"Calling Roy Rogers Up To the Mike"

When I was a little girl, my dad had what I thought was the most amazing radio in the world.
It had the regular AM stations, but it also had a shortwave band. Sometimes he would turn on the shortwave and we listened to what sounded like Chinese, and other strange and wonderful languages.
Mostly, it wasn't anything that we could understand, but it was sure a lot of fun listening to it anyway.
The radio had a big bright green "eye" that would get wider and narrower as he tuned it in to the station. Sometimes, the radio made really weird sounds as he was finding the station and getting it tuned in.

My favorite singer was (of course) Roy Rogers, and I loved it when the announcer at KSPT, our local radio station, would say that they were "calling Roy Rogers up to the mic".
I envisioned the radio station with all the singers just sitting around there in chairs, waiting to be "called up to the mic".

One day, my dad had to go to the station, and asked if I wanted to go along. I was beside myself with joy ! Roy Rogers !
I was going to see Roy Rogers, and maybe even watch him sing.
I could hardly wait to get there ! !

When we got there, we walked inside, and I looked around, but there were NO singers, and NO Roy Rogers, anywhere.
Finally, I tugged on Daddy's sleeve, and whispered "Where is Roy Rogers at ?"
He gave me a blank look, so I had to explain that I wanted to meet Roy Rogers and watch him sing. How disappointed I was when Watt Moreland ( the announcer) gently explained to me that none of the singers were really there, and he was just playing records.

Radio was never the same for me again.....

 

There was a time when radio stations -- the larger ones anyhow -- did actually have performers in the station from time to time, but that would have been for interviews, I believe, rather than for the music itself. I grew up with radio, as we didn't get a television until I was in high school and, even then, we had only one station that would come in reliably. I would lie under my blankets at night with my little transistor radio, listening to the radio shows. Yes, I can remember too, when I believes these people were actually at the station. I can remember too, being legitimately confused whenever "The F.B.I." series came on television because it was always introduced as, "The FBI... In Color," and it was never in color. I was in high school already then and it took me a while to realize that it wouldn't be in color on a black and white television.

 

I remember hurrying in from whatever games i was playing , so I could listen to the radio programs with my family. Most of the daily shows, I don't remember anymore, and of course, that was also how they listened to the news of the day (really news back then, too); but we listened to The Cisco Kid & Pancho, which I just loved to listen to . I still remember their famous "Aaayy, Cisco(Ceesko)" and "Si (See), Pancho" that usually started out the snow in one way or another.
Even after television sets became popular, my folks didn't get one until I was 13-14 years old, so we still listened to the radio instead.
At night, we had a radio request program called "Partyline", and you could call the station and request a son, and also dedicate it to someone if you wanted to do that. I think that all of the younger teenages listened to Partyline, and waited for our "request" to be played. I am sure that we kept that radio announcer busy looking for some of the old songs that we asked for.

 

Dragnet began as a radio show (1949-1957), and there was one about the FBI, although I don't know if it was the precursor to the TV show. Then there was Amos 'n' Andy, one you'll never see in syndication. There were a few westerns, including Gunsmoke, which began as a radio show, and Laramie. I can't remember most of them but I'd lie under my blanket with my transistor radio listening to this stuff.

 

I remember listening to Dragnet, too; and later it made the transition to television, just like Amos and Andy did.
They made a little teeny-weeny transister radio that looked like a rocket ship, and at the very top was a tiny antenna that pulled out. You actually controlled the station by how far out you pulled the antenna. Of course, in our tiny town, there was only ONE station; so that was all my "rocket radio" picked up.
I think it must have been powered with a small battery that went in at the bottom of the rocket ship. There was not much volume, and I don't even remember how you controlled volume, or even if I could control it. But it worked fine for listening to the radio under the covers after i went to bed.
Of course, our radio station went off the air at 11PM; so if I was not asleep by then, that ended the radio listening.
Later, I had one of the larger transister radios that had an antenna/handle so you could carry the radio around, and then tune in stations by turning the handle just right.

 

When we got television, we had only one television station that we could reach, but we had a bunch of radio stations, and the ones that stayed on all night were the ones carrying the radio series.