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Raw Bytes Computer News KPBX FM 91.1 Radio National Public Radio Network Frank Delaney Producer Broadcast on Wednesday Morning 7:35 AM During Morning Edition Support Public Radio ! The Theater Of the Mind |
In computer news this week 04/04/2007 How Raw Bytes got its name ... |
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I realized a couple weeks ago that
I’ve been doing Raw Bytes for over 20 years now. The 2nd most common question I get
asked by KPBX listeners is “How did Raw Bytes get its name” ? Around 1986 when I was a KPBX employee
I recall, we hired a News Director from California,
who had worked at a big NPR station near San Diego. His name was Ed Bremer,
and we hit it off and became friends. I went to high school a couple
years in Southern California and graduated there, and I understood that the
main recreation areas there were Disneyland, Universal studios, and the
beach. I had a cousin from Huntington Beach come visit me a couple years ago
who told me his kids had never seen a waterfall that wasn’t powered by an electric
motor. I can remember telling Ed
Bremer– who admitted to being a typical Californian – whatever
that means – that what I liked about the Northwest was that there were
so many natural recreation areas close by that you can drive to and be
outside and do a variety of activities. I told Ed how I have camped in Washington
and Idaho, and fished in rivers and lakes, panned for gold near Orofino,
worked an old gold mine claim on Mineral mountain up near Colville, and taken
my scout troop back in the 70’s on the trail of Colonel George Wright
and his expedition down around Hangman creek. I noticed his eyes were kind of
glazing over as I told him this, and after a period of contemplation he
replied that his idea of “roughing it” was staying in a Motel 6
with a 6 pack of generic beer watching black and white tv .... One day Ed asked me if I could do
a news story on PC viruses, which had just been featured in a cover story in
Time magazine. I did a couple
stories on that – the first PC world viruses brought to America - by
tourists who had bought illegal copies of software in Europe, and then made
copies of the disks for their friends, and unknowingly spread viruses by hand
from pc to pc. After that series Ed asked to have
a meeting with me, and the first thing he said was that he thought we should
do a weekly computer show because he thought “ these
pc’s might be around for awhile ....” By that time I had already
computerized the station’s accounting – which had
been done by an outside accounting form; written the membership program
– which had been done on a remote computer terminal at Whitworth
college, and created financial
spreadsheets and budgets, which had been done by hand. And all of these
applications I did on ms/dos and cp/m computers. I had also been marketing director
of one of Spokane’s first personal computer companies, and then had
worked for Univac – the mainframe computer company. So I had seen from my own experiences
that mainframes were a dead world, and the future was the PC world. So I said to him, “Ed, I
think you’re on to something here ..” . The second thing he said was that
he had always been a big fan of PHC, and that he loved their fictitious Raw
Bits cereal, and he thought we should name our show “Raw Bytes”,
which we did. And that’s how Raw Bytes got
its name, and I’ve been doing it ever since.. My
Mother also named her dog Bytes and he was an official contributing member of
KPBX too. For Raw Bytes This is Frank Delaney (C) 2007 MTA Micro
Technology Associates http://www.mtamicro.com/kpbx.html PO Box 31522 Spokane, Wa 99223-1522 (509)624-7230 |
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