S.M. Oliva writes an amazing blog named Computer Chronicles Revisited, a site dedicated to reviewing episodes of the seminal television show.
(This article covering an episode that includes a look at A/UX is a great example.)
The host of Computer Chronicles passed away at the end of the year. Here’s a bit from Oliva’s post in honor of him:
This second incarnation of Computer Chronicles would be, as [Stewart] Cheifet later put it, less of a “televised computer user group meeting” and more closely related to the long-running PBS public affairs program Washington Week in Review. Cheifet himself would now serve as the host of a pre-recorded program, which would feature a combination of product demonstrations, interviews with industry officials, and remote segments.
Cheifet recruited Gary Kildall, the creator of the CP/M operating system and founder of Digital Research, Inc., to serve as his principal co-host. Cheifet and Kildall made their debut as hosts of Computer Chronicles in October 1983. Kildall would remain a co-host until 1990, when he sold Digital Research and retired from the industry. Cheifet would thereafter employ a rotating cast of co-hosts, including longtime contributors Paul Schindler, Jr., and Tim Bajarin, before finally hosting the program solo for the latter years of its 20-season run.
During the initial Cheifet-hosted season of Computer Chronicles, he remained general manager of KCSM-TV. In June 1984, however, Cheifet left KCSM and returned to his native Pennsylvania, assuming the roles of president and general manager of WITF-TV, the PBS station in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. But as Chronicles continued to tape at KCSM, for the next several years Cheifet commuted to the west coast every other weekend. After working a full week at WITF in Harrisburg, Cheifet boarded a red-eye flight to San Francisco on Friday night, woke up at 5 a.m. and drove to KCSM to record two shows during the afternoon. He then returned to Pennsylvania on Sunday.
During the pandemic, I binged the show on YouTube and it was a true joy. In many ways, Cheifet’s work formed the foundation of tech journalism as we know it today.