Rene’s Take

It has been a long time since my last blog, but I felt I had to write one today just thanking everyone for their support of the Cloukey Challenge Golf Tourament. This is the 20th year of the event and this will go down as the most successful yet. I want to thank everyone who helped me get prizes for the tournament. Limestone Country Club and Long Lake Country Club were both in excellent shape and because of their genorous donation I am able to keep the price of the tournament down to give the average golfer a chance to enjoy a day on the links.This is a unique tournament, actually four different nine hole tournaments and everyone who plays gets a prize. The real winner Special Olympics of Aroostook County.

We had the largest turnout ever for this years event and had some special auctions to raise extra money. We had many laughts and just enjoyed everyone’s company.

One of the highlights of the weekend was Shawn Cunningham becoming a Boston Fan for the next year. Shawn threw down the gauntlet and said she would cheer for Boston teams for the next year for the right price. We were able to pass the hat and thanks to a 100 donation from Chris Richards at Par and Grill we got the ball rolling and raised over 300 dollars.  That was a great thing that Shawn did and I know that it is appreciated by Special Olympics.

The event is also fun bringing together several WAGM personalities in a laid back and fun atmosphere. It shows that we are human.

Jon Gulliver, Ted Shapiro, Shawn Cunningham, Tyler Pyburn, and Jaimarie Ely all took part and had a great time. Former anchor Cindy McInnes and her husband Philip drove over from Nova Scotia to take part.

It’s a lot of work, but it is worth every second. I had one gentleman come up to me at Long Lake Country Club on Sunday and thank me for holding the event. He told me he is not a serious golfer, and that this is the only tournament he plays in all year. He said he looks forward to taking part and looks forward to it from the first day of the season each year.

Thanks again to everyone for their support and I hope to see all of you again next June.

 

It’s hard to believe that it has been 40 years since the “The Impossible Dream”.As i said in previous posts I have always been a baseball nut. I caught the fever from my father and grandfather. Some of my earliest memories involve the Red Sox. I remember going to my Gramp Cloukey’s house on summer evenings and he would have his ear to the radio listening to Curt Gowdy, Ken Coleman, and Ned Martin bringing every pitch into his Sheridan home. I would sit there and listen to a couple of innings of the game with him. Until 1967 you listened to the Sox knowing they were going to finish near the bottom of the American League. 1967 was a very special year.  From opening day to the end of the year the excitment continued to build.  There were so many story lines that year.  Dick Williams making his debut as Sox Manager,Jim Lonborg on the mound winning 22 games and leading the team to the World Series., Billy Rohr,who almost no hit the New York Yankees in his Major League debut.He threw 8 and 2/3rd innings of no hit ball against the hated Yanks. The only hit of the game was by Elston Howard who was aquired by the Sox during the stretch run. I listened to the first few innings and had to ask my father the next morning to  give me the update on every pitch from the night before.

I still have the lineup in my head Reggie Smith  hitting leadoff, Mike Andrews at 2nd base and hitting second, Yaz hitting third, George Scott hitting cleanup, every home run was a “tater to Scott, my favorite player Tony Conigliaro playing right field and hitting fifth, Rico Petrocelli playing shortstop and hitting 6th, Joe Foy playing third base, Mike Ryan catching and the pitching staff anchored by Lonborg and Lee ” the Stinger’ Stange,  Gary Bell,  and John Wyatt closing the game. I said that “Conig” was my favorite player and the night he was hit  in the head by a pitch is one my saddest baseball memories. It was August 18th and the Sox were taking on the Angels when Tony “C” was hit by the Jack Hamilton pitch. He was carried off the field on a stretcher. I had a very hard time sleeping that night and rushed over to my grandfather’s the next morning  to get an update on Conigliaro’s condition. The Sox magic continued withoutConig in the lineup and it all came down  to the final game of the year. The Red Sox, Minnesota Twins and Detroit Tigers battled to the final day. The Sox beat the Twins, but the champagne wasn’t popping yet, the Detroit Tigers still had to lose their final game of the year on the West Coast. Red Sox radio stayed on the air and broadcast the Tigers game with the Angels. I sat in my father’s car all evening listening to every pitch. The Tigers lost the game and the Red Sox won the Pennant. They lost a hard fought series to the St Louis Cardinals, but it was still a great year for Sox fans.

I will be watching next weeks ceremony at Fenway to honor the team and will have a huge smile on my face as I remember the “Impossible Dream.”

