Good Morning Coulterville! Premiere Broadcast

Good Morning Coulterville!

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This is KNHA-FM, Yosemite Radio, coming to you live from the heart of the city famous for gold and historic meetings between John Muir and Teddy Roosevelt. It’s where they hashed out plans in Yosemite Valley and the Hotel Jeffery for the rapid expansion of public protection for national forests and the creation of America’s National Parks.

It’s 63 degrees this morning as the sun rises over the mountain ridge and the palm tree out back. The high will be around 76 with sunny skies all day. It’s 42 up the hill in Yosemite Valley, according to Wunderground Weather, and it’s expected to hit 71 this afternoon with fall color in the trees. We may get a little rain on Wednesday, a good thing to keep the fires at bay. But for today, Election Day, it’s another beautiful day in sunny California, believe it or not my friends in the East. It makes us want to wake up and sing a song like this, California Dreamin’ by the Mamas and the Papas.

California Dreamin’

As I wake up from my dream to face reality in this Gold Rush town that has been a happening place on the map before, I see it clinging to life by the efforts of those who Readers Digest dubbed “the nicest in America.” Those who remain, anyway. The 2020 Census had the population dropping below 200. Perhaps more will come once they hear about what they’re missing. It’s too historic to lose. The best golden idea ever. There must be more of those around here.

Now for a few morning headlines.

The First Big Elections of the New Trump Era Are Today, Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025. What’s to Come of Us, asks the New York Times.

Voters on Tuesday will deliver an early judgment on President Trump’s administration in the first set of coast-to-coast elections since he began his turbulent second term. Contests for mayor of New York, governor of New Jersey and Virginia, and a redistricting ballot measure in California, have revolved around how the Democratic Party should rebuild itself and respond to Trump’s power play in Washington. The elections are predominantly in Democratic areas and battleground states, where the party’s candidates have sought to harness rage about Trump’s policies while deflecting discontent about the state of the Democratic brand. With the 2026 midterm elections set to decide control of Congress for the final two years of Trump’s second term, both parties will look to Tuesday’s results to guide how they campaign in the next year’s midterms.

Yes, indeed, dear friends. It will be a big day and a major test of our democratic resolve. So get out there and vote if you can.

Meanwhile, President Trump Presses for an End to the Filibuster in the Senate, while Democrats Resist, as this Government Shutdown will set a Record of 34 Days at the end of today.

Then it seems wildly ironic that on this day we announce that Dick Cheney, perhaps the Most Powerful Vice President Ever Under President George W. Bush, is Dead at the age of 84.

Here’s a little dancing on the Devil’s grave music by MercyMe.

Now back to Coulterville.

The best parts about living here? No constant traffic noise like the Washington Beltway or the LA Freeway. Just the Harleys occasional roaring up toward Greely Hill and the camper vans and RVs in the peak season on the way to Yosemite. It’s only 30 miles west of Yosemite National Park, the cathedral of them all. Small town quiet with big time views, near the Rim of the World, according to the Stanislaus National Forest.

It’s two and a half hours from San Francisco, the hub of the tech universe, now in the chaotic throws of an A.I. Boom even many of them fear. It’s only a half a days trip to Los Angeles, the city of Stars, maybe not all Angels.

Speaking of the LA Freeway, here’s a song about such by Jerry Jeff Walker.

I apologize if this seems a brash beginning. It was literally my first thought about how to get things started, considering the Vietnam Vet connections in town. Good Morning Vietnam the film came out in 1987. Set in Saigon in 1965 during the Vietnam War, the film stars Robin Williams as an Armed Forces Radio Service DJ who proves hugely popular with the troops, but infuriates his superiors with what they call his “irreverent tendencies.”

Here’s a segment from his first broadcast.

Robin Williams was a brilliant, funny guy, who came to a sad end.

The story is loosely based on the experiences of Armed Forces Radio DJ Adrian Cronauer, although most of Williams’s performances were improvisations. The film was a commercial success. Williams won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor. In 2000, the film ranked number 100 on the American Film Institute’s “100 Years…100 Laughs” list, with 100 movies considered the funniest in American cinema, according to Wikipedia.

Let’s take a song break with a little music from the Vietnam Era, at least the movie version of the war. You remember Jim Morrison, The Doors.

The End.

You know from the first day I arrived here, the last of September after driving and camping across this amazing country in three weeks and a day, the scene reminded me of another small town on television. The fictional town of Cicely, Alaska in the CBS hit show “Northern Exposure.” It ran five seasons from 1990 to 95. You can see them all on Amazon Prime Video now. I’ve been going through them lately looking for nuggets of gold as a writer myself. There was some good writing on that show. Nice acting too.

My good friend Jim Rhodes, creator of the non-profit Operation New Earth, agreed whole heartedly when I brought up Northern Exposure that first day in October. Others in town seem to agree. He also got the Good Morning Vietnam reference right away and chuckled. He returned to the country and wrote a best seller in Vietnam, back in the day. And of course we got a good laugh out of Robin Williams.

Welcome Home From Vietnam

So what the heck, right people? Rock and Roll. We’re on the radio.

Perhaps said best by Bob Seger, about Old Time Rock and Roll.

Now we just need a big bull moose to wander down the street. Maybe a campaign for a rich benefactor to recruit a doctor. Most people here seem to have to drive a ways for that, and don’t get me started on the price of gas in California. It’s good that some people are trying to do their part to combat climate change due to global warming from the burning of fossil fuels, and all. We just need an acceleration in that direction, not a backwards turn into a dark, mythical past, if you know what I mean.

