Скачать или смотреть "Teletalk With Bob Marks" Early Talk Radio (1973).

This radio talk show was recorded on November 26, 1973.

Before Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck, there was Bob Marks breaking into talk radio with Teletalk. The FCC (Federal Communications Commission) did not allow partisan political controversy when Teletalk was recorded. They do now. During Ronald Reagan's first presidential campaign, for example, if a Ronald Reagan movie were aired on television, two hours of "equal time" could be demanded by the Jimmy Carter campaign. This law, no longer in effect, allows the more polarized political radio talk shows of today.

This Teletalk was recorded during the Nixon administration. In the program, you will hear reference to recently erased White House tapes and the question as to whether Nixon should be impeached. Also discussed are marijuana legalization, the best way to cut a turkey sandwich, abandoning the A,B,C,D,F grading system in schools, shooting cows in the head, basic general relativity, how to quit smoking, and whether rockets shot into space alter earth's weather.

Bob Marks was not only the show's host, he ran board. There was no one else in the studio to help. There is no call screener. When someone calls, they are put on the air. There are also no breaks except 5 minutes every hour for ABC news. There are no taped commercials or promos. Just talk.

When someone calls, there must be a tape delay in case the caller swears or something. Today's delays are electronic. The tape delay on Teletalk was between two reel-to-reel tape recorders. Bob Marks turns them on when someone calls. (You can hear him clunking in the background.) The conversation is recorded on the left tape deck and played over the air on the right one. They were separated by about two feet. When someone calls, Bob Marks turned on both tape decks and flipped switches on the control board and turned the knobs to put the caller on the air. If Bob needs to censor a comment, he simply turned down the audio feed on the right tape deck and returned live. Interestingly, the mechanically feed from the left deck was faster than the mechanical grab on the right unit. Therefore, during long conversations, slack would develop and, while talking, Bob had to make sure this ever increasing slack did not get tangled. After a conversation was complete, he had to remove the slack for the next call while still talking on the air. (An obvious remedy is to try is to switch the position of the two decks. Bob says he tried this and the same slacking happened.)

Bob Marks's job during the show also included watching the clock. He needed to switch to ABC news at 15 minutes after the hour (the ABC News breaks that aired during the show were not recorded), keep the station log, and do a station identification every half hour - plus or minus five minutes. Station ID's are required by the FCC and the station can get fined if you don't do them.

As you listen to Teletalk, you will notice that, at times, Bob is not fully engaged in the conversation. A good DJ can mask their other responsibilities from the on-air presentation. DJ's working at big market radio stations, of course, do not need to do all the peripheral distractions. Others do it for them. Bob Marks did not have that luxury.

Why Teletalk? The FCC, during radio station license renewal, asks documentation of the station's service to the public. In this sense, Teletalk was good for the station's resume. It is also the reason the format allowed discussion of about any topic.

At the end of the video, Bob Marks offers his commentary on his 1973 show 39 years after its airing. He talks about his change in ideology and comes to the conclusion the more things change, the more they stay the same. There is still trouble in the Mideast, alternative sources of energy need to be found, and there are loud voices saying the President needs to be impeached.

We hope you enjoy this piece of broadcasting history.