Front Page - Mailbag - BW2009 - BW2008 - BW2007 - BW2006 - BW2005 - BW2004 - BW2003 - BW2002 - BW2001 Best - DCRTV for tenacity and as one of the sole analysts to recognize the real danger of sites like MediaBistro, which is an opportunistic conglomerate preying on the worst vulnerabilities of journalists; that site completely lowers the bar and should bear a disclaimer as to its commercial interests. Shame on serious journalists who enable it. Also: cheers for Ed Walker and Rob Bamberger on WAMU who are old school pros, unsung hero Rick Fowler on WMAL, John McCaslin and Amy Holmes on America's Morning News for their persistence. Doreen Gentzler rocks. So does Jim Vance. They have gravitas. Wish Elliott would do some serious fare and commentary; he's smart enough and has wonderful delivery and presence. I don't mind WAVA. It has its place in the pantheon, and the Creator deserves a public presence, dontcha think? Worst: MediaBistro. Please, grow up or get out. Stop being a voice for troubled single women who get off on their photos at some sad party. Also: Sped up mean spirited content everywhere. This reeks. Yeah, why can't we all get along - but it's going to matter as things get weirder outside our borders and we need some real UNITY rather than discord every stinkin' moment. Radio can still do that. Am sorry for the woes of Don Geronimo; he deserves much more, and a national audience. Wish Don and Mike could be back together. And there's no old crap outlet: DC needs an inventive oldies station that employs the unpredictable "JACK" philosophy and recognizes that geezers have buying power. WORST: Your readers who vote for newscasts because the presenters are “hot.” Doesn’t what the presenter is saying and their knowledge have anything to do with it? Talk about dumbing down! No wonder the quality of on-air broadcasts continues to deteriorate. BEST: Jon Stewart & Stephen Colbert’s “Rally to Restore Sanity” in Washington, WTOP, WJEJ, WTTR, WHAG-TV News & Weather, WETA TV & Radio, “The Big Broadcast with Ed Walker” on WAMU, “The Arch Campbell Show” on TBD/NewsChannel 8, Turner Classic Movies, The Gazette Newspaper (Frederick Edition), The Herald-Mail Newspaper (Hagerstown), “ThisTV” on WBFF’s subchannel (the WDCW version blocked some of the feature films with infomercials a few months ago), WFMD’s “Christmas Cash for Kids” (the only GOOD program on that radio station) Tribune’s “Antenna TV” programming lineup, and hoping that one of the Washington/Baltimore stations will add Weigel Broadcasting’s “Me-TV” classic TV network to one of their digital subchannels.... WORST: Federal Communications Commission for allowing Comcast to acquire NBC-Universal (one should question about the future of the Universal Pictures library, as it includes the pre-1948 Paramount sound features), Comcast’s outrageous prices, (I miss the days of Frederick Cablevision/GS communications) WFMD and their “Limbaugh-esque” programming strategy (especially Blaine Young semi co-host Anita Stup, who is terrible and should not be on the airwaves), All of the Frederick radio stations owned by major corporations out of Texas and New Jersey (it’s time that Frederick had a REAL radio station), WTTG (instead of infomercials late night or on the weekend, they should air re-runs of TV shows or show vintage Twentieth Century Fox films instead), WHAG-TV airing "The 700 Club", Fox News. Best - Channel 11 news team (like to be informed, not entertained. Jayne Miller and Barry Simms I-Team investigations. WBAL radio for news (though they are slipping). Justin Burke for weather forecasting. Dave from dcrtv for updates. Comcast (hold the boos) --they solved a serious issue I was having and admitted it was their fault! Worst - Marty Bass doing the weather (or TV for that matter). Johnny H for Terps basketball coverage (class act!). The Baltimore Sun for their lack of customer service and lack of follow through. BEST: Tom Davis, Phil Wood and Dave Johnson on Saturday mornings 1300AM giving us baseballaholics our mid-winter fix … Jayne Miller's continuing excellence in investigative reporting … 105.7FM's dedication to LOCAL sports talk … Bob Haynie's return to the airwaves on a station that doesn't expect him to be a sales representative … Press Box–in print, online, on TV … Dave Johnson's (the ex-Oriole Dave) insightful analysis of Orioles games—the main reason to be listening to the radio pre- and post-game … WBAl 1090AM for giving us a respite from right-wing radio in the afternoon drive slot with its new news block … WORST: Does channel 2 still have a news operation? … The Orioles even considering leaving 105.7 and returning to 1090, where they'll always be running in third place to Ravens and righty coverage; say it won't be so, Peter … WNST for canning Bob Haynie—with Bob gone and Nestor not on regularly, there's no real reason to listen to WNST anymore; I guess that was the plan—to pour all that energy into their excellent website and let the station implode slowly … Baltimore's not having an equivalent to WTOP—1090's getting closer, but 8 hours a day isn't enough … Do we really need more TV news time devoted to weather than we do to sports? … The lack of local non-news, non-sports and non-public-service programming—where are the "One O'Clock Shows", "Showcase 13's", "Evening Magazines" and "Pinbusters" of the 21st century? WORST --One of the worst developments in local media for 2010 was the unfortunate, very sad, very tragic continued total collapse of The Washington Post, at all levels, and especially at the Style section, which is literally at the worst level it's ever been at in the history of the newspaper and the section. The Post has nosedived in all areas--national news coverage, local news coverage, business (which is nearly non-existent all of a sudden), columns, features, arts, entertainment, sports, speciality sections, the Sunday paper, opinion, copy editing, investigative reporting, editorials, and every other aspect of the paper. It's just pathetic. As for Style, well, it's odd to see such a groundbreaking section reach such a low level--there's no real concept of zeitgeist, of clever writing, of good analysis, of good criticism, of good local and national arts and entertainment coverage, and much of the section is surprisingly childish, juvenile and immature, reading like a high school newspaper. And, throughout the paper, there's a drop in copy-editing, news judgement, news coverage and even community involvement--people who used to rely on the Post for corporate funding for charity events have been denied--because the paper is bleeding money and losing circulation, subscriptions, readership, credibility, ads, ad revenues, staff, editors, and profits. --FishbowlDC. A site that could be an excellent local media web site has fallen off the deep end of sanity and become nothing more than another juvenile, childish blogger web site that seems to thrive on vicious, unprovoked--and weirdly psycho--personal attacks, gossip that most people don't care about, odd feature items, and a strange lack of reporting real, local media hard news that's out there every day on the wires, and in national and local publications!! --Local radio and television programming, in general. The corporitization of radio has just destroyed local radio in the D.C. and Baltimore areas, in general, and there remain few good, locally-connected, community-involved radio stations like in the past. Most stations now are over-programmed, staffed with lifeless mannequins, and generally just terrible, on every level. The long, strange, horrible fall of Big 100.3 and DC-101 are just two examples. And the continued nosedive of WMAL, WASH, WPGC, Majic 102 and others just follow along--they're all being pulled in the wrong directions by idiotic suits who literally have no idea what the heck they're doing. It's really sad. --TBD.com and The Politico. Gawd, almighty, how the Allbrittons have also fallen hard and fast. These two things--no one really knows why both exist, what either does, or why they exist in the first place--are just horrible, awful, unprofessional and so wayward and over-hyped, it's just embarrassing. The Allbrittons should be ashamed of themselves. --The continued harrassment, kidnapping, tortures and deaths of professional journalists around the world. Professional journalists--who are not politicians--continue to be harassed, kidnapped, tortured, held in captivity and even killed--yes, killed--worldwide, and many of them suffered these fates in 2010. Many of them are either from the D.C. and Baltimore areas, or the mid-Atlantic region, or they have colleagues and peers in this region. Worldwide media organizations and governments need to continue to do more to combat the continued travesty of harrassed, kidnapped, tortured and murdered journalists worldwide. --Fox News. Just absolutely a joke. A completely pathetic, moronic, idiotic, offensive and psychotic joke. BEST --The return of 105.9, The Edge, mainly because of the return to local airwaves of longtime veteran "Rocky"-like survivor Kirk McEwen and the great, classy Cerphe. Yes, Kirk's paired with Mike, and Mike has to learn, even after all of these years, to bring things down at times and be a bit more up on the current zeitgeist. And not to grumble and complain about current things like a curmudgeonly old man!! But the station rocks, and it's anchored by Kirk and Cerphe. Now to boost the night shift and weekend shifts with equally good personalities! --98 Rock. This station, despite suffering some problems with the morning show, continues to blast away, due mainly to playing good, current hard rock, the talent and grounded professionalism of Amelia, Stash and Sarah, and its patented connection to community involvement--something that's unfortunately becoming a lost art with local radio and television stations. Amelia is a rock in the morning, but the show suffers many times from bombast, egos, ramblings, boring routines, an odd connection to the zeitgeist, a lack of real news coverage and proper analysis, a lack of music in the morning, and just general nothingness and banality sometimes. The morning show needs to get back to the glory years of the first six years of Kirk, Mark and Lopez--a zenith for morning rock radio programming. --The fact that great veterans Gordon Peterson, Pat Collins and Joe Johns are still on television. They're part of a very small---very, very, very, very small--group of television reporters who actually know journalism and actually know what the hell they are doing. --Bloomberg News. This operation has actually grown and, according to some reports, actually continues to somehow make money. Their business and political coverage is grounded, normal, non-over-hyped, and generally, basically intelligent. They are slowly blowing away the Post, The Washington Business Journal, and everyone else in business news coverage. The Allbrittons would be wise to pay attention to what Bloomberg is doing--before it's too late. --"The Jon Stewart Show," for its coverage of local and national politics out of D.C., and for the concurrent, entertaining, hilarious rally hosted by Stewart and Stephen Colbert. --Wonkette. The best political satire site out there, even better than The Onion, and that's saying something. --The Onion. Great political satire. --DCRTV.com. Great local coverage of real local journalism. --"The Reliable Source"--Amy and Roxanne are rare class acts in the world of generally non-classy gossip reporting. --Bob Marbourgh at WTOP. Simply the best traffic reporter in the entire D.C. and Baltimore regions, in print, in radio, in television, in web sites, in anything. And he is a major, important example of a very real news reporter, who goes beyond the basics and adds class, intelligence, wisdom, insight, analysis, education, information and real journalism in his reports. We are all lucky to have Bob and his great traffic reports on the air and on WTOP. Happy New Year! worst- no greaseman show Best: WTMD & Wezel, WXPN World Cafe & Sleepy Hollow, WFUV, WNCW, WTJU, WNRN, WPFW Jazz & Talk, WTOP Traffic & Weather, Sirius Out Q & The Loft, Internet Radio on my iPhone. Worst: No Public Radio AAA Music Station in DC, WMAL Ignorant Hate Radio, Everything on Fox "News", WETA's joke of a "HD" channel, The Merger between NBC and Crapcast, Religious Hate Radio & TV, WARU in Ocean city broadcasting programs that are already available. Bob Fairfax BEST: Sarah Simmons (hot), Sarah Caldwell (hot), Sandra Shaw (hot), Mindy Basara (hot), Angie Goff (hot and congrats on being a new Mom) Channel 5 Morning Team minus Tony Perkins, WRC4's Still the Best w/ Jim, Doreen, and the hot Lindsay Czarniak! Pat Collins.Marty Bass. Last but not by a long shot least, WUSA 9's Lesli Foster, the most underrated