Current Mailbag - Mailbag Archive Index - DCRTV Front Page - Support DCRTV DCRTV Mailbag - January 9 to January 18, 2009 Latest messages listed first..... \/ January 18 Messages \/ Here's highlights from the Obama Radio Nation broadcast from D.C. on Sunday: www.youtube.com (1/18/09) One thing I will definitely not miss about Circuit City is the call center in India. I wonder how many people will lose jobs there? (1/18/09) Dave's response: Not to worry. I'm sure the folks in the India call center are handling calls for many other fine American firms..... Alright, all of this Circuit City bashing has finally made me have to tell my story. I think in some ways it trumps all other C. City stories. Back about 1988 or so, I was working for a contract engineering company. We had a project in Richmond. Said project required I think nine of a particular model Pioneer CD player that could be remote controlled by a particular automation. So off I went with two colleagues to C.C. to purchase such devices. After visiting a few stores, we had not rounded up enough machines. One of my party then asked a sales person if it would be possible for them to call the other stores and see who had the units, The reply was 'what do you think this is, a Sears catalog store?". That promoted my associate to visit his car and have a little chat on the phone with someone. By the time he walked back in to the store, a very red faced store manager was stammering apologies and suggesting that by the time we got back from lunch, all nine machines would be at his store. My assoc., who I think still reads DCRTV, had called his girlfriend. The executive assistant to the CEO of Circuit City. Circuit City, like Nordstroms and some other 'fine' stores has never figured out that janitors are customers too. They always had that arrogance that another poster noted. (1/18/09) Dave's response: Jeez. Remember those Sears Catalogue stores? There was one in Woodbury NJ. And back when I was a kid I ordered a casette mini-album (had three or four songs on it) of Tommy Roe's "Dizzy." The Sears Catalog store was just down the street from the S&H Green Stamps store, where you could redeem your stamp-filled booklets for equally cheap stuff..... Dave, your “rant” was a good beginning. However, you’d have been called a “conservative Republican” a long time ago! You are advocating a media structure which brought forth over a period of five decades not just great broadcasters in terms of stations, but nurtured talent the likes of which we are losing all too quick (and have already lost) to the ravages of old age, retirement, and frustration over what the business has become. I disagree with those who say that consolidation was inevitable because of the diversity of media choices. There have always been choices in media. For “broadcasters” to blame choice for declining ratings, revenues, and profits is nothing more than self-indictment of their own arrogant ignorance and ineptitude. OK, while I’ll grant that there’s more choice than ever before, choice is not an excuse for low-balling your overhead by trying to program for what you can get for the least. Where broadcast TV has consistently failed began when broadcasters refused to both cooperate with and confront cable. Cooperate by realizing the constant quality (if not always the best) of reception and coverage offered by cable and confronting by emphasizing the localism that most cable operators either have no interest in or do at a level of quality that reeks of sub-200 market at best. All broadcast TV has done is “dummy down”: and imitate. When was the last locally-produced commercial broadcast TV entertainment show done around here? The last I can recall is something Don & Mike did ages ago at 9. One thing which needs to go for both radio and TV is program length commercials. I don’t care whether it’s for tampons, politicians, or every record ever recorded! Commercials need not exceed sixty seconds. Now, I can see a new generation of the FCC’s “Petition to ban religious programming” urban legend coming here. That would be because so many “Christian” and Christian (There’s a difference between the two…) programs are all logged as “Commercial” (or “CA” back in the old days) because the station has been paid to carry them. The way around this would be to exempt programming paid for and in advocacy of a 501(c)3. Thus, things from “Family Altar Hour” to the “Muscular Dystrophy Telethon” could continue to air. But, “Every Record Ever Recorded” (“All on one giant CD!”) infomercials would be relegated to cable. As for Dave’s plaint about engineering survivability, you’ll have a tough time between the NIMBY’s and micron-counters on that one. All one need to do to see the future of survivability is to look at KFI’s new tower. It is much shorter than the old one. And, although broad-banded it has the hellacious capacitance hat at the top, which comes from being at 640 on too short a stick. While it can be argued such a design can somewhat benefit groundwave propagation, your skywave is shot to hell. And, in a full-blown emergency, you’re going to need both. There used to be financial aid to broadcasters for the construction and maintenance of emergency broadcast capability. It was dismissed ages ago because it smacked simultaneously of “socialism” for some and “subsidizing the rich” by others. What may be needed is to get Homeland Security involved in matters such as this more frequently and more aggressively. Also, Dave, you’re showing your Republican conservatism by limiting your comments about economic viability to the AM band. What about FM & TV? There are far too many stations on those bands as well! What surprises me is what’s happened to that LPTV on 6 in Arlington. I’m amazed that some entrepreneur hasn’t come along, offered ‘em a ton of money for it and put a commercial WHFS clone on the audio calling is “Cavern 88” (Since the audio would be at 87.7 which most FM receivers can tune.) or such while running color bars with a character generator for the ID on the video. OK, so it wouldn’t be a “TV” station. But, it would be live, local, and everything just about every broadcaster around here -with the possible exception of WTOP- isn’t. Now, getting to Dave’s localism recommendation, he’s made another good start. However, I would allow up to 35% of the broadcast week to be of non-local origination for radio. That would allow for the continuation of (and development of competition for) things like “Coast-to-Coast AM”. Face it, there are some dayparts that just aren’t profitable. And, there’s something to be said for getting your start in the ‘biz by running the board on the all-night shift for minimum wage at a Class IV AM in in a place like Beaver, Wyoming, Builds character,,, In addition to requiring localism, I’d go one step further by requiring ownership and maintenance (including staffing during business hours consistent with local custom) of local program production facilities and a co-located business office by each station in their city of license with facilities in other cities at the option of the licensee. And, I would not exempt non-commercial licensees from these regulations. Many of them (including WETA) are no more than a “PBS repeater” like WMAL is accused often of being a “WABC repeater”. Speaking of ownership, I’d also allow ownership of not more than 51% of licensees in markets 1-30 by entities not locally based. Remember when 75% to 80% of D.C.’s TV stations were locally owned & operated? However, I would allow AM-FM-TV cross-ownership within a market. I’d limit ownership to 12 AM, 12 FM, and 12 TV with a limit of not more than eight stations of any one type within the top 20 markets. Final thought (for now)… One of my sales colleagues who’s already retired now serves his community on their cable commission. He shared their Cable TV franchise with me recently when we got together. One thing it mandates is “adequate local full-time staffing” for certain positions. How about adding this to the FCC broadcast licensee requirements? While I agree that there are stations which do not need a full time dedicated CE, there is a need for “competent” local technical talent to be employed by each station. How would “competency be determined? If not by the FCC (via the GROL), then by recognized industry organizations like SBE, IBEW, NABET-CWA, NARTE, etc. Hell, if the Extra-class ham radio ticket hasn’t been dummied-down since I passed the test (On the first try!) I’d consider an Extra-class license holder as having demonstrated “technical expertise” to a degree. (Remember when it seemed that all CE’s had either the Extra or the Advanced (the ones who couldn’t handle the 20 WPM code test…) ham tickets?) In closing, I honestly don’t know what the answer ultimately is. I cannot imagine CC or the others “going away quietly into a well-deserved good-night”. Unsigned Corporate Suit (1/18/09) Re: "...Cicuits City's demise does not surprise me. I don't know much about their "current" financial situation other than what I read in the papers, but I am a retired trial attorney who represented a local shopping center owner against Circuit City in a litigation ..." /// Good God, I hope someone else wrote your briefs for you. What an outstanding compendium of gibberish. OK, we get it, Circuit City in your experience is an arrogant corporation, but why was arrogant, and so many other common words and phrases put inside quotation marks ? They don't seem to be in reference to any prior post, and just because Circuit City stirs up personal emotions for you, doesn't mean that quoting from your own legal documents or quoting words and phrases that are apparently only important to you make any sense to the average reader. It makes the readers ask why and from where the is author is pulling these quotations ? Frankly, there isn't a need for one set of quotations in this ramble. I sure hope your oral skills at trial were better than this written travesty. (1/18/09) Dear WMAL Management, I am an avid listener of the Mark Levin show and use it to get all my news. Mark has repeatedly stated the US doesn't torture. Unfortunately, the Washington Compost is reporting a Federal Judge was given the paperwork that said we tortured someone. Do I now start questioning the other things Mark Levin is telling us, including Obama is a Muslim, there is no global warming, autoworkers make $70.00 an hour, Barney Frank is responsible for the economic downturn, we are not in a recession, Sarah Palin is a hero for not allowing her daughter to get an abortion and having her marry Levi, SCHIP would allow illegal aliens into its rolls, Al Franken is stealing the election, Limbaugh was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, and Obama is just like Hitler? I am confused at this point, and Mark Levin should apologize for stating clearly and unequivocally that he was wrong about the US and torture. I am sure you will agree, Mark should stand up and make amends to the guy he called a "big Dope" and an "idiot" for claiming that the US did engage in torture. I mean Mark was really mean to that guy on the public airwaves, and Mark was absolutely wrong. Since your motto is "your news and information station," you have a responsibility to have Mark Levin admit he was wrong and correct the record. Thanks you for your understanding of your responsibility to the listening public. (1/18/09) Someone earlier mentioned about Giant Food and the union, yes I believe they are a union shop but like Circuit City, if Giant Food would go under I don't think they would be missed. After all how many people thing Giant Food "has gone downhill" in recent years? Well that would mean a new sponsor for It's Academic on channel 4 ( Food Lion maybe ???? ) Interesting the Denver supermarket chain King Soopers was mentioned. I just got back from that city after spending the last month on business and yeah I saw and heard quite a bit of the media there. If people think Washington and Baltimore is bad, try Denver's. Yes KBCO is good but the rest.....UGH !!! For some reason I swear the radio stations in Denver are more concerned about how sexy their jocks look than whether or not they sound good on the air. Anyway, King Soopers does have a reputation of selling things to people "that fit". In other words, while they wont deny a sale to you, say you are a 50 year old guy who wants a Red Bull energy drink and a pack of Marlboro Lights. yeah they will sell it to you but you may get a lecture from King Soopers about you being "too old" to buy such things. Not really a surprise there. Too bad one can't get KOA-AM 850 here in DCRTVland, their overnight host( Rick Barber ??? I think ) sometimes he would go on about such thing, how it is "not normal" for adults to visit an amusement park without kids. Now if someone at WMAL, WBAL or even WTOP would say something like that on the air, well chances are they may not be on the air for very long and perhaps be locked away someplace to recieve therapy...but its OK for KOA. Maybe it really is a good thing that Denver is over 1500 miles away. (1/18/09) Yes, its true, Luskins really didn't go out of business. They just held a phony Going Out of Business sale and turned over the remaining inventory of any value over to The Big Screen Store chain which operates in most of the same locations, and run basically by the same people who are the reason Luskins got nailed for BAIT and SWITCH violations by the state of Maryland. It's also why I will not shop there. Circuit City wasn't the best, but I'll still miss them. Hopefully, a chain like FRYS from out west will move in here, that's my wish. (1/18/09) Dave's response: But nobody, not even Jack Luskin, can beat NYC's Crazy Eddie - "His prices are insaaaaaane"..... With regard to Clear Channel firing off more of its work force and acquiring more stations. They will never realize the true investment in a good company is its people, not its property. This isn't the 80's anymore where who dies with the most toys wins. As an ex clear channel employee I have never worked for a company that employs more gestapo and fear tactics then this company.Eventually I realized it comes all the way from the top because Lowry Mays screws his own sons over by pitting them against each other.Until Lowry is removed from the equation Clear Channel will always be the Evil Empire. Good Luck people and I hope Lowry gets what he gives. There is only one person I know more evil than him and come Tuesday we wont have to deal with him again. (1/18/09) I heard Ron Riley doing the weather on WTOP from the ABC7 weather center today. He must be doing some freelance work for them now that he’s retired. That brings up a question I’ve always wondered about: do all the weather people we hear on WTOP actually work for ABC7? I’ve heard so many different folks and while I’ve seen a lot of them on,TV there are a number that I’ve never seen on air. Does anyone know? Just curious… (1/18/09) Dave's response: WTOP radio has a deal with WJLA-TV to be its weather provider. Some weathercasters you hear on TOP may also do weather for JLA sister NewsChannel 8..... Re: "Hey, maybe someone should resurrect Luskins." One of the best things Circuit City ever did was drive Luskins out of business. I'm not saying Circuit City is my ideal store-- woe to me for trying to have something repaired there-- but back in the dim dark past I would drive from Baltimore to Springfield Mall to shop at Circuit City because Luskins was not only the "cheapest in town", it was the only game in town, and not a game I wanted to play. (1/18/09) Re: Circuit City in the valley. In the case of Winchester, a shopping center is planned next to I-81 that is supposed to include Best Buy. They have continued site work there, but we were guessing they would delay construction because of the economy. Now that Circuit City will be vacating its store on Pleasant Valley Road (just a block or two from the unbuilt shopping center, I mean this city is only 9 square miles) Best Buy could always locate there. The same shopping center that is losing Circuit City already lost Linens 'N Things in the past few months, but I think their footprint is too small for the Bed, Bath and Beyond that is planned for the yet-unbuilt shopping center.... Charles in Winchester (1/18/09) Dave's response: Hey, maybe someone should resurrect Luskins. Check this out at ce.org..... (RE: In addition to firing the GSM of WZBA, the COO brain trust fired the Promotions Director last week for interviewing at another Shamrock property...) And, they also fired the GM of the Scranton station - now this same bozo is mis-managing both stations - which are BOTH circling the drain. His approach to the business and the economy is the same way as he did it 30 YEARS AGO. Making budget? Fully staffed? How about planning ahead, working with your media buyers.......or media planners? Having a client function - beyond a public event that your wife knows about, as a great cover for VERY "friendly relationship" with female staff. Or, maybe leave the corner office on the 7th floor and go on a sales appointment once in awhile. Has anyone met this man? Know what he looks like? Seen him on a sales call or client appointment? When the ratings decline, that is really when planning forward -- beyond this week or this month -- is critical. Maybe he does not know how to interpret ratings or shares, but here's a hint: they're DECLINING,&nb sp;goi ng down, and very fast. Make some friends, because you're going to need them. -- Media Maven (1/18/09) From the post, "Sad to see Circuit City go away." - Any nostalgic sadness I would have had for Circuit City was wiped away when they came up with the brilliant plan to fire every experienced (aka knowledgeable) employee they had because they cost too much, leaving behind only the most inexperienced staff that they could pay minimum wage. Do the executives at Circuit City run Channel 9 too!? Look at what they are doing to the newsroom. Who's gonna watch? What a coincidence. (1/18/09) What happened to the Discovery channel? EVERY single show is either about blowing something up or some form of destruction, either by nature or man made. What happened to the shows that made you think or were even thought provoking? All I see is absolute bulls--- and brain dead! What a shame. Paul (1/18/09) Dave's response: I penned a recent Rant on that..... I took a trip recently over to DCRTV advertiser Ken Merson's web site and came away very favorably impressed with his talent and skill. Goodness! This is the way radio is SUPPOSED to sound. The grand experiment, in which broadcast property aggregators sought to corner the radio advertising market, is clearly a failure. The few megacorps now in the business spent a fortune on stations and have little to nothing left to support an effort to attract listeners, or even maintain station plant. "No problem," they thought. Fire the air staff and do voice tracking, sell infomercials, or put on a right-wing gabfest. Radio is a medium supported by advertising. That has turned into its sole purpose: to sell advertising. What attracts ears to that advertising is dreck because MBAs have found that people will listen to dreck when that is the only possibility. Public service? That's for crazy libs to worry about. We're about making money: hand over fist. (1/18/09) Dave's response: Exactly. Too many local radio stations (the Globe and WBIG come to mind) are programmed for advertisers first, corporate suits second, and listeners third..... "Sad to see Circuit City go away." - Any nostalgic sadness I would have had for Circuit City was wiped away when they came up with the brilliant plan to fire every experienced (aka knowledgeable) employee they had because they cost too much, leaving behind only the most inexperienced staff that they could pay minimum wage. And Circuit City tried to convince everyone that was a brilliant business decision. Good riddance. - Justin (1/18/09) Channel 9's term digital correspondent is stupid. They are still reporters not matter if they are on TV or the web. LesInAdelphi (1/18/09) Dave, Cicuits City's demise does not surprise me. I don't know much about their "current" financial situation other than what I read in the papers, but I am a retired trial attorney who represented a local shopping center owner against Circuit City in a litigation over a breach of lease in the early nineties. From what I learned about their deeply ingrained "corporate philosophy" of "arrogance" during that eighteen month litigation, which arose Circuit City "arrogantly" just "walked away" without any notice from their their twenty-year lease lease out abandoned my clients small