Well, here we go into the 21st century. Jimmy Megahern has created a blog for all the old KCAC & KDKB geezers to communicate. I'll give it a try although I think I already messed up. I was just trying to join in on his blog and wound up creating my own. Not unlike my 35+ years in radio. I just keep jumping in and eventually learning how to swim. What I remember from actually learning to swim at the old Phoenix Boys' Club (no girls there then .. we swam naked!)
was that the biggest problem was being afraid of the water. Halfway across the deep end on my first try I sank like a rock .. almost literally scared to death.
So, I just usually take a shot at the new stuff and read the manual later. Can anyone actually read an instruction manual for a piece of electronic equipment that he doesn't already know how to use?
When KCAC started it was a whole new way of doing something that people had been doing for years .. radio. We (Bill included) didn't invent it. The idea of doing things this way probably started with Thom Donahue in San Francisco, but even he was just reshaping the way he had been doing things for years.
My first experience with "free-form" radio was listening to Bill do the KRUX Underground show on Saturday nites on KRUX 1360 AM. I literally couldn't get out of the car. I remember sitting in the car for hours at 7th Street & Pierce. "Darkness, Darkness" by the Youngbloods
grabbed me and wouldn't let me go.
Along the way we've gone from AM to FM, from mono to stereo, from 8 tracks to cassettes, cassettes to CDs, and from there to Mp3s & radio station existing entirely on servers. We no longer have a reel-to-reel tape recorder anywhere in the building. In fact, the chief engineer
gave them all away to the first takers. Pretty hard to find a turntable as well.
And just when you're about to say "Too bad the programming stopped being progressive as well", along comes satellite radio! I got one for Xmas and finally got it installed around March 1.
Now I'm hooked! Why listen to bad sports talk radio when I have 3 24 hour comedy channels
to choose from? And a bluegrass channel. And a blues channel. And lots more, with little or no
advertising cluttering up the flow. For now.
It'll take a while before it takes over, if it does at all, and that's a good thing for a guy who makes a living doing commercials. But it does make you wonder what Bill Compton would be doing now, 27 years after his untimely death. I think he'd be looking at satellite. And figuring out a way to do it better than anyone else.
4 comments:
Great blog, Marty! I put a mention and a link to here on my page as well. Fun stuff!
Hi, Marty!
He he... funny, I was just doing a web search for "Rebirth +Newspaper" and found your page here. Neefty, you started a blog by accident! That's how most great discoveries are made, and I hope this turns out to be neat for ya. Nice to see your smilin' face again, ya ol' hippie... {grin}
Hey, Frank, it's great to hear from you, thanks for dropping that phrase on Marty's blog. If you're not aware of the KCAC Lives blog, you should check that out too, it's the one Marty was trying to log on to. Also, I was a writer/assistant editor at Rebirth, and have some old copies, I've posted some of the pics - please visit the Rebirth Tribe page on my site to find the link to the pics if you want to check them out. Have a fine day...
:~)
Hi Marty,
How did I miss this before? It's a GREAT piece!
I remember many of the same things that have been mentioned...and I was lucky to be part of the Rebirth tribe for awhile too...was around when Joe Garneau and Michelle got married by Bill Compton...do you remember that? And baby Leif (who is, what, 35 now?!)
Bill was so kind. He bought me a reel to reel tape and set me up to record my songs in the KRUX studios in the middle of the night with the patient and talented Ray Thompson engineering. Wish I still had that tape! Or maybe not...(o:
Then I was invited to do a couple of live solo performances on the radio...and later as part of "Dirty Pearl" one of the many AZ Sounds bands. Bill had such a great attitude and positive spirit.
I remember you from those days but doubt you would remember me as I was one of the many who loved being at the station. Your spirits filled that buildling and the airwaves with an electricity that can't be understood by those who were not listening or able to be there. I often found myself glued to my car radio unable to move when I heard some incredible song on KDKB...God is Alive, Magic is Afoot comes to mind. Do you remember that one?
I was recruited to do a couple of the Love Workshop bits with Russ and co...the infamous First Women's National Credit and Trust Bank ads...remember them? I was 'Shirley MacLaine in the People's Republic of China,' and also did the ones about free sperm for women who opened accounts at the women's bank.
Do you remember the cease and desist letter about the bank ad from the state fiduciary office? I just remember hearing all you guys laughing your butts off! I recently heard the one about eating the baby at 7-11 that I participated in doing...whew!
I'd forgot about that one!!
Hard to believe that Bill is gone, and Toad...and now Lissa. But it's still an incredible world for better and worse and I wouldn't trade it for anything.
Hope you'll write some more for the KCAC Llives blog and yours too!
Radio Ray,Toad,Hank and Willie all gone but Ray.I knew the above from working with Mt. Bell taking care of the radio stations, I hook up with Toad and Hank years back and I miss all of them, true radio guys. I have not talked to Ray for many years. I was working on a phone problem at KDKB in Mesa at the old Safeway store on CC, Bill was doing a show and Hank was in the production room asking me to read the record lable for him, Bill
made a comment about dieing with his boots on, well he did, that was when radio was alive take care Paul
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