Time flies when you are having fun. That is how i feel. Friday November 24th will be my 30th Anniversary in broadcasting. I started working at WSJR/WLVC in Madawaska and Fort Kent on Thanksgiving Day 1976. I still remember that day the first song i played was “Disco Duck” by Rick Dees and his Cast of Idiots. The “Bionic Mouth was born on that day and continued through my tenure in radio. I loved my time in the St John Valley spinning records and doing basketball play by play in the winter time. I also worked at WFST in Caribou and WDHP in Presque Isle. I was with WFST when they bought WDHP and formed a strong AM FM team. I had the chance to be Program Director for both stations and built a number of friendships all over North America with Artists, Songwriters and Label Promotional people.

 I have been at WAGM for 23 years. I feel i am the luckiets person alive. The day that WDHP/WFST went bankrupt was the day that a part-time sports position opened at WAGM. As Paul Harvey would say and that is the rest of the story. I have loved every second at WAGM working  my way up from part time sports  and anchoring weekends to anchoring the 6 and 11pm shows. Wearing two hats as Sports Director and Assistant News Director.

I was talking to some of the younger reporters last week and talked about how technology has changed in the last 23 years. When I started here the cameras and decks were two separate units. The good thing about the deck,   it balanced you when you were shooting, the bad thing it weighed what felt like 50 pounds and one shoulder is now higher then the other… Over the years the equipment has become smaller and the pictures are much more clear. We now edit everything non-linear using computers to make our lives much easier. When I started here we didn’t have a teleprompter so we had to read everything from our scripts. We got our first prompter about 19 years ago and it was hand fed. Now it is all computerized. Computers have become a very important part of our lives. From researching stories on the computer to writing our scripts, editing our stories. to runnig the newscast.

As I said in an earlier post I am living my dream. When I was in Junior High I knew that I wanted to be a Sportscaster, not just any Sports Guy, but the broadcaster for the Boston Red Sox. I may not be at that level but I am very very happy to be here bringing you the sports each evening. There are so many people who pushed me in the right direction. My parents always supported what I wanted to do. Dana Hews was the Guidance Counsellor in Ashland and steered me into the right classes from media to speech. I was a very shy kid and needed the extra pushing. Anyone who knows me says yeah right.. you shy.. well I was when I was younger, but I grew out of it. My teachers in Ashland were all excellent and supported me through my senior year. I went to Northeast Broadcasting in Boston and after graduating waited and waited for the phone to ring for my first Disc Jockey job. It took several months for it to happen and after listening to my audition tape I know why. It was awful. Thankfully Ben Talbot took a chance on me in Madawaska.  Sue Bernard gave me my break at WAGM and I will always be thankful for her confidence in me.

I have been on the air on over 14 thousand newscast at WAGM. Hopefully I have another 15 or more years of bringing local sports into your homes every night.  

This post is probably the most personal one that I have written. As you get older it seems that   just about the  only time that you get together with extended family  is for sad occasions, mostly funerals. This past Saturday night we had a chance to celebrate  a joyous event my parent’s, 50th Anniversary. I can’t believe that they have been married 50 years. As I have said in earlier posts I think my parents are my biggest fans and supporters. They were always there for any childhood events that my sister Tracy and I were involved with. It didn’t stop there either. They have never slowed down following my three children and Tracy’s two children throughout school and all of the activities. Even though our kids have graduated my parents are still at almost every Ashland game cheering on their extended family of “grandkids”. They now have two Great Grandchildren and continue to be very much a part of their lives. Austin and Chase love the opportunity to spend the weekend at Grammy and Pooh’s house.

When Tracy and I were growing up our house was always the center of activity. Whether it was a game of Monopoly on Sunday afternoon, a game of football  or baseball in the yard or just hanging out with friends. We always had a house full. I have reminisced with some of my friends and still laugh and smile about the fun times that we had in Sheridan. It wasn’t just kids who hung out at the house, on weekends many snowmobile rides began and ended at the Cloukey house.  The door was always open and the more the merrier always seemed to be the motto.  Some of my favorite times  after  I grew up were the fish fries and spaghetti feeds that my parents would host. Once again the more the merrier and it would all wrap up with a game of football or in the winter snow football. Everyone who ever attended either of the annual events would  always say see you next year. Mom and Dad also “adopted” many of our new Reporters. Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter were always feasts and once again the motto was “the more the merrier”. Even now with Tracy and my  extended families there is a house full on almost every occasion.

Mom and Dad are still very active and continue to be involved in the lives of many people. I think that the number of people who attended the party on Saturday night are a show of the love and respect that my parents have earned.

Happy Anniversary and I can’t wait for the party on your 60th. Love you both.

