And of course I was terrified of the emergency broadcast system test.Of course I was.
Once, and this was when I was in my twenties, there was a tornado warning one Sunday and some putz at the local station played the wrong thing and a message came up that said "WE INTERRUPT ALL BROADCAST SERVICE AT THE REQUEST OF THE WHITE HOUSE," and here it was, the earth seemed to open and I was suddenly falling, my insides turning to cold water...then the cutaway to the sheepish 2nd-tier weather dude, who said "We seem to have played the wrong tape there, but there is a tornado warning for the counties of..."
I mean, a tornado AND nuclear conflagration at once? Sucky!
Now that I'm old and free from fear (?), I wonder only what the hell kind of pre-Moog/oscillator device was used to actually make the fearsome sound. Also, surprised that no one (or Schmersal) has sampled that tone and used it as a keyboard patch for some terrifying, pummelling Skinny Puppy style terror track (also on my mind surprisingly often is: how did they show movies on TV before the advent of readily accessible video tape? Did they project the actual copy of Dark Victory on a screen in a studio and then turn the TV camera on it? Huh? I also don't understand printing very well, though, and my dad was in the business for 40 years, so maybe, just maybe, I'm not all that bright).
No comments:
Post a Comment