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The Ongoing History of New Music, episode 887: 100 years of radio, part 2

You have to admire the cockroach. Gross buggers, yes, but they have been able to survive on this planet for 280 million years. This is a creature that can live for an entire week without its head. Impressive.

But that’s nothing compare to a microscopic animal called a tartigrade. Even though they’re just half a millimetre long, they’re almost impossible to kill. If you try, a tartigrade will say “Hold my beer.”

Scientists have exposed them to the vacuum of space at -271 C, which is absolute zero. Nothing. They’ve been boiled in alcohol. Still nothing. They’ve been subjected to pressures six times that of the bottom of the ocean. They even seem to be impervious to all sorts of radiation exposure. No wonder they’re the only organism to survive the five great extinctions the Earth has seen.

Why am I going on about cockroaches in tartigrades? Because we’re about to get into more of the history of the long-living electronic media there is. Many attempts have been made to kill it, but it’s still here.

This is 100 years of radio, part 2.

Songs heard on this show:

  • Velvet Underground, Rock and Roll
  • Talking Heads, Radio Head
  • Jonathan Richman, Roadrunner
  • Wall of Voodoo, Mexican Radio
  • Michael Carpenter, FM (No Static at All)
  • Queens the Stone Age, God is in the Radio
  • Steve Earle, Satellite Radio
  • The Selector, On My Radio

Eric Wilhite made this playlist so you can listen along.

The Ongoing History of New Music can be heard on the following stations:

We’re still looking for more affiliates in Calgary, Kamloops, Kelowna, Regina, Saskatoon, Brandon, Windsor,  Montreal, Halifax, Charlottetown, Moncton, Fredericton, and St John’s and anywhere else with a transmitter. If you’re in any of those markets and you want the show, lemme know and I’ll see what I can do.

If you ever miss a show, you can always get the podcast edition available through Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your on-demand audio.

Alan Cross

is an internationally known broadcaster, interviewer, writer, consultant, blogger and speaker. In his 40+ years in the music business, Alan has interviewed the biggest names in rock, from David Bowie and U2 to Pearl Jam and the Foo Fighters. He’s also known as a musicologist and documentarian through programs like The Ongoing History of New Music.

Alan Cross has 37842 posts and counting. See all posts by Alan Cross

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