Shop amazon.com via these links, pay the low price, and support DCRTV too: Radios - TVs - Electronics - XM Gear - Top DVDs - Radio Books - HD Radio

Current Mailbag - Mailbag Archive Index - DCRTV Front Page - Support DCRTV DCRTV Mailbag - September 17 to September 19, 2007 Latest messages listed first..... \/ September 19 Messages \/ Not only is Beck's name spelled incorrectly on the new 3WT site, but as of this moment, the lineup list doesn't account for the 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. slot. Christian (9/19/07) I've noticed over the past couple of days that WQSR has changed its station identification from WQSR-Baltimore to WQSR-FM Baltimore, WQSR-FM HD1 Baltimore. Is this now required of all stations simulcasting their analog signal on one of their HD signals? WQSR is the only one I've noticed doing this consistently. Fred (9/19/07) Dave's response: I've heard some of the other CBS stations in DC - WJFK and WTGB - doing the same thing..... Here’s a theory!!! 104.3 and DC 101 will go adult alternative just like Clear Channel’s Philly station on 104.5 (which has done very well by the way.) They’ll simulcast and have one sales staff. They combined POC and MZQ why not SMJ and WWDC. (9/19/07) Dave's response: If Clear Channel will combo DC/Baltimore country outlets MZQ and POC, it would make more sense to flip Baltimore's 104.3 to contemporary hits and combo it with DC's Hot 99.5. Or flip 104.3 to AC and combo it with DC's WASH..... Not to burst anyones bubble on how great DC101 is sounding today, but it kind of appears to be a stunt because I did hear them talk about Flounders Mixed Bag program with the song in the promo being the Plain White T's Delilia. You can't get anymore Alt Rock than that. Also though I don't know if it's changed since, this morning 105.7 was ID'ing itself as FM Talk 1057 WHFS-HD1. DC101's format today has sounded great and different. Hopefully it's not just a one day or week stunt but I guess we'll find out tomorrow. As for 104.3 going "Fresh" Yay, just what Baltimore needed a another Hot AC station! How many Hot AC stations does that make in Baltimore? 101.9, 102.7, 106.5 all sound somewhat Hot AC'ish in their music choices and now 104.3. How long will it take before someone brings a full time Classic Hits WCBS like format to the Baltimore or Washington market? (9/19/07) What's going on with DC 101's music? Frankly, I don't give a crap since I am way out of the demo. But, both my children (who are 20-somethings) called me today to ask, as if I would know. I dunno, but they hate it! (9/19/07) DCRTV Dave sez: "Dave's response: It's Clear Channel - expect disappointment....." Yeah I know. Wishful thinking on my part. I think one mailbagger had it right - its the day before the fall book and this is some sort of a stunt. *sigh*. I'll enjoy it while it lasts though. Dave in Fredericksburg (9/19/07) Dave's response: Hey, with DC101 you never know. Tomorrow might be A Flock Of Seagulls, Kajagoogoo, and the Thompson Twins..... Dear Marc Fisher: I have now been given permission, albeit with a very large mixture of humility by the subject, to let you know that Lee Michael Demsey, a former winner of the International Bluegrass Music Association's "broadcaster of the year" award, will again become a full-time employee of WAMU, 88.5 FM, I believe beginning no later than the second week of October. This development deserves, in my own humble opinion, special notice from the radio-oriented, music-oriented press, in addition to what appeared in The Listener column on Sunday, Sept. 16th. All of the recipients of this email of course remember the tremendous protest that began in 1991 when Lee's show was cancelled. An event in Silver Spring shortly thereafter to cap "Lee Michael Demsey Tribute Week" filled every seat and resulted in much standing room, as did a later public meeting at American University with WAMU's advisory council. Thereafter, long after 1991, a large contingent of listeners continued to protest; for example, by continuing the discussion on WAMU-sponsored message boards, by withdrawing their former financial support from the station, and by cheering Lee's appearances as a master of ceremonies at live performances with cries of "Bring Him Back!" I constantly ran into people whom I wouldn't have believed had any interest in WAMU's music programming, or in Lee's show in particular. When the subject of WAMU came up in conversations here in the Washington/Baltimore area, such people invariably volunteered how much they deplored the cancellation of The Lee Michael Demsey Show by WAMU's then-management. In addition, as I wrote to Marc Fisher last year, this was not a mere radio story when it happened. Now that WAMU has to some extent reversed the old decision of its former management, you should not treat it as a mere radio story. Although treated as such at the time, especially by the Washington Post, the cancellation of Lee's old show by WAMU's former management and the disappearance of other such shows from the airwaves deserves treatment from a much broader perspective because acoustic music has long been a hallmark of musical entertainment in the Washington/Baltimore area and reduction in its availability on the FM band, beginning in the early '90s, resulted in a major diminution of an entire local subculture devoted to this kind of music. That subculture continued to exist as a mere shadow of its former self because of decisions by station managers, program directors, and other executives at both public and commercial radio stations, and especially by decisions by WAMU's then-management in 1991 and thereafter, to eliminate or sharply reduce its broadcasting of acoustic music. Indeed, it appeared at the time that public radio in particular was almost completely disregarding public radio's mission of service to otherwise under-served audiences in its service area. Notwithstanding such developments, Lee continued as a full-time employee at WAMU for a while, but even after he obtained an attractive full-time job with Smithsonian Folkways, he refused to criticize WAMU. Indeed, he continued as a part-time dj at the station even as his supporters continued their protests, serving his listeners as a substitute host when the regular music hosts took days off; hosting once a month as the all-night dj of The Bluegrass Overnight; restarting a weekly 3-hour all-bluegrass version of The Lee Michael Demsey Show on WAMU's Internet Radio service, www.bluegrasscountry.org; and compiling a monthly list of the most popular bluegrass records for the publication Bluegrass Unlimited. As a result of the revolutionary development and large-scale promotion of HD Radio by a coalition of manufacturers, dealers, and broadcasters, organized as iBiquity Digital Corporation of Columbia, Maryland, WAMU developed two additional HD channels and, for the past several months or more, had been broadcasting its www.bluegrasscountry.org service on 88.5-HD channel 3. As you know, WAMU's current management not only has moved that service to full stereo on 88.5-HD channel 2, but also has begun a major change in the nature of the service by providing the resources that are making possible live programming by djs, such as Lee Michael Demsey among others. This includes several hours each Saturday devoted to bluegrass's "roots and branches," essentially a block of time that will focus on traditional and contemporary folk and acoustic music and will offer listeners four more hours of Mary Cliff's Traditions program, originally a five-hour show on WETA, but more recently a two hour show on 88.5-Channel 1 after WETA went all-classical in conjunction with the disappearance of all-classical WGMS from local airwaves. Please put something else in the paper that tells your readers specifically about Lee Michael Demsey. There are a larger number of people in the area who've been especially interested in him and his show. Although you did mention him in last Sunday's column, a story that focuses on this new development in his work life would be especially welcomed by many of your readers. With best wishes, Alan L. Seltzer (9/19/07) At least Walter Conkrite had the dignity to go somewhat quietly in the night when it was his time to retire. Previously, Dan Rather looked like he just made some bad decisions or might have been a little biased in his judgement and let a story that was proven untrue get completely away from him. Now he's just a dottering old fool with a good lawyer. Although I wouldn't mind retiring with $70 Million, wouldn't you? Ironic though that dottering old fool Dan Rather is like the poster child of today's generation.... "It's not my fault. Get me a lawyer and some money." (9/19/07) Dave, your comment about DC101, "...features an on-air playlist featuring Warrant, Jackyl, Poison, Whitesnake, Scorpions, Dokken, and Tesla..." has me wondering? Given my personal music tastes, I'd consider these to be "golden oldies"!!! I'd love to hear Warrant's "Ode to Tipper Gore" on WCSP... Unsigned Corporate Suit (Graying but not dead!!!) (9/19/07) What's going on in Les Moonves' mind? He's probably more worried about tonight's rating for "Kid Nation" than anything Dan Rather could do to him. Everett W. (9/19/07) RE: [ " TOWSON UNIVERSITY station does not out any TOWSON UNIVERSITY STUDENTS on the air. " ].......... I guess that's good to know if you're gay. :-) (9/19/07) Dave's response: Damn, I miss the old WTMD student outings. "Here's Bronski Beat's 'Hit That Perfect Beat' dedicated to Towson University junior John Q Public, who we're outing today. Congratulations John. No more closets for you, dude"..... DC101 is back, it took awhile but you are once again DC’s rock station. I would love to see them bring back Charlie Kendall for their sweepers, that would top it all off just right. RATT, Cinderella, Billy Squier, Motley Crue and more. God I hope this is not a stunt!! I believe Greg Roche is now the Music Director, Finally someone who has a clue about what the listeners want. A little ALT rock would not hurt, but what’s going on today is excellent. I could not turn it off today, I would look for a reason to be out, just so I could hear what was next. Keep Elliot, Whitney and Roche, dump the rest…. (9/19/07) Shelly Palmer, award-winning inventor, technologist, composer and television producer will be our featured speaker at this special program seminar hosted by the National Capital Chesapeake Bay Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Mr. Palmer will provide his insight into the technological, economic and sociological forces that impact the future of television, media and entertainment. He invented “Enhanced Television” (Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, Monday Night Football), the most popular form of interactive television in the United States. And over the last two decades, has enjoyed a highly distinguished career as a composer and producer. Mr. Palmer’s presentation takes place 7- 9pm, Wednesday, September 26th at the Intelsat Building, 3007 Tilden Street, NW, Washington. Admission is free to students and NATAS members, $15 for non-NATAS members, payable at the door. For registration and information contact Dianne Bruno at 301-587-3993 or via email at Capitalemmys@aol.com. (9/19/07) re: DC 101 - It's a stunt. Tomorrow is the start of the fall book. "OMG! What have they done? Better tune in tomorrow morning to hear what Elliot has to say about it!" Yawn. (9/19/07) "Phil Dirt" or whomever you actually are, a few points of clarification. First, I didn't insult anyone's talent. Please LEARN HOW TO READ before you grab a vine (now that IS an insult, okay, slow boy). Also, I worked NIGHTS at KHI in 90-91, not overnights, pulling as Hitman used to say, "Numbers Numbers Numbers." Actually beat Wookie heads up in our key demographics in the Spring 1991 book (back then we only had one a year). When I left VOLUNTARILY (look it up if necessary, it means I left by my own choice), Jason J followed me at night with Jesse Collins, who as I remember, pulled no numbers at all. Yes, he went on to a major market job reading liner cards, so good for him. However, this was and is about Wookie, a GREAT guy and a GREAT talent who I hope gets a GREAT job. Finally, thanks to Bobb for making the very accurate point about people getting out of radio not because they can't do, but for very legit reasons related to the business end of things. Call me "The Cruiser" (no, wait, I worked with him, I wasn't him...) (9/19/07) Dan Rather's sued CBS and Viacom for $70 million! Is this gonna start a bloodbath at CBS? What is going on in Len Moonves mind this hour. I bet Mel Karmazin was glad he left!!! - Kemi Joshua (9/19/07) The DC101 hair band afternoon will most likely get better ratings than the Don & Mike show. Wow, this *is* really like 1988 all over again. Time to throw on the ripped jeans, concert t-shirt and head down to the Bayou in G-Town! The grand-father clause is still in effect, right? (9/19/07) Dave's response: Hey, D&M are often "stuck in 1988" when it comes to their jokes and the music they play..... WTMD can get all the accolades in the world, but it still doesn't change the fact that a TOWSON UNIVERSITY station does not out any TOWSON UNIVERSITY STUDENTS on the air. (9/19/07) Read your blurb on DC101 and checked it out and it does seem that it's Hair Metal all day. There is one other thing I have noticed, NO DJ's... Now, that might be just to get the songs playing but could it spell something else? Firings? Mandatory meeting all day long? When WBIG Flipped, they did not have DJ's for a week or 2, did they? Could that be happening here too? Joe (9/19/07) 4:12 p.m. – On the D&M show, we have Mike doing Charlie, and talking to Tom Gavin on the phone. Sweet