Oregon Media Insiders

Stacey Lynn (Mix 107.5 DJ), Rebecca Webb (KINK morning drive news) and Dave McKay (K-HITS DJ) are the local victims of a 5 percent groupwide reduction in staff at CBS Radio today.

Rebecca Webb, as some of you know, was my anchor when I produced morning drive news at KINK in the early 90s. She remains one of my bestest friends in the whole wide world. This is what she sent me tonight in email:

Since I have been working without a contract since September, I was in jeopardy of being cut loose at anytime--and I was well aware of that.

Of course I have mixed feelings and wish I could have had a more graceful exit, a chance to say goodbye to listeners, etc., but when these large corporations decide they're going to shrink their budgets, they look for contracts that haven't been renewed, and so on.

I have a rather satisfying sense of freedom--although I will miss being on the air. That's show biz!

Frankly, I'm glad. Rebecca has been wasted in that spot since she came back to it. The radio business these days doesn't deserve her. The radio business these days doesn't deserve most of the people still working in it. Thank the Flying Spaghetti Monster for my bright red iPod and the intertubes so I can hear some interesting music and find out what's going on in the world.

Update and bump: Check this out--KINK got enough email and phone messages about Rebecca that they were compelled to have Les Sarnoff explain what happened. Except, of course, he didn't. He told the audience that Rebecca just up and decided to go to grad school one morning.

poof! Just like that.

Like she'd never tell her audience about a decision like that. Like no one remembers the first time Rebecca left KINK. (It was a week-long event. It was like a Cher retirement tour. It went on and on and on... ;) ) Everyone at KINK is real sorry and they'll miss her, but she's decided to go in a different direction. whatever.

Now as it happens, Rebecca IS going to go to grad school--poli sci at PSU, Les didn't make that up. And she'll be totally awesome. But really, what blatant BS this is, and how disrespectful to the listeners.

And as long as I'm bumping, check out Rebecca's daughter Ellen in the comments. Her analysis of the situation radio is facing, and how the corporations are completely missing their opportunity, is spot on.

One lovely thing about having a blog like this is I get to torture you guys with whatever I want on the weekends: Pictures of my kids, whatever. This week it's poetry--MY poetry. mwahahaha.

I got three hours to myself at a writing workshop featuring Kim Stafford for Valentine's Day.

I haven't been to a writing workshop in 25 years. That last time, I embarrassed myself so thoroughly with my own pomposity that I couldn't face doing another one and have actively avoided the teacher (a fairly prominent regional novelist) assiduously ever since. I don't think I embarrassed myself as badly this time, mostly because I kept my mouth mostly shut and it was only 3 hours whereas last time it was a regular weekly class. *shiver* bad memories...

One of the prompts was to write a love poem about the most beloved inanimate object in our houses. Since I have fibromyalgia, that would be my Tempurpedic bed, which I worship. Here is the poem:

Oh, bed. Oh, my bed.
In winter, you are comically hard when I first slip into you
Needing my heat to soften you to the point where you don't feel like a frozen board
Like I'm lying on the tundra, the permafrost
But oh, my bed
When you warm under my body, you mold around me and hold me up
All flannel and warmth, reflected back, my own warmth captured and transmitted into softness
And next to me, under the down and chenille
My boy, drowsy and moaning in his sleep
His mouth so soft and childlike and the little gray patch in his beard
I turn over on my side, careful of the box in my chest that keeps my heart from stopping
And you hold me up another night and let me sleep
Oh, my bed.

Positively Vogonesque. I love having my own blog.

So! Weekend! Sun! Whatcha doin?