Sam Burnham, Curator

I’ll never forget the time I met Bobby Bowden. He and his son Terry were doing a book signing at a bookstore in Birmingham. Bobby was the head coach at Florida State. Terry was the head coach at Auburn. I dropped all shame and asked him for a job on his support staff. He looked at me and asked me if I was still in college. I told him I was and he “I want you to call me when you graduate.”

But this isn’t the story of things I wish I had done.

I got a lump in my throat last month when the Bowden family announced that the coach had been diagnosed with a terminal illness. I was further saddened this morning to awake to the announcement that Coach Bowden had passed.

All through middle and high school I followed the Seminoles. I was rabid with it. I thought myself a Florida State fan but finally came to realize I was, in fact, a Bobby Bowden fan. And when he left the office for the last time, my loyalty followed him out the door.

I was enthralled by his game planning, the players he recruited, the plays he designed and called. His system built a championship caliber program out of a minor league team. I was impressed by the way he motivated his players without giving himself an aneurysm losing his temper. He maintained control of his emotions, put his plan to work, made adjustments as necessary and became the second winningest coach in Division I history.

Florida State tweeted this morning “Today we lost a legend but you never lose a legacy.” That could not be more true. He has left a multigenerational coaching tree that will shape the sport for years to come. He shaped the lives of players and staff members who will impact lives off the field. His legacy lives on and the world is richer for it.

Sam Burnham, Curator

Back at the beginning on this month, Georgians of a particular age were delighted when iHeart Radio resurrected Atlanta radio station 96 Rock in an all-digital format.

From 1974 to 2006, 96 Rock ruled the airwaves across North Georgia. I’ve heard more than one person opine that it was the best radio station in The South. The only competition for that title I ever encountered was Classic Rock 99.5 in Birmingham and WRUF-FM in Gainesville, Florida. Both of these stations were also gobbled up and destroyed by corporate radio acquisition. This is why modern commercial radio stinks. But that’s another story.

Back to the good aspects. The nostalgia ran deep on this. They say you don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone. But in this case, we knew exactly what we had. Homesick Georgians were gathered together at Jacksonville State one night when someone suggested going up to Mt Cheaha and listening to 96 Rock. The signal up there was crystal clear under a starlit sky and a pilgrimage was born. That’s just one of many stories. And a lot of Georgians can tell you similar tales.

​My take on the reboot is mixed. The music is great even though it’s a bit repetitive at times. Toward the end of the broadcast era, the station had the same problem, only much worse. It is good to hear most of the voices of the old personalities. The iconic “This is 96 Rock” makes me smile every time.

I do not like hearing the reminiscing by “The Regular Guys.” The former morning team whose juvenile antics ultimately killed the entire station are pretty much hailed as heroes at times. There’s no reason for Eric von Haessler’s voice to be on 96 Rock. There’s no reason for Larry Wachs to be heard on radio ever again, period. Like many New York transplants in Georgia, these two self-serving miscreants made a lot of money destroying something we all loved. And that’s all I have to say about that.

I do hope that the station will cultivate more of a presence in the area. Ultimately what we have right now is a playlist. In its heyday, 96 Rock was where we heard about shows, concerts, album releases, and other music news. The very first time I heard Pink Floyd’s The Division Bell was when 96 Rock played the album in it’s entirety. The 96 Rock stage at Music Midtown was always a must. This wasn’t just a radio station. It was part of the community. Correction, it was part of our communities, plural.

So this resurrection is not without negatives, particularly the fact that it is orchestrated by the Walmart of radio, iHeart. It’s a corporate thing and we all get that. But hopefully that floating disembodied heart emoji in the sky will see by that data it’s collecting that we all still love our old station and they’ll put the resources into it to make it what it was, what it could be, what it should be.

​Welcome back, 96 Rock!

Sam Burnham, Curator

For over six decades the island nation of Cuba has subsisted under the iron fist of a murderous communist regime. This week the people of Cuba took to the streets to protest the horrible conditions they are facing. COVID-19 is decimating the medical system and no vaccine is available. The country is in the depths of its worst economic crisis since the fall of the Soviet Union. And the place was just pummeled by Hurricane Elsa. The people have grown tired of a regime that’s as incompetent as it is diabolical.

I got a better understanding of Cuba a couple years ago when I became friends with a man who was born there and immigrated to Miami with his parents when he was young. He told me stories of his childhood in a tobacco growing region of Cuba. He remembered walking the road with his grandfather down to the nearby town to visit a store. He talked of the aroma of his grandfather’s cigars and how he has never smelled anything like it since leaving Cuba. His stories focused on the landscape, the sights, the sounds, the people. You could hear the affection and the connection in his voice. He had that love of place, that forever attachment to the location.

And then he told me how his family was allowed to leave with what they could carry on a plane. They were able to gift a few things to family members who remained in Cuba. Everything else, including their home, was seized by the Communist Party. That was the price of being allowed to come to The United States.

They stayed with family in Miami while they got their feet under them in their new country. Many of his aunts, uncles, cousins, and family friends had fled communism to build a new life in the United States. He was lucky to have that help with the transition. So many others started with nothing because that’s what they escaped with.

My friend still has family on the island. He still has a connection there. But he’s an American now. He has been an American longer than I have. He grew up here, got an education here, built a career here. His wife is an American. So are his kids and now his grandkids. Regardless of what happens there, I’m pretty sure he’ll live out his days here. But I know he’d like to go back for a visit, to see the old place, to see familiar faces, and to track down that elusive aroma of his late grandfather’s cigars.

​The people who have fled the regime over the years are certainly looking at this situation with a guarded, perhaps even cynical, optimism. They’ve seen a lot of uprisings come and go. They want freedom for the people they left behind. They want better access to their loved ones there. They want what’s best for their people.

Perhaps this will be the time that the Cuban people finally will take no more. Hopefully the protests that filled the streets of six or seven cities will grow into a revolution that topples the crime syndicate established by monsters like the Castros and Che. Perhaps we stand at the dawn of a new era -a decentralized Cuba where people are free to live and dream.

Hopefully the people of Cuba will be successful this time. It’s a time for Western nations to act wisely and give support to the insurgency. They need to consider the errors of the past and find new ways to support the people. Don’t try to take over, don’t overreact. But don’t sit idly while another opportunity evaporates. It is past time for change.

Cuba can have a bright future. Tourism, agriculture, and a revival of one of the world’s great cultures could mean peace and prosperity for an oppressed population. Let the people go. Let them plot their course. It’s time.

#CubaLibre