Current Mailbag - Mailbag Archive Index - DCRTV Front Page - Support DCRTV DCRTV Mailbag - January 27 to February 2, 2009 Latest messages listed first..... \/ February 2 Messages \/ As an African-American, I think I can represent at least two persons of color who used to enjoy singing along with everyone at Memorial Stadium when my dad took me to Orioles games. Thousands of us, expressing patriotic pride, and yes, the excitement of the game to come. Solo performers of the National Anthem are missing something important in settings like this. (2/2/09) hi Dave. This morning when I heard Chris P on WMAL say "why does Obama keep nominating these felons" in describing two nominees, I called WMAL. I ask for Paul Duckworth's voice mail and the lady that answered the phone put me through to Paul himself. I rationally explained to Paul that the word "felon" has a specific meaning, and as far as I knew, none of the two individuals had been convicted of anything. Mr. Duckworth agreed and said he would talk to Chris P about that. I then said that last week Chris P, when asked to describe who the "left" are, he said "well they murdered 120 million people". And then went on to say that everyone from Hitler to Charles Manson were left wing. Mr. Duckworth said that "in the theater of talk radio you are allowed to paint with an awfully wide brush stroke when describing things such as the left" and he was not concerned as much over that then the felony remark. I then said that reciting the Republican talking points everyday used to be cute, but it is now getting old". Mr Duckworth said "you are certainly entitled to your opinion on that". So there you have it. Duckworth agrees that WMAL is a mouthpiece for Republican talking points. I know we knew that already, but still interesting to hear. Mark from Annandale (2/2/09) A couple of audio clips of the Star-Spangled Banner (music only): Army Band and Navy Band. I have not yet been able to find clips with the vocal. I am tired of going to meetings or other events where a soloist tries to sing the Anthem a cappella and totally butchers the song, yet the same person is invited back year after year. (2/2/09) Dave's response: The MP3 links didn't survive the e-mailing..... For the past three years I have listened to WWRC wile driving to work near Shady Grove Metro form Western Fairfax County. The signal has varied from weak to weaker to nothing over the last three years. It has really taken a nose dive in the last month. When driving to work on I-66E before sunrise I would normally start to pick up the signal at 66 & the beltway. In the last month however that point has moved north near the Great Falls exit. When I get to the Shady Grove Rd. Exit on 270 the signal is already fading out. During the day if you are within 5 to 7 miles of the Silver Spring Transmitter you have a good signal. If you go any further the signal develops noise. While driving home in the daytime the signal would start to get noisy near Vienna Metro on I-66 but was still intelligible to The Fairfax County Parkway Exit. Now however the signal is non existent at that exit. Three years ago I could hear the signal all the way to the Manassas Exit. I have a good AM radio in my car and can hear WFAN 660 NYC in the daytime in Northern Montgomery County. No matter what Red Zebra puts on this station It will fail because no one can pick it up unless you live In Silver Spring. Someone needs to check the field strength and do some serious maintenance instead of heating the ground with 5KW. Bob Fairfax (2/2/09) Dave's response: I can often hear NYC's WFAN on 660 AM during the daylight hours while driving around around Fairfax County..... Has WJLA already hired young whippernappers to replaced the folks they canned? Shameful, first WUSA and now channel 7 is heading for the ditch. Did any of the many throngs of weathermun get released from the Doug Hill squad? Seems like I've heard 2 or 3 different weathermun on WTOP who say there part of the Doug Hill gang but have never seen them on air. It was a nice send off for Patrick McGrath on channel 5 Friday morning last. Another reporter who'd I'd call a journalist versus the carnival barkers who make up most of the reporters these dys. There just all part of the boredom killers. Maybe it was getting about time for Mr. McGrath when he started appearing on air sporting bright red lipstick. Hey wait a minute. Last I heard of the Don Geronimo he'd headed up to Wisconsin to do some moose hunting with his eartdog brother Jimmy on the upper peninsula of Michigan. Won't be back to spring lying on the beach in O.C. and reading another George Pelcanos mystery. Sadly, his radio days maybe over considering the sad state of radio these days. O'Meara, I just don't know Don. Jason 2002 (2/2/09) yes, I concur, WJLA's loss of Andrea McCarren is someone else in the DC market's gain, as she is the best in the business and knows her stuff...said from a true friend of Andrea McCarren. (2/2/09) Got an SMS Tweet from Senator Mark Warner today: MarkWarner: Calling into Mike O'Meara's show on WJFK 106.7 FM in Washington, D.C. Listen live: www.wjfk.com... So I tuned in, just in time to hear Mike pummeling Warner for the no-show. Thanks, Web 2.0 (2/2/09) Media Matters has been harassed by the conservative talk show hosts for a long time because Media Matters actually documents what these people say. A report on talk radio and the Virginia Tech shooting by the very bad Media Matters actually listed others as being on the “cowards" talking point band wagon, but not Austin Hill. Austin and Silvie should thank Media Matters for all their hard work in documenting what was said and by whom; in this case it helped Austin out. Why does it not surprise me the Bozo, former WMALer and juxtaposer of breast feeding in public to pissing in public, Michael Graham was on Media Matters list that made this disgusting commentary? Silvie, you will be a great American after you send the thank you note to Media Matters. (2/2/09) Re: "Hey Veronica Johnson, bite your tongue and check your bitter attitude at the door. Your one hour workload is disposable", what's that about?..What did I miss? (2/2/09) Greg Tatum will not be playing ball with Dan Snyder much longer. Sources say he is heading off to oversee a conservative talk show. (2/2/09) Dave's response: Well, I think Greg's got a rather hopeless task ahead of him. There's no way WTNT and WWRC are going to generate any ratings/revenue with various Anglo talk/biztalk formats. The signals aren't great and they're AMers in a heavily FM market..... Let's be honest. Conservative radio is racist! Let's just call Neocons the NEW Confederates! Just because Mr. Steele is the new RNC chairman, it means nothing. He reminds me of the only black character on the show South Park. He's called what?.... TOKEN! If you can explain to me why I'm wrong, I'd like to hear it.....I'm waiting....I'll still wait...-You Hate Me! (2/2/09) Dave's response: I do think it's rather ironic that you have an African-American as the chairman of an American party that does not have a single African-American representative in Congress. Are they any Republican blacks in the House or Senate? JC Watts was it, and he's gone..... Each and every time is a major sporting event, it seems as if there is yet another contest to see who can outdo the last person who sang The Star-Spangled banner. What gets me the most is how many take it in a direction it should not go. Whitney Houston's rendition years back was the first I remember where a song that is written in a 3/4 waltz tempo suddenly was converted to 4/4 (quarter time). Sunday’s rendition clearly started in quarter-time and eventually reverted to the anthem’s waltz tempo towards the end. I do not fault her or Ms. Hudson, as they were probably singing an arraignment that someone else had created. These are the perpetrators who should have their heads examined. The words were penned as a poem originally titled "Defence of Fort McHenry" and was later set to the tune of "To Anacreon in Heaven". It did not officially become our National Anthem until 3 March 1931. With all the posting of late about folks questioning the patriotism of those who questioned the Air Force's decision to use a tape of the cellists on 20 January, I say, the best way to honor America and the members of its Armed Services is to have the US Marine Corp Band play the National Anthem accompanying one of the military’s proud singing groups. This way, there is no debate about how it should be performed, and there would be none of these accusations of racism, lack of respect or hatred. I for one really like the orchestration done by the late Igor Stravinsky. Give it a listen sometime if you can. And for those who dislike the yelling of "Oh", maybe we should start occasionally singing one of the other stanza's of Key's poem. The word does not appear as it does in the first stanza, and those folks would look sillier than they already do. This would be a more appropriate way to "jazz it up" and maybe educate a few of us along the way. Not a sermon, just a thought. Haymarket Joe (2/2/09) All this talk about The Star Spangled Banner at The Super Bowl, Whitney Houston's remains the rendition to beat, not to mention Marvin Gaye's version at the 1983 NBA All-Star Game. Everything else, by whomever, just gets in line. (2/2/09) "I think the criticism of Jennifer Hudson's rendition of the Star Spangled Banner is just veiled racism. Every singer has the right to offer up their own interpretation of the song." It's not her song to "interpret". It's our national anthem. Yours, mine, and the US of A's. By her butchering it, she spit on the face of this country. Shame on her. --Chris in DC. PS: I won't even dignify your absurd racism charge with a response. You are the only one to mention race in this discussion.... "I am also somewhat surprised that I do not hear anybody complaining about the liberties (no pun intended) that Faith Hill took with “America The Beautiful.” Is that because she is a pretty, white country singer??" No, but interesting you drag race into this discussion. It's because "America the Beautiful" is not our national anthem. "America the Beautiful" wasn't written in time of war when this country was being attacked by the British. "America the Beautiful" isn't even a national hymn! The two don't even compare. (2/2/09) Someone should gently pull Red Zebra PD Greg Tantum aside and ‘splain how this “format” thing works in radio. Yeah, we know how on TV you can carry, say, NFL football and “Grey’s Anatomy” on the same channel (oh, wait, ABC dropped the NFL, didn’t they?)—well, you get the idea. Radio doesn’t really work that way. Imagine, if you will, the absolute delight that WTNT’s three listeners are going to experience when their favorite Radical Right Wing radio station segues at noon from screeching Laura Ingraham into Ed Schultz. Then, if you will, imagine the bliss of Schultz’ audience when 570 glides from Big Eddie at 3 PM into the screed of (God forbid) Monica Crowley. Maybe Tantum just hates this job so much he’s trying his damnedest to get his butt fired. Or maybe it’s The Danny’s way of throwing a bone to the Lefties in consideration for blowing up 1260 before ditching Schultz after the first book because—surprise—it won’t be able to retain Ingraham’s audience of wingnuts or provide a decent lead-in for Crowley’s crazies. Yeah, yeah, yeah—Bonneville tried this way, way, way back like, uh, 18 months ago. Was that Tantum’s idea, too? Or was he just not paying attention? Hey, Good Luck, Greg! Just remember, genius is never appreciated in its time… (2/2/09) Hey Veronica Johnson, bite your tongue and check your bitter attitude at the door. Your one hour workload is disposable. (2/2/09) The excellent "Adjust Your Color" documentary on Petey Greene that airs via PBS this Tuesday night will feature perhaps the only surviving high-quality clip of Howard Stern's infamous appearance in full blackface. You can catch a preview at www.youtube.com (Click that link and then also click "watch in high quality".) For more details, visit PBS at www.pbs.org (2/2/09) Let me see - recession, unemployment, war, poverty, media layoffs, bankrupt monopolies (XM/Sirius), foreclosures, bankruptcies, layoffs, downsizings, botched stimulus package, greedy corporate executives, snow and ice, global warming, when will JC retire, when will George Michael resurface, channel 9 going bust, left vs right, red vs blue, republicans vs democrats, conservative vs liberal and all we can talk about Jennifer Hudson (who btw is an Oscar winner and 4x Grammy nominee. So much for 5th place Idol) and The Star Spangled Banner? Get a life. Thanks Dave for such a great site - MoCo Resident (2/2/09) Let me get this straight-- to some of you, Springsteen's performance last night was the worst Super Bowl halftime "ever"? That's stretching it a bit, don't you think? I must disagree; while it may not have been the Boss at his best, I think the title of worst halftime overall still belongs to "Elvis Presto", from 1989's game. An Elvis impersonator who, rather than actually sing any Elvis songs, spends the entire show doing 3D card tricks, prompting NBC's Bob Costas to proclaim it sarcastically "..the proudest moment of my life". And for the record, the last time that the NFL hasn't used a "name act" for the program. en.wikipedia.org (2/2/09) I am pretty sure that WBAL had to "downsize" the halftime show. They are legally required to show the lottery live. It is part of the contract with the state. Calling and complaining would do nothing. (2/2/09) Great Scott's 107.7 JOE FM is now joing 6 other Eastern Shore signals sporting a country format, using Dial Global's Hot Country format and is branding as Hot Country 107.7. So, way to go Mitch Scott--way to follow! (2/2/09) Why is it that some people feel if you don't sing the Star Spangled Banner in a way that they like, that means you aren't showing the song proper "respect"? Why is it that some people feel that only they know how things are supposed to work? And, finally, why is it that an anti-American demagogue like Rush Limbaugh is so universally loved by these same people? Hmmmmm? (2/2/09) Andrea McCarren got hosed by Channel 7. I'm hoping another local station is actually looking for someone with integrity and hires her. Now, if you'll excuse me, Michael Phelps just called me and wants me to help him break in his new Lord of the Rings Bong. Paul (2/2/09) Re: "...Austin has been smeared in this mailbag for almost 2 years for something he never said." ...who the hell is "Austin Hill"? (2/2/09) To the poster who claimed the Springsteen was "un-American". Please. That is a problem the righties have: disagree with their view and you are somehow "un-American". Hogwash.. We on the left are just as American as you people are. We just want our beloved country to do better. That kind of thinking is exactly why your beloved party got it's collective ass handed to it back in november. You know it's true, too. (2/2/09) Yup, mmmhmmm.... "incoherent screamers & liars" posting in this mailbag are exactly the ones I'm defending Austin Hill against (except, of course, DCRTV Dave... whom I actually have a mini-crush on...) -Silvie- (2/2/09) Dave's response: Just a mini-crush? Could someone explains to me why FOX"News" shows the entire goofy-Gibbs White House daily news brief? Its 30+min. of useless broadcasting at 2pm. Who really wants to see Press Sec. 'goofy' Gibbs talk & talk and not really answer questions...(I can understand this coverage/brown-nosing from MSNBC/Obama-TV, but FOX"News"?) Granted its better than those 2+hrs of 'tabloid news' they show with air-headed, blond newsreaders... "mmmm...blond, bimbo wannabe porn-star newsreaders..." ~kinky-neo-con (2/2/09) Mancow is entertaining, but hard to follow along with; both for listeners and for board-ops (alt: automatons). Topically, his show has more jumps than an MTV video, and hitting those IDs and spot breaks is an ordeal unto itself. His show routinely overlaps the legal IDs right into the on-the-hour news, so its hard to tell if he's ignoring the dictates of a strict clock or if the bad mix is just happening locally. If he's leaving, oh well. That's radio fer ye. (2/2/09) Give it a rest Silvie. Austin Hill doesn't need you or anyone else here to defend him. And yes, conservative radio is to blame for many things that are wrong when it comes to political discourse in this country. I am very pleased to hear the news about Ed Schultz getting a prime slot on a decent signal here - perhaps his ratings here will increase as more people will have access to his much more reasonable style of talk radio. A man who is LIGHTYEARS ahead of the incoherent screamers and liars on that 'other station'... the same station that is currently tanking. (2/2/09) How many of you bellyaching about Jennifer Hudson's anthem performance (as a musician of 40+ years, I was quite impressed, even though she lipsynched a prior recording - they all pretty much do that now) are also yelling "OH" during the song at local sporting events. You don't think that's disgraceful? Talk about hypocrisy... (2/2/09) DCer and former XM Satellite Radio 50s on 5 MD who hosted "The Night Prowl Show" and "Harlem" for seven years, Matt The Cat got a mention in David Hinckley's column today in the NY Daily News. www.nydailynews.com... Matt The Cat is currently out of work due to the XM layoffs and currently hosts a weekly podcast called The Friday Night Cat Fight on his website www.mattthecat.com. (2/2/09) Hey Dave, Any rumblings in Radioland about Don Geronimo coming back to the airwaves in any capacity? (2/2/09) Dave's response: Not a word..... Oh this is just too good. So it takes someone like Austin Hill to reply to a moron and then we have someone else post a link to Media Matters, giving in effect an 'alibi' to Hill that he in fact never stated any negative comments towards the Virginia Tech students. So, in other words, Austin has been smeared in this mailbag for almost 2 years for something he never said. More proof that no one should give a rat's behind about what is posted anonymously here. Now, in typical DCRTV mailbaggers' fashion, let's go ahead and change the subject and blame conservative radio for everything else going wrong in the country and the world. Move along now.... -Silvie- (2/2/09) I am often the first to cringe when a singer, white or black…or purple for that matter goes too far with the vocal fireworks during “The Star Spangled Banner.” Mostly because the singer takes the opportunity to show off their supposed vocal chops, taste be dammed! Count Basie often said that the silence between the notes is as important as the notes, themselves. That said, I thought Ms. Hudson’s rendition was thoughtful, moving and most of all musical. I find it offensive that