Early this afternoon on WONE Radio from Dayton, Ohio, I heard a 60-second public service announcement for the "Toys For Tots" charity done by Nat "King" Cole who both sings and talks. I'm assuming this is a re-released P.S.A. as opposed to something original from 1964 or before. I don't recall ever hearing something like this featuring a long-deceased personality. Cole died in early 1965. Has anyone heard this or something similar?
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Nat "King" Cole - Toys For Tots
- Thread starter Cincinnati Kid
- Start date
C
cd637299
Guest
Cincinnati Kid said:
I never heard this....but let me pose something.....
Was the sound very crisp, like a modern recording? 'Cause I was thinking.....those Natalie Cole albums that featured her dad, and the sound tricks that were well done, not to mention the "unforgettable Unforgettable" video in 1991 with the video stuff---maybe this was a well done PSA to make it sound hip. Maybe whatever audio of Nat that was around, was spliced, slowed down, whatever, to make a brand new PSA. Possible? Was Toys for Tots even around as an organization pre-'65?
cd
Could it possibly have been a retro audio clip that was mixed in but not really a current ad? I've found clips like that online of old PSAs and clips from movies and radio or TV shows at places like Archive.org and mixed in with some blog site's Christmas albums and podcasts.
cd637299 said:
Oh don't TELL me they made some dubstep thing out of it!
But seriously, Toys For Tots has been around since 1947.
I just think it's in VERY bad taste to use the voice of a deceased person in a commercial or PSA. Even though I understand it's a PSA and the message is good. It would just seem uncomfortably ghoulish for me to put it in rotation.....
It sounded like something that was recorded in the early 1960's rather than a spliced re-make, but the quality was very good. At first, I thought it had mistakenly been put on the air and kept waiting for it to quickly end, but it went on for what I estimate 60 seconds. Back in the early 1960's, such PSA's were usually on 33 1/3 records and sent to stations for possible play. With today's automated systems, I have to think it was put into that current form and its airing was not a mistake. By way of information, this was heard during the Cleveland Browns pre-game coverage Sunday on WONE about 12:30 P.M. During that time, there are built-in breaks for stations on the Browns' network to insert local ads, PSA's etc. I'm pretty sure this originated from WONE and was not a part of the feed along the network line.
C
cd637299
Guest
I think that an e-mail to WONE is in order, then..... 
It *does* seem unusual.
cd
It *does* seem unusual.
cd
That may have been it. I could only hear a portion of Nat King Cole singing on that on-line sample. I know when I heard this over the air last month, he was also speaking.
So it probably was what I had suggested, a retro audio clip that was rereleased. I figured it was probably just available to radio stations though.
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