🍎 Let columnist Charlie Seabrook take you on a road trip around the state in his latest column: 

They go by names like Winesap, Pinata, Mutsu Crispin and Gala. They’re apples — some of the more than 20 varieties of the crisp, juicy fruit produced in the prized orchards of North Georgia’s apple-growing region, located mostly in Gilmer and Fannin counties. 

The region’s apple-picking season usually starts around late August. But it is in October when folks seem to be hit hardest by a hankering for a half-bushel or so of the freshly picked fruit. It draws thousands of folks, often with families in tow, to the several apple houses and orchards nestled in North Georgia’s picturesque mountains.

Many folks come to pick their own fruit right off the trees. To accommodate them, growers often set aside parts of their orchards each season for “U-picking.” This season, though, U-pick apples may be limited because of a late frost in April that killed blooms on scores of trees — a devastating blow for several North Georgia orchards. 

📻 In his latest "From the Crates" column, Kelly McCoys takes us inside of WQXI: 

In those days, to motivate us for big ratings periods, The Big Guy, Gerald S. Blum, known as Jerry, always did something to motivate the staff to do their absolute best on the air, and any time we represented the stations.

Quite often, this would entail having a prominent speaker join us at a fancy restaurant.  For example, we once were wined and dined at The Coach and Six restaurant, with U.S. Sen. Max Cleland as our “guest motivator” for the evening. 

In September 1983, the on-air staff for both stations got a memo to mark our calendars for a special day when Blum would gather a group of motivational speakers at a hotel in the airport area.  Jerry would provide transportation.  This meant limousines of course. Radio was show business in those days and limos were a treat, but not uncommon. 

On “motivation day” three limos carried us south.  As we got closer to the airport, we noticed we’d passed the last hotel of any size with a conference room.  Is Jerry flying us somewhere?

Read his column here.