Current Mailbag - Mailbag Archive Index - DCRTV Front Page - Support DCRTV DCRTV Mailbag - October 27 to November 2, 2009 Latest messages listed first..... \/ November 2 Messages \/ Hopefully the new incarnation of the MOM Show will return to the airwaves on Fridays 3pm-5pm on WEBR in place of that pompeous zilch Tom Gavin. -ThatThingIsMightier (11/2/09) So watching wjla channel 7 and see this station promo with Leon Harris. Goes on to say how the folks at channel 7 feel the pain of those who are unemployed at this time, especially for the families. Geez, ain't channel 7 the station that canned a lot of folks a few months back. is Mr. Harris really all that sincere or he's just a fashion dandy? Saw a Psuedo news piece on channel 4 Daily Connection, something about CVS drug stores and make up suggestions. Sure seemed like a commercial?! And I believe Pat Mitchell was a long time host of Panorama? (11/2/09) So sad, too bad about the once-great Washington Post. What could they possibly be thinking? How could it save them one red cent to abandon their familiar and well-received layout styles and handsome typefaces and turn the WaPo into a cheap Xerox copy of the Boston Globe?? Take a look at a print copy of the Globe (or the front page image on their website) and see the startling resemblance - why would the Post want to so slavishly imitate another sinking ship? The headlines, the copy layout, the column headers, the cartoon head for each columnist - it's a direct ripoff of today's fading Boston Globe. It's not like they'll save a mint in typesetting costs by using all of the Globe's typefaces....or will they? There's gotta be a reason. It's not like the Globe is swimming in profits these days - why ditch the classic WaPo layout and formats to just be a carbon copy of yet another fading broadsheet? If they are as intent on killing the newspaper as all their recent changes would indicate, why not just send everyone home, implode the buildings, and be done with it? This death of a thousand cuts they're putting their dwindling base of still-loyal readers (like me) through is just getting too painful. Will they next be trading in the Washington Post March for The Standells' "Dirty Water".......? Oh, Boston, You're My Home. Sincerely yours, still buying the daily Post ( I do get it, but I still don't get it....) at the bust stop, I remain, your humble Radio Bear. (11/2/09) Re BALTIMORE AM RADIO STATIONS: How's 700 AM out of Walkersville doing these days? -snorf- (11/2/09) “…dismal state of AM radio in the Baltimore area…” It would be worth a look at the books of those five stations that have a “Christian” format. I bet all five are profitable, and perhaps healthfully at that. Why? Paid religion is a proven moneymaker. I can’t readily think of a “Christian” station which has shifted to another format for financial reasons, although I’ve heard of some which have gone silent or dark because they were more of a ministry than a business per se, and went broke. The AM in Warrenton on 1250 is an example. Or, when things go wrong internally, WTKK-66 being an example of that. As for “ratings” remember what I said awhile back: I’ll take a strong balance sheet anytime. Broadcasting is a business. (Yeah, I know that bit about it being called a service. But, that’s also what a rancher hires a bull to do to a cow.) Except for AM, the only difference is whether the channel (Remember the FCC uses channels for FM…) you’re on is “Non-Commercial” or not. That determines how openly “commercial” you can be. You still have “revenue” and “expenses”. The basic difference is whether you call what’s left “profit (loss)” or “surplus (deficit)”. If those stations which have a “Christian” format weren’t making money at it, I doubt seriously if they would continue with the format. Point to ponder: If a confident business case could be made for a successful “WHFS” return, don’t you think it would’ve happened by now? A broadcast license is an asset of very limited merchantability that you want to maximize your ROI on, like any other asset. Thus, you’ll program it with whatever makes the most money reliably. What I find funny is that CC has news departments elsewhere. Even credible ones. But, none in D.C. That’s because Bonneville through the near-excellence (but at least consistent competency) which is the WTOP product, has killed any successful investment potential for news entrant elsewhere in the D.C. market. –Unsigned Corporate Suit (11/2/09) “Just idiotic and stupid for CSN not to at least let the viewer know that they tried, but no information is available.” – You’re an idiot, I watched the game and Joe B repeatedly said they hadn’t gotten word yet from caps PR etc etc etc .. several times they mentioned how ovie wasn’t on the bench and how they were awaiting word from the PR staff to pass along to viewers. I’m not sure what the hell you heard, but I wasn’t flipping back and forth watching favre, I tuned in to the caps the whole game. Don’t you think the game crew/announcers were trying to figure out what was going on with the biggest draw in DC/NHL ?? Don’t you think they immediately went to caps PR man Nate Ewell for information? They weren’t saying anything, not CSN’s fault. (11/2/09) I spent last weekend in Mississippi and can confirm the picture freeze, etc. on the NFL and World Series games on FOX. Looks like they're having some real issues with their live feeds of late. Then again, I was watching on Comcast down there, sooooooooooooooooooooo... - - - - - Larry in Luray (11/2/09) Colin Campbell - Rumor has him landing on the Citadel Sales Team. Is this true? (11/2/09) BALTIMORE AM RADIO STATIONS WCAO, 600 AM, Baltimore, Christian () WCBM, 680 AM, Baltimore, News/Talk (11) WBMD, 750 AM, Baltimore, Christian () WBGR, 860 AM, Baltimore, Christian () WOLB, 1010 AM, Baltimore, Ethnic Talk (41) WBAL, 1090 AM, Baltimore, News/Talk (7) WITH, 1230 AM, Baltimore, Christian (15) WJFK, 1300 AM, Baltimore, Sports () WVIE, 1370 AM, Pikesville, Sports (49) WWIN, 1400 AM, Baltimore, Christian (41) WNST, 1570 AM, Towson, Sports (44) WFBR, 1590 AM, Glen Burnie, Ethnic Music() Is there something wrong with this picture? This is the dismal state of AM radio in the Baltimore area. Of the 12 AM stations, we have five Christian stations (Christian or Gospiel music or religious talk), three sports stations (24 hour sports talk) and two "Ethnic" stations (Black folk). That leaves two out of the 12 stations that have anything of interest. And from those two, WCBM is so far off to the right, that it is difficult to listen for any length of time. That leaves one station which is basically "acceptable", WBAL. How depressing is that? Well, at least there is the one station. Do we really need five Christian stations? If every church in the area would use an hour per week, then even one or maybe even two stations would be enough. Do we need three sports stations? Four if you count the FM station. The number in the () parens are the "Baltimore Portable People Meter radio ratings" for the Baltimore/Washington area. Seems that most of the AM stations don't even make it to the list. Or so it seems. All in all, a rather bad situation. (11/2/09) The return of The Mike O'Meara Show:: O'Meara, Elston, Spewak - positive radio karma should come to good & talented radio people like them [the stars align when negative