R. F. BURNS

Aspect Ratio -- or "Why is that person short and fat?"

2011-12-10T10:53:00.004-05:00

I was watching my HD TV the other night when it occurred to me. I am seeing A LOT of full screen material. Why is that so earth shattering? Well, it wasn't that long ago that most of the material did NOT fill the screen. I had just gotten used to it the old way. I had noticed a change. Subtle, but a change.

First, a quick history lesson on how we got here.

The reason TV was a square, 4:3 in the first place was to mimic movies. They were roughly 4:3 aspect meaning, for every 4 units wide, the picture will be 3 units high. It is basic physics of 35mm film. In the 1950's, the movie industry was afraid that TV would kill it so they created, Cinemascope type or wide screen formats where the picture was wider that the old standard of 4 units wide to give it an edge over television and keep seats in the movie houses filled. When digital TV was developed in the 1980's, it was decided to again adapt to the wider screen format of movies. The only problem is that there are several different wide screen cinema formats so 16:9, 16 units wide to 9 units high was adapted for digital television. That is why you can sometimes still see black bars at the top and bottom and really wide movies when played on a HD TV. It is all about aspect ratio. "Why is that person short and fat?"

I bought my first HD TV in 2003. I got it for work since we had just started digital broadcasting and network was sending actual 16:9 formatted programming. I wanted to see it to be sure it was being broadcast correctly. In 2003, very few people had HD TV's. I jokingly said I had my "own" TV station. I could turn it on and off and do all kinds of stuff with it and no one ever called and complained. (They didn't) Problem was for all of 2 hours maximum a day, we had full screen material to broadcast. The rest of the day, we ran our analog 4:3 video through a converter that put black wings on the side of the picture to keep people the correct aspect and to fill out the 16:9 screen. It was simple. If network on was line, the converter was out of line and network worried about its own programming. When not in network, the converter was in line. Correct aspect was maintained. We did that for years. So did the majority of TV stations nationwide.

On June 12, 2009, full power TV stations were required by the government to turn off their analog transmitters. This forced the viewing public to conform to the new digital standard. This also forced stations and program distributors beyond the networks to begin dealing with aspect ratio since the new defacto standard had moved from 4:3 to 16:9. Literally overnight.

When the digital standard had been set, it was stated that standard definition could be 4:3 or 16:9. There was no embedded way to tell the set how to automatically format the picture though. Still isn't. All HD would be 16:9 and if it were upconverted SD the picture formatting signal was an option. After the Digital Transition in 2009, production companies very quickly moved towards converting their programs from 4:3 SD to 16:9 HD. In just 3 years, very few programs intended for mass distribution are still in SD where only network programs were in HD 16:9 before June 2009. Even local stations have converted to HD in a fraction of the time that they converted from black and white to color between the late 1950's into the mid to late 1960's. We began true 16:9 programming in the fall of 2009. Our newscast was still in SD, but it was true widescreen. In the fall of 2009 only 4 non network programs were available to us in HD and we broadcasted those programs in 16:9 HD while the rest of the schedule was upconverted SD 4:3 with black bars on the side, including locally produced programming. In the fall of 2010 we converted our news and production operation completely to HD including live field news reports via microwave and via satellite. Today, only 3 non network programs are SD. We air over 20 hours a day of HD 16:9 programming. Not bad. But........

On the other hand, commercial production has lagged way behind. The majority of commercials at the national level are still produced in 4:3 standard definition. The reason? Production houses charge more for HD commercials. It cost more to distribute them. Gone are the days of sending tapes with the commercials on them. They are now sent to severs located at the stations as files via the Internet and satellite. It takes bandwidth to do that. HD commercials use A LOT of bandwidth. So they charge more for it. That is changing, but very slowly. We have been producing our local commercials in widescreen and then in HD since the fall of 2009. The other local stations have also started to produce their local commercials in widescreen at least. We get about 6 HD national commercials a week compared to the more than 250 we get in SD.

The other night is when I noticed that I was seeing more and more national HD commercials. I was seeing less and less of the back bars on the sides. As a matter of fact, most of the commercials were in widescreen. Something in 2003 was unimaginable. It is amazing how far we have come in just 8 years.

Rememberance - June 12, 2009

2011-03-12T08:49:00.003-05:00

I was looking through some screen shot pictures of TV stations on several DX web sites. The majority of them were from the analog days of TV broadcasting. This summer marks two years since full power analog TV broadcasting in the United States ceased. You can still fine some low power stations still broadcasting with analog, but many have already either ceased broadcasting all together or are converting to digital or have converted to digital broadcasting. many believe that even these low power analog broadcasters time is very limited. With only tens of months left and all TV broadcasting in the United States will be digital only. To me it seems hard to believe we have been broadcasting digital only for almost 2 years. It many ways it doesn't seem that long. But in other ways, it seems like a life time.

I admit it. I do miss the analog days. I didn't think I would. Too many nights at the transmitter tuning up finicky exciters and outright defiant power amplifiers. Logging a list of signal readings a mile long. Snowy 4:3 standard definition pictures. Working with technology first developed in the 1930's and added to in the early 1950's. Being amazed we got a picture of any quality to broadcast. Ah, the "good ole days."

I was walking through the old transmitter building the other day replacing a repaired power supply in the back up transmitter and thinking about the television history that was made from that little building. And it was 99% analog history. The building was built in 1963 when the station was built. The third station to come on the air for the air. It was just big enough to surround the RCA TT-25DH (D-Line) transmitter. A monster in size compared to today's technology for the power level. In those days the site was manned whenever the station was on the air. Day one on the air made history. Not only for the fact it was the first day on air, but it was also the day the station went off the air. After being on the air for only a few hours, the main power bus in the circuit breaker panel melted taking the station off the air. It was hastily repaired and that patch lasted until that power panel was gutted in an electrical rewire of the building in 1993.

This picture is of a TT-25DH that was at WQAD channel 8 in Moline, Il. There are no surviving pictures that I am aware of for WGHP's TT-25DH. Interesting sidebar, WQAD became a sister station to WGHP in July of 2008.

In 1981, the original transmitter was replaced by a Harris TVD-50H dual tran transmitter and the building was enlarged to install the Harris while staying on the air with the RCA. The old "D-Line" was sold to a PBS station in Washington State on channel 9 that had the same model transmitter and was looking for another one to use in back up service. A few years later, the site was converted to unmanned operation as the era of wide spread manned transmitter sites drew to a close all over the industry. Several of the transmitter engineers moved to the studio and remained with the station for many years while others moved on to pursue other interests.

For the next 10 years, the site was maintained by one man basically, the late Roy Allman. Roy came to work at the station just as it was signing on for the first time in 1963. Roy worked as a transmitter engineer until the early 80's when he was named Transmitter Supervisor. But by then, there wasn't much to supervise with the site now unmanned. But he was responsible for the maintenance and operation of the transmitter. Roy passed away at age 73 in 2008, just months before the cessation of analog broadcasts.

In February of 1992 I graced the transmitter building for the first time. I was being interviewed to replace Roy upon is retirement in early 1993. My first thought was, "thank God the transmitter isn't a RCA." I had dealt with several old RCA radio transmitters in my career and I had heard the stories of the TV transmitters that made my experiences with the radio transmitters pale in comparison. The TVD-50H was very similar to the Harris FM-25K FM transmitter I was used to. Later I found out the trip to the transmitter was to see if I would run when I saw the transmitter and to see how comfortable I was around it. Guess I passed since I was hired in April of 1992. I spent the next year "apprenticing" with Roy on TV engineering which for me was to learn the video end of it since I already knew the RF and audio side of it.

March 1993 saw Roy's retirement and the mantle of "transmitter supervisor" being passed on to me. I got started by cleaning out 25 years of stuff that was lurking in hidden places and equipment that really wasn't useful anymore. The interior got a paint job and we rewired the electrical of the building. The next year we replaced the old shallow 20 inch RCA equipment racks with new 30 inch deep equipment racks and a rewiring of the audio and control cabling for the building. In 1995 we replaced the old reflector microwave receive antenna system with direct antennas mounted on the tower and added stereo generators and processors to the on air chain and began stereo broadcasting for the first time. Over the next few years life turned to planning for the digital transition.

In 1999 plans were to increase the size of the building to include a new digital transmitter and replace the tower with a stronger tower that would hold multiple antennas for both analog and digital since no one knew how long we broadcasting both. Plans were proceeding when 9/11 occurred and changed everything. Being owned by FOX at the time, FOX lost 3 transmitter sites on World Trade Center 2 when it came down that day. It was decided that if a station had viable analog facilities that could be converted to backup facilities, then it was better to build a new site for digital. That put in motion the two site concept that was eventually built. But on that Tuesday, I spent the whole day in that building watching the events unfold in New York City. Not knowing if another attack was coming and to keep the transmitter running at all costs.

On April 29th, 2002, we fired up digital channel 35 for the first time from the building with a super low power transmitter. A whopping 4200 watts total!

The Harris "dual tran" was finally retired in 2005 with installation of half of the new Larcan TTP-44H channel 8 transmitter for the new transmitter building that was being built at the same time.

The Larcan transmitter ran in the old building until March of 2006 when it was joined with its other half in the new building and main operations switched to the new tower and building on the other side of the property and the old building was relegated to auxiliary service. The old building was cleared out and a new 6 kw auxiliary channel 8 analog transmitter was installed along side of the low power channel 35 digital transmitter. In August of 2006, digital operations moved to the new tower and building with the low power channel 35 transmitter becoming a auxiliary transmitter.

After the digital transition, the plan was to remain on channel 8 digital and the analog channel 8 transmitters would be converted to digital. Two of the three transmitters were converted but due to signal problems with digital VHF, channel 8 was abandoned for channel 35. The two big VHF transmitters, one that had be converted to digital and the other which was never converted were traded in for a 5 kw channel 35 auxiliary transmitter that was installed in the old building. The low power channel 8 transmitter in the old building is being shopped around. The transmitter room that held the channel 8 analog/digital in the new building is now empty and is used for storage.

Strange how fast that much history can run though ones brain while taking only ten steps.

James Kenneth "McKay" McManus

2011-01-29T11:29:00.004-05:00

Over the last few weeks, fate has continued to remind me that I am not the "young whipper snapper" I like to think I am. More often than not, I will make a comment about something with a reference from years gone by only for the recipient of said comment, who is young enough to be my child, to have a look of puzzlement on their face like, "what are you talking about?" I was once again reminded just last night as I was watching a DVR'ed episode of FOX News Channel's politically incorrect late night comedy panel show parody, "Red Eye."

On the panel of this episode was comedian Joe DeVito, lawyer Brooke Goldstein and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee. In discussing the MTV show 'Skins' and how children are not being raised with any kind of moral teaching anymore, in a joking response to a non sequitur comment from host Greg Gutfeld's sidekick Bill Schulz, Governor Huckabee replied "I think Captain Kangaroo is the most dangerous show for kids. Yelling at Grandfather clock to make him wake up! (pause) There are only a handful of people watching who even know what that means." I KNOW! I WATCHED Captain Kangaroo when I was going up in the 60's! The panel had no idea what Governor Huckabee was talking about. That got the laugh. For those who don't know. Grandfather Clock was always asleep. The other characters on the show got a big chuckle from waking him up all the time. Wow! I. Am. Old. To drive the point home further, this morning in perusing the Video On Demand of the DVR, I found the 2003 documentary of the late ABC Sportscaster, Jim McKay. McKay, died in 2008 of natural causes at the age of 86. I had seen this when it first aired on HBO in 2003. It was written and narrated by McKay himself.

McKay was born James Kenneth McManus. He wanted to be a big time newspaper sportswriter. He loved story telling. And while a huge sports fan, he was always more interested in the people behind the box scores and that is what he wanted to write about. If not for a chance offer to be a part of the first TV station in Baltimore, WMAR, we would have never heard of Jim McKay. We might have heard of a newspaper writer named Jim McManus instead. But after a few years at WMAR, opportunity knocked in the form of a new show in New York City and did McManus want to be a part of it. It was basically the same thing he had been doing at WMAR, a little bit of everything on air, just to do it in New York City. One small problem. The show had already been named, "The Real McKay." McManus would have to change his name to match the show. McManus agreed. Hence, "Jim McKay" was born.

During the documentary, it showed how this little known sportswriter became one of the best known sports reporters ever even though he never did a Super Bowl or World Series. But he did host the Kentucky Derby's, Indy 500's and many of the British Open's for ABC.

McKay found himself to be at the center of many historical sporting events. In part thanks to his sports show, "Wide World of Sports" which was the catalyst of the modern day sports reporting on the athletes themselves and not just what they do on the field of competition. It was the show that spawned these classic cultural words that are used today, mostly out of context, Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sport... the thrill of victory... and the agony of defeat... the human drama of athletic competition... This is ABC's Wide World of Sports!

As the old video and film clips played documenting McKay's professional life, it became too apparent that I remembered many of these things as they were originally broadcast. You can't really say broadcast live since international satellite broadcasting didn't really start to happen until the late 60's and only then cost a small fortune and was saved for really truly exceptional events like coronations or the Olympics. Some big event that the coverage could be planned for. Not like now where all you need is a computer, camera and an Internet connection. Many of the events shown are now etched in the cultures collective memory. Jim McKay was there. Sadly, he will be best remembered for his coverage of the 1972 Munich Olympic murders. His finest moment broadcasting. An event he said that haunted him 30 years later. It was that broadcast that truly showed he "had the right stuff." Many of the big names in television news at the time recognized him as being the right man in the right place at the right time for that story. The legendary Peter Jennings, who himself in later years would become a beloved anchorman, stated in an interview, that at the time, he could not do what McKay did on that broadcast. He watched in awe how he guided the viewing audience through that terrible time with such dignity and integrity to get the the story right the first time, knowing that back home in Ohio, a family was wanting to know the fate of their loved one. As Roone Arledge, then ABC Sports President stated, "we all knew we were not reporting for the nation, but the Berger family. We had to get it right the first time." McKay's old friend and former co-host in the early days, Walter Cronkite sent him a telegram while still in Munich congratulating him on the coverage he had done and that it was recognized at the competitors shop. Not ABC, but Jim McKay owned the story as no one reporter in the world could. It was one of the the most important stories of the 20th Century, and Jim McKay is the only name that you remember with it.

And speaking of the Olympics, McKay's little ABC show, "Wide World of Sports" pretty much single handedly created America's love for ice skating and gymnastics. Back in the day, ABC was a far third place in just about all categories. ABC's Wide World of Sports was an attempt to find a niche within the sports reporting world with little known sports or off the wall sports. Arledge went around the world buying the rights to all kinds of things for pennies on the dollar to air on WWoS. Things like ski jumping, demolition derbies, barrel jumping, rodeos, gymnastics, track and field, just about any kind of off the beaten path sporting event or sports that didn't play on the other networks. McKay was perfectly suited for the job. This was to not only be the box scores, but to know the people of the events. WWoS went to gymnastic events of all kinds, track and field events and such all around the world. It was the 1960 US/USSR Track and Field broadcasts from the Soviet Union that took WWoS from a summer replacement program to a permanent place on ABC's schedule. This was the first broadcast by an American network from the Soviet Union and while the event wasn't available live in the US, ABC did record it on a new invention called "video tape" and flew the tapes back to New York for broadcast a week later. McKay made both sides human, even the Soviets got praise when they did well, something that hadn't been done before and was received with positive viewer reaction. Because of the accomplishments of McKay and WWoS with track and field and gymnastics and ice skating, events that NBC and CBS hardly touched, when ABC got the rights to broadcast the Olympics in the US market, McKay was the natural choice and became known as "Mr Olympics." Even after ABC lost the rights to the Olympics, the public expected McKay to be a part of the broadcast in some way and both CBS and NBC honored him by negotiating with ABC to allow him to be a part of their Olympic broadcasts until his retirement in 2000. You just couldn't have the Olympics without him. In 2008, NBC who had the rights to the games, dedicated the broadcasts to McKay after his death.

To me he will always be THE BEST sportscaster, period. There will never be another Jim McKay and the current crop of sportscasters are all too aware of it having grown up watching him and wanting to do what he did and are in his debt. The ones coming along? They have no idea whose shoulders they are standing on. They should get a clue.

Yeah. I am now officially old.

footnote - Sean McManus, President of CBS News and Sports is McKay's youngest child.

Ancient History

2010-12-12T13:42:00.003-05:00

This past week I was struck how those under 30 years old reacted to the 30th Anniversary of the Assassination of John Lennon. Those of my generation clearly remember December 8, 1980 as if it were yesterday. But how does someone who wasn't born process an event like that? When one thinks of 30 years, the first thought is "boy that is a long time." But when you are looking through the lens of life experience thought that time, 30 years can be a long time or just yesterday. But through the lens of someone not even born then, 30 years takes on a completely different tone.

I didn't really watch much of the coverage. Mainly because I am recovering from major abdominal surgery, and I know the ending of the story. But I did watch an updated "Behind the Music" on VH1 Classics on the last years of Lennon's life. The episode starts after what has become known as the "Lost Weekend" where Lennon moved to Los Angeles in the early 70's with Yoko's assistant, May Pang whose job it was to be the "woman" to John, that Yoko couldn't while trying to deal with John's demons. During this year or so of time, John parties, and parties, and parties, and parties and parties some more. Along the way falling in love with May Pang (and May Pang in return), all with Yoko's blessing. At the end of the "Lost Weekend," Lennon realizes he needs to get his life together and that Yoko is the one he truly loves. May Pang is jilted and John goes back to Yoko, a changed man. May Pang remains bitter to this day. A year later Sean is born and this is where the story starts.

It goes through the years of John the househusband and then in 1980 taking the sailing trip to Bermuda where the sail boat is almost destroyed in a storm and from this comes the music for John's last two albums, "Double Fantasy" and the 1984 release, "Milk and Honey." After John publicly resurfaces in 1980 to restart his music career, with actual TV news video, right through the world wide reaction to the assassination. The updated portion is from 2006 where the addition of Strawberry Fields in New York's Central Park is stated as well as the Anthology songs "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love" are mentioned.

The thing that struck me was in the interviews with the people in Strawberry Fields. Most people were younger that 30 who had never known John when he was alive. All they knew of him was archival and his music. Many see him as omnipotent. A great thinker. A man before his time. Reverent, almost to the point of religious. My personal opinion is John would be quite appalled at that. John considered himself part of the working class proletariat. He was no better than anyone else, and didn't want to be. He was just a musician speaking his mind through his music. Nothing more, nothing less. Take it or leave it. He is on record saying that anyone who looked for deep inner meaning of his music beyond what was on the surface, was "Daft."

To many of the under 30 crowd, John Lennon is God like. Of course Yoko hasn't tried to dissuaded people of the thought. It helps keep John's memory and causes alive. Something she has stewarded for years oh so carefully creating and shaping and guarding John Lennon's legacy. The question is who will do that when Yoko Ono finally no longer is here to guide that legacy? Julian Lennon from John's first marriage with Cynthia Powell? Doubtful. He hardly knew his father. Sean? No one knows what his thoughts on the subject are. He has never publicly stated. I don't think he has ever publicly stated anything. So who knows?

I see John Lennon through the eyes of someone who remembers Beatlemania from news reports on TV. I remember when Sgt Peppers was release in 1967. I remember the breakup of the Beatles. I remember the Bed-In's for Peace. I remember when "Imagine" was released. I also remember vividly the events and my own feelings of December 8, 1980. John Lennon isn't God like to me. He is a man who died too young and the world was deprived of his creativity. He is a man who entertained me with his music. On occasion made me think about things differently. I don't think John would be disappointed if I just thought of him as a "musician." Who knows, he might have even song a song to me because of that thought.

Imagine THAT!

Imagine - 70 Years

2010-10-09T21:41:00.006-04:00

Today would have been the 70th birthday of the founder of the band, The Quarrymen. Who? The Quarrymen? Yes. The Quarrymen of the English port town of Liverpool who would become, The Beatles.

October 9th, 1940, Alfred and Julia Lennon welcomed John Winston Lennon into the world. Alfred, a merchant marine, who would soon depart Julia's and John's world, only to resurface years later after The Beatles made it and John rejecting him outright. Julia, herself a free spirit, soon left John with her sister Mary Smith, better known to the world now as "Auntie Mimi." "Uncle George" and Auntie Mimi raised John and did the best they could for the rebellious child. Julia did resurface in John's life from time to time buying him his first guitar and taught John cords on a banjo hoping John would get it out of his system saying "The guitar's all very well, John, but you'll never make a living out of it." On July 15, 1958 Julia was struck by a car and killed. John was only 17.

In March 1957 John formed The Quarrymen as a skiffle band, with jazz, blues, folk roots and country influences and then later shifting more towards rock and roll. It was during this time he met Paul McCartney and George Harrison.

As rock and roll became more prevalent, the band went through many names and members with the core remaining Lennon, McCartney and Harrison. By 1960, the band was now known as The Beatles, a play on words for the beat movement of rock and roll and from the "Mersey Beat Scene" the name used to describe the sound coming out of Liverpool and Merseyside England. The grueling Hamburg, German tours progressed over the next two years as the constant 8 to 10 hour stretches of playing in Hamburg's Reperbahn bars created The Beatles sound as the world would come to know. John, not one to sit on his laurels if it meant some mischief learned the "ways of the world" with his free spirit mother and father's genes on full display in Hamburg. But John's love of words blended in with his songwriting began in earnest with Paul in Hamburg as they honed their craft and played the standards of 1950's rock and roll along with standards of the 1930's and 1940's to the sailors and ladies of the night who, along with the beatniks of Hamburg, made up the Reperbahn club scene in the early 1960's.

If not for the now famous chance request of "My Bonnie" by "Tony Sheridan and The Beat Brothers" at the NEMS Store in Liverpool, and Brian Epstein going to The Cavern Club to hear The Beatles, John Lennon would more than likely have stayed in Liverpool working the blue collar job of the docks or on board ship and music history would have been much different. The general thought is John would have either been in jail or dead by 1970 had there been no Beatles as we know them today. John had been quite a teenage delinquent and was on a road to self destruction with only music saving him. Even in 1963 when George Martin first heard The Beatles, he had little faith this band of four, with Pete Best on drums and not Ringo Starr would amount to much more than a fad band. Thank goodness Sir George was willing to give them a try and Ringo agreed to join.

For those of us who remember December 8, 1980, the question will usually surface, "Where were you when John Lennon was shot?" Like the John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King assassinations and most recently 9/11, those events are elevated above all else and are markers in people lives that get relived over and over again. For me Monday December 8, 1980, I was at college. A friend of mine had stayed over Sunday night in the dorms and we had partied pretty hard so we slept in that Monday morning. After class that afternoon, we resumed the party from the night before. By the time the news filtered out from ABC's Monday Night Football where it was first announced, we had been partying many hours. In an instant, our party turned into a wake as we found a TV and turned it on and watched the news updates. After midnight when the TV stations went off the air (GASP! Yep, stations didn't stay on 24/7 like they do now) we went to the radio and started tuning up and down the AM radio band. Every station you heard had either Beatles or John solo music. My suite mate Mike Ivey, made a cassette tape of that night, but I don't think it exists anymore, being erased a short time later because it was too painful to listen to. The wake continued until morning. Sometime during the night, we took a sheet and painted a sign of remembrance to John and flew it out the dorm window. The sheet still exists. I have it somewhere in my things. I saw it a few years back. A picture of the sheet flying out the window was in the year book.

In the early days of John's and Yoko's relation, she really came off as a nasty interloper. But since John's death, she has really been wonderfully giving to the world of John. A few years back she allowed much of John's artwork to tour and pieces to be sold. It came through here. I went. The cheapest pieces were around $1000. I didn't have the money then. I still don't, but I could probably get it now, when I couldn't then. If I ever get that chance again, I will. Not as an investment, even though it will have value and hopefully it will increase, but to own a piece of John. Sentimental. They were small cards with original pen or pencil drawings. I suspect they are all gone now, but if I ever get the chance again, I will take advantage of it.

So at 70 years old what would John Ono Lennon be like? The same he was at 40 upon his death. He would be doing music. Championing causes of world peace. And I suspect global warming as well. Maybe even a Beatles reunion. That was never out of the question. It just never had the time to mature. And still loving Yoko even more (was THAT EVEN POSSIBLE?) and watching Julian and Sean becoming their potential. No doubt he would be mellow but with a rebellious streak, but he would have the wisdom to use that rebellion for good as he was starting to do that the last 5 years of his life as house husband and primary caretaker of Sean while Yoko tamed the business world.

John is missed, not only by his family and friends, but by the people of the world, fans and non fans alike. The music that could have been created over the last 30 years is that never happened, is a crime. The fact that his music of the 20 years of his adult life and the causes are still championed by the proletariat speaks volumes of John's timelessness. The world is a better place for John's contributions and the world is a worse place for what was never done.

The Picture Becomes Clearer

2010-09-18T09:10:00.012-04:00

As I said in an earlier post, I didn't have much to say, even though lots had been going on. As Paul Harvey used to say, "And now, the rest of the story." Actually this picture is the culmination of my not having much to say. I will try to explain.

First the set up.

This is Melissa Painter, our weekend anchor I caught in a candid moment of contemplation sitting on our new High Def set waiting for our weekday anchor Neill McNeill to join her for our inaugural High Def newscast. Melissa is a very capable reporter and anchor in her own right. Melissa normally anchors the weekends by herself with sports guys Kevin Connolly and Danny Harnden and Meteorologist Charles Ewing. Management decided that with this newscast being the first newscast in High Def in the market and it being on a Sunday night, it needed to be co-anchored by two people. The media blitz leading up to this had been MASSIVE. We needed to be sure this newscast delivered on all kinds of fronts. I saw Melissa about an hour before the newscast walking down the hall. I said, "You're looking very pretty tonight." She responded with "I put some extra work into it!" as she smiled and winked at me. That is Melissa. She is a warm hearted, fun loving person who enjoys life and it shows in her work. She is a real joy to work with. We are lucky to have her.

Here is Neill McNeill on the left with his regular weekday partner, Julie Luck during rehearsals on the new HD set. Neill is a part of a generation of newsperson that takes his craft seriously. Neill started in the business around 1980. He, like me, grew up watching Walter Cronkite and watching the 1960's on TV, remembers the Moon landings and saw Watergate happen (where the "-gate" comes from in any kind of a political scandal now) before even going to college. Neill has a somewhat dry sense of humor, but is quite funny in his own right. You would never know it watching him on TV, but then, as a reporter, cred is the Holy Grail in this business. Do you want your news from a serious professional, or some laughing buffoon. Me? I want serious. And Neill delivers.

And just a quick word on his weekday co-anchor, Julie Luck since she is pictured here but was not on the first HD newscast. Julie is just a mess! Julie lives life to the fullest and she IS the life of the party on and off camera. Just a fun loving lady. And the viewers just love her too. I like being around her. She is so unpredictable. That is why we like her so much.

So there you have the ending. Being the first station in the market to bring HD news to the viewers. The beginning? Well, that is going to take a while.

Let's start this installment at the beginning of the day the top picture was taken, September 12, 2010. For months we had been installing new HD equipment along side the SD equipment. We had to stay on the air with the old SD equipment while installing all the new HD equipment and it's a logistical nightmare all its own. The equipment racks and control room were busting out of its seams with old and new equipment. We had to have it all installed together to do weeks upon weeks of rehearsals when we were not on the air with news. We had two of everything! You can see in this picture taken during rehearsals, the new HD equipment is toward the back of the picture where 6pm Director Amy Convery is sitting and a corner of the old SD switcher equipment and support equipment in the front of the picture. I am standing at the back wall taking the picture and can only get a small piece of the SD equipment in! TIGHT!