anchor in DC and an absolute stunner to boot! WORST: Tony Perkins, Jooooe Kreeebs, Tony Perkins, Pat Lawson Muse, Tony Perkins, Barbara Harrison, WRC4's new weather guy, Tony Perkins, Baltimore Ravens Radio Team...THEY SUCK!! , And did I mention Tony Perkins? Best: CFZM, aka AM740 from Toronto, Ed Walker-Big Broadcast, Rob Bamberger-Hot Jazz Saturday Night, WICL, WCHA/WHAG still playing oldies even though no local DJ's. Worst: IBOC on AM at night, DTV in fringe areas, only 3 minutes of National/World news on top-of-the-hour on WTOP, Cialis commercials ad nauseum. Best: TV: ABC 7 for having the Hotest women on Television. Alex Parker does have one good product out there. The women he hires. Radio: Russ Parr, Elliot & The Junkies still lead the charge but a nice surprise from no where are Kevin and Rock. Print: Does anyone read the Paper anymore? Blog: SB Nation, Dan Steinberg . Nuff' Said. Web: DCRTV doesn't get the credit it deserves (literally) but continues to press on. It's almost a compliment at this point that everyone else intentionally leaves you out of credits. Worst: TV: News Channel 4. They used to be the standard to me but everyone is still there from 20 years ago. I mean do you see Renee Pouissant at ABC7 still? Radio: Where to start? Mike & Kirk, Lavar and Dukes, Big Tigger replacing a Legend. Notice I left Mike Wise off? He's bad.. but I didnt want the list to go over 3 shows Print: Does anyone read the paper anymore? Blog: Lavar with Hard Hits. It gives bloggers a bad name. Web: TBD Although you could qualify for TV as well, but its your first year. I still dont understand why you were created. Best: DCRTV keeping us breaking inside stories and getting very little love for it. Come on WaPo, give Dave some credit in 2011. The Junkies, particularly when they aren’t talking sports. The Rick Valdez Show. Kevin and Rock! Diamonds in the rough. Big O and Dukes coming back via their podcast. Here’s hoping it leads to a full time gig! Worst: LaVarr’s “relationship” with the English language. He provides very little insight, why is he still on the air? Local TV, writ large, particularly their “Storm xxx” weather men. Please, I get better information from Weather.com Washington DC - Best of Radio/Television [nothing] Rick the Rat Best: Listening to the MLB Playoffs clearly on Sirius-XM as oppose to local AM affiliates; Sirius-XM's Area, BPM, and First Wave; Mix2; Z104; Tracey, Mike, & Dave mornings on 95.1 Shine-FM; The Mark Viviano Show on 105.7 The Fan; The John Harbaugh Show Tuesdays during football season on AM1090 WBAL; ABC2 finally having local news in HD; FOX45's announcement of expanding their morning news to 10am starting in January; WBAL-TV11 and WJZ-TV13 for simulcasting Ravens games in HD from the NFL Network or ESPN. Worst: Still way too many commercials during the Orioles All Access Pre-game Show on 105.7 The Fan; ABC2 showing more infomercials and less newscasts during weekends; FOX45 showing the home team over the away team in their box scores during newscasts; MASN's deal with the Ravens to show RAVE-TV programming falling through; the impending Comcast-NBC merger and the possible negative effects on carriage of competing network affiliates. Happy New Year to all from Greg in Perry Hall! Best--Charlie Slowes and Dave Jaegler doing Nationals games on the radio; the Interwebs, which allow you to listen to almost any radio station in the world and finally escape the audio cesspool that is, with few exceptions, the Washington market. WPFW's "Latin Flavor--Classic Edition" with Jim Byers. Worst--WAMU at 6:35 a.m. Monday-Friday, when the station blows off news, traffic and weather for five loooong minutes to air the incredibly pretentious "Writer's Almanac," voiced by the incredibly pretentious G. Keillor. No better: switching over to WTOP only to hear Mike Moss. Steve Czaban discussing his political views. Best: WTOP...Hands down, the best news operation in ALL of DC metro. WETA, SiriusXM for great variety that you sure as hell aren't going to get on DC radio locally. Opie and Anthony, Ron and Fez, First Wave, 80's 0n 8, Classic Vinyl, Classic Rewind, The Virus. Their political stations make WMAL cry 24/7/365. With the exception of the afore mentioend WTOP and a few other stations, DC radio sucks! Worst: WTEM, WJFK, WWDC, WVRX, WBIG, WIAD, WMAL, I could go on but I have proved my point I think. WTOP and WETA are the top of the class of this area.......if not for SiriusXM, this area and a lot of other areas would be in a cesspool radio wise. Dan Best: Pat Collins. God love him. He knows when to cheese it up and when to make crimes sound so baffling. Lindsay Czarniak -- smart, bright, "gets it" and did a wonderful job covering the Olympics. Elliott In The Morning -- you know what to expect, it's well planned out and you never get the sense that they're screaming "hey pay attention to us so you don't have to change the channel!" like some more of the higher-pitched broadcasts on 99.5. Worst: Pretty much everyone at WHAG except for the weather team, which has more personality than their news and sports counterparts. Can't believe they managed to expand into Northern Virginia with the crap they put on air. I'm so glad Nikki Burdine departed to Kentucky. Maybe that part should be filed under best. She, along with many of the anchors, bumbled over their poorly written scripts, couldn't give basic information and good luck pronouncing anything local correct. Heh, why am I using this in past-tense? They're still doing it! I was disappointed in her professionalism on Twitter when she both bashed Bulls and Bears restaurant for poor service and sharing her distaste for the local WalMart on her work account. Good luck Kentucky! JapersRink.com. The shtick of over-analyzing Washington Capitals games with statistics that not even NHL coaches care about is getting old. I'm not sure what the purpose of this blog is anymore. I keep coming back hoping something will be different, but it isn't. Much of it is pointing out the obvious and not offering anything much beyond Capitals Insider. Worst: What idiocy these DC TV stations have become. "LIVE" this, "LIVE" that. And, channel 7 wins with the moronic "LIVE" from our news room. What? But they're all doing it now. No lead-in to the field reporter can escape, "LIVE"...do you think the average viewer give a "rats..." Additionally, NBC should have a bowl of rose pedals on Brian Wilson's desk. And every time he introduces "our own", so and so, he should toss a finger full of rose pedals to camera. What a stiff! Don Richards Best fox5 in the morning. Lately the new faces have been a nice treat, Sarah and Lauren. Very Hot. Worst= Dan Snyder and all he touches!!!!!!!! NFL networks thursday nite jerk fest. Those 3 guys-Joe T Millen and the other guy are TERRIBLE!!!! Best: Business Decision in Broadcasting: Best –CBS Radio for not tinkering with its stations in D.C. and Baltimore. They may not all “rate” in the Top-10, but they all have positive cash flow. Yes, I’d love for a WCBS-FM/WOGL/KRTH-FM clone to happen here on 94.7. But, it won’t. Why? Because commercial broadcasting is a business that caters to advertisers –not an audience…Christian Radio Station: Best –WFAX. This “mom & pop” operation continues to not merely lead –but excel- because of its mix of local and syndicated programming, accessibility by local churches based on need (including free air time) rather than politics, and largely eschewing politics (not to mention publicity and profits) in general for teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Out-of-Market, but another winner is WRBS of Baltimore for many of the same reasons. They would’ve made a nice takeover target for WFAX… Honorable mention goes to WPRZ for showing good things can be done with a signal long ridiculed as a D.C. “rim shot”. If Radio One can get its corporate act together, expect good things here in the future… Radio Station: WTOP. Largely by default as there are things they would have to do better if there were serious competition. Mark Segraves, Mark Plotkin, and J.J. Green are among the best there are in the biz. However, they need backup with similarly talented individuals being brought on board. Dave McConnell’s eventual retirement should scare Jim Farley and Joel Oxley. They also need a better analyst of the regional economy than the GMU schmuck I always tune out on when I hear him. The kindest thing I can say about his “presence” on-air is that he’s the Topper Shutt of radio… Local TV News: WJLA (WDCW’s efforts with Chris Core & Mark Segraves get an Honorable Mention)… TV Meteorologist: Howard Bernstein. The guy is a genius and deserves a much better gig than what he has now. Allbritton, are you listening? Why? Albritton will be the only place hiring in 2011. And, Comcast 4 won’t be doing any hiring at all. Ever. Look for their news and weather to be outsourced in addition to sports. The only hope “It’s Academic” has for survival will be outsourcing the whole production to a sponsor. Otherwise, it will soon be in the dustbin of television history… Honorable Meteorological Mentions: Doug (of Doom) Hill, Bob Ryan, and Sue Palka… Local Sportscaster: Dave Johnson. The guy’s descriptions of a Wizards game are mindful of the verbal artistry of an earlier era in radio. Glad to see WTOP is now giving him an in-house staff. What they need to remember is that WTOP is a Washington station, and not in Baltimore. While the Ravens and the baseball team in Baltimore may have better win/loss records, they are not the local teams! Emphasize the local teams and you’ll sound like you are really want to be a part of this community... Local Broadcast Website: WMAL Although the news section is largely the same AP drivel as on WTOP’s site, the commentaries and quantity of other station-originated input make it stand out against the competition. Whether you agree with WMAL or not, just regularly bothering with local input gives them a leg-up on WTOP. WMAL’s site also gets an additional Honorable Mention for its “History” page…“News” Station: WTOP. But only because Citadel won’t invest in WMAL the bucks Bonneville has for WTOP. At WTOP, bringing in-house the sports and traffic will hopefully reflect the quality and pride of an in-house presentation as opposed to something outsourced. An Honorable Mention goes to WMAL for the fleeting seconds of near-journalism displayed by John Matthews during their coverage of the Discovery Channel siege. The only downer in that was having Chris Plante’s inane and often irrelevant commentary… Use of the 1610-1710 KHz “X-Band”: The relays of 162.55 MHz NWS station KHB-36 on 1670… Mystery on Broadcast Radio: KFP-942, KJI-955, and WGN-872 on 1640 KHz. Those things are like the “numbers stations” on shortwave, but aren’t really trying to hide, and you can hear them without a shortwave receiver. All they need is a synthesized female voice doing numbers in 4-figure groups to reveal their obvious ownership. Right, CynthIA? As a broadcaster, what would scare me about those stations is if they get PPM encoders and start drawing better numbers than “real” broadcasters… Cable System: Cox. From what I’ve seen in the homes of friends and talking with them, there seems to be very little that Cox does wrong. Pity they’re not franchised by Faifax County to serve all the people of Fairfax County… Acquisition: There were no good ones in 2010. But 2011 could be interesting if Cumulus buys either Citadel or Nassau… Nearby cable could get interesting if Cablevision goes on the block. The sleeper here is Verizon FiOS. Between the billions in cost overruns in construction, the buy rate being much less than forecast, and that it has never turned a profit (Thus, anathema to the investment community and building investor unrest.), they are a prime target for a takeover. Perhaps even a hostile one. I wouldn’t be surprised at an outright buyout or some sort of partnership arrangement with… Google! It might even keep the “Verizon” name in some form. It would be like the arrangement the world’s largest wireless operator, Vodaphone, has with Verizon. Who in the U.S. has really heard of Vodaphone? But, “Verizon Wireless” is more a Vodaphone operation than it is Verizon… Understatement on the State of the Industry: Former KGO GM Mickey Luckoff’s, "These aren't good people", in reference to his former employer, Citadel. However, Citadel is far from unique. There are people (including “suits”.) in this business today whose absence of ethics is so boundless that it’s exceeded only by their abundance of malicious evil that, while they are certain of spending countless millennia in Purgatory merely to gain admission into Hell, they have destroyed the careers of many talented media professionals (I have to say this as cable and print