Frequency13

The Frequency 13 Halloween Spooktackular!  Yeah that's cheezy even for us!    What did didn't love the burnin Key Cars?  They really were fast and a thing of beauty!  Interesting story of how they ended up in the hands of Matchbox while we were racing them across the kitchen floor. Which of the Ben Cooper costumes did you wear? Head down below and click the link to our brand new facebook group and tell us.  If you don't know who Ben Cooper was don't worry neither did I, but now I know more then I realized was possible, and I'll share the highlights on this episode. Remember the Friday Night At the Movies, movie?  NBC ran it, all the networks actually did the same thing, but NBC started Monday Night at the Movies and by 1980 when they realized that Friday was the kiss of death for TV series they switched it to Friday.  Do you remember any of the featured films on Friday night?  I didn't, but I found one that is very fitting for the show,   Thank you for listening! ***NEW***Facebook Group  Facebook Page fb.me/frequency13podcast Twitter @frequency13pod Blog - https://www.Frequency13.com Email: Freq13fm@gmail.com

This week we take a deep dive in to the Public Library.  The library was the Internet of our youth.  A window to the world, where we could get lost in the stacks, and the best part it was/is free to all.  Like a bicycle it provided liberation and a chance to form our own opinions and views of the world around us.  And if you were like me a chance to practice your spycraft!   We wax nostalgic on this show, it is what it is about of course, and I hope you had a great library experience, some of us are in love with the library for very unique reasons, it was my window into a world that was yet to be explored a world that existed outside of our little valley.  Like television, but it was on demand, I didn't have to wait for a documentary to show up on television, I could find what I wanted to learn today.  There at the library my love of learning was sparked, and the flame still burns today. So which Halloween Candy was you favorite, no cheating, it has to be something you would cherish in your pillowcase full of goodies, what was the one candy that you would do your best to hoard away but the truth was that it was gone by November 1s, only to be left with Sweet Tarts and gum.   Post a note on Facebook, or send an email and let me know. Facebook Page fb.me/frequency13podcast Twitter @frequency13pod Blog - https://www.Frequency13.com Email: Freq13fm@gmail.com

JC Penney wasn't the first to the game with a Wish Book, but they were my favorite!  There are so many places to find scans of the original JC Penney Wish Books so I know there are a lot of us that love them. Disc Cameras were introduced by Kodak in 1982.  They were innovators, and I liken them to the Apple of the day (Yes I am aware that Apple was around back then, but they weren't the innovators then that Kodak was)  So why did the photos not have the quality that would have made the amazing little disc camera work?? Listen to find out! Catalogs Galore - https://christmas.musetechnical.com/ Disc Camera History https://clickamericana.com/media/photography/what-happened-to-kodak-disc-camera-debuted-in-1982 Facebook Page fb.me/frequency13podcast Frequency 13 Group on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/1157514971310752 Twitter @frequency13pod Blog - https://www.Frequency13.com Email: Freq13fm@gmail.com

This is the year-end holiday episode and the season closer.  Frequency 13 will be back to ring in the New Year in 2021 with some format tweaks and new segments.  Tonight we get into the memory wars of the 1980s Kodak vs. Polaroid.  Different, but both formats were essential to our holidays, so what happened? Tune in to find out.  Also, I finally get around to talking Hotwheels.  Before you start playing this episode, I recommend you make sure you have a handful of Tina's frozen Burritos ready to go.  I dare say they were way better than the crappy hot pockets our kids had to suffer through!  An 80s holiday episode would not be complete without a frank and relevant discussion of Radio Shack, the little shop that couldn't make it over the hill, but one we loved dearly in the 80s. Have a wonderful holiday season and we will see you next year!!! Facebook Page fb.me/frequency13podcast Twitter @frequency13pod Blog - https://www.Frequency13.com Email: Freq13fm@gmail.com

