Sunday, June 29, 2008

Intrust Bank Arena update

I snapped this photo of the new arena in Wichita the other day. I shot it from Kellogg while I was driving by. It's starting to take shape now. It still seems small to me, though. I will keep you updated every few weeks with pictures.

Friday, June 27, 2008

They are coming to town!

I know, I am a dork. I was excited to hear that Air Supply is coming to Wichita. Kristi and I saw them at Harrah's in Topeka a couple of years ago. We did a radio promotion and had tickets to the show. We went up and really enjoyed it. Well, Cox Communications is bringing them to Wichita for a free show on August 2nd at the Wichita Open Golf Tournament. I stopped by Cox this morning and picked up my free tickets. I am looking forward to seeing them again. A lot of people don't even think that they are around anymore, but they are. They just look a lot older now. Find out more at the following link: http://www.airsupplymusic.com/index.html

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Is it a fake?

This picture has been all over the Internet and I personally have received about 13 e-mails from friends with this picture. It's supposed to be the tornado that hit Chapman, KS earlier this month. Apparently , it's a fake. Get the story at the following link: http://www.wibw.com/blogs/jeremy/20002239.html

Monday, June 23, 2008

Still looking for a win

My hockey team had another game on Sunday night. We came into the third week of the season 0-2. We lost the first week 8-0 and 6-0 in on the second week. The third game of the season wasn't much different. We played the Average Joe's. They were above average, beating us 13-0. Yes, you are reading this correctly. We have given up 27 goals and have scored none so far this season.
The team wasn't all that was hurting on Sunday night. Take a look at the picture of my skate above. I was getting dressed into my gear before the game and noticed this when I was putting on my skates. There was a chunk missing. I used clear hockey tape, hoping it would hold. It did. I am going to have to get it fixed before our next game on Sunday. Man! I hope that we can get a win, or at least a goal next game!

George Carlin dies at 71


I received a voice mail from my brother late Sunday night after I got home from playing hockey. It was a message that I didn't like to hear. It was the message about George Carlin passing away. I have always thought that George Carlin was hilarious! I have seen in numerous times in person. My friends Dan Holiday, Craig Borgman, Bob Walker and I would go and see him every time he came to town. We would all literally be falling out of our seats during his shows at Century II here in Wichita. I was saddened to hear about his death. He will be missed and is a true comedy legend. Below is the official release of his death.

Acerbic stand up comedian and satirist George Carlin, whose staunch defense of free speech in his most famous routine "Seven Words You Can Never Say On Television" led to a key Supreme Court ruling on obscenity, has died.

Carlin, who had a history of heart trouble, went into St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica on Sunday afternoon complaining of chest pain and died later that evening, said his publicist, Jeff Abraham. He had performed as recently as last weekend at the Orleans Casino and Hotel in Las Vegas. He was 71.

"He was a genius and I will miss him dearly," Jack Burns, who was the other half of a comedy duo with Carlin in the early 1960s, told The Associated Press.

Carlin's jokes constantly breached the accepted boundaries of comedy and language, particularly with his routine on the "Seven Words" — all of which are taboo on broadcast TV and radio to this day.

When the words were later played on a New York radio station, they resulted in a 1978 Supreme Court ruling upholding the government's authority to sanction stations for broadcasting offensive language during hours when children might be listening.
"So my name is a footnote in American legal history, which I'm perversely kind of proud of," he told The Associated Press earlier this year.


Despite his reputation as unapologetically irreverent, Carlin was a television staple through the decades, serving as host of the "Saturday Night Live" debut in 1975 — noting on his Web site that he was "loaded on cocaine all week long" — and appearing some 130 times on "The Tonight Show."

He produced 23 comedy albums, 14 HBO specials, three books, a couple of TV shows and appeared in several movies, from his own comedy specials to "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" in 1989 — a testament to his range from cerebral satire and cultural commentary to downright silliness (and sometimes hitting all points in one stroke).
"Why do they lock gas station bathrooms?" he once mused. "Are they afraid someone will clean them?"


He won four Grammy Awards, each for best spoken comedy album, and was nominated for five Emmy awards. On Tuesday, it was announced that Carlin was being awarded the 11th annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, which will be presented Nov. 10 in Washington and broadcast on PBS.

