Radio DaZe: Wacky 102 has it’s way with me.

Radio DaZe: Wacky 102 has it’s way with me.

Working at WACKY 102 was an amazing experience. It really made me into the programmer and manager that I became for better or worse. I liked to work independently and had a disdain for authority that always seemed to land me in trouble. At WACKY they ate it up.

This was in large part to the the laissez-faire attitude of the owners, Don Wilkes and Mike Schwartz, who really, truly, did not give a shit what we did as long as the spots got played.

I had complete and total freedom with only minor exceptions to program the station in any way I saw fit and to do any sorts of promotions I wanted. Don and Mike were often goading me on to be even crazier and I took to it like a duck to water.

Why do I say WACKY 102 had it’s way with me? Compare and contrast this dude:

with the one here:

Clearly the guy up top was buttoned downed, cool and professional. The guy on the bottom looks barely in control.
And check me out in the picture on the top part of this article.

Yikes!

WACKY 102 was the perfect storm for me in terms of professional achievement and learning while doing. We made some great radio and I made some horrendous mistakes. I became a Parallel 2 Radio and Records reporter while at WACKY and that increased contact with the denizens of the record industry that would shape my life for the rest of my career, not always in the most positive of ways. More on that in forthcoming chapters.

WACKY was the first time that I had any sort of inkling that there was more to radio than just playing records.

In many ways I wish I never learned that…but you can’t put the genie back in the bottle.

Next week: WACKY Promotions, including the wackiest of them all.

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Weekender Column 1/4/11: New Years Resolutions.


Weekender Column 1/4/11: New Years Resolutions.

I can’t wait for 2012.

Now don’t get me wrong. 2011 had some good stuff going for it. But as a human being I remember the bad stuff with great clarity while the good stuff just seems to be sort of a fuzzy haze. And the bad stuff that I remember about 2011 I will carry with me to my grave.

Do you make New Year’s resolutions? A quick web search yields this top ten:

1) Lose weight and get in better physical shape
2) Stick to a budget
3) Debt reduction
4) Enjoy more quality time with family & friends
5) Find my soul mate
6) Quit smoking
7) Find a better job
8) Learn something new
9) Volunteer and help others
10) Get organized

I like this list but for me it needs some work.

#1. Is fine as is. #2 and # 3 sound like Be financially responsible to me. Down to 9.
#4, is a tough one for a curmudgeon such as me. Let’s make that one Be more patient with others. If you knew my family you would agree. #’s 5, #6 and #7 are not an issue. I haven’t smoked for decades, I have been married to a saint for decades and I like my job as well as anything I do when I am not sleeping. I think #’s 8 and 9 could be combined –let’s call that one Self-improvement .

And # 10? Yep-my work space often looks like Hurricane Irene just left. Need some work there, I do.
So the new and improved list for me:

1) Lose weight and get in better physical shape
2) Be financially responsible
3) Be more patient with others
4) Self Improvement
5) Be more organized

Wow, pretty good-I got the list to five from ten. Now I think I will add two more.

6) Ask for and accept help
7) Be grateful

So there is my list. My challenge: to turn these from words on the page and into action. But I think that Be more patient with others also applies to me. I am a work in progress. Or as most people who know me say: A piece of work.
Happy New Year!

-30-
Reach Jim at contact@jamesrising.com Even more rants are on his blog, updated every day that ends in “y” at jamesrising.com

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Diet begins with DIE

This is something I 86’d as a column for the Weekender-really an extension of a post from last week. It’s OK , just not what I think would play well in the newspaper.

Every year it’s the same. Diet commercials sprout like mushrooms after a summer rain. Fitness equipment goes on sale for deep discounts. Gyms and exercise classes advertise like there is no tomorrow.

It’s fitness season and it’s a crock, folks.

Unless you are very, very committed (and NO, you are not that committed) or very, very lucky (if you are, play the Lottery) you will lose weight (maybe) and then gain back more than you had on your frame when you started. About the only thing certain to get thinner is….your bank account.

