Into the New Year. Sudden plunge. How did I get here? Me and F. Scott Fitzgerald weren’t supposed to be around at this age. Come to think of it, he ain’t. Popped off at 44. I expected to flame out about that age. Didn’t for some reason. So, I’ve got a few more books and short stories out there than old Fritz. Of course, there’s always the quality debate. Did he write better? I’m not going to say yeah or neah. I never liked F. Scott Fitzgerald all that much. I think I’ve beat even Ernest in a couple of places and stomped all over some other writers. They made more money; that’s no lie. And no lie I’m a bit sad about that, but I didn’t have any control over the greenback situation. It sometimes gets ridiculous. I think I enjoyed writing what I wrote and some people have told me that they enjoyed reading what I’ve written and I’m grateful about that.

Good news! Bill Pearson finished a great cover for my novel “Murder at the Busted Bird Café” and so I’ll be posting it with Amazon.com/Kindle Books in the next few days. Cost? Same as the others. $2.99 each. For Kindle, iPad, or computer. But I’m too tired from the holidays right now to do much of anything. Watch segments of “Una Maid en Manhatten,” the soap in Spanish. And today, viola, Duke basketball. On TV (today is Friday as I write this). And, of course, I watched the Texas Longhorns win in the Holiday Bowl against Cal. Sad about Case McCoy, the Longhorns quarterback. Freshman David Ash did fine last half of the game; poor the first half. But virtually boring most of the time. Yeah, maybe this was to try to give him impetus or spirit or gungho for next year. However, by not playing sophomore quarterback Case McCoy, one exciting hombre, coach Mack Brown sort of ruined his potential professional career. Literally, stuck a Bowie in the kid’s back. Hated to see it. Hated to see Mack Brown do it. On purpose? Hated to see it happen to a quarterback that I think is better than David Ash. At least, more fun to watch.

ELVIS MATTERS

A few years ago Bobby Vee was performing at the Fremont Experience in downtown Las Vegas. George Wilson and wife Jackie came in for the event from Albuquerque. So did Charla and her husband Ed Strange of the Krazy Kat in Albuquerque. Big Vee fans! Charla and Ed, over the years, drove to see Bobby perform if he was within something like 300 miles. In the case of Las Vegas, just a dash more. And I mean they’re front row!

Ron Winters was also there and he introduced us to Paul Casey, one of the world’s leading “Elvis” performers. Paul’s www.americantrilogyshow.com  just dropped us a note. “Returning to Sportlight 29 casino for the eighth year at 8 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 7, 2012. Selling out 2,500 seat room. I will perform with a full orchestra, horn section and strings. An exciting musical presentation of the King’s life.” The casino is in Las Vegas, by the way.

Good on you, Paul. It’s been a few days, but I think I wrote the first-ever news story on the various Elvises. For Billboard. And the King was still going strong at the time!

Just FYI, Jackie, after a return to Intensive Care to checkup on an operation, went back in rehab. But George Wilson called Friday afternoon to report she was back at home. Great news! Texicans will put up with a hospital or rehab when necessary, but they find them difficult to tolerate sometimes. The refrito frijoles are always better at home.

QUIERO MATTERS

Jay West: “Hello Claude ... and Happy Holidays to you and your family. My reason for contacting you has to do with the brief mention you made of the Rene & Rene single ‘Lo Mucho Que Te Quiero’. A bit of history on that tune: It was originally released on a local record label ARV ... and was the #1 song on our chart in McAllen, Texas (KRIO-AM), for many weeks before White Whale Records picked it up for national distribution. I was the program director of said radio station at the time. The fact that it had Spanish lyrics and being played on a Top 40 station was very unique. Not to mention that about 75% of our audience spoke Spanish. It was a smash to say the least. The label ARV Records was a family-owned local record company owned by Arnaldo Ramirez. Thus the name ARV records (don't remember what the V stood for). Arnaldo was the mayor of Mission, Texas, for a while. I knew him well and thought very highly of the man. This all happened in the '60s. Oh, and Rene & Rene were from Laredo. They did a few live concerts for KRIO back then. Just thought I'd bring you some little-known facts about the record. Wasn't White Whale Records the label of The Turtles (‘Happy Together’, etc). May the New Year be good to you and continue to keep us Top 40 addicts entertained. Jay West (Retired from KRIO and KILT and radio in general.)”

Great tale, Jay. Thank you.

POPCORN MATTERS

So, Andy Hall, the renown poet, songwriter, comic, and college professor, brought home Golden Prairie Popcorn. Just one ear for each of us. Comes from Nokomis, IL. Strictly for tourists. Gag stuff. $2.99 an ear. Instructions included. Seems you place this ear in a plastic bag, also included, and pop it in a microwave and, viola, all of the corn on the ear pops! Ain’t nature just absolutely grand! goldenprairiepopcorn@yahoo.com

Another informational tidbit: The corn that Larry Shannon grows at 14 Pines in Missouri is not the eating or the popping kind. Just for ethanol. Yes, folks, nature is grander than a used toenail!

