[BC] Weirdo dials /was/ ABC Network in the wired days

[Jeffrey Kopp]

>[Mark Durenberger:] ...where the commercial begins with the subterranean 
>rumble of the RCA turntable clunking in, followed by the cue burn...

Smiley aside, this struck me as poetically poignant. Lest we forget, such 
creaky ambience was once as intrinsic to the experience of radio listening 
as [grasping for metaphor...] bug-splatter is to the thrill of motorcycling.

(At the first radio station I was allowed to "work" at, I was only 
half-jokingly cautioned not to inadvertently lean on the old transcription 
turntable, or "it might take your arm off.")

The ghostly echoing of a clumsy network-loop cutover was indeed comical, 
but also a reminder that a distant hand was reaching for a switch to keep 
us in touch with the rest of the world.

Familiar little human mistakes imparted a comforting reassurance that 
someone was alive, and serving us, down at the station.

In a similar vein, while we would never relinquish the astounding clarity 
of today's telephone system, something palpable was lost when one could no 
longer immediately distinguish a long-distance call by its distinctive sound.

I miss the gentle finality of the "kah-ping" I would hear upon 
disconnecting from the voices of faraway loved ones, moments made more 
precious by having plunked two dozen hoarded quarters into the phone. In 
contrast, while my cell phone's LD service is free--making thousand-mile 
calls as casually accessible as turning on the TV--its bleating 
"beenp-beenp-beenp" end-signal is nearly a taunt.