Current Mailbag - Mailbag Archive Index - DCRTV Front Page - Support DCRTV DCRTV Mailbag - July 16 to July 26, 2010 Latest messages listed first..... \/ July 26 Messages \/ The PPM's are out and your Mike O'Meara is where? Like I said talk too much and see what happens. Oh and if you talk make sure it's something people want to listen to. (7/26/10) To quote ACH, "Will make this brief....In all of 2009 both the MSNBC and CNN websites had substantially more visitors per month than FOX www.stateofthemedia.org. More than double in the case of MSNBC." Well, if you read the study, you would see the following: "Why the disparity between the two companies’ measurements? MSNBC’s Web audience ranking may be more favorable according to Nielsen because that measurement firm bundles the outlet’s Web brands into one, but does not do so for other outlets, including CNN and Fox. " I wonder what the numbers would be if all the Fox websites were similarly bundled (Fox Sports, Fox News Radio, etc...). The Nielson numbers are panel-based, BTW, not actuals. Anywho, by the numbers en macro, you are correct, but the snideness is misplaced. Bob in Forest Hill (7/26/10) I worked a "townie" AC the first two years of my career and never really minded the song "Beautiful Sunday". In fact, I banged out a synthesizer version of the song (no vocals) to use as my closing theme on WHEN(AM) Syracuse in 1988. Sounds really cool when done upbeat with no words. If I were to pick a couple of tunes from that era that still puckers my starfish today, I'd say "You Take My Breath Away" (Rex Smith), "Wildfire" (MM Murphy), everything by Helen Reddy, and "Please Don't Go" (KC/Sunshine Band). There's more, but I'll yield the floor to others who have their own 'faves'. - Al P. (7/26/10) Looks like the new PD at WMMJ is bring in people that she previously worked with. Plugged in the battery operated boom box while the power was out and got a chance to listen to WMMJ for an extended period Sunday afternoon into Sunday evening. 5-6 slow songs in a row on a Sunday afternoon makes the station sound way to sleepy for my taste. (7/26/10) Sorry, BG, you got it wrong! As one who was in a "storm center," monitoring the Watches and Warnings from NWS, I can tell you, factually, that NO Tornado Warnings were issued for the Washington DC Area. I even went back through the Weather Service history to double check. The nearest tornado warnings were for Garrett County MD. That "bow echo" traveled southeastward from PA and WV, across Deep Creek Lake, toward Keyser WV and Cumberland MD. It has not been confirmed as a tornado but, in all probability, was. Several eyewitness reports reported an observed funnel cloud on the ground. While much of the severe weather in our area contained some storm rotation, it was more like a "whirlwind;" a smaller tornado-like storm with winds below 75 mph. I also heard reports on WMZQ that were tracking the radar location of the storms and reporting major streets and roads with dark traffic signals and trees blocking the roads. They followed the storm progress from the WV/VA/MD line to southern MD and the Chesapeake Bay. I DO agree with you that WTOP seemed to drop the ball on their coverage. Their Metro Traffic reports didn't even seem to be on top of the Beltway blockage between Georgia and Connecticut Avenues. And, that one was big! MBE (7/26/10) Re: WTOP Sunday I learned that I cannot count on WTOP to bring me information during storm conditions. WTOP was not there when thousands of people turned to them for information. (7/26/10) Nats Ratings Up On MASN: Can't get the Gnats on the radio, so listen to the tv feed. (7/26/10) To quote someone about the 730/570 routine - "In the ratings you report, AM 730 places well ahead of WTNT" - AM 730 has placed well ahead of WTNT because in the weekly report that was just issued, AM 730 was airing ENGLISH LANGUAGE sports (World Cup Soccer) that was heavily promoted on ESPN 980. The same thing happened the 3 prior weeks. At times that it airs "ESPN Deportes", the station remains at a 0.0 rating. "AM 570 finishes behind stations barely audible out-of-town stations. (WNYC??)" WNYC-FM is what was noted in the weekly ratings, as was WSKQ-FM - both from New York City. This is what happens when an Arbitron panelist takes their PPM meter on a trip with them (which they are specifically told not to do) - and it registers numbers for out of market stations. This is not for their streams, but for their terrestrial signals. Arbitron claims this is "accurate listening" - but I 110 percent doubt that more people are listening to the terrestrial signal of WNYC-FM in the DC market than are listening to WLIF-FM's terrestrial signal. (7/26/10) Where's WNBC weatherman John Marshall? Is it true he was let go, replaced by that Domenica Davis chick? (7/26/10) Re...Watched former Fox 5 and Gurvir Dhindsa's husband Tom Sater doing the weather on Channel 9 this past Saturday a.m. Ron, Potomac Falls, VA ... and ?? You got a chubby ? (7/26/10) Will make this brief: In all of 2009 both the MSNBC and CNN websites had substantially more visitors per month than FOX www.stateofthemedia.org. More than double in the case of MSNBC. The old people who watch Fox tend to be less digital and many don't have computers which is perhaps the most logical explanation. ACH (7/26/10) The ratings reported on the DCRTV home page confirm what I thought when I saw your blurb about the errant "Oldies 730" signal. If I owned 570 and 730, as little Dee Snyder does, I'd flip 570 to oldies and leave 730 as is. 730 owns an exclusive niche in the DC market: Spanish-language sports. It's also got the backing of ESPN Desportes. On the other hand, AM 570 is one of at least four fulltime conservative stations in the DC market. Although none of these make much of dent in the ratings, all have the financial backing of major radio networks (Citadel, CBS and Salem),. In the ratings you report, AM 730 places well ahead of WTNT; AM 570 finishes behind stations barely audible out-of-town stations. (WNYC??) WTNT has an OK (though not great) 24-hour signal through much of the DC metro area, whereas AM 730 is daytime only. (I know it's licensed as a 24-hour station, but I believe the transmitter is turned off at night. I live in Mt. Vernon, where that frequency came in clear as a bell at night under previous ownership. Now, there's just static on AM 730 after dark.) Finally, a switch to Oldies will probably generate some ratings and even favorable press notice for Red Zebra, which rarely gets either. (7/26/10) It took WTOP a while to get on the storm coverage yesterday - I guess they caught off guard with it being a Sunday. Since my parents live in Silver Spring, which got the brunt of the storm, I tuned in hoping to get an update when I got in my car at 5:38 - I caught the end of the traffic report, a pre-recorded weather segment from Ron Riley, FIVE SOLID MINUTES of commercials, an abbreviated 1-minute sportscast at 5:45, two more minutes of commercials, then back to traffic. I bet they had to cram in all the commercials that got pre-empted earlier in the afternoon. I actually switched over to MIX during the extended commercial break on WTOP, and the DJ was passing along outage information from Pepco's website before they cut to a break - much more helpful than what WTOP was doing at the time. Also (and someone can correct me if am wrong), Ron Riley is NOT a meteorologist despite the fact that WTOP keeps referring to him by that title. He may be a weathercaster, but he does not have a meteorology degree, and therefore does not carry that title (Sue Palka is another example). His background is as a radio DJ. And while I have nothing against him, his breaking weather coverage was pretty lousy. He spent many years doing morning weather at Newschannel 8 (where he was never referred to as a meteorologist), but that job basically only involved reading the day's forecast. I'm sure that yesterday he was simply on the phone from his Howard County home (not the ABC7 weather center), and he didn't do a good job explaining where the storms were and where they were going and how fast they were moving. He also interspersed the terms "watch" and "warning," which DO NOT mean the same thing - in a dangerous situation (such as a possible tornado), it is imperative to get the terms correct. Montgomery County was under a Tornado Warning, not a Watch. On another note, it looks like Ron's former co-worker Kyle Osborne is out at Newschannel 8 since they finally removed his bio from their website. -BG (7/26/10) Right along with sop such as "Love Grows Where My Rosemary Goes" are a few others I never want to allow back into my head. "Beautiful Sunday" by Daniel Boone is one of them. Bobby Goldsboro gets nominated for two - "Honey" and "Watching Scotty Grow." Then there is "Sad Eyes" by Robert John. Those of us who did CHR radio back then are burdened for the rest of our lives with such ditties-from-hell... (7/26/10) Last week, the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) released a study saying that FOXNews.com was the highest-rated news website they have ever studied in 10 years at the University of Michigan, when it comes to customer satisfaction. But Fox’s domination of the news category was a bit overshadowed by the other big news in the study: people hate Facebook, which got media coverage all over the place while no one really picked up on the somewhat surprising result that FoxNews.com is beating the pants off of every other news website despite very public criticism and a well-known political bias. I thought based on your previous coverage of the media industry, you might be interested in the Fox angle. The ACSI rates the 6 biggest news websites: FoxNews.com, ABCNews.com, MSNBC.com, CNN.com, USAToday.com, and NYtimes.com in terms of customer satisfaction and uncovered that Fox outperforms all of those other sites by a huge margin. There are a few reasons why we think Fox does so well, and most of them have to do with who Fox’s audience is and what their expectations are like. There’s an in-depth post about the results of the study on news websites here if you want to hear our theories: bit.ly/cwqlk9 and you can download the whole report for free on our website here: www.foreseeresults.com.... (7/26/10) (clip) My Bob Schieffer as "chauffeur for Lee Harvey Oswald's mom" joke was strictly tongue-in-cheek. That's why I said to look it up. (end) Scheiffer, chauffer, what's the difference? They sound the same. This exchange reminds me of that great e-mail prank that went out a few years ago; the one that claimed that "gullible" was a made-up word and you won't find it in any English language dictionary in the world. Go on, look it up for yourself. You'll see... (7/26/10) Both facts on Bob Schieffer are incorrect; Mr. Schieffer did NOT call Oswald’s mother. Check your facts. To quote wikipedia “ Shortly after President Kennedy was shot in Dallas, while in the Star-Telegram office, he received a telephone call from a woman in search of a ride to Dallas. The woman was Marguerite Oswald, Lee Harvey Oswald's mother, whom he accompanied to the Dallas police station”. #1: Marguerite Oswald called the Star-Telegram (he didn’t have a HUNCH and call her) #2: Mr. Schieffer accompanied Mrs. Oswald her. He did NOT chauffer her Source: wikipedia.org (7/26/10) As long as we're gonna tell the Bob Schieffer story, let's tell it right, straight from his book. Bob was a newspaper reporter in Fort Worth the day JFK was shot and the place was a madhouse. In the midst of the bedlam, Bob fielded a phone call from a woman wanting a ride into Dallas. Bob blurted out something about the paper not being a taxi company, and besides, the president had been shot. "I know", replied the woman's voice, "and they think my son did it". "Where can I pick you up?" replied Bob. THEN they made the trip into Dallas. (7/26/10) Chris Van Kleave reported on the 630 news on channel 7 that Pepco has not returned their calls when they tried to get information about damaged power lines from today's storms. Yet, on News 4 at 6, Craig Melvin had no trouble doing an interview with Pepco spokesperson Clay Anderson, who (oh yeah) just happens to be a former meteorologist on Channel 4 years ago. (7/26/10) Chris Van Kleave reported on the 630 news on channel 7 that Pepco has not returned their calls when they tried to get information about damaged power lines from today's storms. Yet, on News 4 at 6, Craig Melvin had no trouble doing an interview with Pepco spokesperson Clay Anderson, who (oh yeah) just happens to be a former meteorologist on Channel 4 years ago. (7/26/10) Apparently Erica Hilary is taking a break from MIX107.3FM and Kristy McIntyre is filling in for a while. Kristy started last Monday, July 19. I wonder how long the break will be, her blog and name have been removed from the website. We wish her well. (7/26/10) I saw that Doug McKelway wasn't on the air this morning. So I went to the WJLA website this morning to see if Doug McKelway's talent bio was still there. It was. And it was right below a BP "We will clean this up" ad. Outstanding product placement! www.wjla.com (7/26/10) My Bob Schieffer as "chauffeur for Lee Harvey Oswald's mom" joke was strictly tongue-in-cheek. That's why I said to look it up. However, the definition for chauffeur in the dictionary is "to serve as driver for another" so technically the assertion is correct. Happy Monday to all. ACH (7/26/10) Watched former Fox 5 and Gurvir Dhindsa's husband Tom Sater doing the weather on Channel 9 this past Saturday a.m. Ron, Potomac Falls, VA (7/26/10) WRC (Web Radio Classics) is streaming again. The power outage lasted longer than our UPS. Finding us is easy on Live365. Type in Web Radio Classics or wrc_radio in the search bar. You can also go to www.webradioclassics.com and click on the LISTEN page. Not that hard...dunno why some had a hard time with it. Thanks for all the emails asking what happened to the stream. Just a nasty storm knocking out power. (7/26/10) RE: a previous post - Actually, no. WFDC is owned by Univision Communications and managed by Entravison Communications Corporation. The station you're thinking of is WZDC-CA, the Telemundo affilate, but they aren't owned by Telemundo, they are owned by ZGS Broadcast Holdings. I suggest you get your facts straight before you post anything else in this Mailbag, buddy. Andrew Fauver (7/26/10) "Fun fact: Bob Schieffer used to be the chauffeur for Harvey Lee Oswald's mom. It's true--look it up! . ACH" Wrong. He was not her chauffeur. On a hunch he called her house and she said that she needed a ride to the Dallas Police Headquarters. Mr. Schieffer picked her up and drove her downtown and put her in an interview room and got the first interview with her before the detectives did. (7/26/10) /\ July 26 Messages /\ \/ July 25 Messages \/ comcast woes. i subscribed to the digital package for $99.00 with the device they sent, i cannot get the mhz channels and many ore, i complained but no answer instead i got a bill for the full amount even though the internet itself was not working-. I called and called no answer, so I went to the comcast store on michigan avenue where they told me they dont give credit they only accept payments and equipment returns. so i paid $100 dollars off my phone bill only for comcast to discontinue my service the next day. so i went to radio shack bought me the hd receiver and an amplified tuner and now i am getting 53 free to air channels compared to my 13 basic from comcast and as for the internet , i called verizon and i am now enjoying verizon broadband by way of my telephone line and some filters and a modem... (7/25/10) I don't know if anyone's mentioned this yet, but if the new COMCAST/NBC/UNIVERSAL were forced to sell NBC owned local stations, wouldn't that also include WFDC 14 UNIVISION, which would put not one but TWO DC TV stations on the market for the first time in decades? Might ABC/DISNEY and CBS be interested in both? And I wonder, if CBS were to buy WRC 4, might that put them over the limit for the # of TV stations they can own (by % in the U.S.) forcing them to sell a smaller market station like, say, Baltimore's WJZ 13 ? Now that series of events would make for some potentially very interesting network swaps in both markets. Hmmmm. (7/25/10) Fun fact: Bob Schieffer used to be the chauffeur for Harvey Lee Oswald's mom. It's true--look it up! But he wasn't in Soylent Green though lookalike Chuck Connors was (not to mention Don and Mike foil, Dick Van Patten!) That's all I got--time to watch Mad Men. ACH (7/25/10) Re: 107 Hot Denver...after reading a number of posts on other sites about KDHT HOT 107 I decided to check them out online the other day since that station is getting somewhat of a national buzz as to what many feel as to what a top 40 station in 2010 should sound like and yes I have seen posts saying from those who say how much they wish Hot 99.5 and Z104.3 would be more like Denver's HOT. Anyway I promise myself I would spend one hour checking them out online. Lets see here within the first ten minutes I heard liners like "..playing the god damn hits...Denver's New HOT 107.1" and "..the bastard step child of Denver radio..HOT 107.1". A promo featuring the Denver Nuggets that started off with "...hey man what the FUC*". During the hour I heard 10 ads, five ads for local Denver medical pot centers and two for local adult bookstores "SALE ON POPPERS !!" and the rest for bars. Oh the jocks...a midday girl who called herself "..the bitch of the midday" and an afternoon guy who said on the air that he just had a prince albert done on himself ( hint..this has nothing to do with pipe tobacco )....and to think that there are those who wish that DC's Hot 99.5 would sound like Denver's Hot 107? Hell NO....let Hot 107 stay in Denver. And to think I had always thought of Max Media as being such a conservative radio group. (7/25/10) Web Radio Classics (WRC) is a great idea. Unfortunately, Live365 is the most user-UNFRIENDLY site on earth. I couldn't find the station, using their so-called "search" tools. Why not put a working link on the Web Radio Classics site that can be clicked and will launch the station for an MP3 player. Better yet, add Web Radio Classics to the iTunes Radio list, so it can be launched from there?!? (7/25/10) I don't remember Bob Schieffer in "Soylent Green". Was that the Director's Cut? (7/25/10) OK, what is going on?? I'm one of the 5 people who listen to WTNT's Bill Handel's show "Handel on the Law." This afternoon (Sunday, 7/25) the station is inserting little snippets of the Ed Schultz (SP?) show during the breaks of the Handel show. I suppose it could be a computer error, but this seems a little to associated to the Handel breaks to be an mistake. (7/25/10) With all the talk of oldies...here's a release from last July 4th: Friends: 11 years ago the WRC tribute website (www.98wrc.com) was launched. It has been a tremendous success and I want to thank everyone who visited, spread the word about it, or contributed audio or photos. Now we have gone one step further and started an internet radio station. We call it Web Radio Classics (WRC). Hope all of you will give us a listen. We are playing everything from the 1950s to the 1980s with a deeper playlist than your typical oldies station. Those who remember the Great 98 may recognize some of the voices. We are also very happy to be able to bring you some vintage Joy Boys material. You can find us at www.webradioclassics.com (still under development) iPhone & iPod touch users: You can install the free live365 app to listen but I don't recommend it. Either Pocket Tunes or oo Tunes give much better results. Thanks and happy listening! (7/25/10) Top 40 is the hottest format right now? Maybe so but in this market top 40 still means Clear Channel..in other words "top forty..the way it was". Sorry but one can't really do the same type of CHR today they way it was done back in say 1987 when Q107, WAVA, K106, B106, B104, Z104, WKMZ "Power 97.5" and so many others were doing that format. Really the only way Clear Channel would change their top 40 ways in this region would be for some other "unknown" company like Max Media if they would come in and take over a station around here, but I don't see that happening anytime soon. Not sure how Max does it with Norfolk's Hot 100.5 but in the case of Max Media's Hot 107.1 out in Denver last I heard they are doing quite well. What makes Hot 107.1 work is the young jocks in the 20's and early 30's ( no 40 year old trying to re-live his/her childhood ), NO WEATHER & TRAFFIC info at all outside of morning drive ( kids can get that stuff online ), lots of celebrity fluff, catering to events that strictly is for the under 35 crowd, no PSAs unless its to support medical marijuana and gay rights, commercial free Mondays, etc... As Hot 107.1's GM ( maybe it was their PD ) had said not that long ago in the Denver Post.."its not how often you talk or what you do on the air that matters but how many friends you have on your Facebook page". And the way so many young people are into such things like Facebook and Twitter and the like, he just may have a point there. (7/25/10) Johnny Nickname, no signature, checked in with: "(regarding a previous post) "you should find the nearest Ethical Suicide Parlor ASAP, Slick" I'm not sure why you think I'd want to do myself in just because I knew who was in the film and you didn't. That really is an interesting suggestion you made - I mean, out of the blue and all. Unless, of course, suicide is something that's been on your mind lately. Do you need to talk anything out? It really does help and people usually discover that whatever's going on isn't so bad that it warrants taking such a drastic step." I'm very much in favor of suicide for other people. I hear it's painless and brings on many changes. I myself can take or leave it if I please, and I choose to leave it... for others. You're kind of passive aggressive. There are hotlines for that sort of issue, Sunshine. Sadly there are no hotlines for people who don't know the writings of the late(?) great Kurt Vonnegut, on which the suicide scene in Soylent Green was based. And the suggestion wasn't out of the blue at all; it was totally in context. Time 4U to go back to jacking to Jack. Adults are talking, and I'm with people! - ZombieWoof (7/25/10) For Jimmy Dean fans only... This may be his last public appearance. (He comes on stage at the 2:30 point. The real purdy gal dressed in blue is his wife.) Although he lost his mobility towards the end, by golly, he was still smart as a whip! (7/25/10) Hey, Silvie...I don't think it was Aaron Gilchrist that appeared in the 20/20 story...it was Keith Garvin, who used to be with Channel 4, but your point is the same anyway. -- Bobbie (7/25/10) (regarding a previous post) "you should find the nearest Ethical Suicide Parlor ASAP, Slick" I'm not sure why you think I'd want to do myself in just because I knew who was in the film and you didn't. That really is an interesting suggestion you made - I mean, out of the blue and all. Unless, of course, suicide is something that's been on your mind lately. Do you need to talk anything out? It really does help and people usually discover that whatever's going on isn't so bad that it warrants taking such a drastic step. (7/25/10) (Quote) What in the world is the matter with "Love Grows Where My Rosemary Goes"? (End) The comment references a time a few years ago when WCTN-AM (Potomac-Cabin John MD) was formatted for oldies. There was a certain predictability to the music, as if long sets were prerecorded and replayed as blocks; or there was just a limited music library and certain formatic checks weren't in place in the playback computer. Either way, the classic Edison Lighthouse hit was played with aggravating frequency nearly every day - in one case, three times in a 45-minute period. A series of postings both pro and con hit the DCRTV mailbag during that period. (7/25/10) Last siting of Christieann Klein was on World News Now ABC overnites but I'm thinking that was almost a year ago. I guess former channel 7er Suzanne Roberts is no longer with CBS. No longer see her doing reports from Washington on CBS Up To The Minute overnights. Boy that racket is tough. I haven't seen former channel 9er Terry Okita on CBS news in awhile. She too had a lot of reports from West Coast aired on CBS Up To The Minute. 