Now an author's blog...

The folks at this blogging site are probably wondering why in the heck this particular blog is waking up after laying dormant for nearly three years.

The reason is simple.  I had lost energy on the subject and instead decided to write a book.

Here it is, a week after the book has been 'published' and released upon the wide world, and I am faced with the decision of whether or not to blog about my experiences.  Of course I do.  The phrase used to be "publish or perish".  These days it's "blog or perish".

Eh....

I looked at using my other blog here on Blogspot - Uncle Bruco's Rants and Raves - but have decided against it.  Too... ranty and ravy.

I have decided to resurrect this particular blog as my 'writer's blog' because of the title.

The complete phrase as I learned it back in the late '70s was "The best pay you can expect to get in radio is minimum wage and all the records you can eat."  I attribute that quote to Steven B. Crabtree - a rotund co-worker and Ohio U classmate from Portsmouth, Ohio.

Steve was an interesting character.  We worked together at WKYG in Parkersburg, West Virginia.  He was pure hillbilly... driving used Chevrolet Vegas he had resurrected from junk yards, wearing cheap sandals every day of the year (even when it snowed), and 'packing heat'... I could count on him doing his show with a pistol next to the mixing board.  He told some interesting stories, including what I consider to be the original "drying the cat in the microwave" story before the internet was even a figment of Al Gore's imagination.

Steve passed on to his reward a few years back - victim to his own obesity.  I have yet to hear of the particulars, only knowing about it because of a line in an Alumni newsletter recieved under the previous regime.  Anyhoo, I have revived him as a minor character in my book.  In the first chapter no less.

Other parts of the book are homage to Steve and other characters I have met on the way while I was working as a radio announcer primarily back in the '70s.  The Legacy of Miss Annie Darden Coggins is, among other things, an homage to those days when having a job in radio was having a job where the best you could expect was "minimum wage and all the records you could eat".  These days, on-the-air radio seems to be dominated by formulaic formats developed by large group owners who dominate the radio landscape.  Clear Channel is chief among the miscreants, gobbling up small stations like some of those I had worked for.  To be fair, CC has made life better for the people who work for them... I gather that Dan Ramey, a friend who works at  WBEX in Chillicothe, Ohio is doing much better than "minimum..." these days.  He has pointed out that at least there's a pension plan in place (in response to a rant I made concerning CC on Facebook), so life isn't so bad after all.  "Big Thicket Broadcasting", my substitute for CC in the book resembles the actual corporation in place only in the sense that it's based in Texas.  "Big Thicket" is more of a sole proprietership, as we will learn in one of the sequels I have in process.

Did I say sequels?

Yes, I did.  Magnolia, Ohio is populated with more than just radio people from 40 years ago.  There are other stories to be told... like that of the new Pastor at Community Baptist Church, his family and a dog named Frank; there's Magnolia's official 'homeless person', a rascal who's homeless only as a front; and there are stories about the Mulligans, Miss Lizzie and the 'free spirits' who live on a farm outside of town.

About thirty years ago, a co-worker told me that he expected to be entertained by what I wrote at some point in his life.  All I can remember about that co-worker was that his name was Mike and he lived in Waco, Texas.  So... Mike in Waco... here we go.  I am writing; I am published.  Enjoy!

Be Seeing You!

bdharrell