Current Mailbag - Mailbag Archive Index - DCRTV Front Page - Support DCRTV DCRTV Mailbag - May 9 to May 18, 2008 Latest messages listed first..... \/ May 18 Messages \/ Actually, I found the post on WTOP's website funny as Senator McCain is a "Navy Brat". And, in his many moves, he must've encountered an Indian Head test pattern somewhere along the way. But, not during any of his dad's postings in the D.C. area. I don't recall ever seeing one around here! Other than SMPTE color bars, all the test patterns I ever saw out of D.C. stations were of the fairly standard varieties. But, never an Indian Head! Did anyone in the D.C. area ever run an Indian Head? Here's a question for those involved in such: When am I likley (if ever) to see anyone testing in DTV other than WNVC-57? Not too long ago in the UK, I saw a 16:9 version of the Beeb's "Test Card F" with the girl playing nulls and crosses. Anybody here ever air SMPTE bars in 16:9? Or, better yet, how about a 16:9 Indian Head? -Unsigned Corporate Suit (5/18/08) Is there a trade secret that dictates that all car dealerships must have annoying ads with either retarded spokespersons (Antwerpen) or ugly ass spokes persons (Koons)? I'm so tired of that old man with his Santa-Osama-ish beard saying YESSSS to every deal. (5/18/08) (I don't recall seeing anyone on here elude to Big Zero and Douche bits as being "fake". What people have said is that their bits (and show for that fact) suck...THAT...is the undeniable truth.) God I love these mailbaggers... No, Marconi, THAT is your opinion. And you're certainly entitled to it. But it means almost nothing, especially if you don't have a ratings book. See, the way this radio thing works, you get to look at the ratings every 3 months to see whether a show is successful or not. And judging by the less than 2 books they got at night, and 2/3 of their first book in middays, it looks like Big O and Dukes may do pretty darn well. Why are you so bitter? 20 years of reading your PD's liners, all the while yearning to do talk radio finally catch up to you? (5/18/08) Some people did in fact say that their bits were fake. Real creative with the Big Zero and Douche comment, took you a while to figure that one out I bet. Really, I find the undeniable truth being that their show and bits do not suck, and that their increase in ratings support that. (5/18/08) A positive comment before we start our regularly schedule week of sniping and backbiting. On a drive to Sunday brunch it was refreshing to hear Jerry Phillips and MetroTalk on 3WT. Jerry is one of the nicest guys in the business and does a tremendous job on focusing on issues affecting the residents of the area. One of today's topics was on parenting and responsibilities & he covered it with a broad booking of guests. I know Jerry's work from his Clear Channel days and of course on the Sunday block of public affairs shows on WRC-TV, but there was just something so classic about how the show sounded and Jerry's attention to detail. Good radio. Period. (5/18/08) I missed whatever point "Unsigned Corporate Suit" was trying to make when quoting the comment from the WTOP web site on John McCain, but I do know that WRC-TV has NEVER followed SNL with a sign-off and test pattern in the 32+ years of the show. From its premiere on October 11, 1975, "NBC's Saturday Night" was immediately followed on DC's Channel-4 with the syndicated "Don Kirshner's Rock Concert", (not to be confused with NBC's "Midnight Special" which aired Fridays). For six years, beginning in the fall of '79, WRC scheduled 30-minute syndicated shows in the 1:00 to 1:30am slot, thus moving Rock Concert to a 1:30am start. Those 30-minute shows consisted of "Madhouse", "Sha-Na-Na", "Lohman and Barkley", the syndicated "S.C.T.V" (before it was picked-up by NBC), Britain's "Kenny Everett Show", NJ's "Uncle Floyd", "Evening at the Improv", "Rock 'n Roll Tonite", "Rock TV", "Rock Palace", and "Rock-N-America". By the spring of 1985, the locally-produced "Arch Campbell Show" began a long run at 1:00am which took it 'til the fall of 1989 when "It's Showtime at the Apollo" hence forth followed SNL. I'll spare you the details of program changes in the '90s. If the WTOP comment was meant as a put-down to McCain's age, I would suggest the writer is actually the one suffering from fuzzy recollection. (5/18/08) Re: "Our local PBS stations in DC and Annapolis do 1080 interlaced. Btw, ABC and Fox broadcast exclusively 720p and NBC & CBS in 1080i -- all high definition." I think what the original poster meant was that since WETA crams in several standard def signals in one 6 MHz allocation, the HD signal is highly compressed and doesn't look very good (not as sharp as it should be). You can fit only so much data in a set bandwidth. I like WUSA and WRC's HD signals better than WETA's for that reason. Dave in Fredericksburg (5/18/08) Dave's response: Watch very closely, during a PBS nature documentary in which some sort of quick action takes place. Or maybe even a fast pan to the right or left. And you'll notice the picture actually pixilate, or become "blocky." That's WETA's HD signal compression. Looks OK in static shots or scenes with little movement. Thank goodness WETA doesn't run hockey games..... Two comments regarding recent legality postings.. First, as for that Winchester station, Virginia is what is legally called an "Employment-at-Will" state. This is not the be confused with Virginia's status as a "Right-to-Work" state. The two are completely different. Whereas "Right-to-Work" refers to things like Labor Organizations, Collective Bargaining Agreements, etc., "Employment-at-Will" covers a myriad of things primarily related to hire and discharge practices. Basically, there are some things you can be legally discharged for in an "Employment-at-Will" state that are not covered specifically in employment discrimination laws. It also makes an "Unlawful Discharge" lawsuit extremely difficult to prosecute. Thus, in Virginia, such are exceedingly rare and rarely succeed. Also, regarding MASN coverage and commercials. Washington baseball fans need to remember that the Washington Nationals exist solely for the profit (and thus pleasure) of Peter Angelos. Had "Exclusivity Territories" been devised prior to the departure of the second generation Washington Senators for eventual partnership ownership by the current President, there is no doubt that the Nationals would've enjoyed considerable TV coverage. Because of when these territories were devised, the Orioles enjoy exclusivity over a much wider ares than the Nationals ever shall. The only reason Captain Asbestos is trying to get MASN carriage into southside and Applachian Virginia, and well into North Carolina is to reinforce the Orioles' territorial branding and domain. Given that, there are some things the Nationals fans do need to fear for their team. Among them: Washington winning a "Parkway Series" over Baltimore. That is not to be permitted. Nor, will it be tolerated. Winning an occasional game to spark interest is desirable as that creates interest. Amd, thus more profits for MASN and Angelos. Second, Washington must never have a better performance record over Baltimore in any way, shape, or form. Third, the return of baseball to Washington will be extremely short-lived should the Nationals make the playoffs, much less win a pennant, or heaven forbid make the World Series without the Orioles doing better. You can see this in the records of the two teams, to date. Washington has never out-performed Baltimore and never shall. For to do otherwise would require Angelos to spend money on his Baltimore team that he'd rather not have to. You see, by having a marignally successful team in Washington, Captain Asbestos makes out like a bandit because MASN's ratings will improve and put more money in his pocket while the Washington Nationals bear the player payroll expense. So, you see where it's a "win-win" for Peter Angelos. -Unsigned Corporate Suit (5/18/08) I don't recall seeing anyone on here elude to Big Zero and Douche bits as being "fake". What people have said is that their bits (and show for that fact) suck...THAT...is the undeniable truth. (5/18/08) Dear everyone - Here's a reminder that pollster Mark Penn, long-time and erstwhile strategist for the Clinton campaigns, and author of "Mictrotrends," will be the guest at The Q&A Cafe this Thursday, May 22. His book is an interesting analysis of the trends that define who we are and what we seem to want, think we want, prefer, choose and find compelling. Please make your reservation with Jon Moss at 202.338.2000, weekdays between 10 and 5. The fee is only $35, which covers all costs of food, soft beverages, tax and tip. The doors open at noon, the program begins at 12:30, and Olsson's will have Mark's book for selling and signing. Next up: MSNBC's Tucker Carlson on Thursday, June 5; Ted Sorensen on Tuesday, June 24. Please be sure to take time to watch the recent Q&A with former Pentagon policy official Doug Feith, and other interviews you may have missed, on our YouTube channel at: www.youtube.com... A collection of my columns and photographs about and of Washington for New York Social Diary are available at: www.caroljoynt.com... We hope to see you at all the upcoming Q&A's as we wrap up the spring '08 season. Carol Joynt (5/18/08) To everyone one who was calling Big O and Dukes hacks and that all of their bits are just fake. Yeah I don't think that this fight was fake. www.wjfk.com (5/18/08) re: "No PBS station that I’ve seen airs true HD. They are now carving up the spectrum into so many other feeds that 720p is as h-def as it gets… and that ain’t high definition!" What a silly and uninformed statement that is. Our local PBS stations in DC and Annapolis do 1080 interlaced. Btw, ABC and Fox broadcast exclusively 720p and NBC & CBS in 1080i -- all high definition. (5/18/08) I saw this item on WTOP's website this morning and I thought it worth sharing: "John McCain is Old Eenough to Remember ... ... when "Saturday Night Live" was the station signing-off for the night, followed by The Star Spangled banner, and an Indian Head Test Pattern!" It was a comment on a story about McCain's appearance on last night's "SNL"... -Unsigned Corporate Suit (5/18/08) Dave, www.engadgethd.com... No PBS station that I’ve seen airs true HD. They are now carving up the spectrum into so many other feeds that 720p is as h-def as it gets… and that ain’t high definition! This is a complete waste of public airwaves. Tom Gauger (5/18/08) Dave's response: There's almost no true HD out there, anyway. Many broadcast TV stations - not just PBSers - carve up their HD bandwidth to offer additional standard-def digital channels, a la 4's Weather Plus and 7's Local Point. Plus, cable companies compress the HD signals to allow them to fit into their limited bandwidth. This doesn't bother many viewers since they have relatively cheap 720p LCD "HD" sets that can't display full 1080i..... Thank you Mike O'Meara for giving us the new Jack Diamond In The Afternoon show. Robb makes an excellent Bert Weiss. And Beth Ann, the Grounded Female PresenceT, there to keep those randy boys in line (and try to ensnare some of those elusive Women 18+). Actin' crazy now ain't they! Wooo! No cage strong enough to hold in THIS zany zoo! I tried. Lord knows I tried. I wanted to like it. But whether due to an alpha-DJ skillset deficiency, or just sheer laziness, the New Mike Show is now no longer discernible from every consultant-driven, PD-whipped, all-inclusive roboshow that no one can agree on, not even the boss. It is four hours a day of boredom interrupted by phoniness. The show has become exactly what the boys used to ridicule. Mike, to borrow the words of one of your best impressions, F**kin' thing SUCKS!! But we part as friends. Thank you for 20-plus years of unparallelled raydeeo entertainment. --ian (5/18/08) Dave's response: I honestly don't know who sent the above message. The return e-mail was an anonymized cox.net address. And Cox does serve Great Falls VA. A big fat hmmm..... /\ May 18 Messages /\ \/ May 17 Messages \/ David, Sam Flood the producer of today's NBC coverage of the Preakness told me that he expects that there will be PETA and the Humane Society protests in Baltimore outside Pimlico. He told me that the network "Will cover their protests like any other news story. He also said that the fans in Baltimore know how to have fun and that the Preakness is a big garden party , a true fans race." Coverage starts at 4:30pm on WRC and WBAL with WBAL having post race coverage starting around 7pm. www.examiner.com... Cheers, Jim (5/17/08) The Mike O'Meara show may be based in DC, but that in of itself means something to the rest of the country. My station, KCJJ owes much of it's success to the show and Don and Mike before it. Lots and lots of people are stuck in their car and have lives. They still want it on their ride home. I am very thankful the show has continued syndication. It pays the bills and Mike and gang are sounding great. Steve, KCJJ, Iowa City (5/17/08) Dave's response: All well and good. But, the D&M show has never done all that great syndication-wise. Landing mainly a handful of smallish and middle markets. Now with Mike at the helm, it is still a local DC show that just happens to be syndicated nationwide..... What's the deal with the big old fashioned microphones on Larry Michaels comcast tv show? Seems to have brought them out after I'm Bram Weinstein left and the show was no longer on Redskin's Radio. (5/17/08) Sporting News Radio is hardly the last tier of sports radio networks. As long as Sports Byline USA exists, Sporting News Radio can never be last. FYI, an entity called the Horse Racing Radio Network has the radio rights to this weekend's Preakness. WBAL in Baltimore & the Red Zebra stations in D.C. are listed to carry the Preakness feed locally. www.preakness.com... And just to irritate me further, one more sports team is off local radio. Washington Mystics women's pro basketball will no longer be carried on previous home WWRC/1260 or any other area radio station. Mystics game audio will instead be webcast on WashingtonMystics.com. At least the Mystics can save some money cutting out those checks to Clear Channel. Everett W. (5/17/08) Why would Fox5 show footage of the Pope's visit when Brian Bolter was reporting on Ellen DeGeneres getting engaged and the California Supreme Court decision overturning the ban on same sex marriage? This occurred Fri, May 16 at 10:50pm. Odd when the Pope's visit ended weeks ago and there was no other Pope story (that I saw) on the broadcast. A simple mistake or a joke by someone at Fox5? (5/17/08) Dave's response: I'm told that the Pope did weigh in on the issue - and that his image was only on the screen for a few seconds..... A few months back WJLA's sister station down in the Lynchburg-Roanoke market WSET channel 13 did a news report about those ex-gay groups as well. I didn't see that report but I did see WJLA's. Somewhat suprised that neither WJLA or the Washington Blade mentioned that documentary that came out a few years back that mentioned Virginia being such a popular place for the ex-gay movement. I think it was called "Virginia Is For Haters" or something like that. It was something I found while channel surfing in Chicago about a year ago. The movie not only featured a piece about channel 9 WUSA's former weatherman Bill Kamal ( they showed the interview he did I believe for a Florida station after his child molestion arrest saying he was fired from WUSA because of his sexuality ) but the movie also interviewed a woman who was fired in the mid 90s from Winchester's WUSQ Q102 ( according to her ) because she is a lesbian. She claimed that WUSQ was so homophobic back then that then-management believed the reason why WUSQ was so popular in the Shenandoah Valley was because unlike the other stations in and around Winchester ( I assume she meant WINC-FM, WFTR and WKMZ ) was because they ( Q102 ) didn't allow homosexuals on the staff. She also clamed no laywer in the Winchester area was will to help her because in Virginia it is totally legal to fire someone due to one's sexuality. Of course WUSQ has gone though many different owners and staff turnover since the 90s and hopefully they aren't so homophoic now but sadly in Virginia it is still legal to fire someone if he/she is gay. (5/17/08) As I sit here and watch the Nats playing the Orioles in wonderful HD on Comast here in Reston. The pictures are great, Jim Palmer and Don Sutton have worked very well together however we are getting all of the Orioles commercials...which are different than the Nats commercials (on Comcst SD). Hey Peter we're too far from Baltimore here in downtown Reston! (5/17/08) /\ May 17 Messages /\ \/ May 16 Messages \/ So the arbiters of good radio, WOYK in YORK, PA, have decided that the Mike O'Meara Show has run its course... and replaced it with the critically acclaimed Sporting News Radio... the third and last tier of the sports radio networks. As Buzzito would say... brilliant! Not. (5/16/08) Dave's response: Face it, Mike's show, like Don and Mike's show before that, is basically a Washington-based "afternoon zoo" show for the Washington radio market. Forget syndication and just focus on the local market. If folks elsewhere want to hear it, they can listen online..... Over the years, I have worked at a number of fine stations in Baltimore, and certainly during those years, we were treated well, and we were a family. I read here on DCRTV of the cutbacks by a number of the big corporate owners, and certainly am glad I am here in SW Va. I work for a few locally owned properties in both Roanoke and nearby Stanleytown. Our owner at WZBB (99.9) provided a small increase in hourly rate for the entire staff, simply because as he stated "it's to offset the extra everyone is paying for gas". In my entire 35+ years in radio, I have never seen that kind of compassion by an owner. So, before anyone blasts small and medium market radio, there are some advantages. For