How about a bit of Chris from Green Bay for your Monday?

Okay we got some paper work to discuss first before you watch the video I have for you.

James Grandy, of the Minot Grandy's, pipes in after my last rant with a compliment?

Pete,

the world needs more camera men like you Pete, now just learn how to white balance and focus

Grandy

Well thanks James, I think.

Next up is Art Simmonds, of the CEP beat the snot out of A-Channel Simmonds, gave me some props. Me and Art took on the man in Edmonton and we beat him down. Art is and old school union guy who I would go to war with any day...

Hi Chris ..

Enjoyed reading your rant on the media. I gave upon it many years ago, but it still pisses me off. Glad to see there's some people who still work in tv who get it.

Art

Thanks Art, that means a lot coming from you.

Last but not least Chad Walker, of the Score Toronto Walkers, brings us the Toronto side of the coin...

Phew...I thought you were going to rip the Score's coverage of trade deadline day. Maybe you should start ripping TSN for loving themselves way too much. Get over it already you are who you are because you have the most money not because you are so much better than everybody else. Now I am ranting, you got me fired up.

Chad Walker

Nah, Chad, I watched some of the Score's coverage and you guys did fine. I have started watching you guys again even after my self imposed ban of the Score after my experience with a certain reporter that pissed me off every day. I like the new look and I really like the attitude. Gerry Dee is freaking hilarious. Give him more time. Oh and you are correct, I really don't like it when a media outlet pats themselves on the back way too much. It is just so self serving. If you are willing to prop yourself you should also be willing to admit your mistakes. The parent company of TSN is the company that I was ranting about last week.

Anyway, thanks for the response keep it coming...


Sound Off Live Sat Rip Off from hamiltongbp on Vimeo.



So I finally got this one uploaded. It is a bit of comedy that some of us at WGBA did for WOITV in Des Moines. This was for the show Sports Sound Off with Keith Murphy. Just a bit of history...this show is basically talk radio on TV. Keith called me about a month or so after it started. He said he would like me to call in to the show and just act crazy and just be me. He wanted to create a villian of sorts so that would spark his callers to be more 'interesting'.

I was cool with that but I lived in Green Bay. How was that gonna fly? He said it did not matter just call. Well I started to call each week and rail on how much Des Moines sucks and how great the Packers are. We kinda caught a break because this was the year the Pack made their first run at the Super Bowl and won it. So I had a lot to talk about. Oh and the Green Bay Gamblers played Des Moines hockey team and that brought me some heat also.

Needless to say I was not popular. We even taped a segment once where Keith was in GB doing a stand up in the parking lot of Lambeau and I tackled him. Just crushed him. We shot it from about three different angles and they edited it just right to make it look good. People actually believe I hurt him. People are dumb.

Once I made a trip down for Keith's wedding and we went to his bachelor party which was held at Sec Taylor field home of the Iowa Cubs. Round Guy introduced me to someone who was a frequent caller to the show and she refused to shake my hand. Someone also told me that I showed up on a local newsmagazine poll as one of the most hated men in Iowa. Not sure if that was true but I choose to believe it.

So we made a bet, can't remember what it was, but my end of the bet was that I would never call the show again. Somehow it worked out that I lost so I stopped calling. Well, Murph wanted to get me back in so we devised this scheme that I stole a sattlelite feed and announced that I would be back. It worked great because I looked like a loser and was going back on the bet. I love being the villian.

Anyway, for the first time, above is the video that goes along with it. As you can see everyone who is anyone is in it. Marty is in it, Hauser makes an appearance, Venckus Schmenkus gets a question in, the Raffertys are in there, and of course the Nordic Man acts as my security force. Great bit of TV here folks. I hope you enjoy it.

I have a copy of the night where I got my head shaved on the show around somewhere also so I will work on getting that up also.

Now, have a good week and GET BACK TO WORK!!!

Let's play a bit of catch up...

