WIXY's Gone Bananas

Belated thank you's go to RichinMedina , CollegeDJ86 , and David5258 , for all their kind comments since I launched this blog in August. In short, everybody who stopped by, left a comment here or elsewhere have helped me make this blog what it is. Family notes : My in-laws made it to Florida safely on Friday. Thanks for all your prayers. WIXYjr left to go back to college yesterday. Hopefully I will be able to take a week's vacation within the next month. What would I have planned? Anything that doesn't involve driving 46 miles to work. Television Note : As I write this the television has GSN on. The show playing is The 100 thousand dollar Pyramid. Bonus prize in the lucky sevens was a VCR. My how times have changed. Do I have any New Years resolutions? Nope. I just want to be a better person and maybe a lighter person at this time next year. I do have to go to the doctor's sometime in the forseeable future and he probably will tell me I can eat anything I want. Then ...

There were a few people I neglected to thank this week in my first annual thank you list. One of them is going to be the newest link on my list. Michael Dane, of Sunday Oldies Jukebox fame(9:00PM to Midnight, the request show) has a new blog out called "This Wild World" . That makes two blogs from personalities of SOJ. Johnny Morgan has the other. Mike's first post concerns the reassembling of the AT&T monopoly. I am honored that Mike e-mailed me concerning the debut of his blog and put this blog on his list of links.

If you are known on this blog as WIXYjr , today is your 21st birthday. Happy birthday Adam . It's also LeBron James' 22nd birthday . In the unlikely event LBJ is reading this, happy birthday and may you give us a belated birthday present of an NBA championship .

Newsnomore, you could be right. Earlier this month I commented about the no smoking law being in effect. I said to "leave it to the individual business owner". Last night I took my wife out for supper, as she was very stressed by events of the day. We went to a restaurant in Wadsworth(former Red Barn location). We walked in and were asked, "smoking or non smoking". We then noticed the distinct smell of smoke around the counter seats, which was also next to the cash register. My wife asked our server why they weren't obeying the anti smoking laws, and she replied that the owners would not comply until they absolutely had to. Well, the food was good, but having to go through the smoking section to get to our seats and having to pay in an area that had a strong smell of cigar smoke caused my wife to need a breathing treatment when we got home. Now I don't care about the civil disobedience, BUT one of the problems with this country is that there are some who fe...

Some may wonder how I got to posting on various radio forums. We will go back in history to July of 2001. The great frequency swap had taken place. That's where WHK-AM went from 1420 to 1220, WKNR went from 1220 to 850, WRMR went from 850 to 1420, WHK-FM went from 98.1 to 95.5(became the Fish), WCLV went from 95.5 to 104.9, WAKS went from 104.9 to 96.5, and WKDD went from 96.5 to 98.1(whew). By the way I did that by memory. Aro-10und that time I discovered the Listening Party forum on Cleveland Live. It was being used in leiu of bathroom stall walls by the radio employees and looked at non professionals, including former broadcast school students, like we were intruders. At the time, no one had to register a forum name, so there was alot of nonsense, like "Doncha just love Gary Dee?" or "ffffffffffffffffffun", and alot of insider rumor mongering. Like I said before, my type wasn't appreciated on the board, so after awhile, I did more reading than posting. Th...

We are now at years end, and everywhere you look there are lists to end the year. This morning's Akron Beacon Journal had the "Bobbys" awarded by columnist Bob Dyer, who, in my opinion, had the last good column on happenings of radio in the area. I also sold him two televisions when I worked at Fretter. I could give out "Golden Bananas", but I feel that's waaaay too hokey. So I'm just going to shoot from the heart and give out my thank you list. List is in no particular order, as all the people on the list are important. First, I will start at the message boards that I participated in; Cleveland.com Listening Party and television boards, Radio-info.com, and radioinsight.com. OMW/Old Akronite -Thanks for on board support, off board info, and the mention on your Mighty Blog of Fun(tm). Also thank you for watching my back on the religion board at radio-info. BoredOp0930 -Danny, you were the first buddy I made on the boards, and we spent hours chatting th...

