by Kevin Burton The NFL has just invited me, and you, to not watch football on TV. You want to be careful doing a thing like that. It would appear that I can live without it. This is a working hypothesis. Forgive me for not having it all thought out and laid …
Category Archives: media
“Here Comes Foster!” There Goes Al Michaels
by Kevin Burton I love me some Al Michaels. Our sportscaster-sports consumer relationship goes back more than 50 years. How much do I love Al Michaels? Well, I watched the entire unwatchable Raiders-Chargers game Thursday because he was calling it. I didn’t even have any fantasy players involved. And I’ve been watching …
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Closing Credits For TV Icon Norman Lear
by Kevin Burton The television shows produced by Norman Lear were a cultural backbone for 1970s America. In this case, the backbone was connected to the funny bone. When I read that Lear died Tuesday at 101, my mind went immediately to that instrumental piano-driven song that played over the closing credits for …
All The World Is Sick Of Bad News
by Kevin Burton People worldwide are unplugging from the news, according to a Reuters Institute study. We just don’t want to hear it. I grew up with the Dayton Daily News on the doorstep every morning and the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite a regular part of the early evening. Local …
The Story Behind “Sultans Of Swing”
by Kevin Burton It turns out there really was a band called Sultans Of Swing that inspired the great 1978 Dire Straits hit. “Sultans Of Swing” is one of those tunes that stops you in your tracks. It just exudes cool. We tell its story, evoking a musical proverb from “Take It …
The DJs Made Old-Time Radio Come Alive
by Kevin Burton Music fans who go back as far as the 80s and especially before, badly miss the old days of radio. You had music historians, actual musicians and others who loved music, choosing what records hit the airwaves. It was a wacky, fun time for listeners across musical genres. It was …
“Backward And Forward” And My Memories
by Kevin Burton I guess there’s a reason why melody and memory aren’t far apart in the dictionary. They go together like peas and porridge. And, for those who think there is something pejorative in the term “one-hit wonder,” well what about all those no-hit nobodies? We’re all doing our best then, …
We Watched Our Culture On Our Radios
by Kevin Burton The love we all had for radio and the vibrant world it brought to us, made it well worth risking the wrath of parents. All of us have stories of hiding that transistor radio under our pillows, trying to be quiet so our parents wouldn’t know we were still awake. …
Racist Oklahoma Officials Caught On Tape
by Corky Siemaszko NBC News (McCurtain County is in the Southeast corner of Oklahoma, bordering Texas and Arkansas.) The governor of Oklahoma has called for the resignations of the sheriff and other top officials in a rural county after they were recorded talking about “beating, killing and burying” a father/son team of local …
OKC Bombing “Surreal” 28 Years Later
by Kevin Burton A bomb blast that killed 168 people in Oklahoma City 28 years ago today, reverberates still. My wife Jeannette worked at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal building for the department of Housing and Urban Development for 5½ years from 1983 to 1989. Six years after she relocated to Wichita, that …
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