The Flotsam and Jetsam of Life

Helping to go through my late Aunt's belongings in New Jersey got me thinking about all of the flotsam and jetsam we gather in our lives. She had a two-bedroom condo filled with stuff, closets that you couldn't enter because of the accumulated things inside. And there we were, her relatives, filling some big bags with items to donate to charity, and other big bags to donate to the nearest dump. A much smaller pile here and there was designated for things of financial or emotional value. I found a great photo of her brother, my Dad, crouching on a rock at some military camp (maybe near Miami?) in WWII.

I found a pension card designating my long-gone Grandmother as recipient of a NYC Police pension from my even longer-gone Grandfather's police service. There were also her old business cards, some prescription medicines dating to the 70's, menus and newspaper clippings and photos of course, lots of photos, and Playbills from Broadway Shows and...stuff. Just stuff. While she lived, I suppose there was a possibility that she might want to see that check stub from 1955, or might want to re-read the Playbill from that 1960 show she had so enjoyed. But the moment she passed, at that instant, virtually all of it lost the value that she alone had assigned to it.

It got me looking around my own place (of course), at the boxes stacked in the back of closets, at the "stuff" in the storage shed out back, at the drawers filled with papers and things, at the boxes of cassettes and even reel-to-reel tapes of old radio shows I hosted. If I were to die suddenly after posting this, my friends and relatives would go through the same process. They might wonder briefly why I had kept this or that, but most of the stuff I decided to keep for one reason or another would end up the same as my Aunt's things...headed to a landfill or a charity. The reason for its existance ---me---would be gone.

Sometimes in flea markets you'll see baskets filled with old photos for sale. Is that what will happen to mine? Will my unidentified baby pictures be priced at 50 cents*, then five for a dollar, and then discarded?

And that's what all of this concern is about, no? Mortality and our feeble attempts to leave something behind?

Y'all think all this philosophising has anything to do with me changing jobs after a long time? (-:

This Week's (next to last) FTR

The guest list for the hour-long Legislative Preview program on Friday is as follows: Dana Beyerle, Montgomery Bureau Chief for the N.Y. Times Regional Newspapers, Ken Hare, Editorial Page Editor, The Montgomery Advertiser, Deputy State Senate President Pro-Temp Wendell Mitchell (D -Luverne) and State Representaive Cam Ward (R-Pelham). Legislators are facing about the most serious budget pressure in recent memory, and I suspect budgets will be the biggest of the topics discussed. Join us Friday night at 9:00 or Sunday afternoon at 1:00. The final FTR will be a live one-hour show Tuesday night (2/3) at 8:00pm on the Economic Crisis. We'll take calls...or you can email questions right now at economy@aptv.org

[Note: Governor Hunt's death occured this afternoon after we finished taping the "For The Record program", thus the absence of any comments on the program.]

Alabama The Balanced State

...speaking of political balance (as I was in the previous post)...Alabama has been identified as one of the most politically balanced states by a new Gallup poll. The conclusion of the poll:

"The political landscape of the United States has clearly shifted in the Democratic direction, and in most states, a greater proportion of state residents identified as Democrats or said they leaned to the Democratic Party in 2008 than identified as Republicans or leaned Republican."

That's NOT true in Alabama. But the GOP advantage is just 1%. Sounds like the situation in the State Senate, where a conviction, a death, and an election to higher office have created a razor-thin advantage for someone. We'll discuss it Friday at 9:00pm on a one-hour long legislative preview edition of FTR. The next to last FTR, come to think of it.

The job of job hunting...

Like a lot of other Alabamians, I'm in the resume printing business these days*. Obviously I'm not going to mention just where I've interviewed or with whom I'm talking, but it's quite a variety...including some I couldn't have imagined!

The process of meeting with potential employees is always stressful, no matter how qualified you are, but it does help that I'm not a freshly minted J-School grad looking for a first position. In Alabama I'm a known quantity. Back in TalkRadio days we used to say you wanted both sides of the political aisle to be angry with you at any given time. In more recent years I've tried to be equally aggressive in questioning all guests, fair in other words...and the supportive comments I've received since FTR was cancelled have been very much a bipartisan affair. Well known Democratic politicos and equally well known Republican operatives have all called and written to say they regret the loss of the show, and my layoff too.

When the pictures clears a bit more I'll obviously let visitors know where I've landed. In 1998, when WBMG-TV 42 (now WIAT) came under new management and everyone was let go, I was fortunate enough to land in the FTR anchor seat just a couple of weeks later. I don't not-work very well, so I'm shooting for another relatively quick transition.

