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Detroit was actually the beginning of my broadcast career  "Who wants to get out of high school shop class an hour early on Wednesdays?"  Raising my hand, turns out I volunteered to be a co-op student that would help turn on Detroit's brand new educational television station WTVS Channel 56   Lighting, cameras, cleaning toilets (any job is best learned from the ground up).  Getting into broadcasting was in no way planned, like everything else, it just happened.

After four years in the Air Force I moved up the dial six times before the Detroit radio station I'd listened to as a kid was ready to hire me.  The "night time" Top 40 DJ job didn't last long. The Tigers beat the Cardinals in the World Series and Tom Dean was the last disc jockey ever heard on WJBK Radio 15.  At the end of my show, at the stroke of midnight Christmas eve, WJBK disappeared from the dial. 

Storer Broadcasting had quietly undertaken a year long study to determine what Detroiters wanted to hear.  With few exceptions the entire staff was fired the following Monday.  For reasons Storer didn't share, I was the only disc jockey they kept.  Station power was raised to the maximum allowed for AM and we reached the north pole.  WJBK was renamed WDEE.  Our competition joked that it stood for "We've Done Everything Else".   Much to everyone's surprise, the format became America's first and biggest modern country music rebel.  The "Big D" was an instantly huge success and I went along for the ride.

The daughter of Max Fisher called to introduce herself soon after I popped up on the air in Detroit.  Because her father was the richest man in Michigan, Mary knew a lot of important people on a first name basis, including more than one President of the United States.  Mary was the keynote speaker at the '92 Republican Convention.  I met "Henry" through Mary at a cocktail party -- Henry Ford the 2nd --  and was flattered to learn that Mr. Ford listened to me.  He quoted something I'd said on the air weeks earlier.  More on that later.

Competition in a 5 million person radio market is intense.  Fifty stations could be heard in Detroit.  The Big D was extraordinarily well planned -- market study/focus groups data was phone book thick.   I was in the right place at the right time.   A blind man (the secret weapon in the radio division) selected me to host a clone of the company's red hot midday Los Angeles talk show on KLAC called Fem Forum .  Doctor Laura Schlesinger started her career listening to that show (Bill Balance, the Los Angeles host, wrote a tell all book about his romps with young Laura).  Peter Storer decided the Detroit version would be different; a mixture of listener phone calls and country music.  Success came within months of hitting the air.  The Big D was the beginning of a ride I'll never forget.  Lesson #1:  "Always do your homework!"

Storer spared no expense.  Promotion for The Big D was first class.   My face was everywhere -- buses, billboards, posters, TV, T-shirts, caricatures, post offices.  Free restaurants, movies, cars, Hawaiian vacations, playing cards with Ron Kowalski (the sausage heir), a day named in my honor at Tiger Stadium -- people love hanging with celebrities no matter who they are.   Sanjaya Malakar, a loser on American Idol, invited to a White House gathering proves that point.  Newspapers, articles, magazine covers, press releases told Detroiters how great I was.  The truth?   I had no idea what I'd gotten into.

Because the show aired human experiences, hilarious to tragic, the Forum got lots of attention on a number of levels.  Newspaper columnists to psychologists to wannabe broadcasters.  An endless stream of copy cats followed.  Doctors, lawyers, sideshow carneys.  Doctor Phil, Jerry Springer, Geraldo, Oprah, The Newlywed Game, Cheating Spouses -- all came from the mind of L.A.'s Bill Balance and Storer Broadcasting.  There had never been anything like it on radio or TV before Fem Forum.  My show dominated Detroit midday ratings during the entire 10 year run.  The idea behind it lives today through the O'Reilly Factor, Howard Stern and those shows where they eat bugs.  I get those three confused.

People tugged at me from all directions.  One guy sent his wife to the station to see if I'd be interested in swapping.  She was a dazzling beauty queen brunette who smiled with a gleam in her eye when I stammered: "er, my wife would never go for it."   The following night she shows up at one of my appearances with her husband and a sister in tow and a motor home in the parking lot.  The station cautioned me weird stuff would happen (like in Los Angeles) and to not get involved. 

