CHIC YOUNG'S EXTRAORDINARY AWARD

CHIC YOUNG, who by one reliable account (his), installed the very first
television set in Madison, came full circle over the weekend when he
received a lifetime achievement award from WYOU, the city's public access
cable channel. The award will now be given annually and called the Chic
Young Outstanding Achievement Award for Extraordinary Contribution.

Young received his honor from Mayor Dave Cieslewicz at the WYOU Awards
Saturday night at the Overture Center. The first of what will be annual
awards were a big hit, according to WYOU executive director Whitney Wilcox.
Wilcox pointed out that WYOU generally makes news when something outrageous
finds its way onto the air. The awards were a chance to recognize the hard
work and talent of the people - many of them volunteers - who make the
station run.

Young, who turns 80 soon, has done it all in local TV. He's hosted shows on
the commercial stations, helped get cable off the ground in Madison, and
still doesn't despair of building a national radio and television museum
here. He's been with WYOU since the station's inception in 1975.

As for that first TV set, he installed it in February 1948 in the Shorewood
Hills home of Ted Rundell, whose father started the longtime men's clothing
store here. "The programming consisted of 'Felix the Cat' and not much
else," Young once told me. "About the same time Evans Radio installed a TV
in the old Congress Bar on Main Street, but the reception was so bad they
wouldn't pay for it." ...

CIESLEWICZ WAS also on hand Friday night to name this past weekend "Steve
Born Weekend" during a Monona Terrace dinner honoring Born's 35 years as a
professor and conservationist at the UW-Madison. Cieslewicz, County Exec
Kathleen Falk and state Sen. Spencer Black all gave Born credit for
environmental tutoring early in their careers. Also on hand: the UW's Al
Fish, environmentalist Brett Hulsey, photographer Brent Nicastro and UW
cable TV expert Barry Orton. ... Orton's son, Josh Orton, a Madison West
grad, is now working in New York City as senior producer of Air America's
evening show, "The Majority Report." The liberal radio network - which
called on local broadcast veterans Terry and Mary Kelly in getting over
some early financial trouble, can be heard in Madison on WXXM-FM/92.1. ...

Great turnout Sunday for longtime Madison golf pro George Schiro's 80th
birthday celebration. Among those who gathered at the Nakoma Golf Club were
Schiro's golf pal Mike Gentilli, recently returned from The Masters
tournament in Georgia; former longtime Blackhawk head pro Mike Schnarr, who
is now teaching at Vitense Golfland; former State Treasurer Charlie Smith;
Joe "Buffo" Cerniglia, legendary man about town, or at least the old
Greenbush; reigning men's city golf champ Chuck Hinners; and Bob and Geri
Royko - Geri's dad, the late amateur golf great Steve Caravello, was one of
Schiro's best friends. ...

Producers for the Discovery Channel's "Amazing Babies" program were in
Madison last week filming a segment for an upcoming episode. The show will
feature Madison Fire Department paramedics helping re-enact a memorable
childbirth from February, when a woman gave birth in a car on East
Washington Avenue after the car her husband was driving was pulled over by
a Wisconsin State Patrol officer, who called paramedics. ... Former
Edgewood High School President Tom Shipley has been named director of
stewardship and development for the Diocese of Madison. Bishop Robert C.
Morlino said Shipley's past development and fundraising experience should
help with the diocese's "efforts to raise a beautiful new St. Raphael
Cathedral from the ashes of our sorrow and loss." The church was gutted by
an arson fire last month. .

Madison medical marijuana advocates Gary Storck and Jacki Rickert received
the Peter McWilliams Award for outstanding achievement for their advocacy
at a NORML conference in San Francisco earlier this month. ...

MOE KNOWS: Jorge Drexler was on NPR's "All Things Considered" over the
weekend and the Uruguay native talked about how he composed his
Oscar-winning song from "Al otro lad del rio" (from "The Motorcycle
Diaries") while vacationing in Madison. Drexler is close friends with
Madison musicians Ben and Leo Sidran, and Leo produced the song. "I was
having my holidays in Madison, Wisconsin," Drexler told NPR host Jennifer
Ludden, "and I received the ('Diaries') script, I remember, late in the
afternoon. I read it. Went to sleep very moved by the story and woke up
with the idea in my head that I head to write about the scene of the river.
So that's it. I wrote the song. I recorded it in my laptop in Madison."