The Bill of Rights Only Apply to Liberals

I must admit I had not intended to blog on such a volatile topic so soon from my last bomb blast. I need to mention something about the upcoming digital transition, a topic I have been blogging on the work web site, but not so much here. But here I am. And here goes.

I have been amused over the last few days how the extreme left has blown a gasket over comments and remarks of former Vice President Dick Cheney taking to task the Obama Administration's continual pounding on the Bush Administration's handling of the whole "War on Terror" and what is the definition of "torture." After a chance encounter with the "Randi Rhodes Show" on satellite radio and her tirade of how Dick Cheney needs to just "shut up and go away and stop lying to cover his own ass" to a new Facebook group called "Telling Dick Cheney to shut the hell up" to comments made by MANY DIFFERENT people on MSNBC to even the Obama Administration on the defensive over Mr. Cheney's comments.

People, "you doth protest too much." Hate to be the barer of bad news, but the Bill of Rights and particularly the First Amendment, one that the Ultra Left clings to like a baby to its mothers breast appears to only be allowed when they use it and everyone else who doesn't believe what they believe just shut up and go away. You saw the same thing with the Tea Parties. It would appear that in their minds, only Obama supporters are covered by the Bill of Rights and everyone else is just s*** out of luck.

Now I don't agree with EVERYTHING Mr. Cheney says, but I do believe in his right to say it. Our laws protect that right to EVERY citizen, Obama supporter or not. I don't remember this country becoming the United Socialist States of America yet, even though some on both sides of the issue thinks it has. And if you objectively look at what has happened in the last 4 months since Mr. Obama came into office, one could argue it has lurched in that direction.

My own opinion is the Ultra Libs are afraid that Cheney is making points, and many on both sides believe in this round, the current Administration is losing this war of words and the only way to stop Cheney is to marginalize him. Which seems to be back firing. It has the sound of desperation in it and mainstream America and many in the media have picked up on that. If you analyze what the Administration is doing, it is very quietly following the Bush Administration in lock step, which has the uber left bloggers going after Obama viciously, in a wonderful demonstration of the left eating its own for its own cause. So much for transparency and "change we can believe in."

So far I am not believing what I am seeing. This country is more divided now than it was under Bush. I am seeing a smart but naive man who holds the most power in the world, squandering it and our position in the world away just so he looks good to the Europeans. All I have to say to that is if it wasn't for the US in the 1940's, they all would be speaking German in Europe now. But then they say memories are always short lived in poltics.

Don't "Threat" On Me

Being from the old school in the media, where you do not show sides when covering a story, I refrain from speaking my mind in public. I don't display bumper stickers on my vehicles, I don't allow political signs to be placed in my yard, I don't protest and when out in the public away from friends, if people ask my opinion about issues of the day, I always attempt to be as neutral as possible.

This blog is about as far as I have gone into the "public opinion arena" and even it has been tame with mostly issues that deal with the business of broadcasting, not hot button issues of the day. But I am about to break that public silence, at least this once and it is a doosy of an issue to break the ice on, but I feel very passionate about it.

First off, I am a life long registered Democrat from a long line of Southern Democrats. I am a moderate. I am pro-Choice. I am pro-Gay civil unions but believe marriage should be between a man and a woman. I am fiscally conservative. I have voted in every election I have been able to vote in. I vote for whom I think will do the best job, not ideology. I judge a candidate by their policies, nothing else. Because of that, I voted for Ronald Reagan, Michael Dukakis, Bill Clinton, Al Core, but I must confess, I voted against John Kerry in 2004 and I voted against Barak Obama. Yes, I admit I didn't vote for President Obama. And it was because of his policies. I have never believed in big government nor socialism/fascism. I am no fan of John McCain's policies either. It boiled down to Ultra Liberal with Obama or Liberal with McCain. What a choice!? I sure wanted to vote for "None of the above."