730 am playing oldies again a pox upon them. they'll drop it in 6 months when they find enough Latinos to pay for programming again. the werdless. (7/25/10) Nothing at all wrong with 1970's Edison Lighthouse's "Love Grows Where My Rosemary Goes:. A fine Pop song though lead singer TonyBurrows' other endeavors (Brotherhood Of Man's "United We Stand" and The Pipkins "Gimme Dat Ting" (remember "The Benny Hill Show?) + White Plains "My Baby Loves Lovin" ere all decent tunes. In addition to his time spent as an employee of Apple Corp working for The Beatles as a Press Officer. A fascinating guy. Rusty Gibson (7/25/10) Dave's response: Oh, to the person (TG?) who keeps sending me the same web clipping over and over in the mail about Rusty, please stop. I know all that. New DCRTV policy: All postal mail addressed to me without a return address or without a valid return address goes straight into the trash - unopened..... 1) Saw NBC4 weekend morning anchor Aaron Gilchrist's face appear in a segment about local news coverage of the Redskins cheerleader suffering from complications after an H1N1 vaccine last year on "20/20" this past Friday night, on ABC-7. I would've thought that they'd use a local ABC affiliate anchor for that. 2) WELCOME BACK, CHRIS PLANTE! -Silvie- (7/25/10) "(regarding a previous post) Hate to break it to you Sparky, but E.G. Marshall wasn't in "Soylent Green" Like so many who post here, you have no goddamned idea what the hell you're talking about." Thanks for the heads up, Chief. Good catch, Slim. So I got my E.G.'s mixed up from a movie I saw in 1973. Doesn't affect my basic point, which is that both Bob Schieffer and you should find the nearest Ethical Suicide Parlor ASAP, Slick. Oh yeah, Eric Holder is a racist. - ZombieWoof ("Sparky") (7/25/10) /\ July 25 Messages /\ \/ July 24 Messages \/ Thea and her peeps should stop walking around pounding their chests about being so good. What they should be doing is walking around in fear that someone else doesn't flip to Top 40. Everyone in the industry knows right now that Top 40 is the hottest format going (no pun intended). The truth is, Ryan Seacrest doesn't add anything. Toby Knapp is a horrible DJ and doesn't add anything. Kane's show has some moments, but is far from one of the better shows on in the morning. In almost every other market where there is a Top 40 station, another has come along and hurt the original. the same thing should happen here. They know that Top 40 is going through another hay day like it did in the 1980's, just before the grunge movement. No one is tuning into Hot to hear Toby or Kane or Seacrest or that horrible thing on at night. They are tuning in to hear the hottest format in the country. If Thea was so damned smart as a program director and head of programming, why can't she fix BIG 100 and WMZQ. WASH and DC101 have done well prior to her arrival. WASH is THE at office station. DC101 is built around Elliot. Thea got HOT fixed when Top 40 exploded. Hopefully some real top 40 competition comes to town and all their inflated egos will hit the street. Until then, everyone will walk around HOT with ego's as big as Thea's ass. (7/24/10) I turned on 730 AM as soon as I read of the supposed format flip, around 6:00 this afternoon, and there was still what sounded like Spanish-language sports programming. 730 is broadcasting the Nationals game right now, I believe. If there was a flip then RZ haven't done a good job of publicizing it, as the old website www.espndeportes730.com is still up with no changes. (7/24/10) What in the world is the matter with " Love grows where my Rosemary goes".? JohnnyuinHanover,Pa. (7/24/10) (QUOTE) Oldies playing now on AM 730..."Hey There Lonely Girl" and "Summertime Blues" (END QUOTE) Pleasepleasepleaseplease DON'T play "Love Grows Where My Rosemary Goes". (7/24/10) To Finn Grove, and his dubious analogy of corporate radio to socialism: www.youtube.com... Sincerely, TMU. (7/24/10) Ah those Forbes lists..Guess what? Hello...ya gotta take them with a grain of salt as they are NOT always, well right. For example according to one of those Forbes Lists that I saw online a few weeks ago it had said that both LAS VEGAS and DETROIT have the best ecomony in the US right now. Yeah right !! Forbes last year had also said in one of their "lists" that INDIANAPOLIS is America's most gay friendly metro area. I have no idea how they got that info. On the flip side awhile back Forbes did say that Denver has America's "best radio". Could be true since they have KOA, Dom & Jane, Lewis & Floorwax, Slacker & Steve while DC is still stuck with WMAL, Jack Diamond and the Sports Junkies. Also Denver isn't scared of getting rid of the old and trying out new blood in their place either, sorry but one can't say the same with DC. Anyway I didn't catch this Forbes list about the Skins & Ravens so I can't comment about that but to be on safe side when it comes to Forbes and their "lists"..take it with a grain of salt, somebody "could" be getting a kickback or something. (7/24/10) Oldies playing now on AM 730... which normally plays Spanish language sports is playing the oldies right now. "Hey There Lonely Girl" and "Summertime Blues" have been among the songs. They just ran a jingle saying "Non-Stop Classic Hits, XTRA-AM". This is a good thing! ...Sam (7/24/10) In the forums of Hannity.com, I pointed out on Monday's Hannity's radio show at the 4:00 PM hour, he talked about Ms. Sherrod being racist. Hannity even had on radio Breitbart to tie in the New Black Panthers to this "breaking news." I linked the audio from a third party as to show validity. I posted that this appearance displays that Sean's declaration that she was fired before Hannity ran with it on his Fox News television show, therefore, Sean had no connection to her firing, is wrong. Within 20 minutes, I was banned from Hannity.com. MSNBC would never ban a poster for questioning their commentary. Hannity's crap can be heard on WMAL. (7/24/10) (I thought for a moment about that and saw that this sentence could be used to describe what has happened to radio, a socialist leveling.) Umm, last time I checked there were not too many socialists here owning radio stations. Tis pretty much a capitalist oligopoly. As to the world being unfair, for a lot of folks it is; currently, try the shrimpers on the Gulf Coast; try walking in someone else's shoes and learning a little empathy. (Shawn in DC). (7/24/10) Imagine how much fun Bob Mathers and his great staff would have if they ever talked WVIE into doing the same format with their daytime signal...Because baby boomers still have some AM loyalty, I see no reason why such a format, if carefully executed and financed, would not at least bring them up a good bit compared to the current 12+ numbers. Great to hear that Johnny and Jack are with TTR, now, how about RC? Tom Conroy (7/24/10) What happened to Christianne Klein, you ask? Just follow the magic wand! (7/24/10) Dave, even though your friend got a letter saying the apartment is getting wired for FiOS, that still does not mean she will get service. That letter is sent to everyone like a bulk mailing. Verizon will still pull her credit and still make the decision whether to deny service based on her credit history, and the unpaid bills are likely on her credit report. The "We're wiring you for FiOS" letter means nothing because everyone gets it. -Chainsman (7/24/10) These comments may inflame the perpetually inflamed, but I will share these thoughts anyway, needs to be said. I was reading a blog this morning about Net Neutrality and the author wrote this sentence 'Fairness does not demand a socialist leveling of everyone onto the lowest common denominator of service'. I thought for a moment about that and saw that this sentence could be used to describe what has happened to radio, a socialist leveling. Radio programming boiled down to what is barely acceptable, Everything is the same, same web site template, same programming, same personalities.. So I thought about many of the contributors to this site including the esteemed host and thought most you are dyed in the wool liberals, espousing and believing in some fashion or another that the world is unfair, the rich suck and even stoking the flames of class warfare. Stay with me here.. I took these thoughts a bit further and wondered, if you all are so committed to these principles, why are you angry about what has happened to radio? This is real life example of what socialism is. Socialism doesn't lift anything; it boils everything down to the lowest level so that all is equal. Sometimes, when everything is equal. doesn’t mean it’s good. Finn Grove, Oranjestad, Aruba (7/24/10) (regarding a previous post) Hate to break it to you Sparky, but E.G. Marshall wasn't in "Soylent Green" Like so many who post here, you have no goddamned idea what the hell you're talking about. (7/24/10) Dave's response: Charlton Heston, Joseph Cotten, Edward G. Robinson..... Someone mentioned Christiane Klein in their commen about Doug McElway..Anyone know what happened to her? I know at one time she was doing the overnght news, but I haven't seen or heard of her in awhile. (7/24/10) I am a big fan of Doug McKelway. He is a gentleman and a professional journalist. But I hate to say this. As well as I know the Allbrittons and how they treated Christianne Klein when she made reference to Princess Diana and "donkey ears" Prince Charles and his whore, Camilla a few years ago, I have a feeling that Doug is goner. I know that Allbritton is all about his image and money and doesn't give a rat's ass about people that work for him or if he ruins lives and careers in the process. All I have to say is karma is a bitch, Robert and Joe. What comes around goes around. I hope you will keep Doug on the air. I enjoy watching him, and he is a breath of fresh air in the mornings. But I know, your damn image will get in the way of this and of course it will fuck up another good career. And if Doug goes to another station, may he flourish in success. (7/24/10) Just have to say: Bob Mathers, Johnny Dark, and Jack Edwards - - that has to be fun listening. I know that Bob is lovin' it. Would be nice if it were on an FM in B-more and DC w/Larry Dean at night. I understand why big signal FMs think that kind of radio is no longer relevant, but for an AM in Westminster, wow. Jack and Johnny are gonna have fun. I was going to post something about the Sports Talk format, but I'll wait till next week to save them. Ed Graham (7/24/10) "Schieffer is a long time crony of the Bush family who used to attend Ranger baseball games with George W. and play cards with him at night. Schieffer's brother was named Ambassador to Australia by GWB, He may be out of touch but he's a Bush sycophant for life. ACH" Oh, come on. Who in the media or in normal life wouldn't hang out with a governor or president because of their political beliefs? Remember Hunter Thompson talking football with Nixon? "Bush sycophant for life"? Yeah, he didn't notice that Bush isn't president anymore. And don't try to tar him with his brother's brush, you racist. Look at Peter Hitchens and Christopher Hitchens. Same pod, different peas. Of course you're not actually a racist; like two bikers making out in a bar, I'm just scaring the squares, as I make out with you. On the other hand, some of our attorneys general have been racists. The current one? Not for me to say. Not a big fan of Nacht und Nebel. If "going to a farm" doesn't work for you, maybe Schieffer could do what E.G. Marshall's character did in Soylent Green. You might consider it yourself. - ZombieWoof (7/24/10) One of the Forbes list is a list of the most valuable sports franchises in the world not just the US. A post said the most successful(Skins would not be on such a list right now). For the Ravens to be the 15th most valuable sports franchise in the world at 1.08 billion dollars is a feat they are in a small sports market(medium size media market) with maxed out corporate money and have a small but still growing fan base. That is a well run sports business. (7/24/10) Dave: FCC regulations say that her apartment management or condo association CAN restrict where she puts the dish, but they CAN’T require her to put it in a place where it will not work! In a nutshell, THEY CAN’T LEGALLY DENY HER ACCESS TO THE SERVICE! Any restrictions on the location of the dish have to be compliant with that regulation. The limitations of the technology itself DOES come into play. The limit of cable lengths to 100ft etc. By law( YES FCC regulations DO have the force of law) Your friend in Reston CAN’T LEGALLY BE DENIED SATILLITE ACCESS! Keep in mind, restrictive covenants are contracts under STATE law. States DO NOT have the option of overriding or opting out of federal law, and any contract that violates federal law is null and void at the federal level! So, if she insists upon installing DirecTV or Dish network, she has federal law on her side. If she takes the approach of asserting her rights in the proper, non venomous way, and keep the arguments on a strictly technical and legal basis, not on a personal one, she will win nearly all of them. As for Comcast, once the old tenant is gone, and her name is on the new lease, it would be sad if she had to have the lease notorized, etc, she’s better off with DirecTV . If she tries to install it, and is denied the ability to do so, she should contact DirecTV. Their legal department will assist her. (7/24/10) /\ July 24 Messages /\ \/ July 23 Messages \/ Your friend in Reston with a west-facing apartment should be able to see the following stations over-the-air with a $29. Radio shack combo UHF/Hi-Band VHF antenna - unless perhaps she lives in a basement apartment. Point the antenna directly west and depress "scan" on the TV menu. WFPT PBS Frederick RF 28... WHAG NBC Hagerstown RF 26... WWPX ION Hagerstown RF 12... WHSV ABC Winchester RF 49 low-power translator... Juan (7/23/10) Re: What’s Going on at NBC4? Control Room Automation! A new system has gone online that has eliminated the camera operators, the graphics operator, and the floor director. The anchors are now in the studio by themselves, cues are given in their ears. A computer controls the cameras and graphics, that’s why the shots are not right and sometimes out of focus. All it takes is one thing to go wrong, and you have a snowball effect until the next commercial break when there is a chance to fix it. There is a steep learning curve associated with these systems and with summer vacations, some people may not be as familiar with the equipment as the regular staff which will sometimes lead to on-air miscues. (7/23/10) Props to Thea and the Crew at HOT 995. You can't buy that kind of advertising! Jerry Clifton would be proud ! (7/23/10) At about 2:30 this afternoon Chad Dukes suddenly blurted out (I paraphrase), "hey don't snap your fingers and wave in the face of the producer who has a board to run and a dump button to worry about, clown!". This was a thing where he thought he was off the air because it was in the middle of a segment. Was he bullying an intern or giving crap to management? Anyone else hear this? (7/23/10) What is going on in the NBC4 newsroom? Its bad enough that they've lost nearly all of their most senior on-air personalities only to replace them with nearly unintelligible buffoons (I'm looking at you, Craig "Mush Mouth" Melvin), but there's obviously some serious problems in the control room as well. I can't remember the last time I saw an NBC4 newscast that didn't suffer some sort of significant technical flub, story miscue, misread or teleprompter problem, camera issue, or all of the above. As a life-long loyal NBC4 news viewer who's about to jump ship to WJLA, I'm begging someone with the skinny to explain what the hell is going on over on Nebraska avenue. (7/23/10) Here is a slide show of two of Forbes most popular lists - 1. The Top 50 Most Successful Franchises in Sports - The Redskins are 4th and the Ravens are 15th overall. All of the NFL reams made the list. There were four international soccer powers, two F-1 teams, four MLB teams, and two NBA franchises making the list. www.forbes.com... 2. The Top 50 Top Earning Athletes - locally T. Sizzle (Suggs) of the Ravens is #10 (second overall) #25 is Big Albert of the Redskins. www.forbes.com... Just another service of the JIM WILLIAMS RESEARCH INSTITUTE - YOU CAN READ MY ANALYSIS OF BOTH LISTS IN THE SUNDAY EDITION OF THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER. Cheers, Jim (7/23/10) McKelway has had problems going back to his days at News 4. He can't ad-lib worth a darn and when he tries these very strange, sexist things come out of his mouth. At 4, I thought he was just plain dumb. He "looks" the part of TV anchor but he doesn't have the "smarts" to know what he can and cannot say on TV. His personal opinion is something he should keep to himself. For some reason, after all these years in TV, he still doesn't understand that HE is not the story. Doug is fine with reading the TelePrompTer without going off course. The minute he does, he gets himself into trouble. While I'm at it, what's the deal with Allison Starling? Every time she reads a sentence she ends with her voice on an up beat like she is asking a question. It's so annoying that I can't listen/watch her anymore. Why doesn't anyone at 7 hear this and get her a voice coach to work on it? Until she takes care of this flaw in her delivery she will never move beyond a local market. (7/23/10) Hey..nice to hear that Johnny Dark and Jack Edwards are back on the air (too bad I can't really pick up WTTR down here on the eastern shore)..but those folks up in Carol County have something good to listen to for sure! Wonder if WTTR would ever consider streaming their audio? Tom in Denton, MD (7/23/10) (No, but how about Comcast working with folks who are temporarily unemployed. They could keep your basic cable going while they work out a payment plan with you. Like Virginia Dominion Power did with my friend.....) I love you Dave but you're a bit off on this one. Cable TV is not a utility and should not be compared with someone's electric, gas and water. Telephone used to be in this group until competition arose after AT&T was busted up and technology allowed competition to flourish. Knowing her delinquent status with Comcast, your subject should have taken her other TV options into consideration when selecting her new digs. I can't stand the fascists at Comcast any more than you can, but this problem is not in their doing. (7/23/10) Did I mention that using rabbit ears in Altoona has helped me not rack up an outragious cable or satellite bill? That way I have a few extra dollars to pay the outragious electric and gas bill. If I didn't need the internet for business I would probably dump that too. The utility company helping a customer is one thing. They need electricity or heat. Helping to keep cable on? That money could be better served being used on food or gas. (7/23/10) Wow, I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who noticed Doug McKelway's blatant editorializing about the oil spill protests and energy legislation on ABC 7. I was tempted to write in to complain about his unprofessional report, but I guess I there's no need to now. In Doug's defense, it wasn't nearly as bad as some reports I've seen on Fox News, so he could always shift on over there if he's let go by Allbritton. (7/23/10) The passing of Mr. Schoor is very sad news. His son Jay was my lady's engineer when they worked together at Yale's college station. Rusty Gibson (7/23/10) NPR reporting the death of contributor Daniel Schorr, age 93. (7/23/10) I'd be quite interested in what Doug McElway said that resulted in his being pulled..I rarely watch ABC7, but I remember watching a couple of the Let's Talk show that he co-hosted and he tried to totally dominate the conversation and interviews. He also seemed somewhat confrontational with the guests and/or the co-host and just seemed like he was not happy..But then again, that was only for the couple of shows I saw, so I don't know how he was on a daily basis..And then while flipping the channels later on, I saw that he wasn't on there at all..Don't know if he was off those days or whether he had been pulled from that show as well.. (7/23/10) Yeah, I also need to say something about Bob Schieffer. Those 18 months or so between Rather being let go and the current CBS Evening News were the closest I can remember to Cronkite being at the helm. I actually looked forward to watching the news. I’m typically not up early enough on a Sunday to watch any of the talk shows, but when I am, it “Face The Nation” for me. Charles in Winchester. (7/23/10) Just curious, but would you or your friend expect Virginia Power to provide her electricity or Verizon to provide a phone if she had an unpaid balance from a previous period due to “recessionary unemployment”? I’m certainly no Comcast apologist as I dropped them over a year ago for FIOS, but why should Comcast be slammed for taking a stance that any other utility would take in the same circumstances? If she doesn’t pay her FIOS bill because she gets laid off again, should they keep giving her service too to avoid a Dave rant? (7/23/10) Dave's response: No, but how about Comcast working with folks who are temporarily unemployed. They could keep your basic cable going while they work out a payment plan with you. Like Virginia Dominion Power did with my friend..... KHZTV-Where the clock in the studio always reads Sacramento time. (7/23/10) I am amused by all the issues with digital TV and cable/satellite. We live in Altoona, PA and decided to just use rabbit ears. We get CBS, ABC, Fox and a Religious Channel. We don't watch TV much anymore. I thought the kids would be upset with losing Disney Channel. They found other things to do. Sometimes they even go outside and play. There was a time when we just got the networks and a couple of independents. I remember life before the VCR. I found myself really cutting down on the shows that used to be important to me. I can't DVR anything anymore. With hulu.com you can catch some of the shows after they've aired, but even with that I find myself not wanting to be staring at my computer to watch shows. The really good news part is that I have no idea what's going on with Lindsay Lohan. Something about jail. See how much peace you can have by not having television. (7/23/10) FCC called me today. WD2XAB is a valid license, renewed in March of 2010. (7/23/10) KHZTV - Where old DJ careers go to die. We're not called "Radio Hospice" for nothing, you know! (7/23/10) I have just watched the first two episodes of Covert Affairs on the USA Network. They acknowledge that most of it is filmed in Toronto, and only scene-setting shots are here in Our Nation's Capital itself. But having family in Toronto, I see so many things that make it seem not at all in Washington. Where do I start? A scene in "Union Station" actually is in Toronto's Union Station, completely with exit signs for Front St. A hotel entrance says Royal York Hotel, even though the establishment shot is of the Mayflower here. One scene shows two sets of perpendicular streetcar tracks for a couple of seconds, so it's not H St. NE. After supposedly going over the Arlington Memorial Bridge, a chase occurs on a huge elevated expressway with "90km/hr" signs on it. Then they chase each other some more under the Gardiner Expressway. The obligatory subway scene shows a Toronto Subway car going the wrong way (on the left), probably through the lower unused level of Bay St. station. A chase through the streets is so obviously a street with huge flowerpots along the center island (University Avenue); there is even a blue street sign hanging overhead. And their version of the Smithsonian Castle is