I’d argue that you could remove the “Cincinnati” from John Kiesewetter’s headline. Nobody else worked their magic in radio like Gary did.
I had the privilege of working with Gary for a couple of years back in the mid 90s. As a kid who always wanted to be on the air, and as a natural goofball, it was a dream come true. A three-hour comedy radio show? Sign me up!
Nobody was better than Gary at doing voices… I sat in the production studio in awe as Gary would switch between different characters, with totally different voices, in the blink of an eye. I learned more from him in a week than I did in all of my college comms classes.
I was only a minor moon in his orbit, at best a “fourth banana” among his crew, which included “Doc” Wolfe, “Nurse” Burns and “Dukie Sinatra.” But I got to write sketches for the show, do some character voices (Fabio, Snoop Dogg, Harry Carey, Tom Brokaw, etc.), serve as Gary’s editor in reviewing/editing the sketches submitted by his other writers, book interview guests, and put together the weekend “best of” show. And when Gary went on vacation, Duke and I got to fill in… the “Holiday Boys” as we called ourselves.
Doc Wolfe said it best in the Kiesewetter article: “Nobody in radio worked harder than Gary Burbank.” We would produce a ton of pre-recorded bits, as well as prep for the live segments.
“We did 30 minutes of recorded material a day, in addition to the live stuff we did on the air,” Wolfe says. “I’d start writing at 6 in the morning, and then we’d get into the studio at 10 and record and edit until he went on at 2 p.m.”
The exec who hired Gary at WLW-AM, Randy Michaels, has an encyclopedic knowledge of all things radio, and knew Gary was a singular talent:
“We loved Gary on the air, for good reasons. He was creative, talented, and he worked hard at his craft. That hard work made the end result sound effortless. There has never been anyone like him. I was in awe of his talent, and will miss him terribly,”
In addition to being a skilled impressionist of the names in the news (he could do Reagan, George Bush, Bill Clinton, Jerry Springer, and about a gazillion others), Gary had dozens of recurring characters who were far more than one-note gags.
I joined when the show was being syndicated. The fact that Gary’s characters were so richly drawn and performed actually worked against us. You had to spend some time with the show to understand the nuances of the characters. It’s a shame the show never really took off across the country, because Gary certainly had the talent to pull it off.
It’s funny: radio is nothing more than airwaves – here one second, gone the next. But through his hard work and talent, Gary created characters and bits that didn’t just tickle your funny bone — they burrowed into your brain forever.
Amen, Banker Bill!
John Kiesewetter’s article does a very nice job covering Gary’s life and career. Read the entire piece here.
Of course, I’m no beefcake like Derek Zoolander. But my name is right next to a Chicken Parm and a Tuna Melt… that’s practically the same thing.
I’ve written a few things for Cincinnati Magazine over the past few years. But this was the first time I pitched a story idea to editor John Fox. I ran into bassist extraordinaire Chris “Freekbass” Sherman at my local Kroger, and he mentioned that he was now doing a livestream six nights a week on TikTok. I’ve known Chris since my 97X radio days, and our kids went to grade school and high school together. But I had no idea he was a bona fide TikTok superstar. I thought it’d make for a pretty cool story. John agreed.
Chris is a very sweet dude and easy to interview. And of course, I’ve been known to chat a bit about music, so it was a fun story to write.
I couldn’t make it to the photo shoot, but the shots by Devyn Glista are amazing, and really capture Chris’ sense of style and his on-stage persona.
The layout, the typography… *chef’s kiss*.
I’m thrilled with the way it all turned out.
Getting a byline on the cover and being featured in the contributors section were just icing on the cake.
Freekbass was pumped about the piece too.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/kbw98WAY7WY
It’s not “my smilin’ face on the cover of the Rolling Stone“… but I can guarantee you that my face will be smiling all month long!
We’re alive because nothing bad happened to us. And nothing bad happened because a lot of good things happened. Vaccines. Food safety laws. Automobile and road safety regulations. Not sexy. Not headline news. Just life-saving.
Preparation, prevention, regulations, and safeguards prevent catastrophes all the time, but we seldom think or hear about it because “world continues to function” is not interesting news. We have to rely on statistical analysis and the expert opinions of planners and officials in order to evaluate both crucial next steps and the effectiveness of preparatory measures after the fact, and that can be challenging for us to pay attention to. So we tend to forget that preparation & prevention is necessary and discount it the next time around.
This past weekend, my friend Jay opened up Jukebox, a “beverage studio.”
Jukebox is America’s first custom sparkling beverage studio, where creativity meets refreshment. We mix premium ingredients, fresh flavors, and endless customization options to craft beverages that are as unique as you.
Jay and I worked together for many years. He left his VP gig in corporate America to start this business. He calls it a “quirky cocktail bar without the cocktails.” Think “dirty sodas” and flavored seltzers and slushies. (You can read more about Jukebox in Cincinnati Magazine and and CityBeat.)
I stick to water (“nature’s champagne”) for my beverage intake. (OK, sometimes it’s water with malted barley, hops, and yeast.) So I don’t fit the target customer profile. But Jay did the research on where to open his store. He also spent countless hours sourcing ingredients, testing flavor combinations, doing consumer research, refining the concept, the marketing plan, the social media strategy… all the million things that go into starting a business.
The odds are stacked against him, and against any small business. “If you build it, they will come” doesn’t always work outside of the movies. But I know Jay’s smarts, enthusiasm, and passion for getting it right will serve him — and his customers — well.
I also know he’s happier being his own boss. The safe route would’ve been to remain a cog in the corporate machine. But that’s not the route that brings him true happiness. And I’m happy that he’s able to pursue his dream, and add more flavor to his life. And yours!
