Current Mailbag - Mailbag Archive Index - DCRTV Front Page - Support DCRTV DCRTV Mailbag - August 9 to August 20, 2010 Latest messages listed first..... \/ August 20 Messages \/ [Comcast Confident About NBC Merger Approval - 8/20 - Hey, it's been bought and paid for on Capitol Hill, right? NewsBlues has learned that top executives at Comcast and NBC Universal are so confident that their proposed merger will be approved by the Feds, they have already started circulating the new benefits package to NBC's owned TV stations, a la DC's Channel 4/WRC, for review. Comcast is the largest cable TV company in the country, and the dominant cable TV and internet provider in the DC-Baltimore area....] a friend of mine works for comcast in florida and she has already received a so called "welcome package" that included a bunch of DVD's.... (8/20/10) According to the station's listing, the NBC Saturday night lineup will in fact air during Ravens coverage on WBAL's 11.2, aka WBAL Plus. Everett W. (8/20/10) IT'S REQUEST-O-MATIC TIME AT "THE MESSAGE OF HOPE": Earlier, we received a request for the classic "The Joy Boys" Ed Walker production of, "The Rockville Song". Your wish is our command. Click the following link to hear it: www.davidtate.net. "THE MESSAGE OF HOPE": WHERE OUR BUSINESS IS YOUR PLEASURE. (8/20/10) In happier times; a picture of Fred and Andy, happy as clams, one hour after talking their 8:15 AM Metamucal. (8/20/10) Dave, no surprise about the Comcast/Ravens deal both are glad iam sure to be back in bed with each other. Comcast loves iam sure to have both NFL teams in there fold and the Ravens needed some kind of regional coverage even on the Redskins network. In any case how long is the deal is it just one year or longer because next year i could see MASN and the Ravens making up if the Comcast deal is just for one year. And will there be a post game show hosted by Brent Harris? (8/20/10) Does anybody know why the local stations do not show their network programming on the --.2 channel when they put local sports or something on the main channel? I may be the only one in the Baltimore region who does not care about the Ravens, but I may want to watch network programming for SNL for the night. Same thing goes on why does WBAL TV give us the final hour of Today on Plus. One more while I am at it, put the lottery full screen on plus. (8/20/10) DCRTV rocks... I am so glad I found your site, you keep it real! (8/20/10) Dave's response: Thank you, Mr. Farhi..... The discussion was on the word "irregardless". I was merelessly usifying the correctifacation of the word. G in Parkville (8/20/10) I get so confused; Grandy, Plante, Rush, Hannity, ands Levin all call it the “Ground Zero Mosque.” ABC Radio News, heard on WMAL at the top and bottom of the hour, keeps calling it an “Islamic Cultural Center.” I mean, to whom am I to believe on WMAL, Hannity and Plante or ABC Radio News? Can’t they get their act together? Did Mrs. Fred answer the question about Obama being a Muslim this morning? Great job MSNBC with Rachel and Richard in Iraq. You smoked Fox News the last few days. Fox News, Wednesday, decided to offer only 10 minutes to the last combat brigade out, but went with Hannity talking with Huckabee on Obama’s poll #’s, Hannity’s Great American Panel on the “Ground Zero….’’ ‘wait, what do we call it again?, ‘ and Greta doing an infomercial for Alaskan Oil drilling. What the hell is going on with the conservative media? (8/20/10) Did Ann Wogg leave a Post-it note in the studio telling the new producer what time to give Fred his Metamucil? We all know how cranky Fred gets when his Metamucal is late. Speaking of cranky, Mrs. Fred was on this morning. I turned to Kirk and Mike. (8/20/10) Rusty - As a public access volunteer back in 1998, I built WEBR's "Dick Banules Memorial Studio" out of what once was a production room and, before that, the engineering shop. I still listen when I can; not because I'm expecting technical brilliance or revolutionary paradigm-shifting radio, but because you guys sound like you're having a ball. So what if WEBR isn't "real radio", whatever that is. By definition, neither is webcasting or streaming to a cellphone, but people listen to those too. If I wanted so badly to hear ultra-precision lock-step radio, I'd have bought a retired Audio Vault automation system off the broadcast boards and stuck it in my basement, thanks. Keep having fun on WEBR, and nuts to the critics. -Al Peterson (enough experience to be credible, enough discretion not to boast about it) (8/20/10) "G in Parkville"; "Regardless is NOT a double negative. How do arrive at that conclusion? Though "irregardless" is one. You may look it up! (8/20/10) "The "interview" wasn't on the Redskins-paid-for Redskins Nation show, it was on CSN's Sportsnite"--- yes it was on skins nation. From time to time, sportsnite will use clips from other shows on their network, it's called cross promotion. (8/20/10) OK "Mr. Anonymous", here 'tis; WEBR!, WEBR!!...Learn it. Live it! We may not be "real radio," as you've said. But we ALL LOVE what we do (for no $). All of us simply share a for a passion of the medium. And thanks John for your kind words. Peace, Rusty Gibson, WEBR RadioFairfax (8/20/10) Fantastic read about Neal Augenstine and his iPhone. One thing I wonder - has he ever gotten an incoming call while in the middle of recording or editing, and had to start all over? (8/20/10) Regardless of whether it is in a real dictionary, or dictionary.com (and also on merriam-webster.com!) it will always be a double negative and make even the most educated speaker sound like a big dope. The writers of the Sopranos took it one step further, and had Tony use the word "irregardlessly". G in Parkville (8/20/10) "But, how's WTOP's median age now that they are at 103.5?" Median age about 52, compared with WMAL's 62+ (8/20/10) Dave: Just got caught-up on my week's reading and someone dared to mention "ethics" in the same sentence as CSN? Let me say this, CSN's all about how to sell and that's it! There's nothing wrong with this concept, however, there's not one person at CSN who you can put in the top 10 as top "journalists." Hmmm, Chic follows Tiger Woods around the country to promote last year's DC event and it seemed like they were best buddies. Has Chic stayed on this Tiger story throughout the year? I don't think so..I guess it's time to buddy-up to Gary Williams for pre-basketball talk. In the Redskins case, remember, Larry Michael is a Redskins employee who's department produces programming for CSN. Don't blame him for any editorial content. But, don't forget to read those BOLD letters just before "Redskins Nation" begins...along the lines that the opinions don't represent CSN. A suggestion in this case, turn the channel to one of the locals for sports coverage! (8/20/10) "If I read one more word about ... WEBR ... I think I'm going to scream" -- When was the last mention of WEBR? I haven't seen anything in print about them for a long time. You may as well be grousing about "Where's the Beef" commercials. (8/20/10) I hope Susan Schiller, the news director at KYW-TV in Philly realizes has short sighted she was in her decision not to hire Kristen Berset. Kristen has been on the air in Baltimore for a while and has done an outstanding job. Nothing like a female news director making judgments about people without knowing the full story. Since when does a swim suit photograph disqualify anyone for a job. I suspect Kristen will be moving on to another market despite missing out on this position in Philly. (8/20/10) From Dictionary.com: "ir·re·gard·less [ir-i-gahrd-lis] –adverb Nonstandard. —Usage note Irregardless is considered nonstandard because of the two negative elementsir- and -less. It was probably formed on the analogy of such words as irrespective, irrelevant, andirreparable. Those who use it, including on occasion educated speakers, may do so from a desire to add emphasis. Irregardless first appeared in the early 20th century and was perhaps popularized by its use in a comic radio program of the 1930s." Valiant effort. Better luck next time. TOGS (8/20/10) I don't know if David Tate will take a request from the audience, but I wanna hear Ed Walker singing about Rockville! (8/20/10) GOOD NEWS! THE ABSOLUTE FINAL MESSAGE OF HOPE, #1390: "The New WEAM". As a Public Service, I am discontinuing this mind-numbing webcast series. So, as DCRTV website visitors breathe a collective sigh-of-relief, click on the following link: www.davidtate.net. My next web broadcast will be on Labor Day weekend, and it not, I repeat, not be me. It will be the biggest, baddest dude who ever graced the silver screen. Stand by! david tate (8/20/10) Here ya go Robert Allbritton, this one is custom made just for you. (8/20/10) Have you heard if Bob Waugh is leaving WRNR? Only asking cause his house is up for sale. No, I'm not a stalker. (8/20/10) What is this word "irregardless?" (8/20/10) The following was forwarded to DCRTV..... Radio Hall of Famer Neal Boortz will host the 2010 National Radio Hall of Fame induction broadcast on Saturday, November 6th at 10PM (ET) from Chicago. A 2009 inductee, Boortz from WSB/Atlanta and Dial Global will join announcer and fellow Radio Hall of Famer Jim Bohannon of Westwood One on the annual national broadcast. 2010 inductees include country music icon Ralph Emery, Terri Hemmert of WXRT/Chicago, veteran NPR broadcaster Carl Kasell of Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!, Music and the Spoken Word featuring The Mormon Tabernacle Choir, the late legendary music producer Sam Phillips and radio executive Cathy Hughes, Founder and Chairman of Radio One. Major underwriting for the 2010 National Radio Hall of Fame is provided by Arbitron along with the C. Crane Company. Promotional support provided by American Airlines, the Official Airline of the National Radio Hall of Fame. (8/20/10) /\ August 20 Messages /\ \/ August 19 Messages \/ (regarding a previous post) "he [Bicknell]...was instrumental in the AM to FM music transition". Wow! That is one fine piece of self-serving 'Washington-speak'! It implies that Bicknell was some kind of major factor is DC becoming an FM-dominant market. What actually happened is that people who enjoyed WPGC, needed to listen on FM, when 1580 AM signed-off at sunset. It doesn't matter who was on the air there after sunset, people who wished to hear Top-40 and didn't want to switch to WEAM or WINX or WEEL, could only listen to WPGC after sunset, by switching to WPGC-FM. (8/19/10) RE: WBOC & dead kids/sensationalism.... This is the norm, I doubt WBOC is worse than any other TV station. When I was in college many many years ago, a good buddy on my dorm floor at the University of Maryland was killed in a high profile drunk driving accident on the Capital Beltway where 4 college age kids were killed and lots of beer cans were found in the vehicle. The story got lots of media attention from DC to even Baltimore. A WUSA 9 reporter and camera crew showed up in the parking lot at the funeral parlor in Bowie attempting to get interviews with family and friends. We were already upset over the death and were horrified that a TV camera was there, so I rallied friends to start shouting foul language at the WUSA 9 reporter to ruin and end a live shot and we ran him off the property basically to prevent him from getting to relatives who were still inside the funeral parlor. The family was already devastated and certainly didn't need that at that time, especially since the reporter was attempting to hype the drunk driving angle for ratings. It was just plain disgusting and I swore I'd never watch Eyewitness News again. But guess what? I quickly realized as I grew up that it goes on at every TV station. But I'm still glad me and my college buddies ran WUSA 9 off the property. I don't think to this day, his family even knows the live TV circus that we prevented from happening that day. (8/19/10) I swear, if I read one more word about Bicknell and/or WEBR (which isn't even a real radio station) I think I'm going to scream. Who cares? Seriously. You internet "radio stars" have got to be the biggest attention whores I've ever seen. Give it a rest. A good long rest. (8/19/10) Allow me to chime in regarding Paul Bicknell. The person earlier who magnificently described Paul left off one thing - and that is Paul is a coward. This guy enlisted the services of Tom Gavin to call our radio show on his behalf in an attempt to do nothing more than belittle us. Little does he know it ended up being a great 10 minutes of radio of which I have tried to thank Paul. Irregardless, the man does not have the guts to face people on his own, as he has shown here on countless occasions with uses of pseudonyms. He chooses to exploit people to do his dirty work for him rather than handle it himself. We have a new found respect for Rusty Gibson because he is brave enough to call us, and as he can attest, we treat him with the utmost respect now. Again, when I attempted to thank Paul on Facebook for handing us a great segment he only got angry and chided me. Additionally, he refused to speak to me any further by utilizing the phrase "Talk to the hand". Transcripts are available to anyone who would like a chuckle. TOGS (8/19/10) "But, how's WTOP's median age now that they are at 103.5?" Younger than it would be if still on AM (8/19/10) GROW UP SHEP... PLEASE STOP showing and babbling on minute-by-minute about some local-yokel, who cares "car chase" from Who-Cares, USA. I saw a car run a STOP sign in Arlington, North Virginia today and Shep & Cable News networks NEVER reported that! YOU ARE A NATIONAL CABLE "NEWS" SHOW! SHOW SOME NATIONAL/REAL "NEWS" THAT PEOPLE MIGHT CARE ABOUT... (8/19/10) Tuned into 106.7-2 today on my HD Radio and instead of The Fan out of Bmore, I am hearing The Fan out of Dallas. What gives? Any word on the change? Still getting NY and Philly on -3 and -4, respectively. (8/19/10) Dave's response: Hmmm. WTEM's head honcho is heading to Dallas to head CBS's sports talker there. Maybe CBS DC is using the relay on 106.7 to send a message to arch rival ESPN 980? Maybe Bruce Gilbert will be back up here in DC soon to run JFK. Hmmm..... Memories seem to as short as um, a lot of things. It only a few years ago that Key in Frederick brought in Delana Bennett from California and Ed Rodriguez from Washington and Baltimore to do the morning show. They ROCKED... and the rating that were published in the News-Post confirmed that! After they were gone and they put Dave Gunning on with Rona, it just was not the same. Now, with the women going at it? Thats WAY too much estrogen for me. And, I'm a girl! Oh... and, poor Dan Stephens. Well, the other poster kind of said it all. MGF (8/19/10) The following was forwarded to DCRTV..... WTOP/Washington general assignment reporter Neal Augenstein offers up this photo of everything he needs for his digital work station: An Apple wireless keyboard ($70), Philips Universal Pencil Portable Speaker ($15), and a “jury-rigged mic clip” (the cost of scrap foam). And, of course, the obligatory coffee-stained cup of Starbucks. Augenstein says he hasn’t carried a full gear bag into the field, or even booted up a computer to file reports, ever since he got his iPhone last January. Really. Learn more about the “Hand Held News Studio” — our page one feature — in this week’s issue of NTS MediaOnline Weekly. Look for it in your inbox tomorrow morning. (8/19/10) (It's a world class city with a small, dinky town ABC station. Maaaaaan.....) ABC 7 - constant problems with showing syndicated shows like Jeopardy! and Wheel in HD, constant network pre-emptions for infomercials and crappy old movies, disciplining newscasters for off-hand remarks, and now a joke of a TBD website. It's like watching an ABC affiliate in Iowa. Like we expect more from Allbritton. (8/19/10) [Wrong! In the years that WTOP simulcast 100% on 1500 and 107.7 and Arbitron was reporting it separately, the average audience age on the FM was ten years younger than on the FM. And Dave's 30% prediction is not far off from the gains other news/talk stations around the country saw when they added an FM simulcast.] Point taken on the age gap. But, how's WTOP's median age now that they are at 103.5? As for WMAL - even if they grow 30% they will still be an also ran. Make sure you are comparing apples to apples here. In many of the AM-toFM migrations the station that moved already had a decent audience footprint in the market. WMAL does not have that in DC. WTOP did- so the migration was a benefit. As I mentioned in my earlier post - WTOP is a mass appeal radio station. WMAL is a tiny niche format. Regardless of what band they are on growth will remain an issue as long as they sound the way they do. The morning show is meh - doesn't suck but isn't compelling. Plante has micro appeal. Then you begin the parade of syndication. That isn't going to change because - ironically- those are the shows that actually drive WMAL's ratings. So, opine all you want about a live and local afternoon show - it ain't gonna happen. Too costly and too risky. Its not like there is a great, ratings grabbing afternoon show languishing on the bench waiting to get into the game. (8/19/10) Dave sez what's up with Channel 7? I sez here's the answer - they're BROKE! How much $ is being sunk into all that A-List talent they've got in that shop - with a few exceptions, of course? Hey Allison S., have you signed up for those Voice classes yet? And didn't Robert A. say himself that the checkbook was wide open, that he was going to buy out the rest of the A-List talent in this market? Will Jim Vance grace the ABC7 airwaves soon? Yeah, that's it - WJLA: The Station With ALL The Talent... And Absolutely NOTHING Else Because We Are Out Of $$$. (8/19/10) "See, you can't even forget him. OTT" --But, clearly, DC area radio has. Signed, The Insulting Ass (8/19/10) OTT, time for a reality check. You've blown Bicknell's popularity, influence and "track record" WAY out of proportion. He rode coattails back in the 60s and now spins records with his wife on some website nobody pays attention to. But even if you hadn't stretched the truth, you're still overlooking the fact that the guy has (A) been off everyone's radar for almost 40 years and (B) burned every bridge he's ever crossed. Don't agree? Go back through a few weeks of the Mailbag. You'll find that the only people who defend Bicknell are you and PLB himself. And I'm pretty sure OTT = PLB. (8/19/10) RE: "It wasn’t a blunder moron, larry does redskins nation, a show CSN carries as part of their tv deal with the skins. Larry was hyping the hokies-boise state game at FEDEX, that stadium the skins play in, see the correlation??" Ha, I'm the moron... even though you clearly don't follow my POINT. The "interview" wasn't on the Redskins-paid-for Redskins Nation show, it was on CSN's Sportsnite. So why didn't a CSN journalist do the interview? Or, why didn't the interview air on Redskins Nation? Larry Michael shouldn't be doing interviews on CSN programming. He's not a journalist, he's a paid announcer/hack for Snyder, who just happens to have paid Virginia Tech to play at his stadium. There's a business relationship there, and CSN shouldn't allow something like that on their "news" program. It's called journalistic ethics. They used to exist. Even in sports journalism. (8/19/10) Regarding your front page item regarding possible format tweaks at KEY 103 Frederick: Any chance the can "tweak" Dan Stevens into an early retirement. He's absolutely dreadful and takes an eternity to ramble on about nothing at all. Sorry KEY 103 but I must switch the office radio over to FRESH 94.7 right before 3:00 every day. Otherwise, I love your station. (8/19/10) I have never understood Key 103 in Frederick. They should be looking at WFRE's number every book and saying, "why don't we have the same number?" They are not nearly as strong an AC station as FRE is a country station. It also seems they are way softer than they should be. This is the same market that had "Hot Stereo Rock" for many years. That's what the audience they're looking for grew up with. The transplants from Montgomery County and Baltimore, of course, listened (and still listen) to DC and Baltimore radio, so when they turn on Key 103 and hear, um, a different level of quality, they don't continue listening. But it doesn't have to be that way. There is talent out there that would do the job and sound good enough to make them a solid ratings player. I wonder if anyone there has ever contacted Merson? I bet he'd go there - and would kick ass in that market. (8/19/10) Dave's response: My dream - WRNR, 103.1 Annapolis and 103.1 Frederick..... (Snip): "Never has so much been said about someone who has done so little." I've said it before and I'll say it again. Paul is one of the leading pioneers in this business. In this market, he was one of the top personalities during AM radio's golden age of the '60s, and was instrumental in the AM to FM music transition. And, as we all know (or should know), that's just the tip of the iceberg. Don' t try to minimize his contributions to the industry. (Snip): "...not as sad as a forgotten local disc jockey starving for attention." With a track record like Paul has, along with his current endeavors, he's hardly forgotten. See, you can't even forget him. OTT (8/18/10) Just a few random midday thoughts, observations, etc. Yes, TBD does suck big-time, very amateurish and tabloidy-looking. Perhaps the Allbritton crew musta thought that NBC's trashing of their O&O sites was a brilliant idea, lol. Haven't been to nbcwashington.com since the first day of that disasterous phase. Same with TBD, btw wtf does 'TBD' stand for? Anyone? I'll stick with TOP's site, thank you very much. At least the MIX107.3 gal and I can agree on one thing - Fresh does suck indeed. Arrow was much better... ah, the early 90s, good times. Oh, and - to her, if she's still around - you won't get The Edge in Howard Co. thanks to I-Shittity and their BS... whoops HD radio hash crap. May want to drive about 30 miles or so to the west and The Edge will rock your world. In other news, from WMAListan, I hear Rush blathering on about Obama 'being a Christian with no evidence'. Oh jeez... the wingnuts have gone back to Square One since all the other crap memes they've thrown out have failed miserably. Lather, rinse, repeat. Hey, last time I checked, that's the definition of insanity - doing the same thing over and over expecting different results. Signed An Edge Fan (8/18/10) Dave's response: Instead of TBD, which stands for nothing, why didn't Allbritton call the new news operation "JLA Local"? That would have been a great way to "work up" the new site without trashing the WJLA/wjla.com "brand." They could have had a cool logo with the "L" in "JLA" larger than the other letters and leading the word "local." NewsChannel 8 could even have also been an extension of the WJLA brand, as "JLA Local 8"..... I really have not listened to Dr. Laura much. I don't even think she was on the radio around here lately so I'm not going to defend specifically, but I'll take on a couple topics you mentioned Ed Graham. First off "biological error that inhibits you from relating normally to the opposite sex." Well, homosexuality is a biological error or chromosome mutation. That's what we keep trying to prove to the religious right so that we can be accepted exactly as who we are and not be changed from a "lifestyle of choice". Now, if she said we need to have gene therapy to fix "the problem", then I would be offended. The comment about the homosexual populace being predatory is downright bigoted though since every study has shown that homosexuals and even priests do not have a higher likelihood of becoming child predators than the general public of heterosexuals. They just get more media attention when it happens. However, child predators do nauseate and sicken me too. As for autism, I know someone who's autistic child reached puberty and became violent and uncontrollable to the point where he beat his mother up and put her in the hospital. So, yes, sometimes it is necessary to put away autistic children, so Dr. Laura could have been correct there possibly depending on the situation. I'm against abortion, so that comment does not bother me all that much, although it's a bit over the top. The last time I did hear Dr. Laura, she was very much berating women on air with problems with their boyfriends or spouses, but I didn't get the picture you got Ed Graham. I felt like I was listening to women who were basically doormats to their spouses and Dr. Laura was berating them for not standing up for their rights in the relationship. And she often told women to dump a guy who was a really bad situation, so I don't see anything wrong with that either. Finally, last I checked, the feminist movement was dead and largely replaced by "the soccer mom" movement. Oh, and of course she shouldn't have been using the "N" word on the radio, period. Even MTV censors it out of rap songs last I checked as do radio stations. Most songs have clean and explicit versions still on the radio, don't they? She definitely made a mistake there. (8/19/10) you are a moron. Michaels had Beamer on to promote the Hokies Boise State game. sounds like you have a personal issue with him. get your facts straight. (8/19/10) Went to TBD this first day it was up. Haven't been back since, it's trash. Bring back WJLA and News 8 websites. (8/19/10) Dave's response: TBD is a nice little compendium of local DC area news items and blogs. But, it's simply not the kind of site to reflect the ambitions, coverage, and "power" of a "top 10" market ABC station - like the previous wjla.com site did. Allbritton should have launched TBD as an ADDITION to wjla.com, but not a REPLACEMENT for it..... “If I was running any kind of media outlet in D.C., Larry is about the last person in the world I would ever hire. I've yet to meet one Redskins fan that doesn't hate him. Another complete blunder by CSN”---- It wasn’t a blunder moron, larry does redskins nation, a show CSN carries as part of their tv deal with the skins. Larry was hyping the hokies-boise state game at FEDEX, that stadium the skins play in, see the correlation ?? So before you post something on here, do a little research. Larry isn’t a CSN employee. (8/19/10) Way to go, Bob on your forecast last night. All during the evening on ABC7 we got treated to your annoying pre-recorded teaser. On the background screen it said " 1 to 2 more inches of rain " Well I don't know how much you got at your house, but I got .01 inches after midnight. Close, but no cigar, Bob! Regards Biff (8/19/10) Dave's response: What is up with Channel 7, WJLA. They're trying so hard to look "small market." The weather promos with Bob look tacky and terrible and low-def. Last night's "Jeopardy" had muffled audio that sounded like it was under a pillow. And then 7 trashes its website - which was appropriate for a major, top 10 market ABC affiliate - for the smallish bloggishness of TBD. Hey, Allbritton, this ain't Harrisburg or Lynchburg. It's DC, for god's sake. It's a world class city with a small, dinky town ABC station. Maaaaaan..... I have had the misfortune of working on several stations that carried Dr. Laura. I heard her say that homosexuality was a "biological error that inhibits you from relating normally to the opposite sex." She told a mother to place her autistic child in a home so she can "have a life." She said that a huge portion of the male homosexual populace is predatory on young boys." “They nauseate and sicken me,” she said. She said that feminists have destroyed the sanctity of motherhood. Said that an abortion Is "sucking it into a sink." And women are to blame when their spouses have affairs. Remember that the good doctor said these things to people that called her because they were battling serious problems. They called her for her help. She might also check the first amendment that allows people to publically differ with her opinion. Her first amendment rights were NOT violated. She has the right to say what she said. Her employer has the right to not renew her contract. She has been irrelevant for many years, and mean for a long time. Ed Graham (8/19/10) Every time Mr. Tony goes live from his beach house it is a train wreck. Today, while providing great stories about his dog listeners have known about for years, it goes down in the middle of him discussing putting it down. Yesterday’s modulation was terrible. OOBBEE (8/19/10) From a previous post..."Not WBOC. They have to spend all day Tuesday and Wednesday bothering family members and friends. .."