Blog Verification

I'm making this post for internal, technical reasons that relate to establishing a blog feed with Technorati, who is asking me to publish a verification code in order to establish that I'm really the author of the blog, 'Outlook from the Outskirts'. The code: UF9C6XVC3AKY.

Geese at the Park

Geese at the Park: http://t.co/8P6KsqXM2l via @youtube #DemingPark #TerreHaute #Indiana #beautifulday

— Joel Wells (@animule) September 15, 2013

September's Other Infamous Anniversary

It has become a tradition, and rightly so. Every year as summer shows signs of receding into fall, millions of Americans take time out to participate in somber remembrances, such as holding moments of silence, reciting victims' names, and displaying U.S. flags at half staff, to commemorate the horrific tragedy of September 11th, 2001. It's been a dozen years since those attacks, but I, along with the vast majority of folks who are old enough can still remember where they were and what they were doing on that awful day.

However, another September anniversary of an event that had dire consequences for this country is about to pass. While not as lethal as the 9-11 attacks, the catastrophic meltdown of the nation's financial markets began emerging this week five years ago on September 15th, 2008. Investment bank Lehman Brothers initiated the downward spiral by declaring bankruptcy, the news of which sent Wall Street scrambling even before the markets opened.

Panic ensued that week as more financial institutions, such as Merrill Lynch, AIG, and Washington Mutual, faltered. By October, the stock market and the economy, in general, were in free fall.

This meltdown, arising from years of reckless and predatory lending practices, led to what is now known as the Great Recession. It proved to be the worst economic contraction since the Great Depression of the 1930's, and many economic analysts from around the world believed that it helped, in part, lead the United States to electing its first African-American president.

Of course, the meltdown's fallout went far beyond electoral politics. The American middle class lost nearly 40 percent of its wealth. Their median net worth - the value of assets such as homes, automobiles and stocks minus any debt - suffered the biggest drops. The Federal Reserve reports that the median net worth for a middle class family plunged from $126,000 dollars in 2007 to just $77,000 in 2010. (By contrast, the wealthiest families' median net worth rose slightly during the same time.)

This loss of wealth was due, in part, to the unexpected loss of income resulting from skyrocketing unemployment. Between October of 2008 and April of 2009, an average of 700,000 American workers lost their jobs each month, which contributed to the largest sustained increase in unemployment since the Great Depression.

Since the automotive industry was especially hard hit, the impact of these massive job cuts weren't lost on me. My employer at the time, automotive brake manufacturer Aisin Brake & Chassis, suffered debilitating layoffs, which resulted in ending my three-year stint there as a forklift operator.

While far from being out of the woods, our sputtering economy, for the time being, appears to be on the slow road to recovery. Many folks continue to debate over who and what is to blame and what policies to pursue. While worthy of discussion, I decided to save those topics for another blog post. My only intention, here, was simply to call attention to the anniversary of this memorable historical happening in our not so distant past.

Radio Days (Part IV): A Homecoming of Sorts and "Grandma, Can I Have a CD Player?

With the decade of the 1980s progressing into its latter half, the twists and turns of my radio career landed me in my home state of Missouri, much to my delight. The setting for the new job was in a rural, small-town located in the northern part of the state quite close to the Iowa border. The following is the fourth in a series of essays about my life as a broadcaster. Time Frame: 1985-1986.

With two seemingly long years in northwest Oklahoma working at KSIW under my belt, my desire to move on was growing increasingly more intense. I had sent out many audition tapes containing what I thought was my best work. These cassette tapes contained an air check of a recent shift and samples of some of my commercial production. (I was fortunate that management had relaxed recently its policy against allowing jocks to do production or to even say their names on air.)

At last, I got the break I wanted. After finishing an afternoon airshift, I came home to find a blinking red light and a surprising message on my answering machine. (Remember, this was 1985.)

I pushed 'playback', and I heard a pleasant-sounding woman's voice. She identified herself as Carla Robinson, the Program Director for KRXL-FM (XL-94) in Kirksville, Missouri. She said that she had just listened to my tape and was interested in talking to me about doing 'afternoon drive' there. When I returned her call, I scheduled an interview. About a week or so after our initial meeting, I was delighted to learn that I had landed the gig. Apparently, the interview had gone well, and I was ecstatic.