shopping center, I can say "am not surprised" about their demise. I say they acted "arrogantly" toward my client, because they just "walked-away" of my clients small No. Va. center shopping center and a twenty-year without notice.You see, Circuit City had just opened a new "Super Store" a few miles away, couldn't leave a ny ind ication of the store's prior existence, so they suddenly and hastily removed all of signage from the building's stainless steel exterior as they left, leaving behind a pock-marked building, which I described in the "Motion for Judgment" as looking like it was in "downtown Beriut" complete with "bullet holes in the stainless steel exterior" and not a shopping center in Woodbridge, Va. . I told my client to leave the plastic banner which they left behind giving directions to their new pristine location which they had opened only a few miles away, because it just amplified their breach of the lease and corporate arrogance. During that litigation that was eventually settled by a large cash payment to my client, and return to the location of a smaller a Circuit City stereo installation store, I learned of corporate greed and how corporations di dn't t hink the rules apply to them . I am thus neither surprised nor saddened by their demise. Doug, in Stephens City (1/18/09) Re: Rant: The Last DJ - 1/18... Thanks for your comments. I still wonder about this "business" where they will only provide a product that nobody wants (satellite feed ad nauseam) and then downsize when the audience tunes out. The downsizing resulting in an even less attractive product with more tuning out, etc, etc, etc. Thank goodness for Captain Flye on WPFW's Saturday morning "House Party" 8:00 - 11:00. If you want to experience joy listen to this cat work his DJ magic. You know, the way good jocks know how talk into the beginning of a tune and build excitement in a show. This guy is _so_ good. Hard to believe this is the way it was on the many great music radio stations we had around here in the 60's and 70's. Robert B Arlington (1/18/09) Surely, I'm not the only one who remembers back when Bullets, Capitals and/or Orioles radio game calls would be preempted off of the old WTOP/1500 due to conflicts with each other. Back in the day, no alternative radio outlets were usually available for such bumped broadcasts. Because a Bonneville or a Red Zebra can own more than two stations in a market, such dislodged broadcasts are now usually available without the need for the net. Obviously, no group needs to own eight radio stations in a market but I'm not convinced that we need to go back down to a single AM/FM limit either. Everett W. (1/18/09) Dave's response: Go to 1980 or so and look at the DC radio dial back then - progressive rock WHFS, full-service WMAL, big band music, lotsa local talk hosts, the personalities on WASH, locally-owned rocker DC101 - it WAS better radio, in many respects, than what we have now. Back when every FM station had a different owner! The ONE THING that broadcast radio has got going for it is LOCALISM. And the corporate dingbats who run many of local stations can't fucking see that. Because they're beancounters..... Dear WMAL management, Our community once had a nice sweet Grandmother down there in Waldorf. She leaned Republican, and always sent out Christmas cards to WMAL, our forum leader, and others in the broadcast business. She was opinionated like all grandmothers, but was pleasant to deal with. Oh, did I mention she was a huge fan of WMAL? The problem; since WMAL added that obnoxious, loud mouthed, name calling, nasty liar, Mark Levin (did you know he disseminated that lie about $70.00 an hour UAW worker twice on his program, and never mentioned how that number was a false representation, and he also was one of the main people forging the rumor Obama is a Muslim?), the grandmother from Waldorf has morphed from an opinionated middle aged woman to a name calling, nasty, others' sex life obsessed woman. In other words, she has become a female Mark Levin. Mark Levin used to call Tim Rusert "the Pillsbury dough boy." He used to Call Ted Kennedy "a murderer." This Grandmother is now calling people names, insulting their intelligence, insulting their spouses, stating unverifiable information as facts, and never admitting she is wrong. See, Mark Levin to a tee! Can you please ask Mark Levin to tone down his rhetoric, stop presenting false information as fact, stop the name calling, and be humbled when someone presents the facts-proving he is wrong. Once Mark does this, hopefully, this Grandmother will follow his lead and stop being nasty to everyone in our online community. Thank you in advance for your understanding. (1/18/09) (QUOTE: JFK-FM ... exhibits sheer contempt for its listeners on weekends...) "Sheer contempt". An even better way of saying what I meant. Perfect comment! (1/18/09) Hey ABC2..tell your public relations department you did a great job during Obama's visit on Saturday...I watched and you guys were better than Bal and JZ...Your PR may even mention it during weather commercials. (1/18/09) From top notch Washington Post reporter Eli Saslow; "On the final leg of a two-year road trip, Barack Obama rode into Washington on Saturday in an antique caboose with the contented look of a man convinced he was arriving at his rightful destination" Antique caboose? A child could have told him that it was a private passenger car. My God do these reporters go straight from high school to the Post? (1/18/09) MUST SEE!!! Watch Ron on Fox 45 News on Lisa Gladden's Comments wbal.com (1/18/09) What hath I wrought? - Ferret (1/18/09) I watched the Channel 9 special. When, oh when will they figure out that the three musketeer's they call anchors are the reason they are sinking so deep in the ratings game? Hacks! A couple live shots were bleary, Howard Bernstein actually had a good piece on the weather on inauguration day, but other than that what a piece of junk!! They could have furloughed the show and saved some money. Will you get rid of those botoxed anchors already!!?? I'm sorry, but its painful to watch. (1/18/09) Awful radio on the AM dial on weekends: Best-Ofs. Big story this week was the plane that ditched in the Hudson River, and all the talk show replays on Saturday all referred to "today" and "yesterday", repeating all the "we don't fully know what happened" chatter - which is stupid now that we DO know. With the salaries these hosts are making, why the hell aren't they contracted to do a show that can run on weekends that is timely, relevant and doesn't make them sound like mentards? If I had a major market station, I'd be looking for a syndi host that offered this, just so I'm not throwing away the electricity to keep the place lit on weekends. (1/18/09) Dave's response: You can add JFK-FM to that batch. Aside from Goss, the station, with its reruns and infomercials, exhibits sheer contempt for its listeners on weekends..... I have it on very good authority... that Edelman is 95% likely going to be off the air. The news of the possibility of ABC Radio not renewing Edelman's show... As of last Wednesday, January 14, 40% of the Edelman Financial Workforce was cut - across all areas (IT, sales, finance, marketing) and all offices... Edelman's corporate parent is considering purchasing the rest of Edelman and cleaning house completely. Software development will be outsourced and more jobs will be cut. (1/18/09) /\ January 18 Messages /\ \/ January 17 Messages \/ The once-mighty Channel 9 is airing a special hour-long 8pm newscast tonight dealing with the upcoming Inauguration. I’ve seen now four new reporters – oops, sorry, “Digital Correspondents” – that I’ve never seen on the station before. Are they expanding their staff? Or maybe just hiring some temporary help during the Inauguration? When you compare the bio sections on their website and the WJLA website, their news team is MUCH smaller than WJLA’s, especially now with the loss of Gary Reals and Phyllis Armstrong. (1/17/09) FYI: David Lee is on Comcast SportsNet tonight doing the first intermission report from the studio during the Caps game. BG (1/17/09) David Lee is "freelancing", he was on friday and tonight (saturday) (1/17/09) Not sure if anyone else noticed this, but I turned on Channel 5 tonight at 6:50ish – “The King of Queens” was supposed to be on, and it was – at least partially. The video was “NBC Nightly News” (the same as on Channel 4 at the same time) and the audio was “The King of Queens,” which at, a couple points, proved to be slightly humorous. Obama was saying some funny things from the back of that train! I am in Fairfax and am watching it on Cox through my cable-ready TV (just checked, same problem on my TV with a digital converter box). BG (1/17/09) Hey Dave: I was listening to the Jack affilliate here in Dallas when they said (I'm paraphrasing) "In keeping with the spirit of change, Jack as you know it will be ending. Listen for an announcement Monday at 500pm." This got my attention so I researched it and found that it is probably related to the publicity stunt they just pulled off in Minnesota. I know you don't cover the central time zone but I imagined this would be a good opportunity for a post titled "Jack Off the Radio!" www.startribune.com... Brian (1/17/09) Re: "If we would stop buying things on the Internet and go back to the stores, then stores would stay open." My question is, who is abandoning who? Seems like every store's shelves are half-empty. Heaven help you if you know what you want before you walk into a store, because you're not going to find it. I'm forced to buy even things like deodorant and toothpaste online because stores stopped carrying the brands I want. (1/17/09) Dave's response: Reminder - this is a local and radio TV venue. But, you really buy toothpaste online? Wow..... Does it seem likely that 1260 AM will drop the "Obama" image once ol' Barry takes the White House? If I were the Prez, I don't know how comfortable I'd be rolling over in the morning and tuning in a station that was using my name to promote itself. Memo to the Zeeblings: time for a change. How about, "1260 The Patriot"? (1/17/09) With Circuit City gone, wonder how the towns out in the Shenandoah Valley will do when it comes to pirces on TVs and PCs and such? Now before someone wrints in and say "..well Best Buy will take over !!", I am pretty sure both Harrisonburg and Winchester turned down the chance to get a Best Buy to come there in the first place. I think in Winchester's case they felt that Best Buy would make their town "too metro" so for some reason they went with Circuit City instead. Reading about the closing of Circuit City on other sites, I was shocked at all the "..well there Is Target and Walmart now .." OK...but is Giant Food and Safeway union chains? If they are how can their employees shop at Target or Walmart? Yeah strange question but the reason I ask this, there are other supermarket chains across the country that are union and there have been stories where they had actually fired employees who dare to shop at say Walmart or Target since both chains are known to be anti-union. Last year I was watching Denver's KWGN channel 2 and they did a story about this where their ( Denver ) local grocery store chain King Soopers ( Kroger ) actually had/has a local Denver number to "report" if any of their employees were seen shopping at either Target or Walmart and from what I remember, KWGN claimed there were no shortage of people "reporting" either. I have to wonder if Giant Food or Safeway does this? If they do , then I guess for their employees it really is either Best Buy or online to get that TV or PC unless one can get lucky with K-Mart/Sears. (1/17/09) Sad to see Circuit City go away. Back in the day, they were a good client. Am I the only one here who remembers when they were called “Dixie HiFi”, based out of Richmond, VA? I remember when they (and few similar retailers) flaunted being located in places that didn’t have state “fair trade” laws which required abiding by “manufacturer’s suggested retail” pricing and sold for less than competitors across the state line. Dave: You were obviously listening to your professors in ECON101 and ECON102 as you are so right about the likely future for Best Buy. At least for the near-medium term. That is unless they are super smart. Once this Depression is over, look for another “big box” retailer to come to this “market”. There are others out there. Regional chains in other parts of the U.S., and they are the ones who really ate Circuit City’s lunch by offering better service along with good prices & selection. It wasn’t just Best Buy and the Bushwhacked economy that killed ‘em off. And, just because the only thing major market about the D.C. area is Safeway, it’s still a wealthy one. Don’t forget… Best Buy progressively migrated here from the Twin Cities. –Unsigned Corporate Suit (1/17/09) "There's something going on at the empty ex-CompUSA store on Perry Pkwy, Gaithersburg." - The new tenant is not a retailer but the 24 hour veteranary clinic/hospital which is moving from their Darnestown Road @ Muddy Branch Road location. (1/17/09) Dave says "The NY Post confirms what DCRTV's been telling you..." Dave, the newspaper is matching what you were telling us, but neither they nor any other media outlet can "confirm" a news item. That has to come from a named source for the news involved. (1/17/09) Dave...Worst Buy has the worst service already and very few people on the floor who know how to get you the item you want and guide you to the cash register. Anyone going to Worst Buy should be prepared for cheap prices AND no service. (1/17/09) Two thoughts: If we would stop buying things on the Internet and go back to the stores, then stores would stay open. And hey, if we wouldn't buy pay-per-view stuff, all that would be back on free TV. Not a sermon, just some thoughts. (1/17/09) Dear EARTH: Over the years, Stern has explained ad nauseam that he did NOT actually call Air Florida but, instead, used a megaphone to simulate the call. Stern noted that his point was not to make fun of the disaster, but to show Air Florida's irresponsibility by attempting to fly during such treacherous weather conditions. Since you seem to never have heard any of Stern's retelling of the story, we're wondering if your mommy still determines your radio listening choices. It also appears that, 25 years later, the dumb high school kid has become a dumb adult. Now you tell the rest of us, who is the real AHOLE? (1/17/09) The former CompUSA (or at least part of it) will become the new location of VCA Veterinary Referral Associates Emergency Critical Care Services. The vet clinic is currently located in the barns at the corner of MD-28 and Dufief Mill Road in G'burg.-Fritz The Cat (1/17/09) (DCRTV Dave mused "...all I'll have left is Target, Best Buy, and Barnes And Noble.....".) Speaking as a savvy shopper who lives out in the boonies, I quit visiting big box retailers around the turn of the century. With an entire Internet of consumer information at my disposal, I now make my buying choices online, although I try to wait for a "Free Shipping" promotion. In most cases, state sales tax is not applied to my online buys. (I find Newegg.com and Amazon Marketplace merchants among the fairest and most efficient suppliers.) However, I confess that I will miss CircuitCity.com's free shipping on purchases over $25 and dearly miss their users' reviews of items for sale. (Newegg.com also posts candid customers' reviews... the bad along with the good.) I've avoided picking-up a stinker of a product on countless occasions by thoroughly evaluating the buyers' feedback. Caveat emptor and YMMV, as always (1/17/09) Dave's response: Sure. I do a lot of online shopping now, too. But it is still fun to browse through a well-stocked store. The sad thing is that the "big box" stores put many locally-owned, independent stores out of business. Now the "big box" stores are going bankrupt, leaving nothing but empty storefronts in their place. Without the competition from Circuit City, Best Buy will probably provide worse service, more-limited selection, and higher prices..... Just watched WUSA 9 morning show. At the end, Jennifer Ryan signed off for the last show. I know many of us will miss the show. Big mistake if they get rid of J Ryan, one of the few bright spots at the station. The other anchors try too hard and just don’t pull it off. Hope we keep seeing her at night. (1/17/09) Dave, Just to twist that knife in your back a bit more, the is/was a Borders in the process of closing about a quarter mile from that ex-CompUSA in Gaithersburg... Tom in Gaithersburg (1/17/09) Dave's response: I wasn't aware that struggling Borders was closing any of its DC area stores - yet..... Has Comcast SportsNet cut David Lee after 2 1/2 years at the Bethesda-based regional sports network? His last appearance on CSN was last night's "SportsNite" and his bio has been removed from the Website. David Lee came over to CSN from sister network SNY in September 2006. (1/17/09) EARTH TO AHOLE: I was a dumb kid in high school when the Howard Stern/Air Florida thing happened. How the hell would I know whether it was a phony stunt or not? Seriously. (1/17/09) There's something going on at the empty ex-CompUSA store on Perry Pkwy, Gaithersburg. There is a large shipping container out front and a number of cars/pickups each day. All the trim around the entrance has been removed. It's a poor commercial location behind the county fairgrounds with no other retail businesses nearby. The fairgrounds are now home for hundreds of new cars awaiting sale. I suppose they'll move on to an ex-CircuitCity store when done with this one. (1/17/09) Dave's response: Wow, soon there'll be no stores left. CompUSA and Tower gone. Tweeter, too. Now Circuit City. Just saw a liquidation sale at the FYE video store at Fair Oaks Mall. If Borders goes down, I guess all I'll have left is Target, Best Buy, and Barnes And Noble..... Interesting to not be seeing/hearing anything on the web form the “Doug of Doom” or the other D.C. weather prognosticators about either the temperature or the 50% chance of snow for the D.C. area for Sunday or Monday. But, then again, it got to 85 degrees on the lanai in Pasadena this afternoon (when it was probably something like 10 back in DCRTV-land) with a forecast low in the 50’s. Or, are Bob, Topper, Doug, and Sue still waiting for “the big one”? You know, the storm that’ll top what my grandmother always called “the Knickerbocker storm”… John Pinckney of guess where? (Scott Marinoff down in San Diego isn’t the only one to escape the bitter chill of DCRTV-land for California!) (1/17/09) That now makes *two* big empty Circuit City stores in Springfield. I've always thought someone should refurb the one on Old Keene Mill Road and make it into a TV production house. Its big enough and high enough to accommodate two stages, and close to the Mixing Bowl. Whattaya think? (1/17/09) "My vote goes to Mike Moss. Although a very knowledgeable sounding announcer, he seems to be very wrapped up in his own dramatics." The best 6 months in DC radio were the ones in which Moss was on WTWP, where he didn't have to share the mic with anyone, when he could babble on to his heart's content, and no one was listening. I thought we were free at last, free at last . . . but, alas . . . (1/17/09) It should be added to the previous post that the Tucson Citizen is a Gannett newspaper. I guess these people may not have to worry about the 1 week furlough without pay. (1/17/09) Your comment about Ric Edelman cutting staff is interesting. The Baltimore Business Journal last week indicating that Edelman just doubled the size of his staff to 210. It's in the story here: baltimore.bizjournals.com - Mike (1/17/09) /\ January 17 Messages /\ \/ January 16 Messages \/ Bigwigs in Tucson today. Plan is ro either sell or close the Tucson Citizen, an afternoon M-SAT daily. They have a JOA w/Lee Enterprises' Arizona Daily Star, a morning paper... Odds are it'll fold... (1/16/09) To the post about Howard Stern and Air Florida. You are right , the segment was played on Sirius. ''The Histroy Of Howard Stern'' over Christmas Hollday. (1/16/09) "I sincerely hope Scott Lindy's new job doesn't end on Tuesday!" --- Oh! But, the poor people in Atlanta DO!!! (1/16/09) I think it can finally be revealed: I believe that Silvie is Chris Plante's "#1 girl." (1/16/09) Clear Channel bought up seveal conglomerates that in turn bought up groups of stations. It paid too much for them in the first place. No wonder they are Cheap Channel. -- GAB in the Airless Cubicle (1/16/09) Re: " For those who