[*Hiring? I'll gladly email a copy. Send info to timlennox1@gmail.com please. In addition, you can watch hundreds of FTR programs online.]

Literally Watch Bulletin!

Rich Sanchez on CNN this afternoon, just after 2:0o: "Obama is literally courting Republicans." Gee...does Michelle know? [Literally Watch is a public service of this blog]

Last two FTR programs

The next to last FTR will air this Friday at 9:00pm...an hour long legislative preview with journalists and legislators. We'll actually tape the program early to allow for the guests' schedules. The Montgomery Advertiser's Ken Hare is one of the journalists who'll be on the panel.

The final FTR will be next week, on Tuesday 2/3 at 8:00pm. It's an hour long special on the economy, with RSA CEO David Bronner, AUM Economist Keivan Deravi, the Alabama Security Commission's Joe Borg, and State Banking Superintendent John Harrison. There's a special e-mail address for you to send in questions for that program: economy@aptv.org. We'll also take live calls during the hour. The number: 1-800-552-0025.

Violence in America

Another shooting...this time in Portland...exchange students as the victims of some madman with a gun at an under-21 nightclub. The police chief: "At first blush, this incident appears to be a random act of violence, of the kind that makes you despair for America."

Will there ever be a way to balance our right to bear arms with our right not to be gunned down by some angry stranger?

Local Politics

I'm afraid I haven't paid a lot of attention to local politics here in Montgomery during my eleven years in the city. FTR was a statewide show, and it would be a rare event for a local race to be a topic up for discussion. But at a dinner I attended last night, there was a lot of talk about a story in The Montgomery Advertiser Saturday morning. The story told of one of the candidates for Montgomery Mayor quitting as a State Trooper 23 years ago following accusations that he offered to let two women go without being arrested for DUI, in return for sexual favors. Willie Cook admits the story is true, but suggests it suddenly being on the front page of the Advertiser is a Karl Rove type stunt. At the dinner ---attended by another of the candidates for Mayor, by the way--- the timing of the story was as much a point of conversation as the incident itself. After all, Cook was elected twice to the Montgomery City Council, even though there were rumors about the incidents at the time. The Advertiser didn't need to depend on sources...all of the documents on the incident were available in the Personnel Department files. The Advertiser reports it was an anonymous caller who tipped them off right after Cook announced his candidacy. Did it deserve the "top of the fold" banner headline treatment? There was no real consensus at the dinner, nor any clear opinion whether the story would end Cook's hopes for being elected. Tuesday is the deadline for candidates to enter the crowded non-partisan race.

Pakisterror

What can America and the rest of the civilized world do in the face of violent extremism like that in Pakistan described in a NY Times article today? After you've read the article, try to imagine what would happen if such behaviour were to occur in one of these United States...if bands of terrorists roamed the countryside dismembering and hanging citizens, and proclaimed their deeds in radio and TV and in the papers as a warning to others to behave according to their rules. What would happen? Or is that what happened here in the American South in the early and mid part of the last century?

Literally Watch* (PLUS) !

OVERHEARD: A news anchor leading into a story about elementary students watching the Inauguration of Barack Obama: "The kids literally watched history unfold". I kept watching for some kind of a rolled up quilt with photos of the ceremonies to be opened for the children...

PLUS: Have you wondered just what Treasury Secretary Nominee Timothy F. Geithner means when he says his failure to pay certain taxes were "unintentional mistakes". Uh, as opposed to what? If they were intentional, wouldn't that be just plain fraud? And certainly the folks at Turbo-Tax are having a good news/bad news moment. Geithner used that product to do his taxes, which gets their product name lots of exposure, but since he made a huge mistake, was it the program's fault????

[*Literally Watch is a regular feature on this blog. I may be the last defender of the original meaning of that word. Folks like the anchor above mean to say "figuratively".]

