Kindling wood

It’s about time we remember who this blog is for.
 
First, it’s for the three or four of you who follow along as I try a bunch of different stuff, most of which doesn’t work. 
 
Secondly, it’s for communications or maybe business students 50 years from now at a small liberal arts college in the eastern part of the United States. They’re up late working on a group project. They come across my forgotten blog from 50 years ago. They wind up getting an “A” on the resulting paper that they write about outmoded methods of communication. In this case, it’s radio.

Oh, and during the researching, they smoke a bunch of weed the old fashioned way, rolled into a cylinder with a paper coating.  At midnight, they order a pizza, but everyone’s too paranoid to answer the knock of the delivery driver. They slip the money under the door and tell him to keep the change.
 
“But leave the pizza,” one of them shouts. 
 
This is quite a mission statement – to write a blog about My Radio Life for three or four people now and three or four people 50 years from now.  Let’s get on with it. 
 
… It’s the end of the Thanksgiving Day weekend. I went to several bars and talked with dozens of people. Alexis and I also saw a ton of family and watched nine episodes of “The Crown” on Netflix. We also watched “The Irishman,” a Scorcese movie about the mob, of course. 
 
In a few hours I’ll get up and do a morning radio and TV show. Ryan has already mapped it out. He’ll play some of the videos from over the weekend, including a highlight from Munster’s victory over Portage in boys basketball and Hammond mayor McDermott’s response to Sam Michel calling him a clown. 
 
Sam Michel works for me. He hosts the afternoon show and announces games. I did not know that he called McDermott a clown. Sounds interesting, though. Kids these days…
 
It won’t be a normal Monday. Typically, I do the show and go work out. Tomorrow, I’ll interview Indiana University announcer Don Fischer about IU’s backbreaking Bucket win over the weekend. Then Billy Baker and I will mess around for half an hour. Then I’ll interview the Sheriff. Then I’ll interview Dr. Mary Tilak. 
 
It’s a lot of interviewing for a Monday morning. After that, instead of working out, I’ll spend eight hours in a strategic planning session to map out the future of Purdue Northwest, where our WJOB studios are located. I agreed to do this because I love Purdue Northwest. It used to be called Purdue Calumet, but they changed the name. I forgot why. 
 
To prepare for tomorrow’s show, I read a strategic plan for downtown Hammond. It seems that a guy named Speck and a bunch of important people think that downtown Hammond is poised to rise from the ashes. I do not share their optimism, although I do hope that Mr. Speck and others can do what no one else has been able to do for 60 years. 
 
Here’s my hesitation about spending a bunch of money in downtown Hammond. 

1. In the late 1970s, my uncle, Duane Dedelow Sr., dumped a ton of money into a restaurant called “McGee’s” that was supposed to bring back downtown Hammond. It didn’t. My uncle lost a ton of money.
2. In the early 2000s, I established a trading center in downtown Hammond, aiming to “bring back downtown Hammond” as a mecca for financial transactions. My traders would walk out of the front of the building for a cup of coffee. They couldn’t find one. So I had to put in a coffee shop. We called it “Steel Toe Joe.” I left trading and coffee and, like my uncle, lost a ton of money investing in downtown Hammond.

 
Now there’s a commuter train poised to come through downtown Hammond. And, according to the mayor and a bunch of important people on the steering committee, this will be the kindling that sparks an economic development firestorm.
 
I hope it works. But as the three or four of you can sense, it would be a bit disingenuous of me to get behind such a plan, given my background. I’ll share my experiences and let people judge for themselves whether to support a big spend in downtown Hammond.
 
That should do it for tonight. See ya later.