Month: April 2009

The Den and Doug Show — 1976

From November 10, 1976, here I am on college radio, passing the mic over to Dennis Rogers.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2009/APR/DenDoug.mp3]

As good as a Jon Stewart toss to Stephen Colbert? Uh, no. Not with my awful attempt at ad-libbing. It was at that time I began my internship at the radio station in town. When I graduated it turned into a paying job, but it sure didn’t pay very much!

Comic Con Fun

Here’s a scene from last weekend’s comic book show in Albany. D.F. Rogers is with legendary artist extraordinaire Joe Sinnott, Joe’s son Mark, Mark’s wife Belinda, and their son Trevor. It’s a lot of fun being able to hang out with the Sinnotts. Dennis is showing a story to Joe that Joe drew 35 years ago, but had never before had a chance to see in print. Dennis, Mark and I got a laugh from realizing that we can recognize Joe’s work from as little as four small dabs of ink.

[MEDIA=34]

Wake up call

When did William Dean Singleton become Chairman of the Associated Press?

http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/2009/04/06/daily16.html

In a past life I worked for Singleton, when he was working for a guy named Joe Albritton. Singleton had a house in town and whenever he was there he required a 6 am wake-up call from the newspaper. It was an afternoon paper, and for a bunch of us the workday started at 5 am. One of the girls always took care of calling Singleton, and I got stuck with the chore maybe once or twice. I think one time it was on a dare.

I got into computers from that job. We had a Harris system that never worked right, and when the production guy in charge of it wasn’t around I’d step in. My moment of truth came when I read a sticker on the computer that said, “Use double density diskettes only” and when I took one of the 8-inch floppies out it said single density.

One thing led to another, and working with Harris technicians by phone, I got the thing working well enough to hang in until the system could be replaced. My involvement with that process resulted in one of Singleton’s guys offering me a job in New Jersey, leading a team of installers and troubleshooters.

At the same time, one of my college roommates was trying to talk me into doing the same sort of work, except at hospitals. I decided that hospitals were a better long term bet than newspapers, and as a fringe benefit I’d get to work with my college buddies.

From the item at the link above, it sure seems that Singleton is the same guy he was, both good and bad. I love newspapers, but I despair for the industry’s survival and I’m very glad that I got out of that business.

I love you, man!

Greetings from Albania — I mean Albany! The WiFi service here at the Holiday Inn is pretty good, and I’m glad I brought the new Acer netbook.

Dennis and I are in New York’s capitol for a comic book show. It’s a nerd male bonding weekend! I wouldn’t be here except I had to stop training for the Boston Marathon because of my Achilles tendon problem.

On the way here Dennis had a neat surprise. A recording of us on the college radio station way back in 1976. You can count on me blogging that in the future.