John Tesh on 'KTI

The first time I heard the John Tesh Radio Show, I was on vacation in Colorado. My wife and I were listening in the car. We got to our destination - and waited in the car. John was talking about bad investments that amateurs make - because they just seem to make sense. We wanted to wait and see how many we had made (fortunately - only one).

The next break, he talked about how to order a steak in a restaurant to make sure you get the best cut.

Later in the show, he talked about helping your kids through the loss of a family pet.

When I got home, I began listening more and more to the show on-line. I think John may be one of the most compelling people on the radio and we are thrilled to be adding him to the line-up at 'KTI. He will be on Sunday - Friday nights from 7 until midnight, with the Retro Pop Reunion moving to Saturday night at 8.

You probably have never heard the show and may have the initial reaction I did - John's a new age guy who plays jazz. He may be - but now on his show.

The John Tesh show is all about bettering yourself. John has a huge staff of researchers and writers and he only chooses to talk about the facts that he personally finds interesting.

As for music, we play our own music - so everything stays the same there.

The show is slugged as "music and intelligence for your life," and it starts tonight @ 7.

New Rule

If you've ever seen Bill Mahr's show on HBO, you know he does a very funny segment called "New Rules." He is making up rules he would like to see in society as absolute.

I've got one for the Brewers this season:

NEW RULE

If Derrik Turnbow issues a lead-off walk - take him out immediately. He doesn't have it.

Maybe it's working out of the stretch ...

Maybe it's the runner distracting him off first ...

Maybe it's the voices in his head ...

That lead off walk usually scores. Often, it's a game altering run like today against the Royals.

The Mystery Of The Missing Mast

From the mailbag at wkti.com:

I have been to several of your live events and seen your broadcast van. Why is the mast never up when you are broadcasting?

Great question! Our van will be the last one we ever own with a tall mast that can be raised to beam a signal back to the station.

We no longer need to send our signal back to Radio City on a two-way radio. We use a digital phone line called an ISDN line. If you come to our mobile studio's at Summerfest, State Fair, or any of the other big events this summer - you won't see the mast up. We don't even have to bring the van - we can bring one of the other vehicles. Our on-site control board feeds the signal from the microphones right into the ISDN line.

An ISDN line has to be specially ordered and installed at the location. Back at Radio City, we use a special ISDN digital modem to dial the number - just like you would dial your home phone. With a modem at each end, the digital signal goes live and is excellent broadcast quality. ISDN broadcasting can be on the expensive side - but we think the quality is worth it.

You are probably familiar with the work of ISDN even if you have never heard one of our live broadcasts. Most sports teams use the same technology to send the game back to the flagship station when the team is on the road.

Our ISDN set-up allows the people on location at Summerfest, State Fair, etc to communicate with the producer back in the control room. It's pretty cool!

The Guys in The Truck RULE!

Don't ever underestimate the value of a great producer.

While on vacation I caught the Cubs-Padres game on WGN-TV. Before the end of the inning with Derrik Lee going after Chris Young - they had a graphic up on the screen showing each of the players and their reach. It was great because it was immediately obvious that Young was going to kick his butt. Derrik underestimated his opponent's reach.

Man - that is superior producing. Kudo's to the Superstation.

Was It True Genius?

I am on vacation right now, but had to post this Sopranos e-mail forwarded to me by a friend. I admit, I watched the episode on the DVR after midnight as I had been out all weekend long. I was tired and having trouble following it.

So the point would have been that life continues and we may never know the end of the Sopranos. But if you pay attention to the history, you will find that all the answers lie in the characters in the restaurant. So here is what has been found out.

The guy at the bar is also credited as Nikki Leotardo. The same actor played him in the first part of season 6 during a brief sit down concerning the future of Vito. That wasn't that long ago. Apparently, he is the nephew of Phil. Phil's brother Nikki Senior was killed in 1976 in a car accident. Absolutely Genius!!!!

David Chase is truly rewarding the true fans who pay attention to detail.

The trucker was the brother of the guy who was robbed by Christopher in Season 2. Remember the DVD players? The trucker had to identify the body.

The cub scouts were in the train store.

The black guys at the end were the ones who tried to kill Tony and only clipped him in the ear.

Here's where the genius comes in: When Tony's walking in the diner, you see the camera focus on him, then it switches to his perspective, and you see him looking at the booth he's gonna sit at ... Then the camera switches back to Tony's face, then it once again switches to his perspective, and it shows him looking at the door and looking at the people come in.....

Every time the door opens the Chimes sound.......

