THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 14, 1995 TAG: 9505120244
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Random Rambles
SOURCE: Tony Stein
LENGTH: Medium: 82 lines
My friend and fellow Chesapeakian Raymond Jones is smiling like a fast cat after a slow mouse. He's entitled to.
That's because Jones is station manager at WHRO and WHRV, the public radio outlets that get a big chunk of their operating bucks from local folks. And the stations have just held a fund drive that reached its goal of $175,000. Plus another $400 for good measure.
``We hit the goal on the last day of the campaign,'' Jones says. ``The phones rang off the hook.'' He says the effort got a lot of help from Betsy Palmer, the actress in town for a Virginia Stage Company play. Jones said Palmer is 69, but has the energy of a 20-year-old. While I accept the energy description, I prefer to retain my image of Palmer from three decades ago. In those days, she could sizzle my hormones just by breathing in and out.
Despite the successful money hunt, Jones is wary. ``This is the scariest of times that public broadcasting ever faced,'' Jones says. He means that congressional budget axes are poised like it was Thanksgiving Eve and National Public Radio was the turkey. National Public Radio is the middle man that passes federal dough on to the local level.
``So who needs government-supported culture?'' some of you may ask. Jones shot me an answer that he got from the head of the British Broadcasting Corp. ``Civilized countries support the arts,'' Mr. BBC told him. Amen, says Jones, who points out that only public radio brings you in-depth news coverage for the ear. I say amen, too. The program ``All Things Considered'' at 5 p.m. is consistently informative and entertaining. Check it out.
A lot of the budget ax-wavers want to shoot down National Public Radio because they claim it's a liberal mouthpiece. Dumb on two counts, says Jones. Firstly, it busts its reportorial butt to present all sides of an issue on a program like ``All Things Considered.'' Secondly, Jones says cutting National Public Radio funds will boomerang. Here's why:
Local public radio stations buy the network service that National Public Radio offers. That's basic. Then they spend money for other programs. If they can't afford the other programs, they'll just use more stuff from the alleged liberals at National Public Radio.
One other rap on public radio that Jones hears annoys him so much that he sputters just a tad as he calls it ``absurd.'' He means the claim that public radio is ``elitist,'' that it's for folks with their noses in the air, the high-class types who can afford leather seats for their pickup trucks.
No way, says Jones. He wants you to know that when his stations hold their Listener Appreciation Day, the turnout is a total cross-section of the community. ``Hey,'' he says, ``five bucks will buy you an FM radio. Cable TV with the monthly fee is elitist if anything is. Public radio is about as elitist as McDonald's.''
When Jones isn't circling the wagon train of public radio, his head and heart are likely to be in Queen Victoria's London. He is a Sherlock Holmes buff like you wouldn't believe. He even spent his honeymoon at the Sherlock Holmes Hotel in London.
What startled me was finding out from Jones that you could stock a small library with Sherlock Holmes books. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle created Holmes and wrote the original books, but everybody and his uncle, his aunt and his cousins have been grinding out more Holmes books over the years.
There are books about Holmes in Dallas, Holmes meeting Oscar Wilde, Sigmund Freud, Gilbert and Sullivan, Karl Marx, even Tarzan. Hmmm. Holmes and Tarzan. I can hear them now:
``Me Tarzan. You Holmes.''
``That's elementary school grammar, my dear apeman.''
I grew up on Sherlock Holmes movies that starred Basil Rathbone as the super sleuth. Jones rates him as pretty good, but says the best Holmes ever is Jeremy Pratt, the guy who stars on the current TV shows on WHRO-TV.
And the worst Holmes actor? The envelope please, and Jones' choice is Stewart Granger. ``White-haired and tubby in a version of `Hound of the Baskervilles,' '' Jones says.
Surrounded by all this Holmes literature, Jones has been inspired to tackle his own Holmes novel. Mr. Spock of ``Star Trek'' meets Sherlock is the way Jones describes his work in progress.
Wow! ``Star Trek'' Spock and Holmes. Just think of them driving a hansom cab at warp speed through the streets of London. There's an obvious sequel if they do. . .
``Sherlock Holmes Goes to Traffic Court.'' by CNB