wcpn renames local "regional roundup" morning news slot "benign hour"

Greetings from an eastbound passenger train, passing the Collinwood yards this early morning. "Hope springs eternal."

Only three days into the new year and wcpn is up to the same old tricks that have allowed them to take the public out of public radio on a daily basis. First a two odd minute teaser and hype for a newbie's online site with the moniker "advancenortheastohio.org". Sounds like a cheerleader's sideline chant.

"On Wisconsin," "Advance northeast Ohio" or some other form of drollery.
Rah, rah, arh!

A visit to this site seems to feature more of the usual wcpn sanctioned regular suspects, a link for Cleveland Plus, a "brain gain" section , and an overall cheery, upbeat, naive, head-in-the-sand view of the current sad state of affairs that is contemporary Cleveland, Ohio and the surrounding region that it represents.

My favorite little bitty sidebar section on this site is one entitled "transplanted."

I know, begs for jokes about the medical fiscal machinery located here, but trust me, this is comedy at its best when it comes to living in this region. The hallucinatory writing began with a visit to San Francisco and the nerve of the writer to suggest that San Francisco's Mission District reminded him of "Tremont."

Now having spent considerable months in the City of San Francisco for the past forty years, one could never confuse a vibrant dense multi-racial neighborhood such as San Francisco's Mission District with Cleveland's Tremont neighborhood.

No way on this Earth do they share much common ground.

The Mission has density in its population mix, aided by two Bay Area Rapid Transit [BART] stops, which serve a bustling Hispanic, Caucasian, and Asian American population. The diverse merchants on Mission and Valencia Streets, the Mission's retail business streets, are comprised of bookstores, groceries, antique stores, and all the service businesses that comprise a neighborhood: banks, dry cleaners, coin laundries, etc .

(Tremont does not even have a grocery store!)

Restaurants of all stripes and forms fill Mission and Valencia Streets and the side streets that connect them. The legendary burritos rolled in the areas many Mexican restaurants have great girth and authentic fresh flavors. A number of personal friends, I know you are surprised I have many, reside either in the upper Mission or the adjoining Portrero Hill neighborhood, and I have walked this neighborhood for hours during the daytime, preferring it to the evening and its nighttime club scene, I don't drink, and visible Hispanic gangs.

The mere inclusion of such unchecked urban comparison between Cleveland's Tremont neighborhood and San Francisco's Mission district only gives this Clevelander's naive vision street cred, only if he fesses up to imbibing in some Bay area LSD, and wandering about mumbling far out man, Cleveland looks just like this here place, duh....

perhaps while under the influence of psychedelics?

Tripe soup, make that menudo, once again served daily by the make believe public radio station with the call letters wcpn. A virtual link to yet another cheer leading agency for the local lost cause.

Let's send a reminder to this advancenortheastohio bunch that politics here are corrupt in an over the top fashion, and that you can throw all the money, just like manure, at pet political projects that are recipients of corporate welfare, University Circle and Downtown Cleveland to be exact, and like putting a dress on a pig, doesn't make it less of a pig, just one that has had a pile of money tossed at it!

As for the weekly regional roundup radio program that aired this morning from nine to ten a.m. the radio gang that is wcpn should consider changing the name of this weak hitting hour to "the benign hour," given the flavor of news served to date.

The local daily fish wrap, da p.d., was of course in the wcpn house. Two other players present as well.

One half hour was spent in discussion of the variety of possibilities and challenges presented to voters due to the mishandling of voting machinery. Not much here was concluded save the obvious need to fix what is broken. Murder and crime and its relationship with regards to public safety and Cleveland Police layoffs, was handled well by da p.d.'s Joe Frolic, and even better by the retired policeman who called in wisely stating the obvious: no leadership in politics, no jobs or way out for low income residents, and that fewer police on the streets equals more crime.

A little blast at Dennis Kucinich and his UFO tales, and we are out of here on wcpn, with not much said for the hour's effort at news from this region. The flavor conjured in this less than stimulating hour of gas was truculent and impacted. Just like that pseudo public radio station wcpn.

A benign hour it was...

Keep thinking about that eastbound train, and what exists on the other end of the line?

New horizons?

Make no mistake of it, the majority of the domestic books we sell online are to zip codes on either coast. Very few to the heartland of this country. Seems to be a lesson here?

Perhaps this dense man will figure the problem out someday soon?

Welcome to the Iowa Caucasus. First stones tossed this evening! Good luck to anyone out there naive enough to still believe in the current state of politics in America, or sanity claus for that matter. Better you go to the race track and look into betting on the favorite horse running.

More times than not that nag has the most money on him, and even when he doesn't win doesn't finish out of the money either. Horses run just like politicians. In the money! Today's Iowa candidates attract and spend money in a major fashion, and believe me when they take money from a contributor they owe a favor. Political life in the good old USA goes on unchecked and more resembles your high school student elections, than any real attempt to affect actual social change it in a fashion that does not come with favors attached to and owed to the players who contribute to campaigns.

I wonder how the majority of these politicians sleep at night?

Book Selling Time!

What better fashion to produce a great evenings sleep these frigid Cleveland winter's nights than curling up with a copy of THE DICTIONARY OF CLEVELAND BIOGRAPHY? - 545 pages comprising a veritable who's who of Cleveland history from the cities inception to the book's publication in 1996.

Do not look for exciting reading here, though pound-for-pound it will provide more excitement and usable content than the regular cast of people that peddle the notion of news on wcpn radio today. If ever a local institution needed a house cleaning and new face this impacted bunch does. Sad fact is the perceived notion of the word "public" mentioned in the same sentence with the call letters wcpn.

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