Tom Dean, HSG, High School Graduate   I couldn't even pronounce sci-college-ee.  John Mazer, the WDEE program manager, guided my every move.  John was well educated, I admired his savvy and I miss brainstorming with him.   It was from Mazer I received instruction on how far to go with the show.  The company wanted it titillating.  'Tit' equaled ratings, ratings equaled advertising revenue.  Storer made out like a bandit.  I got none of it.   In fact, a couple lawyers approached me wanting to sell highlights/outtakes from the show (I have thousands of hours recorded) and offered to pay me one penny (yes, one single cent) for each album sold.  One of those lawyers is a politician in Washington today and I'd bet a penny he's up to no good.

Not a day went by we didn't get angry mail.  But why did they blame me?  It was those crazy callers who wouldn't shut up.  When I didn't respond to the mail (I was told not to by Storer) one writer began attacking my family: "Was that your daughter I saw banging on Cass Avenue last week?"  Diana was 10 years old for god's sake.  Another listener claimed she'd received orders from "outer space" to join me and Deano (the morning DJ) in heaven.  Flat Rock police stopped her on the way to my appearance. She had a loaded 30-30 in the trunk.  Some 'ologist' apologized for letting her out a little too early.  It was then I remembered having been hired to host a dance at Toledo State Hospital, a mental institution, and the administrator's warning... "don't talk to that woman in the corner...nymphomania...and never ever play two fast songs in a row!" (gulp)

Off duty Pontiac cops acted as part-time bouncers when my business partner and I owned a nightclub in Pontiac, and the chief of police had a fit when he found out.  Something about "hired guns."   Pontiac was also where I learned my first real estate lesson, the importance of "location, location, location."  In our excitement of opening a new business, we overlooked the fact we'd opened a redneck bar smack in the middle of a ghetto.  Soon a pregnant woman would fall down drunk on the dance floor claiming it was our fault she lost the baby.  Another was killed in an accident driving home.  Lawsuits, lawyers, depositions were non-stop.   We were in a catch 22.   To stay in business during an oil embargo Dewey and I were forced to hire name country music stars to attract customers from outside the downtown Pontiac area who knew nothing about the neighborhood where our bar was located.  They didn't know (like Chevy Chase in the movie "Vacation") not to stop and ask for directions.   

There was a downside to being a nightclub owner.  To attract sports stars and other VIP's, who in-turn attracted customers, we gave away steaks and booze.  Dewey and I didn't know when to stop passing out the freebies, and swiftly learned to spell b-a-n-k-r-u-p-t-c-y.   We attracted Tigers, Lions, city officials and countless other freeloaders.  "Against the ropes" was a movie about female fight promoter named Jackie Kallen.  Jackie worked next door at the Oakland Press, and was played by movie star Meg Ryan.  I liked Ernie Harwell and his wife Lulu best.  They didn't drink.  

The Fem Forum was a simple idea -- women tattling on men, and a monster of a hit because it was hyper-local and full of surprises.  On my days off WDEE would air "The Best of the Fem Forum" and I'd drive around listening.  You could hear the show everywhere in southeast Michigan  -- car radios, drug stores, news stands, construction sites, parks, beaches...state hospitals.  Anyone listening to it had The Big D turned up real loud.  People never knew if a caller would be talking about them, a friend or celebrity, the gas man or a neighbor (who was entertaining the gas man) down the street.  

Not everybody liked the show including the National Organization of Women.  Gloria Steinhem wrote twice.  Management loved the attention because sponsors paid top of the card advertising rates and the show was always sold out.  Newspaper articles, pro and con, helped to keep us on top for 10 years.  I learned that it doesn't matter what people say about you as long as they get your name right.  Word of mouth helped push us along 5 years longer than anyone had predicted.  Everybody wanted a piece of the Big D...near the end I was owned by the Harlem Globetrotters.  The Fem Forum and I survived several ownership changes until religious broadcasters finally bought WDEE. 

The Fem Forum remained the highest rated radio program on the dial in Detroit in the middle of the day until the plug was pulled in 1980.   Another country station, WWWW wanted to resurrect it.   I have never liked living in the past.   In fact, I hear complaints from old country listeners about today's music.  My response is "country music today is as much about about real life as it always has been, but sounds so much better technically.   I can't wait to hear the next generation.  I honestly believe that if Hank Sr were still alive he'd like today's country music, especially Big and Rich.

