http://blog.tomanthony.com My Adventures with the Internet Tue, 17 Jan 2012 17:38:48 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Copyright © Tom Anthony Personal Blog 2010 tom@tomanthony.com (Tom Anthony Personal Blog) tom@tomanthony.com (Tom Anthony Personal Blog) 1440 http://blog.tomanthony.com/images/tom_trans144.png http://blog.tomanthony.com 144 144 My adventures with the Internet Tom Anthony Personal Blog Tom Anthony Personal Blog tom@tomanthony.com no no http://blog.tomanthony.com/2011/10/big-brother/ http://blog.tomanthony.com/2011/10/big-brother/#comments Thu, 13 Oct 2011 15:42:38 +0000 Tom Anthony http://blog.tomanthony.com/?p=327 http://blog.tomanthony.com/2011/10/big-brother/feed/ 0 http://blog.tomanthony.com/2011/03/talking-to-millions/ http://blog.tomanthony.com/2011/03/talking-to-millions/#comments Tue, 08 Mar 2011 16:35:22 +0000 Tom Anthony http://blog.tomanthony.com/?p=291 http://blog.tomanthony.com/2011/03/talking-to-millions/feed/ 0 0:02:45 I had the chance to talk to 3.75 million people last night. Really. My long time client and friend Joe Cipriano is the announcer on Wheel of Fortune this week as part of a working audition to get the permanent position. He was a guest on the Jim Boh[...] I had the chance to talk to 3.75 million people last night. Really. My long time client and friend Joe Cipriano is the announcer on Wheel of Fortune this week as part of a working audition to get the permanent position. He was a guest on the Jim Bohannon Show on the Westwood One Radio Network, and that show has an estimated audience of 3.75 million. I assure you that’s not what I was thinking when I called in and was put on the air. Jim Bohannon and Joe Cipriano I was nervous. The funny thing is that my background is broadcasting – I have been an announcer, newscaster, talk show host and producer among other jobs – and spent most of my youth on the air. I have talked many, many times to Joe over the years, so it was not a case of being star struck. Back in the late 80’s when I was doing radio production in Central Florida (WQPD – WLKF, Lakeland, FL) I had the occasion to talk to Jim Bohannon while he was doing some custom promos for the station. And even though Jim has been a radio talk icon for over 30 years (he replaced Larry King on the radio) I felt comfortable speaking with him. So it was a little odd that I was nervous – I guess I did not want to sound like that caller from Alabama last night. (Nothing against Alabama – he just asked a silly question) I had listened to the first several callers focus on themselves instead of Joe and I wanted to bring the attention back on him so I told a true story about how Joe goes out of his way to mentor aspiring voice over artists. Hopefully it went all right. Here is the clip. The interview was scheduled to last an hour but Bohannon held him over for a full second hour! In between hours Jim interviewed Joe for a segment of his other show – America in the morning. You can get there from here: click to go to America in the Morning website or I downloaded the clip – without permission, sorry Westwood One – and re-posted here: Click to listen Please watch Wheel of Fortune this week and let them know if you like Joe here: http://www.wheeloffortune.com/feedback/ Share/Bookmark Media, Personal tom@tomanthony.com no no http://blog.tomanthony.com/2010/08/google-places/ http://blog.tomanthony.com/2010/08/google-places/#comments Tue, 10 Aug 2010 18:07:30 +0000 Tom Anthony http://blog.tomanthony.com/?p=212 http://blog.tomanthony.com/2010/08/google-places/feed/ 0 http://blog.tomanthony.com/2010/07/in-good-company/ http://blog.tomanthony.com/2010/07/in-good-company/#comments Mon, 19 Jul 2010 19:09:29 +0000 Tom Anthony http://blog.tomanthony.com/?p=16 http://blog.tomanthony.com/2010/07/in-good-company/feed/ 0 http://blog.tomanthony.com/2010/07/local-insertion-advertising/ http://blog.tomanthony.com/2010/07/local-insertion-advertising/#comments Mon, 12 Jul 2010 18:19:01 +0000 Tom Anthony http://blog.tomanthony.com/?p=220 http://blog.tomanthony.com/2010/07/local-insertion-advertising/feed/ 0 http://blog.tomanthony.com/2010/06/don-lafontaine/ http://blog.tomanthony.com/2010/06/don-lafontaine/#comments Mon, 14 Jun 2010 18:31:26 +0000 Tom Anthony http://blog.tomanthony.com/?p=231 http://blog.tomanthony.com/2010/06/don-lafontaine/feed/ 0 http://blog.tomanthony.com/2009/07/beam-me-up-scotty/ http://blog.tomanthony.com/2009/07/beam-me-up-scotty/#comments Thu, 23 Jul 2009 02:57:00 +0000 Tom Anthony http://blog.tomanthony.com/?p=175 http://blog.tomanthony.com/2009/07/beam-me-up-scotty/feed/ 0 0:17:52 In October 1994, the Star Trek Association of Towson, a fan club in Towson, Maryland, sponsored “The Big E Con,” a convention held aboard the carrier Enterprise while the ship was at its home port of Norfolk, Virginia. The events feature[...] In October 1994, the Star Trek Association of Towson, a fan club in Towson, Maryland, sponsored “The Big E Con,” a convention held aboard the carrier Enterprise while the ship was at its home port of Norfolk, Virginia. The events featured tours of the ship and appearances by Star Trek notables including James Doohan, or “Scotty” on the original series. At the time I was the production Director for WFOG radio. The week preceding the convention as part of the pre-promotion I had the opportunity to interview Mr. Doohan by phone