Mother of Mercy, this HAS to be the worst radio ever. It’s *IPOD* time! Sincerely, TMU. (9/19/07) Kudos for DC101!! Alternative rock died a horrible death quite a while ago. Power metal and Progressive metal (collectively called "ProgPower") is the new hard rock direction. The word "metal" may turn people off by the name, but "ProgPower" would have been the direction hard rock would have gone if it didn't make that horrible left turn back in 1991 when some talentless band out of Seattle by the name of Nirvana came out of the woodwork and made it big. Rock took a back seat in the US several years ago, but it is has been going on strong in Europe and South America. There are many ProgPower metal bands from Finland, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Holland (the Netherlands), Greece, Brazil (yes, they sing in English) and now the USA. In fact, there are metal festivals in the US (ProgPower USA VIII in Atlanta next month for example) and all over the world just for the Power and Progessive genres. Like alternative rock was for several years before it made it big, ProgPower has a large underground following. More and more people are discovering this is the new direction of rock/metal. I just hope that the PD & MD at DC101 starts playing some of as part of the supposed format change. The classic metal they are playing right now is cool - just start mixing it up with ProgPower and I'll be very happy. Crossing my fingers...Dave in Fredericksburg (9/19/07) Dave's response: It's Clear Channel - expect disappointment..... RE: "Maybe CBS feels like the kinda owe it to the Einstein family after senior Einstein's passing" HA-this is pretty-CBS is a corporation--they own nothing to anyone. How about owing the families of fired talent? Think about that one. (9/19/07) Congratulations, WTMD - I wish I could still hear the station. I bought an HD radio, AND became a member of WTMD only to have it yanked away by WAMU. Yet my email request to WTMD for a reaction to this went unanswered. Does the WTMD GM who's been posting here have any statement about the situation and whether they will be looking for another HD partner in DC (WETA, MPR, et al)? Anything? (9/19/07) I called the main number and the receptionist said that she was told that the music was just for today and that the program director was out of town. Rob in Ashburn (9/19/07) Were there any "atmospheric issues" the last couple of days? I couldn't get WTOP 103.5 on my clock radio in my palatial Wheaton estate but I sure could get DC101 all the way down the dial to about 105.9 on my analog dial. Tom (9/19/07) I'm sure the DC101 thing is probably a stunt, but it would be nice if it weren't. I've always wondered just why most rock stations won't touch this particular style of music, when it seems that every one-hit wonder from the '90's is given a free pass and a few spins a week. No matter what the rock press wants you to believe, there wasn't anything more "real" about grunge or alternative rock. Their whole schtick was just as manufactured adn phony as the worst so-called "hair-band." There are some stations out there that play a fair amount of '80's metal, like 94 Rock in Albuquerque, and it seems to work for them, because they've been doing it for quite a while now. Why not anywhere else? I like to think I'm fairly discriminating in my metal tastes, having been a fan for two-thirds of my life, and I do realize that not all of it has held up well over the years. But the media, radio consultants and self-proclaimed critics have used metal as a punching bag far more than is warranted (sorry!). The hell of it is, a lot of people liked that music, and still like it, and simply aren't being served by regular radio, and haven't been for well over a decade. My fantasy format would be a station with a heavy dose of classic hard rock from the '70's, '80's and early '90's, leaning more toward the harder side, which seems to hold up better. And then add in a healthy slice of current bands who keep the spirit of metal alive, and I do NOT mean Nickelback. Nobody's ever been able to explain why this "won't work," and to my knowledge, it's never been tried. Let the alt-rock stations have their alt-rock, but what about a METAL station? And I don't just mean glam-metal. How many times have you heard a station brag about playing "extreme rock," and their idea of "extreme" is something like Disturbed screaming about their mommies or something? Those "extreme rock" stations won't go near something truly extreme, like Slayer, Children of Bodom, etc. Even Pantera only gets played now because Dimebag Darrell was murdered in public. Fizz (9/19/07) DC 101 better not change to a harder rock sound. Washington is not a good rock market to begin with and the harder the rock the lower the ratings. The reason DC 101 experienced significant ratings gains in 2000 is because they softened the music. Hard Rock plays well in Baltimore, not DC. They better be careful. (9/19/07) DAVE , long live the 80's on DC 101... HAIRBALL ROCK F*CK YEA is all I can say. It's probably some kinda stunt but what the hell at least I can get some shit done around the house before I head out to the ole tool shed and fire one up!!!!!!!!!!!! ROCK ON'.......... MARK IN B-TOWN (9/19/07) How 'bout this for 3WT: Put Victoria Jones and "Davey/Davy Jones" in the same studio, lock the door and leave the mics on! --RB (9/19/07) Big Dave – on your page you have doctored photos (or are they?) of people wearing DCRTV t-shirts. Perhaps you could get into the merchandising biz, because I’d like to buy one. Extra-large. How can I do this? Thanks. (9/19/07) Dave's response: Stay tuned..... The "Protecting Children From Indecent Programming Act?" Can anyone show me ANYWHERE in the United States Consititution where it is listed that the Federal Government has any legal authority to enact a law to "protect children"? This is just another way of restricting our First Amendment rights. I WILL TAKE CARE OF "PROTECTING" MY CHILDREN!!!!!!!!! Stay out of our lives Congress! (At the least, limit yourselves within the boundaries of what the Constitution DOES allow you to do) - Greg in Reisterstown (9/19/07) KeninBrooklyn, Dave, et al... It's time to MOVE ON! The old WHFS could barely eak out a one share at the end. And, I never recall the station pulling much more than a two! They were a great station when Thom did mornings and Cerphe did evenings. About 1975 or 76, WHFS began a downward slide that never really came back. True, they had a little growth spurt again in 1993-94. But, by and large, HFS was a cliquish little station with small, vocal little clique of listeners. I'd LOVE to hear a GOOD AAA format on 94.7 (or anywhere in DC) but what they're doing now just SUCKS! Especially that disastrous morning show. The Mean Gurl (9/19/07) I love the music that DC101 is playing!!! I'm actually listening to a music station instead of WJFK. Pia (9/19/07) Both Washington AND Baltimore are Top 20 major markets if it take out Puerto Rico and on a lot of different levels outside of Arbitron's screwy methods! For instance, comparing a place the size of a country like Puerto Rico to a city is beyond ridiculous. Both Washington and Baltimore are the most geographically constrained markets in the the top 25 and have as much as HALF the number of broadcast signals for that reason. If Washington had the same number of broadcast signals and/or land area as the Philadelphia, Houston, &/or Dallas markets, it would be at LEAST ahead of Philly, if not all three. And Baltimore would certainly be in the Top 20. So the idea that Baltimore is "small market" anymore is a bit silly. (9/19/07) Dave, After all these years in the radio business, my memory...and my hearing (blasted earphones!)...are fading fast, so I'll write this as fast as I can, before I forget! Just to set the record straight. Re: Jake Einstein owning WFQX [...Dave's response: I remember Einstein buying WFQX and my memory was confirmed in a 1989 Washington Post article...]: Well, it wouldn't be the first time the WaPo has gotten it WRONG! Since when do you believe everything you read in the WaPo (or any newspaper, for that matter)! Besides, the article says Einstein was "in the process of buying WFQX-FM..." With all due respect to Mr. Einstein, I don't believe he went through with the purchase or ever became owner and/or licensee of WFQX. In October 1985, my company (SRO/NOVA) purchased WFFV 99.3 from a builder name Jim Wilson who lived in Middleburg. I was President/General Manager/Sales Manager/Program Director/Production Director/CCABW (what fun!) during our first two years of ownership. We owned WFQX until 1993, when we sold it to Benchmark, which sold it to Capstar (Clear Channel), its current licensee/owner. As far as Mr. Einstein owning "The FOX" during the late 70s and early 80s...99.3 FM was still WFFV in the late 70's-early 80's. It didn't become "The FOX" until 1985, when we bought the station and I chose the new call letters. WFFV officially became WFQX on October 31, 1985, when the FCC granted the new calls to us. You are correct about 99.3 being a "tough catch" in the Northern Virginia suburbs of DC. We knew our limitations. Licensed to Front Royal, with studios, transmitter and tower west of Strasburg (on I-81 just south of I-66), we "super-served" the upper Shenandoah Valley with all local live programming, resisting the temptation to plug in satellite programming or automate. We tried to give the station a "major market" sound, even though our "stick" was out in the "sticks." We carried ABC Contemporary News at :55 24/7, followed by sponsored local newscasts. We were part of the community, mentioning names and birthdays, businesses and civic organizations. We did lots and lots of local PSAs, too. We took requests, which we actually played! WFQX developed a very loyal audience playing what amounted to WABC-style Top 40, with about a 60/40 mix of "Recurrents" and new hits. We did our own Top Nine at Nine" local countdown Monday-Friday evening, carried the "American Top 40" countdown with Casey Kasem every weekend, and aired some New Age and Traditional Jazz programming on Sunday mornings. We did our own local Christmas programming, recording local choruses and choirs for playback on our local "Countdown to Christmas" in December, supplemented by traditional and popular Christmas CDs . We also simulcast (along with WABC) the WMAL "Christmas Eve at the Kennedy Center" live broadcast hosted by the ever-popular Tom Gauger. We also carried the Redskins and local high school sports play-by-play. We did lots of local remotes and promotions, and sold lots of commercial packages to lots of local merchants (Thank God for co-op!) and even got some agency business. We even got some pretty good ratings after a year in "The Valley!" In short, WE HAD FUN! Cheers, Bill Stabler, Rockville, MD (9/19/07) On DirecTV, MASN is always 626, MASN 2 671 in fuzzy 4:3 SD. The MASN telecasts may also be up in the 7xx channels as a part of MLB Extra Innings if that feed is chosen for a game the Nats are involved in. (9/19/07) Dave, I had to borrow my girlfriend's SUV to do some moving today, and I tuned in to WHFS since there was no XM. I noticed on the Ed Norris show that they are now IDing the station as "FM Talk 1057" with no mention of the HFS calls. Could we be seeing HFS move it's calls again to a DC or other station, possibly WTGB? Maybe CBS feels like the kinda owe it to the Einstein family after senior Einstein's passing. I haven't listened to the FM Talk only WHFS more than 2 times since dropping the music at night. I just can't stand the stale-ness of the station. No heart, period. It seems like it's totally driven by it's sales force, and that's why it's in the shape it's in. Here's to the new Hair 101.1. KeninBrooklyn (9/19/07) Dave's response: Oh please, I hope that's going to happen. The WHFS calls need to be back in DC, and 94.7 would be a great place for 'em. A great way to honor the legacy of Jake Einstein and his sons..... I made the switch (after 22 yrs) from Comcast to Directv a few weeks ago. Wondering if others looking in on the mail bag have had this experience with Direct regarding MASN 2 coverage. I found early on that I had look for MASN 2 among the stations designated for the MLB coverage, but set aside for MASN 2. Apparently the channel can very from night to night, so I was reviewing the menu carefully on Monday night to catch up with the Yankees-O's (during half time of the Redskins- Eagles game). A channel carrying MASN 2 did not show up on the menu. I made a call to Direct's customer service where I had to explain about MASN 2 to someone in Dallas and the fact that I live within the Oriole coverage region. Finally the rep sent a signal and MASN 2 appeared on the menu. The same thing happened again on Tuesday night, but around 8:45 a channel carrying MASN 2 suddenly appeared on the menu and I was able to catch the remaining innings. Otherwise I'm very satisfied that I made the switch, getting back the NFL network, along with adding channels the Comcast would never add- Fox Movie Channel, ESPN classic . David in Hyattsville (9/19/07) Dave's response: Comcast does offer Fox Movie Channel and ESPN Classic on some of its DC area systems, but not mine..... (Baltimnore sports talker WNST (1570 AM) is organizing another "Free The Birds" rally) Because the first one had a huge impact on the team. Tap, tap, tap, is this thing on??? (9/19/07) Who is PLB and why are they directing their "hate" towards me? Gosh, I was just trying to assuage Mr. Cohen's concerns about the face-shaped excrement on his dog's leg! The PLB doth protest too much, methinks! Maybe the new DC-101 metal is getting to him/her. Signed, Dr. Soundoff, DVM, ANG, Tran, Tranh, Granny, Gremp