Contents - Front Page - Mailbag - Current Rants - News - Daveland - Support DCRTV By Dave Hughes dcrtv@dcrtv.com Rants from April 2003 and May 2003..... 5/30 - With all this fuss about 106.7 doing an interview with Don Rumsfeld, 630 doesn't want us to forget that Chris Core nabbed the sec of defense for a detailed Q&A a while back..... WTNT ran a spot for Continental Jewelers at 5:38 this morning. It followed more than half a hour of dead air - complete silence. Yet another technical goof at the talk station. So there's a very good chance that nobody (but me) heard the Continental ad. As usual, Clear Channel is doing its very best to chase listeners (and sponsors) away from one of its stations. Go figure..... 5/29 - A few musings. Comcast is running a local spot proclaiming itself "Northern Virginia's cable company." Well, not if you're in McLean, Annandale, Centreville, Sterling, Fairfax, Falls Church, Tysons Corner, Ashburn, Oakton, Herndon, Springfield, Leesburg, Great Falls, Chantilly, Burke, Clifton, Lorton, or Vienna. But everywhere else - it's Comcastland! And how about those cool WTOP Fathers' Day spots touting shirts and caps featuring the all-news station's logo. Hell, I have a CNN cap but I'm too embarrassed to wear it in public. Speaking of TOP, it must be a slow news day. At the station's website this morning, the top news headline screamed: "Mulch May Kill Your Plants." By the way, station honcho Jim Farley was the guest on TOP's "Ask The..." show today. But the station didn't send a note to DCRTV to hype the appearance. I guess the TOPers didn't want some of the anti-TOP Mailbag "regulars" to call in. Probably a smart move. Oh, my DC Post today came with five (count 'em) identical Best Buy circulars. I must be a very important consumer..... 5/28 - Over Memorial Day weekend, ABC's NYC talk blowtorch WABC ran a flashback to its days as a killer "top 40" music outlet in the 1960s and 1970s. "Musicradio 77." That prompted me to visit a bunch of vintage "top 40" airchecks at reelradio.com from my days as a kid in the Philadelphia area. Back then, I listened to WFIL "Famous 56" and WIBG "Wibbage." And, according to my pre-teen memories, radio was never better. But - after listening to the airchecks of a very young George Michael and Joe Niagra and Dr. Donald D. Rose and "Brother Love," and many of the other great DJs of the time, and some of the great tunes of the day, I can honestly say that maybe, just maybe, my memories were a bit inflated. Maybe radio wasn't quite as great as I remembered it. You know, while some of the tunes back then still sound good today, many have, thankfully, been forgotten. Like Bread. The Monkees. Bobby Sherman. And The Cowsills. And radio was cluttered with much repetition and many tacky ads. And while some of the classic jingles were cool, they began to become quite annoying when played 20 or more times an hour. After an hour or two of listening to the sounds of my radio childhood, I started to develop a queasy feeling - like after eating too much ice cream. And then I came to the realization that today's radio really ain't so bad. Music in static-free FM. And stereo. Stations that play more than only the "top 40" tunes. Not quite so "tight" playlists. A greater variety of formats. Less repetition. Fewer jingles. DJs who don't talk over the first and last bits of the music. Less "noise" and clutter. I'm not saying that today's radio is perfect (far from it), but it's not all that awful, either. And I did learn something - the past isn't always as "good" as we remember it. We tend to remember the good stuff, and forget the not so good stuff. Like Dino, Desi & Billy..... 5/27 - Nice to hear Dave Burd doing Memorial Day duty on MAL's morning show. Memo to 630's "bird brains" - make him a permanent member of the weekday AM team. The "Dave & Andy Show" has a nice ring to it..... Man, it was boring on Sunday. More dark clouds and rain. For like the 20th day in a row. Flipped through the 500-ish channels on my Comcast digital cable system. Landed on Fox News. Another marathon session regarding the murder of Laci Peterson and "her unborn child Connor," interrupted by frequent "News Alerts" lauding "Team Bush." I continued flipping. And came upon a pay-per-view channel showing "Jackass." Oh what the hell. I ordered it. You know what? I actually enjoyed it. Really. It was damn funny. And significantly more thought provoking than what I'd just seen on Fox News. No smarmy news goons trying to affect my political consciousness. Just a bunch of mainly naked guys trying to shove firecrackers (and other stuff) up their asses. It heightened my spirit imagining that, instead of Johnny Knoxville and Steve-O, those "Jackass" guys were Shep Smith, Neil Cavuto, Roger Ailes, and Rupert Murdoch. When the movie ended, I turned off the TV and looked outside. The rain had stopped and a shaft of sunlight was streaming through a break in the clouds..... 