25 Years Ago Today, Sergeant Pepper's Was The Band To Play

I had been a radio disc jockey for nearly 10 years, when on a crisp Monday evening in Seattle, 1980, the news came through the radio speakers of my car. "John Lennon has been shot..."

From that moment on, my memory seems a kaleidoscopic blur. Went home, slept fitfully. Got up, got out of bed, dragged a comb across my head. Went to work still not wanting to believe--just hours ago, John Lennon had breathed his last.

Shot by a psycho killer with a hand gun.

The station program director came into the studio to make sure that I knew one thing was expected of me--play lots of Lennon and Beatles music. Don't talk much and play lots of it. Lots and lots of it. To celebrate Lennon's creative life; to drown out my own mournful wail at the death of my childhood idol; to honor the Working Class Hero.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. My idol, I'm not afraid to say it now, more precisely, my inspiration. Spiritual guide to a greater awareness and good humor. He once nick-named himself "Dr. Winston O'Boogie."

I'm sure he knew how he had affected his listeners and peers. We were all one. In the joy of the music, album after album, as the sounds grew in sophistication, moving from the socially active Sixties to the spiritually active Seventies. On a parallel with my own growing anti-war awareness.

He showed us how he did what he did. Seems to me, he encouraged us all to do what we could do for a more peaceful world filled with the best music possible. Just imagine.

You can still do that, can't you? Sphere: Related Content

My 59th

There must be something magical about having yet another birthday. On last Thursday, the 17th. I have always said after May 15, 2001, I'm in "overtime," after surviving six strokes. Whew.

Everyday since then the adventure of life has been more intense, more mystical and guided for certain by the One who sent us here. Over the last few weeks I have been of service to a friend who injured himself in an accident. He was transported to the hospital for emergency care.

His apartment...well, let's just say it needed a massively extreme cleanup job. My friend's obsessive compulsiveness became a chain-smoking, frozen dinner fed, descent around the sink drain of life. Now, he's in much better surroundings and is relating to people who really care.

And I've been on the crew helping to rehab his dwelling before he comes home from the recovery room this Monday. It will be a great homecoming and I'm looking forward to his reaction to his "new" place.

So while going to Von's to buy cleaning gear, my sweetheart noticed a sign at the Petco advertising a pet adoption day. My honey and I had been talking about getting a companion dog for her Pixie beagle. The adoption volunteers were hoping these doggies, in the system for more than two months, would be taken to a new home. Instead of being taken to be put down.

We strolled into the store and saw two circular wire cages. One held a lazy, brown farm dog. The other barely contained a leaping, energized chihuahua/jack russell mix: Alexander. He saw me walk up to him and jumped up the wire rungs, onto my shoulders and into my life.

The most unexpected birthday present possible. Alexander is the first dog that's been by my choice. Never thought it would happen so soon. So naturally.

But you know it's real when it feels so right it makes you cry--with happiness. For two friends, each with a new lease on life. For this birthday and the cards I've received from my brothers and sisters.

For this is a beautiful world, after all. Sphere: Related Content

Veterans' Day And Weekend 2005

Thirty-six years ago this month I was on the USS Constellation steaming off the coast of Vietnam. 1969, my Navy tour of duty was known as a "WestPac" or Western Pacific cruise.

Veterans' Day... today it's another day, yet unlike most any other day for me. My service enlistment seems so far away, but when I think of my two nephews going over to the mess in Iraq, I'm yanked back into today's headlines.

Certainly lots of good things have happened in the last 36 years.

But here we are, mired in another overseas war with lies as reasons for being there. What will it take for humans to stop believing in war as some sort of solution? As the song asks, "War, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing."

The Veterans Weekend event in Santa Barbara is scheduled tomorrow, Saturday, November 12th at 4:30 pm, Stearn's Wharf.

Join us for the two year anniversary of Arlington West Memorial on the beach at Stearn’s Wharf. We will be holding a candlelight vigil in commemoration of the Veterans' Day weekend.