If you live in the ‘nati, check out Jukebox. It’s at 5859 Deerfield Blvd in Mason, in the Deerfield Towne Center. (You may hear a familiar voice doing some promo breaks between songs on the in-house sound system… Morgan Freeman, watch your back!)
There’s an old adage “never let the facts get in the way of a good story.”
In the case of our current president, it’s more like “never let the facts get in the way of stirring up your base with some good old racism.”
T-rump met with South African president Cyril Ramaphosa in the Oval Office last week, and proceeded to ambush (a.k.a. “Zelenskyy”) him. It’s sad when the leaders of other countries — our allies no less — are used as props to push false narratives, fodder for the crazy cannon that is Trump’s lips.
Trump rolled out a TV screen and dimmed the lights like it was a junior high health class, and proceeded to show a highly edited video.
Pointing to footage of a long line of crosses on both sides of a country road packed with cars, Trump said, “These are burial sites right here. Burial sites. Over a thousand of white farmers. And those cars are lined up to pay love on a Sunday morning. Each one of those white things you see is a cross. And there’s approximately a thousand of them. They’re all white farmers.”
However, the crosses do not mark graves. The video is from a protest against the murder of white farming couple Glen and Vida Rafferty, who were ambushed and shot dead on their premises in 2020. The clip was shared on YouTube on 6 September, the day after the protests.
“They are not graves. They don’t represent graves,” Mchunu said regarding the video that has become prominent on social media since it was shown in the White House. “And it was unfortunate that those facts got twisted to fit a false narrative about crime in South Africa.”
Per a report from the Institute of Race Relations, an anti-apartheid think tank in South Africa, the protest saw both Black and white participants mourning the deaths. One protester told the IRR: “We are supporting each other. There should be no killing anymore. White or black, we are all one.”
Trump also showed “news” clipping printouts that promoted his claims of a white genocide.
During the press conference, Trump held a stack of printed news articles that he said showed “death of people. Death, death, death, horrible death, death.”
“Pick any one of them,” Trump said. “White South Africans are fleeing because of the violence and racist laws. And this is all, I mean, I’ll give these to you.”
“A lot of people are very concerned with regard to South Africa… we have many people that feel they’re being persecuted, and they are coming to the US, so we take from many locations if we feel there’s persecution or genocide going on.”
That image Trump is holding up in the photo above? It isn’t from South Africa.
From the BBC:
But the image isn’t from South Africa – it’s actually from a report about women being killed in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
From the AP:
There were 12 murders on farms last year, The Associated Press reported, citing police statistics. One of the victims was a farmer, and the rest were farmworkers, none of whom were identified by race, according to the AP. White farmers own roughly three-quarters of South Africa’s privately owned land, according to government data.
Trump’s claims are demonstrably false. In other words, they’re lies. From the president of our country.
We can do all the fact-checking in the world. But the videotape makes the rounds on social media, and the base gets stirred up even more, taking the bait, hook, line, and sinker.
“Never let the facts get in the way of a good story.”
Apologies in advance for the gushing, but I’m super-excited for my super-talented first cousin once removed! (Talent skips a generation…)
Her name is Erika Henningsen. Perhaps you’ve heard of her? She’s in the cast of The Four Seasons on Netflix with some unknowns named Steve Carrell, Tina Fey, Will Forte, Colman Domingo, Kerri Kenney, Marco Calvani…
She plays “Ginny,” the much-younger new girlfriend of Steve Carrell. NBD.
BTW, “Ginny” was the nickname of Erika’s grandmother, my dad’s sister Virginia, one of the sweetest people you could ever hope to meet. My siblings and I spent several summers with Aunt Virginia and Uncle Don and their kids (including Erika’s mom Marybeth) in Houston, Texas. The character’s name was Ginny in the original 1981 movie from which the Netflix series is adapted, but I’d never seen that flick. As soon as I heard the name on The Four Seasons, I was grinning from ear-to-ear at the beautiful symmetry of Erika’s character’s name paying tribute to her beloved “Gammy” (who gave her the acting bug).
Unsurprisingly to anyone familiar with Henningsen before this, she delivers this performance with such grace that it makes for a character I would want to be friends with. Heck, maybe even go on vacays with.
The Four Seasons is #1 globally on Netflix. NBD.
And while that series is dominating the airwaves (are they still called “airwaves”? Is it “streamwaves” now?), Erika is starring on Broadway in the jukebox musical Just in Time, playing Sandra Dee opposite Jonathan Groff’s Bobby Darin. NBD.
She’s “having a moment” for sure.
Oh, and later this month she’s going to dash right from taking a bow on Broadway to a nearby club for a cabaret show. NBD.
As my late night talk show idol David Letterman used to say, “as if that weren’t enough… and by gosh, don’t you think it ought to be?!” Erika also launched a Substack a few months back, called Millennial Bohemia. As a fellow WordNerd, I’m being as objective as a super-proud first cousin once removed can be when I say the writing is superb!
I remember when my wife and I visited Marybeth and Phil in California when their youngest daughter Erika was just a wee tyke. Even back then, she had the bug… she put on an impromptu performance in the backyard. It fills my heart with joy to see her still doing what she loves best, and excelling at it.
Damian on The Future is forever: “It was a magical time for sure! Just don’t get any paint on that 97X sweatshirt, it’ll bring down the…” Jul 4, 20:44
Andrea J McKiernan on The Future is forever: “I still wear my 97X sweatshirt when I’m painting. I have some amazing memories of those times!” Jul 4, 14:46
Leave a Reply