SHOW NOTES - 12/5/09 - SNOW: THE OTHER FOUR LETTER WORD

IN PROGRESS - DON'T QUOTE ME, BOY! I AIN'T SAID SH---ER...SNOW

:15 break come back:


If you're reading this near show time, I apologize. I'm out of time and this IS NOT fully fleshed out. Drought, rain, snow....it all makes sense, but sadly made sense Saturday morning early when kids were stirring and strawberries needed to be rinsed and washed for them. Expect my world class thesis on how to get snow soon.

The media owns us and proved it by whispering a four letter word late Thursday.

We want things as a society. We require them. Overall, we need the basics and those don't shift from place to place: your food, your shelter, your clothing ('the boring three'). From place to place, though, some items on the menu may change. We live in CC. We know that means that 11 months out of the year we're going to fry, sweat and melt. We know it, we deal with it. Some of us love it.

But when you fry 11 months a year the idea that change can come gets a little intoxicating. Cold? That could actually happen? I think we had some cold a year ago didn't we? I recall that there was a magical snow a few years ago, right? Did that happen?

The media, sensing our overall malaise and hearing the 10,000th citizen invent the classic, "90 degrees on Thanksgiving!...who would have thought?", says and prints a four letter word. A four letter word, when uttered in a temprate climate, is more damaging that starts with f or d...I'm talking the 's word': snow.

And they don't have to yell it. Just whisper it into our ears: snow.

It started with this caller.com whisper: Snow in Corpus Christi? (since the lack of snow it appears this headline has actually been changed to: Light snow in forecast for Friday, hard freeze for some areas Saturday

And that's all it took for everyone to GO ABSOLUTELY CRAZY.

In this case we went from it may snow to we will be skiing on the 'hills' of SPID in about 3 hours. I heard it happen at work, in different Stripes around town, on sales calls. 'It may snow' became 'ready for the blizzard' in about 6 hours.

If you are a social media user then you saw it with posts like:

"Is that snow?" "What is sleet" "I've got snow here!!!" "A flake landed on my jacket" "I just stripped down nude and rolled around in the mud because I saw some sleet"

Mine:
"this just in: single snowflake sighted in cc, population's collective head explodes in hysteria followed by post-apocalyptic looting and cannibalism"

And finally, the admission that all was hype at Caller.com: It snowed in Corpus Christi, whether you saw it or not:

You probably saw sleet Friday morning in Corpus Christi.

Believe it or not, it also snowed, weather officials said. It wasn’t very much, just a trace.

After a wintry mix with near freezing temperatures hit the Coastal Bend and the state, local school districts sent students home early, flights were canceled at Corpus Christi International Airport and events Saturday were called off.

Only trace amounts of snow accumulated in parts of Bee, Calhoun, Goliad, Jim Wells, Kleberg, Live Oak, Nueces, Refugio, San Patricio and Victoria counties, where the National Weather Service said up to 3 inches were possible Friday.

The media and media savvy people can certainly play us by knowing what we want and giving us hope that we're going to get it. Smart people realize that if you want something you've got to a) go out and get it or b) if it's something that's somewhat out of your control, you've got to set up the conditions that make the thing you're after most likely to occur.

Bill Vessey, though, had nothing to do with it. I don't normally watch channel 3. I'm a channel 6 man. Since weather is so important to my real job, though, I tivo'd 3 and 6. Bill Vessey, who moves around too much when he talks in front of the map...especially his hands...explained in great detail that we weren't getting snow: snow requires this temperature at this height, precipiation that does this or that, then you need this temperature at ground level..etc...i got lost in the middle of it.

We as a community want snowth. We crave it. People that think see the writing on the wall: without snowth this city is going to die. But, we need to get serious about it and realize there are ways to make it snow and then things that make us feel good about snowth but don't get us closer to any real snowth. To get snowth you can't dream it, you can't hype it, you can't wish really hard. The caller times can't create it by writing headlines about it. I can't create a facebook page and get snow or create a committee and talk about snow real hard, open the window and believe that it will be there. Snowth comes from elements being set in place at the right time. It's hard to snow in a national-crisis-level economy and criticizing leaders for lack of snowth now and 8 months into terms is irresponsible. That doesn't create snowth. Think Bill Vessey: snow comes when, and only when, the temperatures are this and that up here, this and that on the ground and this happens in between. That happened in 2005 on the magical snow-filled Christmas and was happening in the late 1950s when we were building high schools left and right to accomodate all the snow. It snowed once in CC. That was a magical time. I was glad to be here when it happened and will always cherish that memory.