BURKHART MATTERS

Kent Burkhart, from Miami and Atlanta: “Thanks for remembering KOWH in Omaha ... it was a terrific radio station, and a pleasure to sit daily with Bill and Todd to create programming and promotions ... and do some d.j. work as well.”

FLATTERY MATTERS

Lee Baby Simms, somewhere overlooking a famous bay; sent to both George Wilson and me: “Yee haa! That's right! Yee haa! I`m listening to ‘Memory Tunes’ at this very moment. Speakers on 1000. It is my best Christmas Gift this year. Thank you, George. Claude! The check is in the mail. Dear Boys: MERRY CHRISTMAS. To you and the ones that you love from the one who loves you. Over there on the sideboard is a 15-pound Honey Baked Ham. All the trimmings. Trim it. A few folks who love me will be coming over in an hour or two to share it with me. There is a place for Y`all at the table. There always will be. Come and see me. Bring The Girls. I need a little help with the Red Eye Gravy. They know how to make it. Thank You Jesus for The Girls. And thank you, George. And thank you, Claude. You are special to me. I would not be me without you.”

Red Eye Gravy? Whatever made you think Barbara could cook, Lee? You marry a Damned Yankee and the first thing you do is take her home to Momma to learn how to cook chicken-fried steak. True. She did cook artificial eggs for me this morning. I added the Wolf Brand chili (with beans) to make it a decent breakfast.

MEMORIES MATTER

Sharon Sharpe, who works for the New Orleans Times-Picayune newspaper, once brought her son and daughter, the grand children of the late Bill Stewart, by to see me. This week, she noted that Roland Sharpe’s safe return from the combat arena was honored at a luncheon of the Slidell, LA, Ladies of Liberty.

“Dear friends and family who supported us and Roland during his deployment with the 101st, the Slidell Ladies of Liberty, who sent monthly care packages to Roland during his year-long deployment to Afghanistan (in addition to the support from Rotary Club, Aldersgate United Methodist Church, St. Margaret Mary and others), will be hosting a luncheon in honor of his return Wednesday, Dec. 28 at noon at Chesterfields, 1300 Gause Blvd. It's dutch treat. So please join us as they welcome him home. Anyone who can come is welcomed!”

Sharon later: “P.S. Sorry for the short notice but Friday I got a text from him that read: ‘Emergency, call me’. I called and asked what's up? He said, ‘I'm at your house!’ That made this the best Christmas as we were blessed to be all together. The Slidell Ladies of Liberty were happy to do this on short notice.”

Scott St. James, Los Angeles: “Hi, Claude, just got back from an out of town Christmas visit and read your column. So much good stuff. ‘Everyday People’, ‘I've Got to Be Me’ and the beat goes on. I never had the pleasure of playing on the air with the KHJ boys and girls at that great station, but over the years I've had the privilege of meeting and staying in contact with some of them, working with some like Mouzis, Morgan and Tuna on other stations and staying in contact with others like Jacobs thanks to email and one very memorable conversation (for me) that I had with Drake for several hours at Martoni's, a conversation that didn't end until after 4 in the morning. ‘Characters’? You betcha. Some have passed away, but my life has been enriched by knowing and or communicating with these ‘characters’.”

EVERETT MATTERS

Steve Everett, director of revenue and operations for Golden Isles Broadcasting: “Noticed on Ed Shane's FB page you were from Winters and Brady. I was raised in Ballinger, started at KRUN-AM when I was 14, and never got out of radio. Eventually owned KRUN-FM/KCSE-FM (later moved to San Angelo market). I also had KNEL-AM/KIXV-FM in Brady. Both places great stomping grounds. Nice running across you....”