and a former Number One Hit on the Big 60, Gene Chandler's "Douche of Earl!" lol (9/19/07) To Dr. Sound-off/DVM...Your hatred far surpasses your sense of humor. Get a life you're acting like a four year old in a sandbox. That simple means get past it..life's too short. Mike Cohen and I have no axe to grind. PLB (9/19/07) Hi Dave, I am a media intern doing research on all the Broadcasters- Radio and TV- in the Washington DC area. Is there one simple directory list I can use with all the broadcasters, their contact info and *physical addresses*, on the same list? Thanks if you can help me, anita williams (9/19/07) Dave's response: Check out DCRTV's Station Addresses page. It hasn't been updated in a while, though..... Technically speaking, The Post isn't wrong about John Cleese's name. He was born John Cheese (en.wikipedia.org). (9/19/07) WTMD voted Best Radio Station by Baltimore City Paper Readers!! Third year in a row! (9/19/07) Since Elliot went off after 10am this morning, DC101 has been playing music more suited to the old Arrow 94.7 or XM’s Boneyard. They have played Def Leppard, White Lion and Ratt. What’s up? Thanks! Suzanne (9/19/07) Dave's response: I did notice that. A stunt, a new midday feature, or a format change? What's up? Hey Mike (Cohen) that mole your referring to is probably one of the secretarys at the old WPGC. How are you, you old buzzard? PLB:0) (9/19/07) Note to CA in BC : Milbank was joking at the beginning of his segment with David Burd. It was gallows humor in answer to a question about Craig's return to DC and not any actual attack on the listeners. I thought it was funny and didn't mean to imply any actual bitterness on Milbank's part. I'm sure the non-future of Washington Post Radio matters not one whit to the newsroom guys at WaPo. Howie (9/19/07) Mike Cohen- That mole on your dog's leg was only a little piece of turd. Hence, the likeness to a certain multi-multi-multi-multi-named EX-radio personality. Signed, Dr. Soundoff, DVM (9/19/07) "Proofreaduzers? We don't ned no stinnkin' proffreadz" - The Washington Post. Yet another embarassing set of mistakes by the good folks over at the Post. It is amazing what gets by them, signed John Cheese (9/19/07) Is "Phil Dirt" the same person as "Donnie Driver" from WQMR/Federalsburg? Just curious.... Former "Power 107" personality (9/19/07) In regard to WAMU and Eddie Stubbs: I think that his departure was not simply a case of them "cutting him loose; Stubbs has lots of obligations in Nashville. Besides doing a show week nights for WSM, he's one of the Grand Ole Opry announcers. I think he's also involved with the Country Music Hall Of Fame..my point here is: I think that Eddie just had a lot on his plate! Actually I'm surprised that his show on WAMU didn't end sooner than it did! In my opinion, he did well to keep that show going for as long as he did! As I understand it, sometimes, after doing his "5-hour" shift on WSM, he would go to another studio and do his show for WAMU (I don't know exactly how long it would take him to do that show)..but because it was often the only time he could get the studio, he'd record the show in the middle of the night! So as you can see, the man had a lot going on; still..was kind of sad to see that show he did for WAMU leave; it was one of the few places where one could go to here _real_ country music in this area! Tom in Denton, MD (9/19/07) I just want to say that I have found a large mole, on the inner thigh of my Black Lab dog, that looks exactly like Paul Bicknell, before the brain surgery! Davey Jones indeed! Mike Cohen (9/19/07) Comparing Denver and Washington for baseball and football misses 2 critical points. Most of the baseball and football seasons are separate, only really overlapping for 4 possible dates in September, so I think that is a non-issue. I also don?t think you are giving Denver Sports fans enough credit for the way they support their teams. They pretty much sold out Mile High Stadium for the 2 seasons before Coors Field was open, and I?m talking every game. The Rockies drew close to $4.5 million (a major league record) at Mile High in 1993, and were on pace to shatter that record in 1994 before the strike shortened the season. RFK is smaller than Mile High, and the Nats drew 2.6 million in 2005 and 2.1 in 2006. The Avalanche and Nuggets (just like the Wizards, when they are good, the fans come) have some of the best attendance numbers in their respective leagues. I think you have to see how the Nats do in their new stadium (ala Orioles?Camden Yards) before we compare attendance between the Nats and the Rockies. (9/19/07) Re: "What does it say about Washington that Larry Craig is going to outlast Washington Post Radio?" Maybe if they could have entertained the notion that they just may not have been God's Gift To Radio, they might have been motivated to do better. But it looks like they'll go out still blaming the audience for their failure. The proper way to phrase the question would have been, "What does it say about Washington Post Radio that Larry Craig will outlast it?" (Hey, do you think that this we're-too-full-of-ourselves attitude might have something to do with the slumping circulation of the paper itself?) ~~CA in BC (9/19/07) Knock-knock ... who's there? ... OJSIMPSON-NOWGIMMEMYSHITMAN! (9/19/07) First of all to the “former producer of Hitman”. You sir, are full of bull doogey. I for one take umbrage with your analysis of “some people get out because they can’t do it”. Some people get out because there’s NOTHING to do anymore..the industry has been milked down to a job anyone can do if they can read. Oh, and then there’s those that don’t know how to do anything else, so they stay in the biz…make nickel dime salarys and bitch because radio is boring. Just listen to the majority of radio stations in ANY market, the jocks are non creative flip card reading followers. For the most part the leaders have left the industry because they couldn’t fight the bottom liners. (9/19/07) QUOTE OF THE DAY: "What does it say about Washington that Larry Craig is going to outlast Washington Post Radio?"- Dana Milbank at about 7:05 AM on WTWP. Howie (9/19/07) I stand by my opinion on both Bruce Elliot and Ron Smith. Just because someone is older (Smith) doesn't make him less worthy. Where Elliot's concerned, the guy who used to be on the radio came prepared to listen to both sides and, while he most definitely was conservative, debate issues without name calling. In recent years I've heard him claim loudly that the "lefties" are out to get him fired, that the Catholic Church is run by a "gay mafia", and rant and name call at anyone not in agreement with him. I'll freely admit that due to these examples and others I'm no regular listener anymore, so there may be moments where the old thoughtful Bruce still comes out. Howie (9/19/07) Yo “Slash” if the “Jason J.” that you’re speaking of is JJ Hitman McKay the Program Director and Host of the “Hitman” & Company in the morning on 100KHI – You are correct Wookie is a fine gentleman and talented too! However to call someone less talented or whatever you mentioned, Sorry you didn’t pass the grade and make it through “Hitman” boot camp, 100KHI was a small market P-3 reporting station to R&R, which JJ was instrumental in getting kicked-up to a P-2 because in the spring/summer it is the 2nd largest market In Maryland with #1 Baltimore. The jocks JJ paid in sunshine and chump change, however with his connections with over 25 years in the business at the time helped hard working, talented jocks move on the Large and Major markets and nobody can deny that: i.e. Plash Phelps (xm) radio, Jessie “Crash” Collins the Beat in L.A., George McFly WPGC Washington, The B in Chicago, Slick Chris Kelley, Lane Jernigan, Bob Steele, Brian K. Hall (Delmarva Radio Inc.) Captain Jim Whitemore various radio stations plus P.A. announcer for the Delmarva Shorebirds and Ocean Downs Raceway, Brett Michaels Y100 Philadelphia, Jay Silvers in Pittsburgh (still) and the list goes on and on…And even gave a certain DJ his chance to get back into radio after doing some time in prison ( I won’t mention his name) I know you most likely feel hurt “Slash” being replaced as an over night no talented dj and couldn’t handle the pressure and in your stead had to make way for JJ’s 13 year old son “Fast Eddei, who by the way was more talented. You can relax now it’s over and your out of radio, Those that can do - those that can’t got to get the hell of of the way. former morning show host of the legendary “Hitman” & Company morning show on 100KHI Phil Dirt. (9/19/07) (Is there any way that I can get a list of the e-mail addresses of the stations to contact them?) Dear Irvin: You can get e-mail addresses off the stations' web sites, but don't bother. Over the past seven years, I have found that station don't answer their e-mails. I may be wrong, and others will prove me wrong, but it's best to snail-mail a station. Any letter a station gets must be answered, and the originals placed in their public file. I had to do that at two stations I worked at - WAZT in Woodstock, Virginia; and WWPX in Martinsburg, WV. Al McGilvray (9/19/07) If WWWT does go all sports, let's try something new; cover sports and have games on all the time. With the Nationals, Capitols, Navy, and GW sports, that's a very good start. We don't need another group of testosterone-filled, empty-headed, opinion-shouting, deliberately attention-deficit filled jackasses giving dodgy opinions at the top of their lungs. It's cheaper than covering games, isn't it, WTEM/ESPN? While we're at it, can we lose all the rock music in the sports updates? For those of us who have ADD, the bells and whistles don't jack up the energy, it saps ours, and we don't want to listen. About 5 percent of the public has adult ADD, and we're not stupid. We don't listen to stations that worsen our problems. It's not "older", its "saner" radio. -- GAB in the Airless Cubicle (9/19/07) The Post reported at the time of the Capitals/3WT signing that if the Nationals were re-signed to 3WT, any conflicted Capitals games would be moved to WFED. It would be a massive embarrassment for any potential Caps postseason run to be consigned to a 44 watt nighttime station. There has to be a better solution than that. Everett W. (9/19/07) With WAMU moving most of the music programming to an HD channel why did WAMU cut loose Eddie Stubbs? Shirley, the wunderkinds at WAMU knew they were going to make this move for some time. Why not run old Eddie Stubb shows on the HD channel? I understand that Mary Cliff, in addition to her "Traditions" show which remains on 88.5 Saturday nights, will be programming a new show on the HD channel for youse folk music fans. I thought that some talk about Jerry Gray coming back to WAMU, it didn't work out?....well it seems the HD radio tabletop versions ain't too hot, anybody got HD radio in their vehicle and if so how's the reception?......if the merger of Sirrius and XM does take place me too thinks Cufflinks will gut XM and maybe bring over a few programs like Bob Dylan's show, Op and Ant and hopefully Ron and Fez? Has Big Daddy Mel been axed what he plans to do with XM if the merger is allowed. I bet no more XM radio available to listen to online over AOL. I'm also concerened about a sale of Virgin Radio which I enjoy listening too online. (9/19/07) Dave- I'm sure you're right about cuts coming to XM under the leadership of Mel Karmazin. I've experienced his bloodletting, slash and dash management style twice. He closed the Unistar network when I was there, despite the exceptional performance of an incredibly talented staff. Then he destroyed the Mutual/NBC Radio news operation in Crystal City, leaving a mere shell in his wake. I can only imagine what kind of sacrifices will be made to the quality of the satellite services once Karmazin is done. But who gives a damn so long as shareholders are happy... Regards, Jil Nado (9/19/07) The reason the talented Bruce Elliott gets passed over time and time again by Jeff Beauchamp is because Bruce allows himself to be pushed around. The suits at Hearst calculate that Bruce will mope around each time he gets passed over, but that with a few more pennies here and there and a pep talk from the corner office he can be bought off to play the team player for a company that cares not a whit about him. The day Bruce has the testosterone to tell the corner office to shove it, is the day Bruce will get the respect and payday he is due. Till then he'll continue to be Beauchamp's lackey. But what the heck--they'll give him a nice cake and a swift kick out the door when he's too old to go anywhere else and make some serious money--not the chump change WBAL pays. (9/19/07) Anyone heard rumor that Phil Spector will be producing Brittney Spears next album? And Brittney will be singing a duet with Big Jim Dandy of Black Oak Arkansas on that album? (9/19/07) I checked on Digital Radio as used in the UK. The frequencies are between 217.5 and 230 MHz, which used to be used for the 405-line service before Britain went 625-line UHF analog TV. This frequency is about where channel 7 would be on the US TV band. There is space for seven digital channels, with the BBC getting the lion's share of them, which they use for their national services, such as Radio 1, 2, 3, and 4. It's a different coding system than Ibiquity's system. // Another question I have seen is "why does WTWP have such lousy signals west of DC?" Their nightime antenna pattern is oriented north-south to protect the signals of KSTP in Minneapolis-St. Paul. They do get good reception from DXers in Europe. // I would hope that not everything on WWWT will be news-talk. I hope there is room for some more eclectic