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Congratulations Shawn Smith
Sue & I are in Boston this weekend for our son-in-law Shawn Smith’s graduation from Berklee College of Music.
This degree has been earned while working full-time and providing for his family as a computer expert working with Uncle Sam.
A very accomplished musician already, Shawn created and leads his own band, The Sons of Liberty that play throughout the Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland and DC area.
Your beautiful and talented wife Katie, son Jameson, daughter Charlie, along with Sue, I and your entire family have come together to celebrate your latest accomplishment.
We are so very proud of you.
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Easter 2023
For 51 weeks out of the calendar year Dick writes this blog, and I journey with this incredible man weekly, suggesting commas, periods, paragraphs, and sometimes a different word or two to give a clearer perspective to the blog’s overall composition.
Once again, Dick has asked me to use his Dias and share my perspective of the most important of all holy days, the Easter season.
This past year I truly have become perplexed on why we all have turned a blind eye, and the perilous corner of being unkind. Yes, you know what I’m talking about as we have all experienced this, in people driving a vehicle, in public attitudes, in words and in the outside boundaries of entitlement. So much so that we feel the sting, the bite and the burn, finding ourselves contributing to this meanness.
I pray every day—many times a day, asking for understanding, asking for patience, asking for a way to distribute the love that is so needed in our world.
I believe we have been placed here from moment one as a perpetual student of our Father’s teachings. We have lessons placed in our path each and every day. Once these lessons are learned we can proceed to the next class, but sometimes we get stuck in the quicksand and have to keep repeating until we realize what’s holding us back and not letting us proceed.
So, in my lessons learned on how prayer works, I have found that when God answers a prayer, He is increasing my faith, If He delays an answer, He is increasing my patience, and if He doesn’t answer, He is preparing me for the best answer that will be a blessing for me. And I have also learned that when God is silent, I must pray to be still, and LISTEN.
I found this powerful poem sent to me years ago by my beautiful step-daughter and I wanted to share the content.
“Maybe – we were supposed to meet the wrong people before meeting the right one so that, when we finally meet the right person, we will know how to be grateful for that gift.
Maybe – when the door of happiness closes, another opens; but, often times, we look so long at the closed door, we don’t see the new one which has been opened for us.
Maybe – it is true that we don’t know what we have until we lose it, but it is also true that we don’t know what we have been missing until it arrives.
Maybe – the happiest of people don’t necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the most of everything that comes their way.
Maybe – the brightest future will always be based on a forgotten past; after all, you can’t go on successfully in life until you let go of your past mistakes, failures, and heartaches.
Maybe – you should dream what you want to dream; go where you want to go, be what you want to be, because you have only one life and one chance to do all the things you’ve dreamt of, and want to do.
Maybe – there are moments in life when you miss someone – a parent – a spouse, a friend, a child, an animal —- so much, that you just want to pick them from your dreams and hug them one more time, appreciating those lost moments but turning them into beautiful memories.
Maybe – the best kind of friend is the kind you can sit on a porch and swing with, never saying a word, and then walk away feeling like it was the best conversation you’ve ever had.
Maybe – you should always try to put yourself in the others shoes. If you feel that something could hurt you, it probably will hurt the other person, too.
Maybe – you should do something nice for someone every single day, even if it is simply to leave them with a smile.
Maybe – giving someone all your love is never an assurance that they will love you back. Don’t expect love in return; just wait for it to grow in their heart; but if it doesn’t, be content that it grew in yours.
Maybe – happiness waits for all those who cry, all those who hurt, all those who have searched, and all those who have tried, for only they can appreciate the importance of all the people who have touched their lives.
Maybe – you shouldn’t go for looks; they can deceive; don’t go for wealth; even that fades away. Go for someone who makes your heart smile, making a dark day much brighter. “
–Author Unknown
Maybe – you should hope for enough happiness to make you sweet, enough trials to make you strong, enough sorrow to keep your blessings balanced, and enough faith to always know God is the great “I Am”.
Maybe – you should try to live the rest of your life to the fullest because when you were born, you were crying and everyone around you was smiling, but when you die, you can be the one smiling as everyone around you is crying.
And, Maybe – with all the earthly turmoil, we think that God doesn’t care, well if we dig deep into our hearts and the very being of our soul -we will understand that God is sad but God is right here, holding us, comforting us. God may be silent, but our prayers are being heard, and we need to listen to his loving words. Learning what? Love sings to us in many voices and we need to spread His LOVE with every MAYBE , with every bit of HOPE, and with every ounce of FAITH we have been challenged with on our living journey.
