The Magic’s Vince Carter beats Dwight Howard at his own game!

The NBA has rights to this video

We talked the other day on the morning show about guys who won’t dance. They either think dancing is dumb, or they’re too self-conscious. I think both are just excuses to cover up the fact that we just don’t know the current steps. So I’ve included this video as a free lesson. No thanks needed.

Check out my all-time favorite 4 year-old Olympic hockey coach.

I really dig this guy (maybe because the blues is my thang) and think he has a shot at the top 12. Good voice, good guitar chops, and doesn’t have all his eggs in the Idol basket so his nerves are in check. We’ll see!

About 3 years ago, news anchor Bob Frier and I formed a band and called it Simulcast because he was the TV man and I was the radio guy. We had hoped to be just good enough to not embarrass ourselves. The first person Bob thought of to ask to join the band was Gladys Justiniano who had won his station’s Super Singer competition here in Orlando. Fortunately she said yes. Once we all heard her sing, we were more than happy to shift the focus of the band immediately away from us media types for an instant upgrade. The rest of the band is Mark Dawson on bass, Ben Van Hook on guitar, Bill Schwartz on guitar, Tony Triozzi on drums, Bob plays keyboard, and because all bands need three guitar players, I handle that.

Here’s a fresh video of our first original song. For your own safety, Bob and I (and the rest of the band for that matter) are heard but not seen.

We’re excited to have Simon Cowell’s brother Tony checking in on a regular basis from the UK to help us break down each week’s Idol.  Not only does he sound just like his brother, but they’re cut from the same attitude cloth.  Even when talking about each other!

Listen here:
listen here

Have you seen the news? I’m having a hard time grasping the magnitude of what has happened. It’s being estimated that over a hundred thousand people may have perished in the earthquake this week in Haiti. A hundred thousand people. Here one minute, and literally gone the next.

At least with our hurricanes, we get a few days warning so we can increase our odds of surviving. Earthquakes afford no such benefit.

So, I’m asking a personal favor. If everybody who has reached out to me in the past week to inquire, complain, support, condemn, or condone our morning show cast change will take that same amount of time to click over to redcross.org and make a donation, we can make a huge difference in helping the survivors and keep the death toll from growing higher.

If you saw the title of this post and are disappointed that it’s not about our morning show, then PLEASE think about what also deserves your attention. In the time it takes to send me an email, you can click on redcross.org and with your credit card, put your money to work instantly to selflessly help people you will never meet.

And hey, if you still want to come back here and shoot me a note, that’s totally fine too.  I appreciate hearing from everybody.   I just hope you can start your email with “I just made a donation to the Red Cross.”

Thank you in advance. And may you and your family always be safe.

Imagine me in front of a podium with a couple of dozen microphones right now…

Question: Friday you talked a lot about Erica’s departure and how you felt, but today you didn’t. Do you still feel the same way you did Friday?

Answer: Absolutely. But it’s best now that I express my feelings here on my blog, and get back to my job on the air which is to help people wake up and get to work and school on time and have fun doing it. I did briefly address things at about 7:15 this morning because it’s still the elephant in the room.

Question: How are you able to just move on?

Answer: One day at a time. There have been plenty of other days when we’ve gone on the air and laughed and joked and carried on without anybody knowing that one or all of us is in the midst of a situation. Everything from deaths in our families to cancer to other life changing events, we’ve been able to leave that stress outside the studio. This show has been an oasis for us in that regard. I kind of feel like a boxer who just got knocked down. You gotta just hold on until the brain clears and then put up a good fight.

Question: Did it feel weird Monday?

Answer: Yes. With all the attention Erica’s departure has justifiably received it was as if we’d sent out an email to all our listeners and the media saying, “Listen to every word we say, how we say it, and critique everything else we do this morning and then discuss it in as many public forums as possible.”

Also, I didn’t realize how many times I used to say, “The Scott and Erica Show”, until I had to consciously not say that today. It’s hard enough to break bad habits, try breaking a good one. I can’t feel that I have to totally change everything I would normally say though just because the person I used to say it to isn’t there.

It was nice having Jay there and Dana helping out too. We’ve all known each other a long time, and we’re all friends with Erica, so it was a nice circling of the wagons this morning.

The other major issue today is that I have some pretty bad bronchitis and a head cold. I would have normally called in sick today, but didn’t think that would be wise on our first day moving forward. It was difficult speaking, breathing and hearing let alone actually trying to make sense.

Question: What’s this “different direction” I’m hearing about? I was surprised to hear The Pyramid and Ticked Off and things you’ve always done.