I don't know why people are all up in arms about what the President is doing. He said he would do all this and more when he was running. And he has done most of it within the first 100 days of his Presidency. DUH! And you are surprised? You bought it, you live with it. You will have another chance in 2012 to put someone else in the White House. Until then, just SHUT UP about it. You can't do anything about it now anyway, the election is over. You want change? Start next year in the mid term elections with the bums we call Congress people. Reign them in and the White House will follow right along behind them. It won't have a choice. It will be in their interest to do so. George Soros may think he owns the country at this point, but he is a fool if he really believes that. The real power still resides in the ballot box. You don't believe me? Just ask Arlen Spector. His reason for changing parties last week? He spouted off about the Republican Party not seeing things his way, yada, yada, yada and then he said it. He couldn't win in the primaries next year as a Republican. BOOM! There is. Winning is more important that serving the voters. That is one of the major problems with our elected officials today. Me, first. Voters, second. Schmuck. It is past time for term limits. Spector proves it, again.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi is an embarrassment to the Party. Majority Leader Reid can't put two words together to make up a complete thought if he had to. Both parrot what they THINK people want to hear. That isn't leadership. That is stupid, plain and simple. They are too afraid of failing and loosing power. I certainly respect someone who honestly tries and fails than someone who never tries and believe me, they ain't trying. During the President's speech to the joint Session of Congress, I swear, I got tired of seeing Speaker Pelosi jumping up and down every other word to clap. I kept shouting at the TV, "Nancy, SIT DOWN! It isn't about you!" Another SCHMUCK. Sec of State Hilary Clinton. She is a Clinton, what else do you need to know? By the way, what is so damn funny that just about every time she speaks in public now she feels she has to laugh? Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush. He is a Bush. I don't trust him. In all honesty, he may have the real stuff, he does act differently than George H. W. or George W., but we will never know, thanks to his big brother George. On second thought, he may be the greatest guy for the job but I still don't trust him. Mitt Romney. Which side of the political spectrum does he live on anyway? Don't trust him. Bobby Jindel. Republican's Obama. Too young and wide eyed. He needs to learn to read and speak at the same time. And then there is Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin. Don't know. First glance, impressed. Second and later glances, too soon to tell. Seems to have peaked already and so may not matter after all.

As you might guess, I don't like ANY of them. Well I don't. They are all bums. I am getting more and more of the feeling like my own Party is not my Party anymore. I find that I am disagreeing with the planks in the party platform. I am thinking of myself more like an Independent these days and not a Democrat. The current extreme left leaning Democrat Party is not the Party I grew up in. I don't know this Party anymore. I am no Republican either. I don't identify with that Party either. And I guess that is why I feel the way I do about the next group.

I guess my biggest anger is with my beloved industry (HHMMM, I guess I get back around to the media anyway!). They are so in love with Barak Obama, The Myth. Many in the media were so anti-George W. Bush, they would have supported Hitler in 2008 if he were alive and running for President. No joke. I know several of them who would have. The media will jump on a bandwagon for a tenth of a ratings point and Obama had a back story that couldn't be resisted that could be used against Bush. Now, for complete disclosure, I know many people in the business who are right wing and many are in newsrooms. The problem is there are more Liberals than Conservatives in the newsroom (have been for years and it is mostly the younger ones who lean left since the older ones who either were Conservative or became Conservative move on to real jobs sooner or later) and they are frequently drowned out. Also, for complete disclosure, I know many Liberals and Conservatives in the newsroom who both try very hard to not let their political bent distort their reporting. To them, the profession is worth it. But then you have almost as many on both sides of the political spectrum that will prostitute themselves out for a story. SMUCKS!

