MY FIRST ENTRY & ELVIS
BY DAN MILLER
(originally posted August 16, 2004)
This is my first entry in my new ‘blog’.
They used to call these things columns or journals, but now its a blog, one of those internet/cyberspace/computer jargon words that many, like me, had never heard of just a few short months ago.
The word ‘blog’ is sort of a contraction of “web log”.
Nowadays, it’s the way thousands, if not millions, of ordinary citizens are being read by the masses or, at least, little slices of the masses, without the use of paper or publisher.
I knew I’d have to come up with a title for the blog, and my wife Karen had only one request... don’t use the word ‘blog’ in the title. She seems to find the word somehow unsettling and not very attractive.
Another day, I’ll tell you some of the titles we rejected.
I will make fairly regular entries on this site, and I’ll attempt to keep them short and, hopefully, not controversial.
In truth, this will be more of a personal journal.Odds and ends and musings.You’re much more apt to read about my family and friends, or behind the scenes at Channel 4 stuff, or people I meet, than hard news or issues.
I’ll mostly stay away from partisan politics. There are enough media sources already taking one side or the other, and shouting each other down, in the great political discussions.
I write the way I speak on television.
And I’ll often begin sentences with the word “and”. (Weren’t we taught not to do that?)
If you’ve stuck with me this far, here’s something important to me.... I’d like to hear from you.
Send me e-mails. Questions or comments on TV news, or the people of Channel 4, or stuff happening in our great city.From time to time, I’ll include some of your thoughts and comments, and perhaps my reaction to them.
And for fun, I’ll ask you for personal “brushes with greatness”. It’s always interesting to know who’s encountered who, and under what circumstances.
And by the way, this is the 27th anniversary of the death of Elvis Presley.
It’s hard to believe it was 27 years ago when, down in the old newsroom here, we heard the bulletin bell ring on the Associated Press wire machines, typing out that Memphis police were reporting that Elvis had died.
Our News Director, Mike Kettenring, was a wonderful journalist... smart as a whip... but knew nothing of rock and roll music or performers. He actually asked me and Carol Marin (my co-anchor at the time) whether we thought this would be a significant story, and whether we should send a crew to Memphis.
Needless to say, we sent several crews who spent days in Memphis covering one of the big stories of the year.
The only people remaining in the Channel 4 newsroom who were here that day are Jim Buckner, a photographer at that time (who actually covered the story in Memphis), and me.
Of course, Rudy was doing the sports, and Bill was handling the weather chores.
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