Where else, but on the BBC World Service, can you hear a surprisingly interesting documentary about the world’s largest auction of farm equipment, held monthly in England? The World Service also has The Arts Hour, with Paul McCartney talking about his trip to Lagos, Nigeria, recording “Band of the Run.”
Category: Radio
FM’s static-filled history
I have just purchased a new book called “The Network: The Battle for the Airwaves and the Birth of the Communications Age,” about a subject that interests me greatly. The relationship of the brilliant engineer Edwin Armstrong and David Sarnoff, the CEO of RCA. Sarnoff saw the potential of radio broadcasting that was made possible by Armstrong’s AM circuit wizardry, and used it to build the mighty NBC network. He failed, however, to see the significance of Armstrong’s invention of FM, to the point where the FCC had to force Sarnoff into accepting FM for TV sound.
It’s a classic modern tragedy of an independent inventor being crushed by a giant corporation. Keeping in mind that Sarnoff also rolled over Philo T. Farnsworth, the inventor of all-electronic television, I do not yet know if the book’s author, Scott Woolley, sees Sarnoff as having been completely in the wrong. Based upon a segment on last Friday’s Marketplace, I get the impression that Woolley might favor the view that Armstrong should have accepted reality and given up the fight.
Just the facts
When the going gets tough, the tough listen to “Dragnet” OTR (old time radio) shows.
New Yorker, New Yorker
The only print magazine I still get in the mail is The New Yorker. Here are a couple of articles. First, Jeffrey Toobin’s excellent analysis of Antonin Scalia’s three decades on the supreme bench…
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/02/29/antonin-scalia-looking-backward
… and a retro piece, from 1965, about about the relationship between radio and Rock and Roll. It’s recommended by Herb Oscar Anderson, or HOA as he was known when he was the Morning Mayor on 77 WABC in the 1960’s.
It’s a Wonderful Movie
I’m back. To those who know what happened, thank you for your support, with particular thanks to my dear friend Prue Bury for her worldly and wise advice. Once again it’s a wonderful life.
Here’s an audio essay from Brian Sibley about Frank Capra, and one of the greatest, and certainly most human, of movies.
Searching for the Searchers
BBC radio has the back story on the making of John Ford’s legendary film “The Searchers”. It probably won’t be available for long, so listen ASAP.