people think that by injecting some emotion and passion into an otherwise bad song that they are un-patriotic. That in itself, is shameful and un-patriotic. I am also somewhat surprised that I do not hear anybody complaining about the liberties (no pun intended) that Faith Hill took with “America The Beautiful.” Is that because she is a pretty, white country singer?? Some of you haters out there need to reflect on that…. (2/2/09) Dear Austin Hill, One simple search of Mediamatters.org would have given you an alibi; mediamatters.org... I know you and Chris Plante are not really good at researching your topics, but in this case, Media matters helps you out. (2/2/09) Regarding the Keith Thompson, WCTR post; didn’t Francis Scott Key just compose a poem (not lyrics) documenting his watching the attack on Baltimore’s Ft. McHenry by the British from a British ship (possibly as a prisoner)? I don’t know when the ”Star Spangled Banner" words were put to the tune of the old English drinking song "To Anacreon In Heaven” (and I’m not saying this is wrong), I do know that when I mention this to my British friends they are unaware of this drinking song. Further, I think that the ”Star Spangled Banner" was adopted as the official anthem of the U.S. until sometime in the early 20th century. Finally, the U.S. is criticized by some as having an anthem that talks about war. Wrong. It’s an anthem that celebrates the country defending itself, which includes all of us!! (2/2/09) "I think the criticism of Jennifer Hudson's rendition of the Star Spangled Banner is just veiled racism. Every singer has the right to offer up their own interpretation of the song. She did a wonderful job!" That's right, any time an African-American gets criticized, there's some racial element attached to it. You moron. Do you know how racially motivated YOUR statement is? Her rendition of the SSB was outrageous. (2/2/09) Great Scott's 107.5 JoeFM in now moved to 107.7 with Hot Country 107.7. The station actually sounds pretty good. Now we will have to see if they can take some numbers from the all mighty Froggy 99. From what I've seen and heard, the Scott's are all about making money so I think this was a good move. Good luck! (2/2/09) I think the criticism of Jennifer Hudson's rendition of the Star Spangled Banner is just veiled racism. Every singer has the right to offer up their own interpretation of the song. She did a wonderful job! (2/2/09) Ed Schultz just announced he's not leaving DC but moving his show to AM 570 WTNT. (2/2/09) Dave's response: What time slot? (“WBAL did their viewers a favor. Springsteen was awful, absolutely embarrassing. It was probably the hokiest Super Bowl halftime performance ever, and the worst. Which is saying something. And to think that guy once had some credibility.”) I can’t agree more. Reminded me of that hokie video of his back in the ‘80’s that “discovered” Courtney Cox of “Friends” fame. Initially I was peeved at BAL for doing the lottery thing until I heard his performanced and then was hoping they cut to the audio of the pick 3 as well. (2/2/09) Yes sir, call me old fashioned, I guess, but I thought Jennifer Hudson's rendition of the national anthem was just short of disgraceful. Why is it that most of these singers who sing the anthem just have to "jazz it up" with their own personal tweets and flutters. I bet the honor guard had tears in their eyes for the wrong reason. (2/2/09) Hooray for WBAL. "The Boss"...I think not. He deserved as much screen as he got, and less. Given his comments over the last few years, and how un-American his sympathies are now, it was justice to reduce his size and run the lottery,,,which is something we Americans are free to participate in. I know many people who were glad to see the Boss put in his place. He was a poor choice for a half-time show,,,his politics have overshadowed his talent. I may be a Jersey boy, but I ain't down wid da Bruce no mo'. (2/2/09) Enough of the kvetching about the Star Spangled Banner already. Folks have been complaining about performances of the Anthem at sporting events ever since Jose Feliciano's contemporary version during the 1968 World Series in Detroit. (Jimi Hendrix' 1969 rendition at Woodstock made just about everybody forget about ol' Jose.) People also seem to forget that Francis Scott Key's poem was set to music by ripping off a popular 19th Century British drinking song. So please, just stand at attention for the 60 or so seconds. Then, get another beer. Enjoy the game. Thank you for coming, and please drive home safely. (2/2/09) Arizona TV station feed of Super Bowl XLIII interupted by porn. Here's the link: thepittsburghchannel.com (2/2/09) WBAL TV has a contract with the Maryland State Lottery that REQUIRES them to produce those Lottery Drawing shows at certain times. However, if WBAL TV's GM had half a brain, he would have contacted the Maryland Lottery Commission and struck a deal to just run a scroll across the screen just this one time during the Super Bowl. I'm not even a Springsteen fan and even I thought it was beyond tacky, stupid, and annoying and I'm sure did not generate a lot of good will towards WBAL TV or The Maryland Lottery. That much is certain. And the worst part was BOTH screens were tiny on my HDTV set while the Lottery drawing was happening with lots of graphic space all around. I find it hard to believe the technology isn't there to do a better split screen than that. I think my own HDTV set has better PIP/split screen technology than WBAL does! LOL (2/2/09) Re the guy who said "Gues (sic) it's a crime to put a little feeling or soul into the National Anthem." No, it's not a crime but it deserves to be sung with respect and not like you were the fifth person sent home from American Idol adding all of your glitz and personal flourishes. Oh wait, she was the 5th person sent home, never mind. Bob from College Park (2/2/09) To the dude in the Airless cubicle… Thanks!! And regarding Ms Hudson’s singing of the Star Spangled Banner, I thought she was fine… on pitch and in sync with the band, wherever and whenever they were. I sometimes think that no one is going to be happy with Super Bowl performances of our national anthem until you have the 300 voices of the Mormon Tabernacle choir arrayed on the field with the Philadelphia Orchestra in front. That would certainly be “crisp.” Tom Gauger (2/2/09) It still amazes me that people complain about the so-called non-proper singing of the "Star Spangled Banner" especially considering that Francis Scott Key composed the lyrics to match the melody of an old English drinking song, "To Anachreon In Heaven". Maybe knowing that having a drinking song melody as our national anthem will encourage people to lighten up a bit. Keith Thompson, WCTR. (2/2/09) Dave; I rarely respond to "press" that is published about me, regardless of whether it's positive or negative. But a recent "post" about me in the "mailbag" here at DCRTV was so hideous, I need to respond now. A poster claims that I covered the Virgnia Tech massacre on 630 WMAL back in 2007, and described the murder victims on-air as "cowards." This is at least the second time I've seen this allegation posted at DCRTV, and perhaps it has surfaced more than twice. Let me be very clear: I have no recollection of hosting at 630 WMAL at any time near the Virginia Tech killings. I even went back and reviewed my business and billing records from the year 2007 over this past weekend, and I don't have any record of hosting any shows at 630 WMAL in April of that year. To be very clear, I've been hosting at 630 WMAL since May 2006; most of that work has been on a part time, "fill-in" basis. I took-over the evening daypart on a fulltime basis in February 2008, and, as correctly reported here at DCRTV, that local daypart on WMAL has now been eliminated. Starting tonight, the station is airing a revamped schedule of all syndicated programming. The poster claims that I made my "coward" remark on a Sunday afternoon on WMAL. In 2006 and 2007, WMAL aired a local, issues and current events show on Sunday afternoons, and I filled-in on that show a few times. But I simply would never refer to murder victims as "cowards," anyway. This is an absurd insinuation. The poster suggests that I "wouldn't have the balls" to say all these horrible things to his face. Or is it "her" face? I can't know if it's a "him" or a "her," because in making these outrageous allegations about me, the poster conveniently remains anonymous. The poster concludes his or her remarks by stating "it's just too easy being a radio tough guy..." It appears to me that being a "tough guy (or grl)" internet poster is even easier. Austin Hill, 630 WMAL Radio (2/2/09) You want interpretation? It will be 40 years in August since Jimi Hendix "interpreted" the National Anthem. I dunno, whatever Hudson's personal problems, the Star Spangled Banner at a big sports event is customarily something the crowd sings along with. You can't do that when its performed more like an audition for American Idol. (2/2/09) Why would the programmers for 1260 consider Lefty Ed Schulz for 570, which is dominated by Righty talk, and just as 570 gains a little traction? Bonneville tried the "Left, Right, Whatever We Wanna Be" format on 107.7, and it never caught on. Christian (2/2/09) WBAL did their viewers a favor. Springsteen was awful, absolutely embarrassing. It was probably the hokiest Super Bowl halftime performance ever, and the worst. Which is saying something. And to think that guy once had some credibility. (2/2/09) Channel 11 always shrinks their screen to show the lottery drawing. It is always infuriating, but perhaps they are contractually obligated to do so. According to the Maryland Lottery website: "Sunday evening drawings are selected live on WBAL-TV 11 at 8:10 p.m." That schedule works fine when Sunday Night Football does not start until 8:30 PM. Nightly Mon-Sat drawings take place at 7:56 PM. As for whether this was the best halftime show ever -- that totally depends on if you like Bruce Springsteen's music or not. Personally, I preferred U2, McCartney, Prince, and The Rolling Stones to Springsteen. (2/2/09) 1260 going business news-talk, eh? Jeez, doesn't anyone over at the Zeeb read DCRTV? The only other biz station in the area - WDMV - is peripherally involved in a bankruptcy reorganization. Having another biz station here is like having another sports station, which is like having a vestigial third nipple. What about a hybrid talker that combines elements of Hot Talk, Conservative, Pop Culture and that spooky Art Bell shit? Why should a station just plug into one network and stay there all day (I know, I know... its inexpensive to do so)? Tap from a number of sources and plug in The Tim Conway Jr Show, Monsters in the Morning, Tech Talk Radio, G Gordon Liddy, Adam Carolla et al. Call it "Sybil 1260 - The station with 40 distinctly different personalities." Even better -- put on a LIVE OVERNIGHTER who can keep the town talking after midnight. 1260 might not be the best stick to put that on, but its been years since there's been a compelling and independent voice coming out of the darkness in this town. (2/2/09) ...and what was the purpose of the Ravens logo with the words 'Broadcast Team' in the lower right corner during the entire SuperBowl? (2/2/09) To Chris in DC- were you hanging with Michael Phelps? Smoking some really good gonga? Jennifer was amazing. (2/2/09) Once again Baltimore shows its lack of class. Channel 11 WBAL has to reduce the Boss to a small box on the screen so the Baltimorons can get their lottery numbers. Hey Hon! Dem Ravens ain't in the Super Bowl but I'll tune into the game to get my lottery numbers hon. I raise my Natty Boh in salute to the city that reads! The Tooz (2/2/09) Michael Phelps must not be the ONLY one taking bong hits around these parts Hon, there has to be some PRIMO weed being passed around at Executive Plaza in Hunt Valley, and 3 Leaf Clover HQ in Scranton PA. How else could you explain the utter self destruction of 100.7 The Bay, after years of building it up to a respected stature ??? Just this summer the station had it HIGHest 12+ Arbitron Numbers, 3.7, and 7th place, only to fall to a dismal 14th place and 1.6 in the Fall book. Ironically enough this downfall totally coincides with the arrival of a "part time, only in Baltimore 3 days a week" in house programming consultant who ALSO runs an internet radio station ( www.radiofreecruze.com) that prides itself in "giving the finger to corporate radio" with icons from cartoon fave's saying "Jinkies, corporate radio sure does SUCK!". Witness this supersonic one book decline, never before witnessed in Batlimore Radio History. 1) The sudden departure of Baltimore Radio ICON Chris Emry, 2) Not awarding the resulting morning show skeleton to he does it all but take out the trash, Michael Filippelli, or long time afternoon guy Klug 3) The totally INSANE and IDIOTIC resurection of " Indy's" Bob and Tom on Baltimore Radio with a full ONE YEAR commitment on the part of station management, 4) The sudden departure of Long Time Baltimore DJ, and Senior 8 year air staff member Scott Fitzgerld, 5) And now the even more sudden departure of Randy Rock Johnson, the new KING of Night time Rock Radio in Charm City, not to mention NUMEROUS off the air staff departures. What stupid step is next in this station's SAD decline, and what are the motives of those in charge ??? One can only hope that GM Jeff Laird and the Lynott Family wake up from this NIGHTMARE before they take another CRUZE missle hit to totally wipe out whats left of the Shamrock in Baltimore Radio !!!!! . . . . . One Who KNOWS (2/2/09) It wasn't too many years ago that 1260 had a nice jazz program on Sunday mornings, and I would get out my Select-A-Tenna and tune it in all the way up here in Bawlmer County. Then the station went all-yak and I naturally stopped listening. Reading about the station today, I tried to tune it in out of curiosity, and got nothing. Not even on a Drake receiver with a tuned loop antenna. Have they let their already weak signal deteriorate that much? No wonder they have no ratings. ~~CA in BC (2/2/09) Gues it's a crime to put a little feeling or soul into the National Anthem. (2/2/09) Treating 570 & 1260 as one station would reduce local Red Zebra Broiadcasting down to two simulcasts, a problem when balancing broadcasts of four different basketball teams. The conflicts would be insurmountable. Everett W. (2/2/09) Whomever complained about Jennifer Hudson's singing obviously wasn't watching the same Super Bowl that I was..I think she did a fabulous job. Don't get it.. (2/2/09) Bad night for WBAL-TV...during the greatest half time show, since Michael Jackson played at the Rose Bowl, live local late breaking squeezed the Boss into a small tiny box during his first song, so that they could bring you a taped lottery drawing. We tried to call and complain, but all circuits were busy....maybe the operators were on fire in the surgery center. By the way that same story aired on Channel 2 two years ago... (2/2/09) Dave, I have to echo the sentiments of the reader who complained about Jennifer Hudson's performance. It was so bad I was compelled to change the channel. Her butchering of the National Anthem was an insult to the country, the soldiers in attendance and those fighting around the world. Her parents were murdered? So what? Why bring that into the conversation? Does that mean she gets a pass for murdering this country's anthem? Grammy award winner? Big deal. Milli Vanilli got a few of those too. There is a proper way to sing the anthem -- crisp, clear, and getting the crowd involved so that as "For the land of the free" hits, the entire stadium is up and roaring. Sadly, Jennifer Hudson blew it last night. -Chris in DC (2/2/09) Dave, NBC corporate could simply sell their Nebraska Ave. site separately or along with any sale of WRC television, and re-locate any network news and programming to 400 North Capitol. But despite the money they could have made off the real estate, NBC has held onto it the past 25+ years as they sold other assets. Example 1: Sale of the original WRC 980 AM, studios vacated and moved to a building in Silver Spring. Example 2: Sale of WKYS-FM. New owners rented existing space from NBC for a while then moved. Example 3: Sale of NBC Radio networks (DC bureau supplied material for News on the Hour, NBC's radio affiliate service, and The Source.) Studios & edit bays moved to Westwood One in Arlington. Example 4: Sale of the communications tower on the property. Tower stays put. The wild card is if GE intends to sell its NBC subsidiaries and WRC television. GE could make more money selling the real estate separately to a developer, the local station to a broadcast owner, and let a new owner figure out where to put any remaining NBC network units. We've already seen the breakup of what NBC used to be. It's just crumbs to GE to brush off the local station and what's left of NBC News in DC. (2/2/09) For many years I have failed to understand why 1260 persists in programming for audiences where they have little or no coverage. They have never covered western/northern Montgomery County nor the Virginia suburbs at all well. And now they are making the same error again. Why, oh why, don't they look at their coverage map and program for areas in DC and southeast of DC where they have a good signal? Some sort of urban programming would seem to fit best - probably aimed at older folks who still know how to turn on AM radios. (2/2/09) Dave's response: I've said it before. Red Zebra (previously Clear Channel) needs to treat 570 and 1260 as one station. And put the same signal on both. That's its only chance of getting decent ratings. Both 570 and 1260 have coverage problems, particularly at night..... "RE: Phelps...this guy is setting a bad example...first he gets hit with a DWI (or a DUI) on the Eastern Shore, and not gets snapped hitting the bong....and it was recent! Go ahead, make Baltimore proud you bastard!" I'm not defending what Phelps did but you have to give the guy credit. He immediately came forward, admitted to it and offered an seemingly heartfelt apology. He never tried to cover it up or stonewall to see if it would die a slow death before it got out of hand. Much unlike some recent Cabinet nominees who committed a crime (not paying taxes), covered it up because no one will know about it (they thought), and then only offered their unbelievable apologies after getting caught with their hand in the cookie jar. Phelps will probably end up paying a dear price for his indiscretion because some of his endorsements will likely come to an abrupt end. A youthful indiscretion, but nevertheless with consequences. The guy is still young and human. Only time will tell if he's learned his lesson. /s/Still a Phelps Fan. (2/2/09) In regards to dead-beat brothers… does anyone have a can of Billy Beer in fridge? (2/2/09) Dave's response: Betcha that would fetch a pretty penny on Ebay. No, but I have an autographed glossy of Donald Nixon..... Her lipsynched the nat'l anthum. Not interested. Give me Roseanne any day. They both got big aces -- ThePenIsMightier (2/2/09) Wow, a low in mailbag history. Attacking Jennifer Hudson? Whether one liked her performance or not, let's give the woman some room. She's been through more in the past several months than many of us will go through in a lifetime. A complete lack of class on the part of the poster. (2/2/09) I have been reading that NBC Network is putting up a few of it's tv stations for sale. WRC-TV is one of those stations that is going on the block. Where will WRC-NBC relocate? KNBC-TV4 in Los Angeles is getting a larger and new state of the art studio and is moving from Burbank to Los Angeles. I think NBC is just going to become just a three city operation, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles. I think in the not so distant future, NBC Television will just become a production and distribution company. I am proud of WRC-TV and it's long history and service to the people of Washington. (2/2/09) Dave's response: We have reported like rumors. I wouldn't be surprised to see either ABC or CBS buy 4. Neither of those nets owns their DC affiliates. But, what would happen to WRC's 4001 Nebraska Avenue, since it also doubles as the DC news bureau for NBC? Hmmm..... I read that WTTG is doing news in HD. Why is it that WRC-TV has not done it since the whole HD process was develop in it's basement under the call letters of WHD-TV ? (2/2/09) Dave's response: Because, basically, WRC's "on the market" and NBC doesn't want to put any more money into it..... Dave...in response to your response about Phelps... I agree. