News Talk 1540 KXCL, where Iowa comes to talk and good morning.
A new edition of Nostalgia Digest is out.
We're joined by the publisher of that magazine, which comes out quarterly, Steve Darnall, who you also hear on Radio's Golden Age.
Sunday nights here on News Talk 1540 KXCL.
It's always good to catch up with Steve and good morning.
Good morning, Tim.
In this edition, we're looking at Dick Powell on the cover and he was a very versatile radio and film actor.
Tell us a little bit about what you enjoyed learning about Dick Powell as you worked through this story with its author.
Sure.
Well, Dick Powell, as you say, had an amazing career and it was really interesting to see just what a restless creative spirit he had because he rose to fame as a singer and actor and he was in all those
a handful of Busby Berkeley films for Warner Brothers.
And as he approached his forties, realized that wasn't really going to be a viable option any longer and managed to start working in dramatic roles, playing Philip Marlowe and Murder My Sweet.
And did that for several years and it was clear he'd mastered that.
And then he went into directing.
I don't know that his films as a director were as famous as some of the ones he did as an actor.
although there's one that's kind of notorious, the conqueror, but, you know, he just had an amazing career and was really always interested in moving forward, which I thought was really, you know, great and interesting and it's really, and he's always a dynamic presence.
Listening to him on radio, as we do, you know, you're really aware of fact, yeah, he knew what he was doing.
You know, interesting to think of him being typecast in a way and finding a way out of it, which is so difficult for so many.
Absolutely.
And one of the things that I guess he really wanted to do that he thought would really break the mold was to star in the movie of Double Indemnity.
And he was, I think, crestfallen when the role went to Fred McMurray, who of course was another performer.
who'd been typecast in comedies and musicals and whatnot.
And then he got a new career out of it.
So it was interesting to read about the fact that, yes, he was always sort of interested in, I don't know if he mastered, if he felt he'd mastered these fields, but it became apparent he'd outgrown things pretty quickly and he recognized that.
So yes, to become a dramatic actor and then a director and then a producer.
for movies and for television you know it was sort of like he was he was prepared to do you know whatever he wanted to do but whatever he needed to do as well.
We're talking with Steve Darnall who's the publisher of Nostalgia Digest magazine and the host of Radios Golden Age here on News Talk 1540 KXCL each Sunday evening between 6 and 9 p.m.
and again this is a quarterly publication so looking ahead towards the autumn one of the things that's on everybody's calendar is Halloween.
There's an article in this edition of Nostalgia Digest that focuses on classic Halloween radio shows and I've got
to give the the writer credit he had total credibility with me when Ghost Hunt which is a classic suspense show appeared because I wasn't sure it was going to we got pretty deep into the article and it wasn't there but wait what a terrific show that will be here on News Talk 1540KXEL during October.
That's right we'll be playing well actually we'll be playing on a radius golden age on November 1st because the calendar
ticks over just in time on a Sunday.
But yes, we're going to be devoting the November 1st show to sort of a post-Halloween chaser, if you will.
So we'll have that broadcast of suspense with Ralph Edwards and an inner sanctum program.
But we're also going to be starting the cinnamon bear.
So I predict there'll be a lot of instances of
parents wondering if their children should be in the room and then making sure they're in the room.
That's one of the great things about the golden age of radio is that there's so much variety there.
And yes, it was, I thought Eric Martin, the writer, did a terrific job in chronicling shows that would be a good soundtrack for Halloween.
And thankfully, there are enough of them in circulation to where it wasn't too difficult for us to schedule some of them on the
show right after Halloween on that Sunday.
Well, let me come back to Ghost Hunt and to the idea that we already talked about with Dick Powell about playing against type because Ralph Edwards is the guest star on this edition of suspense.
And if you know classic radio, you know Ralph Edwards from Truth or Consequences, which is totally different than this sort of dramatic portrayal.
Absolutely.
Well, suspense was really famous for that.
There were a lot of great dramatic shows on radio, but suspense was the one that really allowed performers to play against type.
I mean, I think it's in part because one of the first producers of the show, Bill Spear, was married to Kay Thompson, who was a singer, but also a vocal director at MGM Studios.
So she was, I guess, always eager to say, hey, why don't you cast Judy Garland?
Why don't you cast Jean Kelly?
Why don't you cast Lena Horne?
So it became a really popular show among performers who thought, hey, I'm going to get to do something completely different.
And yes, and then later, of course, Red Skelton was on and Jack Benny was on.
And yet it's great fun, though, to hear Ralph Edwards, who wasn't even known as a performer really.
He was, as you say, the host of Truth or Consequences.
And that's a very spirited show.
But yes, he really gets into it.
