Fifty years ago Monday, the fresh young head of the Federal Communications Commission told a group of TV broacasters to their face that what they were putting on the air was 99% rubbish, and that they risked their licenses if they didn't shape up. Newton Minow's speech was formally titled "Television and the Public Interest," but it immediately became known as the "Vast Wasteland" speech. Off-Ramp host John Rabe talked with Newton Minow, now 85, about the speech and its impact ... and about being immortalized on "Gilligan's Island." Yes, he's the namesake for the SS Minnow.

Robert Thompson, head of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University, tells Off-Ramp's John Rabe that Minow's speech is seared into the memory of all serious students of recent history, but it didn't have the impact Minow hoped for.

Actor Don Murray told Off-Ramp's John Rabe that, before Minow's groundbreaking Vast Wasteland speech, television was a vast wasteland for serious actors, despite a promising start. He says his short-lived but critically acclaimed series, "The Outcasts," in which he co-starred with Otis Young, was a direct result of the speech.

Unlike many of his fellow rockers, Paul Stanley has always worn hearing protection, and he's the spokesman for a national effort to get kids to protect their hearing. (A new JAMA study says the number of kids with hearing loss is up 30% from 15 years ago.) Stanley is appearing at an after school event at the Director's Guild on Thursday, May 12, to promote the cause. The event is put on by LA's House Research Institute. Dr John House joined Off-Ramp's John Rabe to talk about the problem, and to do an in-studio hearing test.

Ever since it was created in 2001, the FBI's notorious most wanted terrorist list always kept Osama Bin Laden in the top left hand corner. Even though there's no official order to the list, it's safe to assume the Al-Qaida leader was priority number 1. For almost as long, the mug shot for a man named Adam Gadahn stayed next to Bin Laden's on the list. That means Gadahn--a native Southern Californian--might be the FBI's second most wanted terrorist? Producer Kevin Ferguson talked with writer Nick Schou, who covered Gadahn's story for the OC Weekly.

Los Angeles has an accidental gothic repertory company on its hands. It's in residence at the Steve Allen Theatre in Hollywood, where two original plays are running. Both are brilliant nights of theatre, and as Off-Ramp contributor RH Greene tells us, they're as different as night from day.