Thank you, Dr. Clark

In the summer of 1996, I was a staff writer at The Vista at the University of Central Oklahoma.

I wrote an article about sidewalks. I quoted an official with the facilities management department. He didn't like that and he didn't like the headline (written by an editor). 

He fired off a letter to Dr. Terry Clark, the chair of the UCO Journalism Department. The official admonished me for taking him out of context (by quoting him). He also criticized the headline and my journalistic integrity.

At age 19, I was a little nervous, meeting with Dr. Clark. He asked me if what I wrote was accurate. I replied that it was. He didn't bat an eye and defended me from the criticism. I still have the critical letter and I still remember Dr. Clark defending accuracy.

Over the years, Dr. Clark challenged me, a student with poor study habits. He challenged me to defy conventional wisdom when necessary. He challenged me to work hard and "get the quote!"

He championed small, community newspapers like the one from which I started my career.  One of my most rewarding experiences was in Dr. Clark's Advanced News Editing. My assignment was to redesign a small town newspaper. The publisher was skeptical of my ideas but offered me a job.

After a class, he challenged me to follow through and finish my degree. Many years later, I would finally take his advice and graduate.

As time went on, I left newspapers for radio. Still lessons from Dr. Clark persist to this day.

My story is but a footnote in Dr. Clark's career. A longtime editor and publisher, he became a legend at UCO and around the state of Oklahoma. His monthly column  in The Oklahoma Publisher is a must read, critiquing newspapers across the state. He started the Oklahoma Journalism Hall of Fame, housed at UCO.

He never stopped questioning. He never stopped championing his students. 

On May 1st, Dr. Clark is retiring.  His impact can be felt throughout the state. Through writing a column for the Oklahoma Press Association, teaching at UCO or earlier at Oklahoma State University, Dr. Clark has made an indelible mark on Oklahoma journalism.

Thank you, Dr. Clark.

Some thoughts on KD's departure

1. I don't think Kevin Durant is a traitor. It's a sports team, people. He's free to make whatever decisions he likes. Even if he had grown up here, he has to make decisions for himself.

2. I understand why people won't root for him, anymore. I'm not a fan of the Warriors, so I won't be much of a KD fan on the court. I'm not burning my KD shirt, but I probably won't wear it for awhile.

3. Please don't be trashy and burn your shirt. Also, please don't harass your fellow Oklahomans at his restaurant. They're just trying to make a living.

4. At some point, the Thunder will be bad. It happens to every franchise. At that point, we will find out about OKC's big league status when it comes to support. At some point, ownership will want a new arena. We're not at that point now, but it will happen. #ThunderUp

Coming Home

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven - Ecclesiastes 3:1

If you had told me in early 2006, that I would live in Kansas City and later Indianapolis, work for CBS Radio and then get back into Christian radio, I would have been surprised. If you had told me that my wife, Jennifer, would run a college Spanish program in Kansas and then teach at a high academic school in Indiana (with a Big East basketball program), I would have been less surprised (She's really smart). 

That's what has transpired since the summer of 2006. We spent 6 1/2 years in the suburbs of Kansas City followed by two years here in a suburb of Indy.

But, now we're coming back home.

An opportunity arose with my employer to do my current job from Oklahoma City. We've always wanted to return to Oklahoma and this is an opportunity to do that and stay with K-LOVE and Air1 Radio.

So, as of May 2015, we're coming home.

Baseball's Blackout Blackhole

I tried to watch my Kansas City Royals play the Detroit Tigers Wednesday night.

That shouldn't be hard. I pay Comcast a lot of money for cable and I have ESPN. So, I can settle down in my chair and watch my team, right?

When the rain delay ended in Detroit, my feed of ESPN morphed into ESPNEWS.

What?

First, I tweeted at Comcast. I've gotten answers before. This time, no response. After two calls to my favorite cable provider, I got an answer. ESPN had blacked out the game.

So, I called ESPN. After a lengthy wait (designed to make you hang up), I talked to a nice gentleman who told me in my area because the game was also on Fox Sports Detroit.

Living in a north Indianapolis suburb, I know that I’m in a blackout area of the Chicago Cubs (178 miles away), Chicago White Sox (178 miles away) and Cincinnati Reds (125 miles away), but the Tigers (266 miles away) revelation is new. If I lived in Fort Wayne (104 miles to the northeast), I would understand, but I don’t.