Carlin started his career on the traditional nightclub circuit in a coat and tie, pairing with Burns to spoof TV game shows, news and movies. Perhaps in spite of the outlaw soul, "George was fairly conservative when I met him," said Burns, describing himself as the more left-leaning of the two. It was a degree of separation that would reverse when they came upon Lenny Bruce, the original shock comic, in the early '60s.

"We were working in Chicago, and we went to see Lenny, and we were both blown away," Burns said, recalling the moment as the beginning of the end for their collaboration if not their close friendship. "It was an epiphany for George. The comedy we were doing at the time wasn't exactly groundbreaking, and George knew then that he wanted to go in a different direction."
That direction would make Carlin as much a social commentator and philosopher as comedian, a position he would relish through the years.


"The whole problem with this idea of obscenity and indecency, and all of these things — bad language and whatever — it's all caused by one basic thing, and that is: religious superstition," Carlin told the AP in a 2004 interview. "There's an idea that the human body is somehow evil and bad and there are parts of it that are especially evil and bad, and we should be ashamed. Fear, guilt and shame are built into the attitude toward sex and the body. ... It's reflected in these prohibitions and these taboos that we have."

Carlin was born on May 12, 1937, and grew up in the Morningside Heights section of Manhattan, raised by a single mother. After dropping out of high school in the ninth grade, he joined the Air Force in 1954. He received three court-martials and numerous disciplinary punishments, according to his official Web site.

While in the Air Force he started working as an off-base disc jockey at a radio station in Shreveport, La., and after receiving a general discharge in 1957, took an announcing job at WEZE in Boston. From there he went on to a job on the night shift as a deejay at a radio station in Fort Worth, Texas. Carlin also worked variety of temporary jobs including a carnival organist and a marketing director for a peanut brittle.

In 1960, he left with Burns, a Texas radio buddy, for Hollywood to pursue a nightclub career as comedy team Burns & Carlin. He left with $300, but his first break came just months later when the duo appeared on Jack Paar's "Tonight Show."

Carlin said he hoped to would emulate his childhood hero, Danny Kaye, the kindly, rubber-faced comedian who ruled over the decade that Carlin grew up in — the 1950s — with a clever but gentle humor reflective of its times.

Only problem was, it didn't work for him, and they broke up by 1962.
"I was doing superficial comedy entertaining people who didn't really care: Businessmen, people in nightclubs, conservative people. And I had been doing that for the better part of 10 years when it finally dawned on me that I was in the wrong place doing the wrong things for the wrong people," Carlin reflected recently as he prepared for his 14th HBO special, "It's Bad For Ya."
Eventually Carlin lost the buttoned-up look, favoring the beard, ponytail and all-black attire for which he came to be known.


But even with his decidedly adult-comedy bent, Carlin never lost his childlike sense of mischief, even voicing kid-friendly projects like episodes of the TV show "Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends" and the spacey Volkswagen bus Fillmore in the 2006 Pixar hit "Cars."
Carlin's first wife, Brenda, died in 1997. He is survived by wife Sally Wade; daughter Kelly Carlin McCall; son-in-law Bob McCall; brother Patrick Carlin; and sister-in-law Marlene Carlin.





Saturday, June 21, 2008

10 Weeks!!!

Saturday marked 10 weeks without a soda. Kristi is getting tired of me talking about it. I like to joke with her about it. Austin has started to do it, too. He is at 21 days, so Kristi is getting it from both of us now. :)

Happy B-Day Aunt Kris

I would like to wish a Happy B-Day to my Aunt Kris. Here's a picture of her with Taunia (my sister-in-law) at a Colorado Avalanche game. My Aunt Kris is Awesome! She's always went above and beyond when it comes to helping people out when needed. She's also a huge sports fan. She's the reason that I have been able to go to Broncos, Avalanche and Rockies games. She is very hard to get a hold of. She's very busy. I called and left her an "early B-day call" on Friday, but I couldn't reach her. I left a voice message, though.
Kris, I love you and appreciate all that you have done for me. I hope that you had a wonderful B-Day.

