Current Mailbag - Mailbag Archive Index - DCRTV Front Page - Support DCRTV DCRTV Mailbag - August 23 to August 31, 2009 Latest messages listed first..... \/ August 31 Messages \/ I was reading on here about some of the comments about Hagerstown, MD's WICL..one thing that tends to get overlooked...when 95.9 had made the switch to oldies back in 2004 from being WKMZ/Classic rock "classic rock that really rocks" sounds familiar?...complete with Greaseman...at first WICL was actually LIVE in most dayparts with a LOT of local interaction including an all request lunch program with Selena ( remember her? ) not to mention an overnight all request show with Tanner Miller. Why Prettyman Broadcasting threw in the towel after only a year of WICL's oldies debut in favor of Scott Shannon's generic satellite True Oldies network for which they only would drop later on remains a mystery to this day .Prettyman Broadcasting couldn't had lost that much money so soon. Acutally for the brief time when they were live..WICL actuallly sounded better than WARX 106.9 when they were oldies ( remember when Gene Manning was in charge during the last few years of "Oldies 106.9"..WARX was pretty much voice tracked around the clock ). Maybe Prettyman felt than WICL was taking away a bit too much of their sister WLTF 97.5's numbers..but with that being said I have always felt that WICL wasn't given a fair chance..of course now as the other poster had mentioned..WICL is more or less nothing more than a computer hooked up to a transmitter so for any results well that is a bit too late..that is a shame. (8/31/09) For Doug Hill...Yes, I was referring to after mid-January 1980 back in my college days as class didn't resune until quite late in the month following "Christmas Break", as they still called it way back then. And, I'd spent much of that time in the warmth of Southern California rather than the chill of Virginia. My afternoon TV habits (Such as they were -I was carrying 18 hours that last semester, coming off a 3.75 GPA the previous semester (18 hours that semester, as well), and enjoying the benefits of off-campus living while being a student at a school that boasted a 13:1 female to male ratio!) were a mix of "Cisco Kid" (WWBT) and "MASH" (WDVM) re-runs combined with "The Gong Show" (WRC), Somewhere in the storage bin I have VHS recordings of some of the local newscasts from June 1980 after I'd gotten my first VCR and then packing it away late in the month as I prepared to move overseas. Another memory I have of Richmond TV at that time was us getting whacked by one helluva snowstorm on a Saturday which resulted in my girlfriend of the moment getting snowed-in with me at my apartment as the storm continued until well into Sunday. Anyway, I got up early (at least for me on a Sunday back then) and turned on the TV. WCVE-23 was running color bars before sign-on with "Where was this stuff at Christmas?" keyed-up with the ID. Thinking that it was funny, I grabbed my Instamatic (Remember those?) with a spent flashcube to bring the shutter speed down to something closer to the scan rate of NTSC. The thing was not quiet and woke up my girl who asked, "What the hell are you doing" when she saw me taking photos of the TV screen! Getting back to WWBT, when they ran color bars in the morning, you could often read "Catch 12" under the bars. Finally, I stayed-up late one night and got to watch WCTI-TV from New Bern, NC signing-off for the night. They had a very good signal, too. Didn't see much else in the way of TVDX in the wilds of central Virginia, although there was one morning when I had WITN-7 from Greenville, NC (before WJLA's) sign-on) with a test pattern from WABC-TV in the background. Of course, we cannot forget the WTVR-6 "covered wagon" ID slide which they ran for ages at sign-off. TV back then, especially in the smaller markets, still had something of an innocence left that is so absent today, alas. JFP (8/31/09) Cami McCormick of CBS news, injured by an IED in Afghanistan, has been flown to Germany and is expected to be sent to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in DC. I have yet to see any info about her condition, although this information isn't encouraging. (8/31/09) Only because of the mention of the 1985 flood... That was a time where there was no overnight feed from NBC so WWBT put on “Floodwatch Theater” for two nights. They were showing some dusty films from the vault and updating the weather situation every half hour or so. Around the same time, I cannot remember why, they had to show a bunch of sitcom episodes overnight, for some reason I think it was “WKRP IN Cincinnati” and “Mork and Mindy” while they had updates on the weather every half hour. That is by far the station I would get news from in that market. In fact, I watched WRC when I first got to Luray in 1988 because of the NBC connection. By the summer, when I saw how good WUSA was, I switched allegiances. Charles in Winchester (8/31/09) While we're on this Richmond "where are they now?" thread...former 80's WTVR sports guy Jack Corrigan went on to broadcast Cleveland Indians games on TV for a number of years and now does Colorado Rockies games for KOA Radio in Denver. My pal Charles in Winchester and I had the pleasure of meeting Jack during spring training last February in Tucson and had a long convo with him - hell of a nice guy! - - - - - Larry in Luray (8/31/09) RE: "Now is the time for those of us not in LA to say what you say, or do what you do, including a few kind words to St Gabriel, the patron saint of Broadcasting," I've been in radio for almost 30 years and I DIDN'T KNOW we had a patron saint. The things ya learn. Thank you! This old agnostic may have to change her ways. (8/31/09) I take back the praise I gave to 105.9. I had listened to them for a couple of days and enjoyed the occasional deep track they dropped in among the standard classic rock playlist. But then I began to hear the same tunes over again. Two days is not a good sample. I have found that most new formats go stale after two or three days, or perhaps a week. Yesterday I heard Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama" and "What's Your Name" almost back to back and then another tune from the classic rock four dozen song library before I turned them off. The Edge is like BIG with an occasional deep track dropped in, but one's ears are still assaulted by those damn tunes we have heard a gazillion times - FER CRYIN OUT LOUD!!! I had put 105.9 on the preset that had been on 94.7, and then had been changed to BIG. They all are unlistenable. DC101 remains pretty good and their erockster HD2 is superb. It is reminiscent of HFS on 102.3 without the jocks. It is amazing how much great new music is being produced today without any radio play. Robert, Arlington (8/31/09) re: "Verizon customer here in Va. Signing up for Verizon FIOS is a nightmare! " I just got it in Howard County. Couldn't have been smoother. Even got a discount on the installation because they sent reps door-to-door, since they just laid the line this summer. Don't know which company your other correspondent is dealing with, but it ain't my Verizon. (8/31/09) re: "The Today Show's Matt Lauer I am pretty sure had got his TV start doing the Richmond version of PM Magazine way back in the early 80s..." I don't know where he got his start, but he worked on "PM Magazine" in Providence, Rhode Island in the early '80s. He and I worked in the same building (him upstairs in TV, me downstairs in radio). (8/31/09) 6 days into the new format and The Edge is already getting on my last nerve. I hyped the new station when it first launched, and after not even A WEEK it is already reminding me of classic rock the globe. it also reminds me too much of WBIG. I will scream if i hear layla one more freaking time. If the Edge continues going the way it is it will end up lower in the ratings than True Oldies was. (8/31/09) We have another house in Chesterfield, so I am subjected to local Richmond TV news frequently. IMO it bites. The only local TV personality I can put up with is Tracy Lynn the traffic gal on WWBT 12. But Richmond radio puts DC to shame, nice to get past Fredericksburg and not have to listen to XM or WTOP. BC (8/31/09) Verizon customer here in Va. Signing up for Verizon FIOS is a nightmare! I am no fan of Comcast, but take your worst Comcast customer service and multiply it by 100. Verizon is so overwelmed, they can't get it right the first 20 times. Expect missed installation dates, with no compensation and penalty when Verizon misses their appointment, or shows up at 2:00pm for an 8-12 appointment range. Expect long delays over the phone. Incompetent operators will attempt reset your box by pushing new codes electronically - each reset taking 5 minutes, none of them ever working, some of them breaking your box even further. They will constantly want to send you a new box, even though they have already tried it 3 times previously. Enjoy the headache DC. (8/31/09) The Today Show's Matt Lauer I am pretty sure had got his TV start doing the Richmond version of PM Magazine way back in the early 80s and I believe that was on WXEX channel 8 and speaking of which..WXEX did have a news chopper. At least they did in 1984 when a child was killed on a roller coaster at Kings Dominion as WXEX provided live coverage to CNN at the time since Kings Dominion at the time had refused to allow the media to access the park which under current owners Cedar Fair, I wouldn't at all be surprised if that policy is still in effect to this day. Heck Kings Dominion when this tragic incident took place was even taking away people's super 8 movie cameras in order for them to prevent the filming the coaster in question ( which was the Galaxy BTW where the Shock Wave is located at now ).but WXEX with their chopper in the air had no problem showing that coaster to a nationwide audience. Somewhere in my massive collection of tapes I think I still have that report. Also when the James River flooded in Richmond back 1985, WXEX and their chopper was giving coverage to ABC News and Peter Jennings with Jennings even going as far as going on the air thanking WXEX for their fine job. So yes, WXEX did have their own news helicopter, maybe not in 1977 but by the mid 80's they sure did have one. I also do remember when Baltimore's channel 2 WMAR had their helicopter but I don't believe WBAL channel 11 ever did ( I know WJZ channel 13 didn't have one )..at least back in the 80's anyway. For some reason I seem to recall one of the Washington stations having a news chopper back in the 70's..WRC perhaps? (8/31/09) Dave, congratulations on the FishbowlDC nomination. Your radio legacy and website is less mysterious as it is built upon passion, consistency, credibility & integrity - even during the recent death of Carl Grossman, which in "fishbowl" retrospect, shines a brighter light on you today than a certain washed-up dj. Award nominations; Dave Hughes 1. DG 0. (8/31/09) Looking at the listings published in last Friday's Wash. Post I wonder why AM 820, FM 103.9 and FM 99.9 (all Frederick area signals) are listed while 105.5, WAMU's Bluegrass Country.org simulcast, is omitted? Doesn't 105.5 emanate from Reston? Tom in Wheaton (8/31/09) Dave's response: The other day, I punched up my local "Reston" signals at radio-locator.com and the 200-watt 105.5 was listed but 50,000-watt 1500 wasn't. Go figure. Oh, the Post does need to drop 700 from its listings. It's been off the air quite a while..... As long as we're doing some "Richmond Reminiscing", it's worth mentioning that Fox45 sports anchor Bruce Cunningham came out of there, too. He worked at WXEX and WTVR back in the '70's. (8/31/09) RE: [And, yes, it was relevant and accurate when Chris Wallace pointed out "that this country has not been attacked again since 9/11."] Damn straight, Skippy...but the only thing I can't understand is why Chris Wallace stop there? He should have also pointed out that during the Bush/Cheney years, America was also not inundated by a single rabid Polar Bear, nor struck by any gigantic radioactive tidal-wave causing meteors. Come to think of it, from 2001 to 2009, the Bush/Cheney team also successfully kept all of the mutant brain-eating zombies at bay too. God Bless Dick Cheney, because the actions of his regime resulted in just about the same influence on the last three dangers I mentioned as it had on the first one Wallace chose. Look....you can label the act of torture with all the flowery "enhanced interrogation techniques" euphemisms you want, but the truth remains that what happened meets all technical definitions of torture, and we, as Americans (with the possible exception of Keifer Sutherland), just don't play that game. Personally, I think that well-known "librul" Abraham Lincoln said it best when he said: "Military necessity does not admit of cruelty nor of torture to procure confessions." Regardless of all of the misguided, jingoistic, flag-wrapped reasoning of the saber-rattling neo-conservative right, anyone who knowingly and willingly broke American laws prohibiting torture - up to and including the President and Vice President of the United States - deserves to face the appropriate consequences. (8/31/09) Ok, I've been logging in a lot of time with The Edge this weekend, and especially today while at work, and while I'm enjoying much of it, if I hear one more Pink Floyd and/or Van Halen song I'm going to scream - three from each in the last four hours! Eeeeesh. (8/31/09) Dave's response: And no Siouxsie And The Banshees! "One of those other Sunday news shows actually used their time to sit in Fenway Park to talk about whether Ted Kennedy was a REAL fan or not. Sheesh! " I think it was CNN's show, and the guest was that full-of-it blowhard Larry Lucchino, propagating Red Sox Nation. Of course, it helps that the Sunday talk show audience is full of weathy Ivy Leaguers who summer on the Hamptons or Cape Cod and root for the Bosox because it's culturally correct, so he was preaching to the converted. As a Nats fan, I curse their being. -- Vincent in Triangle (8/31/09) Re: "Hey BAL, More News Please..." Dammit Dave! Now we'll NEVER get 'BAL to move Ron Smith to middays and expand all-news to afternoon drive...because they wouldn't want it to look like YOU suggested it!! Thanks a WHOLE LOT Dave! -- Baltimore Bill (8/31/09) This is probably only of concern to about the 5 viewers of that soap, but my cousin is among them -- Guiding Light ends on Friday September 18th. However, WUSA will premiere Dr. Oz on Monday September 14 in that time slot (3pm). So what will happen to the last week of shows? 10am airings? Late night airings? (8/31/09) Now is the time for those of us not in LA to say what you say, or do what you do, including a few kind words to St Gabriel, the patron saint of Broadcasting, to quell the aptly named Station Fire from reaching Mt Wilson, the home of many LA broadcast radio, TV and public service transmitters. www.well.com (8/31/09) Dave, why didn't you credit your blurb about the Gabor Post moving their offices? Is it because you got it from the Examiner? And what's up with Channel 5's Wilma Thomas's hair? Looks like he's wearing a shoe-polish helmet. This just in: Ted Kenney still dead. --- ThePenIsMightier (8/31/09) Dave's response: Ted "Kenney"? Is anyone seeing WHUT-HD on any of the DC-area cable systems yet? I'm getting it over the air, but RCN is not carrying it at the moment. (8/31/09) If they ever tried to merge Richmond and DC markets, they would need the NCAA to figure out a way to not have Georgetown playing a 2nd round game while VCU is storming back from a 17-point deficit against Pitt. Yes, I'm still bitter about the 2008 tourney. Charles in Winchester (8/31/09) I'm tellin' ya, the WBAL news machine has got it goin' what with their 50,000 watt blowtorch doing real news in morning drive time, and now a SECOND week of Sarah Caldwell anchoring morning television on the station. www.wbaltv.com (8/31/09) RE: " FNS chose to devote half its program to an interview with former VP Dick Cheney . . . couldn't Fox have at least rescheduled his appearance . . . After Ronald Reagan's death five years ago, I don't recall Kennedy or some other prominent Democrat being the sole guest on Meet the Press or ABC's This Week the following Sunday." ------Thank goodness Fox News Sunday chose to actually cover news on Sunday rather than one more day of glorifying a very controversial and divisive man who happened to be born into a powerful family which in turn led him to become a powerful politician. But he was NEVER president nor could he even secure the nomination of HIS OWN party or attain leadership positions in the Senate. One of those other Sunday news shows actually used their time to sit in Fenway Park to talk about whether Ted Kennedy was a REAL fan or not. Sheesh! This week, Obama's AG set in motion a plan that could lead to criminal charges against men who were on the front lines of the war on terror for using enhanced interrogation techniques. It was wholly appropriate for Vice President Cheney to be on the air this weekend to discuss the matter. And, yes, it was relevant and accurate when Chris Wallace pointed out "that this country has not been attacked again since 9/11." (8/31/09) Dave, forgive me if you've posted this already - but a few days ago CBS Evening News correspondent Cami McCormick was seriously injured by an IED bomb blast in Afghanistan. Apparently the bomb killed a soldier traveling with her. Does anyone have any updated news on her condition? www.nydailynews.com... -Silvie- (8/31/09) Hi Dave, Fun promotional stunts put me in the mind of my days at WXIX-TV, Metromedia 19...Newport, KY, Cincinnati, OH. I'll never get that legal ID out of my mind. Anyway, back in the 70's, they got their first portable Umatic rig. As an independent, we weren't covering news. We took it out to do commercials on site. They went big time on this project and bought a van and put the logo and lettering on the thing. Maybe no one but me noticed but they painted "Unit 3" on one door and "Unit 7" on the opposite door. Slick. John (8/31/09) Not sure how this qualifies as Loudoun County news but www.loudouni.com was out at WJFK's Sport's Junkies Sundress Sillies party. See Cakes and EB drunk and a foul-mouthed girl. The event was in Fairfax County but for some reason two intern reporters from the Loudoun Independent newspaper covered the event with videocameras in tow. (8/31/09) Protocol for the TV networks' Sunday morning public affairs shows dictates that the moderators be even handed and rarely if ever insert their personal political views into the mix, but apparently Chris Wallace simply couldn't let Juan Williams' strong denunciation of torture as a means of obtaining information ("... in a democracy you don’t torture people. It’s against the law") be the last word on one of Fox News Sunday's panel discussion segments yesterday. Perhaps he owes Williams an apology for sarcastically replying with "I just want to point out to the audience that it is purely coincidental that this country has not been attacked again since 9/11." Of course that was only part of a weekend where Fox didn't exactly earn any journalism awards with its coverage of the memorial observances for Ted Kennedy. First we had Shepard Smith announcing during Saturday's telecast of the funeral in Boston that George W. Bush wouldn't be attending, only to be embarrassed moments later when the cameras showed him entering the church (his father being the lone living ex-president who couldn't make it). Switching back and forth between channels that morning, I got the impression that Fox was harping too much on Kennedy's personal indiscretions and misfortunes while CNN, MSNBC and the other networks were keeping the focus where it belonged (namely, on his historically long career of accomplishment in the US Senate and devotion to his extended family over the years). A day later, FNS chose to devote half its program to an interview with former VP Dick Cheney who just happens to represent the complete antithesis of nearly everything Kennedy stood for. While it's possible that Cheney had already been booked prior to the senator's passing, couldn't Fox have at least rescheduled his appearance and spent more than a mere segment on the story that dominated the national news all week long? After Ronald Reagan's death five years ago, I don't recall Kennedy or some other prominent Democrat being the sole guest on Meet the Press or ABC's This Week the following Sunday. But then again, the terms 'class' and 'Fox News Channel' have never really belonged in the same sentence. Mike, Fairfax (8/31/09) If WICL was indeed considering a change to sports talk, I suspect those plans probably vanished after Jay Young fell ill due to a stroke and was shown the door at Prettyman. It’s obvious he was behind the success of WEPM all these years. Now that Jay is no longer a player there, the remnants of that operation make Mayberry look like a think-tank. Besides, with 1380 in Waynesboro being an ESPN Radio affiliate and 1550 in Charlestown associated with Fox Sports, I am not too sure what kind of network sports programming would be available. I suspect the oldies format on 95.9 will continue to duke it out with some of the AM’s around town for a small sliver of the ratings pie. (8/31/09) Dave, here's a story about the decline in talk-radio ratings that may warm your heart: "Given the bombast still heard on the airwaves, and how many spoken-word stations are found on the AM dial, it might appear that it's still dominant. But it's gone, gone, gone from the top rankings compiled by Arbitron." seattletimes.nwsource.com... Christian (8/31/09) I have a couple of questions about the coverage of Sen. Kennedy’s funeral; some may see them as serious, some as rhetorical. Mrs. Olney noticed that even though Caroline Kennedy and Joan Kennedy were at the funeral, no camera in the pool coverage ever focused on them, and we watched the entire morning thing on DVR and the entire evening burial live. Did the Kennedys ask for/demand/force specific people not to be shown (especially during the parts that had light :^)? Also, it seems that not only did no reporter try to interview any of Mary Jo Kopechne’s relatives in the last week, it seems to me that no one ever tried to talk to them in the last 40 years. Did they receive a secret settlement that contractually prevents them from saying a word about it? How much money did they receive? If I can think of these questions, why does no reporter ever think of this? Finally (leaving the skeptical side of things), the Missus and I were on Constitution Avenue at 9th St. for the motorcade to Arlington Cemetery. Not only were most limousine windows open, but people waved from them to the crowd. That was really nice that the mourners were appreciative of the people lining the streets. At many motorcades, the windows are sealed tight so that the “great unwashed” can be ignored. That the Kennedy extended family members acknowledged the crowds shows a decency that is often lacking in prominent political families. I thank them for that. – Carl in Olney (8/31/09) Thanks to the person who posted the info about the country's only All Oldies NPR station, RealOldies 1480/850 in Grand Rapids Michigan. It's really great to hear their morning guy, Bill Bailey, who also graced the DC-area airwaves in the 70s (at WRC/WKYS) and in the late 80s at the oldies station that used to air out of the Waldorf-La Plata area (was it WXTR?). I had the pleasure of working with Bill at an AC station in Kansas City in the early/mid 80s and again, in the 90s, at an Urban station in Cincinnati. In an industry not generally known for longevity and classy people, Bill is someone who can claim both. Check out WGVU, here www.wgvu.org (8/31/09) What's so 'wrong' with the US Military 'grading' journalists? Think about it, how many of today's pampered journalists ever served in the Military? Do they understand anything about the Military (what unit they are embedded with? what type of weapons they are looking at? what's the rank of the guy you interviewing is? etc.) unless they look it up on Wikipedia or ask some over-paid (with often questionable credentials) so-called "military expert"? The Military should have some idea who they can trust and respect for real coverage. I think its fair for the Pentagon to keep an eye on the reporting of military journalists to protect the integrity and honor of our US Armed Forces, especially in today's disgusting hyper-partisan media environment (re: the cesspools of cable news & internet blogging) ~Kinky-Neo-Con (8/31/09) Simon Dee, the first voice on Radio Caroline died at the weekend. When the BBC played just two hours of Top 40 music a week, it took Pirate Radio Ships in 1964 to sail into International Waters and broadcast Top 40 radio styled on the US Top 40 stations (PAMS jingles and all) to finally break the mold. In 1967 the BBC started Top 40 radio and commercial radio was introduced into the UK in 1971. Alledgedly Liz Hurley said that the Austin Powers movie character was based on Simom Dee. uk.news.yahoo.com... Incidentally, the next Richard Curtis(Love Actually, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill) comedy film, "The Boat that Rocked" renamed to "Pirate Radio due for release in the US in November is based around the Pirate Radio ships. (8/31/09) Do I have to turn in my man card if I don't like 105.9 The Edge? (8/31/09) Dave's response: Yes! Mail it to Farid Suleman, c/o Citadel..... Maybe I'd listen to the WBAL morning show if it didn't have 50 minutes of commercials an hour. (8/31/09) I can attest to the fact that WMAR 2 had a News Chopper in the late 70's or 80's because I distinctly remember it, but I don't remember how long they had it. Maybe somebody else remembers more. They definitely had it in 1981 because that was the year of the MLB baseball strike and there is a clip on Youtube of WMAR's News Chopper 2... WBAL 11 also had a news chopper in 1981, at least it appears from this clip... I think both stations just toyed with the chopper idea and got rid of them quickly from what I remember. What's interesting though is notice the WMAR 2 NewScene intro sounds so very similar to the WBAL 11 Action News theme used by so many stations back then. Also notice Ted Patterson ( who recently retired from WCBM 680 ) is doing sports on Channel 2 for this broadcast, so this would have to place this before Scott Garceau arrived at WMAR and Garceau didn't arrive at Channel 2 until the early 80s if I recall correctly. It's always hard to recall WMAR channel 2 history since historically, at least since the 1960s-70s, so few people have watched the station's news broadcasts over the years. However, this Youtube channel, ProfessorKool101 - www.youtube.com - has many WMAR 2 clips. I found another hysterical WMAR 2 blooper there. You've never heard Scott Garceau and Norm Lewis like this before. Stormin' Norm "rings out his balls" on WMAR 2 Enjoy before Scripps Howard yanks this treat (I downloaded it in case it gets yanked for safe keeping, hehe)... And then there's the Jamie Costello clip of him locking his keys in the running Channel 2 news vehicle. That's also kinda funny. And I really like Jamie Costello, but you sorta realize why they've always been in last place from those clips. To be equally fair, there's a great WJZ intro parody here... And a great WJZ John Burren clip of him talking about their new set having 1-900# phone access. And no one can forget the cheesiest promo of all time in local TV... Bob Turk with Sunshine on a Cloudy Day... :-) (8/31/09) Hey Dave, Just a little back channel info regarding John Pinckney's post about WWBT. When Janet Peckinpaugh was injured in that 1979 car crash, I was doing the weekend weather at WWBT. I was moved into her slot and filled in for her until I left for WDIV in Detroit in January, 1980. Perhaps, Jennifer Smith came in sometime later, but her name is not familiar to me.... Keep up the great work.... Doug Hill (8/31/09) (from earlier posting) That's EXACTLY what DC radio needs - a station playing unknown cuts by Country Joe and the Fish and 10 Years After (end) Its been said before, let's say it again... it is not going to be the music that makes a station great, fun or even tolerable. Not when you can go up to Grooveshark and get any song you want, or even plug your laptop into the back of your cable box and record off-line as much music as those Choice channels will air (illegal yes, but you'll be doing it anyway). A station has to be the Best Friend of whatever community it is in. That doesn't take reams of research or auditorium testing; it takes HEART and a BRAIN. It means still going out where the people are, giving out the dopey keychains, staging fun events at the mall, bringing in bands to play during morning drive, making sure your personalities don't just do a 20-minute tracking session and go home but do something worthwhile for themselves and the community and the station. That is NOT "last century's radio" - that's being a good community business that just happens to own a transmitter. If the economic collapse has borne out nothing else, it has shown that being the Greedy One who gets all the toys is now evil and is despised. The good guys riding the white horses are now "in". So whether it's "Fresh", "Edge", "Fan", "Eagle", "Duck", "Froggy" or "Agatha", it's time to step up and be the Good Guy. (8/31/09) Well, well….have you noticed the latest Drudge and Fox News Polls? There is finally an Obama backlash!! Gee I wonder why! You think it might be the multi-TRILLION dollar debt, (that LIBS are still trying to pin on Bush? Or maybe it’s the healthcare bill, do ya think? Checked into the Canadian Health Bill. Did you know that since they instituted that there are TWO-2 Doctors of Oncology that can treat Ovarian Cancer in the entire country? The waiting list for medical treatment is absolutely off the charts. You know, now that I think about it, it just might be that the Smart Libs (there are a few) have finally really looked at what CHANGE means to his administration..YA THINK!!!!