at his home in Redmond Washington. I tried to keep the interview interesting by focusing on Jimmy Doohan, and not just the Character he played on Star Trek – but you be the judge. Here it is, almost 18:00 unedited and real life. There is a point where he corrects my pronunciation of his last name – his son called to ask for money during the interview, this was the real deal. The following week I toured the real USS Enterprise with some of the convention celebs. By some weird stroke of luck I remembered where I stashed some pictures I took during that tour. In this picture I am standing with Actress Terry Farrell from Deep Space Nine, Michael O’Hare the original Commander of Babylon 5, Herman F. Zimmerman the Chief Production Designer for Star Trek Next Generation and DS9, and another actress who’s name totally escapes me. But I think I did pretty good remembering Farrell, O’Hare, and Zimmerman after 15 years! Share/Bookmark Media, Personal tom@tomanthony.com no no http://blog.tomanthony.com/2009/07/billy-jean-on-wqpd/ http://blog.tomanthony.com/2009/07/billy-jean-on-wqpd/#comments Sat, 04 Jul 2009 17:01:20 +0000 Tom Anthony http://blog.tomanthony.com/?p=145 http://blog.tomanthony.com/2009/07/billy-jean-on-wqpd/feed/ 0 0:45:06 For many years I have had a box of old cassette tapes in my closet – or attic – or wherever was out of the way at the time… I finally went out and found a cassette deck at the thrift shop the other day and began transcribing them to digital.   Mainl[...] For many years I have had a box of old cassette tapes in my closet – or attic – or wherever was out of the way at the time… I finally went out and found a cassette deck at the thrift shop the other day and began transcribing them to digital.   Mainly because at some point the cassettes actually lose the information stored on them.  Audio cassettes, VHS tapes, 8 tracks – there is a reason they are not around anymore. Each uses the same technology originally known as “Magnetophon” and invented by the Germans during the 1930′s. (more info)  The information is stored by passing a generated magnetic field to a ribbon of plastic tape impregnated with some form of ferrous material.  The little do-dad that generates the magnetic field is called a record head. The tape becomes magnetized in a certain pattern.   Then when passed in front of a similar do-dad called a playback head the magnetic field is transformed back once again into an audio signal.   In my mind this was a kind of magic– especially for the time. Well the problem is that the magnetic tape is wound into a spool inside the cassette. Eventually the magnetism passes from where it is stored on the tape to the section it is wrapped around. At some point the magnetic field reaches a sort of equilibrium and the original sound or picture is not retrievable.  So the dozens of recordings I had stored away will actually fade away. Not Ed Scales I started running the tapes through my studio to get them in MP3 format and found some interesting stuff. Mostly old air checks of me in the early 80′s on the radio in Lakeland Florida. Routinely each radio announcer would record their show on a cassette deck that was wired to record only when the microphone was turned on.  In the jargon of the business it was sometimes called a “telescope” as it condensed an entire workday into a 30 or 40 minute recording. You can hear the song starting and then the tape jumps to the end of the song when the announcer next turns on the mike. The program director would then review your“telescope” to give you constructive critique – or in my case to tell me to stop talking so much. The one below is pretty long – 45 minutes! It was a show I did on WQPD on a Monday night somewhere in March or April of 1983. I had to figure that out by some clues on the tape. A really talented high school kid named Ed Scales was my guest and we did several improvised “bits”.  Basically I got on the control room studio phone a pretended to talk to a character that Ed performed from the adjoining studio.  We did this live and without rehearsal. In fact in the one where I “interview” Maurice Gibb I had no idea what Ed was going to do. He came on the phone in a falsetto voice that totally cracked me up. Since Ed was in school I knew the recording was made before June. One of the last comments I make on the recording introduces the number one hit song of the day, Billy Jean by Michael Jackson. That was not released until February of 1983 – thus this recording had to be made in March or April. The last eight minutes of the recording is the air check of the next announcer, Woody Boyer. Share/Bookmark Media, Personal tom@tomanthony.com no no http://blog.tomanthony.com/2008/03/google-video-in-local-business-center/ http://blog.tomanthony.com/2008/03/google-video-in-local-business-center/#comments Thu, 20 Mar 2008 21:18:40 +0000 Tom Anthony http://blog.tomanthony.com/?p=48 http://blog.tomanthony.com/2008/03/google-video-in-local-business-center/feed/ 0 http://blog.tomanthony.com/2008/03/podcast-review-the-seo-programmers-podcast-as-posted-in-itunes/ http://blog.tomanthony.com/2008/03/podcast-review-the-seo-programmers-podcast-as-posted-in-itunes/#comments Tue, 18 Mar 2008 02:52:34 +0000 Tom Anthony http://blog.tomanthony.com/?p=46 http://blog.tomanthony.com/2008/03/podcast-review-the-seo-programmers-podcast-as-posted-in-itunes/feed/ 0