Shortcake, Shortwave, Short Night

Tim, Ian and Ralph witnessed the end of an era of great shortwave

broadcasts from Ecuador. September 30 was the official final day,

but some broadcasts will continue through mid November.

Ken writes, "Just stepping on the property one knew that it was a special place."

Others declared that it was holy ground.

Whatever a person's viewpoint, these 130 acres of rolling green fields with a spectacular view of the perfect snow-covered volcanic cone of Mount Cotopaxi to the south were a single point from which shortwave radio programs could be beamed to the four corners of the earth."

Read "From Ecuador to the World," about the decades of shortwave service from Pifo, Ecuador. Ken's reflective writing on the Pifo transmitter site is found here. (In Spanish here, and in German here.)

Ralph writes, "Why strawberry shortcake?" you say.

A bittersweet experience maybe? (Naturally tart, strawberries -- like news you don´t want -- must be appropriately sugared.)

But the reality is that shortcake just happened, or as we say in Spanish, por casualidad. Tim wrote, "Just found strawberries -- will have short cake."

It was a cellphone text message. Appropriately enough, I suppose. We adapt to new technologies . . . rapidly or with less enthusiasm as we hit the learning curve. This little getaway on Pifo closing night, September 30, was planned entirely by text messaging:
SUNDAY SEPT 27
"When can I come and talk about Wedsday?"

"Come by right now."

ONE DAY LATER:

"Ian McF to pifo w us. When back?"

EVENING OF SEPT 30:

"Please pick me up at the compound whenver ur ready."

"Could take me an hour to unplug."

"Ok no hurry."

"Tell him 9745 to Mexico is on."

When Tim wrote about the strawberries, I wrote back "nice".








After the official closing date of Pifo (Sept 30) several languages continue, with the final, final end of transmissions there in mid November. Details are found here.

You Done Broke My Heart . . . Uh Guitar

Guitars and communications – a couple of my favorite topics.

While I've held Taylor guitars in high regard I've only ever held one Taylor in my hands. And until today, I'd never heard of Dave Carroll.

After today, I hold both Taylors AND Carroll in high regard.

A songwriter, he tried for a year to get an airline to cough up for his Taylor guitar damaged on a Chicago-Nebraska flight.

After penning a country song “United Breaks Guitars”, the troubador and his bandmates hammed up a corny video*, already viewed nearly two and a half million times on Youtube.

Carroll also used his own website and Twitter effectively, as demonstrated by an Aussie, Lance Scoular.

In his staid deliver, Scoular chronicles the phenomena (I hestitate to call it a formula. Carroll did some things very right, but wannabes could now do - and and likely WILL do- the very same and get just 15 views.) Congrats go to Dave (a David of sorts), who brought the giant to heel, with faith in new media capabilities and letting go with a couple of stones.

The little guy can be heard against a giant, whether its United or the manufacturer of malfunctioning voting machines (another episode of new media, viral story travel and crowdsourced journalistic work).

But it is still not a replacement for newsrooms and professional journalists. There is too much injustice for that.

*a little warning that the Lord's name is used in vain early in the song.

Everybody at the Gate

Everybody, it seems, wants to be a gatekeeper of the information flow in our modern world of communications.

Gatekeepers. The term has been long used to describe those who determine what we read, hear and view in the media.

In Venezuela a small earthquake injured no one, but ignited a war of words between President Hugo Chavez and Globovision. Whose story was it? Charge and countercharge were flung, becoming aftershocks that eclipsed the quake itself.

Enemies at the gate: Globovision and a Latin American head of state vying for control.

Meanwhile, Irish student Shane Fitzgerald pushed on the info gate only to watch it swing wide open. His fabricated news content clocked the speed that info travels and revealed fact-checking failures in the news industry. With news of the death of French composer Maurice Jarre, Fitzgerald crafted a Jarre quote and submitted it to the online, crowd-sourced Wikipedia.

Wikipedia editors wisely removed the quote, as it lacked attribution. When Fitzgerald placed it a few more times, the hoax quote was picked up and used by mainstream media outlets around the world.

Everyman (and everywoman) at the gate.

And the traditional gatekeepers – the mainstream media? Asleep at the gate. A seemingly innocuous incident, but packing a powerful punch: image stands taller than the reality.

Another weakness of the mainstream media – its disconnect with its audiences – is chronicled in Frank Rich’s recent editorial. Rich also defends however, the traditional media as any society’s best champion against tyranny. Then he delivers a sobering reality: we get the information we’re willing to pay for.

It is far easier to mail “the sky is falling” messages in e-mail or spread them virally in newer ways. (These can and should be verified before forwarding by checking snopes.com or other reputable sites.)

The sky falling and the sky's the limit. Gatekeepers galore and infinite information. And all free! (And so much is worth exactly that.)

When critical content is needed, we need to know what price we'll pay to know what is true.