Dark Voices Radio, Episode 2, which was supposed to air on Thursday night, March 19, 2009, at 10:30 p.m. EDT, did broadcast, but some technical glitch kept the audio from playing.

Yes, that was 45 solid minutes of dead air for listeners.

What a fiasco! I heard every word, so I had no idea something was wrong other than that I kept seeing listeners coming online and then leaving after a little bit. I also got only a few callers on the line, but when I tried to hook them in, I heard nothing. I thought it was just a problem with the call-in line, not realizing that the problem was far worse. Grr.

Lord! but I do so dislike new technology. Life was easier in the old days. Yelling across the field to your neighbors was less complicated than trying to run an Internet talk radio show. Back in the old days, we didn't have computers. If I wanted to do a PowerPoint lecture, I made the slides on stone tablets and had a grad assistant hold them up for students to see. We didn't have all these fancy numbers, either: binaries worked just fine. Zeroes and ones. No one complained. And economics was easier to teach, too. These days, I have to include the Federal Reserve as an intermediate step in the lecture on how the nobility loots the kingdom.

What did I start this post about? Oh, yes: talk radio.

Here's the deal. Regular episodes are running every Thursday night at 10:30 p.m. EDT. By tomorrow, I will have figured out why I had dead air, and I will make sure it never happens again. To make up for the fiasco of Episode 2, I am going to air a Special Edition of Dark Voices Radio this Saturday night at 10:30 p.m. EDT.

To repeat: Dark Voices Radio, Special Edition, Saturday, March 21, 2009, at 10:30 p.m. Click on the graphic below to see the program page and sign up for a reminder.




The Dark Wraith will figure out how to do this Internet talk radio show properly.

Thursday, March 12, 2009, at 11:30 p.m. EDT, your host will deliver the first episode of Dark Voices Radio, a half-hour call-in talk show. The embedded BlogTalkRadio flash player above will go live when the show opens. (I think.)

Yes, this is the reason I've been so quiet lately.

If Dark Voices Radio garners a decent audience for Episode 1, I will try to find a more-or-less stable time slot and make it a weekly show with call-ins, guests, and regular features. Depending upon how busy the show gets, I might expand the run time from 30 minutes to 45 minutes or an hour.

Despite all the fussing and preparations I've done, rest assured that the maiden voyage of this new enterprise will be rough; however, I have put off setting the air date long enough. It's time to launch this ill-conceived rocket so everyone can applaud wildly as it crashes, craters, burns, and finally smolders long enough to send smoke signals to every aspiring media hound about what not to do when ambition outstrips talent.

Mark it on your calendars: Thursday, March 12, 2009, at 11:30 p.m. EDT. I will give the call-in number on the air. (And no, it won't be one of those toll-free numbers, unfortunately; it will be long distance to Staten Island.)

This post, by the way, will give readers a venue for commenting during the show. How strange is that? — an Internet radio talk show and live blogging about the Internet radio talk show.

Now, if only I could be sure there won't be any last-minute technical glitches that will force me to change the air date. I shall update this post should that happen.

Only time will tell if I can find one last decent excuse for postponing this endeavor.

We shall see.


The Dark Wraith feels the freight train of inevitable and disastrous consequences bearing down on his hare-brained scheme.