CBH Facebook Live ushers in a new way of doing things

All right, I admit. I am slowly crawling into the 21st century now that we’re 15 years into it.

I have a smartphone and I can actually use the voice-activated text. And, yes I’ve sent a text that said “fart” and not “smart,” because the stupid $700 piece of technology that can send words to China in seconds can’t understand my lazy Colorado tongue. Piece of junk.

I’m getting to where I kind of like throwing a chunk of video or a photo or two on Facebook or Twitter to enhance the words. I had a regular reader tell me once she didn’t read something I’d written because it didn’t have a picture with it. The logic escapes me because I’d like to think my words alone are worth reading. But, I also understand the power of the visual Generation X and the Millennials seem to thrive on.

You know, the Millennials, the generation that grew up on USA Today color and never heard of black-and-white photography, let alone Ansel Adams and the zone system. They laugh at me for not knowing how to answer my smartphone.

Oh yeah, what’s dectol or the best mixture ratio for your D-76? Ha! Whatta ya mean ya never heard of it?

Whoa, spent too many hours under the red light, breathing in a confined space. I’m thinking disco did something to me. That same rhythmic beat over and over and over again, so’s white people can dance.

OK, I’m back. Just a little flashback there. We’re in the 21st century right? Anyway, we’re starting a CBH Facebook Live thing here at the Columbia Basin Herald and I’m wondering how that’s going to be received.

For a guy that used to own an 8-track, that’s kinda cosmic to know that you can go real time on something and people actually watch online. I’ve always been a little fascinated with television and the moving picture side of journalism. NFL Films are the stuff in my humble opinion.

But we are turning our Facebook page into a television screen. You can follow the CBH Facebook Live for the latest.

I don’t know if we’re going to shoot it, but you have to admit the possibilities are endless from a sports perspective. The Moses Lake-Othello wrestling match Dec. 22 at Chiefs gym would one heck of a Christmas present to wrestling fans. You can actually log on in the gym from your smartphone. Or if you can’t make it, log on from anywhere and see how the action is going.

I did shoot a bit of video of the second MRJ-90 coming into Grant County International Airport and it went viral because of the interest, not only here in the Columbia Basin, but back in Japan. I’m thinking it would be excellent to shoot the remaining two jets as they arrive for the sheer excitement of it all and a historical value.

Now, I will have to confess, I was excited to show off a few of the text messages I received in Japanese when the second jet arrived. I flicked through my messages and showed my niece, who’s a 20-something junior down at University of Texas-San Antonio. She looks at them and says, “Want to know what they say?”

Are you kidding me, do you know Japanese? ##*!!* She looks at me like I had three heads, reaches over and pushes the translate button and it flashes to English.

Yep, felt like Ansel Adams at a digital remastered color show. OK, fine.

But we are entering into a new and exciting era of journalism here at the Columbia Basin Herald where you can see the event happening, follow it both in print and on Facebook and Twitter, then pass it along to friends and family in far away places.

We can’t put your kid on TV, but we can do the next best thing and make him or her a rock star on Facebook … which goes all around the world.

Remember, you saw it here first.

Rodney Harwood is a business/sports writer for the Columbia Basin Herald and can be reached at businessag@columbiabasinherarld.com.