Alright. Yup I have been slacking a bit. Okay, you are right, I have been slacking a ton. I have been kinda busy but that is no excuse. I cannot make excuses to you, the TundraTalk nation. In fact a few of you have been feeding me ideas and I have just been out of it. I had every intention of putting up a massive rim rocking post today but I just have been slacking off. Sorry if this one is a bit long so as to catch up...

A lot of things have happened in the past few weeks to talk about. In fact, the queens somehow managed to beat the Packers, Barack Obama managed to whip McCain and that dumb ass hockey mom and is working on turning America into a commie nation (that is so funny that anyone believes that), I went to see Lenny Kravitz and Bob Dylan in the span of two days, the I saw the Riders get their ass handed to them in the playoffs, I got the results from my wonderful operation (no Donna is not pregnant), and McKenna broke her wrist on the playground yesterday fighting with an 8th grader who said something not very nice about the Green Bay Packers. Okay, she just fell off the slide, I just wanted to add a bit of drama. I am telling you though if some 8th grader started talking shit about the Pack she would totally take care of business. Word.

Okay one thing that happened this fall that I just heard about it the passing of Tedd O'Connell. Read the article here. Tedd was my News Director at WGBA in Green Bay. As you all know I usually spit vitirol about News Directors I have had in the past. Maybe in these pages later I will do a post describing the worst ND's I had. That would be good. Tell some of the crazy shit that ND's always try to pull. Now I know those of you who work in the 'real world' have shitty bosses also, but it is a weird breed of person who wants to be a ND. They really are mosty just mall cops who run news organizations. I hate mall cops.

Tedd did not fit that mold, most of the time. Tedd was my ND for less than a year but I learned more about news, and more importantly journalism, than I have learned from any of the other Bozos I have worked for. Mike Chaussee, of the Bismarck Chaussee's, you are not included in the Bozo the Clown category. You are more into the Hamburgler the clown category. I am sooo funny. Anyway, Tedd knew his shit. He was also a hard ass. You knew where you stood with this guy and he didn't like anyone kissing his ass as most newsrooms and ND's are wanting you to do.

Check the jacket he is wearing in the pic above. You have to be a hard ass to be able to wear a jacket like that, ON TV! I also like the weather map in the back with the magnets on it. Old school. I tell ya, if stations would drop all this super doppler radar crap that reads the weather down to your street and went back to that I might start paying attention to them again. Seriously.

Tedd, was a no bull shit guy. I remember once when the Daryl Marquardt, of the Madison Marquardts, had his office upstairs (which was taken away by the dickhead ND who came after Tedd) a few of the shooters had some down time and we were in Daryl's office shooting the shit watching Braveheart when some Production weasel (who will remain nameless because I cannot remember his name), not Marty, walked by and thought we should not be all in one place let alone watching a movie. You know the old adage "A camera guy with out a camera on his shoulder is sluffing off". He went to Tedd and told on us. Tedd told this loser to go away and mind his own business. Sweet.

My favorite Tedd story is early on at WGBA when me and someone else(can't remember who, maybe Hauser?) were sent out to do a live last second in Oshkosh at the court house. The engineers had been working on the live truck all day so we jumped in and took off. Well, the generator that runs the thing is attached to the gas tank in the truck. If it gets to a quarter tank left the generator will not run so as you do not run your gas tank out running the generator then you cannot get home because you have an empty tank of gas.

I guess you can see where this is going. I did not look at the gas tank when we left. When we got to Oshkosh we started to set up and I went over to start the generator. No go. We tried shore power but the cable was not long enough. Needless to say we had around 20 minutes to get gas and then get back to get the live set up and on the air. Tedd was not pleased. We did get the shot up and on the air but it was hairy.

When I got back to the shop Tedd was waiting for me in his office. He tore a strip off of me up one side and down the other. He told me as he held up his index finger, and I quote, "Chris. That's your one. And you only get one." I said okay and started to walk out of the office when I remembered that we did get the shot up. I turned around and told him that despite all the difficultieswe did get the shot up and it all worked out in the end. He smirked at me and said "Yes you did. Now go home."

We did not have issues after that. I think he just wanted you to stand up for yourself and he respected that. The ones in the newsroom who were chickenshit and just wanted to get by he had problems with. Tedd had my respect, and I would like to think I had his.