don’t know what happened, Stern never called anybody. No real call was made..." //// Exactly ! Quite funny that the events yesterday in New York, have caused those with faulty memories and apparent axes to grind to wake from their flatline comas, just to rake the old chestnut about Stern and Air Florida over the coals, yet again. The segment when Stern commented on Air Florida has been played as it originally aired on DC101 at least a couple of times since he has been on Sirius, along with a discussion about how the subsequent reports and false legend had very little to do with the reality of what was said. No phone call the Air Florida was ever made, Stern offered up a sound effect of a phone ringing and had a mock conversation with himself pretending to call Air Florida. It's amazing that after all these years dolts still cling to, and keep repeating competing versions of fantasies which never happened. (1/16/09) How much do you wanna bet that the stations Paul Bicknell lands on will be WYRE, WCTN and WKHZ via the KHZ TV website!! (1/16/09) To Roy Eppard, fire all your emplyees. Paul (1/16/09) Czaban and Andy Pollin, don't know shit about sports to begin with, much less the ability to start talking about the Caps. (1/16/09) Folks - WNST is hosting another Ravens playoff bus trip, to Pittsburgh on Sunday. Our pre-game Ravens tailgate party will be held from 12-5 p.m. in the 10,000 square ft. ballroom of the Sheraton Station Square Hotel. www.starwoodhotels.com... Also, WNST threw two huge parties for Ravens fans in Nashville last weekend. If you haven't already done so, have a look at the two videos, the amazing number of Ravens fans who attended our events and took over the Music City! Both events were held at very large bars!!! Friday night 1/9/09 Ravens fan party at Limelight & former Ravens QB Steve McNair's fund raiser www.youtube.com... Saturday 1/10/09 Ravens fan pre-game tailgate party at Graham Central Station www.youtube.com... - Steve Hennessey, Director of Sales and Promotions, Baltimore Sportstalk WNST AM-1570 "we never stop talking" (1/16/09) I sincerely hope Scott Lindy's new job doesn't end on Tuesday! (1/16/09) Oh Sherrie Sherrie - if you would just read down below to some smart-ass sarcastic imbecile's comment about me and the WMAL crew (whom did not even sign his/her name), you'd know exactly what I was talking about. Dave posted it because he knows it was in response to someone's remark. Otherwise, he wouldn't have even bothered. In the long run, you'll learn about DCRTV "decorum", if any. Now go back and try to make your boyfriend happy. Peace! -Silvie- (1/16/09) If Fox News is the all Obama bashing network, then NBC/MSNBC must be the all kiss up to Obama network. The day draws closer to NBC being named the Obama network. Next for NBC...the Al Franken network (1/16/09) I am a co-Owner of the Traville Village Center, shopping center in Rockville, MD. My staff has challenged me to get ½ naked and play an animated Cupid at the intersection of Shady Grove Road and Traville Gateway Drive and alternating to Rt 28 and Traville Gateway Drive, giving out kisses (chocolate kisses). This is a wacky idea for an executive. I have an attachment for you to review. I decided to add a dimension to this by offering my cell phone on location to field “love advice” calls from listeners. Certainly you will get phone calls from passersby. My cell is (703) 967 xxxx... Roy (1/16/09) Don’t you think it would be a nice gesture by barack obama to invite the pilot from the Hudson river landing to be a part of the inauguration festivities? I hope they do because that guy is a true hero, not these athletes and Hollywood people, Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger III (1/16/09) [snippy from DCRTV]… radio giant Clear Channel is planning a big round of cuts on Inauguration Day, in order to reduce national press coverage [end snippy from DCRTV]. Way to stay classy, Clear Channel!! Will you be kicking puppies, too? (1/16/09) Silvie, you are the most ignorant person I have ever met! That is the rudest thing I have ever read on a message board. I should not even dignify it with a response but since I like Dave's site, I felt the need to do so. My boyfriend, Dan, got me hooked on this site, and there was no need to be such a jerk. Next time show some common courteousy and just shut your mouth. Dave, just keeping your back, you're too nice for such a moron. Sherrie (1/16/09) For those who don’t know what happened, Stern never called anybody. No real call was made. He had a ring sound effect and pretended to make a phone call. He never called AirFlorida. He never really inquired about flights to the 14 Street Bridge or if that was going to be a regular stop. He was also not fired for it because he didn’t do anything. It was a bit not unlike any others Stern, Don & Mike, or Idiot, I mean, Elliot in the Morning does. Get your stories straight before you bash somebody because you may end up just looking stupid. (1/16/09) On the other hand, Silvie, the "idiot" will be going to the WMAL Inaugural Ball with his wife, while you'll be home alone, dressed in a dishrag, watching the GOP apocalypse on television and cursing at the walls. That word, again: "alone." Happy Inauguration Weekend! (1/16/09) Hey, I heard there's actually a law which forces WTGB to play "Sweet Home Alabama" 25 times every day. Is that true? (1/16/09) Dave's response: Hell, is 94.7 still on the air? Took 'em off my pre-sets at the end of 2008..... Silvie, did you say my wife looks like a “canine?” How harsh and utterly untrue. Typical WMAL listener emulating Mark Levin or Chris Plante; you don’t have all the facts, you attack those you disagree with, and then you state with authority a conclusion not supported by the facts out there. Wait a minute, that is the exact strategy George W. Bush used to get us into Iraq, isn’t it? See you at the WMAL Ball; I will be looking for the woman wearing a dishrag hanging around Chris Fogal, I mean Plante. (1/16/09) Idiot: Your wife can wear the most amazing gown from Valentino or Gaultier, and she'll still look like a canine. I, on the other hand, can wear a dishrag from Walmart and still look like a million bucks. Happy Inauguration Weekend! Love, -Silvie- (1/16/09) Dave, in the wake of the heroic rescue and miracle in New York yesterday, Mr Dolt King Steve Doocy per usual made a idiot of himself today with his crude remarks post interview with one of the survivors. Asking if he played the lottery yesterday after what took place. Maybe in his next book he will release a coloring book of his moronic statements with the coloring space to be his talking head buddies that don't know any better but to laugh along his stupid remarks. Damn and I thought that Kilmeade was a idiot.....Doocy is fast approaching his depths of being a idiot really fast. One other thing, the Obama network will still be Fox News.....it will be called all Obama bashing all the time for the next 4-8 years. Dan (1/16/09) The plane crash yesterday in NYC brought back the memories of coming home from work in January, 1982, to watch the tragedy of Air Florida, mostly on Channel 9 in DC. I will not forget watching the rescue of the few survivors left in the chilly Potomac and Gordon Petersen describing the horrific events that day. I am just so glad that the crash in NYC yesterday caused no fatalities. (1/16/09) Dave, just heard Lars Ulrich from Metallica drop the F-Bomb during playback of an interview from last night's show. You would think the jock would have the common sense to edit the interview before it airs. Jeez... Also, it was out of phase. Ugh!! (1/16/09) Dave's response: I'm told it aired on DC101 at about 12:30 PM..... Dave, information on services for NBC News veteran Mary Dorman, who passed away this week. Mary has asked that in lieu of flowers, donations can be made in her name to Salvation Army or Arlington Food Assistance Center. Thanks for posting..... Visitation: Friday, Jan. 16, 2-4 p.m. and 6-8 p.m., Murphy Funeral Home, 1102 W. Broad St., Falls Church, VA 22046, 703-533-0341..... Funeral Service, Saturday, Jan. 17, 10 a.m., Resurrection Lutheran Church, 6201 Washington Blvd, Arlington, VA 22205, 703-532-5991..... Followed by burial at Columbia Gardens Cemetery, 3411 Arlington Blvd. (at Glebe Road), Arlington, VA 22201, 703-527-1235..... (1/16/09) Not being a Stern fan, I was unfamiliar with the story about him and the Air Florida crash. Now that I know it, I really can't imagine why anyone would want to continue to listen to him. I remember the day of the crash very clearly; I listened to the coverage on WMAL, which had a great news staff. (1/16/09) At a college broadcasters convention in March of 1982 (that started the day John Belushi's body was found), Howard Stern was asked about both the Air Florida incident and the “rumors” he was leaving DC. He clarified that he did NOT ask how much a ticket was to the 14th Street Bridge, as the Washington Post reported, but he did ask if the 14th St. Bridge was to become a “regular stop.” He said about the rumors he was leaving DC that he couldn’t talk about it but nothing was set in stone. So at least by the first week in March Howard hadn’t signed with anyone else, but there were, as history now shows us, discussions. (1/16/09) FYI: Maybe not much of importance, but the AM 980 in southern VA got turned down by the FCC today for a power increase. Not a big deal really, but I'm sure Danny Snyder's lawyers were all over this I'd imagine since he's a power freak. But no worries, things are fine, WTEM 980 will continue to suck as usual. :-) (1/16/09) Hey Dave, On Saturday you reported that if Circuit City could not find a buyer then they would liquidate all their stores. But it was also reported that there were some motivated buyers, but the main objection was to find a buyer who would keep the company intact. The deadline to find a buyer was today, Friday, or they would liquidate. Was Circuit City able to find a buyer, or are they going to liquidate? Dan (1/16/09) Dave's response: Just got the blurb up. They're shuttering all their stores. Gee, I'll kinda miss all those "red-shirted" guys endlessly hawking those extended warrenties..... To the COMPLETE ASSHOLE who thinks that Howard stern did one of the "craziest,sickest and at the same time funniest thing's he's ever done" @ DC101 on january 13th 1982. 74 people lost their lives that day you FUCKING IDIOT...................... A.M.F from delamrva (1/16/09) Hey Dave. Talk about wishy washy. This guy can't make up his mind. He must read your website. "Rockefeller, who is chairman of the Senate Commerce Committe, which oversees the FCC, has been working on the bill for several days , with a June deadline in the 3-4 month time frame that had been expected." (1/16/09) In addition to firing the GSM of WZBA, the COO brain trust fired the Promotions Director last week for interviewing at another Shamrock property!!!(not sure if that station has any rating either) Oh yea, he fires everyone that is smarter than he!!! Keep playing Pink Floyd and Zeppelin ….God knows, Baltimore hasn’t heard them enough on WZBA. Someone needs to let him know Classic Rock goes back 30+ years and should include songs from the 80’s!!!!! Keep up the “good” work ZBA!!! Another one bites the dust!!! (1/16/09) I heard the same thing about the Red Zebra purchase in Roanoke --- perhaps we should not call them Dead Zebra! (1/16/09) Tom Soul...you old dog you!!! Saw your comment re: "Train" Could be "Train Wreck" Haven't done air work since "98"...lots of commercials, documentarys and Corporate imaging though. Did a brief Webshow...11 episodes back in 2006 "Read Street Rock and Roll". It was fun but time consuming. Think it will be a mix of "Rock and Talk" Cutting edge of a gumming evolution"....not sure yet. Still working on details of just what I want to do. Excited, but nervous. By the way, Dave (Hughes) Thanks for the "WAY WAY WAY BACK" LOL.......PLB:0) (1/16/09) (Laugh out loud all you want, pal, the joke's really on you.) I really think the joke is on you Mr. NBC. Look at the ratings and you will see Fox blows the other news networks away both broadcast and cable. You need to get your facts straight. Note on Howard Stern: He was fired by DC 101 after being told not to discuss being hired by WNBC on the DC 101 airwaves, which he did anyway. He was also on WAVA one morning shortly before he left for WNBC talking about his time in DC. (1/16/09) In an interview on Dan Steinberg's DC Sports Bog, Steve Czaban addresses criticism that local media outlets have been slow to embrace the rise of the Capitals and hesitant to expand their hockey coverage - in particular ESPN980's Sports Reporters (hosted by Czaban and Andy Pollin) which has been taking a beating on the team's official message boards. That show does seem to be paying a bit more attention of late, including an interview with Caps owner Ted Leonsis last Friday. As far as Pollin ripping fellow sports broadcasters like Chris Berman and Mike & Mike is concerned, I've always taken a dim view of that type of radio (smacks of petty jealousy). Perhaps he should devote more time to fact checking for his own program - baseball legend Rickey Henderson never said "the king is dead" after breaking Lou Brock's stolen base record back in '81 as Pollin accused him of doing. Apparently the end of the Redskins season means that John Riggins won't have a regular gig on that station until training camp opens in the summer, although I think he does a daily show on the Sirius NFL talk channel. The start of Fox's American Idol this week brings to mind the fact that last year and two years ago at this time, Tony Kornheiser returned to the radio airwaves (on Bonneville stations) after being on extended hiatus for Monday Night Football. Of course a hefty portion of his program was devoted to intensive Idol discussion and analysis, but fans of that overhyped singing competition will have to find a way to get through the season without it this time around. The link to that Czaban interview - washingtonpost.com..... Mike, Fairfax (1/16/09) Circuit City is closing all of their stores (money.cnn.com). It was the place I priced my first real stereo...and realized they were a total rip-off. I ended up buying elsewhere, as did, apparently, everybody else. Best Buy is next in line. (1/16/09) Actually THIS-TV or WBFF 45.2 is available via Comcast BASIC cable in fact, no need for digital cable, at least not here. The other channel they had was too. Now if only they can stop the picture from freezing or skipping during primetime, I'd be much happier! grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr (1/16/09) WBFF FOX 45.2 is now a THIS-TV affiliate, along with all other Sinclair stations I think according to the website. THIS-TV is old MGM movies mainly. From what I've read this is a strictly over the air 2nd Digital channel network and will be on the air in most major markets, well, ummm EXCEPT DC apparently as there is no Sinclair or Hearst owned station and no current deal in place yet that I know of. (1/16/09) The AIR FLORIDA / Howard Stern DC/101 thing..... I heard it on the air, if i remember correctly, Howard called the 1-800 AIR FLORIDA line and attempted to book a flight to the 14th Street Bridge or asked about flights there or something like that. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong but thats how I remember it. I was in high school at the time and my Mom hated the show and would turn it off often while driving to school. Geez, thats how LONG ago that was! haha I think Stern already had the NY gig lined up and didn't care so he just did the worst thing he could possibly do to get some time off before the move to NY. That's my theory at least. By the way, that was NOT in the Howard Stern movie even though its one of the craziest, sickest, and at same time funniest things he's ever done. Go figure. (1/16/09) You might wanna change that, Dave. Feb 17 to Jun 17 is a 4 month delay, not 3. (1/16/09) Dave's response: The working from straight from trade pub Broadcasting And Cable. Ha ha ha..... Ferret, you are absolutely wrong; Howard called up and asked if the 14th Street Bridge was to become a regular stop. This was in mid January. Howard was not "fired" from DC 101 until very late June, or early July, after he had already signed with NBC, only had a few weeks left on his DC 101 contract, and had already announced he was leaving for New York. (1/16/09) Dave's response: Yeah, Howard did come back to DC101 after the 14th Street Bridge incident..... Do you suppose that these reporters who wander around D.C asking people if they are cold make up their lines or are told what to say? I can't imagine a bigger moron than Armando Trull of channel 9 mumbling "its minus Siberia, its minus Siberia". Unwatchable. (1/16/09) Air Florida is also infamous locally for being the cause of Howard Stern's firing from DC101. I was living at Fort Belvoir at the time, and I was listening when he made that reference. 30 minutes later, he was off the air, and a week later he was in New York. -Ferret (1/16/09) Dave, I look forward to hearing Pauly Bicknell back on the local airwaves. I hear his voiceover work (PSA's, anyway) now and then, although I had never heard him play music. I remember him (using his given name) doing the overnight show at WBAL-AM years ago. It was a good show, but he had replaced a popular fellow and it took some time for him to jell. It was lively and entertaining. I'm thinking he'll return to a talk format. But what do I know? I've got my ear to the ground listening for an oncoming train like everybody else.