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with smoking a little pot here and there, but he did this after the Olympics and was dumb enough to get caught on film. That was the stupid move! Not to mention, it is all over the news where the millions that look up to his as inspiration now know this dirty secret. Somethings just need to be done in private, you know. Not to mention, I would like to see some endorsements get yanked from him. (2/2/09) /\ February 2 Messages /\ \/ February 1 Messages \/ Let me be among the first to disagree with you about "her" version of the National Anthem. First of all, "her" name is Jennifer Hudson. She is an Academy Award winning actress and four-time Grammy nominated singer. Furthermore, this was her first public performance since the slayings of her mother, brother and nephew last October. Her performance was NOT off-key, and the song was completely recognizable. Also, I'm not sure what feed you were watching because there was no live backing orchestra, and General Petraeus was not shown during or immediately after her performance on NBC. You can view the performance again here: www.youtube.com (2/1/09) To Tom Gauger: My wife hasn't listened willingly to WMAL since they fired you and John Lyons. -- GAB in the Airless Cubicle (2/1/09) Let me be among the first to complain about the crappy "performance" of the National Anthem at the Super Bowl. Her version of it was musically clumsy, at times off-key, and for the most part she rendered the song unrecognizable. The backing orchestra seemed puzzled too, and Genl. Petraeus, loyal American, looked pained as the woman gave her "interpretation" of the material. (2/1/09) Responding to the post here in the mailbag about the canning of overnight host Steve LeVeille by Boston's WBZ radio, 1030 AM, which can be heard fairly well at night in the DC area. Apparently, Steve was a victim of budget cuts and was dumped a few weeks ago BUT listeners successfully lobbied the station to bring Steve back to his old time slot. Here's his web site which links to more info: www.geocities.com/~radiosteve (2/1/09) RE: Phelps...this guy is setting a bad example...first he gets hit with a DWI (or a DUI) on the Eastern Shore, and not gets snapped hitting the bong....and it was recent! Go ahead, make Baltimore proud you bastard! (2/1/09) Dave's response: I have no problem with Phelps doing pot bong hits in public. Hey, we all did them back in our college days. But, then again, we didn't have millions of dollars of endorsement deals to lose..... (Was Limbaugh ever on another station in the DC market besides MAL?" -- Yes. Limbaugh, when he first started his syndicated program, was on 1050 in when the call sign was WNTR. -- GAB in the Airless Cubicle!) (Dave's response: Still, when Rush was on WNTR he wasn't also on WMAL, too. He moved to WMAL.....) And that was after they fired me. Tom Gauger (2/1/09) Dave: Okay, I've waited long enough, but after a week of bad Super Bowl coverage by all of the local stations, can I be the first one to say, I miss George and Sonny!!! I've watched ESPN and NFL Network's coverage and all they did was rotate people in-and-out of the interview chair. Yes, George and Sonny did the same but at least George provided another angle to that player or hung-out with a players' child or wife and showed what they meant to the league ot community. Two days ago, I watched Channel 4 and some clueless reporter did a generic feature full of amateur editing wipes...he was obviously a news reporter because there were some factual mistakes. I know the bad economy has changed the overall landscape of TV news. However, here's one example where there are very few TV professionals left in the business. (2/1/09) The actions of the President's half brother became newsworthy many years ago when every little thing that a Bush family member did, not matter what age, not matter what relationship, became a reason the media wanted an investigation of whichever Bush was in office. Remember that open administration Obama promised, nothing hidden in the shadows, full disclosure of any conflicts of interest,,,well there you have it. Having a half brother who is a dope head could influence the President in his decisions on the criminality of drug use and subsequent policy. Therefore we need to know. You think I am stretching it? Not at all. This is exactly how the media has treated and questioned the latest Bush for eight years. Get used to it, because the fun has only begun. Seeing how many tax evaders Obama has put forth for his cabinet, it does appear that we need lots of vetting of the President's men and half brothers. Anyone care to note where the Washington Post put this story? (2/1/09) Dave's response: In all fairness, we didn't see Marvin Bush plastered all over the Post's pages either, did we? "Was Limbaugh ever on another station in the DC market besides MAL?" -- Yes. Limbaugh, when he first started his syndicated program, was on 1050 in when the call sign was WNTR. -- GAB in the Airless Cubicle! (2/1/09) Dave's response: Still, when Rush was on WNTR he wasn't also on WMAL, too. He moved to WMAL..... A few weeks ago, Mr. Johnny Dark mentioned that WBZ Boston cut the hours of it news operation by eliminating news nights and overnights. Well I recently listened to the WBZ overnight show and noticed the absence of familiar Overnight Host Steve Nevelli. There's now a show on the station that sounds like some nationally syndicated overnight thing. If this is a permanent thing-- then it means this long time news and information powerhouse has really been gutted and has really gone to the dogs. This was one of the few places on the dial where you could escape Rush Limbaugh re airs and find local talk and local news at night. CBS Radio has killed another great station. It's time for the new administration to make the Clear Channels, CBSs and the rest to sell these stations and put them back in local control so the mass murdering of radio and its staffers can end. It really hurts to watch this stuff. How can you not make a profit and be successful in a market when you own or control four and five radio stations, own a TV station and CBS billboard advertising for cross promotion in these markets like Boston and Baltimore? How do you not win? This was going on years before the October 2008 turn in the market, so don't blame the economy. Can someone explain this to me Dan Mason, or Bob Phillips? Somebody help me! (2/1/09) I know there's some kind of sweaty men sporting event and who doesn't like sweaty men, rowrrr babeee, but 94.7 is running a halfway decent '70s show today. Wish I'd tuned in earlier. --- ThePenisMightier (2/1/09) Dave's response: Great flash back show by Chris Emry today. Why the fuck can't 94.7 sound this good on the weekdays? Come on - more deep tracks every damn day! No, the Globe has to stick to the bland, way over-played crap from Monday through Friday. That's what the advertisers want - not the listeners! Sheesh..... DCRTV Dave wrote: "Dave's response: I'm told that there's a talker called WTNT (anybody ever heard it???) in the DC market and that Dennis is signed to that. WMAL can't just "run" him....." Liddy was on multiple stations in this area for years. Same for Savage and Limbaugh. Have you seen the contract? If only I had thought to say "Don't know if they can as WTNT runs at least part of it." Oh, wait, I did. I guess that's another DCRTV scoop! Beth Ann McBride Shake Yer Boobs! --- ThePenIsMightier (2/1/09) Dave's response: Yeah, dope, Liddy has been heard on multiple stations in the DC market - BUT NOT AT THE SAME TIME! Was Limbaugh ever on another station in the DC market besides MAL? Don't think so. Frederick and Baltimore stations don't count because they're out-of-market..... Dave, Here as a public service is your Super Bowl Day Planner - NBC 4 and WBAL 11 got started already with Today from the Super Bowl as NBC will air over 14 hours of pregame programming. But ESPN and the NFL Network is also in on the act. www.dcexaminer.com... here are some highlights for your viewing pleasure.... Cheers, Jim (2/1/09) Have the main stream news media CNN, FOX, ABC lost it's ever loving mind to what is news? When do the presidents half brother arrested for having one joint become a major news item with headlines that read like, "The President Brother Arrested For Drugs" and fail to mention it was one or two joints? Another issue that concern me is the lick of Respect form main stream media for the office of President, it's been said from time to time by some wise old heads you don't have to Respect the man but Respect the office of the President. Why do most main stream news media outlets still continue to call President Obama, Obama, when names and titles are important in this industry.>>Peace and Love>>Billy Ray Edwards, Wpfw Local Station Board Member. (2/1/09) dissing Farhi? Aren't you guys brothers in the "People Hated by Mr Tony" Club? (2/1/09) Dave's response: Ha ha ha..... from the post last week, "Channel 9 11 pm news looks like market 100". What do you expect from the two disinterested anchors with zero chemistry and the top nightside reporter is Britney Morehouse!? The weekend crew are the best the station has, 2 nights out of 7 ain't bad, the best ratings nights the station gets. WUSA has offered buyouts to its employees. My advice, get out while they still have a few bucks to buy you out! JC... 6 people could keep jobs at the station if you had the class to step aside and keep 9 Alive. (2/1/09) Austin Hill = Douche. I'm as conservative as a cheese-impacted colon, and I liked his show until my commute changed and I could listen to the whole thing. The first ten minutes is the whole show, get in a lather, rinse, repeat. He goes on and on about his education and the fact that he gets invited to be on radio shows all over the country. If WMAL was smart, they'd run the entire Dennis Miller show. Don't know if they can as WTNT runs at least part of it. And on Daschle, since when does the RECIPIENT of a gift pay the taxes? Aren't gift taxes for the giver, or is it different when the giver is a corporation? Kudos to the Daschman for getting his situation straightened out "just in case" his guy won and he was offered a position. Full marks for thinking ahead. In his case the taxes should be a non-issue. See? Fair and balanced. Well, truth be told, Sunday morning coming down --- ThePenIsMIghtier (2/1/09) Dave's response: I'm told that there's a talker called WTNT (anybody ever heard it???) in the DC market and that Dennis is signed to that. WMAL can't just "run" him..... In the Sunday Washington Post, "Man Walks Tightrope Under Gigantic Anus" -- see the artwork on the front page of the Business Section. (2/1/09) Dave's response: Have you noticed that many of the Post's sections, particularly the Style section, often feature large pics or graphics on their front pages. To make up for the lack of filler copy..... /\ February 1 Messages /\ \/ January 31 Messages \/ My original comment about the DC AM clip: "The schmucks in the DC AM clip above say some form of the word 'fuck' 13 times in less than two minutes. And yes, I have way too much time on my hands..." Their response: "Because you're a fan of f-word, s-word and m-word abuse, and actually do have way too much time on your hands" My rebuttal: I'm flattered that you responded to my observation in a revamped version of your ad, thus proving that you have way too much time on your hands as well. P.S. - I hate the m-word. (1/31/09) Ref: “A new country station is coming to Delmarva next week...” Does this have anything to do with JJ Hitman McKay announcing his two week notice on the radio Friday morning on 107.9 fm, JJ said his last day on WEES will be Friday Feb 13th. I think Joe's calls are his old ones WKHI right? (1/31/09) Fox 5 went HD as of the 6PM Show tonight, everything appeared to go smoothly. The set and new HD Weather Graphics looked terrific. The is a slight video pop in and out of commerical breaks as the picture goes from SD to HD. (1/31/09) Hey Dave, just letting you know that Randy "Rock" Johnson's last shift was this past Wednesday night. AJ did Thursday night and Sarah Taylor did Friday night. (1/31/09) Dave's response: I have updated the Front Page blurb. Thanks..... Here's my post at BaltimoreSun.com about the Nasty Nestor incident on Ray Frager's blog: "Yeah, I always "make peace" with my enemies by wearing a wire and stalking them to instigate trouble. Yeah, that's always the best way to make amends. HAHA! It doesn't matter who shoved who first or had said what first really or what's on the video or audio. The facts are enough... Gordon Keith sought Nestor Aparicio out knowing he could instigate an argument by wearing a mike and make news and get some attention for his boring radio show. Guess what people? There's no news here. Who cares? I doubt even the police care. (Disclaimer: I'm not even a fan of Nasty Nestor nor do I listen to his radio station, can't even get it at my house, but I do have a brain and can identify shameless PR when I see it)" (1/31/09) How the hell can ABC operate effectively without a unified engineering division? These are the guys who helped coordinate the construction of the White House Press Briefing Room, and run one of the technically-tightest operations anywhere. Do you want save money where it counts? Ask some of the really high-$ news presenters (not the guys that hit the streets) to accept a salary cut, or start grooming some of the up-and-comers for an earlier-than-expected move to the anchor seat, at about 50-75% of what the lead guys make. But engineering??? Come on, who is going to put the Magic Blue Smoke back in the box when something goes "zap" and it all leaks out? (1/31/09) A new country station is coming to Delmarva next week...Monday or Tuesday expect an "average joe" to go country. (1/31/09) President Obama (which I know that it is hard for some of you to acknowledge) seemed to be joking about the weather in Washington. Everyone from areas that have a lot of snow always talk about how we can’t handle snow and ice and how we can’t drive. He is not the first and will not be the last. Relax. (1/31/09) As far as post re: "Good riddance to Kris Gamble", THAT is a true story, isn't it Cal E.Gee, HP Farris and Park Parker? Go figure (it out)... no really. As far as the Junkies, well, when your core (P1) listeners text you and tell you to talk about something else, what do you think your potential (P3, P4) listeners are doing? Oh, I know...not listening! And Silvie, Austin Hill "successful"? OK...but he got demoted, after less than a year, on a low-rated, confederate, ERRR, right wing station. But then again, this is radio. The only business where you can fail up! Ask Bennett Zier! -He Hate Me! (1/31/09) Don't remember if it's been mentioned in the mailbag, but has Mark Clarke found another gig?..And, I noticed Friday that his wife Allison Seymour didn't have on her wedding ring..Hope that doesn't mean something.. (1/31/09) If the Baltimore Sun's printing plant is so new and modern, why does its output SMELL so BAD? The Sun STINKS, and this time I'm not referring to its editorial content. At least the Examiner figured out how to print newspapers that didn't make me physically sick, plus the ink didn't come off on your hands. Why can't the Sun's "modern" printing plant do that? (1/31/09) Someone needs to tell ESPN executives that "what the fans want" is not a legitimate defense for sex discrimination. On a side issue Mr. Hughes, are you referring to Paul Farhi as Paul Blart on purpose or is the Mall Cop movie just stuck in your brain? Everett W. (1/31/09) Dave's response: On purpose..... I'll almost never celebrate the firing of anyone in radio, but that piece of shit Austin Hill is one exception. WMAL should have fired that worthless mouthbreather back when he went on the air and called the victims of the Virginia Tech shootings coward. On that Sunday afternoon, not only did he reveal his incapacity for coherent thinking, but he also proved that he has no class, decorum, and certainly doesn't know dick about what courage and bravery are. Of the many things WMAL should be embarassed about these days, his continued employment is at the top of the list. It's about time his sorry ass got thrown off the air, and it should stay off. It was easy for him to take that shot from 3,000 miles away. But I'd bet anything he wouldn't have the balls to look me or anyone else offended by that in the eyes, face to face, and say what he said, knowing he'd regret the consequences. It's just too easy being a radio tough guy. (1/31/09) The only people who talk about the Fairness Doctrine are paranoid conservatives and twits who take advantage of those paranoid conservatives for their own benefit. Case in point: Robert McDowell who is trying to use Fairness Doctrine paranoia to thwart Net Neutrality which has nothing at all to do with the Fairness