Faded Photographs...

...covered now with lines and creases...


Those lyrics come from a song called "Traces of Love" by a group called "Classics 4" - a song that USED to play on WMAL way back in the day. And it's only fitting because WMAL's chief engineer, David Sproul, recently uncovered a folder full of photos from the radio station "back in the day", including many that have not been seen for years. He was kind enough to share them with me, and I am delighted to share a select few of them with you!

This is a picture of the WMAL News team, circa 1995. I'm the guy sitting behind the wheel of "Cruiser 630". Back in the day, I was the station's morning drive "man on the street", and I had to end each report with "John Matthews - Cruiser 630, OUT!" It was a little embarrassing, but my boss told me people would sure remember me. They sure did. (It was still embarrassing)

This is Pat Anastasi and Dorothy Jones in a picture from approximately 1983. Pat was, at the time, the Assignment Editor at WMAL, and Dorothy was the house mother of the newsroom, although I'm quite sure she had a better title than that. I think she was officially the "Editorial Director". Anyway - I chose this shot because this is what the WMAL Newsroom looked like when I started there. Note that Pat is sitting at a manual typewriter. We did have some IBM selectrics, but about half of the people in the newsroom were still breaking their fingers banging out stories on three-copy carbon paper when I started out at WMAL.

Yep - WMAL was a station with a lot of PULL back in the day. This is Morning Show producer Janice Iacona in 1985 with then-Vice President George H.W. Bush. Bush was a big WMAL listener, going back to his days at the Director of the CIA and as a Member of Congress. I also met Mr. Bush once when he visited the station for a news interview.

This past weekend, I went to a reunion of old WMAL News team members - people who were at WMAL when I arrived in 1982. It was quite nice - and a little novel - to be the youngest person there! Marge Kumaki, who was a reporter/anchor at radio 63 back in the day, says she always thought I looked like I was 15 years old. I can assure you I was MUCH older than 15 when this head shot was taken in 1995 or so...


Oy. Sometimes looking back can be painful! Look at that punim!

The End Of A Long Week...

For the first time in a while (since the Inauguration, more or less), I had such a busy work week that I was able to actually able to say "TGIF" with a sense of legitimate relief. (That also explains why my blogging trailed off so badly in the past few days!)

Not only did I work three days at two different employers, but I was also crushed with a late deadline to get a separate freelance writing/producing project done. In the grand scheme of things, I have had much more hectic weeks in my career, but it was still pretty packed - and I was quite pleased to sleep in this morning.

It actually felt good to feel tired from working - and it's a feeling I wish I had on a more consistent basis. Fortunately, as Memorial Day approaches, so does vacation season. I have already added on a new freelance client, and I am hoping for a very busy summer.

Part of the reason for my fatigue was unexpected stress at WMAL. For the first time since returning there as a freelancer, I was assigned to anchor the afternoon news. I didn't think much at first about the assignment. I was News Director there for 13 years, and the newscasts they do today are essentially the same as the ones I used to keep watch over. BUT - it did not really dawn on me until I was in the middle of working my first day that I had not actually worked that shift in perhaps a decade.

I had no problem at all going back to WMAL after six months away to work in mornings, because I had been a morning regular. But afternoons turned out to be a different story. The newscasts had different intros and outros. I had to learn how to play commercials, which I did not have to do in mornings. The type of stories and the source of stories are different in the afternoon than the mornings. And most importantly, I had NO sense of rhythm working in the afternoon - There was not a routine in place. In the morning, I could tell whether I was ahead or behind totally by instinct. Working the afternoon, even though there is less actual work, I felt like I was running late the entire day. That proved to be quite stressful, and I bit off more than one innocent colleagues' head. By the time the shift was over, I was beat.

The second day in the afternoon proved to be much better, but still just a bit of an out-of-body experience. I get one more shot at PM drive on Monday.

But first, I'm going to enjoy the weekend - like regular people do!

"Life On The Beach" RERUN!

It's been just a hair over one year since I began this blog. I meant to officially mark the first birthday, but it slipped right by unnoticed, so I am doing it now. For those of you you've been with me for the past year, many many thanks, and I hope you'll continue to keep coming back!


For my friends who have more recently started reading my drivel, you have my sincere condolences - as well as the opportunity to read some of my earliest entries. All this week, I'll be featuring the best of "Life On The Beach", starting today with my very FIRST entry...


(It's a re-run, get it?)

