Newbomb Turk and Uncle Fester agree to cause mayhem for their respective families.

After over 4 years of broadcasting the Tom Kirkham Show on KWHN, I recently decided to move onto other projects.  As many of you know, I have never been a no-show to do a show that I have done 209 time before. So, it was with the best of intentions to actually do a last show, ending it professionally with proper goodbyes, a rarity in these days of syndicated programming on mega-conglomerate radio stations.  I thought everyone was on the same page.

"The best laid plans of mice and men..."

Last week, mechanical problems with the lock on the KWHN building prevented me from getting into the building to broadcast the last show. 

This week, we were able to get into the building and the studio.  As we were preparing to go live, the programming from national syndication to the local sound board was not present.  The national syndication played.

It seems that the last show was just not meant to be.

Visit here for future updates.

After over 4 years of doing the Tom Kirkham Show on KWHN, other business and personal interests are intruding on my time and tomorrow show #210, will be the last.  (Technical difficulties prevented last week from being the last show)

I have many people to thank over the years, especially Gary Elmore, who's untimely passing left behind a bit of emptiness whenever I stepped into the studio.  Also, to thank is Daren Bobb, Paul Swink, and everyone at Clear Channel that allowed me to broadcast, even though I had little experience or confidence in doing a radio show.

Also, Chris, Shayne and Gio for their work on the sound board, freeing me up to just be my self. 

And last but certainly not least, you, the audience for tolerating our shenanigans, our lack of broadcasting experience and continuing to tune-in over the years.  You may be interested to know that even though we frequently joked about our "5 or 6" listeners, we actually had very good ratings.  The last time I checked, our audience was about twice as large as the show before, and almost 3 times as large as the show following.  That is important to us because that means that many of you were specifically tuning in to listen to just OUR show.

As for the future, we may pop up in a different medium, different time or different place.  We have no definite plans at this time, so who knows?  Visit the site often for updates!

Facebook announced that they are now sharing your mobile phone number and address with 3rd party developers.  Cue the Luddite privacy advocates to begin soapboxing and lawyering up.

It was not long ago that phone books (remember those?) were published and distributed to every home and business address in the country.  There in black and white, right next to your name was your home address and phone number.  This went on for about a hundred years, and everyone that had a telephone was listed.  That is except for those that did not want their name and adress listed for every Tom, Dick and stalker or telemarketer to see.  Incredibly, those that did not want to be listed had to "opt-out" even though they were "opted-in" without approval.  Oh, and they had to pay money to "opt-out".

But see, this privacy thing is not about losing privacy.  Its about the speed at which we are losing privacy.  Instant communication of information to billions around the world changes the game.  In the past, a government security leak took days, weeks or perhaps months to reach even a small part of the worldwide audience.  Now it spreads at literally nearly the speed of light, magnifying the impact of illegally obtained or volunteered information.  Whether it is information about what an American diplomat really thinks about a third-world religious dictator or that you accidentally farted in church does not matter.

Its not just the speed either.  Its also the storage.  A couple of decades ago, one would have to go to the library and spend hours or days searching and researching old newspapers for information; Now its a few mouse clicks away, delivered instantly, anywhere.  Maybe 2 or 3 stories - maybe thousands - it doesn't matter where the information is or how much it is when its delivered at lightspeed.

Had Wikileaks simply let a couple dozen cables out, it probably would not be in such hot water.  The fact that thousands can be released in an instant is what is frightening to governments.

The genie is out of the bottle.  Individuals and governments both need to adjust to this sometimes cruel and cool, incredibly small new world.

In The Best of Cablegate:  Instances Where Public Disclosure Benefited from the Leaks, the Electronic Frontier Foundation brings up 5 cables that citizens and others might be troubled that the government is doing on their behalf.

There is no doubt that what Wikileaks does is controversial.  However, its done and nothing will stop Wikileaks or others like it in the future.  Government would spend its efforts on managing and accepting modern fact this going forward, rather than attempting to put the genie back in the bottle and throwing the 1st amendment out the window.

Makeuseof.com (a favorite site of mine) posted this YouTube video of remarkable prescient AT&T predictions from their commercials in 1993.  The narrator is Tom Selleck - who you may know from those Florida Orange Juice ads.  Oh, and he did some TV.

Popular Science magazine has scanned each issue of its 137 year magazine, and place the entire collection online for free.  Science geeks, head over to PopSci archives here.