6:06:06 on 6/6/06

A look at my studio clock as it his six minutes and six seconds after six on the morning of June (six) sixth, two-thousand-six. Whew!

Did you notice?

The world is still here.

01:02:03 on 04/05/06

Yes, I know, anyone could have reset the clock to get the picture, but I did not. This was taken as my "Atomic Clock" hit the magic hour, minute, etc. The "75" in the lower right is the temperature.

2006 Opening Day!

Play
Ball!

Jared Drops By The Station

You've seen him on TV, Jared, the Subway sandwich guy, was in Baton Rouge promoting the Great American Heart Walk.

My Own WTF Gift

Click the picture and read the instructions for this flashlight. You've probably seen them advertisted on TV; shake it back-and-forth to re-charge the battery.

Pretty Sunrise

This picture was taken on Tuesday morning, just as the sun was coming up. I get to see this every morning from the WJBO studio window, five-floors up at I-10 @ College Drive. You can see some reflection on the window.

Thanksgiving

I hope everyone is having a great Thanksgiving weekend.
It is hard to believe that it is almost over.
As many of you know, because The Lovely Marie was incapacitated with knee surgery, I cooked our Thanksgiving turkey, this year.
It turned out great, great I tells ya'.
To prove it, here is a picture of it coming out of the oven.
Too bad we don't, yet, have scratch-'n'-sniff monitors.

Marie had prepared everything before her Wednesday morning surgery, so all that had to be done, on Thursday, was put it in the oven, or nuke it in the microwave, and we were set.
Rice and cornbread dressing, sweet potato casserole, green beans, lima beans, mashed potatoes, crescent rolls, etc. YUM.
We hope yours was as great!


BTW: So much for my LSU score prognostications.

LSU/Ole Miss

A lot has been made about my, highly accurate, LSU ballgame predictions.
OK, here's my prediction for the LSU/Ole Miss game.
Much closer than may think, but The Tigers will pull it out.
LSU - 21
Ole Miss - 10
Kennedy and I have a Starbucks bet on whether The Tigers will cover the spread.
I say they will not.
Goooooo Tigers.

Happy Birthday, Josh

It was 21 years ago, this very minute, that my son, Josh was born. Happy birthday, Josh.
Here is one of my all-time favorite Josh-pictures.
He was about 2-and-a-half, at the time.

WAY TO GO, TIGERS!

I have been posting waaaaa too little, lately. Today we saw one of the all-time great Tiger/Tide match-ups in Tuscaloosa. LSU won it, in overtime, 16-10. Great job, Tigers, now let's whip-up on Ole Miss, in Oxford, and Arkansas, here in Baton Rouge.
By the way, Vern Lundquist and Todd Blackledge get my vote as favorite college football broadcast team. It is almost worth it just to hear Vern say "AFLAC" when they do the weekly SEC trivia question. Nice job, guys.

Go Yankees!!!

I know that I have not posted, with one exception, since before Katrina, but that changes NOW! MLB's regular season is about to end and, as a Yankee fan, we've been looking forward to this final series with the Red Sox all year. Well, here it is! The New York-boys go into the series with a one-game lead over Boston for the AL East lead.

This pic was taken the day after LSU won the National Championship.
(Click pic to enlarge)

Sunday's Final Warning

So much has happened since then, but do you remember that urgent advisory from the National Weather Service on Sunday morning?
I, in all my years in radio and radio news, had NEVER seen anything like it.
I, sincerely, hope I never do, again.

Here it is, and, remember, this was strictly for the immediate New Orleans area...

WWUS74 KLIX 281550
NPWLIX

URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW ORLEANS LA
1011 AM CDT SUN AUG 28 2005


DEVASTATING DAMAGE EXPECTED

HURRICANE KATRINA
A MOST POWERFUL HURRICANE WITH UNPRECEDENTED
STRENGTH...RIVALING THE INTENSITY OF HURRICANE CAMILLE OF 1969.

MOST OF THE AREA WILL BE UNINHABITABLE FOR WEEKS...PERHAPS LONGER. AT
LEAST ONE HALF OF WELL CONSTRUCTED HOMES WILL HAVE ROOF AND WALL
FAILURE. ALL GABLED ROOFS WILL FAIL...LEAVING THOSE HOMES SEVERELY
DAMAGED OR DESTROYED.

THE MAJORITY OF INDUSTRIAL BUILDINGS WILL BECOME NON FUNCTIONAL.
PARTIAL TO COMPLETE WALL AND ROOF FAILURE IS EXPECTED. ALL WOOD
FRAMED LOW RISING APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL BE DESTROYED. CONCRETE
BLOCK LOW RISE APARTMENTS WILL SUSTAIN MAJOR DAMAGE...INCLUDING SOME
WALL AND ROOF FAILURE.

HIGH RISE OFFICE AND APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL SWAY DANGEROUSLY...A
FEW TO THE POINT OF TOTAL COLLAPSE. ALL WINDOWS WILL BLOW OUT.

