Seeing red

She’s good enough, she’s smart enough, and—gosh darn it—people like her: KSQR, Sacramento’s own Air America affiliate, is about to become a lot more local. No, “Frank Sullivan Jr., the swinging landlord” isn’t going to be hosting his own show just yet—although his commercials are a welcome relief from those incessant public service announcements, especially that (mercifully discontinued) Aerosmith for Mothers Against Drunk Driving ad in which Steven Tyler’s braying makes you want to drive your Bitesmobile straight through the front window of your nearest teen center.

But Bites digresses.

The latest addition to the Air America lineup will be none other than local broadcast legend Christine Craft, who started out reading headlines and ended up making them. Craft took on the TV-news industry with her 1986 book, Too Old, Too Ugly, and Not Deferential to Men, which detailed her personal experience with the double standards applied to the sexes in broadcast journalism. Since then, she did a long stint at KFBK in Sacramento, where she ultimately proved too liberal for the rising wave of hate radio, and then she moved on to San Francisco.

Now she’s back. The Power Hour with Christine Craft will air weekdays at 4 p.m. on the upstart station, which is located at 1240 AM. “We wanted a local presence here at the radio station,” KSQR Operations Manager Michael Kramer told Bites. “Although Air America provides fabulous programming, we still wanted to have a local angle, particularly during an election year and this being the capital of California.”

Craft’s show launches on June 14.

Code red: Just when Bites had gotten used to the idea of casual Fridays—wherein fellow worker drones cut loose by dressing up like R.E. Graswich for a day—along comes “Freedom Fridays.” Jauntily sporting a Hawaiian shirt around the SN&R office last Friday, Bites was pulled aside by a concerned colleague. “Dude, it’s Friday,” he said. “Where’s your red shirt?”

Turns out your meme-impaired columnist missed out on the latest Internet-inspired trend, in which people who oppose President George W. Bush’s handling of the war in Iraq have taken to wearing something red on Fridays. This protest tradition reportedly dates back to the 1940s, when Norwegian women knitted red caps for their kids to protest their occupation by Germany.

So, as you dig through your closet in search of your post-Memorial Day white belts and loafers, don’t forget to find something red. And when that homicidal Hummer tries to run you down for wearing your colors, you can always say it’s for cardio-health awareness.

Career opportunity: A more cynical Bites would greet the announcement of the Sacramento Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce’s new arts-leadership-and-management program with rueful irony. After all, it was less than a year ago that our state gutted its own California Arts Council, slashing some 94 percent of its general-fund support so that we can compete with Arkansas or God knows who else for the honor of being the state with the absolute least interest in supporting the arts. These days, given the choice between attending arts-management classes or taking courses in how to operate convenience-store slushie machines, the latter may end up offering the best financial return.

Still, the mature Bites realizes it’s far better to light one candle than to curse the darkness, so let’s all say hello to Sacramento Metro Chamber’s exciting new program. Beginning June 21, it will be offering a slate of classes geared toward people who want to enter, or advance themselves in, the lucrative—um, make that exciting—world of arts management. Local business folk who’ve always wanted to know how to become effective board members also are encouraged to participate. Take seven of the eight classes, and you earn yourself an Arts Leadership & Management Certificate. For registration information, call Terry Sheppard at (916) 691-7255 or artcert@crc.losrios.edu.