,

It practically gallops!

Playing Kitsch-up

The Oscar Mayer Wienermobile visited some of my old haunts in Burbank and North Hollywood this week. My friend Susan Olsen was an honored guest along with songwriter Allee Willis and Americana archivist Charles Phoenix. For starters, the three friends rode the giant hot dog to the Brady Bunch house on Dilling Street. I always loved taking out-of-town guests to see it, even though the subsequent owners took pains to change its appearance and discourage looky-loos.

Allee posted great pictures of the journey on her blog. They went to two Burbank restaurants that I used to frequent: Bob’s Big Boy and Chili John’s. Perhaps the most clever picture was taken at Circus Liquor, which was also used as a location in the movie “Clueless.” They positioned the Wienermobile so that it looks like the giant neon alcoholic clown is standing atop the vehicle.

I had my first experience with the Wienermobile when I was working at WAVA. One morning I had privilege of riding in the vehicle while broadcasting via cellphone. I had my upper body through the sun roof as we drove around Washington D.C. and Arlington. I tossed wiener-whistles to people and shouted “I’m in the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile! Don’t you wish you were me?”

December 22, 2011 | Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment 

Bean There

A picture of the interior of Doc Brown’s DeLorean got me thinking. Yesterday was the 26th anniversary of Marty McFly’s fictional trip from 1985 back to 1955. I realized that on the real Saturday, October 26, 1985, my friend Bean and I were hard at work on a show called “The 25th Hour.” Without the benefit of digital technology, we put together a one-hour program full of songs about time. It aired on WAVA as Daylight Saving Time ended on Sunday, October 27 and the clocks were changed from 2:00 a.m. EDT to 1:00 a.m. EST. One of the songs in the show was “Back in Time” by Huey Lewis and the News from the “Back to the Future” soundtrack. I don’t think either of us realized that we were using that song on the pivotal date from the summer’s hit movie.

Six years later, October 26 once again fell on a Saturday. That year I was in Los Angeles, interviewing for a job with Jay Thomas at Power 106. After a bizarre meeting in which Jay and the station’s marketing director pretended to be a gay couple just to make sure I would be okay with it, I had the evening free. I went to dinner with Bean, who by then had started working at KROQ. After burgers at Carl’s Jr., we went to Bean’s apartment near the Hollywood Freeway to watch the World Series. I’m pretty sure we heard gunshots in the neighborhood.

Bean asked if I wanted to go to a movie or if I would rather go to Las Vegas and be best man at his wedding to Donna. I had not been to Nevada, so I chose the wedding. In rapid succession, we took a Southwest flight to Vegas, a cab to the Clark County Courthouse and another cab to the Graceland Wedding Chapel. The sign out front said Lorenzo Lamas had been married there two years earlier. According to Vegas.com, the Thompson Twins were also married there on October 27, 1991. I never stopped to figure out if Bean and Donna’s wedding took place before or after midnight local time. As a result, I’m not 100% sure if their 20th anniversary was yesterday or today.

October 27, 2011 | Filed Under Uncategorized | 1 Comment 

States of Mind – Part 4

For the past ten years I have been making an effort to visit all 50 states. As my personal quest nears its completion, I decided to write down recollections of the 46 I’ve seen so far, listed roughly in chronological order of my first visit. This multi-part series began on July 1.

It was cold when I flew to Minneapolis, Minnesota. My bosses at Emmis Broadcasting wanted me to visit with other morning shows in the chain. They sent me to visit Hot 97 in New York, WENS in Indianapolis and WLOL in Minneapolis. They also sent the producer from Q101 in Chicago to DC to shadow me for a day. Most of my memories of Minneapolis are from inside the radio station. I do remember that we drove past the theater in St. Paul that was home to “A Prairie Home Companion.” Later today, I’ll get a chance to see Minnesota in the summer while on the way to North Dakota.

I went to Chicago, Illinois, with Don & Mike and our sales manager Gary. This time the trip was just for fun. Gary had called our sister station in New York, which was the flagship station for the Mets. He got us tickets for two games at Wrigley Field. Our seats were behind home plate, in the same section as the players’ wives and girlfriends. From there we had an clear view of the expanding sweat stain on umpire John McSherry’s slacks. It looked like a Rorschach test.

