3 JUN 07: B.R. 549

"We're just rookies at this," said B.R. Johnson Friday afternoon. If you listened to WSHE-AM, that quickly became obvious. Columbus High School has experience in baseball championship series. At least one of the radio announcers did not - and amazingly, it seemed to be the older one.

I'm not sure when "Coach B.R. Johnson" was a coach in Columbus, but in recent years he's used that title to host a daily sports talk show on WSHE. Because Scott Miller was busy with Columbus State's championship game, Johnson was asked to do play-by-play for the first game of the Georgia AAA baseball finals. It's too bad Robbie Watson couldn't be lured back into doing sports....

Coach B.R. Johnson brings a down-home country-boy to the "High Noon Sports Show." But it sounded downright funny at times, during the first Dunwoody-Columbus game. He was SO FOLKSY that I almost expected the coach to pull out a mandolin between innings, and start singing bluegrass tunes.

Oh, excuse me -- they weren't innings. Coach B.R. Johnson called each one an innin'. The great Georgia native baseball announcer Ernie Harwell learned better than that -- but I don't know if he ever did high school games, like we do in Columbus.

Coach B.R. Johnson's talk show partner Chris Weber joined him for the Dunwoody-Columbus game -- and as I listened in the car, I knew right away the roles should have been reversed. The coach should have been the "color commentator" all day long, not simply in game two. After all, he declared one day the San Francisco Giant home uniforms were "more of a cream," and not white.

It was far more than the drawl which had me stunned by Coach B.R. Johnson. It was the things he said....

+ For one player, it was "not his first radio." He then corrected himself, to say "rodeo" - but visitors might have wondered if it was the coach's first in either one.

+ A Dunwoody player threw a "nice high school pitch." The coach never really told you if it was a ball or strike - but at least it was nice.

+ A player late in game one hit a "poop-up." When the Columbus Catfish had "Bark in the Park" night Saturday night allowing fans to bring dogs, I might have understood this.

+ He praised one player who hit a ball "really good." At this point, Chris Weber corrected the coach to say "really well." Columbus High has strong test scores, after all.

(But I'm not sure why Chris Weber bothered to correct the coach's grammar. Val McGinness does that all the time on WDAK's "Morning Show," and Weber says nothing.)

Coach B.R. Johnson apparently didn't even bring his own scorebook for the AAA finals, as he talked about having a scorekeeper alongside him. This puts him a cut above the Atlanta broadcasters, I guess....

Game two sounded much better with Chris Weber handling the play-by-play, but the outcome was not good for Columbus High. Dunwoody swept them 7-5 and 6-0 for the AAA title. But maybe Columbus had it coming - with "Blue Devil" baseball games on a radio station which plays Southern gospel music.

Plenty of businesses sponsored the AAA finals on WSHE - but why was one of those businesses Big Mama's Fireworks? Do they want all the Columbus teenagers to go buy firecrackers in Lee County, take them back to Georgia and break the law?

The outcome also was disappointing for Columbus State, as Tampa topped the Cougars in the Division II World Series finals 7-1. So the only big baseball title of the spring in this area goes to Glenwood, following its two state titles in high school basketball. Imagine if anyone there ever figures out how to make room around the football field for a running track.

E-MAIL UPDATE: Now we move from radio to television....

Richard, Who are the subscribers to Cable TV of East Alabama (formerly Phenix City Cable) supposed to believe? Is it our monopoly cable company or Channel 9? First we get a letter last Sat informing us that Ch 9 is requiring Cable TV of E Ala to pay them for each subscriber or they will cut Ch 9's signal. They urge us to let them know if we want to pay an increase in monthly rates or if we want Ch 9 dropped. Then the following Tues. we get June bills in the mail with the announcement that our cable bills will increase next month. They were certainly mailed out before CTV of EA had time to tally the results of their survey. And by the way we just had a cable increase in January. Then we hear the General Manager of Ch 9 saying on TV that CTV of EA is not being truthful to its subscribers. Now the newspaper says that we will continue to receive Ch 9 and that we will not get an increase in rates - that CTV of EA will pay Ch 9 the fees they want to continue to carry their signal without passing the increase on to their customers.

And at the same time we're told that the majority of subscribers who replied to the survey want Ch 9 dropped from our line-up if it increases our monthly bills.

Then we hear through the "grapevine" that Mr. Roy Greene, owner of CTV of EA has purchased the Phenix Citizen newspaper and that he wanted to get his cable subscribers to pay for his newspaper purchase.