That Sunday we in the engineering department assembled at 8am to start to remove the old SD equipment and to relocate the HD equipment to its permanent location. We had to have everything ready by a 4pm 2 minute news break that airs during the halftime of the second NFL game. We were confident we could get 98% of everything done by then and the remaining 2% by air time (10pm). By 2pm, the only items left to do was remount the headset intercom system box at the new HD switcher and check the video wall monitor to be sure the video matched the locations. Most of the engineering team left while I stayed and finished up the intercom and tested the monitors. At 4pm the 2 minute news break was recorded to the HD server and about 45 minutes later, the first locally produced news program in the market aired. I stayed until the 10pm news was over to be sure everything worked. It did with just little nitpicky items we had either forgotten about or hadn't thought about. It was a big success.

We had most of management on hand for the first HD newscast and a full crew as if this were a full fledged weekday newscast. I saw one of the producers heading for the control room and asked did we have enough news for such a momentousness launch. They laughed and jokingly said, "Well...... we could use another hurricane to fill out the hour!" meaning we already had three hurricanes in the Atlantic, what was one more?

Well, all went according to plan for this madden voyage of our foray into HD news. I think the biggest problem was Neill had some issue with his new HD makeup that was fixed on Monday and life goes on.

More on our journey to get to this point in future posts.

Now here is a YouTube video from that first HD newscast.

9-11-2001

2010-09-11T10:06:00.003-04:00

Please take a moment today to remember those killed on 9/11 by purely evil people.

Including the six television transmitter engineers who were working on the 104th & 110th floor of the World Trade Center.

Robert Pattison - WCBS
Isaias Rivera - WCBS
William Steckman - WNBC - WA2ACW
Donald DiFranco - WABC
Steven Jacobson - WPIX - N2SJ
Gerard "Rod" Coppola - WNET - KA2KET

What Time Is It?

2010-06-26T14:42:00.007-04:00

For listeners of WWV and WWVH, that isn't a problem. Why you say? WWV and WWVH are US Government time stations. Time stations? What the heck is that?

Long before GPS, actually in the 1920's, electronics needed a time/frequency standard for accurate measurements. Time/frequency radio stations provided (and still do) that service. WWV was the first going on the air in 1920 from Washington, DC. Over the next few years WWV moved around the Washington area before settling in at Beltsville, MD from 1932 to 1966 when the station was relocated to Fort Collins, CO to better serve the lower 48 continental United States. WWV operates on five shortwave frequencies, 2.5 MHz, 5 MHz, 10 MHz, 15 MHz and 20 MHz. WWVH is located on the island of Kauai, HI with four shortwave frequencies of 2.5 MHz, 5 MHz, 10 MHz and 15 MHz and serves the Pacific Basin.

So what do you hear on WWV/WWVH? Well with a shortwave radio tuned to WWV/WWVH you hear, clock ticks, varies tones, top of the minute time announcements ("At the tone the time will be 15 hours 32 minutes Universal Coordinated Time - BEEEEP") and at certain minutes of the hour, oceanic weather conditions, solar wind conditions and shortwave propagation conditions are broadcast. And that is about it. But what you can't hear is just as important if not more.

Because WWV/WWVH uses atomic clocks to be sure they are EXACTLY on time, this also allows the transmitters to be EXACTLY on frequency. This also allows a subcarrier to be transmitted with digital information that can be read by computers for all kinds of test and measurement and standards signals and the user knows that it is as accurate as can be made.

If you remember seeing the "atomic clocks" of a few years ago, they worked on a very similar system. Instead of using shortwave of WWV or WVVH, they received a special time signal station co-located with WWV, time signal station WWVB. WWVB broadcasts on the Long Wave band below the AM band at 60 kHz. This allows the signal to be more stable and remain receivable longer with more reliability than the shortwave frequencies used by WWV/WWVH. Because the frequency is so low, WWVB doesn't use voice to broadcast information. It broadcasts computer data and these same atomic clocks that WWV/WWVH use are also used on WWVB's signal to keep corrected time and frequency.

In the late 90's NIST, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the government agency that runs WWV/WWVH/WWVB, completely rebuilt WWVB and increased its power. WWVB had started at the Ft Collins site in 1963. The station was long overdue for a rebuild. This rebuilding is what spurred the atomic clock craze of the late 90's and early 2000's. You can't as easily find atomic clocks as you once could because of GPS, but they are still out there and there are many reasons where the NIST stations are preferred over GPS, even though GPS provides everything the NIST stations provide. WWVB reception isn't affected by the Sun as WWV/WWVH and GPS is. The 60 kHz receivers are much cheaper than GPS receivers. The data is easier to manipulate and you don't need a clear view of the sky to make it work as with GPS.

When I first went to work at the station in 1992, we had a 1980's model WWV Master Clock receive system at the studio that kept us on time for network and other programming. In the late 90's we upgraded to an early GPS Master Clock system and replaced the aging and ailing WWV Master Clock system. When we installed the new automation system a couple of years ago we had to install a better GPS Master Clock system that offered more features that the automation required. I grabbed the original GPS Master Clock system and moved it to the main transmitter building and it is really nice to have it and what it does. But at the backup transmitter building, it doesn't make sense to spend that kind of money just to tell time, which is all I need there. So two $39 Radio Shack atomic clocks work just fine. Time correction provided by WWVB, Fort Collins, Colorado of course!

Back in the tube days, test equipment at stations were not as stable as they are now and required a known frequency standard to keep the equipment and transmitters within tolerance. Cheapest way to do it? In the rack was a WWV receiver with a test port on it for the standards measurement. We had a WWV receiver at the transmitter for that very purpose. When we rebuilt the transmitter site in 1994, the receiver was finally retired. That old receiver is now in my collection. It still works!

Technically the NIST stations are utility stations because they serve a utilitarian purpose, but they are also fun to listen to. Depending on how the band conditions are, it isn't too unusual to hear WWVH under WWV at times. Since both stations are exactly on the same frequency, there is no interference and you will hear the female WWVH voice announce the time at :45 seconds followed by the WWV male voice announcing the time at :53 seconds as if from a single station. That is how you tell which station you are hearing. WWV/WWVH identify themselves at :00 minutes and :30 minutes.

Other countries have time/standards stations as well. In the US, the easiest one to hear is CHU, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. CHU broadcasts on 3 frequencies, 3.33 MHz, 7850 MHz and 14.67 MHz. CHU alternates time announcements every minute with French on the odd minute and English on the even minute with station ID every minute. "CHU, Canada. 15 hours 32 minutes UTC."

For more info on WWV/WWVH/WWVB including pictures go to http://www.nist.gov/physlab/div847/grp40/wwv.cfm. For CHU check out http://www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/eng/services/inms/time-services/short-wave.html

Digital Transition - One Year Later

2010-06-12T10:21:00.004-04:00

June 12th, 2010 makes the first anniversary of the termination of full power analog broadcasting in the United States. So how has the broadcasting world changed in that first year? Actually not that much. Over the air digital television has certainly gone through some teething pains and continues to do so. Some people on the fringe of analog stations can no longer receive those same stations as digital stations. Some stations have had to change digital channels after the transition to improve reception to it viewers. Some stations have had to add low power translator stations to cover the same area they did as analog stations. Over the air viewers are relearning the lessons about antenna reception with digital as their parents and grandparents did in the 50's and 60's before cable and satellite. While we still field reception questions, it really isn't more than what it was in the analog days, believe it or not.

Certainly the transition to digital over the air television was not 100% painless as some in the government and trade organizations made it out to be. Some viewers have lost stations they grew up with because those stations are no longer on VHF channels and UHF doesn't quite carry as far way out on the fringe while other viewers are now receiving stations they never received before. Of course if you are one of the viewers who lost stations, this whole digital TV thing sucks. If you were one of the viewers who picked up new stations, this digital TV thing is pretty cool. It is all in your perspective.

What we are finding is that viewers with decent outside antennas pick up all the local stations with no problems. Those with inside antennas have problems. Truth is, those viewers always had problems in the analog days but because they could see something, even a noisy static filled signal, they put up with the aggravation of a bad signal. In the digital world, if the signal isn't a certain signal level, a "NO SIGNAL" will be seen on the screen so those viewers see nothing. We have proven time and time again that a UHF screen antenna mounted in a bucket on an apartment porch or balcony will receive more stations and better signals than an indoor antenna. Yet, when you tell people that, they think you are lying to them to just get them off the telephone. We WANT YOU as viewer. Why would we lie about something like that?

I must admit, I always have to suppress a laugh when I get a viewer who tells me, that the problem they are experiencing is with our station only. And just about EVERY caller tells me that. Listen folks, you aren't the first ones to tell me that and that will NOT make me move any faster. Been there. Done that. Got the tee shirt. 99% of the time, after asking several questions, it turns out that we are NOT the only station they are having a problem with. Most of the time, the viewer doesn't realize they have problems on other channels. One such example was a call I got from a little old lady about 15 years ago. She called up complaining she could get all the other channels except us and she wanted us to "fix our problem." After questioning her about her problem, I asked her how old was her TV. She immediately snapped back, "I can guarantee you it isn't MY TV. It is only 20 years old!" Twenty years old? Right. Not your TV. Well it turned out it WAS her TV. The mechanical tuner in this late 1970's model TV (this was before the electronic tuners we have today) had just worn out after 20 years of use. It happens. It is mechanical. She finally admitted after a few more questions she had to rock the channel knob back and forth on ALL stations to get them to come in. Classic mechanical tuner issue. But remember, she only had this problem with OUR station.

I got a call a few months back from a lady who lives about 5 miles from the transmitter complaining she could get all the other stations but couldn't get us and we needed to "fix our problem." (See the pattern?) After asking the usual questions, it sounded like the signal wasn't getting from the antenna to the TV. But no, it was only our station. I recommended some things to do and a few days later, she called me back to say that her son had gone on the roof and found where the coax had become disconnected from the antenna and she now had a perfect signal and thanked me for the information. (I like THOSE calls!)

I can honestly say that 99% of the callers are truly nice people who really want to watch our station and are looking for answers (sometimes miracles) from us. They are just very adamant about it at times. But that last one percent can be so vile and so hateful, we just hang up on them. That is verbal abuse and we are not required to deal with those callers and we don't.

Most of the issues these days deal with antennas and their placement. Lots of bad information out there about antennas and how to install them. A big one we are seeing are people installing two antennas, one pointed to Sauratown Mountain for WXII and WUNL and the other pointed toward north of Randleman where the other stations are located and using a splitter in reverse to combine the two into one to avoid having to use a rotor. On paper, this looks like a great idea. In reality, you have to know you are doing to make this work. The problem is you can introduce multipath (ghosting) in the system. With one antenna pointed in one direction and the other antenna pointed in another direction, the signals of the stations arrive at slightly different times to your receiver causing ghosting since one of the signals has to travel a longer distance by bouncing off of something like a water tank or building and then being received by the other antenna. Your receiver sees the two (or more) signals and is not sure which one to lock and so you don't get any picture at all or it breaks up at best. You have to use special antenna combiners and the length of cable between the antennas and the combiner is critical as well to not have this internal ghosting. You may also need specific channel filters to reduce ghosting or overloading of the receiver. It can get very complicated and you will need expensive test equipment to trouble shoot problems as well to make it work. You are basically creating a small cable headend and they are not simple or cheap things.

I must admit, I have gotten smarter myself as people call and I have to try and troubleshoot their problems over the phone so it has been a win-win as far as I can tell. As time goes by, things will get better. The same thing happened with analog TV. It got better over time. Digital will also. In just 12 months, things have gotten much better and the ratings show it. So hang in there. We are.

KJL-88

2010-05-31T10:14:00.005-04:00

Time moves on. It is only one of two constants in the world. The other being death. And that is certainly true in broadcasting. After the Digital Transition, it has amazed me at how fast the industry as a whole is moving away from analog. In less than a year, you walk into most any TV station in the country and you may not recognize it from this time last year. Widescreen news is just one of those things. Two years ago widescreen newscasts weren't on ANYONE's radar. Now, stations that don't have widescreen newscasts are going the way of the dinosaur faster than the Chicxulub meteor that wiped them out.

The past two weeks we have been upgrading our intercity microwave systems from analog to digital. It hit me that some of this equipment is the oldest in the whole station. Some of it was manufactured while I was still in junior high school! (As the kid on the add says, "That's oood!") The first question that hits me is why hasn't this stuff been changed out sooner! These are the links that bring back the video from the news scenes out in the community. The simple answer, Why? It works. It is bullet proof. It never fails. It is out of sight. It is out of mind. And there are literally TENS OF THOUSANDS of these transmitters and receivers slaving away all over the country. And have been for decades!

Starting in 2008, due to a rule change by the FCC, and the money of Sprint/NEXTEL who wanted to carve out a piece of the broadcast mobile microwave band for commercial use, all broadcast mobile microwave transmitters and receivers nationwide had to be changed out. In order to fit the new band, it had to be digital. The Piedmont Triad was one of the first areas to convert. So from the trucks to the microwave receive sites it has been digital since 2008. But from the receive sites back to the studio, it has remained analog. And the pictures provided it. Hence, the change out.

But one link holds a special place in my heart. And that is KJL-88. If you saw the changeover from analog to digital last June, after the Star Spangled Banner played, you saw a "slide" of an old WGHP ID logo sign off. On it, in the lower third, KJL-88. It is on YouTube. Check it out!

You may be asking, "What is a KJL-88?" KJL-88 is the call sign assigned by the FCC for a specific fixed microwave link. It just happens to be the first microwave link assigned to WGHP back when it came on the air in 1963. (We now have over 10 fix point microwave links running all over the Triad to bring back live pictures of news events.) If you ever watched WGHP from October 14, 1963 to March 31, 2006, you were watching KJL-88! It was the main, and at the time only, studio to transmitter link. That is how the programming got from first the Old Sheraton Hotel studios and then later the current Francis St studios. After the new transmitter site went on the air in March 2006, KJL-88 was reclassified as the backup microwave link since the original tower (which we now call the "Plainfield Transmitter Site") became the stand by tower site. (SIDEBAR, WGHP is the only TV station in the Triad that has two completely separate and independent transmitting sites so if thereWGHP Auxiliary Transmitter Site - 1999 is a major problem at one site, the other site can come up and we can continue to broadcast.) For the next 3 years, KJL-88 continued to operate as it had for the preceding 43 years, just no one was watching since the backup transmitter was not turned on except for testing into the dummy antenna. After the June 12th 2009 transition to digital television, it looked like KJL-88 may have broadcast it last. The analog equipment was not compatible with digital broadcasts and the equipment itself was over 30 years old. We had placed a digital receiver that was on the main microwave link to the new tower site (which is call the Courthouse Site) at the Plainfield Site to keep the channel 8 digital backup transmitter serviced, but that wasn't a permanent solution. You see the Plainfield Site is also the location of one of our microwave receive sites so we have to be able to send video from the trucks back to High Point from there. When the return link was put in back in the late 70's, early 80's, it too was analog. In order to continue to keep communications with that receive equipment, we had used some of KJL-88 to send the controlling signals over it. How to do it now? The microwave link back TO High Point (WLD-423) was staying. What about the link FROM High Point (KJL-88)?

The old analog equipment for KJL-88 was removed last year and it was traded in for other microwave equipment we needed on other microwave links. So for the first time since 1963, that link was open. We maintained the license (good ole' KJL-88) but what to do with it now? It is interesting to note that the equipment removed from KJL-88 last year was not the original equipment. Even though the equipment removed was installed in 1976, it replaced the original KJL-88 equipment (version 1.0) from when WGHP went on the air in 1963. That equipment was a RCA tube type microwave system. It had no backups that I have ever heard of. One story of interest was the receiver. There was one tube that would go out on a fairly regular basis. Since the transmitter site was manned in those days when the transmitter was on the air, if the tube went bad, there was a case of tubes sitting close by. As the signal started to fade into snow, which viewers at home could see just as easily as the engineers could, the duty engineer would pull the offending tube out and plug a new one in. But these tubes were famous for not always working straight out of the box. I am told it was not uncommon to try 5 or 6 tubes before one was found to work. Of course while all this was going on, there was no picture on the air. Just black or a trouble slide on air generated at the transmitter site. Remember, it would take 30 to 60 seconds per tube to see if it would work so this process could last 5 minutes or more! The station suffered through this until KJL-88 version 2.0 was installed in 1976, with the solid state equipment I pulled out of service last year.

Earlier this year it was decided that there would indeed be a KJL-88 version 3.0 and it would be digital. It would feed the new channel 35 backup transmitter at the Plainfield Site and continue to provide control signals for the receive site. And since we were upgrading this link, what about the return path back to the studio (WLD-423)? It was decided to make that link digital as well. And I guess while we were on the subject of microwave paths, what about the others. Obviously, the main microwave link to Courthouse Site was already digital so we didn't have to worry about that one. Pleadings and beggings were performed. Arms were twisted. Compromising pictures taken. Deals cut. Money extorted. In the end, it was decided that while we had the attention of the microwave companies (who were begging us to buy and willing to give first borns if we did) let's upgrade the other paths as well and clean up our microwave shots that would then be digital from the field all the way to the viewers TVs. Equipment was ordered and after waiting what seemed an eternity, it began arriving several weeks ago. First link to be installed? KJL-88 and its return link sister WLD-423. Since then, we have installed the link from Greensboro back to High Point and next on the list, the link from Winston-Salem to High Point and the link from our news bureau at the Winston-Salem Journal. As sweet as it is to have those links converted to digital and the improved pictures from the field that viewers can see now, to be able to fire back up KJL-88 after almost a full year of being dark, was a great feeling. A connection to those engineers of yesteryear who first put KJL-88 on the air in 1963. The link I remember watching as a kid. A year ago, I didn't know if KJL-88 would ever live again. Today, it will live for the next 30 years at least.

So if you are awake around 3 or 4 AM, that is when we run the ID graphics of the microwave links and you will see KJL-88 on it. And that's the story of KJL-88.

"So long! Farewell! See you NEXT time! NOT."

2010-04-10T11:33:00.006-04:00

On Friday the 5pm newscast producer put together her last show. She is moving up to a larger market and WAAAY up the east coast. Several of us were taking a coffee break in the Green Room across from the control room about 3pm and she came by getting things ready for her last show. We called her in and told her how we would miss her and don't forget the little people and oh yeah, come around occasionally. She said she would and I don't think ANYONE believed she would be coming back. She might THINK she will, but it will NEVER happen.

It isn't that she doesn't WANT to. It is just life doesn't move like that. She isn't from around here. She has no family here. She came to college here and that is what brought her here in the first place and this was her first job out of school. No real reason to come back except to see former co-workers who may or may not even be working here then. I mean, it isn't like we are FRIENDS or anything. Why would she or why should she want to come back? Nothing personal. Honest. Circle of life, Simba.

I speak from a certain first hand knowledge of such situations. I have seen it a thousand times in my career. I have even been in that very position myself a couple of times before believing life would go on as before with worker-friends, just that I would be a little farther down the road, that is all. But the truth is I was moving on to a new job in a new town and any ties I had were being cut in two with all the precision a surgeons scalpel. I just wouldn't acknowledge it.

The first time it happen to me it was in the town I grew up in. But by the time I moved on, family had moved away and all my growing up friends had moved on and it was only co-workers I associated with. A couple of them I even considered good friends, but in the post move era, I have only talked to one of them twice on the phone and have never seen the other one in over 20 years. I do feel bad about that, but the 2 times I have been back that way, I was passing through going somewhere else with no time to spare it seemed and my hometown was on the route. In all honesty, the one who I haven't seen since I left, I did go by his "house" to see him one time, but found out he had moved somewhere else in town, but I didn't know where and didn't have the time to find out where. People just don't stay at a job like they used to. Normally.

My station is unique in that many people stay for 10's of years. That isn't the case anywhere else anymore. My immediate supervisor has been there for 30 years and my department head for 31 years. The General Manager has 34 years of tenure there! Some are on their second time around! Some have never worked anywhere else in their lives! Me? I am a newbie. A rookie. Only 18 years of service to the station. People cross town? If they make it 5 years, they consider themselves lucky.

Now adays those being hired don't plan on staying. This is a stepping stone to bigger and better things so I really expect we who have the tenure of decades are the last of a dying breed. To be honest, I never expected to still be working at the same place after 18 years and counting either. Bright lights are always over the horizon.

Have I had other offers? Yep! You bet! More money too! But not only what you make, but the environment you make it in is just as important to me and so far I haven't found anything better, yet.

So Jen, enjoy Connecticut and be as successful as you want to be! Nice knowing you and working with you! But we shall never see each other again. Blame the Gods of life.

Time Flies

2010-04-03T11:00:00.004-04:00

Holy cow Batman! Where did the time go?

May 23, 2009 was my last blog. And it was a rant at that. Surprisingly no hate mail from it either. So either no one cared, no one read it or no one reads me. That is Ok. No hard feelings. Honest. I have had nothing really to say. Well, I have, but I have had no blogging energy to do it. Have pretty much ignored facebook and Twitter too over the last year. Trying to get better.

Writing takes a lot out of me. Don't know why. It just does. The run up to the actual act I have LOTS to say. Sit down to do it and BAM! Nothing. Or it comes out WAY too long that even I don't want to read. I don't know how professional writers do it. I don't mean the people who write books (God I would kill myself if I knew I had to write a 200 page book. I don't think I have 200 pages in me for an entire life). No I mean the people who write everyday for a living like news reporters, PR people, Editorialists, etc. I slave hours over what piddle I write here. With this posting I am trying to do it all in one take with one proofread, not the over and over and over proofing and touching up I usually do. It seems when I do that, that is when my "few lines" grow into a novel.

I hate when others do that and I REALLY hate it, when I do it so I guess that is the real reason why I have been tardy in this endeavor, even though my life has been pretty full the last 12 months and will continue to be for the foreseeable future. Lots to write about, just need to be more brief and concise about it.

I am starting to fall into the old funk. OK, I'll stop now.

The Bill of Rights Only Apply to Liberals

2009-05-23T11:47:00.004-04:00

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

2009-05-03T07:47:00.006-04:00

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

2009-03-21T09:08:00.005-04:00

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

2009-02-28T15:43:00.005-05:00

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

2008-12-30T13:07:00.004-05:00

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?

2008-12-30T09:34:00.006-05:00

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

2008-08-07T21:41:00.019-04:00

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.

Local Boy Makes Good

2008-04-10T20:57:00.011-04:00

Chris Daughtry performs for the Greensboro crowd on his return post Idol in June 2006.

Just 3 years ago the world had never heard of Chris Daughtry. Mr. Daughtry at the time was the Service Manager for the local Honda dealership with dreams of stardom and plans to get it through a talent show called American Idol. Being voted off 3 weeks ahead of the final in May 2006, Mr Daughtry's plans looked like they were in shambles.

In this very blog on May 11, 2006 (Another One Bites the Dust, eh maybe not) I made the following statement, "In retrospect, it may be the best thing America could have done for him. If he had been hung with the mantle of "Idol '06" for at least the next 12 months, he would be singing "their songs" and doing "their concerts" and "doing their events" and to be honest, I don't see Mr. Daughtry putting up with that for much more than a day at best." Soothsayer? Naw. (Do you remember who DID win Idol that year? The forgotten Taylor Hicks and his equally forgotten runner up, Katharine McPhee. Hicks was recently dropped from Sony/BMG without a hit and McPhee is still looking for her first hit.)

Fast forward 2 and a half years. Mr Daughtry has is own band, Daughtry, a debut album that has gone triple platinum, the number one selling rock album of the year, and, oh yeah, he still maintains an American Idol connection, being Sony/BMG is the record company behind AI and Mr Daughtry is signed to a unit of Sony/BMG and will make the occasional appearance on the number 1 show on American television. The latest appearance being probably his best to date and he wasn't even live.

For the second year, AI has had one show called "American Idol Gives Back," a telethon with all the stars of screen, TV and music to ask you for money to be given to all kinds of charities. Toward the end of the extended program, Brad Pitt comes on stage to do his part of asking for money and then introduces the next taped piece, this one being Daughtry in Uganda performing the song, "What About Now?"

When you are sent to Uganda for a music video and Brad Pitt intros you, I would say you have made it. I think you can say that the fallen "Idol" of the 2006 season, in reality, was the winner after all.

That is sure a long way from the service department of Crown Honda. Way to go Mr Daughtry. You are a credit to your community and your God. Thanks.

We have met the Martians, and they are us?

2007-11-04T14:24:00.000-05:00

In watching a lot of Science Channel lately, there have been many shows dealing with our solar system and the exo-planets. What is an exo-planet you say? It is a planet that is not in our solar system. Twenty or thirty of these exo-planets have been found in other solar systems in our galaxy in search of planets that are Earth like in other solar systems. So far only large gas giants like Jupiter have been found but they say it is only time before a small rocky Earth like planet is found as the scientists get better at finding exo-planets in general. In all of this planet talk, one planet seems to keep being talked about more than any other, Mars. In the last 10 years or so, the interest level of Mars has increased ten fold.

With the 2004 announcement that NASA has been charged to go back to the Moon and on to Mars within the next 40 years, scientists have started looking toward the red planet. The current extended missions of the two Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity (they originally had a 90 day mission timetable, 4 years ago) having found evidence of flowing water in the recent history (millions of years ago, not the first thought billions of years ago) of the red planet. Along with the discovery of the meteorite that came from Mars with what appears to be the fossil remains of simple one cell life forms that are found on Earth in it, "the question of did life actually start on Mars and then come to Earth?" is being seriously asked in the halls of the planetary scientists.

Of course we have to first prove that there was life on Mars at some time in its past and when. Then what, if anything, is shared with life on Earth? I have a good idea that this question of being a Martian will not be answered in my lifetime, but I would bet by the end of the 21st Century, we will have a good idea what the answer is.

If it is proven we are descendents of Martian life, how will that fact shake up our mind set of where we fit on Earth and in the Universe?

Terrorist's New Tactics?

2007-07-01T07:48:00.000-04:00

The day has come when terrorism moves west. With the 3 Iraqi style car bombs in the UK over the last few days, it is obvious that the terrorist are rethinking their MO on how to reek havoc in the west.

I think realizing they over shot their mark with 9/11 when it comes to just how much death and destruction they could heave on us (I really think, Rosie be damned, that bringing down the WTC WASN'T in the big scheme of things on that day. Fire and death yes, but no one had any thought the buildings would come down. UBL is smart, but he ain't that smart! No one is.) that the only way to top 9/11 would be a nuke. I just have to think that a nuke really isn't what they want to do for a very simple reason. As crazy as they are, and they ARE crazy, if you set off a nuke, you galvanize the world against your cause in such a way that you never recover and also sterilize a portion of the Earth that will take thousands of years to be habitable again. Not a receipe for gaining a foot hold in the new world for UBL's version of religion. But like I said, they are crazy and their cause and effect analsys doesn't go much beyond next Thursday at the latest.

So, like everyone else, they seem to be scaling back. Economizing if you like. More "bang" for the buck, pun intended. Iraq has certainly shown them that for a couple of dinars you can put together a whopper of a media event that may not have the wall-to-wall media coverage capacity of 9/11, but in the long run do as much media damage. Hell, out of three V-BIED's (vehicle borne IED's - don't you just love those acronyms the military comes up with!) only one actually did something and it only started a small fire and killed no one and only slightly injured one bystander. But look at the world media. They have gone off the deep end, hanging on to every sniffle and sneeze that comes out of Scotland Yard.

That Al Qaeda media machine is a genius. They pull off a half ass attack and get the coverage of a full scale victory. The end result is EXACTLY what they wanted! They don't care that the cars didn't explode. The media acts as if they DID! The world goes into a panic. As far as Al Qaeda is concerned, mission accomplished!

