[BARC-List] Review: History Channel "Modern Marvels" show on thehistory of radio

[Richard Amirault]

Comments below....

Richard Amirault              N1JDU
Boston, MA, USA          Go Fly A Kite
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <KA1MOM at aol.com>
Subject: [BARC-List] Review: History Channel "Modern Marvels" show on 
thehistory of radio
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First, I think that the title of the show "Radio, Out Of Thin Air" was with 
an understood, but unstated "Broadcast" before the word Radio. Slamming the 
show because it did not include every aspect of radio is, IMHO, not 
deserved.
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> These come out as the main points of the show.
(snip)
> SUMMARY:  Only commercial radio exists or has ever existed.  The 
> 3,000,000
> people worldwide who call themselves hams are likely to be  delusional?  I 
> see
> the whole hour as little more than propaganda showing  how much we owe to
> commercial broadcasters.
>
> Recall that those of us who do not exist:
>    Developed cellular technology 20 years before it  became commercial
>    Sent up AO-7, the oldest manmade object still  functioning in orbit.
>    Have put up over 50 communications  satellites.
>    Function a the only source of completely reliable  worldwide
> communications.
>
> Anyone have the resources to do an hour show (40 minutes plus commercial
> breaks) refuting the above?  The average 8th grader could put together an 
> hour's
> material with a day or two of web searches.
==============

I doubt that an 8th grader would have any experience with "theatre of the 
mind"  Watching (listening) to a story unfold _in_your_head_ is quite an 
experience and, unfortunatly, quite unknown to most teenagers.  Kudos to the 
show for bringing home that point.
==============
>
> If you bothered to tape the History Channel broadcast and have not viewed 
> it
> yet, you might want to dedicate the tape to a better use, like maybe a 
> South
> Park marathon.
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I recorded it on my computer and made CDs in both mpg and VCD format.  I 
plan on keeping it.  Anyone want to show it a club meeting? You'll need a 
computer with a projector/screen to do it properly.

Richard Amirault
N1JDU