The alarm goes off at 3:15 in the morning and time to roll out of bed not to make the donuts, but to get ready to host the Potato Pickers Special. It is early, but hosting Pickers’ is one of my favorite things to do. Now if you would have asked me 35 years ago if I liked Potato Pickers Special I would have given you an emphatic no!!!!! Wayne Knight’s voice on at 4:30 in the morning was enough to make me cringe back then. Please please say that Art Coffin is not digging today… please let it rain cats and dogs so the fields are to muddy to pick…. Please let there be a frost and not start digging until 12 noon or later.. But no, the weather was fine and it was going to be another day in the fields. i could smell the bacon and eggs frying and my mother would come in and make sure that I was getting out of bed and getting ready for another day picking the potatoes. What kind of excuse could I come up with today… Mom, I have a stomach ache and don’t feel good. Can i stay home today. She would say you used that excuse yesterday. now finish up breakfast so we can get to the fields.Mom, I have a headache, my fingers hurt, I don’t have any gloves. None of the excuses would work. What I really wanted to do was stay home go back to sleep and  then watch the World Series on TV. Not a chance of that happening. As Dick Curless played “Tater Raisin Man” on the radio it was time to  get to the fields and start the dreaded job of putting them in the barrel, ticketing the full barrels and then starting all over again. It seemed the faster I would pick the further behind I would get. It seemed the digger man was taunting me.. laughing an evil laugh whenever he would drive by my section as i continued to see more and more exposed rows of potatoes in front of me.  The worse part of picking was sticking your glove in a rotten potato….  At lunch time my friends and I would all try to think of ways to break the digger so we could get a break.  It never worked.Looking back , it wasn’t that bad.  It was a great chance to learn the work ethic.My mother picking the section next to me and my father stopping by the field sometime during the day after working the nightshift at Pinkham’s  to help her. She would average over 70 barrels a day and many days ended with over 100 barrels. I would pick at the most 30 and when I got older maybe 50 barrels, if my parents read this, they will know I might be telling a little white lie about 50 barrels. It was early to bed each night with anticipation of another day. I couldn’t wait to be old enough to work on the back of the truck or work in the potato house figuring those jobs had to be easier then picking.  I never did either one, but did get a chance to work on a harvester during my senior year. Ashland had stopped the harvest break my junior year and during my senior year I was able to get a job on the harvester for the Graham boys from 3pm until 10 each night. That was my last experience working the harvest. As I look back most of the memories are fond ones. Learning how to work loving the paycheck at the end of the week. Having money burning a hole in my pockets.. wanting to buy anything  and everything. If it was advertised I knew I just needed it and couldn’t live without it.

Potato Pickers Special has been on the air for 46 years. For the last 10 years I have been coming in on a couple of different Saturdays to talk sports. It is always a great time. Up and at em bright and early and ready to talk sports with Kevin Sjoberg and Sara Gray of the Star Herald. It’s funny to see the reaction of people when you tell them you were on the air at that hour. I have talked to friends of mine across the country and tell them about the show and they can’t believe that people are watching at that hour. I am shocked when someone comes up to me in the store and says I watched you this morning at 4:30. I do a double take and ask what they were doing up so early.  Pickers has become a tradition for many people from the area. From host Wayne Knight to Eddie Hews, to John Logan to Dave Lavway, to Mike Corey, Don Flannery and Tim Hobbs and all of the others who have rolled out of before before sunrise to make sure that the County farmers are getting their message out.It is a unique show, but one that I have come to love and I can’t wait until October 7th for the next Sports Saturday.

The largest one day fund raiser for the Maine Children’s Cancer Program raised over 80 thousand dollars again this year. The Logan Graves Golf Classic continues to be a huge success and a huge fund-raiser. Bob and Lynne Graves have given so much of themselves since their son Logan passed away in December of 1998. The Graves started the golf classic seven years ago and with the help of family and friends the event is a huge success and has raised several hundreds of thousands of dollars for the MCCP . They are two of the strongest people that I know. They have kept Logan’s memory alive while helping others.The Graves not only give to this event, but also to the MCCP in other ways. Bob is the current President of the Board of Directors and has helped in other fund-raising event. I can’t imagine the feeling of losing a child, but the Graves are so strong they are able to channel their energy into a cause they believe in and have helped raise funds and awareness in the Program.  A fun day on the golf course for the participants who always keep one thing in mind. The money raised goes to a good cause.

