Green Acres Was The Place To Be

"Green Acres" star Eddie Albert has "bought the farm." He was 99!

While Eddie had a celebrated career, many don't know that he goes back to the real beginning of television. The following is from Eddie's bio from the Internet Movie Data Base.

Eddie Albert's television career is the earliest of any other performer. It began years before electronic television was introduced to the public. In June of 1936 Eddie appeared in RCA/NBC's first private live performance for their radio licensees in New York City. This was very early experimental all electronic television system. Due to the primitive nature of these early cameras it was necessary for him to apply heavy make-up and endure tremendous heat from studio lighting. The basic makeup was green toned with purple lipstick for optimal image transmission by RCA's iconoscope pick up cameras. Since television was experimental Eddie applied his own make-up and even wrote the script for this performance. His co-star was Grace Brandt.

"Green Acres" remains one of the funniest TV sitcoms, ever.

Freedom and Censorship

On the occasion of Memorial Day weekend, I must ask.

Are we more Free today?

It seems that a band called "The Mammals," from New York, recently played a gig at the International Festival in Lafayette. Among their tunes was a satire called "The Bush Boys."

You know the rest.

About 100 heard the concert and 17 complained that they were "offended" (give me a break) by the music. Someone complained to Jimmie Duhon, the VP of Programming for the event and he asked "Mammals" leader Ruth Ungar to not play it again. Click here for the complete story.

They didn't.

Couple that with the story about "Nine Inch Nails" and the story that they are refusing to play the MTV movie awards because they won't let them use their Bush backdrop. Click here for that story.

Speech is free.... as long as you don't insult Lord Bush!

And now a Blogger Bronx Cheer, "Thwwwwpppppttttt."

Free, indeed.
Kev.

Buckle Up

You have probably seen and heard the TV and radio campaigns aimed at getting you to buckle your seat belt.

While I admit that it is far safer to drive, and ride, with a seat belt on, it should be your personal choice and not something required by the big, bad Government.

Of course, ALL other problems, in our state, and nation, have been solved and we can spend big bucks on all of these radio and TV ads, not just in Louisiana, but all around the country.

Have a great, safe weekend, and do remember the reason we are celebrating Memorial Day. A lot of people have died so that we may have our BBQs.

Later,
Kev.

Evolution Science

A judge has ordered tens-of-thousands of stickers removed from science texbooks in one Georgia school district. Click here for the story.

The stickers read, "This textbook contains material on evolution. Evolution is a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things. This material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully, and critically considered."

A group of parents sued to have the stickers removed. The Cobb County School District is considering an appeal.

They should get together with the group in Tangipahoa Parish.

Farwell Tony The Tiger and Ernest T. Bass

We've lost another couple of icons of the past.

Thurl Ravenscroft was approached by the Kellogg's people, years ago, about creating some sort of a slogan for Frosted Flakes. He came up with "They're grrrrrrrreat!" The rest is history.

Ravenscroft has died at the age of 91.

Click here for his page on the Internet Movie Data Base.

And, Howard Morris, best known to fans of The Andy Griffith Show as Ernest T. Bass, the rock-tossing, lovable redneck who had the hots for Charlene Darling, has died.

Morris may have been best known as Bass, but his roots were in the early days of TV on Sid Caesar's Your Show Of Shows working with greats like Carl Reiner, Mel Brooks, Neil Simon and Woody Allen, to name but a few.

Morris was 85. Click here for his page on the Internet Movie Data Base.

Smiley Anders April 28th

I just found out that my name was in The Advocate recently. Click here for the Smiley Anders article and scroll down to "Remembering Gene," the story about Gene Nelson from WLCS.

Great Time Of Year

Here comes summer!

Except for the heat, isn't summer a marvelous time? When we were kids summer meant the end of school, sometimes moving on to a new school. It was kind of a rite-of-passage, from Villa del Rey Elementary, in the summer of '68, to Broadmoor Junior High, that fall, and then to Tara High in the summer of '71.

That was the summer that I took driver's ed. and that completely changed me forever.

It was the experience of really becoming mobile. Of being able to go places on your own. Of course it would still be a while before I got my full-blown driver's license, but after that summer you just knew that it was changing.

Remember those hot trailers where you would drive the simulators? Practicing on both standard-shift and automatic tranmission modes with that crappy film playing on the screen, up front.

And then came the best part. Actually driving a car! I think mine was a Pontiac, of some sort. Another kid (a girl) and I, along with our driver's ed. teacher/coach would take off from the Tara High parking lot and spend the better part of the next hour driving around Broadmoor, which I thought was interesting.

Eventually we would get out on Airline Highway and even I-12, at one point. That was all pretty new, at the time, and I-10 between Baton Rouge and New Orleans was not, yet open. You still had to use Airline Highway, for that.

At one point, I remember Dad taking me to the side parking lot at VDR School and practicing driving around in a circle, in the family station wagon. Wagons were the SUVs of the time and every family worth anything had one. Ours had the electric rear window with the rear-facing back seat. It was a must for me for vacation. When we would take trips to Colorado I loved sitting back there, but that's another story, about taking family vacations every summer. We always went somewhere. Six Flags, Hot Springs, Durango, Dallas, Houston, Pennsylvania, New York... etc. All of them by car, we never flew. I think it was better that way. (Anyone remember Terry's restaurants along the highway through Texas? Good breakfast place)

Wait, I said that's another story.

I do like this time of year.

Later,

Kev.

Insanity (Click for the story)

Eight people have now been arrested in the growing church/sex scandal in Ponchatoula. I am hearing a lot of people quietly talking about how awful it is to hear about people having sex with children and animals on radio and TV newscasts.