...soundsvery similar like the many of stations I have seen in recent years whenever to feel that they must do a story on the Westboro Baptist Church and their "protesting". I am not sure what is worse, young reporters asking the family "..how do you feel about Westboro being at your dead son's funeral?"( did they really expect to hear the family say those people are welcome? ) or young reporters asking the Phelps family "how do you feel about same sex marriages and those who suffer from bipolar disorder?" when the family is holding up signs that says "god hate fags" and "..a cure for bipolar is a loaded gun...now do it and go.burn in hell.." .The family is nuts as it is, but those reporters by asking such stupid questions...they are just as nutty themselves. (8/19/10) "Your predictions of a 30% rise in ratings for WMAL if they move to FM crack me up. The radio knee jerk reaction to moving old line AMs to FM is that they will get younger because all the 'kids' are on FM. WTOP had no problem getting listeners when they were at 1500. Have they gotten bigger by moving to FM? Sure. Younger? not really." Wrong! In the years that WTOP simulcast 100% on 1500 and 107.7 and Arbitron was reporting it separately, the average audience age on the FM was ten years younger than on the FM. And Dave's 30% prediction is not far off from the gains other news/talk stations around the country saw when they added an FM simulcast. (8/19/10) If memory serves, the people in the WJFK pic are: FRONT ROW (L TO R)... Cerphe, Ken Stevens (GM), John Popp (Producer), Cameron Gray (Producer), Jeremy Coleman (PD)... BACK ROW (L TO R)... Dan Ryson (Chief Engineer), Darryl Nichols (Assistant Engineer) (8/19/10) [But let's be real here - you ladies have Fresh, WASH, and Hot 99.5 in addition to MIX. Jack Diamond can haul his ass over to Fresh as I think they still do not have a morning show ] - Let's be clear here: Fresh sucks - its neither "Fresh" nor "New" - I liked it better when it was Arrow (altho I realize it was losing audience - hence the change). So, I can understand why JD would stay put at RQX (which BTW, I've listened to since it was Q107 and had Elliot and Woodside in the AM). As for female targeted stations, gotta say that 104.3 (WZFT-FM) in Baltimore is better than Hot 99.5 (at least for my ears) and Mix 106.5 has a better music mix than RQX. Plus, JoJo and Reagan are a good morning team. WASH is OK when a girl needs to 'relax" (but I'm still pissed they canned Glen Hollis- and yes, I'd heard there was an issue). Oh, tried to listen to The Edge this AM, but there was static (doesn't reach as well into HoCo) and they were running their commercial stop set - so I bowed out before the music started..will try again. Outside of the F25-54 Demo (8/19/10) Regarding the provocative Jim Vance used to render. Anyone know why he no longer does them on air? Rusty (8/19/10) So I guess it's politically incorrect these days to ask why that Philadelphia station didn't consider a male for the position of weekend sports anchor? Did I see Greg Toland filling in the other night on sports desk on channel 9? It ain't just that WaPo is pretty much has mediocre female columnists like Jenkins, Hamilton and Wise it also is getting close to all female beat reporters in the sports section. Gee I think that's just swell. No matter just buy the Friday WaPo these days. Neato paper you got going there Weymouth (8/19/10) "Jealousy is a sad thing. OTT" --But not as sad as a forgotten local disc jockey starving for attention. (8/19/10) Watching Sportsnight on CSN... they just had Larry Michael interviewing VA Tech coach Frank Beamer, while holding a CSN microphone. Is Larry Michael now a CSN employee? I know there is some relationship between CSN and the Redskins, but have they officially hired that hack Larry Michael as a correspondent? And why the hell do they have him doing non-Redskins stuff? If I was running any kind of media outlet in D.C., Larry is about the last person in the world I would ever hire. I've yet to meet one Redskins fan that doesn't hate him. Another complete blunder by CSN. (8/19/10) Was suprised to see Brian Bolter give a commentary tonight regarding Generation Y. So Fox5 is letting it's anchors give their opinions on stuff now?..I remember when Jim Vance used to give a commentary each week and really enjoyed it. (8/19/10) With the lack of on-air talent and the song selection, isn't WKHZ really just Jack AM? Mel OTT (8/19/10) (regarding the MANY posts about Paul Bicknell) Never has so much been said about someone who has done so little. I've been visiting the DCRTV website for more than a decade and I've never been able to figure out why this ongoing abuse of the Mailbag is allowed. My best theory is that a good number of the posts are by Bicknell and others, who are/have been contributors to DCRTV or are/have been paid advertisers here. If I am correct about this, I'd imagine that Dave wouldn't want to risk future financial support from these people by deleting such posts or banning the authors from the Mailbag. Other than that, I am hard pressed to come up with a valid reason for allowing the Mailbag to be so blatantly hijacked. Personally, I couldn't give two shits about Paul Bicknell. From what I know of him, his "glory days" (if you can call 'em that) were at WPGC more than forty years ago. There really isn't any good reason for the Mailbag to be overrun with these posts, that amount to nothing more than petty, personal 5th grade schoolyard taunts and retorts. For a website like DCRTV, which purports to be a resource of record about the DC/Baltimore media scene, such fare, frankly, diminishes the place - and I suspect, puts off more readers (and financial support) than it attracts. I doubt that what I've said here will result in any meaningful changes in policy or content, when it comes to posts for or against Paul Bicknell, but I did want to share my sincere thoughts about the situation. If my theory about this is wrong, I certainly would be interested in hearing what rational there is for allowing these incessant posts and share with us all exactly how such content enhances the website and its professional reputation and standing. (8/19/10) DCRTV EXCLUSIVE! Message Of Hope #000, "Church Newsletter Bloopers": www.davidtate.net... Obviously, I am a guy with way too much free time on my hands. Dementedly yours, david tate (8/19/10) OK, that’s it. I will no longer watch WBOC NEWS. Will John Dearing, the news director, please look up the word “SENSATIONALISM”. They’ve been doing it for years with the weather. We can’t have a basic thunderstorm in Salisbury without a reporter standing in a wet parking lot saying “we’re all going to die”. Actually, their weather has been a joke around here for awhile. Now they are stuck on dead kids. It started with the Sara Foxwell story that they milked for several months. Now they are on this kid that drowned on Monday night. They reported the breaking story on Monday night. It was the top story all day Tuesday. OK, now it’s time to let the family grieve. Not WBOC. They have to spend all day Tuesday and Wednesday bothering family members and friends. It continued to be the top story all day Wednesday talking about a gathering of a dozen people in town. They made it sound like 50 thousand people were there. I turn on my TV this morning…now three days since the drowning…and their still talking about it. Today’s twist…”The Milford School System didn’t want to start the school year like this”. Well no Fuckin’ Shit. And BOC, the fake sincerity your reporters put out comes through the tv loud and clear. The incident was unfortunate and very sad, but do we need to be bombarded with it for three solid days? I will not be around to see what twist you put on it tomorrow for the sake of “ratings”. (8/19/10) /\ August 19 Messages /\ \/ August 18 Messages \/ I've known Chuckie Sap. for a long time, and I've never heard him mention anybody named marvin. This is probably a BS message or form somebody that knows him and doesnt want to be known. If not i"m sorry Marvin. (8/18/10) To the lady and her 'demand' that her P1 station, aka MIX107.3, not get blown up by Rush and his clones' gas... let me point out that I couldn't give two shits about WMAL and its lineup. But let's be real here - you ladies have Fresh, WASH, and Hot 99.5 in addition to MIX. Jack Diamond can haul his ass over to Fresh as I think they still do not have a morning show - wouldn't know as I skip right over 94.7. Flame away, I couldn't care less. Now, as far as WMAL is concerned... honestly I do not believe it will make much of a difference whether they are on an FM stick or stay on the current channel - the programming SUCKS and it appeals to a niche and, yes I will say it, FRINGE audience. Oh, and we have two other rightwing outlets (three if you want to include WAVA) but I digress. MY point is that I do not want to see another good station in the making (The Edge) get blown up in favor of WMAL's garbage. The Edge has mucho potential so why fuck it up? The AM band in DC has been trashed and if 105.9 goes into the rightwing shitter then the FM band is well on its way to being trashed as well. And BIG is no substitute for The Edge... not even close. At least there are alternatives for MIX. Signed An Edge Fan. (8/18/10) AHHHHmen, you are, truly, the voice of ignorance. Jealousy is a sad thing. OTT (8/18/10) AHHHHmen- I'll second that! Dave E. Jones (8/18/10) You should have a section listed on your site titled “For No Good Reason” where you just post someone’s name like mine (nikki landry) for no good reason. (8/18/10) You know what? I'll play along briefly. You really have learned a lot from Paul Bicknell, OTT. He taught you quite a bit about writing given the fact that you write EXACTLY LIKE HIM. Paul, seriously, if you're going to pose as different people use different writing styles. And you follow the same pattern. Once you get called out on one of your aliases, you post as one of your "friends" and state that Paul isn't visiting the site anymore, he's gotten past the pettiness, blah, blah, blah. This happened most recently when you got exposed badly as "AHHHH". Thus, we know the contention that "always signed his name to it" is a lie. "Paul has offered "constructive criticism", to Donnie G, on this board". As AHHHH, Paul made disparaging comments about Don's wife, deceased wife, and sexually explicit comments about his mother. I'd like to know how that is constructive. I've got a beer here ready to hoist in the dcrtv drinking game where we all quaff to another Paul Bicknell moniker. I pose that OTT is Bicknell. If I get a second to that, it's a social, and I'll change my signature here. By the way, with that muscle car, the only thing that can pass Paul by is his career. AHHHmen (8/18/10) "gray hair is something that comes with age-- like wisdom, maturity and respect." --You forgot retirement,dimensia, and erectile dysfunction. Signed, The Insulting Ass (8/18/10) Yesterday, I couldn't believe that Holly Morris insisted on doing a segment about a camel at the Montgomery County Fair while the National Anthem was playing. And not only because it was the national anthem, but because she was told that the staff plays it every morning and at that time everything stops which includes the staff standing at attention. And although she somewhat apologized more than a couple of times for being disrespectful, she also commented on how the show must go on (not her words exactly, but something similar). She then proceeded to ask the guy she was interviewing if another staff memeber (who was at attention for the anthem) was able to come over and talk to her while the anthem was playing. But then again, the guy she was interviewing wasn't much better than Holly because he yelled the guy's name for him to come over, which he did..Wish he had said he couldn't..Just don't know why Holly couldn't have said she'd planned on doing the story, but out of respect for their routinely playing the anthem and everything stopping at that time, she'd just give a quick summary of what she was going to report on.. (8/18/10) My advice for WMAL would be to do basically what WBAL in Baltimore is doing: NEWS in the 2 rush hours with regular traffic and weather and sports and no opinionated hosts during those 2 time slots, then opinionated talk the rest of the day. The same people that like the current lineup will stay around and the casual listener that switches to WTOP constantly for traffic and weather might stick around awhile longer or not switch to WTOP at all. Washington is a big enough market for 2 rush hour news, traffic, & weather stations. If ratings improve after this move, then and ONLY THEN should they consider moving WMAL to an FM frequency. That's my 2 cents. (8/18/10) Just turned on t.v. and see Barbara Harrison and Doreen Gentzler on the 5pm news..And how's Babs' mumbling doing since leaving the a.m. broadcast? (8/18/10) So let's see. Farrid is going to bring back an expensive retread talent, that nobody else wants, over pay him and experiment with him to be on 105.9, in the hopes of getting enough ratings to get enough advertising revenue to at least cover the clown's salary. Instead of doing some new that is already known to work, like putting WMAL on 105.9 That costs nothing and can only generate new revenue. No wonder the company is in trouble. Next thing you know he will be asking his mentor, Mel, if he can syndicate Howard on WRQX. (8/18/10) Unbelievable, ass! You make it too easy. What a set-up. Concerning the Grecian Formula comment, gray hair is something that comes with age-- like wisdom, maturity and respect. You'll learn that-- once you grow up. OTT (8/18/10) re: [About WMAL itching to be on FM... stick it on 107.3. Sorry, but MIX has had its time, gotta go. Besides, Jack Diamond is washed up... been washed up. The station has a strong signal which covers the entire market well AND it would be a good marketing bit for WMAL] Don't you DARE touch my P1 music station. You may not like the station but there are plenty of Washington DC Metro females who do, and I'm one of them. And the 15 of you who listen to WMAL and post about it - keep listening to it on AM; that's where it belongs. It isn't the heritage station it used to be and it probably never will be again - so get over it. There is other news and there are other stations and formats to talk about in DC besides WMAL. You've heard of 'news fatigue', well the constant posts about WMAL leave me 'WMAL fatigued." Sign me - outside of the F25-54 demo (8/18/10) OTT- Since you apparently are in constant contact with Mr. Bicknell, please give him the following message. The password is: Grecian-Formula. He'll know what it means. Signed, The Insulting Ass (8/18/10) Your predictions of a 30% rise in ratings for WMAL if they move to FM crack me up. The radio knee jerk reaction to moving old line AMs to FM is that they will get younger because all the 'kids' are on FM. WTOP had no problem getting listeners when they were at 1500. Have they gotten bigger by moving to FM? Sure. Younger? not really. The point is that WTOP has 'must hear' programming that appeals to a mass audience. WMAL does not. It is a niche format with limited appeal. Even if they moved to the challenged signal of 105.9 to assume a 30% rise in numbers is, well, pulling a number out of thin air. As for WMAL getting more local. Dream on. Being local means spending money. That is not going to happen. The Citadellians will continue to massage 5a-12n and think they are creating a radio station. The general public will continue to yawn. (8/18/10) Dave's response: Hey, the core of WMAL's audience are those somewhat red necky white guys in Prince William County. Imagine if they could hear WMAL day and night - and clearly, too! 105.9 is a Virginia stick with excellent coverage to the south and southwest, where AM 630's night signal ain't so hot..... smthree.wordpress.com: Here in DC, the number one radio station is WTOP. They have been at the leading edge of the social media curve – especially in their industry – for quite some time. They have multiple Twitter accounts and a very active Facebook page. Yet, until recently, they made little – if any – mention of social media on their own airwaves. This from a radio station that boasts over one million listeners every week. A couple of months ago they had around 4500 ‘likers’. Not bad but a very small percentage of their customer base. Recently, they began running a clever promotional campaign using the old Sally Field Oscar acceptance line. Today, their fan count is over 11,000. (8/18/10) About WMAL itching to be on FM... stick it on 107.3. Sorry, but MIX has had its time, gotta go. Besides, Jack Diamond is washed up... been washed up. The station has a strong signal which covers the entire market well AND it would be a good marketing bit for WMAL... WMAL News/Talk FM 107.3... to the Right of EVERYONE else in Washington! Just don't F with The Edge. Leave it be fer Chrissakes. (8/18/10) Dave's response: Personally, that would be fine with me. I do listen a bit to 105.9 but never to 107.3..... We were told by AG Holder that we’re cowards when it comes to race issues. Dr. Laura made an attempt to make a point with a woman that was getting out of control but the point was missed by all. So she’s going to be leaving now. Her point still exists but we’ll continue to keep our heads in the sand with our dealing with race issues. (8/18/10) Dr. Laura is quitting radio? Wow...until last week, I didn't know she was still on! -Billy Sparks (8/18/10) (SNIP): "...he has gone after Don Geronimo..." I wouldn't quite put it that way, but Paul has offered "constructive criticism", to Donnie G, on this board-- and always signed his name to it. Heck, the two of them are friends. (SNIP): "I hear Paul Bicknell is on Facebook. I wonder if he plays Mob Wars?...." (SNIP): "You know what Bicknell's hillbilly mobile is missing? Bologna slices on the hood." Make no sense. Seem to be written by someone who is truly lonely, deprived and, more than likely, out of work. Not worthy of any further response. OTT, not PLB! (8/18/10) Bring women to WMAL, Dave? How about Dr. Laura - I hear she's searching for work. But seriously (and I'm 'blue-in-the-face' again for stating this on this forum for the umpteenth time): BRING BACK JERRY KLEIN! Problem solved. Or, at the very least, bring Jerry for one hour on Friday mid-mornings (the last hour of The Chris Plante Show) in order to 'battle it out' with Chris. Chris, of course, can always handle himself with no help - but mixing it up with Jerry for an hour would enable the listener to gather both points of views on the issues of the day, aside from the enormous entertainment value the pairing of these two radio talk show hosts has. These two are 'reality show' material... -Silvie- (8/18/10) At the end of the day its about good radio not right/left politics. The problem with wmal is that almost continuous 24/7 right wing broadcasting is just plain boring and repetitive. How many ways can you say "Obama is a foreign born Communist who wants to destroy America and take our guns away while we are being judged by Death Panels" ? Even if I believed that was the truth, hearing Rush-Sean-Levine say that for 9 hours straight, not including 8 hours from our two local nut jobs Grandy/Plante. The same would be true if it were 24/7 of Rachel Madow-type programming. Having Rush (who is a total jerk, and I say that as a conservative Republican, but is a masterful broadcaster) mixed in with some local programming and/or syndicated shows with a different political slant would be more interesting and better radio. By the way, the WORST program on Wmal is "Midnight Tuckers" from 3 to 5 am. The two hosts are absolute lunatics who make Rush/Sean seem semi-reasonable. In addition to their rants, most of the program is taken up with ads for parts for semi tractor trailer trucks. That program needs to go! and wmal needs to return AM Coast-to-Coast to its 1 to 5 am time slot!! (8/18/10) Don’t really know what happened to the Cougar at 106.9, but they’ve apparently hired some teens from the local middle school to take his place. I couldn’t pound the “Sat” button on my radio fast enough the first morning I tuned into that drivel. I’ve heard conversations on a CB radio that were more entertaining. (8/18/10) "If you want liberal talk...CHANGE THE STATION" -- Shouldn't that be "If you want Spanish talk..."