-WOW (8/31/09) Dave's response: Come on! Drudge is nothing but a GOP propaganda site. HuffPost is miles better..... Got a chance to hear a little bit of the new format on WBAL and I really liked it. A lot more immediacy, more stories. They had Scott Wycoff at a school, a live interview from California on the wildfires. I really liked the Ravens introducing Keith Mills. If this is day one, I only expect it to get better and better. It's different than the old show, but its already growing on me. This was a good move for them. The morning certainly sounds more contemporary. (8/31/09) Dave's response: Maybe Hearst could buy 1300 from CBS and put its talk line-up there and make 1090 all-news fulltime..... Hey Grumpy Fred. You are a freaking genius! That's EXACTLY what DC radio needs - a station playing unknown cuts by Country Joe and the Fish and 10 Years After. Why, if someone started doing that people would FLOCK to that station! You asked the question: How many people know 10 years after had more than one song?...The answer to that comes in the form of the question - how many people care? (8/31/09) Hey Dave. When are you going to cover the fcc's plans to silence free radio???? (8/31/09) Dave's response: That Glenn Beck Kool-Aid is good, isn't it? Back in the 1970's and 80's it was actually a common practice among many local TV stations to brag about having such things as a news helicopter even if in reality they really didn't really outright own one though many of stations back then did lease them for a brief time just to milk out as much publicity as they can such as for ads for TV Guide, before they would give back those helicopters to whoever owned them. An example.. back in the mid 1980's when Scranton's WNEP-TV ABC channel 16 had got their own news chopper, It didn't take long for the other stations in the Scranton-Wilkes Barre, Binghamton and Harrisburg-Lancaster markets to notice so some of the local stations in that region had went out and got their own news choppers though by leasing them only for a few weeks. I can remember seeing a TV Guide ad around this time for Harrisburg's WHTM channel 27 showing off their helicopter with the big 27 logo on the door, all the high tech gear screaming in the ad that WHTM takes to the air. The reality is that WHTM only leased that helicopter for a few weeks, got some pics of it for their ads & promos and maybe perhaps they showed it off at some county fair or whatever in hopes that people will take notice and therefor make WHTM part of their viewing habits and of course once the novety wore off which usually didn't take very long anyway, its time to say bye bye to the chopper. Today it is kind of hard for a station to pull such a stunt. If a station goes out and leases a helicopter and only plans to use it for "publicity" for a brief time and yet they tell the viewers that they they outright own that machine and brag about using it more or less for every news story that comes along even if they had no plans on doing such a thing, with the internet being well the internet it won't take long for people to brand that station as "liars" which in turn can hurt the station's reputation. (8/31/09) Re: "I want a rocker that's really 'edgy,'" -- 105.9 "The Edge" is about "edgy" as 94.7 "Fresh FM" is "fresh". It's soccer-dad music for guys who are married to the boring soccer-moms who listen to "Fresh" 94.7. and if u. are gonna name your station after U2's guitar-player then u. should be playing their music more often. DC101 repetitive or not is only good rock station left in dc. --mark d, arlington (8/31/09) Ahhh... Richmond television. What can one say about it? For a long time, the WWBT-12 website had a remarkable story about the history of TV in that city, written by their first CE. Haven't looked at the site for a long time, so it might be gone by now since its become fashionable for a station to ignore its history. However, I do have some pleasant memories of TV in what was once a national capital from my days of living in Fredericksburg, VA which at that time probably more identified culturally with the Richmond stations than those in D.C. . The first was Meredith Buell, of WWBT-12 who covered the General Assembly. He was a top-notch pro who I understand later worked at WBAL-11 before moving on to a career at the State Department. The seconf was Jennifer Smith, also of WWBT-12. Ms. Smith was a long-term substitute weathercaster for Janet Peckinpaugh who was recovering from ijuries sustained in an auto crash. There was one newscast in particular which I wish I had a recorfing of. Why? Let's just say that it was obvious on-camera that it must've been rather cold in the studio for that 6:00 PM show! I noticed that she was wearing a different top for the 11 PM show taht evening! Finally, there's Ukee Wasgington who used to did weekend sports at WTVR-6. He had a very unique enthusiatic and animated style which is quite a contrast to how he is today at KYW-3 in Philly where he does weekday morning news. From a hazy and smoky Southland... John Pinckney (8/31/09) I ran across this item from the 1957 Post. According to the 1958 Broadcasting Magazine Yearbook, Kent was the President of the 810 kHz station in Annapolis, (then known as WABW). Does anybody remember them actually using the WIPA calls? (8/31/09) /\ August 31 Messages /\ \/ August 30 Messages \/ The poster who said Charlottesville VA was not a stand alone Nielsen TV market until Gray Television built several low powered network affilates there a few years ago is wrong. Charlottesville has been a Nielsen DMA for at least the last 20 years, just as single-station Harrisonburg has also been a DMA for many years. After the Charlottesville DMA was carved out of the Richmond market, Augusta County (Staunton and Waynesboro) VA remained part of the Richmond DMA for some years before being placed in the Harrisonburg DMA, which goes to show how influencial WHSV was there---only 20 miles from it's city of license, while Richmond is about 120 miles away. (8/30/09) I too am a bit curious about about this "WXEX chopper". Did they even have one back in the 70's or 80's? I used to have a copy in my collection of the Richmond-Norfolk edition of TV Guide from around 1982 and in it was an ad spotlighting WXEX's chopper about how with the help of this copter, WXEX can send stroies back to the station while it is still news. OK.. Several years later in Colorado I ran into former WXEX anchor Barbara Berlin ( at the time she was at Denver's KWGN ). I asked her about this helicopter that WXEX was supposed to have had only to get "..that was a damn lie..TV8 never had a god damn helicopter". I brought up the ad I remember seeing in TV Guide and Berlin more/less said I was full of it. Dittos with my friends in Richmond. So I am beginning to wonder if that "WXEX chopper" was staged? In other words..only for ads. If it was then Baltimore's WMAR-TV did the same thing too. There was a clip of the 1979 opening to WMAR's "NewScene" that I had saw on You Tube awhile back that showed a scene of a chopper taken off with this big "2" logo on the side of it..yet according to many including many of my old friends who had worked in that market, WMAR never did have a news chopper. (8/30/09) Dave, Since I am in a mailing mood; thought I would add the following from the Grand Rapids Press, Grand Rapids, Michigan Music from '50s through '70s returns to the airways with WGVU-AM move to oldies format. Wonder if Oldies becomes an NPR format much like Jazz and Classical. I suspect the verdict will be rendered at beg-a--thon time.... GRAND RAPIDS -- WGVU AM is answering more than a few West Michigan prayers with newly announced radio station, Real Oldies 1480/850. The all-oldies NPR radio station, playing local to national hits from the mid-'50s to early '70s, will be hosted by former WFGR-FM (98.7) personality Len O'Kelly and Bill Bailey, formerly of WLHT. The announcement comes on the heels of WFGR changing its format from Oldies to Classic Hits -- a maneuver that displeased many loyal oldies listeners in the area. "It's our hope that through public support that (oldies music) doesn't get taken away again," O'Kelly said. The format was abandoned in 2004 with WODJ and again recently with WFGR. "Our hope is third time's a charm," O'Kelly said. The station will play a library of over 5,000 oldies hits, with many focusing on local groups that charted in the '60s. WFGR had an oldies library of about 1,000 songs. "We want people to say, 'Wow, I haven't heard that in 40 years,'" O'Kelly said. Also, the station will be the first NPR station in the country to adopt the oldies format, "which is kind of cool," O'Kelly said. O'Kelly will be the station's afternoon personality from 2-7 p.m., most likely, though the station is still finalizing details. Bailey will host a morning show from 6-9 a.m. Local news and NPR news reports will be offered every hour, along with SkyView Traffic, local weather and school closing reports, special interviews and features. Some NPR programs, like "Car Talk," will be offered on the weekends. O'Kelly said he can't wait to get the Golden Oldies back on the air and do what he can to preserve the genre on the radio. He also likes that the oldies will be returning to an AM station, since albums of this era were mixed for AM radio. While the station is as high-tech as you can get, O'Kelly said he has a few archaic devices at his disposal. Said O'Kelly: "I do have a turntable in the studio, and I'm not afraid to use it." For more information and upcoming full station schedule, visit wgvu.org. (8/30/09) Can Loveline be heard anywhere in DC area or might any station pick it up ? People here have been listening so long why wouldn't they? Thanks. (8/30/09) Doug Hill worked in the Richmond market in the late '70's. He was known as Larry Hill in those days while at WWBT. He's never to my knowledge used the name "Wilma the Banjo Picker" on the air. Two major mistakes. Great post! (sigh) (8/30/09) I worked at WXEX-TV in 1977, and I can tell you beyond the shadow of a doubt that they didn't have a damn helicopter. They got a live truck in '78 when they switched from film to ENG, but a chopper? That's hilarious! How many more of your facts were pulled out of thin air? (pun intended) (8/30/09) Follow up to the Nielsen methodology. Simply add up all the over the air station viewing in a county. The existing market that is most viewed by percentage will be the market a given county is assigned. Just because a given city such as Reading, Pa. or Atlantic City (Wildwood) NJ has a station is significant only if that station or a combination of stations adds up to 50% viewership. Ironically the wide distribution of WTTG in the early CATV days (TTG was one of the few indy's) (and its' large viewership) allowed the DC market to extend to western Maryland rather than Allegeny County being in the Baltimore market. The number 1 TV station and news operation in Frankin County, Pa. has always been WGAL from Lancaster. But because the bulk of over the air viewing (or cable in later years) was to Washington DC stations; Franklin was in the DC market until 2005. Fulton County remains in the DC market even though WTAJ, Altoona is the most viewed station. Regional marketing has more to do with this market assessment than any government policy. SMSA's and MSA's are great for stats such as census measurements; but the Nielsen's more logically reflect viewing. Charlottesville, Va. was always part of the Richmond market. Even though WVIR was the most watched station. Only when Gray Television built a CBS affiliate and then a low power ABC and sub channel Fox affiliate did Charlottesville become a stand alone market. Regional markets such as Salisbury-Dover fight for the fringe counties more than the major markets because additions and subtractions of counties can cause a more precipitous move in market size. (8/30/09) Dave: I only caught the second half of Thursday's Redskins' game and then took a chance by switching over to Comcast Sportsnet and that was a mistake. My brother called me from Philly and was watching Chic and Trevor and he couldn't believe someone hired Ken Harvey as an analyst. I watched the uncomfortable exchange between Trevor and the Coach and I must say, if I was Dan Snyder, I would look for another TV partner. Why do I suggest this? It was a close game and those X's and O's - type questioning should be saved for Kelli Johnson on Monday, not right after a game. I played some football and really didn't understand where Ken Harvey was going with the questioning. The entire exchange made Comcast look amateur and really showed why they have awful talent!!! Big deal they are the exclusive HD preseason home of the Redskins. Say what you want about the way George and Sonny used to lob questions to Joe Gibbs back in the days...but George always found a way to give us a bit more information without pisxxng-off Gibbs. Kelli looked stupid trying to get out of the shot during the interview and Greg didn't know where to look. The bottom line, Comcast is not the place to go to for any postgame coverage. (8/30/09) According to the facebook page for espn980, "He's Back! - The Tony Kornheiser Show debuts on Tuesday, September 8th @ 10am - it's TK five-days-a-week on ESPN 980, ESPN980.com & on AudioNow on ANY phone at 202-621-2199..." The 7th is Labor Day so most likely it doesn’t want to start on a holiday. -Ankit (8/30/09) Geeeee WICL and their olides are still around? I had thought for sure they were supposed to drop oldies in favor of sports with a simulcast of sister WEPM-AM sometime ago. Last year driving through Martinsburg, I heard WEPM's then-morning guy Jay Young going on about this change on his morning program saying "..wouldn't sports sound great on 95.9? Coming soon Sports Radio 1340 & 95.9".I heard it. My wife heard it. I also remember the on-air promo ( voiced again by Jay Young ) "..Sports..Its how YOU play the game..Sportsradio 1340 WEPM..and coming soon to 95.9 on your FM dial". OK this was a year ago, wonder what happened? I know WICL has since lost the Hagerstown Sun baseball rights to WJEJ, so I wonder if this was the reason why the oldies continue today on WICL rather than a simulcast with WEPM sports? Kinda stange to announce such a change on the air as Jay Young had done only not to follow through with it and its a shame too. Hagerstown could use an FM sports talker not too mention one can make more money doing that than with oldies. (8/30/09) Now isn't that in the spirit of the Democratic Party supported, Obama championed, liberal dogma. We should burn fossil fuel to operate lights for TV cameras so that a dead Kennedy can get the superstar burial he is entitled to? Typical liberal hypocrisy. Just like the Hollywood movie stars who demand just the right light, while telling you to turn off yours. There was no need for added light. And sound attenuated portable generators do exist, they can be rented from several places in the area. But why bother? It was a very green thing to shoot the burial with a minimum of light. No fossil fuel was consumed either. (8/30/09) WICL a great oldies station? What is in YOUR crackpipe dude? It's the same old crap over and over again with no playlist maintenance going on. Little (if any) rotation of different songs in and out of the playlist, no live DJs that I can tell, no interaction with the listeners, no remotes and very, very little local content...BORING! Just plug the computer into the transmitter and close the door. That place is more stale than a WW-II sandwich. Outfits like that are the reason I-PODS and MP-3 players are so popular these days. BTW-The last great oldies station in Hagerstown was Oldies 106.9-WARX. The ratings pretty much told the story there. (8/30/09) hey Dave, I was wondering if you or anyone else knows the answer to this...Ive heard that Tivo recordings are now counted in TV ratings. But what about if I record on VHS? (8/30/09) Dave's response: I dunno..... Regarding the Glen Beck phenomenon: America had the same thing in a different guise during the 1950s with Joseph McCarthy. The extremely wealthy and right-wing were worried about a Communist takeover that they perceived would be extremely likely in the event that Democrats were given political control. They pushed the notion that there was a Communist cabal in the U.S. Government and in the media working to put over the message that Communism beat the U.S. brand of capitalism. They wanted none of this "working together" and "common good" crap. A credulous working population would gladly, they believed, overthrow the U.S. government for a Communist government. The result would be that the new Communist government would confiscate the assets of the extremely wealthy and put them to work on collective farms or shoot them. Anything that interfered with enterprise management was jammed into the "Communist Plot" bin. That would include Socialized Medicine and Unions. That also would include most government functions that don't shovel huge amounts of taxpayer money into corporate coffers. That people are conspiring to deprive the wealthy of their property (or the elderly of "their" Medicare) is a conceit, but a useful conceit, because people will rally around a delusion when it suits their purpose. People like Glen Beck spit on intellectual honesty. Facts need not intrude. (8/30/09) Predictably, the coverage of the Kennedy death was over the top. The guy wasn't a president and he was hardly the only person who has served a long time in the Senate. But he was a Kennedy so that is all the excuse the cable news networks need, particularly in the dead of August. By the way, did anyone see any interviews of Mary Jo's relatives to see what they think about the whole thing? Just wondering. (8/30/09) Interesting comments about the Richmond TV market but I have to comment on the part that said "...Out-of-market stations represent less than 1% of the viewship in Henrico, Hanover, Chester and the City of Richmond..." Even though Richmond has had their own local TV since the 40's and that statement is indeed true TODAY, believe it or not there was a time in the 60's, 70's and perhaps into the 80's when actually both WDCA and WTTG were getting more viewers in Richmond than what WTVR, WXEX and WWBT were getting. I am sure some of that was due to Richmond's "love affair" with Washington but also a good bit of it was due to the quality, or lack thereof when it came to local Richmond TV in those days. For a market that was famous for having some great radio stations like Q-94 and WLEE, Richmond also was famous for having some of the worst local TV in the nation. While the DC & Baltimore stations were using mini-cams and doing live reports back in the late 70s..Richmond was still using film even though Richmond did beat both Baltimore & DC in the chopper game when WXEX channel 8 got their chopper with "TV 8's Eyewitness News Eye in the Sky" in 1977..even though WXEX were still using FILM at the same time..go figure !! Richmond was also very slow in expanding their news and for a time as recently as the mid 80s, no news on weekends or at noon plus some of the worst local station slogans..yeah they came from Richmond too like WTVR's "We are number one in your eyes" WTF???? In the 70's While DC had Barry ZeVan, Williard Scott and Louis Allen for weather, Richmond had to settle for "Wilma the Banjo Picker", no wonder viewers down there were "hungry" for those big city stations like WTTG. Today the Richmond TV market is more/less on par with DC and Baltimore as far as quality is concerned but then again it really isn't something to brag about anyway since TV today is about the same everywhere. (8/30/09) What is the matter with radio station program directors in this town? It seems every couple of months or so they trade formats, hoping something will click and turn dismal radio into success. The latest disaster-to-be is the abomination known as "The EDGE, 105.9." My God, they can't even come up with an original name! Granted, True Oldies could have stood some improvement, but at least it was mildly different, and offered listeners something of a choice. The weekend "theme" shows were catchy and varied. I'm sorry, as a "classic" rocker (meaning: I'm old enough to remember when these songs were new), I quickly tire of hearing the same old tripe ground out over and over. How many people know that Ten Years After had more than one song, for example? "I'd Love to Change the World" isn't even one of their better tunes, for example. When was the last time anyone heard "Orange Skies" by Love? Or "Not So Sweet, Martha Lorraine," by Country Joe and the Fish? Am I the only one who remembers that Steve Miller had released *five* well-received albums before "The Joker?" If I were a conspiracy nut, I'd almost believe radio station program directors were in collusion with Sirius-XM; make terrestrial radio so bad that listeners will have little choice but go to the pay-as-you-listen model. As it is, in my world, radio PDs have acquired equal status with used car salesmen and politicians. Thank God for Apple and the iPod; I now drive nowhere without my iPod connected. And, thanks to podcasts and independent Internet broadcasters, I have a wealth of fresh music to keep me entertained while I travel, rather than subject myself to the mental mush being promulgated by these oxygen- and airwave-wasters. A pox on the EDGE. Another preset has disappeared from my FM radio. I think all that's left is WTOP. But they have three frequencies, so that's a choice...? Grumpily, Fred Puhan, Severely Disappointed (former) DC Radio Listener (8/30/09) Dave's response: CBS's Arrow/Globe didn't work because it was dull and played the same turgid rock over and over. And now Citadel is repeating the failure with the Edge. Proof that DC radio programmers are the walking dead..... The person who explained Nielsen's methodology failed to explained one simple thing... WHY it's done this way or allowed or even whether it's accurate. Reading/Allentown/Bethlehem have their own TV stations, same with South Jersey. Why are they not network stations for the most part or separate markets? Does anyone in Hagerstown even watch the DC news? Does anyone in South Jersey wanna know what's going on in Philly? Probably not, and many in Hagerstown may not even watch the DC stations either since others are offered out there from other markets that are just as close by. Take a look at Hagerstown's basic cable lineup... tvlistings.aol.com... Notice WRC 4 is not even there, neither is channels 20 or 50 & there's a duplicate network affiliate for every other network! Daytona Beach, FL has its own TV stations, yet they were combined with Orlando even though both are large enough markets now to clearly support their own compliment of network TV stations. I think last I checked the Orlando market as it's currently defined has like twice the # of TV stations as Baltimore does even though it's a smaller market and also more than DC too. I guess my point is that it's corporate pressure, money deals with cable systems backed up by the networks in collusion with Nielsen and the FCC looking the other way that is the only thing that gives you these ridiculously sized markets like Orlando-Daytona Beach-Melbourne. I'd be willing to bet many people in Melbourne would never even have been to Orlando before except for Disney World! The Federal Government spends millions and millions more dollars surveying population and commuting patterns and the Federal Government says Baltimore is much larger than several markets that Nielsen has moved ahead of it. Nielsen spends far less money. What's wrong with this picture? It's ironic that the FCC backs up Nielsen's definition of markets and size and protects those corporate markets from invading signals, yet ignores the federal government's own population statistics on market sizes. If the Federal government says a market is two separate markets and Nielsen says its one or vice versa, what makes Nielsen more correct and why does the FCC allow these types of shenanigans and arbitrarily large markets that are not really one market by the government's own statistics? ANSWER: CORPORATE GREED & COLLUSION. And I know someone will say, NO, it's based on viewing patterns, but that's my point, the fix is in, the viewers are FORCED to watch those stations arbitrarily and many TV stations are disallowed network programming based on this fixed system that the FCC allows to continue. The viewers are not making viewing decisions, they're just watching the ONLY things they're ALLOWED to watch! If Orlando really is or should be this