Radio Days

A relaxing hobby is supposed to be good for reducing high blood pressure. So you wouldn't seek an afternoon in the park with an easel and watercolors during a tornado, nor a round of golf during a nuclear war, nor gardening in an earthquake. But this weekend, a local group of amateur radio operators will practice their hobby under conditions similar to those expected after a natural or man- made disaster. About 30 of the 50 members of the Burlington County Radio Club will unplug their equipment, pack up some wire for makeshift antennae and generators for emergency power, and head for the Pinelands.

How many remember those days of yesteryear when family gathered in the living room to listen to programs such as The Lone Ranger or The Glen Miller Orchestra on the console radio? It's a safe bet that everyone older than 60 fits into that pre-television category. The era of nostalgic radio is back, at least in 47 centers in and around Philadelphia, including Delaware County. And you can enjoy it free. A company called Golden Age Entertainment in Rochester, N.Y., has contracted with more than 1,000 adult centers in the United States to furnish vintage radio programs from the 1950s and '60s through a small rooftop satellite dish.

In the old days, you could tune in your radio, settle into an armchair, and drift away to places like the Roseland Ballroom in New York or the Palladium in Hollywood, where live radio shows broadcast the big band sounds of Tommy Dorsey, Glenn Miller and the like. Some remnants of that bygone era remain - even in South Jersey. Every Saturday from 8 p.m. until midnight, radio station WVSJ-AM (1360) broadcasts the big band music of the Jay-Vons live from the Greentree Inn in Marlton.

It was only a few weeks ago that Woody Allen's Hannah and Her Sisters made a splash on the home video scene. Now, hot on Hannah's heels, comes his latest film, Radio Days, along with a crowd-pleaser from Sylvester Stallone. RADIO DAYS (1986) (HBO) $89.95. 96 minutes. Woody Allen's deceptively simple ensemble piece is an affectionate, nostalgic comedy about the heyday of radio in the early '40s - an era he uses for further exploration of the blurred line between fantasy and reality and the role of fantasy in our lives.

In the heyday of radio, not seeing was believing. Even the silliest serial required the listener to be an active collaborator by using his imagination. In evoking those days for the vegetating television generation in Radio Days, Woody Allen has fashioned another richly imagined piece about the role that fantasy plays in our lives. His 15th film as a writer-director is a deceptively simple piece that masquerades as an affectionate, nostalgic comedy about a more innocent time in American life.

"Radio Days," a comedy starring Mia Farrow, Seth Green, Julie Kavner, Josh Mostel, Michael Tucker & Dianne Wiest. Written and directed by Woody Allen. Running time: 84 minutes. An Orion release. At area theaters. It's hard to say exactly why "Radio Days" is so utterly charming. It doesn't explore character and relationships with the subtlety and care that made Woody Allen's last film, "Hannah and Her Sisters," an object of almost universal veneration. Nor does it have the outrageous humor that Allen was originally known for. "Radio Days" is clearly a comedy, but it just as clearly will not do anything for a laugh.

In probably no Woody Allen film since Zelig has editing played a more vital role than in his latest, Radio Days. That job, to give coherence and rhythm to the director's sprawling, impressionistic view of the golden days of radio, belonged to Sandy Morse. Twelve hours a day, six days a week, Morse - whose work with Allen dates back to Annie Hall - toiled in the Upper East Side hotel suite that houses both her cutting room and screening room. "The challenge was to create a sense of a dramatic curve in a picture that didn't have a narrative line to it," says Morse.

Channel 10 News Health Watch reporter Cheri Bank focuses on sickle cell anemia, a hereditary blood disorder that primarily affects blacks, on tonight and tomorrow's 6 p.m. report. Bank will explore the history of the disorder, its treatment, social implications and the effect it has on the black community. Tomorrow's segement centers on a vist to Children's Hospital during which Dr. Kwaku Ohene-Frempong, director of the Sickle Cell Program, counsels a 6- year-old patient and his parents.

Iran had attacked a U.S. oil tanker, the Dow Jones was plummeting, and The World Series was under way in the Midwest. It was a big news week, all right. But in a way there was only one story, the kind of story that took precedence over the others. A little girl had fallen down a well. Push the world leaders off the front page, bury the speech by Carl Candidate, and never mind about the possibilities of a Soviet-American summit. All that can wait, and should, because when a little girl falls down a well, we have to keep posted on her welfare.

Woody Allen on the cover of Esquire. Woody Allen on the cover of Rolling Stone. Woody Allen on the cover of Jet . . . Just joking, kids, about the last one. But it's a shock, you have to admit, that after years of eluding public attention - or, at least, making it clear that he was eluding public attention - the Woodman's bespectacled mug gazes from two major magazines simultaneously. News pegs being what they are, Allen's sudden ubiquity shouldn't surprise. "Hannah and Her Sisters" did nicely in the Oscars - best screenplay (Allen himself)

AT 9:41 a.m yesterday, 610 WIP host Angelo Cataldi announced what Daily News readers have known for weeks: That the sports-talk station will take over the FM signal of 94.1 WYSP on Sept. 6. WYSP staff members were informed at 8:30 a.m that they would be off-air after Labor Day. The announcement came exactly 25 years to the day since Howard Stern first broadcast on the long-running rock-music station. Stern couldn't help but gloat on his SiriusXM satellite radio show yesterday that the flip proves that his old station can't survive without him. WYSP morning host Danny Bonaduce told us yesterday that he hopes to stay on in some fashion with CBS Radio in Philadelphia.

