Barrie Craig’s a real smart-ass. The guy, a private detective, drives me crazy with the way he talks, the language he uses and the crowd he runs with.
Matt Cvetic isn’t like that at all; he’s an undercover agent. He never calls attention to himself.
I’ve never met either of them, but I know them well. They’re both old-time radio characters who pop up on such sites as 1610 AM, a website that originally started broadcasting out of Everett about six years ago before its creator, Paul Erickson, moved it to a virtual server at a data center in Los Angeles.
A Honey Do
Erickson, of Everett, is a classical guitarist who finds time to handle information technology duties for the Everett Housing Authority. His dive into the world of old-time radio came at the request of his wife, JoAnne, who wanted to listen to old shows while going through treatment for cancer in 2010.
“He knew I was going to have down time. He and I talked about that,” JoAnne said. “I remember radio. I was alive when radio was going strong. There’s something magical about it.”
Paul went about acquiring a couple thousand old radio shows. With his ham radio experience, he cobbled together a simple way to listen to them on a radio. He bought a used transmitter on eBay. All the shows were MP3s that he streamed into the 100 milliwatt transmitter. The signal was injected into the neutral wire of the electrical system in the house, “basically to get it to play on the little radio in the house,” for JoAnne, Paul said.
Hence the AM name of the station. Paul used power lines to send out the signal a little farther than 400 square feet. “I could go about a block or two away … it was about as good as it would do.
“I think it was 2011 when I brought it to the web.”
Paul checks on the site everyday, and says his audience can be as low as two people and as high as 100 at any given time.
“People get unhappy when it goes down,” he said. “It keeps them company.”
Old-time radio keeps my wife and me company while it plays in the background on our iPad during the night. If I can’t sleep, I just close my eyes and listen to the mess Johnny Dollar or Philip Marlowe have gotten themselves into.
It’s not breaking news; I get enough of that in my job as a Herald copy editor. But it is entertainment of a unique kind. It’s also a hoot.
The golden age
Many of the movie stars of yesteryear also made a splash in radio. There are many shows to choose from, but a few stand out to me:
The Voyage of the Scarlet Queen: The Queen is a sailing ketch, with master Philip Carney (Elliott Lewis) at the helm. It’s on a mission to deliver goods from San Francisco to the Orient and encounters all kinds of trouble. Action-packed adventure.
The Lives of Harry Lime: Orson Welles at his best, “War of the Worlds” not withstanding. Welles, as conniver Harry Lime, delivers. It’s a radio prequel to the excellent movie “The Third Man.” Great stuff.
Gunsmoke: What a Western ought to be, with William Conrad as Federal Marshal Matt Dillon, and Parley Baer as his trusty helper, Chester Proudfoot.
Advertising, too
Sometimes Jack Webb (“Dragnet”) smokes Fatima. Other times, he smokes Chesterfields. Comedian Red Skelton was a Raleigh fan. Big Tobacco was all over radio back in the day. The commercials for cigarettes back then are fascinating.
Other products get plugged as well. For Roy Rogers, it was Quaker Oats and Post Sugar Crisps, buckaroos. Signal Oil lubed the wheels of “The Whistler.” And Lux Flakes soap products presented the very cool “Lux Radio Theatre.” That program featured movie productions brought to the small speaker, many with the same stars from the movies.
Back in the day
I can only imagine what it was like when families would gather around the radio and be entertained by such programs. It was an everyday thing for Jean Slick, 84, who grew up in Carmichael, Saskatchewan, and now makes her home in north Everett. She would race home from school to catch such soap operas as “Ma Perkins,” and was particularly fond of the music played by a trio led by Nat King Cole. Her dad enjoyed catching the Friday night fights from Madison Square Garden.
“The sound effects were just amazing,” she said about the radio shows. “You really had to use your imagination … to visualize what was going on.”
Beside soaps, her favorites included “Lux Radio Theatre,” “Grand Ole Opry” and all of the comedies.
“You felt like you were there,” when listening, Slick said. “And the commercials were great fun, too.”
Art Nerheim, 79, agrees.
Nerheim, of Everett, grew up in Oakland and said his family would tune into “The Standard Hour” to listen to classical music in the San Francisco Bay area. When he got his own radio at age 10, Red Skelton and Jack Benny became his must-listen-tos.
He also enjoyed visualizing the characters and action. Nerheim said he thought of Marshal Dillon of “Gunsmoke” as a big guy. In fact, Conrad, a short, tubby kind of guy, portrayed the radio character and he played it to the hilt.
“A lot of stuff on TV becomes numbing to the mind. Radio never did,” Nerheim said.
‘Very personal’
Larry and Billie Moore, who both grew up in Everett, have distinct memories of radio. Larry, 91, was Mr. Moore as my sixth-grade teacher at Madison Elementary and as my wife’s counselor at South Junior High.
Larry remembers when his dad would find stations broadcasting from San Francisco and other West Coast sites. Programs such as “One Man’s Family” and “I Love a Mystery” in addition to Jack Benny and Fred Allen were on his list of favorites.
He likened radio to reading a book. “It’s a very personal thing. You had to attend to it. You got to visualize what was going on.”
Billie, 88, was a fan of “Gunsmoke” and also recalls a day of infamy.
“I have a memory of sitting and listening and hearing about Pearl Harbor. I was scared about that. I remember crawling over to my dad” for comfort, she said.
“Everyone heard that on radio,” Larry said. “That was probably the biggest event we heard on radio.”
Sheldon Lewis, 82, who grew up in Brooklyn also lives in north Everett. He got hooked through his mom.
“My mother was addicted to the soap operas — ‘Our Gal Sunday’ and ‘The Romance of Helen Trent.’ ”
Lewis said the radio was always on around supper time when he was growing up. There was only one radio in the house.
“The one thing that radio did was let my mind wander way out,” he said. “You don’t get that from TV. It stretched my imagination. It never hurts to think about fantasy. It’s kind of like escapism. There’s a lot to escape from in this day and age.”
Bill Pedigo, 425-339-3099; bpedigo@heraldnet.com.
Listen and escape
It’s easy to get into whatever you’re listening to, be it the doings of “Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator” or the circumstances Matt Cvetic encounters in “I Was a Communist for the FBI.” And escaping to old-time radio is a lot easier in the Internet age. 1610 AM is one of a bunch of sites that offer streaming services. Search for “old-time radio” to jump in and let your mind wander.
On the web: http://www.radio1610.us
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