huge mega-market and deserves to be ranked so high by Nielsen, then here's an astonishing proposal... Why not GIVE CONSUMERS A CHOICE! Make the DC/Baltimore market one market BUT STILL allow duplicate network programming within the same market. If Nielsen wants to do sub-market studies, fine. The Federal Gov't already does this. Let the consumer decide. But the FCC will never allow this due to corporate lobbying of course. (8/30/09) Paraphrasing what I heard on FOX Sports radio this morning: "In sports, youre only going to have one champion. One Super Bowl champ. One World Series champ. Not 2 not four, not one and a half. One. Just like the election. Obama beat Bush." Are you kidding me? He didnt even correct himself! I guess I just didnt think or realize that that sports media had just as much a liberal bias as the news media. Damn. (8/30/09) Re the lighting at Arlington. I would think that someone would have put up a couple of lights so that, at the very least, the people at the gravesite would have some illumination. Not necessarily the media, but the cemetery could have put some lights up as a courtesy to the mourners. I remember RFK's burial service being lit. (8/30/09) AAAGH! Check the obits in the Sunday Post! First it was Billy Bush a few days ago and today it's Barbara Harrison! What the hell is going on here? She was just on ... what? ... not the same one? ... Oh, never mind... (8/30/09) Dave's response: Ah, how about this for a "Twilight Zone" episode - a man wakes up some morning and opens the paper to find his own obit there..... Nielsen measurements would never include Richmond in another market. Households in the core Richmond counties receive their network programming exclusively from Richmond affiliates.Out-of-market stations represent less than 1% of the viewship in Henrico, Hanover, Chester and the City of Richmond. In Washington County, Maryland (Hagerstown); more than 50% of the total TV viewing of local stations are those from the Washington market. Thus Hagerstown is part of the DC market. Likewise only a few folks in Baltimore (or Carroll or Harford) watch the DC stations. Ditto the reverse; FFX, Mogo etc. not viewing Baltimore. As Howard becomes more of a DC suburb than Baltimore (as more viewers spend more time watching DC stations) that County may someday be annexed to DC. In the Philadelphia market more than 50% of station viewing in the City of Allentown and Bethlehem (and Easton) are Philadelphia stations. Thus ABE is part of the Philadelphia DMA. Dallas-Ft. Worth with about the same geographical seperation as Washington and Baltimore have only one network affiliate for the entire area. Thus operate as a single market. In the old AM days Dallas and Ft Worth were seperate. Only 3 AM's (WBAP, WFAA and KRLD) covered both cities day and night. With the advent of 20 FM's that cover both...Arbitron decided, due to listener patterns, that they were a single market. (8/30/09) Hey dave it's that time of year again and I thought I would throw you another shameless plug . MAC IS BACK. hard to believe it but IT'S ACADEMIC will roll out it's 49th season in just a few weeks. Of course Mac will be at the helm as usual... Mark McGarry...... (8/30/09) About "Only a moron would try to make it be about some sort of 'media agenda" : Who said media agenda? Not me. I just said it was spoon fed unfiltered and there were few critical comments, which is what you would expect as it was funeral and remembrance services and that's really what should be done, just show it. I'm just pointing out that I had to turn the damn thing off because I couldn't take any more filthy rich poignant yachting/sailing stories that segued into a poor man's hero story. Joseph Kennedy's speech was the most annoying & arrogant filthy rich eulogy type speech I think I've ever heard. If I'm being disrespectful at all, I'm being disrespectful to the Kennedy family, not Senator Ted Kennedy. I think he would have preferred to be remembered for brokering deals like No Child Left Behind and all his other legislative accomplishments, NOT yachting and staying at The Ritz! I can't even believe that story was told where he left the kids on an island camping and sailed back to sleep at the Ritz. Does no one else see the rich/poor hypocrisy here? To me, the family jokes were not funny, but glaring and annoying and filthy rich arrogant. If this was a Republican family, the media would be burning them at the stake right now! The sun setting during the end of the funeral service and there not being enough light is probably a fitting end to the Kennedy dynasty in American politics. Camelot is history, the flame is out, the dream is gone, the torch has already been passed. (8/30/09) ...and by PenIs I'll assume you mean Chris Matthews ... Christ what a d-bag! To suggest that Obama dropped the ball by not traveling to Arlington National Cemetery "because he (Obama) is on vacation" shows how poor a journalist Matthews has become. Cool FootNote Alert Chris: The funeral nor burial was about the President. It was about Sen. Kennedy! It was equally nice to see Keith Oberman crush Matthews on the topic ... my but Kathleen must be proud of her man! (8/30/09) Arlington National Cemetery had strict rules about lighting and would not allow any to be put up. Plus the noise from the generator would have been unacceptable. The cemetery brought in their own lights but wouldn't even turn them on till after the service. Many restrictions were in place to preserve the peace and dignity of the area. (8/30/09) I was just thinking the very same thing myself about the absence of lights at Arlington National. Bobby Kennedy at least got a candlelight ceremony. Didn't anyone think a couple of Arrimaxes might have been a good idea? - Amateur lighting guy (8/30/09) Regarding lighting up Arlington after 8:00 p.m.; I have mixed feelings. I understand the importance of a national figure such as Senator Kennedy (even though I disliked his politics). However, several thousand others rest there (including two of my uncles.) Where would the lighting be placed? On someone's grave? -- GAB in the Airless Cubicle (8/30/09) There were 3 Kennedy pools today. ABC coevered the Mass in Boston, CBS provided pictures at the Capitol and parade route and Fox was at the Cemetery. Granted the processional was hours late arriving at Arlington, it was obvious by delays in Boston that the entire day would be late. Fox took a chance to save a few bucks and lost, BIG TIME. The lights seen at the end of the gravesite service were provided by Arlington National Cemetery for the safety of the visitors to exit and the cemetery crew to close the grave. (8/30/09) Regarding Nielsen and the various TV markets....over the years I have read/heard many of people saying how Baltimore and Washington should be combined to be one huge market...but what about including the Richmond market as well? For some reason I seem to remember reading many years back, maybe it was the Richmond Times-Disaptch where Nielsen was thinking about making Richmond a part of the DC market. I assume this was "just talk" because it of course never did become reality much less how would this even be possible ( could any DC station make it into Richmond OTA? ), however I do remember Norfolk's WAVY-TV 10 sports director Bruce Rader at one time had made some comment about how it "would make sense" to have NBC 4's George Michael cutting a sportscast for Richmond's NBC 12 since the viewers down there with the exception of Nascar are sooooooooo into the Washington and Baltimore sports scene. I also seem to recall many viewers down there weren't very thrilled when WRLH-TV signed on back in 82 because..well they loved to watch WTTG and WDCA..why bother with WRLH? Of course had Richmond became part of the DC market what would happen to WTVR and of course WWBT? Become translators for WRC and WUSA? I know there is a bit of distance between Richmond and DC but still I have to wonder if Bruce Rader was on to something. After all Richmond, their airport had a chance to be a hub for American Airlines back in the 80s ( perhaps the late 70s ) but some goofball felt that people in Richmond would rather drive to DC than use their own airport so that hub went to Raleigh-Durham ( look at that market now? ). And when the Richmond based department store chain Thalhimers was taken over by Hechts, many people there were thrilled about that one like :..hey we have a DC based store here !!" even though it came with a cost..as in lost jobs. So if so many people in Richmond think of their city as this southern distant suberb of DC..might as well make them a part of the DC area even if it means an extra million people which I beleive is the current population of the Richmond Metro area. (8/30/09) Dave, Your online service is the best; the greatest. Yours is the most comprehensive information available. In the old days when I was active, I'd read "Broadcasting"; today I find more material in only a few of your blurbs than I read in an entire "Broadcasting" issue. You must have stringers everywhere... You're in my top five bookmarks read daily. Speaking of blurbs, whatever happened to Doug "Greaseman" Tracht? The guy was a true radio entertainer... Keep up the good work. Paul, Baltimore (8/30/09) Dave's response: Awww schucks. Thanks! The Grease is now working at a classic rocker in Jacksonville. More at rock105i.com..... Help! My radios are coughing and getting ill. I told my radios at home and in the car that Tony K was coming back on the radio. Not only are the radios prepared NOT to listen, so am I. You can be sure that he'll be talking about what HE wants to talk about, which, for the most part, isn't what the listeners want to hear. I wish nothing but low ratings for TK. (8/30/09) /\ August 30 Messages /\ \/ August 29 Messages \/ Such a shame that Arlington National Cemetery pool provider Fox didn't have a contingency lighting plan for the funeral service continuing into darkness. Former network lighting guy. (8/29/09) Dave's response: Wasn't it a pool feed? I think that all the news networks lost the light after 8 PM at the Kennedy burial service..... WHUT has added a high-definition channel (32-1) and moved its SD channel to 32-2. Also, both my sets have been reporting a "14-2" (WFDC) for several days but it's been completely blank. ~~CA in BC (8/29/09) I am really enjoying 105.9 The Edge (fingers crossed). They now occupy the preset formerly held by BIG and its four dozen song library. I hope they will continue to program a wide and deep playlist like they're doing now. Also looking forward to Mr. Tony :) Robert, Arlington (8/29/09) Spotted an interesting graphic during Kim Martucci's weather on Nine's 6 PM news tonight. Instead of the banner reading "Right Now" or "Current Conditions" etc. it read "TYPE HERE" - guess whoever was running the graphics generator forgot to TYPE HERE! I expect that in market #250 or whatever, but not in a Top 10 market like DC, even on the weekends. Ya get what ya pay for with staffing these days, I suppose - - - - - Larry in Luray (8/29/09) It is not totally unexpected that The PenIs would chime in with his ignorant, tasteless, inappropriate remarks, on the day of Senator Kennedy's funeral. What an asshole! (8/29/09) "Comcast, the nation's largest cable television provider, can grow bigger if it wants to, after a federal court decision on Friday that tossed out a rule preventing cable companies from controlling more than 30 percent of the US market." Gee, they could grow if they'd lay some more damn cable in the counties where they already have a monopoly! They have exclusive rights to Wicomico County on the Shore, with a population of 100,000 and yet they refuse to wire almost 40% of the county's homes. Instead of finding new areas, how about serving the ones they already have locked up? Bill, Salisbury, MD (8/29/09) Re; NBC’s coverage of Senator Ted Kennedy's funeral was shown on WRC and WBAL today. Hagerstown's NBC affiliate, WHAG- decided not to show it, and instead aired Qubo cartoons, some ACC Football highlight show, and infomercials (from 10 AM to when NBC's coverage ended at 1:15 PM on Channels 4 & 11). It just seems odd that WHAG would not air a national NBC News broadcast of a memorial that honored a great figure in American politics.//////////// In fact it is not odd. People in Hagerstown would much rather watch cartoons than the coverage of the funeral of a man that they care little about. In fact I'd bet that people outside of Boston and Washington could care less and that stations in other areas went with regular programming. (8/29/09) Methinks that KeninGlenBurnie likes typing as much as the Nantucket Orca liked waitress sandwiches. (cough, Asperger's). Am I the only one who noticed that President TheRock Obama, deprived of his teleprompter, was checking off the lines in his eulogy with his left hand as he read them? The way his head swung up right, down center, up left, and back again, over and over and over made me dizzilly. Hoping for another sighting of and possible hookup with the Washington Post's own Ron Jeremy look-alike, Gene Weingarten, at a painted-black club east of the Convention Center and west of the Safeway. My German friends refer to it as "Der Adler." --- ThePenIsMightier (8/29/09) (regarding a previous post) "I'm not trying to be disrespectful ... Basically, if I hear one more filthy rich family Yachting/Sail-boating poignant story that segues into a looking out for or being in touch with the common man story ... I think I'm going to PUKE!" Jesus! For someone who is trying NOT to be disrespectful, you sure are doing a great job of being a basher! Senator Kennedy's friends and family are entitled to remember Ted Kennedy and his legacy exactly as they see fit. If they choose to talk about sailing adventures, that's their business. And as for the coverage "being spoon-fed to us unfiltered by the lapdog media," the cameras and microphones merely capture whatever is being said or done and the memorial service and at the funeral. Only a moron would try to make it be about some sort of 'media agenda'. (8/29/09) RE: Baltimore drops a notch in the Nielsen ranks...somewhat in DCRTV land but I wonder how many notches Hampton Roads will drop in a few years? Richmond? Roanoke-Lynchburg? My guess Hampton Roads will drop to somewhere below 60 by 2012 ( there is no growth happening there ) and perhaps by that point be within range of Richmond's market size. Harrisonburg will always remain in the same range. Dittos more/less with Roanoke-Lynchburg. Oddly Charlottesville I can see being the only Virginia TV market to increase in the rankings. (8/29/09) 1) 105.9FM The Edge is my new favorite station. Love the format! 2) Leave 630 WMAL mornings just as they are.... but if Fred and/or Andy were to retire someday, I'd say that Bryan Nehman should be the main guy, and then bring someone else, preferably a female, to be his co-host. Yes, they can have a sports guy here & there too, but sports should not be the focus of any news talk show from 5 - 10 a.m. -Silvie- (8/29/09) Mayor of Baltimore victim of a UK internet hoax regarding HBO's show The Wire! Too funny! wbal.com (8/29/09) NBC’s coverage of Senator Ted Kennedy's funeral was shown on WRC and WBAL today. Hagerstown's NBC affiliate, WHAG- decided not to show it, and instead aired Qubo cartoons, some ACC Football highlight show, and infomercials (from 10 AM to when NBC's coverage ended at 1:15 PM on Channels 4 & 11). It just seems odd that WHAG would not air a national NBC News broadcast of a memorial that honored a great figure in American politics. (8/29/09) So Kornheiser is gracing WTEM with his presence after his uncerimonious dumping from MNF? Big step down, huh? (8/29/09) Stern works for the hefty paycheck..not the ego, moron. By the way..Spewak is on @ www.ustream.tv/channel/kcjj-raw and sounds great. (8/29/09) The WOW factor would be found on an analog FM WHFS. An HFS that Ibiquity doesn't have a dog collar on. An HFS that broadcasts to its former listening area. An HFS that has balls AND a brain. An HFS that is not in the closet of a tampon factory. I refuse to buy an Ibiquihiss radio until the Highly Deceptive technology is made more reliable and I stop reading about HD owners who cannot get a lock even with the tower in line of sight. CBS you have 3 wheels in the sand and Forrest Gump at the wheel. WHAT DO WE WANT? NIIIIIIINNNNETY NIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNE OOOOOOOOOONEEEEEE HFS HFS HFS!!! WHEN DO WE WANT IT? FIVE FUCKING YEARS AGO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (8/29/09) Ok, I'm not trying to be disrespectful of one of the the most prominent U.S. Senators in U.S. history and I do have a great deal of respect for the man and some of his relatives, but I have to comment on the media coverage since it's basically being spoon-fed to us unfiltered by the lapdog media. Basically, if I hear one more filthy rich family Yachting/Sail-boating poignant story that segues into a looking out for or being in touch with the common man story (and I think I've heard at least 5 or more so far if not more), I think I'm going to PUKE! I realize these are childhood memories from some of the relatives, but the elitism of every story is astonishing. And the fact that they only have these filthy rich yachting & sailing stories speaks volumes for history. This is why the Kennedys now define a past era... With Kennedy and Bush (out of office) gone, hopefully, it's the end of elite filthy rich families that are guaranteed success I hope and the end of The Silver Spoon Era of American politics. Wishful thinking of course, we'll see. (8/29/09) RANT... [ WOW Dave Baltimore might be on its way out of the top 30 tv markets it has gone from 24th to 27th in a two year span...... This has got to hurt revenues and salaries at the stations this is very unfortunate. Charlotte,Raleigh-Durham,and Indy rise B-more falls. ]....... The DC market also dropped 2 places as well recently in addition to the Baltimore market falling. It seems the # of TV households that have access to both Washington & Baltimore TV stations is clearly undercounted, both from western MD to Ocean City, MD to Cecil County because they are regarded as 5 completely separate Nielsen markets, yet DC and Baltimore stations are on the air in ALL FIVE! Will DC end up out of the Top 10 soon? Possibly, but I predict either Cleveland, Detroit, or Pittsburgh will fall out of the Top 30 before Baltimore does. The next Census, currently being conducted will make huge changes to the rankings. We are at the end of a decade, so population stats will be the most faulty in 2009 compared to 2001 since they are all basically estimates. Obviously, neither DC or Baltimore's population is growing at the rate Charlotte's is, but population is still growing here even during the worst recession in our lifetimes while Cleveland, Detroit, Pittsburgh, & Buffalo are hemorrhaging people & jobs like there is no tomorrow. In fact some of these "Flavor of the Month Southern Cities" will probably also take some hits from all of those banking job losses. The Baltimore market has been remarkably more immune to many of the huge job losses felt in other cities because it does not have many bank HQs or auto jobs & its huge medical industry & gov't jobs aren't much affected. Same with DC & all the Federal jobs, largely unaffected by the bad economy. So I seriously doubt Baltimore will end up out of the Top 30 before 1 of those cities does, but I could easily see Washington getting bumped to #10, only because Neilsen's methodology is a crock. Neither Indy or Raleigh-Durham are as large as Baltimore unless you're just cooking the books, at least not by any government certified method of accounting. So many much less populous cities are given ridiculously high rankings that its obvious that these numbers are a bit phony. With all the controversy over the PPMs, I'm surprised Congress doesn't investigate this. How can the Nielsen & Arbitron rankings, which affect so much money in each market, be so remarkably different than actual REAL government population statistics & why are these TV markets so arbitrarily defined to benefit certain cities? Like for instance, why is the Orlando TV market almost the size of NEW JERSEY??? And why is a TV station like WESH 2 Daytona Beach, FL allowed to have its offices/studios/chopper in Orlando & virtually a P.O. Box in its city of license, Daytona Beach, FL? Why aren't they forced to be in a Daytona Beach, FL market like they were originally licensed & forced to cover the news there? That's like WRC 4 having their offices/studios in Baltimore! HAha! The Raleigh-Durham market includes Fayetteville, which has 2 of its own TV stations & gets its NBC programming from Wilmington, NC mostly & is nearly 90 miles from Durham, NC! That's like combining Philly & Baltimore into the same market! HAha! Similarly, look at Boston, it includes Manchester, NH, which has 3 TV stations of its own. Why not just throw in the closer Providence, RH market too! HAha! I could go on & on, but my point is I seriously question the methodology of both Arbitron & Nielsen & even the FCC for allowing such phony "MEGA MARKETS" to develop in this manner since these kinds of shenanigans clearly do not serve the public interest and it definitely is hurting both the Washington & Baltimore markets in a big way recently because our markets so closely overlap and appear to be declining when in fact NEITHER IS! If someone disputes what I'm saying, then please offer up some evidence that a TV station can cover late breaking news from over 90-150 miles miles away or why a market with over 500k people doesn't have its own TV station even though one is technically licensed to it. Hopefully, the 2010 Census will alter some of this via the population #s to some extent, but there seems to be no way of changing FCC policy these days sadly unless you're a corporate interest or the NAB. So much for CHANGE. :-( (8/29/09) Lately, I've wondered if anyone is responsible for proof reading the text that's placed on the teleprompters. I used to think that Mumbles Harrison was just starting to have problems reading ( and that may still be the case). But an incident on NBC4 last weekend made me think it's more the teleprompter than the anchor. Eun Yang, who I find to be a great anchor, was attempting to read the teleprompter which obviously either wasn't working properly or had the wrong text. So, she started looking through her papers and I heard her say "oh, page 20?" and began reading the papers in front of her..And on other occasions I've noticed that what the anchors read from the teleprompter makes no sense. For example, they will read a street location in Northwest Washington when in reality that street is Southeast or they'll read a sentence and then 2 seconds later read the same sentence..Now sometimes, the anchor will realize that it's wrong and correct it, but most of the time, they just read whatever's on the teleprompter..I'm starting to think that just like the weather people can give a wrong forecast and nothing is said, the same goes for whomever loads the teleprompter. (8/29/09) Doreen Gentzler's absence seems to have thrown a monkey wrench in staffing for NBC4 including the weekend morning newscast which has been cut down to just one anchor ..Wonder if this is the plan, even when she returns..I somewhat like it..Also, regarding the weekend newscast, I sure hope Steve Villanueva gave enough notice that the suits started looking for his replacement and that he/she will be starting soon..Chuck Bell EVERY weekend?..NAH.. (8/29/09) I must say that its about damn time DC has a station that really ROCKS! I've heard everything on 105.9 The Edge I would have expected. I was really pissed when 94.7 went fresh, but this new station kills the old Classic rock Globe format. Cant wait to see what Citadel would do to fuck it up. I do miss the old True Oldies 105.9, but I agree with most others on why we need a LIVE and LOCAL airstaff for it to work. As for the new Edge, they will need to get Mike O'Meara for mornings, and others by the likes of Marci Wiser, CERPHE, and Albie Dee. But, if they cant get any of them, they will need some local talent. It's nice to see WARW rebirthed... (8/29/09) Dave's response: I hope that the new Edge is better that the old Arrow was. Heck, 94.7 wasn't really all that great of a station in its classic rock days. It was dull, repetitive, and conservatively-programmed. The same three Stones tunes over and over and over. I want a rocker that's really "edgy," that throws in some grunge, progressive, New Wave, punk, classic, Brit-pop, metal, hardcore, hair bands, 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s - and mixes it all up with a nice local "feel." Gimme that "wow factor," instead of "ugh, not THAT again"..... TK show - They just announced it on WTEM during Redskins broadcast. 10-12 I think. Theo in Sterling (8/29/09) WJLA, maybe if they would just switch back, things would be better, HEY WUSA ARE YOU LISTENING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!? (8/29/09) Howard Stern, the once "King of all Media", now the Captain of the Titanic. I guess the hefty paycheck was worth fading into obscurity though. (8/29/09) Dave, If WMAL is considering someone to fill the morning drive airways, don't you think they would take a look at Johnny Holliday? In my opinion he's got the total package, name recognition, longevity in the market, acceptance by everyone, sports, theater, good interviewer, terrific involvement in the community, just about everything the morning show is lacking. Then again, who said the folks at MAL are that smart? By the way Congratulation's to another class act, Ed Walker, on his getting into the Radio hall of Fame. Well deserved Ed! Shawn, Bethesda (8/29/09) WMOD had the big echo sound and was very enjoyable to listen. There was a time that I put on the Volume full Blast at Ft Belvoir and get everyone in a Happy High Flying Mood blasting Summer In The city. (8/29/09) WICL 95.9 is a great Oldies Station. It dropped True Oldies. As an Oldies lover I Did not like True Oldies. I'm sure many others agree. This is why it failed in DC. You need local 24/7 on FM like Oldies 100 and play music of the Three Oldies Decades on FM with a good signal that covers both cities. 