Navigate G.A.

Here’s a note for all readers: the newly remodeled Gospel Rewind blog site is full of multi media content, especially audio. Make sure to link on over to the actual page for the full experience. That goes for those of you reading from Facebook, a reader, or even e-mail.  Currently I have the latest half dozen or so posts just under the header. If you scroll down to the bottom of the page you’ll find nearly all the Gospel Rewind shows we’ve done since 2009. In the sidebars we will be adding new stuff occasionally as well. Happy blogging.

Stay tuned.

My Wish

Aircheck is an emotional clearing house; valuable, free therapy throughout the year for me, the writer. Right now, I'm listening again to a popular  Raschal Flatts song from 2006:

"I hope you never look back, but ya never forget,

All the ones who love you, in the place you left,

I hope you always forgive, and you never regret,

And you help somebody every chance you get,

Oh, you find God's grace, in every mistake,

And you always give more than you take."

I do not glean all my advice from Country songs; today it is apropos. The My Wish lyric speaks my resolution. In 2011, I resolve not to "look back" as much while remaining keenly aware of my lessons learned the hard way. In yet another Country hit from 1993; Vince Gill sharpens my point singing, "There ain't no future in the past."

Better now than a year ago, twenty-eleven promises abundant topical, opinionated, and reflective Aircheck posts that evolve as this blogger does. Happy New Year.

Stay tuned

©2010-2011 Neal Rhoden, Aircheck blog. All rights reserved.

Keep it Simple, Stupid

At this point in my life one thing has become clear: it is time to simplify. For most of my adult life, shoot all my life, I have been a packrat. Well, it is time to purge. Most of my mess is in small things I’ve kept such as audio cassette mix tapes, tiny electronic parts (patch cords and adapters galore), the list goes on: hand tools, doo-dads, and what-nots. I justified all this clutter by saying, “It’ll come in handy or be worth something some day.” Well, it seldom did. Today, while browsing my Netflix queue I stumbled upon a show that is right up my alley called American Pickers. A new show featured on the History Channel, it follows two guys on a mission to buy junk that they can later sell for a profit. They go around the countryside of the American Mid-west finding individuals willing to part with some of their clutter (for a price). Sign me up for their jobs. I identify both as a hoarder and a seeker.

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This brings me to my mission with this particular blog. The statistics feature in the backbone software of Aircheck and the Peanut Whistle weblogs has been a marvelous tool. It has directed me in the types of posts that you, the reader, like to read. In fact, the number of readers and how they discovered this little blog is part of the Blogger software. I have not quite learned how to interpret all the numbers, but I have a pretty good idea that we’re not setting the blogosphere on fire. That is why big changes are coming to this site in the next few days or weeks. Look for my two Blogger blogs to consolidate into one. The Peanut Whistle will become part of the Aircheck instead of  a separate site. I had considered shutting down both altogether. Merging the two is the more logical course. “Less clutter, more sanity” is my new motto.

Stay tuned

©2010 Neal Rhoden. Aircheck blog. All rights reserved.

The Pages

A ton of bricks hit me. Nobody cares to read radio shop talk. The weight has crushed the original focus of this blog. For those die-hard enthusiasts remaining, we will redirect future broadcast focused posts to one of our sub-pages called Radio Daze, just click on the link in the margin.

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When we started this thing over a year and a half ago I set out to write what I know, as if it was the only thing I knew. A very short period in my life has been under the microscope far too long. I have grown beyond the topic of an irrelevant past and future postings will reflect the change. This week Gospel Aircheck will become simply, Aircheck.

Stay tuned

©2010 Neal Rhoden. The Aircheck Blog. All rights reserved.

Pluggin’ Away

Born out of TV talk shows—probably, the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson—the term “plug” came to mean that an actor or performer came on the show to promote their latest project. Today I’m plugging my blogs with our latest YouTube vids.

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Here’s the “stuff”

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My TV promo. Be here!

