Current Mailbag - Mailbag Archive Index - DCRTV Front Page - Support DCRTV DCRTV Mailbag - April 29 to May 10, 2010 Latest messages listed first..... \/ May 10 Messages \/ A comment regarding "preaching to politicking". WGTS has a very pleasing Contemporary Christian music format appealing to all ages. Being a high school teacher I hear students talk about what they listen to and WGTS-FM is on their station list. Their music crosses over all Protestant Denominations and in to the Roman Catholic Community. One that has always been a problem with Contemporary Christian music is it usually doesn't draw commercial spots from agencies. I realize 'GTS is in the educational section of FM, but stations in other markets in the commercial band find difficulty paying their way without picking up things like "Focus On The Family", etc. I know, I worked with a Christian music station in the DC area for nearly 25 years. WAVA-FM has fewer listeners, but they probably listen longer hearing more ads. That same philosophy crosses over to secular radio. Music stations programmed well, have more listeners but the talkers hold listeners longer through more commercial spots. Teenagers still push the button to another station when a commercial cluster comes up. As I said earlier today, we don't have DJ's who would pull stunts, do bits between spots and hold the listener through the spots. Ed Montgomery (5/10/10) Right now I'm listening to Yello's "Oh Yeah" on WIAD 94.7's HD2 channel "HFS." The music mix on this station is getting more and more interesting :) www.youtube.com... Robert, Arlington (5/10/10) Drew Hayes will quickly learn that, except for politics, what works in Chicago (WLS is one of Citadel's few successes -by their standards...), rarely works in D.C. If he's as smart as I think he is, he'll send Plante over to WFAX to do the all-night shift, and pair-up Brian Nehman with either Bill Thompson or John Matthews for AM drive, in much the manner of the old "Harris in the Morning" on WCXR. I'd do it quick before Nehman either goes to Fox or the "real" ABC, namely ABC-TV. Regarding my earlier comment about Salem, note that WGTS edged-out WAVA. I guess Christians prefer preachin' to politickin'! -Unsigned Corporate Suit (5/10/10) Running a talk station in the nation's capital from Chicago... good god, I can't wait until I retire. (5/10/10) Dave's response: Wouldn't it make more sense to run WMAL from NYC's WABC-AM? Really, apart from mornings, the two Citadel stations have the same weekday schedule and it's just a short hop on the shuttle from one to the other..... THIS IS THE SAME SORT OF TWO COMMENTS GERONIMO MADE ON HIS TWIT THIS AM, I GUESS TMZ IS LESBIAN BASHING, TOO??? "Supreme Court Nominee -- King of Queens? Here's President Obama's nominee for the Supreme Court, Solicitor General Elena Kagan -- and former "King of Queens" star Kevin James. One of them is about to be probed by the Republican party. We're just sayin'." (5/10/10) I could care less than the nominee for SCOTUS is a lesbian. What concerns me is that while she does have more experience in government than Obama, she, like Obama, is mostly a pure academic, an idealist and elitiest, with no practical real world experience in either private practice or on the bench. She may have knowledge but it is unlikely she has the wisdom of even a wise Latina. (5/10/10) Dave's response: And what does that make Sarah Palin? Chopped mallamute meat by comparison? Ryan to 9 or 7 for that matter? It makes no sense...why go after a guy that would be gone in a few years to retirement. Also, look how many folks Gannett has let go for salary reasons over the past 10 years, not just at W*USA, but across the company and now they would suddenly change? I don't think so. As for 7, if he went there, then what happens in 5 years when both Bob and Doug "sail off into the sunset"? Who is the heir then? Doesn't anyone do any long term planning anymore? (5/10/10) Dave, What's the deal with most of the stations that play music but can't seem to be bothered to take the time to tell the listener something about the song being played. I'd bet the sale of music on web sites such as iTunes would see a big increase IF people were able to identify the name of a song and/or it performer. Seems to me that in days gone by most stations provided that information as a matter of routine. And it strikes me as strange that the music industry doesn't insist that stations provide the information as a matter of course If you don't know the name of the song how ya gonna spend your $ and download it? (5/10/10) Dave's response: If you have an HD Radio, most stations do flash their song title/artist on the read-out..... Re: "Chris Plante does an ad on WMAL where he says he and his "number one girl" go to a particular sedation dentist. Who's she? Silvie?" Chris Plante may be academically challenged, but he's not a total idiot. (5/10/10) I could be wrong, but I think the last name of the new GSM at WIAD is spelled Bramau. You might want to double-check. (5/10/10) "Bramo" should be "Bramao" - Just wanted to point out a front page typo. Really enjoy your site..... (5/10/10) So what are ex-listeners of WMAL mornings trying out these days?? I tried NPR this morning but it was just a bit too mellow for me. WTOP is OK but not exactly right either. Would love to see a station pick up some of the former WMALers (Grandy and Andy, Chris Core and even David Burd) and make a go of it. Maybe I’ll download Dennis Miller’s podcasts and listen to them in the morning. Or maybe I’ll just sleep in. Looking for other options—Pam H. (5/10/10) Dave: Wow, Maryland sports moving to 980. Problem is, everyone except Knoche and Sheehan have no clue about Maryland sports. Second problem, No one wants to hear Sheehan talk about "his team." I was at a sports bar in Arlington over the weekend and a bunch of us agreed that 106.7 has really done a good job stepping-up their coverage of our local teams. One thing I was amazed at was that everyone's hip to the idea that 980 has some bad, overpaid talent. If I want to hear how Redskins mini-camp went, why do I have to, again and it's getting old, listen to Galdi rather than real beat reporters who were there. 980's an ESPN affiliate...wasn't there an reporter(TV) present? Comcast kind of has the same problem but Kelli Johnson may read and study for a total of 10-minutes where the 980 people just read-off the internet and randomly quote people. Let us know in how many years we can expect a "new 980." (5/10/10) To all who have joined R.I.P. Nathans (on Facebook), thank you. Now, to decide whether to have an R.I.P. Nathans death day anniversary gathering at a bar which would welcome a spike in business. The date is July 12. If nothing else, wherever you are, have a drink to Nathans on that day. FYI: my memoir of the "lucky" 13 years I owned Nathans, "Innocent Spouse," is due out next year from Crown. Carol Joynt (5/10/10) bank on MD Sports showing up on 980. (5/10/10) Lots of Lesbian jokes about the new SupCourt nominee from Geronimo on his Twitter page today. Let's hope Geronimo stays small market for the rest of his alleged career. Those righty hicks down da shore are gonna love him. Oh, wait, WGMD fired him last summer. (5/10/10) All along, he has said it was not about money. Well, Gannett is not only showing him the money, they are offering something the Allbritton’s can’t: national exposure in USA TODAY, his OWN weather website and the 11PM slot on the newly revitalized 9 News Now. The cooling off period is over, now the real negotiating begins. (5/10/10) I can’t believe WMAL! Besides being an A-hole and not very smart (and I say that as a conservative Republican) Chris Plante does not know how “to do” radio! While I did not always agree w/the politics of Andy/Grandy, it was “good radio,” same w/Rush. While he is a jerk and a blow hard, he is a master at radio. Is it the goal of WMAL to have a zero rating from 5 to 10 am? Just curious. babrown (5/10/10) Will WJFK's acquisition of the local rights to Va. Tech Football and Basketball have any impact on their ability to carry University of Maryland Football and Basketball. There is sure to be a lot of overlapping game times. Terrapin Sports Marketing can't be too happy about this. Might we see the Terps move to 94.7 on a full time basis? -- Tom in Wheaton (5/10/10) Dave's response: Another reason to flip 94.7 to a male-skewing alt rock format a la WHFS..... The pickup of Virginia Tech sports by WJFK suggests Maryland football and hoops is on the move. WJFK has been the home for the Terps for a while. But where? 94.7? You'd think Red Zebra would have an interest but, as far as I know, they still have rights deals with Virginia and Notre Dame ... and they no longer own AM-1260, which is where the ND games have been for a very long time. Steve in Lanham (5/10/10) I'm a pretty loyal WMAL listener but never have been much of a fan of Chris Plante. I'm willing to give the new morning show some time -- having Nehman on is a big plus, but it would be better if he could squeeze a word in from time to time. That's what I noticed with Plante/Grandy. Plante just bulldogs ahead, as if he's never co-hosted a show before in his life. Has he? Obviously, he wants the solo gig, but, say whatever you will about his politics, he's got a problem with show-running. He talks and talks and then at 45 minutes after the hour abruptly says, "And now here's Bill Thompson with sports." Just runs right into it, as if it's getting in his way. Take a breath, Chris. Listen to tapes of Andy Parks, who, whatever else you might have thought of him, knew how to run a show without stepping all over himself or the other on-air talent. Christian (5/10/10) Billionaire lifts NY Times stake, eyes Newsweek www.nypost.com (5/10/10) Dear all - Only a few days to go until The Q&A Cafe featuring PBS journalist, host and commentator Gwen Ifill. If you haven't already made reservations, please make some today for Thursday, May 13th. Seating starts at noon, the program begins at 12:30, the fee is $50, all inclusive, and valet parking is available at a discounted $10. There are plenty of seats; bring friends. The reservations number is 202.912.4110. On New York Social Diary today, the sad and the happy. First, a look at lacrosse through the filter of the murder of Yeardly Love. Many have pointed at finger at the lacrosse "culture," but I say don't blame the game. Also, a pretty hat luncheon on behalf of The Trust for the National Mall. A garden party hosted by Constance Chatfield-Taylor for a media entrepreneur visiting from Nairobi. Also, some words from economist Simon Johnson. All at: www.nysocialdiary.com... I hope to see you Thursday. Carol... *Forgive the typos. It was Mother's Day. I wrote with one hand tied behind my back! (5/10/10) Dave, There seems to be a lack of judgement in programming throughout broadcasting. WMAL/Citadal doesn't seem to understand how to reach out to an audience. I am a conservative so I agree with most of what Chris Plante says. However, Chris and WMAL/Citidal doesn't seem to understand how radio works. One provocative statement after another doesn't make good drive time radio. Chris worked better in mid-days. Andy Parks and Fred Grandy had good chemistry and they knew, along with their producer, how to mix up the morning with some humor along with time checks, traffic and a good dose of local news. That makes for good radio and it has worked where ever I worked in radio stations. Of course, talent like that is costly. However that investment should bring in more revenue. I've always seen station managers and owners dump people to save money while they loose advertising revenue. The short-term gain of paying less is soon lost. I always worked on the DJ/engineering side of radio. However, I never did it full time. Having a teaching degree, I was always teaching electronics or media as I do now at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. So often I saw DJ's fearing for their future because they were afraid to ask for a raise. Management could always find somebody who would do anything to get on the air. In this age, it is even easier to program any format because you can get it off a satellite. The obligation for management to be part of a community no longer exists. When I first moved to the DC area in the late 70's I was surprised to hear what WMAL did. It sounded like a station run by a couple local guys always reaching out to the community. Always involved. I remember Tom Guager making a comment about something that I had more knowledge of than he did so I called the station and he picked up the phone! We had a good chat and he corrected his comment on the air! I couldn't believe that ABC actually owned the station. I still think WMAL handled Redskins football better than anyone since that time. Citidal may be in deep trouble, but they need to find a way to improve income and cutting the morning drive is not the way to do it. One person Citidal should listen to is Rush Limbaugh. I know they carry him but they clearly don't know how he mixes political issues, personal life experiences, recollections of his life as a kid, and humor into his three hours. Chris Plante doesn't seem to know how to do that. Growing up in the New York area, I would say that Rush Limbaugh has a lot in common with how Jean Shephard ran his program on WOR. He would weave in and out of political issues as he ran through his 45 minute gig. I think of the musicradio days of WABC. Rick Sklar had a diverse music format but more than that he had very good DJ's like Dan Ingram, Harry Harrison, etc. People listened to WABC for music but also for the DJ's. No one knew what Dan Ingram was going to say next. Sklar gave him a lot of freedom. Today's local management seems to fear this freedom. WMAL could replace Plante with Imus. However, when he was on WTEM, I don't think his numbers were ever that good. For some reason, he just didn't click in the DC area. Ed Montgomery (5/10/10) Dave's response: Don Imus aired for many years on WTNT, but got no ratings. He was like 25th in mornings. He then aired on 105.9 from the spring of 2008, when it was oldies WJZW, until it flipped to classic rock WVRX last August. And, again, he got no significant ratings. But he also got no significant promotional effort either. It's funny how poorly these heavily "inside the Beltway"-centric shows like Imus and Joe Scarborough do on the DC radio dial. They have a small, niche audience of Capitol Hill political junkies and - literally - no one else..... Let's see....Plante's first morning drivetime slot without his crazy conspiracy balloon tethered down the lead weight of a somewhat sane co-host, and so far he has blamed the oil spill in the gulf on "whacko environmentalist liberals", said checkpoint shootings in Iraq were caused by "Hollywood", and claimed that the sitting President of the United States is a huge fan of Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro. The amazing thing is, this immense river of sewage spewed out of Plante's pie-hole just in just the sixteen minutes it took me to drive to work, and seven of that was taken up by top of the hour news, weather and traffic. I know there will always be hate-filled nutjobs out there who are ready and willing to gobble up this tripe, but are there really companies in the D.C. area desperate enough for the paltry revenue dollars generated by Silvie and her ilk that they are willing to sponsor this irresponsible line of bullshit? MESSAGE TO PAUL DUCKWORTH: I know you read this board, and I for one am calling each and every one of Plante's drive-time sponsors to inform them that they will not get one dollar of my business until they drop Plante's program, or WMAL finally wizens up enough to put a much-needed muzzle on this rabid pitbull. (5/10/10) Dave, you've been around the DC Radio scene for a while now, so you've seen 'em come and you've seen 'em go. How long do you give the Plante Experiment on WMAL? Personally, I think he'll be gone by the 2011 Spring Book. (5/10/10) Dave's response: Those PPMs will show real fast whether Plante is drawing an audience. WMAL will know by late June or early July for sure. My guess is that they'll formally pair Plante with someone. Bryan Nehman would work. If the show implodes, there's always Imus waiting in the wings to be piped in via WMAL's NYC sister, WABC-AM..... here's ehrlich talking about the commercial www.wbal.com (5/10/10) What is it with these programming consultants who insist on screwing up the channel ? MTV used to play music. Now it's anything but. Weather Channel, hooray that someone else noticed that they don't do the weather anymore. At least MTV's got a second channel, Palladia, where they play long-form concerts. Although I keep getting pissed that Springsteen insists on putting his Yoko Ono out there every third shot. No talent. His first wife was the babe. (5/10/10) Dave's response: Music-based MTV is still there, it's just now called MTV Hits. Palladia is cool, too. Mainly live concerts though, although it does show videos now and then. MTV is just awful. If I was a teenager I wouldn't watch it..... TV BRAND IMPLOSION! Decades-old fans of The Weather Channel mount petition drive to force the first name in weather to ditch "Flick And A Forecast" after third straight Friday night of failed, national severe weather coverage. thetvnews.tv (5/10/10) Chris Plante does an ad on WMAL where he says he and his "number one girl" go to a particular sedation dentist. Who's she? Silvie? (5/10/10) The new program should be called "The dumbing down of America with Chris Plante." (5/10/10) Dave's response: At the very least, they should make Bryan Nehman the co-host, not just the newsman. "WMAL Mornings With Chris & Bryan." Me thinks that MAL may actually be testing that concept this morning. I await my consultants fee from Paul Duckworth. And even if I got it, the Citadel check would probably bounce..... As predicted by DCRTV its the Chris Plante Morning Show at WMAL 6:00AM-10:00AM. www.wmal.com... John T. Henneman... PS Any similarity between the demographics on the Metro DC radio market and the staff of WMAL is purely accidental. (5/10/10) Is the Mike O'Meara gang going to rent a tour bus and let fans of the podcast tag along on their sojourn to Iowa in July? I'd love to go and check out the sites in Iowa along the way like the "Field of Dreams" ballfield, the field in Clear Lake were rock 'n' roll died and of course Radar's farm. Geez time for another WPFW pledge drive ponderous man just ponderous. The NBC Early today seems to take advantage of the HD broadcasting but the channel 4 is so blah and distant wonder why? (5/10/10) Hi Dave, Thought you might be interested in this piece from the NY Times. www.nytimes.com... I personally can’t wait for the cost to come down so I can enjoy music in my car again. Thanks for keeping up the site. Bruce (5/10/10) Apparently it is now The Chris Plante Show. A search of the WMAL site for "Fred Grandy" gives you "Sorry, no matches were found for the WMAL-AM Keyword "fred grandy"..." I'm not sure Plante has the personality for the early morning drive. P.S. Love the site. (5/10/10) "Dave's response: And the other victim was??? Sheesh....." Well now Dave, the other person could be transgendered, was a woman but is now a man, but maybe the woman was a man but now is a woman. Like that old Andrew Dice Clay routine about "bisexuals": "What do they do in the morning, flip a coin and go, "Head's I'm straight, tail's I'm a fag?" Doh!". www.contractmusic.com (5/10/10) Frank Rich is STUPID for attacking MSNBC, i dont think he realizes that MSNBC was the 1st AND THE LAST channel to cover the Times Square, believe me i would know, I was flipping through the Big 3 News Nets that nite and while Larry King and the Wall Street Editorial Report were taking up the airwaves on the other cable nets, MSNBC was covering this event wall-to-wall, hell, they had the 1st reporter at the seen, a producer from WNBC, at one point for a whole half hour around 10:00 the best place to find out info about this story was Twitter. MSNBC took the story around 10:30-3:00, CNN didnt take it until 11:00 and FOX didnt take it till 10:45-ish and neither network stay with the story for long until 12:00AM-ish, so Mr. Rich GET UR FACTS STRAIGHT, look on the TVNewser archives if u don't believe me. (5/10/10) Sorry, Rusty. Must respectfully disagree with you. Johnny Holliday was far from his "A" game, at least on Sunday afternoon's telecast. Too often, he was ahead of the play and had to correct himself. Then there was the time he wished a "Happy Mother's Day to every single mother." I wondered why he wouldn't extend the greeting to the "married mothers" as well. (5/10/10) /\ May 10 Messages /\ \/ May 9 Messages \/ The new owners of WMET 1160 aren't being terribly innovative. Lots (if not all) material they are airing is right off the EWTN radio feed; including the "Son Rise" morning show, and the anti-abortion "Defending Life" program, which I heard driving home from work on Saturday. This is/was