My friend Bean asked if I wanted to go to a movie with him and Donna or if I would rather go to Las Vegas and be best man at their wedding. I replied that I had never been to Nevada, so let’s do that. It was the October weekend that Daylight Saving Time ended. The World Series was on TV and I was visiting Los Angeles for a job interview at KPWR. When the game ended, Bean, Donna and I drove to LAX and hopped a Southwest flight to Vegas. We took a cab to the courthouse, where they got a marriage license. We took another cab to the chapel where Lorenzo Lamas had been married, according to the sign out front.

I got the job at KPWR and eventually moved my family to Burbank after ten months of waiting for our house to sell. When my sister and her husband came to visit, we caravaned to Arizona to see the Grand Canyon. Along the way we stopped at London Bridge in Lake Havasu City. We also took a look at the Petrified Forest and the small towns of Holbrook and Williams.

More states tomorrow!

July 4, 2011 | Filed Under Uncategorized | Comments Off 

States of Mind – Part 3

For the past ten years I have been making an effort to visit all 50 states. As my personal quest nears its completion, I decided to write down recollections of the 46 I’ve seen so far, listed roughly in chronological order of my first visit. This multi-part series began on July 1.

My wife and I made a day trip to West Virginia when the kids were young. Several of her family members went to the apple butter festival in Berkeley Springs and we tagged along. I haven’t done much else in West Virginia except for stopping at the Walmart along I-81 on the way to New England in 2009.

Business brought me to Dallas, Texas. I was assistant promotion director at WAVA when we took a plane full of listeners to see the Redskins play the Cowboys. I was impressed that the bar in the hotel lobby offered Dr Pepper from the bartender’s soda gun. On the morning of the game, we marched through the deserted streets of Dallas and got videotaped for the NFL Today. It was so long ago that the NFC was on CBS and that Irv Cross introduced the segment.

My first trip to Tennessee was to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the death of Elvis. Don & Mike broadcast from the strip mall across from Graceland alongside deejays from all over the country. We saw Jim Bohanan at a 7-Eleven on our way to the site. We were positioned near Reitman & Miller from WKTI and shared some celebrity guests with them like Barbara Eden and Major Bill Smith, who believed Elvis had faked his death. 15 years later, I would move to the other end of the state and embrace all the good things about Knoxville and the Smoky Mountains.

Another unusual Don & Mike broadcast brought me to Tulsa, Oklahoma. We were there on the day that Oral Roberts was supposed to be called home. The plans for the broadcast fell apart and I ended up doing a call-in from a pay phone at a Waffle House. It was my first time visiting one of the restaurants.

The mayor of Indianapolis, Indiana, invited us to broadcast from his city. Bill Hudnut would often pop-in on the Don & Mike show at WAVA when he was in DC. When we went to visit him, he gave us each the key to the city. More recently, on my son’s college search, we visited a school in Terre Haute on the day the Colts were arriving for training camp.

More states tomorrow!

July 3, 2011 | Filed Under Uncategorized | Comments Off 

States of Mind – Part 2

For the past ten years I have been making an effort to visit all 50 states. As my personal quest nears its completion, I decided to write down recollections of the 46 I’ve seen so far, listed roughly in chronological order of my first visit. This multi-part series began on July 1.

Delaware was usually a pass-through state for me. When my family moved from New York to Virginia, we traveled back and forth several times. Delaware was always a good place to stop for lunch or dinner because, as I recall, it had little or no sales tax. As an adult, my wife and I took a day trip to Rehobeth Beach.

My mother had several relatives in Maryland. I can remember visiting them and listening to one of the cousin’s George Carlin albums with headphones. On the way there and back, we would stop at Maryland House on I-95. I have a vivid memory of attending an autograph-singing session with some of the Baltimore Orioles at Memorial Stadium. My dad was doing public relations for National Bohemian at the time. I can remember staying at the Cross Keys Inn on that trip. Years later I went back to the Cross Keys Inn for a job interview with a morning deejay named Glenn Beck. While I waited for the appointed time for the interview, I browsed in a bookstore and saw filmmaker John Waters browsing too.

Virginia will always feel like home to me. I graduated from George Mason University. I met my wife because we both worked at Wolf Trap, although at different times. Our kids were born in Virginia and we bought our first house there. My radio career was launched at WVBK in Herndon before I got an internship at WAVA in Arlington. Before my parents moved us to Virginia, we would visit relatives in Midlothian, a suburb of Richmond. My parents took us to Colonial Williamsburg, where I saw a slide show about archeology. I recall the professor lamenting that people didn’t write down when an everyday object, like a beverage bottle, changed. Nowadays there are plenty of people who write articles every time a new Coke bottle comes out. I always enjoyed visiting Virginia Beach and plan to get back there after my 50-state quest is complete.

