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May 24, 2021

Michael Jordan

Classic Commercial

Here are a couple of classic commercials featuring NBA Legend Micheal Jordan. These came out in the 2000s. These aired when Michel Jordan was in his second retirement from the NBA (1999 - 2001).

Commercials

Bill Bradley for President Commercial - This aired in California during the primaries.

MCI 5 Cent Everyday - Classic commercial featuring some characters from Space Jam.

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May 17, 2021

Celebrity AnswerAlls #2

Let Celebrities Take Your Messages

This week Media Monday features another celebrity telephone answering machine message. This collection has many of the same voices as the Radio Shack collection.

This tape is from 1982. I can???t recall exactly where I got this one. Maybe Caldor or Radio Shack.

There is another "best-of collection" with a similar name. That collection is the best of all the Celebrity AnswerAlls from the series.

This collection was made by the Project Market Group from Boca Raton, Florida. I wasn???t able to find any information on the company. I suspect they must have closed sometime in the 1980s.

Celebrity Impressions

  1. WC Fields
  2. Jimmy Carter
  3. Barbra Streisand
  4. Charles Dickens
  5. Cheech & Chong
  6. Lou Costello
  7. Frank Sinatra
  8. James Cagney

Question

After hearing this tape, would you actually use any of the voices that you heard?

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May 10, 2021

Classic Internet Commercial

Classic Commercials from my VHS collection

Here are some classic Internet commercials that I found in my VHS collection. These all aired around the early 2000s.

  • Circuit City - "Find it, Love it"
  • Earth Web - "Win a Million Dollars!"
  • Webstakes.com - "The Easiest Place on Earth to Win a Prize"
  • Nokia - "The Petersons"
  • Issuz - "Joe Isuzu and the Axion"
  • MSN - "Welcome to MSN Broadband"

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May 3, 2021

Radio Shack Outgoing Message

In the 1980s, you could go to Radio Shack and get some cool things. One thing that I found was a cassette tape that featured celebrities' impersonations to spice up your answering machine. The impersonations weren't all that good.

These tapes were to be funny and encourage people to leave messages. I have a couple of different cassette tapes in my collection. I don't know why I felt the need to buy a series. As I recall the tapes cost about $5. They were placed near the phones and answering machines.

Tape Contents

  • Introduction
  • W.C. Fields
  • Mae West?
  • George Burns and Gracie Allen
  • Mad Scientist
  • Rodney Dangerfield
  • Groucho Marx
  • Columbo
  • Barbra Streisand
  • Alfred Hitchcock
  • Gilda Radner

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April 26, 2021

Video Professor

A bit of the classic infomercial

In the late 1990's one of the late-night infomercials was Video Professor. They produce training CDs on how to use the computer. In the half-hour-long Infomercial, they were promoting the ability to try out their videos in any subject that people want. All you had to do is pay for shipping and handling.

What Video Professor didn't talk much about is the "fine print." Customers would be signed up for a subscription service where future videos would be charged to the credit card on file. They wouldn't get charged if they canceled their subscription. Some of the videos would cost between $50 to $399.

Due to various lawsuits and lagging sales, the company folded in 2002.

Here is a clip of the commercial that I recorded on April 24, 1999 - nearly 22 years ago.

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April 19, 2021

Phone Call gone Wrong

Did I waste too much time with them?

Just about everyone has gotten the extended car warranty phone calls. My favorite is when they call me about a car that I have never owned.

The following phone conversation happened about a year ago. They called me about a car that I have never owned.

This call ends a strange way. I think the lady didn't understand what I said and pretty much wrote off the call.

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April 12, 2021

Job Commercials

Some classic Job Commercials

This week's Media Monday is a look at some classic Internet Job Commercials and a segment on the Dot Com Guy.

Features:

  • Hot Jobs Commercial - "ipo//ipo"
  • Monster.com - "Where will Ted Go?"
  • Dot Com Guy - KTVU segment about Mitch Maddox being the DOT COM Guy.

There were some other clips that I had, but I couldn't find them. These will have to do this week.

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April 5, 2021

Driving in San Francisco

San Francisco has one of the worst traffic in the country. It wasn't all that great in 2000.

Here's a mix of the Traffic Report from TV and the Radio.

I am not sure about the date of the radio piece. I believe it was sometime in the 2000s.

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March 29, 2021

Classic New England Commercials

Some Classic Commercials that I have in my collection

This week, I decided to feature some classic New England Commercials.

These I had digitalized in 1998 on my Macintosh Centris 660AV computer. I may still have the orginal DVDs and could create a better quality version in the future.

In this week's video:

  • Bank Of Boston - Great Tune!
  • Ames - Classic Department store. (I remember the one in Acton, Massachusetts.)
  • Breakfast Mate - Not Really New England, but on a VHS tape that was New England.
  • Eastern Airlines - This one is pretty old. Not exactly sure of the date. Care to guess?

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March 22, 2021

Capital One and Student Loan

Fly By Night companies looking to scam people

Here are a couple of scam voice messages that I got in the past few months. These don't actually seem to be real people but just computer-generated messages. I guess they want to see if I am gullible and will respond to the voice messages to get more information.

Enjoy!

Capital One

Missed Call from 800-258-6019. This isn't a Capital One phone number and I don't even have a Capital one Credit Card.

Hello. This is Elizabeth calling from the underwriting department regarding your Capital one credit card account based on your recent payment activity and balance you may be eligible for an interest rate reduction to as low as 1.9% and there is additional information. I need to confirm your eligibility or so please return my call directly in the underwriting department at 1-800-258-6019. Once again 1-800-258-6019 and will be the only notice you receive and this offer is only valid for three business days. Thank you.

Student Loan Processing Department

Missed Call from (617) 380-3109. Note the caller never mentions the actual name of the company, just as "student loan processing department."

Hey, sorry, I missed you. This is Andrew of on with the student loan processing department. I'm following up because there's a lot happening right now with the new year and the new President and since you have been completed your student loan forgiveness application with us we really need to finish it now. So please give us a callback today at this number before 6:00 PM if you're no longer interested that's fine too just call us and let us know you're not interested. I will remove you from our follow, up list and cancel the pending application, thanks and happy new year.

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WednesdayiPhone 14 Pro Max
ThursdayNew England
FridayMacintosh
SaturdayInternet Tools
SundayOpen Topic
MondayMedia Monday
TuesdayQA