Jamey Tucker’s BlogSquat

I turn 7.25 today.

After this pirate looked at 40, I decided to convert my age to dog years. So today, I am a 7.25 year old being.

According to the dog years calculator, I should still be chasing cars and cats. Still should be chewing on rawhide toys and running through the yard. I still should be running into the kitchen whenever I hear a can opener and should still be getting into scraps with the neighbor’s annoying Boston Terrier.

Other things I’ve learned from the website: I was born on a Monday. As of this post, I’ve been alive for 15340 days, 11 hours, 17 minutes, 52 seconds. If I retire at 65, I still have 6001 workdays to go.

My parents conceived me on or around February 5th. They may have been listening to “I want to hold your hand” “Oh Pretty Woman”, “Baby Love” or “I Get Around” which were the top songs in 1964. I was one of about 4.2 million people born that year.

And Happy Birthday to the others that celebrate with me. Hillary Clinton, Bob Hoskins, Cary Elwes, Pat Sajak, Jaclyn Smith and Mahalia Jackson. Not to rub it in, but you have more candles on your cake today than I do.

Hey, whatever gets me through another birthday.

I met Jimmy Buffett tonight.

How cool is that?

When you read this next part you’re gonna think I’m a real weirdo-fan but I’m not. Really.

I grew up on Buffett’s music. All through high school, all through college, I’ve kept a few of his tapes (cds now) in the truck for whenever I’ve needed that Parrothead fix.

I started reading John D. McDonald books because Jimmy once included his name in song (“Travis McGhee is still in Cedar Key, that’s what old John Macdonald said.” “Incommunicado”)

We named our daughter Delaney (“Delaney Talks to Statues” from the “Fruitcakes” album).

I started playing guitar just so I could play “Little Miss Magic” for our oldest daughter when she was little.

I married a girl with the name Cameron. Jimmy has a son named Cameron.
Okay, that last one was purely by chance.

But on my list of famous people I’ve never met, Mr. Buffett was #1. I met him tonight because our celebrity/entertainment reporters both worked either early Sunday or will work early Monday. I volunteered for the chance to meet Jimmy.

He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriter’s Hall of Fame, which in terms of awards, means more to the artist than a Grammy or CMA since it’s from their peers. Jimmy seemed totally surprised when they began the introduction.

Big & Rich helped introduce him and sang Margaritaville. Let’s just say it was late in the evening and these guys REALLY had a good time. Trisha Yearwood was there too and she sang “The Song Remembers When” for another songwriter induction. And George Huff was there (he was an American Idol contestant) and he sang “Midnight Train to Georgia” on behalf of Jim Weatherly’s induction.

It was a fun night, but a long night. I must have stood on my feet shooting video for more than 3 hours. Brad will use the video for a segment on Monday morning’s show. You can see it there if you want at www.bradon2.com

So, in keeping score, here’s what I’ve got and what I’ve got left.

#1 Jimmy Buffett (done)
#2 Willie Nelson (done)
#3 Merle Haggard (done)
#4 Bruce Springsteen (still waiting)

The tech guys (and gals) at News 2 have brought my station website up to speed. Faith and Ethics now has a video player!

The coolness of this is that the people who missed the tv broadcast can go to the website and see the story whenever they want. They can also leave comments and read comments and look at links to information and websites relevant to the story.

A few years ago I thought this type of thing might be bad for tv stations. My point of reference comes from when I first discovered tv news in the early 1970s. We had 3 stations to choose from. Period. We had two newscasts to choose from on each of the two stations broadcasting news. If we missed the news at 6 or 10, we missed it.

There was no Headline News 2 minute local brief. No internet website. No 24-hour local cable repeats of local broadcasting. Miss it, and you miss it. No second chances. Period.

Now I’ve said all along that I thought all of these second chances (Headline News updates, 4, 4:30, 5, 6 and 10 o’clock newscasts, 24-hour local repeats, websites etc.) were bad for the local station because it dilutes the audience.

My thinking now? Story specific, or better yet, beat specific websites and blogs are good for the local station. We can’t expect people to drop what they’re doing to watch the local newscast anymore. Shoot, half the time I don’t realize it’s news time until the newscast is halfway over. I’m doing other things. Watching the baseball game (great catch by Chavez by the way), the football game or CMT while the news is going on.

What I’m finding is that after my stories have run during the newscast, people talk about it at work or church and the following day I get people wanting to see it. Now they can go to my blog and watch the story, and leave a comment if they want.

Plus, I’ve noticed many of my regular blog readers are out-of-market. Many of my stories aren’t only relevant to people of the Nashville market so I’ve noticed hits from Seattle, Canada, the Boston area and Florida. I also don’t know of another tv station with a full-time religion reporter so this type of story is rare for local tv.

