Mark Kinsler wrote:

    "Times change, and so must people.  Consider the state of another
    old-time hobby: amateur radio in the U.S.  Like player pianos, it
    was obsolesced by modern electronics insofar as sheer practicality
    goes; but it could have hung on, had it not become laden with old
    guys obsessed with their status."

Mark, you should tell that to all those people who worked 9/11, or
Katrina, when the modern cell towers got knocked out.  Tell that to the
people that were helped.  Could it happen again?  Probably.

It sounds like you have met a grump or two in your time, and that I
think is what Julian Dyer was trying to point out.

Player pianos, and mechanical music in general, may not ever return to
the heyday they once enjoyed.  But they do not have to die out, if we
can take the instruments to the people (or the people to the instru-
ments) and play things that grab their fancy, even if those aren't our
favorite melodies.  If we insist they love the same music that we do,
we will probably go wanting for audiences.

Regards,
Dave Haibach