HARD TO BELIEVE THE HOLIDAYS ARE ALREADY HERE & SO ARE THE PARADES! I GOT THIS EMAIL FROM PAT LYDICK FROM THE LONG BEACH JR. CONCERT BAND!
Checking schedules for you as well as for Long Beach Junior Concert Band. We were hoping to see you in person at one of the Christmas parades so we could say thank you talking with me on the air. Thanks to you we had some listeners stop by and check us out. We’re still looking for more musicians and girls for pageantry, but thanks to you we managed to add a few. Please let us know if you’ll be at any of the following parades:
Huntington Park Nov.22
Hollywood Lane Nov. 30
Belmont Shore Dec. 6
City of Bell Dec. 13
LB Daisy Tree Lane Dec. 13
South Gate Dec. 14
If not you are always welcome to stop by for a visit during one of our rehearsals on Thursday nights from 6:30pm to 9:30pm at: 3221 Industry Drive, Signal Hill, Ca 90755 For that matter, bring everyone! We’d be glad to see ya!
Pat Lydick
NOTE TO PAT: As a matter of fact, Pat, just yesterday I was booked for the first parade on your schedule as the TV host with my longtime co-host Xiomara Galindo, for the nighttime Huntington Park Parade, Saturday, November 22nd! It’s been a few years since I last hosted that one, but it will be taped for playback Christmas Day on KDOC-TV. And then for the 19th straight year, Xio and I will team up to host the Southgate Christmas Parade on Sunday, December 14th, taped for playback on Christmas Day on Channel 13. Happy Holidays to you!
THEY SAY A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORD’S! HERE’S ONE!
MOVING MOMENT ON THE CMA AWARDS LAST NIGHT WITH CARRIE UNDERWOOD!
AND ON “ELLEN” THIS WEEK, TAYLOR SWIFT HAD HER “BEST DAY EVER”!
EVEN JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE SURPRISED TAYLOR ON ELLEN’S SHOW!
IS THERE A BROTHER/SISTER DANCING TEAM THAN THE HOUGH’S? AND THE INCREDIBLE THING IS JULIANNE JUST GOT OUT OF THE HOSPITAL!
PAULA ABDUL’S FAN NOT A STALKER, FAMILY SAYS AFTER APPARENT SUICIDE!
The family of Paula Goodspeed is coming to her defense following her apparent suicide outside Paula Abdul’s home earlier this week. “She was not a stalker,” Charles McIntyre, Goodspeed’s only brother, said Thursday.
McIntyre, who lives with his family in Oakland, Maine, said his sister moved to California five years ago with only one dream: to be a star. “She went down there to have a career, and when she went down in front of those American Idol judges, it was over,” said McIntyre. “She was just like anyone else, trying to make it big as an actor or singer.”
McIntyre said their mother and Goodspeed’s boyfriend are in L.A. waiting for the body to be released from the coroner’s on Saturday. The funeral will take place in Maine.
Sources say the 30-year-old Goodspeed had been obsessed with Abdul for the past 17 years. Her fixation led her to twice auditioning to appear on American Idol, including her now-infamous, Simon Cowell-maligned 2005 audition in Austin.
Goodspeed’s death Tuesday night, which police suspect was a suicide, was not her first house call to Abdul’s Sherman Oaks abode.
Sources reported that two or three months ago, Goodspeed tried to commit suicide by overdosing on pills outside the residence.
NBA SEASON UNDERWAY, KOBE AND THE LAKERS ARE LOOKING GREAT, BUT TAKE A LOOK AT THIS DUNK BY LEBRON JAMES FROM THE FREE THROW LINE!
TWO MORE PICTURES FROM CHICAGO FROM THIS PAST WEEKEND!
AND THIS ONE BELOW CAN TRULY BE CAPTIONED “CALIFORNIA DREAMING”!
THE WIND CHILL WHEN THIS WAS TAKEN WAS BELOW FREEZING IN CHICAGO!
SENATOR JOHN McCAIN MAKES FIRST POST ELECTION APPEARANCE ON LENO!
PART 2 OF THE McCAIN INTERVIEW ON JAY LENO LAST NIGHT!