the same programming that some FM "pirate" or other low-power broadcaster around the Falls Church/Annandale area was putting up sometime last year. WMET owners are maintaining a pretty expensive studio in Silver Spring if all they are doing is plugging a computer and a satellite receiver into their transmitter. They could do that on top of a night table. (5/9/10) Damn it, Rusty. I hope you know you broke Brooks Robinson's heart today, you traitor! (5/9/10) Kudos go to my friend John Holliday for his remarkable TV play-byplay skills while he called this weekend's Nats games. And a MAJOR Happy Mom's Day to the Great Joyce Conroy. (am hoping U, Gregory & Tom R OK, call me sometime!) Love, Rusty (5/9/10) wusa9.com gives you the news.... (screen captured at 3:25PM EDT on 5/9/10) (5/9/10) Dave's response: And the other victim was??? Sheesh..... I am sure Chris P is dancing in the street now that Grandy is gone. While Grandy was there it was obvious who the smartest in the room was. And Chris P could not compete without looking foolish. So now, who will be the smartest in the studio, Chris Plante or house plant? (5/9/10) Don Geronimo hobnobs with Mickey Dolenz (former Monkee) after oldtimers rock concert in OC yesterday. Why isn't that on the front page, Dave? (5/9/10) After due consideration, I realize that I must correct a statement I made in yesterday's Mailbag. Regarding the events occurring at Citadel, I should have said "before the shit hit the treadmill" instead of "before the shit hit the turbine blades" as Citadel is neither prosperous nor sophisticated enough to possess a turbine... -Unsigned Corporate Suit (5/9/10) While most CEOs of U.S. companies saw their compensation fall in 2009, top executives of TV, movie and cable companies continued to rake it in. Here's a link to the story (and a chart with all the numbers) ... www.latimes.com (5/9/10) /\ May 9 Messages /\ \/ May 8 Messages \/ KCJJ is bringing the entire cast of the Mike O'Meara show to Eastern Iowa July 22 through the 25th. Mike and the gang will sitting in with the morning show..be greeted by the Mayor of Coralville and host a charity fundraiser. Robb will also be hosting his weekly show live that week. You can hear all the details mornings and their visit @www.1630kcjj.com. Click on KCJJ RAW. You can also hear Mike Robb, Buzz, and Oscar anytime @www.mikeomearashow.com. (5/8/10) Several of my children and a grandchild are all into weightlifting. Several times a year, they compete in meets in the eastern half of the country. Today, I attended a meet in Newport, Delaware where one of them was competing. Another lifter competing was a fellow by the name of Chad Dukes. I was hoping for an opportunity to talk to him but it never worked out. Could this be the Chad Dukes always being mentioned here? I believe from WJFK. JohnnyuinHanover,Pa. (5/8/10) Kris Kro-who? Sarah Fraser is girl-next-door sexy hot. In fact, she kind of makes me swoon a little. (5/8/10) Media in Hell… All broadcast TV is from Sunbeam. All broadcast radio is from Citadel. And, the Cable TV (666 channels of Government and Public Access channels plus all of C-SPAN) is from Comcast. And, there’s no DCRTV! (5/8/10) Chris Plante's biggest challenge is not his bully boy personality, it is the simple fact that his style of argument will never survive equal-footed challenge. If he were to ever cede control of the microphone, he would lose. He knows it. It is his greatest fear. Sure, he takes "lib" callers, but they are never given the opportunity to make their point without interruption. He bullies them, cajoles then and controls their ability to speak...and they are never....EVER given the ability to counterpoint his argument. If they were, he would crumble. That same challenge faced by Hannity, Limbaugh and Beck (which is why you never see any of the three of them interviewed outside of their comfort zone), however, unlike Plante, the three of them posess a basic sense of comedic timing and an entertaining enough delivery to carry them through. I have a saying pinned to my noteboard at work. It reads, "90 percent of being smart is the ability to recognize the things you do NOT know." Plante lacks that core ability...he honestly believes he knows everything, and no matter the topic, he is always more willing to opine than to listen. Plante oozes stupidity, yet believes that ramming his point through with contemptible bullheadedness makes up for his lack of basic understanding of the topic he is discussing. Take his recent pronouncements on racism...What on earth could one possibly learn to understand racism when the only perspective given is that of a privileged white male? Earth to Plante; YOU DO NOT POSESS THE BASIC KNOWLEDGE TO LEAD THE DISCUSSION! The interesting thing is, other than poor little Silvie, I see no one here even moderately rushing to his defense. That should tell you something. Plante is just too "holier than thou" and preachy in his delivery for most people's tastes. Silvie, ask yourself one question, hon...If Plante were really such a "rockstar" of conservative thinking, then why - after being let go by WMAL - was he unable to find a job anywhere else in broadcasting for that entire period of time? ANY job? The answer: Plante is not entertaining...he is toxic, he is abrasive, and his delivery is woefully flat and obnoxious. That is a mixture that is not marketable to talk radio sponsors. Most broadcasters with a lick of sense could see that from a mile away. He still has his job because he is cheap, he is hungry and he is willing to do whatever he is told to do to keep even the most tenuous grasp on his fleeting popularity. (5/8/10) Dave, I'm sure that our political views differ but you hit it right with your comment about Chris Plante (Snip; "It's his 'arrogant little boy bully, in-your-face' style. ' He's like that 'know-it-all dipshit dinner party guest'") As you have said before, Plante alone is unlistenable! WMAL should move Plante back to his old timeslot - or off-the-air entirely as they did before - and pair Grandy with someone like WBAP's Mark Davis. This would still steer to the right but it would at least be entertaining and informative. With Plante neither is found - entertainment or information. Mark Davis sounds like he is having fun. Plante, on the other hand, only sounds angry and for someone who leans right I don't understand or appreciate it. (5/8/10) Dave, I’m going to have to agree and disagree with you on your recent rants. First, the agreement: Personally, I am a “social moderate and fiscal conservative”. To call Chris Plante an idiot is an insult to idiots. To call him a conservative, is an insult to honest conservatives. There are much smaller markets with local conservative talkers who are much more entertaining (and intelligent) than Chris Plante is likely to be again for a long time. He used to be much smoother in the evenings and when subbing for Chris Core, long before the shit hit the turbine blades at Citadel. Give the guy a bit of break when you realize the serious insecurity which comes from working for such a trainwreck. Also, think of why he’s not only back at WMAL, but doing AM drive there. There’s nobody else who’s willing to work for them. At any price. Even if Citadel were doling-out real AFTRA bucks and bennies, it would take someone as desperate as Plante was before the re-hire to want to work for Citadel anywhere -not just WMAL- at any price. Citadel has been toxic far longer than WMAL. Disagree: 1260 will be a success for Salem and meet, if not exceed their corporate goals. What might be those goals? Besides the cachet of a “real Washington, D.C.” licensed station, it’ll take very little money to run it. Think of it as being a “Jack” of talk radio. Expect it to use WAVA “talent” where necessary. No extra bodies required. It will make money for Salem with very little risk. Yes, there is serious –but manageable- risk for Salem in this deal, The risk isn’t cannibalizing WAVA’s audience. There really isn’t one. What Salem risks in this venture is cannibalizing WAVA’s most important asset: its client base. Jim Farley (and no doubt others) will likely disagree with me on this, but when it comes to numbers, your PPM numbers don’t mean diddly if you don’t consistently exceed your corporate CFCF targets. Remember that this is a business we’re talking about –not a commune or a charity. Remember what I said about running pink noise 24X7X365 if I consistently exceed my CFCF targets? There are plenty of radio stations with managers -and employees- that don’t listen to their own station. Why? They can’t stand it! I’ve encountered stations where not only the board op was listening to another station (usually in “cue”) while only “hearing” the station they were working for, but where the “music on hold” was the audio of another station. But, the employees were “happy” because they were “making money” (and sometimes more money) compared to more highly rated competitors. It’s a lot easier to make your payroll with CFCF surpluses than with PPM numbers. Final point to ponder: Just as D.C. led the nation a couple of generations ago in FM adoption (I remember the undrerdash Delco “FM Multiplex” adapter Aero Chevrolet installed in my ’64 Impala.), today the D.C. ADI leads the nation in the adoption of non-ad supported media. There are indeed more people out there than ever before. And, while they’re likely listening to something, odds are that with the singular exception of WTOP, it’s unlikely to be broadcast radio! –Unsigned Corporate Suit (5/8/10) /\ May 8 Messages /\ \/ May 7 Messages \/ What role, if any did Larry Miahael have in that WJLA enterprise story that was given to WRC (5/7/10) Man I'm so tired of the "Breaking News" "Developing Story" crap. That multi colored sweater that Reiger was wearing today clashed with the background. Why do the anchors seem so far away on the new channel 4 hd set? Frank Hanrahan now working evenings at the Duh Fan106.7? (5/7/10) Federal regulators have granted a controversial waiver to the Hollywood studios that clears the way for them to show first-run movies in the home shortly after -- or even during -- their release in theaters. latimes.com (5/7/10) What is WMAL? "We Malign All Liberals". Or maybe "We're Missing Alot of Listeners". (5/7/10) Dave's response: I hear that Joe Lieberman is considering stripping Farid Suleman, who heads WMAL owner Citadel, of his American citizenship for his destruction of a Washington DC radio institution..... LaVar Arrington will open this week’s “SportsWeek” with a response to recent criticism drawn his way by Washington Redskins running back Clinton Portis, regarding Arrington’s friendship with the late Sean Taylor. “SportsWeek” with Arrington and Dukes” will be broadcast this Sunday, May 9th at 12:30PM (re-broadcast at 7:30PM) [on Channel 50/WDCW]. "I lost a lot of respect for LaVar at that moment, speaking at Sean's funeral," Portis told Chris Russell of 106.7 The Fan, earlier this week. "To get up, I really thought that was . . . I don't know what you call that. LaVar ain't know Sean like that. . . . I remember me and Sean was going to jump LaVar, you know, for throwing pie at Sean's face his rookie year, and trying to haze Sean, and be the tough guy. He felt like it was a joke. We didn't like that sh-t. For all the attention LaVar claims, and that him and Sean was cool -- they wasn't cool. . . . Sometime, people should stop. . . . I don't think you should do that. If you cool with somebody, or you know somebody, you knew 'em. Don't go and portray, set out an image like 'this is your buddy, this is your pal' like you all hung, when y'all really didn't. I don't think that's fair man." The majority of this week’s show will focus on the phenomenal growth of mixed martial arts in the metro DC community as co-host Chad Dukes travels to Yamasaki Academy in Rockville, MD to go through the workout paces with Mario and Fernando Yamaski (photos and video on DC50tv.com). Ultimate Fighter Kris McCray, and Lloyd Irvin will join Arrington and Dukes as guests from ICONS. “SportsWeek” is taped every Thursday evening at ICONS Sports Lounge and Grille in Fairfax, VA, located at 10418 Main St., Fairfax, VA 22030. Other guests on the show include other MMA notables: Marcello Foran, Yahya Yasini and JC Cuffee. This week’s “SportsWeek” will also feature highlights of last week’s tryouts in Baltimore for the new franchise of the Lingerie Football League. Sports fans from Metro DC will be encouraged to attend weekly tapings and may end-up being featured on the show in the Q & A / feedback segment. (5/7/10) (From DCRTV's Classified Ads:) Get this week's real estate home values report for your neighborhood in the D.C/Northern Virginia area at www.fairfaxhomevalues.net. Its free with no obligation. Of course, if you have questions about the report or are interested in buying or selling a home, please call me. Tom Robinson, Keller Williams Realty, Equal Housing Opportunity. Alexandria - Kingstowne. (703) 562-1792 (5/7/10) Hey just wanted to wish Fred Grandy good luck once more! Hey Fred, thanks! I always enjoyed the show and I hope you hear you back on the air very soon!! (5/7/10) Politico - Bradlee: Newsweek sale "breaks my heart"... The clip was taped yesterday and is from a C-SPAN Distance Learning Center course in cooperation with C-SPAN, the Cable Center, and the University of Denver. The full interview with Ben Bradlee will air first on C-SPAN3 at 5pm this afternoon. (5/7/10) ("Are there ANY engineers left working for Snyder? What a disaster") Thanks, you tool. We have no control over what Ma Bell was doing in Delaware. (5/7/10) I liked the Grandy and Andy show. When I wanted news commentary from a conservative perspective, they delivered in a way that was both insightful and funny. There was really good on-air chemistry between the crew on that show. They even got the women who did the financial reports (I think from an out-of-town location) to get in on the act. They were a nice alternative from the abrasive screamers like Chris Plante and, nationally, Mark Levin. They will be missed in the mornings. . .this morning I got to listen to the Junkies try to talk their way thru the stock market. . .morons. (5/7/10) “Let's face it. The reason the posters in this forum don't like Plante is because they don't like his views. Hard to take any critique of his show in this forum seriously for that reason...” I’m a conservative, a big Rush fan. While I generally agree with Plante’s views, I can’t take more than 5 or 10 minutes of him for many of the reasons Dave mentions. I didn’t think it was humanly possible for someone to talk the length he does without taking a breath. I expect him to start hyperventilating at any moment. He’s kind of loud and overbearing. Maybe in due time he’ll start to dial it back a bit, making the show a little easier to listen to. Delivery is just as important as content. (5/7/10) What is WMAL? -- That's easy. It's HateRadio 63. (5/7/10) Great rant today about WWRC. It IS all about bragging rights for Salem with installing a conservatalker in the nation's capital. Their WHK in my hometown of Cleveland is the second news/talker of note in Cleveland (behind 50kW WTAM, of course) and hasn't made any serious run in the ratings at ALL over the past six years. Salem invests little to nothing in local productions on their conservatalkers (notable exceptions include Curtis Sliwa on WNYM/New York, Big John Howell on WIND/Chicago, and Jon-David Wells on KSKY/Dallas). It will be pretty much a relay of their so-called "flagship," KRLA/Los Angeles, and will probably get creamed by the Talk Radio Network lineup on WTNT (which is akin to calling onself the world's tallest little person). And one more thing: Bill Bennett and Mike Gallagher were ON WTNT prior to CC spinning them off, but I doubt anyone even noticed. -Nate in Cleveland- (5/7/10) Let's face it. The reason the posters in this forum don't like Plante is because they don't like his views. Hard to take any critique of his show in this forum seriously for that reason................ (5/7/10) Dave's response: No. It's not just his political views. It's his "arrogant little boy bully, in-your-face" style. He's like that "know-it-all dipshit dinner party guest" we all know too well..... Hi Dave, It's Chapter 11 not Channel 11. I doubt WBAL has anything to do with it. (5/7/10) Dave's response: Hey, my brain always makes that mistake. It's Typo Friday! “She told me to get my mom some flowers anyway”. Good advice: if within driving range, maybe flowers for her grave on Sunday. Don’t forget papa on Father’s Day! glennsacks.com (5/7/10) Tony Kornheiser was doing his show from his beach house this morning. They had a guest on the phone when they lost the feed from the beach. Some dead air, some commercials, then they returned briefly. Once again, guest on the phone starts talking, and Tony disappears. They had to give up and start playing Colin Cowherd on ESPN radio. Are there ANY engineers left working for Snyder? What a disaster. (5/7/10) Dave's response: Tony played that "It's The End Of The World" oldie and then the feed from his beach house in Delaware conked out. Yeah, the staff at WTEM in Rockville had to fill in for the last half hour of his show today. Ha ha ha. I hear that Geronimo was seen speeding away from Tony's vacation home on his scooter with a pair of wire clippers in his back pocket..... Thank you Bob for posting these programs on the WTTR website so we can all listen. I have downloaded all the programs to my MP3 player so I can listen anytime and anywhere! Keep up the great work, Bob, and God Bless! (5/7/10) Re NPR Gaga video: It was not only not funny, it was unfunny. There is a difference. (5/7/10) Dave's response: It was funny. But, it just seems to me, if your organization is taking US tax dollars and corporate donations, maybe it isn't really the best message to get out there that you're goofing around and making silly videos for the internet. You know..... What IS WMAL? They should have dumped ABC News at the top of the hour and gone with Fox News. Wrap themselves in the flag and call themselves "Washington's Conservative Voice" or "Washington's Loyal Opposition." Strongly identify as the conservative alternative on Radio. But WMAL is just not defined. WTOP is Washington's news, traffic, weather station. WAMU is NPR. WMZQ is country. WASH is easy listening. WMAL is......what?!!? ABC was afraid to do it because their corporate lobbying arm (for ABC and Disney) is big here in town (and that's why they did not stand behind Michael Graham). But there's no excuse for Citadel not letting them do it. (5/7/10) Even by Wonkette’s sleazy standards, they have stooped to a new low with the header, “Take Your Mother Out To Thank Her For Not Aborting You”: wonkabout.com... Not certain what “establishments listed below” are thinking by being associated with such a mean “promotion” by The Wonkette, but would you want to garner business from the following Wonkette come on: “When you take your mother to one of the establishments listed below, don’t just thank her for not aborting you so many years ago. Also make sure you promise to put her in a really, really nice old age home when she gets all senile and decrepit.” Despicable: truly despicable for the Wonkette to slime even Mother’s Day! (5/7/10) Dave's response: My mom passed away in 2004. So, I was telling a friend, I'm "off the hook" for Mother's Day and I don't have to do anything. No, she said. She told me to get my mom some flowers anyway. She'll know. