Front Page - Mailbag - BW2008 - BW2007 - BW2006 - BW2005 - BW2004 - BW2003 - BW2002 - BW2001 - Support DCRTV The Best of DC Radio & TV includes Doug Hill both on TV and on WTOP, Lisa Baden & Bob Marbourg with WTOP's morning and afternoon traffic reports. Bob Madigan's "Man About Town" on WTOP is the only consistently positive news on the radio or TV for that matter. ABC-7's news product is by far the best, but that is not to slight Jim Handly, Wendy Rieger, Jim Vance & Doreen Gentzler at NBC-4. Afternoon radio is a mix of Bill Worthington WASH FM, John Chester on WETA-FM and Shawn & Hillary on WTOP. As the for the worst: The negative nonconstructive comments often exhibited here. FAH Silver Spring Best: Kirk back on the air playing music not doing talk Worst: the fact that there are 2 local DC sports radio stations and neither one carries the weekly NASCAR race broadcasts. WFLS is OK but not strong enough to reach the outer parts of MoCo. WJFK gets 1/2 credit for at least bothering to carry "Race Day On Fox". Best: 106.7 The Fan. In addition to what has already been said by others here, I have to tip my hat to the programmers at The Fan for trying to groom some new talent. Holden Kushner has a ton of potential, and every time I turn it on during the weekends I hear someone who, some day, could be a big time host in D.C. or elsewhere. 105.9 The Edge. Not perfect, but better than the other local alternatives. WTOP for being a rock. Worst: While I really like the Fan, I do miss the old WJFK. I feel like they had finally "fixed" what for years was a broken radio station. In the face of losing Howard Stern and Don Geronimo in 2 years time, they managed to create a radio station was live and local all day, and really ALIVE. It was a pleasure to listen to for the last year or 2, and I wish they had been given more time. Kudos to the staff and managment for creating such a wonderful station (Dysfunctional Family Friday was an all time favorite day of listening for me). And kudos to CBS management for at least letting the shows go out with class, say goodbye, etc. I'm not sure in this day and age there will ever be another station like it. DC101 is unlistenable. The loss of George Michael who will be very missed. The job losses in the broadcast and print industry. Tony Kornheiser and the other 20 people in studio during his awful show. Used to be a fan... now it's trainwreck. And mostly, Larry Michael and Sam Huff. Horrible. The best - Locals still able to still make a living in the biz after this horrid year. WTOP, WBAL radio doing news in the AM, WRNR-FM, DCRTV. The worst - 104.3's attempt at alternative, WZBA and DCs clone Big 100.3 b-o-r-i-n-g!, Rush L., C-Span on radio, too many unlistened to religious FMs, NPR on too many FMs, ElZol 99.1 for serving nobody, the sad state of AM radio. Best Station 106.7 the fan best news channel9 with Andrea Angie and Howard in the morning... Best Sports Anchor Sara Walsh channel9 Lindsay Czarniak nbc4... Worst Station ESPN 980. worst newschannel 4,5,7... Worst sportscaster having channel 7 reporters as sportscasters... BEST: George Michael for being Da Man... WRC news- they're going downhill but even so they're still the best of the lot... Jerry Doyle on WTNT...too bad he can't be on a good signal... Mark Levin...constitutional knowledge and rants that are second to none... WMAL for bringing Chris Plante back... My IPOD- it plays the music I wanna listen to. (That's a hint to those whiners that ____ doesn't play music I like)... Randy Rhodes- mainly listen on commercial breaks of Doyle, but thanks for constantly making me laugh at how absolutely insane she is... Mark Simone- best fill in host. Period. End of story... Art Bell- on infrequent fill ins he's still got it. George Noory's good but I'd listen to Art bell read a phone book and find it entertaining... WORST: WJFK for dumping guy talk... Lavar was a good player but is horrid behind the mic. Chad needs a back support belt for carrying Lavar, but he gets a WORST as well for constantly begging for callers then "Sorry for those of you on hold but we have to move on..." Chad, they will learn and you will... Hannity on WMAL: his interviews are ok, he has good guests but his callers are annoying. His time management skills suck too; lonnggggg segment then tons of spots. That made me find Jerry Doyle. Whoring his FOXNEWS and concerts bites too. Does Fox News buy time on his show?... Jamie Witten/traffic on WMAL mornings: she constantly says "WE are slow on 495...WE have a backup on 66"...it's not WE in traffic. You're sitting on your ass in a warm studio. Cut the fake sympathy and just say "you're slow on 495".... The TMZing of the news...all outlets are equally guilty of this.... TV Weather...I don't need to see jetstream graphics or weather clips from all over; I want to know your best guess (and you are all GUESSING) how warm and how wet it'll be the next few days. One minute tops... Mailbag feuds between has beens and never will be's. Why don't you guys just trade e-mails and continue it in private? Oh wait...no one else would see it...frigging attention whores.... WMAL for bumping half of Coast to Coast for the trucker show.... ALL cable newsers for bias (either side); what happened to "objective journalist"? That's like "military intelligence" eh? BEST: WBAL morning news, Ron Smith, WRNR, WZBA finally eliminating Bob and Tom, Wall to Wall Baseball with Tom Davis, Phil Wood and the other Dave Johnson. WORST: WBAL firing Steve Davis and going with syndicated crap after 7pm. They should be ashamed of themselves. No decent oldies station in Baltimore/Washington. Also, all of the brain dead radio executives who ignore the free programming recommendations of Dave Hughes. Robert in Elkridge (long time listener, never a caller). best-Tom Tasselmeyer, Sandra Shaw from WBAL TV, Adam May and Denise Koch from WJZ, Megan Pringle and Jamie Costello for keeping WMAR alive. WBAL's Ron Smith and "Marylands Morning News" on 1090AM. John Klug and Sarah Taylor from 100.7 WZBA, Maria Dennis from Mix 106.5 and Fran Lane from 101.9 Not too many negatives just a few-the departure of Sally Thorner from WJZ and Norm Lewis from WMAR, Meredith Marks from WZBA Megan D. Towson Worsts: It's hard to see all that much good in this media landscape. What's more shocking: the slow implosion of the Washington Post, or the rapid implosion of The Washington Times? OK, the Times is more shocking. After decades of losing money, who would have thought anyone cared if the paper turned a profit. OK, the news pages were infested with an overt political bias and agenda, its editorial pages were atrocious and occasionally racist, but the Metro and Sports pages were pretty good and provided needed competition for the Post. So, the Times is now directing focus to the worse part of the paper and jettisoning what made it even remotely credible in the community. No, the world does not need a right-wing version of The Politico. We already have two -- which is one, perhaps two too many. And that comes to our second jeer -- The Politico-ing of the news. -- The Politico is a gossip rag more concerned with winning the day than informing readers. It represents the worst in horse-racing myopia that makes coverage of politics and policy so uniformly terrible in the media today. And thanks to the Political succeeding financially, it's going to drag others to its level. The Washington Post is already America's second Politico mag. Another remarkable trend is the sad underinvestment by media companies. The Washington Post closing its national bureaus, and decimating its staff through buyouts. Gannett's decades long quest to run WUSA into the ground moved into overtime this year -- cutting its weekend and weekday news programs, dumping popular and knowledgeable personalities for cheaper know-nothings from minuscule markets. The most recent and egregious decision being firing meterologists Tony Pann and Kim Martucci in favor for Devon Lucie who is almost guaranteed to make one local geography mistake each and every night. Even with the standards of local news, WUSA is near unwatchable. Sadly, other networks have been treated with neglect as well. WRC has been remarkable in retaining its leadership, even with the anchor of the NBC primetime lineup as its lead-in. Yet, NBC has treated the station as little more than an ATM machine. 2010 deserves better. Much better! BEST: Robert Garcia hired to lead National Public Radio's hourly newscast unit. Finally a seasoned radio news broadcaster is among NPR's top managers. WORST: 88-5 WAMU News. Again this year it is the most disappointing, underachieving local news source. It still has grand potential to serve the community if management ever decides to make the effort. Best TV: The WJLA/ABC7 News and Weather Teams around the clock; Best News Director/Station Manager, Bill Lord. When is DC/MD/VA going to get it??? Best Radio: By far WTOP for news (Mike, Bruce and Nathan Roberts -- glad you're back on the air), weather (Go Doug and Brian!) and traffic (Lisa and Bob). Can't live without them. Worst: If I don't have anything nice to say, I prefer not to say it!! JW in Manassas Best: Maryland Morning News on WBAL 1090. I really would like to see more of this format in Baltimore I would like to see the format expanded to at least afternoons also. Keep Ron Smith on in the early afternoon slot and then begin the "Maryland Afternoon and Evening News" at 3:30 - 4:00 and run it until 7:00 pm. Ron Matz on WJZ Morning Edition. He brings a lot of good feelings about living in Baltimore to all viewers. Worst: Like all areas terrestrial radio in Baltimore/Washington with the exception of WTOP. Growing up in the 50's and 60's I hate to see what has happened to radio compared to what it used to be. Happy New year to all DCRTVers and thank you Dave Hughes for having a wonderful site for Baltimore/Washington radio and television fans. Baltimore's Best Anchors: Denise Koch: WJZ's steady hand at the wheel, Stan Stovall: the best at WBAL and the best male anchor in Baltimore, Adam May: a refreshing change compared to most at WJZ , Donna Hamilton: WBAL should put her at 11pm. Best News Reporters: WBFF's Kathleen Cairnes. WJZ's Mike Hellgren and Derek Valcourt. WBAL's Kate Amara. WMAR's Christan Shaffer. Best Weather: Tom Tasselmeyer at WBAL. Bernadette Woods and Tim Williams at WJZ. Best Sports: Mark Viviano WJZ. Best Morning News: WBAL-TV Worst: WBAL Radio for their lame attempt at all news in the morning. They need orginal reporting. WMAR for giving up the race. WBFF's horrible graphics. WJZ's repeated news content. WBAL-TV for packaging too many press releases. BEST: I love Andrea and Howard in the morning at 9....but still can't believe Channel 9 got rid of my favorites...Mike Walters and Kim Martucci. I still can't believe they are gone. They made me laugh. Why does channel 9 keep dismantling things? First Gordan, Maureen, Doug and Mike Buchanan...now a whole new crop of talented people. I also miss Tony and Jennifer Ryan on the weekends. George Micheal was the best sports guy ever. May he rest in peace. I love Kojo on the radio and Diane Rehm. Loo and Lori are good too. Worst: The list is too long...lots to chose from. The kids who still have training wheels on their bikes who appear on Newschannel 8. Are these news stations or daycares now? In the training wheels derby they are still ahead of Channel 9...but not by much. So many new faces at channel 9...all of them fresh from the prom. Barbara Harrison wasn't good...but her replacement won't be much better. At night Jim Vance still needs a cattle prod to show any energy. I am also so tired of the breathless reporting and anchoring on Fox 5. Give me a break! The worst this year doesn't go to a person though, it goes to journalism. The Times dismantled, the Post reduced to a shell of what it once was. Local stations getting rid of the veteran journalists. That's not to mention the stories. The Salahis? Please..tell me why that's news? Also explain to me why the woman who was anchoring the news last night on Channel 9 (Angie Goff) is calling into CNN to defend them? Aren't journalists supposed to be objective and not advocates? I can't watch her after that phone call. What has the country come to when the President of the United States talks about the war in Afghanistan in a nationwide address and the next morning the stations all say..."We'll get to that in a moment...but first breaking news, we are learning that the Salahis may have crashed the Congressional Black Caucus dinner!" Wow....young men and women may die in a far off land...but wait...the really important story is the Salahi's might have snitched a couple of appetizers at the Black Caucus dinner before getting the heave ho. Oh and then there is Tiger...wow that's a huge story...an athlete cheats on his wife....that certainly has never happened before. Let's see, Boggs, Clemons, the list goes on and on. I'm convinced if there was a Watergate today...we'd never find out about it. A. Because all the journalists have been replaced by people who look like models B. Because the decision makers who got rid of the real journalists would say it's not a story! I want to nominate wdcn, as best new hispanic fm programmer. Please add 87.7 as WDCN on your list of signals. Worst new columnist: Kevin Huffman, winner of the Washington Post's "Next Great American Pundit" contest. I say "Worst," because he is just another liberal being added to long roster of Post staff columnists, 100 percent of whom span the political spectrum from garden-variety liberal to leftwing-nut .... Ruth Marcus, Richard Cohen, Eugene Robinson, Joe Davidson, Robert McCartney, Petula Dvorak, E.J. Dionne, Courtland Milloy, Colbert King and Harold Meyerson. (I'm not even sure that's a complete list.) The only one who is even remotely center-right is Robert Samuelson, but he doesn't really count, since his columns are almost exclusively Econ 101 stuff; George Will and Charles Krauthammer don't count because they are syndicated, not staff columnists. And all of these lefty columnists are in addition to the writers of the Post's