Radio? What's that? ('Sesame Street' Wednesday)

Remember when there used to be something called radio?

If you're an old dude like me, you might recall this invention. It was a device that let you hear talk and music through the air. Why, cars had radios. They still do. It's that little thing with numbers on it that nobody uses anymore.

What's radio? It's that thing that interferes with your computer speakers. That's what radio is.

But radio used to be quite influential. Americans my age were raised on this medium. It was often the arbiter of what music would become popular. Twenty years ago, station personnel even accepted payola (in the form of money and drugs) from record labels to play their music. That's why so much bad music became popular at the time. Even if the labels didn't own so many stations now, they wouldn't bother with this today, because nobody listens to radio anymore.

'Sesame Street' taught about radio during the show's very first season 41 years ago:



Reportedly, that segment was voiced by Casey Kasem - one of radio's most legendary broadcasters of modern times. However, it sounds nothing like him, so I can't be too sure.