The bad news is that weight loss is a stacked deck. You lose if you lose and you lose if you don’t. But the good news it it’s not your fault. Well, not entirely. New studies have started to show that the weight loss/weight gain phenomenon has more to do with genetics and hormones than it does with willpower or self-discipline. A recent experiment in Australia tracked the issue and found that when the pounds came off, appetite and interest in food increased. So that’s one way you get a bad deal.

Studies also show that people who lose weight need far fewer calories to maintain that new weight than a person who started thin. One study showed it as 300 calories less a day. To put that in perspective 300 calories is 1 cup oatmeal with raisins,1 cup of fruit and 1 banana. Folks, I don’t know about you but I could eat that in 30 seconds.

The other bad news is that if you do what the doc says to, diet AND exercise, that as you lose the extra poundage you also have to work harder at the exercise to get the same results. It’s like leaning in to a punch.

Possibly this information has depressed you. Possibly your solution is to throw in the towel and go for a double banana split. Or maybe a better solution is to really make a solid effort, ignore the scale for the most part and just eat smart, exercise and try not to blame yourself.

But the worst solution? Give your money to someone to help you lose weight, and then gain it all back and more. It’s a viscous cycle and it needs to be stopped.

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Weight, weight, don’t tell me.

So happy New Year. I’ve gone Vegan!

This isn’t going to be for everyone. In fact I don’t imagine in my wildest dreams that I can convince anyone else to do this. Not even my close family members.

But I am convinced. I have drunken the Kool-Aid and having done this before in a modified fashion, juiced with a great degree of success I know it’s right for me.

I will not be posting on a regular basis about this, but will instead put up a sticky page that I will update daily. Vegan Life

This article sort of says it all.

Fat Trap

This guy below, I like- Vegan moderation. At least at first I think I will try to stay away from any bread and other processed carbs but life without olive oil? Not so sure about that.
Going Semi-Vegan

Vegan Recipes

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Sunday Wrap 12/26/11-12/31/11

I remember 1999 quite clearly-it was probably the last time I stayed up all night on New Years Eve/Day. I watched all the celebrations across all the time zones and hoped against hope that the dire predictions that the world would grind to a halt wouldn’t come true.

Last night I was in bed, asleep by 9PM EST.
Here is the week that was the last week of 2011. Is has all the earmarks of greatness with none of the content you would need for that. The review of “Tangled” is worth looking at just for the scene with the Horse.

Happy New Year and thanks for reading.

Monday 12/26/11
Blog Post My Blackberry Curve 3G takes the WORST photos ever:

Tuesday 12/27/11
Blog Post Review: Tangled-This Disney adaption of the Brothers Grimm Rapunzel fairy tale was released for Thanksgiving 2010.

Wednesday 12/28/11
Blog Post Buh bye K-Mart and Sears?

Thursday 12/29/11
Blog Post Tain’t week.

Friday
Blog Post Every year it’s the same. Diet commercials sprout like mushrooms after a summer rain.

Saturday 12/31/11
Blog Post 2011…and so it’s nearly done. The end of a very interesting year.

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Saturday Aggregate: 12/31/11

Saturday Aggregate:12/31/11

and so it’s nearly done. The end of a very interesting year.

The things accomplished this year? Personally I have found the key (I think) to health.
Professionally I have made some choices (left teaching for one) and some effort-ting to pull myself up by my bootstraps. This is the year (2012) to see if I can make that go.

We got a new roof, the well has a new cover and the pool house has a new roof. All the gutters have been redone for the 10th time. The house suffered with the two big weather events, Tropical Storm Lee being the worse of the two (Hurricane Irene was devastating to the area, up here in the hills, not so much.

The MG has given me a clear message. Sell me in the Spring. So it shall be done.

Peanut butter and rice cakes. The breakfast of champions. Mmmm, good. Who’d have thought?

Day off today-torn about what to do-Movies? Big lunch someplace we don’t usually go? Flake out on the couch and oink like a pig? All of these are possibilities and sound good.

Saw a Blockbuster Ad on the TV last night. Going directly for NetFlix. But I just checked the website:

Sorry guys, that’s a fail in my book. If you can’t update your front page…meh.

Bigelows Lemon Tea! Yum!

I add a slice of lemon. I am wacky that way.