programming, perhaps even a folk music or bluegrass show on the weekends, when otherwise it's investment counselors and golf. -- GAB in the Airless Cubicle (listening to Renee Fleming singing "Ain't it a Pretty Night") (9/19/07) Is there any way that I can get a list of the e-mail addresses of the stations to contact them? Thanks, Irvin Belcher II (9/19/07) Re: Larry King on 3WT…With 80+ Caps games and 162 Nationals games (assuming the Nats stay with Bonneville, which appears likely) per year, most of them at night, Larry will be pre-empted close to 2/3 of the time. What’s the point? They should just go all sports. Their station IDs during Nats games promote the fact that they are the home of the Nationals, the Capitals and Navy football. I’m curious as to what will happen in the spring, since hockey runs until April 5 (and beyond, should the Caps make it that far), and baseball starts with the Nats possibly playing in the Sunday night opener on March 30 (with exhibition games during the weeks prior). On the occasions where the Caps and Nats play at the same time, which team would take precedence? It could be a huge deal if the Caps make the playoffs. Could they air one sport on one frequency and the other on the other two frequencies? Would one of the sports (which would probably be hockey) get shoved to WFED? Brian in Fairfax (9/19/07) HEY NESTOR -- we love the fact you do this, but instead of "buying" tickets to the game, hang outside the stadium and don't give the money to angelos. He doesn't give a shit about this team or city, that's obvious, but don't give any of your hard earned money, protest outside by pickles/sliders !! (9/19/07) I do not understand the reason that someone with Bruce Elliott's charm, whit, and intellect has been relegated to just Saturday mornings on WBAL? He is creative and laughable. He makes his listeners smile.The man has an extraordinary sense of good humor and timing. He is able to present to his many listeners important and interesting guests. Bruce continues to grow in his approach to broadcasting. He is not stagnant or dull. His audience are younger as well as wiser. They are themselves a more informed audience. That alone makes for great listening. As for his appearance? He alone has the face fit for television. PrettyProudUSA24 (9/19/07) Mayor Adrian Fenty will appear at the Q&A Cafe Wednesday, December 12. The week before, on December 6, Valerie Plame Wilson is the guest. (Fenty just confirmed tonight. These two will make for a hot December at the Q&A Cafe!) (9/19/07) /\ September 19 Messages /\ \/ September 18 Messages \/ DCRTV Dave sez...[snip] Dave's response: Maybe Victoria (Jones) and Steve Ray could pretend to be married and do a weeknight "husband and wife show" when sports ain't on..... [end snip] Sorry Dave, but my real life wife Miriam isn't a big fan of "Camilla". Maybe Victoria can do Nats Talk Live this weekend instead. - SR (9/18/07) Baltimnore sports talker WNST (1570 AM) is organizing another "Free The Birds" rally, protesting the Orioles ownership by Peter Angelos. Station's owner Nestor Aparicio said that while "he knows it's as easy to be numb now with the Orioles ineptitude/lunacy as it is to be drunk with the annual purple fall fever, I think it’s about time that there’s a re-awakening as to just how screwed we’ve all been by this Angelos regime of orange terror." (source: wnst.net.) If your recall, Angelos didn't take too kindly to last year's rally, calling Aparicio "a very unimportant person who has delusions of grandeur." (source: sports.espn.go.com) (9/18/07) Free The Birds 2 (The "Free-Pete") is set for THIS Monday, Sept. 24 at Oriole Park at Camden Yards! Due the fan apathy and the seemingly never-ending malaise of the current Baltimore baseball ownership, WNST.net is announcing another FREE THE BIRDS rally at Oriole Park at Camden Yards this Monday, Sept. 24 as the Orioles face the Kansas City Royals at 7:05 p.m. Please go to www.wnst.net for more details about the event. Tickets for the game are $9. This event is designed -- for the second consecutive year -- to be a symbolic gathering place and a "one-night only" expression of frustration toward the current ownership, and once again, an expression of how much love the community still has for the Orioles and baseball. The current situation feels hopeless to most Orioles fans, but we hope with more peaceful action and civic outrage and media attention, to change the ownership position of the current regime. Plans will evolve throughout the week leading up to Monday night, but we hope you will support us and Baltimore's baseball future by coming down on Monday night to show your passion and frustration if you, indeed, are as frustrated and as angry as we are. "There will be no 'theme' for this game, no specific 'walk out' or 'walk in,' " WNST sports media owner Nestor Aparicio said in a press release. "It's just a night to go back to the ballpark -- as a united group -- see a game, root for the guys on the field and let the guys in the owners' box know how we feel about the situation and why we stay away the other 80 nights of the year. And we had fun last year protesting this ownership and expressing our feelings as a group. Many told me it was 'cathartic.' "We plan to spend as little money as possible inside the stadium, and as much as we can outside the stadium with the bars and restaurants that have been greatly damaged by the team's mismanagement. "It's our last chance this year to let them know that this is still unacceptable and an embarrassment to Baltimore." (9/18/07) Score another one for Tom Gauger. In the Washington Post of Saturday, October 23rd, 1971, the article "Gift of Radio Station To Howard Backed" states "Howard plans to change [WTOP-FM's] call letters and to operate the station commercially, with limited advertising." Full article at: DCMemories.com (9/18/07) Bruce Elliott listens? Maybe I missed that night. He's just another right-wing blowhard, and the fact that WBAL doesn't use him very much proves that they see through him, too. Compare him to the real broadcasters on that station and you'll see that he just doesn't measure up. By the way, I think that was Elliott himself that posted in his own support, the syntax seemed very familiar. It HAS to be him, I can't believe anyone else would defend a hack like that. (9/18/07) What's going on at WBAL? Howie wrote that Durian is "top notch." Agreed. He think Ron Smith is another winner. Sorry, Howie, Smith is OLD!!!! He's said everything he has to say, 3 or 4 times. He has to be about ready to hang it up. But then he wrote that "Shari's (Eliker) hire is going to prove to be a mistake..." and ripped Elliot for being an "angry Rush-type." I don't know about Shari. She comes off as a real lightweight, and If WBAL is waiting for the Ophah audience to discover talk radio, I think they have quite a wait, but who knows. But the Elliot I've heard isn't angry, unless the issue deserves it. He's right of center, but is willing to listen. By the way, his anger singlehandedly energized the talk radio audience about Jessica's Law, and now Maryland has one. Not bad. And the man is hilarious. Have you heard the teen beauty queen review of the news? I about pee'd in my pants I was laughing so hard. Howie, maybe you caught him on a bad day. Dunno. I do wonder who he pissed off, though, since they've buried him on Saturday morning, and then bumped him earlier for the Ehrlichs. Go figure. (9/18/07) Mike in Fairfax noted how cynical, and even nasty, Pollin and Czaban are about the Redskins. He's right. They are, and they sometimes cross the line with their personal attacks on coaches, players, etc. However, I'm convinced that it is an act. They are trying to distinguish themselves from their competition on TripleX, Riggo and company, who are typically more restrained in their criticism of the team. (9/18/07) Dave - I think you need to be a little more careful in your reporting (about big cuts at XM)... The article you cited to from R&R had no reference to any potential job layoffs at either company... (9/18/07) Dave's response: It's just my opinion. I really think that Mel Karmazin will make major cuts at XM once the merger is approved. Why is he and Sirius going to need two of everything? So what? The government will take away my "press license"? For the record, I own no XM or Sirius stock and have no financial stake in any radio or media-related company, broadcast or satellite..... I've spent the last few days reading the Wookie bashing which seems to have become so popular, and I decided to write in defense of a GREAT small market talent. First, let me say I worked with and against Wookie, back in the days when the KHI/OC104 battles were at their peak (I followed Slick Chris and Phlash Phelps at night, right after 100KHI jumped the shark to become Power 999 then 999 KHI). We had a radio war going on for awhile, and then I decided to go to college, so Fast Eddie told me to pack my bags. I ended up working with Wook off and on for four years, and I can tell you, he is one of the nicest, hardest working people in the business. I've left the area, so I can't speak to whether his programming or on air game has slipped in recent years, but he SAVED OC104 during the "dance and romance" days of Scotty J and the DUCKMAN (hear the echo when you say it!). His ratings at night will not be duplicated, and he did a great job on afternoons as well. I got out of radio largely because of my fatigue of dealing with unimaginative, one-trick hacks with big egos and little brains (what up, Jason J!), but have kept my interest in it because of good people like Wookie. He's gone, the Rumpshaker is there, so leave the guy alone already. Call me "Slash" (9/18/07) You know what's fun about your support, apart from being flattering? No one can accuse me of sleeping with you to get it! (9/18/07) Dave's response: Carol Joynt, you're funny! ("Dave's response: If I was running 3WT, I'd put David Burd and Jessica Doyle in mornings, Bob Kur and Hillary Howard in afternoons, and Victoria Jones in evenings. I'd put Carol Joynt's "Q&A Cafe" in the noon hour. The 10 AM slot could go to Tony Kornheiser - if and when he returns. If Tony goes elsewhere, I'd try to get Chris Core from WMAL. With Bill O'Reilly at 1 PM, and Jim Bohannon at 10 PM. Something like that.....") Dave, you just said you agree with what Greg was doing all along......Burd & Doyle, Bob & Hilary, Kornheiser......... All you would change would be midday and 7p-9p......so you think Greg was doing mostly all the right things? (9/18/07) Dave's response: First off, if I'm bitching about you and your station, you know I'm listening. So, that's a good thing. Second. I've always said I've liked the local radio personalities on Washington Post Radio. I've always had praise for David Burd, Bob Kur, Hillary Howard, Victoria Jones, and Sam Litzinger. Mainly the Bonneville "component" to the station. And, I've even grown to like Tony Kornheiser, from the Post's "side." The "marriage" with the Washington Post was the big mistake. It didn't bring much to the deal, apart from a bunch of over-inflated, pompous egos who, mostly, sounded awful on the airwaves. Kind of like wearing iron boots in a swimming race. The basic concept was not bad, but the methodology was mistaken. The Post promotions and the Post-produced website were - frankly - stinko. If you can get some halfway killer drivetime shows, and land the Redskins in addition to the Nationals, the new "Post-free" 3WT has a good chance of dethroning WMAL as DC's main commercial news talker. Much better signal, to begin with. Plus, you can take advantage of the fact that once great "superstation" talker WJFK-FM is being driven into the ground by CBS, and will probably flip format after Geronimo bails out next spring. That's my opinion anyway..... enjoy the site. Stumbled on this page while surfing. www.pbrtv.com... I'm a wayward DC radio vet, and I think a feature like this could be interesting on dcrtv.com . Regards. Dusty (9/18/07) Dave's response: A "Where Are They Now" feature is a wonderful idea. I simply don't have the time to do one for DCRTV. A lot of work putting it together and keeping it updated, I'd suspect..... There would be no point in giving Victoria Jones a permanent evening slot on 3WT. Massive sports preemptions from the Nationals, Capitals and GW Colonials would prevent any local talk show from gaining traction there. Everett W. (9/18/07) Dave's response: Maybe Victoria and Steve Ray could pretend to be married and do a weeknight "husband and wife show" when sports ain't on..... Can someone puh-lease buy Lyndsey Czarniak a bottle of shampoo? She's a cute girl and all, but geez, can you say G-R-E-A-S-E? (9/18/07) For the person who noted Jake Einstein's start at WINX-AM... some hard facts (along with some odds and ends) can be found in the historical Washington Post articles at DCMemories.com... After several weeks of delays, WINX-1310AM debuted on Friday the Thirteen, December 1940 from Eighth & Eye Streets, NW. On "The Great Radio Moving Day" of Saturday, March 29th, 1941, WINX shifted to 1340 on the AM dial. In July of '44, sale of the station to the Washington Post by its first owners, the Hellers, was approved 4 to 1 by the FCC without a hearing. (The one dissenting FCC commissioner complained that the inflated price paid for WINX.... at ten times its' net worth... could "push radio broadcasting more and more beyond the reach of any but the well-to-do.") In 1945, the Post bought experimental FM-station W3XO as a sister to WINX-AM. When CBS in late 1948 offered to sell a 55% share of WTOP to the Post, WINX-AM was sold to the Banks family of Philly for $130k, and WINX-FM became WTOP-FM. The Banks' operated WINX-AM