All quarter long I’ve been following (reading) the Arcane Radio Trivia blog. Per our assignment this week I will attempt to analyze it using some of the tools and criteria Kathy taught us.

We’ll begin with my first impressions, namely the all black background. I can’t explain why but this gives the whole blog an air of seriousness. However, after reading several of the posts over the last few weeks, I don’t think that Jose Fritz, the Blogmaster, takes himself too seriously. It is his passion that comes through in each and every post. I would assume his audience is radio enthusiasts and at first I thought this was geared toward the amateur and classic radio enthusiast, but it seems his topics include amateur and professional radio. A quick scan down the list of the most recent posts includes discussion on ESPN Radio, an online mix tape service, a brief history of RCA, information on filing complaints with the FCC and a biography of an Old Time Radio personality. Frankly I didn’t expect to read regularly but his variety has kept me coming back. I don’t know if he has done any surveys to know what his audience wants, and I can’t say just how many people are tracking his blog, but he writes a post just about every day.

The Design is simple and striaghtfoward. There is a header at the top of the page with the title and a brief logline. Right away this lets the audience know where they are and what they can expect to find here. On the right 1/3 side of the page is his bio, links, and archives. The rest of the page is devoted to his post, with the most recent being at the top. One of the most interesting aspects of this blog is the fact that while it is about radio, it isn’t a podcast. He has embedded audio into some of his posts but only in a limited way. I would have thought that a blog about radio would lend itself excellently to a podcast about radio, since podcasting is so similar, but I guess not. Mr Fritz prefers to write about radio…a lot.

So prolific in fact, that I can only raise one tiny complaint. His links to subscribe to the blog are at the bottom of the column on the right side. Since he is constantly updating I would think most of his audience are subscribing and putting the link to the RSS would be convienent for them or any new subscribers

Maury