KMBC Audio Preservation and Access

FAIN: PW-50866-11

University of Missouri Libraries (Kansas City, MO 64110-2235)
Bonnie Sue Postlethwaite (Project Director: July 2010 to January 2013)

The cataloging and digitization of 1,731 transcription discs containing 445 hours of radio broadcasting from Kansas City station KMBC dating from 1935 to 1950.

The KMBC Collection consists of radio broadcasts from 1935-50 recorded on 16" instantaneous-cut transcription discs containing a wealth of rare and unique items not held by other institutions or otherwise available. This collection is comprised of hundreds of one-of-a-kind news broadcasts from World War II that document the course of the war and include the voices of many historical figures of the period. To complement the documentary nature of this collection, recordings of locally-produced programming are featured. Cataloging these single discs will unlock their musical, literary, dramatic, and historical contents to researchers, faculty members, students, and the general public who for many years have desired to incorporate rare audio recordings into their research, teaching, and study. This project will digitally preserve fragile recordings and bring full names, correct titles, content, and subject access for the first time to recordings that are not currently accessible anywhere.

Media Coverage

Marr Sound Archives Digitally Preserves its KMBC Radio Collection (Media Coverage)
Publication: UMKC Today
Date: 6/18/2013
Abstract: Describes the project and the grant by starting with a news report from the deck of the USS Ancon.
URL: http://info.umkc.edu/news/marr-sound-archives-digitally-preserves-its-kmbc-radio-collection/

Associated Products

The Arthur B. Church KMBC Radio Collection (Web Resource)
Title: The Arthur B. Church KMBC Radio Collection
Author: Andrew Hansbrough
Abstract: This web exhibit provides a bio of Arthur B. Church, owner of KMBC, who donated the collection to the Marr Sound Archives. The site provides information about three aspects of the radio recordings content: Reporting, Entertainment, and Speeches. Each are accompanied by textual information for the category and photos from the collection.
Year: 2014
Primary URL: http://library.umkc.edu/spec-col/KMBC/index.html
Primary URL Description: The primary URL is for the LaBudde Special Collection of which the Marr Sound Archives is a part. There is a link to the Arthur B. Church web exhibit from the home page.

LaBudde Special Collections: Arthur B. Church KMBC Radio Collection (Web Resource)
Title: LaBudde Special Collections: Arthur B. Church KMBC Radio Collection
Author: Kelly McEniry
Abstract: Description of the collection which includes print material and radio recordings as well as a history of KMBC and a bio of Arthur B. Church. Links to portfolios of photos and other historical papers can be found here.
Year: 2013
Primary URL: http://library.umkc.edu/spec-col-collections/church-kmbc
Primary URL Description: The primary URL is to the LaBudde Special Collections web site.

UMKC Digital Special Collections: Arthur B. Church - KMBC Radio Collection (Web Resource)
Title: UMKC Digital Special Collections: Arthur B. Church - KMBC Radio Collection
Author: Sandy Rodriguez
Author: Kelly McEniry
Author: Scott Gipson
Abstract: This digital library provides photographs from the collection of owner/operator of KMBC radio and television stations in Kansas City, Arthur B. Church. Each photo has a rich set of metadata to provide numerous access points to the photo and to group photos accordingly.
Year: 2016
Primary URL: http://dl.mospace.umsystem.edu/umkc/islandora/object/umkc%3Achurch-kmbc
Primary URL Description: This is part of the UMKC Digital Special Collections digital library database.

Murder, Bug Bombs, Delusions, and Disagreements: The Stories behind the Arthur B. Church KMBC Radio Collection at UMKC (Article)
Title: Murder, Bug Bombs, Delusions, and Disagreements: The Stories behind the Arthur B. Church KMBC Radio Collection at UMKC
Author: Sandy Rodriguez
Abstract: Describes the project and interesting things about the collection and stories found in the radio recordings, including old radio shows and programs.
Year: 2013
Primary URL: http://newsletter.musiclibraryassoc.org/index.php/newsletter/article/view/73/78
Primary URL Description: Web-based newsletter of the Missouri Library Association.
Access Model: open access
Format: Other
Periodical Title: MLA Newsletter
Publisher: Missouri Library Association

Tales from the Archives: Disc(h)ord on the Ranch (Blog Post)
Title: Tales from the Archives: Disc(h)ord on the Ranch
Author: Sandy Rodriguez
Abstract: Blog post about Western radio dramas in the KMBC radio recordings.
Date: 03/03/2015
Primary URL: http://info.umkc.edu/specialcollections/archives/1928
Primary URL Description: Scripts & Grooves is a blog put out by the UMKC Libraries Special Collections.
Blog Title: Scripts & Grooves
Website: Scripts & Grooves: The Blog of LaBudde Special Collections and the Marr Sound Archives