I was doing afternoon drive at a regional powerhouse in my home state of Missouri. (At left, my Mom and I were checking out the 'Radio Park' building that housed both KRXL and companion station, KIRX-AM. Both she and my Dad, who shot the photo, came to visit me at the station during my employment there.) At the time, 'XL-94' as it was called, was a 100,000-watt, Adult-Contemporary FM station that that covered the entire northeast quarter of Missouri (and much southeast Iowa, as well). The stations were in the hands of Vera Burk, an elderly and kindly widow who was left in charge after her husband, the founder of KRXL-KIRX, had died in 1982.

Vera's grandson, 'Burk' Forsythe, was XL-94's weekend and fill-in jock who for all intents and purposes called virtually all the shots at the station despite the fact, as I mentioned above, that Carla Robinson was in name, the PD. Carla, however, did render the personnel decisions since she recruited, interviewed, and hired me. But Burk, because of his family relationship, made most the other decisions.

Burk wasn't really that great of an air personality, but he was unquestionably an audiophile. And, I think his pull with Grandma Vera was essentially the reason why XL-94, a small market radio station in rural Missouri, had a CD player in September, 1985, a time when the overwhelming majority of commercial radio stations didn't. (Our unit look looked a lot like the one pictured on the left.) Unfortunately, players of the time weren't designed to withstand repeated usage as broadcasting situations require. Ours was no exception, and after some two months of use, our player couldn't play a CD without it skipping. Much to Burk's dismay, Grandma Vera said no to a new one. And thus, XL-94 was relegated to using cart players and turntables for the remainder of my time spent working there.

Along with the dawn of new digital recording technology, 1985 and 1986 was a momentous time for both news and pop music. I'll never forget how on the afternoon of January 28,1986, I came into my shift during which we were airing continuous wall-to-wall coverage of the horrific Space Shuttle Challenger disaster:

I remember that it was a difficult segue for me when I had to go back to playing music later that afternoon.

Also during my stint at XL-94, a HUGE sports story, at least for Missourians, occurred. The national media had dubbed it, 'The I-70 World Series'. Because of its geographic location, Kirksville seemed to be divided equally between Cardinals and Royals fans rabidly routing for their respective teams. For the record, the folks at KRXL-KIRX were decidedly pro-St. Louis since KIRX was a Cardinal network affiliate.

Musically, the pop songs we played at XL-94 were mostly synthesized, rhythmic dance tunes that all came accompanying videos that got extensive play on either MTV or VH-1. (Yes, this was the time when MTV actually played music!) While officially Adult Contemporary, XL-94 strayed heavily into Top-40 or CHR music. Billboard magazine had St. Elmo's Fire (Man In Motion)" by John Parr listed at Number One my first week in Kirksville , and XL-94 had it in heavy rotation.

I also remember these tunes during my time there.

For the most part, it was a great time for pop music, and a great time for being in radio. I look back at my time at XL-94 as a rewarding experience where I got to refine my broadcasting skills and work with a pretty decent group of people.

Unfortunately, my job came to sudden end under less than ideal circumstances. It seems that I made the bad move of recording an air-check over an 'unmarked' sales demo tape I found in the production studio without asking if it was okay. As it turned out, this tape belonged to the sales manager, and after one thing led to another, I was shown the door.

Coming up: Rock Radio and 'Lock It In and Rip the Knob Off' in Indiana...

Hurricane Marco Rubio?

Forget about Andrew, Sandy or Katrina. How about Marco Rubio, Michelle Bachmann or Rick Perry? It seems that an environmental group, 350 Action, has organized a petition drive to urge the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) to name hurricanes and tropical storms after political leaders who deny the existence of climate change. The WMO normally names hurricanes using a pre-determined alphabetical list which gets recycled every six years.

In addition to the petition, 350 Action has also released a video, which shows fake news reports about hurricanes named after climate change deniers.

As of the writing of this blog post, the online petition had more the 40,000 signatures.

On the Mississippi

Check out my short clip..."On the Mississippi" http://t.co/BlwpHfJaUd via @youtube #MississippiRiver #StLouis #GatewayArch

— Joel Wells (@animule) August 10, 2013

Indiana's Borders in an Alternate Universe

Imagine if Indiana's eastern boundary with Ohio was 50 miles further to the east and simultaneously, its western boundary with Illinois was extended 50 miles further to the west.

If this unlikely scenario ever became the case, Indiana's population would more than double. This huge influx of people would arise from including the population of Cook County (Chicago) in Illinois and the Cincinnati area in Ohio comprising Hamilton County, Butler County and Warren County.




Indianapolis, which is now the most populous city in Indiana, would suddenly rank number three under this new border arrangement.

I don't think there is any other state that holds this somewhat dubious distinction.