Doctrine. (The idea behind Net Neutrality is to prevent internet service providers from showing favoritism to some sites over others). See: arstechnica.com (1/31/09) "Anyway, the morning duo gets to the number 1 soundbyte, plays it, then chortles -- without ever identifying the speaker! They follow up with a subsequent comment from Bill Clinton, referencing the first comment. They ID Clinton but still say NOTHING about the first speaker's name. Nice job, guys!" -- I found this fascinating so I listened to the podcast of the segment. Are you referring to what is clearly Andy Parks' voice reciting a poem and Andy Parks saying afterwards "That was my poem"? --- ThePenIsMightier (1/31/09) At about 2:00 this afternoon, just after I had finished a radio segment for WNST in Baltimore back at my Tampa hotel, Sports Network MLB editor Chris Ruddick texted me to see if I had heard anything about the fight that occurred on "Radio Row" this morning. Though I was apparently mere feet from Radio Row when the incident occurred, I knew absolutely nothing about it, and pressed for any details Ruddick had. Strangely enough, the incident involved WNST owner and sometimes-radio personality Nestor Aparicio, who reportedly choked Dallas radio personality Gordon Keith in what we'll hope is the culmination of an ongoing battle between the two. The police were called, and a source at WNST told me that Aparicio was charged with battery, though not arrested. Not real sure what the feud is all about, but I can tell you that mere minutes before the incident reportedly took place, at 8:45am, I was talking to Aparicio on the shuttle ride that departed at 8:30am from our hotel to the Super Bowl XLIII media center. Aparicio told me that he and his wife went to see The Eagles at the St. Pete Forum last night, and he told me he was tired after staying up too late after the show. Perhaps he encountered Keith before his morning Starbucks kicked in. Bizarre. tsnextrapoints.blogspot.com (1/31/09) ("the week after Sarah Palin showed live on the Chris Plante Show she had no f’ing clue what the First Amendment actually meant, her really dumb statement, made on the Chris Plante Show and reported around the world, didn’t make it on the top five soundbites.") neither did Dear Leader's hemming and hawing over the "heller" decision, even though he's supposedly a constitutional lawyer and no friend of the second amendment; or his belief that midwesterners "cling to god and guns" when the government doesn't piss away more money. oh, and nice of Dear Leader to have yet *another* tax cheat nominated to his cabinet. good thing his nominees aren't to the right of "countrywide" chris dodd. they might be called out on it. and thanks for a "stimulus" that's nothing more than a payoff to places that supported the cause during the election. iiiiiiiiiiiiiii'mmmm the cult of personality. (1/31/09) /\ January 31 Messages /\ \/ January 30 Messages \/ Ah, wise words from Silvie once again. A gig that ran from Mar 08 to now is not a successful run. It didn't even last a whole year. Hopefully Chris Plante will follow the lead of Austin whats his face (his last name is on the tip of my tongue. Problem is, he wasn't on the air long enough for me to remember it) and be shown the door soon too. I doubt it will happen. He must obviously work very cheap. Where else would a low caliber talk show host like him work? Besides Arby's? He does have a voice for a drive thru. Actually do you start off at Arbys and end up at WMAL or is it the other way around? (1/30/09) People wonder how Aunt Bee got her New England accent after living a lifetime in small-town North Carolina, just a stone's throw away from Mount Pilot. Maybe she came from the black-sheep, Yankee side of the Taylor family? (Apparently Miss Bavier (may she rest in peace) and Mister Griffith didn't get along.) (1/30/09) The Baltimore Sun got a sweatheart deal on the land just off I-95 in south Baltimore for their printing plant. I believe its one of the newest/modern ones in the area, and even Zel Miller has discussed its sale previously, so don't hold your breath on that printing press staying put or Tribune owned. Even WALMART is selling off part of ITS land down there for condos on a deep water marina capable piece of their land something that is hard to find in any big city these days. I think everything is on the table now with Tribune. I wouldn't even be surprised if the printing plant land and the paper itself were sold separately! (1/30/09) In times like these, why is Congress ramming through a bill to put people out of work and cost businesses millions of dollars, all unnecessarily? I'm talking about the ridiculous plan to delay the DTV transition. Have a look at www.tvtechnology.com -- "There are literally millions of dollars of contracts around the country for people to move at the last minute.... delaying their analog shutoff and tower work may also delay equipment delivery, delaying revenue for manufacturers, incurring storage costs. Vendors and crews have other chores they planned to get to after taking care of the Feb. 17 transition." Make that the _promised_ Feb. 17 transition. This delay bill is more proof you can't trust anything the government says. (1/30/09) Hey Liberal whiners. If you don't care for Rush or Sean, don't listen to them! Go to Air America or NBC, the Obama Network. After all, didn't President Obama say not to listen to Rush? I rest my case. Eastern Shore Conservative and proud of it ! (1/30/09) Dave, I'd like to take this moment to give thanks to Austin Hill, evening talk show host at 630 WMAL since the beginning of March '08, for all the wonderful shows, analysis and success that he's had over the past year. Austin was able to successfully pick up where Chris Plante left off in order to make the move to mornings. Austin also successfully mixed politics & breaking news with pop culture, which is something that not many hosts are able to accomplish. Starting this Monday, Feb. 2nd, Austin's show will make way to Mark Levin's new 3rd hour (6 - 9pm), followed by Curtis Sliwa (9pm - 12am) and then Coast to Coast (12 - 5am). Therefore, we the loyal WMAL fans will not be able to listen to Austin anymore during the evenings, but we are certain that he will return on-air on occasion. We wish him the best of luck, and he will be missed. -Silvie- (1/30/09) Sorry to hear that Tim Medina lost his battle with Lou Gehrig's Disease. There's a fuzzy VHS-quality photo of him signing for WTTG's "Newsbag" at kaptainkidshow.com (1/30/09) Surely the Sun will continue to be printed in Baltimore. It's just the stories that will be "shipped" electronically from Chicago. When you see the Financial Times in the Giant, I assure you that it was printed in the USA from images sent by wire/satellite from the UK. The papers were NOT printed in the UK and airlifted to the USA. The Wall Street Journal has been printed locally in many places around the USA. (1/30/09) Dave you might want to print this out and save it for future reference. I had always wondered how Aunt Bee had become Andy's housekeeper in the Andy Griffith show. Well would you believe that on Wednesday night the 7:00 pm episode showed a character called "Rose, Andy's housekeeper and cook, getting married in Mayberry's courthouse by Sheriff Andy. Opie, who looked like he was about four, was protesting and did not want Rose to leave. Andy suggested his Aunte Bee, who Opie had never met, and the rest is history. It must have been one of the first episodes in the series. (1/30/09) Hello Dave. As it has been posted several times before, we do not have the infrastructure or resources of Chicago, the Midwest or Northeast for SNOW removal. And anyone can learn to drive in snow. However it is impossible to walk, drive and get around in ICE. And people who are chauffeured every where with an advance staff to shovel snow and ice really should not comment on how we handle things here. I am still breaking up ice in my driveway and my car was facing east and west in it because of the ice, not snow. -MoCo resident (1/30/09) This guy is right on the money billmcmahonblog.blogspot.com (1/30/09) Now that Michael Steele has assumed the throne of the RNC, will El Rushbo and his clones spin the 'Mike the Magic Negro' record or is that now considered 'offensive'? Does 'white guilt' now suddenly not apply? Will WMAL take that final plunge into absurdity to never return or will they wimp out the way Rep. Gingrey did when the Dittohead Squad sliced off his sack after standing up to the 'Ignorant & Uneducated America's Anchorman'? Oh, and by the way, Mr. Plante - good work this morning. By all means keep it up. Your unabated willful ignorance of economics and history - similar to El Rushbo's, I must add - will guarantee that your 'side' will continue to fail in the years (generations?) to come. Good to see that your 'edyookashun' from the Limbaugh Institute has really paid off. Mike in Manassas (1/30/09) What a sad end to a once great newspaper. No, I mean The Baltimore Sun, NOT The Baltimore Examiner! The Baltimore Sun once was a more prestigious newspaper than even The Washington Post with more worldwide bureaus. I realize the newspaper industry is down as a whole, but what a total failure the last 2 companies to own The Sun have been, first Times Mirror, then Tribune. Laughably bad editorial staffs and management, and now The Chicago Tribune is going to supply pages when The Sun has its OWN LOCAL state of the art printing plant ??? Makes no sense to me. I think this is the first step to Tribune selling The Sun's printing plant. It's on very valuable land now that will most likely eventually be developed for high rise condos and marinas and has deep water access for even the largest yachts. It's clear to me Tribune intends to sell off lots of assets to stay afloat. I wish that local ownership group that kicked The Sun's tires would have made an offer and bought the paper. It's clear Tribune has no clue what to do with The Baltimore Sun, nor does the company care. They have much bigger problems in bigger cities to take care of first. Face it, if you can't succeed running a virtual monopoly (no one in Bmore ever read The Baltimore Examiner, trust me), your company has serious issues that are BEYOND the sinking newspaper industry decline as a whole, not to mention that Baltimore is a city weathering the economic downturn far better than in many other cities! :-( (1/30/09) Dave, is this the same Shari Elliker that was on the Don and Mike show back in the day? sharielliker.com (1/30/09) Dave's response; Yes. She currently does late mornings on Baltimore news talker WBAL, 1090 AM..... another day, another nomination - Major Market News/Talk Station of the year in the Radio & Records News/Talk/Sports awards: WTOP Radio. The competition: WSB Atlanta, WEEI Boston, KFI Los Angeles, KGO San Francisco and WFLA, Tampa. (1/30/09) Christian: I don't blame Nehman, Parks et.al. for not listening to WMAL during their off-air hours. It's bad enough that these guys and their crew have to be at the station at 2 or 2:30 a.m., do a show for 4 straight hours with "happy faces" and then linger on for morning meetings and/or filming post-show videos. Plus, they have to perhaps go to sleep at the ungodly hour of 6 p.m. or so in order to get a good night's sleep so they can perform in a geared-up mood the next morning. I cannot image how Nehman adapts to this schedule with two toddlers in the house, and he most likely spends time with his kids while Hannity is on-air. If the Congressman's comments were about Limbaugh, and he went first to the Limbaugh show, then I can understand why that was the sound bite aired, so it's not necessary to mention him 'groveling' on other shows. The voice of the man on cut number one was Bush 41. Go Cardinals! -Silvie- (1/30/09) WJFK is 21st in the ratings, but isn't that the 12+ ratings? What are their ratings for men 25-54 or 18-54? The 12+ ratings numbers don't really apply to WJFK as that is not their target demographic. Does anyone know what the demo numbers actually are? (1/30/09) There has been no talk of bringing back “the fairness Doctrine” among the Democratic leadership in the House or Senate. The ones who keep bringing it up are the kooks like Hannity, Levin, Plante, and Kinsolving. Did you know Les asked Dana Parino about Obama once and she had to correct him on the basic facts of his premise? Did you know Les asked Ari “Does the President think Thomas Jefferson was an adulterer?” Nuts, I tell you, they are all nuts; but with the election over, and the War on Christmas over, they need a fake controversy to hold them over until the economy is fixed and they can praise George W. Bush for fixing it and blame Obama for inaction. As for the bias in the top five soundbites this week that Christian bought up; the week after Sarah Palin showed live on the Chris Plante Show she had no f’ing clue what the First Amendment actually meant, her really dumb statement, made on the Chris Plante Show and reported around the world, didn’t make it on the top five soundbites. But what did make it? Why Joe Biden, of course! (1/30/09) Shari Ellikker was referred to as "Shari Licker (or Liquor)" by Don & Mike when she worked for them. Their producer at the time was Diana Silman, maybe that's who they referred to as "Big Hair" it was so long ago I can't quite remember. GOD I MISS DON AND MIKE!!!!!! Greg in Reisterstown (1/30/09) Good Riddance to Kris Gamble. She was one of the most self-centered self-serving pesons I have ever had the displeasure of working with. I recall being in a station meeting with her (at HOT 99.5) when she replied, "I don't understand why they can't induce labor with his wife so he can get back to work". This was in response to a comment that the station engineer was over-loaded, exhausted, and to be a little patient with him. Yeah, real nice person. (1/30/09) What was the name of Don and Mike's first traffic reporter when they moved to WJFK? All I can remember is they used a nickname "Big Hair" for her and she might have grown up in the Philly area. It wasn't Kris Gamble was it? Tom in Silver Spring (1/30/09) Dave's response: Shari Elliker? Nasty Nestor Aparicio Attacks Gordon Keith www.dallassportsfans.com (1/30/09) On the subject of Washington Examiner's delivery and availability, which I often couldn't find in Fairfax City during the early days of the paper, I offer this update. Beginning four or five weeks ago, the Examiner started showing up in my driveway on Sundays only. I don't know what changed after four or five years, but I used to have to chase down the paper at various distribution boxes, which often weren't stocked in the mornings, on my way to work. Now I work in a building just down the block from an Examiner distribution box, but I pick up the paper only on days when I'm out, such as Thursdays, when I'm looking for the latest City Paper. Speaking of which, the City Paper does seem to have gotten a bit more prompt in the past several weeks. I find it now during my lunch break on Thursdays, rather than having to wait until Friday. Christian (1/30/09) Leo Burnett Chicago just laid off 75 people. And literally minutes ago Hill Holiday Boston just called an emergency meeting, the news presumably being more layoffs. (1/30/09) What is up with 104.3?? I’ve really been craving a good adult alternative station in the Baltimore area since HFS’s original demise several years ago but this station has got to be the worst. Their on-air jocks are all extremely boring, with the exception of Elliott who is just plain annoying and the music is the same old crap over and over again. How hard is it make a good alternative station?? Sure wish Jake Einstein was still around. Driven-to-mp3’s (1/30/09) Did you hear the on air apology from the Junkies this morning? At the end of a segment Cakes appeared to read a statement stating that someone was offended who was not familar with the show. He added we want to apologize to Jocelyn and we are sorry if we upset or offended her. He then ended the show. Anyone know what they did or said that warranted an on-air apology? (1/30/09) Anyone know what the business hours are at GW? Been along time since I was in college. Seems like business hours were Noon to 2pm. Thanks, I am planning to take the subway down and check this one out either today or next week. ("The exhibit may be visited during business hours in the main lobby of the Media And Public Affairs Building at George Washington University, 805 21st Street NW, DC. More at radiohistory.org.....") Tom, Fairfax (1/30/09) So I'm on my way to work, listening to Nehman and Parks do their weekly soundbyte countdown on WMAL. First, they play a clip (ranked number 4 for the week, I think) of a congressman from Georgia apologizing to Rush Limbaugh for comments he made to the Politico. Nehman accuses the guy of groveling, Parks agrees, and Nehman states repeatedly how disappointing it was that the congressman went on the Limbaugh show. I happened to have WMAL on in my office the afternoon the congressman apologized, and I left the dial on WMAL through the remainder of my work day. So I know that the same congressman appeared on Sean Hannity's show, then completed "the circuit" that night by offering an apology on "The Mark Levin Show." The congressman obviously wanted to reach conservatives with his apology, but whether or not you agree with the tactics, don't you think Nehman and Parks would've pointed out that the guy appeared not only on WMAL's early afternoon show, but on their mid-afternoon AND evening shows as well? The absence of such obvious station-program plugs makes me wonder if the two morning hosts even bother to listen to their own station when they're off the clock. Who knows -- maybe their Pacifica fans? Anyway, the morning duo gets to the number 1 soundbyte, plays it, then chortles -- without ever identifying the speaker! They follow up with a subsequent comment from Bill Clinton, referencing the first comment. They ID Clinton but still say NOTHING about the first speaker's name. Nice job, guys! Christian (1/30/09) I really don't see what the big talk about WJFK's poor PPM performance is about. Hot talk is a very niche format that only appeals to certain people and between Commercials, Weekend Infomercials, The Flunkies, O'Meara on his own, and who knows what's on the air past 7pm. It's not hard to figure out and at some point WJFK will be gone. How long can you pay out the rear for an underperforming morning show & for O'Meara well past the Don & Mike prime? CBS has money issues supposedly but the can still keep the life support pumps going on that sinking ship. They've got the WHFS calls on 1580 now put them to use on the FM. Then again killing WJFK would probably kill Michael Hughe's pride since they seem so reluctant to pull the plug on