Connections to the Past: Some Music You Don't Hear Now on the Radio from 1983 and 1984

There are studies* that suggest that music we listen to in our teens sticks with us forever. If that's the case, for me my critical years were 1983 and 1984, where I moved away from New Wave music and firmly planted myself on the Rock side of things. 

I spent the past couple of days listening to music from that time period, some of the stuff you never hear much today that got plenty of radio airplay back then and had a huge influence on me. No, I'm not going to pull out The Raisin's Fear is Never Boring again; it's in this post from some months ago.

I figured Planet P's Why Me is a good start. Although originally known as Planet P, Planet P Project is an alter ego of Tony Carey. This got extensive airplay on rock stations, and I think it actually made its way into an 80s compilation or two, but good luck trying to find it on a Classic Rock station today.

Given their outsized influence, The Yardbirds didn't actually play for that many years. But when three of the original members got back together and created the band Box of Frogs, rock stations took notice. Back Where I Started got extensive local airplay and featured guitar work from another ex-Yardbird, the late Jeff Beck, but hell if I could not find the album on cassette anywhere. 

I know that Bhagpuss will know this song, because it's Slade, but people my age in 1984 knew Slade more for being the band who originally wrote Cum On Feel The Noize that Quiet Riot covered and conquered the American Pop Charts with. So when Keep Your Hands Off My Power Supply** released here in the States, the album shot up the charts. Between Run Runaway (above) and My Oh My, the songs were in heavy rotation on rock radio as well as MTV.

Russ Ballard's Voices got airplay on MTV, but what really got people into this song was when it was featured in a 1984 episode of Miami Vice. 

Before you ask "how the hell can a Jefferson Starship song be considered obscure?", well... I give you No Way Out. It was the first song that I listened to on my brand new boom box back in 1984 by pure coincidence, because I turned it on and tuned it to the local rock station and there it was. Obviously today it's very much in the shadow of other Jefferson Starship songs, but it struck a nerve with me that continues to this day.

The Tubes' She's a Beauty was a one-two punch with Planet P's Why Me, because I frequently heard them close to each other on radio playlists. To a nerdy, shy, adolescent kid just exiting his tweens, it certainly seemed like they were singing directly to me with lines like:

You can look inside another world

You get to talk to a pretty girl

She's everythin' you dream about

Well, at least I can say that I know how to talk to women now.

 

*This one, from the University of Jyväskylä, I found quite fascinating. What they call the "cascading reminiscence bump" highlights that kids often form bonds with music and songs a couple of decades younger than them, which to my mind makes sense because they're listening to music their parents liked, which happen to be that average time differential. 

**That was the American title of The Amazing Kamikaze Syndrome, that was released in 1983 in the UK and Europe. It was released in 1984 in the US with a different name.

Here's my copy that I picked up in 1989
at a second hand store near the University
of Dayton that were selling old LPs for $2.

Meme Monday: Sickness Memes

You know that low grade cold I got from being at the Dayton Hamvention?

It's still with me, and it's really annoying me right now.

(No, I don't have Covid. Yes, I tested.)

So, in the dubious honor of having an early Summer cold, here's some memes...

I haven't had a cold of any sort since my little
hospital adventure in 2021. Alas, that has come
to an end. From Readers Digest of all places.

Yeah, I felt like that midweek.
From Pinterest.

Yeah, I feel this. From Memebase.

If replace "Web MD" with "Chat GPT" the
results would be the same. From Memebase.

The coughing stage took a long time to get here;
I should have been past that by now!
From The Mighty.

And if you start to feel any sort of better
to the point of playing video games...
From Chronius Care (but likely Someecards).

Now Here's a Pertinent Question

I haven't watched Wowcrendor much the past decade or so, because I'd just not engaged with Retail WoW much since Mists. However, something caught my eye today, and I thought I'd share.

He posted it yesterday, and it can be turned into a broader question about MMOs in general. 

Why do we login to these games and play? Is it inertia, friendship, curiosity, addiction, the goal-oriented nature of things, or something else?

For me, I'm not exactly sure why I login. 

Does that sound strange to you? It sure does to me.

I mean, I may chat with my friends group on the WoW Anniversary servers, but I don't actually play with them. They'd all reached max level ages ago --and some have multiple toons at max level-- while my own toons are L66-L67. And I've already decided that once ny toons start reaching L70 I'm going to probably not play them much at all and instead play other toons. Perhaps that's borderline insanity to the average Anniversary server player who's got multiple raids already under their belt, but I'm kind of happy that I've never pushed myself to that route. Hell, I probably won't even get epic riding at all on any of them*, much less flying. But getting that stuff isn't why I play. (At least I know that much.)

