I decided to take a break from watching news this afternoon, and I couldn't be happier with the channel I found.
Don't worry! I'm still a dyed-in-the-wool newsie. (More on that a bit later.) For a good part of this afternoon, I have been enjoying the Music Choice Yacht Rock channel on Cox. According to the info about the channel, I am "feeling the vacation vibes with a light mix of soft rock, pop rock, R&B, and smooth jazz from the '70s and '80s."
As I was writing this, Peter Brown was singing Dance With Me. I've also heard America's Sister Golden Hair, Earth, Wind & Fire's After the Love Has Gone, Starbuck's Moonlight Feels Right, Gerry Rafferty's Baker Street, and a couple from Christopher Cross, including Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do).
Other artists I've heard from include Fleetwood Mac, Dave Mason, Ambrosia, Billy Joel, Jackson Browne, Peter Frampton, Bread, The Pointer Sisters, Carly Simon, Little River Band, Steely Dan, Kool and The Gang, Player, and Hamilton, Joe Frank, & Reynolds.
I am usually skeptical of listening to a decades-specific channel or station as I usually hear a number of songs I haven't heard of or don't care for, but Yacht Rock is making my soul happy!
As for being a newsie, I image I always will be. News has been a part of my life since I was a child. Back in the dark ages, the Salina Journal ran a multi-chapter Christmas story for kids. I started reading that as a grade schooler. From there, I branched out to reading Cuff Stuff and some of the shorter stories in the Journal.
By sixth grade, I was hooked and convinced our teacher to let us do a class newspaper. The "newspaper" was one of the bulletin boards in the classroom on which we could put stories and pictures. I don't remember it lasting an entire year, but it was fun for a while.
In eighth grade, I signed up for the journalism class, and continued to do so each year once I got into high school.
My senior year, I was one of three high school seniors selected to write a column for the Salina Journal. The Journal selected one journalism student from each of the three high schools in town, and we were the first group. (I think the program only lasted a few years.) We were paid $15 per column to write about what was happening at our school. We alternated weeks, so my column appeared every three weeks.
I even had fans (besides my parents). I worked at Dairy Queen and had developed a friendly rapport with an older couple who were regulars. Once my first column, complete with headshot, appeared, they came in and waited for me to be free to wait on them. I smiled and asked them what I could make for them. They both got big grins on their faces and said, "we know who you are!" They were my groupies for as long as I wrote the column!
In college, after flirting with a couple of different degree options, I settled down and completed a Communications-Journalism degree. My first job out of college was working in the composing room at the Hays Daily News. It wasn't because I wasn't qualified to be a reporter. I was just having too much fun in college and didn't decide to pursue a job in the "real world" until it was too late and all of the reporting openings were filled.
I bided my time until a reporting job opened at HDN. I did that for a few years and then was promoted to assistant news editor. But all good things must come to an end, or so I thought. Because of some personnel issues, working at HDN became unbearable, and had me questioning whether I wanted to stay in journalism.
I started looking for other work opportunities at which I could use my God-given talent for writing, and ended up with a PR position at Emporia State. Those were fun times!
After doing more PR and marketing, and a little executive directoring at other places, I went back to my first love - journalism - and ran a local news website for several years.
Now I'm retired, but still greatly miss writing, thus I subject you all to this blog on a now more regular basis.
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