Happy New Year! Xers, maybe I didn't party like it's 1999, (I hope you did!) But I was able to put together a great show for you. We hear about my resolutions, and why you should set some resolutions for 2021. You'll be sparked to life by memories of 1980s fitness fads. My Iphone has replaced and improved so many things that I can't begin to count but one of those things specifically was a glimpse into the future in the 1980s and frankly still seems futuristic today, I can't wait to share it. Facebook Page fb.me/frequency13podcast Frequency 13 Group on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/1157514971310752 Twitter @frequency13pod Blog - https://www.Frequency13.com Email: Freq13fm@gmail.com

Space Pens and Electronic Football have to have something in common, well not directly, but the miniaturization of things going into space was certainly driving innovation in electronics and other stuff in the 1970s and 1980s.  This episode looks at the earliest of handheld video games, Fisher Space Pens, and even a refreshing Slice with 10% real juice. Facebook Page Frequency 13 Group on Facebook  Twitter @frequency13pod Blog -  Email: Freq13fm@gmail.com

The 4077th still brings fond memories and the characters are near and dear to our hearts all these years later. We’ll talk about this amazing show and some interesting M*A*S*H Trivia. With the Super Bowl coming up it’s time to start thinking about snacks! What better snack then Doritos, and what a wild ride we have been on with Doritos. A true GenX snack by the way, they were born in 1964! Deely Bobbers one of the true tragedies of the 80s but a part of the Pop Culture compendium of our time. Facebook Page  Frequency 13 Group on Facebook  Twitter @frequency13pod Blog Email: Freq13fm@gmail.com

Did you think Capri Sun was a space food? I did, but the truth is even more interesting. Everyone loves twinkies, I think they are as close to a universal truck stop desert as any. Admittedly they are long in the tooth, but they too have an interesting story to tell. Did you play Simon, the electronic game as a kid? Even if you didn’t have one, I suspect you at least knew someone who did? Am I right? I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I enjoyed making it! Contact Frequency 13: Facebook Page  Frequency 13 Group on Facebook  Twitter  Blog  Email: Freq13fm@gmail.com

This is a special show where we get into some of our favorite 1980s Super Bowl Commercial, well one from the 1970s too. Frequency 13s top 4 Super Bowl Commercials! Mean Joe Green Apple 1984 Where’s the Beef Bud Bowl I Facebook Page fb.me/frequency13podcast Frequency 13 Group on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/1157514971310752 Twitter @frequency13pod Blog - https://www.Frequency13.com Email: Freq13fm@gmail.com

Welcome to Retro Trash, A safe space for generation X Welcome to the wasteland we call pop culture the toys, games, music, movies, trivia and more. This is the iterative version of the old Frequency 13.  Some changes have occurred and Frequency 13 as some of you knew it has been archived.  They may be available again at some point on our RetroTrash patreon for subscribers, more to come on that.  After taking feedback from all of you we find ourselves with a new format but same great retro content that is meaningful to us, but not much else haha.  I do think it is important to keep our memories alive and we all find it fun to learn more about the history or little details behind the things, events, places and people that shaped our generation. I won't go over the Frequency 13 format, the RetroTrash format will be generally as follows Brief opening current event, very brief and only timely topics, then RetroTrash Trivia, the questions will be bucketed in Toys, TV-shows that were in the 80s or talk about the 80s button 6, Movies, Sports- like the venerable Bud Bowl - Button 5  and RetroTrash Choice, which will be based on collective history but not necessarily in the other buckets. Then we will get into our weekly topic.  That is another difference we will be focused on a singular topic for the week.  Your feedback told me you want more depth and breadth to the show and I have listened.  Now this is where it gets interesting, I will have the occasional guest, as it makes sense to the topic.  RetroTrash is still a solo show, but will invite guests on that had some impact on the topic at hand. So with that I want to thank you for hanging with us if you came over from Frequency 13 and if you're new welcome and like and share the show to keep us going, and if you are feeling really supportive there will be a Patreon account set up to help offset the costs of this labor of love.

