Current Mailbag - Mailbag Archive Index - DCRTV Front Page - Support DCRTV DCRTV Mailbag - August 24 to August 29, 2008 Latest messages listed first..... \/ August 29 Messages \/ I think DCRTV should start a new feature...... THE CRINGE STATEMENT of THE DAY!........ I've been tough on MSNBC lately, but FOX News's Hannity & Colmes show wins today's award w/ Dr. James Dobson saying about McCain's VP Palin "I've not met her, but I wrote her a month ago about the little Downs' kid". I double-taked, then realized he actually said it, then wondered what he thought about the Obamas' "little darkie kids". And this man has a doctorate from WHERE??? He practically admitted with that statement that such a child is nothing but a political football for partisan nutjobs like him to toss around. How shameful and what a complete ignorant imbecile to say such a thing. Whatever college this man got a doctorate from should yank it ASAP to protect the college's DIGNITY and prevent further soiling! :-( (8/29/08) One thing I'm looking forward to is the season debut of Saturday Night Live on Sept 13. I can just see it now. Amy Poehler as Hillary Clinton and Tina Fey (love those trademark glasses) as Sarah Palin. I can just see those cat fights right up until election day. (8/29/08) Regarding Metro in Baltimore. With technology it would be easy and cost effective to run out of DC. All sales have been in DC and the GM runs both markets from DC and has for some time now. A warning to Metro employees, i have heard that cuts are coming in the next couple of weeks, so aircheck early and often. Har har har from the BOD Skycenter. (8/29/08) Will those Arrogant, Stuck-up, Out-of-touch, Liberal 'Pricks' (Mathews/Olberman/etc. @ MSNBC) even Care or Try to 'fairly' report the Republican National Convention 08 in Minnesota??? ...does not seem like it, and I get it coming from MSNBC... -what a shame :-( ~"kinky-neo-con" (8/29/08) Re: DCRTV Plus "A Channel 13/WJZ memory IDed as "Pop Lolly." Anybody know more?" That's Baltimore's Mr. Television, aka Royal Parker as "Mr. Poplolly." Gary Helton's excellent web site, CrabCityKidsTV.com has the full details. If you grew-up closer to our Nation's Capital, you may prefer entering the wayback machine known as KaptainKidshow.com (8/29/08) Laugh at THIS, Smilin' Bob... Steve Warshak, the founder of the company that makes the male enhancement pill Enzyte just pulled 25 years in the Big House and a $500 million fine. Besides hawking a pill that didn't (shall we say) do dick, Warshak was charged and convicted of money laundering, conspiracy and fraud. Details at ap.google.com... Thank God we'll never have to see those idiot TV commercials again. (8/29/08) Good job dave about talking 'politics' on DCRTV. But come on VP Sarah Palin is a MILF the more I Google her... Is it not "ironic" Lifetime TV showed 'Unfaithful' (with Diane Lane; the Ultimate MILF ;-) last night to 'prep us'? -LOL ...im just saying... ~"kinky-neo-con" (8/29/08) Re: "Actually, the McCain campaign played the Veep choice brilliantly." Except that the choice itself is so boneheaded. After weeks of claiming Obama doesn't have enough experience, McCain picks a veep with even less experience -- from a state with no political clout or electoral votes, who is under investigation in her own state, who disagrees with McCain on energy issues, and who is virtually unknown in the lower 48 states. Brilliant? More like the last gasp of a desperate man. And, in an honest effort to steer this back to local radio and TV: The Mike O'Meara Show SUCKS! (8/29/08) Actually, the McCain campaign played the Veep choice brilliantly. They leaked out word this morning that Romney wasn't going to get it and then that Pawlenty wasn't going to get it and then that Lieberman wasn't going to get it. So they had all the morning news show talking about who the Veep would be instead of talking about Obama's over the top extravaganza (Word is that Bono thought that stage was being built for U2). And the surprise of the choice ensures that it will be political topic number one for today and probably over the weekend as well. As for the choice, Palin has two years more executive experience than anyone else on either ticket. There's a reason senators historically do poorly in presidential elections and governors do well. (8/29/08) Dave's response: If McCain was 52 or 62 and not 72, I'd say that her pick as VP was brilliant. But at 72, there's gonna be a decent chance that she'll either become prez or have to serve as head of the country while he's having medical issues. People may find that they like her, but I think there's gonna be a lot of hesitancy among the so-called "swing" voters about voting for McCain with her on the ticket. Romney or Ridge - even Kay Bailey Hutchinson, if you want a woman - would have been better picks considering McCain's age. By the way, this my site and I can break the Mailbag rules and talk politics. So there..... To the talentless yokel who wrote: "Maybe the problem with WTOP is that they are mediocre and just don't realize it." I will convey the same message to you that Dean Wormer conveyed to John Blutarsky in "Animal House:" "Son... lazy, fat and stupid is no way to go through life!" It doesn't matter if you are making $100 million. If you can pick up another 5 by leaving the News format on the AM, leave it plugged in and take all the money! When a young sloth, not unlike yourself, made a similar comment to a long-forgotten but very talented Washington General Manager, she screamed, "And, how do you know that the money you left on the table won't be the money they use to beat us? To beat YOU? TAKE IT ALL, DAMN IT!" That was, precisely, my point. But, you sir, are apparently as dumb as a Metro Traffic Reporter! /s/The Entrepreneur (8/29/08) BIG NEWS the 13 Episode, Rome, Rise and Fall of An Empire airs at 10PM on History Channel tonight. The guys at Read Street Sound and Video, owned by Paul Bicknell and Jay Harrison were the VO casting company for this great series! This is a giant step for Read Street, it is airing nationally and internationally. Hope all enjoy. PLB (8/29/08) WOW! McCain just put a MILF on his ticket for '08 ;-) I am Conservative & Kinky and I am all about Sarah Palin ( I need to "refresh" my MILF book marks asap!) ~"kinky-neo-con" (8/29/08) To duckpin bowler: Yes, I would love the DVD. My secret e-mail address is edgraham1@gmail.com. Ed Graham (8/29/08) If WBAL TV is the news leader in Baltimore with “live local and latebreaking” coverage, then why did they not carry the McCain event today. WMAR was Baltimore’s only station that carried the entire event. (8/29/08) Poor NBC News/MSNBC, just as they were getting beat to the McCain running mate story by CNN and Fox, what did they do? They whined and complained like little babies (even token Repub Joe Scarborough!) and gathered a group of Obama supporters/analysts and called the McCain campaign "adolescents" and said they were "playing games with reporters". Boo hoo hoo. Please don't cry for me Argentina anymore! HAha! PREDICTION: With MSNBC's poor ratings even in a banner DEMOCRAT year, after this election, expect Tom Brokaw to leave NBC permanently and Brian Williams to demand BIG changes just to stay (if that hasn't already happened). Shhhhh, you didn't hear that from me. :-) (8/29/08) Dave's response: Interesting listening to Limbaugh today on the Palin pick. His choice of words are all in favor of it, but the defensive attitude and inflection of his voice seem to suggest that it could turn out to be a big mistake..... Roger Ebert's strong goodbye to sports columnist www.chicagotribune.com (8/29/08) Mr. Graham - Mike Steinert and I bowled in a tournament about 15 years ago at Fair Lanes Southwest. He cashed for about $600 dollars, me for about $150. Small world. I have an extra copy of the duckpin DVD if you'd like one - I'd be happy to give it to you. There is a lot of local history in it, believe it or not. (8/29/08) Has anyone heard what is going on at Metro in Baltimore? I've heard they are shutting the operation down, peice by piece. Will the entire Baltimore operation be run out of DC? (8/29/08) WMAL's Chris Plante is a supreme idiot. On his show this morning, he said he'd rather have Sarah Palin (who?) as prez over the ultra-experienced Joe Biden. You know, McCain's an old dude. If he gets elected we just might eventually get a President Palin. (8/29/08) Dave's response: Perhaps Plante should read this from politico.com..... FYI...it was neither Chris Matthews nor Keith Olbermann who called Obama's speech last night a "symphony." On CNN.com, David Gergen described it that way, and he also called it a masterpiece. -- Bobbie (8/29/08) Seeing the post about duckpin bowling brings back memories of the John Claster series "Bowling For Dollars". If I'm not mistaken that show was on in almost every major market in the country and the DC host was Johnny Holliday and in Baltimore Ron Riley. Both were top rated Radio personality's at the time and I believe had worked together in Cleveland or Chicago. Fun shows to watch! Shawn, Bethesda. (8/29/08) From this morning’s Chicago Sun Times: Anchor's cheering section - • • Chicago reporters covering the Democratic Convention in Denver were stunned to witness WGN-Channel 9's Allison Payne cheering and applauding for speakers Wednesday night while she was seated with the Illinois delegation in the Pepsi Center. The veteran newswoman has been co-anchoring convention coverage for the Tribune Co.-owned station. (8/29/08) Dave's response: How's that any different from Chris Matthews' cheerleading of Obama? The "The Entrepreneur" wrote "...but that they [WTOP] are missing a HUGE opportunity and leaving a great deal of money "on the table." IMHO, the post-World War II generations have been spoiled so rotten by abundance that it is reducing Americans to a culture of mediocrity". You should call the WTOP Sales Manager Iimmediately and apply for a sales job. If the poster was correct and WTOP makes $20M MORE than the next closest station, then I can only assume that they probably don't feel "mediocre". Maybe the problem with WTOP is that they are mediocre and just don't realize it. (8/29/08) A note to Kim; The weather forecast yesterday, last night, and even early this morning called for the remnants of Fay to hang around with showers possible. Even if you heard wrong on the radio or tv there are about fifty radar sites on the Internet where even a dope can figure out where the rain is and where it isn't. (8/29/08) At one point in my life I was deciding whether to become a traveling duckpin pro, or stay at WCAO and play top-40. Now you know why I feel like a blacksmith. Naturally, I stayed on radio, because duckpin bowling was not a sport where you could make money. In fact, a few years ago, Mike Steinert and I bowled in a doubles tournament in DC and won. We split $250.00. It is a shame that the documentary is being made in CT and not here. Ernie Barger would have been helpful locally. It's interesting to see the battles going on about local programming. Some of the discussion is so stupid that I can't begin to comment. For those of you who want WTOP to go back on 1500 AM, there is no reason for them to do that. I know it was convenient for you, but the best decision WTOP has made in my memory, was to move to FM. There is no way for WTOP to know the actual audience for the AM station when they were simulcasting, because ARBITRON Total Line Reporting does not break out the stations. Even ARBITRON has no files to look at. I would imagine that there was a very low number left on AM when they killed it. The ratings did not suffer when the "blowtorch" was turned off. The problem is now, what do we do with 1500. WFED is a good solution for a few reasons. They can sell Federal News Radio. They have a group of advertisers who will like the increased power. Spoken word of all kinds is moving to FM because people don't use AM radios. They have no clue how to program an AM station. WBAL and WMAL have not addressed their problem and will slowly die out (along with their audience) unless they move to FM and change to attract the new available FM audience. I don't have a lot of hope that they will do it right. Ed Graham (8/29/08) Anyone know how Al Galdi (sp?) gets away with doing updates on the local ESPN affiliates (mornings on ESPN980), and National Top of the Hour Fox Sports Radio updates (mornings on WNST)? Conflict of interest?? Oh well, pretty good deal if you can get it. (8/29/08) Nice weather reports this morning on WTOP. Let's see, it wasn't supposed to be as wet as it was yesterday. Just some drizzle and fog. FUNNY, I could barely see out my windows as I was driving this morning because it was raining so hard…and it wasn't just a brief shower. They must have meant to qualify their weather report that as of 9 am today, it would be what they reported. Thanks for the info today WTOP! -Kim (8/29/08) Whoever said this is a walking, talking clear cut symptom of "what's wrong with radio"... and, what's wrong with American business, in general! "I would say that whoever is selling WTOP not only understands the "value of the station's prestige" but capatilizes on it..." The critiques were not that WTOP's sales organization is failing, but that they are missing a HUGE opportunity and leaving a great deal of money "on the table." IMHO, the post-World War II generations have been spoiled so rotten by abundance that it is reducing Americans to a culture of mediocrity. The late, great satirist William Gaines, used to lazer in on this phenomenon in his MAD Magazine, as early as the late 1950's! And, by the way... capatilize? I've never acquired any working capitil... only capital! - The Entrepreneur (8/29/08) (regarding a previous post) "Fact is, MSNBC has made Fox look like a model of reasonableness and equity." Yes, of course it has -- NOT!!! [insert yesterday's Fox News Obama/Biden Caption Graphic photo here] Sheesh! (8/29/08) Peggy Noonan and Scarborough were just taking shots. Noonan, who was a real speech writer, was making fun of whoever referred to Obama's speech as a "symphony" and Scarborough was mocking whoever referred to Hillary's speech as a "grand slam out of the box." No names, but they were clearly referring to either Olberman or Matthews. Seems like the MSNBC wars are at a fever pitch. (8/29/08) (RE: putting WTOP on 1500. "Sales losers will say they can't sell what's not in the ratings, but seasoned industry people know the value of a station's prestige.") I'm not in Sales anymore, but came from that side of the business...so let me defend the "sales losers". Information I have, and have read on this site from the BIA numbers, WTOP makes over $50 million a year. Something like 9th or 10th in the country I think. The #2 station in DC? reports have always been WPGC. but only in the low $30's. WTOP is $20 Million more. I would say that whoever is selling WTOP not only understands the "value of the station's prestige" but capatilizes on it...considering they bring in more than double what stations that have better ratings than them (WHUR/WMMJ) do per year. (8/29/08) Fact is, MSNBC has made Fox look like a model of reasonableness and equity. If I were people like Scarborough and Brian Williams, who at least have some principles and ethics, I too would be embarrassed to be associated with the likes of Matthews and Olberman. The latter two have obviously decided to leave all objectivity and journalistic principles behind and have become complete jokes, even to people who agree with their views. I agree that Matthews gloating over the hurricane and its possible effect on the Reps convention was extemely distateful, to say the least, for example. And Olberman reminds me of a rabid dog foaming at the mouth. They are a disgrace to NBC. (8/29/08) I'm curious to see what kind of viewership Sen. Barack Obama's acceptance speech got last night. Thursdays are a key day for other TV and radio programming, so Nielsen would track that too, right? If his speech was tracked and the numbers are anything close to the 1977 miniseries "Roots", McCain better watch his old, white ass! /Signed/ H. Rap Brown, Bobby Seale, and the Ghost of Malcolm X (8/29/08) Dave's response: Here comes Hurricane McCain! Anyone else catch the best MSNBC line of the night? Yep, Chris Matthews admitting he has critics and that yep, "he inspires me", pretty much confirming everything that's been previously rumored or posted here at DCRTV.com about MSNBC's pro-Obama bias and the turmoil within NBC News right now. And it's clear that Matthews and Olbermann are both on the same page and both prepared to fight against NBC execs that would probably like to tone them down. Matthews was clearly defiant tonight. Anyway, other than that drama, as usual, no real reason to watch MSNBC again. FOX & CNN had much better coverage and better analysts. And CNN was the ONLY cable network to put a disclaimer underneath the Obama introductory video stating that it was a CAMPAIGN PRODUCED VIDEO! I guess somebody was asleep at the switch at FOX News on the BIAS switch! LOL (8/29/08) Re: "OKAY, truce dood ! Now make it happen." (re: my comment about WTOP staying on 1500) Hindsight, as I said. We now know the disposition of the new format that took the 1500/107.7 airwaves, and its thrown-together successor. And since my last name is not Oxley nor Farley, I can't do a thing about rekindling 1500 as the AM home of the mighty WTOP. And I think the move to a full-market FM signal was still a good one, as DC is a horrible AM market, and FM is the future for spoken word formats...it just appears a waste of 1500's power bill to have it do anything except broadcasting the all-news format - ALONG WITH 103.5. (8/29/08) We were talking