Hello, everyone:  I have seen a number of comments about whether there
are lists like MMD for people who collect vintage phonographs and 78-rpm
records.  There are, and I subscribe to three such lists.  There are
also a couple of chat rooms for vintage phono collectors, one of which
is Thursday nights, I believe for AOL members only; and the other,
anyone can join in on Saturday nights.

The most active of the lists is 78-l (that's small "L," not "1" (one).)
It is purportedly for topics related to 78-rpm records and related
issues.  Vintage radio and tape and acetate and other media also come
in since many list members have crossover interests there, and many of
the same artists are found in these other media.  But a fair percentage
of the postings are off-topic entirely as the list members who know
each other banter back and forth on-list.

It is high volume, and if you are a "mail" subscriber, the messages can
average eighty or so per day.  It used to be less but seems to grow
exponentially.  For example, I was away for 12 hours from 10AM to 10PM
on Friday Dec. 18, and when I got home I had 108 messages, of which 94
were from 78-L!  I received about 500 messages over the holidays while
I was away for 10 days.  And all that from only about 200 or so sub-
scribers!  Fortunately, a Digest form is also available for those of
you who'd rather get it all over with at once.

You can find information on 78-L and how to subscribe to either format
at:

    http://www.fial.com/78-l.htm

For those of you who don't know about phonolist, it is a much lower
volume (10-15 messages per day) and is pretty much rigidly on-topic
(vintage phonographs.)

To subscribe, send a blank message to:

    phonolist-subscribe@makelist.com

You should also check out the Phonolist Companion site at:

    http://www.geocities.com/BourbonStreet/Quarter/3590/

It contains free ads, links, and Phonolist archives and is well worth
a look.  The chat room info is there, also.

Last, there is 78-c, a list intended to get "commercial" traffic off of
the already heavy 78-L list.  The traffic here is very light, any you
only occasionally get messages (often from other subscribers asking why
they aren't getting messages!)  Most of the traffic here consists of
lists of records for auction or direct sale.  Information about 78-c
can be found at:

   http://www.maddocks.net/78-c.htm

which is also the location for the 78-L Digest archives.

A quick word about the archives:  not to knock theirs, which are chrono-
logical compilations of either the individual postings (as in the case
of Phonolist) or daily digests (as in the case of 78-L) (and AFAIK
neither one is searchable,) but a look there _really_ helps you to
appreciate what a valuable resource a well indexed and searchable
archive like the MMD archive is!

Enjoy, and Happy New Year!

Mark S. Chester
mschester@msn.com