Transcription Transfers

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Radio Archives

Transcription Transfers

Subscription for 36,000 RAW WAV files

We are excited to announce the Transcription Disc Transfers subscription program. This is the first time our Preservation work has been offered, to a select number of collectors.

For Serious OTR collectors, this is the most important announcement you will hear in your years of collecting.

The mission of Radio Archives for 23 years has been Preservation and Restoration.

From the very beginning on January 1, 2000, we have taken a truly archival approach to the preservation of programs from radio's "Golden Age". We believe it is our responsibility to treat the many rare, historic, and frequently one-of-a-kind recordings that come to us with the care and respect they deserve. After all, many if not most of these recordings are the only audio record of broadcasts that were performed live seventy, eighty, or even ninety years ago. This is our history, the history of broadcasting, and we take our work very seriously. Our slogan since the beginning has been: "Preserve Radio's Past for the Future".

Have you ever wished you could own the same library of radio shows that Radio Archives has? Now you can. When you subscribe, you will be on your way to owning all 36,000 programs we have digitized over the years. You will have access to the raw audio in lossless digital formats of WAV and Flac. In addition, there will also be MP3 versions for your convenience.

Background

In the last 23 years Radio Archives has digitized approximately 36,000 radio shows. Only a fraction of these have been restored and sold on our website.

We start with the best possible source recordings - usually 16" transcription discs, recorded by the networks while a program was first broadcast. We bought the Transcription discs for between $5 to $50 a disc with some rare discs at $500 each. Yes, there are a number of these rare discs in this collection.

To get a high quality, professional transfer, the discs must be cleaned. We used two Ultra-Sonic Cleaners. One with the chemicals and one filled with Reverse Osmosis water for rinsing. Then they go to the Radio Archives recording studio where we digitize the discs using state of the art, high end, professional audio equipment, including many different size styli, so we can go up and down the groove wall to get the very best sound. Our studio rate is $125 per hour. This results in a WAV file of the highest quality possible.

We have never offered RAW lossless digital audio files before. This subscription includes every program that Radio Archives has Preserved. Each file is a first or second generation transfer. Transfers are mainly from transcription discs with some being from open reel tape.The files are all 44,100 Hz, 16 bits WAV files, which is standard Red Book Audio CD specifications. No restored audio is involved in this offer.

Tom describes the half of the company devoted to Preservation as "A Money Pit and Time Sink". The Restoration half of the company is what the public is familiar with. This is what finances the Preservation work. Browse through the 2,300 products on this website to see what we have created in the last 23 years.

Dropbox

You only need a free dropbox account. With a free account you can still access the entire contents of a shared folder no matter how large it is. Files can also be downloaded directly to your own devices. The shared dropbox folder will contain all of the files released for the project. Starting on April 1, 2023, 600 files will be added monthly to Dropbox. The second month there will be 1,200 files, the third month 1,800, etc. until after 5 years, all 36,000 files will be in Dropbox. More details about how Dropbox works can be found below in the Frequently Asked Questions section.

Pricing

How is such a project like this even possible? This is a ridiculous amount of files and 23 years of work. We value the collection at between 1.5 and 2 million dollars. The answer is that the costs are being split three ways. This was the source for our Restorations, we are donating this RAW collection to a museum in exchange for a large tax deduction, and the smallest part is this subscription program.

The subscription price is $120 per month or 20 cents per radio show.

Subscription

This is a 5 year subscription with automatic monthly payments.

The first 600 files will be available on April 1, 2023 and each radio show will be available in 3 digital file formats, WAV, Flac, and MP3.

Sign up now using the Paypal subscription button below. Your first payment be charged now and monthly after that. You will receive the link to the first 600 files today.

Don’t wait! – subscribe today to the world's premier Transcription Disc collection.

Note: You are buying an individual license, strictly for your own private use. For additional use, such as for a club, organization, or if you are a dealer, please write for details.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How are the files for the shows organized?

We assign a 5 digit archive number to the show when it is being recorded. There is an Excel spreadsheet in Dropbox that has this 5 digit archive number plus the name of the show, date, title etc. You can sort the spreadsheet anyway you like and will know which files to listen to.

2. How large is this collection?

36,000 WAV files are 4tb. The Flac files are another 2tb. The files will be on Dropbox so you can stream them online or download them at anytime.

To get a feel of the size, the 5,000 files on the 88 Radio Archives Treasures sets represent about one seventh of this collection.

A free Dropbox account is large enough for this subscription since you can see the directory and everything in it. You can Download everything or just what you want.

3. I understand from the description that there is no CEDAR or other processing involved. Correct?

That is correct. These are exactly what you would hear on the monitor speakers in our recording studio as the transcription discs were being recorded. Plain raw audio.

4. How does Dropbox work?

A free Dropbox account comes with 2 gb of space.

What is the difference between files that are online-only and available offline?

Files that are available offline take up space on both your computer’s hard drive and in your Dropbox account. These files are available whether you’re connected to the Internet or not.

If you make a file or folder online-only, you’ll still see the file or folder in the Dropbox folder on your computer, but it will not take up space on your hard drive. You can only open it if you’re connected to the Internet.

Anytime you open an online-only file, Dropbox will automatically download the file to your computer. After you are done with the file, if you’d like to free up disk space, you can change the file back to being online-only.

5. Are label scans of the transcription discs included with this subscription?
Yes they are. As a bonus, all of our high resolution Label Scans will be added to Dropbox at the end of the 5 year subscription. The low resolution scans on this page, are examples of what you will receive.