Longtime Boston sports writer-caster Steve Buckley has a column in the Boston Heraldannouncing that he’s gay. The news has been picked up by media outlets in Boston and New York, the Huffington Post, and Keith Olbermann tweeted it:
Boston Herald sports writer Steve Buckley: I’m Gay http://bit.ly/fiX6YM Buck’s a friend of 17 yrs & has my full support & friendship
I hope that the unpredictable world of baseball will support Buck too. Knowing his reputation therein, I think it will.
Thirty years ago I worked at a newspaper with Steve — or Buck, as he’s often called — and although he never said or did anything to indicate he wasn’t straight, I’m not surprised by his admission, for reasons I won’t go into. If anything, my love of art, and my utter lack of interest in any sport other than long-distance running, may have given Buck reason to suspect that I was gay. I think Steve Buckley coming out is good and great, and he deserves praise and encouragement.
Buckley’s been a fixture on Boston sports radio station WEEI for years, and today he went on the air to talk about his announcement. You’ll find some of the program on the audio player.
[audio:http://audio.weei.com/hosting/media/weei/1598200/w-stevebuckley-howthischangeshisjob-010611-bs-weei.mp3|titles=WEEI The Big Show: Steve Buckley comes out]
The Rally to Restore Sanity (and/or Fear) was a huge success — a quarter of a million people huge. It was obviously a response to Glenn Beck’s Rally to Restore America, and I don’t understand why Jon Stewart won’t acknowledge that. I know he didn’t feel well during his interview with Rachel Maddow a few days ago, but I’m still surprised by how many of the points he made were exercises in mental “gymnastics” (I’d like to use another word, but I’ll resist the temptation).
Stewart apparently felt slighted by Bill Maher’s criticism of the rally. I suppose that could be taken as a sign of respect for Maher, whose style is too snarky to do what Jon does, and his appeal isn’t as broad, so he never could have gotten 250,000 people to gather together. Maybe Maher is jealous of Stewart’s success. Maher sure was delighted when he was at the center of an election recently, with his video clips of Delaware senatorial candidate Christine O’Donnell.
The moments with Maddow when Stewart was joking he did fine, but when he got into the particulars of how he views political media, he got lost in his own internal dialogue. He was particularly bogged down in his discussion of how Bush got us to invade Iraq. Stewart seemed to be saying that Bush’s fervent belief that Saddam Hussein must have had WMD somehow absolves the former President of blame. He really lost me 35 minutes into the interview, with the line, “It’s true depending on where you start the pursuit.” He had to go all the way back to FDR and the internment of Japanese-Americans to find a moral equivalent to Bush not taking the chance that Iraq wasn’t actually a threat??
In the past, Jon Stewart has taken the media to task for not doing its job, and for failing to ask the tough questions. Then he got CNN to cancel the rancorous show Crossfire because it was just a lot of shouting. His complaint with MSNBC doesn’t seem to be with the content, as much as the way Olbermann and Maddow present it. Stewart’s insistence on having meaningful interviews after the jokes and skits on The Daily Show attracts a surprising array of guests, but he doesn’t have a monopoly on style or substance.
I wouldn’t say that Jon Stewart has let success go to his head, but the gist of his attitude is, “I’ve got it right, and the rest of you are just poisoning the political well by shouting from opposite ends of the political spectrum.” If Stewart wants quieter, less emotional, discussions, then he should look beyond cable TV and promote the always excellent PBS News Hour. He could have brought a copy of that network’s guidelines to read during the interview with Rachel. It’s interesting that Leher included the comment, “I am not in the entertainment business.”
Do nothing I cannot defend.
Cover, write, and present every story with the care I would want if the story were about me.
Assume there is at least one other side or version to every story.
Assume the viewer is as smart and as caring and as good a person as I am.
Assume the same about all people on whom I report.
Assume personal lives are a private matter until a legitimate turn in the story absolutely mandates otherwise.
Carefully separate opinion and analysis from straight news stories, and clearly label everything.
Do not use anonymous sources or blind quotes except on rare and monumental occasions.
No one should ever be allowed to attack another anonymously.
And finally, I am not in the entertainment business.
This weekend, Mix is bringing you back to the 90’s with music that will make you say Oh Wow! You’ll hear some old favorites like Marky Mark, Hanson, Spice Girls and more! We can hear you saying “Oh Wow” to yourself right now! It’s all weekend on Mix 104.1!
This can’t be right. Having a weekend music mix celebrating a decade that’s only ten years ago, as if it were the distant past, would be ridiculous, like having a Doo-wop tribute band at Woodstock!
Over the past four years I’ve tracked some of the Boston radio scene events, including:
Classical music station WCRB switching frequencies
Steve LeVeille let go by WBZ, then brought back by listener demand
End of WBCN as on-air station
Departure of Barnes Newberry from WUMB
WGBH buying WCRB
Deaths:
WBZ talk show host Paul Sullivan
WBZ legend Larry Glick
WGBH Jazz Decades host Ray Smith
The Internet has had a huge effect on the radio industry, of course. Something I didn’t like for a long time was the Web player that the CBS network was using. I don’t know when CBS hooked up with Radio.com to update the player, but I think the results are excellent, despite a couple of pop-ups that have caused Firefox to crash.
The CBS station WODS — Oldies 103 in Boston — is still the best place to catch The Beatle Years and Beatle Brunch. You’ll find them on the WODS podcast page.
I’ve been trying to get back to Dave Dexter, Jr. and the Beatles, but I got distracted by a renewed interest in the fascinating history of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, and Ron Grainer’s Doctor Who theme. This is Delia Derbyshire’s stunning, shimmering production, which includes the famous sound effects for the show.
Snippets of sounds and music by Derbyshire and the workshop have been collected by the BBC into a Flash player that you’ll find at this link. It’s all too easy to make the sounds overlap, so be quick with the stop button, and watch out for the clips that loop. Here is Murray Gold’s fantastic, powerful arrangement and orchestration for the new Doctor series in 2005.
If this subject is of any interest I’ll let you find the same sites I’ve been looking at, but one favor I should do for you is assemble the pieces of a 2003 BBC documentary on the Radiophonic Workshop, called The Alchemists of Sound.