Maybe we just need to ignore them from the media stand point and let law enforcement and the military go get them quietly. Just tell us when they round them all up or kill them all. Take the camera away and you take 90% of their fuel away. That has been proven time and time again in the Middle East. They play EVERYTHING to the camera. But no one is going to listen to me. Too many hours of time to fill on the all news channels.

This time the good guys got lucky and as the old saying goes, "I would rather be lucky than good any day!" And ah, yes, John Edwards? There really IS a War on Terror. Just turn on your TV set. The world media is covering it, including your beloved BBC. And let's hope to God it DOESN'T come here. It might put a kink in your $400 haircuts.

Shoutout to a Fellow Employee

2007-06-24T17:34:00.000-04:00

Stewart Pittman is just another video photographer or vidiographer or photog or shooter. He is a fellow employee. Are we "friends"? Well no, not in the sense that we hang out together and drink beer after hours and conmisserate about life. Do we "know" each other? Yes. Very much so even though we work in different departments. We both need each other so to speak. He needs me to keep his camera and gear working and a transmitter to send his pictures to the world with. I need his pictures to send to the world so people will watch and buy advertising (and answer my stupid blogging questions). "It is the circle of life Simba." Oh yeah, he is also a damn fine writer. Much better than I will be in my whole life.

He writes his own blog, Viewfinder Blues at lenslinger.com. He chonicles his life as a medium market photojournalist. (I never knew so much news happened around here. You can't tell it on TV.) My life compared to his is nothing short of non-existant. Thirty-five thousand volts withstanding.

From hanging out on the beach, huricane hunting ,

to hanging out with fellow shooters at those same huricane scums

to hanging and having real relationships with celebs like

Bucky Covington

and Chris Daughtry.

Of course being a shooter isn't all cushy assignments. It does have its problems too like shooting a remote vehicle demonstration when the vehicle goes out of control and into the group of photog's set up to record the event

or covering the worst mass homicide in American history, Virginia Tech.

But Stewart's real strength along with his photograpghic eye is his wordsmithing. Along with his daily tales of "commiting news" as he likes to describe it, he has an alter ego he writes about named Garrett and his fellow newsers of News Leader 3. In the latest installment he writes: "Thirteen minutes they pulled up on scene, a dipping curve in an otherwise featureless country road. The ride over had not been pleasant. As he always did, Garrett drove like a pyro en route to a barn fire, causing Camille to not once, twice but thrice curse his choice of RPM’s. It didn’t help that the rain really picked up just as they got on Highway 42, a twisting country corridor known for it’s own collisions. And then there was Live Three - by far the hoopty of the lot. Garrett and the fellas had been trying to kill Live 3 for years, but the ’83 SUV with the stubby mast and peeling logos just wouldn’t die. Nor would it hydroplane, a fact Garrett tested several times on his way to the ‘bus ax‘." I can name SEVERAL people who fit that characterization of shooter and "hair do" (reporter) Camille and equipment! I just couldn't do it with such pazz that makes you want to read more. My interpretation would make you want to leave screaming as quickly as possible.

Stew keeps saying he has a book in there somewhere. I hope so, because I would love to be first in line for the book signing!

Others in the biz also think highly of not only Stew's writing ability, but his opinions on the biz from lone VJ shooters to network lenslingers who cover hot spots around the world. He is linked from around the world blogs. He has even been quoted in some of the trade rags. Not bad from a self proclaimed slacker from eastern North Carolina.

To check out Stewart's little piece of the net, http://www.lenslinger.com/ will get you there. To check out his MANY still pics as he "commits news" check out http://www.flickr.com/photos/86947467@N00/

And ah, Stew, anytime you feel a little parched after a day behind the glass, give me a call. I buy the first round!

A Bad Night on the TV

2007-05-28T12:40:00.000-04:00

Television stations are no different than any other business when it comes the risk of fire. It could be said that television may have a higher risk with all the electrical stuff we have. Of course these days people think of TV disasters of 9/11 but the real danger is fire. WABC TV in New York City found that out 10 minutes before the 11 PM newscast.

While waiting for the start of the 11 PM news with the anchors and set personal in position waiting for the start time, when a high intensity light bulb explodes, something that does happen quite frequently in a television studio, and catches a stage curtain on fire (something that doesn't happen). Within 30 seconds the rear of the news set is in flames and the fire alarm is going off. The building is evacuated and FDNY is called and begins to put out the fire that has now smoked up the building pretty good and has now forced WABC TV off the air for the next several hours.

It is interesting to me that after 9/11, WABC wasn't prepared to stay on the air. Since WABC lost their transmitter site on the World Trade Center, you would think they would have a plan in place to handle routine emergencies, like a fire. We have a saying at work, "We never close, period." Unless the apocolypse hits, we have plans that will keep us on the air, no matter what. FOX has spend lots of money to be sure that we can stay on no matter what. We may not have regular programming on, but we will still be sending a signal out. For at least two hours, WABC had either dead air or color bars on the air. Not good. I would not want to be the managers of WABC today having to answer to the "mouse" suits. New York being the number one market in the country, the amount of money lost is in the tens of millions. A fire shouldn't take you off if you have the proper backups in place.

I feel sorry for those guys in the trenches who had to pull it all together to get back on the air, it was a long night to get things in some kind of shape to get their morning news up on time and a big round of applause and congrats for pulling that off because that ain't easy, I am here to tell you. To the managers, I hope you got your resumes current, you might need them.

Video is here -> http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=local&id=5345032

We have lost another example of the "Greatest Generation"

2007-04-18T09:46:00.000-04:00

Before 9:30 in the morning of April 16, 2007 only a small group of people knew the name of Liviu Librescu. I was not one of them. Mr. Librescu was a member of the "Greatest Generation" that knew the Depression, World War II, The Cold War and 9/11. He knew World War II from the inside of a Nazi concentration camp. He saw more death and torture during World War II than 10,000 people see in a life time. He was 76 years old.

For the last 20 years he has taught aeronautical engineering at Virginia Tech. The number of lives he has molded there are in the low thousands. In any life a great accomplishment. But unfortunately Mr. Librescu will not be remembered for that great achievement by a handful of people, but will be remembered by millions around the world for something, I am sure, he would rather not be remembered for even though it is the highest and noblest thing a human can do. He sacrificed himself so his students would have a chance for survival. But from the reports I have seen and heard of him, no one should be surprised of his sacrifice. Remember, he was a member of the "Greatest Generation," a generation that put service and the "right thing" above all else. They defeated fascism and socialism in the face of bullets in the past. They sacrificied.

Was he afraid as he stood at the door using his body as a lock and shield? As more wise men than I have said about life and death situations, if you aren't scared, you’re crazy. But that fright didn't seem to stop Mr. Librescu from doing what can be called a martyr act. We will never know what his last thoughts were as Cho Sueng-Hei fired round after round through the door that Mr. Librescu was standing behind trying to keep him out as his students escaped through the windows of the classroom. But I think we can guess his determination for keeping Cho out long enough for the escape to work from many years ago from the Nazi concentration camp that must have been playing in his head like an old familiar film. He was that last line of defense. He knew it. Didn't shriek from it. Stayed calm and clear headed and knew that was what he had to do. And he did it. And if he lost his life in the process and it only saved one life, it was still worth the effort.

Well he did more than that. He saved many lives. He made a statement for life and the love of life. He made a place in Virginia Tech history and the world for himself. It was obvious standing behind that door was not what he wanted to be doing on that Monday morning, but when history and fate called on him, he once again answered the call as he did in World War II and didn't hesitate.

Mr. Librescu held the most important class he ever taught Monday morning. He taught more in 90 seconds to the world than he had in a lifetime. He taught courage, love, bravery and sacrifice. As a teacher, he fulfilled a teaching destiny that very few teachers ever achieve.

To the nouns that describe Liviu Librescu; cancer survivor; holocaust survive; husband; father; aeronautical engineer; teacher; we now, reluctantly and with great sorrow and humility, add maybe the most important noun to his name, life giver.

We say, "Mr. Librescu, thank you for the lesson you taught us Monday morning. We are sorry you had to teach it." Shalom.

Work,Work,Work,Work,Work

2007-04-06T22:28:00.000-04:00

Seems that is all I am doing here of lately. But it has been pretty fun work. As I stated in my last post, we had been installing a new routing switcher. Well that is all done now and here a picture to prove it!!

We have moved on to installing a new Master Control to replace the aging analog Master Control that we have been using almost 10 years. It is woefully out of date now and we are truly seeing it as we install all of these new gizmo's.

Here is what the area looked like when we first started late last year. Pretty bare, huh? Well it had been where we had our commercial playback servers and we rotated them 90 degrees so we can start construction. After we get on line, we will move the servers to a new server room and that will open the floor space back up and we can put up the walls.

Here it is now about 2/3 of the way completed. We have many monitors to be able to view most anything in the station that deals with on air since this will be the "helm" of the good ship "El Ocho." This point here has taken several months and work just about every day. It doesn't look like much, but there is lots of wire under those floor tiles. Lots of wire, almost 6 miles we figure of digital video and digital audio cable. And here is a picture of the back of one of the racks with the audio frame of the router and the master control frame.

We hope to be on the air with this in the next few weeks so we keep slugging away. Who knows, it may actually look like something and work to boot!

A Little Heart Surgery, Please

2007-02-11T20:06:00.000-05:00

WOW! Where did January go? I swear, we were just celebrating New Years (that was last night wasn't it?) and now it is Valentine's Day! Oh my God. Where is time going? (a little music from “Abraham, Martin and John”) “I turn around and it’s gone.” My. How time flies.

But I guess I have a good reason. I have been involved in heart surgery. (HEART SURGERY!! Are you OK! What happened?!) No, no, not me. I am fine. Well as fine as I could be and still be classified “alive.” Just transplanting a heart at work. (A heart at work? You work for a TV station, not a hospital) True. But the patient in this case IS the TV station and I, along with Ross the Boss and my other fellow doctors, eh engineers, have been in the process of changing out the heart and nervous system of the station. The routing switcher. With out this behemoth of modern electronic wizardry, the TV station would be like a body with no heart or nervous system. It would just lay there and do nothing. This device takes signals from satellite receiver 7 and routes it to the news department and takes signals from a microwave truck and routes it to Production Control for air in the newscast or routes graphics from the Art Department to Master Control. All at the same time.

I call it a behemoth for what it does, but in size it really isn't. Not compared to the routing switcher that it is replacing.

Look closely and you can see Ross The Boss IN the audio side of the router switcher

This new one takes up one half of a 7 foot high rack. The old router takes up one whole 7 foot rack and doesn't have as much horsepower. The old router was installed in 1994 and the manufacturer went out of business about 5 years later. So we have been keeping this thing working with chewing gum and string for the last 7 years. It has served us well though but it is time to upgrade. The old router is what is called a 128 by 160 frame meaning it can take 128 sources and route them to 160 different places. The new one is a 128 by 128 and even though it routes to fewer places, because of computer networking, many of the places that we used to route video and audio to, we do it over Cat 5 networking cable using IP now so we don't need or use all 128 outputs on this one, but that is the smallest size they make for the number of inputs and outputs we need.

It is really a pretty neat system. It is of course all computerized where the old route router, which was computerized as well, was only as powerful as most mini calculators. This one is so smart, just a reload of a file, it can completely reconfigure itself. And the learning curve is pretty steep. As far as usability goes, it can take analog inputs and route them to digital outputs and vise versa. The biggest problem with it though is that it is so small; it has to be mounted in such a way so the monstrous amount of wire has to have room more than it does.

It has taken about 4 months to get it installed and up and running. I went straight from the DTV project into the router project. Luckily, all I have had to do was provide labor. Others are doing the heavy lifting of making the “life or death” decisions. But the last few weeks, it has gotten pretty intense as we get to the point of cutover to be sure all is done to make it a smooth cutover. That point has been mentally taxing. To look at it from the outside though, it looks like for the last few months we haven’t done a thing. All of the work is in the system configuration and the wire under the floor and in the ceiling. There are miles of cable we have put in over the last few months and then the changeover from the old router to the new one. A full day just to get the major systems connected and another day to finish. Now we are in the clean up work of documentation and labeling. Then a short break and on to the next project. Wish I could talk about that one. But maybe later!

The End to the Beginning

2007-01-01T10:03:00.000-05:00

Looking back on 2006, this was to be the year that things calmed down after the big DTV project of 2005. Of course that didn't happen with that project spilling over into 2006 until August for the new site and October to complete the old site. The transition from a major project to the everyday has been a little challenging since I had been in a mode of people looking to me to make decisions on a daily basis and now that stress is gone and there is a void that is slowly being filled. I am just another one of the guys now. Of course that has its advantages as well so I am NOT knocking it!

The end of the year has been calmer than the start. The start saw the arrival of the transmitters and the process to getting them installed and all of the stress that went along with it. The end of the year sees me on vacation with a nasty cold that for the last 4 days has seen me sneezing, coughing and just laying around recovering. I hope that is a good sign for the start of 2007. A much calmer 2007!

Happy New Year!

The Godfather of Soul has left the building

2006-12-26T19:06:00.000-05:00

Time continues to march on. But the news of the death of the "Hardest Working Man in Show Business" it brings a wonderful era of music to a close.

James Brown, the man who created funk and soul, even in his 70's could and did outdo performers 50 years his junior. Even the "gloved one" Michael Jackson owes his whole stage act to Brown because he basically stole it from Brown. P Diddy and Ice T would LOVE to be a quarter of the performer James Brown was at 70. These men owe their whole art to "Soul Brother Number One." Without him, they would have never been known.

Working as late as 4 weeks ago at an award show in Britain and booked for a show on News Years Eve in New York City showing why they call him the "Hardest Working Man in Show Business." Asked one time when was he going to retire. His response? "When God takes my last breath."

With on stage moves that put him in a class by himself and would put others in the hospital, James Brown was truly an American Original. You hear that term a lot to describe him. But with him, you wouldn't have Hip Hop. You wouldn't have Rap. And you wouldn't have Soul and Funk. James Brown did all of that before 1965! With a band of guitars, a full brass section, and percussion, a full cadre of hip shaking, scantly clad, high heeled backup singers and his signature stage collapse and cape wrap, a James Brown concert was a show you got your moneys worth.

James Brown was the first artist to do a form of rap in such songs as "Move On Up" and "Get Up Off of That Thing". His rhythmic sounds are very noticeable in any hip hop song you hear like from his hit songs "Sex Machine" and "I Feel Good." His soulful tones of love like "It's A Man's World" has been heard all through the 60's, 70's, 80's and 90's in not only Black music, but Rock and Country.

His life outside of music wasn't as great. Being married three times, once unknowingly marrying a woman who had not gotten a divorce from a previous marriage, being arrested for spousal abuse many times and going to prison for possession of PCP, spousal abuse and running from the law. He lived his life as hard as he pursued his music. Interestingly, he never had formal music training. What you got was raw talent at its best and he did it for over 50 years.

I had never been a huge fan, but as the years have gone by, I have come to appreciate his music very much. In my MP3 collection are about 10 of his more popular songs from the 60's and his 80's hit from Rocky 4, "Living In America." His most loved work was the 1962 self financed album "Live at the Apollo." This album is true raw Brown at his best. If you haven't heard it, GET IT NOW and TURN THE VOLUME UP TO 11!

There will never be another showman like James Brown. The "Hardest Working Man in Show Business" can now take a well desired rest.

The Menacing Fence of Welcome and Good Wishes

2006-12-22T18:49:00.000-05:00

Fences are erected for many different purposes. To keep things in. To keep things out. Or as decorations, the classic white picket fence. In Jacksonville, North Carolina is a security chain link fence that runs about 5 miles along highway NC 24 surrounding the living quarters for families of Marines stationed at Marine Corps Training Base Camp LeJeune. The fence was erected post 9/11 along with many other security upgrades to the base including new fencing or adding more security access points or blocking or removing of other access points all together. The Second Marine Division is stationed here and the base main gate acts as one of the two revolving doors for Marines going and coming to Iraq from the US. The other revolving door being Camp Pendleton outside of San Diego, California, where the First Marine Division is based.

As I look down the road for several miles I am struck by the sight of bed sheets and tarpaulins with personal messages of welcomes and good byes and good wishes and announcements of births written, painted and imprinted hanging on the chain link security fence. These messages are from wives, husbands, sons, daughters, mothers and fathers, friends and total strangers. Some look like they have been here for a while, others look like they have just been put up. But every one prepared and installed with loving care. They go on and on and on for literally miles, the entire length of the security fence along NC 24 from the New River Bridge at the main gate down to the small community of Hubert. Even in the areas where the woods come up to the road, these messages of love and admiration are lined up side-by-side with hardly any open space anywhere along the fence.

To many the War in Iraq is only something that is on television that the politicians fight over or something you hear about from friends who have loved ones there. But to ride down the road at 55 miles per hour and see this sight that goes on for miles and know the reason for the fence wasn’t to be a billboard of wishes but to protect American’s from people who want to kill us and to know that the names on these makeshift placards are people who are fighting and in some cases dying for us, the heavy reality of what we are in hits home. The thought does cross my mind how many of these names belong to men and women who did not be come home? Or more importantly, will not be coming home. Names with messages of happy expression of good wishes that might never see them, turning into messages of lost hope.

Before I know it I am past the line of names and wishes on the fence and I realize I have to blog about this and I have missed the opportunity to take a picture of this moving sight. No time to turn around now to snap a picture. The sun is setting and we are running late. Then I realize there is no great haste to catch a picture. I am sure this sight will be here the next time we come by and I will be looking to see how many names are there from this trip and to see how many new names are added.

And Now a Message from Our Sponsor... - Part Deux

2006-12-02T07:41:00.000-05:00

It is finally released. The latest webisode of Star Trek New Voyages, To Serve All My Days was released on Thanksgiving Day. The webisode written by D.C. (Dorothy) Fontana, the former Script Editor of the original 1960's Star Trek and reprising his role as Pavel Chekov, Walter Koenig.

Fan films usually are nothing to write home about. Not much more than some friends getting together with a home camcorder, cheesy costumes and props with cardboard sets and editing that can't be called editing and stories that are not much more than disjointed scenes strung together. Since computer editing software has become so affordable, people are getting into the "movie making" thing. This also has now opened up an avenue for semi-pros and pros to create their own productions at a fraction of the cost of a studio production with very good results.

In the Star Trek world, fans are pretty rabid about the future world of Star Fleet. Not just the nerds in the neighborhood, but Hollywood types as well. J.J. Abrams of "Lost" fame has signed on to helm the next Star Trek movie, a story that is reported to be Kirk and Spock at Star Fleet Academy.

But for those who don't mind spending money to not make any money with Star Trek, you have the soon to be released three part webisode Star Trek: Of God and Men conceived and written by producer Sky Douglas Conway, together with former Deep Space Nine freelance story writers Jack Trevino and Ethan H. Calk with a cast of ex-Trek stars from every version of Star Trek from the original series through the movies and all of the other TV series. CBS/Paramount, the copywrite owner of Star Trek isn't making a dime on it and they don't care. Why? No one is making money on it. It is free for the download, when it comes out, just like the New Voyages webisodes.

My guess is CBS/Paramount has run out of ideas and are looking to the fans for the next incarnation of Star Trek. It would appear that they are going back to the beginning, with the success of New Voyages (yes CBS/Paramount is VERY aware of NV having used some of their Enterprise Bridge set for an Enterprise episode entitled "In A Mirror, Darkly") and the apparent pre-buzz of "Of God and Men" with the J.J. Abrams movie to be released in 2009. That is not to say that only Kirk/Spock Star Trek is being produced. Far from it. Star Trek Hidden Frontier is a series of fan films shot in front of green screens in the time of Picard and Riker and is regarded as the next best Trek fan film. Hidden Frontier focuses on a sister starship of the Enterprise D/E, Excelsior and its home base, Deep Space 12. With the success of New Voyages, fan films across the entire universe of Star Trek have exploded with many new ones going into production all over the world including one from Spain, and even Turkey along with a slew from Europe. One is even rumored in Russia.

But back to New Voyages. As I have said in an earlier post on New Voyages, the technical work is very good. Not quite TV quality but certainly very watchable. With "To Serve All My Days" the bar was raised to the point that it is TV quality. Unlike the other NV episodes, this one was shot in widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio. It is still standard def but the quality of the digital equipment and the people in control of those said pieces of equipment shines through. Of course in this production, many Hollywood types, not just writers and actors are helping out from set work to new graphics and it shows. The acting has also greatly improved over the last webisode, "In Harms Way." I think the writing has a lot to do that as well. D.C. Fontana knows those characters like no one else from that period who has helped. Of course this webisode is a Chekov vehicle and not a Kirk vehicle so Chekov has the most screen time. Newcomer Andy Bray has been cast as the NV Chekov and he gets high marks for his portrayal of the Russian navigator. In "TSAMD" as the webisode is known by in the NV world, is a story about the relation between Chekov and a Federation Ambassador, who is played by veteran actor Mary Linda Rapelye who also appeared as Chekov's hippy love interest Irina Galliulin in the original series episode "Way to Eden."

The story line is a freak accident has triggered a dormant disease in Chekov that causes him to age. It is a wonderfully written story and Koenig, reprising his role as Chekov, does a wonderful job. Mr Koenig said he was drawn to this project because for the first time, Chekov was more than a navigator or weapons officer and is explored in depth. It helped him put some closure on some issues he had had with the character. The unannounced appearance of Mary Linda Rapelye and her character Ambassador Lady Rayna Morgan is also a nice surprise as the webisode opens. The ending has the NV tribes tongues-a-waging, but everyone agrees, TSAMD is two thumbs up, WAY UP and is a turning point for the fan franchise. From the story, to the acting, to the new graphic effects, better set lighting and the original music score for the webisode, "To Serve All My Days" puts New Voyages beyond the fan films category into the realm of professional, a status no other fan film has ever achieved. For the first time, a non Paramont Trek, feels, smells, taste, sounds and acts like Star Trek. You get goose bumps when you watch NV due the technical quality, but when you see TSAMD, the hair stands up on the back of your neck. It is SO Star Trek.

The next webisode, "World Enough and Time" written by DS9 and "Of God and Men" writers Marc Scott Zicree and Michael Reaves has been shot and is in post-production for a March 2007 release date. Those there during the shoot in September say that the technical work on this webisode surpasses TSAMD with the full compliment of professionals now on board for this one and hence the faster rate of release than TSAMD, which took 18 months to release. It is reported that this episode was shot in 720p high definition. George Takei will reprise his role as helmsman Lt Sulu. Grace Lee Whitney, who portrayed Yeoman Janice Rand in the original series is also cast in this webisode.

"The Trouble With Tribbles" writer David Gerrold has written the next webisode to be shot next summer called "Blood and Fire." The story of Blood and Fire was originally pitched to Star Trek: The Next Generation, but was rejected due to its controversial storyline, homosexuality and AIDS. The story was reworked into the book "Blood and Fire" (now available in paperback). Carlos Pedraza has adapted the old script for this NV webisode.

It was also just announced that Ms Fontana has agreed to pen another NV webisode.

And this is a FAN FILM PROJECT?? This could be the "new" TV. If so, you heard it here first.

The New Voyage webisodes can be downloaded for free at http://www.startreknewvoyages.com

The Red Poppy

2006-11-11T12:17:00.000-05:00

I had vaguely remembered seeing people wear red poppies on their jackets before but I never really knew why. When I was in Canada last year in October, I saw many people wearing red poppies. Not just men but women as well. The men wore them on their jacket lapels or collars and women wore them in varies ways from hats to jackets to pins and emblems.

One of the Canadian engineers who were there at transmitter school was wearing a poppy. I tried to figure out a nice way of asking what the poppy was for. It was obviously something of national significance since everyone and everywhere you went you saw them displayed. On the final day there, I asked him what the significance of the poppy was for.

He explained how the red poppy was a sign of remembrance to the veterans and the custom which is conducted throughout the old British Commonweath nations came from a Canadian military doctor named Lt Col John McCrae. He had written a poem called "In Flanders Fields" in 1917. The poppy was chosen because of the poppies that bloomed across the battlefields of Flanders, Belgium in World War I. The red color representing the blood spilled in trench warfare. They start showing the poppy about a month before "Remembrance Day" November 11, which of course we call Veteran's Day.

This morning I saw a British official on TV wearing the red poppy and it brought back the memory of my conversation with the Canadian engineer about the poppies. I decided I would surf the net and see if I could find Lt Col McCrae's poem.

As we pause to remember our brave veterans on this Veteran's Day, we should also take a minute to remember our Allies who also have sacrificed along beside us in many wars on their Remembrance Day. To our USA Vet's on Veteran's Day, you are not forgotten and we salute you and thank you for your service to our country no matter what war you serviced in. To the Vet's of the British Commonweath, you too are remembered on Rememberance Day and your service is also remembered and appreciated by your friends, the American people.

How fitting of a tribute to all of the fallen veterans everywhere.

In Flanders Fields

By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)
Canadian Army

IN FLANDERS FIELDS the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Damn Internet!!

2006-11-09T20:12:00.000-05:00

You never know what you will find on the Internet. In doing some very generic net surfing a couple of weeks ago led me to a web page I had never heard of. Heck I couldn't even read it since it wasn't in English. But this is what I saw with a caption that had 4 letters in a certain order I understood instantly, WGHP:

Most if not all of you do not recognize this picture and that is OK, really. But I recognize it since I see a similar sight all of the time. It is a distant pik of our towers. I then see another picture taken from a moving vehicle of a group shot of ALL of the towers down our way. Further investigation shows the site is in German and has pictures of ALL of the big towers used by radio and TV stations in the market.

I run the site through Google translator and see this site is done by an individual and he has gotten public information about all of the towers. On his site he has chronicled mostly European broadcast sites and the only American sites are here in the Triad. I don't see a name but there is an email address so I send him an email inquiring who is he and why is he taking pictures of our towers.

Several days go by and then I receive a very nice email from a Walter Brummer from Austria. He is a mechanical engineer who enjoys towers and his company has business here in the Triad and on one trip he was coming from Charlotte and took a side trip and wound up going by all of the towers south of town. On a return trip he went to the towers and took pictures of all of them and documented how the USA does broadcasting.

He had some incorrect information about some of the towers so I corrected him and then invited him to contact me on his next trip to the Triad. He thanked me for the corrections and said on one of his next trips, one in December and then another in January or February, he would try and look me up. Who knows, I may have found a new friend. This damn Internet!!

The Return of A Friend

2006-10-27T20:59:00.000-04:00

My friend is back. I am glad to have my friend back. My friend was in bad shape for a while but is all better now. Luckily the problem was not terminal. It only took one part and some bench time and it was back up and running. “What?” you say? “Bench time?” What kind of a person is this? No person at all. It is a “thing.” It is my television. “You call your television a friend?” Sure! Don’t you call yours a friend too? Stats show that most people spend more time with their televisions than with other humans so wouldn’t it make sense that it is your “friend?”

I haven’t gone as far as some people do and name my TV or my car for that matter. Sure, I think highly of both of them. But when their time comes to hit the garbage, I will have some amount of sorrow, but I will be too busy enjoying their replacement to feel too bad for too long. But that is a long way in the future. I hope. The story that had my friend in “surgery” is somewhat typical.

A couple of months ago I started noticing a small faint ripple moving from the right to the left of the screen changing speed from very slow at times to very fast at times and other times not even there. Then about a month or so ago I started having trouble turning the set on. It would start to come on but never quite get there. Then it wouldn’t come on at all. The set is 4 years old and of course the warrantee expired 3 years ago. It is a HD set so there was no way I was going to throw it out and buy another one.

