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NO: Selling site content |
The scans on this site were made at considerable
expense running well into six figures overall. It is
unethical to steal our work to make CDs or flash
drives to sell on eBay. |
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Take Down policy |
Read the site policy on take-downs (removal of
items)
Briefly, if you feel something you own is on the site
without consent you may ask for its immediate
removal upon receipt of a documented request. |
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◄ |
What does the ◄ sign mean on some pages |
The arrow sign indicates an issue or a publication
that is newer to the site and allows the user to find
"new" items easily |
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Gray Text |
What does grayed out text mean? |
In the issue listings, some editions will appear in
gray text. That is a convention used on the whole
site to indicated issues that are missing, needed
and that we do not have. |
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Is there a mobile version of the site? |
No. Have you tried to read a PDF of a tabloid
publication on a smartphone screen? The site works
fine in native mode on tablets, the smallest size
device the site is targeted to. |
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What is the objective of operating this site? |
There is so much printed
material about radio and television that is becoming
harder and harder to find. Libraries are discarding
(often to the recycle bin) many titles. Other
collections are very limited in access so "the rest
of us" can't find information we want.
The site began over a
decade ago when I found I was often being asked
questions I could answer from my own library. So I
went digital for all to see! And, of course, the
site has been a major "image enhancement" for my
career as a broadcast consultant.
We hope the site is making
the history of all aspects of radio and TV easier to
access. It's a reward to see the daily views
increasing over the years.
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I looked at one magazine, but some of the pages are
missing. Why did you remove them? |
Some of the issues and editions we have collected
are missing pages, have had covers removed, have had
coupons or photos cut out. These cases fall under
the "it's better than nothing" header; we try to get
complete editions but they are not always available.
But no part of a magazine is ever intentionally
skipped. We keep a list of incompletes and are
always looking for better replacements. |
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Graphics or text are low resolution, blurry or
otherwise of poor quality |
1. PDFs are created in a layered format. Some PDF
readers or browser plug-ins may not load anything
except the first layer. Try flushing the browser
cache or closing and reloading the browser.
2. Some readers do not "like" PDFs with embedded OCR
text. You may want to try one of many freeware
plugins or utilities. |
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Some PDFs have poor contrast and the pictures are
not clear |
Many old publications have been obtained which have
aged discolored paper or faded ink and poor
contrast. While the processing software used can
improve this slightly, aged originals may often
produce less than perfect scans and PDFs. We feel
that preserving the content with less than perfect
esthetics is better than no preservation at all. |
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What is the equipment and software you use for the
site? |
Our sheet feed scanners are a pair of
Kodak i3250 units with the flatbed attachment,
and non-destructive "library scanning" is done with
an Atiz BookDrive
Mark 2. We also have a variety of flatbeds and
paper cutters. See the complete details
here. |
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Why don't you have higher resolution or less
compressed files? |
All publications scanned here are done at 300 dpi.
But a typical 100 page magazine could be well over
300 mb in that raw format, and this would put very
costly demands on our server. So we use software to
create the PDF that compresses the scan so that it
uses less server space and downloads quickly. Most
users agree that the compromise between size and
resolution is a fair solution. |
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I have some publications that you don't have on the
site. Can I donate them? |
Check with me via email to see if the items are of
interest and fit the vision of the scope of the site.
I'd love to receive more donations to complete
collections or to add new publications.
If you want the magazines returned, I can provide
shipping costs both ways in North America. For other
areas, we can always check for the most economical
method of transport. |
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Why can't I print or extract pages from most PDFs? |
Some documents are used with the owner's
permission and consent. Often, a condition of this
usage is to discouraging further reproduction by
means of copy and print protection.
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Can I buy the site contents on DVD instead of
downloading. |
No. The site does not "own" the content. Much is
used with the owner's permission but we can not sell
it. Further, fulfillment would be a great burden for
a non-profit site. |
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I want a higher quality scan of a picture. |
As a rule, I don't have the time to locate, unpack
and scan archived paper originals to get a specific
item.
I do have the raw 300 dpi scans on an NAS (nearly 24t
of data) of many publications but it's time consuming to locate specific
pages and extract them. Unless your need is for an
exhibit at a registered museum or similarly wide
reaching purpose,
I generally have to decline such requests. But feel
free to ask... email costs
nothing to send. |
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I use Firefox. The PDFs are
illegible. |
The built in PDF viewer in many versions of
FireFix does not display layered PDFs correctly. Try
using the free
Adobe Reader add-in. The Adobe site detects you
operating system and will download the right
version. In Firefox, make sure Options > General >
Applications has the Adobe reader selected as the
default for PDF files. This will improve PDF rendering on all
sites!
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I use Chrome for my browser. The graphics are blurry
and some text is missing or blurry |
Like Firefox, the built-in PDF rendering engine does
not always respond well to layered text-searchable
PDF files. I suggest using the free
Adobe Reader add-in. The Adobe site detects your
operating system and will download the right
version. In Chrome, follow the instructions at the
Chrome support site. |
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I don't see an issue or a title I want on the site.
Do you have it? |
If a publication or issues of a publication are not
on the site, I don't have it. At any time, there
will be a few items I have just received that are in
processing, but otherwise, I do
not have it and "what you see is what you get." |
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I have done searches and the results are garbled or
have strange typos |
Doing Optical Character Recognition on old
discolored or faded documents is difficult. OCR
attempts to recognize letters from the scanned
"picture" but if there is poor contrast, unusual
type styles or other conditions the result will be
imperfect. Short of manually editing the OCR text on
all 4,000,000 pages on the site, there is no "better
way". |
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I am looking for information on a station or a piece
of equipment... |
This site is What You See is What You Get. I do
not have additional accesable resources or
unpublished material. In a sense, I am a librarian,
not a pure historian.