about Johnny Batch at White Oak last night - funny to read about my favorite sport on here this morning. Please enjoy the following - www.duckpinfilm.com - I'm sure there is some local media tie in somehow. (8/29/08) In the hustle and bustle of Labor Day weekend get-a-way, let's not overlook the 50th B-Day of Michael Joseph Jackson. (Ever wonder what his REAL face looks like?) (8/29/08) Dave's response: Guess who else is turning 50? Doni G in September! Advance congrats..... Driving home from work last night after sunset I tuned in to the Redskins game on 980 AM. If you live in Potomac, Gaithersburg or Germantown you can forget hearing the games when the sun goes down. Since at least half of the games will be on the air at some point after sunset it appears that the Redskins signal deficiencies have not been solved. I wonder if the companies who spent big money on advertising in the games are aware of the signal problems. (8/29/08) Dave's response: I can get 980 here in Reston after dark, but the signal ain't great. However, I'm close enough to Warrenton to get 94.3. Even with his six local stations, Dan Snyder still (!!!) lack a solid, blanket-covering signal, like he'd have with one inside-the-Beltway FMer. I guess he could do a last-minute deal to put the Skins back on Clear Channel's 100.3, too. Might not be a bad idea..... /\ August 29 Messages /\ \/ August 28 Messages \/ Mid-morning Friday will be a WZBA-FM all station meeting with acting program director Kruz. Maybe news about the morning show talent? Or purchase of additional stations in the market? Current trend is up from a 2.7 to a 3.4. Stay tuned, classic rockers ;-) (8/28/08) And the poster said "I actually agree that especially with hindsight being 20/20, WTOP should have stayed on 1500 in addition to 103.5" OKAY, truce dood ! Now make it happen. (8/28/08) Duckpins? Now you're talking, hon! Someone phone Johnny Batch and ask him to meet us down at the Chevy Chase Ice Palace. There are two duckpin lanes we can use right in WMAL-TV's studios. (Milt W. of Columbia... help me out here.) Just don't invite Daniel Day-Lewis. He might get carried away and give someone a wee headache. (8/28/08) Whomever the person was that said Limbaugh goes away when Obama becomes pres...that's what they said when Clinton was elected? Right? You are kidding about the fairness doctrine, right? Dave's words about Roger Ailes...I love reading that line and then this story from the politico... www.politico.com. Watching the video is awesome...Shuster vs Scarboro was funny... (8/28/08) Dave wrote: "And, Schelby would take music request calls during her show. And it sounded like she had a caller pool of about six people - three guys and three gals. Over and over, it seemed. Hmmm....." - Those must have been those dang "Globies" of hers. The same 6 folks that kept calling in to tell her how much they LOVED her. I, for one, won't miss that drivel. Marge (8/28/08) Duckpin Bowling anyone? I was reading Jim Williams's article on MASN..and the thought crossed my mind "Hey..wonder if duckpin bowling would sell in this region? I sure have fond memories of watching shows like "Pinbusters", Duckpins And Dollars"..I don't remember what it was called, But WNUB (channel 54) was carrying a show that featured duckpin bowling in the 80s! So was wondering if MASN was to carry some sort of duckpin bowling show..would it sell? Your thoughts! Tom in Denton MD (8/24/08) Dave's response: Damn good idea! And, how about MASN bringing back the roller derby, too? Hate to be too harsh, but I've thought from the beginning that the main obstacle in The Globe's effort to become a decent station has been Schelby. Her midday show was idiotic ('Today's theme is songs that start with a vowel') and her 'musical direction' seemed oddly devoted to Jack Johnson and an awful lot of sugary Pop junk. I don't know if things at 94.7 will get any better with her exit, but they couldn't get a whole lot worse. (8/28/08) Dave's response: And, Schelby would take music request calls during her show. And it sounded like she had a caller pool of about six people - three guys and three gals. Over and over, it seemed. Hmmm..... What the hell? I think Mike O'Meara can't handle the stress of having his own show. He is screaming at everyone in the studio today and was quite the asshat on the O&D show yesterday. The group sounds like the all hate each other. Even Chad, who is in the studio as a nicety to Mike to help with his fantasy football, is quiet and subdued around a group of dicks like the MOM Show seems to be. Mike really should have gone on to do his own show with new people instead of the same old, same old he is with. No one is adding any "sparkle" to the airwaves and I would tell Mike to take a hike. (8/28/08) (SNIP) Wow, asshole. You have proved that you know absolutely nothing about Selector or the programming of a radio station... It does take a lot of work to do a theme weekend...sorry my nerve was touched (END SNIP) First of all, it's MISTER asshole SIR! Let's keep this dignified. Second, there are at least seven other prominent music scheduling software suites beyond Selector; including Natural Music, Results98, PowerGold, GoMusic1 and others. Any one of these is capable of doing an "A to Z" weekend with a fistful of clicks, so you are clearly overworking yourself. Third, I don't program and have not for many years because I do not like it. But judging from the sounds on the dial in this burg, you also plainly know nothing of programming a radio station. Tell you what, Mr. Warmth: I'll keep an open mind and remain eager to be enlightened, so tell me exactly what sort of hoops one actually needs to jump through to accomplish an A to Z theme weekend. I know it won't be the celebrity artist voices that go before the songs - corporate provides those. (8/28/08) not local, but fascinating cbs2chicago.com Mariotti Quits, Says Newspapers Are 'Dying'... Star Sports Columnist Says He Wanted Out Because Paper Can't Compete On Web (8/28/08) Dave's response: Reminds me of the Washington Post, which should OWN the Capitol Hill political news beat, getting scooped many times every day by the Politico, which didn't even exist two years ago. A bloated bureaucracy is a bloated bureaucracy, even when it's on the web..... I have heard some good things about Marci Wiser....But I have heard better things about her brother, Bud. Next show is at 10pm people. Be sure to tip your waitresses. (8/28/08) The very fact that Limbaugh now has to work sponsor mentions into his show talk pathetically demonstrates how much he has to go to to hold on to his band of crappy little advertisers, who support his particular brand of bigotry. The radio crackpot is sinking, and when Obama gets elected in November look for the "new FCC" to launch an era of radio "fairness"! - DC in DC (8/28/08) So Arrow fires Schelby and brings in Marci. I think I would too, DAMN she HAWT!!! Eye Candy FTW (8/28/08) Non union employees at WTTG/WDCA complaining about the increase that are due on 07/01 of each year. It seems that Fox Corporate has dictated that no one can get an increase above 3%. Some of the best employees are only getting 2%. Most of the staff have elected to seek other employment, some have chosen to "respond" to their reviews and hope that management will reconsider and give them more.... FAT CHANCE.... Account executives are pissed due to falling commission rates. Rates are adjusted every quarter to keep the salaries in line with what management thinks the AE should be making. Recently one AE made a deal for $28,000.00 which included internet spots and TV spots. Since the AE was not working on the TV side he was not paid the commission for the TV spots. He gave his notice and they asked him to leave that day..... (8/28/08) According to this article: www.engadgethd.com... ALL NFL games will be in HD this season on CBS, I guess Katie should be nervous after all. (8/28/08) ("That takes all of 5 minutes work: the station's music selection software is set to sort and read out the Artist Names alphabetically. The file is then dropped into the playback computer and (optionally) printed for the benefit of the jock. They can chart that kind of show a half-hour before it has to air. Boom. That's it. Gotta go get my car detailed. See you Tuesday") Wow, asshole. You have proved that you know absolutely nothing about Selector or the programming of a radio station. Congrats. Not that I'm sticking up for the Glob's shitty programming, but it does take a lot of work to do a theme weekend...sorry my nerve was touched. (8/28/08) This post guaranteed to be free of OC-bound traffic guidance, WTOP postulating, and bashing of lesbian cable-TV hosts. In fact, I understand it's completely painless. Nothing more than a bunch of chicks stopping at the salon for some quick maintenance before heading to the beach for the last weekend of summer. www.truveo.com... (You might say this is the sort of "complete rip-off" that can really sting.) (8/28/08) Could not agree more on that post about the Globe...a very interesting concept(green is hot these days) and IF they had done just a little more prep work...like actually looking at WXRT's playlist or KFOG's or KBCO's..and then utilized Cerphe and Weasel's DC music "feel"...blended them...toned down the "preachiness" of those recorded "going green" segments(or just not even used them at all..) AAA music (with a DC element) could have a foothold here AND be commerically viable too...BUT you have to have management with patience and foresight. Putting Weasel in mornings ,while maybe a good idea on paper, proved to be a mistake. It certainly was not Shelby's "fault" but the reason she is gone may be totally due to budget and the voice tracking so prevalent in middays now. The Globe will go down as a failed experiment that was really never given what it needed to succeed; the unfortunate victim of scared, unprepared, and shaky corporate radio.. (8/28/08) Dave's response: Exactamundo. If CBS had given the Globe experiment a decent shot AND then it failed to get ratings after more than a year, you could at least respect the attempt. But CBS went about one-quarter of the way to creating a cool rocker for DC area adults - and then didn't go any farther. CBS practically guaranteed the Globe's eventual collapse..... Why can’t the bozos at CBS broadcast more than three NFL games in HD. It is hard to surf between a HD and a non-HD game. Maybe the should have taken the money they gave Katie and invested in more HD. (8/28/08) There are apparently 15,000 journalists attending the Democratic National Convention. Here is what some of them are doing: cjr.org (8/28/08) So is this Wiser going to be voice tracking like she must be doing in all those other markets? Frankly Schelby got a raw deal. Some jackass VP at CBS throws this whole Globe idea together out of no where and tells people to get it started in literally just a couple of days. No direction, no concrete ideas, and no fucking clues. At the start the station was sort of promising, and that's when Schelby had the most influence on the music being played. Then CBS starts getting scared, and then they bring in this mock turtleneck wearing guy who looks like his presets are set to Mix and WASH and the downward spiral escalates. And so Schelby gets fired for it? Unreal. Sign me someone glad to not be working for CBS. (8/28/08) To our friend who wants to rip his eyes out: I feel your pain. Tangents every now and then, yes, I know. But Labor Day is looming with a huge ride to the beach ahead of us, So I promise this is my last comment. As far as running 2 lanes EB on the WB span of the Bay Bridge: I thought about that, but I don't think there is a viable crossover configuration on the median once traffic gets into Queen Anne's County. And if there is, it will take some deft maneuvering that most drivers wouldn't be familiar with. Quite a safety issue with potential accidents there. Would be interesting to see. Alexander Piela (MisterOceanCity.com) (8/28/08) Dave's response: This thread is cooked. I mean it this time..... If you didn't already think that the folks over at Fox News were out of their freakin' minds, this photo should give you all the proof you need! Here's an idea for their new slogan: "Fox News - We Distort, You Deride". (8/28/08) Dave's response: I tell 'ya. Roger Ailes was born 50 years too late. He would have been perfect as head of Stalin's propaganda team..... The more I see of the THUGS that are battling the media from the Democratic Convention,the more I question their "freedom of Speech" views. They had police arrest an ABC reporter for interviews on a public street, they staged a barrage of calls to WGN expressing their displeasure with one of the talk show hosts, and DNC lawyers have been threatening radio stations nationwide that carry commercials they find embarrasing. This is the USA, is this the kind of "change" we all want? BOBB (8/28/08) Re: "A hard-to-find FM station ain't got that, nor do rimshot low power AMs" Hard-to-find? WTOP is right there 24/7 at 103.5, a full-signal class B Washington market station. How hard is that to find? Now, I actually agree that especially with hindsight being 20/20, WTOP should have stayed on 1500 in addition to 103.5. But you make it sound like 103.5 is a travelers' information station or something... (8/28/08) Even lamer than the 500 Greatest Rock Songs of All Time is the "Rock from A to Z" weekend. That takes all of 5 minutes work: the station's music selection software is set to sort and read out the Artist Names alphabetically. The file is then dropped into the playback computer and (optionally) printed for the benefit of the jock. They can chart that kind of show a half-hour before it has to air. Boom. That's it. Gotta go get my car detailed. See you Tuesday. (8/28/08) I really don't want to turn this in to a traffic report thread, but since you've been dominated by political talk, why not? I drive I-95 from Baltimore to Bel AIr daily. Here is what you can expect on a Labor Day weekend: The Fort McHenry Tunnel will be backed up prior to the entrance starting around 3:00 pm all the way to the Toll Plaza ($2.00). You MAY go a mile or 2, but you can be certain that traffic will come to a stop at Eastern Ave, and continue to be stop and go all the way past White Marsh, about 10 miles. Unless there is an accident, you're probably good until you get to the Tydings Bridge, past Havre de Grace, where things will slow up for another toll ($5.00). There is another Toll on I-95 in Delaware (amnt unknown). Go up to the Rte 1 Exit, head towards Dover. 2 tolls ($2.00 each on weekends) on Rte. 1. Once you get past the end of Rte 1, and head towards Milford and points south, be prepared to stop every 2-3 minutes for a traffic light. Lots of strip-style shopping centers If you're at the tunnel tomorrow @4:30, you'll be extremely lucky to arrive in OC by 10:00. Saturday isn't much better. The 2 weeks prior to Labor Day are horrendous after 10:00 am above Aberdeen, as it's a combination of people going on vacation, and kids heading back home from summer jobs, or off to college. It took me 4 hours to get from Bel Air to OC on the 16th, a trip that normally take 2.5 hrs (left @11;00 am). To keep this "DCRTV Related", if your stuck in traffic tomorrow, try and find fellow mailbagger Michael Bradley (Popovec) on "The B". Michael did a great job on his Saturday show. Upbeat, Fun and Entertaining. He's much better suited for this than his Sports-Talk gig at WNST. Watch, though...with all of the hype, the Bay Bridge will be fine, and I-95 will be a parking lot. Good luck to anyone going "Downyocean, Hon" this weekend. Doug in Bel Air (8/28/08) "OH no...NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" - That last post had to be from either Mr. Bill or Richard Harris. KOF (8/28/08) OH no...NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO ,,,dave you've got to stop this one ....as the legendary Barney Fife would have said "NIP IT! NIP it in the BUD"!!!! First we had to sift through the various bloated political posts and now suddenly the mailbag is morphing into MAPQUEST---seriously what was that ? turn right--turn left..go here ..go there...AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH i wanted to rip my eyes out....now on to a radio post-- hey how about that Globe weekend coming up? 500 of the greatest rock songs of ALL TIME?? in a countdown? WOW no one has done that before...geez i wonder if Freebird or Stairway will make the list? what's next? caller 9 wins tickets to______??? now that is some creative programming! (8/28/08) Dave's response: Yeah, no more traffic advice posts..... Here's a little tidbit of advice to MASN on how to woo sports fans...provide ALL OF THE NATIONALS AND ORIOLES GAMES in HD. Make MASN HD a full time channel and dedicate one channel to the Orioles and one channel to the Nationals. MASN-HD Baltimore & MASN-HD Washington. This would greatly improve your ability to compete with Comcast SportsNet, which, by the way used to do that for the Orioles before you came along. Oh yeah, and press Dish Network to carry MASN HD, that would help too! Greg in Reisterstown. (8/28/08) The Bay Bridge construction work is totally off topic to this site but in reality I don't think there is any good way around the bay bridge. 