121 days into this project, almost a full third of a year. Whenever I think about it, I am actually amazed that I could maintain a commitment this long. Not that all of the entries to this point were great, but they all didn't suck either. And rarely have I had to take notes ahead of time for a blog, most of them have just come off the top of my head. Sure there may be some research involved, but is only an after the fact thing. Once I get an idea in my head I might be inclined to run it down on a factual basis, or at least check to see if the premise is solid enough. Beyond that there has been little to no outlining. At least until today. I remember the end of the last entry I was thinking I had forgot something, and in fact I had, something that I didn't remember until way late last night, but by then bigger and better things flashed across my news screen that also deserved attention. So, instead of just running at the mouth incessantly I thought I might take a piece of paper with me to work today and see if I couldn't jot a couple of things down. Not complete sentences mind you, just ideas for what I would write about today. An effort to better focus myself, without losing that charm I have for just saying things off of the top of my head, which now has less hair after a trip to Super Cuts yesterday. Yes, I go to Super Cuts, because it is nearby, relatively cheap and how hard is it to cut my hair when my directions are, just lop it off? Hell, if I had a Flowbee I would do it myself. And no, none of this is on my sheet for what I wanted to talk about, meaning that really I haven't even gotten started yet.
Rather we are going to start with another boring radio story. Because we all know how much you love those. For those not in the know, since there are new people here from time to time, I used to work in radio before I was a victim of downsizing. A 12 year radio veteran, working behind the scenes mostly in producing shows, where I worked on anything and everything from political talk of varying stripes to a rugby call in show. It was, to quote a previous blog entry, the best of times and the worst of times. It was the best because it was something that I loved doing, there is just a rush of energy involved in putting a show together, making sure all of the bells and whistles run properly, mentally being capable of handling a variety of different callers and topics and knowing in 24 hours you had to turn around and do it again. It can be draining, exhilarating, depressing and uplifting all at the same time. I imagine that is what a good drug would feel like, I am not sure, the closest I ever came in that department was cocaine, and well, that was one of the best nights of my life. I could see where someone could get hooked, it was that good. Again that is going off topic. Where is my Miyagi to stress "focus power"? Anyway, there was a bad side to radio as well, that being I didn't make shit doing it. The burger flipper at McDonald's and I would have probably had comparable paychecks. So it became as much a labor of love as anything else, you do it for the rush of doing it more than for any sort of compensation that comes with it. Instead I ended up working two jobs almost the entire 12 years, anything I could fit around the radio schedule that would help keep the lights on and food on the table. And then the fateful day when I was called into the conference room and told my services were no longer required, I had been downsized as a cost cutting move (how much cost was saved is anyone's guess, but I would bet not much), as well as two others getting that speech the same day. As luck would have it, just the day I was released from the station was the same day that Smithfield News had called me to come in for an interview. This was going to be another of those part time things, until my schedule had unexpectedly been granted much more free time. So I went to the interview the next day, explained what happened and Dee, the manager who interviewed me, placed a couple of calls to check my references including to my former boss at the radio statio (it should be noted he didn't fire me, those further up the ladder did) and he ended up giving me such a glowing reference, Dee still talks about it today, some two years later, that's how good it was. So my hiring for a full time positioon became an almost forgone conclusion.
Since my last venture in radio, roughly 2 years have passed. I have all but resigned myself to the knowledge that I will not be back there again, but every once in a while I will check the local listings and see if anything is available. Since there are only two major players in Pittsburgh, CBS Radio and Clear Channel, it's not like I have to do a lot of legwork. Just check out their webpages and see if anything new has popped up in their job listings. Most of my attention has been focused on CBS Radio, which has two talk stations in it's fold, KDKA AM, a news talk station and KDKA FM, a sports talk station. So if I see they have an opening, I will sometimes file an application and resume online and see what happens. Usually it will be "Under Review" and just stay that way for an indeterminite amount of time. No notice on the page that it has been rejected, which would be fine, just the same "Under Review', some times for as much as 9 months. Well yesterday afternoon I was sitting around the house after watching a hockey game and I decided during my online time I would check out what was available on the CBS site again. Sure enough a couple of openings had popped up a few weeks ago, I also learned that an application I submitted in Januaray was still "Under Review". One of the job listings was for a part time talk host. It is something I have had limited experience with, I sat in a few times at my old station and did well enough that I was invited onto OffQ twice, a local public television roundtable show talking about local and national political issues (the show has since been renamed 4802, or 90210 or something), and I had free reign with most of the hosts I worked with to crack my mike and speak whenever I wanted to, so I have to think they had some confidence in my ability. In the description for the job, it said not only to send in the online app and resume, but to email a resume and demos to Marshall Adams, the program director at KDKA AM. Marhsall and I first had contact shortly after I was let go from my previous gig and he called me again about a year later to stay in touch with me, maybe to make sure I was still interested in working in radio, maybe just to touch base, I don't know. But here was the online application saying I should contact him as well. So I did, and I was probably rude about how I did it. Basically I said, listen, I have submitted for a handful of openings the last two years and almost all of them have come back as "Under Review", so if I am not going to be considered for this or any opening lets just not waste each other's time. We both have far better things to do. How's that for a sales pitch kids? I did receive an email back today from Marshall saying that I was a qualified candidate for the job to which I applied, but I am not getting my hopes up.