PART 3 OF SENATOR JOHN McCAIN’S APPEARANCE ON LENO’S “TONIGHT” SHOW!
MY LISTENERS AND WEBSITE FOLLOWERS ARE JUST AMAZING! MONDAY, I HAD POSTED THIS EMAIL IN THE “TALKBACK” LINK ON THIS WEBSITE!
Trivia Inquiry
Received: 11/10/2008 @ 11:16am PST
From: Joe Hobson
Hello Charlie Tuna.
I have a question that I have been attempting to get answered for a while. And, you, for someone that has been in the DJ business for so long would, hopefully, be able to answer.
There was a song back in the mid to late 60s that had these words: “oh yes its plastic, you know its plastic” and another section was “it was 36-24-36, but you know its plastic….”.
I have been contacting others in attempt to get the name of this song and where I could possibly get a copy. So far, no one seems to remember this song.
Your help would be appreciated.
Keep the music turning.
Joe Hobson
(NOTE TO JOE: Sorry Joe, You got me stumped on this one too. The only song that would be even close that I remember is “Plastic Man” by the Kinks, but that’s not it!)
TUESDAY, I GOT THIS FOLLOW-UP EMAIL FROM STEVE NIETO IN YORBA LINDA!
The Serendipity Singers had a song called “Plastic” with the lyrics close to what Joe stated. (The lyrics listed the measurements as 38-24-36.) The website http://www.themadmusicarchive.com/ has it and a 45 second cut from the song to listen to.
Steve Nieto
Yorba Linda
SO IF YOU’RE EVER STUMPED ON A SONG, SEND ME A NOTE, AND IF I DON’T KNOW, I’M PRETTY SURE SOMEONE OUT THERE WILL!
THE AIRPLANE THAT LOST ITS’ WING VIDEO EVERYONE’S BUZZING ABOUT!
ONE LAST FUNNY THOUGHT FOR THE DAY!
Jesus and Satan were having an on-going argument about who was better on the computer. They had been going at it for days, and frankly God was tired of hearing all the bickering.
Finally fed up, God said, ‘THAT’S IT! I have had enough. I am going to set up a test that will run for two hours, and from those results, I will judge who does the better job.’
So Satan and Jesus sat down at the keyboards and typed away.
They moused.
They faxed.
They e-mailed.
They e-mailed with attachments.
They downloaded.
They did spreadsheets!
They wrote reports.
They created labels and cards.
They created charts and graphs.
They did some genealogy reports
They did every job known to man.
Jesus worked with heavenly efficiency and Satan was faster than hell.
Then, ten minutes before their time was up, lightning suddenly flashed across the sky, thunder rolled, rain poured, and, of course, the power went off. Satan stared at his blank screen and screamed every curse word known in the underworld. Jesus just sighed.
Finally the electricity came back on, and each of them restarted their computers. Satan started searching frantically, screaming: ‘It’s gone! It’s all GONE! ‘I lost everything when the power went out!’
Meanwhile, Jesus quietly started printing out all of his files from the past two hours of work. Satan observed this and became irate. ‘Wait!’ he screamed. ‘That’s not fair! He cheated! How come he has all his work and I don’t have any?’
FIRST, A SALUTE TO THOSE WHO SERVED ON THIS VETERAN’S DAY!
I had mentioned yesterday about how disappointing it was that when my friend Larry Lujack, a Radio Hall Of Famer himself, who flew in from his home in New Mexico, got all dressed up in a tuxedo (which he hates to do) as my official inductor, and then was limited to just 30 seconds to do a planned minute and a half speech he had prepared (he’s seen crumpling it up in the above picture).
Now, in talking with Larry last night, there was a problem with the hotel billing for his stay, and someone forgot to tell the hotel that the National Radio Hall of Fame was picking up the tab, so Larry had to fight with them to get it straightened out when he was trying to check out Sunday and catch a plane. I promised Larry last night, if I ever receive any more radio honors, I will see to it that he’s invited to share the stage with me and finally deliver his long awaited speech.
THERE WERE OTHER LOCAL RADIO PERSONALITIES ON HAND AT THE NRHOF!
