No Static At All
.This is a serialised novel about Nashville in the late seventies. While there are some public figures mentioned, and the backdrop is a very real radio station that provided the soundtrack for many of us, it should be noted that any resemblance between the obvious figments of my fevered imagination and actual walking, talking, breathing people (and those who are not so walky, talky, breathing types anymore) is coincidental.
A little more legalese... No ownership of images, music, or other creative artifacts of the time is assumed or implied.
So what is this and how did it start? A few years ago, a group of friends decided to do Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month.) All of us had attempted it before and the prospect of doing it again was met with yawns. Someone came up with the idea of making it a bit more challenging this time around. We would be given stories to improve upon. The conditions were both simple and daunting:
At the time, the only available copies to be had were burned on demand discs from a company in Australia. I could barely remember the plot. I got the Aussie burn along with Richard Curtis' Pirate Radio and my old, much-loved copies of WKRP in Cincinnati.
So, about FM... Some of the critics weren't particularly nice to it. The cast is good. The story is an underdog prevails type tale I associate more with 80s' pop cinema than late 70s' popcorn jukebox movies. Watching FM again reminded me why I had affection for it when it first came out. It's a feelgood film about people who what they do and love music. Another perk is the concert footage, which makes this a disc worth adding to your collection. Yes, I do still own and acquire physical copies of books, movies, and music. This served me well as the story starts out in 1978. Revisiting the technology was fun.
As much as I love the source material and the other things I watched, there is very little of the original story in No Static At All. What remains is the spirit of period and the anarchic soul that made the people at QSKY a group you want to root for. I'd like to think Jeff Dugan, Mother, Doc Holliday, Prince, Eric Swan, and Laura Coe would see the crew at this alternative version of KDF as kindred spirits.
A little more legalese... No ownership of images, music, or other creative artifacts of the time is assumed or implied.
So what is this and how did it start? A few years ago, a group of friends decided to do Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month.) All of us had attempted it before and the prospect of doing it again was met with yawns. Someone came up with the idea of making it a bit more challenging this time around. We would be given stories to improve upon. The conditions were both simple and daunting:
- It must come from another kind of media, ie. film, television, comics, theatre, etc.
- We would draw names and choose for whoever we drew.
- The setting had to be a time and place we had lived.
- It could not have been considered very good in its original form.
- Our mission, should we take it, was to improve on the original.
At the time, the only available copies to be had were burned on demand discs from a company in Australia. I could barely remember the plot. I got the Aussie burn along with Richard Curtis' Pirate Radio and my old, much-loved copies of WKRP in Cincinnati.
So, about FM... Some of the critics weren't particularly nice to it. The cast is good. The story is an underdog prevails type tale I associate more with 80s' pop cinema than late 70s' popcorn jukebox movies. Watching FM again reminded me why I had affection for it when it first came out. It's a feelgood film about people who what they do and love music. Another perk is the concert footage, which makes this a disc worth adding to your collection. Yes, I do still own and acquire physical copies of books, movies, and music. This served me well as the story starts out in 1978. Revisiting the technology was fun.
As much as I love the source material and the other things I watched, there is very little of the original story in No Static At All. What remains is the spirit of period and the anarchic soul that made the people at QSKY a group you want to root for. I'd like to think Jeff Dugan, Mother, Doc Holliday, Prince, Eric Swan, and Laura Coe would see the crew at this alternative version of KDF as kindred spirits.
WKDF sign detail photo from xNateDogx via Wikimedia Commons.
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