Back in the 1980's AM radio was still the place to go for News, Weather and Sports.
Here in Orlando, you had a choice of 580 WDBO, or whatever they were calling the station on 740. 'DBO was the long-standing "signature" station that every city has, having come on line first in 1924. The call letters stood for "Way Down By Orlando" a handle that has not changed since they began broadcasting from the campus of Rollins College in nearby Winter Park.
I worked for them, and later for what was, at the time, WKIS, the relative newcomer going on air in 1947. I also worked for WKIS when it became 740 WINZ (all news radio WWNZ) but before it turned into 740 The Team (all sports talk WQTM). It is still known, officially as WQTM, but its fans know it as La Preciosa, playing today's hits in Spanish.
Ah, the wonders of Clear Channel Broadcasting.
Of the many people I came in contact with at WKIS was a young guy (three years younger than me, so he had to be young!) named Chris Russo. I was a behind the scenes producer, occasionally filling in on issue oriented talk shows or flying over Orlando to do traffic reports. He fought his way into a regular evening sports talk show.
I say fought, because Chris did not have a traditional radio voice. Someone described it as a manic blend of Jerry Lewis and Daffy Duck, with an overlay of Long Island. The management at WKIS went so far as to pay for speech therapy to slow him down and work on his non-rhotic accent. Nearly everyone on the staff did their own Chris Russo imitation.
When I knew him, he didn't date much, had no vices (odd in the radio world) and was generally politely awkward in social situations...but he knew his sports. People talk about someone with an encyclopedic knowledge of something, and Chris had it. He knew off the top of his head who won what contest/game/match when and by how much, regardless of the sport in question.
There was one exception; He never cared for NASCAR, despite our proximity to Daytona, and would light up the call-in lines every time he questioned if the act of constantly driving a car in circles should even be considered a sport at all.
With his single-minded devotion to all things sports, it was easy to forget that Christopher Russo had graduated from the very pricey Rollins College, spent some time in a British boarding school (his mother was English) and even spent a semester or two studying in Australia.
Still, we were astounded when. in 1987, he announced that he had landed a job in New York City.

I am reminded of all this after seeing that, after 19 years, New York's top radio sports-talk team is no more.
Yet, I don't worry about him.
If a nice guy like Chris Russo can go to New York and turn himself into the Mad Dog, he can do just about anything.
I'm sure he'll be just fine.

For those not from the New York Metro area...here are "Mike and the Mad Dog" talking about the Congressional Hearings on steroids in Baseball.



Well, at least Chris has managed to slow down...no really, he has!

You don't have to live in Metro Orlando to have heard about the disappearance of 3 year old Caylee Anthony.
The story has provided an opportunity for local Orlando news people, lawyers and the missing girl's family to be on every National News Show starring the usual suspects (Yes I'm talking to you, Nancy Grace!).
In short, the child apparently disappeared June 9th, but her mother, Casey, didn't report her missing until July 15th. Casey Anthony remains in the Orange County Jail on $500,000 bail, charged with felony child neglect and filing a false police report.
Local Law Enforcement has been unusually low key, while the family has not. Casey's mother Cindy and Father George Anthony (a former Sheriff's Deputy himself) have been making the rounds of local and national TV. They have been interviewed by Matt, Harry and Diane and remain the lead story on channels 2, 6 and 9.
One of the more disturbing results of the whole affair is that the Anthony home has become Orlando's latest tourist attraction.
A mother and daughter, vacationing from Louisiana, were on the scene yesterday.
They didn't want to give their names, but their statement says about all you need to know about them, and why they looked up the house and decided to drop by.

"We watch Fox News, and we just keep up with it that way," she said. "We watch Nancy Grace and all of those news shows that have been covering the case."

Today is Caylee Anthony's 3rd birthday.
Personally, I suspect the child has been dead long before today, and I also suspect local law enforcement knows this.
They just aren't saying so to Nancy Grace and Fox News.

I have a natural aversion to anything that appears to be over-hyped.
The upside, is that I don't buy a lot of stuff I don't need, simply because it it heavily advertised. When you think of it, the same marketing geniuses who are spending millions to try to get you to buy a Big Mac, Coke or a Hummer aren't even trying to sell you spinach, tap water or a Miata.
They know you'll probably purchase those sort of things on your own, without being told to do so.
The downside is that I am usually the last person on the technology train, sitting calmly in the waiting room of Luddite station. I still don't own an I-pod, a car made in the 21st century or a phone that does more than send and receive telephone calls.
I don't text.
So it was somewhat surprising that I find myself suddenly drawn to the second most hyped event of the year (apart from the Presidential Election); the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing.
I had planned on being an Olympics Agnostic. That is, willing to admit that something was going on out there, but refusing to get caught up in it like everyone else.
Then, last night, I watched a bit of the Opening Ceremony. Not the full four hours, you understand, but just enough to get a feel of it. Despite the beautiful images, and mixture of color and culture that was not computer generated, I still refused to be taken in completely.
This morning, I found myself fascinated watching a Frenchman and an Irishman play badmitten on the channel where MSNBC News was supposed to be. I was suprised to find a sport with the power of tennis and the finesse of ping pong, could fit into a space about the size of my dining room table (with the leaf in) and keep my interest. The Frenchman won, so I changed the channel and found some women's soccer (Brazil and North Korea) on Channel 4. Here was a sport, unlike the WNBA, in which the woman's version may actually be better than the men's version. There was no doubt that the women were much more entertaining than the men in Beach Volleyball (Russia and Australia on the USA Network).
"Ozzie Ozzie Ozzie, OY OY OY!"
Surprisingly, I find the Olympics to be the perfect thing for somebody with attention deficit disorder as the events change and my remote heats up.
They're riding bikes through the smoggy streets of Beijing right now, and. later, women will be fighting with sabers on MSNBC!
I am going to get absolutely nothing done this weekend...I can already tell.

