Official Report: Ray Price Dies In Texas

Country music star Ray Price left for heaven at 4:43 PM Central Time.  My deepest sympathy and prayers to the family.

Whether moaning honky-tonk blues or purring an intimate love song, Ray Price set auntingly high standards. To appreciate his musical reach, one had only to listen to his first hit, “Talk to Your Heart” (1952), move on to the earnest
shuffle of “City Lights” (1958) and then consider his sonorous, lavishly orchestrated “For the Good Times” (1970). Although Hank Williams, his friend and one-time roommate, was an early vocal influence, Price was marked just as deeply by the great crooners of his youth — Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole and Perry Como.

What Makes Kathy And Judy On WGN Radio Everyone’s Perfect ‘Girlfriends’?

Roy Leonard explains.

What makes listening to their banter so interesting is what they talk about. Invariably the subject matter is something that listeners, both male and female, can relate to.  This past Saturday is a perfect example. In the two hours from 10AM to Noon they talked about recalling your first kiss; home security issues and credit cards; learning Spanish to aid in dealing with household help; the trend to do less housekeeping; and the difficulty in being completely honest with a friend when there’s a negative involved.

Steve Bertrand handles the news segments and doesn’t hesitate to give a male perspective to the subject. His story of the first kiss “to the girl in the brown sweater” was hilarious. They also take time after the news headlines at 11:30, to include a short segment of “Bertrand on Books”, one of Steve’s excellent author interviews from his Facebook site.

Few stations allow time these days to inventive and stimulating conversation which makes this two hour Saturday morning show such a treat. Listener phone calls are welcome, but judiciously inserted when relevant. One caller rememberd this week her first kiss in one of those old photo booths where you’d insert a coin and get that strip of black and white pictures. And that first kiss – I remember it well. We were 10 or 12 years old. Her name was Betty and we were in the back of her parent’s car. AND THEY WERE DRIVING.

Getting Hillary Clinton Out On The Campaign Trail

One of the unknowns is what role likely 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton will have in the mid-term elections.  But there is more and more talk from insiders that she will have a visible role that will place her before the public, and also at the center of political debates that will shape her resolve as a White House contender.

In addition, Clinton could decide to campaign for 2014 Democratic candidates, many of whom are old friends and allies. She helped two candidates get elected this fall — Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio. Doing the same in 2014 could help her amass support for a presidential run and help retain a Democratic-controlled Senate for a future President Clinton to work with. It could also help her decide whether she still has enough fun doing it to run for the presidency again.

Political operatives say they can’t imagine Hillary Clinton not campaigning in 2014 if only because she again has close ties to several candidates, including Pryor, Grimes and New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, whose husband was Clinton’s state chairman in 2008. Guy Cecil, who is charged with preserving the Democratic majority in the Senate as executive director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, served as Clinton’s field director during her 2008 presidential run.