The Return of Radio
I’m not quite old enough to remember radio back when it held stories, news, and live music, when it was TV without pictures. I mostly remember how radio turned me on to rock and roll, from the Beatles to NIN. Most of that is over. Now radio has little new music and is mostly oldies, rightie talk and religious rants.
Religious radio is right wing political propaganda. Tax-free rightie propaganda. The preachers even encourage listeners to call Congress and give the H. R. numbers of bills they tell their listeners to say they support or oppose. Would that the left could afford that kind of propaganda.
Locally we had Air America Radio for a while but they took that off despite this being a city that votes about 90% Democratic. Radio isn’t about listeners, it’s about who buys ads and even if Memphis is heavily Democratic the businesses who buy ads aren’t. So we lost Air America.
We used to have the talk part of NPR. Now that has been replaced with content-free classical music… YAWN. There is nothing for a leftie like me to listen to. Or even for a moderate. I think it’s all a plot.
Anyway, I used to listen to radio while I cooked or cleaned or ate a meal. Now unless I’m cleaning the room where my computer room lives so I can stream Air America, I can’t be doing anything and still listen to radio.
I’ve always been a big reader, a book freak. I planned to be reading on my deathbed but that no longer seems possible. As I get older I am losing my vision and the book I used to be able to read in a day now takes me a month. It frustrates the hell out of me. I have been trying to find substitutes.
First I started listening to the local library channel, WYPL. They read the local paper in the morning and books in the afternoon. The main problem with that is having no control. If I am not interested in the book or article they are reading, I can’t go on to something else. If I am interested but have to do something else, then I miss it and can’t go back and listen to the part I missed.
The local library has some books on CD but either I’ve read them or I am not interested in reading (listening) to them. The local library seems mostly aimed at children or people of limited education.
Then I discovered podcasting. I got the cheapest mp3 player I could get on Amazon. It was $27 but has now gone up to $44!! (Due to the falling dollar?) It’s fine. Well, except for the ear buds that wouldn’t stay in my ears but I had old headphones I used instead. I am finding more and more things to listen to on podcast, shows that mimic the old radio shows I’ve heard about.
Aside from books in general I am a big fan of science fiction. This began in high school when the table where I used to sit in the library had a bookcase of science fiction behind it, mostly anthologies of short stories . If my homework was done or I wanted to put it off, I would turn around and pick up a random book and start reading. This got me started with scifi and, while other genres have lost their interest over the years, it never has.
My fading vision locked me out of the scifi worlds. With my mp3 player I found a new door into them. There is a website called escapepod.org. It has over a hundred hours of scifi short stories that you can listen to online or download. They are not read the bland way they are on WYPL. They are like old radio shows with people of talent doing the reading. I am hungry for the printed word and these stories satisfy that hunger.
So here’s to Steve Ely’s Escape Pod!! Long may she stream!!
I especially want to recommend the story Connie, Maybe. If you are southern you know people like this and if you are starting to get old you are people like this. Very funny and well read/performed.
I also recommended the podcasts at:
The Naked Scientist
Nature
Science Magazine
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To comment email alllie at alllie@newsgarden.org
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© Alllie 2007
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