Bring candles, lighters and clear plastic bottles to cover the candles and join the walking "River of Light" to honor the Iraqi civilians killed.

Invited guests are: US Representative Lois Capps, Iraq Veterans Against the War founding member Kelly Dougherty, the Reverend Babatundi Folayemi, former California Assembly Member Hannah Beth Jackson, Korean War Veteran Ron Dexter, Arlington West founder Stephen Sherrill and Gold Star family members have been invited.

For further information please contact Lane Anderson 564-2698.
Sphere: Related Content

The Last Golden Age Of Radio

I was born into a Christian religion, but I became a believer in Radio. It was simple. The broadcast faith rewarded those who did one thing: listen.

As I grew up a rabid radio listener in the Golden Age of Top 40, I developed fierce loyalties to my favorite southern California rock radio stations.

93 KHJ "Boss Radio" was the AM powerhouse in the mid-60's, later toppled by progressive album rock FM: KPPC, KLOS and KMET, "a little bit of heaven, 94.7" in the 70's.

These Los Angeles stations first played the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, the Doors and more--the soundtrack of our generation. Grooved into the memory of the good times. The air personalities were deserving of their names--The Real Don Steele, Shadoe Stevens, the Obscene Steven Clean, Richard Kimball, Mary "Tacos" Turner--the list goes on. One-of-a-kind antics and entertainers, everyone.

I have always loved the potential and magic of radio as a medium, though it's been more like an extra-small in these days of hard drive automation and "iPod on shuffle" programming.

My Vietnam-era Navy service also included Journalism training. Which also included radio broadcasting. I was allowed to become--a disc jockey! I can tell you learning to be an entertainer was what "Zak at the KNAC" in Long Beach was doing. Twenty years of polishing schticks and looking for laffs.

I have had the honor of being part of the air staffs of many California rock stations at the time: KNAC 105.5FM/Long Beach, KOME 98.5FM/San Jose, KZAM 1540AM/Seattle, KZOZ 102.5FM/Seattle, and KOTR 94.9FM/San Luis Obispo. My time in the business encompasses working with consultants, Jeff Pollack and John Sebastian, two of the biggest.

The first radio guru I had the pleasure to learn from was Mikel "Lefty" Herrington, program director of KOME in the 80's. His career spanned top 40 KLIV in San Jose as "Captain Mikey" to being known as "Mikel Hunter" and in the early 70's, programming KMET to the top of the L.A. radio ratings.

The former KOME staff are planning a reunion in January. (Ed note: it was the best time and great group wake for "Lefty.") We'll all "put another one on the shelf" in honor of Mikel, who passed into the Great General Manager's office in the sky a few years ago.

The second program director that mentored me is Paul Sullivan. We had worked together in Loong Beach and he called me again to be the on-air personality for KZAM 1540AM, and later in its incarnation as the all-jazz station, KJZZ. Great music and programming techniques from the master program manager.

Sometimes, months or years later, reflecting upon a particular employment experience the answer to "how did that happen?" or "how did he do that?" becomes much more clear. Learning in slow motion you might say.

Through it all, it's those exceptional broadcasters who inspired me to be my best. They were in the people business because they knew the music programming and dj personalities projected what humans want to hear--real human communication. Funny. Sad. Informative. Outrageous. Compelling. "Cavanaugh," your friend in the radio.

The notable radio human, Garrison Keillor, has confessed to being a radio listener in addition to being a radio performer. He's from Minnesota, so his confession is even more humbling, given the state's Lutheran manners.

Sure, much of today's music radio is bland, boring, repetitive. However the Internet makes it easy to find today's new music at some online "stations." These, too, are mostly jukeboxes, but the golden days of real "live" spontaneous entertaining radio could happen--all over again.