are not immune!) –not to mention their families in the process- who care about the business and those it serves, in addition to ruining storied properties where decades of reputation have been lost forever… Personnel Action: Juan Williams’ firing by NPR. This bought NPR (and public broadcasting in general) well deserved and much needed publicity/scrutiny about how they operate, their ethics and their intellectual/creative freedom. In fact, more publicity has been focused on NPR and PBS of late than in many years… TV show of the 2010-2011 season: “Hawaii Five-O”! The music, videography, writing, action, scenes, etc., are all consistent with the original. As with the original, the CBS-TV Honolulu affiliate, KGMB-TV, has even played an occasional bit role. (Can’t wait to see KGMB’s Howard Dicus play a well-deserved guest shot on the show.) While all of the principals are first rate, special mention must be given to the “new Kono”, Grace Park. OK, so the role of Kono has undergone a sex change! Ms. Park handles the role with aplomb. Plus, she’s the hottest babe on broadcast TV in a long time! The only downers are the Hawaiian Airlines A330-200 in the opening, which has all the class of a Greyhound bus with wings, compared to the timeless elegance and adventure of the United Airlines DC-8-63 in the original show. And, the new show is too much of a program length commercial for Chevrolet. At least the pilot episode included a classic Mercury Marquis under restoration… Warning Sign of a Serious Mistake: The PPM numbers for WAMU’s bluegrass webcast and “HD” streams. The fact that they show up at all should be a wake-up call to “real broadcasters”. That they rank in the ‘teens should be like the “WTF was that” from the Mayor of Hiroshima in ‘45. Worst: Business Decision in Broadcasting: Red Zebra’s continued existence. If ever there were a current licensee “unfit” to be one, it’s RZ. This is a classic example of a broadcaster used by those on the left to illustrate what’s “wrong” with individual ownership of broadcast stations… Christian Radio Station: WAVA. DCRTV Dave jokes about WMAL being “owned and operated by the Republican Party”. Actually, it’s WAVA that’s “owned and operated” by the “Republicans”. But, only certain ones! While WAVA does make money for Salem (and furthers its corporate political and social goals), its consistent presence in the ratings sub-basement is a classic case of a waste of what used to be one of the best FM signals in the market, What they did to WAMD is also abominable… Radio Station: WMAL… All that needs to be said of that ongoing drama/disaster of a once titan –now Titanic- operation has been and is being said on DCRTV almost daily as Citadel is far from finished at destroying the place. Expect Grandy to be gone before May with either a recent college grad who’ll work for AFTRA minimum as a resume notch or someone doing local talk in market 50-100 to take his place, with Nehman staying as “mentor” and providing “continuity”. What surprises me is that Mark Weaver and Bill Thompson are still there. Since it’s so far from “his dad’s” WMAL, that I’m amazed Mark hasn’t retired. And, thanks to consolidation and cross-ownership, there’s really no place for Bill Thompson to easily land… Local TV News: WUSA. That operation makes WSVN in Miami (and other Ed Ansin operations) look credible by comparison… TV Meteorologist: Topper Shutt. His presentation is so painful that on a good day it makes watching paint fade look exciting. And, I guess he has to fly on Southwest because of the excess bags under his eyes. He never should’ve left Greensboro… Local Media Website: WTOP. Between stories that stay on the front page for days at a time, story comments from viewers that can be months old and are carried-over from other stories, and a feedback section which until recently had enough SPAM (from a PRC-based website) to satisfy the combined appetites of Hawaii and Alaska, WTOP’s website shows what happens when one aspect of a quality organization is neglected. Or, ignored. A Dishonorable Mention goes to Albritton and “TBD”. That is without any doubt one of the worst websites I’ve ever seen, broadcast or otherwise. This outcome should not surprise in that it’s from the Albrittion empire, as it resembles a poorly embalmed and cosmetized corpse…“News” Station: WTOP. They’ve become fat and lazy, basking in the grandeur of earlier eras. WTOP knows its crown is ripe for the plucking. But, they don't care because they know they don’t have to. Why? Bonneville knows that Citadel nor anyone else isn’t going to risk the coin needed to start/nurture/sustain a quality and competitive start-up all-news operation here. And, it won’t be CBS as CBS bills too much due to WTOP in the 7:00 AM M-F newscast that serious damage would be done if it were to start a stand-alone news operation here. That’s why WTOP has such a sweet deal w/CBS. And, Bonneville knows that WTOP could successfully go it alone without the network. So does CBS… Use of the 1610-1710 KHz “X-Band”: Tie for just about everything else non-broadcast there… Mystery on Broadcast Radio: Every chapter in the seemingly never-ending and inexorably intensifying saga that WMAL has become… Cable System: It’s a tie! Verizon and Comcast. There is so much wrong with those two that has been published here before that I won’t waste the bandwidth repeating it… Regulatory Agency: A tie! The winners are… An ever increasingly socialist FCC which ignores both scientific and economic facts in the pursuit of politics. What astounds me is that the FCC’s not yet established local content rules or otherwise “punished” their “enemies” in talk radio or on cable. On the local level, the Fairfax County Government deserves special recognition for imposing by legislative fiat the relegation of Reston to a different (and sub-standard) cable telecommunications provider than that available to the rest of the county. Thus, the residents of Reston (disserved by Comcast and Verizon) have twenty-third class citizenship on an “information superhighway” that resembles an unpaved and potholed Appian Way in technological sophistication, while the rest of the county is served by Cox which apparently has better products, better service, and lower prices. The U.S. Justice Department and the FCC really need to look at this from the perspective of “Brown v. Board of Education” given the population make-up of Reston when compared with the rest of the county. Joint Dishonorable Mention goes to RIAA and the Copyright Royalty Board which have jointly served to kill pure internet feeds of many broadcasters and left those who’ve abandoned the web entirely with a “never again” attitude born of distrust… Acquisition: The buy of NBC/Universal by Comcast. I usually abhor government involvement in this or any business. This is one exception. There is so much wrong with this one that it must either be denied outright by the Justice Department or Congress, or have so many significant conditions imposed, that they become a deal-breaker. Dishonorable Mention –Salem’s buy of WWRC. The place was allowed to deteriorate so badly under previous ownerships as to make the current site a sad joke. Unless rebuilt by Salem to a new location, this station will continue to have a signal only marginally better than WMUC. Otherwise, Salem should’ve paid for WWRC what it sold WAMD for. Also, Salem really should’ve made a better offer for WMAL… Understatement on the State of the Industry: The Obama Administration’s continued obsession with Fox News. Why anyone with an IQ measured in positive numbers has any serious regard to such a bunch of has-been’s, wannabe’s, never-were’s, and legends in their own mind, is beyond me. Fox News is so desperate for publicity that they have turned almost every conservative talk show on radio into program-length promos (often defensive) for themselves. The only redeeming feature I find on Fox News is the eye candy in “Ailes’ Angels”, especially occasional guest S.E. Cupp. An example I see of the disingenuousness about Fox News is their “journalistic” and “editorial” position on illegal migration to the U.S. (especially being against “amnesty”), while their owner, Rupert Murdoch, testifies before the U.S. Senate in favor of “amnesty”… Personnel Action: The many not talked about (even on DCRTV) layoffs locally in local broadcast and cable operations… Warning Sign of a Serious Mistake: Broadcasters who deride or otherwise fail to exploit the opportunities offered by the technology of the 21st century. As perhaps the last member of DCRTV old enough to have built a crystal radio with a Quaker Oats box as the core of the tuning coil, one of my regrets is that due to age, I’ll likely not live to see the full potential reached of iPods, Podcasts. iPads, and similar personal devices combined with WiFi (especially in car or portable) and other streaming facilitating services, and other forms of personally controlled (but not necessarily ad-supported) entertainment and information dissemination and creation. Happy New Year! –Unsigned Corporate Suit Best: WTOP Sports Team, especially George Wallace and Craig Heist. WTOP Special Reports, especially Bob Marbourgh's anniversary Worst: Prolonged Rob Dibble firing drama. Redskins' domination of local media to the detriment of all other sports BEST - DCRTV and Dave Hughes, Czaban's return to mornings, and surprisingly, Larry Michaels is getting better. WORST - WJFK and the Stupid low-lifes they employ (K&R, Junks, and the rest of the crew aiming for the 14-year-old tit-jokes demographic), Mike Moss and his constant yapping, the loss of Lisa Baden on WTOP (somebody please give Jim Russ a No-Doz), the lack of any decent rock station, the lack of a good jazz station (sorry, WPFW, but you need to shut up), the lack of a good classical station (sorry, WETA, but 24-hour Mozart does not a decent station make), The Reagan-Clinton Corporate-Run FCC, IBOC and the endless digital hash buzz, and worst of all, the local Snyder stations buying the rights to Westwood One's football coverage, then pre-empting it with snoozefests like Georgetown Basketball or VATech Football. Thanks for a great year, and many more to come, Dave! -- Uncle Frank in Arlington Bests: The classy folks who present our news that we have been blessed with over the years: Maureen Bunyan, Andrea Roane, Gordon Peterson, Jim Vance, Doreen Gentzler, Eun Yang, Bruce Johnson, Doug Hill and the late Glenn Brenner and Jack Jurey. These folks take/took great pride in their work and weren’t just trying to do it quickly. They are/were true professional journalists. Also, behind the scenes folks like Samara Martin Ewing, Amy Repke, Bill Starks, Chris Houston, Doug Buchanan. We’ve been truly blessed. Worst: Rants that keep hammering the writer’s personal views and don’t give us the viewers/readers credit for making our own decisions. Also, the slipshod grammar that we frequently hear on the air. BEST: Once again this year it is Dave Johnson's play-by-play announcing of Washington Wizards basketball games. His observations are clear and concise. I'm always amazed by his knowledge of the game and his ability to paint those verbal pictures so that I believe that I can "see" what is happening on the court. WTOP: Great radio station for information about what is happening at any given time in the Washington area. WORST: Michael Lee's Reporting of Washington Wizards basketball games. I think that he simply has his "sources" text him info and he prints it. Michael Wilbon's reporting of anything having to do with Washington area professional sports. I'm glad that he has moved on to "bigger and better" things. BEST: Dave Johnson, WTOP Sports Director and Radio Voice of the Washington Wizards. There is neither a more knowledgeable nor competent play-by-play man in any sports arena than Dave Johnson. We, in the Washington, DC area are lucky to have him here. WORST: Redskins Report: Larry Michael (Are you kidding?) CSN: Chick Hernandez (patronizing and condescending); Michael Jenkins (tries too hard to be witty and urbane); Washington Post: Michael Lee (The Post could do so much better; Lee’s an agitator with little regard for the truth; his writing skills are dubious; I’m not sure Lee can even spell grammar, syntax and style); Michael Wilbon, provocateur, never ever let the facts get in the way of a good story – and seems to be continuing that trend on ESPN. Oh right. It’s ESPN. BEST: Klug and Meredith Marx in the afternoons on 100.7 The Bay! Sarah Caldwell doing news on WBAL TV! Kirk and Mike. Bill Worthington on WASH FM! Channel 13's News Coverage! WORST: Too much negativity. Samuel The Best - Old guys Davis, Wood, and former Oriole Dave Johnson on Saturday mornings. Ron Smith and C4. WRNR, though it's becoming more and more commercial by the minute, but at times does remind of the old HFS. WTMD, great music, lots of new indie and local bands. Steve Kolby and Kenny Sabourin, though Sabs sounds like he's been hit with a puck one too many times. They're the best radio play-by-play/color men on radio in either DC or Baltimore. Would love to hear Sabourin on the road, oh well. Laughlin on TV is great, sounds like a hockey player and plays off Joe B. so well. WQSR's snide remarks between songs get annoying after a while, but there's no doubt the music variety is wonderful. Only so many places you can find White Town's "Just a Woman." Great stuff. MASN's Orioles color guys are tops. Palmer, of course, but it was nice hearing different opinion and insights from Anderson, McDonald, Boddicker, and Eddie. I hope those guys come back next year. The Worst - CSN reporters, man, they are bad. Chick Hernandez looks so condescending, like he thinks we should be grateful to have him bring us the latest. Please. Thaler and Harris? Oy vey. The girls aren't any better. Unwatchable, the whole thing. 