I Remember: One Of The Loneliest Nights In My Life -- My Junior High School Prom

I remember….one of the loneliest night of my life…my ninth grade prom at Lowell Jr. High on the east side of Flint, Michigan.

I had a crush on a girl in junior high and I would have done anything to get this girl’s attention – but I don’t think she even knew I existed.  It might have helped if I hadn’t been so damn shy, but when your parents split up and your Mother remarries only to get another divorce and you live in five different houses – all in the span of some six years – shyness becomes the only defense you have to avoid getting hurt. 

I really never got involved in anything at school – because the way things were going – who knew how long I would be attending that school…that’s why I really didn’t have any friends until my high school years.  Sometime I felt like I was just “passing through” during those elementary and junior high school years and there was no need to me to get involved in anything that would make me feel like I was putting down some kind of roots….that was until the junior high school prom.

Her name was Barbara and not only was she cute, but she was also smart and one of the more popular girls in school.  At lunch time, Barbara was not at a loss for friends at her table in the cafeteria – where as I was usually the kid sitting alone with his carton of white milk that actually enjoyed the meatloaf that the cafeteria ladies slapped on your tray once a week.    I would admire Barbara from a distance day dreaming that she might actually like me and that guys would be envious of me because of Barbara “liking me”….but as I said….she didn’t even know that I existed.

I thought that I might finally have my “in” in trying to get to know Barbara when it was announced that a committee was being formed to organize the 9^th grade prom.  I knew that Barbara was going to be involved in the prom, so I thought that I would throw my hat into the ring and do something to make the prom a big success, so I signed up and attended a meeting of the prom committee one night after school.  Why I should get involved in something like this was beyond me – here I was – a guy who never went to any of the junior high school dances during all my junior high years now getting involved in the prom – what was I thinking?  Hell…I can’t even dance!

While everybody on the prom committee decided on a theme and what they could do for decorations – I told them that I would work on publicity for the event – but not the normal type of publicity (crappy water colored painted posters posted throughout the school); I was going to take publicity for the junior high school prom to a new level….commercials (little did I know that writing commercials for radio stations would become my career when I got older).  I told them I would write the commercials….we could record them on one of the school’s 3M Wollensak reel-to-reel recorders and the principle could play a commercial every day during the morning p.a. announcements.  Everyone thought it was a great idea and they told me to go ahead and do it….and that’s just what I did.

I don’t remember exactly how many commercials I wrote and recorded – but I can remember producing the commercials one night after school in the same English classroom where I would read my copy of the Detroit Free Press while everyone else was reading “The Odyssey of Homer”.  The scripts for the prom commercials required some acting and the odds are pretty damn good that they were terrible – but it was junior high school – and the only reason that I was doing this anyway was to try and put the spotlight on myself and get Barbara to notice me.  Did it work?  Nope.

I was as invisible to Barbara on the night of the prom as I was before the prom.  I can remember my Mom buying me a brand new yellow banlon turtle neck shirt at K-Mart to wear to the prom and this chain with flat diamond shaped pieces of brown wood that my Mom actually thought was “love beads”.  In my Mom’s eyes – I was going to drive the girls’ wild at this prom – little did she know.

When I got to the prom – a couple of people made some comments about the “love beads” – which gave me a good reason to take them off and put them in my pocket – and that’s about the only thing anybody ever said to me that night.  While most of the people were dancing on the dance floor or playing bumper pool in the room off of the gym, I was either walking around the gym or sitting in the bleachers watching everything going on around me.  Barbara was there, as popular as ever, and when they weren’t praising her for how great the prom was she was dancing with a guy, who I later found out was her boyfriend.

I left the prom early that night.  The girl who I liked didn’t even know I existed despite all that I did to get her attention…plus…I can’t dance and was too shy to ask anyone to dance with me if I did, so I left.  I couldn’t go right home, because then I would have to answer all of the questions that my Mom would have about the prom and I couldn’t tell her the truth.  So, I walked around the softball fields that the junior high school shared with the elementary school – occasionally sitting on one of the benches near the softball diamonds and just stared at the stars in the sky 

There it was – my junior high school prom – (one of) the loneliest nights in my life. 

Labor Day Means A Lot of Things: Jerry Lewis, TV Guide and The New Fall TV Season

When I was growing up on the East side of Flint, Michigan – Labor Day weekend meant three things and none of them were associated with the real reason for Labor Day.  Labor Day weekend signaled the end of summer and that meant having to go back to school and all of the “fun” associated with that. 

Labor Day weekend also meant having to endure another Jerry Lewis Labor Day telethon – but back then there were actually real stars performing on the telethon.  It’s hard to get all excited about the Jerry Lewis telethon today when the talent is on par with a junior high school talent show – plus – anyone and everyone who watches the show today wonders how many more of these things Jerry can do before he takes the big dirt nap.  Hell, he’s barely on the show very much as it is – a few hour in the beginning…an hour or so in the middle….and an hour or so at the end.  (He’s got to be there at the end so we can see if he really blubbers it up during his rendition of “You Never Walk Alone”)  And let’s be honest with ourselves – is it really any fun watching the telethon these days without hearing Ed McMahon announcing some new numbers on the tote board?

And when I was growing up, the Labor Day weekend also signaled the beginning of a new television season and the most anticipated magazine of the year (before Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit issue and puberty arrived in my life) was TV Guide’s New Television Season Preview Guide.  The preview guide issues of TV Guide were the biggest issues of the year with synopsis of all of the new shows and pictures of all of the stars appearing in them and if you loved TV Guide – this was the issue that you were waiting for all year long.