Just found a bag of brown rice that has a best buy date of May 2010. Can rice really go bad?

Sources say, yes!

Brown rice has a very short shelf life of 6 to 12 months. This is because the bran layer contains fatty acids, unprotected from the air in the outer layers of the kernel go rancid relatively quickly. To keep longer it is best to store your brown rice in the fridge in air tight containers.

Guess that bag hits the trash.

Our grocery store has the weirdest way of labeling aisles. The “Ethnic foods” aisle has all the canned tomatoes and sauces/pastes. Now I know it’s for making spaghetti “gravy” as they say here in NEPA but it’s also used for other non ethnic dishes.

And rice cakes? They are in the snack aisle. Go figger.

If you are looking for a vegetarian treat, check the frozen Kosher section. There is a spinach souffle and a squash one that are delicious. They do have a little egg white in them so they are not vegan…but even Dr. T. Colin Campbell, author of The China Study, suggests that small amounts in recipes won’t be too detrimental.

I think I prefer holiday weeks where the holiday falls on a Monday. That really gives weekend warriors such as myself a four day weekend. Well..kinda.

No measurable snow in December. No real long cold stretches. This I could get used to. Why do I feel like January and February are gonna be killer?

OK-buh bye 2011. Don’t let the door hit you on the ass on the way out.

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R.I.P. Sean Bonniwell-The Music Machine

VISALIA, Calif. (AP) — Sean Bonniwell, the lead singer and chief songwriter of the short-lived Los Angeles garage-rock band the Music Machine, died here on Dec. 20. He was 71.
The Music Machine, whose single “Talk Talk” reached No. 15 on the Billboard singles chart in 1966, was described in “The Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders” as one of the most-loved but least-played garage bands of the 1960s. It is often cited as an important precursor of punk rock.

The Music Machine (1965–1969) was an American garage rock and psychedelic (sometimes referred to as garage punk) band from the late 1960s, headed by singer-songwriter Sean Bonniwell and based in Los Angeles. The band sound was often defined by fuzzy guitars and a Farfisa organ. Their original look consisted of all-black clothing, (dyed) black moptop hairstyles and a single black glove.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/30/arts/music/sean-bonniwell-singer-in-the-music-machine-dies-at-71.html

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Eat, drink and be merry…

For tomorrow we diet:

Every year it’s the same.

Diet commercials sprout like mushrooms after a summer rain.

Fitness equipment goes on sale for deep discounts.

Gyms and exercise classes advertise like there is no tomorrow.

It’s fitness season and it’s a crock, folks.

Unless you are very, very committed (and NO, you are not that committed) or very, very lucky (if you are, play the Lottery) you will lose weight (maybe) and then gain back more.

About the only thing certain to get thinner is….your bank account.

Now – they have enlisted Doctors into the scheme.


Enticing Doctors to Endorse a Weight-Loss Program

With Medicare set to start reimbursing doctors for obesity treatment in January, a new campaign by the Center for Medical Weight Loss is directing ads both at patients and, for recruitment purposes, at physicians.

Now the company is embarking on a two-tiered marketing campaign, one directed at recruiting doctors to incorporate the program into their practices, and another at consumers.

“In medical school, I learned more about treating malaria than I learned about treating obesity,” begins a print ad directed at physicians that quotes Dr. Michael Kaplan, the founder of the company. “I have yet to see a patient with malaria.”

The ad will begin appearing in February in medical publications including the American Journal of Medicine. The campaign is by the Levinson Tractenberg Group, an independent agency in Manhattan.

Bear in mind, if you are impressed with the fact that the prestigious American Journal of Medicine will carry the ads, that the medical publication also used to take ads for cigarettes. There are just as many whores in the medical profession as on any street corner in a downtown on a Friday night.

I am a professional weight loss expert. I will, in the coming days explain what exactly that means.

I also think I have found, at least for me, the answer. It may work for you too.

I have found the simple, no diet program that will allow me to lose weight, improve my blood chemistry, have more energy and add years to my life.

Stay tuned. I will let you in on the secret in the months to come.

Odd…they DON’T show Fat Janet in the ads, do they?

