Forced busing caused heartbreak

By the mid 60s, St. Louis was heavily involved in voluntary and forced busing of students from one school district to another in the quest for desegregation. But when busing started, inner city white and black kids were bused to other districts to achieve equality in education. (That's a picture of Wade Elementary on Vandiventer).

I attended the same grade school from kindergarten through 8th grade. It was about 5 city blocks from home and I walked to and from school. All the kids either walked, rode a bi-state bus (St. Louis Mass Transit) or were brought by a parent. Prior to forced busing, there was one "bully" in the entire school. Everyone knew who he was and most of the kids tried to avoid him. There was even one year, when he threatened to beat me up if I didn't hang out with him. My 4th grade teacher actually let me leave early at noon and when school was over to avoid a confrontation with the Bully because I was terrified of him. He once tried to drag me into the girl's restroom and push my face down into a toilet, but I resisted and a teacher came along before  he could force my face into the water. The next school year, all the doors had been removed from the stalls in the bathrooms - probably so nothing funky could go on behind closed doors - and it coincided with forced busing.

Suddenly my seemingly quiet grade school now had dozens of "bullies". The principal referred to them as "those kids" and if there was any trouble, we were told to try and avoid confrontations. The principal, Margaret Woehr, was not happy with forced busing. Her quiet little grade school changed suddenly. She was a pleasant lady to a point - but the kids liked to call her Werewolf. One of the bused in bullies was Joey Davis. Built like a wrestler and dumb as a door knob. He carried a small paper bag in his pants pocket, and several times a day would bring it out and inhale from it. He had airplane glue in that bag. Joey dropped out of grade school before graduating.

Mr. Stumpe (STUM-pee) was principal when I was in kindergarten. He always wore a suit and had a crew cut. I had some monopoly money one time and he offered to sell me the school. I was 5 and thought he was halfway serious. The following year Margaret Woehr replaced him. But I digress.

Point A - Curb where my nose was broken, Point B - Corner Tim was standing on

While walking to school one day, a patrol boy, Tim Griffith, was getting some red hots from another kid. They were a few years older than me. The red hots were being poured into his red patrol boy helmet in his hands.
I don't know why, but as I walked by, I hit the bottom of the helmet intentionally and red hots went flying. Much to my surprise, Tim was furious and chased me up the block before catching me. He grabbed my shirt around the shoulders and threw me face down to the concrete curb. It broke my nose. This was just outside the girls playground and a teacher came running pretty quick and escorted me inside. They called my parents to come get me because they couldn't get the bleeding stopped.

That event would stay with me my entire life. In 7th grade a girl once said, "if your nose was a penis, you'd be a good lay." I didn't even know what that meant until a friend explained it to me. Needless to say I was devastated, particularly since I hadn't done anything to provoke her comment aside from being in the same classroom. In high school, I worked as an assistant to the guidance counseling office. I had to deliver a note to a particular teacher, Mr. Anton, that would excuse one of his students from school for some personal family business for the day.. I never had Mr. Anton as a teacher and had never met him. But as I handed him the note, he said, "Gee, if I had your nose full of nickels I'd be rich!", and the entire class laughed. I turned red and retreated from the classroom. I didn't have a snappy comeback, because he caught me totally off guard. I didn't expect anything like that to come out of the mouth of an adult.

Wade Elementary is also where I was exposed to asbestos. In the middle of the basement were the boilers that provided heat to the classrooms. A group of us guys were exploring around the boiler room, and one of the things we did was peel back the white asbestos from a pipe to see what was underneath. That event, too, would stay with me.Recent years have brought a diagnosis of "scarring consistent with exposure to asbestos" to my lungs from various specialists.

When busing started, the new kids were being bused in from an elementary school district about two districts away from Wade. And there were girls. New girls. One in particular caught my eye, Faith McEntire. She looked like a fairy princess. Long blonde hair, nice features and nice personality. I tried very hard to get closer to Faith. She pretty much ignored me. One Saturday a group of us boys went to the The Shenandoah on Grand for some movie or other, and Faith was there with some of her friends from school.. Usually we went to The Columbia Theater on The Hill, in the opposite direction of The Shenandoah and not quite so far from home. I had hopes of sitting close to her, but the boys headed to one part of the theater and the girls to a different part. I didn't pay much attention to the movies, because I was mainly there to see Faith.


I was heartbroken over Faith, and she had no idea.. I don't know whatever happened to Faith, but I hope she has had a good life. I certainly have.


So it goes.

Terminating rats for a beer, in the summertime, in south St. Louis

This is a strange story - so I'll just jump right in.