I receive many requests for additional data on
equipment and stations and such. If you can't find what
you want using the
full site search then I can't help. |
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I am looking for information on a family member who
was in radio.. |
I receive many requests for additional data on
people and who worked in radio and TV. If you can't find what
you want using the
full site search then I can't help. Consider
local newspaper archives, genealogy services and our
friend Google. |
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I am looking for a program or audio of a particular
person. |
We do not archive video and audio recordings, just
printed matter. There are a number of archives such
as the Library of Congress, the library at the
University of Maryland, etc. that do that function
with amazingly large budgets.
Paley Center in Los Angeles
(Formerly The Museum of
Radio and Television)
http://www.paleycenter.org/
Library of American
Broadcasting at the University of Maryland
http://www.lib.umd.edu/LAB/
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Most of the documents are very readable, but one of
your publications is not as good. |
We have obtained a variety of third-party scans to
complete collections or to enhance the site. Some
have used different scanning processes and
compression software and are not as good as I would
like. Until I can find originals to scan, let's make
the best of what we can find. |
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I tried to view a publication, and it won't open. Or
it opens the wrong document... |
With well over five million pages of material on the
site, there are occasional errors in file naming or
hyperlinks.
Please email me with any
errors or corrections. We very much appreciate
hearing about errors and mistakes as our site users
are our best proofreaders. |
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Some of the issues of publications are missing. |
Assembling a collection of out of print publications
is not unlike collecting stamps or coins. Some
issues are very rare. Over time, missing issues will
be filled in, but there is no instant fix for this,
nor can a timetable be given. |
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I want to support the site. Can I send you money by
PayPal? |
Please don't send money. The site is not commercial,
and the only links are to sites than enhance the
user's discovery of related documents or credits for
use of protected material. I do not wish to profit
or give the impression of commercialization of this
preservation project.
Consider donating to The Broadcasters Foundation
instead. The link is at the bottom of the home page,
and it supports fellow radio and TV folks who are
going through hard times. |
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I'd like to make a donation of documents or
magazines but don't want to spend money shipping. |
If the documents are needed to complete collections
or unusual, I'll send you a prepaid UPS label for a
package. You just pack and drop off the stuff at a
UPS Store and that's it!
I like to credit contributors but if you wish to
remain anonymous that is OK too.
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I'd like to give some estate publications. |
We'd be delighted to have a parent or relative's
collections if they contain missing issues or new
titles. Quite a few pages already bear something
like "From the Smith Family honoring Fred Smith".
That way a relative's collection lives on and is
shared.
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I have some items you may want to scan but I want
them back.
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This is a common question. And yes, if you have
items I really need, I will scan delicately and with
no damage to the document or its binding and return
the items. I'll take care of the return shipping and
sometimes, if the items are very important, I'll
send a prepaid shipping label if you can't justify
the shipping costs.
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Why do you have so few ham radio publications? |
I was once an amateur and a MW DXer as well. But for
the moment, much amateur material is protected by
copyright, particularly the ARRL and British and
Australian publications. When
content becomes available, we will try to add it.
For some reason, ham radio associations don't want
the broader promotion and are happy to see the hobby
fade away. |
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How is your search function done? |
I use a program called
Zoom Search Engine, which creates search
databases. To make searching easier, I split all
documents into individual pages, nearly 6 million of
them, so a search only downloads a page. I have
separate searches for many individual publications plus
sub-category searches and a
global full site search. |
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I have to wait for searches to give results. Why? |
We have on server, often handling over 1000 requests
an hour. We don't have a server farm, so searches
will take time, particularly the full site search
and the entire section (color) searches. Maybe when
we win the lottery.... |
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The PDFs don't look like typical Adobe Acrobat PDFs |
I use
Foxit PDF Compressor Pro, which is used by major
corporations for compact storage and OCR of forms
and documents. It's in the mid-4 figure cost range,
with a low 4-figure annual renewal fee. It's worth
it as it produces very legible and compact
web-friendly PDFs unlike any other product. |
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Why do some of the older PDFs on the site look less
clear than newer additions? |
I have only had the Foxit professional product (see above)
since Q2 of 2013. While I have rescanned some older
material to make it better looking, I have a monthly
limit on pages so not everything will be redone
quickly. |
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There are no ads or things for sale on the site. How
is that possible? |
I've been in radio for nearly 60 years, and radio
treated me well (most of the time). This site is a
way of giving back to those who also love the art
and the science and the business of radio. Since I
work as a radio consultant, the site contributes to
my "awareness" in the industry and is my only form
of promotion (It works, as I continue to work on
various projects as I enter my 60th year in the
business). |
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How many people are involved in preparing this site? |
One-person does most of the work on North American
publications. There are many European and Australian
contributors, with David Andrews in the UK actually
acquiring, and scanning for the site using the same
software. . |
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How is the site content protected? |
I have off-site backups at several locations under
the custody of well-respected radio historians. I
also have several hearing-impaired persons who help
with the major flatbed and Atiz Bookscan digitizing projects.
There is also cloud backup. |
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How do you store the original documents? |
80% of the site content comes from publications I
have bought or outright donations. I store some in
sealed boxes in poly bags; others are recycled after
scanning. Some loaned items are
scanned and returned, and there are also some items
from public domain sources like the excellent
Internet Archive (which have been reprocessed and
divided into discreet issues). |
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I have a question that is not answered here. |
Send your question by clicking
here. |