predictably liberal but unsigned editorials, who never met a gay right or a Democrat they didn't endorse, and Tom Toles, the global-warming Kool-Aid chugging editorial cartoonist. For all of the left's professed love of diversity, the Post doesn't demonstrate it in the one way it would matter; namely, diversity of opinion. Best: CFZM aka AM740, Rob Bamberger's Hot Jazz Saturday Night, Ed Walker's Big Broadcast, Car Talk, Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, Are We Aone? Science Radio for Thinking Species, WMRA's Acoustic Cafe, WBBM for broadcasting the complete CBS news on the hour (as opposed to WCBS and WTOP for cutting it off at the 3-minute commercial break), WETA and WBJC Classical, WPFW Jazz. Worst: FM religious translators ad nauseam, narrow playlists, five+ minute "stop sets" Best - XM/Sirus. Music without commercials. Sports play-by-play from anywhere in the country. Even listening to the audio from the TV programming on CNBC, CNN and FOX is more informative than listening to local news programming. Worst - Terrestrial radio in DC. I get more entertaining programming on XM in the car, and more information from the Internet at home and at work. TOP - used to listen all the time. Now the programming just feels old, stale and predictable. Too many commercials and too little useful information, except for traffic and weather. Stations in town that are automated with syndicated programming. Best: The entire WBAL TV 11 news team. Special shout outs to the morning news team...Stan Stovall, Mindy Basara, Sarah Caldwell, Sandra Shaw, and Tony Pann...love you guys!!! Jayne Miller...you go girl!!! Jennifer Franciotti, Lowell Meltzer, and Kerry Cavanaugh, I love your "on the scene" reporting!!! Keep up the good work! Worst: Meteorologist Neal Estano leaves WBAL TV 11. Mary Beth Marsden, Meteorologist Norm Lewis, and Terry Owens leaving WMAR (ABC2), and Sally Thorner leaving WJZ TV 13! WDCN, is programming in spanish geting closer to WLZL, so are 2 Hispanic programmers in the fm dial, but I think WDCN has better knowledge of the hispanic music taste and better dj's. better support of local latin music bands, better shows including the first ever latino sport show at 12 noon, M-F, latinos eat soccer on a daily basis. soccer rules in a market that predominantly are central american's, plus latinos wake up at 5am m-f with club music mixes- live dj mixing with sound effects of rosters. got to hear it, following up with a super morning high energy show. Way to go WDCN, they REALLY rock !! BEST: WUSA-TV 9 News Now Meteorologist Kim Martucci. Mike & Mike In The Morning, Laura Ingraham, The Joe Theismann Show, The Mike O`Meara Show when it was on WJFK, Bob Ryan, Wendy Reiger. Worst: The end of the Wash Times sports section, Randi Rhodes, "The Fan": Junkies Sean Hannity, Chris Matthews, Rachel Maddow, Tony Kornhesier`s radio show on WMAL AM 980, Rush Limbaugh, Vinny Cerrato, Glenn Beck`s paranoid rants on his tv and radio shows. The jackass, Management idiots at WUSA-TV aka 9 News Now who made the terrible and awful decision to release weather lady Kim Martucci. Something really must be in the water over at WUSA-TV 9 News Now when the hammerheads in Management releases their very Best and Brightest employee, Kim Martucci. Best: Hot AC Station –WIHT; Christian Station –WFAX, a true full-service Christian radio station. With the exception of carrying “Focus on the Family”, WFAX largely eschews politics for preaching, and holier than thou moralizing for Scripture. Unlike the alleged “Christian” station up the road from them, WFAX is openly supportive of local churches –not just the “mega” ones- with free announcements and is of the “love the sinner/hate the sin” variety as taught by… Jesus Christ himself; Sports Station –WJFK. In spite of a lackluster transmitter site, “the Fan” makes most Red Zebra signals look like the “Mr. Microphone” their transmitter is one generation removed from. If they added an under-appreciated and over-extended Dave Johnson, this station would be damn near complete!; News Station –WTOP; Broadcast Journalist –Tie! J.J. Green and Mark Segraves (Close runner-up: Adam Tuss) Very honorable mentions to Dave Johnson and Keith Mills; Cable Operator – Cox. Really professional come back from that big service outage. Nice to still have a competent and local technical staff you can call your own, isn’t it? Damnit, I bet if the same thing happened to Comcast, they’d have to call in an out-of-town contractor after having laid-off so many of their local people; Format Change – 105.9 dumping “True Oldies” and the “loser” WJZW call for classic rock and WVRX. If “True Oldies” is an ego trip for Scott Shannon, the frequent flyer miles must be on Amtrak or Greyhound. From what this format sounds like, it calls into serious question his qualifications to format a floppy disk, let alone a radio station of any market size; Bankruptcy –Citadel. Hopefully Bonneville and CBS can share in the cremains of this bankruptcy, which really should’ve been a chapter 7. Sometimes, “economic euthanasia” is necessary. Just as in other parts of life, businesses can run their course and expire, while some never should’ve been in the first place. I’m sure Citadel could’ve been successful as the O&O of 12 pico-market Class IV AM’s running 1 KW day and 250 watts night and 12 similar Class A FM’s running 3 KW ERP with an HAAT of 200’, all satellite-fed, with the few employees making minimum wage. They simply got out of their league by borrowing big and buying ABC Radio; TV News Operation –WJLA. Despite the cuts (Including unpublicized ones to Bob Albritton’s salary…), this continues to be the news operation both 9 and 48 could’ve had were it not for the “let’s see how many we can layoff” attitudes; Non-Story Which Disappeared –No, it wasn’t “Balloon Boy” and clan, it was “Obama Administration vs. Fox News” –This was nothing more than a locker-roomesque competition in urinary propulsion and volume. Good for a few brief headlines and a few laughs. What it did was give Fox News journalistic and political credibility it never had (nor truly deserved) before. Consider how little "Media Matters” talks about Fox News; Mea Culpa –WMAL for replacing “Joe and Mika” with Chris Plante, whom they replaced earlier in the year, only to relegate “Joe and Mika” to delayed airing in the evening before finally giving up on those two; Local TV Weather –Howard Bernstein and Bob Ryan. Howard is a real pro and deserves a better gig than being second banana to Topper Shutt; Audience Measurement Tool –The Portable People Meter. Much to the angst of those unwilling to adapt and adopt change (and end up like the T-Rex) the PPM is the most accurate measurement yet devised of a person’s media exposure, whether it be traditional (ad supported) or not; Future Change to the Business Model –The game of “chicken” Fox is playing with Time-Warner Cable. While Rupert Murdoch is content with “Pay for Play” where the “pay” to him is mandatory and at the rate he wants, I bet he’ll be crying “foul” to Congress and becomes an overnight socialist if “a la carte” per-channel payment becomes mandatory as the outcome of this and he finds that Newscorp owns channels viewers aren’t willing to pay for individually. Indeed, “a la carte” combined with “pay for play” could be the beginning of the end of more than a few cable channels. How about we start with C-SPAN? And, then the local origination crap forced extortion-style on the cable companies by local governments, which satellite mercifully avoids? Worst: The local broadcasters and cable operators who decide to fatten their book value at the expense of the dedicated career employees responsible for your success by laying-off these workers and using the economy as an excuse. Those responsible for these unnecessary (and usually unreported) layoffs know who you are and are also unworthy of neither individual mention nor recognition here on DCRTV as you are undeserving of any respect whatsoever because you disrespect your fellow executives, your managers, your employees, and your clients/customers/audience. In all likelihood, you probably don’t even respect yourselves. There’s a special place in hell reserved for your type as your evil and greed are so pervasive and of such a boundlessly unconscionable magnitude that Satan himself fears it. Worse yet, I hear that some of you have the unmitigated gall to “proudly” announce in the presence of those about to be laid-off, the availability of their jobs once the layoffs become effective. Until layoffs like these are made legally punitive with hard prison time (We’re talking “Super Max” at Marion -not “Club Fed” at Lackland), your ilk will continue to be the scourge not only of the media profession, but of capitalism itself. The worst part of this is that the employees you’ve chosen to keep have ample reason to no longer trust or respect you, but to fear you. No doubt the distrust and fear you’ve sown with these actions has killed the employee enthusiasm, entrepreneurship, innovation, and creativity, which are the lifeblood of every business. This will show in all parts of your business both inside and outside, and could eventually seal not only your own fate, but the demise of your business as well. The only good thing is that with cable being as competitive as I see it being, the best and brightest one gets rid of will be eagerly hired by the other knowing the new employee(s) will be going after their “ex-“ with a vengeance; News Station –WTOP. Even with the bright stars of J.J. Green and Mark Segraves (of whom at least two more are needed), WTOP is in some dayparts (especially weekends) as stagnant as Gordon McLendon’s rip and read XETRA. Also, WTOP’s on-air imaging/presence needs some serious freshening/brightening. There are times when it has all the immediacy of the Muzak™ in a mortuary. While Dave Johnson is the king of local sports radio, having contractors doing the rest of your sports reeks of cheapness which ill suits both Bonneville and WTOP. And, some new voices need to be added. Pity you can’t clone Debra Feinstein, Veronica Robinson, Kristi King or Michelle Basch to replace two of the most offensive female voices on local radio. While those two may be competent journalists, they have voices fit for silent movies. This station is so self-assured of its success that it is begging for the competition it so desperately needs, which, alas, will seemingly never come; Local Sports –Craig Heist. You’re a good reporter. But, WTOP is a Washington market station. The baseball team is the Nationals –not the one owned by “Captain Asbestos” and the football team is the Redskins, not the Ravens. If you want to hype Baltimore’s teams, call Steve Drepperd and get a job with WJZ-FM; AC Station –WIAD. This should be called “Jill FM”. As my youngest daughter (in their target demo) puts it, “It’s for women whose ‘get up and go’ got up and went –never to return!” Please Dan, put “personality oldies” on 94.7! (And, “Amp” on 95.5!); “Christian” Station –WAVA. As a Christian, the only daypart I find barely tolerable is Rich Lee in AM drive. He would be a great Christian AC AM drive jock if such a format existed here. The rest of WAVA is a curious mix of selective ultra-right-wing politics mixed with “Cafeteria Scripture” and allegedly “Christian” infomercials, some of which are of highly dubious integrity and efficacy. However, I don’t blame Salem for not selling WAVA. Regardless of format, it’s perhaps the best signal with “D.C.” in its legal ID and makes a dandy “corporate showcase/mouthpiece”; Local TV news –In spite of the cuts at 9 and 48, I still rate WTTG channel 36 as the worst. It reeks too much of the control Roger Ailes and Rupert Murdoch have over all the “Newscorp” operations. As a consequence, it has all the journalistic credibility and impartiality of the “Daily Worker”; Local TV Weather –Topper Shutt. Belongs back in Greensboro; Cable Operator –This is a tough one. Comcast, Cox, and Verizon all deserve “dishonorable mentions” of varying degrees. However, Verizon is second only to GM in re-manufacturing itself as a company. The question is what kind of company it will be when the re-manufacturing is complete? And, will it, like GM eventually require a government takeover and bailout for survival because of the billions wasted in building FiOS and buying with cash, HDTV’s, and gift cards the customers of the incumbent cable companies? There’s an exhibit on ReelRadio.com which resembles the desperation of Verizon vs. Cable. It’s called “The Last ‘Q’ Format”. To rate in the Arbitron book, the station eventually gives away everything down to the last cart machine, microphone, record, and the transmitter.., until there’s nothing left to give away. That is where I see Verizon going with this. They basically got into the cable biz twenty years too late and with technology that was an employee elimination “Hail Mary” as fiber to the premises is a totally unnecessary waste of resources. What does Verizon run to their box on the TV set? RG-6 coax, just like Comcast, and probably Cox. So, FiOS is just as “all fiber” as Comcast and Cox. It’s just that Cox and perhaps that other cable company are maybe too honorable and honest to point out the deceit in their competitors ads. (I really couldn’t use the word “Comcast” in the same sentence as “honest” and “honorable”…); Dishonesty –The FCC-mandated deceit of requiring WRC to still be “NBC 4” in spite of being on channel 48, and WTTG as being “Fox 5”, in spite of being on channel 36. And, so on across the nation; “Comeback” –Chris Plante. At one time, I would’ve put him on opposite Rush Limbaugh. And, he would’ve kicked Rush’s ass all over the parking lot. Unfortunately, he’s lost the scintilla of humor, humility and humanity he once possessed. Sorry, Silvie… you may be the only one still impressed; Syndicated Talker – Mika and Joe! By a landslide! Talk Radio’s equivalent of “True Oldies”; Sports Station –Dead Zebra. This operation is so offensive, it must be a Citadel affiliate; (Non) Personality on Local Radio –Lon Solomon. Not a preacher or Pastor as much a motivational