The Summer Preview Issue also gave you your first look at what the local television stations in your area had planned for their viewers – such as what new syndicated shows they purchased and how they scheduled them.  I mean, when you’re a kid – nothing pisses you off more than to discover that your favorite show was no longer on the schedule of your local TV station --- “How dare they cancel ‘Star Trek’ reruns so that they can show Dinah Shore’s talk show in the afternoon!  Those bastards!!!”

If you only read TV Guide once a year – the old Summer Season Preview Issue was the issue to read and to imagine all of the information was compiled all together in one magazine that you could buy at your corner grocery store for fifteen cents!  What a bargain!  The Guide itself, in its digest-size was a thing of beauty – with its glossy pages filled with stories about TV and TV personalities and then there was the listings section with the black or white TV channel numbers, TV show title, type of program and program length….now that was TV Guide.  When they switched to using a grid to show the evening’s television schedule is when TV Guide lost me and then they switched the format to make TV Guide look more like a magazine and they have jacked the price up to $3.99 an issue…what are they thinking!? 

And much like TV Guide is a thing of the past – there was more news coming out concerning television, or should I say, the video industry that’s kind of sad.  It won’t be too much longer before Blockbuster video stores become a thing of the past with the announcement that they are going to be closing about eight hundred more stores as they reorganize their one billion dollar debt. 

In all of the years that Blockbuster video has been open – I probably rented one movie from them and I think that I bought one of their used previewed movies.  It’s not that I didn’t like Blockbuster, but I was a bit loyal to my friend, the late Jack Hood, who owned Rainbow Video in Flint.   I think it would be safe to say that Jack Hood owned one of the first video stores in the Flint area and one of the reasons that it was one of the best places to go to rent a movie was because Jack and co-owner Gene Krusewski loved the movies.  When you went to Blockbuster or any one of the other chain video stores – the people behind the counter were interchangeable from the local McDonalds with kids working there just to make a buck and they could care less about the movies.  Jack and Gene appreciated their customers and loved talking about the movies and were able to turn that love into a business.  But the type of store that they operated has become a thing of the past – much in the same way Blockbuster will be in the months ahead – victim to cable TV pay-per-view, the dollar video kiosks, Netflix and video downloads from your home computer. 

Dumb TV Alert: 

I can watch some pretty dumb shit on TV and feel no remorse about it – but there is one level of dumb TV that I will not lower myself to and that’s having to watch “Dancing With The Stars”.  The producers of this show could resurrect Jesus Christ and have him compete on “Dancing With The Stars” and I will not watch it.  For one thing – it’s ballroom dancing…and the other thing…who in the hell are they fooling – some of the stars on this show would have a hard time convincing people in their own homes of their star status. and what does it say about your star status if they do choose you to be on this show.   

The producers of DWTS announced who the stars that will be competing in this season’s show and what a list: 

• Singer Michael Bolton (I don’t think he could sell one of his CDs today on QVC – which should give you some indication of how his career has been going)
• Former LA Laker forward Rick Fox
• Comedian Margaret Cho (who is in the cast of Lifetime’s “Drop Dead Diva”)
• Florence Henderson of “The Brady Bunch” fame and has been hosting a senior citizens talk show on one of the cable networks.
• Jennifer Grey (who played “Baby” in “Dirty Dancing” and who’s career has been pretty much off the radar ever since she had a nose job)
• “The Situation” from MTV’s “Jersey Shore”

But the “star” that really caught all of the attention was none other that Sarah Palin’s daughter Bristol (named after the city where ESPN is located in Connecticut).  What is this kid’s claim to fame?  She’s Sarah Palin’s kid…you remember…the one who got knocked up and was going to marry the father, but decided against it…and then they got back together again…announced that they were going to get married….and decided against it again.  And you have Bristol trying to be the poster child to tell all young girls about not having sex before marriage and how rough it is to be an unwed mother…blah blah blah.  Yup, this was the kid whose mother chastised Barack Obama for being a part of the “celebrity culture”…yet it sure does look like she and her Mama are profiting pretty well from it.  I hear a season of being a star on DWTS is worth something like $250,000 and Mama Palin doesn’t open her mouth unless she’s paid for it.

I have rambled enough…I think I’ll just wrap this thing up.  Enjoy the Labor Day weekend and until we meet again…remember…it’s only TV.

TV Frostbites: Changes Ahead For American Idol

It’s not been a good year for “American Idol”.  First – the contract for Paula Abdul, one of Idol’s original trio of judges wasn’t renewed, so the producers had to scramble to find another person to fill her chair on the panel.  .  Who did they get to replace Abdul – none other than daytime talk show host and comedian Ellen Degeneres and even that announcement  was overshadowed with Simon Cowell announcing that this would be his last season of Idol. 

Another problem that Idol had this past year is with the talent that they people had to choose and vote on.  The talent on this year’s Idol was less than stellar – which could be the reason why the ratings for the show were down and lack of ticket sales have caused the cancellation of some of the dates on this summer’s “Idols On Tour” show.

Fox can see the writing on the wall and they’re going to do everything in their power to save this show – one of the few network television shows that can guarantee audiences of 15-20 million each and every week.

The Hollywood Reporter is reporting this week that Fox is close to bringing in Nigel Lythgoe, who along with Simon Fuller, created the world-wide Idol franchise and who was one of American Idol’s producers for the show’s first seven season.  You can bet the house that if Lythgoe does return to Idol you can expect a lot of changes. 

