The Cincinnati Post from Cincinnati, Ohio • 11

The Post In this ssctlon Ml Love kids but not at wedding ceremony mmssmmmm TUESDAY? JUNE 29 Former teen singer bach Barbara Reece finds new fans BylBckM Post staff reporter She will only perform a couple songs But that mini set will mark a poignant comeback for Barbara Reece For the 52-year-old singer it's a comeback from her battle with multiple sclerosis that left her blind and in a wheelchair And it will be a nostalgic moment for the woman who per wants to do a lot of things but the body says something different" It was 1969 and 16-year-old Taft High School student Barbara Howard had just won a talent contest sponsored by Operation Step Up The promoter of the event Steve Reece fashioned himself a budding producer and songwriter After the competition he asked Barbara to record a pop Christian tom he had written Man See SINGER on 2B haps wonders what might have been when she was briefly an "American IdoT'-style tentage singer out of Cincinnati 35 yearsago Barbara Reece will perform her rock and soul toms this weekend at two July 4th events with Dangerous Jim and the Slims the rock band fronted by Jim Miller formerly of Leap Skyward the first time singing like this since I was very Reece said am weak but I will do as much as my body will allow My head MELVIN GRIERThe Post Barbara Raeca has revived her musical career at the urgings of family and friends and has found It therapeutic a new car You feel everybody's looking at you You feel like Hey this is first If not like when you work out of a closet which is what most of us were doing" 8cr1pp Howard Newi Service Kristal Howells-Susko loves kids Just not at her wedding Especially alter she attended a wedding three years ago in which kids were running and screaming blowing bubbles on the dance floor making guests slip while their oblivious parents drank and danced When her then-fianct Dann told the kids to stop they blew bubbles in his Usee So when the Monroeville Fa couple were married in August 2001 they put "adults only" on their wedding invitation Not that it stopped one couple from bringing their son anyway And another couple from RSVFing that their teenage children and their dates would attend only to be no-shows can cause a lot of awkwardness" said Howells-Susko who is no stranger to wedding worries as the office manager at Cavanaugh Wedding Planner and Bridal Show Inc a big Planning a wedding as everyone knows can cause enough familial friction to fill a hotel ballroom And in an era when some people take their kids everywhere the whole kidno-kid issue can be one of the most combustible matters So if you get So if you get a wedding invitation prised if there is some underlying drama behind it DebWa- mth 1 adults only on it don't be surprised if wMflinv theresan underlying drama behind it wedding Planner wedding which toe Photos by BEN TORRES JRThe Post At the new Clear Channel radio complex Ted Ryan front and Jim Ebertiart check equipment The complex gathers eight radio stations into one facility In Kenwood super power 8 Clear Channel stations now based in Kenwood studios consultant tor The remembers one in sister bridesmaid threatened to walk out of the wedding unless her two girls were put into the wedding 1 The ultimatum worked The bride lost The little flower girls marched down the aisle Many couples have strong opinions on whether they want kids at their wedding is usually a black-or-white issue" said Duma Graham owner of Always and Forever Inc Wedding Consultants But some brides couldn't imagine getting married without children around The brides are so intent on a wedding with children that they even borrow them if there are no kids in their own family search out neighbors who have 4- or 5-year-olds who are cute so they can be flower girls and ring Waterkotte said want to complete the wedding picture" In some cases it is too prohibitively expensive to include all the children in a big family pay $70 to $100 per person and $35 for a child for chicken nuggets and all they do is take alcohol out of it for Waterkotte said you have 10 children that's Hard feelings also surface when children are banned and seme guests conveniently ignore the on the invitation and bring them anyway can escalate into a nightmare" Graham said say They brought their kids Why I bring You call people and say bring your You educate the world by being But Henriette Clark owner of ark and Associates event planner and consultant sometimes calls guests who have RSVFd with their children who were not invited She is gentle but firm: would love to include everyone But there is only room for so many We had to go with the pie who were most special to us" ark tells brides it is fine to keep children out of their wedding but she encourages them to accommodate out-of-town guests by setting up a party staffed with baby sitters That way everyone is happy Bob Sendall a high-end event planner encourages people to have children in the wedding ceremony because bring a personalized loving But he think they should eat dinner at the elegant high-end receptions he plans Instead he tries to talk couples into letting a baby sitter entertain them in a separate room Christina Rouvalii is a Scripps Howard contributor to The Living column Taking a closer look ElgM Char Channel-owned stations now operate out of 41 studios in a 50000-square-foot complex In the Bank One Towers Kenwood The statists are: WCKV-AM WKRC-AM WLW-AM WSAI-AM WEBN-FM WKFS-FM W0FX-FM WVMX-FM Tlra fadity Indudes four studios dedicated to WLW-produced shows that am fed to radio networks including The Bozo Show1 Mike McConnell's and broadcasts of the Reds and Ben gals The al-dlgltal facility was built for $4 million of which $16 was spent on high-tech digital broadcast equipment Char Chanel Communications the country's biggest radio station owner has been following a similar strategy nationwide of consolidating Its stations In markets where It owns a duster of radio proper- ties ByRkkBM Post staff reporter Forty-one studios $16 million in high-tech digital equipment eight radio stations 250 employees sprawling over 50000 square feet in a one-floor complex as big as a couple of football fields Those are the new digs for Clear Cincinnati radio stations with -all eight now broadcasting under one roof from the sixth floor of toe Bank One Towers in Kenwood Six had been in the cramped Mount Adams space (WCKY-AM WKRC-AM WLW-AM WSAI-AM WEBN-FM WOFX-FM) originally built to house just two WLW and WEBN Two others moved from studios in Mount Auburn (WKFS-FM WVMX-FM) Clear TV station WKRC (Channel 12) will remain in Mount Auburn The all-digital state-of-the-art complex is in such an expansive space that in the first week jocks were joking about leaving breadcrumbs to find their way back to the studio you want to deal with toe sales staff (at the opposite end from the studios) you pack a lunch and put on a backpack and go for a hike said Craig Kopp WKRC morning co-host It is a broadcast operation that has not been seen in Cincinnati since the '30s and when Powel Crosley Jr employed some 300 people at WLW to practically invent radio programming Crosley would not recognize the array of flat computer screens and sleek mixing boards as radio There is not a vacuum tube to be found Indeed even those who started in radio in the last decade might experience future shock with the all-digital operation See RADIO on 2B In the new 1 all-digital -radio sta- tions gone are the tape cartridges and reel- toreel machines of radio broad- mz -3962B 2 I.