a station that's already dead in the water. Also WJZ-FM should run HFS-2 Alt rock on the friday nights after 7pm and weekends. (1/30/09) I used to like to grab a copy of the Baltimore Eximiner to read while I ate lunch, until I couldn't find one anymore. First, they delivered to my driveway. That ended after just about everyone else in the neighborhood put up "NO FREE PAPERS" signs. Then, I could pick them up in boxes near bus stops; until they stopped filling the boxes. No one can read a paper you don't ever deliver anywhere. Howie (1/30/09) Dave's response: The DC Examiner's availability here in Northern Virginia is pretty hit-and-miss. A news box by the Reston Silver Diner is gone. And when it was there, it frequently featured old papers. A news box at Hunters Woods Center seems more reliably stocked. And I can find the Examiner most days at the Reston Regional Library. But that's about it for Reston. The paper is simply not available at most other area shopping centers and newsstands..... " As I understand it, these whores are not even actual staff of WJFK so why do they think we care?" As I understand it, they decided to go with younger whores, and that's why your mom didn't make the cut. The Buzz Babes are in fact paid appearance fees. What station is your show on? I'd like to check it out. Oh....... As for Dave's jab about ratings, it's not all about ratings, it's about revenue. That's why Imus is still on the air, and the Redskins are the most profitable team in the NFL, even with their abysmal record, directly attributable to that horrid oxygen-wasting midget Daniel Snyder. Early on, Makhetsi actually drank on the air until someone (and will that someone please Shake Yer Boobs!!!) figured out "wait a minute, she's not 21 yet." To summarize: your mother's a whore, Dan Snyder is an oxygen wasting midget who has ruined a Washington institution (mad cow), and Beth Ann, SYB !!! --- ThePenIsMIghtier (1/30/09) Dave's response: I can't imagine that Imus is still on the air because of "revenue" - or ratings. The only reason he's still on the air in NYC or on DC's WJZW (which ranks 22nd in morning drive in the latest PPMs) is because Citadel boss Farid Suleman is a big fan..... TNT will show a biopic of Johns Hopkins' own Dr. Ben Carson, starring Cuba Gooding Jr. More information at www.tnt.tv... -Fferret (1/30/09) "Howie Kurtz has more on the Washington Post's plans to ditch its Sunday Book World section. In Thursday's Post. The Post's plans to further slim down the Sunday edition leaked out yesterday and were reported by dozens of websites, including DCRTV....." Dave, that's hardly a "leak" (bet you've heard that before at our age) when the Post publishes in the Post what the Post plans for the Post. And you could have edited it down, to, say, "DCRTV brought you some stuff that you read in the newspaper." How about publishing same day solutions to the Stickelers? -- ThePenIsMIghtier (1/30/09) (RE:Regarding the story: "DTV Deadline Extension Would Delay PG Emergency Radio Upgrade" Can someone explain what is so special about foliage attenuation in April, May, and early June to cause a one year delay? Last I checked the leaves are still on the trees well into November. I can understand PGC not wanting to delay their new radio system any longer but this sounds like trumped up BS.) First off, Motorola is involved. Delays = MORE CASH FOR MOTOROLA. No wonder PG County wants to get it over with. What I find most bizarre is that no one is currently using the 799 - 804 (old analog) Channel 69 frequencies, and these are the channels that PG County has pegged for use with their system. It doesn't make much sense that they can't install them and use them in testing mode since they are already assigned to be handed over to PG the mintue the plug is pulled on DTV and the "clearance" is made final. The space is already clear! Then again, nothing the FCC does these days makes much sense. As for the leaves on the trees, yes, it makes a big difference on a system that is supposed to be penentrating buildings. 1 dB of signal loss can make a big difference to a police officer in trouble. The other thing to remember, this system is new TDMA split channel (2 calls per trunked channel) 700 MHz technology. Motorola is chomping at the bit to get this thing installed, test it, and then use it to convince everyone in the country that just spent millions of grant funding for P25 that they need to upgrade again. (1/30/09) I said from DAY 1 in the mailbag that the BALTIMORE EXAMINER would FAIL! So I'm hardly surprised. For ONE SIMPLE REASON...... Baltimore is a very provincial city, no outta town carpet-bagger newspapers (mostly written out of DC) will ever be easily welcomed by the masses in Baltimore. Just like FOX 5 NEWS on WUTB MY24 failed. It's just that simple, it's not that kind of city, not like DC where everyone is from somewhere else. My early suggestion for the Examiner was to partner with HEARST, buy the Baltimore News American name (the OLDEST BALTIMORE NEWSPAPER btw when it folded), partner with WBAL radio and/or TV (which were co-owned with that paper), and go with that. But nope, they chose to clone the DC paper in Baltimore and guess what happened? baBYE! Oh well, at least they failed exactly just like I predicted and for my predicted reasons. -- Joe in Essex :-) (1/30/09) /\ January 30 Messages /\ \/ January 29 Messages \/ while 94.7 was a triple A station, i was wishing that DC would someday have a true classic rocker again. WBIG definately did not count as one. then one day in August, voila! 94.7 begins playing classic rock again....and it bcomes to me the best station in DC to me. but, since they had jerry hoyt doing evenings and constantly hearing keep your hands to yourself by georgia sattelites, and other overplays such as lynard skynard and mellencamp i just cant stand them anymore. now i wish the AAA format was back. i threw away my globe bumper sticker even. nowadays, its about WJFK to me from 5 till 7...... (1/29/09) Dave's response: DC101 owes its 7th place in the PPMs to CBS, which hasn't got a fucking clue about how to program 94.7..... Hey Dave, This is the kind of radio station 94.7 The Globe should be instead of a boring classic rock station. Introducing 106.9 The Lodge in Door County, Wisconsin “World Class Rock For A World Class County WLGE 106.9 FM”. www.fm1069thelodge.com (1/29/09) Sign of the times. Metropolitan Washington Ear, the radio reading service for the visually impaired, has had to layoff staff because of reduced funding from local government agencies. One full-time board op and one or two part-time board ops were "let go." The non-profit moved into wholly-owned digs in Silver Spring last Fall. Programming cut backs mean more satellite feeds from Minnesota Talking Books. No sign of cutbacks in executive suites at for-profits. (1/29/09) Heat for me, but not for thee. Dear Leader says we need to cut back on our energy usage, but he gets to turn the white hosue thermostat up so high he can grow orchids in the West Wing. “We can’t drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times … and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK,” Obama said during the campaign. “That’s not leadership. That’s not going to happen”. So much for that "responsibility" declaration. I'm sure the MSM will point this out anytime now. At least Carter wore a sweater when he called for the same thing. (1/29/09) Why is WJFK pushing a 21st birthday party for one of MO'Ms buzz"babes"? Can they not come up with a valid reason to have an appearance? As I understand it, these whores are not even actual staff of WJFK so why do they think we care? On another note, is Buzz going to die of lung cancer soon? His smoker laugh sounds disgusting and has pneumonia-like crackling. Ick. You know, I really like the shorter commercial breaks for Junkies and O&D. Too bad that MO'M can't do it because I have actually left WJFK during his show and listened to XM and never gone back. (1/29/09) Dave's response: Celebrating someone's 21st birthday is a great way to celebrate being 21st in the radio ratings. Ha ha ha..... I have to say, I did notice the recent transformation of Sarah Caldwell in the morning. I'm not sure if she's been hanging out with Sandra Shaw alot lately, or just has the urge to participate in next year's polar bear plunge but she is definately carrying herself differently. Hmmmmm. (1/29/09) Look, what Rush said is covered by the first amendment. If you don't like it, change the damn station. WMAL probably won't notice it because their ratings are just as bad as WJFK. Get real now, will they even notice a change in just a handful of listeners who are upset over what Rush said. As long as the first amendment is allowed, allow talk show hosts on both sides of the aisle to screw up. Besides, Rush is not alone in his thinking and I am sure we have people on Air America who want Obama to suceed and the republicans to fail and make no mistakes in airing that viewpoint. So tell me, what is the difference besides political ideology? We all have the right to a opinion.....be thankful for that. By the way, on the record, I could care less what either side has to say politically on the radio. It's nothing more than talking points for either party to follow when it comes to the media. All a game that people play on the radio and on television. What Rush did was create controversy which is something that he loves as much as attention to his ego. Want to bruise it, stop listening to him. Until then, get over it because both sides love to bicker back and forth so why should this be any different. Oh I get it, because Obama is a democrat.....big deal what his party affiliation is, a better deal is how he handles the issues we face as a country and not a talk show host with ego issues and a god like complex of himself. Dan (1/29/09) DTV transition - i just want to make it clear I am not advocating for an extension---i happen to be against it. I was jut making it clear that the headlines announcing the defeat of the extension bill were not accurate. that not the wisdom or lak thereof of an extension was the point. (1/29/09) It doesn't matter what toney school the Obama kids go to because they, literally, have the safest ride in the world, regardless of the weather. As for my remark about "native Washingtonians," have you ever thought how many third, fourth and fifth generation Washingtonians reside in the area? So what if "we're not as tough about snow." Obama has spoken about being "our neighbor." His initial statement doesn't show much of his understanding of the concept. For the record, not all the private schools follow Monkey Co. St. Albans announced its own closing yesterday. It's always good to have a new neighbor who in their first week here decides to insult almost everyone who really lives here rather than the transients like himself. As for driving slow in the right lane, I don't care who does that if they are in the right lane and I've called Marburg many times in the past but for those driving that way in the left lane. Bob from College Park (1/29/09) Dave.... I believe today or tomorrow is the 34th anniversary of the plane crash that involved Johnny Holliday and his daughter Tracie who was 11 at the time. A single engine plane went down at Hyde field in Clinton as it was attempting to make a night time landing. Dave Statter of Channel 9 was one of the first paramedics on the scene to remove the plane's occupants before it caught fire.What a traumatic experience it must have been. Thank goodness everyone survived and Johnny his Daughter, and the pilot are still with us today. Shawn, Bethesda (1/29/09) As i mentioned yesterday the headlines about the DTV transition deadline extension being defeated yesterday were seriously overblown. For the record the House did not vote on the bill. What they voted on was motion to fast track. While that failed to get a 2/3 majority the measure got significant support and may pass yet---in fact the same scenario played out that way in the Senate. there is already talk of scheduling a new vote in time to extend the deadline. nte that I am not for the extension. i just think that the headlines were misleading at best and inaccurate at worst. (1/29/09) Dave's response: Look, whenever the DTV switch takes place, some poor dolts who didn't pay attention to the two-year campaign are going to be left without TV reception. As Liv Soprano said: "Poor you!" Keep the 2/17 deadline. Let's just get it over with. The sooner the better..... Oh, what a fuss is being stirred up over O"Bama's comments about schools being closed because of snow and ice. If the worse happens and a school bus goes off the road and and schoolchildren are hurt or killed as a result then what? About 11 years ago, a dense fog covered the Talbot County area on Halloween Day. There were no delays announced, and because a speeding truck driver did not see a school bus crossing Route 50 in time, a bus driver was killed and several children hurt. When roads are icy and snowy, it is best to err on the side of caution! Get a grip some of you whiners! Burt in Denton (1/29/09) I thought the same thing about S. Caldwell this morning. At first I thought it was my TV. It appears that my flat screen wasn't the only thing with HD... (1/29/09) Sarah Caldwell - New push up bras and NO wedding rings this week.. hhmm???? (1/29/09) One more time for Joe... You are absolutely wrong about WBAL's DTV channel originally being considered "in core". The first draft DTV allotment table was developed in the Sixth Further Notice of Proposed Rule Making, FCC document 96-317, released in August 1996. In that document, the FCC stated that the DTV core was channels 7-51, and WBAL's DTV allocation was channel 52. Subsequently, in the Sixth Report and Order, FCC document 97-115, the DTV allotment table, often called out as Appendix B, was adopted with WBAL getting channel 59 with 1MW ERP. The DTV core was still fixed at channels 7-51. The FCC added channels 2-6 to the DTV core and revised the DTV allotments in February, 1998. AT NO TIME was WBAL's DTV allocation ever considered "in core." No policy changes affected this. What policy changes occurred after February 1998 that pertained to stations in WBAL's situation were aimed at helping them reuse their analog antennas by relaxing interference standards and allowing for maximization applications. Regards, Dave Loudin (1/29/09) Regarding dubious snow closings around here, the poster said "has managed to alienate over half of the Washingtonians who are genuine natives." Wow, if that's all it took, you were either pre-disposed to having your feelings hurt, or you are among the idiots on the road who think they're the best drivers, but actually freak out when it rains, let alone snows or ices up. I was behind a 30mph driver who was frightened into the left lane and stayed there the whole friggen trip out of DC. Was that you? I told Marbourg. (1/29/09) Regarding the story: "DTV Deadline Extension Would Delay PG Emergency Radio Upgrade" Can someone explain what is so special about foliage attenuation in April, May, and early June to cause a one year delay? Last I checked the leaves are still on the trees well into November. I can understand PGC not wanting to delay their new radio system any longer but this sounds like trumped up BS. (1/29/09) DC schools opened two hours late yesterday. Sidwell could have opened two hours late but decided not to. DC does not have Chicago resources to handle the bad weather. Scott in Va (1/29/09) Dave: The following is exactly why I have zero respect for Fox Sports Radio and more importantly, Steve Czaban. First, I've always said Steve needs to stop demonstrating his bitterness towards woman and the people who run Red Zebra/Fox Sports Radio. However, this morning Steve committed the ultimate mistake in lying to the listeners. If Fox Sports Radio fired Al Galdi from his show that's fine and Steve should never talk about business affairs. But, lying to listeners saying Al is off due a a medical procedure...and then two-minutes later he can be heard locally doing updates on ESPN 980, that's another story. Czaban's been making-up excuses for Al's absence for two weeks. Secondly, during the "Sports Reporters," Czaban really thinks we're interested in what he's been doing down in Tampa. Hey Bruce Gilbert and Dan Snyder, wonder why your station remains in 17th place in the market? You guys still don't know how to produce sportstalk radio. I hope the Bonneville people continue their plans to launch a sportstalk station in the next few months and force ESPN980 to switch to a gospel format! (1/29/09) (Were DC Public Schools closed? How does Obama's daughters private school snow policy define how DC deals with snow?) Generally, private schools follow the lead of the jurisdiction they are in. I think Sidwell is in Montgomery County. (1/29/09) I hope conservative talk hosts don't try to make an issue over President Obie's comments over Washington's fear of snow. He's half-right, but only because cities like Chicago, Rochester, Cleveland, Buffalo et al were designed and built to handle and dispose of significant snowfall amounts. Wide sidewalks, broad streets, emergency routes, and efficient snow-dumping access into rivers. We have narrow streets, narrower SIDEstreets, a web of traffic circles and rotaries, large counties and a finite number of trucks, and a geographic disadvantage when it comes to icy conditions, so we have to be cautious. Let's just everybody shut up and wait for the first time he slips and skins a knee. He'll get it. (1/29/09) Were DC Public Schools closed? How does Obama's daughters private school snow policy define how DC deals with snow? (1/29/09) Regarding WJFK: I thought that they shortened the length of the commercial breaks, at least for the Junks and Big O and Duke's. The MOM show is still at the 9 minutes breaks because they are syndicated, but Mike has said on the air that they are working with the affiliates and Westwood 1 to shorten them as well. That would help. I like the big-3 lineup and hope all three shows survive. Flipping the Junks and the MOM show's could work pretty well I guess, but I don't mind them where they are. What WOULD help would be for the station to grow its evening/overnight/weekend programming. You would have to think there is young, hungry, local talent out there that would kill for the opprotunity and could come relatively cheaply. Sure when I'm running errands on the weekends I will catch some MOM and Big O/Dukes repeats, esp Big O and Dukes. They are great but because they are mid-day I rarely get to hear them live. The station's live/local/talk format (entertainment rather than politics) is a great and necessary format for the metro area. They are selling it short by not working to harvest new