***UPDATE***
So guess who else is in Beijing for the big event;



He seems bored already...

I have a birthday coming up in the first week of August, and generally take some time off each year to enjoy Central Florida in all it's signature heat and humidity. I suspect New Jersey (where I was born) can be just as bad as Florida this time of year, causing one to sweat without moving while sticking to the seat of one's car.
Like the people who actually stayed in Jersey, I've found the best remedy for the mid-summer weather is a day at the beach. Last year, it was New Smyrna, which I talked about in another post. This year, I will probably do the same on one day, and something completely different on another.
I may do the dreaded theme park thing.
For those of you who live in the real world outside of the Sunshine State, you must understand that hitting Disney or Universal Studios, is not something people in Central Florida generally like to do.
It's like touring the Space Needle if you live in Seattle, or standing around the Liberty Bell if you live in Philly.
The locals do it once, and never get around to doing it again.
Sure, there are some who moved here for the very reason that they and the kids would be in close proximity to Cinderella's Castle. They are the one's who buy the annual passes, with the Florida resident discount, and are sure to get their money's worth.
The rest of us are content to go to Mapquest, print out a map, point our visitors towards Interstate 4 (west towards Tampa) and wish them good luck and a good time, while waving from our driveway.
This time, it may be different for me.
I have a free, one day pass, to Universal Studios, courtesy of AARP. To be honest, they sent it to my parents, who would rather not walk around for miles in the summer heat. (The pass expires at the end of September).
So after a quick trip to the ATM outside the Publix grocery store, I will head to Universal. There will still be a need for cash, even if I am actually getting in for free...and the suites at Universal know this.
If all goes well, I may even try to go to (gasp) Walt Disney World!
It has been over 10 years since I've been to anyplace Disney, and would probably prefer EPCOT or Animal Kingdom to the more youth oriented Magic Kingdom.
Still, I've been itching to try one thing, suggested by blogger and sitcom writer Ken Levine.
I want to get one of those mouse ears hats. You know, the black felt ones they write your name on?
I will have them write "Vincent" on the hat.
Then, rip off one of the ears and wear it all day.

I first came to Orlando in 1974.
I had just graduated from High School in Massachusetts, and had never been south of Baltimore when my father was transferred by his company to a land of palm trees, Disney and brutal summer heat. Growing up, I naturally knew of the racial situation in the South, but that had reportedly ended 10 years earlier in places like Mississippi and Alabama. I imagined Florida would be different, and it was...but only by degree.
One of the first jobs I got the summer before I was to enter college, was at a Downtown Orlando department store. A couple of suburban malls had been built, but the J.C. Penney on Orange Avenue was still hanging on, if not exactly thriving.
My first day at work, during an informal orientation, a charming older woman in her 60's, with an accent right out of a Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings story, gave me a quick tour and some friendly advice. She noted my own accent, and suggested there were things I might not be aware of, having come from up North.
"Keep your eye on the coloreds, Mr. C.", she said sincerely, "because they'll steal from you as soon as your back is turned."
I fixed a smile on my face and nodded my head, instantly deciding that no comment was needed.
Eventually, I started to notice how older buildings had more bathrooms and more water fountains than seemed necessary. Facilities were generally built in pairs, and were still there long after the "Whites Only" signs had been removed.
Gradually, Orlando, like Atlanta and the rest of the South, became "too busy to hate" and segregation faded into history. Yet some of the old attitudes pop up from time to time.



This photo of the barefoot child was taken at the City owned Dubsdred Country Club in the 1930's.
When the newly remodeled clubhouse decided to hang the shot amidst a number of historical photographs, a controversy developed. Some of Orlando's prominent black residents, including City Commissioner Daisy Lynum, complained the shot was racist. Others thought it simply reflected life in a long-gone era where racism was tolerated, if not officially sanctioned.
Personally, I prefer to think it is what it is...a picture of a child working barefoot in a semi-tropical climate.
Today, the little boy is a seventy-something grown man, also a resident of Altamonte Springs, and has come forward with decidedly mixed feelings. Leroy Royal says he thinks the vintage photo is racist...but admits he isn't exactly sure why.
Racism, especially from what I've seen in a city like Orlando, is often very subtle.
Jim Crow may be legally dead, but personal attitudes are much harder to kill. You may notice it yourself the next time someone tells you they won't vote for Barack Obama...but they can't tell you why.