[ETSList] FWD: End of an era...

[Ronald A. Loneker Sr. KA2BZS]

Source: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2003/10/10/6/?nc=1

NEWINGTON, CT, Oct 10, 2003--After completing 43 years of publication, 
73 Amateur Radio Today magazine is calling it quits. Plans to publish a 
joint October/November issue fell through this week, and the September 
2003 issue was the magazine's last. According to self-proclaimed "El 
Supremo and Founder" Wayne S. Green II, W2NSD, it was a simple matter of 
economics.

"After failing a last minute effort to collect on some larger accounts 
receivable we decided yesterday to throw in the towel--that the 
September issue will have to be the last," Green told ARRL October 9. 
"SK after 43 years of publishing."

The decision to pull the plug apparently did not come easily. After 
telling the League and others a few days earlier that 73 would cease 
publication because of insufficient advertising revenue, Green rebounded 
with plans to put out an October/November issue if 73 could collect the 
delinquent accounts. "With the hobby slowly dying, these are difficult 
times," he said. "But then, we've been through difficult times before."

Green's October 9 statement appears to be the final word on the matter, 
however. It also seems to leave remaining staff members and contributing 
editors--freelancers--out in the cold. One columnist reports not having 
been paid for several months of contributions.

The first issue of 73 was published in October 1960 from what Green--a 
former editor of CQ--once described as "a small, dingy apartment" on E 
15th Street in Brooklyn, New York. Late-night radio personality Jean 
Shepherd, K2ORS (SK), was listed as a contributing editor. Copies cost 
37 cents apiece, and subscriptions were $3 a year. By the time of its 
demise, the larger-format 73 Amateur Radio Today--which contained 
approximately the same number of pages as the first issue (64)--sold for 
$3.95 per issue on the newsstand, and an annual subscription was $24.97.

The magazine--which became virtually inseparable from Wayne Green 
himself--was a pioneer promoter of SSB, FM, solid-state, easy 
construction projects and the marriage of personal computing and Amateur 
Radio. His interest in microcomputing led Green in 1975 to found Byte, a 
magazine devoted to the then-nascent and largely do-it-yourself computer 
hobby. He sold the magazine three years later, and it continued 
publication until 1998.

Since the summer of 1962, 73 has been based in Peterborough, New 
Hampshire. After searching for bigger digs than what Brooklyn had to 
offer, Green determined that New Hampshire offered the best of all 
possible worlds, including cooler temperatures, cheap land, low taxes 
and access to the big city (Boston). For a time, the magazine 
flourished. At the peak of its popularity in the 1970s and 1980s, 
individual issues of 73 totaled more than 300 pages of ads, articles and 
commentary. Heading each issue was Green's inimitable "Never Say 
Die"--some would say never-ending--editorial, in which he rarely missed 
an opportunity to tweak the ARRL and his magazine competitors for their 
perceived shortcomings.

 From day one, Green was the virtual heart and soul of 73, but for a 
short time--from the spring of 1985 until almost a year later--he was 
absent from the magazine, which, at that point, he no longer owned. CW 
Communications had acquired 73 along with Green's computer publications 
a few years earlier. He returned in full control of the publication in 
its March 1986 issue, again vowing to turn the competition on its ear.

QST Editor Steve Ford, WB8IMY, says 73 published his first article as a 
freelance writer in the mid-1970s. "I was saddened to hear that 73 has 
ceased publishing," Ford said. "I was an avid 73 reader in 1971 when I 
was first licensed. Wayne's excitement about the growing amateur FM 
repeater phenomenon at the time was infectious."

Green's 73 editorials and regular round of hamfest and convention 
personal appearances--he was a Hamvention forum staple for 
years--originally concentrated on Amateur Radio and his ideas to 
improve, advance and grow it. In more recent years, however, they've 
veered into conspiracy theories, cures for cancer, AIDS and other 
ailments and Green's proliferation of book titles on those topics. Green 
has been an occasional guest on the Coast to Coast AM 
<http://www.coasttocoastam.com/> overnight radio talk program once 
hosted by Art Bell, W6OBB.

In 1996, Wayne Green Inc filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, but the filing 
did not affect 73. New Hampshire newspaper accounts at the time 
indicated that Green's wife, Sherry Smythe-Green, had purchased 73 two 
years earlier, and it's believed the magazine remained in her hands. The 
affected Green subsidiaries were Almost Free CDs, Uncle Wayne's Books, 
Creative Music, N.H. Language Systems and Green With Envy.

In 2001, CQ named Green to its inaugural Amateur Radio Hall of Fame, 
citing his roles as founding editor and publisher of 73, former CQ 
editor/columnist and publisher of Byte.

Green said he would continue his essays <http://www.waynegreen.com/> on 
his Web site "for those subscribers who mainly bought the magazine for 
them." He told ARRL that no definite arrangements have been made yet 
about how to handle outstanding 73 subscriptions. He said he does plan 
at some point to make available on a Web site "articles of lasting 
interest."

CQ Publisher Dick Ross, K2MGA, called 73 and Green "significant 
contributors to the history of our hobby" for more than four decades. 
"There's no joy to be taken from the passing of 73 magazine," Ross said. 
"The loss of any publication serving Amateur Radio leaves all of us a 
bit poorer."

Through the pages of 73, amateurs were able to access "a curious mixture 
of new ideas, not the least of which was the technology and fun of FM 
repeaters, which Wayne pushed relentlessly until the rest of the ham 
publishing community finally woke up," Ross said. "Thank you, Wayne, for 
43 entertaining, informative, sometimes infuriating, and always 
interesting years of 73. We'll genuinely miss it."

-- 
Ronald A. Loneker Sr. KA2BZS
#1DXCC * 160M DXCC * A1-OP * NJDXA * 9BDXCC
  See my New Flex-flyer Key at: 
   http://www.cwforever.com
       pat. pending
Just Send it!....



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