Friday, June 20, 2008

Wichita Thunder has a new coach

The Wichita Thunder at a press conference Thursday, introduced Brent Bilodeau as the ninth head coach in franchise history.
A former first round draft choice (17th overall) of the Montreal Canadiens in the 1991 NHL Draft, Bilodeau (pronounced BILL-uh-doh) enjoyed a 12-year pro playing career, the last six of which he spent as a player/assistant with the ECHL’s Johnstown Chiefs. Upon his retirement in 2005, Bilodeau was named assistant coach for the ECHL’s Las Vegas Wranglers, where he has spent the past three seasons.
“While this will be Brent’s first head coaching job, he is by no means inexperienced”, said Thunder general manager Joel T. Lomurno. “Las Vegas, year after year, is one of the most successful teams in minor league hockey - a great deal of that success is owed to Brent.”
During Brent’s three seasons in Las Vegas - where he also served as assistant general manager - the Wranglers compiled an amazing record of 146-38-32 (.750), including a 26-20 post season mark. In his first two seasons, the Wranglers piled up 53 and 46 wins respectively, advancing to the conference finals each season.
This past season, Las Vegas went 47-13-12 and came within two wins of the ECHL Title. During his tenure, Las Vegas won two division titles, two regular season conference titles, one post season conference championship, one Brabham Cup and made one Kelly Cup Finals appearance. In each of those three seasons, the Wranglers averaged less than 2.60 goals against.
A native of Clyde, Alberta, Brent and his wife Cass, a former WNBA player, have twin sons Tyler and Jacob and are expecting a new baby daughter in August.
“My family and I are thrilled to be coming to such a great organization”, said Bilodeau. “The Wichita Thunder has a long-standing hockey tradition with tremendous fan support and I look forward to putting an equally good and exciting product on the ice.”
The Thunder will drop the puck on their 17th CHL season with a road game on Friday, October 17th and their home opener slated for the following night.
I remember watching him play for the Kansas City Blades in the 90's. I used to go up and see their games a lot. I am excited for a change with the Thunder. This should be fun.

The weekend I can't dodge!

We have a busy Saturday planned to add to my swamped schedule. Our station, T-95 is having it's 9th annual Dodgeball Tournament. It runs pretty much all day Saturday. We have 64 teams playing in a double-elimination tournament. The winning team gets round-trip tickets to Vegas for every member of the team. That's a pretty cool prize. I moved the location of the event this year to the Wichita Ice Center. I am excited to see how it goes. The station was able to make money off of this and I am sure that the Ice Center will make some, too. I will let you know how it goes. It's going to be a LONG weekend.

Let the long weekend begin!

It's early Friday morning and I am getting ready for a very busy weekend. I have some work to still do today, but I am going to try to get some sleep. I am working the Relay for Life in Newton from 7 p.m. tonight through 7 a.m. tomorrow. I will be up there about 5-5:30 p.m. to get set up and then I am there all night. One of our stations is sponsoring the event and I am going to Emcee it. That's the start of the weekend. There's more after that.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Sweet Surprise!

I had a pleasant surprise at work on Tuesday. The American Heart Association sent me a fruit bouquet as a thank you gift for helping out with Heart Walk. Here it is in the picture above. I have always wanted to get one of these. It was delicious. I shared it with all of my co-workers. They are very cool looking. I enjoyed it very much.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Is it gonna happen?

The NAB, which has spent millions over the past 16 months to prevent two satellite radio companies from becoming one entity, Monday (June 16) took a swipe at the pair hours after FCC chairman Kevin Martin announced that he would support the union with a series of conditions that were accepted by Sirius and XM last week.
"Given their systematic breaking of virtually every rule set forth by the FCC in their 11 years of existence, it would be curious if the Commission now rewards XM and Sirius with a monopoly," said NAB executive VP Dennis Wharton.Wharton referred to a report in the Wall Street Journal that Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) reportedly wrote earlier this month to the Senate Judiciary Committee asking for an unredacted copy of the May 27 letter from C3SR, which described itself as a group of subscribers who oppose the merger and were complaining that the satcasters have failed to comply with FCC requirements that their receivers be interoperable. Apparently Brownback did not realize that the group was created by and is funded by the NAB in an effort to derail the satcasters attempt to unify.
In December 2006, Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin told R&R that Sirius and XM were co-funding a research lab in Florida that had spent several years developing a radio receiver that would bring in signals from both companies. At the time, the receiver had not been presented to the FCC for approval.
But not every group was unhappy with Martin's endorsement of the deal. Public Knowledge president and co-founder Gigi B. Sohn thought the conditions fairly reflected her group's recommendations to Congress and to the FCC.
“From what we have been able to read and to learn this morning, many of the conditions the FCC is considering placing on a potential merger of XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio are conditions that we have proposed and supported for more than a year, both in Congressional testimony, as well as in meetings with the Commission."
“We support what we have heard today about the Commission’s proposals, although we would like to know more about how the set-aside for noncommercial channels would be implemented,” Sohn added.
Martin recommended that spectrum space for 24 channels be cut away from the new entity -- no new name for the company has been announced -- that would be used for minority and public service programming which must be non-commercial. It is unclear how the criteria for license holders will be defined. Georgetown Partners, a black-owned private equity partnership in Bethesda, Md., has expressed a desire for a license for spectrum coming out of the deal, but it wanted at least 40 channels and to offer commercial-supported programming.
Cliff Burnstein's Primoshpere, one of the original four companies that applied to the FCC for a satellite broadcast license 16 years ago and who says he still has $140,000 on deposit with the commission, has also had a handful of meetings with FCC commissioners and staff to discuss the newly outlined spectrum. On May 9, Burnstein told R&R that Primosphere's company would be advertising-based and would offer about 30 channels of mostly music programming. Burnstein said Primosphere’s “will come at this from a music and programming perspective.” Burnstein said his idea is not to compete with terrestrial radio but “to serve the underserved.”But even with conditions, not all of the FCC commissioners are going to be reluctant to embrace the deal. Commissioner Michael Copps said in a statement, "As I’ve said from the beginning, this merger is a steep climb for me. That hasn’t changed. Contrary to at least one press report, I have not pushed for any conditions that would support a finding that the transaction is in the public interest. I look forward to reviewing the chairman’s proposal and will consider it with an open mind.”