talent. There has GOT to be some kids out there with Big O and Dukes potential, perhaps even Don and Mike potential. The station pulls no ratings on the weekends and overnights, go ahead and use the time to try some new people out. Regarding Obama: I did not vote for the guy, but his comment about this town being full of weather wimps was spot on. (1/29/09) "Coming in 2010... The Sunday Washington Post leaflet - for $1.50"... You're wrong about that. It will cost $3.75 (1/29/09) Obama aliented half of DC? I don't think so. His comments were right on target. Makes me wish I had voted for him. He is also right-on about some other things. Go Obama! (1/29/09) Actually, Obama's daughters go to Sidwell Friends, not St. Albans. (1/29/09) With one comment, Obama has managed to alienate over half of the Washingtonians who are genuine natives in the area. His kids go to school in a government issued auto/tank every day. They have no chance of being hurt by a bus sliding or someone losing control of their car. Wonder if the Headmaster at St. Albans gives two tinkers damn about what Barack Obama says about snow days? Same for their Board of Governors. This is one instance where loud mouth Biden can help his apprentice and quietly tell him it's time to make nice with the natives and even, shock and horror, apologize! - Bob from College Park (1/29/09) Wow. I thought that was you, Joe. First: I have never worked for the FCC, as any pro that reads this forum could easily tell. Next, you obviously missed the point that WBAL's decision to not build a maximized DTV facility and then, apparently, to replicate the lesser facility put it in the position it's in. The FCC has opened a window for maximization applications, and WBAL has not filed one (WETA has). Perhaps they have no practical alternative. I don't know since I don't work in the business. Joe, you also missed my point that the FCC listened to outside parties throughout the process. WBAL had ample opportunity to comment. Finally, the coverage maps you find via the FCC's site are really for allocation studies, not precise coverage plots. Go to tvfool.com for more precise plots. Regards, Dave Loudin (1/29/09) I also gave the DC AM podcast feed a sample listen tonite. Terrible, amateurish audio. "Dude, what mic you on? You have to turn the switch." Get your act together before going online, for god's sake! No one wants to hear the prep! Then of course came phuck, fuque, fowack, phuque, fuk, and just for good measure, fphuqcke. If this is representative of ground-breaking audio being podcast these days, talk radio is safe for another decade. (1/29/09) Putting aside the inconvenience aspects of another DTV delay, Dave Statter @ WUSA/9 helpfully pointed out the fact that Prince George's County needs the analog spectrum space for its first responders. Any DTV delay could delay the county's planned new radio system a whole year due to testing requirements. Everett W. www.wusa9.com (1/29/09) I have to agree with another poster, DTV has a certain point where the receivers basically reject the signal on the fringes.(Thus, no signal) I do believe that some TV's have a better ATSC tuner than others, I see that here in SW Virginia on my 2 TV's. I have found that if you are using a good high gain antenna, it's not unusual to get a pretty reliable signal up to about 60 miles. I recommend a rotor more now than ever. Though I am about 25 miles below Roanoke, I receive all the Roanoke stations well, and if I reorient the antenna, the Winston-Salem/Greensboro stations come in solid, and they are 60 miles south. If conditions are right, I'll also get Charlotte, and that's a long way south. Unfortunately, atmospheric conditions also seem to affect reception more. The occasional pixilation and locking of an image is one issue that I dislike more than just a snowy picture. From what I see, the stations here are running respectable transmitter levels, but it will be real interesting in areas along DCRTV land... Tom Conroy (1/29/09) I watched Channel 9 at 11:00 PM on Wednesday. It should not come as a surprise they are the last place station. The newscast looked to be market 100 (and I think that is being generous). Sad. Very sad for this market. (1/29/09) /\ January 29 Messages /\ \/ January 28 Messages \/ Dave, Liberty University just put this translator on the air. It is causing interference to what little signal WTMD has in Fairfax. It is licensed to Aquia Harbor but doesn't put even a fringe signal in the city of license. It is obvious that they are trying to get into the DC burbs. Why would the FCC license this in a location it doesn't serve. Bob www.radio-locator.com (1/28/09) Laura Vozella mentioned you today in the Baltimore Sun. www.baltimoresun.com... Dave, towards the bottom of the column you are mentioned as reporting that Dennis Edwards had left Channel 13. Dennis Edwards is no longer reporting for WJZ TV. Dcrtv.com, a site that covers local media, reports that he was laid off Monday. No one at the station was commenting, but Edwards' bio is off the WJZ site. .. Keep up the great work. Hopefully soon you can start making announcements of hirings!! (1/28/09) Dave's response: Cool..... The schmucks in the DC AM clip above say some form of the word "fuck" 13 times in less than two minutes. And yes, I have way too much time on my hands... (1/28/09) Beth Ann McBride: Shake yer booobs!!!!!! -- ThePenIsMightier (1/28/09) just craziness at WJLA, letting go of Greg Toland , the best sports anchor in town and also Alisa Parenti was a good reporter who carried a heavy workload couldn't some of the old timers at WJLA lighten the work load to allow some wiggle room in the budget or is it really something else why start new shows over at Newschannel 8 when when faced with cutting so many jobs? (1/28/09) Re: The DTV Transition. I am assuming that I am stupid. But here it goes. Isn't DTV a bit like FM/HD radio --- with a bunch of line-of-site issues? And analog TV like analog AM radio where reception may not be great but you can hear it? At a location CLEARLY within all the station DTV coverage areas for NYC, analog reception w/ rabbit ears and an UHF loop is very good, distinctly better than the picture was via Comcast. But almost nothing w/ the Zenith/LG converter. Despite moving the antenna upstairs in the Cape Cod style place and aiming with a GPS, reception was poor. Got out the VHF/UHF indoor antenna that got good analog pictures in Leonardtown years ago, again aimed and tried different locations. No better. Could never get WNBC-DT; is it coming from the Armstrong tower rather than the Empire State Bldg? I suspect that besides trying to use an antenna that worked well in a deep-fringe analog area within 20 miles of the Empire State antenna, that my neighbors' damn trees may be blocking the signals. I would appreciate suggestions as to what time of the night I should fire up the Stihl 361 and cut those trees down. If that doesn't work, I'll be willing to rent a Bobcat to remove other possible obstacles. (1/28/09) if WJFK wants to get more listeners for the night hours and weekends, what they should do is put rock music on nights and weekends, like 105.7 did in Baltimore....sounds like a pretty damn good idea to me. (1/28/09) Here's the WASHINGTON predicted DTV signal plots from the FCC btw..... www.fcc.gov/dtv (1/28/09) People don't get it yet, but they will after the big switch. It's like comparing apples to oranges, analog to digital. Those analog signals get you FUZZY TV at the fringes. Those DTV fringes will get you NOTHING, NADA, NYET! I have a bridge for sale in Brooklyn for anyone who believes those HDTV signal plots are realistic. But thanks for playing THE DTV GAME, there's a consolation prize waiting for you at the door: IT'S CALLED HIGHER PRICED CABLE DTV! LOL (1/28/09) Coming in 2010... The Sunday Washington Post leaflet - for $1.50 (1/28/09) At the Radio Television Museum in Bowie last October, Mac McGarry reminded Ed Walker of a classic story about Nat Albright. Albright walked up to Eddie at some dinner function a few years back, and asked him dead-faced: "Hey, Walker... Still doing that blind act?" (1/28/09) Nat Albright lives... and is just as full of piss and vineger as ever. See a commercial-free 2008 video interview of Nat by Lee Shephard and Chuck Langdon at www.truveo.com and watch Nat perform a portion of one of the games that he used to recreate for the Dodgers' Network in the 1950s. (1/28/09) I've noticed that the weekend anchors on NBC4 are being utilized more and more as field reporters these days..I think that within days of being named the weekend evening anchor, I saw Craig Melvin out in the field doing a report..The same goes for Keith Garvin..However, I can't recall ever seeing Eun Yang out there. (1/28/09) Does anyone think companies/CEO’s are using the economy excuse just to cut people? Can’t some of these head people take a little less money in order for people to maintain their positions? (1/28/09) Dave's response: You see it all the time. One exec making hundreds of millions cutting dozens or hundreds of folks making about $50K each. Workers of the world unite! re: “Where is traffic reporter Jerry Edwards on News 4?” Jerry is on vacation this week. Not to worry, he’s back on Monday. Signed – Jerry’s boss (1/28/09) EARTH to FCC'r Dave Loudin........ WBAL-DT 11, the Baltimore market's news leader @5kw ??? Many Baltimore TV, FM AND AM stations will have a better signal! Get the picture? Your FCC FUCKED UP! ADMIT IT! You can quote facts and figures until you're blue in the face but the results WON'T CHANGE! WETA-DT and WBAL-DT and many other stations across the country will have crippled over the air DTV signals due to a variety of FCC rulings and changes along the way that have made both stations the weak links in each market and neither has any other option for a better signal due to the ever shrinking TV band that the FCC has imposed. Keep in mind WBAL-DT was originally IN-BAND on channel 59 and could have built that out to 1000kw if not for FCC policy changes. Excuse my language, but I hate gov't policy wonks who throw facts and figures around, but all the while STILL MISS THE BIG PICTURE...... There are STILL LOTS of problems in this DTV transition and most have been caused directly by FCC policy decisions, PERIOD. The picture posted in the mailbag clearly shows the signal disparity between WBAL-DT and WMAR-DT and a similar signal disparity is looming for WETA-DT and WHUR-DT and WNVC-DT. And please, don't even get me started on what the FCC is allowing with regards to HDTV Cable TV price gouging & Bait & Switching! It's just ridiculous what's being allowed to happen and most people don't have a clue. -- Joe in Essex (1/28/09) Where is traffic reporter Jerry Edwards on News 4? Richard (1/28/09) Two more things on WBAL-DT - The idea that DT 11 will be the worst signal in Baltimore is incorrect. Check out these plots. WMPB's and WUTB's projected services are far inferior. Now, WBAL-DT's initial allocation was for a full megawatt, which would have completely replicated their analog coverage. WBAL built out at 632 kW, which had to be reduced to 513 kW due to transmitter issues. When the time came of the station to certify what type of facility (maximized or replicated) it would use on its final channel, WBAL apparently picked replicated, as that became the reference for the design of digital service on channel 11. How is this the FCC's problem? Regards, Dave Loudin (1/28/09) "Of course WJFK's ratings have gone down. When no one can hear you for 3 months, that's exactly what you should expect to happen. Thank god for their stream, but I don't think that counts in the ratings." Oh, yes, they measure the streams! WAMU, WASH and WRQX have all had their streams show up in PPM. (1/28/09) Any truth to the rumor that WaPO is doing away with it's Sunday Book World section? The rumor is on gawker.com. Did I miss the news here? (1/28/09) Dave's response: Yawn..... the headline on the House vote is a bit misleading. the house did NOT defeat the bill. they voted against a suspension of the rules to bring it up fora special vote. this salso happened in the Senate but Senate Democrats still managed to get the bill itself passed. I am personally against the extension but the bill itself has not actually come up fora vote. it does not look good for it but it is inaccurate to say the House defeated the bill itself. (1/28/09) I agree that folks in Washington are pretty soft when it comes to winter weather. But Mr. President, I respectfully ask - didn't you know what the roads and weather are like here? You did allegedly serve a Senate term for four years. Or did you do that from Chicago? (1/28/09) Obama is an a-hole. The experience of Obama's kids of being driven to some ritzy private school in a limo is hardly what most kids experience in the bad weather. (1/28/09) [snippy] Dave's response: Look, CBS is paying four guys to do the JFK morning show, two more to do the midday show, and three more (Mike, Buzz, Robb) to do the afternoon show. [end snippy] Don’t forget the dull, provincial, guest-stealing “Exec Producer” of the MO’M show! That’s 10. (1/28/09) (RE: my missing the big picture) I deliberately left out any comments on the overall DTV transition in order to be sure I had my facts straight before plunging in. The executive summary: the FCC's DTV plan evolved over time in response to accumulated technical knowledge and comments from the broadcast industry. The FCC has the pertinent regulatory filings grouped together at www.fcc.gov/dtv. Starting from the oldest documents available, the agency was still gripped with pie-in-the-sky thinking (thanks to influence from tech companies like Microsoft and a strong desire for market-based solutions) about how to design a DTV service. With each Notice and Report and Order released, the agency incorporated comments from broadcasters and broadcast equipment manufacturers that led to the idea of issuing a companion channel to all full-power operations that would be nominally collocated and replicate analog coverage. Next, the technical implications of "replicate" were settled (practical limit on power, protection standards, allocations based on interference not separation distance). This led to the 1997 version of the DTV Allocation Table in the Sixth Report and Order. The FCC incorporated many revisions to this table that were generated by outside parties (individual stations and consortia) in subsequent Reconsiderations that improved service and reduced interference. The FCC also adapted an idea from industry to design the multi-round final channel selection process. So, during the entire process of overlaying a new service overtop the existing analog system and working out final allocations, the FCC has used an evolutionary process that has been heavily influenced by broadcasters. How is that screwing up? Regards, Dave Loudin (1/28/09) If anyone at WJFK thinks it’s just the signal problems which killed them in the Holiday PPM, they’re kidding themselves. It’s putting drive time shows into “best of” mode for two and three weeks at a time! The O’Meara show hasn’t been running long enough for there to be THREE WEEKS of “best of” material! And as for the Junkies … why bother? The phrase “best of a bad thing” comes to mind. There isn’t a group of radio professionals in America who spend more time whining about their hours and their lack of sleep than these bozos. Actually, the biggest problem with JFK may be that the two drive time shows are fundamentally misplaced. Junkies are too unhappy and miserable for morning drive. And the Mike O’Meara show just doesn’t have that same “god, I better not turn away or I’ll miss something” zing that it had with Don at the helm. I’d switch them. The O’Meara show has that combination of cheerfulness and information which would probably do better in the morning. And the Junkies are better suited to being cynical and cranky in the afternoon, when everyone else is cranky after a long day at the office. (1/28/09) Dave's response: Look, CBS is paying four guys to do the JFK morning show, two more to do the midday show, and three more (Mike, Buzz, Robb) to do the afternoon show. That's nine guys. Seems like someone could juggle the schedules of these nine guys to make sure that both morning and afternoon drive shows are LIVE on all weekday workdays, with no reruns (except on legal holidays). That's what JFK's going to have to do to get some PPM traction. In fact, it should have been done back in October. And that's just to start. Weekends and overnights are a huge problem. Nobody's listening!!!!! The station sounds like a fucking low-wattage AMer. The 10-minute-ish ad breaks are a huge problem in this PPM age. People tune out! CBS-DC needs to get on the ball to save JFK before it's too late. And it already may be too late. Maaaaaaaan..... 