WIXY's Gone Bananas

Well I got my first season of WKRP in Cincinnati DVD set last night, complete with musical substitutions. And as a fan of the series when it first come on in 1978, I like the fact that the show is available. I am disappointed in the fact that when the bogus songs come on, it takes away from the line just said by the character. However, as stated elsewhere( OMW ), to get what we all wanted would have been cost prohibitive , probably boosting the price of the collection to over one hundred dollars, instead of the $29.95 we paid for it at Wal *Mart. I think if we would have waited until the music became public domain, some of us wouldn't live long enough to see the release. But having one of the great ensemble series on DVD is somewhat a consolation even without the music. Who knows how much longer the series would have lasted if CBS hadn't jerked it around the schedule so much.

I didn't see all of the American Idol results show last night, but I heard that none were eliminated, which was cool by me, since it was a special benefit show. I think at this point that Melinda and Jordin will be the last two. I just wish Melinda would get over that false modesty thing. Should American Idol be a strictly amateur competition? I think that would leave Melinda out of the running, and I don't know if that would be good or bad. What I saw of last night's show definitely tugged at my heart strings.

Is for a little respect. I think one problem with people today is that they lost respect for others. That is why we have the language problems I discussed in my last post. The death penalty was carried out in Ohio today. Some think it's a deterrent to crime. I think a bigger deterrent would be to teach children some good old fashioned respect. And applying the board of education to the seat of learning wouldn't hurt either, at least not in the long run. Catering to the least common denominator as your audience and dissing anyone who wishes to disagree with what you do certainly isn't respect. Remember you reap what you sow. You plant disrespect, you will harvest disrespect. Sometimes we promote disrespect when we talk to young people. I've been guilty of this in the past. Teenagers will say hi Mr. Jones, or hello Mrs. Smith. They will reply, call me John, or please call me Mary. Mrs. Smith makes me feel old. Instead you should compliment their parents for doing a good...

I can remember when I was a senior in high school. I was participating in intramural volleyball. The teams were co-ed. I also had a very bad temper as a teenager, and when I felt it was necessary, I cursed like a "sailor on leave". I wasn't very good at volleyball either. My team was playing a game and I missed the ball and somebody hit my hot button. I then yelled every foul word I knew(or so it seems) at the guy, and one of the teachers took me out of the game. The next day I went to talk to this teacher and he reminded me of the incident and told me that I was lucky I wasn't suspended from school for that display of language, especially since there were young ladies present. I asked him if I should have thrown a punch and he told me that that might have been less severe. During the next several years my language didn't get any better. Maybe it was just as well I didn't make it into radio at the time. I would have had a short career. People would tell me abo...

Hope everybody is enjoying their day. We had the grandchildren over. They brought their parents. Good news for Rittman : This weekend's edition of the Northeastern Wayne Edition of The Post has a front page story about the former location of the Rittman IGA . There will be a new grocery store in it's place hopefully by the end of the month. It will be an independent family owned operation. If they can listen to the community and keep their prices reasonable then maybe they will be around for a long time. In the meantime stores like Dollar General and Family Dollar have done a commendable job of filling some of the void that was created when the IGA closed their doors in November. May sweeps; its coming - We will hear in the next 10 days who's cheating who, where your bottled water comes from, what's the Colonels 11 herbs and spices are, and the date of the Apocalypse . And those of us who look at the television forums are seeing debates heating up. One word of advice...

As I have stated in the past, my blog is not specifically about media. However since I am very active in several media forums, I have a number of folks who are or have been in media who check in, mainly to make sure I behave myself. And one of my media forum friends has a blog which deals with media, and his high school classes. The new blog is called Media Matters . The blogmeister is a teacher in Aurora who has worked for several media outlets around the area. The decision to go into teaching was to be able to send students who want to be in radio, television etc., in the proper direction, letting them know exactly what to expect when pursuing a career. The blog is also an attempt to give these students an outlet to express themselves outside of the classroom. A note to those Rittman parents who check in here periodically. This would be a great opportunity for Rittman students to interact with students from other districts, and for them to let the media of the future know what ma...

for once they may have got it right. Sanjaya Malakar , your fifteen minutes of fame have expired. I didn't get a chance to watch American Idol this past Tuesday, but I watched the highlights last night. All I can say is , after country night, Kellie Pickler , Bucky Covington , Kerry Underwood, and Kelly Clarkson have nothing to worry about in this years crop of hopefuls as far as competition is concerned. I was concerned that Lakisha was going to suffer the same fate as Mandisa did last year and be eliminated during country week. Lakisha has a great voice, but I don't think America is ready for a plus sized Idol, which is a shame(fat boy speaking). Now let's have a talent competition instead of a revival of the "Gong Show".

