Welcome to ROX

Hey, it's the 50th anniversary of the Superdome, which opened on 3 August 1975. In honor of that event, not to mention another upcoming anniversary, we're posting this video produced by Valerie Lisa Bartelt and Sang-Jin Kim. They were students at Indiana University at that time. We gave them a helping hand then, but as far as we can tell the video isn't on YouTube or any streaming platform.

Until now.

For more of the story, see Editor B's personal blog.

— by B | link

We are delighted to share a new half-hour mini-documentary, "The Public Access Stoner Show That Sparked Internet Infamy." It's so much fun to see the story of ROX told by someone outside our immediate crew. Watch it on YouTube, and be sure to subscribe to Blevin's channel for more media excavations.

— by B | link

30 years ago this month, ROX became the first TV show on the internet. 20 years ago this month, YouTube launched. You do the math.

— by B | link

I posted this silly two-minute clip from ROX #46 on YouTube Friday. The algorithm grabbed it, and it has now become our most-watched video. 11K views and counting. Keep in mind we've been on YouTube since early 2006. The comments are amusing. Viewers seem almost as confused as we were when we made this video way back in '93.

— by B | link

We have a ton of news articles and audio/video clips of media coverage. We fed as much as we could to NotebookLM and we were amused by the results. We've had mixed results getting them to pronounce the name correctly. It took a couple iterations to get the AI hosts in the “spirit” of the show.

— by B | link

I'm sorry to have to report that Alan Murphy died Tuesday night.

Murf was seen in our most notorious episode. He was doing a participant-observer thing for a class at IU. We tried to keep his role low-key, but he ended up on MTV with the rest of us. He was also running HR for the HT back then, so it was a slight embarrassment.

He was Xy's godfather, her dad's best friend. He always had a kind word for me and really seemed to take a genuine interest in my doings.

He was also fiendishly good at Scrabble. He will be missed by many.

— by B | link

Way back in 1994, we produced ROX #71 without controversy. I uploaded a clip from that show to YouTube last week and it was immediately removed for "inappropriate content" because it violated "Community Guidelines." The ironic thing is — well, no, skip it. I'm not going to tell you about the irony. I'm just uploading the clip to Internet Archive so the world can enjoy "Another Punk Band."

— by B | link

Back in the day, ROX got several letters from a mysterious and insightful fan known to the public only as “Name and Address Withheld Upon Request.” After the recent sad news it can be revealed: it was Jim Morrison. No, not that guy. Our old mentor from the dorm who went on to become a well-loved Bloomington teacher. He will be missed.

— by B | link