TOP OF THE WEEK:

Rick Crandall is a cool and interesting guy. He has the sort of booming voice that would allow him to play God in any movie. Rick has spent just short of a half-century in the broadcasting business working locally at legendary stations like WLCY and WFLA. As a newsman at Clearwater’s WTAN, he was one of the first reporters on the scene at the Sunshine Skyway tragedy. He also was one of the pioneers in so-called pirate radio – ships that broadcast rock and roll off the British coast back in the sixties when “needle drop” policies restricted the amount of rock and roll that could be played on the BBC. Now he is a different sort of radio pioneer with the soon to be start-up of what is known as a LPFM (low power FM radio station). Based in St. Pete and operating at 96.7 on the dial, Rick’s station will feature original local music not heard anywhere else on bay area air waves. We’ll keep you posted on the launch date.

Around the Bay –

1. Know what’s really fun and rewarding this time of year? - volunteering to ring a Salvation Army bell outside a retail location. A lot of folks think you have to be a member of the Army or one of the civic clubs like Rotary that volunteers on the weekends. But anybody can do it – and once you do it, your holiday will seem empty if you don’t repeat the process each year. Even if you don’t ring a bell, pop something in the Army’s kettle. Few organizations stretch a dollar further in their good works than the Salvation Army.

2. Is it our imagination or did the Florida “snowbirds” head south earlier this winter? The restaurants are busier than usual, same with the attractions and fishing boats.

3. It will be interesting in the year ahead to see what medical pot backers and Greenlight supporters do. The medical pot people probably have an easier hill to climb. The proposed amendment was badly crafted and probably would be acceptable to many outside the constitution and with proper and rigid safeguards. Greenlight has longer to go and a lot of rebuilding trust to do before they can advance.

4. Maybe #44 will be able to get the five million new Democratic voters he’s trying to create to the polls in future elections – something he was unable to do earlier this month.

5. You’ve lived in Clearwater awhile if you remember the days of the one dollar fish dinners at the Bay Drive Inn at the foot of Cleveland Street.

The Diamond, the Media and Other Stuff –

6. The sixties were the time of the instrumental hit in the rock era. No other decade came close. And the biggest three instrumental hits from that decade were? (Answer below)

7. Sports factoid: Dan Rooney, the chairman of the Pittsburgh Steelers, was an excellent high school quarterback - in fact second team All Pittsburgh his senior year. The first team QB that year was a guy named Unitas.

8. Decent spring schedule for the Phils this March with the Tigers, Rays (three times), Yanks (twice), Bosox and Braves among others, but alas, no night games. Blue Jays have all of the above plus three with the division champ Orioles. No night games in Dunedin either.

9. Our Rants and Raves crack sports analyst Achmed Walled (pronounced Wall-ED) says the Lightning will continue their early success through the regular season but be an early casualty in the playoffs.

10. Congratulations to John Timberlake, general manager of the Clearwater Threshers, who was named to the 2014 Class in the Florida State League Hall of Fame. John has nearly three decades in the Threshers organization and has been a contributor in so many ways to the community. Well-deserved John, and perhaps someday that aspiring nephew of yours will be in some sort of Hall of Fame like his uncle!

IN CLOSING –

We finally got around to reading Gary Shelton’s farewell column on the sports pages of the Times. The cheap shot at Jon Gruden aside (Dude, the guy gave us our only Super Bowl), it was an interesting cruise through a quarter century of Tampa Bay sports and some of its characters. Shelton never was our favorite - that spot is now a virtual tie between Tom Jones and the late Tom McEwen, but his column did call to mind the growth of pro sports in the bay area over the past 25 years.

Answer to #6 above - Wonderland by Night by Bert Kaempfert (1961); Paul Mauriat’s Love is Blue (1968) and Theme from a Summer Place by Percy Faith (1960) which was the second biggest hit of the entire 60s decade trailing only Hey Jude.