Hark! Cue the Angels! Its Friday! And not only is it Friday, its The Friday of the Whole Year! At least for school kids, and people like me who are burning some seriously needed vacation days. Weve reached the 19th of December, six days before Christmas. This particular weekend is ideally timed for busy people to attack their shopping. I must tell you that its expected to rain like hell. Todays the day of K103s annual live Christmas broadcast, from our T-Mobile Sky Lounge, aka the studio space on the 4th floor. Im really proud of what this has evolved into. Its a good old radio show, with live music by diversely talented people and a real-live audience that I only wish we had room for more. Dashing through the show this year we have a high school choir, an American Idol semifinalist, a rock violinist, two renowned pianists, one of Portlands favorite soul singers, the Queen of Rose Festival, and the Morning Show Alumni Glee Club. The schedule calls for us to sing Mele Kalikimaka at about 6:52. Well also deliver the benchmarks and services that people expect from us in morning drive, including headlines, which means Ive better round some up. So heres whats going on today. In a few days well be ringing the Christmas bells...and wringing out everything else. The incoming deluge is in a long fetch stretching all the way from the South China Sea, and its broad enough to affect the US West Coast from Eureka to Vancouver BC. Youll hear about rivers exceeding flood stage. There might be sandbagging and sump pumps will hum. And the tree lighting in Government Camp Saturday night? Well, instead of a winter wonderland, itll be like holding up a candle in a cold shower. The US is contemplating its retaliation against North Korea for the hack attack on Sony Pictures. Best idea so far is from the Human Rights Foundation, which suggests hacking them right back, and putting masses of truthful information into the hands of every North Korean about the despotic regime that lords over their starving nation. In the staredown with Mayor Charlie Hales, Uber has blinked. Theyre suspending ride calls originating in Portland for three months while the city updates its taxi rules to acknowledge the reality of ridesharing services. You can still catch a ride from the suburbs into town...and thats half the battle. I went downtown yesterday for lunch with a bunch of radio folks at Hubers. Parking was virtually impossible, and some of my pals bagged it. They shouldve taken Uber to Huber. Lakeridge High Schools back in a media spotlight, with reports that incoming members of the Pacer Dance Team were subjected to humiliation in a truth or dare hazing ritual last summer. The district says it investigated, and found a need for everyone to be trained to avoid bullying, and intimidation. (I was Lakeridges football PA announcer for 12 years and never had anything but the highest regard for the Pacer Dance Team. I interacted with their coaches at every game, and they were professional and courteous. The student body was always jazzed by their halftime performances.) A Channel 2 report on power outages, of which we had plenty a couple of weeks back, says that in the past four years, the wait times have doubled for PGE to get the lights back on. Thats explained by differences in where the outages are; hilly and forested areas take much longer to restore than urban areas with a concentrated population. Have you seen this? NASA can see our Christmas and other holiday lights from space! (Not to be confused with NSA, which also may know when were naughty and when were nice). Happy weekend! Ill check in at random over these holidays but thisll be the last morning update thing until the numerically harmonious date of 1/5/15. Meantime, your morning compadres Bruce, Janine, and I hope you enjoy this mornings live Christmas show on 103.3 in Portland, and K103 on iHeartRadio, and that your day is merry and bright!
Posted on: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 11:46:39 +0000