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm..... Dave, The good news is that you don't have to read a piece on the new Safeway in Georgetown for a third straight day in the Washington Post's Style section. The bad news is that there's yet another lengthy rehashing of the Chandra Levy tragedy in Style. Why? (5/7/10) it's sporadically (5/7/10) /\ May 7 Messages /\ \/ May 6 Messages \/ John Bachelor's show boring? It is probably the most informative program on the radio today on foreign policy, international relations, and Mideast affairs. It is not radio for the politically uneducated. (5/6/10) NPR does Lady Gaga (5/6/10) Thanks to the guys who have appeared every morning this week for the Radio Legends Event on 1470 WTTR in Westminster. Jerry Daniels kicked it off with a great show on Monday. What a classy and quick witted personality. Robert C. Allen came in the next day and told a slew of great stories including one involving his meeting the Beatles in DC before their next to last concert in 1966. Wednesday saw Ken Merson relate more memories and share much about his early days in radio in the mid 70's. Thursday was special too. Jack Edwards came in on 1 1/2 hours sleep and did a great job. He was surprised by none other than Linda Sherman (looking absolutely radiant) who stopped by to say hi on her way to work. Jack also programmed the whole show (of course). Tomorrow we wrap up our week of memories with Johnny Dark on the morning show. Lots of calls and emails from people who love these legends. Radio can really be fun! Thanks to all of you. Sincerely, Bob Mathers (5/6/10) Dave: Any word on who got into that fight at CCDC? Any names you’ve heard? Thanks! (5/6/10) Dave's response: I've heard the names, but since I can't confirm them beyond a shadow of a doubt, I don't want to make 'em public..... Sylvie, it was a stupid subject for Chris Plante to put out for discussion and Opine. As Mark Davis says, there is nothing wrong with minorities competing among themselves, or recognizing the achievement of one of their own. (Mark Davis, btw, is in the same business as Plante, but Davis drives a Bentley to work every day). Back in the 70’s they would take girls in elementary schools to meet women doctors, and nobody whined about that as much as Plante whined today about a school bus taking Black kids to meet a Black rocket scientist at his workplace. The last engineering fair I took my kids to was full of women engineers; NASA booth-women, Intel booth-women, Lockheed Martin-women. Having two boys, I was seeking out male engineers to show them. By bringing up this subject, Chris proved he is pig headed. He also did not handle her call well when she challenged his word usage and his communication style when it came to the President. (5/6/10) Looking to learn the skills necessary to stay ahead of the NEW media curve? The Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland is introducing a Graduate Certificate in Multimedia program to help you get there—and stay there. Starting on Saturdays this coming fall, the two-semester, 12-credit program will blend practical training in video, audio, photography, blogging, and interactive Web publishing with the critical application of editorial, ethical and legal principles in digital media contexts. Courses will be designed to help professional journalists and communicators learn the skills and concepts needed for digital storytelling across media platforms, particularly the Internet and mobile devices. The program is specifically targeted to working professionals and timed to meet their work schedules. For more information contact Assistant Dean Steve Crane at scrane@jmail.umd.edu. (5/6/10) Dear Dave, Listened to me some Catholic Radio this morning - pretty boring so far but we'll see... CHRIS PLANTE IS SERIOUSLY ENTERTAINING - Really. I've listened to him sporatically in the past and bitched about his stupidity. But in the last week I've been listening more intently and I heard the whole racism argument this morning. Now for somebody thinking on his feet and blabbing a million mile an hour he makes a pretty coherent arguement - certainly better than I could do. Clearly the libs will hate him no matter what but now that I hear him in a fuller context I appreciate his humor - some of it slightly self-deprecating - and fairly sound reasoning. Not perfect by any means and he is vain but his back and forth with Nehman was funny - edgy - slightly cringe-y ENTERTAINING - I didn't want to change the station. And re the Racism Thing - HE IS RIGHT! The principal is a racist and has divided the school children (forget about their pussy-assed weak self-hating parents). Old men in too nice a suit leading an elementary school = INSTITUTIONAL BULLSHITTER (ie Sharpton). Plante pointed out every angle of these racists and there was not reasonable retort. Liberals can suck it. m (5/6/10) Hey Dave, I have a suggestion for a song for Dubbya-Emmay-Yell to use as a new theme song for the "New Softer Kinder Gentler" Chris Plante show: www.youtube.com... (NSFW) Actually, come to think of it, the rant at the end actually sounds like the CURRENT Chris Plante. (5/6/10) Hottest women of radio? Sarah Fraser? I mean, she's ok but I wonder if they checked out Kris Kosach, the weekend radio dj on 107.3? www.mix1073fm.com... Now that's a hottie!! Mike W. (5/6/10) WMAL 'grooming' Plante for solo duty, huh? WMAL wanting Plante to tone it down, right? What good will that do? What will be accomplished? Take a hint - grooming a turd to smell like a rose doesn't change the fact that it's still a turd. But by all means keep trying WMAL bozos. You guys at Shitadel are going straight down the toilet along with that wimpy 'rock' station of yours, not that DeeCee has any clue on what a rock station is. Too wonky, arrogant, and uptight to know and to appreciate even if it DID know - and it will never change. Laughable indeed. (5/6/10) Yes, the Chris Plante rant with the caller Shauna sure was priceless -- in true Chris Plante form. It was a thing of beauty. First, this mother has the 'gall' to call The Chris Plante Show with her little kids in the car. Seriously, we all know that Plante will 'tell it like it is' -- so why the hell subject the kids to that? Secondly, she stated that there's racism all over the U.S. -- that racism is alive & well -- and that she hears of all sorts of such cases in the media. Well, sure lady -- if you're watching MSNBC, CNN, ABC & the mainstream media you will no doubt hear & see that race stereotypes are perpetuated by these so-called 'journalists' and 'reporters' because that's what the liberal agenda is all about [See "Duke Lax"; "Cambridge Sgt. Crowley", for example]. Every time we see J. Jackson and Rev. Sharpton, they've got a megaphone in their hand, followed by their accomplices in the media. A good call indeed -- and an even greater reply by The Planteman.... -Silvie- (5/6/10) Seriously, can Chris Plante be this stupid? After a stupid topic concerning “reverse racism,” a “conservative” at 8;45 AM had to point out to Chris the differences between “racism” and “prejudice.” Chris started to lose it. He said “who did you vote for,” and she said “McCain/Palin.” She then told Chris that she couldn’t listen to his show with her kids in the car (she is White and has a couple of Black kids) because of Chris’ anger and tone towards Obama. “It is just mean,” she said, “and I don’t want my kids hearing that.” Ouch! Chris then lost it, and almost popped a blood vessel. He got very angry, and started yelling an incoherent babble, and was forced to go to a commercial break. It was priceless! Wow! Duckworth, you made the right decision! (5/6/10) Dave's response: There are intelligent conservatives. Plante isn't one of them. It's like listening to some dope at a dinner party blurting out his half-baked ideas he got from watching Fox News. Ugh. I don't mind listening to smart righties craft their arguments, even though I'll probably disagree. But Plante is utterly infurating in his plain old-fashioned stupidity, race-baiting, and name-calling. Totally unlistenable. I hope that WMAL's morning show advertisers are fleeing in droves, and, I'm sure, are many listeners..... John Batchelor's show is BORING! It may be informative, but only if you can stay awake. Too bad WABC got rid of Coast to Coast. Otherwise they could do the replay of the previous C2C and save paying Batchelor. Also to save even more $$$ get rid of that horrid trucker show. (5/6/10) MORRIS-NORRIS-bo-borris ... banana-fana-fo-forris ... fee-fi-mo-orris... MORRIS! Now your turn. (5/6/10) Holy carp, dcrtv dave has the mailbag turned into p.r. placement central. I'm the only one who listened to Music of your Life on WMET and have no curiousity what the new format is zzzzzzzzzzzzz and yet all these posts on the topic yuck. Hey you nerdnicks tyring to dig up p.r. for your dullard product you go away now. Radio these days sucks and most people in radio these days are boring dolts. I apparently was in error about the end of Donnie g. ending his twitter site, new stuff all the time. I'm in need of a new glasses but sure thought I read a goodbye posting from Lord Donnie the other day. Aloha. Would it be cheaper for WMAL to run Imus versus Plante. Come on knee jerks even Plante's right wingish stuff is a bit much in the mornings ain't it (5/6/10) (regarding the sale of Newsweek) I'm surprised that it and Time (and certainly US News) are still being published. We're in the age of a 24/7 news cycle and weekly newsmagazines are a throwback to a time when electronic mass media consisted of just radio. When I read the article about Newsweek, I tried to remember when I last subscribed. It was sometime back when they ran a cover story about George H.W. Bush being a wimp. What was that - the late 1980s? In a related development, it looks like Jon Meacham will have a place to land. Starting Friday night, he and Alison Stewart will co-host a new weekly show on PBS, "Need To Know". www.pbs.org... I think it will be in the same timeslot as "Bill Moyers Journal," which ended it's run last week, when Moyers retired. (5/6/10) Dave's response: Hell, I'm surprised that most mags are still publishing. I check out the newsstand at my local Barnes And Noble every few days and nobody ever seems to buy anything. People just browse. Most mags cost something like $6-$12 a pop, and are little more than a 5-10 minute read. I cancelled my last mag subscription - to Wired. I now catch it on the newsstand, and give it the 5-10 minutes it's worth and don't pay anything..... Dave: Ok, I admit-it! Yesterday afternoon I needed my daily fix of sportstalk and I actually made the mistake of listening to the "Sports Reporters" on 980. I really like Chris Knoche but his radio career took a beating yesterday. How could Snyder allow this terrible programming on his station to go-on! Pollin states a point and there's Czaban to cut him down...yes, that's the way the sportstalk format workds. However, Czaban kept reducing Pollin to micro shreds with Knoche sitting there trying to get a word-in..just a horrible listen. We know some talented people were fired from behind the scenes at 980, maybe it's time to clean-up the on-air staff and reduce the over payroll and search for better hosts. Otherwise, it's all about 106.7 until further notice. (5/6/10) INFORMATION PLEEZE- Any of the DC area stations ramping up power on their HD broadcasts? The power increase day is May 10th. I actually enjoy the HFS stream on WIAD, the Classic Country on WMZQ and the Oldies 100 (albeit a very watered down automated version) on WBIG. (5/6/10) Dave's response: WAMU is the only station that I've heard that has applied for an HD Radio power hike from the FCC..... OK, so I got to hear WMET's new programming today. First impression, meh. The morning talk show isn't bad, but its uninspired, its formulaic and it lacks decent imaging. The show segments just seem to tick down to predictable break points on the clock. Add to that WMET's typically 'safe' and bland audio processing and you have a quiet, dull station eating up 50kW. This may change later in the day, but the morning opener is certainly no grabber. If you want to hear "Christian Radio" done in a way that breaks the formula and is actually pleasant to have on, try 107.9 out of Annapolis. (5/6/10) Dave, I know that you're not really a fan of Imus, but I hope you'll allow this reminder that today marks the start of the 21st Annual Imus Radiothon, which runs through May 10th. The Radiothon benefits the Imus Ranch for Kids with Cancer, the Tomorrows Children's Fund, and the CJ Foundation for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. There are several ways to donate: 1-877-877-6464 or text IMUS to 85944, to make a $10 with your mobile phone. You can also donate online at www.imus.com or at www.wabcradio.com... (5/6/10) I would like to assist your source on the CCDC story. Participants were [deleted] and [deleted]. The story is true. (5/6/10) Dave's response: Thanks. Don't want to mention any names, you know, for legal reasons. A number of sources have told me about the big brawl. At least Clear Channel's DC radio ratings are pretty good. You'd think, instead, there'd be far more "corporate family dysfunction" at CBSDC, where their radio ratings really suck..... Source DCRTV recognized.... www.nowpublic.com (5/6/10) Dave's response: Blurb author Amy Judd is a clueless idiot for crediting FishbowlDC for the story. DCRTV broke the story and was all over it. In fact, FBDC probably got it from us. Whatever..... WMAL trying to get Plante to "tone down his intensity a little bit" and talk "slower" and "calmer" - even if such a metamorphosis could be accomplished - will not transform him into a morning drive radio host. At best, he'll remain a niche air personality, better suited to middays or nights. Sorry, but that's simply the truth of the matter. (5/6/10) Thanks for including. York just came out too. Though 60% of my business is in Washington I regularly plan and buy media in the HLLY DMA which includes 3 radio metros. Gail (5/6/10) Just read in the Post where a soldier was coming home early, wanted to surprise his Redskins cheerleader wife, WJLA was contacted to cover the story and was refused by the Redskins. Why?..Because the Redskins would only allow NBC4 (their broadcast partner) to cover it..As per the article, it got pretty ugly with accusations that if the soldier's wife even talked to WJLA, she'd be fired as a cheerleader..So NBC4 did the story. And Dan Snyder has supposedly offered an apology for blocking WJLA..What a dick.. (5/6/10) RE: "Hot 99.5 veteran Chris Styles gets a Saturday evening "mix" show on dance formatted MIX 2, the HD2 of Baltimore's WWMX, Mix 106.5.." Well, too bad no one listens and cares about HD2 (5/6/10) Last (Rant) word: concede, not concede. FWIW: Big fan of your site. No, I haven’t paid. I guess you can stop reading now. Sorry… I listen to WMAL almost exclusively. Try to cut them a little slack: largely local, or at least important to DC programming! It more or less sells. I don’t know why people listen to WTOP. I think it’s boring. And Rush – maybe he is a blowhard, sometimes, but look at it from a radio standpoint. Isn’t he a master at the microphone? You try going live for 3 hours a day, when you’re deaf! And how come you never mention John Batchelor, live in only two markets (here and NYC)? Intellectual (well, sorta) discussion, with a viewpoint. I think Diane Rehm is boring, too, but I acknowledge that she’s a good interviewer. Is Batchelor any different? So WMAL has a lot of righty’s . With this, they have many listeners. It isn’t background music, or stunts. It’s one person with a microphone, an antenna, and a few (well, a lot) of people with receivers, listening. You may not personally agree with any of it, but don’t you admire it professionally, as a unique and successful holdover from a better time of radio? Best, Keith Perkins, Alexandria (5/6/10) /\ May 6 Messages /\ \/ May 5 Messages \/ "We also hear that WMAL is trying to get Plante to "tone down his intensity a little bit" and talk "slower" and "calmer"....." Well Dave, if that IS your real name, that might require Silvie and/or "Number One" slipping some of THIS into Chris "Not Bill" Plante's Cheerios every morning: www.wsu.edu (5/5/10) IT'S DONE! As of 30 minutes ago (3:30pm) , Hampton University’s 88.1 WHOV is now STREAMING WORLDWIDE on the web at www.WHOV.org. “This is a soft launch. Once the content is tweaked and polished we will begin an aggressive promotion and marketing campaign internally and externally. Dr. Harvey, Thank You For Believing in The Vision. Alumni Spread The Word! You should be proud of your alma mater Hampton University's New 88.1 WHOV. GOD Is So Good. Thank You Father! The Best Is Yet To Come!” Station Manager Jay Lang, Sharon T.C. Pitt, Shemar Woods & Cheryl Wilkerson will host this Sunday’s (5/9) commencement broadcast live as President Barack Obama delivers the commencement speech. Next week the new on air studio hits the airwaves. WHOV is 1st and only station in Hampton Roads broadcasting in Digital Fiber Optic Stereo. (5/5/10) Quote from Dave: "We also hear that WMAL is trying to get Plante to "tone down his intensity a little bit" and talk "slower" and "calmer". I'm laughing about this. The Planteman would never agree to change his ways. I cannot see him even modifying who he is. If he's asked to do this, and complies, then good & kudos for him. But, in essence, a bit of the Real Chris Plante would 'die' if he changes who he is. LET CHRIS PLANTE BE CHRIS PLANTE! I smell a news talk radio station Reality Show in the works for the future... focusing, of course, on the realities of the cut-throat radio business, and their fan base & marketing. Feliz Cinco de Mayo, David! -Silvie- (5/5/10) Another Verizon FIOS Rant: Dave, Once again Verizon looks bad. As I have noted earlier on this very mailbag page, Verizon does not carry MASN 2 HD in the DC area. That means when the Nationals (the hometown team) are on MASN 2, it’s in 1960’s standard def technology. For some strange reason Mediacom Cable system in Bethany, DE has both MASN HD and MASN 2 HD. How bad does Verizon look now? It gets worse when there’s a Verizon FIOS commercial during the game advertising their great HD service. DC (5/5/10) I left work too late to hear WMET's Music of Yer Life format. When I got out around 4:50PM, there was only dead air on 1160. Skipping around thru my usual stations on my drive home, it stayed dead right up to my driveway at 6PM. That Windows "error bonk" could have been avoided by a conscientious operator being on duty. Was there one who knew what to do? Anyone from WMET care to chime in? Anyone still work at WMET? Not a very auspicious debut in DC for this outfit. (5/5/10) WMET was still playing Music Of Your Life this afternoon, but of note, for some reason the Microsoft Windows error chime would broadcast about every 30 seconds. They must have the MOYL feed patched through a computer? Any ideas why this format did not work in DC? Lack of marketing and/or promotion? The dreaded brokered/ethnic programming that would split it up into weird blocks of MOYL? Speaking of such programming - it's interesting how 920's nightime signal travels well into Fairfax County. Whatever they are playing on there sounds like an endless loop of Moody Blues' Knights In White Satin - but in espanol. (poster formerly known as MLB4) (5/5/10) The University of Maryland's Human-Computer Interaction Lab sponsors a day of volunteer service May 26. HCIL volunteers will be leading design sessions across the DC and Maryland areas to help people get started redesigning everything from Internet services to databases. The nonprofit/government agencies receiving aid include Thrive DC, the Nonprofit Village, CASA de Maryland, WAMU-FM, Kids.gov and the National Park Service Interpretation and Education Program. For more information contact Dr. Allison Druin Director, Human-Computer Interaction Lab at allisond@umiacs.umd.edu or by calling 301-405-7406. (5/5/10) Re: www.radio-info.com and their one account per household rule...actually more and more websites are doing this sort of thing, come to think of it I believe www.roadfood.com was the first one who did this several years back. Of course those who defend this practice they tend to say "..its a good idea..they just don't want to get sued" Of course if one asks those webmasters/moderators of such sites the question "..being sued for what?" they can't answer it. I used to be a webmaster/moderator myself and I am the first one to admit that I detested whenever I saw several postings coming from the same isp address BUT I also would put it into consideration that those posts could had came from a one computer-multiple member household too such as that husband-wife, two gay partners or even two roommates. In other words, its very stupid to "ban" people right and left thinking that those multiple messages that came from a single isp address because one just assumes right off the bat those postings had came from one single person who doesn't have a life. Remember the word "assume" means making an "ass" out of "u" and "me". Nah radio-info.com dropped the ball here, but there are similar sites like www.radioinsight-com. Its not like they are the only game in town anyway. (5/5/10) *** so no, they didn't "cut the free cable years ago" as that mailbagger suggested. *** I’ve been with them for 7 years and YES, it was a few years ago they cut off the FREE aspect, but continued to offer at a very reduced rate. (5/5/10) Re "WMAL is trying to get Plante to "tone down his intensity a little bit" and talk "slower" and "calmer"....." Very interesting: 1. Then he won't be Plante. 