JERRY AND THE PIRATES wraps tonight!

We had our first recording session on May 29th, and tonight, Sept.8th, we have our last session - completing 24 episodes! They start airing on XM Radio, Sonic Theatre, Fri. Sept. 19th, in our usual daily time slots - so, Mon-Thurs. will be various CRT programming, but every Friday, it's JERRY AND THR PIRATES.

I play Jerry Davenport, a Hollywood screenwriter who has left CA to live in the quiet coastal town of Marblehead, MA. Peace is soon shattered with the arrival of his three nephews - Paul (Rob Cattell), Richie (Connor Doherty), and Preston (Ricky MacDonald). Rounding out the cast are Diane Capen as Jerry's girlfriend, Tracy Kirkbride, Lincoln Clark as his agent, Mr. Cranker, Marcia Friedman as the housekeeper, Mrs. Thorn, and J.T. Turner as the nosey next door neighbor, Mayor Quigley.

The show is our homage to the TV sit-coms of the 60's and 70's, complete with laugh tracks and goofy music (supplied by CRT Music Master Jeff Gage).

Here is a list of the episodes, and their scheduled air premiere airdates;

JERRY and the PIRATES

Season 1. XM Radio, Ch. 163. 24 Episodes. Fridays, 4Am, 12pm, 6pm EST.

Fri. Sept. 19: Episode 01 SHIVER THE TIMBERS.
Jerry’s three nephews arrive unexpectedly.

Fri. Sept. 26: Episode 02 EVERYTHING’S COMING UP PETUNIAS
The kids write a speech for Mayor Quigley.

Fri. Oct. 3: Episode 03 THE HOUSEKEEPER COMETH
It’s Mrs. Thorns first day on the job, and she causes some ripples with her schedule.

Fri. Oct. 10: Episode 04: THE HORN BLOWS AT MIDNIGHT.
Richie takes trombone lessons.

Fri. Oct. 17: Episode 05: BUILDING RAMPS
Richie builds several ramps in the back yard for his Quad.

Fri. Oct. 24: Episode 06: GUNFIGHT AT THE OKEY DOKEY CORRAL
Jerry continues to work on his western script.

Fri. Oct. 31: Episode 07: THE HALLOWEEN HORROR
While out trick-or-treating, the boys stumble upon Dracula’s castle.

Fri. Nov. 7: Episode 08: THE HISTORY LESSON
Paul is in a panic with his upcoming history test at school.

Fri. Nov. 14: Episode 09: THE STUCK UP BRIDGE
The Marblehead Bridge is stuck, and Preston is unable to get home.

Fri. Nov. 21: Episode 10: WOODEN SHIPS AND IRON HISTORY TEACHERS.
Paul is having trouble with his new history teacher – Mrs. Banecker … nicknamed Battle-ax Banecker.

Fri. Nov. 28: Episode 11: PASS THE STUFFING
Preston gets a role in the Thanksgiving show at school – a role he would rather not play.

Fri. Dec. 5: Episode 12: WHEN LOVELY AGATHA CAME TO TOWN
Mayor Quigley’s niece arrives for a visit, and has eyes for Paul.

Fri. Dec. 12: Episode 13: CRANKERS BIG DATE.
Jerry and Tracy plan a romantic evening at the exclusive Novak’s Restaurant, while Cranker is meeting a financier at the same place, same time. The boys hatch an elaborate plan to keep the two parties from seeing each other.

Fri. Dec. 19: Episode 14: PINOCCHIO PRESTON
The story of Pinocchio is retold – Pirates style.

Fri. Dec. 26: Episode 15: CHRISTMAS SHOW
Jerry goes on a last minute shopping spree with the Mayor, while the kids stay home and attempt to decorate the tree.

Fri. Jan. 2: Episode 16: EVERY ROSE HAS A THORN.
Mrs. Thorn is in a bad mood after loosing the Housekeeper Of The Year Award.

Fri. Jan. 9: Episode 17: THE DAVENPORT MELLER-DRAMMER
The boys stage an old fashioned Melodrama to raise money for their favorite charity – Paintball.

Fri. Jan. 16: Episode 18: PRESTON’S PET.
Preston finds a horse, and brings him home.

Fri. Jan. 23: Episode 19: POETRY BY RICHIE
Richie tries to impress a girl at school by writing a love poem. Jerry wants to help him, and writes one which mistakenly falls into the hands of Miss Banecker, who thinks Jerry wrote the poem for her.

Fri. Jan. 30: Episode 20: RICHIE THE SNOB.
Fame goes to Richie’s head after he wins the Soap Box Derby.

Fri. Feb. 6: Episode 21: THE BOY IN THE IRON VASE.
Richie gets his head stuck in an silver vase, once owned by Napoleon, and valued at $10,000.

Fri. Feb. 13: Episode 22: WHEN A WISH IS FROM A STAR.
Teen movie star, Brayden Flynn, arrives at the Davenport home to do some research for a new movie role – Jerry’s “The Continental Kid.”

