BEFORE WE HAD T.V.

Joanne- My husband recently bought some state of the art hi-fi equipment, that had tubes in it. Many hi-fi afficionados believe that the tube "sound" is much more natural that the sound produced by transistorized equipment!

Phoenix
I remember when transistor radios were first introduce. I thought the sound coming from them sounded flat, or muffled. Since then, I have no reference for the new sounds.

edgarblythe- The "tube sound" is supposed to be sweeter than transistorized sound, which tends to sound a tad electronic.

BTW, my husband bought a brand new, and very expensive turntable, to replace one that had died. If you are not "into" hi-fi, you would be shocked to know the prices of those things!

My wife bought me a system with a turntable about three years ago. They are pricey.

Yes, Phoenix, the turntable systems are getting high end. And now that we know CDs will wear out records might have a comeback.

When I saw that old system on Sat., and opened the doors where the old albums used to be put I almost felt as though I was back in CO dancing around my aunt and uncle's living room listening to Oklahoma on 78s. I cannot remember how many records were int he album but there were only one or two songs on each side.

Phoenix and Edgar I guess there might be some truth to the sound being better with tubes. I remember how tinny the transistor radios used to sound.

Then we moved to Hi-fi then stereo. I wonder if CDs only sounded better at first because vinyl quality was not so good in the 80s?

The last vinyl records I bought were apt to skip. Poor quality for sure. I kept all the records I could from1958 til now and still look for them in resale shops.

The costs of vinyl were going up not just in the price of an album but the price of new needles all the time. And then what seemed like long play at one time got to be getting up every 20 or 30 minutes to turn the record over.

When CDs first came out I remember one favorite actually played about an hour without changing. Then came the CD players where you could put in three to five CDs and listen for hours. I guess that was part of their allure.

I have CD sets of multiple disks that play for countless hours. I love that about them. Still, many of my records have never been available on CD, that I know of, so I will always need a turntable.

Wow, this thread should be in some kind of A2K time capsule or hall of fame or something. The topic is really interesting of course, but the bonus extra cool part was seeing all the people who are no longer with us anymore just jabbering away like they never left. Very interesting.

This was always one of my favorite topics.

Hi Edgar. This is the first time I've seen this thread and glad that Kicky bumped it back up to page 1! I concur that seeing some of the folks, who sadly aren't with us anymore (except in old threads), is wonderful to see again.


I can remember watching The Rifleman as a kid. Thought it was great, along with a lot of other shows that we can talk about.

In regards to radio, I can't really remember too much of the early years, as I was born in 1951 and didn't come to Canada until 1956. I do remember some of the early transistor radios though. they were quite the marvel when they were introduced.

Be talking some more here........

Good, reyn. I could stand to go over the old days of entertainment yet again. As a kid I avidly accepted most any entertainment, such as radio or movies, as a means of escape from a dreary childhood. I listened to crap such as The Story Lady, and Big John and Sparky, and Bobby Benson's B Bar B Riders every day, before going outside to play.
The story lady played records, many from cartoons, some from comedic kids' entertainers, such as the guy that played Mr Greenjeans on TV. He did one skit called Little Orly and the Cabbage Worm.
Next, Big John was the host and he did the voices for a stable of characters, incuding Sparky, the little elf who wanted more than anything else to be a real live boy.
Bobby Benson was a kid on a ranch. He sang a song called Amigo, to his horse. One character on there, Wendy, was played by Don Knotts.

Hmm, I can't say I know any of the ones you've mentioned.

I'll not be able to comment much on old radio, but I'm better at old TV shows and movies.

I can remember seeing shows like "Have Gun, Will Travel" with Richard Boone. Definitely a family favourite at the time. And, of course, shows like "The Jackie Gleason Show", "The Honeymooners", "Rin Tin Tin", "Lassie", and all the old comics. For example, Laurel and Hardy, Chaplin, Three Stooges, etc.

That's for openers....

Have Gun Will Travel is a particular favorite of mine. I have a video tape of the first episode, an "origin" episode, and a couple of others.

In the origin episode, Richard Boone played two parts. There was a character called "Smoke" who wore the same garb that Richard Boone's character came to wear. Richard Boone's character was wasting his life, but Smoke got him on the right track. He adopted Smoke's way of dress and took the name Palladin. It was actually a weaker episode than many others.

listen to a lot of old time radio on xm, love the great guildersleeves, burns and allen, fibber mc gee and molly, i actually listen to way more radio or podcasts than anything else these days, i watch maybe about 4 hours of news each week, and maybe a couple of hours of other programming in the week, whereas i listen to about 9 hours of radio a day, and i can do it while i'm doing other things

i also listen to a lot of audio books, listening to the harry potter series for about the fourth time now

My alltime favorite radio shows are, Gunsmoke, The Whistler, The Great Gildersleve, and X-Minus One. Close seconds are Lone Ranger, Cisco Kid, I Love a Mystery, Life of Riley, Ozzie and Harriet, Dragnet.

the xm channel has gunsmoke on every once in a while, it's pretty good, i've heard the life of riley a few times as well

Do you like the old comedy movies? I sure would like to see them again (without having to pay for a specialty channel).

I have many fond memories of Laurel and Hardy, Three Stooges, Abbot and Costello, Keystone Kops.

love the three stooges and our gang, hard to find decent dvd's some of them are really crappy transfers