105.7's talk shows, the next original thought any of them have will be their first one. Steve Davis is arrogant, their decision to make Norris do more sports and ruin the best political/news program on local radio was asinine. Get rid of Davis and let Ed do his thing! Weinman is beyond bad, Garceau and Conn have some good points, but everything is a joke. Don't need the "comedy", fellas, just stick to sports talk. Miller and that other guy, Good Lord, where do they get these people? And Jen Royle? Will someone please show her what a baseball is? She makes Marks look mediocre, and Marks was ridiculous. The only "people" who rival this group for sheer awfulness are Sportsline host Hollander. Will someone send him to speech therapy? He sounds like he's got marbles in his mouth. Then there's Coleman, Mr. Name Dropper. Please, man, pacing! He sounds like he's more worried about his voice sounding deep than about what he's saying. And what he's saying is usually inane and silly anyway. Go home, Jerry, and look for another job. And when Cowherd is on, immediate turn off. Cowherd is not a sports guy. He should go back to his Erma Bombeck days on the features desk, because he's a horrid sports columnist. It's not the opinion that bother me, it's his lack of sports knowledge. And BAL, will you please tell your people, that it's "W-B-A-L", all letters fully enunciated, not Dubya, not W-B-all. That station sounds like a small town operation in Adirondack. Takes away from the good work done by the news staff. And please put Ron back in the afternoons, the News Journal's not cutting it. As for Orioles, Angel isn't bad, but we've started a new game when Manfra's on, guess how mistakes he's gonna make. He seems like a nice guy, but after all these years, Fred, can't you do a better job? At least he's not Hunter. Hunter's arrogance makes Davis look like Mother Theresa. Hunter can't go through an interview without making sure his guest knows how much Jim knows about baseball. Please tell, us Jim! And, stop, please stop saying "He swings through it"! Never mind that it is a physical impossibility for a bat to swing through a baseball, but he says it even when bat misses ball by a foot. Either the swing is over the ball, or under, too early or too late, but never through it. Stop being lazy and do your job! I'm sure there's more, but I try to stay positive. Thank you. Best:Tim Williams and Marty Bass for weather. Talk show hosts, Ron Smith and Shari Elicker. Sports Mark Vivano and Brett Hollander. The new Z 104.3 with Jackson Blue, Jason and Jenn afternoons on Mix. Worst: Meredith Marx, 100.7, Meredith Marx, 100.7, Meredith Marx 100.7- Kelly Davison in Towson Worst---The trend to spend more time teasing an upcoming story than just telling what the story is---i.e. "We'll have the weekend weather so you can plan accordingly after this" INSTEAD OF "Expect rain (or snow or temps in the 90's) on Saturday, clearing on Sunday:We have it all after this." Or "We've got the Redskins Results with sports at fifteen and forty five coming up after this" INSTEAD OF "The Skins are winners, details after this" AND Cable TV invites three guests to talk about a topic, they get into the topic, an argument starts and the host says "OK, we obviously aren't going to see the end of this today so we'll leave it there. Thank you all for coming." AND WTOP doing "traffic and weather" at 8:48 and when it's over, the announcer says, "Tune in at 8:58 for more traffic and weather on the eights. WTOP newstime 8:51." If you give a time check, make sure it's the actual time right now and not the time it's gonna be eight minutes from now." Best---Dave Johnson ad libs, "On Point" on NPR and "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me" on NPR. Worst: Adam Tuss using cheesy sound effects of Metro trains or highway traffic (depending on the content of his report) as a constant soundtrack for his reports when it is evident that he is filing from the newsroom anyway Best- Jim and Doreen, Anita Brikman, Kirk and Mike, Angie Goff [even her phoniness is sexy], Diane Stupar [great talent needs solo show], WUSA9 Weather, WTOP, 105.9, Fox5 Morning News [how can you not chuckle], WASH Christmas music Worst- Sirius/XM music channels [dull and repetitive as regular radio], Howard Stern [shell of the former KOAM], Lindsay Czarniak [you're not George Micheal, stop trying to be], All Redskins TV shows, Elliot, Larry, Sonny and Sam, NBC4Plus [why is this bullshit even on?], Julie Wright. Paul Best: John Thompson on WTEM-makes me think harder than anyone else in radio; WTOP for getting me to work and back every day Worst: Kevin Sheehan (I turn the dial whenever he comes on); WJFK – I keep searching for a show I can like; CSN for putting the Wizards on CSN and Capitals on CSN+ whenever they both play at the same time; NPR for their clear political slant Best: Sirius/XM's Boneyard, Hair Nation, Liquid Metal and Bluesville, even though all have suffered since the merger. Worst: 93.5 The Beach, Delmarva's so-called "rock station." Everything about this station is terrible. The processing is horribly tinny and distorted even when the signal itself is crystal-clear; the jocks all sound like the same guy, except one guy tries to go on wannabe Glenn Beck rants and another bores us with a brain-numbing slew of news-of-the-weird stories; the morning show sounds like a couple of freshman philosophy majors who dropped out because college was interfering with their weed-smoking; the commercials, many voiced by one of the faceless jocks, this one not sounding particularly masculine, and loaded with reverb and/or delay in just about every sentence; and the music, ah yes, the music. A seemingly endless parade of dreary complaint-rock, broken up by warmed-over '90's has-beens and one-hit wonders from 15 years ago, adn the very occasional (but no less tired) AC/DC, Guns n' Roses or Metallica. Seriously, the Beach were never that good of a station, and are probably at their worst these days. Doghouse Reilly Best--- Add me to the ever growing list of Channel 4 Fans….except for letting Bob Ryan go to Channel 7….(which seems to be the home of the local broadcast seasoned veterans, which all of a sudden has made Channel 7 more than just barely watchable)….Lindsay, Dan, Jim , Doreen, all the street reporters, the whole crew on NBC4….atmospheres ahead of the other folks….Satellite Radio….sure makes long rides into and out of local markets much more enjoyable…static free, and no more scanning the dial for a listenable signal….Cerphe being back on the air…he has been around far too long to be kicked to the curb….good to have him back…hope it is a very long tenure for him and all of the listeners…. Worst— Well….how about, in a league all by himself, Larry “Deer in the Headlights” Michael…(.obviously no relation to the late George Michael, whom we all miss dearly….)…as for the aforementioned Larry the Hack….wonder if Dan Snyder could have found a worse announcer anywhere in all of broadcasting…..that would have taken a long time…..maybe Vinny Cerrato could have found someone worse…he certainly accomplished that while being employed by the ‘Skins…hope both the team on the field and in the broadcast booth return to the days of Super Bowls and having a listenable broadcast…the days of turning off the sound on the TV and turning up the radio broadcast are, at least for now, in the rear view mirror…”Deer in the Headlights” Michael is so bad that even Sonny and Sam can’t neutralize him…..I am surprised that the team lets him in the locker room for interviews…..He is the WORST …by far…sure do miss Frank Herzog…. To all--- Health Happiness and Prosperity in 2011…..and hopefully no more Deer in the Headlights…. Chip Best 9 news now being there Monday thru Friday with Angie Traffic Howard Weather the John Riggins Show returning to tv Worst Comcast Sportsnet Plus not being available to all viewers without paying more money the Washington Nationals not being on fm radio Best: Modern Family – I know it’s not local broadcasting but the show deserves it anyway. Best writing and directing in prime time. Worst: Run for you lives snow coverage! Especially during a rating period. Chris Core – and his Core values. #1: I don’t care what he values. #2: I don’t care that he seems to have built his entire home with people he endorses, from gutters to windows to air-conditioning, and he seems to also maintain his health by endorsing everyone from toenail specialists, to cardiologists. Is there any product, or any service this guy won’t put his name to for a buck? And that’s no “Core Value!” TV News anchors who perform the news rather than just give me the news. Sportscasters who are NOT journalists – that’s just about all of them, and they are just so happy to be hanging out with big sports stars during live interviews. “How good does it feel to win this game?” Just once I would love to hear, “You know it sucks.” The MASN Nationals broadcast team for trying to make a losing team look exciting – “How about that strike out!” And while I’m warmed up I might as well take a swipe at the Nationals, it’s time to put a winning team on the field so the MASN broadcast team won’t have to fake it anymore. And so goes another year of local broadcasting in DC, and my chance to “rant”. Happy New Year Everyone! Best: we all miss the Hitman and Company in the mornings, we are all waiting for the new show on the new stations in Ocean City, Maryland and Dover, Del. in Jan 2011 - 105.1fm in OC and 98.3fm in Dover, De. Worst: no real local station on the Eastern Shore that plays music along with local news, weather and sports. The Best : DCRTV.COM, WPFW, MPT’s BritComs, FiOS, Cerphe back behind a microphone. Czaban and Polin’s Sports Reporters. Tony Kornheiser Show. The Worst : The firing of Jon Ballard. 106.7’s almost non-stop Snyder sucks. Enough already. We get it. ESPN 980s 14 hours a day of Kevin Sheehan. A little Sheehan goes a long way. And it is time to retire Mark Stern’s Nigel character. Gary Braun talking over everyone on Kornheiser’s show. The tiny playlists on rock stations. How about a station that will play rock from cradle to grave – that is from the 40’s to today, from Roy Brown to WTFHG? Best - K&M, MikeOmearashow.com and WAMU Worst - Does anyone really watch local news other than for the comic relief? Have not listened to WJFK during 2010. The death of Florida radio legend Neil Rogers. Worst: Craig Melvin too stiff never seems too sure of what he is doing. Never seems like he enjoys what he is doing should replace him with the weekend guy, he's much smoother. Steve Rudin doing weather sounds like he is reading from a script, never natural very small market. Should replace him with Devon Lucie or Adam Caskey they have more personality & better eye candy. Leon Harris teamed with Cynne Simpson seems unbalanced. Need people closer in age, would be a better fit. Howard Bernstien and Angie Goff just plain damn irritating. Best: Dave Feldman doing sports always keeps it upbeat, funny and interesting. Doug Hill & Sue Palka both personable and easy to listen to. Andrea Roane very pleasant and professional love her. Lindsay Murphy very good at sports and she is eye candy. The Junkies are cool. Most of the reporting on WTOP. Best: Jim Vance & Doreen Gentzler (Their on-air chemistry is THE reason why none of the other local news broadcasts will ever come close to beating NBC4.)...Dan Hellie (If given the opportunity, he could develop into an even better sportscaster than he already is.)