Titit #5

Welcome back to another fine episode of "Things I think I think" starring less that impressive opinions from yours truly.  Truth be told I should probably be asleep right now, but because I fell asleep watching The Simpsons earlier I find myself wide awake at almost 1am, dreading the thought of venturing out into the cold outdoors in about 5 hours to go to work.  To help pass the time I figured I would go ahead and try my hand at blogging again, how that attempt actually turns out, well I will leave that for you to decide. 

While I have marketed the last few months as "The Fall of My Content" in hopes of recovering from the "The Summer of Suck", I would be remiss in stating that the fall hasn't been content for all.  fate has not smiled on one of Pittsburgh's own blogging community, a community of which I am a member if for no other reason than a) I blog and b) I live here.  beyond that I really doubt any of the greater known literary types really know I exist, let alone stop by to read the page. Then again by the looks of the globe-o-meter off to the side, not that many other people have been reading the page either, good thing I do this more for myself than for any sort of public reaction or acclaim, because then I the process would be a lot more disheartening.  But back on topic, and quickly at that, That's Church blogger Virginia Montanez and her husband suffered through a setback when their restaurant in downtown Pittsburgh caught on fire.  No word on when (or if) a reopening will be taking place, the process is in the hands of insurance people and people with far greater minds and salaries than yours truly.

Likewise I should also note the passing of Bruce Keidan, a  former local radio show host and columnist for the Pittsburgh Post Gazette.  In my realm of classification there are basically three types of talk shows (though the circles are not mutually exclusive), those that entertain, those that piss people off and those that are informative.  Bruce's shows certainly fit into the first and third categories on that list and I had the opportunity, albeit briefly, to work with him during his short tenure as program director of WPTT.  It was a humbling experience for one such as myself, barely having gotten my feet wet in radio at the time, yet working with what many would consider the smartest guy in the room, often I was just hoping I didn't screw up too much.  And the job probably wasn't what he had signed on for, in many ways he was a program director with little or no say in the programming of the station, so I knew he wouldn't be long for the job.  Sadly I didn't get much of a chance to pick his brain while we worked together, we may have had three or four meetings tops before he went on to bigger and better things but as he was going out the door he pulled a handful of people aside to let us know that if they ever needed anything all they had to do was pick up the phone and give him a call.  Job references, career advice, or just emails to bitch about serving our radio overlords, he listened to them all and offered whatever assistance he could and I was one of the lucky ones he included in that list.  Many thanks Bruce, you will be missed.

So last might I didn't opt to glog the football game between the Steelers and the Ravens, and I am sorry I didn't.  The Steelers-Ravens rivalry has been one of the best in football, especially in recent years and I don't say that just because I live in Pittsburgh and the Steelers are the hometown team, but because the scoreboard and the physicality of the games bears that out.  But in the last 5 meetings between the two teams, 4 have been decided by three points or less.  The fifth you ask?  That was decided by 4 points.  This meeting was no different.  With Baltimore nursing a four point lead late, Troy Polamalu sacks Ravens QB Joe Flacco and causes a fumble, which Pittsburgh recovers and the offense scores a touchdown and Pittsburgh wins 13-10.  As for the physicality of the game, four players left the game due to injury, two of them will not play again this year.  The other two will miss at least one more game.

As much as I liked doing radio and being on the air, let me tell you there are some things about the business I really don't miss.  Take the example of The Spy, one of my favorite alternative stations, even though I am well out of their broadcast range, living here in PA while they are broadcasting in Oklahoma.  that being said, let me tell you a little story of how fucked up the business is.  The Spy originally existed years ago, but the owners of the station opted to  dump the format in favor of something that one would assume was more profitable.  That's all fair and good, and it is their right.  But whatever they tried to do on the station didn't seem to stick, so the station was put up for sale.  In steps one of the old Spy DJ's, who puts together a financial plan to purchase the station, pending an appraisal of what the property is worth.  With the deal pending he begins to program The Spy again.  The appraisal comes in and it is far less than what the owners thought they should be getting, so they back out of the deal.  But the kicker is that The Spy opts to go internet only to keep themselves on the air.  And what do the owners do now that the sale has collapsed?  They start programming the station as an alternative station under the moniker of, you guessed it, The Spy.  Never let it be said that those in the radio field are of noble spirit and deed. 

Speaking of radio, I am getting ready to take my first vacation since my departure from said medium almost two years ago.  One of the things I do not miss personally happened this past week when I received a Christmas bonus at work.  A decent bonus too ($100), when you consider what it is that I do.  What makes it more decent is that I can't remember the last time I received a Christmas bonus in radio, though I can guarantee you it wasn't in my last 5 years there.  So far at the new gig, if it can really be considered new at this point, I am two for two in the Christmas bonus department. 

I know there has been a lot of hullabaloo over the whole Wikileaks story that has come out recently, including the sexual exploits of one Julian Assange, which while good tabloid fodder has little to no bearing on whether or not he had the right to publish what was confidential information.  While I am not 100% set in stone on my opinion, I tend to believe he most certainly has the right to do so.  Truth be told, far too much attention is being paid to him in this matter, the truly guilty party is the person who gave him the information to begin with, Army Spc. Bradley Manning.  Whatever happens to Assange, Manning should be tried for treason.

What I suggested should happen in a previous blog entry has in fact happened, Pitt fired head football coach Dave Wannstedt.  here is hoping that the powers that be that are given the responsibility of finding the next football coach don't trip all over themselves looking for the next "Pitt guy" to take the reigns.  Here is a novel concept, how about just looking for the best person, rather than the parochial mentality of the best guy that had a previous connection to the university or region.

I hope you liked November, because for all of the talk of fiscal responsibility that was blathered about, it is December now and that train has passed.  Now we are left with two groups, one of which wants to extend an unfunded mandate in the form of the Bush tax cuts, the other wants to extend the benefits of a government program by tacking on another year of unemployment compensation.  Nothing says fiscal responsibility like cutting revenue and increasing spending. 

On that note, I think we will call it a wrap, because tis the season for wrapping and all that jazz.    Speaking of wrapping, if you can't afford wrapping paper that is perfectly fine with me, you can leave my present in the box or bag from the store, but please don't wrap my gift with yesterday's edition of the newspaper, that is just tacky and cheap.  If you are that hard up for cash, save the newspaper and take it to the recycling plant so you can start saving up for next Christmas, the plastic WalMart bag is just fine with me.