The coverage, or lack there of the Tea Parties is very troubling. While I do not believe there was a coordinated effort within the industry to embargo the Tea Parties, the attitude of many in the media on the Tea Party story was a small group of disgruntled Republican stalwarts stirring up trouble and so it wasn't worth their time. FOX on the other hand saw it for what it was, a true grassroots effort of public protest having been hearing about it for several months and played it for all it was worth, and very successfully getting mentions on all the other news programs and cable news channels. The confrontation of CNN reporter Susan Roesgen with Tea Party participants in Chicago showcases in very negative terms what the Media perception of the Tea Parties were. Believe me, the media is now KEENLY aware of what the Tea Parties are all about and Susan Roesgen is the poster child for the media's and the Administration's reaction to it. Why do you think the President continues to talk about it weeks after it happened? THEY GET IT! If not, they wouldn't STILL be talking about it. But it ISN'T their agenda so how do you get around that? When you can't fight them with logic and reasoning, you start to demonize your opponent, loudly and often. It is your only weapon. Why do you think people like Janeane Garofalo and Keith Olberman and Rachel Maddox spouted hate speech about the Tea Parties? Why do you think they called participants "Redneck Tea Baggers?" For those who don't know what a "tea bagger" is, it is a euphemism for a sexual act performed by a man on another man. It is meant to be degrading to the Tea Party participants. It IS HATE SPEECH in all of its horrible glory. Actually what it does is shows how hypocritical the extreme left is. Free speech is all the rage until it is something they don't like. The Tea Parties are exposing that in a way nothing else has been able to. Susan Roesgen has become a symbol of that hate, something CNN is not real happy about these days I am sure. That one clip is still played on the air at FOX as a rallying cry. Now while I don't think continuing to do that is helpful, it keeps ratings up. So they do it.

Personally, I support the Tea Party concept. I pay way too much in taxes now and $13 a week tax cut is a joke. When all this Stimulus and budget hits, taxes are going up, FOR EVERYONE. Get ready. You heard it here first. It doesn't take a financial genus to figure that one out. You can't keep spending what you don't have. It has to come from somewhere. And before the taxes go up, the inflation that is a direct result of all this deficit spending will be here. I remember the Jimmy Carter years of 23% mortgage interest rates. If we don't stop with the spending, it will be worse than that. Would I participate in a Tea Party? Probably not because of that "old school media" thing. I help bring the story to the masses, I am not a part of it.

But if things get worse, who knows, maybe I would. There are a lot of ticked off people in this country right now and I am one of them. Oh yeah, I vote too. And pay taxes. A LOT OF TAXES. And I am no where NEAR making $250,000 a year. Or even half of that.

IT'S THE little THINGS

Early Thursday morning my work cell phone rang. I looked at the clock and it was 1:05 AM. When the work phone rings in the middle of the night, that usually means that the rest of my sleep for the night is over. But it has been a while since I had one of those calls. With the new transmitter, it just doesn't happen anymore. But I still begrudgingly answered it. It was the synthesized female voice of the remote control unit at the auxiliary transmitter site saying "Hello...... Hello........ Hello." Translated, "Put in the password dummy and I will tell you what I want!"

Fumbling with the phone with one eye still closed in a dark room, I was hoping that I hit the correct key that would light the keypad so I could enter in the password because if I hit the wrong button that nagging "Hello" voice would hang up and call me again. After I satisfied the computer I indeed was the correct person it was looking for, it very coldly told me in its robotic type female voice that the backup generator was below temperature. Translation? The block heater that keeps the diesel engine at a warm temperature on cold days had stopped working. Since it is at the auxiliary transmitter site and there is no analog channel 8 transmitter there anymore but just the digital channel 8 transmitter waiting for June 12th to make its debut and it was one o'clock in the morning, I acknowledged the alarm, hung the phone up and rolled back over to sleep.

First thing in the morning I arrived at the auxiliary transmitter site and looked over the 1981 generator engine in the water heater jacket area. The wiring from the thermostat that turns on the heat had literally burned up from years of being next to a heating element. I pulled off the wire and went into the building to find some replacement wire. As I was preparing the wire and then installing it back on the generator, I was reminded of the time before we built the other tower and building and installed the new channel 8 and DTV transmitters with all this neat redundancy and I spent all my time at this site. Since we had built the other site as the main site, we had retrofitted this site as a backup with no more equipment than is required to do the job. And since the auxiliary site isn't on line 24/7 as in the old days, nothing breaks at the rate it used to so I don't spend much time there anymore.

As I worked I remembered the first time I ever went in that building and how much has changed in 17 years in this fairly small building. It was 1992 and I was interviewing for my job. The man I was to replace, Roy Allman, was preparing to retire after 30 years and as part of the interview process I was to go to the transmitter and he was to "scope me out" for my soon to be boss to see if I really knew anything about transmitters and about not killing myself around 10,000 volts.

