Internet Archive Streams Re-Discovered 1980s Radio Show About Early Computers (archive.org) 15
In the 1980s, a radio show about home computers was broadcast on a handful of California radio stations. 40 years later, reel-to-reel tapes of the shows were re-discovered — and digitized — by an Internet Archive special collections manager.
An Internet Archive blog post tells the story: Earlier this year archivist Kay Savetz recovered several of the tapes in a property sale, and recognizing their value and worthiness of professional transfer, launched a GoFundMe to have them digitized, and made them available at Internet Archive with the permission of the show's creators...
Interviews in the recovered recordings include Timothy Leary, Douglas Adams, Bill Gates, Atari's Jack Tramiel, Apple's Bill Atkinson, and dozens of others. The recovered shows span November 17 1984 through July 12, 1985.
Many more of the original reel-to-reel tapes — including shows with interviews with Ray Bradbury, Robert Moog, Donny Osmond, and Gene Roddenberry — are still lost, and perhaps are still waiting to be found in the Los Angeles area. [Though there appears to be a transcript of the Gene Roddenberry interview.]
The stories of how The Famous Computer Cafe was created — and saved, 40 years later — is explored in an episode of the Radio Survivor podcast. The podcast interviewed show co-creator Ellen Fields and archivist Kay Savetz, providing a dual perspective of how the show was created and how it was recovered.
The recovery of these interviews, 40 years after their original airing, holds out hope that many more relics and treasures still await discovery.
You get another perspective on the past from the show's advertisements for 1980s software (and from the production values of 1980s-era radio technology).
Bill Gates was just 29 when he recorded his interview. And Douglas Adams was 32.
An Internet Archive blog post tells the story: Earlier this year archivist Kay Savetz recovered several of the tapes in a property sale, and recognizing their value and worthiness of professional transfer, launched a GoFundMe to have them digitized, and made them available at Internet Archive with the permission of the show's creators...
Interviews in the recovered recordings include Timothy Leary, Douglas Adams, Bill Gates, Atari's Jack Tramiel, Apple's Bill Atkinson, and dozens of others. The recovered shows span November 17 1984 through July 12, 1985.
Many more of the original reel-to-reel tapes — including shows with interviews with Ray Bradbury, Robert Moog, Donny Osmond, and Gene Roddenberry — are still lost, and perhaps are still waiting to be found in the Los Angeles area. [Though there appears to be a transcript of the Gene Roddenberry interview.]
The stories of how The Famous Computer Cafe was created — and saved, 40 years later — is explored in an episode of the Radio Survivor podcast. The podcast interviewed show co-creator Ellen Fields and archivist Kay Savetz, providing a dual perspective of how the show was created and how it was recovered.
The recovery of these interviews, 40 years after their original airing, holds out hope that many more relics and treasures still await discovery.
You get another perspective on the past from the show's advertisements for 1980s software (and from the production values of 1980s-era radio technology).
Bill Gates was just 29 when he recorded his interview. And Douglas Adams was 32.
"Atari's Jack Tramiel" (Score:5, Interesting)
Donny Osmond? (Score:2, Insightful)
Some things are better left forgotten.
Re:Donny Osmond? (Score:4, Interesting)
Disagree. Admittedly, some of his music is kind of awful - though I'll admit that I like "I'm a Little Bit Country..." with his sister and "Soldier of Love" and "Sacred Emotion" from the late 80's, because I'm sometimes partial to cheese and I'm an amateur music archivist. But there's more to Osmond than his chart record - there's his involvement in animated features including the Osmonds cartoon, Johnny Bravo, Bob the Builder, The Land Before Time, and Mulan, and multiple regular TV guest appearances, too. There's his talk show with his sister, and his Broadway career. Then, there's the multitude of now grown women (and others interested in guys) who had crushes on him in their youth. And he's an interesting study in celebrities with social anxiety disorder - which would have to be terrible as someone frequently in the public eye.
