Police chief, attorney general, sheriff, GAMBA

It's 2:13pm on a Thursday afternoon and my day's essentially over, at least in terms of radio. It was a show full of law enforcement. Griffith chief Greg Mance talked about why he went to Lake County prosecutor Bernie Carter with possible charges against Griffith and Hammond players from the big on-court melee in February. This is big. A change of policy, police tactics, community acceptance (or non-acceptance). We haven't heard the end of this one. How do you stop the violence in high school sports? Not easy.

As I pressed Mance for why this occurrence, why not violence in other sports? He said I was being absurd, pointing out that the Griffith-Hammond video went viral nationwide.

"So is that the standard? If it goes viral nationwide then you'll press charges."

"I didn't say that."

Mance probably didn't like that exchange all too much but as I said afterwards, Greg knows how to put on his big-boy pants. Oh well.   

Then it was another Greg, attorney general Greg Zoeller, who has been put on a big trade commission in DC. I chided this Greg, who is regularly suing and/or critiquing our federal government, as a potential Washington insider. He probably didn't like that too much but oh well. 

Then sheriff John Buncich came in. He weighed in on the Griffith thing, first praising chief Mance. Then the sheriff said that it was his opinion that high school athletics stuff should be handled by the schools and coaches and parents, not law enforcement. You see, everyone's got an opinion on this one. Maybe it is time to start charging out-of-line high school athletes with criminal charges. Maybe it's not. You tell me. 

Oh, and I chided the sheriff about having catchers mitts for hands plus sausage fingers. And for driving five miles an hour below the speed limit. He laughed but not so sure he liked my jocularity. Oh well. 

Also, Will Glaros brought in Benny Gamba, whose restaurant in Merrillville sets the bar for fine dining around here. Benny said a lot about working hard, coming to the country not speaking a lick of English, and, also. - "I don't follow trends. Just keep it simple."

You get the picture. It's another day of radio in the books. After the show, I worked with our new marketing department in the form of Kelly Lauer and Alex Kazmierczak, recent Purdue Cal graduates. We are coming up with packages for businesses to sponsor the new studio that should be ready in a couple of months. It's weird, this marketing thing. As I say on the air a lot, we have had, for last 11 years, PMS.

That's the Passive Marketing System. For 11 years we've pretty much just waited for people to call us to advertise. We're finally ready to be pro-active about it. And it's not just radio. It's the traditional terrestrial radio with the audio and video streams, podcasts, website banners, Facebook, twitter and other social media. You could wipe your kitchen table three times over with all of the digital malarky we have to offer. I'll keep you posted how all of this goes. 

For now, we are starting from scratch in terms of forming a marketing department. Debbie Wargo, my sister Jen, the two Purdue Cal newbies, Ryan, Alexis - we're all putting in our two cents to create something from nothing. We'll see.