March 10, 2008 - First Musings Of A Beach Bum

Well, here I am... joining the navel-gazing world of blogging. Two weeks ago, I would have told you (as I told everyone) that I spent my day writing stuff for a living - why would I spend my free time writing as well? Well - God (or Farid Suleman, take your pick) had other plans! Now, I suddenly have some time on my hands... and I'm not getting paid to write - at least not at the moment, so here we are!

I've never been unemployed before, so I had no idea what to expect...but my friend, David Burd, explained it to me like this...


Step one - At first, you'll hear from everyone you know in the radio business... the rubber-neckers who can't resist looking at the roadkill (me) as they drive on by... The roadkill appreciates all the attention, and soaks it up like a biscuit to gravy.

Step Two - After that, the tedium of updating the resume and the audition tape (how dated - of course I mean the audio file) sets in, followed by hour after hour of repeating your hard work on an online application forms, because employers really DON'T want to read your resume...


Step Three - (sounds of birds chirping)


Suffice it to say we're at step two now... and we don't want to see step three, hence the "Life On The Beach" blog.


Just a couple of personal observations before I bring this inaugural blog posting to a close...


1/ My kids like my new "arrangement", because for the first time in their lives, Dad is home to help them get ready for school in the morning. And while this is a big help to Mom, Mom is not so thrilled to see Dad home. This simply serves as a reminder to Mom that Dad should really be off someplace else...


2/ I used to get in to work in the morning and groan at seeing at least a couple of dozen new emails waiting for me. Be careful what you wish for. I pine for email now... even to the point that I've signed up for some selective junk email because it ensures I'll have something new to read every day! For those of you who might want to contribute to the cause, the address is jematthews2@gmail.com.


3/ Old habits die hard - or in some cases, don't die. I still find myself sitting with a cup of coffee at 6 am every morning, scanning the Washington Post and making mental notes on how to cover each story. I suspect some of my soapbox rants concerning these stories that used to be released to my newsroom cohorts will be released here on the beach instead. Lucky you.


4/ When I used to hire people, one of the last things I did before making an offer was to google the applicant's name and see if anything interesting came back. To be honest, more than one person was not hired because the person they portrayed themselves to be on Myspace or Facebook was NOT the person I had just interviewed. I suspect discerning employers may also use this practice... so don't expect to read any stories of debauchery or other tawdry tales here. Those will have to remain the stuff of legend and vivid imagination!


Let me hear from you - ESPECIALLY if you find me getting whiny. I can't STAND whiny...


Thanks!

"O" What A Night!

I had the extreme pleasure last night of attending the surprise 80th birthday party for my good friend, Andy Ockershausen. Andy has had more influence on my career than anyone else, and he is still influencing the lives of many, many people in the Washington area. But more on that coming up.

So who is Andy Ockershausen? He is a homegrown native of Washington, DC, and for the past sixty years, a major player in the Washington media landscape. He worked for, and at various times, ran WMAL Radio and Television (now WJLA-TV, Channel 7) for 37 years, then spent five years with Channel 50, and for the past 15 years, has been working in sales at Comcast SportsNet.

But Andy's local legacy runs much deeper than his career. He was a community organizer for 50 years before Barack Obama made it cool. He has raised money for every single charity of note in the DC area. As a member of the DC Board of Trade's executive committee, he helped run the city before DC received home rule. As a board chairman of the National Association of Broadcasters, he helped rewrite more than 500 archaic government broadcasting regulations. And his activist editorial campaigns helped to shape the DC area's gun control and drunk driving laws.

But none of those plaudits alone would merit throwing a massive party for one man AND to turn it into a TV special,. No, Andy Ockershausen was being honored because he's a character and a throwback. A man who owns the room the moment he walks into it. A guy with a wisecrack at the ready for every guy, and a warm pat on the tush for every gal. A man who is as comfortable chatting up the President of the United States as he is the parking attendant outside.

More than 250 people showed up at the Imagination Stage in Bethesda to pay tribute to Andy O. - and it was a star-studded crowd, including four Redskins Hall-of -Famers, many local TV celebrities, all of the living WMAL air personalities from the Andy O. administration and others. Those who couldn't be there sent video tributes, including Charlie Gibson, Willard Scott, Michael Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser.

So how did I come to be involved in all of this? Well - as I told you, Andy has had a huge influence on my life. First of all - Andy O. - as he has with so many others - basically gave me my career. He gave me an internship at WMAL as a favor to my father, who was one of Andy's tennis buddies. That was in 1982.