All of which is to say: the maintenance of a historical record isn't about only keeping the parts that you, personally, find interesting. :P
this is cool! (Score:2, Informative)
kudos to the archivist
The iPhone was still over 20 years away in 1985 (Score:4, Informative)
Great find, thanks!
"We think that Macintosh is the first telephone of personal computers." --Bill Atkinson
This was intended specifically as the telephone vs. the telegram, which required knowing Morse code to use yourself. But also it was meant in the more general sense of a computer for doing things (including communicating!) without dealing with "bytes and bits," the technical complexity such as code or command line.
https://archive.org/details/the-famous-computer-cafe-1985-01-08_Bill_Atkinson
The Internet Archive is FAIR USE (Score:5, Insightful)
The Internet Archive is essential to a free press because in spite of the fact that every single bit of media it catalogs was previously created and published somewhere in the public domain, and is protected by copyright, One of the greatest protections of a free press is access to what is published so that news, history, education, law, information and art in all of its expressions remains accessible to all citizens of humanity. Libraries, Museums, Universities, Institutions are the best way for individuals of humanity to establish a sanctuary for society's archival history as expressed in assorted media. It is fair use of and access to our cultural history, and is critical to the preservation of the humanities. Its incomplete, random, inconsistency with errors and omissions, but its the last best chance of democratizing published information that may otherwise be lost forever to public, while hoarded for the privileged few. The ownership of content and intellectual property for the purposes of of commercial enterprise, patent and licensing does not entitle anyone to prohibit our recollection of our history through the archival preservation of media. The presence of the internet goes to great lengths to commoditize,privatize and exploit all sorts of content and data gathered from the entire perceivable universe then it makes no sense to limit that historical multimedia to the privileged few. Our collective past is Fair Use, and its essential to a free press. that our cultural media remains available and accessible in the future.
oh look my troll is here modding me down for facts (Score:1)
FU clown
Re: (Score:2)
Drinkypoo is correct, literary works cannot be in the "Public Domain [wikipedia.org]" and under "Copyright Protection [wikipedia.org]" at the same time; they are mutually exclusive states.
Re: (Score:2)
Correct.
Re: (Score:2)
The Internet Archive is essential to a free press because in spite of the fact that every single bit of media it catalogs was previously created and published somewhere in the public domain, and is protected by copyright
I'm a big fan of the internet archive, but that paragraph is self-contradictory. Material in the public domain is so called specifically because it does not have copyright protection.
Yeah, that needed a rewrite. I F'd the legalese and linguistic prowess required of the EFF, or coherence. The domain of the public's exposure to the media not to be confused with the Public Domain legal status defined by copyright law and its revisions, No wonder laws lead to court.
Re: (Score:3)
Agreed for 2 reasons:
1. "Those that forgot the past are condemned to repeat it." -- George Santayana
2. Copyright is holding culture hostage by hijacking "common sense" durations. If your digital product is no longer being sold then after ~10 years it should become public domain.
Currently, games for the 8-bit computers of the 1980's and16-bit games of the 1990's are STILL in copyright status even though those platforms have LONG been dead. /me glares at Nintendo.
It is rather ironic that software "pirates"
Re: (Score:1)
This is why I donate to them and Wikipedia. They're so valuable to me they can take my money. If I were stranded on an island with one website I would pick one of them. Facebook, Youtube, etc etc etc on the other hand, could die in a fire and I wouldn't give a wet shit.
I gladly pay for the former and ad-block the latter.
This is beautiful (Score:2)
I love the history of technology, the calm narration, the music...
Bits and Bytes on TVO from 1983 (Score:3, Interesting)
First thing that comes to mind is the 1983 TV Ontario show Bits and Bytes with Luba Goy and Billy Van - lots of the episodes are on YouTube now - covering the high tech computers of the day, including including the Apple ][, Commodore PET, VIC 20 and 64, Atari 800, TRS-80, TI 99 and the IBM PC. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XC_T5mvuguw and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bits_and_Bytes