Stay tuned

©2010 Neal Rhoden. Gospel Aircheck blog. All rights reserved

On the (Writer’s) Block

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From time to time I am stumped. Other times the words just flow. Over the past few months the former seemed to be true. Back in January I resolved to write every day in order to help myself improve. That resolution crumbled. I need help from the readers. What hooked you on this blog? What will keep you? Please comment; let us know what interests you and we’ll do our best to write about it. Check the archive for the posts that have met your expectations. If preferable e-mail us: nealrhoden@gospelaircheck.com

Stay tuned

©2010 Neal Rhoden. Gospel Aircheck blog. All rights reserved.

Deferred

An all too common problem in this day and age is project follow through. That is, this blogger specifically. Our most popular post over the last six months was one we shared concerning a book that I started to write. Well, I wrote—really wrote, rewrote, polished, then trashed, and started over—a chapter of my memoir. It was an uphill battle that in the final analysis was beyond my talents as a writer to complete. My hat is off to any successful author. Writing a book is harder than it looks. It is easy to write, but the struggle is in polishing the work: removing the blemishes, ironing out the wrinkles and making my words universally appealing, flowing logically. When I was done polishing what remained was decidedly unsatisfying. Let’s go back to the drawing board. The project is stalled for now.

Tied for second and third place are posts that concern my podcasts done over the last year and my review of a local radio show now streaming on the Internet. Another failed enterprise is the podcasts because of lack of the availability of new, original material. Most of my podcasts were rehashed radio shows and personal tapes I had done years ago. I do intend to continue writing reviews of shows on the air and the Internet.

Maybe it is me. I have had too many hobbies and interests over the years.

Stay tuned

©2010 Neal Rhoden. Gospel Aircheck blog. All rights reserved.

Lazy Sunday

I was very surprised this morning when I checked the statistics for our companion blog, Gospel Aircheck. It has seen the single biggest jump in readership since I started the dang thing 19 months ago. The funny thing is that we have no idea how that happened. The only difference is that more audio clips have been featured. Maybe it is due to offering more frequent posts. Just how big a jump, you ask? Well, about 50 times the readers on average over the last two days alone! The amount of new international guests to the site is staggering—many of them from countries that are traditionally non-English speaking. Internet discovery is a very tricky thing; you can’t make people find you. I think it’s luck. Here’s to many more posts to come.

Stay tuned

©2010 Neal Rhoden. The Peanut Whistle blog. All rights reserved.

What’s in a Name

Often I wonder what direction this weblog should take. Do I write for a very specific, small, audience? Let’s face it the topics I tend to cover are not as popular as, say, cute cat videos on YouTube. Originally this blog was to serve as a companion to my podcast, Gospel Rewind. Good ideas for the show became hard to come by and I lost interest. Also, the podcast was supposed to feature some live performances from a few singers near to this blogger. I had great ideas but scheduling conflicts stymied every effort and I was forced to use exclusively archival material. Living in the past really has no appeal to me any more. Most likely, the podcast will cease production as a result.

Gospel Aircheck is a bit of a misnomer. I have not stuck to exclusively radio topics nor do I intend to do so. Broadcasting was a significant part of my life but I have been “retired” from radio longer than I was actually involved in it. I’ve lived my life in phases: for a while interested in my small artistic talents, then Christian radio, working on old cars, selling auto parts, and on and on. Sometimes these activities overlapped; but during my 13 year career in auto parts retail, I had maybe one or two passing thoughts of my previous career. No one who worked with me during this period had a clue of my life in gospel radio. In fact, I was fed up with the futility involving my love for a career versus reward. My first full year in retail I made more money than several good years in radio combined. Long story short, future posts will reflect my varied interests. More than 80% of my life so far does not involve broadcasting. I can say that music has been with me the entire time, regardless of the vocation I choose. Maybe this blog is due another name change, but to quote the Bard, “What’s in a name?”

Stay tuned

©2010 Neal Rhoden. Gospel Aircheck. All rights reserved.

