Sports-talk Radio in America: Its Context And Culture Review

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(More customer reviews)Edited by John Mark Dempsey, Ph.D., Sports-Talk Radio in America: Its Context and Culture is an anthology of essays by learned authors and field professionals about major, medium, and small-market stations across America with an all-sports format. Each is presented with an eye toward the individual programming strategies and charismatic personalities that made them successful. Written in mostly plain terms (and some sports-specific terminology), Sports-Talk Radio in America is as accessible to the casual sports-talk radio fan as it is to a prospective sports-talk radio station owner or professional. From WFAN and the inception of all-sports radio to WHB Kansas City "World's Happiest Broadcasters", Sports-Talk Radio in America is part history, part tribute, part testimony, and entirely enjoyable. Recommended for anyone with an interest in the field.

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An inside look at the hosts, hot spots, and history of sports-talk radioSports-Talk Radio in America looks at major-, medium-, and small-market stations across the United States that feature an all-sports format, with a focus on the unique personalities and programming strategies that make each station successful. Broadcasters, journalists, and academics provide insight on how and why this media phenomenon has become an important influence of American culture, examining the “guy talk” broadcasting approach, the traditional sports-emphasis approach, “HSOs” (hot sports opinions), localism in broadcasting, how sports talk radio builds “communities” of listeners, and how reckless, on-air comments can actually build ratings.For better of worse, millions of (mostly) male listeners indulge their obsession with sports to the exclusion of virtually everything else available on the radio dial-music, news, and political talk. This unique book examines how this “niche of the niche” has formed a bond between its hosts and their rabid, passionate, and loyal audiences, spinning the dial from the largest, best-known stations in big-league markets to smaller stations in Collegetown, USA, including Philadelphia's WIP, “The Ticket,” KTCK in Dallas, WEEI in Boston, “The Team,” WQTM in Orlando, KJR in Seattle, KOZN “The Zone” Omaha, Nebraska, WGR and WNSA in Buffalo, Kansas City's WHB, and “The Fan,” WFAN in New York, the first all-sports radio station and the blueprint for the format. Sports-Talk Radio in America puts you in the studio with Mike and the Mad Dog, Angelo Cataldi, Howard Eskin, “The Musers” (“Junior” Miller and George Dunham), Norm Hitges, John Dennis and Gerry Callahan, Dan Sileo, Howard Simon, and Art Wander. Sports-Talk Radio in America examines:
how stations create an environment in which listeners become part of a social group (social-identity and self-categorization theories)
personality-driven programming
the station's commitment to local teams and their fans
how exploring controversial topics beyond sports broadens station's appeal and attracts upscale, affluent audience
how an abundance of live, play-by-play broadcasting, creating plenty of available content
college sports in a town without a major professional sports team
how local sports is framed by hosts and callers
the conflicted relationship between sports-talk radio and the print media
and much more!
Sports-Talk Radio in America is a must-read for academics and professionals working in radio-television and popular culture.

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Collector's Originality Guide Corvette 1968-1982 Review

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(More customer reviews)Collector's Originality Guide: Corvette 1968-1982 provides a compendium of parts, finishes, op0tions and trim pieces for all fourth-generation Corvette models, packing in details on restored vehicles from 1968 to 1982 and collectible factors from signature markings to factory identification plates. Recommended not just for auto collections, but for any library catering to collectors overall.

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The third generation Corvette was the longest-running version of America's sports car, with a production run spanning some 15 model years. Because of their abundance, they are generally the most affordable of Corvettes on the market, and due to their age, they are often ripe for restoration. This book details the correct parts, finishes, options, and trim pieces for all fourth-generation Corvette models. The wide variety of options are covered in detail, as are all special editions and model variations from 1968 to 1982.

As with the original edition, this value-priced version is filled with detailed, high-quality images of excellent original cars (survivors) or meticulously restored examples.