Trying to find a TV repair shop these days is like trying to win the Power Ball. When I first got the set, there was a recall on a circuit board and the manufacturer sent a company out of Kernersville to fix it. I thought I would call them. A call gleaned they were no longer a service center and it would be FIVE WEEKS before they could even send someone out to just pick up the set. Well that wasn’t going to cut it. I had determined that the problem was somewhere in the power supply system and not a fatal problem and I wasn't going to wait 5 weeks just to see a repair truck show up. I started looking around again. I found a little repair shop in High Point and called them. Yep, they could fix it and if I could bring it in, they could get it fixed quicker. I said “OK!” Well that was easier said than done. My friend weighs more than most people do. It weighs 212 pounds.

It is a 34 inch CRT set. With the widescreen picture tube, not plasma or LCD, that much glass weighs a ton. But with a dolly and a ramp off the front porch into the bed of the truck, off to the repair shop my friend and I go. The repairman tells me that he can start on it either that day or the next. Better than I thought. Exactly six days later I got a phone call. My friend was up and running and I could come take him home.

I showed up ready to fork over several hundred dollars but was surprised to find that it was only $95. $15 for one IC chip in the high voltage power supply and $75 labor. Typical more for the labor than for the parts. Oh well, I wasn’t going to complain. I got out cheaper than I thought. We loaded up my buddy and away we go.

It is so nice to have my friend back. My little 20 inch SD set from the bedroom worked just great, but it just doesn’t have the screen size or the resolution of the 34 inch HD set. There definitely was a large hole, not just physically but emotionally as well. Who would have thought that of a television? Hopefully I am set for a long time of great television vieweing from my friend who lives in the living room.

Five Years After Hell On Earth - 9/11

2006-09-10T20:29:00.000-04:00

That Tuesday morning actually started for me 6 months earlier.

Back in March on a routine dental visit of teeth cleaning, the little yellow card that marked my next appointment was handed to me. It read "9:30 AM Sept 11, 2001." The moment I saw it a strange feeling came over me. I had no idea why, but it just didn't hit me right. The feeling lasted about 2 seconds and the reminder card went into my wallet so I wouldn't forget it and out the door I went. I didn't think about it again. I can't tell you anything else about that March day. I can't even tell you what day it was, but that 60 seconds is seared in my brain forever.

Fast forward to September. It was not a normal day in many ways. My wife, who also works in the newsroom as an assignment editor on the day shift was filling in for the night side assignment editor and was asleep. As I was waiting to leave for my 9:30 dental appointment I was surfing the net and I just happen to have FOX News Channel on, sampling "FOX and Friends", since I normally watch our morning news while getting ready to go to work. It was as clear and warm of a day here in the Piedmont as it was in New York City.

Out of the corner of my eye and half listening, I hear E.D. Hill say reports were coming in that a small aircraft had hit the World Trade Center. Being somewhat of an aviation enthusiast, my ears perked up and I started to pay attention to the television. The time, 8:48 AM, two minutes after the hit. I had planned to leave to go to the dentist at 9:15 since the dentist office is only about 4 miles from home.

I am looking at the pictures that are now on the screen and not believing a small aircraft could cause that much damage. The thought did cross my mind that it could be terrorism but I dismissed it as unrealistic as several "experts" via telephone began to say it MIGHT be terrorism. About 8:55 Jon Scott takes over the coverage from the F&F team. 9:03 the second aircraft slams into the south tower. As I am seeing it, instantly I grasp what is going on and say out loud to no one, "We are at war!" Several long seconds later, Scott says on air, "It has happened again! Another plane has hit the tower! This can't be a coincidence. This has to be a terror attack!"

I don't know why, but I instantly thought of my wife's 4 year old niece and 11 year old nephew and how they would never know a world at relative peace again in their lifetime. Sadness fell over me. Then the broadcaster in me took control. I knew what had to be done and it had to start now.

I then went to the bedroom and woke my wife. I said "Two planes have struck the World Trade Center in New York. They suspect terrorism. I think you need to call the station and see if they need you to come in early." I go back to the TV and see I need to leave in a few minutes. I begin planning on what I needed to do for work and how I can make my appointment and get to the station as fast as I can. Since this is not a local story, yet, I figure I have a few minutes to work in the dentist. Being the transmitter guy, I am usually not the first person they call.

At 9:30 I walk into the dentist office and ask if they have heard what happened in New York City. They hadn't. I asked if they could rush me through since I suspect I would need to get on to work. 20 minutes later I was out the door. The quickest I have ever been through a dentist's office! By 9:50 I am on the road headed for the station. Just about every radio station on the dial has someone else’s coverage. I hear CBS, NBC, ABC AND FOX TV audio on MANY stations. I call my wife and she tells me the south tower has collapsed. I can't even comprehend it.

I hang up and the cell phone immediately rings. It is my boss wanting to know where am I. I tell him I am on the way to the station via the dentist and should be there in 15 minutes. He waives me off and tells me to go to the transmitter and stay there. I arrived there in record time.

I go into the office and turn on the monitor and see we have picked up the FOX feed that is carrying FOX News Channel. Jon Scott and Shepard Smith are now co-anchoring. In mid sentence of Shep Smith saying how if the north tower comes down, the death toll will be unbelievable, the north tower collapses. Cut to a helicopter shot of the dust cloud that rises up from lower Manhattan. I can't believe what I have just witnessed on our air. Then the report of a 5th highjack plane inbound to Washington hits air, later proved to be unfounded. My head starts to spin.

I stay glued to the TV the rest of the day and then when I go home that night until I go to bed at 3 AM when the adrenaline rush of the day wears off. For the next 6 days, I stay glued to the TV as every station in the country goes wall to wall coverage.

I can't tell you what I saw that whole time, but I was there and saw it all.

SNL - Too many years later

2006-09-04T08:20:00.000-04:00

Staying up all night was a favorite thing of mine in my youth and Saturday nights were no different. Back in those days, my parents owned a house at the beach and we would go every weekend.

I can remember watching a little known news show at 11:30 pm on Saturday nights called "NBC News Weekend" with even less know reporters Lloyd Dobbins and Linda Ellerbee. It was the first attempt at a hip late show on network TV. It lasted about 6 months but was a forerunner to the 1983-4 "NBC News Overnight" with the same Lloyd Dobbins (later Bill Schechner) and Linda Ellerbee. It too failed within a year or so but set the stage for all of the overnight news programs you see on network TV today. Somewhere I have on beta tape a couple of "NBC News Overnight's" with Schechner and Ellerbee. This is where Ellerbee got the "Lucky Duck" idea from. She received a little yellow duck (same one you see at the end of her production companies programs) from a viewer and she liked it so much she put it on the anchor desk and started calling it "Lucky Duck." After the show ended and she left NBC News, she started a production company called "Lucky Duck Productions." She also stole her trademark line, "And so it goes" from Lloyd Dobbins. Dobbins used it to close the show on "NBC News Weekend" and "Overnight." When he left "Overnight" Ellerbee started using it and has ever since. I met Dobbins in the early 90's at the NC state AP News Convention after he retired from NBC News and had moved to Raleigh. He jokingly said he was still mad at Ellerbee for stealing his line, but at least unlike him, it was still working.

After the "Weekend" experiment failed, Tom Snyder got a shot at late night Saturday with a version of "The Tomorrow Show." It failed also but "The Tomorrow Show" moved to five nights a week after "The Tonight Show" and later went to CBS as the "The Late Late Show with Tom Snyder" after "The Late Show with David Letterman" and still continues after moving from a news/feature show to a purely comedy show with Craig Kilborn and now with Craig Ferguson.

On that last "The Tomorrow Show" on Saturday nights, Tom Snyder introduced a group of people that would become show biz icons. On that August night the world was introduced to the "Not Ready for Prime Time Players" better known as Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Chevy Chase, Jane Curtin, Laraine Newman, and Garrett Morris. I do think Belushi was stoned out of his mind that night. He did some things that got Snyder hot under the collar, but it was a forebearer of what was to come. The next Saturday night at 11:30 pm we saw the first prat fall of Chevy Chase and an institution was born.

I watched that show every Saturday night for the next 5 years. In the 1980 season when Lorne Michaels left, most people, including me, left also. It was a few years later I came back during the later Eddie Murphy, Joe Piscopo years and then last watched regularly in the 1985-6 "superstar" season of Jim Belushi, Mary Gross, Gary Kroeger, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and the well known Billy Crystal; Martin Short, Christopher Guest, Harry Shearer and Rich Hall. After that season, when the cast was purged, I bailed for good.

I would catch an occasional show if there was a guest host I liked but would only watch those parts they were in. In recent times I watched the first post 9/11 opening with NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani and NY Governor George Pataki. After the monologue I bailed again and had not watched SNL since. Until this past Saturday night. It was a repeat of the Christmas show with Jack Black as the guest host.

With the new TV season about to start, there was nothing on and for the first time in a long time, I wasn't fast asleep at 11:30 on a Saturday night. So the wife and I watched SNL. Either I have gotten too old to get modern comedy or this show stunk. None of the skits were funny. Weekend Update with Tina Fey was so lame, I have seen amateur parodies funnier. Even the wife commented how unfunny it was.

With NBC producing two shows this season about a fictitious late night comedy/sketch show ("30 Rock" created and produced by SNL alum Tina Fey) and "Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip" by "West Wing" creator Aaron Sorkin) either one or both could be funnier than the show they are based on.

Sometimes it isn't such a good idea to keep reinventing yourself. After 30 years it might just be time to retire SNL. One could say it had a good run.

Closure

2006-08-25T19:10:00.000-04:00

Well I think I can finally put the new tower project to bed. The last milestone that needed to be done has finally happened. To myself and Ross the Boss and a few others, it was a monumental event. To a small band of viewers it was a relief. To the rest of the world, it didn't matter.

Since we got the digital transmitter setup in February, we have had some issues with the RF tubes in it. The transmitter manufacturer and the tube manufacturer have been to the site many times in the last 6 months trying to get things in order. I jokingly say that Denver Jim has been here so many times now, he needs to just buy a house for him to stay when he is here. Alex from Canada has been here several times as well. Both have gotten to know the area well. Alex so well, he has gotten a speeding ticket! Anyway, if I am reading the tea leaves correctly, everyone is just about on board that the transmitter isn't the issue and they think they have the situation finally under control. Only time will tell.

The beast FINALLY on the air

While all of this was taking place, we have been quietly waiting for the FCC to approve what is called a "minor modification of the Construction Permit" so we can turn this beast on to the masses. It really is only a paperwork thing that usually takes 45 days at the most. The most recent I saw was taking about 3 weeks. We had filed for our modification in May of 2005 and we still had not heard from it in February when we wanted to turn this thing on. And we continued to wait for another six months beyond that. The government gets real cranky if you do things without their blessing and turning this thing on without their blessing would have brought the rath of God down upon us. They said they had been too busy with other things. It turned out that about 200 other stations were in the same boat we were in. So we waited and used the time to fix the problems with the tubes.

The last thing of this project was to turn the DTV transmitter on. We had gotten tired of calling the lawyer (I am sure she was tired of hearing from us to) and just moved on to other things this summer. Yesterday, about 11:15, Ross the Boss and I were at the old transmitter building stripping it out, getting it ready for its new life as a backup site. A job we have been doing all week. It is starting to look pretty good, if you ask me. Anyway, Ross' cell phone rings. I didn't know who it was, but by the conversion I assumed it was the lawyer telling us the mod had been approved and he was trying to get the specifics. It was actually the general manager of the station relaying the information. Before I could figure all of that out, the building phone starts to ring. I go and answer it. It is one of the corporate VP's of engineering. He is asking me if I have seen my email yet. I say no that we are working in the old building. He then tells me that the mod has been approved and the authorization is in an email. About that time Ross comes into the main transmitter room where I am and he tells me what I have just heard. I tell him I am heading over to the other building and get things going and did he want to talk to the VP. He said yes and I take off.

Time begins to speed up and slow down at the same time. This isn't the first time I have turned on a new station. It is only the, ah, let me count here, sixth new transmitter site I have put on the air in 25 years of doing this job.

First thing is to look at the authorization to see if there are any caveat's. Nope. All looks like a standard CP with Program Authorization testing included. I did have one AM station where we had to get permission to even test the thing, much less put it on the air for real. That was my first one in 1984!

Second thing is to power down the transmitter from the dummy antenna. Since the main and standby antennas have never been powered up before, you don't just hit them with full power. You "nurse" them up meaning you run the power to zero and then switch to the antenna and then bring the power up in steps and then waiting a short time at each point to see what happens as you check all kinds of meters until you either reach full power or you burn the damn thing up!! The latter does happen every now and again. A station in North Dakota found that out about 2 years ago when they put their new DTV on the air and the antenna literally caught fire! There are pictures of flames shooting off of the antenna on the tower! Once you see that things are stable, it doesn't matter if you hit it with full power or not in the future.

Since we have two antennas on the tower, one main and one standby, I need to test both of them before we go on air. I spend the next five minutes nursing and then watching what happens with the standby antenna. Everything works just like it is suppose to. I run the power down, and switch to the main antenna and start the process again. 10 percent power. Wait 30 seconds. 20 percent power. Wait 30 seconds. 30 percent power. Wait 30 seconds. 50 percent power Wait 30 seconds. 70 percent power. Wait 30 seconds. Run up to 80 percent and when it reaches about 75 percent the transmitter trips off. A VSWR warning light comes on. Usually this means that the antenna has a problem but since this is the first time this antenna has had any power to it, it probably isn't anything, but to make sure I run the power down to zero and start again, this time only stopping at 25 percent, 50 percent and 70 percent and enough time to check meters and then move on. I then move to 75 percent and stop. Meters look good. Nothing happens. I then move to 80 percent. Check meters again. All OK and then move to 90 percent. All still OK. Then I run it up to 110 percent and run it there for about 2 minutes. All runs OK. I then drop it back to 100 percent. This time checking all of the meters on the transmitter (about 30 of them). Certify all is OK. Check the clock. It is 11:35. I call Master Control and tell them we are at full power, 1 million watts of digital power!

So THAT is what 1 milion watts looks like, eh? Well 50,000 out of the transmitter and the antenna makes up the rest!

Of course this was happening so fast that the news department didn't even get a chance to get a photog down to the site to record the "historic moment" (and I have already heard about that) but of course there is nothing visually stimulating in watching someone push buttons! Like I told my wife, when I hit 100 percent the first time, no brass bands played. No show girls danced through. No confetti fell. Just the sound of fans running and circulating water, the same sounds it has been making for the last 6 months. The only difference was the antenna switches were in a physically different position and if I screwed up, I would have the transmitter off the air. In reality, it was all pretty anticlimactic after the long wait to be honest. It was more of a relief that it was finally done. But then it should have been. Even the factory admits that transmitter has been the most evaluated transmitter in the companies history with all of the tube problems we have had so at least I know the cabinets are sound! I did miss the usual hoopla that goes along with commissioning a new transmitter. Usually you have the transmitter sitting there ready to go, the tower crew is finishing up the antenna and the general manager or station owner is breathing down your neck to hurry them up so you can get it on the air faster! That didn't happen this time since everything was done and we still couldn't turn it on, so when it did happened, it happened quick and unceremoniously. It just happened. I guess I just missed the pressure!

The other day in doing some clean up in the old transmitter building, I found the original 1963 "Proof of Performance" when the station signed on in 1963. It is a document each station has to have for every transmitter and is updated yearly for each transmitter. It shows that the transmitter meets the FCC specs before it is put on the air. With today's state of the art, Proofs are done in a couple of hours tops (the new channel 8 transmitter took 2 hours and the DTV transmitter took about an hour once everything was set up) and you usually do not find any problems. In 1963, it took them 10 days, from October 1 through October 11 to get the original RCA TT25DH transmitter to make Proof! Shows you how far we have come and how routine these transmitter christenings have become. Back in those days, you put on a new transmitter and it was a celebration. The newspaper came out. The mayor pontificated. Speeches by other dignitaries were spoken. It was really celebration. Today the engineers celebrate and the rest of the world yawns. We are a fickle bunch aren't we!!

End of this chapter. Time to start a new one.

Are you ready for some football?

2006-08-22T20:52:00.000-04:00

In the last few years fall as moved up on my list of great times of the year. That is because that is when football season begins!

I have never been a big sports fan. When the Carolina Panthers franchise came into existence in 1993, I was attending a transmitter school in Quincy, Ill having been with WGHP less than a year. The franchise had been awarded 3 days before I left. I went to the only place you could buy a Panthers sweatshirt then, Belk's, at Four Seasons. I bought it because I really thought that it was a good thing for our state and I wanted to show my support. I then went on my trip.

One day into my week stay there I pulled out the sweatshirt and put it on. It was a chilly fall day and I didn't want to tote a coat around. When I arrived at the factory, many of the guys wanted to know what a "Carolina Panther" was. Most of these guys were from the Mid West and were Bear's or Viking's or Lion's or Brown's fans. Most were amused that the NFL had come to the Carolina's. But all of a sudden, I was "one of the guys" since my area had a team. It didn't matter that we were a team in name only since no coach had been named yet, no players had been signed, no plays run, no touchdowns, no wins or no loses. It was the "well my team has so and so and he will do so and so" followed by someone else arguing that when so and so played for HIS team he did this and this.

When you "have a team" in your area, it is different that when you "have someone else’s team" because you are not in a teams market. When you live in a secondary area of a team, like the Carolina's did for many years, many people have many "teams." No one team dominates. In the northern and eastern parts of the North Carolina, many people were Washington Redskins fans. People from Charlotte west and south into South Carolina were Atlanta Falcon fans. Growing up in the eastern part of the North Carolina, my dad was a big Skins fan. My wife’s family, living south of Asheville followed the Falcon's. The Panthers come to town and now we all root for the White/Black and Blue.

Oh sure, you still have Falcon fans, and Redskin fans around here, but for me, the Panthers brought me into football in a way that the Redskins and Falcons never could. They were always someone else’s team. The Panthers are MY team!! That chilly day in Illinois opened my eyes to that fact. And I STILL have that sweatshirt. I don’t wear it as much anymore since it is starting to get thread bare and is now 13 years old but every time I see it, I get chills and can’t wait for the team to hit the field. I am still not a sports fan, (I could care less about hockey or baseball or basketball) but when football starts, I get pretty rabid about it.

So far things look pretty good this season for the Panthers, but it is only preseason. HHHMM. Tine to make sure I am NOT working Super Bowl weekend.

Yes, I am still alive, but just barely

2006-08-08T08:18:00.000-04:00

I have so much to say and no desire to say it. I chalk it up to the summer heat. Of course, I let myself get talked into starting a blog on our new station website, http://www.myfoxwghp.com by one of the IT guys and so I felt I needed to get a couple of posts in the can on there, so to speak, and so with the heat, I am kinda literallaly (is that even a word, much less spelled correctly!?) drained at the moment.

Plus a couple of weeks of intense issues at work and looks like another ballbuster beginning thanks to what I think is poor quality in a product (God, if I could just say what I REALLY think on that subject, but too many people stealthly read my blog, or at least they keep telling they do. Who knows? And I do like my job. Even on days like yesterday when I think the only way it could be worse would be to get fired!!)

Maybe when things cool off outside and inside, I will be more in a "blogging mood." Strap in. The fun is just beginning. Of so they say.

And Now a Message from Our Sponsor......

2006-07-08T18:59:00.000-04:00

I fully intend to get back to my search for the Carter Family so don't worry, but in the mean time, I ran across something that really peeked my interest that I just had to blog about it. While doing some research on an unrelated subject, I ran across an article detailing a website of fans that were creating their own new Star Trek webisodes.

Since the cancellation of ST:ENT, or as it is more commonly know as, Enterprise on UPN, fans are hungry for more Trek. Starting with ST:TOS (The Original Series of the 1960's with Kirk), and ST:TNG (The Next Generation with Picard) along with the movies, it hasn't been uncommon for fans to fantasize about being in Star Trek by writing their own stories or publishing fan magazines or fanzines or zines as they are known as. I myself have been a Trek fan or Trekker (not to be confused with little girls who love anything with Vulcan ears called Trekkies, there IS a difference) since I watched TOS on NBC in the 1960's, anything new about Star Trek will at least cause me to take a pause if nothing else. During the mid 1980's through this last TV season, there has not been so much of this fan driven activity due to something related to Star Trek being in major production for the last 20 years continuously (ST:TNG, ST:DS9 - Deep Space Nine, ST:VOY - Voyager and finally ST:ENT and the movies).

With the cancellation of ST:ENT last year, fans raised money to continue it just to find out that Paramount, the owner of the rights, had decided it was time to give Star Trek a rest. This restarted the fan driven activity of the past. In those bygone days of the 70's and early 80's, many fan stories were created and past around via mail and conventions. This did continue through the last 20 years, but not as much as before. Now with the Internet, the worship websites turned into new fan material factories. With the cost of camcorders and computer editing software in the range of everyday people, fans began to create their own Star Trek episodes and started to post them on the Internet. These fan created webisodes were not much more than home movies with bed sheets and cardboard phasers battling aliens in the backyard. But Star Trek has been around for 40 years and has influenced many people in the entertainment industry and they began to come together to pay homage to Star Trek through their own stories and webisodes.

One fan took it one step further. A man named James Cawley had friends in the industry. He had been collecting TOS props over a ten year period and had gotten the original set building plans and with his own money and help from other fans time and money, rebuilt the original sets of the Kirk era with the idea of one day continuing the stories of the original series. NBC had cancelled Star Trek after only 3 seasons. Cawley's idea was to begin production again with season 4 of TOS with fans portraying the classic characters, Kirk, Spock, McCoy, etc. In 2004, he and Max Rem produced "Come What May" a story about two aliens who basically do a good cop, bad cop where one menaces a planet and then the other one saves them. The actor John Winston, who played Transporter Chief Kyle in the original series had a cameo as a star ship captain and Cawley himself portraying James Kirk. Cawley created a website called www.startreknewvoyages.com to promote and distribute the webisode.

The actual story wasn't a bad one (I enjoyed it), and the production was head and shoulders above anything anyone else had done, but it still wasn't anywhere near even the campy original series. Cawley had industry professionals helping, but in order to get his dream made, Paramount would only allow him to use the Star Trek banner if no money was made. That meant that everyone involved could not be paid and had to donate their time and money to participate. The CGI computer special effects were certainly above anything the original series had enjoyed, many of the props were originals used on the series and the sets were so good, you expected to see William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy themselves coming out of the Turbolift on to the Bridge. But the script was not very tight and the acting, was in many places, not very good being that most of the actors had either never acted before or were not up on the original series and the interplay of the characters. It was a cross between Wayne's World and an indie film. But the fans wanted more and wanted to be a part of it.

In 2005 Cawley and Rem produced another webisode entitled "In Harms Way" a sequel to the second season episode "The Doomsday Machine" with William Windom in a cameo reprising his role of Commodore Matt Decker from that second season episode. Also appearing in this webisode is BarBara Luna who appeared in the second season episode "Mirror, Mirror" where she played the "Captain's Woman" in the parallel universe and to round out the cameos of former Trek actors appearing as a Klingon, Malachi Throne who portrayed Commodore Jose Mendez in season one's two parter "The Menagerie." This webisode was better than the first and the acting was better, still not ready for prime time, but with the cast beginning to gel along with the former Trek actors, people in the business began to take notice including Gene Roddenberry's son Roddy Roddenberry who was a Consulting Producer on this webisode.

For 2006, Cawley and company landed ST:TOS's Executive Story Editor and writer of many well known Star Trek scripts from TOS, the animated series, and TNG. D.C. (Dorothy) Fontana and reprising his role from TOS and the movies, Walter Koenig as Pavel Chekov for a webisode entitled "To Serve All My Days." It is scheduled to be released on Septemberer 8, the 40 anniversary of the premier of ST:TOS on NBC.

Mr Koenig, in a podcast interview, admitted that he was contacted by Mr Cawley and looked at "Come What May" and "In Harms Way" and while it was not up to the standards he was used to, he said he saw something unique and had to be a part of it, even if it meant he had to pay his way onto the set, like everyone else. He contacted Dorothy Fontana about writing a script and they began to talk to others formally connected with Star Trek in various forms.

For the next webisode "World Enough and Time" that starts shooting later this year, George Takei will reprise his character of helmsman Hikaru Sulu. Also appearing with Mr Takei is Grace Lee Whitney who played the Captain's Yeoman, Janice Rand the first season. "World Enough And Time" is being co-authored by Marc Scott Zicree and Michael Reaves. Mr Zicree wrote several DS9 episodes, the TNG episode "First Contact" along with the Babylon 5 episode "Survivors" just to name a few of his many credits. Mr Reaves credits includes a writing stint on "The New Batman Adventures", TNG episode "Where No One Has Gone Before" as well as many animated sci fi series and the Twilightht Zone episode "Nightsong".

But that doesn't signal the end of former Trek people becoming involved with ST:New Voyages. The writer of second season episode "The Trouble With Tribbles" David Gerrold has signed up for two scripts along with Ron B. Moore who is perhaps best known for his visual effects supervision on TNG, DS9, Voyager, Enterprise and the feature film, "Generations". His film credits include: "Ghostbusters", "2010", "Frightnight", "Solarbabies" and "Moonstruck". Mr Moore will be supervising future ST:NV special effects. And even more former Trek types are coming on board. The actor who portrayeded Commander Sirol in the "Pegasus" episode of ST:TNG, Michael Mack, who's other credits include "Outerworld", "Head Of State", "The West Wing", "The Wire" and a recurring role on "The Young & The Restless." Mr Mack is also an acting coach. Former DS9 writers Jack Trevino and Ethan Calk have agreed to write this script.

But non Trek types in the industry want in as well. Leslie Silva, who was a lead on the recent Showtime series "Odyssey 5" has been cast as a guest star in the webisode "World Enough And Time."

So even though none of the above mentioned people will be paid for their efforts, it is quite clear that Mr Cawley and Mr Rem have caught fire in a bottle with many of the past Trek people wanting to be a part of this fan driven project.

With original TOS standing sets available, Sky Douglas Conway, head of PlanetXpo and producer of "Lady Magdalene's" and the "Roddenberry on Patrol" short films, has announced he will be producing a script written by himself along with Jack Trevino and Ethan Calk called "Star Trek: Of Gods and Men". This will be a 3 part miniseries using the ST:NV sets and in cooperation with ST:NV for technical support and additional actors. Staring in this indie web mini series are Nichelle Nichols and Walter Koenig reprising their roles as Uhura and Chekov, but in the post-Kirk time of Enterprise-B captain John Harriman, reprised by Alan Ruck. Tim Russ will direct, and will also appear as a younger Tuvok. The film will include other performances by Garrett Wang (Harry Kim of Enterprise), Chase Masterson (Leeta of DS9), Grace Lee Whitney (Janice Rand of TOS), Gary Graham (Soval of Enterprise as well as credits in JAG, Crossing Jordan, Walker, Texas Ranger, Ally McBeal, just to name a few) and Crystal Allen (from the ST:ENT episode "Bound" along with credits from The Sopranos, NCIS, Boston Legal, Sex In The City and Ed just to name a few), along with some special "surprise" guests.

If the music industry is afraid of artists bypassing the traditional record companies for the Internet to distribute their products, the same could be said that when the big media companies do not deliver the video content the public wants, the public will make it for themselves. Who knows, ST:NV may be the next "official" Star Trek when Paramount brings the franchise back in a few years.

There is another large website that has been doing Star Trek fan webisodes called Hidden Frontier from the time period immediately after TNG movies and along side Voyager. But that site appears to be in a time of change with several of their technical people and actors moving to ST:NV.

In the mean time, it appears that ST:NV is the place to be if you are into Star Trek. If you can get past William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy not playing Kirk and Spock, can put up with some actors who are not as polished as you might like, but some stories with real heart and feeling as if "The Great Bird" himself had written them, then you must check out Star Trek: New Voyages at http://www.startreknewvoyages.com.

