If you were driving around yesterday and were scanning through stations on the AM dial, you might have gotten a surprise when you hit AM 1200 - the frequency WAGE in Leesburg used to be on.
  According to DCRTV.com - a site that doesn't seem to miss a thing when it comes to local radio, television and media - music was coming across AM 1200. "The Loudoun County radio station has been playing a mix of music today, including Three Dog Night's "One Is The Loneliest Number", Paul Simon's "Fifty Ways To Leave Your Lover", and Pink Floyd's "The Wall"," the site reported. "At 2:06 PM, what sounded like a live voice came on the air and simply said "WAGE Leesburg"....."
  While the station recently received approval to build a new transmitter site in Loudoun County to enable it to raise its signal to 50,000 watts, going back on the air this quickly seemed a bit of surprise, particularly since during the BOS hearings they didn't seem to know what format they would be airing.
  But it turns out WAGE is not back on the air, at least not yet. The station "went dark" back in August of last year, and by FCC rules, needs to do three weeks of on-air testing before August 1. That's what you may be hearing if you're scanning the AM dial and hit 1200.
  Once the tests are done, the frequency will return to silence for a few more months. From what I've been told, it sounds like if there are no surprise developments in building the tower and transmitter site, the folks at WAGE could be back on the air possibly by Thanksgiving.

 
  That's right, five months ago on February 6, my driveway was covered with about 19 inches of snow. And a bunch more was on the way.
  Today, I drove home from work and the display in my car consistently showed the outside temperature at 105 degrees. And more heat is on the way.
  Can't wait to see what happens five months from now. I'm guessing a hurricane, a hailstorm, or a swarm of vuvuzelas.

  I guess I just don’t understand the concept of a merger.
  I say this because last week, I found myself on the road, traveling from Columbus, Ohio to Georgetown, Kentucky, stopping at places like Cincinnati and Lexington on the way. Before leaving Ashburn, I had read about the merger of the Loudoun Times-Mirror and the Loudoun Independent and thought it was an interesting move.
  LTM, for example, is the long-standing newspaper of tradition in Loudoun County, but its attempts at newer media such as video have been awkward at times. The Independent, conversely, embraced video and a number of other web tools, while lacking the long-standing tradition of LTM. Blended together, it looked like the two organizations might forge together an interesting product.
  But while waiting for a plane back to Dulles, I started getting emails from a few folks back home. The “merger” of the two papers was more the kind of merger a bug has with a windshield on a busy highway. And the bug apparently looked like the staff of the Loudoun Independent.
  From what folks emailed me, most of the staff of the Independent was let go. Publisher Amy Burns decided not to participate in the merger either, as her column “A Great Ride” spells out her decision to pursue other interests. And judging from the comments at the end of the story, where most identify themselves as former LI staffers, there does appear to be credence to the suggestions the staff was let go.
  While I understand the reasoning behind the move – I doubt any media company in Loudoun County is making money these days in such a challenging economic climate – it’s still disappointing. Burns created an atmosphere among her staff that at times played the role of Animal House to LTM’s Dean Wormer, as they seemed to revel in taking chances. They employed video far more effectively than any local outlet, they took the time to do in-depth stories on controversial subjects, and while I can’t say I agreed with some of their editorial choices, I always looked every week to see what they were up to. In a dying industry, they shot from the hip, adding color to a media environment that for the most part tended to be in black and white.
  So Amy, to you and your staff, job well done. It’s too bad it had to come to an end. But for a lot of us in Loudoun County, it too was a great ride.

  Rob Burns, a the 6-foot-8, 226-pound defensive end for Stone Bridge who blossomed into a defensive star for the Bulldogs this past season, has chosen the University of Virginia as the place he'll play college football in 2012.
  Doug Doughty of the Roanoke Times reported earlier today that Burns picked the Cavaliers over Penn State, Stanford and Boston College. He also had offers from Maryland and Duke, according to website rivals.com.
  As a junior, Burns made 56 tackles and recorded a team-high eight sacks. Burns was named first-team All-Liberty District, and was named second-team All-Northern Region.