In the summer of 1971 I was 15. Four places west of our two-family flat was a four-family flat. They were called flats because the roof was basically flat, with a slight slope down from front to rear.  My folks owned the two-family flat we lived in - occupying the ground floor - while the 2nd floor was rented out. In most of the four-family flats you had 4 renters and they were often not kept in very good shape, inside or out.

Mac (probably 48 years old or so) and his family of four lived in that four-family flat four places west of our flat. (Names have been changed in this story so Mac and his family may remain anonymous.) There was Mac's wife, 11 year old daughter, 10 year old son, and the runt, Benny, 6. Benny was born with a cleft palette and Mac's family couldn't afford to get it fixed so most of the kids in the neighborhood always made fun of the way Benny talked. I didn't, because Mac and his family became friends that summer.

One evening Mac made me and another kid from the neighborhood, Johnny, an offer. He'd give us a beer or two if we would sit on his front porch after the neighborhood got quiet - around 11 PM - and shoot rats that came out of the crawl space in the four-family flat next to his. The weapon of choice was a CO2 BB pistol, nearly quiet when shot. His kids were sound asleep when all of this was going on.

Mac's family lived in the lower left apartment of this 4 family flat

So almost every evening around 11, we'd head down to Mac's for Rat Patrol. If we stayed very quiet on Mac's front porch, sure enough a little after 11, rats would start to come out from under the flat next door. Pop, pop, pop - "Got him!". Mac would laugh and his beer belly would just shake and shake. He ducked inside and got us each a beer. That first night I think we killed 3 or 4 rats. On subsequent nights the death toll would stay lower, only 1 or 2 for a while. And after a few weeks, we thought we had killed all the rats under the flat next door. Johnny only stuck around for the first few nights, then decided he'd had enough. From then on, just Mac and me on Rat Patrol.

But Mac had started something, giving each of us a beer that first evening, and the nightly beer continued for a little while. I continued going to Mac's apartment, watching TV in the living room in the dark as his kids slept. And there in the only light provided by the black and white TV, you'd see a roach scurry across the floor. Then another. and another. I got my fill of seeing roaches pretty quick and that was the end of the nightly visits to Mac's flat. How thick were the roaches? One early evening I stopped by and his wife had a pot of beans boiling on the stove. As I looked into the boiling pot, there'd be a roach float by every so often. Mac's wife fished the roach out of the pot and the family had those beans for supper that night. I never ate there, for obvious reasons, and soon stopped going there in the evening altogether.

About a year later, I heard Benny had run out in front of a car and was hit and killed. I don't know what happened with the rest of that family, but they moved somewhere else shortly after Benny's death because they couldn't pay the rent.

So it goes.

Memorable People

As we continue down that road of life, we meet and encounter memorable people. Some are good memories, some are not so good. Here's a little story about 3 from college that weren't so good. My college friend Tim should enjoy this.

When I first enrolled at Central Missouri State University, I was coming from 2 years of junior college in St. Louis (very liberal environment), to CMSU (very strict environment).  It was culture shock to say the least and my first experience at CMSU was with an older male counselor to get signed up for classes for the fall of 1976. I can't say for sure what his name was, so we'll call him Mr. Smith. Mr. Smith apparently got some kind of pleasure from having me repeat my social security number about 20 times. I mean, he probably had it memorized after the first 6 or 7 times (if he was slow), because my SSN is very easy to commit to memory. But there we were, filling out enrollment forms, and him asking repeatedly for my social security number. Toward the end of this session he inquired about my previous political science studies.

Even at Forest Park Community College circa 1974-1975, I didn't like political science because of the instructors. A woman instructor had a fairly severe speech impediment that made her difficult to listen to. Try concentrating on political history with that going on. The other political science instructor was a man, who was also a state representative in Jefferson City. So that made him an "expert" on anything to do with Missouri politics. Particularly on being able to greatly exceed the speed limit legally on I-70 and US Highway 54 when the legislature was in session. Guess that's one of the perks.

Back to Mr. Smith. I seem to recall getting a D in one political science class in St. Louis and a C in the other one I took. I still maintained an A- average in St. Louis. Mr. Smith asked if I had been tested on the Missouri Constitution? No, can't say as I have. Then he said that it was a requirement for graduation, so even though I had credit for two classes coming from St. Louis I would have to take a political science class at CMSU that would test me on the Missouri Constitution. When it came time for me to graduate I had fulfilled all my hours for a Bachelor of Science Degree, but had never taken a class where I was tested on the Missouri Constitution. I was actually worried they'd hold me back for another quarter just because of that - but that didn't happen. There was no requirement to be tested on the Missouri Constitution.  Mr. Smith is most likely pushing daisies now.

