I am going to curb my enthusiasm for 2023, because 2022 was one of the best years of my life.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not writing off the new year before it happens or anything. 2023 will eventually mark my 25th radioversary with KCOW…I have a pretty major vacation adventure planned for May…and who knows what other joyful surprises will pepper the next 12 months?
But 2022…..boy, that’s gonna be a hard one to beat. Here comes our year in review, combining a review of some of the blog stories I think didn’t stink, along with personal highlights.
January: I Turned 50. It had all the surprises, fundamental friend-depend-ability, and silly greeting cards one expects on these ocassions. Most delightful was a surprise party at the Knight Museum, which was known to literally every person in the 69301 zip code except me.
January Blog Highlight: The Two Faces Of Fred. Flintstone, That Is.
March Blog Highlights:
On The Bookshelf: Reed and Brooks. (Reed is Alan Reed…seemed to be on a Flintstones kick for a moment…and Brooks is Mel “I didn’t get a harrumph out of you” Brooks.)
On The Bookshelf: Nixon and Drugs. We cover all topics!
April Highlights:
Football! After 24 years as an adopted Nebraskan, I finally saw a football game at Memorial Stadium. I had walked on that hisitoric turf during a tour of the stadium in 2010, but this was the real deal. Well, sort of. It was the Spring Game, attended with my pal Dangerous Dave. We made a grand weekend out of it, beginning with a meet-up with our pal Jeremy Fifield and his girlfriend Maura Loberg.
Chicago! In Rapid City! We Almost Died! Okay, this really is a highlight because it was the first real, genuine, jam-packed rock concert I had attended since pre-pandemic days. Chicago were great, full horn section, great vocals, a truly fantastic concert. The next day my friend Dave and I almost died trying to get back in that delightfully #$%^ed up Nebraska tradition, The April Snowstorm. If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times. Mother Nature can suck it. But again, the concert was swell. And it’s always a joy traveling with Dangerous Dave, even if we were both praying for our lives.
April Blog Highlights:
Joe Besser Book Review. With one of my favorite blog headlines ever. Which you probably won’t get unless you know who Joe Besser is.
May Highlight: Walt Disney World!
June Highlight: Frankie Valli! At Long Last!
July Highlight: Summer In South Otselic. In 2020, I was unable to go home for Christmas due to the pandemic. (Well, that’s not true. The exact detail is, I chose to be responsible and not endanger the lives of my elderly father or other members of my family at a time when flying even with a mask would have been like soaking in disease. That paint the picture a little better?)
Anyway, by summer of ’21 I felt a lot better about traveling, and so I went home to see the family in July. And I had a wonderful time experiencing the beauty of my hometown in summer. So in 2022 I made another July trip. And I’ll make another one this summer. I love seeing my town and my family. I’m only sorry I didn’t get with the program and start doing two trips a year sooner.
August Highlight: “Tonight’s The Night…When We Give Some……Awaaahahahahahahahahads!”
It’s funny. I gave up on broadcasting awards several years ago, because I got skunked three or four years running and the taste of failure tends to linger on one’s tongue, like a pill you have to swallow without anything to drink.
But this year, our Nebraska Market Operations Manager Derek Beck sent an email instructing me to send him something for awards. Well, I like to do what management tells me to do. So I took all of about 3 minutes to pick a couple commercials and sent them along.
And then one of the darn things won! The Silver Award, one of the three top commercials in the state of Nebraska…an award that Omaha or Lincoln didn’t win because Alliance Nebraska won it! Woo-Hoo!
Kalin Krohe and I made the trip out to the Nebraska Broadcasters Convention, my first such trip since 2014 and my first full convention experience since 2010. Herr Kroheim and I had a marvelous time. And I was stunned how not-disastrous I managed to look in a suit.
September Blog Highlight: My Mel Torme Story (It involves poor eyesight and great music.)
October Blog Highlights:
Beware The North American Ten-Toed Dullard One of my ocassional editorial pieces, which I never share publicly and just sort of sit here on the blog waited to be seen, most likely by accident.
Munsters At Marineland. A newly discovered television rarity gets the DVD treatment.
Judy Tenuta Story which is true and extremely humiliating.
And, because America loves a sequel…
November Blog Highlights:
Krohe and the Butler Bear One of the things I love about having this blog is that it’s all mine, it can be whatever I want it to be. If I wanna do recaps of every multi-part “Happy Days” episode, I can do that. If I wanna write fiction, I can do that. Here is a short story that is just about as dopey as anything you’ll find on the printed page. I’m working on the audiobook version, to be narrated by Kevin Horn.
A Boy Named Charlie Brown. I did an in-depth write-up on this film and “Snoopy Come Home”, two very different movies. “Charlie Brown” is visually more interesting and feels more like a Peanuts film…
Snoopy Come Home is a tearjerker with some very noticeable changes in the music.
December Blog Highlights:
Rolling Stone TV Theme Rankings. And my nitpicking at same.
“It’s An Hour Show!” I am really happy with how this turned out…it’s part one of a recap of Jack Benny’s NBC specials of the 60’s and 70’s.
2022….what a year! And it wasn’t just concerts and vacations and big-ticket stuff. The year was filled with moments of joy:
-An evening at Hemingford Dinner Theater with my pal Tami Swearingen
-After seeing Nebraska musician Paul Siebert perform at the PAC in Alliance, I somehow talked him into guest starring on the little internet radio show my friend Dave and I do!
-I got to hold a baby
-I did my morning show live from the Knight Museum to promote the Alliance Public Schools Foundation annual fundraiser
-Another marvelous Cartunes Week with guest DJs and live on location broadcasting from Central Park and the Gravity Drags
-Saw “The Great Muppet Caper” on the big screen of Scottsbluff’s historic Midwest Theater with Tam
-The Knight Museum and Sandhills Center presented an exhibit of my Pez dispenser collection for about six months! They looked spectacular.
-A great Heritage Days celebration including Sunday At The Park-Adjacent
-A Main Street Players production, “Death Of An Author”!
-A wonderful evening at Papa Moon Winery as Kalin Krohe’s merch seller/roadie
-Live broadcasting and (a first!) live parade video hosting of the Box Butte County Fair Parade!
-Kalin and I were honored to be selected as emcees of both Bands On The Bricks and the return of Alliance’s fall festival.
-Was invited to attend the Carnegie Arts Center Volunteer Appreciation Dinner!
-Produced another blockbuster KCOW Halloween Special with a cavalcade of special guest stars
-Attended a Friday night Alliance Bulldogs football team, watching the action with Gles, Nelly and Smirk in the press box
-Announced the Alliance Christmas Parade, continuining a streak of Christmas-parade-announcing that goes back a mess of years
-Hosted a radio special on the Beatles classic “Revolver” with Jeremy Fifield and…from his sick bed, for just a few brief moments…Kalin Krohe.
And there it is. 2022. Awfully good year.