And I think if people tune in, they'll have a great time.
They won't necessarily think, is that the guy from Truth or Consequences?
They'll just be thinking, this is a great story.
Now, I've already given credit to your author, Eric Martin, on this feature.
And I think it's very entertaining.
Folks will find a lot of things.
But I do have to, I guess, I suppose, cast one aspersion.
This list of great
Halloween themed shows and a lot of suspense.
And I read it once, maybe I missed it.
I don't think we have any mention of Agnes Moorhead anywhere in here.
The First Lady of Suspense somehow missed this article of great Halloween suspense themed shows.
Opinions are like raindrops, you know, there's millions of them.
And I mean, Agnes Moorhead was a fantastic actress.
She was great on suspense.
We have devoted entire articles to Agnes Morehead's career and we'll do so again in the future, I predict.
This was one of those articles that's meant to be what we call an encouraging article in the sense that, hey, did we leave something out?
Okay, tell us, let us know.
And then of course, hopefully you get some response saying, I wish you'd included, sorry, wrong number, I wish you'd included this episode of the Hermits Cave.
And that's great, you know, I don't think, you know, that's the nice thing about pieces like this.
I mean, the author had pretty impeccable taste, but he also only had a couple thousand words.
This is just the tip of the proverbial haunted house.
Certainly a lot to choose from.
We're talking with Steve Darnall, who is publisher of Nostalgia Digest magazine, the new issue for the months of October, November, December, just out and looking at Halloween, among a number of other topics.
You're also in this issue looking at a really significant anniversary when it comes not just to radio, but going all the way back to the beginning of broadcasting, the beginning of NBC Radio 100 years ago.
Yes,
November of 1926.
That's kind of astonishing to think about.
It was really an interesting time because we did not have a Federal Communications Commission to the extent that they're doing what they're doing.
And radio was kind of the Wild West.
There were stations popping up all over the country and some of them had no compunction about
you know, putting massive wattage behind their signals regardless of whether it affected signals in other cities.
So it became, you know, a valuable idea that somebody would say, hey, we're going to, you know, at least give you something to play along these cities.
When NBC was started, I mean, there was no such thing as a radio network where you could hear in Chicago what somebody was hearing in Cedar Rapids, you know.
or what they were hearing in Biloxi, Mississippi.
We were all just getting our stations in our cities, and maybe if your signal was powerful enough, some night I'd pick it up here.
But NBC had this idea that, yes, they could link a bunch of stations together, share the programming, and that first night was really kind of interesting because we live now, Tim, in an era where, and I don't say this disparagingly necessarily, but
you know obviously a lot of stations think about cutting costs and minimizing staff and workload and NBC in 1926 was doing just the opposite it was just they started their network with a four-hour spectacular that featured names from the worlds of comedy people like Will Rogers to singers to band leaders like Vincent Lopez
And when they could, they'd show off the technology by broadcasting from New York, but bringing you someone all the way from Chicago.
And it's almost impossible to
overstate just how important and exciting that was 100 years ago.
Now we've got satellite communications.
We can do this in a blink of an eye.
I mean, you and I are on Zoom for goodness sake.
But for NBC to do what they did was really a massive technical achievement.
And I think really highlighted that the network felt radio was a special thing.
And that was a very exciting idea.
And in fact, yes, without that,
Maybe we don't quite have the golden age that we celebrate every Sunday night on this station.
Well, you know, obviously a hundred years is a long time, but it really seems remarkable that we've seen so much change in the last hundred years when looking at how much different the world looks today.
In some ways, it's startling.
It's only a hundred years ago.
That's true.
I mean, and the golden age of radio to all intents and purposes was over by 1960.
If you say to any one person, by the way, you're only going to make it to about 35.
They would be aghast and think, well, that's no time at all.
But the Golden Age of radio managed to accomplish so much in that time, maybe because it was the sort of first mass media, maybe because the people in charge wanted to make sure they had the best technology they could get.
But I mean, I got to think that a dozen years after that, people would be reporting news from Europe, you know, alive on the air.
That's kind of remarkable.
And using the technology they had, it was a remarkable time.
And you're right to think about how far we've come technologically as a civilization in terms of communication.
And we can debate whether it's gone too quickly or too slowly for our liking.
But yeah, there's no denying that this starting a radio network 100 years ago was a big step forward and a lot of steps forward happened after that.
Steve Darnall is the publisher of Nostalgia Digest magazine and the host of Radio's Golden Age here on News Talk 1540KXCL.
The new edition of Nostalgia Digest has just come out.
You can find out more about it and even find out what it takes to subscribe at NostalgiaDigest.com.
Steve, thanks so much for being with us this morning and we'll look forward to hearing from you on Sunday evening as always.
