Keith Olbermann lands another knockout blow

There are very few people I unabashedly hero worship. Keith Olbermann is becoming one of those few.

Tonight, as he has been a handful of times before, he was a modern-day reincarnation of Edward R. Murrow, one of the greatest Americans of all time. In his final segment on this evening's edition of MSNBC's "Countdown," Olbermann was Murrow, and he turned Donald Rumsfeld into Joseph McCarthy. (See the video here.)

Olbermann has referred to himself, especially his unashamed copping of Murrow's famous sign off phrase, as a pale imitation of the greatest of all broadcast journalists.

Yes, Keith, an imitation of Murrow you may be, but you are anything but a pale one.

John Mark Karr

John Mark Karr MUST be guilty. The media is using all three names.

By the way, OJ Simpson said he thinks Karr is the REAL killer of Nicole and Ron Goldman...

UPDATE 8/28: Turns out he isn't. The DNA evidence didn't match, and authorities dropped charges.

An experiment

Just experimenting to see how far I can get. So far, two days without sleep. Cool. I can watch TV without turning it on. The cat is talking nonsense and the dog is making sense. My car is campaigning to be the next president of the United States. I don't trust it.

Movin' on

As every radio person in L.A. now knows, country KZLA blew up this morning at 10:15 and signed on with the new "Movin'" format. The legendary Rick Dees will be returning to radio to host mornings, but the date hasn't been announced yet. It'll be interesting to see how the great morning battle unfolds as Dees squares off with Ryan Seacrest.

The sad news, of course, is that more radio people are out of work today. More of us are competing for even fewer jobs.

Hey, wouldn't it be weird if the jocks canned this past year outnumber the ones who still have jobs?

On the good news side of things, I'm doing a few part time radio gigs here and there, some commercial and voiceover work, and (I'm not superstitious, but knock on wood just in case) I have some very cool, very exciting possibilities just over the horizon. There's a light at the end of the tunnel. Here's hoping that light isn't illuminating a sign that says, "Wrong way, go back!"

Tight Shorts

Lauren's sketch comedy group "Tight Shorts" has five podcast episodes up on YakkYakk.com, but some of them are being made available on YouTube. Please note the dulcet tones of Yours Truly as the announcer and some of the phone callers.

New planets waiting in the wings

Millions of school textbooks would be rendered obsolete if a draft resolution by a panel of astronomers and historians is adopted. The definition of the word "planet" would be changed which would enlarge the Solar System from nine planets to twelve. Charon, Pluto's moon, along with astral bodies Xena and Ceres, would be classified as planets.

The new definition would be, "an object be massive enough that gravity has formed it into a sphere and that it circles a star and not some other planet." Scientists say there may be a dozen other bodies that could be classified as planets.

Great. I had trouble enough remembering nine.

Shout at the devil

Here's another bit from the Planet Radio days in Miami, circa 1997. I'm talking with Frank and Julie about Frank's pierced nipples, their (alleged) sexual affair, and shouting at the devil.

It's amazing we ever played any songs at all.

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Classic bits

This one comes from WPLL Planet Radio in Miami, about 1997 I think. Yours Truly and my good friend Barry from Human Resources discuss, during a contest, what does and doesn't constitute a "good guess."

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Bye Bye Breakfast

Breakfast With The Beatles will air for the last time on KLSX on September 3, according to a post on LA Observed.

More about unemployment

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that employers initiated 1,097 mass layoffs in June 2006, causing 119,662 U.S. workers to lose their jobs for at least 31 days. Mass-layoff events increased by 23 and the number of initial unemployment claims increased by 9,804 from May. At 311, the most notable mass layoffs were again in the manufacturing sector.

"You've got pink slips!"

AOL is getting ready to lay off 5000 people, or a quarter of its workforce, over the next six months.

So many lives. CBS Radio laid off about a hundred people a few weeks ago. A few months before that Clear Channel, my old company, had rounds of layoffs. Westwood One just had a round, about another hundred or so people.

Where will they go? I can tell you the job market is tight -- at least, if you want to maintain just a bit of your lifestyle or keep a minimum of your bills paid.

I was relatively lucky. We still had a little money and I was paid pretty damn good for what I did. But many of these others now out or about to be out pounding pavements aren't so fortunate, and this is a hard, hard time to be out of work. Layoffs are happening in every industry, in every field.

Tell you what. I'm going to win the lottery. Maybe not this week. Maybe next. Or the one after that. Definitely before September is up. I'm going to take those millions and establish a fund for my friends if and when they're unlucky enough to get the axe just to make a corporate profit sheet look a little better for the shareholders.

And we'll have a party.

BYOB, of course. Hey, booze ain't cheap.