-Tom Soul (1/16/09) Greemer pastures? Fox blows away the other networks on news (look at the ratings), seems the joke is on you. Sounds like maybe you have your head stuck in the sand. Fox News tells it like they wish it was - a slight difference. Even the folks who've left Fox for greener pastures admit the news there is slanted to the far right. Laugh out loud all you want, pal, the joke's really on you. (1/16/09) I heard the Red Zebra Roanoke purchase is off... (1/16/09) /\ January 16 Messages /\ \/ January 15 Messages \/ Official FCC press release announcing Martin's resignation--here it is.... hraunfoss.fcc.gov (1/15/09) The results of today's event were far better than the Air Florida crash. An amazing effort by the pilot and the ferrys on the Hudson. I remember the Air Florida event very well ( a metro crash on the same day)...hours before the birth of my first child. RD (1/15/09) It's a riot that anyone would want to write off 105.7 as a failure after a solitary book. All sports radio has never been about ratings, it's about sales. As crappy as 980 has been in the ratings since day one in 1992, they still turn a healthy profit. CBS hasn't spent squat on promoting "The Fan" beyond its own airwaves. Anyone remember when WCBM briefly went all sports 20 years ago? They spent zero on promoting the format, and made money, until the shady Ellek Seymour emptied the till and blew town. The numbers in book one carry no weight at all. (1/15/09) "Oh I get it,,you must not like Fox News, which tells it like it is. That is why I watch Fox..not MSNBC and their Obama/liberal slant." Well, you've got it almost right. Fox News tells it like they wish it was - a slight difference. Even the folks who've left Fox for greener pastures admit the news there is slanted to the far right. Laugh out loud all you want, pal, the joke's really on you. (1/15/09) Dave, the scenes from the Hudson River today are eerily reminiscent of the scenes almost exactly twenty-seven years ago, January 13, 1982 when an Air Florida jet clipped the 14th Street Bridge and crashed into the Potomac River. Thank God that today's accident was not nearly as bad as the crash that day, but it does have some similarities, including the time of year and the crash into water outside a major city. I wonder if anyone else has this strange feeling of "de'ja vu" as I do. (1/15/09) Dave's response: Man, was that Air Florida crash 27 years ago? Doesn't seem like that long ago..... Nope, sorry, anybody who can say "Fox News...tells it like it is. That is why I watch Fox..." has lost all credibility with me. Period. (1/15/09) The only thing more annoying than WTOP's yukking it up in the mornings are the moments when they pretend that they're journalists. Today's vomit-inducing performance comes from Mark Segraves, who tried to make his vain attempts to attend a breakfast members of the DC council attend once a month prior to their administrative meeting. WTOP reports virtually nothing from the actual meetings, by the way. And apparently nothing newsworthy happens at the breakfast either. But Segraves has decided that the fact that HE wants to have breakfast but was asked to leave by Vince Gray IS newsworthy. Mind you, he wasn't forced out of the meeting -- he was asked to leave, and did. Not the first time, either. Segraves put on his "serious journalist" voice when he said he and Colby King went to another of the breakfasts "several years ago" and when Linda Cropp asked them to go, "we left, but the pressure was on Cropp to make a change." Uh-huh. Could we have another fast-breaking story about the nightmarish blizzard that brought DC to its knees this morning, please? (1/15/09) Dave's response: My pet peeve these days are those AccuWeather forecasters on WMAL who feel the need to make reference to their (patented?) "Real Feel" temperatures at least three times in a 15-second weathercast. Sheesh..... To the post about FIOS. First that is BS that management has to VOMIT up bucks to have the building wired. I work on columbiapike for a management co. We had the building wired. We did not have to vomit up bucks. Maybe management did want the building wired.I no because i went with the contractor when they wired the building i work at. The contractor was from New York City. We did not have to vomit up bucks to get the building wired. (1/15/09) (RE: Okay Mr "is MSNBC going to change its name to Obama....." WE GET IT. You think MSNBC is pro Obama...maybe...) Oh I get it,,you must not like Fox News, which tells it like it is. That is why I watch Fox..not MSNBC and their Obama/liberal slant. Now look who is whining..lol (1/15/09) Dear Dave, I ran into Kirk downtown was we were both looking for the "Anti-Inauguration Ball”. I was so excited to hear Beck was going to be in town and supporting the personalities and political likings of WMAL. Who knew Beck would swing that way?? ANYWHO….Kirk and I walked around the block for a couple of hours with our eyes and ears wide open trying to find the Ball. Please to be including street addresses in your informative “Rants” so that those of us without a clue can find our way. I hated to miss Beck’s performance, but felt better with Kirk as my companion. His sense of humor is just delightful! DELIGHFUL!! -skimmell (1/15/09) As Inauguration Day nears..the question remains, Will NBC name themselves the Obama network, or call themselves "the official network of President Obama"? (1/15/09) Dave's response: There will be a ceremony on Tuesday afternoon for the transfer of "The Official Presidential PR Channel" status from Fox News to MSNBC..... Moss is the ever-I-am-great and over-excited guy on that WTOP morning team. Lisa is Lisa and she's fine. No Moss! No Moss! As for FIOS, the service is actually OK. But don't call Customer Service "Customer Service" because it is not. Verizon should be ashamed and embarrassed for the kind of so-called customer service offered for FIOS. Call one day and ask a question and get an answer. Call the next day, ask the same question to a different person and, yes, get a very different answer. (1/15/09) From the Chambersburg (PA) "Public Opinion" newspaper: "WJAL Family TV indicated that its staff is trying to reroute its broadcast as soon as possible." No other details. www.publicopiniononline.com (1/15/09) The old saying that famous people die in groups of three apparently is also true for radio stations: WJZ (WHFS), WCHH (WSMJ), and WZBA. After careful consideration, the CBS Baltimore brain trust figured out a way to drop 105.7's numbers even lower, while @ the same time eating hundreds of thousands of dollars in K&M salary. Clear Channel got rid of that pesky, older, predominately Afro American audience and replaced them with 2 (maybe 3) 19 year-olds from Glen Burnie who enjoy the same 20 alternative songs over and over and over again while ignoring the out-of-town morning show. The Wyle E Coyote Super Genius award goes to WZBA for putting on the PREVIOUSLY FAILED out-of-town Bob & Tom Snore. The last time around for B&T @ 104.3, the company that OWNS THE SHOW (CC) had enough sense to remove it from THEIR OWN STATION. Maybe, after WZBA's management gets a badly needed brain transplant, they'll ask The Globe (say pretty please) if they can have Emery back. Terrance L Young (1/15/09) Newschannel 8 has a ''Talk Live'' show at Noon. Why? Today's topic was ''Bringing back Bling'' OK. Maybe now isn't exactly the best time to show diamonds and how much FUN FUN FUN all the lucky few will be having during the wild and CRAZY Inaguration week. Pretty sure a few families living just a few blocks away are trying to figure out how to feed their kids tonight. For Dave and ALL the Star Trek nerds: ''Ive done more than kill you. I've hurt you. And now I'll leave you as you left me.........buried alive........buried alive!'' DAMN good! RIP Khan! Paul (1/15/09) Dave, I like going to your website to get information on the TV and Radio business in the DC area. I realize that your "Rants" are your opinion, but they should be based on facts. Where did you get the scoop that WMAL is having an "Anti-Inauguration Ball?" I haven't seen it anywhere but your rant, and I doubt if it's true. Was it something you just made up, or did someone send you the story--if the latter, I think you've been bamboozled. As I said, I realize your Rant is your opinion, but it's unfortunate that you have probably deceived your readers. It also adds to your continuing effort to denigrate WMAL, which may be your whole point. But I really thought you put factual information out there. I could see something like this occurring on the Left by Air America, if the tables were turned, but Conservatives are usually more reserved and not the protesting type. If the story is not true, you should print a retraction, but I won't hold my breath. Kirk (1/15/09) Dave's response: Wow..... To the poster who said "I am in a little 5 unit apartment building. I get fliers in my bill saying "Sign up for FIOS" When I go on Verizon.com to try to order FIOS the website says it's not available. When I enter the address for the house directly across from me and the house next to me, they are wired for it. I've talked to Verizon techs doing service calls in the area and they say I should be able to get FIOS. Calling the 800 customer service number does nothing; they're well meaning but ineffective. My hope is this: does someone know a contact person in Verizon, preferably a Regional Manager or the equivalent, that oversees Arlington and can get through the BS and help me with this?" here's the two-fold bummer: First, it's up to the management of your little 5-unit appartment to vomit up the bucks to a contractor to get your building wired. Second, I thought COMPOST's customer service was bad... until I got FIOS. Last night I waited an hour and 15 minutes for tech support before I just hung up. I live in Arlingtron off Columbia Pike, just a few blocks West of you. The cable was in the ground almost 2 years ago; the building got FIOS 2 months ago. BTW, the FIOS internet does NOT live up to it's speed boasts. It's barely better than their DSL. Grumble grumble grumble. Frank in Arlington (1/15/09) Wow! It's so funny about the Middletown radio station. They started to be really good about three years ago and then they just brought back the old deejays who made it suck before and now the paper says their ratings are at the bottom of all the Frederick stations and that nobody is listening to them. Whenever you call WFRE the people are much nicer and at events when they are at stores, the WKEY people are very rude. When my friend and I picked up a prize at their barn office there was a real tall old man with white hair and he was really mean to us. We told all our friends and now we all listen to WFRE instead. I guess that happened to a lot of other people too! (1/15/09) In the vote for WTOP drama queen - it's a tie. The roads may have been challenging this morning, but good grief, it wasn't the end of the world! And if it was, then why tell us about what may happen inauguration day right out of the CBS hourly? What most people really cared about this morning who were on their commute was - THE COMMUTE! (1/15/09) I had read about News Channel 8 starting a noon talk show and today was my first time (by accident as I was flipping through the channels) seeing it..My question is why in the world was Doug McElway selected to co-host this fluff of a show?..Does this mean he will no longer do the noon news on WJLA?..And the other co-host Natasha Barret just talked over everyone.. (1/15/09) Interesting to see WTOP making the plea to Inauguration attendees to bring the radio. Making the statement that cell phones may be jammed is risky business considering that one of the biggest advertising categories for WTOP is cell phones. Can you here me now! (1/15/09) I remember WWDC 101 when they didn’t play Bush songs. Now it seems that they play a song from Bush’s 4 song library once an hour every freakin hour of every freakin day. Maybe after the Inauguration CC will mandate more of White Stripe’s “Seven Nation Army”…oh wait…they play that song every hour on the hour too. (1/15/09) (Gee, when there is the first hint of a snow flake in the air I have a tough time deciding who is the bigger breathless drama-queen in the morning -- Mike Moss or Lisa Baden.) My vote goes to Mike Moss. Although a very knowledgeable sounding announcer, he seems to be very wrapped up in his own dramatics. (1/15/09) Re: "Assuming WHAG hasn't max'd out its subchannels, WJAL could lease a subchannel on their digital transmitter, adjust the PSIP data to show the proper channel number, and WJAL would be back on the air with minimal disruption to their OTA viewers." This is already happening in Little Rock, Arkansas. The ABC affiliate was knocked off the air due to a tower collapse last January. That station (KATV) is being carried on a digital subchannel of the market's MyNetwork TV affiliate (KWBF) - which is owned by a different company. (1/15/09) Hear hear: "Gee, when there is the first hint of a snow flake in the air I have a tough time deciding who is the bigger breathless drama-queen in the morning -- Mike Moss or Lisa Baden." I would add Doug Hill to that list. This morning the All Disaster Weather Crew were falling all over themselves about the terrifying conditions....and towards the end of each apocalyptic bulletin they'd mention that none of the bad weather was actually in the DC area. Jaggoffs. (1/15/09) From the January 13th post: “Is Tom Grooms on Oldies WJZW overnights a former WHFS jock from long ago and far away?” It is the same Tom Grooms. Tom also happens to be one of the coolest, and one of the most unpretentious, guys in the business! Tom’s bio from WJZJ is at: www.trueoldies1059.com. Tom also handles Public Affairs duties there: www.trueoldies1059.com. -- Joe Lehan (1/15/09) I’m happy to report that XM/Sirius has replaced the AC/DC channel on Channel 53 with a blast from the recent past – Boneyard. It’s nice to hear it back with all the old station ID’s and everything – I’d forgotten how much I missed it. I agree with a poster from the other somewhat about these “one-artist-only” channels (AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Springsteen). I DO like them for a month or so, but there’s no reason to continue them longer than that. How many times can you actually listen to “Back in Black”? Although I guess I listened to it over and over during my teenage years… So what’s next to come back…Lucy? Please? BWG – Chantilly (1/15/09) The WJAL fire leads me to think of a way DTV (that which everyone seems to love to hate) can provide a service that wasn't possible before... all parties would have to be agreeable to the idea, though... Assuming WHAG hasn't max'd out its subchannels, WJAL could lease a subchannel on their digital transmitter, adjust the PSIP data to show the proper channel number, and WJAL would be back on the air with minimal disruption to their OTA viewers. (1/15/09) Gee, when there is the first hint of a snow flake in the air I have a tough time deciding who is the bigger breathless drama-queen in the morning -- Mike Moss or Lisa Baden. (1/15/09) Looks like residents in the 4-state area (and DC if you have Dish Network) are going to have to look elsewhere for third-rate syndicated and paid programming as WJAL-TV in the Hagerstown/Chambersburg area is now off the air due to a transmitter fire. Details on the WHAG-TV website. MLB4 (1/15/09) Lefty Radio Talkers To Celebrate Obama Inaug - A "house band," the Capitol Hillbillies, will perform, and "surprise guests" are expected. I have it on good authority Marx, Lenin, Trotsky, & Mao are some of the surprise guests expected. (1/15/09) (RE the Anti-Inaugural Ball in yesterday's Rant) Which Tuxedo will Fred wear, White, or Black? And the big question is, "who is going to be on the No Fairness Doctrine float?" (1/15/09) Dave's response: Could Andy Parks this morning have sounded any more disinterested in Fred's rememberances of the passing of his old Hollywood buddy Richardo Montalban? And why no mention of Montalban playing "Khan" in "Star Trek II." The line: "Revenge is a dish best served cold." Bad acting sooooo good..... WMAL’s Inaugural Ball with Fred, Andy, Chris, Rush, Sean, and Mark? Wow, The misinformation disseminated that night will be incredible. Silvie, please tell us what you will be wearing so my wife doesn't don the same gown. Will Chris Plante replay his interview with Sarah Palin so we can all blame him for securing Virginia for Obama? Chris should stand up and apologize to his conservative brethren for not dumping during a live interview the STUPIDEST THING EVER SAID BY A MODERN CANDIDATE. Perhaps G&A can put together a Joe Biden Montage as part of the entertainment. Who will be Sean Hannity’s date for the evening, Dick Morris or Ollie North? Remember, when you are introduced to Sean Hannity, you must first say that he is “a great American.” I just have to go…Rush should sing “Obama the magic Negro” one last time. Since Imus is on their sister station, he could come and bring Gwen Ifill…ah, scratch that…Will Austin Hill be flying in from Arizona to be there? Perhaps that “American Company” Shell Oil could sponsor his trip. What about Curtis? It will be a great time to introduce him to the dozens that are in the WMAL loyal listeners’ club. Other than having a complete blathering meltdown, what will Mark Levin’s role in all this be? Door prizes could be “pajama Grams,” “coffee systems, and massagers. My wife, me, Silvie, and the WMAL gang all together. Can you say “FUN!” Dave, you are a great American, and we will see you at the WMAL Ball.. (1/15/09) I've got it on very very VERY good authority that Jeffro is not moving to mornings on MZQ. Word is he's superhappy in PM drive. (1/15/09) "WWDC FM 101.1 How many remember when this station broadcast, easy listening music for an drug store all day??" I don't remember that, but I do remember when they broadcast to receivers in Capital Transit buses. (before DC Transit, before Metrobus) I'd guess it was around 1950. The receivers had a relay to increase the volume when commercials were broadcast. I still have one of the receivers - much modified - about to go to the dump. TransitRadio was soon regulated out of existence. (1/15/09) /\ January 15 Messages /\ \/ January 14 Messages \/ Mr. Moore… There’s a really good reason O’Malley doesn’t care about a film (or other “small”) industry in Maryland: He doesn’t have to! He did what he wanted to do. That was to beat Bob Ehrlich. Now, he doesn’t have to care about anything. And, he knows that he’ll get re-elected, too. Why? Barring a national catastrophe of a “God forbid” nature, Democrats are beginning a national dynasty of power longevity not even FDR would’ve dreamed of! (For all they bashed Bush, he’s singularly responsible for the Democrat election successes the last several years. Yet, they’ve never thanked him!) Also, because (as you correctly stated) this is a region, in these cash-strapped times, no one jurisdiction is going to do anything that could help another. In terms of film subsidies, my favorite was what Virginia did for “Doc Hollywood” a number of years ago. Although set in South Carolina, I understand it was shot in Virginia because VA simply offered a better incentive package than SC! (1/14/09) I suspect the use of Brian Bolter was just a nod to the fact that "24" is now set in Washington, D.C. If the show setting had been moved to New York, an anchor from Fox's NY station would likely have been seen instead. Everett W. (1/14/09) WWDC FM 101.1 How many remember when this station broadcast, easy listening music for an drug store all day?? Apparently at one time the station duplicated the AM station for awhile. rob (1/14/09) Scott Broom should feel cheated out of his title. Everyone on Channel 9 tonight was introduced as a "digital correspondent." What's it take, being able to count from 0 to 1 ? (1/14/09) Could the Inaugural Gala performers be practicing at the Japanese Embassy? www.youtube.com (1/14/09) Watched "24" on Sunday, but somehow missed Brian Bolter's appearance..Wonder who and how the decision was made to select him..I personally think he's kinda cocky and this will only add to his big head. (1/14/09) O'Meara did a nice interview with legend Wash sportscaster George Michael this afternoon. Through all the Redskin years, I always thought Michael was more show and corporate shill than sports substance, but listening to Michael's opinions on the present-tense NFL this afternoon, I wonder that I underestimated him. As always happens, I already miss him and his show. (1/14/09) Are you serious about that WMAL 'Anti-Inaugural Ball'? -I am so there!!! It would be great being in DC (locked down police city-state as of Jan. 20, 09) at some other; NON 'Inaguration/Blessing/Coronation of 'da messiah' (aka Obama) Come Jan. 21, 09... -HA! on all yous! I'm cleaning out my cubicle @ Langley and heading to Miami :-) -R. Dunn (1/14/09) Dave this a bit unusual but I hope someone in DCRTVland can help. I'm in Arlington, off Columbia Pike near Ft. Myer. I have Verizon for phone and internet. I am trying to get FIOS before the DTV fiasco. I refuse to deal with Comcast out of principle so they aren't an option. I am in a little 5 unit apartment building. I get fliers in my bill saying "Sign up for FIOS" When I go on Verizon.com to try to order FIOS the website says it's not available. When I enter the address for the house directly across from me and the house next to me, they are wired for it. I've talked to Verizon techs doing service calls in the area and they say I should be able to get FIOS. Calling the 800 customer service number does nothing; they're well meaning but ineffective. My hope is this: does someone know a contact person in Verizon, preferably a Regional Manager or the equivalent, that oversees Arlington and can get through the BS and help me with this? They have a customer that is wanting to give them more money for an additional service (and is getting pissed because I keep getting the fliers in my bill to try it but they won't let me order it) but needs help getting this done. Any help from someone at Verizon would be GREATLY appreciated. Contact me at nogoodnameisleft@gmail.com (1/14/09) Seems there is nothing important going on in the world today, so CNN sent a reporter "into the field" to cover an Ice Sculpture. Ed Graham (1/14/09) Note to self: Spellcheck is your friend. Howie (1/14/09) did you see this? wizards giving post-election wapo to everyone who shows up at their game on friday night? washingtonpost.com (1/14/09) "WJZ-AM gets the heck beat out of 'em by Washington stations, yet WBAL & WCBM is in a battle towards the top of the ratings. You have WJZ-TV 13 & WJZ-AM 1300, do they need a clearer sign to either switch 1300 to all News or News & Talk mix?" WJZ-AM is a 5000 watt AM station. The other two have been the dominant AM stations in the market for a generation. Nothing will make WJZ-AM a factor in this market. ESPN radio is easy to carry. I personally whould love to see all-news (please, not another right wing rant atation, though), but I doubt it will happen. "Then you have WJZ-FM which I question whether was that format flip to sports worth it?" Time will tell or that one, but because it's an FM station 105.7 should be one of the survivors of the sports radio wars. Maybe they should flip WJZ-AM and FM to all-news. Howie (1/14/09) I was very sorry to learn this morning of the passing of Mary Dorman. Mary was my very first boss at NBC News many years ago. She was a terrific teacher, mentor and friend. My thoughts go out to her family, especially her daughter Katie. Very sad news. (1/14/09) According to