Maybe some good news in the continuing story of the downfall of KTPB.
We don't have any budget for part-time announcers as of August 1, 2006 so we have to fill the whole broadcast day just with the full-time staff we have left.
The good news is I don't have to get up at 4:45 every morning any more. I'm switching shifts to evenings.
I may actually come to remember what life is like when I'm not sleepy all the time.
Monday, July 31, 2006
Kilgore News
I was featured on the cover of the local Kilgore News Herald on Friday.
The caption under my picture got my name right, but by the time they got to me in the article, my name had changed to Robert Donnelly.
I also don't remember saying what they quoted me as saying.
Oh well.
The article should be available to read online sometime in the next few weeks.
Monday, July 24, 2006
I want a window.
"The great purpose of school can be realized better in dark, airless, ugly places.... It is to master the physical self, to transcend the beauty of nature. School should develop the power to withdraw from the external world."
William Torrey Harris, US Commissioner of Education from 1889 to 1906
I found this quote in a post at The Memory Hole titled The Educational System Was Designed to Keep Us Uneducated and Docile
One of the most fascinating books I've read in the past year is The Underground History of American Education by John Taylor Gatto. The whole book is available to read free online at his web site.
It helped me get back in touch with my bitter inner first grader.
William Torrey Harris, US Commissioner of Education from 1889 to 1906
I found this quote in a post at The Memory Hole titled The Educational System Was Designed to Keep Us Uneducated and Docile
One of the most fascinating books I've read in the past year is The Underground History of American Education by John Taylor Gatto. The whole book is available to read free online at his web site.
It helped me get back in touch with my bitter inner first grader.
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
No Budget Radio
Fun morning here at KTPB.
Our transmitter seems to be broken. It fritzed out 2 days in a row in the afternoon. We are running on backup equipment and duct tape today. We also have a broken CD player in the control room.
Broadcasting still seems like an extended improvisation.
Since the sale of our station is pretty much all done except for the paperwork and the official announcement, we aren't really given much help in keeping things running.
It isn't like there was much of a budget around here before.
I finally got a computer in my office that can do more than email just a few weeks ago. I think that was just since we are soon to be out the door, and they can give it to someone else at Kilgore College when I'm gone.
It really has been a bit depressing working in this office. Since I've been here I've had a choice of any broken chair I want.
I had hoped to get us webcasting when I first got here, but the computer issue I mentioned before prevented that.
Local radio is all but dead in America from what I can tell.
EMF and KLOVE have been able to take over such a large number of struggling college and public stations because of the regulatory law changes and the decreased funding of the schools.
Our transmitter seems to be broken. It fritzed out 2 days in a row in the afternoon. We are running on backup equipment and duct tape today. We also have a broken CD player in the control room.
Broadcasting still seems like an extended improvisation.
Since the sale of our station is pretty much all done except for the paperwork and the official announcement, we aren't really given much help in keeping things running.
It isn't like there was much of a budget around here before.
I finally got a computer in my office that can do more than email just a few weeks ago. I think that was just since we are soon to be out the door, and they can give it to someone else at Kilgore College when I'm gone.
It really has been a bit depressing working in this office. Since I've been here I've had a choice of any broken chair I want.
I had hoped to get us webcasting when I first got here, but the computer issue I mentioned before prevented that.
Local radio is all but dead in America from what I can tell.
EMF and KLOVE have been able to take over such a large number of struggling college and public stations because of the regulatory law changes and the decreased funding of the schools.
Friday, July 14, 2006
Douglas Rushkoff on Things AND Stuff
Here is a google video clip from the Disinformation Disinfocon in 2000 featuring Douglas Rushkoff.
Smart man. Good stuff.
Smart man. Good stuff.
Thursday, July 13, 2006
Why do men have nipples?
I was visiting my parents recently when I noticed a book about teaching science to kids. My sister's children were rampaging all over creation, and I decided to flip through the book to see if it had anything good to say.
One of the examples it featured of questions kids are apt to ask was "Why is the sky blue?"
Since the book didn't bother to answer the question, I thought back to all the silly questions I used to ask for which I was not given an adequate answer.
This leads me to why men have nipples. The answer will knock your socks on your ass.
Or not.
Here is a link to the Wikipedia entry on male lactation.
It certainly poked a hole in my perception of reality.
One of the examples it featured of questions kids are apt to ask was "Why is the sky blue?"
Since the book didn't bother to answer the question, I thought back to all the silly questions I used to ask for which I was not given an adequate answer.
