Stephen St. James: 1973-2011

Stephen St. James

(Cross-posted from DougMorris.net.)

When my wife died four years ago, a relative told me that God must have needed Cindy for a reason.

Today, I tell you God must have needed Stephen St. James for a reason. Stephen has died after a battle with brain cancer.

For a vast majority of Rock 104’s existence, Stephen worked in afternoon drive. He also served as the operations manager for our parent company, Blakeney Communications. Stephen previously worked at other radio stations in the Pine Belt and Meridian.

When Stephen and I worked at one of those other stations, he taught me the nuts and bolts of the business – when to introduce songs, when to air the weather forecast, when to play contests and so forth. When severe weather hit our neighborhoods in November of 1992, Stephen talked me through how we should cover the storm.

Stephen would want us to continue to rock the Pine Belt and serve the public trust. While we mourn, we will also continue to move forward without him.

In moving forward, we will miss Stephen’s sharp sense of humor and insight in the business.

Our condolences to his wife, Marilyn, and his family.

Godspeed, Stephen. We’ll miss you dearly.

The Voice

Well, folks, I think we have our first feel good story of 2011. It’s the story of the homeless former radio announcer in Columbus, Ohio, who’s looking for work.

Ever since this video went viral, Ted Williams, the homeless man seen in the above clip, has been offered several jobs. Reportedly, offers include P.A. announcer for the Cleveland Cavaliers (and even they could use some good news post-LeBron) and commercial voice work for an Ohio credit union. And that’s just the beginning.

Looks like it’s already a Happy New Year for Williams. May this be the start of brighter days ahead.

Aloha, Danno

Last week, I visited my parents in Tennessee. While there, I got a chance to watch the new, re-imagined Hawaii Five-0 for the first time. As I expected, this new series is a police procedural drama along the lines of NCIS, CSI: and their respective spin-offs.

While many fans of the original Hawaii Five-O series have not warmed up to the new Five-0, CBS has picked up the reboot for a full season.

As a matter of semantics, the original show’s title ended in the letter O while the current version expresses the last character as the number 0, but still pronounced “oh”. Regardless of how you express it, “Five-O” is a nod to the fact Hawaii is the 50th state in the union.

While in Tennessee, I was trying to figure out who’s the new McGarrett and the new Danno. I also asked Mom if there’s a new Wo Fat in this version.

Then, as you might expect, discussion turned to the original Five-O and the Jack Lord days. We were trying to figure out who played the original Danno (only “Helen Hayes’ son” came to Mom’s mind) and a quick internet search revealed the answer — James MacArthur.

Today, word came of MacArthur’s passing — reportedly of “natural causes”. Unless you’re a devoted fan of the original show, you’re probably not aware there were plans for a “sequel” version of Five-O in the mid-’90s.

Had CBS given the sequel its blessing, MacArthur would have reprised his role as “Danno”. Only this time, Danno moved up in the land of aloha as the state’s governor. For the record, Jack Lord was still with us the time the 1996 pilot was shot — but he was in declining health and believed to be battling Alzheimer’s. Lord died just weeks into 1998.

I think it’s safe to say the next episode of Five-0 is almost ready to air. I would hope they can take 10 or 15 seconds to display something to this effect on screen…

In Memoriam

James MacArthur

The original “Danno”

1937-2010

Here We Go Again

Ho hum, more marital infidelity in the news. Latest developments involve a hometown hero.

Rather than go into the sordid details — for you probably already know same, we’re bound to hear more and we’ll grow tired of hearing all about the situation — let me just throw out a couple of questions to those who’ve run afoul of marital responsibility.

1. Why aren’t you giving us, the unmarried men, a chance at these women? (Disclosure for first time visitors: I’ve been widowed since the 10th night of 2007.) You could do us a favor by hooking us up.

2. The better question. What part of “love, honor and cherish” your wife are you failing to understand?

Tiger, Elin Divorce

First and foremost, I don’t root for failure (well, unless it’s That State Up North against my Buckeyes or something else to that effect). Whenever I hear of a couple “going through” a divorce, my hope and prayer is that something will trigger both parties to rethink the proceedings and make an effort to reconcile. If the reconciliation hope and prayer aren’t answered, I simply pray for a peaceful end.