Geoff Edwards (pictured above) was the presenter for L.A. morning legend, Dick Whittinghill, who helmed KMPC’s morning show for 29 years (1950 to 1979). Dick passed away in 2001, and his daughters, Willy and Nora Whittinghill (seen below), accepted the award on their father’s behalf.
Willy observed that “famed L.A. Times sports columnist Jim Murray once wrote a column about our father. He coined the phrase “radio personality” to describe him because Whit did more than just spin records. Well the name stuck, and now there are many people here tonight, and around the country who use that title radio personality, because of Dick Whittinghill.”
Art Bell (seen above), the first of the inductees Saturday night, was surprised by a 1 minute video message from his 96 year old mother, who told of her pride in Art, no matter what he may have turned out to be. “To me, being honored in the National Radio Hall of Fame as a pioneer, is as good as it gets” said Bell, who switched from politics to paranormal subjects which ignited his career, shortly after it began.
Here’s just some of the crowd in the room of 420 guests who were on hand in Chicago!
And here I am walking the very cold streets of Chicago Sunday morning!
A view of the Chicago river, not far from my hotel where the ceremony was!
And the Chicago Marina Towers right across from the hotel in the Windy City!
Once again, here’s the video link to the National Radio Hall of Fame ceremony!
Charlie delivers his National Radio Hall of Fame induction speech Saturday night!
LARRY LUJACK, CHARLIE’S FRIEND WHO GOT CHARLIE A JOB IN BOSTON AFTER HE HEARD HIM IN OKLAHOMA CITY, AND THEN WENT ON TO BECOME A CHICAGO RADIO LEGEND, STRIKES A POSE WITH CHARLIE’S OFFICIAL NATIONAL RADIO HALL OF FAME TRADING CARD PORTRAIT AT THE CEREMONY!
LARRY LUJACK, A RADIO HALL OF FAMER HIMSELF, WAS CHARLIE’S OFFICIAL INDUCTOR INTO THE HALL OF FAME, AT CHARLIE’S REQUEST. THE LAST TIME THEY HAD SEEN EACH OTHER WAS AN APPEARANCE TOGETHER ON TOM SNYDER’S NBC “TOMORROW” SHOW IN THE MID 70′S, WHICH FOLLOWED JOHNNY CARSON.
CHARLIE AND LARRY WITH BRUCE DuMONT, PRESIDENT OF THE RADIO HALL OF FAME, AFTER THE NATIONAL RADIO HALL OF FAME CEREMONY, SATURDAY NIGHT, NOVEMBER 8TH, 2008!
RADIO HALL OF FAMER JIM BOHANNAN, ANNOUNCER FOR THE EVENT, MICKEY LUCKOFF, PRESIDENT OF THE #1 RATED STATION IN SAN FRANCISCO FOR DECADES, KGO-AM NEWSRADIO, WITH CHARLIE BEFORE THE HALL OF FAME INDUCTION FOR MICKEY AND CHARLIE THIS YEAR!
JOHN GEHRON, HARPO RADIO NETWORK HEAD OF OPRAH’S NETWORK, CHARLIE, LARRY LUJACK, AND MARTY GREENBERG, FORMER ABC EXECUTIVE, WHO INDUCTED MICKEY LUCKOFF INTO THE HALL OF FAME, PICTURED HERE BEFORE THE DINNER AND CEREMONY!
THE TABLE PLACE SETTINGS FOR THE RADIO HALL OF FAME DINNER SATURDAY!
MORE PICTURES AND PHOTOS TOMORROW, BUT HERE’S THE DETAILS OF THE NATIONAL RADIO HALL OF FAME INDUCTION CEREMONY FOR CHARLIE TUNA ON THE LARADIO.COM WEBSITE TODAY!
YOU CAN VIEW THE VIDEO AND AUDIO OF THE HOUR LONG CEREMONY AT THE NATIONAL RADIO HALL OF FAME WEBSITE LINK BELOW. CHARLIE’S INDUCTION WITH LARRY LUJACK’S INTRODUCTION, WHICH WAS ALMOST ENTIRELY CUT BECAUSE OF TIME CONSTRAINTS OF THE BROADCAST, IS RIGHT NEAR THE END AT ABOUT 47 MINUTES INTO THE VIDEO! CHARLIE WAS AS DISAPPOINTED AS LARRY WITH THE TIME LIMITATION ON LARRY BECAUSE LARRY HAD BROUGHT THE HOUSE DOWN WITH HIS SPEECH AT HIS EARLIER NAB HALL OF FAME CEREMONY IN LAS VEGAS THIS PAST APRIL!