Editor & Publisher the Wash Post and the Chicago Tribune are planning to have afternoon extra editions next Tuesday. www.editorandpublisher.com (1/14/09) From Inside Radio: President Bush thanks Rush. Listeners were told Rush Limbaugh had been called to Washington for a "super secret meeting" yesterday. It turns out he traveled to the White House for lunch with President Bush as part of the outgoing leader’s way of saying “thank you” to some of his staunchest supporters (1/14/09) Cynee' Simpson AND Pamela Brown at the same anchor desk??? You must be the news director at a rival station for suggesting that. I've NEVER seen 2 anchors less qualified to anchor ANYTHING. Paul (1/14/09) I love the picture that accompanies the Post article about Congress f^(#ing up the DTV transition. Imagine the carnage if people actually missed an episode of "Judge Jerkoff" or one of the 237,895 copycat shows that pollute the airwaves. What really needs to happen is that stations in a situation like WNVC--being kept off the air waiting for the DTV transition as promised for years now--should file suit if there is any delay in the transition. (1/14/09) Dave's response: Hey, WNVC probably gets more viewers now than ever with its half-dozen MHz channels on digital cable throughout the DC area. And there's no power bill for the UHF broadcast signal..... WJZ-AM gets the heck beat out of 'em by Washington stations, yet WBAL & WCBM is in a battle towards the top of the ratings. You have WJZ-TV 13 & WJZ-AM 1300, do they need a clearer sign to either switch 1300 to all News or News & Talk mix? They can cross brand it with WJZ-TV & the ratings would probably at least double if not more in no time at all. They slug it out with WBAL for TV ratings, but BAL at least gives a radio source for news & traffic with the Traffic being the most reliable of any on in Baltimore radio. It shows just how stupid CBS really is. I think it's safe to say the Jack is starting to die off too, their music selections seem very narrowed compared to where it once was and is mostly a select group of songs, especially in the Morning & Afternoon, and there being no true morning show or DJ's is starting to get very stale. I like the music variety of the Jack format but when it's mostly certain songs that to me aren't very good to begin with & mix it in with no Morning Show or DJ's it makes me want to change the dial fast. I can't picture 102.7 getting better with CC taking over either. Then you have WJZ-FM which I question whether was that format flip to sports worth it? The ratings still stink if not even more, and now they're just going into the old WJFK-AM territory. All Norris talks about is crime in Baltimore & Sports, no fun or different topics to go with those it seems. Then again maybe it's just the time I tune in. (1/14/09) from a previous post "....Maryland is BY FAR one of the WORST of the 50 states when it comes to film incentives.." Ah I don't know about that. Some states are known to actually turn down the filming of movies there over very silly reasons. Alabama for example doesn't allow the filming of movies that are not family friendly so if John Waters wanted to do a movie there ( like "A Dirty Shame" ) , hey no problem in Baltimore but he could be arrested if he would have filmed some of those scenes say in Birmingham, Alabama. Until recently to make a movie in Colorado, it either had to be shot in the Rocky Mountains or in/around Denver. Forget Colorado Springs or Fort Collins if you want those incentives. Correct me if I am wrong but I believe the city of Indianapolis is a bit "weird" when it comes to movie making which dates back to the old sitcom "One Day at a Time". The sitcom was to showcase the city and teach people that there is more to Indianapolis than just sports ( so I have been told ). Instead other than the opening credits to the sitcom ( and that was during the show's later years ) very very little of Indianapolis was mentioned much less shown so that city was screwed there. Maryland may not have the best incentives but hey at least the free state doesn't say "..OMG...I see the word "fuck" in the script..you can't film here !!" (1/14/09) OMG, Brian Bolter is such a super star! With all his credentials, he definitely deserves to have a star on his own Port-a-Pod! I'd dump in it. (1/14/09) A Trip Through the Ravens Season www.mightyfineaudio.com (1/14/09) Bah ! Don't need no stinking moviemakers in Maryland. They come in, make a mess, are rude to the locals and split. Any scenes shot then give out-of-town developers a hard on, they rip off the locals, plow under the trees, put up a crappy housing complex and split. Keep the place a secret. Traffic is bad enough. (1/14/09) Anyone catch Fox 5's Brian Bolter on the new "24" episodes? From the Post's Reliable Source: "Fox 5 anchor Brian Bolter, making a cameo in Sunday's '24' season premiere, playing -- what else? -- a TV news anchor announcing the big new plot development (spoiler alert!): a near-collision of two jetliners. Bolter will be back on the show in a few weeks." (1/14/09) The Pea Brain at WZBA also fired his General Sales Manager recently. Before this lady began her tenure, the only ads you would hear on The Bay were for businesses in Westminster and Hanover, exclusively. For the last two years, it’s sounded like a real radio station. (1/14/09) "If it is cold be sure to dress warmly and in several layers of clothing". I've said it before: One of these days, they're going to start printing instructions on toilet paper. (1/14/09) Fellow Artists: It saddens me to tell you that our film industry is slowly fading away in the State of Maryland. Maryland is BY FAR one of the WORST of the 50 states when it comes to film incentives. With states becoming more and more competitive on the subject of film incentives, Maryland continues to do NOTHING to help keep actors, crew, and key production staff here working in Maryland, paying taxes in Maryland, and living in Maryland. Those of you on this listserv who live in Virginia and Washington, DC, congratulations, but when Maryland fails, you do too! It means less work for you too in the area. Unlike California or say, Michigan, Maryland/DC/Virginia truly is a region. When one part of the region suffers, everyone suffers, when the region is thriving everyone is thriving. I am writing this email to tell you the reason that Maryland has such poor film incentives and is essentially watching an industry die: Governor Martin O'Malley. Not legislators, not pundits. Governor Martin O'Malley. Let's be very clear on this point. Governor Martin O'Malley is allowing an industry to die out... and he doesn't seem to care about it. You cannot blame anyone but Governor Martin O'Malley because for there to be a program for film incentives, the Governor has to put it in the budget.... even if it doesn't cost any money! This governor refuses to act. We thus ask you to act in his stead. Governor O'Malley still holds a grudge from when the TV show "The Wire" was filmed in Baltimore and O'Malley believed a character on the show, supposed to be resembling him, portrayed O'Malley in a bad light. Because of this, O'Malley refuses to make helping the film industry a priority. Maryland, it is true, is currently facing a fiscal crisis. Yet, this is EXACTLY the time to be HELPING the film industry. It can be done WITHOUT COMING UP WITH ADDITIONAL FUNDS. Let me explain: If you offer, like Michigan does, a 40% tax credit on films, you have the films save up their receipts of WHATEVER they spend on the film.... they get 40% of that money back. 100% of Zero is Zero. If the film doesn't come to town, Maryland makes NO money off of the film, but if it does come to town, the state simply gives back 40%. It is refundable, not money we have to come up with from taxes or another funding source. IT FUNDS ITSELF!! The option is give 40% back or Zero. Which would you rather have? Don't allow Governor O'Malley to pass the buck on this. If the industry dies, it dies on his watch and it is his responsibility. We ask you to take a stand for your jobs, your careers, and the jobs and careers of your friends in the film and music business who benefit when films come to Maryland. Plenty of top legislators in Annapolis and elsewhere support film incentives so we are not alone. But the industry needs out help. Friends include: Del. Jon Cardin, Del. Dan Morhaim, Del. Nat Oaks, Del. Carolyn Krysiak, Baltimore City Council President Stephanie Rawlings Blake, and many, many others. Please call Governor O'Malley's office today to demand that he stop delaying and start acting like a Governor. 100% of Zero is Zero. Let's work to save our industry. Let's give the Governor a chance to be a hero to our industry and not its outcast. PLEASE CALL THIS NUMBER NOW AND DON'T WAIT. DONT STOP TILL YOU HAVE SPOKEN TO A LIVE PERSON AND EXPRESSED YOUR VIEWS. (410) 974-3901 PLEASE CALL THIS NUMBER AS SOON AS YOU READ THIS. THEN COPY-PASTE THIS POSTING INTO AN EMAIL TO FIVE OF YOUR FRIENDS TO HELP GET THE WORD OUT. WE NEED YOU TO TAKE THIS ACTION OR NO ONE ELSE WILL. OUR FRIENDS LIVELIHOOD'S LITERALLY DEPEND ON WHAT YOU DO. Tell your state representatives and especially ANYONE you know if the Washington, DC or Maryland media. GET THE MEDIA INTERESTED AND ASKING O'MALLEY ABOUT THIS. PLEASE TAKE THIS SERIOUSLY. OUR INDUSTRY IS DYING BEFORE OUR EYES. IT IS UP TO YOU TO SAVE IT. Tom Moore, AFTRA member, tommooreradio@yahoo.com, Radio Host, Musician, Actor, Baltimore, MD (1/14/09) /\ January 14 Messages /\ \/ January 13 Messages \/ Wow! It looks like we were right about Bob & Tom in Baltimore! 100.7 The Bay drops to a 1.6 - their lowest rating that I can think of since the changed to classic rock. Good job, boys. By going on the cheap with a second tier morning show, you just let your station get beat by the religious stations, DC stations, and both 98 Rock & Jack-FM creamed you. Who is the pea-brain in charge over there and how are heads not rolling?!? -SJ (1/13/09) (Now to get away from WMAL Chris Plante’s bull hockey; on March 7, 2003, IAEA chief Mohamed El-Baradei reported there was “no evidence that Saddam Hussein had any nuclear weapons or was in the process of acquiring them.”) just the fact you quoted this idiot costs you any credibility you might hope to scrape together. (1/13/09) I used to get bothered by WMAL's fabrication of political facts by Plante, Limbaugh, etc. But now that their ratings are near the bottom of the Radio & Records birdcage they are irrelevant, a demographic target set aside for advertisers selling grave plots and solutions for a leaky roof. And how ironic is it that they're currently tied for 17th with a Spanish-language station, whose minority listeners are targeted daily by the likes of Grandy, Andy, Plante et al. Reality bites! ACH (1/13/09) I see Bruce johnson was back on the weekend newscast last Saturday and sunday. maybe with channel 9 dropping it's early morn newscasts on weekends they'll run the old Star Trek's. I discovered a few weeks ago that channel 9 has finally wrestled away from channel 20 the old Star Trek and runs it Sunday mornings say 4 amish.. For all you Barbara Harrison dislikers is Kimberly suitors going to be her replacement? And channel 7 how about a weekend anchor line up of Cynee' Simpson and Pamela Brown! Ms. Simpson sure has moved up rapidly in terms of on air appearances. Not a bad thing imo considering she is quite good and to use the olde cliche easy on the eyes. Is Tom Grooms on Oldies WJZW overnights a former WHFS jock from long ago and far away? When ,okay if, Sirius crashes and burns will HD radio also disappear. I noticed a nice looking radio at Best Bye for $99 bucks recently but is it worth buying at this point? (1/13/09) Dave's response: I have my Comcast DVR set up to record "Star Trek" and it has picked up several of those 4 AM Channel 9 airings..... From the Obvious Information Department as reported by WTOP, Your Inauguration Station. "If it is cold be sure to dress warmly and in several layers of clothing" Listen long enough and you will hear other idiotic suggestions. (1/13/09) Dave's response: Damn, you mean I can't wear my camo cutoffs? Dave, On second thought, maybe the "prostitute" poster is confusing Ana Marie Cox (Wonkette) with "Washingtonienne", the government worker/hooker Ana Marie wrote about incessantly several years ago. Or maybe the poster was just posting something stupid and I've wasted way too much time trying to figure it out. Howie (1/13/09) Dave, Saw your mention of Obama’s next FCC chairman and wanted to pass along our statement, just so you have it. He’s been an active member of our board of directors for the past 4 years.... Statement from Tom Gardner, CEO of The Motley Fool, on the nomination of Fool Board member Julius Genachowski to be the next chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. “As a member of our exceptional and expanding board of directors, Julius has been instrumental in guiding The Motley Fool’s overall business—and specifically our interactive media initiatives. Having worked closely with him over the past four years, we have seen first-hand the intelligence, integrity and judgment that led President-elect Obama to choose him for this important position. On behalf of The Motley Fool’s community of investors, we wish Julius the best. We’re sure his tenure at the FCC will be marked by strong leadership and innovative decisions for a nation that has come to a critical crossroads between old and new communications technology. Now that we’ve got an open seat on our board, we’ll be looking for someone with the same kind of passion and smarts that Julius brought to our mission to build the world’s greatest investment community.” Mr. Genachowski has been a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors since 2005. Cheers, Chris Hill, Director, Media & Communications, The Motley Fool (1/13/09) Chris Plante this morning said there is no evidence that shows President Bush knew there were no WMD’s in Iraq, and that other countries suspected WMD’s in Iraq as well. Now to get away from WMAL Chris Plante’s bull hockey; on March 7, 2003, IAEA chief Mohamed El-Baradei reported there was “no evidence that Saddam Hussein had any nuclear weapons or was in the process of acquiring them.” The president was made aware of this. Hans Blix, chief U.N. weapon’s inspector: In Jan. 2003, Blix told the U.N. Security Council that his inspection teams had not found any “smoking guns” after visiting some 125 Iraqi sites. He wrote the president personally Condi Rice told him “it didn’t matter.” What about the CIA dismissing “curveball’s” claims before the invasion began, Chris? The White House’s own claims of chem-labs were disproven days before the invasion. Remember the Downing Street Memo, Chris? It certainly allows us to see the administrations doubts and obstacles? Scott McClellan wrote in his memoir that President Bush relied on an aggressive "political propaganda campaign" instead of the truth to sell the Iraq war, and that the decision to invade pushed Bush's presidency "terribly off course.” How about Scott Ritter? What about Doug Feith’s own admission that he made things up to balance out the reports. And speaking of Douglas Feith, in February 2007, the Pentagon's Inspector General concluded that the Office of Special Plans under Feith had "developed, produced, and then disseminated alternative intelligence assessments on the Iraq and al Qaeda relationship...(that were inconsistent with the consensus of the Intelligence Community), to senior decision-makers" and that Feith's intelligence briefings to the President presented "conclusions that were not fully supported by the available intelligence." I am not even getting into Scooter Libby, here. So, Mr. misinformation-Plante on WMAL, is the president an incompetent boob that believes people unconditionally when they lie to him on what he wants to hear (and ignores and discredits those that disagree with him), or was the President part of a “massive propaganda” campaign that many former insiders (and Republicans) have claimed? Chris Plante is the one on WMAL that let Sarah Palin say the press was violating her first Amendment rights. After that screw up, Chris went on the air to claim Obama was curtailing the press’ First Amendment rights. Now if Chris will lie/distort/fabricate this much for a Republican President let us see what idiotic lies he spreads during the upcoming Obama administration. (1/13/09) The accused in this story is a DC based freelance stats person for CBS and Fox sports. It is true i saw it happen and there is more abuse than what is in this. Subject: Free Federal Ride For Fox Sports - January 12, 2008 www.thesmokinggun.com (1/13/09) Jim in press release mode writes: "Brian Billick has become one of the best analysts in the NFL...and is cheering for his home team to go all the way." Riiiiight, your best analysts always root hard for their home teams! BTW, neither the Jets nor any team has expressed much interest in Billick as a coach, despite all his campaigning for the post. And, seriously, was there any news in this newspaper story ? (1/13/09) That Rob Long should leave 1570 for 1370 says a lot about what Nestor pays his hosts at WNST - next to nothing. Anyone who's ever dealt with Pettit/Mangione knows how little they pay, so 'NSTers must be getting by on roughly minimum wage. I'm guessing Drew Forrester would offer to perform unnatural acts to land a slot at 105.7, but hey, he's so one-dimensional in his sports knowledge - and so anti-Orioles - that the chances of his landing anything at the O's flagship are slim and zero. And I doubt that Jim Williams would know a "strong lineup" if it bit him on the bottom. Does he wear a cheerleader's outfit when he writes? (1/13/09) Despite the fact that I find Ann Coulter's "politics" to be fascist (at best), I think talking about her this way is over the line. After all, she's been dead for some time....or at least that's the way she looked the last time I saw her. (1/13/09) Ann Coulter IS a tranny. Ask Sean Hannity. She is HUNG! Paul (1/13/09) I'm guessing that the poster with the "prostitute" comment was referring to Ana Marie's obsession with a certain sex practice when blogging at Wonkette. Since she was at Razor.com for about a minute and a half before it went bankrupt and she landed at Daily Beast, I suspect that this may finally be the hire that leads to AirAmerica shutting its doors forever. Howie (1/13/09) Re: "You're speaking figuratively about Ana Marie Cox, right?" I'd assume they are. But if one could bid on just one night with her, I hope someone lets us know...so I have enough time to get to DC! (1/13/09) (Dave says) I find the Globe so frustrating that I can't listen any longer (Dave stops). Funny you should mention this. This morning I button-punched between the Globe and Big 100. I don't know what the processing preferences are behind the scenes, but where the Globe's stereo image read like a dense clunky 70s-era FM, Big 100 wrapped around the room with a wide image, brought in a lot of top-end sparkle and just had a real contemporary sound. Before anybody else chews up these two stations for their music choices (which, admittedly, suck anyway), give an objective listen to the signal itself. Pick one that works for you. (1/13/09) Dave's response: I did the same thing the other day with the same song (Pink, I think it was) playing on Hot 99.5 and Mix 107.3, and the latter sounded like mucky shit in comparison..... Fox announced Major's promotion on air today. The whole crew congratulated him and made a big deal out of it. (1/13/09) Ana Marie Cox is no more a prostitute than Anne Coulter is a tranny, although Ana Marie Cox would be a great porn name. (1/13/09) Hey, congratulations to Cerphe for landing the inaugural ball gig....but what the HELL is with his station, WTGB? I've never heard such a sterile, unfriendly Rock station in my life! The last few times I've tuned in I've heard them end songs cold, then stiffly read a one phrase statement about the next one ("Pat Benatar had a good year in 1981" and then a cold start to the next record. WTF?!? And if you can't find your copy of "Hit Me With Your Best Shot," be sure to tune in. They play it constantly. When is WTGB's format change coming? The sooner the better. A total face lift is called for. (1/13/09) Dave's response: I find the Globe so frustrating that I can't listen any longer. I'd love to see a resurrected progressive rock/AAA WHFS. But if we can't have that, I like to see the Globe do an 80s/90s based pop-oriented classic rock format, with lots of U2, REM, Bowie, the Clash, the Jam, Elvis Costello, Talking Heads, the Cure. And drop the AC/DC stuff. DC is not a "hard rock" market. Never was. Hell, CBS would have better luck ratings-wise simply relaying Baltimore's Jack-FM on 94.7..... Dave, Brian Billick has become one of the best analysts in the NFL working with both FOX and the NFL Network. He is a guy on the rise in the broadcasting business. This week as his former team the Ravens get ready to play the Steelers in the AFC Championship he has no hard feelings and is cheering for "his home team to go all the way." Coach B talks about his life as a broadcaster. www.dcexaminer.com... As for Rob Long the new Fox Sports Radio line up 1370AM will be Steve Czaban with the First Team on Fox from 6am to 9am (that way people all along the I-95 area can here Steve and the gang. Then will come Rob Long from 9am to noon. From noon till 3pm it will be Jim Rome and then Jerry Coleman will hold down the drive time shift from 3pm to 7pm. That is a strong line up for the FSR Baltimore outlet. Cheers, Jim (1/13/09) Does Air America maintain a studio facility here in DC? Do they share a facility with anyone? Or will Ana Marie Cox broadcast from her dining room with a green-screen like a bazillion other webcast "correspondents"? (1/13/09) First they hire comedians and psychopaths. Then they hire one of the worst managers in radio. Now, to further confirm that Air America is just somebody's protracted idea of a sick joke vexing liberals, they hire a prostitute. (1/13/09) Dave's response: You're speaking figuratively about Ana Marie Cox, right? Hey Dave, I saw the thing WTOP sent you about the great news they broke over the weekend. We too are doing well in light of tough times. The News & Messenger's Web site, InsideNoVA.com, has seen a 38 percent growth in page views and a 55 percent growth in unique visitors. Both stats are over last year. Just an FYI to show the hyper local guys are hanging in there with the big boys. The News & Messenger merged both the Manassas Journal Messenger and the Potomac News in October to form one daily newspaper. We are Prince William County's only local daily newspaper. InsideNoVA.com was re-launched in early 2008, merging Potomac News.com and ManassasJM.com. Oh yeah, good to see you on Twitter! Uriah A. Kiser, Reporter, News & Messenger (1/13/09) (“And I'm hearing from a station friend that CBS big wig Bob Phillips and morning guy Ed Norris”) Norris mentioned on his show yesterday morning that he was at the Ravens/Titans game with Phillips. I guess his job at “All-Sports??” 