Famous First Lines
There are a lot of old radio shows circulating among collectors and posted on internet newsgroups that have incomplete, erroneous, or missing information, making identification of the programmes difficult or impossible. This is particularly true when the shows have no “official” title which is announced on-air.
Even if you’ve managed to identify all the shows you own, it can be difficult to tell whether a show posted on the web is a “new” one, or one you’ve got already, without downloading the whole thing, and listening to it. How much easier it would be if you could make a positive identification by listening to the first few minutes. You then would only have to download the first segment or two to be able to tell whether it was worth your while getting the rest of it.
I have decided to do something about this, and have made a start with some long-running BBC radio shows that are often found, and are difficult to identify — Take It From Here, The Navy Lark, Much Binding in the Marsh and Hancock's Half Hour.