Still trying to keep things light... Most of the time when I open up my newspaper in the morning the first thing I look at will be the funnies. Like everybody else I have my favorites, among which are Crankshaft and Funky Winkerbean , both of which are from and most of the time are about this area. Calvin and Hobbes, a strip which ceased production way before it's time, originated in Northeast Ohio also. The past couple of weeks we lost two of the finest cartoonists of our time, Johnny Hart and Brant Parker, who joined forces to bring us the "Wizard of Id". Hart, who was a committed Christian, also was the brains behind B.C. The strip to your left is Tuesday, April 17, 2007's Beetle Bailey strip. I chose that along with the title of this post because the strip reminds me of Mrs74 WIXYgrad when she has the mechanic on the phone. For those who are curious, we have an agreement in our marriage: I don't do mechanical work, and she doesn't call the divorce lawyer....

Keeping things light as I am watching the evening news: Anyone who reads these words today in Northeast Ohio know about the winds we had this evening. As I was walking through the Sam's Club parking lot, I was grateful for two things-one, that I am a big guy, and second, the way my hair was blowing around I was glad(for once) I wasn't Donald Trump. I did make the save of the day, however. I caught a shopping cart that was blowing through the parking lot. Saturday, with the help of the WIXYmobile , I delivered 37 breakfasts as part of my church's monthly fund raiser, country breakfast. All the hungry folks in Rittman helped us raise almost one thousand dollars. The WIXY's Gone Bananas podcast is closer to becoming a reality. I got my headset mike, Audacity is downloaded on my computer, I have an account with PodOmatic , and my creative juices are flowing. Now all I need is the nerve. Side note, I was thinking of podcasting before I thought about a blog. Yeah, some ...

As readers here already know CBS radio, along with NBC Universal, fired Don Imus from his morning program, because of racially insensitive remarks directed toward the Rutgers women basketball team. I have no problem with the action taken against Don Imus by CBS or NBC(his morning program was simulcast on MSNBC ). Where I don't have a problem with those actions, I do have a problem with, in my mind, an ever increasing problem by broadcasters today. And I will use the radio program, "Rover's Morning Glory" as a prime example. Today, at work, I had to go into the office adjacent to my own to use the copier. In my office, I either listen to CD's , WCRF , or quartet music from the internet . In the office I entered, Rover was on, and on the program was a segment called "Dare Deiter ". I guess Deiter has to do something a listener dares him to do. I was told later on that the dare was to have a horseshoe thrown into his(groin area). What I had heard was the v...

First- Imus in the unemployment line: I have one word-Retire. Where were the protests years ago when he routinely did his Reverend Billy Sol Hargis routine? It's getting so the only people that can be offended are Christians. Next- American Idol sends the right one home. I was afraid to see how much Haley wasn't going to wear if she stayed on. Sanjaya , however is still on. He gave a half decent performance and at least made Idol look less like the Gong Show. This week. What will happen next week? Tune in to find out. I heard from Brenda of the WGBB (World's Greatest Band Boosters) , now a published author, as her article (first seen here)was published in this past Sunday's Northeastern Wayne County edition of The Post. She has told me that the WGBB would be having a spaghetti dinner, which will be a fund raiser for pay to participate. It will either be June 1 or 2. Details later.

First, the Indians "home opener" in Milwaukee: It was good to see live baseball on television last night, especially since the Tribe pulled it out. I watched part of the game and was amused watching Slider living up to his name and sliding down "Bernie Brewer's" chute. I was somewhat surprised to see that the attendance was over 19000. I guess affordable baseball, played by two teams which should contend, at a neutral site, is going to be attended by fans. Next, American Idol: Theme was Latin music, a genre which evidently wasn't any of the hopefuls strong suite. I noticed that in the past couple of weeks, the producers have kept the " Sanjaya Nation" waiting till late in the show to see what " hairboy " is up to. Last night his performance wasn't half bad. I think that Haley is the female version of Sanjaya , and if she makes it much further Fox will have to schedule the show for later in the evening, as every week she seems to be w...

This past Saturday, as my wife and sister-in-law were helping their parents return from Florida, my daughter and I had gone to Waite and Sons funeral home in Medina to pay our respects to the family of Dr. L. Harvey Kassebaum , or as we knew him, Harv. Harv, as I mentioned in an earlier post was the next door neighbor of my in-laws. He also was a professor at both Cuyahoga Community College and Baldwin-Wallace College. An extremely educated man, but his learning never stopped. He was one to breeze through a book, flipping page after page and being able to comprehend everything he scanned. Even after retirement he would want to learn and everybody was his teacher. Harv would never let his education get in the way of his personality. He was as courteous to the high school dropout as he would be to his fellow professors. We would be proud of his brand new car but would also make you feel good as you showed him your new used car. Harv and my father in law, Eddie Bowyer were best of fri...

Having grown up as the fat kid from "the other side of the tracks" with the younger brother who was a slow learner, I had to take a lot of bullying. I hated it and my father never let me defend myself. It gave me character- whatever the heck that means. It should have also taught me to consider other peoples feelings. I have failed somewhat in the past week or so. You might ask how and I will tell you that I have used this blog and one of the forums I post on to lead(what I now believe) an unfair attack on the forum poster known as " JimOhio ". Jim has a thriving CPA business in Medina, and especially this time of year uses the forums to blow off steam, and created a persona based on his love of talk radio. He's also like most of the baby boomers who post on the television board and does lots of reliving of the seventies. as I have said before he personifies the saying that the word fan is short for fanatic. Anyway my part in the attack was very unfair and I wa...