Don't worry, even though none of the actors try to immitate the original actors, James Cawley does a good Bill Shatner even when he isn't trying.

In Search of A. P., Sara and Maybelle (Part 1)

2006-06-24T20:19:00.000-04:00

I like to fancy myself somewhat of a connoisseur of music history when it comes to modern rock and roll. I am by no means the encyclopedia of the Rock and Rock Hall of Fame, nor do I claim to be, but being a radio DJ in the late 70's and early 80's, I developed a hankering to learn music history to go along with my already love of history in general. So as my better half will attest, the History Channel, and the many flavors of Discovery Channels as well as many PBS programs fill our home to help fill the bottomless pit I seem to have about various and mostly unrelated historical subjects ranging from World War II history to The Civil War (not Revolutionary War, no interest in it, so far) to the Roman times, all 500 years of it and the Wright Brothers, to name a few.

As far as music history goes, I have had an on again, off again affair with Rock and Roll history of the 50's, 60's (specializing in Beatles history) tapering off in the 70's and because of working in Country Radio in the mid to late 80's some country history, including one piece of personal history in the late 70's while I was just a part time radio DJ with an unknown group called "Alabama" and an equally unknown part-time high school DJ who you now see on CNN Sports, Mark McKay. (and no, McKay ISN'T his real last name, but Mark is his real first name.) But that is fodder for another blog post.

So a few weeks ago, after sweeps when nothing, and I mean NOTHING was on TV, I spied American Experience on PBS. It was about "hillbilly music" and the wife, being raised in the middle mountains of North Carolina, she was groomed on "mountain music," "blue grass" and "country music," I thought, well I can put up with this. It is only an hour show. I tuned over to the HD PBS channel for the widescreen version and American Experience began. It was an episode entitled "The Carter Family: Will the Circle Be Unbroken." I thought "Carter Family. HHMM. They are somehow related to June Carter Cash, wife of Johnny Cash. This might not be so bad." I am not a huge fan of Johnny Cash, but because I had seen the movie "Walk the Line" a few months back and I had come to appreciate him as an artist and performer, so all I really knew about the "Carter Family" was what I had seen in the movie (not much). And only other thing I know about them was they played "hillbilly music," Sadly, I really had no clue who these people were. At this point, I had no idea that A. P. and Sara even existed. The Carter Family to me was "Mother" Maybelle and the Carter Sisters, that June belong to. In reality, the "Carter Family" was actually a trio that performed and recorded from 1927 to 1943 and consisted of A. P. Carter on backing vocals and arrangement, his wife Sara lead signer and Autoharp and A. P.'s brother's wife Maybelle on guitar and vocals. They recorded the traditional music of the Appalachian Mountains that developed into Country Music and Blue Grass Music that then developed into the Rock and Rock of the 1950's. The Carters were the first to record it to vinyl and copywrited much of the traditional music that we know today. The arrangements of A. P. Carter are still heard in the music even when performed by today's artists such as Bob Dylan. But I am jumping ahead of myself.

The Carter Family (l-r Maybelle, A. P., Sara)

Within the first 5 minutes of the program, I was hooked. They had original recordings (did those still exist from the 1920's? They sounded pretty damn good considering they were more than likely acetates), how I don't know and even though it was indeed "hillbilly music," I heard country sounds like I had heard in the mid to late 80's in country radio and more of a shocker, rock and roll of the 50's and 60's with strains in some current rock and roll music. I was dumbfounded. How could this be and more importantly, how had I missed all this?

All of a sudden, it hit me why in the early 20th Century, it wasn't just called "Country Music" like it is now, but "Country AND Western Music." They were talking two different genre's of music that had a common element, the plight of the common man. Western music being the "original" common man's music out on the plains of the west like Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Tom Mix, etc. Country music being hillbilly music or more correctly traditional folk music that came over to this country by word of mouth and was basically hidden in the hills of Appalachia for a couple of hundred years. Songs that I had learned as a child and incorrectly considered "children's music" was being performed by the Carters and others of the period.

After the show, I started to do some research on the Carter Family. American Experience had done a wonderful job of telling their story, but I had this drive to learn more. They had been indirectly involved in one of my favorite pieces of broadcasting history, the Mexican Borderblaster Wars (Part 1 of the 1930's and 1940's and Part 2 in the 1960's with Wolfman Jack) on Mexican stations XERA and XET. XERA was a 500,000 watt AM blowtorch located in Villa Acuna (now Cuidad Acuna) Coahuila, Mexico just across the border from Del Rio, Texas with a daytime signal heard in all 48 continental states and southern Canada. XERA had started life as XER in 1932 as a 50kW directional to the north station and was closed down by the Mexican government in 1933 after Dr John R. Brinkley, formally of Medford, Kansas, had started the station to sell his impotence cure of "goat glad" grafting. He had done this when the US government did the same thing with his station in Medford, KFKB in 1931. The doctor packed up and moved to Del Rio, Texas where he started another broadcast company, and obtain a Mexican license and built XER just across the border and began again until the Mexicans closed him down in about 18 months.

Sara (l) and Maybelle (r) in front of XERA, Villa Acuna, Mexico

In 1935, XER was reborn as XERA by Dr Brinkley where Doc set up a Mexican holding company that owned the license, but it was run from Del Rio, Texas by the quack doctor. This time, a 500,000 watt transmitter was installed to get the message of "goat glands" to the masses. After the US and Mexico signed radio treaties to stop foreign nationals from owning and controlling stations, the Mexican Federales pulled the plug on Doc Brinkley and XERA was silenced again. But not for long. In 1947 the old XERA facilities including transmitter and antenna were powered up again as XERF with Mexican nationals owning the license this time and Del Rio, Texas lawyer Arturo Gonzalez selling the air time, getting around the radio treaties and through this arrangement this is how Wolfman Jack became a household word with the rock and rollers of the early 1960's. This is also the radio station ZZ Top refers to in their song, "Heard It On the X." (Borderblaster, Part 2) The Carter Family was heard on XERA from 1937 to 1939 when the Federales shut it down. XERF still exists with a Construction Permit for 250,000 watts but only runs at 50,000 watts these days with only Mexican programming. The days of the Borderblasters long gone.

Antenna system of XER/XERA Villa Acuna, Mexico in the 1930's

After Doc Brinkley and XERA were shut down, the Carters moved on to XET Radio, another border blaster, until 1941. XET is located in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico and also ran 500,000 watts of power aimed at the US not far from Laredo and Brownsville, Texas. XET's history isn't as storied as XERA but unlike XERA where the Carters performed live twice a day from the Mexican studios, on XET, acetates of their performances were created and then shipped to the station for playback. Many of those recordings still exist and some are available on CD in a 3 disk set called "The Carter Family on Border Radio." Many more acetates are lost forever being used by the locals as roofing material. Today XET programs Spanish langauge to Mexican citizens with only a modest 50,000 watts these days.

The Carter's radio show acetates were also played on borderblaster stations XELO, XEG, XERB, and XEPN. In 1941, the Carter's moved to WBT Radio in Charlotte for the summer season.

continued in Part 2

Local Boy Returns

2006-06-03T16:33:00.000-04:00

"We want Chris!"

It was a day the Triad has been waiting for several weeks. McLeansville's American Idol contestant Chris Daughtry officially returns to the Triad and the area wanted to pull out all of the stops for him. Of course this isn't the first time the Triad has played host to a name made from that little singing contest that FOX runs every year.

In 2004, High Point's Fantasia (Barino) was crowned American Idol 2004 to much local acclaim just to have her turn around and dis her hometown in a "tell all" book where she admits that the Guilford County Schools left her academically illiterate. Even though Mr Daughtry didn't take the AI 2006 crown (that was Birmingham, Alabama's Taylor "Soul Patrol" Hicks) the future looks brighter for him.

His hometown of McLeansville spent this first Saturday morning of June honoring him and later in the afternoon, he and his band, Absent Element, gave a free concert at Grimsley High School in Greensboro to all who wanted to attend. At the concert, in true fashion, every entity that could hang on to his coat tails did from local businesses, local and federal elected officials and the governor's office itself. The poor woman from Governor Easley's office must have had too much Hollywood in her eyes because as she was giving Mr Daughtry one of many accolades, she misspoke. What she INTENDED to say was, "The first time you opened your mouth to sing, a wonder sound came forth." What she DID say was "The first time you opened MY mouth..." I just hope she wasn't wearing stiletto heels when she stuck her foot down her throat. Mr Daughtry wanted this concert to help the Children's Home Society of North Carolina and donations were taken for that organization.

Absent Element

Mr Daughtry, his family, band and close friends arrived in 2 very stretch limos with a police escort where they were taken around the running track of the stadium where the fans cheered and waved at the convoy and then to the schools field house. After a few minutes down in the field house preparing for the show, they emerged and walked over to the stage in front of one of the football goal posts. After an introduction that lasted too long and another 15 minutes while everything from certificates and keys to the city were bestow upon him, Mr Daughtry asked a simple question to the audience. "Wass up guys?! You ready to rock?!" The crowd goes wild and Absent Element, who has had a lead singer absent for the last 5 months begins to play. First song? Bon Jovi's "Wanted. Dead or Alive." Performed just like he did it on American Idol 3 months ago. This time, you could tell the improvement in his performance. As they played and he sang, you saw the same kind of style live that was on television. The IT factor that is needed to succeed in the record business was there on display in that high school stadium. He didn't seem to be a bar band singer, but someone you could see doing stadium concerts with people going crazy. The intensity that he showed on American Idol was there in front of his first "professional" fans. He also made a conscience effort to make contact with everyone one there. It was a beauty to behold. What he can become was there for all to see. He had graduated from local musician to up and coming star.

Wanted: Very much alive

Absent Element is not a bad sounding band. I was surprised how much the couple of cover songs they did sounded just like he had song them on the show. Most of the songs though were originals from the band's only release, an indie EP called "Uprooted."

As the show went on, you could feel that Mr Daughtry wanted this show to be just right. As important as every performance on AI with 30 million plus people watching were, this crowd of 3500 were his core, his base, his family and friends and in his short professional career, THIS was the big time, proving to the home crowd he was worth their time and support. The crowd was equally worried that they didn't disappoint him either. Several times he asked the crowd if they could hear OK or if they were bored. Each time the crowd responded enthusiastically in support for him and the band. I think neither had anything to worry about.

This audience did had a nice cross section of people. You saw the hard rockers in their tee shirts and barefoot, rednecks, older people in the 50's and 60's, and the "wine and cheese crowd" of men in their Izod shirts, khaki pants and women in their chic tops and pants and high heels along with teenage girl groupies that always hang on any celeb of any fame more than pageant queen.

As the show went on, you could tell that Mr Daughtry is tired. He had that drained look in this face that after 5 months of stress and being away from home can create. His wife and children sat on stage at the back looking on in satisfaction. On Deanna's face, his wife, you could see that all of those nights rehearsing, being gone to gigs not much more than orchestrated reasons for getting drunk and raising hell were paying off. People had come to hear him along with his band and not just for beer. And that was why many had come. To see and hear Chris Daughtry. Even though Mr Daughtry tried to play the whole "Chris Daughtry Show" circus atmosphere down, it permeated the air like a dead skunk in the middle of the road. The band has said all long that they have supported and continue to support Mr Daughtry.

One thing that came out of the Welcome Home Show was that he is on a different level than his band mates now. Even though Absent Element is a good solid band, they are, a local band. Mr Daughtry, on the other hand, is a "national name." He has doors opening for him that the others in the band do not have and may never have. Most fans of Mr Daughtry know he was in a band, but I would wager most of those people have no idea what that bands name is.

It was announced at the show that he has officially turned down Fuel's offer to be their lead singer. In my opinion, that was a smart move. After researching it, it appears that Fuel needs Mr Daughtry's celebrity more than he needs them. But on the other hand, in my opinion, if he sticks with Absent Element and tries to bring them along with him, you will never hear from him again. The public knows and wants Chris Daughtry, not Absent Element, even if Chris Daughtry is in the band.

And that is a hard thing. No one has anything against Absent Element, they are a good sounding band, I personally like them, but the record business is a hard business. It is built on a fickle lady called "fame" and she doesn't care if you live or die. People think Simon Cowell is too mean. Just the opposite. He has to tone himself down for American Idol. If he was allowed to be as nasty as record people are, he wouldn't be the person we love to hate. He would seem to be just plain mean. To quote funny woman Tracey Ullman who had a record contract in the 80's with Stiff Records in the UK, "Those bleeding record companies are nothing but thieves!"

Of course the problem is as simple as what was faced by three guys in a local band about to break national in 1962. Do they keep the drummer and stay a local band or go with a better drummer and "break nationally?" We all know that answer. Pete Best is a middle class man now in his 60's in Liverpool, England. His three band mates and a new drummer named Ringo Starr went on to be the best band in the world, The Beatles.

His final song was sung with nothing but his gutar. It was a song he had written right before AI called, "Home" and he said he was glad to be back among us.

But for a while on a sunny June Saturday, the local community welcomed home a man who is a husband, a father, a singer, an idol and a good man. I wish him all the luck in the world as he starts this wild ride of fame.

Thanks for the great afternoon Mr Daughtry. I look forward to doing it again soon.

A Son's Salute

2006-05-29T17:17:00.000-04:00

Staff Sergeant George Layno, USMC, in 1944

Growing old is one of those things that no one can stop. Time marches on relentlessly. Memorial Day is one of those days when we stop and actually see just how much time has past. We honor the veterans, past and present, dead and alive. This is as it should be. Without them, we wouldn't be here, plain and simple. I feel very lucky that no one in mine or my wife's family has been/is in the Middle East this Memorial Day. That is not to say that there isn't a sadness that hangs over Memorial Day for me. There is.

In my immediate family, my father has been the only one to serve in the military in the last 100 years. (On my wife's side, they were in World War II, Korea and Vietnam.) And even though he survived (obviously since I AM here), his death 5 years ago still stings on days such as this.

Dad was born in 1917 to Slovak immigrants in Pennsylvania. His generation being the first generation born in America. When war clouds started gathering in the late 1930's, Dad joined the United States Marine Corps and served from 1940 to 1946. His first trip to the South was to Boot Camp at Paris Island, South Carolina and he went to pre-Castro Cuba to Guantanamo Bay Naval Base for amphibious training. He saw combat in the South Pacific. His first combat was on a small island that most people have never heard of and if they have, they have no idea what happened there and what this little island of volcanic origin has to do with the war. It is called Guadalcanal. It is an island that is a part of the Solomon Islands chain just northeast of Australia.

The Japanese were building an airfield on this tropical island less than a thousand miles from Australia. This put the island continent in real danger of being invaded. The brass in Honolulu (Admiral Nimitz) decided a stand had to be made and Guadalcanal was just as good a place as any. The Marines of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force would be the tip of the spear, and expendable. Just 9 months after Pearl Harbor, on August 7th, 1942, Marines of the 1st Marine Division, based at the newly formed Camp LeJeune Marine Base, Jacksonville, North Carolina were headed in to this ancient volcanic jungle. They all knew that if they couldn't get a foot hold on the beach, there was no way to get back off. It was literally do or die. On the second wave coming in that day was a green sergeant assigned to communications, Headquarters company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment of the 1st Marine Division. Luckily for him and the other 16,000 Marines, the Japanese had not reinforced the island and only a token garrison and construction workers were on the island. Within two days, the Marines had a toe hold on Guadalcanal and had taken the unfinished airfield, christened, Henderson Field, named for Major Lofton Henderson, a Marine aviator who had been killed at the Battle of Midway several months before. The Allies had started their "island hopping" campaign to Tokyo.

Dad would tell "war stories" when I was growing up. But it was years later that I realized he hadn't told all of the stories. He would tell of the time he and future Medal of Honor winner, Carlton Rue would go out "sniper hunting." As Dad would say, this was a fool hardy thing. He and Carlton would gather up all kinds of gear and go out into the jungle looking for Japanese snipers hanging in the cocoanut trees. Within a short time, both Dad and Carlton realize this was no game, especially when a Japanese bullet from a sniper whizzed by their heads. Dad would end the story by saying that they dropped all of the gear, including weapons and ammunition and as far as he knew, it was still in the jungle, exactly where they dropped it all of those years ago. Being in a communications section meant he didn't do many of the patrols and such, but he did get out and run telephone wire from the different positions back to the Headquarters and did run into his share of Japanese scouts. Dad got through the whole war without a single physical scratch.

Carlton wasn't so lucky. Before the Marines were relieved off the island, Carlton found himself in a fox hole with 3 other Marines during a Japanese attack when a Japanese hand grenade rolled in. Without thinking, Carlton jumped on the grenade and it exploded, ripping out his stomach. For his actions, Sergeant Carlton Rue was awarded the Medal of Honor for his bravery, quick thinking and saving the lives of three fellow Marines. Carlton was badly injured, but was evacuated off the island and lived into his 70's working for the Veterans Administration and remained friends with Dad until his death in the early 1990's.

Dad would tell of the night of the Battle for Point Lunga. Point Lunga was a small sand spit that came out of the Lunga River into the Pacific Ocean. The Japanese were desperate to get control of Guadalcanal and force the Marines back into the sea. To do this, the Japanese Navy would run what the Marines called the "Tokyo Express." This was an almost nightly convoy of Japanese naval ships bringing in troops and supplies and our navy along with the Australian Navy would take them on. On this night, the Tokyo Express were landing troops on the beach. What the Japanese hadn't planned on that the Marines had intercepted their communications and were ready with two defensive positions, one on each side of the sand spit and as the Japanese landed, they were cut down with crossing fire. Dad wasn't a part of the battle, but watched it from the river bank along with other Marines. Six thousand Japanese lay dead in the surf by morning. These were the stories I heard growing up.

About a year or so before his death, Dad gave me a book that detailed many of the battles on Guadalcanal. Details that I had never heard or seen before. One of the battles that it detailed was the Battle for Bloody Ridge, so named for the number of Japanese killed trying to take a ridge that overlooked the Marines position. This is one of the most famous battles of Guadalcanal. The mistake of the Japanese were they landed on the other side of the island and then hiked over the mountains bringing large artillery pieces and by the time they arrived at the Marines' position, they were in no condition to fight, but that didn't stop the Japanese commanders from ordering charge after charge after charge up the ridge. With the Marines on the high ground, all they had to do was fire down and the Japanese solders melted away, hence the name, Bloody Ridge. The attack lasted all night and several times, the Japanese sent solders in force to try and break the lines and came close to taking certain parts of the line on several occasions. As I am reading the account, a mortar company that was familiar to me but I had not previously known had been involved with the action jumped out at me. M Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines, M-3-5. Toward the end of the Marines stay on Guadalcanal, Dad was transferred from Headquarters company to a mortar company, specifically, M-3-5. The next time I saw Dad I asked him if he was in M-3-5 for that battle. He looked down, distraught and said, "Yes, son, I was there and we killed a many of those slant eyed bastards. Either we killed them or they were determined to kill us. They shouted 'Banzi' all night long as they came up the ridge and several times almost broke through. It was the worst night of my life..." his voice trailed off and he wouldn't say anything else about it. For the first and only time in my life, he admitted he had killed men in battle. The "funny thing happened" stories or the "I saw this" stories of my childhood never had him killing someone. I could tell it bothered him badly. I obtained a renewed respect and love for him. I saw him in a different light. He could have said, yeah I was there but I wasn't involved or no I wasn't there. He was honest. He had seen the horrors of war, and didn't want to remember those times, but the "good times" of camaraderie or bravery of someone else. He never admitted to being a hero and when in November of 2000 at the ground breaking of the World War II Memorial in Washington, DC, some high school kids from New Hampshire asked him if he was a hero. He teared up and said a line that others have said, "no, he wasn't a hero. But he served with heros and many of them never came home."

Even though the men in the HBO mini series "Band of Brothers" were US Army Paratroopers (101st Division, US Army), I see so much of my father in those men. Simple men, with a terrible job to do, but understanding what would happen if they didn't. Unpretentious men, who loved their country and were willing to pay the ultimate price if it meant their children would have a better life. Dad never got to see that show, it came out after is death. But I think he would have love it.

My Mother tells of when they would go to the mall in Jacksonville (they lived at Morehead City, 30 miles from Jacksonville and Camp LeJeune) with friends of my Dad's whom he had served with, and would "hold court" while the women went shopping. He had a 1st Marine Division ball cap that he had pins from conventions and such that he would wear. All of the men did. The young Marines that were at the mall would recognize the patch and stop and ask the men if they had served. If the young Marine had time, the old vets would regale them with war stories of the South Pacific. They had them eating out of their hands. At some point, the young Marines would usually say that they hoped if they had to go to combat, they would have the same courage the old vets did. The response would be, "listen to your leaders, train hard, follow orders, and the rest will work itself out."

Dad died in May 2001 at the age of 84. I am thankful he didn't live to see 9/11. But there are times I wish he had. After 9/11, all of the things that he talked about growing up that didn't make any sense to me at the time, became crystal clear. How I would love to be able to talk to him about things military now. His beloved 1st Marine Division was the division that went into Baghdad in 2003 when the war began. Those Leatherneck's proved him right. They listened to their leaders, trained hard, followed orders, and the rest worked itself out. Better trained then he was. Better equipped then he was. He would be in owe of them and damn proud of them.

It took me over 40 years to figure it out, but not only did he teach me to live, in the end, he taught me how to die as well. For years he had said that he had had a good long life and when his time came, he was ready. The Marines had let him travel the world, he had survived, had two families with a son in each family, good friends and a healthy life. What more could he have asked for? Well in my mind, he left too soon, but he is indeed in a better place now. And on days like Memorial Day, I not only remember the military man, but the father as well. I owe him more than I could ever repay. My one wish is to be half the man he was. If I could do that, my life would be complete.

I love you Dad, and miss you. Semper Fi.

Another One Bites the Dust, eh maybe not.

2006-05-11T19:51:00.000-04:00

Picture stolen from fellow employee Stewart "Lenslinger" Pittman's lenslinger.com blog. That is Stewart on the right.

I had no idea I would be blogging about American Idol so soon but here I am. Not that I am up in arms about the latest idol cast off, but it was sad when Ryan Seacrest announced that the last North Carolinian on the show was booted off. I had hoped that McLeansville's Chris Daughtry would go all the way. He has the chops and not one of those "idol" types. He is a rocker and we need more rockers in the world.

In retrospect, it may be the best thing America could have done for him. If he had been hung with the mantle of "Idol '06" for at least the next 12 months, he would be singing "their songs" and doing "their concerts" and "doing their events" and to be honest, I don't see Mr. Daughtry putting up with that for much more than a day at best.

I have never met him. I hope I get the chance. Had he not been booted off, there was to have been a concert with his old band, Absent Element, that was to be taped Friday and then shown on the show next week. I had thought about going to that and see him live. When the bad news hit, all of that was cancelled. So he now goes on a week or two press junket for AI, and then has to get ready for the finale that the Top 12 will perform in and off on the AI summer tour. After that, he is free to sign with whomever wants him. I see him receiving many offers. He is just too good not to be.

I saw the satellite tour interview of Mr Daughtry on our air this morning and he really looked bummed out. His wife had said that he really wasn't into it until he made the Top 24 and his take on things changed and he really wanted it and worked at it. I think if you look back on it, you can see how much he has improved.

Later in the morning on Ryan Seacrest's KISS-FM Los Angeles morning show, when he was interviewing Mr Daughtry, he announced that a major group had inquired about Mr Daughtry services. No names mentioned and it seemed Mr Daughtry was truly surprised to hear it. Later in the day, the entertainment show Extra announced that the rock band Fuel wants to make an offer to hire him as their new lead singer when his contract with AI is finished. They were impressed with his singing of the group's song, "Hemorrhage (In My Hands)" on the March 1st installment of American Idol.

About 2 hours later, I saw him out of the corner of my eye on the FOX station in Los Angeles, KTTV, and his spirits seemed lifted over his earlier local interview. I didn't have time to listen to the majority of it (too busy working), but for the 30 seconds or so I saw, he seemed to be in a better mood. I can only assume the accolades from the other interviews he had already received as well as the news from Ryan Seacrest was a major factor for his better humor.

It would not surprise me to hear within 6 months he has moved his family from the Triad to the "left coast" as he either makes his debut album or is working with a major group either on tour or on an album. As they say in the biz, "he will land on his soft cats paws."

When that happens, he can thank American Idol for NOT making him their "idol." He will be better off.

A Little Girl in A Big World

2006-05-09T21:25:00.000-04:00

I was awoke at 6:30 am by the wife to tell me that American Idol contestant Kellie Pickler would be at the station for the morning news and she wants her picture taken with Miss Pickler and needs the camera. Not what I wanted to hear first thing in the morning. ("Good morning, honey" would have been better) Of course the camera battery wasn't charged. I told her I would get up, get the battery on change and be at the station before 8. Miss Pickler wasn't scheduled to be on air before 7:30 and was to be there all morning. Well until the end of the show at 9 anyway, so there would be plenty of time for her picture.

I watch American Idol not as a fan but for work. American Idol having the largest viewing audience on television right now, not to mention in the Triad next to NASCAR races, is a big deal at work. If I am watching and something happens I will know it before the station can call and I have a good chance of getting it corrected before viewers start to tune out. Well, that is the plan anyway. The fact that in the top 12 we had three contestants (Chris Daughtry, McLeansville; Bucky Covington, Rockingham; Heather Cox, Jonesville) who are viewers of ours, along with their family and friends, makes it a good business move. (If you are off the air, you are not making money.) For the moment, Idol is paying the bills so you treat it with care.

Miss Pickler was on a publicity tour after being voted off the show two weeks prior. Being from Abermarle, a mere 60 miles from the station, we were on the back end of a kids dream come true tour. Miss Pickler has that awe shucks Gomer Pyle country hick style of personality. Just because someone acts like a hick, doesn't mean they are not smart. (Think Dolly Parton.) Far from it. Miss Pickler may not like calamari, or doesn't know the double entendre of "minx," but under the bleach blond hair, I suspected she had more of a brain than many people gave her credit for. Of course on a show like American Idol, it is shot in such a way, you really only see what the producers want you to see. Hype and image is king when you talk about ratings and the money it brings. I was curious to see if my hunch was right about Miss Pickler.

When it looked like there was going to be time for pictures, we were herded into the Production Studio where an "American Idol" set has been created. It is really just some very large AI posters hung from the lighting grid and a riser with tall folding studio chairs for sitting. Miss Pickler was shown to the only chair on the riser and asked to sit for a bumper shot to tease her upcoming call in segment. As she navigated to the riser in her simple outfit of a brown leather jacket, white tank top, form fitting jeans and leopard skin wooden sole high heel shoes, the look of an intelligent woman replaced the bubbly smiley kid that America has come to know. As Miss Pickler set on the set waiting for her turn on the air, her eyes darted around the studio drinking everything in. It is obvious that some of Hollywood has rubbed off on her and she has gotten quite good at knowing what she needs to do in a television studio, and not just the Hollywood fashion either, but the business side and what it takes to stay there and that is what she is up against now. She has been given a small window to try and make something happen that will last for a while at least. And she has her eyes wide open trying not to miss a single thing.

The floor director cues her and that big toothy smile turns on and her right hand starts waving and the Kellie Pickler that viewers have come to know and love comes to life.

After the bumper shot, she is escorted to the interview area trying to not step on cables and more importantly not to trip and fall off her heels and cause a commotion (how do women wear those things anyway?) as she dodges the paraphernalia of a television studio, where she will wait for the call in segment and where she could be on the air for a wave and smile if needed for more teases prior to her segment. Well no pictures, not enough time. Maybe in a little while.