Maybe it is exploring the world that I'm attracted to the most. When I get on LOTRO or SWTOR, I spend more time just putzing around and looking at places than anything else. ESO is the same way. I can engage at my own pace without worrying about catching up with the Jonses or feeling like I'm missing out. I also did a ton of simply exploring places my last year of playing Retail back in 2013-2014, because the Battlegrounds only made me angry and most people I'd known had quit the game. It was pleasant; empty, but also pleasant.

I think I'll turn the question over to you, the reader: What's your reason for playing?

*One L67 toon, my Shaman, doesn't even have "basic riding", because she's got Ghost Wolf form. Sure, it's not as fast as basic riding, but it's free and it's an instant cast spell that has gotten me out of jams numerous times in the past.

Smile, You're on Candid Camera

Would you believe me if I told you I didn't know who (or what) Mr. Beast was until June of 2025?

Apparently Mr. Beast is the most followed YouTuber, and despite that I'd never run across anything related to him (or his organization) until I discovered this video by Jaiden Animations:

This was when I first discovered Jaiden (after discovering Rebecca Parham's YouTube channel first) and a couple of her videos referenced how absolutely crazy some of Mr. Beast's followers were. However, even after watching Jaiden's video I didn't have any desire to go and hunt down Mr. Beast, so I tucked that little bit of knowledge away and just went on with life.

Then two things happened. First, Dan Olson dropped this video:

If you've got the time, it's worth a watch as Dan was most definitely NOT the sort of influencer that someone of Mr. Beast's ilk would typically be interacting with. I mean, Dan does long form video essays about deep topics --gaming related or not-- and is the polar opposite of Mr. Beast's stuff. 

After watching Dan's video, I still had no desire to go visit Mr. Beast's site on the internet. I mean, Dan had pretty much reinforced my opinion that Mr. Beast was NOT for me.

Finally, I opened up my email last morning to find this from (of all places) Lowe's Home Improvement:

This arrived in my INBOX on 5/18/2026.

You're kidding me, right? 

Lowes? The hardware company that partners with the NFL and sports figures like Messi?

No, I'm still not interested in seeing Mr. Beast's stuff, and after having watched Dan's video, I think that Beast Industries is throwing jello at a wall to see what sticks. After all, I'm about 45 years too old to be Beast Industries' target audience.

***

The presence of Monsieur Beast in my email provided me a necessary intro into something that I'd been thinking about after my attendance at the Dayton Hamvention: the prevalence of YouTubers and other influencers.

Outside of Salty Walt, I noted the presence of several other YouTubers at the Hamvention. One of the first people who came by our tables on Friday I recognized immediately.

"Hey, it's the CB guy!" I exclaimed.

"Yes it is," he replied with a slightly sheepish grin.

It was Erik of Farpoint Farms, whose YouTube channel focuses a lot on CB radio with a side helping of shortwave and scanner radios, solar power, and other items he uses at his farm in the mountains of North Carolina. He was a pretty genial guy, so he was exactly like he presented himself on his channel. That morning he was just rummaging around for anything interesting to purchase, not record for the channel.* Alas, one of our club members tried hard to sell him on items rather than let him look in peace, but at least Erik took it in stride.

However, as the Hamvention progressed, I noted other YouTubers around, some livestreaming with cameras and some without, but obviously all looking at things with an eye toward content. There was one moment where I was walking in one direction of the flea market, saw a well-known YouTuber with phone on a selfie stick, recording, and I spun around in the opposite direction and "noped" my way out of there. When I was looking at antennas with one of the indoor vendors --hey, I'm a ham, what do you expect?-- another guy appeared at my elbow and began talking to the vendor, explaining he was a YouTuber, and wanted to ask him some questions. After a quick side glance to make sure he wasn't recording at just that moment, I skipped out again.

I get it, people are creating content for a living. That's the name of the game. But holy cow did there seem to be so many of them around. And given that while the Dayton Hamvention has attendees worldwide, there are only ~730,000 hams in the US. (Yes, it's on the public record; as the link shows.) There were around 36,000 Hamvention attendees, and probably 25,000-30,000 of them were actual amateur license holders.** So the size of the potential audience in a YouTube channel isn't all that great to begin with, and it certainly seems that a lot of folks are fighting over that smallish slice of the pie. 