Special note: My in-laws will be leaving for Florida early tomorrow(Wednesday), and not today as I originally reported. I was looking for something special for something special for number 100. Had I not deleted a couple of posts, posted some in draft that I later dumped, and included the five in my other blog, then this one would be about 110. After about 100 posts I'm closer to be heading in some direction with my blog. I enjoy talking about my home town, and my family. And above all, I like to write about good news, something which more often than not, does not make the front page. I'm proud of the accomplishments of all my children. All three are in their twenties, and realize life isn't going to be easy. All three are attending college. My oldest daughter and her husband both made the dean's list last semester. We're now talking about parents of two, one of which is special needs(she's deaf). I enjoy reading comments on this blog, lets me know people care. ...

In this morning's(December 24) edition of the Rittman Post , on page two, is the story I wrote last Tuesday about the Rittman Bands Winter show. I do have the byline. Thanks goes to Bruce Trogdan, for not only giving me an ego boost by printing it, but most importantly helping to give credit to Ed Sims and the Rittman 7th grade and High School Bands for the hard work they put into the show. A quick reminder : PANomonen, the Rittman High steel drum band will be having a concert at the high school on Tuesday, January 9, at 7:00pm.

Ahh. Three days that I can sleep until I wake up. Yes I can do that on Christmas Day, as all my kids are adults now, and they value their sleep more than I. Do I need to get some last minute gifts? Some. Any special activities planned? Yep, Christmas Eve at the in-laws. I'm bringing the chicken, KFC, finger lickin good. As I mentioned in my other blog, they leave for Florida Tuesday. Pray they have a safe trip. Pray for my wife and her two sisters, that they don't go nuts worrying about their parents. They are traveling in tandem with another couple, Dave and Mary Alice. Both Dave and Mary Alice drive, so there will be relief drivers if needed. Got plenty to do, presents to wrap, some places to go, alot of relaxing to do. Have a great weekend and a blessed CHRISTMAS. Coming next week: My first annual WIXY's Gone Bananas thank you list.

Remember, the Rittman Treasure Chest will be open until 8:00pm tonight. You can look for treasures and help out the community for an extra two hours this evening. Terri and Joni hope to see you today, as the Treasure chest will be closed Saturday, Sunday(as usual), and Monday, so they can spend the Christmas weekend with their families.

As we all know, I debuted my new blog, Seek Him First , two days ago. As I am going to attempt to make that my "Christian Blog", it is now on the blog roll of Christian Bloggers. Those of you looking for my more innermost thoughts, and want to debate on a spiritual nature, check that blog out. If you may be looking for some answers, I may have links up over there in the near future that might help. Over there I will try to be more Cliff and less 74WIXYgrad.

Tonight, December 19, 2006, The Rittman Bands had their 2006 Winter concert. This show I was simply a spectator. The concert included the 7th Grade Band, the steel drum band PANomenon, and the High School Band. Conducting the bands, with his exceptional grace, as always was Ed Sims. First up was the youngest band, our present and future stars, the 7th Grade Band . The selections played by the 7th grade was Ritmico!, Dragonfly(featuring the kazoo section), and The Tempest. Next the High School Band began their first set of the night with the very familiar sound of Maurice Ravel's Bolero. Next was Sinfonia No. 4, by Timothy Broege. The three parts of this selection included Broadcast Memories, Romance, and On the Corner. PANonenom was next. The steel drum band started with the Latin dance tune, Yumbambe. then it became Christmas Caribbean style, as they played, O Holy Night, and Sleigh Ride. Lastly we were treated to a taste of their upcoming concert, as PANomenon performed Steelb...

This is a picture of my grandchildren. Enjoy!

That's right I have a new blog, to be a companion to this one. It's called "Seek Him First" That blog will be more faith oriented than WGB. Does that mean that I will stop talking about my faith here? Not on your life. I do know that I have several people who love the Lord who stop here, so the prayer requests won't stop, nor will the news I share about my church. I will just expound about it more there.

That's right! Tonight at Rittman High School there will be a concert given by the Rittman bands-7th grade through high school. I plan to be there as your WIXY's Gone Bananas correspondent. Why don't you come too? If you're in the Rittman area, come to the high school. The fun starts at 7:00pm.