? Cuz that's all you're going to hear on the AM dial in this burg. (8/18/10) TOMORROW NIGHT (August 19) - FREE tickets available from The Spooky Movie Film Festival for a screening of THE LAST EXORCISM at Gallery Place theatres - first come, first served...! Please USE Gofobo code SME2 - www.gofobo.com (8/18/10) In reference to WMAL...and the statement "Here's what Bill Hess needs to do"....If Mr. Hess were allowed to do all the things you are suggesting...then he would have the title of Program Director. The ASSISTANT Program Director is just that...THE ASSISTANT! They don't usually get the opportunity to run the radio station in the manner you are suggesting. Also, there are a ton of radio stations up and down the dial...I don't get your obsession with WMAL! If you want liberal talk...CHANGE THE STATION. Your daily rants about 630 AM are tired and bizarre. (8/18/10) Dave's response: I enjoy listening to entertaining conservative talkers, but I think it would make WMAL a better, more successful station to present more than one viewpoint from one segment of society - white men. It can still lean to the right, but it would "juice up the shows" to have some lefties, women, and blacks on the on-air staff. Maybe even a gay person, too. Oh, wait, they've already got that. Ha ha ha..... Re:[To claim that as a white person, you don't get that it seems to be ok within the black community is naive at best and I would suggest that Dr. Laura is a little more worldly or sophisticated than that.] I would agree. I suspect that Dr. Laura does get it and she was simply pandering to white resentment. Complaining about the "unfairness" of who gets to use the N-word suggests a deliberate attempt to ignore the word's history, with the goal of falsely portraying whites as victims. The issue is not whether the situation is fair or unfair, and if we assume that it's unfair, it would still rank very low compared to the world's other injustices. The issue is that whites like Dr. Laura are asking for sympathy and conveniently not mentioning the fact that their skin color still gives them many advantages. That's like someone complaining about having to own a Chevy instead of a Lexus when the person they're complaining to has never owned a car....Also, I detect some hypocrisy in KYW in not hiring Kristen Berset because of her photos. News outlets know damn well that their attractive female journalists are eye candy for a huge segment of the male audience, myself included. The outlets play up to this - that should be obvious from the sideline reporters during NFL games and from the overabundance of blondes at Fox News. One cannot gripe about that too much, since that is the nature of any visual medium. The hypocrisy is in stations exploiting the attractiveness while pretending that attractiveness is not a factor in who they put before the cameras. (8/18/10) Your article on Kristin Berset is funny i guess that she is not long for B-more. Some top 10 market will take a chance on her maybe one of the D.C. stations who knows Comcast Sports Net likes sexy blondes. (8/18/10) Former WBAL and WLMD radio talk show host Allan Prell has a new book out. In typical form that his radio audience will remember, here is a clip of Allan Prell giving a promotional reading of his new book. E. Richard Dahms (8/18/10) It's important to read between the lines of what Dr. Laura, (not a fan, by the way), is actually saying. The truth is that due to corporate ownership and inbreeding, it is impossible to give your honest opinion on anything if you are employed by a mega-network. Want to joke how McDonalds food made you shit your brains out yesterday? Can't if McDonalds is a corporate sponsor. Want to say the service at the car dealership was shitty? Can't if they advertise with you. Want to say a certain brand of anything sucks? Better check with the sale director before you do. They might be trying to close a deal. Free speech is dead, get over it. Hey that's the biz and it's the reality. Also, Dr. Laura should have used some discretion in her remarks about the "N" word. Yeah, yeah, we get it honey. It's a black thing though and any black person will tell you that. It's not right but it is what it is. To claim that as a white person, you don't get that it seems to be ok within the black community is naive at best and I would suggest that Dr. Laura is a little more worldly or sophisticated than that. (8/18/10) Dave's response: I do agree. Companies like Comcast, Verizon, and Kaiser HMO have literally "bought and paid for" cushy coverage from area media outlets. They spend so much money on local advertising that area TV and radio outlets are literally scared to death to report anything negative about them..... RE: [But I darn sure know what the word "mix" means. Any more stupid comments from people who don't know what "mix" means? - ZombieWoof] The "mix" you speak of is pretty much limited to weekends, pinhead...you know, the same days when 630MAL runs for-profit segments that hawk plastic garden tools, kitchen cabinets and cheap financial advice. Monday through Friday, WAMU is all news (both local and national) politics, talk and public affairs. Period. Clear proof that a more diverse format is not only marketable in DC, it actually gets much better ratings than the "hate-and-blather" format currently promoted by Dubbya-Emmay-Yell. Any more stupid responses? (8/18/10) I hear Paul Bicknell is on Facebook. I wonder if he plays Mob Wars?....Nah, he'd get blacklisted there, too. Is that good enough for ya Sincerely, James? AHHHHmen. (8/18/10) Today Ryan Bryski will be on WUSA 9 discussing the student loan crisis and his effort to get a new bill passed on behalf of his late brother. Almost all of Generation Y is being financially crippled by the current student loan crisis and 2007, the Baltimore Sun has covered this issue and provided op-ed space for StudentLoanJustice.org founder, Alan Collinge to write about this issue. I have attached the necessary links below to back all of this up. Ryan is trying to get a law passed called "Christopher's Law" (H.R. 5458) which would re-instate more consumer protections in the student lending industry. There is a groundswell over this issue among young people today and there is also a documentary coming out very shortly about this as well. Locally, Rep. Elija Cummings from MD has co-sponsored this Bill. Also, CEO of Sallie Mae, Albert Lord lives in Anne Arundel County Maryland where he recently built a $30million private golf course.... Thanks, Kyle McCarthy, Student Loan Justice www.washingtonpost.com, baltimoresun.com (8/18/10) Dr. Laura leaving radio - www.huffingtonpost.com (8/18/10) Front Page Washington Post headline; "The Worse is yet to come." I think they meant "worst." (8/18/10) YOU CANT TURN WMAL INTO AN ALL INCLUSIVE MULTIRACIAL RADIO STATION. YOUR IDEA TO HAVE A LOCAL SHOW IN THE AFTERNOON IN PLACE OF HANNITY MAKES NO SENSE BECAUSE AFTER HANNITY COMES MARK LEVIN. YOUR IDEAS ARE ILLOGICAL (8/18/10) Dave's response: So, you're acknowledging that WMAL is a "one race" station? Hmmm..... From today's TRI newsletter: It’s a stunning development. One of radio’s top-rated talkshow hosts, who’s been doing it since she started in L.A. in the 1970s, tells CNN’s Larry King that some “hateful groups” have “usurped” her First Amendment rights. She’s choosing to leave syndicated radio when her Talk Radio Network deal is up in December. Dr. Laura says it’s not a business issue – she claims she’s added new stations and new sponsors since her fateful August 10 discussion of the n-word. Schlessinger says “I never called anybody a bad word” – which is true. I think she saw the phone call from an African-American woman married to a white man as a teachable moment on the subject of language and attitudes. Calling the woman "hypersensitive" to racism raised many eyebrows, though. That audio clip has been used by folks all along the love-her-or-hate-her scale to make bigger points. Some Dr. Laura fans will view her as a martyr and the victim of a witch hunt. Some of her longtime detractors, back to the days when they tried to get her TV show canceled, see the n-word episode as an opening to attack her. She seemed quite centered on Larry King. She’s not retiring (“I’m too young for that”), and she’s got a book due in January. But she won’t have to schedule the book tour around her radio show – that will be over. (8/18/10) Good morning Dave! First, I wish to thank you for your very immediate replies to my questions last week regarding the Comcast cable box that I installed a couple of weeks ago. You may recall that this older TV generally accepts or translates most of the channels using the new box, except channel 23, which I really like. I still have not resolved the issue! The purpose of this email is to thank you for your several immediate responses to my problem. I thank you for your concern and still value your service. Your support calmed me down quite a bit. I still cannot receive channel 23. I have been considering installing a cable switch allowing me to use either the box or the TV cable without the box. Anyway, I it was great at the time to find someone, who appreciated my problem and calmed me down. Thank you Doctor Dave! My wife thanks you too. Thank you. Mick (8/18/10) Dr. Laura playing "the poor victim" and claiming that her First Amendment rights are being trampled, may work with her fans, but nobody else is buying it. It's especially interesting because she is quoted in the December 2, 1999 Charleston Post and Courier, saying: "The First Amendment is not the Eleventh Commandment. Its protection does not extend to ALL speech." As a professional broadcaster, she really should have known better than to go anywhere near the n-word, but she got caught up in the moment, haughtily presuming to grab a "teachable moment" - and ultimately, she's the one who got schooled. (8/18/10) Google revolutionized the way people access information. Now it wants to transform how people get entertainment with Google TV. It would marry the Internet with traditional television, nabling viewers to watch TV shows and movies unshackled from the broadcast networks or cable channels on which they air. www.latimes.com (8/18/10) Dear AHHHHmen, By your abscence here in the Mailbag, I hope you didn't buy into that email posted by "OTT". It's hard not to believe that Mr. Bicknell was posting as OTT. It's been noted in here before how Paul will pose as other people in a feeble attempt to throw others off the scent. His "friends" have posted here before and said that he no longer visits the site and/or posts here anymore. It's not too long thereafter that he is usually called out for posting under another identity. "...he has never made any comments or actions with the intent to hurt someone or assassinate their character." It's been well proven that he has gone after Don Geronimo endlessly in the past in this forum. Mr. Bicknell expects to take endless shots at others, but routinely asks for a truce to be called when he receives a sliver of the same animosity directed back at him. "I recommend that we all just wipe the slate clean..." Mr. Bicknell wants you to stop, but he never will. He never has in the past when he has allegedly asked for things to stop. If all of his negative posts towards others over the years were returned to him in kind, it would take a busy slate of posts for months, if not years, to return the favor here in the Mailbag. Don't buy into his drivel; don't let up on his accord. Sincerely, James (8/18/10) "Put some liberals into the mix, including on the "Grandy Group" morning show. Yes, WMAL is right-leaning station, but mix it up a bit. More lefties, more blacks, more women would make the station "more like Washington.") Show me ONE radio station in the country that is doing that and winning in the ratings.] Sit back and relax, Dave...I'll handle this one. WMAU 88.5. 4th in the DC market compared to WMAL's distant 9th. Any more stupid questions?" - Weeeel, Dave specifically, and to his credit, used the word "mix" twice (that's two times). I don't know this "WMAU" you're talking about, but the radio station at 88.5 on the FM dial is far from a "mix". So tell your mother and your sister and your sister's friends. Like an exterminator running low on dust. I'm bug powder itchin' and it can't be trussed. Interzone trippin' and I'm off to Annexia. I gotta get a typewriter that's sexier. But I darn sure know what the word "mix" means. Any more stupid comments from people who don't know what "mix" means? - ZombieWoof (8/18/10) Is any of the money for the backpacks going to help illegal aliens? Nice truck; where did you get that done? Signed Mrs.Fred. (8/18/10) I check Dave’s primo website frequently. Posting is not my style. Until today. Congratulations to the “someone” @ Red Zebra who hired Chuck Sapienza as PD. Even though he’s on the low side of 40, Chuck has genuinely WORKED his way through 25 years of this business, starting with Elliott & Woodside @ WPGC. I have been fortunate to have worked with him on three separate occasions. I’ve seen first-hand, his growth in people skills, management abilities, attention to detail & his love of junk food. Need some one to show up early? He’s there. How about staying late? Done. If you want to screw around and do some dumb crap, he’s right there with you, until it’s time to get the job done. Having not been a close second to Ward Cleaver as a Father- of- the- Year candidate, watching Chuck interact with his kids could teach us all a lesson. This is an opportunity he has earned and long deserved... If you can find a better friend on EBAY…buy ‘em and, as an aside, he’s one awesomly attractive man. Marvin Wurg. (8/18/10) /\ August 18 Messages /\ \/ August 17 Messages \/ RE: [ IN RESPONSE TO DAVE'S RANT (Put some liberals into the mix, including on the "Grandy Group" morning show. Yes, WMAL is right-leaning station, but mix it up a bit. More lefties, more blacks, more women would make the station "more like Washington.") Show me ONE radio station in the country that is doing that and winning in the ratings.] Sit back and relax, Dave...I'll handle this one. WMAU 88.5. 4th in the DC market compared to WMAL's distant 9th. Any more stupid questions? (8/17/10) As far as the WMAL rant goes, sure FM talkers are all the rage right now, but didn't WJFK just drop an FM talk format to go all sports. Sure, they were a "Guy Talk" station, not a talker with Rush Limbaugh on board. In this market of policy wonks, sure trying to put WMAL on FM might seem like a nice idea, but WTOP is already on FM. If Citadel were serious about putting WMAL on FM, they would have done it before flipping 105.9 to classic rock. But 105.9 is no.3 with men 25-54, ahead of WJFK, WWDC, WBIG, and WTEM. They are successful no matter what the 6+ or 12+ numbers say. I still say though that, should Citadel decide to sell WMAL to Cheap Channel, maybe then CC will pair WMAL with 100.3, and leave 105.9 to get the audience they deserve. Stephen (8/17/10) Yes I'm aware I demonstrated my ignorance in religious temples and geography. I did this to show that even with very little knowledge many Americans will strongly oppose this outlandish proposal....errr yeah i'm stickin' with that logic....yup....Donnie (8/17/10) RE: [While Mailbaggers are knocking Republicans and WMAL, the station and its right-leaning listeners are busy raising thousands of dollars for kids who need school supplies] Let me get this straight...you can disparage the President of the United States by suggesting that he isn't a "real" American, going so far as to compare him to Hitler and Stalin - you can call your fellow countrymen who voted for him "traitors" - you can repeat some of the most baseless vile slurs in the history of politics, and just because one day a year you kick in a buck to buy a kid a pencil-box you are somehow magically transformed into Mother Theresa? Sorry, I don't buy the "logic". (8/17/10) I usually don't like ,or respect, Republican thinking and have a good strong hate of Ford pickups and do have lots of tolerance for religions ,NONE of which I agree with, but I have to say I love that tailgate in the pic. A rock through that banner of a defeated traitor nation would be nice but leave that tailgate alone!!! I believe Mr. President just reduced his votes by at least 2 in this household. What's next? A replica of Taj Mahal on the Mall? Donnie (8/17/10) I know you're not Farhi's biggest fan, but his chat today had some interesting content. He provided a transcript of McKelway's on-air remarks that led to his suspesion, but didn't mention that the suspesion was supposedly related to a post-segment confrontation with the boss, not to the aired comments themselves. Or so I thought I'd read elsewhere. He also goes into the Dr. Laura controversy, and uses the "n" word. live.washingtonpost.com (8/17/10) Regarding Al McGilvray’s comment “The topic of conversation here is WHAG-TV (aka NBC25, aka "25 Alive!). WHAG-TV had to rebrand themselves as WHAG because they are no longer on channel 25. Al McGilvray” Got me, Al. You Da Man. 25… 26… 55… 25.1… 26.1—none of that matters, since nobody has watched WHAG via its on-air signal in decades. In H-town it has been Cable Channel 12 since Lou Scally was in diapers. You have way too much time on your hands… (8/17/10) "King" Czaben's few fans had better hope and pray he gets better ratings when he assumes "his new national throne" than he did in his last go around, because his numbers were anemic, to say the least. The guy just isn't very popular, and nobody I know wants to waste much money advertising with him. If he doesn't hit the ground running, he'll be right back where he is now: filling in where he can at a little-listened to local station and reading copy for P90X and out-in-the-sticks golf courses. (8/17/10) Re: "While Mailbaggers are knocking Republicans and WMAL, the station and its right-leaning listeners are busy raising thousands of dollars for kids who need school supplies. Just sayin'. Let the flame war begin. Christian" Yes, as the Taliban and Al-Queda have proven, buying school supplies and digging wells for poor people will persuade much of the world to overlook the rest of your behavior, no matter how evil. It doesn't make them good people or worthwhile leaders, though. (8/17/10) You know what Bicknell's hillbilly mobile is missing? Bologna slices on the hood. AHHHHH (8/17/10) Bill Hess must be a good interview because of his new gig and those that he got in the past. Only those that have worked for him know how incompetent he is. He is, by far, the dumbest program director I've ever worked for, Citadel got what they deserve....(8/17/10) What is a "republican car"? I believe THIS one pretty much sums it up succinctly in one neat little picture from the April 28 edition of the Washington Post earlier this year. www.washingtonpost.com (8/17/10) To the person who used radio-locator.com for the WHAG-TV coverage area, you are using the wrong site. radio-locator.com only does radio broadcast areas, what you saw was WHAG-AM 1410. Please see the following link for the WHAG-TV broadcast area: www.fcc.gov... WHAG-TV does indeed would a viewable signal into Winchester and Front Royal. -- Take Care and Have a Great Day, Tybois Uphold (8/17/10) The the CNN typo is exactly what fuels the Republican Yugo! (8/17/10) WUSA really knows what news is important to mothers.... (8/17/10) A CNN typo seen yesterday... (8/17/10) (Put some liberals into the mix, including on the "Grandy Group" morning show. Yes, WMAL is right-leaning station, but mix it up a bit. More lefties, more blacks, more women would make the station "more like Washington.") Show me ONE radio station in the country that is doing that and winning in the ratings. You can't....because there aren't any. It does not work! (8/17/10) While Mailbaggers are knocking Republicans and WMAL, the station and its right-leaning listeners are busy raising thousands of dollars for kids who need school supplies. Just sayin'. Let the flame war begin. Christian (8/17/10) (Snip) RE: WHAG. Just an observation! (end snip) The topic of conversation here is WHAG-TV (aka NBC25, aka "25 Alive!). WHAG-TV had to rebrand themselves as WHAG because they are no longer on channel 25. Al McGilvray (8/17/10) "Preservationists in Queens NY call for recognition of the site of the NBC building at the 1939 World's Fair, where network president David Sarnoff unveiled television......" Hmm - from news.bbc.co.uk... Although there is a hot debate over who actually invented TV - the US, UK, Japan, Russia, France, Germany and Eastern Europe all have a claim - Baird definitely made the world's first broadcast. .......... And on 22 August, 1932, the BBC's television public service began. Seems that Mr Sarnoff was seven years late unveiling TV. Tony (8/17/10) Renee's car. Built by PLB for their 10th anniversary. (8/17/10) From Czabe's Facebook page [Steve Czaban's Czabe.com] Czabe is not assuming his new national throne until August 30th - unitl then you can still catch the King on 980AM Washington DC (3-7PM EST) or on the Bob and Brian morning show - 102.9FM Milwaukee (8:10-8:40AM CST) - we have new Czabecasts with the whole 1st Team and the new Czabe.com will lauch later this... (8/17/10) I haven't calibrated by snark filter lately, but that comment about WHAG's coverage shown at radio-locator... Dude, that's the AM station. We're talking TV, and WHAG-DT has plenty of coverage around Winchester (see here rabbitears.info ). Regards, Dave Loudin (8/17/10) Paul Bicknell has owned this Road Runner from day one. Trophy winner at Bay Country Region VCCA Fall Blow-Out VI, Downs Park, Pasadena, MD, 10/19/08. (8/17/10) “Congratulations, Chuck, on a promotion that was deserved long ago”..What exactly was the promotion for? With that annoying voice, let’s hope it’s not as on-air talent. (8/17/10) Bicknell's car... Spring 2010 Ocean City Maryland “Cruisin the Boardwalk” (8/17/10) WHAG-TV’s expanded news efforts may be part of a long-term strategy to prepare for the inevitable day when NBC programming gets yanked—not just from Channel 25, but from all affiliates of ALL networks. It is something all local TV operators have been anticipating for at least 10 years, and is very likely to happen within the next 5-to-10 years. Why? Because when broadband access reaches critical mass through the combined reach of cable, satellite and online delivery, the networks will have no need for the antiquated system of relay stations—like channels 25, 4, 5, 7, 9 and the rest. Local TV stations won’t simply curl up and die. They’ll retool and try like hell to reposition themselves as local news sources. For quite a few years WHAG has generated considerably more local news programming than most smaller-market TV stations because it has always been in the weird position of being the second (or third, depending on the cable system) NBC affiliate in its natural Hagerstown-Martinsburg-Chambersburg marketplace. At the same time, WHAG has always struggled to get viewers for its local news because of its penchant for hiring kids fresh out of J-school and paying convenience-store wages. It has always been hugely profitable, so there is no real excuse. If Nexstar is serious about this new initiative, it needs to crack out the checkbook and make a serious investment in its on-air presentation. (8/17/10) Dave's response: Do you really trust that Comcast's Brian Roberts will keep NBC a free broadcast network? Maybe in a couple of years he'll make it a basic cable network, with the former NBC broadcast stations becoming 24/7 local news outlets. Could happen..... RE: WHAG. Just an observation! Could it be that the reason WHAG doesn't get any ad dollars from Winchester or Front Royal is because they don't have ANY signal into those communites. A check of Radio-locator.com shows that WHAG's fringe signal doesn't even reach Winchester. Possibly if you had a very selective/sensitive receiver with an antenna grounded to the earth you might be able to hear them (especially in the winter). However who among average listeners is gonna go to all that trouble for a station they wouldn't be able to receive in their cars. (8/17/10) Does anyone know how Linda West's complaint about an unhealthy workplace was resolved? - Tom in Wheaton (8/17/10) "and was once driven by Paul Bicknell." --Which means it, much like Paul, hasn't worked since 1994. Signed, The Insulting Ass (8/17/10) Anyone read "Non Sequiter" in Tuesday's Wash Post funnies pages? Clear Channel, take note... (8/17/10) Marjorie Margolies is Chelsea Clinton's Mother-In-Law." Exactly: that's why she and the Clintons are machatunim (Yiddish for the joint parents-in-law; the word Machatenista is the singular feminine version of the same word). Concerning WHAG-25: I get much better Surround Sound separation on FiOS's WHAG signal than with WRC, so I frequently watch NBC shows on The Big 25, so I can hear the laughter on the Tonight Show behind me, too. And the ClunkClunk on L&O is really great in a true Surround Sound, which WRC doesn't give me. I'm hoping Ch. 25 can one day get the money to go HD for their local news, so we can see Angelique without it looking like there's a screen door in front of the TV. And while there used to be a frequent 1/2-second loss of sound, it hardly ever occurs anymore, maybe every half hour now when it used to be every 5 minutes. -- Carl in Olney (8/17/10) Ed Graham: Here is Paul Bicknell's car. For real. www.flickr.com (8/17/10) Someone asked, "What is a "Republican car?" That's easy. It runs on leaded fuel, gets 8 mpg, has no catalytic converter, no GPS, an AM radio, won't go over 53 mph, usually has only one occupant, drives in the fast lane, has curb feelers, no seat