Radio Earthquakes, Rural Basketball, Less News

Here's a very short post with links to three recent pieces for other sites:

1. How the 2001 Nisqually Quake rocked LIVE RADIO in Seattle (for the SeattlePI.com), including in-studio video re-enactments by Dave Ross of KIRO and Steve Scher of KUOW.

2. A surprising "discovery" of rural high school basketball on the air near Spokane, WA, for the Aircheck Blog at the Western States Museum of Broadcasting.

3. Ruminations for Crosscut.com on KPLU recently dropping hourly NPR newscasts.

That's all for now . . .

And Now For Something Not Completely Different: More BBC Cover Art

As promised, here are more covers of BBC Hand Books/Year Books from the World War II era (and immediately afterward). I don't have a complete set of dustjackets, and am missing the middle years of the war (if you have the dustjackets for 1942, 1943 and/or 1944, please let me know--I'd love to see the artwork and include in a subsequent post--please scan and send my way if you can).

It's interesting to examine the progression in how the war was perceived, as depicted on these covers.

The earliest edition shown here (from January 1940) is fairly obvious in its depiction of common implements of the Phoney War--a radio (though not one of a size you'd likely carry with you over to France), a helmet, a kit bag. By January 1941, one could argue the war (which had taken a turn for the worse in the previous months) isn't even acknowledged, though the radio tower seems to be the only source of light (hope, optimism, etc.) for the otherwise darkened globe.

By January 1945 (in spite of the Battle of the Bulge), the Allies are well on their way to victory, and the cover art already looks pretty victorious.

The 1946 edition is, perhaps, the most haunting--a solitary dove of peace takes flight above a bombed-out city. By 1947, the cover art is almost jubilant, with fairy musicians floating about and above the crowded London streets (though if you look closely, you'll see that a "lorry" has pinned a pedestrian on the street in front of Broadcasting House--not sure what that's all about).

For more radio-related cover art, please check out these earlier I STILL LOVE RADIO posts:

THE ART OF RADIO

RADIO WITH PICTURES

REMAINDERS: MORE RADIO COVER ART

The Art of Radio: 1930s BBC Year Books

I recently came upon a collection of annual books published by the BBC beginning in 1928. Known (varyingly) as "year books," "hand books" or "annuals," they were issued every year from the late 1920s to the early 1950s, and then for another 20 years or so from the mid 1950s to the mid 1970s.

The books contain a wealth of (okay, probably biased!) information about BBC programming, engineering and management as well as some terrific historical context. The earliest editions also feature some terrific period advertising for radios and non-broadcasting related products and organizations.

While the written material is a great resource for anyone interested in BBC history, the artwork featured on the covers (of the dustjacket, or "dustwrapper" as they say in the UK) in the first two decades is absolutely unbelievable.

Please enjoy this sampling of covers from the early 1930s. I'll plan on posting some additional covers from the WWII years later.