17 MAY 09: Bueno for Wayno

It was a touching tribute on the Friday evening news -- but something seemed to be missing. If a news anchor is going to move to Panama, shouldn't you give him a Panama hat?

That's the eventual destination of former TV news anchor Wayne Bennett. Yes, he plans to retire to Panama -- the place where "Panama City" does NOT automatically come with a beach.

(Before you write me: yes, I'm aware "Panama hats" do NOT come from Panama. A dictionary I have shows Panama merely was a main distribution point for them. It's a bit like College Park, Georgia having no college for decades.)

When Dee Armstrong left the evening news last summer, Wayne Bennett hosted what he called the "first annual retirement party" for her. This weekend marks the second annual retirement, for Bennett. As for next spring - well, how old IS Phil Scoggins, anyway?

Several farewell bashes have been held for Wayne Bennett over the last few days. Here's hoping at least one of them paid tribute to his upcoming new home of Panama - and had people sing, "We wish you a merry isthmus."

(Did you notice how one of the other TV stations showed respect for Wayne Bennett? WLTZ's John Beard apparently was so emotionally overcome, he stayed off the air all week.)

Now that Wayne Bennett officially is retired, I can tell you he scouted around for a nice retirement spot for the last few years. He dared to think "outside the box" and consider locations in Central America. But no, I do NOT think he timed this to take the staff of "Viva 1460" with him....

Costa Rica has become a trendy retirement spot for U.S. residents. But it wasn't quite right for Wayne Bennett and his wife. Betty Bennett told me last year of plans to assimilate with people in a small Panamanian city. Hopefully the experience won't turn them into Pana-maniacs.

One challenge Wayne and Betty Bennett will obviously have is learning fluent Spanish. Maybe that's why they plan to spend a short time in Florida, before moving to Panama -- probably watching as many "telenovelas" on Univision as they can.

You may not know Wayne Bennett's wife Betty bakes marvelous cheesecakes, and tried to sell them as a home business a few years ago. People in Panama probably would buy some for special occasions - assuming they have as many "American restaurants" as Columbus does Mexican restaurants.)

We wish Wayne Bennett and his wife a happy retirement, wherever the road ahead takes them. But we hope Bennett doesn't have a flashback to the start of his journalism career in Vietnam, and try to recapture the Panama Canal.

By the way, regular blog readers will be glad to know history did NOT repeat itself in my neighborhood Friday evening. Unlike last June when Dee Armstrong left the air, the departure of Wayne Bennett was NOT followed by a visit from undercover drug agents [1 Jul 08].

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BLOG UPDATE: It was "farewell Friday" on Columbus radio as well, as the morning team of "Gladiola y Martin" said goodbye to listeners of WHAL-AM "Viva 1460." They admitted a tight economy was behind Monday's change to Fox Sports Radio - and yes, they warned listeners the new network will be in English.

Gladiola declared Martin "super-professional" in a final morning show which lasted 30 minutes beyond the usual sign-off time of 11:00 a.m. If only the people calling Viva 1460 had been the same way - as half the callers seemed to hang up before they went on the air.

No tears seemed to be shed on the air, as Gladiola and Martin ended their final broadcast with the happy sing-along song "Hoy es Viernes" (Today is Friday). You'll have to go to the Columbus Career Center Monday, and see if they're singing there.

It occurred to me as I listened to Viva 1460 Friday that Clear Channel tried very hard to make its Spanish station a success. Gladiola and Martin had one of the liveliest local morning shows in Columbus, right down to a theme song in their honor. They made the three guys currently on WDAK sound like grumpy old men....

Perhaps Gladiola and Martin will wind up at WTMQ-FM "Tropical 88.5." I'm not sure where else in Columbus they could go - especially since other Hispanic DJ's now are resorting to working weekend nights at restaurants such as Mi Casa. [True!]

Somebody's gotta ask it - where is the local Hispanic leadership these days? Or IS there any? We noted Friday all of the things "Latino Columbus" has lost in the last two months. The community is down to one weak-sounding radio station, a three-page "Eco Latino" section in The Courier -- and I'm being generous to count the annual WHINSEC open house at Fort Benning.

By the way, Coach B.R. Johnson apparently will NOT be on Fox Sports Radio 1460 after all. Today's Ledger-Enquirer reports he'll start a new afternoon talk show Monday on WRCG. Somewhere Paul Olson will be rejoicing -- and figuring out how to use sports metaphors in all his complaints about city government.

CLASSIC BLOG: Wayne Bennett was our first guest blogger, and offered a story from his TV reporting career. Here's what we posted 26 Dec 05:

In 1975, I covered a story that nearly soured me on sausage forever.

I was working as a reporter for WESH Television in Orlando, Florida when a call came in from a distraught farmer whose hogs were mysteriously dying. My photographer, Buddy Pittman, and I loaded up a news vehicle and headed out. The hog farm was located in a rural community called Bithlo. For those unfamiliar with the Orlando area, Bithlo is made up of numerous junkyards and trailer parks, a couple of liquor stores and, of course, one hog farm.

It was mid-August. The mercury was hovering somewhere in the upper 90s, so when we arrived at the farm, the air conditioner was blowing full blast. Nothing could have prepared us for what happened next. We opened the doors to get out and the smell assaulted us. If you've never smelled a pig farm, consider yourself lucky. It has a pungently overpowering scent that would gag a maggot. It certainly triggered the gag reflex in us. We jumped back in the car and slammed the doors, but it was too late. The smell had permeated everything. It was days before it completely went away.

After getting over the initial shock and pulling ourselves together, we once again ventured from the car to check out the farmer's story. He wasn't exaggerating. There were dead and dying hogs everywhere. Some of them were in rigor mortis. Others were barely clinging to life. It was not a pretty sight. We interviewed the farmer, filmed the carnage, and got the h**l out of there as quickly as we could.

In those days, we were still shooting our stories on 16 millimeter film. The editing process took place through a viewer that was about three inches square. When the story aired that night, what we could not see through the viewer was perfectly obvious on the television screen. As the farmer droned on about his pig problem, an Irish setter walked in over his left shoulder, squatted, left a steaming token of disdain, and walked away. My fellow reporters were in stitches. My News Director was not amused. Unfortunately, it didn't end there. As the story came to an end with a slow pan of dead and dying hogs by the dozen, we did not go back to the anchors. We did not go to a wide shot of the set. For some reason I still haven't discovered, we cut directly to a Jimmy Dean Sausage commercial. The sales department was upstairs at the far end of the building, and we could still hear their anguished screams echoing down the hallway. It was, needless to say, not my finest hour.

We later learned the hogs were being killed by contaminated feed. The source of the contamination, as far as I know, was never determined. Buddy Pittman later went into sports and is still working for WESH. I eventually wore out my welcome in Orlando and am now anchoring the news for WTVM....

BLOGGER'S NOTE: We'll wrap up other weekend news Monday. After all, that's how WRBL is doing it these days....

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