105.9 signal was horrible for Baltimore. This needs another try. (8/29/09) As someone who have listened to the Opie and Anthony show for quite some time, I'll report to you that the trio (when you include Jimmy) lovingly calls the women on morning radio shows "Holes", reasons: well they're the obvious stab at the anatomy, but women also ALWAYS play a true second or third (or forth) fiddle to show that is obviously aimed at being a "guy show" but is steered in the direction of either "2 dudes and a chick", or "The dude and chick show". It goes beyond that too: their manerisms are all VERY similar: i.e. "oh stop it guys, that's mean" or "OMG, I can't believe you" or "I'm not listening! BLAH BLAH BLAH!". Don't get me wrong, I love a strong, hard-headed chick, especially if it's THEIR SHOW (Oprah and Shari Elliker come to mind), but it takes an extremely talented, extremely cool beyond our wildest dreams (by that I mean she's super smart, digs guy stuff AND girl stuff and just ... STUFF), and EXTREMELY BALLSY woman to come to rein over a rock station's (especially classic, hard edge'd rock) morning show. Now I'm going to point a finger here, and it's pointed at Hearst's Bal-mer loved 98 Rock and THEIR morning show. I think that Mickey, Amelia and Spiegle's show is as good as it gets for the "2 dudes and a chick" formula (well, it's more like The dude, chick and freakboy show), but if Mickey calls out, you KNOW that there's gonna be alot more music this morning. I think that's a total waste, considering that Amelia is one of those few gals that could do the show by herself (although at least SOME banter between the two would be needed, as well as a news freak, I mean, news man). I'm not sure if that's decision on Hearst or a decision on the show to make it less show and more music when their LEADER is gone, but I would like to give credit where it's due, and all the folks that help on the "fill-in" shows do a good job: Steve Rouse (where's HIS show anyways), Keith Mills, Producer Scott, and whoever else finds their way onto the air. So enough of sucking 98 Rock's ding-dong, cya, and I hope that guy I sold Virgin Free Fest tickets to yesterday has a good time. I wish I could've gone. But making $60 for getting lucky when I logged on to ticketmaster isn't so bad either. KeninGlenBurnie (8/29/09) Congratulations to Ted Patterson on a well-deserved retirement! Ted's history in Baltimore radio was well cemented by the time I arrived at WPOC. Even after he left us, he'd return every Preakness week to file audio for the networks from our studios. His encyclopedic knowledge of Baltimore sports came in very handy at times, and it was a labor of love to interview him when his latest book was being released. Have a blessed retirement old pal, and when I get back to town, let's celebrate with a root beer or two!! Bill "Aaron" Rehkopf, KDKA-Pittsburgh (8/29/09) Re: Phil Simms on the Redskins' broadcast ... it's been a full season since listening to Phil Simms trying to broadcast a football game. I didn't realize how bad he is. I guess it's all relative. His broadcasting skills match the 'Skins playing skills. (8/29/09) /\ August 29 Messages /\ \/ August 28 Messages \/ Seriously, Dave..The Baltimore-Washington market is known as BallWash. Regards Biff (8/28/09) Donielle Flynn has been on the morning show on 103.1 WRNR all this week. She was filling in for Alex Cortwright who was on vacation. Donielle's a cool DJ, eventhough she beat me in trivia one time at the Green Turtle. At least I still got some free tickets to the Old 97's. Kevin on Kent Island (8/28/09) "Alexis Ford has been selected as Miss Howard TV for the month of September on Howard Stern’s Howard TV On Demand channel." ---Howard who???? (8/28/09) WOW Dave Baltimore might be on its way out of the top 30 tv markets it has gone from 24th to 27th in a two year span could we see people like Rod Daniels(WBAL),Denise Koch(WJZ),Marianne Banister(WBAL),Jeff Barnd(WBFF)etc....lose there jobs? This has got to hurt revenues and salaries at the stations this is very unfortunate. Charlotte,Raleigh-Durham,and Indy rise B-more falls. (8/28/09) The channel 7 in the Norfolk area is almost 3 times the power of WJLA DTV 7 by the way, although I'm not certain what impact that could be except that we are in the summer months when signals sometimes travel outside their normal coverage areas. But there is definitely lots of problems with HDTV on VHF over the air currently that the FCC appears to not be addressing. Just reading the daily FCC emergency requests, I'm seeing WPVI 6 Philadelphia, WBAL 11 Baltimore, WGAL 8 Lancaster, WTAE in Pittsburgh & a station in Richmond, VA too. And that's just nearby. There seem to be problems in almost every market on VHF, yet I don't see the FCC really taking any real action to solve this problem other than just approving these temporary power increases. Shouldn't they have engineers studying the problem or proposing changes? Oh, that's right the FCC is run by lawyers and lobbyists, they wouldn't know a transmitter from a hole in the ground! :-) (8/28/09) Been having hard time getting the WJLA over the air signal for a couple weeks now. Had been the strongest signal even after the changeover. Now got to move the d9mn antenna all over the room. Too me the new Duh Edge 105.9 sounds remarkably like the format on CBS's 94.7 before they went FRESH even down to the emphasis on metal music. Same old same old. I still prefer The Jack 102.7 in Baltimore but why do I feel those days are coming down to a precious few. Will old robbay Spewak's show on KCJJ be available on podcast or he has same non-competes as other former O'Meara's? And is WCTN toast 950AM? (8/28/09) (RE: WJLA now pressing the panic button) Well much earlier WJLA tried to do damage control after a Post article in June about bad coverage. WJLA claimed that the problems aren't so bad and except for a few isolated problems they have dissipated. "We're sort of disappointed that the Post made it seem like this huge, widespread problem in the Washington area, which it is not," See BroadcastingCable article www.broadcastingcable.com. So which is it? (8/28/09) A "chick" doing mornings in a major market? On a rock station, no less? Don't hold your breath waiting for that one to happen. Radio is changing but it sure as hell isn't changing that much. The mess that is current local radio is still run by the same bunch of mediocre, gotta do it the way I was taught to do it guys. It would, frankly, never occur to them to put a talented woman in the dj slot in morning drive. Maybe as a sidekick, but never running the show. Gee Dave, what were you thinking? (8/28/09) (RE "Anyone see a pattern here?") Gasp! News and stuff gets copied! Really? Who'd a thunk it? Why, for 20+ years I've read the Washington Post metro section over breakfast, then guess what - listening to WTOP on the way to work I hear the exact same stories! And how about that "I cheated" sign guy at Tysons - did all of the media independently show up at the same time, or was some follow-the-others going on? Its apparently one of Dave's pet peeves - attribution - of where the story ran first. Gotta say though, outside those in the media - no one really cares who reported it first. Really - garage-man sez - NO ONE CARES, but please catch your breath long enough to get it right. (8/28/09) Alexis Ford has been selected as Miss Howard TV for the month of September on Howard Stern’s Howard TV On Demand channel. Fans might be surprised to learn that Alexis, who just started appearing in adult films and performs at bachelor parties in New York, is a former high school nerd who got straight A’s and made the National Honor Society. Alexis is very adventurous sexually, and had no problem getting naked during her Howard Stern Show interview. Now, at 21 she has already appeared in Hustler, Barely Legal, Club and Velvet. She’ll also be on the small screen this month, introducing Howard TV On Demand’s new “Music Legends” category containing classic interviews with Ringo Starr, Roger Daltrey, The Ramones, John Mellencamp and Phil Collins. Alexis’s studio interview can be seen exclusively on Howard TV On Demand. She will host the monthly preview show during September. Alexis is profiled with additional photos, a Q&A and a video clip at www.howard.tv... (8/28/09) Yes Donielle Flynn would be awesome for a morning host BUT would that mean no Doni on RNR? She makes that Grasonville signal sound alot like it used to. Plus I kinda like her nickname,I'd miss hearing that too. (8/28/09) At 2:08 today Michael Calderone at Politico puts up a Barney Frank clip from Bravo. At 2:21 Matt Dornic posts the same clip on FishbowlDC. At 3:35 today Michael Calderone at Politico posts news about CBS's Cami McCormick injured in Afghanistan. Dornic posts the same news on FBDC at 4:01. Anyone see a pattern here? (8/28/09) www.washingtonexaminer.com - MASN is doing some network switching this weekend to handle their three major professional teams. OK pay attention this really is not complex so follow me on this one. If you are a Ravens fan in Washington you will see the game on MASN starting with Ravens Kickoff beginning at 7:30p.m. followed at 8p.m. with Baltimore traveling to Carolina for their third preseason game. Nationals fans can see their team on DC50 starting at with Nats Xtra at 6:30p.m. then at 7p.m. it’s game time. Orioles fans can see the game against Cleveland on MASN2 starting at 6:30p.m. with O’s Xtra and the game – weather permitting will come along at 7p.m. So you got that? In the Washington region… Nats- Cards on DC50, Ravens-Panthers on MASN and Orioles-Indians on MASN2... Jim (8/28/09) I have a sneaking suspicion regarding the alleged cheater carrying the sandwich board on Leesburg Pike on Wednesday. The Kane Show seemed to have received a lot of coverage (Washington Post article etc.) because he talked to Kane on the air. Yet the guy wouldn't talk to The Sports Junkies when they had someone there trying to interview him. Anyone else think he was put up by the Kane Show to get some publicity. I mean, they do war of the roses all the time, which we know are two paid actors! (8/28/09) Hey Dave, I know that you said last week that WUSA-TV 9 news director Lane Michaelsen left the station. Any word in when they are going to fill the position and who might it be? Also, how do you feel the digital correspondents (one-man bands) are doing? Ratings wise? (8/28/09) Dave's response: No word on Michaelsen's replacement. I haven't seen any local TV ratings of late. Anyone know how 9's doing? To: Charles in Winchester, actually, Charles, it Carlisle. Check it out. JohnnyuinHanover,Pa. (8/28/09) (Dave's response: If 105.9 wants a chick for mornings, how about Donielle Flynn?) Doni would be great!! She’s a ballsy chick with a great Detroit accent. Doni knows the music…she knows her sh*t. I love Sarah at 98 Rock. Would love Doni on 105.9. (8/28/09) Dave's response: I agree. That would be so fuckin' cool..... Tell me exactly, Dave, how the website you mentioned with the Kornheiser news "repeated" the news, when they clearly broke it. A simple check of the date stamp shows that they broke the news before you, as the source who talked to Kornheiser, is a member of that board. It appears your being your normal deceitful self. Give credit where credit is due, instead of taking it for your self. Dan O'Connor, Malvern, PA (8/28/09) Dave's response: Ah, there have been rumors floating around for the past month that Kornheiser will be doing a radio show at WTEM. I don't think that thiswebsitestinks.com is breaking any new news, when we've heard the rumors before. As I said in the newsblurb, there's still no confirmation that Kornheiser's going to be heard on WTEM. I've never claimed that DCRTV broke the original news about the Kornheiser-to-WTEM rumor. That came from some Twitterer who allegedly knows Kornheiser, I think. It appears to me that Kornheiser is using his "associates" to float rumors to light a fire under Mr. Snyder's posterior to "encourage" him to sign a WTEM show deal..... (From DCRTV's Classified Ads:) WTOP/WFED is looking for an Operations Manager for their Frederick, Md location. This full time position requires a minimum of three years broadcast engineering (or related) experience.. SBE Certification is a plus.. Be on call for emergencies, weekends, and evenings, maintaining transmitters and related equipment. Complete application at the www.wtop.com link "Inside WTOP" and follow instructions from there. An Equal Opportunity Employer (8/28/09) This comes from an e-mail from MASN....* For Comcast viewers in Pennsylvania (in the Carlyle, Chambersburg, Fort Loudon and Lancaster areas) the Ravens game is on the Comcast Network (former CN8). CARLYLE?? After the MASN people get what they want in North Carolina, and hopefully do something about their absence in Shenandoah County, they may want to invest in a copy editor. Or at least a spellcheck program.... Charles in Winchester (8/28/09) Any word on whether Imus will resurface on another station hear, either AM or FM? (8/28/09) Dave's response: Highly doubtful. I addressed the possibilities in a "Dave's response" yesterday. Scroll down..... Another Way to Tell Dan Snyder to Stick it - realredskinsfans.blogspot.com - I use to listen to Sportstalk 980 religiously. I am a huge fan of the John Thompson Show. Since Danny boy Snyder bought 980, however, I have become more and more disenchanted with it. The local programming has been cut down and there is just something unseemly to me about the owner of Washington's most important sports franchise also signing the checks for the sports talk radio folks. A few weeks ago I stumbled upon 106.7 the Fan. DC sports radio without Snyder's influence. Now the Mike Wise show at lunch and the Lavar Arrington show in the afternoon's are a staple of my day. So if you want to tell Dan Snyder to stick it - click the radio dial over to 106.7! (8/28/09) Tonight's Redskins game at Fed Ex Field is a national telecast starting at 8pm on CBS seen locally on WUSA-TV 9 both CSN and WUSA will have pregame shows. CSN with Redskins Kickoff starting at 7p.m. and WUSA 9 with their Tail Gate Show starting at 7:30pm - www.washingtonexaminer.com (8/28/09) Concerning the news item about Matthew Blades, I just want to clarify that WLWK (“Lake FM”) is the former WKTI; Mr. Blades apparently was the final morning-drive DJ on what was then ‘KTI, then became the first live afternoon-drive DJ on “Lake FM”. As always, thanks! EJM (8/28/09) Overheard on G&A at 8:31 this morning. "Tonight's Mega Million's jackpot is $385 million. Which you have as much chance of buying a winning ticket as Ted Kennedy." Stay classy, WMAL. (8/28/09) The new sports anchor, Lyndsay Murphy, looks a "little" like Jill Sorenson.. (8/28/09) "Dave's response: As for music station presets - DC101, WIYY, WBIG, WJZW, WQSR, WRQX, WINC, WBQB, WPGC, WETA, WBJC, WIHT, WKYS. I'd like to add WTMD, WRNR,...."----Gee Dave, I see you conspicuously left WEBR and The Tom Gavin Debacle, er Show off your list....hmmmm....you hater! (8/28/09) Dave's response: Well, it would be kinda hard to put WEBR on a car radio preset since it's a cable/internet station..... Hello: If you get a chance please inform me what the deal is with Doreen at Channel 4. Thank you, R. McKee (8/28/09) Dave's response: The station has announced that she's taking the summer off to handle family issues..... Hmmm, could little Dan Snyder actually have a behind-the-scenes deal brewing that actually makes sense? Put Tim Brant on mornings on SportsTalk 980 and its sister stations. A local sports show would do better than the ESPN duo of midget and the fat guy on their now. And then he could replace that douche Larry Michael (hold the S for Shitty!) with Brant to do play-by-play for the Redskins. I think I like this idea!! (8/28/09) (Or perhaps it will be that Fearless Duo, Keith Olbermann and his brother Rachael? Maybe they will give Ed “I Had No Ratings On Air America And Now I Have No Ratings On MSNBC” Schultz, Sergeant Shultz’s much, much younger brother. Either way, one can pretty much count on the All Conservatives Suck Channel to cover “The Lion of the Senate”: why wouldn’t they, that’s just about all they have been doing ad nausea for the past two days!) Oh man; someone else with too much time on her/his hands. Hurts to lose the election, doesn't it. Shawn in DC (8/28/09) (“Dave's response: Labor Day is seen by many as the symbolic end of summer. And that's what, I think, 105.9 is referring to. Although, technically, summer doesn't end until 9/21.....”) Actually, the equinoxes and solstices determine the start of the “astronomical” seasons. In other reckonings, the equinoxes and solstices are placed at the middle of the seasons. Then there are the “meteorological” seasons (as the Ntnl Weather Service determines them) lump the most similar months together; summer ends September 1st under that metric. And, of course, there are the “symbolic” seasons. But none are “technically” correct – or maybe all of them are. It just depends on how you look at it… (8/28/09) Dave's response: If I ran things, September-October-November would be fall, December-January-February winter, March-April-May spring, and June-July-August summer..... I've been trying to figure out something about 107.3 MIX's morning show (Jack Diamond Morning Show). While Jack Diamond was on vacation for a couple of weeks the station ran the "Best of Jack Diamond Show" during that time whether the rest of his gang was there or not. Today and yesterday, he's been out with strep throat so they're running "Best of" again. Which brings my question or supposition: Does Jack have something in his contract now that requires the station to have him there in some form (or does the sponsors want Jack to be there in some form)? They're paying for the Jack Diamond Morning Show, so the sponsors want Jack even if it's a "pre-recorded" Jack, hmmm? So, is it paranoia from Jack or station/sponsor requirements. Either way it must be in his contract. Joe T. in Arlington (8/28/09) Overheard at Cafe Milano that WMAL radio is trying to get Tim Brant back in the morning to save the ratings. There is also an offer from a sports talker in town. However, Brant seems happy at ABC-7 and is also considering another network offer for football. (8/28/09) “Is the EDGE poised for success?” No! Radio used to be a place to hear new music. Now they play stale music everyone has heard a thousand times. If I like Van Halen, or Aerosmith, ZZ Top, or the Rolling Stones, I have them on my iPod already. And I can listen to the songs I want by them when I want to. Why bother with the radio? It’s often been said that iPods and file sharing killing over the air radio. I think that may be true in the case of oldies/classic rock stations. If I like an ‘80’s or ‘90’s rock song why would I wait for 3 hours for DC 101 to maybe play it? 99 cents on iTunes and it’s mine. But if I want to find something new to listen to? Radio would be a good place to turn if there were avenues to hear it – but there aren’t. (8/28/09) Some observations: "Consultants" are broadcasting's equivalent of the dreaded "efficiency expert" with the aluminum clipboard who goes around documenting toward what the boss wants. Consultants are paid to build a case for management, not to actually improve anything. Many consultants have been fired from the business directly, and now are on the fringe giving advice for a price. There is no connection, expressed or implied, that they actually know what they're doing. (8/28/09) One last mention about CONSULTANTS-Has any Program Director or Jock ever been glad to see a consultant at his or her station? Not in my lifetime. BTW I’ll be on the air soon. And with no consultant telling me what to do. Hang on! Somethings coming!DJ/PLB (8/28/09) Just read the following on the TVNewscheck website..Two Lyndsay's on the local stations doing sports..Anyone ever heard of this woman?..So what happened to the guy FOX5 had?..Didn't work out?....... WTTG Adds Lindsay Murphy To Weekend Sports... Lindsay Murphy has been named weekend sports anchor and reporter for Fox O&O WTTG Washington (DMA 9). Effective immediately, Murphy will anchor the station's sports reports on Fridays and Saturdays, and serve as a sports reporter during the week for various newscasts. Most recently, Murphy spent two-and-a-half years as a sports anchor and reporter for WVIR Charlottesville, Va. Prior to this she was a sports producer for WRC Washington for two years. Earlier, she interned for The George Michael Sports Machine at WRC and was also a sports intern at WHSV Harrisonburg, Va. (8/28/09) WBAL's morning news has really got it goin'. Sarah Caldwell ANCHORING this morning was a real treat. I hope it's permanent. Then again, they're still making her do traffic reports too, so maybe not so good. (8/28/09) “Robb Spewak's new radio show can be heard this Saturday morning at 11 @ www.ustream.tv/channel/kcjj-raw...the KCJJ Radio stream.” It’s a long way from WJFK to KCJJ: too much fun watching the live studio stream! They’re selling cows, manure and all kinds of stuff, like storm doors! Worth signing up to join in the live blog! Love the Iowa accents (my family is from Dubuque & I was born in Iowa City). (8/28/09) Dave, just curious, what are you favorite FM music stations in the area? What fills your presets? (8/28/09) Dave's response: As for music station presets - DC101, WIYY, WBIG, WJZW, WQSR, WRQX, WINC, WBQB, WPGC, WETA, WBJC, WIHT, WKYS. I'd like to add WTMD, WRNR, WWMX, WJZ-FM, and WZBA but I can't get reliable reception here in Northern Virginia. As for talkers, it's WTOP, WMAL, WAMU, WCSP, WBAL, WCBM, WYPR (WYPF via Frederick), WTNT, WJFK, WFED, and WTEM. What do I listen to most? WTOP, WAMU, WMAL, DC101, WIYY, WBIG, WETA, WIHT, WBAL, WJFK (Junks only), WJZW, WRQX. I have an HD Radio at the home office and listen to HFS2 (WTGB) and Erockster (DC101). Ditto with Sirius XM, where I'm mainly on Stern, Opie and Anthony, Ron and Fez, BBC World Service, or BBC Radio 1..... From the “Who The F Cares” department of The Washington Post comes this puzzling admission: “Editor's Note Friday, August 28, 2009 A story in Thursday's Style section reported that Bob Dylan was negotiating with two automobile companies to become the voice of an in-car navigation system. The story was based on wire reports about a BBC broadcast this week of Dylan's weekly satellite radio program, "Theme Time Radio Show." The Post story did not report that the show originally aired Dec. 3; The Post failed to confirm the timing of the broadcast. “ Thank God we got that cleared up: I was losing sleep over the confusion! But perhaps one of the eagle-eyed DCRTVers who noticed it earlier are responsible for this ridiculous correction. (8/28/09) Dave's response: Hey, at least Farhi got a byline on what was, pretty much, a wire service re-write..... I disagreee. WJZW would do well jockless with liners. ( I never thought I'd ever say that) They will do fine with wall to wall music (8/28/09) Seen on Craig's List today, wondering what it means: Washington Post Digital seeks to hire for 12-14 weeks an Audio/Video Assistant. This person will assist in the packing of audio and video equipment and dismantling of equipment. The knowledge of the use of simple power tools such as a cordless drill is necessary. Training will be provided on site. The person will work closely with the News Video editor. The person needs to be flexible, able to operate independently and have good time management skills. Some knowledge of A/V equipment a plus but not required. Some weekend hours may be required during this time period. (8/28/09) Thanks for passing along Al (the other Al) Peterson's posting about the "Wolfman Jack studios" being demolished - but I'd like to set the record straight. I'm pleased to say that the studios used for the Wolfman's scenes in American Graffiti are in fact still standing and being restored. I'm not sure where Chris Berry got the idea that those scenes were shot at KMPC - in fact, the interiors were shot 400 miles away at KRE in Berkeley, while the exterior scene entering the radio station was shot across the bay at KTOB in Petaluma, near George Lucas' Marin County home base. The California Historic Radio Society began restoring the KRE studios a few years back, and I understand they're well underway on the project. The just-demolished KMPC building, while historic, looked nothing like the movie inside - it was a long row of RCA transmitters with one control desk in front of them. I'll be putting up a bunch of pictures later Friday on Tower Site of the Week at fybush.com. - Scott Fybush, fybush.com (8/28/09) Robb Spewak's new radio show can be heard this Saturday morning at 11 @ www.ustream.tv/channel/kcjj-raw...the KCJJ Radio stream. (8/28/09) Further to the earlier correspondence about Imus, and the need for someone to pick him up here in DC.....I'm in complete agreement. While he's never delivered monster numbers in DC, his performance on 105.9 was completely skewed by that station's weak signal in most of upper NWDC - where his natural audience resides. If you were Citadel, why wouldn't you can Andy and Grandy, save the money and simply simulcast Imus on over 630 AM? Meantime, anyone with a need for Imus can go and buy themselves a Wifi Radio and listen live to WABC out of New York. I've got two of them, and they pipe more than 10,000 radio stations into my home......and Blaupunkt's in-car version hits the market later this year. (Another large nail in the HD Radio coffin). (8/28/09) /\ August 28 Messages /\ \/ August 27 Messages \/ “Wrong, wrong, wrong: Hey thanks for the acknowledgement…Consultants in my day were guys that couldn’t cut it on the air….so..well we both know. The state of broadcasting got to where it is because of CONSULTANTS. I LOVE your view. Again, thanks. PLB/Davy Jones (8/27/09) REM, U2, all those core artists you talk about- how about giving 105.9 credit for going to the "Back of the Rack" and digging out Metallica's "Enter Sandman" (7:25 pm), Motley Crue's "Home Sweet Home", Van Halen's "Finish What You Started", etc. Sounds like a deep playlist, with a few deep cuts. And a vote for somebody already in the building for mornings, Charlie Maxx, yes a woman in mornings. Stephen (8/27/09) Dave's response: If 105.9 wants a chick for mornings, how about Donielle Flynn? Well, the networks and cables are all psyched up & ready to give us wall-to-wall, casket to grave coverage of Ted “Waitress Sandwich” Kennedy, but wait, Media Bistro has not yet received word from PMSNBC of their coverage: Kennedy: Cable Coverage Skeds MSNBC Will post shortly... Awaiting word from the formerly All Obama All The Time cable network, we are on the edge of our seats: will it be All Chris “Spittle” Matthews giving us tingle-to-tingle coverage? Or perhaps it will be that Fearless Duo, Keith Olbermann and his brother Rachael? Maybe they will give Ed “I Had No Ratings On Air America And Now I Have No Ratings On MSNBC” Schultz, Sergeant Shultz’s much, much younger brother. Either way, one can pretty much count on the All Conservatives Suck Channel to cover “The Lion of the Senate”: why wouldn’t they, that’s just about all they have been doing ad nausea for the past two days! (8/27/09) So far so good on "The Edge". I'm impressed enough to be waiting to see what $hitadel does to fuck it up. It'll also be interesting to see what Clueless Channel will do with WBIG in response. As for AM drive at 105.9, if $hitadel has even the brains God gave canned cling peaches, they'd do their damnedest to get Paul Harris in, if he's available. (I can hear the "marching weathermen" already...) plus a good second banana/newscaster. Cerphe for PM drive... Oh yes, let Steve Allan do what he thinks best and give him some real promotion bucks. Unfortunately, my instincts and the 45+ years since I entered briadcasting tell me something no one else seems to have seen yet... Might this only be $hitadel "washing and waxing" a clunker to try to get a better price when sold? "The Edge" is a format Bonneville would be very comfortable with. Also, that "rumor" will not go away because not only do yjey have the finance power to do a deal with $hitadel, they also have current or prior experience in most (if not all) of the $haitadel markets, thus making success less uncertain. -Unsigned Corporate Suit (8/27/09) "By the way, I'm still waiting to hear the Pretenders, U2, the