This is the Spot

Welcome to the best kept secret on the Internet—my weblog known as the Peanut Whistle!

Try not to keep it under wraps too long. Looking at the statistics for my blog they show a either a flat or very slow growth. If you have enjoyed reading my posts, please comment. Remember I am a big boy, so if you haven’t enjoyed it, comment as well. I have allowed our domain name to expire due to lack of readers. The blog has returned to its former Blogspot address. Right now you are invited to catch up on the blog by scanning the archive for posts that you may have missed. Thanks…

Stay tuned

©2010 Neal Rhoden. the Peanut Whistle blog. All rights reserved.

Three Day Weekend

Wow! Friday already. “Everybody’s working for the weekend,” someone once sang. That may seem ridiculous if you’re reading on a Tuesday. Lately, I have been doing some research in history. Specifically, my own history. Back when I was a teen I kept a dairy spoken into a cassette tape. Listening to playback now makes me keenly aware of how I went about recording these journal entries was all wrong. First, I was perpetually stuck in the present. Every minute detail was recorded: what time I got up, what I ate for breakfast, how often I showered (on and on). Secondly, that overshadowed chunks of important details of the big picture. Of course, it was impossible to know at the time I would be listening to these tape 25 years later.

I refer back to these recordings often: when preparing the blogs or checking facts. The dairy survives to this day to jog my often poor recollections. It keeps me from embellishing—mostly. The disadvantage: unpleasant facts reemerge causing me to reopen old wounds. A quarter century is way too long to hold grudges. So, I have to mentally separate from the old me as though I don’t know the young man on the tapes. It keeps me sane.

Stay tuned

©2010 Neal Rhoden. Gospel Aircheck. All rights reserved

It's All About me

Constantly taking inventory of the who, what, where and when this blogger sometimes asks the question: why? The purpose of the Peanut Whistle is simple; compose a record of my life now and provide examples of an earlier time that explain what brought me to the present. More often than not my radio career is at the forefront. A goal of mine at the dawn of 2010 was to delve into the relevant topics of the day, but something from my past continues to intrigue me.

This is a great time in my life. Having started a family in my late thirties has kept me on my toes for the last decade. The down side is that since I am, shall we say, more mature keeping up with three little children and a 15 year old is more of a challenge. By the time my parents were in their late twenties they had three kids. A possible advantage to  the age gap shared with my kids is a better perspective on life. Nevertheless, I wouldn't change anything.

I had been out of radio officially many years before my crew were born. I played one of my aircheck tapes in the car of a radio show I did at age 19. My six year old son asked, "Is that you, Daddy?" It dawned one me: they have no idea that I had a life before them.

So, why write the Peanut Whistle? It is dedicated to my children should they ever have interest in their old man; what he accomplished, how he lived, what his life was like in the old days. Being relevant is less important than drawing a vivid portrait of my kids' heritage. Hopefully, along the way the masses will appreciate my posts. But if that doesn't happen I'm satisfied with this somewhat autobiographical picture of my story.

Stay tuned

©2010 Neal Rhoden, The Peanut Whistle. All rights reserved.

The Blog Beat

Summer 2010 was fun. Facing an empty nest for the first time I am returning to the blogging beat in earnest. In the coming few days we at the Peanut Whistle are gathering a host of ideas both in written and audio form, maybe even video with our YouTube account. I’m playing it by ear. Speaking of video, take the old studio tour as we celebrate over 1,000 viewers on http://www.youtube.com/user/jimoneal1520

Our goal is to combine all of the Peanut Whistle stuff into one website: the blogs, podcasts, radio station and video. If you explore this blog in depth, most of these things will be at your fingertips.