If you are one of them, you are missing the point.

You shouldn't shoot the messenger, just because it makes you feel uncomfortable to hear about such stories while sitting down to dinner, with the family. You should be hugging your children thankful to realize that you and they are not caught up in such an awful story. But, you should also beware. This story could be happening anywhere, including your own backyard. There are sick, nasty people everywhere, many masquerading as trustworthy, "good Christian people.

Don't tell me what a good person you are... show me! The more someone tells me that I should trust them, the more I begin to question why I should. I think it is a good trait to have.

Kev.

Friday Afternoon With Kev

I love listening to music on weekends. I recently picked up an Apple iPod and absolutely love it. I have the 20 gigabyte version and have been putting my CD collection into it for a week and the thing is still not half-full.

If you haven't taken a look at one of these marvels, yet, you should. You can arrange your songs by title, artist, genre, your own rating system, album, etc. Couple that with the "shuffle" feature and you've got yourself quite a music machine. Did I mention that you can create your own playlists? Last weekend I emceed the Tara High Class of 1975 Reunion and got myself into the mood for it by listening to music of that period, all day Saturday, while I was making some notes for the party.

I say all of that only to say that right now, as I am writing this, I am sitting at my computer desk, at home, and listening to "In The Digital Mood" by The Glenn Miller Orchestra. These are not the "original" Miller recordings, but recordings made in the 80s by the "present-day" Glenn Miller Orchestra. They use Glenn's original arrangements, though, so they sound just like the originals. 'Ya know, they just don't make music like this anymore. If I'm stopped at a red light and someone is playing "Chatanooga Choo-Choo" really loud, in the car next to me, I'm tipping my hat, not calling for a cop.

Of course, I like rock 'n roll, too.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got to yell at the kid next door to TURN IT DOWN!

Later,

Kev.

Riddle Me This...Frank Gorshin Dead At 72

Back in the mid-60s, Frank Gorshin made quite a splash playing The Riddler on TV's "Batman," starring Adam West and Burt Ward as The Caped Crusaders. Did you know that Frank was also a heck of an impressionist? Click the title link, above, for the story.

Revenge of the Sith

"Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith" is very satisfying for fans of the franchise. It is visually stunning, at times overwhelming. It is also violent. Remember the cantina scene in the first one? Obi Wan cut the arm off of a bad guy. This film has much more of that kind of stuff. The scene where Darth Vader makes his first appearance is especially graphic.

I loved the movie. I liked the way it tied everything together, to take us back to the 1977 release of the original, though this movie ends about 25 years before the next one will start.

That's it, no big, long review. I liked it. I will probably see it again and will be among the first to get the DVD when it comes out, probably in time for Christmas.

Later,
Kev.

Feel free to add your comments.

My First Post

Here we go! Today I, Kevin Meeks, enter the world of Blog. (it almost sounds like something from "Lord of the Rings" or "Star Wars")
Perhaps there is some significance in the timing.
In 1977 we got a glimpse of a possible future with "Star Wars" and now fans are flocking to the que for the sixth and final installment.
We have the ability to communicate, with our fellow human beings, like never before and that is reality, not science fiction. Blogging is one of the latest. So, enjoy, fellow Earthlings, we have arrived at The Future.

I am going to the midnight "Star Wars" show, tonight, with Josh, and we will report on it on Thursday morning's show.

Join us at Tinseltown, if you can grab a ticket, it is definitely the hottest ticket in town.

The end of this month (28th) marks my 9-year anniversary with WJBO. Somewhere in mid-June marks 30-years ON THE AIR in Baton Rouge. I started in 1975 at WLCS, the Big Win 9-10 (pronounced "nine-ten") as a part-time announcer and full-time transmitter watcher.

Back in those days radio stations employed people to sit at the transmitter location and keep an eye on the equipment. That was a requirement of the FCC, but right about the time I got the job WLCS was about to begin "remote" operation, whereby the disc jockey, at the dowtown studio, could monitor the transmitter, remotely.

My transmitter-watcher-job consisted of keeping watch over the 1,000 watt transmitter, located on Groom Road in Baker. (I haven't been up there in a while, but understand that it is a Wal Mart, now)

My main job was to take meter readings every three hours. I had to enter them into a log under my signature. (I wonder where all of those logs are, now?)
If some sort of a problem developed, it was my duty to either fix it, or locate someone who could as I was licensed by an agency of The Federal Government. (FCC)

BUT, one night a week (I think it was Sunday night/Monday morning) I was the disc jockey for the overnight show. The downtown studio would close-down every night at midnight and the overnight show, on WLCS, was done from the transmitter building in Baker. We had a small studio set-up complete with tape machines and turntables for the 45s.

I remember the first song I played. "Love Will Keep Us Together" by The Captain And Tennille, which ended up being one of the biggest songs of 1975.

At midnight I relieved a fellow transmitter watcher named Jeff Hedgeman. Being new to the radio, I had never seen the name Tennille before, so I asked Jeff how to pronounce it. He was a veteran, after all. He told me it was pronounced "ten-AY-uh." He was wrong, of course.

But, I spent my first nights, on the air, on Baton Rouge's top-rated radio station, WLCS, mispronouncing the name. Maybe that is why I need to look things up for myself today.

I miss that old building, a concrete blockhouse in the middle of a cow and horse pasture, surrounded by four red and white radio towers.

Eventually I moved to the downtown studio, on the 24th-floor of One American Place with a huge picture window looking west, over the Mississippi River. That was my favorite studio, no question about it.

Future postings will have more stories from my early days on Baton Rouge radio.

Kev.