Bonehead deeds from 2005

These days news organizations are doing a variety of lists and “best of” and “worst of” from the past year. I’ve seen listings of things such as Top Stories, Top Newsmakers, Biggest Jerks, Worse Person, etc.
After having lunch with a couple of my former coworkers and the mention of a [...]

There’s nothing like getting together with old friends over lunch.

I got together Friday afternoon for lunch in Southaven with Jamey Tucker, and Marybeth Conley. We got caught up on life in general and business in particular and it was so much fun. I’m sure glad that I wasn’t trying to drink milk during lunch because they probably would have had me [...]

Guess what everybody, I’m headed to WMC Channel 5 AND I’ll be working at WHBQ Fox 13.

Those are the rumors that have picked up steam in the last couple of months as my non-compete runs out. I think the WMC rumor stems from the fact that I had lunch back in August with 5’s ND Peggy and was working with some of my wife’s PR clients over at 13. [...]

The 50-years of WREG-TV should have been an hour long.

I love history. The History Channel (or as my wife calls it, the World War II channel) is my default channel. It’s educational and offers a great amount of what I call “gee whiz” stuff to help clog your brain.
That’s one of the reasons I TIVOed the 50th anniversary of WREG [...]

News that I can use from the past 24 hours.

Automakers must have heard that except for pineapple, I’ve never met a food I didn’t like. Apparently a growing number of Americans (emphasis on growing) feel the same way (except for pineapple) since automakers announced that starting in 2006, they’re making car and truck seats a half-inch wider to accommodate our posteriors in particular [...]

When you lose an established news anchor, what’s the best route to filling the slot?

That’s a question that’s facing the incoming news director down on the river in Memphis.
I’ve never had to make such a decision and I’m sure it’s going to be a tough one.
Pam McKelvy’s departure after ten years on the evening news at 3 started the speculation on who would take her place. Earlier this [...]

My name is Joe Larkins and I’m a packrat.

We’re almost into a new year and my lovely and talented bride and I need to lose some of the clutter around our house.
How two people and two dogs can accumulate so much junk is beyond me. I’ve got magazines, books, woodworking and shop manuals, banjo building catalogs, (yes I plan to build a [...]

Is it too late to send out Christmas cards?

This has been such a crazy year and the holidays have proven to be rather hectic because of family circumstances. My lovely and talented bride reminded me as she has for several weeks that we haven’t sent out any Christmas cards. I figure that if people can leave their Christmas lights hanging until [...]

Happy birthday to 3, Happy birthday to 3, Happy birthday….

Nice write-up in the Commercial Appeal this morning for the 50-year anniversary of the operation down on the river. The Wooten Radio Electric Company has come a long way since Hoyt Wooten was first drawn to the warmth and humming of radio tubes. I know that in my 16-years there I saw a lot [...]

The VJ experiment and cross training in the newsroom

Some folks in TV newsrooms across the country are keeping an out on the VJ experiments taking place at stations WKRN in Nashville and KRON in San Francisco. A good friend and former coworker is joining the effort in Nashville after the first of the year and looking forward to it. I think [...]