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/28/business/media/a-campaign-to-draw-doctors-to-a-weight-loss-program.html

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Radio DaZe: tain’t this or that.

Radio DaZe: Tain’t here this week. I am taking the week off to reflect. rest and recharge. In it’s place is an evergreen column first broadcast in 2005 on 102.3 the Mountain. See you in 2012

This Week is the “tain’t” of the calendar.

Now before you go turning me into the FCC I found a definition of that word that will serve my purpose here as well as any other.

The time between the start of a project and the end of the project. As in “There tain’t much time to finish this job.”

That works for me. This is the week between the end of a busy year and the start of one that will be even busier. This is limbo week. This the week that time forgot. Here at the radio factory most everyone takes this week, or a good portion of it off. The hallways and studios are quiet and meetings are small if they happen at all.

On a day when I usually get hundreds of emails all I got today was a few offers to increase my manhood or my breasts and an offer in some language not quite English to refinance my home.

The phone which usually rings so often the bell is red hot has cooled down. The voice mail message light which in normal days could be used as a desk lamp, is out.

It’s restful but also a little bit scary. Kind of like living on the ground floor apartment and hearing the tenant take off one shoe and drop it to the floor. When will the other shoe drop?

It’s a week when you clear off your desk and put some order into your life. Or at least that’s my intention. I haven’t seen parts of my desk for most of the past year. Who knows what treasures will be found?

It’s also a week for tying up loose ends. Finishing projects interrupted by regular weeks of too much to do and too little time to do it. Following up on ideas that didn’t get enough attention and need tlc to grow and develop. Thinking great thoughts.

Then again it could be a week where lunch is three hours, the phone is on do not disturb and the email has been set to ignore.
Either way it’s tain’t week.

And about this I don’t think I am wrong.

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K-Mart, Sears to enter the Graveyard Of Department Stores?

It looks grim for K-Mart and Sears. The two retail giants have fallen on hard times and some rather poor management decisions have forced their hand and now 120 stores nationwide will close.

It seems unthinkable to me that an institution such as Sears could go under. Then I begin to think about the last time I was actually in a Sears store and I can’t remember.

That led me to a little search around the Internets and with a lot of help from Wikipedia I discovered lots of old, now defunct department stores. Kind of a trip to the Graveyard Of Department Stores.


Ames
was an American chain of discount stores based in Rocky Hill, Connecticut, USA. The company was founded in 1958 with a store in Southbridge, Massachusetts, and at its peak operated 700 stores in 20 states, including the Northeast, Upper South, Midwest and the District of Columbia, making it the fourth largest discount retailer in the United States.

Despite its successes, in its later years, Ames was plagued by debt and a slow decline in sales. This resulted in two bankruptcy filings that ultimately put an end to the chain. The company, despite expanding into other markets and taking over many closed stores that had been abandoned by competitors, went out of business in 2002.

The Globe Store eventually moved to Scranton where it would gain local fame. The Scranton Globe Store was the former Cleland, Simpson & Taylor building on Wyoming Avenue.

The new Globe Store in Scranton was one of the only stores of its kind in the city. It had sometimes been compared to the stores of New York City with its large display windows, enormous selection with all of the latest fashions, and its restaurant, the Charlmont (later converted to cafeteria style restaurant).

ED NOTE: I ate often in the Charlmont when “Lumpy” the stingy GM of Rock 107 was buying.

The store prospered until the opening of the nearby Viewmont Mall in the 1960s. Business was drawn to the new suburban mall and downtown business began to decline. In the 1960s the Globe was purchased by Wanamaker’s but quickly became an independent store again in the 1970s when Wanamaker’s experienced financial difficulty, that chain eventually closing in 1986. In 1987, the Mall at Steamtown was proposed to help revitalize the shopping district. Demolition of dilapidated buildings started October 1991 but this was too late for the Globe. The Mall at Steamtown opened to the public October 23, 1993 with the Globe as one of the anchor stores (connected to the new mall by pedestrian bridge).The Globe couldn’t last though and closed its doors April 1994, laying off 400 workers, after PNC Bank seized the store’s assets. The former Globe building was converted to office space and is occupied by Diversified Information Technologies. The pedestrian bridge was closed off from the Globe and turned into the furniture department of Boscov’s, one of the other anchors of the mall. The bridge has since become a Steve and Barry’s sportswear store. Following Steve and Barry’s bankruptcy and subsequent liquidation, the area is now the furniture closeout department of Boscov’s.

