Nashville Scene

POSTCARD FROM THE FRONT: Just back from nearly a week in Qatar, country WUSN (US99) Chicago operations manager/morning man Tom Rivers has a renewed appreciation for the troops and the job they're doing in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Rivers' "amazing trip" took him to the tiny island nation in the Persian Gulf that serves as central command headquarters for U.S. forces. There he filed Postcards From the Front for Infinity Broadcasting stations across the U.S. The "postcards" are audio greetings to loved ones in soldiers' hometowns.

Infinity staffers are now sorting and distributing the postcards they have received so far to local stations, but Rivers says they're "keeping tabs on them, because God forbid we run audio from someone who has been killed in action."

Getting to Qatar was Rivers' first challenge. He flew commercial flights in a circuitous route that took him from Chicago to New York, London, Cyprus, Bahrain, and finally to Qatar. He met and befriended NBC's Matt Lauer on the flights, and they bonded further when neither man's bags made the connecting flights. Rivers' luggage arrived 29 hours later.

From his hotel, Rivers took daily trips to the base where he worked. "Security is very tight," he says. Upon arriving at the base, visitors must surrender their passports in exchange for a credential. From the front gate, where cell phones and cameras must be turned off for the duration of the visit, "you go through barrier after barrier after gate, then you get on a bus, and they take you to the media center."

That area of the base is a study in diversity. "You open the door to the media center, and you're assaulted with all these different languages," Rivers says. "There's a lot of reporters over there."

Rivers describes Qatar as a "country in transition" with a ruler who is trying to modernize and develop the mostly Muslim nation where many inhabitants wear traditional Muslim dress. In fact, Rivers says that for the first time in his life he understood what it felt like to be a minority.

While Rivers was never in harm's way, he likens the mood on the base in Qatar to how New Yorkers must have felt after Sept. 11, 2001. "You feel pretty sure nothing bad is going to happen that day, but you don't know," he says. And while Rivers says the staff of the hotel where he stayed was amiable, "a lot of guys around there didn't look really friendly or really happy to see you. It's intimidating.

"The day I left [March 23] was the worst day [to date] for the coalition forces" in terms of casualties, Rivers says, noting that "the reporters pick up the mood of the soldiers, who are very confident and calm but worried about their fellow servicemen" who are closer to the front lines.

"What the journalists and soldiers there do is just get through the day," Rivers says. "You work at the base all day and go back to your hotel and watch the shelling start on TV. You don't have time or energy to worry about anything more than getting through that day. If it's like that for me hundreds of miles away, I can't imagine what it's like for the soldiers on the front line who are [taking it] hour by hour.

"It's not fun," he adds. "It's not comfortable, and it's not in any way glamorous."

The news about the anti-President Bush comments expressed by Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks made its way to Qatar and was the subject of some discussion among the troops who listen to country radio. Rivers says most had the same reaction. "They obviously weren't happy about it, but most of them adopted the attitude that . . . 'we're here to protect her right to say that.'

"When those men and women come back to the U.S.," Rivers says, "there should be a really nice welcome for them, because they have sacrificed a lot to be there."



ON THE ROW: Country Music Television has laid off two senior staffers. VP of marketing Jacquie Majors has already exited. VP of creative Stacey Hagewood will follow, although she remains at the company for now. A network spokesperson says the two jobs will be combined into a new position that will oversee both departments.