Among all the broadcasts on this website are a few with humorous intent. And we also include blooper tapes – where radio engineers saved recordings of the air staff gaffs and packaged them together. One program is a spoof of other programs. Others are programs done with a lighter intent. These programs appear below. But first,
A Random Broadcast Blooper:
Look Good Without a Bathing Suit
8 Humorous Broadcasts
See them below:
The Einstein Theory
Broadcast Date: April 12, 1946 Series: The Human Adventure
Sponsored by: Revere Copper and Brass. A humorous but accurate and informative explanation of Einstein's Theory of Relativity (no kidding!), with the help of Colonel Stoopnagle.
Length: 26:06
Program Producer: Mutual Broadcasting System
WTIC: An Announcer's Welcome to Broadcast House
Broadcast Date: Various Speaker(s): WTIC Announcers
In the late 1960s, the engineers at WTIC in Hartford, Connecticut put together this blooper reel. All of this had been broadcast on WTIC AM, FM, and TV - some from the NBC network. The creator/manager of this website was introduced to this collection when he was hired as an announcer at WTIC in the early 1980s.
Length: 22:44
Program Producer: WTIC Engineers
The March of Chimes (Spoof of The March of Time)
Broadcast Date: October 5, 1938 Speaker(s): Various
The announcers and engineers at KFI made time to record this spoof of "The March of Time", the weekly news magazine's famous documentary program, and the NBC Chimes. Because KFI and its sister station KECA were NBC affiliates but not owned by the network, they were not allowed to play the famous three-note sequence, although that rule would be relaxed during the 1940s.
Length: 13:23
Program Producer: KFI and KECA, Los Angeles
Christmas Night Drunk Newscaster
Broadcast Date: December 25, 1985 Speaker(s): John Birchard, Paul Reynolds
The date of this broadcast is known, but this recording qualifies not as a newscast, but as an attempted newscast. After 20 seconds of dead air, the talk show host, John Birchard, fills in until the newscaster arrives, and the newscaster, Paul Reynolds, is then shut off after just 40 seconds on-air. The creator / manager of this website knows the situation well -- he was once a newscaster at this particular radio station, WTIC, and did countless newscasts from this same broadcast booth. And he's sure this was the final broadcast for the announcer heard here.
Length: 2:08
Taylor Grant Has the News ... or Not
Broadcast Date: May 15, 1953 Series: Headline Edition
Speaker(s): Taylor Grant (news?caster)
Another attempted newscast. Newscaster Taylor Grant handles the ABC Network Headline Edition, as best he can, and that's not much. What a nightmare to be on the air and have nothing to work with ... for more than 4 minutes.
Length: 4:26
Program Producer: ABC News
WTIC Blooper Tape
Broadcast Date: Various Speaker(s): Many
Engineers at WTIC radio in Hartford, Connecticut had collected blooper and goofy segments of broadcasts for some time. In the late 1960s, they made this compilation.
Length: 59:16
Program Producer: WTIC Engineers
Feature on Coffee Addiction
Broadcast Date: 1986 Speaker(s): Mike Hickcox and Various
An amusing analysis of coffee drinking. This is a radio feature - the UPI Radio winner for New England in 1986. The announcer is the manager of this website. The feature was produced at WHEB in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Music is from Tom Bergeron, later host of Hollywood Squares, America's Funniest Home Videos, and Dancing with the Stars. He was a DJ at WHEB in the 1980s.
Length: 3:45
Program Producer: Mike Hickcox / WHEB Radio
St. Joseph, Heavenly Real Estate Agent
Broadcast Date: November 10, 2006 Series: Marketplace on NPR
Speaker(s): Mike Hickcox, introduced by host, Bob Moon
After the creator/manager of this website moved to Nashville in 2006, he told colleagues about his use of a St. Joseph statue to sell his house in New Hampshire. Fellow workers told him to share that story with the Marketplace program on NPR. Surprisingly, they were right. He provided his story and this is how it appeared on the Marketplace program.
Length: 2:41
Program Producer: Mike Hickcox / NPR