Jeff’s Dark and Early Blog

We’ve spent a lot of time touching on the controversy involving the President, a police officer and a college professor, and many of our listeners will probably be glad when the whole thing is over.
Tonight marks the most talked about beer in recent history, but it also sparks discussion about something else, which was one of our topics on Kansas City’s Morning News today.
The election of an African American president brought with it the hope that we might finally be able to move past the racial prejudice that in many ways has stained our American past.
Unfortunately, as many of our listeners pointed out this morning when we discussed the situation involving Professor Gates, hopes like that are not realistic.
The collective view of the many individuals I spoke to, from one side of the metro to the other, was that while we have made incredible advances in terms of race relations, in many places, the tension still exists.
They also expressed a collective hope that time might heal what wounds there still are.
Even in these times of uncertainty, there still exists an optimism that while we are not there yet, we certainly must be getting close.

While attempting to interview “persons on the street” about the new Cash for Clunkers program, I ran into a problem that is common and unfortunate all at once.
I never mind if someone doesn’t want to talk into the microphone. Some people are shy. Others are uninformed about the subject at hand. And some just don’t like the idea of being on the radio.
What I do tend to mind, however, is when someone tells me “you don’t want to hear what I have to say.”
YES I DO!
In fact, that statement leads me to believe that you are EXACTLY the person I want to hear from!
Another excuse is, “you don’t want to get me started on that.”
YES I DO!
Please, by all means, GET STARTED!
If you have a strong opinion about something and are stopped by someone like myself, please don’t be afraid to share those opinions.
Those with the strong opinions are often the ones who speak for the rest of us. When you speak up, someone out there who’s too shy to go on tape will listen and say,”Yes! That’s exactly what I was thinking!”
Never be afraid to share your voice. There’s nothing more American than that.

When you ask a “man on the street” question in talk radio, you get turned down quite a bit.
Some people get stage fright, some say they don’t know enough about the topic at hand, and others think we’re a television and tell me their hair doesn’t look right.
But this morning took the cake in the contest for weirdest excuse I’ve ever heard.
I approached a man walking in the Power and Light District and asked if I could get his reaction to a recent crime that had taken place in the area.
His response?
“I’d better not. I’m not wearing any underwear.”
I’ll let you ponder that one for awhile.

The week is still young and already another controversy is brewing at city hall, though this one may not carry the gusto of its predecessor.
As we reported early this morning, City Manager Wayne Cauthen is being sued, along with the city, by two former budget analysts who claim they were dismissed from their jobs because of their age and their race. The two women are caucasion. The city manager is African American.
This story has only just begun to take shape, so one can only speculate as to how much attention it will garner in the local media.
The other lawsuit being watched closely by those who cover city hall involves the Mayor and former staffer Ruth Bates. This case also involves discrimination and has been highly publicized since it surfaced quite some time ago.
What is interesting about these two lawsuits has to do with the form of government under which city hall does business. It is a city manager form of government, and while Mayor Funkhouser’s job is quite important, it is Mr. Cauthen who, when push comes to shove, has the most authority within that building.
That being said, you would think a discrimination lawsuit against a higher ranking official might trump a lawsuit against the mayor.
It will be interesting to see how my colleagues in the press cover the two cases as they go forward.

I was flattered to be mentioned, though not by name, in the recently released diary of Kansas City Mayor Mark Funkhouser’s wife, Gloria Squitiro.
After reading her account, however, I felt it necessary to correct a few things.

Point one:

I did not in any way “pound” on your door. I knocked in a normal manner, well after the hour of 6:30 in the morning. I am sorry I upset your very personable dog. Please pass along my apologies.

Point two:

When you say you called our “competition” to give them the “scoop”, I’m not sure a reporter attempting to talk to a public official would fall into the category of “breaking news”. It was nice to hear our call letters get a mention from other news outlets, though.

Point three:

Since you never answered the door to answer my questions that morning, I’d love to reschedule at your convenience.  Perhaps we can conduct the interview a bit later in the day.

As a young man lost his life at a Midtown apartment this morning, I found myself on the other end of the microphone.  I’ll explain that in a moment.

As far as we know, the man lost his life due to a fall from a second-story balcony.  It was apparently a tragic accident, with the possibility of alcohol being part of the reason for the fall.  Needless to say, the man’s friends were devastated.

