Paul's World

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Crutcher) — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 01:47:00 +0000

The Absolute Truth

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Crutcher) — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 02:11:00 +0000

Odeo's Law

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Crutcher) — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 19:43:00 +0000

Several years ago I pulled out some of my precious prized ancient cassette tape air-checks from radio broadcasting I have done at various stations throughout my 25 year career, "town to town up and down the dial". At that time, Odeo.com was a fantastic resource for uploading and storing audio files. I painstakingly loaded hour after hour of music and conversation with the self assurance that I was finally going "digital" with my old tapes and none too soon.

"They're on the internet now...I don't have to worry about keeping all these tapes around anymore".

Mistake.

Now, in August of 2011, Odeo is no more. Nope. They sold the site to someone who is now selling something else entirely and I guess they flushed all the other content down the proverbial internet drain. This is an important lesson for all of us. No matter how permanent or buzz-worthy a site might be today, there are NO guarantees they will be here tomorrow. Lucky for me I saved the best ones in the vault. Still, I would love to have them all back again.

Edgar Allan Bro

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Crutcher) — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 18:22:00 +0000

Sound Session - The Lander Radio Podcast

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Crutcher) — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 01:15:00 +0000

For the past six months or so I have had an idea simmering on the back burner of my mind to produce a series of musically based podcasts. The idea really boils down to bringing together an intimate panel of music-heads, music fans, people who just love to live, eat, sleep, converse, and immerse themselves in all kinds of musical genres. I knew I wanted to record these in our posh new XLR studios in the lower level of the Lander Learning Center. So, I did some brainstorming and put together a short list of topics and guests and we are now rolling with production.

The first show is based on the "Best of 2o10 (so far) and features three excellent musical panelists including Dr. Branimer "Branko" Reiger, Dr. Lee Vartanian, and Mandy McCaslan, all colleagues of mine at Lander U. I was SO pleased with the song choices each of them brought to the table and the discussions were well done. Check them out on I-tunes by searching for Sound Session Lander Radio or you can download (or just listen) to both parts of our first show here.

Part 1

Part 2

The worst invention ever?

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Crutcher) — Wed, 19 May 2010 02:37:00 +0000

Handerpants. Underpants for your hands! Would you call that a tighty righty?

Tuesday

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Crutcher) — Tue, 04 May 2010 19:39:00 +0000

Soggy Bloggin' Boys Memphis Road Trip - Blues and BBQ Baby - Details coming soon!

Listening skills are not really Miriam's strong point

I can not throw stones here. Just saying.

My kind of headline!

It's nice to be back in the bounds of bloggersville. Have a fabulous day!

A little Bill Withers for your Saturday Night

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Crutcher) — Sun, 02 May 2010 01:19:00 +0000

A great cover version by Ben Harper from the Live From Abbey Road series.

I'm Back!

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Crutcher) — Sat, 01 May 2010 20:34:00 +0000

Time to take down this year's decorations

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Crutcher) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 05:59:00 +0000

1610AM - XLR - Lander Radio

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Crutcher) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 19:07:00 +0000

It is funny how things come full circle. I began this little blog six years ago as a tribute to the radio station I worked for beginning when I was sixteen in central Illinois. For the first two years, the blog was known as Central Illinois Radio Memories and we heard back from many of my former colleagues from the 50,000 watt WLBH AM & FM for which I was very thankful.

As time marched on, we ran out of old stories to tell and the blog morphed into Paul's World of Funky Stuff where I found a place to post musical memories, interesting and funny photographs and share some stories from my life. We also hosted a caption contest every week for a solid year for which I mailed out prizes to our winners all over the country.

I have been recently named the Broadcast and Emerging Media Specialist here at Lander University which includes the responsibilities as General Manager of our new campus radio station - 1610AM XLR Lander Radio. I am hosting "The Breakfast Club with Paul Crutcher" weekday mornings from 7am to 10:30am. You can listen along with us by going to

1610 AM - XLR - Lander Radio

The new position allows me once again to do the thing that I really enjoy more than almost anything else in this world. I have been able to share my knowledge and experience with our students who are now busy preparing their own programs to air on our station. College radio is a great memory to me from my days at Lake Land College in Mattoon, Illinois and now I get to see students progress and mature as they work towards their dream. I don't know how things could be much better. Thank you for listening. Our plan is to continue to use platforms such as blogging, facebook, and Twitter to keep our listeners aware of what is going on around the new station and our campus here in South Carolina. If you have comments or questions please send them to landerradio@lander.edu

The picture below shows Director of Campus Radio, Dr. Robert Stevenson along with your funky host in our new studio located high atop the Josephine Abney Cultural Center Auditorium. Dr. Stevenson is also host of the brand new Dr. Rob's Retro Radio Party heard weekday mornings at 10:30am on XLR - Lander Radio. I owe him much gratitude for paving the way for a radio station at Lander University!