apparently Toronto's Old City Hall which is about 5x the size of the real Castle with sweeping steps, gargoyles, huge overhead arches, and space for many hundreds of extras. I've been to parties in the real Castle. About 200 is the limit when a buffet table and a string quartet are the only accoutrements. The dialogue refers to the Bethesda Police Dept. but I understand that the show is fiction. But I'm also thinking that if a little budget cutting on the editing puts a well-written show with a good-looking actress as a CIA case officer on a version of NBC that at least isn't showing, "Fatsos and Idiots Sing Their Little Hearts Out", I'm happy. -- Carl in Olney (7/23/10) Anyone here remember the first time NBC intended to make the FCC happy by selling-off their DC properties in what was called "the largest swap-sale in broadcasting history?" And, yes, there was a Philadelphia connection to that deal as well! DCMemories.com (7/23/10) It seems very unfair to complain about Bob Schieffer's supposed biases. It's interesting to see mailbag complaints about him being both in the current administration's pocket and in the previous administration's pocket. Yes, his brother is a close friend and former business partner of GW Bush, but that says nothing either way about Bob. We should judge people by their words and works. Mr. Schieffer is probably the least biased or partisan of all journalists of his stature. He obviously has opinions, but from the books he has written and the way he is on Face the Nation, I personally believe he has the most integrity of almost everyone in the news business today. (In my opinion, Brian Williams is the closest in second place, but that's not whom I'm writing about today). So picking on Mr. Schieffer is the worst mistake anyone can make. -- Carl in Olney (7/23/10) RE: Dave's Rant... And just think Dave, the larger problem with the COMCAST/NBC UNIVERSAL merger is that VERIZON FIOS will then be beholden to COMCAST on pricing for all those cable channels. Won't that be a mess? This is why COMCAST doesn't care about its losing customers. Once they get this merger through, they can screw over VERIZON and withhold programming for higher fees and have a competitive advantage over their 3 main rivals (VERIZON, DISH and DIRECTV). And you think they won't immediately raise those fees and claim on paper that COMCAST is paying those networks the same fees? PuhLEASE! This is such a scam it's not funny. In my opinion, NO CABLE OPERATOR SHOULD OWN LOTS of CABLE CHANNELS, and especially not a monster like COMCAST! If it were VERIZON, I would say the exact same thing too. There's no doubt this will lead to higher fees for all the TV services. :-( (7/23/10) Arianna posted on facebook that today is her last day a WINC FM (92.5) (7/23/10) Congratulations to former WASH PD Steve Streit on yesterday's IPO of the company he founded, Green Dot. Bill Worthington www.cnbc.com (7/23/10) Dude, FYI my new "Indie" was in my driveway this morning, not in the mailbox. Enjoy the site. Thanks. (7/23/10) So does Robin MacNeil still have an ownership stake in the PBS Newhour even though he's been retired for years? Never understood all that high falutin' bidness stuff. MacNeil / Leherer produces the NewsHour but doesn't own it? Like Sesame Street, who owns that ? Does PBS have any ownership stake in that and thus gets some of the merchandising money? Wow the curse of the WTEM Redskin Beat reporter strikes again. Thing is Al Goldi didn't even get to start the preseason and he's already been undercut. This mention of Chris Russell being semi regular on Sports Reporters interests me. Is someone leaving the Sports Reporters? Surely someone is going to feel the budget ax at WTEM with the addition of Chris Russell. Btw, first hour of Sports Reporters the other day was an effing infomercial for some pest control nerdnick. What a load of crap! Think I'll take a rest from Sports Reporters till football season starts up. the werdless (7/23/10) Pages of yesterday's Loudoun Times-Mirror was scattered about the neighborhood. That's ok. Kids needed something to do......picking newspaper out of the bushes added extra money to their allowance. Today's Loudoun Indie was at the end of the driveway, under the Washington Post. Thought it was an extra Post advertising supplement and could be used to line the cat carrier for tomorrow's trip to the vet. Not a good start for the two largest papers in Loudoun. Ashburn Resident (7/23/10) The talking chickadee from today's Mark Trail. (7/23/10) Dave: I'll say this again, It's turning out that if you're looking for intelligent sportstalk, internet/HD radio is the way to go. I can get more intelligent Redskins commentary from WIP or WEEI rather than from WJFK or 980. I actually met Chris Russell during a WJFK function and he's the perfect 980 hire..listens to management and politically correct. Unfortunately, Al Galdi's a good guy but his delivery just doesn't work on radio. It's quite evident 980 has a talent problem and it's a train-wreck from 12p-7p. I've read the Andy Pollin posts and for the most part, I agree. However, when the "troops" get out of control and let their ego's run wild, it's up to your field generals to keep things in-line. Obviously, there's no one cracking the whip at 980. Here's a funny, they air a Mervis promo for a big trip next February and Pollin's going? Will he still be at 980 in February? (7/23/10) Core Values My Ass! I remember when Chris Core jumped on the Drudge's Kerry Affair post, saying "Drudge usually gets it right." And Chris promised to apologize for airing the slander if Drudge was wrong; Drudge was wrong, Chris refused to apologize. Remember when Chris insisted we shouldn't have a holiday for Martin Luther King? Funny how Chris used the term "main street media" instead of the more precise"Fox News," or even more precise "Sean Hannity." (7/23/10) Note to Zombie Woof: Bob Schieffer in the "current administration's pocket?" Stop. Schieffer is a long time crony of the Bush family who used to attend Ranger baseball games with George W. and play cards with him at night. Schieffer's brother was named Ambassador to Australia by GWB, He may be out of touch but he's a Bush sycophant for life. ACH (7/23/10) Sorry to say, but it's time for Bob Schieffer to "go live on a farm" if you know what I'm saying. The New Black Panther Party story has been in the mainstream media papers for months. His staff should probably "go live on a farm" with him since they didn't bring it to his attention. Maybe Schieffer is one of those cowards who are afraid to talk about race that Eric Holder told us about. I like Mr. Schieffer, but he's a racist by omission, and in the current administration's pocket. Maybe he should be replaced by Bill Kamal... shouldn't he be out of jail by now? He could go back to rocking the short-shorts. That would get ratings. - ZombieWoof (7/23/10) The Parade of Amazing Talking Animals continues today in the "Mark Trail" comic strip in the Washington Post. In today's exciting installment, a giant chickadee has been dispatched to retrieve a child's pet. Is there nothing Mark and his menagerie cannot do? (7/23/10) TBD: Torture, Bondage, Dismemberment. Bloggers beware! Big old Allbritton will be taking your news and you won't be fairly compensated. Just you watch. (7/23/10) That's our paper tiger FCC for ya! What a nothing concession. It's possible that Comcast doesn't even want the local TV stations since so many local TV stations are scraping to make money. It' all the other profitable entities that they really want. Further proof the FCC is nothing but a complete joke. What also amazes me is that no competitors to NBC/Universal have filed complaints because are scared to death of retribution from the cable giant. That right there is enough reason to turn down this merger. It's anti-competitive on a huge scale. (7/23/10) On Monday at 4:51 PM Foxnews.com bragged "The Agriculture Department announced the resignation shortly after FoxNews.com published its initial report." So, Ms. Sherrod resigned after Foxnews.com published their hit job, and Glenn Beck's producer and a Foxnews.com producer called the USDA for comment, but before O'Reilly went on the air, according to Foxnews.com. Therefore, Chris Plante was wrong when he said that she resigned before Fox News reported the story. Chris Plante's crap can be heard on WMAL. (7/23/10) The Sherrod fiasco... The subject of today's Core Values at www.wtop.com... Fnd his photo and click. As good as Kurtz...and a whole lot shorter! (7/23/10) Hey, Dave, No copy editors for TBD: In Washington, for example, the deep-pocketed Robert Allbritton, whose company funds Politico as well as the local ABC affiliate and an all-news cable outlet, is preparing to launch a hyperlocal website, TBD, led by General Manager James M. Brady, formerly executive editor of washingtonpost.com, and Erik Wemple, former editor of the Washington City Paper. "TBD at its inception will employ no editors whose sole function is copy editing," Wemple told Journal-isms by e-mail on Wednesday, speaking of those once called "the last line of defense." "We screened our editors for copy skills by administering a copy-editing test to each one. Those whom we hired did quite well on it. We'll rely heavily on those skills from the start, but as with any web-first or web-only operation, we'll need our reporters to deliver clean copy in every blog post and article. Would we prefer to have a squadron of copy editors? No doubt. Faced with a choice between hiring copy editors or reporters, though, we went with the latter. We'll leave it to you and others to judge how smart an idea that was." www.mije.org... Cheers, Richard (7/23/10) /\ July 23 Messages /\ \/ July 22 Messages \/ For the few who chimed in to NOT like Kevin and Rock you sure must listen plenty in order to give an opinion. I guess in the end that’s all they need. Is for you to keep listening. –Impaired Retard (7/22/10) "Not only was [Chris Russell] a good Skins beat reporter, but he is one of the few people in local radio that can talk Capitals intelligently and was happy to do so. That skill, of course, will be wasted on the notoriously anti-Caps ESPN 980." Apparently Russell once hosted sports talk radio in Buffalo, where in depth hockey knowledge is probably a requirement for the job - not an optional skill that almost seems to be frowned upon in DC sports radio circles despite the Caps' recent success both on the ice and at the box office. He also did some work for both the hockey and baseball talk channels on XM prior to joining WJFK when it flipped to an all sports format a year ago. During Russell's appearance on Sports Fix today, Kevin Sheehan introduced him as the station's new co-beat reporter (with Al Galdi) for the Redskins and also announced that Westwood One broadcasts of NFL games are back on 980 (after being carried by WJFK last year). So who takes over as Skins beat reporter on 106.7 The Fan? - an obvious candidate would be Frank Hanrahan who had that assignment at WTEM until earlier this year. I didn't get around to weekend programming in my two earlier sports radio overview posts, but Galdi anchors 980's rather limited local presence (outside of Redskins game days) with a 9 AM to noon show on Saturdays that covers a lot of territory and provides a much needed forum for area baseball fans. He comes on right after Phil Hawes' one hour golf show which I believe is the longest running program on the station. WJFK provides much more locally produced content on weekends - a competing Saturday golf show hosted by Kevin Allen followed by Brian Mitchell and Scott Jackson recreating their old WTEM program (obviously Skins oriented) from 10 AM to 2 PM. Keeping track of exactly when Kevin & Rock are on the air isn't that easy - what they don't seem to realize is that all levity, all the time can start to become a turnoff especially when dealing with serious topics. Are the two unrelated Parkers (Alex and Julie) from Channel 7 still doing that Sunday show on 106.7? A syndicated baseball program co-hosted by Phil Wood airs 4-6 PM on Sundays. Overnights on WTEM and WJFK are filled by national programming from ESPN Radio and Fox Sports Radio, respectively. Mike, Fairfax (7/22/10) Kapugi COO?...really? I wonder who he has naked photos of. (7/22/10) Been listening to Don Geronimo's show on KHTK in Sacramento via the interweb... anyone else notice his new side kick "Carmicheal Dave" is sounding more and more like Mike O' Meara every day? (7/22/10) "you’re still watching, and you’re the anonymous one! Way to go..zunt!" -Still watching? No. The eye candy at noon is gone. Signed, The Catalyst (7/22/10) Been out of town, no Erica in the AM show. Saw some mid June talk about her leaving, any update? (7/22/10) Dave's response: She's gone from 107.3..... "Ed Graham...You honestly consider unknown disc jockey Paul Bicknell on the same level as Ghandi and Mother Teresa? Are you f**king delusional?" Maybe, but I knew that you would react. Just having fun with you. ...and you seem to have a great sense of humor. Ed (7/22/10) John Angelos or someone at MASN needs to tell Rob Dibble to STFU. For heaven's sake, it's television. It is NOT necessary to be mindlessly talking every second the play-by-play announcer is silent. Blabbity, blabbity, blah, blah, blah! Let the video carry the story occasionally. The only thing worse than Dibble was Ray Knight when he was filling in for Dibble last weekend. Non-stop yap, yap, yap! Knight needs to be reminded he's playing the role of color commentator. Every comment does not have to be a coaching tip. Bob Carpenter deserves much better than either of these yahoos (and please don't suggest Phil Wood, Byron Kerr or Grandpa Holliday). And the City Paper note that Dibble has more than 30 tattoos explains why he's always wearing long sleeves, even in 90 degree plus weather. (7/22/10) Reading the comment about "zunt" made me think of another moribund word from the past...."HINKY". Just watch any episode of Dragnet (b&w or color version) and you'll likely hear Joe Friday utter it at least once. Bill Gannon (7/22/10) Ed Graham...You honestly consider unknown disc jockey Paul Bicknell on the same level as Ghandi and Mother Teresa? Are you f**king delusional? (7/22/10) R-O-B Dibble ......Jeezuss (7/22/10) Dave's response: Sheesh. Ron Dipple. That's close enough. Look, I took a long walk in the heat this morning, came back and overdosed on caffeine-laden soda, and then was trying to fix a fucked-up printer. Brain kinda fried at the moment..... Geronimo showing new talents as he makes the rounds of AM TV shows in Sac. This visit apparently went better than one earlier this week at "Good Day Sacramento", which he slams mercilessly here (video @ www.fox40.com). (7/22/10) Dave, Didn't know if you'd care or not, but this is in AllAccess today. "Big changes at heritage DELMARVA Top 40 WSTW/WILMINGTON, DE, as veteran morning host DANA MCDONALD and afternoon ace ROB ACAMPORA have both exited. DANA's former co-hosts, NANCY JOHNSON and SPENCER, continue to host the WSTW MORNING SHOW, while night jock JO ALAN moves up to afternoon drive. DANA MCDONALD had been with WSTW for 17 years. Reach him at (302) 753-7269 or danamcdonalddj@aol.com. ROB ACAMPORA, a nine-and-a-half year WSTW vet, can be reached at (908) 839-0472." (7/22/10) Did I really just see someone use the term "zunt" in the mailbag? That term hasn't been "in" since the 1950's. (7/22/10) Talk about piling on. First GQ rips DIBBLE then you refer to him as DIPPLE. (7/22/10) Ron Dipple? What are you, gay? Rob Dibble, Nitz. (7/22/10) Dave's response: Sorry, I'm dyslexic and distracted - trying to fix a printer this afternoon. "P" and "B" kind of look a like, huh..... I agree that Kevin and Rock are an embarrasment. I guess that's ok for a weekend daytime show when few are listening and fewer really care. But the other week when they filled on for the 7:00 pm weekday slot, they were terrible and I almost felt embarassed for the station. They make the Junkies sound like an NPR intellectual roundtable. (7/22/10) It's interesting that we haven't heard from PLB in the mailbag. He has been busy programming and developing the syndication for KHZTV. There are several top 10 markets that could happen soon. Seems they are trying to offer syndicated product to AM stations in markets where AM can still get a few people. He's like Ghandi, Mother Teresa, or Scott Shannon. I wish him luck. Ed Graham (7/22/10) "For the Maddow blowhard...I actually went to watch the video - she lost me as she opens defending ACORN...""...lack of credibility, and ignoring important stories like the ACORN story..." There is plenty of evidence out there, if you want to look or care for balance, that the tapes shown ad nauseum on Fox were terrifically edited to make the participants look bad. In San Diego, the gentleman who spoke with the the two zealot "journalists" immediately phoned a police official he knew once they left his office. He ended up getting fired based on the clip Fox broadcast anyway. ACORN wasn't perfect and some of their individual employees may have stepped over the line somewhere at some time, but the organization didn't do much of what Breitbart and Fox claimed and didn't deserve to be put out of business based on a witchhunt. Howie (7/22/10) "Did you know it was the Bush administration's Justice Department -- not the Obama administration -- that made the decision not to pursue criminal charges against members of the New Black Panther Party for alleged voter intimidation at a polling center in Philadelphia in 2008?; No you didn’t, because you listen to Hannity and Fox News." Actually I'm one of the "wingnuts" who not only knew that but also know the reason why. In case you don't, (and that's very likely the cause here) there were two avenues that the DOJ could have pursued against the NBPP, criminal and civil. The Civil route was chosen by the Bush DOJ because it would have led to results against the NBPP in a quicker fashion than the criminal route would have. There was another election coming up in Philadelphia in May of this year so quick action against the NBPP was needed. However, after achieving victory in the civil case, our Dear Leader's DOJ dropped the case and forfeited the win over the NBPP because of a new policy from Dear Leader's Political Appointees to not prosecute black defendants in these kinds of cases (as well as refusing to enforce the purging of voter rolls of those who have moved out of the precinct or have died. Two well-known and fanstastic avenues for voter fraud.) But keep playing your cutesy little semantical games try to trick us "stupid knuckle draggers." I'm sure you'll find some way to blame Bush for us calling you out on that one too. (7/22/10) Rachel Maddow nails Fox News with timeline, video clips! – I watched about 15 minutes of her show last night. Not sure why but maybe because the Brewers were getting their ass kicked so I decided to channel surf. I really don’t know how anyone can watch that on a regular basis. It felt like I was in a college lecture hall, with some disinterested professor droning on and the clock couldn’t move fast enough. It wasn’t enlightening. It was intellectually dishonest, uninspiring, and not the least bit entertaining. I’m willing to listen to an opposing view but don’t put me to sleep and at least be honest and fair in your presentation. (7/22/10) I have to respond to the poster who advocated "Kevin and Rock" get a full time gig on 106.7. I stumbled upon that show one weekend and thought it was the worst talk show I ever heard. Not just worst sports talk show, but worst talk show of any type. It seemed like the target of that audience was not just adolescents but mentally impaired adolescents. If 106.7 EVER gave that show a prime slot, it would lose all credibility as a serious sports station. (7/22/10) Snippet(anonymously, of course)-AHHHHHHHH, at least he’s working and you’re still watching, and you’re the anonymous one! Way to go..zunt! (7/22/10) re: Chris Russell Jumps From JFK To TEM - He won't be missed. He's a beat reporter at best, and that's what he'll be doing on the Dannyboy Radio Network. I heard the offer that he couldn't turn down included VIP passes to Six Flags and unlimited shakes at Johnny Rockets. He did some fill-in for the evening show and was Terrible! No personality + no entertainment value = no ratings. I think Dannyboy's people liked him enough because he always was able to talk Redskins without calling out management or Dannyboy much. He'll fit in just fine. Next - JFK will need to figure out that Rohland should be the next one to walk the plank. He's no good either. Kevin and Rock have good energy and are a much better option for nights than the dullard that is Rohland! (7/22/10) "Chris Russell not Chris Russo is moving from WJFK to WTEM." Sadly, his real name is Chris Russo. And getting into the sports radio business, he had to change his name because of the other well known Chris Russo. It's like an actor whose real name is Michael J. Fox. You know you'll have to change your name! (7/22/10) OK Facts; we know Foxnews.com and Glenn Beck’s producer called the USDA for comment on this employee’s “racist remarks” late Monday morning, hours before O’Reilly’s 5:00 PM taping. We don’t know if O’Reilly or Hannity even bothered. “You are going to be on Glenn Beck tonight” is what Ms. Sherrod was told on the phone by a USDA official.” Foxnews.com confirmed the attempt with this blurb, posted before noon, Monday; "Days after the NAACP clashed with Tea Party members over allegations of racism, a video has surfaced showing an Agriculture Department official regaling an NAACP audience with a story about how she withheld help to a white farmer facing bankruptcy.” And "FoxNews.com is seeking a response from both the NAACP and the USDA." (writing style is suspiciously similar to Hannity's approach, more on Hannity in a minute) “Fox Nation” reported the story at approximately 1:40 PM, with this headline “Caught on Tape: Obama Official Discriminates Against White Farmer". Monday afternoon, Hannity went obnoxiously wild on his radio show about the video, and linked this “racism” with the NAACP’s Tea Party comment, and the New Blank Panther nonsense. Breitbart, (surprise! Wow, how did he get that booking so fast?), was a guest on the radio show to discuss this video. About the same time (the 4:00 PM Hour) , Drudge posted this link ”Shock; Video Suggests Racism at NAACP event.” Hannity on his radio show said he would “show the video” on his Fox News show that night. Audio here fishwrangler.blogspot.com. So, the claim that she was let go before O'Reilly taped his show is dubious at best; it was a manufactured news piece trying to paint the Obama administration as “racist.” Did you know it was the Bush administration's Justice Department -- not the Obama administration -- that made the decision not to pursue criminal charges against members of the New Black Panther Party for alleged voter intimidation at a polling center in Philadelphia in 2008?; No you didn’t, because you listen to Hannity and Fox News. Sean Hannity is a great American. Get your Freedom Concert tickets at hannity.com. Buy Sean's latest book. Buy Mark Levin's latest book. Buy survival seeds. (7/22/10) 106.7 takes a hit with Chris Russell moving to ESPN 980. Not only was he a good Skins beat reporter, but he is one of the few people in local radio that can talk Capitals intelligently and was happy to do so. That skill, of course, will be wasted on the notoriously anti-Caps ESPN 980................ (7/22/10) Even batshit crazy Glenn Beck didn't do anything on the Sherod thing, so how could The Huffington Post or Rachel Maddow possibly be correct that Fox News fanned the flames to get her fired? That's why The Huffington Post is not a real news organization, but a liberal blog, and why no one watches Rachel Maddow or MSNBC: lack of credibility, and ignoring important stories like the ACORN story or attempting to paint it as Fox News "fiction" when it's clear ACORN was in fact involved in illegal activities with government money and taxpayer dollars. (7/22/10) Chris Russell not Chris Russo is moving from WJFK to WTEM. (7/22/10) Is someone really using Rachel Maddow and The Huffington Post as a source?!? That is as bad as believing everything that is on FOX News. It is now a known fact that the White House forced Shirley Sherrod to resign before anything aired on any network. It was only on Breitbart.com and DrudgeReport.com. O'Reilly is taped at 5 p.m. but does not air until 8 p.m. They were covering the incident but had to put up a lower third graphic that she had already resigned.....FACTS PEOPLE!! (7/22/10) I listen to Norris and Davis this morning. Bye bye Ed! First, they just SOUND bad. Sounds to me like they're sitting in a glass cube! Does anyone at that station ever listen to how bad they sound? All this week, Norris has been talking about old stuff. Tings that happened weeks ago. And he has nothing new to add. Davis has energy and it's clear he knows he'll be driving that bus before much longer. I had high hopes for Norris when he started his radio gig, but over time, I've realized he just doesn't know very much. Does he read the newspaper and the web and keep up on current events? Doesn't sound it to me. Where does he strop next? Maybe it's back to a foot beat in the Big Apple. Is Davis really as obnoxious in person as he comes across on the radio? (7/22/10) For the Maddow blowhard...I actually went to watch the video - she lost me as she opens defending ACORN. Yeah right...Catch me again after the fall elections... (7/22/10) According to his Facebook page Don Geronimo: "I was on for only one week in June, yet the Arb PPM's have my show going from 0.8 to 4.5 for that one week. Awesome start, gang & I thank U!" (7/22/10) “Not sure why the Sports Fix had Stan Kasten on today for 2 hours but I give Sheehan and Lovverro credit for asking him tough questions about the Lerners.” – Stan Kasten was part of 980s “Lunch with a Legend” series they have…now if you can tell me how they determined that Stan Kasten is a legend, I’d like to know. Talk about scraping the bottom of the barrel. Next up…Freddy Adu? “If I want information about the 1978 Washington Redskins pre-season, I'll just Google”…well said. I’m glad others can see what one-track mind Pollin has. (7/22/10) Rachel Maddow nails Fox News with timeline, video clips! www.huffingtonpost.com Memo to Fox 5 Morning News; they are called "Sea Stars" not "Star Fish." "Star fish is misleading because, of course, they are not fish. Even my seven year old knows this fact! (7/22/10) Dave, from WJFK's Chris Russo (Russell)'s Facebook page this morning.. First defection from The Fan to The Team.. Chris Russo: :I am proud, honored & excited to announce that I will be joining ESPN-980 and the Washington Redskins Radio Broadcast Team! My duties will include Pre, Halftime, Post & breaking news/updates during the games with the Voice of the Redskins, Larry Michael, & the legendary Sonny Jurgensen & Sam Huff. There are many more facets that are REALLY EXCITING, but we're thrilled to join the Redskins family!" (7/22/10) You know, it's bad grammar structure to start a sentence with the word "so" - as you did three times in the Journolist blurb... (7/22/10) Dave's response: So! I frequently make up my own rules of grammar. I often run sentence fragments. Like this. And start sentences with "and." So wot..... "Dave, Speaking of "What ever happened to...."....What ever happened to mailbag cremudgeon PLB? I've noticed that he no longer posts here after a long run on this site." I'm wondering why we haven't seen the usual post (anonymously, of course) from Paul where he notes there should be an oldies station in the D.C. area staffed with various veteran on-air talent. He always manages to slip in his on-air moniker with the more well known talent. I guess such a station could use Davy/Dave; someone has work the graveyard shift. AHHHHmen. (7/22/10) Congrats Dave on your episode of "Out Of The Past" which aired this evening here in Fairfax on WEBR's "sister" TV station Channel 10 (on Cox), Very nicely done old friend. Your knowledge and enthusiasm of the industry was obvious as hosts Chuck Langdon and Lee Shepherd seemed genuinely impressed. Perhaps now the world can now see (what all of us "regulars" already know) is what a tremendous site that DCRTV is. And frankly it's 'bout damn time for you to receive the credit that you so richly deserve. Good on ya Dave! Rusty Gibson, WEBR RadioFairfax (7/22/10) Is the Simon Marks noted in the PBS McNeil Lehrer article the same Simon Marks who is charge of Feature Story News in DC? (7/22/10) /\ July 22 Messages /\ \/ July 21 Messages \/ Ch45 cuts into programing Tuesday evening to let us no it's raining and a tornado is coming. But the catch is it's raining so hard you won't be able to see the tornado. Now Baltimore office of Emergency Preparedness or whatever it's called is on the phone. They are telling drivers to stay off the cell phone and pay attention to driveing. I guess they make cars with TV's in them .It's ok to drive with TV on just don't use your cell phone. One last question. Why does the TV evening news give traffic reports. I'm in my car going home. Oh that's right I got a TV in my car (7/21/10) On the July 19 edition of his Fox News show, Bill O'Reilly said of the contents on the video tape "that is simply unacceptable. And Ms. Sherrod must resign immediately." He also falsely claimed that "the full transcript of Ms. Sherrod's remarks is posted on BigGovernment.com." Tonight (July 21, 2010) Bill said "I don't know why they are blaming Fox News, I only gave [the story] 30 seconds." Good Grief! There are special places in Hell for people like Bill O'Reilly. (7/21/10) RE: "Andy is an old fart who doesn’t care about anything other than the Redskins" "isn't fair." Yes, it is. Andy is an idiot. If I want information about the 1978 Washington Redskins pre-season, I'll just Google it. (7/21/10) The dumb blonde joke on FOX5 this morning came as they were talking about unemployment and spending money the U.S. doesn't have..So the guy said it's just like the dumb blonde who says she must still have money because she still has checks. (7/21/10) I just got a very brief glimpse of Dick Dyszel on one of the local San Diego news stations. They were showing a montage of Comic-Con activities and his face was among the shots they used. I don't know if the images were from today's preview of this year's Con or if they were compiled from earlier events. (7/21/10) (From DCRTV's Classified Ads:) Producer, Maryland Morning with Sheilah Kast... Baltimore, Maryland, WYPR-FM... WYPR’s news and culture show Maryland Morning with Sheilah Kast seeks a full-time Producer. Responsibilities include developing ideas and booking guests for interviews, conducting background research, writing interview scripts, preparing hosts for interviews, and recording and editing for broadcast. Position requires at least two years of experience in journalism and radio production, including editing with Adobe Audition. The candidate must be able to write quickly and accurately for broadcast. Precise attention to detail is a must, as is the ability to multitask. The candidate must also be comfortable in Maryland Morning’s highly collaborative, deadline-driven environment. The show covers arts, culture, news, public policy, and more—all of it related to Maryland. Proven interest in a wide scope of issues from a local perspective is a plus. Candidates should submit a cover letter, resume, two references, and two audio samples of produced interviews to Business Manager, WYPR, 2216 N. Charles St., Baltimore, MD 21218, or to jobs@wypr.org. Open until 11:59p.m. August 8, 2010. EOE. NO CALLS PLEASE (7/21/10) The following was forwarded to DCRTV..... Thanks for your interest in the WPFW local station board election. In an effort to increase the number of candidates in this year's election we will be extending the nomination period. The nomination period for the local station board election has been extended until Saturday, July 31, 2010. The new deadline for submitting election nomination materials is 6pm on July 31st. I am encouraging all WPFW members to run as a candidate in this year's election. Delegates on WPFW's local station board are involved in important decisions with respect to the station's budget, programming and policies. WPFW members, individuals who have contributed $25 between July 1, 2009 and June 30, 2010 or performed 3 hours of volunteer service, are eligible to run or vote in the election. Without listener participation we will not be able to have a fair broad election with candidates who are representative of WPFW's community. Thank you, Staci Gorden, WPFW 89.3FM Local Election Supervisor, 202.657.6609, les_wpfw@pacifica.org (7/21/10) Did you hear NST is doing another on air talent search? Interesting considering the on air people they just let go. Here is the link about it: wnst.net (7/21/10) "Andy is an old fart who doesn’t care about anything other than the Redskins" isn't fair. Pollin knows a lot about college baskeball and seems more willing than in the past to discuss baseball. Czaban, Walker, and Sheehan are more opinionated and more knowledgeable than Pollin but he's still better than anyone at WJFK. Not sure why the Sports Fix had Stan Kasten on today for 2 hours but I give Sheehan and Lovverro credit for asking him tough questions about the Lerners. (7/21/10) "Did you know that Veteran WAYZ morning man Bob Steel got moved to PM drive to make room the Katy & Tiny Show. Bob had really good numbers. Wonder what's up?" Does this mean Joel Kabik is gone again? They really should have let him take the morning drive again if they moved Bob Steel. - Tom in Wheaton (WAYZ comes in pretty good down here in MoCo) (7/21/10) Thanks to Sean Hannity's absurd behavior and misreporting over the last couple of weeks with the New Black Panthers, Ms. Sherrod, and the White House, Fox News can now kiss that unoccupied front row White House briefing room chair goodbye. Sean Hannity manufactured too many stories to be forgiven by this White House. I hear Bloomberg will be in da house, baby! (7/21/10) Re: Re: "WGTB is back on the air..." Thanks so much to the poster for this. ... I hope you can share (old tapes) with Lee Demsey at WAMU,... Thanks again. Robert, Arlington ======= You're quite welcome. I've been listening to WGTB all afternoon. Tomorrow, they will be running old Virginia Tech student radio station broadcasts. I emailed the WGAY contact to let him know I have the tapes. I've been meaning to burn them to CDs for years now. I checked Wikipedia. There is, of course, an entry there for WGTB, and the broadcasts of the old stuff are mentioned. I looked at the edit history, and the edit concerning the old broadcasts was made in March 2006. As I said, I'm always the last to know. wikipedia.org... www.wgay.fm... Thursdays: "The Ozone Hours" with Steve Floyd. Vintage programming from WUVT FM, Virginia Tech's student run radio station, featuring progressive Jazz, Rock, and Electronic music. Recordings mostly from the late 1970's. (7/21/10) A Politico reporter is quoted on page 2 of this from Journolist - dailycaller.com (7/21/10) 106.7 Fan sports. You can tell when frog eyed Arrington is on the losing end of an issue when he starts fast-talking. What a surprise that Arrington defends King Lebron because both Arrington and Lebron done stole millions as media fraud pretenders in the bigs. Arrington was a dud fraud money thief who stole millions based on Penn State media spin, and following his lesson, LeBron could teach sports media classes on how to fleece millions out of dumb stupid couch potato cable sports-watching fat asses. (7/21/10) I vote to keep Lauren DeMarco as the traffic reporter on Fox 5 news. So nice this week not to hear Julie's constant blathering and giggling with Tony. Neither one of them are the least bit funny. Heck that dog Kennedy is more amusing just laying there panting than those two. And for that matter, as someone else pointed out, no giggling this week from Holly. At least Holly is a looker, so I can get past the giggling with her. I missed the blonde joke this morning, was it any good? (7/21/10) I really feel a posting about Julie Wright is unfair and emotionally damaging. [One which made refenerence to her and Kim Martucci.] Why do you want to put posts with comments like that on your website? Please remove this post. It is offensive and damaging! ... I have known Julie Wright longer than any of the posters I read on here. I find her to be courteous, punctual, kind, compassionate, articulate, humble, friendly and a professional. There will always be some folks in this world who have only negative things to say about someone. Even Jesus Christ suffers from this position. If I were Julie Wright I would ignore the negativity and continue being the person you have always been. (7/21/10) Dave's response: Sometimes I do "miss" nasty things in posts. Thanks for pointing it out. It's gone. I have met her at several functions and that's well said about Julie..... Some people love them and others are appalled -- but either way, tattoos have become more popular than ever. WTOP's Michelle Basch and David Burd found a father and daughter who showed up at a local tattoo parlor to get inked -- together. Their story is the first installment of a new WTOP feature called, "You've Gotta See This!" (7/21/10) Re: "WGTB is back on the air..." Thanks so much to the poster for this. I look forward to reading and listening to more. Regarding "I have hours of open reel tapes of 'Old Howard's Rock and Roll Jukebox.' I recorded them off a Heathkit AR-15." I hope you can share these with Lee Demsey at WAMU, I know he would be very interested. WGTB - We Got The Boogie! Thanks again. Robert, Arlington (7/21/10) This morning on FOX5 news, on a segment where they have a Democrat and a Republican talking politics, the Republican guy made a dumb blonde joke and before the segment was over, Allison said that they had already received a phone call about it..Guess he made it because Allison, a brunette was interviewing him?..Wonder if he'd say the same joke if it were Holly..Also, I found it interesting when they were talking about that story of the Dept of Agric. employee who was initially fired, that Allison said the woman was interviewed on "another network", but of course didn't mention, if I'm correct, that FOX news was the network that first reported the incident that subsequently was found to be taken out of context. (7/21/10) WGTB is back on the air, if by "on the air," you mean that you can hear it on the Interwebs. I assume that, as usual, I'm the last to know. www.facebook.com... Vintage WGTB-FM... Category: Entertainment & Arts... RadioDescription: Were you a listener to and/or DJ on and/or fanatic of the original WGTB-FM? Do you remember when "alternative music" actually meant something? Have you never gotten over the demise of GTB? This is your group... If you have any old photos or memorabilia you want to add, please do! If you have musings, favorite shows, memories you want to share, this is the place. Privacy Type: Open: All content is public. Contact Info Office: One Nation, Underground... Recent News News: Archival tapes of WGTB being broadcast on Wednesdays on WGAY-FM, all day. Go to www.wgay.fm and click on "Listen Now" (sung to the tune of the 801 song of the same name?). I am listening now. I have hours of open reel tapes of "Old Howard's Rock and Roll Jukebox." I recorded them off a Heathkit AR-15. I wish I had not left my good headphones at home. (7/21/10) “However, it's important to note that the Fox News Channel did not make any mention of this story yesterday on the air until after Shirley Sherrod had already lost her job after Secretary Vilsack had already drawn his own conclusions — conclusions that the president apparently agreed with.” Sean Hannity Fox News Channel Tuesday, July 20 9:00 PM hour. True, Fox News took a pass, but Sean Hannity didn’t. Sean, you talked about Shirley Sherrod at USDA on your radio program for two days straight, and even hyped on the radio that you would be showing the video on your Fox News Channel (but not a news program) program that night. “set your DVR’s! Audio here; fishwrangler.blogspot.com. If there is a person that should lose his job, it is Sean Hannity-his excitement about this story, his lack of a critical eye, his ignorance of Breitbart’s reputation, his confusing facts, and his cover up, all point to an asshole that plays foot loose and fancy free with the news for his own bennefit. Fox, Citadel do the right thing and fire this clown. (7/21/10) ''but then again I wouldn't do Angie Goff'' I need to name and number of your crack dealer because you MUST be high. Even pregnant, Angie is amazingly HOT. Just a shame she's stuck on a unwatchable news show. Paul (7/21/10) Kathy Blunt was a producer/host of "Black Reflections" at WTTG-5 in the late '70s before leaving that show due to health issues. In 1980, she moved over to WDCA-20 in pretty much the same capacity for "Newsprobe" and "Eye On Washington" where she stayed until May of 1987 when new station owners, TVX Broadcast Group, fired the creative staff. (7/21/10) (there are stations where people are more likely tune in for a few minutes to get a traffic report (WTOP) and then tune out) that's true and if they do, WTOP gets no credit for that listening. Arbitron requires 5 minutes of listening in each of the quarter hours before it awards credit. People who listen for 2 minutes are NO HELP to a radio station. (7/21/10) NYTimes has picked this up -- why is DCRTV sitting on the story? PBS Ombud Agrees With FAIR on Shultz Tribute In response to hundreds of letters from FAIR activists, PBS ombud Michael Getler (7/16/10) agreed with FAIR's criticism (Action Alert, 7/12/10) of the 3-hour PBS documentary Turmoil and Triumph, a tribute to former Reagan-era Secretary of State George Shultz funded in part by institutions and individuals with close ties to Shultz. Getler found Turmoil to be "over-the-top, in my view, with praise, but with relatively little critical appraisal of some of the more controversial actions of Shultz's tenure." He wrote: This series, for me, as a viewer and an ombudsman, created at least the appearance of a conflict of interest; a portrait so glowing that it overwhelms whatever modestly critical elements are included, that does not easily fit the designation one usually associates with a documentary, and that is indeed funded in part by associates of the subject. It doesn't mean that funders exerted any editorial influence, but it left me feeling they didn't have to. Getler concluded that he was left with a sense that it had a credibility problem, one that could have been fixed in the telling and in a search for other sponsors. I felt it did not meet PBS's own "perception test" ground rules when one combined the dominant tone of sainthood, the length, the sense that a critical eye was missing, the omissions about Iraq and those sponsorships that were immediately eye-catching for anyone familiar with this period. To read the rest of the article, please click on the link below. www.fair.org (7/21/10) Did you know that Veteran WAYZ morning man Bob Steel got moved to PM drive to make room the Katy & Tiny Show. Bob had really good numbers. Wonder what's up? (7/21/10) CNN, NBC, CBS, MSNBC (even the ABC Radio News broadcast on WMAL) all had the story behind the USDA firing yesterday; all concluded Breitbart edited the tape and presented the wrong conclusion (when has that happened before?). Fox, other than Hannity who went full blown on Radio and TV, downplayed the story, knowing it was fishy. BTW, Fox, (other than Hannity) didn’t run with Breitbart’s last video hatchet job on the Census workers because editors at Fox suspected the claim was false. Now, back to the firing; the white farming couple went on national television yesterday and said “ she treated us good,” [sic] and said she went out of her way to find them a new lawyer when the first one didn’t work out. “She saved our farm” the farmer’s wife said. So, this morning, Chris Plante praises Breitbart for fooling the NAACP. This is where the conservatives are; present false information as news to “fool the liberals,” and then chastise them for being fooled. And, if you can a destroy a woman's carreer in the process, so be it. Has WMAL reached the bottom? WMAL is now worse than crap, and I don’t know what that is, but it is worse than crap. (7/21/10) RE: Cume vs. AQH, Arbitron's website devotes a page to defining "Terms For The Trade." Find it here: arbitron.com (7/21/10) Remember the old Batman TV theme from the 1960s? Sing along with this fat little bastard: news.yahoo.com (7/21/10) (source: ilovebacon.com) Here's a disturbing thought to ruin your day: If "Back To The Future" were made today, Marty McFly would "travel back" to 1980. Sweet dreams, you geezers. (7/21/10) Interesting regarding the post that says "There are stations where a listener tunes in the station and leaves it on that station all day (WASH for example) and there are stations where people are more likely tune in for a few minutes to get a traffic report (WTOP) and then tune out. " Looking at the same website earlier - radio-info.com, if you look at dc ratings, the reverse seems to be true unless i am reading something wrong. WASH's Cume is close, and sometimes beating WTOP's, while their ratings almost half of WTOP's, suggesting the reverse is true, people tend to tune into WASH for short periods and leave WTOP on all day. Not what i would of thought happens, but that is the way the ratings look to me. J in Frederick (7/21/10) To the person that wants to buy time and catch the adult male demo. Your best choice is 1) WIYY and 2) WQSR. WQSR has been either #1 or #1 with the 25-54 male demo, which is where you want to focus on. Those 12+ numbers are a false reading into what the ratings really are. (7/21/10) "My meat, thick, black and uncut". What has the DCRTV Mailbag come to?!? Still, it did bring to mind Ruth's Tea Room, which was an early gay-friendly hangout in Winchester. (7/21/10) [Ahhhhhhh 8) Fox 5 morning news has been sooooooo relaxed with the absence of Holly "Forced Comedy" Morris and Julie "YapYapYap" Wright. The Lauren broad is stiff behind the camera, but at least] She keeps her mouth shut. (7/21/10) Answer to the merchant/advertiser puzzling over whether to buy cume vs. ratings: If you can afford to purchase a lot of spots per week go with cume which is a measurement of how many different listeners a radio stations reaches over seven days. Stations that have big cumes have a lot of listeners who tune in for short periods of time. If you can only afford a few commercials go with AQH (average quarter hour) which measures the average number of listeners in a 15-minute period. There are stations where a listener tunes in the station and leaves it on that station all day (WASH for example) and there are stations where people are more likely tune in for a few minutes to get a traffic report (WTOP) and then tune out. The reason to go with AQH if you're on a limited budget is because you need the audience to hear your spot several times in order to have an impact. Of course, there are many other factors in a station's audience: gender predominance, average age, income, and even race, depending on what you're trying to sell. And thus endeth the lesson. ACH (7/21/10) Ahhhhhhh 8) Fox 5 morning news has been sooooooo relaxed with the absence of Holly "Forced Comedy" Morris and Julie "YapYapYap" Wright. The Lauren broad is stiff behind the camera, but at least (7/21/10) Re: "Comcast and NBC execs have promised Capitol Hill lawmakers that they'll provide more minority-oriented TV shows and cable networks if the merger is approved....." Aren't those, basically, the EXACT words uttered by radio back when it was deregulated... 