5/25 - Each Saturday I listen to a show on a certain Baltimore AMer where some guy talks about all the latest hi-tech TV, radio, and audio stuff. And most of the time, the answers the host gives are right on the money. But on this past Saturday, a caller asked how he could get better FM reception. He wanted to be able to hear both smooth jazz stations - the one in DC (105.9) and the one in Philly (106.1). So, the host says something like how a good antenna will get improved reception of area FMers, etc. But then he goes on to say how, at night, you'll be able to get stations (I'm presuming FM) from places like Chicago. And how many FMers lower their "modulation" after sunset and how each city has a designated station that doesn't do that - and how it can be heard all over the place, like hundreds of miles away. Whoa! Now, there are rare conditions that can deliver very distant FM signals to your radio, but it's by no means a regular happening. I just scanned my FM dial and no WXRT or WFMT. Maybe I need a new antenna..... 5/23 - This ain't no recent rumor or nothing. But judging the performance of Charm City classic rocker WXFB/104.3 in the last few Arbitrends, now down to 16th place in the overall age 12+ demo, it seems increasingly likely (to me, anyway) that we'll soon be witnessing a flip to a rhythmic contemp sound, much like what's currently heard on DC's "Hot 99.5," a CC outlet like XFB. The recent demise of the urban format on Infinity's WXYV and the lack of a mainstream contemp format in Charm City (a la the old XYV at 102.7), just feeds my speculation. With WZBA going full bore as a classic rocker, which it pretty much is, anyway. Stay tuned..... 5/22 - Those guys at Clear Channel have come up with a new way to try to attract listeners to struggling talker WTNT. Run programming with extremely low audio. I tuned to "Coast To Coast" with George Noory at 1:35 on Thursday morning only to hear silence. No, wait, there was something there. If you cranked up the radio's volume, you could just make out some human talk at very very low volume. Unlistenable. So, I flipped over to my trusty Cleveland blowtorch to hear George. I then tuned back to WTNT at 2 AM only to hear the newscast at normal volume. But then when George's show resumed, it was back to the extremely low volume. This is about the 85th time in the past year that WTNT has screwed up the "CTC" show, forcing me to tune to another station. Often WTNT just runs long periods of dead air. Or sometimes the station's off the air. Or it'll be running two or three audio sources at the same time. Or the wrong feed - instead of "CTC," the station will run the non-broadcast portion of its news feed. Thankfully, the sci-fi-ish "CTC" is carried by about one-quarter of the stations coming through via nighttime AM coverage, so you can always find it from a station in Cleveland, or Charlotte, or Philadelphia. No wonder almost no one listens to WTNT. What's the point of having an automation system that rarely works properly? Amazing..... 5/21 - DCRTV makes it a policy to always (!) tell you where we got news from, if we got it from a newspaper, trade pub, or website. And we realize that other folks in the radio and TV trade pub industry often take stuff from DCRTV, give it a quicko rewrite job, and then run it on their site without any credit to DCRTV. For example, take this little blurb at Radio Business Report on Bill Press leaving WMAL: "More changes at WMAL-AM DC. Bill Press, the last liberal at the station/co-host of 'The Morning News' show, is resigning. His last day will be 5/23. Press reportedly wants to spend more time on his national TV efforts, such as co-hosting an MSNBC show. Press joined WMAL's morning show last year, after Tim Brant left. He is survived on the show by Andy Parks and Jane Norris." The item just happened to have the info in exactly the same order as DCRTV's 5/20 newsblurb and even used our cutsie "survived" comment at the end. Our advice to trade pubs who want to "borrow" (a polite term) our news without crediting us - at least do a better job when