WIXY's Gone Bananas

Cliff Note: I'm taking a break from my usual Facebook activities this week. I'm not expecting a heck of a whole lot of traffic to this post since I won't be posting this link anywhere. So while I deal with FB withdrawal, I may be concentrating on my blogging this week. But I do feel my blogging audience are a real good bunch of people. Anyway, I was driving through my small town this morning. A sight I saw, and this wasn't the first time it caught my eye, got me to thinking. My thought was what jobs have gone through a natural attrition? The sight that made me think that was the empty store front where the TV repair shop used to be. Yes, hoe many remember not being able to watch TV because their sets were in the shop? How many remember before the TV brecame solid state, and a repair would just involve changing a tube? The independent TV repairman has, for a while, been a dying breed. Towards the end of the analog era, TV's had gotten cheap. And TV's also bec...

I started working on this post over a week ago, then got into a reading frenzy, where I read two books from cover to cover in three days, and posted reviews for both. Anyway, over a week ago, I was checking my site meter. Sometimes I am curious about where the hits here are coming from. I saw that a particular hit came from Wikipedia, that very accurate source of information on the web. I know that, in the past, there have been things taken from this blog and used on Wikipedia, and I wanted to see the reason for the link. The link was an article about Jay Lawrence, brother of comedian Larry Storch . In the article, it had mentioned that Jay Lawrence had died in 1987, and was a disc jockey during the 60's at KYW/WKYC-1100 in Cleveland, Ohio. The link here was this review of a book by "Big Chuck" Schodowski , long time late night television host, here in northeast Ohio. I had mentioned in the book that the famous recorded laugh used for many years in the skits was provi...

Click here for a review of the same book, written by blogging friend and fellow media geek, Tim Lones. The past week has been great for a radio geek, such as myself. On Friday, I received in the mail, It's Been A Real Ball , a book written by Joe Tait and Terry Pluto . Like the other book I read this week, I consumed this within 24 hours. But then Terry Pluto is a great writer as well as an all around good guy. Cliff Note: As I write this review, I will interject some of my thoughts as well.  Joe Tait is one of the best sportscasters to hone his craft in a market that knew a lot alot of defeat and disappointment His voice was one of the last, some of us who were sports fans in the 1970's, would hear before retiring at night. And for the most of 39 seasons, he was the voice of Cleveland Cavaliers basketball. Joe is a transplant to northeast Ohio who firmly took root. Growing up, Joe had two areas of interest, sports and the railroad. Like so many of us, Joe Tait was an ...

This past Wednesday, Kathy and I were in the local Goodwill store looking for books for Kathy to read. She found about 3 books. Me I just was looking more or less out of curiosity when I come across a book called They Call Me Baba Booey , by Gary Dell'Abate. The inner radio geek in me then kicked in. Mind you, I have plenty of books to read that I haven't even touched, and I'm also waiting on another book to arrive at my house that I've promised to review for this blog. But my love of radio is a reason I bought the book. And I read it in less than 24 hours. Gary Dell'Abate is probably the best known radio show producer in the world, as he is the producer for the Howard Stern Show. Now I'm not a big fan of Howard Stern, but I did read his book, Private Parts. And if Howard was in town and offered to autograph my copy of the book, I would let him. As I have said, I'm not a fan, but I am a radio geek. I picked up They Call Me Baba Booey and could not put i...

Is the root of all evil. This is more than evident when it comes to legalized gambling. The Horseshoe casino will be soon opening in Cleveland. One thing this will mean is the rate of bankruptcies in northeast Ohio will be on the increase. Also means the pawn shops will see increased business. But people see legalized gambling as the road to easy street and look for any vehicle to get them there. In some cases, this includes fraud. Several years ago, Ohio got their first Mega Millions winner. The jackpot was 165 million. The winning ticket was sold at a convenience store in an eastern suburb of Cleveland. The holder of the winning ticket had not come forward when someone else said they had bought the winning ticket, but dropped it in the parking lot of the convenience store. This caused a crowd of people to converge on the store to search the parking lot, trash receptacles, and dumpster, for the elusive ticket. The holder finally come forward with an unsoiled ticket...

Two years ago, in May, 2010, I was unemployed. I didn't know if I would ever find employment. I was told by someone as I was going around with my resume that "the white stuff on top of my head" would prevent me from getting a job. To keep my spirits up, I started posting a daily video on Facebook, calling it "The Morning Show." That became a hit with my family and friends. also encouraged a friend to post a daily video, calling it "Second Edition." A month later, I started posting my "Question of the Day." Became popular in time, but also became polarizing to some. Also proved I would stink as a talk show host. Though friends and family told me that my talents could translate in a radio job, I knew better. I have had those in broadcasting tell me that it makes a great hobby and a lousy career. I decided that this would remain a great hobby. I remained unemployed. During this time, I also helped plan a class reunion. One of my classmates f...