Sunday, December 31, 2017

Ending 2017-Starting 2018...

This started as a personal post to Facebook,  but since I think it applies to WION as well, it occurred to me, "Why give MY personal thoughts and feelings to Facebook as we enter 2018?"  I'd rather put them in a place that's mine.  With that in mind, It's "digital housecleaning" today at the station as well as for me, personally! 

With the advent of the new year comes the NEW CBS radio news each hour (they've been slowly moving toward it for a week or so now) ....the removal of references to the retired Mr. Osgood, and the ending of the CNBC business minute! My father once told me,  "All holidays will be  different from each other" and I think the same can be said of new years' changes in both our personal and professional lives!  Of course, he was referring to the trying to keep traditions alive, and that sometimes year to year, changes in our celebrations are inevitable.


On the "WION side"...Unlike many stations who just look for things to "shove" on the air to replace what is no longer offered, we'd rather program FOR you and find things (as they find us) which we think are interesting. Thus, there's no replacement for Mr. Osgood's Files....but, in the meantime, CBS continues to be our news supplier, and I have my eye on a few features I think will be fun to hear on our station, and informative as well.  Give me a little time to audition these...and you may hear some new, fun things on our airwaves in January! 


Today is the last day of the year.  It finds me archiving old e-mails and paperwork, and physical SHREDDING is also on the agenda! (some things go away with the new year.)  Kind of feels good. One host on one of my favorite streaming services (TWIT.TV) calls it "the digital cleansing."  


It DOES feel good to hit the delete key on things no longer needed, free up virtual space, and blow-out things we no longer need or want to see on our computers and devices!


On the topic of new years resolutions, I have only two, and they work together: 


1) Simplify. This means in ALL avenues of my life...work, home, online. Cut down on things that create "static" in my life.  This means getting 
rid of physical things which have followed me through life that I no longer enjoy or need.  It also means less worry about things that are out of my control...but in places where I thought my input used to matter. Seems fairly simple to do, right?   Then there's the second resolution: 

2) Plan. Plan for what happens AFTER WION radio here in a decade or so. God willing, I'll be on the air a long time, and hopefully in the drivers' seat of WION....but "planning" only makes the future more reachable!  I've had 29 very happy  years in radio.  My ultimate retirement plan if I still have a functional voice and thought process...is to fall over dead at age 91 on a radio control board.  Aside from that, I'd like to be able to not be tied to any one particular radio location in about a decade, but still involved in broadcasting...somewhere.  That door has not opened for me...yet.


Will I be able to keep up the two resolutions? I can only promise to TRY. Hope you do the same with yours...and that you'll continue to enjoy the whole team's work at WION as we enter 2018!


Oh, and by the way...don't forget the old tradition tonight...(12/31) at midnight. Open the back door to let your old year out, and then do the same to let the new year IN! Not sure where that tradition came from, but it's one I was witness-to growing up. That AND...the yearly ringing of a very loud brass bell at midnight that my great grandfather supposedly made. (Heads-up Neighbors!!)


Happy New year to you...

-Jim Carlyle