695 between 795 & 95 North of Baltimore probably has it's issues in the afternoon I'd think through Towson and then 95 North with traffic coming out of the city. Not to mention who knows what Delaware's traffic is like on 95, or Rt. 1. Then there's option 2 using 213 to 301 or 404 then to 50 but it makes no sense to go all the way to Elkton and then come all the way back down to 50 when you can go a little more north to Rt.1 which takes you over to the beaches either via 1 or 113. Also wouldn't it have been more simple to send traffic going over the Bay Bridge going east bound on the 2 left lanes of the Westbound bridge span anywhere between 3pm-7pm friday? There' gonna be a lot more traffic going east then west I'd think. With how the bridge is set up they could do this as there are two lanes that go from the east bound side over to the west bound side after the toll and then on the opposite side of the bridge there are 2 lanes that merge into the east bound side. Anyway you look at it traveling to the eastern shore Friday seems like it's going to be a royal pain. (8/28/08) To Beach Traffic Post-er: As far as sending travelers to OC through Lewes/Rehoboth/Dewey, yep, that's sending people through what is essentially a total mad house. Back in the day, I would always take that RT 113 approach after Milford. How many of you remember all the various choke points heading south through Delaware? Route 13 SB @ Boyd's Corner, just south of the Canal. In Dover, Route 13 @ The RT 113 Split. But now Route 1 makes it so easy. That is, until Lewes/Rehoboth. The big "urban myth" (for lack of a better term) in certain traffic circles is the plan for a new bridge between Calvert Cliffs and Taylor's Island. Indeed a big rumor at this point. But I would imagine a lot of RT 301 traffic that would go through Bowie and then across the Bay Bridge would bleed off onto this new route. And maybe even some travelers who otherwise would go 95 to the Wilson Bridge. But I guess I'll put down my Magic 8 Ball at this point and quit dreaming of ANOTHER alternate route to the beach! Alexander Piela (MisterOceanCity.com) (8/28/08) Dave says: "That brings back memories of when country FMer WMZQ used 1390 as an AM relay in the 1980s". True enough, Dave...but over time, WMZQ split the simulcast of the country format, keeping "modern country" fulltime on 98.7, and simulcasting morning drive with 1390. Rest of the day, 1390 was its own "classic country" format, playing more of a "country oldies" format. I seem to remember it was live part of the time, and automated the rest. I'm normally not a big country fan (at least some of the overly-politicized stuff that constitutes modern country today), but some of that older "country-western" music sounded pretty good put together with DJs who knew the music. I think today's WMZQ HD channel has an automated variation of a "classic country" station which i listen to from time to time in the car. And before I head out into the rain on some errands this morning, the Mailbag seems to never lack for those who want to dance on the head of a pin and obsess about where WTOP wants to put its call letters. For my money, TOP is exactly where I need it to be, on 103.5. Everything else, to me, is their "business decision", and gravy on the side. - Paula (a.k.a. "Just Call Me 'Legs'") P.S. Blowing a kiss to the "Unsigned Corporate Suit"...hope all is well with ya, darlin! (8/28/08) TO: MisterOceanCity.com....... Thanks for the detailed instructions and description of the road name changes in Delaware, but my point still stands correct. The Baltimore Sun is telling people to take Route 1 and avoid Rt. 113 and go THROUGH Rehoboth Beach, Dewey Beach, AND Bethany Beach as the BEST alternate route during the Bay Bridge construction to get to Ocean City, MD. That was the whole point of the Sun article and the reason for my post. The Baltimore SUN gave the absolute WORST ALTERNATE ROUTE POSSIBLE and not the one that you just gave in such great detail that would obviously be the best route and the one I attempted to state (without knowing some of the road name changes). Thanks. (8/28/08) People inside the local Bonneville emporium will tell you the only reason they could afford to move news off 1500 was the tremendous momentum the AM station had built up among loyal listeners. There has been little significant ratings gain since then. Yes, they have "abandoned" the audience in the expanded geographic area that only a 50,000 AM station can cover. Sales losers will say they can't sell what's not in the ratings, but seasoned industry people know the value of a station's prestige. A hard-to-find FM station ain't got that, nor do rimshot low power AMs. THis is why listenership has probably maxed out. The successful growth plan would simulcast 1500 and whatever FM(s) can supplement the placement of product. Unless of course someone wants to make even more money and sell the real estate beneath the towers. (8/28/08) Posters are correct in bashing MSNBC's coverage of the Dem's convention. I could hardly believe Matthews' gloating last night about the prospects of a disasterous hurricane distracting some of the attention from the GOP's show next week. Sure, Matthews, death and destruction just so your party can get an advantage. Man, what a tool that guy is. Brian Williams actually had to reprimand him by reminding him about their desire to be balanced and all that. (8/28/08) The mailbag been teeming with political chat lately and now I just noticed this display ad on the DCRTV Mailbag page -- It features photos of Iran's president and Sen. Barack Obama, with the question "Is It OK To Unconditionally Meet With Anti-American Foreign Leaders?", then a click box for YES and one for NO (and the message: "Paid For By John McCain 2008"). Dave, I know you're always needing financial support, but a good liberal fellow like yourself really shouldn't stoop to accepting that kind of partisan crap - it cheapens and stinks up the DCRTV website! (8/28/08) Dave's response: The ads are served by Google. And if McCain wants to support DCRTV, I won't argue with that. Even though I'm an Obama man..... "God, I hope they put WTOP back on an AM signal. I spend a lot of summer weekends taking my antique cars to shows, and all I have is AM." Boy, that sure is a compelling business reason for them to change. (8/28/08) Dave's response: That brings back memories of when country FMer WMZQ used 1390 as an AM relay in the 1980s (above). And they ran an ad campaign targeting folks with older cars with AM-only radios..... I'm sorry to see Schelby go. Was she the greatest DJ...no. That said, she's young, and always seemed VERY excited about the music she played and I enjoyed her show. (8/28/08) RE: Directions to the Beach/Alternative to the Bay Bridge(?) A previous poster made a really good point regarding the Delaware routes to the beach. And I think one thing he failed to mention, or perhaps wasn't aware of is there appears to be long term construction closing a lane on the EB span on the Bay Bridge for the next 10 weeks. ( I believe they are repairing the parapet where that tractor trailer broke through in the accident a few weeks ago) This will indeed be a factor in the drive. The Baltimore Sun says this: The Maryland Transportation Authority recommends that travelers take Interstate 95 north to Route 1, then Route 1 south through Delaware. Which isn't quite what the advisory is saying. Go to my page here and click the link for "Maryland Traffic". That will take you to the "CHART" site. www.misteroceancity.com... Then click the flashing red "Traffic Alert" and you'll see what it says. "...prepare to take alternate routes". Usually I would think it's kind of ridiculous to tell people to avoid the Bay Bridge on a holiday weekend and take what's essentially a tangent, WAY out of your way. Sure, you avoid the Bay Bridge, but you throw yourself into a few other traffic hot spots with potential for trouble. Baltimore Beltway, Fort McHenry Tunnel, Harbor Tunnel. Then don't think 95 in Cecil and New Castle County won't have it's own share of trouble. But with this construction, the SHA is obligated to advise people to consider that alternate route. So if you decide to go that way, here's what you have to consider. In Delaware, weekday traffic delays go NB on 95 in the morning and SB in the afternoon. EXCEPT for Fridays. The sure bet is by 2:00 PM Friday, NB 95 delays are from the State Line past Delaware RT 1, all the way to 295. Now the previous poster can be forgiven when he says you go RT 1 to RT 13. It has been only recently that they totally completed Delaware RT 1 in New Castle County. You USED to have to get off RT 1 in Odessa, and take RT 13. But now RT 1 proper goes all the way from 95 to the Dover Air Force Base. When you are on RT 1 south of the main toll plaza in Dover, just stay straight, don't exit and you'll be on RT 113 at the base. Technically, it is RT 1 all the way through, but the old timers still call it RT 113 through Milford. Then in Milford, take the right exit to stay on RT 113, and go all the way into MD. Now you CAN take RT 90, but sometimes it really starts to back up. It's a single lane, and there is no where to pull off. So if you are staying downtown Ocean City, you might want to continue SB on RT 113, and connect with RT 589 to RT 50, or pick up RT 50 off RT 113. Or if you are staying in uptown OC, when you get to Selbyville, DE, follow the signs for RT 54, and it will get you to Fenwick. That's your trip if you are traveling through Delaware. But remember, if you take this route because of the advisory, you probably won't be the only one. There are never guarantees reporting traffic, but what you invest in a long, roundabout alternate route might not give you the payoff of a "faster" drive. I will tell everyone, speaking as someone who goes back and forth between Ocean City and the DC area on Saturdays in the summertime, here's your solution: GET TO THE BRIDGE EARLY. When there is no construction, I can count on the fact that if I get to the bridge before 9:00 AM, I can drive right up to the toll plaza and get right through. With this construction, I would plan a bit of an earlier arrival. In the meantime, drive safe, and have fun at the beach this Labor Day Weekend! Signed, Alexander Piela, (MisterOceanCity.com) (8/28/08) Schelby Sweeney Gone From 94.7 , could her replacement be Donielle Flynn? Rick (8/28/08) Dave's response: I think she'd be a great pick, but my sources say no..... "YES, very simple, the same directions given out by every major local TV station tonight on their local news broadcast............ Rt. 1 to Rt. 13 to Rt. 113 to Rt 90 or Rt. 50. The Baltimore Sun told people to take ROUTE 1 all the way from I-95 to OC and that is just complete MADNESS! The Sun writer who wrote those alternate directions should be fired for complete and utter stupidity" First off, it is DE Rt 1 for clarification. Second, as someone who grew on the Right Side of the Bay, worked at the DE beaches, and made many trips to Philly, the Sun's route is the easiest for any Baltimoron that wants to go to the beach. Besides, if you are going to take 113, you can get it off of DE 1 much easier than US 13. Of course you could use your GPS. If you don't have one, keep yourself and your Cavalier in Dundalk. Paul (8/28/08) Re: "declared lesbian Rachel Maddow" Just where does a woman go to declare herself a lesbian? Does she have to visit the county courthouse? Is there a national registry? And just how are Ellen and Rosie O'Donnell involved? For crying out loud...I can hear the knuckle dragging from here. Whomever Rachel Maddow sleeps with has absolutely NO EFFECT on her performance as a cable TV talk show host...which is all that matters here, since this is a website about media. (8/28/08) Re: "The WTOP callsign is now meaningless anyway. Why bother saving it?" Bonneville has continued to build the "WTOP News" brand, and has spread it to many venues, including (hey, look at this!) WTOPNews.com. Why would they abandon it? "WTOP", "Top of the Dial" or not, means radio news in Washington DC, on 1500, 107.7, 103.5, 103.9, 820 or whatever frequencies it occupies...and off the air, as well. (8/28/08) (snip) After that, look for 1050 to become a relay for all-news WTOP, which stays on DC's 103.5 FM, and a sports overflow channel. (snip) God, I hope they put WTOP back on an AM signal. I spend a lot of summer weekends taking my antique cars to shows, and all I have is AM. Right now I'm stuck with right-wing flat-earth-society claptrap from WMAL, sports, and brokered, religious and Spanish programming. What a waste of electrons. Thomas Edison is likely spinning in his grave.... (8/28/08) Regarding 730, I think it'd be a mistake to put Spanish language sports there and that either 570 or 1260 would be better alternatives. The night signal of 730 is so limited that only those within five or ten miles of the transmitter can get the station. Areas such as PG county and Montgomery county cannot get that signal. Now, regarding 730, I think a nostalgic format of some sort would work. It could survive partly by donations as I'm told Philly's WHAT does. After dark, the station could sublet time out. (8/28/08) Dave's response: I know. You're going to be listening to Los Rojoskins and the game will vanish at sunset when the station goes to its pip-squeak night power..... Dammit, Mark... I told you not to wear the Fig Leaf! - Ed. Rodriguez (8/28/08) Regarding the criticism of the Baltimore Sun giving an alternative route to Ocean City, the original poster (Mr. AHAHAHAHAHA! :-)) said, "More proof that noone [sic] at The Baltimore Sun is actually from Baltimore OR Maryland or has a clue about the state...." It would seem that the original poster was talking about the state of Maryland. He posted again to say his alternative route was "...Rt. 1 to Rt. 13 to Rt. 113 to Rt 90 or Rt. 50." Most of the roads named in that route are in Delaware. If the poster originally meant to criticize the Sun for not knowing Delaware, then he should have made that clear, as he made no reference to Delaware. By the way, the Maryland State Highway folks were giving out the same route information as the Sun, which is probably why the Sun printed it. (8/28/08) /\ August 28 Messages /\ \/ August 27 Messages \/ RE: [ " Have you a better alternative route or do you intend to sprout wings and fly across the Chesapeake Bay? " ]............... YES, very simple, the same directions given out by every major local TV station tonight on their local news broadcast............ Rt. 1 to Rt. 13 to Rt. 113 to Rt 90 or Rt. 50. The Baltimore Sun told people to take ROUTE 1 all the way from I-95 to OC and that is just complete MADNESS! The Sun writer who wrote those alternate directions should be fired for complete and utter stupidity alone and those directions should be pulled from The Sun's website ASAP. Obviously the person who wrote The Sun's directions only vacations in Dewey Beach or Rehoboth or has never visited the Maryland/Delaware beaches at all and relied on some erroneous source of information like Mapquest, which often gives out bad results. Any smart person who's been to the beaches before knows those directions are a joke. C'mon! Geez. (8/27/08) All this chatter about the WTOP calls on 1050 is awfully amusing. Bonneville has made no secret about their plans to put the 1050 signal up for sale once the WFED move to 1500 is complete. The WTOP branding has been successfully transferred to 103.5, and it's staying there. Putting the WTOP calls on 1050 is purely a temporary move so that there are some call letters on that frequency while it's being sold. Anything they program there will be purely temporary, and the only people who will notice it (or the call letters it uses) will be us here in DCRTV obsessive-land. So why are we all getting so worked up? (8/27/08) C'mon guys, Give Joy Pons a break. She's a good traffic reporter and knows her stuff. Nobody seems to remember the Playgirl spread that Ed Rodriguez and I did back in the late 1974. We got cut for Burt Reynolds or was it PLB????? Mark Williams (8/27/08) "MSNBC's coverage is such a joke and why does olbermann care so much about bill o'reilly anyways? Why doesn't he just fight him, put it on PPV and call it a day." Does anybody really want to see these guys fight, even for free? I say bring back MTV's "Celebrity Deathmatch." At least that would be entertaining. (8/27/08) can you tell me where has gurvir dhindsa been. have not seen her on myfoxdc news in about 5 weeks. hope vacation. (8/27/08) Dave's response: I'm told that Gurvir has been put on bed rest by her docs during the final few weeks of her pregnancy..... re: "Many thanks for defining "homophobia" for the rest of us"........you make no sense and look like an idiot! (8/27/08) "...noone [sic] at The Baltimore Sun...has a clue about the state....Is that not the absolute WORST alternative route to Ocean City...." Have you a better alternative route or do you intend to sprout wings and fly across the Chesapeake Bay? (8/27/08) "TOP of the Radio Dial has been pointless except to dinosaurs": Ummmm, what about TOP NEWS, TOP of the HOUR, I can think of tons of relevant references to TOP since 1941. Honestly, as someone who was not even born in 1941, I had no clue WTOP was ever at the TOP of the dial anyway! Who really cares? They are still great call letters. Why they are not on AM1500 and are on a daytime only station on AM1050 is the big joke! And what an incredible irony that the Mormons, who are so against big government, have created a radio station specifically FOR BIG GOVERNMENT SPENDERS! LOL (8/27/08) ("expanded to 1600" shows what you know.) From the Broadcast History section of the Broadcvast Archive: On May 15, 1923, the Standard Broadcast Band was expanded to 550-1360 kHz using 10 kHz steps. In April 1925, this was further expanded to 550-1500 kHz. On March 29, 1941, the band was extended to 550-1600 kHz. On this date, the NARBA frequency shift changed many stations spot on the dial. When WTOP changed call letters from WJSV to WTOP, 1500 was then at the TOP of the Radio Dial. But they haven't been at the top of dial