Our warmest thoughts are being sent to you
and your treasured family.
Happy Easter
Sue & Dick
Susan is a graduate of Concordia University with a degree in Family Life Education
and is a Certified Grief Counselor. God joined us together in 2018.
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Life Is What Happens…
John Lennon certainly clearly understood the surprises of life.
“Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans.”
-John Lennon
While it was my plan to begin the new year with new articles, both Sue & I found ourselves testing COVID+ and focusing on our health.
The good news is that we’re both vaccinated and boosted and on medication that should have us back on the road to recovery.
While we were both very careful to always mask up when shopping and when we did dine out, we would go at off hours to avoid crowded restaurants, the new strains of COVID appear to be as reported, very contagious.
I will resume writing this blog soon.
Stay tuned.
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Grateful for Your Readership
Back next week with the year’s most impactful articles
on DTB in 2022.
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Happy Birthday Me
Celebrating a milestone birthday this weekend.
Back next week with new articles.
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It’s Reunion Time
Back in two weeks with new articles.
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Does Radio Sound Choppy to You?
What I mean by that “choppy” observation is that radio has lost its flow. Today’s radio for the most part is herky-jerky. On-air production is constantly starting and stopping with every programming element and to a life-long radio guy, poor on-air production grates on my ears.
Where’s the Flow?
What I loved about listening to radio growing up was each station’s on-air production. The flow of programming elements was exciting. A radio station’s jingles flowing into the next record with the air personality working their magic in the mix.
But today, we hear a commercial end – a jingle plays and ends – a record begins – and then maybe an announcer (I dare not call them a “personality”) read a liner card. It’s all so disjointed and it’s anything but smooth.
Moreover, every programming element is generic. The station has no local feel about it.
Great On-Air Radio Production is Hard to Find
One of the stations I enjoy listening to for great on-air production is WETA-FM out of Washington, DC. WETA-FM is a classical music station, but its flow is seamless. Its personalities are personable and, for me, they are the #1 reason I so enjoy the station, along with the fact that WETA-FM brings this same detailed attention to every programming element.
Another Washington, DC radio station that delivers flow, personality and is a pleasure to listening to is News Radio WTOP. This radio station is usually the nation’s top billing radio station and has won every radio award; more than once.
You can’t transplant either of the stations, as they are fully programmed to serve their marketplace and no place else.
Syndication & Voice Tracking
The reason most radio stations don’t have great on-air production and flow can be attributed primarily to syndication and voice tracking.
With syndication, stations on the network need to all wait for network cue tones to fire their programming elements. Also, if their local production isn’t perfectly timed out, there will be gaps between the programming elements or a programming element will be cut-off.
The other problem with syndication is that it’s not unusual to hear a radio commercial repeated more than once in the same break. I’ve heard the same commercial play three times in a single break, sometimes this occurs with the same spot playing back-to-back.
With voice tracking, an announcer is tracking for multiple stations and never is really able to focus on a single station or radio market. It sounds like they’re talking at me and not to me. Often, they seek out generic content that can be tracked in multiple markets. I don’t need Facebook content read to me, I’m on Facebook.
The Listener Experience
Great radio is all about creating a fabulous listener experience, unfortunately that is rare on today’s radio dial.
Sadly, I understand how under-staffing means that today’s radio talent is wearing multiple hats (often more than four, according to the latest research from Fred Jacobs) and has little opportunity to give any one of their responsibilities more than a moment’s focus.
I often think what your favorite NFL team would look like if the quarterback also was the team’s coach, punter and played defense.
Or how would football fans feels if their team was under the same ownership as three other NFL teams and their quarterback also played for one or more of those other teams.? My thinking is that this would spell the beginning of the end of raving football fans.
Well, as I travel around America, I hear the same announcers on multiple radio stations.
How can any radio station expect to have listener loyalty when their on-air announcers don’t even have station loyalty? Listeners know great radio when they hear it. They will continue to listen to your station only until something better comes along, and we all know it’s easier to retain a listener than to acquire a new one.
Until the listener experience is Job One, today’s radio will be contributing to its own undoing.
(This article was originally published on October 3, 2021)
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Radio in Mayberry, USA
Like many people my age, we grew up watching television shows like The Andy Griffith Show. My wife and I have been watching every episode on Netflix before turning off the lights and going to sleep. We’re currently in season seven.
