No more Zeppelin. No more Skynyrd or Tom Petty or Rolling Stones. And not a whole lot more Don Cerphe Colwell, either.

Classic rock and the DJ who brought that music to local radio audiences long before the rock was considered "classic" are both fading from the airwaves. Beginning Monday, Colwell's station, WTGB (94.7 FM, "The Globe"), will switch to playing contemporary pop tunes. With the demise of the region's only classic rock outlet, the music that helped transform FM radio into a cultural force in the 1970s will become just another baby boomer memory.

Colwell -- who has always gone by his middle name, pronounced "surf," on the air -- is arguably the voice of Washington's rock generation. As an undergraduate at American University in the early 1970s, he began working part time at a little FM station in Bethesda called WHFS, where he explored records by such artists as Jimi Hendrix and interviewed such up-and-coming talents as Bruce Springsteen.

Over the decades, Colwell, 57, never left the local airwaves, and never strayed far from rock. He joined WHFS full time in 1973 as it grew from hippie outpost to tastemaking mainstream force. He outlasted changing musical styles and the radio industry's periodic convulsions and eruptions. For years, he was the knowledgeable and smooth-voiced "rock guy" at such stations as DC101, WJFK and the Arrow 94.7, the predecessor of the Globe

Colwell said he didn't ask to become part of the new station, and probably wouldn't have fit in anyway. "Could I do it? Yeah," he said. "I really love radio, and I really love Washington. But I'm really not a Kelly Clarkson kind of guy. I'm more of a Springsteen, U2, Coldplay guy."

From The Washington Post

"...This time, it's for real. Classic rock will disappear from FM radio in Washington next Monday, to be replaced by a soft pop format designed to win listeners in one of the few places where broadcast radio remains strong--at the office.

The new 94.7 Fresh FM will feature music by the likes of Jason Mraz, Third Eye Blind, Leona Lewis, Coldplay, Gwen Stefani and John Mayer--a mix intended to compete with 97.1 WASH-FM's soft rock sound, capturing a somewhat younger audience than that station by excluding what Fresh's promotional materials call "washed-up old slow songs."

Two years ago, CBS Radio rebranded its classic rock station at 94.7 FM from The Arrow to The Globe. promising an alternative rock sound reminiscent of the legendary 1980s rocker, WHFS. But in short order, 94.7 returned to its classic rock roots, playing the big rock hits of the 60s and 70s with a mix of more recent music of the same ilk. Now, that music will be relegated to a channel on HD radio, the sub-channels that are available only to the very few consumers who have bothered to go out and buy special radios that receive the extra channels hidden on the FM band.

The demise of Classic Rock 94.7 means the end of the FM road for voices that have accompanied Washingtonians to and from work for decades, such as Cerphe Colwell, who has been a mainstay of D.C. radio since he started on the old WHFS in 1972..."

Join us March 18-22, 2009 for the 15th Annual Virginia Festival of the Book! These five days of mostly free literary events are open to the public as we honor book culture and promote reading and literacy.

The Virginia Festival of the Book is in Charlottesville, Virginia. ...read more here...

It was once the workhorse of the Vietnam War, a helicopter with a distinct thwap, thwap, thwap that for some came to symbolize that conflict.

The Huey, reliable and solid, is being phased out -- though some say it's premature to write its obituary because it is still in use by some units. But the event held yesterday by the D.C. National Guard amounted to a retirement ceremony for its fleet of Hueys, which are being replaced by a more modern and nimble chopper known as the UH-72A Lakota.

Pilots stood around a parking lot near RFK Stadium that served as a temporary landing zone, admiring the old helicopters as if having a hard time saying goodbye. They talked about how the aircraft, some of which date to the late 1960s and early 1970s, were over the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, and responded to Hurricanes Katrina and Ike.

For the Vietnam generation, the Huey is an "icon," said Lt. Col. Maureen Bellamy, who has been flying the helicopter for 25 years. And when she goes to aviation shows, Vietnam veterans "come up with tears in their eyes" and recall how, when wounded, the sight of a Huey on the horizon meant safety.

"The Huey is a legend," said Tim Smith, the aircraft maintenance officer for the Army Aviation Museum in Fort Rucker, Ala. "It's been the standard of Army aviation for many, many years." ...read more here...

Well, it's finally March and Spring is right around the corner. It has been a cold winter here in Washington, D.C. and the only measurable snow(8 inches) just happened this week.

Looking forward to baseball and the Washington Nationals this season. The team should be much better this year and can play above .500 for the first time since baseball's return to Washington. I still think Jim Bowden was a good GM and has put together a good team for this year and future years.

The Washington Capitals look like they are ready to make a serious run for the NHL title this year with Alex The Great leading the way.

The Maryland Lady Terps with the 2009 ACC basketball championship already secure they look like good bets to make a run for another NCAA championship. The mens team need some more wins and a little luck just to make the NCAA playoffs. But if they do, they could make a little run(maybe the sweet 16) themselves.

The Rdskins keep signing the wrong people in the off-season(Haynesworth). When will they learn?

The Washington Wizzards?? Georgetown Hoyas?? Not sure which is the more disappointing this season. Both are bad, but the Wizzards just keep changing parts and none seem to work.

BusinessWeek's Top 10 Undergraduate Business Schools

1. University of Virginia (McIntire)

2. Notre Dame (Mendoza)

3. University of Pennsylvania (Wharton)

4. University of Michigan (Ross)

5. Brigham Young University (Marriott)

6. University of California Berkeley (Haas)

7. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sloan)

8. Cornell University

9. Emory University (Goizueta)

10. University of Texas at Austin (McCombs)

Greivis Vasquez did something no Maryland player had done since 1987, and the Terrapins pulled off an upset that was almost as remarkable. Vasquez had a career-high 35 points and 11 rebounds and 10 assists - Maryland's first triple-double in 22 years - and the Terrapins rallied from a 16-point deficit to shock No. 3 North Carolina 88-85 in overtime Saturday, ending the Tar Heels' 10-game winning streak. "I just have no words to describe this feeling right now," Vasquez said. ...read more here...

Forbes magazine's analysis found four of the 12 longest average commutes in the nation come from this region, including Dale City, Virginia, at #12; Clinton, Maryland, at #11; Fort Washington, Maryland, at #8; and Linton Hills, Virginia, just outside of Bristow, as #1. The commute averages 46.3 minutes. The national average for a commute is 25 minutes.

To some Washington area commuters who spend more than an hour in the car each way, 46 minutes might not seem like a lot. But it's an average that includes people with five- and 10-minute commutes. The 46.3 minute average is longer than commutes in the New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago areas.

What these communities have in common is their distance not only from the District, the region's traditional jobs core, but also from the suburban job centers that have emerged over the past 30 years. It illustrates just how many Washington area workers have embraced the tradeoff between a long commute and affordable suburban living. The crisscrossing across the region from home to work to home again is one of the key reasons why the Washington area has the second-worst traffic congestion in the country, behind Los Angeles.

Earlier this month, Richmond, Va.-based Circuit City, the 567-store electronics retailing giant that filed for bankruptcy protection in November, announced that it was going to liquidate. It's closing all its stores and laying off its 34,000 workers.

Officials of the nation's No. 2 electronics retailer, which had been restructuring under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and its creditors agreed to the closing after negotiations with two potential buyers seeking to continue the company as a going concern broke down. The company said that no value will remain for shareholders.