In this situation with Tiger Woods and Elin Nordegren — where Tiger cheated again and again — there really was no other choice in the matter.

I don’t follow golf — but the media, perhaps rightfully so, have noticed Tiger’s not been on his A game this year on the pro golf circuit. Hate to say it — but it’s not a surprise. Now that Tiger and Elin are parting company, will he rebound or slip into irrelevance? Time will tell.

As for Elin, alimony payments have not been disclosed. Whatever Tiger will be paying to Elin in alimony, I sincerely hope she uses the money to benefit great projects. Something Tiger should’ve done all along.

Widowhood Sux

Just found this today: http://widowhoodsux.wordpress.com/

Without going into specifics, some of which are obvious, I totally agree with the sentiment. I’ve already sent the blog’s editor three statements and I’m sure I’ll come up with more.

For those of you engaged or in a marriage, always know widowhood is a nightmare I wish on no one. Divorce, of course, is an altogether different nightmare I wish on no one. Marriage, unfortunately, has to end in one of these ways.

Of course, in my case, I wish Cindy and I celebrated births of children and grandchildren before we took our marriage to a discussion of “’til death do us part”. More to the point of this moment, I wish we were just coming off of a celebration of a fifth wedding anniversary.

This is why “treasure your loved ones” was added to my sign-off phrase on RockTrax when I returned to the air in February of ’07 after Cindy’s untimely passing.

Be Careful With Obituaries

When I rolled out of bed this morning, one of my internet friends messaged me and asked if I’d heard anything about the passing of Ronnie James Dio, a well-known heavy metal artist. I scanned a few websites and responded I couldn’t find anything official. I’d later learn there were false reports of his passing all over the internet.

Unfortunately, the false would eventually become true. During the 3:00 p.m. hour of Rock 104 RockTrax, I found this message on RonnieJamesDio.com — which I would relay to the radio audience…

“Today my heart is broken, Ronnie passed away at 7:45am 16th May. Many, many friends and family were able to say their private good-byes before he peacefully passed away. Ronnie knew how much he was loved by all. We so appreciate the love and support that you have all given us. Please give us a few days of privacy to deal with this terrible loss. Please know he loved you all and his music will live on forever.”

– Wendy Dio

…for the record, I awoke before 7:30 a.m. In a factual sense, news of his death was closer to rumor than truth at the time.

While I’m saddened to learn of Dio’s passing, there’s a lesson for all of us in this tragedy. We have to be careful when reporting on someone’s death — whether it’s a famous rock star, government leader or the barber down the street. Stating someone’s dead before the actual passing needlessly adds to the heartache the family and friends go through.

As I noted to a member of a local rock band today, it’s better that we’re last on the air with a story like this, and have all the facts correct in the process, than to be first on the story and air a lot of misinformation.

Reverting To “The Civilian Apprentice”

It was recently reported that The Apprentice will go back to its original version with a number of job applicants competing to win a job within Donald Trump’s organization.

As you’re probably aware, this and the previous two seasons have been all-celebrity versions. While lots of money has been raised for great causes and there have been some great moments (seeing Omarosa getting the boot again, Melissa Rivers’ post-elimination outbursts, etc.), I have a feeling the taping of last night’s episode gave us “the real reason” why The Celebrity Apprentice will be Celebrity no more.

Without spoiling, I’ll note…

\ One celebrity had to back out of the competition due to a family matter.

\ Another, I sense, is teetering on the brink of bailing out due to a daughter’s medical condition. At least I can go into specifics since it was the focus of a lot of promos. Bret Michaels was in touch with his daughter over the possibility she’s a diabetic. Michaels, a diabetic himself, was naturally devastated and freaking out.

\ Another had a previously scheduled appointment at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue (The White House, for those of you in Alpha, Ohio).

\ Another was apparently ill.

…while they’re all excused absences, I could see Trump’s frustration in the boardroom. Sure, these sort of things happened in pre-celebrity versions (away observing religious holidays, death in the family, etc.) The thing is they happened few and far between.