Many years later, on September 11th, 2001, 15 years after leaving WMAL, Andy called our newsroom (where I was News Director) to let us know he had just seen a plane hit the Pentagon. He stayed on the scene as our reporter for the next several hours. WMAL went on that year to win the National Edward R. Murrow award as America's best radio news operation, thanks in large part to Andy's service.

And last summer, as I was looking for work, Andy's wife, Janice (who actually hired me at WMAL), called me and asked me to write a biography of Andy... A biography that would be used as the base for a Comcast SportsNet TV special on the life and times of Andy Ockershausen.

I spent all of last fall researching and writing that biography - interviewing Andy's friends and learning far more about the man than I ever thought I'd know. I am thankful for the experience on so many levels. Not only did it provide me with a source of income, but it gave me an opportunity to try long-form writing. I have spent my whole career writing stories that had to be told in 20 seconds or less. It was a rewarding challenge to see if I could write more expansively. And I guess I succeeded. The final product was fifty pages long! I have since "published" the biography and turned it into a hard-cover book, which you can review (and even purchase) here.



I also had the opportunity to try my hand at writing for video - something else I have never done. One of my scripts ended up being used in the show, and will be seen in the TV special as well. The special will air Sunday night, March 15th at 9 pm on Comcast SportsNet!

And most of all, I had the honor and privilege to get to know Andy Ockershausen, the man, a lot better. As he was honored on stage last night, Andy told the crowd the best part of his life has been spent helping the community - That by lending a hand, he got back far more in satisfaction than he had ever given in sweat. And it was clear that Andy's words were sincere - and true... Even at 80, Andy was younger than just about anyone else in the room!

I am so happy to finally be able to share this on my blog. I had to keep the project under wraps for so long because we were keeping it as a surprise for Andy O.

But when I look back at this dark period of underemployment in my life, I know the memories of worry and regret are going to be overshadowed by the thrill of being involved in this loving and well-deserved project.

I want to thank Janice Ockershausen, as well as Rebecca Schulte at Comcast SportsNet, for believing in me and giving me the opportunity to work on this wonderful labor of love.

And thank you, Andy Ockershausen - you wonderful, loving, sarcastic, dirty old man!

Like Riding A Bicycle...

Well, there I was this morning... back in the newsroom at WMAL, doing the exact same job I was doing nine months ago (almost to the exact day) when I was let go. I was not sitting at the same desk, because I had bequeathed it to my friend and protege, Jen Richer, when I was dispatched the first time around. But all in all, it felt pretty much the same.

Most of the equipment that didn't work then still doesn't work now. The same people who had crappy attitudes then still have crappy attitudes today. (And THEY still have jobs! HA!) I can still finish the sentences of the people who still work there. All in all, it felt comfortable and familiar.

All of the routines that I had carefully developed over 25 years came back like muscle memory...

As usual, I woke up at 2:35am - Five minutes before the alarm went off, because it rarely ever woke me up. Last night was no exception, but I will confess to a night of tossing and turning... You'll have to excuse me for a fitful sleep the night before going back to my old job - this blog entry comes to you courtesy of a STRONG midday cup of Starbucks Verona blend coffee!

I was at Seven-Eleven by 3:15... WOW - they put in big new coffee urns to replace the old dirty pots since I was last there! As usual, I appropriated as many "International Delight" creamers as I could for my friend, Bill Thompson, who, as it turns out, switched to black coffee months ago after I stopped bringing him creamers! Well, Bill, we have four days to restock your desk drawers! The guy behind the counter saw me and said (in his best clipped Indian accent), "It's been a long time, sir!" When the guy at the 7-11 in the middle of the night remembers you, you know you'd been doing something for a while!

I headed down Connecticut Avenue pretty much by myself, as usual, except that a motorcycle cop whizzed past me by the speed cameras in Chevy Chase, thereby setting off the flashes... not that he'e ever going to be paying any fines.

I brought in a beautiful and tasty coffee cake from Costco, and I set it down on the counter to be shared before I went into the studio to do my 10 am newscast. By the time I got out of the news booth 10 minutes later, it was already 2/3rds consumed...

Yep. Nothing much has changed!

Not Back To The Future... Back To The Back!

By the time many of you read this, I shall be once again, on a freelance basis, be working at 630 WMAL, the place that furloughed me in a corporate restructuring nine months ago. I have had this work scheduled for a couple of months now, and as the day has drawn near, I have found my own personal anxiety level growing a bit.