you rewrite it..... 5/20 - The trade pubs are reporting that Clear Channel's new Capitol Hill lobby dude Andy Levin says that his firm, which already owns more than 1000 radio stations nationwide (way more than anyone else), should be allowed to own up to 12 stations in major markets like NYC and DC. Right now, the FCC puts the limit at eight - which CC has hit in DC. CC owns DC101, WMZQ, WTEM, WWRC, WBIG, WIHT, WASH, and WTNT. And don't forget to throw in a bunch more CC stations in Baltimore, Frederick, Winchester, and on the Eastern Shore. While it is true that there are some 50-ish radio outlets in the DC market, many of them are dinky AMers that focus their signals on places like Brunswick, Dumfries, and Walkersville. In reality, DC has about 20 "major" stations - outlets that have substantial listenership. Now, if CC was allowed to own 12 of those, it would control more than 50 percent of the "real" radio stations in the market. To have one guy running more than half of the stations in a major market can't be a good thing - any which way you look at it. We here at DCRTV hope that the FCC isn't stupid enough to buy into this silly scenario of yet more corporate greed. Across the country, radio has already been sucked dry of its local flavor in favor of the bland corporate boredom of voice-tracking and satellite-fed cookie-cutterism. We strongly advise FCC head Michael Powell not to hammer yet another nail into the coffin of what was once a creative business..... 5/14 - Way to go WMAL! Jane Norris is now selling cat food..... "The Pulse," the Fox News magazine show on the Fox network, lost a good chunk of audience from the lead-in "Miss Dog Pageant" to finish behind CBS, NBC, ABC, and UPN in its 9 PM slot last Thursday. Speaking of Fox, boy it was sure fun to see Fox News gasbag Neil Cavuto go ballistic yesterday afternoon over "sanctimonious twit" and "pretentious charlatan" and "ass" Paul Krugman's column in Tuesday's NY Times. It takes one to know one..... 5/13 - Some ramblings from Main Street in Fairfax. Was that an ad for XM on JFK-FM this morning? If so, was it a change in policy for the Infinity station, which didn't allow ads from so-called competitive radio services? (I'm told not so, that 106.7's been running XM ads for a while.) And, was that an ad for the HFStival on JFK-FM this morning? If so, that's the first time that the Infinity station has been running ads for one of its sister stations. So, what, the tickets must not be selling well, huh? Hey, maybe JFK-FM should start running ads for Donnie Simpson's PGC-FM (sister station) show, as the "non n-word show alternative to Howard Stern." It seems that the "n-word" is becoming a daily required uttering on the ever gasping for "comedy" Stern's morning zoo. We've heard it now for the past four or five shows. And, how about JFK-FM afternoon duo Don and Mike's trip to Iceland, courtesy of Iceland Air. It's nice to see them working sponsorship shilling into their show. We hear that Infinity's trying to snag "Depends" adult diapers as a new sponsor and that Ron and Fez will be wearing them all next week on their evening show. And hyping the fact. Ah, it's fun to see JFK-FM scrambling for the ad bucks. Highly entertaining stuff. Really..... 5/12 - Christmas in May? FCC honcho Mike Powell (son of Colin) will give a big present to Rupert Murdoch for his solid support (that lovefest on Fox News) of President George W. Bush. The FCC is expected (any minute now) to raise ownership limits allowing single corporations (like Rupert's News Corp.) to own stations covering as much as 45 percent (up from 35 percent) of the US population. That'll be worth millions in added ad revenue for Rupert. In the area, Rupert already owns three TV stations - Channels 5 and 20 in DC, and Channel 24 in Baltimore. By the way, Rupert will receive another Bush blessing when he gets (almost certainly) approval to take over DirecTV, the USA's largest home satellite service..... 5/8 - We had a nasty boomer here in Wild West Fairfax at about 6:15 yesterday evening and the power only blinked once. Then, two hours later, long after the storm passed, the power conked out for 45 minutes. (Typical Dominion Virginia Power.) I had to get out the battery-powered Radio Shack B&W TV (with the 4-inch screen) to continue watching Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore scream "f*ck" at each other in "The Gin Game," via Channel 26. Yup, it was completely uncensored. It was so shocking to hear such foul words coming out of the mouths of "Rob and Laura." Maybe they should redub some of those old "Dick Van Dyke" shows with more "contemporary" language...... 