Today, Saturday February 28, 2008, national talk radio host and news commentator Paul Harvey passed away in Arizona. There’s a good article here at The Hollywood Reporter that lists all of his credits and achievements. Paul Harvey worked out of an office here in Chicago, and had a Midwestern conservative slant to his reporting. His distinctive voice and style were instantly recognizable and commanded attention. Whether you agreed with his political views or not, he was always interesting to listen to and presented information and stories you didn’t always get from other traditional news venues.
Back in 1990, my first car caught fire and burned up–after one semester of college. I needed an inexpensive car fast to get to classes and work, and ended up with a 1980 AMC Concord. Much to a college girl’s dismay, my ten year old car not only didn’t have a cassette player, it only had AM radio. The horror. AM radio didn’t pick up much–forget about modern music. Mostly it was news reports and ball games.
I didn’t have much choice, so I listened to what was available. I started catching Paul Harvey’s shows, and got sucked in by the old school style news show. Harvey was more like a really interesting current events professor, telling you stories about the day’s news, historical events, and the people that make the news.
When I mentioned listening to Paul Harvey to my grandfather, he was thrilled. My grandfather loved listening to news programs and talk radio–he used to even carry a little portable radio around the house with him from room to room so he wouldn’t miss a moment. He’d always listened to Paul Harvey’s program, and therefore, growing up, my mom had too. Paul Harvey crossed the generational gap, and gave my grandfather, mother, and I a common interest to talk about. Suddenly that AM radio didn’t seem like such a bad thing anymore.
So I’d just like to say thank you to Paul Harvey, who rose at 3:30am every morning to start his day and gather all of the news and human interest stories to share with so many of us–stories that gave us something to share with each other, too.
Barack Obama is poised to be inaugurated tomorrow as our nation’s 44th President. This could be one of the most-watched televised events in TV history. Newsday put together and excellent review of the TV schedule tomorrow, of who’s covering what and when. Visit Newsday.com for all the details. Inauguration Day is packed from beginning to end with musical performances, the invocation, inauguration of both Vice-President Joe Biden and President Barack Obama, the inaugural address, luncheon, parade, and several inaugural balls, both official and unofficial. It all starts before dawn and ends well after dark.
For those without a TV or not planning to be near one (people typically have to work on a Tuesday), Ars Technica offers a comprehensive article on how to catch the inauguration on streaming video on your computer or iPhone, or at least get constant news updates on your internet-equipped mobile phone.
I’m including the Hulu link to the live streaming video of the 2009 Presidential Inauguration here:
If for some reason Hulu crashes tomorrow, check the Ars Technica link above for more streaming video outlets. Enjoy the ceremonies as we witness an historic event.
Democrats and President-Elect Obama have been working to try and delay the February 17 switchover from analog to digital TV. Apparently around 8 million people still haven’t bought the converter boxes they need to interpret those new digital signals, and 2 million people are on a waiting list for the government coupons that give them a discount on said converter boxes. This explains why the public service commercials about the switch seem to be airing every five minutes these days. Here I was thinking that anyone who didn’t live in a cave had to know about it already, but apparently they don’t.
Senator John D. Rockefeller IV, Democrat of West Virginia proposed a bill to delay the switch over concerns that this sudden darkening of analog TV will completely cut off the poor, elderly, the disabled, and those with language barriers. Republican opponents fear that a delay will financially hurt the TV stations who are currently running two towers for the signals, and burden public services that are waiting for those older airwaves to free up for their use.
This is a difficult issue. I can see both sides of it, with masses of confused citizens unable to get information from TV news, or enjoy the programming that may be the only entertainment they can afford. On the other hand, this move has been planned for years, and it’s possible that in another few months, there will still be millions of people who still can’t, won’t, or don’t know to buy the converter boxes. Sometimes the only solution is a drastic one, because people will put off the inevitable until you literally pull the plug.
