One to grow on: unclebarky.com marks 1st anniversary
09/16/07 10:45 AM
By ED BARK
These is either cause for celebration or a long, long nap. Your friendly neighborhood unclebarky.com turns one-year-old Monday. Where's the key to the city?
It's been invigorating, enlightening, draining but most of all a privilege to continue writing about local and national TV in the country's fifth-largest market. I hope that many of you feel it's all been worthwhile. This is still a very low overhead operation, but the passion and commitment remain strong.
I'd like to thank all of unclebarky.com's readers, sources, supporters and critics for breathing life into this still fledgling enterprise. Those of us who left Dallas' only daily a year ago were told it was OK if we didn't feel up to the "dynamic changes" awaiting those who chose to remain.
For me, unclebarky.com has been dynamic change at WARP speed. But it's also a determined effort to re-embrace the old-school independent journalism to which I first pledged allegiance. That dates to Madison, Wis. and my first two proving grounds -- The Daily Cardinal at the University of Wisconsin and the city's still surviving afternoon daily, The Capital Times.
Being a reporter was a blast in those days. Rekindling that feeling took a long time, but unclebarky.com now seems worth the wait.
I hope to continue well into the foreseeable future, but only with your help. Spread the word if you would. Advertise if you can. Or support unclebarky.com by clicking through this Web site first before you buy anything on amazon.com, etc.
We get roughly a 4 percent commission on each sale, and right now it costs $49.95 a month to keep this site up and running. So just $100 in purchases a day from our thousands of readers would more than pay that bill. Think of it as a charitable contribution that doesn't really cost you a thing. You were going to buy something anyway, right? End of commercial message.
None of this would have been possible without your continued readership and well-wishes. But two people have been particularly invaluable.
My stepson, Carl Morgan, built this Web site from scratch using available tools and his own incredible ingenuity. He still knows how to treat virtually any Web site illness. The continued well-being of unclebarky.com is really his doing. I get to write only because he's given me the venue.
My lovely and supportive wife, Madeline, has been with me through all of this. She still goes to work everyday, contributing far more value to humankind as a nurse without peer. I get to stay at home and feed this beast, which always seems to be famished. Her love and understanding are the foundation of unclebarky.com. Baby, you're the greatest.
Thanks again to all as another fall TV season kicks into gear in Year 2 of unclebarky.com. We're ready for it.