The Local Source for News and Information Since 1980
My nightly routine? It varies little: by quarter to midnight I lay down my “sweet” head, and sleep like a log until somebody awakens me come morning. I have, indeed, slept through all manners of chaos and calamity. Some recent nights, however? I’ve sprung awake with a start at 3am. I think I know the cause: I enjoy a good snack before turning in, and rather than indulge on those cookies my friend Lee dropped off, I’ve been devouring handfuls of these dark chocolate-covered almonds. That’s got to be it!
As I tossed and turned, looking for the off switch within my cranium, I found myself last night thinking of a Facebook post. A longtime friend, quite dear to me, had left a short response to something I had shared. I was unsure of my retort: too coy? Eventually I drifted towards another subject, that being the recent announcement that Draper Media intends to purchase another group of local radio stations. The parent company of WBOC, they are already the dominant force in local broadcasting. I thought of how, in my youth, one could tune across the dial at noon on a weekday and get the news from all across Delmarva. Real people, live and local, were reporting from places like Pocomoke, Cambridge, Milford, Easton and, yes, here in Caroline County. Each independent of one another. Now? If they have news at all, it is most likely from the “WBOC Newsplex” in Salisbury.
As this stirred in my head, thoughts turned to another recent media story that may have caught your attention. After 99 years, the CBS Radio Network no longer exists. All across America, stations that had been airing their newscasts had to find another source and many turned to rival ABC. Amid this, a news story broke in the middle of the night, yet the American Broadcasting Company did not cover it until daybreak. It seems that, to cut costs, they repeat their midnight broadcast every hour through the until 6am rather than manning the newsroom. How the mighty have fallen!
And where did my mind drift next? To one of my favorite personalities, the late Paul Harvey. I recall how he told of his own daily routine, much different from mine: he arose each morning at 3am (as I just had!) and then spent hours devouring newspapers from around the nation. It was through these that he put together his famous broadcasts each morning and noon. There was one particular writer that he quoted at least weekly. I could clearly hear Paul’s booming voice:
“Ron Dentinger, in the Dodgeville, Wisconsin Chronicle…”
Radio, and TV, at its best, is immediate. Newspapers always tried to be, I doubt they bother much anymore. Then there are monthly magazines, of which I once subscribed to many. I would receive my September issue of some rag, filled with glossy images of pumpkins, men wearing flannel coats, families around a campfire holding a hot cup of cocoa to keep warm...I would receive them on about July 25th. This, I knew, meant the articles contained within were likely written no later than Independence Day.
Now, the Caroline Review does much better than that! I will leave you with this: if you truly want up to date news of local interest, check out the Caroline Review’s website. And if you want the ultimate in honest reporting: I wrote this, my September edition of “Objects in Mirror”, on July 21st! See, reading my stuff truly IS like looking in the mirror!