The Space Shuttle Enterprise was not originally called Enterprise, find out what it was originally named, and why the President Ford changed the name to Enterprise. Can you imaging taping a penny to a piece of paper, licking stamps to make your music selection, then mailing the whole thing in and 6-8 weeks later you get a package full of your favorite cassettes?  Of course not, if a song takes more then a couple seconds to load we move on!  Not in the 80s we didn't we waited.  Interestingly there was not a "loading problem" during our time things happened instantly,  Even though we were waiting for our show or song to come on the radio while we put up with commercials, we still could at least know our device was working, and didn't have to figure out if the "wifi was down" or better yet "wtf is wrong with the Wifi??" Finally racing at 800 scale miles per hour was a perfect stuck in the house activity and if you had a couple friends over it could be very competitive.  If you had a dad that was a hobbyist your house was the place to go for scale racing action. Facebook Page fb.me/frequency13podcast Twitter @frequency13pod Blog - https://www.Frequency13.com Email: Freq13fm@gmail.com

Microwave Popcorn owes it's success to both Percy Spencer who filed a patent in 1949, and to the folksy marketing genius of Orville Redenbacher You can still get a West Bend Stir Crazy on Amazon for $24.99, so even though when Debra Kumm from West Bend said ''Microwave popcorn is a fad" she was very wrong and underestimated the power of convenience.  However, it didn't put popcorn maker out of business there will always be holdouts to the old technology. Facebook Page fb.me/frequency13podcast Twitter @frequency13pod Blog - https://www.Frequency13.com Email: Freq13fm@gmail.com

This week is almost a continuation of last weeks Pac Man Episode, we dive deeper into the Atari Video Console System. TaB was Coca Cola's first diet soft drink and it was a hit, until the Feds shut down the use of Sacharin in soft drinks, that move tainted TaB, luckily Aspartame in the form of NutraSweet came on the scene and Diet Coke was born. Facebook Page fb.me/frequency13podcast Twitter @frequency13pod Blog - https://www.Frequency13.com Email: Freq13fm@gmail.com

This week we look back at the most influential video game of our generation Pac Man. The fever that swept our generation at least in the US, where the song of the same name rocked the Billboard charts. The original name for Pac Man and why it was changed. Atari's Pac Man, hit or a flop? You decide. Atari deserves its own show; in the meantime, we will discuss the Pac Man home version and expectations vs. reality. Star Wars, the original movie, how it changed our world when it comes to film. As any generation Xer which pivotal film was released in their lifetime and 8 out of 10 will tell you Star Wars, the other 2 will place it in their top 5. If you still carry your amazingly perfect designed Good Unbreakable Pocket comb, you are genuinely not in the current century! I carried mine, and looking at the comb today, I realize what a perfect design. I would rank it right up there with the iPhone in terms of brilliant designs. Goody Hair Comb

A deep dive into the McDonald's happy meal and how truly Generation X that thing is.  Even though some of us may have just missed the cutoff to enjoy one without feeling uncool! We will cover the genesis of the Happy Meal, and a little hint it was to better allow parents to feed their children at the restaurant. Ironically San Francisco, in 2010, banned the happy meal for a very similar reason, except they felt it did not correctly feed children. Rubik's Cube from 3d design model to 200 million sold in less than 10 years!  Invented in Budapest, and a fascinating story, that has was impactful across the spectrum of people that frankly has not since been rivaled.  (To include the iPod, but to be honest, the iPod would be a close second). Facebook Page fb.me/frequency13podcast Twitter @frequency13pod Blog - https://www.Frequency13.com Email: Freq13fm@gmail.com

