I learned a lesson from Pat Kain

I basically responded to the post saying what I needed to say and “jerks like Pat Kain…” showed up somewhere in the middle. Whatever the post referred to must have angered me…so I spoke…didn’t hold back…there it was in black and white. I posted it and forgot about it. That is until about a week later.

One evening I innocently signed on to my screen name and found about 3 or 4 emails which basically told me where I could go…and how wonderful Pat Kain was. Well this had to be some mistake because I had no clue what they were talking about. Just then about a dozen instant messages popped up calling me names of all varieties and no one would give me the courtesy of telling me what was going on. When one of those IMers admitted that they were doing it cause they were bored, she explained that Pat Kain’s show on WLAN had just begun and that he was telling his listeners to bombard me with angry emails because I had called him a jerk on some message board. Oops.

At first I was angry. However, I later realized that I probably would have reacted in the same manner on my show if someone had written that about me – intentionally or not. (Of course, my show doesn’t attract the number of listeners Kain’s did.) I never did anything about it…it was probably best to leave it alone. Although I have learned my lesson and I hope Mr. Kain forgave me. May he rest in peace.

Bill Brant and I had one thing in common

I never met Bill Brant in person either. In fact, I doubt that I ever had the opportunity to listen to or watch him. May he, too, rest in peace.

The picture of Mr. Brandt shown here (courtesy of 1320WJAS.com) is in the old Crane Ave. studios. (Yes, that studio was the new home of 13Q in the mid-1970s.) It was also the first radio studio I ever had the pleasure of touring as a 15-year-old in 1992 and also where my 1997 Renda Broadcasting internship began. That was long after Brandt had moved out of radio. In fact, I believe Jack Wheeler held the morning post at the time.

Renda still owns that building by the way. It’s currently up for lease too.

No wonder I was confused…

A few weeks ago when a homeless person was rescued from a flooded tunnel underneath the Convention Center some reports referred to this person as a man; others said a woman. Well it turns out none of the reports were really wrong as the victim was a transgender. I’ve only read a little bit of an article in City Paper about the reports and how it really had nothing to do with the story. (FWIW – The story credits Trib writerJeremy Boren as the only person who made no mention of the transgender issue.)

Gee, when I was in school we were given assignments to find statements which had nothing to do with the paragraph.

“Bob was playing outside in the snow. He made a snowman and had a snowball fight with his friends. After a while, Bob got cold and went inside to warm up. Bob’s favorite food is spaghetti. After Bob warmed up, he went back outside for more fun in the snow.”

We all know that while it may be important to know what Bob’s favorite food is, it isn’t relevant to the paragraph. Now let’s look at this in a modern light.

“Bob was playing outside in the snow. He made a snowman and had a snowball fight with his friends. After a while, Bob got cold and went instide to warm up. Bob likes men. After Bob warmed up, he went back outside for more fun in the snow.”

This is just for the reporters out there. Would you please tell me what part of this paragraph your viewers WON’T care about? Take your time.

Ok, the point is this. The victim was rescued from the flooded out tunnel. Great! It makes little difference to me what that person’s interests, desires, persuasion, etc. was/is. As long as they are ok, that’s all that matters. Focus on the main point. Avoid the sensationalism – sweeps or no sweeps. By the way, if telling us about the victim’s transgender decision is your way of justifying not having your facts straight over him/her being male or female, why didn’t you just make the subtle correction?  

May the sensationalism and irrelevant sidebars in TV news rest in peace.

I can’t say that I ever met Pat Kain in person…but I sure did learn a lesson from him. When you get right down to it, I was the victim of an unintentional set-up. Let me explain.

Back in the late ’90s/early ’00s, I had responded to a message board post on the state of radio. (I’m sorry I don’t remember where, when or what exactly it referred to.) The message that was posted spoke negatively about Pat Kain in the sense that someone didn’t appreciate the kind of stuff he did on the air. It stopped short of calling him names, but being the typed word rather than spoken, I couldn’t feel the actual emotion. Can you tell where this is going?