From: Gonzalez, John To: Ford, Bob; Sheridan, Phil Subject: Family feud Was listening to the radio, and someone suggested that - like the Pats after the Spygate scandal broke - the Phillies' title is somehow tainted because of the J.C. Romero situation. What say you? In other, more Southern news, Jessica Simpson was included in the Dallas Cowboys wives' cookbook. First, I love that such a cookbook exists. Second, I love that Simpson is in it, even though she and Tony Romo aren't married.

How many remember those days of yesteryear when family gathered in the living room to listen to programs such as The Lone Ranger or The Glen Miller Orchestra on the console radio? It's a safe bet that everyone older than 60 fits into that pre-television category. The era of nostalgic radio is back, at least in 47 centers in and around Philadelphia, including Delaware County. And you can enjoy it free. A company called Golden Age Entertainment in Rochester, N.Y., has contracted with more than 1,000 adult centers in the United States to furnish vintage radio programs from the 1950s and '60s through a small rooftop satellite dish.

Growing up in Morgantown, W. Va., there never was much doubt in Don Knotts' mind that he would find his place in the world of show business. It wasn't that he had a plan or knew just what direction he would take, but the pieces kept falling into place. Then he was drafted into the Army during World War II and sent to the South Pacific. With that experience under his belt, Knotts knew for sure. "I started out in a combat unit," said Knotts, who is currently starring in Norman, Is That You?

Maurice Page wants to major in communications in college and pursue a career in broadcasting. Um, make that continue a career in broadcasting. Page, a 6-4, 180-pound senior forward and center at Parkway Program, co-hosts a radio show called "Don't Believe the Hype" every Monday from 4:30 to 6 p.m. on WPEB-FM, 88.1 on your dial. "We talk about current issues, mostly those that affect teenagers," Page said. "Maybe AIDS, maybe pregnancy. This is what I want to get into. I'm taking it as an entry-level position.

Today marks the second anniversary of Frank Rizzo's death. While some people, at this juncture, may wish to recall his colorful career as mayor and policeman, or wax prosaic about his equally illustrious political comeback, I remember his radio days as his on-air sidekick. Talk radio is a lot like deep sea fishing: You set the bait, cast your rod and hope you'll get a good catch. The charm and the challenge of any talk radio show, particularly Frank Talk with Frank Rizzo is that we never knew just what sort of a "fish" we were going to snare each day from the legions of listeners jamming the phone lines, all wanting to talk to the former mayor.

Of the scores of specials commemorating the 50th anniversary of Japan's bombing of Pearl Harbor that were broadcast this past weekend, the one program that most vividly brought back the memories of that era for me was public radio station WHYY-FM's program on Saturday. Using recordings, actual news bulletins and commentaries that were broadcast by NBC and CBS, interspersed with vintage popular music and interviews with people recalling where they were on that day and servicemen who survived the Pearl Harbor attack, WHYY re-created the radio of that day with stark reality.

In the old days, you could tune in your radio, settle into an armchair, and drift away to places like the Roseland Ballroom in New York or the Palladium in Hollywood, where live radio shows broadcast the big band sounds of Tommy Dorsey, Glenn Miller and the like. Some remnants of that bygone era remain - even in South Jersey. Every Saturday from 8 p.m. until midnight, radio station WVSJ-AM (1360) broadcasts the big band music of the Jay-Vons live from the Greentree Inn in Marlton.

It's one of the earliest songs I can remember hearing on the radio, which was our link, our cultural arbiter - in short, our television when I was growing up in Shreveport. Those were the Radio Days, as Woody Allen would call his memoir of a movie, and the song was Phil Harris singing "That's What I Like About the South. " Like everything that I associated with the South, it was not serious but a reprieve from all things serious - the daily news, the store, Hebrew School . . . . Growing up, there were decisions to be made, work to be done, obligations to be fulfilled, but the South just came naturally.

Three movies from unexpected places top this week's new video arrivals: a comedy from London's Chinatown, a fantasy from the always unpredictable Dennis Hopper and a drama of Chekhovian proportions from Woody Allen. PING PONG (1987) (Virgin Vision) $79.95. 100 minutes. David Yip, Lucy Sheen, Robert Lee. Where there's a will, there's not necessarily a way, as the family of the late Sam Wong discovers when it hears the conditions of his last testament. Set in London's Chinatown, this is a comedy of colliding cultures and the hopeless task all immigrants face in striking a balance between their roots and the often alien society they live in. RIDERS OF THE STORM (1988)