I want it to snow again, but we can't point to the 2005 Christmas and say that it snows a lot and that it's still snowing. It's time to get temperatures correct in the stratosphere and temperatures correct on the ground. Then and only then, when the rains begin to fall can we PREDICT snow correctly and absolutely.

More soon...very soon.

I needed to address the walk out last week and did so by referring to my blog on it here.

And finally the top 10 flicks of the 2000s. Here's 10-6. Hear 5-1 on The Movie Hour at The Movie Hour.

6. Before Sunset, 2004
7. Almost Famous, 2000
8. Y tu Mama Tambien, 2002
9. The Incredibles, 2004
10. Moulin Rouge, 2001


Misc.: What Waiters Won't Tell You

A RADIO HOST WALKS OFF HIS SHOW...

I'm a levelheaded guy. My closest friends accuse me of having zero temper (as if that's a deficiency). So what got me so disgusted that I walked off the show this past Saturday?

My impassioned Facebook post just minutes after the show got plenty of people asking me "What happened?". My reply was brief and to the point: "What? You weren't listening?" with a furrowed brow. And in case you can't see my brow...the furrow is an indictment.

The show is a destination, and you pay when you don't listen. Guaranteed. "But I was out of town for Thanksgiving!" The new show is more important than Aunt Judy. Thanksgiving is in CC next year or you drive back Friday night or you set up your boombox with a Christmas tree timer. I'd tell you to listen in on your computer, but that's 'too Austin' for our city.

For those of you that were listening (lucky!), it's up to you if you'd like to spread the details. You hold valuable information.

I'm going the archaic route. You snoozed? You losed.

Rather, you can infer plenty by rereading my initial thoughts on the new show here. And to further get you thinking, I'll repost the new rules of the new show (with minor revisions):

A CONSISTENT, DEDICATED PRODUCER
Who is the producer of this show? No one knows yet. Whoever it is, they must commit this one hour to create the most creative, most entertaining talk radio in town. All in!

NO CANNED MUSIC
The music readily available for bumps comes out of a safe, 'classic rock-y' rotation. Joe demands his producer NOT use this rotation. It is boring, antiseptic and does not differentiate the show. All music used on my show will be either a) relevant to the content of the segment or b) something interesting in the alt rock or classic rock vein LYRICS INTACT. Every element of the show must have purpose.

JOE'S ARRAY
I require my own dedicated computer space for sound effects and music. It's time.

And, again, if you weren't listening this Saturday, shame on you. Your penance is to get 5 new people to listen this weekend. Hope that there are screw ups so I can show my closest friends what happens when I demand excellence.

IS CORPUS CHRISTI SIMPLY A 4A TOWN?

THIS ARTICLE IS STILL IN PROGRESS

CAUTION: BELOW, I SPEAK GENERALLY RE: LOCAL GEOGRAPHY AND THE SCHOOL-GOING POPULATION. IF YOU CAN'T HANDLE OR UNDERSTAND THESE FACT-BASED GENERALITIES, PLEASE READ SOMETHING ELSE. ALLOW ME TO SUGGEST THE COMMENT SECTION OF A caller.com ARTICLE ON THE COLISEUM.

Updated 12/16/09: People are finally coming around. Read this article from today's caller.com here.

---------

Previous caller.com article with map of proposed boundary changes: Here

Tomorrow night, Tues., Dec. 1, the 2nd of 5 meetings to discuss proposed CCISD boundaries occurs at Miller High: CLICK HERE for more info.

Why should you care?

The last high school built for CCISD was in the late 1950s. In 1960, the population of the metro CC area (including Calallen, FB, etc.) was 266K¹ and the largest structure on what we now call "Southside" was the CC Country Club. Big development was between Holly and Saratoga. South of Saratoga and east of Airline didn’t exist.


Fig. 1

What did exist was a much tighter population serviced adequately by 5 high schools. To demonstrate this, I've represented the 1960 population of CC with a circle with the 5 high schools arranged in a smaller circle within (Fig. 1). Take a look at a map and you'll see this illustration is not far from accurate.