Tales from the Archives: Happy Hollow is a Real Place (Blog Post)
Title: Tales from the Archives: Happy Hollow is a Real Place
Author: Sandy Rodriguez
Abstract: Blog post about the radio program Happy Hollow and an accompanying newsletter to the radio program.
Date: 02/03/2015
Primary URL: http://info.umkc.edu/specialcollections/archives/1925
Primary URL Description: Scripts & Grooves is the blog for the UMKC Libraries Special Collections.
Blog Title: Scripts and Grooves.
Website: Scripts & Grooves: The Blog of LaBudde Special Collections and the Marr Sound Archives

Tales from the Archives: The Stampers Under the Stairs (Blog Post)
Title: Tales from the Archives: The Stampers Under the Stairs
Author: Sandy Rodriguez
Abstract: This blog post describes metal stampers used to press radio transcription discs and how they were processed in the KMBC project.
Date: 01/06/2015
Primary URL: http://info.umkc.edu/specialcollections/archives/1917
Primary URL Description: Scripts & Grooves is the blog for the UMKC Libraries Special Collections.
Blog Title: Scripts & Grooves
Website: Scripts & Grooves: The Blog of LaBudde Special Collections and the Marr Sound Archives

Tales from the Archives: The untimely death of KMBC producer, Fran Heyser (Blog Post)
Title: Tales from the Archives: The untimely death of KMBC producer, Fran Heyser
Author: Sandy Rodriguez
Abstract: This blog post describes the role of Fran Heyser at KMBC and how he met an untimely death.
Date: 03/19/2014
Primary URL: http://info.umkc.edu/specialcollections/archives/1260
Primary URL Description: Scripts & Grooves is the blog for the UMKC Libraries Special Collections.
Blog Title: Scripts & Grooves
Website: Scripts & Grooves: The Blog of LaBudde Special Collections and the Marr Sound Archives

“Zion’s New Friend” – Radio Station KLDS (Blog Post)
Title: “Zion’s New Friend” – Radio Station KLDS
Author: Stuart Hinds
Abstract: This blog post describes another radio venture of Arthur B. Church--KLDS
Date: 12/05/2013
Primary URL: http://info.umkc.edu/specialcollections/archives/740
Primary URL Description: Scripts and Grooves is the blog for the UMKC Special Collections
Blog Title: Scripts and Grooves
Website: Scripts & Grooves: The Blog of LaBudde Special Collections and the Marr Sound Archives

Wartime woes with Whitehouse (Blog Post)
Title: Wartime woes with Whitehouse
Author: Christina Tomlinson
Abstract: This blog post describes the radio program Vic and Sade which gave a flavor of life during World War II.
Date: 03/22/2012
Primary URL: http://info.umkc.edu/specialcollections/archives/250
Primary URL Description: Scripts and Grooves is the blog for the UMKC Libraries Special Collections.
Blog Title: Scripts and Grooves
Website: Scripts & Grooves: The Blog of LaBudde Special Collections and the Marr Sound Archives

Tex Owens: A case of mistaken identity? (Blog Post)
Title: Tex Owens: A case of mistaken identity?
Author: Christina Tomlinson
Abstract: This blog sorts through the question of whether Tex Owens was a member of the Texas Rangers, a popular radio program.
Date: 03/13/2012
Primary URL: http://info.umkc.edu/specialcollections/archives/248
Primary URL Description: Scripts and Grooves is the blog of the UMKC Libraries' Special Collections.
Blog Title: Scripts and Grooves
Website: Scripts & Grooves: The Blog of LaBudde Special Collections and the Marr Sound Archives

More memorable moments with the Brush Creek gang! (Blog Post)
Title: More memorable moments with the Brush Creek gang!
Author: Sandy Rodriguez
Abstract: The Brush Creek Follies was a popular live Kansas City radio program broadcast on KMBC.
Date: 02/13/2012
Primary URL: http://info.umkc.edu/specialcollections/archives/236
Primary URL Description: Scripts and Grooves is the blog for the UMKC Libraries' Special Collections.
Blog Title: Scripts and Grooves
Website: Scripts & Grooves: The Blog of LaBudde Special Collections and the Marr Sound Archives

Memorable moments with the Brush Creek gang (Blog Post)
Title: Memorable moments with the Brush Creek gang
Author: Sandy Rodriguez
Abstract: The Brush Creek Follies was a popular Kansas City radio program that aired on KMBC.
Date: 01/24/2012
Primary URL: http://info.umkc.edu/specialcollections/archives/215
Primary URL Description: Scripts and Grooves is the blog for the UMKC Libraries' Special Collections.
Blog Title: Scripts and Grooves
Website: Scripts & Grooves: The Blog of LaBudde Special Collections and the Marr Sound Archives

Phenomenon: Electrifying history, but not advertisers (Blog Post)
Title: Phenomenon: Electrifying history, but not advertisers
Author: Christina Tomlinson
Abstract: This blog is about the radio program Phenomenon: Electrifying History which was produced in partnership with KCP&L. Despite its popularity it did not attract many sponsors.
Date: 01/28/2012
Primary URL: http://info.umkc.edu/specialcollections/archives/213
Primary URL Description: Scripts and Grooves is the blog for the UMKC Libraries Special Collections.
Blog Title: Scripts and Grooves
Website: Scripts & Grooves: The Blog of LaBudde Special Collections and the Marr Sound Archives