105.7 THE FAN is safe for now. (maybe Forrester can replace Maynard (I hate sports) as Ed’s sidekick. (1/13/09) What a shame Bill Cosby has lost it. I haven't watched him since "I Spy," and we all know Robert Culp really carried him. Now, Cosby is like Sarah Palin, so yesterday and who cares. (1/13/09) ("This is curious: Just as WPGC sees its PPM numbers decline, its Web traffic jumps more than 100%: radioink.com...") Easily-explained. The uptick in web traffic is from the AOL Radio deal with CBS radio stations including WPGC. (1/13/09) This is curious: Just as WPGC sees its PPM numbers decline, its Web traffic jumps more than 100%: radioink.com... Christian (1/13/09) You might find this video about covering the inaugural from a still/video perspective interesting - Inaugural 'Pre-Game' Behind-The-Scenes Video photobusinessforum.blogspot.com... Cheers, John (1/13/09) I've not heard of any cuts to the Kane Show on HOT 99.5, however this morning they mention Sarah's contract expires March 16. They don't know if it will be renewed. Sarah does the news, traffic reports and hollywood dirt on the morning show. She was hired in early 2007 and was of the contestants for the metrorail doors closing voice... (1/13/09) What's happening at WNST? First, Rob Long hits the road. And I'm hearing from a station friend that CBS big wig Bob Phillips and morning guy Ed Norris were getting chummy with NST's Drew Forrester in a Nashville hotel bar. Recruiting trip maybe? (1/13/09) Unsigned CS is correct, dead on (especially about Sirius taking what XM did not want) in his comments about Sirius/XM with two exceptions. 1. Wall Street got punked on the Sirius satellite methodology. While it looks good to bean counters (we get 3 birds for less than the price of their two!) and those who lump both services into "SatRad", this half baked system is proof that there is no free lunch. If a manager is proposed that he/she can get 3 of something, for less than two of 'the same' then you would think the manager would be smart enough to ask 'what's the catch?" The first gotcha is that it takes 2 of the 3 birds to make a receiver lock, whereas in XM a receiver can lock to one bird. A single bird failure in Sirius reduces the coverage by 66%. How did the technical advisors to Wall Street miss that detail? Who cares if the footprint is bigger than XM! A single bird failure for XM reduces coverage by only 30% The Sirius approach has all the logic of AM stations that build 5/8 wave towers and miss their home market but rejoice when they get a DXer's QSL card. How much revenue have they gotten in the fringe? This is the same 'bigger is better' logic that has screwed terrestrial radio. The fact is, not even ten years into SatRad, Sirius needs to add a 4th satellite to police the orbit of the other three. So, that means, firstly that the math was wrong on the three-bird system (this is not at all suprising if you have followed the story) and now it takes FOUR satellites to do at Sirius what it only takes TWO to do at XM. There were reasons beyond technology that Sirius was given a pass on checking the math of their satellite system. Given how simple the XM birds are, there is no way the Sirius-ly flawed four satellites are cheaper...unless they were built that way. Given the other technology choices made by Sirius, it is highly likely that the birds were indeed lower cost because of how they were built cheap, and not a benefit of how they were designed. 2. XM did begin, as UCS said, with using the cable model for its business model and 5, 7, 10 year plan. But XM, for god only knows what reason, blinked and stubbed its toe about mid year 2003 when desparate-for-subscribers Sirius dropped commercials from their music channels. XM reacted, rather than acted, by doing the same. That was the point were it began to unravel. A mistake made by many terrestrial owners who are paying too much attention to the competition and not enough attention to their own business. (1/13/09) GET THE MIKE O'MEARA SHOW OFF THE AIR NOW. It's an embarassment, we all know knows it's an embarassment, but everyone's too nice to tell him he just cannot cut it on his own. He is pissing on 20 years of radio legacy with each successive limp-dick boring-ass show, rates continually lower each week, and is causing CBS to hemorrage money and listeners, pulling innocent GOOD 'JFK shows with him into his black hole of suck. It is time to go. (1/13/09) Did anyone else hear the AWWWFFFUUUULLLL hour with Bill Cosby on TOP on Saturday afternoon? The anchor for the hour -- Nathan Hagar, maybe? -- had an awful time making sense out of what Cosby was saying. He did a nice job in the top of the hour billboard, saying that Cosby would be there for the hour, and they would talking about whatever Cosby wanted to talk about. But right after the hourly, Cosby began right out of the box at 4:03 with some inane comment about an inter-racial couple having twins, one of which was white and one of which was black, one of which was a boy and one of which was a girl. He said that the couple had a second set of twins, also with mixed race, and was trying to ask if the genders broke the same way in the second set as in the first. Nathan tried to paraphrase Cosby, and Cosby smacked him around for not understanding him. 10 minutes, up in smoke, arguing about Cosby meant; not a laugh, grin, or even a chuckle. Then there was another topic -- maybe it was Obama at Ben's Chili Bowl -- in which Nathan again tried to paraphrase Cosby and got smacked around again by Cosby for not understanding what Cosby meant. Another 10 minutes of no fun, no comedy, and just plain bad radio. Someone here has already pointed out that Veronica Robinson was parachuted into the discussion at 4:25, to push Cosby onto some harder news. And that was also very unpleasant. First, she got off to a lousy start when she corrected Hagar for introducing her only as an anchor, adding that she's also a reporter (or vice versa.) Then, she tried to confront Cosby around his quotes on the lack of fathers in black families. Cosby criticized Robinson for even raising the subject, bullying her into agreeing that her parents raised her well and he forced her to back down, which, as a reporter, she tried to avoid. But by the next late traffic report at 4:32, Cosby had whacked her as well. It was a stunning display of his ego and arrogance. I felt sorry for both TOPers. Funnily enough, he didn't mention his appearance at the 4 H&F Expo or on Sunday's MTP. And, he looked awful on MTP as well. Not just old -- which he surely is! -- but also sickly and not well. (1/13/09) The three-tower WDMV array is located off of MD Route 26 (Liberty Road) east of Frederick between Walkersville and Libertytown. The four-tower WFMD array sits on the west side of Frederick between US-40 and I-70. A bit further west on I-70 is the two-tower site for WWFD, the 820 relay of Bonneville's Federal News Radio (WFED-1500). (1/13/09) /\ January 13 Messages /\ \/ January 12 Messages \/ WOW!!!! I'm in such celebrated radio company (Rush & Howard), today was my birthday too but, did anyone notice? Did anyone care? (HaHaHa) the ex-smooth Santos (1/12/09) Dave's response: Happy birthday Al!!!!! Of course you're invited for chicken enchilada dinner anytime, Dave! ;-) To add to my blurb about Norah O'Donnell's MSNBC show today, the two broads from the WaPo's "Reliable Source" (their names escape me, sorry) were also interviewed on the show about Michelle Obama's gowns and the celebrities coming to D.C. this weekend. Riveting news indeed. -Silvie- (1/12/09) It’s sad to see so many agree with me about Sirius/XM in that it’s the mismanagement that is causing its distress. I say that because had it been sound management instead, satrad could’ve created a moderate success. Not a great success, but it would’ve serviced the debt and likely turned a small yet inconsistent profit. The XM model was the least-flawed of the business plans. By using pretty standard design geo-stationary ‘birds, XM was looking at a more reliable signal in its base coverage area. While using multiple less-capable satellites in highly elliptical “Molniya” orbits, Sirius was looking at reduced start-up. Additionally, because of these orbits, Sirius has decent coverage outside of the continental U.S. that XM doesn’t. XM also chose a “better” transmission codec which combined w/a higher bit rate gave it a quality advantage on the music channels compared to Sirius. Enough with the “crafts”! And, we’ve talked about the “arts” enough! Where else is the now combined Sirius/XM going kaput? It’s in the back office. While XM looked a bit more logically, neither really considered what the market would be for what would be essentially a “premium” radio service. Had both of them been thinking, they would’ve looked at the launches and on-going success of HBO and Showtime in the Cable TV world. Both are in some ways complimentary, while in other ways they are very different. The important thing is that both were providing a quality service you couldn’t get anywhere else. Sure it was programming! (Remember “Eroticize” (or whatever that “exercise” show was) on Showtime?) But, do you remember how it seemed everything looked and sounded so much better on those channels? Even the bumpers looked and sounded better than what you had on broadcast TV! As for satrad… Remember the early promises of “CD quality”? Now, it’s more like “CB quality”… especially on the “talk” channels! “More Variety” was another claim. Yeah, right. IMHO, the only thing Sirius did right was to have the brains to hire jazz expert Paul Anthony to do the jazz programming. Now, I’m not a jazz fan. But, if I needed to hire someone to program a Top-5 market jazz station, I’d hire Paul if I could. Otherwise, Sirius hired the folks that XM didn’t. Unless you were in a place like Grants, NM chances are your terrestrial broadcasters provided most markets with the popular formats. Where satrad would’ve succeeded would’ve been in the niche formats largely abandoned by corporate radio… classical, oldies, country, jazz, etc. And, they both spent way too much money on sports and on “names”. (Martha Stewart, Oprah, Howard, etc.) Finally, both satrad services miscalculated their revenue sources. Had they been smart instead of greedy, they would’ve borrowed from the CATV business model and sold the equipment at cost with a moderate monthly subscription fee. The primary revenue stream would be from… Commercials! (OK, on at least the “talk” channels.) The final consideration the satrad folks didn’t consider is who their audience would be. They forgot that outside of their cars, Americans hardly listen to the radio. This has been a fact for decades. Unless you’re on a vacation, drive an 18+ wheeler for a living, or have one of those horror commutes like from PA or WV to DC, you’re really not in your car all that much (and listening to a radio)… so how much is “premium radio” worth to you? Especially with a niche format you won’t find on your AM or FM dial? Or, perhaps you live in a rural area where perhaps there’s no FM reception and no daytime AM reception? I would’ve said $1.50 to $3.00 per radio/month with discounts for yearly/multiple receiver subscriptions. With the fees they’re charging now, they’re killing themselves. That is in addition to the state “luxury” taxes charged for the service. I call’em luxury taxes as I cannot think of any state facility or service satrad uses, unlike say, cable TV. (Ditto satellite TV. These taxes are just another government money grab, or, does government consider satellite radio and satellite TV to be a “sin” like booze, brew, and smokes?) As for the hardware, the best hope is that when the mess goes chapter 7 those of us stuck with the receivers will inherit a decent service at a fair price. Otherwise, the U.S. could end up as the largest nation in the world without a domestic DAB service. (Reminds me of the time (as late as the 1970’s) when the Republic of South Africa was the most industrialized nation without a domestic television service.) I guess the question ultimately is “Does the U.S. really need and want a domestic DAB service???" I say that because satrad is the closest DAB will likely be in my lifetime, at least. -Unsigned Corporate Suit (1/12/09) With all the DMV talk - been meaning to ask - where are the towers? Are they the ones off 40/70 just west of Fred? If you are heading west on 70, the last 40 exit that is Fredrick? I was just up there a couple of days ago - its a 3 tower array(?)...Or is that FMD? (1/12/09) What is this "National Radio Corporation" ownership of WDMV? The FCC database says the station is owned by Birach Broadcasting which also owns WGOP and a number of stations elsewhere. (1/12/09) Dave's response: I was careful not to use the word "ownership." From what I can gather, NRC is leasing the station from Birach. It's more likely the "operator" of WDMV..... "......WDMV Operator Files For Bankruptcy....... Great research Dave. I never look there. I often wondered how that company stayed in business. I inquired about advertising rates several times, but never got a response. The funny thing is, once I got on their mailing list, they would send me free t shirts. But no rate cards. (1/12/09) Dave's response: I don't normally scan the bankruptcy biz listings in Monday's Post. A DCRTV reader tipped me off. No real "research" on my part..... [snippy] You're one of those ivory tower libs who never listen to Rush but always criticize. [end snippy] Ah, yes. The standard brilliant argument from yet another member of the insecure, room-temperature-IQ brigade. Well done, sir!!! You certainly put Dave--and the intelligentsia--in their place! (You can look up “intelligentsia” in the dictionary if you haven’t yet burned your copy.) (1/12/09) Dave's response: I love how soooo many righty radio talkers are blaming the whole economic mess on Obama - when he's not even president yet! OK, give Obama six months or a year and see what he can do. And then feel free to criticize. But what's going on now, including the massively screwed-up billions in bailouts - it's still Bush's "watch," Rush "sour grapes" Limbaugh. How about giving the new guy a chance? Sheesh..... Heard on Norah O'Donnell's MSNBC show this afternoon, some analyst dude named "Nick" or "David" (I was busy making chicken enchiladas, so I wasn't fully paying attention) stated that Gov. Paterson met with Caroline Kennedy today because he wanted to sit down with her and talk openly "eye-to-eye". Except the problem with that is that the Governor is legally blind. Second on Norah's agenda today was still the issue of the Obama's pet decisions - whether they'll get a labradoodle or a smaller dog. Seriously, is this what passes for cable "news" these days? Anybody heard of Hamas? Hezbollah? Bueller? Bueller? Bueller? -Silvie- (1/12/09) Dave's response: Sounds yummy. Can I come over for dinner? "His staff brought him a "white trash" (reflecting his audience?)" You're an idiot. You're one of those ivory tower libs who never listen to Rush but always criticize. (1/12/09) Dave's response: I don't lie. It really did happen! Rush then jested how he likes "white trash." Kinda reminds me of that Andy Griffith comment at the end of "A Face In The Crowd." Catch it next time it runs on TCM..... Jason-Last season I'm pretty sure that MASN never made its HD coverage available to local OTA except for Orioles' opening day. Even when the game was being broadcast in HD, the locals had the SD version. Since WJZ is more than capable of broadcasting in HD, I think this was a MASN decision and one that may continue. Howie (1/12/09) Re "WDMV Operator Files for Chapter 11" - no tears here, bro... (1/12/09) be on the lookout for some big news regarding the the four(!) sports radio stations here in Baltimore. A popular host might be moving from one spot on the dial to another. If it happens (and I think it will), remember you heard it here first. That is from thelosscolumn.com (1/12/09) I can't say that I'm surprised to see the Washington Nationals off 20. The team's Nielsen ratings were terrible and 20 now has WWE Smackdown back as an actual audience draw. WDCA has no need for the Nats. Everett W. (1/12/09) Do you know if the Nationals games will be broadcast in High Definition on channel 50, when available? I know they've done college basketball in HD on there before, so hopefully it's possible. -jason (1/12/09) RE: WTOP weekend "scoops" - this doesn't say as much about WTOP as it does about the thin and demoralized staffs at the Associated Press, Examiner, and ABC7. The Examiner is an awful little collection of wire service stuff; ABC7 is comprised of low-paid kids, especially on the weekend -- so good job beating them, WTOP! As for Bill Cosby and the "extensive" Politico coverage arranged by Mike McMearty, I believe his wife works there, so it probably took a lot to "make that happen." I don't know what Fat Albert said on WTOP, but he was very thoughtful yesterday on Meet the Press. (1/12/09) I certainly agree with the previous posts about the Capitals. Slowly but surely, they are seeing increased local and national coverage, both electronic and print. From columns written by people who have ignored the Caps for years, to many more above the fold stories on the front page of the sports section to player interviews on local radio shows to more time on the local newscasts. The public is leading the media here as demonstrated by huge attendance increases at Caps games and jammed bleachers at Caps practices some days at Kettler. And I think that will only increase. Not only is this team very good, and given the relative youth, likely to get better, it is very likable. From the gregarioius once in a generation superstar to the tech saavy and fan friendly owner to the career minor league coach who is seeking to make good on his big break. And there is nothing like being there for a big game when the crowd is "Rocking the Red". DC a hockey town? Not yet, maybe never. But this Caps team is giving it a damn good shot and the media is starting to pay attention. (1/12/09) Dave, Don't you mean that National Radio Corporation has filed for CHAPTER 