When I was a kid, my world revolved around radio.

My little transistor radio brought music and personalities into my life in a very special way…

Radio was such a big deal in my life I’m told my first word was “hotdog!“—a favorite expression of radio personality Arthur Godfrey.

Back in the 60’s—Godfrey was huge.

Edgey as Howard Stern. Influential as Rush Limbaugh, and as popular as Ryan Seacrest.

Godfrey’s radio shows drew such huge audiences, that several were simulcast on the fledgling medium known as television to help create an audience there.

Radio was such a part of my life that when I was 5 years old, I apparently woke up in the middle of the night, marched into my parents room, announced I was going to be a radio actor, and then walked out again—to return to sleep.

Whether I was huddled under the covers in my bed late at night listening to the far away radio stations whose AM signals went great distances after dark— or keeping up with the latest “rock & roll” hit, radio was personal.

The mid-70’s brought a change to radio…

There was a new era of personalities who were becoming the Arthur Godfrey’s of their time.

Among them, legendary disc jockey Bob Vernon who eventually presided over the afternoon craziness on WNBC radio as “Vernon With A “V”…

As he explains on his website here:

We were creating a new kind of radio in those days. Up until then, every Program Director and consultant in the country were hammering it into jocks to “Keep a smile in your voice and SELL the music.” Our little band of radio people in Cleveland thought that was incredibly boring. John Lund, our Program Director, and Jack Thayer, our General Manager, encouraged us to see how many of the traditional radio rules we could break - as long as the ratings kept growing. And they did.

But something was happening to radio.

It was becoming less personal…

Sony Invented the Walkman, a portable tape recorder with headphones that allowed you to create your own playlists of music—with no interference by announcers.

Boomboxes also became popular—blasting pre-recorded music loudly about the area.

Again—no one wanted to hear “traditional” radio programs.

Then came the Ipod—combining the best of playlists and radio.

Yes, you can just use it as an music player. Or you can download podcasts of radio programs—and listen to them the way we used to listen to transistor radios.

Both my kids have Ipods. And—just like me a generation ago— their headphones are glued to their ears as they listen to podcasts and to music.

I watch them enjoy their time with “radio” in a slightly different form.

Yes, radio has become personal again—only the delivery system has changed.

In the words of Arthur Godfrey, HOTDOG!

—Steve

Link here to the video and story Steve covered today on NBC-17

Blog Information Profile for instanteye

Add to: | blinklist | del.cio.us | digg | yahoo! | furl | rawsugar | shadows | netvouz

Through out my career as a journalist—I’ve always been guided by my own instincts and judgement about trends, stories, and what people want to read in the paper, hear on the radio, see on TV, or scan in my blog…

But now—I’m on the brink of being replaced by intelligences far greater than my own—I’m about to be replaced by my software…

EXTRA, EXTRA, BREED ALL ABOUT IT….

A couple of techies from M.I.T. have come up with software that uses a form or artificial intelligence “to alter colors, fonts and hyperlinks of pages in response to what seems to grab the attention of the people who click on the site.”

They say the sites actually evolve through breeding.

As you can read here it develops pages that update quicker than a human could create and change them—adding new material all the time to satisfy readers.

Hey—I’m all for it.. Soon, all I’ll have to do is just type in a subject, sign my name to the blog,and let my software write the whole darn thing!

NOT TONIGHT HONEY, I’VE GOT A LOW BATTERY….

Web pages aren’t the only artificial things that are breeding…

The author of a new book says humans and robots will soon be breeding too…

This isn’t the first time David Levy has broached this subject.

Last October we told you about how he wrote a research paper talking about how trends indicated humans and robots might marry in the near future.

Now, in his book, he says with-in five years, humans will be having sex with robots—whether we marry ‘em or not.

He sees nothing unusual in this saying:

” artificial devices have been used for sex for many centuries, so there is nothing intrinsically implausible about the idea that humans may want to engage in sexual acts with robots.”

You can read more about it here… But It’s got me wondering, what happens if my robot spouse/lover decides I’m spending too much time with the toaster or lawn mower?

Could make for a messy divorce…

I mean—who gets custody of the extension cords? ….

