"Who are YOU supposed to be, anyway?"

(being a brief diversion on the subject of me...Eric Wilson...this guy who's typing at you...)

Okay, this is just the stuff you need to know. :)

I was born well after the "golden age" of radio on August 17, 1971 in High Point, NC. Like most of my generation, was raised with (and sometimes by) a TV in the house.

Well, something like that just had to stop eventually, and a building block came when I stumbled across a stack of LP records at my local library. The first ones I checked out were Mark 56 records (Jack Benny 1933, and a Fibber and Molly Christmas show). Well, I got bitten and was hooked.

Pretty soon, I discovered a lot of things, like how the shows were being rebroadcasted. I was a regular listener to the syndicated "Golden Age of Radio Theater" until it was dumped by our locals, and then if I strained my ears I could check out WCAU 1210 out of Philadelphia and their Radio Classics show hosted by Gary Hodgson ("kick your feet up on the davenport and snap on the old Atwater-Kent..."). Being one of the oldest operating radio stations in the nation gave it a nice touch of continuity with the past. Unfortunately, the whole STATION got dumped a few years ago...sort of. The news-talk format (and even the old call letters) were tossed out in favor of a simulcast of an oldies FM station owned by the same company. The last time I checked, they were back to talk, but not the kind I ever cared for.

My other interests include music (especially Beatles and swing), comedy (stand-up and otherwise), and Mystery Science Theater 3000. If you couldn't tell, this is my first attempt at a web page.

And YES, I do need to get out more.

"But why a RADIO PAGE? Why not paintball or snooker?"

Well, call me insane, but if you haven't caught on yet, I believe American radio can be much more than news, music, and inane stunts to sucker a disinterested listenership into paying attention. There is a certain type of verbal humor that just looks wrong on television but "looks" right on radio. The chills from radio come from inside the listener's head, which makes them chillier.

On top of that, American dramatic radio was sent up the river. Check out the figures...the audience for that type of radio was there when that type of radio was there for the listeners. The networks smelled money in TV and deliberately shifted all their money there.

Public radio is probably the last outpost for new productions, but unless you live in a huge urban area (like I don't), good luck finding it. When I find a radio show actually being broadcast, it is usually sitting in isolation on the schedule. Whoever runs these stations (around here, anyway) doesn't seem to want to build a schedule of comedy or drama; they just drop a half-hour boat in the middle of a sea of (here it comes, folks) music and news. Of course, it's really good quality music and news, but still...

Let me put it this way...imagine trying to build an audience on TV for even a great show like The Honeymooners when the only station that picks it up runs it in the middle of a six hour block of infomercials. Do you think anybody's going to expect to find a comedy in the middle of wall-to-wall ads? I don't think so. They're going to look in a more obvious place, like right after other comedies. Wouldn't it make sense to put all the radio dramas and comedies together? That's what I like about Yesterday USA; old-time radio is there for you 24 hours a day.

Anyway, if you'd like a word with me, you can find me on any given night on the StarLink-IRC #OldRadio channel. More info is on Lou Genco's OTR Page. Come by and check us out sometime.

EVEN NEWER THAN NEW...(3-15-04)

• Jello again, this is your absentee webmaster talking, and SAY DON, it's been way too long.  In case you were wondering, I've once again found my way out of the land of the lost yet again,  and if you haven't checked in lately, I don't blame you.   I'm going to do a bit of rearranging, actually make magic happen;  hopefully, the new index page layout and the new article is just the beginning before I fall off the edge of the earth again. 
  
• While the page was asleep, Geocities merged with Yahoo!, and upped the space allowance signifigantly.  One of the consequences of the changeover is that the guestbook has been broken for awhile, but another is that in addition to the old-style "neighborhood" address, you can now reach Wistful Vista through the easy-to-remember address of http://geocities.datacellar.net/buckbenny. 
  
• I have taken the liberty of deleting my contact e-mail from all the pages that had it except this one, since apparently some fairly scummy people have been mining webpages for addresses and, as a result, rendered all of the accounts I use for mail useless from the flood of unwanted solicitations. Therefore, I have to make it harder for everybody to get in touch with me to make it harder for them to get in touch. Here's the address for people who want to do something besides sell me things; assemble this as you see fit in your favorite mail client:
• enwilson
• (at)mail
• (dot)com
• Okay, mabe I'm a bit overly paranoid, but I'd rather err on the side of caution than on the side of "make money fast".

WHAT WAS NEW BEFORE THEN (9-12-99)

• Man, is my face red...it's been over half a year since I did anything here, and over nine months since I promised the 1928 schedules would be done "in a week". Unfortunately for me, I got eaten alive by my job for awhile, but hopefully a return to sanity is in the cards soon. I am still among the workers of the world, so check back from time to time.
• A non-site-related note: get yourself a shortwave radio. Ed Boulton's excellent recreations of the serialized version of "Amos 'n' Andy" air six nights a week on WBCQ 7415KHz at 12 midnight ET (I believe that's 0400 UTC). WBCQ also does a lot of brokered time programming, which means if you have a great idea (like Ed's) you'd like to try, you can buy some time and try it.
• Gee, now that I think about it, I have an idea for a show. I wonder how much they're asking.
• That's about it...happy motoring!

Take me back, Clarence!!!

(...to the main page of Wistful Vista, that is.)

This page (and all of the others in this corner of the GeoCities homestead) was authored by Eric Wilson with a great big mess of help from Mozilla Composer. If you can read this line from 10 feet, you have better eyesight than I do.