One of the changes could be seeing the show going back to a three person judging panel.  Lythgoe was not a big fan of the addition of a fourth judge, because he felt that it took the focus off the contestants.

And there could be changes to the judging panel.   Only two of current judges have a contract – Randy Jackson and Ellen Degeneres.  Jackson is on the final year of his contract and Degeneres has a multi-year contract; and they have yet to sign Kara DioGuardi (who has a one year at a time contract arrangement).  If Lythgoe has his way – the only judge to be safe on the panel is Randy Jackson.

Who would Lythgoe bring in to take Simon Cowell’s place on American Idol?  He has a pretty strong wish list and any of the names – such as Sir Elton John, Justin Timberlake, Harry Conick, Jr., Usher and Chris Issak – would be a welcome addition to the show.  He has even mentioned that he wouldn’t mind seeing Paula Abdul come back to the show – but that might be a little difficult now that she has her own show coming up on CBS.


Since this original post -- a few things have happened in the land of American Idol.  Thursday, July 29th -- Ellen Degeneres announced that she is leaving the show after just one season.  She explained her reasons in this press release:


 "A couple months ago, I let Fox and the 'American Idol' producers know that this didn't feel like the right fit for me. I told them I wouldn't leave them in a bind and that I would hold off on doing anything until they were able to figure out where they wanted to take the panel next. It was a difficult decision to make, but my work schedule became more than I bargained for. I also realized this season that while I love discovering, supporting and nurturing young talent, it was hard for me to judge people and sometimes hurt their feelings. I loved the experience working on 'Idol' and I am very grateful for the year I had. I am a huge fan of the show and will continue to be."


Also, representatives from Sir Elton John and Justin Timerlake have announced that they will not be part of the new judges panel on American Idol when it debuts later this year.   

In other TV news:

CBS is doing something nice to brighten up the summer TV doldrums – they are rerunning their surprise reality hit show – “Uncover Boss” -- every Sunday night from 9 to 10pm.  This is the show where the CEO of some pretty famous companies, such as Roto-Rotor, Waste Management, 1-800-Flowers, and more, go undercover to things really are with their companies.  In the end, the CEO lets everyone know who he really is and they institute some of the ideas the workers of the company mentioned to the “Uncover Boss”.  This Sunday – the Uncover Boss is from Hooters.  

He's Coming Home....For A Visit, That Is

  A photo of Van and Rich taken during Van's last visit to Flint

I can see it now. 

He’s counting down the days. 

I wouldn’t be surprised if he has a  calendar set up at his home in Macon, Georgia and he’s using a big black Magic Marker © to mark the days off. 

30 days.  29 days.  28 days. 27 days.  26 days.  25 days.  24 days.  23 days.  22 days.  3 more weeks!

After some seven years, my buddy Van VanDeWalker is going to be visiting his hometown of Flint, Michigan and to say that he’s excited about this visit would be the understatement of the century.  He’s pumped!  If you could put anticipation for a trip on steroids – Van would make Barry Bonds look like a piker when it came to being “juiced”!

No longer does Van have to settle for reliving the memories of biting down and hearing the snap of a Koegel Vienna with Angelo’s coney island sauce, mustard and onions…he’s going to be able to enjoy one, two, maybe three.

Van can attest to the fact that not only does seven days without a Halo Burger make one week – imagine seven years between a Bill Thomas olive Halo burger.  Knowing Van  he’ll probably tell you that having to live all those years without a Bill Thomas Halo burger was a living hell – something akin to being water boarded by Dick Cheney.

The anticipation for this trip is high…really high…and it makes sane men do strange things.  If I were a betting man, I’d place a few bucks on one of the first things that Van does when he gets off the plane at Bishop Airport is to kiss the ground.   Yup, he’ll get down on his knees and kiss the tarmac and hope like hell that airport security doesn’t bitch slap him.  I’m sure that before Van leaves the airport in his cheapest you can find but still expensive rent-a-car, he will buy a Flint Journal from one of the airport coin boxes to read back in his motel room.  And, if I know Van, he’ll be sneaking a peek at a headline here and there while waiting for the traffic lights to change on the way to his budget motel. 

One of the reasons that Van will be visiting Flint will be to attend a high school class reunion,  but one day of his three day visit will be taken up by doing one thing – joining me for a tour of the old town and seeing first hand just how much things have changed. 

Whether it was going to Kearsley Park on a hot summer day to learn basic lessons of safety at Safetyville, USA or taking in a Thanksgiving Day Northern/Central game at Atwood Stadium on a cold winter day – that’s the Flint that will forever be a part of a lot of us.  Or maybe it was jumping on an MTA bus and meeting all our friends downtown to see a movie at the Palace or Capitol Theater, or enjoying a ice cream sundae in the restaurant at Smith B’s or a bag of caramel popcorn from Dales. There are so many moments and places that both Van and I are going to relive as we drive around Flint and remembering how it use to be.

When we drive by Windmill Place – I’m sure we’ll have a laugh remembering when that Saturday a long long time ago when I participated in a “Celebrity Hot Dog Eating Contest”.  The organizers of this even pitted me against some small bellied “celebrities” from WTRX, Channel 5 and some other media organization that I can’t remember and they didn’t have a chance against my hot dog eating skills – me, the well-trained eating machine.  These guys were no match and I didn’t even have to pull out all of the stops to trounce the competition.  . 

Van will be surprised as I take him to one of the new sub-divisions in Grand Blanc and remind him that the radio station that we once worked for – WTAC – once stood where these beautiful homes now stand.  I’m sure he’ll also be surprised by all of the changes on S. Saginaw in Grand Blanc….this wasn’t the way he remembered the way it looked.