karma follows bad radio people like Sorce] When the MOM Show does return, their show will again be short-lived if Beth Ann McBride is involved in any way - especially as producer. Period! (11/2/09) Dave's response: Now now now. I like BA. I just don't see where Mike and company will return to, radio-wise, in the current recessionary environment. If Citadel was smart (and they aren't) they'd hire Mike (probably with a big pay cut from his JFK days) and give him mornings on 105.9, WVRX. But then, 105.9 would also have to tone down the "hardness" of the classic rock, but that wouldn't be much of a problem since no one's listening, anyway. Then Citadel would have Jack Diamond doing a chick morning show on 107.3 and O'Meara doing a dude morning show on 105.9. Other than that, maybe Mike could end up at Sirius XM or possibly do an internet/podcast-type show..... As Dave reported previously, Rob Carlin is now doing TV work on Islanders broadcasts. So he and Megan are either living apart or someone (read Rob) has one heck of a commute to work. Howie (11/2/09) To the absolute moron who is defending CSN. It is CSN's responsibility to their viewers to state what other networks say when there is an injury, especially to the biggest superstar in the game. "We attempted to get more information on the Ovechkin injury, but unfortunately we will be unable to give you any more information than that Ovechkin will be out for the year". Just idiotic and stupid for CSN not to at least let the viewer know that they tried, but no information is available. (11/2/09) “CSN should be ashamed of themselves.” – Hey moron, it’s not CSN’s fault, caps PR wasn’t divulging any information and STILL haven’t really said what the problem is 24 hours later so before you go ripping someone, know what’s going on first. If you’re a caps fan, you should know by now that they rarely give out information on injury specifics, i.e. UPPER BODY INJURY or LOWER BODY INJURY so other teams don’t necessarily know what’s ailing a particular player. (11/2/09) Alex Ovechkin gets hurt in the 2nd period of Sunday night's game against Columbus. He doesn't return for the rest of the game. Joe Beninati states about 4 or 5 times that "Ovechkin got hit hard in the 2nd period and his return is unlikely". Now, CSN has either Al Koken or Lisa Hillary as on-site as rinkside reporters and you would think that CSN would use this resource to immediately get information as to what the injury was and the severity of the injury to Ovechkin for their audience, many of whom, like me, are on pins and needles about Ovechkin's condition.. So as I continue watching and wondering whether Ovechkin will be out for an extended period of time (or maybe the year? I don't know), we get not one update on his condition from CSN. What the hell is the point of a rinkside reporter if they aren't going to get the most important information that could ever come out of Caps game these days? The severity of an injury to the greatest hockey player in the NHL and the biggest name in sports in DC these days? CSN should be ashamed of themselves. (11/2/09) Dave, what became of that rumored Citadel advertiser meltdown last Friday, the one where a major WMAL advertiser was going to lay off half its staff, or whatever? Also, the final "poll" isn't until election day tomorrow, but how are you feeling about your comments a couple of weeks ago that the absurd Post Deeds endorsment would keep him from getting blown out? I think he's fallen even further behind since the Post's transparent, weak editorial. Then again, who knows? Maybe the final results will be closer than the polls. They usually are. Christian (11/2/09) Dave's response: If anybody knows more about that Citadel "meltdown" do let me know. It is amazing how little effect the Post's endorsement has had in the Virginia governor's race. The Post just doesn't command the political influence that it once did. I do suspect that Deeds will win in Northern Virginia - especially in Fairfax and Arlington counties - but lose big time around the rest of the state. Even though I'm voting for Democrat Deeds, I can't help but notice that the McDonnell campaign has bought a whole bunch of Google ads that run on DCRTV, and my Google ad revenue for the past week or so has been quite a bit higher than normal thanks to the Republican. Ha ha ha..... Wasn't a good day for the NFL on DISH Network in my house yesterday. Starting with the Giants/Eagles game, there were jump/skips in the audio feed while the image remained ok. But then I started to get the dreaded "Searching for Satellite" box at random and then right before halftime I lost EVERY local channel completely, replaced only with the "Sorry for the Interruption, we're trying to get this station back ASAP blahblahblah Use GUIDE to look at non-local programming." It lasted until just over 2 minutes left in the Vikings/Packers game, and even when I went to say.. NFL Network there would be random times that it would search for a satellite. Needless to say I was a tad bit annoyed. (11/2/09) Back in the '90s, I used to sub to the Post instead of the Sun because the ball scores in the Post were more likely to be up to date than the ones in the Home Delivery Sun despite my being in Eldersburg MD. I guess the Post just isn't trying anymore, either. Howie (11/2/09) Didn't WMAR's Megan Pringle just marry WMAR's sports guy Rob Carlin and didn't WMAR then fire Rob Carlin? If so, what are she, he and them going to do now? (11/2/09) "When a AM talk station with zero local content and a hideous signal starts simulcasting on 95.5 HD-3, does it make a sound?" The only sound I heard there this morning was AC buzz, nothing else. Nice use of bandwidth. (11/2/09) I clicked on that Facebook link "I got fired by Clear Channel" ,cause' I did, & I saw a post from Tommy Griffiths about putting together a new morning show. Being a crack detective, I figured that since he & Harvey Kojan were together in VA. for a zillion years & the fact that Bob & Tom suck, Tommy was Bay bound. I responded to his facebook piece w/ "Bob & Tom out, Tommy in @ The Bay. good luck" He answered back w/ "Thanks". (11/2/09) you said that fios slowed on it's growth! how many people did they lose because of there goofed up billing dept. I have fios but i am thinking of going back to comcast all because of verizons billing dept. life was fine i had cable, internet and my home phone then i had my home phone number changed to a verizon cell phone what a mistake billing went nuts. I got a bill from west chester pa., a bill from dallas tx and another bill from mission hills ca. I finally got them to send me one bill but to discuss the bill with them you have to talk to 3 different people. wireless, internet and cable. I am really over fios!