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Everything Broad Ripple HomearrowRandom Ripplings Homearrow2022 09 01arrowPublic Notice

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Roadside Attraction available at digitalindy.org
posted: Sept. 01, 2022

Roadside Attraction was a nationally syndicated radio show that originated in Indianapolis but was never officially on the air here. It featured a range of musical and storytelling performances from an ensemble cast of characters and guest artists from the Indy scene. The writers and musicians constantly created new material on the fly. They prized spontaneity and surprise. There was no rehearsal or run through before air.
The program had its roots as a radio variety show called Jabberwocky Junction, the Friday segment of Paul Irwin's Indiana Today show on WICR. But it broke away as Roadside Attraction and quickly took on a life of its own. It was a combination of Scott Millsop's original vision of short short stories - roughly 4 minutes each - read aloud, using different accents and voices combined with live performances of original music from great local musicians, along with comedy, curious perspectives, wacky history and other sound oddities. Performers recall that Roadside Attraction simply took flight as an independent program produced by Al Stone. The show landed at The Fine Arts Network, playing to 100 cities in a national audience, but not their hometown, Indianapolis.
Around this time, NUVO, an Indianapolis alternative weekly newspaper, heard and reported on Roadside Attraction's national distribution and lack of local on-air presence. The article spurred action from local pirate radio stations which synchronized signals to bring the show to the local audience. Then, after reading about the release of the Real Audio Player in a news story, the show's producers moved quickly. The only Real Audio server on line on the entire web was at Audionet.com, owned by the not-yet-rich-and-famous (but devoted fan of IU Basketball) Mark Cuban.
After a quick phone call, cassettes of Roadside Attraction were hand carried to Dallas and in short order it became the original podcast. It was literally the first streaming radio program on the internet. Here's a link to the archived episodes of Roadside Attraction along with an essay that tells the story. The program now happily resides in the Indianapolis Public Library's digitalindy.org collection which also has many items of interest to people interested in local arts and culture.
People of a "certain age" and knowers of musical lore will remember some of the names in the aforementioned introductory essay written by producer Scott Millsop. The late Al Stone is one. Al was a program director for the revolutionary radio station WNAP and was co-producer of a documentary about the station. Legendary singer/songwriter Pat Webb is another name to know. Immense talents like Michael Kelsey and Al Stratyner also pepper the story.
Take a step back to revisit some of the earliest steps forward into the new media age.




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