Now, those folks can easily find the stories. It’s also good for station revenue as that’s where the ad dollars are going.

Plus, my mom and dad can see my work again.

So drop in if you’d like to see what I’m doing now. Leave a comment, add to the discussion. Another interesting thing is many of the comments left on the blog are from cynics, agnostics, atheists and others who despise people who have a faith in God, and particularly evangelical Christians.

Here’s the link: www.faithandethics.com

I’ve been away from the tv the past two nights and finally got to watch this week’s episode of Studio 60. Best episode yet.

It wasn’t just the guest appearance of Sting or the recurring appearance of Ed Asner. And it wasn’t the guest appearance of Christine Lahti who looks absolutely stunning now in her mid-50s. The whole premise of this week’s show was bold and strong and reflected everything that is wrong with television entertainment and the risks involved in changing it.

NBS was pitched the next big reality show hit. “Seek and Destroy” is making it’s way to all of the networks looking for the highest bidder. This show takes average couples and while the reality show is being shot, private investigators look for dirty laundry in their lives. “Maybe the girl is a devout Roman Catholic and she had an abortion when she was a teenager”. “We’ll find internet pornography addictions” the developer pitches.

NBS’ entertainment chief, played by Amanda Peet passes. Her immediate boss says no, this show is going to be the hit of the season. “Not on our network” she says. Rudolph calls in the President of the Network, Asner, who asks why she wants to pass. Jordan McDeere says the show is “patently disgusting” and would have a negative impact on the culture. Asner says okay “if you want her to cook the meal, you have to let her buy the groceries” (an old Bill Parcells quote).

She wants to break the cycle of everything that is wrong with network tv. She is convinced if the network airs better shows, they’ll find a bigger audience.

God I hope she’s right.

This show is struggling to find an audience. The numbers have dropped each and every week. I think it’s the best 60 minutes on tv today. The ending tonight (or Monday night) featured Sting doing “Fields of Gold” with a lute accompanying him (I’m downloading the song on iTunes right now). The lead characters who once were romantically involved had a moment. The beauty of these last 10 minutes literally brought tears to my eyes. The dialogue was brilliant. The characters have me cheering for them and the show to succeed. Harriet Myers, the star actor on the show-within-a-show has reeled me in with her story of growing up with a Christian mother.

This week, she actually gave her Christian testimony on the episode. WOW! I can’t even think of the last time I saw something like that on network tv. It was compelling and totally believable and totally the way a real Christian person might talk. She isn’t portrayed as a nut job, just a woman who deeply believes in God and Jesus Christ and who allows those beliefs to shape her life and her decisions. She isn’t holier than thou and I’m sure she’s going to fall down a few times. But what a statement this is. Somebody in Hollywood has actually known a normal Christian person.

I hope NBC gives this show some time.

Remember those days growing up when your favorite show came on the tv and you sang along: “Come and listen to a story ’bout a man named Jed”, or “Juuuuust sit right back and you’ll hear a tale”, or maybe “Here’s the story, of a lovely lady who was bringing up three very lovely girls”, or one of my favorites “Baby, if you’ve ever wondered…wondered what ever became of me. I’m living on the air in Cincinnatti. Cincinnatti WKRP. Got kind of tired of packing and unpacking. Town to town, up and down the dial. Maybe you and me were never meant to be, just maybe think of me once in a while.”

Those theme song starts are a thing of the past according to an article in TV Newsday. Of the shows on the air these days, many have no opening or theme song at all. CSI has “Who Are You” of course, but Grey’s Anatomy and Lost and My Name is Earl start either with no opening at all, or a quick scene followed by a :05 graphic.

“FRIENDS” had a great theme song which became a hit. “The Prince of Bel Aire”’s theme song was the about the best thing about that show. “Everybody hates Chris” has a good one, and it’s an original too, but isn’t it mostly just “Everybody Ha-yates Chris”?

What’s your favorite? What tv theme songs do you find yourself humming or singing while you wait on the elevator door to open? Do you miss these theme songs or would you rather they save the :26 seconds for another commerical?

So a television station has decided to ban cussing in the newsroom.

Maybe they can start checking out books and periodicals for the local library since it’ll now have the atmosphere. What does a tv newsroom sound like when nobody swears?

I guess they’ll be able to hear the scanner traffic better now.

Here’s the story, WCVB in Boston (thank goodness it’s not in the south) banned swearing in the newsroom after a producer shouting the ‘f-word’ was broadcast during a newscast last week.

They were recording a breaking news voice-over and while the anchors were tracking the script, a producer nearby used the f-bomb. Apparently nobody noticed and the taped voice-over went to production which added the video and then sent to the rack for the newscast.