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (11/2/09) Does anyone else have a problem on WTTG with a gargling sound from time to time. Sound dropping, video breaking up. I’m on Dishnetwork, but with just being on 5, I thought it was a station problem. Just wondering. Craig HF/WV (11/2/09) I noticed Friday night (or was it Thursday night?) while watching Jay Leno's show on FiOS 504 (WRC-TV) that, even though the output was suppposedly 5.1 Surround sound (it lit up the blue "surround light" on my amplifier system, it only came out in stereo through the front 2 speakers (+ subwoofer of course). When I switched to FiOS 515 (WHAG-TV, our other "local" NBC station), it was in full 5.1 Surround sound with the audience clearly heard through the rear speakers. Is it Verizon that's making a mistake? Is it Ch. 4 making a mistake in what it gives Verizon, or is the full HD sound really missing sometimes from broadcast Channel 4? Wouldn't it be something if Hagerstown's little Channel 25 puts out noticeably better HD broadcast quality than an NBC O&O? I remember back when I could get WJZ-13 on our antenna (before the big switch) that its stereo separation was much better than that of WUSA-9, but WJZ-TV has always been the best of the best, picture- and sound- wise (at least in my opinion), but WRC being beaten in quality by WHAG? David vs. Goliath revisited!! -- Carl in Olney (11/2/09) I think the Post has actually gotten much worse at covering "late" games in the past couple of years. Lately I just assume that any game ending after about 7pm will be deemed too "late" for the Post to bother covering. When the hard copy consistently refers me to the Post's web page for coverage of such "late" games, I can only assume the Post would rather I read the web page than the hard copy. Which is why I am canceling my subscription. (11/2/09) Harvey Hudson - The Richmond Times-Dispatch has a nice obit at the below link for people who may not remember him… timesdispatch.com (11/2/09) I've spoken before on this forum on the frustration of finding the results of any game ending past 10:00 PM in the home edition of the Post delivered to my location in Ashburn, but it seems to be getting worse to the point where the sports section is pretty much worthless for anybody living west of Vienna, especially the Saturday edition. This past Friday, the edition delivered to my home included the game story of the Caps-Thrashers contest that was played Thursday in Atlanta, a game that ended around 9:36 PM according to the AP wire story I found on the web. Friday night, the Caps played the Islanders at Verizon Center in a game that finished at 9:39 PM (the time reference from another AP wire story). Did the Saturday edition delivered to my home contain the result or game story? No. But it did reprint the Caps-Thrashers game story from the previous day, with the "reprinted from yesterday's late editions" label. Huh?!?!? And, of course, World Series Game 4, which finished before midnight (11:48 PM from what I have found) didn't make the cut either. I'm a little annoyed that the result of last night's WS game was omitted, but this inconsistency displayed in the example with respect to the two Caps games is ridiculous. As Vince Lombari said in a memorable clip captured by NFL Films during a less-that-stellar performance by the Green Bay Packers, "What the hell is going on out there!" No wonder they're losing subscribers. They may see me join that list. Again, Dave, a great site! Joe Kasell (11/2/09) Minor correction. WLEE-AM in Richmond started on 1450 and later moved to 1480. I think WRTD (Richmond Times Dispatch newspaper) had occupied 1450 - but was taken silent when anti-duopoly rules were instituted by the FCC. Richmond Newspapers already owned WRNL (Richmond News Leader). The first WLEE studios were in the basement space formerly occupied by the Air Defense Filter Center - where spotter reports of aircraft movements were coordinated during WW2. WLEE initially shared time on 1450 with church-owned WBBL. WBBL only operated for Sunday morning church services. The chief engineer of WBBL was Jimmy Kyle, who was also CE of WMBG 1380 and later of channel 6. (11/2/09) At 8:14 on Saturday evening, WTOP's Veronica Robinson teased the upcoming sports report by saying that Game 3 of the World Series was "well underway" and that an update was next. Well, the first pitch was scheduled for 7:57, but the start of the game didn't occur until almost 9:20 due to a rain delay. Even if the game had started on time, it hardly would have been "well underway" by 8:14. Most of WTOP's anchors are solid, but I am not a fan of Veronica Robinson. She's the only one whom I've heard stumble over her own name. As for Channel 9 and Kim Martucci, is she being demoted to weekends? She's been on the last two weekends now. They just recently hired Devon Lucie from Kansas City, and I thought he was the new weekend meteorologist. It seems weird that he'd be taking this much time off so soon, but who knows... (11/2/09) WJZ TV went HD this past week in a very cheap manner, using the same set and for the most part the same graphics. The only thing I noticed that WJZ has that the other stations do not WBAL & WBFF is an HD camera on their news helicopter. I noticed that WJZ also appears during some news casts to use the same weather graphics – the kinds of which that you can find on the National Weather Service. These graphics are very old fashioned and don’t even look remotely like they were designed for HD as if they were just up converted from SD. (11/2/09) Is there still a problem with the Fox NFL broadcasts? I have Verizon Fios in Fairfax and it seemed like the picture and audio froze on a regular basis throughout the Eagles game. (11/2/09) /\ November 2 Messages /\ \/ November 1 Messages \/ More on Harvey Hudson - Started as a part-time announcer at WRVA-AM/Richmond in the 1940s. Was morning host as WLEE-AM (1480) from 1946-1972, becoming VP/GM of WLEE and co-owned WXEX-TV (Channel 8) in the '60s. Nationwide forced Harvey out, and despite working there for more than a quarter-century seldom mentioned the stated after his departure. After leaving WLEE, Hudson did a talk show on WRNL-AM/Richmond. He later became a founding partner in TVX Broadasting Group., a group owner that subsequently sold its stations to Paramount Pictures. For the past decade, he had been hosting Harvey Hudson's Passing Parade, a monthly nostalgia program. Hudson turned 88 in September. He had been a widower since 2006, and was legally blind due to macular degeneration. (11/1/09) (Unfortunately, Kim Martucci's forecasts leave me with an ice cream headache.) All these misogynists who send nasty posts to DCRTV about LOCAL WASHINGTON WEATHERMAN KIM “LURCH” MARTUCCI are just jealous because they didn’t get proposed to – live – on WUSA like she did. Now if she would just learn to not stand in front of a map of the country essentially blocking everything from West Virginia to California and Canada to Mexico in HDTV from the viewers. (11/1/09) Not sure if cable TV channels count, but Shenandoah University's Comcast channel 20 out here in Winchester is playing Christmas music on November 1st. Al McGilvray (11/1/09) Just tried watching 9News Now. Unfortunately, Kim Martucci's forecasts leave me with an ice cream headache. Bye-bye Gannett. Hello Albritton. (11/1/09) Is the Prozac for Steve Ray or Randi? (11/1/09) Comcast just raised their rates about another 6 bucks a month, this is at least the second increase this year. Yet the service continues to go downhill, today Comcast was down for most of the first quarter of the Ravens game. It is time to look for other alternatives to Comcast. Burt in Denton (11/1/09) Hi - I love your site! I have a quick question, What happened to NBC 4 weekend weatherman: Steve Villanueva? Thanks! (11/1/09) Dave's response: He's back up in NYC, to be with his wife who works there..... "Quick Youtube search