AIRBORNE DEBRIS WILL BE WIDESPREAD...AND MAY INCLUDE HEAVY ITEMS SUCH
AS HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCES AND EVEN LIGHT VEHICLES. SPORT UTILITY
VEHICLES AND LIGHT TRUCKS WILL BE MOVED. THE BLOWN DEBRIS WILL CREATE
ADDITIONAL DESTRUCTION. PERSONS...PETS...AND LIVESTOCK EXPOSED TO THE
WINDS WILL FACE CERTAIN DEATH IF STRUCK.

POWER OUTAGES WILL LAST FOR WEEKS...AS MOST POWER POLES WILL BE DOWN
AND TRANSFORMERS DESTROYED. WATER SHORTAGES WILL MAKE HUMAN SUFFERING
INCREDIBLE BY MODERN STANDARDS.

THE VAST MAJORITY OF NATIVE TREES WILL BE SNAPPED OR UPROOTED. ONLY
THE HEARTIEST WILL REMAIN STANDING...BUT BE TOTALLY DEFOLIATED. FEW
CROPS WILL REMAIN. LIVESTOCK LEFT EXPOSED TO THE WINDS WILL BE
KILLED.

AN INLAND HURRICANE WIND WARNING IS ISSUED WHEN SUSTAINED WINDS NEAR
HURRICANE FORCE...OR FREQUENT GUSTS AT OR ABOVE HURRICANE FORCE...ARE
CERTAIN WITHIN THE NEXT 12 TO 24 HOURS.

ONCE TROPICAL STORM AND HURRICANE FORCE WINDS ONSET...DO NOT VENTURE
OUTSIDE!

Come, Sherman, step into the WayBack Machine...

Here are a few more from the Meeks Collection...

This is where it all started. I was the very first voice on KSLU-FM in Hammond, in October of 1974. That would've been before I started my Baton Rouge radio career.
Look at that old Gates board, with the color-coded push-buttons.
The radio studio was located in the Humanities building which also housed the big theater.
On the other side of that glass was a TV studio. The equipment had not been used, in a while, and was all disconnected, piled up in a corner and covered with sheets. Several of us, including Ya' Pal Al Nassar, resurrected that TV equipment and had a lot of fun with it.
I remember doing a comedy version of "Superman" with a hispanic Clark Kent, for a final exam in a broadcast lab class, and got an A for it.
I wonder if that tape still exists? That was in the days before VCRs, I would've loved to have gotten a copy of it.

Here I am relaxing between records at WFPR-AM in Hammond.
I remember our top-of-the-hour station identification.
"This is WFPR, AM 1400, in Hammond, America located in beautiful Kin Tally Estates, a development of Quick Realty. At the tone it will be 8pm and time for A.P. Radio Network News."
Whew, it was a mouthful.
I did a mid-day country show on WFPR (FPR stood for Florida Parishes Radio), for a few months, in 1976.
We also had a "Swap Shop" where people could go on-the-air with items that they had for sale, kind of like an on-air garage sale.

In Seattle

The bluest sky you’ve ever seen, in Seattle.
And the hills the greenest green, in Seattle.
Like a beautiful child
Growing up, free and wild.
Full of hopes and full of fears,
Full of laughter, full of tears,
Full of dreams to last a year In Seattle.

When you find your own true love you will know it
By his smile, by the look in his eyes.
Smell of set pine trees in the air
Never knew a day so fair
It makes you feel so good to be alive
Look out everyone, here come the brides.

(Theme from "Here Come The Brides"
by Jack Keller, Hugo Montenegro & Ernie Sheldon)

It was 12-years ago, this week, that my, then-morning show partner, K.C. Jones, and I, went to Seattle, Washington.

Our radio station had done a contest where the winner could pick any destination served by a particular airline. He chose Seattle, and K.C. and I were supposed to go with him, but when it came time to actually take the trip, a few weeks later, he said that he could not go. K.C. and I still went and had a great time.

Here are a few pictures from that trip, including these of, and from, the Space Needle, probably Seattle's most famous building.
It doesn't really go into space.

(Click pics to enlarge)

The Space Needle
Downtown Seattle from the Space Needle. Look closely and you can see the monorail track. You can catch the monorail, downtown, and it will take you to the Space Needle, and back.

Puget Sound seen from the Space Needle.

In Seattle

K.C. and I took in a Mariners game in the, now gone, Kingdome. Before the game, pro-golfer Chi Chi Rodriguez, Mariners manager Lou Piniella, and a local TV newsguy had a long-drive competition, hitting golf balls from way out in center field, back toward home plate. I think the deal was that the ball that ended up closest to home plate won. Piniella hit a screamer, right into the Oriole dugout. It was hilarious. Chi Chi won, as I remember it.

It is not a very good picture, but above is the inside of an underground bus terminal in dowtown Seattle. I was standing on a walkway above the roadway. Look at the cool-looking ceiling. Remember, this is underground.