Hello SURGE fans and welcome to the 68th edition of SaveSURGE News! SURGE will always have a home here.

Get Well Soon Avery!
On behalf of all SURGE fans I'd like to give a shout out to SaveSURGE.org Co-Webmaster Avery Lund who has been feeling a bit under the weather lately. Get well soon Avery, we're all thinking of you!

Sightings Report
There have been 2 new SURGE Sightings since the last edition of SaveSURGE News. They are in: OR & VA.

Sadly, there were 5 deletions in: CA (2), CO, MI & OR.

Santa Maria, CA was added on 10/6 but turned out to be out-dated and was deleted on 10/11.

Currently, there are 153 SURGE Sightings listed. Thanks to all of you who look for SURGE wherever you go!

SaveSURGE.org Speaks with Coca-Cola!
In what has to be considered as one of the biggest developments ever in the history of SaveSURGE.org, we have finally made official contact with The Coca-Cola Company! Recently I had the pleasure of speaking with Scott Williamson, who is the head of media relations at Coke. I feel that many positives came out of our discussion.

Mr. Williamson seemed to enjoy SaveSURGE.org and said he visited regularly. He also agreed to conduct an interview with me for the website. I promptly sent him some questions regarding the things SURGE fans would like to know. Look for the interview to be online sometime in the near future.

On a personal note, I found Mr. Williamson to be very nice and he was more than willing to listen to what I had to say. I really get the feeling that Coca-Cola respects SURGE fans and what we are trying to accomplish.

If anything, this should motivate us to continue our efforts to bring SURGE back. It's vitally important that we continue to show Coca-Cola and its bottlers just how much we miss our favorite fully loaded citrus soda.

Stay tuned, this could be the start of something big!

Tab Turns 40 - What does it mean to us?
A very interesting article appeared in the 10/14/03 edition of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper. This year, diet soda Tab turns 40 and reporter Scott Leith wanted to examine just how the beverage has had such a strong run. The article also briefly mentions SaveSURGE.org!

Tab was introduced by Coca-Cola back in 1963 and was one of the first diet sodas ever created. In the 1980's, Diet Coke was introduced and it looked like Tab was ready for retirement. However, fans were not ready to say goodbye to their favorite soda and they lobbied successfully to keep it around.

While Tab isn't available nationwide, it is still found in several markets around the country. The world's largest Coca-Cola bottler, Coca-Cola Enterprises, still lists it as one of their products. For Tab fans that don't have their favorite soda in local stores, there are also a few websites willing to ship it directly to their door.

So, how does Tab's 40th birthday affect SURGE fans? Regardless of how you feel about Tab, its story should be used as an inspiration to all of us. The fact that fans came together to convince Coca-Cola not to discontinue the brand can give us all hope. SURGE fans have worked so tirelessly and this story is proof that our efforts are not going to waste.

Another interesting point to come out of this article is that a Coca-Cola representative stated that the company keeps a database of all product requests and complaints they receive and shares that database with bottlers. That means that all of our calls during National SaveSURGE Month and beyond have been logged and can very well make a difference in determining the fate of SURGE.

We encourage all SURGE fans to continue to call Coca-Cola headquarters toll-free at 1-800-GET-COKE to let them know just how much you want your favorite soda back again.

Here are some websites who currently sell Tab:

Beverages Direct:
http://www.beveragesdirect.com

Easy Coffee:
http://www.easycoffee.com/tabmaxor3cas.html

You can discuss Tab's 40th birthday on the SaveSURGE.org Bulletin Board:
http://www.karks.com/surge/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=437

Will's SURGE Cab Might be Published
Our SURGE Cab-owning friend Will wrote in recently to let us know that his beautiful 1977 Checker may very well be featured in an upcoming book about Checker Cabs. He has submitted some photos and information to the author in hopes that it will end up in the published version of the book. If and when Will's cab is published, we will let you know all of the details.

It would really be hard to imagine a book about Checker Cabs without mention of one of the truly unique restored versions used for the SURGE Fully Loaded Summer contest. Good luck, Will!

Donations - We Appreciate Your Thoughtfulness, But…
There has been a lot of discussion over on the SaveSURGE.org Bulletin Board recently of SURGE fans wanting to make monetary donations to SaveSURGE.org (view the topic here: http://www.karks.com/surge/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=439). Since SaveSURGE.org went online back in February of 2002, we've also received several e-mails inquiring about donations as well.

While we are very honored and flattered that many of you are willing to donate your hard-earned money towards the effort to bring back SURGE, please understand that we cannot and will not accept any donations. We could not in good conscious take any money for what we do.

The actual cost of running SaveSURGE.org is very minimal so there is no need for worries there. We do this site because we love SURGE and we want to give all of you a place to hang out and to show your devotion & creativity.

The site is of course non-profit however if ever we were going to make a profit off of something (for example, if somehow Coca-Cola allowed us to start selling SURGE), we'd let you know about it up front.

Thank you for your thoughtfulness, but save up your money for when SURGE comes back!

RMJ's Cover Artwork Now Online
You've all heard "One More Surge", RMJ's hip-hop tribute to the soda he loves. Now, you can check out the cover artwork for the "One More Surge" single! The single itself will feature the original version of "One More Surge", a shortened radio version, an instrumental version and some remixes by the rest of the Illusionz crew.

Check out the cover in SURGE Multimedia, located under the For the Love of SURGE menu at the top of every page.

Visit RMJ at: http://www.illusionz.us/

SURGE Delivery Truck Spotted
Debbie wrote in to inform us that she spotted a SURGE delivery truck a few weeks ago in Boston, MA! The truck was driving on Huntingdon Avenue which is near Northeastern University. It sported the original SURGE logo and the words "Ready to get fully loaded? Try Surge".

Thank you Debbie, we'll take that as a good sign of things to come!

Poll Results - Success!
The latest SURGE Poll asked you: How would you describe National SaveSURGE Month?

29.6% - Very Successful
26.5% - Not Sure Yet
22.6% - Somewhat Successful
21% - Failure

Total Votes: 128

This was a pretty close vote but in the end most SURGE fans seem to think that National SaveSURGE Month was either very, or at least somewhat successful. Personally I believe NSSM was a success as so much progress was made in such a short amount of time. Thank you all for your participation!

That's all the time we have for this week. Until next time, let's bring it back!

Sincerely,

Eric Karkovack
Co-Webmaster
www.savesurge.org