for Washington Senators. www.youtube.com... Not a whole lot comes up. In fact, more Capitals, Ottawa Senators & world politics stuff comes up! Hate to say it, but score another round for Joe in Essex. lol" This may be the dumbest post I've ever seen. How f'ing stupid are you, or how stupid do you think the rest of us are? The Washington Senators last played in 1971. Try finding much of any video on any team from pre-1972, even the Orioles, but particularly second division teams. It just doesn't exist. As for Joe in Essex, he's another Baltimoron who suffers from a huge inferiority complex amd feels like he has to knock DC to feel better about himself. I was born in the District and I've lived in the Baltimore area since 1970, and I will never, ever, understand why so many folks around here are so combative and insecure about what is really a very nice place to live. They certainly don't speak for me or for the vast majority of area residents. (11/1/09) Good luck to Steve Ray on the Randi Rhodes show. Bring prozac. (11/1/09) "This guy is going at such a pace you can hardly understand what he's saying, not to mention who happens to be leading or as Dave would say... who's on top." Dave says the score at least once every 30 seconds. If you can't hear that, then you need to get your hearing checked. (11/1/09) Is Vinnie Bruce who is doing traffic currently on WTOP on weekend mornings the former Vinnie Brewster from many moons ago on DC101? (11/1/09) Interesting tidbit this morning on Fox News Sunday. Rush Limbaugh described Fox News as part of the conservative media and Chris Wallace did not dispute or clarify. That fig leaf called "Fair and Balanced" is looking flimsier every day. ACH (11/1/09) Dave's response: For Christsakes, Rush, if you're gonna do a national TV talk show, put socks on! This morning on Fox, Rush was socks-less in loafers, and had no tie, with the first two (!) buttons unbuttoned so we could see his sexy (gag!) chest. Gawd. Rush makes J. Edgar Hoover look sexy..... From the "when nobody was listening" department: When a AM talk station with zero local content and a hideous signal starts simulcasting on 95.5 HD-3, does it make a sound? Well, at least the signal doesn't drop out every time an airplane flies by. -Chainsman (11/1/09) To the reader who thinks people will flock from Comcast to FiOS when they go to all-digital, he should know that Verizon FiOS is all digital QAM, and *everything* except *some* of our local channels are encrypted. And, yes, you do indeed need to pay for the decoder box for each television with FiOS: either a super-lousy little box with crunchy fonts, tiny program guide, and slow channel-changing for a few bucks a month OR the fancier one with the on-demand feature for more money. It would appear to me, besides the obvious FiOS promotional rate, Comcast is aligning itself to what FiOS already does. So far, Cox still has analog cable, but from my scanning of it, you really don't want it as only *some* of the local channesl are on it, too. -Chainsman (11/1/09) I don't know why we are so lucky. Here in the Borough of Hanover, in the beautiful Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, we have had no problems with COMCAST. JohnnyuinHanover,Pa. (11/1/09) Dave's response: Speaking of Comcast, my Reston system is now double-running many of the HD channels in the 800 channel range along with the 200 range. More here. What's up with that? "Strong Ratings For Skins Despite Slump - 11/1 - Even though the Redskins are experiencing a rather dreadful season, their TV and radio ratings are stronger-than-ever. I'm certainly no Skins fan but I have to admit I've been watching some of the games and the post game shows (radio & TV), especially after they crap the bed week after week. I like a good train wreck as well as the next guy. (11/1/09) "...Fox45...audio feed...is at least 25 percent below the other stations on Comcast Cable." That's Comcast's fault. They didn't adjust their equipment correctly. Problems with audio being too loud or soft exist on many other Comcast channels. Call them and complain but don't hold your breath until it's fixed. (11/1/09) Now the Fox45 has applied for an increase in power, maybe they could fix the problem they have with their audio feed on both SD and HD. It is at least 25 percent below the other stations on Comcast Cable. It is very annoying to have to raise the volume every time you switch channels. This applies to both local and Fox programming. (11/1/09) Apparently, WTOP has forsaken its live (mp3) feed on iTunes radio (although its still listed) to go with microsoft proprietary media players on its own website. Why would it limit itself so? -Paul in Arlington (11/1/09) Good Morning DCRTV DAVE and VARTV BOB, Starting at 0800 on Monday 2 November 2009, BAYNET Radio launches world-wide; 24 hours a day, seven days a week playing Quality Rock for Southern Maryland and all points beyond. Right now they are available at Live 365: www.live365.com... Here is more information from the Baynet site: www.thebaynet.com... Dean in SOMD (11/1/09) Did WBAL's Kate Amara and Deborah Weiner switch anchor shifts?? I saw Deborah on Saturday morning 10/31 and Kate teasing the 11 10/31, and I know its sweeps months. (11/1/09) Dave, You sometimes talk about an AM radio station going over to FM. What are the chances of that actually happening, and what would need to be done technology and FCC-permission wise? Dawn (11/1/09) Dave's response: There isn't any room on the current analog FM band for that to happen, but if the FCC created a new digital-only band, all stations, including current AMers, could populate it and get better fidelity and improved coverage, in many cases..... Hard as I try, I just can't seem to be able to listen to the Wizzards games on radio with the frenetic Dave Johnson! Talk about a train wreck. This guy is going at such a pace you can hardly understand what he's saying, not to mention who happens to be leading or as Dave would say... who's on top. Got to be a money thing if this is the best the club can come up with. The guy with him is not bad, at least you can figure out what he's saying. (11/1/09) Hay Dave.... It's November 1st, isn't time for WASH and WLIF to go "All Christmas, All the time"? They may not start this early, but it sure feels like they have before. (11/1/09) Are there any sataions left in the greater DC area that do a standards-type format now that 950 dropped it to become the umpteenth Spanish station? Pretty soon, every station will either be Spanish or Christian. (11/1/09) Nice job by Fox 5 giving us a late local newscast after Game 3 of the World Series....NOT. OK, fine, don't show the newscast, but you still have 90 minutes of FOX late night programming that we are owed. Instead, we only got the last 5 minutes of "Sit Down, Shut Up" to stay on track and get those precious infomercials started at 2 a.m. Only the first time it's 2 a.m., it's really only 1 a.m. again, and at least according to the Comcast guide, the are going to show the very same episode of "Gray's Anatomy" that is on right now. Even Channel 35 in Richmond has managed to show the news (OK on tape delay, but still) after the rain delayed or extra innings games during the playoffs. Sheesh. Charles in Winchester (11/1/09) Hey "Scruffles", can you remember the original hosts of "Panorama" back