SOMETHING ELSE ABOUT MARY

(And please ignore the first mailing--website glitch!!)

OK, now back to our scheduled writings:

Remember the blog a few months ago, when I talked about my dedication to the film career of Humphrey Bogart and it turned out I got his death date wrong? That was embarrassing for me. This one is probably not as bad, and there's no way you'd ever know the difference, but I have to go full disclosure:

I don't think last week's Homecoming Queen was really the Homecoming Queen.

I was driving somewhere or other last week, probably sitting in some sort of annoying traffic, when it suddenly struck me out of nowhere, that the beautiful heroine of last week's blog was NOT voted that prized title! The more I thought I thought about it, the more the details began to assemble themselves, until I realized that although Mary was one of the five HC 'finalists' (though everyone was acutely aware that it was really down to only two,) I was so sure she would win that all these years later, I thought she had!

But that traffic jam gave me time to think about it and I laughed out loud when it finally occurred to me that in reality, the OTHER finalist had won. It's like when I'm so sure I know that the Celtics are going to destroy the New York Knicks in this week's NBA playoff and all of a sudden...well, you know. Anyway, I even went back and checked my high school yearbook (you guys all know I keep everything I ever owned, right?) and sure enough, Mary was not the queen.

But to me and many other fledgling Romeos, she surely was, hence that's the way I always remembered her. And for those of you who were actually there--you now probably know exactly whom I was talking about....

And now for a surprise: and this one is really special. I was doing a little digging into Buffalo radio when writing one of this here columns, when I found a website called BBA (yeah, Buffalo Broadcasters Association, you got it.) Well, I discovered a page that actually includes links to airchecks from different time periods in Buffalo radio history--including when I was a mere lad of a disc jockey, enjoying my first real job!

So I'm including the link to that page. If you scroll down to cut 26, you'll see my name and the date--March, 1980. I had been a full-timer for about seven months at this point, holding down the 7-midnight shift. I left the Queen City about two months later.

There is one oddity you should be aware of: the second cut is NOT me. It sounds like my long-time cohort Pat (who shared the story about his surprise meeting with Billy Joel in an earlier column,) which means that whoever edited these audio files made a bit of an error. But every other voice you hear in that 5:24 of radio history is indeed mine.

Another thing you should know: though it says "Buffalo Broadcasters Hall of Fame Archives..." at the top of the page--er, no--as far as I'm aware, my three years in that town did not win me a plaque in that particular Hall.

So click on it, turn up those speakers and enjoy. Or get a big laugh--listening to it now, I am embarrassed by my almost amateur-sounding delivery--either way, I'd love to hear your comments!

And sometime soon, I will try to find a link to a show from later years. I think you'll find that, as in most jobs, the improvement was significant...

Link: Audio - Buffalo Broadcasters Association

By the way, if anyone was wondering, the line from last week's memoir, "That's a Bingo" is from the already classic 'Inglorious Basterds'---Colonel Landa discussing his plans to help destroy the Nazis and return to America as a conquering hero.

In case you still cared.

Talk Thursday.

IG