Politicizing Ebola

I think it took Texas Senator Ted Cruz ten seconds to turn an interviewer's question about a Dallas hospital's Ebola protocols into a condemnation of President Obama for not shutting off flights from West Africa.  Forget the downside of that approach expressed by the administration and many on the front lines trying to stamp out Ebola at its source as that area faces the prospect of 10,000 new cases each week. Senator Cruz and others also overlook the fact that there are already no direct commercial flights from West Africa to the U.S.   Then there is the chorus of Republican criticism of Obama appointing someone who is not a doctor to be "Ebola czar" after the GOP has kept the position of the nation's number one spokesperson, surgeon general, unfilled for the past year.  If the new Ebola czar is so eminently qualified at implementation of a strategy, that should bring some badly needed coordination in this fight where medicine has yet to find a vaccine.    This is potentially serious business on a worldwide scale.   Cheap political shots trivialize it.

Then there's the right wing media creating unnecessary panic and bringing every Obama hater who believes this disease is God's plan to punish humanity.   One example recently was WPRO's John DePetro, a man who exploited fear over Ebola to condemn President Obama and Rhode Island Democratic leaders over not taking more of a leadership role.   DePetro didn't stop there.   He said he had just spent $400 stocking up on things for what he saw as an inevitable pandemic and predicted whole school systems would shut down and we could expect to all be quarantined for weeks.   That really brought the nut jobs out of the woodwork.   DePetro was obviously stoked... over what it would do for ratings.   WPRO as a whole is better than this.       

Unsettling To An Alum

Revisiting Keene, NH on Sept. 28, 2014

It was never supposed to be like this.   Keene, New Hampshire is a charming, idyllic place where you escape the hectic pace and complications of big city life, right?  That image is one reason why I transferred to Keene State College forty years ago.   My time spent there was not exactly stress free and many students weren't model citizens, but I still have an affinity for the Monadnock Region that continues to this day.   I was just visiting there three weeks ago.   Imagine my surprise when full fledged riots broke out on and around the KSC campus while the city's nearby Pumpkin Festival was going on.   The scope of the rioting captured by cell phone video made me feel a level of embarrassment about my alma mater I have never felt before.    The chaos of a mix of unruly Keene students, town residents and out-of-towners combined with police officers responding from all across the region in full riot gear made Keene look more like a scene from troubled Ferguson, Missouri than the quiet college town I know so well.    

I suppose a simple solution would be to stop having these festivals as long as so many of these youngsters show an inability to play well with others.   Sure, we can hope the perpetrators get singled out and punished.    I hope to see a very loud and proactive response by political leaders, school administrators and the student body.    I don't want to hear vigorous denials about the severity of what happened.   This is a big black eye for this school, town and event.   As an alumnus, I find all this upsetting.   Scenes of students cleaning up after this mess are one positive portrayal of KSC students.   There needs to be much more before the news cycle moves on to something else.   

Great Casting

Vinnie James

Vincent James Melillo passed away last week at 74 after a long illness.  Vinnie certainly had a full life whether or not you factor in his radio resume.  He had one of those larger-than-life personalities and knew everyone around Danbury.   Somehow, though, a show that I created became his ultimate claim to local fame.  Vinnie had been on WLAD in various capacities for years.   When I was hired as program director in late 1983, the Vinnie James Morning Express had just begun.  By mid 1985, the early wake-ups were putting a damper on the rest of his busy life and he stepped down from the 6-9 am time slot.   

I wanted to keep Vinnie associated with WLAD and had been looking into what we could do about upgrading our late Sunday morning lineup.  The local church show at 10:05 was routinely a technical disaster, yet I knew that the biggest potential audience for radio on Sunday was between that time and noon.   WTIC-AM/Hartford had started a Sunday long form radio classified show with some success, but would a show like that be able to sustain itself for over an hour in a smaller market?   Vinnie himself had serious doubts about that when I approached him to host the new Bargain Express.  He thought many of those shows were boring, and rightly so, but I knew we had a secret weapon.  It was Vinnie's personality.   

Vinnie had the best laugh I ever heard on the air.  He brought in a mysterious assistant named Philomena to keep a record of the items.   She became an integral part of the show.  He treated the regular callers like old friends and made new callers from far and wide feel welcome.   The show eventually expanded to two hours and the phone lines still lit up like a Christmas tree.   Then there was the Bargain Express Mailbag and the familiar train whistle that ushered in and ended the show.   When When I heard Vinnie's unique way of saying, "it saaaves you money" on a commercial I knew that had to be the signature phrase for the show.   The Vinnie James Bargain Express chugged along for a dozen years.   I'm proud of several roles I had in casting at WLAD...Vinnie was one of them.   More importantly, he was a source of common sense advice that made him a mentor even though I was his boss.  

Not That Bad?

School rivalries can get pretty intense during high school football season, but the actions of a disorderly few at a recent game on Plainfield's home field against New London High were totally shameful.   Racial epithets were hurled by Plainfield residents against visiting New London players.    News of this very public incident spread quickly.   I noticed in an online social forum that many felt the need to come to the defense of Plainfield, maintaining that most townsfolk are not racist and that the media were blowing things out of proportion.   There was the attitude that the incident inaccurately painted the whole town with a broad brush.   If Plainfield consists of an inordinate amount of racists, we don't know that as a fact.   On the other hand, minimizing this loud display of racial hatred can be close to sanctioning it.   The town leaders in Plainfield came forward and did the right thing with an apology to those offended from New London.   This and other corrective action not only serve to enhance Plainfield's image; they serve notice that it's time for everyone to move forward.   Playing defense claiming the incident was "not that bad" is almost as unacceptable as the behavior at the game.