As I sat here to write this, I glanced up at the thermometer readout; Noon and 84 degrees already! Yup that cool snap we had last week with “The Wedge” is over!! “The Wedge” by the way is a phenomenon where a low pressure center gets trapped between the Appalachian Mountains and the Bermuda High. It brings cooler winds from the north to northeast, cloudy skies and a little rain to the Carolinas. This past week, I’ve been taking advantage of “The Wedge” to get out of the house for a brisk walk up and down my street every day. Today might be a little more of a challenge. With me getting all thes ..read more

Sean Connery stated in 1971 that he would never again play the role of James Bond. But in 1983 he played Bond again at the age of 52 in the movie “Never Say Never Again.” I guess, that should have been a warning to me to never say that I would never do something. There is a parallel saying that no longer applies to me; “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” Oh yes, while we are doing old sayings, I’ll add one more; “Half a loaf is better than none.” From the very beginning I’ve believed that live radio was the only way to fly, and my on air career has been mostly that. I guess the thing I lo ..read more

The unofficial start of summer is upon us. Memorial Day is tomorrow and all over the country people can start wearing white. Everywhere but here in the Deep South, where we wear white all year. Down here, we start wearing seersucker this weekend. Just to be different. But this year, with Coronavirus, things are a bit different. At least I hope that people are maintaining social distancing. I know, restrictions are being loosened but the virus is still amongst us and is still deadly to at risk folks. Just ask the folks in eldercare, Montgomery Alabama and Rio de Janeiro. Folks I know that live ..read more

First a 100 year Pandemic, then killer hornets and now Tropical Storm Arthur is going to threaten the North Carolina Coast! And we are still two weeks from Hurricane Season! I just knew that I should have liked and forwarded that Facebook Message that I got in January! I mean, what’s up with 2020 anyway? I’m ready to ask for a refund on this bad boy already. I picked a great time to retire from my IT gig last December. In two days it will have been five months since I turned in my keyfob and parking pass. I still don’t have any idea what retired life is like. And if this is it! I’m going to lo ..read more

As the pandemic plays out, I see a lot of people reporting vivid dreams. I for one have had quite a few of these in the past few weeks. The most recurring one is that I’m wandering around the Horseshoe on the UofSC campus looking for a final exam. And of course, I am not prepared for it. I’ve had this dream before, many times but in the age of the Coronavirus it has stepped up its game. Instead of being in the warmth of a spring day, it is in the middle of winter and I’m struggling with a hat, scarf, gloves and a London Fog Trench coat. I keep dropping my books on the brick pathway and have to ..read more

Tomorrow morning will be the 8th week since my last live show on WUSC-FM on March 9th. The station remains locked down on automation due to the COVID-19 closure of the University of South Carolina. That date is significant to me because it marks the beginning of my social distancing. Aside from trips to get groceries and household supplies or to pick up take-out food orders, and one trip to Lowes to pick up some flowers, the cars have been sitting in the driveway wondering what happened. Two months of missing lunches with friends, or visiting the folks at the office have taken their toll. I st ..read more

When I first got into radio at WUSC-AM at the University of South Carolina I was also on a Naval ROTC Scholarship. Back then, hair length restrictions were pretty strict so I sported a flat top with closely shaved sides. As a result I had little trouble donning and doffing those old Trimm headsets that were the rage in the early 60s. I was still in the Navy Reserves most of the time I was at WCOS so it stayed short there too. In fact, the barber shop in the Cornell Arms Apartment building was the same one that I used when I first came to Columbia. Willie Saylor, the proprietor and sole barber ..read more

Less traffic, clearer skies, porpoises in the canals of Venice and old shipwrecks visible in the clearer waters of the great lakes are some of the reported changes due to the shelter in place orders worldwide. I’ve also been seeing a lot of evidence of a resurgence of radio listenership and a sudden spike in on-line radio; new listeners and new stations popping up all over the world. It’s not just anecdotal either, the BBC and others who track listener data have reported this as well. Unfortunately it is coming at a time when most of the consolidated broadcast corporations have reduced their ..read more

This morning, I’m “sheltering in place” quietly, remembering some very different Easters from the past. One of the earliest was getting up to serve the 6 AM Mass at St. Matthews. My brother Gene and I riding our old school Schwinn fat tire bicycles down Birkenhead, right on Bayview, merging onto Blanding and parking them in the bike rack behind the church. Now this was the old church. The one that was a chapel moved from Camp Blanding to the church property. By the time the new church was built, we had advanced to the “prime time” 8 AM Mass and could sleep in. During my college years, I alway ..read more

This week, I am beginning my fourth week of social distancing as we weather the Covid-19 pandemic. Like most of you, I’ve been spending way too much time on social media. But that is not all bad; several Facebook pages aimed at old school radio on the air DJs have really been popping and some of the most frequent memes talk about social distancing not being such a strange thing to old school radio presenters. The trend of many live radio shows these days is to have a team. You know: “The Morning Team on Rockin’-100” or “The Afternoon Billy Bob and Benny Show.” My apologies if there is really ..read more