Mayberry, NC
While there never was a town in North Carolina named “Mayberry,” Andy Griffith’s home town of Mount Airy, NC embraces the spirit of Mayberry to this very day. In fact, it’s virtually impossible to find any kind of collectible that says “Mount Airy,” but you will have no trouble finding lots of things with Mayberry on them.
We recently took the short drive from our home in Virginia to Mount Airy to visit the Andy Griffith Museum. It did not disappoint.
Historic Earle Theatre
Included with your museum admission, is admission to the Historic Earle Theatre located on Main Street in Mount Airy. Upon entering the theater, the first thing that caught my eye was an “ON AIR” light by the stage and pictures of radio station WPAQ.
The theatre even runs a video presentation about this radio institution, founded by its original owner Ralph Epperson, on Groundhog Day in 1948.
This year’s annual birthday celebration marked the station’s 72nd year of service to its listening area, which always includes a free concert at the Earle Theatre for its loyal listeners.
WPAQ
The first thing I Googled on my iPhone when I saw the call letters WPAQ was to find out what they stood for, as I could not imagine what they had to do with Mount Airy or North Carolina. Turns out, they really don’t stand for anything (much like America’s first commercially licensed radio station, KDKA in Pittsburgh).
In fact, Ralph Epperson said the station actually ran a listener contest to try and give the station a name that went with the call letters WPAQ, but nothing ever really seemed to fit. One listener suggested that they stood for “We Piddle Around Quietly,” but Epperson said that wasn’t what they were looking for.
I think that listener got the idea from the disparaging nickname given to FDR’s Works Progress Administration (renamed Work Projects Administration; WPA). Some people felt Roosevelt’s New Deal program was a waste of money. They assailed this program that employed millions of unemployed people to carry out works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads, along with employing musicians, artists, actors and directors in large arts, drama, media, and literary projects.
The WPA spent $13.4 billion during the Great Depression but detractors of FDR’s get America back to work program said WPA stood for “We Piddle Around.”
So, you can see why Mr. Epperson didn’t adopt this suggestion, as he was a man of progress and forward thinking, he was never one to “piddle around,” let alone quietly.
The Voice of the Blue Ridge Mountains
While Mount Airy always embraced its role as the model for its native son Andy Griffith’s popular television program, WPAQ likewise always promoted and worked to preserve North Carolina’s mountain music heritage as the Voice of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
WPAQ is the source for local news, old-time bluegrass and gospel music, religious services and the broadcast of local obituaries. I truthfully can’t remember the last time I heard obituaries on the radio until I started listening to WPAQ. However, I remember writing many obituaries in my early radio days when I did news at WBRK in Pittsfield, Massachusetts back in the 70s.
The Saturday Merry-Go-Round Show
WPAQ broadcasts live from the Historic Earle Theatre every Saturday from 11am to 1:30pm on a program called the Merry-Go-Round. It’s the second longest continuously broadcast live radio show of its kind in America, second only to WSM’s broadcast of Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry.
WPAQ’s program used to be the third oldest, until WWVA gave up its weekly broadcast of Jamboree USA with then station owner iHeartMedia who moved the program from WWVA to WKKX before ending the weekly broadcasts in 2008. Jamboree USA returned to the air in 2014 on a non-commercial low-power FM in Wheeling.
Mount Airy residents and tourists alike believe live radio music is part of the charm of the area.
Ralph Epperson always said he wanted his radio station to be different, saying “Why should we be like everyone else?”
Ralph Epperson passed away in 2006, but his son Kelly, along with Kelly’s wife Jennifer, co-own and manage the radio station exactly as Ralph envisioned. With one possible exception…
No Static at All
WPAQ was licensed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to broadcast on 740 KC with a daytime power of 10,000-watts, 1,000-watts one and half hours before both sunrise and sunset and 7-watts at night.
On August 6, 2020, WPAQ signed on its brand new FM translator at 106.7 delivering the stations programs in stereo. The station also broadcasts its programming online at https://www.wpaq740.com/listen-online/ .
During a recent evening walk around my neighborhood, I heard the sound of a fretless, five string banjo coming from a neighbor’s porch. When my neighbor finished his song, my wife and I applauded the performance and commented that he sounded like the music on WPAQ. He responded by telling us that he streams WPAQ on his iPhone and makes regular trips to Mount Airy for the blue grass/mountain music festivals.
Legacy Lasts
In these times of uncertainty, it’s comforting to know that radio stations like WPAQ are keeping family values, traditions and the roots of both this type of music and this type of radio broadcasting alive.
Proving that providing live, local and unique programming never goes out-of-style.
(This article was originally published on November 15, 2020)
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