when it was a 3 hour show? Well, I'm quite confident that the hosts were John Willis, Maury Povich and Pat Collins (the lady not the WRC guy). That lineup changed through the years to include among others Barbara Hower, Meryl Comer and Ross Crystal. Though I think Maury stuck it out for a longer tenure than the originals. Rusty Gibson, WEBR/Radio-Fairfax (11/1/09) Quick Youtube search for Washington Senators. www.youtube.com... Not a whole lot comes up. In fact, more Capitals, Ottawa Senators & world politics stuff comes up! Hate to say it, but score another round for Joe in Essex. lol (11/1/09) Re: WBAL promo. I think this is another part of the well known economic situation broadcasting is in now. TV and radio now have lots of employees that don't have a clue, and lack experience and judgment. For example- the other day on the Today show, a reported interviewed Aretha Franklin, and the reporter was ego driven or stupid enough to try to sing to Aretha. Aretha was speechless at this stunt. And the kicker, is no one in charge said "take that part out" when they were editing the story. So the story was hijacked by the ego of the reporter, and this was allowed to air. I think most of us would be shocked at the incompetence of operators and producers behind the shows we watch and listen to. This morning (Sunday) on WBAL the two female anchors strike me as local interns, not prime time talent from a smaller market moving up to Baltimore. (11/1/09) /\ November 1 Messages /\ \/ October 31 Messages \/ WBAL television is running some irritating promotions for a story they don't plan to air until MONDAY. One of their reporters has apparently interviewed a former lawyer in Frederick, name provided, about money he took from clients wanting relief from bill collectors. The ex-attorney was accused of never coming through with any help. In one promo, you see the guy's face, but he does not speak, and they waste what seems like minutes of my viewing time until I find out they don't plan to tell me the story until MONDAY. Think I will watch? NOT. But wait ! Next we see a 10-15 second promo, same story, but the former attorney's FACE IS BLURRED like he's a big secret !! BOGUS. I do not plan to watch. I am switching to a respectable channel like WBFF and that guy with the wig. (10/31/09) Speaking of Maury Povich reminds me of Panorama and wanted to note the passing of L.A. Times journalist Jack Nelson who was a frequent guest on the show. wonder what he thought of Mr. Povich's transformation. It appears that wjla channel 7 has dropped it's Saturday morning early news broadcast for the always reliable paid programming. blah no more pamela Brown to wake one up so to speak. Is the hammer falling on some more folks at channel 7? And for Casey Kasem fans you can still hear rebroadcasts of his American Top 40 shows from the '80's on Jack radio outta of Baltimore 102.7 fm sunday nights. Love, scruffles (10/31/09) hey Baltimore really did have a baseball team MLB channel is showing the dem "EOOS" and the Mets 1969 World Series all day today... This isn't Joe in Essex... Mark in Pasadena (10/31/09) I'm sorry. I am,for one,guilty of CAPITALIZING words to show emphasis and inflection. How else can I demonstrate my verbal similarities to Bobcat Goldthwaite? [insert twitch here] As for Concast....I feel they are making the best possible argument for DirecTV becoming my provider.Screw thier backdoor strongarm(eewwwwww bad image) tactics and to Hell with thier turtles and kindergarten cartoon commercial and especially thier Ben Stein wannabe jingles. And you should know by now I'm not leaving without a heartfelt HFS!! HFS!!! HFS!!!!!!! NOOOOWWWWWWW!!!! Donnie in Cecil where 93.7 HD2 Graffiti Radio DOES reach. (10/31/09) Radio America engineer and production/imaging guy Alan Peterson now has a few new letters after his name. The radio vet (and former Radio World columnist) recently earned Certified Broadcast Technologist (CBT) and Certified Audio Engineer (CEA) credentials, issued by the Society of Broadcast Engineers. Radio America is based in Ballston's CACI Building, and select programs can be heard locally on 570 and 1500 AM. (10/31/09) Dave's response: Congrats, Al! RE: [ " More Righty Writers Join Examiner " ]....... The Baltimore Examiner could actually have been successful if they'd just done 2 simple things..... Had a good sports section and/or made a deal with PressBox and if they called the newspaper The Baltimore News American, which of course was Baltimore's more conservative newspaper for ages and Baltimore's oldest newspaper, pre-dating The Baltimore Sun even and of course always had a better sports section than The Sun. Trying to start up a brand new newspaper in these times with a same name in each city cookie cutter approach is a disaster in my opinion. I'm surprised they do as well as they do in DC, but I guess that paper might just be taking losses for "the team" as they say. Funny thing is, The Baltimore Examiner building was just a few blocks away from the old News American building (which is now a parking lot), but it's kind of clear the Examiner company just did not understand Baltimore at all. Neither does The Baltimore Sun, of course, as they're going down the drain, but they do have an entrenched liberal base at least. The Examiner people just did it all wrong in Baltimore in my opinion. Hell, Baltimore is arguably a more conservative market than DC! Go figure. (10/31/09) First of all, Joe is lying when he says that he hates to get back into Senators bashing. He loves to troll this board to do exactly that. Second, he is lying when he says there are no youtube viideos on the senators (what that proves either way, I have no idea). The first search I did, on Frank Howard, found at least half a dozen. Third, he is disingenuously distorting what the poster was saying; their was no claim that the Senators were more popular. The post was that since they drew three times as many people as the Colts did in their final respective years, the Senators move could hardly be the nonevent Joe was claiming (but now seems to be backing off from). Finally, I love how Joe sets himself up to judge which crowds were louder. Talk about bombast and nonsense. What a blowhard. (10/31/09) Greg Toland has been seen anchoring the late shows for Comcast SportsNet. Greg was the longtime weekend sports anchor for WJLA. Greg was at Channel 7 for eight years. He'll be anchoring again for Comcast SportsNet this weekend and Monday. (10/31/09) This is not getting much attention, but the end of an era is at hand. No TV set will be cable-ready anymore right from the store in just a month. It appears that Comcast is now running a crawler over some digital QAM DTV channels warning cable customers that they will lose their basic cable service if they do not upgrade to Comcast digital cable w/ In Demand. I believe a certain # of boxes are available for free for a limited time from the mailings, but not if you've got like 4+ TVs in your house. Plus, it calls into question all of Comcast's advertising over the last 2 years that if you had Comcast cable, nothing would change after the big HDTV switch and you wouldn't need to do anything. That now appears to have been complete false advertising and should probably be investigated by the Federal Trade Commission. Ironically, I bet this epic change will