11 bankruptcy? You have Channel 11 bankruptcy on the front page right now... Thanks, Jeremy (1/12/09) Dave's response: Oooops. Sorry about that. Channel 11 is NOT going bankrupt. Not that I know about, anyway..... ok, most Saturdays between 4-6pm while mixing my Johnny Walker Blue & Percept cocktail I leave FOX"News" on because my weiner dog likes it...then again he dosent have thumbs either. Im just curious about 'Julie Banderas'; that newsreader that sounds/acts like a 10th grader and looks like a Porn babe... why does she sit at that low desk with her legs showing all the time? Granted Im an eunuch so I dont really care about that stuff anymore, but come on! Its a little slutty even for FOX"News" (1/12/09) The destruction of XM is close to complete. The decades channels are down 400 song playlists. Zellner won't play a song unless its "100 percent recognizable" by the audience (his actual words). Who in their right mind would continue to pay for this crap? (1/12/09) Re: "Is this the same Congress that seems to have trillions of dollars to bail out the Banking Industry, the Auto Industry and the UAW, but won't do a damn thing to reduce the burdens placed on the taxpayers themselves who keep them in power?" - Lest we forget this is the same Congress that is getting a 2.8% payraise too. They're smart -- the raises are automatic so they don't have to vote on them but they do have to vote to not get it and that vote will never happen. Would be nice to get a steady check much less a raise in this economy!! -jm (1/12/09) I don't have an axe to grind, and I sold all of my stock a long time ago, but here is my prediction on the future of Sirius XM: They won't be able to refinance their $1B of debt this year and the banks will take them over, and appoint a trustee to operate the company (Goodbye, Mel). There might be a Chapter 11 reorganization which would allow the trustee to cancel certain contracts (kind of like Continental Airlines did years ago to get out of some union contracts--maybe Howard would be one of the cancelled contracts?). Eventually, the trustee will go Chapter 7 and liquidate. he can separate the two services into two competitors again, which would be sold off to the highest bidders. Now free of the high expense for debt service and high priced talent, the new operators could operate competing satrad services that people might even want to listen to. I have 4 XM subscriptions at the moment, and am waiting to see if my prediction comes true in February when the first wave of loans comes due. I may very well drop down to just one or two. (1/12/09) WTTG had a Level 1 production failure this morning, showing a slide for a "LEVEL 2 CUT IN" I mean WTF ? (1/12/09) So with what is normally regarded as the biggest weekend in the NFL Season next to the Super Bowl, and The Ravens involved in the playoffs, what do we find on the fabulous Baltimore "Sports Talk" stations on Sunday morning @ 9:00?? WNST--A Golf Show: WJZ-AM --A "Sports Medicine" program: WJZ-FM--A mortgage/financial show: WVIE--A political program about the 41st District. Want to hear about the playoffs? Tune in to WFAN in NY, where Mike Francessa is live !! Amazing that not one of the local stations could have foreseen a Ravens win and scrapped the other stuff for the morning. And each of you claim to be the "Leader" in Baltimore Sports. Are you kidding me??? As you say Dave, ponderous man....ponderous. (1/12/09) Well, well, well, President-Elect Osama wants Congress to get involved with the digital transition scheduled for next month. Is this the same Congress that did such a great job handling the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgages? Is this the same Congress that refused to even consider lowering the gasoline tax on consumers when gas was over $4 a gallon and now wants to raise it even higher because gasoline has managed to go back down again? Is this the same Congress that seems to have trillions of dollars to bail out the Banking Industry, the Auto Industry and the UAW, but won't do a damn thing to reduce the burdens placed on the taxpayers themselves who keep them in power? Yeah, the digital transition of the TV signals is the most important thing Congress should be working on right now! Look, I don't care what party you belong to, this government is failing miserably! Bush's fault? Cheney's fault? Pelosi's fault? Reid's fault? whomever, we're all screwed no matter which of these idiots is in control. See those Barbarians looming over the hills? They're preparing to take down the Empire as we waist our time worrying if Britney is wearing any panties when she gets out of the limo or which no-talent hack is singing Karaoke on "American Idol" this year. Congress should learn to play "Nearer My God To Thee" on their violins...the Titanic is sinking. (1/12/09) From the "Future Broadcast Engineers of America" video file: www.youtube.com... The real fun begins around the :26 sec mark. (1/12/09) Hey the WFMD morning person has said that the Frederick station will have a visit form the Clear Channel suits tomorrow. Wonder if that ties in with the cuts you have talking about. I imagine if the honchos are here for meetings they are likly dropping down the chimneys of the other CC stations. I'll stay posted to your site for more. (1/12/09) A brief history of Mel's "success" as a businessman. Mel starts Infinity. Mel uses his wonderful 'sales commission is everything' approach and eventually the company is sold to Westinghouse to pay the debt. Westinghouse under Mel also purchases CBS. Mel's management causes CBS to be sold to Viacom, again because of huge debt. Mel can't bully Sumner, and he, along with Stern, leave for Sirius. And where is Sirius now...in debt, sold to XM, with Mel repeating the strong arm that he did of Michael Jordan. Unfortunately for Mel and SatRad, there is no white knight this time. Mel is a failure. (1/12/09) I too have noticed the decline of quality of satellite programming since the XM/Sirius merger! I had subscribed for one reason, XM150. Hilarious! Nothing but stand up comedy, and when they did interviews it was old KHJ jock Sonny Fox and the show was about the comedian, not the interviewer. XM150 was superior to Sirius's Rawdawg! Now they've screwed the pooch by trying to mix in Rawdawg with XM150 and it sucks! I don't want to listen to one-trick-pony, Jim Brewer do his Goat thing for an hour. JUST GIVE ME THE STAND UP AND LEAVE THE CRAP ON SIRIUS! I CANCELED! They lost another subscriber! And its not just 150 they screwed up, the 40's on 4, 50's on 5, 60's on 6 etc, etc, etc are all a mess now! What an abortion! Guess its back to cd's. Broadcast sucks too! Why, did Sirius screw up the good channels on XM? Idiots! I subscribed for 4-years to XM but I've already had enough of Sirius! Sad to say the only thing worth listening to are the pirates on shortwave anymore. They are the only broadcasters doing anything creative and not off a "play sheet" or have a consultant hanging over their shoulders! $150 for a Grundig Y-400 beats the hell out of a monthly subscription fee and satellite receivers! Bob Smith - Arlington (1/12/09) Ya think Fox News has a grudge against Nancy Pelosi? Look at how they spelled her name. WTF? www.youtube.com (1/12/09) Come on! Satellite radio is so much better then terrestrial radio.. (1/12/09) "Looks like I wasn't the only one who noticed the decline in quality of satrad programming since the "merger" took place. For instance, several things which made the XM 60s on 6 channel distinctive have been eliminated, not just the salutes to legendary Top 40 stations, but starting the top of every hour with a Beatles tune, the "Top 6" mini-countdowns at the end of every hour, etc. Now that channel seems just a tad more bland than before." Yeah, they've stripped out some of the best features on the 60s channel; they've hacked up the few surviving jingles; they've left the two weakest jocks, Phelps and Young, and let go the strongest, Clark and Marty; we all love Brucie, but he sounds AWFULLL. Back to cutting the Sonic Sound Salute: Mr. Suit says that it's a budget cutting move, but I don't see what it might save; there was no cost or expense that I could see for air chex or jingles, and I think that Terry was doing it on his own anyway, without even a board op or producer. But the same things seem to be happening to the other channels as well. Talk about narrow casting! The Sinatra channel -- legacy from Sirius -- plays Sinatra on about every other song. The for XM channel, High Standards, by contrast had a fabulous blend of standards, with Sinatra on twice or three times an hour. A whole channel for the Grateful Dead? And for Springsteen? You gotta be kidding me. It's as if Sirius is driving for quarter hours, and XM was driving for cumes. Many thanks, Uncle Mel. You've singlehandedly @#$%ed up the best programming in the business and left us with this s**t hole mess. Makes me want to give up my subscription and yank the damned receiver out of the dash! (1/12/09) RE: "A note to Channel 13 WJZ You are not the only station broadcasting next weeks Ravens - Steelers Championship game. It is being carried by all CBS affiliates. QUIT THE FALSE ADVERTISMENT." Dude---someone needs to get laid! Chill man. WJZ has a reason to promote it--they are the only station in Baltimore to carry the game--so in a way--they are not advertising falsely! Get over it and watch some Hills...if you catch my drift. (1/12/09) /\ January 12 Messages /\ \/ January 11 Messages \/ A note to Channel 13 WJZ You are not the only station broadcasting next weeks Ravens - Steelers Championship game. It is being carried by all CBS affiliates. QUIT THE FALSE ADVERTISMENT. (1/11/09) Sarah Palin, Live on the Chris Plante show, said that her "first Amendment rights" were being violated because of the press; I cant think of any Joe Biden gaffe that displayed a grotesque misuse of concept of the First Amendment. Joe Biden never had to go on National television to assuage comments he made, as Governor Palin had to do after her comment on the Chris Plante show. Also, Governor Palin's several oversteppings of the interpretation of the job of Vice President, ("Runs the Senate"), should have made the best soundbites of 2008 on WMAL. Any of these didn't make the cut. Is it "complete bias" or propaganda? (1/11/09) Gracious thanks to Johnny Dark and Paul Bicknell for their kind, generous and supportive words. The pro "cream" once again rises to the top. All the best to you '09. Ken Merson - Merson Person Voice Tracks (1/11/09) According to an article in today's 'Los Angeles Times': "Television is starting to look beyond the 18-to-49-year-old demographic. Marketers targeted the group hoping to build brand loyalty in young people. Some in the TV industry now view that as short-sighted. CBS' and 'American Idol's' broad appeal helped change the mind-set." Hmmmmm. I wonder if this "re-thinking" when it comes to programming and "demo criteria" will translate to radio? Mass appeal. What a refreshing and novel idea! Here's the link www.latimes.com (1/11/09) Judge for yourself... "On Thursday, October 11, 2007, Charlie Rose spends an hour with Mel Karmazin, CEO of Sirius Satellite Radio. Karmazin discusses the merger of Sirius and XM satellite radio, his time as Chief Operating Officer at Viacom, CBS and radio personality Howard Stern." www.charlierose.com (Be sure to read the many comments.) (1/11/09) Re: "The failure of satellite radio may be a good thing for terrestrial radio." -- Only if the people running terrestrial radio have more of a clue than Mel, and I haven't seen any signs of that. The most common complaint I've seen about satellite radio is that it is becoming too much like terrestrial radio, not that the latter is outdoing it. ~~CA in BC (1/11/09) Thank you, Mr. Unsigned Corporate Suit! Looks like I wasn't the only one who noticed the decline in quality of satrad programming since the "merger" took place. For instance, several things which made the XM 60s on 6 channel distinctive have been eliminated, not just the salutes to legendary Top 40 stations, but starting the top of every hour with a Beatles tune, the "Top 6" mini-countdowns at the end of every hour, etc. Now that channel seems just a tad more bland than before. And to my semi-trained ear, SiriusXM's talk and sports programming audio quality sounds more and more like a RealPlayer on a slow dial-up connection - very compressed to the point of almost being unintelligible at times. My take on the post-"merger" satrad product - disappointing so far. Guess Mel has to come up with new and creative ways to keep paying Howard - - - - - Larry in Luray (1/11/09) As for the failure of the combined XM/Sirius. There have been several good articles about why the 'merger' would not work. Some investors have actively sought Mel's ouster. All one has to do is watch Charlie Rose' interview with Mel about 2 years ago to know just what makes Mel tick, and this 'merger' was headed for a disaster. Several have commented here, and especially Unsigned C.S., that Mel has not a clue. Which is true. As Mel himself said, he knows nothing about, and doesn't give a damn about the 'arts and crafts' of this business. All he is there to is increase shareholder value, and for XM/Sirius, that was to be achieved with a 20% increase in secondary revenue (meaning advertising!!). The economy screwed that plan, but his plan, as he had done before, but failed to achieve at Viacom, was again to be acquired by the other party (XM) and then take control. In Mel's mind, XM and Sirius were just two under-valued stand alone FMs that could increased shareholder value if they reduced costs by operating from a consolidated studio. Thus his plan was doomed to fail even without the ecomonic troubles because he did not understand how different the two satellite products really were. The best part of the interview though is when Charlie Rose corrects Mel's faulty memory on the failure of Infinity and its sale, not merger, to Westinghouse. Go To Hell, Mel! The failure of satellite radio may be a good thing for terrestrial radio. (1/11/09) Thanks for the clarification Dave Loudin. I see your points. It's a shame WBIS didn't get its CP extended. That would have prevented all those other apps from being approved, but oh well. Although WAGE really isn't Leesburg's only local service as far as reception. So, I wonder if the FCC would approve a COL change from say Leesburg to Sterling since Sterling would technically also have no radio station licensed to it, but who knows. Doesn't seem like they intend to do that though. Well, looks like at least nighttime, the new WAGE 1190 will definitely not have any DC reception at all. (1/11/09) “Corporate Suit’s” take on Sirius/XM and on Mel Karmazin in particular is right on target. The audience for SatRad has expectations that the service will be like a national local radio station. As Mr. Suit says, Kamarzin hasn’t a clue about the creative end of radio and audience expectations. I agree with CS that Sirius (after further dismantling XM) will tank leaving a huge base of satellite receivers and unfulfilled contracts to provide a service which no longer exists. Tom Gauger (1/11/09) /\ January 11 Messages /\ \/ January 10 Messages \/ Mr. U.C. Suit is correct. Satrad is a sinking ship. If you've ever worked for XM in DC, you know what I'm talking about. Far too many Michael Scotts in management there, if you get my drift. Satrad arrived on the scene about a decade too late, and then hired a handful of smart folks and a universe of dumb ones. (1/10/09) Okay Mr "is MSNBC going to change its name to Obama....." WE GET IT. You think MSNBC is pro Obama...maybe . ...but I don't get all this sudden rage here about it..simply put. MSNBC took at look at FOX NEWS...with its clearly pro Bush agenda...and saw a chance to take a viewpoint and increase the viewership,which they did(Fox is still beating them too) . I know both networks have their raving loonies..(Olberman, Matthews O'reilly , Hannity) but shut up already! You don't like the lean of MSNBC...switch over to Fox...and quit whining! (1/10/09) Question from an earlier post: “Does anyone know what happened to the Sonic Sound Salute on the 60s on 6 on XM?” It went away with the many other post-merger creativity cuts at Sirius/XM. Creativity, innovation, and quality all cost (big) money, and are hard to readily quantify in terms of ROI. The “Emergency” 247 channel has been just a relay of Weather Channel Radio since New Years Day. And, as DCRTV reported recently, the local traffic/weather channels are about to be emasculated. Of course, this begs the question of “Why?” The answer is simple. Mel Karmazin is a businessman –not a broadcaster. Sirius/XM is a business –not a service. Thus, it does not have to fulfill even the miniscule obligations a “broadcaster” must do today, let alone the obligations, which were traditional. When Mel gave his employees an extra day off making for a long Christmas weekend (in lieu of “holiday parties”), it was a surprise and the first extravagance I’d ever heard of the guy doing. I say that because a day off is typically much more expensive than what we budget per couple for a Christmas party ($200-$250) in the more expensive markets. What we are seeing now with Sirius/XM are some of the most contemptible acts on the part of any business since the 1929-1941 Depression. “Executives” like Mel consider both employees and customers to be unnecessary “crybabies” and “nuisances” at best. I won’t discuss the worst. When I think of the most reprehensible executives in this business at his level, the closest parallel to Karmazin that I can find is David Sarnoff. In terms of contemporary executive ethics, Carl Ichan immediately comes to mind. However, unlike Karmazin, Sarnoff understood the importance of not just stockholders, but also customers and employees. Sarnoff also understood “the arts and crafts” of broadcasting and their importance to the bottom line. Mel Karmazin has admitted that he’s never had an interest in such. And, it shows in bother the content and presentation on XM. When Sirius finally tanks (as it undoubtedly will), I’m sure Mel Karmazin will be right at home with either Comcast or GM with employment offers no doubt already coming in. Unsigned Corporate Suit (1/10/09) WAGE cannot duplicate the 7kW WBIS proposal for at least two reasons. First, there is not enough room at WAGE's site to build all the towers needed to duplicate the radiation pattern. Second, there are four stations that need protection (applications at Red Oak, NC, Waterford, PA, Pine Bluff, AR, and a construction permit at University City, MO) that WBIS did not have to worry about. With four towers and 1.3 kW, WAGE's nighttime facility will just meet protection criteria to 1180 WHAM and provide interference-free service to about 90% of Leesburg. Here (fjallfoss.fcc.gov) is what that looks like (an NIF of 19 mV/m is almost what stations on 1230, 1240, 1340, 1400, 1450, and 1490 need). Beyond that range, interference from WOWO and WLIB starts to become noticeable. Signal plots from radio-locator do not factor in interference. Regards, Dave Loudin (1/10/09) Dave: I heard something this afternoon on WTOP that reinforced what's wrong with our contemporary media - EGO! During an interview with Bill Cosby, the anchor interviewing him introduced his colleague, Veronica Robinson to ask Bill a few questions. He introduced her as WTOP reporter Veronica Robinson. She quipped back, I'm WTOP reporter AND ANCHOR Veronica Robinson. When Bill said, well, she said, oh my colleague know's how I am. Obviously Ms. Robinson needs to realize that it's about the news, not about her ego. Carl, Alexandria (1/10/09) Who else is following this slow-motion train wreck spreading across the Washington DC radio dial known as "Bill Cosby is in town for no reason" like I am suffering through? -Chainsman (1/10/09) A problem for WAGE night operation from the 1190 site is that I think they would need to put a city-grade signal into Leesburg. I can't guess whether they could provide that signal level and still fit with WOWO's night operation. The FCC would probably not allow a change in City of License on the technicality that it would remove Leesburg's "Only Local Service". (1/10/09) Re: RTN. Here's a link to the national schedule that WJLA is currently using... www.sitcomsonline.com... Charles in Winchester (war Lobo!) (1/10/09) Maybe Circuit City should have stuck with the Dixie Hi Fi concept. I loved that store. My image of that company is their closed super store that has sat empty for years in Springfield. Porter Jervis (1/10/09) I thought JC Hayward was anchoring the