Van will also be surprised when I point out to him that the “Jumbo Video” store on Dort Hwy., across from K-Mart, is where the Ember’s Lounge once stood.  It was at the Ember’s Lounge where all of his friends left him alone on the dance floor to do a drunken Pee Wee Herman dance as we enjoyed our drinks and watched him from our table.

Our sight-seeing trip to Flint wouldn’t be complete without checking out the Citizens Bank weather ball or driving by that forty foot waitress in front of at the coney island restaurant on Corunna Road.  For old times sake – we’ll probably buy a lottery ticket or two at Paul’s Pipe Shop and see first hand all of the improvements downtown from the Durant Hotel to Channel 5’s new Flint headquarters to the new grocery store that just opened.  We’ll probably visit the old neighborhoods and share stories about what made living there so great and as we’ll probably pay a visit to Gracelawn to honor family members who have left us that made these memories we’ll share possible. 

So, join us in counting down the days.  August 20-23, 2010 – Van VanDeWalker visits Flint.  Believe it or not – on August 21^st – Van and I are going to combine two of our loves into one thing….coney islands and Scrabble.  So, don’t be surprised if you see two guys chowing down the dogs at Angelo’s while they’re playing a game of Scrabble.  You’re more than welcome to watch – but please – no helping the participants.  

Some News About The News And The People Who Report It

It’s been an interesting week in television.  If rumors are any indication of anything – there will be one less female anchor hosting a network newscast in the not too distant future.  There have been rumors this past week – although no official confirmation – that CBS would like to buy out the remainder of Katie Couric’s contract with CBS News and replace her as anchor.  Would it surprise me if something like that happened?  Not really – especially with all of the rumors swirling around the internet and news blogs of some sort of deal being worked out to combine CBS News and CNN.  The other question is – who would CBS hire to fill the anchor chair if something like that did happen?  I dunno!  Maybe the news and entertainment division could work up a new program and call it something like “Who Will Be The Next CBS Evening News Anchor?” and have a bunch of reporters competing against each other for the position.  You could even have CBS/Viacom’s Chairman Sumner Redstone in the boardroom telling one reporter each week that they can “turn in your reporter’s notebook and go home’. 

Along with the talk of CBS wanting to buy out Katie Couric’s contract is the report that NBC’s Jeff Zucker (the man responsible for Jay Leno at 10) would like to have Katie Couric back home on NBC’s “Today Show”.  C’mon Jeff – do you really think that Katie is going to come back and be the perky one on the “Today Show” with Matt and Al after she has being the evening news anchor at CBS?  Jeff – Katie coming back to the “Today Show” wouldn’t exactly be a forward career move – that’s unless you have another brilliant idea – maybe something like “Today At Night” – a prime time hour of news and information and can use every Monday through Friday at 10pm.  Jeff Zucker could try and convince the affiliates on how cost effective a move having the “Today Show” on at night would be.  It would be less expensive that those pesky hour long dramas that you have to buy and schedule and what’s a more perfect lead-in to the late night local news that a network newscast.  Katie could report the news and do those hard-hitting interviews (like asking Sarah Palin what she reads) and the premiere show could feature one of Katie’s always entertaining colostomies.  Hell…maybe Zucker could be the one that the person that Katie chooses to insert a camera to go where cameras aren’t meant to go.  I know it all sounds pretty far-fetched – but nothing is impossible or far-fetched in the TV news business these days.

When I say noting is impossible or far-fetched in the TV news business these days – all you have to do is look at what’s happening at CNN.  Once known as the most trusted name in news -- CNN is quickly becoming the most desperate cable channel in America today.  When Campbell Brown resigned, CNN finally came to the realization that they couldn’t compete against the other channels with news and nothing but the news.  So, what does CNN do?  They are about to combine the news that you need to know with the equivalent of the kind of theater you’d expect to see on a prime time wrestling show.  If a bell is going off in your head that it sounds vaguely like “Crossfire”— the old CNN show where they pitted a liberal against a conservative and let them go at it – then you get a gold star for your forehead for having a good memory.  But they don’t stop there…the hosts that they have hired for this new program will be conservative columnist Kathleen Parker and Eliot Spitzer, who was once the governor of New York until news came out that he like to hire hookers.  Don’t expect a lot of respectable polite political discussions on this show – be prepared for a lot of shouting and attention getting theatrics or, in other words, a reason for you to tune in to CNN instead of the other cable “news” networks.

And the hits don’t stop there – CNN is looking to replace Larry King – who’s turning in his suspenders after twenty-five years of softball questions to some of the most powerful people in the world.  It’s pretty much a forgone conclusion that CNN will hire British TV personality and hack journalist Piers Morgan to fill the 9pm slot.  Most Americans know Piers from the Simon Cowell produced “America’s Got Talent” and from his appearance on “Celebrity Apprentice”.    Hiring Morgan will be the dumbest thing that CNN has ever done.  Trust me – before six months time – Piers Morgan will do something and say something to embarrass the network and give CNN critics fuel to burn the whole house down.  Piers Morgan is an ass and there’s no way in hell that he should be allowed to do an interview with a serious newsmaker – if my memory serves me right – Morgan once asked a British Prime Minister if he and his wife are members of the “mile high club”.  So, brace yourself for CNN’s new prime time line-up of Parker and Spitzer followed by Piers (I know Sharon Osborne) Morgan.  It’s a line-up like that that might have Anderson Cooper seriously consider taking the evening news spot on CBS.