Another thing I liked about him is the 'morning meeting newspaper phenomena'. In most newsrooms during the morning meeting all the 'decision makers' would sit around and read the paper for their news story ideas. Dumb, dumb, dumb. Hated that. By the time we do the story it is two days old. Dumb, dumb, dumb. Tedd told us that we were supposed to do the stories before the paper had them. While I was there Tedd would take the stories out of the paper that we did the day before and post them. If I remember correctly there were a lot of stories up on that bulletin board. The papers were watching us and copying OUR stories. Way cool.

Derek Venckus, of the Tenneessee Venckus's, has a great Tedd story...

Got a a hundred of em.....most of which are unsuitable for print, broadcast, or blog. Try this: We've just started up the news operation at WGBA. Our sports department consists of four people. Two of them are in Atlanta for the Olympics. That leaves Packers training camp two a days, etc to be covered by Bill Wixie and me. Well, this means six or seven day work weeks at about 10 or 11 hours per day. So, I hand in my time card with 20 hours of overtime and Tedd explodes.

Tedd: "What the f*** is this?

Me: My timecard.(bad answer)

Tedd (screaming); You think your smarta** bullshi* is funny? Well, it's not. I have a budget and you just fu**ed the whole thing up. And guess what?

Me: What?

Tedd: Because you f**ked the entire budget up, you're going to pay. You're not travelling to the Packers game this weekend so we can save the money you just blew. Maybe then you'll get your f**king act together.

Me: Let me get this straight, Tedd. I work my a** off covering Packers training camp...having the time of my life as a one man band. And, because I work my a** off, you're going to punish me by not letting me go to the game? That's absolute bulls***.

(Long Pause)

Tedd screams: Fine, then go to the fu**ing game.

Sometimes I think he enjoyed someone challenging him. Crazy dude.

Venckus

Great story Derek. Tedd was a one of a kind. Marty Frey, of the Hollywood is burning Frey's, sends his classic Tedd Story. Take it away Marty...

When old Tedd first got hired - he was picked because he was part of Mr. T's (Jim Tomlin - GM) good ol' boy network and was available.. I think T knew him from his years in Madison and he still had a respected name and was working as a News Director in a small market in Maryland. So - the first real meeting that we had together was with me, Mr. T, Jay Zollar and Tedd and we were talking about the promotion strategy for the news launch. I went through a couple of ideas and the launch of news was to co-incide with the Atlanta Olympics so - I had decided to tie-in Olympic awareness with NBC-26 news awareness - both of them being the biggest things to happen in many years. Not a real mental promotional stretch - but it was in the brilliance of the execution that I was hoping it would
pay off..

Well - T also wanted me to do something with Tedd where he was talking about the building of the newscast and he would be giving updates on the physical building as well as putting together the people that would make up the news and that seemed like a good idea to me as well.

So Tedd and I started doing these "Building NBC-26 News promos" together.. I would write up a script and Tedd would look it over for minute or two before we shot - but it was never tough to do and these were easy to finish and there was a logical progression to them..

After about a month of this, we met again to discuss everything about the switch and the building of the newscast and Jay Zollar said "I was talking with my wife and she really didn't get the promos with Tedd in them - she didn't know who he was, and it just didn't click with her and her friends". There was utter silence while Tedd reflected a moment with his pen tapping away like he always did... Looked Jay in the eye and said "Well - maybe your wife should be doing these promos, if we're going to be basing all our research on her and her friends". Then he calmly got up and left the room..

Jay's face was as red as a beet and Mr.T just looked around the room and
said - "Let's do this again next Tuesday"...

I believe there is still a scar on my tongue where I was biting it,
trying not to laugh..

Marty

Well Marty, glad you brought those promos up because I believe I have one to show everyone...



Shawn Hauser, of the Green Bay Hauser's, also has something to say about the passing of Tedd...

Hopper told me something about that a couple of weeks ago, sad day man....regardless of anything fromthe past.....I still feel the man was a genius and knew what the hell was going on!