until November '51 when Richard Eaton bought the station for about $124k and moved it to Rockville on 1600kc. At the same time, Eaton moved his WOOK 1590-AM to the former 1340kc frequency of WINX. (Articles about WOOK and Eaton can be found here: dcmemories.com ) (9/18/07) Well, 1500 AM, when sports events are not aired, will sound like hundreds of other AM stations with the same, boring syndicated programs. And no local show during afternoon drive. More "radio on the cheap" on 1500 AM. A once proud frequency with relevant and important information but now just a shell. Another AMer going, going, gone. BIG MISTAKA Bonnevilla. (9/18/07) "I can't see WWWT getting much better ratings than WMAL....." Those ratings are good enough for WMAL to bill about 16 million bucks a year. That's comforably profitable. (9/18/07) Randi Rhodes on 3WT? Oh my friggin grief. It's one thing to be a radical leftist like Rhodes, but another to scream and yell and sound like every man's wife on the radio. That experiment will last about two months. (9/18/07) Good. I am not the only one who sees throught the thin fabric of tony kornheiser. Like most 55 yard field goals, no good. Gives hope for all of us to someday be a mnf broadcaster and ask how long does it take a city to turn on an athlete over and over again. And over again. Painful. Ed (9/18/07) As someone who regards left-wing ranting as only slightly more tolerable than right-wing ranting, I was disappointed to see the WWWT schedule, with Randi Rhodes given afternoon drive. I was really hoping...well, first that Bob and Hilary would stay on, then that Victoria Jones would get 4-7 permanently instead of being a temporary fill-in at 7. As for Ms. Rhodes, I've listened to her before, but not for very long, and I sure won't be now. I don't think many other people will be either, and I can't see WWWT getting much better ratings than WMAL and WTNT and WWRC are getting these days. So it looks like, unless this is an interim format, Bonneville is sacrificing quality and local appeal to save money. As for me (sigh), back to NPR I guess....Steven J. Berke (9/18/07) Dave's response: If I was running 3WT, I'd put David Burd and Jessica Doyle in mornings, Bob Kur and Hillary Howard in afternoons, and Victoria Jones in evenings. I'd put Carol Joynt's "Q&A Cafe" in the noon hour. The 10 AM slot could go to Tony Kornheiser - if and when he returns. If Tony goes elsewhere, I'd try to get Chris Core from WMAL. With Bill O'Reilly at 1 PM, and Jim Bohannon at 10 PM. Something like that..... Dave: You said "No one can beat the classic Madden/Summerall pairing on CBS and later Fox." You said a mouthful; I couldn't agree more; they made a hell of a good team in my opinion! Tom in Denton, MD (9/18/07) You know OC 104 is a gem. It has a great signal for only 6kw. The audio is great, imaging is good (above great for Delmarva standards). I just think Wookie was past his prime. We all need to sometimes just call it a day and move on. I listened to Bill Baker, while I am not a big fan of his voice (real strong local accent)-he has a following, knows the music and is having fun! Plus, his wife works in the traffic department, so that makes things even better! I think the next best thing is to bring in a strong talent for nights (the guy on now is good, but very hard to understand)-and they will be golden. As for WZBH, I think going more alternative would grab strong numbers, since there are no alt rock stations that can be heard on the shore! They can brand themselves as "935 the beach, everything that rocks!" They could still play Tool, Metallica and even add the White Stripes, Hard-Fi, etc. Not a sermon, just a thought. SC (9/18/07) Just a little context for the debate about the campus connection (or lack of it) between WTMD and Towson University: Many of the licensed radio stations at Maryland's public universities have little or no connection to their schools, students or academic programs. The Morgan State station (last time I checked, a year or two ago) had pros doing the weekday jazz and talk shows and gave only the weekends over to the students. The UMES and Salisbury U stations also have pros doing virtually all of the on-air work. I'm sure there are other examples. If WTMD is worthy of condemnation in your view, fine, but maybe the entire system of licensed university stations should be the issue. I can see the merits in opinions on both sides. (9/18/07) Local Boy Makes Good Dept.: Congrats to Tony Kornheiser for setting a new Monday Football record: T.K. asked Charles Barkley the same question over and over for nearly 30 minutes during the second half of last night's game. The old MNF record for repetition, held by Dan Dierdorf, was 83 seconds. best part: Barkley answered the question within two minutes of first being queried. Way to go, Tony! Dave in Sterling (9/18/07) Phil Hendrie! I really don't like that show at all. At all. I will be listening to 1500 a.m. about 20% of the time, alas. (9/18/07) Saw an old familiar face hosting a Redskin show on MASN a few nights ago; It was former Channel 56 fixture Mike Baker (he did a decent job). When my Father-In-Law was still alive (Irv Ziff), He was a guest on Mike's entertainment show discussing his acting career. I always liked the guy and sadly never got the credit or acclaim in this town that he deserved as a broadcaster. Rusty Gibson (9/18/07) Dave's response: I hear that Arch Campbell once tried to have himself cloned. But it went wrong and Mike Baker was the result..... 3WT - This is premier radio???? Same old tired voices (and the liberals are beyond boring). Hendrie is at least entertaining in occasional doses. Blech. I’d rather hear the Van Halen guy or the magician. m (9/18/07) A Poster Wrote: " Bottom line is that Digital Radio in the UK, Canada and elsewhere has no similarity nor connection to HD radio in the USA." This is completely incorrect. Canada authorized Ibiquity's HD at the beginning of this year to allow a restart of their transition to digital because Eureka 147 has been a failure. Brazil has not only authorized Ibiquity HD, but has also begun the active purchase and installation of such transmission products, especially from Harris Broadcast. Much of Central America is expected to follow Brazil. Mexico appears to have authorized HD, but has some questions about cross border interference protection. In Europe, Ibiquity has recently authorized the Italian technology consortium to produce HD products specificially because some countries are looking to get out of the Eureka mess as well. Ibiquity for FM and DRM for AM appear to be the way the rest of the world is headed. (9/18/07) Tony Kornholer proved last night that he absolutely SUCKS on MNF...even Charles Barkley sounded more educated! I agree with bringing back the "two man" format. At least Dennis Miller made us chuckle a little. (9/18/07) I am really digging the new morning show on OC-104. It sounds like they are having fun. In recent years I thought it sounded too forced. I used to be a big fan of Wookie when he did nights years ago, but he never cut it in the morning for me. Bill Baker sounds like he is excited to be there which is good. I like Jessica and Crookidd too. Hopefully this will be the next great show on Delmarva! (9/18/07) Bring back the booth of mike patrick, theismann, mcguire. This group is terrible, kornheiser sucks at life and tirico doesn’t do much for me either. Why did they change to being with, the Sunday night crew was great. Another bad move by espn, ranking with the who’s now BS and the steve Phillips mock pressers from 2 years ago, not to mention stu scott in the ILLADELL !! Can he at least try to sound intelligent? (9/18/07) "Dave's response: Bruce Elliot, Dave Durian, and Ron Smith (as well as the "late" Chip Franklin) are all talk radio greats." Well, you got two out of four right. Durian and Smith, both former WBAL TV 11 news anchors, are top notch. I recognize this even though I disagree with "Talkshowman" most of the time. Ron probably has paid in the Arbitrons for standing by conviction and actually criticizing what he calls "The War Party". Bruce was once quite good before the station's handlers messed with him and turned him into an angry Rush-type. He was a thoughtful issue oriented conservative host, but that ended long ago. Chip was always ADHD radio, then he added loudmouth rightwing ranting to the mix after 9/11. Just the worst! Shari's hire is going to prove to be a mistake unless she starts taking some positions on issues, right or left. Allan Prell had the ability to tap both a political and non-political audience-something Chip stopped trying to do several years ago-and I'm guessing that WBAL's honchos thought that Shari could bring the non-political portion of that audience back into the fold. We'll have to see ratings to know, but I'm guessing she's driving away the core audience without gaining anyone new. I kind of hope she proves us all wrong, though. Howie (9/18/07) Mr. Tony does fabulous personality radio. MNF reduces him, it seems to me, to being just one more guy tryin' to get a word in edge-wise. (9/18/07) Dave's response: There is simply no need for a three-man football TV broadcast booth team. Two is plenty. No one can beat the classic Madden/Summerall pairing on CBS and later Fox. Tony needs to focus his mornings on a national radio show, and afternoons on "PTI." Doing "MNF" is a needless waste of his time, especially for someone who is afraid to fly to games..... Corruption Seeps from FishbowlDC bigheaddc.com (9/18/07) Could the female lib on drivetime on WWWT be Victoria Jones? I always enjoyed her show on WMAL back around 2000-2001. Rachel Maddow would also be teriffic - her show is only on for an hour on WWRC due to a financial infomercial. Hopefully not the the shrill Randi Rhodes... (9/18/07) Dave's response: If 3WT is going to do a local PM drive show with a "female lib," Victoria would be the leading candidate. She's seemed kind of distant and lost in thought lately during Burd's morning show. Perhaps that's what she's thinking about..... Tom Gauger – I’m sure Post/Newsweek donated WHUR as a commercial station. Somewhere – someone filed paperwork at the FCC that it was a Non-Com. If you look at any of the documents – all clearly state WHUR is a non-commercial entity. Obviously it isn’t… (9/18/07) "CC Delays Beck & Miller's Move To 3WT" Guess that means you need to update your scoreboard. (9/18/07) Will someone please tell David Burd that it is incorrect (politically and otherwise) to address Eleanor Holmes Norton as "Congressman" or "Congresswoman" as he did recently in an interview. She is a delegate and is properly addressed as Del. Norton. Just about everyone, including the Post, getd it right. Please tell him to join the club! Gary Hong, Silver Spring, Md. (9/18/07) When did WHUR-FM become non-commercial? Post/Newsweek donated it as a commercial station. Tom Gauger (9/18/07) Dave's response: For a "non-commercial" station, Howard University's WHUR runs a lot of commercials. It's like Brown University in Providence, which owns a commercial rocker, WBRU..... You are right about how bizarre it is when Kornheiser calls in and won't talk to anyone but Stern. Kornheiser is one strange dude. By the way, the ESPN Monday Night broadcast crew is absolutely horrible and the extended interview with Barkley last night was atrocious. Barkley can be entertaining in small doses, but last night he was boring and what is worse is that they completely minimized the game. Next time, I turn on Sonny and Sam. (9/18/07) Outlet did purchase 102.3 FM, and they wanted to simulcast WTOP once the signal improvements were completed. Outlet decided to park 102.3 with an older AC format until the signal was ready to cover the market. Outlet was then sold to Chase Communications who sold 102.3 to Cathy Hughes who created Majic 102 and subsequently Radio One was born. Chase used the money from the sale to purchase WASH FM which was struggling at the time. The GM of WTOP tried unsuccessfully to convince the corporate suits at Chase to put WTOP on the 97.1 frequency. The suits said that ALL NEWS wouldn’t work on the FM band. WTOP and WASH were then purchased by Evergreen and WASH became a powerhouse once again. WTOP would suffer in the ratings until the FM TOP was born. (9/18/07) Dave, Listened to Bruce Elliot on WBAL for the last week while Sherry Eliker was on vacation, after being at BAL for what - a week? Damn good radio. He deserves a full time gig somewhere. You listening WCBM? Listened for a few minutes today. Sherry's back, and so is content-less radio. Why doesn't BAL just air TMZ if they want show biz fluff? Or, here's a thought, why don't they rethink what they're doing. 