As soon as I could I transferred to another counselor, John Prince. My memory of John Prince is this - I had to change classes after the first few days one quarter - I somehow got into a class that had nothing to with anything I was interested in. I stood outside his door patiently for about 5 minutes while he had his face buried in paperwork on his desk. I then cleared my throat and said, "Mr. Prince" and and without looking up from his paperwork he said "I don't even have time for you today. Go away!" So squeamishly I explained I had to change one class that morning and he finally looked up from the paperwork and assisted me. I don't know what John Prince went on to do, but he wasn't a very good counselor at times.

And then there was the spring quarter (right after spring break) when I had chicken pox. 22 years old and somehow I got chicken pox at college. By the time I was actually diagnosed with chicken pox, I had scabs all over my arms and face - and naturally had to miss at least a few days of classes.

Dr. David Eshelman taught classes in Mass Media - and specialized in broadcast law. He was a very "by the book" kind of guy. When I stopped in to tell him I'd be missing a few days of class it was very obvious by my appearance that I had a fairly severe case of chicken pox. He said something like, "that's fine, but I still need a note from your doctor if you expect to make up the test I'm giving Tuesday." OK, whatever.

Dr. E asked for my assistance with recording a vocal concert one winter evening - I worked part time in the Radio Lab at CMSU - and he taught me something that has stuck with me through the years. As we were wrapping up the recording, I started to wind a microphone cord around my left arm to coil it up - using my hand and elbow as a spacer for the coil. He quickly stopped me and pointed out that cords get twisted when you coil them that way - and showed me the correct way to coil a microphone cable. The same thing applies to extension cords - you should never just coil them around your arm - they will end up twisted.

Dr. E was a knowledgeable instructor - and he was very thorough in his approach to broadcast law. Unfortunately Dr. Eshelman was shot to death in the driveway of his home in April of 1993 (a former student was charged with murder).

Thanks for stopping by.

So it goes.

New Record High

The official high temperature at The Columbia Regional Airport today was 108. That's a new record high. The old high of 104 had been set in 1991. The "normal" high for this time of year is 88.

A little diversion - building an ice castle:

The high tomorrow is only supposed to hit 93. Woo-hoo!

So it goes.

I got to meet Curly back in the 60s!

The early to mid 60s was an innocent time, even in larger cities like St. Louis. In my neighborhood in south St. Louis, most of the kids about my age (5,6,7,8) were allowed to pretty much run free. It's not that our parents were bad parents, it's just that back then you didn't have to keep an eye on a child all the time to ensure the child's safety. Occasionally we'd play in the backyard of one of the kids who had a parent that stayed outside or within earshot while we were there, but most of the time we roamed the neighborhood and played in our various backyards without adult supervision. Most of us were required to stay within a block of home to facilitate being called home by a parent yelling your name.

It was a wonderful time. Summers seemed to go on forever. Most of us played from morning until evening, returning home for meals or the afternoon block of children's programs. It was a different time and a different environment for kids back then. And children's television was different, too.

From about 1959 until around 1968, on Channel 11 it was Captain 11's Showboat. Captain 11 was portrayed by the late Harry Fender. Of all the children's shows available at that time, Captain 11 was my favorite because it featured Three Stooges shorts as well as cartoons.  Captain 11 would pretend to launch his paddle boat into the "old Mississloppy" for the daily cruise. He always had navigation challenges during the show and at the end would pull the boat back into the dock. As a child, I thought there really was a boat - but the show as hosted out of KPLR's studios.

There were other shows, too.  Channel 5 had Corky's Colorama.  Channel 4 had the SS Popeye (later called The Captain and Cookie). The channel 4 show obviously featured Popeye cartoons, among others. The channel 5 show featured a variety of cartoons. Channel 2 (and later on channel 30) had Mr. Patches.

The hosts of those children's shows were often local TV weathermen - who while in makeup or costume were very far removed from the world of TV weather and thrust into a daily environment of screaming children. (Some, if not most of these local shows had an in studio audience comprised of children).

Growing up in St. Louis - I thought these were the only children's shows that existed.

One summer while visiting a cousin in Rolla (circa 1963-64), he was very excited that we'd get to meet Curly, in person, at a local shoe store on a Saturday morning. Being a big fan of the Three Stooges, I, too was excited at the chance to meet Curly, not realizing that Curly Howard had died in 1952.

We got to the store and the line of children stretched from inside the back of the store all the way on to the sidewalk and about halfway down the block. After waiting in line for what seemed like hours, we finally got to the table at the back of the store to meet Curly. Much to my surprise Curly was the host of an afternoon children's program on KRCG, channel 13 in Jefferson City. He was autographing an 8 x 10 black and white photo of himself to give to each child in line. My cousin was ecstatic at the chance to meet Curly, me on the other hand tried to hide my disappointment that it wasn't THE Curly. Since most of these children's shows of the time were only on weekdays, if you visited a different city on a weekend you'd miss out. My cousin didn't know of my Curly and I didn't know of his.