Hope all is well up north, by the way.....keep your damn cold air up where it belongs!

Hauserinskinov

Thanks Hauser. Tedd O'Connell RIP.

NEXT:

James Grandy, of the Minot Grandy's sent me this note...

After watching your rider clip, it must bring up the debate. Who are the best/craziest fans in pro football? RIDER or PACKERS. I was at Taylor field this summer (yes its still Taylor field), it was freakin nuts. A nice argument for sure, but even YOU would have to admit the green and white beat the green and gold.

James Grandy
Grandy Video Productions

Thank you James. Nice job getting the plug for Grandy Productions in there. Don't do it again, I am the only one that is allowed to plug. My site, my rules.

It is a debate that I have participated in. I agree with you on a few of your points. First, yes, it is called Taylor field. I hate all the corporate sponsorships that take away the names of great stadiums. Candlestick, Soldier Field, Lambeau Field will always be known under those names as far as I am concerned. Next thing I will agree with you on is the crowd is freaking nuts. You are correct there. They go all out. I have enjoyed every game I have attended at Taylor field. When you sit on the lower level you can totally get in the kitchen of the players if one chooses to. I, of course, ALWAYS choose to get in to a player wearing the wrong jersey grill. It is a must.

Now, as for the fans at Lambeau Field. The Packers have a huge advantage on the Riders. If it were face value as for being there no matter the weather, having a sold out barn even in the lean years, noise on the field factor, and I guess over all crazy it is about even.

BUT, and this is a HUGE but. You can Taligate at Lambeau, you can't at Taylor. By tailgate, I mean pull up in your rig, load out a grill and a cooler, then burn yourself some raw meat and tip yourself a few tasty beverages with around 71,000 of your closest friends. Toss the football around, toss a queen fan around, punch a bear fan, you know. Tailgate. Here at Taylor the closest thing you have is you come in, stand on the practice field, BUY a brat that someone else cooked(a good one I might add), BUY some beer at an inflated price (Pilsner, also very good), and stand there. It is nice, but it ain't tailgating. Sorry, the edge goes to the Pack. Thanks James for bringing it up though.

If anyone else would like to share their opinion I will be happy to listen to it then disregard it completely. Thank you.

NEXT:
I just thought I would share a few Brett Favre things. First one is Terry Bradshaw speaking on what he thinks the Packers should have done and where they would be had the just kept Favre. Terry B is usually whacked out of his mind, which I kinda like in a rubbernecking kind of way, but he is right on in this video. He went off on Ted Thompson and Mike McCrappy. Said what I have been saying all year long. CLICK THIS LINK, type in Fired Up Favre on the search and then click on the Favre clip. It would not allow me to link directly so sorry about this weak instructions.

Now I want to show you a clip from NFL Network. I know a lot of you don't get the NFL Network so I will share. After the Jets game on Thursday Brett was on the set with the hosts. This is another thing I miss about Number 4. Just the way Brett is. Watch Favre on Set and see what I mean.

LAST:


Don King promo from hamiltongbp on Vimeo.

Here is a video that we did way back at KXMB TV in Bismark. Don King was in town to promote a fight that Virgil Hill was doing and we managed to get him on camera. This is how great a promoter he is no matter what you think of the man personally, he is a brilliant promoter. He was set to have a look at the Bismarck Civic Center and we had a camera there. He jumps out and with out anyone cueing him he spouts our slogan for KX. He did his research. He later did the promo in front of the sign with the sports guy. You know the sports guy did it because it was not lit and it is framed incorrectly. I have issues sorry.

We rush back and put this promo together thinking this would be great to have since he did not spout KFYR's promo, just ours. I think it is an okay promo for 1992 standards. The GM in his infinite wisdom told us to not run it because King was a convicted felon and it would 'reflect poorly on KX'. Moron. Anyway this promo never got any airtime, UNTIL NOW!!!

Enjoy and GET BACK TO WORK!!!!!

Welcome to the new Packers season...

Packers video from hamiltongbp on Vimeo.