3 hours of Girlie radio in the middle of a male focused station? Huh? (9/18/07) Dave's response: Bruce Elliot, Dave Durian, and Ron Smith (as well as the "late" Chip Franklin) are all talk radio greats. It's a shame they can't be heard strongly in DC, too. Maybe WBAL could buy a frequency in the DC area for a relay. How about 630? ESPN's coverage of the Redskins game in Philly last night (including the pregame show) seemed to be very Eagles oriented - perhaps the network execs consider them much more interesting to the national audience. Tony Kornheiser did work in some Redskin takes throughout the telecast, although I don't think the best time to be reflecting on the long term future of Joe Gibbs with the organization was with five minutes left in a game not yet decided. Kornheiser was also wrong about Gibbs being exempt from criticism by the Washington sports media - he must not have been listening to Brian Mitchell, Andy Pollin or Steve Czaban since leaving WTEM. Some callers to 980 have complained about the interview with Charles Barkley during the third quarter being a distraction from the game. For avid fans of the two teams involved that's clearly the case. I understand that ESPN's trying to attract casual fans and keep those without a rooting interest from clicking away, but is it too much to ask that the conversation at least stick to football and they don't talk over action on the field? Following the Washington victory, Pollin sounded remarkably subdued on his postgame show in contrast to two years ago when he went absolutely bonkers after a Monday night win over the Cowboys. For whatever reason, he's become an unrelenting voice of skepticism and cynicism regarding the team (even more so than Czaban) over the past year or so. Those in attendance at RFK last night have to be considered the true blue Washington baseball fans, having turned out to see a team battling to stay out of last place on a chilly night when the Skins were playing. Anyone who thinks this area's devotion to the burgundy and gold precludes baseball from ever becoming a rousing success need only look to Denver. Despite the fact that the Broncos are arguably an even bigger deal there than the Redskins here, the expansion Colorado Rockies drew more than three million fans for nine straight seasons after joining the National League in 1993. The main difference between the circumstances involving major league baseball coming to Denver and Washington is that the former had ownership in place and a new stadium under construction from day one - a major factor in terms of marketing. Mike, Fairfax (9/18/07) I'll be hosting a 50's and 60's oldies show tonight from 8 PM to 11 PM ET on www.topshelfoldies.com. I invite you to tune in and to log into the chat room. Top Shelf Oldies features different deejays every evening, with rare recordings, live interviews, and requests. This program will be simulcast and rebroadcast on www.wgay.fm. -Ken Carpenter (9/18/07) Washington Full Circle: "DC's Tastiest Foods," TV 16 - September 2007, Monday, Wednesday and Friday @ 8 pm... Get out your forks and knives, because it’s time for a special round-up of some of DC’s tastiest foods. From the ballpark to a gourmet grill, join our search for the city’s best hot dogs. Plus, Washington Full Circle host Ferman Patterson samples the sweet treat no one can resist on his “Chocolate Chase” to the area’s top gourmet chocolate shops. And we’ll take you inside a chili cook-off at one of Washington’s wildest outdoor food festivals. Also, find out what three local culinary luminaries are cooking up now. Plus, a sample of some DC vegan restaurants that have meat-eaters saying “hold the beef!” It’s the ultimate banquet on this special edition of Washington Full Circle. (Cable Channel 16 on Comcast) (9/18/07) "Will HD radio's used in Great Britain work here in the colonies?" NO!! There is no "HD Radio" in the UK. It is Digital Radio and broadcast on its own band. "Do they have to pay a yearly fee in Great Britain to listen to HD radio?" I don't think so, the listening licence is for TV. "Is Ibiquity the originator of HD here in U.S.? " They are the merger of the original outfits. "Same company in Great Britain?" No connection whatsoever. "Ain't land based radio spending $10's o' millions, if not more, this year to advertise HD radio? Why is so much being spent?" They are spending VERY little. Most of it is ad time they could not otherwise sell. The millions are an accounting ruse. Bottom line is that Digital Radio in the UK, Canada and elsewhere has no similarity nor connection to HD radio in the USA. (9/18/07) I have been contacted by a person seeking information about a program called "Arts Radio Lecture Series" that aired on WRC radio back in the 1930's. A painter by the name of Henry Wadsworth Moore was involved in the show. If anyone has anything on this, please contact me. Thanks, Mike Berry mike@98wrc.com (9/18/07) Re: "Ain't land based radio spending $10's o' millions, if not more, this year to advertise HD radio? Why is so much being spent?" You gotta spend money to make money. With HD radio (and I can't emphasize enough that HD in radio means Hybrid Digital, NOT High Definition) each FM station suddenly becomes 3 FM stations, although at a lower audio quality level than is possible with analog FM. This means 3 times the commercials, if they can get enough listeners to buy into the system. Another plan in the works is to make the second and third channels pay-radio. Mo' money, mo' money, mo' money-- IF they can get the public to give a hoot about it all. (9/18/07) The poster said "news and information on campus activities might break the format" on WTMD, horrors, it's not just that, but then the station might actually sound like a CAMPUS RADIO STATION oh the humanity !!!! I remember WCVT, they actually earned a button on my car radio. Then came the professional wanna-bes. I bet they all have egos-in-training like David Dye. If they could only pot down his mic and let the musicians carry the show, it'd be ideal. Otherwise it's all about him, and I bet that's the template for the WTMD management juniors and apprentices. (9/18/07) 105.7 is still announcing "The Don & Mike Show Weekdays from 3 - 7 pm." I'm sorry, but shouldn't that read, "The Don & Mike Show, starting at 3 pm and then being cut off on Mondays through Thursdays for some random Ravens player to play pretend Radio Host ,and on Fridays until 6:20 pm when we start the hour-long Orioles pre-game show, or off completely if the Orioles are playing an afternoon game." Too wordy? Greg in Reisterstown (9/18/07) RE:"Those USA Today newspapers outside the hotel room door are not free. Check the fine print of your hotel bill. You're paying for the paper...Nothing is free from Gannett..." Au contraire- you're only referring to the papers the guests get. I've been in many hotels ranging from Comfort Inns to Hiltons where there's a stack of USA Todays just inside the front entrance before you even get to the desk. They have stickers on them with the logo of whatever hotel it is, but otherwise, they're there for the taking, be you a guest or just someone having coffee at the breakfast bar, no questions asked. I don't remember the last USAT that I actually had to buy. So if that's happening all over the country, then you're looking at a huge segment of their circulation numbers. (9/18/07) Two questions: 1. What does a Music Director and an Assistant Program Director do? 2. In the WHFS articles on dcmemories.com, it talks about 102.3 being bought by WTOP for it to go all-news like AM 1500. Did that ever happen? Why or why not? MH/Fairfax (9/18/07) Dave's response: No, the Outlet Company, which then owned WTOP, never put news or talk on 102.3 as it had planned. It even flipped the calls to WTKS, I believe. The frequency was off the air a few weeks after WHFS signed off in mid-August of 1983. Eventually, 102.3 returned with an adult contemporary format..... The professional vs. student staffing question for campus stations comes up every so often. When I was at Towson several decades ago, I think that it was more likely that students would staff what was then called WCVT (Community Voice of Towson). There was also a low watt AM, I believe, which was completely student staffed. I assume the internet station now fills that role. I was a Mass Comm major, but not on the radio track, so I may be mistaken on some of this. It does seem that over time the station has become more and more removed from being a part of TU except for station IDs. As an alum, a WTMD contributor, and a fairly regular listener (hey, they play what I like) I am more concerned by WTMD's lack of commitment to the campus in its content. For example, WTMD has slowly removed TU sports broadcasting from its mission. First, TU basketball moved a portion of its schedule to WBAL. That was a win-win for the station and the athletic department because of WBAL's place in the local market. Now TU football has been moved to Nestor Aparicio's tin can and string station. Unlike past years, if I'm not at home at my computer, I can't hear the Tigers play. The school has an FM which easily reaches my area, but TU sports are on a station which carries from Hart Rd. all the way to Providence Rd.. Nestor's always active promotional team is pimping the heck out of the product with parties and giveaways, but it doesn't matter if no one can hear it! This week's game is at 7 PM; how many area listeners can receive WNST at that hour? Meanwhile, the jocks at WTMD won't even keep you posted on the score because giving news and information on campus activities might break the format. Howie (9/18/07) Dear Jazz Fan: Holiday time is just around the corner and that means people spending money. JAZZRADIODC.COM is a commercial radio program and is proud to work with sponsors. We do not operate on donations. We have an affluent and intelligent audience of consumers who have money to spend. If you or someone you know needs to advertise to reach the "right" people... then click below for more information on how to sell your product or service on this radio/internet jazz program. jazzradiodc.com... Musically we will be featuring various artists from all categories as our slogan says... Classic Jazz, Classy Blues and a touch of the contemporary too. Do check out the entire JAZZRADIODC.COM site and listen often. Thanks, Carl David (9/18/07) Mr. Einstein did own “The FOX’ during the late 70’s, Early 80’s. I worked there part-time. We wanted it to be the HFS of North-Western Virginia, but the stick was located in Strasburg, VA and didn’t have a lot of influence. (9/18/07) Dave's response: Then and now, WFQX 99.3 is a tough catch in the DC suburbs of Northern Virginia..... There is more than one "dude" criticizing Steve the GM. There are many more, too. I live in Baltimore, and have little knowlege of the stations you listed, but if they, like WTMD, refuse to put students on the air, then they are just as wrong. College stations without college students on the air? Ridiculous! (9/18/07) Will HD radio's used in Great Britain work here in the colonies? Do they have to pay a yearly fee in Great Britain to listen to HD radio? Is Ibiquity the originator of HD here in U.S.? Same company in Great Britain? Ain't land based radio spending $10's o' millions, if not more, this year to advertise HD radio? Why is so much being spent? Could some of that been used to lower prices on HD radio's? questions so many questions, i'm a kid it's my job... (9/18/07) Dave, as has been mentioned before, you truly need to see your doctor. After all, the nice pharmaceutical people who make those wonderful ED medications do recommend that you see a physician for a priapism lasting more than 4 hours! At the rate that you continue to rant about Post Radio (which you won't have to kick around much longer), or Bonneville, or WTOP (which, I might add, supports your site with an AD!), you must have taken an overdose of Viagra sometime back around last Memorial Day! Granted, its your site, blah, blah, blah. Despite your protestations to the contrary, you do dump on the Idaho Avenue crowd MUCH MORE OFTEN than you do those miscreants who run Leer Channel, or the people who "run" CBS used-to-be-Radio. As I've said before, when you can show us the portfolio of radio stations that you have successfully and profitably run, come on back and we can have a discussion. Until then, you're just pandering to the handful of wannabes who happen to agree with you. Also: to the person who is using the mailbag to attack WTMD (again), hey, bub, lighten up. We've had this discussion here before. Two reasons why WTMD doesn't have a large number of students either working or running the station: 1) The University has no broadcasting curriculum, and therefore its difficult to both recruit a large enough number of students to adequately staff a station 24/7, and at the same time, provide the training and supervision that students need to really learn something from working at a radio station. 