Talk:Byte magazine
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Wayne Green controversy
I have in my possession two issues of 73 Magazine from 1975. One has my name in the masthead and the other has an article by me. This is the time when Byte was started. If the first issue was labelled "September" I would attribute that to Wayne's quirkiness. He once pushed up the issue numbers of 73 by leaps and bounds over a period of several monts for no apparent reason. It was not that late in the year. It all happened in the Spring.
In both of these 73's the Business Manasger is Virginia Londner Green. Any other way to report her name at that time is erroneous except for "Virginia Green (nee Londner); that would work, though the former is historically accurate. Get an original copy of Byte and prove me wrong.
73 and Byte came out of a huge house on Pine Street in Peterborough. It was actually on the wrong side of the street to be number 73, but the Post Office didn't mind. I not only worked there for a short while in 1975 (with two bosses, Wayne and Virginia -- that drove me nuts, though some might call it a putt -- I lived there too.
I was present at the first meeting. Carl came with his two housemates, and Wayne and Virginia -- I was not part of the meeting itself, but rather acting in a supporting role -- I made lunch. Stuffed artichokes.
During the meeting Wayne took a picture of an S-100 board flanked by a knife and fork intended for the first cover, but it didn't turn out well enough to be used.
Monday morning Wayne told the ad guy, Bill, to see if he could scare up enough ads to support 56 pages for the first issue. Before noon he stuck his head in and said "How about 128?" Byte was off and running.
Though obviously some would discount my testimony, it is not hearsay.
Wayne fired people from time to time, including me a few weeks after this all happened. The following is actually hearsay, from Wayne himself in 1975 to me. Some time before, Wayne had fired somebody who had friends in high places, They got the IRS down on him. The IRS people found nothing wrong and left. They were sent back again with orders to get nasty, and they did. They disallowed, for instance, photographic equipment as a business expense, even though Wayne was not a photographic hobbyist, and had the equpment for the magazine.
So I guess he copped a plea or something. That's how the thing came to be in Virginia's name. Anyway, lots of people seem to delight in raking him over the coals, and even though I got pushed out the revolving door myself, I respect him enough to want to set the record straight.
;Bear 15:33, 2004 Apr 8 (UTC)
Wayne Green's own words
From the Publisher... How BYTE Started
Two series of events came together and triggered BYTE. One was the surprising response I received from the readers of 73 Magazine (amateur radio) every time I published an article involving computers. Being a curious person I decided to learn more about them, only to find my way blocked by formidable obstacles. The more I tried to dig into the subject the more I found that there was a need for information that was not being satisfied.
The other event was the success of 73, with more subscriptions and advertising calling for some sort of computerization of the drudgery - the billing, record keeping, reader's service, indexing, and such. I knew what I wanted done and had a good idea of what I had to spend to accomplish this, so I started talking to computer salesmen ... only to find that I wasn't even able to read their literature, much less have even a vague idea of what they were saying.
Some deep well of obstinacy within me fought back and refused to let me throw a dart to pick out the computer system I needed. I felt that as a businessman running a good sized small business and as the editor and publisher of an electronics magazine, I damned well should be able to come to grips with the salesmen and pick out a computer system on some sort of rational basis. But the more I tried to get information, the more I realized that it was going to be very hard to get.
Between my professional need to understand computers and my amateur interest in the subject I found myself subscribing to one newsletter after another .. . talking at exhaustive length with computer savvy 73 readers ... reading books ... and wearing computer salesmen out. I discovered an interesting thing - few of the hardware chaps could talk software - and vice versa. Further, neither could talk much about applications.
There ought to be a magazine covering the whole thing, thought I. A magazine which would help the neophite to grapple with programming languages . . . would permit the beginner to build microcomputers and peripherals ... would provide a dialog for the more sophisticated to communicate as well. How about a publication which would cover all aspects of small computer systems?
As the computer hobby newsletters arrived I looked them over. Some were very well done, some pretty juvenile. One chap was doing a splendid job ... designing his own hardware ... developing software . . . plus writing and publishing a monthly magazine on the subject just about single handed. This was Carl Helmers and his ECS Journal, which was in its fifth issue, having just started in January (this at the time being May). I got together with Carl and explained my idea and suggested that it was time to get a good professional magazine going in the field, one which would help computer hobbyists get the information they needed and which might thus encourage manufacturers to come out with more hardware for the growing body.