I stood in the now darkened Production Studio and watched a very mature young woman, not a silly little girl, as some think, asking questions, answering questions and just enjoying life. Grateful for having the opportunity to be in such a wondrous position. I was impressed with her. She is naive, but not dumb (my hunch was right) and she catches on quickly. She understands she is not in Kansas anymore and really does enjoy what she is doing. What you see is what you get.

Growing up in a small town like Abermarle is unique in itself. But Miss Pickler has had it tough in life. No real mother, father who wasn't there, raised by her grandfather, and a dream to sing and get out of town to a better life. But in this short time of 4 months, she has gone from queen of the roller drive in, to heart throb of young boys and the admiration of young girls who can see themselves, through her, standing up on the stage belting it out. She seems to have discovered that being from a small town isn't so bad and the fame she has acquired could all leave just as fast. That "country smarts" of growing up in a small town isn't the big city sophistication and she may not catch on as fast for calamari or minx's, but she has good ole common sense and that will take her much further than "big city smarts" ever could. If she can muster the talent level needed and she can keep the breaks coming her way, her stint on American Idol is the start of what small town girls dream of.

Oh, yeah, the wife got her picture. All I got was to take it.

End Round One

2006-05-07T09:26:00.000-04:00

Zacarias Moussaoui
AP Photo

"America, you lost. I won," Zacarias Moussaoui said, clapping his hands as he was led out of the courtroom after the verdict of life in prison without parole was read. As the only person to be brought to trial for the attacks on 9/11, he definitely wasn't the "big man" he wanted everyone to think he was. This guy needs a capital L painted on his forehead for "LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSER." Al Qaeda "wannabe" is a better moniker.

I hate to say it, but this trial lends credence that everyone one of these "Al Kinda's" need to be weeded out in a military tribunal than in the public court spotlight. Moussaoui, whether to his credit or to his stupid dumb luck, used our court system as his personal bully pulpit to spew what ever came to his lips, whether it made sense or not and the fourth estate, hung on every unconnected word.

I feel sorry for U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema who had to ride herd over this circus. On one hand trying to keep decorum in the court, while on the other hand trying not to trample the rights Moussaoui had being a US citizen. Now for the jury in this case, I have but one thing to say to them, "What the hell were you people smoking in that jury room?"

I know it was tough sitting in that courtroom with that nut case day in and day out, but how he was raised has NOTHING to do with the crime he was charged with. I know he wanted to die to be a martyr for his God and Osama bin Laden, and that had to be considered, but I would have felt MUCH better had they said they couldn't sentence him to death because there wasn't enough evidence or he was being tried for the wrong crime or something like that, but because his father beat him and his mother left him? Sounds like jury tampering by the ACLU.

This is scary. Talk about afraid of sending the wrong message, the message that was sent in big neon letters to the terrorists was "You can plot and plan and be apart of the worst attack on US soil, kill 3000 plus people and don't worry, we won't kill you. We will feel sorry for you. We will have mercy on you."

This is a war people. World War 3. And I think we should start calling it what it is. The radical Muslim sec has declared war on everything non Muslim extreme, including people of their own religion who do not think the way they do. The enemy has no mercy. Has no other desire than to kill Americans and western living peoples and those who do not believe the way they do. To topple our way of life and turn us all into radical Muslims like them, whether we want to or not. No choice of freedom there. Look at Iran and you can get a sense of what bin Laden wants. End of story.

As Judge Brinkema told Moussaoui that he would "live a long life and then die with a whimper" is true. It is also true that this is just the end of the first round of a long 10 round prize fight where only our freedom and way of life is at stake. You would think more people would get it.

United 93

2006-04-30T15:56:00.000-04:00

Excuse me while I get something off of my chest.

"The 9/11 hijackers are bastard cowards who took the easy way out. No mess, no fuss and no answering questions and no way for retribution. I hope all of their 72 virgins have syphilis."

Harsh? Damn straight. Muhammad Atta and his 18 thugs deserve even more than I can dish out. I have no doubt that even their God, Allah, condemned them all to Muslim Hell for that cowardly act. Of course I will celebrate the day that head Bastard Coward Osama bin Laden departs to the regions of Muslim Hell as well. If dying is such the "in thing to do in the Muslim terrorist world", you would think bin Laden would have been the first. I mean to hear them, they just can't wait for their 72 virgins. If bin Laden was a real man, he would come out of his cave on the Afghanistan/Pakistan border and fight. (Guess he remembers Tora Bora) But no, only a coward hides and gets others to do their dirty work. Bastard Coward.

Now my opinion has nothing to do with the just released United 93 film. I have had that opinion since September 11, 2001. The release of the film just gives me another opportunity to say it.

And on the subject of the film, yes, I have seen it. I saw it Friday night. I had mixed feelings about seeing it. At first I thought it was too early for such a film, and I had no desire to see it. But the more I thought about it and heard others who had seen previews of it, at the last minute, I decided to go. Now I have several DVD's of 9/11. In Memoriam, New York City, 9/11/2001 the HBO film and the French documentary film that aired on CBS, 9/11 and of course I think I have seen every A&E, Discovery Channel and National Geographic Channel program on 9/11 for the past 5 years so I think I have gotten my fill and every angle of that terrible day. Now not that I want to forget that day, far from it. We need to remember the feelings we had that day, keep them close and perseverance until the extremists are gone. Too much and you become numb. DO NOT WANT THAT TO HAPPEN.

I saw Todd Beamer's father on a Friday morning talk show talking about how the families of United 93 want this story told now and how they are pleased with the outcome of the film and they desperately do not want us to become complacent. I later heard a radio talking head say he had seen an advanced showing and even though it was rated R and made you feel like you were on the plane, it handled the subject in such a way that it put many questions he still had into perspective and when you finished seeing the movie, you would be reminded why we have to get bin Laden.

Well it does just that. The whole movie does not take place on the airplane, but you see how things lead up to the point of the hijacking and what the passengers are thought to have done and how the people on the ground handled it. While there is some language and some blood, it is quite tame compared to what you might see on television.

To me the strangest thing is that the movie never names the people on the plane. They interact with each other just like you would see on a real plane flight. It is very conceivable that we the public now know more of the names of the passengers on United 93 than they did. If you know the story, it is very easy to spot who is who. Todd Beamer is one of the first people you recognize on the plane with his rugby shirt that you see him wear in many photos. Greensboro native Flight Attendant Sandy Bradshaw can't be missed either with her name embroidered on her uniform.

These people knew they were going to die and if that was going to happen, they intended to go out fighting and not be the lambs to the slaughter. No one panicked, they all focused on what had to be done. Of course we all know that, but the movie really drives that point home. I have always said if I was in that same position, I too would want to have some say in the time and place.

In the past when I have discussed with military people I know about Flight 93 and all have said that they are proud of what the passengers of United 93 did. It showed how the "citizen solder" was indeed an American concept and far from dead and no matter what they did as solders, would never measure up to the bravery and decisive measures the passengers took. Several have said that in their eyes, the passengers of United 93 are the true hero's in the War on Terrorism, not them and they are proud to serve the American people because of United 93's sacrifice.

Go see this movie and more importantly, don't let their sacrifice go in vain. Never forget 9/11.

Ah, the Mundane.

2006-04-23T09:54:00.000-04:00

Analog transmitter operating on the air

Several weeks into the new tower on line and I am finally starting to get into the groove of routine and mundane. I know that sounds like life has gotten boring and all, but not really. I loved doing this project, but it was time for it to come to a close. The mad rushes to make deadlines and such are over and I am NOT missing that. My days are now completing and tying up the loose ends, something that will be going on for months, and that is not bad, that is the way it is.

The details are always the longest items to finish up, but are important. Something else that is important is getting out of work on time for a change. The wife is loving that. After being a construction widow for 10 months, she is glad to see me coming in at decent hours and not thinking about what else needs to be done. (Well I still think about it even if I don't say anything.)

Equipment racks in the analog transmitter room being installed in March

With a new facility you always have little problems that drive you up a wall. They take time away from other things that I should (and want to) be doing, that Ross the Boss expects me to be doing as well. The HVAC has been one of those.

After several weeks of the temperature oscillating up and down in the analog transmitter room and the mechanical and software people out several times, it looks like an economizer module is either not turning on quick enough or not shutting off fast enough or coming on when it isn't suppose to. The engineers at the HVAC company get to figure that one out with the HVAC manufacturer.

Another real puzzler is a video issue on the analog side that isn't a break up, but like someone is turning the brightness level up and down. I am hoping it is just a receiver issue but since it only happens at 7:30 in the morning on certain mornings of heavy fog, it could be a microwave path issue, or it could be a transmitter issue that the early morning moisture is somehow getting into the transmitter building. The backup microwave path doesn't seem to be effected so the microwave path doesn't seem to be the issue since both frequencies use the same transmit and receive antennas. Of course as long as there is no fog, all seems to work well. Strange.

These issues will be resolved, and they usually are small things that really throw the cogs out of whack, but these are the real posers of the biz and I guess why I like this type of work so much. It is always a mystery. Ah, the mundane!! I LOVE IT!

The Calm After the Storm

2006-04-02T18:55:00.000-04:00

Done. Finished. Complete. No more.

The new tower project is now done. Of course there are always little things to do, but as far as milestones, they are all done. The analog transmitter is on the air and looks and sounds good. The stress is easing and life is now getting back to normal. Wednesday last week we had a visitor to the site.

Wilbur is a retired engineer that is widely known and respected around the state. I really do not know him, even though I have seen him a lot lately since he sold us the tower, but Ross the Boss has known him for 30 years. Wilbur has built two 2000 foot towers in 20 years, at the same site. He knows his transmitter sites.

It was gratifying to hear him say he was impressed with our new site, but the comment that really struck me was when Wilbur said that I must be really enjoying the new site. I told him that I hadn't really had time to do much but work.

On Thursday afternoon, the transmitter rep was finished and gone. I had the analog transmitter running into the station load as I finished up some of the details to get ready to put the it on the air the following day. I had to run over to the old site and pickup some equipment to take over to the new site. As I pulled up to the fence and got out to unlock the gate, I looked up at the old tower. Something that I used to do every time I went before the project. I realized that for the last year or so, I hadn't been doing that as I came over to the site, usually because either the gate was already open or I was in a hurry to retrieve something and get back to the new site and I had gotten out of the habit. But this time something caught my eye that I was not used to seeing. It was the new tower along side the old tower. For the first time I REALLY looked at the two towers and instantly saw the 44 years difference in them. The different design and construction styles over that time span were evident. Then I had a revelation. For the first time in 10 months, the site was quiet, no type of construction. There was none to be done. No meetings to go to, no decisions on what color something needed to be or where something needed to go or decide on how to modify something so it will work with the rest of the project. None. Nada. Just the birds singing and the cars going by out on the road.

Then Wilbur's words came back to me. So I stood there and just let it all soak in. For the next 30 minutes, I just walked around the old site thinking about what I was doing 6 months ago; a year ago; 18 months ago. I was amazed at how quickly it put me in a different (and better) state of mind. For the first time in over a year, the stress just seemed to evaporate. After my little respite, I picked up the stuff I needed and then went back to the new site, in a new state of mind.

Mentally, that was the end of the project for me. The clicking into a different state was very noticeable and was a milestone of its own. Of course, no one cares when I think the project is over, only when the bills stop coming in!

Vacation! Part Deux

2006-03-11T09:57:00.000-05:00

One week later and my "alone time" is about over. One week ago I was walking away from a situation that I wasn't too happy with, but knowing that it was in good hands and by the time I returned, it would be all fixed.

Well it is! All is well with the transmitter and the new analog transmitter is ready to be hooked up. Ross the Boss and his Sidekick Mike, have spent this past week getting the last details ready for the all out push to start on Monday.

After a week of sleeping, doing some light honey-does and a little time for me, I wish I had ANOTHER WEEK! All of the things that I could screwup at home only if I had the time! But who has time for all of that when there is plenty to screwup at work!

I am fired up about it and can hardly wait. Bring on Monday!!

VACATION!

2006-03-05T13:45:00.000-05:00

Vacation
All I ever wanted
Vacation
Had to get away
Vacation
Meant to be spent alone

How fitting are the lyrics of the 1982 Go-Go's song, "Vacation." Of course Belinda Carlisle was singing of taking a vacation and then failing in love and then having to leave to go back to her normal life, without her new found love. I guess I too have "fallin' in love" with this digital project and finding it hard to let go. After nine months of every day living with this project, I have been looking forward to this vacation, but then seeing what else is left to be done, not wanting to take it just yet. But if I don't get some relief, I know my physical as well as mental health will suffer. You can't stay under the pressure forever.

I have really enjoyed this journey. It brings back many a good memory from early in my career and it has been great to be in that mode. But now, it is time to "come back to the norm" of reality.

Testing of the digital transmitter hasn't gone as smoothly as I would have liked it, having all sorts of interesting failures from things as simple as loose screws to $35,000 tubes dying after only 3 weeks of use. And even as late as yesterday, just when everything was working and the literal last test was to be run, a power supply for a solid state amplifier quits working. Not the way I wanted to start my vacation with a transmitter down, but there are two strokes of luck that make this not as bad as it could be. Normally when you have a transmitter down, you keep at it until it is back working. If it isn't working, the station isn't making money so you aren't making money. In this case, the transmitter hasn't gone on air yet, and the factory rep is on site repairing the tube damage.

Our DTV transmitter cabinets in production at the factory in Canada

The transmitter is built in Canada, but they do have a US service center in Denver and when it came time to install it, the installers came from the Denver office instead of Toronto. Jim, Brian and Paul are all Americans and all have extensive resumes of UHF high power transmitter experience. Of course just about anyone has more than me since I have never dealt with a high power UHF television transmitter before. Half way through the install, the first problem showed itself.

Beam Supply One on the pad

One of the high voltage power supplies that make 35,000 volts didn't work when it was turned on. Because this supply is a third party vendor, we had to get a rep from the supply company come and repair the supply. That took a couple of days to get scheduled so Brian and Paul (Jim had already left) went back to Denver.

Damaged diode stack

Adrian from the supply vendor arrived a few days later and then replaced the damaged circuit boards. Then we had to schedule the transmitter manufacturer to return to complete the installation. The team of Jim, Brian and Paul were unavailable to return so Alex from the factory in Canada was sent.

Alex teaching us how to change a tube at the transmitter school in October in Canada

Alex is Rumanian and is quite knowledgeable. I would bet he has forgotten more then I have ever known! I met him on my two trips to Canada and he taught the transmitter school in October. He knows those boxes inside out and he had done the original testing of the transmitter at the factory. He spent the next week completing the installation and getting the transmitter ready for testing. He left and for the next two weeks all went well. Until....

One Tuesday morning I walked into the transmitter room and just about all of the warning lights on cabinet 2 were lit up like a Christmas tree. This isn't good at all. I tried to bring the cabinet back up and nothing. I see that the low voltage supplies are not running. I call the factory and talk to Srini, an Indian who has worked just about every place and every electronics company in his long and distinguished career. He sends some parts and the next day I put them in and they blow again. I call Srini back and he sends more parts and a circuit board along with some wire. I install the parts except the wire and it blows again. HHMM, there is something terrible wrong. It is decided to send someone to look at the situation since now things look like the tube may be in question.

By Thursday, Denver Jim returns and he starts his testing. By lunch he has determined that indeed the $35,000 tube has died and a new tube will need to be sent in to replace the bad one. Friday the tube arrives and is installed with no problems. Denver Jim comes back to the site on Saturday to finish the testing and then pack up his gear to leave on Monday. As he is running the last test, he notices that cabinet 1 was not at full power.

Moments before the power supply failure. Full power and all is well!! Well maybe not. We will know about it in a few moments.

After checking, one of the power supplies that operate the low wattage driver amplifiers had quite! Well, Cabinet 2 with the new tube is working perfectly and now Cabinet 1 is down!! Is there no end to all of this?

Well that is why we test. These things happen and if they have to happen, let them happen now. Denver Jim and I joked about how the reliability of this transmitter isn't very good and his response was even HE was beginning to wonder! Everyone at the manufacturer are great to work with and that helps that when these things happen, everyone can laugh and not get too stressed out. In reality, Denver Jim helped design many of the circuits in this transmitter so he knows it pretty well. Of course, it meant that I would be gone when he finally gets it back up next week, and that makes me sad, but I have no doubt that it will be up and running before he leaves.

I know in my heart I need this break even though we are about done because when I get back we have to get the new analog transmitter on the air.

The second half of the analog transmitter in the test bay at the factory in Canada in October

Ross the Boss has been prepping this transmitter while I have been working with the DTV transmitter and he just about has it ready to begin the installation. Luckily this transmitter doesn't use tubes but solid state transistor type devices, and is much simpler in design.
And the same half of the analog transmitter in the analog transmitter room the other day awaiting my return to begin the installation

The other half of this transmitter is in the other building on the air. My picture avatar for this blog is me standing in front of that half of the transmitter taken last April.

First half of the new transmitter in the old transmitter building last April

We have to move that half over to the new building, combine the two into one and then go on the air. It doesn't sound like much, but if we want to get this on the air by the end of March, we will have to be in full gear thinking clearly since we are installing this transmitter and not the manufacturer.

When that is done, it will be a mixed emotion day. Joy that both transmitters are installed and the project will "officially" be over, even though residuals will continue for months to come as we continue to flesh things out, and sadness that it is "officially" over.

I always enjoy going to work, but the last 9 months have been a continuous high. Vacation is a time for recharging and I will try and recharge my batteries this week, but I can't deny, I can't wait for NEXT Monday, when I return to work!!

Now how do I put it all out my mind for one week??!!

As my past flashes before me....

2006-02-19T11:31:00.000-05:00

With everything going on to finish this transmitter project, I haven't had much time to do much of anything but work much less to blog. But I had an interesting thing happen to me this past week that wasn't work related. Well just a little, but it really wasn't. You will see.

I had to put my truck in the shop for some work that I should have gotten done months ago, but I kept saying that the project would be over soon and I would have the time to do it right since I needed my ride to get me to and from work, no matter what. Well I just couldn't wait anymore so I borrowed a vehicle from work to use for the day, that turned into 3 days, but that is another story. The vehicle that I got was a news vehicle that has seen better days and will be traded in soon for something else. It is a Ford Windstar that is logoed from hell, just like all station news vehicles.

This van used to be Unit 10 in its hey day, but it is now called the "Batmobile". I have no idea why and it seems no one really knows why it is called that either, but there is a sticker that says "Batmobile" on it where the old number 10 on the back window was. It is pretty beat up with a fairly large dent in the front passenger side bumper with more dents all over and white paint peeling off the body and it only has 135,000 miles. Those news people are very rough on vehicles. Jack rabbit starts and screeching stops and running at 100 miles an hour all of the time.

Anyway, on day two I am driving from the station down to the transmitter and I am stopped at a light when I catch something in my proliferal vision. I turn my head to the left to catch 2 girls in their mid twenties in a Camero waving like crazy at me. I smile and wave back as the light changes to green. I learned a long time ago that when you are traveling in a rolling billboard (even a POS rolling billboard), you NEVER do anything that would piss people off to complain back at headquarters, so if a smile and wave makes them happy, you smile and wave.

In a mile or so another light stops me and again I catch something in my proliferal vision. It is the same 2 girls again waving at me. I again wave back and smile and turn my attention back to the light. Then I hear a horn honk. It is those same girls, still waving and now motioning as they are laughing. HHMM, looks like POSRB (POS rolling billboard) has started a bet with the girls. Can they get POSRB to pull over for who knows what? The light changes and I keep on moving towards the transmitter as the Camero starts to fall behind and then finally turns off down a side road.

Well, I am a married man, it is during working hours, I am in a very well marked vehicle and I need to be somewhere else, like right now and I am a little long in the tooth to be playing games with these girls. I know there is NO way they are interested in me for me, just the person driving the POSRB. Been there, done that YEARS ago in my college days when working part time for a radio station. I have seen the look before.

But it was a nice diversion during a very hectic time.

International Broadcasting

2006-01-29T19:44:00.000-05:00

Back last October when I was in Canada on business, I had the opportunity to drive to Niagara Falls, just a short 147 kilometer (90 mile) drive from Toronto west down the Queens Expressway along the shore of Lake Ontario. About 3 quarters of the way to Niagara Falls by Grimsby, I passed an unusual AM antenna system. I assumed it was an AM antenna system because of the height of the towers and the placement.

On my visits to the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) I had started listening to one of the news stations, CFTR Toronto, 680 AM. CFTR is a 50,000 watt blow torch that isn't heard in the USA. I was intrigued to know why since Toronto is just across the border and with only Lake Ontario between it and the USA, but at the time it was not one of the items that was at the top of my list of things to do.

On this cloudy, windy, chilly Sunday in October, I am scooting down the QEW at 120 km/h (70 mph) listening to CFTR. As I approach Grimsby, the radio begins to overload. WOW! That makes no sense. I am 60 miles from Toronto and now CFTR is starting to overload the receiver? Guess with the lake I am now directly in the middle of the beamwidth but that doesn't make any sense either since I am now between Toronto and Buffalo and I know there is a 680 in Boston (WRKO) that is a 50,000 watt station as well and they don't put 50 kW blow torches that close together on the low end of the AM band and certainly NOT when there is international boundaries involved and 680 is a US Class 1-B clear channel so any Canadian station has to protect the US stations. It all wasn't adding up.

Just about that time I see 8 towers, with 4 towers in a two row alignment parallel to the QEW on the left between the QEW and Lake Ontario. (The QEW is never more than a 1 mile or less than a road bed from Lake Ontario in this part of the province.) The radio overload is getting worse and to the point that as I approach the towers, the splatter is now so bad, I can't understand what is being said (classic close encounter overload). I see an exit and over pass beside the towers so I decide to take it and see what 8 towers in 2 rows might be since I have never seen a tower pattern like this. I have seen 5 tower AM arrays but if this is an AM array, I need a picture of it but why is it pointing TOWARD Buffalo or into the Canadian wilderness where there is no one there to hear it?

I pull up to the corner of the land I see that yes there are 8 towers parallel to the shore with 4 towers in 2 rows and a building in the middle that looks like an AM transmitter building.

CFTR Antenna, Grimsby, Ontario

As I pull down in to the center of the array, I see the transmitter building but no markings on who or what this transmitter site is. I am now assuming that this must be a local station (Grimsby) or one that is licensed to Niagara Falls and to keep it out of the US they had to move it away from the boarder to keep it from crossing into the US too much and it is interfering with CFTR.
CFTR Transmitter Building

Then as I pull down to the end of the array, I look across the lake and then it hits me what it is. THIS IS CFTRs TRANSMITTER SITE!! I can clearly see Toronto just about 20 miles across the lake with the CN tower rising above the city and lake shore.

Toronto on the opposite shore of Lake Ontario through the CFTR antenna system

What I thought was 8 towers configured in a 4 tower two row arrangement, it is really more different than I thought, it is actually two towers in a four row arrangement! That is EXTREMELY unique! It all of a sudden makes sense. In order to keep CFTR out of the US and to provide the required signal strength into the GTA (CFTR is very strong everywhere I went, even downtown Toronto) they needed a very directional antenna system but if the antenna was put west or east or north of Toronto, it would be impossible to keep CFTR out of the US and keep the population in the coverage area. Since Niagara Falls is on the south shore of Lake Ontario and is almost due south of Toronto (Toronto is on the north shore) around the western part of the lake, they put the antenna south of town and very highly directionalized it to the north straight at Toronto over the lake with hardly any signal to the south and into the US. The beamwidth of the CFTR pattern is wide enough at 20 to 40 miles to cover the entire GTA. Ingenious!!

I get back in the rental Jeep Liberty and drive on down the QEW, CFTR starts to get better. About 10 miles down on the right, I see ANOTHER antenna array configured the SAME WAY!! Nine towers in a two tower 4 row with one in the rear configuration aimed at Toronto. Come to find out it is the sister station to CFTR, all sports CJCL 580 AM, TheFan. Another 50 kW blow torch with an even tighter antenna pattern that has no back wash into the US at all.

If I didn't make it to Niagara Falls, this side trip was worth it! I did try and look for a way to get to CJCL's towers, but I didn't find an easy way so I kept on driving and didn't get a chance to take a picture of it. Since I had pictures of CFTR's antenna, I decided to not get off the busy highway and take a picture. I arrived at Niagara Falls about 15 minutes later and then looked forwarded to seeing them on the way back.

Being so far south in the US, you really don't think about how other countries deal with things like that, but after seeing CFTR's antenna system, it gives me a much better appreciation of what foreign broadcasters have to go through to serve their audiences when they live beside the USA.

Satisfaction

2006-01-22T13:43:00.000-05:00

Life is pretty good these days.

Some might say how can that be with 6 day weeks and hours that never seem to end? It is the satisfaction that is being derived from all of the months of pent up anticipation while others worked and I watched on the sidelines as this project moved forward. It is quite contagious to say the least. Ross the Boss feels it too.

After 7 years of planning, revising, delays, false starts, more revisions, more delays, permit delays, more permit delays, equipment delays, rework delays, the fact that now we are putting in our time as the others are either finishing up or have finished up is just fabulous! With all that needs to be done, blogging is one the things that have taken the back seat for the time being. Getting deliveries for everything from equipment to transmitter coolant to installing transmission lines and leveling racks and making sure all of the paperwork is in order, the days (heck weeks) get gone in no time.

It seems the transmitters had just arrived and now the digital is almost ready. The cooling system is loaded with coolant and the electrical is just about finished and next week we hope to fire the high voltage up for the first time and if all goes well, then the transmitter can be tuned and we can start testing, the last step before we put it on the air.

Plumbing for the transmitter cooling system

Then after it is on the air, I am going to slow WAY down in the month of February. That is ratings month so not much happens then anyway. I will use the time to get ready for the installation of the new analog transmitter so when ratings are done in March, we can get it installed and on the air by the end of the month. After that, we will take stock in what needs to be done next and see when we might be able to do it.

Who says "I can't get no, satisfaction?"

Finally. At Peace.

2006-01-07T19:16:00.000-05:00

For the first weekend in months, I am NOT thinking of work! I went to bed last night and realized I wasn't automatically thinking about work. I actually laid there and had nothing in my brain. I restfully drifted off to sleep.

Why? There is tons of the things going on now and this past week was the busiest I have had in months. Then it hit me. I am now in control of my destiny for a change. With the arrival of the transmitter this week, the next phase of the project begins. It is the final phase that has us, myself and the rest of my engineering compadres, working at the site. I was in a great mood all week. Even when we hit some bumps in the road, it didn't really bother me. I said my peace and then was ready to move on and didn't think another thing about it.

I can hardly wait to get to the site and it is getting harder to leave at night now that there are things to do and many decisions to be made. I feel like am driving things now. Yeah, the GC is still on site and there are still some things getting finished up, but now WE are starting to drive the pace of the project.

The end of the project is definitely in sight now and it is coming together better than I could have ever imagined. It is a great time and a great job I have!!

And we are off....

2006-01-03T20:40:00.000-05:00

2006 is starting out pretty good!! The new digital transmitter arrived today. Along with about 100 boxes of parts that have to go into and around the new transmitter.

The next couple of weeks will be exciting as we now wrestle getting this beast of voltage and RF power into something that not only can we control, but actually send digital pictures to the masses at 1 million watts of power! Now the transmitter will not put out 1 million watts, it only does 52,000 watts, but when you add the gain of the antenna along with the power of the transmitter, it equals 1 million watts.

I will sleep good tonight with a smile on my face, the first time in a long time.

Stick a Fork in it. This One is Done.

2005-12-31T13:16:00.000-05:00

2005. What can you say about it that hasn't already been said by millions of others?

As I write this, I have already seen 2006 on TV in Melbourne, Australia. It is still 2005 here, but not for too many more hours. As I watched the new year come into Melbourne, I thought, gee, I am seeing the future. How many times can you honestly say, I can see into tomorrow? Of course it is easier looking into the past.