Talking Heads, and REM on the new 105.9. Did I miss something?" I presume Elvis Costello, Marshall Crenshaw and Nick Lowe are also verboten. It's just the same old "classic rock," packaged slightly differently, for grown-up fratboys who don't like to be challenged. This ain't WHFS circa 1985. -- Vincent in Triangle (8/27/09) Aaaah, leave the guy alone. Just as circus clowns traditionally tease the ringmaster, jocks are here on earth to give consultants headaches and ulcers. I've encountered more than my share of so-called experts that were no more than unemployed jocks who lacked the brains to start an ad agency or wedding deejay service. Some would swoop into town, aircheck the station, then leave a critique with the GM and blow out of town just as fast. Although I think the definition was a little harsh. The way I heard it, a consultant is a guy who asks you for the time, looks at your watch and then says, "Wrong, wrong, wrong..." (8/27/09) PLB/Davy Jones here: The snipers are out..The consultant story is one shared by a group of totally professional Jocks..Harve Moore, Bob Raleigh, Self, Dave McKay..at the time radio stations had a great sense of humor. You “snipers” don’t get it. The industry in those days was fun to work in. Oh, and the numbers then were in the double digits. Something you’ve never experienced. Luv and kisses from an employed business owner. BTW are you two CONSULTANTS?PLB/DAVY JONES:0) (8/27/09) What a shocker: the man who can't remember his own name ("LOL/PLB/Davy Jones") still remembers the day posted an anonymous vulgar insult on a station fridge, AND is still making fun of the person all these years later. There's a reason some people can't find work in this business. (8/27/09) re: "Back in the day a lot of us used to giggle (and groan) whenever a CONSULTANT was hired to “fix” a station...The little s—t saw it and demanded to know who posted it, no one ever told..we just smiled and smiled..." What were you, about eight years old? Maybe the guy thought he was working with actual professionals. (8/27/09) 105.9 The Edge is only two days old but already they seem to be misleading their listeners. This morning I heard "we're commercial free until the end of summer." dcrtv says they're commercial free until Labor Day. Which is it? (8/27/09) Dave's response: Labor Day is seen by many as the symbolic end of summer. And that's what, I think, 105.9 is referring to. Although, technically, summer doesn't end until 9/21..... Back in the day a lot of us used to giggle (and groan) whenever a CONSULTANT was hired to “fix” a station. In one station I worked at W—C, I put a sign on the refrigerator door…it read..CONSULTANT: DEFINITION-A MAN IN A WHOREHOUSE WITH A FIST FULL OF FREE PASSES THAT CAN’T GET LAID. The little s—t saw it and demanded to know who posted it, no one ever told..we just smiled and smiled..he lasted about 4 weeks and was gone. The station fixed itself…LOL/PLB/Davy Jones.:0) (8/27/09) Another broadcast legend gone forever. The American Graffiti "Wolfman Jack" studio has been torn down. www.ntsmediaonline.com (8/27/09) Also on FOX 1370 - Plus at 10am til 11am Sundays the Green Turtle Fantasy Football Show hosted by KZ (of the Rob Long Show) will air... (8/27/09) The Edge reminds me of a station like WZXL in Atlantic City, i.e. a station that last adjusted its playlist around 1997, and has sounded exactly the same since. The XM chanel it most resembles is Rock At Random on 161. I've always wondered, "What's the point of that channel? They play all the songs you hear all day on regular radio, and they even have commercials, too!" I guess rock radio in DC has been so bad for so long, you guys are glad to have ANYTHING different. Pass! Doghouse Reilly (8/27/09) "the 'so wrong for DC' Midnight Trucking Network" - Dave, have you ever actually listened to it? It's mostly politics and events and people in the news. Only the commercials and weather reports are about trucking. "Get 'em loaded! Get 'em haulin'! Get 'em paid!" Chief Brody assures DCRTV that the final beaching of the Nantucket Orca was "no boating accident." Grossman, Kennedy, Dunne. The Trifecta. --- ThePenIsMightier (8/27/09) REGARDING THE RELEASE OF JEFFRO--Jeffrey T. is and has been a very close friend of mine for the past 15 years, and I must say--Clear Channel made a big mistake in not renewing his contract. Although it's likely just another cost-cutting move, they still didn't realize the tons of talent this guy has. As his friend, I say to him to move forward in a direction with a company that will give you some more leeway (ala Donnie G at GMD/Resort Broadcasting Co.). The unfortunate thing is that DC audiences never got to hear the Jeff Mason I got to enjoy when we were kids and he hired me at my first FM gig, a Rhythmic CHR in Harrisburg PA, 99.3 WIMX-FM (which also carried D&M in the afternoons). This was 1994, and while everyone else (like those assholes we call consultants) was saying "OH MY GOD, COOLIO AT 11AM in Central PA????", we were laughing our way right up the Arbitron ladder. That is, until the evil beast that would eventually transmorph into Clear Channel, bought out the station and turned it Oldies. Suckers. Anyways, I've followed Jeff all around the country, and he truly is a radio talent. Here's hoping he finds a gig where he can have some fun again. Fuck CBS. Fuck Clear Channel. VIVA LA JEFFRO RADIO! Josh in Harrisburg, PA (8/27/09) Wasn't sure if you'd seen this yet, not sure how long it will last on YouTube before taken down for using the clip. www.thefukerton.com... Not a fan of yours, Maybitw (8/27/09) Dave's response: We had that "Snyder as Hitler" clip in the Mailbag last week..... Taking Imus off the air in DC is crazy. Apart from his questionable humor, Imus conducts incisive interviews with important senators, newsmakers, historians and pundits. He has a loyal following among smart adults. No matter how small the audience, there are at least five or six stations that are attracting flies, including those once-big AM stations. Can’t someone pick him up????? (8/27/09) Dave's response: Apart from WMAL, 630, the two other "major" (ha ha ha) righty talkers in the market are already committed to other morning shows. WTNT, 570, has the Washington Times radio show, and WHFS, 1580, is in Michael Smerconish's camp. I can't see righty Imus on lefty Air America's WZAA, 1050. Unless Imus wants to buy time on a brokered AM talker, a la WMET, 1160, or WCTN, 950, I just don't see anyone picking him up. His ratings on 105.9 stunk. Maybe WMAL could run him almost full-day tape-delayed in the 3 AM to 5 AM slot, in place of the "so wrong for DC" Midnight Trucking Network. That would make the most sense..... (Dave fulminated:) To make 105.9 a success, Citadel will have to put a "local feel" on the new station (end). In recent times, "local feel" has meant little more than a throwaway blip going back into a song: "Hey up there in Lou-DOON county, you're listening to Party 99.6!" As we have all screamed here in the past every time some station changed format, this is going to have to be a unique sound that cannot work anywhere else. Let's see if these guys get it right. (8/27/09) Dave's response: Ha ha ha! "Here's some classic Metallica for McClean." By the way, I'm still waiting to hear the Pretenders, U2, the Talking Heads, and REM on the new 105.9. Did I miss something? Hmmm. These bands should be among the new rocker's "core artists," IMHO..... RE: Your RANT on, 105.9's, "The "Edge"... Pretty much agreed 100% with your observations and insights but when HASN'T a new format hit the airwaves amidst a whole lot of hoopla and, "boy the music sounds so great etc. etc." and within a few books when the jock says, "Coming up a hit from CSN&Y", you're pretty sure to be hearing, "Judy Blue Eyes", "Our House", or a couple of other Top40 hits... Will Citadel spend money on the format? Will Steve have a free hand in its programming and being allowed to hire the talent (many, already in place: Tom Grooms, Charlie Maxx) to make it a winner? I wish them ALL the best! federAL SANTOS (8/27/09) I was a long time WJFK listener, but except for the Junks, I have tuned it out since they began yapping about the lame DC sports scene. I’ve been listening to The Edge, and liking it A LOT. It reminds me a little of the old WDVE in Pittsburgh, or some of the XM rock channels. I’m not sure I’d want Mike O’Meara doing mornings on this station (or any morning zoo show) as you suggest – just keep playing the rock. The only thing I’d change would be to mix in some more recent rock stuff with the classics. (8/27/09) Listened to the Edge for 5 minutes, turned off the radio, put on a CD. Skipper (8/27/09) Please please please stop with the Don and/or Mike infatuation.They are gone for a reason. No one except for a select little clique of people listen to them anymore. Dave, THEY ARE GONE--accept it. They won't work on 105.9 (people there won't put up with their BS). It's time to move on. And what we need in DC is some fresh blood not old worn out jocks that should have stepped into other positions long ago. (8/27/09) While we're in attacking local newspapers mode here, it got me to thinking. Can you imagine the utter outrage and fury The Baltimore Sun would be spewing at over the top venomous levels if former Gov. Bob Ehrlich had proposed nearly a half billion dollars worth of budget cuts affecting the poor and social services and state workers? Oh, that's right, The Sun already did that over Ehrlich's teeny tiny budget cuts years ago! There's another reason why The Sun is going down the drain. Their editorial staffs' hypocrisy meter has officially gone off the charts, yet there's not a chance in hell that The Sun editorial staff will attack these cuts either in where they are or in their overall amount, or even why Gov. O'Malley waited so long to make these cuts that they had to be this harsh or even tell people how he could have avoided some of them. And anyone with half a brain knows he clearly could have avoided some of these cuts by not making such poor decisions. Like how he screwed up Thornton education, slots, energy rates, etc., etc., etc. Oh, but don't worry Gov. O'Malley, The Baltimore Sun has your back. They'll endorse you all over again for certain and pretend you're a success, and pretend energy rates went down as well, etc., etc., etc. The Sun continues to ignore that Maryland's Governor has the worst approval rating of any sitting Governor in the nation like its not even happening! The Sun has become such a loony newspaper that's it's starting to become a parody of itself. Sometimes I feel like I'm reading The Onion by accident! If a Democratic tree falls in The Baltimore Sun's woods, does it even make a sound? Apparently not! (8/27/09) I've asked the Post ombudsman to look into how Farhi's Dylan "story" came about. (8/27/09) Check out this "story" about Bob Dylan. It's even linked off the washingtonpost.com homepage: www.washingtonpost.com. First off, Farhi is just picking up an inept wire report. Second, Dylan has NO "BBC radio show." He has "Theme Time Radio Hour" on Sirius XM, which airs on BBC6. Third, the show was a rerun. Fourth, Dylan's comments about himself on that show are all tongue-in-cheek. This "story" is hard proof of how low the Post has fallen. Farhi should probably be suspended for such bad work. Seriously. This blog has it right: scatterkeir.blogspot.com. Regards, Pete (8/27/09) Dave's response: More on Paul Farhi. The Post's "Names & Faces" column today does one, count 'em, one bottom of the column paragraph on the 105.9 flip yesterday to classic/alt rock. And it even gives Farhi credit for the scoop - for what, about a minute's worth of work to write the paragraph? Maaaaaan..... I was trying to figure out this morning why I'm getting so many local newspapers littering my front yard daily. I normally throw them out without even looking at what they are. It's becoming such an annoyance that I actually keep a trash can in the back yard now just to throw out newspapers & flyers that I've not read. I assumed they were the local free papers in my area, but today I finally realized NO, I'm getting The Baltimore Sun every single day and apparently have been for weeks without even realizing it! Of course I read The Sun online and have no use for the daily paper. Oddly enough though, I'm not getting the Sunday paper, which is probably the only one I'd choose to physically read since many stories in The Sunday Sun are either not online or their terrible website makes it impossible to find. And you wonder why Tribune is in bankruptcy??? There's your sign. (8/27/09) Re playing Sweet Home Alabama in the first hour of the new 105.9: I would argue that you should play a couple very familiar (overplayed in some people's definition) songs during the first few hours/days of a newly christened radio station. The familiar song will hook the listener and then they will hopefully stay for the less familiar, deeper cuts. Let's hope that 105.9 actually plays more of those deep cuts and doesn't just stick with the familiar. Mike...Fairfax (8/27/09) (Dave's response: Whew! Had it have been the 50 hottest men of radio, I might have clicked on it....) And there, staring you “right” in the face would be numbers one & two: www.rushlimbaugh.com (8/27/09) Dave's response: Limbaugh is an unsexy load, but Levin's kinda cute..... More proof the FCC was on CRACK when it came up with the DTV plan... Hearst owned WGAL TV 8 in nearby Lancaster, PA has applied for not only a DTV power increase on channel 8, but now SIX TRANSLATORS just to keep the TV 8 signal available in the same fashion as the previous analog signal! fjallfoss.fcc.gov... What's wrong with this picture? Why should this have been necessary at ridiculous cost if the FCC plan was a good one in the first place? Both WBAL & WGAL are Hearst owned and suffering similar reception problems. However, WGAL's problem is much greater because the population is not centrally located in one place, but spread out between 3 cities, Lancaster, Harrisburg, & York. However if you look at FCC issued signal plots, EVERYONE in those 3 cities should technically be able to receive WGAL 8 according to our wonderful FCC. However, THEY CAN'T! Because the FCC DTV signal plots (particularly for VHF stations) are phony and always have been! And we want the government to run our healthcare system next? puhLEASE! (8/27/09) I'm a Democrat-- a very good one-- but on a day when Maryland Governor O'Malley and the state Board of Public Works approve a near half-billion dollar budget cut and the layoffs of hundreds of workers, I think Fox 45 News at 10 in Baltimore couldn't have been more wrong than to lead with Sen. Kennedy, whose death was hardly unexpected. I guess you never know what the Wheel of News will land on. Bob A. in Pikesville, MD. (8/27/09) it's 9:39 pm and 105.9 is playing "Dani California" by RHCP (Red Hot Chili Peppers) into "Cat Scratch Fever". This is a really different classic rocker, like WDVE Pittsburgh or the early 90's version of DC101. (8/27/09) [RE 105.9:] Darn. They actually had a playlist of more than 30 songs. (8/27/09) /\ August 27 Messages /\ \/ August 26 Messages \/ (regarding a previous post) "most radio talk hosts kept things civil today in their remembrances of Senator Ted Kennedy. Except for Joe Farrah, sitting in for Gordon Liddy. My god, what a vicious prick ... Farrah and Liddy's producer ripped him every which way they could for hours with great delight." I guess they weren't aware that when Liddy was in prison and couldn't attend his own daughter's graduation, Ted Kennedy (who was there for a relative's graduation) took Liddy's daughter aside with words of support, adding that her Dad was surely proud of her accomplishment. Now, we're all aware of a complete lack of class, on the part of Farrah and Liddy's producer. What scum! (8/26/09) Re:1059 the Edge- going from Pearl Jam's "Better Man" into "get the Led out" smells of 98 rock or Richmond's long-lost XL 102. It's better than BIG, sorry to all the fans of "True Oldies" but the rock scene just got a little better. Kudos to Citadel for having some cojones to try this, it'll bring a stagnant radio scene some excitement. Stephen (8/26/09) Been listening to the new 105.9 The Edge since 11:30-ish today, and i have to say that this is the best station DC has had since WARW first became the Globe in early '07. The classic rock version of the Globe was a huge hit and miss. The new edge sounds to me like a combination of both Arrow and Globe (well, obviously), BIG and some rather large doses of DC101. So, Far, so good....'bout time DC had a REAL classic rock station. let's hope for TMOS to come in mornings, with lots of Cerphe and Albie Dee as well.... (8/26/09) To their credit, most radio talk hosts kept things civil today in their remembrances of Senator Ted Kennedy. Except for Joe Farrah, sitting in for Gordon Liddy. My god, what a vicious prick. I can't imagine anyone being happy about Kennedy's death, but Farrah and Liddy's producer ripped him every which way they could for hours with great delight. It is unfortunate that this show doesn't have a D.C. affiliate, because this moron deserves TRIPLE the public outcry and anger that was ever dished out to Stern or the Greaseman for their indiscretions. Of course, Farrah is also on the forefront of the Birther movement, so there you go. What a worthless _____. (8/26/09) Wow citadel whacked true oldies real good! mid week and mid morning. Listened to Imus this morning, had interesting interviews with Jeff Greenfield and David Brinley on the passing of Ted Kennedy. I'm going to miss Warner Wolf in the mornings on Imus. and as for the music I love the music of 50's and 60's more than the generic classic rock of 70's and 80's but that ship has sailed for music from that era on over the air radio. And don't Scott shannon have a website to listen to True Oldies? You know DCRTV for all your hatred of Imus I find EB of the Spork Junkies as big an arsehole as you view Imus. but I guess EB gets a pass cause well he's a retart. And as bad as the WaPost has gotten it's not nearly as sad and pathetic as the Baltimore Sun has turned into. Hey who's this Mike O'Meara with the facebook page you referenced? Is Lil' Steven's Underground music show being carried by the WHFS HD2 channel? Cerphe can't work for this generic new classic rock on 105.9 for same reason Donorino G. can't work, the non compete clause. Is Tom Grooms still at 105.9 on the overnites or as that WKRP in Cincinnati episode forbode so many years ago we are seeing the era of jockless radio coming into vogue full throttle. And WCTN has been off the air since last weak, you can try WMET 1160 in odd hours for The Music of Your Lifwe when it ain't Spanish. I knew it all sucks. So the third eye has gone too his maker, adios dude , heii was listening to an old ron and fez show on me computer the other day where they talked with the Merry Jew about being banned from the WJFK premises. Yesterday is gone. (8/26/09) To the poster telling Bob in Forest Hill to “give it a rest”: I don’t see you also telling that to the little troll that whines incessantly about (but also listens to every word) Hannity and Levin speak. His posts are inane drivel, and he says the same thing over and over and over and over, but he still has the right to post. As Dave says, don’t like it, get your own site. (8/26/09) Just in case, you can find more links to True Oldies Channel affiliates that have webcasts at www.trueoldieschannel.com. As always, thanks! EJM (8/26/09) [RE 105.9"] Dave, Seems I was wrong when I said it couldn't hurt. It can hurt. And it did. In fact it was downright painful. Another disappointing flip as far as I'm concerned. Crappy DC radio lives on... (8/26/09) You know, DJs are such teases! Now, All The Excess! lists the top ten "coming up" items...the most compelling items mentioned by jocks who hope to keep you listening longer, according to a national monitor of stations. www.alltheexcess.com (8/26/09) RE: [God Bless Sean Hannity and Mark Levin.] Oh, don't you mean Scott Farcas and Grover Dill? Yeah...God sure blessed Sean and Mark - She blessed Hannity with a big greasy pile of Labrador Retriever hair that appears to be slowly rejecting his head, and She blessed Levin with a face made for radio and a voice perfect for tornado alerts....come on now...admit it, you DO understand that all your friends laugh wildly behind your back when they hear you laud prissy platitudes of adoration on these two imbeciles, don't you? And "Bob in Forest Hill", just when did you righties become such whiney victims? I thought that is one of the qualities you despise most about those mythical "Libruls" Sean and Mark continually brainwash you into hate'n with the heat of a thousand white hot suns! (8/26/09) I’ve been streaming off and on today and 105.9 is better than BIG and offers a decent alternative to DC101. What the hell happened to that station? BIG will remain a preset on my car radio. DC101 has been painful to listen to for the past 4 years. I ditched the DC101 preset three years ago. CC has wasted a perfectly good signal and opportunity to be a rock powerhouse in the market. They just continue to limp along. I don’t care who the talent is on the new 105.9. Just keep the GD rock coming. (8/26/09) Let's face it - Radio was better when the owner was local (or at least, involved locally). Radio was better when community service was "built-in," as part of the station's "terms of of being licensed". It was better when a station really related to its listeners with the music it played and how it was presented. Owners, even then, were "bottom line oriented" back when radio was better. Sure, they bitched about it, but they ultimately did what was right - and along the way, they did quite well by doing good. (8/26/09) Hey Tom in Wheaton, I'm another of the handful of fans of True Oldies, 105.9. I loved the station and their play selections. I can't believe there isn't room for a viable station playing 50's 60's and early '70's music in the immediate DC area. Dave thanks for the URL for Atlanta's True Oldies, I'm listening in now. David in Hyattsville (8/26/09) DC's new source for oldies on the net. www.oldies700.com... PS WCTN not on air again why not oldies 950. Bob Mathers are you reading this.. John T. Henneman (8/26/09) Warning, warning, warning Will Robinson, yet another come on to a questionable possibly infectious site: “Dave, I love the site. Found this while surfing the web and thought you might find it interesting if you hadn’t seen it already: Pop Crunch 50 Hottest Women of Radio www.popcrunch.com..." (8/26/09) Dave's response: Whew! Had it have been the 50 hottest men of radio, I might have clicked on it..... (Dave: post this or not ... I find it cathartic to vent regardless.) A courtesy to all devoted Rush/Hannity/Levin et al listeners in the event your boys haven't yet connected the dots on this obvious liberal conspiracy: Barack Hussein Obama's half brother, who still lives in Kenya where BHO was born, entered the U.S. last year (under those notoriously lax border security measures that let Mexicans come here for welfare) and injected Ted Kennedy with brain cancer. Where does someone get a syringe chock full of brain cancer cells, you ask. At the same secret lab where Saddam is still developing WMDs. Saddam is dead you say? Wow, you really have been duped by the mainstream media. But I digress. The point of giving Kennedy brain cancer was to pave the way for passage of the socialist health care reform legislation that would free all of us from getting puny $5 birthday checks from Grandma by putting her in front of a firing squad -- members of which are the only people in American allowed to carry guns. Well, Kennedy refused to go quietly into that good night before the pre-recess deadline BHO set for passage of said legislation. So, Chuck Schumer (a Jew lest it go without saying) and Barney Frank (gay, ditto) used some of the millions they got from Fannie Mae to pay an illegal alien (it's all starting to make sense now, right?) to smother Kennedy in his sleep last night. He used an American flag, which was promptly burned, to do the deed. Sure, this will guarantee BHO can now dictate that every white Christian is aborted on your dime. But you're missing the point, which is exactly what George Soros hopes you will do. The real goal, so plain to see to true Americans, is razing the WHITE House (a moniker that has bugged Michelle Abdula Obama since her privileged childhood as the daughter of a cop killer and crack whore) and replacing it with a mosque that, in addition to training terrorists, will serve as headquarters for ACORN. Will said mosque include a landing pad for the UN's black helicopters? Duh! -Captain Conspiracy (8/26/09) Can someone post a link to a station that carries Scott Shannon's True Oldies? I'm sorry that it's gone. I must be one of the handful of people who liked the format. Even though I also like classic rock, why flip to classic rock? Haven't people in this market learned their lesson with that format. I predict that 18 months from now 105.9 will be something else yet again. Tom in Wheaton (8/26/09) Dave's response: Citadel still runs True Oldies on Atlanta's WYAY - www.wyay.com..... Chad and Lavar went on a double barrel 2'nd amendment gun rights rail regarding prison sentence for Plaxico Burress. Psychology degree Penn St grad Arrington lost cool and launched into righteous gun defense against possible rapes of his wife and children; this was a departure from the psycho- cool Arrington used to calm Chad in a previous emotional blow. It is difficult to buy into any logic shouted up by any radio host who has not mastered the basics of english language; " he had went" peppers Arrington's speech patterns (hey Lavar, cash in on one of your gold plate automobiles and buy some time in a remedial English class). This guy 'had done got' a degree from a top hundred university? Chad contributed to the stupidfest with logic that if you were a gun slinging blood thirsty house invader, that you avoid the block of houses with NRA stickers on windows and instead target the next block full of peaceful liberals houses (probably was some shout logic he heard on his Eagle shootie gunnie jar head gun range- maybe psycologist Arrington could caution Chad that chasing the manly thugish gun culture won't erase a surburan kickballer past. Righteous gunnies Chad and Lavar are shooting themselves in the foot. Good fun. (8/26/09) Monday afternoon on 106.7 Lavar and Chad Dukes were discussing the idea of having the skins play a game at RFK this season…well what do you know, on the Sports Reporters yesterday, Czabe teases this brilliant fantasy he has, once he gets back from break, it’s the same idea that Lavar was discussing the day before about the skins playing a game at RFK…coincidence? I think not…I expected more from Czabe, but copying Lavar and Dukes topic and turning it into a segment on 980 was pretty tasteless. Isn’t there anything else they can discuss other than the Redskins? Seems like we are reaching for topics here. (8/26/09) Ahhhh the memories AND the numbers to back up the memories! In the “good old days” the impact of WEAM (for a short while) and WPGC was as effective as Philly or NY. All of these stations were in the Double Digits in the rating arena. There is no way to actually say that one market’s stations had more impact. They were not on the same page. BUT, When WPGC hit the FM dial the numbers went through the roof…30 to 53% penetration. In NY WABC/WMCA was doing about the same. In Philadelphia…WFIL was kicking ass..WIBG was a short run before it was decapitated as was WEAM in DC. I don’t think there is any way to compare the three markets. PLB/Davy Jones (8/26/09) So let's recap ... 