Some Thoughts about Media Coverage of Tragic Events

Working in the media as I do, Its difficult to see so much criticism of the coverage of events like the school shooting on Friday.  Yes we covered it "wall to wall" for several hours and its still a major story today.  It doesn't mean that the other news stories we had prepared were not important in their own right, but at a time of such and enormous tragic event, people (listeners) want to hear what happened.  They want to try and figure out why it happened.  They're searching for information and that's the job of the media.  I don't personally know where you draw the line and move on to other things when these things occur.  Its hard to determine when to go back to normal programming, because as soon as you do, someone else has just heard about the event and is turning to you for information, and if you don't give it to them, you lose their confidence as a source of reliable information.  

Some say the media sensationalizes stories to make more money.  But on Friday, the station I work for actually dropped commercials in order to continue bringing updates.

Some say the media encourages shootings like this because with all the coverage, the bad guy's become "famous" or "infamous" and their names become household names.  But while attention at first was focused on the shooter, who he was, what was his motive etc.. we were not trying to make him into a "household name" as some would accuse.  We were passing along the same information being given out by those investigating the case.  Today, they're releasing the names of the victims and some of their stories.  In the coming days, they will be the focus as the families deal with the loss and people pay their respects.  I can only hope that that attention will help in the grieving process for the nation and for the families more directly involved.

While I can say most of the coverage we provided on Friday was necessary, I admit that I don't really like the idea of photos and video of the grieving parents or the frightened children.  I didn't care for the on camera interviews with kids who had escaped the shooting, complete with their parents standing there with them.  Kids who have been through this sort of ordeal should be with their parents talking, or with counselors  or ministers... someone who can help them, not a TV camera.  

These are just a few thoughts that came to mind this morning while going through my day, hearing and watching news coverage and seeing hundreds of facebook posts and tweets.

I think that now I will take my own advice and back off the listening and watching and reading for awhile and do some praying instead.

*Note:  The opinions reflected in this blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of my employer...

Answered Prayers

A couple of months ago I was in a particularly down mood and was getting more and more upset with how life was turning out for me and my family. It seemed that the harder we tried, the more problems we would encounter... it was everything from a lack of financial resourses, to car troubles, health issues, the death of Angie's dad and all the stress that something like that brings.. I remember praying out loud in my truck on the way home from one of my late night shifts at 107.5 the Eagle. It was as if I were speaking to a friend sitting in the seat next to me.. On that drive home, I poured out my heart and prayed for change to take place.. I prayed that God would open my eyes to opportunities to better myself and our situation... and I had a faith that He would do just that.. what I didn't know was what he really had already set in motion that I had not been able to see.

Here's how it all unfolded... A few weeks before this prayer, I was given an opportunity to work part time at 89.3 KSBJ, (the station which uses the slogan "God Listens") I had been a listener and fan of the station for a while.. Angie listened to it regularly.... and a friend of mine from another job had gone to work there and wanted to bring me on to work weekends. After they offered the job, Angie and I decided that I should turn it down, even though it would be a great ministry opportunity for me... We just didn't want to give up our weekend time together. A reasonable decision... or so I thought at the time.