2. Then he'll need/deserve a bigger salary, and they might be almost back to where they started. (5/5/10) OMG. This whole WMAL morning thing is like a group of monkeys trying to fuck a football. Plante is not a morning show star and never will be. You either got it or you don't - and he don't. And, keeping Grandy around to 'groom' Plante is the dumbest idea I have ever heard. What is in it for Fred? Clearly, by what has happened already on the air, Grandy and Plante want nothing to do with each other. I'm sorry, but Washington is not a market where you learn how to be a morning man on the job. Last I checked this was the major leagues. Sheesh. Even the Nats are smart enough to give Strasburg a little seasoning before calling him up. Wouldn't you love to be a gnat (chortle) on the wall at a WMAL staff meeting? Trying to convince the troops that this is just the ticket to raise those ratings from dismal to mediocre. This is turning out to be another case study of how NOT to run a radio station. (5/5/10) It could be that DCRTV has reported this already, but I have noticed that within the past few days that WTEM is no longer broadcasting their digital signal. I don't have a digital radio receiver but now there is no "hash" on either side of the 980 frequency using an analog radio. A blessed change! (5/5/10) Dave's response: And nobody but you noticed. A great testimony to the popularity of HD Radio. Ha ha ha..... Been listening to WIAD's HD2 "HFS" for a couple of weeks and they've been playing some damn fine music from a very deep playlist. New stuff, old stuff, almost never hear a repeat. I wrote them off when they started but they have really changed their programming for the better. They have a strong signal here in the west end of Ballston in Arlington. By comparison I used to listen to the erockster feed on DC101's HD2 but couldn't get a decent signal in the house. Robert, Arlington (5/5/10) I am seriously pissed. Each morning at 7:30 AM my wife and I play the game “where’s Holly?’ We each bet on what Holly Morris is up to that day by picking one of five Holly categories: A) Fun, whacky Holly (like Holly in an amusement park or at a circus) B) Holly in her element (Holly in a church, having tea at a hotel, discussing wedding cake, Holly exercising, you get the drift) C) Holly supports education (Holly with students, telling them how fabulous they are) D) practical Holly (Holly talking about how to pack a suitcase, change motor oil, etc) or E) Nature Holly (Holly pruning trees, Holly visiting a farm). Well, today was special- it is Cinco de Mayo! So, my wife and I took a different bet; “We know it will be “Fun whacky Holly” today, and will have something to do wit Cinco de Mayo. The bet was; how far into the segment will they go before Holly mentions “Margaritia’s!”? I said 60-90 seconds, my wife sad over 90 seconds. So, where is Holly on Cinco de Mayo, you ask? Packing up a house for sale! Even my wife said that assignment today was just stupid. We were looking for the fun whacky Holly at a Party, but it didn’t happen. Anyone else get really disappointed with Holly's assignment this morning? (5/5/10) "The O's are still heard on 92-5 WICO-FM but that signal does not reach Ocean City or any of Sussex County, DE" Wow buddy, get yourself a real radio. I can listen to 92.5 all over Sussex County with the exception of maybe Rehoboth/Lewes. They have these new things out now with digital displays. You can actually tune your radio right to 92.5. (5/5/10) Clear Channel's new 95-9 The Sports Animal dropped the Orioles like 12 games in. So there goes them having a big presence on Delmarva. The O's are still heard on 92-5 WICO-FM but that signal does not reach Ocean City or any of Sussex County, DE including the DE beaches because of 92-7 WGMD. (5/5/10) A few weeks ago something was on your dcrtv page about the nationals radio games being heard on hd radio do you have a date because I am a Washington Nationals fan and I am very angry with the way the I can not get games on radio I enjoy the tv side still but I would love some answers from someone as to what they plan to do make a permanent fix for the nats games why not use 106.7 they had the caps for some regular season games and playoffs and still have bonneville produce the games something needs to be done before Stan Kasten Mark Lerner and the rest of the nats front office start losing fans I get the orioles in woodbridge I do not want them I want the nationals games... (5/5/10) Dave, John Kelly echoed Carol Joynt in HIS column yesterday, Tuesday, May 4th—in The Washington Post. Here’s what I’m hearing from many journalists in the D.C. and Baltimore regions—including from those who actually attend the WHCA dinner---the entire thing has become one huge, stinking pile of crap and a huge embarrassment for real journalism. It no longer represents what it’s supposed to represent: journalism. In recent years, I’ve known scores of talented, hard-working journalists—real, journalists, not TelePrompTer-reading poseur journalists—who have been fired, forced out, bought out and put out on the street, coldly. Many, if not most, of these fired journalists were put out on the street by the morons who were concurrently buying over-priced tables at the WHCA dinner and spending money on flying in many no-talent, moronic poseur “celebrities” who have zero to do with journalism, government or politics. Nothing, zero, nada. It’s a huge mess, it’s a huge embarrassment, and that’s the feeling being expressed this year, last year, and for many years, to be honest, by scores of journalists—at all levels—throughout the D.C. and Baltimore areas for years now. Someone needs to take notice, tone this thing down, forget the celebrities—and get the dinner back to its roots—which is journalism. If they don’t, it will remain, for most people, one huge stinking embarrassment. (5/5/10) IN RE Rant - The Post has ignored local radio for years. There was a time when they had an actual beat reporter who took the time to understand the industry (Marc Fisher, Jeffrey Yorke, etc). But that stopped a while ago. Farhi does not understand radio. The reason this happens is simple -money. for years, the Post and local radio have competed for the same ad dollars. Local radio reps routinely scoured the Post pages for leads. Even though the Post out billed local radio they chose to treat a medium that had more listeners than they had readers as if it weren't there. This is why, for example, the Post was so bullish on satellite radio in the early days. They were hoping this would sound a death knell for local radio - or at least put a crimp in the ad dollars going to radio. Even their dalliance with Bonneville was more about extending the Post brand than gaining any foothold on the radio dial. And, I'm sure there is ego involved, too. more people get their news from WTOP than they do from the Post. What is ironic - or hypocritical - about this is that the Post has no problem getting their sports reporters all over The Fan and WTEM. The Post, like so many other declining industries, is holding on to its arrogance as its influence wanes. (5/5/10) POWER Outage Hits Ballston - Network unaffected: A street-level electrical distribution point blew out in Ballston just before 10:30 this morning, affecting buildings in and around the Glebe Road/Fairfax Drive/Rt 66 interchange; including the 16-story "CACI Building" where the Radio America Network is based. Listeners to the syndicated G. Gordon Liddy show were unaware of any problem, as emergency power systems immediately took over and kept the network on the air without interruption. Power returned shortly before 12 noon. (5/5/10) Dave's response: Holy crap! You mean Liddy still does a radio show? Wow..... “Rant. Holy sh*t! The Washington Post actually gets around to mentioning something about some pretty major news at one of Washington's major radio stations.” Dave, I won’t argue that WMAL isn’t still a “major signal.” But when you’re talking about a #11 morning act on a #14 radio station (Yeah it’s 12+ but with no sellable demo rankings, either), it’s no longer a “major radio station.” By the same standard—success 30+ years ago—WEAM/WZHF is still a “major radio station,” but ten bucks says no one on this board has tuned to 1390 since The WEAM Team hung up their jocks straps… (5/5/10) Dave, Talkingpointsmemo.com's Josh Marshall has an interesting take on Politico's WaPo online takedown. He's wondering "[w]ho's going to write the piece about the Politico using most of its 'media coverage' to attack its competitors?" I saw the Sun do something similar when the Baltimore edition of the Examiner launched several years ago. The Sun put an investigative team on the Examiner to "expose" its hiring and workplace practices. Howie (5/5/10) After the Howard Kurtz column in the Post about "Cheerleadergate" & WRC, I hope his colleagues will realize the next time they fawn over Lindsay Czarniak's big Redskins scoop, they'll realize she was spoon-fed her "scoop".. Loves me some LC but let's be realistic.. It's paycheck journalism @ its finest/worst for the Skins' "media partners" and this incident was just the first one to attract attention outside the realm of sports... Semper Fi! (5/5/10) Dave's response: Mike Wise, who works for the Washington Post, today on WJFK hypes a piece by fellow Postie Howie Kurtz that slams the Redskins, who own Wise's sports radio rival, WTEM. Everybody's just wallowing in conflict of interest manure. Face it, you're ALL fuckin' hacks..... Regarding the post about Lyndsy Czarniak now being the primary sports anchor, it does appear that she's been given that role..Helle's given minimum face time and Hakem even less than that..Also, it appears to me that ever since the news being made public that Lyndsy Czarniak was dating Craig Melvin, that whenever they're on air together, their interaction seems somewhat awkward.. (5/5/10) According to their bylines and contributing writers listed it took eight Post reporters to cover the murder of the UVA lacrosse player. (5/5/10) Dave's response: Hey, when beautiful young white people get murdered, media outlets devote a lot of their resources to coverage. That's just a fact of today's journalism..... Gee Dave, WaPo online hires a libertarian as part of an alleged leftward move and Politico is all over it. The dead tree edition of WaPo continues to hire every single former Bushie they can find for the op-ed and we hear crickets. The online should have just kept Froomkin, BTW. Howie (5/5/10) Anyone know what time WMET was supposed to throw the switch on its new religious format? As of 8:20 AM Weds morning, we were still getting Music of Your Life instead of Big Daddy, Junior and The Spook. (5/5/10) Dave's response: I just saw the Popemobile heading north on the American Legion Bridge, heading from Dulles. So, if the traffic isn't too heavy on outbound 270, I guess Mr. Ratzinger could throw the switch at the Gaithersburg station later this morning, God willing..... Snip: "No thanks - I'll pass".= Definition!!! ostrich , or -trich·es . A large, swift-running flightless bird (Struthio camelus) of Africa, characterized by a long bare neck, small head, and two-toed feet that tends to bury it's head in the sand when frightened. BTW, of the shooters mentioned, only one was an NRA member. Don't know about the other 12???? that you couldn't remember(probably sand in your ears) (5/5/10) Someone earlier had brought up the website "radio-info.com"..ah please be advised they have been on a very big kick lately of banning people from using their fourms and even checking out their news items. My boss was banned last night. Crime? His wife was also a member of Radio-Info. Seems that Radio-Info considers it a "violation of multiple accounts" which goes against the rules even if we are talking about a husband and his wife who share the same PC which many couples do. I guess now in this age of "tracing IP addresses", if two people within the same household wanted to be a part of that site, and they share a PC, guess it can't be done. (5/5/10) RE: [All I can say is you better pray that if the issues become survival someone you know is an NRA member, and cares about you.] No thanks - I'll pass. Considering the reasoning of the killer at the Holocaust Museum, the ultra right winger in Stanton Heights PA who murdered three police officers under the delusion that Obama was coming to take away his guns, the nut who went on a killing spree at an Illinois church, the murders at a day care center in Florida, and about a dozen other high profile incidents in the last ten years, I know where to properly place my concerns. The undeniable fact is, America has lost far more innocent souls since 911 at the hand of ultra right-wing extremists with an axe to grind and an NRA card than any foreign-based act of terrorism on our soil. When it comes to my survival, I'll happily place my trust my government and my military to handle the terrorists...what I fear more is the unpredictability and questionable mental stability of right wing whack-a-doos with a gun in hand and an amped-up case of paranoia. Frankly, they are the ones that scare the shit out of me. (5/5/10) Dave's response: Getting off-topic..... It just dawned on me that another idea for 630 WMAL would be to get the station's "Pet Liberal" Jerry Klein back on-air with Chris Plante for a morning show together, and then Plante can have his few hours by himself in mid-morning. This is all subject to Fred Grandy eventually leaving, which I'm not sure if that will occur. The new morning format is fine by me, and it's actually 'growing on me'... -Silvie- (5/5/10) Dave's response: I can't listen to Plante alone. I turned on WMAL at 7:25 this morning and bailed for the Junks at 7:40. If the Junks suck, I fire up the satrad for Stern. Update: They did, and I went to Stern at 7:48..... Has Ms. Czarniak become primary sports anchor? Does Hellie's contract expire before Ms. Czarniak's? Do the folks at channel 4 have a fashion or color coordinator to advise on air folks what they should and should not wear so it don't clash with the new studio? So I assume that channel 4 and channel 9 are going to go with the 3 weather anchors. Do the Sports Junkies get a piece of the action on the Junkies Poker Open that they seem to be constantly plugging? Did the dcrtv dave go to the Junkies Spring Break party? If I go to a doctor in D.C. for my bad arthuritis for a medical maryjane prescription can I still fill it if I live in Virginia. (5/5/10) Joe I echo your sentiments of Mr. Harwell's passing. Not many remember that he (not Chuck Thompson) became one of the Orioles first broadcasters after the old St. Louis Browns moved to Baltimore in 1954. A very classy gentleman. Rusty Gibson (5/5/10) Hooray for Lauren Sapienza! Another WQSR Goodtime Oldies Alumni who survived! I've still have your ID on tape/CD! (5/5/10) (RE this: Think there was some bad info on that Comcast taking away free/reduced cable from their employees story. Doesn’t make much sense anyways. Comcast has 80,000 + employees? They cut the free cable years ago but offer it at a very discounted rate. Why would they cut the discounted rate, pissing off employees and having them switch to a competitor? Comcast getting a reduced amount of $$ is better then getting nothing right??) i can attest to the fact that, at least up til a year ago, comcast was giving employees free cable and internet. i worked there for a very brief time (i hated it) but i did indeed get the free cable and internet. so no, they didn't "cut the free cable years ago" as that mailbagger suggested. (5/5/10) /\ May 5 Messages /\ \/ May 4 Messages \/ Sad news: baseball broadcasting legend Ernie Harwell has passed away. www.washingtonpost.com... Sincerely, Joe Kasell (5/4/10) (regarding a previous post) "Chris Plante this morning on WMAL says he believes that any American citizen who allgedly commits a crime like the attempt to bomb Times Square last weekend should be stripped of his citizenship and be sent to Gitmo and be tortured." All the panic and fear being generated here, by something this ass clown said, reminds me of 1938 and Orson Welles' 'War of the Worlds' broadcast! Folks, it's just a radio program! Calm down. Barely anyone listens to this crap and an even smaller number take anything he says seriously. Any master plan proposed by Plante to deal with this (or any of the many other things he sees as being wrong with America) are about as likely to be implemented as it is likely that a squadron of flying monkeys will fly out of my ass - in formation - singing, in four-part harmony, 'I'm Proud To Be An American'. (5/4/10) "don't get angry, get even...don't get mad get even..BIG difference???? All I can say is you better pray that if the issues become survival someone you know is an NRA member, and cares about you. I'm sure you served in the peace movements. (not the military-You'll lie) You have no idea how stupid you are. Mis-quoting something has nothing to do with anything. Watching this country going the way it is, due to management is totally insane. And, to believe you're safe..LMAO!. (5/4/10) RE: [There is an old adage..."Don't get angry Get Even".] Oh, one last thing and then I am done...I just realized that you got your quote wrong too. The quote isn't "Don't get angry, get even"...it is, "Don't get mad, get even". Surprisingly, the quote isn't really that old either...It was spoken by a young man by the name of Daniel Simpson Day, who attended Faber College in 1963. That's right...it was a line from the movie "Animal House". How fitting...much like the entire basis of your misguided rage, the adage you chose to build your whole argument on turned out to be a classic work of fiction! Who you gonna quote for us next? Jack Bauer? (5/4/10) RE: [Our founders..Washington, Franklin, Jefferson..etc would have pulled the trigger on a traitor with no hesitation.] Rather than refute your silly assumption myself, I will allow the eloquent words of three simple men to prove how utterly blinded by hatred you really are; “The administration of justice is the firmest pillar of government” - George Washington; “The best principles of our republic secure to all its citizens a perfect equality of rights.” - Thomas Jefferson; and I especially like this one: “Without justice, courage is weak.” - Benjamin Franklin. Now, I suppose if these three "BLEEDING HEARTS" were alive today, you and those who think like you would spit on them, brand them "Socialists", and "Tea Party" their asses out of office for the offense of having the audacity to disagree with your narrow interpretation of reality. So endeth the lesson. You may sit down now. (5/4/10) Aw shucks, looks like Donnie G. has shut down his Twitter page with nary an explanation. Bummer! I still marvel at how Chris Plante can talk for minutes at a time without pause or to take a breath. Is he an alien? And O'Meara is chummy with Seagraves who took Chris Core's place. (5/4/10) Hi, I’m trying to get any information/pictures/sound tapes you may have of my father, Bob Kelly. He worked in the DC area in the 60’s. I do know that he was at WRC and have “Joy Boy” info/pic about him. Any information you have would be greatly appreciated. He passed away in the early 80’s. Thanks, Kathleen Kelly, kkelly@moorscabot.com (5/4/10) To "GOD HELP US ALL" Be sure, ...we are at that gate right now. If we don't move quickly we are facing the end. Our founders..Washington, Franklin, Jefferson..etc would have pulled the trigger on a traitor with no hesitation. I will go with a speedy and fair trial (3 days) then sentence. Firing Squad, Guillotine..whatever, you bleeding hearts are what's wrong with this country. There is an old adage..."Don't get angry Get Even". The terrorists are living next door to us now and that's not paranoia, that's fact. I'll keep my guns, you keep the change". Not a Conservative-A Soldier for Our Country. I already know you'll come back BLEEDING HEART AND ALL. I'm done. (5/4/10) I was listening to Plante this morning while dodging beltway traffic. If I recall correctly, he was referring to Faisal Shahzad being a recent naturalized US citizen. I got the impression he was talking about stripping Shahzad of his citizenship, not just anyone he doesn't like. (5/4/10) "In any other country in the world they'd shoot the bastid (sic)" Not really. Actually, according to infoplease, some 137 countries have NO death penalty. In America, many states have no death penalty either. This includes states as disparate as Alaska, West Virginia, and the state of our President's birth, Hawaii. So to summarize: Most of the world has no death penalty. Those that do are, for the most part, third world. Afghanistan, for example, executes someone who commits apostasy (look it up.) The Central African Republic will execute you for practicing witchcraft (no wonder medicine men are disappearing.) Note to Dave: don't plan a vacation in Somalia or Yemen; Being gay in those countries is a capital offense. ACH (5/4/10) From Radioinfo.com - Latest hiccup in Citadel's Chapter 11: Oak Ridge FM Inc. wants its $142,503 - Citadel has been LMA'ing Knoxville-market talk WNOX, Oak Ridge, TN (100.3) for five years, paying $60,000 a month in LMA fees. Licensee Oak Ridge FM is aware that Citadel intends to “reject the LMA” going forward, as it’s allowed to do under the conditions of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy. But it says in the meantime, Citadel “has not paid the monthly fees due for April and May”, nor has it paid $22,503.47 in administrative expenses. The Oak Ridge owner says “expenses of administration incurred for the purpose of preserving the estate are required to be paid on the effective date of the plan.” Instead, Citadel proposes to pay “as soon as practicable” – which is enough motivation for Oak Ridge FM to file a “limited objection” to court confirmation of the overall Citadel Chapter 11 plan. -Shawn (5/4/10) Dave, maybe Fred Grandy does have "family issues". So what's the big deal? What if Chris Plante calls in sick next week because -- GASP! -- he's really sick? Are you going to assume that Bryan Nehman bumped him off so that he can control and be the main morning man? Or how about if Nehman himself calls in sick -- who will cover the 5-6am slot? Oh the Humanity! -Sillvie- (5/4/10) Dave, I respect you totally, and consider you a good friend, BUT your response is what’s wrong with the country. This “alleged” captive, was going to take away the citizenship of anyone close enough to blow up, and cause immense suffering for families and friends. Justice, is Justice. We have turned into a country of “conscientious objectors”. In any other country in the world they’d shoot the bastid. We are already going to “hell in a handbasket”. Just look around. (5/4/10) Think there was some bad info on that Comcast taking away free/reduced cable from their employees story. Doesn’t make much sense anyways. Comcast has 80,000 + employees? They cut the free cable years ago but offer it at a very discounted rate. Why would they cut the discounted rate, pissing off employees and having them switch to a competitor? Comcast getting a reduced amount of $$ is better then getting nothing right?? (5/4/10) RE: [The statement from Chris Plante about “Gitmo”. To me personally is right on target for the offense he was referring to. Someone trying to BOMB NY’s Time Square or any part of our country should be put in front of a fireing squad. That person is a traitor or a terrorist! In my book as an ex-serviceman I’d volunteer to have the rifle with the bullet in it.] Apparently, unlike the true "patriot" that Plante professes himself to be, Chris has substantial issues with several sections of the Constitution. 