I was fortunate this past weekend to attend an event in Akron, Ohio with two very good friends.
The event was postponed from January due to bad weather and I was the beneficiary of being able to attend on the delayed date. The event was called “Dead Media Market” and, the event was anything BUT “dead.”
We got there as it opened and stood in line. In the lobby were exhibitors with everything from portable black and white TV sets, to bins of 8-track tapes to calendars, magnets of VHS tape covers in miniature, and more…and MORE!
In the main room, even more booths. VHS was, in my humble opinion, the clear winner in popularity. Go figure. We can stream almost anything that ever aired on TV or existed in a theatre or cable TV network…We can INSTANTLY access restored higher quality copies of most titles going way back to early movie history….but yet, people WANTED VHS. And, they wanted Beta. And, luckily for me, there were LASERDISCS!!! Yes, I came home with laserdiscs for my players. Did I need them? No. Were the people selling them enthusiastic about the format? You BET!
The room filled up, and after one trip back to the car with my buddies to unload our early “finds” it was clear that older media attracts LOTS of people-and before you ask, the ages of the attendees were much younger than you’d expect. Probably a median age of around 30-40 years.. (my estimation.) This event was fun, and, while normally I would not drive to Akron just to go to it, the event combined with visiting two buddies made for a GREAT time.
But wait, there’s more.
At another couple of antique malls, what did we see MUCH MORE of? Record Albums! In fact, in one of the Akron antique malls, called “The Bomb Shelter” they had well-organized LPs by alphabetical artist….and it was one of the busier spots in the larger antique mall. I came home with a couple of albums just for fun, the kind that are a buck or so, but even those were in GREAT shape.
I guess I got a liberal education in what is really “wanted” today, seeing how busy the “dead media” event was, combined with the popularity of the LP sections of more than one antique mall over the weekend. Part of me thought I was odd for enjoying Laserdisc, but I found I’m not alone. Obviously there are many more music on LP lovers than Laserdisc collectors, but both had a good showing!
These same “retro media lovers” are the people that we should be encouraging BACK TO RADIO as they seem enthralled over media that is not delivered by bits and bytes, ones and zeros, but rather from fully ANALOG means. A needle in a groove. Even RCA’s “CED” style of videodisc was represented at the places my friends took me in Akron!
So, I guess it’s time we not take our physical media for granted, nor just “dump it” when we are tasked with helping clean out a house or a collection that may not mean anything to us. That media represents part of our past, our memories and our collective society at any given time.
Perhaps it’s time to slow down and instead of hitting one button for your compressed “playlist” you should find a decent turntable, receiver and speakers and EXPERIENCE old media….again. The numbers at the event I attended would say-so!
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