Those children's shows were some classic local television, although I'm sure most of the weathermen in disguise were at least a little embarrassed to be delegated to hosting a kid show. I wonder how many volunteered for the children's programs, as opposed to being assigned a children's program as part of your contract?

If you Google the right search terms, you can actually find pictures and some clips online of these gems from 60s.

It's a time gone by, unfortunately, but it was wonderful while it lasted.

So it goes.

But you doesn't have to call me Johnson ....

Yet more stupid stuff on the Internet.

A month ago I needed to find a replacement power supply for my son's notebook computer. The notebook had been a hand-me-down when I got something newer and faster. I searched using Google and found a supplier with a replacement power supply that matched the specs of the old supply. Although the replacement was priced well, what I didn't realize was that it was shipping (free) from Hong Kong. So it took almost 3 full weeks to arrive via USPS.

This morning I got an email  from the supplier. It was an invitation to fill out a customer satisfaction survey and get something free.

The email address was mine, but the greeting within the email was clearly created for someone else.
______________________________________________________________
Customer Service Email




Dear Frank Skobel,

Thank you for shipping at DinoDirect.com. Did you get the Colorful Crystal Mud as Free Gift with each of your order? We would like to know your satisfaction about it and sincerely invite you to join our satisfaction survey. Your feedback is very important for us to serve you better. 
______________________________________________________________

There really is no end to stupid stuff on the Internet. It's everywhere, everyday, every time you use the Internet.

So it goes.

Update

So tonight I log in to my web host's control panel and before it takes me to the control panel, I get the following screen:

And this was at the bottom of that page:

Yeah, no thanks, I'm not interested and probably never will be after this stunning display of stupid stuff on the Internet.

So it goes

It never ends

I guess somebody, somewhere is trying to prove that no one has a corner on stupid stuff on the Internet.

Here's an email I got from SiteLock today:
______________________________________________________

Hello Gary,

Your complimentary one-time SiteLock Advanced scan of www.kdghafdhsflafhl.com has completed. SiteLock has scanned your site for application, cross-site scripting, and database vulnerabilities and found no issues. To access the detailed report, please log in to your control panel and click the SiteLock link.

In your SiteLock dashboard, you can review the results of your scan and sign up for these comprehensive scans as an ongoing service.

Thank you,

The SiteLock Team      

______________________________________________________

Apparently this "advanced scan" from SiteLock is something provided by my web host. But you've got to wonder where they came up with that domain.

"SiteLock has scanned your site...." No, you haven't. That's not my site, and that site doesn't exist. What you have done is something stupid on the Internet.

Now I am rushing to the SiteLock web site to sign up for their service.  NOT!

"It's not getting any smarter out there. You have to come to terms with stupidity, and make it work for you."
-- Frank Zappa

So it goes.

The Talent Show That Could Have Been Great

Around 1981, a company named Special Promotions, Inc. started a country music talent contest called Country Star Search. That first year it was actually called Ray Price's Country Star Search - adding the country star's name to the credibility of the contest. The second year it was re-branded the Country Showdown and offered a national recording contract and a big cash prize to the national winner. Radio stations nationwide held talent contests over several weeks in their communities under guidelines specified by SPI. We were there from the beginning, helping to build the Country Showdown into a major attraction for radio station listeners and country star wannabes. The success of the showdown was made possible by small and large stations across the United States.

The first year the local contest was held at the Attic Lounge located at the Villa Motel. Almost all of the station staff was there - in addition to about 10 contestants and their fans, plus the sponsors we had joined with locally. A few minutes before the contest was set to begin I asked the GM who was going to emcee the contest?  He said, "You are!"  And that was the first time I appeared in front of a crowd representing the radio station. I was terrified, but by the end of the evening it was actually going well. The final night of competition was held at the Liberty Theater before a packed house. It was a fun event to be a part of.

We recorded most of the local contests and played them back on the air on Sunday afternoon. Winners of the local contests advanced on to the state contests - which were held at Silver Dollar City and the State Fair in Sedalia among other locations.

But then the head of SPI, Dean Unkefer, allowed Jerrel Shepherd's group of stations to participate and most of them were located near other stations. So the other stations, including us, protested to SPI that the contest was no longer "exclusive" to our stations. Keep in mind this was after the showdown had continued to build for several years.

The following year, Dean Unkefer chose to sign ONLY with the Shepherd stations, cutting off the very stations that had helped to build the contest. Kirksville, Eldon, Sedalia and Mexico were all cut off from the contest. Dean Unkefer told me he had never had a pain in the ass like the Missouri radio stations before. And the following year,  the Shepherd stations were no longer interested in the contest.  Guess what?  The original showdown stations were no longer interested in dealing with Dean either.

