With apologies to the late Richard Nixon, I want Tina, Steve, J. Myrle, Tom, Bob, Dave and Doug to know they won’t have me to kick around anymore.
At least not in this forum.
This is my final blog for this site.
The site will remain up for a brief time if you want to comment over the next few days, but I won’t be writing anything new for it.
A couple of months ago I told you that I might give up the blog or reduce its frequency if I didn’t get more sponsors or align with a new media outlet.
Well, I’ve been able to align with a new media outlet, though it isn’t exactly new. It is a place where I wrote about TV for 28 years until June of 2010.
In what may be the worst-kept media secret since John Murphy left Channel 4 to work full-time for the Buffalo Bills, I am returning to The Buffalo News starting on Tuesday to work part-time.
I have told a few friends in the media and TV writers over the past week (yes, I have some friends in the media) about my Nixonian return.
The funniest response came from writer-producer Tom Fontana, the Buffalo State College graduate who is best known for his work on “St. Elsewhere,” “Homicide” and Oz.”
After I told him I was returning to The News, Fontana sent the following email: “Really? Where’s your delivery route?? No, seriously that’s great news.”
I’m not so sure everyone in the media agrees with the second part of Fontana’s message.
I’ve enjoyed writing this blog for almost three years. Besides, I figured Western New York needed some media columnist to call out Buffalo Sabres analyst Rob Ray for saying Thursday that the Sabres did a nice job after blowing a two-goal lead (really Rob?), assess the solid Thursday debut of new Channel 2 anchor-reporter Kelly Dudzik and note how difficult it is for Channel 2 sports anchor Ed Kilgore to get through a sportscast without stumbling. On Thursday, Kilgore said Rory McIlroy was “in the hunt” at Doral after the golfer fell behind by seven strokes in the first 18 holes.
I’ve also enjoyed getting feedback from the readers named above and others, even when the feedback was negative. You know I am talking about you, Steve. It was a labor of love for the most part, though I made a little money. Very little.
When I suggested in January that I might give up writing the blog because the monetary rewards hadn’t panned out, some kind readers suggested that they would be happy to pay a nominal monthly fee to keep it going. Some other readers offered different alternatives. I was told by experts that charging a fee wouldn’t work because of the cost of setting up the pay wall.
I thank you for reading the blog and suggesting how to keep it going.
Of course, The News now has a pay wall, which may make it difficult for non-subscribers to read me once I return to write a weekly TV column and blog frequently for The News. As of this writing, I’m not sure if I will retain stilltalkintv as the name of my blog or if the blog will return to its original News name of TalkinTV.
Which brings me to Shameless Plug Time. If you were going to be willing to pay to read stilltalkintv to keep it going, then you should strongly consider taking up The News offer that gives you digital access daily if you pay $1.99 a week to receive the Sunday paper.
It really is a bargain when you consider the Sunday paper costs more than that at the newsstand. And you will not only be able to read me, but the entire newspaper roster of columnists and reporters.
Please consider it. Maybe you’ll even be on my Sunday delivery route.