But you know, that's okay. I can just do my thing as long as they don't intrude on it, and I'll let them do their thing. 

***

I do realize that I'm griping a bit about this on a blog, which is the older form of social media. I have enough self awareness that I can acknowledge that, but there are two significant differences: scale and goals. as my other influencer post pointed out, I'm not even close to their league in terms of visibility. And for someone who prefers to keep himself largely out of the spotlight, that's perfectly fine with me. The second is that I'm not doing this to generate clicks and/or income. I'm doing it as an outlet for my urge to write. I don't have to worry about critiques, rejection letters (if I'd even merit one out of a slush pile), and god forbid any chaos that'd arise out of any potential professional publications. 

Isn't blogging a form of self-publishing?
From Imgflip.

The YouTubers do put themselves out there in a way I never do, and consequently open themselves up to criticism I don't receive. For that, I salute them, and yet I'm glad I am not them.

(Also, I have now developed what appears to be Con Crud, that low grade cold that afflicts people when they have been to a conference of any sort. I was just telling my wife this past evening that this was the first real "cold" that I've had since my health scare in 2021. Not sure what kind of record that breaks, but for me it feels like forever. And I simply hate hate HATE a sore throat.)

*That came later. Judging by the footage, I was not around the booth at the time; probably at a forum or something. Oh, and for the record, while I might disagree with some of Erik's stances on things, he is living proof that people can disagree without being disagreeable.

**For example, I only got my license in the Fall of 2025, and I'd attended around 5 times or so before this year.

Meme Monday: Exhaustion Memes

This Meme Monday is what you get when you're wiped out after spending long hours on something. For me, it was Hamvention. And then work before that. 

But you get the idea.

I saw my eyes on Saturday morning, and they
looked like that. From Memebase.

Yeah, I feel ya. From Pinterest.

Yeah, right. From Cheezburger.

I notice that you don't see your MMO toons sleeping...
from Imgflip.

Yah, of COURSE you do, Jack.
From Boarding Group (and Imgflip).

Me too, Mr. Coffey. From Cheezburger.

Time for a Nap

I'm back.

I seriously considered heading back up today (Sunday), but I was too tired to pull it off. I needed the sleep.

In both days, we hit the road up to Xenia early, because the club space in the flea market portion of the Hamvention was being set up at 7 AM. So... a one hour drive means we leave Cincinnati at 6 AM. Any prep beforehand means I'm getting up at 4 - 4:30 AM.

On Friday, I got up at 4:15 AM to get ready for the club president to pick me up at 6 AM. I'd prepped a lot of stuff the night before, but let's be realistic: I did NOT want to forget something important, like my ticket, so I built in an extra 15 minutes to get ready. I'm glad I did, because my first 15 minutes of wakefulness are more akin to the walking dead, so I didn't have to rush around like a nut just to be ready to roll.

By the time we arrived up at Xenia, the lines of cars stretched for what seemed like forever. Luckily, we had a flea market vendor pass, so we were able to get inside by taking an alternate entrance to the Fairgrounds. We pulled in, parked, and walked to our spot, where the setup was already under way. At 9 AM, we were ready to go, the morning sun was beautiful with wonderful, pleasant temperatures, and things looked bright. 

This pic was Saturday morning, but Friday's was
an exact duplicate.

Of course, this being the Dayton Hamvention, that didn't last. 

You know the old joke about the Midwest that if you don't like the weather, wait 20 minutes and it'll change? Replace "Midwest" with "Hamvention", and you get the idea.

By the time the club president and I had left a forum hosted by Walt Hudson, "Salty Walt" of the Coastal Waves and Wires YouTube channel, the sky had already darkened, and soon enough a wave of rain hit the Hamvention. This became a bit of a theme of the past two days, as things would start off fine to brilliantly beautiful, and then we'd have a round of rain (or three) and then things would have cleared up by mid-afternoon. 

A view of the central area, complete with food trucks.
This doesn't really do the place justice, as there were
a lot more food trucks ringing the area and giving
the place a "coney island" type of vibe. All that was missing
were games such as Skeeball and Ring Toss.

This was one of the most popular food
areas, complete with grilled chicken (left)
and pork chops (right). The deep
fried mac and cheese was toward the back.

