Welcome to the Future

It’s funny how the idea for this post came to me right before I hear a new Country song with the exact same concept and title by Brad Paisley that has been percolating in my own brain for the past several weeks. I have had 43 wonderful years on this planet and I see the time we live in right now, technologically, is the best in history. Personally, I have carried the past around like a golden god not realizing that now is the best time to be alive. Forget recessions and floods, today is where I need to be not trapped in some nostalgia hell like an 80 year old. Yes there were good times and I will continue to recall them in posts.

We are living in a world that the Jetsons would envy. Our society has advanced in the last 25 years at a pace more rapid than the quarter century that preceded it. Compare and contrast 1960 through 1985 politically, socially, technologically, and artistically. Changes and advancements were made just not as rapidly. The focus of this blog is art and tech so I won’t stray too far. In 1985 I was still using the same stereo Lp for music that my dad used in 1960. In ‘85 the compact disc was new having been introduced to the marketplace Christmas of 1982. It was the age of Reganomics an the birth of Mtv.  I was a teenager full of wonder but never dreamed of how the future would unfold.

This present generation has all but abandoned the CD and other physical music media for downloads from Internet sources both legal and otherwise. Not to mention what all we can do with our cellular phones. This was a device that resembled a brick a generation ago. We are using our tiny cell phones now for everything; Web surfing, video, music, texting, games, the list is endless. We do everything with these devices except make a phone call, it seems.

The downside of living today is that I believe we have lost some of our humanity. We have substituted Email and social websites for actual human contact. In the process we are much more rude less evolved and dumbed downed in the absence of more “primitive” communication. Don’t get me started on the atrocious grammar and spelling I see on the Internet. When was the last time you wrote an actual letter with a pen and paper? Thought so. Well, we’re here, Welcome to the Future.

Stay tuned.

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King of all Peanut Whistles

Talk about a peanut whistle. I worked a year at this particular 2,500 watt gem. We had local news, Southern Gospel music, a Swap Shop and daily obituaries. The news wasn't from a teletype or our own reporters. No, we read it directly from the newspaper. Verbatim. A few years before the dot com boom one of my fellow staff members commented on the state of our programming. The idea of a good ole country station was a relic of a bygone era. The world was now more accessible thanks to new technologies. I don't agree with him totally because stations such as this have their own unique charm. My friend Jim did get it right on one point though, we are a more enlightened society thanks to outlets such as CNN and other TV cable networks readily available then. It was 1992 and the World Wide Web and Fox News were a few years off. The context of his remarks was framed by people who he had observed overstating their "country" heritage by feigning ignorance, although being just as enlightened as city folks.

I was a bit of a snob then and saw this station a road block in my career.  The WBKI culture was an adjustment and was a step down from a purely business perspective. I later adopted their style and grew to appreciate their way of doing things. A few of the more countrified elements were weeded out and we became more "sophisticated." The home spun morning DJ resigned shortly after some heated debate with me. I viewed him as a local yokel. He was blissfully ignorant but the people loved him. The station fell into decline and eventually folded. My guess is that we didn't give the listeners what they wanted or maybe poor management was to blame. Who knows? Our GM saw the futility of the situation early on and probably mentally quit long before our demise. To borrow from the famous TV show WKRP in Cincinnati this guy was "town to town, up and down the dial". Success eluded David. We had worked together before. I witnessed his slow decline at my previous radio gig and now doubt my own wisdom in hitching to his star. However, I learned a lot from him and consider him a mentor. He allowed circumstances to limit him. I missed the control I had as a program director at my two previous jobs and felt the air chair was a handicap. For the first time in 6 years I was "just" a dee jay.

Stay tuned!