Now, 50 years later, the metro population has grown to 380K¹ (metro increase of 114K people), we haven’t built any new high schools, CCISD has no money to build one², and we are faced with the question of how best to utilize what we do have.

Here are the current enrollments at each high school acc’d to CCISD:
Carroll – 2,282; King – 2,424; Ray – 1,825; Moody – 1,812; Miller – 908

I don’t have school capacity stats at this point, but will update this article with them soon.

There’s no huge revelation here: The city is moving south and so are the city’s children. The once circle-shaped city is now an oval. All of the high schools are located left of center, and most of the children live in the center or right of center.

Fig. 2

The schools closest to the kids are Carroll and King and they are, therefore, busting at the seams. No kids live near Miller so it's vacant (now's when you need to reread my caution at the top of this page).

With no money, they say, to build a new high school the task was given to 20 or so citizens, with massive ccisd-funded input, to redraw the lines that feed high schools to evenly redistribute kids into the five existing schools. A second charge was to reinforce the 'vertical paths' of kids--keeping everyone in one elementary school going to the same jr. high and on to the same high school.

Looking at Fig. 2 above it's not difficult to figure out what happened. To get kids into the empty Miller you 'steal' from Moody and Ray. To restock the losses from Miller and Ray you 'steal' from Carroll and King. Then King and Carroll are freed up to take more in from the growing south. What you've effectively done is move all of the boundaries South. In fact to get the numbers at schools as even as possible, you have to place the Ray/King border immediately adjacent to King. Look at the map again. You can literally live two blocks from King but now you're going to Ray.

Issue: when the economy recovers, our local home builders and developers intend on pushing south. One local homebuilder has plans to build over 1500 homes near Cimarron/Yorktown/Rodd Field when these rainy days go away. These homes will be filled, generally, with upstart families with kids. Those kids (those that stay in CCISD) will go to King (where else can they go?). King is already almost full. Oops.

No new high school means that in a few years a new boundary committee will convene TO PUSH THE RAY/KING BOUNDARY EAST OF KING and the MOODY/CARROLL BOUNDARY SOUTH OF CARROLL. Hear me: When this inevitablity occurs, students south and east of King will drive past King to go to school at Ray. Ditto with Carroll to Moody.

Keep in mind that the Boundary Committee was told "Do not make suggestions based on or wrapped around a new high school--there is no money to build one."² They did the best they could given this critical limitation. But the process and the inevitable outcomes are symptomatic of the largest citywide issues:

--a) short term solutions taking precedence over long term strategy (the creation of a bayfront master plan is good enough; don't bother executing that master plan) and the current population paying for the sins of the past
--b) the quick acceptance of limitations (no new school--it's simply not an option)
--c) the failure to budget maintentance (see the condition of our parks, the coliseum, weed-grown medians and ditches, etc.)

and most egregious:

--d) the failure to address the ethnic and socio-economic realities of city shift and sprawl.

CCISD is currently conducting public discussions at all 5 high schools to answer questions and get public feedback. At the first one at Carroll, 5 people showed up.³ The short term outcry seems to be small--a few families (relatively) will go to a different school next year. The long term lack of a real solution to our problem remains to be addressed.

ps. I served on the boundary committee.

¹http://www.censusscope.org/us/s48/m1880/chart_popl.html
² "Elliff said the only instructions to committee members were that they not center their plans on the possibility of a new high school, because the funding was not available." from http://www.caller.com/news/2009/nov/09/ccisd-considers-changing-high-school-attendance/
³http://www.caller.com/news/2009/nov/19/school-boundaries-meeting-draws-small-crowd/

ITUNES GETS PLAYED

I'm an iTunes user. I'm sure you are too. It's holds my music library, I make playlists (such as 'Workout'), and it's where I've subscribed to many film podcasts including my own, The Movie Hour with Joe and Ethan.

And you can too by clicking here:


My home desktop iTunes updates my iPod but that's the family shared with computer so you're likely to find the theme to Spongebob Squarepants in that library. My work computer iTunes library is very random because that is where I, up until recently, would download everything for the show including all the past Ultimate Music Masters and music for Halloween, Christmas and Oscar shows.