Personally, 2005 hasn't been too bad, all in all. My whole year has dealt with the new transmitter facility with the first 6 months completing the planning, traveling to potential vendors, then vendors, then training and then the last 6 months actually putting brick and stone and steel to ground and air and more training and then making new friends along the way. It has been a world wind ride with my 3 trips to Canada and the anticipation of finally seeing what Ross the Boss and I devised over the last 7 years really in steel and mortar and then starting to look to the future.

The time that I haven't been at home, the sleepless nights worrying over stupid stuff that always works itself out and the isolation from my fellow employees while I stay at the transmitter for weeks on end and not really seeing anyone from the studio other than Ross the Boss and missing out on things that happen there. Watching and hearing about the major events of the world after they happen, trying to scratch out some time for me and the misses and still keeping my sanity, or a piece of it anyway.

GOD! That sounds like a terrible year! But it hasn't been. It has allowed me to use some talents that have been in hibernation some 18 years, learn some new stuff, regain some appreciation of things and people, go places and do things that I would not have normally done, be a part of a technological revolution the like unseen in 60 years (something I had always dreamed about as a young broadcaster since it looked liked all of the new ground had been broken years before I was born) and believe it or not, enrich my life.

2005 started for me in late 2004 with trips to vendors and will end in 2006 when the analog transmitter moves over to the new facility around March for its final 3 years before all TV switches to digital, February 17, 2009. Remember the date.

So yeah, stick a fork in it, 2005 the year may be done, but 2006 is just the beginning of the rest of life. So "let's git 'er dun!"

IT'S AH-LIVE!!!!

2005-12-30T23:00:00.000-05:00

Microwave Gear

It is always a great feeling when the first real broadcast gear goes into operation in a new broadcast facility. It signals that construction is either over or will be over shortly. That doesn't matter if it is a radio station or television station, studio or transmitter. In this case, it is the television transmitter site that is now AH-LIVE!

There is about 2 weeks of construction left, but equipment has started to arrive. The transmitters will be here next week. As of this posting, they are on their way and may be in the state by now waiting for delivery next week. But the first piece of live gear to become operational on this project is the microwave gear.

The dishes were aligned three weeks ago and the microwave gear was temporarily connected to the antennas and then removed until the shop was ready to accept the equipment. The racks were shipped in last week, assembled and placed. This week, the electricity was turned on today. Ross the Boss and myself plumbed in the microwave feedlines into the shop to the equipment racks this morning and then after the power was turned on, we placed the equipment in the racks and hooked it up and turned it on. Checked the signal level, and the picture quality. All was where it should be.

It was shear joy in making this wonderful milestone happen. I had wanted to have this milestone completed earlier in the week, but had to wait for the plugmold that mounts in the rear of the racks to arrive and then be installed, but my goal was to have this working by the end of the week.

It is also a great thing to be able to share with someone who understands the importance of this as well. Of course, Ross the Boss understands. I can't remember when I have seen him as happy and excited as he was today running the last few feet of microwave line, helping installing the equipment and then working through the final connection puzzle with me that made the whole thing work.

After standing around and watching others hard at work and just answering questions and imagining what things would look like and the order in which things needed to be done, it was a great rush to FINALLY be doing something that can be directly seen to contribute to the final product. As I keep telling the construction workers, their work is winding down, but mine is just starting up for the next 3 months or so. I will be more busy in the next few weeks than they have been the whole project.

The birthing of this "baby" is now in the labor pains stage and will be in full labor in the next week! We know this "baby" will be a healthy and happy one, since the people who are doing the work are happy as well! The delivery team is ready and has started its work.

What a neat way to end the year on such a high note. Yes, IT'S AH-LIVE!!!

Life moves on

2005-12-27T21:58:00.000-05:00

I know. It has been a while since I posted. It isn't because I didn't want to or didn't have anything to say (well OK, I didn't but that NEVER stops me though!) but with the holidays and the pace that has picked up at work to get the new transmitter site on line, blogging has not been front and foremost on my mind. In a week or so I hope to have a lot to talk about as we get ready to receive the transmitters!

But in the mean time (I am tired of looking at the last post I made) here is a picture taken 2 weeks ago from the GC site superintendent from 1000 ft up the tower when he took a ride up the tower before the tower crew pulled out. (I declined. I have done it before.) It is definitely a different angle than most people are used to seeing when you look at a tower and it is a cool ride up. Literally (it was in the 30's that day with a chilly breeze) and figuratively.

Enjoy!

courtesy Doug Collins

The Nomads - Part Deux

2005-12-17T22:07:00.000-05:00

A major phase of the new transmitter facility project is complete. The tower and all of its different parts are now finished. The tower is up, the transmission lines are installed and the antennas are mounted and tested. Now only two more phases to go, the building and transmitter remain and those are only a couple weeks away from completion as well.

So that means that the Nomads are on the move again. This time it is the remainder of the tower crew. Ralph and Philippa left last month and now the rest are moving out as well. So long Tibbz, Rex, Terence, Pete, Brian and Joe.

Tibbz, Rex, Terence, Brian and Pete are Canadians and are going back home to Canada for the holidays and to attend an orientation on a wind mill that they will be installing on Lake Huron next year. Joe is an American and he isn't going to Lake Huron. He is going home to Norfolk, Virginia and then on to Brunswick, Georgia, where Ralph and Philippa are putting together a 1500 foot tower. In a few weeks Tibbz and the rest of the gang will also be in Brunswick to erect those sections into that 1500 foot tower. The dance of the Nomad starts again.

Life on the road for weeks and months at a time is tough. Tibbz told me a couple weeks back that he has been doing the Nomad dance since 1984. A few years back his wife got so tired of not having him home that she quite her job and goes out on the road with him at times and as he said, "takes care of him." He hopes to be home to watch his grand kids grow up since he is missing his kids grow up now. Until then, he keeps moving from place to place, where ever the work is.

Terence is from the Maritimes of Nova Scotia, but now calls Saskatchewan home when he isn't on the road. Rex is from a small town west of Toronto and Brian is from Ontario as well, but calls Texas home now, but he still maintains his Canadian citizenship and spends more of his off time in Canada than the US.

Terence not only is a big hockey fan (I have yet to meet a Canadian that isn't) but a NFL football fan as well. Many of the guys LOVE motorcycles and some had their bikes with them to ride while they were here. Others love cars and Joe is big deer hunter.

This is my fourth career tower project and out of all of the tower crews I have worked with, these individuals are the most professional, safest and most fun to be with. I have tried to keep up with national happens in Canada so they would feel like we had more in common than just this project. I soon found out that being a Nomad, meant you didn't know what was going on back home. It turned out I knew more of what was happening in Canada then they did (and I probably have spent more time in Canada the last year than they have to boot!) For the past 4 or 5 years, these guys have spent more time in the US than in Canada. This job was their second job in North Carolina in the past 3 years and they are slated for another tower job here in the spring of 2006 on Sauratown Mountain north of Winston-Salem. They have been here in the US for so long they have lost some of their Canadian accent. An occasional "eh?" or "a-boat" does get through and betrays them as Canadians.

The last six months have in many ways flown by. I knew this day would come, and the crew had been pushing through the rain, ice storms and the mud the last two weeks to get to this day. They were ready to finish this one and move on to start the next one, not because they didn't like it here or had grown tired of the place, but after a while, the call of the Nomad can not be denied.

It is a great relief to have this part of the project completed, but it also comes with the knowledge that the chance of seeing these individuals again are slim if ever again. You share a piece of your life with people and then never see them again. But, that is part of the dance of the Nomad.

But every time I look up at the tower from now on, I will smile to myself and remember the people who built this steel monument to the Nomads.

The King is Dead

2005-12-11T08:34:00.000-05:00

photo courtesy of Museum of Broadcast Communications

Turned on the 10 O'clock News and one of the first stories in the A Block, comedian Richard Pryor has died. A true sadness hangs over me. He had not been in good health for a long time suffering from MS. You knew it was going to happen, you just didn't know when. But that doesn't soften the blow.

I always liked his comedy. First as a teen, I liked him because he used "dirty" words. A rebellion thing. But as I grew up, I began to see what his comedy was really about and he was always on the mark. You could stand back from his performance and you "got the message."

The first time I heard of Richard Pryor (have you noticed we always use his full name? He was born Richard Franklin Lenox Thomas Pryor, you know.) I was in ninth grade in math class. Several of the guys in the back of the room were reciting lines for this new comedy album by a comedian named Richard Pryor.

What drew them to the album was not the edgy, in your face reality of the Black Experience that Richard Pryor made his bones with (hey, we were middle class white guys, what did WE know of the Black Experience?), but the title of the album, "That Niggers Crazy." This WAS the south you know and in those days (mid 70's), it was white etiquette that the N-word was spoken in hushed tones in the white community when speaking of all blacks, but you didn't just come out and say it any more. Jim Crow was dying, but not as fast as many would have liked back in those days. The title was a flash point for recognizing a fast becoming taboo. Pryor hung it out there for all to see in its pristine ugliness.

It became a word that even Pryor himself stopped using after a visit to Africa. His reasoning was simple, and straight forward, like his comedy. When he made a trip to in Africa in 1980, he saw blacks in positions of high responsibility such as Presidents and Prime Ministers and Chief's of Police, something he admitted he hadn't seen in the US and it had skewed his perception of his own race. In Africa he just saw people with the same skin color as his doing the work of the whites in the US and these people certainly were not "niggers." And so it changed how he saw his own race and from then on he admitted he didn't see any here in the US. And it can be traced from that time period in 1980 forward the accepted use of that word has declined to a point that it isn't used in the lexicon of American English anymore.

The last time that I remember hearing that word on television was in 1977 (and yes, it was used more than you might think) when Richard Pryor guest hosted Saturday Night Live. In a skit that was delegated to the last 30 minutes of the show (actually the LAST skit of that show, I saw it live and have it on beta tape now), the graveyard of skits, the place that the not quite good enough skits go, even to this day on SNL, Chevy Chase is interviewing Pryor for a janitors job and part of the interview is a word association game. It starts out simple enough, Chase says "red", Pryor says "blue" and a laugh comes out from the audience. The game continues with a few more innocent words then Chase says "tar baby" out of the blue and Pryor's character is now beginning to catch on that something isn't right with this "interview." The game continues with Chase saying a few more pointed words and then "spearchucker" and Pryor's retort of "honky." The audience laugher has now become guarded. They aren't sure if this is still part of the skit or not. Pryor's face becomes distorted with anger. Pryor is masterfully raising the stakes of the payoff of the moral lesson he is teaching all of America this Saturday night. Chase then pops the word everyone watching has been thinking of. Chase says with an angry voice, "NIGGER!" The studio goes dead silent. What will Pryor's response be? Is this still part of the skit? Has SNL just derailed itself? Pryor slowly rises up from his chair and plainly states in Chevy Chase's face "DEAD HONKY" and then his face goes into that now recognizable clown distortion of lip quiver and eye brows moving up and down. He has sucked in the audience and got his point across. That is NOT an acceptable word in the American English language. And to this day, I can not think of a single time when that word has been used on American television, some 30 years later. That one skit has become the most remembered skit in SNL history. The power it had reverberates to this day. But for Richard Pryor that was just another day at the office.

He created a universe of characters that transcended all cultures and races with the gut truth of his world as a black man. It was years later as I was watching for the umpteenth time one of his many live act movies that show on HBO and Showtime from time to time that the full impact of Pryor's comedy hit me and I had a new and fresh respect for the man. Not just because he was a funny comedian, but he was a marvelous truth teller. The story he was relating from the time when he was on the "chitlin circuit" in the 50's and 60's playing any club that would take him. He was playing in a club that was run by the Mafia and the characters he used to show how different the world had changed since then was astonishing. He used the accents and gestures of the men, along with his exaggerated black voice he was so famous for to paint a frightening and funny picture of the time in the clubs and just how far we as a society had come to that point in time. Enough time had past since that show that I could see how much further we had come and his story stood and Pryor's true genus stood head and shoulders above it all.

His most remembered character was an old wino named "Mudbone." The last cut on his album, "That Niggers Crazy" Mudbone fore told a future that was to be one Pryor would have to go through himself. Mudbone relates the story of an intelligent young black man on his way up in the world of comedy in the streets of the ghetto and how "narcotic" has made him "null and void." Five years later, Richard Pryor is badly burned after a freebasing binge that some say, including Pryor in his 1995 book, "Pryor Convictions" was an unsuccessful suicide attempt. A few years later, Pryor was diagnosed with MS.

I also didn't realize until I bought the "Blazing Saddles" DVD that the Richard Pryor listed in the writing credits was THE Richard Pryor. Pryor was to have played the Clevon Little role of Black Bart but the studios were leery of Pryor in the role. Mel Brooks was not the name then that he is now and so he had to capitculate to the studios to get the picture made. Pryor did write some of the movie but not the parts you might think. Pryor's contribution, according to Brooks and others was the Mongo parts of the movie. The bean farting, saloon destroying, Bart loving character that Alex Karis played were all Pryor's. Pryor said that was a much more interesting character to write for than Black Bart, the ole' "been there, done that." He also coined the Madeine Kahn line after a night with Black Bart describing the black stereo type of sexual prowes, "It's twue! It's twue!"

My favorite movies of his were the semi autobiographical "JoJo Dancer, You Life is Calling" and my all time favorite, "Harlem Nights" with Redd Foxx and Della Reese and the then up and coming Eddie Murphy.

When MS started to take bit and pieces of Pryor in the 90's, he kept working as much as he could. Doing stand up sitting down and playing a MS patient in a made for TV movie. Just last year, he was celebrated in a special that aired on Comedy Central called, "I Ain't Dead Yet, M*therf@ck%r!" that featured Dave Chappelle, Margaret Cho, Jamie Foxx, Whoopi Goldberg, Steve Harvey, Chris Rock, Denis Leary and Robin Williams to name a few.

So long Richard, thanks for the laughs and the lessons. You will be sorely missed.

The King is dead. Long live the King.

(where is my copy of "Harlem Nights" got off to?)

Under the Weather

2005-12-10T18:50:00.000-05:00

I hate winter.

It all started the first winter I was in charge of a broadcast transmitter. Winter precipitation can wreak havoc on the signal of a broadcast station. Snow doesn't bother the antenna but ice does. Causing all sort of problems for transmitters because as the ice accumulates on the antenna, it electrically changes the characteristics as if someone had added to its length and therefore changing the frequency that the antenna operates on. The first time I encountered this I worked for an AM/FM station. The AM didn't mind too much the ice, unless it got really thick and started to deform the radiating wires that hung off the tower. It was the FM antenna that was always susceptible.

The reason is simple. A single AM radio wave is several hundred feet long. Usually the antenna is the tower you see. This is called a series fed tower, a tower that is insulated from the ground with a porcelain insulator and the height is critical as it is a mathematical portion of the actual wave length. The other kind that is often used when an FM antenna is located on it is called a shunt fed or a tower that is grounded and wires are hung from the tower and the tower height is not critical and can be much shorter than the wave length. We had a shunt fed and so if the ice grew too thick, the wire supports would sage and cause the wires to lose their shape and the antenna would change electrical characteristics of tuning, not frequency change because the distance of the wires from the tower would be different.

In FM (and TV) the waves are only a few feet long and as the antenna changes frequency, the efficiency of the transfer of RF energy from the transmission line to the antenna drastically reduces. Imagine a water hose that is passing the same amount of water that is being put into it. Reduce the size of the hose at one place along the line without decreasing the water flow and the back pressure increases. The same basic concept happens in RF. But what happens is because the FM and TV waves are so small, the waves are reflected back down the transmission line like the ripples in a lake that a rock has been thrown into and the waves bounce off the shoreline and move back to the originating point. Unused RF is always dissipated as heat. Transmitters are rated to handled a certain amount of extra heat that could be radiated back, but if the change is too much, the transmitter can't handle it and it literally burns itself up.

To combat that, transmitter powers have to be reduced to a level that the transmitter can handle the extra heat until the icing is over to keep from burning the transmitter up. Now a days antennas have what is called a "radome." Radomes are a special RF passing polymer covers that fit over the FM and TV antennas. You also see radomes on the large telephone microwave antennas on microwave towers and satellite dishes. This keeps the ice and snow out of the dish so the antenna performance is not effected. Radomes used to be considered an "accessory" (they add a cost of antenna materials and also add a small loading to the tower so the tower has to be a little larger, something that was of paramount importance in the early days when FMs and TVs were put on existing towers that had not been designed to handle the extra loading) that could be done without. Over time, with the money that was lost due to being off the air or reduced power, radomes became part of the antenna and the extra price for material and a slightly beefier tower was just included in the cost. Now, this brings us back to the here and now. Our old channel 8 antenna from 1963 doesn't have a radome on it. The new antennas on the new tower have radomes.

The winter weather we had this past week not only stopped the finishing work on the new tower, it also caused us to reduce power on the old antenna because at 1200 feet, there was ice on the cold steel, even though there was no ice on the ground. We had hoped that last year would have been the last year we would have to reduce power during an ice storm since the new antennas have radomes and we figured we would be on the new tower this winter. Well so far we are still on the old tower so we have to deal with icing. So no matter what time the ice starts to form, day or night, I need to be aware of it and be sure the Master Control people are on their toes so the transmitter is reduced in power when the icing starts and to get it back to full power as soon as the ice is over. Plus if there is a problem at the site, I have to go down there and fix it, hopefully BEFORE or AFTER the ice falls off the tower. After a good storm, you can get chunks up to 100 lbs and 30 feet in length falling at 150 mph and if it hits you, you are dead. I don't go to the tower unless we are off the air when the ice is falling.

A shower of ice

The building workers were amazed how much ice was falling off the tower on Tuesday. It really wasn't much, but they would just stand there and watch it fall off the tower. I kept telling them that they really didn't need to be out watching it and it could hurt them if a large enough chunk broke loose. Of course we didn't have any large chunks but I wanted them to think about it in case we do get any real ice before the building is completed, they won't get hurt. The general contractor admitted that they didn't really understand why we were so adamant about the ice shields on the tower and the building. After Tuesday, they completely understand now. I kept telling them this wasn't even an "ice storm." If they want to see an "ice storm" wait until we get some REAL ice and then come by and watch!

Ice Knife

The Cat in the Hat, uh........... Building

2005-12-03T12:33:00.000-05:00

This past week has been a real b*ll buster! Between the weather and vender delays, we finally got a weeks worth of work done in 3 days.

Monday was too wet and windy to work on the tower so nothing happened there. The generator was scheduled to arrive on this day also but with the rain and mud, everyone was afraid the 18-wheeler carrying the generator and the crane that would lift would either sink in the mud or tip over when lifting so it was put off until Friday when, we hoped, things would be a little dryer. So the workers in the building kept tracking mud in because the front parking pad had not been poured yet. We received about a half of an inch on Monday at the site. What a mud hole.

Tuesday was worse. The tower crew hung up the horizontal runs of feed line in the building out to the tower and brought MORE mud in from the rear of the building. We received 2 inches that day and over 1 of those inches in about 20 minutes time.

Wednesday we had the Assistant VP of Engineering for the stations group and the electrical design engineer down to see the progress and to answer any last minute questions as we make this last push to finish things out. Needless to say the general contractor was stressing heavily that the building wasn't as presentable as he would have like it with all of the mud for the "visitors from the north", but they did a good job of getting things in order and all of the trades on site did try to keep the mud down to a minimum, which wasn't easy.

Wednesday the sun came out and the building wasn't in too bad a shape for the VIPs. Everything went well with that.

Thursday the automatic transfer switch for the generator was to arrive. It didn't. It was to arrive Friday by 5pm. It didn't. Then it was to arrive by 7:30pm. It didn't. It finally got to the site at 11pm Friday night after riding to Charlotte and back. So as you can see we had been stressing a little all week. On Friday, the front parking area was finally poured!!

That is why when the generator arrived on site Friday morning on schedule, everyone sigh a little for something had finally gone right.

The crane arrived after lunch and then lifted the generator (about 16,000 lbs worth) off of the trailer and then on to rollers to be rolled into the generator room. The lifting was the easy part. The rolling was a different story.

There is a 5 inch drop off over the 18 foot equipment pad to have water run off from the building. So trying to push an 16,000 lb generator up hill wasn't going to be as easy as a bunch of people getting behind it and pushing it. And because of the space, you were not getting a truck or something like that to push or pull it so the crane riggers slide it in as far as the crane could and then a large folk lift came up from behind and then boomed it forward into the opening. The generator sits at a 90 degree angle in the room from the way it had to get into the building so it then had to be rotated 90 degress to get the rest of it in.

So once the generator was in straight as far in as possible, the folk lift had to move to the exhaust opening and then pull it in and around that 90 degree turn to align it in the room.

Once it was in the space, and was level, man power could easily move it anywhere we needed it but it took 2 and a half hours to get to that point!

But there it now sits all ready to be hooked up and ready for service. The plan is to have it fired up by Christmas. Now that would be a GREAT Christmas present!

The Nomads

2005-11-25T16:04:00.000-05:00

Tis the season to be jolly. And to be moving on.

Things on the transmitter project are stating to enter that final phase. The tower and building are nearing completion, the transmitter and other equipment is either starting to come in or will be in soon. That also means that the people who have been doing the work in construction of this new facility are either getting ready to move on to the next job, or are moving on.

Enter Ralph and Philippa. (yep, that is how she spells it)

Ralph and Philippa work for the tower company. They assemble the pieces of steel that make up the tower sections. They are the first on site, long before the erection crew, the people who actually take the individual tower sections Ralph and Philippa put together and build the tower. They are usually the first people to leave the job site. Sometimes before the tower is completed or sometimes as the tower is being completed. In this case, they are leaving now with the tower work almost completed.

Ralph and Philippa pick out the correct steel piece for the tower - July 2005

Did I mention that Ralph and Philippa are also married. To each other?

I first met them the fourth week of the project. They pulled into the site on that Monday morning looking for their area so they could start setting up their equipment. A little later a 5 ton fork lift arrived. About 2 hours later, three 18-wheelers pulled in. Two had the first sections of the tower and the third had a container that held all of their tools.

Ralph jumped up on the fork lift and had the tower legs and cross members unloaded in no time. While he was doing that, Philippa took inventory. I stood there and watched all of the activity. The thought crossed my mind, what would Philippa do when the inventory was done? Could she drive a folk lift? Would she help assemble the pieces of steel? Could she lift the pieces of steel? Well it didn't take long to find out. Within a couple of days, after they got everything in order, they began to assemble the sections of tower and Philippa did her part and then some.

There were times when Ralph would drive the folk lift over to pick up the 1 ton legs and put them on the framing jig, and then other times Philippa would. Philippa would run the folk lift lifting smaller pieces or large pieces up to the jig to be installed. She would bolt the small pieces to the sections, whatever it took to get the job done. They worked as a team, lifting the steel, moving the steel, bolting the steel together and then moving the completed sections over to the staging area. They had been doing this for so long that they rarely spoke when working, but each knowing what the other needed and when. It was more art than science.

They started assembling in July, through the sweltering days of 98 and 99 degree temperatures. Sweat rolling down their faces and arms. They would start early in the morning and work until about mid afternoon, when the temps got their worst. They continued this ritual for 6 weeks.

When the tower erectors arrived in late August, Ralph and Philippa completed assembling the last 3 upper sections of the tower as the erectors prepared to lift the bottom 6 sections into place. When the first lift happened in mid September, Ralph and Philippa changed roles from tower assemblers to ground crew, preparing the tower sections for lifting up the stack and supporting the erectors on the tower, knowing that the call could come at any time to pack up and move to the next job.

Ralph and Philippa are from the UK originally. Philippa is a naturalized US citizen, Ralph is still a UK citizen but is working on his US citizenship. They have been married for about 2 years and as you might figure, met on the job. Both have traveled the world over assembling and erecting towers.

Ralph told me of the time when he was still climbing, he was working in Libya when Momar Kadafi came to power. The whole crew was put under house arrest and were led to the tower site under guard at daybreak and then back to the hotel at sundown every day. As soon as the tower was completed, the crew was kicked out of the country. That is some nice "thank you."

Philippa related the story of the time she was working in Indonesia and made one of the war lords mad. She was afraid that when she left the country that drugs would be planted on her so she would be arrested by the authorities. To avoid that, she left all of the belongings she had brought with her. On the way to the airport, she stopped and bought new clothes and changed into them and left the clothes she had been wearing in the trash in case drugs or residue had been planted on her clothes. She left the country literally with only the clothes on her back and her passport.

These tower nomads work six day weeks and every 6 weeks they get one week off. Ralph and Philippa have a lovely home in West Virginia, but they don't get there very often, instead living in a trailer that they pull behind their Jeep Liberty.

Ralph and Philippa on their last day at the site at the base of the tower they assembled and help erect - November 2005

They were offered the opportunity to be on the crew going to Jakarta, where their company has the contract to build a 1400 ft tower in downtown Jakarta. That might not sound very unusual, but horizontal real estate in downtown Jakarta is unheard of. So this tower can only be built in one city block, in contrast to the 20 or so acres our 1250 footer sits on. The tower sits on a 400 foot tall steel frame the size of that city block and the guy anchors extent up a short way from there to cut down on the total guy wire length so it will fit in this one city block. This is the first time this has been done. Both Ralph and Philippa turned it down, instead coming to our site and now moving on to Georgia to assemble a new tower there.

The tower erecting crew will still be here a few more weeks finishing things up and then they too will be moving to a tower in Virginia to mount some antennas and then on to other sites. One of the erectors is from Texas, and the other 4 are from Canada, three from around Toronto and one from Saskatchewan, Canada. The erector crew did have an apprentice who was just pulled two weeks ago to be on the Jakarta crew.

All of the Nomad's - November 2005

But now it is time to pull up stakes and move on. The call of Nomad is in the air. So long Ralph and Philippa. We will miss your cockney and southern English accents and your wonderful personality. If you are back this way, feel free to stop in and say hello. You are always welcomed here. It has been a pleasure to know you.

Bring in the power!

2005-11-21T20:34:00.000-05:00

We hit our next milestone in the new transmitter site project. We had the BIG power arrive today! The big beam supplies that provide the 35,000 volts to run the UHF digital transmitter arrived and we had the power turned on in the building! Both are milestones in their own right. But to have them both arrive on the same day is pretty special! The digital transmitter itself is not but a few weeks away now and to have the big supplies that run it in means that time is getting short.

We were lucky that the rain stopped while they were unloading the supplies and then placing them on the equipment patio. It wasn't 5 minutes after we completed that it started to rain again.

With the cool weather and rain we have been having, it will be nice to have the heat running in the building. It has been a little chilly and damp last few days, but now we can start to dry things out and get the finishing touches done. It will also be nice to have some real lighting in the building instead of temporary lighting.

How fast were you going? ONE HUNDRED!!

2005-11-18T19:42:00.000-05:00

As most people know, the US is the only developed country that does not use the metric system in everyday activities. Well I guess that isn't exactly true since we have 2 liter bottles, but even that is Americanized. The rest of the world writes liter as "litre" and we write it "liter." I guess that is a small thing in the big picture. I have never been a proponent of the metric system, but then I haven't been an opponent either. I don't normally use it and so it was always a hassle but not a big deal.

The US federal government about 20 years ago mandated that measurements dealing with permits and such from the US Government had to use the metric system. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) changed over from feet to meters for height of towers and antennas. This was to help get people used to using the metric system and transition from the imperial system. Well, we see how that has worked!?