Sphere: Related Content

Three Untold Central Coast Stories

What important, yet untold Central Coast stories, do you know about? When I say "untold," I mean the ones that get a couple of column inches in the back of the paper. Maybe a mention on Eyewitless News. If at all.

A few untold stories to suggest, after hearing from knowledgeable sources:

1) THE TOXIC ALGAE bloom that is in our central coast ocean waters. This is a recurring problem that has begun happening to this degree in only the past five years or so. Seems summer is the time for this growth.

Marine life dies and surfers get very sick from it. Some reporters say domoic acid is a "naturally occuring" poison in our ocean. Others say man made run off from the land is known to feed it and make it grow.

Think about it: when you want (toxic) algae to grow, mix in farm chemicals and sewage in warm summer seawater.

2) CASMALIA TOXIC DUMP and the "clean up" of this Superfund site. Observers who have talked with EPA people know about it and say "scandal" is written all over this one. Maybe this would be a cub reporter's dream story.

3) SB COUNTY SPLIT into a proposed "Mission County" and Santa Barbara County remainder. The commission studying the idea recently issued its report and the idea does not look feasible: the new county would begin with a huge debt. We have yet to read a real analysis of which special interests will gain or lose--and how much--from the split. Do you know who the people are behind this whole idea?

Proponents say they could "privatize" county services and pay for employees on the cheap without offering the usual benefits and retirement plans other counties use to attract quality people in the first place. We'll hear a lot more on this when the regular election season rolls around next year.

So there you have my suggestions for the most underreported, untold stories of impact on the Central Coast. If you have a story topic to add to this list, please email me at the address at the top of the right hand column.

Always like to hear from readers who have something to say! Sphere: Related Content

The Salt Of The Earth

At age 16, the first actual job I held was as a neighborhood box boy at a Von's Market in west Los Angeles. The work was good, the pay was great and the hours were flexible.

How Did It Get This Good?

The only hitch--it was a "union shop," which meant I was required to join the Retail Clerks union and pay something called "dues." I originally thought this was like a tax, just to work there. Good hourly wages, an 8-hour day, a 40-hour workweek with overtime pay at time and a half.

Yeah! Pretty good deal for a kid in the go-go, mid-1960's. I never gave it much thought then, but I learned later the simple working conditions I took for granted were the result of nearly a hundred years of American workers' efforts to achieve them. Many were beaten, run out of their homes and some were murdered.

The grocery strike of last year--the largest in history--brought all this into perspective for me. It’s only when the going gets tough, do we see who we really are. Did you respect the striking workers by shopping elsewhere? Did you think about it? Do you think unions get results for their members?

Price To Be Paid When Fighting For Rights

I read letters to the editor complaining of the inconvenience brought about by the strike. But I also read letters praising the courage of those willing to stand up for their position. Clerks and box persons were outside the door holding signs and explaining why they were on strike for some 140 days. These workers lost real income and endured personal hardship.

What was the inconvenience for me? I changed my shopping habits and learned something new. My significant other and I tried to shop at Lompoc stores not involved in the strike, a difficult goal to achieve. Foods Co (Kroger) has a current labor agreement, so we shopped there.

As I paid attention to the story in the papers, Internet and tv, I learned Kroger also owns Ralphs, one of the stores that locked out employees. Hmmm.

Whatever happened to the mom-and-pop grocery store of my youth? Gobbled up by bigger competitors, who merged and formed even larger corporations, which try to trim overhead expenses. Now, these companies wanted to cut their share of employee health care costs.

Why Unions Exist

Just what could a single person say to the "boss" of a company that size? Not much. Only by banding together can workers--in a union--get the clout that gets attention at a bargaining table. They also get results for the membership, who approved a new contract.

Since Labor Day last year, I have had two part-time jobs, for which I am very grateful. Each one is a learning experience about the job requirements and about myself. It may not be fair, but a man often judges his own self-worth by whether he's employed or not. Work well done provides its own dignity.