'more variety etc. etc. etc' Talk's cheap! BS!!! (7/21/10) To the cume versus share (or average quarter hour) questioner: Think of it this way: Let's say you and I each have an open house for 3 hours one afternoon. There are 100 people in our neighborhood. At my open house, 15 people show up and they each stay the entire 3 hours. My cume is 15 people who showed up, total. My share, at any given moment, is 15 people, or 15% of the neighborhood. At your open house, 45 people show up, but they come and go a lot more, so that at any given moment, there are only 8 people, on average, at your house. Your share is only 8% of the neighborhood, even though your cume is 45. That's how a station can have higher cume and a lower share. More people listen, but not as long. That is, their TSL is smaller (Time Spent Listening). (7/21/10) I hope somebody here can help me understand CUME Vs. ratings. I'm in the process of buying time on Baltimore radio and am having trouble figuring out which station is best to go with baed on ratings. Here's my question - looking at reaching males 25-50 and looking at both WZBA and WIYY. WIYY is the ratings winner going by what I can, the 12+ PPM. WIYY got a 4.1 in June and WZBA got a 2.8. Tht says to me that WIYY should have a lot more listeners, but - WZBA's CUME is 408,300 and WIYY's is 398,700. My question is how can a station that gets practically twice the ratings share have fewer listeners than the the lesser rated one? Isn't the ratings share based on the number of listeners? Please help! Here's the link with the info: www.radio-info.com... Thanks for the much needed help! (7/21/10) Those JFK guys are going more crazy here every day! OOBBEE (7/21/10) David Dick’s CBS Report clip of the shooting of George Wallace at Laurel Shopping Center in Laurel, Maryland brought back some memories and personal ironies in my life at that time. On the afternoon of May 15, 1972, I was sitting in a school bus stopped at the traffic light in front at the entrance of the Laurel Shopping Center coming home from Laurel Senior High School. I looked over to where the crowds were and could see some commotion starting. I didn’t think too much about it until I got home and learned that Governor Wallace had been shot at the Center. By coincidence, my father had a heart attack shortly thereafter, and he was taken to the Intensive Care Unit at Holy Cross Hospital. My father was only two beds down from Governor Wallace. We saw Secret Service Agents and several public officials visiting the Governor while my father was in Intensive Care. About a month later, Tropical Storm Agnes hit flooding a branch of the Patuxent River that ran through the tower site of Radio 9 WLMD, Laurel knocking the station off the air. I was hired by WLMD Radio to help clean the mud and mess up. WDON Radio lent WLMD their mobile unit, and Chief Engineer Scott Standiford worked around the clock to put WLMD back on the air. The WDON mobile unit was set up at the same Laurel Shopping Center where the Governor had been shot a month earlier. After WLMD returned the mobile studio to WDON, the station then moved to a vacant store as temporary studio while we cleaned up from the flood, and while Scott re-wired the main station studio building located off Route 197. I was 16 at the time, and I had just received me driver’s license, so I often made runs back and forth between the main studio building while it was being repaired and the temporary studio at Laurel Shopping Center. By the way, WLMD’s programming format in June, 1972 was Contemporary Top 40 before going all telephone talk in 1973. As I would drive back and forth between studios, I would flip on the radio in the car and listen to my employer’s radio signal. My two favorite songs when I started at WLMD were: Gilbert O’Sullivan’s #1 hit “Alone Again, (Naturally)”, and “Brandy, You’re a Fine Girl” by Looking Glass. Richard Dahms (7/21/10) Re: Bill Kamal, actually channel 9 did promote him quite a bit back in the 80's. That is until Bill's rather strange forcast he did LIVE on Winchester's 92.5 WINC-FM back in 1987. At the time Kamal was doing weather for both WINC and channel 9. One day during a live weather break between Kamal and their then midday announcer HB Lyold the two were talking about country ham with HB saying he liked his meat cut very thin, salty and good. Bill Kamal's remark? "..why baby I LOVE my meat, thick, black and uncut..." Anyway HB wasn't amused, I guess the fact that HB is black didn't help. HB suddenly cut off Bill Kamal and WINC went right into some Hall & Oates tune and I don't think Bill Kamal ever did appear on WINC again. Shortly after this even though Bill Kamal would still be a major weather player on channel 9, after what happened on WINC, it did seemed though that channel 9 did cut back on the promos featuring him. For the record at the time of this"incident" I was a student at Warren County High School in Front Royal and our teacher would often play WINC in class but after hearing Bill Kamal talking about his taste for "uncut black meat" in class according to our teacher..well it was bye bye to WINC !!! (7/21/10) Dave, I have been following your site for quite a while. I wonder if you can help me. I live in PA just over the MD line and am forced to have Central PA locals on Dish Network even though I am closer to Baltimore. Who do I bitch to about this? If Comcrap can carry both Baltimore and Central PA locals why can't the Dish Network? Also MASN is in HD on Dish Network. Who's to blame on that. Is the carriage fee for an HD channel that much more? Thanks, Charlie (7/21/10) /\ July 21 Messages /\ \/ July 20 Messages \/ From FBDC: If you think Mike Conneen is just a journalist then you haven't seen the WJLA-TV reporter play a journalist in a film. Check out this video of "Movie Star Mike" talking about his cameo in the new Angelina Jolie thriller, Salt. (7/20/10) WDCA did air a newscast called UPN 20 News at 10, for about a year in 1995. It was done from Newschannel 8, all they did was put up a UPN20 sign in the newsroom and reair packages from Newschannel 8. Tom in DC (7/20/10) Hello, As a former avid listener to WNST in Baltimore I was wondering if you had any info on why Ray Bachman was fired? I read where on your blurb it said "more to come" but there hasnt been anything. In addition, any info on what is going on there? There certainly have been alot of changes and not sure why with "big money" Brian Billick and Nestor running things. Anything that you could provide would be a big help. Thanks, Kern (7/20/10) Dave's response: I haven't heard any more about that. Anyone know? Dave, here is a questionf or you. Did WDCA channel 20 ever had a newscast of their own? For some reason I think they had one years ago. I believe one of their anchors was a woman named Kathy Blunt but could be wrong. On the flip side several of my friends claim that WDCA never did their own newscast. The old WDVM "Eyewitness News" ad, who is missing? Bill Kamal !! Looking back now I don't think 9 ever did promote Bill Kamal at all, not the same way they did with Gordon Barnes and Doug Hill later on. I wonder if a lot of that was due to his personal life? (7/20/10) Dave's response: Channel 20 did once run the Independent Network News from NYC's WPIX-TV back in the 1980s or so, but I'm not aware of it ever having a local newscast. I seem to recall Kathy Blunt on 20, but I think she was a public affairs show host..... I tip my hat to Chris in Bethesda for his comments regarding the Towson University radio station. For six years (1976-1982) besides being on the radio, I was a visiting faculty member there. I was consulted on several occasions regarding the station and its programing. I had no problem with an all-student staff. It at least gave them a taste of what radio was like. I did have a problem with the lack of critiques. My recommendation was that they hire an experienced commercial broadcaster to oversee the running of the facility and maintain it like a commercial radio station....with student announcers. They eventually did hire a retired broadcaster as GM, someone who had been on the faculty. That situation continued for some time. During my time at Towson, we developed many outstanding radio personalities, a number of whom are still holding down decent jobs today. Many of them cut their teeth on broadcasting during their time at the campus station. It's a shame that opportunity has been lost to many of the young talents in the Mass Comm department....Johnny Dark (7/20/10) Julie Wright ... a class act? Pa-lease! As someone who had the great misforture of having to work with her a few years back, I can assure you, she is FAR from classy... (7/20/10) Dave's response: Had to delete most of the above post since it contained a lot of unsubstantiated allegations..... Congratulations to Bob Turk and Captain Mike in the CH 13 helicopter for doing the most compete and easy to understand coverage of the tornado warning issued Tuesday at 5pm. They also used the best graphics showing the wind directions which did not show the rotation needed for a tornado. Next best was CH 11 although their weather chief was not on the air. Although they tried CH 45 does not have a helicopter and their use of the highway cameras just didn’t show what was happening. The explanation given by their chief was just not up to what it should have been CH 2 was not even in the game. (7/20/10) “I have always admired Andy Pollin as one of the unsung hero / true workhorses in the area sports radio scene.” – please…I have to agree with “werdless”. Andy is an old fart who doesn’t care about anything other than the Redskins. That’s great he gets up the next day to do a show early in the morning, but most of the time the topic (i.e. Strasburg debut) turns into a comparison to the Redskins. How many more days until training camp?? Andy constantly says this is a slow time of the year, well if he had more knowledge in other sports like baseball, he could spend more than a 4 minute segment on the Nationals, Orioles or MLB itself. Finally, I think he is arrogant to the callers and heaven forbid if he is wrong, that never happens. Maybe the suits at WTEM will soon realize the station’s talent is weak and will cut ties with Pollin, Sheehan, the D-O-C and JT II…Sincerely, Missing WFAN (7/20/10) Speaking of Steve Gilmartin, it is surprising that none of the local sportstalk types have done a radio or tv interview with him. He was the play by play guy for some very entertaining Redskins teams including the best of the Sonny years and George Allen's Super Bowl teams. I'm sure he has some great stories...................... (7/20/10) Who remembers that when twenty-six year-old Steve Gilmartin arrived at WMAL in March 1960 from WTOL in Toledo, he was hired as a staff announcer? Initially, he only hosted a Saturday and Sunday record show. Then, by early 1961, he was doing "The Music Room" on 630 AM every weeknight after the 11:00 pm news. In May 1961, when Herb Davis left the station, Gilmartin picked-up Davis' weekday 4 pm to 6:30 pm DJ airshift. That summer, WMAL actually loaned Gilmartin to ABC-TV to sub for Dick Clark on American Bandstand. It wasn't until the autumn of 1962 that Gilmartin switched full time to the sports beat, and by 1964, he had become WMAL-TV's Sports Director. In the fall of 1972, he dropped his TV duties and served-out his contract at WMAL-AM before leaving for Houston in early 1974. Gilmartin today, at age 76, is alive and well and still residing in H-town. (7/20/10) Re: ".... Ally is just a zipper head ... how she got through college baffles me. Can anyone comment on what these folks make as Jack's helper monkeys." Well, it can't be much. The only reason they are employed is that they're working for peanuts. That has to be the reason because they are airheads and have absolutely zero talent. (7/20/10) You are right werdless, Andy Pollin does seem to be mailing in in lately and is even more grouchy and dismissive than usual. I have always admired Andy Pollin as one of the unsung hero / true workhorses in the area sports radio scene. When something big happens in DC sports overnight, he is the one you can count on to get on WTEM first thing in the morning, (thankfully pre-empting Mike and Mike), to start the local coverage and react. He always answers the bell. But lately he does seem to be rushing the topics along and not really engaging with Czaben's banter. At his best, Andy plays the perfect straight-guy offset to Steve's rants and off-the-wall theories. Hopefully his Feburary jaunt to South Africa will re-charge his batteries. The Sports Reporters, as much as I may nitpick them, is still the best and more entertaining local sports show on radio. I cannot count the Junkies as an honest sports show anymore. . .they have devolved into 4 douchebags stuck in an eternal post-adolescent funk. Tony K. as much as I have loved his print and radio work over the years, is basically a 1 man male impersonation of The View, he should do his show from the local NPR affiliate. (7/20/10) I swear to Gawd Jack that Andy Pollin is one old fart. I bet if the Washington Nationals and New York Yankees were playing the 7th game of the World Series in the future and the game was going past 10 pm Pollin would say oh well too late for me time to go to bed. What the hell exactly does he do in the early morning thats so much more important than staying up a little late too watch a game. I mean Sports Reporters doesn't start till 4 pm. Yesterday on Sports Reporters he dug up the old variationon on a theme favorite Sports movie. Come on now Boo!(nod to Warner Wolf). And a big sports knowledge base is not knowing Redskin stats from 25 years ago. Pollin is the one in charge of the flow of Sports Reporters ain't he? Thats why the constant change of topic. No in depth analysis with Pollin around. Get off the stick son and let Czaban and Linn take over what is turning into a snore fest. I ask again are contracts coming too an end for these two and its mainly phone it in time? And I don't listen too WJFK neither, Junkies are just sort of blah these days. EB is trying way too hard. Wise is a bleating heart mumbly mouthed mediocre unfunny bore. Yeah and his mama wears army boots. And Arrington is pretty much a nonsensical moron. Is that the same thing. the werdless (7/20/10) Dave, There has been some discussion in the Mailbag about the lack of students at WTMD as well as other university-owned stations, and I want to throw in my two cents. I use to work as a student at the old Towson State University WTSR-AM (the separately-operated dorm feed that everyone ignored) and some of those who worked at the AM station also worked at the old WCVT-FM (From Bach To Rock!). The FM station at that time was run by students, although it was overseen by faculty advisors, and students behind the mike. As the old station slogan implies, there was a lot of free-forming because it was a training ground for those who wanted to make a living at it. I remember specific songs on the albums in the station record library were marked as “do not play” because they were too popular! Alumni of the station (at least from the time I was there) include Steve Melewski and Spiro Morekas, who used to announce Towson football games together. The point of the station was to provide a learning experience to the students. Now, like seemingly everything else at a modern university, the station is there to make money for the University system, and to heck with the students. Like most government programs, student-run stations started out with the best of intentions then got co-opted to meet whatever political and financial goals someone put in their MBO. Now universities are station owners just like Clear Channel and Bonneville, and thus have the same financial goals, except universities are supposed to be there for something else besides figuring out how to pay all those tenured professors to teach one class a week. Well, I miss listening to a messy, student-run station, which is like listening to the equivalent of Forrest Gump’s box of chocolates. One of the complaints in the mailbag is that WTMD is starting to sound like every other AAA station. Well, duuhh! Who could have seen that coming? They’re after ratings just like everyone else. Maybe in the end it doesn’t matter, and pursuing a broadcasting career now is like training to be a buggy-whip maker in 1905. Look at MMJ’s latest numbers: Who needs DJ’s? Maybe all of these university-run stations are doing their students a favor by discouraging them from a life of nomadic, low-pay, low esteem existence. Then again, maybe they are preventing the next great broadcaster from emerging that could pull us from the radio hell we are currently in. Chris from Bethesda (7/20/10) Dave, Speaking of "What ever happened to...."....What ever happened to mailbag cremudgeon PLB? I've noticed that he no longer posts here after a long run on this site. (7/20/10) "She was the "odd man out" during the morning show and they were looking for someone who could work with the show and not against them. She sat in the corner of the studio while everyone else contributed to the show." Really? I was in-studio within the past month and did not get that vibe about Erica at all. Frankly, I don't know how/why they keep anyone on the JDMS, including Jack. He makes the most ridiculous, unsupported statements of fact on a daily basis and Ally is just a zipper head...how she got through college baffles me. Can anyone comment on what these folks make as Jack's helper monkeys? (7/20/10) I owe you an apology by the way. I once railed on you for being a COMCAST shill like all the other media outlets scared to death of them, and you proved me TOTALLY WRONG Dave Hughes. So, I apologize and I owe you a beer or something. I was totally wrong and I admit it. -- Joe (7/20/10) Dave's response: I'll be honest. I've always had a very good working relationship with Comcast. Their Reston system didn't always work right, but their people were always very friendly and very nice to me. Most of those people are gone now. And the current management is, well, not very nice, to put it mildly. The company has developed a very "mean" streak. I especially hear it from Comcast's own employees, or recent employees, who talk to me off the record. By the way, I am talking about Comcast, the cable company, not Comcast SportsNet, the regional sports network. Still some really nice folks over there..... Dave since we've been on a bit of a "nostalgia" thing of late. What ever became of "Ed in Bel Air"? He would frequently post of some rather interesting "Name The Artist" tunes a couple of years ago. And since we're in the thick of baseball season, the Orioles had a rather unique jingle to open their telecasts in the mid-60's. It was called "Go Orioles Go". I've tried to get info on it from the Orioles office (& Tom Davis) without success. Does anyone remember it? Better yet, where to find it and the artist that recorded it. Rusty Gibson (7/20/10) "With these PPM`S which numbers are used to determine success the weekly PPM numbers that you put up today or the monthly numbers...?" Monthly. Far more reliable than individual weeks. (7/20/10) Regarding Wright [She's a class act...] You've never been at the other end of her skewer then, like others of us in this business. Regarding her beauty - it is something that anyone can interpret any way they choose. It is like art. Some like Warhol, some like Dali, some like paintings of scat. All find them beautiful. You've chosen your "art". (7/20/10) I loved Steve Gilmartin when I was a kid. Anyone who owned the Redskins 1972 season LP can remember a lot of great calls (and I wasn't even a 'Skins fan). The most memorable to me, though, was Steve losing his objectivity and shouting, "Shoot it, Jim, shoot it!" at the Terps' Jim O'Brien just as O'Brien hit the buzzer beater at Cole against South Carolina in 1971. Classic! Howie (7/20/10) Here's David Dick's May 15, 1972 CBS report on the George Wallace shooting at the Laurel Shopping Center. (7/20/10) Dave: Looking at the latest PPMs, I'm reminded that you wondered a week or two ago about a WPRS surge. Looks like the station had another good week, although that might just be a continued blip. Also, WMZQ is tied with WPRS. That's a move up for the country station, too, no? Maybe Boxer is catching on? Christian (7/20/10) Don G started with 8 days left in the June PPM, so he and Mike are in the same boat, both will be unable to actually see results for a few months. WBAL's afternoon's news block sounds pretty good to my ears! -BW (7/20/10) Dave's response: I like having Ron Smith on in late mornings. Now I have a talk radio choice when Kornheiser's blabbering on about something stupid or on vacation, like this week..... Concerning Steve Gilmartin -- I Googled and found some audio from KPRC in Houston from (I'm guessing) sometime in the 70s. It's in the "blooper" section on this page www.binxsoftware.com (7/20/10) Julie Wright puts the FOX in 5 !!!My first reaction is to attack the posters who are attempting to attack the Julie's looks and personality. However, I refuse to bring myself down to your level. I'm sure it's someone who has been terribly ridiculed in life. This would account not only for their anger issues but also the lack of taste they show. Julie is a beautiful woman, period. She's a class act and personally I think she's damn hot ! She also happens to be one of the best traffic reporters I've ever seen and/or heard. As for the poster, perhaps you should post pictures of yourself here on DCRTV. I'm sure your a peach ! Then, we could all throw jabs at you, just like they did to you in High School. My advice, please seek treatment. (7/20/10) "Politico editors deny running a journalistic sweatshop." - end snip - Well how about WJLA and (more importantly) Newschannel 8? ABSOLUTELY A SWEATSHOP. Those poor "community reporters," having the do the work of 3 people, plus the photographers shooting more, working with less, the reporters having to do 2 live shots (1 for 7 and 1 for 8, sometimes, an hour between times) YES, I think that constitutes a sweatshop. Robert Allbritton has been notoriously CHEAP and wanting to get more bang for his buck. Well, why do you think he moved to Virginia? To bust the unions, which thankfully hasn't happened. And of course, cheaper taxes. Someone should hand him a piece of coal, I swear his asshole is so tight, he could make diamonds. (7/20/10) KHTK 22nd in the Sactown ratings 12+. Anyone see numbers for Don Geronimo's new show in middays? (7/20/10) Do my eyes deceive me, Dave, or did your fingers deceive you? Just read the new PPM's and was amazed to find the Junkies ranked 8th... 8th? Are they actually tied with Russ Parr? Or are they actually ranked 18th, and you forgot a number? Wishful thinking much? (7/20/10) Dave's response: They were 8th in the age 12+ numbers and tops among the gay male demo..... ?2 days till the Mike O'Meara show arrives ijn Iowa..be sure to watch the Morning show this Friday..Mike and the gang will be in the studio and take your phone calls. Plus they will do their podcast Live at NOON..all on our video and audio stream @ www.ustream.tv (7/20/10) You can't dig up some info on Steve Gilmartin can ye? I seem to recall he went to the Houston market after D.C. Shirely he's many years retired now. Did John Batchelor host the afternoon movie on channel 4 or was it channel 7. They used the theme song from the Sophia Loren movie "More Than A Miracle" Ah Sophia Loren. Wait a minute maybe that music was used for the Saturday afternoon movie on channel 4. There goes my memory hopping and skipping again. And you you know who you are how dare you say that Pamela Brown, Alison Starling and Courtney Robinson and good ole Arch Campbell work at a sweatshop. I said How dare you sir. Of course its probably sadly true. the wordless (7/20/10) Dave, I noticed a few weeks back where you mentioned Comcast was substituting another Comcast commercial over their system for one the local station was airing. Not only can I verify that just about every 10 minutes I try to watch Fox 5 via cable, but the commercials Comcast is running are like twice the volume of the baseline audio for the station. It’s bad enough that I’ve switched the channel from 5 several times because of it. I thought Congress was supposed to look