Human evolution needs to keep surging forward, not digressing back. Only collective altruism can trump the selfish gene, now on steroids. You know it. I know it. We’ll talk more about that and E.O. Wilson’s science soon.

What we liked about Chris in the Morning was the way he waxed philosophical about the Meta Physics of life, the branch of philosophy dealing with first principles and abstract concepts such as being, knowing, causing, time, space and identity. The enigmatic journey we all face, out there in our own way trying to find the balance of the Earth and sky, the yin and yang, and establish some groove in life, like riding the perfect wave in the Pacific on a summer morn. If you can find it. Sometimes it’s hard to see.

We too will explore the dichotomies in living and dying and just trying to keep on keeping on, sometimes, like the old hippie slogan, “Keep on Truckin’.” Maybe add Baby to that and write a song about it. For what’s in a day without a song.

How about Dinah Washington, What a Difference a Day Makes. It’s a bright new day.

The way I see it, no matter what’s happening in the WWW Wild West that passes for news, information and entertainment in this crazy mixed up world, somehow we still have to strive to find a way to keep on living and be sure to have a little fun along the way. Like the old Indian said in the Clint Eastwood movie, “Let us all endeaver to persevere.” Sometimes you just have to disconnect and fly a little under the damn radar. That’s my basic philosophy anyway. It’s a simple one.

Not that unlike the great Ronnie Van Zant, when Lynyrd Skynyrd sang about a simple man.

Here’s the Song. Stop and take it in, y’all. There are stories to come about this.

Simple Man

I think we might hear a little more about this band later on. I’ve got a blockbuster video interview for you, when the time is right, about the first night they landed in Muscle Shoals Alabama and recorded the first version of Free Bird. It involved one crazy night on speed learning Percy Sledge songs by the water, and my good friend Wayne Perkins from down the street in Birmingham. If you followed rock and roll close you may have heard his name whispered out there. It was his lead guitar that practically made Bob Marley’s first record a hit, Catch a Fire, it did; then nearly got him into The Rolling Stones. He toured with Leon Russell and Lonnie Mack, and recorded with Joni Mitchel on “Court and Spark” back in the heady days in LA in 1974. He got around. It was a hell of a time to be alive making music.

For a fine sample, how about a little Joni Mitchel, from Court and Spark, one of my favorite albums of all time. A timeless, immortal sound. There is an interesting back story. You will see when it comes up again and the radio transmitter is installed and hooked up to the used antenna.

Car on a Hill

Now here’s a great rendition of a popular California song among fans of “The Dude,” AKA the Big Lebowski, from Wayne Perkins no less. We’ll have more to say about this as time goes by. They did a film on Public Television down in Alabama last year about him called “Nobody Knows Me.” And there’s a book in the works being shopped around. I think his version of the tune on one of his solo albums is the best rendition out there. That’s the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section playing behind him. Note the intro and ending guitar work.

Take it all in, baby, especially around 4:20 in the afternoon.

Just Dropped In

So that’s about all I have to say and play this first morning on the air. The plan is to create something unlike than anything ever produced on the radio. We have the education, experience, ideas and technology. Why not? Start from scratch. Throw out the script.

We will retain some important institutional influences in a way. Scott Simon’s “Weekend Edition” on NPR. Maybe a little Garrison Keillor from “Lake Wobegon.” We may even go all the way back to the Grand Ole Opry on the radio for jewels. I’m not much for commercial country radio. But we might get into a little Patsy Cline or some Hank Williams one of these days soon. With a story of course.

Most radio stations specialize in a niche segment of the market. Rock. Country. Jazz and Blues. Talk, talk, talk all day long about sports or politics. Our philosophy is there is already too much talk going on, and too little action. We plan to avoid the partisan politics, to give people a break from it drowning out all original thought on all the other channels. We will mix it up. But in a well thought out way that makes sense, depending on what’s happening in the world on a given day. We will strive to be timely, while also diving deep and back into history for important stories to remember.

And guess what? There are a few local characters around town who would like their shot at a skit on the radio. Old school. We may break out the drums and the xylophone, some bells and whistles, wood blocks for horses hooves, and tell you a tall tale. Remember the movie “Seabisquit”?

Someone might even read you a nice bedtime story. I’ll never forget my Third Grade teacher, Ms. Martin, reading aloud to us a shocking thing at that impressionable age. Charlotte’s Web. “Humble” was the final word that clinched the prize at the country fair. There must be a life lesson in that.

I suspect we’ll have a few laughs and get to know one another. Hopefully the world won’t come to a cataclysmic end before we get the chance. As we speak, a pair of ravens are circling over head, good omens and lords of the air here in the Sierra, sometimes called the Coulterville Eagle in these parts. Not far off there are two red-shouldered hawks, circling these blue skies all day riding the thermals, looking for prey. I could observe them for hours, and probably will. In a comfortable camp chair, no less, under a shade canopy with a little fan blowing, a pipe and a refreshing beverage as the moon rises. Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn never had it so good.

Now as we wind it all down, my first idea for a closing song comes comes from Iris Dement. They used it in the final episode of Northern Exposure, in fact. A sweet song about a quirky small town full of interesting characters, mostly nice ones. Like I always say, just being nice to others can go a long way. So be nice out there. It just might save your day.

See you in the morning, when the airwaves are right for surfing and the sun comes up over the mountain ridge and palm tree out back. Remember Every Day that Happy Days can be again, if only in your dreams. It might bring a tear to your eye.

Our Town