I will be in transit Tuesday and Wednesday, but I'm taking my laptop with me so I'll be able to resume this blog in a few days. Tuesday I'll be in Morgantown (WVU-Virginia Tech basketball) and Fairmont (Monongah High reunion for about 20 of us). Wednesday I'll drive to Lorton, Virginia for the auto-train. Thursday morning I'll arrive in Stamford, Florida, drive the Accord to Orlando, pick up Paula (who will stay overnight with her aunt on Wednesday), and we'll both head for The Villages and three months of fun, fun, fun in the STD capital of America. If you're in Florida in January through March, call me at (330) 388-4466 and we'll have a reunion in warmer weather than this Ohio crap.

BJ retiree Mike Filler passes away

Gerald M. "Mike" Filler

1936 - 2014 |

Mike Filler

Gerald M. "Mike" Filler, 78, of Akron passed peacefully Dec. 25, 2014.

He was born Jan. 15, 1936 and grew up in Salem, Ohio. He was retired from the Akron Beacon Journal.

Preceded in death by parents, Alma and Raymond Filler; and sons, Bradley and Gregory; he is survived by wife, Sheila; son, Michael Filler of Akron; daughter and son-in-law, Jennifer and Brian Scanlan of Amherst, Ohio; sister and brother-in-law, Judy and John Anastas of New Jersey; and nephews, Jeffrey and James Anastas.

The family wishes to thank Copley Health Care for their loving care of Mike.

Services will be held 2 p.m. Tuesday at the Billow FAIRLAWN Chapel, 85 N. Miller Rd., with Fr. Joseph H. Kraker officiating. Friends may call at the funeral home one hour before services. Interment at Holy Cross Cemetery. Should friends desire, memorials may be made to a

charity of their choice

. To share a Memory, Send a Condolence, Light a Candle or Send Flowers, visit the Tribute Wall at www.billowfuneralhomes.com

Kent State grad Ed Brady parlayed his KSU’s bachelor’s degree with his master’s degree in divinity to make use of both talents in Austin, Minnesota.

Brady does his “Country Gospel” on 100,000-watt US Country 99.9 and AM 1490 KAUS out of Austin. It’s owned by Three Eagles Communications, which also has four radio stations in Colorado.

Brady uses his 40 years in broadcasting to supplement his income, doing radio commercials (script writing and production) and voice-over talent (“friendly & sincere delivery”).  

In a Facebook post sent to his former colleague, Bob Carpenter, a Kent State grad who lives in Punta Gorda, Florida, Brady summarized the history of their mutual former employer, WKNT.

Bob responded:

“I was glad to keep up with the old WKNT AM & FM that I worked as News Director 1968-1974. A lot of changes over the years.”

Bob was news director of WKNT on May 4, 1970 and as one of major contributors of news coverage in the years that followed is often invited to speak at KSU’s May 4^th memorial activities. 

He relocated from Kent to Maui in the mid-70s and worked in radio and public relations there before moving to Florida. He retired from his job as Public Information Officer of the Charlotte County, Florida sheriff’s last year.

The Kent station’s history:

WJMP AM 1520 is a daytime-only radio station licensed to Kent and serving the Akron radio market. WJMP operates with a maximum output of 1,000 watts, using a six-tower, daytime-only directional antenna pattern.

WJMP is the Akron affiliate of “Mancow in the Morning,” “The Laura Ingraham Show,” “The Savage Nation” and “The Dennis Miller Show.” AM 1520 also carries CBS Radio newscasts hourly.

It is commonly owned with FM station WNIR and low-power television stations WAOH-LP channel 29 Akron and W35AX channel 35 Cleveland, which simulcast as the Cleveland market's Retro Television Network affiliate.

The station was signed on March 1964 as WKNT, owned by the publisher of the Kent-Ravenna Record-Courier newspaper. It was purchased by Media-Com in July 1971.
WJMP has had a variety of formats, reacting to changes made by other stations in the Akron and Cleveland markets.

Prior to affiliating with Fox Sports Radio, WJMP was an Air America Radio affiliate. On June 2006, when Akron's WTOU/WARF dropped Fox Sports Radio for talk radio, WJMP took the sports format abandoned by the Akron station. WARF then added two Air America programs once run on WJMP to its existing talk lineup.

In 2001, when Cleveland station WRMR AM 850 announced that it was dropping pop standards music for the sports format of WKNR, WJMP changed to a standards format.

WJMP also has been a talk radio sister station to WNIR, carrying various syndicated talk programs in contrast with WNIR's mainly local schedule of hosts.

It once relayed the TV audio of co-owned WAOH-LP/W35AX, and stunted during the Major League Baseball players' strike of 1994 with a continuous loop of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" during its daytime broadcast hours. This stunt gained the small station nationwide attention and an entry in the Guinness Book of Sports Records.

Before 1989 the station used the call letters WKNT. Until sister WKNT-FM became WNIR, and became a full-time talk radio station in the mid-1980s, WKNT AM 1520 simulcast with the FM station.

