Shoutouts From The Beach!

You never know who's reading your stuff online, and it's surprising to find out on occasion that some of your readers are complete strangers!

Our friends, the Wykoffs, were over at our house the other night, and the better half, Wendy, told me within the course of one sentence, that she hates blogs (Thanks, Wendy!), and that her friend, Lisa, is a "Life On The Beach" regular! This is pretty interesting, because Wendy's husband, Scott, is a daily blogger at WBAL Radio. Wendy says she never reads his blog... and I guess it's a marital thing because my wife never reads my blog, either!

In any case... Lisa - thanks for reading! You probably know more about me than any stranger on Earth!

I also receive comments from time to time on my blog entries from readers who I may or may not know... These are people who use aliases, and I have no idea how they found my blog! So, "ecrunner", "myronblock", "Daffernia" and "James", among others, thanks for taking the time for reading my blather from the beach!

Some of you people may enjoy what you read - others may think I'm full of sh**. Don't worry about offending me, because no one knows better than me how full of sh** I am!

Becoming a blogger has been, by far, the best byproduct of losing my job last year. It has given me a reason to keep my nose in the news and to get up in the morning... and as someone whose career has been devoted to keeping an audience, it's been nice to develop an audience of my own.

I know other bloggers who write purely for themselves, and I can understand that catharsis... But I have an ego to be fed and rants to be made! And I appreciate the fact that you lend me your ears - or rather, your EYES - on a semi-regular basis! Thank you!

It's Deja Vu All Over Again!

For the first time in six weeks, I woke up this morning with no place to go. My freelance gig at WBAL ended yesterday, and thanks to that crazy 3 am - 11 am schedule, I found myself up by 5 this morning, staring at the clock...

So I went downstairs and made a pot of coffee... went out to the driveway, picked up the morning paper... poured myself a cup, and started scanning the Washington Post in search of stories that we can advance today.

But wait a minute... There is no "we"... That would require me to be A) - working and B) - working with someone else... two conditions that do not apply here.

After I was let go at WMAL six months ago (SIX MONTHS!), it took me weeks to get over the fact that my job had been cut after 25 years. Out of habit, I was still coming up with material that someone could spin into gold on the air, and in fact, I fed probably a couple of dozen stories to my former colleague Bill Thompson just as a creative fix.

Now, after having a job to do and newscasts to write for six weeks at WBAL, I find myself in the exact same position... In fact, I didn't even wait 24 hours after leaving there before pestering my friends in Baltimore. When I found a story on Drudge last night that said Michael Phelps would be hosting Saturday Night Live, I called WBAL and let them know about it... Old habits truly do die hard!

Hopefully, my withdrawal this time around will be brief. I start training next week for another freelance gig, and hopefully, this one will keep me occupied for a while!

Before I go, I want to thank the nice folks at WBAL for having me in their newsroom over the past month and a half. They made me feel very much at home, and my time there gave me a much-needed reassurance that my news skills did not fade away as I've toiled on the Beach. It is a cold, cold world out here in the land of the underemployed, and it is nice to know there are places I can stop in to warm myself from time to time!

Some Work Days Are Just Better Than Others!

I've been writing and producing and managing news budgets for 25 years, and on most days, if we're lucky, we find one or two good stories to lead our newscasts, with the rest of the stories kind of filling up the news block. But every once in a while, you hit the mother lode, and you get a veritable cornucopia of stories that are so interesting and so compelling that you can't wait to get your newscast on the air! Today was one of those days...

Now, mind you - when I say "good stories", I don't necessarily mean "good news" news stories. In fact, it's fair to say that, from a story-telling perspective, really good stories usually constitute "BAD news". Michael Phelps is a very good "good news" story, but when I'm writing a newscast, I'll take a good compelling bizarre BAD news story any day of the week!

Here are some of the compelling stories I had the pleasure of writing today...

• We had the guy in the Baltimore County jail who was found tied up in his cell with the word "rat" scratched onto his back, a towel stuffed in his mouth and a spoon with a note attached to it shoved up his rectum. The victim had recently been caught wearing a wire in the jail, but corrections officials won't tell us why he was wearing a wire.


• We found out that the guy who drowned his three children in a Baltimore hotel room last spring had told investigators after his arrest that he is evil and should be put to death. We also found out that he had timed his children's drownings with a stopwatch.


• We had an actress from HBO's "The Wire" being arrested for marijuana possession at her home in Baltimore. The cops forced themselves into the woman's home and found a bunch of pot, including two blunts. They were under court order to drag the woman to court to be a hostile witness in a murder trial.


• We had Tropical Storm Fay, which is now measuring its rainfall on Florida in feet instead of inches after 4 days of drifting over the Sunshine State.