2 things. first, on the DTV situation, you're already spinning for Dear Leader, dave. republicans can't stop *anything* in congress for at least the next 2 years. all the democrats have to do is unite and they can pass pretty much anything they want. so the defeat of the bill came from some dems. defecting. you should've learned that from 1993-94. second, ice is just a tad more dangerous to drive on than snow, and the washington area isn't equipped to handle winter weather like chicago is, be it infrastructure or the people driving in it. but it's cool. maybe Dear Leader can send his acolytes out and "take responsibility" for clearing the roads. (1/28/09) As someone who grew up in DC I would like to say that the new resident on Pennsylvania Ave is typical. Washington is littered with transient folks who expect our streets to be cleared like they are in the Northeast and the Midwest. We get two or three events a year, and the transients all come out to tell us about Chicago, New York, and Boston. They forget to mention that those cities have 10 times the equipment and supplies to remove the snow or ice. I was in my office first thing with no problem this morning. The belly aching is coming from the transplants. New York has already had more snow days than DC. Maybe the soon to be former Gov in Illinois paid off the equipment companies to get the former Senator’s kids to school! (1/28/09) Of course WJFK's ratings have gone down. When no one can hear you for 3 months, that's exactly what you should expect to happen. I'm a die-hard listener, but the signal problems made it impossible to pick up the station much of the time. Especially at home or at work. Thank god for their stream, but I don't think that counts in the ratings. (1/28/09) This idea of delaying the DTV rollout is like a COMPLETE ADMISSION OF GUILT BY THE GOVERNMENT: "SORRY, WE FUCKED UP!" Meanwhile, many stations are already removing their analog equipment and swapping out transmitters or have already done so in some cases in advance of the current looming deadline. See, this is why ENGINEERS, not lawyers & politicians should have made all these DTV decisions from day 1, but nope. WHAT A FUCKING MESS THE FCC AND CONGRESS IS! :-( (1/28/09) Dave's response: Thanks to all those who pointed out that the DTV delay didn't get approved by the House. I have updated the Front Page newsblurb..... As someone who grew up in Syracuse and later spent two winters in central Iowa, I certainly understand where Barack Obama is coming from regarding Washington weather. However, in D.C.'s defense, it should be remembered that in wintertime in upstate New York or Chicago, when it gets below freezing it generally stays there for longer periods. At Washington's latitude, you get a lot more fluctuation around the freezing point, which tends to result in ice -- a condition far more dangerous than snow. I can remember driving from Iowa to Gaithersburg on holiday break in December 1983. It was very cold in the midwest, but the driving there was easy. When I got off I-270 at Montgomery Village Avenue, the roads were covered in ice. The final three miles of driving took about two hours. -- Vincent in Triangle (1/28/09) Congress screws up the DTV transition; Obama says Washington is full of wimps. Coincidence? Yes, but I made my point. (1/28/09) While returning home from Annapolis the other day -- driving along New York Avenue -- I landed on 102.9 FM. The signal was playing what sounded like the old "Music of Your Life" standards. (Not of mylife, but Dad used to enjoy the "Greatest Hits of te 40s, 50s and 60s.") It wasn't near the top of an hour, so I didn't catch a legal ID. And there was no station branding, nor commercials, to be heard during the 20-30 minutes I listened. I'd heard this once before, while in Rosslyn early one evening. Since the only 102.9 I see listed on your directory is a country station in Southern Maryland, I'm wondering: is a geriatric pirate at work here? Apparently with too much time on my hands while commuting, Chas (1/18/09) All of Baltimore's DTV stations broadcast from the same location, TV HILL (except maybe 24), so if you're getting WJZ or WNUV, you should be able to get the rest. Try tweaking the antenna direction just a tad bit. You must be slightly just off the mark on direction. (1/28/09) Hi Dave, At the end of WJLA's 11pm news broadcasts, Tim Brant makes some sort of hand gesture, touches his chest and mouths something as Leon and the others are wrapping up. I don't watch the news every night, but on the times I do and Tim is on, he does it. Just curious to know if anyone else has picked up on it... and, if so, does anyone have an idea what he's doing? I searched your site, but didn't see any reference to it. Thanks, MK (1/28/09) JFK Has dropped in every single (PPM Holiday) Book full week: 1.7, 1.6, 1.2, 1.0... Stunting and tricks and listener loyalty could boost you in the Diary Days, but this measures actual listening. And their signal problems don't help. Nor do infommercials on the weekend.... (1/28/09) Obama's right about Washingtonians being sissies when it comes to snow. I lived in Moscow for five years and it snowed -- several feet a year, gobs and gobs of snow - from October to May. Schools never closed, and the streets were always cleared quickly and efficiently. I laugh at all the panicky traffic and weather reports here, which just reinforce the perception that we can't cope. (1/28/09) Dave's response: It's not the weather that's the problem. It's the other drivers. The fact is that DC doesn't get enough "winter" weather to condition drivers to it. Further north, folks learn how to drive in it. Not here..... "If I wanted Obama to succeed, I'd be happy the Republicans have laid down. I hope he fails." --Rush Limbaugh. The jackass has the nerve to call himself a patriot. (1/28/09) Why do you have a picture of your ass on your website? Are you making a political statement? (1/28/09) Here are two questions about WRC-DT. 1) Some nights the Tonight Show is in HD; some nights it's a 4x3 picture. Does someone forget to flip a switch or is it the network? I wish I could get WBAL-DT to compare, but my rooftop antenna is pointed in the wrong direction, though I do get WJZ -DT and WNUV-DT from the antenna; 2) The program on WRC's Channel "4.3", which is NBC/Universal Sports programming, is not carried on my Verizon FiOS system. But doesn't it have to be carried because it is a local broadcast program? I don't know that I would watch it that often, but I feel a lack of closure :^) -- Carl in Olney (1/28/09) Has there been any additional corroboration from anyone/where yet regarding Radio America being in lifeboat mode? I've spoken to five people from there --- none seem concerned about the Front Page item and speak of a reserve that is keeping things above water. Even so, Air America ran successfully for months under bankruptcy reorganization, so why couldn't Radio America if it came down to it? (1/28/09) Dave's response: Haven't heard anything more, other than what my source told me yesterday..... I agree with you Dave about what we are seeing now is a "sea change". However I have to admit this is one STRANGE recession !! Besides DCRTV, I often check out the other media related sites and the way people are getting so emotional over the current economy, I have to admit I have never seen that before. Like those who get upset when one mentions that their city is in a recession. Just last night on another site some guy from Columbus, Ohio went on and on about how Columbus is not only NOT in a recession but also the fact ALL of the Columbus radio and TV stations like WBNS and WCMH are still hiring people right and left. Recently I have read posts from others who claim the same thing about the Indianapolis and Charlotte markets, how all of their stations are still hiring. Layoffs? Can't happen in Indy or Charlotte. Ah Didn't Charlotte's WBTV & WSOC-TV lay off some people? WBNS? And I am sure there have been cuts in Indy too. Then you have those who really really want to see the ecomony go into a deep depression because they feel we would come out of it as stronger people with higher morals like "what happened"( so they claim anyway ) in the 30's. And the rumors. Oh the rumors !! Ever since Circuit City announced they are going out of business, the way the rumor mill is going it seems every chain is in trouble. Target laying off 20% to 40% of their employees at every store? Kings Dominion and Six Flags America will be open only on weekends this summer? Heard those rumors too. I am not even going to begin with those rumors I have heard about the number of radio & TV stations that will be "going dark" this year and its not due to DTV. Yeah...its been a very interesting recession. (1/28/09) Re Info-Crap: I can understand selling time to pay the bills is better than not selling at all, but there’s something about can somebody clear up this skewed picture for me? Stations sell time based on ratings, but infomercials drive listeners away. If stations add more infomercials to their schedule, potential listeners will just go somewhere else to avoid those crap programs, thus diminishing the value of that station’s airtime. Wouldn’t it stand to reason that eventually those listeners would just ignore the station altogether? Then if that happens, the infomercial agencies would stop buying time on that station saying “nobody listens.” So if a station goes from number one to number un by scaring off its listeners with the info-crap, aren’t they killing themselves in the long run by ruining their ratings and having to cut their ad rates? Surely I must be missing something. Gee, if info-crap is the salvo of revenue-strapped broadcasters, why don’t we have all infomercials all the time on all frequencies and just forget about any real programming? Bill Powers, LA (1/28/09) Is channel 7 having HD problems? There news isn’t showing up in HD the last couple of days. Paul in Waldorf (1/28/09) FWIW I see that WJLA's 7.3 now has it's old unique RTN schedule and not the standard one it has been showing since the dispute with Equity. (1/28/09) Bob Ryan's "timeline" on last night's news shall we say "stunk". Regards Biff (1/28/09) Dave's response: Cold air damming. Local weather forecasters always underestimate the amount of time it will take for a southerly wind to displace a mass of heavy cold air "dammed" up against the Blue Ridge. That's why, almost every time we get an ice storm, it takes many hours longer than predicted for the ice to melt..... Who is the producer that WBAL also let go in the Steve Davis firing? If it’s his primary sports producer/remote engineer Johnny Goldsmith, this would be a clear sign that WBAL is planning on letting CBS have all sports in Baltimore, including the remainder of the Raven’s play-by-play deal. MidLifeMan (1/28/09) Dave - This isn't specifically about DC Radio/TV, but I think it may be of interest to many viewers... On February 26, 1994, Bill Hicks, the last truly great comic genius of the 20th century, died of pancreatic cancer. His death as a comedian happened less than five months before, when his act was cut from the David Letterman show. Here is a reprint of what happened, with an introduction by writer John Lahr, including a transcript of the censored act itself. www.konformist.com... Incidentally, this Friday one of David Letterman's guests will be Bill's mother, Mary Hicks, and the show will air the routine by Bill Hicks, that was excised in 1993. (1/28/09) Can someone tell me if they've ever seen cuts in media like this before? We've been through bad economies in the past, but I don't remember companies cutting this much. Also, when the economy bounces back, do these companies scramble to find new people, or are these jobs gone for good? (1/28/09) Dave's response: My guess is that we're seeing a "sea change." The "news media biz" will recover from the recession, but it will be significantly transformed. The types of jobs being eliminated won't be re-instituted later on. From now on, there will be far fewer company workers (with company benefits), and a lot more "outside freelance contractors" like me..... RE: infomercials and is the economy that bad. The economy is really as bad as everybody thinks it is. Since its a function of, well, everyone. I am struck by the numbers coming out for several industries. Local TV is going to be down by more than 25% in first quarter on average from last year - a dismal year on its own. Some markets are tracking down 35% - huge losses - and why you see layoffs. It might be the product in some cases - but in many cases, it simply a matter of people NOT spending ANY money to market their business. Some industries such as autos and cell phones (huge advertising segments) are simply drying up. They are not marketing (in earnest) any where...its not a function of trusting radio or tv - these industries are simply not advertising. Or at least in the amounts of the past. Because they are spending less marketing money as a function of their business as a whole. Local mom and pop business spending is drying up as fast - providing a double whammy to radio/tv. If mom/pops have money - they are saving it for a rainy day (or rainier days) - and some operate on thin margins and just don't have it. You can preach that its not smart to NOT market - but people are scared...seems silly to say. How many stations in the DC area can be down 25-35% for the year (again that's the forecast now - some operators are saying it may be a little more because of the auto industry for the year. In some rust markets like Detroit or the upper midwest, it could be down by as much as 50% yikes!) and still show a profit? Meaning they take in more than they spend? Radio has always had huge margins of cash flow - but they are disappearing fast. On Informercials and do people have money to spend on that crap. Stations only get paid if they sell stuff (typically) - stations run these in places where they can't sell enough local inventory to make it worthwhile. Meaning do we run another non stop music hour or do we run two half hour PI's and try to make a little money? May seem stupid...I am also seeing a trend to cheaper stuff on these shows...notice that McD's is saying they may build another 1000 stores this year since profits are way up at the golden arches - why? cheap fuds! People are still buying cheap(er) stuff. Meanwhile I saw where Ruby Tuesday's stock was something like a $1.50 a share a few weeks back. (1/28/09) All I was driving at in my earlier post was this: If consumers have disposable income to spend on infomercial schlock (weight loss pills, "amazing" kitchen appliances, kits that explain how to make money in real estate, etc., etc.) then they must have the disposable income to spend at local restaurants and retailers. I submit that the economy isn't all that awful -- it is consumer behavior that has changed. Local businesses no longer trust broadcast advertising to make a difference in their bottom line (at least they don't trust it the way snake oil salesmen do). That sounds like a far more worrisome problem for TV and radio than the recession. And if there are fewer people watching TV (because it is polluted with 30 minute pitches for crap), where do legitimate businesses go to advertiese to sensible people with money? Certainly not to what's left of the broadcast audience. (1/28/09) long time reader... some one is asleep at the switch at "dc 20"... so far were at least 10 minutes into some sort of backend information screen... My Network 20's gaffe for over a half hour (on Tuesday evening)... (1/28/09) After WRC ended the 11 PM news, they've gone off the air on Dish Network and have been off for over half an hour now. It appears to be the only channel affected. The Tonight Show is coming in as normal on Hagerstown's 25 which Dish carries. Bob from College Park (1/28/09) Glad to see MASN will replace Don Sutton with Rob Dibble and not Ray Knight. Knight and Johnny Holliday are a great combination on Nats Extra pre and post game shows. It would have been a shame to break up that combination. Dibble should do just fine as Bob Carpenters sidekick. Good luck to Sutton on his return to Atlanta. (1/28/09) Silvie, Thank you for that Geraldo link! I hope that perhaps now more people will consider just how sleazy this impeachment proceeding has become. It is a travesty to justice.-Tom Soul (1/28/09) Does anyone realize that with the addition of TC on the 95.5 FM morning show, and the addition of Michael Smerconish on 1580 AM, which features female sidekick/producer TC, that it is now possible to hear a woman named TC on both WPGC AM and FM? Now, I can understand having a PD for both stations, but not a TC! (1/28/09) Dave's response: 1580 is no longer WPGC-AM. It's now WHFS-AM..... /\ January 28 Messages /\ \/ January 27 Messages \/ To all the whiners who complain about the Infomercials on TV and Radio --> You're obliviously not in broadcasting or flunked out of radio school. (Yeah.. that's it "Radio School"...) We're in a recession stupid. We've been in a recession for over a year (Began September 2007). Every media, including digital but to a lesser degree, is suffering as American's "hunker down" and stash their cash. When they stash their cash, stores (people who sell products and buy commercials to advertise their stores and products), "hunker down" too. Consumers don't spend. Advertisers don't spend. Television, Radio, Print, Outdoor are devastated. Sure, the broadcast wanna-be's will say that big companies killed the media. They tried, but failed. The May's are a mere shadow of their Randy Michaels selves. Mel Karmazin, who single handedly killed CBS and Satellite Radio is about to be shoved out the door. (Please let the door of 20,000 CBS and XM/Sirius ex-employees hit you in the ass!) But I digress. We frown upon infomercials as much as the next broadcaster does... But it pays the bills. And the station pays me, so I can pay my bills and put food on the table to feed my kids. And...the infomercials they sell their product. If they didn't, they wouldn't be running their infomercials on our stations. So the next time you bitch about a financial show, or car show, or real estate show... Remember - We're all Americans in a Recession and we're doing what we can to survive. Good God where's the Tylenol! (1/27/09) I’m going to echo a point made here so often by so many, but which was so noticeable this morning: The demise of “traditional full-service broadcasting”. At least in the major markets. OK, so Safeway may be the only thing left in the Washington ADI which is major market. But, during this morning’s commute I decided to punch-over to what was a “school day/snow day” standby for seemingly ages, WMAL. Back in “the day”, Harden & Weaver would dump their usual “format” (Which was actually tighter than anything the late Bill Drake conjured up) for reinforcing WMAL’s reputation as the most important radio news voice in Washington. No, it wasn’t the “real” WTOP-1500! It was little old 5,000 watt WMAL. Harden & Weaver did the school closings, kept Larry Krebs working “late” for road condition reports, had phone-in actualities from AAA, highway departments (They weren’t “DOT’s” quite yet.) etc. So, what did Grandy & Grandpa have on “Radio 63” this morning? Their usual schtick of anti-Obama rhetoric that has gotten so repetitive that they and Sean Hannity must be sharing the same liner cards. OK… I’ll grant that people today have more sources of information than we did in the 50’s and 60’s. But, that does not excuse radio’s complete abandonment of the concept of service. Yes, WTOP did break their clock and go heavy on the school closings this morning. It was informative. But, it was not as entertaining as it would’ve likely been had it been on a full-service station. Don’t get me wrong. WTOP is currently one of the best radio stations in the U.S. But, it is not –and is not intended to be- a “full-service” station. This was one of those days when I wish the family which owned the “Star” had either sold it off to John McGoff (I bet Tom Gauger, PLB, and myself are the only ones on DCRTV who remember his controversial effort to buy the “Star”!) or shuttered it, and tell the FCC what to do with its cross-ownership policy by keeping WMAL AM-FM-TV and the other ESBC stations (WLVA AM-TV Lynchburg and WCIV Charleston). It would’ve staved-off the inevitable end of the “Star” by what... Five or six years? Look at how many major market newspapers are viable today! And, I wonder how many would be sold were the “right price” offered? (Of course, one would seriously have to question the motives (If not the sanity!) of such a purchase offer. I remember the reason for the ultimate undoing of the proposed sale of the “Star” before Time-Life got it!) I