me, I am allowed personality, flexibility, and fun on the air, be it live or tracked. Funny thing is, the part time rates here are not much below what I received in Baltimore. A special thanks to owner, Donnie Brook at WZBB. Tom Conroy (5/16/08) It might be just me, but when I quickly glance at the "Micotrends - Mark Penn" ad on the right I read "Micropenis - Mark Penn". (5/16/08) Dave, Not sure if you saw this but it looks as if the Mike O'Meara show lost another affiliate. WOYK-AM 1350 picked up Sporting News Radio and dumped the Mike O'Meara show as they claim "the show has basically run its course". Here's the link to the story, ydr.inyork.com. (5/16/08) Oh u fellow, bitter, CC employee, Get a life! Why would shaun leak info about himself if he didnt get a job...we all know the ego that boy had. And DCRTV Dave is right...i have been the leak giving him info for 4 years and guess what...i am still in the building...in fact I am writing this email from the 5th floor at 1801 right now...BZ and DP never caught me and I am sure HA will never figure it out either. Ahhh radio...so much fun people. (5/16/08) Dave's response: Thanks Elliot! You're the best..... I can't believe MASN is really trying to merge the booths this weekend. This forum isn't the proper place for a rant, so check it out at www.east-coast-bias.com. (5/16/08) As a longtime Washington Post shareholder, I can't imagine that the buyouts of some 100 staff members will do much to right the ship. Operating margins are shrinking, fueled in no small part by the secular decline that is affecting the newspaper business, and exacerbated by the recession we are in. The Post, which of course isn't so much a media company nowadays as an education provider (Kaplan), will have to grow through acquisitions in that segment, while hoping its efforts to monetize its digital assets can offset the continuing -- and accelerating -- decline of the paper itself. Perhaps WPO can unload some of its half dozen TV stations as well to raise money - they are not the cash cows they used to be either. I predict that in 10 years the physical newspaper we know today will not exist. -- Paul (5/16/08) That's not Ch. 7 overhyping ex-gay groups. That's equal time. (5/16/08) For my taste I will take Johnny Holliday, Ray Knight, Bob Carpenter, Don Sutton, and Debbie Taylor over the Orioles voices anytime! Shawn, Bethesda (5/16/08) Re: (..from the other side of O'Reilly's camera. www.collegehumor.com ) More like kindergartenhumor.bom! Brian/Reston (5/16/08) So, MASN is calling the Nationals-Orioles series the "Battle of the Beltway," isn't that cute. I'm trying to understand this, though, since Washington and Baltimore EACH HAVE THEIR OWN BELTWAYS. Which Beltway are they battling over? And more appropriately, WHY are they battling over a Beltway in the first place? I'm so confused, I think I'm going to watch HGTV all weekend instead. Oh and by the way, great job by MASN to lock up www.masn.com. -- DM (5/16/08) Since both broadcast teams will be working this weekend at Camden Yards, I fail to see where MASN is saving any money. Despite the fact that they've had two seperate broadcasts in previous years I doubt they were using two different camera crews, just different announcing teams. This is just MASN's silly little Kumbaya moment...Howie (5/16/08) G Gordon Liddy reads fan mail ... sorta ... www.youtube.com (5/16/08) Sam Donaldson would never kiss and tell soupcans.blogspot.com (5/16/08) You would think that after getting fired, Shaun would have learned to stop being Deep Throat. (5/16/08) Dave's response: That RZ tip didn't come from him. My CC source was not and has never been him..... Last year, MASN actually presented two separate broadcasts when the O's battled the Nats. It made sense... after all, while there are about a dozen Fox Sports RSNs around the country and several Comcast RSNs that hold baseball rights, they don't pare down to a single broadcast team when their teams compete. So this year, I'm guessing because they're going to the expense of broadcasting the event in HD, they've downsized to a single crew? That's Bush league. (5/16/08) Re: "how about they fix channel 52 tech tv that has been out for 3 weeks." I got two bits of bad news for ya: First, Tech TV has been "out" for years. Killed off and replaced by G4. Second, if a channel has been missing from the analog tier for any length of time, it ain't coming back. Analog cable is history; they just don't have the balls to come up with a transition plan. They'll just keep taking away channels one by one, hoping you'll sign up for digital cable to get them back. Thing is, if you gotta have an installer come by anyway, it's a great time to check out the alternatives. I love my Dish Network. Thanks, Comcast! (5/16/08) Greg of Reisterstown said : "Yes, Dish Network added 22 HD channels this week, and that really is welcome news. They got rid of the ridiculous VOOM HD channels that hardly anyone watched and replaced them with more mainstream HD channels. My problem is, THEY STILL DON'T OFFER MASN HD!!!!!!" Of course, the dropping of VOOM and the addition of more mainstream HD had little to do with each other. DISH added the new channels first, so there was no necessity to drop the VOOMs. The VOOMs were dropped because Charlie Ergen's in litigation with VOOM, just like he winds up in litigation with almost everyone he's ever been in business with. There are a whole boatload of useless channels on DISH which should have gone before VOOM, but he doesn't pay a fee for them. It would be nice if the new mainstream HDs had some HD on them, for the most part it's just stretch-o-vision. And, as I've said before about MASN-HD on DISH, I'm not holding my breath. I will keep writing both MASN and DISH regularly about it, though. Howie (5/16/08) I worked with Marty Schwartz at WGMS in the late 80s. He was a member of the Sales team and became the National Sales Manager. I would like to re-connect with him. If anyone knows how to reach him, please email me at rrubin@boomerradio.com. Thanks. (5/16/08) Yes, Dish Network added 22 HD channels this week, and that really is welcome news. They got rid of the ridiculous VOOM HD channels that hardly anyone watched and replaced them with more mainstream HD channels. My problem is, THEY STILL DON'T OFFER MASN HD!!!!!! I've written them a few letters and all I get back is a form letter saying they'll forward my request to their Programming Department...yeah right! Anyway, until I can watch the O's and Nats in HD, they're still offering an inferior product to me. Once they get around to offering MASN in HD, I'll be a happier customer. (It still beats Comcast though!) Greg in Reisterstown (5/16/08) Dave's response: For the record, Comcast/Reston now offers 38 HD channels, including one video-on-demand channel..... I for one can't wait for Ray Knight to return to the Nats pre and post game shows!. It's been rather painful having to watch the Gentleman filling in for Mr Knight! Johnny Holiday and Ray Knight have such great Chemistry and seem to be having a ball doing the shows. When Ray or Johnny is missing, the shows suffer big time. Not a sermon, just a thought. (5/16/08) Dave, Saw the blurb on the new Comcast HD channels, Dish Network just added 22 new HD channels to their line up: -- ABC Family HD (DISH Network Ch.180 -- Disney HD East (Ch. 172) -- ESPNews HD (Ch. 142) -- Biography HD (Ch. 119) -- Hallmark Movie Channel HD -- Bravo HD (Ch. 129) (Ch. 187) -- Cartoon HD (Ch. 176) -- MGM HD (Ch. 385) -- Cinemax 5 Star (Ch. 381) -- Sci Fi HD (Ch. 122) -- Cinemax HD West (Ch. 380) -- Smithsonian HD (Ch. 374) -- Comcast Sports Network Bay -- Tennis Channel HD (Ch. 400) Area HD (Ch. 419)* -- Toon Disney HD (Ch. 174) -- Comcast Sports Network New -- Travel Channel HD (Ch. 215) England HD (Ch. 435)* -- USA HD (Ch. 105) -- CNBC HD (Ch. 208) -- Weather Channel HD (Ch. 214) -- CNN HD (Ch. 200) -- World Fishing Network HD (Ch. 396) Here is the link to the news release: dish.client.shareholder.com... Still enjoying the site. Jeff (5/16/08) According to www.wtop.com, 1500AM, 820AM, 107.7FM, and 104.3FM are still Washington Post Radio. (5/16/08) Dan Mason, the big head of cbs radio, has enough time to micro manage the Mike O'Meara show, imagine that! What will be Big Bird's age at the end of his Sirius contract, 58? With all his money I'd think he could sit back and retire to the Old Shock Jock's home down in Lake Buena Vista? (5/16/08) “Was watching Fox News this evening and they called him ‘Mr. Bush’ but just ‘Obama.’ Not ‘Mr. Obama.’" The AP Stylebook, which is used by most news organizations as their official policy on honorifics and titles, calls for the President to be called “President Smith” on first reference and “Mr. Smith” (or, presumably, “Mrs. Smith”) on all subsequent references. Senators, by comparison, are called “Senator Smith” on first reference and simply “Smith” on second reference and beyond. Obviously you missed the first reference to both President Bush and Senator Obama. (5/16/08) That's great more HD Channels for Comcast...now how about they fix the one's they already have, like channel 52 tech tv that has been out for 3 weeks. Or maybe better yet have some decent ( I mean any ) audio processing so everything isn't distorted and local vs national spots are within 30db of each other. I doubt even their engineers are that stupid. (5/16/08) Interesting FCC news the other day that I missed, potentially impacting the Washington AM dial..... I noticed that the FCC approved Richmond's new 50,000 watt AM 1200. But that's not the interesting part because that does not directly impact WAGE AM 1200's current operation, but it does impact its owner's plan to upgrade WAGE to 50,000 watts on AM 1190. Does this signal that the FCC is leaning towards approving the WAGE AM 1190 proposal for what will basically be a BRAND NEW Washington area 50,000 watt monster AM signal from near Dulles Airport? Noted in the FCC app that was approved is the fact that the current WBIS 1190 Annapolis licensed signal would interfere with this new Richmond AM, meaning also that all of the old WBIS 1190 50,000 construction permits that have come and gone also would probably do the same. WBIS is currently operating at only 875 watts under STA with no tower awaiting approval by its owners, WAGE, to dismantle the station and turn in its license, giving the Baltimore area ONE LESS AM radio station. While this doesn't mean the FCC is certain to approve the NEW WAGE 1190, the Richmond AM 1200 proposal certainly does appear to be contingent on it happening and notes all of the current interference issues that would be resolved given the FCC approval of WAGE 1190. Also, all of the WAGE 1190 proposed signal plots are included in part of the Richmond station's FCC approval. Hmmmm. Sounds like a done deal to me for practically a brand new Washington AMer with a MONSTER signal! (see pic) Additional info on possible NEW Washington AMer... Compare the proposed signal vs WWWT 1500 and you've got better NW & SW, and at least competitive or better than the other big AMs in DC. People will say, well what good is 50,000 watts daytime if you've only got 1000 watts nigttime? What good did it do for WMET 1160? Good point, but keep in mind the WAGE 1190 nighttime proposal has not even been filed yet, only hinted at in the current daytime app. And, also keep in mind that WBIS 1190 Annapolis had already been approved for a move to Baltimore at 7000 watts nighttime and 50,000 watts daytime in separate FCC approved proposals over the years. Additionally, the Dulles Airport location for the NEW WASHINGTON AM 1190 is a lot further away from New York WLIB 1190's 30,000 watt nighttime signal than Baltimore and the WLIB 1190 nighttime signal was clearly planned and engineered so as to not interfere with a then proposed Baltmore AM 1190 at night. You can clearly see the huge null in WLIB's signal towards DC here www.radio-locator.com... So I'm guessing 10,000 watts or more nighttime is possible easily for the new WAGE 1190? Who knows? Keep in mind, I'm not an engineer nor do I play one on TV, and as always, PLEASE, NO WAGEring! :-) (5/16/08) ...from the other side of O'Reilly's camera. www.collegehumor.com (5/16/07) /\ May 16 Messages /\ \/ May 15 Messages \/ I had the pleasure of meeting Don Geronimo's son Bart a few years ago at a concert which I was Emceeing, and in which Bart was performing.. He was charming and polite when he introduced himself to me as Freda's son. I hope Don's feud with me, which has always been only from his side, not mine, can be buried now that he is off the radio. Don, congratulations, Bart is a fine young man. You have reason to be proud. Chris Core, WTOP Radio, XM Radio (5/15/08) Freda was a graduate of Clemson. Another reason for Don (Mike) to be proud. Congrats to Bart and the Sorce family. Peace! RD. (5/15/08) Just when I thought that John Thompson and his sidekick Mitchell had reached their low point I am again reassured that they can go lower. For the last two days they have been allowing fifteen to twenty minutes of discussion about the firing of a local high school football coach. Of course they didn't know about it, even though it was reported in two papers, and widely discussed on various message boards. So instead of doing some research about the guy's prior history, they allow his supporters, an assistant coach, and the guy himself to call in and present a defense. No research about the coachs shady past, no questioning of the callers, just uh huh, yea, umm hum, and anecdotes about their own past. If they had been hit with it out of the blue I could understand it but when it came up on the second day and the story had been in the paper I have to conclude that these jokers have no clue about how to prepa re for a show. (5/15/08) (quote) Howard Stern ... could get offers for TV or movies that would get his name back in front of the general public. (end) Or not. Howie's been flying since the early 80s, and 25 years is a mighty long stretch. His act has become stale and predictable, and the rest of the world has caught up with his variety of humor; Even 8:00PM teevee sitcoms are doing his act! He's doing nothing innovative or fresh except endless cursing, and he's been off the terrestrial dial for too long. His radio act is becoming irrelevant and is almost bordering 80s nostalgia. What movies would he do? Another self-absorbed biography? What TV would he do? Sit in front of a console and say "Nice t*ts"? Please. Howard, go off and enjoy your fortune. Raise greyhounds, buy real estate, fund a scholarship or build a broadcast wing at a college. Your turkey timer has popped. If TV is in your future, it'll be a season of Surreal Life where you'll be rooming with Pam Dawber, Reggie Jackson, Boy George and ALF's puppeteer. (5/15/08) Howard Stern wants to take time off after his Sirius contract is up, according to a couple of people on this board. Doesn't he have another 2 1/2 years left on his contract? A lot of things can happen in that time. He could get offers for TV or movies that would get his name back in front of the general public, the people who don't care about Sirius Radio. He could probably be a bigger star if he wasn't in that radio ghetto. How likely is it that Sirius will survive the term of his contract? JOHN IN STAFFORD (5/15/08) ("Was watching Fox News this evening and they called him "Mr. Bush" but just "Obama." Not "Mr. Obama." And they called lefty documentary producer Michael Moore "portly"...) Who is they? An anchor, a reporter, or a commentator? There is a big difference. Was there any mention of the MSNBC anchor who called the president of the United States a "monkey"? (5/15/08) Was watching Fox News this evening and they called him "Mr. Bush" but just "Obama." Not "Mr. Obama." And they called lefty documentary producer Michael Moore "portly." But I bet they'd never call Rush or even Rogers Ailes that, even though all three are fatties. (5/15/08) Of course Howard is going to take six months off. To look for another gig. He knows that Sirius is in serious trouble, and that within the next four months they have several BILLION dollars in expenses to be managed beyond their normal operations. That would include his new contract, renewal of sports affiliations (however unlikely) and two satellite launches that they wish would go away. If Mel K. is true to form, he needs this deal done by Aug. 30th. Notice his new posturing that he won't do the deal if it has too many restrictions. Well, if Mel does not have the XM dough, then he will have to increase shareholder value in another way by letting some significant expenses go. Howard's ego could not stand the thought of being fired (aka not being renewed), and he knows he can't get more Sirius dough, cause he got all they had already. So better to take a long vacation and fade into the night, for fame is fleeting, rather than having the lights just turned out on you, unexpectedly, as it is most likely for Sirius to do. This proposed merger would not be necessary if Howard had generated the returns they expected. It is Sirius that needs XM, and neither Surius nor XM need an expensive used-to-be-relevant like Howard. (5/15/08) Don G-Congrats, I know you are very proud of your son! My cousin has been accepted and is headed to Clemson this fall! Hey maybe I'll see you at Tequila Mockingbird or Duffy's, (some of my new hangouts for us North OC locals), if I do a drink is on me! Thanks for the memories and guidance for us young DJs. -Michael Popovec (Mike Bradley-101.7 & 95-3 The B-www.musicontheb.com) (5/15/08) Check out this remix of O'Reilly's Inside Edition days: www.youtube.com (5/15/08) Don't know if anyone has already mentioned this, but doesn't Hillary Clinton look like The Joker from "Batman" on Chickaboomer's ad banner on the DCRTV homepage? Doc Holliday (5/15/08) Don G., hangin out at the beach, for the summer, hmm Seacrets, has radio station in Dire Straits, and not even, Mark Knopler can help it, maybe Don can, PLease? (5/15/08) (RE: Public radio talkers dropping