Carson Column: Carsonite performs for Mexican president's inauguration

Young Cait McCarthy was walking among the stars last week when she and the Radio City Rockettes performed for Mexican President Vincent Fox's inauguration.

Cait is the daughter of Brewery Arts Center Executive Director Joe McCarthy.

She is a 1995 graduate of Carson High School and a former Miss Carson City.

The 23-year-old is now living in the Big Apple, on 42nd Street.

"She is pursuing her studies at New School University and working in the business," proud-papa Joe said.

She is one of just more 100 dancers in the Rockettes. One of the troupes remains at Radio City Musical Hall while the other three or four travel around the country and attend foreign functions.

Cait told her dad she was able to "finagle" free Internet access from the hotel.

Joe forwarded me her e-mail from the hotel.

"There are 12 heads of state staying in our hotel," she wrote. "Fidel Castro is one of them."

In addition to Fidel, Secretary of State Madeline Albright and Spain's Prince Phillip are also staying there.

"I've never seen so many men in black suits with ear pieces in my life," she wrote. "There are metal detectors all over."

Joe described the hall where Cait is dancing as a huge venue.

"Not only do they dance, but it is a huge production," he said. "The place is darn near full."

Cait performed on television with 11 of her comrades.

"Two nights ago I was on the Mexican Dave Letterman," she said. "The night before that a few of us were chosen to be in the parade. There were 3 million people there."

This is Cait's second year with the Rockettes. She has to audition every year to stay with the troupe.

"Its so different this year," she wrote her father. "Im a vet! I can actually

enjoy my surroundings. I can also enjoy the show. I never thought in a million years last year that this would happen."

Cait's mother is attorney Ann McCarthy.

Speaking of e-mail, Ambassador Merlin e-mailed former capital reporter Troy Anderson at our address to alert us that there is going to be a celebration for Al Gore in front of the Attorney General's Office.

Apparently, a sorceress verified that six members of the electoral college would switch sides and cast their ballots for Gore.

I wandered by the Attorney General's Office on Saturday, and there he was, picking up after spending an hour on a folding chair.

According to Merlin, he is a time traveler and so he knows that Al is going to win on Monday.

He said he is shopping around for a casino to take a bet that Gore is going to take the election. A passer-by told him he could get 3,000 :1 odds. I told him that I thought he shouldn't bet the farm.

Anyway he said that it was going to happen because he is a time traveler and he already knows that the Electoral College is going to go south on George W.

"I guess the proof will be in the pudding," I answered.

I read most of the local papers most of the time and I'm disturbed by the number of letters I've been seeing about KTHX.

I've listened to the X since it started out in the early '90s. Working and living in Carson Valley, I often had to put up with less than stellar reception to enjoy my favorite radio station.

Then they pulled the plug. The X went off the air for more than a year, while head Jock Bruce Van Dyke went looking for someone else to back his eclectic brand of radio.

I wrote a column in support of The X then, so did Cory Farley at the Gazette.

Van Dyke was able to return to the airways and though The X did a little dance across the dial for a time there, it was back and better than ever.

Recently, the station has undergone some changes. Changes including a focus on "The full range of rock" instead of the wider range of music the jocks used to play.

That made a lot of people mad, but it didn't bother me.

Success in the media is all about positioning, marketing. The people who buy and create advertising want to know who is going to be on the other end. That's why radio stations tend to be in formats such as news, album oriented rock, country, so the advertisers can play to the people they want to reach.

Without that "full range of rock" label, those national media buyers would pass up the X for some other radio station that fit in their mold.

Would I rather have the X back in its old glory? Of course. But I still detect the old X and I would rather have a little of it, than none at all.

Kurt Hildebrand is assistant managing editor at the Nevada Appeal. Reach him at 881-1215 or e-mail him at kurt@tahoe.com