Leather Ball at the Washington Plaza Hotel. (1/10/09) Dave's response: No, that's Derek McGinty..... It is an unfortunate duty of mine to report to you that my grandfather, Harry Hayman, passed away last spring, March 17th, 2008 just shy of his 91st birthday and just after his 63rd anniversary. I thought you would like to have this for your website. Thanks, Glenn Miller... - "WPGC's founding father, Harry Hayman passes away at age 91... Belated wishes for a very Happy New Year to all. The message below was just received from Glenn Miller (not that Glenn Miller!), grandson of WPGC's founding father, Harry Hayman, announcing his passing last March in Boca Raton, Florida at age 91. Harry was an electronics engineer and former FCC employee who was granted a Construction Permit on November 12th, 1953 to build and operate a new Morningside, Maryland AM broadcasting station at 1580 kHz. The call letters WPGC, representing Prince Georges County were issued late in the year. The 250 watt station first took to the airwaves on April 24th, 1954 with Harry at the helm as its first General Manager. His wife Edith served as a secretary at the station. Insufficient capital to run WPGC for the length of time that it would have taken to make it profitable led to his acceptance of a buy-out offer from Max Richmond for $10,000 on November 10th, 1954. Following WPGC, Harry's illustrious career included a stint working at NASA on the Apollo project as well as positions with the Navy and Census Bureau. Prior to his full retirement in 1998, he played a pivotal role in the use of computers in medicine with the NIH in Bethesda, a role he was ideally suited for having served as the Executive Director of the IEEE Computer Society for thirteen years. Harry was generous in offering his remembrances of his time at the station over 50 years ago for the WPGC Tribute site on numerous occasions. More information about his short but critical days at WPGC can be found here - www.amandfmmorningside.com" (1/10/09) So, will NBC change their name to the Obama Network once Obama is sworn in on January 20? Inquiring minds want to know! (1/10/09) (RE: Dave, Why don't you spend more time on finding news and stop worrying about Fred Grandy and the Washington Post?We all know you don't like either of them and that you think that your rag is superior to the Post. Get back to finding news on your own.) I thought it was harsh and rude. Reading DCRTV is optional. If you don't like the way it's done here, either stop reading or start your own. Do not take that abuse from your readers. I can only imagine what does not get published. Have a good one. wp (1/10/09) Re: "What the Heck Happened to my Rockford Files Show at 10:00 PM Every weeknight? Still shows on the FIOS TV Schedule and I keep getting Emergency or some Crappy Show instead of The Rockford Files?" This is all related to the problems with Retro Teleivsion Network (RTN) that Dave reported earlier. Basically, RTN and its former owner split ways before tbe new owner (an executive of the former owner) was able to take over control of the feed. That new owner threw up a quick national-only feed to get RTN back on stations like WJLA's 7.2 digital subchannel. They're working on restoring the localized feeds, from what I've read, over this week... (1/10/09) Re: "Dave, Why don't you spend more time on finding news and stop worrying about Fred Grandy and the Washington Post? We all know you don't like either of them and that you think that your rag is superior to the Post." Umm, when it comes to DCRTV's mission (covering local media), yes, Dave's "rag" is FAR superior to the Post...no offense to whatever Mr. Farhi may write media-wise these days. (1/10/09) WUSA/9 will promote an unabashedly partisan celebration of the Obama inauguration by Virginia Democrats!? This reads like a bad parody of media bias, it's so preposterous. Is there any line of journalistic credibility that WUSA won't obliterate in 2009? Everett W. (1/10/09) “JC Hayward and Lesli Foster will be emceeing Virginia's Inaugural Black Tie And Blue Dominion Ball.” So much for them being unbiased journalists. Yay Obama! (1/10/09) Seen on eBay (WPGC Shirt) (1/10/09) Dave's response: Cool. Does the guy come with the shirt? Digital "buzz" on the AM band doesn't seem to be as widespread now as it did some months ago when everyone was testing it out. This morning I heard it on 570, but that was it. (1/10/09) Dave's response: WMAL seems to have shut down their HD Radio operation on 630 for good. Hell, I get excellent analog reception of WTNT at my location in Reston and STILL can't get their digital HD Radio signal. The little "HD" light flashes but the radio can't "lock on" to the signal. HD Radio on AM simply doesn't work..... Actual AP headline from Saturday's Yahoo! Sports page - "Red Sox finalize $5 deal with RHP Brad Penny." Five dollars for a penny? Must be bailout money. (1/10/09) ("Does anybody have a recommendation on a table top radio with extremely good FM reception?") I would reccomend the Sonido radio at just under$90. Check out www.ccrane.com (1/10/09) Dave's response: No matter how good the radio, you're going to find that FM reception ain't what it was a few years ago. That digital HD Radio "buzz" to the left and right of many stations' analog signals will prohibit you from hearing many fringe and out-of-market stations, particularly if you're listening from a major metro area, like DC or Baltimore. You can thank the FCC..... I don't think Andy Pollin ever liked Mike and Mike but since he used to work for ESPN radio I think he kept his dislike for them and Chris Berman to himself because he didn't want to lose his job. (1/10/09) Here's my Fun w/ Photoshop comparison of WAGE 1190 vs WBIS 1190 @7700 watts nighttime as to what I think WAGE could do on AM 1190. The DC signal plot is hypothetical obviously but plausable, and that's not too shabby a nighttime signal for a DC AM station, don't ya think Mr. Loudin? Feel free to critique & comment (the Baltimore signal plot was FCC approved btw). As always, I'm not an engineer nor do I play one on TV, so please no wagering. :-) (1/10/09) "It never happens here!!!" When is the DC local media going to stop having people in soundbites or their own reporters saying this? CRIME HAPPENS EVERYWHERE!!!! Rural, urban, downtown, next door, ANYWHERE!!! There were 2 references to the above quote on channel 7 within 2 minutes. The only time I want to hear that is when something like that happens on the International Space Station or in the White House, (but as we all know, in the movie, "Murder at 1600," it did happen there, fictionally.) Please give us a break with the bleed and lead news that has engulfed this market, it gets sickening. GIVE ME A BREAK! (1/10/09) Dave, Why don't you spend more time on finding news and stop worrying about Fred Grandy and the Washington Post? We all know you don't like either of them and that you think that your rag is superior to the Post. Get back to finding news on your own. Steve (1/10/09) Ahhh, Dave Loudin, you missed my point....... Annapolis's WBIS 1190 was already approved for 7700 watts from Owings Mills, MD for the Baltimore market NIGHTTIME! Why ONLY 1300 watts for WAGE 1190 in DC which is quite a bit further away from NYC's AM 1190??? Curious indeed. (see attached pic, its gone from Radio-locator.com now) I was thinking 10,000 watts nighttime would be doable for DC easily and would make the station viable in the DC market signal wise right up there with AM 1500 & AM 980. 1300 watts nighttime from Leesburg just doesn't seem to make this upgrade economically feasible in my mind. Is there something I'm missing ? See, I think another nighttime app is forthcoming still. We shall see. (1/10/09) Does anyone know what happened to the Sonic Sound Salute on the 60s on 6 on XM? Featured jingles and air chex and spots from a featured station somewhere in the country, used to be 4-8p East every Friday. It missed a week or two, was back at 5p once, and then it appears to be gone. They had "Broadway Bill" on instead . . . and though he's good -- and really good on WCBS-FM -- I miss the Sonic Sound Salute. Anybody know what the deal is? (1/10/09) /\ January 10 Messages /\ \/ January 9 Messages \/ Anyone know which NBC anchors will be at the health and fitness expo this weekend and at what time? (1/9/09) Brian Billick spoke to me exclusively about his continued love of the Ravens and his first year as a broadcaster for both FOX and the NFL Network. The coach talked about how acting like a fool on the sidelines really paid off when it came to the Coors Light spots that feature him yelling on the sidelines. "My wife told me that I really looked silly on the sidelines when I would rant and rave at the players and the officials. But she was very happy when those spots turned up on TV and I got paid. Sometimes being silly can pay off," said Billick... www.dcexaminer.com... - Jim Williams (1/9/09) One more comment about Andy Pollin and forgive me if this has been mentioned before, but does anyone else think its funny how he continues to insult Mike & Mike? I mean he never used to do stuff like that! When they had ESPN Radio the first time he was liek a corporate guy and never went against the grain, even correcting Tony every time Tony caled it the "ESPN Sports Zone." not only that, but he and Mike G are essentially the same OCD guy. but I'll take Mike & Mike over the Sports reporters anyday! (1/9/09) Re: "seriously, this getting ridiculous... When will MSNBC/NBC'News' FINALLY change its name to OBAMA-TV??? Its getting pathetic; less & less "real news" coverage of Obama ('How Dare You Question Da' Messiah'!) Tim Russert Is Rolling Over in His Grave." Please try and be specific. I don't watcn MSNBC, but I've seen little of the Obama praising on NBC News. Now I have a question for you: when will Bush holdovers stop using racially charged language ("'How Dare You Question Da' Messiah'!") when discussing Obama? Is that what you think Tim Russert was all about? Shaddup! (1/9/09) What the Heck Happened to my Rockford Files Show at 10:00 PM Every weeknight? Still shows on the FIOS TV Schedule and I keep getting Emergency or some Crappy Show instead of The Rockford Files? (1/9/09) The Luke Russert poster is just disturbing on so many levels. I'm not against any ''journalist'' trying to make his mark but riding the coat tails of your dead dad is creepy. Paul (1/9/09) Dave's response: Amen! Some advice for Luke - cut your ties with NBC now. Make your mark on your own, in your own way, independent of your dad's fame. You'll be thankful for it later in your life..... seriously, this getting ridiculous... When will MSNBC/NBC'News' FINALLY change its name to OBAMA-TV??? Its getting pathetic; less & less "real news" coverage of Obama ('How Dare You Question Da' Messiah'!) Tim Russert Is Rolling Over in His Grave. (1/9/09) Okay, I guess I missed something....is Weasel no longer on 94.7FM (Guess this is what I get for tuning out for about the last six months). On the 94.7 website, both Weasel and Albie Dee have pages showing them as on the morning drive slot. But when you go to the "On Air" link, it only shows Albie Dee, Kelly Knight, Marci Wiser and Cerphe. (1/9/09) Re" ....I've always known this guy had Foot in Mouth disease, yet the entire country remains clueless STILL even AFTER the election! TRULY UNBELIEVABLE when you think about it and all the Sarah Palin jokes & SNL, a lot of which was quite hysterically funny though I'll admit." /// Sarah Palin's speech writer checking in.... Maybe it should be: The truth is stranger than diction ? I didn't know there was an exact count of Joe Biden flubs vs. Sarah Biden flubs. Hmm..or maybe it's that in about an extra 30 years of *public service*, more of Biden's faux pas and notable boners have been tabulated, publicly chronicled, and kept on file by those pesky political consultants. We know Palin mutilates the language with her Fargoesque speech patterns, but I have it on good authority that at Sarah Palin's fourth community college in BFE Northern Idaho : she volunteered to be the Rugby Queen after a match not knowing the consequences, was a hostess at the local Western Sizzlin, and was spotted many a time shamefully walking across campus Saturday mornings in the same clothes in which she was seen at Friday night mixers. So, we can add those flubs to Palin's shorter list of life indiscretions. (1/9/09) Dave, It was good to hear from Susan Kidd in regards to Phyllis Armstrong. IMHO, she is truly missed. I wonder what she has been up to. Also, I took advantage of your DCRTV-Plus special. One request please, can you supply the names of the people in the pictures. The memory fades after many years. Thanks. Have a great day and new year. - wp (1/9/09) Wasn't it just a matter of time? The biggest duplication of efforts between XM and Sirius was in Traffic and Weather. I think that Sirius used Westwood One and Metro Traffic to supply its service while XM built its own department... not a cheap undertaking in terms of staff and equipment for information gathering. No surprise then that the survivor is the vended product if for no other reason than the way its accounted for on the balance sheet. Even still I would imagine that a fair number of people are now going to be added to the roll of "former XM employees" and that sucks. BB (1/9/09) RE: Luke Russert's pre-inaugural DC joint party plans, as seen on today's DCRTV headlines... Does anyone else hear that spinning sound, or is it just me....? (1/9/09) “On another subject, I notice today that Tom Boswell has written his third Caps column in a month (after going years without writing one)” The Caps are beginning to develop into a major sports story in this town. Sooner or later the local media is going to have to devote more time to it. If you have never been to a game, try it this year. It’s so much better in person and the energy at Verizon is incredible. The Caps are a class organization and Leonsis is the anti-Snyder. I went to my first game 8 years ago and was hooked. (1/9/09) Nothing curious about Nations Radio's FCC filings for WAGE. When they filed for (and got approval for) the 50 kW upgrade on 1190 kHz, they mentioned that they would be filing for nighttime service on 1190 kHz separately. Now they have. Both WMET and WVIE filed their daytime and nighttime frequency change and power upgrade applications separately a few years ago. Regards, Dave Loudin (1/9/09) Greetings to my Baltimore friends from down here "in the sticks", in SW Virginia. As you know, I have been with WZBB for a few years, and really love it. This is still a locally owned operation where personality is important (Even if it's voicetracked overnight!). If you are in the area, and are looking for some hours, they are searching for a board operator to handle the Friday and Saturday evening Nascar races, which should start gearing up in February. It can mean some on air work during race postponements too. WZBB uses the Scott System, which is easy to pick up on. Contact Craig Richards, PD 540-489-9999. WZBB is about 30 miles south of Roanoke. Thanks, Tom Conroy (1/9/09) Curious FCC news, I noticed WAGE 1190 fiipped its FCC app for 50kw from Class D to Class B. I don't fully understand FCC rules, but I assume this is to protect their nighttime signal protection from being lost during the upgrade and I'm guessing another amendment is forthcoming with a higher nighttime power from the new site ??? By the way, WAGE has already been approved for a monster 50kw signal daytime for DC. I'm still waiting for the other shoe to drop. This must be Step #2 in a plan that involves lots of steps maybe? Hmmmm. fjallfoss.fcc.fov (1/9/09) RE: WMAL's Top 5 from Youtube..........TRUTH BE TOLD....... If the media were fair and balanced truly, VP elect JOE BIDEN would have been taken out to the woodshed during this election along with Sarah Palin. I'm actually shocked that even FOX NEWS didn't take Biden on much. What's the reason ? I have no clue. I'm amazed Biden got such a free pass. I've always known this guy had Foot in Mouth disease, yet the entire country remains clueless STILL even AFTER the election! TRULY UNBELIEVABLE when you think about it and all the Sarah Palin jokes & SNL, a lot of which was quite hysterically funny though I'll admit. Seriously, Obama was the smarter/better candidate this time around, but BOTH VPs had numerous flubs. But which ones did you hear about every day? And if you had to pick the VP that had MORE flubs over the years, guess what, JOE BIDEN WINS BEFORE HE TAKES OFFICE EVEN! Yes, truth is stranger than fiction. :-) (1/9/09) Dave; Love the picture of Davy Marlin Jones, brings back memories. Thought you might like this link for your history section if you don't already have it. wsva.valleyradio.com/nostalgia... Frank (1/9/09) RE: [ " Also, Baltimore finished as the number three market in average audience for NBC's "Sunday Night Football." With a 16.4, Baltimore was behind only Indianapolis (18.8) and Washington (17.0) " ]............. And Bethesda resident and former NFL Commish Paul Tagliabue once said "Maybe Baltimore should consider building a museum or something" after turning down Baltimore for NFL expansion because the city could not support football ??? WHAT AN AHOLE HE WAS in hindsight! THANK GOD HE'S GONE! ESPN will never report this nor will any national media, but Tagliabue had it IN for Baltimore ever since the state of Maryland sued the NFL and submitted favorable testimony for the USFL in the USFL vs NFL legal battle after the Colts left town. Who was the lead attorney for the NFL in that case??? YEP, YOU BETCHA SWEET AZZ....... Bethesda resident & legal eagle Paul Tagliabue. Go figure. And DC people keep wondering why Baltimore has an inferiority complex? Please! You can only take it up the ass so many times! -- Joe in Essex :-) (1/9/09) Next great DC news idea: One newscast (in SD, of course), aired on 4, 5, 7, and 9, one set, 80% of the staffs let go. Airs only at 6am, 6pm, and 11pm Monday-Friday. No remotes, just field reporters phoning things in. All the freed up time gets devoted to even more infomercials. (1/9/09) (Fred Grandy's still out-sick from the WMAL morning show...) You would have thought by now that Dr. Brinker (Bernie Koppel) would have gotten him all fixed up and back on board. (1/9/09) WUSA didn't even put up a Christmas wreath on "Broadcast House" this year. If it weren't for Topper Shutt I would delete the channel from the remote control. Speaking of deleting, according to my PPM, there are only 3 people listening to that Gary Keeler segment on WAMU in the morning. And one of the listeners is the bored op. They should delete that waste of time. (1/9/09) (In response to: The number one soundbite was a Joe Biden montage. I knew it! As soon as Andy started talking about best soundbites of the year, I knew Biden would occupy the #1 spot and Palin wouldn’t make the top five. If only we could take bets on the upcoming content of WMAL, I would clean up.) Blame Andy if you’d like, but he isn’t one of the judges when we pick our best sound bites. We did, however, take votes from Twitter (www.Twitter.com/GrandyandAndy)... Here’s the end result: www.youtube.com... (1/9/09) Was reading some analysis on AllAccess.com by Anthony Acampora of the DC PPM's - he noted among other things that 94.7 had spent October and November in the top 10 25-54, and that WJFK had beat out 630 among the 18-49 crowd. 94.7 did fall back to 15th 26-54 in the December PPM's. Stephen (1/9/09) Dave's response: I saw that PPM analysis. He also said that WTEM was still owned by Clear Channel..... Well as an employee of Cheap Channel I look forward to further budget cuts. In the old days we used to say that a monkey could do this job. I guess now they're going to have to recruit a few since there are hardly any real people left to do the job. All of the A-holes oops I mean the Management are in a meeting to determine who gets the ax while they expect those of us employed by them to "keep up the good work" the only saving grace for me is that I actually have a second job so If I get the ax I'm at least still gainfully employed. It's extremely unfortunate for all of those people who have radio in their blood and who chose this profession to see SHITHEAD Companies such as Clear Channel single handedly destroy the media that was once so great. I guess the times are a changing in this business to a point that no one ever imagined. Anyone need a college educated Monkey to work for them let me Know!!!..... No Name yet DAVE, I'm still on the roster for this week!!!!!!!!! (1/9/09) /\ January 9 Messages /\ Jump to the Mailbag Archive Index.....