A station manager says they didn’t get any complaints, but somebody apparently noticed. So now, it’ll be all manners in the newsroom at WCVB.

Anonymous posted a comment to my post below which read something like “why did you drop XM? XM is the bomb”.

I did enjoy my XM radio. I got it last Christmas and listened to it every day. I particularly loved listening to the baseball games and talk shows along with the comedy channels.

My decision to drop XM had nothing to do with a disatisfaction, but rather the way they treated me.

Last January XM sent me an invitation to buy a second XM receiver at a discount. I bought it and planned to give it to my wife for Valentines Day. She never put it in her car though and it stayed wrapped up until after we moved in June.

Then sometime around July I looked closely at my Visa bill which included a monthly charge from XM of $22. I called and a customer service person rather rudely told me I had been charged $22 for the past 8 months. She told me I should have read the “fine print” in the invitation and that when they sent me the receiver, they automatically started charging me an extra $9 a month for the subscription service to the second radio.

I explained we had not activated the radio and could they give me a credit on the nearly $100 for the service we had not used. She laughed and said “no way”.
Another call to a different customer service person got the same reply. I asked this one: “is the $90 you got from me more important to you than having me as a future customer?”

The answer was yes.

So, on the principle of the thing, I dropped XM. Baseball season is over and Nashville has lots of good radio stations to choose from. I ended up listening to Gerry House on the Big 98 more than anything anyway. And it seems that I heard nearly as many commercials on XM as I do on regular through-the-air stations. So I dropped them.

And I’ve got an extra $22 every month to buy cds.

Miserable weather we’re having. I had to work a night shift to cover the Focus on the Family rally. I’d hate to vj nightside turning a story every day. I had liveshots at 5 and 6 and then turned a package for 10. Tough days work.

I’m not a fan of covering events like this vj style. Big events in church settings with thousands of people in attendance do not lend themselves to being covered this way. For one thing our cameras, the Sony Z HD camera doesn’t have the lense to shoot from the back of a church. My footage of James Dobson appeared to be that of a body with a flaming globe for a head. Secondly, trying to shoot an event that ends at 9 and drive back to the station to write and edit the piece leaves little time to write well. Capturing footage is in real-time, so my 27 minutes of footage and interviews took exactly 27 minutes to load into my computer.

My producer looked over my shoulder at 9:32 to see that I was still writing!

I made the slot (flaming head on a torso and all).

The lone bright spot in my day today was the cd I selected for this rainy Monday. I dropped my subscription to XM, (a post for another day) so I’m leaning on my cd collection these days.

I hadn’t listened to this one in quite a while, but boy oh boy…

If I had to go on a cross-country trip with only one cd in my truck, I’d be hard-pressed to find a better choice than “Out of the Blue” by the Electric Light Orchestra.

Back in the late 70s, I nearly wore the grooves off the vinyl, listening to “Wild West Hero”, “Sweet Talkin’ Woman”, “Turn to Stone”, “Sweet is the Night” and “It’s Over”. Of course if you’re familiar with this cd, you may remember all of the songs with rain in them. Side 3 (for vinyl fans) is a Concerto for a Rainy Day, including “Standin’ in the Rain”, “Summer and Lightning” and of course, “Mr. Blue Sky.”

What a blast to turn this thing up full power in my news truck today and drift back to when I was 13 years old, wearing my ELO belt buckle and playing Nerf hoops in my room with these songs blaring on my Juliette model turntable and speakers, chewing chocolate bubble gum and playing some air guitar and drums.

I’m almost always interested in reading these things from other bloggers. So in the event you find these lists as interesting as I do…here you go.

100 Things About Me

Jimmy’s got a new cd out Tuesday. I sort of feel like Arlo this week but won’t call in sick. My old acquaintance, Jimmy Johnson (an Auburn alum) is a big fan like me and sums up my feelings quite well in that cartoon panel.

Buffett’s new album is his first of all-new music since “Far Side of the World” back in 2002. I’ve heard the first cut, “Bama Breeze” on Jimmy’s website and the video is as cool as the song. Don’t look for it on iTunes since Buffett, like Bob Seger, doesn’t market his stuff there.

But Jimmy ran into a little problem in Toulon, France last week. According to his website, customs agents ordered Buffett to open his bags as they searched. They found a little bag of pills which Jimmy says were just vitamins and prescription meds. They grabbed a bottle of Foltx, which is a vitamin B supplement, and since the pills had little hearts on them, they shouted “Ecstasy”. Jimmy says he doesn’t do anything harder than beer, wine and boat drinks these days.

I haven’t seen this anywhere other than Jimmy’s website. I imagine it’ll hit the papers this week when the new album hits the shelves.