Answer: Well for starters, Erica leaving the show is a huge direction change in and of itself. The segments of the show that I brought to the table will all stay for now. The show has always evolved on its own. The show we were doing 19 years ago was a lot different than what we’ve been doing lately. We play to the people in the room, so with this change, the direction will follow. Having said that, there are a couple of things I’ve been thinking about swapping out, but not until my new ideas are ready for prime time.

Question: Why aren’t you giving more details as to why Erica was let go?

Answer: Because it’s not my place to try to decode what they discussed with Erica. CBS is a huge company. And a company that employs David Letterman, Katie Couric, Jeff Probst, Drew Carey and thousands of others wouldn’t appreciate Scott McKenzie in Orlando, Florida trying to ad lib or speculate publicly about their inner workings or their decisions. It’s a good time to be a good corporate citizen.

Question: Are you reading everything out there about the MIX morning show changes?

Answer: I started to, but once I got to one attacking my family I stopped. I totally appreciate the loyalty to Erica Lee and to The Scott & Erica Show, but that one and some others were starting to drift off-topic, so I went back to reading my email and attempting to respond to everybody.

Question: How is Erica doing?

Answer: She’s doing just fine. We’ve been in almost daily communication, and are looking forward to lunch this week. We’ll always be great friends, or siblings, or spouses, or whatever it is that we are.

19 years of morning shows here, but never one like this. I’ve received hundreds of emails, Facebook posts, Tweets, and calls concerning Erica’s departure from our morning show. Many of you wanted to catch up on what I said this morning, so here is a link to hear it.

Click here to listen

Here’s another recipe that’s getting an encore at our Thanksgiving feast this year.

Ingredients:

2 single crust deep dish pie shells

Filling:

1/2 to 3/4 cup Dixie Crystals Granulated Sugar

3 TBSP flour

1 tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp. salt

6-7 cups thinly sliced peeled cooking apples.  Fran uses a combination of apples-red delicious, fuji, and braeburn

Topping:

1 cup packed Dixie Crystals brown sugar

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup quick cooking rolled oats

1/2 cup softened butter

Use a food processor to make the topping first.  Combine all topping ingredients in the food processor and pulse it until it’s mixed well.

Cut into squares and enjoy!

This one is from my mother, but adapted by my wife. You’ll love ‘em!

CHOCOLATE CHIP CREAM CHEESE GOODIES
Ingredients:
2-rolls refrigerated chocolate chip cookie dough (She puts one in the freezer first to make the top layer cookie dough easier to slice)
2-1 pound pkgs cream cheese
2-t. vanilla
1-cup Dixie Crystals sugar
2 eggs

Beat sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Add cream cheese and beat well. Spray 13X9 pan with non-stick cooking spray and then line one of the rolls of cookies on he bottom. Pour the cream cheese mixture on top. Thinly slice the 2nd roll of cookies and totally cover the top layer.
Bake at 350 for 35-45 minutes. Depending on your oven, you may need to cover the top with aluminum foil near the end so that the cream cheese mixture firms up without burning the top layer of cookies.
Once cooled, it’s easier to cut into squares if you refrigerate or put in the freezer for a bit.
Enjoy!

For a decade I’ve hosted the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s “Light The Night” Walk in Orlando. Of all the community events I’m involved with, this one has always been the most dramatic because it occurs at dusk, where people walk with lighted balloons in support of blood cancer survivors, and in memory of those who have lost their hard-fought battles.

As I would send everybody on their way, I would always stop and get Mexican food on the way home and then call it a night. Last year however, I had to skip the burrito, and miss the event entirely as I was home recovering from a round of chemo in my own Lymphoma fight. I had no idea all those years that this disease, and this event would become the headlines of my story.

So, even though funds for you may be tighter than you like this year, I hope you’ll consider financially joining my team to help fight back against blood cancers. The website makes it easy to donate, and I will love you forever.

Click here to donate.

My band Simulcast rocked the Mall at Millenia Saturday, and I’ll have to admit, we sounded pretty good. Even though it was 95 degrees, the crowd was really into it. And since it was so hot, I made an executive decision to dress for comfort vs. for the stage.

As we were getting ready to play, I noticed the rest of the band was in their best “rock wear”, while I was dressed like somebody’s dad in an elementary school carpool lane. Like I had planned, I wasn’t all sweaty like the others, but I was reminded by the girl who is the reason I really am somebody’s dad (my daughter) that sweat and rock are the two ingredients in a hip cocktail. Lesson learned.

Here are some pictures (I’m the dry one with the white guitar) and a montage of the live recording of our first set from Saturday.

Come see us next time. I’ll work up a sweat for you.