Why men shouldn't take messages

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Crutcher) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 13:19:00 +0000

I love this one too. Great stuff!

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Crutcher) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 00:37:00 +0000

Hungry? Try a Pop-Tard.

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Crutcher) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 13:13:00 +0000

Town to Town Up and Down the Dial

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Crutcher) — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 06:25:00 +0000

It has been great hearing back from those who served their time at the Mattoon Broadcasting company. Stereo 97 and AM 1170. It's funny how seeing 96.9 on a digital radio tuner will make me stop and think about days gone by. I loved being on the radio. It wasn't so much an ego thing as it was I just enjoyed the whole experience.

Of course, we all know that being on WLBH wasn't exactly radio reality. Later in my radio career, I would painstakingly try to explain the way the station was run and the strong armed family politics that were enforced, and it would be so laughable that people wouldn't believe it really happened. Hindsight is always 20/20, but I wish I could go back and do a few things over. After I left WLBH, I went through a whirlwind of radio jobs up and down the dial, some good, and some really not so good. Here's a brief chronological synopsis of my radio career in a nutshell for any who care or who need a good laugh....

WLBH FM 96.9FM - 1170AM - I won't say much, since that's the whole reason we're here in the first place.

WLKL 89.9FM - This was while I was still working at WLBH. We could do another website with loads of material just about the people I met at Lakeland College. This was a great atmosphere for people who knew absolutely nothing about being on the radio and proved it everyday. HA! This was post Ken Beno, under Station manager Mike Bradd. Poor Mike had a rough crew to try and bleed talent from.... My best memories of Lakeland, other than any encounters with college girls in the production booth were the people.

_____________________________________________________

This was a great atmosphere for people who knewabsolutely nothing about being on the radio and proved it everyday.

______________________________________________________

Wow, what a crew we had there. My years at "90 FM WLKL, The Voice of Lake Land College" featured the likes of Rich Thompson of whom I co-hosted the morning show with twice a week, Brian Goad, Leah Hamilton, April Burry, Todd "the Tater" Fultz, John Schmidt, Michelle Mosely, Phil and Mark (two older burned out hippie dudes), and others I just can't remember. The library basement studio area was such a cool place to hang out and be young and naive. I loved having the freedom to be creative and experiment on the air. I played my first ever CD on the air at Lakeland. It was a great time.

WEIC 92.1FM 1270AM - I was hired by a guy named Ed to be the News Director and to co-host the morning show on AM with Steve Stone. No, not the Cubs announcer Steve Stone, but the long red haired, outlaw type guy..Steve Stone. I don't have too much to say here other than I liked Steve and enjoyed playing golf with him after the show was over. We had a crappy satellite feed that they wanted me to use cuts from in my morning news. I would tape news for the rest of the day on AM and FM. This was the most garbled, static filled satellite feed you have ever heard in your life, and I finally took a stand and told them I wasn't using it because it sounded horrible. It was embarrassing. A few days later, after not playing the stupid garbled stuff, I got fired. Ed told me that it was because I wasn't using the feed that they were paying for. I thought that was a crock of $%(#(*. This was my first and last time to be fired from a radio station.

WSAK 106.9 - With great promises, I took the job with Stereo Country 106 in rural Sullivan, Il. Jay, the owner/morning man was this little scrawny looking guy who constantly boasted about how great a DJ he was in Detroit...blah..blah..blah. Tom Ohlmstead was also there and did mornings with Jay. I ran the station throughout the day, did news, production and even wrote comedy sketches for them to do on the morning show. WSAK was a paradox walking. They had great equipment since they were owned by media giant Viacom who would use them as a test facility, yet the station was completely nasty. They had a dog named "country" who roamed the studio and cats that also were on the loose inside taking little cat dumps all over. So here I would sit at this great board staring at a computer that ran things (Wow!) and still allowed you to look at other things in these things called Windows, while at the same time I was trying not to puke from the cat-litter box smell of the place. It was amazing. I wasn't too long before I realized that this was going nowhere. I eventually left the cornfields of Sullivan in search of bigger things....

One more thing about 106.9. This would be the first time experience of a pattern that would soon follow and is a staple in small town radio. I was coerced into the sales department. Jay sent me home a bunch of books and a video tape series on how to sell. "It's where all the money is", I was told. Nonsense. You have to have a good product to sell, before you can sell it. You have to believe in what you are selling, and there just wasn't much to offer. Then you are bombarded with guilt and pressure on why you aren't selling....