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The Professional Service Firm50 (Reinventing Work): Fifty Ways to Transform Your "Department" into a Professional Service Firm Whose Trademarks are Passion and Innovation Review

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(More customer reviews)This book has several potential uses. Although I have worked in professional service firms almost my entire life, I found this book to be a useful reminder of what makes a professional service firm great. Although Tom Peters did not intend this purpose, I think it may be the best use of the book. The second use is the intended one: Turn your internal business department into a professional service firm look-alike. The book will work well for those who have driving ambition to be the best. For those who do not share Peters' passion, this book may seem over the top. Peters is a very qualitative thinker, so it would be easy to misapply his ideas in a way that created a tough work environment that created little benefit. For example, The Dance of Change warns against trying to create new language and culture in an organizational sector because everyone else may think you are weird and ignore you. Peters could create that kind of tension for a group if you followed his advice too literally (he suggests that you use questions like "How can we wow you?" when working with colleagues in the firm). On the other hand, Peters is at his best when he is a little off-the-wall because he makes you think. There are plenty of references to outstanding books, and he is really trying to create a picture of perfection. That is helpful, because most business books simply share dated information about past best practices. As someone who helps executives design simple, effective approaches to perfection, I applaud the effort. Peters would do well to accommodate other perspectives. Being totally committed to work and perfection through maximum effort often does not appeal to people as a permanent life style. What should the other people do? If you are an ambitious MBA who wants a mentor, you could do a lot worse than adopt this book as your guide. If you want balance in your life, you had better read Life Strategies as well. Keep up the good work, Tom Peters!

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Transform white collar departments into "professional service firms" whose sole, powerful asset is knowledge.Idea: You are boss of a 23-person finance department in a division of a big company. Or, rather, you were boss of the finance department. Now, per our suggestion-model, you are Managing Partner, Finance Inc., a full-fledged professional service firm which is a wholly owned subsidiary of your division.Goal: Learn from the best professional service firms! Transform your unit! Today, even after re-engineering done well, the "department" doesn't look much like McKinsey, Andersen or Chiat Day. (And that's an understatement!)Aim, in short: Cool people (call them "talent") working on cool projects with cool clients. The aim redux: A cool Finance/Purchasing, IS, HR, Sales department. Why not?The cool professional service firm is just that: cool people/talent, a portfolio of cool projects, cool clients. Period. It's only asset -- literally -- is brains. It's only product is projects. It's only aim is truly memorable client service.So step #1, then, is the organization (PSF) . . . transforming "departments" in which white collar folks work into way cool professional sercie firms adding way cool value by doing way cool "stuff". Peters discusses making the most of presentations, working with outsiders on market analysis, how to imporve brainstorming meetings, how to develop relationships with clients and get the most out of them. 50 of Tom Peters's trademark insights on how to get the most our of your department.See also the other 50List titles in the Reinventing Work series by Tom Peters -- The Brand You50 and The Project50 -- for additional information on how to make an impact in the professional world.

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Wilderness Living Review

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(More customer reviews)Gregory Davenport's book is a masterpiece of clarity and brevity, and it covers all the bases. Use it as a reference book, as opposed to a cover-to-cover read. For instance, it starts off with a chapter on making buckskin. It's just the right level of detail if you're tanning a hide, but too much for the casual reader. Another example is the wonderful chapter on making snares. Davenport lists some nineteen types, all illustrated, and all with a practical application. Davenport's education was clearly of the outdoor variety, at the expense of the indoor variety, resulting in some cumbersome syntax, and excessive passive voice, but perhaps his editor is more to blame for that. Overall, it is a genuine masterpiece, and my copy is already dog-eared with use.

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Authoritative information presented by a certified USAF Survival School Instructor
Organized and indexed for easy reference
Living, not just surviving, by choice in the wild can be a rewarding experience. This easy-to-use guide looks beyond the fundamentals of survival and examines the art of living long-term in the wilderness. Hunting techniques, meat preservation, clothing improvisation, shelter design, and tool- and basket-making are just a few of the basic skills described. Expert advice, clear prose, and detailed illustrations combine to make this book the authoritative text on primitive living.

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Ultimate Guide to Wilderness Living: Surviving with Nothing But Your Bare Hands and What You Find in the Woods Review

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(More customer reviews)This is a great book. The information is top notch. All the skills are presented in easy to follow, step-by-step instructions. I don't really have a problem with the photos either. I do think it's important that people know that this isn't a new book from the McPhersons, it is "Naked into the Wilderness" Primitive Wilderness Living & Survival Skills. The only new thing in this book is the title. All the information is the same, they've just changed the order of the chapters. Hopefully this information will save others from spending their hard earned cash on this book (plus international shipping) only to find that they already have the same book with a different cover sitting on the shelf.

