Sue 'em. I can't keep up. Hash Investments (David Hagan and Larry Shelor) have dropped their suit against developer Roger Woody on the grounds that "we have nothing to sue for" as David Hagan told the Roanoke Times. And as this suit was being "dropped", along comes a post on the local websites ThinkChristiansburg.com and DepotDazed.com saying Woody's lawsuit against 4 individuals connected with those websites has not been dropped as "rumors" have indicated. This suit was filed on Woody's behalf against 4 individuals who are self-proclaimed "community" activists. The defendants' lawyers, along with the ACLU, have responded to the lawsuit and now Woody's lawyer has until June 9th to answer. No date hearing date has been set. Clearly, there was some confusion between the two lawsuits and that caused the "rumor mill" to crank up. I will say that for defendants who maintain that they "can't say anything about the lawsuit", they seem to be keeping their websites current with information regarding the litigation. A lawyer's nightmare.

Local Media. I do not understand the Roanoke Times. There are times where their arrogance overshadows their ability to cover the news in an objective manner. It would also appear to me that they feel it necessary to become the story themselves at times. Case in point: Saturday on their online edition of the newspaper. Reporter Courtney Cutright was chasing a news story (as we all were) with regard to a Montgomery Sheriff's Deputy wounding a Christiansburg Man Friday night. As part of the story, Ms. Cutright thought it necessary to note that a dispatcher with the Sheriff's department hung up on her. Reading the story, one gets a feeling that Ms. Cutright is claiming that the dispatcher was rude. Chill out Courtney, report the news and if you have a beef with a dispatcher at Montgomery County then try to work it out before you start reporting snakes under the rocks. Besides Courtney, handling the press is generally not the job of a dispatcher -  most of us citizens away from the Roanoke Times want our dispatchers available to handle emergencies and direct radio traffic for law enforcement, and not hanging out with reporters on the phone. 

There are some musical chairs happening with local radio coverage for High School football in the New River Valley. Cumulus Broadcasting's SuperTalk 101.7 has dumped Blacksburg High School in favor of Christiansburg High School sports. On the other side, 101.3FM (who had been carrying Christiansburg) has moved to pickup Blacksburg High School sports. But, the 101.3FM signal is weak in several areas and that means Blacksburg High School comes out as the loser here. I wonder how this will fare with many Blacksburg merchants and Blacksburg power brokers who have kids in Blacksburg schools? It seems to me that Rick Watson (Cumulus NRV Sports Director) would have stepped in and advised the Cumulus people to carry Blacksburg sports on the 105.3FM signal, a signal that would have more than made up for the dumping Blacksburg took on 101.7FM. All of this might not be relevant in 12 to 24 months once the games become available on mobile phones. Whoops........one little piece of technology that wasn't mentioned in all of these agreements.

Local Politics. Who cares? Only about 5% to 6% of the people in the area. So we move on to other political thoughts. Former Governor Jim Gilmore has been elected by the Virginian Republican Convention to run for the seat of retiring Republican Senator John Warner. He won by a slim margin over Bob Marshall. Gilmore is in need of a good ass-kicking and Mark Warner is going to hand it to him next year. You are seeing the beginning of the end of political life for Jim Gilmore.

Hillary is done. Scott McClellan’s book is a blockbuster, and John McCain needs to start carrying around a voodoo doll of George Bush and show people he is sticking sharp needles in it. If not, Barak Obama will be your next President. And that means George Bush will have caused 4 more years of inexperienced leadership because the country will vote for anyone other than a Republican. By the way, if you have not seen the HBO Movie "Recount", plan on it. It will blow your mind to see how Bush's camp fought to keep all of the votes in Florida from being counted.

Oh……and finally..…and what does “change colors” mean? It means you are dealing with a chameleon and that is never a good thing. Good people never change their colors, they are always steady.

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changing colors
written by anonymous, September 11, 2008

Sometimes people change colors because they did not have all the facts at one point in time, and over time they read and listened and learned and therefore, changed their opinions. There is nothing wrong with that. It's called growing.

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What a week indeed
written by Scott Stevens, June 01, 2008

I can't help but think of the Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz. "If I only had a heart". J Actually, I did pick on Ron a bit hard. Truth be known, he has a big heart. Can't tell you had many times I have been in trouble through the years and Ron Walton was the first one to help out. And when our staff ends up in Jail… Well he really steps up and helps out. (Not talking about myself by the way… but we did have as many as 4 employees in the slammer or drunk tank during the 5 years I worked with Walton.) Glad the trip to UVA went well even if it went a little longer than you wanted….

As to the redneck thing... Hey you are right... Changing colors is bad! Yep. Red. That's me. I guess. Or maybe I should say "I Reckon". More of a hillbilly than a redneck though I think. I don’t even own a rebel flag for crying out loud.

Football thing. Yeah the problem is, dating back to when you owned the radio stations the Blacksburg businesses did not support the program. Perhaps I should clarify, they did not support the program being on the radio. So moving to CHS made sense. I told you that back then, and I told my current owners that now. However, we are finding the same thing in Christiansburg. No interest. Even when we approach people on a list provided by Coach Cromer. Part of the problem is the other radio group sold their commercials for about a buck. Maybe less. Maybe a buck is what their commercials are worth? We like to think we can do better. When are these businesses going to step up and show their support? Who knows? We may carry neither. Oh and by the way, we don't have the staff, equipment, OR advertiser support to put BHS on the Bear AND carry CHS, PCHS, and RHS. Hard enough carrying 3 teams every Friday night… No way to do four. You see unlike our competitor, we don’t send an intern with a cell phone out to a football game. We send a play-by-play talent, with a color commentator, using FM link to get on the air. You can actually understand what our guys are saying about the kids in the game. If only people would support their program the way Pulaski County gets behind the Cougars... now there's a football program...

Hang in there Walton… Listen tomorrow morning and I will play your favorite song…. “Much too young to feel this Damn Old” by Garth Brooks… Or is it “Everything I love is killing me… Cigarettes – Jack Daniels and Caffeine” by Alan Jackson... Perhaps both?

Scott Stevens

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