Once a Flaming Talk Show Host -- The Only Flame Now in Dave Barber's Life is on his Grill and He's Happy About That

It wasn’t that long ago that the radio market in Flint, Michigan was filled with some incredible on-air personalities from wild and kinetic rock n’ roll antics of Peter C. Cavanaugh on WTAC to the mid-day housewife’s best friend, Betty Clark on WFDF.  Country music fans listening to WKMF couldn’t get enough of disc-jockeys such as Johnny Irons and Big Bill Anderson and then there was Buffalo Dick’s Radio Ranch on WWCK – Jeff Lamb’s somewhat bent take on children’s television shows that kept everyone entertained in the late 70s.

It’s a pretty safe bet that if there was anyone on the radio in Flint, Michigan who made a lasting impression on people – good or bad – that person would be Dave Barber.  While working overnights spinning records at WTRX – Dave dipped his toes into the world of talk radio by filling in for a vacationing Wally Kennedy.  Unlike other fill-in hosts for Wally Kennedy – Dave didn’t play it safe – he instantly went into his flame-throwing mode and the style of talk show that people remember Dave doing.

“I figured I couldn’t do the show the way Wally did it, so I started flame throwing,” Dave says.  “I mean I had an opinion about everything.  It managed to get a reaction (not always favorable).  Wally tended not to be very confrontational, so I stood out like a sore thumb.  It’s not what people listen to, it’s what they remember and can write it down in a rating diary and back in the late 70’s my show had a 40 share of the Flint audience.”

And just like Howard Stern in New York City – radio listeners in Flint, Michigan might not have liked or even loved Dave Barber, but they would listen to him just to hear what he would say next or who he would verbally dissect without missing a beat.

A complicated radio personality – Dave was part newsman, part antagonist and part Las Vegas lounge lizard who would like nothing more than to be a part of Old Blue Eye’s Rat Pack.  On one hand Dave Barber could be playful on the radio, but most of the time you took him pretty seriously and the last thing you ever wanted to do was to get in a pissing match with him.  He warned more than a few of the callers to his show – “If you want to play mental gymnastics with me, I’ll tell you right now, you’re going to lose,”  and he would see to it that even your best argument didn’t hold water and you weren’t worthy to even take up any of his time.  With Dave Barber – you either loved him or hated him….and he usually made sure that there was no middle ground for you to choose.  He knew how to push his listeners’ buttons and get them to respond, and in turn, it’s safe to say that Dave Barber provided Flint with some pretty exciting talk radio.

It’s been four years since Dave Barber’s voice has been heard on Flint radio.  In March of 2006, Dave left his hometown of Flint, Michigan to take a morning spot on WPRO radio in Providence, Rhode Island.  The radio business is not unlike any other business – if you want to move up in your career you had to take some challenges and Dave knew that the job in Providence was that next big step in his radio career, but it’s not easy to leave your comfort base and move to a new area where nobody knows your name or who you are. 

“The move was far more difficult then I expected,” Dave said.  “I did not know one single person and to be honest with you, I don’t know if I would have made the move if I knew what I know now.”

After nearly a year in his new job, Dave received his first employee performance review from the vice-president of talk programming for Citadel broadcasting (the company that owns WPRO, as well as WJR in Detroit and the ABC Radio Network).  Dave got a glowing review and everything was coming up roses, or so he thought. 

“I was so excited about the good review,” Dave says, “I decided to treat myself to a vacation in Miami to see the Super Bowl.  Things changed though when I got back to Providence -- On my first day back from vacation, I was fired.  And to complicate the matter even more -- the general manager of the station wouldn’t even give me the reason why I was being let go -- I was just told that I would understand in a few days.” 

A few days passed and Dave discovered the reason he was let go.  A former Rhode Island radio personality, who was better known, had just been fired from his job in Boston and was now available, so WPRO decided to bring him back to Providence. 

“So, I was the odd guy out when they hired him to come back to the market.  Plus, I don’t think it helped that I questioned the war in Iraq on the air, because the General Manager’s husband was a military General.  A little something that nobody bothered to tell me about.”

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Dave was vocal about his feeling against the war in Iraq – he’s always let his feelings known on the air about the issues of the day – whether it was the war, the Auto World fiasco, abortion rights or capital punishment and he wasn’t afraid to take on people in power. 

Dave’s feud with former Flint Mayor Woodrow Stanley was pretty much chronicled by the Flint Journal. 

“Woodrow was simply corrupt,” Dave said about the former mayor.  “He circled himself with corrupt people and he didn’t like it that I let people know that about him.” 

How many talk show hosts do you know that have to protect themselves against the people that they talk about on the air?  Not too many, but at one point during the Stanley feud, Dave was allegedly struck by the former mayor and he had to have a restraining order issued against him. 

“Hey, Stanley loved me so much that he called me ‘his bitch’ to anyone who brought up my name.”

Dave irritated some other politicians – such as former Michigan governor John Engler.  Dave challenged Engler -- who embraced “family values” during his campaign for governor -- yet allegedly abused and cheated on his first wife – according to a request for an annulment from the Catholic Church that Engler’s wife filed.

“She said she would sue me if I reported it,” Dave said.  “I did and she didn't, so you see truth is a defense.”

As much as Dave loves to talk about his days in talk radio – he knows that those days are now over and he feels that was is happening now in the radio business is sad and embarrassing.

Currently, Dave Barber is the program director for Rhode Island’s Capitol Television. 

“Think of it as C-Span for Rhode Island.  I report to the Speaker of the House and I serve as the stations’ only on air person.  It’s all politics all the time.  My life today is completely different then it has ever been and I have never been happier.”

