The last Friends of Old-Time Radio Convention takes place this weekend in Newark, NJ. Why is the con ending its 36-year run?

Three sf conventions having cancelled this month I am morbidly curious about the answer whether or not the event is connected with sf fandom.

It isn’t the economy:

The reason is simple, says Jay Hickerson, a musician who has been running the show from the beginning: the march of time.

“Lack of OTR (old-time radio) guests. And the committee is getting older,” he said.

Ironically, sf is the source of one of the con’s rare celebrities whose fame is of comparatively recent origin:

Simon Jones is one of the celebrity guests for the weekend. Jones doesn’t exactly qualify as a Golden Age of Radio star. He played Arthur Dent in the BBC’s hugely popular radio and TV adaptations of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, starting in 1978. But he’s been here before and is delighted to be asked.

[Thanks to Sam Long for the story.]