If you’re reading this, I’m on my way or in Chicago now for this weekend’s National Radio Hall Of Fame induction ceremonies. What a perfect time to be in Chicago too, with that city’s excitement level kicked up several notches with their Senator son now the new President-elect of the United States. As several friends have told me, I couldn’t be traveling there at a better time in history, Chicago’s got a great vibe going for it now!
The picture above is my mom with me at my induction into the Nebraska Broadcaster’s Hall of Fame back on August 19, 1999. It was very appropriate mom was there, because she and my dad, who had died a few years earlier, were (mom still is) my greatest audience my whole career. And a huge Thank You to my family who like to be kept very private, but it goes without saying, my wife Shari and our 4 children, Michelle, Christy, Daniel and Bryan are my best audience too! I’ve mentioned more than once, I wouldn’t even be in radio anymore without the help from my tech savvy sons Daniel and Bryan.
As I pointed out last September in this news column, I’ve been in radio a long time, longer than any of my bosses, and most of my contemporaries. I’ve learned a lot more from my listeners than any seminar, research study, or focus group that has ever been presented to me. And the email’s in Tuna Talkback are a pretty good example why people listen to, not necessarily just me, but to radio.
There’s an emotional connection theme that runs through all of your emails that is the reason radio will always have a place in our everyday lives, no matter what new technology comes along for entertainment delivery. Even after all my years behind a microphone speaking to an unseen person (you) listening out there somewhere, I’m still surprised by what an impact a radio personality has on your life.
Thinking back though, I shouldn’t be! It was a morning radio personality in my hometown of Kearney, Nebraska that connected with me when I was just 5 years old. His name was Jack Lewis or “Honest John” as he was sometimes referred to, and my mom and dad always had his show on when I was getting up. I can still hear his laughter with the newsman and farm reporter in the studio each morning as they talked about the day’s events.
He had a dressing race every morning for the kids getting ready for school, where he said he had this “magic scope” that could see us and who was lagging behind, and would mention specific names and streets (no doubt supplied by the parents who were having a tough time getting their child up), and each morning would declare either the boys or the girls as the winning group. Lord knows, I tried everyday to do my best for the boys’ side to help us win. And he would tell wonderful UFO stories (or Flying Saucers as they were called back then), plus he was the man who gave me the good news in the winter that I didn’t have to go to school, because an overnight blizzard had shut everything down. This man, who I had never seen, ruled my life in the morning, and I wanted to grow up to be just like him.
My mom and dad recognized this and paid $8 to my Uncle Bud for a record player. I used to sit in my room from that moment on, announcing songs and reading bits and pieces out of the newspaper and pretending I had my own radio station that I was broadcasting on. I shut the door to my room though, so my coverage area wasn’t that widespread.
As it turned out, when I was 11 years old I got the house of Jack Lewis as part of my newspaper delivery route, and I’ll never forget the first time I went to get the regular monthly payment for the paper from him and he answered the door. I couldn’t even make eye contact with him, I was literally frozen with excitement seeing my hero standing right there in front of me. I vaguely remember mumbling a quiet “Thank You” as I gave him a receipt and it must have taken me a half hour to be able to breathe normally again after that. I was in a complete daze!
Later at 16, after a 2 year stint spinning records as the DJ for the local youth center (my big break into the business), I wound up doing the very morning radio show Jack Lewis had hosted until he had moved to Colorado a few years earlier. My one huge regret in life, is I never got to thank him for being the inspiration for my career in this business that I so dearly love, because he died while only in his 40′s and I never had gotten the courage to even contact him because I still held him in such regard that it was too overwhelming.
That’s why I value your emails so much. You and I can talk about things we might not have the courage or opportunity to say otherwise, and we can both learn…..with no regrets later.
Jack Lewis will be the first 2 words of my acceptance speech into the National Radio Hall of Fame because of the story I just told you, but there are so many other names already in the Radio Hall Of Fame that have made me who I am today on the radio.