since 1941, so that has been pointless except to dinosaurs who still remember the great old days of AM Radio in Washington. (8/27/08) 94.7 did something right??? Maybe now I'll listen a lil now that Schelby's gone. Naaaaah! What am I thinking? And why is MSNBC OUTSIDE the convention? Was Chris Matthews caught trying to hump Obama's leg again? Paul (8/27/08) Dave's response: The big problem with the Globe was that it was trying to be too many different rockers at one time. Sometimes it sounded like an alt rocker, sometimes a folk rocker, sometimes AAA, sometimes progressive, sometimes classic. It confused and deeply frustrated its listeners, including me. Many just went away, shaking their heads. Clearly, CBS didn't quite know what it was doing with the station. Despite my many critiques and jests, I do like Schelby. And I hope she lands another radio job real soon. My guess is that CBS will do standard and dullish classic rock on 94.7 until this fall's PPMs and probably flip it to something else by spring 2009. Maybe smooth jazz? Maybe the New W-Lite? Hmmm..... "expanded to 1600" shows what you know. (8/27/08) More proof that noone at The Baltimore Sun is actually from Baltimore OR Maryland or has a clue about the state..... www.baltimoresun.com... Is that not the absolute WORST alternative route to Ocean City, Maryland this holiday weekend ??? What complete idiots! AHAHAHAHAHA! :-) (8/27/08) "What on earth does declared lesbian Rachel Maddow bring to the table on MSNBC's coverage of the convention? Now we're going to have to look at her bring her liberal mumblings, and standard, hideous, Moe Howard-like, lesbian hairstyle to the screen on a daily basis starting on 9/8. Maybe only Ellen and Barbara Mikulski will be watching. Thank heaven for my Comcast remote." Many thanks for defining "homophobia" for the rest of us. (8/27/08) "The WTOP callsign is now meaningless anyway. Why bother saving it? "Top of the Dial" at 1050? And since they abandoned 1500 they gave up any association with the news business." You have said this several times now and you are still dead wrong. WTOP hasn't been at the top of dial since the AM dial expanded to 1600 kHz decades ago. And in case you haven't noticed, the only other strong news station in town is also on FM at 88.5. News stations that survive are on the FM band. AM is not a great place for sports and specialty programs. Only a handful of people in Washington under the age of 55 still listen to AM radio. (8/27/08) If you have Photoshop, swap the “0” and “5” in the WFED 1050 logo, you’ll have the new 1500 logo… (8/27/08) Dave's response: You mean something like this (right)? (The WTOP call letters have been moved and shifted and flipped around more than the Queen in a Three-Card-Monte game! It's really sad) Why is that sad? A company moves its best and most profitable product to its best distribution channels. That's smart. (8/27/08) What on earth does declared lesbian Rachel Maddow bring to the table on MSNBC's coverage of the convention? Now we're going to have to look at her bring her liberal mumblings, and standard, hideous, Moe Howard-like, lesbian hairstyle to the screen on a daily basis starting on 9/8. Maybe only Ellen and Barbara Mikulski will be watching. Thank heaven for my Comcast remote. (8/27/08) The WTOP callsign is now meaningless anyway. Why bother saving it? "Top of the Dial" at 1050? And since they abandoned 1500 they gave up any association with the news business. It was like the prolonged death of "WRC" trying to keep that on the radio. It took on a stutter as NBC sold the 980 property (WWRC), later the stuttering call sign moved to another frequency, and there is no connection with Ch. 4 television that kept the WRC callsign. Like people care about the call sign anyway? Dave you could have one of those unlicensed low power stations like the real estate agents use, and say "WTOP" as a logo if you wanted to, all the time. (8/27/08) Most people on the internet favorite or bookmark links, especially weather links and RADAR links, so I couldn't help but notice how often TV stations promoting their advanced weather RADAR and/or other website features often make the same mistake each time they update their website........ They CHANGE ALL the previous LiNKS, basically ruining everyone's favorites and bookmarks! Here's a GOOD EXAMPLE of poor website design at WJLA.com wjla.com... I was expecting the weather, but instead got insulted! HAha! Think I'll check out WUSA now instead. :-) (8/27/08) Re: A question regarding CNN and Fox rejecting the Obama/Ayers ads. In the 1988 or was it 1992 campaign, wasn't there some hoo-hah about Larry Flint running for president, and him planning to run pornographic ads because you can't censor/reject the ads in a presidential campaign?" True, but only for broadcast radio and TV. Cable can do what they want. Newton Minnow (Ed Graham) (8/27/08) I really missed Tony Kornheiser on Monday Night Football this week........Not. btw....did he get his hernia from stepping on and off his bus or did he get it by stumbling out of the Ocean City restaurant. Regards Biff (8/27/08) (re your news item) "Bonneville plans to move the WFED call letters from Silver Spring's 1050 AM to Wheaton's 1500 AM, when it moves Federal News Radio to the latter signal in mid-September". Jeez! The WTOP call letters have been moved and shifted and flipped around more than the Queen in a Three-Card-Monte game! It's really sad, not to mention frustrating for listeners. I'll bet someone could live fairly well on just the money budgeted over the years for every time new and revised stationary and business cards have to be printed. So sad... (8/27/08) Dave's response: That's right. Over the years, the WTOP calls have been on 94.3, 107.7, 103.5, 96.3, 1500, 820, and soon 1050. And, of course, DC's Channel 9..... Did anyone notice that MSNBC was obviously using DNC talking points last night after Hillary's speech? Keith Olbermann chimed in right after Hillary finished her speech. "Grand Slam". His nearly orgasmic reaction to the context of the speech continued with the grand slam theme. Later Bill Richardson came on the air. "She hit it out of the Park!" Quoted in many newspapers today was New Hampshire's House Speaker. "She hit it right out the ballpark." Maybe its just coincidence....hahahah....I couldn't say that with a straight face. (8/27/08) I wish a quick recovery and much health to Rob Bartlett of the Imus program. I'll never forget perhaps one of my favorite clips of Rob, portraying Bill Clinton dressed up as Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick and playing guitar with the band on "Dream Police" on the Imus MSNBC program. Starts at minute 5:29 (take a look at "Bubba's" solo at 7:57 - Classic!) Get well soon, Rob! -Silvie- www.youtube.com (8/27/08) MSNBC's coverage is such a joke and why does olbermann care so much about bill o'reilly anyways? Why doesn't he just fight him, put it on PPV and call it a day, acts like he's 5 years old. Kinda hoping mccain wins just to see olbermann lose it on air. Also, has anyone interviewed a hillary clinton supporter who wasn't a butch dyke? My goodness those women are hideous. What another terrible presidential race. Mccain is old and seems clueless and obama just wants to raise your taxes, get healthcare for everyone ( ask canada how that is, my friends up there HATE IT) and pay poor hillary back the money she lost campaigning. When will these clowns just do what's best for the most people and can the party BS?--- joy (8/27/08) A question regarding CNN and Fox rejecting the Obama/Ayers ads. In the 1988 or was it 1992 campaign, wasn't there some hoo-hah about Larry Flint running for president, and him planning to run pornographic ads because you can't censor/reject the ads in a presidential campaign? Or is it only ads posted by the candidate themselves? (8/27/08) If 1050 is just turned into a simulcast of WTOP, Bonneville would likely not allow a separate net stream of the station. Considering that 1050's nighttime signal barely reaches past the antenna site, the lack of such a stream could leave listeners wanting to hear D.C. United and other sports overflow games out of luck. Everett W. (8/27/08) Does anyone know where else to get "Don & Mike Show" podcasts other than iTunes? I've downloaded all of the ones on iTunes, but they only go back to February of this year. Would like to know if I can find some older ones somewhere. Man, afternoons in Baltimore radio suck without those guys! Thanks, Greg in Reisterstown. (8/27/08) Dave's response: Wasn't it always the Mike O'Meara show? Ha ha ha..... I guess it's the season; we aren't going to escape political rants no matter how thinly tied to DC radio or television until November. The rants against Olbermann , MSNBC et .al. will be followed by similar rants against Fox and their subsequent coverage of the Republican convention, when the criticism will be replaced by the sweet sounds of ass sucking by their right leaning commentators. A couple of years ago Olbermann couldn't raise a blip in this mailbag, and now there is a devoted cadre to track his every utterance. It reminds me of the Howard or D&M haters who would post here with a complete dissection of each show, which only proved they were listening. These political conventions are simply theater, where politicos get an opportunity to not get reduced to sound bites, if anyone can stand to watch the proceedings. Political heavyweights are never as pure as the driven snow, to get to the top you have done some flip-flopping, known some shady characters, and have had your character flaws and mistakes from the past exposed and examined in detail. Everyone knows these guys or their surrogates are at the point where either side will say almost anything to win the Presidency. Every attack will be followed by a counterpunch, and it's going to get nastier as we go along. There will be the old 11th hour attacks by each side..hmm..lets see, it turns out Obama slept with white women in college, and McCain's cancer has returned. Anything to convince the few in the middle within the important states where this election will once again be decided. The mud is going to keep flying here and everywhere else until we have a winner, it's as American as apple pie. It won't be long before commentators like O'Reilly and Olbermann will be telling us with faux shock that this is the dirtiest election of all times, when it's simply the same as all the others, the only difference being how technology is used to inundated us with spin,half-truths, and with generalities so broad that they mean almost nothing. It's all about faith and getting morsels. I no more think that Obama will get us out of Iraq in a few months than I think McCain really cares about abortion and evangelicals. Outside of an absolute crisis, our government moves like a slow barge, and for me I think we can chance letting a fresh helmsman steer the boat in a slightly different direction and see what happens. (8/27/08) Dave's response: Look, with the political conventions going on for two weeks, we're bound to get more political posts here in the Mailbag. Please keep 'em media-related, at least. Purely political posts ain't what this venue is about..... Well, its nice to come back from Maine and Vermont after a few weeks on vacation, and find all the usual foodfights going on in the mailbag. I won't get into the threads about politics or the conventions (life is too short), or engage the NPR-bashers (life IS too short). I will echo Ed Graham and other common-sense folk who know that good ratings for the Nats broadcasts is as close as the next winning streak/sucess in the playoffs. Remember, this is a team that, when north of the border, nearly died from neglect by the Quebecois, and Major League Baseball. This is a team that came to a city desperate for baseball after seeing team after team hijacked by greedy owners. This is a team that is taking the smart road to growth, just as the Orioles once did, by building a really dynamite farm system, and drafting good talent as they become available. Also: back to the radio broadcasts. Keep in mind that the local ratings for a ballclub's radio brodcasts are only part of the picture. Keep in mind that Major League Baseball also has its deal with Sirius XM to broadcast all the games of all the team on satellite. Part of that means that each team has to have someone around to provide a play-by-play broadcast. Remember when the St. Louis Cards dropped their affiliation with CBS' KMOX, a 50kw AM with a monster signal that allowed people all over the midwest to claim the Cards as their home team? Following season, the Cards had bought themselves a smaller station, and put their own broadcasts on that station. Its just a hunch on my part, but I don't think the ratings for an over-the-air baseball broadcast are no longer the sole arbiter of success/failure or profit/loss for a team. As mentioned, there is Sirius XM, terrestrial radio, and the Internet. I agree with the other poster who finds the old, soon-to-be outmoded diary setup just doesn't work, and hasn't for a numbr of years. I think a lot of stations will find themselves in th same situations again. - Paula (8/27/08) Dave, I saw the post about the UMD student reporters at the conventions and wanted to share our news with you. A group of ambitious American University students, the nation’s most politically-active students according to the Princeton Review, are starting off the school year at the Democratic and Republican National Conventions. Five students— Sam Hagedorn (DNC), Kaitlin Scanlan (DNC), Katie Smith (DNC), Dan Shorts (RNC), and Alex Knepper (RNC)—will be live blogging for politics@theEagle, a Web site created by AU’s student newspaper, The Eagle. In addition, Michael Monrroy, will be attending the Republican National Convention as an embedded political reporter for Si TV & Voto Latino as the winner of their “Crash the Parties contest. Best, Maralee (8/27/08) Speaking of TV Trainwrecks, how about MSNBC's coverage of the convention. Did the McCain campaign pay off that train conductor to blow the whistle every time blow-hard Olbermann started flapping his jaws and giving his opinion as factual news? I couldn't stop laughing, even Brian Williams couldn't stop laughing! My favorite Olbermann quote was when he read out loud the McCain response to Hillary Clinton's speech and flatly stated that there was no chance that response would get any traction by any credible news organization, as if MSNBC even qualifies as such! Then, almost as if on cue, the train conductor blew the train whistle again as if it was a foul in a sporting event! HAha! Too funny, especially considering even some prominent Democrats like Ed Rendell consider Fox News a more credible news source, not to mention no one is watching MSNBC's coverage. Poor Tom Brokaw, they gave him old/bad poll #s to read yesterday and today he looks like a fish out of water in the presence of those circus clowns, unstable Olbermann, loudmouth Matthews, the Republican even Republicans pay no attention to, Pat Buchanan, and the lesbian chick who's name no one can remember nor can anyone figure out why she's even there! What a complete joke the MSNBC coverage is! HAha! :-) (8/27/08) Dave ---PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE step in and put a stop to the political posts without reference to Radio or TV....they just don't belong here and clearly the posters have some kind of agenda..and to these posters:: PLEASE stop yourselves and remember that this is a radio and tv (and sometimes print) site--go rant and rave somewhere else! thanks,,, (8/27/08) The disclosure of the poor radio ratings (after the previous disclosure of the atrocious TV ratings) couldn't be more of a repudiation of the arrogance of MLB, the Lerners and the "baseball reveals the meaning of life" geeks who assumed that Washington area sports fans would fall all over themselves to support a team with few quality players, no farm system and tightfisted ownership just because MLB finally decided to stop urinating on the DC area. Imagine such arrogance from these clowns after MLB gave the DC area the middle finger for THIRTY plus years and then foisted a completely disfunctional franchise on the area. And imagine the arrogance of assuming that local fans would kiss off the Redskins, Caps and Wizards, franchises who HAVE supported the area for DECADES just as the area has supported them, in order to support the major league baseball version of the Keystone Kops. Nothing could be better than the message being sent to these idiots and that message is that the Nationals are going to have to EARN their support by putting a quality team on the field and by proving to local fans that they DESERVE their support. The repudiation of the baseball geeks is complete and that is a good thing for local sports and, ironically, for the long term prospects of baseball in this area. (8/27/08) /\ August 27 Messages /\ \/ August 26 Messages \/ Dave, I sure wish we could get back to slamming O & A and not include all these political rants. (8/26/08) First, ACH, we are at war! People in countries where wars are fought die. Apparently, you think we were "wrong" for killing thousands of innocent Germans and Japanese, too? When and where did you hear that Laura Bush killed someone with her car? Ted Kennedy was drunk and adulterous the night of the Chappaquiddick incident. And, President Truman apologized to WQQW's (later WGMS) Paul Hume rather than punch him the nose! But, we would all be happy tp punch YOUR nose! /s/another anonymous poster (8/26/08) I have to agree with previous posters. What would it hurt to have a pregame call-in show from 6 PM to 6:35 PM on most nights, or