ARSA Jim,

   Thanks for the research and detailed info about this.  Very interesting reading
- all new to me.  I'll handle the Marmalade portion of this chart listing in the
correct manner on future surveys. Thx again!

Although not a U.S. 45, Apple (Australia) did release "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" as a 45
there (#8693), in 2/69. As you've recently documented, it flew up the 2UW charts.
And although we mainly only know the group "The Marmalade" in the U.S. for their
one Top 10 hit, "Reflections Of My Life", they were far more successful, having a
good number of other major hit songs worldwide (especially in the UK and
Australia), during an almost decade-long career ('67-76). When the Beatles first
released "The White Album" in mid-December of '68, it was their plan that no 45s
would be released from it, like they'd also chosen to do for the "Sgt. Pepper" LP
in mid-'67. With that plan in place, cover versions of its songs began to pop up,
including an "Ob-La-Di..." version done by Marmalade, which by the way, was also
issued as a U.S. 45 (Epic 10428), which flopped here. The Marmalade version did
become a big hit in Sydney, however.
    My guess is that both Marmalade and radio were caught totally by surprise when
Apple (Australia) made an exception for some reason, and decided to issue a "White
Album" 45 after all, "Ob-La-Di...", in Feb. 1969. At this time, no band or record
label in their right mind would've ever tried to compete with/hope to beat out the
Fab Four for a hit, especially regarding a new Beatles' original, because all
efforts would obviously prove fruitless. So what does 2UW do when they get the
unexpected, new Beatles 45 in? Start playing it immediately, obviously! But the
Marmalade version had already had a two-month "chart run head start" on the boys
from Liverpool. Marmalade's version had been recorded just days after the "White
Album's" release, and even charted quite early here stateside, at WKYC Cleveland,
on 12-26-68. 2UW already had the Marmalade version on their chart, moving up and
doing well, when the Beatle 45 arrived. So, for the next couple of weeks, 2UW
listed both groups' versions on their chart - not all that unusual. Now for the
tricky part. While the song was at #1, 2UW decided to also start playing/charting
the flip side of the Aussie-only Beatle 45, the also-classic "While My Guitar
Gently Weeps." But by the way 2UW typed it in on this specific survey, it looks as
if both the Beatles *and* Marmalade had recorded both songs. They didn't. The
Marmalade's "Ob-La-Di..." 45 flip side was "Chains", not "While My Guitar Gently
Weeps." In fact, Marmalade never even recorded the song "While My Guitar...". With
the limited typing space found on most all weekly surveys, there really wasn't a
good way for 2UW to make all the "#1 song/version specifics" clear to the public, I
suppose. Therefore, as a result of researching/sorting through this whole situation,
I have just gone ahead and adjusted this survey's #1 position info, Gary. Assuming
the same #1 combo appears on 2UW next week, I recommend that you key in a total of
3 songs at #1, the way I have here: List both Beatle 45 sides, and only the
"Ob-La-Di..." side by Marmalade. Hope this all makes sense to you, my friend. Whew!
   -ARSA Jim

Wow!  I was very surprised/delighted to see this survey on the site.  I went to
college 30 minutes north of La Crosse and (mis)spent many a night on 3rd Street
back in the day.  Thanks for posting this one, Rick.  If you've got any more from
La Crosse, please post them!

Sir: Thankfully, the "no magic bullet 45 alert, administrative scan" Tim long ago
built for me did let me know of your long-after-the-fact WQAM updates today. And
yes, it is a bit unusual for me to see new "no bullet" songs popping up on
previously-entered ARSA surveys. But it has happened on occasion, for the very same
reason you just went in to add your new details (a new/better survey copy was found,
revealing previously unknown/un-entered song data.) Many thanks for the heads up, my
friend!     -ARSA Jim 

ARSA Jim:  I'm currently editing surveys I previously contributed to upload a survey
image, if available, and I  occasionally come across some Wax To Watch, Pick Hit, or
Album data I did not originally capture for whatever reason.  I don't know if your
"alerts" are triggered for songs not receiving the ARSA Magic Bullet for edited
surveys so here's a heads-up if not.  I recently added a survey image for the March
4, 1960, WQAM survey and also added some Wax To Watch data I did not previously
capture; however, 3 or 4 of the songs did not receive the ARSA Magic Bullet.  - Lee

