A Journalist Remembers
• Ballers, shot callers and boldface names • A field study in celebrity culture • Finally, something not about hockey The last time I really cared about NBA basketball was probably the day Michael Jordan retired for good. It’s not my favorite sport (can you guess which is?) although I do enjoy the March madness … Continue reading Courtside with P. Diddy and MJ
Fear & Loathing in J-School. Or how I began as an ink-stained wretch.
• If you build it, they will come: Allman Brothers, Ike & Tina Turner, Canned Heat, Chuck Berry, Edgar Winter, Alice Cooper • When Woodstock Nation annexed North Baltimore, Ohio • Was it all just a front for laundering pot dealers’ money? I’ll never tell The idea started as a pipe dream, probably. A handful … Continue reading The Park — ‘Weekend Woodstocks’ in NW Ohio Cornfield
I wanted to be a radio newsman but had to spin some platters at first, and the bookstore was out of “Radio News for Dummies.” I’ve cued up that story here.
• Watch! As Seals and Crofts and I bore a very small audience to death in 1974 • Took 13 years before anybody would let me on TV again • The gatekeepers of Public Television must have been stoned that week This is the 60th post on this blog since I began chronicling the professional … Continue reading Straight Up – Mondays on UHF Ch. 30
• My lunch with Muhammad Ali • He ate, I took his picture. • Call me crazy, but. . .that’s what Ali did in 1996 I get the question sometimes: “Who was the first famous person you interviewed?” Or, “Who was the most famous person you interviewed?” They were one and the same: Muhammad Ali. … Continue reading The Greatest
Evel Knievel, Jerry Springer, Larry Flynt, Pete Rose... A lost episode of Celebrity Big Brother? No, just some of the people who crossed my path at (Not) WKRP in Cincinnati. A two-parter set in the Queen City.
Evel Knievel, Jerry Springer, Larry Flynt, Pete Rose... A lost episode of Celebrity Big Brother? No, just some of the people who crossed my path at (Not) WKRP in Cincinnati. A two-parter set in the Queen City
In 1978, Ohio State and Clemsen met each other in the Gator Bowl and Jimi Hendrix immortalized it in song. Sort of. A 20-second audio flashback:
“I spent a week in Philadelphia one day” – Old joke often attributed to W.C. Fields but not likely his. I spent four years there, and tell about it in this first of 3 posts. After three years at Cincinnati’s WEBN-FM, in the fall of 1978 I received a call from a radio program director … Continue reading Philadelphia, Pt. 1 – Muhammad Ali, Tommy Lasorda, Anita, Mark Goodman
Of Popes, miracles (on ice) and nuclear meltdowns. All in Part 2 of the Philadelphia story. Among the stories I covered in Philly was Three Mile Island, the nuke plant that nearly melted down just a hundred miles upwind from the radio station. It was a scary night when I had to come into the … Continue reading Philadelphia, Pt. 2 – Jane Fonda, Jackson Browne, Joni Mitchell, Graham Nash, Pope John Paul II
• Space is the Place. So was a rooftop in West Philly • An Introduction to filmmaking in the 1970’s. • Behind the scenes of Sun Ra: A Joyful Noise Picking up a part-time gig here and there was a part of my budding career in radio in the 1970’s. The pay for newscasters at … Continue reading Sun Ra – I Invaded His Space
Philadelphia sports fans booed and pelted Santa Claus with snowballs. I don’t judge them; they used to pay 50 cents a phone call to help keep me employed. If you’re keeping score, here’s how it was done in 1981. I was in Philly during good times for its pro sports teams. Sports, it turned out, … Continue reading Philadelphia, Pt. 3 – Dial Sports, Daryl Dawkins, Pete Rose, Doc Emrick
I grew up a NY Yankees fan, listening to the great Mel Allen call the games in which my first sports hero, Mickey Mantle, starred. In the 1980s, a friend, Bill Gubbins, hired Allen to do some voice work on a media project. He asked Mel to record an answering machine message for me and … Continue reading How About That?
