RADIO DAYS
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| Also listed in: Appalachian Populists | Interfaith Peace Coalition | Licking County Pro-Active Citizens (www.licopac.org) | Perry County Democratic Forum |
At Christmas each year, it's "over the meadows (of Kentucky) and through the woods (of Tennessee) to Daughter's house in Georgia, nerves jangling all the way to the voice of Right-wing howler Rush Limbaugh.
About 50 miles south of Columbus, you lose Air America and all the PBS stations fall back on classical music. For 500 or so miles, it's all country music, Bible preaching and Rush.
Or you can just turn off the radio and listen to Hummingbird. Pretty soon, of course, you tune out the Mrs. as well and just focus on the funny sounds coming from your aged engine block.
Oh, to recall those great radio days of the 1950s!
And that's what SLATE, the online magazine, is up to this week with its remembrance of Jean Shepherd, the guy who invented "talk radio" more than a half-century ago. A must read at:
www.slate.com/?id=2207058
From Shepherd to Limbaugh represents devolution of a great medium. Unfortunately, Shepherd today is remembered only for producing "A Christmas Story," the movie about the kid growing up in Cleveland which runs on endless cycle on television this time of year.
Growing up in northern New Jersey, I was a great Shepherd fan in those years before I was distracted by girls.
It's sort of sad to read in SLATE that Shepherd's irony and sarcasm morphed into Limbaugh-style ego and bombast in his later years.
The only time that I actually met Shepherd was sometime in the late 1980s when he was guest speaker at a newspaper gathering in Columbus. Already graying myself by that time, I introduced myself, to my childhood idol, gushing how I enjoyed listening to his show in my callow youth.
Shepherd was not flattered. Only later did I realize that it doesn't put a spring in your step to have some old guy tell you how, as a kid, he listened to your show.
If you find anything humorous in this and my other jottings, I credit it to my early exposure to Shepherd (and MAD magazine).
Merry Christmas Shep, wherever you are.
About 50 miles south of Columbus, you lose Air America and all the PBS stations fall back on classical music. For 500 or so miles, it's all country music, Bible preaching and Rush.
Or you can just turn off the radio and listen to Hummingbird. Pretty soon, of course, you tune out the Mrs. as well and just focus on the funny sounds coming from your aged engine block.
Oh, to recall those great radio days of the 1950s!
And that's what SLATE, the online magazine, is up to this week with its remembrance of Jean Shepherd, the guy who invented "talk radio" more than a half-century ago. A must read at:
www.slate.com/?id=2207058
From Shepherd to Limbaugh represents devolution of a great medium. Unfortunately, Shepherd today is remembered only for producing "A Christmas Story," the movie about the kid growing up in Cleveland which runs on endless cycle on television this time of year.
Growing up in northern New Jersey, I was a great Shepherd fan in those years before I was distracted by girls.
It's sort of sad to read in SLATE that Shepherd's irony and sarcasm morphed into Limbaugh-style ego and bombast in his later years.
The only time that I actually met Shepherd was sometime in the late 1980s when he was guest speaker at a newspaper gathering in Columbus. Already graying myself by that time, I introduced myself, to my childhood idol, gushing how I enjoyed listening to his show in my callow youth.
Shepherd was not flattered. Only later did I realize that it doesn't put a spring in your step to have some old guy tell you how, as a kid, he listened to your show.
If you find anything humorous in this and my other jottings, I credit it to my early exposure to Shepherd (and MAD magazine).
Merry Christmas Shep, wherever you are.
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Bill's autobiography is a must read, 600+ pages and an index to boot.
He is one of the most progressive people of our times and we are blessed to have his autobiography and the accounting of the labor movement from the man in the street perspective.
He once recalls going to a`meeting and listening to Leadbelly live! Now there is only one gem.
Link
Here is his testimony in front of HUAC:
Link
"I want the lights, on, precisely; I want the fullest glare of publicity on this committee's activities."
And in my Christmas stocking were two Shep items you might want to check out:
Shepherd's 1981 collection of short stories and essays called "A Fistful of Fig Newtons", and the DVD "Jean Shepherd, Security Blankets," put out by Radio Again (www.RadioAgain.com)