Then, the day I had the conversation with God on my way home from work, I remember reading a facebook post from my High School buddy Tim Allen... he said "If you want God to listen to you, maybe you should start listening to God..." hmmm.
I didn't think much more about the KSBJ job at the time, but this statement kept coming back to mind... Perhaps I wasn't tuned in to what God was telling me. The next day, I had an email from my KSBJ friend again offering to put me on the air in an upcoming opening.... This time I said to myself.. .maybe I should say yes this time... because there is a reason for it being offered again.... I decided maybe God wanted me to give up my selfish desire to have my weekends off... so I should give it a shot and see how it worked out. About a week later, I was at the radio station signing employment paperwork, getting ready to step out of my comfort zone and work on Christian Radio for the first time in my life and ready to give up my free time to do it. That evening after I got back home.. my email had a note in it from another radio friend, JP Pritchard. (former morning news host on KTRH) He said a friend of his wanted to talk to me...and I should call.. so I did. That was the beginning of my association with News 92 FM, the new News station coming to the Houston market in mid November. It was a whirlwind of activity over the coming days... starting a weekend shift on KSBJ... still working a weekend shift on 107.5... and still doing news every weekday on KSEV, AM 700.. Then came the offer from Radio One for me to come work with them on News 92 FM... My wife and I could not believe how quickly it all came together.. and we wanted to go tell everyone how good God was being to us...but we were under a Non Disclosure Agreement until yesterday...so we had to keep it to ourselves... Now I want to let the world know, that God does Listen... but we must listen to Him too. Pay attention to the details of your life and you just may see God's hand moving in your daily life. I had given up on looking for a job.. I didn't send either of these radio stations my resume until after they came to me asking for it.. .how did they know I would be interested? I can only imagine...

I say thanks to all who have offered prayers on our behalf during the past two years of off and on employment and most of all I thank God for being gracious enough to lead me through the tough times in preparation for what I am now beginning.

There are plenty of other God moments in the story... including the way He prepared me for this opportunity by putting me in a position to learn the news side of the business in the past 10 or more years... but I won't go into all those details now....

Thats it for now... just remember, we often have to experience what has been called a Joseph Experience before we achieve what God has planned for us. Joseph was shunned by his brothers, thrown into a pit, sold into slavery and locked up in prison before he was raised to be a leader... I can now see how all of those things have happened in my life as well.

He's still working on me!

Blessings
Kevin

A Life Full of Clutter

I am not what you would call a pack rat, but I do have too much stuff. For some strange reason, I have trouble saying no when someone offers me something that appears to have value or that I might be able to use... some day.

Lets start by taking a look inside my garage. First of all, I only have half a garage because the other half got closed in and became my home studio/office. The other half has my pop up camper stored in it... but you cannot even get to the camper without unloading the top of it and moving things out from in front of it. Its mostly pieces and parts of past or current "projects" including scrap lumber, broken lawn equipment and other assorted items....most of which I will probably never use again and yet I cannot seem to part with them.

Just outside my garage sits my truck.... I could write an entire book about all the things I have in the cab of the truck alone. Boxes (to be used to pack some of the items which are cluttering my studio at this time...) CDs, a blanket, and a variety of other items too numerous to mention. I just don't get it when I see other people's vehicles parked at church or wherever and there is nothing in the seats... nothing to be seen at all.. where is all their stuff. Mine is in the front passenger seat, on the dash, in the glove box, on the console and in the floor both front and back not to mention the entire back seat and then there's this "tool box" in the bed of the truck..
Its not so much loaded with tools as just an assortment of things I couldn't find a place for elsewhere, but that were too good to throw away.

In the bed of my truck I have things I came back from Dallas with that need to be unloaded...(waiting for cooler weather) Actually I don't know where I will put everything... you see I helped my brother move for a couple of days and I ended up with a roll of carpet leftovers... (it looked like it might go well in my studio/office...) I also came home with a ceiling fan (never been opened)... a kerosene heater... great for cold winters in Chicago when the power goes out ... that's what my brother said.. problem is, when power goes out here, its usually hot and because of a hurricane... hmm...maybe I should have said no thanks to that one.... I also have a microwave, a stovetop... (gas) and an oven... these are appliances that were built into my brother's old kitchen...but were replaced to help modernize the kitchen when he was trying to sell the house. They're in great shape but they won't really go in my kitchen without a major remodeling job... Not likely to happen right now.. not to mention we have only electric in our current kitchen... not gas.

Something tells me I'll soon be listing a few items on Craigslist..

