Joe Smith

[Scott Fybush]

Donna Halper wrote:
> At 07:23 PM 7/7/2006 -0400, Roger Kolakowski wrote:
>> Sorry Guys...
>>
>> I didn't realize that Google had NO VALUE in research and validity as a
>> resource for history.
> 
> Not what I said at all-- although for scholars, google isn't considered 
> reliable because it relies on repetition rather than on proof. 

If I may jump into this morass...

Google itself isn't a source of ANY content at all. It's merely a search 
engine that locates content posted in various other places on the web. 
As a result, the content that it returns is only as good (or as bad) as 
the actual source of said content. I'm much more likely to trust station 
engineering data I find through Google, for instance, if it's coming 
from fcc.gov rather than from some local chamber of commerce site that 
may not have been updated in years (if it was ever correct!)

Think of it as content found "through" Google, not "on" Google, and this 
may make more sense.

In this particular instance, I think the question at issue isn't whether 
or not Joe Smith worked at WMEX in the fifties at all - we've all pretty 
much agreed that he did - but merely whether or not he started his 
career there.

On that count, there's plenty of room for fuzz. As Donna very astutely 
observes, memories fade over the years and can be twisted by many 
outside factors. Nobody but us geeks remembers WVDA these days, but WMEX 
is a "name brand" classic Boston radio station...so 40 years out, if 
it's WMEX that sticks in the memory and not WVDA, is that all that 
surprising?

Even less than two decades into my own, far less illustrious, career, I 
tend to spend a lot more time talking about WBZ (and of course WCAP) 
than about my short and unmemorable stint at WKOX.

s