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Talk and Stuff
WNOX talk jock Hallerin Hill spent Tuesday in Nashville reporting on the doings of the tax protesters at the state Capitol. Hill, an anti-taxer, broadcasted live, as did Nashville radio talkers Steve Gill and Phil Valentine.
Radio talk show hosts have been widely credited for whipping up the angry mob that stormed the capitol last month.
By Wednesday morning, however, ennui had set in, and a spent Hill took a couple of minutes to say we can't fix our schools by throwing money at them before announcing that he was over talking about taxes and politics. "I just want to talk about life and stuff," he said.
Squaring Off
The future of Market Square remains uncertain as KCDC prepares to unveil a revamped redevelopment plan (at the request of City Council and Mayor Victor Ashe). But the Historic Market Square Association, made up of Square property owners who have generally been less than thrilled with the assorted proposals for the Square over the past few years, is determined not to be left out of the loop. HMSA plans to make its own proposals under whatever plan KCDC and the city finally approve. In its most aggressive move yet toward that end, the group has hired nationally known urban planner Robert Gibbs as its "retail consultant." Gibbs is respected for applying suburban mall retail principles to urban street settings. He's somewhat controversial for the same reason—among other things, he has warned against having too many trees or benches on sidewalks, because they attract loiterers and make it harder to see stores. He has worked in Portland, Ore., Madison, Wis., West Palm Beach, Fla. and assorted other cities often held up as models of urban revitalization.
Watered Down
"I do not drink bottled water and I can't understand why people do. It's not inexpensive and the few times I've drunk it, it didn't taste near as good as KUB water," says Knox Countian Ned Russell in what is one of the best locally-produced TV ads seen around here in awhile.
Russell appears in a homey back porch setting and delivers the powerful testimonial in strong, forceful tones, saying that he and his wife visit climes where people feel they must apologize for their water, and that he is happy he does not have to do that here. He is very convincing.
Only problem is that Russell is not a KUB customer. The water that runs from Russell's tap comes from First Utility District in west Knox County,
"They (KUB) have 75,000 customers, and they have to come get one of ours to put on TV," says a FUD employee. KUB's people say the commercial was created by advertising agency Davis, Newman Payne.
Russell said he got a call about going on TV several months after KUB's Bill Elmore spoke to Russell's Rotary Club and Russell wrote a thank-you letter.
"I complimented KUB water, and they asked me to say the same things on TV," Russell said. "I had been a KUB customer most of the 40 years I've lived here, and have used KUB water everywhere I've worked, and when I go to church and restaurants. I don't think I did anything wrong."
Russell said he has had many compliments on his TV performance, plus one complaint from a FUD official, who told him his participation in the KUB commercial was "ironic."
"I told him, 'Yours is not the only water I drink. I didn't say your water is bad, just that KUB water is of good quality.'"
August 9, 2001 * Vol. 11, No. 32
© 2001 Metro Pulse
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