Back when I was getting ready to start my chemo treatments for my lymphoma last summer, I had to have a port installed in my upper chest to handle the chemicals they were going to infuse into my bloodstream. The reason you need a port is because the stuff they’re putting in you is so harsh (this is your cue to say, “How harsh IS it?”) that if they were to give it through a normal IV in your arm, it could burn a hole right through your skin.

Just as I was being wheeled into surgery to have the port installed, the surgeon asked if I was interested in upgrading to the “Power Port.” It kind of reminded me of the carwash. No matter what level of service I ask for, they always want to up-sell me to the next level. There’s clean, and then there’s REALLY clean. But it costs more. Not being an expert on ports, I asked why I should upgrade. He said, “It’s better.” I don’t know about you, but when you’re starting to suit up for the cancer fight, better equipment seems….better.

The port sits under the skin and kind of looks like a third nipple. (To those of you who were born with 3, this then seems like number 4.) It handled all my chemo treatments fabulously last year. I give it 5 stars. (If you have 3 nipples, I still give it 5 stars.)

The thing is though that since I’m in total remission and am not receiving chemo, I need to have the port flushed every 6 weeks to keep it from clogging up. Friday was my most recent port-cleaning visit. They take you back to the chemo room, and infuse some cleaner the late Billy Mays would have loved to have sold, and then you’re done. It takes about 5 minutes. When she finished, the nurse said, “There you go, a nice clean port,” to which I said, “Great! Now watch it’ll rain this afternoon.” I guess the Power Port still makes me think I’m at the carwash.

I think she’s glad it’s 6 weeks between flushes.

What an amazing afternoon with Gavin stopping by before his big House Of Blues show. Here are a couple of the songs he played.

Thanks to Darrell Greene for filling in Friday for Adam who was filling in for Erica. Darrell said he didn’t go to sleep between his late news on TV27 and our morning show. You may see the results of his lack of sleep in my post-morning show interview.

When Adam fills in on the morning show for Erica or Jay, we get a lot of requests to post a picture of him with the other MIX air personalities. I always pass those requests up the ladder, but the website stays Adamless. So I took his picture today and am posting it in the one part of our website where I can control things.

I think he looks like he sounds, but you be the judge.

I’m known to be a perfectionist. If we shake hands I’ll Purell as soon as possible. However, I’m only selectively obsessive-compulsive, as Inside Edition’s Deborah Norville discovered during her recent trip to the radio station.

I keep getting requests for my wife’s famous dessert bars, so I’m re-posting it for your enjoyment!

OMG Bars

A Recipe by Fran

Cake
1 18 oz. box yellow cake mix
1 egg
½ c. (1 stick) butter, melted

Filling
1 8 oz. package cream cheese, softened
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 16 oz. box confectioners’ sugar (I sift it before adding)
½ cup (1 stick) butter, melted
1 to 1 ½ cup mixture of mini baking m & m, heath toffee bars, semi-sweet chocolate morsels (use whatever combo of this you want)

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease a 13X9X2 inch baking pan. Mix cake mix, egg, and butter and mix well. Pat into the bottom of the prepared pan and set aside. (This becomes the crust of the cake) Beat cream cheese until smooth, add eggs, and vanilla. Add sugar and beat well. Then add butter and chocolate. Pour this mixture on top of the crust mixture and spread well. Bake for 42 to 50 minutes. You want the center to be a little gooey but not too gooey. Remove from oven and cool completely (I then put it in the freezer before cutting it so it won’t fall apart). Then cut into squares. Enjoy!

Having said what I said in my previous post about the constant creative buzz that sustains me throughout my day, working in radio is a fairly non-traditional job. Everyday is completely different. Sometimes our best ideas come from brainstorming meetings, and some days we get the most energized by goofing around in the hall.

Shelf Ball is a hallway game that we invented as an adult-equivalent to school recess. It’s a smoke break for the non-smokers.

The basic rules are that the player must keep his heels on the wall, while tossing a hackysack ball toward a 4 inch wide shelf across the hall. The ball must come to rest on the shelf. Since the shelf is narrow and at an odd angle, it’s not as easy as it seems. Most of the time it can take over 20 shots each to win by a score of 1-0.

For the longest time I never told our daughter about Shelf Ball when she asked me how my day was because I wanted her to be proud of me. Now she’s 17 and thinks Shelf Ball is cool.

This video a rare glimpse into the addictive world of Shelf Ball. It has never been recorded before or since. It’s important to have the volume up for the instant replay.

You’re welcome.

