News and Reviews 2014

We are now entering year 10. In April of next year I will have been blogging Arcane Radio Trivia for a decade. As of this date, that works out to more than  2,400 posts. It's a time killer. My bookshelves are full and don't ask about the closets. I have noticed over the last year that I am being used as a source by increasingly legitimate media outlets. I was cited as a source in two different books which I take as a high compliment.  Perhaps I have at least reached "par" having outlived many of the fair-weather bloggers which helped build Web 2.0. Anyway, it's the end of the year and a fine time to take a look back. (You can see previous years lists at the links below)

2013	2012	2011
2010	2009	2008
2007	2006	2005

Best Posts:
I did listen to the results of last year's survey and made an effort to write about radio abroad. I wrote up the work of Leonardo Torres-Quevedo's in Spain, Dr. Della Riccia, of Belgium, Roberto Landell de Moura of Brazil, Humphrey Lyttelton on the BBC, Stuart Maconie on the BBC, North and South Korean radio Propaganda, Joe Strummer on the BBC, the work of Shintaro Uda and Hidetsugu Yagi on antenna design in Japan, Radio Tikrit in Iraq, Radio Freedom in South Africa and I've got more coming.

I also wrote up the laxative that became a rectifier,  some exciting math history, the KKK Pleasure club, the radio career of  Gibby Hayes (I still want audio), Wayland Villiers sex-focused radio lectures, assembled a Black Radio Timeline,created a list of deceased DJs who remain in reruns, Family planning broadcasts of the 1930s, A list of pedophiles in broadcasting, and a 90-year-old typo.

Most Popular Posts:
My most popular post since 2009 has been a post about Peter Tripp. Thank you Reddit. It was re-blogged by many others and remains an aberration in my web-traffic with 90k+ hits.  My 2007 post on the Career Academy of Famous Broadcasters continues to earn comments from it's legion of former students. In third place  a 2010 post on Barn Dance programs remains popular.  It's also notable that readers continue to debate if I was unfairly harsh to Kevin Metheny. But that post remains quote popular.

Best Music Blogs:
Many of my favorite music blogs have fallen by the wayside, but I still find an inordinate proportion of my music via Bandcamp.


Best Radio Show: 
Is it unfair to pick the Freakanomics Radio Podcast? It airs on 93.9 WNYC-FM, 820 WNYC-AM and the last bits of the New Jersey Public Radio Network now owned by New York Public Radio: 88.1 WNJT, 88.5 WNJP, 89.3 WNJY  and  90.3 WNJO. Sadly the rest of the NPR zombies across the land have not picked up the program so it's coverage is largely supplemented by their free podcast. Thankfully Radiomen are a tech-savvy bunch.

Best Zine: 
Am I allowed to pick The L magazine?  It's more of a weekly, but it's pretty damn fine. I find more good books and over-looked bands in this little weekly rag than I did anywhere else this year.  Yes, they are hipsters, but let them wax their fabulous mustaches and read on; while feeling morally superior.  Link.

Top 10 Records of 2014    

1. Shellac - Dude Incredible
2. Unwound - No Energy
3. Ladder Devils - Clean Hands
4. The Austerity Program - Beyond Calculation
5. The Fibs - Hex Hex Hex
6. Noxagt - Brutage
7. Melvins - Hold It In
8. Protomartyr - Under Color of Official Right
9. Godflesh - A World Lit Only By Fire
10. Dope Body - Lifer

Honorable Mentions go out this year to killer bands like: Gay Witch Abortion - Butchers Waltz, Aphex Twin - Syro, Parquet Courts - Sunbathing Animal, Eyehategod - Self-Titled, Ex Hex - Rips - Girlband - All three EPs, Bulbul - Hirn Fein Hacken, Old Man Gloom - Ought, More Than Any Other Day, Multicult - Variable Impulse