ANYBODY HAVE ACCESS TO THE OLD MUTUAL NEWS INTRO?

I've done several searches but have been unable to locate the old Mutual News intro, logo, sig, sounder, or whatever you call it. Anybody have a link?

The Mutual intro that heralded Tony Marvin ("MEW-tu-al Noose!") was ubiquitous in small-markets (usually over a not-top-quality phone line) back in the 1950s and 1960s. Well into the late 60s the MBS studio ops next to WOR in Manhattan were still slip-cueing that intro on a transcription disc, long after major radio nets were using cart machines.

Often Mutual casts included commercials from advertisers shunned by ABC, CBS and NBC, including Preparation H, D-Con rat poison, and "offer" commercials from the oft-heard voice of Mexican border radio, Del Sharbis.

Would be fun to hear that art-deco logo once again.....

You're talking about the sounder Mutual used prior to the eight-note logo, right? I heard it on a tape years ago -- I recall it had a sound of a 'generic' news logo with a "space-age" feel. I don't know where an in-the-clear copy exists .... wouldn't mind finding one myself.

Yeah, Mutual did seem to have its share of second-tier advertisers. *be-doop*

--Russell

Yeah, Russell, another frequent poster here e-mailed me an mp3 file of the 1970s kinda-electronic version - complete with the butt-ugly top-of-hour time tone they used to use. PM me and I'll forward the files to you.

But there was an earlier version used from the 1950s through about 1970-something which was fully orchestrated with live instruments and played at a slower tempo, with several staccato "breaking-news!" style notes before the familiar 8 or 9-note signature was played. This was the logo being played when I visited Mutual's studios in the spring of 1969 on Broadway in Manhattan. The studios were a shock. It was like stepping back in time 25 years. There were Western Union Naval Observatory clocks everywhere, the union board ops were running 1940s Western Electric consoles, and there wasn't a cart machine to be seen. All the logos, themes and spots were still being slip-cued on 16" transcription turntables and the few actualities used in Mutual newscasts were recorded on a single Magnecord PT6 with slips of paper stuck in the supply reel to mark the beginning of news cuts.

Yes, and the fabled MutuAlert "bee-boop!" satellite closure was used by Westwood One long after the demise of the network. In fact MutuAlert was only decommissioned when CBS started abandoning the Starguide receivers to make way for the new-generation MAX boxes.

I can remember inthe mid 60s-early 70s a very quick version, then a slowed down version before the synthesized version.

You did hear Mutual on virtually every small town daytimer in Amrica for awhile, then they semed to be replaced by UPI. Anyone remember "Mutual Progressive" which an at about :55..presumably the answer to ABC Contemporary?

I was at a station that had a "MutuAlert" box. When we switched to NBC Radio News, our engineer "adapted" the box to pick up at least two of the NBC HotBox tones for bulletins. Later, when tones changed at NBC, we had to get a real, official NBC HotBox.

Having worked for two Mutual Network stations in Ohio in 1966 & 1967, I have some reel-to-reel tape of that network's news openings from that time. Unfortunately, I do not now have a reel-to-reel tape recorder.

Cincinnati Kid said:

Having worked for two Mutual Network stations in Ohio in 1966 & 1967...

Click to expand...

What was the frequency response of the Mutual line at those stations--
3.5 kHz or were you lucky enough to have 5 kHz?

At the end of 1967, all four network radio affiliates (ABC/CBS/MBS/NBC)
in Tucson were stuck with un-EQed 3.5 kHz Telco lines, but magically, on
January 1, 1968 when ABC split into four weblets, the station which was
ABC and then became ABC/I and ABC/E, got upgraded to a 5 kHz line.

Cincinnati Kid, if you're willing, PM me and I'll give you my snail-mail contact info. You could mail me the reel(s), I could transfer to digital files and then would return the open-reel stuff with a CD burned for you, postpaid.

I think I found at least one of the MBS '60s news opens.

Check out Rick Burnett's site on Twin Cities radio:

http://www.twincitiesradioairchecks.com/newsradiotvtoo.html

Near the bottom, the section "Mutual Broadcasting...1977" has
an mp3 file with various ABC and MBS sounders. At 01:47 in
is a Mutual news open, with a shorter version of it at 02:43 in.

And browse through the whole site as I've just started doing,
there's a ton of old MSP radio stuff to devour!

oldiesfan6479 said:

Cincinnati Kid said:

Having worked for two Mutual Network stations in Ohio in 1966 & 1967...

Click to expand...

What was the frequency response of the Mutual line at those stations--
3.5 kHz or were you lucky enough to have 5 kHz?

Click to expand...

I'm not sure what the frequency was. I know both came in via telephone lines. It may have been the lower one.

There is an audio CD set entitled "We Interrupt This Broadcast" which featured news bulletins and audioclips from Mutual's archives from the 1940s through the 70s. Check your local library.

Mutual Progressive started around 1973 and continued throughout the Amway ownership. It changed its name to "Mutual Lifestyle Reports" in the 1980s before Westwood One bought the network.

Mutual Black Network news which also started in 1973 aired at ten before the hour..along with an all too short-lived Spanish language network at 20 or 25 past the hour.
Sheridan Broadcasting bought the Black Network in 1981.

With the exception of The Larry King Show,I never ever heard a major market station in my area airing Mutual News...practically all of Mutual's affilliates were podunk small town stations,yet they boasted being the "world's largest radio network" since most small town stations couldn't afford an affilliation with ABC's demographic networks let alone NBC or CBS unless if such station was bringing in good moola.

I know in 1966 & 1967, Mutual's newscasts on the half-hour were the ones most of the stations picked up. Those were also the newscasts who had commerical sponsorships. There were newscasts on the hour, but the breaks on those had public service announcements.

