Here's a fun promo that was aired on WBEN, or Radio 930, back in 1985. It was voiced by Tom Pagnotti (known to listeners/viewers as Tom Kelly) who did afternoon drive at Radio 930 back then.
You'll need to click over to my Digital Mark blog to listen.
There's the sound of an electric typewriter in the background, along with an aircheck from one of my newscasts with a hint of the WBEN Trafficopter at the end of the spot. I did the afternoon traffic reports on Tom's show (as well as for Rock 102 on FM) before heading into the station to do the news at the top of the hour on John Murphy's One-On-One Sports. My 'casts began at 7 pm and continued through 11, when we had a half-hour show. Of course, Murph (who now does play-by-play for the Buffalo Bills) introduced me to my wife Jeanne.
Pete Weber, who also worked at 'BEN and other sports duties around Buffalo back then, is now the voice of the Nashville Predators of the NHL. Pete had held on to this spot and kindly gave it and some other items to be in digital form.
Tom, by the way, has a successful voiceover enterprise. He'd worked in recent years in Washington on Oldies 100 before the station changed formats, unfortunately. Tom now lives in Bath, Maine. We've all kept in touch over these many years. Another talented colleague there was Kevin Keenan, who continues to do communications work for the Buffalo Diocese and has his own firm now.
I worked at WBEN for about 18 months before being hired by the AP to handle radio reporting/anchoring duties in Dallas. I was there for a year before transferring to Washington.
Slacktivism -- Or Couch Potato Activism
In reading about the quandary whether journalists should be restrained by their employers from being involved in politically-charged causes, I happened upon one of the best new words I've seen in a while.
"Slacktivism" refers to the all-too-common modern meaningless gestures undertaken by people intended to align them with a cause, but where the actions have no meaningful impact. The word itself, which apparently has been around for years, combines "slacker" and "activism". It would appear to be an oxymoron, reflecting at least in part how potentially good intentions miss their marks.
For years, I've pondered why people post angry bumper stickers communicating negative or even hateful messages that they might otherwise be unwilling to communicate when they are not sheltered by the armor of their automobile. In many cases, the communication fails to persuade or invite sympathy. Instead, it infuriates and often fails to illuminate. That's not to say that expressing anger doesn't also have a place.
More common in recent times has been the Facebook post where someone urges others to repost a message under the guise that there's some real outcome other than the appearance of the post itself. How in the world does that help someone suffering a devastating illness or having served in the military. I would suggest it does nothing to help. In fact, it might do damage, by giving cover to someone who might otherwise be poised to take actual action, but otherwise believes wrongly that they are assisting a potentially valid cause by posting a status update. Most common seem to be political issue postings, followed by those concerned with medical or health challenges. Just like the bumper sticker behavior, the social media iteration of "slacktivism" can risk alienating people. That would seem to be the opposite of what was intended.
Between the Occupy and Tea Party movements, or the fallout surrounding the Susan G. Komen controversy funding of Planned Parenthood, there are plenty of instances where people are trying to gauge appropriate levels of activism. In a vibrant democracy, and in an increasingly connected world, that would seem to be necessary.
There is much to be said for being truly invested in a cause, whether it is enlisting, joining a revolution, working on the ground in a developing country, all at one extreme, volunteering at a nursing home, being a discerning philanthropist, or donating blood. As for hope for the future, it is heartening to see the high level of involvement among many of today's college students, whether they are required to perform community service, or choose to jump in because their hearts tell them to.
Something quite encouraging happened just today. I had two young people knock on my door to stump for their respective candidates for the U.S. Congress. Kudos to them for working on a cause they believe in.
In a perfect world, which we don't have, we would engage others in an actual conversation about a would-be call to action. Unfortunately, the less we converse in a constructive fashion, the more likely we are to lose the ability to achieve positive outcomes.
Check out the Wikipedia entry on "slacktivism". Thanks to Poynter.org for shedding some light on this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slacktivism
http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/top-stories/167970/live-chat-wednesday-should-journalists-show-support-for-trayvon-martin-ask-for-scott-walkers-recall/
"Slacktivism" refers to the all-too-common modern meaningless gestures undertaken by people intended to align them with a cause, but where the actions have no meaningful impact. The word itself, which apparently has been around for years, combines "slacker" and "activism". It would appear to be an oxymoron, reflecting at least in part how potentially good intentions miss their marks.