cause a flood of customers to jump to VERIZON FIOS TV. Boy did the FCC screw this one up. There's no technical reason that HDTV sets purchased right off the shelf cannot receive digital channels & be cable ready. (10/31/09) RE: “On News4 today, the live newsroom shot included a good view of a refrigerator… It also appears that the Meteorologists have been evicted from the Weather Center, things must be real bad…sure just hope these are the birth pangs of a HD broadcast.” I noticed both too in the past week or so. I was surprised when I saw the newsroom at 5pm; I thought they relocated it. It definitely does not look like the (seemingly cramped) newsroom I’ve seen many times before on WRC. I also noticed that they added the same wide shot of the newsroom to their “NBC 4 Job Opportunities” promo that they air during the news…before it had a view of a much smaller-looking newsroom. The News4 Weather Center (if I’m not mistaken) is actually in the newsroom…and now they show the meteorologists next to a random window. I’d say there’s at least something up in the newsroom…maybe remodeling for HD newscasts? Either way, the weather center screams ‘temporary set’ and looks thrown together at the last minute. -DP (10/31/09) /\ October 31 Messages /\ \/ October 30 Messages \/ After reading "Count Gore's post, I think I have the name of the Channel l5 show he was trying to recall. Does the program "Chiller" ring a bell? I believe that It was staff announcer and kiddy show host Paul Hallet that did the opening where he would unforgettably say "This Is CCHHIILLERRRRR". Channel 9 (then WTOP) jumped on the bandwagon ub the early 70's with "Sir Graves Ghastlry Presents." And by the way Mr. Dyzell, I'd be honored to have you as a guest on my "Magical History Tour" cable access radio show. Hopefully we'll be back on the air next Friday from 5 to 6., Have a safe and happy Holloween. Rusty Gibson WEBR RadioFairfax (10/30/09) Paul, the DCRTV Mailbagger who was asking about a Creature Feature type show on Channel-5 was probably thinking about the long-running "Chiller". For many years in the '60s, the host and unseen voice of "Chiller" was Paul Hallett. Hallett came to Washington DC in 1950 as an announcer for WWDC-AM 1260. His talent as a cartoonist was seen in Bill Gold's 4/20/1951 and 1/5/1953 columns in the Wash Post. (He drew a comic strip for distribution to newspapers for a while.) Hallett got his feet wet in TV through sports hosting for WTTG in 1954, but he would switch to WTOP-AM/TV as their Sunday late night news anchor by November 1955. In March 1963, Hallett moved to WTTG where, in addition to general staff announcing duties, he subbed for the regular kid show hosts. When Lee Reynolds left the station in July 1966, "The Paul Hallett Show" filled the Saturday morning slot vacated by "Captain Lee and Mates" 'til the program's end in September 1967. Hallett served WTTG for over 33 years... resigning around the time of Metromedia's sale to Rupert Murdoch's "Fox". His last day at Channel-5 was July 18, 1986. Read about it at: kidshow.dcmemories.com (Be prepared to scroll down quite a bit.) (10/30/09) (RE: Does anyone remember a Creature Feature type show that ran on WTTG 5 back in possibly the late 1960's or early 70's? I vaguely remember it was on late at night and had lots of Brown Automotive commercials.) Yes, it was called the Phil Donahue show. Pretty creepy! :) But seriously, no I can't remember. There was one and only one Count Gore De Vol/Captain 20. (10/30/09) Dave's response: I'm pretty sure that Phil Donahue aired on 9 in the DC market. Might have been Maury Povich. He did have a Channel 5 show for many years. And he's pretty creepy..... RE: [ " Why the HELL do people FEEL the need TO capitalize VARIOUS words in their MAILBAG postings?? " ]........... I love this site, but you can blame Dave Hughes/DCRTV for that. Unlike most other mailbag/chat forums on various other websites that I've posted on over the last decade, this one offers no HTML or formatting controls, no italics, no bold, no categories, paragraphs, centering, nothing. That's why people often CAPITALIZE words for emphasis. Even the lowly Baltimore Sun offers some limited HTML codes to be used like bold & italics or centering & paragraphs too. I realize few people in radio & TV have computer skills or knowledge, so you'll just have to TRUST ME on that, hehe. I suspect some media outlets wouldn't be getting their asses so solidly kicked by the iPOD & the internet today if they'd been just slightly more computer & internet savvy from the beginning. (10/30/09) (snip) Steelers-Packers FOX telecast (end snip) I stand corrected. It was indeed the Steelers-Vikings game. I appreciate you pointing out my mistake. Al McGilvray (10/30/09) regarding the breast cancer story: would it have killed the producers to get a woman who was at least a B cup? seriously. when you go for a ratings stunt like this, shoot for the moon. have someone built like morganna the kissing bandit do jumping jacks or something. even barry hussein's "chiseled" pecs are bigger than the model's. (10/30/09) Does anyone remember a Creature Feature type show that ran on WTTG 5 back in possibly the late 1960's or early 70's? I vaguely remember it was on late at night and had lots of Brown Automotive commercials. Paul (10/30/09) It's the Chris "works much much much cheaper than Chris Core and unlike Chris Core was still available for a gig when Citadel called him back as an absolute last resort on their part" Plante welcome back party!!! (10/30/09) Why the HELL do people FEEL the need TO capitalize VARIOUS words in their MAILBAG postings?? It's GOD damn annoying! -ThatThingIsMIGHTIER (Tim Brant, Washington Times, WWOR) (10/30/09) Catch Marc Steiner on television this Sunday morning! He'll join Richard Sher on Square Off at 9:30am on ABC channel 2. (10/30/09) Using "Senators logic" on fan support (# of total attendance for a season), that would make The Washington Nationals & The Baltimore Orioles & possibly The Washington Wizards & Capitals all more popular than The Washington Redskins or Baltimore Ravens or pretty damn close at least! Seriously, will someone put a fork in this argument? It's well done! LMFAO (10/30/09) Jeeeeeeezus -- ANOTHER Senators spiel from Joe in Essex? Is there no way to end this shit?!?!?!? (10/30/09) What pisses me off more than anything about the FCC's STA policy is that they are giving out FM translator licenses to companies and mainly AM stations that don't even have their current stations operating as licensed or are under STA or DARK for a DECADE! That's like the bank saying, well, yes, we foreclosed on your previous home, would you like another or how about several more? All for a modest fee. SURE, just make the check out to the FCC. DONE. And hey, if you screw up that station too or choose not to even build it, just apply for an STA. DONE. Modest fee. Sure, we'll give you another extension on actually building that radio station you agreed to build. DONE. Modest fee. Oh, wait, it's been years now, and you've not built the station. The FCC recommends you now sell that station. DONE. Modest fee. Oh, and make sure the new owner who isn't going to build it ALSO makes that check out to the FCC. DONE. Modest fee. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Thank You. Signed, Your FCC. PS: Does anyone get my point now? A lot of these STA AM stations are barely transmitting or dark, and a lot of these FM translator apps for same stations are for basically delinquent frequency and FCC app squatters who have no intentions of ever getting the AM stations up to spec or even building out their FM translator apps. WXXY Broadcasting is just one of many poster children for this practice. How someone with lots of technical knowledge and intelligence like Dave Loudin can defend this routine government practice just boggles my mind. But my experience in working for government is that they all do stick up for their own. They call it CLUB FED for a reason! (10/30/09) Poor Al McGilvray "I watched the Steelers-Packers FOX telecast on Comcast in Winchester Sunday on my TV set in the den." Al must be in some sort of time warp. Steelers played the Vikings. They last played the Packers in 2007, and play them again this year on Dec 20. Maybe one of those "Twilight Zone" sets??? Or maybe he's still a bit discombobulated over the Ch 7 news last night. (10/30/09) First, whomever the AM STA hater is - step away from the car exhaust pipe and the kool aid and chill. When a health care bill is 1900 pages what do you expect out of broadcast rules that go back decades. Nothing out of Gov't will ever be simple or concise. Especially since Charlie Rangel wants the big G in everything. Dave Loudin - thanks for reading through the paperwork and generally providing answers here. Second, I know this will fall on deaf ears here in the typically liberal mailbag..but check out the editorial in RADIO WORLD - www.radioworld.com. I had to let it roll around in my head a bit - but there are some interesting points in his take on the industry. There is also a cool article about the station in RI (WOON) moving into an old house. Reminds me of the some of the places I have worked! (10/30/09) Dave--what is up with the atmosphere? First FOX screwed up the Series with garbled voices, blackouts and silence. Now, WTOP keeps dropping out. What gives? Jim in Hume (10/30/09) Dave's response: Are you listening via 107.7? Billy Zero out as PD at WTMD, according to triplearadio.com... (10/30/09) When is Imus going to come back to radio in the Washington DC area? Other than "The Junkies" there is nothing left to listen to. Ron Kinzer (10/30/09) RE: [ " three times more people saw the senators play than did the colts in their respective final years. " ]....... I hate getting back into this again, but that statement is just so dumb & meaningless and it's been stated not once but TWICE now so it needs to be called out again. Just because there are more MLB games does not make MLB more popular than the NFL. To suggest that The Senators were even remotely more popular than The Colts or The Browns in the respective cities is way beyond crazy. Less than 10,000 people generally showed up for each Senators game, even in a brand new stadium. www.baseball-almanac.com... Two to four times that number showed up for each Colts game towards the end in a complete dump of a stadium with an owner shouting curse words at fans & reporters who helicoptered into various cities with a For Sale sign on him & the team. The other reason the comparison is crazy is because you're talking about a lot of the same fans at many of the games, so no, you can't make the argument that more distinct people went to Senators games than Browns or Colts games and to even suggest the Senators had bigger overall fan support, well, I'm not even gonna get into this again other than to say the only revisionist history being practiced here is by people who mostly never even went to a Senators game. At least I actually went to a Colts game. And those 35,000 Colts fans probably made more noise than Griffith or RFK Stadium ever heard in all the years of baseball in DC. They didn't nickname old Memorial Stadium "The World's Largest Outdoor Insane Asylum" for nothing. Nor is The Browns' Dawg Pound a figment of my imagination. Ok, I'll admit the Senators move was NOT a complete non-event, but comparatively, sorry, it wasn't much of an event. By the way, I did a Youtube search for Baltimore Colts, Cleveland Browns, & Washington Senators, and guess which team I could find almost nothing for? Please Senators fans, let it go, this is just not a winnable argument. But, I still urge everyone to watch Barry Levinson's "The Band That Wouldn't Die." It's on Christmas Night and 1 other time on ESPN Classic. And that documentary is actual, not revisionist, as well as critically acclaimed. -- Joe in Essex (10/30/09) Not sure if there is a local angle to this... www.globegazette.com. The Weather Channel plans to show movies for the first time in its 27-year history and it’s easy to guess which one is leading off. “The Perfect Storm,” of course. Other movies include the documentary “March of the Penguins,” the thriller “Deep Blue Sea” and “Misery,” for which Kathy Bates won an Academy Award. The weather angle is pretty clear in “The Perfect Storm,” but “Misery“? Darby noted the nightmare endured by James Caan’s character begins with a blinding snowstorm. (10/30/09) Dave's response: That sucks! More on that in Lisa de Moraes' wapo.com column today. You can always get up-to-the-minute weather via Weatherscan Local (a product of The Weather Channel) on cable and Doug Hill's Weather Now via a subchannel on 7's signal and on cable..... (snip) The only time I watch FOX is when they have sports I want to see (end snip) I watched the Steelers-Packers FOX telecast on Comcast in Winchester Sunday on my TV set in the den. Quite a few times, you would be watching the game, and suddenly you were watching (and hearing) the exact same thing that was on several seconds before - and no, it was not an instant replay. The commercial breaks were pretty sloppy, too. Last night (Thursday) I was watching Game Two of the World Series, again on Comcast in Winchester, but this time on the upstairs TV set. This time, the picture pixilated and froze every time FOX would put up another graphic. Al McGilvray (10/30/09) Joe's buddy seems as dense as he is. No one is arguing that the senator's attendance was great. But the fact is that the colts were at the bottom of the nfl barrel attendance-wise at the time of their move (a lot of this colts nostalgia is revisionist history) and three times more people saw the senators play than did the colts in their respective final years. That is not to say that the baseball team was more popular, as joe's buddy disingenuously argued, but rather to disprove joe's stupid claim that the senators move was a nonevent. (10/30/09) Montel Williams turned his 3 hour Air America show over to Dr. Demento today to play Halloweeen music. Enjoyed it. Thanks guys Bob Fairfax (10/30/09) Once again Dave Loudin defends the FCC for egregious behavior..... It doesn't appear that WAMS 1600 has had proper transmitting facilities now for almost 10 years! If the FCC hasn't acted on their application from 2004 by now, either the FCC isn't doing its job or it means the application was faulty, most likely the later. This is another company that keeps on warehousing licenses and then selling them when they can't get an STA renewal that has no intentions of building out the facilities they've been licensed. Any fool can see that just going through the dozen STA apps. What ticks me off even