Among the announcers giving the news back then were: Tony Marvin (best remembered as the announcer on the Arthur Godrey Show), Whitney Bolton, Frank Singhiser (sp?) and Cedric Foster. Bill Stern also had a couple of sports commentaries during the day. Fulton Lewis, Jr. was on for a time until health problems caused him to turn his program over to his son, Fulton III.

As noted, many of the Mutual affiliates were in small towns or on the smaller stations in large cities. However, one affiliate up into the early 1970's was WCFL, the 50,000-watt station in Chicago at 1000 on the AM dial.

Cincinnati Kid said:

Among the announcers giving the news back then were...

Click to expand...

See this link for discussion on Mutual newscasters as it reveals
additional names, including Del Sharbutt and Van Patrick (sports):

http://www.old-time.com/archivedbbs/mainbbs/486.htm

In the late '60s, didn't Mutual have a longer-form early evening
newscast titled The World Today, anchored by Tony Marvin?
(Title not to be confused with The World Tonight on CBS which
is now the World News Roundup/Late Edition at 7pm ET/4pm PT.)

The twincitiesradioairchecks site had exactly the logo I was looking for! Thanks, everyone!

In addition there was a dramatic "outro" sounder, which is the cut following the opener on that file.

I had quite forgotten the outro over the intervening 35+ years. Tony Marvin (or equivalent) would do the cast and go to break, usually some second-rung advertiser like D-Con or Preparation H, and often voiced by Del Sharbis (Sharbutt?). Then there would be a pause, and Tony would deliver a signature: "This is Tony Mar-vin...(fanfare)....MEW-tual Radio News." The fanfare would build under his voiceover with the flourish happening right at the end.

It was nice production, especially for a low-rent operation like Mutual. It would have sounded great if only most Mutual affiliates weren't getting the program over bargain-basement low-grade 3 kHz phone lines.

I remember WCFL as a Top forty format from roughly 1968 to 1975 but never heard Mutual News so it must have been before Top 40. I do remember however in the 1980s Mutual did own WCFL for a breif period of timne before it became WLUP-AM.

Didn't like that low quality land line sound either..made them sound old fashioned compared to NBC,CBS and ABC.

The only way to upgrade the audio quality on Mutual was to have AT&T install an equalizer that was shaped like a toolbox (if your station could afford it) to make the network sound a little better as did the eother networks. Was releived after it dumped the land lanes and switched to Westar 1 (or II) . Mutual was first to go sattelitte beginning in 1978.

Dick Rosse(ross-say') anchored The World Today and later(I think) Jim Bohannon.

Dirk Van did a great job anchoring Mutual Lifestyle Reports in the 80s...and then there was the overnight closed circuit feed of the Dick Clark National Music Survey..sometimes was fed at high speed when they were pressed for time. The LPs they distributed for FM Stereo affilliates sounded much better.

Mutual claimed it first introduced "Meet The Press" before moving to NBC.

By the way...who was that fast-talking deep voiced announcer they used at the network's closing outcue at the end of the news? He was heard up until the mid-70s..he did some commercials too.

DUM-Da-da DUM-Da-da DUM-DUMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!
"THIS IS THE MUTUAL BROADCASTING SYSTEM!" (tympani out)

kirkiefan said:

I remember WCFL as a Top forty format from roughly 1968 to 1975 but never heard Mutual News so it must have been before Top 40. I do remember however in the 1980s Mutual did own WCFL for a breif period of timne before it became WLUP-AM.

Click to expand...

I remember hearing a news segment in the early evening in the 1970's on WCFL that would close out with the Mutual I.D. and music and then rock-announcer Ron Britain (who previously worked in Cincinnati) would quickly follow with..."Hello, Chicago, this is the Ron Britain Radio Program..." which was then followed by a rock 'n roll record.

Cincinnati Kid said:

kirkiefan said:

I remember WCFL as a Top forty format from roughly 1968 to 1975 but never heard Mutual News so it must have been before Top 40. I do remember however in the 1980s Mutual did own WCFL for a breif period of timne before it became WLUP-AM.

Click to expand...

I remember hearing a news segment in the early evening in the 1970's on WCFL that would close out with the Mutual I.D. and music and then rock-announcer Ron Britain (who previously worked in Cincinnati) would quickly follow with..."Hello, Chicago, this is the Ron Britain Radio Program..." which was then followed by a rock 'n roll record.

Click to expand...

...as well, WCFL ran Dick Biondi's Mutual weekend show in 1964-65, and was bought outright by Mutual from the Chicago Federation of Labor in 1979, making it the first station actually owned by that network. It had been a backup affiliate of both ABC (since its days as the Blue Network in the 1920s) and Mutual (since 1949) until WENR and WLS merged in 1959, when WCFL took the primary Mutual affiliation away from WGN...

I've found another site with various Mutual tracks, including
news sounders:

http://www.angelfire.com/ky2/cumberlandgapbc/index24.html

Some are also on the other site link I posted previously.

The two mp3s titled "news sounder...1961" are probably typoed.
They're more like 1981.

Are there any audio files with the be-doops in them? I've been looking around and spot checking, but I haven't found any files. I hear the news opens, but the newscast doesn't go far enough to include any switching tones.

Thanks.

Mike

i remember hearing Mutual in 60's & 70's, it was cheesy, it must have been what radio sounded like in the 1930's.
the abc news sounder from the early 60's was cool, the 70's was even better..
cbs to this day still has the tip of the hour gong and "chirp" between commercial matter back to local programming.
when does Arthur Godfrey come on?