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17 JUL 04 (early edition): LATIN HUSTLE?
A Friday afternoon drive around Columbus with my radio on raised some suspicions. Before you ask - no, it did NOT start with Bobby Peters's appearance on WRCG.
Last year I mentioned the weekend officially started for me at 1:00 p.m. Fridays, when "Ritmo Latino Radio" came on. But this Friday - no, señor. When you can understand all the words of the singers, something's definitely changed.
WSHE-AM 1270 kept the "Southern gospel" music playing, well into Friday afternoon. "Aha!" I thought to myself. If Mexico can have Montezuma's revenge, maybe this change was Jose Ricci's revenge -- for his indictment?!
But a call to Clear Channel Radio eased my concerns a bit. Ritmo Latino Radio is NOT gone completely. Its weekend has been reduced, to only Saturday and Sundays. So it's fallen from 59 hours a week to 48 - meaning I'm eight percent closer to getting out my salsa tapes.
Jim Foster has been talking about increasing the amount of Southern gospel music on Columbus radio. With Friday afternoons and evenings added this week, that's happened -- and he didn't even have to put loudspeakers atop his "Carpets
on Call" vehicle to do it.
It's still a bit strange to have a Christian radio station NOT playing Christian music on Sundays. But with this latest change, WSHE may have just gained a couple hundred Seventh-Day Adventists on Friday nights.
BLOG UPDATE: Friday was Bobby Peters's turn to appear on WRCG's "Talkline" - and the most noteworthy part was not a denial, but an admission. Peters admitted he suggested someone else be appointed Superior Court Judge two years ago. If he'd only named Roxann Daniel, we could settle this whole thing right now....
Bobby Peters said when former Governor Roy Barnes interviewed him two years ago, he thought a Judge Godfrey (my apologies for not knowing her first name) was the most logical choice for Superior Court Judge. Peters explained Godfrey had seven years of judge experience. But Barnes chose someone else - so apparently losing to Sonny Perdue drove him crazy.
A couple of callers wondered why Bobby Peters was ready to defer to an experienced judge in 2002, but he isn't doing so this year. I can explain the answer this way: Peters has learned from that experience that being inexperienced gets you ahead....
Bobby Peters also explained those brochures he left on a table at the Government Center the other day - saying he left them there face-down, while he took part in "advance voting." Huh?! Why is Peters voting early? Is he so confident that next Tuesday's victory party will be on vacation at St. Simons Island?
Friday was also the "Dignity Day" march by civil rights groups - but Kenneth Walker's family was kept waiting at Brewer Elementary School for about an hour, because a bus of delegates from Atlanta was late. If that bus had carried G.B.I.
investigators, you would have heard the outrage all over town.
(BLOGGER'S NOTE: We plan to have a politics-free blog Tuesday, on Georgia Primary Day. If you have any last words to offer, let us hear them quickly.)
© 2003-04 Richard Burkard, All Rights Reserved.