Carl had been building up his circulation to ECS gradually, with it being about 300 in May. We figured to go all out and run off 1000 copies of the first issue of BYTE - make it a 24 pager. After talking the idea over with a couple of the manufacturers in the field it was obvious that we had been thinking too small. Okay, let's make it 5000 copies. The first announcement of the project was made in Hotline, an amateur radio newsletter with a very small circulation. The reaction was immediate: subscriptions began to come in at a good clip. As mailing lists came in from manufacturers and as the word spread, the first issue print run was upped to 10,000 . . . then 25,000 . . . 35,000 ... and finally 50,000 copies! As promises of ads came in there was a scramble to get enough articles to keep up with the ads. Ads are certainly of interest, but we didn't want to publish an all advertising magazine.
No apologies are needed for the articles in this first issue - between Carl's contacts and mine we got things started. It would have been a lot easier if our original idea of a 1000 copy 24 page magazine (with maybe 30% ads) had come about. On the other hand, here is a great opportunity for all of you readers to get busy at your typewriter and pass along your particular area of expertise. The need for good articles is great ... material for the rank beginners as well as the sophisticated computer designers . . . hardware ... software ... surplus conversions... applications.
As we build a body of hobbyists, the market for reasonably priced equipment will be almost inexhaustible . . . microprocessors, video display units, keyboards, tape gear, discs, teletypes . . . endless list. MITS, RGS, Scelbi and Southwest Tech have a good start . . . are you going to let them make all the money?
Speaking of MITS et al, it didn't take me long to get one of the Altair 8800s to see what I could do with it. I'm afraid I didn't make it very far into the instruction book. I've got some more memory coming for it as well as their extended basic program and some I/O interfaces to hook onto a teletype or a VDT. I do have a VDT unit up and working ... the Southwest Technical job which we got in kit form and which was assembled over a weekend on a card table, with a good deal of the work being done by my 12 year old daughter. And, believe it or not, the unit works! We all agree that it was a lot of fun to assemble and we're glad we went the kit route ... we wouldn't have missed the fun. SWTPC sure did a fantastic job of getting that kit designed and produced.
Well, that's how BYTE got started. Now it's up to you . . . you can guide the magazine with your advice . . . with your articles . . . and with your support in getting more subscribers. We'll do all we can to make the magazine accurate, have plenty of interesting ads, look nice and come out on time. None of this is easy, of course, but we're in one of the nicest areas in the country - in southern New Hampshire - working in a 220 year old colonial mansion - and we have an efficient system where everything except printing and mailing of the magazine is done under the one roof. If you happen to find yourself wandering around a bit northwest of Boston, why please drop in and say hello. We're very friendly and the atmosphere is unbelievably relaxed ... except near press time.
By Wayne Green
BYTE Issue #1 September 1975 Pages 9 and 96
Image placement
The reason for my moving the BYTE cover image below the intro text was an aesthetic one as well as the common practice of having the intro text going over the full width of the article above any images/tables etc. Also, how come the image as such is no longer present (not loading, as of the time of writing)? --Wernher 16:22, 9 Jan 2005 (UTC)
- Sure, seems reasonable - Seemed wrong to me so I experimented by moving it while tweaking caption. On the other issue, I think the Wiki servers have been a bit stressed out 'cos I had a similar experience with some other images about the same time - all seems working at the moment --Wm 00:42, 10 Jan 2005 (UTC)
- OK; I moved the cover img again as described, and trimmed the cpn a little bit -- the US$ sales price should be enough, I think. But thanks for including the cover title. FYI, as time permits, I plan to contribute photos of the initial and final issues of BYTE (if no one else beats me to it, that is). :-) --Wernher 20:38, 10 Jan 2005 (UTC)
BIX
There is no mention of the online service/BBS that Byte was associated with, known as BIX. --Weyoun6 23:08, 28 Feb 2005 (UTC)
- There probably should be such a mention, although my recollection is that despite Pournelle's boosterism (talking about his need for his daily "BIX fix") it was at best a modest success. It wasn't pioneering or anything—the bandwagon had been rolling for quite a while before BYTE jumped on. It's not mentioned in the same breath as CI$. My recollections (which are far too vague to go in the article) is that like many such systems of the time, it had its own unique (text-based) command language and user interface. And that nobody had anything either particularly good or particularly bad to say about it.