Getting back to my falling. The station I worked for owned an AM and a FM station in the same market. Not to commonplace then but now I think three companies in the entire US own everything. (again not the point of this discussion, maybe later…) I was hired by my old PD (program director) from the first FM station I worked for, to come to work for him at this new AM station. I figured, “Why not?” In about a year they, the radio gods, decided that it would be a good thing if we put some sports programming on the air. So we did and then more and more came on. Next thing I knew we were a satellite station for the San Francisco Giants, Los Angeles Raiders, San Jose Sharks plus our local college football team. Along with those live feeds we took on some sports talk show programs. We were like hip deep in sports. Here’s where the falling into it part comes in. My buddy the PD decided that we needed a Sport Director. He didn’t want to do it himself so I got the nod. Didn’t get paid more but I had a press pass and could get into any of our team’s games, locker room and so on. Never used the locker room privilege though. Vision of Junior High and High school gym class swam in my eyes. But I did use it to get on the field and talk to the players and coaches. That was pretty cool. Although I wasn’t an avid sports fan, I lucked out and had a great time, while it lasted. I mentioned all that just as a preface to what this article is all about.

I live in Sacramento and we have a great basketball team called the Kings. If you’ve followed basketball for the last nine or ten years, you know about our team. The Kings are always in the mix of things and they have made Sacramento a name worldwide. Before the Kings Sacramento was known for being the state capitol of California and, oh yeah, the gold rush. That’s about it. My hometown, like all state capitols, was a backwater, a cow town and for good reason. The city’s founding fathers and the subsequent city counsel members have wanted it to stay that way. Why? Not sure. But I am pretty sure that given the choice I think the city counsel would vote to have Lodi become the new capitol. But they can’t, so Sacramento’s safe.

The King’s owners have been going back and forth with the city counsel concerning a new arena. The old Arco arena, where they play now, is out-dated. But they’ve come up against opposition from Sacramento’s city counsel. It seems what the city counsel is trying to do is erase the contributions that the Kings have made to the community by trying to vote down a new arena. Through their lack of action or pettiness they have literally told the Kings and their owners to take a hike. They need a new place to play and chances are if they don’t get it they’ll move out of Sacramento. There are a lot of people in this area that really don’t care about sports. That’s their right. They’re also afraid that it will raise taxes and so forth and so on. All understandable. But what they don’t realize is that when Sacramento loses the Kings, our identity to the world will suffer. No. Sacramento won’t whither and die, it will always be the state capitol, but neither will we enjoy the status that we possess now.

But the reason I will fight hard to keep the Kings here is a very personal one for me. I recently moved back to Sacramento after spending eight years in Buffalo. While I was living in Buffalo every chance I got to watch the Kings play on TV, I did. Why? Because it reminded me of home. And for those brief three hours I was back here again. Every time they showed shots of the audience I scanned every face to see if I could recognize any body. Never did but I looked regardless. I know, as sure as I’m sitting here writing this, that there are other Sacramentans away from home that will tune in one day and feel the way I did. But without the Kings staying in town, that feeling will never be felt.

Next week’s topic is “Road Rage” or “I just need a hug”.

Until then enjoy life and don’t be fooled. The Republicans did steal the last presidential election.

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About the author: Richard Anthony is a screenplay writer and has eight screenplays to his credit. He started writing in 1990, after the birth of his first son. Prior to beginning his writing career, he spent twelve years working a two different radio stations in Sacramento, California. He was an on- air personality for the morning show program at both stations. At his final place of employment, Mr. Anthony worked as an Assistant Operations Manager and Sport Director. After radio, he formed Pyramid Productions. A film/video company dealing with video and audio commercial production.

In 1998 and 1999 Mr. Anthony’s poem “What is Winning All About?” was selected by the International Library of Poetry to be placed in their anthology book of American poets for 1998. They contacted him again the following year to seek his permission for “Winning” to be included in their Millennium anthology collection. He, of course, gladly gave it.

www.angelfire.com/ny/pyramidproductions

Email: tandem_productions@yahoo.com

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