I spent about 3 hours there that day with Roy talking about the old Harris tube transmitter that 13 years later I would remove from the air and ship half of it to sister station KSTU Salt Lake City and the other half to sister station KTBC Austin, TX. I got to know Roy and decided that if I could land this gig, it would a great place to work (still is!). Roy was from the old school of engineering. He never got in a hurry, even if the transmitter was off the air, but his knowledge was vast. Even though I worked with the old Harris transmitter longer than Roy did (his 12 years vs my 13 years), I firmly believe he knew more about that transmitter than I did. Roy had about 11 months before he retired when I was hired so, I got to work with him a for a while. That was a blast. Sadly, Roy is no longer with us, having past away last year just missing the Digital Transition but I think that is the way Roy would have wanted it. Change wasn't easy for him.

I then remembered the time we "remodeled" the building in 1994 updating the electrical systems and changing the microwave antennas and adding a full audio system for stereo broadcasts that we hoped would be coming in the not to distant future. It did, the next year when FOX purchased the station.

I then remembered the time in 1998 when we replaced the center conductor in the transmission line sections on the tower. In those days we only had one antenna and one transmission line so all the work had to be done from 1:30 am to 4:30 am. It took months replacing the fifty-six 20 foot sections of center conductor line in the transmission line in that nightly 3 hour window. About as soon as the tower crew got up the tower, it was time for them to come down! It was also during all this overnight work, I had my gall bladder removed.

The night of December 31, 1999 I found myself at the transmitter "waiting" for Y2K and any possible disaster that might befall the human race. Y2K came. Y2k went. I was home in bed by 3 am.

On September 11, 2001, I was instructed to go to the transmitter and lock myself in and wait. So I did that and watched the pictures all day on our air as we rebroadcast FOX News Channel as I sat in my little office there at the transmitter.

I then remembered the day we put the new site on the air and the original site passed on to auxiliary status. I finished up the testing of the generator, put the tools away, locked the building and headed to the studio.

Man, there are times when I miss those old days when we were just one catastrophic event away from disaster. Now we have back ups for back ups. We have come a long way since I started work here. But it IS the LITTLE things in life. Life is good.

Citizenship

Don't know, but something must be in the water around work. For the second time in as many years, a fellow work colleague who was not born in the land of the free decided he would march down to the local courthouse, before a sitting judge raise his right hand and pledge to renounce his mother country and support the flag and Constitution of the United States of America instead. Well it wasn't QUITE that easy, but still, that is basically how it happened.

Anyway it gave me pause to think about here was a person who had to learn US history; US public figures of the last 230 years like George Washington and why he is on the one dollar bill and why Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, all 271 words and maybe the shortest political speech in history at only two minutes is considered one of the most important speeches in our country's history; rudimentary US Constitutional law; and a 100 question reading and speech test, in English; along with the background checks and such over a many year period just to be able to say these words before the Judge:

"I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; and that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God."

Whoa! Powerful stuff!

Anyway, I was working in the News Room when the newly minted American arrived back at work, dressed in his Sunday finest. He was being lead by the assistant News Director to the News Conference Room for an impromptu reception of homemade sheet cake when applause from that mass huddled in cubicals working on the daily details of news gathering rang out in his honor. I took my turn of picking up a paper plate of cake and shaking his hand and said something to him I said two years ago to another co-worker who had also pledged allegiance to the flag and Constitution, "Congratulations.... Citizen." He thanked me and in his eyes I saw a different person, not the prim and proper Englishman of old that I have known for 12 years, but an American. I think for the first time since he was awarded citizenship, it had begun to sink in, he is NOW an American and the good and bad that comes along with that. I told him that 4 O'clock Tea Time was something we didn't do here in the US. He laughed and said that might be a little hard to give up.

