The Most Unusual Thing I Did in 2008

It had to be the Morning Show Sumo Suit Wrestling Challenge June 20th at Dodd Stadium in Norwich. I'm normally a peaceful person and haven't been in a fight since age 12. The person who issued the on-air challenge - our program director who also hosts the Jammin' 107-7 show next door to Soft Rock 106.5 - isn't exactly Hulk Hogan either. That's why the smackdown hype on both stations before this minor league baseball halftime event was especially ridiculous. Even though I'm in my mid 50s and Brian "Body Slam" Ram was 30, I figured I had the weight advantage. That really didn't help much since those heavy sumo suits would weigh anyone down. These getups aren't as light and marshmallowy as they look! "TKO'Brien" - yours truly - won best two out of three falls, for whatever that is worth. It was a unique experience and has been good for lots of inter-station trash talk between "that punk" and this "senior citizen." As Brian said immediately after, "There's one for the bucket list!" Yes, once is enough! Will a morning show dance-off be next? I issued that challenge, but don't hold your breath.

I'll Never Know

Most past relationships at least have the benefit of closure. I can think of one that barely got started and ended before I knew what hit me. It was about this time of year back in college, a snowy day in New Hampshire at the end of the semester. There was a long line in front of the dining hall when a big snowball fight broke out and scattered everybody. A girl I hadn't seen around campus before had become separated from her friends and ended up next to me and my roommate. She immediately struck up this very deep conversation with me. I was terminally shy back then, but our talk was so intense over dinner that I remember my roommate being totally excluded from everything. I don't know if you can find a soulmate that quickly or if there can be love at first sight, but it was different from anything up to that point and I dare say anything since. She told me she would be leaving school the next day, but I figured I'd see her again. Hey, I had her campus address. Well, I went there only to find she had already left. At the time, I told myself that was just the way it was meant to be. Ever since, I've wondered whether or not I let the best thing happen to me walk out of my life. It was a very short chapter in my life, but remains the biggest "what if?" since that snowy day.

Women Take Over the Charts

From Natasha Bedingfield to Alicia Keys to Kelly Clarkson, women are taking over the adult contemporary charts like never before. The last time I saw this phenomenon must have been back in the early 70s when female soloists - many songwriters themselves - saw unprecedented success. Carly Simon (pictured) was a prime example. Her hit "Haven't Got Time for the Pain" from '74 remains a favorite of mine, even if it wasn't her biggest song. The Carpenters brought great songs written by others to millions of listeners back then, including one written by Carole King called "It's Going to Take Some Time." For some reason, I still turn that one up. Back then, I didn't think it was too cool to admit liking some of this. I was as much of a fan of hard rockin' supergroups as any 20-year-old guy was in the 70s, but the women of that era left a lasting impression too. The more recent version of "Killing Me Softly" by the Fugees is great, but Roberta Flack added a special touch to that tune. Sheryl Crow seems to bridge the gap between that earlier time and now. Maybe she started this latest wave, but enjoy it while it lasts.

Might As Well Face It!

I'm addicted to mobile email! It's gradually crept into my life to the point where I feel I have to check it every couple of hours. My cell phone feeds the need, giving me alerts when I have new messages. The first not-so-subtle sign of this addiction - maybe affliction - came during my vacation last July. Once a day, I get some show prep material that only I receive at the station. Being the efficient, conscientious fellow I am, I forwarded it to other people who use the info at WBMW. That gave them the mistaken impression that I can't get away from work. It's actually all about email. When my next vacation comes in a week, I resolve to shut off that message alerts feature and check it when I'm good and ready. We'll see how that goes. Gotta go... I just got a new email!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve is normally the time when my family observes the holiday, so Christmas Day is usually a very quiet day. That's fine with me, since life can be a very hectic rollercoaster the rest of the year. All in all, Santa's been good! As WBMW gets set to wrap up our own holiday music marathon, I'll keep things as simple as this day is to me: Merry Christmas!

