Confessions of a Serial Blogger!

“LOST MUSKET DIARY” Sunday February 8, 2015

NICE* with times of Sun and Clouds 74°F/23°C in Rancho Santa Margarita

Buongiorno,

                Sitting down at the computer to work on my blog, http://mikebotula.blogspot.com/ reminds me a lot of my early career in local radio. That was the late ‘50s through late ‘70s when radio was REAL, with live people who blathered and bled, drank too much and yelled a lot through the music.

MikeBo - WVIP Radio 1960

Those were times when the programs were LIVE, and you could suffer along with the morning jock’s hangover because maybe, you had a hoisted a few with him the night before at “The Rendezvous” or “Doc’s” or “The Ad Lib,” or even “Fort Apex!” Nope! Radio wasn’t the plastic, over-automated, voice tracked, right-wing loudspeaker system it is today. No sir! Back “in the day” radio was real.

                This gets me back to the moment. I’m thinking that being a blogger is like being what the morning disc jockey at a local radio station used to be. In radio, I’d first turn on the transmitter, giving it the required fifteen minutes to warm up, unless I was late that morning because of late-night frolicking the night before. In that case I’d just throw the switch and pray.

                At the appointed sign-on time, usually 6 a.m. or whatever passes for dawn-local time,  I’d push the button to play the Star Spangled Banner (Or Dixie when I worked in the south), read the sign-on with the address, frequency, owner’s name and the reminder that the station was overseen by the FCC in Washington, DC. Then I’d punch the button and start the theme for the morning show. (This was usually titled Breakfast With (Announcer’s name here), Dawn Patrol, or Morning Melodies or something like that. Only when the opening theme started did I realize that I had absolutely NO idea what that morning’s show was going to be about.

                It’s the same thing with “blogging.” I am absolutely astounded how some bloggers, like my personal idol, Ken Levine, can churn out a blog a day – byken.levine.blogspot.com - using his own material and always keep it funny and interesting. Ken started at KMPC radio a few years before I did and went from the KMPC Sportswire to a career as a writer for TV shows like M*A*S*H and Cheers. I was turned on to him by Don Barrett, another blogmeister who is Mr. Los Angeles Radio to those of us who ever worked in LA radio or aspired to. He does LARadio.com and has done several books on the subject. Well, I figured out at the beginning that I wouldn’t be able to keep up a daily pace.

                So, what kind of a blog will this one be today? I have NO idea! Like anyone else in show biz, a successful performer can AD LIB. Now, I've been gathering scattered thoughts and punch lines and trying to organize them into an interesting form. So, just like my radio days….I’ll just ad lib. Try out a few lines, play a few bars of fill music, say “Good Morning” in a couple of different languages, drop in a weather word and current temperature, tell the time, and bring the music up full. When it ends, do another time-temperature-weather check and go to commercial. You get the idea.

                The blog idea started with my trip to Rome last fall. I had just joined Facebook and was really enjoying reconnecting with old friends and cultivating new relationships. So I shared my Italian adventure under the title of Rome Diary. Much to my surprise and delight, a number of you said you enjoyed what I had to say and encouraged me to keep it up. And so I have, and, I am enjoying it. But, I've had to take into account the fact that I’m no longer in Rome, topic-wise, and that fact impacted on my potential subject matter. 

It’s like starting your own business. You find a location, stock it with product, open the doors and pray for customers. No groveling for a job. No pleasing a grouchy editor or getting around the owner’s political philosophy or religious beliefs. No sir! The Internet has set me free! I can just do it. I can say anything I want. Since I have spent most of my adult life as a general assignment news reporter, I plan on covering a variety of topics bearing in mind the time-honored philosophies, journalistic principles and guidelines that will govern what I’ll talk about. Rules and ethics and truth…stuff like that. And, since I’m a big believer in promotion you can be sure I’ll be plugging my blog through Facebook, Twitter,  Google Plus along with the other social media outlets.

                A long time ago, I had established my own personal interest web site at www.mikebotula.com. This was at the time we developed a new internet site for my company. It wasn't until social media sites arrived that my original idea of having my own “bully pulpit” really came to fruition. Once I decided to do a blog I also spent some time revamping and enhancing the web site. I’ll have more on my aspirations for it in the near future, and I’ll share them with you once reconstruction is completed.

            Stay tuned!

Ciao!

MikeBo

*Since I get my weather headline from the NY Times, I’m also sharing their new format with you. Pleasant and Nice have replaced Sunny or Cloudy or Rainy. God knows how the NYT will slug their really foul weather heads.

©Mike Botula 2015