"Things got bad, and things got worse, I guess you know the tune, O Lord, stuck in Lodi again." - John Fogerty

101.3 WMCI - I was part of a great team working for the Cromwell Group to help start up this station in the second story studios in uptown Mattoon. I was News Director. The cast here included Chip Douglas in the mornings, Jeff Owens with Sports, Darren Foley, Bub McCullough, and Mark, the slightly wormy station manager. I had a great time working with Jeff and Bub and the gang, but again, was pressured into selling the station, which was not my forte'. J.O. was the sales king. He set a sales record for bringing in the most consecutive orders in a row....it was impressive. I still have air checks from WMCI, including the report of my son Dylan's birth as announced by Jeff on an October morning show...

104.3 WCBH - Enough rock and roll for two states, this was a pretty cool station and probably was collectively, the most fun I had working for a radio station, even though my personal life at that time was a trainwreck. I was living in Terre Haute, IN at the time and secured a weekend position at this classic rock station based in Casey, IL. The station manager was was an old jock who used to work at one of the powerhouse AM stations in Cleveland, OH. He had great stories and was a funny, animated guy. The program director when I arrived was a guy who went by the on-air name of "the Mighty Quinn". This guy was a moody ticking time bomb, until he left us shortly after I got there.

This is the truth. My first regular shift at 104.3 was working from 6pm on Saturday until 6am on Sunday morning. For two weeks straight, I worked a full 24-hour shift from Saturday morning, until Sunday morning. At midnight, we would play the "Saturday Night Six-Pack, which would feature 6 CD's played back to back. I would introduce them individually, and then sleep on the couch in the lobby with an alarm clock sitting on my chest to wake me up before the CD ended. Only once did I wake up with "dead air"! I worked weekends until the mid-day position opened up, and they offered my the position. One other thing about the weekends...I worked with a guy named Bob who drove down from CHICAGO for a once a week 6-hour air shift. He said that he hoped the experience would help him get a job in the Windy City. I couldn't get over how far a commute that was for one air shift.

After Chuck the PD left, Darren Foley took over that position. I had worked with Foley at Lake Land and WMCI and must say that he was a funny, creative morning man and had several of his song parodies picked up by the national radio humor resource people. Afternoon's featured Shawn Murphy, who was a slightly burned out ramblin' radio man. He had big pipes, and a good sense of humor but was known to talk a bit too much during his breaks. On the night shift, we had a guy named John Evans, who looked like a white Lionel Richie.

WCBH was a party station. We hosted party nights in Terre Haute at least a couple of times a month. I volunteered to sell WCBH because I believed in the product. We genuinely had a great time and I think it came through on the air. Most of the air-staff would come out to the events and it was a family atmosphere most of the time. I recall one night at a club in Terre Haute when Shawn Murphy was there and we were partying down and he brought a ventriloquist dummy into this place and was trying to pick up girls using the dummy. I maybe have never laughed so hard again in my life as I did that night watching him.

WCBH Lowest Moment - I was volunteered to answer the phones on the WTWO (Channel 2 in Terre Haute) Jerry Lewis Labor Day MDA telethon. I spent the whole day on camera, and instead of being quiet, I kept egging on the hosts and cracking jokes. They challenged the viewers to pledge a certain amount of money to see ME dance with a giant (man in a suit) Duck. Sure enough, the money came in and I had to dance around the studio floor with a duck. I still have nightmares.

WCBH Best Moment - WTWO hottie news anchor woman Lee Walters and I teamed up to cook in the Terre Haute Chili Cookoff to benifit Altrusa International. We came with a bunson burner looking grill. It wasn't even a grill, it was just a burner thingy. I had a pot and a stirring spoon and that was it. We used regular old hamburger and a few seasonings. To my surprise, the other teams arrived in these giant motor homes with these massive grills. One team used Filet' Mignon for their meat. There were 60 other teams some with displays of their "chili award trophies" neatly laid out on tables next to their giant fancy grills. To make a long story short, we won. We beat those other fancy teams with our little loser bunson burner grill and hamburger chili. Our secret ingredient...a half a bottle of Aunt Jemimah Maple Syrup. We split the prize money between us and I got to keep an engraved silver chili bowl for the victory. I have never entered another cooking contest and don't plan to, and so I will die undefeated.

After WCBH, I left the radio business for a season and my partying days were over for good.

Back where we started

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Crutcher) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 14:05:00 +0000

I started this blog five years ago as a tribute to the time I spent as a teenager working at a 50,000 watt FM radio station in central Illinois, WLBH AM & FM.

As many of you know, I have been scarce here lately because of the time constraints associated with production of the Samuel Lander Documentary which I have been working on since August of last year. I am nearing completion the production and our premiere date is slated for October 24th at 2pm in the Josephine Abney Cultural Center on the Lander University Campus in Greenwood, South Carolina.

At the same time, I have been working with Dr. Robert Stevenson, chair of the department of Mass Communications and Theatre at LU in an effort to establish a radio station on our campus. Our students are excited about this prospect and we are currently in the planning stages. We will most likely begin with a low power (Part 15) AM transmitter and a streaming element (possibly live365) as well. This will cover us on campus and through the web which seems to me to be a good combination.