Although it's been around for 30 years and is still going on - you don't hear about the showdown contests like you did back in the early 80s in Missouri because of Dean Unkefer.  He owns SPI and is probably a very rich man by now. But some of the stations he pissed off 25 years ago still want no part of his contest.

So it goes.

Turn Signal Conundrum

I think I've finally figured out why so many people fail to use their turn signals properly.

Money.

There was a time, if your tail light burned out you could buy a replacement bulb almost anywhere. Hardware store, grocery store, department store, etc. And the bulbs were cheap - something like a buck and a half for two bulbs.  You could pop open the trunk, undo the light socket and replace the bulb in a minute or two.  Almost the same with pickup trucks - usually two or three screws, undo the socket and replace the bulb.

Then some genius re-designed the tail light, after what, 60 plus years of simple do-it-yourself bulb replacement.

Now cars have a tail light "assembly", and good luck getting it out to replace a bulb.  There's a good chance you can't replace the bulb yourself. It might be next to impossible except for the dealer, and now that whole tail light assembly can cost $80-$100, if not more, if one 75 cent light bulb goes out.

Some recent model years have switched from incandescent bulbs to LEDs - and LEDs don't burn out as easily as a light bulb. Since LEDs should last much longer than bulbs - that's a good move.

So  I think the reason so many people fail to use their turn signal properly all comes down to money. They fear using it may burn it out quicker and who really wants to pay $80 to replace a burned out tail light?

And then you've got those maroons who have a burned out tail light and have no intention of getting it repaired.  I've known of people who could well afford to replace a burned out tail light - $80 is just a drop in the bucket, but they don't get the light replaced on the principle of the cost.  Why shell out $80 when all that's wrong is a 75 cent light bulb burned out?  Never mind that it's the law to have a working turn signal and use it properly. Never mind that a family's safety could hinge on that burned out tail light and that family could be yours. Never mind it's the right thing to do.

Get the tail light replaced. Use the turn signals properly. Pretend you have at least an ounce of intelligence in all that gray matter between your ears.

So it goes.

The FCC and License Renewal

The next license renewal period for all radio and TV stations in Missouri isn't until 2013, but some parts of the license renewal process are ongoing.  I went through an FCC inspection about 8 years ago.  It was the first time in at least 25 years that the FCC had inspected the station I worked at.  The station passed the FCC inspection with no problems - it was a stressful situation but the FCC Inspector was very nice in how she handled the inspection.

All broadcast stations (radio and TV) are required to keep public files - certain information pertaining to station operation from the past (what the station has done for the community of license) and present (what the station is doing for the community of license).

One key part of the public file is an FCC publication called THE PUBLIC AND BROADCASTING: How to Get the Most Service from Your Local Station.

If you have a local station, I encourage you to look at its public file - you may find some interesting information.  In my 32 years in radio at the station, there was never a request from the general public to view the public file.

The public file should be available at the licensee's main studio and specifically here's what the regulation says:
"The public inspection file shall be available for public inspection at any time during regular business hours."

For a station that's on the air 24 hours a day, the FCC would generally see regular business hours as any time, although a station may claim its normal business hours are 8 AM to 5 PM weekdays.  Even if only the part time weekend on air help is working, the public file should be available to the general public.

What's in the public file?  Here's a pretty good list (you can click on the Public File link to see it full size):
Public File

Most stations should be willing and able to show you the public file - since that's what's required by the FCC, but some may not be very accessible.

Every station is licensed by the FCC to serve the "public interest, convenience and necessity." 

You can help determine if any broadcast station is fulfilling its obligations as a licensee by reviewing the public file. This is important any time, but even more so at license renewal time.

If there is a problem viewing the public file or something is missing from the public file, you can file a complaint with the FCC.

You can be a part of your local station's operation in a significant way by asking to see the public file.  If any required item is missing from the public file, the station could be fined.  If it turns out the station is not serving the "public interest, convenience and necessity" the FCC license can be taken away.  Operating a radio or TV station is much more than just owning a building, transmitter and tower.

Certain parts of the public file contents are also required by the FCC to be available on every station's web site.

How Do Radio Ratings Work?

Arbitron is in the business of gathering and selling radio listening data. They provide data on who is listening to which station at what time of day. That's quantitative data. Abitron also provides qualitative data - exactly who are the people listening to radio? .... what are their ages, lifestyles, education, home ownership, automobile ownership and much more. They have been the major player in radio ratings for decades. There have been a few competitors, like Birch, but most of the competition has never lasted long. Can you say monopoly?