For years, I've pondered why people post angry bumper stickers communicating negative or even hateful messages that they might otherwise be unwilling to communicate when they are not sheltered by the armor of their automobile. In many cases, the communication fails to persuade or invite sympathy. Instead, it infuriates and often fails to illuminate. That's not to say that expressing anger doesn't also have a place.
More common in recent times has been the Facebook post where someone urges others to repost a message under the guise that there's some real outcome other than the appearance of the post itself. How in the world does that help someone suffering a devastating illness or having served in the military. I would suggest it does nothing to help. In fact, it might do damage, by giving cover to someone who might otherwise be poised to take actual action, but otherwise believes wrongly that they are assisting a potentially valid cause by posting a status update. Most common seem to be political issue postings, followed by those concerned with medical or health challenges. Just like the bumper sticker behavior, the social media iteration of "slacktivism" can risk alienating people. That would seem to be the opposite of what was intended.
Between the Occupy and Tea Party movements, or the fallout surrounding the Susan G. Komen controversy funding of Planned Parenthood, there are plenty of instances where people are trying to gauge appropriate levels of activism. In a vibrant democracy, and in an increasingly connected world, that would seem to be necessary.
There is much to be said for being truly invested in a cause, whether it is enlisting, joining a revolution, working on the ground in a developing country, all at one extreme, volunteering at a nursing home, being a discerning philanthropist, or donating blood. As for hope for the future, it is heartening to see the high level of involvement among many of today's college students, whether they are required to perform community service, or choose to jump in because their hearts tell them to.
Something quite encouraging happened just today. I had two young people knock on my door to stump for their respective candidates for the U.S. Congress. Kudos to them for working on a cause they believe in.
In a perfect world, which we don't have, we would engage others in an actual conversation about a would-be call to action. Unfortunately, the less we converse in a constructive fashion, the more likely we are to lose the ability to achieve positive outcomes.
Check out the Wikipedia entry on "slacktivism". Thanks to Poynter.org for shedding some light on this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slacktivism
http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/top-stories/167970/live-chat-wednesday-should-journalists-show-support-for-trayvon-martin-ask-for-scott-walkers-recall/
Ancient History -- Bookstores and Toll Booths
Going about my weekend routine, I was thinking how
my son and I made a spur of the moment decision recently to look at a video
rental store that was going out of business.
It wasn’t that long ago that we also went to a Borders bookstore that
was a similar casualty of new technology.
For both my son and I, we probably sensed a loss from the removal
of the shared tactile experience and potential discovery of looking at DVDs and printed books.
That prompted me to think of the whole range of experiences
that have essentially evaporated over the past few years or decades because of technological
change. It is not that I want to turn
the clock back, even if I could. But it
bears consideration how many things or experiences have been lost because of
electronic commerce, the Internet, computers, mobile phones or some combination
of each.
Many of the activities listed below have really only shifted
in the past decade. Given the pace of change, one wonders whether this
accelerates further. We can’t know for sure, but the risk seems high, baring the
unexpected or catastrophic.
So, in no particular order, a list of some of the things I
don’t expect to do anytime soon, or not nearly as often, or perhaps never again.
First, find the phased-out activity below, followed by its successor.
·
Human highway/bridge toll booth toll takers (E-Z
Pass)
·
Gas station cashier (pay at the pump)
·
Record/CD store (iTunes or streaming services
like Pandora and Spotify)
·
Photo development at retail (digital photos,
remote printing services like Snapfish or home printing)
·
Bank teller (ATMs and Direct Deposit)
·
Book store (Kindle, iPad and Amazon.com)
·
Movie theater, DVD/VHS rental (Netflix, cable, iTunes or any number of
services)
·
Buying printed newspaper or delivery (PC browser, mobile
web, tablet, apps)
Drugstore prescription pick-ups (Mail order prescription
fulfillment)
· Map purchases, travel guides or TripTiks
(GPS, online maps, web travel services)
·
Travel agent services (Electronic ticketing, airline and
hotel reservations, online travel advice)
·
U.S. Postal Service (E-mail, online stamp
ordering)
·
Faxing (Scanning documents at home, sending via
email)
Those are all I can think of for now. What have we really lost? Perhaps human interaction or shared activities. And that’s to say nothing of the displacement
of jobs from all of the above.
Now, if I could just use a website to avoid having to call and pay a
plumber.
How Does It Turn Out? -- On Being a Lector at Mass and Crafting News Stories, A Life Lesson
Not long after officially becoming Catholic, I was asked to become a lector at our parish in Bethesda, Maryland. This is a lay person who assists in celebrating Mass, by making the opening and closing announcements, doing the readings and sometimes leading The Prayer of the Faithful. Since I've been involved with all kinds of public speaking going back to my youth, it is within my comfort zone.