FTR filling up

The list of topics for this week's FTR is filling up quickly. The Montgomery Advertiser's Markeshia Ricks will be back from covering the Inauguration of President Barack Obama, and that will be a major topic (of course)...there's a new poll out on gambling; Democratic State Senator E.B. McClain was convicted late Wednesday in a kickback scheme, and on MLK day, the Alabama GOP issued a news release* that brags about the party's civil rights record. This FTR is one of the last...airtime 9:00pm on Friday. * ALGOP Honors Dr. Martin Luther King, Renews Diversity Committment Birmingham, AL -As we pause Monday to reflect on the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. the Alabama Republican Party renews its commitment to diversity within our Party, and reflects on the noted fight that Republicans. Noted for his support for the 1954 Brown v Board of Education decision, Republican President Dwight Eisenhower pushed to pass the Civil Rights Acts of 1957, sending troops to Arkansas to desegregate schools - a measure opposed by many Democrats. Republicans were also more than instrumental in drafting key legislation that forever changed our nation, as Republican Senator Everett Dirksen wrote the language for the bill extending the 1965 Voting Rights Act, as well as the 1968 Civil Rights Act which prohibited discrimination in housing. Rep. Mike Hubbard (R-Auburn), Chairman of the Alabama Republican Party released the following statement regarding Dr. King and the Republican Party: "Dr. King's courage to be the voice of a people when it was not very popular shows just how strong he was a man, as a Christian and that he was willing to pay the ultimate price in the name of equality and fairness. His impact on our country will forever be felt, and while his platform was more about people than politics, I am proud that our Party stood with him time and time again as champions of civil rights. Today, I renew the Alabama Republican Party's commitment to diversity, both within our Party and our State, and commit that our Party is not one made of like individuals, but rather a group of individuals from all walks of life, bound together by our core values and common belief in small government, lower taxes, strong military, bringing an end to class warfare, the sanctity of marriage and equality of life at conception, birth and beyond." ### Paid for by the Alabama Republican Party * P.O. Box 55628 * Birmingham, AL * 35255

Obama's Day - America's Day

Everywhere I turned in recent days I've heard reporters asking people if they ever expected they would live to see the day when an African-American would be elected president. And every one has said no. As for me, I always thought I would. And I was fairly sure from the start of the election cycle that Barack Obama would be the one [Not to invoke "The One" imagery the GOP mocked]. When I heard that first national speech, I commented that he was "a little bit of Kennedy, a little bit of King", and that first impression only grew as his march to the White House gathered steam. Obviously, the President-Elect had a heap of trouble on his plate, and perhaps his hardest job will be to manage expectations. But if the concert at the Lincoln Memorial is any indication, we can at the least expect an inspired, media-conscious four years. [By the way, read this NY Times column about the dedication of the memorial, which notes another president who was there, the President of The Tuskegee Institute, who despite the honor of being invited, was forced into segregated seating.] For those still employed with some money in their pockets, mid-day today would be a great time to go shop. The stores should be empty. Office phones may go unanswered. Across much of The Unites States, the drama in Washington will be the central, virtually the only focus of the day. Not unexpectedly.

Just who was watching all those years?

Conventional wisdom suggests the viewers of FTR were old white folk. Really! That's how some people imagined the audience of the show! White senior citizens were there, of course, but every other day or so during the eleven years I've been hosting FTR someone would stop me on the street to talk and they would defy the model. Case in point, a young African-American family in a Montgomery store parking lot today. They actually remembered me from radio days up there (so they weren't all that young!). The fact that that they were viewers didn't surprise me. It was a reminder of all those who took the time to come up and say hi over the years. A multi-cultural crowd in race, age, gender, political leaning and more. On this week's show, Bob Martin mentioned how many legislators commented about the demise of FTR at State Sen. Pat Lindsey's funeral...and you would expect the program would be popular with the Statehouse crowd. But for every elected official, there were dozens of just plain folk on the other side of the camera. For their viewership I am sincerely grateful.

How will they be judged?

Listening to coverage of the upcoming Inaugural on NPR this morning, much of it a discussion of the economic mess his administration will face, I got to thinking about the future. In ten or fifteen years, when Americans are looking back at this time, how will corporate America be judged? Which companies hired lobbyists to protect their turf at the expense of the economic recovery? Which took money from the TARP program, even though they had other resources...though some will argue that the only reason for a company's existence is to make money and stay in business. What did you do in the war, Daddy? There is a Paul Krugman column in today's N.Y. Times in which he argues in favor of investigations into allegations of wrongdoing by the outgoing Bush Administration (It seems the President-Elect wants to look forward only). Will there be similer probes then? The last "For The Record" program will be a live 8pm program on Tuesday February 3rd on the economy. You can send in questions NOW to this email address: economy@aptv.org.