Before I close today, congratulations are in order to one of my former radio homes that is located in Bremen, Georgia. After a couple of decades as a gospel station they have flipped to an oldies format and are streaming online at http://www.1440thetrain.com What a great era we live in! The present owners took over the station 17 years ago, shortly after my time there. They struggled with the Southern Gospel format for years. Best of luck to them. I consider that station one of my radio babies. My friends David, Corky and I laid groundwork which we moved from our metro Atlanta radio homes into the original “Peanut Whistle” out in rural west Georgia. I have listened, they seem to have some great imaging packages and I like the new nickname, the Train. Daddy’s proud. I’ll be listening Monday to their—hopefully live—Morning Show, expect a review in Gospel Aircheck.

Stay tuned

©2010 Neal Rhoden. The Peanut Whistle. All rights reserved.

Daddy Daycare

Man, with the economy in the dump how does anyone, of a certain [middle] age, get a job? God only knows. If I hadn’t been depressed before, then the time is now. Strangely enough, I am not. The cure for my melancholy moods has seemed to be effective for over eight months. The answer: stay busy. The summer has been a blast with the kids; water parks and all sorts of amusement has kept us busy. Now it’s time for a new school year. My first and second graders are eager to get started. I never enjoyed school; maybe they get their smarts from Mom.

Whatever the case may be, I am so proud of all my kids: ages 4 to 15. I have three beautiful girls and one rambunctious boy. Now that all but the four year old have returned to their studies, I am getting back to The Peanut Whistle and my endless search for a job. I am a full time Mister Mom. What’s next?

Stay tuned

©2010 Neal Rhoden and The Peanut Whistle. All right reserved

1999

“I was dreamin’ when I wrote this, so sue me if I go too fast,” Prince once penned, “But life is just a party and parties weren’t meant to last.” Well, life is passing these days at breakneck speeds—so rapidly that the once future date 1999 seems ancient now. When Prince wrote those lyrics in the early 1980’s the year 2000 seemed far, far away. I clearly remember humming the tune when it was new. I feel so old.

These days it seems necessary that I put together a book of my life that includes my family story that we can keep as a memento for future generations. My young children have absolutely no clue of their heritage. So my “book” may fill the need for a competent history. Much of my free time has been spent doing serious research, not just writing my anecdotal observations. The book my take more than just the two years I have already invested. I have only drafted one 15 page chapter so far—writing a book is more difficult than it seems. How does Stephen King churn out one 600 page tome after another? I don’t know: focus, determination, talent?

stay tuned

©2010 Neal Rhoden, The Peanut Whistle. All rights reserved.

The Book

Last month I referred to a book project that I intended to start. Well, I have most of chapter one drafted. Now the polishing stage has begun. Edit after edit has kept me occupied for most of the month. The blogs have been placed on the back burner for now. I will delve into further research and development of my narrative. The Internet is a valuable tool, but nothing replaces good old-fashioned trips to the book store, library, old-timey telephone and, gasp, in-person interviews. It is a work in progress that tells my family story growing up a preacher's son. My parents were both blind and I believe most readers will find their stories very interesting. Particularly how they lost their sight. My dad in an explosion in 1947 and my mom at the hand of her own mother when she was only 10 months old. 

It is also my story in Christian radio and subsequent years. My focus now is writing a fully researched paper that will provide the back-story and basis for the whole. I already have hours of audio tape dairies my dad made and a few relevant newspaper articles. The accident of '47 is available in gruesome detail from the National Archive since it involved a nearby military base. A bomb thought to be a dud landed near my dad's residence. The ordinance was responsible for the death of my 11 year old uncle, his neighbor, the loss of my dad's sight, and an aunt's eye. Obviously, I have my work cut out for me.

Stay tuned

©2010 Neal Rhoden,Gospel Aircheck. All rights reserved.

Check Out the Whistle

For those of you interested in further reading on my life in and out of the often wacky world of radio broadcasting I invite you to explore more on this blog and its companion “ the Peanut Whistle” and their sub-pages and archives. The posts are written as a history so being current is not a hindrance to reading the older stuff.