Jack Benny was the first face I ever saw on a black and white television our neighbors on the bottom floor of a 3 story apartment house in my hometown had invited us to watch one night with them. I was 12 years old and television was just a couple of years younger, but I had grown up listening to Jack Benny’s radio show, which even today when you listen to those old shows of his, it was comedy that still stands up to anything out there today. Great writing, terrific characters, and an overall presentation that dwarfed what I was finally standing there watching at 12 years old reduced to a 21 inch box.
That’s always been what makes radio a medium that will never go away…if it’s done right!
There are other names that are in the National Radio Hall Of Fame that helped form part of the composite of influence that resulted in my own unique personality today. Larry Lujack (a legendary Chicago radio personality who I’ve asked to induct me this weekend), Vin Scully, Edgar Bergen, Arthur Godfrey, Bob Hope, Don McNeill, Bill Stern, and some good friends of mine that I’m proud to have known for years, including Dick Clark, Stan Freberg, Casey Kasem, and a couple of more who I worked with, the late Robert W. Morgan and another friend and former business partner, the late Wolfman Jack. They’re already there, which is why now being included among those names makes this an honor I will cherish forever.
A very special Thank You too, to all of your listeners, some of you have followed me for my entire 41 year career in Los Angeles radio, and others even before that. I mentioned Larry Lujack earlier. He was a Seattle radio personality who was driving across the country on his way to a new job in Boston in January of 1967, and heard me on my morning radio show on KOMA in Oklahoma City, thought I was a good talent and told his new boss in Boston about me. I was offered a job shortly thereafter and joined Larry at WMEX in Beantown. It wasn’t long after that though that Larry was offered a job in Chicago at WLS, and I had a job offer from KHJ in Los Angeles, which I accepted in November of 1967!
I can’t put into words what your loyalty, support, and enthusiasm for my radio work means to me. I wouldn’t be in Chicago and National Radio Hall of Fame without each and everyone of you. Pictures and highlights will be featured here on Monday!
SOMETIMES YOUR “TITANIC” MOMENT IN LIFE IS SPOILED UNFORTUNATELY!
POST ELECTION CARTOON HUMOR!
AND THERE IS FINALLY PEACE ON “THE VIEW” AGAIN BETWEEN THE LADIES!
DID YOU SEE THE TELEVISION FIRST ON CNN ELECTION NIGHT…HOLOGRAMS!
SOME VERY BAD PUNS FROM A FORMER RADIO BOSS DAVE ANTHONY!
1. The roundest knight at king Arthur’s round table was Sir Cumference. He acquired his size from too much pi.
3. She was only a whisky maker, but he loved her still.
4. A rubber band pistol was confiscated from algebra class because it was a weapon of math disruption.
5. The butcher backed into the meat grinder and got a little behind in his work.
6. No matter how much you push the envelope, it’ll still be stationery.
7. A dog gave birth to puppies near the road and was cited for littering.
8. A grenade thrown into a kitchen would result in Linoleum Blownapart.
9. Two silk worms had a race. They ended up in a tie.
10. Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
11. A hole has been found in the nudist camp wall. The police are looking into it.
12. Atheism is a non-prophet organization.
13. Two hats were hanging on a hat rack in the hallway. One hat said to the other, ‘You stay here, I’ll go on a-head.’
14. I wondered why the baseball kept getting bigger. Then it hit me.
15. A sign on the lawn at a drug rehab center said: ‘Keep off the Grass.’
16. A small boy swallowed some coins and was taken to a hospital. When his grandmother telephoned to ask how he was, a nurse said, ‘No change yet.’
17. A chicken crossing the road is poultry in motion.
18. It’s not that the man did not know how to juggle, he just didn’t have the balls to do it.
19. The short fortune-teller who escaped from prison was a small medium, at large.
20. The man who survived mustard gas and pepper spray is now a seasoned veteran.
21. A backward poet writes in-verse.
22. In democracy it’s your vote that counts. In feudalism it’s your count that votes.
23. When cannibals ate a missionary, they got a taste of religion.
24. Don’t join dangerous cults: Practice safe sects!