5/6 - A letter to the FCC. The FM radio band here in Northern Virginia is already an overcrowded mess. I can't easily hear several full-powered Baltimore signals at my location in Wild West Fairfax because of stations on adjacent frequencies. The signal of WJFK on 106.7 crowds out Charm City's WWMX on 106.5, which delivers a good deal of wattage to Northern Virginia. WWMX booms in whenever WJFK goes off the air. The signal of WWZZ on 104.1 blocks out Baltimore's WXFB on 104.3, and likewise with the signal of WJZW on 105.9 and Charm City's WXYV 105.7. I also have problems with the short frequency spacing of WERQ on 92.3, WINC on 92.5, and WBZS on 92.7. And now I hear that there are plans to put Northern Virginia translators on 97.9 and 104.3 - right on top of two Baltimore signals. In the case of 97.9, rocker WIYY already sends a quite strong signal to Northern Virginia. A 97.9 translator for a West Virginia station, which is already receivable in much of western Fairfax County via its main signal at 97.5, would only create more crowding and interference on the FM band. And while WTOP is a great station, how many relays of it do we need? The folks in Leesburg can already receive it via Frederick's 820 AM, just across the Potomac, if they can't already get 107.7 and 1500 and wtopnews.com. DCRTV strongly advises the FCC to reject these requests for translators. Hey, I'm only 40-ish miles from Baltimore (as the crow flies) and I'd like to be able to listen to a few of that city's great FM stations - without having to move to Linthicum...... 5/1 - Is it too much to ask for a real news department at WMAL? On Thursday afternoon, old 630's been running an newsblurb about a "sex fest" at my Alma Mater, James Madison University. The MAL spot features a Virginia legislator who is downright pissed that the taxpayer funded school's providing a one-day event geared toward the promotion of "safe sex" on campus. And MAL lets us know his concerns. But where's the other side? Would it have been too much trouble for 630 to get someone from JMU to respond to the legislator's quite conservative comments. I guess that doesn't matter. Apparently, MAL's only concerned about playing to the "peanut gallery" of Rush's listeners..... 4/27 - Well, I finally did it. I now get all of the BBC's excellent news and music stations in hi-fi stereo in my home and office. I've visited London many times. And one of the fun things is to whip out the old radio and dig Radios 1 (pop), 2 (AC), 3 (classical), 4 (talk and news), 5 ("sport," not sports), and the World Service. Yeah, sure, I've always been able to hear the WS on shortwave. But it wasn't the same as "being there." Then came the internet. I could listen to the BBC on my computer. But the connection was sluggish and the sound, via computer speakers, was tinny. Now, I've made the upgrade. A while back I got the broadband connection. And I finally got around to figuring out how to connect the audio output from the computer to the stereo system (audio cable hell - where's that nasty hum coming from?). Now, via www.bbc.co.uk/radio I can get not only 1-5 and WS, but a whole batch of new digital stations from the "Beeb," including progressive rockish Radio 6. Listen to the BBC's radio services. They're commercial-free (thanks to the British taxpayers) and there's a slew of cool music and talk that you'll never hear via the airwaves on this side of the pond..... 4/24 - Fox 5 is the dung heap of DC television: "Michael Jackson's Private Home Movies" at 8 PM tonight (Thursday). Gather the kids around around the telly for this "sickfest" and make gnarled old Rupy even richer..... Rupert Murdoch's Fox network plans a reality show series to pick the new ruler of Iraq. "Appointed By America" will be conducted under the auspices of the Pentagon and end with a two-hour finale live from Baghdad when the new Iraqi president is sworn in. More here..... 4/23 - The trusty old electricity transformer got carted way on Wednesday. It had been there, behind what's now the "DCRTV World Headquarters," for more than 30 years. It survived many a thunderstorm. But each time the power would get interrupted, the old metalic gal would let out a deep groan, like a lovesick moose. You always could tell when the power went out just by the sound it made. But it's on its way to "transformer heaven." Probably some EPA certified scrapyard where the PCBs will get sucked out and carefully disposed of, with its iron casing transformed into who knows what - perhaps the joint of an artificial limb. Farewell old transformer. You done good..... 4/21 - Anyone catch that new Bill Maher show on HBO? It's really refreshing to watch some truly uncensored political talk on the tube these days. Imagine that - here in "wartime" America. And especially here in the DC market. Free of the iron fists of commercial ass-kissing and corporate political correctness. Free of Joe Allbritton's "ban" and Rupy Murdoch's unabashed "love" for "W"..... 