When Dave Barber lived and worked in the Flint area – he ate at only the finest restaurants in the area…today, Dave Barber enjoys eating meals at home -- meals that he cooks on his deluxe grill and, if you believe some of his Facebook postings, he has become a pretty fair grill master. 

And when asked about what he misses about the Flint area, Dave answers quickly, “Koegel Viennas!  Here in Little Rhody they call coney dogs “hot wieners”.  I was spoiled in Flint.  A hot dog in Flint is like filet mignon. The dogs here crawl out of the bun.” 

Anyone wishing to forward some Kogel’s out Dave’s way – you can contact him at Capitol Television.  You could call him at home – but he might be too busy grilling or getting ready for an evening in front of the television watching “American Idol.” 

In the interest of full disclose -- the author of this blog, Rich Frost, was once Dave Barber’s producer at WTAC – which doesn’t make him a bad guy – but it’s something he thought you might like to know.

A Classic TV Movie....More Problems for Jay Leno and NBC...and There's Some Good TV to Be Found on Basic Cable

Can you read this?

I think my fingers have gotten a little chubbier after all that I have to eat this fourth of July weekend and the extra chub might affect my typing skills – so bear with me if a few words are spelled wrong.  The food this Fourth of July weekend was pretty much delicious – with the exception of some food that I sampled on a trip up north Friday and I have to give credit to Marty and her youngest son Bill, who pretty much has become the family’s “Grill Master Extraordinaire”!

But enough about food and the fourth – let’s talk some TV and there is a lot on TV to talk about. 

“Duel” anyone?

The fine arts and entertainment channel Ovation (DirecTV Channel 274/Dish Network Channel 157) has been highlighting the work of some film directors a little ahead of their time with a series called “American Revolutionaries: The Directors”.  One of the directors featured in this series is Stephen Spielberg and the movie that they’re showing is the classic made-for-TV movie that he directed for ABC named “Duel” starring Dennis Weaver (who many people may still remember as Chester on the old CBS western “Gunsmoke”). 

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the movie “Duel” – it’s the story of a salesman (Dennis Weaver) who decides to take the scenic route to his next appointment, but little did he know that he was going to be terrorized by a faceless driver in a huge semi-truck that has the words “flammable” printed in big block letters on the back and side of the truck.  It doesn’t matter of Dennis Weaver is in front or in back of this semi – he’s pushed and terrorized the whole time.  You never see the face of the driver in the truck throughout the whole film – but you don’t have to – because every time that you see this truck you know things are going to get a little ugly for Weaver. 

According to the people hosting this show -- this low budget TV movie was all that Spielberg needed to kick start his career – because the first film that he got to direct after “Duel” was aired was “Jaws” and everyone remembers how that movie scared people at the beaches the summer that it was released.

Another director that they’re highlighting in this series is Mel Brooks – who wrote (with Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder) and directed one of my favorite movies of all time “Blazing Saddles”.  I actually seen this movie in a theater some ten times and laughed just as hard the tenth time that I did the first time that I saw this film.  Unfortunately, this series on Ovation won’t be showing “Blazing Saddles”, but will be airing another Brooks’s classic “The Producers”…is everybody ready for “Springtime for Hitler”?

NBC: More Problems than Hits

Remember last summer when NBC tried to convince us that come September we would all be turning to NBC for Jay Leno at 10?  NBC told producers and program suppliers that instead of those expensive prime-time drama programs – they were going to cut cost with running Leno five nights a week at ten with a fresh new show every night.  Leno at 10 was probably the biggest programming bomb in NBC history next to “Pink Lady and Jeff” and “Super Train”.  Leno bombing at 10pm brought about another programming blunder – when NBC thought they would send Jay Leno back to 11:35 and in turn – take “The Tonight Show” away from Conan O’Brien, who had only been hosting the show for seven months. 

One of the reasons that they gave Conan his walking papers was because his ratings were smaller than what Leno got when he did “The Tonight Show”.  NBC probably thought that they would put Leno back at 11:35 and everything would be ok – it would be like the whole “Leno at 10” fiasco was some soap opera dream sequence that never happened in real life.  Well…it happened….and here’s the kicker to the story:  Jay Leno’s ratings at 11:35 are actually worse than what Conan was getting for NBC and Conan was attracting a younger audience that what Jay does…oh well.  It’s going to be interesting to see what kind of audience Conan is going to pull in when he premieres this November on basic cable TBS.

More problems for NBC

One of the shows that NBC was hoping would be a big ratings draw for them come September is a new show called “Love Bites”.  The show, similar in format to the old TV show “Love American Style”, is having a few problems getting off the ground.  The woman who wrote the pilot, and who was once one of the top writers on “Sex and the City”, has left the show and one of the stars of the show – Becki Newton (who suppose to be a virgin on the show) has gotten pregnant.  So, instead of a September premiere – NBC is pushing back production on the show and they’re hoping to have “Love Bites” in shape for a January premiere.

With an hour hole to fill in the prime time schedule – NBC has turned to “The Donald” for a new season of “The Apprentice”.  Unlike the past few seasons that have featured celebrities – sixteen people are going to fight to become Donald Trump’s Apprentice and these people are combination of people who have either lost their jobs or are recent college graduates, who have had a hard time getting noticed in today’s job market.

Good TV is Easy to Find This Summer on Basic Cable

Traditional over the air television is in deep trouble – especially when basic cable channels are beating them at their own game.  When a basic cable channel like TV Land can attract broadcast network size audience with a mediocre sitcom like “Hot in Cleveland” – something is really wrong.