So after doing my best to sabotage any future in radio I may have, I sat down in my recliner, pulled up the footrest and it was then that I noticed something, my left knee was way bigger than my right one. Now, I will say that it didn't feel any different, I haven't gotten any discomfort from it or anything, but just having both of my legs stretched out in front of my, I could see that the left one was swollen or something. Like I said, it's not sore, it isn't like I can't touch it or anything, just the opposite, it almost feels like there is fluid or something in there. I really don't have the money to have someone look at it, so I am hoping that it will go down on it's own and it is just something that happened in my sleep or something. I am fully capable of moving around with no pain, so I don't want to get all knee bracy and stuff and miss any work. And really, that may be it, I spend so much time going up and down steps at work that maybe it is just aggravated a little. But when it comes to work, I need to make the trains run on time, so until I can't walk on it, well then, I walk on it.
After recognizing another physical imperfection on my part and making dinner, I decided to hop over to Facebook and Pogo, just sort of to kill time. I was actually hoping to run into someone that I wanted to talk to, but as the old saying goes about wishing in one hand and shitting in the other, well, let's just say that plan turned to shit and leave it at that. I pretty much bounced between the sites, go do some Facebook apps, then go do some work on my Pogo badges. All was good and nice until on one of my trips back to Facebook I saw a friend's status message saying that Osama Bin Laden was dead. Because it was Facebook, credibility became an instant issue. The first thing I noticed was that it wasn't a viral video or spam link, just a regular status message. So I clicked the TV on to a regular channel and NBC was breaking in because the President was going to speak. At 11pm on a Sunday night, that gave more credibility to the Facebook status I read. So I clicked onto CNN.com, and they were reporting that news, though no details were being released until the President spoke. Just to show I am fair and balanced, I clicked over to the Fox News website to see what their take was. Here is what I saw
For those that don't have microscopic vision (I screen capped it on my laptop and then copied to my desktop via Facebook, the original can be seen here. For those that can't acees Facebook or don't want to, it says "Usama Bin Landen Dead Fox News Confrims". We spell and you decide indeed. How do you "confrim anything"? And who the hell is Usama Bin Landen? Did Michael Landon's kid go all terroristy or something after an airport screener got a little too touchy feely with his carry on package? Not that the local news was much better, network coverage on the death of Bin Laden ended around midnight, but of course a story that big was bound to be the lead story on the local news as well. And I can't speak to how other station's handled the news, so my indictment may go beyond what I witnessed on WPXI Channel 11 or it may not, but the news opened with the story of Bin Laden's death and a snippet of the President's statement. The next take on the story? Man on the street interviews from a fucking gas station. Really? That passes as news gathering? The third take on the story was worse still, a reporter telling us how many comments are on the station's Facebook page regarding the story. Excuse me, you had a full hour of time prior to the President's announcement where news outlets knew that Bin Laden was dead, the coverage of the President's speech and probably a good 30 minutes or so after the speech where the network was still doing their coverage. That's two hours, in that medium that's a fucking lifetime. You can't get an interview with say, one of the people behind the Flight 93 memorial on how this might affect the families, or a call out to the 911th Airborne, which has dispatched troops into Afghanistan on how this may affect future deployments and the general mood of the men and women serving there, or even a call to the state's Homeland Security office to ask if there will be any security changes on the possibility of retaliation because of the events that are unfolding? Instead you get Joe at the gas station and Marsha on Facebook. This is why television news is useless. I felt sick that a breaking news story could be handled in such a slipshod manner. I remembered back to how we had to handle live coverage of 9/11 on the radio, with not nearly the news resources or the level of technology at our disposal that exists today, yet we were able to get people on the air that were running Greater Pittsburgh International Airport informing listeners what was taking place in the skies over their very heads, people with the city telling listeners on what they should be doing as far as staying at their location or going home. Not that we were stellar by any stretch, but if I would have sat in the booth and just read Facebook posts, I would expect my termination the next day because that is just fucking lazy.
Okay, I will put away my anger for now, if only for some comedy stylings from my favorite Australian Yvonne Strahovski (sorry Lee, your stuck at #2 here, lol). I saw this online the other day and had to share. Good night everyone, I think I have blogged enough for one day. Next time I won't take so many copious notes. As for Yvonne, anyone who can pull off Katy Perry, Kiesha and Lady Gaga (with a psuedo cameo by Natalie Portman) is way okay in my book.
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