Carmela walks in, Chimes, AJ walks in, Chimes, this while Meadows tries to parallel park, still trying to get inside the restaurant....

At this point the camera switches back to the trucker who goes in the bathroom......

Then it goes to a scene where Meadow finally parks and starts running in the diner....

The doors about to open, Tony looks up....

And No Chimes......................

No Music............

Everything just goes black...............

In one of the early episodes of the Sopranos, Tony's talking with Bobby about what it must feel like to die. Bobby says "at the end, you probably don't hear anything, everything just goes black"Part of that was revisited in the second to last episode during the last seconds of it, when Tony's about to go to sleep and he flashes back to the memory of him and Bobby on the boat ... "You probably don't hear anything everything just goes black"

So in the end, the Journey song was playing, the chimes on the door sounded but when Meadow came in, the guy in the trucker hat came out and killed Tony.

It's the reason you don't hear, or see anything when he died....

It was from his perspective.... and everything went black, then the credits rolled.

True Genius.

Okay - but I heard chimes when Meadow walked in ... did you? Unless the author was talking about a chime when the door opens ... and a chime when it closes. There was only one short chime - then fade to black.

Picture Day!

Yesterday was PICTURE DAY at Radio City for Mathew, Erin and AJ. You'll see the final product soon enough. Here is what my camera phone caught behind the scenes ...

First -up: Mathew gets made up (and finds it surprisingly fun)

Didn't AJ say men should never wear make-up? I had to wait until his eyes were closed to shoot this one ...


Mathew's not really a control freak ... but he did have to control the make-up session.

Gettin' all girly ...

Now ... who will stand where?

Now the colors coordinate ... and we're ready:

What a handsome bunch.

Thanks!

Thanks for all of your e-mail regarding the last post. I honestly didn't think many people read these blogs. But we are booked for the rest of the month and well into July.

Can't wait to have you all meet Mathew, Erin and AJ. Thanks again!

Do we need tour jackets?

Somehow I figured once we got Mathew, Erin and AJ in place, things would get back to normal - meaning I could get back into a routine. Well that hasn't happened yet.

So many people have written in to welcome the new show that we decided to reciprocate your well wishes in person. It started yesterday, and we're pretty much booked all this month bringing lunch and/or snacks to people who have called or written. Yesterday we made the rounds at a Miller's H.Q. - they could not have been more welcoming, setting up Mathew, Erin and AJ with all the Miller swag they could want (and some cool Miller retro Brewers hats).

We still have a couple of open days this month. If you would like to meet and welcome the new team, e-mail me at bwalker@wkti.com.


Also - thanks to Vince Vitrano from TMJ-4 for writing about his experience with our new show:

http://www.todaystmj4.com/bloggers/vitrano/7785906.html

No Hope

When was the last time you saw something so ulgy ...

So disturbing ...

The image lingers in your mind for days ...

I'm still not over it.

On Sunday I was pulling into a Wal-Mart parking lot following a car full of people (looked like at least 6 people inside this early 90's Pontiac Sunbird.) As the car turned toward the open part of the lot I saw something I never imagined still happened in 2007.

Somebody threw an entire fast-food bag full of discarded burger wrappers and soft-drink cups out the window.

Using the parking lot as their personal trash can.

What kind of person does this?

I don't care who you are ... how you were raised ... who wronged you in the past ... how much or how little money you make ...

That's just plain wrong - and everyone knows better.

Seriously - how can you justify taking up space on this planet when you throw your trash out your car window?

Touching other people's discarded food trash is pretty disgusting to me. But leaving that litter on the parking lot was just wrong. My young son saw it happen too and wanted to help, but I would not let him grab the stranger's trash. I took a spare plastic bag we had in the car, picked up the trash and walked all of the 20 or so steps to the giant trash containers outside of Wal-Mart - then quickly headed to the men's room for a scrubbing.

I know there are crimes committed that are much more heinous - but again: what hope does this person have of being a contributing member of society?

None.

Follow-Up

My last post was on radio singles (versions of songs that labels re-mix to add more punch, shorten the song, or sometimes 'rub' out words). Someone made an excellent point in a comment that I wanted to bring out for discussion.

The song to which we referred, Nickelback's "Rockstar," has two words in it that radio station's would be fined for airing. Both words refer to the same part of the human anatomy and would not pass the FCC's rules.

Is that right?

Should radio stations like KTI take a stand?

Are the FCC rules a good thing?

This is the law of the land. Is it a good thing? Is it a bad thing? I would love your comments.