ABC picked me up to help in their transition from music to music/talk at WXYZ.  Thanks be to severance clauses as this city-slicker-turned-hayseed had ended up on the wrong side of the tracks.  WXYZ was a hornet's nest and I wasn't the only one uncomfortable with the station dropping music in favor of wall-to-wall talk.  Hall of fame's Dick Purtan needed music between his phone calls, too.  Most of the calls you hear on Dick's morning show are edited for timing the day before.  Like Seinfeld, Purtan leaves nothing to chance.  Dick and his team spend hours fine tuning every bit, word, sentence, grunt.  Detroit's radio pope makes gazillions just doing simple homework.  Donald Trump is a billionaire for the same reason.  Trump is prepared to counter any objection before he ever enters any negotiation.

I just did not fit WXYZ.   WXYZ was known for giving birth to real celebrities -- Mike Wallace, The Lone Ranger, Soupy Sales, to name a few.  When we took a vacation our replacements would be stars like Ted Knight or George Hamilton.  "Professionalism," "quality" and "image" were more than just flashy PR spin at ABC.  My midday show enjoyed the best hands down producer in talk radio, Jack Springer, an African American.  Jack produced the long running David Newman Show and maintained a phone book full of home numbers of movie stars, leaders of industry, presidents.  I learned about being a serious broadcaster from Mr. Springer.

WXYZ attracted educated people who knew how to take advantage of WXYZ's prestigious airwaves to promote their outside interests.  Dr. Sonya Friedman PHD ("Sonya Live" appeared nationally on CNN television) followed my show.  We used the same studio, which allowed her sheepskin to toy with my Brightmoor brain on the air during shift changes.  Listeners were in awe of Sonya but those of us working at WXYZ were not -- the doctor tossed mink coats on desks in front of low paid secretaries.  There were the makings of a cat fight in the women's john and at least one of us kept an ear on the door whenever "Elvis" was in the building.  Sonya invited me and the sports guy to her home for a party.  I wish now I'd gone to count the coats.  WXYZ's "Ask the Attorney" Larry Korn and I became friends.  Larry helped sever my liquor license ties to the Wide Track Inn.  His father, Monty specialized in disc jockey divorce law.   WXYZ changed format several times and was eventually sold.  WXYZ is known today as WXYT, an "all sports" station, which continues to struggle near the bottom of the ratings.

Fred Wolf, Mickey Shore, Dick Purtan and Lee Allen  -- some of the biggest names in radio -- worked at WXYZ at one time or another.  Lee Allen gave MoTown, Berry Gordy Jr. and Stevie Wonder their start.   Lee Allen and Tom Clay were the major influences for me wanting to be a disk jockey.

Getting that first commercial radio job in Detroit wasn't easy -- Paul Purtan from WSAI Cincinnati and I (working at WOHO in Toledo) coincidentally applied for the 10PM opening at WKNR Keener 13 in Dearborn.  I was taller and could wire a house but the mustached man from Cincinnati was better prepared for major market radio.  College educated Paul Purtan became Dick Purtan and the rest is Detroit radio history.  A few years later I accepted a job offer at the Big 8, CKLW.  CK was a monster in the midwest and I was excited about the idea of moving.  Unfortunately, the owner of the radio station in Toledo wouldn't release me from my contract.  It took another year before I could bust loose out of Toledo.  Detroit called again.  WJBK.  Although I had record high ratings in Ohio ("round on the ends hi in the middle") and my son, the real Tom Dean was born there, I do not have fond memories of Toledo.

Eventually, my Detroit midday show followed Dick Purtan. First at WXYZ and three years later at WCZY.  Purtan could not relate to the audiences I attracted.  He had to sit in for me once when my 10 year old Jeep broke down (I hate car payments) and moved to Canada shortly thereafter.  Dick made poking fun at me one of his bits for years.  It was an honor having worked for ABC and been roasted by a national broadcast hall of fame disc jockey.  Dick Purtan is the best at what he does.  Radio could be a super source of free entertainment if every disc jockey worked half hard as Dick Purtan -- Ipods wouldn't stand a chance. 

