The alarm clock went off at 5:45 am this morning. I dressed and headed off
to K95.5 FM to be on the Cash and Carey morning show. I was told to get to
the building at 6:45am and then call the control room where I would be let into
the locked building and escorted to the studio.
Sounded good until I got there. No one answered, so I waited and called
again, and again, and again. Thought I'd try the building to see if it happened
to be unlocked and found I could walk right in. I had been on the show about
a year ago and remembered the studio was on the 5th floor so rode up and
tried the number one more time. No one answered.
The door into the station was locked with the lights off. On the glass was
the logos of all the Cox radio stations so I dialed information and got the KRM
newsroom and asked if someone would let me in. I nice lady came and unlocked
the door and I made it there by 6:05 am.
The two were great. Kelley Cash and Tom Carey were kind, laid back,
and seem to really enjoy what they do. I was on to promote a news story
I had done that is airing on Monday night at 10pm. We talked and did a
trivia thing where listeners try to stump us. It was fun. What was odd is that
Travis Myers does the weather for them. He records them the night before
and they re-run his recorded forecast over and over. He was talking about
sunshine and temperatures in the mid to upper 60s but that forecst was
already wrong. It was cloudy when the sun came up and stayed that way
all day.
Hey I busted the forecast too! I think everyone did. Probably my worst
forecast in about a month. Every piece of data I looked at Thursday indicated
the clouds would break and we would warm into the mid 60s. Models had a
weak wind shift line pushing SE during the morning hours and drier air moving in.
That never happened. We kept advecting in moisture on the weak SE winds.
The weak front didn't enter our area until tonight. A persistant deck of
stratocumulus kept my forecast high of 67 down to only 59. Ouch! You never
what to have an 8 degree bust in a forecast. It is very rare but sadly it happens.
I'm just glad it doesn't happen here very often.
The news folks had me out at the Tulsa Raceway Park for the 5pm and 6pm
weathercasts. There they are having an event called MOPARs at the Park
on Saturday. It is a drag race, swap meet, and car show for mostly MOPARs.
I met Wade Metzinger, his wife, his dad and mom. They are all into drag racing
and fantastic people.
Wade offered me a pass in his '71 Plymouth Barracuda and I couldn't
turn him down. The car is 36 years old and looks great. Wade estimated
it had 650 horse power and they if I would wear a race jacket and helmet
he would take me down the track at near 100 mph. How can you say no to
that? They strapped me in with a 5 point harness seatbelt and did exactly that.
It was a rush, and if I had the time and money, it would make a great hobby.
Folks there stress that the drag strip is a much safer alternative to
street racing. There you have tech inspections, rules, fans away from
the cars, an ambulance, and safety crews. Racing on the street is
stupid, people are killed all the time. Why not take it to the drag
strip and let 'er rip.
It's been a long day, still that 8 degree busted forecast is still bothering me.
Dan