speaker; Talk Station –WTNT, with its lousy lineup, lousy automation, and lousy coverage. If WMAL had the brains and balls God gave canned cling peaches, they never would’ve fired Chris Core, and put Chris Plante on after Core. dumping Rush who likely would’ve been relegated to this devolving disaster of a radio station. Oh yes, WMAL should’ve hired another local talker to host PM drive and Hannity would’ve likely ended up on 570 as well; Owner/Operator –Dan Snyder. Single-handedly, he has done to local radio what he’s done to the Redskins, Johnny Rockets, and Six Flags. I guess the only reason he succeeded in gaining approval from the NFL owners to buy the Redskins is that Roller Derby didn’t want him; Monopoly –Sirius/XM… Normally, I feel government should stay out of business. But, as with the pandemic of layoffs, government intervention is needed here. Sirius/XM is a merger which should’ve never been allowed to happen, and is a monopoly which needs to be broken-up; Newspaper – All. I do not mourn the impending demise of the Washington Times. Nor, do I pity the Washington Post for being kept afloat by cable TV and those parents sending their kids to Kaplan for the education they can’t get in school. Local daily print is a dinosaur which needs to be put out of its misery. Happy New Year–Unsigned Corporate Suit Best: MASN without ANITA, love the sports show just can't stand her ! Worst: MASN with ANITA, she adds a bad "trailer park" stentch to the show ! Best and Worst; and now the winners and the losers in Baltimore Best TV Anchor (male): Stan Stovall WBAL-TV... Best TV Anchor (female): Jennifer Gilbert WBFF-TV... Best TV weather: Tom Tasselmyer WBAL-TV... Best TV story teller: Jeff Abell WBFF-TV... Best breaking news: WBAL-TV... Best TV up and comer: Jessica Kartaliya (without eye bags)... Best TV Sports anchor: Gerry Sandusky WBAL-TV... Best Radio News : WBAL... Best Radio news anchor: John Patti... Best radio music: WLIF-FM... Best decisions: Mary Beth Marsden, Terry Owens and Norm Lewis leave WMAR-TV... Best early morning news: WBAL-TV... Best morning traffic: WBAL-TV... Worst TV Anchors entire: WMAR-TV staff... Worst Weekend TV anchor: Adam May WJZ-TV... Worst TV weather: Vytas Reid WBFF-TV... Worst Radio news anchor: Scott Wycoff (the screamer)... Worst TV reporters, too many to name... Worst TV reporters who talk too fast: Melissa Carlson, Mike Hellgren... Worst TV news reader: Don Scott WJZ makes more mistakes than anyone... Worst TV airborne reporters: both WJZ and WBAL they can fly but not report... Worst news cut-ins in morning shows: WBAL-TV only 1 story... Worst morning traffic: WMAR-TV – WBFF-TV tie... Worst fill-in for TV traffic: whoever fills in on WBAL-TV (obviously doesn’t know Baltimore)... Best: 105.9 The Edge. Actually played music I haven't heard in years. Plus I won some great stuff from them (like a limo ride to Springsteen concert plus tickets) Springsteen & the E St Band doing Born To Run live. WPFW : Jazz and Blues. Good stuff. FiOS TV. Best picture out there. Tony Kornheiser back on the air. CSPAN: TV & radio. Zune Worst : The slow, painful death of newspapers. WBIG - I like Ballard but I couldn't take the tiny playlist anymore. Made me buy a Zune. The "haters" on both sides. Olbermann can be obnoxious. Sarah Palin is not very smart. Get over it. Those who have passed away this year. The vast amount of radio talent that are not working at their craft. The vast amount of newspaper talent that are not working at their craft. The vast amount of television talent that are not working at their craft. Wish for 2010: A rock radio station that will play rock songs. Whether it was recorded in the early 50's or in 2010. Break up media conglomerates. They haven't benefited the public. I nominate Marty "The Mouth" Bass for the Worst TV Personality around. He is so obnoxious, and just full of "Himself" , I don't know how anyone can work with him. He can't even do the weather report without giving directions to the camera people, and then has to give his educated? ( he is not a Meteriologist) opinion on the weather. Do you get the idea that I consider Marty Bass a JERK, 100% correct. A WBAL Fan Best: Donnie Simpson, Elliot, WTOP, 98Rock, WJLA/NewsChannel8, Doug Hill, Brian van de Graff, Alison Starling, Leon Harris, and everyone else at WJLA Worst: The loss of George Michael, the music selection on DC101, still no HFS, the music and on-air staff at Hot 99.5 Best: News 4 as always. But how about that HD thing???? Let’s get into 21st century TV before it all moves to the cable side and the web. WTOP – but this year they only get a passing grade. They really could use some all news radio competition to keep them on their game. Worst: The Nats TV broadcast team. WTOP for their commentary segment and thinking that I listen during the entire morning drive and therefore I will eventually hear ALL of their “balanced” commentary segments. Not so. All I get is Cal Thomas (ugh) who loves to playback right wing message points, which are mostly distortion of the facts. Doesn’t anyone read his copy before he takes to the airwaves? The News 4 web site. Horrible! Bad! Awful! Did I mention it’s not very good? Happy New Year Best: Diane Lyn and the music on WLIF. Better sports coverage on 105.7 the fan. Its nice to have a sports station with a signal that reaches outside of 695. Worst: All of the local television news, cable news and network programing in general. BEST: WTOP Radio whenever I am in my car. Know where the traffic problems are and also get the news that I want. TV: To quote someone else that replied, Andrea Roane is always a class act. WORST: There is no TV station that I HAVE to watch for local news these days. I’m dating myself, but back in the days of Glenn Brenner, Gordon Peterson and Maureen Bunyan on Channel 9 I always immediately turned to them. Now I graze from channel to channel. No longer feel loyalty to any specific station. best: holly morris at wttg worst: sarah simmons at wttg trying to be like holly morris. there can only be one. Best - Chris Kinard for doing what he had to do with the flip but giving us a still quite listenable station after the ashes cleared. George Michael for being a class act the whole way and he will be missed. Tony Perkins for being the best weatherman, locally or national. Chad Dukes for being one of the last guys out there who works and then some, doing RROD, the HD2 Rodkast, and his own net streaming show, OTHELLLLER!!! Jim Vance is the elder statesman of local news anchoring, bar none. 88.5 for always being interesting whenever the rest of the radio isn't. The DC AM for being the best podcast to both listen to drunk people and get drunk yourself. The Washington Time's Stephanie Green for being one of the best, and when that ship goes down hoping she moves to a better paper. Wil Thomas, for not always being great, but always being entertaining. Worst - Every move Dan Snyder has made, not just worst of 2009 but worst of the DECADE! Air America for always floundering, even if occasionally they have good product. Elliot for not being what he was six years ago. Al Koken for his temp job on WJFK, it's not a nickname if you're the only one who keeps saying it, "smokin!" Chris Core on WTOP, it's a bad Andy Rooney, and Andy Rooney isn't so great. Jack Diamond, because he's Jack Diamond. Best: The Mike O'Meara show, while it was around. And, strangely enough, WJFK going all sports. Especially the Mike Wise show, which was terrible to start, but has gotten much better. In addition it's good to hear people like Scott Jackson and Al Koken who also know what they're talking about and are capable of putting on a good, intelligent show that talks about all the area's teams. Jim Palmer on Orioles games. Fred Manfra and Joe Angel, especially Angel, on the radio. Elliott in the Morning is the funniest show on the radio, at least in DC. Fox 5 Morning News, and especially Sarah Simmons and Beth Parker -- two great reporters there. And any time the teams I like are playing in HD. Worst: Budget cutting news rooms and the bitter people who work in so many of them. The end of the Wash Times sports section. Dan Snyder. And hell, me for being a darn fool and staying in the media business. Worst: Weijia Jiang of WJZ for her grating delivery and popping her "p"s; didn't anyone ever show her the proper distance to hold a mike away from her face? Relentless Obama-bashing by the Fox News channel and the ongoing childish war of words between O'Reilly and Olbermann: if these hot-air merchants would shut up it would significantly help the global warming problem. The continuing tabloidization of all news outlets, what with the endless coverage of Michael Jackson, Tiger Woods, et al and news organizations giving people news they want to hear instead of news they really need to know; the canonization of Tim Russert (will Walter Cronkite's office be recreated at the Newseum? I think not.); weather forecasters who seem to take infinite delight in overdramatizing upcoming weather events, thus sending many viewers into a panic; spending 5-10 minutes of every half-hour news segment talking about the weather: I just need to know what is going to happen today, tomorrow and in the next five days, and you can tell me that in just 30 seconds. Three hours of the same recycled news stories on WJZ: I understand the concept about reaching people who get home early or late but it is maddening. Best: Don Scott of WJZ: a class act all the way and a voice of calm reason during a crisis; JoJo and Reagan in the Morning; Karen Parks of Fox-45; Vic Carter, Tim Williams and Adam May of WJZ; Stan Stovall of WBAL. Best: WJFK going all sports and providing much more local programming than ESPN 980; Times columnist Thom Loverro joining WTEM and getting his co-host Kevin Sheehan to pay more attention to baseball and hockey (two sports he clearly cares little about); Al Galdi taking over 980’s Redskins postgame show; the tributes to Abe Pollin and George Michael on various TV and radio outlets; Tony Bruno returning to Fox Sports Radio; Sirius XM’s NFL channels; launch of the MLB Network on cable TV (in particular its hiring of Bob Costas and rebroadcasts of classic baseball games going back more than five decades); the Tennis Channel’s US Open coverage and replays of vintage matches; PBS’s American Masters special on legendary folk singer/activist Joan Baez and its miniseries on America’s national parks (directed by Ken Burns); CBS’ 60 Minutes special on heroic airline pilot Chesley Sullenberger; John King replacing Wolf Blitzer on CNN’s Sunday morning political coverage; CNN’s Reliable Sources show (continuing to call out the mainstream media for their excesses and questionable practices); Monica Crowley reenergizing the McLaughlin Group (although I seldom agree with her on anything); Diane Sawyer succeeding the retiring Charles Gibson as anchor of ABC‘s World News Tonight. Worst: ESPN 980 letting go of Al Koken and Brian Mitchell (who’ve recently resurfaced in fill-in roles on 106.7 The Fan); Tony Kornheiser becoming a shameless apologist for Redskins owner Dan Snyder (his new boss) after rejoining WTEM; Kornheiser and Andy Pollin’s continuing refusal to treat hockey like a sport that matters in Washington; WJFK’s Mike Wise show relegating the return of major league baseball to seventh biggest DC sports story of the decade; too many sports hosts (both local and national) using the Tiger Woods scandal as an excuse to make their shows sound like tabloid radio; Channel 4 leading newscasts with the 4-11 Skins; Ivan Carter’s interview with Anna Kournikova on CSN’s Washington Post Live (I guess we’re supposed to believe she was the best available guest to discuss World Team Tennis coming to DC); ongoing efforts by right wing radio hosts such as Limbaugh, Hannity and Beck to demonize Obama; the media circus surrounding Michael Jackson’s death; TV news’ obsession with airing 911 calls featuring people in extreme emotional distress; Conan O‘Brien taking over NBC’s Tonight Show (not exactly inspiring comparisons to Johnny Carson). Mike, Fairfax BEST: WUSA-TV weather people Tony Pann and Kim Martucci WORST: WUSA-TV's release of weather people Tony Pann and Kim Martucci. Topper Shutt is obviously a very nice guy and hard worker but he's the weak talent at WUSA's weather department and should have been the one to depart. Sadly, Topper has never had the right stuff as a communicator to lead a major TV weather operation in an intensely competitive environment. Best: WBAL News Anchors. Kudos to Ch 11 for bringing Tony Pann back…now lose Sandra Shaw completely! For radio, Ron Smith on WBAL AM for being intelligent and well–informed. Also C-4 (Clarence Mitchell) is entertaining, bright and passionate about his views. He is gracious when idiots call in. Worst: WMAR News in general. Shame on WMAR for letting Mary Beth Marsden and Norm Lewis leave! Sandra Shaw’s polyester tops do not fit the look of WBAL news! She is not needed there with Tony, Tom and John. For radio, big mistake to switch Channel 104.3 to Hot AC. Their playlist is something like 20 songs and it’s ANNOYING Shari Eliker on WBAL AM’s midday grates on my nerves—she is a lot of dribble. The station would do well to either put Steve Rouse in that time slot or go all news like WTOP until Ron Smith’s slot Baltimore Hon BEST: WTOP, WHAG-TV(NBC 25), WFMD Radio's "Christmas Cash For Kids", Last.fm, WICL Oldies 95.9, WHVR 1280 AM, WAMU 88.5, "It's Academic" on 4 & 13, The Gazette (Frederick Edition), WETA-TV's Saturday classic movie lineup, Washington Stations' snow coverage on December 19th, Turner Classic Movies. WORST: Frederick, MD's radio stations owned by two major corporations (Clear Channel & Nassau) that are in heavy debt, and since being corporate-owned, all of those stations have lost their calling. Comcast (their high, high cable prices and unreliable service), annoying infomercials (stations should go back to airing "Million Dollar Movies" when they have nothing to show), Washington/Baltimore not having an independent TV station, Frederick News-Post eliminating their Monday edition, WFMD acting like WMAL (in its current status), and the Digital TV Transition in Frederick (the only station that's picked up on our only non-cable set is WWPX out of Martinsburg, WV), and no oldies station(s). A bit of variety to add to your mix -- Best - Return of John Batchelor and his intelligent talk radio Viriginian's Mark Levin's opinionated yet high level talk radio Worst - Weather Channel's Jeff Maher, heard on WMAL -- always quick to note "above average" if a day is expected to be a couple degrees above average, but rarely that it's below avg, even if it's way below avg, like today [probably notes "below average" only after he gets complaints about his global warming bias showing]. And the worst of the worst, Washington's monopoly traffic info provider, Metro Traffic. Provides service just as you would expect from a monopoly. Reknown for inaccurate and untimely information [is is really that hard to look at the camera's view in the monitor?]