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Thursday, November 25, 2004
 
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly!!!"

  
 
 
-- Arthur Carlson, WKRP in Cincinnati

Hi,

We probably all remember that episode where, in a station publicity stunt coinciding with Thanksgiving, the radio station, WKRP, arranges for life turkeys to be "disembarked" from a helicopter but with unforseen and disasterour results.

Few know of the connection of Mr. Carlson and that episode with our Brooklyn and this is my opportunity to make the linkage known.

Three months prior to the episode, Mr. Carlson was invited to NYC to discuss poor market performance for the station in Cinci. He knew he would be in the hot seat so the trip wasn't a pleasant one.

After arriving in Newark, Art, as we his friends called him, got lost and wound up headed south on the Joisey Turnpike. Having some general idea of the geography he knew enough to take the exit for Staten Island that let to the Verazanno Bridge and then, ultimately, to NYC and his meeting.

While he would be later than he had planned, he would still be able to make it with a few minutes to spare.

Once in Brooklyn he got, literally, turned around and wound up on the Belt headed for that "hell-hole" called Nassau County. He was again smart enough to exit at Flatbush Ave which he confirmed by a quick glance at the map given him would lead him into Manhattan and his meeting.

His drive up Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn's longest avenue, was a nightmare (and what we faithful would consider a Brooklyn Experience).

He was bushwacked by gypsy cabs, cut off by city busses, had his antenna bent, had two hubcaps MIA (reason number seven why you should always keep the car rolling to any degree) and given "the finger" 47 times.

Past Avenue U, The Junction, Church Avenue, Prospect Park, the arch, Triangle stores, the Williamsburg Bank Building, The Fox and Paramount Theaters, and Junior's, he found himself in a steady stream heading into the City.

As sweat poured off him, he knew he would he would be more than an hour late for his meeting. He wondered why he ever accepted the meeting in the first place.

Still in (very) stop and (seldom) go traffic he sought the inspiration that would save his job and those of "his team".

Much to his dismay, pigeons seemed to be able to hit his windshield at any and every opportunity. As he sat their trying to read road signs, after foolishly turning on his wipers and smearing and already sh*tty mess,he though how wonderful it is that there weren't turkeys overhead.

That was it he would save his job and the station with a Thanksgiving Day promotion that would give food to the listening audience and be a big success and cause people to talk about it for years and even decades.

Art, never made his meeting. He made it into the city but called to say that his flight was cancelled in DC and that that he had the promotion that would be talked about for years.

Till the event itself, Art avoided all contact with the Suits from Madison Ave and worked on every aspect of the promotion.

We all know how it turned out.




For other Thanksgiving Day stories check out
A Thanksgiving to Remember on the left and
BrooklynBoard story I wrote

I wish all of you a day of thanksgiving, peace, memories, and relaxation.

TTFN,


Ken2@BrooklynMemories.com

TV Weatherman - Follow-Up
Sunday, November 07, 2004
 
Hi,

A major mid-west TV station was interviewing people for a position of week-end, on-air, weatherman. Without any success, they had gone through about 15 interviews and some simulated TV "takes" but no one met their criteria.

The next applicant was an out of work actor. The applicants physical appearance was acceptable and the Station Manger, in the course of the interview, asked what the applicant thought qualified him for the job.

The weatherman-wanna-be replied; "I can read, I work part-time at a comedy club and do okay, I worked as a ventriloquist on the radio show and, far a short time, I worked on a cancelled TV soap opera as a pretty successful con man who swindled and deceived just about all the people in the town and who gets arrested for lewdness."

The applicant was immediately hired and went to work the following week-end.



Since I posted TV Weatherman last January 17, I've gotten a few messages from people; mostly agreeing with my reasoning. I must admit that some have taken offence by my posting but I believe most of these were (VERY defensive) spouses of weathermen.

The following are a few of additional points people have made to me about weathermen:



TV Weatherman - Follow-Up.

Additional "points of information":

A: Trust is the most important character for a weatherman. If they don't convey trust by how they look, behave, and prognosticate they will ultimately lose their job. Even if they are wrong most of the time but seem to be trustworthy they'll do okay. But remember: "Weathermen Tell Lies!"

B: Many people don't care what the weather is two states over. They're not there and they're probably not going there. They wanna know what the weather will be like where they live. If they wanna know what the weather is like somewhere else, or even in Brooklyn, they'll tune in the Weather Channel.

C: Most people just wanna know what the weather is. They have no interest in the technical stuff and they don't watch the weather segment to be entertained. Just tell what the temperature will be and whether it will rain or not.

D: In the course of an on-line, email dialogue with an individual who presented himself as a weatherman, I asked him what the word "meteorologist" meant. His reply, addmitedly with some degree of caution, was "I don't know." There, you have it, weathermen are often meteorologists and THEY DON'T KNOW!

E: Here's a question for you rather than a point… Why do emergency weather announcements scroll across the screen during a show but not during commercial breaks? Do the stations lose the advertising revenue if they scroll during a commercial or do they figure everyone uses the break to get a beer or to go potty so no one would see the announcements?

There is an innate fascination with weathermen and weather. It is rooted in on inherent desire to understand the uncontrollable natural world impacted by intergalactic influences, think solar flares. Given this, consider how brave weathermen are to stand out in front of millions of viewers everyday and attempt to explain what tomorrow will be like knowing that there is a strong possibility and historical precedent that they will be wrong.


With all the computer, technologies, fresh chicken gizzards, and software models, the accuracy of forecasts may have improved but taking an umbrella with us is still a good idea.

[end] © Copyright by Ken Thompson - 2004.




I know that this still has little to do with Nostalgia, Memories and Thoughts of Brooklyn but life is interesting.

Drop me a note... weather you agree or not.


TTFN,

Ken2@BrooklynMemories.com


Tuesday, November 02, 2004
 
The following is my thought for the recovery of our nation from the 2004 Presidential election. As in other instances, the thought is not original to me but is right-on target.






by Maya Angelou as quoted in Newsweek on October 4, 2004

"I'm hopeful that the best person is elected. I would ask whoever is voted in to keep in mind that he is the president of the Latinos, of the poor whites in West Virginia and wherever else, of the people who voted for him, the people who didn't and even the ones that didn't vote at all, of the blacks, of the Jews, of the growing Arab community."

"He is our president whether we voted for him or not. The moment he is voted in, he becomes the president of all America. And that means, just as all Americans are responsible to him, he is responsible to all Americans."








(The portion in italics above is my addition.)


TTFN,



Ken2@BrooklynMemories.com

 

 

 



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