belts, and was once driven by Paul Bicknell. Ed Graham (8/17/10) Dave's response: And it has a radio that's "stuck" on 630 AM - at least when it's being driven in the DC area..... I may be out of touch, but what happened to Cougar Michaels who hosted the morning show on 106.9 the Eagle in Hagerstown? (8/17/10) Preservationists in Queens NY call for recognition of the site of the NBC building at the 1939 World's Fair, where network president David Sarnoff unveiled television with his milestone broadcast from Queens to Manhattan. The story, video and audio of Sarnoff's address at www.nydailynews.com (8/17/10) I just gotta ask. Without a CEO, CFO, GM, BM, OM or much of any other management...who appointed Chuck at RZ as the PD? Maybe it was the GSM? Maybe it was the DOE? (8/17/10) Dave's response: I'm told that Bruce Gilbert is still working parttime at Red Zebra through the end of August, when he moves to CBS Dallas fulltime..... What is a "Republican car?" (8/17/10) The reason why Hagerstown's WHAG doesn't cover Winchester and Front Royal very much is simple...MONEY or the lack thereof. In other words WHAG had never really made any money in sales in that area ( nearby WJAL it was even less ) because, well the local busines community in that part of Virginia just isn't interested in doing business with a station out of MARYLAND . It was the exact same thing back in 1989 when the Hagerstown Hearld-Mail newspaper tried to expand into Winchester. Nobody was interested so the paper went back to being a "tri-state" paper. Dittos with WAYZ and the old WARX 106.9, sure you can pick them in Winchester but one would never hear a Winchester area business advertising on those stations either. Besides with WHSV's new tower in Warren County providing their TV3 Winchester signal over the air to just about everyone in and around Winchester regardless if they have cable or not, I guess in WHAG's mind I am sure it's "why bother". If WHAG couldn't make much money in Winchester then, highly doubtful they can make money now in Winchester. (8/17/10) "Since nobody has said it yet, let me be the first. Chuck Sapienza is a fine talent. With Chuck leading ESPN 980, the station is set to have a wonderful future. Congratulations, Chuck, on a promotion that was deserved long ago" I'll be the second to say it! Great hire by Red Zebra. With Chuck in charge, the station may overtake WJFK as the number 1 sports station in town again. (8/17/10) Brett Haber has been an news anchor on channel 9s early morning news. I was wondering why? (8/17/10) Dave's response: He's sexier than Angie Goff? /\ August 17 Messages /\ \/ August 16 Messages \/ Comcrap has me my the cajones. ATT U-Verse is still not available in my neighborhood and since I'm unemployed I'm not gonna be able to switch to DirecTV. I'm stuck paying $121.45/month for Internet and cable. Most of the digital channels are stations I don't watch. I got the bare bones digital package because they don't let you subscribe to cable without subscribing to a digital package unless you get the bare-bone basic line-up. (8/16/10) Last week I got the pleasure to take my cable modem which died into the office. The nice lady behind the counter gave me a new one. I didn't notice until I got home that she gave me the same a/c adapter back which was the thing that was ...dead. I wish I could get something other than this service but I'm too far away from a CO for DSL and there isn't any other option in my neck of the woods. Luckily, I had another a/c adapter in the house that fit and was the same voltage. I then had to spend an hour on hold waiting for them to 'hit' my modem so that I could get service. We've been trained to just take it. I admit it's a choice, but damn! (8/16/10) Worse yet ... much like the credit card companies call people who pay "deadbeats" ... these racketeers sign up lots of $29.95 a month newbies, many of whom NEVER pay. A friend of mine used to work disconnect for Comcast ... he described th...e number of these people with $200 unpaid bills as "laughable." Ha, ha, ha, ha ... unless you're paying full price. DirecTV is no better. They just have their blood money deal with the NFL that basically holds football fans at gunpoint. Hello ... anyone at the FCC awake? Hurry that Comcast/NBC merger through ... why don't ya. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ (8/16/10) Since nobody has said it yet, let me be the first. Chuck Sapienza is a fine talent. With Chuck leading ESPN 980, the station is set to have a wonderful future. Congratulations, Chuck, on a promotion that was deserved long ago. (8/16/10) (Jay Cottrell To BAL Radio - 8/16 - "One of top local sports talk producers, Jay Cottrell, has landed at WBAL radio") Very funny! Hardly one of the top local sports talk producers, since he's been fired from every job he's had, and hasn't worked in 3 years. I guess it doesn't take much to get Jim Williams to write a piece about you. Just have to be a friend of his I guess. (8/16/10) Marjoie Margolies is also Chelsea Clinton's mother in law (8/16/10) Hey Dave, Glad to see WHAG expanding into Northern Virginia, but they don't serve the part of Virginia in their broadcast area....Winchester. They take select news from Winchester and Front Royal. If it isn't a BIG story from Winchester, you don't see it on WHAG. They are mostly Chambersburg, Hagerstown and Martinsburg. So, it would be nice if they put a bureau in Winchester before they expand to Northern Virginia. Cover the area you have first. -- Take Care and Have a Great Day, Tybois Uphold (8/16/10) Why is it that I have a feeling that Hagertown's WHAG sooner/or later will dump NBC and more/less be a channel with nothing but local news, informericals and some syndicated stuff. Yeah I know, "WHAG is the NBC affiliate available on Dish Network for the Eastern Shore", OK but WHAG can provide a special feed of NBC programming to that regionand provide a different feed to everyone else if they wanted too. But Northern Virginia? Odd !! Does this station really expect viewers in Northern Virginia to give up actually watching NBC programing on WRC-TV in favor of WHAG ? Yeah right !! It is NOT going to happen. So what is really the purpose of this? (8/16/10) (Snip): "Just taking a moment to compliment "Irritating Asshole" correct on both..OTT" Not sure if this is meant to be complementary or derogatory. Perhaps too much tongue in your cheek, there. But I didn't write it. The Real OTT (8/16/10) Just taking a moment to compliment "Irritating Asshole" correct on both..OTT (8/16/10) Dave, Just as with earlier stories, The Toledo Blade has an agenda and major campaign against Brian, the radio station and Clear Channel. If you take a look at the full story they posted -- instead of the earlier version you have a link to -- (www.toledoblade.com) you'll note that our realtor says that the house is in the process of a regular sale, which is correct. The Blade did not report the extenuating circumstances, and I will not go into them here, but please know that the newspaper's vendetta skews its reporting. Thank you. (8/16/10) IIRC, the Oreo cookie tossing at Steele story was made up by John Kane, or at least disseminated on WBAL and WMAL by John Kane, inheritor of Office Movers. John had a falling out with the Maryland Republican Party after 2006, but it appears now the Republicans are making nice with the Kanes. If you recall, John’s wife is on the Republican ticket, even though there is a federal investigation into fraud for Office Movers underpaying workers on Federal contracts (but Hey, John got to meet another Pope, and movers don’t really need the extra money, anyway). But I digress….I have personally called WMAL every time I hear that Plante idiot make reference to Steele being pelted by Oreos, to ask them to tell Plante it never happened and to stop saying that it did. Each time they tell me they will pass the message on, but Plante still references it. Oh well, and WMAL claims they are not the station of hate. (8/16/10) Carl in Olney: When that photo of WRC-TV's "The News Center" was snapped thirty-five years or so ago, Marjoie Margolies had just joined the local reporting team after a stint with NBC News, and she was herself a newlywed! (8/16/10) DBC's side channel wins an award, lol. Does anybody listen? Never saw 937-2 show up in the ratings in Wilmington or Philadephia. The main channel is falling under some tough times. Not sure I would worry about the side channel. HD is a joke. (8/16/10) Saw the note about WSB going FM talk. Totally agree with you on WMAL moving to FM, WBAL in Baltimore should do it. WILM should move to WDSD or WDEL or WSTW in Wilmington and KYW would sound good at 94.1 in Philadephia. These changes are just more icing on the cake that AM is on its last leg. (8/16/10) "Rob Dibble should be ashamed of himself for apologizing for his comments on chatty women." --I'm shocked...no....astonished at this comment...It's totally not like Paul Bicknell to not sign his mailbag posts. Signed, The Insulting Ass (8/16/10) "It couldn't possibly be worse than the Oreo cookie fiasco at Morgan State U where Republican cars were vandalized." Wow! You added a second thing that never happened to the first thing that never happened. Well played, sir! Howie (8/16/10) re: the Comcast teaser rant - seems to me someone in Comcast HQ needs to view the ALLY bank spot about providing ice cream treats only to 'new' friends.. Mark/CharmCity (8/16/10) Dave's response: Every time I see that Ally bank spot, I think of Comcast. Companies like Comcast have to wonder how their current customers feel seeing spots for "teaser" rates aimed at new customers. It's got to generate a lot of "bad will" among loyal longtime customers to discover that they're paying a LOT more for the same service - and they're paying more every year for the same service, to boot..... Dave Zirin speaks with The Washington Post Express about the new book Bad Sports, owners, sports, and reclaiming the games... Catch DZ tonight at Politics & Prose! www.expressnightout.com (8/16/10) (Snip) "Ah yes, my all-time fave basketball team. The BALTIMORE Bullets. Gus Johnson, Earl Monroe, Kevin Loughery, Wes Unseld and Jack Marin. I've always maintained that the "Voice of the Bullets," the late great Jim Karvellas belongs in the basketball Hall Of Fame..." I'm with you on both of those sentiments, Rusty. OTT (8/16/10) According to The Baltimore Sun, WTOP has landed an hour long Ehrlich/O'Malley Maryland Gubernatorial debate on Friday, October 29 at 10AM, just a few days before the election. This is the only agreed upon debate so far. However it's unclear whether WTOP's Mark Plotkin will be the host. Ehrlich's spokesman Andy Barth (formerly a longtime reporter for WMAR 2 in Baltimore) would not confirm who the host would be, but Ehrlich and O'Malley have both appeared on his show before, so it's assumed he'll be the host since it's his WTOP time slot. No other debates appear to be firmed up as of yet, but Maryland Public Television and WBAL TV have made offers. Ehrlich had previously declined a debate with O'Malley on his WBAL radio show and O'Malley, in a rather clever political move, bought advertising time during Ehrlich's radio show. This type of debate was proposed by Mark Plotkin during the previous gubernatorial election, but turned down by Ehrlich. Obviously Plotkin leans a little left, but I still think he'd make a good host. It couldn't possibly be worse than the Oreo cookie fiasco at Morgan State U where Republican cars were vandalized. Let's face it, it's kind of difficult for Ehrlich to get a fair shake in a state that leans 3 to 1 Democrat. I can't even think of a potential Republican host for a debate on any local TV or radio station in fact! Haha! (8/16/10) How bout this nugget regarding the late, great former Bullet Gus Johnson. Gus and Johnny Holliday were team mates on the Carney Auditors, an industrial league team in Cleveland back in the early 60's before Johnson went on to college then the NBA. Johnny could shoot with the best of em....Gus could rebound, shoot and run the floor as good as anyone. Joe Wise, Gerry McGinty were also members of that team that won the league championship. Gus Johnson died way to young. He was a magician on the basketball court long before Michael Jordan and such a nice person. (8/16/10) On Dibble's comment: Who cares?! How did we as society get so sensitive about every little thing that is said? Other announcers have said so much worse. It was a bad joke, or a comment just gone bad. Personally I like Dibble on broadcasts. Lighten up America!! (8/16/10) Ah yes, my all-time fave basketball team. The BALTIMORE Bullets. Gus Johnson, Earl Monroe, Kevin Loughery, Wes Unseld and Jack Marin. I've always maintained that the "Voice of the Bullets," the late great Jim Karvellas belongs in the basketball Hall Of Fame as he was a local basketball broadcast pioneer (he also did a few Orioles games in 1969). Does anyone remember that our old friend Johnny Dark was the PA announcer at Baltimore's Civic Center for the Bullets games? Rusty Gibson (8/16/10) "Don't Michael Wilbon and Mike Wise still write for the Post?" Yes, unless they've both had transgender surgery recently. For a while, the Sports Junkies would bash the sports section's female columnists with a specific tone they didn't use for the male ones - it implies that they regarded females as hormonally unable to understand sports, or that the writers were interlopers in an all-male domain. Not surprising, since these guys once fretted that Annika Sorenstam competing in men's tournaments would "emasculate" the men whose scores were worse than hers. (8/16/10) Good summer reading: Derek Brown and his hidden gem, the rumor du jour about Hillary and Joe, and Harry Shearer's documentary about New Orleans and Katrina, "The Big Uneasy." All here: www.nysocialdiary.com... Regards, Carol (8/16/10) CBS’ “Gus Johnson” alive and well: The posthumous induction of Bullets basketball great Gus Johnson into the Hall of Fame over the weekend sparked a bit of confusion leading some to believe that CBS Sports broadcaster “Gus Johnson” had died. The Bullets “Gus Johnson” became a legend in his native hometown of Akron, OH after an exciting NBA career, and died in 1987 of an inoperable brain tumor. On the night of his induction, Akron’s own LeBron James sent out a Tweet to congratulate his fellow hometown basketball legend, along with another that said: “RIP Gus Johnson”. Unsurprisingly, some saw the latter tweet without seeing the former and assumed that James was breaking the news that CBS broadcaster Gus Johnson had died. Gus Johnson the broadcaster once served as the weekend sports anchor at WTTG-Channel 5 in DC, and is alive and well. lalate.com... (8/16/10) Not local, but interesting another news-talker adds FM. Has become a national trend - "Well we here at WSB have heard you and we are making it easier for you to get News, Weather and Traffic on AM750 an now on 95.5FM too! That's right, beginning at Noon today News-Talk WSB will be broadcast not only on AM750 but now on 95.5FM too!" (8/16/10) Dave's response: Well, it's happened in Atlanta. When's Citadel gonna finally give WMAL an FMer, a la 105.9? Hmmmm. Old 630 would see its ratings instantly jump by 30 percent..... Rob Dibble should be ashamed of himself for apologizing for his comments on chatty women. (8/16/10) DBC’s WSTW HD-2 in Wilmington, Del. is being honored by the NAB: www.nab.org (8/16/10) Sorry for the delay... The CSN coverage of the Redskins was brutal. I have never seen an extra point shot from a hi game camera and several times the camera ops lost the action in play action. This is why NFL is on networks. Also being the exclusive HD home is nothing to be proud of in this era. You have the rights and it is 2010 and HD is a must. Additionally the Ravens feed @ Fed ex is in HD too so I guess CSN is not HD exclusive. (8/16/10) re: "Dave: HELP!!!" - back to the group home for you, Sir! (8/16/10) That picture of the Channel 4 news team from 1975-6 is great. It looks to me like Paul Anthony is giving Marjorie Margolies the visual once-over; one has to admit she looks pretty darn good in that photo, and also looks like half the girls I knew in college back then (and I'm a Penn grad, too). I bet back then she never thought that she would become a former president's machatenista (accent on the 3rd syllable; you can look it up). As there was no picture of her at the recent wedding in NYS, this will have to do. (It's Monday; we need a little humor at the beginning of the week.) -- Carl in Olney (8/16/10) Comcast/Verizon....two terrible companies. I can give you many horror stories about both. My daughter is giving up. She told me she is going to try to go without any home internet service and tether her computer to her phone. She has Sprint which supposedly has a better network than Verizon wl or AT&T. I'll be watching to see how it goes for her. (8/16/10) (But I guess Tracee Hamilton and Sally Jenkins just continue the tradition of columnists like Shirley Povich.) Not exactly sure what you mean – since Shirley was male! (Shirley Lewis Povich- inducted into the Baseball Hall Of Fame as well as the National Sportswriters Hall Of Fame and father of Maury.) (8/16/10) Snip.What I’d really like him to address is why every sports columnist for the Post is now a woman, except for Tom Boswell. But I guess Tracee Hamilton and Sally Jenkins just continue the tradition of columnists like Shirley Povich. Snip. Don't Michael Wilbon and Mike Wise still write for the Post? At least last week they were, and last week I believe they were both still men. (Shawn in DC) (8/16/10) "Dave, is ESPN 980 still contractually obligated to carry Mike and Mike since the new show "Monday Morning Quarterback" with Andy Pollin and Kevin Sheehan will be on 7-10 AM during the preseason and 6-9 AM during the regular season?". I think they're required to carry M&M most of the time, with the option of preempting it for Redskins related programming on Mondays (or Tuesday when they play on MNF) during football season and coverage of huge local stories such as Strasburg's debut with the Nats two months ago. But what about Joe Theismann in the 8-10 AM (Monday) timeslot - has Red Zebra decided not to renew the show he hosted last year? A three hour special to dissect an exhibition game played three days earlier seems like one of those 'only in Washington' type deals - I'd be surprised if you could find similar overkill in more than two or three other markets in the country. On the TV side, Channel 9's SportsPlus following the 11 PM news is definitely not worth staying up for on Sundays. Last night, Dave Owens' entire highlight package for the final round of the PGA championship seemed to consist of two or three shots by Tiger Woods, one by the winner of the tournament (Martin Kaymer), then a brief soundbyte from Woods. Hello - Woods wasn't in contention at any time during the day and they completely buried the lead of Dustin Johnson getting a two stroke penalty on the final hole for grounding his golf club on a hazard (thereby taking himself out of the final playoff). While Owens would probably defend the coverage by saying that Tiger's the guy everyone's interested in, it's disrespectful to the golfers actually competing for the title to assume that he's always the story regardless of where he stands on the scoreboard. At least Jill Sorenson got it right on Comcast SportsNet this morning, focusing on the players actually in contention down the stretch as opposed to someone who never had a chance. Along those lines, Al Galdi deserves criticism for PGA 'updates' on WTEM last Friday where all he mentioned was how many strokes Woods and Phil Mickelson trailed by while neglecting to inform his listeners who was leading the tournament. Mike, Fairfax (8/16/10) "What I’d really like (the Ombudsman) to address is why every sports columnist for the Post is now a woman, except for Tom Boswell." That would be news to the Mikes (Wilbon and Wise) unless they had transgender surgery recently. The Sports Junkies used to be a lot harsher in their criticisms of the female columnists, at times coming close to suggesting that females don't understand sports. No surprise, since these were the same guys who claimed that Annika Sorenstam competing in men's tournaments would "emasculate" the male golfers whose scores were worse than hers. (8/16/10) Get a bunch of women together and they are going to yap about anything and everything… it’s the henhouse effect! Who’s to say if they were yapping about a sale or not… it’s totally possible. You get a bunch of men together and all conversation centers on sports, food, farts, boobs and beer… if we even have a conversation lasting more than a minute. Lighten up people. Things are the way they are and we ARE allowed to comment as we see fit! I don’t see much feedback from all the man bashing that occurs on “The View” or “Oprah”. It’s all just reality… deal with it! (8/16/10) Last week I got the pleasure to take my cable modem which died into the office. The nice lady behind the counter gave me a new one. I didn't notice until I got home that she gave me the same a/c adapter back which was the thing that was dead. I wish I could get something other than this service but I'm too far away from a CO for DSL and there isn't any other option in my neck of the woods. Luckily, I had another a/c adapter in the house that fit and was the same voltage. I then had to spend an hour on hold waiting for them to 'hit' my modem so that I could get service. We've been trained to just take it. I admit it's a choice, but damn! (8/16/10) Leave it up to Comcast(or as I call it CrapCast) to rip people off just like Verizon.....it's one of the reasons why my girlfriend and I have DirecTV. (8/16/10) Comcrap has me my the cajones. ATT U-Verse is still not available in my neighborhood and since I'm unemployed I'm not gonna be able to switch to DirecTV. I'm stuck paying $121.45/month for Internet and cable. Most of the digital channels are stations I don't watch. I got the bare bones digital package because they don't let you subscribe to cable without subscribing to a digital package unless you get the bare-bone basic line-up. (8/16/10) Worse yet ... much like the credit card companies call people who pay "deadbeats" ... these racketeers sign up lots of $29.95 a month newbies, many of whom NEVER pay. A friend of mine used to work disconnect for Comcast ... he described the number of these people with $200 unpaid bills as "laughable." Ha, ha, ha, ha ... unless you're paying full price. DirecTV is no better. They just have their blood money deal with the NFL that basically holds football fans at gunpoint. Hello ... anyone at the FCC awake? Hurry that Comcast/NBC merger through ... why don't ya. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ (8/16/10) (RE today's Rant:) We have the Comcast triple play and our bill is about 240.00 a month. I would change but there is nothing else... (8/16/10) (RE today's Rant:) thats why you do what I did, and on the 6th month call them and say unless they renew the subscription price, i'm switching to FIOS. .. after enough sentences and depending on how "nice" yet adamant you sound, they'll buckle in. And if not lol just cancel for a couple weeks and then go back as a 'new customer'. (8/16/10) I was watching channel 9 news this morning and Brett Haber was doing the news with Andrea. Is he moving to mornings or what? Thanks, Paul (8/16/10) Dave, is ESPN 980 still contractually obligated to carry Mike and Mike since the new show "Monday Morning Quarterback" with Andy Pollin and Kevin Sheehan will be on 7-10 AM during the preseason and 6-9 AM during the regular season? Thanks! (8/16/10) Dave: HELP!!! Ok, let's get this straight. Besides Galdi's meaningless, sloppy taped updates, why do we have to be subjected to hearing every talent on the 980 payroll during a heavily sponsored show. If I bought ad-time on 980, I'd want a refund. This Monday morning show is worse than M&M!!! The only credible voice was Sonny Jurgensen. Who wants to hear from Czaban or Doc..let alone the want-a-be Coach Sheehan? We're going to hear all of these guys say the same thing during the day to fill time anyway. Snyder needs to sell now. (8/16/10) Guess they didn't ask about radio - www.gallup.com - In U.S., Confidence in Newspapers, TV News Remains a Rarity... (8/16/10) ("It seems as if the role of the Post’s Ombudsman is that of apologist for poor journalism, bad judgment by top management, and a long standing political bias. Since the problems continually repeat themselves, it’s hard to take anything the Ombudsman says seriously.") Amen, brother. Every week the Ombudsman accepts at face value the same lame “explanations” (read excuses) offered up by some Postie editor or other on why something was or wasn’t covered. What I’d really like him to address is why every sports columnist for the Post is now a woman, except for Tom Boswell. But I guess Tracee Hamilton and Sally Jenkins just continue the tradition of columnists like Shirley Povich. (8/16/10) Funny, the Post doesnt usually have a problem going underground for a story. Their problem on the weekend wasn't a lack of reporters. It was that the story didn't their mantra on the liberal agenda. They weren't being sensitive to a story involving race. They were ignoring a story that didn't fit their vision of race. Had this been white youth brawling in suburbia, they would have covered it, and found some way to blame Bush, conservatives and big business, while getting a quote from Obama on his plan to quell white riot. (8/16/10) Regarding HD radio's "boom" by 2015: It IS funny that he thinks that smartphones will bring it about. Smartphones are why radio, and especially HD radio, are not going to make it. Wireless carriers aren't backing away from unlimited data plans because of Internet radio's use of bandwidth. It's mainly due to torrent downloading and uploading over wireless carriers--very convenient and easily improves a copyright infringer's anonymity--BUT a humongous bandwidth hog. If they are behind on bandwidth, they will catch up so users can get legal services like Pandora. That's where the future is and 4G will help that along. There isn't much return from building out networks with massive amounts of bandwidth for a relative few, and mostly illegal, file sharers. (8/16/10) Anybody interested in a nice record collection? 