I saw plenty of people in scooters and/or service animals, which I guess shouldn't have surprised me due to the aging of the overall amateur radio population, but I did wonder about the long term health of the hobby.

I'd never seen a rottweiler as a service dog
before, but here one was. Oh, and the skies were
about to open up again...

After that first day, I konked out at 8:30 PM (ish) and woke up at 4 AM on Saturday. This time I was picking up the club president at her house, and then we were going to carpool with another couple of club members. That meant I had to pick her up at 5:30 AM then get to his place by 6 AM in time to leave. We had one big problem, where a stretch of a major east-west connector in Cincinnati was closed right when we wanted to use it, so I had to navigate through the back roads to get back onto the highway. 

Still, we were only delayed by a few minutes (thanks to it being before 6 AM on a Saturday), and hit the road shortly after 6.

Passing by Kings Island amusement park around
6:20 AM.

The interior spaces were very crazy early on, and I took advantage of Saturday's early morning slow start to get a chance to take some photos inside some of the indoor booths...

One of the few times Gigaparts wasn't swamped.

On Friday the Yaesu booth was an absolute nuthouse,
so it was nice to actually get a chance to look around
on Saturday.

I couldn't even get over to the Icom area on Friday, and
this was the closest I dared on Saturday.

After we finished up for the day and packed up everything we hadn't sold from the flea market, we drove back home. I got back to my house sometime after 7:30, ate dinner, and basically vegetated before heading to bed at 10:30 ish. 

***

Was it fun?

Yes. Unlike prior years when I'd attended*, I felt like I truly belonged there. Having that license helped a lot, but the knowledge I'd gained over the past year meant that I could follow people's conversations more readily than I ever could before. Sure, there's a ton of things I didn't know, but at least I was able to follow along more than I had in the past.

Would I do it again?

Yes. As the club president said, getting up so early in the morning was a killer, and so I was getting awfully sleepy by mid-afternoon. On both Friday and Saturday, I was at a mid-afternoon forum presentation and both times I nearly dozed off. Still, except for that early morning rise-time, I was enjoying myself.

Did I feel like a drowned rat at times?

Absolutely yes. I sent a selfie to my wife, who told me that she was glad the rain jacket was working, and then another one to my Questing Buddy, who told me that it looked like fun and that she missed the rain (she lives in Las Vegas). Believe me, in the middle of the rain it certainly didn't feel like fun when we'd scrambled to protect all of the items we had for sale. 

I was happy that I wore shorts on Saturday, so I wasn't in sopping wet jeans during the worst of the downpours.

Okay, that's that for another year. Time to get back to bed for another nap.

*I last attended in 2006, and this was my fifth Hamvention.

Pass the Coffee

By the time you read this, I will be on the road up to Dayton, OH. 

Okay, my destination is really a small town east of Dayton, Xenia*, but you get the point.

What's up in Xenia? The 2026 Dayton Hamvention.

The official logo of the 2026 Hamvention.
From hamvention.org.

Why is it named the Dayton Hamvention if it's held in Xenia? Because the Hamvention began in Dayton in 1952, and it remained in the immediate Dayton area until it moved to Xenia following the closure of it's previous home, Hara Arena, in 2016. More importantly, the name "Dayton Hamvention" has been a trademark of the convention since 1953 or so, and the Hamvention itself is run by the Dayton Amateur Radio Association.

I volunteered to help set up and man the flea market booth that my club reserved, but I fully intend to take advantage of my time up there this weekend to explore everything that's going on.

Before you ask, no, you don't have to have an amateur radio license to attend, but it certainly does help. I mean, there's a ton of electronics and whatnot that aren't explicitly for hams, which is how I initially was attracted to the convention back in the 90s, but there's also a metric ton of other equipment and vendors that are expressly there to cater to hams. 

I'll probably take some photos of the place and provide a trip report, because that's what I do. I'll still sleep back at home, because it's a lot cheaper to drive back and forth than get a hotel (even given the current gas prices), but in the meantime I'd better pay attention to where we're headed.

See you in a few days!

*Xenia is most famous for the F5 tornado that destroyed the town in the Supercell of 1974, known colloquially as The Day of the Tornadoes. Here's a longer special report on the 50th anniversary of tornado. That was the same Supercell in which I witnessed a tornado that crossed the Ohio River and hit Sayler Park, the westernmost neighborhood of Cincinnati. As I've said before, if you've ever seen a tornado live, you never forget it.