...WMMJ tweaking its playlist to play uptempo R&B from the 90s along with its current Adult R&B fare...The fun interplay that USED to happen between Guy Lambert & Julie Wright during the news & traffic on WPGC in the mornings. Much more entertaining than that of Big Tigger & his female co-host...Fresh FM being better at the Adult Pop format than tired old Mix 107.3 Worst: Donnie Simpson being forced out at WPGC (the last "classy" morning show host on DC radio)...The Kane Show on Hot 99.5 (Since when did acting like a know-it-all d-bag become a requirement for being a radio personality? And why in the hell is it translating into ratings gold?!?!)...No REAL Oldies station in the DC market (I need to be able to hear 60s & 70s R&B alongside The Beatles, etc.)...Bob Ryan leaving WRC...WRC deciding that neither Veronica Johnson or Chuck Bell were worthy of being promoted to Senior Meteorologist after Bob Ryan left for WJLA...Radio and TV personalities who think they and their personal lives are more interesting to us than actual news or music (Hi, Angie Goff and any of the MANY radio DJs who talk over the beginning or end of songs about something inane and unimportant.)...Michael Wilbon and a whole host of other long-time Washington Post reporters & contributors leaving the paper...Somebody putting a stop to the banter between Guy Lambert & Julie Wright in the mornings on WPGC (They used to have a fun back-and-forth exchange during the news & traffic segment that would last for a minute or two. Now, it's "all business" and no fun exchange. Not everything has to be on schedule or manufactured fun. There IS value in spontaneity and ACTUAL fun.)...No radio company having the balls to flip one of their lower-rated station's formats to challenge "Cookie Cutter" Channel's Hot 99.5 as a Pop station (If it's consistently ranked #2 or #3 in the ratings, that means there's room in DC for a second CHR station...one that sounds more local - ie. no or very little voice-tracking and syndication - and doesn't sound exactly like a like-owned station in Orlando or Los Angeles) BEST, how about IT'S ACADEMIC and MAC McGARRY for celebrating their 50TH SEASON on WRC-TV. Way to go DAD. Thanks. Mark Best of 2010... Lauren DeMarco filling in for Julie Wright on the Fox Morning News... Richard Day subbing for Mike Moss this week (first time I've listened to WTOP beyond traffic and weather together on the 8's during the morning drive)... Stephen Tschida's tweet-freakout on the stranded Amtrak train... Devon Lucie coming to Channel 9... Steve Rudin doing weather on the weekends on Channel 7... Worst of 2010... Tony Perkins doing anything on the Fox morning news besides the weather (a piece of wood stuck in the ground has more personality)... Bob Ryan on Channel 7 (I would have preferred to see him go to Channel 9)... Channel 9 not signing Devon Lucie... Gwen Tolbert still not able to correctly pronounce some towns in the DC aree after being here many years (and that new Medusa-like hair style is freaky, too)... DCRTV still giving free publicity to Don Geronimo even though he's no longer in the DC market... Having to see Julie Wright on camera for traffic which detracts from the experience... Having to endure Angie Geoff's pregnancy on the tube (my New Year's resolution is to get a vasectomy)... The Ask Allison segments on the fox 5 morning news. If your relationship has deteriorated to the point you are asking Allison Seymour for advice, maybe it's time to seek professional help... Not one decent radio station in the listening area... Lindsay Czarniak reading the news earlier this week on the NBC4 morning news... Worst: WJZ's new website. Tony Pann (PUHLEEZE get him off the weekends - during the week is ENUFF!) Best: John Collins. WBAL Radio (Hoping they bring in the former Commish!)... Much Improved: ABC 2 News Merry Christmas! Best.. Gordon Peterson..Doug Hill..Johnny Holliday..Arch Campbell..Glen Harris..Bruce Allen..Tony Kornheiser..Maureen Bunyan WASH...WTOP Worst.. Larry Michael..Dave Johnson..Mike Moss..Craig Melvin..Rich Chvotkin...WMAL...WTEM Best of 2010: The exponential growth of HD channels on Comcast; NFL's RedZone Channel -- because it's that good; Tony Kornheiser and Steve Czaban signing new deals with ESPN 980; ESPN 'overflow' programming (since 980 is mainly local) on new SportsTalk 570; Diversity of sports options, opinions, and callers on 106.7 The Fan and ESPN 980; Chad Dukes epic rant after the Eagles beat down of the Redskins; Nonstop NBC Washington - WRC's new digital subchannel -- hopefully, we will see new forays into the digital channels in the future; development of Mobile TV (as if we don't watch enough TV already) -- but how must will it cost?; WHUR and WPRS for good, positive-vibed urban music; Sirius-XM - just for surviving another year; the proliferation of radio apps (RadioTime, Radio.com, iHeartRadio, and various AirKast stations apps for Radio One stations and WTEM (ESPN Radio), so I can listen to local radio at work (or whereever) on my Verizon Android Phone or Apple iPod Touch; Radio One for surviving too; the always-dependable WTOP helping us survive the Snowmageddon of 2010; a "chin up" to Jim Vance and Doreen Gentzler who are surviving with all the turmoil (recent and pending -- see Comcast/NBC merger) at NBC4 News; ABC7/WJLA's reminder of what Washington news used to look like (Bunyan, Petersen, Arch Campbell, Doug Hill and Bob Ryan); Bob Ryan for standing up for his principles -- he wasn't crazy about the Weather Channel nerds coming in on his territory and he moved on to ABC7; NBC4's Eun Yang's pleasant demeanor in the morning (especially since she must be up to go the work by the time I go to bed); the breakthrough of women anchors (Couric - CBS; Sawyer - NBC) but Brian Williams continued strenght on network TV news; John Thompson, Doc Walker, and Chuck Sapienza's breezy show in the afternoons on WTEM -- good for a laugh or interesting sports debate; also the fact that Sapieza saw fit to have WTEM cover the Caps after Ted Leonsis being so pissed at them over the years; the addition of the mostly reasonable Thom Loverro to WTEM's afternoon show as a balance for Kevin Sheehan; WTEM's good gets in securing rights to the Terps and Westwood One/NFL Football; Comcast SportsNet's continued excellence in local sports coverage broadcast and online (with the fluid changes in the Washington sports landscape - Polliin to Leonsis, McNabb to Shanahan's Skins and now not, Gilbert Arena's shenaningans moving aside for our New Hope -- John Wall); new media venture's AOL's local Patch, SportsNation DC, and CSN Baltimore and CSN Washington; MASN's added HD channels for both the Nats and Orioles (even if the baseball wasn't great); and DCRTV's great coverage of local media in 2010 and beyond; CNN's diverse anchors being recognized in Essence. Worst of 2010: WUSA 9 News -- getting there, but having a slow go at it (with the exceptions of Andrea Roane and the Morning News, Lesli Foster, and Derek McGinty at 7 PM); Waiting for HD Radio to come (as is my understanding in future hardware chipsets) without an add-on hardware to my iPod Touch and to iPad 2.0; Having every cable channel you can think of being available, but still no Boomerang on DC Area Comcast cable (at least in Prince George's County), still no reduction or freeze in my monthly cable bill -- guess cable TV is recession proof; the pending merger of Comcast SportsNet and NBC Sports, likely providing the last breath of a once proud NBC4 sports department (although Mr. Hellie, Ms. Czarniak, and Mr.Durmish are keeping up a stiff upper lip in George Michael's long shadow); HD Radio's slow adoption and development; the fact that people actually want to listen to Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin and their ignorant bombast in their various media outlets; "Reality Radio" from Cathy Hughes -- annoying lobbying disguised as an ad is still lobbying nonetheless; the "eerie" canned "doom and gloom" music NBC4 kept playing during the Blizzard/Snowmageddon Special Reports; the fact that now that I am getting into my 40's, the ever-revolving local reporter door and set changes in D.C. TV news doesn't phase me anymore; the fact that I will be able to say to my future grandchildren that there was a time when broadcast network TV was more important and prominent than cable networks; Andy Pollin whom I really don't mind on ESPN980 -- I just wish he would not be so grumpy and terse with some of the callers to the station; Kevin Sheehan, who is a great broadcaster, but mostly a Redskins/Snyder administration defender/apologist; TBD (formerly NewsChannel 8), I just don't get it -- I thought the channel was fine the way it was; Still no new outlet/home for the "Smooth Jazz 106.7" format in the area, unless I have an strong HD Radio signal; Hello, Bethesda, alas no more Larry King; Comcast Internet outage in late fall. CD in DC (actually PG -- but don't call it that anymore -- County). Happy Holidays!!! Best: Eun Yang-WRC, Bret Haber-WUSA, Sue Palka-WTTG, Jim Vance-WRC, Pat Collins-WRC, Melanie Hastings-TBD, Nikki Burdine-WHAG, Liliana Henao-Telemundo, Topper Shut-WUSA, Roxana Solano-Telemundo. They all combine a polished delivery with personality. Worst: Will Thomas-WTTG, Wendy Reiger-WRC (She complains too much and seems to hate her job), Craig Melvin-WRC (It's the delivery), Dan Helie-WRC (If he ever shows personality, it's of a dumb jock), Tim Brandt-WJLA (Because he sometimes tries to make controversy where there isn't any), Allison Seymour-WTTG, Dave Feldman-WTTG (Accuracy-several times he has given incorrect scores). Honorable mention candidates who had one thing preventing them for making the Best list: Lindsay Czarniak-WRC (Great personality but questionable objectivity since she gets paid by Daniel Snyder), Chick Hernandez-CSN (He's funny, but he mixes in his political views), Surae Chin-WUSA (I have been impressed with what I've seen, but have not seen enough of her yet for her to qualify). Worst: WJZ's new website. Tony Pann (PUHLEEZE get him off the weekends - during the week is ENUFF!) Best: John Collins. WBAL Radio (Hoping they bring in the former Commish!) Much Improved: ABC 2 News Merry Christmas! Best: Ron Smith, Bill Worthington, Jim Vance, Doreen Gentzler, Wendy Rieger, Dan Hellie,Fresh FM, Pat Collins, WTOP, Paul Wagner, Ken Merson, Bob Ryan/Doug Hill, Joan Doniger, Sue Palka. Worst: Craig Melvin (the WORST hire in DC TV history), Maureen McLane( fake, fake, fake), Grandy Group, Will Thomas (please, just shut up! No one wants your opinion. You're an anchor, not a commentator), Doug McKelway (no one cares about your politics!!), Allison Starling (please get a speech coach and learn how to read without ending each sentence with an "up beat" that sounds like you're asking a question),Tony Perkins, Angie Goff (please take allll of your maternity leave--- maybe six months or more!), Babs Harrison, Lisa Baden, Julie Wright, Larry Michael, John Matthews, John Martin, Diamond morning show (especially Aly), Chili Amar, all Clear Channel stations. Worst: KHZTV.com and it's attention whore management that use DCRTV as a free marketing tool. Buy ad space like a real organization would do. Best: All of radio blows chunks these days. Worst: WMMJ/Majic 102.3 for dumping Olivia Fox. They only partially redeemed themselves by bring back Mike Chase for some holiday relief. I haven’t seen an organization snatch failure out of the jaws of success like this station has since, well the Redskins-Tampa Game. Even more worse, WPGC for keeping that abomination of a Morning Show on life support. I hear that they are planning to re-tool and re-launch the Big Tigger Morning Show in January. I can’t believe that haven’t figured out that Tigger, though a great guy and a fantastic personality, is not Morning material. Send him back to afternoons where he still has some value while you still have 3 or four people with your frequency on their presets. The numbers are starting to wear off on all of my presets except the one assigned to 95.5. Hint: Michael Sanders (or whoever is making programming decisions there) you are killing a heritage radio station. If you are in a hole, stop digging!!!!!!!!!!! Best: John Batchelor Show -- amazing how any one can know so much abt so much. And do 13 4-hr shows every two weeks. Daily caller for revealing what lots of journalists really think and do by releasing journolist. Worst: [amazing if nobody has mentioned it] npr's firing of J Williams for not being quite pc enough. And then its Pres Viv saying HE should discuss w his psychiatrist. And their dissembling to misleadingly suggest they don't get significant taxpayer funds. And then lying more by taking the other side and decreeing that it would be a devastating tragedy and travesty if that 'tiny' bit of taxpayer funding were withheld from them. The intolerant leftist journalists [including some contributing to BW] who decree any voice [and station] that airs views