Category Archives: YouTube
Behind Your Radio Dial
Before television took over the airwaves, Rockefeller Center was home to the National Broadcasting Company during the golden age of radio. This promotional film from around 1948 chronicles the rise of the media company from a small collection of 20 affiliated stations, formed in 1926, to more than 170 stations two decades later. The 24-minute documentary, courtesy of the Prelinger Archive, introduces the network and goes behind the scenes at Rockefeller Center, peeking into the mail room, sound recording studios, and music library.
The documentary closes with a look at the network’s budding television enterprise. “Adding sight to sound, [NBC] opened an electronic window” when it launched the first commercial television station in 1941, the narrator explains. “More than two decades of NBC radio have been dedicated to the spirit of public service. Now, in bringing television, network television, out of the laboratory and into your living room, NBC rededicates itself in this same spirit to provide the greatest medium of mass information and mass entertainment in the world.” Radio junkies and30 Rock fans alike will enjoy this journey back in time.
Sam Harris on Free Will
Gulfside Cottages
The beach at Destin, Florida
Paul Ryan’s Video Diary
The Business of War (VICE News)
In the last couple of days I’ve watched three or four news documentaries produced by Vice. The one below is titled “The Business of War: SOFEX”
If you invest the 20 minutes to watch this you might conclude — as I did — the world is fucked. Not a little bit fucked. Not “It’s okay, I think we can un-fuck this.” We are Ving-Rhames-Pulp-Fiction fucked.
This documentary explains SO much of what is happening in the world. As you watch it, try to imagine Anderson Cooper or Brian Williams (and the corporations they work for) doing this kind of reporting.
As I watched these reports, I kept contrasting them to the network news formats of the past 20+ years. Half-hour summaries with forest fires and floods at the top, followed by fluffy pretend news at the bottom. With lots and lots of commercials mixed in.
In all fairness, you can sort of imagine a piece like the one below on 60 Minutes but only after the teeth have been extracted.
I spotted the link to this documentary in my Twitter stream. I can play these on my iPhone, any time, anywhere. Or, using AirPlay to stream them to my big screen, watch them at home via Apple TV.
I can only assume the gasping, lumbering news organzations of yore know they are irrelevant but just don’t know what to do about it.
There is nothing on CNN or Fox or XYZ for which I’d pay cash money. But yeah, I’d pay for reporting this good.
Old radio commercials on KBOA
I’ve shared most of this audio here previously now have most of it on YouTube and the player makes it a little easier listen. There’s a small icon at the top-right of the player below that brings up all 14 clips in the playlist. It’s right next to the “settings” gear icon, after you start playing.
Clip Gumbo
Back yard from the deck
About half a minute shot on the iPhone from the deck. Still amazed at the quality of audio with the iPhone’s tiny mic.