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Week Off
I hereby decree, ex post facto, that this was my Autumn blog-vacation. Will be back next week hopefully, I have a bit of traveling to do, but one must have priorities.
View ArticleOuch
If you've ever experienced a strong electrical shock it's hard not to feel some vicarious pain watching this. While he clearly zaps himself on purpose sometimes, other times it seems inadvertent. But...
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Thacker Mountain Radio & Square Books
Thacker Mountain Radio has been around for 18 years. but became the kind of quiet success that a city sometimes keeps to itself. The program combines live book readings and musical performances in a...
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LPWAN for M2M
The phrase "the Internet of things" just irritates me. I don't want my washing machine to wirelessly connect to my laptop. I don't need my TV to report data to my printer, cellphone or my sump pump. I...
View ArticleThirteen Engineering Truths
I've seen these published individually and in collections, and some form the original Murphy's Law Books. But they all have the stink of truth. Many of these have been re-born as Computer specific...
View ArticleThe Vocal Fry Debate is Sexist
You should hear Bob Garfield of NPR talk about vocal fry. He loathes vocal fry. It's also called up talk, up speak, "creaky voice" or Valley speak. These aren't all the same thing and they get...
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DJ Larry King Beats a Bad Rap
Most people know Larry King for his long running program on CNN, Larry King Live, which aired from 1985 through 2010, a 25 year run. His new program Politicking with Larry King on RT is not as well...
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Kittens, Cats & Radio
This 1957 post card comes from Russia, and it's one of a very few examples I've seen combining the subjects of cats and radio sets. This GE advert below is from 1961 still sticking with the cat theme....
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Joe and Bateese
I'll start with Private Raymond M. Flynn. He was a vaudeville man, and WWI veteran. In 1919 he published the quite serious history book The History of Company E, 308th Infantry (1917 - 1919) [LINK]with...
View ArticleRadio Ship On Fire!
In 1971 Radio North Sea (aka Radio Nordsee International) was fire bombed. Because the pirate station operated from a ship as sea,the Mebo II, they were immediately in danger of having to abandon ship....
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Dan Aykroyd Predicted Voice Tracking
Dan Aykroyd predicted voice tracking back on Saturday Night Live: Season 2, Episode 3 back in 1976. In the skit Aykroyd plays a DJ hosting both the AM and FM sides of KLOG, one which is a mellow...
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The WCBS Shindig Gang
I came across this post card and have struggled ever since to identify the band. My first thought was that it must be Denny Hilton and his Country Shindig Gang. But that's much too late to be the same...
View ArticleKill the Radio
There are dozens, literally dozens of videos on Youtube of people smashing cheap radios with hammers of various sizes. There is one of someone trashing one with an arc welder, and a couple painful...
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Senator Fishface and Professor Figgsbottle
Elmore Vincent, played the part of “Phinus Stonewall Peabody,” on the radio program Lum &Abner. The character was Abner’s father. Lum & Abner aired on radio from 1931 to 1954. But Mr. Vincent...
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Entitled Opinions
I only discovered this program recently, while reading about their interview with the author, Marilynne Robinson. [LINK] The full name of the show is "Entitled Opinions (about Life and Literature)"...
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Sud Radio Pic Blanc
At one time, the Sud Radio tower site at Pic Blanc was the highest medium-wave transmitter site in all of Europe. It sat atop a mountain in the tiny nation of Andorra. It broadcast on 813 kHz with 900...
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WFUL-AM goes Bananas
I first noticed the Country radio station 1270 WFUL-AM in 2004 back to WFUL. The station had changed calls to WKZT in March of 1988, to honor of longtime Fulton, KY resident Kenneth Z. Turner. (Turner...
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Before W and K
Laws governing the assignment of call letters have changed a lot over the last century. Contrary to popular belief, the W and K teams never switched sides. W was always predominantly in the east and K...
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Star Wars on NPR Playhouse
This was a licensed part of the franchise, adapted by Brian Daley, directed by John Madden and with the cooperation of George Lucas. Lucas for his part actually donated the rights to NPR and allowed...
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The Orwell Radio Talks
I knew that George Orwell had worked for the BBC. I did not realize the sheer volume of content he produced in that time. The book George Orwell: A Life in Letters by Peter Davison gives a very full...
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