Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2016/12/09/vintage-cb-radio-trolling-from.html
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That guy on Channel 6 used to drive me nuts, going on and on for hours. He was all “mythical Christian solar god Jesus” this and “the African-Kemetic/Anu creator solar gods, Ra, Aten, Amen-Ra, Atum” that.
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One of the original social media systems.
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Back in the heyday of CB, we didn’t have gifs. We had to say “Breaker breaker, I’m picturing a girl with pigtails banging her head on a table. Over”. You kids today don’t know how easy you have it.
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Back in the day, I had a 40 channel SSB, and a 23 channel walkie. Much fun was had, but everyone seemed pretty civil. It wasn’t until the CB boom hit, (Smokey + Bandit, Convoy, etc) that the yahoos showed up and ruined it.
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Did Elvis and JFK take care of him?
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I was was mucking through the stuff in the basement, and was trying to decide to pitch the CB radio.
Yep, pitch the radio, keep the power supply.
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And you just knew that guy on channel 6 was parroting something he heard on channel 5… When you tried to break in to point this out, he’d just go off on another tangent.
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Shooting skip off the upper atmosphere to talk to other countries; illegally high powered rigs that the Fancy Candy Company would track you down with their triangulation vans; X-rated language that couldn’t be typed in evidence transcripts - i.e. ‘fusk’ instead of the real four-letter word; just having fun assembling things that would lead to interest in these new-fangled things called home computers. It was a Wild West out there.
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For a great movie that really captures the CB era, dig up a copy of Citizen’s Band, sometimes released as Handle With Care. It has truckers, vigilantes, a troll war and even Nazis. It’s a bit hard to find nowadays, but it is available in VHS and for rental on Youtube. All told, it’s a hoot.
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Back in the day the internet was a civil place full of professional, trustworthy and thoughtful people. Much fun was had - then AOL gave its customers access to the internet (not just their own tiny eco-system) and suddenly the internet was a much dumber and uncivil place.
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When he took a break, we’d play love songs to tie up the channel.
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Don’t forget “Why (** *** ***) To Vote For Hubert Humphrey”.
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Negativland used this kind of stuff on their “U2” single. This was common on CB right up until the late 90’s (maybe it’s still going on?), I occasionally tried to record it with my weird little Radio Shack shortwave, but usually I could only get one half of the conversation at a time. Still, a lot of cursing and guys just blabbering aimlessly, sometimes singing too.
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I blame WebTV for introducing real stupidity to the Web.
(On the first few releases on AOL that had “The Internet”, you had to go looking for it - they still wanted to keep everyone in their walled garden as much as possible)
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In fact, around 1992 I heard the internet referred to as “CB radio for the 90s”.
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That’s what my late uncle thought, “I’m not sure this will be as big a deal as everyone says it’s going to be. It reminds me of 20 years ago [the 70s] when everyone was going to get a CB radio.”
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Wasn’t there a 10 code you had to use for that?
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Surely there had to be some actual lingo for that?
Moppet bangin’ her toppet?
Forehead varnish?
Headdesk?
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