Newport Tales – Part I

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Last weekend my wife and I took a quick trip to Newport, Oregon. It’s a small city on the central coast. It’s also where I landed my first full-time job after college. I rolled into town Thanksgiving weekend in 1994 with hopes and ambitions and left in the spring of 2000 battered, disgruntled, and ready for a change of scenery.

Now every time I visit, I experience an emotional tug. This past weekend, it was a little stronger than usual. To understand why, it’s necessary to start from the very beginning…

Growing up, I loved the coast and wondered what it would be like to live there. It was always hard for me to leave and return home after a visit during summer vacation. Decades later, getting my first full-time radio gig in Newport meant I wouldn’t have to leave. I’d be a local rather than a tourist. A dream come true.

I was the first employee for a company called Elite Broadcasting. It was comprised of three owners: one silent partner who bankrolled most of the operation and a couple of guys, Jack and Keith, who had worked together years before and dreamed of having their own radio station. Both put up a good deal of their own money and were actively involved in the day-to-day management of the new station.

I came to know Keith over the previous year and traveled to Newport on occasion to see how progress was going on construction. As with any new operation there were quite a few false starts before things were up and running. I had eight or nine different start dates over that year before anything was finalized. I arrived in town about a week after the office furniture was delivered.

We were scheduled to go on the air in March of 1995. Over the course of the next three months we would have to build out the studio, install the transmitter and microwave units, erect the tower, hang the antenna, hire a few more people, load all the music, and complete myriad other tasks.

It was during this time that I got to be good friends with Keith. He became like an older brother and was eager to take me under his wing. There was only about a 10-year age difference between us, we were both alumni of the University of Portland, and our parents knew each other. That was a decent foundation to build on, both personally and professionally. It meant I was included in a lot of the ground floor activities that were going on.

More to come in Part II…

Loitering Naked and Other Health Club Crimes

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After a great deal of angst and threatened legal action, our neighborhood homeowners association is getting a promised clubhouse and swimming pool. Construction started this summer and should be completed next month. Since this asset will function as a mini-health club, now is a great time to review etiquette — considering the things I’ve experienced in actual health clubs and gyms. We want to stay good neighbors!

  • Even if you’re only on an exercise machine for a few minutes, please wipe it down. Your sweat doesn’t bother you, but it bothers me if I sit in it.
  • Don’t take magazines from the workout room into the restroom with you and then leave them on the stall floor.
  • Turn off the shower when you leave the shower area. Just turn the knob in the opposite direction!
  • While we’re talking about showers, how about buffer zone etiquette? If I’m on the end of an otherwise unoccupied shower nozzle row, please don’t choose the nozzle directly next to mine.
  • Yes, it’s great to see you again, too. But, if you don’t mind, I am trying to get to the workout room. You’ve completely undressed during our conversation and are now just hanging out — literally — chatting with me in the nude. Frankly, this situation has become awkward.

Can you relate? Is there something that bothers you about health clubs?

Allow Myself to Introduce…Myself

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I’m not a big fan of the Austin Powers movies, but that line the character used in one film made me laugh out loud. The writers did a great job of poking fun at how we can and do mangle the queen’s good English.

At some point we decided that “me” and “I” were too egotistic and started using “myself” rather than the correct personal pronoun. This tactic may soften a sentence, but it also sounds wrong in the best cases. In this instance it just sounds ridiculous.

That being said, allow ME to introduce myself….

My name is Clarke. I’m a broadcasting and consumer packaging veteran with a background in other communications-related areas — including writing and editing. (Ahhh…now the mini-rant makes sense!) Years ago I kept a blog and wrote daily entries. Eventually other commitments led to fewer and fewer posts until I stopped writing completely.

A lot of things interest me that cannot be summed up in a quick Twitter or Facebook post. So, here I am again. This time it’s my own website, and while I won’t write every day, I will post regularly.

About the website. What’s up with the name, you ask? Around the turn of the century, I started taking classes in web design. At one point I thought I’d be a full-time web developer, but doing the occasional job for friends or small businesses interested me more. It also fit my skill set a lot better. Every budding web person needs to have their own website, so in 2003, StormyWeatherDesign.com came into being. My cat’s name is Stormy, and I used to live on the Oregon Coast, which has some fantastically stormy weather during the winter. A name was born!

Until recently my website housed portfolios, resumes, vacation documentaries, old Flash practice pages from my online classes, and even some blank pages. Writing a blog is how I decided to completely revamp the site. Doing it with WordPress is like hitting the Easy Button. It allows me to focus on content and its management, rather than messing around with code.

Oh, and about the blog’s header photos. Those are mine, too. I’ve been an amateur photographer since I was a kid. While the pictures may suggest that I live in Hawaii, I don’t. I’m in the booming metropolis of Portland, Oregon. Hawaii just happens to be one of my favorite spots on earth, and I love shooting the landscape there. I’ll refresh those pictures every few months with new subject matter, but for now enjoy the aloha of the islands.

That is a whirlwind introduction. The topics I write about will be just as eclectic. We’ll laugh, cry and maybe even think a little. Feel free to leave your comments as we go.