5th Amendment: "No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law." and the 6th Amendment: "In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy trial, by an impartial jury....and be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation..and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense." Now, I may just be one of those stupid "libruls" Plante loves to demonize and belittle, but I believe that the intent of the Founding Fathers is clear and unambiguous. They set forth rules that pretty much guarantee that we do not take short cuts; the Constitution isn't a "pick and choose" document. You either support it as a whole, or you don't. Apparently, Plante believes that despite the clear instructions left by the Framers, he and those who think like him should have the freedom to ignore the inconvenient parts at-will, and with situational logic. Here lies the conundrum: If America were to adopt a Plante-ian interpretation of the founding documents, where will we, as Americans, choose to set as a limit for stripping any fellow American of citizenship at will in order to dispatch that person with swift, unconstitutional posse justice? Seems Plante already believes the upper limit of that boundary at attempted murder...the question is, how much lower would Plante and people like him set the standard? Look, America is a nation of laws, bound by ironclad convictions. Americans follow the rules not because it is easy and convenient to do so, we follow them because it is the right thing to do. If you and Chris Plante believe that the only route in battling terrorism is for us to abandon our core principles and act just like terrorists, then you have just handed the terrorists the exact victory they were fighting to achieve. If the day ever comes when your flawed and faulted "logic" prevails over reason and justice, God help us all. (5/4/10) WOW. Shep Smith is REALLY "getting off" on reading tele-prompter stories/over-hyping/implying stuff about this failed Times Square terrorist incident. (is Shep a wannabe Jack Bauer...?) (5/4/10) (From DCRTV's Classified Ads:) Producer. Director. Advertising. Music Videos. 20 year Broadcast Media pro. Fulltime. Part time. Freelance. See my work here. www.sultanofsuave.com lloyd@sultanofsuave.com Lloyd Lyles 301.523.4743 Throw the dog a bone. (5/4/10) The statement from Chris Plante about “Gitmo”. To me personally is right on target for the offense he was referring to. Someone trying to BOMB NY’s Time Square or any part of our country should be put in front of a fireing squad. That person is a traitor or a terrorist! In my book as an ex-serviceman I’d volunteer to have the rifle with the bullet in it. (5/4/10) Dave's response: I realize that it's an emotional issue, but we are a nation of laws. And you simply cannot strip an American citizen of his citizenship and ship him to Gitmo - as Plante allegedly suggested - simply because you suspect him of a crime, however heinous. If we trash the Constitution and allow that, we can pretty much kiss our precious freedoms goodbye..... (The ratings for WMAL and WRQX-FM are not bad.) Ed, the numbers you see for WMAL are 12+ numbers. The numbers you DON'T see (because you would have to pay a lot of money to get them) are the ones that buying decisions are made on. And in demos like adults 25-54, WMAL cannot be said to have numbers that "are not bad." They are bad. WRQX, on the other hand, has money demo numbers that are quite good. (5/4/10) Dave's response: And I think that's why bankrupt Citadel is "cleaning house" of its high-priced local talent at WMAL and not doing the same thing at WRQX. Much to Jack Diamond's relief..... Instead of labeling everyone you disagree with as Hitler and every political view you don't like as fascism why don't you step away from talk radio for a minute and take a breath. Revoking someone citizenship is not unprecedented and was done in 2002 to John Demjanjuk for lying about his role in the Holocaust. It is a stretch that Faisal Shahzad lied about his intentions when he took an oath to become an a American ? Plante is most likely an ideologue not unlike your self but he knows exactly what's he doing because you are still listening. (5/4/10) Chris Plante this morning on WMAL says he believes that any American citizen who allgedly commits a crime like the attempt to bomb Times Square last weekend should be stripped of his citizenship and be sent to Gitmo and be tortured. Do Plante really want the US govt to be able to strip any citizen of his US citizenship instantly and at will? That's just boldfaced fascism. "Ooops, we don't like your political views. You're no longer a citizen and you're being deported to Cuba." Plante isn't just a nutjob, he's Hitler! (5/4/10) It's interesting that the Post's Paul Farhi Monday took the President to task for NOT being self-deprecating enough in his WHCA speech where he addressed and mocked some of his critics. And yet today, Tom Shales praises Obama for his "self-assured, self-deprecation." Does it matter? Not sure it does, since it's already forgotten but I'd side with Shales having read and seen the speech. ACH (5/4/10) A Brief Message From The Deck - Notice the upper-right corner of the video pane where it said "Twit Vid"? Truth in advertising at last... (5/4/10) Dave's response: You know, if the rumblings are true that Geronimo might be buying WQMR, an FMer in Ocean City, I think that would be a great move for the "radio god." He could re-launch his show on the station, and then anyone around the country, including DC, could stream it. He could also invite the old WJFK gang, including Mike O'Meara, to join him on the station. And work to syndicate the shows. Honestly, I think that would be a better plan for him than to look to work for someone else in this recessionary radio environment. Yeah, it would be a big financial risk for Don, but if it succeeds, the payoff - egowise, especially - would be big. Plus, he'd get to be his own boss and do radio the way he really wants to, without some corporate dickhead from NYC always getting on his case. If he hires the right people to manage the station and gets some cool investors lined up, it could actually work..... As everybody now knows, a car bomb drama was unfolding in Times Square in New York on Saturday evening, as the White House Corespondents Dinner was underway in DC. I had the TV tuned to C-SPAN and wasn't really paying too much attention to what was going on, prior to the start of the presentations and then, the bits, but at two points I noticed that President Obama got up and left the dais. I figured that he went to take a leak or to have a quick smoke, but now it seems that he was probably stepping out for updates on the NYC situation. I haven't noticed any reporting on this. Has it been mentioned anywhere? (5/4/10) Comcast taking away Free cable TV from employees? I recently retired from Comcast and was told that I would get all of my stations including premiums for a year. Then I would revert to free basic cable. Seems Comcast is about to screw the employees big time. Well I think the people up at Corporate in Philadelphia could not care less about its employees and unfortunately it's all about the bottom line. Sure is different than when I was hired in 1997. (5/4/10) In response to Ed Montgomery's post. Did Disney see radio's demise coming? Perhaps. More likely they didn't see radio's growth as fitting with their company plan. Note that ABC did keep several radio stations to use with their Radio disney brand. The simple explanation is that Citadel made an offer that was too good to refuse. It was also an offer that was to big to sustain. Citadel - like Clear Channel, Cumulus , Regent, etc.- simply overextended. Their notes were too high to cover with their cash flow. Locally, Citadel is in a real mess. WMAL is in the crapper and their numbers show it. WRQX is wholly dependent on The Jack Diamond Morning Show. The Edge is actually making progress but will never be a player. The chances of liquidation are small because the prices are too small to sell. Radio stations are sold on multiples of cash flow. In the glory days those multiples could climb as high as 12. Now they are in the 3-5 range. The banks that own Citadel are going to wait until that changes. In the meantime, Citadel will be run in the manner it has been. (5/4/10) If Good Morning Washington on WJLA has poor ratings could there soon be changes to the Allison Starling /Doug McKelway team? Let Lisa Baden move along very nicely thank you very much and have Lauren DeMarco take over the traffic and someone just a wee bit more sexier than Brian VanDerGraff doing the weather? BTWS, John in Baltimore,the Gresemun seems to be doing alright on the Jacksonville FLA rock station these days. As for the twitvid from Donnie G.l ooks like he got some of the crazy in his eyes. (5/4/10) The internet feed of WMAL is still muting at 12:00, evidently due to distribution rights for "Coast to Coast." Were they not playing the John Batchelor show at this hour, or did I dream that? -Chainsman (5/4/10) Thanks for the info on Craig Windham's new NPR duties. Anytime his name is out there, we should also reference his fine pre-public-radio work at WASH-FM. For that matter, let's also recall Lakshmi Singh's efforts at VOA. It was a pleasure to work with both of them. Best wishes from someone who "knew them when..." --Dave Arlington (5/4/10) well now that Bobby Allbritton has had his time to shine in the spotlight of Washington's elite and Hollywood royalty, I wonder how many more people at good ole WJLA and Newschannel 8 will lose their jobs because he wanted to look good for all these people. Need we remind you that it was less then 6 years ago, he had to pay a stiff (and i do mean STIFF) fine and other money totally $25 million for concealing and illegally facilitating money from former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. (go to www.wikipedia.com and type in Riggs Bank). Yeah, I would love to hang out with phonies like Robert and Elena Allbritton. Sure do feel sorry for all those poor saps who work for him. See you next year at your brunch, Bobby! (5/4/10) /\ May 4 Messages /\ \/ May 3 Messages \/ RE: [Well, Mr/Mrs/Miss Horseshit, can you recall any oil spills in US waters of biblical proportions since the Exxon Valdez? I don't seem to recall any.] First rule of interrogatory is that you should never ask a question that you do not already know the answer to. What would you consider to be "biblical" proportions? Here's a measure even a pinhead can't argue - Exxon Valdez released 10M gallons. An "Olympic Swimming Pool" (from here on referred to as an OSP) contains approx. 660,000 gallons. That means the Valdez spilled enough to fill 15 OSPs. Working backwards in time from today to then, here's a listing of some of the major oil spills; Aug.-Sept, 2005 - New Orleans, Louisiana: The Coast Guard estimated that more than 7 million gallons (11 OSPs) of oil were spilled during Hurricane Katrina from various sources, including pipelines, storage tanks and industrial plants. June 8. 1990 - Galveston, Tex.: Mega Borg released 5.1 million gallons of oil (8 OSPs) some 60 nautical miles south-southeast of Galveston as a result of an explosion and subsequent fire in the pump room. Aug. 10, 1993 - Tampa Bay, Fla.: three ships collided, the barge Bouchard B155, the freighter Balsa 37, and the barge Ocean 255. TheBouchard spilled an estimated 336,000 gallons (.5 OSPs) of No. 6 fuel oil into Tampa Bay. Dec. 7, 1994 - Unalaska, Aleutian Islands, Alaska: A major storm pushed the M/V Selendang Ayu up onto a rocky shore, breaking it in two. 337,000 gallons (.5 OSPs) of oil were released, most of which was driven onto the shoreline of Makushin and Skan Bays. Cumulatively, there have been about 25 million gallons of oil - nearly 40 Olympic Swimming pools spilled into U.S. waters - I don't know about you, but those numbers appear to be pretty "biblical" to me. As I said, never ask such a stupid question unless you already know the answer. (5/3/10) A brief message from the deck... (5/3/10) I was not pleased with the shake up at WMAL, releasing Andy Parks, and before that Chris Core but I am wondering what is going on at the management level at Citadal. It appeared that the radio division of Disney-ABC was operating at a profit when it was sold. Was this just an appearance? Did Disney do what Goldman-Sachs is accused of - "selling short", realizing that the radio business was not going to continue as a cash cow and dumping it before it became a liability? One has to wonder. The ratings for WMAL and WRQX-FM are not bad. Their commercial rate cards have to reflect this. The other former ABC O and O's are in major cities with excellent coverage areas. So what happened? Why is Citadal in the tank? Do they owe more than what the total value of their properties are now worth? I haven't read much about this. I've read of Citadal being kicked off the NYSE and that they are reorganizing in bankruptcy. WMAL is airing a "change of ownership" announcement. Yet I can't figure out what is going on. Does anybody know what Citadal specifically did to get in this mess? Liquidation of the properties would be a way to get out of it. I don't think Citadal would qualify as being "too big to fail". Ed Montgomery (5/3/10) Dullard, you are definitely on to something. I had not even thought about Boardwalk Elvis, but just imagine how Donnie G. could program a new and improved WQMR: He could bring back Grease for the mornings, Bad Billy Warner for mid-days, take afternoon drive for himself (maybe even with the “elephant” and company, no?), and put The Maize and Tom on overnights. Just the thought of it make me want to roar like a monster. But wait, wait. How about Ernie Scarface, too?! It would quite simply be LEGEN – wait for it-- DARY!!! Epic, my man, just epic. Do it, Donnie, do it!!! By the way you somethin’—whadaya care? Sick. John in Baltimore (5/3/10) Well, Mr/Mrs/Miss Horseshit, can you recall any oil spills in US waters of biblical proportions since the Exxon Valdez? I don't seem to recall any. Probably you aught to climb down off that perch. No everything is some right wing plot to poison the world. Get a grip. (5/3/10) Allbritton Tightly Controls Reporting Of Its WHCA Brunch? - Also at the party: Doug Hill and Bob Ryan. Confirmed. (5/3/10) Dave: Have you ever heard of this site I ran across? washington.tvdeck.com... -Ken (5/3/10) Dave's response: No. Cool site, though..... Sara Walsh is joining ESPN. I thought this was common knowledge. (5/3/10) Dave's response: Yeah, we reported that about a century ago..... Don’t miss this one! POLITICO put together a video mash-up showing Jay Leno recycling old jokes for his White House Correspondents’ Dinner performance. Enjoy! VIDEO: www.politico.com (5/3/10) I think Sara Walsh is gone from WUSA9. She is no longer on WUSA9.com. Last night at the end of Sports Extra, Brett said something about this being her last night. She didn't really say anything much at the end of the show. I know she didn't always receive glowing reviews in the mailbag but I liked her. She brought something different to sports reporting............. Jk in Reston (5/3/10) Dave's response: Last night as I was watching Conan O'Brien doing his much-anticipated interview on CBS's "60 Minutes," WUSA was rerunning (!!!) an annoying on-screen thunderstorm alert from earlier that evening, largely obscuring the screen. I quickly flipped to 9's own Doppler 9000 weather radar and discovered that the closest boomers to DC were more than 50 miles away. All I could think was what a fucking dopey station 9 is. It is run by a bunch of idiots..... In defense of BIG EGO/ Big Tigger the ratings that we all see 12 plus are just a glimpse of the whole picture and again i do not think a stations money demos. For some reason Arbitron has the 18-34 and 25-54 numbers held under some secret code. No one seems to be able to get there hands on those numbers except G.M.`s and P.D.`s those tell the tale about The Big Tigger Morning Show plus after 5 weeks i do not think that CBS is ready to give up just yet. (5/3/10) A few years ago, there was a big change in drive time air personalities, and skateboarders were given the prime time they were not prepared for. They believed, though, they were ready and capable. This board was full of haters and defenders; “spread the virus” they yelled, “O&A Rule! They insisted. Others took a more down to earth approach: “O&A suck,” They aren’t funny; they are unprofessional, bring D&M back. These cries were constants in the mailbag for months. Then, silence on the issue in the mailbag; most people just stopped listening to those fools, and stopped writing to DCRTV about them. Then, the DC ratings came out and O&A were #19 in the market overall, and I think Fredericksburg stations were beating O&A in key demographics. Then the historical fallout happened. Why do I write this summary? Well, there is a parallel here. Ken Stevens and Jeremy Coleman made a bad line up decision under the advice of a POS consultant. Just like O&A, Plante is not ready for prime time and he is not attracting smarter people with his logical fallacies, and dumbed down arguments. The comments on this board concerning Plante will go away, and eventually, just like O&A. so will Plante. Then, Duckworth will have destroyed a station, the same way Stevens/Coleman destroyed stations. It is simple, Duckworth, and It is a shame you are too buffoonish to see it. Dave, I just sent in the $39.00. (5/3/10) Dave's response: Thanks..... Just saw Shawn Yancey do a promo for the news story about the UVA student who killed his girlfriend and added that the guy had local ties which is that he's from Chevy Chase..Wow, I'm sure FOX5 is excited about that..Now they can zoom up to that neighborhood and get an "exclusive" story from family, friends and neighbors.. (5/3/10) I just watched the first Meet The Press in HD and despite all the hoopla, the set doesn't really work. It's way too busy, too much moving video going on in the background, your eyes don't know where to go. The lighting of the guests appears to be very dark, so they don't separate from the background very much. Even the plexi panels over the projectors interfere, giving them a video wall look. ABC's This Week has done a much better job with their set update, nice panels that don't distract from the guests. Some tweaking should be in order soon. While on the subject of new sets, WRC's new HD set is about half right. Again the lighting is bad (or the camera shading), the anchors don't pop and sometimes they're even out of focus. Their projector does not look good with live video, too bright in the middle and the sides fall off towards black. The mushy blue graphic that is usually in the background is too saturated, so you cant even tell what the images are. Again some major tweaking is needed. Tom in DC (5/3/10) The new Meet the Press set is impressively futuristic. The future is now. I remarked to myself as Janet Napolitano was speaking on last Sunday how the figure of the talking head seemed to disappear amongst all the moving gee-gaws, books, self-lighting decorator pieces, reflective surfaces, and projected eye candy. I guess that is the point. The set is supposed to distract from the fact that MTP is still an interview show in which prominent folks talk about issues of the day. How boring! Shows without multi-million dollar sets make do with running and re-running vaguely relevant video in a window next to the window with the person who is speaking in it, as words crawl along the bottom of the screen and logos animate. MTP does very well as a radio show. This is chat show as video game. Maybe we can arrange for a games controller that will permit audience members to shoot (so to speak) the guests and steal their cars. (5/3/10) Dave, Thought you might be interested in this for the site. FOX Not Happy with NFL Online: www.footballnewsnow.com... I'll bet that the majority of media is heading down this road. ~ Chuck (5/3/10) From Radio-Info.com: Chris Brown was in Richmond sitting down with WRVQ-FM (94.5) afternoon host DJ Kash when all of a sudden, Brown became irate when he felt the station wasn’t plying his music enough. The singer, known for his assault of then-girlfriend Rihanna, lost his cool when DJ Kash told him “you just don’t have any hits and that’s just the truth.” Brown then replied, “All I’m saying is that you don’t play my s – – t … It don’t matter. Why am I even doing this interview? I ain’t doing this s – – t.” He then stormed out of the prerecorded interview. You can listen to Brown’s interview on Q-94 www.hiphoprx.com (5/3/10) weekly ratings are in and The Big Tigger Morning show with the BIG EGO ...no BIG ratings....just like Chi-town,NYC and Miami... (5/3/10) Speaking of "it's from the Future!"