GURU MATTERS

Ron Jacobs, sage and guru, Hawaii: “Football - Horns hooked 'em. Happy off season. Your last vacillating column re: stations and their rankings: Name four US Top 40 stations BETTER than 93/KHJ-Los Angeles (1965-1969.) Remember, I also produced the CRUSIN' series and consulted with Bill Gavin and others in picking the top jocks stations and cities. God how I wish we could go up against them anytime anywhere and let any listener's be the judge. (It's something that Chuck Blore and I have kicked around for years: KFWB 1958 vs. KHJ 1968. No East Coast station could make the playoffs! Game on: KHJ opens with Robert W. Morgan, Johnny Man jingles, J. Paul Huddleston and The Big Kahuna. Anyone wanna call that? I might be one of the last Boss Crew standing -- but on behalf of Morgan, Bill Drake, Gene Chenault, The Real Don Steele, Frank Terry, Bobby (Mitchell) Tripp, Tom Maule, Roger Christian, Tommy Vance and the dozens of other Hollywood professionals ‘behind’ the scenes no longer with us -- I will put them up against anyone who ever filled the airways 168 hours a week with the impact of 93/KHJ. And never forget the award-winning KHJ 20/20 News Department headed by Art Astor and Jim Itchell, public service commendations and our tie-in with KHJ-TV that ran along with the contests and concerts that kept on comin'. KHJ had more Boss Jocks in the Hall of Fame than any other four stations combined. It set the pace for RKO Radio and became this most imitated format in American pop radio. The Real Don This and Robert W. That. And don't forget Charlie Tuna, Humble Harve, Sam Riddle, Johnny Williams, Gary Mack, Scotty Brink, Steve Clark, Dave Diamond, Bill Wade and all the other ORIGINALS who served during my watch. Bill Drake watched the battle from Beverly Hills while I called the shots from the trenches at 5515 Melrose. And we were in Hollywood ... where the STARS listened to US. Just ask anyone who lived through it who was Boss ... either in or out of the business. And if you never heard it just listen to several hours of the REAL THING on http://www.reelradio.com  

Come on, Claude. YOU know it 45 years later ... so never ever let 'em forget it.

Ron Jacobs, Program Director ... representing all the men and women who made KHJ the Solid Gold Standard. For the rest of the story and a bunch of juicy details check out this website that lives up to the standards we set:

http://woodygoulart.com/wg/rock-and-roll-radio-history or http://93khj.blogspot.com  

Come on, Ron: That wasn’t what I wrote. I just remarked, after reviewing one phenomenal disc jockey on one phenomenal radio station, that I thought the best radio stations in modern radio history (as opposed to the so-called Golden Age of “The Jack Benny Show,” etc.) … the best radio stations of all time (specifically, I guess, my time) were in order KOWH, KLIF, KHJ, KMET-FM and WNEW-FM and, of course, WNEW-AM, the first music and news station according to Gordon McLendon, and KFWB. No Hooper, no ARB, no NAB. Logic. I mentioned some specific names connected with the stations. To have written more would have been a book. Too old for that. Anyway, I don’t think it’s necessary, just between you and me, to discuss why KOWH and KLIF have to be acknowledged as better than KHJ. Could they have completed against you in the late 60s? You helped Robert W. Morgan earn the Hall of Fame, true. But this would have been impossible without KOWH and KLIF. Bill Stewart, on the other hand, put both Todd Storz, owner of KOWH, and Gordon McLendon, owner of KLIF, in there. In spite of more odds than it’s difficult to imagine! I will never forget Bill Stewart’s line about going into a bank to get a mortgage so he could buy a house and the process going fine until they found out he was “connected to that horrible rock and roll radio station.”

For KHJ to have completed against KFWB wouldn’t have been appropriate, in my opinion. Public mores had change. Bill Drake told me himself that Fats Domino had become a middle-of-the-road artist. Look it up. Another Drakism: “People who used to burn their Visa cards now work for Bank of America.” KFWB existed in a different era. Certainly, this can be said of KOWH and KLIF. You are, without question, one of the brightest people I know. I would certainly say the same for Todd Storz, Gordon McLendon, and Bill Stewart. Thus, I would hesitate to shortchange them in any competition. In spite of the limitations and the parameters within which they operated, they performed in outstanding fashion. I judge them not. But I will pay tribute to them – and to you – until the day I die.

TRYING MATTERS

When Craig and Samantha Adams lost their radio jobs, they put their show on the Internet. I saw the note in RadioDailyNews.com and dropped them a note wishing them well. My note: “I wish you the best with your new venture. I don't know where radio, per se, is going, but the old way is probably gone. Maybe you're on future track!”

Sam: “Thank you so much. Craig and I were thrilled to receive your message. Seeing the words "the old way is probably gone" from someone with your expertise in radio made me pause and reflect. I miss real radio. I miss loving DJs so much I would string wires across my bedroom so I could listen to WLS at night. I miss the day when DJs didn't just talk about entertainment -- they were the entertainment. Wouldn't it be something if the Internet provided a platform to do that again? I am truly grateful you took the time to send us a note. Warm wishes to you.’

Some of you guys and gals ought to drop Sam and Craig a note. sam@craigandsam.com Ask to tap into their Internet show. We have no one to protect us, nurture us, but ourselves. May the Good Lord bless and keep you, Sam and Craig.

WOW MATTERS

Just received this link from Mike McGann. I recommend you check it out. Probably knock your socks off!

http://www.radiojox.com/

AIRCHECK MATTERS

Review of Murray the K on WOR-FM, New York City, postponed this week.