Of course I learned some of the measurements like 100 meters is 317 feet, 300 meters is 984 feet. 600 meters is just shy of 2000 feet. (1968 feet) I mention those distances because those are the breakout points for tower heights for certain types of FM and TV stations. When you file paper work with the FCC and FAA and tower/antenna heights are involved, there is no "feet" box. It is in meters. (Thank goodness for the Internet conversion sites!) Up until my trips to the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) that is all of the metrics I knew except for the usual 32 degrees is 0 degrees Celsius and 212 degrees (boiling point) is 100 degrees Celsius. Learned that in school between listening to Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Bee Gees. (does that date me?)

Toronto is a large metropolitan area like an Atlanta or Washington, DC. Many expressways and many small bedroom communities. Pearson International Airport sits off of Routes 427 and 401 (the pictures of the Air France crash last summer showed the 401 close to the 427 collector as they say there but they mean on ramp) west of Toronto in the town of Mississauga. In Canada, they don't have Interstates in the sense as the US. There the Interstate type highways are 3 digit numbers and each province has its own series. Ontario's is 400.

In preparation for my trip this last time, (I would have a rental car, something I hadn't had the other times I had been there) I started to "drive metrically" meaning "scientifically" I would drive the closest metric speed to imperial speed to get use to the relative sensation at a certain metric speed. 60 miles per hour is 96 kilometers per hour (or km/h), 110 km/h is 68 MPH and 120 km/h is 74 MPH. I did this on and off for about a month before my trip, this was to get used to a different numbering system.

My hotel was only about 10 kilometers, ah 6 miles, and the route was out of Pearson on to the 427, one exit to the 401 and then 2 exits to the 403 and then 5 exits to Hurontario St and then 10 blocks to the hotel. All was going well until I drove out of the rental car parking lot at Pearson.

First thing I noticed was that the small numbers on the speed odometer that I had gotten used to no longer were metric but now imperial and the big numbers were metric. OK, I now have to focus on a different location than I had practiced. No problem. The second thing I noticed was that the speed limit sign was not in MPH but km/h. My brain had gotten used to converting up from MPH to km/h. Now for the brain to work, I had to convert down so my sensation of relative speed could work or I would have to keep my eyes glued to the speed odometer to be sure I wasn't speeding or impeding traffic. OK, deep breath. If I can handle 10,000 volts in a transmitter, what is a little metric conversion, hhmmm?

First speed limit sign out of the parking lot was 50 km/h (30 MPH). OK relatively slow speed. I mean this was still the airport property for gosh sakes not the Lowes Motor Speedway, no need to gun it. No sweat. By the time I reached the stop light 1 km later (half mile) to get on the collector at the 427 I glanced down and was doing 80 km/h (50 MPH)! WOW! My relative speed sensation wasn't working very well. Now I have to read a road map to be sure I get on the correct collector (all of the roads were at least 4 lanes per side and had multiple off ramps at the same place) since the distances are now in kilometers (6/10 of mile) and the road signs are different colors than ours and they are bilingual in English and French since Canada has two official languages (all government buildings and road signs must be in both languages) the old mush factory upstairs was starting to move the needle ever closer to the red overload zone with each passing moment.

Now the speed on the 427 is 100 km/h and there are 4 off ramp lanes, 2 for the 401 (looping over the roadway) and 2 for the 407 ETR toll road (looping over the 401 and the 427 and to the left - AVOID THAT ROAD AT COSTS - no pun intended). As I hit the 401 collector, I checked my speed and it was 115 km/h (70 MPH). The speed on the off ramp is 80 km/h (50 MPH).

Oh great! I have been driving less than 5 minutes and already I am getting paranoid that the OPP (Ontario Provincial Police, the equivalent of our Highway Patrol) has seen no telling how many moving violations in just 3 kilometers between speed and lane changes as some idiot in a rental Jeep Liberty tries to read a road map and drive at and/or above and/or below road speed! I am now beginning to think that a rental car was a BAD IDEA! That 35 dollar taxi ride from the airport to the hotel maybe wasn't so bad after all and I really don't walk enough!

Well I am now on the 401 at 110 km/h, the posted speed. Just as I look up from the speed odometer, in the far left lane is an OPP car coming fast! I figured I had it and started to move over to the far right lane preparing to hit the shoulder and probably hauled off to jail. But the OPP car stays in the far left lane and speeds on by to parts unknown. Wow! OK, got past that one. Now I need to concentrate on my exit for the 403 that is just a kilometer or two ahead.

Traffic on the 401 is heavy for a Saturday afternoon but everyone seems to be driving the posted speed. Having gotten used to exits with numbers, I quickly realized that on Canadian superhighways, they don't use exit numbers, just names or route numbers. So I would have to read the road signs carefully to be sure I get off on the proper collector. With signs over the road, on the side of the road, on the road decked out in green, blue, white and bright yellow and TWO languages, I had to learn very quickly which signs to ignore and which ones to look at and which lines to look at. Thank goodness for cruise control for I turned it on and let'er run on autopilot while I searched for the numbers 4-0-3.

Before I know it, I see the multidecked interchange for the 403 and the 410. Luckily the speed doesn't drop down on the collector so cruise control stays engaged. Now I have about 5 kilometers before I get to the Hurontario St exit. The speed on the 403 has dropped down to 100 km/h and the road is packed. I move over to the far right lane and just begin to get used to the difference in road signs. I even turn on the radio and tune in CFTR AM, 680 News.

My nice afternoon drive is brought back to life as I see the sign for Hurontario St. I drop out of cruise control and hit the collector and see the speed is 60 km/h (37 MPH). At the top of the off ramp I stop at the light in the left hand lane. There, that wasn't so hard after all. The light changes and I pull out on to Hurontario. The speed is 50 km/h (30 MPH). As I drove the 10 blocks to the hotel, things moved much slower and I had a chance to catch my breath and figure out what I needed to do. In 5 minutes I am at the front door of the hotel no worse the wear.

After I checked in, I got back out on Hurontario and ran up towards the town of Brampton to get used to driving again and to see some of the sights. It was pretty uneventful. The next day I drove to Niagara Falls, 127 km (60 miles) on the Queens Expressway, another superhighway that ranged from 4 lanes to 10 lanes, depending on where you are and speeds that ranged from 100 km/h to 120 km/h. I was getting the hang of it. By the time I left 4 days later, it had been like metric driving was all I had ever done.

If you go to Canada, don't try your first drive on a superhighway reading a road map by yourself. Find a side street first.

You like the colors?

2005-11-15T21:17:00.000-05:00

Lots happening at the new transmitter building, but most is pretty mundane. Lots of wire getting stuffed into conduits that run all over the building to points that I will never find in a million years.

Painting going on too, but it is industrial colors, EXCEPT in my office! Thought it would be nice to "spice up" the place a little and not see the industrial white of the rest of the building when I go to my "corner". (The office is in the corner of the building.) Actually it was my wife who said I needed a little excitement there. (Thanks hon!)

It isn't exciting to anyone but me, but since nothing else of exterior interest is happening just right now (but Friday, hopefully), and since my mind is liquid at the moment from the days events, thought I would share the pretty colors! They do look like Christmas in the pictures, even though they don't in real life.

The door leads into the hallway and it is painted a "bronze" color. Martha would do SO proud! ("That is a good thing!")

ENJOY!

Man, this is cool!! Why are you doing it??

2005-11-13T10:39:00.000-05:00

I don't know how many times I have had that questioned asked me in the last six months when people come to the new transmitter site. Everyone thinks it is a really cool thing that we are building a new tower and building (me too!) but they can't seem to get their arms around the "why?" of doing it. Simple answer, we are doing this because we have to so we can stay in business. The more complicated answer is we have to because the FCC said so. Well, Congress told the FCC to tell us we had to. If you are still scratching your noodle, then you are not alone. Have you ever heard of the old saying "HI! I am from the government! I am here to help!"?

First, a little history. In the 1980's the Japanese TV network NHK began testing of analog high definition TV signals. It was clumsy, complicated and it was only on the air from 10pm to 2am because they had to shutdown some of the analog stations to run this supersized TV signal. This alarmed many here in the US that maybe our Japanese friends were getting a technical jump on us in this arena. Our "TV Scientists" began working on a HD system here. Soon it was discovered that computers could send pictures and high def pictures to boot! So to combat the NHK analog HD system, broadcasters went to the FCC asking if they too could do HD but using digital instead of analog since they could put one HD digital signal in the same channel spacing as one standard def analog channel, something that trumped the NHK system.

Well the FCC looked at it and said, yes, the broadcasters could do that. That sounded like something the US should do. So in 1994, the FCC began work on legislation for Congress to draft and enact to officially allow this new form of television. During this process Congress was also rewriting the Communications Act, a law that sets the boundaries for all communications from TV and radio to cable, satellite and cell phones. Since this new digital TV signal could pack more TV channels into less radio spectrum, instead of making it an additional service, why not just make it THE television service, stop analog broadcasting and reduce the TV channels in the process and use the old TV spectrum that would be freed up and sell it for auction to help reduce the budget deficit. (Has the light bulb just lit up?) So when the Communications Act of 1996 was enacted, it set the date of November 1st 1998 as the official start of "Digital Television" and December 31st 2006 would be the last day of analog television. No mention of HD other than to say that it would be one of 18 picture formats allowed to be transmitted in this new television service and left it up to the FCC on how to implement this. Subsequently, Congress revised the Digital TV law to say that the December 31st 2006 date would only take effect for analog shutdown if 85% of a television market had a way to watch the local digital television stations. Still no requirement for stations to transmit ANY HD signals.

The FCC set up a multi tiered timeline when stations would be required to sign on with this new system. Stations in the largest markets like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, DC, etc had to be on by May 1st 1999. The intermediate sized markets like Raleigh and Charlotte, Dallas, Tampa, etc (not the Triad though, we just did miss the cut) had to be on by November 1st 1999. Everyone else had to be on by May 1st 2002.

After 9/11, the FCC revised the manner in which stations could come on the air. Stations were still required to make their deadlines, but now stations were not required to be at full power. They could come on at reduced power until a future date was named. Many stations went with the lower power option, including us, until there were more viewers to watch the new stations.

In September of 2004 the FCC came out with their new timetable for all stations to be at full power. If a station is an affiliate of ABC, CBS, FOX or NBC and is in one of the top 100 markets, they had to be at full power July 1st 2005. All other stations have to be at full power by July 1st 2006.

So here we are, one of the "Big 4" network stations and we have to build a new facility since our current tower was built in 1963, long before "HD TV" was even thought about and it will not hold all of the new digital equipment. Trying to do in 12 months what normally takes 18 to 24 months.

That "December 31st 2006" date? Well Congress is now revisiting the date to set a hard date since the US Treasury is in more deficit than ever and part of the freed spectrum will go to First Responders. The Senate has past a date of April 7th 2009 as the last day of analog transmissions and the House is working on a draft now that has the date of December 31st 2008. One thing is sure, the year 2009 is the year when analog transmissions will cease. Which day is still up in the air. (UPDATE - Congress sets Feb 17, 2009 as the official last day of analog TV.)

Now what does this mean to our viewers? If you watch TV on cable or satellite, nothing changes for you. Which ever date is picked, it will be just another day. If you get your TV via an antenna, you will need to acquire either a new digital TV or a digital converter box. In both pieces of legislation in Congress now, money from the sale of the spectrum would be set aside to help those watch TV off of an antenna buy the new converter boxes. What isn't clear yet is if you have cable or satellite and you have additional TV's and they are not connected to cable or satellite, if those TV's will be eligible. In the Senate bill, they are, in the House version, they are not. When the final bill is sent to the President for signing, we will then find out the date and the amount of the converter subsidy.

"Good Night And Good Luck"

2005-11-11T22:10:00.000-05:00

Late this afternoon the wife called and said get off work a little early and let's get a bite to eat and go to the movies. I said, sure, that would be great! I had no idea what movie she wanted to see but the way I have been working lately, I really didn't care. I actually got off work on time and found myself on the soon to be I-73 headed home.

Thirty minutes later we were on the way to diner and a movie. The movie, the new George Clooney film, "Good Night And Good Luck" about the Edward R. Murrow, CBS broadcast, "See It Now" 1954 report on Senator Joseph R McCarthy, Democrat, Wisconsin. If you are not sure who Ed Murrow was, what "See It Now" was or who Senator McCarthy was, you don't know about history.(A little Google goes a long way on Edward R. Murrow) History of the country during a time called "McCarthyism", a television show that pioneered a genre that allowed "60 Minutes", "20/20", "Nightline" and "Dateline" to be created ("60 Minutes" creator Don Hewitt was a producer on "See It Now."), and a man who was trusted long before Walter Cronkite was the "most trusted man" on television. (Yes, Murrow is a hero or mine, long before I found out he was born here in Guilford County. Did you ever wonder who Murrow Blvd was named after? Edward R., of course!)

The phrase "good night and good luck" was Ed Murrow's sig out line of every broadcast he did. It originated from his time as a reporter for CBS Radio based in London during World War II where he reported the Blitz on London and how the Allies defeated Nazism and Fascism in Europe. During his time in London, his riveting reports from the London subway during the bombings and reports from B-29 bombers over Europe created the "war correspondent" and pioneered "electronic news gathering" as we know it and made CBS News a real contender with David Sarnoff's NBC News in the 1940's. For many years, Murrow WAS CBS News (they called him the "conscience" of CBS News) and single handedly built the juggernaut reputation that Walter Cronkite rode to success on and Dan Rather tore down.

Radio was Murrow's real love. Murrow wrote and spoke in such a fashion that is no longer practiced, much less taught. He spoke in pictures. He could tell you about a fly landing on you and you could feel it as the real thing.

Murrow was reluctant to move from radio into television for several years, because he saw no value being expended for television in the wasteland of mindless programming of sitcoms, games shows and serials. He continued to do weekly long form radio news investigative programs such as "Hear It Now" even after coming to television. When Murrow was finally coaxed into moving to television, he brought his "Hear It Now" radio show to television as "See It Now." Murrow, a man who upheld the highest standards of journalism demanded that television fulfill its potential as a tool of learning and civic duty to inform and create debate on important issues that related to all Americans, something that brought Murrow to odds with the suits at CBS on an almost weekly basis for years. Then, as today, this type of programming doesn't pay many bills and is expensive to produce and hard to get on the air and then keep on the air.

In exchange for this "civic exercise" with programs like "See It Now" CBS required Murrow to do cheap to produce, highly rated and profitable celebrity fluff programs such as "Person to Person" where Murrow interviewed celebs about their lives, careers, and upcoming projects. The example used in the movie was the interview with pianist Liberace. During the Liberace interview, Murrow (played by David Strathairn) is seen looking at an off camera monitor of a feed of Senator McCarthy railing against Air Force Reserve Lt. Milo Radulovich, who was severed from the Air Force because his father had been rumored to be connected with the Communist Party in some fashion in the 1930's, setting off the now famous on air confrontation between Murrow and Senator McCarthy and resulting in ending "McCarthyism" or the practice of "Red Listing" people who had innocent connections with people who may or may not have been Communists.

The cast includes Clooney as the producer and friend of Murrow, Fred W. Friendly, and an all star cast who obviously worked for scale in this independent film such as Robert Downey, Jr, Jeff Daniels, Patricia Clarkson, Tate Donovan, and Frank Langella as CBS Chairman, William Paley, just to name a few. The movie is a presentation of 2929 Entertainment and Section 8 Productions. Section 8 is the production company of Clooney (who also directed the film) while 2929 Entertainment is the financial investment company of Dallas Mavericks owner and owner of the first all high definition cable channel HDNet, Mark Cuban. Cuban and his partner Todd Wagner created 2929 Entertainment to create films that would eventual be shown on HDNet and its all movie sibling channel HDNet Movies in a similar manner as Ted Turner did in the early 1990's with his Turner Pictures that produced films that were shown in theaters and then went to Tuner broadcast properties (the most famous being the 1994 Civil War epic, "Gettysburg").

Clooney stays very close to the historical aspects of the story and does not, as has been reported by some media outlets, take a swipe at FOX News Channel's Bill O'Reilly. A simple history lesson would show that the worlds spoken by the Murrow character, are indeed real words spoke by the real Murrow in the 1950's about television then that are still very true today and I am sure to some in the audience, thought that the Murrow character was talking about television in the 21st Century.

The story only covers 4 years of the 29 year Murrow era at CBS, but the story in itself is riveting by showing how the fear of being labeled as a Communist by McCarthy paralyzed the nation, CBS and worse, the staff of "See It Now" and shows what television can do when it puts its mind to it to do good for the public by informing and providing a start for debate on issues that affect all citizens.

Now some may see this film as the early media trying to dictate policy or espousing editorial comment as news, but it was the first time that the news media took a stand on an issue that gripped the nation, how one politician kept the nation in fear of words and how one man in the news media who wasn't afraid to take him on using good journalism with verifiable evidence, in this case Senator McCarthy's own words and actions. It was televisions first attempt at reporting a national controversial topic and finest hour that we in the media keep looking to happen again (9/11 being another time when television brought the nation together on a single subject) and it motivates many reporters and people behind the camera, even today.

Murrow and Friendly went on to produce other socially self introspective pieces for "See It Now" including Murrow's swain song in 1961, "Harvest of Shame" about the problems of migrant workers who worked long hard hours to pick the vegetables for Americans diner tables for very low wages and a 1959 report on how science was beginning to raise red flags on the dangers of smoking (Murrow was a chain smoker and during all of his broadcasts were seen smoking on camera). The television series M*A*S*H parodied one of Murrow's ground breaking techniques when the war reporter Clive Roberts "reported from the 4077th" about the Korean War. During Christmas 1952, Murrow went to Korea for an on location report entitled "This is Korea...Christmas 1952" to show the folks back home what the troops were going through.

Murrow left CBS News in 1961 disillusioned with CBS management's obsession with game shows and serials and, in his mind, lack of attention to the real genius of television to teach and inform. He died in 1965 of lung cancer.

Edward R. Murrow (photo from Museum of Broadcast Communications)

My rating - 4 Stars

We now return you to the mundane

2005-11-09T20:11:00.000-05:00

After all of the excitement of the antennas last week and first of this week, the ho hum, everyday life to complete the project has returned. Items become completed, but when a door is painted or a safety climbing device is installed, both are very important in their own rights, it doesn't have the same pomp and circumstance as a tower top out or antenna raising or transmitter installation. But both are just as important as the bigger items to the success of the project.

Most people assume that when the antenna is placed, the project is finished. Far from it. You have to have a way to get the RF energy from the transmitter in the building to the antenna on top of the tower. Anyone who has had a CB radio or an Amateur radio understands something of the wire between the radio and the antenna called "coax." It is a special wire that is made just for efficiently transferring the RF energy from the transmitter to the antenna. We use the same thing except it is MUCH bigger to handle the power. It can be a slow process putting all of those lengths of transmission line together but it has to be done.

Transmission Line Installation

But then work has to continue in the building as well. Electric will be the order of the day from now until the end of the project. Broadcast transmitters use so much electricity, that it takes a long time to get it all hooked up and running.

"Small" Electrical Panels

Of course there will be painting and flooring and plumbing, but they will be a few days here and a few days there and electric is EVERY day.

For the next little while, the mundane electrical and transmission line will take center stage, while the next big event, transmitter arrival is still a few weeks way.

Wake me when we get done.

Two Up, Two to Go

2005-11-07T20:54:00.000-05:00

Life moves on in the land of construction. But this "construction" is unique. It is so unique it brought the old construction hands to a standstill to watch this one.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the antennas for the new tower had arrived. Monday the weather looked good to start mounting these metal beasts that provide all of the joys and tears a TV couch potato can stand.

The original plan was to put up the big top mounted antenna first thing before the wind came up. On the ground the wind was not there. On top of the tower was blowing a gale. That sometimes happens. So the tower guys decided to hoist up the little baby standby antenna (all 20 feet and 475 pounds of it) and then see what the winds aloft looked like.

Backup Channel 8 Antenna goes up

By the time the standby was in place and the ice shield installed it was lunch time so the crew came down and off to lunch we go (on MY bosses tab!) and a mini celebration that for the first time the station has a backup antenna, even though we have no way to get the transmitter power to it yet.

We return from lunch and the wind is blowing pretty good on the ground but the two flags at the top of the tower, one a USA flag and the other a Canadian flag in honor of our Canadian built tower and tower crew, were almost limp. Now the photog that we had "acquired" from News has left, my boss has also gone back to the station to do "real work" and the tower crew is in preparations to lift the 13,000 pound main antenna to the top. A quick call to my British colleague "Hale Bop" who runs the photogs in the News Department yields a laundry list of reasons why no one is available. OK, no sweat. The old "Frankenstein" camera Marty in the shop has put together from bits and pieces of old Betacams after we went Blu-Ray DVD cameras is at the old building along with an old spare tripod from sports and I will just "shoot" it myself.

A quick dusty trip in the "in-gun-ear mobile" (we haven't had any real rain at the site since before July so even walking over the site creates dust storms) to retrieve the Frankenstein camera. HHMM, let's see. Camera? Check. Tripod? Check. Batteries? Check. Written instructions for the operation of the Frankenstein camera? Check. Video tape? Well that might be a problem. Mike, my bosses assistant shot some video the other day when the antennas arrived and I know he used two tapes and there are only three here. First tape, full. Second tape, one quarter used. Third tape. VIRGIN! OK! I am set. Now where to set up?

Coming over I looked at the sun angle and the clearest shot to the lifting side. That would be from the old transmitter building 600 feet away. So off to the corner of the security fence to set up. Well it isn't the best since most of the antenna (which is lying down horizontal until the pick) is obscured by site overgrowth. Well I can see the middle section and one end and when the antenna is lifted just a little, it will clear the overgrowth. This is good, "they" will just have to live with it.

So I get everything set up just in time to see the top of the antenna begin its final ride up the tower. I quickly set the picture zoomed in so you can see people and some antenna. I hit the record button on ole' "Frank" and then quickly grab some still shots.

Main Channel 8 Antenna on the way!

For the next 20 minutes or so I keep tilting the camera up and zooming in and out (SLOWLY) and taking some more stills. Answering two phone calls on the cell and then the antenna is at the top. I stop recording while the tower crew sets up for the swing around the gin pole and then to set the antenna. I see the antenna starting to swing and I hit "Frank's" record button and catch the antenna swinging around the pole and on top of the tower. It is 2:20pm. Mission accomplished! (where is the White House PR Machine when you need them?)

Main Channel 8 Antenna on top

For the next 2 and half hours the tower crew completes securing the antenna with the 20 some odd HUGE bolts that hold the antenna down to the top of the tower and connecting the electric lines that run the lights on top of the antenna so planes won't fly into the stupid thing (like some Ultralight almost did about 4pm watching the tower guys finish bolting down the antenna! IDIOT!)

Well two more antennas to install. I am not sure but I think the tower crew wants to continue installing the transmission line to those antennas before they install anymore and if that happens it will be two weeks before the other two are installed since the tower crew is on break next week. But that is OK since the transmitters are not scheduled to arrive until the middle of December anyway thanks to FEMA hijacking some of our electrical equipment that goes in the the building that we STILL are waiting for the replacements to arrive!

The fight continues.

Antenna day!

2005-11-06T12:03:00.000-05:00

The general public has no idea what it takes to transmit those pretty pictures to their TV sets. Why should they? Most have never been inside a TV station and their only connection with a TV station is during a personality visit or promotional appearance of a station personality. It is for that reason that I LOVE my job as I do. If it were easy, EVERYONE would be doing it!! It is also one of the reasons I decided to start blogging. It isn't as easy as it looks.

Take this past week. As some people know, at "El Ocho" (as Lenslinger calls it) we are building a new transmission facility. That means new building, new tower, new transmitters, and new antennas. We have been fighting the state, the federal government commandeering our building material for the Gulf Coast rebuild and the usual contractor woes (thank goodness we have a good contractor who has helped us along and smooth the bumps). But we can now see the light at the end of the tunnel is not a train coming but the sunlight. We had the new antennas delivered.

New antennas awaiting unloading-11/4/2005

These puppies are LARGE. The antenna that will go on the top of the tower is 74 feet long and weighs in at 13,000 pounds. The top antenna comes in two sizes. It starts out at 4 foot in diameter for about a quarter of the distance, drops to 2 feet in diameter for about half the distance and then goes back to 4 feet in diameter for the remainder quarter.

The second largest antenna is about 60 feet long but is side mounted on the tower and doesn't need the massive steel to hold it up since the tower supports the antenna and it can weigh in at a mere 1350 pounds. It is only 2 feet in diameter.

It was an event when the antennas arrived. Because of the length, it took a special permit to transport the antennas from the factory at Raymond, Maine. The permit required that the trucks had to run on back roads and daylight hours with escorts. They made it in two days and just did get to the site before sundown. When they did arrive, the building workers and the neighbors all came out to check out these long orange metal things that was blocking the road as we were getting them on to the site. Because of the time of day the tower crew decided to off load them the next morning.

Now if the wind will cooperate this coming week, we can get the antennas mounted and a very major milestone will be met. Just got 4 more major milestones to go!

Canadians are just like us except...

2005-11-02T22:06:00.000-05:00

Over the last year I have had the opportunity to travel to Canada on business. Well to travel to the GTA (or as the locals call it Greater Toronto Area or as common folk know it simply by, Toronto, Canada). Hey, I will admit, I haven't done much (any) international traveling. Of late years, I have been lucky to take a trip to the beach for a few days! The lasting impression of the people I have met in Toronto is one of "fabulous" and not in the sense of the "Fab 5" on Bravo either.

Canada is a socialistic republic with remnants of monarchy. They pay ABSOLUTELY OUTRAGEOUS taxes (14% as a MINIMUM sales tax) so the government can coddle them from cradle to grave; continue to maintain their monarchial relationship with the UK even though they are an independent country now; continuing to use monarchial titles for everything from the military to highways and the UK allowing Canadian citizens the right to vote in UK elections, while electing their own representatives. It is an amalgamation of the US and the UK. "They are just like us, but different!"

Port Credit Harbour, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada-10/16/2005 (No swimming between August and October!? WHO in their right mind would swim in an estuary of COLD Lake Ontario AFTER October 31st ANYWAY!?)

Ninety percent of all Canadians live within 100 miles of the US border. They receive our radio stations, they watch our TV stations, they speak like us (except for certain pronunciations of long O's (think PRO-gram) in words like PRO-jects, PRO-cessor and a somewhat comical slurring of the word ABOUT to where it sounds more like A-BOAT spoken very quickly with a VERY long O and yes, many Canadians do say, EH? at the end of every sentence. Bob and Doug McKenzie are both exaggerated and muted examples of Canadians, all at the same time!

Yeah, they LOVE their hockey and beer (sometimes it is beer more than hockey and then other times it is hockey more than beer, but ALWAYS beer goes with hockey...no wait, is that hockey ALWAYS goes with beer? I forget.); the world does pass them by at times and they need a "double take" to catch on; they are passive; they are liberal and find our Conservatism hypocritical and funny all at the same time (they REALLY don't get George Bush!); they always seem to have a good self sense of humor like the Brits, where in their eyes, your stock goes up if you can laugh at yourself (think Mike Meyers). Nothing really gets them upset and they don't seem to carry a grudge and they do know how to relax. Something we Americans need to relearn.

I have enjoyed my three visits to the land of the red maple leaf and do find I miss the bemused befuddlement that Canadians display at times. They really are a neat people that I enjoy talking to and being around. They are what the US would more than likely have become had we not broke away from King George all of those years ago.

I just found out today that I may be going again for a day or two on business, something that I thought wouldn't happen since it appeared all of my business in the GTA was completed. But if my frequent flier miles do take me to the land of Molson and toques, I will be happy to go back to the land of kilometers, liters and Celsius (now there is a really interesting tale to be spun on that one!).

Lake Ontario Waterfront of Toronto-10/16/2005

I will be saying more about my Canuck friends, experiences and thoughts in future posts.