I hear two songs from my dj days: "Salt of the Earth" by the Rolling Stones from their 1968 Beggars Banquet lp, and "Working for a Living" by Huey Lewis.

Next year, while the sun shines on the first Monday of September and the barbeque burgers are sizzling, these tunes will be on the boombox at the park when we celebrate "Labor Day." I’ll raise "my glass to the hard working people" and give three cheers for the salt of the earth. Sphere: Related Content

N'yah, What's Up, Doc?

Three years ago, New Orleans' leading local newspaper, the Times-Picayune, National Public Radio's signature nightly news program, "All Things Considered," and the New York Times each methodically and compellingly reported that the very existence of south Louisiana's leading city was at risk. Hundreds of thousands of lives were imperiled by exactly the sequence of events that occurred this week.

All three news organizations also made clear that the danger was growing because of a series of public policy decisions and failure to allocate government funds to alleviate the danger.

The question raises itself: what should we know about Central Coast emergency planning/budgeting/policy decisions to withstand an emergency here? Such as an earthquake? Diablo Canyon cooling system explosion? Tsunami protection for the coastline? Power failure over the entire area?

Blogophone props to 23-year-old Brendan Loy, who with no formal meteorological training has drawn widespread praise for his hurricane blog. The Irishtrojan.com blog postings urged New Orleans residents to leave the city two days before the mayor issued an evacuation order. Sphere: Related Content

One More Cup Of Coffee

Madness. Confusion. The smell of death. Danger in the fires burning above the flooded city of New Orleans. The federal emergency agency director, Michael Brown, is quoted saying he's working "under conditions of urban warfare."

The muddy floodwaters are now toxic with fuel, battery acid, rubbish and raw sewage.

The Gulf Coast hurricane aftermath is pretty bad. Amid the tragedy, humans rise to the occasion and selflessly help others survive. It's hard to comprehend as I write this from my safe and sunny Central Coast of California perch.

A few days ago, I was going to write a bit on the antioxidant effects of coffee. How coffee is the number one antioxidant consumed by Americans. How antioxidants in general have been linked to a number of potential health benefits, including protection against heart disease and cancer. How I thought tomatoes had to be high on the list but they're not.

Coffee for me now, as I learned it could be more than 12 years ago is a liquid of sobriety. Its aroma is a calming presence. Its heat a comfort to a troubled soul. Filling others' cups an act of service. A conscious contact with a Higher Power.

It provides moments of steadiness and solid contact with familiar smells and sounds. The clink of cups and saucers. Humans helping humans. Conscious contact.

Katrina's survivors in New Orleans might not need a cup of coffee at this moment, but they sure could use the grace of God to survive another lawless night. Sphere: Related Content

Persuasion vs Intimidation

In the US House of Representatives, Tom Delay is the Majority Leader. He's earned a nickname: "the Hammer," because of his 'take no prisoners' style of heavy-handed politics and knack for pounding money out of political-action committees (PAC's).

"Hardball" Here?

Extreme debate limits, one-sided statements, legal maneuvers to thwart criticism, potentially illegal acts by elected officials have been tools of power for some time in Washington, DC. What about our own Central Coast?

Community services districts (CSD's) are a very basic form of local government. Two CSD's, Cambria and Los Osos, appear willing to use whatever "tool" suits these elected officials in their pursuit of policy despite citizen opposition.

Consider the following:

Legal papers have been filed to compel testimony from two critics of the Cambria CSD.

A CCSD Board member compares this to "our government…investigating a terrorist."

The LOCSD locked the door of a public meeting, barring entrance to two of its own board members.

LOCSD Board members filed a request for a restraining order against citizen critic and businessman Richard Margetson who successfully used a SLAPP defense.

The SLAPP acronym comes from Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation. In other words, using a bogus legal maneuver to shut down criticism. Does this sound like good government in practice?

