Please check out our new Tempo and the Times podcast, where music, literature, art, and popular culture collide with news, politics, and business. It’s a collision born of experience that began on manual typewriters and has been transformed by the digital age.
Tempo and the Times is a companion to the Not Fake News Network, home to the Not Fake News blog site, NFN Radio News, and books like Hijacked Nation-Donald Trump’s Attack on America’s Greatness. New Tempo and the Times episodes, featuring great guests and interviews, will stream every Friday, launching today. Joining me as Tempo and the Times host is writer-musician Scott Ramminger, and together we bring a long-range perspective and wide swath of experience and opinion to the show. We both began our writing careers at newspapers, worked as part of the Washington DC political machine, and went on to write books, music, and more. We both have made the transition into the digital age, as writers, performers, and producers of a wide range of content. We now deliver all of that to Tempo and the Times listeners with to-the-point commentary that’s often tinged with offbeat humor. The shows will feature guests from the worlds of music, art, politics and technology – some famous, some offbeat, and some who are just hidden gems. Scott and I will look at what’s happening in our seemingly upside-down world. Tempo and the Times is designed to to offer a deep, strange dive into the areas where popular culture, news, politics, and technology all collide in a perfect storm. We'll examine what this collision means for each of us.
Click here for the introductory episode. About Bob Gatty
I began as a newspaperman in Pennsylvania and went on to join United Press International, at age 24, becoming chief of the Trenton, NJ state capital bureau. I helped cover the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago, where I was teargassed during rioting that led to the arrest of the Chicago Seven. In 1970, I went to DC to work on Capitol Hill and ultimately became chief of staff for Reps. Edwin B. Forsythe (R-NJ) and then James J. Florio (D-NJ). Eight years later, I established a full-service editorial services firm that covered the federal government for scores of industry magazines and provided communications assistance to numerous industry organizations. Throughout my career, I launched two magazines and published thousands of articles in magazines covering the food and beverage, healthcare, hospitality, retailing, and retailing industries, among others. In 2016, I relocated to Myrtle Beach, SC, and established the Not Fake News network, which creates and publishes left-leaning political commentary, and the NFN Radio News Podcast, where Tempo and the Times shows are also presented. Not Fake News writer Chris Waldron and I wrote Hijacked Nation-Donald Trump’s Attack on America’s Greatness, published in 2020 and available in paperback and digital versions on Amazon.com. A new book on politics, also from the pages of Not Fake News, is now in the works. I also co-authored a book about baking bread with chef-adventurer Brandon Cristiano. While my career has included investigative journalism, political coverage of major events in recent history, and helping two members of Congress enact legislation that now affects our daily lives, one story simply won’t let go: my 1965 reporting about a UFO that was alleged to have landed in a farmer’s field in Kecksburg, PA. As a result, I've appeared as a guest on Unsolved Mysteries, the History Channel, Conspiracy, and several other programs related to that story. There is no truth to rumors that I had personal contact with space aliens, although Ramminger says he doubts the veracity of that claim. About Scott Ramminger
Ramminger, who holds a journalism degree from the University of Tennessee, worked during college and briefly after as a newspaper reporter. He then struck out for DC and at 23 became the youngest-ever director of communications at a national trade group and lobbying organization representing food manufacturers. Ramminger went on to hold senior public affairs and marketing positions at several other business trade organizations, running national public relations campaigns in the food and construction industries. His writing has appeared — under his own name and under the byline of others — in publications including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and many others. At 39, Ramminger obtained his first CEO job and spent the next 20 years running organizations representing producers and users of chemical wood preservatives and then distributors of candy, cigarettes, and other tobacco products. He has been a registered lobbyist and served as an industry spokesperson, testifying before Congress and regulatory agencies and representing business interests in hostile media interviews. (Gatty didn’t conduct any of those interviews, though he says if he had, he’d have made Ramminger squirm.) Along the way, Ramminger went from conservative Democrat to moderate Republican (when there was such a thing) to liberal Democrat. A lifelong musician and writer who claims to have started out to become “either Tom Waits or Norman Mailer,” Ramminger returned to actively writing and performing music in his late 40s. He has released five records, all of which have received critical acclaim and have enjoyed significant airplay. His 2017 CD, Do What Your Heart Says To, held the top position on the Roots Music Report R&B Album Chart for several months. His records have been reviewed in publications including Down Beat, Blues Matters, No Depression, and many more. In 2017, after departing his last CEO job, Ramminger decided he had had enough of DC and relocated to Nashville, where he works as a musician and writer, performing primarily around the South and Mid-Atlantic both as solo guitar/vocal act; as a singer and sax man with his own band, “Scott Ramminger & The Temporary Condition;” and as a saxophonist in other peoples’ bands. He has received several awards for his songwriting. Scott and I have been colleagues and friends for almost 40 years. Scott was Bob's client on several occasions and he also helped Scott get a great job, which he subsequently “willed” back to me when he hit the CEO big time. We also have run rapids in kayaks, spent many nights in smoky jazz clubs, helped each other paint houses and move furniture under strange conditions -- and had many other adventures, some of which can only be revealed posthumously or when the statute of limitations runs out. So, hang on tight. You’re in for a crazy ride on the Tempo and the Times podcast. You can find it by clicking here and by visiting most major podcast streaming outlets, including Spreaker, Spotify, SoundCloud, Tumblr, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Amazon Music/Audible, Castbox, Deezer, Podcast Addict, Podchaser, and JioSaavn.