Programme 01

(22:29) Incomplete - the first 2:48 of the cassette was recorded over.

- The recording starts with a piece about teenage programmers and whether they're getting a fair deal.
- Barry Norman announces the Chip Shop takeaway service where software will be broadcast on Radio 4 late at night using a new language called Basicode, an idea started by the Dutch. He interviews Dutch broadcaster Jonathan Marks to talk about it.
- William Horsley talks about Japan's significance in the computer market & Robin Webster talks from Silicon Valley.
- Jane Bird (editor of Personal Computer World) talks about the latest news. This week talking about the launch of the Sinclair QL.
- Limerick competition.
- Tessa Shaw goes to the BBC's Radiophonic Workshop and talks to Nick [2nd name not mentioned] to find out how the shows signature tune was done.

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Incidentally I diligently recorded all the basicode programs (broadcast late at night after the shipping forecast) and sent off for the software. When the cassette arrived it included the software for a whole variety of computers including some pretty obscure ones but there was no version for one of the most popular computers the Spectrum. Since I had a Spectrum I was pretty annoyed.  I got a refund on the Basicode cassette and taped over the programs I'd been recording.  What a waste of time that was!  I have no idea if a Spectrum version was written at a later date but by then the moment had passed.

Alan Dell - A Date With The Forties

"A Date With The Forties"
BBC Light Programme, 18th September 1967, 2130-2200
Alan Dell presents half an hour of Glenn Miller.

This is followed by a minute and a half of the start of "Emery At Large" (Series 3, episode 8.)

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