Did you know that Stephen King owns radio stations in Maine?
Listen while you can, because King is about to shut them down.
https://www.wabi.tv/2024/12/02/stephen-kings-radio-stations-sign-off-good-months-end/
Speaking of money losing operations, this weblog is costing me about $500/year. The service used to include backups, but now it’s an optional extra that I’m not going to add to my subscription. If the (shared) server blows up and all is lost, so be it.
When the bathroom in the primary (formerly master) bedroom was remodeled 20 years ago, I had the contractor put in a closet access panel behind the shower valve. I knew that someday the panel would be needed. Today is that day.
The plumber should be here in a couple of hours. He said it looks like an O-ring failure.
Exciting Update: It’s fixed. As I suspected, the plumber who worked on it about nine months ago screwed up. I also suspect he may have done a lousy job deliberately because he was pissed off that I ended up not needing him for the dishwasher installation. The new guy I’ll be using from now on showed me exactly what was done wrong.
The Beatles ’64 documentary is quite good overall. Some of the footage shot by the Maysles brothers that’s seen in The First U.S. Visit DVD is used again here, but the focus is mostly on the chaos surrounding the Beatles and contemporary memories of the events. There isn’t too much overlap, so the two movies can be considered complementary.
I have a couple of quibbles. Why is Smokey Robinson given so much attention? Film clips with Marshall McLuhan’s observations on the media don’t really add anything to the narrative. I’d rather have seen a bit more attention given to Beatles manager Brian Epstein.
George Harrison, in a 30-year-old interview, questions how DJ Murray the K showed up and was then allowed to tag along with them. Apparently, Ronnie Bennett (later Spector) and the Ronettes, who the Beatles were fans of, got Murray into their hotel suite.
The irony is that Kaufman’s ridiculous claim of being the Fifth Beatle didn’t work where it mattered — in the ratings. Murray was out of a job less than a year later when WINS, getting clobbered by W-A-Beatle-C, switched to an all-news format. Sixty years on, 1010 WINS continues to be a news station.
On a tech note, I watched the first half of Beatles ’64 with the Roku stick on the porch TV. The remainder I watched with a new Fire TV stick.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CQMRKRV5
I did that because I had become increasingly frustrated with the Roku remote. It started with trouble controlling the Samsung TV’s sound, eventually leading to times when the remote lost its link to the stick. Then, for no discernable reason, it would work perfectly again for a while, only to fail again.
Assuming the problem was exclusively within the remote, I saw a new one would cost $20. Noticing that Amazon had put its Fire TV sticks on sale for half price before Black Friday, and not having a 4K TV, I ordered the HD model for $18.
The funny upshot to this First World Problem is, my buddy Bismo told me he’s had exactly the same problem with the remote for his Roku-enabled TV. He ordered a new remote, but before it was delivered the original remote started working again, just as mine had.
I don’t need government permission to run this website, but I did need permission to run the radio station transmitter when I was working alone on the weekends. The requirement was passing the test for an FCC 3rd Class Radiotelephone Operator’s License.
This study guide was printed the year after I took the test. Looking through the questions now, I can’t believe I knew any of this material.
https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-FCC/FCC-Commercial-License-Study-Guide-1974.pdf
Many wannabe DJ’s had trouble with the test. I passed it the first time. The license is in a box somewhere. As I recall, the FCC dropped the test before I quit the business. All you had to do to get a license was fill out a form and send it in.
Let me amend something I said. Parts of Element 9, the more technical section, are still with me.
Stereo records continue to be with us, 66 years after their introduction. RCA’s stereo cassette, introduced that same year, didn’t survive.
I ask good questions. This is a screen shot from the Audio Unleashed page on Patreon for an upcoming podcast. Being an AU patron costs only $3/month.
The podcasts are available for free, minus some content that’s exclusive for patrons. Recommended for hardcore audio aficionados only!
