Tex McCrary and Jinx Falkenberg on WNBC, New York

I am wondering if anyone knows if there is a collection of radio shows (other than what is already available on OTR sites) with Tex McCrary and Jinx Falkenburg?

A person I am researching was a guest on one of their shows sometime after May 28, 1953. His family received a recording of the studio interview, which was later incorporated into the finished program. I will be at the Library of Congress NBC Masterbooks collection hoping to find a reference to it (even though it was not on the network, just the NBC affiliate in New York).

Even if I found the date, does anyone here know of a collector who has these shows from that time period?

Thank you,

Neal Lavon
Takoma Park, Maryland

We could research it better if we knew the name of the guest.

Thanks for the quick response. The guest was not a well-known television, radio, or Hollywood star. His name was Billy Brown. Billy was 16 years old when he hosted a very popular program on the Voice of America, the US Government's overseas broadcasting service. It was targeted to Pakistan and the Near East. He answered listener mail from kids his own age about his life in America. It was extremely popular. So popular that VOA could not keep up with the fan mail he generated. So, doing the bureaucratic thing, they cancelled the show.

Billy's mother went to the NY Times who ran a front page story on the cancellation on May 28, 1953. An embarrassed VOA reinstated the show the next day and it remained on for several years.

The wire services picked up the Times story and it ran across the country in about 50 newspapers. Billy was also the guest on a handful of television broadcasts and was the subject of newspaper interviews.

Tex McCrary must have seen the Times piece because he invited him into the studio and the raw recording (which I have from the Brown family) indicates it was made after the newspaper story was published.

As I said, I am hoping the Library of Congress, which has extensive NBC files, can help me find the exact date. That is the show that I am searching for, if it exists.

Billy, by the way, became Bill, went to Syracuse University on a football scholarship, was a co-captain on the team, and was drafted by the Chicago Bears. He never played in the NFL but did play in the inaugural season of the American Football League for the Boston Patriots (forerunners of today's NE Patriots). He later became a successful coach in high school and college. He died in 1989 at the age of 52 from cancer. I don't think he ever mentioned or talked about his VOA experience.

Thanks again! I would be really curious to hear what you all have to say.

Neal Lavon
Takoma Park

Using the NBC Masterbooks for Logs in the Library of Congress, I was able to find the date of the Tex McCrary-Jinx Falkenburg program I was looking for with Billy Brown of VOA.

The date was June 18, 1953.

Now is there any chance in Hades that a copy of this show exists?

Neal Lavon
Takoma Park, Maryland