Travel Missive #4

I've been eating a lot of prefab food, another invention of engineers and it got me thinking about another traveling engineer. You know Duncan Hines as the brand name on that box of cake mix that even engineers can make cake from. I'm not saying Engineers make bad cooks, I'm just saying we get kind of caught up in the measuring...

Duncan Hines was a real man. And a long time ago, he was on the radio. He was born in 1880, in Bowling Green, Kentucky. He studied at Bowling Green Business University and accepted a job out west as a traveling salesman just before graduation.

Form his experiences eating on the road, in 1936 He published his first book “Adventures in Good Eating.” This came at a time when the automobile had found its way into the hearts and homes of most Americans. For the first time, Americans were taking road trips, after the car radio and before television.

In December 1948 Hines-Park Food Co. was formed. Hines took a hands-on approach in marketing these products. He went on the road again attending store openings, promotional events and often appeared on local radio programs. He was featured on the Mutual Radio Network on a daily basis, Stations like KEX did massive promotions, He even squeezed in an appearance on the Lum & Abner serial ... visiting their restaurant of course.

I however have been eating a lot of Subway after a bad experience at a Shoneys In Tennessee. I really wish his guide to good eating was still in print.

NOLA to Baton Rouge, Travel Missive #3

Last week I bought The Birth of Soul, Ray Charles box set. Atlantic Records actually put out the compilation in 1991 while the famed musician was still alive and recording. Cuts like Lonely Avenue make a great accompaniment to the amazing lightning storm we are having in Baton Rouge tonight. There is a flood warning and the locals, utterly galvanized by the real thing, roll on ignoring the EAS alerts interrupting their drive-time programs.

I turned off Ray for a bit to check out the AM side. Between New Orleans and Baton Rouge there is a 50 mile stretch of Route 10 west and there isn't much AM radio audible on it. But the lightning, that's audible. Extremely audible. Lightning doesn't only make light and sound. The discharges also produce radio waves called 'sferics. Airplanes actually have devices designed to detect lightning from these RF waves.

I actually found a website recently that instructs on best use of AM radio to listen to lightning: http://www.wvlightning.com/sferics.shtml It includes audio clips.

I quote in part here:

"Sferics can turn any AM radio into a simple lightning detection device. They are easily distinguished from normal static in that they are sudden loud, crackling noises, sounding a little like someone wringing a wad of plastic bubble wrap. They occur simultaneously with any lightning discharge. Especially at night, your AM radio can pick up waves from lightning hundreds of miles away. "

Anyway, I was hoping to catch a little KLSU out here but it seems to be off air or at low power. My hotel is 4 miles from the transmitter and the religious talker on 88.5 bleeds straight across their frequency. There are two local LP stations: 94.9 WTQT a gospel outlet and 96.9 WHYR another christian Contemporary station (possibly satcaster). ... they are inaudible as well.

Amazingly here, KLSU has posted a very detailed history of their stations beginning in the 1960s. http://www.klsu.fm/history.html

Biloxi to Baton Rouge, Travel Missive #2

1370 WCOA-AM was the first radio station in Pensacola, and the last I listened to as I blew town this morning. http://www.wcoapensacola.com/ It is a station many older residents still feel indebted to in this often storm-struck coast. In 1926 there was no national storm warning service. So when the staff of WCOA received telephone reports from the Southeast of a severe hurricane they urged citizens in low lying areas to evacuate. It was their first year on air, and for them a landmark in their history twice over. Today they are a typical local talker.

I got to Biloxi by lunch time but avoided eating in town. I was in a neighborhood near Gulfsport and there is nothing there really. Everything here is either brand new or a rubble heap. This was the center of the Katerina storm surge last year. Somehow Coast Radio Group (aka Dowdy) building survived despite their close proximity to the St. Louis Bay.

Notable stations that made me turn off the new Black KeysCD:
106.1 WMTI (Nostalgia)
1320 WRJW-AM (country oldies)
102.9 KMEZ (one of the REAL rythmic oldies outlets)
1420 WIGG-AM Americana
1600 KLEB-AM cajun

...and tonight I am going to listen to the Minister on WWOZ and nobody is gong to stop me

Pensacola, Travel Missive #1

Today I am in Pensacola Beach, I can see the Gulf of Mexico from my room and I feel much better after many days of traveling in the 100 degree+ heat. I feel somewhat sunbaked like a diet potato chip. Radio in Pensacola is pretty bad unfortunately. They have no college radio, no community stations, no high school stations... not even a couple hippies with an LP license. they got nada for radio... but a great view.So I broke out my little Belkin TuneCast I FM transmitter hooked into my laptop and am broadcasting to the clock radio in my room at what is supposedly an allowable wattage. Of course we have all learned recently many of these devices operate over the allowable limit some even at 100,000 times the legal limit. So it is also possible I am not the first pirate in Pensacola beach. But I'm playing 1Gb funk mix I made so I don't expect anyone to complain. Everybody likes the Apollo Commanders...

I got here after a three day drive between Pennsylvania and Texas. I did a similar drive in reverse last February. You can read about that the and radio here in the A.R.T. archive.
Route 81 south is a piece of work, it stretches from Harrisburg to Knoxville, where it dumps straight into 40 West which runs deep into the land of the Texians.

Route 81 South mirrors the much bumpier and hillier Blue Ridge parkway. For the smoother ride you sacrifice the best view any American highway has to offer. as it was 81 hit no major cities between Harrisburg and Knoxville, that's a stretch of about 500 miles. It passes through the minor cities of Winchester, Harrisonburg, Staunton, Roanoke, Radford, Marion and then hits Bristol before things get into Deliverance country. 50% of all radio stations in this stretch are christian or gospel, the other half are country. If you ever make this drive... bring a couple Mix CDs. 9I should note that I did drive right past the humble studios of WCRR-AM which pretty much has the town of "rural retreat" to themselves. http://www.radio-info.com/smf/index.php?topic=42996.msg292857

Here in Pensacola the most interesting radio stations are the local gospel outlets. WRNE-AM 980, WNVY-AM 1090 and WNZO-AM 1230. Last night I heard a real Jim Jones screamer-type preacher on WNVY. He was wild and honestly I could not understand a word he said until I felt compelled to purchase kool-aid. Fortunately I was still full from the king-size Ruben I had just eaten from Mcguires. http://www.mcguiresirishpub.com/

Back on Tour

I am going to be on the road for about ten days starting tomorrow, posting may become irregular. So instead of reading my regular Tuesday post, instead please listen to this spectacular podcast series on delta blues here:
http://www.purplebeech.com/blues/