"Things change, time to move on"

After the WXYZ failure I moved to FM back to being a 100% disc jockey again.  Playing to a music audience is what I do consistently best.  Although Adult Contemporary was a new format for me, I immediately clicked with male and female listeners.  It took a year to build up the WOMC midday audience ratings, which then helped me negotiate $65K with $20K severance.  Gannett (owners of USA Today) hired me at WCZY.  The bigger salary, however, came back to haunt me after Dick Purtan was lured away from CKLW-AM to join us at WCZY on the FM dial.  Dick cost more than the entire rest of the WCZY staff put together.   Unfortunately, his AM audience didn't follow him to FM right away and certainly not soon enough to suit Gannett.  Newspaper people are impatient, deadline oriented.  Purtan signs no cut contracts and was a drain on the budget.  Dick had a similar problem when he moved to Maryland.  As good as Purtan is, Spirew Agnew had him canned from the Baltimore radio station.        

Gannett was forced to cut staff to pay for Purtan's guaranteed salary and the costs of promoting him.  Dick's picture was on every bus (Inside and out), taxis, TV, magazines, postcards, billboards and newspapers.   But nothing seemed to work, at least not right away.  Arbitron radio ratings are slow coming.   Newspaper experienced Gannett was forced to dispose of all their radio stations by 1997.  WCLS, another struggling adult contemporary station, was my next stop.   A few months later it was sold to a pharmacist.   Not surprisingly, he knew nothing about programming or staffing a station.  He hired a friend to run things, and that mistake cost the druggist a pile of dough.  The station was sold again to another low ball buyer.  And so it went.  Life is all about luck and I'd lost the handle on my four leaf clover.   

Through the years and a variety of formats Arbitron says listeners like the way I do radio shows.  Just as I was influenced, I'm told my radio style has influenced a few, but not always successfully.  Rich Fisher, a Detroit television news anchor for twenty years, tells the story of how he was fired trying to copy bits "Tom Dean did on the air" when he started out in radio.   At a cocktail party, Henry Ford II repeated something I'd said on the air months earlier.  Jacqui, a psychic who appeared with me on WXYZ, was a close friend of Ford's wife Kathryn Duross.   She said she knew why Ford listened: "Henry called me all the time looking for Kathy, he didn't trust her."   Henry Ford had problems same as you and I.  Another a regular, a caller, although I didn't believe her at the time, turned out to be Stevie Wonder's girlfriend.  Stevie Wonder picked my voice out of a crowd on two separate occasions decades later.  Listen to Stevie's song Part-Time Lover, it's about your old buddy Tom. 

Hank The Deuce hooked up with Kathryn Duross at an auto show.  She was a model also from the other side of the tracks.  We both graduated from predominantly black high schools in downtown Detroit.   I lived in a white suburb 15 miles west and rode to school with my best friend and his father who was a tool and die teacher at Wilbur Wright Technical High School.  I selected Wright to learn the electrical trade and because my friend's dad would give me a ride to school everyday -- accept when I was a few seconds late and forced to ride a city bus.  It was a two mile walk to the bus stop.  Word of warning: never become friends with a kid whose father is a teacher or you may not get to school 'til after lunch.  Kathy Duross went to Cass Tech to learn how to marry.

After high school I was nominated by Lieutenant Governor Martha Griffiths to the US Air Force Academy.  With flat feet, and because I flunked the exam, I enlisted in the Air Force instead.  Near the end of my 4 year tour of duty the FAA offered me a job fixing radar.  I opted instead to become a disc jockey making $65 bucks a week in Sturgis.  It's called growing up, making dumb decisions all by yourself.   I never met my real father. 

Thanks to three-hour-work-days and my FAA commercial pilot's license I was asked by a longtime friend who I met at WXYZ if I wanted to work with him flying one of the aircraft at McMahon Helicopters.  He became part of the news in 2007 -- Craig Smith was one of the four broadcasters killed when two news choppers collided mid air covering a car chase in Phoenix.   We're waiting for results of the investigation.   Melissa and I have an anniversary clock, a wedding gift Craig gave us in our living room.  Craig Smith loved our West Highland White Terriers and got one for himself.  He took her along on his flights: "Wanna go buy-buy for a ride in the chopper?"   Molly was not aboard Craig's final flight.  In Detroit Craig Smith reported for channel 7.  I flew and reported for News Radio 950 WWJ.   I later reported for "WOW" FM, a hip talk station which later switched to a country music format.  More on WYCD in a minute.   Note:  Competing radio-TV stations often employ the same announcers.  McMahon's Jet Ranger, as an example, carried 3 announcers using 5 different names on 7 different stations.  Downsizing is happening not only to auto workers and Meijer cashiers. 

