GE 1996-7 Season 3 Episode 26: Vault
Note: this is not a transcript, but a working draft of the script, so there may be differences in the aired version.


Paul:	You know where I'm headed.  Yes, under the shop, down to the 
	vault, our archive, the dark grounds in which thousands of radio items 
	are buried.  Down I go to disinterred these aural remains.  Chief Ghoul 
	in this morbid enterprise, none other than Director of Radio Ish Lundrigan.

ISH:	Welcome Igor.

PAUL:	How gracious Master.  I don't see any tape on the machine Ish, what gives?

ISH:	Today I thought we would listen to some material from the war years, 
	back in the days when BCN was a willing cog in the Allied Forces Propoganda machine.

PAUL:	Back when we were willing servants of Her Majesty and Uncle Sam.

ISH:	Yes ... and others ... the Yank side of the arrangment was handled by 
	VOUS, they broadcast out of Fort Pepperal.

PAUL:	That's right, introducing Newfoundlanders to the great American 
	entertainers of the day ... Jack Benny, The Andrews Sisters ...

ISH:	The Yanks. With their pots of money, their teeth, they proved 
	irresistable to many a Newfoundland Girl ...

PAUL:	Thus often thwarting the romantic ... designs of a Newfoundland boy, Ish?

ISH:	It was the war, everything was scarse.  But enough of the Yanks Paul, 
	we had other Allies.

PAUL:	The Free French?  Ha!

ISH:	The Russians joined us in the fight against the Hun.  The Colonial 
	Broadcasting Commissioner, Sir Andrew Osbourne, thought that the BCN would 
	provide balance to the influence of VOUS with a ... more ... Easterly orientation.

PAUL:	Red radio?


ISH:	SHHHHHH!  Watch it!  Mind what you say Paul. It was more ... simply 
	Slavic than Soviet.  BCN was the temporary, and I stress temporary, home of VOCP. 

PAUL:	But no tape exists.

ISH:	Tape, no.  The service was recorded on large format Russian lacquer 
	transcription disc.  If you'll follow me Paul.

SFX:	Door opens into large room.	 	

PAUL:	Holy Mother!  I thought this was just a closet.

ISH:	Standard Masonic design feature.

PAUL:	Mason...

ISH:	Here Paul, help me with the disc.

PAUL:	IT'S HUGE!

ISH:	Twenty-Four hours of prgramming per disc.  Just grab it there.

SFX:	The men's exertion.

ISH:	And the player is over here.

SFX:	Paul gasps and laughing.  Disc lands on platter and Paul breaks out in hysterics.

ISH:	I've often wondered about the mind that gets a laugh from objects 
	that are reallly big or really small.

PAUL:	Come off it Ish!  This has got to be the biggest phonograph in the world.

ISH:	The Sovi ... Russians made thousands of them.  They were a central 
	part of life in many of the more distant Eastern Settlements, the collecti...  
	the village would gather around the Free People's Player and listen to 
	the news of the day.  Just jack up the arm.

SFX:	Jacking.

PAUL:	Did the lights just dim?

ISH:	Draws a fair bit of power.  Now mind your ears when the needle drops.

PAUL:	Da, Comrade.

ISH:	STAND CLEAR!

SFX:	Thunderous BUMPH and crackle.  Segment begins.

INSERT SEGMENT

ISH:	(shouting) TAKE IT OFF.

SFX:	Jack and termination of phonograph noise.

PAUL:	Fascinating and little known chapter in our broadcasting history.

ISH:	I haven't talked much about it.

PAUL:	Station was closed down then after the war?

ISH:	Yes and many of the staff black-listed as communists.  Lives 
	ruined by the hearings and the unfounded accusations.

PAUL:	Promising careers in Canadian broadcasting stillborn. People with 
	such high hopes banished to colonial services. And all because of guilt by association.

ISH:	They had families to think about Paul, they regreted what they had done.

PAUL:	And you can forgive them?

ISH:	Me, Comrade?  No.

PAUL:	Until next time ...

ISH:	In the vault.