A Picture Perfect Story!

Today I had one of those truly amazing things happen to me. By amazing, I mean something that you could never predict and only see on those last minute "feel good" news stories they play as the newscast ends.

I went to work and before I could be properly motivated to dig in for the day, I decided to check my Facebook account. I saw something in my inbox from a person I do not know. Unlike other social networking sites, I have never received spam on Facebook from people trying to get me to go to their site so I felt it was OK to read and respond.

The e-mail said:

"hi Lyle, You dont know me but im trying to locate someone with you name who i beleive is a wedding dj/entertainer?? and that visited las vegas in 07... trying to contact a Mr lyle o urgently but not sure his full surname.Please let me know if this is youmany thanks alex"

I responded that I do have a DJ business and was in Vegas in November of 07.

He came back with:

"oh my god, Its taken me a while to track you down.....i found something that may belong to you...Did you lose anything on that trip? "

Well, yes we did! We lost a camera.

Once I said that, he actually called me on my cell phone. This gentleman has been looking for me for 14 months only by my first name and last initial. How many Lyle Os could there be? I think he emailed many of them. That clue was only possible because of a picture of me in my tux and name tag on while DJing a wedding. He originally took it to lost and found but when they told him if not claimed, it would be auctioned off, he felt that he could do better.

He said he had given up on the big search process but would think of other ways to search from time to time and this time he tried Facebook and thought I looked like the guy he remembered in the pictures that he saw back in '07.

This story would be amazing enough without the next fact. Alex lives in London, England. I guess the WWW has made this a smaller world for a task like this but still, it adds challenges (thanks Al Gore).

I want to say thank you to Alex L. You truly represent all that is good and honest and would fall into a very small percentage of people in this world and for that, I cannot thank you enough.

We cannot wait to get this camera back and relive the vacation. I am only hoping that the same will happen with the camera we lost at Disney in May 08!

The End Is Coming and I Could Not Be Happier!

At first glance, one might assume this will be my inauguation blog....how Obama won't change much, how it is a false sense of hope. No, I am gonna let that one cook. My benchmar has been set as I received my 401K statement for July 1-December 31 today and it was only down 30.1%. That is the benchmark I will use to evaluate change.

This post is about radio. Today, Clear Channel cut their workforce by 9% nationwide including some semi-popular talk show hosts and inconsequential jocks at Kool 108 and other stations. The fact that they cut from multiple stations in one town is part of the problem. Any given company should only be allowed one AM and one FM station in a market. But I digress.

This is not about the Chad Hartmans or Doogies or any other half-assed radio personality. The cuts came at WCCO, the juggernaut and at KSTP AM recently. You see, local commercial filled radio is dying. Talk still has some edge but the music side is REALLY dying.

Stations locally like KQRS which advertises "their vault of albums" only plays about .0029% of it. According to them, the Eagles only recorded Witchy Woman and Hotel California. Don't get me started on the copycat morning show idiots such as Tom Barnyard. I am pretty sure his following includes a long list of people without any other exposure to other forms of entertainment and they are convinced HE is it. HE...is a fraud along with every other yuckster on his show.

Yes, the end is coming. It is time for everyone to realize it and make the move to satellite radio. Want top 40 (repeated over and over)? Channel 1. Want 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s deep cuts (seriously deep cuts), alternative country, songs like the Rodeo Song (unedited)? Go to satellite. Want sports? They are all there. Want sports talk, left wing talk, right wing talk, CNN, MSNBC, Gay talk or Oprah (please don't say yes to Oprah Al) - it is there too. Want comedy, playboy talk, or the original, King of all Media Howard Stern? That is there too.

I cannot feel bad for the locals. As the conglomerates continued to buy up every station in every major market, the quality went exponentially downward. I won't even rent a car without satellite anymore.

Good bye Clear Channel, AM/FM inc and all of you other giant medium killers.
Rodger Wilcox....Over and Out.

My Wish For Washington 2009

I don't think any of us should ever be surprised at the continuous scandal and garbage that happens in Washington. I once heard the statistics of offenses, bankruptcy ocurrences and overall scum committed between the members of the House and Senate in DC and it was apalling. If I could make one wish for the new empire of people designated to "protect" us, it would be that they simply work a little harder on picking low hanging and seemingly more obvious fruit.

You may remember a while ago when I was going on at my disgust for the lengthy process of confirming the Sirius-XM Merger. Stern said this week that he even had to do depositions as did his security guard, Ronnie the Limo Driver. They went through their appointment and notebooks looking for clues to confirm that Stern and others were only planning to railroad the public people and buy short or some stupid stuff like that. It was a total witch hunt.

We also all remember one of our better presidents, Bill Clinton was found guilty of getting a hummer from Monica BlewClinsky. At what cost?

Yet while they were protecting us from the Sirius-XM merger and making sure our president got in trouble for having his pole smoked, Bernard Madoff ripped off tons of people and charities of $50 billion. Simultaneously, Tom Petter did the same to many in Minnesota and elsewhere also in a Ponzi scheme. The totals for Petter are not out yet but numbers in the billions are floating for his scheme as well. I am not a Rhode Scholar but I am pretty sure Ponzi is derrived from the latin for "Invisible to the people set out to protect us".

I met a guy on a flight that is a truck driver. He said he had to go through 7 types of testing and validation to haul hazardous materials. We're not talking Plutonium and TNT....just corrosives and your run of the mill HAZMAT stuff.

So maybe someone will get a clue in Washington or wherever these geniuses reside that make the rules we need to follow and police the system to protect us. Until then, my suggestion is to sell the waterbed and buy a good old-fashioned mattress to put your money under until the Ponzis and Wall Street shenanigans are over.

Happy New Year.....Finally!

Here we are with 2009. I'll say it again....FINALLY! I like the holidays. Ah, let me adjust, I like most things about the holidays. It comes down to gifts. It is not the financial "hit" you take.....that does not bother me. It is the simple act of going, finding, thinking and buying what you think is a good thing for person "X" but really they could do without. You know this because they get you the same thing. Not the same thing - but just another thing that is nice but you could do without.

I love buying the kids - mine and others tons of things. That is what I love most. For adults, I think it is time for our families to do the name drawing thing and buy one big gift for one person.....from a LIST! It would be so much simpler! We live in a day and age where for the most part, most people but what they want for themselves.

Hey, I **LIKE** that.

And then you go buy it.

Somehow we get through these holidays every year. Maybe someday we'll get to just do the get together....the dinner (I'll even cook again)....and just celebrate not being at work and watching the kids have fun. Don't buy me anything. I really don't need it anyway.

Happy New Year to everyone.