From the day I was let go, I have never felt those feelings of anger and bitterness towards my former employer that so many have felt - or at least, not against the managers of WMAL. They were given an unpleasant task to perform, and so it was done. I have appreciated their support these many months as I have sought a permanent job, and I also appreciate that they have called me for fill-in work when they clearly had no obligation to do so.

I have been back to WMAL on two or three occasions since I left - each time on business that was unrelated to my former job there. The first time I returned, it felt very strange, but since then, it's felt strangely comfortable - as if I had never left, except for the fact that someone else is occuying my office. And even that didn't matter much, because I had spent most of my time in the newsroom instead of my office even when I was working at WMAL.

This time, I'm actually returning to work FOR the radio station, writing newscasts and anchoring a couple of them a day as well... and hoping I don't fall flat on my face. I don't have any real expectation that I WILL fall flat on my face, but nothing could be worse than going back there and showing my former co-workers that my furlough was actually justified!

If there's one thing I have learned from my months on the beach, it is to treasure every opportunity I get to work. It's a joy that gainfully employed people who've never lost jobs cannot possibly appreciate. I thoroughly enjoyed filling in at WBAL over the summer, as well as my ongoing freelance job at ABC News. When I am scheduled to work, my adrenaline goes a little nutty, and I find myself a little giddy at the opportunity to channel my creative muscles in a constructive and income-producing way.

It makes me thankful at a time when finding things to be thankful for is a bit of a challenge. And those positive thoughts will make it that much easier to take when my clock radio goes off at 2:30 Monday morning!

It's Getting Crowded On The Beach

Actually, if we have just a couple more days like yesterday's 679-point debacle for the Dow, the beach is going to look like Normandy on D-Day.

I'm still trying to come to grips with the fact that my former industry is crumbling before me, even as I scramble to get back in to it. Stock values in radio companies are dropping faster than the Dow is, but the big difference between radio and most other industries is that there's little reason to think old media like radio and newspapers are going to recover any time soon.

My former employer, Citadel Broadcasting, now has its stock selling at 37 cents a share, and it is set to be de-listed by the New York Stock Exchange any day now. Sirius-XM, which was created in a merger a couple of months back in a bid to keep the satellite radio companies afloat, is now selling at 45 cents a share. And these are just a couple of examples. Both companies are facing enormous debt loads, and it's unclear why investors would take a shot at buying them. It's clear that advertising is going to take a huge hit, and when it does recover, radio and newspaper are not going to get the lion's share of ad money. Sirius, in particular, depends on people buying new cars to survive, and that won't be happening in acceptable numbers anytime soon, either.

I worry about my friends at Citadel, and I fear that another wave of layoffs like the one that cost me my career is now underway. The longtime Program Director at WABC-AM in New York was shown the door yesterday, as was one of the Human Resources people at WMAL/WRQX/WJZW. Those are the only two I know of so far, but I'm sure there are more. I know there is little-to-no fat left to cut, so it's frightening to think of what might happen next. I just hope there's enough money left for everyone to get a decent severance when the ax falls.

Hang in there, friends - and keep your heads down!

Congratulations, WMAL!

I kinda feel like the ball player who gets ejected from game 7 of the World Series in the eighth inning with my team holding a one-run lead, and then going on to win the crown. I may not have been "on the field", last night, but I'm proud to see that WMAL has won the Marconi award from the National Association of Broadcasters as the Major Market Radio Station Of The Year!

Here's Operations Director Paul Duckworth accepting the award:


I completely agree with what Paul said in his speech. There is still a very talented bunch of people at WMAL working hard to make the very best radio they can in a very volatile and sometimes scary business environment. I stand beside them as they celebrate their prize, and want to thank General Manager Chris Berry, who took the time to drop me a personal note to acknowledge my contributions.

I sure wish our political parties and candidates could get along this well!

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!

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...

It's Been A Long Year.

Today marks the one-year anniversary of Disney's sale of WMAL to the corporation that shall go nameless. My wife insists on replacing the first letter of that company's name with "Sh" - but let's not go there.

Disney was a fun company to work for.... at least it was for me. It provided both my vocation and my avocation... and a lot of vacations, too!

I do miss the perks - the park passes and the discounts... But most of all, I miss the access. There is nothing cooler than being able to drive up to the front gate of the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, show an ID badge, and be able to walk around the campus where Walt Disney's animators created their magic. There's nothing more fun than driving "backstage" behind the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World and going shopping at a cast-member-only store!

