Category: Radio

App Hazard

Another First World Retired Guy complaint. Everybody who has more than one Internet device knows that online services have different options, depending on the application playing them. For example, SiriusXM on a Web browser isn’t that same as on Roku, and the Roku app has a “view all segments” option I haven’t noticed before when playing a podcast.

It’s called a segment but also called a chapter, which shows a lack of consistency. Worse, when using the segment feature it’s easy to lock up the app. This is my big complaint about new features. They are often added at the expense of stability and, worse, security. “Let the users be the beta testers” has become standard in the industry.

Oh, well. Back to the Web browser. It’s proven itself to be solid and reliable…

… and it works with Chromecast.

The Aft of Stern

This old paycheck from radio station WCCC in Hartford, Connecticut is LOL for me. I was working at a station 25 miles north of WCCC, and Howard Stern’s take home pay was exactly the same as mine!

According to Stern’s autobiography, he realized he wouldn’t make it working as a regular DJ. I had the same self-evaluation, which was why I moved to news. Stern quit WCCC that month, April 1980, when he was denied a $25/week raise. I quit for exactly the same reason, but decided to leave radio and move on to other things.

BTW, $110/week in 4/80 is equivalent to $400 today — $2.75/hour net then, $10/hour now. Except I was working 60-72 hours/week as a reporter and newscaster. You see the problem.

Extreme AM

Radio station studios and transmitters are only somewhat the same as they were when I was in the business. This hour-long video tour of WION, 1430 AM in Ionia, Michigan, scratches a major itch.

What’s missing? Russco Cue-Master turntables with Micro-Trak tonearms, fitted with Stanton 500 cartridges!

Time-Tested Tables and Tonearms

Back when I was sitting in the DJ chair at a commercial AM station, I’d sometimes switch my AKG K-140 headphones to monitor the on-air signal. With the transmitter tower in the field next to the station house, the sound was almost as good as monitoring directly from the control board. AM at its very best can be heard on WION’s online stream, which is sourced from their AM stereo broadcast signal.

This image, with Russco/Micro-Trak turntables, is from a PBS documentary that aired in November. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/taken-hostage/.

Country Folks

Lori McKenna is a local talent with a national following. She’s a married mom who began her career at a coffee house in a neighboring town on open-mic night.

One of Lori’s earliest boosters was Dick Pleasants, a disc jockey at WUMB in Boston. After a long illness, Dick passed away recently. Lori will be appearing tonight in a tribute concert at the Somerville Theatre. Which is, curiously and incorrectly, listed as being in Cambridge.

https://wumb.org/watch-wumbs-remembering-dick-pleasants-concert-live-online/

The show will be carried live and I’ll be tuning in. Also appearing will be Tom Rush, one of the grand, old names in New England Folk music. His cover of Joni Mitchell’s “Urge for Going” is a classic recording.

Fun fact: When Taylor Swift is in the area, selling out shows at Gillette Stadium, she sometimes stays at Lori’s house.

Bogus SCOTUS

My retirement life is increasingly filled with YouTube and Podcasts. Is that better than being stuck on Facebook and Instagram?

Going all the way back to 2016, Radiolab has a spin-off podcast about the Supreme Court, called More Perfect. They recently reran this early installment about a decision from the time of JFK’s administration.