Fri. Feb. 20: Episode 23: I CANNOT TELL A LIE …. HONEST.
While everyone gets ready for the movie to start shooting, Preston gets caught up in the action and dreams he is young George Washington.

Fri. Feb. 27: Episode 24: LIGHTS! CAMERA! ASPIRIN!
Hollywood arrives in Marblehead to film Jerry’s movie, “The Continental Kid.”

NEW FATHER BROWN release

Our 9th FATHER BROWN mystery is now available. THE ORACLE OF THE DOG is at Lulu.com
Lulu is our new download partner, and I encourage anyone who buys CRT downloads to give them a try. This episode will be released to our other download sites next week.

HALLOWEEN TREE NOW AVAILABLE

Seems that Amazon is shipping THE HALLOWEEN TREE! It was not scheduled for release until Oct. 1, but I noticed it said "in stock," so I ordered it, and it came in 2 days! I think this is CRT's finest hour to date (well, 2 hours), and my thanks again to Ray Bradbury for allowing me to write the script from his amazing book! Check it out - and be sure to leave a review! THE HALLOWEEN TREE

OUR AUGUST PODCAST - KIDNAPPED.

Our September podcast is our 2005 production of Robert Lewis Stevenson's KIDNAPPED. You can hear program by clicking HERE. Again, our thanks to THE SONIC SOCIETY for hosting our monthly podcast, which will only run thru January! KIDNAPPED has a great score by Jeff Gage - hope you check it out. Part two will be available Sept. 25th.

PROGRESS

BARRYMORE is recorded! We did the show in three sessions, and now it goes to Jeff Gage for music, then to Chris Snyder for editing, then off to the publisher the second week in September, for a Dec. 1 release. William Luce did an amazing job re-working the script for audio. I love it, love it, LOVE IT!!

Hmmm ... is THE HALLOWEEN TREE available already? I saw it on AMAZON.COM saying that it was in stock, but the release date still said OCT. 1; so I ordered it, and now they are saying it has been shipped! So, unless there is some other HALLOWEEN TREE for $14.95, I think this could be ours! Many have said that this is CRT's finest show to date. I can't wait to see what people think.

JERRY AND THE PIRATES is almost finished recording its first season! We have taped 17 episodes since May 29th, and we tape 3 more tonight, and then the final 4 on Sept. 8th. It premeirs on XM RADIO SONIC THEATRE Friday, Sept. 19th!

The month of September we will be closing down production as we renovate the CRT Studio!!!

In October, we will begin recording our newest series, TICONDEROGA, an action adventure tale set in 1758, during the French and Indian War!

Also in October, we will be recording the very first COLONIAL RADIO CHRISTMAS SPECIAL! This will be a one hour old fashioned variety Christmas Show, just like the ones Bing Crosby and Andy Williams would do! These were the kinds of shows I grew up watching every Christmas, and we thought it would fun to bring the format back. Lots of music and skits, look for it right after Thanksgiving! It will also broadcast as a one hour special on XM Radio, SONIC THEATRE

Recording Saturday

It's rare that we record on a Saturday, but today we are doing just that with BARRYMORE. We had two really good rehearsals (we taped Thursdays, and it's releasable, so today should be even better). After this, we have one more session on Tuesday(Flashback scenes). We called William Luce during the session on Thursday, and he got to speak with our director, Joe Zamparelli, and Jud Pierce, who plays the prompter, Frank. I've said it before, but I am just blown away with the very full and detailed re-write Mr. Luce has given his original script for our audio presentation. He is truly one of the great Broadway Playwrights.

THE HALLOWEEN TREE

In just a little over a month, we will release our third production with Ray Bradbury; THE HALLOWEEN TREE!
We've been sitting on the completed production for about 8 months, and I can't wait to see what people think of it.
This is the first show to feature our brand new music upgrade program. The music is magnificent. Not only does it have the most music in any CRT production (I think only 5 or 8 minutes of the 2 hour program does not have music underscoring it), but I also think it's one of our finest shows to date. You can hear the trailer on the CRT homepage. You can pre-order the show from Amazon HERE
Pre-sales are doing very well. The show should also be available in Barnes and Noble in October. The download is now available on Audible.com - but you know how I feel about the sound quality on Audible.

NEW DOWNLOAD STORE

We are starting to put all of our CRT titles up on LULU.COM This is a download site, like the others we are on; except on this one we have a bit more control as to how long it takes to get a show released (pretty much in an instant), and also we get a better percentage from sales - and since we're a little company, we need all the help we can get! So for those of you who may download CRT shows, this is the place to do it from!
I downloaded a test version for myself, and the sound quality is just as good as the original.
Audible.Com changes our files to about 16bits (and seem incapable of returning phone calls and emails), and the sound is horrible; it sounds like we recorded underwater; to give you an idea, the files we send them are 128bits. Big difference. So give Lulu a try! We only have a few shows listed now, but more will be added each day.