I recently got a new laptop and requested that it come iTunes-ed up. Now I have my OWN iTunes...it's all mine. I brought over everything from the house, removed all of the Spongebob, Miley and Weird Al and am sculpting and forming the perfect library.

Music has always been important to me and important to the show. One new, published, stated rule for the 'New Show' is to keep all music purposeful. No canned music off of some antiseptic database. I'd like to start playing the top five songs of the week and commenting from time to time and talk about new music I've discovered or am enjoying.

iTunes has a field that shows you how many times each song has been played. If you descend by this field you see the songs in descending order with the top one being the song you've listened to the most. At the office that song is Oasis, Don't Look Back in Anger.

Great Jam!

So with a new laptop and a clear, no-nonsense iTunes play count, what will leap to #1? Last night I found myself in the kitchen with the iTunes DJ playing some random jams while dancing with my daughter. Rock With You by Michael Jackson came on (I downloaded some stuff at his death) and we pressed repeat a few times...which knocked it up to 4 listens...and puts it at the top of the list.

Michael Jackson - Rock with you
Uploaded by Discodandan. - Music videos, artist interviews, concerts and more.

(#2: Heroes by David Bowie).

So expect to hear all about it on the show.

What's your most listened to jam on iTunes?

JOE'S THEME SONGS - A RETROSPECTIVE

The radio show has had three official theme songs. Scroll down to hear them.

On the Nov. 21 show, I launched a new theme song: 'Won't Get Fooled Again' by The Who. We'll be editing it up to highlight Roger Daltrey's signature scream. The new theme song edit will have the KEYS slick radio voice guy talking up to the scream, but this can't happen until I name the new show--which I'm in no hurry to do.

When the three-hour KEYS Weekend Magazine first began, John Gifford picked the theme song (that I had no argument with), 'In My Place' by Coldplay. I've discussed how I like Coldplay no matter what Paul Rudd says.

After a while, though, hearing it week after week I had a creeping nag. I just began to think it was too slow a start so I eventually changed it to 'Regret' by New Order. I drive around all day and at the time was listening to my ipod a lot. There are many philosophies on ipod habits, but I'm a shuffle guy. I listen to my ipod on shuffle 95% of the time. As my creeping nag evolved my casual desire to change the theme song kicked in by me listening to every song's intro. Regret worked and I was more than glad to highlight New Order. I've been a New Order fan since 9th grade. When I got my first CD player, a Technic rack system complete with turntable, my parents said they'd buy me one CD. I scammed them and got the New Order Substance double disc set. A couple of years ago in one go-nowhere spark of on-air genius, I started a weekly 'Identify the New Order Song' game where the producer would play an unannounced classic New Order song prompting callers to call in and win stuff. This didn't last long because the producer's never played the songs and I evenutally forgot about it.

New show means new theme song. I like the scream--that's the only reason I picked it. Since then I've been reminded that it's one of the CSI themes. Oops.


THE NEW THEME SONG
'WON'T GET FOOLED AGAIN,' THE WHO - 11/09-?


'REGRET,' NEW ORDER - 10/07-11/09


'IN MY PLACE,' COLDPLAY - 10/05-10/07

I'M 'SCHIZOPHRENIC'! AGREED

During the KEYS format blackout there was a lot of speculation about Eric, the station, General Manager Randy Brown's agenda, etc.

And a tiny bit of speculation about me. You can always depend on the crazies at caller.com to provide wildly nonsensical speculation about all things they don't know about and the KEYS shake up was no exception.

One poster wrote a book about the changes at KEYS. His speculation was that since I was quoted in a story, I obviously would be around for something. His thought was that if Eric moved to the morning, I would take a daily 5PM slot for one hour. What would that look like? This commentor is obviously a big time listener to both talk radio stations as evidenced by his/her knowledge of all the players and the depths to which (s)he had details about each show. Here's what (s)he had to say:

Hilliard in the afternoon.
Currently Joe Hilliard has a one hour program on Saturday that is very difficult to describe. He tends to talk stream of consciousness, weaving in-and-out of events going on around town. He’s as likely to talk about illiteracy in the Coastal Bend as he is to discuss where to find the best breakfast taco. Every few weeks he conducts ‘on the lighter side’ interviews with big name local guests. He never talks partisan, national politics and, to my knowledge, has never revealed his political affiliation. In the rare occasion that he talks local issues, he is very passionate with a clear opinion and is sometimes more engaging than Von Wade or [Zzzzzz] who are much more passive. On the Saturday following the council vote to end negotiations with Brass, Hilliard’s hour on the Memorial Coliseum was more informative and engaging than anything I’ve heard the other three local hosts say on the subject.
If he is moving to weekdays at 5PM for an hour-long lead in to Savage, his show could work with some changes.

