Roger Erickson: Another Part of the Radio Neighborhood

English: WCCO Radio Logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Roger Erickson, who had an on-air partnership with Charlie Boone that lasted 37 years on WCCO-AM radio (believed to be the longest running duo in the medium's history), died Monday at 89.

Boone and Erickson attracted a huge following from 1961 to 1998, in an era when half of the listening audience in Minnesota tuned to The Big 8-3-0.  Every morning they would banter among themselves, play records, interview guests, do commercials and perform in skits and sketches.  From "World Wide News" and "Worst Jokes" to "Minnesota Hospital", they spoofed the world around them as they involved everyone from politicians to entertainment figures.  The partnership was extended to the stage, where they once performed in the Old Log Theater's production of "The Odd Couple".

But Erickson could also play it straight.  If you were listening to him between 5 and 6 a.m. most mornings, he'd read the headlines, the time and temperature, introduce the farm reports and play a gospel record.  On days when the snow fell and the wind blew, Erickson became the Voice of School Closings to thousands of Minnesota kids waiting with bated breath to hear him announce their school's name, and whether classes would be delayed or canceled.

Erickson was a Minnesota boy, having grown up on his farm in Winthrop.  He attended the University of Minnesota, where he studied speech and theater and spent time working at KUOM radio.  He came to WCCO in 1959 after a few years in Stillwater radio at WAVN (now KLBB-AM 1220).  He also spent some time playing Bozo the Clown on a WCCO-TV kids' show.

Erickson was one of the original members of the Minnesota Broadcasting Hall of Fame, having been inducted in 2001.

We wrote this back in 2015 after Boone died, but this bears repeating:  Morning radio in the Twin Cities and elsewhere have a harder edge now than it did when Boone and Erickson ruled the local airwaves, singing the closing line of the "Good Morning" song shortly after the 6 a.m. news to begin another day.  When they sang "it's grand to be on hand", they meant it.  This is why people in Minnesota and elsewhere have fond memories of the Good Neighbor to the Northwest.  

And of Charlie Boone and Roger Erickson.

UPDATE (11/6/17):  Days after the passing of Erickson, another figure from WCCO's golden era has signed off for good.  Chuck Liligren, who was the station's farm director for 24 years, died on November 3 at the age of 89.

Checking The Trump List

Whether it's picking fights with senators from his own party, being labeled a "moron" by his own Secretary of State or questioning the legitimacy of a nuclear weapons treaty, President Donald Trump has a knack for cheesing off everyone if it suits his agenda.  Whatever that agenda happens to be.

Herewith, a quick review of recent events.

• Trump announced his intention to decertify the treaty the U.S. made with Iran's nuclear weapons program, citing their alleged lack of compliance.  Then he leaves the pact alone, passing the whole thing to Congress, which has a dubious recent history of getting anything done.
• He feuded with Republican senators Bob Corker of Tennessee and John McCain of Arizona when they took shots at his leadership.  Silly men.  Don't they know that Trump can crush them with a tweet or three, depending on his mood and the time of day?
• After an attack in Niger that killed four American soldiers, Trump allegedly tells one of the soldier's widows that he knew what he signed up for.  That might be true, but it's not something you would normally say to someone who is grieving.  Then again, we've learned to expect things like this from the new Consoler-In-Chief.
• He threatens NBC's broadcasting license because they aired a report that he wanted to double the number of nuclear weapons.  NBC isn't required to have a license, but TV stations owned by their parent company Comcast do.  And it takes years to get that through the Federal Communications Commission.
• The President also wants equal time from late night hosts who rip him a new one every night.  Didn't the Fairness Doctrine go away decades ago?
• Trump signs an executive order to stop funding cost sharing subsidies for Obamacare, leaving some states in the lurch over how to keep their health care plans afloat.  Meanwhile, there's a bipartisan agreement to restore the subsidies for a two year period that initially met with Trump's approval.  Until it didn't. 
• After movie mogul Harvey Weinstien's banishment from Hollywood due to an all-star cast of women accusing him of sexual harassment, it's fair to ask what's going to happen to another alleged sexual predator named Donald Trump.  Well, we've already elected Presidents who fit the profile without our knowing it.  John Kennedy had so many women coming and going during his term, which we didn't know about until long after he was dead.  Bill Clinton was almost impeached because of his dalliances with other women.  Now that Trump's been in the White House for a few months, and his liberties with women are well known, what makes you think this is going to be any different?

Obviously, there's more to come.