into this nuisance across the general ad market, something no consumer is going to deem acceptable, but I guess they are better served by espousing divisive issues. Now, I guess Comcast is going for a trifecta, because on top of all of that they are clipping the beginnings and ends of other non-Comcast commercials. They even clipped the last couple of seconds of a scene during ‘the Simpsons’ one night last week. Now that’s Fox’s business. They’ve even jumped the gun during programming a few times to squeeze in more commercial time going into a break. I don’t like it, but it’s their property. On the other hand if I were a local advertiser watching via cable and saw that happen with my ad I’d be beyond ticked at both Comcast and Fox 5. This is just one more example of why this typically absolute capitalist libertarian thinks this exceptional proposed merger needs to be nixed immediately. Until then, more and more I will be watching my Fox 5 and others over the air. On that note, before everyone including Dave knocks OTA broadcasting too much, please remember that it is the only source for television entertainment and vital emergency information for millions of people, including my neighbors, who don’t have fiscal or infrastructural access to cable or dish. At least part of the broadcast communications spectrum is essentially on notice as Congress, Obama, and the FCC are analyzing how it is utilized and whether it should be reallocated to broadband. With regards to that I don’t think anyone opposed to the Comcast merger would want a select few corporate conglomerates like Comcast or AT&T monopolizing the airwaves instead of the current hundreds of broadcasters, including independents, who have free and essentially unfettered access to the masses. Sure, analog was easier and more fun, and I’m more of an analog person myself, but the electronics marketplace was ripe for HD and thus digital TV by the switchover. If the FCC didn’t mandate that then television would be paralleling the same crammed and cluttered mess Dave ascribed to radio. Digital can be much more challenging, yes, but impossible, no. For Dave’s neighbor I would recommend buying and trying a larger outdoor antenna indoors. It’s more unsightly and cumbersome than rabbit ears, but it worked for me in my apartment and can be returned if it doesn’t considering the financial strain. Otherwise maybe try persuading the property owner to allow an outdoor antenna or erect a small-scale antenna farm for the building. I know there are some apartments and hotels that have these. And in this case, the security deposit does seem a bit egregious, but Comcast is a for-profit company and isn’t run by the government (yet), so they have a duty to act fairly, but not give away their product. So, how about some positive vibes for OTA digital? Even with all its imperfections it’s better off not consumed by a faceless corporate monstrosity. And let’s remember since Obama was in office at the time of the DTV transition it’s entirely his fault ;-) (7/20/10) Dave's response: Comcast is not allowed to run ads on top of the broadcast stations its carries, just on cable networks like TBS and TNT. If Comcast is running ads in place of WTTG's ads, I think the FCC should look into that. Maybe when Comcast merges with NBC, it will "tinker" with the signals of Fox, CBS, and ABC stations - the FCC be damned. Comcast will "own" the FCC! Think I'm joking? Wipe that smile off your face! As for Obama, if his administration allows Comcast and NBC to merge, I will not vote for him for re-election. However, I wouldn't blame the DTV transition on Obama. That was set in place long before Obama was elected in 2008..... "Maybe Erica Hillary will wind up doing mornings on KHZ?" --Certainly would be better than anything else on that so-called station. AHHHH (7/20/10) /\ July 20 Messages /\ \/ July 19 Messages \/ One thing I don't understand about MASN is why Baltimore-oriented ads appear on Washington-oriented programming, and vice versa. Why is the Busch Gardens Baltimore ad airing during Nationals telecasts, and the Washington-oriented ad on Baltimore-related programs such as the Tom Davis show? You would think MASN advertising officials would know better about which should get what. -- Vincent in Lynchburg (7/19/10) Maybe Erica Hillary will wind up doing mornings on KHZ? (7/19/10) It's too soon to call it an end of an era, but Blockbuster Video appears to be in trouble. The company landed on a list of '10 Brands That May Disappear in 2011' and now, they've been delisted from the NYSE. How long before Blockbuster's brick-n-mortar stores are gone for good? Salon writer, Matt Zoller Seitz, looks at what may be next for the chain - and why he'll miss 'em. www.salon.com (7/19/10) Dave's response: I will miss Blockbuster if only for its used DVD sales. If I wait two or three months after the retail release of new movie DVDs, which can sell retail for up to $25 each, I can pick them up for about $7 each via Blockbuster's three-for-$20 used DVD sales...... One question…who the hell is Erica Hillary? (7/19/10) You're wrong about Erica "working different hours." There are no other places for her on the station. She demanded more money from Citadel and Jack and both refused. They wanted her out anyway. There was NO fight to keep her. They couldn't get her out the door fast enough. They knew she could never get what she was making at Mix anywhere else and frankly they didn't care if she did. She was the "odd man out" during the morning show and they were looking for someone who could work with the show and not against them. She sat in the corner of the studio while everyone else contributed to the show. (7/19/10) What type of salary does someone like Erica Hillary make? $90-100K? That would seem pretty generous for a 25-hour work week, even if it does mean getting up at 4am every day, since you could still do something else part-time. If she was making more then I would have to agree with management for letting her walk. (7/19/10) Erica Hillary left MIX because she wanted to work a different set of hours. There were no negotiations about money or anything. I heard the company tried to get her to stay but it didn't work out. (7/19/10) Erica Hillary wanted more money and they refused to give it to her...it's that easy. She got mad and "decided" to leave. All she got out of it was a nice going-away cake. She has no future employment lined up. (7/19/10) The nice thing about The Sports Reporters is that on that day, The Sports Fix covered Dunn enough. And, Thom did an outstanding job while discussing it with a great guest. I would rather Andy and the gang move on to discuss other timely issues and keep it going instead of dragging that one topic on for an hour. Lavar know Baseball? Why does every show on JFK cover the same issues? By drive time, I don’t want to hear what the last two shows covered. Two hours of The Sports Reporters in a classic sports format after Mr. Tony is enough straight sports for me. I am ready for something lighter in the afternoon. (Especially if The Junks covered it on the way to work.) OOBBEE (7/19/10) Hey any early ratings returns to indicate how the new Kirk and Mike show on 105.9 is doing? It's a crowded field in the mornings, but I would be interested to see if they are getting any serious bump for the station. It's a good show, IMO. Kirk and O'Meara are gelling really well on air. Their newsman/producer, Shamrock, is a good sidekick for them to have fun with. Even nice to hear some rock and roll, been a long time since I've appreciated music on the radio, tending to stick to "guy talk", sports talk or news talk, and letting my Ipod play the tunes. (7/19/10) Dave's response: Not yet. The "first" PPM book for July is actually part of late June. Kirk and Mike started on July 6th, and that was for only half of that week. We should get the first very preliminary numbers by week three or four of July, I'd guess..... Dave i have a simple question for you a very simple one as well. With these PPM`S which numbers are used to determine success the weekly PPM numbers that you put up today or the monthly numbers which just came out only four days ago? (7/19/10) Dave's response: Last week's numbers were the June monthlies. Today it's the first of the July weeklies..... Wowzers! After I read Mike from Fairfax's master's thesis on WJFK and WTEM, I did glean that he criticized the Sports Reporters for not sticking with the "Should the Nats trade Adam Dunn?" topic . . . point well taken, MFF (although paragraphs would be your friend), but consider this -- what would either Pollin or Czaban have to SAY about Adam Dunn, and whether he should be traded, after the first two or three minutes? Neither of them knows a lot about baseball, and neither would pretend otherwise (OK, Czaban would). When they DO try to talk baseball, it's amusing how often the discussion trails off into "I don't know . . . neither do I", and then off to the burgundy and gold! Sincerely, TMU. (7/19/10) Thanks to the "Mailbagger" for the Fred Weiss info. I clearly recall his emotional farewell to Louis Allen the day Mr. Allen passed on on WMAL's newscast that day. Now another area "newsy" that I've been curious of is former "Ten O'clock News" anchor Alan Smith. I believe he came to DC from Baltimore where he was one of the lead anchors on 13's innovative "Eyewitness News" (who's intro theme was from the soundtrack of "Goldfinger"). Rusty (7/19/10) Picking up where I left off last week regarding the first anniversary of WJFK going all sports, ex-Redskins getting prime media gigs is hardly a new phenomenon in Washington so it's not surprising that the station would try and land a high profile former Skin for its afternoon drive show. With one of the early promos on 106.7 being "the view from the cheap seats - not the owner's box", a factor in the decision to hire LaVar Arrington and pair him with Chad Dukes (a holdover from the previous guy talk format) in the 2-6 PM timeslot had to be the former's less than amicable departure from the team three years earlier. Whether or not Arrington still had an axe to grind with the Snyder regime, he certainly hasn't pulled too many punches thus far and his extended anti-Haynesworth rant about a month ago is one of the highlights of WJFK's first year as a sports talker (Dukes should return whatever he got paid for that hour because he barely had to say anything). The show's not everyone's cup of tea, clearly skewing younger as evidenced by the fact that the hosts talk MMA (mixed martial arts) on a regular basis. Their competition on WTEM from 2 to 4 PM is the program hosted by John Thompson II, where I'm not sure the term 'MMA' has ever been mentioned - you're more likely to hear the Georgetown coaching legend reminiscing with veteran boxing writer Bert Sugar about listening to the Louis-Schmeling fight on the old Philco back in the day. Ironically, it was Thompson who gave Arrington an early opening into radio as a weekly guest during football season when he was still playing for the Redskins. For obvious reasons, a show hosted by Thompson and Doc Walker (who wore the burgundy and gold in the glory years) is going to be heavily basketball and football oriented - it still suffers from the departure of hockey and golf expert Al Koken more than a year ago. Their producer Chuck Sapienza has recently assumed a more prominent on-air role, co-hosting with Walker on the many occasions when the main host is away as well as moderating the daily 'scuttlebutt' which seems to be a ripoff of the Kevin Sheehan segments on Tony Kornheiser's show. With Arrington and Dukes recently getting an additional hour, they now compete directly with 980's Sports Reporters from 4-7 PM. One difference between the two programs is that Arrington/Dukes will stay with a topic for the better part of an hour (or longer) including ample time for phone-ins, whereas Reporters always seems to be in a rush to get from one topic to the next. A case in point was the latter program's measly four minute segment last week on whether the Nationals should trade their star power hitter Adam Dunn by the July 31 deadline - that's the type of thing that drives sports radio in places like New York and Boston for days and days yet Pollin and Czaban didn't even see fit to go to the phones on it. Czaban also has an annoying habit of stepping over Pollin's lines and trying to steer a discussion away from what the latter wanted to focus on (often in a distasteful direction) - would it kill him to try and be a bit more polite and deferential? Nonetheless, the Sports Reporters hosts deserve credit for not holding back on their critiques of the Redskins despite the station's ownership situation and I think that's a key factor in the show's continuing popularity. Bill Rohland handles the 7-11 PM timeslot on WJFK while WTEM's airing either play-by-play, a Kornheiser replay or syndicated ESPN programming. From what little I've been able to hear of that program, Rohland (who switched assignments with Holden Kushner several months ago) and his co-hosts seem to do a credible job covering local and national sports. Mike, Fairfax (7/19/10) With the cast of 'Jersey Shore' on strike for season 3 maybe Julie Wright can move to Seaside Heights & take over where one overly tanned carcenoma bound attention whore with no fashion sense leaves off. (7/19/10) Re: RIggins on MASN: I'm not sure it matters what Baltimore viewers think of Riggins since it is clearly a play for the DC market. Problem is that MASN is absolutely viewed as a Baltimore - oriented channel (and owned by Angelos) and I don't think it is on DC area sports fans' radar screens' except for the Nationals. I don't think I've ever watched anything on MASN other than the Nats and I never even think to check what is on. I guess I wonder the wisdom since COMCAST Sportsnet seems to have done a good job of being the network DC area sports fans think of first with the Capitals, Wizards, DC United and their special Redskins programming. (7/19/10) Sounds like a new female voice on the Jack Diamond show this morning very similar to Erica's. Is this the change that was mentioned a few weeks ago? No mention on the show and she is missing from the 107.3 website. Permanent replacement? Any idea what happened to Erica and what she will be doing next? I got the impression that her new boyfriend was from outside the metro DC area and that she might be following him. (7/19/20) FREDERICK W WEISS, veteran weatherman for Channel-7, born 30 Sep 1919, died 14 Nov 1996 at the age of 77 of liver cancer at his home at Leisure World, Silver Spring. Weiss retired in December 1988 after 25 years with the station just as WJLA was moving from the Chevy Chase Ice Palace to their new digs on Van Ness. In addition his duties as staff announcer, he was a weatherman for almost all of that period and learned the details of this specialty from Louis Allen and in courses at the Department of Agriculture Graduate School and the University of Maryland. Weiss was the first associate member of the American Meteorological Society to be awarded the AMS Seal of Approval. He was known to viewers for his trademark white hair and a manner on camera that was garrulous, friendly and professional. Born in Milwaukee, he attended the University of Wisconsin and served in the Army Air Forces in the China-Burma-India theater during World War II. Before moving to the Washington area and joining what then was WMAL in 1963, Mr. Weiss worked 12 years at WXYZ in Detroit. (7/19/10) Dr. Dog and Robert Randolph and the Family Band are great bands. Damn glad WTMD is playing them. You must be one of the "music experts" who thinks just because a lot of people like a band then they must suck. Jeez, bands get popular and stations like WTMD continue to play them because their listeners like them. With your thinking a radio station shouldn't play bands people like. Great logic. (7/19/10) (Is Julie Wright finally conceding defeat and turned the job over to a prettier, thinner, less annoying and certainly less horny Lauren) No Kristen, Her ego is much to pleasantly plump for that. According to her FB Page, those who fear her are wishing her a happy birthday. I'd assume she has taken time off for the event. (7/19/10) Hey there genius - do you even read your own stories that get posted on your little dumb website? The top story up there right now about the Politico ends with a sentence that doesn't have a verb, thus making zero sense to anyone reading it who happens to have a brain. "About a dozen reporters..." Where is the verb? Have they "left"? Have they been "fired"? Get bent toolbag. Jonathan Miller, Leesburg, VA (7/19/10) Dave's response: I was editing the blurb and left a word out. Big fucking deal! You might want to go to the Loudoun Hospital ER and get checked out before you have a stroke over it. Ha ha ha..... Could it be true????Is Julie Wright finally conceding defeat and turned the job over to a prettier, thinner, less annoying and certainly less horny Lauren??? I may actually start watching Fox 5 on a regular basis now! Kristen (7/19/10) Where in the world is -------------------- Steve Chenevey?....I need his job.. (7/19/10) Anyone else having issues with JFK’s stream this am with the new provider? (7/19/10) Dave's response: Maybe EB needs to see a urologist..... (dramatic clock-like music intro) Today in the Washington Post, read about a turtle with multiple personality disorder so intense that it has conversations with its own ass. "Mark Trail", in the comics pages. The Washington Post: If you don't get it, you don't get it (cold out). (7/19/10) I said my mind does the old hop and skip memory wise these days so I accept the info regarding Fred Knight. Don't want to mess with you dude sounds like you can dig up dead bodies. Maybe I was thinking about Fred "The Silver Fox" Weiss. More on the crappiness of over the air digital TV. Was watching Austin City Limits with Iron & Wine on WETA late Sunday night( why the hell WETA shows the musc programming late late nights Sunday is baffling too me) when the picture starting pixilating like crazy. Another bunch of bullshit that was fed about digital tv. I remember the experts saying with digital tv you either get the picture or you don't. Not true at all. I'd been watching ACL for 40 minutes when suddenly for some reason the tv picture started pixliating. Bummer! I haven't heard, with Big O and Dukes starting a podcast is the Big O leaving the Mike O'meara podcast? How many ways can the Big O and the Golden Boy for that matter, stretch themselves? With this upcoming WJFK golf tourney coming up and no mention of the involvement of the good old Junkettes does that pretty much mean that its finished. Is it JP? I'm sitting hear at 5:30 am listening to the Junkies replay when a sports update comes on but its seems to be an update from Saturday because its about the leader of the British Open going into the clubhouse and who didn't make the cut. Huh? The BO ended last night with the South African dude slaughtering the field. What gives WJFK? the wordless (7/19/10) re; WTMD - "Band of Horses; If I had My Way from Robert Randolph and the Family Band; Shadow People from Dr. Dog: Junebug from Robert Frances" - all are by the book boring AAA bands that are listed in the AAA 'add" charts aka national record label stuff being pushed. Nothing there that isn't being pushed on every other generic AAA station around the country. Also, 10,000 watts (class B1) out of Towson is a helluva signal all around Baltimore. The signal is fine, it's the music that's not working. (7/19/10) "With all the praise for WTMD, one would do well to remember this: they are a Towson University station with NO STUDENTS ON AIR...They really ought to be ashamed." Yeah, why can't the use students like university-owned WAMU. Or WGTS. Or WXPN. Or... (7/19/10) I've seen the anchors on FOX5 with the hand held remote for the teleprompter and it's HUGE..Looks like one of the first cell phones that came out decades ago..As for the pedal they use, I've seen Allison Seymour with one during the 9am hour and it looks like the pedal on those old sewing machines that my mother had. Is there no remotes available that are smaller? (7/19/10) Why should Towson University be ashamed that no students are on the air at WTMD? How many students are on the air at American University's WAMU, Howard University-owned WHUR (even though WHUR operates in the commercial FM band) or, for that matter, adult alternative WXPN, licensed to the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia? And on and on. Just because a radio station is licensed to a college or university does not require the institution to make it a training ground for its students. (7/19/10) /\ July 19 Messages /\ \/ July 18 Messages \/ RE: Dave: "I realize the programming on 980 is rudderless and .... You have to be kidding me! Dukies, stop this. Mike and Thom are both radio newbie’s. Actually, Thom has more experience from being on the drive time show for years before taking the gig. And, I always thought he was one of the best part timers there. Wise and his tree hugging stich suck. He mumbles and bumbles. They even tried to change the monkey he is with to help. I can not believe people listen to him at all. I DO AGREE they are afraid of JTII at TEM. He sucks worse than Wise. Talk about laziness. The best thing about TEM is the FREEDOM they have to not just talk about the same three topics with an intro of classic rock for three shows in a row. Rudderless? Who needs that lame set of hand cuffs??? No more whore or bore? That sucks! No more birthday show's from the Oscar's parent’s house with Cakes, a neighbor, stopping by? That sucks! No more all day drinking shows? That sucks. Nope tomorrow, it will be Tiger, Skins, and a player to be named later all day by three shows in a row broken up by ACDC intros. Dukes, your lead in sucks….and MOS is not helping. Get over it. And, I LOVED you on the real JFK! I feel the pain when I listen. OOBBEE (7/18/10) How bummed is ESPN today? All that money to go to St. Andrews and produce a finally watchable HDTV Open. And, today, a no-name took off with it with no drama, Tiger, or Phil. The suits must be squirming. Makes CBS Radio Suits look good. OOBBEE (7/18/10) Online content manager, Baltimore - www.clearcareers.com (7/18/10) To "wordless" and TWIMC; At the time of the passing of Fred Knight's only son "Ric" in 2009, his obituary in the News & Messenger stated "Surviving are his father, Frederick Knight, Sr. and his wife, Nellie... and one sister, Pamela Knight..." www.legacy.com... There is no evidence to suggest that Fred, Sr. has since passed. (7/18/10) Looks like WMAL dropped Dave Ramsey from their weekend lineup. (7/18/10) With all the praise for WTMD, one would do well to remember this: they are a Towson University station with NO STUDENTS ON AIR. As good as they sound, that fact is indefensible.They really ought to be ashamed of themselves. (7/18/10) (regarding a previous post) "The bloodletting has begun at Ch5". If this report of layoffs is true, doesn't this fly in the face of the GOP talking points that Fox so proudly echoes? It doesn't sound like "adding jobs to the economy" to me! Also, didn't Channel 5 get rid of all the teleprompter operators a while back? If I'm not mistaken, don't the anchors run their own teleprompter with a pedal now? (7/18/10) Dave: "I realize the programming on 980 is rudderless and there is no one there who any of the staff will actually listen to"...this line is somewhat alarming. I didn't know it was that bad over at 980. I wouldn't be surprised if management is plainly scared of Thompson on many different fronts and I'll leave-it at that. Second, Please don't compare Laverro to Wise...just because Thom worked in the print business. I like Thom and his knowledge but he doesn't belong on radio. However, it's quite evident there's no discipline at the station and people are just using Snyder for a paycheck; great another unfortunate personnel problem that has spread from the NFL to sportstalk radio. (7/18/10) Dave, Good Lord do you not listen or get any info beyond the Montgomery county Line? 930 WFMD Hit the ground running at 508 taking calls from listeners, Talking as well with the USGS, The weather Channel, Local 911 center , The Mayor of the City of Frederick, Local law enforcement, Local Emergency Management etc. PLus numerous website stories. I understand your focus remains with DC, but don't forget the great Radio that is being done out in the boonies. Bob Miller, WFMD (7/18/10) www.loudountimes.com: Songs and sounds have been breaking the silence on Leesburg’s “dark” WAGE radio station. The radio station played a mix of music starting last week on the 1200 AM dial – WAGE’s soon-to-be home. WAGE radio, which is owned by Potomac Radio, went off the air at the 1290 dial in August 2009. “Station management indicates that WAGE’s existing transmitter has resumed operation,” said spokeswoman Kimberlee Walsh Cummings in an e-mail statement. “This was done to maintain the operating status of the station and to assure its capability to serve the public.” Potomac Radio station owner James Weitzman scored an approval from the Loudoun Board of Supervisors June 2 for the construction of three AM transmitter towers in Ashburn. The towers will increase the station’s wattage to 50,000 – 10 times its previous strength... (7/18/10) How-dey-do-dat: 10cc's "I'm Not In Love". Well worth ten minutes of your time: www.boingboing.net (7/18/10) The bloodletting has begun at Ch5. Anchor/reporters have taken paycuts as have the technical staff. In the ever present mantra of doing more with less, channel 5 has begun another round of layoffs. 