Jeff: This is the Roger Perry Oral History Project, session number one with my father, Roger Perry, on May 30. I am at my home in
Jeff: When were you born?
Roger: Got your recorder on?
Jeff: Yeah, it’s on.
Roger: When was I born…I was born on the 15th of June 1947.
Jeff: Good year. During your childhood, what was the main method of mass communication?
Roger: Probably … like the newspaper.
Jeff: Did radio play a significant role in your household?
Roger: Not as far as mass communication I don’t think. I mean, we listened to music; I mean it was on the music stations of course, but it did not play a super-big role in mass communication.
Jeff: Did you have a television in your home growing up?
Roger: Yes.
Jeff: Did it play a big part of family life?
Roger: That’s a good question. I would probably say not in family life…Friday and Saturday nights we’d watch TV together, but not the rest of the week. So I don’t know if you’d call that a big part or not.
Jeff: So then, you would say there was a dividing line between newspaper and television and radio?
Roger: You know, I think newspaper was a primary means of communication. Music and stuff is communication in a way too, but as far as getting the news and that kind of thing…the newspaper was in our house, and we didn’t get many magazines, so I would say the newspaper for our family. Radio and TV were more for entertainment than for mass communication.
Jeff: I understand that you were an officer in the Air Force. What was the role of communication technology in your military service?
Roger: Wow.
Jeff: Broad subject?
Roger: Yeah. Technology…most of the communication technology that I dealt with was primitive, like telephones, land line telephones; but we did have walky-talkie radios for communication, and computers were, in the latter part of my career, were pretty prevalent. Computer technology.
Jeff: What was the main method of communication in the Air Force…in your military service?
Roger: Communication at what level? Things that I dealt with?
Jeff: Say, from the top down, from base to base.
Roger: I don’t know which would be more prevalent…the two main means of communication were in written orders, written communication, and verbal, like telephone and that kind of thing. From the top down, written was the most prevalent.
Jeff: How did you communicate with other Air Force personnel over distances?
Roger: In earlier times we really didn’t communicate with Air Force personnel at other bases. In later years, I would say probably telephone and written…probably written first and then telephone. Everything’s gotta be documented in the military, it’s gotta be written down; signed, sealed, delivered. So mostly probably written.
Jeff: When you were on missions abroad, how did you communicate with your family at home? What communication was available?
Roger: Primary means most often was through writing. Letters, mail. The telephone was normally too expensive. We did have some opportunities when we were overseas of calling through…I think it was called, like a MARS…I can’t remember what the initials stand for, but it was a radio. You talked through a telephone, and it transferred it by radio to a receiving base, and then it was transmitted by telephone from the base in the
Jeff: Did you have any problems using that system? With the telephones and the radio?
Roger: We were limited to a certain amount of time and it was only available normally late at night, like it might be available from midnight to 2AM or something like that. Then you’d have to go and wait, because somebody might be in front of you. We had to wait until they had their 15 minutes, and then you could have your 15 minutes, so it was not convenient; late at night, and you had to go to a particular office where they had the facilities, equipment, whatever, and it worked that way.
Jeff: Do you know if they are allowed to use e-mail now?
Roger: Sure, yeah. E-mail is the most common today. They didn’t e-mail…they had computers back then, but e-mail hadn’t been invented.
Jeff: How would you say communication is different now that we have things like e-mail?
Roger: Well of course speed, availability…you can communicate almost anytime and quickly…I think that’s the main thing.
Jeff: Speed and efficiency?
Roger: Yeah.
Jeff: Going back to your past for a minute, did you learn about any important national or global events through the media?
Roger: I’m sure I did…are you looking for specific events or…?
Jeff: Any that you recall; how old were you when President Kennedy was assassinated?
Roger: I was in high school.
Jeff: How did you learn about that?
Roger: Television or radio…I was in school. Somebody heard about it, started turning on radios. I don’t know if there was a TV available at school, but certainly radios.
Jeff: You said that a lot of the news was obtained from newspapers. Do you think there was a switch in the time period that we’re talking about, from news being obtained from newspapers to news being obtained from radio?
Roger: Are we talking about me or are we talking about a generality?
Jeff: In general.
Roger: Well because I was at school at that time, that’s when it happened, and people turned the radio on so that’s how we heard about it. But that was not…the radio was still a secondary means of getting information. That particular event I first heard about on the radio.
Jeff: So did you turn to the newspaper for more details about the event?
Roger: Uh-huh.
Jeff: I see.
Roger: Newspapers, and of course the radio and television…it was that type of an event that was reported everywhere. Most television and computers as they became more common, with evening news and morning news and midday news, and all that, they became more prevalent sources for information. But that was after I was married and in the military and stuff. As far as in my young years, the newspaper was the main thing.
Jeff: What do you rely on today to get most of your news?
Roger: You know, I think I’d probably still say the newspaper for most of it. I listen to evening news sometimes when the TV is on…when I happen to be in the car or something, I’ll listen to the news on the radio. I would say the main thing is still the newspaper. For me. I don’t turn to the computer for news. I know a lot of people get their news off the computer today, but I don’t.
Jeff: Why do you choose the newspaper over other media?
Roger: Well let’s see…habit, maybe for one thing. The TV could be a good second, but I don’t necessarily turn it on…I’m usually doing other things. The newspaper’s convenient, it’s there in the morning when I’m getting up, and the information: I can read it, I can go back and look at something again to make sure I got the information right or whatever. That type of thing. When there’s big breaking news, some significant thing, like 9/11, if you remember that, the TV was the main thing because it was reporting instantaneously the information. If I just waited to read the newspaper I wouldn’t get it till the next day or a couple of days later or whatever. If it’s a major thing that’s going on I’d probably turn to the TV to get that particular news, but for the day-to-day news the newspaper is still the main way.
Jeff: One last question. In your lifetime, what do you think has been the most significant change in communication media?
Roger: I’d probably have to say the computer. I don’t use the computer, not that much anyway, and certainly not to get information from the computer … although I do get information off the computer from time to time. But I think the computer is probably, and the Internet in particular, has had probably the biggest impact on communication.
Jeff: Excellent! Thanks. I’ll mail you that release form ASAP.
Roger: Well, could you just fax it?
Jeff: Well, I…
Roger: Is it like a Word document? You could e-mail the file to us; it’d save you a stamp or two.
Jeff: But it has to be signed, so we’d still need a stamp. Wait, do you have a scanner?
Roger: Yeah, we have a printer/scanner thing.
Jeff: What I could do is send you the file; you could print it out, sign it, scan it, and then send the file back to me!
Roger: Perfect! See, the computer has changed communication!
