Friday, November 23, 2007

Christmas Classics

One internet radio station that I particularly enjoy this time of year is the Old Time Radio Christmas Channel which is based out of Rochester, MN and plays programs from the Golden Age of Radio, featuring Jack Benny, Bob and Bing, Lucille Ball and a slew of others. And it's free! They also play old time radio commercials and I'm fascinated by them, especially when they mention prices for their products. When was the last time you spent $2 for a full head perm!?! And sometimes they will replay Presidential addresses, yesterday I listened to FDR's Christmas broadcast from 1941. (I also found some transcripts online of other speeches in case anyone's interested: 1939 and 1943t.) In yesterdays radio replay, FDR was asking the nation to join together and support the troops who were fighting to protect our country's freedom. So much of what he said resonated with the present day but what I found so incomprehensible was that back in those days the public's only access to what was going on in the world was through these radio announcements and newspapers. Families would gather together around the radio box and anxiously await the "Breaking News." I can't imagine what that would be like today. We can't go 20 minutes without some sort of news alert coming at us through TV, e-mail or text message. We have everything at our fingertips and voice commands yet technology still manages make advancements in the field. What more could we possibly want? A micro-chip installed in our brain that gives us the news when we THINK about it? It's boggles the mind to know that there will always be something else on the horizon ready to put our present day high-tech living to shame. Sometimes I just want to go back to simpler times.

Ok, so not the point of this post! I just wanted to pass along a great radio station that is fun for the whole family, especially during the holidays, and will take you back to a much simpler way of life. All you need is a 10gig processor, high speed internet access and blue tooth in order to download the channel.

Just kidding!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm listening to it now...so cool!

Me said...

I'm so glad you like it! If you like that stuff there are other old time radio channels on live365 that play mystery shows, comedy shows, horror, etc. It's fun to browse the stations and see. They download into i-tunes but sometimes when I click to play the stream it's no longer there so I have to re-log into live365 and load the channel again. Don't know what that happens maybe I need to have live365 open on my computer when I'm in i-tunes. Anyway, I'm so glad you're listening!! =)