For years Arbitron has used a diary method to gather data - a sample of the population in a rated market keeps details of what stations they listen to over a period of several weeks. In the past Arbitron had spring surveys and fall surveys. Then in larger markets they added winter surveys and summer surveys. Some markets are in a ratings survey period year round. The big problem with diaries is that people aren't always meticulous about how they fill them out; and for any given area, a very few diaries are extrapolated to provide general audience trends. In recent years, Arbitron has been rolling out the Portable People Meter (or PPM) - an electronic device that records actual listening data for the person it's assigned to.

Over the years there have been stations that start a contest on a Thursday - and usually at 20 minutes past the hour. Why? Arbitron's ratings week starts on Thursday and stations get credit for listening broken down by quarter hour. In the Arbitron game, 20 past the hour gets a station credit in two quarter hours. That's why you'll hear things like the "Really Big Giveaway" starts Thursday at 7:20 on KABC. One extremely popular ratings gimmick has centered on 7:20 AM Thursdays - the Birthday Giveaway. "If your birthday is in this envelope when we open it at 7:20 this Thursday morning, you could win $10,000." In this example are the words "if" and "could" - meaning someone may or may not win $10,000. Under FCC regulations, stations are supposed to be completely honest with all of their contests - in most cases the FCC expects stations to have a list of rules and qualifications for any given contest available to listeners - so the unsuspecting listener can see "the fine print". If there are loopholes that get the station out of having to award the big prize in a contest, they'll be spelled out in the contest rules, or should be.

Geographically, survey areas are divided into metro survey areas (MSA) - larger cities and the county they're located in, and total survey areas - all of the counties that make up a particular radio market (TSA).

In Missouri, a county may have a population of several hundred thousand people, but Arbitron data is often comprised of the diaries from only 20 to 40 actual listeners. Larger metropolitan areas have a higher concentration of diary penetration, but it's still only fractional compared to the total population.

You're probably thinking all this data gathering and compiling is expensive and you're right. Who pays for all that data and technology? Radio stations and advertising agencies are Arbiton's paying customers. And how much does all of this data cost? By and large, radio stations would prefer that you not know who much the data is costing them. Why? It's very expensive. For a small market station that's rated in a TSA or MSA the annual cost of Arbitron ratings is often more than the annual salary of many of that station's employees. So they'd prefer you and their employees not know how much Arbitron data costs. Arbitron has a confidentiality clause in their contracts, so stations legally can't say how much they're paying.

I can only speak from experience. For a small market broadcaster in the 80's - Arbitron had a fairly economical package called the county by county ratings. The data was actually over a year old for each year's publication - so the spring 1987 ratings data would be published in the 1988 county by county book. The county by county book for Missouri in the 80's cost us around $1200 (per year). But that was only gravy for Arbitron at the time - the real paying customers were and are the subscribing stations in an MSA or TSA. Once a station shows up in a rated MSA market - they can no longer buy the county by county ratings - they have to pay for MSA and TSA data if they wish to use Arbitron data.

Arbitron data is based on an annual fee, and stations are given the option to pay that monthly for any given year. Arbitron has long had a built in annual price increase in their contract - so for example with a 5 year contract, year 1 is the least expensive and year 5 is the most expensive.

The station contract with Arbitron ended in the Spring of 2010. At that time, Arbitron data cost the station somewhere in the ballpark of $36,000 a year. And that's actually more than twice the amount of many employee's annual salary - so Arbitron cost is not something most stations want to talk about. Arbitron proposed a new 5 year contract for the station that would have seen that annual cost exceed $55,000 a year in the 5th year, and the only person in the station making that kind of money is the owner.

Stations use ratings data to increase ad sales - more listeners mean higher advertising rates - but there's a point where Arbitron can be just too expensive for the return on investment and Arbitron hit that point with my former station in 2010.

Advertising agencies - whose customers are retailers, companies and corporations - use ratings data to determine which station provides the best value for their customers.

Ratings data is expensive. Too expensive for many smaller stations. And those stations will usually point out the flaws in Arbitron's methodology - like the sparse number of actual diaries involved in ratings, or the ability to manipulate the numbers to show what somebody wants to show. Arbitron would likely argue the latter of those is a feature, not a flaw.

While usually only one station can be number 1 in terms of total listeners for a given time period, you can use a combination of quantitative and qualitative data to show a particular station's strengths. For example: number 1 among men, 18-34 years of age who are employed full time, make more than $45,000 a year, drive a pickup and live north of the Missouri River. And there really are advertisers who are interested in reaching the top station with those kind of demographics.

Ratings are one big, expensive game - played by Arbitron, radio stations, advertising agencies and the people listening (or not listening) to radio.

The overall number of people listening to radio continues to decline - as people turn to other sources for entertainment and information.

So it goes.

