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Tampa Bay Times: The wizards behind the Tampa Bay Lightning’s pre-game show made the 2016 season memorable

John Franzone grips a stopwatch in his left hand. Its nylon Timex lanyard is wrapped tightly around his palm.

He’s counting the seconds in between videos playing on the 28-foot-tall Jumbotron over the ice at Amalie Arena, making sure the show stays on time. Tampa Bay Lightning players are already on the ice warming up for Game 6 of the NHL Eastern Conference final, and the seats are filling up with fans. Franzone and his team of 12 are in place all over the arena.

They’re gearing up for their big show — the eight minutes or so before the puck drops at the start of the first period.

Franzone, the vice president of presentation at Amalie Arena, is in charge of creating inspiring material to pump up the sold-out crowds. He grits his teeth as he points to the disc jockey seated next to him, signaling Thunderstruck by AC/DC to begin. A lightning bolt is projected onto the ice and follows a young hockey player who hoists a lit-up hockey stick to the beat of “Thun-der.”

“We didn’t have any of this when we won the cup in 2004,” Franzone said. “We didn’t have any of this five years ago.”

A small smile cracks Franzone’s lips when it’s all over — after the Tesla coils fire off bolts from above and the lasers from atop the impressive organ go dark against the arena’s ceiling. Nearly every fan is out of his or her seat cheering.

Read more in the Tampa Bay Times here.

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Tampa Bay Times: You can can use your chip credit card Walmart and Target, but why not Publix?

By Justine Griffin for the Tampa Bay Times. May 18, 2016.

Last year credit card companies began installing chip technology that was expected to dramatically reduce the likelihood that a thief or hacker could steal from customers’ accounts.

Stores in the Tampa Bay area — ranging from big chains like Walmart and Target to independent shops like Buddy Brew Coffee and Juxtapose Apparel & Studio — began installing chip card readers seven months ago.

But for a privacy revolution, it hasn’t started with much of a bang. A study by the Strawhecker Group says only about 37 percent of stores nationwide are now equipped with readers; another study by Boston Retail Partners says it’s only about 22 percent.

Most notably missing among Florida companies is Publix Super Markets, the state’s most popular grocer with more than 1,000 stores, which has yet to allow customers to use embedded chip technology because it’s still upgrading its computer systems for the switch.

Some credit card experts say that could ultimately hurt Publix.

“The longer retailers go without upgrading their terminals, the more likely it is to put them in a competitive disadvantage because consumers will perceive them as being a less safe place to shop,” said Matt Schulz, a senior industry analyst with CreditCards.com. “That’s a big deal.”

Read more in the Tampa Bay Times here.

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Vanishing Vocations: A series on jobs threatened by changing times

VANISHING VOCATIONS: An occasional series on jobs threatened by changing times, by Justine Griffin for the Tampa Bay Times.

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Work takes her on a road less traveled these days 

 

Sylvia Reina daydreamed of faraway places.  The Tampa native made a hobby out of planning getaways for family members while she was busy at home caring for her children. She was organized. It was easy to find the best airline rates and fun to sort through excursions and attractions in cities around the world.  “I was always doing it for my family from home. They joked that I should start my own travel agency,” said Reina, who is now 76.

 

A job out of tune with changing tastes in music

 

Bill McKaig likes to work with his hands. And his ears. What started out as a way to make extra money while studying music in college became the career he was always looking for. McKaig tunes pianos and restores them in a workshop at his South Tampa home. “I taught myself to do it in college,” said McKaig, who has tuned pianos in the Tampa Bay area for more than 30 years. He fine tuned his own skills by working for another piano tuner in Safety Harbor. “That’s where I figured out I had so much more to learn,” he said. Then he worked as a piano tuner at a Tampa music store for 12 years. The business has changed a lot in that time. For one, fewer families own pianos, as fewer parents are investing in lessons for their children, he said.

Watchmaker still in business at University Mall in Tampa

 

Doug Maggard is a third-generation horologist. What does that mean? Maggard, 58, describes it as being a mechanic, just on a smaller scale. As the owner of Maggard’s Watch and Jewelry Repair Service in Tampa, he fixes watches and clocks, repairs jewelry, resizes rings and does engravings, among other things. Basically, he’s really good at tinkering with small parts. Maggard opened his first store inside the University Mall’s Sears department store in 1981 with his father, also a watch repairman. The store is still there, located on the second floor of the department store.