What Happened In Las Vegas

Mandalay Bay-Hotel (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

So it's happened again.  Another individual of questionable character and an agenda to tend to makes a name for himself by shooting up as many people as possible, sometimes before turning the gun on himself.  And a nation points fingers at who or what should take the blame for the carnage, while nothing gets done.

An outdoor country music concert Sunday night in Las Vegas that began with Jason Aldean performing ended abruptly half an hour later, when flying bullets from a nearby hotel that definitely weren't part of the entertainment left thousands to either scramble or take cover.  To date, 59 people are dead and hundreds wounded.

Jason Aldean, meet Ariana Grande.  Your lives and careers will never be the same after this.

The suspect, according to police, had a small arsenal of weapons in his hotel room overlooking the concert area.  We don't know why he did it, nor do we know what kind of connections he might have had with known terrorist groups.  We may never know the whole story because the suspect killed himself.

The news media has been careful to tell us that what happened in Las Vegas was the worst mass shooting in modern American history.  What do they mean by "modern"?  Is it post-World War II?  Dallas in 1963?  Columbine in 1997?  Because nothing that's occurred in the past 50 years or so, short of war and terrorism, begins to compare with the carnage racked up by events such as Wounded Knee and others where people of color suffered the consequences of running afoul of the white man.

To those hoping that what happened in Las Vegas will finally, finally result in a "national conversation" about guns and the misuse of them, they can forget it.  The debate was settled long ago, when Americans decided they'd rather have their weapons and Second Amendment rights pried from their cold, dead hands.

For President Donald Trump (who, by the way, is against any new gun law), this is one of the most unsavory parts of his job, which is having to be Consoler-In-Chief  to a grieving nation when things like this happen.  Barack Obama had to play that role so many times during his presidency.  Can Trump approach tragedy with the same dignity and class Obama displayed without calling attention to himself?  Or is that too much to ask?

Life goes on in Las Vegas.  Even though there's been a massacre, hotels, casinos and other attractions are all open for business.  The tourists and convention-goers will still come.  What happened here will stay here, at least until the next person tries to break the modern day record for a mass shooting.  And we get to do this all over again.

Big Trouble In Paradise

Flag of Puerto Rico (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It's been a couple of weeks since Hurricane Maria slammed into Puerto Rico, leaving 24 dead (as of October 1) and plunging the island into darkness.  There's no power, little food and approximately $85 billion worth of damage to the 3.4 million who live on this American commonwealth.  And there won't be much improvement for months.

Help has been slow in coming from Washington.  President Donald Trump, when he's not tweeting about athletes who don't salute the flag or why negotiating with North Korea is a waste of time, has insisted that FEMA is doing a wonderful job and that he's satisfied relief efforts are going well.

But not according to Carmen Yulin Cruz, the mayor of the island's largest city San Juan, who was seen on TV begging for help from the seemingly indifferent federal government.  What the mayor got for her trouble was a series of tweets from the President, accusing her of poor leadership, and Puerto Rico of wanting everything done for them.  As if Cruz didn't know, insults on Twitter are now considered typical behavior for Trump.

Because it is a commonwealth, Puerto Ricans are by law considered American citizens.  They can't vote for President or Vice President, but they do have a non-voting representative in Congress.  Which makes it hard for anyone in Washington to take them seriously.

Some are saying this is Trump's Katrina, the storm that helped sink George W, Bush's presidency, with his poor decision-making.  Let's compare.  Katrina destroyed New Orleans, a major American city with history and culture on its side.  Puerto Rico has history and culture too, but they're a tiny archipelago in the middle of the Caribbean Sea (and not just in the middle of a great big ocean, as the President referred to it), alongside other island nations that got hit by hurricanes.  You can't get there unless it's by boat or plane.  But that's true of any flooded area.

Complicating matters is the fact that the government has already doled out billions in the past month to revive areas of Texas and Florida, which have had their own bouts with hurricanes.  They also happen to be places where retirees and rich folk like Trump tend to reside.  Life is slowly coming back to normal for them.  As for Puerto Rico, they're full of the kinds of people Trump would like to see deported.  So it's no surprise that they're getting the short end of the stick.

Trump is scheduled to visit Puerto Rico this week, presumably to see for himself what Maria had wrought.  He'll either be moved enough by the relief efforts to promise more federal aid, or declare everything to be in tip top shape before moving on.  Or else it'll be one big photo-op.

You want an indication of how seriously President Trump is taking this humanitarian crisis?  He dedicated the President's Cup, an international golf tournament won by the United States this past weekend, to the hurricane victims.  That's nice, but the survivors of Harvey, Irma and Maria need more than trophies right now.  They need help.