Walker Real Audio Files
Back in the year 1965 when the Beatles were still a relatively new phenomenon and I was still speaking with a very high pitched youthful voice, I got my second tape recorder, a halfway decent reel-to-reel (7 inch maximum reel size) which, if I remember correctly, was a Panasonic. I really needed this machine so that I could save myself lots of money and record music directly off the radio, even though I didn't have lots of money to save, but this excuse or else my terminal approach to whining until I got my way apparently worked. The previous tape recorder I had was nothing much more than a cheap small toy that was pathetic and made terrible recordings.
Indeed I did tape lots of things off the radio with my new machine, but I never kept any of them. It's really too bad. Old WLS and KAAY tapes have some intrinsic value nowadays, and would be interesting for me to listen to.
But the music I recorded is unimportant here; what is important is that I also used the tape recorder as a weapon, following people (mostly older folks) around trying to get them to foul up and sound funny as I mercilessly stuck the dreaded microphone up to or near their mouth. I was in the Giggling Stage 1 of my life, and funny things were what my hormones were ordering.
Only one tape remains from these oft thwarted attempts at recording people in the household, and I transferred it to a cassette a long time ago. Unfortunately by the time I did the transfer, it was deteriorated a lot. It wasn't the best recording to start out with; sound levels were never under control, and I'd often wheeze or chortle or giggle (of course) and drown out my victims. But the sound got "denser" or "darker" with age, and now it's often hard to understand anything of what's being said. At times I remember the script, which is helpful for me if no one else. Therefore I'll try to write down what it is you're hearing if you choose to listen to these files.
Using the modern digital miracle we call a P.C. and some pretty nifty sound software, I've attempted to take this decaying recording as it presently exists and restore some of its clarity. Sometimes it works better in these attempts and sometimes it still isn't that clear. But at least it's an historical artifact from that time period.
I've coded these audio files in the "Real Audio" format - so you'll need the real player 5.0 or later to hear these (click on that link to go out and get it if you don't already have it). They are encoded to stream at 32 Kbps, which mean 33.6 modems and slower may be slightly problematic, and if you have such a modem-critter, you may want to download the files and save them to your hard drive rather than "stream" them onto your machine. After you do that, by double clicking on the file, you can hear it (once again, assuming you have the real audio plug-in).