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| "Anytime in radio that you can reach somebody on an emotional level, you're really connecting" Casey Kasem |
Who remembers transistor radios? You know, the precursor to
the boom box? I remember toting my yellow transistor to Jones Beach on Long
Island, soaking in the hot sun while the Kinks, Hendrix, and Santana cut
through the sweeping sounds of the surf. A teenager in the early 70s, radio was
my link to cool stuff. There was the music! And the contests. And DJs who
shaped our view of cool. Not to mention, the boys at the beach who stopped by
the blanket because they liked your music. Radio in the day was a social
experience.
It still is. In
the 70s, I was typing on an IBM Selectrix
and thrilled to have it. I never fathomed owning a computer. After all, the
college computer bank at Stony Brook University took up an huge room on campus.
I never got to go inside. We dropped off data cards which programmers picked up
through a service window and later input to the mystery box. We came back a
week later to collect our results.
In the late 80s, I bought my first computer, a Macintosh
Performa, with 25 MB RAM. It was rockin’. My newspaper colleagues were jealous
because the Mac Quadra’s we used at work had 4 only MB RAM, and I don’t think
any of us knew much about the Internet. In 1992, I marveled during a tour of
the room-size main-frame computer in the Town of Brookhaven offices on Long
Island. AOL was still a babe in the woods. When I ventured with my ninth grader
into “safe” chat rooms, I was shocked that my daughter could connect with kids
in Massachusetts and group-write graphic novels. I was just beginning to sense
the implications.
Although I was a full-time print journalist and filled guest
spots on Meet the Press and other TV
broadcasts, it hadn’t occurred to me that I would someday host a radio show or
that I would eventually use the Internet to connect with people across the
globe. Really? But here we are together. Pleased to meet you!
Internet radio audiences grow every day. Google, and you will
find live streams on virtually every topic. Connect with podcasts from
entertainers, academics and just plain folks alike. What people enjoy most
about Internet Radio, I think, is the choice and control it provides. It’s
always accessible, and it’s less dense with advertising than terrestrial radio.
You get to focus on what you came for. You can listen to almost anything from
almost anywhere. Better still, you can access it on Mobile devices. And you can
share what you find. Be social.
By the way, did you catch the capital M in Mobile? I did
that on purpose because Mobile is the new queen of media. People want their
information on the go, and Mobile devices serve it up. They literally lighten
the load and they lighten your mind, too. Just, untether yourself from the desk
and head out to the beach—phone, PDA, or tablet in hand. Tune into your
favorite Internet Radio station. (We hope it’s TalkNetworkRadio.com.) Here, you
are just a click away from anything and everything you want to know. In the old
days, my yellow Transistor Radio controlled what I heard. Sure, I could choose
my station, but overall it was a passive experience. I waited to see what the
DJs and newscasters had for me.
Now, when I visit TalkNetworkRadio.com, I enter a portal to
the world. It links me to rich content from esteemed broadcasting colleagues
and to visitors like you. It also positions me in clicking distance of every
topic in the world, visual images, video, business and lifestyle content,
educational material, social media, and fun stuff, too. I dig the music.
Thinking back on my days at Jones Beach, it was the cool I
loved, the freedom, the sense of abandon I felt at the beach when I left all
else behind. Today, I still love the cool and the freedom of Internet Radio that takes
me where I want to go 24/7. Come along for the ride. It’s pretty fresh.
By Donna Anselmo, author of McGraw-Hill’s Marketing Demystified
