JFK and AM Radio

In case you were fortunate enough to get completely away from the 24/7 news business, yesterday was the 50th anniversary of JFK's assassination.

I remember it.  I was in my orthodontist's office getting my teeth wired when I heard.  My other memory was that the Saturday morning cartoons (the only time cartoons were shown on the 3 channels available in West Hartford) were preempted by the funeral.  Three days of black and white coverage of the funeral.  Nobody seemed to be smiling.

But there was something else...

Then:  Unadulterated news, 

useful information, bad

jokes.  Made people feel

smarter.

Yesterday morning I turned on AM radio to hear the news and weather (I turn it off immediately after, so that I can enjoy my breakfast).  As part of the news broadcast, the station played a clip from that morning’s programming around the time of the shooting.  It was a home information show, accepting calls from listeners and finding solutions to such problems as when to trim roses and how to get stains out of rugs.  Not exciting, I know, but it brought back memories of when AM radio was about information and music, not the rants of idiots whose sole 

Now: Wants immigrants to go back 

to Mexico and drug users to go to 

jail.  Sends Mexican housekeeper to 

score his oxycontin.

object seems to be to inflame the passions of the ignorant.

I miss those days, the days when radio made you smarter, not stupider.