Julia Barton
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Julia Barton
@bartona104.bsky.social
2.4K followers 3.6K following 14K posts
Editor, podcaster, script and research consultant at RadioWright.com. Nieman Fellow '24, founding executive editor Pushkin Industries. Newsletter: https://continuous-wave.beehiiv.com/
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bartona104.bsky.social
You only get my thoughts tomorrow if you subscribe to my newsletter continuous-wave.beehiiv.com/subscribe
Kristin Bell and Justine Lupe hold microphones at a small wooden dining room table cluttered with drinks, place mats, pretzel snacks in a bowl and a laptop on a stand.
November 12, 2025 at 9:58 PM
bartona104.bsky.social
My newsletter on broadcast history is getting haunted this week. Sign up now so you don't miss it!
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double-exposure B&W posed photo showing two men seeking to escape a ghostly female figure shrouded in white. caption: copyrighted by Melander & Bro 1889
October 28, 2025 at 1:01 AM
bartona104.bsky.social
then of course there's
screenshot of notice: Due to the shutdown of the federal government, National Archives facilities are closed, websites and social media are not being updated or monitored, and activities are canceled, with the following exceptions, which remain open and operational (barring holiday closures): Federal Records Centers (including the National Personnel Records Center), Federal Register, the museums only for the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library and Museum (open through 10/15/25, and may be extended), the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum, the George H.W. Bush Library and Museum, and the privately run George W. Bush Museum. The Research Rooms and administrative offices for the aforementioned Libraries will be closed during the entire shutdown of the federal government.
October 23, 2025 at 11:30 PM
bartona104.bsky.social
One element in the conspiracy of 3:00
browning cover sleeve for RCA Victor Records 10" 78rpm of "Candy" by The Four King Sisters
October 23, 2025 at 8:19 PM
bartona104.bsky.social
Boston Common today
Protestor holds up sign: THEY DO NOT BREAK US THEY BREAK UPON US
October 18, 2025 at 10:53 PM
bartona104.bsky.social
P.S. Blattnerphone.
"The Blattnerphone was an intimidating device which recorded sound onto sharp-edged steel tape either 3mm or 6mm wide. The tape moved briskly at 1.5 meters a second between reels which could weigh around 20 kg when fully wound. Errant reels which fell off the Blattnerphone’s heavy iron frame and rolled away were reputedly capable of smashing through partition walls."
October 17, 2025 at 1:50 PM
bartona104.bsky.social
It's like AI only it's TV in 1951 (Variety, April 11)
Variety head: "Shape of TV Things to Come" by Abel Green: Brigadier General David Sarnoff, chairman of the board of RCA, is so bullish on television and its future that his dim views on radio would seem to dwarf AM's future chiefly because of his enthusiasms about TV.
October 8, 2025 at 7:09 PM
bartona104.bsky.social
like grandpa says
Cover: As It Happened A Memoir by William S. Paley Founder and Chairman, CBS
October 7, 2025 at 1:55 PM
bartona104.bsky.social
can't win 'em all, reverse-progress trolls...
Headline: The Problem of Women Who Want to Go Back to Work (Condensed from Business Week)
October 2, 2025 at 3:51 PM
bartona104.bsky.social
Further proof of 1962 trolling.
Headline: Showdown Ahead for Major-League Crime. Sub: Under teh vigorous leadership of AG Robert F. Kennedy, manpower from several federal agencies has been pooled into combat teams to bring to book the malefactors of great wealth who rule our underworld.
October 2, 2025 at 3:46 PM
bartona104.bsky.social
I procured a copy of Readers Digest, January 1962. It is definitely trolling us.
Headline: Good-By, Measles! A new vaccine promises to abolish the long-held supposition that this annoying disease is an evitable part of growing up. (Condensed from Parents' Magazine, J.D. Ratcliff)
October 2, 2025 at 3:40 PM
bartona104.bsky.social
PS: content warning!
poster for The Boy in the Plastic Bubble (ABC 1976) showing a young John Travolta condemned to life in space suits and behind plastic sheeting thanks to an immune-system disorder.
September 25, 2025 at 5:35 PM
bartona104.bsky.social
ABRACADABRA triangle shape
September 22, 2025 at 9:32 PM
bartona104.bsky.social
Timely read!
Red Channels: The Report of Communist Influence in Radio and Television published by Counterattack: The Newsletter of Facts to Combat Communism (1950)
September 21, 2025 at 2:55 PM
bartona104.bsky.social
Good old days.
cover of Red Channels: The Report of Communist Influence in Radio and Television published by Counterattack: The Newsletter of facts to combat Communism. Graphic shows a red left palm outstretched to grab a microphone.
September 15, 2025 at 11:28 PM
bartona104.bsky.social
Also the Times was ON IT (May 18, 1924)
screenshot of illustration showing a harried male violinist in tux scratching his head. Below him are two captions: "The Broadcaster" and intertwined with a radio loudspeaker, the caption Who Pays the Fiddler [?]
September 12, 2025 at 12:47 PM
bartona104.bsky.social
was saving this for a special occasion, thank you
ad from Science and Invention, Sept 1922 showing a horned goateed devil holding his tail, looking out over a landscape: When the Devil Thinks -- (unhappiness, sickness, poverty, death). Plus caption: If the Devil Wished to Serve You the Worst Possible Turn, He Could Ask Nothing More Than an Opportunity to Do Your Thinking for You
September 9, 2025 at 8:14 PM
bartona104.bsky.social
Don't forget to projectc.biz/backindiemedia
Back Indie Media Drive: 34 publishers. 1 purpose. Fund Indie Media, with logos of various newsletters.
September 8, 2025 at 12:09 PM
bartona104.bsky.social
Hint:
photo of a man in straw hat and overalls squinting
September 4, 2025 at 9:07 PM
bartona104.bsky.social
I have used the greatest computational power in human history and recreated a 1977 grocery store newsstand in suburban Knoxville
Screenshot of YouTube queue with AI-generated films like: Shocking Secrets The Cast Of Hee Haw TV Series Tried To Hide Nostalgia Vibe Behind the scenes HEE HAW 1971: Shocking Secrets of... RetroTVMagic What REALLY Happened to Hager Twins After Hee Haw - TRAGIC... Golden Top Rewind Hee Haw Stars That Are Still Alive Recollection Road -Entertainment
September 2, 2025 at 5:58 PM
bartona104.bsky.social
1982 called, wants its Interregnum back
color photo of a portly Leonid Brezhnev in swim trunks talking on a white phone in a banya (also by the phone, an ashtray with cigarettes)
September 1, 2025 at 4:45 PM
bartona104.bsky.social
PS also talking about this guy, who no did not really retire in 1982, who in fact would still be hanging around the @cbsnews.com boardroom if he possibly could today at age 123.
Headline: Magazine, Paley, 80, to retire from CBS featuring photo of Paley smiling (Phila Inquirer, 1982)
August 31, 2025 at 11:35 AM
bartona104.bsky.social
done! right behind you... continuous-wave.beehiiv.com
screenshot "active subscribers: 535 up 4.3%
August 31, 2025 at 11:20 AM
bartona104.bsky.social
sneak peek:
"Continuous Wave" newsletter logo + headline: "Podcast Guest, Heal Thyself. Being a good interview subject is easier said than done" by Julia Barton
August 21, 2025 at 11:27 AM
bartona104.bsky.social
you guys it's Orson Welles!
Four photos of Orson Welles in front of a CBS microphone emoting, laughing, smoking a pipe while looking at a script. From Earle McGill's 1940 book "Radio Directing."
August 14, 2025 at 8:20 PM