whatever the natural time break would be to the top or bottom of an hour depending on the first pitch time? Craig Heist and/or Phil Wood, both of whom know Nats baseball AND O's baseball, would be perfect hosts. And as far as the presentation is concerned, there is no question that the Nats broadcasts are well engineered, from the sounds of the game (bat crack, crowd, fireworks) to the music selection, even Charlie & Dave's great sense of humor in the face of horrible losses, all the little details that make a baseball game on the radio enjoyable are there. I can't help but think the sampling size, the way Arbitron credits listenership & the extrapolation formulas they use are antiquated. The numbers locally & nationwide have got to be higher team-by-team than what is shown. It just wouldn't be profitable to have baseball on the radio at all otherwise. Maybe this People Meter they are rolling out will show a truer rating and cumulative audience than what the report in Farhi's Post article claims. - Jerry in Towson (8/26/08) Surely the good readers of this site can differentiate between celebrities and politicians. Politicians are always glad to shake a hand, celebrities are always careful of which hand they shake. YOU want to see the stars, the politicians want to be seen by you. Of course getting in to see a 'star' is going to be much harder than getting in to see a politico. One-on-one tends to be difficult no matter why the celebrity is a celebrity, even if a politician. And conventions or other mass media events are a whole of another story. Credential processes are very byzantine and depend upon a hierarchy of inter-relationships. Credentials to some events are requested 3-6 months in advance, well before current events that may make it appear that somebody should, or should not, be covered by a particular media or from a particular bias. The reason that locals don't always get to have their reporters at a major event is because they are most likely getting the bulk of their news from a network source anyway, so there is little, if any, added content or supported benefit to their attendance. Therefore, convention planners, mindful of the impact to the local community that has to support the crush of people, will request that the single network source entity attends and that the many local affiliates from across the country do not. In some cases however, the local station may get to attend on behalf of the network so that the network saves travel costs. If small and regional stations had legitimate news departments, they would have a bonafide reason to attend an out of town event. Merely wanting to go and put on show is not a valid reason. Too many already attend just to have a press credential to wear around their neck for the next month. Its no different with covering musical events where everyone wants an All Access pass. The cost of travel, which is borne by the station and its advertisers, has to be considered against any real journalistic validity to going on a trip. Just because a reporter or editor wants to go or thinks they could/should/would go is not a valid reason to spend $$$. The first day or two would be a loss as the cub reporter from smallzville finds their way around in the big city. Conventions may have interns, but they are no place for unsupervised newbies. The networks send plenty of folks that the affiliates can still get some local spin by arranging for cut-ins from the network. Other issues also prevail such as fire codes, overtime pay, transport and food logistics. And someone has to still be at the station to take all that incoming stuff and maintain normal operations. Stations do not have cadres of people sitting around to send to such events because advertisers dont spend enough for that. The old days of ready to hit the road journalism are long over by at least 20 years. (8/26/08) For the poster who wanted to know about press credentials , have no idea about the conventions but I do know that with celebrities, often they pick and choose who can get in to see them and who does not. Actor Kirk Cameron for example, unless you share his faith you can't meet him. Movie star Tom Cruise, it has been reported over the years he is VERY PICKY as far those getting credentials to meet him plus he has "rules" too such as if anyone looks at him directly in the eye..he will sue you !!! For years I heard it was more/less the same with Dick Clark as well. A friend of mine back in the mid 1990's worked at a country music radio station in Ohio. One day he got a phone call from his PD telling him NOT to show up at the station to pick up his paycheck. Why? Garth Brooks was going to pay a visit and per-Garth..only those "on the clock" are allowed to be at the radio station when he is there. When Bill Clinton was elected the first time in 1992, a friend of mine got credentials to meet him and Hillary ( and the Gores too ) when they were in Culpepper thanks to ABC News ( her station was an affiliate ), yet the next month she was TURNED DOWN at getting credentials to meet LUCIE ARNAZ !!! Figure that out !!! (8/26/08) Tiny audience aside, but could Nats' broadcasts have any worse lead-in? They should have a pre-game call-in show with either Craig Heist or some other knowledgeable baseball guy, who at the moment, obviously isn't working for Bonneville. By the way, is Craig Heist related to old Cubs' outfielder Al Hesit? It's such an unusual name, I thought there might be a connection. (8/26/08) I thought that this was a radio blog; not a political blog? This place is getting out of control. (8/26/08) CNN rejects the Obama - Ayers ads? No wonder. The facts as presented are very damaging to Obama. There is so much disinformation posted so far that it is out of hand. Ayers was never prosecuted because he was a fugitive for many years and by the time he resurfaced many of the witnesses were either unavailable or not willing to testify. Ayers hosted a get-together in his house to launch Obama's career in 1995. Ayers and Obama served on at least two boards together between then and now. Obama has been quoted as saying that he considers Ayers a friend, neighbor, and also "mainstream". On September 11, 2001 Ayers was quoted in the New York Times as saying, about his terrorism while part of the WeatherUnderground, "I wish we would have done more". A real mainstream guy. (8/26/08) Dave's response: For the record, Fox also rejected the ad..... I promise this will be my last almost off-topic post on this matter. But the comments made deserve a response. In regard to the association of the King of Saudi Arabia and the Bush Family, it should be noted that said King also held company with the Clintons and AL Gore at least three times publicly between 1994-1998. That would be during the Clinton presidency (1993-2001) and one year AFTER the first Saudi-funded terroist bombing of the WTC which the Clinton presidency did nothing about. Said King made donations to Carter and Clinton libraries, the latter of which considered the King such a good friend that he actually asked for the money. Saudi Ambassador Prince Bandar was also known to be a favorite of Hillary Clinton and visited 1600 Penn. Ave often at her request during the eight years that his services overlapped with Bill. It is interesting to note how little of this was reported by the Washington Post. The re-writing of the revisionist backstory for the Clinton years continues. (8/26/08) ". . . Bush has never killed anyone." Except for a few hundred thousand innocent women and children in Iraq. Changing the subject to Ted Kennedy shows you have no response to the former WJFK jock, G. Gordon Liddy or the GOP clown, Don King. Also, Laura Bush killed someone with her car as well. An accident, just like Kennedy's. It happens... ACH. (8/26/08) The following link has been recommended by a friend: comcastsportsnet.tv: Comcast SportsNet, the leader in local sports television, announces today the most extensive coverage of college football in the region. In addition to airing 78 college football games featuring the ACC, Big 12, Pac-10 and CAA conferences, the network will kickoff the 2008 college football season with “SportsNite on Campus: Kickoff Week,” beginning Sunday, Aug. 24. (8/26/08) I've always noticed that the people who screech longest and loudest about politics consistently display the least intelligence on the topic. Can we get back to bitch-slapping Don Geronimo now, please? Dave in Sterling (8/26/08) Well, since we are now a site for political dialog, let me interject this reality. Regardless of how many possible terrorists may have shook hands with a member of the Bush family, it is the very hands of Ted Kennedy himself and members of his family that have terrorized, killed and raped at least two women. And this guy gets to speak for the party? No Bush has ever killed anyone, especially an innocent woman. I guess the Post had to send so many reporters to Colorado so they could form a Great Wall of Elitism to be sure the grand coverup continues and no real stories get leaked!! (8/26/08) Dave, you're right of course, but for the record, G. Gordon Liddy is a broadcaster who has long been broadcast locally and who lives in the Washington area. Kidding aside, I live within a block of where you live in Reston and see you often at S.L. Shopping Center. Will be glad to buy you lunch anytime. ACH (8/26/08) Dave's response: Cool! Maybe we can make it a three-some. Cerphe lives just a street away. Lots of "celebs" in this Reston neighborhood, huh! I was watching the Denver DNC Convention last night. Someone on CNN said there was over 14,000 journalists and media crew on hand in that city from all over the world to cover the convention. Had me wondering. How tough is it to get a press pass to cover events such as political conventions? What are the rules? A buddy of mine told me this morning where he read on another site that size of the market plays a BIG role as to who gets press credentials and who does not. Easy to get them if you work for a TV station in DC or Baltimore, impossible if you work say in Charlottesville or Harrisonburg, VA. True? Do they have to be employed in the news department or can pretty much anyone who works at a station reguardless of their position can get them? I know that in sports some teams require that in order for a member of the media to get credentials they must work in the sports or news department of a TV/radio station ( such as no disc jockies or office go-fers ), I am pretty sure the Orioles had such a rule a number of years back. Are bakground checks done of those who do get press credentials for security? I would imagine its free to get such passes but if its not, how much? Sorry for the many questions but after hearing the 14,000 figure, had me wondering how many media members who were turned down in getting those credentials for whatever reasons. (8/26/08) Dave's response: I was watching the convention on CNN-HD (Comcast 234) and noticed that CNN put this silly digital VU meter graphic on the left edge of the screen with something like "Voices From The Floor" on it. Incredibly distracting and stupid. I then flipped over to WETA-HD (Comcast 220) and watched PBS's HD coverage which had significantly better audio (imagine that) and less mindless clutter on the wide screen..... Without the Plante poster, who would post the links that nobody is asking for? (8/26/08) Gawd, everything Farley has touched since he's got here has turned to dogshit, Bonneville shouldn't let him anywhere near WTOP, terrorism, the war, the economy, and of course traffic, are all doing that just fine without him (8/26/08) Let's do talk briefly about terrorists and actual felons: 1. One of John McCain's good friends is G. Gordon Liddy, a convicted felon who has done hard time. 2. One of the speakers at the 2004 Republican convention and also a McCain friend is Don King, a convicted murderer who has also done hard time. 3. How many times have you seen George W. Bush holding hands with the King of Saudi Arabia, a terrorist whose country actually holds telethons for suicide bombers and is the biggest supplier of al Quaeda recruits to Iraq? And yes, you don't have to be "lucky" to find photos of all three examples. Ayers and the weather underground at least never killed a soul except three of their own number. You can't say that about the above GOP associations. ACH (8/26/08) Dave's response: This ain't a political venue. Keep it to local media stuff. Gonna have to start trashing posts for being too off-topic..... 1. william ayers was never indicted or convicted because of the shoddy and illegal work of the FBI members who handled his case. ayers has never denied what he did. 2. they've never had their picture taken together (as far as i know) through sheer luck, considering how long they've known each other. 3. ayers is considered "mainstream" (their word) by people like obama and the "honorable" richard daley, not anyone with an ounce of decency. william ayers (and wife bernadine dohrn, who was also involved in other notorious activity) *today* continue to call for the violent overthrow of capitalism and the american form of government and have no regrets about their past actions (along with the "we didn't do enough" quote, which doesn't matter to when it's applied, it's the fact he said it and still believes it). obama may have "denounced" what they did (big fucking deal. he has to if he wants any chance of being elected), but he sure knew who they were and decided to associate with them anyway when he started his foray into politics. obama's main selling point (since he has no executive, military or private sector experience, and 1 year of senate duty before running for president) is his supposedly superior judgment. with associations like ayers, dohrn, tony rezko, rev. wright and rev. pfleger, that judgment needs to be called into question. the more people learn about obama, the less they like him. the cult of personality can only get you so far. (8/26/08) Although I have to admit to a personal bias, there are a few truisms concerning the Nats and Caps remaining on Bonneville outlets. Looking back historically at the Nats performance on a variety of frequency combinations from the first season to now, they have performed above expectations when the team is doing well. The old Z104/WFED combination in the inaugural season saw key demos performing in the 3.2 to 3.7 range. When we had the good fortune of 10 wins in a row midseason a few years ago there were similar numbers. It's not for a lack of trying to present a good broadcast & giving the teams a great amount of cross promotion from WTOP and in features on then WaPoRad or 3WT. In some cases, when they had a nice series of wins, the Nats outdrew the morning shows on those formats. Charlie & Dave have done a remarkable job of keeping the broadcasts fresh and enjoyable to listen to, regardless of the win-loss record of the Nats. And I say that as objectivly as possible, as a long time fan baseball on the radio. In a city without the baseball equivalent of Sonny, Sam & Frank for 33 years, without a Vin Scully, Haray Calas, or other heritage P-B-P voice for all those years, it is an uphill battle to gain listeners when the team itself is just recovering from the mess MLB left it in when it was handed over to the Lerner family, who are in a total reconstruction period. The continued call volume from fans other than "regulars" on Nats Talk Live, as well as the surprising number of nights that Caps Talk Live went over an hour last season, tells you that the product is where it needs to be. Fans of both sports e-mailed and called to say that the Caps & Nats were shown a tremendous amount of respect on the Bonneville outlets. Caps fans were especially vocal when there was some hint that the recent frequency swap might move the radio broadcasts elsewhere. The idea that the Nats or Caps would be given anything other than second or third tier status on the Redskins stations is unquestionable. And although WJFK did a very nice job in handling the overflow of Caps playoff games last April, I think they have larger signal limitation problems for some outlying fans than the current 1500/820 combo. Most of these points have been reinforced individually by other posters below, but I personally believe...as an individual, not as a Bonneville employee...that both Stan Kasten and Ted Leonsis will want to stay right where they are for many years to come. - S (8/26/08) re: NPR and local voices. Yup. Kevin Klose opened himself up for criticism because there has been a shift away from local programming in public radio. But as Ed Graham pointed out NPR is not at fault for decisions made by local stations, which control their program schedules. All those things public radio was "supposed to be" were determined back when public radio was supposed to be subsidized by the government. As far as the government is concerned, all those whole-grain ideas about non-commercial radio are nothing more than an unfunded mandate. What's not in the Kevin Klose quote is anything about NPR's local news initiative or the investments many stations around the country are making in getting community voices on the air through projects like Story Corps and This I Believe. Local versions of these features often run in Morning Edition and are delivered to substantial audiences. There is an effort in public radio t o bring local voices back to the airwaves. It's still in its infancy, but at least the effort is being made. And Ed Graham, just a point of information, NPR is still a membership organization. Its bylaws require NPR to let any full member station in a market air any NPR program, even if it is already on another station. (8/26/08) “It would make sense for Bonneville and CBS Radio to negotiate both the Washington Nationals and Washington Capitals off to WJFK-FM.” What makes you say that? Bonneville’s making money, and both of those teams love being on 1500, where they will remain. The only thing that’s needed is for the Nationals to actually win a ballgame once in a while. -Brian (8/26/08) I have a few questions about the terrorist (William Ayers?) who blew up the Capitol or attempted such an act in the 1960s when Barack Obama was eight years of age. 1. If he is such a bad, guilty fellow why was he never indicted or arrested, let alone convicted of any crime? 