Col. Vincent J-R Kehoe

I was very saddened to hear of the passing of Vin Kehoe, on Aug. 17th. I'll miss him. He was great man. I'll always remember the great dinners he took me, and my fellow company commanders to, at the Colonial Inn, and the kind words he gave me when my mom was battling cancer. He was a class act - a real class act.

the following obituary was taken from the 10th Regiment Home Page.


Born in Brooklyn, New York on 12 September 1921 of Irish and Canadian French parentage, Vincent Kehoe was brought up and went to school in Lowell Massachusetts. He attended MIT 1940-41 and Boston University in 1942. Kehoe enlisted in the US Army on 5 June 1942 and served as a ski instructor in the 10th Mountain Division as well as the 70th Division in France and Germany, being awarded the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart.

After discharge on 8 October 1945 he attended the American Theatre Wing Professional Training Program for veterans and graduated from Columbia University with a BFA in Motion Picture and Television Production.

As a professional make-up artist he had been in charge of make-up for over 3000 major TV, film and stage productions, and had been in charge of the make-up department of CBS-TV in New York as well as for the NBC Hallmark Hall of Fame series. He was president and Director of Research for the Research Council of Make-up Artists, Inc., a firm that supplied specialized professional cosmetics to studios and make-up personnel all over the world. He authored a number of books on make-up, among which are The Technique of Film and Television Make-up For Color, the standard professional book and unique in its field; as well as The make-up Artist in the Beauty Salon, for use in beauty studios. The have been published in different languages in a number of countries and have received critical acclaim in their field.

In 1957, Kehoe left for Spain to produce and film a color documentary film on the art of tauromaquia, and at the same time, wrote and photographed two award winning books on los toros and Spain. In 1960 the Art Directors Club of New York selected the books for showing and award at their Annual show and in 1961, Aficionado!, one of the titles, was given the distinction of "One of the best photographed books of the year" by Photography Annual. The film was shown in a lecture series performed by Kehoe, to colleges and social clubs all over the United States.

As a professional photographer his work has been published in Time, Life, Sports Illustrated, Argosy, Popular Photography and many other leading publications. He had also photographed and produced a number of film shorts on various subjects and was the Chief Press Officer at the Spanish Pavilion of the New York World's Fair, a pavilion that won every conceivable award and honor.

In 1970, the Tenth Foot Royal Lincolnshire Regimental Association, through Major General Sir Christopher Welby-Everard, KBE, CB, DL, granted Kehoe Honorary Colonelcy in the Regiment for the purpose of raising an American Contingent of the Regiment for the American Bicentennial Celebration - the 10th Regiment of Foot. During the Bicentennial Col Kehoe led the regiment to England and Canada visiting many historical and military locals. Under his command the Regiment was a Guard of Honour for Queen Elizabeth in Boston Massachusetts and was reviewed by HRH The Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester in Lincoln England. The regiment participated in numerous historical re-enactment of the battles of 1775-1778. Although Col Kehoe stepped down as commander of the 10th Foot in September 1978 the 10th Foot continues to be a major representation of an 18th century British regiment here in North American.

Col Kehoe was a prodigious author of historical books on the American War for Independence among which are; We Were There!— April 19 1775, which is the first full collection of all the diaries, depositions and accounts of both the British and American participants and witnesses to that significant day in American history. He also wrote A Military Guide for re-enactors to re-create the uniforms and equipment of the British Army of 1775 which was originally published in single volume in 1974, and was updated and republished in four volumes in 1992. He recently completed the History of the Tenth Foot 1767-1778 which covers the service of this famous regiment during the time it served in America.

Col Kehoe passed away on the morning of Sunday 17 August, in Somis California.

The summer rolls on

We now have 14 episodes of JERRY AND THE PIRATES recorded, and 7 edited, three scripts ready for recording on Aug. 18th, and 3 more scripts in the works for Aug.27!
After that, we have another session on Sept. 8 or 9th (I dont remember which at the moment) and then we're done! 24 episodes in 4 months.

We are planning a nice big old fashioned One Hour Christmas Special for XM Radio, which we will record in late September/early October. This will be in the style of the good old Bing Crosby, Andy Williams specials from long ago. It bugs me that you can't turn on the TV and see holiday shows anymore - at least, the variety kind that I gew up with. SO - we're gonna try it on radio! Lots of music, skits, comedy and drama! Debbie Roy and JT Turner are writing segments for it, as am I.

BUCK ALICE is being sorted - meaning we are logging in the scenes we did, and logging in the Foleys and re-takes that need to be done. Progress!

BARRYMORE records later this week as well. William Luce has done an INCREDIBLE audio adaptation of his play, and it's a stunner! I can't WAIT to do this.

THE HALLOWEEN TREE inches closer every day to its Oct. 1st release! We have great hopes for this production, which many are saying is our best work to date. I'll let others judge that.

Wrote 3 episodes of JERRY AND THE PIRATES on Thur. Fri. and Sat, of this weekend, so taking a little break before I start up again tonight, around 11pm.

Off to the races!
cheers