The Packers season is ready to start again and I thought I would post the video above just to get all of us motivated to cheer on the greatest football team to walk the face of the earth. I am not sure who shot this footage and I am also unsure of who edited it. Maybe I did, maybe James Rafferty, of the Montana Rafferty's. Who knows. All I know is it is awesome.

This is something I think about on occasion. At WGBA we had a great group of shooters. With the exception of Flan from FOX in Green Bay, WGBA had THE BEST football shooters in town. Hands down. NFL films looks at our stuff and drools. Anyway, enjoy this video. I do daily.

So the new season is upon us and I have yet to proclaim to you that the Packers are gonna win the Super Bowl. It is a seasonly occurrence, one that comes in the fall along with the bluster of the cold winds. Well this year I am still stinging a bit from the whole Brett Favre thing. Oh and to just pile on a bit TT decides to release Regina's own, Jon Ryan. You will know that story because TundraTalk broke the story NATIONWIDE. Those Bozo's dump the 9th ranked punter in the league for a guy who has NO ranking in the league. MORONS. Oh and again, all the great pics of Packers and stuff are from PACKER PALACE DOT COM.

Anyway to get back to my proclamation. Like I said it is tough. Had Number 4 still been here I would have been shouting it from the mountain tops, or here in Regina hilltops. Don't get me wrong the Packers are still going to win the SuperBowl. Oh yes they will. I just needed a little more time to get behind it this year. So here we go...


THE GREEN BAY PACKERS WILL WIN THE SUPER BOWL. Believe that.

They of course open the season this Monday night against the queens. Which brings me to my next comment. Like you didnt' see this one coming. The queens suck. What better team to start your season at home with an ass kicking? Maybe the bears. It will be great to see on MNF, for the whole world to see. A Rod better have his head wired on straight or there will be lynch mobs outside Lambeau.

For all you queen fans out there, there is a standing offer to bet on this game. Not for money, you all know the currencey I wager in. Peanut Butter Cap'n Crunch, Funyuns, and the best beer in the world Leinie's. Bring it queen fan. I am running low on the Cap'n and Funyuns. Principe, you owe me a dinner, might as well be two. Bring it. Dahl, wanna go 'round again? Those Leinies that you paid up with this summer sure tasted good. Wanna fill my fridge some more? How about you Keller? You want some? I mean really it is like shooting queens in a barrel. How about some of you newbies out there? Want to get in on the action?

Oh and one more thing. I have been critical of A Rod our new QB that he is candy ankles and kind of a pussy but in honor of the team I have decided to throw my support behind this guy. I will be shaving my beard on Sunday to resemble his. He has this crazy goatee thing going on that I am sure will look crazy on me and sure as hell looks crazy on him. I will post it on game day for you all to laugh at.


CWA from hamiltongbp on Vimeo.

To go along with the Packers season opener I also put up the classic CWA interview and video that I shot at Lambeau. This is a band that truly is awesome. I have all their albums and a poster. If anyone is interested in a copy of the CD's let me know. This is great music to listen to on game day, at a tailgate, or any other day of the year. VERY Inspirational. Ask Trevor Doroshenko of the Regina Doroshenkos. He knows.

In the past few days I found some old school stuff that I put to DVD and then to the computer. So in the next week or so I will be posting some classic WhiteHot productions stuff that will make you laugh, cry, and maybe throw up. Stay tuned and
GO PACK GO!!!!
Shane T Keller, of the Hollywood Kellers, sent Tony some love for being in Speilberg's video...

That is so cool! The coolest thing is not that he is in this video, but the reason that he is in this picture. I am very proud of Tony and am very proud to say that I know him, his wife and people of their caliber. It really takes a special thing to do what they do and to have that kind of conviction!! Well done.

Shane

Nice Job Shane, could not have said it better.

Oh and GET BACK TO WORK!!!

New video for you to laugh at and a good article to take home and share with your spouse...

Ned the Dead promos from hamiltongbp on Vimeo.