I haven't even mentioned the hundreds of record albums and 45's in my closet and my office... I have turntables still.. (but no needles..) so I could still play them sometime... if I can find a replacement needle or two... There are CDs... Problably thousands by now... many I bought.. .many were given to me by friends or are radio station promo copies.... Most never get played... they just exist. Plus I have at least 3 spindles of homemade cds.. the kind you put something on but never labeled...and now you have no clue what is on them.. You probably have at least a few of those don't you? Please tell me you do.. Oh yes, I have an assortment of audio equipment from studios that no longer exist... phone hybrids that would work if I still had a land line to connect them too.... cart machines and a reel to reel recorder, a bulk tape eraser... dozens of reels of old tapes containing who knows what... and then there's a drawer filled with cassette tapes... mostly old airchecks from my days on the radio at Oldies 94.5 / 107.5 KLDE...There are hundreds of them still around.. and I threw away and gave away several boxes of them.

Finally for now, I have a cabinet in the kitchen and a shelf in the laundry room loaded with dark room equipment.. Yes I used to develop my own film and photos before the world of digital cameras and photoshop came along.. But I can't just toss it in the trash.... can I?

Ok so maybe I am a pack rat... but I am not a hoarder... well not a serious hoarder... but I am the kind of guy who will sit in his driveway on neighborhood garage sale day...trying to get rid of some of this stuff... while eyeing a few items that my neighbors are trying to rid themselves of as well... sometimes we have simply traded our junk... They took mine and I got theirs... sounded like a good idea to me at the time but then I realized I was getting nowhere in my efforts to clean up some of the clutter.

I think I will stop writing now.. because as I look back at what I have already listed here... its giving me a headache... and besides, Its only cluttering up my blogspace...

Thank you for your support.

Kevin

Starting the Day With A Smile :)

I started the day with a smile today, literally.

Its not something I would expect to have happen considering all that is going on in our world. Gas prices rising, budget cuts causing teacher layoffs, kids bringing guns to schools, political bickering and blaming on both sides of the aisle. These are tough times.

Even on a personal level, Angie and I have plenty on our plate to keep us worried and working. Her dad has been in the hospital for several days now and they still haven’t figured out exactly whats going on with him. Our oldest daughter Nikki was recently involved in a wreck and her car was totaled… Thankfully, she was not hurt badly but the car is gone and it wasn’t completely paid for yet. Our youngest lives in Long Island, New York. In the same county where officials have been uncovering bodies from a suspected serial killer who preyed on young women. Meanwhile here at home, Angie’s car is in the shop, and the repair bill which was only going to be about $650 may be about to triple because they say she is likely to need a new engine, not just new fuel injectors.

I’m sure there’s more but I think you get the idea.

Even so, I started the day with a smile as I walked out my back door on my way to my home studio in the garage and saw an Easter Lilly almost ready to bloom.

Many of you who know my wife and I, know that we are not good at keeping plants alive. Our grass grows well, but so do the weeds. In fact our grass grows better in the cracks of the sidewalk and driveway than it does anywhere else. Our flower beds are almost always getting attention, but it’s the attention of the homeowners association demanding that we at least try to make them pretty. Our patio is littered with lifeless pots, with little or nothing growing in them. We have the remnants of what used to be a beautiful ficus tree in the back yard… its now a twisted and broken mess of bare limbs and roots that didn’t make it through the last winter. The same story can be told of a huge philodendron in the back yard and what we always called a fiddle leaf fig plant. All dead or dying. But this Easter Lilly is something else.

Just a few months ago, we found the pot that has held this plant for several years laying on its side, with about half the dirt falling out. We suspect a cat tried to bury something there or maybe it was the dog….I gave it up for dead, but it is back. And its right on time. It has been through its tough times in the past year, just like we are experiencing now, yet it keeps coming back each year at Easter to show us new life. Just like everything it symbolically represents. It remains constant each year and renews our faith that God will see us through all the things we face and that we have hope for our future.

Happy Easter

Kevin

A Year Later

I've been working on taxes for the past week or two, trying to get it all completed before the April deadline. As I was entering information on Turbo Tax today, I realized that it has been exactly a year since I decided to focus my efforts on building a business and creating my next "job" for myself. I still keep a resume or two floating around cyberspace and I will occasionally send one to a specific job opening I come across, but for the most part, I am one of the statistics that make the monthly jobless figures difficult to tally at best. I ran out of unemployment benefits and never officially got a new job... So, I am no longer among those counted as "unemployed" but I'm not employed full time either. Its as if I dropped off the radar (almost).