Last week, FX aired the first episode of the new comedy “Louie” starring comedian Louis C.K. and it’s probably one of the funniest shows on television today.  The premise of the show is nothing unusual – it’s basically the same thing that Jerry Seinfeld did on NBC – but Louis C.K.’s comedy has more bite than a shark at feeding time.  Where Jerry Seinfeld could be a little “cute” with things like the girl with the name that sounded like a…you know what….or give new meaning to the phrase “master of your own domain” – Louis C.K. comes out and tells it like it is.  Catch “Louie” Tuesday nights at 11pm on FX.

Fans of Dennis Leary and “Rescue Me”….the show is back on FX Tuesday nights at 10pm.  This is the last season for the show – so you don’t want to miss one episode to see how Tommy fares this season with his libido and battles with the bottle.  (Note:  Dennis Leary has signed with FX to do a new series after the completion of “Rescue Me”).

Jason Lee (of “My Name Is Earl” fame) is back as a Memphis cop who loves Elvis on the new TNT show “Memphis Blues” – Tuesdays at 10pm on TNT.  I caught the premiere episode of the show last week and it shows some promise – and if you watch closely – you’ll see some of Jason’s old cast mates from Earl pop up in the show.

Last, but not least, fans of Kyra Sedgwick and “The Closer” – the new season returns to TNT – Monday, July 12.  Expect some big changes to happen to Brenda and her job with the Los Angeles police department – let’s hope that budget cuts don’t split up her team of detectives.

Well, my stomach has settled down from all of the fourth of July goodies that I have consumed….so, I think I’ll find the remote control and set back and enjoy a show or two….and until the next time…remember – it’s only TV.

Memories Of Norm Perry, WTAC's Chief Engineer

It takes a lot of people to run a radio station – you need sales people to sell advertising, traffic people to place the advertising on the broadcast schedules, announcers to voice the commercials and do an air shift and it also helps if you have a good chief engineer on staff to make sure that your station stays on the air and sounding good.  Before deregulation hit the broadcast industry – a good chief engineer was as valuable to your radio station as the top rated morning and afternoon drive-time air personalities.  I am lucky to have been able to spend some time and to have known one of Flint and the Tri-Cities’ best chief engineers – the late Norm Perry from WTAC. 

I think of Norm Perry every so often – especially when I’m just goofin’ off on the Internet listening to my favorite Internet radio station or playing a game or two of Sudoku.  Norm Perry died just as computers were coming into being and long before the Internet.  He had a computer chess game that he loved to play and he was beside himself when he would win a game or two against the computer.  I think it was that primal man against machine and man actually beat the machine – thump thump thump the chest – kind of thing. 

I think Norm owned a one of the early Commodore computers, but he had no idea of how advanced that computers would become and how big it would become in homes and businesses around the world.  He was more interested in challenging the computer than to harness it to do things for him.

Norm Perry lived just as Timex started making LCD watches and people were playing Pac-Man and Frogger on Atari game machine.  Imagine what kind of things someone like Norm Perry could do today with computers as powerful as they are today and of the ideas that he could connect with and grow just by harnessing all that the Internet has to offer.

Another thing that I can remember about Norm is that he loved to shop the garage sales.  Norm would check out the pickings – maybe see a television set that didn’t work for fifteen bucks and would end up convincing the owner that it wasn’t worth more than five bucks.  He’d give the person a fiver….take the TV set home….fix it with a turn of a knob or a touch of his soldering gun and get the TV working like it was brand new and sell it for seventy-five bucks. 

The same kind of skills that he used in profiting from garage sales he put to use in his daily job as a chief engineer.  Even though the chief engineer was a valuable person to the existence of a radio station – back when Norm was a chief engineer management at radio stations were pretty tight with a buck and they didn’t really give people like Norm the kind of budget that they needed – so you had to be creative in how you solved problems. 

When Dave Barber came over to WTAC from WTRX to do “Flint Feedback” – Norm was called upon to devise a tape delay so that we could “bleep” anything that needed to be bleeped.  Naturally, a professional tape delay device wasn’t in WTAC’s budget, but you can’t have someone doing a daily talk show and not have some sort of delay device.  Well…it didn’t take long for Norm to access the problem and come up with a solution of a long tape loop between two huge broadcast reel-to-reel players with a “dump” button in Barber’s studio and at console where the producer (yours truly) sat.  It worked and it cost the station next to nothing and it prevented more than a few obscene words from going out over the air.

Norm and I did talk about things other than radio.  At least once a week, we would both venture to the Ponderosa Steak House on Hill Road (no longer there) and feast on that $2.99 lunch special – which was the ground steak patty, baked potato, salad bar and drink.  We could have spent more for lunch – but we loaded up a lot on the salad bar and the rolls and it was enough for us.

During lunch we’d talk about cable television – which was just taking its infant steps.  ESPN existed of only one channel and I remember reading how they were on shaky ground financially as was CNN.  Neither of us had any solutions to how these stations could survive – but we were both intrigued by what they were going to do to survive.

There’s one thing that I will always remember about Norm – and it wasn’t how creative he was in his job or how smart he was – nope – I like to remember Norm as my friend.  I miss those Saturday nights – when Norm would visit me at my apartment on Richfield and Averill carrying a six pack of cold ones that we would enjoy as we watched the fights on HBO.  Neither of us were boxing aficionados, but we knew enough to make watching the fight enjoyable and it gave a chance to just be friends.  Norm….I miss ya!