Looking back, it certainly seems now like Disney made the right move by selling off its radio stations. The stations had already become a drag on Disney's corporate earnings, and since the sale, the radio business in general has spiraled into freefall. I'm pretty sure if Disney had held onto WMAL, many of the employees who were cut would still have been cut - and frankly, it would have been much tougher personally for me to be canned by Disney instead of its' successor.

At least this way, we'll always have Orlando...

R.I.P. Radio

Recently, my former colleague, Chris Core weighed in on the reason he (and I) were let go at WMAL... And now, the Washington Post's Marc Fisher is offering an expanded obituary for the radio business. I wish I could say I believe Fisher is being overly pessimistic, but from my current seat, he seems pretty darn on point to me!

You can read the entire article here, but here are a couple of passages that pass awfully close to my heart:

In the easy decades of a tightly constricted mass media, there were three TV networks, monopoly newspapers and a handful of radio stations in each place. That lack of choice meant that much of popular culture was middle-brow in ambition and middling in quality. But the nation was guaranteed a common conversation about music, politics and nearly every other aspect of life.

The challenge for all media now is to find a path back to mass, while retaining as much as possible of the freedom and access that the infinite range of the Internet promises.

The programming on the radio these days does not light a way toward that goal. Music radio seems superfluous -- a selection of tunes nowhere near as varied as what iPod users choose for themselves, and without the added value that knowledgeable and entertaining DJs once provided. With the strong exception of public radio and a handful of all-news local stations such as Washington's WTOP, radio has largely gotten out of the news business -- too expensive. And the local talk programs that once made it easy for a traveler to figure out his location without ever glancing at a road sign have largely given way to Rush Limbaugh and a legion of imitators.

And there's more...

The next decade or more will be a transitional time, as radio, like newspapers and television networks, forswears allegiance to any one means of distribution and declares itself platform-agnostic. Those media that, like the record industry, cling to old technology and a collapsed business model will see their futures crumble before their eyes.

Radio, shedding talent as fast as it loses audience, is rapidly becoming irrelevant to the younger generation. Yet most Americans still listen to something for much of the day. Radio could be the way into those ears, but only if it invests in creating compelling reasons to be there, only if it grabs hold of us the way the voices of past decades connected to the loves, pains and dreams of young listeners. As always, the future lies in the past.

The future lies in the past? Maybe THAT's why I've been obsessed with my college choir lately! Is there any money in singing four-part harmony?

Memorial Day Double Feature - Why I Lost My Job And No - It Has Nothing To Do With The Fact That I Let My Employees Play Solitaire At Work!

I've told this story countless times, but for the many of you who do not work in the radio business, my former colleague, Chris Core, has published an article in The Washington Post that clearly explains the economics of commercial radio (and, by extension, WMAL) that led to my untimely demise. It's an excellent read, and I recommend it as a primer for anyone who wants to know why I'm on the beach!


But onto happier topics, such as this article from Slate Magazine, in which it is revealed that the all-time number one video game of all time is not the latest version of "Grand Theft Auto" or "Guitar Hero 3" or "Super Mario Bros", but lowly old Windows Solitaire! In fact, the article reveals that Solitaire is the single most-used program in the entire Windows Universe! Apparently, Microsoft developed the solitaire game as a way to teach computer novices how to use a mouse... And sure enough, I can still recall directing oldtimers like Bud Steele to spend a half-hour at a time playing cards on a computer! This for a guy who was still smoking Camel unfiltereds and using a manual typwwriter when I arrived at WMAL in 1982! 25 years and one lung lighter, Bud is still happily clicking away at Leisure World!

I remember encouraging my first News Director, Len Deibert, to get a PC shortly after I got my first 386-SX back in 1991. Len asked me - "Why would I ever need a computer!" Why, indeed! The world has certainly changed in ways we never saw coming... Just read topic number one of this blog entry!

"Destiny, John, Is A Fickle Bitch!"

The title of this blog entry is a direct quote from this week's episode of Lost, the TV show that I have declared to be the best program on Planet Earth. I won't bother trying to explain the meaning behind the quote... It would be lost on you non-Losties anyway. However, I will say the quote has a deeper meaning for me personally as I go through my current state of unemployment. The one constant I have been hearing since my position was eliminated is that "for every door that's closed, another one opens", or "there is life after WMAL" or "everything happens for a reason". I have been using those phrases as my mantra for the past 10 weeks now, to little apparent effect. If positive change is indeed my destiny, it's taking it's sweet ass time getting here! Perhaps destiny IS a fickle bitch!

