I knew Robin Meade's HLN show was part of another cable station's network, but didn't remember which one. Without paying too much attention I happened to hear Robin tell us that she wanted to congratulate CNN on its 30th anniversary--their sister station. Thirty years ago Ted Turner had an idea. Well, yes he did, and it has grown rather exponentially.
I remember my friend's father who in the mid 1960s thought the radio station WINS was nuts to go to an all-news, all the time format. The friend's father was himself in the TV industry with CBS, and thought the idea was ridiculous. It wasn't long before my friend pointed out that dad was home in his lounge chair with WINS constantly on. He was loving it, especially the sports updates.
In 2006, an editor and magazine journalist, Marilyn Johnson, published a somewhat oddly shaped book, 'The Dead Beat: Lost Souls, Lucky Stiffs and the Perverse Pleasures of Obituaries.' In hard cover, the book was somewhat narrow, to give the effect of a newspaper column. How much that touch had on the public is not known, but the business of writing, acknowledging and reading obituaries has taken off.
Anyone who follows this posting is aware that I have always been an avid obituary reader. Even before Ms. Johnson book, I had kept a clipping from a WSJ A-Head piece that in the mid-1990s was discussing the difference between the British sendoff and the American style. Decidedly, the American style has caught up to the British one. There is some folksiness evident, as well as some truly creative turns of phrases that are used to describe someone's life. The oddities and the personalities of the life are mined for humor.
Anyone who has paid similar attention has seen the obit page of the NYT fill up with family-penned news release style notices of someone's passing. Some of these are quite lengthy in column inches, and must truly cost a small fortune. Photos have now been added. It's a great revenue stream for the
paper.
The other day I happened to read the obit page and it seemed to me that the photos of the deceased in the bylined news portion of the page (not the paid notices) were now in color. There are days the NYT doesn't print its sports page in color, but now we're getting the departed in the mixtures of red, green and blue.
The public editor at the paper fairly recently pointed out that now there are more front page obituaries than ever before. There was even the day that TWO people were cited, side-by-side, (trivia question)on the front page, with photos. This was acknowledged in a posting.
I've been noticing a trend where the deceased's company, or last place of employment seems to be taking out their own notices in the general sections of the paper, complete with photo and glowing words about how so-and-so will be missed. There is definitely a trend going on here.
When I read the other day about the passing of Ed Gilligan, of American Express, I had no idea where the information about his passing was going to go beyond the bylined news obit. In fact, I read a summary of his obit out loud to my wife in the hotel room on Sunday, as I caught up with the papers. She's an Irish-American who doesn't follow sports too closely, but is deep into the Irish sports page.
I felt sorry for Ed. He had a heart attack while on a corporate jet coming back from Japan, that put down in Green Bay, Wisconsin, only to have Mr. Gilligan pass away at the hospital. Ed looked and sounded like a jolly guy, someone who moved up the corporate ladder and was immensely popular. The line went that he was guy you wanted to sit next to at dinner. He is going to be missed.
You can only realize how much Ed is going to be missed when you finger your way through today's NYT business section and come across a full-page, color photo tribute from American Express, only to come to the next right hand page with a different picture of Ed, and a different worded text from American Express-Global Business Travel, only to again turn a full-page giant color photo of Ed with tribute text from Delta Airlines. Ed is even pictured looking up slightly. Destination
Jesus, Ed must have kept everyone happy on business trips. Talk about a frequent-flyer upgrade! Delta might have hired him to do a little standup if the plane started to pitch and roll in bad weather. Ed was part of the crew.
In fact, the Delta picture of Ed is so large, you can imagine it appearing on a Jumbotron. If Ed were Whitey Bulger, the Feds would have had him by press time of the next edition, if he hadn't passed away. I really started to wish I once sat next to Ed at a dinner, or on a plane. Just not the last flight.
So, is anyone yet thinking of an All Obit, All The Time cable station?
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