. But while the difficulty of the job leads to understanding on that count, it doesn't on this one: While EVERYONE refers to the DIRECTION they are going on the Beltway, as do the big signs, Monopoly Traffic won't do that and make their reports more readily understandable. No, they uniformly insist on using their own terminology, "inner" and "outer" loop. Because they are a monopoly, they can, and do. Best: True Oldies 105.9 Worst: The decision to drop oldies, which the original WBIG showed was a winning format when promoted, in favor of bad classic rock, which regularly attracts less support in this area than a Republican running for the DC Council. Did they ever hear of WCXR and WARW, perennial cellar-dwellers? BEST: The Mike O'Meara Show podcast (great to hear their voices again, Oscar is a wonderful addition), the return of Mr. Tony, The Sports Reporters, Grandy and Andy in the mornings, 106.7 evening and weekend talent, the Wizards on 106.7 (so the signal does not die at Gilberts Corner). Andy Pollin's work on the day's Abe Pollin and George Michael died. Indeed Andy Pollin in general, he is a dependable radio workhorse WORST: The rest of "The Fan": Junkies stuck in an post-adolescent funk; Mike Wise, great writer, awful broadcaster; Lavar = dreck (hey Chad, just leave!) Losing Czabe's morning show, the Joe Theisman show. cwb3 Best: WTOP! Jim Vance & Doreen; Chuck Bell; Topper; Doug Hill. Worst: Pat Lawson Muse & Barbara Harrison - they can't seem to read the news. Bring back Susan Kidd!! Kim Matuccui who talks to use like we are in kindergarten. Sadly, not much on the urban side of radio, but let me give a few kudos: Best: Urban jocks trying to keep their shows fresh with the constant pressure to talk less and have no personality in the PPM world. Donnie Simpson and Russ Parr for both making morning local radio entertaining and fun. Their styles are different, but I still look forward to sampling both each morning. Radio from 6-10 on WPGC, WKYS and WERQ for making a 35+ still feel like there is energy in radio. Slow Jams shows there really is only one name in the area -- LaDawn Black on WERQ. The show is consistent, funny, informative and really something new and fresh each night. Worst: Syndicated morning shows on urban stations that seem to thrive on stereotypes, gossip we have all already read and a general lack of focus. Playlists that are stale and the lack of really allowing "personalities" to shine through. I get the stations playing the hottest songs, but give us something to at least set you apart form the next station on the dial. "Reality Radio" segments on Radio One. These do not speak to listener concerns just to your fear of losing your business. Listeners are smart enough to know if you go out of business someone else will fill the gap. The lack of creativity and innovation in a format that still has legs. Has urban radio just given up? Best: Most everyone at NBC4. Vance and Doreen still rule. Wendy Rieger, Eun Yang, Chuck Bell are definitely strong contenders for prime when someone retires. Jackie Bensen and Julie Carey and Jane Watrel are consummate reporters. I've taken Barbara Harrison off my hate list, as she mumbles less and does have talent. Lindsey, Dan and Hakem are carrying on in George's memory. Seven's team is my backup. WTOP provides Washington's pulse. I don't know what I'd do without them. WPFW is salvation on today's over-programmed industry. Worst: Most of DC's radio is pure unmitigated dreck. When forced to listen, I realize it continues to erode. NC8 and WJLA's saturation of infomercials. Lastly, with my WRC praise must come criticisms. Craig Melvin's return from vacation is making my ears bleed. I've really tried to like the guy, but his voice and delivery grate. Maybe they could get someone to groom him? I agree that Jim Handly is boring, as is Joe Krebs. But, Pat Lawson Muse continues to prove that her brain-mouth connection hangs up at times. Some of her cluelessness is hysterical. Best: Andrea Roane, what a class act she is! Worst: Kim Martucci, no wonder her last date on air is January 1....they would not renew her contract and they are giving her the boot! Sandra in Bethesda BEST: Top-rated best: News anchors- Jim Vance & Doreen Gentzer (simply the best duo), Weather- tie- Tom Kierein & Doug Hill, Sports- Lindsey Czarniak (she outshines ALL sportscasters- I hope she stays in town forever), Under-rated Best: Bruce DePuyt on NC8 (how many local news anchors could interview as many different types of people on so many different types of topics and deliver pointed questions with clarity and thought and carry an hour long show 5 days a week?) , Andrea Roane - (I only reached this conclusion after watching her for 15 years- solid performances day-in, day-out- and her morning slot lets her shine at interviewing, something most anchors in DC cannot do well), WTOP's Best: Shawn Anderson, Nathan Roberts, Barton Eckert, Dave Johnson (love his dry wit)... Traffic's Best: Lisa Baden-- why can't she work more shifts so she's always on when I'M in traffic! Best under-rated Sports Play-by-Play: Charlie Slowes. If more people listened to Nationals games, he'd be more of a household name. Same for Rob Carpenter on the TV side. Glad they reconsidered and re-signed him last year! Love it when Johnny Holliday is on the post-game shows, too! Best up-and-coming: Chris Van Cleave on WJLA- saw him on Dec. 19 snow day for the 12-hour on-air anchor shift... Dude: when did you go to the bathroom? WORST: People who get bent out of shape over the way Patricia Guadelupe says her name. It's HER name and she can say it however she wants! Get over it. Over-rated news anchor: Brian Bolter. Over-rated Weather: Topper. Over-rated Sports: Brett Haber. WRC for taping the 3pm news show and pretending it's really a 'news ' show. Gannett & WUSA for overdoing it with the one-man-band reporters. You'll never get out of 4th place unless you spend some more money and hire more professional photographers. J.W. in DC BESTS: George Michael - he'll be missed. The remaining Channel 4 news team - Vance, Doreen, Ryan, with Czarniak and Hellie (and an honorable mention to Wendy); despite management's desperate efforts to sabotage a good thing, they still work well together. WJLA - making a good effort. WTOP - where all ears go when news breaks. The return of Mr. Tony. iTunes. WORSTS: WMAL - Political Pornography. Channel 9 news - sloppy, gimmicky, amateurish staff; once the best TV station in America, now not even up to the level of also-ran. Channel 5/Fox - it bleeds; it leads. The Sirius/XM merger - ruined what was once a great XM music line-up. Terrestrial radio in general - almost no one is even trying anymore. The Wall Street Post - bring back Ben Bradlee. Worst The return of Tony Kornheiser to DC radio: After all these years, I still don't get it with him. And without all the sound effects and sidekicks and people laughing in the background off mike, who is Tony Kornheiser anyway? The dismantling of 630 WMAL, which is really the fault of the pathetic Farid Suleman of Citadel Corp. Joe Scarborough and Kurtis "I-Founded-The-Guardian-Angels-Three-Decades-Ago-And-I-Still-Wear-The-Beret" Sliwa were going to save the company, right? Scarborough can't host a show to save his life, unless, of course, we are pre-occupied by staring at Mika on MSNBC. Sliwa's vocabularly can't be understood outside of the Bronx. Well, so far as we can tell, the raping and pillaging of WMAL actually caused the property's cash value to drop. That's a heck of a C.E.O. - thank you Farid. Best: Stephanie Green at Washington Times. Her "solo" material, along her "Green and Glover" columns (with Elizabeth Glover) are very refreshing, devoid of any political spin. Keep it going Stephanie. The return of Chris Plante to WMAL - he's a bit more right-wing than I like, but he's smart which I appreciate, and he's damn funny. And he doesn't need people laughing off-mike or sound effects and sidekicks like Korny. The return - at least periodically - of Austin Hill to WMAL. Used to listen to him at night. Highly intelligent, actually dialogs with callers rather than merely shouting them down like Hannity, and the rock-n-roll humor on the night show was hilarious! Nice to hear him filling-in again. The way George Michael's death is being covered locally is excellent, and very fitting for the classy guy that Michael was. I loved "Sports Machine," and George Michael deserves the kind of coverage he is receiving as he has departed. Best: WXPN, WNCW, WTMD, WFUV & Folk Ally.com for providing an eclectic mix of music without commercials to people who seriously like music. WXPN's Sleepy Hollow on weekend mornings. Chuck Elliot knows his music. WPFW for Jazz and community radio hosted by dedicated volunteers. WTOP News, Traffic & Weather. DCRTV & Dave Hughes for a great service to media nuts. Air America on 1050. WKHS replacing its antenna. I can now listen in parts of Montgomery County when I'm at work. TV Stations 7, 9, 11 & 13 for HD NEWS. Bob Ryan's Weather. WMPT & WHUT for decent quality HD public TV channels. MHZ TV for Foreign News. Blu-ray movies & Oppo's Blue-ray player. Steve Jobs, Apple's iPod, iPhone and computers for storing my music collection in my shirt pocket, being able to stream internet radio anywhere and surf the web anywhere. Sony's XBR-8 HDTV. Sirius The Loft & Out Q. Rachel Maddow on MSNBC. Amy Goodman on Democracy Now. CSPAN TV & Radio for quality balanced information. The Agenda quickly replacing The Washington Blade. A good rooftop antenna system. Cox Communications for providing good quality TV & Internet service. Worst: THE LACK OF A PUBLIC RADIO MUSIC STATION LIKE WXPN IN DC!!! Commercial Music Radio. WMAL Hate Radio. Fox News Hate TV. Glenn Beck, Bill O'Reilly, Michael Savage, Rush Limbaugh and the rest of the right wing constipated gas bags. WETA for having too many mostly useless sub-channels and a poor quality HD channel as a result. WRC-4 SD News. Sirius Radios highly compressed music channels so bad that the music sounds like it is under water. Religious Broadcasters operating in the Public Radio Band as "Non Profits" and raking in tons of tax free money for their own personal benefit. The possible merger of Comcast and NBC. The Loss of The Washington Blade. Bob Fairfax Best: Plenty of good nominees thus far, but one I'm not sure has gotten a mention yet: WJZ's Mary Bubala. Yes, she's gotten an increased role in the last couple years, but if 'JZ doesn't have her in mind for being a key player in its long-term plans, they should have a checkup from the neck-up. Competent, affable, class act, and telegenic. A real keeper...don't mess this up, 13. Worst: Goes to WCBM, for it's annoying and misplaced use of the term "breaking news" at it's local on the half-hour updates... Guys, here's a journalism refresher for ya-- "breaking" means something that JUST happened maybe not more than 30 minutes ago, like a plane crash or a big-name death-- not a jury verdict that came in this time yesterday... what's up with that??? First, thanks so much for a great website and being truthful in your reporting of the good and bad of TV and Radio in DC! Best: WTOP for news and weather! Lindsay Czarniak for Sports on Channel 4. She rocks! Hot 99.5 for the hits. Great playlist. Worst: MIX 107.3. I like that Jack Diamond has been around a long time and we all know him. However, the constant sucking up by Jimmy "the lisp" Alexander and "giggling" Erica Hilary is too much for me to listen too. Actually, Aly is not bad. Bring back Jack and Bert. Jack, get better sidekicks and I will come back. 94.7 for me! Stacy, Fairfax, VA WORST WORST WORST...... The MOST sing song reporter in DC on WTOP Radio......Pat Guadeloupe SPEAK ENGLISH when you give your name .......... SPEAK ENGLISH......You are in America and working at a ENGLISH speaking radio station. You are Pat Guadeloupe... NOT Patricia Guadeloupe. If you want to say your name in Spanish, so bad, find a job at a Spanish speaking station!!! Best - Jim Vance and Doreen Gentzler - by far the best - they click together as a team, and you can tell they really care about what they are doing and their community and each other. I like the fact that they do make each other (and other members of the news 4 team) laugh - it's obvious they have fun at what they are doing. Bob Ryan - he has been doing it for so many years - but he is still the one I go to for accurate forecasts. Liz Crenshaw and her stories are fabulous! I also enjoy several of their beat reporters - Megan McGrath, Tracee Wilkins, Kimberly Suiters, Tom Sherwood, just to name a few. Worst - Now after praising the station people - Channel 4's website sucks! It is hard to navigate and way too cluttered. I liked the old format and used to visit it regularly, but hardly ever go to the new one. And Pat Collins - WAY back when you first started in the area I like you - thought you were funny - but now that you have to make every story a dramatic episode - ugh! Lighten up - just report the news - don't create it. Kim Martucci drives me crazy, although she is slightly growing on me. Don't talk like you can actually talk to us - "if I don't see you later, have a good day!" And pretty much everyone at Fox News. I only watch it if I'm desperate - everything is a scandal to them. MM in Germantown For Best: Will Thomas because he seems sincere Best: Mark Segraves. How many great stories did he break this year? WTOP overall. NPR. Mike Wise. Sports Junkies. Ch4 Sports team. (Sad about King George passing, but I don't miss him on the set.) Gordon Peterson. Angie Goff. Tony Perkins (not anchoring.) Topper. Doreen. Robin Roberts on GMA. Alison, Doug, and Brian from Good Morning Washington. Howie Kurtz on CNN. Wolf Blitzer. Bob Schieffer. Charlie Gibson. Dan Harris. Yunji de Nies. Stephanopoulos on This Week. Worst: FOX/MSNBC Olbermann and Beck are the worst things on TV. Layoffs, Layoffs, Layoffs! Where have you gone Alisa Parenti, Sarah Lee, Emily Schmidt? Will Thomas. Wendy Reiger. Julie Chen. Stephanopoulos on GMA. Chris Cuomo off GMA. Vinny Cerrato, Kornheiser. Brett Haber. WTOP ads, especially anchor reads and the ubiquitous male enhancement spots. Maybe they can combine the two. Here goes: Best & Worst of 2009. Best: Air America--wish they'd get a stronger signal! WCTN--when it was doing oldies, singers and standards! [This is the music I grew up on--wish we could get a 24/7 strong-signal station like the old WGAY to do this!!!]