By the way we pay $43.53 a month for basic cable! All of the consumer magazines say that if you only have one cable company in your area you are paying too much for cable. Why do you think we have only one company? I believe Columbus has at least three companies and the Auburn/Opelika area has several companies. Cable TV of East AL serves Phenix City, Russell County( including Seale, Ft. Mitchell and Hurtsboro), Smiths Station, the whole Smiths area and Salem. Surely the population of this area is more than the Auburn/Opelika area.

Some people say they have a monopoly because of the political clout of the owner and some say the City councils of Phenix City and Smiths Station and the county commission in Russell County have given CTV of E Ala exclusive rights.

And maybe you can answer this question. Can CTV of E Ala legally drop Ch 9 or would the "must carry" rule apply?

I would like to have Alabama channels offered but I'm told the "must carry" rule requires our cable provider to carry the local stations (even though they are in GA). I've been told that Ch 38 filed legal papers to keep us from receiving WSFA in Montgomery because it is an NBC affiliate like Ch 38.

Because our cable company is not allowed to carry Alabama stations those of us in East Alabama miss out on the many public service programs and news of our state. Oh yes, I do realize Ch 9 and Ch 3 carry some AL news. I realize their dilemma. If they carry too much their GA viewers get upset.

And to make matters worse, Georgia Public Television comes in much clearer on our cable than AL Public Broadcasting.

I wish I knew the percentage of residents on this side of the river who have just given up and are now dish/satellite subscribers.

Thanks for listening Richard (I know this was lengthy).

For now a Cable TV of East Alabama subscriber

What we have here is a classic feud between broadcast stations and cable TV. Believe it or not, it's been going on a lot longer than the "greenspace versus park" feud.

The newspaper has the most current version that I'm aware of - that Cable TV of East Alabama will go ahead and carry WTVM, without raising rates or blocking the signal. An e-mail to that effect was sent to subscribers the other day, explaining the company chose to "err on the side of caution." Something it didn't do, when it included WXTX in the blackout talk....

Your blog has seen a copy of Cable TV of East Alabama's e-mail to subscribers. It says the business made an "unintentional error" by including WXTX in its warning of a possible blackout - yet it took exception to WTVM's General Manager calling the claim "false." Which former government official wrote this e-mail, anyway?

I've also heard the story about new ownership at the Phenix Citizen-News being connected to Cable TV of East Alabama. Perhaps the two will combine, to offer more Alabama news to its customers. After all, those Opelika-Auburn News reporters seem so comfortable and at home on WRBL....

You may think Auburn and Opelika have several cable options, but they really don't. The Yellow Pages lists only one company in each city -- and we noted here last year the cable systems have NO public access channels [27 Jan 06]. So you can't even go on the cable system and rant about its monopoly status.

I'm no attorney in broadcast law -- but I think Cable TV of East Alabama legally can cut off WTVM's signal. But given what happened with WLTZ, I doubt the business could substitute another ABC station. That's probably a good thing, because the station in Montgomery has very little local news -- and awhile back, it had a "fairy" presenting the morning weather. [True!]

(By the way, did you know WSFA in Montgomery is owned by the same company which owns WTVM? So Cable TV of East Alabama could have found itself in double trouble - and you may have wound up watching Atlanta stations.)

We'll have to get to other e-mails another day, because the hour is late - and we need to wrap up other news of the weekend:

+ Rain fell across Georgia for the first time in weeks, as Tropical Storm Barry moved north. How many firefighters along the Florida line had a "Saturday Night Live" flashback, and declared the rain was "Barry Barry good to me"?!

+ Someone found an unexploded bazooka in Columbus - and decided to take it to a friend at the Springer Opera House. Someone needs to spread the message that "We Were Soldiers" is a movie, NOT a stage play.

+ The U.S. Border Patrol held two days of job interviews at the Columbus Trade Center. There should have been a lot of applicants and hiring here - since so many people in Columbus seem able to spot illegal immigrants 100 yards away, simply by looking at them.

+ The Muscogee County School Board held a retreat at Columbus State University. WRBL showed Carmen Cavezza of C.S.U.'s Cunningham Center leading one discussion - leaving us remembering the good old days in Columbus, when city managers and school boards actually got along.

+ The Chattahoochee Valley library system's summer reading program began with a day of outdoor fun at the central library. So which table had more children pick up souvenir buttons and petitions - the greenspace table or the park table?

+ The Bradley Theater hosted a 12-hour marathon, with 12 different bands. If you meet someone who sat through all of this, be sure to speak loudly and slowly in their ears for the next two weeks.

+ Instant Message to the driver of a Toyota with the license tag "EMANU L:" I'd never seen that before - a flag outside the car window for a church, similar to what college sports fans show off on game days. How close can you park to the church door with that?

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