 

With Netflix and Redbox, how are these guys in Tampa still renting out movies and video games?

 

David Gegenfurtner misses the days when video games were simpler. Graphics were basic and pixelated. Games came as bulky plastic cartridges that sometimes required a lick of rubbing alcohol to work. There were no complex story lines. You raced to win. You saved the day. Gegenfurtner, 33, started selling old and new video games at flea markets in the Tampa Bay area a couple of years ago. It isn’t a full-time job — he’s an IT tech consultant by day — but it helped put a few extra bucks in his pocket. he games were selling fast, especially the older ones. So Gegenfurtner and his buddy since the second grade, Joe Pochulsky, decided to open a store. It has been almost two years since Revolution Video Games & Movies opened on Busch Boulevard in Tampa and business is steady.

 

He sells gas — and pumps it for you, too

 

Dave Percival still remembers the man who used to work at his hometown gas station in a secluded part of Maine. Every time the family car would pull in for a fill up, this man would jog out from the adjacent store to pump the gas and clean the windshield. So when Percival, 50, opened his own gas station in St. Peterburg many years later, he vowed to keep that tradition alive. The BP gas station at 7424 Fourth St. N has eight pumps. One of them has a green sign above that reads “full.” That means that if you park there, an attendant will pump gas for you, wipe down the windshield, check your car’s tire pressure and fluid levels — for the same price as self service. But tips are appreciated.

 

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Could Tampa International Airport offer commercial flights to Cuba next year?

TAMPA — Charter flights from Tampa International Airport have flown hundreds of thousands of people to Cuba in just four years. But next year, thousands more could be headed to Cuba as the United States and Cuba iron out a deal to allow more than 100 regular commercial flights to and from the island and the U.S. mainland.

The Federal Aviation Administration will accept queries from airlines interested in offering commercial service to Havana and other destinations in Cuba. Havana Air announced recently that passengers could book flights to Cuba on its website starting in January. Silver Airways, a discount airline based in Fort Lauderdale, also announced its intent to offer flights to Cuba in 2016.

While no major carriers — like American or JetBlue — have said publicly that they’ll try to offer flights to Cuba, it would make sense to do so from Tampa International Airport, said Ken Qualls, CEO of Flight Management Solutions in Boca Raton, an aviation consulting firm.

“The general attitude has changed a lot — there’s a lot of excitement right now about going to Cuba,” Qualls said. “But it will be a very competitive and varied process for the FAA to develop.”

Since charter services began offering flights in 2011, more than 226,240 passengers have flown from Tampa to Cuba, said Chris Minner, vice president of marketing at Tampa International Airport. The airport has seen double-digit growth rates in the number of passengers using TIA to get to Cuba, Minner said. That includes a 16 percent spike in travelers as of October for 2015.

Read more here.

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Copa Airlines sees mixed results two years after launching Panama City flight in Tampa

TAMPA — Copa Airlines this month celebrated its second year offering direct flights to and from Tampa Bay and Panama City — a central hub that offers access to dozens of Central American and South American countries.

But unlike the other international flights out of Tampa International Airport like British Airways, Edelweiss and newcomer Lufthansa, Copa’s flight has had mixed results so far. And Tampa Bay continues to fall behind the state’s two larger metro areas, Miami and Orlando, when it comes to international travel.

Copa Airlines, which is a subsidiary of Copa Holdings, S.A., posted an average load factor, or the percentage of filled seats on airplanes, of 67 percent for its first full year in Tampa in 2014, according to data from the U.S. Department of Transportation. In Orlando, Copa’s load factor average was 92.3 percent last year. In Miami it was 87.9 percent.

“I’m sure they’re losing money. Airlines have to be pretty close to 85 percent load factors just to break even anymore,” said Ken Qualls, CEO of Flight Management Solutions in Boca Raton, an aviation consulting firm. “That said, it’s not uncommon for airlines in a major arena to expect load factors to taper off after the two-year or three-year mark.”

Read more here.