You might be asking where did I get the idea to say those two words "Congratulations. Citizen"? Honestly, I stole it. I am not that original nor do I claim to be. Just read this blog, you can tell. In the 1984 film "Moscow on the Hudson" Robin Williams plays a saxophone playing Soviet Russian defector. The film is a comedy about how everyone is from somewhere else and how the US is really that melting pot we talk about. William's character, Vladimir Ivanof's girl friend Lucia Lombardo (played by Maria Conchita Alonso) is awarded citizenship. During the swearing in ceremony, the presiding Judge speaks to the partitionor's or about how they are about to be a part of a great society built on immigrants and how they will no longer be from somewhere else, but from now on they will be just simply be known as "American Citizens." At the end of the statement, the oath is administered and the Judge closes by saying "Congratulations.... Citizens." and for some strange reason it hit a cord with me and I have remembered it all these years later.

In 2004 the wife and I took a vacation up along the Blue Ridge Parkway from the North Carolina/Virgina border with the plan to go all the way to the Skyline Drive in northern Virgina and along the way stop at Thomas Jefferson's Montecello on July 4th since they have a large swearing in ceremony for new citizens then. We thought it would be fun to go and see hundreds of people sworn in as new American Citizens at the birthplace of the Declaration of Independence on Independence Day. Well the 3nd day in to the trip, we are about 2 days away from Charlottesville where Montecello is located, when a hurricane blows in off the coast and starts to dump rain all over the middle Atlantic region. Since the main reason for the trip was to SEE the sights along the Blue Ridge Parkway and up in the mountains with the clouds, you don't see anything much more than a few feet in front of you. We decided to cut the trip short and head back home since the rain had moved into the mountains and had stalled out. So we didn't make it to Montecello.

I finally got the chance to say the words myself for the first time in 2006 with a co-worker in my department who is from Pakistan. It was more wonderful to say it than I imagined. It was a celebration of our now shared country and for the first time in my own life, I realized that the best thing I can ever be called is "American Citizen."

So this time when I said it, the emotional feeling was one of great honor for me to be passing that feeling of being called "American Citizen" on to someone who had never known the feeling. I saw him a short time later in his office as I was leaving for the day and I asked him how did it feel. His response brought a tear to my eye. He simply said, "I feel like an American."

Yeah brother, I know the feeling.

Loserville

OK. It is now official. I am now a LOSER!! Leave it to Facebook to prove it.

I must admit, for someone who is tech savy, has been playing with computers since the 1980's (you remember TRS-80's and Commodore 80's?) and was on the net before most people had ever HEARD of it (remember DARPA Net and then ARPA Net?) and used things like FTP and TELNET and SMTP and GOPHER to navigate since the wonderful graphics rich HTTP that created the WWW in world wide web was only a far off idea; social networking hasn't been one of those things I have been all over. Guess I like a little privacy beyond my private parts.

Fellow employee and quasi friend Stewart Pittman of Lenslinger.com fame started preaching the virtue and power of Facebook and it was something I really needed to get into. After looking at some of the myspace pages, (what do people get out of posting some of the stuff they post on myspace?) and deciding that maybe myspace wasn't the space I needed to be in, I was also intimidated with Facebook. I tried to poke around Stew's Facebook but really couldn't see anything because I wasn't a member. OK. I have been around the block enough times to see when I am being scammed into doing something I am not sure I want to do and these "you can't do anything until you join" just is asking for trouble in my past experience. This was to be also.

After a couple of weeks of going back and forth on it, today I decided to do it. I joined Facebook. Entered my information and then realized, I have no friends. Not on Facebook anyway. The people listed that COULD be my friends are not what I would call friends in the truest sense. They are/were acquaintances at best. People I once shared a very brief time of life with, and had it been more than that, I would have expected to have remained friends or got pissed off at each other and then ended it with a definite ending point. Most were just people I hung out with that faded away years ago. Some are people I have worked with but never hung out with, even less then my quasi friendship with Stewart. I see an ex room mate from college listed, but if his photo was any indication of his current state, then I was wise to NOT continue that friendship all those years ago! I figured I had at leaset one "friend" on Facebook. Stewart. He COULDN'T refuse me as a friend since he was the one who said it was great! Or could he? Well, luckily he didn't since he is the only friend I have at the moment on Facebook, real or other wise.

