Bitten By The Radio Bug

This ancient image from the late fifties is the first photographic evidence of my interest in playing records.    The idea of playing records on the radio wouldn't come along until I was in junior high school.  After a brief fascination with tape recorders similar to the ones used in the opening scenes of TV's Mission: Impossible, I received my very own GE AM clock radio as a 1966 Christmas gift from my grandmother.   She had a lot to do with my burgeoning broadcasting obsession.   When I felt like getting away from the world, I would explore the sometimes static-filled dial to find stations seldom heard when my parents had control of the radio.   There was some decent radio close by in New Haven, but Hartford had the classic Top 40 battle between WPOP and WDRC.   New York Top 40 station WABC had Dan Ingram, my favorite air personality of all time, but WMCA's "Good Guys" gave them a run for the money.   At night, CKLW  the "Big 8" would boom in from "The Motor City" while WLS and WCFL could also be heard after sunset from Chicago.   Early personality-driven talk radio on stations like WBZ/Boston caught my attention, too.   I eventually knew the call letters of hundreds of stations.   My grandmother influenced my radio interest in another way in 1970 when she arranged a tour of WELI's Radio Towers Park outside New Haven.   She knew the wife of WELI's music director, a wonderful gentleman named Nick Papp.   He showed me around the studios of one of the classier stations in Connecticut.   I was awestruck.   Still, it would be a few more years before I actually take the plunge.   I fell hard for radio, which is why I still try to keep it in my life.

In His Own Words

It is no political first to disparage an opponent.   Attacking an opponent's constituency is disgusting when you're running to be President of the entire United States of America.   After a week of demonstrating an astonishing lack of facts on foreign policy, Mitt Romney took his campaign to a new low.   Unaware he was being recorded, Romney unleashed this to a group of wealthy supporters.   His own words speak volumes...

 

There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what.  All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that's an entitlement.  And the government should give it to them.  And they will vote for this president no matter what…These are people who pay no income tax.   My job is is not to worry about those people.   I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.

Coach Calhoun Retires

Coach Jim Calhoun

Is it the end of an era? I doubt it. That doesn't diminish the mark that UConn Men's Basketball Coach Jim Calhoun leaves on this entire university upon his retirement. ESPN Radio's Colin Cowherd practically made it sound as if the University of Connecticut - "this cowpath in Storrs" - really had little reason to rise to such heights in the NCAA if not for the toughness of Coach Calhoun. While there's no denying how indispensable he has been in leading the Huskies to the big time since he was hired in 1986, the culture he embodied was in abundance throughout the university system which saw major investment and expansion in every aspect of UConn. The university's prestige has been enhanced not only by the extraordinary successes of both men's and women's basketball and the investment in football. That is a telling testimonial to successive administrations in Storrs and Hartford, and it may be the biggest part of Calhoun's legacy. Every department at UConn has been a beneficiary of that prestige. A tour of the main UConn campus will tell the most casual observer that this is - and has been for some time - much more than a "cowpath" in the middle of nowhere. UConn athletics has generated many celebrities during the Calhoun era. There have been countless great moments, too. My favorite was the men's first NCAA title in 1999. What's yours?

9/11 Plus 11

That fateful September 11th, eleven years ago today, was also a Tuesday without a cloud in the sky.   That will make today seem more than a bit eerie to me.   Everything changed that day.   Despite all efforts, I fall short every time I try to sum up what it all means.   Making sense out of such a senseless act is an exercise in futility.   All we can do is remember how it brought out the best in America.   That, and the victims, are worth always remembering.

Morgan Freeman Not Dead

Morgan Freeman

I have developed a healthy skepticism about anything posted on Facebook.   Earlier today, a post from a Facebook friend directed to my name asking me to click on a photo album turned out to be the work of a hacker.   Now I see a post from another FB friend saying Morgan Freeman had died Thursday of "a artery rupture."   The poor grammar was my first clue that the story was suspect.   The cruel post also asked everyone to click "like" to pay your respects.   When I didn't see any other posts from legitimate news organizations (or Fox News), I Googled Morgan Freeman to learn that this was the latest in a series of online celebrity death hoaxes.   One less credible website did give his date of death as September 12, 2012... That was weird.   We can all breathe a sigh of relief that as of now this talented man is still with us and as productive as ever.   I tend to be a trusting person, but anonymous internet misinformation along with the half truths and outright lies our politicians right say into the camera breed more than a hint of cynicism in the most naive of us.

Don't Go There

Republicans hit hard at two themes during last week's RNC convention: "We Built It" and "Are You Better Off Now Than 4 Years Ago?"   The "We Built It" signs may actually be more in synch with President Obama's points relating to the public sector and individual enterprise.   His opponents lie when they take that speech out of context.  

 

With a stubbornly high 8.2% U.S. unemployment rate, you may think the Democrats would want to avoid the question over how we're doing now versus four years ago.   That would be a mistake.   Let's meet the question head on and take a snapshot of September 2008.   According to the Center for American Progress, the United States lost a total of 605,000 jobs in the first eight months of 2008, including 84,000 in August 2008.    In August 2008, the unemployment rate was 6.1%—the highest level since September 2003. Factoring in inflation, hourly wages were only 0.2% higher, and weekly wages were actually 0.8% lower in July 2008 than in March 2001.    The share of people with employer-provided health insurance dropped from 64.2% in 2000 to 59.3% in 2007.    Household debt averaged 132.4% of disposable income in the first quarter of 2008.   New home sales in July 2008 were 35.3% lower than a year earlier.   All prices rose by 24.5% from March 2001 to July 2008.   One in 11 mortgages was delinquent or in foreclosure.  Since March 2001, foreigners had bought 82.6% of all new treasury debt.  In the first 11 months of the fiscal year 2008, which runs through September 30, the deficit amounted to $486 billion, up from $212 billion a year earlier.     

 

Keep in mind that this was just the beginning of a downward slide that culminated in the next six months with millions more job losses and massive bailouts aimed at staving off a replay of the Great Depression.   I remember some very good times leading up to September 2008, when MGM Grand at Foxwoods opened with great fanfare.   Only months later, my radio employer told us cutbacks could be coming and the revenue from my direct mail advertising sales plunged 50%.   That radio company is thriving today and I've recouped much of the advertising losses since then.   There's plenty of room for improvement as public sector jobs targeted by the Tea Party have inflated today's unemployment numbers, but the GOP really doesn't want to paint 2008 as the good old days.   That would NOT make Clint Eastwood's or Mitt Romney's day!