Hey everybody, 

 Lots of great things coming up for the channel this year. I will detail them as they are finalized; so for now here are some of the highlights for this week. 

A Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar Marathon is running (The Chesapeake Fraud Matter).

Ronald Colman and Vincent Price in the Screen Guild Players version of the comedy film "Champagne For Caesar". 

A great western block with Gunsmoke, then John Wayne in Stagecoach followed by Jimmy Stewart as The Six Shooter.  

We are also playing an episode of The Adventures of Sam Spade with probably the longest title ever the "The Chargogogogmanchogagogchobunamungamog Caper." Both announcer Dick Joy and actress Lurene Tuttle (Effie) manage to say it during the episode! 

Pictures:  Vincent Price & Ronald Colman; Radio Cast of Gunsmoke (L to R Howard McNear, William Conrad, Georgia Ellis, Parley Baer); John Wayne & Jimmy Stewart (in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance); Howard Duff and "friend"; Lurene Tuttle; Announcer Dick Joy. 

I hope you all enjoyed the Christmas shows last week. This week there will be a number of New Year's Eve themed comedy programs (and a couple of dramas) as well as an hour long Mercury Theater On The Air with Orson Welles, Lux Radio's version of "Kiss of Death" with Victor Mature, Colleen Gray and Richard Widmark as well as a little belated birthday tribute to Humphrey Bogart. 

 Photos: Richard Widmark and Victor Mature (Kiss of Death); Victor Mature and Coleen Gray (Kiss of Death); Orson Welles; Humphrey Bogart and Bette Davis 

Hey folks, Merry Christmas!

The schedules are always available at the link just below my picture on the right. If you don't see it scroll down until you do. Meanwhile, many folks said they like the convenience of links to them positioned the top of my posts. I'll try to remember that.  

This week and next week's schedules  RC Dec 22nd-Dec. 28th, 2008 - PDF Version

RC Dec 29th, 2008-Jan. 4th, 2009 - PDF Version

Clearly this week is all about the holiday and we have tons of Christmas episodes from fun to dramatic to even depressing (Dragnet's .22 Rifle For Christmas).

Two specific highlights are Edmund Gwenn as Kris Kringle in "Miracle on 34th Street" as presented on The Screen Director's Playhouse and Orson Welles as Ebenezer Scrooge in The Campbell Playhouse hour long version of "A Christmas Carol".  

Okay folks this week is about 50 percent Christmas themed programs including Lux Radio's version of "It's A Wonderful Life", The Hallmark Playhouse's "Story of Silent Night" and Suspense's annual dark murderous holiday story "Back For Christmas" (with Peter Lorre).

The non-Christmas themed episodea include Lux's version of "Murder My Sweet" with Dick Powell as Philip Marlowe as well as the Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar Marathon "The Bennett Matter".

Beginning Monday the 22nd, our wall-to-wall Yuletide week begins and runs through the 28th.

Photos: Donna Reed, Jimmy Stewart, Karolyn Grimes (It's A Wonderful Life); Peter Lorre and cast from Mystery In The Air including Harry Morgan (standing right).

PHOTOS: Murder My Sweet Poster; Dick Powell as Marlowe; "The Bennett Matter" supporting cast; Edgar Barrier, Hans Conried, Parley Baer.

Thank you to a number of listeners for alerting me to his passing on Friday at age 92. I have played him on the channel over the past two weeks. 

Johnson in the November 2nd, 1944 Suspense episode "The Singing Walls" plays at 8:30pm ET Saturday (12/13) evening and than at 8:30am ET Sunday (12/14) morning.

Greg

 Schedule This Week; RC Dec 8th-Dec. 14th, 2008 - PDF Version.pdf (64.11 kb)

This week we mark the 92nd birthday of Douglas (Born Dec. 9th, 1916) and also celebrate the anniversary of "Ole Blue Eyes" birth (Dec. 12th, 1915 - Died May 14th, 1998.) PHOTOS: Kirk Douglas then and now; Frank Sinatra does a radio interview with an unidentified woman (circa 1941-45). 

 Also about 1/4 of the schedule features Christmas themed episodes as we approach our "wall to wall" Yuletide week beginning on Monday the 22nd. This week includes Christmas shows from Jack Benny, Out Miss Brooks, The Great Gildersleeve, Phil Harris & Alice Faye, Fibber McGee & Molly and more. PHOTOS: Jack and Rochester; Richard Crenna (Walter Denton), Eve Arden (Connie Brooks), Gale Gordon (Principal Conklin).  

Greg.   

This week we have an Agnes Moorehead Special, another Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar Marathon and the annual tradition of honoring Pearl Harbor Day by playing Norman Corwin's We Hold These Truths. 

 If you haven't already done so here is the link to this week's schedule. http://www.gregbellblog.com/page/XM-Radio-Classics-164-Schedule.aspx or located to the right under my picture. 

Above: Agnes Moorehead. Below Left: Cast members of We Hold These Truths include Orson Welles, Rudy Vallee, Sterling Tracy, Bernard Herrmann, Edward G. Robinson, Bob Burns, Jimmy Stewart, Norman Corwin, Walter Brennan, and Edward Arnold. Seated are Lionel Barrymore, Marjorie Main, and Walter Huston.       Below Right: Corwin & Stewart. 

Welcome to the week of giving thanks. Coming up the usual Turkey Day offerings from the great comedy series from the Golden Age including a special two hours of Jack Benny running this week. Also I have brought back yet another "Man of Steel Marathon" for the extended holiday weekend. It's a three week storyline from September of 1947 compressed into three and a half hours or so. Not only will it run on XM 164, but also on Sirius Radio Classics 118. It begins at 8pm ET Thanksgiving night with encores on Saturday 11/29 at 2pm ET and Sunday 11/30 at 6pm ET

Greg.

Photos: Announcer Jackson Beck, Clayton "Bud" Collyer (Superman/Clark Kent), Joan Alexander (Lois Lane): Bud Collyer (solo); 

Benny Cast in 1937 : Benny in Maine Advertisement (not a good pic of Jack!)

Thanks to Radio Classics listener Bill for this great link which includes Blanc doing some of the sounds and voices from his Jack Benny Program days. 

http://www.wimp.com/coolvoices/

Greg.

PS - next week's schedule is up, just head to the schedule page (the link is under my photo on the right).  

Okay, folks for all of you who caught the channel over the weekend and notice changes, there has NOT been a format chance on XM Radio Classics 164, but rather a large computer glitch! I promise you I would never create a schedule that played 8,10 even 16 minutes of commercials all in a row, even if that meant the rest of the two hour block was commercial free.

Here is a not-so-secret fact; I actually am not at work over the weekend but rather put all my trust into a very sophisticated computer system. That system is very good, but not perfect. For some unknown reason; a glitch caused it to default all of the commecial breaks to the beginning or end of the 2 hour blocks. So what many heard was 15 minutes of non-stop commercials followed yes by 1 hour and 45 minutes of commercial free but out of synch shows.

I do apologize and have folks far more technical than I looking into what happened in an effort to make sure it does not occur again.

Greg.