... I hear there's a new-fangled set for every purse, for every taste, and for every locality. (And the loud speaker is alternating current operated throughout!) www.shorpy.com (5/3/10) Looks like WJLA allowed an S-Bomb to slip on their site this fine morning: www.wjla.com... Just hope it didn't slip during the newscast. Oh, btw, it's 'expletive' not 'explicative'. (5/3/10) (The "great" safety record of oil drilling in the Gulf Of Mexico, despite that one little spill.) Aside from that how did you like the play, Mrs. Lincoln? (Shawn in DC) (5/3/10) Dave's right. MASN/MASN2 isn't supposed to be blacked out when the game is on either OTA 50 or OTA 13. Being on OTA is sort of a bonus. DirecTv messed up. For the record the entire game was on DISH in beautiful SD. Ugh! Howie (5/3/10) The absolute COOLEST microphone stand of all time -- AND it's from the Future! blog.makezine.com... I have got to get one of these for my studio. (5/3/10) (regarding a previous post) "The 'great' safety record of oil drilling in the Gulf Of Mexico, despite that one little spill". Sounds like the rightwing horseshit machine is running at full tilt this morning at WMAL. I wonder if they'll mention anything about the upcoming investigation of Haliburton's possible connection to this recent oil spill, that might ultimately be worse than the Exxon Valdez disaster in 1989? www.latimes.com... You remember Haliburton, right? Their former subsidiary, KBR, wired showers for troops in Iraq, that electrocuted more than a dozen soldiers. afp.google.com... (5/3/10) Caught the following headline and byline on The Washington Post web site: “Recent high court cases revive debate on judicial activism By The High Court... Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, May 3, 2010”. I know things are tough for reporters out there and The Washington Post has made some interesting recent changes in staff, but what kind of name for a “Washington Post Staff Writer” is “The High Court”? www.washingtonpost.com (5/3/10) Wild, somewhat crazy speculation about the weekend bombing attempt in NYC. The "great" safety record of oil drilling in the Gulf Of Mexico, despite that one little spill. And how a WMALer who didn't send in her form and got nagged and pestered by a mean ol' census worker on Sunday. And how it's all Obama's fault. That's pretty much the WMAL morning show this morning - the new Plant and Grandy show. Which got me to thinking: Fred Grandy is the Jay Leno of DC radio. His former partner Andy Parks is the Conan O'Brien of DC radio. Fred should be shamed of himself. Deeply ashamed. (5/3/10) I viewed the video tour of the new Meet The Press studio set linked below. I've got a question for you 4001 Nebraska Avenue folks. During the taped tour David Gregory mentions that this new Meet The Press set is a permanent one that remains up from week to week. Is this new set situated in the same large first floor studio space of the previous one, or has this new set been built on one of the other floors of the Nebraska Avenue facility? (5/3/10) RE: [Meet The Depressed...Chuckie Schumer’s...Her Thighness himself, ah, herself, Hillary Clinton Rodham...carpetbagger, blah, blah, blah...] Sounds like yet another poor fool with too much free time and an AM radio has overdosed on the Mark Levin koolaid. Dude, ever consider having an original thought? This line of drivel sounds stale, bitter and petty when Levin spews it. Believe me, when someone like you mindlessly parrots it verbatim, it makes you sound even more hackneyed and childish then Levin (if that is humanly possible). Trust me...improvisational comedy is not really a hard right-wing forte....a little advice; Don't quit your day job. (5/3/10) /\ May 3 Messages /\ \/ May 2 Messages \/ Dave, Regarding the allocation of bandwidth(bitrate) within the digital OTA signal. Keep in mind the biggest contributor to a diminished HD picture is the DEDICATED data to the mobile video TV experiment. At most participating stations that amounts to between 3 and 5 mbps. The flexcoders then dynamically allocate data rates to the remaining programming. Mobile may well be the savior of the OTA stations and , I believe, a real good value for consumers. It won't inccur an additional charge for cellular data, it is robust, and when properly programmed; could be compelling. That said. A major sacrifice in over the air HD results. (much less so for 720p than 1080i.) The big question will come when the networks reword their affiliation agreements. Several have expressed their intend to have a guaranteed bit rate included in that agreement. Could get interesting. (5/2/10) Damn ... another one of the greats is gone... www.nytimes.com (5/2/10) Have a question as I know we've got some historians here in this mailbag: how did Baltimore's "WJZ" (channel 13)..acquire those call letters? I have been told that..way back in the day, possibly WABC (or some other ABC affiliate)..went by "WJZ!" I know that channel 13 didn't always have the "WJZ" call letters (the original call escapes me at this time. I bring this up because this was mentioned during a show I was listening to last night..and figured that there may be some of you out there that may know the story. Tom in Denton, MD (5/2/10) Dave's response: Check out 13's history at Wikipedia..... From David Zurawik at baltimoresun.com: Here's a new one for me: cancelled in transit. CNN called while I was on the way to DC this a.m to say they were switching gears on "Reliable Sources" this morning to offer coverage of the vehicle packed with explosives that was found in Times Square early Sunday morning. Potentially a very big story -- live TV. And I've had worse in the more than four years I have been appearing on "Reliable Sources." I know I was cancelled at least once while waiting to go on. I don't mind -- being engaged in the adrenaline of live TV is worth it, and news is news. I'm certainly all for going with the news. But good news for readers here: I am spending the morning screening upcoming epiosdes of HBO's "Treme," and will post tonight after epsiode #4 ends. I will also have a post on Conan O'Brien's interview on "60 Minutes" tonight. (5/2/10) Nats & MASN2 on DirecTV: Right Dave....the slumping Gnats appeared on DirecTV around 3:00pm. The 3rd DirecTV agent I talked to read me a notice from whatever dept that the signal was coming to be blacked out as when Gnats games are on OTA 50. That said, that 3rd agent was up to what I expect as a DirecTV subscriber; the first was useless with the 2nd trying to be helpful but not apparently knowing what to check. (5/2/10) Dave's response: I was under the impression that cable/satellite TV companies are NOT supposed to black out MASN/MASN2 this year when the Nats games are also on Channel 50 on Sundays..... I thought your readers might be interested in a new post by LocateTV Blogger Ed Bark entitled, “History Channel’s Kennedy miniseries lands big fish actors despite being branded 'vindictive' and 'malicious'.” The article discusses the fact that, regardless of the script being called a “salacious right-wing hatchet job,” the History Channel has landed Greg Kinnear and Katie Holmes to star as JFK and Jackie. www.locatetv.com... (5/2/10) Nats & MASN2 on DirecTV - Sunday Afternoon: Here it is 2:55pm and DirecTV still doesn't have the Nats-Miami game. Wonder whether MASN or DirecTV is the culprit this time....I often have to reboot the receivers to get MASN2. (5/2/10) Dave's response: Nats coming through loud and clear on MASN2 via Comcast at 3:28 PM..... Any idea what is going on with MASN2 on Sunday? The Nationals game is blacked out in Olney. DirecTV says that MASN is blacking it out. It is not on any local stations. Amazing all the problems MASN has. Lost video for lots of the Cubs series and now this. Matt in Olney. (5/2/10) Hey Dave: How funny is it that on my local NBC affiliate WRC’s airing of the new “HD” version of Meet The Depressed (like we really need to see Chuckie Schumer’s hair nostrils in HD) their first guest was none other than “Her Thighness” himself, ah, herself, Hillary Clinton Rodham. Like they are going to a “wide angle” with this carpetbagger in the shot: nothing was shot below the waist, so seeing her in HD made no sense. At least she only sat in only one chair. (5/2/10) I just gave a sample listen to the Stone & Digital Dave show up on one of those "mypodcast.com" channels. Guys, you need a broader avenue than that site (and a couple of Youtubes) to promote your show. Audio quality is bad to poor, and you have to do better in the "bit" department than bashing Stern and banning people from your program who wont be showing up anyway. I want to see you succeed, but man, you're going about it the wrong way. (5/2/10) The biggest problem with HD Radio In-Band-On-Channel (IBOC) is the fact that it tries to co-exist with the analog signal. It necessarily must be a low-power signal or the analog signal no longer works. WAMU's increase of power will affect many non-coms in the area of 88.5 negatively. I also remind our readers that the whole idea of multicasting, where we have an HD-2, HD-3, etc., was never in the original specification of HD Radio from iBiquity. It was lobbied by NPR engineers to be added to HD Radio just so we can have subchannels. Today it seems unbelievable not to have subchannels but iBiquity really was that stupid. -Chainsman (5/2/10) (From DCRTV's Classified Ads:) The Dukes of FM and Internet Radio; Stone & Digital Dave is free Agents! This highly popular radio and Internet duo is ready to help lead another radio station or Cable TV show to higher ratings. Our show fits any format. We are talk radio entertainment! We are willing to play songs, talk sports or politics. If you want high energy personalities, ratings and entertainment e-mail stoneforum@aol.com (5/2/10) Hello Dave, Thanks for adding me (on Facebook). I invite you to listen to The Nations Capital Sports Show. It's a podcast with actual sponsors and it's produced by myself and Chris Jerry (who is also on your FB friend's list). We are currently marketing the show to a few sport websites and our next step is to see if we can discuss this with local sport radio outlets here in the DC area. This show is a labor of love. We invite you to listen to it via the web, and itunes. Our latest episode is, Episode 29. Please keep up the great work with dcrtv. Here's the link: www.facebook.com (5/2/10) /\ May 2 Messages /\ \/ May 1 Messages \/ TOGS, I know I am older than dirt but I need an explanation. What is iTunes and what is a podcast? My children and my grandchildren know. They know a lot more than I do. They all have I pods. They charge them on my computer. Do you get a podcast on an Ipod? JohnnyuinHanover,Pa. (5/2/10) Dave's response: A podcast is basically a computer file that contains a radio-type show or program that can be downloaded and listened to on a computer or via any mobile audio device, such as an iPod. iTunes is a website service from Apple that provides a place from where you can find, purchase, and download audio and video files, everything from individual tunes to podcasts and TV shows. Got it, gramps? The NY Times looks at the impact of ABC layoffs and the nearly 400 who've been axed. www.nytimes.com (5/1/10) This is interesting...We were talking about the quality of the over-the-air digital signals. We found out that they can be either constant bit rate or variable bit rate. The FCC is touting that, in their spectrum grab for broadband, the TV band can be rearranged and everyone can be creative and many stations will voluntarily accept payment to go off the air. They speak of KABC in Los Angeles, which has two HD signals and SD weather on the 17Mbit signal. Here are the specs: Variable Bit rate, 7.1) ABC-HD 11.25Mbit 7.2) LivWell-HD 5.25Mbit and 7.3) Weather 1.1Mbit. If we look at WABC, they give more details on the actual minimums and maximums: 7.1) ABC-HD 5-12.5 Mbit, 7.2) LivWell-HD 1-10 Mbit, 7.3) Weather 0.5-1.75 Mbit. LivWell is a health and lifestyle channel which doesn't need a lot of bits. Mostly they run interview shows. Both 7.1 and 7.2 are 16X9 but they are hardly equally "HD." The closest we have around here is WETA, which uses 8.35Mbits for the HD channel and 8.5Mbits total for the 3 SD channels. The digital artifacts on all the channels are, depending on content, moderately or very annoying. And since they sometimes run the same programming on both the HD and 26.4 channels, a lot of motion will cause the encoder to fight over which channel gets the bits. I don't know who wins but it isn't the viewer. Someone needs to decide how many Mbits qualifies as "HD." If all of the current programs are going to be pushed onto a few over-the-air channels, it won't be pretty. John (5/1/10) RE: WQMR. I really do not think the station is all that bad. The bad part is they are forced to run second rate syndicated shows since the other THREE talk stations in the market have the other major shows locked in. It is tough in a market of 40-some signals. The good thing about WQMR is they try and do a pretty decent job at being local. I mean, they do air a good helping of local sports..high school stuff and even some Salisbury games. In those neck of the woods- homely and local usually sticks in everyone's minds. A little tweaking of the format, some adjustments to the processing and I think WQMR might have something! (5/1/10) (“Dave's response: Sure, the print newspaper biz is in decline. But for Anschutz to crown himself the king of righty media with his print dominance of the conservative newspaper "market" (however small) in the Nation's Capital would be a major feather in his cap and a nice ego stroke that only money can buy.....”) Dave, not that it would ever happen, but perhaps the best way to consolidate conservative presence in what’s left of the print media market (come on: only lefties like the NYT, The Wapoop, The Phillie Inquirer, the LA Slimes, et al are surviving and just barely) would be to do a national daily & weekend (kind of a McPaper for conservatives)using the already established talents of DC’s Washington Times & Examiner, Human Events, The NY Post and what’s left of the San Diego Tribune. Those are the conservative print powerhouses, they could provide those of us who don’t want to read Pravda on the Potomac every day with something to do, even in print version. (5/1/10) Cyrus...Thanks again for listening! Be sure to check out the podcast now available on iTunes. -TOGS (5/1/10) NEXSTAR (owner of WHAG NBC 25 in Hagerstown, a competing NBC station to WBAL in some Maryland/WV/PA counties) is trying to extort nearly a half million dollars from Hearst owned WBAL 11, at least according to an FCC petition filed by WBAL TV. WBAL TV is operating under a higher power STA temporarily and wants to make it permanent due to signal problems since The Big Switch, when WBAL went from channel UHF 59 back to VHF channel 11. Two area stations have accepted interference agreements with Hearst (WWPX 12 & WHTM 10) and 2 have not (WBRE 11 Scranton & WVPT 11, Shenandoah Valley Public TV). NEXSTAR is the company demanding the most amount of money to sign the agreement at $420,000! WBAL TV has complained to the FCC and requested a waiver to avoid having to pay NEXSTAR & WVPT any money. Hearst has made similar interference agreements with its Lancaster NBC affiliate WGAL 8, with a similar reception problem (WGAL has even added DTV translators on various channels to replicate its old analog signal, in Baltimore that's not as easily doable because of the sparse availability of TV frequencies in the DC/Baltimore area)........... (5/1/10) Attention, Attention....TOGS, It was a painful experience. WARNING-WARNING-WARNING-To my brother "mailbaggers". Do not waste your time. In the real world trying to listen to that is like trying to listen to dead air, but it's not anywhere near as entertaining. CYRUS (5/1/10) Dave, sorry for the profanity but a big FUCK YOU to Citadel. You bounce Chris Core and don't give him a proper chance to say good bye to his audience. You give Andy Parks the ax and his last day on the air he gets nothing, just like he's signing off and will be back Monday. Would it have killed you to allow Core, Parks (and Gopher when the ax hits him) 30 seconds to say a proper and thanks? Have someone on the dump button in case he goes off on a rant. The two of them had close to 60 years of service to your station. I understand it's broadcasting and you don't normally give airstaff a chance to say good bye. I could deal with that if you weren't so two faced and duplicitous. You give that beady-eyed, wishy washy, nasal two bit Gary Condit wanna-be (Lori Klausutis anyone) no talent hack Joe Scarborough, and his sidekick the eternally brown-nosing condescending bottle blonde Mika a full show to spin their cancellation and take swipes at the Cryptkeepr Don Imus on their way out. "Morning Blow" got anemic ratings, was on a handful of stations, was so torturous to listen to it should have been banned with waterboarding, yet you give THOSE two a forum to spin and say good bye to the four people still listening to their drivel. No wonder Citadel's going bankrupt, not only financially but morally as well. (5/1/10) Donnie G might buy WQMR in Ocean City? I say somebody needs to buy it and take it out of it's current misery. Anything would be an improvement including Boardwalk Elvis. And rumor is that the Sean Hannity show is leaving WQMR. Hannity is the only show that has ratings on the station. If Geronimo buys it, please keep Power Talk. It's the funniest show I've ever heard on radio. Signed Dr. LS (5/1/10) "I listened to that "other" show" -And we thank you for tuning in, Cyrus! -TOGS (5/1/10) A Phillip Anschutz buy of the Washington Times makes sense only if he is hopelessly wedded to the media anachronism of print. A number of years ago, as owner of the Denver & Rio Grande Western railroad, Anschutz bought the Southern Pacific and did a rare “reverse merger” in which the Espee was the “surviving” company name. In this case, the Washington Times brand is somewhat toxic. Between the background and rep of the founding (and current) ownership and declining rep of the product, I’d expect the Examiner to be “surviving” product with the Times mercifully euthanized, if an Anschutz buy happened. It would be interesting to see what would happen to the Examiner if it were expanded via a Times buy into a mass-distributed broadsheet at a minimal subscription or newsstand rate. What would make much more sense would be an Anschutz buy of Citadel’s D.C. micro-cluster. But, that’s another subject for another time… –Unsigned Corporate Suit (5/1/10) Dave's response: Sure, the print newspaper biz is in decline. But for Anschutz to crown himself the king of righty media with his print dominance of the conservative newspaper "market" (however small) in the Nation's Capital would be a major feather in his cap and a nice ego stroke that only money can buy..... "Let's see how mamy (He's a self procrolaimed expert how many listeners Mr. Columns has froth long lost clueless of Manassas (& his sheep) 14st.". -HUH?!?!?! (5/1/10) Rusty, Please don't keep on pushing the envelope with the ass-hole. Get above him. He's the type of person that will NEVER learn. He's always looking for an argument. WAY too much ego, and little or no ability. To me, this guy is so damn' insecure he's alway trying to look like the "last line" Larry. Drop the bull- do your show, which by the way is far