The Offline Report

Hipster vinyl store s are selling more cassette tapes, and Target stores now sell players. The Independent Bookseller Association said sales were up nine percent over last year  by one measurement. And paper ballots are back at the booth . These events pull a thread through four subjects to form a distinct arc of democratic history, and point to a question that can be met by the next innovation of bundled digital, mechanical and behavioral tech. The subjects: I) author Mark Kurlansky; II) Robert Short Jr. and WRDS 102.1FM; III) Tim Snyder's 'Variegated' lecture; and IV) the year 2006, begin to shape this untapped opportunity. I. Kurlansky's 'Technological Fallacy' Lewis Lapham asked author Mark Kurlansky on a podcast ( transcript and podcast link here ) why he began his latest book " Paper: Paging Through History " with a prologue to what he calls the " technological fallacy ": Kurlansky: That's because I kind of went through kind ...

Ronn Owens, a centrist non-extremist "voice of reason" talk show host, is no bore . He keeps a conversation lively, facilitates listener calls, is informed, opinionated and can improvise as events demand (especially when *current events DJ* Chris Hernandez queued the bumper music.) Owens was once the only host to regularly beat Rush Limbaugh in regional listener ratings. And Owens' show -- for years stretching three hours, five days per week -- is down to 10 minutes on weekdays. Gun violence still rages on. American regions need to talk. To each other. Why an older technology like terrestrial radio? Turnaround time: podcasts have to be scheduled, recorded and distributed for days to reach listeners.  Satellite radio requires a subscription, and  NPR affiliates only offer one or two stations on the dial in any area. Facebook offers space for conversation, but it's one corporation, is a data hoarder, and requires we divert our eyes to a screen.  People are wou...

I. Radio We're reviewing some history, The Master's Voice : The Munich crisis was a milestone in radio history. Starting with the Austrian Anschluss in March of the same year, this was the first world diplomatic crisis to be played out at every step on the airwaves. Radio had reached maturity: in Europe and North America nearly every household owned or had access to a radio set ... When the printing press gained wider adoption people reacted. By radio's arrival their eyes were immune to the newspaper hype, even breaking news "extra!"s in the morning, noon and evening editions. Then a new medium hit their ears: It was during the crisis that the American radio networks more or less invented a format that we now take for granted in news broadcasting: the daily news round-up with live reports from around the world including breaking news as it happens , ... Push alerts circa 1930s "we interrupt this broadcast..." must have been exciting back then,...