Cicada Factoid

If you live in Missouri, Illinois, Tennessee, Arkansas or several other mid-south states, no doubt you've heard the cicadas this spring.  This year we are blessed with the 13 year Great Southern Brood Cicadas.  While you may find their mating call annoying, they do have a couple of positive aspects.  Right now it's a virtual all-you-can-eat smorgasbord for birds and other critters that can feed on the cicadas.  And some experts say they may be as thick as a million cicadas per acre in some forests.  As the bugs mature and die, they'll provide the equivalent of about a pound of fertilizer per square yard over the forest floor.

I've perused the Internet searching for interesting facts about the periodical cicadas and here is some of what I found:

This year (2011) the Great Southern Brood is out across some 14 states.

Overall, there are some 30 broods of 13 year and 17 year cicadas.  The 17 year broods are located further north than their 13 year counterparts.  The last time the cicadas were here, both the 13 and 17 year varieties appeared in 1998.  So while this year we have the 13 year cicadas, the 17 year cicadas will return in 2015.

They are sometimes called locusts, although they are not in that genus, but are cicadas.  They pose no major threat to vegetation although laying their eggs may damage some young trees.

They don't bite or sting, but they do have what look like barbs on their legs so they can be uncomfortable on sensitive skin.  They aren't attracted to humans, although they may be thick enough to collide with you at some point.  (They aren't attacking you).

Their life cycle is something like this:  They emerge as nymphs from the soil where they've lived for 13 years feeding on plant roots.  The white, adult nymphs shed their exoskeleton after about 6 days and as black and red adult cicadas live for about 5 weeks.  During that time they mate and produce eggs.  The eggs will hatch nymphs and the nymphs will burrow into the ground where they'll stay for the next 13 years, only to emerge and start the cycle again.

Experts don't know why mother nature chose 13 year and 17 year cycles, and why (for example) there are no 5 or 15 year cicadas.


Cicadas have been eaten in China, Malaysia, Burma, Latin America, Germany, the Congo and in the United States. In North China, cicadas are skewered, deep fried or stir fried as a delicacy. Sparky's, a local ice-cream shop in Columbia, MO, began serving Cicada ice-cream in 2011.  Yum-yum!  (NOT)

So enjoy one of nature's many wonders while they're here.  They'll be gone by mid to late July and this particular variety won't be around again until 2024.

So it goes.

Adventures in Moving

I think it's safe to say that moving is never fun.  Whether moving your household or your business there are lots of loose ends you won't see until they hit you in the face at midnight on a Friday during your move.

So, while moving is never fun, it CAN be an adventure.  After all life is an adventure and moving is just another little chapter in the overall life adventure experience.   Mark Twain said that two things in life are certain – death and taxes.  I'd add moving to that short list, because even if you've found your dream home in your dream location – you'll be moving at some point.  To something better, something bigger, something smaller.  Never say you'll you'll never move.  Even if you expire before you move – somebody is still going to have to move all that stuff.

Rule number 1 in moving – downsize before the move.  You've got stuff you don't need, stuff you don't use and face it, some stuff that should have been thrown out a long time ago.  Don't move anything that you don't really need to move – sell it, craigslist it, ebay it, give it away, donate it, dispose of it.  It'll make your move a lot easier.

Rule number 2 – get some help to move.  Even if you think you've downsized to the point that you can move everything yourself – plan on getting some help for the move.  You can't do it all yourself and you'll probably run out of time – so ease the pain a little by planning ahead to have some help with the move.

Rule number 3 – never believe what the phone company promises about service at your new address.  I called AT&T well ahead of our move to see if high speed DSL was available at the new address.  Two days later I received a call that a technician had tested from the new address and DSL would be available.  So everything was set to be activated on the last day of our move.  A technician was supposed to install DSL between 8 AM and 5 PM on the day of the appointment.  But a letter from AT&T that week said that since I already had the DSL modem, no technician visit would be necessary and my high speed internet would available after 8 PM on the day scheduled.  Guess what?  8 PM rolled around on that Friday and the DSL light on the modem was still flashing red.  So I call the number listed in the letter.  After talking to someone with a Malaysian accent I got transferred to the “proper department”.  The automated voice at the other end of that call then informed me that office was open from 8 AM to 7 PM central time Monday through Friday.  Oh, I get it – service will be activated after 8 PM – an hour after everyone goes home so there's no chance of getting anything straightened out till next week.

It rained a couple of times between Friday night and Monday morning.  Each time it rained, the DSL light on the modem would change from red to green about once a minute.  Not a good sign.  It looked like the modem almost had DSL sync but only when it rained.

Monday morning I am told there was a discrepancy in the order for service, and that it had been automatically rescheduled from Friday to Wednesday.   Logically, it seemed to me like if they couldn't do it Friday, they should do it Monday – but this is the phone company.

