ANTIC Interview 343 - Youth Advisory Board: John Dickerson - a podcast by Randy Kindig, Kay Savetz, Brad Arnold

 

This is the third episode in a series of interviews with the kids of Atari's Youth Advisory Board. A quick recap: In 1983, Atari formed a Youth Advisory Board, selecting 20 teenagers from around the United States to share their opinions about computers and video games, test software, and promote Atari's computers at events. The group consisted of kids aged 14 through 18, mostly regular kids, some computer geeks, and a couple of celebrities.

 

This interview is with John Dickerson, who was one of the computer geeks.

 

There was an article about the Youth Advisory Board in the March 1984 issue of Enter magazine, with a quote from John:

 

"'We were an added dimension to what they already do,' says 14-year-old John Dickerson. 'Atari's problem is that they don't get close enough to the consumer. We'll bring them a lot closer. But, so far, we haven’t found out which of our decisions they really listened to.'"

 

 

This interview took place on April 16, 2018.

 

If you were a member of the Atari Youth Advisory board, I'd love to hear from you: email antic@ataripodcast.com.

 

 

John's book "On Her Trail: My Mother, Nancy Dickerson, TV News' First Woman Star"