How did Radio Free Cybertron begin? John sits down with Brian Kilby for the backstory. Brian’s first job was as a Sunday DJ at a small-market radio station in northwestern North Carolina. In 1998 he decided to record himself talking Transformers and post it online, using RealMedia because he was on dial-up. They also revisit the old alt.toys.transformers fandom and the show’s early segments.
From Sunday Radio Shifts to Internet Audio
Brian’s first job was a 12-hour Sunday shift at a local radio station, offered through a family connection when nobody else wanted it. Already a computer nerd with a Transformers fan site, he decided to record content made for the internet. Back then stations only streamed their broadcasts. He chose RealMedia for its compression on dial-up and once wrote that MP3 was not a viable format. “I’m not always right,” he laughs. He used the radio station’s software, found free hosting and advertised on alt.toys.transformers and rec.toys.transformers.moderated. John found the show through the newsgroups.
The Fandom Back Then
Brian had just turned 20. With mainly G1, G2 and Beast Wars to know, he says it was easier to feel authoritative, and he was probably more arrogant. Today there is far more to know, and he is fine with knowing less of it. The fandom was small enough that people recognized your newsgroup name everywhere. Brian recalls that the founder of TFW2005 asked him to play his music on the show to help publicize the new site. Brian says he was never a TFW2005 poster himself. He considered himself an alt.toys.transformers guy, then an Allspark guy.
Staying Out of the Podcast Scene
Today Brian participates little in the online fandom beyond Twitter and some Facebook. He says he is “firewalled off” from the wider podcast community and turns down guest invitations. He says RFC came back because there wasn’t a Transformers podcast he wanted to hear, so he makes a show for himself. John adds that he dislikes the politics and thin skin around today’s podcasters and YouTubers.
The Early Shows
The first episodes were Brian reading scripted news, doing reviews and writing comedy segments like News from Cybertron and Bad Poets Corner. Volunteers followed: Turin contributed segments first, then John’s ATT Buzz, then Exvee’s toy reviews from when his voice hadn’t changed yet. Brian calls the old episodes raw, earnest and hard to listen to now. John says they have their own charm.
Contributors: John DeLuna, Brian Kilby
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