  I’ll be the first to admit that once football season is over, I lose interest in high school sports until summer. But one situation I have kept an eye on this winter is the saga of girls basketball coach Jason Eldredge and Freedom High School.
  I won’t pretend to say I know him very well. But people who take programs from winless season to two state championships aren’t walking the streets in big numbers in any city across the country these days. I supposed you can chalk one title up to luck, good fortune, or whatever…but two in a row means you’re pretty good at your craft. And I have friends associated with Freedom – including one parent who had a child playing for him – and they all think the world of him.
  I got a chance to visit with him during this past football season, as I was waiting one Saturday morning for a Freedom football DVD to be burned. He was in the football office helping out, and we talked about the previous girls’ season, football, and all things sports. Jason fit the mold of most successful people I’ve met in life, meaning he was personable, opinionated, believed in hard work, and did things his way. Put a person like that in the right environment, and he’ll be successful no matter if it’s sports, sales, or whatever the task. Put him amongst a bunch of turf-protecting bureaucrats, I thought, and his success may eventually rub someone the wrong way.
  So my eyebrows were a bit raised when I saw Freedom had suspended him for letting his passion overcome his choice of vocabulary during a practice early in the season. Discipline can be handled a number of ways, but having an error in judgment turn into a headlined story in the Washington Post looked to me as if someone was trying to humiliate Eldredge. Many schools when faced with the same situation will go behind closed doors and quietly discipline a high-profile coach to avoid embarrassing them. Freedom appeared to do just the opposite.
  The situation reminded me that in the business world, you learn pretty early that talented people have options, and you don’t manage everyone exactly the same. That same passion and hubris that may rub someone the wrong way in a business, are also the same qualities that make key personnel succeed. Embarrass or humiliate one, and you’ll soon find that individual working for your competition.
  I mentioned that to a reporter at one of our daily media outlets right before the state tournament started, and was surprised to hear him say “I think that’s what’s going to happen. From what I hear, he’s gone by the end of the year. The administration and Jason don’t see eye to eye.” Even if he wins another state title?, I asked. All that success can’t get both sides on the same page?, “I really doubt it from what I’m hearing,” was the answer I got.
  So I can’t say I was surprised to hear that the school announced Eldredge – only a few weeks after winning a second state title - was “resigning”. I put the word in quotes because two different people emailed me about the situation while I was driving home, and neither referred to it as a resignation. Read between the lines in this well-written story by Matt Brooks of the Washington Post, and you’ll find yourself wondering the exact definition of “resigning.” “The plot thickens,” a Freedom parent emailed me after reading Matt’s story.
  We’ll see how the story unravels during the rest of the week. But however it ends, one thing is clear: Freedom’s loss is going to be some school’s gain. Eldredge is a sharp guy who is young (33) and can flat-out coach and motivate high school kids. He’s going to win another title for another program. Soon.
  When that happens, I hope someone at Freedom will answer this question: What issue was so important that you two couldn’t work things out?

  Ferris Eways has been named the new football coach at Park View High School, replacing Andy Hill, who earlier this year took the head coaching job at South Lakes.
  Eways comes to Park View with 10 years of high school and college coaching experience, as well as two years NFL coaching experience. Eways spent the last three years on the staff at Michigan State University, where he coached linebackers and defensive backs. Prior to that, he spent two years with the Washington Redskins as the assistant strength and conditioning coach.
  Eways was a two-year captain and three-year letter winner at Centreville High School, where he received All-District and All-Region honors as wide receiver. He continued his football career at Towson University and received his Bachelor of Science, Sports Management. During his time at Michigan State, he earned his Master’s of Science in Kinesiology, with a concentration in Sports Administration.
  Eways has strong ties to the Sterling community with his father being the owner operator of Joe’s pizza. He lives in the community with his fiancée Amy, who is a social worker for Loudoun County Public Schools. They are to be wed this summer.