This leads me to why men have nipples. The answer will knock your socks on your ass.
Or not.
Here is a link to the Wikipedia entry on male lactation.
It certainly poked a hole in my perception of reality.
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Intellectual Property
One of my more recently acquired hobbies is stealing from bookstores.
I don't actually remove anything physically from the store. I just read books without paying for them.
The hysterical messages they have been putting at the beginning of most DVDs I rent lately (You Wouldn't Steal a Car!!!!) still get me feeling guilty about using copyrighted material without paying for it.
It makes it harder for me to enjoy my other clandestine and subversive media use: reading books from the library, listening to the radio, watching broadcast TV, borrowing movies from the library, and listening to my old record albums I paid a dollar for.
I don't actually remove anything physically from the store. I just read books without paying for them.
The hysterical messages they have been putting at the beginning of most DVDs I rent lately (You Wouldn't Steal a Car!!!!) still get me feeling guilty about using copyrighted material without paying for it.
It makes it harder for me to enjoy my other clandestine and subversive media use: reading books from the library, listening to the radio, watching broadcast TV, borrowing movies from the library, and listening to my old record albums I paid a dollar for.
I've had this low level paranoia running through my life lately.
Like people I've never met know where I am and what I'm doing.
Seems like everywhere I look there is some news story about the government having a new, more pervasive surveillance system. I can look around on google earth and see everywhere I've ever lived in pretty good detail.
I bought a book-on-tape version of 1984 recently. I got through virtually all of the tapes, and I couldn't wait to find out how the story ends. The final tape seems to be a mislabeled copy of Elvis' greatest hits. I'm not kidding. I was about to find out what happens in room 101, and in stead I hear "Jailhouse Rock."
Innocent mislabeling, or Ministry of Truth conspiracy? You tell me.
I just feel like when I'm at work, hundreds or even thousands of people are listening to me. I can't see them, I can't prove they exist, but I still feel they are there. Like I have no privacy even when I'm in a room by myself.
Then I remembered I'm a radio announcer, and I had been on the air since 6 that morning.
Maybe if I want privacy, I need a different line of work.
Now I get this strange feeling like my thoughts about the subject are open to anyone in the world. Like they can read them on the internet or something.
Like people I've never met know where I am and what I'm doing.
Seems like everywhere I look there is some news story about the government having a new, more pervasive surveillance system. I can look around on google earth and see everywhere I've ever lived in pretty good detail.
I bought a book-on-tape version of 1984 recently. I got through virtually all of the tapes, and I couldn't wait to find out how the story ends. The final tape seems to be a mislabeled copy of Elvis' greatest hits. I'm not kidding. I was about to find out what happens in room 101, and in stead I hear "Jailhouse Rock."
Innocent mislabeling, or Ministry of Truth conspiracy? You tell me.
I just feel like when I'm at work, hundreds or even thousands of people are listening to me. I can't see them, I can't prove they exist, but I still feel they are there. Like I have no privacy even when I'm in a room by myself.
Then I remembered I'm a radio announcer, and I had been on the air since 6 that morning.
Maybe if I want privacy, I need a different line of work.
Now I get this strange feeling like my thoughts about the subject are open to anyone in the world. Like they can read them on the internet or something.
110% Hyperbole Free!!!
Most bloggs really bore the hell out of me frankly.
This will probably be no exception.
One of my ambitions in life is still to increase the media literacy of human beings. Starting with myself.
I've learned that much, if not most, of what I know about the world around me has come from sources which were not trustworthy. Radio, television, textbooks, websites, chick tracts, etc. all get some part of the story wrong. Even the best examples with the best intentions and the best methods are merely approximations of that which they describe.
Did I mention the continuing demise of my current radio station was recently featured on the front page of the New York Times?
Don't ever trust anything you hear on the radio or read in a weblog for that matter.
Take it from the blog of a radio guy.
This will probably be no exception.
One of my ambitions in life is still to increase the media literacy of human beings. Starting with myself.
I've learned that much, if not most, of what I know about the world around me has come from sources which were not trustworthy. Radio, television, textbooks, websites, chick tracts, etc. all get some part of the story wrong. Even the best examples with the best intentions and the best methods are merely approximations of that which they describe.
Did I mention the continuing demise of my current radio station was recently featured on the front page of the New York Times?
Don't ever trust anything you hear on the radio or read in a weblog for that matter.
Take it from the blog of a radio guy.
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