• We had Barack Obama playing peek-a-boo with the media over his choice for Vice President.


• We had the guy in Western Maryland who is holed up with his pregnant girlfriend in a motel room. He's wanted for theft and burglary in four states and he's kept the cops at bay for two days now. The cops used a police robot to try and deliver a pizza to the guy last night... but the guy just threatened to shoot the robot.


• We also had a landlord in Carroll County who shot at, and then pistol-whipped, one of his tenants when the tenant showed up to pay his rent.


• We also had the federal government cancelling a program that was set up to encourage illegal immigrants facing deportation to turn themselves in. The Feds dumped the program when only 8 people out of an estimated 30,000 illegals in the test area signed up for the deal. The feds say their program of surprise raids on illegals while they sleep works better... uh, DUH!

Interestingly enough, with news like this, today was the first time in two weeks we did NOT do a single story on Michael Phelps... The newsroom I've been working in has not, to my knowledge, received a single e-mail raising or criticizing our coverage of the Phelps story... But in a period of two hours this morning, we received about 5 complaint emails on the stories I've listed above! This tells me that these stories - for better or worse - generate passion and capture the imagination of our audience. We are creating word pictures that our radio listeners can actually see... And what they see disturbs some of them. That's OK... Some of these stories were very disturbing. Disturbing and memorable. And they made for great radio!

Mr. Phelps Completes Mission: Impossible

What a week for Michael Phelps! Like the rest of the nation, I became caught up in his quest to surpass Mark Spitz and Carl Lewis as the all-time Olympics Gold Medal champion and to pass Spitz for the single-games gold medal mark... and I was fortunate enough to do it while working as a freelance anchor at WBAL in Baltimore - Phelps' hometown. Baltimore loves its sports heroes - especially the ones who are homegrown!

For some reason, the sporting Gods decided to plant two of the all-time greatest athletes in their respective sports right in Charm City... Cal Ripken grew up just north of Baltimore, in Harford County, and spent his entire career with the Orioles. And now, Towson's own Michael Phelps, who spent the past four years away at school in Michigan, is coming back home to live and train!

Michael is probably going to get to enjoy his achievements a LOT more in the short term than Mark Spitz did back in 1972. I remember watching his races from our family's rented beach cottage in Ocean City on something called CATV. It was an early generation version of Cable TV... Ocean City was too far away from Salisbury to reliably get reception via rabbit ears, so the whole town was hooked up to cable, which still only got you the three major networks... But anyway, I digress...

Mark Spitz won his medals in the first week of Olympics competition in Munich, and he became the toast of the sports world. - And then, tragedy struck. A terrorist group called "Black September", stormed a dormitory in the Olympic village, and took several members of the Israeli Olympic team hostage. The two-day ordeal ended with 11 Israelis and five terrorists dead, and Spitz being whisked out of Munich for fear, that he, as a Jewish athlete, would be a major kidnapping target.

Anyway... Michael Phelps will hopefully not have that kind of distraction as the Team Phelps marketing machine kicks into another gear. Michael has been clear in saying his goal in chasing all of that gold is not money, but a desire to raise the profile of swimming to make it more than a once-every-four-years sport in the eyes of the world. He'll be facing mighty long odds to do that. Mark Spitz didn't. Neither did Mary Lou Retton for gymnastics, or Carl Lewis for Track and Field. The closest any classic Olympic sport has come to raising its profile as a continuing sport has probably been figure skating, but even then, pro skating is seen more as theater than as sport.

If Michael is going to raise swimming's profile, there's no better place to do it than in his own hometown. As I mentioned, Baltimore loves its heroes. Tens of thousands of Ravens fans stuck around M&T Bank Stadium after the Ravens lost to the Vikings last night to watch Phelps win his 8th Gold Medal on the big screen... Maybe some of them would join a Michael Phelps swim league and compete in a Michael Phelps-brand aquatic center? Hell, you could even throw in fellow Baltimorean Katie Hoff as a guest instructor!


Don't be surprised if a BUNCH of the US swimmers in London in 2012 are crab-eaters, hon!

Life On The Beach Work Update!

My temporary colleagues at WBAL Radio have pointed out to me that if I am employed by them, I am, in a manner of speaking, not technically on the beach. Well, I suppose they are correct. However, if some magic little headhunter with a great job doesn't come along in the next three weeks to sweep me off my feet, I will most certainly be unemployed once again. Therefore, my current situation has all of the terror of being unemployed with the side benefit of a few extra bucks in my pocket. I don't know... until the full time gig comes along, I'm feeling awfully damn on the beach!