2. If he is such a close friend of Senator Obama's why is there not a single photo of the two of them together? 3. Why is he considered a respectable member of the Chicago community where he is a university professor and is even a visiting professor to that right wing bastion of learning, the University of South Carolina. My understanding of this issue is that Mr. Ayers once donated $200 to an Obama political campaign and he was present at an Obama organizing meeting once. Senator Obama has also denounced all violent actions by the group in question, just for the record. Okay, nut wings, please answer questions one through three and cite sources. In order if you can. ACH P.S. If you're going to use the "we didn't do enough" quote, please attribute it to his efforts to end the Vietnam war. (8/26/08) Out here with the convention in Denver... One question... how many locals sent crews? Such an historical event for African Americans surprised I am not seeing other black anchors here for history. How many are coming? Any? (8/26/08) Commander Bunny? The Rodent Revolution? Hot Dog, finally a reference to Pirate Radio after all these many years reading your site! This is so much fun I'm barely remaining continent!!! Genghis Cohen, maintaining a steady ear on 6925khz (give or take 40hz) for The Lincolnshire Poacher in suddenly not-so-unbearable Prince William County (8/26/08) "I must have missed the day the US Capitol blew up. But good to know Fox News is reporting Obama had a hand in it! LOL" - The bombing of the US Capitol by the Weather Underground, took place on March 1, 1971. Yeah, I guess you missed it. Obama associate and former fugitive William Ayers was one of the eleven founders of the organization. Keep LOLing, Summer's Eve. (8/26/08) From a programming standpoint, live sports became irrelevant years ago. Very few people listen, but advertisers still want to be associated with sports, so the sales departments (which unfortunately means, Management) wants sports. Some small stations carry things like indoor lacrosse, just for the revenue. With every game on cable TV, the only reason anyone would tune in a Nats game on the radio would be to check the score. Almost all of the listening is in car, and only a play-off, or world series game would actually have an audience. The problem with DC sports radio, is not what teams they carry, but how bad their day to day talent is. A weekly CUME of 26,500 is hardly worth the electricity. DC might have the lowest ARBITRON ratings for baseball, but the trend will continue nationwide. Ed Graham (8/26/08) Commander Bunny,though I deeply appreciate your admiration, I am not about to be cared for by a bunny (. Any of various long-eared, short-tailed, burrowing mammals of the family Leporidae, as the commonly domesticated Old World species Oryctolagus cuniculus or the cottontail. 2. A hare. 3. The fur of a rabbit or hare. 4. Sports A runner who intentionally sets a fast pace for a teammate during a long-distance race. I am one monkey that's able to totally care for myself. The condecending remarks pertaining to all by the bunny's, is disturbing to me personally and to the others you mentioned. We are in the process of intensifying the Monkey Code of Ethics and prefer to be called by our "God given names. I would venture to say that commanding a legion of long eared, short tailed burrowning mammals must be a rewarding avocation. But, I respectfully pass on the offer.PLB:0) (8/26/08) There are no ratings to be had with baseball short of a few “baseball” markets like NYC and Boston and maybe Chicago. There is no evidence anywhere else that MLB can drive ratings to a station. The only reason to do a rights deal is to make money on the sales and marketing side of the business. Sure, if you hand pick a few games you might be able to show some positive ratings, but over a weeks time you will see no impact. When you throw in the fact that the Nats are terrible, and play with no stars on the team, it only makes it worse. (8/26/08) I must have missed the day the US Capitol blew up. But good to know Fox News is reporting Obama had a hand in it! LOL (8/26/08) National Public Radio President Kevin Klose said that commercial radio lacks authenticity and has lost its local voice. "What we have seen in the mass media is a consolidation followed by reconsolidation and reconsolidation," said Klose. "You end up with these hidden conglomerates that own the local voices. Then they do away with those local voices." He’s right. Just so you’ll understand - - NPR does not own radio stations. They are a network, and the stations that carry them also pay dearly for the shows they run. DC, as in most cases, is not typical. NPR is on several stations in DC. In most markets NPR only wants the best signal, and won’t let other stations in a market duplicate programming. It’s also not NPR’s fault that UDC sold their station to C-Span. Local Non-Com stations all over the country produce local programs. NPR has no influence on those stations. Mass consolidation of commercial station is cutting local input. Not my fault either. Ed Graham (8/26/08) I'm glad to see that NPR's propaganda has reached the 'obviously ridiculous' stage. They're inadvertently doing more to dispel the myth of "impartial and factual information" than any outside observer could do. It is disheartening to hear the same NPR program on multiple stations at the same time, but we can be grateful to Bonneville for getting WETA to break out of that pattern (although I do tune away from WETA twice an hour during drive time--when they break for NPR news). ~~CA in BC (8/26/08) Live video stream of 630 WMAL's The Chris Plante Show all week from 9 - 11:45 a.m. from the DNC convention in Denver. The same video and audio link will be available next week as well during the RNC convention. -Silvie- www.630wmal.com (8/26/08) "Thank goodness for FoxNews. The only place that will report on Obama's friendship and personal relationship with an unrepentant domestic terrrorist who blew up the US Capitol and Pentagon, etc." Hey...O 'Reilly reads this site???? Cool! Paul (8/26/08) It would make sense for Bonneville and CBS Radio to negotiate both the Washington Nationals and Washington Capitals off to WJFK-FM. The promotion of any remaining sports broadcasts in a relic radio configuration would be unwieldy at best. Unfortunately, WTEM's so-called "Home of the Redskins" would not be a hospitable home for either team. Everett W. (8/26/08) "So the Post used its retention of my email address (required to suscribe to read stories) to send me a nice little convention update." Are you some kind of sissy? All they want is something with @ dot something in it. There's no reason to use your real email. When the machines become self-aware it's off to the labor camps for you. You are not smarter than a fifth grader. "The email was spam and the Post should be penalized for using my email address to send unsolicited emails of a political nature. The Post is a joke. I unsubscribed." It just goes to show you can't spell "pussy" without "pussy", and, obviously, balloon hats. -- Biff from Burke (8/26/08) Nationals on WJFK? No Thank You! Dave, it may be fine where you are in Northern Virginia, but that signal fades out or is overwhelmed by Baltimore's 106.5 frequency beginning around College Park in Maryland. Back in the Howard Stern days on the station, it was always a struggle to try to listen to that show. I gave up trying to listen to WJFK after he left. Baseball is best on AM because the broadcasts can be heard for hundreds of miles at night, which is when most games are played. Jim Farley said it best -- this team has no identity and no characters and they stink! I go to 20 games a year, but I don't listen to the games on radio this year. Why listen? To see if they can stop their latest losing streak at 10 games or less? (8/26/08) Dave's response: CBS would also have to implement my proposed frequency swap - JFK to 94.7, El Zol to 106.7, and a new real progressive rock HFS on 99.1..... Well, that's funny that the NPR Honcho is saying that "Commercial Radio is silencing local voices" because that's exactly what NPR has done. It wasn't all that long ago that there were plenty of free-form and local college radio stations, places to hear music that wasn't available elsewhere, opinions outside of the box, local issues, etc. Now it seems that every station below 92.1 that has even a decent signal is NPR - piped in radio from DC. No local voices, no outlet for local music, no local commentary, just "All things considered" and "Car Talk" on multiple signals in the same listening area. Now who has silenced local voices?!? (8/26/08) So the Post used its retention of my email address (required to suscribe to read stories) to send me a nice little convention update. Funny, I don't recall subscribing for any updates on anything. But I had to read it thrice to be sure it really was sent by the 'non partisan' Post. The update read like a puff peice from the DNC itself, all full of how Hillary was striking back at McCain. While the Post's bias is well known everywhere except in their own newsroom, this email barrage crosses the line. The email was spam and the Post should be penalized for using my email address to send unsolicited emails of a political nature. The Post is a joke. I unsubscribed. (8/26/08) Dave's response: I got the same thing..... Hey, Dave...It's not 26,000 "per weekday game," as you state. As the article says, the total number of listeners is 26,000 PER WEEK during weekdays. That's the cume, which is the only available number. I'm sure you can correct this without anyone noticing. And don't worry--I won't take any gratuitous shots at you about your mistake. (8/26/08) Dave's response: The above came from a Postie. I did correct the Front Page blurb and do readily accept the condemnation. My brain just found it hard to believe that the Nats get only 26,500 listeners per WEEK. On my first read of the article, I saw it as 26,500 per GAME, which is pretty pathetic..... I was both surprised and a bit hurt by the resonse from PLB. I was not trying to dis you by mentioning your trailer park life, I (who live in a hole in the ground) was in fact giving you credit. I don't hold any grudge towards your WPGC days, but in fact was giving you credit. (OK the reverb was a bit much but top tunes and sock-o stuff made up for it) I do realize that because of your monkey DNA (all ape-humans are monkeys in my opinion) that you are prone to violence, but my post was not meant as an attack, but more of admiration for a monkey who had risen above the fray! While I will admit my birth name was not "Commander", but in fact "Peter", I have been the leader of the Rodent Revolution for many years and am addressed by all who approach as "Commander Bunny". Chill PLB, when the rodents take over, we will keep monkeys like you, Ed Rod, Dave Hughes, Tom Gauger, Willard Scott, Johnny Holiday and Pat Murphy as most cherished pets. We will feed you daily and change your papers twice daily. What more could a monkey-boy like you ask? Its not an attack, its confirmation of the level of achievement that you have made in your monkey-boy life! I am, and remain, Commander Bunny (8/26/08) Ok, I'll be the first to ask the question: Was Keith Olbermann drunk or on drugs last night on MSNBC? C'mon, I haven't seen eyes that glassy since Big Don O'Brien last did the weekend weather on Baltimore's WMAR Channel 2! I was half wondering when Glenda the good witch of the north was gonna pop out of his bubbly eyed face! I realize its a convention and the whole purpose of any convention is to get drunk, but GEEZ, he's supposed to be working the convention, not partaking in the debauchery himself! LOL (8/26/08) Dave, When you're referring to WTOP being back on 107.7, I think you should be saying Manassas instead of Warrenton, as the city of license was changed some months ago. Keep up the good work. Bob (8/26/08) Dave's response: Yeah, the city of license was changed, but the transmitter is still in Warrenton..... Re:"(post) Does anyone know the name of the actress whop plays the ditzy clerk Flo in the Progressive Insurance ads? (end post) Hey hey hey! No need to bring ethnic slurs into this forum... " Sorry about that. I type like I play the piano, and I can't play the piano worth diddly. (8/26/08) While flipping around on Saturday to see which stations were carrying the Obama-Biden announcement, I found WBAL running a Commitment 2008 spot, promoting its extensive election coverage. No actual Obama-Biden coverage, just the spot. Bob in Pikesville, MD. (8/26/08) RE: "Thank goodness for FoxNews. The only place that will report on Obama's friendship and personal relationship with an unrepentant domestic terrrorist who blew up the US Capitol and Pentagon, etc." You are one sick SOB and need help. - Sorry dude that the truth hurts. (8/26/08) Someone called a poster, one sick SOB and need help. Why is he a sick SOB? There is not one thing he said that is untrue or malicious. People here and elsewhere call conservatives kool aid drinkers, but my goodness, this guy hangs or hung out with people who advocate the violent overthrow of our government and you all want to make him President. You must be kidding!!! Get a grip, before you know it people like him will be running the country and you will be the first they will segment. They won't come after us, as we'll be armed!!! You all will surrender. Crabs in a pot! Porter Jervis (8/26/08) In honor of our nation's heroes, 4&9’s fresh, fun, performance group 5678 is staging a one-night-only comedy show and art auction to raise money for Luke's Wings, a non-profit organization supporting service members who have been wounded in the War on Terror. Cartoonist Bob Heim (www.heimhouse.com), whose work can be seen in Barron's, American Banker, New Woman, The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Washingtonian, among others, will lend his own brand of visual humor and improvisational art to the benefit. .... A Night of Comedy to Benefit Luke’s Wings.... Saturday, September 13, 8:00PM, $20 General Admission, at the Bethesda Theater in Bethesda, Maryland. (8/26/08) /\ August 26 Messages /\ \/ August 25 Messages \/ re: "Its been proven by ARB's own surveys...any increase over the last few years for NPR has only been seen really in any great numbers in the normally more liberal areas - the northeast NYC-Boston corridor, the greater DC area and places like the Northwest and urban areas in California." Care to back up this statement with some data? (8/25/08) RE: "Thank goodness for FoxNews. The only place that will report on Obama's friendship and personal relationship with an unrepentant domestic terrrorist who blew up the US Capitol and Pentagon, etc." You are one sick SOB and need help. (8/25/08) Robert Scorpio is coming back to WPGC? That is GREAT! Is there any chance that he will bring Duke and Anna with him or is there too much of a chance of everyone finding out that he is really an agent for the WSB? Surely nobody wants the Ice Princess getting into the hands of the Cassadine family at this point...after so many seasons of General Hospital. Either that or I worked with him at WINX...good guy either way. (8/25/08) Could some of you TECHS in DCRTV Land explains what is the problems with NBC/MSNBC audio coverage of Denver DNC 08??? granted; most days I never want to hear from the biased asses on NBC/MSNBC (see editeted China 08 coverage) BUT COME ON! (8/25/08) RE: NPR - Impartial? LOL I busting a get laughing at that lie. Me too. Especially when you follow the entire paragraph - listeners want localism so they turn to All Things Considered? Morning Edition? Its been proven by ARB's own surveys...any increase over the last few years for NPR has only been seen really in any great numbers in the normally more liberal areas - the northeast NYC-Boston corridor, the greater DC area and places like the Northwest and urban areas in California...its the blue vs red debate all over again...and yes if Limbaugh inflates his weekly cume - so does NPR. The only thing I have chuckled at over the last couple of years - is if indeed the generalizations are true about where geographically NPR has had increased listenership - then why are they "succeeding" in these areas where things like Air America continues to fail miserably? My guess is that its class warfare among the libs...It certainly sounds better if you say you listen to NPR than it does if you say you listen to Randi Rhodes :) (8/25/08) The Gainesville saga continues...please forgive me, but... re: "If the station in question is in violation of anything, it's for using its digital RF channel (28) instead of its former analog channel (53) as its 'major channel number' in its PSIP (the code that tells the digital box what 'virtual channel' to map the station to.) But there's nothing requiring a TV station to 'market' itself as anything in particular." I posted the original response, and I correctly noted that a PSIP ID of 53-1 would be correct, per the rules. I then later found out that the station lists "28-1" ON ITS WEBSITE. I am nowhere near