Old Time Radio Christmas
The Christmas season reminds us of sparkling Christmas trees, roasting chestnuts, delicious foods, and special time with family and loved ones. Next to a warm fire, cozy with loved ones and hot chocolate in hand, the holidays are one of the best times to listen to old time radio shows. This time of year is celebrated in the vast collection of old time radio Christmas recording. Many traditional Christmas stories and films were adapted to radio, including It’s a Wonderful Life, A Christmas Carol, Holiday Inn, Miracle of 34th Street, Gift of the Magi, and have been broadcast and repeated many times on radio.
There are many memorable Christmas old time radio shows. In Santa and the Wicked Pirate aired on radio December 22, 1942, George Burns and Gracie Allen worry that a knife sharpening neighbor fowl-napped that their duck, Herman. On the Jack Benny program, Jack Buys Don Shoe Laces For Christmas aired December 8th, 1946, the notoriously parsimonious Benny questions whether to buy Don plastic or metal tipped shoelaces. In the children’s adventure serial Cinnamon Bear, the extra Irish bear Paddy O’Cinnamon takes a trip to Maybeland and meets a wonderful assortment of fantasy creatures including a dragon, a giant, a witch, a whale, a queen, a rhyming rabbit, a magician among others.
The Basics of Satellite Radio Systems
Satellite radio systems are the consumer’s access to space-based audio technology, offering uncensored, commercial-free programming that comes in crystal clear no matter where you are. But how do they actually work?
The most basic explanation is as follows: programming is transmitted to a communications space satellite, which beams a digital signal back to earth. The signal is encrypted, so it can only be picked up by special proprietary equipment. The signal can be broadcast across more than 22,000 miles and received by the end user with absolutely no degradation in clarity or sound quality.
But the basics are only a small part of what makes satellite radio systems work. Many innovations and the use of cutting-edge communications technology have brought digital radio a long way from where it began just over a decade ago.
Digital radio was actually operating in the early 1990s, with Washington-based Worldspace Corp. providing fixed-location satellite radio to Europe, Asia, and parts of Africa. However the technology didn’t take off in the US until 1992, when the Federal Communications Commission established the Digital Audio Radio Service (DARS) which allocated certain segments of radio frequency for satellite broadcast.
A Brief Overview of Satellite Radio
Broadcasting digital radio via satellite is not something new and concepts of doings this have been with us for a few years. From the early days of satellite radio, companies like Dish Network have offered digital audio channels as part of their programs. The breakthrough in popularity of satellite radio, however, happened just recently, when the technology became more permissive. Satellite radio was very rare on moving locations, such as boats or cars, mostly because there was the need for some expensive equipment – a tracking dish. This was a strong deterrent which kept satellite radio quite unknown by the general public. Today, however, one can receive digital audio satellite broadcasts by using a small, GPS-like antenna. This greatly increased the feasibility of the satellite radio systems and more and more vehicle owners began considering satellite radios as a good source of music and news.
The birth of satellite radio in the United States
When the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) allocated a spectrum in the “S” band (2.3 GHz) for the broadcasting of digital radio services in 1992 no one thought the amplitude that the system would take in the future. From the initial Digital Audio Radio Service (DARS) things progressed until two companies were given licenses to broadcast digital radio in 1997. These two were American Mobile Radio (today known as XM Satellite Radio) and CD Radio (presently called Sirius Satellite Radio). The fact that satellite radio is nationwide makes it a very attractive media channel, both for commercial and non-profit organizations. The two companies that initiated the development of satellite radio saw the huge potential it had, since it wasn’t confined by the limitations of other terrestrial broadcasters.