Secret Santa Shown the Door

The phones on the Wakeup Club were definitely lit up like a Christmas tree when we gave the news about a Secret Santa in Walmart at Lisbon Landing. The unemployed man was shown the door when he attempted to give out $1300 worth of $10 Walmart gift cards he had just bought inside that same store. Apparently he never got his idea of good will toward men approved in advance by Walmart. Whoever told him to take his generosity outside was obviously mindful of liability in the wake of a tragic trampling incident at a Long Island Walmart on Black Friday. Store management certainly deserved to be in the loop about his intentions - good as they were. They treated him like a solicitor, but he wasn't soliciting anything. We may have had the famous "failure to communicate" for things to go this way, but Walmart also could have made this right. Target offered to let him give away Target cards in one of their stores. Walmart should have stepped up and made this appearance that "we're big enough to play by our own rules" into "we're going to make this right." Hey, I shop at Walmart myself and the company can weather some bad press, but this negative publicity in our community is just totally unnecessary. Step up to the plate, big guys!

Holiday Central!

WBMW is eastern Connecticut's Christmas music station. There's no doubt about that. But it's not just about the holiday music. You'll find Soft Rock 106.5 in the many holiday parades, from Putnam to Old Saybrook to Groton. The enthusiasm is obvious in the faces of everyone crowding the streets on a cold night. There are so many people in need in our community, and it is very gratifying to be a part of the many efforts to make sure more of our neighbors have a happier holiday. The Gemma Moran Food Drive is one great example of neighbors pitching in. That's what the holidays are all about - not whether or not retail sales are up from last year. It's a lesson the kids should learn.

Extreme Makeover: Voluntown

When a TV crew and 3,000 volunteers descend on Voluntown for a week, that's news. I had a decent, if rain-soaked vantage point on December 11th to witness the arrival of the Girards at their newly constructed home - castle is more like it. Even though WBMW was in the process of giving away $5,000, the phone calls coming in were really centering on the ABC Extreme Makeover Home Edition unfolding in the northeast corner of New London County. This will not erase the series of tragedies that brought the Girard family to the attention of a primetime hit show, but it did show how this region rallied to help. It was worth the time I spent in the Voluntown mud waiting for them to "move that bus" just to see a community come together. Did ABC exploit this for ratings? Probably, but thousands of people who contributed to the cause can be very proud. Thanks to The Day for the closeup picture.

$5,000 - One Winner!

Trudy Richardson from Ledyard was the winner of Five Grand this week just by asking the right person the right question! Olde Mistick Village was overrun one day at noon with people following the clues as to the whereabouts of the $5,000 man (pictured). Trudy was working that day at the Silk Road store in the Village shops. Rebecca and I felt like the prize patrol people you see on TV, right behind the man with the money to catch our winner's reaction and share in the excitement! She told us she's never won anything before, but I'd say she made up for it on one December day.

Making a Big Production Out Of Everything

Appearances here aside, life isn't always a day at the beach for Jeff Branch, production director for Soft Rock 106.5 and Jammin' 107-7 here in Connecticut and Eagle Country 97-5 in Vermont. The production director job has become more central to the operation of a radio station than ever. In addition to most of the commercials you hear on our stations, Jeff's work can be heard on many of the "spec spots" that salespeople play to prospective advertisers. Both in-house air staff and outside voiceover pros are used in making commercial production second to none in this market. You can also hear Jeff's handiwork on other local stations. It's a high-pressure, deadline-driven job. That becomes readily apparent to the rest of us whenever he has a day off! Jeff relaxes by following NASCAR and going to Happy Hour - not necessarily in that order.

A Wakeup Call

My last New Year's resolution never seemed to take hold. I'll never see 50 again, so I figured my age had a lot to do with being so set in my ways that I couldn't easily modify my diet. Then came the rude awakening. Back in March, after a winter of bad eating and exercise habits, I began to experience an extreme thirst and unusually blurry vision that came on very quickly. There were some mornings when I shouldn't have driven to work. I googled the symptoms and "diabetes" came up right away. A visit to my doctor showed a blood glucose level of 465. That was enough to make me start seeing food as the enemy, but that wasn't the way to manage Type 2 diabetes. For the first couple of weeks, I avoided sweets entirely and drastically cut my consumption of carbs. The salad route worked quickly, with a 25-pound weight loss - the biggest drop in my life. I was amazed at how many people commented on my diminished dimensions, but more impressed at how a daily pill and keeping the house less stocked with baked goods have kept my blood sugar levels in check. Does that mean my diabetes is gone? I won't assume that, but I do feel better and look forward to a healthier winter than the last one. Diabetes is such a common condition today, and it's important to take care of it before it results in other health complications.