Here I am a year later... now listing my official occupation as Voice Actor, Voice Over Artist, or whatever you want to call it. I make my living using my voice. And the more I study my tax information from the last year, I realize that I have done better than some thought I could do at this. I have not struck it rich... I still get behind on bills now and then and I have had to go beg clients to pay what they owe me so I could put gas in my truck now and then, but looking at the invoices I have sent out, I'm doing ok. In fact, I am now working from home and making pretty close to the same kind of money I was making at my previous job… but without the politics, the stress and the commute.

In the past year I have been able to take my work on the road, delivering local newscasts for radio stations up and down the West Coast and on AM 700 KSEV here in Houston from hotel rooms in Pennsylvania, Boston, New York, among others, my daughter's apartment in Dallas and my mom and dad's home in East Texas. Best of all, my official place of business is in my garage in Missouri City, Tx near Houston. Its amazing what you can do with 120 square feet of space that would otherwise be collecting junk... (I was never going to be parking a car in there anyway...)

I have also been able to do jobs for clients all around the globe. This weekend, I did repeat business for a video producer in Israel. I've also produced scripts for clients in Singapore, India and all over the USA... Technology not only allows that but it also helps me get paid almost immediatly if not sooner by the use of Paypal, I am now the voice of several web sites and internet based presentations, I helped bring life to a portrait by providing the voice of General Sam Houston at an exhibit for a San Antonio museum, and I recently completed recording my first audio book, "The Surviving Spouse Club," by my friend Charles Foster. It is in the final editing stage and should be available on his website soon. http://www.survivingspouseclub.com/

I have invested more in myself during the last year than in my life in general. I joined the Audio Publishers Association and attended their annual conference in New York City in May. It put me in the same room with the people who make audio books come to life from the publishers side and the narrator side of the business. I am already making plans to attend the event again this year. I have also attended several training seminars and webinars hosted by veteran voice talent and coach Bettye Zoller of VoicesVoices.com, and I have spent more time reading about and studying the business of voice over than even I thought I would. My goal? To soak up all the knowledge and information about my chosen career as possible so that I might become the person others turn to and say "I want to do what he does for a living!"

I have also made a lot of new connections with people in the business of Voice Over and am able to learn from them by simply asking questions through facebook or Twitter connections. Its a business full of people who love to share ideas, technology notes, editing tricks and techniques, just about anything you want to know. And even though its a highly competitive business, we all celebrate when someone lands the next big gig and becomes the new Aflac duck or lands a role in a major animated production. I guess it has to be the fact that we all have our own unique sound, so we are not afraid of sharing some of our tips and techniques. So that is where I am one year later... I'm pleased with the progress I have made... and looking forward to the next leg of the journey.

Here's an idea... lets meet back here in 12 months and see where we stand then. In the meantime, checkout the demos I have on my website. http://www.provoices.net/. You never know, maybe at this time next year, I could be your new voice.

No One Answered...

Many of us these days use our driving time to take care of making phone calls. I know that's usually when I get to talk to my mom as well as several of my friends. I reserve the drive to and from work for those who I know I will be on the line with for awhile. But there are times when I dial... and no one answers.

That was the case this afternoon as I left my house headed for work in the Galleria area. Its a good half hour or so of quality talking time (using a hands free device of course)...but no one answered. I tried about three numbers in my cell phone before figuring out that I had wasted about a third of my talking time trying to find someone to talk to, when in reality, there was someone with me the entire time just waiting for me to talk to Him.