HEY, THAT ROBOT HAS A KILLER SMILE….

And, If you got your robot mad enough at you—maybe it wouldn’t bother with divorce.

Maybe it’d just terminate you!

One British Artificial Intelligence scientist is worried that killer robots could be a threat to humanity.

Noel Sharkey of the University of Sheffield says robots used in military applications are getting more and more autonomous… And as they gain intelligence and sophistication, they could run amok and begin banding together to wipe out those pesky humans.

You can read more of his fears here—where he goes into greater detail about his concern.

Sharkey thinks we ought to ban autonomous weapons systems—before they ban us…

Maybe it’s not such a bad idea.

In the meantime—I’m just hoping my automated web page doesn’t tell my robotic wife what sites I’ve been looking at on the Internet !

—Steve

Link to video & story Steve covered today on NBC-17

Blog Information Profile for instanteye

Add to: | blinklist | del.cio.us | digg | yahoo! | furl | rawsugar | shadows | netvouz

In TV— the audience gets what it sees..

But, back in my radio days—when you were just a voice—-everyone had their own mental picture of what you looked like…

I used to get a kick out of watching the reaction of people when they met me for the first time.

You could see the disappointment in their eyes. They were expecting a tall, handsome, blond guy. Instead they got this…

But there are still some voices that remain a mystery.

They are the folks who you seem to hear EVERYWHERE— from movie trailers to soup commercials.

They’re a small, elite bunch…

But now—you’ll get to not only hear them doing the narrations—you’ll see them too…

They got together to produce this video for an awards ceremony that honors people in the commercial production business… And, they had no trouble placing their tongues firmly in cheek, and making fun of the styles that made them famous.

So, sit back, and watch your impressions evaporate before your very eyes…

Of course, you still might not recognize one of those mystery voices even after seeing him in that video.

More people probably recognize Don LaFontaine now—as he looks today without the wig—in the Geico commercials…

Well, at least he’s not a tall, good looking blond guy either!

—Steve

Link here for the story Steve covered today on NBC-17

Today’s controversy about the IPHONE price cut got me to thinking about when cell phones first made their appearance back in the mid 80’s.

I was working in radio then, and back in the day, if you were out in the field, you had one of two options if you wanted to go live. You could use a 2-way radio, or a telephone; the old land line. That meant either a pay phone or a hard-wired phone in some location.

Both had their drawbacks. Walkie-talkies had signal and range limitations– and it was hard to find a pay phone out in the middle of a rural area when some major event was happening.

Then came the cell phone…….

….It was a beast in a briefcase.

The insides of the case were filled with a metal shell that contained all of its electronics. It weighed 17 pounds!

But it was portable.

My beast proved its worth about a week after it was issued to me when a youngster was lost in the woods overnight. The next morning, I was with one of the search crews when they happened upon the boy huddled under a tree. We were miles from nowhere. Out of radio range.

But, the beast in the briefcase came through.

I was on live, with-in seconds, with a report about the kid being found safe and sound. As we trudged through the woods heading back to civilization, we had a live interview with the exhausted but otherwise safe lad. His parents later told me they heard him live on the radio back at the command post nearly a half hour before we made it back to base camp.

They were thrilled to hear him. I was thrilled too– because we’d beaten the daylights out of the competition with the combination of a little luck and some new technology.

With-in a year, the beast in a briefcase was an antique.

Technology had reduced the cell phone to the size of a brick.

Yes, it was still big, and awkward. And you could stab yourself in the eye with the giant, hard plastic antenna. But, it had an optional carry strap so you could sling it over your shoulder.

WOW! Lightweight Portability!

About a year later, the brick became a doorstop.

Now, we were all carrying the flip phone.

A revolutionary concept.

No, it wasn’t like the nice, sleek little phones we carry today— but it could fit in your pants pocket.

It came in one color. Grey. And all it did was make calls. But, now you could charge it via the cigarette lighter in your automobile. With the brick—you had to plug the charger into a wall outlet.

Today, our cell phones can do everything but make us dinner.

Well… maybe that’ll change. I hear Apple is working on one that will not only make dinner– but goes to the store and buys the groceries for it as well…

—Steve