local traffic reports) I find this fascinating - look at the incredible detail!!!!! www.kuow.org (5/15/08) Many people know Don Pardo as the voice of "Saturday Night Live" since 1975. Pardo joined NBC in 1944 as a staff announcer (a position he held for a record 60 years and 6 months). His trademark announcing style led to work on various game shows, including the original "Price Is Right", the original "Jeopardy!" (“Don Pardo, tell her what she’s won!”), and a host of other game shows. Here's a link for a 4-hour interview with him, which is part of he Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation's Archive of American Television's oral history series. www.youtube.com (5/15/08) Brian Williams On Sue Simmons soupcans.blogspot.com (5/15/08) Looks like you guys got this one wrong. Deena Blake already got married...checkout the Deena Blake page on the WMZQ website. - Michael and Tina Ward (5/15/08) Dave's response: Just relaying what AllAboutCountry.com was reporting. I have fixed the blurb..... "Dave's response: Lately, Kornheiser's Washington Post "column" is made up of transcribed snips from his "PTI" TV commentaries....." WRONG! So completely wrong. They are videos that Kornheiser and Wilbon shoot specifically for the Post, and the videos appear on the Post's website and are then transcribed into the paper. I just can't understand your beef with Kornheiser. Is it because he actually has jobs while you sit in a basement somewhere making stuff up, copying press releases, and patting yourself on the back for your "journalistic integrity"? This gaff makes me wonder how much you actually pay attention to the Post in the midst of your attacking it. Oh, and enough with the Reliable Source. You must know, what with all your journalistic expertise, that it is not some breaking news section of the Post, and is merely meant to report tidbits and gossip on local celebrities. So what if they run it a few days after others. Again, might seem odd to you, but some people don't read DCRTV and might not have seen Farhi's small snippet burried someplace. Quit congratulating yourself for nothing. (5/15/08) Dave's response: Hey, I only bitch about stuff I'm listening to. I guess that's why Korny and the Globe get so much of my attention. Yeah, next time I want to know what kind of pants Dave Chapelle is seen wearing, I will turn to the "RS" gals..... I don't know about any hairpiece, but Phil Wood has always worn his hair like that. Phil is a man without vanity so I'd expect him to be about the last person who'd wear a hairpiece. I know he's a guitarist with a love of oldies rock, so I always assumed the do to be his salute to Roy Orbison. Of course my hair looks like a salute to Larry Fine, so I greatly admire his. BTW, I still think MASN should add a show about the Nats like the one Tom Davis does on the Birds and give the show to Phil. Howie (5/15/08) Oh look....more UFC talk on the Big Zero and Douche Show today...*snore, snore, snore* Same show every single day...Bad movie quotes, useless UFC chatter, and stupid games. And please, someone get Mr. Douche...errrr Dukes some downers or something...Nothing entertaining about listening to a host get hyper and scream about everything...You know what this show needs? A corrupt former police chief....Yeah, that'll fix it.... (5/15/08) Nice going this morning, WTOP. I mean, really... you guys were REAL class acts with the 'interview' with the PR gal of the WW Bridge project. You guys TRASHED her on the air over the seven mile backup by blaming her and the ceremony for that backup when the reality is that the MORONS who were slowing down to GAWK at the media instead of paying attention to their driving are to blame for this morning's fiasco. Of course, the PR gal mentioned that at least TWICE AND the fact that the travel lanes were not blocked at all but you guys wouldn't hear anything of it. Oh no... just let the rubbernecking idiots off the hook and publicly embarrass that poor girl who was just doing her job. So much for being 'objective', huh? The suits at Bonneville must be proud indeed. MAB, Manassas (5/15/08) It seems like a long time since Ray Knight has been on the Nats post game show. Is he on an extended vacation? I've been listening to Phil Wood on the radio for years and never pictured him looking like he does. But that is usually the case when you see someone for the first time. Does he wear a hair piece? (5/15/08) Dave's response: Yes! He and Mike Hambrick share one..... I have a question for the mailbag. I read the Washington Times and the Washington Post. Both are received around the same time at my place in Loudoun County. The sports sections are noticeably different. Today for instance, the Wash Post does not have the box score for the Tampa Bay- NY Yankees game but the Wash Times does.. Why is that? (5/15/08) Bill O'Reilly loses it - Dance Remix www.youtube.com (5/15/08) Sorry to hear about Jonetta Rose Barras being given the shaft. I'm sure it had nothing to do with her being black, female, or uppity. It's just the way liberals do bidness. I remember reading some of her writings and disagreeing with some of them, but that's what makes the world interesting. It's always sad when someone gets screwed, in this case apparently by the management of liberal WAMU. Mark Plotkin got paid a full timer's salary? What the heck is wrong with THAT picture? Who was bleauing whom? Inquiring minds want to know. In 1992 Diane Rehm was being paid $50K per year, so what's a fulltime salary for air talent at WAMU these days? And why can't a sister git sum? I love Kojo but he's a special case, because he has that Caribbean thing going on, so the wine and cheese crowd can pretend he's British and non-threatening, but what about my homegirl Jonetta? Church! Caller X (5/15/08) Is Mr. Kornheiser moving to Phoenix to live next door to Mr. Wilbon? Too bad Mr. Kornheiser doesn't write books like the prolific Mr. Feinstein. Maybe the CBS suits are happy with The Globe in the way Mrs Carlson was happy with the mediocre ratings of WKRP. What say you Doctor Johnny Fever? And if your looking for some sweet soul music try WPFW on Saturdays with the House Party show in the mornings and the Hat Lady's show in the late afternoon. So was O'meara's closed down due to ABC violations or poor business? Stopped by the Hooters in Manassas last Saturday after visiting the old car meet and greet at the Burger King on Nokesville Road. Business seemed just fine at Hooters. I did find the bit on O'Meara's show last Friday with Beth Ann hypnotized pretty funny but geez the show does seem so calculated now. (5/15/08) I know one way the Reliable Source ladies could reach Mike O'Meara. He's been known to answer the phone between 3p and 7p at 1-877-365-3636. (5/15/08) /\ May 15 Messages /\ \/ May 14 Messages \/ Howard Stern said today on his show. That he did not want to keep up his morning schedule when his contract with sirius is up. But he might take a 6 month vacation. Then do afternoons. Ok Howard , take the money and run. (5/14/08) Thanks, Dave, for your response to my question about MSNBC...I was thinking it was a sabotage by the Clinton campaign, because they think NBC & MSNBC are pro Obama. Actually, that's the only thing I agree with them about...that's why I love MSNBC...they are pro Obama, as am I, especially Keith Olbermann. And it's the only reason I put up with Chris Matthews. Thanks again. -- Bobbie (So I guess I have to contact Comcast...ugh!) (5/14/08) Is anyone else having problems with their MSNBC connection? I have Comcast, and all day MSNBC is jumping, breaking up, going silent, etc. Does anyone know what the problem is? I hesitate to contact Comcast for obvious Customer Service issues. -- Bobbie (5/14/08) Dave's response: My MSNBC is fine. Sounds like you're going to have to call Comcast..... BDK on the uh...WJFK stream...uh....could you...uh..sound like you...umm...I think...prepared obviously...uh....you didn't sound like..uh..you know...professional. (5/14/08) Bridie, so nice hearing from you once again...BOBB-Kristen and Caller Y-"I am you and we are us together"~!Thank God for the nighttime...we are people...riders in the sky...evil women....Crows..jumpin jack ..flash..spirit..we are all of us..droppin in to see what condition we're in. (5/14/08) RE: "First on DCRTV! Tony Kornheiser announced on his 3WT radio show..." If it was announced on 3WT, don't you mean "SECOND on DCRTV!" ? (5/14/08) Veteran talker David Webb and co-host Mark Mason will fill in for Andrew Wilkow on "The Wilkow Majority" - Thursday 12-3pm, SIRIUS Patriot 144. David and Mark will be joined by Washington Times columnist and commentator Tony Blankley and Newsday columnist and pundit Ellis Henican , as well as the Investigative Project on Terrorism's Steven Emerson, a regular CNN and Fox News contributor... (5/14/08) I wish Tony K. would take a buyout from MNF and PTI just like the one he took from the former media giant known as The Washington Post. His recent over exposure may have been good for his wallet, but it has been terrible for our ears. (5/14/08) Dave, Since Kornheiser started PTI and MNF, he writes so few columns with HUGE gaps in between that I don't know if I will actually notice when he quits the Post! Timothy, Caroline County, VA (5/14/08) Dave's response: Lately, Kornheiser's Washington Post "column" is made up of transcribed snips from his "PTI" TV commentaries..... “Listening to the Junkies this morning...Seriously...calling Lewis Black a "comedian" is an affront to comedians....He's such an unfunny, old hack.” He USED to be funny, back in the day. Now he’s got George Carlin disease – he just comes across as a bitter, unhappy old man. (5/14/08) Re: The Balto Sun and "comments have been disabled"... While I'll be the last person to defend a worthless rag like The Sun, and the spin presented by the poster is not outside the realm of possibility, to be fair it's not the only explanation. There are a lot of nutcases out there with internet access. I ran a board for fans of a cartoon from 40 years ago and even there I had to lock things down because of crazy personal attacks and religious nutjobs. "Intelligent readers" are generally NOT the problem on any board that accepts public comments. (5/14/08) “How much would I have to donate to have you not post any more messages from Caller X?” - That’s funny, generally BOBB signs his emails. (5/14/08) How much would I have to donate to have you not post any more messages from Caller X? (5/14/08) Ed. Rodriguez, If I ever behaved like Bill did at work I'd be fired. No question. Isn't it funny how the people who get paid the most are allowed to get away with things the rest of us can't? Seems to me that if they're being paid all that money their standards of behavior should be even HIGHER than my own! But we live in an upside down world. I understand this fact, but it shocks me to see someone actaully defending it. - J.C. VA (5/14/08) I think that BOBB, Kristen, Caller X, and Vaughn in Modesto are all the same person. The Sybil of DCRTV. I hope they don't seek help, it's a funny delusion. Bridie Murphy (5/14/08) Listening to the Junkies this morning...Seriously...calling Lewis Black a "comedian" is an affront to comedians....H's such an unfunny, old hack. WB Centreville, VA (5/14/08) Dave---- BOBB, caller X and Vaughn from Modesto are indeed the UNHOLY TRINITY ... the end is near! (5/14/08) COOL GLOBE TUNES: How about we just start with them playing current hits and new releases from major artists… Tom Petty (Mudcrutch) “Scare Easy”... Disturbed “Inside The Fire” (night rotation)... Foxboro Hot Tubs “Any…”... The Spill Canvas “All Over You”... Tegan & Sara “The Con”... Alanis Morissette “Underneath” (5/14/08) I always liked Paul Harris when he was on WARW back in the 90s. He would be a good addition to 3WT. However, my guess is that they just want syndicated stuff to keep costs down. Sad when stations would rather air cheap crap to fill time on their schedule than to have a quality LOCAL person. In addition to Paul Harris, 3WT should hire Chris Core as well. Dave in Fredericksburg (5/14/08) Apparently, The Baltimore Sun has a lot of disgruntled readers these days. Witness this in today's Sun....... "Due to abuse, comments have been disabled for this story. View our Terms of Service." I've been noticing quite a lot of this lately at BaltimoreSun.com, no ability to post comments for various stories. Seems an ironic twist on the notion of freedom of the press doesn't it? I'm sure tons of people with legitimate comments on particular stories are turned off to reading another Baltimore Sun story after reading that terse warning as if the reader were somehow at fault! HAHA Yes, intelligent reader, you have been scolded by the teacher for something you know not. What does The Sun have to hide? Is beleagured Tribune so non-internet savvy that they can't have separate forums sections for their newspapers with real paid moderators who can weed out obscenity or abuse? I think it really sums up why all the newspaper companies are bailing water: They are so out of touch with the internet age, it's quite laughable. (5/14/08) Dave, I went to the link to the State newspaper and they indicate that this Craig Melvin guy is coming on board at NBC4 to do the weekend evening anchoring job. So, any idea if this means that James Adams is leaving?..Or will there be two anchors? (5/14/08) Dave's response: Hmmm. Anyone know? I believe that's the way the Imus show is set up, that only three hours of the show are syndicated across the ABC stations that carry it. Compare with the True Oldies stations in Atlanta and Providence (also owned by ABC) which also run for three hours. If I'm not mistaken, the fourth hour on WABC at 9am is local-only, I could be wrong. By the way, Dave... When is the PD of 94.7 The Globe going to file a restraining order against you? (5/14/08) "On today's Mike O'Meara show on WJFK-FM, the host admitted that he likes to engage in sexual activity before the show because "it relaxes and centers me." No word about whether it's done solo or with someone else...." Dave, you are no doubt aware that this is a reference to a Jeffrey Tambor line from the Larry Sanders Show. Theater of the mind, you know? On the other HAND, I am relaxed and centered right here, right now, gentlemen. I highly recommend keeping a Glamour magazine close at hand. Your body isn't a wonderland, it's an amusement park! Savage yourself, no one's going to do it for you. Caller X (5/14/08) To Vaughn in Modesto...three words for ya', buddy... there, their, they're. Learn it, know it, live it. You'll be taken with a little more credit if you know how to properly use the English language. G.E. (5/14/08) I am sorry...but when you need to resort to "mother" jokes...You've lost the battle... (5/14/08) Am I the only one who's sick of BOTH "Caller X" and "Bobb"? "Vaughn from Modesto" is a fast-rising candidate as well. (5/14/08) Gotta love a mailbag! Only here can you find someone making an opinionated posting about a radio show and have another reader react as if the poster said the readers mom was a hooker in Singapore in 1972. It's a stupid radio show! What is in it for you to defend it? Geesh...Let it go.... (5/14/08) ("Wouldn’t everyone agree that the F word used in on a public newscast while reprimanding a co worker will offend pretty much everyone.") No, I wouldn’t agree. So, SHUT THE FUCK UP… BTW: Aren’t all newscasts, public? You moron! (5/14/08) /\ May 14 Messages /\ \/ May 13 Messages \/ RE: Karmazin: Won't Agree To Satrad Merger If Too Many Conditions. So the greedy, avaricious, f*** the listeners, "fart breath" belching, cufflink wearing Uncle Mel sez if the merger deal is "so egregious that they're not in shareholders' or subscribers' best interest" the deal is off? Well let us all hope that this is the outcome of this ill conceived "insider deal". TC from SS, Not a SatRad Listener, "But I care" (5/13/08) "The only person "pulling" something is you in the privacy of your bedroom" --- You forgot to mention that its "in the privacy of your bedroom with your mother". Some times numb nuts like you, who by the way, don't leave there name on a post, come on cutting on any show they want. Without reason, or substance. O & Dukes are the first legit 3rd show on JFK since Ron Bennington and Ms. Whatley. Ugh, I can smell the stink of this dcrtv mailbag, coming from the SAME GUY WHO KEEPS POSTING WITHOUT LISTING HIS NAME. Were not fooled that the multiple posts are obviously coming from the same person! Usual BS. I'm sticking to the DCRTV front page, away from the trolls. Kiss my balls, I'm OUTSKI!! Vaughn, Modesto, CA (5/13/08) Hey Dave, Does anyone know why True Oldies 105.9 is now broadcasting only 3 hours of the Imus Show? They had started with the full 4 hours when they first started carrying his show. John (5/13/08) Dave's response: Anybody know? Big O and Dukes KILLING in the ratings? Oh yeah, that "killer" 1 hour long fake bit trying to talk their producer into kissing their gay intern for cash is comedy gold... UGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH..... Hacky schlock radio at its worst.... Period.... (5/13/08) O.K. BOBB we get it!! Can you now go back to stuffing yourself and shut the FU&* up already. Get your own site if you need to see yourself in print for crying outloud!!!! DAVE, loved the Sue Simmons clip. Got anymore gems in the vault??? I wonder if you should do a new battle between the foul mouthed anchors instead of the local media celebs that you feature??? just a thought... A.M.F from DELAMRVA.......... (5/13/08) I have a very serious question to pose to all. Why is it that when anyone posts an opinion that differs from one of the “possessed” they resort to such absolutely horrible name calling and innuendo? (Examples) (The only person "pulling" something is you in the privacy of your bedroom OR THIS ONE, Oh BOBB. You're very, very bitter. We all experience rage and inappropriate sexual instincts, yet we have some sort of internal cage that keeps our inner monsters locked