In 2009 WJMP dropped its all-sports format and became a news/talk station featuring such syndicated hosts as Mancow, Laura Ingraham, Michael Savage and Lou Dobbs (WJMP replaced Dobbs with Dennis Miller following Dobbs leaving radio in 2012). 

Bob Carpenter did a bit of good work, too. For years Bob and wife Kaye personally delivered  Christmas gifts to hundreds of challenged children in Beijing, China; Tokyo and Osaka, Japan; Sao Paulo, Brazil; and Quito, Ecuador.

Bob served in Vietnam twice, in DaNang and in Saigon. Wife Kaye purchased a brick with Bob’s name it that was placed at the Kiwanis Veterans Garden in Laishley Park, Punta Gorda, Florida. It is next to the Vietnam Veterans brick memorial.

Chip Bok’s father passes away

Dr. Arthur Bernard Bok, Jr., 86, father of former BJ cartoonist Chip Bok, passed away Dec. 17.

Chip’s dad was the University of Dayton’s team physician for 23 years and the Dayton Gems’ International Hockey League team before that.

The Cincinnati native played high school football in Toledo and his Ohio North-South Game coach in 1946 was Frank Leahy, the famous Notre Dame mentor.

Dr. Arthur Bernard Bok, Jr.

Dr. Bok played football for Dayton, where he met his wife, Jeanne Stewart. He was drafted by the Baltimore Colts but opted instead for medical school.

Dr. Bok is survived by his wife, 5 children, 19 grandchildren and a great-granddaughter.

To read Arthur B. “Chip: Bok III’’s tribute to his father, click on http://bokbluster.com/2014/12/26/artful-art-big-d/

Here’s the official obituary on Dr. Bok:

BOK, Arthur B. Jr., D.O., 86, passed away on December 17, 2014, surrounded by his loving family. He was born in Cincinnati, OH on August 21, 1928, to Arthur B. Bok, Sr. and Hilda Boehl Bok.

He is survived by his wife of 63 years, Jeanne Stewart Bok, and 5 children, Arthur B., III ("Chip") (Deb) of Akron, OH, Sharon B. Carey (Matt), of Louisville, KY, Daniel M. Bok of Denver, CO, Julie B. Johnson (Jeff), of Dublin, OH, William B. Bok (Peggy) of Dayton, OH, and was very proud of his 19 grandchildren and his great granddaughter.

He graduated from the University of Dayton in 1950 where he played football and was later inducted into the U.D. Athletic Hall of Fame. Following his graduation, he signed a contract to play professional football for the Baltimore Colts but opted instead to attend the Chicago School of Osteopathic Medicine, from which he graduated in 1954.

Dr. Bok practiced medicine in the Dayton community for 43 years. He pioneered the Sports Medicine Program at U.D., served as team physician for U.D. Athletics for 23 years, served as vice president and team physician for the Dayton Gems IHL hockey team and team physician for Meadowdale High School and Fairview High School Athletics and the Troy Skating Club.

He was a Fellow in the American College of Sports Medicine and the American College of General Practitioners in Osteopathic Medicine and Surgery and served as a Clinical Professor at The Ohio University School of Osteopathic Medicine.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be held on Monday, December 22, 2014 at 11:00 a.m. at the Church of the Incarnation, 55 Williamsburg Lane, with burial to follow at Calvary Cemetery. Visitation will be held on Sunday, December 21, 2014 from 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at Routsong Funeral Home, 81 North Main Street in Centerville.

In lieu of flowers, expressions of sympathy may be made to University of Dayton Athletics (or football) program, mail to Brian Tracy, Director of Athletic Development at 300 College Park, Dayton, OH 45469-7053 or https://alumnicommunity.udayton.edu/champions , or Franciscan Friars, 1615 Vine Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202, or Hospice of Dayton Foundation, 324 Wilmington Avenue, Dayton, OH 45420 or online at www.hospiceofdayton.org . Condolences may be sent to the family by visiting www.routsong.com .

If you’re in Judge Elinore Marsh Stormer’s Summit County Probate Court on S. High Street, look around. You might see fabric art (fancier than quilts) made by retired BJ editor/pet columnist Connie Bloom.

Connie sold these art quilts to Her Honor this summer.

The white one is titled Connected and was a recent work.

The picnic table scene, titled The Infinite Virtues of Salad, was done in 2004.

You can see Connie’s name stitched above the apple.

The full title is Summit County Court of Common Pleas, Probate Division.

Connie is the resident quiltmaker in Summit Artspace on the third floor at 140 E. Market Street, next to the Akron Art Museum.

Retired BJ reporter Jim Carney is guest-hosting on WAKR-1590 AM’s 10 a.m.-2 p.m. talk show again, through Wednesday of next week.

Melissa Kramer, who has her own show on New Paltz Village, New York’s WFNP at 10 p.m.-midnight, “Midnight Music With DJ MK,” calls Jim’s show “The most polite radio on Earth.”

That’s our Jim to a T.

Jim Carney retired May 8 after 35 years of being a darn good reporter and all-round nice guy for the Beacon Journal.

35 years at the BJ. 35 years since Jim worked in radio. Nice symmetry.