88-year-old Murray Gershenz has spent 72 years amassing a collection of 400,000 albums. He hoped a museum or college would acquire his rare discs, but so far, that hasn't worked out. If he can't find a new home for his collection, they might wind up in a Los Angeles area dumpster. www.latimes.com (8/16/10) Mr. Gibson , Mark Andes is playing bass with Ian McLaglen these days out of Austin. They've been coming through town about once a year with a gig at Jammin' Java in Vienna. Did you know that Mark Andes Dad, Keith Andes, was a Hollywood actor of many a B movie of the '50's. One of them actors you've seen a dozen times but never knew the name. I thought that Rick Roberts did a majority of the lead vocal work in Firefall. Always liked his voice back to the short stint with Flying Burrito Bros. and his solo albums. Kind of predictable southern California rock/country of the '70's but heck with a few beers I thought it was okay stuff. Sadly, due to illness Rick Roberts has not performed in years. Have the folks who run HFS2 considered airing Lil'Stevens Underground Garage show. It is a CBS syndicated show ain't it? I sure miss not being able to hear that show! (8/16/10) /\ August 16 Messages /\ \/ August 15 Messages \/ I used to have a regular radio feature on WBAI in the early 80s. I thought the political games and backbiting were bad in New York, but when I moved down here, I looked into the situation at WPFW and said, "No way would I get involved with that." - GAB in the Airless Cubicle (8/15/10) Not to nit-pick, Rusty, but that particular B&W photo of Channel 4 illustrates "The News Center" branding, not "NewsCenter 4". Look for the graphic along the middle left edge of the photo. On January 13th, 1975, "The News Center" premiered when WRC-TV shifted the airtime of NBC Nightly News to 7:00pm, giving them an uninterrupted hour of local origination at 6:00 pm each weeknight. (That occasion also marked the debut of Arch Campbell at Channel 4 as well as Kathy McCampbell, who would eventually become Mrs. Jim Vance.) Read about it here, and be sure to scroll down: DCMemories.com... Originally, Glenn Rinker co-anchored with Jim Vance at 6 and 11, but on September 22nd, 1975, Rinker moved to 11:00 pm to co-anchor with Fred Thomas. That's when Jackson Bain debuted in DC as Vance's co-anchor at 6:00 pm. (Bain came to town from Atlanta's WAGA-TV where he had started as their weatherman before sliding into their anchor's chair.) So, the photo you saw in the DCRTV Mailbag was taken between September 1975 and July 1976. WRC-TV's news programming was renamed "NewsCenter 4" in July of 1976 when their early evening weekday local news block expanded to two hours with Jim Vance soloing the 5:00 pm hour and Jackson Bain soloing the 6:00 hour in the beginning. (Glenn Rinker left the station for Miami in April 1976.) (8/15/10) It seems as if the role of the Post’s Ombudsman is that of apologist for poor journalism, bad judgment by top management, and a long standing political bias. Since the problems continually repeat themselves, it’s hard to take anything the Ombudsman says seriously. (8/15/10) Dave: I can't believe how much attention a simple "mis-print" in the WaPost has gotten regarding who was airing the Redskins!!! If you live in the area and a Redskins fan, you know CSN and Ch.4 always air the games. Anyway, I was in South Carolina and caught the Bills/Redskins game on Directv and excited about the fact the Redskins are simply a good team. What wasn't good was the CSN telecast. It's to the point where Theismann's become a "negative" to the show. At one point, he asked Kenny Albert about his thoughts on how the team is doing..say what? Joe is too busy trying to run the show that he's putting a pro like Kenny on the spot? A friend of mine listening to 980 in Fairfax told me the radio-call wasn't much better. (8/15/10) Yes, "Larry" did go by the name "Larry Burnett" while in "Firefall" (handled most of the lead vocals). Until it was mentioned here, I had no idea he was a member. Too bad drummer Michael Clarke (ex Byrds) is no longer with us. I once saw Bassist Mark Andes (ex Spirit & Jo Jo Gunne) while he was briefly with "Heart." It makes me wonder if there are other area radio folks that have been part of successful bands. And thanks Al for the Jackson Bain update. Rusty Gibson (8/15/10) Re: Jackson Bain for Rusty Gibson. He is a Senior Vice President for the National Association of Children's Hospitals. Al McGilvray (8/15/10) Did Larry Burkett go by the name of Larry Burnette when he was in Firefall? Does he participate in Firefall reunion tours? I believe Firefall recently played the Birchmere. Here's an idear, how about a DCRTV fundraiser at that long time bar(Lakeside Inn?) at South Lakes Village Shopping Center with Larry Burnette playing a few songs?. The Sunday edition of Washington Post seems pretty worthless these days with very little content. Seems like your dropping 2 bucks for them money saving coupons and Parade magazine, which ain't what it use to be neither. I think the Sunday WaPo early edition available on Saturdays is almost like stealing money. I'll go with Sunday New York Times a couple times a month instead even if it is 5 bucks, far superior to WaPo. (8/15/10) /\ August 15 Messages /\ \/ August 14 Messages \/ Re: "Loved the old "NewsCenter4" shot Dave!" and "Dave's response: Paul Anthony looks so intense, like he's gonna jump across the table and beat Dave Sheehan senseless at any moment. Ha ha ha....." What's Vance doing? Looks like he's tokin' on a little stone pipe. I still have several and plenty of screens :) Robert, Arlington (8/14/10) Newly published article on TBD.com citing Dave Hughes' comments on dcrtv.com news.suite101.com (8/14/10) Dave: I received this e-mail from orbitcast. Thought you'd be interested. You may post this to mailbag if you would like. Marshall - HD Radio to explode in growth by 2015, says firm - www.orbitcast.com (8/14/10) Dave's response: Funny..... Dave: Regarding your response to the Mailbag pic of the WCXR van (and banner), the jock's name is Larry BurNett. Larry's speciality show, The Blues Room, aired on Sunday night. Very cool guy. (8/14/10) For what it's worth, I also checked a variety of TV listing sources online from TV Guide to Zap2it, etc., and up to and including WTTG FOX 5's OWN WEBSITE itself and THEY ALL SAID WTTG FOX 5 was carrying the Redskins game, NOT the movie! How can that many sources get it wrong at the same time? It makes you wonder when a TV station itself doesn't know what it's broadcasting. My theory is that FOX 5 intended to buy the game from NFL Network or somebody, but it didn't work out at the last minute. But the bigger question is... Is Everett W. psychic? :-) (8/14/10) Dave's response: Comcast SportsNet is owned by Comcast and Comcast could really fuck with the NFL Network again if it wanted to. Ditto with WTTG on Comcast cable systems. Nobody wants to risk making big huge giant all-powerful Comcast angry at them, except Allbritton. Hell, I hear that if FCC head Julius Genachowski has another kid, he's naming him Brian Roberts Genachowski..... (RE the WCXR pic:) Was this "The Who" concert on July 6th,1989? (8/14/10) Dig the van. (8/14/10) Dave's response: One of the guys I run into a lot at South Lakes Village Center here in Reston is Larry Burkett, who did the Saturday night blues show on WCXR in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He's a local radio vet who dates back to the "top 40" days of Rockville's WINX. Larry was also in the band Firefall back in the late 1970s..... Loved the old "NewsCenter4" shot Dave! Please show others if you have them. Whatever became of Jackson Bain? Rusty Gibson (8/14/10) Dave's response: Lots more WRC-TV pics at the Jimm Vance Tribute Page at DCRTV Plus..... Dave, If you can excuse the self-promotion about self-promotion, might any of your readers care to see the story linked below on IBD.com in which your comments from your own site are noted in contrast to others? Many thanks! news.suite101.com (8/14/10) Now I could be mistaken about this, but I think that Comcast SportsNet claimed that they had the exclusive HD broadcast for the Skins/Bills game. When I switched to WRC ch.4 (though it was only via the pix-in-pix function on my TV) the picture seemed to be in SD. (8/14/10) I guess it is just for the advertising revenue, but isn't 4 hours for a pre-game show for a pre-season Redskins game a bit of overkill at WTEM? I know that Little Danny owns the station and he wants to hype his team as much as possible, but jeeze, what a waste of time! (8/14/10) Newly published article on TBD.com citing Dave Hughes' comments on dcrtv.com news.suite101.com (8/14/10) Speaking of Paul Anthony... How about this shot of WRC-TV's "The News Center" from the mid-70s? Paul is joined by Jim Vance, Jackson Bain, Marjorie Margolies and Dave "The Mouth" Sheehan. (8/14/10) Dave's response: Paul Anthony looks so intense, like he's gonna jump across the table and beat Dave Sheehan senseless at any moment. Ha ha ha..... W O W nice to see Kate Amara back in the anchor chair this morning on WBAL television. I do not miss the woman who always looks and sounds like she's got the flu. Kate is bright and great-looking, but (pssst!) I would suggest she not stick her chest out like that. Bad posture, and not flattering. (8/14/10) That error for the Redskins game was also on Zap2it.com as well. I was wondering how the heck the game could be on two stations at the same time? (especially not under the same ownership or same network) I don't think this time it was the WaPo's fault, it was the supplier of the information. My guess is that WaPo and Zap2it used the same supplier. Dave in Fredericksburg (8/14/10) Dave's response: Yeah, the error was on my Comcast on-screen cable listings, too. Still - if the Post runs mistaken information, even if it's supplied by a third party and not directly their "fault," it should still run a correction. But, you know, journalistic ethics just don't matter at the Post. Sigh..... That The EDGE 105.9 sure love the Led Zeppelin. How short a play list does that station have? How long does WTEM 980 have . Has the association with ESPN helped WTEM in the ratings? I sure would like to hear the Dan Patrick show but I assume that WJFK has say over the adding of Dan Patrick to it's schedule in the D.C. market. I'd really like to meet some of the morons who think Lavar Arrington is a decent radio host. But once again I find myself on the outside looking in with what apparently looks like the new WJFK, which I can't stand for most part, cleaning the clock of WTEM in the ratings. Say since lil' danny is supposedly less involved in the running of the day to day operations of the Redskins has he turned to WTEM to fill the void and is driving everybody over there nuts. lil' danny looked so cute during his interview during the REdskin game on Friday night. Was that one big sucking sound I heard coming from the direction of Joe Theisman. (8/14/10) This story from the Baltimore Sun caught my attention because of this quote... "(Andy) Harris received coaching from the National Republican Congressional Committee, the party's House scampaign arm". I kid you not. Typing error, Freudian slip, or deliberate? It happened, You make the call. Obviously, any spell checker would have caught that error. Funny thing is, it was not corrected for quite some time until before The Baltimore Sun archived the story and then deleted all the comments/complaints on the story like it never happened and of course mine as well, and yes there were many others, but The Sun just swept it under the rug like it never happened! People complain about The Washington Post and NY Times being liberal, but at least they have some dissenting opinions on their staff. The Post even endorsed Bob Ehrlich once! But, this silly stunt by this Sun writer is quite strange and shows what a complete joke the newspaper is. The writer and/or editorial staff or web guy should be fired, whoever is at fault. You don't even have to take Journalism 101 like I did or know the complexities of Microsoft WORD to know there's something fishy here. Any idiot knows typos like that can be caught easily by spell checkers automatically. It's as if The Baltimore Sun just doesn't care anymore and/or the The Sun's liberal bias is now out in the open. You make the call. The story is from Paul.West@BaltSun.com but the story has been officially clean roomed as you would expect in The Baltimore Sun archives now. Go figure. (8/14/10) The Cari and Rob Show is pleased to announce that starting September 7th the show will be carried live from 10 am – 1pm MT on 1230 KEXO Talk Radio (KEXO AM-1230) in Grand Junction, Colorado. Also on September 7th, the show will expand from two to three hours. 1230 KEXO Talk Radio is the latest addition to The Cari and Rob Show network that includes 55 Country (KRAI AM-550) – our flagship station in Craig, Colorado – and AM-920 KVEL News/Talk/Sports in Vernal, Utah. For more information about The Cari and Rob Show, please go to www.CariAndRob.info (8/14/10) Hi Dave, As much as you bitch about mistakes in the Washington Post, look at what they had on their sports newsletter e-mail today: Television Highlights NFL Preseason: Buffalo at Washington, 7:30, WRC-4, Comcast SportsNet Note that there is nothing about WTTG channel 5. Steve... Now if only Dave could have a mistake free web page! (8/14/10) Dave's response: I never said I never make mistakes. But little old DCRTV has got the big mistake-prone Washington Post's panties in a knot with all the scoops you find right here. I've always said that DCRTV is "news being made." It's not always pretty and, yeah, I do make some errors, but nobody, not even the Post, gives you a better, more complete look at local media news and commentary. I've never said that I'm a "journalist" like I assume the highly paid Mr. Farhi claims to be. Oh yeah, here's the Washington Post TV grid in Friday's Stale section (below). Yet another blunter by that pretentious "pillar of journalism." Ha ha ha. Oh, no Saturday page A2 correction for this blunder. Hmmm..... /\ August 14 Messages /\ \/ August 13 Messages \/ Unless Redskins uniforms somehow now resemble 'the office' wear of frazzled paper company workers, I don't believe Fox5 is showing their game. Enjoy Scranton, naysayers. Everett W. (8/13/10) Dave's response: My Comcast on-screen program guide also showed that 5 was going to carry the Redskins game, when it didn't. Anyone know what's up with that? One more on the Skins...CSN HD feed looks good. When I go over to regular CSN on Comcast out here in the SHen Valley, the picture is obviously too big for the screen - bodies cut off on the sideline shots, etc. Flip over to 29 out of Cville in low D for an affiliate feed - it looks like the game is being shot with vasoline on the lenses. Is there no real Low D feed available? (8/13/10) ATTENTION: ALL DCRTV WEB SITE VISITORS: If you were listening to DC's WOOK-FM/OK-100 during the Summer of 1977, you would have heard this song, which spoke directly to the hard times endured during the nationwide financial recession of that era. In my crazy, twisted, demented mind, I think that this song could be a hit all over again today, in this Great Recession of 2010. Click the following link and dig some REAL FUNKAAYY SH*T, dude, from the fabulous Johnny "Guitar" Watson: www.davidtate.net... Stay Tuned, parnelli dechucko, master radio moron (8/13/10) The movie Night at the Museum with Ben Stiller is on WTTG. No Skins game. (8/13/10) Redskins pregame on radio - so far so good. The beat reporter (Chris Russell?) sounds so much like Brett Haber - thought it was him until they ID'd him otherwise. (8/13/10) "Paul Anthony IS a marvelous talent." -Whereas Paul Bicknell IS NOT a marvelous talent. (8/13/10) Dave's response: Speaking of Pauls, Paul Farhi is a big fat [bleep]. Oh nevermind..... Chad Dukes has been on vacation all week... guessing that's why he's not doing the pregame show with LaVar today. ESPN980's programming has been VERY sloppy today. Lots of technical issues and dead air. (8/13/10) Dave's response: Well, Red Zebra's pretty much pink slipped most of the engineers and management at 980..... I get so confused; first Fred wants the government not to get between you and your doctor. OK, leave the people alone. Then Fred puts Fred Grandy between you and your doctor by criticizing people that want Viagra on their health insurance. First Chris Plante tells us Obama is a Muslim, then Chris tell us Obama spent 20 years in Reverend Wright’s church, and even had his daughters baptized there. Doesn't sound Muslim. Is he a Muslim or not, Chris? First, there is Mrs. Fred to tell us Obama was not born in this country. We are to believe her because she was once a reporter. Then Mrs. Fred asks a seismic geologist what time the aftershocks are coming, destroying her credibility as a reporter. First Hannity, and the whole WMAL crew slammed the Obama administration for “doing nothing” when the Gulf leak occurred. Now, Rush says today, "There was no reason for a panic in the Gulf" and he talked about natural microbes in the Gulf that eat oil. Did the Obama administration panic or “do nothing”? First, Chris and Fred talk a lot about Al Gore being charged with sexual assault. When the case is dropped because of credibility issues and lack of evidence she said he had, we hear nothing from Fred or Chris. OK, they complain about “the drive by media,” but they never finish the story themselves. WMAL gives me headaches. (8/13/10) Dave's response: Great minds think alike. I thought the same thing about Rush's grand hypocrisy. He originally slammed Obama for not reacting fast enough to this "terrible" oil spill, now Rush is slamming Obama for over-playing the environmental angles of the "not that bad" spill and coming down too hard on BP. You can't have it both ways, El Rushblow..... Everett W. is incorrect about the Redskins game. It will indeed be on BOTH WTTG 5 and WRC 4. However, it has nothing to do with ESPN since they have college football tonight. Per NFL rules and the contract with ESPN though, all teams' games shown on ESPN must be offered to a local broadcast partner. In the case of the Ravens, WJZ outbid WBAL for last night's ESPN game, so WBAL chose to only make a deal with the Ravens for the remaining 3 games. However, it would technically be possible for a game to be on multiple stations. Yes, last night's Ravens game could have been both 11 and 13, but 11 didn't buy the game from The Ravens. And yes, I checked thoroughly, BOTH WRC 4 and WTTG 5 are showing tonight's Skins game. WRC has a deal with The Redskins for all the pre-season games, but apparently greedy Dannyboy sold the 1st game TWICE! HAHA! So there will be THREE STATIONS showing terrible programming tonight in DC! LMAO (8/13/10) Dave's response: I think tonight's game is also being carried by the NFL Network, not ESPN. Hey, Channel 5 better not make Comcast mad by offering the NFL Network version of tonight's Redskins game that competes with Comcast SportsNet and soon to be Comcast-owned Channel 4. Comcast could play around with 5's signal some time down the road. Maybe a few key minutes of the 2011 season of "American Idol" could "go missing" in order to boost the ratings of a rival show on Comcast4. Hmmmm..... Paul Anthony IS a marvelous talent. (8/13/10) "106.7 The Fan will offer a pregame and postgame show called 'Washington Game Day Uncensored' with LaVar Arrington and Bill Rohland, with the hour before kickoff handled by the Sports Junkies." Interesting that Lavar's afternoon-drive partner Dukes is not teamed up with him for these broadcasts. Wonder why he was not included. (8/13/10) re: Mary Beth Marsden liking the job at WBAL. I was going to say the same thing. She's smart, she's fun, she sounds like she likes the job, her questions to guests don't sound scripted, her questions to guests are intelligent and thoughtful, and she obviously has a sense of humor. She gives me a reason to listen to 'BAL in the afternoon. I say 'sign her up,' although why she would want the job is beyond me, other than that it isn't Channel 2. (Come to think of it, what a great reason!). Bob A. in Pikesville, MD. (8/13/10) Channel 5 is absolutely NOT airing tonight's Redskins game nor is there a feed available from ESPN in any event. NBC4 and Comcast SportsNet will air tonight's and all other Redskins preseason games, the latter with HD exclusivity. Additionally, channel 50 will air next week's Redskins game through its newly announced affiliation with the Baltimore Ravens. DC50 will also air the other two remaining Ravens preseason games. Everett W. (8/13/10) Dave's response: According to the TV show grid in the print edition of today's Style section of the Washington Post, both 4 and 5 are showing the game. You mean the Post is wrong about something? How can that be? Hmmm..... Spooky Movie - The Washington DC International Horror Film Festival is giving away free tickets (while they last) to a screening of THE LAST EXORCISM, August 19 at 7:30 pm at Regal Gallery Place. Go to the following link and use code SME2 -www.gofobo.com (8/13/10) The only time I ever could tolerate Dr. Laura, was when she was posing nude for Bill Ballance. Ed Graham (8/13/10) Dave, I agree with your rant today concerning the lazy (incompetent, my word) editing of the current version of WaPo. There is a front page story concerning the revitalized Gallery Place/Chinatown neighborhood at the Verizon Center, provided by Abe Pollin's (sp?) $200+ million investment into the area. If you go to the jump to page A14 and read the caption of the picture it says, "The Seventh AVENUE corridor from Penn Quarter to Chinatown draws a diverse crowd." I would like to know where 7th Avenue is in DC! I'd guess that WaPo has gotten rid of the experienced copy editors who know basic facts about DC (particularly how the streets are named and numbered around the city) and imported recent J-school grads (read cheap) who have no knowledge or clue. (8/13/10) (SNIPPET): "I hope you're not confusing me with whoever has posted as your old moniker of "AHHHH"... You are a mentor to us. Just not on the radio side... Your legacy of posts have lead to our similiar (sic) posts. So, thank you, Paul for inspiring the rest of us..." Well, I think it's time to set some things straight. Are we to understand that "AHHHH" and "AHHHmen" are two different people? Well, you should also know that Paul is so disappointed by the derision that he no longer posts on this board. Contrary to what you may think, I am not Paul, nor am I a ghostwriter. I'm just a friend, sticking up for my buddy. I'm also one of many that he has taken under his wing and mentored-- not just in the "business", but in life. I would think that a person, like that, would be more respected and not have to deal with the "pot shots" that have been taken at him. I'm not sure where this disdain comes from. I've known Paul for over 36 years and, though he can be brutally honest, as far as I know, he has never made any comments or actions with the intent to hurt someone or assassinate their character. Unfortunately, some of these comments may have been taken too personally and it's resulted in an over-reactionary dialog-- perhaps, on both sides. I recommend that we all just wipe the slate clean and view the positive impact that Paul has had on the local market for almost 50 years. I agree with you. He is inspiring. OTT (8/13/10) Re: Steve Czaban getting a new morning show on Sporting News Radio - I believe WTNT (AM-570) airs a replay of Tony Kornheiser's program from 4-6 AM, so the addition of Czaban's show will create a five hour daily sports block on a station that carries mainly conservative political talk. Czaban being a relentless self-promoter, he'll no doubt lobby hard for ESPN 980 to eventually pick up his show but the big impediment is Red Zebra's agreement with ESPN Radio which apparently requires that Mike & Mike be aired in the 6-10 AM timeslot. Should Czaban's show be competitive with M&M in the ratings and there's a hue and cry to move it to 980 (with its superior reception), perhaps ESPN could be persuaded to accept a flip-flop where Greenberg and Golic end up on 570 - I don't know. One thing Czaban could definitely benefit from is a crash course on local sports history so his ignorance doesn't keep getting exposed. The other day on Sports Reporters, he was hosting with Thom Loverro and Steve Buckhantz and one of them brought up the name Bucky Harris in connection with a ring of honor type ceremony that the Nationals were holding that night, whereupon Czaban played a rather dismissive "I have no idea who that is" soundbyte (probably from the Simpsons TV show). For his information, Harris just happens to be the only manager ever to win a World Series with a Washington, DC baseball team. Bucky Harris, Ray Flaherty, Dick Motta, Joe Gibbs - that's it, that's the list (as Kornheiser would say) of managers/head coaches who've won pro titles in the four major sports here in Washington. What's disturbing is this tendency of certain sports radio hosts (mainly under 45) not only to be woefully uninformed regarding anything that happened before they started following sports but to almost suggest that you're a loser if you know or care a lot about that stuff. Czaban should consider himself privileged to be doing shows with the likes of Loverro (who's written books on DC and Baltimore sports history) as well as Buckhantz and Andy Pollin who also seem to have much more respect for the rich sports heritage of this town. Mike, Fairfax (8/13/10) Dr. Laura accuses Bernie Mac and Bill Cosby of using the “N word” because they are (were) “Black” comedians who had HBO Specials! She also minimized a callers concerns about her husband's friend making racial comments by complaining about Obama being President! Amazing that Dr. Laura scolded a caller, saying “And what I just heard from Jade is a lot of what I hear from black-think -- and it's really distressting [sic] and disturbing.” mediamatters.org. (8/13/10) I have to say, the morning show on Dubbya-Emmay-Yell was actually somewhat refreshing today without a whole program hour dedicated to Abe Simpson getting his ass chewed out by some cranky old shrew spouting a constant drone of nonsensical conspiracy theories! Kudos to the programming genius at WMAL who concocted the brilliant plan to convince Mr. and Mrs. Fred that 8/13 is "All-You-Can-Eat Wheatena and Pitted Prunes Day" at the Senior Center, and if they wanted good seats, they really needed to get in line last night! Maybe next Friday you can tell "Mr. and Mrs. Crypt-Keeper" that the Fort Totten Rexall will be holding a "two-for-the-price-of-one" sale on Depends -- but only if you get there between the hours of 8:00 and 9:00 AM, and present a valid AARP card! (8/13/10) Re: the post about Morris Jones, saw him on t.v. a couple of weeks ago while switching channels and WOW, talk about scary. He could easily be a substitute for Count Dracula..Did he have some sort of accident that injured his face and this was the best they could do?..I sure hope that was the reason because if not, whoever did his plastic surgery needs to be sued. They did a lousy job..He truly can't be pleased with the results..Also, has Steve Chenevey gone to part time status?..It appears that he's only on the morning news a couple days a week. What's up?..Anyone know? (8/13/10) Dave's response: I love Morris but there are too many old farts at TBD (including Wemple). They need to hire only really really hot young reporters, anchors, and managers in their 20s or maybe very early 30s - like Angie Goff and Tommy McFly..... Dear Paul, I hope you're not confusing me with whoever has posted as your old moniker of "AHHHH". That's someone else altogether. You are aware that there is more than one person that dislikes you in this forum, right? You crave that something positive be said about you? I'll step up. You are a mentor to us. Just not on the radio side. Your years of spiteful posts on here have shown us all that one can post endless negative posts about others (Still waiting for that Geronimo clock). You've shown us that we don't have to attach our names to these posts. Your legacy of posts have lead to our similiar posts. So, thank you, Paul for inspiring the rest of us to use the very same methodology, but using it against you. Better let you go for now; Your A-ha single is almost over. AHHHmen. (8/13/10) Wisdom Martin has been filling in on Fox 5 morning news this week. Great job Wisdom!! Hopefully Fox will use you more than some wannabe anchor/weatherman. (8/13/10) Dave's response: I've been starting to watch 5's 10 PM scarecast on a regular basis before bedtime and I think 5 has the best reporters and anchors in the DC market. Although I like Topper and Howie's weather on 9. Channel 7 is turning into the Leisure World of local TV news..... It's interesting to note that both NBC4 and FOX5 are broadcasting tonight's Redskin pre-season game. Why? We just need one station. Both are interrupting regularly scheduled programming. (8/13/10) Dave's response: I dunno. Channel 4/WRC is the official preseason game airer of Comcast SportsNet's coverage. Maybe 5's picking up a feed from ESPN? I hear that Channel 7/WTBD will be interrupting ABC programming tonight with a message telling viewers to tune to Channel 4 because it has better programing. It's part of Allbritton's new philosophy of actively promoting the competition..... TBD=The BIG Disaster. Enuff said. (8/13/10) Whoever heard of the most technologically advanced television station in the world not offering national or world news on its website? WJLA has taken a HUGE step backwards with their lunch of TBD (Too Bad & Dumb). Their website is a DISASTER. I can't believe they spent money and time on this project. Who cares what a bunch of bloggers are saying about restaurants? WE WANT NEWS! (8/13/10) I was disappointed with the 7 to 10 second delay on WBAL/WIYY's radio broadcast of the Ravens game. I like to listen while at the game and the delay was really a drag. Perhaps the fact that this was a national TV game for ESPN had something to do with it. I've been listening for years and there was never a delay. Also, Garceau is a better play-by-play man than Gerry. Go Ravens! Doug in Baltimore. (8/13/10) Dave, don't know if you carried this but it should be read by anyone who wants to understand a major, but not entire reason why radio people are getting the axe all over the country...this is a very important piece. Must Read. mediamatters.org (8/13/10) Dear Dave: I can't tell you how much wonderful feedback I've received on MOH #117. Your web site is visited by some pretty important and influential people in the media and government all over the country and I thank you and them for listening. Judy Garland and "The Wizard Of Oz" are American, no, worldwide, institutions and to hear her beautiful voice just one more time on that classic song has inspired so many people, myself included. I spent days working on cleaning-up that 1939 recording, because whoever transferred it to the digital domain introduced a lot of distortion. And, by the way, if you listen very carefully to the end of the broadcast, you'll notice that "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" goes from mono into stereo, very briefly and very subtly, as the song's final strains fade. I had to add that, because, of course, the motion picture goes from black-and-white to color. For your web site visitors who wish to download a copy of the broadcast for themselves, here is the correct URL: www.davidtate.net... Simply hover your mouse over the "Message Of Hope" logo and right-click, "Save As" (depending on your browser). My warmest regards to all of you in my hometown of Washington DC, from down here in Dallas, TX, where I know all too well, that, "there's no place like home". david tate (8/13/10) /\ August 13 Messages /\ \/ August 12 Messages \/ Lousy weather coverage on WTOP this afternoon. Who is Alex Legit? (8/12/10) Dave's response: Watched Topper and Devon on 9 in the 5 PM hour. Great coverage, but the strong storms weren't quite as strong as they were hyping when they rolled through Wild West Fairfax. Heavy rain and little else..... I know it's TBD TV now, but the ad in the Politico today still said News Channel 8. I guess it was old creative they did before the change originally. (8/12/10) Politico had a full page ad and then a 2 page spread today that was against the Comcast-NBC merger. The line at the bottom of the ads pointed out they were brought to you by News Channel 8. (8/12/10) Dave's response: You mean TBD-TV. Funny to watch the NC8 and WJLA brands being imploded by Allbritton. Wow..... Let's see, onetime traffic reporter is miserable hosting afternoon news block. Let's see, vacation relief & former longtime anchor Mary Beth Marsden sounds like she LIKES the job. Hmmm. Could this be an audition ? She sure sounds good ! (8/12/10) My bedroom TV (without a Comcast box) now gets Fox News Channel in HD, but yet not CNN or MSNBC. Is Comcast being "fair and balanced"? (8/12/10) Did somebody page Paul Anthony? They all call for Paul! (8/12/10) Hearing Bob Haynie has filled out employment paperwork at CBS, 105.7. Lots of rumors floating around about where he's going. Some folks are saying Damon is out and Haynie is in next to Viv. Jen Royle will sit across from Scott Garceau starting in September and Jeremy Conn will move back to his old seat in the producer's room but Conn will stay remain an active part of the show. (8/12/10) Funny that TBD is linking to other websites for stories. When it was WJLA.com, it's where I would get the real story about a news event in D.C. Channel 4's website is the tabloid crap for DC news, some punk a$$ wanna be kid in NYC making up stories for all of their local NBC websites. (8/12/10) "gay marriage" is "OK?" in Californina? Shep Smith must be Happy! (8/12/10) Per Dave..."Doug Kammerer from Channel 3/KYW in Philly" DAMN! I was really counting on it being the return of Barry Zevan The Weatherman (or at least Paul Anthony)! (8/12/10) I'm wondering if someone held up a cross to Morris Jones he'd hiss, bare his fangs and run away. WOW. What did he do to his face? And being on that ugly TBD news set isn't helping matters at all. Paul (8/12/10) Nine seems to be using Haber as a News 9 Anchor? Didn’t see this coming but with the Local Emmys (and no more blond streaks) under his belt why not? This guy can read!! All the best, T. Wafer, Arlington (8/12/10) Dave's response: And they're using Angie Goff to replace lights on their tower in northwest DC..... This morning's big storm on CSPAN... (8/12/10) Has a permanent replacement been named for Bob Ryan? many thanks. (8/12/10) Dave's response: Yes, Doug Kammerer from Channel 3/KYW in Philly. He grew up in Herndon. Don't know his start date at NBC4..... Does anyone know if the new NTDTV, 50.3, is available on Comcast cable? (8/12/10) Dave's response: It's not on my Comcast system in Reston..... 71 years ago today - www.davidtate.com (8/12/10) The following was forwarded to DCRTV..... Here is the deal: Ravens are contracted to air on 1500am or 1050am depending on the game: If they conflict with Nats or Caps (Nats or Caps would be on 1500) Ravens will be on 1050am.... So what we want from the Sports guys would be on Sat and Sun for a Sunday game when they mention Ravens play at 1p etc… just mention you can listen to the game on 1500am IF THE NATS PLAY AT THE SAME TIME – which is the case at the beginning on the season – mention that the game can be on 1050am. No need for call letters or the name Federal News Radio – just 1500am or 1050am... *And just to be clear on HD --- 1500am broadcast is always on the 107.7HD2 signal…. So if anyone ever calls or asks the newsroom – whatever is broadcast on 1500am is always broadcast on 107.7hd2 --- 1050 is not on any hd signals... (8/12/10) NOOOOO!!! Not Cathy!!! Who's next? Judge Parker?? Hagar??? - 'Cathy' creator to retire her famous creation.... By Courtney Crowder, Tribune reporter.... Aack! "Cathy," the comic strip that dealt with the trials and tribulations of a career-oriented woman looking for love, is coming to an end Oct. 3, and millions of women will have to find a new comic strip to send in care packages to their friends and daughters. The creator and longtime writer of the strip, Cathy Guisewite, 60, said on Wednesday that she is ending the strip because she wants to spend more time with her family. (8/12/10) Dave, any insight on what's going on with the WJFK vs. WTEM battle? Yeah, it's the summer, and you'd think the sports formatted stations would lose a lot of audience. But it looks like WJFK actually went up, and WTEM fell off the floor. It doesn't even look close in the Men 25-54 demo. (8/12/10) Dave's response: What do I know? Ha ha ha..... Regarding your commentary on HD radio. Maybe the suits are finally starting to realize that HD is a HUGE waste of money. Me I would cut my losses and farm it all out to special interest groups like the old SCA carriers of yesteryear. Being one of the first engineers in DC to install HD I knew it was a waste of time back then. We used to turn it off occasionally to do work or updates and if we got any calls it was only other engineers asking why we were down. Shoot we used to program the audio since the PD's couldn't be bothered. It was like having my own personal radio station. No one is listening. And now with the advent of all the smart phones and apps out there who needs it? I can listen to my S/XM or Pandora at any time anywhere with no interruptions. Shoot my almost 70 + year old parents can manage it why would they bother to install or buy a radio that kind of works when they can go to the local phone store and get one that plays it all. Come November 26 Verizon releases their version of G4 (LTE) with a whole new line of smart phones. Unless radio wises up and embraces this technology through better broad band audio they will go the way of record stores. So now what I have been preaching for the last two years is here. You heard it first here on DCRTV. (8/12/10) Dave's response: It wasn't my commentary, but I do agree with it..... Love the headline on wtop.com this morning....Storms catch region off guard. Yeah including WTOP.... considering I listen to them while getting ready and driving to the train station -- I just heard about some small storms in Mongtomery County -- no mention of them coming into DC or VA. So the train pulls out of Alexandria and it is PITCH BLACK outside and a torrential downpour by the time we pull into Crystal City. Thanks for the heads up WTOP...oh wait, you were caught off guard TOO!!!!!!!!!!! (8/12/10) Dave's response: Not a drop of rain here at the DCRTV World HQ in Wild West Fairfax this morning..... Greaseman "Highly Toxic" and "Radioactive"? Even after 12-1/2 years? Jesus people, that's almost an entire K-12 pass through a public school system! If you're looking to label Grease with anything accurate, he's approaching "nostalgia" status. When you consider he was the top dog in DC starting in the mid-1980s, that was 25 years ago. If you were a fan in college at age 21, you're entrenched in middle age now. Doug/Grease absolutely belongs on the air here, but if you tune in, it will now be to relive the fun days of Ronald Reagan, Live Aid, Max Headroom, Chernobyl, the A-Team and $5,000 DOS computers. (8/12/10) re: "WTOP "Super-Serves" DC." Well, this morning as they were breathlessly reporting on some fugitive in Atlanta, what about the friggin' massive rain storm that just rolled through DC and vicinity? I listened to the station up until 7am this morning and they only mentioned isolated showers. Hello? The storm ranged from south of DC to a little south of NYC. Sheesch. No doubt they believe their press... (8/12/10) (regarding a headline on the Newspage) "Big J'sm Blogger Slams WaPo's Farhi For Biased McKelway Story". The term 'Big J'sm' makes me think of a Peter North "money shot". (8/12/10) Dave's response: You know, there isn't a lot of difference these days between "journalism" and "jism." Ha ha ha..... Just when I thought it was safe to get back in the mailbag, some AHHHHsshole shows up. He hadn't reared his ugly head in almost a week. I had hoped he was gone-- or, at least, took a vacation from his obsession with PLB. Have you noticed that he only posts to bash PLB? It seems that no matter the thread, in AHHHH's mind, it all relates back to Paul, and any petty put-downs he can dream up in his narrow, little mind. How pathetic. (SNIPPET) "Wager on things such as if Davy dances on webcam to Phil Collins....Or if Davy scratches his old balls during a Til Tuesday song...Or what little ditty will be playing when Davy visits DCRTV during his shift. Great, great fun!" WOW! You really are obsessed, aren't you? By the way, AHHHH, according to the job requirements, from your 8/10 post, you appear to be well on your way to "being a successful Sports Talk host in this town". Congratulations. (8/12/10) Did anyone else catch the caller to the Chris Plante show, Wednesday around 11:00 AM, who commented on the poor state of public schools? He said his kids had “teachers that can’t comprise a sentence correctly.” Chris agreed that public schools teachers are weak. (8/12/10) Courtland Milloy's latest racist screed really takes the cupcake. He's apparently a big fan of the soft bigotry of low expectations: at least they weren't using knives or guns. Finally, the Post has, days later, mentioned the race of the brawlers. Since it wasn't mentioned originally, I simply imagined they were white. Courtland Milloy set me straight on that. The new Metro police policy (try typing that 3x fast) is the police officers, when available, will accompany miscreants home so they arrive safely, instead of simply arresting them. As to the DC police, here's a suggestion, Lady Lanier: how about the DC police in the Chinatown district spend less time hanging out in groups in restaurants and more time hanging out around the subway station? - ZombieWoof (8/12/10) If Citadel has “The Greaseman” doing any airshift in the D.C. cluster, they’ve got a death wish to end all death wishes. Yes, Doug is talented. And, Doug is very is very funny and creative. However, none of that matters. “Greaseman” is somewhere between “highly toxic” and”radioactive” in this market. (8/12/10) Isn't it ineradicably ironic and sad that Big Journalism blogger Robert Bluey blasted the Post's coverage of Doug McKelway's inappropriate use of WJLA's airwaves? This being the blog who's sister site, biggovernemnt.com got Shirley Sherrod fired by slicing and dicing the "facts" their way. Not that the Post's coverage was anything to write home about, mind you, but it's pretty sad when a partisan blog demands such high standards form one side of the political debate and is unwilling to hold themselves to that same standard. Frankly, they should just ignore what the Post is reporting like everyone else. It would save them the ebarssment of A. making themselves look like total hypocrites B. Admitting that they still care about what's written in the Washington Post. It took the Post about three weeks to get around to reporting this, and now Robert Bluey wants to defend McKelkway's reporting, because he thinks the Post, not ABC7 was being hard on him? Maybe it's a good sign that this blogger is still running his stories on "newspaper time." Mike Plumb (8/12/10) A while back, Paul Bicknell was bragging about the new morning person on WKHZ and how he was coming along. I'm surprised we haven't heard anything since then. With a small signal in a big market (And given the importance of morning drive time), I would think Paul would take the opportunity to update us on this. (8/12/10) (regarding a previous post) "I heard it at a dinner party full of federal workers who were all bragging about how much break or lunch time they took that week at work, each trying to outdo the other. One bragged about spending several hours at the gym, another shopping, another in the cafeteria, and one even bragged he took a 3 hour lunch/sex break! Since I was clearly outnumbered, I didn't say anything and just laughed". As a responsible citizen and, I assume, a U.S. taxpayer, this is something you should have reported to the agency or agencies involved, after obtaining as much information about these thefts as you could. Instead, you post about it on DCRTV, making a big joke out of it. I'm not sure who's worse: You, Rush or the employees! (8/12/10) Regarding, " MY VERIZON NIGHTMARE." Call 877-718-6716 for Verizon DSL internet tech support. Do listen closely to the options, but they should go a long way to correct your problems. BTW, I DON'T work for Verizon, but have had Verizon DSL of 11 years. (8/12/10) Not sure if you subscribe to this (Randall Bloomquist's News Talk Edge) newsletter, but this week, a consultant rejoiced WTOP while explaining how it manages to defy the shortcomings that many news/talk stations across the country have experienced with the advent of PPM. Below is the excerpt in question... [Jim] Taszarek [of sales consulting firm Taz Media] believes talk stations need to get back to the center of their communities by discussing the full range of life experience in their local listening areas. “We used to talk about everything from building a house to raising kids to community issues to politics -- when there was a big political issue. We also had lots of guests from the community. There was very good local news. And it was entertaining; the afternoon guy could do a great imitation of the mayor, or the well-known car dealer who is always on TV.” According to Taszarek, this approach offers the sales department powerful tools for direct selling. “When you do this kind of radio, your audience and your advertisers are the same people,” he says. “When your sales rep hands a card to a prospect, he wants to talk to you because of the station’s image and reputation.” Taszarek knows his prescription sounds a bit retro; but he emphasizes that radio must live in the present – and future. One example: He urges stations to make a serious effort to use social and mobile media to bolster their connection with the community and generate new revenues. One station that lives the Taszarek philosophy: Bonneville’s all-news WTOP/Washington. The station’s content super-serves the sprawling Washington region; it has developed numerous delivery conduits for its material; and local opinion leaders listen obsessively. In short, WTOP is a part of local life on par with Beltway gridlock and mediocre Redskins teams. So, it’s no surprise the station’s ratings and revenue have skyrocketed in PPM. (8/12/10) /\ August 12 Messages /\ \/ August 11 Messages \/ OMG, I believe I just witnessed the worst attempt at humor on television since the Pauly Shore Show. If Eric Wemple's Wemple's Wednesday on the new TBD is an indication of where their heads are at then they are in for some serious trouble. Poor Morris Jones looked like he was looking to bang the gong to relieve this moron from his pain. It was worse than an open mic night. Wemple is the perfect example of why parents should not lie to their children....NO, you CAN NOT do anything if you apply yourself. Some people are just not funny & he happens to be one of those people. Morris introduced him as an internet sensation & that's one of the problems with the internet, you can't always tell intent. I doubt the LOL's & LMAO's were actually doing either when they viewed your rants. I will leave you with a tip that your family and friends should have had the guts to do a long time ago...you are not funny, you never were funny & you will never be funny. Now go get someone to do your writing & do something about that tongue..maybe some tongue reduction surgery? Oh, and if I wanted someone to read me the Style section I'll call my grammy. (8/11/10) If I had to wait 3+ weeks to get my VERIZON internet back, I'd have canceled my FIOS or DSL internet service before the 1st week was up! Plus I'd demand a credit and/or not pay my final bill. I was close to dropping the F-bomb just after 3 DAYS! LOL I did learn a valuable lesson though about when you can't get a service call or phone or cable fixed. Attempt to cancel your service. The person who handles that usually will expedite stuff to save an account. That's also the only way you'll