Tootsie Pop, How many licks does it take to get to the center?  Purdue University  bothered to figure it out and the answer may surprise you.  Generation X and Video Rentals go hand in hand.  Home Cinema changed our world and brought Hollywood into our homes.   When did it start and how did it impact our generation, listen and find out.   Renting movies at Blockbuster and how they had the chance to buy Netflix but passed, that's gotta hurt!   This Week Simpson Trivia: Season15 Epsiode 18 This episode called Catch Em If you can is very relatable to parents who need intimate time and find children destroy all measure of romance! This week's Simpsons Trivia Question: What was the name of the video rental store shown in Season 15 Episode 18??? Brewsters Kaleidoscopes is our newest sponsor. Facebook Page fb.me/frequency13podcast Twitter @frequency13pod Blog - https://www.Frequency13.com Email: Freq13fm@gmail.com

The original Trapper Keeper was not a fluke, it was carefully considered and developed and it was a winner.  Iconic to this day.  I had the original with a snap which is rare.  The times table was worth the price of admission! Spam was a product that is not too popular in most of the US today, and is considered a "poverty" food, but it wasn't always that way and still isn't in a good part of the world.  In Hawaii they serve it at McDonalds, and Burger King! Get your grill fired up because after talking hot dogs you will be craving a truly American food, the Weiner may be German, but a German immigrant made it American in St. Louis in 1880! Facebook Page fb.me/frequency13podcast Twitter @frequency13pod Blog - https://www.Frequency13.com Email: Freq13fm@gmail.com

This week we discuss the new comet that is visible with the naked eye Neowise 20.  Land of the Lost was a wonderful bit of science fiction that is overlooked by many because it is a children's program, but the sci-fi was solid and well written.  Great memories for me of the Slee-Staks, horrible creatures that also lived in my basement! Where did the seeds of the Watermelon go?  Did you worry about growing a watermelon plant in your stomach if you ate one? I know the answer, yes you did! With the loss of the horrible seeds that were admittedly fun to spit at your mates, we gained an easy to eat fruit and more fruit and less rhine. Thank the farmers for little miracles! Lastly Solar Powered Calculators, these things were cool because the sun was making them work and at a time when batteries were disposable and expensive the value proposition was insurmountable! Facebook Page fb.me/frequency13podcast Twitter @frequency13pod Blog - https://www.Frequency13.com Email: Freq13fm@gmail.com Links: NEOWISE https://www.accuweather.com/en/space-news/how-to-see-comet-neowise-in-the-sky/772795 Simpsons Trivia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All%27s_Fair_in_Oven_War Watermelon Seed Demise https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2012/07/26/157427994/where-did-all-the-watermelon-seeds-go Land of the Lost https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_of_the_Lost_(1974_TV_series)

Fireworks were not legal in the Salt Lake City Valley, at least not the fun aerial or firecracker bottle rocket kind.  If you were fortunate enough to get your hands on them you were in heaven! Going to Lagoon as a kid was the highlight of my summer, and rightly so.  Between the 1921 Wooden Coaster that felt like it was going to collapse at any second, to the bumper cars, and fun house a kid was in heaven. KFC, and Utah?  Whats the catch?  Well, spoiler the first KFC franchise was in Salt Lake City so it ties in to large Utah families and for me Lagoon. Thanks for listenting!

Orange is the color of our generation.  Orange is the color of my youth, I don't know why, but Orange just feels right, maybe is was the smog of the still leaded gasoline, or the unique weather inversions that lead to pollution hanging in the valley filtering the earth brilliant white light into a lovely burnt orange, no one really knows, but there were two very important drinks that we grew up on that were colored an lovely artifical orange, ya know cause oranges! Swatch Watch in the 80s saved the Swiss Watch industry during the Quartz wars. Land of the Lost isn't as good as I remembered it, and my basement is way better then the Slee-Stack den!   IF you are on Facebook look up the show and join and like the page Frequency 13, would love to interact with you there,  The blog www.frequency13.com has the expanded show notes of this and other episodes.  I'm on Twitter @frequency13pod, or email me at FREQ13FM@gmail.com