  If you like to play the lottery and pick your own numbers, may I suggest the number “3”?
  That’s because today I’ve watched three sporting events, and good and bad things seem to be coming in 3s. Take the Washington Nationals, for example. After starting their season playing like minus-3 on a scale of 1 to 10, the Nationals beat the Mets by 3 (5-2) and have now rallied to the point their season-record is at .500. As in 3 wins, 3 losses.
  Then there’s the Masters. Phil Mickelson birdied the last hole to win by three shots over Lee Westwood. It’s the third time Mickelson has won at Augusta.
  The Washington Capitals? They lost to the Bruins. Final score? 4-3.
  Perhaps Monday will be different, as the Nationals play an afternoon game with the Phillies. What time is that game at? Oh yeah, 3:05…..

  Last week, I was traveling through Georgia, and when I arrived home Friday, Marianne Thiede – a Broad Run parent who graciously provided all of the wonderful pictures from Broad Run’s state championship season last fall – had dropped off a package at my home. It was a small, bound picture book the Spartans had given all their coaches, along with a note that included the phrase “hope you are able to get the site back up and running soon.”
  Since Mrs. Thiede is a former attorney and proud alumnus of the National Champion Alabama Crimson Tide, I decided to make this a priority Saturday, rolling up my sleeves to finally find whatever caused the site to react so slowly. I started in the early afternoon, and around midnight, I found the problem and believe it’s fixed. Despite my host provider saying its server upgrade on December 3 of last year had nothing to do with my problems, I discovered all the corrupt files occurred after December 3 at 10 p.m.
  Amazing coincidence, eh?
  So while the site has never been as blazing fast as, say, Robert DuPree and Paul Draisey heading off for a barbecue sandwich, it has returned to a status of where you can click on a story and not have time to mow the lawn before actually being able to read it. The only casualties were stories after December 3 at 10 p.m., as I was able to restore the stories and pictures, but the ratings (number of stars) and comments from that time on were lost. So if you liked any of them, go back and rate them again.
  I have added the NASCAR and Washington Nationals schedules to the calendar, and all user names and passwords have been restored. As a test of this, it would be great if any of you who are registered would try to log in and leave a comment (I’m guessing Mr. Draisey and Mr. DuPree will be doing just that) so I can make sure all is working properly. And I’ve clicked on dozens of video links, and it appears all of that area of the site has returned to working order as well.
  So now I have no excuse to not post opinions about area sports teams, or life in Loudoun. If you find anything that I’ve missed, shoot me an email (it’s my name – Dave – at dullesdistrict.com). And if you’re an email subscriber and you’ve been getting emails reprinting every story ever written on the site, my apologies. Restored files to a computer are perceived as new, and since the program says email subscribers whenever anything is new...

  Yes, I did stop updating this site around the first of the year. But there's a good reason behind it.
  After writing just about every day during the football season, I finally couldn't take a growing problem that had been building up since Thanksgiving: for some reason that I still can't understand, the speed of the site started dropping to levels that would make Comcast's "The Slowski's" proud. What once took seconds was soon taking minutes. And my only guess was I experimented with one too many features, gummed up the works, and now can't fix what was done.
  Over the last two months, I've tried everything. But since I can't figure it out, I'm going to employ the tried and true strategy of blowing the site up. So over the next few weeks, I'll be rebuilding the site from scratch, and by the time I'm done, it should look like the DullesDistrict.com of old, but won't be so slow.
  So be patient. If it looks like half the site is gone, that's probably because it is gone. But it will be back soon. Thanks for your patience.

  Well, at least we set a record.
  As of 1 p.m. this afternoon, according to the National Weather Service, the two-day snowfall total at Dulles International Airport was 8.5 inches, which made this year's seasonal snowfall total 72.0 inches. That's the most recorded in a season since snowfall records were kept at Dulles, starting 48 years ago in 1962.
  Unfortunately, we're not done yet. In watching Channel 4 a few minutes ago, they're talking about another 2 to 4 inches coming on Monday.
  Great. Just great.