they don't agree with hateful, racist, bigoted, etc. Bests: Jim Vance - all time best (with Honorable Mentions to Doreen Gentzler and Wendy Rieger), Mr. Tony, WTOP, Verizon FIOS, Veronica Johnson, Satellite Radio (so that I don't have to listen to the sorry excuses for local radio), Channel 4 Sports Team (Lindsay, Dan & Hakem), Frank Herzog (without whom a Redskin Sunday still doesn't feel right) Worsts: WMAL Hate Radio 63, Craig Melvin (minor league in every way), Washington Sports Radio "personalities" (except for Mr. Tony), the Decline and Fall of the Washington Post (this area cannot afford not to have a great newspaper), Comcast, the boring new weather guy on Channel 4 (whatever his name is), Channel 9 News, Gordon Peterson (sad to say, it's time to retire), Channel 5-Fox (guilt by association) Best Reporters: NBC4s Jane Watrel and Julie Carey. WTOP's Michelle Basch and Neal Augenstein. WAMU's Michael Lee Pope. WMAL's Bryan Nehman and Mark Weaver. Best Talk Show Hosts: WBAL's Ron Smith, WMAL's Fred Grandy. Best DC Area Commentators: WTOP's Chris Core and Cal Thomas. Best Cable Radio: XM Satellite's Classic Radio with Greg Bell. Best Orioles Announcers: Joe Angel, Fred Manfra, Jim Hunter and Jim Palmer. Best Nationals Broadcasters: Johnny Holliday, Phil Wood, Ray Knight. Best Broadcasting Assignment Editors: NBC4s Charlie Bragale, WUSA9's Bill Starks, WTTG Fox 5's Doug Buchanan. Best Sunday Night Radio Broadcast: WAMU's Ed Walker and the Big Broadcast. Best TV Weathercasters: NBC4's Tom Keirein, Fox5's Sue Palka. Worst Sports Radio: WJFK. Worst Sunday TV Talk Show: Chris Matthews. Worst Nationals Broadcaster: Rob Dibble and they finally fired him. Worst Orioles Announcers: Gary Thorne. Worst Broadcasting Loss: WMAL's Andy Parks. Most Missed Commentator: Paul Harvey. Most Missed Sportscaster: Frank Herzog. (Another of the Redskins terrible decisions.) /s/ HCovert, Alexandria Best: Junkies on 106.7FM, my new morning destination (except on the 8’s); Rush Limbaugh, at this best when his side is not in power; Oldies 95.9FM, best oldies since the old 106.9FM format; Hair Metal on 105.9 The Edge, except for all the Scorpions stuff (Winds of Cheenge, everyone!); WTOP, still the go-to for the latest info; The first half-hour of Mark Levin on WMAL; The Sports Reporters on Sportstalk980; Czaben’s morning show on 570AM; DCRTV. Worst: The Grandy Group, no more Andy, too much Grandy; Sean Hannity, who gives conservatism a bad name; Pant-load DCRTV mailbaggers dragging their personal feuds into every discussion; Key 103.1FM’s “Fresh” format change; Sportstalk 980’s terrible nighttime signal and awful Mike & Mike show; The vanishing Washington Post; The vanished Washington Times; Sara Walsh and Levan Reid leaving WUSA 9 sports; Every station I like changes formats, so beware to every station on my Best list. Chris from Bethesda Best Reporter. Pat Collins. Also Brad Bell. Worked with Brad. He's as nice a man as he looks. Pat I've associated with after hours when I worked in DC on the occasional night at Chadwicks, but who on earth is a better reporter? Pat Collins is number 1 in my book. Substance and style. Great job Pat! BEST: Scooter Magruder, WPFW. WORST: DTV audio. Erratic levels & lipsync problems. Mike Berry, www.webradioclassics.com Best: Radio in Philadelphia, New York and other cities. DC area personalities in no particular order: Johnny Holiday, Jim Vance, Leon Harris, Craig Laughlin, Andy Parks (bring him back stupid Citadel), Doug and Bob (the Ch. 7 weather guys), Charlie Slowes, WBAL (yes, Bal'mer). Worst: 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. WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM, WTEM. Ch. 5 news (misleading headlings and tabloid crap); Ch. 9 news (does 9 still do news); Citadel (oh soooo bad); most shows on WMAL. Larry Michael, Larry Michael, Larry Michael, Larry Michael, Larry Michael, Larry Michael, Larry Michael, Larry Michael, Larry Michael, Larry Michael, Larry Michael, Larry Michael, Larry Michael, Larry Michael, Larry Michael, Larry Michael, Larry Michael, Larry Michael, Larry Michael, Larry Michael, Larry Michael, Larry Michael, Larry Michael, Larry Michael, Larry Michael, Larry Michael, Larry Michael, Larry Michael, Larry Michael, Larry Michael, Larry Michael, Larry Michael, Larry Michael, Larry Michael, Larry Michael, Larry Michael, Larry Michael, Larry Michael, Larry Michael, Larry Michael. Best: WETA - Wonderful Classical Music and People that know what they're talking about! WTOP - Excellent reporting and audio quality Worst: WMAL without question. WASH - over-processed as usual. :( Since most people only nominate Anchors I'm going to nominate Reporters. Best; Paul Wagner (Fox), Pat Collins (NBC), Brad Bell (7), Mark Seagraves, (WTOP) They break news. Worst; Tracee Wilkins (WRC), Sam Ford (7), Christy King, (WTOP) Best: The Marc Steiner Show on WEAA. Worst: WAMU's pointless decision to expand to Delmarva, where three other public radio stations already exist. Best: Dave Ross of Fox5, Jimmy Norton, Dave Johnson of the Wizards, Octane on XM, Paul Fahri, Chris DeVenere of WEBR. Worst: Howard Stern, All Friday programming on WEBR from 1pm to 6pm, Bubba the Love Sponge, "WOW", "ZombieWoof", "LOL", "OTT", "Jeff from MM", the DCRTV mailbag BEST: Fox 5 anchor Will Thomas because he looks amazing and at some point this year he started being himself and letting his personality shine more (maybe I am just watching more). ABC 7 anchor Leon Harris is my old school favorite because his delivery is very soothing. NBC 4's sports team (Dan, Lindsay, Hakeem) because they are all easy on the eyes, appear to be very connected and they don't buy into that abrasive, jock style so many sports anchors do on the air. NBC 4 anchor Wendy Rieger because she is consistent and comes off like a friend. Fox 5 weather anchor Sue Palka because she also has such a great personality and remains very good looking all these years later. WORST: Someone else wrote that there is enough negativity in the world. I agree. I will only put in my worst category the anchors and reporters who seem to be totally unprepared. It makes it very hard to watch. You know who you are. Best: 98Rock, Kirk & Mike, Kevin Farmer @ WEBR, Johnny Holliday, WPFW Worst: Bob Carpenter, Eliot, "DJ", "ZW", "GRIN", "Daddy" Best: Johnny Holiday and also Joe Beninoti and Craig Laughlin on Caps games. Best radio, Rusty Gibson's Magical History Tour. Also, The Midnight Mutants on WEBR is fun to listen to. I agree that Jim Vance should be included as a mainstay of TV newscasting. Worst: The 2 or so classic rock stations on FM. WCXR the Edge and whatever 100, why you try to bore me while I'm driving? I guess it beats dead air...but just barely. Expand your playlists for God's sake! Mike Fitzgerald DJ/Producer of Fitzgrass on WEBR BEST: WASH-FM’s Loo & Lori, Maureen McLain, Bill Worthington, Marilyn Thompson & Dave Arlington; The Carson Show/MIX 107.3; Ken Merson/FRESH-FM; Sirius/XM’s Phlash Phelps (60s), Mike Kelly (60s), Terry “Motormouth” Young (60s), “Broadway” Bill Lee (70s), JoJo Morales (90s) and Brian Carter (50s); Ed Walker/WAMU; Richard Day/WTOP and Johnny Holliday. WORST: There’s enough negative in the world without me adding more to it. Happy New Year! How could I forget Eun Yang for best at WRC? BEST: The Robb Spewak Show, on KCJJ RAW... The Mike O'Meara Show podcast Best: Mike O'Meara Podcast and Robb Spewak's Music show on KCJJ's website. Worst: Lavar on WJFK. Best: WTOP, WAMU, and WPFW. WRC (Vance, Doreen, Jackie Benson, Julie Carey, Aaron Gilchrist, Wendy Reiger, John Schriffen, Tom Sherwood, Tom Kierein, Chuck Bell (love him!), Veronica Johnson, Dan Hellie), WJLA (Gordon, Maureen, Alison Starling, Cynne Simpson, Arch Campbell, Julie Parker, Doug Hill, Bob Ryan, Adam Caskey) WUSA (Derek McGinty, Andrea McCarren, Audrey Barnes) Worst: WRC, Craig Melvin - worst news delivery in a major market...makes me want to gouge my ears out. He's better on the street reporting, but still annoying to the point that I change the channel whenever he's on. Pair Craig with Babs Harrison and WRC should just hand over their top ratings to WJLA. Speaking of BLAND Doug Kammerer doesn't even have chemistry with himself. Also Doug's remotes of lighting display excesses are ill timed with so many out of work. WJLA, I like Horace Holmes as a reporter, but not as a sports anchor. Lastly I'm glad that Doug McKelway's sense of journalistic entitlement has finally been challenged. Best: Loo and Lori in the morning on WASH-FM. Music; weather, music, alittle news, free stuff, music, helpful hints, music, and some good commentary from the pair. Did I mention the music? They keep me company when I'm up that early; and help me wear the right clothes, and know when to leave to avoid certain streets and roads. Also, Disco nights every Saturday night; the best!! Worst: Delila everynight but Saturday on WASH-FM. She just gets on my nerves doling out advice; not even really knowing these people. I have to turn her off; she thinks she knows it all. When did she get her PhD in Psychiatry? BEST: Jim Vance. An iconic newser that I feel many take for granted. How lucky we have been to have him in our town for these many years! The other obvious choice is probably the classiest Sports guy in the area. Naturally I'm speaking of my friend Johnny Holiday (GO TERPS!). DCRTV.com. Dave for years you've reported the facts to us and I for one appreciate it and yes I'm proud to call you as well my friend. And my brother from another Mother WEBR's Mike Fitzgerald "FitzGrass"). WORST: Despite being an Oriole fan, Stephen Strasburg's injury. He's way too young to have had that kind of ailment. MASN's canning of Rob Dibble. So "F"'n what. The guy spoke his mind. If h e were in Baltimore he would have been axed after 4 pitches. More analysts should be that way. Happy Christmas and New Year all, Rusty Gibson, WEBR RadioFairfax Best - Doreen Gentzler, Gordon Peterson, Cynne Simpson, Tom Sherwood, Allison Starling, Tony Perkins, Mark Seagraves, Hillary Howard, Liz Crenshaw, Dan Heille, Russ Thaler, Riggo, Doug Hill, Yunji de Nies, Candy Crowley. Worst - Will Thomas, Craig Melvin, Angie Goff, Holly Morris, Babs Harrison, Dave Johnson, TBD, ESPN 980, ABC7 Sports: Parker&Parker far than Brant and McHenry, Topper Shutt, Christianne Amanpour. Best - Doug Hill,best by far among weather folks Gordon Peterson,still the dean of TV anchors, Doreen Genzler the best among the lady anchors and Dan Hellie who runs circles around the rest of the Sports guys...and gals! Johnny Holliday who does it all.. Terps, The Nationals, and Theatre. Far and away the most talented Broadcaster in this area. Tony Kornheiser still has the most entertaning show on local Radio, once you get past the people laughing in the background. Bruce Allen from WTOP as solid as you can get from an all news station. WASH for their Holiday music. Bob Marborg for his dedicated traffic reports on TOP. Mark Viviano on 105.7 The Fan in Baltimore. Worst - Mike Wise on WJFK along with the Sports Junkies who have really slipped the past couple of years. It's almost as if they just don't care. Larry Michael who can shout his way through a Skins game with the worst of them. Boy how every Redskin fans misses Frank Herzog who made Sonny and Sam as much a part of the broadcast as he was. WMAL...unlistenable period. The best, without a doubt Johnny Holliday and everything he does in broadcasting..the epitome of a pro. A true gentleman. The worst without a doubt “the other guys show” on WEBR. I’ve never seen such a Geronimo “WANNABEE” IN MY LIFE AS John Collings. Problem is he’s more obnoxious than MikeSorce (Don Geronimo) ever thought to be. His sidekick(s) guffaw his every weak moment. Just sayin!!! Best - Kirk & Mike, Cerphe Worst - Elliot - annoying, insipid, childish, and that voice gives me nightmares. Add in Tyler (obviously trying - and failing - to prove he's not gay) and Diane (can't get through even one newscast without screwing up) Best: WBAL-TV11 News, 98 Rock mornings, WRNR-FM, WTMD, KHZ for taking a risk, & DCRTV for the insider stuff. Worst: Cable News - all of them - for not being news at all. The area classic rock stations for being so dull. WFSI-107.9 for being an absolute waste of 50,000 watts Best: WTOP, WRC finally goes HD for their news. Doug Hill, Jim Vance, Johnny Holiday. I wish this list could be longer, but there's not much that deserves to be here. Worst: WJLA's continual pre-empting of ABC programming for old movies, news "specials" and infomercials, especially on Friday nights. WJLA still doing field reports and news promos in standard definition, makes their claim of "live and in HD" half assed. TBD.com just plain sucks. The ever-shrinking Washington Post mismanaged by Katherine Weymouth. Another long