Writes Jim:

“Last time I worked in radio was March 1979 at WHLO News Talk 64 before I started working at the Akron Beacon Journal.”

We hear you, Jim. On AM 1590.  Nice.

Hopefully, there won't be another oak tree to put Jim and wife Katie Byard, still a BJ reporter, in the dark the way it did a few days ago at their Akron home.

Jim’s guest Friday included retired BJ editor/pet columnist/Ohio fabric art guru Connie Bloom.

Bobbi Horvath and Don Baker Jr. were on, too. 

Connie and Bobbi met through friends way in 1992.

Connie is the resident quiltmaker in Summit Artspace on the third floor at 140 E. Market Street, next door to the Akron Art Museum.

Oak tree leaves Carney, Byard in the dark for hours

Retired BJ reporter Jim Carney and wife Katie Byard, still a reporter at Ol’ Blue, were left in the dark today and into the night.

Wrote Jim on Christmas night:

“Power has been out in our entire neighborhood. Since late this morning. Pretty crazy.”

Katie explained:

“Big ol’ oak tree on a ravine decided it had had enough and hit a main line to our hood. Merry Christmas! Fortunately, some friends had us over. All good.”

It could have been worse.

There are those who say events that caused the 2003 Northeastern/Midwestern power outage -- the second worst ever, affecting 55 million people in Canada and the USA -- was set in motion because a tree fell on an Ohio Edison power line near Akron.

The utility’s alarm system didn’t alert operators. Then the domino effect took over the power grid and a local problem became a two-nation problem.

At the time, only the 1999 Southern Brazil blackout was worse.

No. 1 victims of police killings?

Which racial group is most likely to be killed by white police?

Wrong.

Not African-Americans.

Native Americans.

Native Americans make up about 0.8% of the population, yet account for 1.9% of police killings. That’s almost 2½ times their per-capita ratio.

Yet there is little national outcry or furor or demonstrations beyond the Native American nations over the out-sized killings by white police. Some received medals for the shootings of what Columbus ignorantly and mistakenly called “Indians.”

In contrast, in 2012 there were 123 African- Americans shot dead by police of all colors. There are more than 43 million blacks living in America. 

That same year, 326 whites were killed by police bullets. There are nearly 200 million whites in America.

So that makes blacks about twice as likely per capita to be killed by the police, not a good statistic, but less than the 2½ per capita for Native Americans.

In 2013, blacks committed 5,375 murders in America, often against other blacks; whites committed 4,396. Whites comprise 63 percent of the population; blacks 13 percent.

To read the story by Simon Moya-Smith, a citizen of the Oglala Lakota Nation and culture editor at Indian Country Today, click on 

http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/24/opinion/moya-smith-native-americans/index.html?hpt=hp_t3

HO HO HO          HO HO HO        HO HO HO           HO HO HOT        HO HOT HOT    HOT HOT HOT   HO HO HO      HO HO HO     HO HO HO      WHERE'S THE SNOW?  

NYT golden geese wield wicked axe

While the New York Times slashed another 100 from its newsroom payroll and faced a $50 million shortfall and five top female executives were shown the door, Times vice chairman Michael Golden gets $2 million a year despite his reduced role at running the Human Resources department, the perks of being publisher Arthur Sulzberger, Jr.'s cousin.

CEO Mark Thompson gets $4.5 million for doing less, too.

Times legal counsel Kenneth Richieri gets $1.3 million. Chief financial officer James Follo receives $1.8 million.

Golden is included in “the 1997 Trust,” formed by Arthur Ochs Sulzberger to preserve family ownership, which has 6.4 million shares of Class A Stock. So are relatives James M. Cohen, Gertrude A.L. Golden, Hays N. Golden, Steven B. Green, Carolyn D. Greenspon, Joseph Perpich and Arthur Sulzberger, Jr.

While family members get millions for doing less, all hundreds of Times editors and reporters get are the axe. All the money that’s fit to print for the family, though.

To read the New York Observer article by Ken Kurson, click on http://observer.com/2014/12/new-york-times-insider-multi-million-dollar-shortfall-causing-drastic-cuts/

Using hacked information wrong? Not necessarily. How you use it may be.

It’s not the hacking that is inherently unethical, but what you do with it can be.

That’s the thrust of Kelly McBride’s post on Poynter.com, with North Koreas hacking and intimidation of Sony over “The Interview” movie the peg.

After all, the Pentagon Papers and the Nixon Watergate scandal came from sources that are not always in the mainstream. But national interests were at stake.

McBride wrote that, once you get the information by hacking or confidential informant or over the transom, the same rules apply:

Accuracy. Can you verify that the information is true?

Do additional reporting to verify the details. Repeating the information doesn’t absolve you of blame if it’s wrong.

Seek additional input or rebuttal from the relevant stakeholders. 

As a BJ editor, I told my reporters when they were working on an interview to talk to someone who doesn’t like that person because they’ll show you the other side of the story. And to check the disliker’s version with others.

You can read the entire article by clicking on http://www.poynter.org/news/308577/the-ethics-of-hacked-email-and-otherwise-ill-gotten-information/