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!
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 !