2) More importantly in the case of WTMD, Towson is more of a commuter school, with most of its student body living off campus. There are relatively few resident students actually living in dorms on the Towson campus proper, and for a student-run radio station to be successful at recruiting staff, they have to have large numbers of resident students who can walk to the station to do their shifts. Plus, lets face it, with no real good career paths to follow, how many students would actually WANT to learn how to do radio these days? Lets see: to work in a typical music radio station as talent these days, for a little more than the minimum wage, here's what you have to know: Learn how to edit audio with Adobe Audition; learn how to monotonously drag songs into Selector; troubleshoot Dalet or Enco. Programming mostly consists of implementing a stale, over-researched playlist compiled by some anonymous accountant-turned-music director/"consultant" in a cave in Texas, and reading a bunch of really stale, meaningless liners cooked up by some regional/global PD who you'll likely never see until heshe strolls into the station one day to fire you before a format change. Just because a station is owned by a college or university, does NOT mean that it has to be run by students. I get the strange feeling that from the vehemence and close-mindedness of your posts, you have some agenda... perhaps you are an agent for WYPR, trying to take over all the non-comm radio in the state of Maryland, hmmmmm? Towson is making a call on how to run ITS station given the cards its been dealt, and I think they do a fine job. Finally, I don't have much time at all for the people who don't like what Sally Field had to say at the Emmys, since you are all likely apologists for the current mis-managers of the White House anyway, and yes, I do think Fox was way out of line for how they handled it. Since you and Fox obviously don't have any respect, or care what either I or Sally Field think about this war, then there's not much point in having a discussion with a bunch of closed minds, now is there? - Just Call Me "Legs" (9/18/07) /\ September 18 Messages /\ \/ September 17 Messages \/ Two (minor) corrections regarding Jake Einstein: The WaPo got it wrong in his obit on Sunday when it wrote, "He found his first job in radio in 1939, selling advertising at WINX-AM in Rockville." That would be the old, OLD WINX-AM in Washington, DC. The WINX-AM calls did not move to Rockville until the early 1950s. Also, Dave, you wrote in your 9/14 blurb that Jake Einstein owned WFQX 99.3 FM. When? Jake Einstein was a great radio man, truly legendary and way ahead of his time, but I wasn't aware that he ever owned WFQX 99.3 FM. Please correct me if I wrong. --RB (9/17/07) Dave's response: I remember Einstein buying WFQX and my memory was confirmed in a 1989 Washington Post article. It's the last article featured at dcmemories.com/WHFS..... Would somebody please get word to the 3 stooges of Monday Night Football that referring to Andy Reid’s son as “being incarcerated in jail” is redundant. (9/17/07) Dave's response: We're his comments live or "pre-recorded." Another redundant phrase you frequently hear..... thank you for the best laugh i had all day ... (Post Starts Death Blog - 9/17 - The Washington Post starts a blog about dying, death, and endings - Post Mortem. "The blog about the end of the story." Just in time to cover the demise of Washington Post Radio on Thursday.....) (9/17/07) To the dude picking on "Steve the GM" - Why are you singling out WTMD? Nothing better to do with your time? Why not pick on the "non students" from WHUR (which according to all FCC documents is a "NON COMMERCIAL EDUCATIONAL FM" fjallfoss.fcc.gov. Why don't you pick (more) on WAMU? How's about WGTS? (9/17/07) Sorry, Steve the GM. WTMD is a TOWSON UNIVERSITY station. There is no reason (despite your lengthy discourse) that Towson STUDENTS should not be on the air. What other reason could there be for a college to own and operate a station? I cannot believe your adminstration allows this. Who are you serving? Certainly not your enrollment. Shame on you. PS- The internet station doesn't count, I am amazed/appalled you would even offer it up as an example. PS#2-Even though you do use professional announcers, they are not very good. I can't see that current students would be much worse. (9/17/07) KBIG Action... WBIG to follow (9/17/07) Those USA Today newspapers outside the hotel room door are not free. Check the fine print of your hotel bill. You're paying for the paper. USA Today and the hotel splits the cash. Nothing is free from Gannett... (9/17/07) Dave, Mike & Mike is a great morning sports show. But in this Market its on Danny-boy radio which means it doesn't exist. Triple X radio ratings make WTWP look like a powerhouse! In some books they do not show up in the ratings at all...which means not a single diary was turned in mentioning them. Snyder needs to buy a real signal like 980, or heck even 1260 or 570 to get any ratings. How did this guy get so rich being so stupid? (9/17/07) I'm surprised no one has posted this but in the latest Arbitrons for New York WCBS-FM is up big in 24-54 and has moved from 18th to a tie for 12th in the 12+ demo. Could this mean more CBS stations that dumped oldies a few years ago for Jack could go back as Classic Hits? Namely Baltimore's 102.7 or 105.7? Especially if Jack has another crappy book. (9/17/07) Regarding the AOL move, someone inquired if they might be evacuating from Dulles. It more like the move Boeing made when the moved HQ to Chicago from Seattle. They still build all the planes in Washington, just the suits moved to Chicago. The news reports make it sound like the we should expect the leaseholders of all that space to be jumping in front of cars on the Greenway. (9/17/07) See Inside Radio: "L.A.'s KBIG-FM re-brands as "104.3 MYfm.... The Clear Channel hot AC station is positioning itself as an updated hot AC format. VP/programming Michael Martin says it's designed to sit right in the middle of siblings modern AC "Star 98.7" KYSR and AC KOST. The station launches with a "significant" outdoor and on-air promotional campaign and it will run without air personalities." Another Clear Channel Brainiac Move, no doubt (9/17/07) Dave's response: Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. Kind of like the Arrow becoming the Globe becoming the Arrow again..... A week of so ago there was some buzz about Clear Channel reserving some web domains, and we all hoped that there might be a shake up with Baltimore radio....yeah right. This is from Inside Radio... "L.A.'s KBIG-FM re-brands as "104.3 MYfm.... The Clear Channel hot AC station is positioning itself as an updated hot AC format. VP/programming Michael Martin says it's designed to sit right in the middle of siblings modern AC "Star 98.7" KYSR and AC KOST. The station launches with a "significant" outdoor and on-air promotional campaign and it will run without air personalities." (9/17/07) Dave's response: All those "1043" domain names were for CC in LA - and not Baltimore. Yet, anyway..... (Re AOL leaving Loudoun:) Dave, That means the whole campus will be gone? Wow, talk about a shift in fortune. I remember when people first went to work there and people thought they were crazy, this “internet” thing. Where have you gone Steve Case?????? (9/17/07) Dave's response: AOL says it will continue to maintain a "substantial presence" in Loudoun. Whatever that means..... Make no mistake. The Dan "I have more money than you" Snyder interview is nothing more than a byproduct of the marketing deal between Comcast and the Redskins. Unless Mike Wallace is conducting the interview, I wouldn't place to much credence into the show. (9/17/07) Hey I'm an old prude and think lingering shots of a Lady's Daisy are fine for this hear intronet but not for public access tv presentations of the bone jangler... monster madhouse just not thick enough, imo won't bother you no more and yet....... (9/17/07) "Elliot Segal (left) takes on 98 Rock's Mickey Cucchiella (right) in this week's Battle Of The Local Media Hotties"…Voting here is like going to the doctors office and having the doctor ask "shot or suppository?" Tim in Stafford (9/17/08) Dave: On Saturday September 29 I have been asked by the folks at Fairfax Cable access TV 10 to tape a show on transistor radios as part of a series on American Pop Culture from 5 to 8 pm. Anyway, I saw Hecht's ad on today's DCRTV Plus and would like to use a copy as part of the program as a local example. (many memories there) :)!! However, since it's on your site I thought I would ask if it's OK before just doing so. I would mention DCRTV in any case. Peter D. Eldridge, Board of Directors, Radio and TV Museum, Bowie MD (9/17/07) Dave's response: Thanks! Peter, you're free to use it. I'm not aware of any copyright on the image..... Dave, I bet many of your readers would want to know that author Robert Jordan, who crafted The Wheel of Time series, died Sunday. He was 58. He was a great storyteller and a quality person. He'll be missed. (9/17/07) Can someone clear this up : Since Fox was televising the Emmys last night, naturally WBFF's 10PM news was delayed, as was Fox5 in DC. How is it then, that My24 in Baltimore was able to broadcast the usual feed from Fox5 in Washington, right on time at 10PM? Is it that Fox5 has some sort of obligation to provide My24 with a newscast on schedule, even if they can't do one for the DC audience? Then have to stay and do it all over again when the awards end? Seems like an incredible waste of time. (9/17/07) As you may know, USA Today celebrated its 25th anniversary this past weekend. Saturday was the “official” anniversary, but of course they don’t publish on weekends. Although they did not debut nationwide that first day, I do believe that the first issue was distributed in the Washington area and printed at a plant in Springfield. Which brings me to a couple of questions. USAT at one time (and may still) published 3 editions - the first called “Sports Scores,” a 2nd called “Sports Update” and the 3rd and final called “Sports Final.” (You can see which edition it is by a little box at the top left of the front page.) For many years the in-close DC area got the final edition, but I have noticed that now the first edition is distributed. Why the change? Does USAT still have a printing plant in Springfield? (9/17/07) To "Mike" in Fairfax: I suppose the only way for a media outlet to be totally neutral would be ala C-SPAN (which at times, seems to be leaning more to liberal events than conservative events these days): just air raw footage, unedited & without a reporter's commentary. But most MSM viewers won't watch that thus the hype and editing. For you to imply that the MSM is biased against "peace protestors" (which, by the way would mean they are protesting AGAINST peace, so I believe you meant "war protestors") is ridiculous: the vast MSM coverage of any event that seeks to criticize President Bush in particular or America in general makes those participating seem like heroes, speaking out against oppression, war, etc. There is nothing heroic about laying down, obstructing, or otherwise impeding the rightful access of public property or streets. There is nothing heroic about getting arrested for such crimes (people are not arrested for "protesting", they are arrested for commiting a crime according to our laws), causing law enforcement resources to be diverted from preventing actual crimes in a city with one of the highest murder and assault rates in the nation (if it was heroic, people like Cindy Sheehan, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and others would be heroes: they're not and you have to wonder why they are not jailed for the maximum sentence as recidivist criminals. The MSM likes to refer to those who oppose the gruesome act of abortion as being "antiabortion" while those who advocate this most grizzly of human acts (no animals abort their offspring) are ambiguously refered to as "pro-choice" when they are actually pro-abortion. Are you aware that "protesting" abortion within a certain distance of an abortion clinic is a FEDERAL OFFENSE: the FACE Act of 1994 made it a federal crime with severe sentencing to do so. And what would you have DC, Capital Police and the United States Park Police do: let people blockade our streets and public buildings? If all of us have to go through metal detectors at public buildings & airports and can be pulled over at checkpoints within blocks of these locations in our cars, why should "protestors" be allowed to block those same areas unaswered? No my friend: the MSM most certainly glorifies these criminals and downplays American patriots who gather to challenge them. If you really want to learn about targeted, political based oppression of free speech, you can read more about the criminalization of abortion "protests" at: www.faqs.org... Meanwhile: stay the hell out of my way if I'm accessing a public building and keep your sorry ass out of the streets. (9/17/07) I saw a hummer in DC that also had been vandalized; someone spray painted a picture of the pill addict Rush Limbaugh on the side of it. Perhaps it was a "don't do drugs" message. (9/17/07) Dave's response: Wasn't that the WMAL Hummer? Dave, how does the Mike & Mike show do in DC? They are on the Triple X ESPN radio stations of course. They seem to be very popular nationwide, but I wonder if that is the case here. Thanks, John , College Park (9/17/07) Dave's response: I haven't seen the latest morning show numbers for Triple X. I can't imagine anything on the sports talker gets very big numbers. Anybody know? LaDawn Black, relationship expert, author and radio personality, is part of *Essence* magazine's first foray into reality television with their dating reality show - *30 Dates in 30 Days*. This exciting online show will follow five women as they try to improve their dating odds. Each week Black and *Essence's* Finesse will offer up tips on how to get the dating thing right. Black says of *30 Dates in 30 Days* "I am so excited to be part of this project. Hopefully viewers will see that great love is possible if we choose to be more proactive in the process. Love doesn't just happen it takes work!" To view *30 Dates in 30 Days*visit www.essence.com. *LaDawn Black is a Baltimore based relationship expert, author and radio personality. Five nights a week she hosts the top-rated relationship advice show Love Zone on WERQ (92.3FM). She is also the author of two relationship guides: Stripped Bare: The 12 Truths That Will Help You Land the Very Best Black Man and Let's Get It On: 15 Hot Tips and Tricks to Spice Up Your Sex Life. More info at www.ladawnblack.com. (9/17/07) Along with the other broadcasters on this area, I too would like to extend birthday greetings to my friend Johnny Holiday(and MANY happy returns) ! Sincerely, Rusty Gibson (9/17/07) To the poster complaining about Nats and O's shows on MASN, I must disagree about the Nationals show. Granted the O's shows are tough to take, the Nats shows with Johnny Holiday and Ray Knight are a breath of fresh air, good analysis from Mr Knight and good show hosting from Mr Holiday. The Two together are very enjoyable to watch. I do agree the Ravens show is a train wreck. Shawn, Bethesda (9/17/07) Does the paid staff of WTMD take direction from school administrators at Towson State ? If so, it should be brought to the attention of the real boss that their station has been infiltrated by some commercial-radio hacks. To patronize the student body with the "explanation" seen here proves a lack of awareness of the school's mission, and suggests a lack of self-confidence by paid staff who may feel threatened at letting unwashed students actually participate in the student radio station. It would run just fine with fewer "professionals," as has been done across the country by college radio. Bring these people down a few pegs and boost the chance for students to learn. We don't need another WAMU around here. (9/17/07) When reporting on divisive issues like the US involvement in Iraq, local TV newscasts should be especially careful to avoid any appearance of taking sides. On Sunday morning, I was watching Channel 4's coverage of the previous day's antiwar demonstrations on the Mall. After the initial report on the peace protests, one of the anchors segued to a piece on counterdemonstrations 'in support of our troops'. By phrasing it that way, the clear implication is that the antiwar people don't support the troops - which is exactly what the pro-war right wants everyone to believe. But both sides of the debate claim to be acting in the best interests of US servicemen and women in Iraq, the main point of contention being whether those interests are better served by bringing them home as soon as possible or allowing them to 'complete the mission'. By the way, this isn't the first time that type of thing has happened - Channel 7 was guilty of similar 'unintentional' politicizing in covering protest activities two or three years ago. Mike, Fairfax (9/17/07) It certainly appears that Great Scott Broadcasting is committed to fixing it's top stations. 