Radio research scripts made for people like me!

Many years ago, I realized the power of Firefox and it's use of scripting. The scripts will allow you to do almost anything you can imagine on the internet. It's only limited to your imagination and skill in writing the scripts.

Unfortunately,  I can't write any scripts. However, the fine folks at userscripts.org can and do write them. And lo and behold, they take requests for scripts.

So I came up with a few ideas. There are things I would like my browser to do while I researching. There are things that would make my life a whole lot easier. I got to thinking about those things and I simply submitted my requests and ideas to the friendly people at userscripts.org. Honestly, I never thought I'd hear from them. But to my amazement, I not only heard from them, they interacted with me and improved upon their "mistakes" to make the scripts better and to work the way I have need for them to work.

Have an idea? Pass it along to them.

Here's what they have done so far for me, simply because I asked them:

Google News - Last page of newspaper: This was a script I requested and the people at userscripts.org worked on it for me. Now we all profit.

What this script does: In Google Newspapers, when you select a date, the Google News section will automatically expand to it's full screen. The paper will open up at the back instead of the front (most radio sections are at the back of the paper.) There are options added that will allow you to view the next or previous paper. If you are researching anything at the back of these papers (including OTR, comics, TV, etc.) this script will save you a great deal of time.

Google News Archive, No Pay-Per-View Results: This cuts out almost all pay-per-view results in your archive search. Now you can view free content (or at least 90/100 will be free) saving you time you don't have to weed through those.

More on the way, keep checking back...

The MS Windows tools of a radio researcher

Using the computer everyday to research radio, I thought I might 'show you around' my computer and show you some of the stuff I use to research radio.

Audio tool: WavePad Sound Editor

Using WavePad, I am able to manipulate sound at will.  It's not a hard program to use at all.  Without this, there would be no sound clips, no improved files from me.

Screen Grabber: MWSnap

I have used every screen grabber known to man and this one is still the one I keep coming back to.  With it, I am able to take snapshots of items I see on the internet - and in conjunction with Google News, I can go back in time and clip things out of the newspaper.

Graphics: Microsoft Paint

I realize this is the low end of the totem pole here but I don't have the patience to learn a graphics program.  There are plenty of good, free ones out there but I have "mastered" Microsoft Paint.  I know that's not saying much...  Still, once you learn the program, it's amazing what you can do with it.

Graphics: STOIK Smart Resizer

A brand new tool to me, this tool resizes graphics to almost any size you want, without distortion.  This should come in very handy when I have large articles (haven't come across one yet since I got the thing.)

File: Windows "sendto" folder

This is probably the item I cherish most on the computer.  I think most people bypass it or use it very seldom but let me tell you, it's tremendously valuable to have a place to put things and know where they are.

With all of my blogs, you can imagine the number of articles, graphics, etc. that I have.  Well let me tell you, my computer is completely  organized.  The "sendto" menu is why.

Completely organized!

Miscellaneous:  ClipMate Explorer

Another completely invaluable tool.  I can copy whatever I want and go back and select one or 1000 different clips.  It save all my graphics, too - and I can see what they are, just by touching it on ClipMate.

It also has a place to store stuff you want to paste but don't want to ever lose - this makes posting tedious things easy, especially since I have so many directories on the FTP server I use.

FTP: FileZilla

Most any would do the job.  FileZilla is what I use.  I really don't think there's much of a difference between all of them.

Notepad replacement: Notepad++

©Jimbo 2010/2011

Researchers: New feature added to Google newspaper searches

"Related Articles" now shows up when you search for a particular topic

Using Google News Archives for OTR reasearch (Part II)

To me, the radio ads are a super "bonus."

©Jimbo 2010/2011

Using Google News to research OTR

You may notice that not only do I have access to OTRR's piles of magazines (thanks Jim Beshires!), I also have access to many databases of newspapers across the country (actually, the world) and you do too!

Using Google News' Newspaper Archives:

You have free access to literally hundreds of papers and many that ran during the "Golden Age of Radio", that is, 1930-1962.  First, here are a list of those "Golden Age" papers and then I will show you how to use this wonderful website.

PAPER
Arlington Times (few papers, very poor)
Baltimore African-American (not bad, a few finds - especially about African-American actors and actresses, poor)
Bear River Valley Leader (many years missing, very few finds, very poor)
Beaver County Times (starts 1954, sometimes you can find stuff here,ok)
Beaver Valley Times (starts 1946, usually can find ads, skeds, articles, GOOD)
Berkley Daily Gazette (ends 1946 but has articles,sked, ads, GOOD)
Deseret (the whole Golden Age, has it all, ONE OF THE BEST)
Milwaukee (the whole Golden Age, has it all, has a Radio/Movie section on Sundays during the late 30's and all of the 1940's. THE BEST)
Pittsburgh (the whole Golden Age, has it all, ONE OF THE BEST)
Spokane (the whole Golden Age, has it all, ONE OF THE BEST)
Miami News (Covers the Gold Age time span, has occasional ads and article but always has a sked, at least in the 1940's)

©Jimbo 2010/2011