Redskins season. Same old Christmas music on WASH-FM over and over and over. Musical weather-people at WUSA. The Grandy family on WMAL. The endless stream of "free newspapers" that appear on my driveway (Loudoun Times-Mirror, Examiner, The Indie) which go straight to the recycle bin and sit in my neighbor's driveways for days on end. Worst: Tony Pann on the weekends. John Collins is the far better meteorologist. I think WBAL thinks Tony is “eye candy” and put him on weekends but I miss John! Moving Kate Amara to DC Bureau - miss her here locally Best: Mary Bubala – WJZ; Donna Hamilton – WBAL TV; John Collins best meteorologist; Gerry Sandusky best TV Sports; WBAL TV Best Morning News Best: WTOP news. Best of news, weather and traffic. Love Lisa Baden, Shawn and Hillary and Doug Hill, Kane Show: Love Sara and Sami... Fox 5 Morning News: Love Steve and Gurvir, Tucker and Juile (not so much tony)... Fox 5 at 10! Doug Hill Worst: TBD.com and WJLA (except Doug Hill) Best: WTOP news. Best of news, weather and traffic. Love Lisa Baden Worst: Promoting Katherine Weymouth as Publisher of the Washington Post. She is slowly killing a fine newspaper. Happy Holidays Bests: None Worst: WTOP's iPhone APP and website. Late and lame. Worst: WRC's Redskins show on Saturday nights. Doug McKelway being fired. Bob Ryan being forced off WRC. WRC for not promoting Tom Kierien. Lynsey Czarniak as a sports personality Howard Bernstein as a meteorolgist. Anita Brinkman Happy Holidays Best: Elliott in the morning, the Kirk McEwen and Mike O'Meara show on 105.9,WFLS,for playing better selections of country music, Sirius radio music is much better then anything on commercial radio,and they know what country music is too! NASCAR & NFL on Sirius is also great. Worst: DC area (so called)sports announcers,WJFK is without a doubt the worst excuse for a sports station anyone has put together in this Area for many years! Howard Stern on Sirius is a cancer on society and should be eradicated,nothing is funny on that show,it is filth and Smut plain and simple,someone should put some controls on that idiot! And we must again mention our one and only “country” station in DC , NOT! WMZQ should take some programming lessons from Sirius……… Best wishes for a better radio programming year in 2011……… Grandad John Best: Chris Plante, Chris Plante and more Chris Plante. Also, Fred Grandy and Bryan Nehman. Worst: The departure of Andy Parks. Feliz Navidad. -Silvie- Best: WBAL’s Jennifer Franciotti and Stan Stovall, ... honorable mention to Keith Mills, who, interesting enough isn’t even mentioned on WBAL’s web page under ‘Anchors and Reporters’... WOW Factor : Candice Dold , WBFF traffic reporter. Worst: WBAL’s Deborah Weiner...so phony and looks down her nose at everybody. WJZ’s Marty Bass........always pullin’ on his jacket or sleeves, looking uncomfortable even after all these years. Loves to make a big deal at of something that may only have a remote possibility of affecting us. A Male ‘Drama Queen” if I ever saw one ! BEST: TV - Weatherman: Doug Hill, Anchor Duo: Vance & Gentzler; Sports Anchor: Tie between Dave Feldman & Tim Brant, Reporter: Tie between Jay Korff & Tom Sherwood, Local Talk Show: tie between Inside Washington & TBD's Parker & Parker... RADIO - Morning Show: Tie between Kirk & Mike and the Junks, Mid-Morning Show: Tony K (except when he's talking American Idol), Midday/Afternoon Show: Fresh Air w/ Terry Gross - (Nobody gets bigger & better guests), Evening Show: Even though it's not technically local, Les Davis on XM's "Pure Jazz" is a treasure.. You will always learn something listening to this guy, despite how much you think you know about music... Weekend Show: Goss Garage.. Nobody knows more about cars and despite the ungodly hour, he still gets interesting guests and shares useful advice. WORST: TV - Weatherman: Bob Ryan - where's that WRC magic?, Anchor Duo: Anybody paired w/ Babs Harrison, Sports Anchor: Everybody loves Lindsey C. but when she calls Jim Vance, "Vance". it's plain awkward and disrespectful.. Hey Lindsey, George Michael was a contemporary of Jim Vance's. You are NOT, Reporter: Some of the TBD kiddies are hard to watch these days, Local Talk Show: Washington Post Live - Ivan Carter: great guest/horrible host.. RADIO: Morning Show: Elliott in the Morning (the Cackle that Won't Die), Mid-Morning Show: Diane Rehm (respect the lady and all she's been through but the voice....), Midday/Afternoon Show: LaVar & Dukes (LaVar Arrington, meet Ivan Carter), Evening Show: Wizards Postgame Shows (it's like listening to a funeral recap - ad nauseum), Weekend Show: Kevin & Rock (if you like sitcoms w/ phony laugh tracks, you'll love this show) Best: Jackson Blue on Z104.3, Mark Zinno on 105.7 The Fan Worst: Bruce Cunningham on 105.7 The Fan Bests: WTOP, recognized nationwide as America’s Best Radio Station (easy to take for granted when it’s here everyday). Baltimore’s new Z104, at least the third incarnation (Frederick, DC and now B-more)—and sounding great. Worsts: WMAL-TNT-HFS-AM. (If those are the calls for 630-730-1580, nowadays). Jeez, how much rightwing-nut screaming does one town need? So, look, y’all control the House now. You’ve “got your country back.” Got any actual ideas? (No, I don’t mean the politicians. This is strictly about radio). Best:The Tony Kornheiser Show, Frank Herzog, Leslie Foster, Derek McGinty, Andrea Roane, Tony Perkins, Allison Seymour, Gurvir Dhindsa, Julie Wright, Lisa Baden, Jim Vance, Doreen Gentzler, Tucker Barnes, Dave Ross, Adam Caskey, Allison Starling, Steve Rudin, Britt McHenry, Cortney Robinson, Kristin Fisher, Topper Shutt, Howard Bernstein, Pandora.com, NPR's "Car Talk," WTOP, WAMU, WTEM, NPR Science Friday, Sonny and Sam, Hillary Howard, Bob Marbourg, Doc Walker, Sally Jenkins , The Sports Reporters -Steve Czaban, Andy Pollin Worst: Angie Goff - and her fake enthusiasm, Redskins Nation (basically a 1/2 hour ad for the Skins), Mike Wise, John Thompson, WMAL, Holly Morris - and her fake enthusiasm, Channel 4 web site, All the DC area Rock stations, Washington Times, Doug McKelway - I'm glad he got fired, Larry Michael - Bring Back Frank! Best Meteorologist on TV: WJZ'S - Bernadette Woods - She deserves a medal for being "Out Back" in freezing, windy, snowing, rainy weather, doing the weather reports, while Bob Turke ( who is not a meteorologist !) is in a nice warm studio. Shame on Bob! What's the purpose of two weather people anyhow? Worst TV Personality: In 2 words - MARTY BASS! Best: WPFW's blues, jazz & Democracy Now, Michael Baisden, WHUR, WTOP's traffic & weather on the 8's, Chad's 'Skins rant Worst: DC101, Kane and Sarah, all things WMAL, Fresh, LaVar Arrington, Red Zebra, Tony K Best - Shenandoah Communications' WRNR-AM 740 in Martinsburg, WV hiring former Prettyman Broadcasting employee Rob Mario to overhaul the morning "West Virginia in the Morning" program. Best: Z104 for finally bringing Top 40 back to Baltimore. Worst: Mix 106.5 for wanting to act like a Top 40 station AFTER Z104 came on the air. Best: Ed Walker; Bob Edwards; Diane Rehm; Max Cacas; Steve Ray; Frank Herzog; Phil Wood; Johnny Holliday; Charley Slowes and Dave Jaegler on the Washington Nationals Radio Network; the last radio voice of the Washington Senators Ron Menchine (RIP); former Washington Capitals play-by-play announcer Ron Weber receiving the Hockey Hall of Fame's Foster Hewitt Award; former Orioles play-by-play announcer Jon Miller receiving the Baseball Hall of Fame's Ford Frick Award; former Washington Times sportswriter Mark Zuckerman's "Nats Insider" blog, maybe the best source of information about the Washington Nationals; David Brooks' op-ed columns in the New York Times; Cerphe and Mike O'Meara back on the local airwaves; Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert; the BBCs "Top Gear"; NPRs "Car Talk" and "Wait, Wait...Don't Tell Me"; Greg Bell and the XM Radio Classics channel; my Livio internet radio receiver; Ralph Emery, Terri Hemmert, Cathy Hughes, Sam Phillips, "Music and the Spoken Word", and my Dad being inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame last month. Worst: the Washington Post, whether it be for the lazy editing, curious ideas of what appears on the front page or "above the fold," the lack of game reports for contests involving local teams other than the Redskins that end after 10:00-10:30 PM in the home edition I receive, it's DC and MD news dominated Metro section in that same home edition (as a Virginian, I know there are lots of news occurring in the Commonwealth), two-week intervals between a person's death and their obit, etc., whatever it be, Katherine Graham must be spinning in her grave; the lack of a station in this area that plays 40s and 50s standards or 50s and 60s Top 40; the glut of local stations that do nothing but talk politics (don't we have enough around here?); local nighttime AM radio signals west of Vienna (a major issue if you want to listen to the above referenced Slowes and Jaegler); the fixation by the local media on what Albert Haynesworth was doing on any given day; the Lebron James narcissistic ESPN infomercial on who would sign his next paycheck; the three sports-talk radio stations in this area that cannot carry a substantive conversation about anything other than the Redskins (where have you gone, Ken Beatrice???); sports talk hosts and callers who use the word "we" when speaking about the local teams...excluding those who actually played the game (Mitchell, Arrington, Walker, etc) when did you strap on the pads and lay your body on the line for the team? Lindsay Lohan, "Real Housewives of DC", "Jersey Shore" and the coverage devoted to each. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to All! Sincerely, Joe Kasell Here's another worst...Scott Wycoff doing a WBAL radio newscast. His shouting is just horrendous. We are not hard of hearing. Just tell us what is going on without the megaphone. Between him and that woman traffic reporter forces this listener to tune to WTOP, even though they are in DC. BEST:: WBAL having the Morning and afternoon news. The morning however is superior with Dave Durian and Bill Vanko but the afternoon is definitely weak with Shari Eleker. I think that WBAL ought to put John Patti in as the host of the Afternoon News Journal, maybe team him with Robert Lang. I agree with the previous post about Ron Matz being the best morning news reporter on Baltimore Television. Ron is all Baltimore, grew up in Baltimore and has lived in Baltimore all of his life. A unique situation for a news reporter to be in his hometown. This adds a different element to the news reporting that Ron does. The best talk show host by far is Ron Smith. I don’t always agree with him, but I do like what he has to say about the situation in our country. He does point out some ideas that at least I hadn’t thought about and even though I may disagree with some of his ideas, I think that they are viable. The departure of Bruce Elliott was a very good move to happen as Bruce really could get on my nerves with his support of Bob Ehrlich and friends. Good luck Bruce up in Delaware. Please stay there!! WORST: The Orioles announcers on both TV and radio for the most part are minor league announcers. What a shame that the Orioles don’t have Jon Miller who is the best announcer in all of baseball. There are some announcers that are OK e.g. Joe Angel and Gary Thorne and the color announcers on TV but anyone else is minor league as far as I’m concerned. Being a homer does not make a good announcer. I would really like to see the Orioles get new announcers but I guess as long as Peter Angelos calls the shots we are stuck with the homers who say what Peter wants them to say. Best: WLIF. Always great music, never have to worry about inappropriate material. Also, Mike Preston telling it like it is on 105.7. Worst: All media management, why are they all dysfunctional? Best: The Kirk McEwen and Mike O'Meara Morning Show on 105.9. When this show began, it seemed as if Kirk and Mike had to find their communication with each other. However, just a few days after its beginning, this show reached its stride. Both hosts play off each other as if they'd been working together for several years. Very entertaining, and guaranteed laughs in every single break. Best New Show: The Kirk and Mike Show on 105.9 The Edge, humor, info, lots of listener interaction, classic rock, a great combination. Kirk and Mike got immediate chemistry, you'd think they were separated at birth! Best Return to Radio: The Steve Czaban Show on Sporting News Radio (aka 570AM) Here's wishing WTEM would just ditch Mike and Mike and put Czabe's show on all the WTEM stations. Old Reliable: The Sports Reporters. Andy and Steve, while they bicker often, are a perfect pairing. The