The e-mail from Biloxi, Miss., sportswriter Don Hammack after he returned to his neighborhood and found only two recognizable items, an old shoe and an empty CD case, said it all.
“So that’s what I got. A shoe. Some album art. A piece of property two blocks off the beach for sale. I actually feel better now. I’m luckier than the folks who now sit in the Dole refrigerated trucks behind Riemann’s funeral home in Gulfport, and luckier than the woman in the newsroom who lost her house, her sister and her brother-in-law.”
Journalists are generally a stoic lot, too used to seeing the sad side of life, but a group of Denver media is tossing a public party at the Denver Press Club Wednesday to help out their Gulf Coast brethren and others.
Craig Silverman and Dan Caplis broadcast their KHOW 630-AM talk show live from the club from 3 to 7 p.m. for Katrina Relief Night. The club, 1330 Glenarm Place, also is holding a Cajun dinner and auction/book sale for hurricane victims that night.
Autographed books from Mitch Albom, Jay Grelen, Tom Noel, Seymour Hersh, J.R. Moehringer, Ted Turner, Larry King, Wolfgang Puck, Garrison Keillor, Mark Obmascik and me will be on sale from 3 to 9 p.m.
Info for the fundraiser for the American Red Cross at 303-571-5260.
Wheel … of … Fortune!
It’s not the Wienermobile but everybody’s favorite game show hits town next weekend with the Wheelmobile.
ABC’s “Wheel of Fortune,” which believe it or not has been on the air since 1975, will hunt up contestants from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at Universal Lending Pavilion next to the Pepsi Center. Applications will be handed out beginning at 11 a.m.
The program (6:30 p.m. weekdays, KMGH-Channel 7) will be back in March to tape three weeks of shows at the Colorado Convention Center.
This weekend’s tryouts have a mountain of rules and regulations, online at thedenverchannel.com.
Around the dial
Colorado Springs radio personality Craig Coffey slogged through a week-long marathon stint on KVUU 99.9-FM to raise $109,471.45 for victims of Hurricane Katrina last week. … Happy birthday: The locally produced, 24-hour interactive TV outlet ManiaTV celebrated its first anniversary Friday. Unfortunately, the news release announcing the big event bragged, “Broadcasting to over 1.6 viewers worldwide. …” Overnight ratings for CBS’s coverage Sunday of the U.S. Open tennis final matching Andre Agassi and Roger Federer drew a rating/share of 6.2/12, up 100 percent from last year. It was the second-highest rating, behind the 1999 final pitting Agassi against Todd Martin. … Quotable: “You just sort of step away from it for a short time until you have to jump back in and start swinging. That’s all we can do.” – Don Hammack.
Dick Kreck’s column appears Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. He may be reached at 303-820-1456 or dkreck@denverpost.com.