This whole process has brought back a flood of memories about my days in college radio and prior to that on the air at WLBH. Because many of you have never read some of my stories from the old days, I am going to repost a few over the next few weeks. 'Twil be a return to our beginnings.

I don't usually endorse graffiti but this made me smile

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Crutcher) — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 03:39:00 +0000

They're Back!

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Crutcher) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 02:29:00 +0000

School is back in session officially starting tomorrow. It has been a lengthy summer off-season and the return of students to the Lander University campus has been highly anticipated. It's nice to see the campus come alive once again with many new faces. On behalf of all of us, welcome back. It's going to be an exciting year!

Just because you need to see it

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Crutcher) — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 01:20:00 +0000

SEE SEVEN STATES FROM

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Crutcher) — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 20:09:00 +0000

My Astronomy Paper (by popular demand)

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Crutcher) — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 00:00:00 +0000

“Struggling to understand the sky” said our textbook in reference to the early astronomers. Men like Plato, Aristotle, Ptolemy and Copernicus were working using primitive measures and speculative guesses to determine the order of the universe.

The Ptolemaic universe was a commonly accepted and taught theory that the central location of the universe was the earth and everything rotated around it in uniform circular motions. Ptolemy was so mainstream that the church had tied the belief of heaven and hell to the principal of a geocentric universe. Ptolemy utilized his superior knowledge of mathematics to promote his beliefs.

Copernicus studied the Ptolemaic universe during his early years of education and wrote an essay in 1514 discussing his idea that the sun and not the earth was the center of the universe. This heliocentric theory was released somewhat anonymously as Copernicus was being cautious of widely held church beliefs and he spent years refining the idea. The most important idea that eventually appeared in his published work, De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (The Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres) published in 1529 was the idea that placed the sun at the center of the universe. This provided a plausible explanation for the retrograde planetary motion without using Ptolemy’s large epicycles. While Copernicus’ discovery was groundbreaking, elegant, and simple, it was error ridden in its failure to predict the positioning of the planets any better than Ptolemy had. His loyalty to classical astronomy was his downfall siding with the commonly held theory of uniform circular motion.

Tycho Brahe, a proud man with a wax nose, discovered a new star in 1572 which led him to discover some important observations. To parallax or not to parallax; that was the question as Brahe observed the new star’s position. In the 1573 publication entitled De Stella Nova (The New Star) Brahe announced his new discovery. This led to an introduction to the Danish King Frederik II who offered the astronomer funds to build an observatory on the island of Hveen. Six towers allowed for a clear though non-telescoping view into the heavens and in a short period, Hveen became a hotbed of astronomical study. Large instruments allowed Brahe more accurate measurements than had ever been taken before as to planetary positioning. Tycho rejected the models of both Ptolemy and Copernicus devising his own system showing the earth as a stationary planet with the sun allowed to rotate around it. Brahe’s model was geocentric with the moon and sun circling the earth and the rest of the planets circling the sun. Ego, temper and vanity caused Brahe to fall out of favor with his contemporaries and he fled to Prague. Here he hired Johannes Kepler who would replace him and make discoveries that would change astronomical understanding forever. Brahe died in November of 1601.

Isaac Newton explained the “why” behind Johannes Kepler’s three empirical laws of planetary motion. Kepler, by studying Mars, found that the motion of the red planet was an ellipse instead of a circle. He also proved, upon further research, that planets “do not move at a uniform speed along their elliptical orbits” (Seeds pp 55). These two amazing discoveries changed the landscape of astronomy forever.

Isaac Newton realized that a force was necessary to pull the moon toward Earth’s center. A simple apple falling from a tree triggered much grander thoughts for this deep thinker. Newton’s third law says that gravitation must be universal (all masses attracting other masses) and that it must be mutual (one body attracting the second body must also attract the first). Newton’s discovery shed light on WHY Kepler’s laws work. Objects orbiting Earth are falling towards the center of the earth, two objects orbiting actually revolve around their center of mass and the importance of velocity were all things revealed by Newton’s discovery. This landmark discovery allows us to measure the tidal forces in the ocean as well as lunar effects caused by similar circumstances. Newton’s discovery helped mold astronomy into actual measurable science. As he had built on the work of Copernicus and Ptolemy, others have now built on his work.

Car wash anyone?

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Crutcher) — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 03:52:00 +0000

What did you expect from a surfer interview?

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Crutcher) — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 14:47:00 +0000

I can't begin to express how much I love this guy and his description of the wave action.

Funny Photos for your Weekend

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Crutcher) — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 13:07:00 +0000

Father of the year candidate.

This one always makes me smile.

Welcome home boys. Welcome home.

I think I'll pass on that one.

Weird Tape Effect

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Crutcher) — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 15:12:00 +0000