up, you sad pathetic little man. Smoochies – Kristen, HOW ABOUT THIS ONE, "As he fell back into blackness, he was unaware that Bobb was placing the dog collar around his neck and tying him quite firmly into place with a sash-like material, as Little Steven's Garage played over the car's radio." Caller X. These posters are not only perverted, they’re delusional. For God’s sake all the opinions in the world that differ from theirs is a reason to get “sick”. Now, back to Stuffing, BOBB (5/13/08) Dave, What's with these guys saying O and Dukes are terrible? They are absolutely killing in the ratings in just 3 months. I heard the Junkies mention that they were 4th in Men 18-54 in their first book. And that was partly dragged down by O and A in January. If somebody doesn't get their show that fine, but you could add up O and A's, O'Reilly's, Rome's, and Rosenberg's numbers and they still might not reach Big O and Dukes. Even the Post did a write up on how they're doing so well. I'm sure management is beyond happy. -Troy (5/13/08) Caller “y”…You just don’t get it. You just don’t get it. Having a guest on a radio show, no matter where the guest has appeared does not make an individual a “TOP JOCK’. It makes them good at booking, or they have a producer that is good at booking. Again, go to www.reelradio.com. There you will find the “Top Jocks in the United States. By the way, I am not criticizing Cerphe, Weasel or any other “Legend” (Journeyman) I am simply stating the truth. No anger, no bitterness, no animal fantasy, just the plain truth. I’m sure even Cerphe understands this. I’m certain he’s amused by the gibberish you continue to spout. Now, back to “stuffing”. I must do something about these bruised knuckles too. Oh and slurp…..Heeheeha! BOBB (5/13/08) Last night on 98 Rock, Joe Robinson was joking on the air that maybe, perhaps, possibly, he has either been fired, or could be fired, or is close to being fired. I really couldn't tell from listening. But at one point he asked what he was going to look forward to, because he used to look forward to doing the show. Again, it wasn't clear at all if it was comedy schtick, or real, or whatever... (5/13/08) Dave's response: I hear from a top WIYYer that Joe remains part of the 98Rock team. I also hear that the Baltimore rocker may start a "specialty show" on Friday night, giving Joe that night off..... Dave...how often do you laugh out loud when you read some of the stuff that comes through the "Mailbag"? Just curious. G.E. (5/13/08) Dave's response: Especially stuff from "BOBB"..... Hey Ed Rodriguez...I HAVE played the game and it's still funny to see a moron like Bill O'Reilly lose it. It has nothing to do with someone off camera using "cool jargon". It has everything to do with someone being paid millions to act like a professional, whether on or off camera. And for Vaughn in Molesto, get a life. Big O and Dukes are mediocre at best. The only person "pulling" something is you in the privacy of your bedroom. (5/13/08) Vaughn in Modesto...Radio wannabe? I have zero ambitions in having a single position in the radio industry..So, that ends that part of your retort...All I prefer is to LISTEN to quality radio...Does not make me jealous, pissed or a loser...As for your other content...nice attempt at trying to polish a turd, sir....Polish it all you want,it's still a turd....And this turd is the Big O and Dukes Show...Tripling the numbers in a timeslot? Appearances 3 times a month? You sure do know alot about for NOT being a "wannabe". Bottom line is this...When you start with a 0.2 rating and triple it to a 0.6...that's not something to write home about....Any other mind blowing comments Vaughn? (5/13/08) (Dave's response: If you think you're gonna get away with just plugging your old antenna into your new digital TV set, think again. In many cases, you'll need a new rooftop model - if you want to watch all your local signals. That's DTV's dirty little secret.....) Yeah..and how about those of us who live outside the metro Baltimore-Washington D,C. area? We all know that digital signals don't travel as far; does this mean that us folks here on the eastern shore are just "SOL?" Tom in Denton, MD (5/13/08) I really don't see why it's relevant that Sue Simmons (may) have had someone off air genuinely do something incorrectly, and it pissed her off. The professional answer to that is: A: Wait till you're off-air to berate the underling. Or B: Bite your damn lip, and let the underling's immediate supervisor (a producer) handle it. Point is, as anchor, she didn't have the authority to even do that, live or off-air. And she loses extra points for total disregard for knowing full well it was being broadcast. (5/13/08) """Only playing Cerphe's role there is one low on the totem pole Oscar Santana of the putrid Big O and Dukes Show....It is so utterly bad...it's give you the douche chills."""" Nice dig at O & Dukes, it's hard to call a show "putrid" when its tripling the stations numbers in any time slot they are put in. These guys are pulling 5 hours of radio a day, and appearances 3 times a month at least. You jealous loser. Your pissed b/c these two guys are barely turning 30 and have more talent in there left ass cheek then you ever will. Radio wannabe. Vaughn - Modesto, CA (5/13/08) Oh BOBB. You're very, very bitter. We all experience rage and inappropriate sexual instincts, yet we have some sort of internal cage that keeps our inner monsters locked up. Some of us channel them into criticism of radio DJs. And, yes, having Springsteen IN STUDIO when he was on the cover of Time and Newsweek in the same week does make you a top jock. Of course, to be fair, it may have been some other 'HFS DJ. Can you be fair, BOBB? P.S. Kristen -- Smooches!! Okay, sorry, that was inappropriate. [Channels Jim Nance:] "Over the line, guys." Caller X (5/13/08) It's funny to watch little chickens who have never "played the game" sucking their teeth because people like Bill O'Reilly and Sue Simmons have a display of temper over what appears to be stupidity on the part of the people who are paid well to make the talent look good. On O'Reilly's video, you can hear a numbskull telling him to "play it out" or some such nonsense. Haven't most of us become annoyed when some dingleberry tries to use "cool jargon" instead of normal language? That said, I always preferred the way someone like the late, GREAT Glenn Brenner or Johnny Carson could spot such a screwup as a comedy bit in the making and turn it into a belly laugh for the audience and those in the studio. Still, we all know that deep inside, sometime, somewhere, in front of a microphone or camera, we can "pop" and deliver F, S, D, H, and a slew of other bombs on the air when the sky falls. Just remember... ultimately, it's radio and TV. Nobody dies! And, maybe... just maybe... the family can use that as the vocabulary word of the day. - Ed. Rodriguez (5/13/08) (quote) There is no such thing as an analog or digital tv antenna. (end quote) That's right. In fact, there is also no difference between a DTV antenna and an oven rack. Some people are making their own "digital" antennas out of dollar-store crap, so just cool your brownies on THIS webpage: www.highdefforum.com (5/13/08) Nice apology by Sue Simmons of NBC. She apologized for using a word that “may offend” some people. Wouldn’t everyone agree that the F word used in on a public newscast while reprimanding a co worker will offend pretty much everyone? It sure sounds like it was meant to offend the recipient. (5/13/08) Just as a follow-up to my post regarding Sue Simmons' while she was here. I did see where she apologized for the NYC incident, but my comment about her not apologizing had to do with the incident that occurred here in D.C. at NBC4. (5/13/08) I'm not really surprised at Sue Simmons dropping the "F" bomb. Anyone who remembers when Sue Simmons was an anchor here at NBC4 knows she's not always the mild mannered, "amiable" woman that she portrays on the air. When she was here, she was known to have quite a salty mouth. I remember her going off on the air at one of the cue card guys when he/she held up the wrong one. And I don't think she apologized afterwards. (5/13/08) Dave's response: The NYC press did report that Simmons did apologize during the station's 11 PM newscast yesterday..... Dave...thanks for posting links and videos that readers and yourself have acquired involving major TV anchors having meltdowns. The Bill O'Reilly one is getting multiple replays here and has helped me to realize that there are more miserable sons of bitches out there other than myself, mainly ones who get paid a whole hell lot more than I'll ever make and freak out over the smallest things! Viva DCRTV! (5/13/08) Dave's response: People love on-air meltdowns. They will only increase Bill O'Reilly's ratings. What a showman! Greg in Reisterstown: Don't hold your breath on MASN HD. There are still quite a few Regional Sports Nets DISH has had longer which still aren't uplinked in HD. Charlie Ergen always drives a tough bargain. YES isn't even up in SD at DISH. Also, note that while DISH proclaimed 22 new National HD channels (actually only 19 since 3 were already uplinked for a couple of weeks) and 95 total (based on creative counting), they quietly turned off 10 of the VOOM 24/7 HD channels at midnight. It's all in a days work for Charlie! Howie (5/13/08) There is no such thing as an analog or digital tv antenna. All of the DTV stations are on the UHF band. However there are VHF or UHF antennas. It is not possible to use a dipole VHF rabbit ears with HDTV. Les in Adelphi (5/13/08) Sorry to write once more, Dave, but I hope you'll indulge me. I'm listening to 94.7, and it seems to me that it might be instructive not only to offer up alternative playlists, as you've requested, but to list all songs that must be BANNED immediately from the station. I submit "Love Shack," which is playing right now, and which I hear every day on this station, along with "Roam." Yes, the B-52s had a moment back when I was in college, but my nostalgia for these songs only goes so far. Once a month, OK. Every friggin' day, no way. Please stop, 94.7. Christian (5/13/08) Dave's response: The B-52s is one of my all-time fav bands. But why doesn't 94.7 play some of the band's less-played tunes? How about "Whammy Kiss" or "Mesopotamia"? Lotsa great stuff! In an analysis today of the "winter" DC radio ratings, All Access points out that the Globe has seen no significant growth since flipping from the classic rock Arrow in February 2007. Perhaps CBS Radio head Dan Mason would be better suited to running a chain of shoe stores than a batch of radio stations. He may know business, but he sure as hell don't know rock radio. Just sitting there, staring at the priceless three-decade rock music heritage of WHFS and not having a clue what to do with it. I'm utterly dumbfounded at CBS's utter stupidity regarding DC's 94.7..... I just read on ESPN.com that starting on Aug 11, Sportscenter will now be live every morning from 6am-3pm, using different shifts of anchors. I gotta say, I love that they are finally going live in the mornings, but I think 9 hours may be a bit much. no reason to go until noon, or hwoever long they go now. But i think its a great move for ESPN. (5/13/08) So, last night Dish Network uploaded about 22 new HD channels (finally), including an HD version of Cinemax-West, 5-Star MAX, ABC Family, Toon Disney, Cartoon Network, CNBC, Smithsonian Channel, Hallmark Movie Channel and so on...but still no MASN in HD...thanks Dish, but where is MASN in HD?????!!!!!!! Oh, thanks for giving me the "World Fishing Network in HD" I can't watch the O's or the Nats in HD, but I can watch all that great fishing in HD I've been waiting for! Greg in Reisterstown (5/13/08) ----Dave's response: I do believe I heard one where Schelby "talks" to Tanya Roberts. I've also heard one on 3WT where Stepanie Miller "talks" to Roberts. Bottom feeding.....------I have heard the Roseanne version on WJFK as well...Only playing Cerphe's role there is one low on the totem pole Oscar Santana of the putrid Big O and Dukes Show....It is so utterly bad...it's give you the douche chills. (5/13/08) So I hooked up my digital antenna to my analog TV last night to get a preview of what I'll be seeing after the digital switchover next February. Answer: A great image, but only for a second or two before the screen image breaks apart and the TV goes black, save for a little blue box stating "Weak Signal" that flashes on my TV screen. Those of us suckers who don't have rooftop antennas because we moved into a cable-ready home but never signed on for cable are used to watching over-the-air TV with rabbit ears on top of our sets. That's good enough to get a reasonable signal, without having to pay for installation of a retro rooftop antenna. But now I guess I'll have to take the plunge and have someone install a rooftop antenna. It's much cheaper to eat the one-time cost and get, I hope, a good digital over-the-air signal. But it makes me angry that my rabbit ears tune in a stronger analog signal right now than my digital set-top antenna does. And with analog, a weak signal can be made stronger by adjusting the rabbit ears. With digital, I get a black screen with a flashing "Weak Signal" message and no obvious way around it. There are going to be some very pissed off people in this country come next February. Christian (5/13/08) Dave's response: If you think you're gonna get away with just plugging your old antenna into your new digital TV set, think again. In many cases, you'll need a new rooftop model - if you want to watch all your local signals. That's DTV's dirty little secret..... Dave - thought you'd enjoy this behind-the-scenes video of FoxNews @sshole Bill O'Reilly: www.sportaphile.com... What a pleasure to work with! (5/13/08) Channel 9 can't figure out why they are the bottom of the barrel. Well, it's small market "talent" like Angie Goff. That woman is like fingernails on a chalkboard. She needs a serious speech coach that can teach her how to properly pronounce words. You'd think that she grew up in Glen Burnie. Want to do major market TV or radio? Learn how to speak properly. The worst, however, is that EVERY TIME they go to her she starts with "Good to see you on this (fill in the bank with day of the week) morning." Argghhhhhhhhhhhh. Does the ND not notice this?? Goff needs a good 5 years in a small market. She is not ready for Washington,DC. (5/13/08) Kristen I forgot about your brother Kenneth who doesn’t live in the area, sorry. Is he the fifth Cerphe fan? I have three fans, one in my living room, one in my kitchen and one in my…..oh, never mind. Now, Madam “Y” ( you’ve dropped a notch with your trite response)-Booking Cheney, booking Springsteen does not make one a “Top Jock” I guess it makes you a top BOOKER-hahahahaha! (though Imus was a “Top Jock” for many years, now he’s a Legend/formerly “Top Jock”. Cerphe is still a legend. As you mentioned, you are “just a listener”. As for my career. I’m a taxidermist by trade, back to “stuffing now”. Sorry about soaking your panties ladies??? BOBB (5/13/08) While I feel for Jack Diamond's loss…My own sense is that the radio listening audience has moved on from his chosen format of laugh-at-every-word the host says, kiss every b-list interviewee's butt, and feature as many bobbleheaded sidekicks to agree agree agree. I would love to return to 107.3 for a decent AC mix, but the morning show's lame jokes, high-horse reactionary comments, fluff-filled giggly mess that is the JDMS bodes for an empty start to the day. It's time for a new direction. IMHO. – Charlie G (5/13/08) What's just as ridiculous a tagline as Fox New's "Fair and Balanced"? How about the CNN News radio tagline "The most trusted name in news." Yeah, right! (I mean left). G.K. (5/13/08) "Usually, public radio outlets, like WAMU, are not included in the commercial radio ratings." Actually, they've always been included. They are not in the monthly Arbitrends. And you can't see them when a book first comes out. But 2-3 businesss deays after each book comes out, Arbitron releases more data for programs like Maximiser and PD Advantage. Public radio has been in there as long as I can remember. And WAMU did very well.....4th full week 25-54. Behind WTOP, but still formidable. (5/13/08) More on Retirement Living TV: insidecharmcity.com (5/13/08) Good day! I thought you might be interested in posting the premiere of Harry Shearer's (The Simpsons, Spinal Tap) music video "935 Lies" (about the Bush administration)? And commenting! The song is from Harry Shearer's forthcoming record "Songs of the Bushmen." See it here: mydamnchannel.com (5/13/08) Our Theme song "Wave of Relief" will be preformed by Michaela Thurlow, she is only 10 years old, who is flying in from LA to perform theme song...... Check out her video at www.musicformyanmar.org (5/13/08) Orioles on in the valley this year too...Driving through for JMU's graduation last weekend - heard them on WKCY 1300 and their clone WKCI 970 in and around Harrisonburg. Must be their first year - don't remember them having them before...Go DUKES! (5/13/08) Man! Citadel is really walking a tight rope with the comments by Farid and COO Judy Ellis about the sales commission issue. Farid is a financial guy, and the financial people at any company think that sales people are over paid. He knows nothing about sales or programming, and he is the top guy at Citadel, which is why the company will eventually be delisted. Judy has been in sales for over 30 years and supposedly made the statement that “50% of revenue would come in any way without the sales people”. If Judy really has believed this “for years” then why hasn’t she changed the systems, because she certainly had the power to make those changes. Farid and Judy have put the sales department at Citadel into a panic mode, which will cause good sellers to look elsewhere, and panic selling in a down market. Neither one of those scenarios will help the revenue situation. Show me a broadcasting company that is run by a finance guy that has ever prospered. All of the successful broadcasting companies were run by people who came up through the sales or programming ranks, with an occasional lawyer thrown in the mix. Look at the old ABC and CBS structure. Look at the dominant companies in the 90’s like Evergreen, BPI, Pyramid, Infinity, AMFM, Greater Media and Jacor. All were run by sales and programming. (5/13/08) FOX TELEVISION STATIONS, INC is in an apparent legal battle with the FCC over Baltimore's WUTB 24, specifically regarding its DTV operation, which the FCC has held up according to FOX, over possible interference to an FCC monitoring station in Laurel, MD. In today's FCC filing, FOX Television states "legal reasons beyond station's control (e.g., litigation, international coordination)" as the reason for its much prolonged DTV build-out of its Baltimore O&O MY24 DTV station which is largely not available to most people in the Baltimore market, nor on Comcast cable, and FOX specifically sites the FCC as the cause of the hold-up in additional comments. More info can be found here... fjallfoss.fcc.gov (5/13/08) BOBB - While Cerphe has many many more fans than four - exactly how many fans do you have? - Stuffed roadkill hidden in your mom's basement not included. Hell, my brother Kenneth has more DC fans than you have ... and he doesn't even live in the area! You have now been officially been dismissed you sad pathetic little man. Smoochies - Kristen (5/13/08) Oh, BOBB, this constant bickering about Top Jocks vs. Legends has become tiresome. Cerphe and Weasel were once Top Jocks (it's not all about ratings: Imus books Cheney and Cerphe booked Springsteen) and are now Legends, and whether you like it or not, learn to love it, ‘cause they're the best thing going today!!! Woooooooo !!! I'm just a listener, but I'd love to hear about your career in radio. "As he fell back into blackness, he was unaware that Bobb was placing the dog collar around his neck and tying him quite firmly into place with a sash-like material, as Little Steven's Garage played over the car's radio." Caller X (5/13/08) About the Orioles picking WLEE 990 AM............ WLEE has an FCC construction permit to quadruple their daytime power and add a 2000 watt nighttime service that would cover all of Richmond and some of the outlying areas it currently doesn't serve at all. No idea when that upgrade is going to happen though, but I think that's the reason the Orioles were interested in WLEE. That and the fact that no other Richmond station probably WANTS the Orioles of course. (5/13/08) RE: "I don't believe Channel 5 broke in at all (I could be wrong), though they did run crawls on the screen." Yup, I saw them get on the air around 12:45am -- then kept coming back every 30 minutes or so (interrupting my "King of the Hill"... hahaha). (5/13/08) /\ May 13 Messages /\ \/ May 12 Messages \/ Dear Caller X I was amazed at the clever analogy that you put forth. Having your arm removed was the solution to your diahrreah, certainly not to purify. Such a faint but amusing memory. Being Caller X makes you number four on the fan list I would think. BOBB (5/12/08) RE: Thursday night’s storm coverage. Channel 4 was first on the air, cutting into Jay Leno 2 or 3 minutes into his show. Channel 9 came on around 11:45 and they stayed on the air until at 12:30 (when I tuned out). I know Channel 7 came on as well, but 4 was first. Channel 9 had the best coverage though – in addition to Topper, Todd and Leslie anchored the coverage from the studio and they had the only live coverage from the hardest hit area in Stafford County. Channels 4 and 7 were limited to their weather people and radars, but Channel 9 went far above and beyond. WUSA always excels in severe weather coverage. I don’t believe Channel 5 broke in at all (I could be wrong), though they did run crawls on the screen. (5/12/08) Glad to see that The Examiner and its Hit budget or Hit the road isn't alone in its thinking. Citidel sounds like they don't value sales people either. However you do need a product to sell, and The Examiner has yet to put forth worthy product. At Citidel at least you can respect some of the Managers, like Chris Berry, who have some dignity and has adecent reputation in radio. We get Amanda Sheehan, who has yet to forecast, reforecast -i.e., reduce the budget to hit the budget - correctly once. It's so dispiriting. What's worse, this place has become her own party store ... Signed Trapped in Springfield (5/12/08) More Bad News for Citadel's salespeople... Looks like Farid wants to ditch paying his salespeople all together. First the commission cut, now this... This is a direct quote from Farid Suleman in the 1Q 08 Conference Call last week taken from Radio Ink: "If the revenue growth isn't there, we have to reevaluate how we do business. You can't continue to invest in programming and sales if you can't get the revenue. [Citadel COO] Judy Ellis has always said that 50 percent of our revenues would come in with or without salespeople. Sometimes you have to ask why are we paying commissions on that revenue. Maybe we would have a few salaried people who just concentrate on servicing fulfillment of that at a much lower cost. Maybe pay a higher commission for people who bring in new business. We are continually evaluating a lot of those things. It's a different environment. You really have to be focused and make sure that you're realistic about your revenue assumptions and program and run your stations accordingly." (5/12/08) The Richmond Braves excepted, minor league baseball teams are generally not owned by their major league parent squads. The Orioles getting a Richmond radio affiliate thus has no bearing on the status of the Norfolk Tides. As for the Orioles not landing on a higher profile station, WRVA has talk programming that it would be loathe to preempt and WRNL has the aforementioned Richmond Braves. WLEE was likely the best available option for the Orioles in the market. It's a reasonable arrangement under the circumstances. Everett W. (5/12/08) Anagram of the Day: "Operation Chaos" = "A Roaches Option". (5/12/08) Re: Orioles on Richmond AM - The Atlanta Braves are pulling their Class AAA International League affiliate out of the capital of the Confederacy at the end of the 2008 season and moving it to a new ballpark on the outskirts of Atlanta. If the O's are putting their games on a Richmon AM'er, it could mean they are planning to move their AAA team in NAW-f**k up I-64 to Richmond. (5/12/08) about the news article today about the orioles picking up a new va station, i hate to say this but wlee 990 am is such a low power station that you can just bearly pick it up in the west end of richmond & if your in the outlining areas you can't even pick it up at all, so why did they pick them instead of say 910 wrnl or wrva both of those you can pick them up everywhere & since wrva's got a clear channel signal after dark it can be picked up everywhere on the east coast. (5/12/08) "This is so much fun. Kristen, I just saw your post re: Cerphe. You must keep in mind that it's pretty easy to warmly say "hey now". Also, remembering the names of all four of your fans is easy too. LMAO. BOBB" - Bobb, I know it's fun to hate. Apparently I misunderestimated the number of parents' basements in this area. Remember how on Twin Peaks I was a travelling shoe salesman named Mike, and you and I lived above a convenience store? And the time I cut off my own arm and was purified? What I am trying to make clear is that using a stuffed animal to represent an endangered species as an ecological protest constitutes the supreme incongruity. You remind me today of a small Mexican Chihuahua. Caller X (5/12/08) Hey dave. Can you provide some numbers on WETA-FM from the latest ratings book ? Would be interested in both 12+ and 25+ and the differnce between this book and the last book. Since they brought Jim Allison onboard at WETA and basically turned the place into the old WGMS (Jim Allison playing the same 100 - 150 CD's over and over again) - They don't share any information about ratings with the staff. :-( (5/12/08) Dave's response: The ratings numbers about WAMU were supplied by WAMU. If WETA would like to send theirs, I'll happily print 'em..... "O'Meara's Hit With $26K In Booze Fines" Dave you have the story wrong. The $26K was his weekend bar tab that he skipped out on. (5/12/08) Damn...$26K in fines for O'Meara's! I can see why they shut the doors. If you close up shop, the fines are cancelled. Just when it looked like the Mikey Burger was starting to become a legend...what a shame! (5/12/08) You asked for suggestions about the 94.7 playlist, but what about that embarrassing Rosanne Barr / Tahiti Village ad? Sheesh! We've all heard the ad on other stations. Tanya Roberts reads the exact same script. The Tahiti Village folks tried to have some other female do the ad after Roberts' version had been on for a while, but it just didn't have the ummph of Tanya's strangely compelling recitation. Now they've got Rosanne Barr feeding the script to 94.7 listeners in the form of a "conversation" with Cerphe! Shame, Cerphe, shame! We all know commerce rules, and the station needs ads, but not only is Rosanne completely unconvincing, she has to pull Cerphe into the mud with her. When the station gets back to its predicatable, often lame music, it's a relief. Christian (5/12/08) Dave's response: I do believe I heard one where Schelby "talks" to Tanya Roberts. I've also heard one on 3WT where Stepanie Miller "talks" to Roberts. Bottom feeding..... New Zealand Rocks at: www.therock.net.nz and Southern Maryland and the Northern Neck of Virginia rock with: www.977therocket.com... Dean in Southern MD (5/12/08) Dear CJ/SP "hey now". Call my people, we'll have lunch!! BTW it BOBB not BOOB! hrmpppphhhhh! (5/12/08) (From DCRTV's Classified Ads:) Radio News Reporter/Anchor, Washington , DC - Metro Networks News owned by Westwood One is looking for a news anchor for its Washington, DC bureau. The newsperson will anchor for affilate stations in the DC market, including 630 WMAL AM. He or she will also write stories and gather/edit audio for the MetroSource news wire, as well as conduct interviews via telephone and/or in-person. The position requires demonstrated on-air experience, solid writing skills, and the ability to work under deadline pressure. Metro Networks DC is a 24-hour newsroom. The successful candidate must be able to work all shifts, including overnights/weekends. EOE Please send resumes, writing samples, and a demo tape by May 30, 2008 to: Rachel Crowson, Assistant Bureau Chief, Rachel_Crowson@metronetworks.com (5/12/08) I thought Jack Diamond had a brother named Neil. Now I find out his real name is Harvey. I am crushed. (5/12/08) Why do so many people who write notes to this mailbag listen to radio hosts they obviously hate? Seems like some self loathing going on there. Must also like getting those waves over anger over and over. Not me, I wanna live a real a long time and not burn a whole in my gut or burst an artery. BTW, the women I know and love like it when I call them ladies. The women you infer that don't like it must be women who wish they were men. They should take that up with their therapist. Porter Jervis (5/12/08) Dear Boob, You just don't understand. Surf and Muskrat may not have a large share, but with 78 years on DC radio, their CUME has to be bigger than Limbough's prescription bill. Why don't you leave people alone who have actual jobs? "Hey Now!" is a warm greeting. CS/JP (5/12/08) Didja hear Rush today trying to rally Hillary's "ladies" against Obama, and how well-dressed metrosexual guys (a la Obama) are getting promoted instead of them at the office. First thing, Rush, don't call them "ladies." Yes, all those years of Oxy did cause you serious brain damage. Crackpot! (5/12/08) To those radio suits who read this site, I want to bring to your attention a little known, home-grown radio talent who has been the god of rock jocks in Morgantown WV for the past 20 years and who finally deserves his shot in his hometown market. Marshall Sears has been the voice of WCLG-FM in Morgantown since the early 90's, and has built his name and standing with listeners to unparalleled heights in that market. It's time to bring him home. If you're looking to build a rock presence in this town, and god knows it's been a generation since we last had one, check him out. Despite his current Rob Zombie-like appearance, he's an accomplished intellectual with an IQ in the genius range and has an encyclopedic knowledge of rock. He's also a local Falls Church boy who's ready to restore true rock to the DC market, and he's one of my oldest friends. I know that some of the on-air talent in DC passed through Morgantown during your careers, so please consider posting your Marshall stories for all to read. Check him out at www.wclg.com and, maybe, give him a call. I'm tired of trying to tune-in 98Rock from Springfield. (5/12/08) My condolences to the family of Jack Diamond. Here is his Mom's notice from today's post. Regards Biff www.legacy.com (5/12/08) WNUV’s analog tower is not the one formerly used by WBFF. WNUV is a few blocks to the west. The former WBFF tower still holds WPOC-FM’s antenna. Roddy Freeman (5/12/08) Thanks so much to WJZ-13 last night. I really enjoyed the "STORMWARNING" logo large enough to cover contestants faces solid throughout the ENTIRE broadcast of the season finale of "Survivor" last night. Great job guys. I'll send you the bill for the plasma burn-in. Xarias (5/12/08) They technically have THREE locations, WNUV's analog transmitter is on Powers Road in Catonsville, west of Baltimore, I think its the old WBFF tower before WBFF moved to TV Hill, that is on the air. Both DTV facilities for WBFF and WNUV are on TV Hill almost next to the candelabra tower and a block or 2 from WBAL and WJZ, so I'm surprised no other Baltimore station has reported any trees falling on TV Hill or power outages. It is quite wooded there. Maybe they're just being kind to WBFF? WBFF used to have a studio location on TV Hill and YES, that would be at 2000 West 41st street, I remember, and I could have sworn when the news first came on the air, they were reporting live from TV Hill. It's obvious to me the power at least was or still is out at Sinclair HQ in Hunt Valley. I would imagine they have backup control at the transmitter sites if not still the old studios on TV Hill at that site. Obviously, they have no ability to transmit their HDTV signals, both of which are curiously from TV Hill. I feel bad for them, but I have to admit it reminds me of the old days of WBFF 45, when heat lightning would knock them off the air. Sorry, bad joke for the engineers involved. :-) UPDATE AS I TYPE THIS..... Both WBFF and WNUV DTV signals are back on the air. (5/12/08) This is so much fun. Kristen, I just saw your post re: Cerphe. You must keep in mind that it's pretty easy to warmly say "hey now". Also, remembering the names of all four of your fans is easy too. LMAO. BOBB (5/12/08) Major, MAJOR layoffs sweeping through Columbia-based Retirement Living TV. Production department completely gutted, Ad Sales gutted, Marketing gutted. Skeleton crews left within 60 days. Hearing that they're going to suspend their pay-for-carriage deals with DirecTV and Comcast's CN8. That doesn't leave them in many households, and that they may go off the air for "up to 12 months". For those who've worked through such situations, that's a nice way of saying the whole thing is probably about to go belly up. (5/12/08) 9:00 AM..... WBFF FOX 45 Morning News appears to have gotten pretty much back to normal, but WBFF-DT is still off the air. Same story with WNUV 54, WNUV-DT also off the air still, but analog programming back to normal. Not sure what the issue with the Sinclair DTV stations is and they've not explained it on FOX 45 Morning News other than to state they've had problems this morning due to a power outage that put WBFF completely off the air earlier. I have to admit, this is the most I've watched FOX 45 Morning News since they launched it. It was quite amusing watching the former dentist turned meteorologist fight with the weather computer this morning and the weather computer winning, but I do have to give them a lot of credit for winging it pretty good considering the circumstances. It kind of makes you wonder how exactly, for instance, say, Daring Denise Koch or Not Ready for HD Sally Thorner would act given a similar situation. :-) (5/12/08) Dear Dave, I was in New York this past week and it gave me a chance to really listen to the new rock station, 101.9 WRXP, "The New York Rock Experience." I thought it was a gutsy, first rate amalgam of alternative and classic rock. Check out the playlist: www.1019rxp.com... Best, Jill Nado (5/12/08) Hey Dave, Seems like another change at DC101 HD2 station recently. It seems Erockster is gone from HD2 in favor of adult contemporary/top 40 tunes. At least it has been since thursday or friday. However, Erockster is still listed on the stations website, and is on the DC101 HD2 webstream. What gives? (5/12/08) Globe music - youtube.com But they never would since: The Speaks aren't signed by a corperate label AND they boarder on being "too scary" (5/12/08) Dave's response: Schelby - now that's scary..... No Jack Diamond today, that is 2 of the past 3 work days he hasn't been on the air. Dave may have been on to something, and that Wikipedia entry may have been accurate after all. The question is when will some type of announcement be made. Mike in Waldorf (5/12/08) MAJOR PROBLEMS at the Sinclair owned Baltimore stations WBFF FOX 45 and WNUV CW 54 this morning. WBFF-DT and secondary channel Good-TV are off the air, WBFF FOX 45 has a stagnant traffic cam pic stuck up with no sound whatsoever or morning news, WNUV CW 54 has no video OR audio this morning and WNUV-DT is also off the air. Geez, with this morning's weather and traffic problems, this would be bad timing for doing tower maintenance. And that