Who's Your Favorite Bay Area Personality?

As that Italian crooner Dean Martin said so many years ago, "Everybody Loves Somebody, Sometime." And as George Thorogood & the Destroyers sang some years later, "Who Do You Love?" It's a fair question. My wife and I wake up every morning with Gayle Guyardo on WFLA. (We've been watching her since way back when she was with a little, itty, bitty UHF station in Sarasota -- Channel 66, I think it was.) We get a kick out of how she, Bill Ratliff and John Winter get along. But then, hey, that's just us. What about you? Who is YOUR favorite Bay Area Personality & Why? Please share your thoughts. Provoke some of your fellow Bay Area viewers and readers to agree or disagree with you. It’s a free country. Let’s use some of that freedom, OK?

MNF Faces Towering Challenge

WMNF, the popular among its grass-roots listeners, non-commercial community radio station, is looking for new tower space for its broadcast antenna. Its leased-for-20-years space on a tower in Riverview suddenly became "unavailable," much to their surprise, so while their signal is not scrambled, their plans certainly are. The unplanned, unscheduled and (we might add) unbudgeted antenna move will cost about $100,000 (that's 100 "Large" in some circles) so if you win the Fla. lottery this weekend, please give the good people at MNF a call at 813-238-8001 – and tell ‘em TBM sent ya.

Has Howard Gone CSI?

Some weeks back, I picked up the Metro & State section of the St. Pete Times and tried to figure out how Gil Grissom (a.k.a. William L. Petersen) ended up on the cover. But, hey, wait! It wasn't Gil after all. It was Howard Troxler! "Hey honey," I yelled to my wife. "Doesn't Howard look like Gil Grissom from CSI!" To which she said, in her early morning mumble, "Grishfsfilsom cmn Smpete?" "No, hon, Gil's not in St. Pete. Never mind." Anyway, am I out of my mind, or what, on this? Your thoughts, please, TBM fans ...

BN-9's Video on Demand

There's a nifty "on demand" service that Bay News 9 fans might find worth investigating. I was visiting www.baynews9.com and saw a graphical promo for an interview with my old college buddy Dean R. Koontz, the horror writer. "Drat, I've missed it," I thought … Not to worry. All I had to do was switch my BrightHouse over to Channel 340, and after a few clicks of my trusty remote, there I was watching the Shippensburg State alum chatting with Bay News 9 on-air personality, Jen Holloway, about his new novel “Life Expectancy.” This virtually instant digital access is part of BN-9's “Tampa Bay on Demand,” and is definitely a handy little “time-shifting” option to have available.

Sign the Mason Dixon Card

What is being billed as the world's largest "Get Well Soon Card" is making the rounds for legendary DJ Mason Dixon of WRBQ (Oldies 104.7) who suffered a collapsed lung, two broken ribs and a ruptured spleen in a recent car accident. A timetable has not been set for Dixon's return.

For the location of M-D's card, go to this link:
http://www.oldies1047.com/kids_day.html

PSA's are a Joy-FM

The Joy-FM, a network of Christian stations covering the Bay Area, offers airtime at no charge to churches and non-profits. Call the studio nearest you for an appointment:

Sarasota -- (941) 753-0401
Port Richey -- (727) 848-9150
Ocala -- (352) 351-8810
Gainesville -- (352)373-9553

NOTE: Bring a copy of your script on your organization’s letterhead and a copy of your 501(c) determination letter from the IRS if you are not a church. You may record up to four announcements, each of which must be 28 to 30 seconds in length.

PS: I’ve done this before, and it pays to practice ahead of time.

NiE Good 'ole Summer 'Times'

The St. Petersburg Times has done a nice job trying to keep youngsters' minds from turning to slushy mush during the summer with "Sizzlin’ Summer Reads." It's all part of its Newspaper in Education series. For parents and/or teachers not familiar with NiE, the link is below. There's not a more cost-effective, brain-stimulating, current-event providing program on the planet.

http://www.sptimes.com/nie/summer04/

FYI: The Tampa Tribune also participates in the NiE Program.

http://tampatrib.com/nie/

Big 13 -- DejaView

From 1955 to 1994, WTVT was the Bay Area's CBS affiliate. During that time, it was known as "Big 13." You can go back in time and visit the station's Tiffany years at http://www.big13.net ... By the way, the Big 1-3 is the big 5-0 this year. If you want to send them a "Golden Anniversary" card, the address is:

WTVT-TV FOX13
P.O. Box 31113
Tampa, FL 33631-3113

BTW, I guess they don't suffer from Triskaidekaphobia over there ...