Hilliard’s strengths are the entertainment value of his program, his non-partisanship, his ability to get interviews with almost anyone locally—including guests I don’t hear on Von Wade or [Zzzzzz]—and his knowledge of the arts and culture scene.

Hilliard’s weaknesses are 1) his non-partisanship. I believe he can get honest interviews with newsmakers because he doesn’t seem to push a political agenda in those interviews, but some listeners may not enjoy ‘equal time’ for non-conservatives. He allows them to be themselves and off guard. Local talk radio listeners like their hosts ultra-conservative and Hilliard doesn’t play that card.

2) Schizophrenic content. Being a Hilliard listener requires patience because you never know what you’re going to get on any given Saturday. You might hear a show about downtown development; you might hear an hour long rock trivia contest; you might hear Henry Garrett talking about motorcycling across America. Many people may prefer to know, generally, what they can expect before the show begins. To succeed in the afternoon, Hilliard must define his show more clearly which he may be unwilling or unable to do.

3) Lack of name recognition. Even though he puts on a entertaining show, the Saturday time slot hasn’t made him the household name that [Zzzzzz] is.

I can't argue with much of any of this. The show has always been contrary to the unwritten rules of talk radio--especially conservative talk radio. I'm not a conservative talk radio host and I've never wished to talk politics at a national level. Know your wheelhouse--national politics is not mine. When I talk local goings-on--and expect more of that by the way--partisan politics doesn't factor into it. At least not the issues I discuss. It doesn't matter who you vote for for president to know what to do with the coliseum or to discuss CC's brain drain.

The show is a nice show and that is why we can get guests--we're nice. And the guests typically have fun if they allow themselves to.

I might adopt the phrase Schizophrenic Content. It's fair and funny assessment. I believe, though, that the show will come into focus a little more and that that's overdue. It's been tough figuring out what to do with one hour after having the luxury of three hours. With three hours you could relax and have fun. One hour requires focus and, admittedly, that's been lacking.

I don't have it all figured out, but I'm getting closer.

The "NEW" Show

After much speculation, I still have my show on 1440 KEYS! Two Mondays ago, 1440 KEYS revealed their new line up: Eric Von Wade moves to weekday mornings and some great, popular shows are added to the rotation including The Dennis Miller Show.

So the show's still on in the same time slot.

There are now 3 english local talkers on air: Me, Eric and Zzzzzz. So I take it seriously that I'm still on air.

I'm rededicated to quality and entertainment and am pushing for more promos and ways to grow the audience.

Here are my first thoughts at a few new guidelines or rules for the "New" hour.

A CONSISTENT PRODUCER
Who is the producer of this show? No one knows yet. Whoever it is, they can't screw around on the computer while I'm creating comedy gold. All in!

NO CANNED MUSIC
KEYS producers have sophisticated touch screen computers that run a programmed log. All programming is mapped out chronologically with the commercials and bumps (music leading in and out of breaks) preprogrammed. The music comes out of a safe, 'classic rock-y' rotation. Joe demands his producer NOT use this rotation. It is boring, antiseptic and does not differentiate the show. All music used on my show will be either a) relevant to the content of the segment or b) something interesting in the alt rock or classic rock vein. I gave the example of David Bowie's 'Changes' given the content of the show but would have accepted Dylan's 'The Times (They are A'changin) or The Byrd's 'Turn Turn Turn'.

SOUND EFFECTS PAGE
I want more interactive sound effects on the show and unveiled an example while discussing a talk radio host on another station. Saying this person's name would be unnecessary advertising for that person so this person's name will be replaced by a snore sound effect (or in print: Zzzzzz). Hilarious. My vision is to incorporate quotes from local city leaders and celebrities into the show.

There's a new theme song and a new website: www.joehilliard.com

More talk on changes soon.