I guess I don't get "social networking of the Internet age." If the purpose is to see how many "friends" you can collect on these social networking sites, then I have better things to do with my time. If the purpose is to actually rekindle old friendships, then I am really screwed. Either most of my friends don't do Facebook or I really don't have any friends.

Either way, GAME OVER! LOSER!!

Is It Time Yet?

Wow. Another year is about over. When did that happen? I hadn't realized my last post was in August. That doesn't mean I haven't been blogging. Quite the contrary. I have been pretty hot and heavy with my work blog as we get closer to the Digital Transition date of February 17, 2009. After writing that, a lot of stuff I would use here, gets used up there so it really takes a off the wall broadcasting subject like the MaryEllen O'Brien blog, who by the way found it and commented back (Sorry MaryEllen it took me 3 months to realize your comment was hung up in review!) to get posted here. After the transition in February my work blogging should slow down a great deal and I can get back to posting more here.

But here we are about to move into the last year of the first decade of the 21st Century. What an interesting year this past one has been. With the US elections, the media going into the tank for an ideology, economy tanking and the Israeli/Palestinian issue heating up again here at the end of the year, life just seems to roll on. What will 2009 hold in store? More economic bad times for the short run at least and the new President seeing if being a Community Organizer is good enough to run a country. Beyond that? Who knows. Too many characters out there that can change history in a single minute.

As the old Chinese curse goes, "May you live in interesting times." We do.

A Tribute to MaryEllen O'Brien

I have a confession. I have no idea who MaryEllen O'Brien is. Other than what her MySpace page says.

According to it, this is a picture of MaryEllen (who runs her two Christian names together, or least it is written that way on her MySpace page). Also according to it, "MaryEllen O'Brien is a freelance writer and author of two books and numerous articles in the area of spirituality. She is also a rock radio vet who spent 20 years on the air at stations ranging from WBLM in Portland, Maine to 93 Rock, Sacramento, to Atlantic 252, an international radio station based in Ireland and broadcasting to the U.K., and more. After logging all that on-air time MaryEllen took a break from radio to pursue studies in spirituality and theology and to begin writing professionally. Today MaryEllen writes, does voice talent work—and who knows, may just do some radio again too! She also does energy healing work. She has had a lifelong interest in the paranormal." OK. Now you know as much about her as I do.

But you must be asking, if you don't know this woman; never met this woman; and only know what her MySpace page says about her; why are you blogging about her? Fair question. Simply; she intrigues me. And reminds of a bygone era. Well actually one part of her resume' intrigues me and reminds of a bygone era that was near and dear to my heart and keeps great memories alive.

Here's the deal. After finding out there are engineers, as well as non engineers, who have posted transmitter tours of broadcast sites on YouTube (IS THERE NOTHING NOT ON YouTube??!!) I ran across a video of a defunct long wave radio station in Europe, Atlantic 252 (spoken as Atlantic TWO-FIVE-TWO). Now I have always had a subtle fascination with European rock and roll pirate radio stations (illegal broadcasting stations) and the like from the 60's forward. Stations like Radio Caroline and and the American backed Lazer 558.

As a young pup in radio in the early 80's, I had passingly read of the illegal stations Radio Caroline and Lazer 558 in one of the trade papers and how the UK was trying to shut them down. They were two of several radio stations that broadcast from ships in the North Sea to the UK and mainland Europe. Back in the day, I just couldn't fathom (pun intended) how you could broadcast an AM signal from a ship effectively. Well, years later, I now know how; but it ain't easy (that is a different posting, though).

The thing about Atlantic 252 is that it legally broadcast on 252 kHz. Frequencies BELOW the North American standard medium wave AM broadcast band. Frequencies here in North America that houses only aircraft navigation beacons and you need shortwave radios to hear them, but in Europe are as common as your local AM or FM station here in North America. In Europe, they are allocated to broadcasting. The UK, Ireland, France, Germany and Spain all have certain frequencies allocated to them in this "European long wave broadcasting" spectrum. It was and still is mostly government broadcasters like the BBC and RTE and such, but a group of investors decided to try a "national" commercial station in the long waves for the UK. Long waves have the advantage of very large coverage areas day and night per transmitter site without many of the interference issues the AM broadcast medium waves experience. This was the late 80's and Europe still hadn't embraced FM radio as we had here in the US. AM radio was still in vogue in Euorpe. The only long wave frequency they could get for this new station was 252 kHz, hence the branding number, 252. But the catch was the station, that was to broadcast to the UK, had to be located in Ireland because of the frequency coordination, hence, Atlantic in the branding. So the station was located in and around Trim, County Meath, Ireland and Atlantic 252 was born.