It has been more than a decade now that I jumped in as a lector. I'm resuming those duties after taking a break last year, while I was National Press Club president. The interlude has given me an opportunity to reflect broadly.
Going through the complicated process known as RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults) under the guidance of a wonderful mentor, Brother Malachy Broderick, and in the years since, my journey of faith has taken many interesting turns. Not the least of which was having the opportunity to learn under this gifted teacher.
Fast forward to the first Mass where I was about to speak. I was in the sacristy with the presiding priest, his name was Father Mark, taking some quiet moments before we were about to start. I commented that it was my first. Given the complicated choreography of the Mass, I was just worried that I might get something wrong. After all, I wasn't a so-called "cradle Catholic" so a lot of this was still new to me. I'll never forget he just looked at me, paused and with full confidence said "God will get you through it". Nothing more was said at that point by either of us. Everything went as it should. Fitting that a basic lesson of faith was so helpful to me at that point and over the years.
Since that time, there have been any number of experiences when that advice served me well. It might have been a high-profile event when I was anxious how it would turn out. Another might have been while trying to figure out how to piece together all the components of a news story. Time and time again, Father Mark's voice has resonated in my head with his line of reassurance. Turns out he was right.
For a journalist or the writer, the corollary is the supposedly dreaded "blank page". That has a variety of permutations in multimedia, a text story, a video package, a radio report, or wrap, as we like to say. There is tension at the beginning of the creative process because we don't yet know how it ends, or how we should conclude it until we get there.
Life is like that. It takes the passage of years to understand how certain patterns that do emerge. Maybe it is just our way of making sense of the otherwise seemingly random turn of events that come our way.
Our rational side sometimes presses us to want to know how things resolve themselves before that resolution is apparent. We see it in young people who want to think they know how their lives are all laid out for them in advance. But as the line goes attributed to the late John Lennon "life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."
And that's a good thing. Imagine how insufferable life would be if we knew the story beforehand. No mystery, no joy, and yes, no pain.
So, the next time I'm getting the least bit anxious about how things are going to turn out, I can be comforted by the fact that Father Mark knew the answer.
-- --
If you have thoughts on my blog, please feel free to post them below.
It has been more than a decade now that I jumped in as a lector. I'm resuming those duties after taking a break last year, while I was National Press Club president. The interlude has given me an opportunity to reflect broadly.
Going through the complicated process known as RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults) under the guidance of a wonderful mentor, Brother Malachy Broderick, and in the years since, my journey of faith has taken many interesting turns. Not the least of which was having the opportunity to learn under this gifted teacher.
Fast forward to the first Mass where I was about to speak. I was in the sacristy with the presiding priest, his name was Father Mark, taking some quiet moments before we were about to start. I commented that it was my first. Given the complicated choreography of the Mass, I was just worried that I might get something wrong. After all, I wasn't a so-called "cradle Catholic" so a lot of this was still new to me. I'll never forget he just looked at me, paused and with full confidence said "God will get you through it". Nothing more was said at that point by either of us. Everything went as it should. Fitting that a basic lesson of faith was so helpful to me at that point and over the years.
Since that time, there have been any number of experiences when that advice served me well. It might have been a high-profile event when I was anxious how it would turn out. Another might have been while trying to figure out how to piece together all the components of a news story. Time and time again, Father Mark's voice has resonated in my head with his line of reassurance. Turns out he was right.
For a journalist or the writer, the corollary is the supposedly dreaded "blank page". That has a variety of permutations in multimedia, a text story, a video package, a radio report, or wrap, as we like to say. There is tension at the beginning of the creative process because we don't yet know how it ends, or how we should conclude it until we get there.
Life is like that. It takes the passage of years to understand how certain patterns that do emerge. Maybe it is just our way of making sense of the otherwise seemingly random turn of events that come our way.
Our rational side sometimes presses us to want to know how things resolve themselves before that resolution is apparent. We see it in young people who want to think they know how their lives are all laid out for them in advance. But as the line goes attributed to the late John Lennon "life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."
And that's a good thing. Imagine how insufferable life would be if we knew the story beforehand. No mystery, no joy, and yes, no pain.
So, the next time I'm getting the least bit anxious about how things are going to turn out, I can be comforted by the fact that Father Mark knew the answer.
-- --
If you have thoughts on my blog, please feel free to post them below.
