Internet Archive preserves 1980s PC Radio Show that interviewed legends such as Douglas Adams, Bill Gates Timothy Leary and Jack Tramiel

The Internet Archive announced the preservation and release 53 episodes of The Famous Computer Cafe. This radio show aired from 1983 to 1986 in California and focused on home computing. The show includes industry news, ads for technology at the time, reviews of hardware and software, and interviews with computing (and cultural!) pioneers.

The original creators of the show had preserved it on reel-toreel tapes. However, these tapes were scattered over time and appear to have been lost. The Internet Archive project began when computer historian Kay Savetz purchased several of these reel-to-reel tapes at a real estate sale. She then launched a crowd funding campaign to digitally archive the show and make it available again.

Savetz writes that "While the show is full of descriptions of 1980s tech news in time capsules, the most exciting part of the show was the variety and uniqueness" of the interviews. The list of people interviewed by the show is a who's who of 1980s tech luminaries: computer people, musicians, publishers, philosophers and journalists. The recovered recordings feature interviews with Timothy Leary and Douglas Adams, Bill Gates as well as Atari's Jack Tramiel and Apple's Bill Atkinson.

I love old technology shows. I especially enjoy listening to smart people puzzle out where the field is headed, and the nostalgia of an era when people asked what computers were as well as what they could do.

I listened to The Famous Computer Cafe episode where they interviewed a young Bill Gates. Bill Gates appears around ten minutes in, after a review on the Muppet Learning Keyboard. This keyboard is not very responsive and could leave a three year old bored. Gates was already semi famous and wildly successful at this point, but computers were not as mainstream as they are today, and their purpose and power still needed to be explained.

Gates is asked to explain what an operating system is. He does so by explaining that a computer is composed of many components and requires something to communicate with them: "that basic function, which we sometimes refer to as input/output management, is performed [by an operating system]."

Gates then goes on to discuss MS-DOS before listing various Microsoft software, including "one our most popular programs", Flight Simulator. "It allows you to fly around [...], we have maps of different cities so you can see the Sears Tower, or whatever landmarks there are in the city that you happen to come from."

Gates is asked about the Apple Macintosh. He says that he was excited to develop graphical apps because he believes graphics will be available on all machines [...]. Gates continues to use his favourite phrases ("A computer on every desktop, in every home") when talking about the future computing, including his ideas that computers could "assist you" by using what Microsoft called "softer-software."

Gates said that the term AI is "loaded". "People think robots are going to take over the world, but what I mean by softer software is that the machine recognises what you're doing."

The interview took place in November of 1984. It's not surprising that Gates was so right on every topic. He also spoke with absolute conviction about the future of the humble PC. Gates continues to discuss MSX before talking with Kazuhiko Nishi, who was at the time leading Microsoft's push in Asia, about the Japanese market. A brief segment is shown near the end of the program about how new government legislation could affect working from home using your computer.

The Famous Computer Cafe looks like a great place to spend some time. I've already marked several episodes for the coming weeks. The 53 shows that have been archived and released are not the entire show. These episodes are from November 17 1984 to July 12 1985. There are probably other shows on those reel to reel tapes, including interviews with Ray Bradbury, Robert Moog and Donny Osmond. Gene Roddenberry, Robert Moog, Donny Osmond (! If you live in Los Angeles and have a garage, it might be worth clearing out.

The story of The Famous Computer Cafe, and how it came to be, is the topic of a new podcast episode of Radio Survivor. In this episode, Ellen Fields and Kay Savetz interview co-creator Ellen Fields.