I’m told they have these baseball “camps” where middle aged guys can pay to go hang out with real baseball players. That’s pretty much what Gnomedex was for me. Four hundred really smart, badly dressed, but very nice people (mostly guys). If they could tell by looking at me that I was not a true geek, they were too nice to mention it. We were summoned to the Des Moines Marriott by Chris Pirillo…the Lockergnome. Lockergnome is a person, a newsletter (300,000 readers), a website and an online community (called Gnomies). Chris put together an A-List of speakers that included some of the Big Names in the online world: Steve Gibson; Phillip Kaplan; Mark Thompson; Doc Searls; Evan Williams; and Leo Laporte. None of whom disappointed.
Category Archives: Personal History
Gnomedex.
If you don’t know, it doesn’t matter. More fanny packs than Disney World. Geeks galore and one wannabe. When TechTV star Leo Laporte showed up at the pre-conference party, I morphed into a 13 year old girl who finds herself on an elevator with the ‘N-Sync boys. A few minutes later Leo drags Megan Marrone (another TechTV star) over to meet one of her fans. You could see her mentally composing the restraining order.
Indiana State Fair
Due to a staffing crises at one of our networks, I’ve been pressed into service to cover (?) the Indiana State Fair. Since ours is an ag network, I’ll be there for Farm Day, August 14th. It’s been a while since I’ve been entrusted with an asignment like this and I’m desperate not to screw it up. It promises to be a pretty exciting day:
Old-fashioned Pancake Breakfast (There must be contemporary pancake breakfasts)
Square Dancing Tractors and Antique Tractor Olympics (Square Dancing Tractors? I’m there!)
Celebrity Milking Competition (I didn’t know you could)
Rooster Crowing Contest (Good audio)
National Shropshire Show (I’m not sure I can say that)
Open Shetland Show (…or this)
Sheep Shearing Demonstrations (…or this!)
Clogging (Plumbers’ online journals?)
Country Western Dancing (couples) (I’m staying for the individual competition)
I’m sure there will be out-takes and I’ll try to share them here.
Let’s go live.
I walked past a jewelry store in the mall this weekend and noticed a boom box sitting by the entrance. It seemed out of place. Then I noticed a young man talking on his cell phone but in a strangely animated way. He was doing what we used to call a “live remote” on a local radio station. “This is Bobby Steele and I’m live at Zales where they’re having a Sizzlin’ Summer Sooper Sale!” Many years ago I did my share of remote broadcasts but in those days it involved a lot equipment. Big speakers, antenna, transmitter, banners, cables, microphones, etc. Took a while to set up and take down. But there was –in our small town– a sense of something special happening. This guy before me is on…the…radio! How cool. The young man I walked past in the mall could have been any guy talking on the phone. To those listening on the radio he probably sounded just as dumb I I did with all the gear. But there was no magic happening there at the mall. Back to you.
XM Satellite Radio Update
I’m still mindlessly surfing the channels. They give you a little remote so you’re less likely to crash while doing this. I really like the…what do we call them? Jocks? DJ’s? Talent? They’re there, but not too there. I’ve noticed that I’m driving less aggressively. In less of a hurry. No doubt, because I am enjoying my time in the car more. Early favorites: Fred, Top Tracks, The Joint, Soul Street, The Groove, CNN Headline News.
Beyond AM. Beyond FM.
I subscribed to XM Satellite Radio today. The idea of “subscribing” to radio still feels a little funny. I got in the car, turned it on and punched up one of the 100 channels. It was Jimi Hendrix singing “Like A Rolling Stone” from the Monterey Pop Festival. I honestly don’t think I’ve ever heard that version on the radio before. It’s too early to offer any useful comments on the service because I was punching through the channels like Tom Hanks running through the toy story in Big. A snippet of an interview with Melissa Etheridge interview on the E! channel… a rousing gospel (soul, not country) number on one of the Urban channels… CNN Headline news. I had to stop and come inside. I have a few long road trips coming up so I can really evaluate the service. Oh, the audio quality was pretty amazing. Stay tuned.
XM Satellite Radio
Next Tuesday I’m scheduled to have an XM satellite radio installed in my 4-Runner. If you haven’t seen the TV commercials or billboards, it’s a new subscription radio service that offers 100 plus channels of digital music and information for about 10 bucks a month. The line-up of news channels is pretty amazing: USA Today, Fox News, CNN Headline News, Weather Channel, CNBC, BBC, C-Span. I don’t know anyone that has the service yet and that sort of surprises me.
The parallels to cable TV are obvious. I remember when cable was first introduced and people asked, “Why would you pay for TV when you can get it for free?!” The answer seems equally obvious these days. HBO alone gives me Band of Brothers, The Soproanos, Six Feet Under, Sex and the City, Oz, The Wire, Dennis Miller and on and on. I have no idea if satellite radio will catch on. Or what impact –if any– it might have on traditional radio.
For me it’s about choices. The Web has spoiled me in this regard. I don’t want to listen to what “most of the people” want to listen to. I want to listen to what I want to (know many good reggae stations?). And I’ll pay to do so. On a recent 15 hour drive from Florida to Missouri, I found a few radio stations I liked but I quickly drove out of range and back into “radio wasteland.” I never really thought Internet radio was much of a challenge to traditional radio. I’m not so sure about this.
July 19, 1947
Radio station KBOA went on the air on July 19, 1947. Today, 55 years later, that station doesn’t really exist anymore. Frequencies have been sold and shifted, call letters transferred. But the station’s early days make a great story. Five years ago I created a website in an effort to preserve some of that history. My father worked at the station for 30+ years and I worked there for a dozen. I recently came across recordings of jingles, old commercials, and oral histories by the men who put the station on the air.
It was a time when radio shows had names (Noonday Serenade, Rise and Shine, Old Camp Meetin’ Time) and commercials were read live or recorded on huge discs. The recently unearthed interviews offer a unique insight into the time, the people and the communities they served.
Mr. Rudy
Mr. Rudy will celebrate his 81st birthday this month. He calls himself “The World’s Oldest Disc Jockey” and it could very well be true. He got his first announcing job in 1946 at WLOF in Orlando, Florida. What’s that…56 years? I don’t think he’s been on the air continuously but he was never off for long and always near the edges. I stopped by (they’ve messed with the call letters and frequencies so much I can’t tell what’s what) in Kennett, Missouri, a few weeks ago and stood in the back of the studio while he finished his shift. I can safely say there is nobody else on the air doing the same kind of radio as Mr. Rudy. He’s celebrating his birthday by performing with, The Redneck Rhythm Rangers at the Kennett American Legion Building. (Musical footnote: one of the musicians is Wendell Crow, father of Sheryl).
Never too hot for a Kool.
Something new on the smoking scene. New to me, at least. On a recent trip to Florida I walked to a nearby supermarket. The temp was in the upper 90’s and some of the employees were taking their cigarette break (just outside the entrance, of course). Rather than stand there puffing in the heat and humidity, someone had pulled their van up and parked it just outside the entrance to the supermarket. The sliding door was open and the AC was blasting. They even had a little cooler for drinks. They seemed to be taking turns crawling into the van to cool off. It was like a little nicotine tail-gate party.