This Is Only a Test

The programming secrets toies er's old-time formats radio.

A A A Comments By Michael Roberts Thursday, Oct 14 1999

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As for Gates, the A&E network's Biography program just named him the 41st most influential person of the millennium, fourteen spots ahead of explorer Ferdinand Magellan and sixteen in front of Elvis Presley. Sidewalk, shmidewalk.

Back at the News, onetime Denver Post-er Penny Parker is set to take over the gossip column recently abandoned by Norm Clarke. The move came after decision-makers offered to split the slot between a pair of in-house candidates, soft-feature specialist James Meadow and food writer Thom Wise, who recently stepped back from covering the Denver stage scene because he's trying to purchase an East Colfax theater. But when Meadow and Wise turned thumbs-down on the deal, execs recruited Parker, a journalist from the Post's business department who, according to the October 8 article introducing her to News readers, loves to golf, ski and teach step aerobics. When Jazzercise gets hip again, she'll be ready.

Mark Brooks

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Two days later, on October 10, the News tried to squeeze a few more drops of blood from the Columbine stone via three (count 'em, three) pieces about Kyle Velasquez, a shooting victim whose parents had previously been among the few to keep the press at a distance. We'll probably never know why his folks chose this particular moment to sit down with the News and Channel 7, which also ran a Velasquez piece that day; perhaps they simply reached the stage in their mourning where they needed to vent. But their decision plays into the hands of those media cynics who have let the coverage of this important story devolve into a ghoulish popularity contest. Just like high school.