Okay, now that I am back I want to share a few things with you. Before I gave up the Beta deck for my last job I took the time to dig through some old video stuff that I have done in the past. I found a few jems that I thought I had lost. The first one I want to share with you is one that my good friend, and Nation member, Marty Frey (of the Hollyweird Frey's), is the mastermind of. This was a promo that we did in Green Bay for WGBA. Back when GBA was still a bit watchable. From what I hear now it is unbearable to watch. Anyway. There was this show called Ned the Dead. It aired late on Saturday nights on UPN 32, GBA's sister station. Basically the premise was that Ned would watch really bad scary movies and comment on them leading out and into the commercials. Not really a bad show. Ned was funny and likeable enough. Plus he was kind of a local celebrity.

True story. One day I was at Copps or Piggly Wiggly, I can't remember. We'll go with Piggly Wiggly because I like saying it. Everyone say it together, PIGGLY WIGGLY. Now if you can't go and have a good day after that you ARE screwed up. Another good word to say to make you giggle is SHEBOYGAN. I love saying Sheboygan. Oh, sorry, kinda got off on a tangent. So there I was in Piggly Wiggly (giggle) in the beer, bratwurst, or Funyun aisle and I look over and see this dude with funny makeup on. Low and behold there he was Ned the Dead. I am not sure if he was on the way to the studio or what but he there he was wearing all his goofy makeup in the grocery store. I like to think that he was a bit goofy and did not want to give up who is real persona was and wore the makeup all the time. But, he was probably just on his way to the studio. Anyway, funny story.

So Marty came up with this idea for a promo for the show based on the Blair Witch movie which had just come out. Marty, being the innovator and a television visionary, decided he wanted to cast me in the commercial. Pure genious if you ask me. I play the guy in the movie who loses the map. I totally rocked the part.

Marty also wanting to add some pyrotechnics to his production took us out to his sisters(?) place, a cop, where they had this big burn pile. Marty wanted it to just explode when we lit it so it would be more dramatic. Cool, fire. So what do the pyromaniacs do to make it explode? We decide to pour about 10 gallons of gas on it. Oh gas was only around 90cents per gallon back then. Man those were the days. Stupid oil companies. So after we have dumped all this gas on the pile we get ready to light it. It has been sitting for about five minutes. As you may or may not know, gas fumes float on the ground and spread outwards. Wait for it...

Ned is ready to shoot and Marty hands me the matches. Marty is not always a mental giant. So I run over right next to the pile and flame on. Whoooooomph. Flames, and I mean huge flames. Not only up, but about 5 feet behind me and under me. I think Marty said he has never seen 'the big man' move that fast ever. And he never will again.

So we got the shot, no one was sent to the burn centre and it looked good. I believe that Shawn Hauser, of the Green Bay Hausers, was also there. I hope you enjoy these ads. There are two short similar ones and an extended longer one. The longer one has some of my best acting EVER.



NEXT: This is an article from Good Housekeeping from 1955. Someone sent this one to us. I usually don't read forwarded messages but I gave this one a shot. It is basically a 'How To' guide to keep your husband happy in the fifties. Ladies pay attention. I am basically a pretty progressive guy, but in this case I think there is a lot to learn here. You ladies need to read and take this to heart. After all, a happy husband is a happy house. I just made that up. Pretty good. I should write greeting cards. To be able to read the article just click on it.

The lines I like are "Catering to his every need will give you immense personal satisfaction". Yup, true that. "Show sincerity in your desire to please him." Uh, yeah, what else is there except your desire to please? "Remember his topics of conversation are more important than yours." Yes, this is true, because what is more important that discussing the Green Bay Packers and their drive to a fourth Super Bowl Championship? Really. Last, but certainly not least, "A good wife always knows here place." Word up.

As I was showing this to Donna and she is utterly appalled at the suggestions, she noted that since I do not have a job and I am staying home to take care of the kids while SHE works, that maybe I should take notes and be a bit more supportive.

Oh, yeah. Wait, this kind of backfired on me. Man, I need to think things thru a bit more. I guess I am way to progressive to ever think this is cool.

NEVERMIND

By the way, I have a job interview on Tuesday. Wish me luck.

SAY IT WITH ME - SHEBOYGAN!!!!!