Tim, thanks so much.
Have
a great week and we'll see you on the radio.
This is the station where Iowa comes to talk, News Talk 1540 KXCL.
And I want to go right to the news line and welcome a return guest to the program.
She is Ali Triolo.
Ms.
Triolo is Election Integrity Communications Director for the RNC, the Republican National Committee, and she's on the ground in Dallas where the midterm convention convenes this afternoon.
Ms.
Triolo, thank you for the time.
Hi, thank you so much for having me this morning.
All right, what's the energy down there in Dallas?
Well obviously the energy is electric.
We are so excited to have Republicans from every corner of this country coming together in the great state of Texas today.
I have been here for a few days now and every day you can feel the momentum building.
There have been
People on the street just looking at our event spaces getting set up with just electricity in their veins.
So this is going to be a historic moment for Republicans.
We have never done anything like this before.
And we think this election is going to be the most important.
And that is why we are rallying all of our conservative troops here in Texas.
And we are well positioned and ready to defy history in November.
Now, there are a lot of folks who obviously compare this with the Quadrennial Convention.
You have platform meetings.
You're nominating candidates.
You don't have any of that this time.
What will we see from the podium?
Well, we're going to see a lot coming from the podium.
We have stories from everyday Americans who will be illustrating how these policies are making a real difference in everyday lives.
that's what the republican party is all about we are not talk we are action and i think that the american people will get to see how no tax on tip no tax on social security the lowest tax cuts in american history the lowest drug prices in american history are really making a difference for our voters the republican party if america party and that is really what we are going to be it being uh... over the next two days so i really hope that
All of the listeners right now will be watching from home, tuning in.
We are thrilled to give this our best.
And we're looking forward to a big win in November.
Now, obviously, in order to win, you have to have fair elections.
That's something that you focus on at the RNC.
Where do we stand with that?
Obviously, Congress, my opinion, not yours, has been no help.
But you weren't just relying on one piece of legislation.
There's a ground game in all 50 states.
You're exactly right.
The RNC has already surpassed its poll number, recruitment numbers.
We have poll workers.
You know, signing up by the droves, we have a robust election integrity operation with more than 170 active election integrity lawsuits right now across
37 states, we have invested election integrity directors, invested in their placement in 22 target states, so we are ready and well positioned.
Look, one of the most important things about this election is making sure that our voters know the ballot box is safe.
The RNC has created a historic election integrity operation, and we are ready to defend and protect every vote.
So obviously the idea is to get people excited, fired up, etc.
What messaging are you hoping that gets through through this channel of a midterm convention that doesn't get through through other speeches, direct mail, posts on social media, etc.
Well, again, like I said, the Republican Party is America's party.
This is the most important election because if we want to continue President Trump's America First agenda, we need to keep our majorities in Congress so that we can continue delivering on the promises made to the American people.
I think what President Trump and Republicans have been able to accomplish in just two short years, again, no tax on tips, no tax on social security, the lowest tax cuts in American history,
plummeting prices for prescription drugs a closed border no transgender and for protecting women protecting mothers protecting families all of this will stop if democrats get back control will start all of these political games and we simply cannot have that happen we don't have the time and we want to keep delivering for the american people so again i hope everyone tuned in watches
these accomplishments, celebrate what we have done, but also realize what's at stake.
And that is why we've got to get out, we've got to mobilize our voters, and we've got to keep Republicans in the lead in November.
And I think once we see all of the stories on full display over the next two days, it'll be impossible to ignore the contrast between what Republicans deliver and the radical socialists that control the Democrat Party.
Final 60 seconds with Allie Triolo of the RNC.
Presentation or speech from the podium you're targeting as absolute must-see TV tonight.
Of course, President Donald Trump, he is the best messenger in our party's history.
And look, he knows how to put on a show.
So we are thrilled to have him there.
But again, you don't want to miss.
I really want to encourage the stories from everyday Americans.
These are the people that put policy into action.
Please tune in.
It's going to be a jam packed evening and we can't wait to celebrate with all of you.
Thanks so much for the time.
Enjoy the time in Dallas.
OK, thank you so much.
Allie Triolo.
Republican National Committee Election Integrity Communications Director, the RNC, RNC.org, and she's on the ground in Dallas, where the midterm convention will convene this afternoon at three o'clock, and then there will be an evening session.
You'll see it on all manner of cable outlets.
C-SPAN, I believe, is carrying it as well.
Today and tomorrow, the midterm convention of the Republican National Committee, the RNC.
and it's in Dallas.
And Ms.
Triolo joined us live on the news line from Dallas on News Talk 1540 KXEL, where Iowa comes to talk.