Gainesville FL, so I have no idea what it uses on its actual signal. But this second responder is right, in addition to urging calm... nothing in the FCC rules says WGFL-DT 53-1/28-1/whatever can't call itself "CBS 4" on the air. I am not sure about the 28-1 part, as the analog signal is apparently gone...you'll have to ask the FCC about that one. Who really cares? (8/25/08) Do you suppose Verizon is aware how idiotic the radio advertisement that they are running sounds? They have a supposed ambulance dispatcher trying to call "ambulance two" and the dispatcher continuously calls, "hello, hello, hello, hello can you hear me?" Hello Verizon? The word "hello" is never used in police or fire radio communications and whoever you paid to produce this ad is an idiot and remind me never to buy a Verizon product. (8/25/08) "Today it's almost 30 million," Klose added. He attributed the rise in NPR's popularity to the fact that Americans are searching for impartial and factual information in a sea of opinions and biased news outlets..... NPR - Impartial? LOL I busting a get laughing at that lie. (8/25/08) Thank goodness for FoxNews. The only place that will report on Obama's friendship and personal relationship with an unrepentant domestic terrrorist who blew up the US Capitol and Pentagon, his relationship with a convicted Chicago slumlord felon, his being the only Illinois State Senator that voted to not save the life of a child that survives an abortion, his radical ties to 60's community agitator and Marxist sympathizer Saul Allinsky, and his Communist mentor when he was growing up in Hawaii, Frank Davis of the US Communist Party. Why won't the mainstream media or 60 Minutes even touch these subjects? Maybe because as Democrat Ed Rendell implies, the mainstream media licks Obama's shoes. (8/25/08) LOL; "reason & compassion or anonymity"? Terms I have never heard mentioned to describe anything on tabloid/TV = FOX"News" :-) rock on Dave! that tool DOES look like Alfred E. Newman = don't you all want to beat him up? Besides that and the fact he & 97.85% of the air-staff of FOX"News" can not even read real TV news. Until then, 'My name is "Triad_Spook". Its what I do." (8/25/08) RE: Katie Leahan's TVTrainWreck.com.......... Quite ironic that a Trainwreck TV personality herself creates a TVTrainwreck website, don't ya think? However, it's not provable that Katie Leahan went on any of those Ed Norris/O'Malley NYC trips, although The Sun did report that she was dating Ed Norris at the time (an obvious conflict of interest with her job at WJZ) and boy was she then quickly let go by WJZ 13, the station that never admits anything! I'm pretty sure any day now, WJZ 13 will run that in depth investigative report on prostitution that Marty Bass was working on in the 1980's. :-) (8/25/08) Dave, I am outraged that so many of them there youngsters on the TV set are talking so gosh-dern fast.... I can't even understand what the heck they are talking about. The younger they are the faster it seems. Who cares or even knows if someone had their picture in a magazine 10 or 20 yrs ago??? No one is outraged except, "your mom". Everyone's mom is saying...."stop talking so fast!!!" whether its traffic, news, or sports people on TV and the radio machine too, --signed, OldTimer. (8/25/08) To the f.. FOXNEWS poster, nothing like the voice of reason, compassion, and anonymity to enlighten us about FNC. Have another drink of KoolAid. Armando (8/25/08) (At a recent confab, DC-based National Public Radio President Kevin Klose said that commercial radio lacks authenticity and has lost its local voice. "What we have seen in the mass media is a consolidation followed by reconsolidation and reconsolidation," said Klose. "You end up with these hidden conglomerates that own the local voices. Then they do away with those local voices." ) Talk about the pot calling the kettle black! How many NPR stations are all syndicated and network programming? (8/25/08) I am seeking a record contract... Projects I have been a part of HBO's The Wire, Warner Brothers Body of Lies, release date of Oct. 10, 2008, BET's Sunday Best, Comcast 15 Minutes of Fame... Hello! My name is Scott Redding aka EmCee S.O.H.O. (Son of Holy One). I am a Christian Artist and I also write songs/Poetry. Please check out my website at www.myspace.com/mcsoho. As you know...music has a powerful influence and Music is a Powerful Weapon in the Lord's Army. I feel I have been called for such a time as this to make an Impact in this World for Jesus Christ by Ministering the Gospel through Holy Hip Hop. I thank you in advance for your time and consideration...If you would like to know anything else or have an interest... Please don't hesitate to contact me. Thank You and Have an Awesome Day! Scott Redding, EmCee, S.O.H.O., 443-848-6746, mcsoho2007@yahoo.com (8/25/08) " fuck FOX'News' " GRANTED THEY ARE A MOB OF IGNORANT & HATEFUL SOCIALISTS/ANARCHISTS! (see: Mao Ze Dong & "red guards" =20 million dead & ruin of a national culture...) BUT ANYTIME A BUNCH OF DUMBASS PUNKS 'BEAT UP' A FOX'News' TOOL, I AM ALL FOR IT :-) rock on. (8/25/08) Dave's response: Now now, violence is never the answer. It's got to be hellish enough just to have to go around and look like Carl Cameron. Honestly, he looks like he belongs on the cover of Mad magazine..... does anyone have an update on how "stash" is recovering at 98 Rock? (8/25/08) I do not understand whay anyone would waste their time listening to WTOP. I listened Saturday. I heard hardly any news. I heard traffic and weather over and over. I heard a little sports and business. But mostly all I heard was a bunch of god damned commercials. The amount of news in one hour is so small that no wonder people get their news off of the internet. WTOP is a joke. Perhaps their slogan could be: " Hardly any news any of the time". (8/25/08) Dave commented that he wanted to throw a brick @ his tv whilst watching Fox. All I cam say is the truth hurt, doesn't it? Porter Jervis (8/25/08) Dave's response: It doesn't hurt me. It hurts my TV set..... NPR guy says commercial radio has lost its locality? You mean the network that tries to jam its syndicated shows on every noncomm in America? (8/25/08) Dear Commander Bunny(great anonymous flame that runs and hides behind a long eared cotton tailed identity) just whom do you think you're fooling. TWIT! If you have a name use it. As for my trailer park, I sold it and bought a quanset hut and a two story tent. Come by anytime for a visit, I have a carrot field you can graze on. As for my WPGC days, evidently that bothers you to some extent (your ears couldn't handle the reverb??)If you had to use your real name, you wouldn't make such yellow-bellied, bunny balls attacks. PLB:0) (8/25/08) Can we move on to some of the important issues? Not sure what has been said about Ed but it sounds like it must be pretty harsh. Ed, you are in the media right? So you should know you can't please everyone. If people don't want to be known that is their right. Cowardly or not? Dave would not get the posts and information he does if he revealed his sources, he is a man of his word. People tell him things because they know thier idenity will be safe! (8/25/08) On Fox and Friends, Kilmeade signed off by saying that Fox was “going to continue to send” Griff Jenkins “out to cause trouble.” And another F&F comment was “Griff, I am just glad you are alive.” Would an ABCCBSNBCCNNMSNBCNPR “liberal” anchor ever say they were going to send a reporter out to “cause trouble” at a political event, or equate a crowd chanting as a threat to kill? (8/25/08) I'm certainly not a Joy fan, but geez let it go everyone. All we needed was one statement for the point to get across-Amy from Catonsville (8/25/08) (snip from Mailbag) "Ed Rodriguez is an intensely loyal friend who does not take kindly to anonymous posters who flame others and run to hide behind their mommies' petticoats". That statement is true, so true. I've known EdRod for over 3 decades and will never understand the a**h***s that dis him at every opportunity. He's a broadcast trooper and a friend. PLB:" The recent, cowardly attacks on Ed concerning his WEAM days, were a sad commentary on DCRTV. I agree with PLB as I too think the ape-human, lip-drooling, chicken-snork, monkeys who post anonymous flames and then run and hide, should be taken to PLB's trailer park and forced to listen to his recollections of his WPGC days, ad infinitum! Its outrageous! When will Dave make all the monkey-boys use their names and stand behind their comments? This anonymous nonsense, only encouarges cowards, to attack good people, from the shadows. If they had to use their real names, they wouldn't make such yellow-bellied, monkey-crap attacks. Let me add my support of a registration process to DCRTV to eliminate the cowards who hide behind anonymity! Its time to stand up and put your real name behind your comments and take it like a real monkey-man! Its shameful, this use of anonymous identities! Commander Bunny (8/25/08) "Like it or not, Dan Snyder is the only person who has the money and influence to bring a winning team or championship to this market.....Yes, Snyder does/did hire some bad people like Schottenheimer, Spurrier and Larry Michael. However, we've all gotten through most of the agony and at times there have been some great moments. Have we all forgotten about the fact Snyder talked Joe Gibbs out of retirement?" L'il Danny Snyder relentlessly poops on the glass coffeetable of the Redskins fans. The Redskins will continue to suck until Snyder is six feet under in a child's coffin. He fired Schottenheimer when he was WINNING, probably because that bulbous-nosed old Kraut told him to keep his baby-smooth hands off the controls and let a grownup drive. "Have we all forgotten about the fact Snyder talked Joe Gibbs out of retirement?" No, but we're trying to put it behind us. If I had a monkey's paw I would use it to reanimate the rotted corpse of the Squire and have him come scratching on L'il Danny's door with his long-nailed withered hands, and pull his tongue out ....... BY THE ROOTS!!!! That little effer has effed up what used to be a good football team. At least the Redskins never decapitated anyone, or cut anyone's foot off, unlike L'il Danny's other business ventures. (8/25/08) WOW, AS WE SAY IN RADIO... 'brian wilson' is some really DEAD/useless Broadcast time on 1057 'baltimore' (BY THE WAY 1057, 'brian wilson' dose not even live in Baltimore/has anyone @ 1057fm checked that one out? = lack of 'everyday' Baltimore news -LOL) COULD SOMEONE? MAYBE GIVE 'brian wilson' SOME TYPE OF CURRENT EVENTS/NEWS/STATE OF THE WORLD UPDATES SOMETIME WITHIN THE PAST 2 DAYS? (i.e. "News Cycle" = who cares about what?) I try listening to him, but after 10 minutes I break-out the J.D. & Ambien I AM JUST SAYING...? ~"kinky-neo-con" (8/25/08) Hey Megan, Tina, Melissa, Sarah and Amy With all the problems in the hellhole we all know and love, Baltimore. All you can do is complain about Joy Pons? I bet 98% of Baltimorons had no idea Joy was in Playboy. You broads need to get a life and worry about all the other things your children will be exposed to in Baltimore- Murder, Drugs, Corruption, Prostitution. etc. (I could go on but why bore people) Ladies get a clue and worry about more important things in life. The Tooz (8/25/08) Regarding Joy Pons -- certainly what she did 10+ years ago is her business. How does her posing for Playboy have anything to do with her reporting credibility? And since she did this while working at WQSR, did anyone have a problem at the time with it? This seems to be a biased attack against Joy, and I don't know her. If you're so outraged by what you call HER lack of credibility, where's the outrage about Ed Norris and having someone who went to prison being a talk show host? Hmmm? Is it because she's a woman? Both Pons and Norris are entitled to work where they want, when they want. If the employers don't want them, they can fire them. If you don't like the way she reports the traffic, change the station. No one's forcing you to watch. (8/25/08) I just read that ''blog'' about Lindsay Czarniak. What a waste of time. I feel insulted that I even clicked my mouse on it. I learned NOTHING! ''I'd move NBC4 closer to the beach.'' Wow. What insight! Maybe she should turn DOWN a few requests to ''feature'' her. Has anyone notice the pure look of contempt on Steve Doocy's face being so close to Democrats? He looks like Dracula exposed to sunlight. I'd like to beat him over the head with Neil Cavuto. Paul (8/25/08) "My biggest gripe with the new WTEM besides Snyder's dominance is Mike and Mike. The show is too centered on New York and Boston." The entire four letter empire focuses too much on New York and Boston sports, but that's not surprising since it's based in Bristol, CT (midway between the two cities). ESPN's been jamming the Yankee-Red Sox rivalry down viewers' throats for years, and a few weeks ago Boston Celtics star Paul Pierce was a fill-in host on Mike & Mike (how can you expect to get unbiased opinions of athetes' actions on and off the field when the network's cozying up to them like that?). This morning, John Riggins co-hosted ESPN980's Redskins recap show with Andy Pollin and Kevin Sheehan - apparently his first appearance on the station since the big lineup change kicked in last month. The program will expand from two hours to four once the regular season starts, thus preempting the entire Mike & Mike show on days following Skins games. Of course Sheehan was a sidekick on Riggins' old afternoon drive program for two years. On another topic, I was watching NBC's weekend Today show (live from Beijing) the other day and heard Amy Robach refer to "Jim Thrope" in connection with some record that was set during the Olympics. That's disturbing - you'd think anyone assigned to cover the summer games would have at least some familiarity with the legendary Jim Thorpe. Along the same lines, how about Pollin (on 980's Sports Reporters) not knowing the number of events in the decathlon - and ESPN Radio's Colin Cowherd saying that the island of Jamaica is "roughly the size of Oregon". If there's one thing you're not likely to find adorning the walls of sports talk stations, it's Ivy League diplomas. Mike, Fairfax (8/25/08) To "Megan, Tina, Melissa, Sarah and Amy"... if you used to work in the media, then you know catty and utterly ridiculous your original post is! WHAT is the issue? Stella Stevens posed nude in Playboy. Should her son, Andrew, have been denied work by Disney studios? That's one example of thousands. As I said, Joy is a wonderful mother, wife and co-worker. And I realize that you meant no disrespect to me! You meant it toward Joy. You NEVER would have had the guts to poke an angry old bastard like me! Finally, OF COURSE you wanted to remain anonymous. Every rat who turned in their neighbors to the Nazis during WWII, every Soviet citizen who whispered accusations to the Secret Police in the old USSR wanted to remain anonymous, too. And, that's what you all have equated each other with. Welcome to Hell! (8/25/08) re: "There's a LOT of rage among Dems toward Fox. I simply cannot watch Fox News without wanting to throw a brick through the screen after two or three minutes." lmao!...maybe now some on the left will begin to understand how those in the middle and on the right feel about CNN, MSNBC, NBC, CBS, ABC et al....maybe, but I very seriously doubt it! (8/25/08) Dave's response: Hey, I'm pretty much fair and balanced. I regularly slam Chris Matthews, and rarely praise CNN. Basically, all cable news sucks pretty bad in my book. I'm watching Spike's coverage of the conventions..... Fox News sent Griff Jenkins to report on protesters at the Democratic Convention. Griff asked the protesters “Do you believe in Freedom of Speech,” and “do you believe in freedom.” The protestors stood up to the same news organization that allowed Sean Hannity to lie about Obama’s position on partial birth abortion, as well as the same news organization that referred to Michelle as “Obama’s Baby’s Mama,” and started chanting and bullying Griff . This verbal melee forced Griff to cut away from the report. The report was as follows www.youtube.com... Off air, a shaken Griff tried to do a taped report from the middle of the crowd. After calling the protesters “far left winged” the protesters interfered with the taping, and verbally escorted Griff away from the scene. www.youtube.com... Memo to on the scene reporters, At the Newseum there is an interactive video game on how to be a “news reporter.” It teaches kids how to “ask the right questions,” and how to distinguish “opinion from fact” in news reporting to get to what the story “is.” I should submit Griff’s piece to the Newseum and request the news curators use the reporting style here as a fantastic example of how not to conduct live news interviews. Also, Fox News just proved the “far left” are not supporters of Obama. I don’t believe that was their intention. Denver 2008 will not be Chicago 1968, no matter how much Fox News wants it to be. (8/25/08) Dave's response: There's a LOT of rage among Dems toward Fox. I simply cannot watch Fox News without wanting to throw a brick through the screen after two or three minutes. I'm against violence, but I wouldn't mind seeing Carl Cameron get slimed with a lime snowcone..... Now that former WJZer Katie Leahan is running a news flub website, I have a suggestion.......... Since its been in the Baltimore Sun, the DCRTV mailbag, and probably cost Leahan her WJZ gig, maybe Leahan should post video of her double dating with former Baltimore City police commish & now FM105.7's Ed Norris and then Mayor/now Gov. Martin O'Malley on their wild and wonderful