brings up another issue, the 2 stations' towers are in different locations, although both DT signals that are off the air are on Television Hill right next to the candelabra tower. Ok, finally some info from WBFF 45, power outage is the reason the stations have been knocked off the air, I'm guessing at Sinclair HQ in Hunt Valley? Since all of Baltimore's other stations are still on the air this morning, so that would make sense. UPDATE: FOX 45 is now doing live storm video and news coverage from the field with their anchors, but apparently NOT from their normal studios for the most part. Interesting. (5/12/08) RE: [ " How the hell can a Mailbag reader detect that from a distance??? " I told you--reverse DNS lookup. " ]......... Don't believe any of these internet conspiracy nutjobs. Sure, if you posted at DCRTV all the time from the same internet connection and/or method or email ADR as, for instance, I do, and Dave Hughes felt so inclined as to waste some time to investigate and/or find some location info on you, it's certainly possible he could come to a successful conclusion. But, NO ONE in this mailbag can KNOW who any OTHER person posting in this mailbag is without the owner of the website giving the info out or a law enforcement agency handing Dave Hughes a search warrant of some kind and then making it public. And, if you travel a lot or use different sorts of free or public WIFI often, it's possible NO ONE, even law enforcement, could connect various mailbag posts from the same person to ONE person even with Dave Hughes help. I know this for a fact from posting a comment at BaltimoreSun.com through the use of free hotel WIFI, which caused BaltimoreSun.com to identify me as someone from a city and state that I have never in my life ever visited! Someone would have a hell of time tracing that IP ADR ID obviously from the corporate hotel chain HQ location or internet hub to a hotel customer in a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT STATE! The best even LANGLEY could do was find out, yep, I just stayed at a Holiday Inn EXPRESS, ummm, SOMEWHERE or worse yet, I was across the street from one stealing their FREE WIFI LEGALLY! :-) (5/12/08) WJLA blacked out at 10:55 during the cliffhanger season finale of Brothers & Sisters and ran straight into the news at 10:58. No word about the last B&S of the season! (5/12/08) 6:58 Sunday evening, WASH cranks up Neil Diamond's Cracklin' Rosie. Just about as Neil hit the key change, sudden dead air for about 7 seconds. Then there's a female recorded station ID, followed by the program opening, upcut, for After Hours with Delilah, with a local WASH VO badly mixed into her jingle. Haven't heard automation that bad in 2-3 days here in DC . . . (5/12/08) (quote) Are Weasal and Cerf the Felix Grant and Eddie Gallaher of this era? Lordy, Lordy I hope not! Aw man, drove by the olde Fairfax Furniture store in toothless fairfax today and it was in process of being torn down. I guess those kind of buildings for furniture stores became obsolete ages ago but still that building has been there for I'm guessing close to 50 years. Just another bit of the past cast aside. I seem to remember an olde Fairfax Furniture TV commercial of a little girl on a swing with Easy Listening music playing and the announcer espousing the selection at Fairfax Furniture. Would that TV commercial be in ye olde DCRTV archives? How about the old C.L.Barnes & Son radio commercial with the jingle? Is Sitadell becoming the new cheap channel? (unquote) "Shop C. L. Barnes & Son; It it's from Barnes, it's beautiful." Close? (5/12/08) /\ May 12 Messages /\ \/ May 11 Messages \/ (snip) We were talking about WIKIPEDIA posts. (end snip) Ah, I suspected there was something about this thread I missed. Thanx for the clarification. Now I can take off my tinfoil hat. (5/11/08) I admit I don’t listen to the new? GLOBE. I’m fortunate to get the WTMD 105.5 relay in N VA. 94.7 says they’re Triple-A, but do they have any of these routinely in their playlist? www.radioandrecords.com … There are Triple-A Stations across the country that do far better than a 1.5. They’re more community oriented and aren’t afraid to play the 3rd-cut and beyond off our favorite AAA albums from today and the past…, not just rehashing the same old relics. You would think that DC being so educated and diverse could also have a station that does well like these… It’s supposed to be about the music. . . Most of these stations stream, I would give them a listen and learn. . . KBCO Boulder-Denver 4.4, KINK Portland 4.3, WTCZ Twin Cities 4.2, WMMM Madison 4.2, KPIG Santa Cruz, etc 4.2, KGSR Austin 3.2, WCLZ Portland, Me. 3.1, KTHX Reno 3.0, KFOG San Fran 3.0, KWMT Tucson 2.9, KXLY Spokane 2.8, KPTL Des Moines 2.8, KRSH Santa Rosa 2.6, KENZ, Salt Lake 2.6, WNCS Montpelier 2.6, KMTT Seattle 2.5, WZEW Mobile 2.4, WXRT Chicago 2.3, KBLV Kansas City 2.2, WQKL Ann Arbor 2.0, WTTS Indianapolis, 2.0, WZGC Atlanta 1.9 (also a CBS). (5/11/08) Dave's response: Chiacgo's WXRT is also CBS-owned. Plus, you could add to the list the new WRXP in NYC, an Emmis station in the tradition of the old WNEW-FM. With DC's well-educated, high-income audience, and the ability to tap the three decades' heritage of WHFS, it's so frustrating to watch CBS stumble and goof around with the half-assed, mixed-up Globe..... re:"You are able to tap a message on a mailbag, often with a pseudonym attached, and know where it sourced from?" No, we were talking about WIKIPEDIA posts. Wikipedia keeps a detailed record of every change made to every article--that's the History tab at the top of every page. So every change and who made the change are a matter of public record. (5/11/08) Mike Source aka Don Geronimo is back on on WJFK Sunday's at 4:00 PM and his new show is entitled: "Straight Talk". Check it out !!! (5/11/08) Dave's response: Sven Lloyd? What's "n-bagging"? Think Dan Mason would know? Ha ha ha..... Dear all - We're headed into the home stretch of this season at The Q&A Cafe with a strong line-up. I hope you can make it to all of these interview lunches with some very interesting personalities: -DOUGLAS FEITH/ Thurs May 15 - An '05 New Yorker profile said: "It has been Feith’s job, as the top policy adviser to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and (his) deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, to help build the intellectual framework for the Bush Administration’s campaign against terrorism. His detractors see him as an ideologue who manipulated intelligence to bring about the invasion of Iraq. His main nemesis on Capitol Hill, Senator Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat (said) Feith deceived not only the White House but Congress as well. ...Even some fellow-neoconservatives, who have been lacerating in their criticism of Rumsfeld for his management of postwar Iraq, have asked whether Feith is better at reading history than at shaping it. ...Fifteen hundred people report to Feith in the Pentagon, where he is known for the profligacy of his policy suggestions." Feith has answered back to his critics, and history, with a memoir, "War and Decision." -MARK PENN/Thurs May 22 - From an April '07 Washington Post profile: "Yet Penn also has everything that Clinton would want in a senior consultant: undisputed brilliance and experience, according to even his enemies; clear opinions, with data to back them up; unwavering loyalty; and a relentless focus on the endgame: winning the general election. And Clinton clearly adores him. She describes Penn in her autobiography, "Living History," as brilliant, intense, shrewd and insightful." Cut to the present. We'll get an update from Penn, as well as a good look at his book, "Microtrends." TUCKER CARLSON/Thurs June 5 - From the March 14 Huffington Post: "After four timeslot switches, a name change, two years of lackluster ratings, and one discarded bow-tie,Tucker Carlson's show on MSNBC drew to a close tonight ..."Tucker," which was formerly known as "The Situation with Tucker Carlson" signed off with a minimum of fanfare....but ...Tucker really isn't going anywhere, because he'll still be a senior MSNBC correspondent popping up across the schedule, ostensibly including in his former timeslot. Stil, it was an ending, and the last word was (his): "Well that's it! That's the end of our show. We won't be joining you on Monday. We'd like to thank you for tuning in all these years and to say that, if nothing else, I've sincerely enjoyed it.... Goodnight, and have a great weekend." Yes, Tucker is still very much all over the MSNBC schedule and will share with us his political - and other - thoughts. TED SORENSEN/Tues June 24 - From the New York Daily News' "Rush & Molloy: "JFK's most trusted aide... is finally opening up about what he saw in Camelot. Sorensen figures enough time has passed to write candidly about his beloved boss' "self-indulgent" affairs and the inspiring words he put in the President's mouth. In his new memoir, "Counselor," the 79-year-old Sorensen scoffs at many of the claims about Kennedy's mistresses. Still, he met 'a few of those who I assumed to have shared his bed'.... But JFK seemed to know the deep debt he owed to Sorensen for his role in collaborating on his 1956 book, "Profiles in Courage." When it became a best seller, Kennedy sliced him a big chunk of its royalties. For all the confidences they shared at the White House, the socially awkward Nebraskan didn't feel welcome in the President's "cool crowd." But then, 'I never wanted to be JFK's drinking buddy.' The item gives only a few thin slices from what undoubtedly will be one of the great reads of the summer, if not the year. So, please join us for these end-of-spring programs. For the authors, Olson's will be on hand to sell books. For reservations, please call Jon Moss at 202.338.2000 between 10 and 5 on weekdays. The fee is $35, paid at the door, and is all inclusive of food, beverages, tax and tip. In the meantime, enjoy The Q&A Cafe on our youtube channel at: www.youtube.com... Have a good weekend and week, Carol Joynt (5/11/08) RE: 105.7 and the AC thing...use some common sense here. Why would CBS flip a cluster mate to AC-when WLIF is king in the market with women and has the stronget numbers in the entire building. CBS does not want to step on toes-that is why B102.7 was killed-cause it impacted Mix. That is why JACK hasn't flipped to Oldies, cause it would hurt the LIF demo--as they are kings with women 35+. Use some sense here---it must be a typo (5/11/08) I would like to once again lodge a complaint about the coverage of weather related topics at the local TV stations. WUSA aired a report Friday night that seemed to indicate local govenments were somehow responsible for deaths or injuries during periods of severe weather. Why? Because they have not installed siren-alerts. WUSA used one of their photographers as an "expert" on the subject. I happen to know the photographer and last year attended a weather seminar at the University of Maryland with him. He understands and interprets weather models very well. And I know he has expierence chasing storms for many years. However, He is not an "expert." He is not a degreed earth sciences major. Nor does he have an AMS seal of approval. Why don't the stations seek out the real pros? In a city like Washington DC. there are hundreds of real experts on both the private and public side of the weather business. These are the sources TV stations should use to boost their credibility. It's the difference between "professional" and "amateur." (5/11/08) (edit) I told you--reverse DNS lookup.(end edit) I believe that, but I didn't see where the poster included an email address and/or a domain of any sort (unless I'm looking at the wrong posting). You are able to tap a message on a mailbag, often with a pseudonym attached, and know where it sourced from? Spooky... (5/11/08) Dave's response: Well, we do have a fairly substantial DCRTV audience from that big building in Langley..... In reference to poster..( Re: "They aren’t “top jocks” they’re legends. While not a prior participant in this altercation, (BOBB speaking) You evidently don’t know much about the definition “Top Jock”. You posted: Top Jock" is a title only bestowed when you have "gathered" some unspecified amount of ratings over some unspecified number of years, without other considerations factored. BOBB’s retort, (GLOVES OFF) Here are some “Top Jocks” and this is a very abbreviated list. (see below)... “Now, let's chat about all jocks sounding the same.....Johnny Holliday (National Award Winning Jock) Dan Ingram (National Award Winning Jock) Harve Moore (National Award Winning Jock)...Robert W. Morgan (National Award Winning Jock) Ron O'Brien (National Award Winning Jock) And, oh yes, they all sounded the same??? I could add 50 other TOP JOCKS, but if you’d like to check it out for yourself, REELRADIO Reel Top 40 Radio Repository. Oh, you won’t find Weasel or Cerphe on that site..though they are legends. Now I must soak my bruised knuckles…BOBB (5/11/08) "Young" Dave Brown has gotten to the point where he is absolutely unlistenable. (5/11/08) The American Enterprise Institute's David Frum wrote; Many journalists wrongly use the word "effete" as a euphemism for "effeminate," which it's not. [Joe] Klein here seems to be building on that error to go even further astray. He seems to think "effete" means "aristocratic," "snobbish" or "hoity-toity" - after all, who would try to "pass for" effeminate if he really wasn't? In fact, "effete" means "exhausted, lacking in energy." O.K. David, can you now stand up and chastise, Fred Grandy, Rush Limbaugh, Fred Barnes, Michelle Malkin and all the other right wing mouthpieces for the same vocabulary machination? (5/11/08) re: "! ! ! ! How the hell can a Mailbag reader detect that from a distance??? " I told you--reverse DNS lookup. And as our government likes to tell us in a pointless (or so I thought) PSA, when you post something to the internet, people can see it. (5/11/08) "Stellar job, Joe Ardinger" --- Once again I wasted two perfectly good hours listening to Joe Radio on WJFK, but it's what I do on Saturday night while I cook and clean. I think of it as "drinking with Joe" and I wouldn't ask for a single minute back. The Bell Witch guest was a waste of precious electicity. The terrrorists won that one. Sadly, once again, Joe displayed his complete ignorance of basic economics in the matter of oil prices and commodities markets, but that's par for the course. On a positive note, he took WMAL's Mark LeVIN to task for not pronouncing his surname LEVin. But on a serious note, and this is for Joe: Joe, the reason you have to have two jobs is because your main job is a part-time job --- this gives you the LEISURE to have a second job, which is your pressure-washing business, also a part-time job. Let your listeners know when you hit a 40 hour work-week. On a personal note, I pressure-washed my shower this morning. It was magnificent. Caller X (5/11/08) Are Weasal and Cerf the Felix Grant and Eddie Gallaher of this era? Lordy, Lordy I hope not! Aw man, drove by the olde Fairfax Furniture store in toothless fairfax today and it was in process of being torn down. I guess those kind of buildings for furniture stores became obsolete ages ago but still that building has been there for I'm guessing close to 50 years. Just another bit of the past cast aside. I seem to remember an olde Fairfax Furniture TV commercial of a little girl on a swing with Easy Listening music playing and the announcer espousing the selection at Fairfax Furniture. Would that TV commercial be in ye olde DCRTV archives? How about the old C.L.Barnes & Son radio commercial with the jingle? Is Sitadell becoming the new cheap channel? (5/11/08) /\ May 11 Messages /\ \/ May 10 Messages \/ From what I hear from my source, who has a sister who's dating a source, who's secretly gay and married to the real source; here's what I know. The format change on WHFS 1057 will take place over the Memorial Day Weekend. The new AC format wil be called "Silly 107.5". It will be somewhat like the Clear Channel "Sunny" format, but a lot more "Silly". Word has it that Ken Merson will be doing the "Silly Wake Up Show", followed by "The 5 In A Row - Silly Workday Show" hosted by Bill Price, followed by "The Hot Silly Drive Home", hosted by Ed Rodriguez, and nights will be smokin the airwaves "The Silly Bangin' Night Show" with Kauleen Sharp. Tune all your radios at work and in the car to 105.7 for "The New Silly 105.7"! (5/10/08) That CBS job posting for traffic manager also lists 1300 WJFK as adult contemporary. Obvious missprint. (5/10/08) Dave's response: Fresh 105.7 & 1300? Nah..... Re: "They aren’t “top jocks” they’re legends…end of discussion.BOBB" /// While not a prior participant in this altercation, I have enjoyed the verbal disciplining and towel snapping of BOBB. I love it when a guy paints himself into a corner, and then has to punch his way through the wall to get out. So, lets see, you can achieve the status of being a legend, but not be a Top Jock." "Top Jock" is a title only bestowed when you have "gathered" some unspecified amount of ratings over some unspecified number of years, without other considerations factored. Somehow he agrees Weasel and Cerphe are legends, elevating them over the run of the mill DJ that has been toiling 30/40 years in the industry, yet they have never reached the mythical "Top Jock" status. I would argue that generally the definitions of Legend and Legendary indicate otherwise, but for the sake of argument if your bruised knuckles allow for further discourse, I would ask BOBB who would be on his short list of DJs who have escaped the "Legend" moniker, yet have garnered top ratings for several decades ? Me thinks the definition of "Top Jock" is a private matter only known to BOBB. Certainly everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I would have thought that the OP would have cited some examples to bolster his argument. But sadly all we have heard is frantic splashing in the deep end, and