1929-31 Radio – Phantom Dancer 4 Feb 2020

Because of a fractured leg I haven’t been able to bring you The Phantom Dancer non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio LIVE.

This week’s 4 February Phantom Dancer on radio and online is the first live mix for the new twenties and the feature artist is earliest jazz radio from transcriptions recorded between January 1929 and 1931.

The Phantom Dancer with actor and 1920s-30s singer Greg Poppleton can be heard online now at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/

The last hour is all vinyl.

ELECTRICAL TRANSCRIPTIONS

Commercial recordings made ‘electrically’, that is, recording music and voice using microphones, first appeared on the market in 1924. By 1929, they had superceded the original acoustic technology by which sound was recorded onto disc or cylinder using a horn.

In 1928, the first radio programs were transcribed electrically. The sound of these early radio transcriptions were often better than the sound on commercial records.

They were 78 rpm discs which played 5 minutes of programming. As you’ll hear on this week’s Phantom Dancer, this often meant the end of a music piece was chopped or quickly faded.

In the first set, you’ll hear the transcription end mid song for the Coon-Sanders Nighthawks, with the orchestra resuming mid-song, slightly fasted and after the musicians had obviously moved to complete the program.

Six five minute discs made up a half-hour show.

Here is The Phantom Dancer Video of the Week, the 1930s short ‘Behind the Mike’, showing our radio dramas are made while advertising cars. enjoy!

Make sure you come back to this blog, Greg Poppleton’s Radio Lounge, every Tuesday, for the newest Phantom Dancer play list and Video of the Week!

4 FEBRUARY PLAY LIST