Tag Archives: Jefferson City

Prison Radio

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This might be an over-simplification but Prison Radio appears to be short (2-3 minutes) recordings made by prison inmates. I’m assuming these are made from phone calls the prisoners are allowed to make. That’s make take on the what, your guess is as good as mine on the ‘why’ but I’m assuming the idea is to give a voice to the incarcerated.

One of the prisoners recording these commentaries is James Keown. Mr. Keown is from Jefferson City, MO, the town where I live. In 2008 he was convicted of murder for poisoning his wife with Gatorade spiked with antifreeze. He’s serving a life prison sentence in Massachusetts.

In one of his three commentaries (Who Are You?) he describes being on the air at one of our local radio stations when, during a commercial break, he was arrested. I briefly met Keown a couple of times but didn’t know him.

I find these commentaries bizarre in a way I can’t quite put into words. Perhaps it’s the distinctive “announcer voice” Keown uses when making the recordings.

UPDATE (1/9/18): Keown has stopped updating his Prison Radio page. Just those three posts back in 2016. His appeal to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court was rejected on October 23, 2017.

Warren Krech: 40 years behind the mic

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Warren (“Krech in the Morning”) Krech is retiring from radio at the end of the month, wrapping up a career that started in 1972. He’s been on the air in Jefferson City, Missouri, since 1984. Almost half a century of getting up every morning at 3 a.m. Be hard to find someone more involved in his community than Warren and it’s hard not think in terms of “end of an era.” He has seen and been part of a lot of changes in radio and talked about them in this 16 minute chat/shoptalk.

Road Trip

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On Sunday I left Richmond, VA shortly before 6:00 a.m. and arrived in Jefferson City, MO (home) shortly after midnight. I made 15 minute stops for gas and food. I suppose it’s good to know I can still do a solo marathon like this if I have to but the last few hours were brutal. I was just eager to get home to Barb and the pups.

My brother and his wife are stateside for a year, and it was good to see them. Why didn’t I stay longer? They have jobs and nobody should have to have a house guest more than a couple of days.

I just don’t like to travel. Not by plane, train or automobile. Next long trip will probably be by air. Lesser evil.

Your grandpa’s bank

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oldbankI’ve enjoyed my VISA Amazon rewards card (from Chase) and I’ve used the points to make purchases. But rewards cards (at least this one) is not part of the Apple Pay system. No problem. Took about 5 minutes to get approved for a card that will work with Apple Pay. Haven’t decided on whether to keep the Amazon card.

My “back-up” card is a MasterCard issued by my local bank. So I stopped by to ask if they had any information on when/if they would support Apple Pay. The first guy I spoke with had never heard of Apple Pay.

“Have you heard about Ebola?” I asked him. It was a joke!

While he was calling different departments to see if anyone knew about this new “Apple Pay thing,” the lady at the next desk gave me a little lecture on how their bank (Central Bank, Jefferson City, MO) didn’t jump on every new thing that came along.

“We were one of the last banks in this area to offer online banking,” she proudly announced. “We’re very conservative.”

“So, this is Your Grandpa’s Bank,” I teased.

Stony silence.

Like the music business and television and newspapers, the banking industry is due for some major disruption. I really don’t need them for much these days and have started looking for ways to use them less.

Automatic

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I’ve been using the Automatic widget/app for a couple of weeks and have found it very useful. The screenshot below is from the companion website and shows some of the data the device captures. On a recent trip from St. Louis to Jefferson City I saved seven bucks by keeping my speed (mostly) at 70 mph or below. The app beeps once when you exceed 70. I also avoided “rough breaking” and “hard acceleration.” For those with jobs that involve tracking mileage, this would be a hand/automatic way to do it.

automatic

Old Cole County Jail

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Cole County Sheriff Greg White took time from his busy schedule to give +George Kopp and me a tour of the old Cole County jail which was in use until two years ago, when the new jail was completed. The old jail was designed to house 52 prisoners but was housing as many as 98 by the time they moved to the new facility. Not good. A portion of the old jail is still used for holding prisoners when hearings are held in the attached Cole County Courthouse.

The Missouri State Penitentiary

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“The Missouri State Penitentiary, also known as “The Walls”, was a prison in Jefferson City, Missouri that operated from 1836-2004. Prior to closing, it was the oldest operating penal facility west of the Mississippi River. It served as the State of Missouri’s primary maximum security institution. The current Jefferson City Correctional Center was opened on September 15, 2004, replacing the Missouri State Penitentiary.” — Wikipedia

My first tour of the old prison was prior to 2004 so the inmates were still there. A very different place than the empty cells and halls we toured in 2008 (photos).

Mark Schreiber — our guide in ’08 — was once a corrections office and, at one time, Associate Superintendent at the penitentiary. He’s also and avid historian and the co-author of Somewhere In Time: 170 Years of Missouri Corrections (out of print I’m afraid).

I regret I didn’t record the full tour because it was fascinating. As you will see from the excerpts above.

A Valentine’s Day Story

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Barb loves flowers. So I sent her flowers on Valentine’s Day. But the arrangement was so “cheezy,” she sent them back. How bad does a floral arrangement have to be for a woman to return it on Valentine’s Day.

Years ago I started buying flowers from Busch’s Florist here in Jefferson City. I’d send flowers on her birthday, our anniversary and sometime just because I had “a love attack.”

Money was no object. Busch’s had my credit card and I rarely asked “how much.” I frequently asked that the person doing the arrangement “swing for the fence.” Really get creative.

It was a nice arrangement (so to speak), for Busch’s and for me. They did a good job and then a couple of years ago they suggested I try their “special events” plan (not what they called it). I’d pick several special days throughout the year and they’re remember to send flowers. Probably good for cash flow.

Yes, I put my love on auto-pilot and today it bit me on the ass. Who knows what happened. The florist probably has some excuses ready for when they return my call cancelling the plan. Rushed. A newbie did the arrangement, blah blah blah.

Doesn’t matter. Florists sell hard the concept of “this special day.” And when you fuck up, you pay the consequences. That’s life. And business. They let flowers become a commodity. Good enough.

I probably averaged two or three hundred dollars a year with Busch’s Florist, going back a dozen years? And I would have spent that much each year for the next dozen years.

Tomorrow they’ll probably send Barb a really nice bunch of flowers, “on the house.” But tomorrow isn’t Valentine’s Day. That was today.

I’ll be auditioning florists in coming weeks and I’ll post photos and reviews here. You’ve just read my review of Busch’s.

Downtown Rotary rocks Posterous

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Jefferson City has four Rotary Clubs. Learfield Honcho Emeritus Clyde Lear belongs to the “Downtown Rotary Club” and he asked me to meet with a few of the members to explore the idea of a blog. We got together a couple of weeks ago at the Coffee Zone and after asking some questions, I suggested they start with Posterous.

Before I show you their progress, you have to see what they had before.

This really isn’t their fault. They had no way to update the site or improve it’s design. But they felt like they had lots of stuff they’d like to share with their members and the public. For those that haven’t seen my earlier posts on Posterous (as in ‘pre-posterous’), it’s a blogging platform or a “life-streaming” tool or both… but it doesn’t matter. The best part of Posterous is the ability to post by email. Photos, videos, audio, whatever.

In the screenshot below, they have photo and audio of a talk by MU Football Coach Gary Pinkel. Rotarian Jason Jett says he recorded the audio on his iPhone and just mailed it off to the new site. Simple as that.

While the Downtown Rotary Club tends to skew a little older than the other clubs, I’ll be very surprised if any of them one has a cooler, more content-rich site. Posterous is a great solution. Free, simple to use, and getting more features all the time.