It brought back memories of the days gone by before cell phones when those drive times were my quiet time to be with God...praying.. singing...meditating on lessons learned or the ones I needed to learn. It felt good to talk to Him on the way to work... and yes I talked out loud. We worked through several issues that had been on my mind... I unloaded plenty of things that had been weighing heavily on me, some of which had caused me to lose sleep at night. I also spent a lot of time telling Him thank you for being so good to me and providing for the things my family needed. It was as if I were talking with an old friend..one who was happy to hear from me and wants me to stay in touch more often than I have been doing. I plan to do just that... so if you're one of those folks I usually call while I am driving, you may have to wait your turn for a while. I know you won't mind.

I still got to talk to my mom for about an hour a little later in the evening... and I got an email from one of the friends I had tried calling...so everything worked out according to God's plan. Looks like He was the reason why no one answered...

Three Friends In Need of Your Prayers

While most of us were enjoying our Thanksgiving feasts, visits with family and friends, vacations from working, and football games over the past few days, it was easy (*at least for me) to put the troubles of the world on hold for awhile. That was not the case for many others though... daily doses of chemotherapy, radiation and other treatments could not be put on hold...

I got back to Houston this evening just in time to go to work for 5 hours on the radio... I thought about how much I would rather not have to go to work tonight... but then realized quickly that at least I had this job to go to... and that I was physically able to go to work. I have plenty of friends who have no job... and others who physically cannot go to work.

In most cases, those who are out of work, will eventually find a new job. But those who are facing major health issues and are out of work too, often do not see much of a future ahead of them. They're afraid. They're trying to be strong. They want their lives back.

As you continue to thank God for your blessings, remember in prayer those who are not feeling as blessed these days. Pray for jobs... pray for healing... pray for peace.

Three friends of mine in particular need much prayer and support right now as they fight cancer. I hope you will join me in praying for them by name for the next week or so. Lift up their names before the Creator who has the power to give them life and health.

These are the names and situations for my three friends... I am sure you have others that you would like to share as well. If you do, please mention them in the comments section below and we'll add them to the list.

Jo Knight... Jo lives in Fort Worth now... she is married to my good friend and business associate Cecil Knight...(former traffic reporter in Houston) Together they operate Knight Sounds, a mobile DJ entertainment company. Jo has been fighting cancer for many years. She is already a miracle in motion...but now she has been diagnosed with Ovarian Cancer too. She's facing new Chemo treatments and the two of them are making regular trips from Fort Worth to Houston's MD Anderson. They are self employed, so you can imagine the situation of trying to run a business and deal with a crisis like this at the same time. The physical and financial tolls are astounding.

John Prince (aka John Hourani) is my good friend from the world of radio. He had surgery to remove some brain tumors in July of 2009. After months of hospitalization and rehab he was finally declared cancer free and was regaining the use of the left side of his body which was left paralyzed after the surgery to remove the tumors. He did great for about a year, then the cancer came back. John is now back in MD Anderson getting checked out after a new round of chemo and radiation to treat tumors on both sides of his brain this time. John has been out of work since before the first surgery in 09... Cobra ran out since then too and he has no income. His mobile DJ business, Entertainment Tonight, is drying up because he is not able to conduct business as he would like to do.

Gary Hourani... Yes the same last name as John... its his brother! Gary moved to Houston from California last year to help care for John during his surgery and rehab. He gave up his Chiropractic practice to work with John on regaining the use of his motor skills... He has literally been Johns left arm and leg at times.. Gary was recentlly told he too has a tumor at the base of his skull. He is scheduled to have it removed this week. That leaves his and John's mom and dad to deal with two sons in the hospital fighting for their very lives.. and with little to no money to pay for it...

I'm sure there are others... these are just friends of mine that I am thinking of right now. Please say a prayer for them specifically...

One last thing... an account has been set up at Bank of America to help John and his family pay for his treatments and other needs. I'm told they have plenty of food...but they still need your love and support and prayers. The account information is listed below if you can help. A benefit concert raised close to $1000.00 for John just a week or so ago...but much more is needed.

Sorry this is not the usual light hearted fare that I have been writing about... but these are good people who are suffering right now...And I hope you will help.



ACCOUNT INFO

Bank of America
Account # 586-023-486-976 for John Hourani