I am enjoying being able to exercise my brain and creative talent by writing for newscasts and even anchoring a couple of them a day, however I must say that the daily 1:30am wake up calls are not my favorite part of the job. Sometimes when I get home, it's all I can do to keep my eyes open! Therefore, don't be surprised if you see me miss a couple of weekdays... I have fallen asleep while blogging a couple of times already!

The one thing I can honestly say about my work at WBAL is that there's no downtime... But here's a little gem of a video from an office worker who has too much time on his hands and who probably SHOULD be joining me (or better, replacing me )on the beach! Enjoy!


Touch Tone Phone Symphony - Watch more free videos

Brett Favre And Me - Two Peas In A Pod!

It looks like Brett Favre is eventually going to get his wish - to leave the Green Bay Packers and to finish his career in the uniform of another team. When that happens, it'll be a sight that will take a LOT of getting used to... seeing ol' number 4 in colors other than green and gold - similar to Joe Montana finishing his career as a Chief instead of a 49er, or Johnny Unitas looking absurd in a San Diego Chargers uniform instead of his navy and white Colts jersey.

Closer to home, perennial all-pro defensive end (and dancer!) Jason Taylor was traded this week to the Redskins after spending his entire 12-year career with the Dolphins. In a move designed to mark a fresh start in DC, Taylor abandoned the number 99 that he wore in Miami in favor of number 55.... Still, Taylor admitted to feeling a bit odd putting on his new team's uniform... Something felt kind of strange and somewhat out of place.


I think I know now a bit what it's like for a veteran sports star whose spent his entire career in one city to be traded (or in my case, picked up off the waiver wire) to a new team. The game is the same, but you have to learn a new playbook and new technology, and get used to working with a new set of teammates wearing new uniforms. That's just what I'm facing at WBAL.

Right now, it feels like I'm on some sort of exchange program, and that I'll soon be back in my familiar digs on Jenifer Street, pounding out stories in the WMAL newsroom just as I did for more than 20 years. I know, of course, that that is NOT going to happen, but for now it still feels odd to be doing what I have always done - just in a different environment.

Imagine then how strange it was for me to do a news report this morning with a different ending than I've ever had to use before - Here's my very first report on WM - er, WBAL!

Please don't get me wrong... I am very much enjoying my time at WBAL. It's just kind of an out-of-body experience these days...

Tuesday Talking Points

I have a couple of things to share - and a piece of news to follow! Read on...

My son, Spencer, must be a great actor... Just ask Michael Savage! Anyway - As mentioned last week, Spencer made his acting debut on the stage at Camp Airy - and the folks there were kind enough to record the show and send home a DVD. Here's Spence's big scene on the lean, mean streets of New York City:


Did you hear his fellow campers cheering Spence on at the end? Way to go, Spencer!

Next we move from the stage to the screen... With the boys home from camp, the Matthews family took in WALL-E yesterday afternoon. Being Disney (and Pixar) fans, we had long been looking forward to seeing this film, which drew universal praise from critics, and has even been mentioned in some circles as a Best Picture nominee at next year's Oscars.

Oddly enough, WALL-E left me flat. I found its "green" message to be preachy and somewhat condescending, and I thought the basic story could have been told in half the time. It's almost enough (ok - it is enough) to make you believe there really IS a liberal media conspiracy out there sometimes - at least among movie critics. It also doesn't help when the Disney publicity machine kicks into overdrive... that sometimes makes it impossible to not be underwhelmed by some of its films. I felt the same way about "Finding Nemo"... Just as many say it was the best of the Pixar films, for me, Nemo lingers near the bottom... just above "A Bug's Life" and WALL-E.


Next topic - the coffee business... I find it hilarious that there are several grass-roots efforts underway to keep some of those 600 shuttered Starbucks shops open. These stores are being closed because they don't get enough business, and now, faithful customers are signing petitions and whatnot to keep the shops open... But Starbucks doesn't need to be preached to by the choir... it needs new converts... And at upwards of four bucks a cup, those converts ain't comin'... The Missus and I do not see eye to eye on this... She's a Starbucks queen... Give me a buck-39, and I'll get a 24-oz. vat o'joe at the 7-Eleven!

And speaking of the 7-Eleven... I will resume my once-daily early morning trips to the land of "Oh Thank Heaven" beginning tomorrow morning. My friends at WBAL Radio have graciously asked me to do some fill-in work for the next month - writing newscasts for my good friend, Bill Vanko, just as I once wrote them for Bryan Nehman at WMAL. I will also be anchoring the odd newscast outside of morning drive, so be sure to tune in to 1090 WBAL to hear yours truly!