Happy Birthday - And Earth Day!

To paraphrase my good friend Bill Shakespeare - "What's in a date? That which we call a birthday by any other name would smell as sweet." Okay, maybe that's a stretch, but today, April 22nd, has different meanings to different people.

To the Prius-driving, granola-crunching, tree-hugging, birkenstock-wearing, carbon-footprint-reducing, Al Gore-loving crowd, today is Earth Day, founded more or less on this day in 1970(thanks, Wikipedia!). I really appreciate all the environmentalists who observe this day so I don't have to. I've never looked good in earth tones myself.

To my teenage son, whose brain may be filled with more useless trivia than mine, today is Vladimir Lenin's birthday. I would be worried about Brad becoming a dirty red commie, except that I know he doesn't share stuff very easily, and I just don't see socialism working out very well for him!

For me, today marks the tenth anniversary of the opening of Walt Disney World's fourth theme park, Disney's Animal Kingdom. I remember it well, because it was the first Disney park opening I had ever covered as a reporter, and I would not have missed it for the world. Robin was a little nervous to see me go, because our youngest son, Spencer, was just two months old, but she also knew that was not going to stop me. I remember they held the opening ceremonies in the Animal Kingdom parking lot... there was a lot of African-themed dancing, and the big highlight of the event came when a bald eagle came swooping in and landed on the arm of his trainer right on cue with the musical crescendo at the end of "Circle of Life".

I have covered literally dozens of Disney media events as a reporter, from the openings of the Disney Cruise Line and the Disney Institute to Walt's 100th birthday and the Year of a Million Dreams. I used to take them for granted, but now that my access to those kind of events has been dashed in my current state of unemployment, I have a real appreciation for those days! For a Disney fan, getting to see Roy Disney rededicate Walt Disney World on its 25th birthday in person, or to ride "Expedition:Everest" on its official opening day - those really were "dreams come true".

When I lost my job at WMAL, it wasn't the loss of income - it was the loss of this kind of access that bothered my son, Spencer, the most. He said, "But Dad - you'll no longer be 'John Matthews'" - an allusion to a family joke about my former "superpower" ability to gain backstage access to Disney events. Don't worry Spence - hopefully Dad will be "John Matthews" again someday soon... Until then, Clark Kent wants you to clean up the basement!

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!

Here Comes The Pope!

Pope Benedict will arrive in Washington tonight for a visit that will include a Mass to be celebrated at Nationals Park later this week. There was a time that an event like this would have merited live and locally-produced wall-to-wall coverage on WMAL. I would have been the manager in charge of putting the coverage together, just as I coordinated inaugurations, major funerals and state visits in the past. Those days are over for me for now, and for the first time in 20 years, I will be watching an event of this scale from the sidelines.

I must say I'm enjoying that fact just a bit. It's been a thrill to work through major news events, but you definitely miss something when you are caught up in trying to get people to the scene of the crime, or to get to the scene of the crime yourself. As tragic as that day was, September 11th was one of the pivotal moments of my career - yet in many ways, I wish I could have experienced it the way the rest of America did, by watching it on TV and sharing the experience in my neighborhood.

As I've mentioned before, I'd also REALLY like to enjoy a big snow storm from the comfort of my own home - I've literally never been able to do that, because I've always had to work. Hopefully, if I can enjoy the snow next winter, it'll be because I've found a job outside of news, NOT because I still don't HAVE a job!

Hello, Stranger!

Faithful Life On The Beach readers (all 3 of you, including me) will recall that I recently joined Facebook, and found it to be a fascinating way to find people. I am now discovering that not only can I find people , they can also find me. I received an email today from Facebook, advising me that a Ms. Mandy Strasik (This is her Facebook photo to the right) was requesting to be made one of my online "friends". Now, I've never met Ms. Mandy Strasik, but I am a friendly sort, and I'm always telling my boys that they can never make too many friends in life, so I went ahead and made Mandy Strasik my official friend... although I'm pretty sure we're still a bit young in our budding friendship to go out and pick furniture or anything like that.