Parting Remarks -- Speech To the NPC's Annual Membership Meeting
Has it been a year
already?
That’s what so many
people have asked me as I’ve told them about the timing of this transition. And
I guess that’s a good thing. So far, at
least to my face, no one has said, “it’s about time!” But the meeting isn't over yet.
I’m here mostly to
express my gratitude to you, for allowing me to have one of the greatest
experiences in the world, that of NPC president. I’ll always treasure the support, and the
hard work and other participation evidenced in the Club over the past year.
I know that same
spirit will also be the proverbial wind beneath the wings of our 105th
president, Theresa Werner, my former colleague and a longtime friend and fellow
board member.
As I look back on
it, I didn’t fully understand what being president would really be like beforehand. Yes, I knew much about the operational part,
having been a committee chair or board member over the years (yes, one of those
legacy people), but there is something remarkable about the support one enjoys,
both inside the Club house, and elsewhere.
A special note of
appreciation for our former presidents, book ended by our senior surviving
president John Cosgrove – inaugurated 51 years ago. John, could you take a bow?
At the other end of
the timeline is my immediate predecessor Alan Bjerga, who was very giving of
his time to help me move along the learning curve.
There are many good
things happening here. And I would like to highlight just a few.
Our membership has stabilized.
In fact, at our
December board meeting, we learned that we enjoyed the slightest year-over-year
increase in membership.
Given the stresses
of the journalism industry and the broader economy, we've been fortunate to
have done as well as we have in recent years.
Thanks to the
guidance of the supremely intelligent Executive Director Bill McCarren, and the
hard work of his remarkable staff, the NPC business is strong. It continues to
allow us to build cash reserves, largely on target with what our auditors have
recommended, and our strategic plan has mandated.
Beyond dollar
signs, what about the Club? What about
the heart of the National Press Club?
This is admittedly hard,
but not impossible to measure.
What one Golden Owl
and a new, young member experience might be quite different. For one, the sense
is based on memories, the other based on expectations.
So, I'll tell you
what I think. My sense is that our Club
house spirit is strong. The NPC election,
while spirited, perhaps more so than some of the incumbent candidates might
have preferred, served the Club well. There was no doubt about the outcome. The
membership spoke loud and clear.
With our more than
two dozen NPC committees, participation in our programming is robust. And the brand of the National Press Club, to
the extent that it helps to drive both the business and the Club, continues to
grow in industry and global awareness.
Thanks to the
leadership of Speakers Committee Chair and Bernie Krug Award winner Melissa
Charbonneau, the Speakers Luncheons turned a lot of heads and drove news
coverage. Between Herman Cain, Michele
Bachman, Ron Paul, Tom Brokaw and Ben Bernanke -- just to name a few, the
line-up was strong.
Melissa has since
taken an assignment working as a public information officer supporting the US
and coalition effort in Afghanistan. She
was planning to watch our web stream today, so if that’s true, God bless you
Melissa, we miss you and thank you for all of your work for both Speakers and
the 5K.
With regard to the Luncheons
venue, which has a history going back to FDR-- I would encourage all future
participants process to strive for the best possible speakers. We don't have to
settle, and we shouldn't.
You can demand top
notch quality speakers. You can demand that news be made, and you can expect to
be successful. No one is served well by
accepting less. Not our members, not our brand, not our tradition.
People from around
the world look to this organization to be aggressively outspoken on the issue
of press freedoms. This was hammered home to me time and time again.
It was not
something I could have anticipated, until I had the chance to feel it, first
hand.
We don’t know how
good we have it as journalists working in the relatively comfortable United
States. In too many places around the
world, journalists are persecuted, killed, or tortured, just for doing their
jobs. Here, the pain is mostly economic.
Not insignificant, but paling by comparison to conditions elsewhere.
I'll remember
Mukesh, the television journalist from Pakistan. He asked to meet with me after
World Press Freedom Day, planning to return to his country.
He said if we knew
who he was, the chances were better that someone might be willing to pay a
ransom if he were kidnapped. He'd been beaten and detained earlier in his
career.
John Donnelly is the
excellent chair of the Press Freedoms Committee and I know our new president
will continue to rely on John and the other able committee members for help.
Elsewhere, our
communications through The Wire become more robust. We added a weekly printed product available at
the front desk, compiling The Wire, for those who aren’t on computers or
smartphones.
Committee
participation generally was energetic. And that's so vitally important to keep
members engaged and to build out our programming, like the 5K, the Book Fair,
the NPC Awards, Events, the Fourth Estate Award, Young Members, Fellowship, History
and Heritage, and the list goes on and on. I wish that we had time today to
talk about the fine work done by so many people. But take my word, it is very
much appreciated.