Oh, THAT officer

Spotted in Montgomery County...an official vehicle of the law officer assigned to cases of animal abuse. On the side of the van is the title: "Humane Officer". (-:

Splash Landing in The Hudson

Being a native New Yorker, I may have followed Thursday's U.S. Airways incident more closely than others. I was driving back to Montgomery from North Alabama during the day and found the radio reports frustrating because none of them painted a good-enough picture of the plane in the water. Did it break up? Was it intact? I didn't get an answer till I got to a TV. And then there were the journalists having trouble describing what happened. One local TV report today said the jet "plunged into the Hudson". Uh, no, not quite. What it DID do is land on the Hudson River...it "ditched", if you will, in the river. Quite a story and TV loved it because it combined the elements they live for: drama, and heroes. Certainly the captain deserves praise for the difficult glide onto the water, but he and the rest of the crew did just what they were supposed to do, what they were trained to do. It will however make a lot of travelers pay more attention the next time the flight attendant tells passengers "the seat cushions can act as flotation devices...." Yes SIR!

FTR on Friday

The Press-Register's George Altman joins us (along with Bob Martin, The Montgomery Independent) for this week's For The Record. As of late Wednesday, looks like the slashed Alabama Education Budget and a bill allowing voters to recall County and State elected officials will be on the agenda. The show airs at 9:00pm Friday night.

My salvation (NOT)!

Here's an e-mail that caused me to think---for a second or two-- who needs a job anyway? ================================================================== Good Day,Let me start by introducing myself, I am MRS. KRISTIE UGGERRI, CREDITACCOUNTS OFFICER BANCO DE ORO UNIVERSAL BANK. I am writing you this letter based on the latest development at my bank, which I will like to bring toyour personal edification. I am a top official in charge of clientaccounts in (EQUITABLE PCI BANK) which is now BANCO DE ORO UNIVERSAL BANK inside the Philippines the merger was late 2007. =================================================================== After those two seconds I was back, heading toward unemployment [OK, that sounds a little melodramatic!], and working on resumes and DVD's of previous TV stories I've produced. But whenever I get one of those Nigerian Scam emails, I wonder how many people can there be who actually fall for them? Some, I guess, After all, Madoff took people for Billions. Then there are the people who, for enjoyment, lead the emailers along, sounding like dumb Americans falling for the trap, and then forcing them to do incredibly stupid things. NPR did a great story about them called "The Enforcers". If you missed it here it is. Great radio.

Update - Last FTR schedule

I wasn't sure what to expect today, coming to work after returning from my Aunt's funeral and my long-distance dismissal. But the emails and calls and IM's I've received from folks have helped make the day. Friends from my Birmingham and Montgomery broadcasting years, and FTR viewers, and old WERC radio listeners and more...all of them supportive---OK, not quite all. I've seen some of the blog/online comments from people who think I should have been canned a long time ago, but that's OK too. (-:

I'm going to continue the blog as usual, and will add updates when the dust starts settling.

Here's the schedule for the few remaining broadcasts of FTR:

Fri. 1/16 regular week-in-review 9:00pm-- Bob Martin/Montgomery Independent is on the panel.

Fri. 1/23 regular week-in-review-- 9:00pm --Guests TBA.

Fri. 1/30 Hour-long Legislative preview-- 9-10pm-- legislative & journalist guests.

Tues. 2/3 FTR Special on the Economic Downturn (insert irony here).

And that's all she wrote, for now.

"For The Record" ending...

