One of the realtime blackhole lists used here to help prevent spam seems to have malfunctioned, causing much legitimate email to be rejected from the server over the past few days; thanks to Ron Sayles for letting me know, I’ve removed it from the processing and all again seems to be right with the world.

If you sent mail to any of the mailing lists on the server, or to me personally, over the past few days and had it rejected, please resend, as things seem to be working just fine again.

Edit: Just a reminder: if you have any problems contacting this machine via email, check this blog. I’ll post information on any issues here, there are contact forms available which will allow you to contact me (see the “Contact the Webmaster” button over there on the sidebar), and even if there’s a catastrophic failure of the server, I’ll redirect the blogs.oldradio.net domain to a new server to make certain there’s up-to-date information available.

From the Washington Post’s Marc Fisher: Is The New Sirius XM The Beginning Of Satellite’s End?

I admit some of my presets are gone, too, and the others are being programmed by the shallow-playlist specialists at Sirius New York. But then, I warned repeatedly about the merger being the death of the promise of satellite radio, and I see no reason to revise my judgments now.

Let’s hope whatever company buys this mess from the fire-sale of the upcoming bankruptcy will re-hire Lee Abrams at least as a consultant..and maybe to program a resurrected Special X? Meanwhile, there’s always Slacker and AOL Radio…

As some of you have noticed, things are slowly getting back to normal around here. The OTR Digest has mostly resumed its schedule, and while I don’t promise there won’t be delays in the future, I’m pretty sure they won’t be as severe as they have been over the past few weeks. I still need to organize things within my office (my right leg is against one of the pieces of replacement hardware stuffed temporarily under my desk), but things are getting better…

Now if I could just catch up with the rest of my work…

Studs Terkel passed away Friday October 31st at the age of ninety-six; he was in turn a radio actor, television personality, disc jockey, talk-show host, and chronicler of the human condition. He was an unabashed and self-described “old lefty,” vehement in his opinion of the current administration, and complained the country suffered from, “National Alzheimer’s Disease,” never teaching students enough history to keep them from making the same mistakes over and over. He was the author of eighteen books, the last published this month, and appropriately titled, “P.S.”

The program you are about to hear is an episode of Destination: Freedom from November 21, 1948. The radio series, broadcast on Chicago’s NBC affiliate, WMAQ from 1948 to 1950, was the work of a remarkable black writer, Richard Durham. Destination: Freedom showcased prominent characters and events in black history, while later examining contemporary political issues, never shying away from an honest and sometimes brutal look at race relations. John Dunning writes about the series in his book “On the Air,” “There were no buffoons or toadies in Durhams’ plays; there were heroes and villains, girlfriends and lovers, mothers, fathers, brutes.” This episode, “The Rhyme of the Ancient Dodger,” is the story of Jackie Robinson, and features Studs Terkel as Sammy, the Ancient Dodger of the title, narrating the story with a Runyonesque delivery and exquisite prose.

Studs said his epitaph should be, “Curiosity did not kill this cat,” and it didn’t; it kept him strong and vibrant for ninety-six years. Take it easy, Studs…but take it!

You may stream the show using the player below, or download it with the link. Remember, by subscribing to this blog with any podcasting client (Juice, iTunes, etc.) the shows will be automatically downloaded to your computer or MP3 player!

 Destination: Freedom - The Rhyme of the Ancient Dodger [31:51m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

From CNN: Acclaimed author Studs Terkel dies at 96

This makes me especially grateful I was able to meet Studs in Washington, D.C. some years ago. The guy was amazing.

Edit: The BBC has its own obit. And Irene Heinstein points to this Chicago Tribune obit.