guess this morning’s listen to WMAL was an empirical lesson of why broadcasting in America is dead. (You hear me, Hannity?) It’s that we’ve had too much ancestor worship for our own good and failed to build upon innovative opportunities and strengths when they were presented to us. I’m not saying that ESBC would’ve been a perfect broadcaster were it around today. But, given what we’ve seen 630, 107.3, 7, and 34 devolve into, I don’t think the result would’ve been half-bad. Unsigned Corporate Suit (1/27/09) To the post about Don Sutton. He works for MASN. Not the Nats. Dave Jagler, Charlie Slowes works for the Nats. Also Don Sutton, had ask MASN to let him out of his contract. (1/27/09) RE: [ " Dave Loudin & WBAL-DT " ]......... As usual, Dave Loudin is totally correct with his facts but misses the big picture........... If the FCC hadn't F'd UP the ENTIRE DTV TRANSITION by changing the rules several times during the transition, there wouldn't be so many stations like WBAL-DT 11 that will have nowhere NEAR their original analog signal range. It's just inexcusable. You have to admit that the FCC is directly responsible for this mess such that the market leader in news in Maryland will have the weakest DTV signal. Otherwise, you'd have to be nothing but an FCC shill and have no credibility whatsoever in my opinion. But then again, most people who post here in this mailbag are from DC, the home of Mother Government so I guess it's not surprising really that the FCC gets defended so often here. :-( (1/27/09) Ah, Nat Albright. I vaguely remember that he fairly often stumbled with the facts. The Joy Boys had a sportscaster character named Not Alright, didn't they? (1/27/09) Movie Star Does "Dramatic Walkout" At DC Times - oh boo hoo. a sheltered, hollywood star was asked questions about why he'd portray a glorified murderer. he should've just done what director steven soderbourgh (sp?) did and said "that's fine" when it was pointed out. (1/27/09) Lemmie just take a break from all the posts about YO-MaMa (or is it Yo-Yo Ma) and the school closings and Obama's interview on an Arab run station etc. etc. etc..... to say, CONGRATULATIONS to TC for hooking up with the Donnie Simpson Show. While working at Smooth Jazz 105.9 towards the end, I had the pleasure of meeting a very delightful and positively upbeat TC on Sundays after the 'brunch'. Again, congratulations... I knew someone with talent and a personality like yours wouldn't stay on the beach too long! federAL SANTOS! (1/27/09) To the poster blasting the Nationals for letting Don Sutton out of his contract: get your facts straight. Sutton was an employee of the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network (owned by Peter Angelos), not the Nationals. The Nationals do have some stake in MASN, but they do not make personnel decisions. Therefore, they are also not the ones responsible for hiring Rob Dibble, who, in my opinion, should be a good replacement. BG (1/27/09) I have been reading posts the past few days from people how are just outraged at Andy Parks making fun of the ObamaPoet and other things. I suppose Andy could make a deal to apologize right after all the miscreants who beat former President Bush to a pulp without ceasing for 8 straight years. Personally I think it was a stupid poem and she probably did pen it on the way to the coronation. Porter F. Jervis (1/27/09) So the Nats are going to let Don Sutton out of his contract. One of the few good things the team has going for it and they swap a hall of famer for another one of general manager Jim Bowden's buddies from his days in Cincinnati. How Stan Kasten and the Learners could hire Rob Dibble to replace Sutton is beyond me. Dibble may have broadcasting experience, but my question to the Nats front office is did you research his reasons for leaving ESPN? Even when Dibble was on ESPN radio's Dan Patrick show he wasn't that great With a second tier team, the Nats could found a better replacement for Sutton to give us reason to watch a team that could well loose 100+ games again this year Here's a vote for a three man simulcast of Bob Carpenter, Charlie Slowes and Dave Jagler. (1/27/09) One local radio station is reporting that Virginia State Police are averaging ten crashes an hour in Northern Virginia. I wonder if those conditions have anything to do with schools being closed? (1/27/09) Two things are for certain whenever it snows in the DC area: (1) WTOP will act as if the world is coming to an end and (2) Whiners will complain about school closings ("Could someone please explain to me why there would possibly even BE ANY CLOSINGS of ANY KIND TODAY? Maybe I'm insane...Yes, the fault of THEIR PARENTS WHO WANT SCHOOLS CLOSED at the drop of a dime. LAZY FAT GOV'T WORKER PARENT = LAZY FAT KID, DUH! LOL"). The reason schools are closed is because roads in parts of the area were sheets of ice and there were about 100 crashes in outlying areas. You might want to listen to the radio occasionally; they mention stuff like that. And those "lazy fat gov't worker parents" had to go to work today whether schools were closed or not, so I have no idea what that whining is about. By the way, here in Loudoun County it was the first snow day of the year, so I guess the lazy fat gov't worker parent lobby you're so concerned about isn't really all that powerful after all. Yeh, it's just a little snowstorm but -- guess what? -- things operate a little differently during little snowstorms. Get over it. (1/27/09) Sarah Lee was on WJLA this morning because she will be allowed to work until she has her baby (which, I believe, is only a couple weeks away.) Then her contract will not be renewed. Best of luck to her and her young family! (1/27/09) In Baltimore County, they used to close all the time schools in the so-called "HERFORD ZONE", basically schools north of Hunt Valley, MD, while time and time again the rest of Baltimore County schools stayed open and it worked out quite well to the dismay of the children though. If county school officials are not smart enough in other counties to do zone closings, then, geez, they should just resign. They're obviously not smart enough to teach our children if they are THAT STUPID TO CLOSE SCHOOLS FOR A DUSTING! GRRRRRRR (1/27/09) So adding more infomercials to the local TV lineup is a sign of a bad economy? If people can afford to buy the crap that the informercial companies are pushing then I don't suppose the economy is all that bad off. How cheap do local stations sell their airtime? Wouldn't be more cost effective (and better maximize audience) to put on an old movie or syndicated rerun and sell the spot time cheap to real businesses instead of putting all these snake oil salesmen on the air? In my own experience, I have gotten out of the habit of even surfing past some broadcast channels because they so frequently air info-crap. In Baltimore, WMAR on a Sunday is a joke. Even the PBS affiliates are getting into the act, airing informercials then begging for money in exchange for the book the informercial person wrote! I am watching less and less TV and -- sad truth -- I am not missing it. (1/27/09) (I'll take Idiot Questions for $400, Alex) Could someone please explain to me why there would possibly even BE ANY CLOSINGS of ANY KIND TODAY? (end) The counties we live in are quite huge. Icing and dangerous road conditions will be different in random parts of said counties. Weather might affect only a handful of schools, but the entire county has to respond. If south county Fairfax ices over while Merrifield has only flurries; or a small cluster of schools in Gaithersburg calls it off while everything else looks iffy at best, everyone has to call it off. FWIW, I think its dopey too. (1/27/09) Could someone please explain to me why there would possibly even BE ANY CLOSINGS of ANY KIND TODAY? Maybe I'm insane. Am I wrong ? Somebody give me a reason. I do see that there's a dusting to a few inches of snow out there, but c'mon, even WJLA's RADAR isn't showing a lot of this light snow! We used to call this FLURRIES! NOW IT'S A CRISIS! HAHA! And you wonder why we have the laziest fattest kids in the world? Yes, the fault of THEIR PARENTS WHO WANT SCHOOLS CLOSED at the drop of a dime. LAZY FAT GOV'T WORKER PARENT = LAZY FAT KID, DUH! LOL (1/27/09) I do not think it is pointless to announce school closing on the radio or tv. A lot of times the school systems will still make the call to the local media before they update their website. Even in this day and age, not everyone will automatically have access to a computer to see if their kid's school is closed. (1/27/09) While I'll miss Don Sutton on Nats' telecasts, Rob Dibble is as good a replacement on short notice as MASN could get. From what I heard of him on ESPN radio, I thought he was capable and listenable; whether that translates into good work as an analyst remains to be seen. Now if only the team can make itself worth watching... -- Vincent in Triangle (1/27/09) Did you see the nbcwashington.com headline under local news: "Dreaming of a White White House? Winter Storm Delivers." Commenters are going nuts. (1/27/09) Geraldo Rivera 'losing it' yesterday on Neil Cavuto's show on FNC re: Gov. Blago. This is Classic Geraldo: www.youtube.com -Silvie- (1/27/09) How is it we have so many TV and radio corporations on the ropes and doing so badly, yet I haven't seen ONE Oriental and Persian Rug store go under since all this crap started? Hmmm... (1/27/09) The issue here isn’t synching to recorded music; the issue here is the unjust, unfair, misinformed, vindictive name calling and uneducated commentary displayed as fact by the WMAL morning show. The Air Force Band and the masters deserve better, and Andy should be held accountable for his stupid remarks that were designed to hurt reputations of American treasures. They blew it big time. (1/27/09) Dave's response: Oh come on! "Unjust, unfair, misinformed, vindictive name-calling and uneducated commentary" on WMAL?!?! Ha ha ha..... Regarding your rant about the Capitalweather gang I will tell you how Samenow happened to be quoted in this mornings article. Last week or whenever the first tiny snow event happened the Post quoted some guy from Accuweather.com. Several posters, including myself, posted asking why the Post would use a hype site like Accuweather instead of their own people. One of the "gang" posted that the situation was being resloved. Thus Mr. Samenow being used in today's article. (1/27/09) Dave's response: It's like a Post reporter doing an article on TV and using one of its own columnists, a la Tom Shales, as a quoted source. It looks cross-promotional and lazy..... It’s interesting that President Obama used an independent Arab-speaking news channel for his first post-inaugurating interview. Does he not know that the US government has a US funded Arab-speaking news channel right here in Washington? (1/27/09) I just wonder if Steve Davis wore out his welcome like every other place he’s been in the area. (wusa, wbff) (1/27/09) "Dave's response: In the Philadelphia area, they have township schools. Not county schools, like we have. And every county can have a dozen or more different townships. So, you have 12-ish township school systems per county, and about eight or nine counties around Philadelphia, that means something like 100+ different public school systems you have to announce." True, but New Jersey and New York also have city, town or borough (not county) school districts, and neither WINS nor WCBS uses numbers for ID purposes. -- Vincent in Triangle (1/27/09) Dave's response: Yeah, the NYC area has the same school district system that the Philadelphia area does, except they're called "towns" or "boroughs" instead of "townships." It's the same thing. Anyhow, in this day and age of websites and school system local cable channels, it seems rather pointless to have to announce all those school system closings on the radio..... To all those griping about WTOP and its huge list of school closings...be thankful you're in the Washington metro area. In Philadelphia, KYW uses numbers -- yes, NUMBERS -- for its school closing info. (Every district or private school has a number, and families and employees are instructed what number is theirs. At least the announcements are divided by county so, for example, Bucks and Chester have different segments.) Nevertheless, it's a ridiculous concept if I ever heard one. -- Vincent in Triangle (1/27/09) Dave's response: In the Philadelphia area, they have township schools. Not county schools, like we have. And every county can have a dozen or more different townships. So, you have 12-ish township school systems per county, and about eight or night counties around Philadelphia, that means something like 100+ different public school systems you have to announce. And that doesn't include private schools..... I can honestly say that I stopped listening to WBAL’s SportsLine in the evenings when a previous host had the show and took it into the toilet. Steve Davis brought me back to WBAL as an everyday listener. Under his leadership, the show had live guests until the last segment regularly, and I began the new lifestyle of ‘continuing’ my listening into the house after an hour-long commute every day. (1/27/09) Dave's response: With four sports talkers on the air in Baltimore, and news talker BAL having to spend dough for live and local personalities' shows from morning through afternoon drive, it seems likely that the evening sports show would be ripe for cutting..... Just got word this morning that the go to business for the local and network media industry, plus vast number of homeland security clients, Bickford Vehicles (ie: Bickford's) declared Chapter 7 bankruptcy this morning. Most of the local and network news organizations use Bickford's for their ENG vehicle maintenance and some of their new ENG vehicle build-outs. Bickford's also does custom work for DHS, the FBI, Sprint, and other entities. This is going to really hurt everyone involved because of the specialized nature of this business and the fact that there are no other competitors in this region per se. Just a sign of the times. (1/27/09) Dave: Love your DCRTV blog. Read it all the time. But have to take issue with your rant today on the Washington Post quoting Capital Weather Gang in its Metro piece on the weather. We are the Washington Post's weather team. Why *wouldn't* we be quoted, even first? Would you ever see Channel 4 quote Doug Hill instead of Bob Ryan at all, let alone first... or Channel 7 quote Sue Palka instead of Doug Hill? Jason Samenow, Capital Weather Gang (1/27/09) Dave's response: The point of being a reporter is reporting on the news OUTSIDE your publication/station. If a Channel 4 reporter covering the snow interviewed only Bob Ryan, I'd say that was a lazy, inept reporter. Ditto with a Post reporter interviewing only a meteorologist who works for the Post. That looks too much like "cross-promotion" and not "journalism"..... Okay, maybe I'm just cranky this morning - but what is the point of the nearly endless droning by WTOP of every fricking private and religious school closing in a 150 mile radius of Washington? In the age of cell phones, call lists and websites - can't TOP just put this crap on its website? Or better yet, can't these private schools afford their own contact system? It's a service to provide public school closings - but once a parent knows the XXX county schools are closed, how much more is necessary? (1/27/09) Mika's all pissed & bitchy at Ill. Gov. 'BLAG-O' Because he wont come on 'morning joe' -HA If BLAG-O showed up on 'morning joe' then Mika be interested in him and treat him like a real news story... BUT since BLAGO-O said piss off to 'morning joe' MIKA gets all uppity & prissy and acts like she has journalistic integrity/standards which Mika does not have... Mika is just an air-headed, loud-mouth wacky morning show news-reader/annoying broad (every morning zoo show has one) ~Art.S. Reston, VA USA (1/27/09) You know what I would like, at least as many people interested in the increasing government intrusion into our lives as are interested in the Yo Yo Ma dubbing at the inauguration...WHO CARES!!!! We are about to have Socialized Banks, Socialized Automobile Industries, Socialized Medicine and suppression of Free Speech with the reinstitution of the Fairness Doctrine, but hey, let's all get in a tizzy about Yo Yo Ma! That's what's important! GK in Timonium (1/27/09) Air Force Band policy, Air Force Band policy that. I support the troops, but not those douches. They will never see combat because they're Special Services. In the Marine Corps, you can start out as a Sergeant if you're a musician instead of earning your stripes. God it's fun to hate. You feel that hate for me because of what I just wrote? Doesn't it make you feel goooooood? Sure it does. Andy Parks said what any uninformed person would have said. I would have said it for sure. Once it's explained, it makes sense. What should have been done is a video of the prerecording session should have been played, with a brief explanation, and the musicians in attendance to take a bow. America needs more hate. Build up a good head of hate, then go out and tackle the day. You know who really gets her hate on? WaPo's Robin Givhan. That right there is one bitter bitch. You go girl. Don't just eat a hamburger, eat the HELL out of it. You fat pig. See how much you enjoy hating me for that last remark? Even more than I enjoyed making it. --- ThePenIsMightier (1/27/09) Whitney Houston lipsynched one of the greatest Star Spangled Banners ever (she couldn’t overcome the delay in the huge stadium). The Riverdance performers do NOT tap loud enough for you to hear, they tap to a “tap” soundtrack. And you are most likely listening to voicetracking on certain dayparts on over half the stations on your dial. And XM….sheez…..just about all music channels are …oh never mind. And my ghostwriter just penned this note. Signed The Cheap Seats. (1/27/09) Pfizer as you may have heard is in the process of aquiring Wyeth pharmecuticals. It is not widely known that Pfizer is one the largest and possibly advertisers/contributors to DC's American Studies Center, AKA Radio America. There is no inside info here, without Pfizer's money the ASC and Radio America does not have the funds on hand to stay afloat through the end of February. Radio America counts Gordon Liddy and Roger Hedgecock among its bigger names. (1/27/09) "I hate it when Britney, the Jonas Brothers, the Rockettes and even the little Chinese girl during the Beijing Olympics did it." Silvie - are you trying to tell us that the legendary Radio City Music Hall Rockettes don't actually DO THEIR OWN DANCING??? You mean they're KICK-SYNCING??? (1/27/09) /\ January 27 Messages /\ Jump to the Mailbag Archive Index.....