2 technicians last week and the word is 16-20 more in short order. This has all been put in motion by corporate to save money even though Ch5 has routinely operated in the black for years. Master control and the main control room are now being automated so there is no need for warm bodies anymore. The union has given up jurisdiction on camera usage after a long, ugly negotiation with the company. Reporters are now able to shoot their own video and producers and writers can now edit! Good luck with that. Truly a sad state of affairs for one of the great storytelling shops in the biz. Moral is low, the ship is sinking and people are looking for a life raft. (7/18/10) Dave's response: Can anyone confirm? I may be wrong on this but I believe Fred Knight has been gone for some time. He was brought up in ye olde mailbag a few years back and I think his daughter may have responded to inquiries. Of course my memory seems to be doing more of a hop and skip these days. I just wish could find a decent donut ! Dunkin's are like trying to eat a rock and grocery store donuts well I long for the days of Heidi. My all time favorite were from G.E.M., the one located in Alexandria were the Home Depot is, I remember they were always light and fluffy and the smell ahhh heaven. Could be my yuteful remembrances, for instance todays Twinkie tastes like indescribable nothingness compared to the 1960's Twinkies. Had a Pamela Brown sighting Saturday after watching the British Open. I thought the British Open was going to be totally on cable this year? And gosh darn it I so wanted to see Tom Watson make the cut one last time. Oh yeah Pamela Brown. Well Ms. Cooper was the anchor of the wjla channel 7 6 o'clock news so I guess she has the gig full time now. Miss Brown was on assignment at the Zoo. Geez great gig reporting from the Zoo on a hot humid day. I remember from my yute going to the zoo a couple times in summer and can you imagine the smell? I said sir can you imagine the smell? After Mss Brown sent it back to studio Ms. Cooper said, "Lets hope Pamela gets a cool popsicle in her!" For shame Ms. Cooper , for shame! Later in the evening surfed by channel 7 after 11:30 pm and they had some weekly wrap up kind of thing anchored by Ms. Cooper after the regular news only the content of this weekly wrap up were some warmed up leftovers.. They showed one story about a Mrs. Dickerson who has worked at the Safeway in Silver Spring(?) for over 55 years and was going to retire this upcoming October. Thing is I could swear I saw this Alison Starling story shown at least several months back. Whats the point of this weekly wrap up show if its old news and more and more weather.. How about an old movie for a Saturday night Joe! I was posting an email to DCRTV when the earthquake hit I thought it was a low flying helicopter and the Black Ops had finally located my position, just up the street from Mark Levin and his secret under ground bunker. Ach tung baby! but thankfully no earthquake song suggestion.. The wordless (7/18/10) You must not really be paying much attention to WTMD. They write their CD of the Week, Baltimore Unsigned and other stuff for B every week. Here are their top spins from last weeks issue of B: Laredo from Band of Horses; If I had My Way from Robert Randolph and the Family Band; Shadow People from Dr. Dog: Junebug from Robert Frances; What's It All For from Avi Buffalo; Call Back from Truth and Salvage Company; On the Road to Charlie from Anders Osborne; Tightrope form Janelle Monae and I Don't Love You No More from Kings Go Forth. Hardly "by the book" or "AAA. In fact, WTMD was the first radio station to do a live show with Dr. Dog years ago. Instead of looking at AAA sites where the record labels pay to have their songs listed you should look at WTMD's actual play list on their website--Sarah Mclachlan has been played exactly three time since February. Altered Fridays is an awesome ultra indie show. And Gov't Mule just played to a packed hill last night at Artscape, they are awesome and thank god WTMD keeps them on the air. WTMD is programmed by the airstaff based on listener response and they are the only station to actually play requests. I don't listen to anyother radio station precisely because WTMD tailors their mix to our city. If you don't like WTMD, go listen to your CDs---but most of the ones you buy will be from bands that WTMD played first. WTMD's signal is only 10,000 watts compared to the 50,000 watts of other radios stations in Baltimore. For their size, they do an awesome job and i am proud to be a member. (7/18/10) I enjoyed that piece on gambling which mentioned ex-doughnut maker Paul McNabb. However, WaPost articles about McNabb's 1973 winning identify his sole employer as Harry Brundick's Dunkin Donuts on Reisterstown Road in Owings Mills. I don't doubt that he guested on Fred Knight's show, but if he worked at a PamE's Donut Shop, it it would have been after he won the big bucks. (Sadly, the Social Security Death Index discloses that Paul Frederick McNabb died in September 2008 at the age of 65 near Tacoma, WA.) (7/18/10) Your rant about Comcast upping their pay-by-phone fee got me thinking about an experience I had 2 weeks ago. I received a call from Citibank who administrors Staples credit card program. The representative inormed me that my payment was late and she was concerned that I'd never missed a payment before. She wanted to know if everything was ok, or was it just an oversite on my part. I'm like wow, you know the bill is sitting right here in my to be paid folder, I just totally lost track of time. She said not a problem, that's why we called, you can make a payment with me over the phone if you'd like or mail in the payment. She said there is no charge for paying over the phone, and I'll be sure to waive all late fees and your interest rate will not be affected. She took my payment, and thanked me for being a customer. I was flabbergasted it's the most pleasant customer service I've received in years. (7/18/10) "Fred Knight looked an awful lot like the 'Time To Make The (Dunkin) Donuts' TV commercials man." That would be Michael Vale, who also doubled as Sam Breakstone in another series of commercials. Died in NYC in 2005 from diabetes. (7/18/10) I have to agree with others WBAL's afternoon show is a mess. A week ago, after severe storms went through my power went out. I tuned in hoping they would have an interview with a BGE spokesman to give an estimate on how many homes were out and when they'd be back on. I listened for over an hour and a half and heard nothing. Also, moving Ron Smith to the morning slot is ridiculous. He's just not a morning talk show host. HIs subjects are way too serious and he is too doom and gloom for first thing in the morning. (7/18/10) Fred Knight did 10AM-2 or 3PM on WWDC, before being replaced by Dick Hemby. Later, Fred did weather in Salisbury, MD (on WBOC-TV, I believe). And among the staff announcers let go by TV-9 in 1973 was John Badila, one of the more successful freelancers in this area now. (7/18/10) FYI - FULL-TIME TALK SHOW PRODUCER - Baltimore, MD careers.hearsttelevision.com (7/18/10) Fred Knight looked an awful lot like the "Time To Make The (Dunkin) Donuts" TV commercials man. Other than Pam E K's location in West Springfield, I never trusted any of their other stores. The one in Lincolnia often had roaches crawling on the counters. MLB4 (7/18/10) My thanks to Jack Edwards for the kind words. It's easy to be a good program director when you have great people like Jack on your staff. Radio listeners in Carroll County are in for a real treat with Jack doing 9-noon on WTTR...Rusty, I'm alive and well and doing music for all occasions all over Maryland. When do I get invited to do your show again?,,,All the best, Johnny Dark (7/18/10) Pardon my error Dave for not noticing that the AC/DC song was already mentioned. Though I do think it warrants a repeat mention since it's quite a good rocker. Rusty (7/18/10) OK, I can't resist now that we're on the "Quake" thing. How 'bout AC/DC's "You Shook Me All Night Long"? Rusty (7/18/10) Research on Fred Knight turned up this bit of local TV history. Spring 1973 marked the end of full-time booth announcers at Channel-9. Longtime Broadcast House voices John Douglas and Don Richards were tossed to the curb by Katie Graham's henchmen. (7/18/10) The post about Fred Knight and his doughnuts made me think of his most famous employee, Paul McNabb. He was a baker on the overnight shift at one of Knight's shops, who was the Maryland Lottery's first million-dollar winner. One time, in 1973, when I visited WWDC in Silver Spring, McNabb was a guest on Fred's show, talking about his big win. I got to meet him and shake his hand, unfortunately, none of his luck rubbed off. As it turned out, winning such a big jackpot didn't work out too well for McNabb. 20 years later, he was in Las Vegas, driving a cab. health20-20.org (7/18/10) /\ July 18 Messages /\ \/ July 17 Messages \/ "One other "quake" song all of us (myself included) missed: "Shake" by Sam Cooke." Sam Cooke...Good one! How did we all miss that one. Of course, there's one more....it was never a chart hit (and I don't even thing Warner's released it as a single) but Larry Graham's "Earthquake" is not only the obvious track at the top of this theoretical playlist, it's also one of the most bad ass funk songs EVER written! (7/17/10) To the mailbagger expressing an interest in Fred Knight; all indications from public records readily obtainable on the web are that he is still among the living and residing in the metro DC area at age 76. Don't be confused by the fact that his son "Ric" (Fred Jr.) passed away last summer at the age of 54. Back in 1986, things were looking-up for Fred's booming doughnut business and he had ditched broadcasting as you can read here: DCMemories.com. However, I lose track after the final mention of that chain in the WaPost of a health code violation in 2002. Anybody know the ultimate fate of PamE K's Donut Shops? (7/17/10) Who is in charge of wardrobe at WJLA in the mornings? A few weeks ago, Allison wore the same color blue as the background she was standing in front of. Today she wore an all white outfit that made her look like she was glowing. Just seems to be some really bad choices going on. I remember someone wearing a striped shirt that was strobing as he talked. Very amateurish. (7/17/10) Baltimore's radio station W C A O-60 purchased by Plough Inc went on the air playing top 40 music during the summer of 1956. Their first printed top 40 chart during the first week in August of 1956 listed Flying Saucer/Buchanan-Goodman/Lun 101 as #1 for that week and The Platters/Mercury was listed as #2. Plough dropped the CBS network in favor of local news readers with a news room the size of a telephone booth at 1102 North Charles Street. First floor offices for gm and sales, second floor consisted of one on air studio, one production studio, one engineering control room, accounting and that small on air news room.The third floor housed the pd's office, record library, traffic and public service office while the fourth floor was unofficially named by yours truly as "the no tell motel" but will save that for the book. Charlie Purcell did an air shift, news and public service director, Lee Parker, Hugh Wanke, Ray Moffett, Vance Randolph, Bob Dahlgren, Les Alexander, Alan Drake and Ed Graham were some of the early Broadcast Service of Plough Inc air folks. WCAO built beautiful studios and offices (sales excepted) around their transmitter site at Park Heights Avenue and 695 across from Druid Ridge Cemetery and went on the air FROM THAT LOCATION November 1963. GM and Sales department was relocated to a corner building at 40 West Chase Street (just a stone's throw from 1102 N Charles Street)... Before Plough purchased WCAO, the station aired a ton of CBS network stuff...soap operas and great radio drama and comedy shows at night. Thanks to Ed Graham for getting me in the door in May 1959 and I left in 1974 for WCBM and the greatest hits of all time.( I loved it there) and special thanks to radio genius Bruce Holberg for hiring me and giving me the shot at 7pm-12 midnight. Johnny Dark was one of, if not the best pd during my 15 years at WCAO. Never once saw him get upset BUT he did yell a lot on those raceway spots (he had to) and he was the guy most in demand for all spots. The strongest voice I ever worked with and a first class gentleman, That’s my story and I'm sticking with it. What sounds funny today: WCAO had a jingle (singers) intro the :55 news "From around the world and across the nation etc"... Radio Station W I T H 1230, at the same time was airing top 40 tunes with Buddy Deane, Tony Donald, Gil Kriegel, Joel Chaseman, Russ Hall, Hot Rod and Roz Ford... Thanks, Jack Edwards- Radio Station W T T R AM 1470 Westminster... Please support Dave with this great local site, I do and will continue. (7/17/10) Dave's response: Thanks Jack..... I agree that WTMD does a lot for local music, but they really do need to break away from the 'by the book' AAA format that they otherwise stick to. AAA is a very dull format with a lot of Jack Johnson and Sarah Mclachlan types being played and somehow branded as 'rock' and not the Adult Contemporary music that it really is. According to FMQB these are the AAA bands being pushed for airplay next week: Citizen Cope "I Couldn't Explain Why", Doobie Brothers "Nobody", Gov't Mule "Railroad Boy", Grip Weeds "Be Here Now", Jack Johnson "At Or With Me", Leroy Bell "Everything About You", Luke Doucet & The White Falcon "The Ballad Of Ian Curtis", Mountain Man Made The Harbor, Peter Wolf "I Don't Wanna Know", She & Him "Thieves", Steve Gouveia "Like She Did"..... Jack Johnson? She & him? The freakin Doobie Brothers? Terrible stuff...boring, wimpy, and Adult Contemporary. Unfortunately this stuff will end up on WTMD because they follow the AAA list verbatim. If they crafted their music to fit Baltimore better and left this list of acoustic drivel and soft rock to rot, they would start getting ratings in Baltimore. They have a pretty good signal throughout the Baltimore area, they are commercial free, so the only reason that they don't have any ratings has to be because the music that they play stinks. Any time that I've listened I've heard a good song followed by something like Sarah Mclachlan and Sheryl Crow or Train, etc. It doesn't work in Baltimore and never will. (7/17/10) One other "quake" song all of us (myself included) missed: "Shake" by Sam Cooke. (I believe Otis Redding also did a version.) "Shake it like a bowl of soup...make your body loop-the-loop..." -- Vincent in Triangle (7/17/10) "Those suggestions are almost has hacky as a DJ dancing to the music while on a webcam." Oldies, babe; Oldies. That's what the fans like. If you have any modern earthquake tunes, I'm all ears. (7/17/10) Hey Dave, Where did you see WSTW showed in the Baltimore ratings? I am looking at the ratings at radio-info.com and can't find them. Just wondering, Dave (7/17/10) Dave's response: Radio-Info runs the age 6+ numbers like everybody else. We run the age 12+ numbers. So our number always differ a bit from what everyone else runs..... I remember back in the 1970"s, Fred Knight had a program in the afternoon on WWDC. At 10:00 P.M., he did weather on WTTG. Also, didn't Johnny Holliday do the morning show? JohnnyuinHanover,Pa. (7/17/10) re: MHz...Eve Jackson on France 24 is pretty nice on the eyes. And yes, Alyona has gotten much better in her delivery since her first show launched. Good to see Daljit Dhaliwal back, too...Back to the crawls, you reminded me, besides the DVD ads, after the program starts, two crawls notifying viewers that regular programming will be seen at midnight (in much too large a font, btw). So, about 5 minutes after the opening, all the scrolling and wiping is out of the way and one can finally concentrate on the show. As I said, a bit distracting especially if the story is a mystery. No, I didn't say 'abandon all promotional efforts', I didn't object to the adverts during the closing credits and before/after the movie. It would still be subjectively annoying, nonetheless, whether my DVR was running or not. Do you object to time shifters? How is it I'm stealing? And I have donated regularly through matching employee payroll deductions for a number of _years_, thank you, thank you. Still, MHz doesn't, yet, run adverts during the regular broadcast of the same movies, so why during this 'special event' when presumably they are trying to attract new viewers. Seems like a counter-intuitive strategy to me if that's the goal. Ah, just had a thought, maybe the DVD marketing is the primary objective and the content is simply the wraparound for the 'special event'? If this is special, give me the regular. Thanks for letting me vent, again. (And I hope you weren't really threatening me, were you?) Yes, Michael Jeck used to present the Mystery programs. Anyone remember the name of the two sports guys who used to do the in studio sports call-in show? One of the guy's name was Chick. (7/17/10) Re: "To the whiny baby who complained about the promo crawls..." Crimony, man. Who pissed in your Cheerios? Talk about being a whiny baby. beetsnotbeats (7/17/10) Whatever happened to Fred Knight of WWDC fame and weather on WTTG years ago?? rob (7/17/10) Dave question for you....Not sure if you are a fan of James Bond 007, but I know you are so opposed to the NBC/Comcast merger. Have you ever watched "Tomorrow Never Dies" where Elliot Carver (Jonathan Pryce) is a media baron who wants to basically exclusive broadcastng rights in the world for the next 100 years. Do you see Comcast as a bad James Bond villain? (7/17/10) Dave's response: "Tomorrow Never Dies" is one of my favorite non-Connery Bond films. Yes, I do think that Comcast's Brian Roberts is today's version of Elliot Carver. Ha ha ha..... "Oh yeah! I'm with that 1000%! I would have added KC & The Sunshine Band - "Shake Your Booty", "You Shook Me" - Led Zeppelin, "You Shook Me All Night Long" - AC/DC, "Gimme Shelter" - Rolling Stones" --Those suggestions are almost has hacky as a DJ dancing to the music while on a webcam. (7/17/10) I had not seen a picture of Silvie until pictures were posted here. She's really nice looking. "Fine as can be!" That's how we would characterize the looks of someone with Silvie's attributes back in the day. While I don't really see a similarity in appearance between Brooke Adams, Jennifer Beals and Silvie as suggested in the picture and posting by a contributor here, I do recognize that all three are beautiful women. Someone here also made reference to Silvie being inked to participate in some sort of Charles County reality show. Is this true, or was someone joking. I ask because I think it might actually be an interesting idea. (7/17/10) WTMD 89.7 in Baltimore is the only station playing local music in any significant way. Baltimore Unsigned is an hour of new releases by Baltimore singers and bands and even interviews them. There's a local music all day long too and I've been turned on to a bunch of bands I wouldn't have heard about before. Other radio stations may say they play local music but that's a big hoax when you look at WTMD has done for the Baltimore Music Scene. They've given away recording time and PRS guitar during their Baltimore Band Block Party last year and there is always a local band and at First Thursdays Concerts at Mt. Vernon. They're at Artscape this weekend hosting the local music stage and Cold War Kids and Govt Mule. Donnie---you should be listening to them! (7/17/10) I didn't have the chance to listen to HFS yesterday morning but they could have put an Alternative spin on the quake with Drowning Pool:Bodies(Let the bodies hit the floor),Moby:We Rock The Body,REM: Its The End Of The World As We Know It and/or Don't Go Back To Rockville,Stabbing Westward:Save Yourself,Nine Inch Nails:Down In It(I was up above it..) I'm sure there are plenty more relevant tunes Neci could find if the playlist wasn't pre programmed. Maybe she did... I haven't seen a playlist. Donnie (7/17/10) I too watch much programming on MHZ network. Like the Alyona Show, she's hot, and the Keiser Report both on RT. I also enjoy the J-Melo show on NHK for all th latest in the Japanese music scene. Rock On! But what the heck happened to anchor Hannah Hoexter on France 24. It was so sexy watching her stumble thru a newscast. She rocked. I enjoy watching the variety shows on both the Chinese and Vietnamese channels but sure wish english closed captioning was available. As for the crawls at bottom of screen lets blame Sir Frederick Thomas! Oh yeah I dig Inspector Montelbon(?) Was Michael Keck the dude who use to introduce the International Mystery's on MHZ? I thought he was a bit ovr the top WEHT Bruce Miller and Mike Baker? the wordless and the wreck of the old 97 (7/17/10) Is 947 Fresh thinking about a morning show? Also I though Michele Wright from PGC was going to join them? They need some really good personalities if they want to compete with WASH. Maybe hire some former WASHers like Glenn Hollis, Randi Martin, Scott Brady and now Erica Hillary. I have been listening and they have potential their music is certainly more upbeat then 97.1. TS (7/17/10) (snip) Too bad D.C. doesn't have a genuine oldies station anymore. This morning, it could have saluted the seismic outburst...(end) Oh yeah! I'm with that 1000%! I would have added KC & The Sunshine Band - "Shake Your Booty", "You Shook Me" - Led Zeppelin, "You Shook Me All Night Long" - AC/DC, "Gimme Shelter" - Rolling Stones, "There Goes The Neighborhood" - Sheryl Crow, "Rock This Town" - Stray Cats, "Landslide" - Stevie Nicks, and in a real stretch, "Boom Boom Out Goes The Lights" -Pat Travers. But in the end, that requires thought, creativity, and freedom to program independently and go off the corporate playlist when the circumstances dictate that it should. And as we all know, ... oh never mind, you already know what I'm going to say. (7/17/10) Mike Fairfax, My Tony is killing in the key ratings which is why they bend over to do the show from his Beach house because a good train wreck with talent beats unwise programming every time! The Junks have been hindered in the new format. It has also made them lazy. Their numbers and pay will go down soon. It is a shame because of their talent when they try. What makes sense after the contract is over??? Stay at on FM…on Mike’s new station. Move Kirk and Mike to PM drive. (Mike gets to sleep,) Let Oscar, Buzz, and Robb do a midday thing. Give evenings to Drab. Guy talk in the District again!