Monthly Archive for December, 2005

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1970 Pro-Vietnam War Sermon

Published by Waldo Jaquith on December 22, 2005 in General News. 1 Comment

Early May 1970 was a tumultuous time. May 4 brought Kent State, Nixon had just sent 30,000 troops into Cambodia, and on May 9, 100,000 people protested the Vietnam War in Washington D.C.

On May 10, in the thick of all of this, Dutch war hero and First Presbyterian Church minister Dr. Arie D. Bestebreurtje gave a fiery pro-war sermon, in reaction to national protests and protests held at UVa. It was broadcast by WINA at the time and, due to high demand, rebroadcast shortly thereafter. The event was all but forgotten until now.

Charlottesville blogger Colten Noakes bought a box of reel-to-reel tapes at a yard sale a couple of years ago, including one with the audio of that sermon. Colten has made the audio available on his website, and it definitely makes for a fascinating bit of history.

This is a great example of the value of internet archival of local media content. Though Dr. Bestebreurtje’s might have been noteworthy at the time, it’s downright fascinating these 25 years later. Day-old news might be worthless, but decade-old news is invaluable.

NBC 29 Weatherman Fired

Published by Waldo Jaquith on December 22, 2005 in Meta News. 5 Comments

I just got an anonymous e-mail that reads: “Chris Curtis, NBC 29’s newest weatherman has been let go. Rumors are flying and there are lots of unhappy people in that newsroom right now.”

I have no idea if this is true, but since his name has disappeared from their website (before, after), it certainly seems that he’s no longer with them. Can anybody confirm or clarify? NBC 29 employees who want to toss in their $0.02 but also value their anonymity are welcome to contact me privately.

8:00pm Update: I’ve now talked with several folks at NBC 29, all anonymously, who have explained what’s going. It seems that there are not, in fact, many unhappy people in the newsroom, save for those weatherfolk who have to work the Christmas hours that Curtis would have worked. I’m told that Curtis has been arrested twice for public indecency and lewd exposure, in February and October of this year. Apparently this happened while he was at WCIA-TV, in Champaign, IL. (Though multiple sources tell me this, I can’t confirm this independently.)

This is a problem for NBC 29 because of their “morals clause,” which requires on-air staff to maintain a solid public image — Curtis signed it without disclosing his arrests. Note that he has not been convicted of anything. I don’t know Illinois law, but in Virginia just taking a leak in the woods is enough to be arrested on these charges. Curtis has a court date in a month’s time.

NBC 29 News Webcast

Published by Waldo Jaquith on December 21, 2005 in Meta News. Closed

NBC 29 is doing something new — streaming their noon and 5pm news broadcasts. On the theory that a lot of people are at work then, but might like to watch the news anyhow, they’re making a stream available in Windows Media format. It’s a clever idea.

It would be extra clever if they’d archive those broadcasts and embed them in an RSS feed, so people could subscribe. That’d take an extra hour of work. Or if they could break up each broadcast into its component stories and podcast ’em, that’d be double plus good.

Interview with Professor Bebop

Published by Waldo Jaquith on December 15, 2005 in Music. 2 Comments

I’ve been listening to Professor Bebop’s R&B show on WTJU since I was a kid. It’s the show I’ve listened to more regularly, and certainly look forward to more, than any other local radio program. In the mid 90s, when I DJd at WTJU, I’d hoped I’d meet the professor himself, but I never did. Throughout, I’ve heard rumors that he’s actually a principal of a school in town, but I never knew if there was anything to it.

In this week’s Hook, Lisa Provence interviews Dave Rogers, aka Professor Bebop. (Shocker: He’s white!) Turns out he’s the principal at Jack Jouett, and used to be principal at Walker and Buford. The piece is a great read for fans of his show.

Albemarle Historical Markers

Published by Waldo Jaquith on December 15, 2005 in General News. 9 Comments

I just stumbled across a great website that catalogs the the locations and contents of every historical marker in Virginia. It’s maintained by M-CAM’s CTO, Jason Watson. I particularly like the Albemarle County section, because I’ve so often driven past those markers but had little success in reading them at 55mph. Every marker is mapped, photographed, and transcribed. Very cool!

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