100.3 frequency was Jazzy 100.3 then flipped to Oldies 100 then flipped to classic hits/classic rock as BIG .... 105.9 was classic hits/classic rock, then smooth jazz, then oldies, now back to classic hits/classic rock. How original. 94.7 was never a ratings powerhouse, and this recycled format on 105.9 now won't be either. And, what market survey decided that this area was screaming for two stations playing old rock music? It's kind of hard to decide who is the most boring programmer in DC - CBS, Cheap Channel, or Citadel. - (The poster formerly known as MLB4) (8/26/09) Bob in Forest Hill: We get it, you are a conservative. You live to point out what you perceive as "bias". Give it a rest, we know your act. (8/26/09) As Paul Krugman writes in The New York Times: What if they held a network and nobody came? Fox Business News is available in 49 million homes and has 21,000 viewers. That is all. (8/26/09) Re: "Yeah, let's put Cerphe in afternoons on the Edge 105.9...Quit kickin' a dead horse." I have to laugh out loud every time some know-nothing starts spouting off about how Cerphe, Weasel, etc are old news and should be forgotten. Are you really operating under the assumption that the public keeps asking to hear these guys but they aren't popular? That's pretty thick. They were each, fairly recently, pulling relatively good to great numbers in their spots. If you think the robot voices that are pulling in lesser numbers at their former stations are somehow an upgrade, you're either not in the business, or you won't be for long. (8/26/09) Yeah, let's put Cerphe in afternoons on the Edge 105.9. Hey, then we could put Weasel in a.m drive! Then we could watch the format change again next year. Quit kickin' a dead horse. (8/26/09) Au revoir to "True Oldies"...not a great station, though it had its moments. Too much Scott Shannon for this market, for one thing. It would be great it Washington had its own all-local oldies station like WCBS-FM in New York or WOGL in Philadelphia; unfortunately, D.C. never had as strong a Top 40 heritage as either of those markets (and for those WEAM/WPGC defenders, I don't think those stations had anywhere the impact that WABC/WMCA had in NYC or WFIL/WIBG in Philly). I can get WGRQ from Colonial Beach/Fredericksburg, so I'll try it out. Perhaps given the demographics of Washington (a lot of older, affluent blacks), a station here should try an R&B-oriented oldies format, strong on both Motown and southern soul, plus some Atlantic stuff from the '50s and '60s and some '70s funk. -- Vincent in Triangle (8/26/09) I think Kenny King did a great job with 105.9 The Edge! It sounds like a fun, uptempo station. Should do well! (8/26/09) What I've heard of the new format at 105.9 sounds exactly like the playlist of most second-rate strip joints. Not worth a second listen. (8/26/09) 105.9 so far Thumbs UP !! (8/26/09) Dave's response: If it plays a lot of "deep cuts" and variety and Citadel puts a local stamp on the air staff (Cerphe, hmmm...) it might just work. But still, it's gonna be going head-to-head with the better-signalled WBIG. WBIG will probably fall back to 12th or 13th, with the new 105.9 rising to 16th or 17th, right where the Globe was last year. Citadel plays it "safe." Ho hum..... Just found out Jeffro is gone from WMZQ. Gone from their website, too, but the official word came out this afternoon. (8/26/09) Dave, I love the site. Found this while surfing the web and thought you might find it interesting if you hadn’t seen it already: Pop Crunch 50 Hottest Women of Radio www.popcrunch.com... (8/26/09) From my first listen this morning, it seems that Citadel and 105.9 The Edge are trying to find a niche between WBIG and the upper demo end of DC101. Found it interesting that both stations played Stone Temple Pilot's "Interstate Love Song" between 11:30 and 11:45 AM. (8/26/09) Here you go, Dave: be as good to Teddy as you were to Novak: abcnews.go.com... I know it's your site, I just hope it someday improves in this one regard. Yours is a self-limiting enterprise. Bob in Forest Hill (8/26/09) Dave's response: I always liked Bob Novak and I gave him an obit newsblurb last week. Even though I didn't always agree with him. At least he wasn't a complete nutjob like Glenn Beck is..... I can't believe the "new" 105.9 included tired, worn out, overplayed "Sweet Home Alabama" in its first set. Seriously? Yet another outlet for this kind of cliched boilerplate? Has every brain in the industry really atrophied to this degree? Is there nobody left with even the tiniest degree of creativity or imagination? Does anyone really wonder why every new station in this market in the past several years has been an inarguable flop?!?!? (8/26/09) [RE 105.9] Awwww... DAMN. I was hoping they'd flip to ALL SPORTS. There isn't NEARLY enough 24/7 sports talk on the radio! (8/26/09) That ''radio guru'' you quoted must be drinking lots of booze. The ONLY reason people in any major market have ''soft tastes'' is because they're spoon fed the same bullshit music over and over. I've been listening to 105.9 for about 2 hours now and, to be honest, it beats listening to the 70's and 80's channels on Sirius/XM. I'm right on the verge of cancelling my subscription to Sat. Radio. It's a shame too. Sirius/XM could have been something special. Instead, it's turned into the same mind numbing experience as regular radio offers. Nothing exciting. Nothing ''revolutionary'' [to quote a certain 500 million dollar shock jock]. Paul (8/26/09) Here was their (105.9 The Edge) first hour - note: beatles into metallica, pearl jam into skynyrd... (8/26/09) I'll miss Shannon too. I didn't have high hopes for his concept but thought it actually sounded pretty good. If there can't be truly local radio anymore--and that appears to be the case--it filled a bit of that gap, even if only superficially. (8/26/09) Unfortunately you were right Dave. Gonna miss Scott Shannon and the True Oldies. I Wish 95.9 WGRQ in Fredericksburg had a stronger signal............ (8/26/09) 105.9 "The Edge" needs Mike O'Meara in the mornings, and Cerphe the rest of the day. Tell me it'll happen, Dave. Keep the dream alive! Christian (8/26/09) I wish that I could get the new "Edge", but I'm too close to Baltimore and 105.7 is coming right over it. Hopefully it's not the same "Freebird, Take it Easy, Dream On, Another Brick in the Wall Part 2, Cold as Ice, Another One Bites The Dust, Smoke On The Water" tired tunes that's already on 100.3 and 100.7. I have both on my presets and always cringe when I come up on them. (8/26/09) As I was pulling in to work about 9:45 this morning--while 105.9 was still True Oldies--played "Don't Bring Me Down." No, not the grossly overplayed ELO hit, but the summer of 1966 mid-charter from the Animals. My all-time favorite record from that group, and one you don't hear on the radio every day. Don't you KNOW I turned that puppy all the way up!!! And now I realize why they aired it. Somebody got in a screw-the-20-song-playlist last request before the firing squad was given the command. Oh well. Another one bites the dust. KOF (8/26/09) [RE the 105.9 flip:] Interesting. I'll give it a try. Can't hurt since all the radio around here stinks anyway. (Which makes me very sad by the way.) I actually kind of liked Scott Shannon though. He used to say some funny things from time to time. (8/26/09) Noticed this morning that 100.3 now has Kiss in regular rotation. That'll age you fast. (8/26/09) Dave's response: Sister DC101's been hyping a Kiss 35th year reunion concert promo. Must be a Clear Channel corporate deal with the corporate band..... I'd like to add to Joe Kasell's previous post on WaPo's editions and particularly the little v's on the paper's masthead. As I recall the paper told readers a while back what these little letters mean. The little v's indicate, as I recall, which press in Springfield, VA printed the paper, not the version or edition of the paper. To illustrate this, Joe said that he got a home delivered v3 paper which did not have a summary of Tuesday's Nats/Cubs game. I got a v2 home delivered copy with a full summary of the game. It just depends where you live or where the delivery staff gets the papers. I'd guess that some at the WaPo read DCRTV. Perhaps they could give us a clarification. (8/26/09) First, “The Fan”, now “The Edge”. Did DC suddenly become the home of nothing but blue-collar, 45+ white guys? What’s next, all CCR and Skynard all the time? A NASCAR station? It amazes me how little media companies understand the DC market. We are high income, highly educated, white collar and increasingly urban in this area. How about a station that follows the example of the NPR All Songs Considered podcast? Or KEXP in Seattle? Please? Pretty please? (8/26/09) Yeah, looks like it's over for Shannon in DC. Playing all hard-edged rock but willing to go back 40 years, so interesting for folks who own every Van Halen album, etc. I might tune in... (8/26/09) Well, 105.9 has pulled the plug on True Oldies and went in a DC-101 circa 1991 direction as of 10 AM., calling themselves The Edge. Pardon me while I yawn. First song was Aerosmith's Living On The Edge...how original. Then Zep's Rock and Roll and Rush's Spirit Of Radio. *YAWN* ----- Larry in Luray (8/26/09) CCDC/Baltimore: desperate attempt to generate sales. CCDC/Baltimore will be holding a deeply discounted "Build your Business" advertising sale on September 16, 17 and 18. Inviting prospective clients to the stations, who will receive a car sales type pitch and than asked to sign on the dotted line before leaving the building! Inside sources say that this sale is a desperate attempt to bolster declining ad revenues for a troubled Clear Channel, who may be filling for chapter 11 by the end of the year! (8/26/09) Whether you supported or opposed Ted Kennedy on issues, there is no denying that he was a dominant figure in American politics over the last 40 years. That said...this event once again proves that CNN has become a sad reflection of its glory days: there are SEVENTEEN stories about Kennedy up on CNN.com right now. This is the way bad highschool newspapers cover the news. (8/26/09) I happened to be up when the news was breaking that Sen. Ted Kennedy has passed away. CNN did an excellent job and had noted presidential historian Douglas Brinkley via telephone. Fox News had a prepared package of Kennedy's life, the good and bad. They also interviewed a historian (whose name escapes me). Suprisingly MSNBC, a station dedicated to liberals, seemed unprepared for Kennedy's expected death. Who did they interview? Keith Olbermann and David Shuster!! Two guys whose knowledge of politics and history come from the teleprompter. The best piece I saw was on CBS who had a nice package voiced by Bob Scheffer. Apparently they also have a prepared show set to air tonight at 8 p.m. hosted by DC Pixie Katie Couric. (8/26/09) Dave, re: your response "The blurb featured a local radio personality commenting on Teddy's death. There's a local media connection. Jeez. What it coming to? I gotta call the Heritage Foundation to get permission to run a short obit for a great (but flawed) politico? Maaaan....." Okay, I'll grant you that leading with MOM's tweet about it is a great - if thin - way to make this a local story. All I can say is that I hope you'll post on your front page a link to the first hyper-negative obit analysis that comes out for Teddy, just as you did for Robert Novak. But I doubt you will. Bob in Forest Hill (8/26/09) Dave's response: Hey Bob, this is my site and I'm a big lib. If I want to put a tribute to the great Teddy Kennedy on the Front Page, I will. Na na na na na. So there..... Dear Dave: I'm going to add to the emails that have been filtering in for the past few weeks regarding what has been appearing in the home editions of the Washington Post sports section. Last night's Nats/Cubs game ended a little after 11:00 PM so, based on past experience with the home delivery of the paper, I was not surprised to see that the game was not included (which was the V3 edition as per the notation on the masthead), and was labeled as a "late game" in last night's National League schedule. What was comical to me was what was included in what I received at my doorstep this morning: the write-up of the previous day's (Monday) game against the Brewers, which ended around 7:45 PM that day, but which the Post included with the notation that it was reprinted from yesterday's late editions. Huh? Does that mean that this particular game's early finish wasn't early enough for Tuesday's first editions? And I have found that you cannot go by the masthead notations of the print edition with any consistency. Last Wednesday morning I received the V4 edition of the Post, which did not include the game story of the previous night's contest between the Nats and Rockies (which, BTW, ended at 9:45 PM). Looking back this is very odd as this was a later press run than what I got this morning and it did not include a game write up for a contest that ended earlier than last night's game. What's even stranger about all this is later that day at work, I was perusing a copy of the Post brought in by a colleague, which was also the V4 edition, and which did have the write-up of the previous night's Nats/Rockies game. So now we have two copies of the same press run, but only one of them had a game write-up. With all this inconsistency in the print editions, it's no wonder circulation is dropping. Again, Dave, a great site! Sincerely, Joe Kasell (8/26/09) Dave: Regarding Steve/Fairfax and Mike's recent posts about sportstalk programming in our weak market. First, Kevin Sheehan can't take calls because he doesn't have any patience or the professional courtesy to treat the callers with any respect...this alone, makes me change the station over to WJFK. I've said this before and I'll say-it again, people like Doc Walker and Sheehan don't belong in sportstalk radio here in DC. Doc is more concerned about his appearances and the Birdman rather than improving his vocabulary. Kevin's arrogance and foul language just need to go-away. I think Holden is a pro and a solid hire for WJFK. Don't knock someone for trying to earn a living and willing to do sportstalk in various markets. Try this on for size, WTEM bring back Korny, fires Czaban and Steve moves to WJFK and goes head-to-head against Tony. Who would win? Steve has my vote! (8/26/09) I listen to Sean Hannity and Levin on WMAL, and I can't think of one positive thing to say about that socialist Ted Kennedy. Mark Levin was right in saying all those nasty things like how Senator Kennedy was "driving our country off a bridge." Did you know just last night Mark slammed Ted Kennedy for his academic record? Good for you Mark. We need more Mark Levin and less Meet 'the depressed." Sean Hannity said Ted Kennedy's liberalism was "going to destroy the very fabric of our society." Mark Levin and Sean Hannity are great Americans and allow a civil debate over the airwaves. God Bless Sean Hannity and Mark Levin. (8/26/09) Anyone check today's obits in the Post? Billy Bush died. No, not THAT one... (8/26/09) Sports fans here on the mid-shore should give a listen to 1240 ESPN from 4-7. The sports show hosted by Shawn Sharif is the best local show here for sports. I am listening to it most every afternoon now. am kind of tired of Garceau and Marks on 105.7, seems they argue lots and there just seems to be a tension on the show all the time. Jerry Coleman's show on 1370 is good, but the signal is not always the best. Denton listener (8/26/09) Back when The Joy Boys were on WWDC, I remember hearing Willard Scott tell a story about when security was increased at WRC-TV, with the addition of a "number pad" lock system on the studio doors at the station. Willard was in a rush and said he needed to get into the TV studio, but he had forgotten the combination to open the door. He began pounding on the door - when it opened suddenly - and Willard found himself face to face with Sen. Ted Kennedy, who had apparently just concluded an interview inside. I haven't thought about that story in years and I wanted to share it, on this very sad day. (8/26/09) Known for its traditional quarterly fire-sales designed to establish a baseline of business for the upcoming quarter, CC DC Baltimore cluster is taking it to a new extreme with its upcoming phone-a-thon. Management has determined that they need to lower rates drastically from their traditional highly-discounted quarterly fire sale contest, shaving roughly an additional 20% off what has typically been inventory offered at half its usual going rate. As upper management struggles unsuccessfully to re-negotiate debt with bondholders (who are playing their own game of chicken), this is clearly another step taken in an attempt to avoid declaring Chapter 11 by year-end, which financial professionals believe is irreversible. (8/26/09) Dave. Someone called you out about a story that reflected your political tastes and had nothing to do with RTV or media in DC yesterday. And now I am calling you out. What's with the story about Ted Kennedy? Since when do you carry an Obit section for Democrats? While you might be able to angle a reason for the story if it included press coverage details, at this time he is just a dead politician. There is no RTV nor media in DC reason for that article. You forgot to mention he gets to join Mary Jo. Oh wait, maybe not. He is going to Hell, or at least I hope. That story needs to go. Practice what you preach about this NOT being a political blog. Take that story down. (8/26/09) Dave's response: The blurb featured a local radio personality commenting on Teddy's death. There's a local media connection. Jeez. What it coming to? I gotta call the Heritage Foundation to get permission to run a short obit for a great (but flawed) politico? Maaaan..... FOX News came up short big time early Wednesday morning, While most people were asleep, Sen Ted Kennedy died. CNN AND MSNBC went to immediate wall to wall coverage while FOX stumbled badly. They gave a brief summary in the 1 am hour then went back to a Greta Van Susteren rerun. In the 2 am hour, FOX tried to make up for it by showing an obit piece. They ended up having to show it twice because they had nothing else prepared and went back to a Glenn Beck rerun before scrambling to get more coverage. The so-called liberal networks were on top of it from the beginning. (8/26/09) Is it really necessary at this point for NBC4 to have the anchor who's subbing for Doreen to say that they're "in tonight for Doreen"? You'd have to have been under a rock to know that Doreen has taken off for the summer.. (8/26/09) “That pilot, it turns out, is the brother-in-law of Channel 9/WUSA weatherwoman Kim Martucci. More in Martucci's blog at wusa9.com.....” Okay: so we are not supposed to refer to Martucci (what, she’s Italian and did not take her husband’s name?) as Lurch (“That’s a man, baby!”) but in the spirit of Politicial Correctness can’t DCRTV’s Dave – who apparently actually reads that perky drivel she calls a “blog” -- at least refer to her as a “weatherperson” and not a “weatherwoman”? www.youtube.com (8/26/09) /\ August 26 Messages /\ \/ August 25 Messages \/ In the case of Tony Kornheiser, no news is good news. Regards Biff (8/25/09) TGB could jump to number one or fall completely off the chart,it does not matter. CBS will not return 99.1 WHFS ,will not move El Zol to 106.7 where the Hispanics can enjoy it more,JFK to 94.7 where more Redskins fans can get it. WHY?? Because it would be the smart thing to do and they'll be DAMNED if they admit anyone knows radio better than they do. Especially the listeners. How can we be trusted to know what we like? They,for instance, probably ask a superior if they are wiping thier ass according to company policy. (8/25/09) When I upgraded my Cox SA Cable Box to a DVR the tech went through three boxes before the HDMI port would work with my HDTV. When we were trying to set them up I had to connect a analog video cable to the TV to see the setup menu. It said the HDMI port was off due to copyright protection. The Cox tech said they were not supposed come that way from the factory anymore. They were all brand new still wrapped up. Finally the third one he tried worked fine. I guess they have to have a firmware change from a computer and can't be changed from the cable system. Bob Fairfax (8/25/09) Caught a glance of an ad on the side of a Metrobus that said something like NBC4 gives out bad news and had a website listed..Anyone else seen this and if so, what's that about? (8/25/09) So, just when i think that 94.7 fresh FM is a failure, i see it jump to fucking 14TH PLACE! that's the highest 94.7's been in years, right? well, i guess we may as well give up hope on a format change to something more listenable by the time the decade's out........DC radio can kiss my ass (8/25/09) Hey Tom Conroy: I also enjoyed your post on WBMD! Used to listen to that ole station a lot during the mid-60s (either a year or two years ago, there was a nice thread in the mailbag on country music in Baltimore that some of you will remember)..anyway..I always wondered who "Helpful Harriet" was; now I know! Of course Clark West was around..even back during the time I listened to WBMD; I also remember folks like Joe Powers (morning man).and another guy named Bobby Brown. If memory serves me, back during that time WBMD was on Chase Street (at least that was their mailing address)..Ray Davis was on there as far back as I can remember. For that matter, so was Clark West; I vaguely remember they had a guy in the late afternoons they called "Pappy Gibbs"..I suspect whenever he left, Bobby Brown took over this spot; Bobby was on at night, when WBMD-FM signed on in March of 1968. Oh what fun it'd be to hear old airchecks of that station..especially back before I became familiar with it! Tom in Denton, MD. (8/25/09) Ref; regarding the Parkers show on the weekends, that might be the worst show ever in the history of WJFK////////No the worst show is on Saturday morning. I've listened on two consecutive Saturday's and still cannot understand the name of the host. Typical of teenagers he talks too fast. Last week (I kid you not) his topic was "should the NFL sell Vick jersey's for dogs". (8/25/09) "Re:Holden Kushner - At least Holden is a good host, he might not know the area, but he's entertaining and good on air." Turns out that in addition to hosting on 106.7 The Fan here in DC as well as Sirius XM's sports programming, he's been helping out at Boston's 98.5 The Sports Hub (another newly launched CBS owned station) doing a show on Saturday afternoons. Not that there's much difference between the sports priorities of the two cities at opposite ends of the northeast corridor - each is totally wrapped up in the fortunes of a team with 'Red' in its nickname. Apparently Kushner has no problem doing three solid hours on who should be the Redskins' third string quarterback one night, then shuttling up to Boston for four hours of callers obsessing about the Red Sox' bullpen situation the following day. What's clear by now is that WJFK goes to the phones a lot more often than WTEM does and the format is noticeably more free flowing. For some reason, both Kevin Sheehan and Doc Walker (on 980) seem to revel in playing soundbytes of bad things happening to the Dallas Cowboys on the football field ad nauseam - I guess we're back in kindergarten again. Could timeslot issues be holding up WTEM's announcement regarding the debut of Kornheiser's new radio show? Perhaps ESPN Radio's trying to pressure Red Zebra into retaining Colin Cowherd's program which currently airs from 10 AM to noon on the station. Mike, Fairfax (8/25/09) I'm breaking my self-imposed exile to ask one simple thing: enough with the Goddamn Carl Grossman thing already!!! I'm sorry he's dead, he had a lot of things wrong with him that caused him misery and he encountered more than a fair amount of misfortune in what was a sad and cautionary tale of a life, but enough is enough! Let the poor bastard rest in peace and leave him a little dignity. Dwelling on his all too public weaknesses is an additional humiliation neither his memory nor his family need to endure. He paid for his mistakes; now let him be. I think maybe that's something Don and Mike (both pretty decent guys in their off-mike realities from all appearances) would agree with. And, no, I never knew him nor met him. Now let it be at an end. Now y'all can go back to beating conservatives like a short bus commuter on a big kettle drum…. Genghis "stop the voices in my head" Cohen, who stayed home today to clean his guns in hot and unbearably humid Prince William County (8/25/09) would agree with earlier poster on JFK. Junkies are what they are...pretty entertaining... Cant comment much on Wise....Im at work then....Lavar and Chad Dukes, Im new to both...Lavar brings a players insights which is good to hear..Chad tries to pump Caps every now and then...as a caps season ticket holder I like that... The show that Joe and Pete did the night of the Nats signing Strasburg was as good a five+ hours of sports radio that could be heard around here. The knowledge of baseball in both minors and majors and college for that matter was impressive and the station stayed on live until 12:30am and had a guest who had talked to Strasburg just after midnight....that was impressive for a station just starting out. I dont know how you can argue Kushner over them or Scott Jackson or Earl Forcey Just because you talk loud doesnt make u entertaining..the guy comes on every night and says hey can the skins win the super bowl? Whose your favorite Redskin? Now thats insightful...Im waiting for should Pete Rose be in the hall of fame. (8/25/09) Coming SOON to 106.7 WJFK : The ROCKY and BULLWINKLE SHOW!!!! --audio promo:"Hey Rocky watch me pull a rabbit out of my ass!"..."Oh Bullwinkle AGAAAIIINNNN??"