If you look at mlb.com’s site, it doesn’t show the Tigers as blacking out my area. I called MLB and they told me that they couldn’t tell me what my blackout area was for cable TV and could only help me with mlb.tv.

I even called the Detroit Tigers, and I left a message with the director of broadcasting.

My TV said the game should be on.

The Indianapolis Star said the game should be on.

But, no game and no answers.

My quick thoughts

1.  Major League Baseball’s blackout rules are ridiculous. Twenty years from now, a fan my age will stop trying to watch baseball and do something else.
2. Today’s broadcast companies don’t really want you to call. They want you to give up in situations like this. When it comes to Comcast, the Federal Communications Commission has enabled a monopoly when it comes to cable service. I have one choice where I live – Comcast.
3.  If the Tigers decided to black out my area, that’s another reason I don’t like the Tigers. Go Royals!

Throwback Thursday: Championships

For Throwback Thursday, let's flash back to 1995 when Rich Tortorelli and I covered Putnam City North for The Bethany Tribune in the Oklahoma Class 6A State Football Championship (They lost to Midwest City, the last west side winner before the Jenks/Tulsa Union dynasty). We're pictured with John Helsley of The Oklahoman in that pic. Below is a pic from last week's Indiana Class 4A State Baseball Championship where I covered Noblesville for The Times of Noblesville.

After All That . . .

After a playoffs that featured early upsets, the Pacers' collapse, Oklahoma City's weird series (plural) and more weirdness (for lack of a better word), it comes down to the same two teams as last year -- Miami and San Antonio.
I'm the biggest Spurs fan now that my Thunder are out, but I'm really bummed. The Thunder's refusal to move the ball and insistence to play the 1-on-1 game are the reasons OKC is staying home.
The window is closing for my Thunder. The team has to get one -- soon.
Go Spurs Go, please don't let the Heat continue this dynasty. The LeBron app commercials will only get worse.

What's in a headline?

A day after a headline in The Oklahoman trumpeted Kevin Durant as "Mr. Unreliable," the newspaper's sports editor has apologized for the headline, calling the phrase "overstated and unduly harsh" despite the Oklahoma City power forward's struggles in the NBA playoffs.
Mike Sherman thinks his copy editors "missed the mark" with the headline. I think the headline controversy is a bit overblown.
First, realize that the writers the rarely write or approve the headlines to their stories. I don't write them as a free-lance writer for The Noblesville (Ind.) Times. Being the opinionated guy that I am, I have given some unsolicited input. But, I'm not the editor. The only instances in which I wrote my own headlines were when I doubled as the sports editor and writer in college and at The Bethany (Okla.) Tribune. So, any complaints to Berry Tramel (the writer of the story) are misguided. Tramel served as Sports Editor for a time at The Oklahoman after I left (I was a part-time sports writer there from 1996-2000), but I doubt he makes the headline decisions as a columnist.
The headline itself was a bit over the top and probably written with some emotion after the Oklahoma City Thunder dropped Game 5 of their West Conference Playoff Series with the Memphis Grizzlies. Durant is struggling against the Grizziles' Tony Allen. Remember, sports writers and other sports media are fans at heart. Especially in the case of the Thunder, the frustration with Durant's play and the Thunder being one game away from elimination, it might have seeped in the decision-making process.
Tramel used the phrase 'unreliable' in the sixth paragraph after describing Durant's poor foul-shooting in the series. The copy editor probably picked up on that.

Some (including Sherman) think the headline gave readers the impression that Durant is unreliable as a human being and that it attacked his character. That notion seems silly to me. Some can't make the distinction, but praise or criticism of player in competition has no bearing on how they are as a person.
Durant had the best response to the controversy.
"It’s all good. I don’t really care. Coming from my paper back at home, that’s what they’re supposed to write," Durant said Thursday. "I didn’t come through for the team. So they got to write that type of stuff."
I doubt Durant enjoyed the headline, but he's probably more concerned with his play -- with good reason.
If Durant leaves for a bigger market when he becomes a free agent in 2016, this type of headline is tame compared to what he'll encounter in media markets like New York.
For what it's worth, Royce Young of DailyThunder.com wrote a great piece on Durant's struggles. It's a must-read, besides the 'edgy,' (read: lame) use of one profane word.