The Personal Computer Radio Show was launched on WBAI on August 4, 1983 or August 6, 1984 (over 41 years ago!) by Hank Kee and Joe King. Originally it was a call-in show, allowing listeners to discuss computer topics of the day or ask for help with computer problems.
If you have a correct citation for the launch date of the show, please contact Brendan Kidwell.
In August 2016, the show was nearly cancelled by WBAI, but due to overwhelming audience feedback, WBAI reversed their decision.
In September 2016, the show was picked up by Progressive Radio Network, an Internet radio station. PRN broadcasts the show weekly on their livestream, and makes it avaiable as a podcast on PodBean. (This is when the full audio and episode descriptions start, which are browseable and searchable on hankkee.net.)
In January 2019, WBAI cancelled the show, leaving PRN as the shows home until today.
In 2020 at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic and with the studio in lock-down, the show was forced to change its format and drop the live call-in feature.
The current format of the PC Radio Show offers the most current computer industry and user group meeting news, hardware and software reviews, artificial intelligence and ChatGPT, guest interviews, and insights into the future of computer and digital technology. Our only advocacies are consumerism and the First Amendment. Hank welcomes you the listeners to provide feedback as to what you want to hear. Address your suggestions to hankkee@gmail.com.
You can listen live on prn.live (direct livestream link) on Wednesdays at 5:00pm New York time, or you can subscribe to the show on PodBean or here on hankkee.net (rss).
PC Radio Show has won the prestigious Computer Press Association Award three times.
Our musical theme, the Wanhal Stomp, is by Sue Keller. It is based on Johann Wanhal (1739-1813) / Rondo from Sonata in B flat for clarinet and piano. Our first use of this theme came from Dorothy Siegal’s interpretation for her own synthesizer on an album entitled: First Philadelphia Computer Music Festival. Dorothy brought it to our show in 1985. Sue Keller reinterpreted it in 1997. Listen to a MIDI version of the theme.