ever get a credit if your service is out for and extended period too. (8/11/10) Just a clarification – Ravens games will be on WTOP’s HD2 and HD3 signals, along with 1500 AM. 103.5 will NOT be broadcasting these games. I understand this isn’t your error, but we’re just trying to get the word out there. (8/11/10) A similar channel shakeup to the one in Luray has taken place on Comcast in Winchester. We actually got a postcard regarding the changes in June, but they were not implemented until today. I saw a newspaper ad last week noting when they would take place and Luray and figured out changes would occur at the same time. It’s a combination of moving some channels to digital only, swapping some channel locations so they are logical (for the first time we have MASN, MASN2, ESPN, ESPN2 and CSN all in row) and adding three more HD channels: Lifetime, Spike and Nick. It’s actually another step toward the World of More, but has been slowed because there is not a good DTA box available for Scientific Atlanta/Cisco yet. Charles in Winchester. (8/11/10) Comcast has shuffled the channel lineup in Luray. Both MASNs are next to each other in the line up now, MTV, BET, Comedy Central, CNN, and CSPAN, among many others, move also. WJZ, WTVR, WVIR have been put into the upper digital channels. I think we have lost a net of 8 or so channels. Interesting and annoying. (8/11/10) That was the Cerphe doing a promo for a show at State theater this Thursday, Thursday, THURSDAY at about 7:15 pm on The EDGE weren't it? So was listening to The Edge this afternoon, still too much hard rock for my taste, and the young lady currently handling afternoons says, at the conclusion of Led Zepplin song "I Can't Quit You, Baby", the only thing flowing down my leg today is sweat. Eff Cerphe I say keep this lady in the afternoon slot. But then next song was Leonard Skinnard and "Sweet Home Alabama" and I cringed, not again for gawd's sake! Few months back someone wise changed the ESPN 980 podcast delivery section I find it so ponderous to use that I hardly mess with it anymore. I mean almost as bad as websites that CBS Radio has. Come on CBS can't you make the Don Geronimo podcast downloads a little easier! And the WJFK The Fan 106.7 website is one big guacamole dip of a mess imo. No I don't want to spend 10 minutes waiting for the dern thing to load and then trying figure out how to get around the site..Well then, fine! Anyone heard anything on a possible return for Joey Reynolds to the airwaves in some fashion or its pretty much the end of the road and Joey is down in Florida talking to Bruce Williams these days? What's up tiger? the werdless (8/11/10) RE: Rush & the Federal union... The very first time I heard the phrase "Club Fed", it did not come from Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck or any righty talker. I heard it at a dinner party full of federal workers who were all bragging about how much break or lunch time they took that week at work, each trying to outdo the other. One bragged about spending several hours at the gym, another shopping, another in the cafeteria, and one even bragged he took a 3 hour lunch/sex break! Since I was clearly outnumbered, I didn't say anything and just laughed, but it really does describe how many federal government departments operate. In the private sector, there's competition for advancement and non-performers get ratted out or fired. In many federal departments, everyone gets a grade advancement regardless of job performance at certain intervals and the general sentiment is that nobody rats anybody out because it might hurt next year's department funding or their own perks and everyone benefits from that. So why bother rocking the boat? I'm sure there are some exceptions, but that seemed to be the attitude from workers at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the Social Security Administration. That's another reason I was never in favor of Obama's universal healthcare plan. Because it was going to be largely administered by those lazy asses, so there's almost no chance in hell of cost control. (8/11/10) MY VERIZON NIGHTMARE: That is why I just file a trouble report for the phone line. And in only three+ weeks, the line is checked out and reconnected to a different node somewhere by a very decent Verizon employee whose office is not an office. Any help received from the script readers at Verizon DSL wasn't worth the phone call or the online chat. (8/11/10) "Here are the sides we take on our Holly Bets" -NO ONE cares. Everyone hates you and your enabling wife. May I suggest you and the old ball and chain log on to KHZTV.com and place bets on every thing Davy "Legend in His Own Mind" Jones does. Wager on things such as if Davy dances on webcam to Phil Collins....Or if Davy scratches his old balls during a Til Tuesday song...Or what little ditty will be playing when Davy visits DCRTV during his shift. Great, great fun! AHHHH (8/11/10) Dave, why is Paul Farhi such an irresponsible tool? I don't get it. Keep up the good work. (8/11/10) Maybe I do have a gambling problem; Here are the sides we take on our Holly Bets; A) Educational Holly- Holly doing children’s education/projects.... B) The Kid in Holly- Holly going to amusement parks, circuses, museums, talking to actors, etc.... C) Holly in her element- Holly having tea at the Ritz, Holly doing something with the horse crowd in Middleburg, Tennis, (my personal favorite), etc.... D) Out and about Holly-Holly covering a new grocery store, nice little local pastry shop, etc.... E) Holly not in her element-Holly covering wooden ducks, climbing trees, or fly fishing, etc.... F) Holly on Self improvement-Holly exercising, learning how to change a car’s oil, Holly gardening, etc.... G) Seasonal Holly-Holly covering seasonal activities not necessarily geared for kids (bars to watch world cup, adult Christmas Concerts, etc).... How the game is played; Holly will never do the same category in consecutive days, unless she is up front and says something like “we will be at the Kennedy Center all week.” If you guess correctly which Holly we have that morning, before the 7:48 AM tease, you go on to the Super Secret Bonus Round. During her segment, if Holly mentions anything to do with drinking wine or Margaritas, you win The Super Secret Bonus Round as well! (there is only about three or four SSBR wins a year). My wife and I look forward to 7:40 AM every morning to start the game “What’s Holly up to Today?” You can try this game at home, as well. (8/11/10) [snip] It would only make sense for the Edge to bring on Greaseman. I know they've been planning on being music intensive, but music intensive just doesn't seem to work in the digital era. [end snip] One of the most ignorant posts to appear in the Mailbag in recent memory. Music-formatted stations that limit the yap and chatter outside of morning drive tend to garner better ratings in the PPM era. This was precisely the reason Grease was cut loose from his Jacksonville gig. J'ville becomes a PPM market later this year. (8/11/10) Dave: GrowthSpur (and I) are NOT being paid by TBD on any way, shape or form; in fact, we have zero financial relationship with them. We just happen to be partnering with some of the same blogs they're working with, and they promote as an ad solution to their blogs. But we are NOT being paid by them. Please correct. Thanks, Mark (8/11/10) Gov't Employees Union To Spend $200K To Counter Rush – you gotta love the Mensa giants in the union! If I were Rush, I’d wait a couple of weeks, go on another rant, and watch these dip-shits spend another $200K. (8/11/10) WVRX [K&M 19th], ok so you got your Mike O'Meara -- any more talent suggestions for DC? Like I said before it's time to start bringing in some fresh minds instead of rehashing the same old same old. Oh I know what the problem is...no Don. Hahaha right. Key to happiness is more music less talk. (8/11/10) MY VERIZON NIGHTMARE... Ok, so my internet has been buggy or down most of the last 3 days so I call 1-800-VERIZON, then immediately realize there is no option for phone or DSL tech support, ONLY FIOS TV/phone, so I talk to the FIOS person & he gives me another phone #. Guess where I end up again? FIOS tech support. That person gives me a completely different # & transfers me & guess where I end up again? Yep, you guessed it, FIOS tech support. Do you see where this is going? So 5 phone #s & transfers later, I finally get to DSL support which while on hold keeps telling me to go to a website to solve my DSL problem & I'm thinking why the hell is the DSL outage line telling people to get online? THAT'S WHY I'M CALLING DSL SUPPORT IN THE FIRST PLACE! If the DSL were working, I'd have done that you idiots! Finally a live person tells me there's a temporary outage in my area that should be fixed within 24 hours. I explain to him that while that might be true, my modem is broken & occasionally won't turn on or shuts off periodically & then won't turn back on. I ask for a new modem & give them the info on my modem. I'm told by DSL tech support that that is not the correct modem listed on my account & that therefor they cannot help me or send me a new modem. At this point, I'm close to foul language because I know the modem/router came directly from VERIZON. I ask for a manager & have to explain that I'd just changed my phone # recently & that's probably why the records are wrong & we continue to argue about it. At this point I'm pulling my hair out & slam my fist on the damn modem & it turns on. The manager FINALLY agrees to send me a new modem, but asks if I'm connected to the internet now that I've given the old modem a beat down. Lo & behold, I'm now connected to the internet. I then tell the manager there is also static on my line, could that be contributing to the problem? He says yes, that I should have my line tested for quality, he says he can't do that, he'll transfer me & he gives me another phone #. Yep you guessed it, I'm back at FIOS tech support & 2 more phone #s & transfers later back to FIOS tech support, I finally get to the line quality person who does not speak English & I'm wondering how my line could possibly be tested from India, but I believe he said my line is fine before I hung up on him. This whole process took hours over several days including the hold times & clearly the VERIZON person lied about the area DSL outage. Still waiting on the new modem and smacking the old one. Wonderful experience. It's amazing alone that the 1-800-VERIZON tech support menu does not include phone or DSL tech support options. Keep in mind, 1-800-VERIZON is exactly the # on my bill. Are they trying to send people a message or what? (8/11/10) I hate the new TBD site. WJLA.COM was much better. But I usually go to wtop.com or myfoxdc.com but had to go check it out but it fails in my book compared to wjla.com (8/11/10) You keep reporting WTOP won the ratings or that they "dominate." Are they really that far ahead of everybody else? Thanks, Dave. I love DCRTV. (8/11/10) Dave's response: Yes..... Sean Hannity actually let a rare moment of truth slip yesterday at 4:20. It happened while he was regurgitating his usual laundry list of attack lines against the so-called "Ground Zero Mosque" (That, for the record, isn't a Mosque and isn't at Ground Zero). When he finished his script, Sean said "It sounds so silly that you would think we have to be making this up - and we are" The he quickly corrected himself saying, "I mean we are NOT." Round these parts, we call that a "Freudian Slip" Sean. It happens when the faint vestigial remnant of your conscience gets fed up with all the lies you have been telling and overpowers your lizard brain in a gallant effort to set the record straight. (8/11/10) Since 1580AM has already been carrying the On hour Morning news from Washington Times Radio, Maybe 1580 will carry the complete Morning edition when its dropped by WTNT 570AM. John T. Henneman (8/11/10) Dave's response: I don't know if CBS's 1580 will drop Michael Smerconish, since he does his show from CBS's "The Big Talker" WPHT in Philly. It's kind of a company thing. Maybe WMAL could run the WashTimes morning show and put Grandy on the porch with Andy..... Dave, I take all the blame. I wrote a sympathetic on-line Comment to Mr. Farhi's article: (QUOTE): If you ask me, there is a simpler story possibly behind this. Mr. McKelway may be under a lot of stress at this time, and reported things in a way that the employers didn't like. By having him take time off, but not terminating his position, WJLA/NC8 is being possibly very helpful about whatever is bothering him (if anything is). It's a shame that it's in such a public business, where everyone knows who he is and notices he's missing. But I hope the Albritton family can let a couple of months go by, let him feel more comfortable about his work at WJLA/NC8, possibly have a more opinion-related reporting position there, and life goes back to normal.(THEN I WROTE:) I swear I first read about this on the dcrtv.com web site three weeks ago. I almost wish it didn't get beyond it to the Washington Post, but I know, news is news. (END QUOTE) I hope the last two lines didn't tick him off. FOR THE RECORD: Dave did not ask me to do that; and I tried to write it in as nice a way as possible. I apologize to everyone, and if I'm being a tad self-centered: I apologize for that, too. -- Carl in Olney (8/11/10) Dave's response: Farhi blows 3-ish hours most every Tuesday doing those censored "Pop Culture" Q&A sessions at wapo.com. A top topic yesterday? "Check engine" lights. Oookay..... (From DCRTV's Classified Ads:) TALK RADIO HOST AND SALESPERSON - WSVG RADIO. WSVG 790 AM, a talk radio station in Mount Jackson, VA, seeks entertaining talk radio host willing to sell his/her show in the Shenandoah Valley. Our 1K signal reaches both Winchester and Harrisonburg metros, with further clearance in Woodstock, Luray, Staunton and surrounding communities. We are old-fashioned small market radio just an hour + outside DC. This is a commission-only opportunity - aggressive commission paid immediately upon collection. Must be self-starter, with contemporary interests that appeal to P25-54 demo. Show concept must be entertaining and locally-oriented, serving the communities of the Shenandoah Valley. Applicants must be proficient at conducting interviews, gathering and editing audio, and producing a professional show with a major market sound. Those with new and different perspectives encouraged to apply. EOE. Email resumes and airchecks to: radioshen@gmail.com. (8/11/10) It would only make sense for the Edge to bring on Greaseman. I know they've been planning on being music intensive, but music intensive just doesn't seem to work in the digital era. If I want two in a row from George Thorogood, I can go to my ipod, youtube and a million other sources. It also doesn't seem to work well in the DC area, as you can tell by the ratings for stations like Fresh 94.7. (8/11/10) (DAVE) where's that squirrel to pluck out Paul's eyeballs? (ME) Here ya go. (8/11/10) From Current, the trade pub of public radio and TV - AM proves to be a hard sell, even for news radio Published in Current, Aug. 9, 2010 By Karen Everhart: In Columbus, Ohio, WOSU is moving its full-time news service back to 89.7 FM after a two-year trial on AM failed to attract pubradio news listeners. The station at Ohio State University hasn't given up on having separate channels for news and classical music, however. It's expanding on the FM dial with the $5.7 million purchase of a commercial station - adult alternative outlet WWCD, 101.1 MHz - to carry its classical service starting this fall. The other, more powerful FM signal - WOSU-FM, at 89.7 MHz - will switch from hybrid news/music to all-news. The AM station, which launched Ohio State's broadcast service in 1922, will simulcast the FM news service. Decisions about audience service priorities have never been easy for public radio stations that broadcast both news and music programming, but they're especially confounding for those with AM stations. AM's low audio fidelity and interference problems make the frequencies more suitable for news/talk than music, but listeners' habits of scanning the left end of the FM dial for public radio are so deeply ingrained that building a loyal audience on AM would be a Sisyphean labor. "It is a challenge to get public radio listeners to move to AM," confirmed Sean Nethery, programming v.p. for Colorado Public Radio, which invested in AM stations to create an all-news service in 2001 while dedicating its Denver FM channel to classical music. Seven years later, CPR bought another FM channel and performed a channel swap that put news back on its legacy channel, 90.1 FM. Classical moved to the new frequency, 88.1 FM. CPR was unable to sell its AM stations, which remain part of its news network. "It's true that AM compromises the ability of listeners to tune in," Nethery said. "The signal is not as strong as FM, and it's subject to interference." (8/11/10) Video alert: Just how f***ing lazy are we becoming as Americans that we now have a machine to play with our Slinky when we can't be bothered? makers.makezine.com (8/11/10) Patch in Baltimore: Hearing Catonsville, Towson and Perry Hall might be the first 3 to roll out in Baltimore in Early September. Hearing Patch in both Baltimore and DC has multiple former Baltimore Sun staffers. (8/11/10) Amazing that it took the Post only a week to do a story on Doug McKelway being ''suspended'' by WJLA. Personally, I LIKE the fact that ONE anchor actually has a opinion. Especially at 7. WJLA seems to enjoy wallowing in pretty, fluffy, empty headed female anchors. Especially at 5PM. Most unwatchable news. Paul (8/11/10) Dave's response: Hey, DCRTV broke the McKelway story almost THREE WEEKS before Paul Farhi reported it. And then in his piece yesterday he didn't even credit DCRTV for first reporting it. It's just the latest of many times that's happened. When Dan Snyder bought WTEM and when rumblings surfaced that CBS Radio wanted PGC's Donnie Simpson out, DCRTV broke the news and Farhi followed days or weeks later - often acting as if he broke the stories. Farhi is a perfect example of what's "wrong" with the Post, especially the lame Style section. I agree with Tony Kornheiser, who got burned by Farhi when co-hosting "Monday Night Football" - where's that squirrel to pluck out Paul's eyeballs! Ha ha ha..... Not a DC media story, but still pretty impressive. KTLA newsman Stan Chambers will announce Wednesday that he's retiring, leaving the station after 63 years. www.latimes.com (8/11/10) (news item) Steve Czaban's new national morning show for Sporting News Radio will air on WTNT 570 (end). So does this spell the end of the all-news morning program that WTNT rolled out awhile back? Or is Steve's new show going later in the morning? (8/11/10) Dave's response: You mean the Washington Times morning show? Stay tuned..... Will the Greaseman do his new show from his basement studio? - JBD (8/11/10) Dave's response: There's no new show - yet..... /\ August 11 Messages /\ \/ August 10 Messages \/ "BTW, I watched the Holly piece with my wife-every morning we take bets on what Holly is up to that day." -Sir, it would appear you have a gambling problem. (8/10/10) If Grease returns to DC on 105.9 The Edge, I will never listen to another radio station. I will glue my radio "dial" to 105.9!! Thanks Dave (8/10/10) Dave, During my drive home last Thursday through the rainstorm and DC’s gridlocked streets, WMAL had no break-ins to provide updates and continued to air Mark Levine’s syndicated show. It reminds me again of that emergency situation several years ago when there was that shooting at the police station in Fairfax County (Chantilly was it??) they didn’t break in for live coverage of that event- and roads were blocked off and schools were in lock-down. TV stations and WTOP radio had continuous coverage but WMAL didn’t want to interrupt Sean Hannity’s show. They now bill themselves as “live and local” maybe in the morning drive time- certainly not PM drive. Do you think this lack of coverage for a weather emergency is something that should be reported to the FCC as the station not living up to their responsibility inform the general public since they have a license to broadcast on the public airways? -John (8/10/10) Dave's response: Honestly, the FCC doesn't give a rat's ass whether a local radio station covers a weather emergency or not..... Dave, The new Steve Czaban morning show will air in DC on 570AM, also do not look for any sale of the station or major personnel moves - things are set at least for the rest of this year... washingtonexaminer.com... Cheers, Jim (8/10/10) I can understand someone like Howie slamming Nestor & WNST 1570 since Nestor has hounded Angelos for years, but to defend Peter Angelos in this MASN/Ravens thing is just plain crazy. Angelos has a proven track record of meddling into things that he knows virtually nothing about and being a control freak. And Ravens owner Steve Bischotti has a proven track record of not suffering fools and letting good people make decisions for him. I could easily see Angelos stubbornly demanding to meet directly with Bischotti or there's no MASN deal and Bischotti saying back WTF?! It's just classic Angelos, he's done the same thing in signing Orioles players, dealing with the Maryland Stadium Authority, backing out of buying Rosecroft Raceway, etc, etc, etc. A good example was when Angelos stepped on his GM and had dinner in Little Italy at Sabatinos with former Oriole Brady Anderson to personally strike a deal without his GM! He continually pulled stunts like this over the years. That's why it's been impossible for The Orioles to attract good management or players. The guy is a lifelong micro-manager, Bischotti is a lifelong delegator who picks good people to make good decisions for him. They are polar opposites as sports team owners. That's why Bischotti has a successful NFL team and people like Daniel Snyder and Peter Angelos have pathetic sports teams and probably always will. I've always said that The Orioles will never win as long as Angelos owns the team and I think many Redskins fans feel the same way about the Skins bleak future under Snyder. (8/10/10) Holly Morris was wearing shorts this morning while doing a piece on the Jersey Shore workout at a gym. At one point, Holly was jumping rope, and she was doing pretty darn well. Now, Fox 5 Morning News, that is what we want to see. Now, can you put Sarah in shorts and have her bouncing up and down doing a fluff news piece? Hey channel seven, can you send Allison to a gym fo a workout? BTW, I watched the Holly piece with my wife-every morning we take bets on what Holly is up to that day. (8/10/10) (From DCRTV's Classified Ads:) 30 year career IT professional is harking back to his high school days in radio, and would like a job that combines both IT and radio. I have both on-air and off-air experience, can board op, and have a short learning curve. Would prefer Baltimore region, but I'm willing to work in DC/VA/DE/PA. IT and radio resumes provided on request, please email pokerferret@yahoo.com. Thank you for your kind consideration. (8/10/10) WHUR scenario could happen......In Phladelphia at WDAS Michael Baisden's days apper to be numbered according to ALL RADIO NEWS....local Philly legends Carter and Sanborn are being heavily recruited to replace hiim due in part to a HUGE RESPONSE their"fill in" Baisden last month.where his ratings have taken a hit recently as well as in NYC. (8/10/10) Czaban announced his new Morning Show on the Sports Reporters with Steve Buckhantz. He confirmed that 980 would not carry his show but that he has a good feeling that something "will happen very soon". Buckhantz then asked if it was legally possible for him to do his morning show on another DC station while still doing the Sports Reporters. Czaban replied well sure...WITH THE RIGHT CIRCUMSTANCES.!!!! Dave, what do you think? (8/10/10) Dave's response: What, 106.7 would pink slip the Junks and put Czaban on mornings, while he's still doing the afternoon "The Sports Reporters" on 980? No way. Not unless CBS owned both stations, which might happen some day. See today's Rant on the Front Page..... Alexis Glick, the former Today Show, CNBC and Fox Business Network anchor, will hit the satellite radio airwaves this week when she guest hosts Pete Dominick’s daily show “Stand Up with Pete Dominick” on SIRIUS XM’s P.O.T.U.S. channel. P.O.T.U.S. (SIRIUS 110/XM channel 130) is SIRIUS XM’s non-partisan channel dedicated to the “Politics of the United States.” Glick gets behind the mic to riff on headlines of the day and take calls from around the country on Wednesday, August 11 and Thursday, August 12 from 3:00 – 6:00 pm ET. (8/10/10) Hey Dave, Not sure if you have reported on this, but Towson, Maryland's Thomas Roberts, formerly of CNN Headline News (now HLN) and Hampton