As you may be aware, APT has decided to end "For The Record" and eliminate four staff positions, mine included, citing recent budget cuts by the state. I was called away last weekend to attend the New Jersey funeral of my last living Aunt. There was no way for APT's managers to inform me of the bad news other than by phone, and they were very apologetic about that. The last regular Week-in-Review FTR I'll host will be on Friday, January 30th, which will be an hour-long legislative preview program. Then, a special "Economy" FTR the following Tuesday, February 3rd at 8:00pm. And then? At this point, I don't know. During the past year I've been working on a documentary about the CSS Alabama and Capt. Raphael Semmes [there's a blog about the program], and I know enough about the subject at this point that I could go on a lecture tour, though that's not likely to be very profitable. The fate of the CSS Alabama project is uncertain. We were in the process of trying to raise funds for the travel to the D.C. area and England/France [she was built in England and sunk off the coast of France] when both my position and that of co-producer Bob Corley were eliminated on Thursday. I certainly would like to remain in Alabama, my adopted home these past 33 years. I have no interest in retiring...that's at least a decade off. So on Monday I'll start talking with potential employers. Even with the economy in rough shape, unless all of the TV stations go dark, there will be a need for personnel. There's also radio and a dozen or more affiliated positions like PR. I'll be OK. It is a shame that FTR will be no more. When I started as host in 1998, the half-hour program started with a day's newscast and then focused for 20 minutes on a single issue Monday-Thursday. You can watch many of those old shows online, like the 11/16/05 one in which we talked with New York Times chief art critic Michael Kimmelman, or the 4/11/06 FTR with an immigration debate. The Friday show was, as now, a week-in-review journalist panel. A couple of years ago the news segment was eliminated, along with the people who gathered that news. Then the show was reduced to Fridays only, though lengthened to an hour. FTR's airtime was changed several times. From 6:30 to 7:00 to 8:00 to 9:00. The number of panelists was cut from three to two. During the years in which we focused on topics, FTR provided a platform, sometimes the only platform, for hundreds of individuals and organizations. We never had a huge audience, nor was that a concern. The purpose of public broadcasting is to free its employees of the shackles imposed by advertising dollars. Publicasters can produce programs about anything, without fear of a sales department trying to block topics or guests. We strove to be fair in our presentations...all sides presented whenever possible. As my siblings and cousins went through my late Aunt's possessions this past week, we found hundreds of framed photos and documents throughout the place, including the first APT program guide when I started hosting FTR, a guide with my picture on the cover. She was proud of my work at APT. So am I. Stay tuned.

Away

I've been away at the funeral of my last (and favorite) Aunt, who passed away last Saturday in New Jersey, Obviously there have been some developments at APT...let me get back to town before posting about it. Thanks.

MMMM #26 - WGN's Steve Sanders

I was truly pleased to spend some time with long-ago co-worker Steve Sanders over the holidays. Steve was working at WERC in Birmingham when I joined the station in 1976. He was reporting and flying around in a little helicopter on traffic duty (till late 1975 when the chopper crashed in East Lake---both Steve and the pilot walked away without serious injury, testament to the controlled-crash known as "auto-rotation"--- and I was hired as the next guinea pig. (that's me in the picture) I did traffic most morning and some afternoons for several years.) Steve moved on to Ch. 13 in Birmingham as an anchor/reporter in 1979 and then, in 1982, to WGN in Chicago, where he remains today. There has been no shortage of waves in the media this past year, and Steve felt one when the station moved him from the 9:00pm anchor spot to their Noon news. Still, he's upbeat and getting used to his new sleep schedule. Because WGN is carried nationally on cable ("The Superstation"), my Mom used to watch Steve all of the time and would comment on his reporting. In addition to being a co-worker, he and his wife Julie were among my first friends when I moved to Alabama, and it was great fun reminiscing and talking about the new media landscape. We both wondered how we ever found information for stories without Google, and bemoaned the virtual death of local news on radio. Steve and Julie have a son who is threatening to get into broadcasting, despite his Dad's advice, so there may be another generation of Sanders on-air. Neither of us could begin to imagine what form "news" will take during his new career. After all, who could have predicted bankrupt newspapers across the land and youtube?

Ads in a Black Hole

A couple of years ago I gave in to the onslaught of cable TV ads urging me to subscribe to the print edition of The New York Times. The ads featured a variety of supposed readers rejoicing over the fun they had because the weekend Saturday & Sunday Times was delivered to their doorstep! They became smarter and better looking and wanted me, yes ME, to join them....call NOW!, they begged. So I did, only to discover that the delivery service isn't available in Montgomery. So ironically, a story in this morning's Times is bemoaning the fact that some of the season's hottest, most widely advertised movies are only slowly trickling into theaters. And it's true. Here in the hinterlands you can watch Wall-E on a dozen screens, but there's no Milk or Frost/Nixon to be found in Montgomery and, I'm sure, in many other Alabama cities. Milk may be too gay for some theater owners to book in this red state, and maybe political considerations are blocking Front/Nixon too. In Montgomery you can usually depend on The Capri to sign on for big releases ignored by the chains, so perhaps there's hope. Sometimes that allows the non-profit group that runs the theater to strike gold, as in when nobody else grabbed "My Big Fat Greek Wedding", and the Capri was packed for two weeks. The theater is renowned for a legal battle in 1988 over the showing of The Last Temptation of Christ. Speaking of the Capri, starting this new year, they'll be serving beer and wine. Kinda fits with the artsy nature of the theater's offerings, I think, and I hope it helps with their bottom line too! It's been a tough year for them too.