Saturday, January 14, 2006

Amplitude Modulation

The notion of "home entertainment" started me chuckling just now. How, exactly, does one entertain a home? Right here one this very blog I have waxed nostalgic for those days when I would sit at night at our cabin beneath the glow of a pair of Coleman lamps reading all manner of paperback books, playing cards and a great many board games. We stayed entertained with the aid of an AM radio.
In those days the FM dial was below the AM on some radios, there was a lot of dead air down there - between announcers with baritone voices playing music that was incomprehensibly cool - or just incomprehensible. We stuck to the AM - especially KOA, the booming signal that was the voice of the Rockies (not the team, but the mountain range). It was on this station we heard "Radio Mystery Theater." Nightly we were treated to all kinds of different horror, science fiction, and suspense - just like old time radio. At the end of each episode, host E.G. Marshall would intone over the sound of a creaking door: "Until next time - pleasant dreams?" Creepy, creepy creepy.
But entertaining. Our other key diversion that centered around the AM radio was the KHOW kickoff to the weekend with "Hot Dog" Harold Moore. It was a countdown to five o'clock on Friday afternoon that always ended up with Colorado's state song, "If I Had A Wagon."
"If I had a wagon, I would go to Colorado
Go to Colorado
Go to Colorado
Where a man can walk a mile high"
Each verse of this song suggests a different mode of transportation - we all eagerly anticipated the "rocket ship" verse, where you "land in Colorado, land in Colorado." Oh, the magic of AM radio. So here I sit, in front of my personal computer with downloaded music streaming forth and my son plays video games on one of two platforms we have in the house while we anticipate the cable television appearance of the Denver Broncos' playoff game. They'll be playing at Invesco Field - at Mile High.

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