Author Archives: Bob Stepno

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About Bob Stepno

mild-mannered reporter who found computers & the Web in grad school in the 1980s (Wesleyan) and '90s (UNC); taught journalism, media studies, Web production; retired to write, make music, photograph sunsets & walks in the woods.

What am I doing here?

Posted on February 12, 2012 by Bob Stepno

I tried to answer that question on the “about” pages at the top of  this blog, but getting an email from someone who has put even more creative energy into old time radio research inspired me to try again. Here’s … Continue reading →

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Could there be a newsroom romance brewing?

Posted on February 8, 2012 by Bob Stepno

There isn’t much newspapering yet in this third Betty & Bob episode, but there is a hint of soap opera romance to come, as Chet meets Claire. Claire is the young and “expecting” widow of The Trumpet’s star reporter, who … Continue reading →

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Wasp and Hornet — Journalistic Vigilantes

Posted on February 4, 2012 by Bob Stepno

It’s been a year since Seth Rogen’s “Green Hornet” movie did its violence to the legend of the old radio hero by that name, whose newspaperman secret identity might have been portrayed as more of a role model for journalism … Continue reading →

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‘There’s Murder in the Air Tonight…’

Posted on February 1, 2012 by Bob Stepno

As with the last episode, you can push past the opening two minutes of syrupy music to get to the 13 minutes of action in Neighbor Shoots Deputy Sheriff, the second installment in our continuing story from the 1930s radio … Continue reading →

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Reporter assaulted, editor insensitive, but she makes him dinner

Posted on January 30, 2012 by Bob Stepno

My headline is about as strange as the introduction to this premier episode of “Bright Star,” which billed it as a genre-crossing “gay new exciting comedy adventure.” You should know this first episode, “The Oil Swindle,” was broadcast in 1952, … Continue reading →

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Veteran and reporter confront issues of peace and war

Posted on January 29, 2012 by Bob Stepno

The Internet Archive copy of this “Judgement Day” episode of “Douglas of the World” spells “judgment” with the central “e,” British style, which is appropriately international. The archive and the script itself identify this as the last show of the … Continue reading →

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Another journalist named Bob: Newspaper life as soap opera

Posted on January 25, 2012 by Bob Stepno

“Running a newspaper is our line of duty” — Betty Drake, co-publisher of The Trumpet, pioneer soap opera heroine “Betty and Bob,” one of radio’s first soap operas, eventually twisted its troubled-marriage plot around to journalism — not surprising, considering … Continue reading →

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Eerie control of the press hits small midwestern town

Posted on January 6, 2012 by Bob Stepno

This “Rogers of the Gazette” episode from January 1954, titled “Something’s Going On,” has a terrible pun in the first line and a hint of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” terror in the plot. (Of course, given that it’s “Rogers … Continue reading →

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Editor’s New Year Help from Investigative Twins

Posted on December 31, 2011 by Bob Stepno

From Dec. 30, 1953, here’s what was regularly billed as “another heartwarming story of a country newspaper and its friendly editor.” The series is “Rogers of the Gazette,” starring Will Rogers Jr. This episode starts with the editor giving a … Continue reading →

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A Casey New Year: More than one way to get a headache

Posted on December 30, 2011 by Bob Stepno

Sticking with both “Crime Photographer” and my seasonal theme, the episode titled Hot New Year’s Party is really a “morning after” story — one that just happened to be broadcast on a New Year’s Day, Jan. 1, 1948. The story … Continue reading →

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