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Dudical! '80s blog wins totally awesome award

By TIMES STAFF WRITER
Published October 10, 2006

"Stuck in the '80s," the tampabay.com blog dedicated to the decade's popular culture, has been named one of the nation's three best sites for online commentary.

The Online News Association - which counts among its 1,000 members such organizations as Yahoo, the New York Times and CNN - announced its annual winners Saturday night in Washington, D.C. Other honorees included nola.com - the four letters stand for New Orleans, La. - which became the nation's homepage for Hurricane Katrina.

Steve Spears, 39, a web producer for tampabay.com, is the creator of "Stuck in the '80s." Some of his cultural heroes are moviemaker John Hughes (The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller's Day Off) and the bands Journey and Frankie Goes to Hollywood.

"I wanted to blog about a subject that I was passionate about yet it didn't feel like work writing it," Spears said.

Some of Spears' most-read posts have addressed the 80 worst songs of the decade (No. 1: We Are the World), the worst movies (Gymkata) and best music videos (Thriller).

A complementary podcast (a serialized audio show available once a week) is often replayed by radio stations online and in New Zealand.

Stuck in the '80s is at www.blogs.tampabay.com/80s. The podcast is also available at iTunes.

[Last modified October 10, 2006, 01:18:16]