September 28, 2006

  • Radio and TV

    In general, I prefer radio for many reasons.  It’s not that I
    don’t find visuals compelling and revealing.  It may well be true
    that, “one picture is worth a thousand words.”  This one for
    example –

    - says a million.

    I suppose I am a predominately aural person, though.  I tend to
    ask, “Did you hear…” where others might ask, “Did you
    see….”   However, my most compelling reasons for preferring
    radio over TV are these:  those highly creative and mind-grabbing
    commercials on TV are maddening to me, and I can do other things while
    I listen to the radio.

    Having spent my formative years with a radio going in the background,
    when I had a TV I tended to treat it like a radio and go about my
    business while I listened.  Early TV soaps were designed to
    accomodate the stay-at-home wives who were their main audience. 
    The drama was carried in the soundtrack and there was always a musical
    cue when a significant bit of video was upcoming.  But even though
    those early commercials weren’t very creative, they were just as
    maddening.

    In 1960, I was at my Aunt Nora’s apartment during the first
    Nixon-Kennedy debate.  She sat on her sofa and watched the men,
    while I was working at the ironing board in the hallway,
    listening.  As with nearly everyone else who either heard or saw
    those debates, she thought Kennedy won and I thought Nixon had the more
    compelling arguments.  If I’d been watching, I might have
    preferred JFK’s bright, fresh, red-haired image over Tricky Dicky’s
    five o’clock shadowed jowls, too.

    I usually play the PS2 with the sound off, while I listen to the
    radio.  Last night, I was playing my birthday present from Doug,
    Disgaea 2, when one of my favorite public radio (no commercials at all)
    programs came on.  The speaker this week on Alternative Radio was investigative reporter Greg Palast, talking about his latest book, Armed Madhouse
    Now, just the fact that I am a regular and enthusiastic listener to
    Alternative Radio reveals a lot about my political views.  I’m
    predisposed to appreciate anyone who will stand up and say out loud
    that the emperor has no clothes, especially when he paints vivid word
    pictures, as Palast does, with facts and figures to prove it.

    If there’s any problem at all for me in this, it is that hearing just
    how Bush and his co-conspirators connived to steal his election to this
    catastrophic second term is every bit as maddening as any commercial
    can be.


Comments (4)

  • I like Greg Palast, I read “The Best Democracy Money Can Buy” on maternity leave. Good stuff!

  • I like radio too. It leaves more to the imagination.

  • i used to listen to a transistor radio underneath my pillow at night. i could pick up a blues station from chicago and a station out of st. louis that covered cardinals games and, of course, WSM, home of the grande ole opry. and talk radio in those days was a different animal, particularly on AM. AM radio catered to truckers, basically, so everything on it was more compelling than the garbage you get today. one of my favorite characters was a gospel matron called “mother truth” who hawked her Jesus wares over the airwaves.

    i despise george bush and all that he stands for. he personifies the evil of hubris.

  • two things…
    when i was a kid, my dad’s cousin had old records with the even older radio shows on them.  i would sit there mesmerized for hours listening to the lone range.

    another time (more recent days) i stayed up late late to iron clothes for a vacation.  it was back when we had hbo and all that and they had prairie home companion on.  and i just listened to it since i was concentrating on ironing.  it was so nice to not hear the damned commercials.

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