Tune Chasin’ the Past: Unlocking the Hidden Contents of a Disc Stamper Collection (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Tune Chasin’ the Past: Unlocking the Hidden Contents of a Disc Stamper Collection
Author: Sandy Rodriguez
Author: Christina Tomlinson
Abstract: In April 2011, the University of Missouri-Kansas City’s Marr Sound Archives was the recipient of a National Endowment for the Humanities grant to preserve and catalog the nearly 2,000 lacquer and transcription discs in the Arthur B. Church KMBC Radio Collection. KMBC, a CBS-affiliated station in Kansas City, was established in 1927 by Arthur B. Church, the broadcasting pioneer responsible for several syndicated radio shows including The Texas Rangers, Phenomenon, and Brush Creek Follies. The sound recordings in the collection are a treasure trove of local and national history from the late 1930s through the 1940s, revealing the American experience during wartime through news broadcasts, political speeches, musical entertainment, rural comedies, and radio soap operas. Coupled with the sound recordings were a large number of stampers--metal plates used to press or “stamp” grooves onto plastic to produce vinyl records. These manufacturing parts contain a wealth of musical performances by the Texas Rangers, Tex Owens, Bonnie King, Tune Chasers, and Harry Jenks that had been hidden in our collection, and possibly others. We determined that in order to transfer the audio from these metal stampers, a special stylus would need to be acquired. As these particular styli are difficult to manufacture, we found ourselves in a “waiting game.” With the impending deadline arose a new concern: How do we discover and provide access to content from these obsolete metal plates? In this poster, we demonstrate the multi-faceted process used to leverage existing resources and acquire additional materials in the most cost-effective way in order to preserve and reveal the hidden contents of an obsolete format. We present the issues, outcomes, and unexpected discoveries that led us to successfully identify and provide access to the recordings in the KMBC Radio Collection.
Date: 07/26/2012
Primary URL: https://hdl.handle.net/10355/48325
Primary URL Description: Entry in the University of Missouri Institutional Repository--MOspace.
Conference Name: International Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres (IAML) Conference, Montreal, QC

Gentlemen in the White Hats: The KMBC-CBS Texas Rangers (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Gentlemen in the White Hats: The KMBC-CBS Texas Rangers
Author: Sandy Rodriguez
Author: Kelley Martin
Abstract: Starting in the 1920s through the late 1950s, Kansas City-based broadcasting pioneer Arthur B. Church produced a broad range of syndicated radio programs including Phenomenon, The Brush Creek Follies and the Texas Rangers. The Texas Rangers were a particularly successful franchise, heard on over 100 of the 116 CBS affiliate stations. The eight-man choir played twenty different instruments between them, while garbed in western wear, topped, of course, with classic white hats. Their ability to traverse successfully between hymns, cowboy songs, novelty, and western swing demonstrates their incredible range as musicians both on their own show and on The Brush Creek Follies. Moreover, they displayed their acting skills in Night Time on the Trail and Life on Red Horse Ranch, broadcasts offering “thrills of the old west” that mixed drama, romance, comedy, and music. Skilled as they were, their formidable talents remain in relative obscurity. As part of an NEH-funded grant project, the University of Missouri--Kansas City University Libraries is bringing the Texas Rangers and their posse back to light! By providing bibliographic access and digital preservation to a collection of transcription discs, lacquer discs, and negative metal stampers that comprise the KMBC collection, radio aficionados will once again be able to delight in the antics of the Rangers. This session will provide an introduction to the KMBC-CBS Texas Rangers, and will feature both musical renditions and dramatic interpretations by these versatile performers.
Date: 05/18/2012
Primary URL: https://hdl.handle.net/10355/48320
Primary URL Description: The University of Missouri Institutional Repository--MOspace.
Conference Name: Association for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC) 46th Annual Conference, Rochester, NY

Cataloging Stampers: A Matter of Process (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Cataloging Stampers: A Matter of Process
Author: Sandy Rodriguez
Abstract: These are the slides from a lightening round talk on how to process and catalog metal master stampers.
Date: 02/15/2012
Primary URL: https://mospace.umsystem.edu/xmlui/handle/10355/48326
Primary URL Description: The University of Missouri Institutional Repository--MOspace.
Conference Name: Music OCLC Users Group (MOUG) Conference, Dallas, TX

Arthur B. Church (Blog Post)
Title: Arthur B. Church
Author: Kelly Hangauer
Abstract: This blog post by a UMKC history student intern who was researching a former Kansas City mayor and found a wealth of information in the KMBC collections.
Date: 03/03/2015
Primary URL: http://info.umkc.edu/historymakers/?p=853
Primary URL Description: Blog for the UMKC HistoryMakers: the Department of History's Internship Program
Blog Title: UMKC HistoryMakers: the Department of History's Internship Program
Website: UMKC HistoryMakers: the Department of History's Internship Program

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