I helped WOWF with a format change in 1993.  "WOW-FM" became "Young Country" WYCD, the 2nd in-your-face country music rebel in my life.  I called it the Beavis and Butthead format.  With nowhere to go but up in the ratings, to draw attention to ourselves, management encouraged disc jockeys to make fun of the competition.  Easy to do, nobody's perfect.  W4 had become what you call fat, dumb and happy and couldn't retaliate.  Being #1 they had more to lose had they tried.   WYCD disc jockeys would say things you wouldn't normally hear on the radio at that time: "Joe Wade (morning jock competition at W4) didn't tell the truth yesterday when he said..."    People tuned in just to see how far we'd go.  Today, of course, it takes more than that to attract an adult audience.

"A radio show is like a costume party...chance to pretend, to be somebody"

Young Country was ruthless but it worked.  WYCD became the top country station within a few months.   WYCD's domination in the market continues today ().  Doctor Don, the magnetic personality every disc jockey would like to be gets Detroiters up every morning.  Cute sounding Jyl Forsyth tucks them in 7 to midnight and gives Doctor Don a built in audience the next morning.  Those two will always be 10's in my book and are recommended listening whenever you're in the Detroit area.  Catch them while you can on 99.5 FM    It's radio, things change.

Through the years I've worked a variety of jobs including talk, traffic reporting, newscaster, and disc jockeying. Formats included rock, news, talk, adult contemporary, jazz and country.   Being a country jock has been the most fun.  I relate to the audience.  Road testing factory fresh corvettes and hugging Dolly Parton ain't bad either.  Those two things I'll never forget. 

To command ratings in a 5 million plus market where new and newer challenges compete for the same sets of ears, broadcasters have to come up with creative ways of airing things that keep people's attention.  My goal is to get listeners to tell others, which builds an audience.  With the onslaught of growing technologies (satellite, HD radio, cable TV,  web streaming, ipods, PDAs, wireless gadgetry) and major market broadcasters bringing never before competition into small towns, the local media has it's work cut out. 

Listeners have never been more important to what we do.   Everybody has something to say that's worth hearing.   Personal experiences, local news, sports, activities, gossip and happenings are the ammunition that will keep local media worth coming back to.  Every media source is looking for ways to get more (input) from their audience.   Radio, TV, newspapers, magazines, bloggers and other content providers will combine forces, partnering in the new medium -- the internet -- in exciting new ways.  Because of my love for electronics tinkering, this changing technology is thrilling for me to observe.  The internet is a different story.  I have a love-hate relationship with the internet.  The same computer screen that can save our life is also desensitizing our children.   Even Bill Gates grew tired of it, giving up Microsoft, he's turned his attention to family and of course, that pile of money you and I gave him.

The nation's top disc jockeys  -- Tom Clay, Detroit; Dick Biondi, Chicago; Cousin Brucie, New York; the Hoss Man in Nashville, and a host of others -- influenced my radio broadcasting style.  The Fem Forum in the 70's was also an original idea, one of the first tell-it-like-it-is human relationships shows.  Copycats were soon to follow, but not always successfully.  The highest paid media person in the world (Howard Stern made $300+ million in 2005) was fired back when he tried to tackle my Detroit.   Knowing what I know today, if I had it to do all over again, I would not have agreed to do The Fem Forum.   Angry and disturbed listeners attacked me and my family.  Technology is great but allows the worldwide poor to see the seedy side of an open society.  The visual media (satellite, TV, internet) makes it easy for our enemies to show and tell their children about America's greed, corruption.   Seeing "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous," 3rd world folksare made to believe that you and I are swimming in money and filthy in our morals. 

We paid a heavy price.  The Fem Forum put a hurt on my long term Detroit disc jockey aspirations.  I was type cast, but wouldn't leave southeast Michigan.  A divorced father, I stayed to be near my kids while they were growing up.  Looking back, I wonder how far I might have gone had I taken one of those New York offers (WHN, WMCA). 