• The City of Broad Shoulders makes hauling watermelon easy • Old Style is not only the local beer brand, it’s the way WMET partied • Classic Rock, ahead of its time The Cubs cap speaks for itself. The watermelon? It was at a party, about to be injected with vodka. Pretty well sums up … Continue reading Old Style Chicago – Ernie Banks, Pete Townshend, Francois Truffaut, Harry Caray, John Lennon
• Miss Manners was no stranger to Marilyn and Paul • You’ve heard about it – now you can hear it. The naked radio interview, last aired in 1981 • For some reason, my posts about Marilyn Chambers get a lot of clicks It occurred to me today that, as far as I can recall, … Continue reading Why, You’re Welcome, Ms. Chambers, Mr. Rodgers
The film “Bohemian Rhapsody” does a great job of re-creating Queen’s performance at Live Aid. I try to re-create my backstage – and onstage – experiences on that weekend.
• Listen up you whippersnappers! When I was your age, I had to haul around a lot of crap • There was heavy lifting in radio news • Where was the digital age when I needed it? One of the reasons I started blogging about my broadcasting career was because my three nephews, all "digital … Continue reading The Things I Carried
Can a reporter be compelled to testify in a Houston courtroom? Can he be jailed for conspiracy to go skinny-dipping in Austin? The answers may be found - or not - here.
Your ace sports reporter, Red Roughandsore, captures all the excitement of the Georgetown Hoyas' first national title, beating Houston, 84-75, at the Kingdome in Seattle. Thrill as the seconds tick down. For one shining moment, I was Jim Nance. Listen here: (:33)
Weird Al Yankovic was promoting one of his Michael Jackson parodies. I guess I thought I’d do a lame Jackson impersonation. (I had nothing on my face but a stupid look.) Anyway, Weird Al’s not in this blog post. Jerry Seinfeld, Steven Wright, Jay Leno, Richard Lewis and Robert Klein are, but I didn’t have photos with them.
• These are a few of my favorite things. . . that happened while interviewing celebs • Notorious B.I.G. almost ruins an interview with his eyes closed • The guy from Fountains of Wayne versus the guy from Wayne, N.J. Brian Wilson was still under the spell of a weird therapist, Eugene Landy, and extremely … Continue reading Odds and Sods – Brian Wilson, Biggie Smalls, Oasis, Bob Dylan
• Presidential nominating conventions aren’t what they used to be: interesting • They used to let long-haired freaks walk right up to the podium and place a collect call • What it was like covering that big Brian Wilson story no one can forget at the ’84 Dallas Republican confab • In the heat of … Continue reading Unconventional Coverage
• James Carville and/or Paul Begala called Washington, DC “Hollywood for Ugly People” • I must have fit right in; I got sent there often enough • Me and Tipper Gore in a hotel room I was based in New York with ABC News and CNN from 1983 to 2001. But I spent considerable time … Continue reading Hollywood for Ugly People – Frank Zappa, Tipper Gore, Prince, Pearl Jam and Gerald Ford
• Ever seen US Marines slam-dancing? • Not exactly “3 Days of Peace and Music” • Cheap Trick, Kansas, Doobie Brothers, for the boys They used to send Bob Hope to entertain the troops. Or Playboy playmates (both in fiction – “Apocalypse Now” – and in reality -- Playmate of the Year Jo Collins visited … Continue reading 1st Airborne Rock and Roll Division
If you like the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, Cream and the Doors, you've probably heard them - and others - play a song written by Willie Dixon: "Whole Lotta Love," "I Just Want to Make Love to You," "Little Red Rooster," "My Babe," "Back Door Man," "Spoonful," "You Can't Judge a … Continue reading Seventh Son – Willie Dixon
• Remembering when The Beach Boys were the most controversial thing on the National Mall on July 4th • That time Ronald Reagan stood up for Rock n’ Roll • The Malling of America was a best-selling book in 1985. Just a trivia fact It appears to some that, with a speech at the Lincoln … Continue reading I Think it was the Fourth of July – The Beach Boys, Jimmy Page and Joan Jett
• Fifty years of that deaf, dumb and blind kid • And I thought I felt old at the 20th anniversary celebration • Hope I don’t die before the 60th I can’t say that “It could have been 1989 in Madison Square Garden the other night.” Because, clearly, it wasn’t. This was September 1, 2019. … Continue reading The Who’s Tommy
My outgoing answering machine messages got a good review from the late Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert:
• Jennifer stole my heart • Mariah took me up and away......and left me cold • Little Debbie invited me up to her room So there we were, on 52nd Street, outside the now-shuttered Roseland Ballroom. It was 1999 and budding movie star Jennifer Lopez was throwing a party for the launch of her first … Continue reading My Divas – J-Lo, Mariah Carey, Vanessa Williams, Debbie Gibson