Here in northeast Ohio the saying goes "if you don't like the weather, wait a few minutes", or as some like to say "move a few feet". I left work at 1:30 this afternoon and in Cleveland, visability was zero. I got down the interstate a few miles and the road was wet. Only problem is I was out of washer fluid in the WIXYmobile , so I had to make a trip to Wallyworld to get a gallon. As I type these words, the Indians game is in snow delay, top of the fifth, two outs, bases loaded, tribe leading 4-0. Perfect football weather. So I have the game on, with the sound down, playing with one of my new toys, a headset microphone. Who knows, maybe I will go into the wonderful world of pod casting . Stay tuned. You might soon hear an audio version of " WIXY's Gone Bananas". Had to run out. By the time I came back home the ballgame was called because of the snow. And so starts the the home season for the 2007 Cleveland Indians. In case I don't get back...

First I got this call from Mrs74 WIXYgrad gloating that it was 80 and sunny in Florida today and they spent time at the pool. She especially gloated when I told her that I was five minutes late for work because of the snow. I left work early today as I had to take the MrsWIXYmobile to Legacy Ford in Brunswick to get some recall work done on it. It was in and out in no time, so I decided to drive around as I had time before my doctor's appointment. I grew up not far from where that Ford dealership was located. As a matter of fact I remember when that was an open field. I also used to ride my bicycle on what is now interstate 71(I am really dating myself now). After a look around the new Marc's next to K-Mart, I headed east on 303. The Brunswick of 2007 looks very little like the Brunswick of 1977, at least not from 303. Hinckley , on the other hand, looks somewhat like time had stood still from the major arteries. A couple of differences in the middle of town, but not much. S...

Well, it's back to winter for a few days. So much for global warming. I get a call at lunch time today as I was conducting a study of the insides of my eyelids. It was Mrs74 WIXYgrad . She was calling from the ocean, rubbing in the fact that it was really warm there. They are having a good time but I'm looking forward to her coming home. Something the past couple of days made me think of an old cartoon show I watched as a child. It was called KoKo the Clown. He came "out of the inkwell". Funny only thing I really remember is the theme song. I had to go online to get an image(to your right). You probably can find tons of these cartoons on DVD. Maybe Tim Lones can enlighten us on that. Once again check out his blog, Cleveland Classic Media . I can tell by his first few posts that this is a real labor of love on his part. It also has some really neat links. As I type this, the Indians are 2-0, after coming from behind to beat the White Sox . Maybe if the bullpen ca...

Photos and trip report by Brenda Fry The Rittman Marching Band, under the direction of Ed Sims and Becky Cline took 28 student musicians and chaperons on a well deserved trip to Universal Studios, Florida, during spring break. Monday while at Universal Islands of Adventure, the band performed the theme from Batman and Splish Splash. After that they went to play at Universal Studios Park. Tuesday the students went to Busch gardens in Tampa. Wednesday they splashed around at Wet N Wild, then spent the evening at Disney Quest. Thursday it was back to Universal Islands of Adventure to ride the rides, then about 8 o'clock it was time to come back home. Mr. Sims reports that the the students were very well behaved and the trip went without incident. These student musicians represented Rittman well.

I just got in the house a few minutes ago after taking Mrs74 WIXYgrad to her sister's house, just east of Columbus this afternoon. I got to listen to the Nextel Cup race this afternoon on the radio(it was on 95.5, the Hawk WHOK ). It was an exciting finish and, yes radio play by play of stock car races can be very descriptive and entertaining. Now to give a shout to all around good sport Ryan Gohmann , former producer at WTAM /1100 and now toiling in Tampa. Gohmann , pictured to your left, is also a blogger and posted on his blog this weekend about an "artist" who made a sculpture of "chocolate Jesus" I was going to comment about this mockery on my other blog, but instead I made my comment on the comment section on his blog, Gohmann's Musings . Ryan is an all around good sport and I appreciate the effort he put into his commentary. Everybody have a great week. Take time to reflect on what Jesus did for us all.

As I sit here typing this post, my wife is getting ready to fly to Florida to help her father drive home. She is going with her sister. So I will have to do the planning of Easter dinner. To my forum friends: Yes, I am fine. I didn't suffer a relapse. I just took all I wanted to take, and decided to vent. One part of the philosophy of the company I work for is "We take care of our friends." Some of my friends on the boards had been wronged and I didn't like it, so I had to express my discontent. RIP Harvey Kassebaum : If any readers attended classes at the western campus of Cuyahoga Community College, you may be familiar with that name. Harv was a doctor of English at Tri C for many years. He also was my wife's next door neighbor when she was growing up. Friday night he lost a long courageous battle with cancer. Harv's positive attitude was in inspiration to all that come into contact with him. He will be missed. The Rittman Band should be back from the...