93.5 The Beach (WZBH) has a very bad ratings book (by it's standards) and it fixes it's weak morning show by bringing back Murph. OC-104 has a very bad book (by it's standards) and they bring back Bill Baker and fix the music. Meanwhile Clear Channel doesn't seem to fix any problems. They just add to them. I read the news story that they are getting rid of Don and Mike, or at least dumping them to their weak (non existant ratings) station WTGM. Is that going to make 96 Rock better? Probably not, because at least in the past I know that is their top ratings getter. What are they going to do with Magic? Kenny Love back on the air in the afternoon??? Is he live?? What about Kiss? Are they ever going to have a morning show? And how is Froggy going to get back the ratings it lost to Cat Country? You can't bash them completely though, they still have the top station in Q-105. (9/17/07) I thought O's and Nats access were the worst produced shows I have ever seen from a regional sports network. That was until I saw Ravens Extra. Oh. my god!!! I know Amber Theoharis is an attractive woman, and these days sports networks want pretty faces on air, but she isn't very good at all. Combine that with the fact that MASN couldn't take the Billick postgame presser live (we actually heard Kool and the Gang's "Celebration when Amber tossed out live to the coach). The show lacked any structure. Tom Davis and Wally Williams just standing there talking with Williams holding a football was horr-awful tv. With the baseball season coming to a merciful end, maybe MASN should just close shop for the rest of the season as well. Kind of the like a bear that sleeps through winter. They are off to a rousing start with that ZZZZZ fest they call ravens extra. Ravens' fans deserve better than what their offical sports network( is MASN really a network?) is delivering. (9/17/07) Re: "Here's a company selling a table top HD radio for round about $100... Can't attest to quality..." I can. I bought one. Waited 2 months for delivery. The thing is built like a $15 clock radio. The plastic cabinet colors the sound. Very sensitive analog FM tuner. Pulled in a lot of stations I don't normally get (if you don't mind noisy reception), didn't overload on the 50kilowatt signal from a mile away. Unfortunately audio is not good--the high end is severely rolled off for analog reception so that digital reception will sound hotter by comparison. Digital side very disappointing. Hard to keep anything but the most local signals locked. AM tuner could only get the strongest local stations with the supplied antenna. Adding a tuned loop helped, but there were a lot of spurious noises on analog stations. Headphone jack flaky. No Line Out jack. After about an hour of use, the right channel amp gave out--no sound on the right channel on either speaker or headphones. Sent it back. Haven't missed it one bit. ~~CA in BC (9/17/07) (This is going to be a bit long, but I want to explain fully) Thanks for opportunity to answer some more questions about WTMD. We do have a lot of student involvement and we take our educational component seriously. We are, however, a radio station that serves the entire Baltimore region and is dedicated to new and significant music for all music lovers, so our educational component is based on showing students that serving an audience is the most important part of radio.We are very careful in the way we integrate students into our operations so they leave Towson understanding the industry, both the public and commercial ends of radio. Towson has a fantastic Electronic Media department including an on-line student run station at www.towson.edu/xtsr and we are fortunate to have this "farm team" to draw from. I also teach every other semester and that helps identify the kids that have the passion needed to be successful in radio. Our job is to train students for the real world of radio (and as often posted here--it isn't always a pretty industry) so we begin by identifying those students and ask them to intern at the station for credit. This gives them the opportunity to see if they are really into radio. Duties include editing national programming, assistant producing "Baltimore Unsigned," advancing and working special events, entering music into our computer system, reporting our music charts to the music press and working on our website. They attend our weekly staff meetings so they know how all the parts of the station fit together. If they have the skills and the desire for on air work, they are given a try out that includes a review process. After successfully completing this part of the process, they are invited to join the staff as a student employee and given more responsibilities based on their interests and our needs. So by this point their skills have been developed to the point where they are more radio professionals than students. For the short answer- our nights and weekend guy and our Morning Show Producer are undergraduates. Our staff, as you might imagine is packed with TU graduates including full time air hosts, our program director, operations director, Office Administrator. There is a lot more to radio than being a DJ and my personal goal is help students prepare themselves to succeed in the part of the business that best suites them. Always happy to chat more about WTMD and thanks listening and supporting WTMD. wtmd.org (9/17/07) Dear Friends of the Media, Please do not treat the latest OJ Simpson story like the end of World War 2. Whether OJ was guilty or not guilty, framed or not framed...I don't want to know and I don't really care. Save this story for the Tabloids. On a personal note, we can't keep OJ in jail...who will look for the killer? (9/17/07) Dave's response: Gee, I wonder why David Burd didn't wonder out loud about what OJ was wearing when he was arrested in Vegas over the weekend. I have never heard anyone so obsessed with what other people are wearing than is Burd. Every morning, we're first told what his radio "posse" is outfitted in, as if that's important to his audience..... Hey, you actually got namechecked by myself on MAS on 98Rock this morning. They brought up the website during a Keith Mills segment, and they were claiming Mills had an issue with you. Mills started going off on anonymous assholes (you know who you are), and I called in to make sure they understood it was the Mailbaggers they were talking about, not Dave himself, who if I recall correctly was pretty sympathetic to Mills. In response to Keith, I actually outed myself on the air, so I'll do it here too. My name's Mike Thompson. As I am a local area geek, I would love to go work as a computer geek for a local station, radio or TV. If anyone needs a really experienced network/systems administrator in Baltimore, feel free to email me at fferret(at)yahoo.com. I want to fulfill a wish for my birthday, to get a job being a computer geek for either NPR in DC or 98Rock here in B'more! (OK, Dave, charge me for a want ad!) Signed, Fferret (9/17/07) Dave's response: Yeah, some Mailbaggers were rather tough on Keith during his "run-in" with the law last year. But, I, personally, defended him. I know folks who have had prescription drug abuse problems and have great sympathy for people dealing with that particular evil..... Broadcasting may be a turbulent business, full of uncertainty and yes, more than a few slimeballs. A welcome contrast to this is Johnny Holliday, as he turns 70. Johnny is a class act. A true gentleman and extraordinary talent who deserves every bit of recognition, reward and accolade that have been showered upon him. Happy birthday, Mr. Holliday! (9/17/07) WTMD's GM "Steve" is not receptive to listeners who disagree with his programming aspirations. I called to complain that they are cluttering up their traffic reports with "junk music" and he told me they will keep doing that because it helps listeners distinguish from the music. Huh? Bird brain. (9/17/07) Re: "...that intro to bone jangler on friday night was a bit raunchy, hate to ruin it for any youths who tune in but some of that stuff was triple X" First, nothing on there was "triple x," second, TBJ runs after midnight and is clearly targeted for adults, third, the Horror Hosts programmed on FCCTV come from all over the country and not all are for everyone - the station sponsors "youth" friendly hosted shows at noon on Saturday (Ghoul A Go Go, Dr. Gangrene and even The Bone Jangler's Daytime Dungeon where he hosts cartoons with his 6 year old nephew) - 35 years ago, when Count Gore ruled the local airwaves, his show was not necessarily FOR children either, as some of his guests often included Penthouse Pets, and finally, if Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and even Dayton, Ohio viewers can handle The Bone Jangler, I would hope Northern Virginia ones could (especially considering the show has been a staple in Falls Church for over 5 years). (9/17/07) It's official: Bill Baker "The Rumpshaker" is back at OC-104 doing mornings with Jessica and Crookidd. Bill had been at Clear Channel doing afternoons for WSBY and middays for WDKZ. I guess he jumped off that sinking ship to work at a real station. Why did they let him leave? Anyway, OC-104 sounds like it is fixing it's problems. The playlist is a lot better now too. (9/17/07) To "Steve the GM": I like your station, you give airtime to music I might otherwise miss. Heck, I've even purchased music after hearing it on your station, which is about the biggest compliment I can give. I do have a question, though. Why are there no students on air? Seriously, you are the Towson University station and you don't let the students get on-air experience? How can you possibly defend that? If I were the parent of a student attending Towson and studying communications, I'd have some hard questions for the university president about that. Please, don't list the ways you DO use students...I read those long ago i.e "preparing taped shows for air" "support duties" etc etc etc., basically grunt intern work. It's really inexcusible. I look forward to your response. (9/17/07) Here's a company selling a table top HD radio for round and about $100. www.radiosophy.com... Can't attest to quality but hell I've been burned for more than $100 manys a time at the auto repair shop. is this company owned by ibiquity?......... read that marc fisher piece on wamu changing music to hd radio channel, boy that general manager karen(no i won't make allowance for the whacky spelling of her first name which seems soooooo popular these days) mathes middle name ain't "shoveling the bull" is it? ...which is more annoying the Farrish suzuki tv infomercial or the Ted Britt suzuki infomercial...hey how about Da Bear on the Ted Britt infomercial or the chicken legged blondie in the Farrish info?....i think ole red rouge Kristoll Koons should start doing an infomercial! The Koons family doesn't own the land that JKJ Chevrolet has been on all these years in Tysons Corner?.....this seems to be McPaper celebration weekend on C-Span tv, why is everyone so excited.the price rise sort of squashed any interest i had in usa today, haven't bought since they jacked the price, so little info worth a load....speaking of continuous fundraising on public tv, are there any legal limits to how much fundraising a public tv station can do?...........i understand dons and mikes will be making their triumphant return in late october, to avoid any ennuick references to rocktober but just in time to celebrate the annual and final edition of slo joe ardinger and his red wagon rinnging doorbells and asking for beer....happy hallowsweanies everybody, till then continue to enjoy the best of the don and mike show (9/17/07) Hey Dave, Isn't this the week D.C. media/sports legend Johnny Holliday turns 70? (Shocking!) Any celebrations planned? All The Best, Dave in Waldorf (9/17/07) Dave's response: Cool! Happy Birthday Johnny. I hear he's joining DC radio legend Paul "Davy Jones" Bicknell among the "70 and over set"..... /\ September 17 Messages /\ Jump to the Mailbag Archive Index.....