4/17 - Want a good laugh? The Washington Times would have you believe that poor Fox (Rupert Murdoch) and Clear Channel are "limited" by the current FCC restrictions ("caps") on media ownership. Fox ONLY owns a major broadcast network, dozens of TV stations (including three in the DC/Baltimore area), a whole bunch of cable channels, newspapers, book publishers, movie studios, magazines, and is about to get its hands on the largest home satellite provider in the USA. And downtrodden Clear Channel has more than a thousand radio stations (including more than a dozen in the region), way more than anyone else. But just because both lean politically to the right (like the Times does), it would be just fine if each got even more control over YOUR airwaves. Here's how the Times puts it: "Fox, with its refreshing lack of a leftist bias, has been gobbling up market share from the big three networks and CNN. Clear Channel, which operates approximately 1,200 radio stations nationwide, has ruffled some 'mainstream' media feathers with the pro-war slant and conservative disposition of many of its on-air personalities. These two enterprises are big because they are popular; they are popular because they offer consumers the only major alternative programming to the dominant liberal media outlets. Despite growing demand for Fox and Clear Channel, current media-ownership rules stop them from expanding, thus limiting their voice." Limiting??? That's totally nuts. Yup. The good old American way. The powerful get even more powerful..... 4/16 - We're hearing more about that "Rock 'n Roll Heaven" mural that's now being displayed in the lobby of hot talk WJFK-FM in Fairfax. It was installed on Tuesday morning and, we're told, the artist's brother owns the building. Anyhow, the piece of classic rock artwork features Roger and Pete of The Who (still with us), but not Keith and John (both of whom have passed on). And there's Janis and Jimi and Frank (Zappa) and Bob (Marley) and Elvis. (All dead.) Plus a somewhat spaced-out Bob Dylan (still here), Jerry Garcia (gone), John Lennon (gone), Steven Tyler (here), Mick Jagger (here) and Keith Richards (?). Tina Turner, too. (She's still around.) And can't forget Jim Morrison and Roy Orbison. (Both dead.) Elvis Costello (still alive) is supposedly included, too. The station's lobby is open to the public during business hours. All are welcome to pop in for a look. Main Street in Fairfax..... 4/11 - Silly WMAL's been running a "news report" this afternoon in which some lady says that lots of money would be saved (police costs, etc.) if we just didn't have any anti-war demonstrations in DC. Hey, why not take it a step further and ban pro-war demos, too. And, hell, why not forbid all public expressions such as those costly civil rights and abortion (pro and con) marches. And why not just cancel that big 4th Of July party, too. Think of all the money we'd save in "port-a-potty" costs alone. What's even dumber than what that lady's saying is why WMAL feels it qualifies as "news" and feels so obligated to run it every half hour or so..... 4/7 - "It's 8:43." Heard that on WTOP this morning. Only it was 9:43. Sounds like someone didn't set their clock ahead..... In Monday's Mailbag, someone witnessed a meltdown at Baltimore adult rocker WZBA (100.7 FM). "Heard the automation EXPLODE on 'The Bay.' For a few hours it seemed that the entire automated system was playing EVERYTHING that was in the shared drive - songs, commercials, promos, sweepers, everything. Funniest thing that I had heard in a long time"..... 4/2 - A cool article on the lost art of shortwave radio is in 4/2's USA Today. Plus, the Sangean ATS-909 receiver that's featured is the same model that I use, although mine has the skin of Radio Shack's DX-398, which has excellent AM and FM reception, too..... All original material on this website is copyright by Dave Hughes/DCRTV.