superior. I listened to that "other" show only once..Geronimo "wannabee", and a BAD one at that, Christ Tom Gavin is better than he can ever hope to be.. Cyrus. (5/1/10) The WAMU analog signal has degraded here in fringe West Virginia… as has WETA. (5/1/10) Hey Dave: was that you I saw near the side of the stage at The Junkies Spring Break Party last night at The State? Sure looked like you. (5/1/10) Okay I'll be the dullard and ask if Donnie G. does buy the OC talker will Boardwalk Elvis get a weekend shift and can we look forward to the Tommy and Dennis show late nights, you know 2am to 6am, I won't ask about the elephant over in the corner of the room. (5/1/10) Oh Rusty...Quit with the forced tough talk. You're as about as scary as a ponytailed teddy bear. But rest assured, if you want to put your money where your mouth is and follow through with your threat, you know where to find me. You are more than welcome to drop by the studio during our show. Hell, you don't even need to let us know you're coming! Just show up! But I only ask one thing of you...When you drop by to pay up on that threat...PLEASE wear the #5 Gibson Orioles T-Shirt. You look so debonair in it! See you soon, Rusty! -TOGS (5/1/10) I Was listening to The Edge today, and they seem to be playing more songs in their playist...hopefully it will get better i like them alot better this way. Maybe since they slid up to 18th they are adding a few more tracks to their playlist? Don't know but they are so much better than the old classic rock globe was a little over a year ago.... (5/1/10) The Baltimore Sun's David Zurawik responds to his many Z on TV fans... "Why don't you click on the link I provided with the full explanation from the owners? See where it says click "here." Try it. You will be right there, bing-bang, with a full explanation in their own words. That's not too hard, is it?" What a great guy Z IS! HAHA! I guess he's still a bit edgy that Kate Gosselin got booted from Dancing With The Stars. LOL I would have posted a response, but he has me blocked from www.baltimoresun.com. Apparently Zurawik only allows fans of Marc Steiner to post on his webpage (unlike every OTHER Baltimore Sun story I post on). LOL Oh WAIT!, I almost forgot the REAL STORY! I was blinded by Z on TV's HUGE ego... John Sherman has left WBAL TV 11 along with his videographer. YES, THAT WAS THE STORY! What was I thinking? Nevermind, I had Z on TV on my mind, god knows he knows nothing about TV or NEWS. LOL (5/1/10) Let's see how mamy (He's a self procrolaimed expert how many listeners Mr. Columns has froth long lost clueless of Manassas (& his sheep) 14st. Today from his "show" tonight". We'd all like to know. Since you "obviously" have a finger on the area's social scene. (5/1/10) /\ May 1 Messages /\ \/ April 30 Messages \/ (RE - Today's Rant: The news business has pretty much become entertainment, and this weekend's Washington schmoozefest is symptomatic of what's wrong with today's "journalism." A bunch of beautiful celebrity news "personalities" hanging out with a bunch of beautiful celebrity politicos and beautiful celebrity Hollywood-types. News organizations, which are cutting back to the bone in this recessionary economy, still manage to cough up some serious dough for pricey tables at the dinner, and the even more expensive after-parties.) Amen, brother! (4/30/10) John, your question requires a response (again). It appears that you're trying to trap me into a "racist" thing. So now I ask, are you writing a book? And if so, kiss my Lilly white ass and make it a love story BITCH! Trust me you do not want a face to face w/o your Manassas Crew. So, back to the Trailer Park you go. (4/30/10) The biggest problem with HD Radio In-Band-On-Channel (IBOC) is the fact that it tries to co-exist with the analog signal. It necessarily must be a low-power signal or the analog signal no longer works. WAMU's increase of power will affect many non-coms in the area of 88.5 negatively. I also remind our readers that the whole idea of multicasting, where we have an HD-2, HD-3, etc., was never in the original specification of HD Radio from iBiquity. It was lobbied by NPR engineers to be added to HD Radio just so we can have subchannels. Today it seems unbelievable not to have subchannels but iBiquity really was that stupid. -Chainsman (4/30/10) Its official John Batchelor show on WMAL 630 AM is now 9:00PM till midnight Monday - Friday. www.wmal.com... John T. Henneman (4/30/10) Ah... the good old days before "CC". Talk about a thankless job! How did they ever expect Cynthia to keep up with the announcer? You'll notice she has to just throw in the towel at the end and sign "so long". (4/30/10) I for one would turn off my cell phone while driving if Pamela Brown told me. Then again I don't have a cell phone but if I, nevermind. Was she sporting a tan this morning? Did she and Allison go to same vacation destination for some sun and fun? Ipanema? Wonder with dcrtv dave fandom of David Bowie if he bought some of those Bowie bonds offered back in the late 1990's. Darn you Dan Mason how could you deny us stuff like this instead of boring sports talk. (4/30/10) Seriously, who puts a show on hiatus for retooling? What does the audience do during that time? They disappear! And what sort of retooling has to take place causing the show to go off the air while it is taking place? What a bunch of phony crap. Just say it's been canceled for God's sake. (4/30/10) So Pamela Brown has signed this No Phone pledge for no distractions during driving that's being promoted..I'm sure she means well, but I think it will take more than just her saying she signed it to make people put their phones down while driving.. (4/30/10) This week, "Meet the Press" unveils its new set, tailored to incorporate more multimedia elements and to prepare for the Sunday show's move to high-definition television. Host David Gregory gave POLITICO an early look, which includes separate tables for both one-on-one and roundtable interviews, as well as an extensive book collection. (4/30/10) huffingtonpost.com: Don Imus has launched a war of words against the man whose show replaced him after MSNBC canceled "Imus in the Morning" following his "nappy-headed hos" controversy. Citadel Media announced earlier this week that Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski would be putting their radio show on hiatus while it was retooled and expanded into three hours. But Imus, who occupied the MSNBC morning slot before "Morning Joe" and now competes against them on Fox Business, isn't buying it. "His radio show is canceled," Imus said of Scarborough. "They're not revamping anything! He will never ever be on WABC in New York again, ever! Ever!...You know why they got blown out? Because they suck! And he's a punk and a phony." (4/30/10) Dave's response: I told ya. Scarborough's radio "hiatus" was a "cancellation"..... Dave - Charlie Maxx was also doing traffic during the Junks show a few days ago. ironically, the same day the Junks were on Fox 5, Charlie Maxx filled-in for Julie Wright, and Charlie Maxx did the traffic on 106.7. (4/30/10) Charlie Maxx and Joanna Campbell are two totally different people who don't look much alike. (4/30/10) Hello Dave, I see you like D. Bowie. One of my favs too, "rebel, rebel' etc. "94 WYSP starting off a big (rock) block of David Bowie". Yes I'm originally from the Berks County Reading,Pa. area. PGC and 93.1 Balt. and 1500 are usually the easiest to pick up in Berks & Lancaster County Pa. One afternoon PGC fm came in good on a JVC boombox on a the shelf inside the Laureldale, Pa. k-mart. They used to be one of the big top 40 stations from D.C. area. Regards, h.c.r (4/30/10) Dave's response: Bowie's "Scary Monsters" is one of my top five rock albums of all time..... Holly Morris is no way near as well endowed in the breast area as the others on the morning news who choose to show lots of cleavage. However, this morning it appears that she made an attempt to compete by wearing a low cut dress showing a little bit of boob skin. (4/30/10) Strange segment on the Today Show. David Gregory discusses the serious topic of how the Obama administration is handling the oil well disaster, then with little transition they switch topics to discuss the new Meet the Press HD set, and then it ends with Gregory being called a freak! www.msnbc.msn.com (4/30/10) Damn it, Duckworth! I thought I was clear a few days ago when I told you that you are ruining your professional reputation as a radio station operations manager if you continued to allow that Jackass Plante to just present the “Heritage Talking Point of the day” for his solo show. It is a lazy man’s way to present a show, it shows no sincere intellect or knowledge, it displays very little preparation, and it is easily identified by the listener as crap. Well, this morning, Plante presented a purposefully clipped sound bite as proof “Obama is a socialist,” and is trying to “crush the American dream.” Could this have been Plante’s idea? Hardly; he used the same commentary this morning as presented on Fox and Friends, and at least three other radio talk show hosts around the country. No doubt Limbaugh and the other jack ass Hannity will be all over this afternoon, as well (it is all off the same script, literally). Now, If Plante talks about a subject and slams the president, Rush, Levin, and Hannity slam the president for the same thing on the same day (as what happened with the “Obama is a racist” talking point the other day), your station is perceived as pure propaganda, not “intelligent talk,” and people turn it off. Get it? We are trying to help you here; why are you being so obstinate, Duckworth? Do you really think we don’t know what is going on? I would like to make a suggestion to you; go kick Plante in the ass and tell him to come up with something original, well thought out, and compelling, for Monday’s show. OK? If on Monday Plante presents the same crap, I will know you are a lousy manager that doesn't care about the image of his station. Peace out. (4/30/10) Dave's response: "...Fox leans to the right, MSNBC leans to the left, and CNN is kind of in the wishy-washy middle...". Have you tuned in to CNN lately?? It's swinging WAY to the left since the new anchors. Cheers, Ed in Fenton (4/30/10) Dave; WSVA will be turning 75 on June 9th. We are looking to get the word out to former employees to invite them to send us any greetings, congratulation shout outs, stories about their years at WSVA and where they are now stories. Would you please spread the word? Send mp3's to frankwilt@valleyradio.com or mail audio to Frank Wilt, WSVA Radio, 1820 Heritage Center Way, Harrisonburg, VA 22801. Thanks, Frank (4/30/10) "unless you're a superstar like Julie Wright" - superstar, my ass. When did "Ha Ha, Tony!! - giggle, titter-" give you "superstar" status? Even the "superstar" was forced to change her name for quite some time on WPGC. Why you blow smoke up Wright's, Bicknell's, and Farley's (in addition to others) communitive ass, I'll never understand. (4/30/10) (From DCRTV's Classified Ads:) NEWS ANCHOR / REPORTER / WRITER -- WBAL RADIO. WBAL Radio, a 50kw, major market heritage station is seeking an experienced reporter / anchor / writer to become a part of our team of authoritative news voices. Must be an aggressive self-starter, with a contemporary writing style and professional, pleasant, conversational delivery. We are seeking an applicant with a proven track record and strong story-telling skills. Must embrace the multiple platform philosophy. Requires a minimum of three years prior radio news experience, preferably in a news/talk or all-news environment. College degree is desirable, but work experience is taken into consideration. Experience with AP’s ENPS, Audio Vault and Adobe Audition is helpful. Applicants should be proficient at conducting interviews, gathering and editing audio, and operating news studio control board. Must have excellent news judgment and the ability to act quickly in emergency situations. Credibility and creativity are a must. Women and minorities are encouraged to apply. EOE. Email resumes and airchecks to: msmiller@hearst.com, Mark Miller, News Director. (4/30/10) Cool David Bowie/ WAVA Button! I went to that concert! I think it was the "Modern Love Tour" (4/30/10) Dave's response: Bowie's one of my all-time favs, but I've never been to a Bowie concert..... I was wondering if you knew anything about 105.7's traffic reporter (she also reports for some other station, too) Joanna Campbell's sudden and bizarre name change to "Charlie Max" ?? I listen to this station every morning to hear the Ed Norris show, on which she always does traffic reports. I might possibly have missed a day, but today, for the first time ever, she calls herself what sounds like "Charlie Max"....and Ed Norris introduced the traffic report by using that moniker, too. So far I've heard no reason at all for this....leaving me wondering if I've lost my mind....was that her name all along and I'm just dreaming that it used to be "Joanna Campbell". I've checked your great site before in the past when I was looking for news about 1070 AM, which used to play so-called "music of your life" or nostalgia radio (big band and vocal stylists from the 30s and 40s and 50s, mostly -- not rock and roll, though) change to talk radio. So, just wondering if you'd heard anything...? Thanks! (4/30/10) Dave's response: "Charlie Max" does traffic reports for Citadel's DC cluster (WMAL, WVRX, WRQX). She's probably with Metro Traffic and now does them also for CBS's 105.7 in Baltimore. It's no secret that Metro Traffic reporters use different names on different stations, unless you're a superstar like Julie Wright or Lisa Baden..... I have absolutely no affiliation with WEBR, Dave. So, once again you are peddling false information. Why the negativity towards Mr. Gibson? Well, he lost my respect when he felt the need to bash a mentally challenged individual on this site. Oh, I know Rusty, you've apologized for that. You're still a bully for having ever said it. (4/30/10) Dave's response: Tom Gavin? Mentally challenged or not, he probably deserved it..... Why all the negative comments, snipes and nastiness toward Rusty Gibson? (4/30/10) Dave's response: He's got a great local radio full of cool tunes, and those other WEBRers are simply jealous of his talents..... This, too, isn't directly related to DC media, but the post about the Alabama gubernatorial race deserves a reply. So this candidate wishes people to take a drivers' test only in English. Good for him! Until we start posting street signs in 12 languages, learn the one we DO use! That your grandfather learned citizenship in 2 languages, maybe. That's the start of the americanization process. A drivers' license isn't. The poster goes on to say, "once upon a time, America celebrated the diversity of the people making up our great "melting pot" population". First, diversity isn't what made this country great. The ABSORPTION of diversity made this country great, instead of being another Yugoslavia. And second, we need a whole lot more melting in that pot. If I moved to Mexico City, I'd learn spanish, not whine about it. If you come to this country, learn the goddamned language. Especially if you broke in to get here. (4/30/10) Dave's response: Even though it would probably be unconsititional, why doesn't the FCC ban all non-English radio and TV broadcasts in the USA. Goodbye WLZL. Maybe we'd get progressive rock WHFS back on "real" radio. Ha ha ha..... There's a big reason that 1067 The Fan and 1057 The Fan and big losers in the ratings. The Program Directors of the stations are living in their "Gran-dads World". Except for the Junkies, they seem to think we want some "news-talk" bland "Call-in" world of mindless blather. LISTEN TO ME. WHAT DO MEN 25 - 50 WANT? Chicks. Sex. Guns. Firetrucks. Fast Cars. Liquor. Strippers. Money. Drugs. More Strippers. Rock N' F'n Roll. Fantasy. Future. And Sports. How stupid are you? If I hear one one topic about the Skins or Ravens Draft, I'm gonna smash my radio! GIVE ME MAN RADIO DAMMIT! Don't make me pay for XM/Sirrus! God Dammit, Pass the Tylenol! (4/30/10) What do the words "Baltimoron" and "Balamer" have in common? BOTH spoken by illiterate Washington, DC residents on a regular basis. Of course, Washington is a more cultured place than lowly Baltimore, Maryland, can't you see it? Gotta Love It! LOL (4/30/10) Dave's response: One thing is for sure, Baltimore's got better rock radio than DC does - 98 Rock, WTMD, WRNR-FM, even your classic rock WZBA is loads better than our WVRX..... This is to Al McGilvray, news director of WRNR-AM 740 in Martinsburg, West Virginia "...Ryan O'Connor, the 23-year-old former one-man-band weekend reporter...(end snip) Ryan O'Conner was arrested at a Winchester, Virginia IHOP where he was employed as a greeter. He was not arrested at the television station. The local media fails repeatedly to mention this..." That is true except for one thing, that IHOP on the corner of route 522 and I-81 where O'Connor was arrested is actually in FREDERICK COUNTY, Virginia and NOT in Winchester. Not really a big deal outside the area but in that region among many it really is. I still can remember when the old ( now defunct ) WHPL-AM 610 back in the 70's tried to use as their legal ID "WHPL...Frederick County, Winchester, Virginia only to get a love letter from the FCC that "Frederick County, VA" is NOT ther "city" of license, Winchester was. Ah the Virginia "Marshall Rule/Independent City" thing at work. Oddly enough about 10 years ago when [a Winchester radio personality] was arrested for a similar incident, he was arrested I believe while working part-time at the Food Lion in Sunnyside Shopping Center. The media at the time had reported he was arrested "at a Food Lion in Winchester' when in reality that Food Lion was actually in Frederick County. Again not a biggie or even "who the hell cares" to those outside the region but remember in Virginia there are those who loook at the "city" and "county" as two totally seperate locations. Remember John Bobbit? There are still people who to this day are pissed whenever someone mentions that the infamous slice had taken place in Manasss when actually it happened in Prince William County just OUTSIDE the city of Manassas. Only in Virginia !!!!!! (4/30/10) Dave's response: Does it matter where or in what jurisdiction O'Conner was arrested? No. He got busted and he worked for a local TV news operation. Virginia's kinda crazy city/county set-up confuses a lot of reporters and residents. Fairfax City versus Fairfax County. The part of Fairfax County called Alexandria or the actual city of Alexandria. The part of Fairfax County called Falls Church or the actual city of Falls Church. Are you in the town of Herndon or the part of Fairfax County called Herndon? How many times did we read in the Washington Post that VW set up its American HQ in Herndon? When it's not Herndon, but Fairfax County - with merely a Herndon mailing address. Yadda yadda yadda..... /\ April 30 Messages /\ \/ April 29 Messages \/ Wow Rusty...Guess I better not ask your opinion on Arizona immigration! Signed DJSC (4/29/10) [RE: About Caps ratings on CSN... It just goes to show how stupid DC sports fans are. Skins ratings always through the roof yet they're terrible, the Nationals are a winning team and no one cares, attendance is even lower than the the damn Orioles, the WORST TEAM IN MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL!!! Meanwhile, the Caps die in the 1st playoff round of 16 teams and ratings are HIGH??? LOL What complete idiots! 