July 2012 Round-Up

How many millions of times each day does a writer somewhere begin a blog post with some variation of, "it's been too long since I've written anything here"? For everyone's sake (mostly mine), I will dispense with that formality and get right into a quick round-up of three recent items of ISLR-worthy news:

This NOT Just In: Seattle Supersonics World Championship
A new episode of TNJI premiered on KUOW 94.9 FM in Seattle in early June, this time looking at the 1979 Seattle Supersonics' NBA championship. Features some nice cuts from the late "Voice of the Sonics" Bob Blackburn, and a snippet of Brent Musburger.

More Sonics Stuff
The TNJI episode inspired me to dust off an audio recording made in 2004 of an event at MOHAI to honor the 25th anniversary of the Sonics' championship. I moderated, but the stars of the show were the aforementioned Mr. Blackburn, plus Seattle Times reporter (who covered the championship season) Greg Heberlein, and Sonics forward John "JJ" Johnson. Complete audio is available here.

JPR Foundation Successful Grant
The news from Ashland, OR-based Jefferson Public Radio hasn't been all that great lately (lots of political strife and the retirement of long-time chief Ron Kramer). So, it was good news last week when the National Endowment for the Arts announced that the JPR Foundation has received a $50,000 grant in support of the Jefferson Square project, which is slated to house new studios, performance spaces and a broadcast history museum. The grant proposal was penned by yours truly (with support and legwork from JPR staff, of course).