Part of my job on mornings like this one is to try to talk to those who knew the deceased personally.  As you might imagine, this can be particularly difficult for me, let alone them.  It is not uncommon to be met with anger when I make these attempts.

In the view of those who have just lost a friend, I am nothing more than a glory-hungry member of the paparazzi, eager to exploit the death of their friend for my own personal gain.

I understand this view entirely.  As I mentioned, I’ve been on both ends of the microphone.

When I was a senior in high school, I lost three friends in a terrible car crash on the highway.  As I walked to lunch the next day, a news camera appeared and a microphone was jammed in my face.  My response was less than polite.

This morning, I found myself on the other end of that situation.  And while I’m not in the habit of “jamming” microphones in peoples’ faces, I now understand better the job of a journalist in these moments of tragedy.

As myself and others explained to the man we finally interviewed this morning, his going on tape or going on camera helps better tell the story of who his friend was in life.  That person becomes much more than just a statistic you hear on the news.

If handled with journalistic integrity, these situations can turn into touching tributes to those who lost their lives unexpectedly.  If handled the wrong way, however, journalists like myself will continue to be given a bad name by the few bad apples in the bunch.

I had the pleasure this week of being shadowed by Johnson County Community College Professor Molly Baumgartner.
Not only did Molly get up in the dark hours of the early morning to ride along, she brought great enthusiasm to the morning, even taking detailed notes as I reported from a tragic crime scene in the West Bottoms.
We also had time for a lot of conversation, much of which centered around her students.
She asked questions of me that I could tell her students have asked of her. She was quite eager to obtain my opinions on the broadcast industry as a career and picked my brain about my experiences in both small and large market radio.
I’ve been lucky enough to have a few professors like Molly. They genuinely care about their students, and strive daily to give them the very best insight into what to expect from the “real world”.
Molly’s choice to spend time in our newsroom, as well as in the field shows a dedication that will benefit her students greatly.
One criticism I hear over and over again from young people in this business is that much of what they learned from instructors in college was far from what they encountered when they entered the work force.
By seeing how the real thing works and imparting it to her students, Molly is giving them a leg up on life. That lesson may well be invaluable these days.

I can still remember one of my very first days in a busy newsroom. I was nothing more than a wide-eyed young man, filled with big ideas and a fascination for the career I’d selected.
I had the drive, the ambition and the desire. What I lacked was something only a mentor could provide.
For me, that mentor was Chris Kelly, former news director at medium market KKOW radio in Pittsburg, KS. Chris would eventually reach the ranks of general manager, though he was in charge of operations when I he took me under his wing.
At the time, I found him to be a bit of a perfectionist. He seemed to frown upon every little detail of my work. He critiqued my reporting, criticized my delivery and quite honestly, drove me absolutely nuts.
As time passed, however, I came to recognize that what bothered me about Chris’ style was what made me better every single day. His persistence, albeit annoying, came from a place I didn’t understand at that time in my life.
Chris saw in me a little bit of himself as a younger man.
It has been nearly eight years since a younger version of myself took direction in a little newsroom from the person I now consider my greatest teacher.
Today, I find myself in the role of teacher, guiding young interns and new reporters through the fast-paced, sometimes stressful world of news broadcast.
I sincerely hope these young men and women find my advice to be annoying and overly harsh from time to time.
As Chris Kelly might tell me, that only means I’m doing my job.

We often debate new laws after they’ve already been passed.  That was certainly the case this morning when I took the details of a new Missouri DWI law to the streets and presented them to the people.

Basically, the law states this:

If you receive a second or subsequent DWI, you’ll be required as part of your penalty to install a forty-dollar device to your car.  What that device will do is essentially require you to take a breathalyzer test every time you get behind the wheel.  If you blow above .02, the car won’t start.  You’ll also be responsible for a sixty-five dollar monthly fee that would go toward maintenance of the device.

Furthermore, the device can require you blow into it again once you’ve hit the road.  Should you fail that test, the horn will begin to honk uncontrollably.  I assume this would notify police and others that something is out of sorts.

The opinions on this particular subject are many.

On the one hand, you have individuals who think it’s a good idea.  They say it just makes good common sense and should work as a good prevention tool.

Others take a much different view.

Their take is that anyone with two or more DWI’s should not be permitted to drive a car in the first place.  Therefore, not devices are needed.  They view the law as unnecessary and a waste of time.

So what do you think?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the matter.  You can respond right here on the blog, or send an email to jbell@entercom.com.

I look forward to further discussion.