finally a proclamation that the funfest is over and that he is taking his floaties and heading home. (5/10/08) Happy to see Joe Lehan having fun as a PAA for local baseball. One of the survivors of the radio biz and a great person to work with. BD (5/10/08) (snip) A DNS lookup on the IP address of the person who first posted it comes back as "pool-71-114-56-100.washdc.dsl-w.verizon.net". (end snip) ! ! ! ! How the hell can a Mailbag reader detect that from a distance??? (5/10/08) My take from the Independent article is that it's just sad that yet another greater D.C. area minor league baseball franchise can't secure a radio deal. It's not like the Blue Crabs' ownership is somehow resistant to radio. The other three Atlantic League teams owned by Opening Day Partners all have radio deals, two complete deals and one admittedly very partial one. For the Blue Crabs though, absolutely nothing. Minor league baseball might as well be the Ebola virus to radio execs around these parts. Everett W. (5/10/08) Re: "upside-down" electric outlet - um, define "upside-down", there is no incorrect way that I know of to orient an outlet. Heck, they can even be put in sideways without violating code. My father was a master electrician and looking around the house, all the outlets installed in the 1980s have the ground pin up. All the outlets from the 1990s have the ground pin down. Looking on the web, the only people who seem to care are hospitals who want the ground pin up. I've been on this Earth 31 years and I've never come close to shocking myself unplugging a cable from the wall. I'd say if you get electricuted then good riddance, we need to thin the herd a little. (5/10/08) Citadel has good reason to keep a "relationship" with "Jack Diamond"! They fear him going elsewhere! Harvey's been a valuable talent since I first met up with him at WEEL. He's the type of guy you can really enjoy working with. And, I stress the "working with". Unfortunately, Citadel's the type of owner/operator which longs for the days of employees working in this business at minimum wage... the lower the minimum the better! Unfortunately, Citadel has chosen to enter "the big time", for which it was (and still is) completely unprepared culturally, organizationally, or fiscally. Instead of basking in success, they've instead tarnished a once-proud brand to the point where the image of the surviving TV network could be damaged. Sure, Citadel wants to keep "Jack Diamond" and the other talent with expiring contracts which they've inherited. However, if they remain with Citadel, it will be at Citadel's price and with Citadel's terms. In Citadel's "perfect world", agent s and unions do not exist. Neither do "stars". Citadel does not deal with any of those three. Citadel will undoubtedly impose a one-way "employment at will" clause in all their contracts that will make Virginia's "Employment At Will" law look like it was written by the AFL-CIO! Ages ago, a Bartel PD gleefully told me, "My jocks are pieces of meat." Citadel, by all appearances to date, seems to be taking a similar attitude to its staff at all levels -except corporate executive, of course. The only "star" that Citadel can be credited with bringing on is Imus. But, the best that can be said is that his star is faded and tarnished. I wish I could say that Citadel is trying to minimize its mistakes and learn from the irrecocable ones already made. Unfortunately, I cannot. The best we can hope for is that responsible owner/operators (like Bonneville) will pickup the talent that is cast away, and buys up the facilities that'll ultimately have to be shed to stanuch an increasing flow of corporate red ink. While it means Washington's longest surviving call letters will likely be lost (I can see Bonneville keeping "WMAL", but not Danny who will out-bid Bonneville at all costs...) maybe the dials can be revived. I say that because while AM has been in its death throes for quite some time, FM is on life support. Unsigned Corporate Suit (5/10/08) Dave, Although Joe Lehan is the new PA Announcer for the SOMD Blue Crabs, perhaps he oughta stick to his day job. He's made several batter announcement blunders, including either missing them altogether, or calling them up late in the count. After a pick-off at first base he went to the next batter, even though the same batter was up. Ah, live and learn. Could be worse..... like the Fenway Park Green Monster and scoreboard; the highest number available for runs and hits is 9. Yep, no double digits on the scoreboard. You think owner Brooks Robinson wouldn't be that cheap!! Waldorf Dave (5/10/08) Here we go again. AP reports today that Obama is on the verge of being "... the first black person ever nominated for president by a major party." Doesn't anyone get it? Obama isn't "BLACK." Obama isn't "WHITE" either. He's INTERRACIAL. Brings to mind a non-politically correct expression in today's world which is years old and etymologically has nothing to do with any racial sentiment. But really "let's call .........." (5/10/08) Dave's response: I hear the same thing applies to Hillary and her gender. She's only half female..... "'Not a "manly man" like Rush, whose path is littered with failed marriages. Sheesh....." At least Rush took a run at that thang, ngah ngah ngah ngah? "OMG - this stuff with Bethann being hypnotized is hilarious!" To each his own, but the appellation (there I go fingering the thesaurus again, eat your hearts out ladies) "comedy magician" is something that back in the day when I pinned on a badge and strapped on a gun, we called "a clue". Radio hypnotism is staged, a work, not a shoot. TV hypnotism too. A stunt is a stunt, although sometimes they're stunning. The scripting of the "post-hypnotism Beth-Ann" was brillllllliant! "would any other DC DJ remember the name of practically every fan? I doubt it.....Kristen" Clearly m'Lady has never met the Mambo King of Olney, Oscar "Where's the Meatloaf" Santana. Stay thirsty, my friend. Caller X (5/10/08) So they just finished wiring my new rec room down stairs and ALL THE AC OUTLETS ARE UPSIDE DOWN !! Electrician swears he has to put them in wrong, some kind of code change. He lying? Now when I pull out a plug my finger is REAL close to the hot prongs. What kind of lawsuit is this? (5/10/08) Dave's response: I hear that Citadel/DC has a crack legal team. You may want to talk to them..... Hi Dave, I recently saw a piece on your website about another area broadcaster landing a PA Announcer's gig and wanted to share this news on my latest stint as the PA Announcer for the Southern MD Blue Crabs. A little on my background: I was doing weekends at WWZZ (Z-104) until it went off the air a little over 2 years ago. I was at the 104.1FM signal for 20 years prior to that point and still work for Bonneville as a part-time engineer. I began my radio career at the former WMJS, 92.7FM (now part of the Red Zebra group), Prince Frederick, MD; and from 1980 to 1984 I worked at WMDM/ WPTX, Lexington Park, MD; from 1984 to 1985, before Bob Duckman hired me in the summer of 85 for weekends/ vacation relief at what was then XTRA-104. The link below is from an article that ran in the MD Independent newspaper on Wednesday. Thanks! www.somdnews.com... I don't know how you do it.. but, keep up the good work on DCRTV.com! Regards, Joe Lehan (5/10/08) To the doood that claimed he was the Rhea Feikin’s weather thingy…..You never knew how to spell her name, DUH?? Dave in Sterling…Cerphe and Weasel have been on the air a combined 78 years and still they have never accumulated ratings. That’s a fact. You are totally misunderstanding what’s being said. Yes, they are legends, yes they’ve been around for decades, but NO, they have never been “top jocks” on a station that gathered great ratings. So, bask in your bright retorts to me, but wake up and realize being a legend doesn’t have to include being a top jock. There are jocks all over this country that have been in the industry for30/40 years. They aren’t “top jocks” they’re legends…end of discussion. BOBB (5/10/08) Nice to hear oldies 105.9 playing black artists. Now, how about oldies 100.3 doing the same? Look how far radio desegregation has come in 2008! (5/10/08) Dave, Did Citadel also send a letter to wikipedia asking them to remove the offending article? I'm not a lawyer and I didn't stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night but I don't see how you did anything legally wrong by mentioning something that's on the Internet and providing a link to it. (5/10/08) Dave's response: I have no idea..... Re: "it looked like someone from Citadel in NYC had posted insider info. It was just look too specific." A DNS lookup on the IP address of the person who first posted it comes back as "pool-71-114-56-100.washdc.dsl-w.verizon.net". The IP address (205.153.36.171) of the person that kept re-posting about Diamond being canned comes back as "fw1.npr.org". (5/10/08) Anyone else notice the crappy audio quality on WAMU Friday morning? As my main source of news on the radio I'm accustomed to what 88.5's people are "supposed" to sound like. The local reporters sounded fuzzy, like too loud, but the network people sounded normal. (5/10/08) (Quote) Did you see the movie "Expelled" yet? (End Quote) Let's not make a thread out of this movie, but "Expelled" is full of more s**t than a flock of pigeons. The only thing remotely accurate about this movie is the copyright date in the closing credits. (5/10/08) Just because they asked, or because of a letter from their lawyer? I could understand removing it out of respect, but out of fear is totally baseless. The creative commons of the internet more than allows legal protection from surly lawyers who don't know their own laws. Your blurb was absent of malice and factually accurate. -Robert (5/10/08) You are ruining your credibility. News organizations get letters from lawyers all day and they stick by their stories. It makes me wonder what other news you are hiding from us because of letters from lawyers. If you post it, be prepared to stand by it. Otherwise, don't post it to begin with. (5/10/08) Dave's response: The heart of the matter, me thinks, is that the Wikipedia account claimed that Citadel had made a decision regarding Jack Diamond's show. It didn't say that Citadel MIGHT make a decision regarding Jack Diamond's show. So, the Wikipedia article, in that account, was inaccurate. We had posted the link but we also said that Citadel denied it. So, I have no problem with pulling that original link and restating Citadel's denial via a new newsblurb. I felt the Wikipedia entry was newsworthy, even if it was "wrong," because it looked like someone from Citadel in NYC had posted insider info. It was just too specific. And it quite obviously touched a nerve within the company. Look, what we're dealing with is how, in the internet news biz, sites and blogs like DCRTV link to countless other sites everyday. Yeah, DCRTV does generate a good amount of our own news, but we also link to stuff where we can find it. And we let you judge the "value" of the news by telling you where we got it from. There's no way DCRTV or any other site can fact-check and verify every news item that we link to. This is a one-man news site, not the New York Times or the Washington Post, which have a team of journalists and lawyers to analyze everything that goes into print - and look at how many errors they still manage to make. If someone has a "problem" with something we link to, and they notify me, I'll review it and probably pull it. And that's what I did yesterday. Don't like that? Go get your local media news from the Washington Post. Ha ha ha..... The "bunker mentality" at Clinton headquarters begins! www.youtube.com (5/10/08) If WMAR is not moving the WJZ-DT transmitter on the candelabra tower, wouldn't that change their physical location coordinates and hence require a completely separate FCC application? I would imagine there are at least a couple dozen feet distance between the 3 separate candelabra towers if not more, certainly different longtitude/lattitude for each of the 3. And even if they are moving it, it still sounds like Scripps Howard is buying used equipment on the cheap. Sorry, but WMAR has a long history of shooting itself in the foot or cutting off a hand to save a finger. With WMAR 2's luck, it would not surprise me if the purchased used WJZ-DT transmitter fell off the tower during a blizzard next February! :-) PS: About HD News, well I for one hate seeing a square box of programming that does not fill my new HD TV set's wide screen. It bothers me for all programming, not just news. (5/10/08) So, Dave, you get a lawyer letter from Citadel ("...Ory's letter requested that we remove yesterday's news item that featured the link to the Wikipedia entry. We have done so.....) insisting that you alter news content and you cave? You owe us faithful readers and supporters a better explanation of why you backed down on your story. Did you not believe your source? Did the attorney threaten you with a lawsuit or other "appropriate remedy" if you didn't? As you left it, one could read that you had no faith in your report. If that's the case, why did you run it in the first place? That kind of behavior chips away at credibility. If you did have a credible source, or thought the Wiki item was worth reading, what did the lawyer say that scared you away from it? Please share more with us. Joel/Potomac (5/10/08) Dave's response: On Thursday, I linked to a Wikipedia entry about Diamond and also reported that Citadel had claimed that the account wasn't accurate. Fair and balanced. It wasn't a question of "faith" in one of my sources or me "backing down" or "caving" on anything - it was simply an item of reporting what was being said on a quite major website. On Friday, Citadel's attorney solely asked that we remove the original posting about the article in Wikipedia. There was no "threat" of anything. I did remove the original piece regarding the item on Wikipedia, and followed up with a posting that included Citadel's response in the matter. That's about it..... Dr. Elster’s group works with the airline pilots, traffic control, and airline maintenance, teaching how to communicate using concise, descriptive, and precise language for safety. Also, there are thousands of people with several framed degrees on their walls that would fervently disagree with the word “nut.” Did you see the movie Expelled, yet? Did they make some good points, in your opinion? (5/10/08) Dave... I don't get it. Just because some nitwit with a law degree asks you to take down the wikipedia mention doesn't mean you have to. It's there in a public forum AND involves a celebrity of sorts. What can they legally do to you for having it on the net? Citadel's new model should be "trying to out do clear channel in all the worst ways." (5/10/08) Dave's response: If I was Citadel, I would have kicked back and enjoyed the publicity for Jack Diamond and RQX. As they say, no publicity is bad publicity, especially when you run a radio show. Jack should have done what Tony Kornheiser, Elliot Segal, and Don Geronimo have done - blasted DCRTV on the air..... /\ May 10 Messages /\ \/ May 9 Messages \/ I heard Fred use the word "effete" this morning. It was clear he was trying to convey "elite" and "effeminate" to come up with a word to describe an eastern, liberal, wine-drinking snob (it appears Rush is doing the same thing, so it's probably in a Republican talking point fax). The problem is, the word "effete" means something completely different as earlier outlined here. Even if you take the watered down dictionary.com definition, it doesn't describe what Fred was trying to convey. Listen for other WMAL hosts to use the word as well, and just laugh at their inability to communicate effectively. It is their "strategery." As for Dr. Elster being a nut, he communicates with language experts on a day-to-day basis on clarity in wording. His group researches and contributes dictionary entries in a team environment. Does this make him a “nut” or an advocate for proper definitions and stability in our language? A perfect example is a lot of so called "management consultants" were freely interchanging the words "Goal" and "Vision." His group published an essay stating that there was a clear and bold difference between the two words, and they are not interchangeable. What have you done for the English language, lately? (5/9/08) I can hear it now........... Oprah, meet Jenna, Jenna, meet Oprah............ Then the MUTHA of ALL CAT FIGHTS! :-) (5/9/08) I don't understand the point of the story about WMAR buying WJZ's digital TV transmitter. WJZ currently broadcasts digitally on the channel that WMAR will be using after the switchover, so it only makes sense for WMAR to buy and use the transmitting equipment currently installed and tuned for that channel; just switch the feed from WJZ to WMAR. This has nothing to do with a studio facility; it's about the transmitter. I don't see how this impacts the start or non-start of HD news on either channel. (But I don't understand why some people are so excited over whether the news is in HD or not, either.) (5/9/08) FCC Burns Centennial in non-compete case - Would you believe that Centennial Broadcasting’s win in court was a direct cause of its loss at the FCC? Not only did it lose its battle with Gary Burns and his 3 Daughters Media over certain terms in a non-compete, it was fined $8K. But Burns didn’t get everything he wanted: he was asking for $325K and dissolution of a station acquisition between Centennial and a third party. Here are the gory details: Centennial bought WLNI-FM in the Roanoke-Lynchburg market from Burns in 2005. A non-compete which included covenants banning Burns from using certain competing formats, should he return to the local radio scene, was part of the deal. Burns later bought WBLT-AM in the market, and broke the programming ban. Centennial was able to get a court injunction prohibiting Burns from using the format he wished. The FCC said that by imposing restrictions on Burn’s ability to freely program the station. even court-sanctioned restrictions, Centennial was exercising unauthorized control over the station. The FCC said it does not go over sales transactions with a fine-tooth comb, but in general any covenant including programming restrictions is not allowable. Burns wanted $325K because the court injunction, and hence the unauthorized control, is ongoing, but the FCC said a base forfeiture of $8K was warranted because Centennial did not take over WBLT’s programming, but merely imposed restrictions on it. And the acquisition of stations from Mid-Atlantic Broadcasting will be allowed as soon as Centennial dissolves the injunction against WBLT. RBR/TVBR observation: So there you have it – even when both parties agree, there is no possibility of making programming a legal part of a non-compete in the eyes of the FCC. And here’s something to ponder: Can this be extended to on-air talent? If Group X has a non-compete with a recently-departed DJ or news anchor, Group Z puts the DJ or news anchor on anyway, and Group X tries to enforce the non-compete, wouldn’t that also constitute tampering with Group Z’s programming ability? (5/9/08) Two points of interest - if WRQX legal people sent you a letter stating that Jack Diamond isn't going anywhere and to "please remove the article" that you posted ... that says to me, anyway, that Ol' Jack is going, going, gone. Lawyer's sending letters cost an awful amount of money and framework of such such a mailer costs even more - makes me wonder - did they send it to you Certified or regular snail mail ... Secondly - people need to lay off Weasel and Cerphe. While Weasel may in fact have a "cult" following, Cerphe is the geniune article! He is a local legend - and to more people than to those who purchased the Little Feat LIVE album/ CD. If you have ever gone to events, Cerphe treats everyone with a hardy handshake and a heart felt "hey now". I've seen him at a couple of events - OK several - and he treats everyone as though he has known them, hung out with them and has been to the listens' house --- would any other DC DJ remember the name of practically every fan? I doubt it. Cerphe is a DC legend, not because of Little Feat, not because of his work at HFS or any other radio station, but because he really does care about his community and the people who take the time to listen to him each and every afternoon! So there Buddy Boy! - Kristen (5/9/08) Dave's response: They sent me an e-mail, which I got Friday, and a copy via FedEx, which I haven't yet received. Hey, I'm a lovable fuzzball. Why doesn't the GM or PD of RQX just give me a call to set the record straight regarding something on DCRTV about Jack Diamond. Lots of folks on Jenifer Street know my phone number (it's a local call from DC). I am always more than happy to print the truth. Interestingly, this is only the second "lawyer letter" I've received in the almost 11 years of doing DCRTV. The first was from those charming CBSers in Baltimore..... Oh, ha ha ha! You people are SO funny... and kind of dumb! The man, Dr. Elster, that you speak of is a NUT. He wants all English to be used from 200 years ago like the French in Quebec. It's today, man! Look at your your life. Look at who you are. Don't look at those damn newspapers that are going broke. Look at those eyes and lips of Shannon Bream! And, that BIG BOTTOM! Boo, old fashioned dictionary man. HOORAY FOR SHANNON BREAM... and BEER! Your Mangrove Mama's Mangrove Papa (5/9/08) Interesting story today on WBAL 11 News..... Jenna Bush is moving to Baltimore? Wow, hon! :-) (5/9/08) OMG - this stuff with Bethann being hypnotized is hilarious! Finally a bit they shoudl do weekly. They should have recorded this for YouTube or something. I would love to see the look on her face as her "vagine" is talking! (5/9/08) Puppet man on the WHAT??? Who is Bauechamp? You my man, are on another planet. Add to this, I was not picking on either Cerphe or Weasel. I was simply pointing out the fact that they are not top jocks. Yes, they are survivors. I’m sure they are underpaid too. BOBB…. (5/9/08) Can a man be effete? what about its Latin relative, "effetus?" "effetus that has brought forth, exhausted; ex + fetus that has brought forth." Fetus (foetus), Latin, "the young or embryo of an animal in the womb." A man cannot have a fetus, therefore a man can not be effete. I learn something new everyday. (5/9/08) Dave's response: According to Limbaugh, any male who likes Obama is an "effete liberal." Not a "manly man" like Rush, whose path is littered with failed marriages. Sheesh..... According to today's FCC filings, Scripps Howard's WMAR 2 does not intend to build a new DTV facility or buy any new transmitting equipment for Baltimore's famed candelabra tower. WMAR 2 is instead purchasing the EXISTING equipment from CBS's WJZ 13! So sadly, I wouldn't be expecting either of these 2 stations doing HDTV on the cheap and fast to be doing local news in HD anytime soon. Best hope for local news in HD in Baltimore looks like WBFF FOX45 and/or possibly Hearst's WBAL 11 at this point. fjallfoss.fcc.gov (5/9/08) To; Your Mangrove Mama's Mangrove Papa, I asked to look it up in a dictionary, (you know the book type) not online (what next, defending yourself using Wickipedia?). Effete, from the French, means in English "worn out through childbirth," Webster's Eighth Collegiate (the same dictionary the New York Times, National Review, and the Washington Post use). Effete is often confused or combined with "effeminate." The conclusion that "a man cannot be 'effete'" was researched by wordsmiths, presented on paper, and accepted by the Society for the Preservation of the English Language and Linguistics (SPELL) back in 1998. For the record, it was Dr. C.H. Elster who accepted the paper. I knew someone would take the bait; sorry it had to be you. (5/9/08) Yes, BOBB, you are correct. Cerphe and Weasel have been on the air a combined 78 years because "they have NEVER had ratings NEVER..EVER." For decades a whole series of GMs and several different stations have made the same mistake. Not sure what the list of awards for other jocks had to do with it, but you sure put me in my place. Dave in Sterling (5/9/08) The mailbag poster who cut and pasted the Taylor on Radio-Info news story about the FCC Media Bureau ruling on the Cetennial-3 Daughters pissing match obviously didn’t bother to open the link on the TRI story to the Media Bureau's Memorandum Opinion & Order (MO&O) in the matter. The FCC did fine Centennial $8,000 for "unauthorized assumption of control" in the matter between Centennial and 3 Daughters. (Short version: Centennial bought a talk-formatted station in Lynchburg, VA from 3 Daughters. Part of the deal included a non-compete preventing 3 Daughters from doing a similar format in the market for five years. 3 Daughters later bought another station, flipped it to sports. Centennial sued claiming the non-compete had been breached and won in court. Meanwhile, 3 Daughters took the issue to the FCC, and later filed an informal complaint seeking to deny transfer to the Mid-Atlantic stations in Winchester and Fredericksburg to Centennial. The FCC's Media Bureau ruled that Centennial's non-compete constituted "unauthorized assumption of control" since it attempted to prevent 3 Daughters from exercising its right to program whatever format it wanted.) The Media Bureau included 3 Daughters informal complaints as part of this process. In rendering its decision, the Media Bureau GRANTED the transfer of the Mid-Atlantic station. That is newsworthy. Here's the link to the MO&O: hraunfoss.fcc.gov... (5/9/08) BOBB, BOBB, BOOB. (sorry, fingers slipped) Why pick on Weasel or Cerphe? They are talked about because they survive in this city, doing what they love. Probably for less money than they would like. You're just mad because Beauchamp fired you twice. Cal Schuman (the puppet guy on the Rea Fiken weather thingy) (5/9/08) Does anyone know or have some idea how FOX"News" 'selects' emails to read on various shows??? I write often & with support for their reports: i.e. -E.D. Hill reporting in-depth on a woman with "FFF" size breasts... -Shep Smith with minute-by-minute 'Breaking News' of some cat stuck in a tree in Hoboken, NJ... etc. (5/9/08) Dave's response: Well, if you're a cute guy and you send along a snapshot of yourself, maybe Shep will read your message..... Dave in Sterling......The two individuals mentioned previously, Cerphe and Weasel, contrary to your totally illiterate evaluation were and are "CULT JOCKS" They have NEVER had ratings NEVER..EVER. Even when WHFS was a "UNDERGROUND CULT RADIO STATION". Now, let's chat about all jocks sounding the same.....Johnny Holliday (National Award Winning Jock) Dan Ingram (National Award Winning Jock) Harve Moore (National Award Winning Jock)...Robert W. Morgan (National Award Winning Jock) Ron O'Brien (National Award Winning Jock) And, oh yes, they all sounded the same. Get a grip...you sarcastic know nothing!!! BOBB (5/9/08) Oh man...you got some dumb people up in your country, Dave! First, Weasel and Cerphe are "cult" dj's because they were never listened to by "the masses." Dave in Sterling, you need to read a dic-tion-ar-y, mon! Second, speaking of the good book, dic-tion-ar-y, when you DO look up "effete," here what it says: –adjective 1. lacking in wholesome vigor; degenerate; decadent. 2. exhausted of vigor or energy; worn out. 3. unable to produce; sterile. -- That word can apply to MAN or WOMAN. But, it can NEVER apply to Shannon Bream because she is most beautiful woman and she gots a...BIG BOTTOM! Oh, she's the prettiest of them all... Your Mangrove Mama's Mangrove Papa (5/9/08) I agree with BOBB. All jocks should speak identically. Anyone who sounds different is a "cult" jock. That's what makes great radio -- everyone and every station sounding exactly the same. Anyone who thinks differently is just "dummying down of the audience." All Hail Our Corporate Masters. Dave in Sterling (5/9/08) Just saw this. From those guys who made the "You Suck at Photoshop" web series. Really good satire on virtual online stuff: Sn4tchbuckl3r's Second Chance #2: Occupational Hazards www.mydamnchannel.com... (5/9/08) Can somebody over at WMAL please give Grandy a dictionary opened with the word "effete" circled? He used it today, and he used it incorrectly. Fred, a man can not be "effete;" a woman can, a government program can, but a man can't. Before some Bozo writes and gives me the fourth definition down, I can explain that. Ever since Lyndon Johnson confused Effete" with "effeminate" many have been making the same mistake. Dictionaries deliberately put in the confused meaning at the bottom to acknowledge its wide improper use. (5/9/08) Was looking around on DCRTV Video..and found a clip of Ria and JP..oh..did that bring back memories! That was back in the days when (for the most part) you got your local news at seven o'clock; it was a half an hour long..that was all! Does anyone know who the man behind JP was? I remember..at the end of those newscast, JP would holler out, "GOODNIGHT ROLPH!"..at the top of his lungs! Tom in Denton, MD. (5/9/08) I have to laugh reading this mailbag because in the span of three messages we had one person say, "I've got to hand it to the weather staff at News Channel 4 late last night. When the tornado warning was issued around 11:38pm they were doing live reports... Channel 7 and 9 were running their usual programming without even a scroll on the screen." Then my eyes barely recovered, I read: "The weather coverage last night on NBC4, ABC7 and FOX5 was an embarrassment! Channel 9 cleaned up the evening with superior coverage." Were you two watching the same universe? Sounds we need a neutral TiVo to show us who was live at critical points and who was on the scroll.... Or like me you could just realize it's nasty outside, stay indoors, have a flashlight and radio ready and turn on Comedy Central. (5/9/08) So-you say the Citadel stations in Central PA have a better product that CC--that is not much to brag about. What is better than shit, perhaps a fart? Sure, maybe Citadel is running Central PA good-but we all know that DC is a different monster. None of those stations in Central PA would make it in DC-cause they have lack of personality, which is the same for Citadel's DC stations! It's not the music that matters, it is what is heard between the songs. Radio will also be personality driven, but no one seems to understand that!!!!! If I want to hear KT Tunstall, Maroon 5, Journey-I'll sure as hell plug in my IPOD and listen to it without the shitty processing and reverb! But, if I actually heard good personalities-then I'll turn that IPOD right off and keep to the radio!!!! (5/9/08) Many things point to Jack Diamond heading out the door. First, Citadel has pulled all TV spots mentioning Jack Diamond. Why would they do that if Jack was returning or had signed a new contract? Jack himself would be boasting about a new contract, if there was one...there isn't. Jack is making way too much money for a station that has pathetic ratings. If WASH can beat Mix then things are worse than I thought. I bet the head of Citadel doesn't even know Jack Diamond's name. Citadel fired Chris Core and a woman doing morning drive in SF who had great ratings. They don't care. In Citadel's opinion these people make too much money even if they have ratings. IBM and other large corporations are letting go long time employees just because they are taking home too much $$. The world has changed. Being a "good" or "valued" employee no longer gets you brownie points. It's all about the bottom line. I'm not happy about any of this but it is reality in 2008 and beyond. Sad but true... (5/9/08) I really don't like to start arguments but, when in the name of God did Weasel or Cerphe ever get to be GREAT Disc Jockeys? Sure they have knowledge of the music, but that's about it. Weasel sounds like a constipated teenager and Cerphe needs to open his mouth wider, pronounce things correctly and sound professional. Both of the individuals have always been "cult" jocks. Even back in the heyday of HFS they were "also rans" in the ratings and as jocks. The statements regarding these two just shows once again the "dummying down of the audience". BOBB (5/9/08) First. Note to all radio stations who stream content on the web. STOP with the 6 minute intro-advertisements when we activate your content! No one is rushing out to buy ANYTHING advertised on the intro to your live stream!! Secondly. I wonder what Don Geronimo thinks of the new extremely friendly, watered down Mike O'Meara show? Initially it was ok, but now I find it tiresome...I'm giving him 6 more months of riveting programming like "week of wallets," or "Big Mutha" contests and its off to radio round-up heaven for Mr. O'Meara. His restaurant and several marriages wont be his only failures if the show continues as is. WB Centreville, VA (5/9/08) Reporting by Tom Taylor Involves WINC - Southwestern Virginia owner Gary Burns lost twice in federal court – but he’s won at the FCC. Not a huge surprise – the FCC tends to favor licensee discretion – but it took two expensive years for Burns, during which he lost to Centennial Broadcasting up to the appeals court level. But the Commission sees it his way: Burns’ 3 Daughters Media had the right to put a talk format on a station he’d bought (WBLT, Bedford at 1350) after selling talk WLNI, Lynchburg (105.9) to Centennial. Burns had signed a five-year non-compete not to do a format “substantially similar” to talk WLNI. Later he bought WBLT and took it sports. Centennial (Allen Shaw) filed suit. Now the FCC decrees that Centennial’s format prohibition amounted to an unauthorized assumption of control (you probably know how much the FCC hates that). And because Burns worked his case at the Commission, he tied up Centennial’s intended closing on six other stations, in several Route 81-corridor towns like Winchester and Strasburg, and also over in Fredericksburg. The FCC fines Centennial $8,000 but also notes that “Burns shares culpability because he was separately compensated $25,000 for agreeing to the format restriction and actively negotiated the unlawful provision.” The agency warns other applicants they’d better disclose “any contract terms that may not fully comply” with the policy... (5/9/08) I've got to hand it to the weather staff at News Channel 4 late last night. When the tornado warning was issued around 11:38pm they were doing live reports, radar scans, etc. and stayed with the story. Channel 7 and 9 were running their usual programming without even a scroll on the screen until about midnight. I'm glad I signed up for weather alerts through the Weather Channel on my cell phone as well....that's what woke me up and made me turn on the TV. Way to go News Channel 4! (5/9/08) Citadel is easily a minor league operation playing with the big boys. As a veteran of both central Pa and DC, it's embarassing (and expected) to see what they've done. Calling them minor league is being nice about it, in all honesty. As for the Globe, if only they'd grow some friggin balls. Instead they're trying hard to be a combo of the old Arrow and Mix 107.3. Letting Albie play some 80's stuff during the 8pm hour is a start. Just let it go. No rules, no hesitation, just a willingness to try. Just call me Brad Bell's hairpiece :) (5/9/08) The weather coverage last night on NBC4, ABC7 and FOX5 was an embarrassment! Shame on them for letting crews go home early. Channel 9 cleaned up the evening with superior coverage. WUSA may have crappy ratings, but the coverage they presented this evening was FIRST CLASS and they made the extra effort. (5/9/08) For the writer who was talking about Terry "Motormouth" Young, you can find a bunch airchecks from his "Hot Hits" days here www.stevemcvie.com . Maybe The Globe can switch to Hot Hits, one of the best formats ever (at least for the first hour you listened to it.) (5/9/08) /\ May 9 Messages /\ Jump to the Mailbag Archive Index.....