It’s time to wish the Sound of the Beep a fond farewell.
We started running the Sound of the Beep at The Rhinoceros Times in the mid 1990s. I had read an article about a newspaper hooking up an answering machine to a phone line and transcribing the results to the delight of its readers. I called up the editor to find out if there was more to it than that. He said that there wasn’t and warned me that for a month or two we’d be inundated with calls but then the calls would dwindle down to a couple a week.
He was right about being inundated with calls, but wrong about the dwindling down part. We thought when we had a website where people could comment it would kill the Beep, but that didn’t do it either.
I know that for years we had to run at least 2,500 words of Beep a week or the next week the Beep would be full of angry calls about not running enough Beep.
With all the work we put in writing and editing articles, it is painful to admit that for a lot of people the Beep was always their favorite part of the Rhino.
So the Beep survived a lot longer than it should have, but without a print edition there isn’t much reason to continue to have a call-in line and as that editor predicted the calls have dwindled down to nearly nothing, it just took a couple of decades longer than he estimated.
I would like to thank all the callers to the Beep over the years, you know who you are and we thank you for letting us know how you really felt. And I would like to offer a special thanks to the Independent Thinker and say hello to Otis who’s been saying hello to me for years.
Bring back the print version! Before the entire paper is shut down again!
wow this is going down fast the paper to quit than the sound of the beep quit I guess it’s going out of business again RIP the Rhino times
This reminds me of the WWE and the WCW Monday night battles but in this case the Rhino times lost and it’s editor that ran it in the ground last time has done it again this is just going to become some unknown digital format that probably in about 5 years will never be read much take Quick Print in the paper to try to save money because they lost the battle with yes weekly now they getting rid of the beep line so they don’t have to pay a phone bill so I presume this will fade into the night and I’m about 5 years from now I’ll be surprised if anyone’s reading it if much of anyone but yeah hammers ran it in the ground again
“The Beep” was Greensboro’s very own Speakers’ Corner; a forum of free expression unrivalled in its candor and spontaneity. I knew it wouldn’t survive the transition to the web, and that’s a shame.
We had a pretty good run though, didn’t we John, and Elaine?
Thankyou for letting me vent for so many years. You probably prevented me from having a heart attack!
And for one last time…. Just sign me off as an Independent Thinker.
Hey John,
Why wouldn’t you continue to run “Sound of the Beep” and just post it to your website as a digital sound bite?
With the digital paper it is much easier for people to comment like you did rather than calling the Beep line. It’s easier for us also, because we don’t have to listen to and type all those comments.
Loved the paper. Us old folks are not that computer savvy. Where do we go now to find the truth about
people running for office? Please bring the paper back.
Please consider bringing back the paper version of “THE RHINO TIMES” I miss it terribly;and I know a lot of people in this area feel the same way! I know it wont be a year till November;but it seems longer than that to me.Reading the physical paper version of THE RHINO TIMES was what I looked forward to Thursdays for!! PLEASE give it some consideration !!. Thanks
Yes, what Thomas said!
Yes.
WE Triad Conservatives NEED that “Sound of the Beep” ! It’s a sounding board, as well as a source of information (well mostly). In this election year it’s especially important to share information which we certainly can’t trust the local GNR or the MSM to do. We need to know who the Conservative candidates are, and exactly what they stand for, especially in the “non-partisan” races. We need to share the facts we’ve heard on Conservative news stations which you’ll never get from MSM, which lies a lot simply by omission.
WE also NEED a printed version of the paper, and many folks wouldn’t mind paying a small price for it. We miss being able to read John Hammer’s column on a regular basis. That pretty much sums up the political scene in a factual and concise manner. Too many folks I know, especially some who are otherwise well educated read or watch a “variety of news sources” and get the same pro-liberal and sometimes outright lying stories from all of them. They NEED a newspaper which publishes the facts. Yes, I have a computer and a smarter- than–am-phone on which I sometimes read your online paper, but I ALWAYS picked up and read the printed version. I recently gathered old newspapers from my neighbors to pack up china, and I read a few editorial pages and could not believe the BS I was seeing. Americans need to know the truth !
You said it all.
Well said! I always looked forward to the Thursday Rhino!
I’m a hard lefty-leftist, but I enjoyed reading my weekly printed issue of The Rhino. I always headed straight for The Sound of the Beep, followed by News of the Weird, then on to the Letters to the Editor, went backwards to skim the article headlines, and finally attempted to solve The NY Times Crossword Puzzle. Never hard to locate a distribution site, I always looked to pick up a copy of the current issue whenever I was in town. I would like to see The Rhino come back in print, and with its best features (give us back The Beep!) How can we help bring it back, and how can The Rhino help stop us from becoming former readers?
What candidates are u endorsing 2020. Please email me a list. Thank u
John, is there any way you can change he web site so one does not have to go back all 460 pages to catch up on previous posts? I am not a slave to my computer and going backward one page at a time to where I stopped reading last is a royal pain. If there were some way I could go back 10, 50, even 100 pages at one click would make it easier to review old topics that might be relevant for present issues (like how the City Council has voted for the last couple of years so I can make some informed decisions at voting time) it would be incredibly helpful. Thanks. I was a reader for several years before you went to online only and I would like to follow you regularly again if it doesn’t take me an hour each time to return to where I left off.
I didn’t even know the Rhino was still alive. Or is it? This seems to be an old thread. Maybe you are gone again?
The Rhino Times has always leaned waaaay off to the right of my beliefs, but I do (did) always find it entertaining nonetheless. What has happened to this paper? Never hard to go far without locating a distribution box, or a stack of current issues for the taking inside a business, the Rhino suddenly became “extinct in the Wild,” disappointingly — at least for me. I vaguely recall (and I could be imagining this) that tRT threatened to stop its publication several years ago, but was saved from doing so and continued on. I wholeheartedly disagree with pretty much everything John Hammer stands for politically, but I support his right to publish this paper to say it, and I tried to make an effort to pick up any new issue as they were stocked. I didn’t even know until just now that The Sound of the Beep was discontinued in 2019, and I guess I’m about to learn (as soon as I end my comments and get back on the site) the present state and fate of the Rhino. That tRT has become a hollow shell of its former self is such a letdown – bummer!