I am half excited and half terrified to be going back to work. I do want a fulltime job, of course, and I had hoped it would have come long before this. I know in my heart that I will get back on the bicycle and be just fine, but there's just a pinch of irrational fear that I somehow lost 25 years of news skills in a few short months! We'll find out soon, won't we?

This blog has been a Godsend for me - giving me a voice to vent with, as well as a reason to get up and be productive every day. With my early morning work schedule (I HAVE A WORK SCHEDULE!!!), you will not find a fresh edition of "Life On The Beach" to read every morning, but please continue to check in most afternoons... I will continue to try to give you some daily nonsense to "enjoy"... Thanks to all of you for reading!

Now on to the next chapter!

Nine Hours, Four Beers, One Fish. (And A Song!)

This is a fish tale that is not about "the one that got away", but about ALL the ones that got away! Some of my WBAL buddies took me out to the Chesapeake Bay over the weekend for a little sport fishing... The way they figured it, we'd get on the boat by 6 am Saturday, motor on out into the bay, fill our bellies with beer, fill the cooler with fish, and be back on shore by 11 am.

Well, for the first time since college, I WAS sipping a Corona by 6 am, but pretty much nothing else went according to plan. We had 17 lines cast to catch fish, and two hours into the trip, we finally had some action. Larry Roberts reeled in a 35-inch Rockfish - it was promising to be one hell of a day. The actual fish-catching interrupted our breakfast, so we were soon back to our sandwiches and beer. It turns out we didn't have to hurry to finish our food, because that would turn out to be the ONLY fish we'd catch all day!

Our captain felt bad about the lack of action, so he continued to drive in large sweeping circles for another SEVEN hours. We did not get back to the dock until 3 pm, which was exactly one hour AFTER the start of a wedding that one of our party was supposed to be attending.

The host for this whole shindig was Dan, a really nice financial planner for one America's leading brokerage firms, who would like to make me a client, despite the fact that I currently have no discernable source of income. All I can say (with a smile) is that I surely hope Dan draws a better yield on his client's money than he does with fish!

On a somewhat more successful note, one of my fellow non-fishermen was John Patti, who DID deliver a digital copy of that nearly 30-year-old vinyl record of my college choir that I discussed a few weeks back. Now, for the first time in decades, I can once again hear myself singing as a young man! Check out this rockin version of Joshua Fit The Battle of Jericho, performed by Syracuse University's Hendricks Chapel Choir at Washington's National Cathedral in May of 1981. I'm in the back row, fifth guy from the left in the picture below...

Friday Odds and Ends (Mostly Odds!)

If you have school age children, you know there's nothing more "fun" than "helping" your kid finish up a major school project. Our 10-year-old son, Spencer, had a social studies project due today - the class is doing biographies, so who do you think he chose? You get one guess, and here's a clue. It's a Matthews family obsession. OK. So we (sorry, I meant HE) had to make a lifesize representation of Walt... Most kids pulled out the crayons and went to work. Mrs. Matthews, being the perfectionist uberMom she is, pulled out the construction paper, and together we (HE) cut a suit for Walt... I tied one of my Disney ties, and scanned it at real size for the chest, and Robin gave him suit pockets and cuffs for the pants... Oh, and his "shirt" was real fabric, too. We spent the entire night constructing it on the island in the kitchen. So, what do you think of our creation? We (HE) better get an "A", that's all I've gotta say!

After more than a year of being pestered by me, my friend and former work associate Jen Richer, has joined the TiVo universe. As readers of my new website already know, I consider TiVo to be one of the great turn of the century inventions. Note, I endorsed TiVo, not your generic cable company DVRs... TiVo is simply more user-friendly and has better search functions than brand X, and those enlightened enough to have it connected through wifi also have access to a full array of nifty features, including the ability to send and receive home movies, view snapshots on your TV, download movie rentals, listen to internet radio and a bunch of other stuff you can't do with other DVRs. If this sounds like a paid endorsement for TiVo, unfortunately it isn't. It is an endorsement, but I wasn't paid!

Finally... When we moved into our current house four years ago, I made Robin get rid of all of our old record albums, because we had not played a single one of them in the 13 years we lived in our old house, and we had long ago replaced most of them with compact discs. However, I did save ONE album... a 1981 recording of Syracuse University's Hendricks Chapel Choir (Hear a clip of the 2007 version of the choir here). If you look at the liner notes on the album, you will see my name in the choir directory, along with that of Jonathan Greene, one of my best friends and the guy who introduced me to my wife! My friend, John Patti of WBAL has one of those turntables that can hook up directly to a computer, and he has agreed to transfer that old album to digital music files for me, so I can annoy the family by playing 18th century music on road trips. And I'm sure you'll soon be able to hear some old clips here at Life on The Beach as well! Lucky you!