-- Tune In to catch the Best New Show from CBS!!! (8/25/09) I don't know if this has been mentioned and I missed it, but Emily Gracey's bio is finally gone from Channel 2's website and I haven't noticed her on their all weather service in a couple of weeks. Since DCRTV noted her firing back in May, this must have been one of the slowest dismissals in the history of local TV. Howie (8/25/09) Oh, look! Great Scott doing what they do best: flipping frequencies. Hell, it's the ONLY thing they seem to know how to do anymore. They should just sell off a couple of them and work on making some of their stations sound better. Open the dictionary to the word "stodgy," and Big 98.5 startss playing. The Beach sounds like shit, processing almost as bad as the ever-tinny and overcompressed 96 Rock, and with amateurish jocks, one of whom thinks he's Glenn Beck with his regurgitated Fox News opinions. And what's the over-under on how long "hot country" on 107.7 will last? My guess, a year, and I'm taking the under. Doghouse Reilly (8/25/09) I'm a guy that drives a truck around all day, four day a week, 5AM to around 9 PM. Yep, and I was thrilled about WJFK going all sports. I liked much of the old station, but I'm a "guy" and I've never been thrilled with WTEM, Unfortunately for me, the boss won't let me install satalite on the truck. Now a month has gone by and I'm wondering when the format flip will happen? Is it just me? Outside of the tags or liners or station IDs and with some changes to the clock everything seems close enough to be the same. The Junkies still do the same thing with their segments that they did a year ago (not that I mind). Mike Wise does the same thing as the Junkies content-wise, but he sounds like a newspaper guy that wants to be on radio - i.e. bad radio. Lavar and Dukes are the same as Mike Wise, but at least Dukes' vocabulary is not an insult on the language - not that I'm a wordsmith, but at least I know my limitations, and apparently the limitations of the Penn State education. And the guy at night (Holden Kushner?) is the same as the previous four shows, but rather boring. At least they are trying on the weekends. I can even say that I actually "listened" to one of their Sunday afternoon/evening shows, and I was impressed - "Ken and Rocky Show"? - so, don't think I'm totally bashing the station. I'm thankful for the "flip" because I would love a real sports talk station in DC, but it hasn't really registered. As someone aptly noted a couple of weeks ago in this mailbag (paraphrase), "A talk station that does sports isn't a sports talk station. More and more it looks like the whole flip was a way of nullifying a couple of contracts. . . . " And I'm not one of those people who thinks DC can't be a sports town due to the nature of the population, etc. - me and my buddies drink and talk sports all weekend! Oh well, I'm just a sport-loving, radio-phile. I'll keep listening to WJFK for the present. Then again, maybe I'll just install that satalite radio and fight it out with the boss. Steve-Arlington (8/25/09) Did you have this, I did a quick search on the archive and saw nothing with Buzz in the title: www.examiner.com (8/25/09) Dave's response: Yeah, we reported last month that Buzz Burbank was doing political commentaries for the Huffington Post. The 7/27 blurb is now on our Rant page..... This stuff about Carl Grossman is way out of hand: Snippet: “Carl was not a stalker, He had Asperger's syndrome (form of autism), and could not distinguish auditory social cues from Don and Mike on the phone or radio. He made a mistake.” End of Snippet: Aspergers is a serious condition I know this because one of my dearest friends has a son with it. The social abilities are terribly diminished. He was NOT a stalker he was a victim, and Michael Sorce should be ashamed of himself for all of his egotism-WOW (8/25/09) If you were to delete men, 55-years and older from the WMAL demo, this righty talker wouldn't be in the top 40. Good station for funeral plot and denture adhesive ads though. ACH (8/25/09) Still love the Junks. Even in their new box. But, can't deal with Wise's college radio show. I go over to ESPNradio.com for the Heard (Don't want Danny to get my stream numbers). Then, I do go to Danny to the Tom Laverro Show which I really like even with blow hard Sheehan at his side. I stomach Dukies new show because the WORST show on radio is the John Thomson show. Later it's the Sports reporters. We have two sports stations with one station worth of talent between them. If I can't have my old JFK, I have to pick and chose my sports talk. Mike O and Donni would kill this competition. Poor Dukies!!!! He is trying so hard. Some one hide his guns. Ratings in my head: Junks>Sports Reporters>The Heard>Sports Fix>Dukies>Mike Wise>Mike and Mike>All other JFK Programming>John Thomson. (8/25/09) To Vincent’s point about Strasburg, yes I have a buddy out here whose main interest in getting Stephen signed was being able to buy and wear a jersey with STRASBURG on the back. I have another buddy who was leaving the office about 6 yesterday and I said, “Hey, you can get home in time to see the end of the Nats game. Oh wait, you have Shentel. Sorry!” P.S. Shentel is getting rid of WGN America now, so there go the 60 or so Cubs and White Sox games too, leaving Shenandoah County cable viewers with only the games show by FOX, TBS, ESPN and the Sunday Nats games on DC50. Charles in Winchester (8/25/09) Snippet: Actually, many years ago, I made a deal with you mother...Ed Graham - Ed I hate to do this but, my mother hated you.(anything to keep me working, sure you understand…..! Jones:0) (8/25/09) I put up a little obit for Cheezeface aka Carl Grossman, chronicles some dealings I've heard of about him. thedcam.com (8/25/09) The reason WETA DT 27 has a signal problem is because they were not able to properly maximize their DTV signal because MPT (Maryland Public Television) chose not maximize its Frederick station WFPT DTV 28, which is an adjacent channel. Since WFPT runs on such low power, that limits the power of WETA on channel 27. I'm sure part of the reason was cost (MPT didn't maximize its Baltimore station either), but you have to wonder if they also knew that it would impact the WETA signal and possibly did it on purpose. (8/25/09) One month in and WJFK went from (barely) beating WTEM to now (barely) trailing. If all the buzz of switching to sports didn’t get it new listeners, how is WJFK going to attract a new audience or keep from falling further behind? WTEM may have signal problems, but they have two major advantages – an in-house relationship with the ‘Skins that gets them more guests and better access to the only sports team that matters in this town, and access to ESPN programming – the name brand in sports coverage. If Tony K comes back – so long Mike Wise! The diehard sports fan will stick with WTEM, and all but the most loyal of the WJFK listeners hanging on because of the Junkies and Chad Dukes will continue to fade away. Bad move CBS – DC will never be a sports town! The ‘Skins are important to a decent slice of the area, but politics and news are the big games in this town. Sports just isn’t part of the cultural identity of this town the way it is in other places. You would never see 50,000 Terrible Towels at a Ravens home game or 5,000 LeBron/Shaq/Kobe jerseys at a 76’ers/Celtics/Knicks game. And you won’t get big numbers for a sports station, CBS. (8/25/09) Dave's response: Technically, today's ratings are for WJFK's second week as a sports talker..... So WJFK has slipped even further, down to 20 as of the second week of August. I don't think it takes a rocket scientist to understand why: the station just replicates what is already available on an established competitor, and doesn't do a very good job of it. Oh, thought this was funny: "...they are saying that it will be mandatory for children from the age of 6 to adults up to the age of 26 to be vaccinated. Also it seems that hospital staff MUST be given the vaccine also. If they do not, they will be fired!! Where has our freedom gone? Since when must we be ordered to take a shot? This is Socialism run amuck! WOW" Actually, that's paramoid nutty-ness run "amuck." There is nothing forcing everyone 6-26 to take a flu shot. Hospital employees are often told to take vaccinations because -- big surprise! -- they work in hospitals. And you might want to look up the definition of socialism, because you don't seem to have a clue. (8/25/09) Dave's response: I think JFK is up a bit. It was 21st last week..... Re: "Mr. Graham, Where is my name????? We’ve worked together on three or four different stations…why did you keep on hiring me…PITY???? Davy Jones" Actually, many years ago, I made a deal with you mother...Ed Graham (8/25/09) My early thoughts on 106.7 . . . the Mike Wise show is growing on me, but the third voice is needed, and the show is better when somebody else chimes in. By contrast, the Lavar Show is NOT growing on me; Lavar doesn't have the breadth of knowledge necessary to carry a show, and I'm starting to HEAR the flop sweat on Dukes' brow as he valiantly tries to keep things rolling. Both shows are starting to run up against the difficulty of talkin' Skins ALL the time. Incidentally, see this month's Washingtonian for a short article on the slight chill between Mr. Tony (returning?) and Mike Wise . . . it's a diva v. diva match-up, but who can out-diva Mr. Tony? Sincerely, TMU (8/25/09) You are invited and your audience is, too!! On August 30, 2009, Famous Dave’s Bar-B-Que Restaurants in the Washington D.C. area offer one FREE entrée to anyone named Dave, David or Davy in honor of its 15 year anniversary celebration (maximum value of $15; special is available at select locations). And that includes YOU! Anyone with the middle name of Dave, David or Davy can also join the fun and receive one entrée for half price (maximum value of $7.50). We would love for you to join us in celebrating our 15 year birthday! (8/25/09) Dave's response: That is sooooo cool..... Reading the posts about WAMD early 70's brought back a lot of memories. I worked there for a few months in the fall of 1973. The format was Top 40 with some oldies thrown in. The morning man at the time was Bob Lee. I forgot the other names. I do remember the night guy and I(I did mid-days) would go to the Eagles Nest in the afternoon most days. He would get quite sloshed and I was always ready for a nap. Larry Allen and his wife did indeed run the station. I haven t heard that name or the Eagles Nest in 35 years. Brought back a lot of memories. (8/25/09) Does anyone here understand what the problem is with Cox cable boxes and HDMI / HDCP. Every time I use my HDMI cables, I get a message saying "Copyright Violation". I know that the problem is with the Scientific Atlanta box software. Do you know of a fix? (8/25/09) When I was in 10th grade going to High School in Far Rockaway, NY, I took a new SAT prep course for the upcoming exams. It was a small group of students taking math and english prep at a local center. My math instructor was Stanley H. Kaplan while his wife taught the english portion. That was in 1961 as they got their business rolling. I remember him very well and was saddened to hear of his passing. Bob Duckman (8/25/09) So "Daniel Snyder is a low life, greedy, piece of human waste." Glasses without a face. (8/25/09) Dave, why the Glenn Beck story on your news page? it's not local, it's just politics. And please don't say it's because Van Jones is a member of a White House commission...if that's all it takes to make something a local news story, then you should post a hundred stories a day on yahoos tied to DC by way of the Federal Government. If you want to run a political news site, then setup a separate page. You are increasingly (seemingly) looking for bash opportunities that have nothing to do with local media. We get it...you're liberal, you think Murdoch is evil, hate WMAL and will bash just about every notable conservative commentator when the opportunity presents. And that you throw in a dig at MSNBC or CNBC form time to time mught make you feel enlightened, but it does nothing for honest balance. So, I'd suggest that rather than fake a balance you clearly don't believe in, how about leaving your politics out of the news page, and limit it to the Mailbag? Just a suggestion, you know I dig the site. Bob in Forest Hill (8/25/09) Dave's response: Van Jones is on a White House commission and the White House is here in DC. Plus, Beck is seen on the TV locally, and his radio show is carried locally by 1580. So I thought the story had enough local media "roots"..... Re:Holden Kushner - At least Holden is a good host, he might not know the area, but he's entertaining and good on air, Pete and Earl sound like good guys, but their show isn't very good and their knowledge isn't very strong, especially for being locals and regarding the Parkers show on the weekends, that might be the worst show ever in the history of WJFK, it's almost as bad as Liz Drabick's updates, Obviously it had to be someone associated with the show to make that post because if you heard the show, you would have to be on drugs to of liked it, Mike Wise isn't even as bad as the Parkers. The weekend shows at WJFK have been real real bad, hopefully something will change soon or they bring back Don and Mike with crew and fast, miss them a lot. John, Manassas (8/25/09) I can't wait for Mr. Tony to come back on our airwaves. In my estimation he is the best host in this town, by far. I must say, The Fan has made my day more enjoyable from about 5-8 at night. Dukes is so good and I must say that Kushner at night has been a refreshing change from the norm. He actually has a personality! As for TEM, I'm a fan of the Sports Fix. Good analysis. Mike in Arlington, VA (8/25/09) something else you neglected to mention about van jones, dave (in addition to changing the wording of his title to fit your view) is that he's a presidentially appointed "czar" of "green jobs", meaning he didn't need to be confirmed (or vetted) by the senate and is unaccountable for his actions. (8/25/09) Dave's response: Blame AP. I pretty much lifted the story from them, with credit, naturally..... Question: The media is heavily into the “Swine Flu” epidemic that is supposedly coming to the U.S…they are saying that it will be mandatory for children from the age of 6 to adults up to the age of 26 to be vaccinated. Also it seems that hospital staff MUST be given the vaccine also. If they do not, they will be fired!! Where has our freedom gone? Since when must we be ordered to take a shot? This is Socialism run amuck! WOW (8/25/09) Mr. Graham, Where is my name????? We’ve worked together on three or four different stations…why did you keep on hiring me…PITY???? LOL-Davy Jones:0) (8/25/09) Re: "WETA-TV wants to build a translator near Dickerson, MD"--and they want to put it on RF channel 31. Isn't the reason WETA can't expand it's current signal the fact that adjacent-channel interference is a big problem with DTV and they have to protect other stations? Well, then, wouldn't a ch. 31 translator near Germantown seriously cut into WNVT's coverage area? WNVT is on ch.30 and their coverage area includes a great deal of the proposed "service contour" for WETA's translator.~~CA in BC (8/25/09) Dave's response: WNVC uses channel 30 (WNVT) in Prince William County for its MHz 6-10 feeds. It uses channel 24 in Merrified (WNVC) for its MHz 1-5 feeds. Both signals are branded as "WNVC/Channel 30." I would imagine that the channel 30 signal is far enough away from Dickerson..... Great piece on WTMD 89.7 in the September issue of Baltimore Magazine. Talks about their approach to public radio and music and fundraising. (8/25/09) Re: "Some changes at WPGC" Changes that might help ratings in "The Book," but not the PPM. I might have to start giving PPM lessons. Very few seem to get it. * * Great to read Tom Conroy's memories of WBMD. Clark West held it together for Carl Brenner for many years. All they did was make money, At a time (late 50s - early 60s) when there were 5 AM stations (WCAO, WFBR, WITH, WCBM and WBAL) dividing up the ratings in Baltimore, WBMD had a very profitable niche. Naturally, their employees were hanging around minimum wage. Those were the days. * * There were some impressively talented DJs on the air in Baltimore that could have worked in any city, or nationally with success. Some of them worked on small stations in and around Baltimore, and some worked on big stations. Chuck Richards, Kelson Fisher, Ray Davis, Mike James, Linda Kelly, Alan Drake, Joe Knight, Les Alexander, Kelly Saunders, Terry Johnston, Lee Parker, Leonard Roberts, Jack Edwards, Larry Dean, Ken Merson, Lou Corbin, Jay Grason, Jim West - - the list is way too long, but I wanted to mention a few professionals that I worked with that were also great people. Ed Graham (Davy Jones is still looking for his name) (8/25/09) Van Jones is a self-admitted black radical and nationalist. Beck didn’t make that up. You failed to mention that. (8/25/09) (From DCRTV's Classified Ads:) 30+ year broadcast pro seeking on air opportunity in the Washington, Maryland, Virginia area. Ready to re-locate for a fulltime opportunity. Airwork and contact info available on my weblink. beaurichards.com/aircheck.html (Various airwork Mornings and Afternoons) (8/25/09) I heard from [a Kornheiser source] on Sunday. His e-mail message was “Tell everyone to keep the faith - there should be some news very soon!” (8/25/09) You don't have to post this if you don't want to cuz it just goes on and on and on and that's fine.... Carl was not a stalker. That was simply a plea deal. Just a label to plead it down some. Carl loved Don and Carl loved Mike. I'll never understand why, but he did. He was a huge fan. He had Asperger's syndrome (form of autism), and could not distinguish auditory social cues from Don and Mike on the phone or radio. He made a mistake. He knew he made a mistake afterwards, and he sent an apology letter to Don (through the police department) explaining that he would never hurt a soul physically, and had never hurt a soul physically in his life, and he was truly sorry for sending the letter he had sent and he didn't mean for it to scare Don like it did. He did not think the letter would scare Don into pressing charges (again because of his Asperger's syndrome). DCRTV: I have not even seen the letter Carl sent Don, and I would appreciate it if you do not post it .. just a request from a family member. But I know you do what you need to do. I just probably won't look at this site again, because I don't want to see that letter in print on the internet. Carl's been damaged enough. (8/25/09) [Please tell us Jennifer Ryan is on maternity leave and that Channel 9 will send that fill in anchor back to Lynchburg VA. (no disrespect Lynchburg, it’s just you’re a tiny market and might be able to tolerate Surae Chinn). What a goofy woman, cackles like a school girl.] TINY Market? How about Market #67? Not too shabby. (8/25/09) I'm sure Holden Kushner is a fine national host, but he shouldn't be holding down the fort for "The Fan" at night. His knowledge of the local teams isn't that great; 106.7 should throw Earl Forcey or Pete Medhurst on full time. They're both D.C. natives and wouldn't sound like they were trying to fill for 3 hours. (8/25/09) I was in NYC last week and, man, Peter Rosenberg is huge. Cipha Sounds and Rosenberg took over Big Boy's 4 hour slot on Hot97.Morning drive time . So Don Geronimo who drove Peter off WJFK did the kid a huge favor. Don never made it in NY or anywhere other than DC. Peter has already. Pretty funny... A father can brag! Deck (8/25/09) Dave's response: Well, at twitter.com/rosenbergradio, Peter's got 7 times (!) the Twitter followers than Geronimo has..... Daniel Snyder is a low life, greedy, piece of human waste...plain and simple. (8/25/09) /\ August 25 Messages /\ \/ August 24 Messages \/ I have really enjoyed the posts about Harford County radio. Back about 1972 or so, as a young broadcaster, I was working at WBJC-FM doing rock on the weekends, FM is where beginners learned radio then! My goal was to eventually make it in AM radio, I stopped by WVOB in Bel Air in 1973, Capt Jim was the GM as I recall, CC Murphy was PD. (Lang Sturgeon, not sure of spelling, was also WPOC's CE along with Lee Dennis, who was WAMD's CE before) He turned me down for employment, a few weeks later, I ended up at Baltimore's big country station at the time, WBMD Radio75. Clark West was PD, he scared me to death by throwing away my aircheck tape, showing me the old AP teletype machine, and giving me 10 minutes to do a live newscast during afternoon drive. I must have done something right because I stayed with them for over 20 years. Clark was a remarkable personality, and had equally good management skills. The staff around 1975 was Kenny Miller, Smilin' Jack, Ray Davis, Bob Knorr, John Healy,and Tony Girard. Baltimore radio vet Tony Denadio would stop in weekly and critique my aircheck, a real pro. They had an unusual format. Country during the mornings and evenings, and religion mid-days. The WBMD log cabin was the talk of the town, Carl Brenner made a lot of money with remotes via the old tube Marti! We had the Blue Moon Fishing reports, supposedly from Carl's yacht. (It came from the production room phone). Helpful Harriot was his wife, she did recipes of the week on WBMD. His son Scott handled engineering for both WBMD and WKTK. Back in those days, WBMD was running the old CBS Volumax/Audimax with an EQ ahead of it. I recall the jingles would wipe out the first few seconds of a record, very compressed. That station could be heard in Harrisburg and as far south as Virginia Beach with just 1kw with a folded unipole antenna. With WKTK in the same building, life in broadcasting was interesting from 5200 Moravia Road. Perhaps you "OLD" KTK'ers won't mind chiming in! Tom Conroy WZBB-FM (8/24/09) "Once MASN gets what it wants in North Carolina maybe it'll do something about it not being carried in Shenandoah County, VA, less than 2 hours from DC and only a little more than that from Charm City. Geesh, you'd think they'd be a little interested in that." In other words, people in Strasburg, Va., weren't able to watch Stephen Strasburg's introduction to the Nats last Friday. Bummer (and a blown marketing opportunity...once Stephen arrives, Nationals Park should be nicknamed "Hotel Strasburg") -- Vincent in Triangle (8/24/09) I watched Redskins-Steelers on Comcast It seemed to me the crowd noise was a tape running over and over. Am I getting old and my hearing going. (8/24/09) Some changes at WPGC...their on-air name is now "95-5 PGC" and their slogan is "DC's Hip Hop and R&B." The music sounds about the same, except I noticed that they didn't play as many slower songs as they did before in the day. They also took the cursive "Jamz" off of their logo and replaced it with "955 FM" as seen on their website. Their RDS stream also reflects this new change as it now scrolls "955 PGC" in-between song titles. DLP in Woodbridge (8/24/09) The main topics of the day, are VOA rebroadcasts and the death of Carl Grossman. DC radio is officiallly dead! Hand me the shovel. (8/24/09) Dave's response: It could be worse. We could be talking about the Olbermann/O'Reilly "feud"..... I took a rare trip back to non-satellite radio while driving around this weekend and I came across a show called Parker & Parker on WJFK (or whatever they are calling that station now). The show is apparently on every Saturday from 1-4. I don't know how long it has been on, but I don't recall seeing anything about it on your front page, which is surprising given that 1) both Parkers (Julie & Alex - who aren't related) work at channel 7 and 2) it's on 106.7, which you always seem to be covering. It was very entertaining stuff. Put it this way, if I'm willing to stick with something on commercial-filled radio, that is saying something. And they played more good songs coming out of breaks than most terrestrial stations play all day. (Which I'll admit isn't saying too much.) Anyway, check it out sometime. Jamie (8/24/09) I was out spending money driving the Dulles Greenway to Leesburg Saturday night trying to listen to the Redskins. 980 died in Reston. 