You would not know this kind of stuff was going on in SLO county if you only read the sporadic page 3 coverage in the Tribune. The weekly New Times tracks the Los Osos CSD problems because that's where the public is demonstrating. Cambria's water tank location and Nipomo subdivision construction limitations are not on either paper's media radar screen--yet.

Environment Concerns Create Pressure For Solutions

What's at stake are environmental and related conditions you need to inhabit the land--clean water, uncontaminated soil, clear air. Public comment and disagreements surround certain issues such as: construction of Cambria water tanks in an environmentally sensitive location, countering the effects of MTBE groundwater contamination in Los Osos and placing limits on subdivision construction in Nipomo.

Where To Find Better Leadership?

Similar environment, land development and other civic issues exist in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties. Yet there's no mention of any elected official swinging any "hammer" to avoid facing public opposition. Could it be a better brand of "leadership?"

(Something I should know? My email is: centralcoastnewsmission at gmail.com) Sphere: Related Content

What Were You Doing 35 Years Ago?

This weekend's visit of the USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76) near the harbor of Santa Barbara, prompted radio talk host Dr. Laura to pledge, on the air, to pay $30,000 for a disputed waterfront docking fee.

The waterfront service fee is a standard charge for all port stops by military vessels. Photo: US Navy

The Navy League at the same time was lobbying the Santa Barbara city council to waive the fee, which they voted to do--but for this one time only.

And my Vietnam military flashback began. Enlisting in 1967, my time with the United States Navy began. Four years were bursting into momentary view. The steamy, screeching sounds on the asphalt surface flight deck, catapults launching F-4 Phantoms hellbound toward the horizon.

Photo: US Navy
I am living in surreal parallel time this month, August 1969, shipping out on my first "WestPac," or western Pacific cruise. My white hat hangs jauntily as I step aboard my last permanent duty station, the USS Constellation (CVA-64). It was named after the last all-sail vessel built by the US Navy.

Four and a half football fields long, the "Connie" was the last conventionally powered aircraft carrier. Eight steam boilers drove four main steam turbine engines. Such massive power at times felt as if the sweaty Hands of God were just a few decks below.

I'm writing news releases sent to the hometown newspapers of these shipboard sailors, a journalist in the boat's public affairs office, massaging teletype from the communications center. Two Phantom pilots shot down a MiG-21. Someone wrote the news announcements of the airmen lost on deck, blown off a catwalk, lost at sea, shot down over 'Nam.

This netherworld stays alive writing itself, again and again. The closed-circuit radio and tv studios were the coolest spaces onboard the ship. Way preferable to the humid tropical temperatures outside--in the 90's to 100's most of the time.

It's a semi-comfortable joke that I am playing records "for our fighting boys overseas...in Kent State, Ohio." Just past the horizon, a patch of ground called Hamburger Hill is claiming lives. The blood of our soldiers blots the ground.

Spare time is reading, writing letters home, planning to buy stuff when we hit port in Japan. A stereo, a camera, a 14-piece place setting of chinaware littered my life. My life echoes in my reverie.

The "N" in the "CVN" of the USS Ronald Reagan's name means it's a nuclear-powered boat. No one seems to mention it has a nuclear reactor in media reports. Why would it be conveniently not mentioned?

Dr. Laura, coincidentally (?) with her money pledge, could also have been promoting her one-woman show at the Lobero this weekend. Got her front page press, so go figure.

In my never to be humble opinion: it was a cheap way to sell tickets, Doc. Most of the men on the carrier are doing what I was doing--putting in an honorable enlistment, doing good work and waiting to get back to civilian life.

Sailors don't want anyone taking advantage of them for publicity, especially a radio "Doctor." Our US sailors and soldiers, ghosts from Vietnam and Iraq, stand on hallowed sand each Sunday at Arlington West. It's a church with more than 1800 crosses for the fallen.

One other thing I know for certain. My Vietnam tears and memories--my service enlistment--will never have a discharge date. Sphere: Related Content