Monday, June 16, 2008

Wet day at work!

We have received a lot of rain and storms this spring and summer. Today is no different. I just went downstairs at the station and shot this video above. The basement is flooding and that's not a good thing to happen with expensive radio equipment around. Check it out for yourself.

Working out at Heart Walk!

I had a very eventful weekend. I was the emcee at Heart Walk at Cessna Stadium at Wichita State University on Saturday, June 14th. Here's a funny video that I shot for the station website with folks getting warmed up for the walk. The WSU mascot WUShock joined in on the festivities.

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Happy Father's Day

I would like to wish a "Happy Father's Day" to my dad. Here's a picture of dad (left) with Jeremy and me. I am planning on taking the kids over to dad and mom's this afternoon. We are going to eat lunch and let the kids swim. It should be a fun day. Dad's are very important and I love my dad very much. He has always been a hard working man and made sure that his family had what they needed. Happy Father's Day, dad. Love, Craig.

Friday, June 13, 2008

Tim Russert from NBC dies

Tim Russert, the host of “Meet the Press,” and NBC’s Washington bureau chief, has died. He was 58.
Mr. Russert was a towering figure in American journalism and moderated several debates during the recent presidential primary season.
Tom Brokaw, the former anchor of NBC Nightly News, came on the air at 3:39 p.m. that Mr. Russert had collapsed and died early this afternoon while at work. He had just returned from Italy with his family.
Mr. Russert hailed from Buffalo and worked for two prominent New York Democrats, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Gov. Mario Cuomo, before being hired in 1984 by NBC in its Washington bureau. He became bureau chief four years.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

What?

What? This looks like a postcard....not the winning license plate design for Kansas Personalized plates starting in 2010.
Topekan Rick Moon created the winning design. The new plate, which received more than 83,000 votes in the public voting contest, is scheduled for production in 2010. Over 200,000 votes were cast for the five design finalists.
The one that I picked finished forth, I believe. Well, maybe next time. I like it, but it looks more like a postcard.

In with the new!

As many of you know...I am a license plate geek. The new Kansas tags have been out for a year now, but I was just able to get mine in June. I went to the tag and taxes office during lunch today. I wanted to get it done early, instead of fighting the crowds at the end of the month. It worked out great. I was in and out in less than 5 minutes. I am going to try and make that a habit. I was thrilled with having to give them $250 bucks, though. :)

Out with the old.


Cool vehicle!

I took this picture on May 30th on the Kansas Turnpike. It's the vehicle used for chasing tornadoes. I have seen it on t.v. numerous times. It was very cool. They were up in the top bubble taking a picture of the beautiful Kansas sunset when we passed them. They did wave at us. Very cool vehicle.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

I have a lot to "Catch Up" on!

I apologize for not putting anything on the old blog lately, but I have been swamped! I will try and "catch up" with things and update it soon. I know! Very lame with the "CATSUP" bottle and "catch up," but that's how this fatty rolls!