Metro Pulse/Ear to the Ground

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Square Shoulders?

The brick-front pair of buildings at 33 and 35 Market Square are being bought from David Dewhirst by former UT Vol and now Philadelphia Eagles star defensive tackle Darwin Walker. The word is that Walker wants to establish his residence on the upper floor of one of the buildings and the offices of his engineering firm next door. The ground floors would be rented out to retail or restaurant entrepreneurs, Ear hears. Walker, who had as many sacks last season as Tampa Bay's mouthy Warren Sapp, should be a shoo-in for the Pro Bowl next year. A national sports celeb living on the Square will surely raise its profile here and elsewhere.

Damn, Sam

Sam Brown built a reputation as one of the top radio newsmen in the country, as evidenced, among other honors, by four national Edward R. Murrow awards and two Best Radio Investigative Reporting in the South awards from the Society for Professional Journalists. Not bad for a re-tooled TV anchor who resurrected his career just four years ago at WNOX, AKA Newstalk 99.

If you go to the newstalk99.com website, you'll see his smiling face as part of a group photo of the ratings-busting morning talk show team that includes Dave Foulk, Hallerin Hill and Channing Smith. And if you click the "Meet our team" icon, you'll read about the honors mentioned above, and more besides.

But you better do it quickly, because the powers-that-be at Citadel Broadcasting, which owns the station, haven't gotten around to taking Brown's name, face, and resume off the web site since they fired him last week.

Ironically, he got the news that he'd been axed on his arrival home from a trip to New York, where he'd received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Columbia School of Journalism, where he received his master's degree. Brown declined to comment on his recent bad luck, except for a brief written statement:

"I was told they're eliminating my position and it will not be replaced. I was also told these are corporate cuts. A number of employees have been cut in recent weeks. I was also told there will be no more investigative reporting or long-form features which have gained us national attention. I've won four national Edward R. Murrow awards in the past three years. I have no ax to grind with management. The morning team has been wonderful to work with. I'll miss them. I'd like to stay in Knoxville."

We were unable to reach the station's news director, Tom Graham, for comment.

Won the War, Lost the Parade

The sidewalks of Gay Street were lined with flag-waving patriots waiting for the big parade that was supposed to march by and hang a right onto Magnolia and proceed on to the "Tribute to the Troops" celebration at Chilhowee Park. Mayor Victor Ashe and county executive-surrogate Mike Cohen had gotten their pictures in the paper a couple of days before hanging red, white, and blue banners along the parade route. On the appointed day, little kids, moms, grizzled veterans were standing there under the bunting, and they were all waiting. And waiting, And waiting.

Finally, they figured out that it wasn't happening, and they vacated sidewalks, and it's fair to say that they were pretty darned POed. Some of them were so bummed they didn't even get out to the fairgrounds to enjoy the festivities, such as state Sen. Tim Burchett talking about running the Dixie Chicks out of the country.

Turns out that one of the participants toward the head of the parade made an ad hoc decision to take the scenic route through the Old City instead of down Gay Street.

Knoxville: city of capricious parades.

Alert the Media

Jack Sharp has been vice mayor since the second Ice Age, and as such, has had the responsibility of conducting City Council workshop sessions (rare though they might be). Recently, Sharp presided over a budget workshop and displayed an interesting understanding of the state open meetings law. The session was sparsely attended, and the only media outlet represented there was a two-person crew from WVLT-TV. Sharp kept fidgeting in his chair and asking City Recorder Cindy Mitchell and council attorney Charles Swanson "Where's the press?"

Someone motioned to the WVLT duo, who had a big camera clearly marked with the station's logo, and Sharp addressed them:

"Who y'all with?"

"Channel 8," replied the camera guy who was wearing a Channel 8 T-shirt.

Sharp turned to Swanson:

"Is that enough press?"

Swanson replied that media outlets were duly notified, as required by law, but "We can't make them come."

Later, when Sharp had a sensitive question for Swanson, he asked the TV crew to "Plug your ears."