always loud and opinionated and very funny Czabe matched with the reliable local workhorse Andy Pollin. The rotating crew of in-studio guests are well selected. This show just stays strong year after year. The laughs I get from them overshadows my consistent criticism that they offer too little Wizards, Caps, and Nats coverage, and too much golf and gambling talk. (But that's Czabe for you, plenty to love and loath but always good radio). Old and Moldy: The Sports Junkies. Same stuck in terminal post-adolescent shtick with stupid pet expressions and douchebag chic. But they get great ratings and have a loyal audience. They just remind me of guys I knew in my first job just out of college. Google "The Striped Shirt Guy" and you'll get the picture. That's the Junkies. Worst show: Kevin and Rock, embarrassingly juvenile and adds nothing to the local sports landscape. It say's something (and nothing good) that these two clowns were the one local show a douchebag like Albert Haynesworth would feel comfortable calling in to. Other Worst Show: Lavar and Chad. Chad Dukes was and is a great talent. BOAD was the best midday show on air in the old JFK days. But Chad's talents are totally wasted on sportstalk. And it shows, he just sounds unhappy on the air. Lavar Arrington started out ok, but has actually gotten worse. The guy takes forever to say basically nothing, and he add zero insight or value on any topic beyond the Washington Redskins. He was a good player, but overpaid and overrated during an era of total Redskins mediocrity. Not sure why he should be regarded as some prize sportstalk personality. BEST: WPOC. WTOP News. WBAL Radio News. Scott Wycoff's blog on the web. Stash on sports on the radio during my drive home. WORST: Local television news. Locally produced commercials that are completely lacking in any entertainment value ort creatitivity. Arbitron. Neilson. The FCC. Oh yeah, the Baltimore Sun and its media critic. The Washington Post for its increasingly high occurrence of errors. Any newspaper that fails the admit when DCRTV breaks news. Best: WPFW's consistently high quality programming, including "Don't Forget the Blues" every weekday at noon. Just about anything WAMU carries, including "Wait, Wait . . .", puzzle-master Wil Shortz's Sunday morning contributions, and Ed Walker's "Big Broadcast" on Sunday evenings. Worst: "A Prairie Home Companion." Traditions with Mary Cliff, whose voice has been inaudible for several decades. The Washington Post, for giving all of its copy editors and most of its more decent writers buyouts several years ago. Best: The Tony Kornheiser Show is still the best combination of sports, entertainment, and news on air. Glad to hear Michael Savage and Jerry Doyle on AM 730. Scott Linn on WTEM remains the consummate professional who handles all duties with great dexterity on air. Mickey and Amelia on 98 Rock are also a humorous alternative in the morning. Worst: The Mike Wise Show is flat. Liz Drabek's sports updates on 1067 The Fan drown out her sexy voice with the background music during her reports. Sean Hannity is a nasal loudmouth who is as sanctimonious as the pompous liberals that he villifies everyday. Michael Best- not exactly sure Worst: WUSA- getting rid of Tony Pann. Also WRC-‘s new chief meteorologist. Best - Here's my shoutout to local station WSMD's Friday morning broadcasts this summer from the Southern Maryland region's volunteer fire departments. It was good-intentioned Main Street USA-type radio and it's nice to know that isn't dead yet. Plus, there was free breakfast for anyone who showed up. And I will loudly, enthusiastically second fellow Southern Marylander Dean's nomination for X.M. Sirius' Outlaw Country! Worst - WTOP's painful transition to a new time-check format. Hearing "it's 9:33, right now," or "it's now 10:17" really grates on the ears. A time-check should ALWAYS be "NOW." Equally painful were those inane defense contractor ads ("that's not the real facts"). My wish for 2011....to hear O's play-by-play man Joe Angel say "This one's in the WINNNN Column" at least 81 times. Marty Madden, Prince Frederick Baltimore TV and radio: Best TV News is WBAL-TV although slipping. Newly hired reporters don't come up to the usual standards for this station. Best TV weather anchor Tom Tasselmyer. Best TV traffic reporter is WBAL-TV's Sarah Caldwell. Best morning TV news reporter is Ron Matz, although he is often doing feature stories its clear he enjoys what he is doing and ties in nicely with Don Scott and Marty Bass. New morning reporter on CH 13 Andrea Fuji is weak. Best TV Sports anchor is Gerry Sandusky, although some don't care for his play-by-play of the Ravens. Best weekend TV anchor Deborah Weiner. Best radio traffic reporter is Dave Sandler. Best radio news department...WBAL although they could improve. They have started using reporters from CH 11 which is not a bad thing. Afternoon news program host Shari Elliker is weak.. Best up and comer Meghan Gilliland of Fox45. Worst TV news operation is WMAR-TV. Despite moving Jamie Costello to evenings he is being pulled down by Kelly Swoop whose bobbing head and other movements are really annoying as well as her delivery style. Now their morning show is suffering with their new male anchor. Serious work needed here. Worst TV weather anchor Tony ("no big deal") Pann tied with Vytas Reid. Worst TV traffic, when Sarah Caldwell is off, is Kim Dacey. Its clear she doesn't know Baltimore. I switch to Candace Dold (45) who always says "that beltway" but is pleasant to look at. Her fill-in, Lauren Cook, has improved steadily and concentrates on incidents slowing traffic rather than those estimated speed sensors. (Why are there no Baltimore City traffic cameras on TV? Worst morning TV news program is Fox45. Switching to a single anchor, Patrice Harris, was a bad move, not that Harris is all that bad she is just on camera too much. Worst morning news reporter is Joel D. Smith on CH 45. He's new to Baltimore and whats with the middle initial dude. You are not Irving R. Levine. There is no "worst" radio news operation since there are none in Baltimore. Worst on air slogans "all local all morning" tied with "2 degree guarantee" cute but who cares. Best: TIE: WTOP's "snowpocolypse" coverage – reminded us what local radio can and should be (while raising the question of why no other broadcaster in this area feels compelled to provide such service). AND The wonderful Washington Nationals radio team – enough to make you forget about the nearly 300 losses in the years. One of the only things on Washington radio I'm proud to have out-of-town visitors hear. Runners up: The addition of a second sports station at AM 570. The addition of WFAN and other out-of-market stations on WJFK's HD signals. The unique and occasionally good music that can be heard in the outer 'burbs via WRNR, WTMD and WHVR. The Logitech Squeezebox and the Android TuneIn radio app, which make it possible to listen around the house and in the car to enjoyable and imaginative terrestrial and Internet-based radio. Making the lousy state of DC radio seem at once more tolerable...and more inexcusable. And, last but not least, the DCRTV home page. (I'm intentionally excluding the mailbag from this praise.) Worst: Most of the rest of the year on WTOP. In particular, the disturbing ratio of small talk/happy talk to actual news. I can't stand to listen to more than five minutes of the morning show, the afternoon drive program is heading that way. Commentaries by Mike Causey, Chris Core and others waste time while providing little news or insight. The David Burd "talkback line" segments would be a disgrace in a small market, let alone on the #1 in the most powerful city in the most powerful country in the world. The aforementioned web radios make it clear how much better stations like WINS, KYW and KNX present the news. AND The AM 730 tease. For one glorious week, we had oldies on AM, as God and Marconi intended. Now it's back to more conservative talk, as Reagan intended when he eliminated the fairness doctrine and began cutting ownership rules. Runners up: The lousy lineup on WJFK. The ongoing disintegration of the once-proud Washington Post. (Two-fer: Both should have fired Mike Wise after he admitted to fabricating a news item on Twitter.) The waste of signal that is 94.7. (Hint: Flip your main and HD2 signals.) The waste of spectrum that are 105.9, 105.1 and AM630. BEST: Radio station WTTR 1470 AM Westminster and Bob Mathers, Jack Edwards, Johnny Dark, Bruce Main, Betsy Santos, John C Purvis, Joe Evelius and the gang. Keep the "greatest hits of all time" coming love. BEST: The all new Majic 102.3. It's an all around amazing station, exactly how you should update a format! Also, Eliott in the Morning and as always, Jim Vance and Doreeen Gentzler as my favorite news team anywhere, ever. Worst: Bob Ryan at WJLA, he just doesn't "fit." Same for Doug Kammerer over at WRC. Shame on management for not promoting Veronica or Tom. Merry Christmas and Happy 2011 Dave. Best: Sirius XM's Outlaw Country, WKSE, WRNR, WTMD, WNRN, 105.9 The Edge, Big 100.3, 98ROCK, Elliott in the Morning on DC101 along with Bailey and Roche, Baynet Radio, 95.9 The Ranch, 95.3 The Range, Radio New Braunfels KNBT 92.1 FM, Rockin' 101 in Minnesota and 94.1 JJO in Madison, Wisconsin. Worst: SOMAR Communications Easy 97.7 Format and no Adult Alternative station in DC. Dean in Southern MD Best: Elliot In The Morning, 98rock, WTOP, Chris Core, Bob Ryan & Doug Hill together on WJLA, FOX5 News Worst: The death of George Michael(I submitted my list last year before he passed away), Doug McKelway being fired from WJLA, the lack of an active rocker in the DC market, Kane, Donnie Simpson's departure from the DC airwaves. BEST - On point with Tom Ashbrook. Topics are timely and considered in depth. Ashbrook always manages to extract the essence of a caller’s question, too... Fred Grandy on WMAL and Bill Bennett on 1260 AM. Whether you love them or hate them, they always seem to have prepared and are very familiar with the topics they discuss.... American songbook on WPFW. Donnie McKethan knows his stuff and his style of presentation creates a really relaxed and enjoyable Sunday afternoon... Alison, Pamela, Melanie, Laura, Sue, and all the women who make watching TV enjoyable, even if the news they report isn't. WORST - The wimpy and scratchy voice of Matt McCleskey... Rob Bamberger, who slurps his breath and spit into his mouth at the end of every sentence... Continued commercialization of NPR... Just about anybody who calls CSPAN. Most callers simply prove the inferiority of American education. They rarely actually answer the question asked of listeners, and when they do, the answer is so ill-informed that it’s meaningless... Excessive use of “Breaking News,” when what’s being reported is anything but. Worst: WBIG-FM's decision to scrap a top-10 Classic Hits format to compete with WVRX for that coveted 20th place in the ratings. Best: All the rumors and suggestions from Dave that some radio station owner will come to his or her senses and bring in an oldies-based classic hits station on the model of WCBS-FM or WOGL-FM, top 3 stations in New York and Philadelphia respectively. DCRTV Dave: Best: HFS 94.7 HD2, Mike O'Meara, Buzz Burbank, Robb Spewak, 98 Rock, WTMD, WRNR-FM, Bryan Nehman, Tony Kornheiser, Julie Wright, Lisa Baden, Jim Farley, Ron Smith, Chris Core, NPR's "Car Talk," Mike Wise, Albie Dee, Cerphe, Weasel, Tom Sherwood, WETA-FM, WAMU, WTOP, WBAL's news, Kirk McEwen, Dave Statter, Doug Hill, Stan "The Fan" Charles and PressBox... Worst: WMAL's Chris Plante who is the dumbest man on Washington radio, WMAL's Fred Grandy and his silence when his longtime radio partner Andy Parks got yanked, WMAL's Mrs. Fred and her nutty rants about how Obama is a closet Muslim and how Sharia law will be implemented across America at any moment, Citadel classic rocker 105.9 for not broadening the playlist, the sinister Paul Farhi for continuing to "appropriate" the hard work of bloggers and website authors without proper credit, the Washington Post's increasing parade of typos are errors in the print edition, the Washington Post's loss of Howard Kurtz to the Daily Beast and its stunningly ever-more-awful Style section, CBS for not putting WHFS back on a main FM signal, evil Citadel head Farid Suleman who tried to fatten his gluttionish compensation package after his company emerged from bankruptcy protection, the increasingly pompous and pretentious David Zurawik of the Sun, the increasingly pompous and pretentious Tom Shales of the Post, the evil powers that be at Discovery for dumbing down and ruining the Science Channel, Betsy Rothstein for her error-prone and boringly ass-kissing smug shit at FBDC.....