jaunts to New York City... Yeah, I'd like to see that video flub, wouldn't EVERYONE?!? C'mon Katie, pretty please. :-) (8/25/08) (Does anyone know the name of the actress whop plays the ditzy clerk Flo in the Progressive Insurance ads?) Here is Flo's info from IMDB: www.imdb.com (8/25/08) After 13 years, Station Manager Steve Kramarck has exited WKHS-FM on Maryland's Eastern Shore to take over WVUD at the University of Delaware. The search is on for a replacement to run day to day operations and teach at one of the largest non-commercial high school stations in the country. Interested parties may contact Jeff Grafton at Kent County Public Schools at jgrafton@kent.k12.md.us (8/25/08) (Snip from mailbag post) "Ed Rodriguez is an intensely loyal friend who does not take kindly to anonymous posters who flame others and run to hide behind their mommies' petticoats". That statement is true, so true. I've known EdRod for over 3 decades and will never understand the a**h***s that dis him at every opportunity. He's a broadcast trooper and a friend. PLB:0) (8/25/08) We are a group of mothers in the Cockeysville area who wrote the original post- Megan, Tina, Melissa, Sarah and Amy. Some of us used to work in the media in the D.C. area and are very familiar with dcrtv. We feel that we are entitled to our opinions and meant no disrespect to Ed. We wanted to be heard and wanted to remain anonymous. (8/25/08) The 'contact us' link does not seem to work at TVTrainwrecks. Maybe Katie visits this site and will read this. It would be great if you can find the PBS feed from about 1983 where either McNeil or Lehrer, while being made up for the news, goes off about how the techs never get the show right and they will probably blow it again tonight. He had no idea that the camera and mic sitting in his office were live, and being fed on purpose to the network. I guess the tally light had been disconnected by one of those incompetent techs. I know this happened because I was working in a TV MC when the feed was 'bulletined" to the network. Its a classic rant! Find it please. (8/25/08) Ed Rodriguez is an intensely loyal friend who does not take kindly to anonymous posters who flame others and run to hide behind their mommies' petticoats. Ed Rodriguez was also a pitcher for the Kansas City Royals and the Milwaukee Brewers organization in the 1970's. Ed Rodriguez is one of the operators of the Arecibo Radio Telescope in Arecibo, Puerto Rico. Ed Rodriguez was in the cast of several ZIV Television programs of the 1950's, such as "Sheriff of Cochise" (stable boy), "Coronado 9" (young deck hand) and "State Trooper" (boy in pickup truck). (8/25/08) (post) Does anyone know the name of the actress whop plays the ditzy clerk Flo in the Progressive Insurance ads? (end post) Hey hey hey! No need to bring ethnic slurs into this forum... (8/25/08) Denise Dory is moved to weekend anchoring. Megan and Jamie will anchor in the morning. Kelly Swoope will anchor at 5 with Mary Beth Marsden. (8/25/08) I was puzzled at first by Helen Mirren's designation of "most popular female gay icon over 50 years old", but then I realized the poll was selecting the gal most lusted after BY the UK's lesbian community. The icon needn't be a lesbian herself. (Susan Sarandon and Meryl Streep claimed second and third places with 28 and 25 per cent respectively, whilst the top five was rounded out by Goldie Hawn and Dolly Parton.) For some very nice NSFW snaps of a much younger Dame Mirren exposing her bodacious birthday suit, there is a follow-up article by 75-year-old Joan Collins at www.dailymail.co.uk... Helen proves there ain't nothin' like a Dame. (8/25/08) Denise Dorey is being moved to the weekend anchor position. The whole story of the Channel 2 changes is an Baltimoresun.com....Johnny Dark (8/25/08) /\ August 25 Messages /\ \/ August 24 Messages \/ What is going on at Channel 2? Does anyone know what is going to happen with Denise Dory on Good Morning Maryland? Is she off the show? (8/24/08) "Do you realize you contradicted yourself in the same paragraph??? First you said 53-1, which would be the correct designation for the Gainesville station, then you said digitally 28-1 at the very end! The FCC specifically REQUIRES the ANALOG CHANNEL # to be used, NOT the DIGITAL ONE! Nowhere in the marketing of this station is the analog channel mentioned, clearly a violation of FCC rules." Deep breaths here...in...out...in...out...OK? Calmed down now? Good. Now then: If the station in question is in violation of anything, it's for using its digital RF channel (28) instead of its former analog channel (53) as its "major channel number" in its PSIP (the code that tells the digital box what "virtual channel" to map the station to.) But there's nothing requiring a TV station to "market" itself as anything in particular. As long as it properly IDs, visually OR aurally, with the calls and city of license ("WGFL Gainesville"), it can put anything else it wants up on screen - "CBS4," "CBS28," "CBS53," or "DuMont 650." (8/24/08) By looking at channel 4 bio, I see that James Adams no longer anchors the 6 and 11 news. Maybe this was brought out earlier, but I'm very disappointed. (8/24/08) Yesterday's DCRTV.com front page headline of "Gail Shister Inducted Into Gay Hall Of Fame" will hopefully allow my foot-in-the-door for this OT item: "The Queen" actress Helen Mirren has topped the "most popular lesbian icon over 50 years old" list winning 32 per cent of a UK poll. Whether you are gay, straight, or undecided, take a moment to glance at this fine figure of a 63-year-old woman: www.dailymail.co.uk I just recently noticed Mirren in Malcolm McDowell's 1973 film "O, Lucky Man!" and, WOW, she was an ever-lovin' angel at age 27. (BTW, the poll was compiled by online dating agency gay-parship.co.uk) (8/24/08) Dave's response: Helen Mirren is one of my all-time fav actors. But I'm pretty sure she's married to a male American film director and isn't gay herself. One of her first roles I remember for Mirren was the Russian ship commander in the "2001" follow-up, "2010." As for Brit movie/TV stars, I've heard many rumblings that "Keeping Up Appearances" battle-ax Patricia Routledge, who played the wickedly funny Hyacinth Bucket ("Boo-kay"), is widely rumored to be a Lesbian. She, another fantastic actor. Oh, speaking of gay stuff, look what I found (above right)..... Because of Joy Pons, but no offense to the adorable Sharon, I now watch channel 2 and just love Angela Foster. Angela Foster is the real deal, very down to earth and sweet. Who is Ed Rodiguez? Isn't everyone entitled to their opinion? (8/24/08) To the poster who asked who the actress from the Progressive ads is ‹ Stephaine Courtney. (8/24/08) The gal who plays Flo in the Progressive Insurance ads is Stephanie Courtney, a member of the Groundlings improv troupe, so she has the chops for quirky comedy. She first caught my attention in the off-beat flick "Melvin Goes to Dinner": www.imdb.com. Worth a Netflix rental, for sure. (8/24/08) ...and, on a thread that DIDN'T piss me off so much, the actress who plays,"Flo," in the Progressive Insurance commercials, is named Stephanie Courtney, and can be seen in, among other things, a few episodes of "Cavemen," and several episodes of "Mad Men," where she plays a recurring character; a switchboard operator named, "Marge." - Ed. Rodriguez (8/24/08) RE: "Joy Pons has been filling in for Sharon Gibala on Channel 13 in Baltimore. Many people are outraged at the fact Channel 13 would allow a former Playboy model to represent their station and it is causing them to lose viewership and credibility." - HAHAHAHAHA. That is too funny. Channel 13 is the same station who still employs Marty Bass for christs sake. It's the same station that has a music bed for everything. Also the same station who uses the same tired anchors for the 4,5,and 6 oclock news shows who toss stories back and forth to each other (Sally's in the newsroom with more, Vic is in the newsroom with these breaking details, etc). So a station who relies on neon for their news sets, calls everything under the sun breaking news, and relies on a weatherman who has had a few shares of run-ins with the laws over the years has a sudden credibility problem for having Joy Pons fill in and do the traffic?? HAHAHAHAHAHA. That's funny. (8/24/08) ("Many people are outraged at the fact Channel 13 would allow a former Playboy model to represent their station and it is causing them to lose viewership and credibility") - BULLSHIT. Joy is a great talent, and frankly one of the nicest people that I know. (8/24/08) Someone wrote this drivel: "Joy Pons has been filling in for Sharon Gibala on Channel 13 in Baltimore. Many people are outraged at the fact Channel 13 would allow a former Playboy model to represent their station and it is causing them to lose viewership and credibility." Any person who is that narrow-minded and just plain stupid should seek mental and cultural therapy immediately! First, Playboy is about as mainstream as any publication printed in this country. It has been around for 55 years and earned it's place in the American Experience. Her ONE picture was tasteful and artisitc. Second, Joy Pons is a very funny, witty, kind on-air personality. Joy is a good friend. She is also a very devoted wife and mother. Joy was my on-air partner the last year that I did the afternoon show on WPOC (1998-99). She is TOPS among the two best partners I EVER had on the air. She is a pro who "gets" her role, and everyone else's, in the bits. We NEVER had trainwrecks or script-crashes. I'd be surprised if her earlier on-air partner, Steve Rouse, did not say the same thing. Finally, the door to the "Bitch About Joy Department" goes through ME! The line forms here. - Ed. Rodriguez (8/24/08) Re: "When did the TV networks stop sending "top of the hour time tones"?" My guess is when they decided to ignore the clock when starting and ending programs. But if you're nostalgic you can get a WAV file of the CBS tone here: www.akdart.com... and there's a whole history of the NBC chimes here: www.radioremembered.org... (8/24/08) This is the first I've heard of WJZ's new traffic reporter. What you are saying is that a former playboy model should not be allowed to be employed in the media? JohnnyuinHanover,Pa. (8/24/08) In reguards to Joy Pons and WJZ...when exactly did she pose for Playboy? I seem to remember reading about this issue a number of YEARS back on this site. Sorry I just have a hard time believing most people would even care and in Baltimore even. A few years back an announcer at Martinsburg, West Virginia's WICL/WEPM radio pretty much did the same thing...only it was a he and the magazine he did targeted guys. Guess what? People didn't picket outside WICL's studios or wrote letters to the Martinsburg Journal. In other words people in Martinsburg simply did not care about it. Down in Roanoke a TV weatherman, even though he did in fact lose his job over a nude photo that that appeared on the net, the station actually get quite a bit of heat from many of viewers for firing him over such a silly reason and this was in "ultra-conservative' Roanoke. Nah, when it comes to what one does in the past, unless its something illegal ( and even then that is often overlooked ), things like being seen at a bar, posing for nude pics years prior, hanging around a strip joint, seen smoking a cigarette in public, attending a sex party, in this day and age I doubt many viewers and listeners care. (8/24/08) Does anyone know the name of the actress whop plays the ditzy clerk Flo in the Progressive Insurance ads? She looks very familiar. (8/24/08) Dave's response: Is she in your sexual fantasies, too? She and the chick from the Room Store ads going at it..... Looking back on last night, Comcast and Channel 9 should've just kept showing commercials. Is it too early to start calling every radio, TV and blogging ''Fire Zorn''. I want to know so I'm ahead of the curve! Paul (8/24/08) Joy Pons has been filling in for Sharon Gibala on Channel 13 in Baltimore. Many people are outraged at the fact Channel 13 would allow a former Playboy model to represent their station and it is causing them to lose viewership and credibility. (8/24/08) We watched portions of the Ravens game last night on WMAR via DirecTV. Unlike the prior Raven's preseason broadcasts this year, the video quality was terrible! And on DirecTV at least, the HD and Standard Def feeds were identical. Both of them showed not even full use of the standard 4:3 area. It looked to me like they were squeezing a high def feed (including the left and right bars) into the 4:3 space on both the HD and non-HD feeds. The video quality was grainy and there were audio sync problems as well. Did anyone see the off-air feed from WMAR? Was it also bad? I'm wondering if somehow the relay from WBAL (presumably, since they still produced the show) to WMAR was messed up. It was a terrible game anyway, but I expected better production given what I saw with the first game of the season, which looked great on WBAL. Bob in Forest Hill (8/24/08) Unless I missed something, it was the Redskins in-house TV broadcast that had the signal glitch and extended commercial loop, not the radio broadcast. Comcast SportsNet, WUSA/9 and the other Redskins preseason TV affiliates all missed the opening minutes of the game as a result. The Carolina Panthers' TV feed was still good. Everett W. (8/24/08) K-fell from ashburn- hit the Redskins TV coverage on the head! Awful! Kelli johnson loves the sound of her "manly" voice. The ONLY thing worse was the cheap Ravens TV broadcast that had all sorts of technical problems THROUGHOUT, nice butcherby job Ch 2 blaming it on some cheap ass satellite in St Louis they obtained (you pay for what you get ! , no wonder you are lowest rated ) I particuary loved coach Harbaugh Lying to Scott Garceau's face in pre gm show and telling him that "Kyle Boller would start" - he never played a down. Anyway, their radio simulcast has also been a cost cutting disaster as well , and does not match up with tv ...a horrendous night of local NFL coverage - certainly pre season caliber. bring on the the bog boys- fox, nbc and cbs, espn. - kevin, elkton (8/24/08) Dave: I haven't been watching much coverage of the Olympics and was looking forward to seeing the Redskins' game against the Panthers. I'm glad other people noticed how bad Channel 9's coverage was and I can't believe Brett Haber tried being funny and said the Charlotte area missed TS Fay. I watched five minutes of Channel 9's pregame show and I said, that's enough and switched over to Comcast to take-in their pregame train-wreck. I have an idea, Dan Snyder needs to start a Redskins cable channel {a longtime goal of the Cowboys/Jerry Jones} and produce all of his programs and the preseason games in-house. It's quite evident that Channel 9 and Comcast don't know how to produce a quality show or game telecast. It's great Mike Patrick sucks-up to Kelli Jonson in the 4th quarter by saying "great job on getting that info" on the Jason Taylor injury...when we should have known something back in the 2nd quarter. Finally, we're honored to see Haber back for the postgame report and he's just unwatchable! Brett, don't be offended, the Comcast postgame show was just as bad, so you're in good company. From: KFells-Ashburn, VA. (8/24/08) There was some sort of video feed malfunction with the Redskins preseaon game tonight (Saturday) right at the beginning of the game. Before the game started, the video froze and then went to commercial for a good five minutes (it seemed). When they came back from commercial, the game was already two and a half minutes into it. The announcers said there was some sort of video malfunction. Kyle (8/24/08) So, I'm sitting here in Ohio listening to the Redskins game via "ESPN 980"'s website. How does Danny Boy Snyder manage to pull that off, anyway? The team and his owned-and-operated flagship station can stream the games for free, but no other team or broadcast outlet in the NFL can do so? I do subscribe to the NFL.com "Field Pass Audio" service, so I can access the other games, but I'm just curious how the Redskins/Snyder/WTEM (and "Triple X" last year) can get away with doing it outside the "Field Pass" subscription wall. BTW, for all the things Young Daniel gets wrong, the stream is great...better audio quality than NFL.com, and even if I'm getting separate streaming ads, I'd rather get those than the fill music than "Field Pass" uses in commercial breaks...you get sick of that NFL-films-ish music really quick! (8/24/08) When did the TV networks stop sending "top of the hour time tones"? My guess is that it coincided with the switch from telco lines to satellite, as the method of getting network programming to the affiliates. NBC had a fairly standard tone, while CBS had a chime. I don't recall ABC having either. (8/24/08) Everybody's heard of NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard). Now, as telephone and cable companies are rolling out advanced video, Internet and phone services, there are some bumps in the road - some as big as refrigerators. The support equipment for the new technologies and delivery systems is showing up on lawns, easements and curbs in neighborhoods everywhere, prompting a new battle cry: "Not in my front yard!" biz.yahoo.com (8/24/08) A while back, there was a discussion here about the viability of playing the greatest hits from the 1920s forward. Our friends in Toronto at www.am740.ca do just that on Sundays from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., playing the hits from the 1920s through the early '50s. Judge for yourself whether it's listenable. (8/24/08) /\ August 24 Messages /\ Jump to the Mailbag Archive Index.....