My definition of an air check is a station break during which the announcer gives the name, call letters and location of the radio station over which an episode is being broadcast. These are very rare, and looking for OTR episodes that have one is like going on a treasure hunt. I find it exciting to come across one because they give the listener an opportunity to imagine what it would have been like to listen to the episode at that particular time in history on that particular radio station.

There is a way to have some fun with this distro. In the list below, I will give all the information I have about the series, episode title and date of each show but will not reveal the air check. Instead, at the end of each episode description I will place in brackets the time during the program when the air check occurs. So if you see [1:24] or [14:46] you will know the exact minute and second to be on the alert for. If you want to, you can make a list of these 9 shows and the stations over which they were aired, save it and add to it when you happen upon more shows with air checks.

Notes: (1) The file that contains Edith Adams' Future also has We Are Always Young on it. You will need to wait about 10-15 seconds after the Edith Adams episode is finished, then you will hear the air check for We Are Always Young soon thereafter; (2) None of the files contain series or episode titles and dates, so I will list them below in the order in which I will send them out tomorrow and Wednesday. If you find any that do not match up, all you have to do is listen to the episode to learn which one it is. I hope that will not occur, but to err is human.

Now for the list:

1. "Nightmare" from Murder at Midnight (11/4/46). [0:25]

2. "Inditement" from Inditement [0:01]

3. Edith Adams' Future (7/25/41) [14:46]

4. We Are Always Young (7/25/41) [16:32] on same file.

5. "Bob Chester Orchestra" (9/21/39) [26:52]

6. National Barn Dance [1:24]

7. Grand Old Opry [25:53]

8. Counterspy (7/27/42) [0:12]

9. "Switchboard Secrets" from Front Page Drama (11/19/33) [0:26]. Note: The air check here gives only the name of the network, but I think the episode is worth including because almost nobody has ever heard of the network and it will be nice to have a show that was aired over it.

Larry