As we all know, Christmas is coming fast, so now is a time for families to get together. It is also the time that folks, such as myself get to missing family members who have gone on. My mother passed away in 2004, my father in 2000. So it is nice to have a strong marriage and be able to spend it with the in-laws. Making lemonade from lemons: As the regular readers of this blog know, my father-in-law suffered a stroke last month, which at the very least delayed their annual migration to Florida this year. Thanks in a large part to everyones prayers, and the God given abilities of several doctors, Eddie is doing better, and got clearance to drive this past week. Anyways, today we had a Christmas get together today that we wouldn't have had had the stroke not happened. Today was a day to thank God for a strong family. My in-laws celebrated their 50th anniversary this past year. They are the parents to three girls who are all married to their first husbands. One of the daughters c...

Special note: Rittman Treasure Chest will be closed tomorrow(Sunday) They will be opened next week Monday thru Thursday 9am to 6pm, Friday next week they will be opened till 8pm. Now back to the subject at hand. I was showing my wife how to set up a blog this evening, and I was telling her about my readership. I had made mention this morning that my readership was well into double figures now( and a loyal group you are! ) I was showing her some of my entries and comments. We were discussing my other self who lives in Florida, who came across my blog about a month or so ago. I figure that Cliff had googled himself and saw OMW's reference to my blog, which is the ninth reference to "Cliff Feightner". Yes, the "other Cliff" has had a more remarkable life than myself. Now a "googling" of " WIXY's Gone Bananas " gives you seven results; six are about this blog, and the other one is about the radio station promo that this blog is named after....

Today, and possibly tomorrow at the Rittman Treasure chest is a buy one get one half price sale. That's right. You can help the Rittman community and save money too. If you're in Rittman tonight till 5, or Tomorrow 9am to 6pm go to South Main St, next to the VFW hall and save money on your treasures. Update 6:17pm -See comment section for customer testimony. Update 2 Friday 9:45pm -Joni at the Treasure Chest tells me that the sale will continue through next week. Hours are as follows Saturday December 16- 9:00am to 6:00pm Sunday-Closed Monday thru Thursday-9-6 Friday, December 22-9-8:00pm Saturday, December 23-Christmas day-Closed.

This past spring saw the unveiling of a new tribute site the WHK Color Channel 14 site. Those of us on the message boards started thinking of other possibilities. One of the things on our collective wish list was a "Big 1220 WGAR site. I had noticed recently in the guest book section of the WHK tribute site that someone had airchecks to some of the "big 1220" personalities. Seeing that I spent a good portion of my early twenties listening to Lanigan in the Morning, Joe Mayer, Fig "Music" Newton, and "The Real" Bob James, I for one would get a real kick out of seeing that kind of a tribute site. WHK Good guy Don Williams, webmaster of the WHK site, is also preparing a WHLO tribute site. I know that one is being eagerly awaited. After all that is done maybe some of us who contribute to the Listening Party can see if "Dancin" Danny Wright can get some of his pals from the old G-98(WGCL) to put together a G-98 tribute site. I think we all have...

First: Good news for WKRP in Cincinnati fans. I was looking at the classic television board at Radio-info.com and saw that the long awaited DVD set of the CBS series will be released around April. Alot of radio geeks, myself included, enjoyed the show during it's run in the late seventies, early eighties. What has kept the show from being released on DVD for so long has been rights to music played during the show. It's understood that Fox has worked out deals whenever possible, but when it's not possible some "generic" selections will be put in the original's place. I, for one, am looking foreward to the release. Had to ask for something new for my family to get me for father's day since the final season of MASH will be one of my Christmas presents. Good guy given due credit : WTAM/1100, this week renamed their morning show on their website "Wills and Snyder" Mike Snyder(seated in the picture to the right), of course, is replacing the late Cas...

I have enjoyed the postings in both the comments section of Ohio Media Watch and the cleveland.com Listening Party board of those who remember Jaybird Drennan . It's sad that we lost a good man, but it's been a real blessing to read about all the good he did for the broadcasting industry. I remember back in 1974, while I was going to broadcasting school, I was working evenings mopping floors at a nursing home in Brunswick. I was your typical eighteen year old guy, not alot of respect for my elders and would say almost anything simply for shock value. I had mentioned to a nurses aide at the facility the name of an Elton John song(I have since become more respectful of others and I also realize that I have some ladies reading this and some who read this have teenage children. I will not mention the name of the song.) She asked me who wrote the song, and I told her"Bernie Taupin". She then asked me what his address was. Her next statement was that you wouldn't hea...