94.3 did OK until Loudoun County Pkwy. The Hagerstown Rocker 106.9 FM (or 106.95 when battling JFK’s 106.7) fades out in the valleys. WAGE is gone – but what came in loud and clear, live, and with no doubt any dumb 30 sec delays was the Steelers broadcast via WWVA 1170 from Wheeling WV. Hell at night– I can get the New Orleans Saints broadcasts on WWL better than our beloved local team. (8/24/09) "Looks as if WETA-TV wants to build a translator near Dickerson, MD citing signal issues to the northeast" - AT LAST, I''ll finally be able to catch up on all of those episodes of "The Friendly Giant" and "Let's All Sing With Tony Saletan" I've missed recently......Wait a minute!!!....This TV Guide is from 1963!!!! Damn! (8/24/09) To clarify just a little: VOA is prohibited from broadcasting to the United States. However, VOA broadcasts are public domain -- with some exceptions (such as syndicated programs they pick up and commercial network feeds VOA is allowed to use). So American radio and TV stations could justify the rebroadcast of VOA reports. I always thought that would give news stations some extra correspondents they didn't have to pay for! Since the prohibition does not apply to the Internet, VOA does directly compete with other news sites on the web -- and often shows up in Google news searches. (8/24/09) A parking feud?!??? Are you kidding? What's next ...a scuffle on the wet tile floor over favorite urinals? Is this what DC radio has been reduced to? DAMNIT just put El Zol on 106.7 and HFS back on 99.1 and a Talk format everyone has been screaming for all year on 94.7 and GET it OVER with!!! Let Snyder have his Skins and every shred of coverage down to the jockstrap designs if he wants. Kicking sand around in the toddler turtlebox only gets someone covered in catshit. Grow up. (8/24/09) (snip) Dave's response: At about Tysons you should have flipped over to 94.3 out of Warrenton to continue listening to the game. It's soooo simple (ha ha ha). After dark, 980 AM is good inside the Beltway and east of the metro area, 92.7 for Southern Maryland and Prince George's, and 94.3 for most of Northern Virginia, including Reston. Oh, if you're in the far northwest suburbs, a la Upper Montgomery or Central/Western Loudoun, you're kinda out of luck. Is there a Frederick area station that carries the games? (end snip) 106.9 the Eagle carries the games. (8/24/09) You want to start a story? Ask people how their reception was on satellite for the (Saturday) redskins game. (8/24/09) snip (VOA is prohibited by charter from directly broadcasting signals and programming to a domestic U.S. audience.) end snip ... WRONG! As noted by a previous poster, the prohibition against VOA disseminating its programs inside the United States is included in US Information and Educational Exchange Act of 1948 (Public Law 402), better known as the Smith-Mundt Act. The three requirments of the VOA Charter are that the Voice: 1) be a source of accurate news and information; 2) provide information about all aspects of American society; and 3) present the official policies of the US Government (this is done in the form of clearly-labeled editorials which are buffered fron news content). You can read the VOA Charter for yourself here www.voanews.com... (8/24/09) hi Dave ... Re: the reader who wrote, "When did it become standard operating procedure to send columns to the people in them in advance of publication?" I have no firsthand knowledge of Jay Mathews' SOP, but it would appear that he was doing what a responsible columnist would do when offered one side of a story -- seek out the other side. Nowhere did he say he had sought either their approval or their editing advice. Given the same set of facts and circumstances, I would do the same. (8/24/09) (excerpt) NOW is the time for DCRTV to post Carl's letter to Don that can be found, I assume, on the courts case index website (tprecxe). This is not a matter to be decided in a public circus. Let it be resolved in the courts if necessary. The details are of no relevance to the great unwashed masses. (8/24/09) (Snip) They dont make radio like THAT nowadays. (end snip) Try WSVA in Harrisonburg, or either WRNR or WEPM in Martinsburg. Al McGilvray..... ah nice try Al but I disagree. Martinsburg's WRNR and Harrisonburg's WSVA really aren't that much different when one compares them to other news/talkers in cities of similar size other than ( and I do give them credit for this ) they do have more live local shows than many others but how long will THAT last? I believe WSVA's live programming are hosted by older men, nothing wrong with that but will WSVA continue being live in the morings/afetrnoons once they decided to retire or quit? I doubt it. Once Tom Tucker leaves WRNR, I doubt WRNR will stay live in the mornings either. Who would they get? Yogi Yoder? I have my doubts that will happen. Now with WEPM they are more/less just your run of the mill sports talker since that is what 90% of their programing is..sports other than that West Virginia statewide Hoppy Kercheval talk show and Panhandle Live with Hans Fogel (and how long will THAT last with the rumors of cutbacks at WEPM and the other Prettyman stations like WICL for example..how many jocks do they have now?), no with the exception of those two programs, WEPM is just about all sports talk, including their morning show and that was the way it was for years. In short there is really nothing special about WEPM. No really the ONLY radio station in that part of the country ( and even that is up for debate ) that is more/less the way radio was in the past ( news/sorts/local talk/weather/obits/school lunch menus..sometimes a tune is thrown in ) is really WCBC-AM in Cumberland but ever since the death of Jim Robey and a few other employees even WCBC has gotten to be a bit boring in recent years. Hagerstown's WJEJ-AM? maybe but how long will they stay with what they are doing once Lou Scally throws in the towel? Besides WJEJ doesn't really attract the younger listeners anyway unlike so many stations way back when who not only did that but they also attracted the older folks too. No they really do NOT make radio like it was in the case of Front Royal's WFTR-AM or WHDG/WASA where there really did offer something for everyone. (8/24/09) Don Geronimo:: Though it appears that Mike Sorce, both professionally & personally, is essentially running backward into the future and calling it progress, the question for today is has he burned the long-term relationship bridge with Robb Spewak? Sorce's congratulatory silence during all-around-good-guy Spewak's new KCJJ gig announcement is at least suspicious and at the worst classless. Lately, Sorce has found the time to shake his fists and foam at the mouth over the Redskins and Dan Snyder, reference "new" 80 year old father-in-law stories [ the ole' man so giddy his middle-aged daughter finally found some guy to marry her] and delete all online references to Brian Bolter but he can't, or won't, find time to congratulate Robb Spewak on becoming part of the Mighty 1630 family like DCRTV, radio-info and this mailbag has done? Nothing "mighty" about that Sorce. By running backward, Sorce inevitably stumbles and falls - again - by not offering support to Spewak who had his professional & personal back covered for more than 15 years.Though it appears Sorce has destroyed more bridges than the Army Corps of Engineers, all is not lost - DCRTV Congratulations Robb! (8/24/09) Geronomo's first mission is to protect his family. Sara, your brother is responsible for his own fate and your enabling and misplaced blame does nothing now. (8/24/09) Yes. the poster about WHRF/WVOB was correct, Captain Jim started there--well, not started. He started at WBAL, but was at WVOB before buying WAMD from the Allens in the 70s. In deed, WAMD was a little Top 40. Then, it went through different format changes under Captain Jim, including a country/ac mix, mor, ac, oldies, talk...etc. That little old shack on Hiob Lane was lively at one time...and I have some old photos of the original studio, with the transmitter sitting 10 feet away...WOW! Now, WAMD is a shell of a local station---simulcasting WAVA out of DC. In its later days, WAMD carried Orioles then became the flagship for the Ironbirds. It also carried Aberdeen and Havre de Grace high school football and Terps Football and Basketball. I remember, it was a great rocking oldies format too in 2005-is....playing Elvis, Jethro Tull, Boston, Supremes, Eagles---a real nice mix....and it did gain some notability when WQSR flipped to Jack. (8/24/09) I wonder how long it's been since Diane Rehm's pelvis has had this much attention. (8/24/09) Dave: Big fan of DCRTV. Thought I would pass this along, from today's WaPo. When did it become standad operating procedure to send columns to the people in them in advance of publication? This from Jay Mathews' education column today about a teacher having problems with his qualifications to remain on the job. Please allow me to be an anonymous contributor on this item if you choose to use but it really irritated me to see this ... Larry Weisman - - - "Less than 24 hours after I sent a draft of this column last week to Prince George's County schools spokeswoman Tanzi West Barbour and Maryland State Department of Education spokesman William Reinhard, Keiler was notified that his situation had changed and his credits were in order. Reinhard said state officials decided that the county had misinterpreted the rules. Barbour said Keiler might get more credit for law school, though state officials haven't decided yet how much. She said that despite what Keiler said, the county staff did understand the rules, but the state decided he deserved more leeway. A good teacher will keep his job. But that won't solve the education school credit problem. Before we decide how to change that flawed approach to raising the effectiveness of our educators, we ought to be sure that everyone understands it is a bad system and stop trying, as they did in Keiler's case, to make it worse." (8/24/09) Ever notice how you never see Chris Core and Hitler together? Draw your own conclusions. RIP Carl Spaceman. Like Michael Jackson, I'm glad it's over. Dave, Gene Weingarten and I missed you at the Eagle. Did take your baby on a Saturday bang? --- ThePenIsMightier (8/24/09) Dave~ I just heard from Carl Grossman's sister that he died on Saturday morning. I have a few more details if he is still of interest to long-time D&M fans. Please pass the news to Don. Carl was my friend, I'm only passing this along because I know Carl would appreciate one last bit of exposure. ~John (8/24/09) Dave's response: Can anyone confirm? lance heflin out as ep of amw (8/24/09) Looks as if WETA-TV wants to build a translator near Dickerson, MD citing signal issues to the northeast. fjallfoss.fcc.gov (8/24/09) Please tell us Jennifer Ryan is on maternity leave and that Channel 9 will send that fill in anchor back to Lynchburg VA. (no disrespect Lynchburg, it’s just you’re a tiny market and might be able to tolerate Surae Chinn). What a goofy woman, cackles like a school girl. (8/24/09) Heard Scott Jackson doing a Redskins post game call-in show on Saturday night on WJFK. Does that mean he's back in town? Since JFK is now the broadcast home of the Wizards may we see Scott doing a Wiz post game show there as he once did on 980 prior to his gig in Charlotte? One can hope. Tom in Wheaton (8/24/09) VOA is prohibited by charter from directly broadcasting signals and programming to a domestic U.S. audience. Those restrictions do NOT apply to third-party relays like AM1120 WUST or others who may use VOA programming. It also happens in the Miami area, where at least one U.S. licensed radio station was rebroadcasting some of the U.S. government's "Radio Marti" on its domestic outlet to inform Cuban ex-expatriates in south Florida. (8/24/09) New World Radio (WUST 1120 AM ) has been broadcasting VOA content in the Washington area for years. Given the ownership of those stations, you can bet everything was done legally. (8/24/09) (Snip) They dont make radio like THAT nowadays. (end snip) Try WSVA in Harrisonburg, or either WRNR or WEPM in Martinsburg. Al McGilvray (8/24/09) Harford County Radio history. Don't forget the mighty 1520, WVOB later it became WHRF. I think Captain Jim started here before he purchased WAMD. It's a shame local radio is so dead. Thanks for the memories! (8/24/09) While we are doing a Harford County flashback: WAMD (circa 1970) Remember Marvelous “Marv Ellis” in the Mornings 6-10, with the school lunch menus (funny stuff) Marv use to say if you’re in the Harford County Detention Center you will be eating better than our kids in Public School today. P.J. Marx mid-days, Les Roberts nights. Every show began end ended with the dj’s “meeting” at the ole Eagles Nest in a shopping center in Aberdeen. Marv Ellis became Bobby Morgan and marched off to WJPS in Evansville, Indiana. P.J. went to philly and Les went to rehab. Now those were the days – I think the owners at the time were the Mr. And Mrs. Allen a local couple who let Marv Program the station and have it his way on the radio and would call him in the office after every show and give him a list of things they wish he would not say or talk about on-air, Marv would light his cigarette with the note and show up and do exactly the opposite the very next morning. WAMD also carried the Orioles at the time and was a fun top-40 station to listen too in the early 70’s. (8/24/09) Good morning - On New York Social Diary today I address the voguish question of whether Washington is cool again: www.nysocialdiary.com... Last week I had lunch with an attractive young actor on the rise: James Francis Ginty: www.nysocialdiary.com... The Q&A Cafe is in search of a home. I'm in negotiations with a few venues. It will come down to money, because away from Nathans I need to get paid to do the shows. I'm eager to resume the program, and DC Cable is prepared to air them, and I hope to have more details in the next week to ten days. If it resumes the first fall Q&A Cafe will be September 24 or October 1, depending on everything. All best, Carol... Read my daily Swimming in Quicksand at caroljoynt.com (8/24/09) BC in an earlier post mentioned Glenn Brenner. He was THE MAN! Once me and a buddy met him at the beach and when talking about Redskins Sidelines we told him that there needs to be more drinking on the show. He laughed and said that's the best suggestion ever and he knew the co-hosts would agree. Damn I still miss him. He was taken from us much too soon. (8/24/09) RE: WASA/ WHDG..they remind me a LOT of Front Royal's WFTR-AM 1450 back in the 70's. A LOT !!! Back in the late 70's I can remember WFTR playing very easy listening music during the mornings..almost like the old WGAY. Then at middays WFTR would go country. I believe WFTR was among the first stations in the US that broke Crystal Gayle's late 70's hit "Half The Way". Afternoons WFTR went full blown top 40..with jingles like "Fourteen FIVE OH...YOU..and WFTR"..even the weather had a jingle which was quite rare in those days "...Front Royal...Winchester..Accu-Weather...on WFTR". And at night....heavy rock !! The very frist time I heard AC/DC was on WFTR. Now for Weekends I know WFTR had stayed top 40 on Saturdays but not so sure what they did on Sundays. Frank Sinatra, Loretta Lynn, Donna Summer and Aerosmith...all on one small AM station. Add all of that to "Swap Shop" ( a buy and sell program that aired I believe three times a day back then ), the obits, school lunch menus for Warren & Frederick Counties, local sports and lots of local news..that was WFTR-AM 1450. They dont make radio like THAT nowadays. (8/24/09) Speaking of WHDG/WASA...I remember check the studios out after the WLG take over of the format. It was like walking into a time wharp. It seems like everyone just walked out and left. Pens were on the desks, a record was cued on the turn table. I returned to check out the place after transforming to WJSS and noticed a large hole in the old AM studio floor. They were using the smaller FM studio for all of their broadcasts, using a small Mackie mixer with audio cables running across the floor to the rack room. In the old AM studio, a massive audio monitor, three cart deck and old microphones were hanging around, like the "show" just ended. It was like a radio museum! (8/24/09) For GAB in the Airless Cubicle, who said WFED's airing of Voice of America programs violates the Smith Mundt Act. Wrong. The Smith Mundt Act restricts VOA from disseminating it programs domestically, but if a US broadcaster acquires VOA's (public domain) shows, it can legally rebroadcast them, as WFED and presumably some other stations do. (Of course, there are no laws that prohibit Americans from listening to the VOA programming that their tax dollars pay for, whether on shortwave, through a local or international rebroadcaster or affiliate, or online.) Since VOA material is posted on voanews.com to expand its international audience, it is not terribly difficult for WFED or any other broadcaster, foreign or domestic, to download and air the shows. (signed) A VOA insider. (8/24/09) I heard Elliott Francis "hosting" this afternoon on WAMU. Is he gone from 7? (8/24/09) Dave's response: Yeah, he left WJLA a few years ago. He's now teaching at American University and doing weekends on the school's WAMU..... /\ August 24 Messages /\ \/ August 23 Messages \/ (re:thought you'd rant about the WAPO today)...Remember the Post's new mission statement, a) it's in order to save costs, b) the information can be found elsewhere, and c) it's the green thing to do. The sports section is typically 6 or 8 pages anymore. Also, by printing less, there's less chance of typos! (8/23/09) I haven't heard any edited versions of Brad Paisley's song and, quite frankly, find it difficult to believe. His Twitter page discussed the fact that Welcome wasn't yet worked in to current tour set. Check out his October concert in Baltimore and see if it's there then. BP's extremely proud of this song and I doubt he would authorize an edited version to be played. Don't jump to conclusions and try to give country fans a little credit. (8/23/09) Re: WASA/ WHDG. Had to chime in. As a kid who grew up in Harford County. I remember the mornings of the Hitman on WASA. You could tell the station was not in Baltimore, but it was local and we listened after the sun came up every morning. Later, I remember WHDG. What a cluster it was. Every Morning was god squad, middays went Country. Nights joined WASA for news and Orioles baseball (which at the time was the only place I could hear the games at night). As soon as the games would end the station would go to a college sounding Heavy Metal station. At 5 or 6am, I don't remember which, the metal would end and god returned. The station by all accounts was un-listenable from day part to day part. Not sure if they made money or not. Looking at today. WASA is now WJSS, a mix of religious programs and talk. WHDG is WXCY, top 40 Country. (8/23/09) Re: "I want to refute the know-it-all who also responded and implied that the coaxial cable and connectors Verizon uses are the same that a consumer would normally find." I'm going to have to disagree with your refute... The quality of cabling and connectors used in homes and available to consumers has improved over the years. A while back I rewired my house for directv and used quad shield rg-6/u with compression connectors and tools, all from my local home depot. Crimp and twist-on connectors along with rg-59 cable are still out there for consumers, but so is the stuff similar to what's used by comcast and verizon. (8/23/09) thought you'd rant about the WAPO today. My Sunday sports section said the Redskins game ended too late and had no coverage. I find that amazing that the town's biggest team, can't make the Sunday sports of the town's biggest newspaper. Maybe a slightly late delivery would have been in order. I know it's preseason, but....would this happen during the regular season if the 'Skins play on Sunday Night or Monday Night? Thoughts? (8/23/09) Dave's response: My print Post was the same this morning. I agree totally..... Another Harford County blast from the past...how many folks remember the Ole Sherriff of Notingham, Pa?... Bobby Montgomery when he was on WHDG he use to broadcast live from his restaurant in Pa, right over the line near the potato chip factory and how about Smylin Jack who use to broadcast live from his home studio on route 40 near Edgewood, Md. Remember the old bluegrass they used to play on WASA/WHDG on the weekends? A lot of the musicians would tote their gear into the lil studio I think it was on route 22 or 222 and play for hours. good times - gone for good. The station owners son David Pate now there was a real piece of work, wow...nuff said. (8/23/09) 1. I don't know if anyone has reported this, but WRBS in Baltimore has changed its slogan to "Shine," dropped the paid ministry programs, and has gone to all Christian Contemporary Music. They are imitating the success of WGTS here. 2. WFED at 11:30 this morning was broadcasting a Voice of America panel program. The program is good, but isn't the VOA not allowed to broadcast to domestic listeners according to the Smith-Mundt Act? 3. Watch driving by National Airport. The National Airport police have a speed trap. I got caught in it. GAB in the Airless Cubicle. (8/23/09) Dave's response: We did report WRBS-FM's Shine shift in early August..... On WMZQ 's airing of syndicated "Country Countdown"today,Brad Paisley's "Welcome to the Future" was played in an edited version.The verse about the civil rights movement,and indirectly the election of our first African American POTUS ,was cut. After Paisley performed at Nissan recently,one of the stations' jocks commented that he was surprised that Paisley did not perform"Welcome.." I have heard the song unedited elsewhere on the station.I am wondering if Paisley has authorized an alternate version of the song,or is selectively adding and dropping the song from his concerts depending on where the venue is. If this is the case,is there an explanation?The song,in unedited form,marvels in how far we have come. If someone thinks that country fans can't abide a Black President,we still have along way to go. This might be cross referenced with The Dixie Chicks imbroglio of a few years back. Although to be fair ,no version of any Brad Paisley song will ever be played on WPGC. What a country.. Keep up the good work. (8/23/09) Dave, I'm glad your person found the help he needed to wire up an extra cable drop for his Verizon FiOS service (and that he sent along a PayPal donation). I want to refute the know-it-all who also responded and implied that the coaxial cable and connectors Verizon uses are the same that a consumer would normally find. Indeed, Vzn is using "robust" coax cable whose outside diameter is significantly larger than ordinary RG-6 because of multiple layers of shielding, which is NOT found in cheaper, consumer-grade coax. This means the cheap, ordinary connectors won't work properly because the shield group won't fit. As for the cable being "proprietary," that is a Verizon part number on there, for coax made for Verizon by an outside supplier. You can't go buy Verizon's coaxial cable. BUT, if you want something similar on the open market, look for Belden 7916A. (8/23/09) Ah "Hitman", you know that I loved you too. Just had to add a little diversity in the antenna mix. Blessings to you sweetie. You are another one of my inspirations. "Sister" Joyce Conroy (WHFC) (8/23/09) Out in the boondocks of Sterling, the little Danny Snyder Itty Bitty Radio Network is almost non-existent but 106.9 from Hagerstown comes in crystal clear for listening to Sonny, Sam and that pompous no talent hack in the 3rd chair. Marvin in Sterling (8/23/09) Did someone actually mention WASA/WHDG?? Now THATS a blast from the past!! I can remember my grandparents having on or the other on the old 'Solid State' (guess it was new then) from sunup to sundown. I listened to WHDG during its blip as a rock station. My friends and I used to climb the cliff near its tower. I was floored when it went Country! Only a Pennsylvania Dutchman could miss the irony of putting a country station in Havre de Grace( don't anyone get too insulted my fathers side of the family is Penn Dutch so I have some leeway there) I always thought Elkton was much more fitting for a Country music empire. I wish it would flip to Modern/Alternative with its far reaching signal...strong enough to be picked up on an electric guitar and amp way across the river. Yeah I live in 'Country' country now....at least I can get Philly stations as well as the Baltimore/DC mess of a market. -Donnie-FROM HdeG-now in Cessle county Muraland(local pronunciation)wince/shake head (8/23/09) To all those saying radio is dead, I have to disagree. There are tons of medical students, scientists, mothers of small children that have post graduate degrees, young Black professionals, law students, and college & graduate school coeds that listen to Sean Hannity and Mark Levin. They call often, and are 100% in agreement what Sean or Mark say (who says young people are "liberal?"). All you have to do is listen to Sean Hannity or Mark Levin and you know all these young people (mostly women) love AM talk radio, and use their quick texting trained fingers to call in and spread the word about death panels, the nonsense about global warming, conservative values, and the consequences of Obama's actions. I often think to myself that Sean Hannity and Mark Levin must charge a ton for advertising on their radio shows because they reach all these well read post graduate scholars that listen for hours at a time and can provide true insight into the topics of the day. (8/23/09) (“At about Tysons you should have flipped over to 94.3 out of Warrenton to continue listening to the game. It's soooo simple (ha ha ha). After dark, 980 AM is good inside the Beltway and east of the metro area, 92.7 for Southern Maryland and Prince George's, and 94.3 for most of Northern Virginia, including Reston.”) Roger that Dave: when or what are the chances that the NFL will air all games on separate channels (e.g. “The Redskins Channel” like The Grateful Dead Channel”) via Sirius so they can be heard anywhere in the Good Old USA? Imagine hearing Sonny, Sam and that other guy (who took away Frank Herzog’s job) as you drive across the corn fields of Iowa! (8/23/09) Okay Dave: you informed us of the stations carrying the Skins game (can you do it again?), so I tuned into 92.7 last night on my way home at half-time. I was travelling via 395 from King Street to the Dulles Toll Road to Reston. The station was fine until I hit the toll road and then I totally lost the signal once west bound. What gives Dave? What does a man have to do to be able to listen to Sonny, Sam & the other guy do play call while driving in the Washington market? Signed, “Signaless in Reston”. (8/23/09) Dave's response: At about Tysons you should have flipped over to 94.3 out of Warrenton to continue listening to the game. It's soooo simple (ha ha ha). After dark, 980 AM is good inside the Beltway and east of the metro area, 92.7 for Southern Maryland and Prince George's, and 94.3 for most of Northern Virginia, including Reston. Oh, if you're in the far northwest suburbs, a la Upper Montgomery or Central/Western Loudoun, you're kinda out of luck. Is there a Frederick area station that carries the games? Just got back from Virginia Beach and I tried watching last night's Redskins game on their local affiliate and it looked terrible!!!! I met someone at this bar and he worked in the Norfolk market and told me Comcast kind of slipped by the Redskins a clause in their contract that they should be the only ones to television the preseason in HD..is Snyder crazy? I agree with "BC"'s post, bring back people like Sonny, George and yes, I'll even accept Kornheiser. I'm sick and tired of people like Jim Williams and others kissing-up to Comcast regarding their Redskins coverage...it doesn't take much to realize everyone in the market is just average. Again I agree with BC, Dan and Lindsay try but don't win you over with information and Channel 9's Sarah Walsh seems quite disinterested in the whole event. Trying to be realistic here, I guess Comcast receives more attention, whether it's true or false or propaganda, because they are the only game in-town. As they guy in the sports bar said last night, people miss George, Sonny, and even Bostic doing the games. I guess Snyder still doesn't know the difference between amateur TV quality and network quality. (8/23/09) Ref: "Sister" Joyce Conroy (WHFC) - wait a minute girl, you turned your antenna away from WASA/WHDG a couple of stations that I was programming at the time and doing mornings too !!!!! And your "blood" brother Johnny B. and not so "blood" brother Mark Thoner were also on air at these stations.....shame on you young lady. Can u feel the love? J.J. "Hitman" McKay (8/23/09) Please someone!!! We need some local TV station to get George, Sonny, Riggo, Korny and Wilbon back on a Redskin's show. No offense to Dan and Lindsay,they are decent at delivering the sport's on a newscast, but they are no good at a 1/2 hour show. They just can't add the humor and insight the other guy's can. The hour show put out by the Skins org with Larry Michaels is just downright horrible. Maybe I'm spoiled I was an intern on the old Redskins Sideline's show with Glenn Brenner and Sonny, produced by Rick Sharp and Ernie Baur. Of course no one can live up to Glenn. BC (8/23/09) I guess now we know why less people listen to radio now. Funny that one of the few people who actually bought a ZUNE bought it for the FM tuner. HAha! And I'm guessing that person is past the age of 40 if not 50+. Everyone else all bought iPODS or iPhones and buy music from iTUNES and many stopped listening to FM long ago. There are more cars manufactured to be iPOD-compatible than HD-Radio compatible. Maybe in hindsight, the radio industry shouldn't have put all its eggs in the failed iBiquity basket now that HD-Radio has bombed & should have possibly lobbied/paid Apple money instead. You can't tell me that these Zunes will have stable HD-Radio reception while jogging in Germantown or Manassas. Just simply not technologically possible. The FCC needs to scrap HD-Radio and create an all digital band from channel 6 and gradually move ALL radio stations to ALL Digital in a manner similar to the DTV switch. Consumers are just too smart to accept the poor quality of AM, FM & HD radio anymore, especially young people and even people up to age 30. No matter what programming you put on radio anymore, many young people are like Elvis. They've already left the building. Baltimore doesn't even have a Top 40 station anymore. Hell, I'm past 40 and I generally listen to music more often or stream stations on my computer hooked up to quality stereo speakers than I do the FM tuner on my expensive stereo system. The Apple lossless compressed format is CD quality too and I can play HD quality video straight to my HDTV set with a DVI to HDMI cable. Consumers are much more tech-smarter now, especially young people. They consider AM, FM & even HD-Radio as dinosaur-tech. So, yes, the new Zune HD will be the same niche item that the old Zune was, one that few people ever buy. (8/23/09) /\ August 23 Messages /\ Jump to the Mailbag Archive Index.....