16 August 2006

[pdx_misc] The Tom Peterson Alarm Clock "Wake Up!" Sound

We have soundfile!

All credit must go to Judy of Persistent Illusion, who wins the award for conspicuous heroism in the face of overwhelming odds (to wit, coping with old technology) in getting us the file and converting it to an MP3. She will 'ere be a friend of this blog (and this blog needs all the friends it can get!)

Anyway! One of the premiums you could get at Tom Peterson's was, along with a little watch with his iconic face on, was this wicked cool alarm clock. Riffing directly off his "Wake Up!" ads, which advertised his all-night sales, at the appointed time, the clock would say:

Wake Up! Hey, wake up and have a happy day!

To hear the sound file, click on the above link. To download it, right (or control-) click on it and choose whatever option saves it to disk (on my Mac, it's Save Link As...). It's not a huge file, only about 63KB in size. Judy would probably want me to point out that it's a bit tinny, and I think that's probably more because of the sound reproduction technology of the day than anything else.

But now, you, too, can have Tom wishing you a happy day when your Wintel powers up...or where ever you want to plug it.

Credit also to Judy who provided the snapshot of her very own Tom clock, which makes her a whole lot more fortunate than a lot of us.

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh, yes... I slaved for minutes to provide the mp3 and picture! (It turns out I can do something other than knit!)

For its day, that was pretty good sound reproduction. Nowadays it would probably be a video alarm clock and you'd actually get Tom knocking on the inside of the screen. Now that would be cool!

Samuel John Klein said...

Judy bespaketh:

Oh, yes... I slaved for minutes to provide the mp3 and picture! (It turns out I can do something other than knit!)

Oh, just sit still and be considered a hero, will ya? I mean, it's not like I can pay you money. B-)

Judy, ag'in:

Nowadays it would probably be a video alarm clock and you'd actually get Tom knocking on the inside of the screen. Now that would be cool!

I dunno...I think it would be a little disturbin'. But, hey, there's no accouting for taste, neh?

Regardless, you've performed a true service, and I'm grateful. Thanks!