. Patrice Sikora's Wall Street Journal reports. The Capital Weather Gang--wish they'd be a bit more independent of the Post. DCRTV. NPR. The new WJFK independent sports/talk programming. WTOP--always reliable in an emergency. NOAA Weather Radio & other "specialty stations", e.g. Arlington AM 1700. Sirius/XM--I'm planning to hang onto my stock another year on investment planner's advice. WGN's news and weather programming--when they don't bump it. The Price is Right--Drew Carey has done a great job filling Bob Barker's shoes! Comcast [and Cox] cable. WSM and that Canadian station in Toronto whenever I can get them after dark and the ionosphere cooperates. Business cable channels--Bloomberg, Fox, CNBC. The Falls Church News-Press--now, there's a paper whose editorials I can agree with! Washington sports teams owned by Ted Leonsis--hope we can shake off that Pittsburgh Penguins jinx. WorldTeamTennis. Baltimore sports teams owned by Art Modell. Elin Nordgren, who might just realize that "multiple partners" means higher STD risk. Worst: AM Radio in general--too much right-wing talk and Spanish-language programming [Sometimes I think I'm back in Panama when I spin the AM dial, and "Panameno" radio was far more entertaining than the watered-down Stateside variety which passes for "Spanish-language"!] WMAL, except for Patrice Sikora--wish she and the WSJ would flip to WTOP! WCTN, for replacing oldies & standards with yet more espanol--they might be better off going to their old Christian programming if they don't resurrect standards. WAMU for relegating folk & bluegrass programming to hard-to-get HD radio. HD radio in general--it's difficult or impossible to get a good HD-capable set at a decent price, and HD is a watered-down version of satellite radio to begin with! Music Choice, for axing their bluegrass and Americana channels, and putting Christmas music on some of the non-seasonal channels. The Examiner, with its penchant for anti-liberal rhetoric and editorials, though I do like some of their features. Dan Snyder's takeover of WTEM and his hatchet-job on our beloved Redskins. Washington sports teams NOT owned by Ted Leonsis, though the Lerners figure to get the Nats on the right track. Baltimore sports teams owned by Peter Angelos--come on Pete & let Cal Ripken buy into the team. Tiger Woods--he probably ruined his golf tournament with this scandal--not too sad now to see the AT&T going up the road to Philly. WGN, when they replace their newscast with "Scrubs" et al.--don't like it whenever Bozo the Clown bumps Tom Skilling. The Salahis, who crashed the White House's first state dinner, while skipping payments and generating lawsuits throughout the Middle Atlantic--and can't seem to quit getting themselves on TV. Verizon FIOS. Feel-good doctors, who seem to have caused Michael Jackson and Brittany Murphy to pass from the scene. Paparazzi in general. Last but not least: Metro GM John Catoe and his plan to address "safety questions" by making us wait up to thirty minutes for late-night trains, then dumping us on the far more-expensive taxi systems to get home as late as 2 AM! Fare increases are vastly preferable to service cuts; if forced, we'll just have to stay home nights. Wishes for 2010: Radio stations featuring oldies, standards, swing music, blues, bluegrass and Americana/alt country [Why haven't Tift Merritt or Shelby Lynne broken through with a huge gold or platinum hit the way Kellie Pickler, Carrie Underwood, and Miranda Lambert have???]. Less Spanish, less right-wing talk and more progressive talk. AM radio recovery from the "vast wasteland" that it has become. Demise of the "tea party" movement, and a revival of "Marxist" talk radio [Pacifica, please take note]. A turnaround by some notable D.C. sports teams. A women's tennis tournament here in D.C. to go with the Legg-Mason. A world-class polo tournament not backed by a couple of publicity-seekers. A Metro administration which appreciates the fact that we don't necessarily like to be stranded in the station while waiting up to THIRTY MINUTES for the next train. - John Andre BEST: 98 Rock, Keith Mills for his knowledge and passion of local Baltimore sports, Jayne Miller - a true pro who loves Baltimore and it shows in her reporting she is simply the best, Stan Stovall,11 News Today on days that I have to work, Fox 45 Morning News on days that I don't, WTOP - still the best to find out what is going on now, WTMD, C4, Ed Norris, Detour Dave and his recovery and knowledge and passion for the Baltimore Ravens, Middday with Dan Rodericks on WYPR and when Karen Hosteller (I'm sorry I know I probably butchered her name) fills in she does and EXCEPTIONAL job as well, Michael Wilbon, Tony Kornheiser, Jim Vance, Doreen Gentzler, Bob Ryan, Jim Handly, Wendy Reiger, Pat Collins, Tom Sherwood, Tom Keirein, Tom Tasselmyer, Rod Daniels, Donna Hamilton, Mindy Basara, Alex DeMetrick, Jamie Costello, Rob Roblin, Lisa Robinson, Deborah Weiner, Tim Tooten, Sarah Caldwell, Tamara Nelson, John Collins, Pat Lawson Muse, Will Thomas, Shawn Yancey, Keith Daniels, Denise Koch, Bob Turk, the outfits Sandra Shaw wears on TV (you dc folks would love it!) and of course Don and Marty. WORST: I'm gonna try to keep it positive but I can't stand when Carlos Diaz is on the 98 Rock morning show and they all have to kiss his ass because he interviews celebrities. I bet nobody would care if that segment went away. The dumbing down of our local news, WMAL, The Baltimore Sun for its failure to be objective. J in GB Best: Dave Johnson -- WTOP Sports Director; Play-by-Play Radio Voice of the Washington Wizards (and blogger extraordinaire). Dave Johnson, regardless of milieu and unrelenting schedule, is simply the best at what he does. In his role as Sports Director at WTOP, he delivers sports news in a professional, well-reasoned, and insightful manner; and as the Wizards radio play-by-play announcer, brings knowledge to the game of basketball that is unparalleled and enthusiasm that is unrivaled. Although I "watch" all the Wizards away games on TV, I mute the sound to listen to Dave's call (the next best thing to being there). Like all outstanding professionals, Dave makes his "teammates" better, and he and Glenn Consor work seamlessly together during all Wizards radio broadcasts. Dave Johnson also blogs live during all Wizards games, affording Wizards fans -- both casual and zealous -- a true interactive game-day experience. (I remain awed and amazed at Dave's ability to blog and do play-by-play simultaneously.) Just in case Dave finds himself with any down time, he also contributes written post-game Wizards articles to CSN.com that are succinct, discerning, and informative. Thanks, Dave, for all you do. To borrow from Carly Simon -- "Nobody does it better." Worst: Anyone not Dave Johnson. Best: Jim Vance WRC, Allison Starling WJLA, Leon Harris at WJLA, Bob Barnard, Sue Palka WTTG, Doug Hill WJLA, Roz Plater WTTG, WTOP Worse: WPFW not up to par, Jim Handley WRC is boring,Tony Perkins trying to anchor news at WTTG. He is terrible at it Tony Perkins doing weather. The weekend weather guy WJLA Steve Ruben who always sounds like he has rehearsed a script word for word. Needs to loosen up. Time for Bob Ryan to retire. The Lindsey highschool like kid doing sports at WTTG , Brian Bolter WTTG too sensationalized. Will Thomas and his giggling WTTG, Maureen Umen pronounces words wrong Best: Mark Segraves. The Post's Enterprise Reporting team. Gordon, Maureen and Doug HIll on WJLA. CBS Radio News on the hour. (Wish the suits at TOP didn't cut it off mid-way through.) "Wait, wait, don't tell me" from NPR. Kojo Nnamdi. Steve Chenevy. Carl Kasal. City Paper;s Mike DeBonis. Bob Barnard on WTTG. Bob Marbourg, the best there is. Joe Krebs. WTTG's REdskins' post-game show... Worst: Ch. 4's web site... Christy King... Dave Brown... loud commercials.... WTOP news anchors reading commercials... jockless radio stations.... Elliott on DC 101... the mindless repetition on sports radio, especially about the Deadskins.... whatever happened to Washingtonian magazine?... middle-of-the-night traffic reports... Larry Michaels, tool. It will always be Sonny, Sam and Frank for me.... Glenn Beck... BEST: C-SPAN for being the model of neutrality (remember when news wasn't slanted?) in the huff & puff coverage of U.S. politics this year... Charlie Gibson, we're going to miss you.. Your sendoff cast was the way it should be for all news anchors... Doug Hill's weather team is unmatched... Parker & Parker on The Fan.. Nice to hear a lady w/ great pipes discuss sports in an open forum.. NPR's "Fresh Aire".. Where else can you hear remarkable interviews from Clint Eastwood one day and Iggy Pop the next?... CSN's "My Life 365" - good to see some original local programming for a change..Johnny Holliday & Barry Lee: good to know that nice guys DON'T finish last...DCRTV, of course.. WORST: Shame on anybody who reported on the Salahi's and the balloon parents more than absolutely necessary (maybe once would have sufficed).. The passing of Jim Clarke, a pro's pro.. WPL needs more polish, please.. Nancy Grace, please find another line of work, the act is gone stale... TK, babe, the second time around, the thrill is gone.. Just ask Joe Gibbs about that.. Larry, Sonny & Sam, your best days are behind you... Only one hour of Pat Goss in the wee hours of the AM? We need more Goss' Garage in the prime weekend hours, wherever the venue (national would be nice)... The ever-growing spread of political agendas creeping into "news" coverage and story selection on national AND local "news" casts.. Ye gads! BEST: the growth and exceptional professionalism of MarketWatch.com WORST: Being one of Randi Rhodes' producers. I think they're starting a support group. Best: PTI, Dave and DCRTV, WTMD and WRNR Worst: Bruce (the idiot) Elliott on WBAL, Glenn Beck and the entire Fox News line-up (can it get any worse than Steve Doocy?), Dan Snyder, area news?papers (Sun and Post), Chris Berman. Best: The edge 105.9, Doreen Genzler, Jim Vance, Wendy Rieger, Tim Brandt, Doug Hill, Discovery channel. Worst: Channel 9 W*USA news, 94.7 Rotten FM, Metromix ads, Craig Melvin, Babs Harrison, Dave Evans, Rachel Carey on HLN, HLN after 4pm, Reality show crap, personal attack posts on DCRTV. BEST - Listening to Dave Johnson broadcast a Wizards game is the next best thing to being court-side. He brings a great deal of enthusiasm to his work. I'll watch the game on TV, but I'll listen to Dave's announcing of the game. From CD in Bowie, MD: 2009 Best: Channels 5 and 7 going HD; Tony Kornheiser returning to WTEM/ESPN 980 (despite his puffery and whining); WJFK "The Fan" changing to sports talk and providing an alternative to WTEM; Comcast (or shall I say NBC?) SportsNet's yeoman's work in reporting but struggling with the local playoff droughts of Washington-area college and professional teams; Digital Broadcast TV's potential on the Blizzard of 2009 when WUSA provided a respite from its sometimes insufferable snow/blizzard coverage by informing its viewers of the College Basketball games on its 9-2 subchannel (there's some potential, if local broadcasters can figure out ways to compete with cable networks -- potential examples localized sports [High School and small college], conversion of NewsChannel 8 to a full-time digital channel to complement its cable sister on its 7-x subchannels); Doreen Genztler taking some time off for family (my dear, your priorities are in order and you are to be complimented); the transition from male to female anchors for ABC and CBS' national news broadcasts; the potential life-saving irony (if local broadcasters -- Hello, Bonneville, Radio One? -- play their cards right) that smart devices and phones such as the iPod Touch, iPhone, and the new Android OS phones have applications that allow streaming of local broadcast radio stations (ESPN980, the Fan Sports Radio, etc.); Channels 7 and 9 in the morning and Channel 4 in the evening; Comcast Cable adding more HD cable networks; the potential for portable broadcast digital TV technology devices hitting the market in 2010; the FCC finally dealing with pending critical issues (net neutrality, broadcast ownership, etc.) in the digital age; the continuing advent of HDTV. 2009 Worst: Channel 4 not going HD yet (but soon); Changes in the Washington Post staff (with buyouts) and format (especially initial weather page stunk but Posties realized that the previous "larger" format was better and preferred by those of us now moving to multi-focal eyeglasses); Washington Post Live on CSN - I think Ivan Carter has potential but I think he is still a ways off from Russ Thaler's smooth anchoring duties; the lack of a local television partner for the WNBA Mystics (don't snicker) and their resort to "webcasting" their games on the internet; the fact that realistically