The Godfather of Soul has left the building

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

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

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

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!!

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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......

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)

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

"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

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.

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

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

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.