Tom Dean connected with millions of listeners through a variety of stations, including Detroit's WJBK, WDEE, WXYZ, WCZY, WCLS, WOMC, WWJ, WYCD 

Big City, Red Eye -- Being a personality in a major radio market often meant personal appearances miles apart (WDEE's big signal reached 1,000 miles into Canada) and three changes of clothes a day.  Being a commercial pilot gave me some advantages and perspectives few people see.   I could fly from a small local airport two miles from my house to personal appearances hundreds of miles away.  On the downside -- seeing rush hour traffic tie-ups from the air I also could see the insanity of commuting.  The metro Detroit area has 1,000 square miles.  East-siders work on the west side.  West-siders work on the east.  Think about that.  The money spent on an average Detroit commute (53) miles) is not staying in Michigan to help build a stronger America.   Our money is going to another part of the world, which is using it to try to exterminate us.  Our emissions are also impacting the atmosphere.   Ask any pilot to describe the air Detroiters breathe.  As a pilot-reporter who flew 6 hours a day over the motor city, I can tell you the air blanketing southern Michigan is reddish-orange hundreds of feet thick.  You don't see that in northern Michigan.  Northern Michigan air is clean.  On a cloudless day skies are crystal clear and at night there are a million stars people living in pollution don't know exist.  And it's not getting any better -- the extremes in our weather patterns is evidence of that -- flooding, drought, etc.  

Incidentally, if you've ever eaten a Morel mushroom you know why I'm smiling.  They grow just down the road from me here in northern Michigan.

The changing world is also causing otherwise intelligent people to lose their minds.  After WJR management fired living-legend Detroit Tiger baseball announcer Ernie Harwell I'd experienced enough of Detroit radio.  Melissa and I opted for a slower pace of life.  Being centrally located in Michigan made sense for our statewide real estate, photography and internet related businesses.  I no longer needed to drive 53 miles through road rage to a downtown Detroit radio studio to reach large audiences -- the internet allows my shows to be heard worldwide. Instead of witnessing incredibly violent crime on Detroit TV 7 nights a week, our home in northern Michigan is surrounded by small town parades, campgrounds, seniors riding bikes, wild turkey, water parks, spas, resorts, orchards, wineries, miles of sugar sand beaches and everything else out of towners pay handsomely to see.   In rural Lake Ann Melissa and I are connected to the world via high speed cable and haven't missed a beat thanks to the internet.   We have captured the best of several worlds.  There are few hurricanes or tornados in northern Michigan.

Stability, Success -- The radio company I work for today, Midwestern Broadcasting is unique in that it owns several stations and you'll hear me on all of them at one time or another (on the air or on the internet).  I enjoy the variety of sitting in for newscasters, disc jockeys, meteorologists, doing commercials.  I've even learned to do a farm show and am honored whenever asked to fill-in for broadcasting's 50-years-on-the-air-in-the-same-job icon Merlin Dumbrille.  Dumbrille is the smartest guy I know, he's 75 but looks 50.  Health tips #5 & 6:  "Live in a small town, and ride a bike to work."

Ross Biederman still owns northern Michigan's first radio station that his father signed on the air in January of 1941.  WTCM AM transmits at 50,000 watts, the most power the FCC allows for an AM.  WTCM FM, playing Today's Country Music through multiple transmitters, has dominated northern Michigan ratings for decades.  Lester and Ross Biederman successes have long benefited this community.  The Munson Medical Center, as an example, is one of the 100 most successful hospitals in the world thanks to the Biederman family and other generous donors.  Success Tip #1:  "Associate with winners"

Pictured is Tom and Melissa standing beside the lead singer of Emerson Drive.

I've made a few good decisions in my life and asking Melissa to marry me is #1.  We give each other balance.  I am creative but hyper. She puts others before herself.  My wife is loving, patient and kind. There's not a mean thought in her.   She rarely ever raises her voice.    Anyone liking what I do needs to thank the good looking gal with the twin Westies.   Melissa keeps my radio shows tight, bright, up to date.  It was her idea that brought us to northern Michigan.  She is the proudest new grandmom I know, but worried over the future ahead for her grandchildren. Marriage Tip #1:  "Look into a person's heart"  

Melissa and I moved north for the laid back feeling, security, environment and beauty.  I'm Marty McFly in "Back to the Future" with the flux capacitor set to 1962.  Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes reminds us of all the great beaches we've ever visited rolled into one.  Standing waist deep in crystal clear Lake Michigan, looking up and down the sugar sand shoreline as far as I can see, there are no houses, no hotels, no crabs, no coral, no seaweed, no hurricanes, tsunamis or sting rays, no sharks, surfers or salt water.  Best of all the dunes are owned by taxpayers, not a few privileged people, which means we have-nots will always have access to the safest and most pleasant beaches in the world.