Being the NPC
president must be something like running a marathon. Truthfully, I don’t know
that for a fact because I have not run a marathon myself.
But I couldn’t have
done it without the support of my wife Jeanne, who has run marathons. I’m look very much forward to spending more quality
time with her. Thank you!
Beyond Jeanne and our
amazing son Christopher, my AP family has been immensely supportive of my work
here.
And for that, I’ll
always be grateful, particularly to the head of our Broadcast operation, Kevin
Roach, himself an NPC member.
When you have top
notch staffers to work with, like Melinda Cooke, director of membership, and
Havilah Ross, a new addition to the staff who works in the president’s office, and
what a blessing that has been -- I can tell you that one is very well taken
care of.
But, I think you
know that spirit extends to all members, for example, when taking advantage our
club house restaurant, the Reliable Source. There, the great Mesfin Mekonen and
his staff treat every member like a superstar. We thank you for that as well.
Now, it might be
tempting for one to feel some sense of mourning that this wonderful experience
is coming to an end.
But that would be
to miss the point. One line that my bride Jeanne pointed out seems just right.
It goes like this -- "don't cry because it is over, smile because it
happened."
So, I'm smiling as
I hand the gavel over to my remarkably capable successor. She's going to do a
great job as the 105th president of the Club.
It could well be
her first big mistake, but I’m honored to have been asked to be the emcee of
her inaugural next week. I hope you’ve made your reservations, or will do so,
soon.
I plan to remain
involved both as a former president and a member, and I'll look forward to
continuing to count you, as my friends.
So again, thank you.
And now, please give a warm National Press Club welcome to your president,
Theresa Werner!
For more information check out http://www.press.org
For more information check out http://www.press.org
A Message Of Sincere Thanks After My Year As NPC President
Originally posted to http://www.press.org
As we prepare to celebrate the beginning of our new president’s term, I wanted to take a moment to pass along my heartfelt thanks to everyone who made the past year so memorable. I’ll always treasure the special memories of having the honor to serve The National Press Club.
We have more than a century of tradition behind us as a Club. That continuum has helped to ensure that our membership and our enterprise remain remarkably strong. Bright, young, energetic and capable leaders populate the Board of Governors. The NPC staff is the best anywhere, always taking special care with members and visiting VIPs alike. Of course, I’m so very grateful for the love of my wife Jeanne and son Christopher as well the strong support of my employer, The Associated Press.
Looking ahead, I will begin my 26th year as an AP broadcast journalist this summer. And I’ll continue blogging here at http://hamrickisms.blogspot.com.
I’d like to recall a passage that I shared with you upon taking office a year ago.
We are ever bound in community:
We build on foundations, we did not lay.
We warm ourselves at fires, we did not light.
We sit in the shade of trees, we did not plant.
We drink from wells, we did not dig.
We profit from persons, we did not know.
We light this chalice in thanksgiving
For those who have passed their light to us.
That fire still burns brightly, and we pass that proverbial chalice on to 105th President Theresa Werner. I look forward to celebrating with you at her inauguration, continuing a grand NPC tradition, one among many.
As we prepare to celebrate the beginning of our new president’s term, I wanted to take a moment to pass along my heartfelt thanks to everyone who made the past year so memorable. I’ll always treasure the special memories of having the honor to serve The National Press Club.
We have more than a century of tradition behind us as a Club. That continuum has helped to ensure that our membership and our enterprise remain remarkably strong. Bright, young, energetic and capable leaders populate the Board of Governors. The NPC staff is the best anywhere, always taking special care with members and visiting VIPs alike. Of course, I’m so very grateful for the love of my wife Jeanne and son Christopher as well the strong support of my employer, The Associated Press.
Looking ahead, I will begin my 26th year as an AP broadcast journalist this summer. And I’ll continue blogging here at http://hamrickisms.blogspot.com.
I’d like to recall a passage that I shared with you upon taking office a year ago.
We are ever bound in community:
We build on foundations, we did not lay.
We warm ourselves at fires, we did not light.
We sit in the shade of trees, we did not plant.
We drink from wells, we did not dig.
We profit from persons, we did not know.
We light this chalice in thanksgiving
For those who have passed their light to us.
That fire still burns brightly, and we pass that proverbial chalice on to 105th President Theresa Werner. I look forward to celebrating with you at her inauguration, continuing a grand NPC tradition, one among many.
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