Excellent question, Lee. How 'bout this? Let's keep doin' it the way we have been
(me adding them in for you), as I think, in a perfect world, the cleaner scans are
preferable to be displayed on ARSA. But going forward, there are bound to be times
when the various tribute sites are missing survey scan weeks that you do happen to
own/key in on here. Therefore, if several days go by, and I haven't yet uploaded a
scan, you can then safely conclude that I simply hadn't found a scan over there to
upload. In that case, I would then encourage you to go ahead and upload your scan -
I don't think anyone will mind that you happened to write the "weeks on" info on
there by hand. (I also sometimes did that myself!) Glad it all worked out, buddy!  
 -Jim 

ARSA Jim: Couldn't get the "Add My 2c Worth" to work on your previous e-mail so I
re-used this one.  Thanks to you and Gary Pfeifer, I was able to figure out how to
utilize the Microsoft Office Picture Manager already contained within my Windows 7
(I didn't even know it was there) so it looks like I'll be busy for awhile going
back to most of the WHB 40 Star Surveys I've contributed and editing them to upload
the survey images; should be fun.  Thanks again to you and Gary for all of your
guidance and help; you guys are the best!

As concerns the surveys I am keying in and will continue to key-in for which you
are currently adding the images (i.e, WIBG, K/MEN, KFXM, KJR, WCOL and a few
others), almost all of the copies I am using/will continue to use have been defaced
somewhat as I have written the # Weeks on most of them.  As they are no longer the
"pure" surveys distributed by the radio stations, would you prefer that I not
upload them and you continue to add the cleaner copies after I key-in the data? 
Standing by.    - Lee 

I now see a 5-5-72 WHB survey scan, up and posted. Way to successfully navigate
through those various "minefields", buddy!    -Jim

Gary Pfeifer/ARSA Jim:  Guys, thanks so much for the sage advice, offers and help. 
Unfortunately, Microsoft Photo Editor has been discontinued as a Microsoft Office
Show All component as of Microsoft 2003. It has been replaced by Microsoft Office
Picture Manager which does not support explicitly specifying the image resoultion
dpi. I am currently atempting to figure out how to best use the applications of
Microsoft Photo Editor and am using the WHB 40 Star Survey of May 5, 1972, which
you may see appearing and disappearing for a few days as I test various resized
uploads for image clarity on ARSA.  If this becomes too much of a hassle, it
appears there are websites offering free downloads of Microsoft Picture Editor
which I may or may not do, and, if all else fails, I may take you up on your most
generous offer ARSA Jim.  Thanks again guys!   - Lee

I currently own a Mac, but still, I never knew anything like a "resize scan" option
even existed. That certainly sounds much easier, my friend!    -Jim

Lee, try this. Most photo view/edit programs have the ability to "resize" scanned
images.  I have needed to do this on a number of survey scans before I've uploaded
them.  I use Microsoft Photo Editor and under the Image section there is a Resize
application.  Using this function, you can reduce the size of your image at 50% of
original size, 80%, or whatever percentage works to result in an image size less
than 500 kb. Good luck!

Lee, getting computers to communicate correctly with stand-alone scanners (that's
what I have, too) can be surprisingly tricky - took me forever! And I never
would've gotten it up-and-running if it weren't for a brilliant, long-time buddy of
mine, who possesses a heart of gold. Hey Lee, why don't you just give me your e-mail
address (put "at" instead of "@" in your response here, so the spambots don't find
ya!) I'll then reply, giving you his name and phone #. He'll be happy to help you
out. You buying another scanner was/is totally unnecessary (*so* glad you didn't -
those chain stores will say anything to make you think your only option is to buy
their current products/go through tons of hassle - not so!) My friend will even be
able to temporarily log on to your computer (with your permission, of course!) Then
just give him a few of your scanner's specific details (like you started to do
here.) All you have to do then is sit back, answer an occasional question, and let
my buddy do his thing. He'll then locate/install the necessary software between
your computer and your scanner. I guarantee that, within half an hour, you'll then
be able to make any scan be any dpi size you want. The best part - cost to Lee
Tucker? Zero! It's 100% up to you whether you take me up on this offer or not, Lee.
Neither he nor I will be at all offended if you don't want to do this. Let me know,
buddy!     -ARSA Jim 

ARSA Jim:  Thanks for the as always helpful explanation.  You were "right-on" as my
WHB 40 Star Survey scans are at 300dpi/825KB which appears to be the default color
image resolution settings of my scanner.  My scanner is contained within a Brother
MFC-J415W All-In-One Wireless Printer which does not give me the option of changing
the resolution settings before scanning a document and I have yet to figure out how
or if I can customize these resolution settings.  A trip to Best Buy and Target
yesterday enlightened me to the fact that purchasing a stand-alone scanner at
retail is "dinosaur technology" and if I want one I'll probably have to purchase it
on-line.  Not sure where I go from here but if I come up with the capability to
reduce these WHB 40 Star Survey scans, I'll give it a go and get back to you. 
Thanks again.   -Lee

