You're Riding The SHOCKWAVE

[Ed. Note: This article was originally published in the Minicon 30 Program Book and is slightly edited for this format.]

If you're not listening, please turn on your radio now. The time is 6:00 PM Saturday on KFAI 90.3 FM Minneapolis and 106.7 FM St. Paul, and you're riding the Shockwave...

Every week for 16 years Shockwave Science Fiction/Science Fact has brought you the best in original science fiction humor; reviews of books & movies & tv; roundtable discussions of topics serious and silly; interviews with characters real and imaginary; views on computers, software and the internet; and much much more. Each week features a Top 11 List, with topics like The Top 11 Works Better Suited To Being Translated Into Klingon Than the Bible. There is no set format, so you never know what to expect. Last Christmas Eve I played surfing music. The week after that was another Folk Songs For Yuppies: TV Theme Songs (as you've never heard them before).

Over the course of a decade and a half of being weird on the radio, Shockwave has developed a future history including such topical issues as the St. Paul Spaceport (78% of the former state of Wisconsin), the Gigamall, ELFLand, Bigger-Than-Light-Drive, Time In A Spraycan, the Solid State Fair, the Lunatennial and the Milk Carton Satellite Race. And, of course, Preconcetions, News of the Future. "If we don't cover it, it doesn't matter". With Anchorbeing Walter Mumble, Reporters Noah Ward and Phil Time, Interviewer Laureate Ellen Gone, and Religion Correspondent Lloyd Preservus. And occasional reports from Conceptual Artist Jason Reignboughs.

Shockwave Live Stage Shows started within a year of the radio program at a small sf con, and have been a feature at Minicon since the Year of our Moon Landing 11. The shows have been graced by the enormous talents of Kara Dalkey, Jerry Stearns, Brian Westley, Kate Worley, Jane Yolen, Emma Bull, Steve Brust, Brian Anderson, John Singer, Denny Lien, Ed Eastman, the late Beth Eastman and others too numerous to give their proper due here. The audience often has a part, too. This year, there will even be a part for those in cyberspace.

Shockwave might be on the internet, with it's own WWW Home Page and possibly even a live audio feed over the net from Minicon [Yes on the web page (this), no on the live audio feed, alas.]. You're no longer merely surfing the internet, you're riding the Shockwave. What I try to do is show you the world as you've never thought to look at it. Shockwave is more than radio, it's the future. More than the future, it's the present. Or one of them, anyway.

Speculation about potential projects includes opening ceremonies at the 1996 LA Worldcon and the release of a CD-ROMM (finally making that joke funny). Tapes of Shockwave are available. But don't ask me anything right after the show: I'm not all there. (Use this Free Straight Line wisely, grasshopper.) You can contact me at romm@visi.com. Remember my motto: I can be bribed.

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