the Nationals belong on Comcast SportsNet and not MASN (since that has become unofficially the Baltimore area's official cable sports network - with the exception of Georgetown/Big East basketball); George Stephanopoulos moving to ABC's GMA from "This Week" and the fact that Tim Russert is still missed from NBC's "Meet the Press"; the lack of color/diversity in anchors on Sunday political news shows; Steve Czaban being cancelled from Fox Sports (despite his so-called Republican leanings, I rather enjoy his sports show and blogging website); ESPN "firing" Stephen A (or Screamin' A.) Smith (but replacing! Czabe on Fox Sports Radio in January); the further disintegration of local terrestrial radio; XM merging with Sirius and become more like Sirius (I still will subscribe but I hope improvements are coming in 2010 to some of the programming); Cathy Hughes' annoying Real-Talk Radio (or whatever it's called) on Radio One station as a lobbying effort amd campaign against political decisions impact black -- but especially her own -- radio stations; the loss of Jim Clarke (Channel 7), Fox5 getting closer to full tabloid broadcasting status with "TMz" and its founder/leader Harvey Levin on its newscasts (shower, anyone at WTTG?); the fact that I find myself listening less to music stations such as WPRS WHMM, and WHUR than I used to; the fact that cable networks can't help us to increase the capacity on our DVRs for HD and non-HD programming since storage technology is getting cheaper; the fact that commercial broadcasters still don't seem to be excited about or want to develop programming in support of HD Radio. Worst: Keith Olberman, Chrissy Matthews, all of MSNBC and other highly paid shills for the Obama Administration; those who think Don and Mike still matter; partisan shriekers and mumbling jokers who blame everything that inconveniences them on George Bush; wannable elitists who still live in their parents' basements and hope to someday grow up and be better than the people paying their salaries, and the out of touch idiots who pander to them on the liberal media; Al "Michael Jackson weren't no joke" Sharpton and Jesse Jackson for perpetuating negative stereotype about blacks and personally doing more to damage race relations than every drooling Klux Klux Klanner since Bull Connor; the on-going joke drama that is Pacifica Radio. Best: Sirius/XM: even with the merger it still presents a better selection and more choices than terrestrial radio has since the 1970's. WMAL and WTOP for weather and traffic, and not much more. Worst: Constant attempts to resurrect interest in two has beens that have thankfully left the air waves. Don and Mike. Best: Elliot has been relegated to the sidelines at Clear Channel and Kane is rubbing his nose in it. Remember the days when BZ was constantly covering up the misdeeds of his spoiled brat morning show host. Best: Waking up in the morning to the all-too-few still familiar faces on local news. Best Anchors: Andrea Roane is still tops in my book. Even after being moved around from Noon, to 6 & 11, and then back to mornings many years ago, she’s a class act who always performs and gives back to her community. She’s one of few bright spots in the otherwise embarrassment that is 9News. Doug McKelway also continues to shine. Other favorites include Leslie and Bruce at 9, Will & Maureen at 5, Wendy and Jim Handley at 4, and Cynee and Allison at 7. Kris Van Cleave also did a great job solo anchoring for most of the day on 7 during the 12/18 snowstorm. On radio, you gotta go with Mike and Shawn on WTOP. Best Reporters: I know I’m in the extreme minority here, but I like me some Pat Collins. Brian Moaar is also tops in my book. Best Weather: Topper, Topper, Topper! Truth be told, I’m a weather junkie. But, whenever there’s something brewin’ I HAVE to turn to Topper! Runner’s up include Howard Bernstein, Doug Hill, and the morning due of Brian and Adam on 7. Other: The overall ABC7 morning news show. Channels 4 and 5 for not giving up on the weekend morning news. Lisa Baden ain’t half bad either. Worst: Overall, the loss of veteran DC/Baltimore news talent due to budgetary constraints in the news business. Related to this is not knowing half (or more) of the reporters on local stations – I miss turning on my TV and seeing all those familiar faces. I grew up with over the past few decades. Worst Anchors: Craig Melvin (please tell me NBC4’s NOT going to make him their main anchor when Vance finally retires or dies at the anchor desk). Keith Garvin – but, thankfully, he’s history. Worst Reporters: I must admit, I don’t watch local news as much as I used to, so I don’t really have any worst in this area. I will say, however, that even as a former journalist myself who believes in giving young journalists a leg up, I’m not sure the DC market is the place for on-the-job training with so many young, novice reporters. The dash cams and digital correspondents are cutting edge, but I still miss old-school investigative and beat reporters like Mike Buchanan, etc. etc. etc. Worst Weather: I’m not sure there’s a “worst”, but around here, weather folks have to grow on ya. And, I’m still not feeling it from Gary McGrady and Gwen Tolbert over at 5, nor Ron Riley on WTOP, and sometimes Kim Martucci can be just a bit out there. The loss of Tony Pann back to B’more was also a blow. Other: Is it just me, or is Angie Goff REALLY annoying? Every time she says ‘thank you Howie’ after Bernstein throws it to her I feel like puking – I try to hit the channel button before I hear her voice. Fox5 is still way too tabloidy. And Channel 4, while they have the veteran talent I think is important, also needs to be developing some new talent to take over – but not Melvin, please. And finally, although it may sound like a contraction to my point above, there are some that regardless may-have-stayed-just-a-little-too-long. They include Jim Vance, JC Hayward, and Bob Ryan. I love em, but sometime, you just got to know when to go. WTOP’s repetitious cycles and annoying series that break a 5-minute story into 20 fifteen-second parts…COME ON!!! Bob Marburg and Veronica Robinson’s ‘tudes, and Patricia (Pa’tree’see’ah) Guadalupe round out my WTOP worsts. Best: Overall, WTOP and especially Bruce Allen, Lisa Baden, Doug Hill, Dimitri Sotis, and Barton Eckert when he is news anchor. Eckert has that seasoned pro sound that should be the hallmark of a WTOP. Rob Bamberger Hot Jazz Saturday Night on WAMU. Carson on Mix 107 use to bug me, and I understand he is a real dick to work with, but if you listen closely, he's a pretty good radio guy. Concise, mostly entertaining content. Worst: The scratchy, squawking, grating sound of Dave Brown on WTOP. I avoid the alternate weekend hours he is on. Also hate the way Mark Seagraves says "I'm Mark Seagraves ..." it comes out " Awm Mark Seagraves ..." WTOP's Kristy King when she uses her "Clown Voice" and the pompus Mike Moss. Dave Johnson slurs a lot, and is on the road so much it be an avoidance thing with his family. When does he ever sleep in that free endorsement bed?? Bob Kur depends on a lot of crutch phrases like an uncreative DJ, stuff like "stick around" "good to have you along tonight"... Most of the local announcers on WAMU sound so bush league. The NPR programming is great, but then the local guys do their breaks, and it sounds like radio market #282. So scripted and stiff. Especially hard to stomach: Pat Brogan, Matt McCleskey, and the girl who is on Saturday mornings during Weekend Edition, Car Talk, and Wait, Wait. They all sound like it's the first day of their first job in radio. Kojo Nnamdi irritates as well. When he says his name as Kojo NAAAMMMdi. And of course the biggest jerk in local TV, the insecure, nail-biting, smug, status climber, Bret Haber. Best: Lauren Demarco filling in for Julie Wright on the Fox Morning News. She was noticeably awkward and uncomfortable at first but has vastly improved with each subsequent appearance. Worst: Tony Perkins filling in at the anchor desk on the Fox Morning News. Tony was also noticeably awkward and uncomfortable when he began filling in...and he STILL comes off as awkward and uncomfortable. And when Tucker Barnes fills in for Tony when Tony is filling in at the desk, it makes me wish Tucker was the regular meteorologist on the Fox morning instead of Tony BEST: My 160gb iPod Classic with 20,000+ songs of the 40,000 song capacity filled because music radio in DC sucks, On Demand programming, YouTube, YouPorn & Kink.com, HBO's Entourage, NBC's Conan O'Brien, NBC's Sunday Night Football, Play-by-play from Steve Kolbe (Capitals), Charlie Slowes & Dave Jageler (Nats), Vin Scully online, Jon Miller online, Carl Kassel on NPR, John Chester on WETA-FM, Paul Anthony, Ed Walker on WAMU, Metro's Doug Parrish, Rachel Crowson & Tom Roberts, Sam Litzinger, Harley Carnes, Kimberly Dozier, Doug Limerick, Jim Bohannon, Charles Osgood, Amy Morris, Max Cacas, Craig Heist, George Wallace, Dmitri Sotis, Frank Herzog, Bob Kur, Mark Weaver, Bryan Nehman, Kirk McEwen getting back to work on The Edge, Wendy Reiger being Savannah, Jim Vance hanging in there, Gordon Petersen the legend, Mac McGarry & 49 years of "It's Academic" (go for 50 Mac!), the ability to get news from all over the world in the blink of an eye without having to pay for a paper rag with day old rehashed news. WORST: NBC's Jay Leno dragging down the local news ratings across the country, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann is a bag full of 'taint scrapings, Glenn Beck is a sweaty freak with too many skeletons in the closet, Air America's whining bitchcakes, WMAL hosts who are nothing more than overpaid fearmongers, WFED's niche format in 36th place on a frequency that deserves much better, Tom Marr drunk while filing in on WMAL for Mark Levin on Tuesday 12/22 & promoting three different brands of vodka; too many fluff pieces and scare tactics during bad weather on WTOP, WPFW sucks as a Jazz station and could be so much better - especially in the city that gave the world Duke Ellington, Dave Johnson on Wizards (blow yer nose!) Byron Kerr on GW Basketball (out of his league) Brett Haber (go back to calling rodeo) Larry Michael (Dan Snyder's bastard child) Derek McGinty (his past will catch up with him), WJFK going all-sports by rehashing the old staff into hosting shows they aren't prepared for, CBS Radio management in general, Citadel filing for bankruptcy under Farid the Weasel, the decimation of newspaper & wire service staffs, the virtual closing of the ABC DC bureau, Julie Wright promoting the possibility of skin cancer through her blatant overtanning, Ashley Linder taking down the shots of her half-naked body that showed her tattoos from her Facebook page, the dumbing down of America through the idea that citizens should vote based on what a celebrity, talk show host or media figure says - and that goes all across the political spectrum. Too many really talented people either out of the business or in menial positions due to the lack of foresight and planning for the financial downturn by management. And finally, the loss of so many good people to the grim reaper over the past 12 months. Best – 98 Rock for really getting Baltimore, WRNR for being Annapolis and the cool tunes, WTOP for being the only real place to tune to for news, WETA-FM for classical on a nice clear signal. Worst – Elliott On The Telephone, Clear Channel for going at it half-assed with alt-rock on 104.3 and flipping it to mindless pop, “Jack” for being a boring Ipod full of someone else’s bad mix of music, 99.1 for still being Spanish when nobody is listening, 100.7 The Bay for being the “Bennie & The Jets” / “Sharp Dressed Man” over and over station, the new Classic Rocker on 105.9 for not having a signal that makes into Maryland, HD Radio, AM Radio, Sirius-XM for becoming the same as “regular radio”. BEST: IT'S ACADEMIC AND MAC McGARRY for being around for 49 years straight on T.V. completely unheard of these days. WAY TO GO POP's .... From your entire family................. Best: More Hd on Masn (LONG overdue) , Fox 1370 sports-which has in a year, become the most refreshing voice in Baltimore sports ... Rob Long and Jerry Coleman deliver a unique, HONEST, perspectives on sports-and blow wjz and the other am stations away, inmho. NPR - nothing but the truth. Justin Berk weather only thing to watch on Ch2....Wbal radio canning steve davis then raising the product by using kadry dismal and derrick mason - well spoken, fellas! Worst: Air America - Comcast lack of Regional coverage ( only dc) ,The Balt Sun, Firing too many good folks! Now a Watered down product .. Same, with Wash Times! Anything on tiny wnst - is that really a radio station?.. If NOBODY can get it 70% of the day -(and almost 0% @ night?) keep typing though, nestor!...WBAL am news - totlal waste of time, except for traffic!.....WASH X-mas tunes in November !..TK on 980 ...JFK's Lavar ( see above: mason and ismail) ... Keith /Columbia Best: 89.3 WPFW, 105.9 (better than any other rocker/classic rocker in the market), WINC—good small market radio, WWEG—good small market classic rocker, WTOP (aside from sloppy board ops), Doug Hill—all around nice guy and good weatherman Worst: DC101, WTEM, Fresh 94.7, Jack Diamond, Hilary Howard, HOT morning show—please turn down your mic’s Best: The launch of radio.thebaynet.com and radiosomd.fm, 89.7 WTMD, 103 RNR, Outlaw Country/The Spectrum, The Loft, Coffeehouse, and Octane among others on Sirius XM. 98Rock, 105.9 and DC101 get honorable mentions along with the cool stations in Williamsburg and Charlottesville like The Tide, The Corner and WNRN. The Capitals! The hope that 2010 will be a better season for The Redskins. Merry Christmas! Worst: 97.7 The Rocket going off to make way for 3 lame formats in a row. The current administration and congress, most other FM stations in the area. Seeing Pittsburgh win in the last seconds yesterday against Green Bay. Good Riddance 2009! Dean in SOMD Best: Grant Random Worst: Whoever now does middays on dc101. just one example of clear channel not giving 2 craps about how their stations