So this is where MaryEllen O'Brien comes into the story. Exactly where in the time line of Atlantic 252 I am not sure or for how long she stayed, but it seems she was one of the original disc jockeys or "presenters" as they are called in Europe, when the station signed on.

But I am getting ahead of myself. Anyway, when I surfed over to the tribute site for Atlantic 252, I found in the middle of these high energy, high personality (something that radio today sorely lacks among the cookie cutter radio stations that dot the AM and FM bands in the US) UK, Irish and Scottish rock and roll disc jockeys, an American woman named MaryEllen O'Brien was on the list. It must have been the fashion at the time to have an American woman on an air staff in Europe because even the pirates, whom many of the legal European broadcasters had begun to emulate to retain listeners, had American sounding women on their staffs too. MaryEllen was an American. And from the airchecks I heard on several sites, MaryEllen was good. She could front announce up to the post or kiss the lyrics with the best of the US announcers and never miss a beat in giving the latest weather forecast.

They did rebel rock and roll on Atlantic 252, something that was both a throw back to the classic early days of bad boy rock and roll radio of the 50's and 60's with the likes of the beloved Allen Freed, Cousin Brucie, Murray the K, Dan Ingram or Super Jock, Larry LuJack and a look to the future of the naughty free-for-alls you now hear on morning radio but not in the "shock jock" vein of current radio, but in that fun, just east of blue vein that is so lacking in radio today on the Morning Zoo's. A style that takes talent to pull off, not a dirty mouth. The ole, "fully clothed, undressed woman" concept. i.e the imagination is more powerful than reality.

But all good things must come to an end. And too so did Atlantic 252. FM finally overtook Europe and not only put the licensed commercial AM stations like Atlantic 252 out of business and into the hands of their respective licensing governments, but it did what the governments couldn't do, finally run the AM pirates out of business. In December 2001, Atlantic 252 signed off for the last time. A victim of the changing times as had its North American cousins of two decades before. The long wave frequency and transmitter site reverting back to the Irish government, where the government run RTE has a station on that frequency and facility now.

The pirates didn't even make it that long, being gone in the early 90's due to continued governmental pressure and changing listener patterns. Radio Caroline went though 3 or 4 ships (and in a gale one of the Caroline ships, the MV Mi Amigo went to the bottom off the coast of the Long Sand Bank in 1980 with the 127 ft antenna tower sticking above water for 6 years before it rusted off into the sea) in their 25 years of pirating, The last Caroline ship, MV Ross Revenge, is put up in port as a volunteer support group tries to keep the old ship and its 80's vintage broadcasting equipment from rusting out with high hopes of sailing the old lady on the high seas again and maybe broadcasting, legally. MV Communicator of Laser 558 fame went to the cutters torch just this year. Radio Caroline being the last one still broadcasting more legally on satellite radio now in Europe but nowhere near as popular or as outlandish as in the old days.

So my tribute to MaryEllen is really my memory of when music radio was good and fun to listen to and work in. How even an American could make it big on a European rock and roll AM station when at the time, here in the US, AM music radio was all but dead at the hands of FM radio. I used to be idealistic back then too, dreaming of far off exotic places doing radio. To be young again with what I know now. But she just went off and did it. While I only continue to dream of it.

He's to you MaryEllen. May you always hit the post. May you never have dead air or back time issues going into the top of the hour news. And may you NEVER, EVER had to play Freebird or Stairway to Heaven (or even MacArthur's Park), unless you WANT to or its on the playlist, not because you HAVE to. And from one former jock to another, MaryEllen you KNOW what I am talking about.