Roads' WAVY-TV is now the afternoon anchor for MSNBC. Good to see him back on the air. -- Take Care and Have a Great Day, Tybois Uphold (8/10/10) I don't understand how Steve Czaban stays on the air at all, let alone gets some kind of network deal. The guy is unlistenable, chronically uninformed and doesn't let anybody else sitting at the console get a word in. He doesn't know anything about the topics he covers, wanders aimlessly down boring tangents, isn't funny....wait a minute, wait a minute---that's exactly the same description I'd give Grandpa Kornheiser! Maybe this is the secret to being a successful Sports Talk host in this town: be an ignorant, boring jackass! But if that theory were to hold true, Paul Bicknell would be on the air. And we all know that isn't the case. (8/10/10) “TBD.com, as expected, a piece of garbage. NOT easy to navigate. NOT user friendly. NOT interesting. Oh well, what a waste of time and money.” I can’t get the site to fully load and can’t get the 12:00 news to play online either. The old Channel 7 site was so much better, easier and more informative. This looks like a small neighborhood site - Martha (8/10/10) Regarding your rant, I would not want to see 106.7 as the sole local sports talker. It has clearly decided to aim for a younger demographic than 980 and it's shows are consistently inferior to 980's (except that the Thompson show is by far the worst local sports show on either station). Unless 106.7 changed their lineup to include the better (and more highly rated) shows on 980, I don't see it as a winner............... (8/10/10) Barbara Harrison is showing a hint of pancake tidday cleavage today....grrrrr...come here, Babs....hahahaha (8/10/10) (SNIPPET): "...the wiliding (sic) of young white males..." It's called BACKLASH. (8/10/10) Congrats and kudos to Steve Czaben. His "The First Team" was hands down the best of the morning sports talk shows. When it was pulled off WTEM for Dumb and Dumber it left a void. The Junkies do NOT fill that void, way too much post-adolescent shitck there. I really hope Czabe's new SNR show gets picked up right away on either WTEM or some other DC area outlet. It will be so great to be able to jump between Czabe for sports yack, and Mike O'Meara for general laughs. DC radio may be having a little up-tick, out of the land of suck. . .FINALLY! (8/10/10) Good morning Mr. Hughes! I wish to thank you in advance for your website and assistance regarding C-Span channel 23, which functions well on our TV sets except for one older TV set in our bedroom, which no longer receives channel 23 since I installed the box that Comcast gave me to receive many of the channels that this set was not able to receive! The new box was and is an interesting experiment in receiving quite a few more channels except the ONE CHANNEL 23, that I like to watch in the morning in this bedroom. However, since I installed the box which enlarged the number of channels received on this older set, CHANNEL 23 on this set is black and not available. I have called COMCAST, but the nice persons I speak to there, either do not understand the problem or are not able to present a solution! Help! I appreciate your time and look forward to your response. Thank you. Mick Miller (8/10/10) Dave's response: I just checked Comcast's Reston system and digital channel 23 - CSPAN - is coming though just fine on my boxes. Try this. Unplug the box that refuses to get 23, count to 10, and plug it back in. It'll take a few minutes to restart. And then check whether CSPAN is now viewable. If you're still having problems, Comcast should send out a tech to your home to see if there's something wrong with your box. Or it could be a problem with the signal level coming into your home, which the tech will also check..... How about this. ESPN is an ABC/Disney product. They put it on 630. Best AM signal in the market. Totally syndicated.....no cost. Save money immediately (stations that carry Rush have to pay cash in addition to the barter ads. And Rush is syndicated by Premiere, owned by Clear Channel. They could yank him and Hannity anytime they wanted to start up "Rush Radio" as they already have done in several markets). In addition to ESPN. 630 could carry play by play sports (that they get paid to clear). Follow the Money, Dave. (8/10/10) Your 980 Rant.......some of it makes sense. But buying an AM radio station in THIS market is crazy unless the price is incredibly cheap, and you plan to do paid brokered or ethnic programming. (8/10/10) Dave's response: As I said, it would make sense for CBS, since it could put ESPN's national sked on 980 like it does with 1300 in Baltimore. Plus, it could run the Nats on 980, and keep the 92.7 and 94.3 pairing for coverage into NVA and SMD. Then, CBS could relay the 1580 talk sked on 570. It would make a lot of sense. And since it makes a lot of sense, it probably won't happen. That's CBS for you..... "He's denied WNST Sportstalk 1570 a press pass before..." Actually, the Orioles denied NESTOR a press pass (and maybe Drew as well) because they weren't the station's Orioles reporter. They were told they would be given passes based on individual game requests. As far as the Ravens denying MASN reporters access, the cases aren't at all similar. MASN isn't using all of its programming time to bash the Ravens 24/7 (oops, I guess that's 11/5 based on the Hart Rd signal and NST's original programming) as Nestor and his cult did. MASN and the Ravens just agreed to disagree on a contract. Howie (8/10/10) Article about Doug McKelway in the Post this morning. Mentions Elliot interview: www.washingtonpost.com. Joshn EITMfans eitmfans.blogspot.com. (8/10/10) Dave's response: And Paul Farhi fails to credit DCRTV for breaking the story almost THREE WEEKS AGO! I guess he's mad at me for pointing out a few corrections for his Saturday TBD piece. Ha ha ha. Paul's the "Ted Baxter" of the Washington Post..... TBD.com, as expected, a piece of garbage. NOT easy to navigate. NOT user friendly. NOT interesting. Oh well, what a waste of time and money. Signed, "A Nation's Geek Journalistic Expert" (8/10/10) Dave's response: It is a "clean" site. But, at first glance, not a lot of news there. A couple of stories at the top of the page. Mostly ho hum. Allbritton spent a load of dough to hire a big and well-publicized staff for it and most of its links are to WTOP, the Post, or the Examiner. That screams: "We don't have anything!" What are all those TBD people doing? Washing Bill Lord's car? I entered my zip 20191 and got three oldish stories for "Fairfax County" that are the same today as they were yesterday. Yawn! A big step backward from the old wjla.com, which I thought was a good site. TBD needs to get an attitiude and a focus - and a "voice." And a new name. Still think "TBD" is dopey. Wemple's been promoted one notch beyond his deserved pay grade. Typical..... Now I'm sure that it is only a "coincidence" that within the last few days I have received 2 mailings from Virginia's 8th district Congressman Jim Moran. Both stated that this mailing was "Prepared, Published And Mailed At TAX PAYER EXPENCE "(I did add the emphasis). The first mailing was a very nice, and very well done, 8-page brochure about what he has accomplished in his last term. The next one was a postcard inviting my wife to a "Women's Issues Conference" featuring Maureen Bunyan (as the postcard says "Veteran broadcaster and leading news anchor for ABC 7/WJLA-TV"). So the question becomes is Bunyan shilling for Jim Moran or clueless? Is Maureen going to be paid to appear - and, if so, by whom?? (8/10/10) Good for the Washington Post for reporting on the brawl by 70 or so young white males (yet only 3 arrested?) the other day, as well as linking it to assaults a week or two ago at Chinatown Station, I hope Doctor Gridlock will cover the wiliding of young white males on the Redline south from Tenleytown when the school year starts, as it has been a long time irritation to this Tuskegee Airman (No, who am I kidding? But I believe the point has been made). -ZombieWoof (8/10/10) Hmmm ... How BADLY do I need that TV job? washingtondc.craigslist.org (8/10/10) Is this Will Thomas at the D.C. Housewives premiere party? (8/10/10) From ESPN 980's facebook page. Could this be the end of Mike and Mike on 980??? "Kudos to our buddy Steve Czaban...He's returning to network radio with a new morning show 6-9a (ET) weekdays for SPORTING NEWS RADIO later this month. CZABAN will be joined by co-host SCOTT LINN, Producer STEVE SOLOMON, and update anchor AL GALDI for the show. Could you hear this in DC? Certainly...and sooner than later. Keep it on ESPN980 and ESPN980.com for more details." www.facebook.com/espnradio980 (8/10/10) From ESPN 980: "Kudos to our buddy Steve Czaban...He's returning to network radio with a new morning show 6-9a (ET) weekdays for SPORTING NEWS RADIO later this month. CZABAN will be joined by co-host SCOTT LINN, Producer STEVE SOLOMON, and update anchor AL GALDI for the show. Could you hear this in DC? Certainly...and sooner than later. Keep it on ESPN980 and ESPN980.com for more details." (8/10/10) The following was forwarded to DCRTV..... Scottsdale, AZ, August 9, 2010. - Renowned sports personality Steve Czaban returns to network radio later this month when he joins Mission Media Group as the morning host for Sporting News Radio. The show will originate from Czabe’s hometown of Washington, D.C. Czaban is no stranger to network radio, having hosted syndicated programs for One on One Sports (predecessor to SNR) from 1994-1997 and for ESPN Radio in 2000. Most recently, he was the host of The Steve Czaban Show/First Team on Fox, which ran on Premiere Radio Network’s Fox Sports Radio from 2003-2009. Show regulars Scott Linn (Co-host), Steve “Solly” Solomon (Producer) and Al Galdi (Flash Anchor) also return to the new national program. “Czabe is one of the great talents in radio and his arrival is a reflection of Mission Media’s commitment to seek out unique and differentiated content for our affiliate partners. His combination of intelligence, character, and a wicked curiosity is unlike anything currently available in syndication,” said Clancy Woods, CEO of Mission Media. Czaban is currently the co-host of The Sports Reporters with Andy Pollin, which airs on Red Zebra Broadcasting’s WTEM 980 from 4-7PM weekdays in Washington, D.C. He also does a daily sports segment for the Bob & Brian show on WHQG in Milwaukee. He will continue to host these programs and his new show for Sporting News Radio will air from 6-9AM (EST) each weekday. "I appreciate the platform that SNR has given me to continue the show as it was always intended. Wide open, fun, ruthless, in-depth in content, superficial in manners. We are the show that takes sports seriously, not ourselves. The show for big boys is back!" said Czaban. Mission Media produces and distributes The Tim Brando Show, The 2 Live Stews, The Troy Aikman Show, Peter Gammons on Baseball and other sports content that reaches over three million people each week on a network of 175 terrestrial stations, Sirius Satellite Radio, and a number of digital and mobile partners. Sporting News Radio is produced under a licensing agreement with American City Business Journals. (8/10/10) /\ August 10 Messages /\ \/ August 9 Messages \/ Dave: While I was having lunch this afternoon in Baltimore, I met several people who were quite familiar with the MASN vs. Ravens deal and there really wasn't much said except; someone reminded our party that most of the people who run MASN are ex-Comcast Sportsnet people...what does that tell you? Second, you really cannot blame Peter Angelos for this... because his own people may have kept plenty of information from him and things finally caught-up with everyone involved. I think the Ravens should launch their own cable channel under their "Rave-TV" banner and kick-butt!!!! (8/9/10) When is Kenny King going to get Greaseman on afternoon drive on the Edge? (8/9/10) Nope, not interested. When I mentioned the "many" in this forum. I was not including me. My lady and me have been quite happy for many years. Now since you're so concerned you make the approach! Rusty (8/9/10) "WJLA took a decent website that was relatively easy to navigate, and turned it into an unusable mess. In this current state, they will not be one of my daily check sites. Yuck! " I can't agree more. I checked TBD for the first and probably the last time this morning. (8/9/10) Dave's response: Among 4, 5, 7, and 9's sites, JLA's was the best, IMHO. Nice design, lotsa news, and easy to navigate. Shame they had to blow it up. Memo to Allbritton - if it ain't broke, don't "fix" it. Me thinks Allbritton is more interested in winning the praise of the nation's geek journalistic "experts," and to hell with JLA.com's news audience. If Comcast is forced to sell WRC, ABC should buy it and be done with having the ABC TV network station here in Washington represented by TBD.com on the web..... This morning, Fred said that Mrs. Fred believes the Obama marriage is on the rocks. Mrs. Fred is certainly turning out to be quite the conspiracy theorist. Also, the Grandy misinformation group had on Betsy McCoy this morning to scare seniors about the future of Medicaid. They called her an “ObamaCare expert.” How can you be and “expert” when last year even Money magazine, (non political publication), said what you asserted to be in the healthcare bill was nonsense? As we all recall, Betsy McCoy made the rounds on Fox News and talk radio last year after coining the phrase “death panels.” Seriously, does Fred really think we are buying this crap? Does Fred think we cant look stuff up on the series of tubes known as the internets? Speaking of crap, Sean Hannity’s singing voice is just as bad as his political leanings. Silvie, I know you didn’t go to see Crowded House a few weeks ago, did you go to, or are you going to, one or more of Hannity's Freedom Concerts? (8/9/10) Re: " And if you're in need of a hug Miss Silvie, I'm sure there are many in this forum that would more than willing to accommodate you." Well, Rusty ... I'd say the ball is in your court. I'm sure if you post your email addy, stalker Silvie could contact you and you guys could hook up for that quickie smooch. Then you could fill us in on all of the sordid details while we each are guzzling a bottle of Pepto-Bismol. I'm not bs'ing you. Let your actions speak louder than your words. Let's see if you have the guts to do it. Go for it, Rusty. Whadda ya say? (8/9/10) I wonder, will MASN still be able to do a Ravens post-game show with the coach's press conference or will The Baltimore Ravens withhold a press pass for spite? If I were The Ravens I would say FU and deny them a press pass. Angelos has pulled far worse stunts over the years. He's denied WNST Sportstalk 1570 a press pass before and I even heard a story once that when the Orioles were fighting over parking rights while the Ravens stadium was being built, that Angelos personally yanked the Orioles season tickets from the director of the Maryland Stadium Authority just to make him come into his law office and grovel to get them back and get a better parking deal for the Orioles. True story. The man is ruthless and a spiteful bridge burner. That's why he's the king of sleazy asbestos lawsuits. In the short term, this really hurts the Ravens, but in the long term, let's face it... MASN and Angelos are hated in the Washington, DC market and now Ravens fans are going to hate MASN and have another reason to hate Angelos. (8/9/10) I am going through withdrawal with no MOS podcast or Mr. Tony in the same week. I sit at my desk at work in silence…OOBBEE (8/9/10) Paging all UMCP Alumni; It turns out that the Harden & Weaver 20th Anniversary aircheck being auctioned at eBay also contains an aircheck on the flip side of WMUC-FM from that same day, Friday, March 7th, 1980. Hard to believe 30 years have passed! See the explanation at the bottom of the description at: ebay.com (8/9/10) WJLA took a decent website that was relatively easy to navigate, and turned it into an unusable mess. In this current state, they will not be one of my daily check sites. Yuck! (8/9/10) RE: Michel Wright to WHUR. Maybe they're finally going to be replacing the entirely unlistenable Triscina Grey. Then again, how's this for a theory? It's generally agreed by those in the know that recently fired PD Dave Dickinson had nothing to do with the station's success. Glorified ops manager at best. The station's recent high ratings are the result of the Steve Harvey and Michael Baisden syndicated shows, neither of which Dickinson had anything to do with. Word on the street has former HUR PD, Hector Hannibal, returning to fill his old chair sometime soon. Now Michel Wright in the building? Could the station be losing one of its top ranked syndicated shows soon? If so, bringing back a real PD like Hannibal to oversee some new local programming with a new local show that pairs Wright with, say, Tony Richards isn't such a stretch of the imagination, is it? (8/9/10) Wonderful, The Hope Christian Church of Marlton, NJ is at it again. This time they want to increase power on one of their 98.3 FM translator near Edgemere, MD to 250 watts and are asking for a waiver to increase interference beyond allowable FCC levels to WIYY 97.9/ 98 ROCK. Please Hearst Broadcasting, file an objection to this and stop these lunatics who are polluting the FM dial in central Maryland from New Jersey... fcc.gov... By the way, Hope Christian Church is claiming the station will retransmit WNAV 1430, but I think that's a tease. The ultimate goal is to get all these translators interference waivers, so they can get away with rebroadcasting the church's station in southern NJ to all of Maryland by stringing all these stations out in a network. This is a deliberate attempt to skirt or evade FCC regulations on the FCC rule that translators cannot re-transmit a station from out of state or one that cannot be received at that location. I would bet the farm, the deal with WNAV is a temporary one until they can get this illegal network together and get all the FCC approvals. It's like smoke and mirrors. Please 98ROCK, STOP THEM! I can just see the problems now... I'll be out on the water in a boat and Christian music will be bleeding into Stone Temple Pilots. The waiver is based on no people living on the water. Well duh, guess how many boats are out there daily? There is just something intrinsically WRONG with what the FCC is allowing this church from NEW JERSEY to do here in MARYLAND and it should be STOPPED! If it was a church in Maryland, I'd be ok with part of what they're doing, but it's not and this interference waiver to 98ROCK should NOT be approved by the FCC. (8/9/10) How come Grandy can't just invite Anita Marks to stand at the urinal next to him next time he needs a boost ? I mean, not just any girl can piss as far as he can, so it should be exciting and it wouldn't take a pill at all. (8/9/10) Dave's response: I just wonder how many married men who are diagnosed with erectile dysfunction simply have become "unattracted" to their wives over the years. All it takes is a new young chickypoo - and not a blue pill..... Since my company did some construction work for one of Peter Angelos's law office locations (inside a steel workers hall I might add, so they could sign up drunken litigants during bull roasts basically), I definitely believe the WNST.net story about MASN and The Ravens even though no one actually went on the record for the story. I had similar trouble dealing with Angelos's people. Even after there was a signed contract that specifically stated the work to be done, right up to the day of construction, the Angelos people kept nickel and diming and trying to re-negotiate the terms to the point where when it was all said and done, my company barely made any money on the job and we were nervous there would be a lawsuit. There would always be a call from higher up demanding more out of the deal. In the end, my boss said "Let's just get this job done and get the hell out of here and never deal with these people ever again." While I was reading the WNST story regarding MASN & The Ravens, I kept thinking this is like deja vu! While Angelos was not directly involved in my negotiations with his firm, that is definitely an accurate description of how his people operate and it's totally believable to me that MASN operates that way too. And it also explains why the Orioles are such a poorly run organization. While Andy McPhail might have more autonomy than most previous GMs, I'd still bet the farm that Angelos constantly meddles to the detriment of the team. (8/9/10) Hey again Dave, From Scott Fybush's NERW post (fybush.com) from this morning: "WHGT (1590 Chambersburg) has been transmitting from a temporary site across the state line in Maryland ever since the former WCBG lost its old Chambersburg site to development. Now the station, licensed to the Emmanuel Baptist Temple in Hagerstown, has filed for a license to cover its new 15 kW day/58 watts night facility, licensed to Maugansville, Maryland." He even gave you (as you say) a tip of the ol' rabbit ears in the post as well. :) -- Take Care and Have a Great Day, Tybois Uphold (8/9/10) "So try not to breathe much nor run around too much." Quote from Bob Ryan's blog on the new TBD.com. (8/9/10) Dave's response: Allbritton's paying Bob Ryan big bucks, so he better be funny..... After seeing on the DCRTV's front-page that TBD.com had launched I visited the weather portion of the site. The following is attributed to Bob Ryan concerning today's weather. ". . . in addition to the heat, the air is stagnant and the reason for poor air quality in the days ahead. So try not to breathe much nor run around too much." Now, because I tend to be a bit lazy (just ask my wife) I will heed the warning about running around too much, but breathing may be a different matter. (8/9/10) I agree with the post about NBC4 weekend am sports recording. There is no reason that even before or after the sports package that the anchor cant say "also last night the Nats won (or lost)" as just an add on. No reason in the world. Thats just bad producing. (8/9/10) the Grandy rant was hysterical! I totally agree... (8/9/10) (clip) Fred's jealous of all us guys who still can use our penises for stuff other then peeing (end clip) AH HAHAHAHAHA! That's one of the best rant excerpts EVER in the history of DCRTV! It reminds me of the writing over at the gossip site IDontLikeYouInThatWay.com Oh man, I hurt now... (8/9/10) The acid test for TBD comes the first time we have a breaking news situation and how well they handle that. (8/9/10) ".....Hey Dave, As of Midnight, TBD.com launched. Doesn't look too bad, doesn't have any news for west of Loudoun County (Winchester, Hagerstown, etc), but hopefully they will get to that soon. -- Take Care and Have a Great Day, Tybois Uphold ..."..well you may not want to get up hop es up on that. One of my best friends works for WJLA and for years he has told me this "...ABC7& Newschannel 8 doesn't give a rats ass about anyone past Frederick & Leesburg..". Sadly some years back I ran into a, lets just say a very popular local DC anchor at the Charles Town Races & Slots. I asked "him" if his station would ever beef up coverage to that part of the region. His response? "..why the f*** should we?" (8/9/10) Dave, While I agree with your criticisms of Grandy, I'm leery of the "overall emotional wellbeing" argument. That sounds too much like a line a man would use on a woman when she won't sleep with him. (8/9/10) MASN and the Ravens fail to come to an agreement and WNST finds a source to blame it on Angelos. I don't know which in the bigger dog bites man story, that Angelos could be the problem or that Nestor's bunch would get someone to blame Angelos for the problem. Howie (8/9/10) Hey Dave, As of Midnight, TBD.com launched. Doesn't look too bad, doesn't have any news for west of Loudoun County (Winchester, Hagerstown, etc), but hopefully they will get to that soon. -- Take Care and Have a Great Day, Tybois Uphold (8/9/10) (94.7 WIAD HD2 "HFS" Free Form Weekend is incredible and a total eargasm delight. They're playing thousands of great tunes that haven't been heard for the past twenty years of the four dozen song playlist "Classic Rock" dreck. One wonders who is programming this outstanding radio and is hopeful that it will lead to somethibng...) His name is Jerry (8/9/10) WMDT TV 47 in Salisbury appears to have been off since sometime yesterday. I normally have a 95-100 signal, now nothing. Maybe they should have agree to put their signal on Dish Network. I'm sure the cable companies have no problem since they get a fiber feed. Maybe TV stations should give back their signals, or maybe the FCC should require the cable companies to pick the signal up off the air, like they used to do. (8/9/10) /\ August 9 Messages /\ Jump to the Mailbag Archive Index.....