This is an interesting numerological date. 10-10-10. This hasn’t happened in a hundred years. So what was the news like one hundred years ago? One quick trip to the Albany Public Library and its microfilmed collection of Times Union newspapers, and I have the answer. It’s October 10, 1910. And here are some of the…
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Dickie Goodman – the music pioneer you never heard of
Once upon a time, back in the 1950’s, two struggling New York City songwriters, Bill Buchanan and Richard “Dickie” Goodman, came up with a musical concept that, at the time, was controversial and litigious – yet today, is as much a part of popular music as an auto-tune machine. Today we call the concept “Sampling,”…
Read MoreThe Housing Lottery
It’s one of the most stressful times in college. You’re finishing your freshman year, and in addition to all your finals and study periods, you have to worry about where you’re going to live next semester. Welcome to the wonderful world of the college housing lottery. As a Hamilton College student, I was well aware…
Read MoreOn the days before…
Barry Bonds slugged three home runs, including his 62nd and 63rd home runs of the season, in San Francisco’s 9-4 victory over the Colorado Rockies. Those home runs were scored in Bonds’ 144th game of the year, eighteen games fewer than the number of games it took Roger Maris to reach 61 home runs in…
Read MoreTwelve Missing Seasons
It’s 2005, and the Albany Patroons are coming back to the Continental Basketball Association for the first time in twelve years. And I’m psyched. Psyched to the point where I wanted to get my hands on old Patroons memorabilia, and next thing I know I”m on eBay snapping up every piece of Pats gear I…
Read MoreThe Night I Made an Illegal Radio Broadcast
After 26 years, I think the statute of limitations has finally run out. So now it can be told. I made a pirate radio broadcast when I was in college. It’s December of 1984. It was my senior year at Hamilton College, and I did not want to go home for the holidays. I had…
Read MoreA Farewell Party for Harriet Gibbons High School / Street Academy of Albany
Forty years ago, on September 21, 1970, the Albany Times Union reported the beginning of a new alternative high school in the district, a partnership between the nuns of the Kenwood Academy of the Sacred Heart and the staff of the Albany chapter of the National Urban League. That school became the Street Academy of…
Read MoreThe Solid Gold Dancers take my mind off my troubles…
Back in ancient times, when people didn’t have dedicated cable channels that showed all-sports or all-music videos or all-Law & Order, there was a syndicated television variety series called Solid Gold. Solid Gold would bring the top performers of the day on stage to lip-sync their hits. The hosts would read off cue cards and…
Read MoreAn Audio Trip Through My Radio Past
Somehow, and I still don’t know how, several personal cassette tapes have survived in an old cardboard box for over 20 years. The sound quality is poor, and I don’t remember if I recorded them just to hear how I sounded back in the day, or if I thought by putting them together I could…
Read MoreThe movie theater no one will ever restore
We lost a lot of theaters in the Capital District over the past few decades. Several theaters were knocked down to make the Empire State Plaza. Several drive-ins were repurposed for the expansion of urban sprawl. The few regional theaters in the Capital District have been chopped up into multiplexes. There’s a building on Central…
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Chuck The Writer 
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