Monday, June 09, 2008

Pardon My Blooper

from the tenwatts blog
Blooper: / ˈbloōpər/ "blunder," 1947, either from Amer.Eng. baseball slang, "a fly ball missed by the fielder" (1937) or "radio receiver that interferes with nearby sets" (1926).
With an etymology like that, it's not a surprise that radio was the medium that popularized the term. It was Kermit Schaefer (no relation to the frog) that re-coined the term to mean blunder. The word may have made the transition earlier, but it was this popular 1960s series that brought it into popular use. The only let down for me is that after 40 years it's hard to attribute the clips without program names or calls. On the LP he mentions very few call letters and only a few programs specifically. WOR-AM and WOKO-AM get outed for example.
Jubilee records put out at least 5 LPs of radio bloopers. I only own one LP-2011 from Volume 4. Mine is thankfully a 33 that I can play on my old Technics. It makes the MP3 rip so much easier. Pardon My Blooper's first LP was rocketed to popularity because of a libel case over the release.
Not all bloopers were from source audio. If Kermit couldn't get the real deal he'd just recreate it. Radio host "Uncle Don" Carney, was less than pleased about one recreation, and he sued. There were many other accusations that the "re-creations" were inaccurate. But this only increased demand of couse. But some of the audio was real. He had an infamous clip of Paul Harvey giggling like a stoned sorority girl. The albums were re-released in the 1970s by K-tel. They're out of print today of course. and in todays syndicated, time-delayed, pre-recorded voice-tracked radioland bloopers are very rare indeed.

6 comments:

Jose Fritz said...

que pasa?

David Ballela said...

It is a follow up with the theme of the post that preceded it. Capeesh?

Jose Fritz said...

Muchas racias senor, it is a rare day I am quoted in part, let alone quoted in whole. Glad to be of service.

Anonymous said...

Uncle Don Carney, born Howard Douglas Rice is related to a Boston Brahmin, Edmund Rice.

Anonymous said...

Daniel Louis Parmenter, the hero is the distant cousin of Uncle Don Carney.

Anonymous said...

Also, Uncle Don Carney is the distant cousin of Walt Disney.