Aroostook County has a very deep sports history. I am always in awe when I speak with Dwight Hunter, the former Athletic Director at Caribou High School. Dwight has been one of my unofficial historians over the years whenever I have a question about sports in the 50 and 60’s he always has an answer or steers me in the right direction. I like to think of myself as  a sports history nut. I relished the half hour show that I produced on the history of cross country skiing in the County. Speaking with Ralph Ostlund, Lefty Johnson, Eddie Ouellett, Chub Clark and Dallas McCrea gave me an apprecation for the outstanding athletes and accomplishments on skis. Whenever I talk to Norm Johnson and Bud Smith they remind me of the the heyday of high school hoops. When I did the story on John R Braden it was Helen Brooks who gave me the information. She is a walking encyclopedia on the horse. Triple Crown jockey Ron Turcotte has always been one of my favorite interviews. The passion he has for riding Secretariat to the Triple Crown is genuine.

Football in the 30’s, the Maine New Brunswick Baseball league that competed against Former Major Leaguers, The Boston Celtics trips to the County, these are all a part of the history of the County that many people in their 20’s to 40’s aren’t aware of.  The next time you run into someone in their Golden Years sit down and talk to them and get a truer picture of the history of the County. It will fascinate you.

The Special Olympic Spring Games are set for Friday at the Gehrig Johnson Athletic Complex. Over 250 Olympians have registered for the annual event. If you have never been to a Special Olympics event you don’t know what you are missing.  I attended my first Special Olympics event 22 years ago and was very nervous about how to act around the athletes and what to do and what to say. But that one event got me hooked. I have been involved with the Area Management Team for Special Olympics since that time. It is one of the most rewarding things that I have ever been involved with. Our Philosophy is the event is a sport and we cover it that way. Not a News Feature story, but a true spoting event. The effort the Olympians put into the event, the sportsmanship they show, the smiles on their faces. it all makes it worth it. If you are looking for a rewarding few hours on Friday morning feel free to give me a call and let me know you would like to volunteer, I will find a job for you. It is something that you will not regret and I can guarantee that trying it once will get you hooked and you will be first in line to volunteer next year

It’s the end of era. Doug Flutie, the little man who showed he could play against the giants. The Boston College grad who is still rembered for the “Hail Mary” pass that beat Miami in 1984. I remember that pass like it was yesterday.  Flutie to Gerard Phelan what a pass what a catch… Flutie proved the critics wrong in college and also during his pro career. At 5′9″ he was deemed  too short to be an effective quarterback. Wrong Wrong Wrong. He wins the Heisman trophy in College and then had a 21 year pro career with stops in the NFL, CFL and USFL. During his 8 years in the CFL he won the Most Outstanding Player award 6 times and also won three Grey Cups. In the NFL he  ended with almost  15 thousand passing yards and 86 touchdowns.  He ended his NFL career with a drop-kick, the first in the NFL for an extra point since 1941. Doug Flutie will be missed on the sidelines and will have another exceptional career in the Broadcast Booth.

 

I feel that I am one of the luckiest people alive. I am doing what  I have always wanted to do. I was always a huge sports fan listening to the Red Sox on the radio every night and was always ready for a game of baseball, football, basketball. I grew up in Sheridan….or as i like to joke “the burbs of Ashland”. My parents were always very supportive of my sports addiction and they did everything they could to encourage me and my friends . My father is  my biggest role model and my mother my biggest fan. I remember when I was in fourth grade my father put together a town baseball team to compete against other small communities. The thing I remember most is my father and our catcher,Mike Baker, making the catcher’s chest protecter. Dad took Mike with him to the junkyard and cut padding out of the seats of the junk cars and made a makeshift chest protecter to start the season. By the end of the year we had all the catcher’s equipment that was needed. Our first game was in Eagle Lake and I still  reminisce with Lloyd Soucie the Eagle Lake coach about the games we had. My mother and several other parents were at every game from the time we were pre teens through our high school careers.

There wasn’t a day that went by that a yard full of kids were at my house playing a pickup game of some sort. As we got older the yard wasn’t big enough, but once again some  adults in town came through for us making a baseball field next to the Post Office on land owned by Reynold and Rella Caron. I still smile whenever i drive by and if I close my eyes I can still see us playing. It was a huge deal with kids from Ashland also traveling to Sheridan for a game of baseball.

In high school I competed in cross country, basketball and baseball. My senior year we made it to the Eastern Maine Championships losing to Narraguagus in the title game. Baseball was my game though as i made All-Aroostook two years in a row. I continue to be a huge sports fan and watch it all the time. My son AJ shares my love of sports. My dauthers, Angela and Amber, would tolerate my sports addition watching a few minutes of the games with me.

As you can see sports has always been a huge part of my life and I hope that my love and enthusiasm for the sport is passed along to the viewers in my sportscast every night