They'll pass over the money without even thinking about it; for it is money they have and peace they lack.
  -James Earl Jones "Field of Dreams"
and don't go mistaking paradise for that home across the road
  -Bob Dylan "Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest"

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Playoffs in SD

The Baseball playoffs start in 13 days. All but two of the games of the National League Division Series and the American League Division Series will be on TBS (the other two will be on sister station TNT). All of the National League Championship Series will be on TBS. TBS has rolled out a new High Definition channel (TBS-HD) just in time for the playoffs. All games will be in HD on TBS-HD. As of this writing, DirecTV would appear to be the only place to get this channel. Comcast cable has announced that it will start carrying TBS-HD October 1. People are assuming that Time Warner Cable, whose parent company owns TBS, will also have it. There has been no word on any plan from Cox Cable. The deal between MLB and TBS was announced a year ago. There was plenty of time to work out agreements, but as it stands today, absent some sort of surprise, the Diamondbacks might have to make it to Fox's coverage of the World Series before we seem them in HD in the post-season. There would actually be an outside chance of a TNT-HD game in game 4 of the NLDS on Sunday 10/7. Cox goes out of their way to make sure that exhibition games on the NFL Network are carried in HD but they can't seem to work this one out. The galling thing is that they just announced that they will soon add HD versions of Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet and The Science Channel. (They already carry Discovery HD Theatre, a separate channel.) And they will of course have TBS-HD eventually, just probably not in time for the playoffs.

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

KTAR R.I.P.

Thanks, Paul, for the feedback. There continue to be major differences
between us and any other talk stations. I appreciate the email.

Respectfully,
Russ


----
Russ Hill
Director of News & Sports Programming
FM News/Talk 92.3 KTAR, Sports 620 KTAR
Bonneville International, Phoenix
rhill@ktar.com 602.200.2660


> From: Paul Benjamin
> Date: Tue, 18 Sep 2007 15:30:57 -0700
> To: ,
> Subject: New format
>
> I tuned in to listen to the news yesterday during afternoon drive time and
> instead of Ted Simons I got right wing drivel. I had to check to make sure
> I had the right button. If I wanted KFYI I would listen to it. I have
> listened to your station since the 1970s. I will continue to listen in the
> morning but you have lost a long time listener in the afternoon. I want
> unbiased news, not far right "opinion".
>
> --
> Paul Benjamin
> http://ratinthekitchen.blogspot.com
>
>

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Desk Arrived

When we went to the beach in July, we drove up to Valencia to visit a store that we had found online. We ordered a desk and chair. Solid oak, the desk is 82" wide. It is exactly what we wanted and is beautiful. I bought a new 19" HP wide screen LCD monitor, which doesn't end up taking up any more space that the old 15" because it has builtin speakers. The chair should arrive in a couple of weeks.

Friday, September 14, 2007

Katie

Katie is leaving us today, I have to take her to the vet one last time at 5:15. She is 13 years old. She was acquired as a kitten from the humane society, our second choice but vaulted into first place when the guy ahead of her turned out to be, well, a guy. I have had 5 cats in my lifetime and she has lived much longer than any of them. She has been a good friend to us for a long time. She always favored Susan and Mike over me but there were enough times when she would sit in my lap or purr when I petted her that I know she liked me too. A relatively small cat, declawed when she was very young, she still was a fierce defender of her turf. We are going to miss her a lot. We have known that this would happen for a couple of weeks now. She has a heart condition that cannot be treated. The last several days have been hard, but she has gotten to go outside a few more times, to sit with Susan, to be brushed, to eat some tuna, and we have had a chance to appreciate her and to say goodbye.

She is a great cat and despite the pain I am glad that we brought her home and that she spent all of this time with us.

Saturday, September 08, 2007

Current status of my 7:30 San Francisco flight.

This was supposed to show the flight time, which was about 2.5 hours late. You CAN see that it is going to Oakland instead of SFO.