Now I must confess - although I have never met Ms. Mandy Strasik, I had a strong suspicion she was THE Mandy from Chez Copa - a.k.a. the women who party and sometimes cohabit with my young former associate Jennifer T. (Don't call me Jenny) Richer, who works at WMAL. A few clicks of the keyboard did confirm this to be the case. I am, in fact, delighted at my age, married with two kids, to be able to be part of any club made up almost entirely of attractive 20-something women. Just don't wake me up from this dream!

However, this situation does beg one question of Facebook etiquette that puzzles me. If I am going to receive unsolicited requests for friendship, am I bound by 21st Century mores to accept them all? I mean, how insulting would it be to say "no" to someone requesting an online friendship? I know in the short time I've been perusing Facebook, I have run across people from my past who I want to remain in my past... but there's no assurance they are not going to seek ME out to be friends. Is there such a thing as a "Facebook Witness Protection Program"? Maybe there should be! In the meantime, Mandy... let's do lunch!

Thank You, Honda!

This is my 1997 Honda Civic. We bought it new in July of that year, trading in my wife's old Plymouth Horizon for 500 dollars, and walking away with this car for just a couple of hundred bucks over cost. I had a choice between the optional cassette deck or the optional CD player, and of course went with the more popular option... the cassette deck! After all, I had all those mix tapes at my disposal... and no one had ever heard of burning their own CDs! The sales manager at Sport Honda in Silver Spring gave me a good deal because I had just purchased two Hondas from him for WMAL that are still being used today as news vehicles. This practice tells us two things, but since I am sworn to take the high road, I will only make the second observation. Hondas are built to last!

I love my Civic. It is neither plush nor cool, and it has a couple of battle scars thanks to a couple of scrapes with pillers in the Jenifer Street garage over the years. However - it gets nearly 30 miles to the gallon, and it is reliable with a capital R. It could also make the drive to Connecticut Avenue to my old job by memory after more than a decade of commuting. The reason I'm writing about my Civic now is that we have observed an important milestone - Today, it reached the big 100 K.

The milestone was reached in Gaithersburg, near the Quince Orchard Swim Club, where I was dropping Brad off for a community service project he was involved in. We reached the pool with a mile or so to spare, so I drove around a traffic circle at a nearby school a half dozen times so we could experience the big flip together. A true father-and-son bonding experience!

It was especially signficant that I shared this moment with my oldest son. He is going to be 15 this fall, and it is certainly possible, if not likely, that the Civic will someday be Brad's first car. My first car was my grandfather's 1972 Ford Maverick, which was on its last legs when I inherited it, and which was spewing oil and smoke within a few months on its way to the scrap heap. I'm betting Brad will be getting a much better deal a couple of years from now!

Katie - Don't Bar The Door, USE The Door!

It looks like Katie Couric's days as anchor of the CBS Evening News are more or less officially numbered now, as it has become apparent she is never going to rise out of the basement in the ratings race against NBC and ABC. I say the sooner she leaves, the better, and that she never should have been hired to begin with. This is nothing against Katie Couric. I think she is a fine journalist. I must also confess to having a sentimental affection for her because, like me, she is both a DC area native and a former WMAL intern. But the fact is that no one, man or woman, would have brought CBS out of the ashes in the post-Dan Rather era, and handing that task to Katie Couric was simply a disservice to her. CBS would have been better off shelving the Evening News altogether, and that's what they should do now.

Look at the demographics - Very few people under the age of 60 faithfully watch network evening newscasts, and many of the seniors who do tune in do it out of habit. They're not going to change their routines. My 72-year-old mother-in-law watched Cronkite and Rather, and she watches Couric now. If Bozo the clown replaces Katie, she'll watch him, too. There's virtually no potential for building a new audience there, so why pay Katie Couric 15 million dollars a year to inevitably fail?

Between NBC, ABC and CBS, about 19 million people watch traditional evening newscasts, so there is still, for now, a viable market for that particular product. But for how much longer? The future is digital, not TV news. In a speech earlier this week, Disney chief Bob Iger waxed wishfully that ABC News had the same level of resources as CNN, so it could even the playing field in online news. Iger doesn't seem to be too occupied with the future of TV news, does he? Meanwhile, CBS is considering making a deal to outsource much of its news product to CNN.

Am I, a traditional media person, shooting myself in the foot by discussing all of this? Perhaps, but I'm adapting to the present. New blog... New website (coming soon).... New Facebook account... Social media is the future. What is NOT the future is the CBS Evening News. It, in fact, IS your father's Oldsmobile.