Some of my readers know that my efforts here were partly inspired from another blog called Ohio Media Watch. To those who aren't familiar with the blog click here to read the well written story of the passing of legendary country music personality Jaybird Drennan . Only other comment I will make in this space is he will be missed. Rest in peace Jaybird.

I have made mention on message boards that I used to work in retail sales. It was both comission(Sears, Fretter, Montgomery Ward) and non commission(Wal-Mart, K-Mart). I will tell you that from that side of the cash register, I always had more fun as non commission when feeding my family wasn't as dependant on my performance. I was full time commission when I worked for Fretter , from 1988-1992. It was also when I was introduced to prozac. Anyway as a commission salesperson the holiday season(between the week before Thanksgiving to the week after New Years Day) was supposed to be the time that we made the majority of our years income. It's also the time when people can show how really cheap they are when it comes to buying presents for the ones they love. (You all know how to make comments on this blog, and all comments are welcome) It's also the time when most scammers are at their worst. Credit cards and merchandise are stolen at a greater rate during this period. Of cour...

Today is the last day to participate in the Raffle for Chloe. Drawing will be at 8:00pm EST tonight. Click here for information. There are links about chloe at that blog where you can get to know her and other contact information.

First WIXYjr made it home . It was his first trip of that length by himself. When asked where he wanted to eat, his response was Milich's . As I said on the Listening Party yesterday, I feel that they are the best Barberton "chicken house". You just don't eat there too often without knowledge of a good cardiologist. My suggestion would be Dr. Roger Chaffee out of City Hospital in Akron. Good doctor, also one of my high school friends. Next a correction . I mentioned two weeks ago that the Rittman Treasure Chest was run by the All Sports Boosters in Rittman. That was incorrect. They contribute to the all sports boosters. They have also given coats to kids in Rittman whose families couldn't afford them. If you are in Rittman and have an affection for thrift shops give them a visit. Their prices are better than Goodwill. Rittman Treasure Chest is located on South Main Street, next to the VFW hall. Country Breakfast was this morning at the South Main Street Church o...

Away from blogging the past few days as an audit at work has taken alot of my attention. To blow off steam I had made a few appearances on message boards. This will be a few odds and ends, and will be done in "pieces parts" today. First, the audit: The worst that happened was that I was yelled at. Good audit . Definitely not worth me being "strung tighter than a violin", however. Don't have to worry again for another 13 months, Lord willing. First "good" snow of season coming, so we will see how much we all have forgotten how to drive in it. I guess we are now paying for the indian summer/global warming or whatever you want to call it. Hopefully it will all be over by Friday, as WIXYjr is coming home from college. He's doing well, by the way. My computer at work will be busy looking at the school closings. I am looking foreward to the next couple of weeks, as we all get ready for Christmas , our church is going caroling this weekend. Remember, i...

I am writing this while listening to Soup du Jour on WCRF/103.3. Once again Andre Bernier has put together a very entertaining show to kick off the Christmas season. Hopefully WCRF will rebroadcast it in another week. Actually I was hoping for a podcast, but you can't have everything. The very strange nature of the listening party has caused me to want to blog here more. At least I know who I am. Final season of MASH is now available in the stores on DVD, has been for about a month. I will have to ask for something else for Father's Day and Christmas after this. Several editions of The Post in Medina County, Medina, Wadsworth, Southwest Medina County, and Highland editions have a Medina county restaurant survey. When you fill them out you can receive a twenty dollar gift certificate to "a fine dining establishment in Medina, no strings attached". Check Bruce Trogdon's "Publisher's Notebook" on the editorial page for details. It was mentioned to me in...

As a favor to my oldest daughter, I have added for the next several days, a new link for a special internet raffle. It is called "Raffle for Chloe". Chloe David is a very young girl who has been recently diagnosed with leukemia. Click on the link for further details.