How Did We Waste Time Before The Internet?
I can spend hours on the computer just keeping up with what is going on, or in touch with friends in the business of broadcasting. There is no particular place to start, but I usually get the latest gossip and chatter from the discussion groups at RADIO-INFO.COM Everyone has their opinion on what is taking place in the business and they voice it in these discussions. Long threads of hot air. There is sometimes inside information on upcoming changes in formats or personnel, which is rather interesting. But usually, there are arguments going on. A lot of blather.
Speaking of Blather, the very opinionated Michael Hood spouts off about Talk Radio over at BLATHER WATCH If I want real news about what is going on in the industry, I turn to RADIO DAILY NEWS I used to read LARADIO.COM But it is specifically about Los Angeles and Southern California stations and personalities only, besides, there is now a subscription fee required.
You could go broke paying subscription fees. If you want to hear classic airchecks of Bobby Ocean or Charlie Tuna, Robert O. Smith or Pat O’Day, you have to pay a fee at websites like REELRADIO.COM The fee was only $12.95 for a year, last time I subscribed. These days, I try to find free sources for airchecks or music. I can listen to 60s rock ‘n roll without any commercials or fees at JOHNLYMAN.NET I prefer these music sharing sites rather than hearing commercial interruption or paying a fee at some place like LIVE365.COM.
Taking a trip back in time to check out the graveyards of old radio stations and radio DJs, there are plenty of dedication sites to visit. One of the most comprehensive is THE BROADCAST ARCHIVE kept by Barry Mishkind. More specific to the Puget Sound area are the Seattle & Portland archives of former KOL RADIO personality, Robin Mitchell. There is also the LAN ROBERTS site, erected in his memory after his untimely death a couple years ago. It includes everything from his old website. The walls and the pictures on the walls were all taken down, packed up, and moved to a new domain, before his old site expired, saving his work for eternity. Or for as long as the domain holder keeps up payments on the domain name.
Some radio DJs never quit. Even years after he left the broadcast booth, NORM GREGORY produces a daily video blog or podcast, covering the showbiz, sports or local topics he finds interesting. He is into gadgets and Internet technology, so you can keep tabs on Norm, who is a bit of a recluse otherwise, on Twitter[NormGregory] as well.
Get these old radio geezers together in one place and see how they just love to yak-yak-yak. You’d almost think some of us were pompous blow-hards. See KOL RADIO personality and now paperback novel author BURL [Are You Hungry For Hits?] BARER for example. It begs the question, how many huge egos can you stuff into one small banquet room?
This only scratches the surface, there are plenty more pages of trivial broadcast-related matter on the Internet. It keeps me up late some weekends. It keeps me off the streets and out of the bars. Can you say N-E-R-D? Good, I knew you could! [God Bless Mr. Rogers]
Related posts:
- Considering Internet Box Office Profits To hear Barry Diller speak on the topic of the...
- A Pact With The Devil News Corp. and Microsoft are working on a deal that...
- KTOY Silenced By A Series Of Errors I attended LH Bates Vocational-Technical College, now called Bates College,...
- I’d Like To Beat A Dead Horse… …And remind everyone how absolutely lousy Seattle-Tacoma radio entertainment is....
- Ungawa! That reminds me. I need to send away for this...
July 3rd, 2009 at 9:56 am
I think people used to go outside and talk to their neighbors. Pretty boring, ha?
July 3rd, 2009 at 12:30 pm
My kids don’t understand how I survived as a child with no video games or computer/internet. If I remember correctly, we had toys and games that required putting things together; we had art toys (I loved Mr. Potato Head) and… Oh, yes… I had a chemistry set! HAHA!
A lot of kids my age would find a pair of roller skates or wagon wheels, some scrap wood, a hammer and nails and see what kind of rocket car we could build. I also spent a lot of time listening to shortwave radio. I recorded pretend radio shows (with music!) into my little reel-to-reel tape recorder. Holding the recorders mic up to the record player speakers gave it that shortwave radio/Radio Netherlands sound.
I spent a lot of time playing my siblings records when they weren’t home. I got a lot of heck once when I spun my brothers albums backwards real fast and ruined his needle. If you were born after 1975 this means nothing to you, I understand.
I used to listen to KOL AM & FM alot as a kid. My brothers told me KOL was better than KJR and sometimes it was. I loved Lan Roberts. He would have been proud of some of the pretend radio shows I did. Giggling and passing gas into the microphone between Shari Lewis records-now that was really boss!
KOL was the place to work if you were a real rebel!