It's our season finale episode and I'm excited to be chatting about the glory days of public access television with two folks who have first-hand experience in that world. Writer Keith DeCandido is best known these days for his novels and comics but back in the early 90s he was one of the hosts of the New York City science fiction public access show THE CHRONIC RIFT and Calvin Watts has been talking about science fiction on Rhode Island cable access for the past 30 years, first as one of the cohosts of the legendary STAR TREK THE UNOFFICIAL FAN CLUB and later as one of the hosts of SCI-FI JOURNAL, a show he is still one of the hosts of TO THIS DAY. A little while back I was a guest on The Flopcast and we discussed public access tv shows in Rhode Island and I look at this episode as kind of a companion piece to that - we cover a little of the same ground but it was super interesting hearing from Keith and Calvin all about what it was like to produce one of these shows both back in the day and, in Calvin’s case, still.
You can find all things Keith R.A. DeCandido (books for sale, blog, etc.) at his website: http://decandido.net/
Check out an archive of classic 1990s Chronic Rift episodes here: The Chronic Rift
Calvin Watts' ongoing public access show Sci-Fi Journal can be found both on Rhode Island Interconnect A and on YouTube: Sci-Fi Journal
You can hear me reminisce about old Rhode Island public tv shows on the Flopcast here: Flopcast 670 - A Camcorder and a Dream
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