Celebrities

Throwback Thursday – Picking up Styx

I know I’ve thrown back to this before. I can’t help it. It was such a spontaneous and wonderful moment. Five years ago, it looked like I wasn’t going to be able to meet one of my rock heroes, Tommy Shaw. Free-FM was presenting the band as part of a great line-up at Rock the Park, but no meet-and-greet was planned. The band had things to do. We got to meet and get photos with Toto and Grand Funk but Styx couldn’t make it happen. …

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Book Review: Collusion

Don’t mistake this book for being like all of the others about the Trump administration. Collusion was written by a journalist with rock-solid credentials including more than a decade embedded in Russia. Luke Harding has sources who go on the record and are legitimized in several other ways. He shares specifics about the US President’s deep financial ties to Moscow, Putin and Deutsche Bank – a bank with a history of fraud and deception.   …

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Ed Kelly standing in front of a microphone, wearing mirrored sunglasses, talking on the phone as he does one of his impressions

Master Impressionist

Thousands of broadcasters and actors in this country dream of making it in the US. Our friend Ed Kelly has been doing it for decades. The way I see it, his career is successful for three reasons.

  1. He’s versatile; from broadcasting to voice-over to acting to live stage performances including comedy, impressions and singing – he does it all.
  2. He’s mobile. He can go where the work is.
  3. He’s wickedly talented. Like, a one in ten-million kind of talent. And that might be selling him short.

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Thankful Thursday – A Life of Bounty

One of the great privileges of my career has been to meet so many people and hear their stories. It’s fun to meet the rich and famous, sure, but it’s the ordinary folks fighting various battles who have made the most impact on me. As Amanda Marshall sings, “Everybody’s got a story that could break your heart”.  …

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cover of the WKRP box set featuring the entire cast of the show

Thankful Thursday – Radio Days

Radio has given me a voice. It’s been loyal to me even when I wasn’t loyal to it. It’s forgiven me when I was a jerk (and there were times when I was a jerk!) and afforded me opportunities I wouldn’t have found anywhere else. Radio introduced me to some of the most wonderful people in the world, and some of the most famous. They’re not always the same thing. It legitimized me to strangers and gave me confidence until I built some of my own.  …

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The Fish Sex Movie and Others

The Oscar-winners for Best Picture and Best Director often leave me baffled. Except for Titanic more than twenty years ago, the winner is rarely the most popular film. The Shape of Water certainly fits that mould. It’s a surreal cold-war tale about a monster from the sea and people on land who can’t seem to connect with others.  …

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What Marcus Had to Say

Derek recently narrated a book devoted to the stoicism of Marcus Aurelius. Marcus – let’s call him Marc – on second thought let’s not – lived from the year 121 to 180. For the last 19 years of his life, he was the Roman Emperor. Until Derek got this job, I was unfamiliar with his master work, Meditations, although millions around the world have read it. …

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