How To Compile A Series Log

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HOW TO COMPILE AN SERIES LOG

1. Jay Hickerson's book - 'The Ultimate Guide.....To All Circulating Shows' is the textbook to be used when compiling a new log. Pricing information may be obtained from Jay. Please tell Jay you were referred by the Old Time Radio Researcher's Group.

2. If you already have a version of Otter that you keep information in on your collection, install an additional copy of Otter, preferably on a different hard drive. If you can't do this, install in a folder and give it a name like Otter-Working Files. This will be the Otter that you use to create new logs. Many people like to delete most of the series. This is helpful if you have a slow running computer.

3. Select the series for which you wish to compile a log.

4. In the example, we are using 'The Bob Burns Show'.

The Bob Burns Show(Musical Variety)(41/9/16...47/5/25)
9/16/41 - 6/9/42, Campbell, CBS, Tues, 8:30pm
8 shows available:(1941) 9/16-10/28;3/24/42
10/7/42 - 12/20/42, Lever Brothers, NBC, Wed, 9pm
6 shows available; (1942) 10/28 - 12/2
1/7/43 - 7/1/43; 10/7/43 - 6/20/44, Lever Bros, NBC, Thur,, 7:30pm
46 shows available; (1943) 2/18;3/4-4/29;5/13;5/20;6/10-7/1;
10/7-11/11; 12/16; 12/30; (1944) 1/6; 2/10-6/29
10/5/44 - 6/28/45; 10/4/45-6/27/46, Lifebouy, NBC, Thu, 7:30pm
9 shows available; (1944) 10/5-10/19; (1945) 4/19; 5/24; 6/7; 11/19; 5/23/46;5/3-/46
9/29/46 - 5/25/47, American Foods, NBC, Sun 6:30pm
2 shows available; 10/6/46;12/29/46

5. You can see that it was broadcast from 41-09-16 thru 47-05-25. This gives you a beginning and ending date to use.

6. In Otter you would select 'Logs' at the top of the page. From the drop-down menu, you would select 'Add New Series'.

7. Type the name of the new series in the box.

8. Then select the new series from the list of 'All Series'.

9. Again, from 'Logs', select, 'Add New Episode'. Type the date for the first episode in the correct field. In the description file, put 'First Episode'. This serves as a place holder(until and if an episode title can be ascertained) and also lets everyone know that this is the first episode.

10. Add the last episode, again naming it 'Last Episode.
Now go to http://www.timeanddate.com
This is a perpetual calendar. You would choose 1941 to start with.

11. You can see the program was broadcast on Tuesdays from 41-9-16 thru 42-6-9. BE AWARE! Jay sometimes confuses Tue with Thur. You have to go by the DATES instead of the DAYS of the week.

12. Add New Episodes with these broadcast dates.

13. Pull up a new year as needed.

14. You can see that on 42-10-7, the broadcast date changed to Wed. Follow this all the way thru the series, changing dates as necessary.

15. Jay also tells us which episodes are available. Note this information in the Otter entry.

16. Then number each episode, starting with #1 thru the end. This gives the number of episodes broadcast.

17. Now go to Radio Gold and see if they give any information such as additional episodes available, guest stars, episode titles, first songs, etc. Any information that would help identify the episode. NOTE: You cannot use Radio Gold as an exclusive source for series information. He only lists the episodes that he, personally, has. There may be, and in most cases are many more available. Use this source as a secondary one.

18. Then go to Jays Radio Logs and do the same.

19. Then do a search thru Google, Dogpile or any other place you think you might find more information.

20. Exhaust every source you know of - hubs, other web sites, etc.

21. Be sure to include episode titles, where known. If the episode title is not known, you can use a placemarker such as the first song, guest star, or brief description of episode. These will serve until we can determine the episode title.

22. Your episode information might resemble any one of the following examples - Only you don't include any of the information in (). That's just for the example.