Wednesday afternoon a technician shows up.  After several trips between his truck and the back of the house where the phone stuff is, he tells me he's having trouble getting DSL sync.  It works from the box at the street, but not at the box on the back of the house.  Then he adds, even IF he can get the DSL signal to sync up – I would only have access to the SLOWEST speed that AT&T offers for “high speed” internet.  While better than a dial up connection, it's way slower than the 6 MB service I had previously – all of 768 KB or a little better than 10 times the speed of dial up.  And that's IF he can get it to work at all.  I would consider accessing the world at that rate to be only a last resort.  I've been spoiled by a high speed Internet connection for about 10 years.  The thought of dial up (56K) or low speed DSL (768K) would seem like taking a step back in time to before high speed Internet was available.

I also told the tech that somebody had called to tell me that a technician had tested DSL from the new address and there shouldn't be any problem.  He said he didn't think AT&T had done that for a few years (send a technician to verify before the installation).  So in his opinion, no one had tested to see if DSL would actually work at the new address until he came out.

After he left – and that's without DSL working at all – I call the cable company to verify if their high speed Internet is available at the new address.   Yes it is – and their 8 MB service would be $10 cheaper for the first three months as an introductory rate and the installation would be free.  The only glitch with the cable company is that they didn't have an opening in their schedule until the following Wednesday.  I considered that minor at this point, since it looked like AT&T couldn't provide DSL service and I had been managing this far with no Internet access – a few more days was no big deal.

While I say I had no Internet access – I should clarify.  At least 3 households in the neighborhood have WI-Fi connections that are not password protected.  But I tried not to take advantage of their wide open connections and only connected long enough to retrieve and send email several times a day.  About 12 wireless routers show up in the neighborhood, 3 of those without passwords –  so about 25% are running a wide open wireless Internet connection.  That's never a good idea even if you trust all of your neighbors.  If somebody wanted to steal your identity, a wide open wireless Internet connection is like hanging a “Welcome” sign outside an open door.  I'd like to advise the people that aren't password protected they should lock down access to their router, but the 3 open routers are using generic names – either the brand of the router for the SSID (as in Linksys), or something like “Router” so I have no easy way to identify them.  A wide open router means my connection to the Internet was not encrypted either – so that's why I limited what I was doing on the Internet to just email.  I can't thank those neighbors enough for having an unprotected wireless connection – it sure helped me – but the first order of business for anyone with a wireless router should be WPA or WPA2 encryption.

Wednesday morning the cable tech shows up to install cable Internet and an hour later I'm back on the Internet with an 8 MB connection – faster than the DSL I had at the old address.

So that's a bit of what I learned from our move.  And even though my wife says we aren't moving again (anytime soon)– I feel like I'll be better prepared next time.  At least that's the plan.

So it goes.

Stupid Stuff on the Internet

I changed web hosts this week for the sites I host.  If you've ever done that, you may know that it's not always pain free to change hosts - there are usually lots of "gotchas" that you don't foresee.  Like stupid stuff buried in the fine print that you didn't notice before you signed up with that new web host. Or claims that they do things or have services that turn out to not be true.  I've been there, done that and got the t-shirt more than once since I've been on the Internet, so changing hosts is not only something I dread - I'm now very careful, or try to be, before I change hosts.

My old web host was imhosted.com.  I had been with them for years - after starting out with a couple of smaller hosts. They were far from perfect.  They have no telephone support available at all, and that's something that probably should have steered me somewhere else, but I thought I could deal with email only support.

But then when I did need support, I'd get email responses with sentences that didn't exactly make a whole lot of sense - it was obvious that English was not their primary language.  Email responses that would end with something like - "We have done the needful".  Nobody who speaks English talks like that.  My guess is they used some translation software to get from something that made sense in their language to something that sounded pretty stupid in English.  Just about every support email response I ever got from them ended that way - and from different support people - with names like Sam, Beth, Bob, Sue.  Come on now, when you say something like "we have done the needful" I now damn good and well  that your name is not Sam.

So when I decided to switch web hosts this time, of course I  couldn't call imhosted.  So I went to their support site, logged in, and attempted to submit a support ticket.  Only this time, after clicking on submit ticket, I was presented with this page:

Notice the last sentence there, "you can submit a ticket by selecting the appropriate department below" followed by nothing but blank space.  Yes, file this under stupid stuff on the Internet - there is no department below to select from.

And this from a company that makes money by being on the Internet.  I think that's really dumb.

And that's why I'm glad I switched web hosts this week.  Not so much because I expect my new web host to be perfect or a whole lot better than imhosted.com - but because imhosted.com has done more than their fair share of stupid stuff on the Internet with me.  It was time to move on and put a different "Kick me" sign on my back.

Who is my new web host?  I'd rather not comment here.  But I'm relatively sure they'll do their share of stupid stuff on the Internet at some point as well. So it goes.