J.M. Fields was a discount department store chain based in Salem, Massachusetts. Fields expanded rapidly in the early 1960s from a regional New England enterprise, opening stores along the entire Eastern Seaboard from Maine to Florida. Food Fair Corporation purchased the growing J.M. Fields business in 1961, and in 1965 the Fields home office was moved from Boston to Food Fair corporate headquarters in Philadelphia.

Jamesway was a chain of discount department stores based in Secaucus, New Jersey. It was founded in 1961 with a store in Jamestown, New York, and at its peak operated 138 stores in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic regions.

Despite its successes, Jamesway faced significant losses during its last years in business. This resulted in two bankruptcy filings which ultimately put an end to the chain in 1995.

F&R Lazarus & Company — commonly known as Lazarus — was a regional department store retail chain operating primarily in the U.S. Midwest, and based in Columbus, Ohio. For over 150 years, Lazarus was influential in the American retail industry, particularly during the early 20th century as a founding partner in Federated Department Stores, and continued until the nameplate was retired on March 6, 2005 in favor of Macy’s.


Hills Department Store
was a Canton, Massachusetts, based discount department store chain. It was founded in 1957 in Youngstown, Ohio, and existed until 1999 when it was acquired by Ames. Most stores were located in Ohio, Indiana, New York, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, though the company had made a push into other economies in the 1980s. It pushed further south and had several stores in Virginia, Tennessee, and Alabama and west into Michigan.



Hess’s
was a department store chain based in Allentown, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania in the United States. The company started in 1897 with one store, originally known as Hess Brothers, and had grown to nearly 80 stores at its peak in the late 1980s. The chain’s stores were eventually closed or sold off in a series of deals in the early to mid 1990s.

The F. W. Woolworth Company (often referred to as Woolworth’s or Woolworth, or even Woolsworth) was a retail company that was one of the original American five-and-dime stores. The first successful Woolworth store was opened on July 18, 1879 by Frank Winfield Woolworth in Lancaster, Pennsylvania as “Woolworth’s Great Five Cent Store”. Soon, Frank brought his brother, Charles Sumner Woolworth, whom everyone called Sum, into the business. With $127.50 Frank opened a second “Woolworth’s Great Five Cent Store” in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania which was then managed by Sum. Sum worked with Frank at the Augsbury and Moore dry goods store in Watertown, New York and had also managed a Augsbury and Moore store in Morristown, New York. Business in Harrisburg flourished, and soon the landlord wanted to raise the rent. Rather than pay more in rent, Frank and Sum moved the store to York, Pennsylvania then to Scranton, Pennsylvania, a city which Sum quickly loved. Frank had tested a small line of ten-cent items at his Lancaster store. So when the Scranton store opened, the sign read “5¢ & 10¢ WOOLWORTH BRO’S STORE” thus becoming the first five-and-ten-cent (dime) store in the world at 125 Penn Ave. While Frank traveled a lot to expand the business, Sum perfected the merchandising formula in Scranton. He based his operations in the Pennsylvania coal town and remained in Scranton during his decades as Chairman of F. W. Woolworth. Despite growing to be one of the largest retail chains in the world through most of the 20th century, increased competition led to its decline beginning in the 1980s. The chain went out of business in July 1997, when the company decided to focus on the Foot Locker division and renamed itself Venator Group. By 2001, the company focused exclusively on the sporting goods market, changing its name to the present Foot Locker Inc.

W. T. Grant or Grants was a United States-based chain of mass-merchandise stores founded by William Thomas Grant that operated from 1906 until 1976. The stores were generally of the variety store format located in downtowns.

Zayre was a chain of discount stores that operated in the Northeastern, Southern and Midwestern United States from 1956 to 1990. The company’s headquarters was in Framingham, Massachusetts.


Fowler, Dick & Walker, The Boston Store
–Not gone but now known as “Boscov’s”

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