Lee: I don't know much about scans, either, but I've picked up a little "what
works/what doesn't work" along the way. The error message you got sounded familiar
to me, however - I think I know what's trippin' you up. I read Tim's "how to upload
scans to ARSA" tutorial a while back. A survey scan is basically just a "computer
photo/picture" of it. So, like any photo you or I have ever taken, some can be
"extra sharp/highly focused", while others can be less so, depending on certain
settings on the camera/computer when it's taken. You know, like "hi-definition" vs.
"regular definition" TV. The more "dots per inch (dpi)", the sharper the pic,
basically. Same for our survey scans. For ARSA, Tim wanted to balance two things:
1) make sure the uploaded survey scans info can be easily read by everybody, while
2) not wasting/using up valuable computer storage by having folks upload,
"space-hogging, way sharper than is needed to easily read" scans. Lee, for example,
lucky for us, 98% of the KFXM/KMEN/WCOL/WQAM scans from the sites you've been keying
them in from are already in Tim's "ARSA sweet spot" for scan upload size. This
really isn't all that surprising, because most people like their scans the same way
Tim/ARSA does: plenty easy to read, but not "crazy huge." Almost all the files I
grab/upload for you are already between 100KB and 400KB each. Personally, I think
250-400KB is perfect. I think Tim gives us an extra "size cushion", up to 500KB per
scan. But anything more than that, ARSA will give you the exact error message you
described to me. I bet when you tried to upload your WHB survey scans, your
scanner's settings made the scan too big/too sharp, because the same thing happened
to me when I started. My scanner's "default sharpness was too sharp: 150 dots per
inch (dpi). Typically, folks like pictures they take of their day-to-day lives to
be sharp - sharper than we need for our "survey/text pics." My "which size dpi do
you want?" has 6-7 choices. For me, the two lowest are 75dpi and 100dpi. These are
the only two I've ever used for survey scans. I normally leave it on 100dpi. This
keeps me within Tim's limits 95% of the time. But if it still ends up too big, I
then move it down to the smallest dpi, 75. That always works. Lee, when you get
time, try taking some new WHB scans, at these smaller dpi's. I bet you'll then see
they'll be well within Tim's 400-500KB size limits. Let me know how you make out,
buddy! In the meantime, I'll keep adding them all into ARSA for you.  -Jim

JIM,

forgot to express my appreciation for explaining the
methodologies being utilised by your most active members
for contributing radio surveys to ARSA -- from all-over it seems.
will keep this in mind for any future concerns what catches
my attention.

best regards,

b. mccoy.

ARSA Jim

Thanks for the kind words.  My initial contribtions to ARSA were from WHB, my
hometown coming of age station in Kansas City, MO.  I have the actual station
distributed copies of most of these WHB surveys that I contributed and when I
contributed them to ARSA, I attempted to upload a scanned image of them ; however,
I continually received (and continue to do so) the following message:

"Warning: unlink(): No such file or directory in
/home/warden/public_html/arsa/surveys_edit.php on line 310"

I'm unclear as to what this means and have not pursued it, but it is the reason I
do not/have not attempeted to upload any scanned survey images.  I really
appreciate your efforts in adding the surveys images after I key-in the data as I
think it adds a lot to the overall survey and I hope you continue to do so as your
busy schedule permits.  Have a great weekend.    
 

TO LEE TUCKER:

the FIRST page of the current WQAM survey (dated 4-27-1963) that you posted is
UN-R-E-A-D-A-B-L-E! the image is so fuzzy and unfocused as to be illegible.

so could you please RE-POST that FIRST page here?

thank you in advance.

best regards,

ben e. mccoy.

Mentioning ARSA on your site would be no problem at all. Thanks for thinkin' of us! 
   -ARSA Jim

Hello,

There is a Facebook page for people from my hometown of Midland, Michigan.  Many of
my fellow Midlanders post various reminiscenses of our town to it, including
occasional posts about the radio stations we grew up listening to.

With your permission, I'd be happy to post to this Facebook page a link to ARSA's
website with the suggestion that anyone who'd like to submit surveys from
mid-Michigan radio stations is welcome to do so.

If I still had any, I'd have submitted them long ago.  I don't, but maybe some of
my fellow townsmen do.

My best,
Joel

Man, how did I never know/notice that before???? Thanks as always, Paul!   -Jim
(PS-you may wanna check out our "other board of interest", sir. I'm tryin' to help
our buddy Todd finish up a big project; just a few stragglers remain!  :)