sound. whats-her-nuts stinks. happy holidays! Best: WBAL-TV for news, WRNR-FM for being the only alternative rocker, WTOP for news happening now, The Washinton Post for being the only real area newspaper, and DCRTV for the place to see what's going on inside the business. Worst: CW 54 for the constant screw-ups (digital hash and freezing up) in the Simpsons Re-Runs, 107.9 for being an utter waste of a signal, both classic rock stations (Big 100.3 and 100.7 The Bay) for only playing the tired "hits" instead of 40 years of great rock music, radio station websites across the board for being absolutely nothing worth going to except for WTOP who gets it. -Scott Best: Cspan for allowing us to hear what's happening without all the bullshit of the commentators. FIOS. WRNR. Elliot's show is the best only because of the very few choices to pick from. Worst: Losing Whitney at DC101 to Seattle. Roche is pretty crappy. The worst for me again goes to the Jack Diamond Morning Show, it still amazes me the these people are on the air, all of them. The show is total drivel. Xavier in Reston Best: 5, 7, 9 in HD, MOM podcasts, TK on 980, Sirius/XM (couldn’t live without), WTOP, Steve Kolbe, the Junkies are still the only good thing to listen to in the morning Worst: 106.7 going to sports, 4 not being in HD, Mike Wise (might be the worst person on air in a major market), Comcast screwing DirecTV customers with no versus, Chad Dukes (way out of his element, doesn’t know anything about sports, we miss Big O and Dukes), Liz Drabeck (easily the worst update person in the nation and nobody can argue with that), 980 everything on it but TK, 980 dropping Al Koken (he was the best thing on that station), Kevin Sheehan and Tom Lovarro (awful, absolutely awful), Lavar (don’t have to elaborate), Dan Snyder and Larry Michaels (again don’t have to elaborate) Jeff, Burke Best: WTOP for always being there, Ed Walker a Washington DC radio treasure...Gordon , Maureen and Doug on Channel 7. The return of Mr Tony to the airwaves, the only thing worth listening to on ESPN 980. Johnny Holliday, still the best no matter what he;s doing, Terps, Nats, radio or TV! Dan Hellie's sports on 4...Wash FM's sounds of the season. Arch Campbell and Jim Bohannon. Worse: 106.7 The fan, but thank's for trying. Kevin Sheehan, The Sports Reporters. Tim Brant, Brett Haber, WUSA for destroying a once proud station.Morning radio in general. It's sad when you've got the Junkies and Elliott to choose from on a list of ho hum wake up show's. The traffic lady on WTOP who thinks she's more important than the traffic. And let's not forget Anita Marks. her partner Scott Garceau must be a great guy to have to put up with that kind of a sidekick! Best: The Insignia HD Radio Portable Player ($50 at Best Buy) is making radio coool again. WTOP, always dependable. Doug Hill. Worst: Big market radio stations that won't hire even one news person for an entire cluster. Also worst: pretending you have resources by simulcasting TV news audio. Dan Snyder for screwing up both the team and sports radio. Best: Morning Radio Show: Sadly, the national show MIke & Mike. There's nothing else remotely interesting going on around the dial locally. Afternoon Drive: Sports Reporters. These guys usually have the best guests and I find their repartee more entertaining than the other shows. Looker: Uber hottie Angie Goff. Just...wow. Runner ups: SuRea Chinn, Lesli Foster, Gurvir Dhindsa, Holly Morris, Courtney Robinson, Julie Parker, Cathy Park, Natasha Barrett, Eun Yang, Sarah Simmons. Local Newscast: 9 News Morning Team. Yea, outside the horrific squeezeback, there's a lot to like on air...though Bernstein wears on you. Worst: Overall Radio: How do so many people with speech impediments get on the airwaves? I'm talkin to you Jimmy (on the Jack Diamond Show) and Kevin Sheehan! Worst Show: The LaVar Arrington Show. Chad, pot down your mic. It's too hot. You sound distorted. Maybe you do this to mask the constant grammatical errors and overall lack on sports knowledge. LaVar? Wake up buddy, it's your name on the billboard. Runner ups: The Sports Junkies. This act is so tired. It's like clockwork every day of the week. You guys need to put more effort in to compensate fo EB's grating personality and Lerch's indifference. The other two aren't so bad...but they're swimming upstream trying to carry the dead weight. At least they're paid well, which they never forget to remind everyone. Speaking of "tired"...'NIgel'" from the TK show. Your fake accent is an insult to anyone from the UK and anyone who has ever visited. Hell, even people who watched "Eastenders." Enough already. TV: NBC4. HD called...and called...and called. Brett Haber. Smug doesn't begin to describe your delivery. Connecticut: Best: FOX 61 adding an Midday Newscast at 11AM that's only 30 minutes (as opposed to the 60 minute cast on NBC 30 at the same time). Clear Channel's WELI 960 for announcing they're dumping Don "Quack Quack" Imus in favor of a local morning host. Red Wolf Broadcasting for buying 104.1 from the Aloha Station Trust and resurecting the Radio 104.1 WMRQ format. Red Wolf for launching an FM Spanish Station via a 60 watt translator relaying 104.1 HD2. CBS's HOT 93.7 for remaining status-quo when they've made some cuts at their other Hartford Stations. Worst: 102.9 The BIG D changing from having a VT'd overnight jock to become an automated jukebox overnights. WCCC-AM for adding Don "Quack Quack" Imus to its Classical Music lineup. WDRC-AM for their continuous liners coming out of all commercial breaks during Dr. Joy begging for people to advertise. CBS-TV for canceling Three Rivers. The Cleveland Show on FOX. Marc WORST: Julie Wright for NOT wearing her black, snowflake sweater during Fox 5's storm coverage this morning. Best: New format on 105.9. "Seinfeld" pseudo-reunion on HBO. Jeff Kuhner on WTNT. LaVar Arrington Show on 106.7. DCRTV Dave for his scoops. Worst: No oldies station in DC area. WTNT not able to pick a line-up and stick with it. The nastiness on cable news channels. BEST of '09: WTTG/FOX 5, WBAL-TV 11, and WJZ-TV 13 getting HD newscasts. Boston's WFXT/FOX 25 and Connecticut TVers WVIT/NBC 30 and WTIC/FOX 61 also getting HD news. Wendy Williams and Dr. Oz getting new daytime talk shows. WORST of '09: NBC's continuing decline... proposed sale to Comcast... Jay Leno at 10PM... the cancellations of 'Tramua' and 'Southland'. CBS cancelling its iconic soaps 'Guiding Light'... and 'As the World Turns' (to end its CBS run in September, 2010). Paula's departure from 'American Idol'. ABC's 'GMA' choosing George Stephanopoulos over Chris Coumo. Lack of HD newscasts for WRC/NBC 4 and WMAR/ABC 2. NYC's WWOR/My 9, Connecticut TVers WFSB-TV 3, WTNH-TV 8, and Providence TV stations lacking HD news as well. Look forward to 2010. BEST: Mike O'Meara for bringing back the show, The first couple weeks of 105.9 The Edge (where did all those cool cuts go???), Elliot on DC101, WTOP, and WJFK before the switch, the demise of True Oldies 105.9 WORST: WJFK for changing formats and becoming a complete total bore of a station, except for the Junkies (sometimes), 94.7 for dumping Classic rock for This "Fresh" crap, CBS for being a bunch of dumbasses (How about HFS on 99.1, El zol on 106.7, and resurrected guy talk on 94.7??) 94.7 for not sticking with a format, and 105.9 playing too much Red hot chili peppers, and DC101 for playing too many songs that were popular three years ago 15 times a day Best: Ed Walker's induction into the Radio Hall of Fame - the man is a DC-area treasure; Tom and Ray, a.k.a. - "The Car Guys"; Bob Marbourg's 30 years of providing me with the best way back home; Greg Bell of the XM/Sirius Old Time Radio channel - like Ed Walker, he's a terrific host with a tremendous knowledge of the shows he features; my XM radio itself, which is handy on long road trips and which allows me to listen to the play-by-play of UNC basketball and the Washington Nationals; Charlie Slowes and Dave Jaegler on the Nats broadcasts - with a couple of 100-loss seasons they could have very easily just mailed their work in, but they never took a pitch off during the season, were professional and entertaining, and are a tremendous team to listen to; Vin Scully - a broadcasting great who I'll tune in on XM next year to listen to what I understand will be his last behind the mike; Ernie Harwell - another broadcasting great who, like Scully, worked with and learned from the great Red Barber, and who is responding to his fight with cancer with his typical grace and class; Harry Kalas for his Hall of Fame work as play-by-play man for the Philadelphia Phillies and NFL Films; Walter Cronkite for setting the high standards that I wish more news organizations would actually aspire to and not simply give lip service; David Brooks' Op-Eds in the New York Times; the NCAA basketball tournament package on DirecTV; and, for the last time, my Dad's newscasts on NPR. Worst: the demise of WAGE, just another sad indication of the disappearance of community-oriented radio; the impending demise of the Washington Times - aside from having another source of information it had a terrific sports section and it will be a loss to see it go; the changes at the Washington Post - from the closing of news bureaus to the departure of good writers to the new print font and the stupid policy regarding what edition that the outer suburbs receive, it's no wonder that your readership has been declining; the difficulty of receiving nighttime radio coverage of Nationals and Capitals games outside the beltway; the attention spent on Jon and Kate, the "Balloon Boy" parents, the White House party crashers, and other reality TV media whores; Vinnie Cerrato - hey, real classy way to praise the coaches you've worked with over the past 10 years in your departure statement except for the one you were high on hiring and who you've since cut off at the knees - good riddance; WTEM dropping Al Koken and his hockey knowledge in light of this city having a legitimate Stanley Cup contender. Merry Christmas Everybody! Sincerely, Joe Kasell WE NOMINATE WILL THOMAS FROM THE FOX WTTG NEWS AS BEST ANCHOR AND REPORTER. EITHER OR BOTH. OUTSTANDING FOR A LOT OF YEARS. MICHAEL, VERONICA, FAIRFAX, VA (LOVE YOUR DCRTV WEBSITE. THANK YOU) Best:channel 4 news,and sports –Elliott in the morning,you just have to put up with the “dumb-ass laugh” other then that,the show is refreshing. WMZQ has occasional good “Country” music,but 90% of what they play is just “POP” Mike O’Mera for giving it another try,we need him back on local radio somewhere. On Sirius radio,NASCAR always does a great job – The many music stations make for very good listening. It's the sentence far too many Redskins fans have waited far too long to read: Vinny Cerrato has resigned. Worst: All of the local sports talk stations do a horrible job,and especially the “mumbley” Arrington,besides not being able to understand what he is saying most of the time,he has difficulty putting two or more thoughts together. And on Sirius there is also the king of all that is “WORST” Howard Stern,what a bore! He is the biggest waste of space on Sirius,please just go away. From his poor mouthing,to bragging about what he did in the past,its just a bunch of crap! Like when he was here years ago,Don and Mike beat him like the pompous jerk he has always been,he thinks because the years go by,people forget,I don’t think so. Jay Leno at 10pm,brilliant move-NOT! GDJ,Manassas Va. Best. Coast to Coast AM, Brian and the Judge, Shine FM Christmas Music, Noon Workout MIX, Batman Weekends Seacrets Radio, WCBM Outdoorsman show (good ole ma and pa radio), Fox Sports News radio production team. Worst: Czaban gone = not good, Mike and Mike horrible!, Any athlete that says “I mean” before every friggin sentence, too many sports talking heads, Chicken Box Fridays, Bruce Pompous Elliott (stop laughing at your non jokes), Ellicker not bad but just doesn’t fit, the disintegration of XM/Sirius infrastructure Best radio station having Rich Chovotkin as the Hoyas play by play announcer on espn980... Best tv station CSN Washington with sports scores highlights every day... Best Personality Angie Goff entertainment reports and traffic on channel9 morning news... Best Sports newspaper the Washington Post... Best weather forecasters Wusa weather with Howard Topper Kim and Devon... worst forecasters nbc4... worst radio station not having Omeara back on dc radio only on podcast... worst tv station WUSA and WJLA dropping weekend morning news... worst personality nbc4 with the old time anchors... worst The Washington times dropping there sports soon... Best - Hall of Fame status for two great radio voices, WPOC's Laurie DeYoung and DC legend Ed Walker. Worst - ESPN morning anchor Mike Greenberg's silly, contrived tirade Sept. 22 regarding a Redskins benchwarmer's Internet post that criticized season ticket holders....really bad radio. My wish for 2010....more TV Land episodes featuring "Mr. Ed" and fewer radio commercials featuring "Mr. E.D." Marty Madden, Prince Frederick Best: Beck and Levin. DCRTV. Worst: XM ruining Willie's Place (XM-13) by getting rid of Kilroy and Catfish and putting Bill Mack (who never shuts the hell up) on for most of the afternoon. Also, XM 13 now fails to focus on old country music and plays just pure shit. It must be the same shit that Willie is smoking. Cash Point Ads. The elf-lady on Room Store Ads. George, Stephens City, Va Best: WJFK for not totally botching the format switch, Junkies remain great, Lavar and Dukes while uneven at first have found their vibe, and Holden Kushner makes nights listenable and more importantly local. Mike O'Meara and even the DC AM for making locally based podcasts an iPod go-to. Kojo Namdi for consistently being some of the best stuff NPR can offer. Lindsay Czarniak, and not just for being hot, but also delivering sports to at least 90% of what George Michael was doing and that is saying a lot. DCRTV for reliably being the best media info site in the area, bar none. Worst: WJFK for switching formats at all, the gel in the talk station had just set in and they decide to throw the mold away. Sirius XM for performing what has to be one of the most clumsy entertainment mergers of all time. Kane for faking that cheating sign guy stunt and being the hack we always knew he was. Stern for doing the "I'm quitting" bit for the millionth time in his career. 