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EVERYTHING THERE IS TO KNOW ABOUT SURVIVING IN THE WILD"During my first years of learning survival I took a course in survival and primitive earth skills taught by John and Geri McPherson.I was excited by their unbelievable passion and their intrinsic understanding of survival.Their teachings took me from understanding basic skills to a full-blown love for the ancient technologies that humans developed to survive.John and Geri are the real deal.They don't just teach this stuff, they live it.I loved the experience with them so much I came back a second time a few years later.Now that I have traveled the world as Survivorman-experiencing and filming survival in every ecosystem there is-I can sit back and watch my shows and see John and Geri's teachings peek through in every situation.I have been able to understand survival because of John and Geri, and can highly recommend this book."--Les Stroud, AKA SurvivormanPacked with in-depth instruction and photos, Ultimate Guide to Wilderness Living teaches you the skills need to survive and live in the wild using only those things found in the woods.Learn how to:•Ignite a fire with a two-stick hand drill•Erect temporary and semi-permanent

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Full Swing: Hits, Runs and Errors in a Writer's Life Review

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(More customer reviews)When you finish reading "Full Swing," including the funny and touching final two chapters of this conversational memoir, you will feel that you know Ira Berkow well. The author, a prolific writer (17 books and many articles) and a sports columnist for the New York Times for over 25 years, has produced an honest, seamless, conversational memoir which pulls the reader into the heart of a richly led life. Anecdotes abound, many about the sports, entertainment and political figures he has known and interviewed. Berkow pulls no punches in describing his own stuttering development as a writer, growing up on the West Side of Chicago, his early career as a reporter in Minneapolis, and his later move to New York City, where he worked first for a newspaper syndicate and later as the by-liner of the "Sports of the Times" column.
The book is a walk through Berkow's life, often retracing his steps, making frequent, leisurely stops to explore people, places, ideas, successes, regrets, loves both lost and found, yet managing in the course of his peregrination to tie it all together such that the reader comes to understand the inner self of this talented, introspective, honest and thoroughly unpretentious writer, and ultimately wishes he could spend more time with him.
The major press book reviews have cited anecdotes and quotes from various sources, including Red Smith, the sports writer whom Berkow succeeded at the Times, Richard Nixon, Groucho Marx, and numerous others such as Willie Mays, Eddie Waitkus, Hank Sauer, Al Kaline, Pete Rose, Phil Jackson and Mohammed Ali. But it is really the stories about the non-sports personalities from his past, including those in his own family, that best describe and define Berkow as a person. One such story about his cousin, a lawyer whose career ranged from a public defender to a federal judge, and who dealt with "the most monumental and noble of causes," is central to Berkow's exploration of the significance of one's own contributions, whether they are made in the public or private sphere.
"Full Swing" will appeal especially to those readers who, despite a slightly guilty conscience, always turn first to the sports pages.

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The Unofficial Guide to Las Vegas 2010 (Unofficial Guides) Review

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(More customer reviews)I purchased this along with Fodor's Las Vegas 2010 and Frommer's Las Vegas 2010. This book has the most pages. They break down everything in terms of a rating, price, etc. for shows they tell you the slowest time of the week for the show, the length of the show, as well as a description. It breaks down the top restaurants and buffets.
This book has information regarding shows, hotels, restaurants, nightlife. There are little tips here and there but none i found that i didn't already really know.
What I don't like is that there are no pictures--and there are very few visual breaks for me so sometimes the pages can be a bit overwhelming. I loved the Fodor's book the best for layout and pictures as well as side trip information.
The difficulty in rating is that there are some things I like about Fodor's better and it gives better information and some things I like about this one better--this one has more information about buffets--which kind of excite me. I'm wondering if the only thing i will be doing is eating!
After looking at Fodors and this book over and over, it really has become more of a tie for me between the two. Frommers on the other hand is clearly not on par with either of these books and provides the least amount of information on everything.
If you are only looking to be in Las Vegas, then this is probably the best book. If however, you are like me and also wanting to do day trips or side trips, I would also purchase Fodor's Guide to Las Vegas 2010 as it has a lot more information about those. (63 pages on side trips--as opposed to 6 pages in this book).
I hope this help you make a decision on which book is best.
I learned from this book about the "M" casino that has an excellent buffet for fairly inexpensive. it is a little south of the strip so a lot of people don't know about. so far, it is our favorite buffet. although we will be going to Wynn soon because they are suppose to have an excellent buffet also.
I highly recommend buying and reading at least 1 of these guides--this or fodor's as there is so much information that you may not find out if you just come.

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In 2008, Las Vegas hosted 37.5 million visitors according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.
Global Travel Industry News and Forbes Traveler rank Las Vegas as the #2 most popular U.S. destination to visit calling it "America's favorite playground".
The Unofficial Guide to Las Vegas ranks over 100 hotels and casinos- the most offered by any other guidebook for the destination, providing complete detailed descriptions of each casino hotel.

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