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just don’t compete with Mr. Tony until Contract is up. Then, spend they money. Put on a news show or Holden type show. Cheap filler. Look at the male demos: Junks will do better with freedom. Mr. Tony rules. Mike’s buddies can do midday with flair. Mike and Kirk would kick in PM. Drab has talent. Think about it??? Dukes?? Come to the party. (7/17/10) To the whiny baby who complained about the promo crawls and lower 1/3rd on MHz...so lemme get this straight, a network should abandon all promotional efforts so you can record (steal) content? Why don't you get off your ass and earn a living so you can afford to buy the series on DVD, thus supporting the station, which also in the end serves to reduce the number of those promos in the first place. Idiot. As my Norwegian grandfather used to say "Du er en later, langsom tenkning mann som bør bli dekket i renar shit og sett på ilden" (You are a lazy, slow thinking man who should be covered in reindeer shit and set on fire.) Uff Da! (7/17/10) Dave's response: I can't tell you how many times I've abandoned watching a movie on a cable network because of all the distracting shit going on at the bottom of the screen. TNT is one of the worst offenders. Right in the middle of a key, important scene, there'll be some stupid promotional animation in the lower left corner that's run at least three dozen times during the flick. The assholes who run stations like this don't deserve my or anyone's viewership..... RE: [I'm half expecting to hear Fred and Mrs. Fred claim the quake was Obama's fault.] I have a better theory. Apparently the quake - having originated some 3 KM directly below Innova Fairfax Hospital - resulted from Satan's violent reaction to hearing that Dick Cheney has once again eluded his grasp. (7/17/10) Regarding Bill Powers’ question about WCAO, Plough bought the station around 1957, spelling the end of the CBS affiliation and the beginning of the station’s storied top-40 era. The ABC affiliate in those days was WFBR. WBAL carried NBC. I think WCBM was affiliated with Mutual. Around 1965, the WCAO studios moved from 1102 N. Charles Street to a new building at the transmitter site on Park Heights Avenue off the Beltway. The sales office relocated to 40 West Chase Street near the Fifth Regiment Armory. Until 1973, WFBR had a killer signal from its site off the Hanover Street bridge. The station was absolutely crystal clear and strong throughout most of the market. In the early 70’s, management made a decision it wanted to be stronger in areas such as Randallstown and built a new site off Rolling Road in Hebbville. The move was a big mistake and hurt the signal tremendously. Roddy Freeman (7/17/10) /\ July 17 Messages /\ \/ July 16 Messages \/ I need to vent: Probably no one here but me watches the MHz Network, specifically their great International Mystery series. This week they are running consecutive nights of a Varg Veum (a Norwegian crime series). My gripe, MHz is running crawls every ten minutes advertising the series on DVD available on MHz's website -- during the movie. Okay, FOX and the other networks have popup ads. But this is supposed to be public TV, it more like This.TV! Grrrrr. Okay, the real reason I'm mad about this, besides being incredibly distracting (try reading subtitles) is that I'm recording the movies I missed from previous broadcasts. Oh, and I almost forgot, the same ad blurb is shown the whole time during the special interview-with-the-author-segments after the movies. Grrrrr. b) Another MHz programming complaint: they are broadcasting the letterboxed Japanese NHK programs in full screen thus cutting off the subtitles and picture content, e.g., Cool Japan a pop culture group panel program. Just very disappointed in a really good network. (Also, does anyone know what happened to Michael Jeck?) (7/16/10) To the poster about Kirk and Mike ending at 9 am- That's when the Edge runs an all music, no commercials hour, just like WASH (Loo and Lori also run 5-9), as I believe Boxer over at WMZQ is also on the same schedule. The Edge has been running the 9am all music hour since at least before November of last year. (Actually- correction WASH's all music hour is at 8 AM, not 9) (7/16/10) Does anyone else hear Pat Garrett "ribbit" in the WTOP sounder? Listen carefully when he says the word "Mobile" and tell me if you hear it, too. -Chainsman (7/16/10) Dave, Here is a link for the antenna I was using at your place. I won't guarantee that it will solve all her problems but I have very good results with this as I travel around. I just had it at Rehoboth and easily picked up 28, 47, 16 and Atlantic City NJ I think it was 40 NBC. It does an amazing job for its size. www.amazon.com... Bob (7/16/10) I realize the programming on 980 is rudderless and there is no one there who any of the staff will actually listen to....but....puhleeze...someone tell doc and Da Coach to stick to the only two topics they know anything about - basketball and football. On Thursday, while they were waxing uneloquent about the British Open they were babbling about Tiger and his new putter. It was clear they had not bothered to research the topic. They wondered who made his new putter (Nike) and if it was any different from his Scotty Cameron model (quite a bit). Look, I get that sports talk is all about opinions. But in this case - when tiger had specifically talked about his putter change - to not know the basic premise of the conversation is, to turn a phrase, ponderous. That's what Joe Da Fan thinks. (7/16/10) Hey Johnny Dark; Great to see that you're posting again. Hope all is well with you old friend. Rusty Gibson (7/16/10) Too bad D.C. doesn't have a genuine oldies station anymore. This morning, it could have saluted the seismic outburst with "Shakin' All Over" by the Guess Who, "Shake, Rattle And Roll" by Joe Turner, and of course, "I Feel The Earth Move" by Carole King. -- Vincent in Lynchburg (7/16/10) Dave's response: One of my all-time favorite rock radio stations was San Francisco's legendary KQAK, The Quake..... All Access poses 10 Questions to WTOP’s Jim Farley: is.gd/duDqa (7/16/10) So the Kirk and Mike show is sounding good... too bad the hole left in afternoons when Kirk went to mornings is getting bigger by the minute. Please tell me Klueless King is NOT going to be the new afteroon host - he SUX out LOUD. And when Klueless doesn't feel like going on (way to commit, great job with consistency btw) he puts in Scott Roth (?) - WTF - WhoTF. And I thought it couldn't get worse. You can hear the radio dials being switched at 2 each day - Hello BIG... How Ya Doing DC101... (7/16/10) Brain fart! I put Haymarket Joe in the Shen Valley which, of course, it is not. I was thinking of New Market. But, my point remains the same about "yuns" versus "y'all". (7/16/10) Haymarket Joe wrote "yuns". I've heard residents of small towns in Pennsylvania use that word but not folks from the Shen Valley where one would expect them to say "y'all". Dave, you went to school in the Valley. Did you ever hear "yuns"? (7/16/10) Hearing that Big O & Dukes, the best combo in DC, are back is like Christmas Morning. These two, with Matt Cahill, know how to put on funny radio. To bad the aholes @ WJFK were more worried about the cash flow then putting on good radio. -Marcus (7/16/10) Dave's response: Chad needs Oscar to survive because Oscar was 90 percent of the talent in the old BO&D duo..... WRNR sometimes sounds amazingly like WHFS/Grasonville,right down to the static laced signal, and other times more like WXPN or dangerously close to doctors office music. I left Baltimore stations behind sometime around late '83 and focused on DC/Annapolis and Philly stations because Baltimore had a very narrow choice of rock. If 98Rock had played more Baltimore area bands more often I'd have stuck around but even a rocker can stand only so much Metallicker,Van Hagar,Guns n Butter or Assy/Douchy. RNR needs to boost its signal and focus more on the upbeat and angsty. Aaaaaaand of course this post wouldn't be complete without my obligatory BRING WHFS BACK TO FM!!! The Free Form weekends are great but they're straying over into 98Suck territory a bit much. Donnie (7/16/10) Jesus H Christ is Mike in Fairfax related to UCS? They both go on WAAAAAY too long (7/16/10) BS Mike in Fairfax. Wise doesn't deal in historical "facts" about the Redskins name. He deals in propaganda he gets from his whack job Indian activists buddies. They lie about the origin of the term and its usage. I have Native American blood and I have no problem with the name. And even if I did, Kornheiser is right. You don't change the name of Coke, Ford or Microsoft. And you don't change the name of the Washington Redskins. Find another issue to whine about. (7/16/10) We're approaching the one year anniversary of WJFK switching to an all-sports format - the O'Meara and Big O & Dukes shows signed off for the last time on July 17, 2009 with the new lineup debuting the following Monday (July 20). So I think it's a good time to reflect on the impact of that programming decision on the overall sports talk radio picture in Washington (not just JFK but its more established competitor WTEM). The one show that survived the switch intact is the Junkies, who were initially asked to return to their roots as the 'Sports Junkies' and focus more on sports and less on all the extracurricular stuff. Apparently they weren't too keen on that idea and managment eventually backed down and let them go back to their old format. Of course they benefit from WTEM airing non-local fare (ESPN's Mike & Mike) in the 6-10 AM timeslot, and the four hosts staggering their summer vacations so the station doesn't have to run 'Best of theJunks' is a very good idea. The Mike Wise show was WJFK's atttempt to replicate the longstanding success of Tony Kornheiser on WTEM - put a microphone in front of a veteran local sportswriter and let him yammer away about DC area sports and other topics of his choosing while also taking advantage of the numerous contacts he's cultivated while working in the print media. One problem is that Wise just isn't as skilled or polished a broadcaster as Mr. Tony (not surprising given the disparity in radio experience), which probably explains why he's been unable to match Kornheiser's ratings since the latter show returned to 980's airwaves last September. Wise has nonetheless defied predictions that he'd be out of there by now, with the only major change to the program being Holden Kushner replacing Bill Rohland as sidekick several months ago. One thing Wise brings to the table is passion for certain issues, for example his outspoken advocacy of the Redskins changing their nickname due to its offensiveness to the native American population (pointing out certain historical facts that most of his listeners were probably unaware of). By contrast, Kornheiser's lame defense of the term ('probably offensive but too deeply rooted in the DC sports culture to consider changing it') was disappointing to hear from someone who claims to have been very left wing in his younger days. Regrettably, Wise's producer Chris Johnson seems to think a sports talk show needs to wallow in celebrity gossip or intimate personal topics on a regular basis - I'm not sure if the main host is all that comfortable going down that road although Kushner clearly is. The hiring of former Washington Times writer Thom Loverro by WTEM was obviously a countermove to Wise joining WJFK, but it's worked out very well as his co-host Kevin Sheehan is finally forced to pay more than token attention to the Nationals (who've become a much bigger local story with the recent addition of rookie pitching sensation Stephen Strasburg). Loverro's candid remarks about longtime Yankees owner George Steinbrenner (calling him a complete dirtbag with few if any redeeming qualities) stand in refreshing contrast to the revisionist history we've been hearing from various media outlets over the past few days. So that covers the 6 AM to 2 PM (weekdays) period on DC sports talk radio and I'll hold off commenting about 2 PM through midnight until later. Mike, Fairfax (7/16/10) Ah so you guys had a small quake this morning, and I’ll bet it was a real shocker to most of you. We had a small quake in LA yesterday but I didn’t even feel that one. But one poster talked about being in San Diego, which really felt that 7.2 quake on Easter Sunday (we all felt that one). Reminds me of a time back in 1981 when I was working the overnight shift at an Urban/AC station in Southern California. It was about 4:15 in the morning and I was the only one in what was a very hot building at that time, thanks to a broken down AC for which parts were on-order for the better part of 6 weeks right smack dab in the middle of an unseasonably harsh heat wave. The way our studio was set up, we had five cart machines going from left to right across the top of our Broadcast Audio console, and we would stack each hour’s carts row by row on top of those cart machines. This normally worked pretty well until that fateful morning when I was in the middle of reading a PSA and all hell broke loose. I was up on the fifth floor of a 5-story building. All the carts started clattering and then the shaking got more intense and carts started falling all over the place. It all happened so fast! As soon as I started seeing carts falling around me, I forgot I was on the air and said “Ohhhhhh sh-t. Um, well, right now we’re broadcasting live from the fifth floor of the Central Plaza Building, but in a moment we MAY be broadcasting live from the FIRST story of the Central Plaza Building. Yes, that IS an earthquake you’re feeling so brace yourselves.” I stayed on mic until the shaking stopped and by this time most of my carts were on the floor, and a few even managed to get behind the console only to get tangled up in all the crack spaghetti wiring we had. That was an awful feeling being the only one in the building with something like that going on. Anytime an earthquake struck, our first task aside from making sure we were still on the air and that all was safe for us, was to call Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, CA, to get the official quake information. I always felt sorry for those guys because every station was calling them at the same time. Fortunately, nothing was damaged in that quake, not that I know of, and after I collected all the carts from the floor and put them back in proper order, and I went back to business as usual, or at least as close to that as you can get after such a jolt. Bill Powers, Los Angeles, CA. (7/16/10) "It's easy to tell which station in DC is the News Station." REALLY? Are you serious?...Of course it's easy to tell. WTOP is an ALL NEWS STATION!! WMAL is a NEWS TALK station. Two entirely seperate formats! And since when is almost 2 hours after the fact considered being "Right on top of it"?....Maybe you should pull over and let someone else drive!! (7/16/10) (regarding Dave's response) "It was God indicating his displeasure for having Mrs. Fred co-hosting this morning on WMAL." When I heard her, she was asking the USGS expert how long before the aftershocks happen? Does she really think such things can be predicted or that they happen on some scheduled basis? Like a box o' rocks, I'm tellin' ya - a box o' rocks! (7/16/10) In case you have not heard, Big O and Dukes have returned via podcast @ www.bigoanddukes.com.... Second, on Off-Topic Radio we have Branden Helms returning to the show tonight. He was one of our founding members that left a few months ago to pursue his own show.... Thanks, Thomas Shankle Host, Off-Topic Radio, www.off-topicradio.com (7/16/10) Sorry, but I missed the 3.6 out here in the HayMay hinterlands. But I did notice an increase in my WaPo bill. Seems they are sneaking in a $.15 per week charge for the TV Week mag. You can opt out if yuns wish, but I thought this was a perk of paying extra for the Sunday paper any way. Hmmmm…… By the by, why did they do away with the cents sign on keyboards? Hmmmmmm II…………… Haymarket Joe (7/16/10) WTOP & TVers Cover Early Morning Quake - Nothing about this on WAPO's web site as of 9:55 AM today. (7/16/10) Dave's response: Yeah, I did see a piece about the quake about 7 AM on wapo.com. Sometimes they don't make stuff very easy to find..... I've lived in San Diego since 2000 and have felt some very minor quakes in my years here. It wasn't until a 7.2 magnitude earthquake on Easter, that I really experienced a significant one. The shaking where I was lasted 40 seconds. That doesn't sound like a lot, but when you're actually going through it, that's a whole lotta shaking goin' on! I've kinda gotten used to them happening, but when one hits, it's still a bit of a shock/surprise. (7/16/10) Dave's response: I remember the 2003 quake here in the DC area. My mom and I were sitting in the living room and the pieces of her onyx chess set from Mexico started to fall with a cracking sound on the stone chess board. It was December and there was quite a lot of snow on the roof, and we just throught that the wind blew some off and its falling made the house shake. A few minutes later, I turned on WJFK and Don and Mike were taking loads of calls about the trembler..... Two quickie comments on previous postings. 1) Big Fish Small Pond, or Small Fish Big Pond? I vote for the latter. The pond will never change size, but small fish can grow. And 2) The earthquake actually turned out to be the power grid in Gaithersburg going VOOMPH when Dick Cheney plugged his heart in. (7/16/10) Dave's response: It was God indicating his displeasure for having Mrs. Fred co-hosting this morning on WMAL. The quake occurred at the very same moment that she started talking this morning on old 630. Hmmm..... "WINC could easily be a NOVA station with the right tweaking and news coverage, as could WBQB. ... I know that it's a gamble to give up the top spot in the small but fairly lucrative areas like Winchester, F-Burg, Annapolis, Easton, etc... but the national advertisers and big money come with the big markets." Actually, if these stations took themselves out of the smaller markets and tried to compete with the DC stations for national dollars, they wouldn't succeed. National agencies buy maybe 4 or 5 stations deep in major markets, buying those stations with the highest ratings in their target demo. Because these fringe stations don't have the signals to cover the entire DC market, they won't get high enough ratings to get the national buys. It is far more profitable to be #1 or #2 in Winchester, Frederick, Fredericksburg, etc, and get the national business for those markets. (7/16/10) A Not-So-Dirty Dozen? Yeah....so they could have 12 stations instead of 8 and STILL not do any local news. CC not exactly the Poster Child for the Radio Industry here in DC, home of the FCC. - Clear Channel wants 12 per market. One owner could hold up to a dozen licenses in a single large market if the FCC goes for what Clear Channel is proposing. The industry’s largest player says radio’s long overdue for more deregulation to help it survive the onslaught of new media competitors. (7/16/10) Dave's response: The FCC is a joke. If you pay off the right politicos, big corporations can get whatever they want. Just look at the Comcast-NBC merger proposal..... Earthquake this morning? I thought it was just Mike "faceback" Moss passing gas as usual. (7/16/10) "The Yacht Club. Where desparate and dysfunctional sales girls go to meet over confident and dysfunctional sales guys, and usually leave with an even more phony GM or producer. Sometimes the guys leave with the GM or producer. It amazes me that the same women who would file a lawsuit against a coworker's innocent compliment, when given at work, will go to the YC to solicit the very same comment, from the very same jerk." Thanks for the input, but as I mentioned, the Yacht Club has been out of business for years. L'il Tommy Curtis has moved on to other ventures. And it was always "the money demographic." But thanks for the insight into how you got in trouble on the job. Dave: "In the old days, computers lasted 5-6 years before going bad. Now, it's 2-3 years." Computers don't go bad. What are you doing to these machines, Dave? Are you looking at the pornography? I've got 4 macs and a stack of PCs including a 24 old XT that still works, and it was my only computer for 10 years. They simply don't go bad. Have you a surge protector? ZombieWoof (7/16/10) Reading the comment about WINC has me thinking... Is it better to be the big fish in a small pond rather than the other way around? WINC could easily be a NOVA station with the right tweaking and news coverage, as could WBQB. On the other side of DC, WCEI could easily be a Baltimore station with some tweaking or a format change. WRNR-FM could also be a Baltimore station if they tweaked the format away from the singer-songwriter stuff that doesn't work in Baltimore but seems to work in Annapolis. I know that it's a gamble to give up the top spot in the small but fairly lucrative areas like Winchester, F-Burg, Annapolis, Easton, etc... but the national advertisers and big money come with the big markets. If done correctly these stations could afford to pay their people better and improve the overall product. The old 'have to spend money to make money' in this case. Is it worth taking a shot at the majors, or just playing it safe in the sticks? (7/16/10) Dave's response: I have long said that WINC-FM should market itself as a Northern Virginia station, rather than just for the Winchster area. The 92.5 signal from a tower on a Fauquier mountain is a "local" in much of Loudoun, Fairfax, and Prince William counties..... So what's wrong with TV's local news? Channel 9 says it all. They have kept going instead of CBS's Today show and they have nothing to say other than finding people who say all the same thing! Ah well, makes Kate plus 8 look good! (7/16/10) Washingtonpost.com was late to report the quake. CNN had it first on the web and then WTOP and third was WUSA. NBC4 was so late it was not even funny. I guess no one works overnight in local .com news. (7/16/10) Am I the only one who noticed that Fox 5 misspelled Fredericksburg on the title graphic for today's Hometown Friday segments, showing it as "Federicksburg"? How major market! (7/16/10) It's easy to tell which station in DC is the News Station. Coming out of the 7am news, WTOP was right on top of the earthquake story, with an informative report from the USGS, while WMAL was droning on and on about Obama. I'm half expecting to hear Fred and Mrs. Fred claim the quake was Obama's fault. WMAL is a joke! (7/16/10) Dave's response: It did wake me up at about 5 AM. Felt like a big truck going down the street outside my bedroom window. The bed shook and I heard a rumbling. Didn't think much about it and went back to sleep for a few minutes. I awoke about 10 minutes later and all the local TVers were talking about a 3.7 magnitude from Gaithersburg, about 10 miles north of Reston as the crow flies. More at facebook.com/dcrtv..... To the poster inquiring about the Westboro Baptist Church. This Christian organization lists their protests on their website. Their website says they stay a respectful distance from dead soldiers funerals. The schedule also indicates they are following the Lady Gaga tour somewhat. You can google Westboro Baptist Church and get their website. I cant provide you a link here, I am at work and they would not understand me surfing the web for this Christian organization. Hey talk radio lumps all us “liberals” and “leftists” together, I can lump all Christians, right? Will pay pal you a computer donation tonight Dave. (7/16/10) The Washington Post’s community newspapers in Montgomery County are starting to combine editions to save money. Is this another sign of the Post’s financial problems? First Newsweek, now this. maryland-politics.blogspot.com (7/16/10) /\ July 16 Messages /\ Jump to the Mailbag Archive Index.....