TV's Summer Season is Cooking -- Plus There Are A Couple of Really Funny New Shows

Where does all of the time go?  It’s hard to believe that we’re already half-way through 2010 and in a matter of days it will be July 4th and before you know it – Jerry Lewis is going to be hosting another telethon – is this year is going fast or what??!!!  Before you know it – we’re all going to be bitching about the cold temperatures and how we’re being pounded by cold fronts and snow storms.

Well. It’s been awhile since I have written anything of interest on this blog – and I wouldn’t want to blow that winning streak – so, I might as well talk about something I know nothing about – but love to talk about any way – television.

The Summer TV season has arrived and it’s time that we all took a break away from all of the news on the mess in the Gulf and escape with some mindless television entertainment.  If you’re a foodie – the people who gave you the Food Network have blessed us with another channel – “The Cooking Channel”…a channel filled with a lot of old Food Network programming like “Emeril Live” and some new food shows from their Food Network operations in Canada.  The people who own these two networks are positioning the Cooking Channel for those who love to cook and the Food Network as a reality based food network with cooking competition shows mixed in with the regular programming.  Either way you look at it – it’s a lot of food programs!

If you want to find out how important you are to the Food Network or Cooking Channel – if the program you’re doing has you preparing food with cheap production music that you would normally hear play in the background in porn movie – you’re not that important to these channels.  If they have porn music playing behind your cooking demonstrations – the odds are pretty good that you won’t be asked to compete on “Iron Chef America” or be a featured chef on one of their Food documentaries.        

There is a lot of food competition programming on TV these days.  For over the top dramatics – there’s Gordon Ramsey’s “Hell’s Kitchen” on Fox with a bunch of chefs competing to be a chef in one of his restaurants.  The Food Network is back with another season of “The Next Food Network Star” on Food Network, and the classiest food competition show of the bunch “Top Chef” is back on Bravo with this season’s competition taking place in our nation’s capital – Washington, D.C.

Gordon Ramsey is adding another show to his Fox TV workload.  Unlike “Hell’s Kitchen” and “Kitchen Nightmares” – it looks like we’re going to see a much softer and caring Chef Ramsey with the premiere of his new show in July on Fox called “”Master Chef”.  On this show – a slew of chefs will be competing to become a master chef – what they’ll receive once they obtain that title remains to be seen – but there’s one thing that is guaranteed – the show will be entertaining as all hell.

Imagine being a geeky kid in eighth grade – who’s in love with the most beautiful girl in school – but he can only get the attention of a geeky eighth grade girl and you have MTV’s newest comedy “The Hard Times of RJ Berger”.  Now you have got to remember that all of RJ’s friends are complete geeks and nerds….that is until in the middle of a basketball game – in front of the whole school – his basketball shorts are pulled down and his jock strap falls to the floor exposing what is perhaps the largest, you know what, to everyone in the bleacher stands.  All of a sudden – RJ’s popularity takes a turn to something more than just nerds and geeks.  This is one funny show….Monday nights at 10pm on MTV.

Following RJ at 10:30 on MTV is a new show “Warren the Ape” is a spin-off of another live action puppet comedy “Greg the Bunny” that has aired on several cable networks.  “Warren the Ape” is a puppet who’s career has taken a bit of a turn….he’s gone from being an “A” list celebrity to a “D” list and below.  He’s also in “Celebrity Rehab” – complete with appearances by Dr. Drew Pinsky himself – hoping that it might revitalize his career.  If you want to laugh and laugh out loud – check out “Warren the Ape” Monday nights at 10:30pm on MTV.

Betty White continues to be hot hot hot…with the premiere of her new sitcom “Hot in Cleveland” attracting some five million people to TV Land.  The show, which also stars Jane Leeves (“Fraiser”) and Valerie Bertinelli “One Day At A Time”) is about three women from Los Angeles who land in Cleveland and discover that unlike the west coast – men are actually attracted to them and don’t think of them as “old”.  They decide to rent a home in Cleveland and Betty White is the person who maintains the house.  The premise is a bit lame – but Betty White could read tea leaves and make it funny and she does it on this show.  Its premiere episode on TV Land attracted some five million viewers – which is more viewers than NBC had when they tried to unload Jay Leno in the 10pm slot. (“Hot in Cleveland” airs at 9pm Wednesday Nights on TV Land and on CMT later in the week.)

The afternoon TV landscapes is going to look at lot different come September – when Oprah leaves daytime TV to begin a new career on a new cable network – the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN).  TV stations that carry Oprah now are looking for programming to put in Oprah’s time slot that will hopefully bring in the same size audience every day that Oprah has been delivering.  One of the shows that is profiting from Oprah leaving daytime TV is another Oprah Winfrey produced program – Dr. Oz.  Beginning in September – Dr. Oz’s show will move from its 3pm time slot on Channel 4 in Detroit to Oprah’s 4pm time slot on Channel 7 – and the show is getting similar upgrades at other stations around the country.

In other TV news:  It was nice seeing Bryant Gumble hosting “The View” last week.  It’s been a long time since we have seen Bryant on commercial television (he still does a show for HBO) and I forgot how good he was and how comfortable his on-the-air style is – especially against some of the screaming and yelling that goes on during that show.

And – one last thing before I leave.  I started out this blog entry by mentioning how quickly this year is going by – well…here’s another shocker for you.  Believe it or not – Beatle drummer Ringo Starr is going to be 70 years old this July.  You heard me – 70 years old!  If Ringo’s 70 – how old does it makes all of us who remember him as one of the mop top Beatles?