53-01-12 (2) The Man Who Jumped (episode title)
53-01-12 (2) Guest Star - Marlon Brando (guest star)
53-01-12 (2) First Song - Jubliee (First Song)
53-01-12 (2) A Man Jumps Off a 12 Story Building (brief description)

23. When you are finished, if you were to look at your log as a text file, it should resemble this one of 'Bob Barclay, American Agent'. The * represents episodes known to exist.

* 50/10/11    1 Woman of Mystery
* 50/10/18    2 Honolulu Death Trap
* 50/11/02    3 The Papers and the Cast
* 50/11/08    4 Shanghai Crossing
* 50/11/15    5 The Double-Switch Trick
* 50/11/22    6 Yokohama Operation
* 50/11/29    7 The Black Dragon
* 50/12/06    8 Tiger Bait
* 50/12/13    9 Paris Calling
* 50/12/20   10 The Red Danube
* 50/12/27   11 Streets of the Jade Mongers
* 51/01/03   12 The Iranian Files
* 51/01/10   13 Death Mask
* 51/01/17   14 The Georgetown Robbery
* 51/01/24   15 The Brussels Underground
* 51/01/31   16 Dead Man's Diary
* 51/02/07   17 Destination Algiers
* 51/02/14   18 Channel Rendezvous
* 51/02/21   19 Treason's Ally
* 51/02/28   20 See Douaumont and Die
* 51/03/07   21 Le Bedouina
* 51/03/14   22 The Surgeon and the Sword

* 51/03/21   23 Storm in Algiers
* 51/03/28   24 Mutiny on the Madame X
* 51/04/04   25 Turkish Trophy
* 51/04/11   26 Madrid Tansfer
* 51/04/18   27 Death on the Campus
* 51/04/25   28 The Underground Trail
* 51/05/02   29 The House on the Hill
* 51/05/09   30 The Man with the Camera Mind
* 51/05/16   31 She Danced for Stalin
* 51/05/23   32 The Siamese Twin Plot
* 51/05/30   33 Idol of Death
* 51/06/06   34 The Red Impersonation
* 51/06/13   35 Hong Kong Film Search
* 51/06/20   36 Packet C-1
* 51/06/27   37 Mutiny on the Madame X (repeat)
* 51/07/04   38 The Traitor
* 51/07/11   39 Monsoon
* 51/07/18   40 Singapore Fling
* 51/07/25   41 The Scourge
* 51/08/01   42 Jungle Rendezvous
* 51/08/08   43 Barclay, Target
* 51/08/15   44 Night in the Jungle
* 51/08/22   45 Shanghai Explosion
* 51/08/29   46 Out of the Fog
* 51/09/05   47 Round Trip to Macao
* 51/09/12   48 Flight of the High Lama
* 51/09/19   49 The Shanghai Cigarette Case
* 51/09/26   50 Tokyo Dinner Date

24. Now make a copy of the log text file and attach it to an e-mail and send to the off-line database moderator .

25. Any questions, please either post to the Project Otter Yahoo site, ore-mail one of the sub-group moderators.

Revised 29 March 2005
Jim Beshires

Here are some sites that you might want to check when preparing series logs. Many of them have downloadable catalogs.

Jerry H's Logs - http:/otrsite.com/radiolog

Frank Passages Logs - www.old-time./otrlogs

RadioGold Logs - www.radiogoldindex.com

x2.ca (dealer, but sometimes good info) - www.x2ca/store

OTRCAT - www.otrcat.com

Old Time Radio Shop - www.otr-shop.com/index.htm

Audio Classics Archive - www.audio-classics.com

The Radio Lady - www.theradiolady.com

Vintage Radio Script Library - www.genericradio.com/library.htm

The Plot Spot - www.otrplotspot.com

Old Time Radio Store - http://www.otrnow.com/store/collection.htm

Radio Memories - www.radiomemories.com

BRC - www.brcproductions.net/catalogs.otr/index.html

Old Time Radio Showcase - http://www.old-time.com/sponsors/rad_sho.html

Thrilling Detectives - www.thrillingdetective.com/radio.html

Dougs Old Time Radio Page - http://members.shaw.ca/dougkosmonek/