I know that reading a long post on a computer screen is an eye strain; so, I recommend printing off a copy of each post so you may read an actual printed page as it was primarily intended. My mission is to use all the posts eventually in a printed volume as part of a book project percolating in my brain.

Thanks for your continued support of our blogs.

Stay tuned

©2010 Neal Rhoden, Gospel Aircheck. All rights reserved.

This is a Test

From time to time this blog seeks new ways to go about the business of blogging. Right now I am using a fantastic new version of Microsoft Word™, Office 2010. You can link over to their website and download a free trial of the new Office program, no strings attached. I whole-heartedly recommend the 2010 version, it is better than ever as I have only scratched the surface of its many intuitive features.

Stay tuned

©2010 Neal Rhoden and Gospel Aircheck. All rights reserved

Home Where I Belong

It's been crazy around here for a while. Blogging had to take the back burner and simmer a little. I've been transitioning back to my home church from the new work that had directed my energies a few weeks. I felt the mission would continue for at least a year; but, I could not get the rest of the family on board. It turns out that my wife and I both missed the old church but neither knew until I blurted out that the novelty had wore off. We agreed that we'd return home. And we did, not looking back. I worked to 100% of my abilities for the short time I was there building my skill set.

While we didn't regret our decision to return I did question why we left in the first place. As "luck" would have it on Sunday night the music pastor invited me to join the media team and introduced me to the person in charge; guess what? The new skills I learned at my most recent short time excursion I was able to intelligently  discuss with her. In fact, she observed that I could possibly teach their team the Pro Presenter software I had just experienced first hand. A mystery solved: the purpose for our diversion was learning a wholly new way of integrating sound, video and scheduling logistics for worship and bringing back those highly effective methods to our church. For the last decade I have craved some sort of synergy of my hobbies and talents. I realize how vague this all seems; but, I assure you, long suffering reader, it is coming together.

Stay tuned

©2010 Gospel Aircheck. All rights reserved.

The Unwritten Rules

Now the mandatory first anniversary posting. Actually, a year ago I began this blog having been inspired by an old radio buddy's blog. He hasn't written a new post since then but I have labored on with two weblogs. No, I am not patting myself on the back. It has been difficult coming up with posts. Not for lack of ideas; inspiration strikes at inopportune times: at the market, while driving, etc. I have a small digital voice recorder that I occasionally carry around to capture ideas. My mission or purpose for writing changed. I decided to broaden its focus. Instead of just war stories from my DJ days I have thrown in more opinion and family life. I have begun sharing far more than I would have while on the air. Somehow my home life and career never crossed paths in what I would share on the radio. Regrettably some often humorous happenings never made the show. I edited myself thoroughly and often; one just didn't discuss his personal life with listeners. I was way too strict with my multiple restrictions. Through the years I have lightened up. The new Gospel Rewind Podcast is proof.

I am not referring to the obvious. The use of abusive speech; profanity and slander are never justified on the public airwaves. What I mean is the unwritten rules dee jays live by. Negative words about a sponsor, complaining about the station's management or coworkers were no-no's. Only the well paid shock jocks of the day could get away such behavior. It is common sense not biting the hand that feeds you. One time in my young career I shattered some rules, took a few risks, made fun of each other and the format, and had a blast.

Mylon LeFevre & Broken Heart were to appear in concert in my city at a local college in January of '86. It was very common in those days to trade airtime for free tickets. This was the one and only time in my career that free tickets were not offered to staff. Those among us were bitter towards the promotions company not Mylon. We loved his music and felt that the occasional freebie was compensation for our low salaries.The $15 fee for tickets seemed exorbitant. On this post Christmas aircheck in '85 a trio of us were on the same show making veiled references to the concert and being slighted by promoters. It turns out that it is one of my favorite airchecks. It was the one where I broke some unwritten rules, for sure. I truly showed my real personality not some Top 40 facade. It took me another six years to break away from the rules again two stations later. Tune in the non-conformist show below:

Stay tuned
©2010 Gospel Aircheck. All rights reserved.