BusinessWest Heralds Our Little Towne

A most excellent article just came out about my favorite little towne. I had a fun time with the writer from BusinessWest, Joe Bednar, with whom I spent part of an afternoon with a few weeks ago trumpeting how great Deerfield is. At one point I took him outside of the cafe and pointed down the street. "This little town has it all," I said,"It's like Mayberry...you can walk to everything!"

I liked how the story came out and I can't wait to show it to my fellow Deerfield Attractions members! Here's the beginning:

More Than Candles

Deerfield Promotes Itself as a Day Trip — and an Ideal Place to Live

“Did you talk to Max?”

BusinessWest heard this question more than once when looking for business owners to talk about what’s happening in Deerfield.

The man in question is Max Hartshorne, owner of the GoNOMAD Café in the bustling, throwback village just off Routes 5 and 10 in South Deerfield, and it’s difficult to imagine someone more enthusiastic about his town and the opportunities it presents for residents, entrepreneurs, and visitors alike.

“I’ve had people come to the café and say, ‘I just moved to Deerfield, and I love it. This is fantastic. I can’t believe how nice it is here,’” Hartshorne related. “We have houses on the market like every town does, but last year, there were only three foreclosures in the whole town.”

People who live in Deerfield generally know about its roster of tourist stops — not just the Yankee Candle flagship store and the museum houses of Historic Deerfield, but the Magic Wings butterfly conservatory, Richardson’s Candy Kitchen, Antiques at Deerfield, and the New England Wild Flower Society’s Nasami Farm, just to name a few.

Where Do You Find $21 Million To Buy a TV Station?

I'm working at the cafe this morning but of course, have to take time to blog---hey, that's my day job! So I picked up BusinessWest and of course turned to the story of the month: Publisher John Gormally's purchase of abc40, the Springfield MA television station.

The news is good. He's buying the station from Baltimore-based Sinclair Broadcast Inc, so this important outlet will again be in local hands. He recalled William L. Putnam, who owned the station in the 70s and his famous and controversial editorials, and commented slyly that he 'wouldn't rule that out.

But the story about Gormally in his own BusinessWest left out a glaring question that's been bugging me since I first read about this purchase. How did he get $21.2 million in cash to buy it?

Nowhere in this long article does editor George O'Brien broach this delicate, yet crucial question. Yeah the magazine sells ads but come on--TWENTY MILLION? Who are the silent funding partners, who put up the big bucks to pull this off? Even the bigger Valley players don't flash that kind of cash, even Eric Suher doesn't make purchases in high double digit millions.

Come on, fess up John....where did all that cash come from?