While I was an intern at WAVA, my sister was considering a transfer to an art school in San Francisco. Our father had died the year before and I volunteered to travel to California with her for a campus visit. While we were there, we drove down Lombard Street and across the Golden Gate Bridge. About six years later, I made my first trip to Los Angeles when Don & Mike did a promotion with the Arsenio Hall show. We broadcast from a diner in Beverly Hills and sat in Arsenio’s audience. My wife and kids came along even though Frank Jr. was only a few months old at the time. I had no idea then that less than two years later, I would move to California and stay for ten years. We loved our community in Burbank and especially our parish, St. Finbar. We grew to prefer Disneyland over Walt Disney World. We spent a weekend in San Diego, a weekend in Napa and several weekends near Hearst Castle.

More states tomorrow!

July 2, 2011 | Filed Under Uncategorized | Comments Off 

Just One More Thing…

Peter Falk died Thursday night. The actor who played Lt. Columbo also had a passion for painting, which is how I ended up in his driveway with Mark & Brian. The guys liked getting out in the Mark & Brian Mobile whenever possible. They also loved doing celebrity interviews. However there weren’t too many stars willing to let us broadcast from their homes.

I don’t recall the details of why we were invited to Peter Falk’s place. Maybe it was the only way to get him on the show. What I remember most is that we weren’t allowed in the house. There was an outbuilding at the end of the driveway that looked like it had been converted from a garage to a greenhouse to an art studio. Falk did allow me to step inside the studio to see his paintings. Several of them were nudes.

Charlton Heston also let us on his property but not in his house. The guys interviewed him on his driveway too. John Travolta and Kelly Preston let us in to the backyard for a poolside interview, which concluded with a dip in their pool.

Before my first trip to Los Angeles, I arranged for Don & Mike to interview Casey Kasem at his home. We went to the front door but were escorted around the house to the back patio. Years later when I was doing some freelance work, I interviewed actor Ken Howard at a table in his backyard. It must be something in the celebrity handbook: don’t let deejays in the house.

June 24, 2011 | Filed Under Uncategorized | Comments Off 

Amigos de Garcia

modeling "Raising Hope" trucker hat sent to Fox VIP members To get into the spirit of “Raising Hope,” Fox sent members of their VIP group a “Raising Hope” trucker hat and reusable grocery bag. Even better than the promo items is access to the next two episodes before they air.

“Raising Hope” was created by Greg Garcia, who also created “My Name is Earl” and “yes, dear.” I knew Greg back in the olden days when he worked at WAVA during summers off from college:

I drove the van around to concerts and such. After WAVA I graduated college and went to work at WTEM where I did promotions as well as being the board op on the Tony Kornheiser show. From there I moved to Los Angeles in 1993 to pursue a career in sitcom writing. I got my first job in 1994 writing for a show called “On Our Own.” After that I wrote on a show called “Family Matters” for two years. In 1995 I created a show that was ironically “Built to Last” for NBC that was canceled after three episodes. From there I went to a show called ‘Getting Personal” on Fox and then to animated show called, “Family Guy.”

“Cheaters” airs on Tuesday, April 19. Jimmy (Lucas Neff) urges Sabrina (Shannon Woodward) to find out if her college boyfriend is cheating on her. They drive to the college and catch Wyatt (Ryan Doom) kissing another girl. Jimmy pines for Sabrina and is looking for a crack in her long-distance relationship. Meanwhile, Maw Maw (Cloris Leachman) falls for Mel (Jerry Van Dyke) while at senior daycare. They both think the Korean War is still being fought. Maw Maw also doesn’t remember that her husband is dead, so she thinks she’s cheating.

“Everybody Flirts… Sometimes” airs on Tuesday, May 3. Burt (Garrett Dillahunt) successfully flirts with his pool-cleaning clients. Virginia (Martha Plimpton) and Jimmy try flirting with less desirable results. Two guest stars do great jobs. Kerri Kenney-Silver of “Reno 911″ is unrecognizable as a sexy homeowner with a pool. Tichina Arnold is a scene-stealer as Virginia’s friend. One of the biggest laughs in the episode happens when Jimmy befriends his boss Barney (Gregg Binkley) and compliments his work-out regimen. If you can’t wait until the episode airs, Greg Garcia posted a photo from the scene on his Twitter feed, which you can see by clicking here.

April 16, 2011 | Filed Under Uncategorized | Comments Off 

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