I can tell you the exact date that I became stupid.  It was tax day, April 15th, 1987.  I was the morning guy at Z103 in Tallahassee and the station was doing a live remote at the post office and throwing a party for all the last-minute tax filers.  At the moment I should have been going to bed to rest up for the next day’s show, I decided to drive out to the broadcast to join in the fun.  The place was packed, we had a fantastic night, and I had a ton of material to talk about the next morning because of it.

The luxury of being on in the morning is that we get more time to talk to more people.  But if you play it smart, you’re in bed when most of the interesting things in life might happen.  Blockbuster movie premieres, concerts, parties, Magic playoff games, and finales of Idol and Dancing With The Stars don’t happen at noon.

My most creative time is after dinner.  I get a second wind almost every night, and the time between 7pm and 11pm seems to rush by in a minute.  Most nights I’m right here on the computer working on something.  I’m trying to train my family to not ask me each night why I’m still awake, so they’ve resorted to just calling me “Stupid Man,” as in, “how’s that video coming along, Stupid Man?”

The good news is that switching my name from Scott McKenzie to Stupid Man won’t force me to buy new monogrammed stationary and towels.

Because in the wild world of cancer, a negative scan is the best news you can get.  And that’s what I got!  All clear!  Another scan in 6 months. 

I now resume my life, already in progress. 

When students are learning to get their pilot’s license, they perform “Touch and Go’s,” where they line up for landing, bring the plane down, touch the wheels on the pavement, and then throttle back up and take off again without stopping.  That’s the feeling I have right now, as Monday is my first CT scan since my complete remission diagnosis 6 months ago.  

It’s been quite the party since October.  With my chemo diet and activity restrictions removed, my hair back, and no doctor appointments, I’ve been flying the healthy skies.  I’ve volunteered for many cancer events where I’m asked to speak of my journey since first being diagnosed with stage 4 non-hodgkins lymphoma.  But to be honest, it’s only during those talks that I recall many of the details of this past year.   I’m not happy that I had cancer, but there has been so much upside to the self-discovery, renewal, and rekindled and deepening relationships with friends and family, that if or until the cancer returns, I’m the happiest I’ve ever been.  I’m not even sweating about that last run-on sentence (complete with 5 commas!)

My cancer isn’t “cured,” it’s controlled.  When he told me about my remission status, Dr. Z said the chances of it returning weren’t zero and weren’t 100 percent.  It’s a nice way of saying things are “touch and go.”  He said “live your life.”  And that’s what I’ve been doing.  I wish I could say that the cancer scared me into getting enough rest, simplifying my schedule, eating right, and exercising daily, but I’ve been doing what the doctor said and living MY life. I kinda wish he would have recommended I live Tiger Woods’ life. 

Monday, I line up with the runway, touch the wheels in the CT machine, and hopefully get the “all clear” so I can pull up and take off again.   

Somehow some way, and without me noticing, 17 years has elapsed between the night we went to bed with Lauren’s baby monitor on and this morning when Fran and I were discussing our trip next week to visit potential colleges for our daughter.  

It’s like the fast-forward button got stuck.  

As I sit here typing this, song after song from my high school days are playing on my iTunes to aid in my disconnect.  It took FOREVER to get to high school, and I had FOREVER in high school to make lifelong friends.  Lauren hasn’t had that luxury.  Time doesn’t seem to take that much time these days.  

So next week we’re packing the car for a massive road trip to 5 colleges in 7 days.  We’ll be touring schools in Georgia, North Carolina, Maryland, South Carolina and here in Florida.  

Of course this is all just an exercise.  After all, Lauren is just a little baby napping in the next room.  Right?

I was about to be announced as the featured speaker at a youth group’s cancer awareness get-together last evening, and as I was sitting there I came to the conclusion that this is the 7th stage of my life.  I don’t know how many stages I get, but with childhood, high school, college, starting my career, marriage, and fatherhood being the first 6 stages, cancer survivor makes 7.  

Like software, the updates that get downloaded in our lives hopefully fix the bugs we endured when we were younger, and make us more stable and streamlined.  In my newest version there are many internal upgrades thanks to the chemo chasing the cancer away. The most obvious external feature change in Scott 7.0 is the hair.  Once I was able to grow it again, I made the decision to advance to a new look of natural salt and pepper.  Dying my hair, that began in 6.0, has now been disabled.  Also the outdated “poof”, first found in version 2.0, has finally been eliminated.  In addition, a goatee has been added. This new feature was given very high marks by Fran, our lead reviewer of Scott version 7.0.  

Recently at the Mt. Dora Art Festival, a loyal listener, refused to believe that I was me.  She looked right at me and said, “You’re not Scott.”  This posting is basically for you Jean.  You’ve now been upgraded to 7.0!