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…
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A 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…
Read MoreRecovering the Trophy – and Restoring it
Tuesday morning, July 27. I received a phone call from Anthony Clement, the principal of Harriet Gibbons High School. As those who follow this blog know all too well, Harriet Gibbons HS was the former Street Academy of Albany, my old high school. It’s also the former alternative high school that was shut down earlier…
Read MoreMore on the “Little Red Schoolhouse” / “Answers Please” project
Got a decent response to my Friday blog post about the history of WRGB’s “Little Red Schoolhouse” / “Answers Please” high school quiz show. Over the past few days, I’ve put in plenty of dates and information from various sources – indicating, wherever possible, dates and times the show aired, opponents, who won, who retired…
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Remembering WRGB’s “Little Red Schoolhouse” and “Answers Please”
From 1963 to 1989, the Capital District’s top students looked forward to their day in the sun – a chance to compete on WRGB’s 1960’s televised quiz show “Little Red Schoolhouse,” which was later rebranded “Answers Please” in the 1970’s and 1980’s. In its nearly 30 years of existence, the show’s format remained relatively the…
Read MoreBillboard magazine, Christmas 1982
NOTE: This is a post I wrote from my old blogspot blog. But hey, I feel like sharing today. Bear with me on this one. I had a great time last night at the Times Union “Meet The Bloggers” event at the Albany Pump Station. TU bloggers Kevin Marshall and J. Eric Smith did a…
Read MoreRemembering Ralph Vartigian and the “Good Ship News”
It’s the early 1970’s, and we’re in the era of B.C. (Before Cable). Since there weren’t any “morning news” shows in 1972, our entertainment for the morning – before catching the school bus – was an assortment of Popeye the Sailor and Three Stooges cartoons, maybe even some single episodes of Rocky and Bullwinkle. But…
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