'The Drive' ends abruptly for Steve Jaxon

Veteran Sonoma County radio broadcaster Steve Jaxon these past 20 months had a good thing going, a local and lively thing. But business is business and KSRO had to cut costs.

So Jaxon is gone. It's a shame, his being laid off, because he used his three-hour afternoon show, "The Drive," to air -- along with an impressive lineup of comics and musicians and commentators -- much discussion and debate on Sonoma County issues.

He was all set this week to have D.A. Stephan Passalacqua and challenger Jill Ravitch go head-to-head in the studio.

But longtime friend and fairly new KSRO station manager Kent Bjugstad broke the news to him early this week that three positions have to be cut and his is one of them.

"This broke my heart completely," Jaxon said. "This (the KSRO show) was the greatest thing that ever happened to me in 37 years of radio."

With his departure, the station's Michelle Marques will host a shorter, more confined "The Drive."

Jaxon said he'll produce his syndicated "Swingin' with Sinatra" show while beating the bushes for a new home-station for the radio show he loved. He lost the KSRO job but he's still got the drive.

LUNCH WAS FULL-FILLING for ladies of the Royal Red Hats of Windsor, who can dine where they choose on their monthly outings but asked days ago to be served at the Panther Caf??.

It's one of several businesses created and operated at Santa Rosa High by students in a bold vocational program for teens who aren't wired for book-learning but love to work with their hands.

Normally, kids in the school-to-

work program prepare lunches only for SRHS staffers, but they were pleased to set a table for alumna Dana May Casperson and her Red Hats friends.

The students fed them well and told them about their other businesses -- they recycle, sell healthy treats, bake dog biscuits, do landscaping and detail cars. Some said they intend after graduating to open businesses of their own.

The ladies' hearts were full, stomachs too, as they gave the students a tip of their crimson hats.

LOOK WHO STOPPED BY the newspaper office for old times' sake.

Verne Silva was born on Santa Rosa's Davis Street in 1921 and became a meat-cutter. He worked at the Food Center and the Montgom-

ery Village shop -- Silva's Quality Meats -- owned by his brother, Fred.

Though Verne, now 88, cut meat for a living, his lifelong avocation is writing children's stories. In 1949, the PD published his stories on the critters of "Pop 'O' Corn Village."

It was a highlight of his life when, later in '49, he teamed up with PD staff artist Doug Bundock to create a comic strip by the same name.

Verne left Santa Rosa long ago, in 1964. He and his wife, Gloria, settled in sunny, dry Arizona.

Daughter Susan Talbot brought them here because Vernon wanted very much to see his hometown again and also the Sonoma Coast. As a Santa Rosa kid, he said, Bodega Bay "was my dreamland."

Verne left the PD the other day intent on sticking his feet once more in the Pacific. Given the very un-Arizona weather we're having, that was going to take some courage.

ART LINKLETTER WASN'T just some relic of radio and early TV to many people in Monte Rio.

Linkletter, who died Wednesday at 97, was the performer who came to town more than 40 summers for the 98-year-old variety show by celebrity guests of the Bohemian Grove.

"He was just a great benefactor of the town," said Lee Torr IV, a longtime organizer of the July show that raises serious money for worthy causes in Monte Rio.

Hey, I watched Linkletter as a kid and I always thought he was right: People are funny. Thank goodness.