94.7 for just being a mess of a station all around, get a format, get some DJs, and then stick out for the long haul. Best- WJFK a.k.a. "The Fan" having the sense to keep the Junkies on for the morning drive. Mike O'Meara crew returns with newest member Big O. Gotta give 'em props for trying. Worst- WJFK-pairing LaVar worst delivery of intelligent thoughts of all-time Arrington w/ Chad Dukes. Mike Wise has a voice for newspaper. Best WTOP Doug Hill Lisa Baden Bruce Alan Mike Moss and wtop.com (best local news website in the area). Worst Dan Snyder for mucking around in DC Radio. Channel 9 for slowly but surely killing itself. BEST: Mr. Music, Mac McGarry still doing a great job with It's Academic. WORST: The unemployment of several excellent personalities in the area. I'm talking about Matt The Cat & The Merson Person. Come on, Lou Simon give us all a big Christmas present and hire these guys! Mike Berry, WWW.98WRC.COM Best: Return of Chris Plante Worst: "Siding Guy" commercials KJ, Laurel MD Worst: Ed Norris being relegated to the early hours and his show watered down. Hope he can find a home somewhere else in Baltimore where he can have a real show again (say Shari Ellickar’s spot on WBAL? PLEASE!). Mary Beth Marsden taking the buyout. She was the last great thing on that news station (yes, Terry Owens will be missed, too). Would love to see her take Sally Thorner’s spot on WJZ! That would brighten that station up considerably. Bruce Elliott on WBAL (he needs his own show again). Ron Smith WBAL. Best: WBAL TV and radio. WTOP (but they need to do more Baltimore stories and traffic since they reach us now, and yes, they have been improving in that arena) Merry Christmas! A fan in Baltimore Best: WJFK/106.7's switch to sports talk, return of Tony Kornheiser's local show, cancellation of Steve Czaban's national show, Don Imus being bounced off D.C. radio, Air America leasing WZAA/1050 signal. Worst: loss of weekend morning newscasts on WJLA/7 & WUSA/9, weakened digital broadcast signals again on 7 & 9, loss of Howard University football webcasts, WRC/4's Daily Connection, infotainment news across the entire media spectrum, the folding of Washington Glory pro softball going completely unreported by local media, Washington Post redesign, the imminent death of Washington Times local & sports coverage, Mass for Shut-Ins having to switch stations under PBS pressure, WWRC/1260's format switch to brokered money talk, the deteriorating Redskins radio and preseason TV broadcast teams, atrocious production of 7.3's D.C. Armor indoor football telecasts. Everett Will BEST: The Junkies who always keep me laughing and actually got this non-sports person really interested in football. Chad Dukes' (and Flab!) finding another way to entertain the masses after the fall of the mighty WJFK, the return of Mike, Robb, Buzz and Oscar, even if it is on a podcast (for now!!), Roche on DC101, Sarah Fleischer on 98 Rock, HFStival Rewinds on HFS2. WORST: The last day of WJFK. I actually had to pull my car over and wipe away the tears during Chad's last words. R.I.P. JFK. You are missed! The flip of 104.3 to Z104.3, since there aren't enough rock stations now. I need something to turn to when Nirvana (ugh!) or something classic is playing on the others. "Today's Best Mix" and "The Best Mix of... Everything" really meaning "We're going to play the same obnoxious songs over and over again until you rip your f-ing ears off!" Alexis (imjustpeachy)/Annapolis BEST: Tony Kornheiser returning to WTEM. Tony is self-absorbed, witty, and whining, and fully entertaining during his 10 to 12 spot. His replacement on Monday Night Football, Jon Gruden is surprisingly outstanding. His passion for the game mixes well with his acute analysis and instant rapport with Tirico and Jaworski. I still enjoy Diane's Dirt of the Day on DC 101 but do not listen to other parts of the show. The Junkies on WJFK, if they stopped talking about stupid gambling trips, parlays, and point spreads, would be much better. Michael Savage's controversial rants and raves are still great to hear on AM 570. WORST: The Joe Theismann show is insufferable. He is as uncomfortable to listen to as Bruno Kirby was when he filled in for Robin Williams in Good Morning Vietnam. Joe seems to think Jason Campbell is a Hall of Fame quarterback that would outplay Peyton Manning or Tom Brady if they were on the same Redskin team. Bring back Riggo. The Vinny Cerrato show, also on WTEM, is a pathetic, nepotistic outrage. He begins almost every statement or question with "you know" and/or "let me ask you something". The John Thompson show is also a bore. How monotone can you be for 10 years. Best: 103.1 WRNR - One of the best AAA's in the country... 89.7 WTMD - no longer fighting the Naval Academy's radio station in Annapolis... 90.5 WKHS/ WXPN new improved signal. Another great radio station. Love the World Cafe at 2pm. Worst: No more Channel 104.3...I just don't dig the music on Z104.3... 97.7 The Rocket in Southern Maryland.. Now it's some boring easy listening station... 94.7 Fresh Fm... I had such high hopes for The Globe's AAA format. Kevin on Kent Island, MD Best: WTOP, WAMU, WETA, 1010 WINS, NJ 101.5, KY ”Jelly” W 1060, Shmoozin With Shmuel. Worst: WNAV going satellite in the evenings and weekends, WCTN bringing back oldies and then scrapping them (just a filler format until the time is once again brokered, so don’t get used to it if it arrives again), WAMU’s The Animal House show. Change the name. Animal House shall only be associated with Delta Tau Chi. The further demise of WMAL, especially the departure of sales ace, Janice Ockershausen. As loyal and dedicated as she was, we now can assume the situation there is dire. All of the jockless formats popping up (Fresh FM and The Edge). The passing of Professor Alice “Ann Norris” of Montgomery College. All stations who continue to replace live and local talent with voice-tracking, syndication, etc. Best- Hard to believe….that all the folks at Channel 7…virtually all who are alums of Channel 9….how could they do such a good job at 9, dominate, yes dominate, the local news for so many years and then the insightful management at Channel 9 feels the need to let them go…only to replace them with….see the worst below….Lindsay at Ch 4 has made me say George who???? She is definitely the best in town…hope she stays for her entire career….the viewers will definitely benefit as will the quality of the coverage….SatRad is awesome…even if they can’t (or won’t) figure the billing out for those who have had accounts with both Sirius and XM….Fox News is wonderful…not because you agree or disagree with them…but they certainly allow you to have a reliable source of news that has, at the very least, a different take on the news from the rest of their colleagues….obviously they are doing something right….just check the ratings compared to the broadcast and other cable news outlets…. Worst- Channel 9….what a wonderful story of how to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory…..let’s see….Max, Gordon, Gordon, Warner, Mike, Maureen, JC, Bruce, Jennifer, well the list goes on, and on, and on….only to be replaced with a weather Amazon…loud enough that she doesn’t need a microphone, a sports guy who has plastic hair that if it caught fire from all the grease on it, he would probably be declared a toxic waste site..eligible for superfund clean up money, and the news guys that stay for such a short period of time, that no-one knows who they are……WOW….pretty impressive accomplishments…no wonder Gannett is struggling…..and then we have the decision makers with the ‘Skins….not just for the team, but how about the lack of PR…suing a long term ticket holder for not being able to pay her commitment of future ticket purchases….Danny boy should have made a big deal out of this and announced that she would be his guest all year with him in the owner’s box…opportunity missed is an opportunity lost……just like all the games this year….I guess we should expect this shallow judgment from a guy who keeps Vinnie Cerrato around for the director of Football Operations….. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!! And HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!!!! Chip from Harrisonburg Best: WTOP (As always!), followed closely by WETA (Classical Music - YEA!) Worst: WMAL (lousy programming - no change there), followed immediately by WASH & WRBS (ear & brain fatigue from over-processing) Best: Radio news is WTOP. TV news at 10 p.m. is NewsChannel 8. TV news at 11 p.m. is a tie for Ch. 4 & 7. Worst: WTOP's Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss; Mike Moss. He is terrible and a note to Mr. Moss: listeners DO NOT care about your opinions. Best: DCRTV for reporting the straight skinny on what's happening in the broadcast business. WASH FM 97.1 for playing many of our old Holiday favorites. The NBC 4 news, weather, and sports personalities who give us the most up-to-date and professional coverage. Buddy Rizer at WTRI for trying to bring classic country back to the area although they are now off the air. Worst: Potomac Broadcasting for taking away WAGE, Loudoun County's only radio station. The Washington area AM and FM stations who do not offer any music for the baby boomers and old timers in the area. The FCC for not asking for public input before issuing and renewing broadcast licenses. The Washington Post for their very liberal and biased reporting. Jim, Loudoun County Best: Sirius-XM channels Area, BPM, and 1st Wave; Clear Channel flipping 104.3 to Hit Music Z104.3 and having commercial-free Mondays; Mix 106.5's lunchtime workout; 95.1 Shine-FM having more positive music and less preaching; WBAL-TV11 and WJZ-TV13 joining FOX45 with local news in HD. Worst: Sirius-XM dropping free access to online player for existing subscribers; WBAL radio firing Steve Davis; Orioles Radio Network having two-minute segments before the next commercial break during the Orioles All-Access Pre-game show; ABC2 pre-empting primetime programming for informercials. -Merry Christmas to all from Greg in Perry Hall! BEST: WTOP's J.J. Green's segment "The Hunt", WTOP's Chris Core commentary WTOP anchors ALL OF THEM, WTOP.com, WTOP reporters ALL OF THEM BEST - 630 WMAL: “The Grandy & Andy Morning Show”; “The Chris Plante Show”; the return of Plante to talk radio; “Saturday Morning Update”; WMAL’s news anchors, producers & technical directors; Paul Duckworth’s objectivity & vision; Bryan Nehman’s voice; Bill Thompson’s ‘folksiness’; Jerry Klein; Austin Hill; Jamee Whitten; www.630wmal.com. Also, 105.9 FM The Edge; 102.7 FM on weekends; FOX5 News @ 5; FOX5 NewsEdge @ 6; Chris Core’s TV show; ESPN Deportes 730 AM; Kyle Osbourne & Arch Campbell’s movie guide show on ABC7; Bruce DePuyt’s talk show on Newschannel 8; Mark Plotkin of WTOP; Sports on NBC4; Weather on ABC7; Sarah Simmons of FOX5 is my son & husband’s favorite reporter. Wishful Thinking: That more English-speaking radio & TV sportscasters cover more stories, events & games of the World Cup 2010 (11 June - 11 July). Two media personalities I would tap for this are Bryan Nehman & Dave Johnson, both of whom know soccer. ESPN Deportes 730 AM is simply THE BEST in this sport. Excelente Trabajo, Muchachos! WORST - Lack or no Liberal vs. Conservative debate/exchange on talk radio these days. It’s a shame. And, not enough mix of Pop Culture & Politics on local radio either (“The Laura Ingraham Show” and “Mancow” seem to be the only shows in this format heard locally, as well as many of Nehman’s news segments on Grandy & Andy.) Also, Wolf Trap’s overall customer service is dismal. -Feliz Navidad from Silvie- Best: 5 and 7 finally go HD on their news operations (but not totally), Mike Wise, Johnny Holiday, MASN finally catching up in HD broadcasts of games with other RSNs, WAMU, the Capitals, Doug Hill, DirecTV finally adding WETA and MPT HD, Ryan Zimmerman, Chris Core, Dave Statter. Worst: NBC4 news sill in SD and their frequent technical goofs, including audio sync issues, constant pre-emptions of network shows/infomercials by WJLA and WUSA to get a few more local ad dollars, the termination of local news on weekend mornings by WJLA and WUSA, endless price hikes and dilution of talent/quality/quantity at the Washington Post, the death spin of the Washington Times, the Redskins, the Nationals, the Wizards, lack of music variety on local terrestrial radio, endless "free" papers like the Examiner and Loudoun Times-Mirror on my driveway, Glenn Beck the hack. DCRTV Dave: Best: Mike O'Meara, Buzz Burbank, Robb Spewak, DC101's HD2 erockster, HFS2, 98 Rock, WTMD, WRNR-FM, Fred Grandy, Bryan Nehman, Tony Kornheiser, Julie Wright, Lisa Baden, Jim Farley, Ron Smith, Chris Core, Michael Hughes, Diane Rehm, NPR's "Car Talk," Mike Wise, the gay Junkie, Paul Bicknell, Johnny Holliday, Albie Dee, Cerphe, Weasel, Tom Sherwood, WETA-FM, WAMU, WTOP, WBAL's news, Kirk McEwen, Dave Statter, Doug Hill, the Post buying the Fairfax County Times and turning it back into a real newspaper, Comcast adding MPT-HD in the DC area, MASN's HD channel, Steve Kolbe, Nestor Aparicio and WNST.net, PressBox... Worst: Fox 5 and its frequent technical goofs during Redskins games, NBC4's still (!) non-HD local news, Citadel's gloriously mis-programmed new classic rocker 105.9 The Edge and its cold feet about putting O'Meara on morning drive, CBS not putting WHFS back on a main FM signal, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity's continued "anti-Obama radio" which is oh so boring, CBS killing off "guy talk" on WJFK, Chris Plante, Farid Suleman, Paul Farhi and the Post's still stunningly awful Style section, the Washington Post's too-feminine re-design, the decline and demise of 94.7 The Globe, the Examiner's awful editorials, the Sun's cuts, the decline and fall of the Washington Times...