Royal Marshall RIP

Atlanta radio personality, comedian, father, husband, and friend to so many in this town and elsewhere, Royal Marshall, has died. To say it was unexpected and tragic seems inadequate.

It was unexpected, so very sudden. Last night. He just collapsed and died. He was only 43. And just kinda always out there…. whether on Facebook, or slapping around Boortz as the ubiquitous side man, or doing stand-up at the Punchline.

I had the great fortune to take Jeff Justice’s Level II Comedy Workshoppe with Royal. We all learned so much from watching him, hanging around him, sensing his style and unpretentious, super-smart ways. He was the person in the room everyone wanted to be around. That bright-light personality everyone wanted to bask in and be like.

Royal was just part of being an Atlantan. And now that inherent sense of place and person is gone. I miss him already. RIP Royal. The world needs so many more just like you.

Atlanta TV News Snowcoverage 2011

Never one to be left behind when it comes to self-promotion, WSB-TV goes for a high school yearbook approach. (See pic.) Oh please don’t let them slap that on a billboard!

I had to drag my friend/neighbor Jenna away from the TV news Snowpocalypse coverage so we could take the kids to our neighborhood Willy’s for tacos last night. I really needed to get out of the house, but I needed a Willy’s margarita even more. But I know it’s hard to tear yourself away even for cocktails, as local news has been some of the most compelling TV going this snowbound week of non-stop coverage.

There’s my fave, Mark Winne, who’s been pulled-off the crime beat to go chat-up DeKalb County snow plow drivers now stuck in drifts alongside the road. Drink when Winne blurts *crime doesn’t take a day off* because he will inevitably say that, for your entertainment purposes.

And there’s top shelf material, WSB-TV’s Richard Belcher, finally catching-up with someone possessing half-a-brain from GDOT (Georgia Department of Transportation). If anything needs a top-to-bottom media overhaul it’d be GDOT, eh?

Then there’s Hullinger over at WXIA chasing GDOT’s Vance Smith all the way down to the Gold Dome basement. Snort! And Wizbee’s (what industry insiders call WSB-TV) pol-gal Lori Geary talking poll results from pollster Matt Towery about who out there stuck inside (with a land line) thinks GDOT is doing a heck of a job, Brownie. (Only the old folk, of course).

Local TV news in Atlanta during this wild winter storm of January ’11 is a wacky ride of knowledgeable, experienced reporting combined with can’t-go-wrong images that even an ancient, union cameraman can halfheartedly point and shoot in a general direction and still get great snow-covered video.

Like the Catholic Church’s ad campaign to get folk back despite a pedophilia problem, now’s the time to come home to local TV news. It may not get this good until the next big *snow event*…. what Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed calls this icy mess we hope will melt away by King Day.