April 22- Earth Day- Is That Pig Latin for “Dearth?”
Remember that old Beatles’ song? “Dah dah/Dah Duh/Dah-dah/ You say it’s your Earth Day!” I know, that’s not it- but today is the official Earth Day, part of Earth Week. Perhaps if we experience another after-shock, it can be an Earth Day Earth Quake…and some enterprising fast food joint can serve Earth Shakes.
Your old Uncle Sven was actually around on the very first Earth Day- was it my senior year of high school? I was to do an appearance with my pal as a comedy team at the big Earth Day assembly (held after school hours)-but, since he had a paying part-time job, he wisely opted to go to work, leaving me to fend for myself on stage. If you write a two-man bit, it becomes a little difficult to turn it into a monologue, but I pressed on…I remember raising the ire of some of the participants, because our senior class was selling some huge metal buttons to commemorate Earth Day- and I somehow managed to bring up, in my act, that these buttons were actually more non-degradable trash that we were foisting on our beloved planet! (They’re not booing, they’re chanting “true”, right? Right?)They were preaching more careful usage than recycling at that time…no doubt never imagining that blue bins and bags would not just be containers with our school colors, but a new means of saving the earth…I’ll bet you, somewhere in my collection of stuff, I still have that high school ‘Support Earth Day” button…maybe I can flip it into the recycle bin now…
Some of you have asked if I had seen the WGN 60 year tribute show last Sunday night…and, yes, I saw most of it. I definitely could have done without James Belushi. My idea was that they should have chosen a handful of old WGN personalities, and had each one host a segment or two- people like Jack Taylor, whom I had the honor of working with here at WCIU,
Jim Ruddle, part of their first two-man news anchor team, Joey D’Auria (the second and last WGN Bozo), Phil Donahue, who they interviewed in passing, and even our pal Tom Skilling. I thought it was interesting to see that, almost all the entertainment-type stuff they showed is all gone-they still have news, sports, and special event coverage, but the locally-produced entertainment shows are…no more. That’s pretty much the way local television has gone. I recently read an article where the head of WLS-TV was bragging how NO Chicago station was as local as they were- why, they do a local show- “190 North!” Oh, and a couple public affairs shows, too.
Wow. Don’t break your arm patting yourself on the back- or doing all those hard news features in the 10 pm newscasts that either tie-in with an ABC network show or Disney-promoted vehicle….
Your old Uncle Sven was actually around on the very first Earth Day- was it my senior year of high school? I was to do an appearance with my pal as a comedy team at the big Earth Day assembly (held after school hours)-but, since he had a paying part-time job, he wisely opted to go to work, leaving me to fend for myself on stage. If you write a two-man bit, it becomes a little difficult to turn it into a monologue, but I pressed on…I remember raising the ire of some of the participants, because our senior class was selling some huge metal buttons to commemorate Earth Day- and I somehow managed to bring up, in my act, that these buttons were actually more non-degradable trash that we were foisting on our beloved planet! (They’re not booing, they’re chanting “true”, right? Right?)They were preaching more careful usage than recycling at that time…no doubt never imagining that blue bins and bags would not just be containers with our school colors, but a new means of saving the earth…I’ll bet you, somewhere in my collection of stuff, I still have that high school ‘Support Earth Day” button…maybe I can flip it into the recycle bin now…
Some of you have asked if I had seen the WGN 60 year tribute show last Sunday night…and, yes, I saw most of it. I definitely could have done without James Belushi. My idea was that they should have chosen a handful of old WGN personalities, and had each one host a segment or two- people like Jack Taylor, whom I had the honor of working with here at WCIU,
Jim Ruddle, part of their first two-man news anchor team, Joey D’Auria (the second and last WGN Bozo), Phil Donahue, who they interviewed in passing, and even our pal Tom Skilling. I thought it was interesting to see that, almost all the entertainment-type stuff they showed is all gone-they still have news, sports, and special event coverage, but the locally-produced entertainment shows are…no more. That’s pretty much the way local television has gone. I recently read an article where the head of WLS-TV was bragging how NO Chicago station was as local as they were- why, they do a local show- “190 North!” Oh, and a couple public affairs shows, too.
Wow. Don’t break your arm patting yourself on the back- or doing all those hard news features in the 10 pm newscasts that either tie-in with an ABC network show or Disney-promoted vehicle….
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I have to agree with your assessment of local TV. It's strange that we live in a time where it's cheaper than ever to create good-looking broadcast TV, but few stations seem to have the insight to make use of these innovations. Creating programming for millions of Chicagoans should not be treated as if it were some kind of obscure niche to halfheartedly lob a bone to every once in a while. Hats off to 'CIU for continuing commitment to local TV. Oh well... maybe internet broadcasting (or "narrowcasting" to revive that 80's phrase) will revive the notion of local TV.