A few years back, I looooved a magazine called Monitoring Times. It was awesome, and stood out among radio hobbyist periodicals for how well-written, relevant, and content-rich it was every month. I had the pleasure of interacting a couple of times with Bob Grove, an absolutely wonderful gent and man behind Monitoring Times. I even wrote for him a couple of times- here’s a scan of one of my Monitoring Times articles.
Bob retired himself and the magazine in 2013. He shut down Grove Enterprises, and I hope him and wife Judy are doing well after all they’ve given to the radio community. I went through withdrawal when Monitoring Times went out of circulation, I was such a radio nerd… Since then, I’ve found some sporadic content that came close on occasion to the type I liked in Monitoring Times- but never really found a replacement.
Until now.
Here’s the rub- a decent follow-on came out RIGHT AFTER my old favorite went away, yet somehow I missed it. I missed the 2013 announcements that Monitoring Times’ Managing Editor Ken Reitz was publishing a PDF-based magazine called The Spectrum Monitor. I feel like a bit of an idiot!
Well, late than never, says I. Now that I have found it, The Spectrum Monitor already feels like an old friend. I subscribed, I bought back issues, and I’m in my glory. Ken has done a fantastic job keeping the essence that worked so well in the old rag, and has built well on it with the new.
If you’re a radio nerd or aspire to be one, I highly recommend filling your preferred reader app full of The Spectrum Monitor.
wirednot 
Many fond memories of MT. I still have all of my copies, including when it originally was a quarterfolded tabloid on newsprint. That was shortly after I discovered the hobby. Great times.
Hi Tim- here here! Was such a great read… sounds hokey, but I really did look forward to it every month. It covered such a great range of topics, and some months felt like it was written just for me. It’s nice to hear from a fellow fan.
Thanks for the comment.
Lee
I too loved MT. Especially when Havana Moon would come out. “Numbers” broadcasts (even in Spanish) frequencies were usually listed–gave you a ‘creepy’ but fun feeling in listening to them late at night. Will check out TSM–thanks for fun and nostalgic blog!
Good stuff, for sure. I used to chase numbers stations as well!