16 TEAMS GET IN THE PLAYOFFS FOR CHRIST SAKES, WHO CARES??? Until the 2nd round, there's no reason to watch. And the regular season is thus a complete joke. I have the same opinion with the NBA playoffs, also a complete joke, but let's not go there.] I love a Baltimoron talking about watching NHL hockey and NBA basketball. Guess what? I Balamer was a real sports town, maybe it would have its own NHL and NBA teams. It isn't and it doesn't. Which is probably why the Baltimoron isn't too interested............... (4/29/10) (Re: saw a promo for the NBC4 news and they flashed pictures of pretty much all of the anchors, reporters, sports and weather people..But nowhere in those pictures did they show Jim Vance..So at the end, there was a subtitle of "News at 5pm", so I thought that was the reason..But in their collage, they showed Doreen Genztler, who's not part of the 5pm team..So why no pic of Vance?..What's up??) Doreen is a regular contributor to News 4 at 5pm with her "News 4 Your Health" reports. (4/29/10) Like Tony Kornheiser would say "the Washington Capitals are chocking dogs!" (4/29/10) Oh wait, FOX GOTCHA guy and anyone else. Hope this unravels it all for you, if not I can suggest some media classes at AU. www.newsonnews.net... ACH (4/29/10) Hmmmm, Dave. I want to take issue with the thought that this is the first time Q94 has had a direct competitor for CHR (nee Top 40) in Richmond. Maybe on the FM dial, although WRXL was initially playing similar music (without jocks) for a year or so after flipping from elevator music around 1973 or 1974. XL102 eventually went AOR and was successful at that for more than two decades. But back to the direct competitor thing. When WRVA-FM switched to Top 40 in June 1972, WLEE-1480 was the big dog in town, and it was still playing THE SAME FORMAT on AM for another nine or 10 years. People gravitated over to FM gradually (I still remember Q94 peddling some kind of adaptor you could use in your car to get FM stations), and WLEE probably changed formats in 1981 or 1982... Charles in Winchester (4/29/10) Dear Dave, From the Top, as heard on Classical WETA 90.9 FM, will feature a trumpet trio comprised of local teenagers on Sunday, May 9 at 6:00 p.m. The talented musicians are 16-year-old Dominic Favia, a junior from Vienna, Virginia, 16-year-old Acadia Kocher, a junior from Columbia, Maryland and 17-year-old Michael Harper, a senior from Annapolis, Maryland. All three members participate in the American Youth Philharmonic in Washington, D.C. From the Top is the preeminent showcase featuring America’s best young classical musicians and hosted by acclaimed pianist Christopher O’Riley. Below is a press release and more information is available. Photos of the trio can be found at From the Top’s Flickr site: www.flickr.com... (4/29/10) ACH- what do you mean unique visitors? Did you mean website hits? That proves nothing. Looking at the numbers though, CNN may be kicking themselves. Their 7PM number are roughly half what they were when Dobbs was there (same date in March 09 and March 10). If only WHFS would play his show live instead of delaying it for Dennis Miller's morning show in the afternoon. (4/29/10) "What say You Rusty?" (re;blacks in hockey). Why do ya care JOHN?(yup the toilet - which is where you should be residing-like Manassas). So, Siss On You Pister! You ain't so Muckin' Fuch! Now go in your little JackYard and BackOff Bitch! (4/29/10) (Snip) Ryan O'Connor, the 23-year-old former one-man-band weekend reporter...(end snip) Ryan O'Conner was arrested at a Winchester, Virginia IHOP where he was employed as a greeter. He was not arrested at the television station. The local media fails repeatedly to mention this. Al McGilvray (4/29/10) Dave's response: A greeter at IHOP? What did he say? "Do you want a lot of fat with your meal, or a whole lot of fat"? Ha ha ha. I've only eaten once at IHOP. I think I ordered the pancakes stuffed with sausage, bacon, cheese, and whipped cream, smothered in ultra-sweet syrup. I went home groggy, weighing 10 pounds more, and slept for a week..... About Caps ratings on CSN... It just goes to show how stupid DC sports fans are. Skins ratings always through the roof yet they're terrible, the Nationals are a winning team and no one cares, attendance is even lower than the the damn Orioles, the WORST TEAM IN MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL!!! Meanwhile, the Caps die in the 1st playoff round of 16 teams and ratings are HIGH??? LOL What complete idiots! 16 TEAMS GET IN THE PLAYOFFS FOR CHRIST SAKES, WHO CARES??? Until the 2nd round, there's no reason to watch. And the regular season is thus a complete joke. I have the same opinion with the NBA playoffs, also a complete joke, but let's not go there. And as for MASN MLB play by play announcers, DC people seem to forget that the Nationals have influence on who those MASN people are since they own part of the network, The Orioles have a fantastic lineup of announcers and the addition of Guest play by play people this year has been fascinating as well. So, if you have a complaint about lame NATS announcers, don't forget your "local" ownership in Washington, DC! It's true, Peter Angelos does not control the world, he only ruins The Baltimore Orioles and would like to control the world. (4/29/10) Shameful www.salon.com (4/29/10) To the poster who like to slam down his caps lock key on every other line that has FOX on it, not to mention GOTCHA: According to the Nielson ratings service, for March 2009 and I don't think it's changed much, MSNBC had 39.9 million unique visitors that month. CNN had 38.7 million. And FOX? Oops, 16.7 million. What does that prove--does the intelligent seeker of news like to read rather than passively watch? That's my conclusion. Can't wait to hear yours. ACH (4/29/10) Congrats to Jennifer Ryan on the birth of a daughter! Actually, being the parent of a newborn isn’t much different than working at channel 9 these days. You have to deal with a lot of crying, and have to clean up somebody else’s…-you get the idea- all the time. The only difference is that newborns are rarely dysfunctional, unlike WUSA. -Unsigned Corporate Suit (4/29/10) As of 2:00 PM today Cox Radio's WDYL (Richmond) flipped formats from modern rock to CHR. As expected, the new station is called Hot 100.9. Their moniker is "Richmond's NEW #1 Hit Music Station". Cox is now going head to head against Clear Channel's cross-town WRVQ. This is the first time Q94 has had a direct competitor in it's 38 year history. WDYL's calls (as of today) remains unchanged. (4/29/10) Dave's response: Did you know that there are more people in Fairfax County alone than in the entire Richmond media market..... Since someone posted the Alabama ad, this was an article about a series of election ads in Missouri: www.nydailynews.com... The stations have no choice but to run them. When I heard the ads, I thought they were a gag. Here are the ads: www.whty.org... Be interesting to see if the FCC steps in (4/29/10) RE: [ " But Fox News isn't "news " ]..... And The Huffingtonpost is news? And Keith Olbermann's ESPN-style produced half-baked GOTCHA out of context montages or "Worst Person in The WORLD" segments are news? Liberals love to make up excuses for why more people get their news from FOX News than any other source. Everything from "that's all dumb people" to "that's just people looking for sensationalist infotainment", but in the end, ADMIT IT. It sticks in your craw that FOX News outdraws every other news source and none of the explanations for why that is are acceptable to liberals so they have to make up various wild excuses. You're just in DENIAL. Admit it. Seriously, how is Glenn Beck any more bat-shit crazy than Keith Olbermann, both of whom have had drug/alcohol and/or mental problems? I had this discussion with a Democrat legislator recently and I was shocked that a Maryland legislator considered the Keith Olbermann program as a legitimate news program while at the same time thinking that Glenn Beck is bat-shit crazy and that The Baltimore Sun was an unbiased news source. HELLO! WELCOME TO THE PEOPLES REPUBLIC OF MARYLAND. (4/29/10) Dave's response: None of the above is "news." It's all pretty much just politicized talk/entertainment. The problem with most of cable TV "news" is that most people don't watch it when there isn't a lot of stuff going on - which is, frankly, most of the time. So, the "cable news nets" have to fill all that time with ranting and raging carnival barkers of all political stripes standing on their heads and saying the same dumb things over and over and over. It's largely "entertainment." Fox leans to the right, MSNBC leans to the left, and CNN is kind of in the wishy-washy middle. But there's very little "news" on "cable news." Like there's very little "music" on MTV. Almost no "history" on the History Channel. And certainly no "arts" on A&E..... Actually, the '10 Caps have a lot in common with the '00 Skins. Both believed they were automatically entitled to the title. KOF (4/29/10) "Comcast showed its true colors last night by producing another{typical} heavily sponsored, cheap telecast....Hey MASN, may be you need to start getting closer to Leonsis?" Peter A., is that you? If not....seriously? You think MASN is the gold standard of local sports programming? MASN has an unreliable signal, employs terrible announcers and has no commitment to original programming beyond the actual events themselves. I think Joe B. and Locker may actually be the best announcing tandem in the DC area (with the Nats' Charlie and Dave a close second). Have you seen the MASN product? Would you rather have color commentary on par with the junk Ron Dibble spews on MASN than what CSN offers? Crazy. (4/29/10) I'd love to hear Rusty Gibson's take on blacks calling sports radio stations and talking hockey. What say you, Rusty? (4/29/10) I saw a promo for the NBC4 news and they flashed pictures of pretty much all of the anchors, reporters, sports and weather people..But nowhere in those pictures did they show Jim Vance..So at the end, there was a subtitle of "News at 5pm", so I thought that was the reason..But in their collage, they showed Doreen Genztler, who's not part of the 5pm team..So why no pic of Vance?..What's up?? (4/29/10) And you all were complaining about AM 980 for soooooo long, totally befuddled as to how they could spend such a seemingly inordinate amount of their programming on the Redskins the entire year and practically ignore every other pro team in D.C.? Now you know the answer. Last night proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that even with all the dysfunctional crap, circus management and clueless losing mentality that has become the trademark of Snyder's boys, in the end they are STILL the only team in town that really matters. Ya gotta laugh!!! KOF (4/29/10) Dave: Fox News has hit 100 months as the top-rated cable news network: www.huffingtonpost.com... Every day I read bloggers, people on Facebook, and people in the Mailbag who complain about some comment or host on FOX News. I can't help but think that during the latter portion of the channel's ratings reign, the Democrats retook Congress and Barack Obama was elected president. Conclusion: The effect of FOX News on electoral politics isn't as great as its supporters hope for, and certainly nowhere near as diabolical as its insufferable, ceaseless critics imagine. Christian (4/29/10) Dave's response: The only other "news" networks are CNN and MSNBC, and neither has very much "news" on them. Yes, Fox is number one among those three channels, and is indeed the top-rated righty talk TV network in the country. But Fox News isn't "news"..... The coolest stained glass window anywhere in Washington DC, courtesy of Peter Roof and Creative Video, and via Make Magazine: tvmercenary.home.comcast.net (4/29/10) This isn't directly related to DC media, but I'm sure it will be a topic of conversation on the Radio/Cable talk shows. It concerns an astonsihing campaign commercial by Alabama Republican, Tim James. This yodeling moron wants to be Alabama's next governor. He's in a tough four-way Republican primary race there and he's hacked off that the examination for a driver's license in Alabama is currently offered in 12 languages. Mr. James, if elected, promises to limit the test to English only. Certainly the good people of Alabama, can do better than to elect this smug, snarky, sanctimonious ass clown to that state's highest officve! When I saw this guy's commercial, I immediately thought about when I discovered (in a trunk belonging to my grandmother) the U.S. Citizenship Study Guide that my paternal grandfather used, to prepare for his citizenship test in the early 1920s. It was in English and Slovak (his native language). Once upon a time, America celebrated the diversity of the people making up our great "melting pot" population. It was an important aspect of our shared greatness as a nation. Sadly, this divisive political commercial suggests that those better days are behind us. (4/29/10) (AM still does well in cities like Cleveland, San Francisco, Denver -- someone has to give it a go here). You are beating a dead horse. AM has been relegated to specialty narrowcasts, some sports, ethnic programming, some talk and....sadly....god-awful infomercials. Lots of them. Unlistenable! Guys like Rush and Hannity who do well on AM's in other cities do it on stations that cover the entire market. No DC AM signal covers the entire market. The market expanded well beyond the borders of the AM signals that were allocated to DC. And not one AM signal has a decent night signal. DC is (and has been for years) THE worst AM major market, period. (4/29/10) Let’s hear it for local Washington Fox affiliate WTTG channel five for keeping the entire Dorothy Height ceremony intact: not WRC, not WJLA, not WUSA had it live and in continuity (the dreadful CNN & PMSNBC had the usual narcissistic talking dickheads telling us how important she was to THEM while the ceremony honoring her went on in another square). Fox does know it’s market now, though. (4/29/10) I agree about the black callers talking hockey. Thompson's show, in particular, seems to have a large black demographic and there have been many callers who have said they were black, had never particularly paid attention to hockey but were getting into the Caps. Thompson himself said that hockey was being talked in SouthEast these days. Winning does such things, especially when the rest of the teams in town suck. And playoff hockey IS the most intense thing going. But the Caps have now laid a big egg. Wonder if folks will stick with them next season? (4/29/10) Dave, great rant today about The Fan. I am not impressed with the lackluster format or shows, particularly the move to add Holden Kushner to The Mike Wise Show. While former co-host Bill Roland was like an 80-year-old grump in the body of a 39-year-old, he let Mike go off on interesting tangents, tell stories, and have takes on everything. Holden is such an uptight, control freak, who is condescending in general, thinks he is better that everyone, and has to constantly compete with Mike for being the lead on the show. Also, Holden has some type of weird infatuation with update gal, Liz Drabick, and obviously would love to get rid of Mike Wise for her. Kushner has a lot of talent, but stop trying to be this clichéd controversial sports host, who just says anything negative and off-color to get a rise out of the audience. Not a sermon, just a thought. (4/29/10) I am giddy thinking about all the sales dollars lost by 1067 The Faaaaaan last night. In the past year, that station made me hate sports radio AND has done everything possible to suck the life out of the talent that remains and once entertained me for hours a day. Long live The Mike O’Meara Show podcast. (4/29/10) I can not understand why any station would broadcast "streaming" video such as that shown last night at 530 pm on CH45 in Baltimore in place of a normal live shot. The video was distorted and was very distracting from the content. Even a small market station would not air such poor quality. (4/29/10) To the fella unhappy with Channel 9's commercial: Why continue to bend Kenny's ear if he said right up front he cannot address the issue you disagree with? His own journalistic scruples are irrelevant in this situation - it's a sales matter, so talk to those in charge of that particular issue. You are fortunate he didn't tell you to kcuf ffo before hanging up. (4/29/10) Things gotten so bad at channel 9 that I saw a commercial during the news for an infomercial they have scheduled on Saturday night. Seeing the Mose Allison video reminds me he'll be appearing at the Birchmere music club in Alexandria in a few weeks. (4/29/10) Dave: The Caps demise was quite unfortunate but I think everyone would agree, we're not surprised! However, I really thought Comcast showed its true colors last night by producing another{typical} heavily sponsored, cheap telecast. I know their philosophy is to sponsor everything under the sun but last night did-it for me. Joe B. was so politically correct he must have read the same book as Koken and I agree with another post in that the postgame press conference was cut short and you didn't see the end...why not? Trust me, we weren't waiting for another cliche ridden postgame show from Koken and Lisa. Hey MASN, may be you need to start getting closer to Leonsis? (4/29/10) Finding life - even if it's just of the bacteria variety - on another planet would probably be the greatest scietific discovery of modern mankind. Yet, the new WMAL morning team of Plante and Grandy today made talk of such a finding to be merely a wasteful Obama spending which found "pond scum" on Mars. OK, we can expect such talk from Chris Plante, who is an idiot, but "for shame" on Fred Grandy, who has sold his soul to MAL's owner Citadel for a few bucks. (4/29/10) Just read the mailbag post about black folk calling into shows and talking hockey. I am black, and I agree. The Caps got black cats interested, but last night, I felt stabbed in the heart. I figured out of all the shitty dc area sports teams, the Caps would uplift my soul. Negative. I guess I will turn to the Nats now who actually are looking respectable...*sigh* (4/29/10) Dave - Dave Ross on Fox 5 annoys me on a level similar to Holly Morris. These people need to stop being extra and acting like clowns. Dave Ross should speak like a normal human. Holly Morris should stop trying to make a joke about EVERY LITTLE THING. Now to say something nice...I respect Fox 5 tiddays...lol (4/29/10) Unbelievable! During its 4:30 AM newscast today, WUSA 9 runs an ad for Marlo Furniture which begins with the words "BREAKING NEWS" in large, white font against a black screen. (Not sure if there was audio with this as well.) I called the newsroom and spoke with a guy named Kenny, who said I needed to complain to the sales manager. He said the news has no control over advertising on the station. I explained that the ad "cried wolf," deceives 9's viewers and diminishes the station's ability to get the attention of viewers during a legitimate breaking news event. He again stated I need to complain to the sales department, saying "you're not understanding me - news doesn't have any say in the commercials that run." I asked if his journalism school talked about the importance journalistic integrity (assuming he has some education), and he said, "We're at an impasse - you need to talk to the general manager." I expressed my dismay that a major news outlet in Washington, DC seemingly doesn't understand (or worse - accepts?) the problem with blurring news and commercial content. Kenny hung up on me. I'll forgive the amateur hour that local news has become, but this kind of thinking is deeply troubling. Rest assured I will be contacting 9's general manager today. (4/29/10) Let's not forget Comcast's crappy Xfinity digital conversion which forced all HDTV owners to get DTV boxes even though there was no technical reason and even after Comcast for months advertised that The Big Digital Switch would not affect Comcast subscribers in any way at all. It's sleazy advertising and tactics like that that gave Comcast the #1 spot as Worst American company. Shouldn't you add that to the front page Dave Hughes or does slamming Comcast affect your bottom line too? One of the reasons that no media outlets slam Comcast is clearly because of their immense advertising budget, which they spread far and wide to keep the company from being criticized. Apparently, they forgot to write a check to Consumerist. I'm sure they'll correct that in time for next year's voting and will magically show up as #2 again. LOL (4/29/10) After watching another in the long line of playoff loses by the chokings dogs, aka the Washington Capitals, I looked forward to Comcast SportsNet's press conference with Bruce Boudreau. But as Comcast did most of the year, they cut away before the conference was over. I would beg CSN to please, especially after yet another agonizing playoff loss, allow the Boudreau press conference in be seen in its entirety. It was frustrating to for it to be cut off before it was over. (4/29/10) Trying to be a successful AMer in DC these days is like trying to be a successful blacksmith, gasfitter or wheelwright. The times have relegated those once-well known occupations to mere nostalgic whimsy, and AM isn't far behind. As much as I love AM radio, I cannot find anything to love about it here in this town. It pains me to say this, but its probably time to take Ol' Yeller out back and ventilate his skull; OR find a group or sole owner who fully believes in the medium and can make it part of a more successful and larger media entity. AM still does well in cities like Cleveland, San Francisco, Denver -- someone has to give it a go here. (4/29/10) Thoughts: Why not bring Chris Plante back to a 9pm - Midnight slot? (He was on from 8-10pm a few years ago.) If hypothetically Joe & Mika come back from their so-called 'hiatus' and get the 9am-Noon slot, followed by Rush, Hannity and Levin, then I'd 'bump' John Batchelor out and place Plante at night, right where he started and where he belongs. Morning drive is far too complicated a slot for the 'Plantistas' to get used to listening to our favorite radio talk show host. -Silvie- (4/29/10) ABC screws the pooch... again www.mediabistro.com (4/29/10) /\ April 29 Messages /\ Jump to the Mailbag Archive Index.....