more is that this company keeps applying for new FM translators, then putting them immediately under STA or DARK too. Yes, their FM translators are on STA or are DARK or already for SALE! When the STA runs out, they just sell to somebody else and the STA Merry-Go-Round starts up all over again with new kiddies on board. This station has had 4 different owners during this time to keep the STA apps going. I'd make a Vegas bet that they put WAMS 1600 up for sale as soon as the last STA runs out. Who wants to take the bet? The same thing by the way is going on up in Newark, Delaware with the AM 1260. They don't even have a single tower still standing. I think their transmitting facility has been a housing development for 5-10 years! I'm sorry Dave Loudin, but TEN YEARS is enough time to get your act together in my humble opinion. Apparently, you disagree. I'll tell you what, if you don't work for the FCC, you should. (10/30/09) Tom I know how you feel. Drive-Ins were once THE 'local media outlets' and about the only way to catch anything 'new and happening'. News clips,car shows,social functions...they all happened at the drive-in.As far as I know I was concieved at The Big M in Churchville lol my parents practically lived there and I spent many nights trying to keep my eyes open and staring at the big screen. I remember the hook-on speakers before AM was used for audio.The Big M is now a golf cart dealership....no movies,no car shows,no snack shack....its depressing to drive past it. That I know of I never went to Bengies but I worked around Carroll Island and Bowleys Quarters alot and was always glad to see they were still in business. Too many good things from the old days are dying while the slag seems to stick around forever. Stay ginchy man. Donnie from Harford,now in Cecil. (10/30/09) Hey thanks for the heads-up on Robb Spewak's show this afternoon. Appointment listening for sure. Robb will no doubt dig up some fantastic old music gems for the halloween special! I miss those guys. . . (10/30/09) Ok, would the person who keeps griping about STA's for 1600 in Dover please actually read them? That station is actually still transmitting from the same site it always has. The problem is, part of the land was sold, and two of the three towers had to go. The station is still broadcasting with 1200 watts day/ 250 watts at night under STA, which is enough to serve Dover. The station filed an application for a new directional antenna system in order to return to 5000 watts day in 2004. Until the FCC can act on that app, the station must continue to operate under STA. No big deal. Regards, Dave Loudin (10/30/09) Count on ABC7 to keep us abreast of things. Regards Biff (10/30/09) Dave's response: You know, men should do monthly testicular cancer exams. Why doesn't 7 show that live and nude! Seriously. If WJLA is going do show a nude female breast exam, why not show a nude guy doing a "ball" check??? From David Zurawik at baltimoresun.com: "You have read words and watched video of disagreements between me and Fox News host Bill O'Reilly here in the past. Here is video from Wednesday of a conversation we had about on his show about the way some members of the press, including me and some Fox competitors, have responded to the White House war on his news channel..." (10/30/09) The only time I watch FOX is when they have sports I want to see, so I don't know--is their transmission ALWAYS fucked up? I've watched three NFL games and two World Series games on FOX in the last couple of weeks, and every one has been plagued by audio/video problems. Tonight's World Series game two had crapped out sound for more than an hour, including a good 15 minutes with no audio at all. You'd think both MLB and the NFL would like their games to be shown decently. (10/30/09) Dave's response: I think Obama's FCC should yank Rupert Murdoch's licenses for his Fox TV stations due to chronic technical screw-ups..... I had to chime in about Bengies, after all, I grew up in the neighborhood before my move down here in the "sticks" of SW Va. They were using a carrier current transmitter at 830, it barely made it past the grounds of Bengies. Now the FM could be heard about a 1/2 or so. Back wen I was a kid, there were no transmitters. I remember getting the older kids that had cars to take my walkie talkie with a rubber band around the transmit key to get the audio out to me on the water in my boat near Edwards Marina. The trees pretty much block most viewing unless you have the time to find just the right "spot". Bengies was like walking back in time, it had it's share of Baltimore radio history over the years too, not to mention actual movies filmed there. The largest screen on the east coast, still going strong. Tom Conroy (10/30/09) Holy cow, boobies on the local pm news?! Aw man, it's times like this when I REALLY miss Don Geronimo's show ... (10/30/09) Sinclair's FOX45 applies to increase its DTV power by 105kw fjallfoss.fcc.gov (10/30/09) New Channel 20 is approved by the FCC, WQAW-LP 20, but it will mostly target Azteca America programming to the Baltimore market. fjallfoss.fcc.gov... Also, the STA king of Delaware, WXXY Broadcasting, has filed yet another STA! fjallfoss.fcc.gov... I think, of the 4 stations this company owns, just ONE in New Jersey has functioning transmitting facilities. The 2 in Delaware are under STA, including AM 1600 in Dover, so is the FM in Maryland, yet the FCC keeps on giving out those paper licenses for dark stations. To say that the FCC is a broken government entity at this point would be an understatement. Unbelievable. (10/30/09) Well.......7 showed nudity and the last I checked civilization was still in 1 piece. IF any of you clowns are going to write Hannity, Beck, Oberman or O'Reilly and moan and groan over our delining ''morals'', take a look at Spike TV, Sci Fi channel or AMC. Yesterday during the day, around 2, you could find people being graphically being stabbed, having their heads chopped or bitten off. So before you go crying over any nudity, maybe your attention should be paid to graphic depictions of violence during the day when ANYONE can see it. Paul (10/30/09) /\ October 30 Messages /\ \/ October 29 Messages \/ re: "It seems as if a couple vocal Senators fans are using the shout louder, insult better, and you'll be believed approach to proving their point,"....yup, it's their gosh darn inferiority complex rearing it's ugly head yet again!!! LMFAO (10/29/09) Thanks for sharing the "Count Gore" piece! A true fossil like me enjoys such nostalgia. Rusty Gibson, WEBR/RadioFairfax (10/29/09) Dear Unsigned Corporate Suit, The answer to your question about a possible end of over the air broadcasting (e.g. the use of cable and satellite to deliver the program) can be found in the contracts advertisers sign so their products will be advertised. If there is language that says to the effect that "you the undersigned" have entered into an agreement with WRC-TV Channel 4 to run the aforementioned spots at such and such a time than they may be in for a few problems. Usually a station's broadcast day is the actual time it is broadcasting over the airwaves. Cable, satellite delivery and even translators are just the icing on the cake. IF you owned an FM and it's main signal went off the air but the translator stayed on I'm sure the FCC wouldn't let you get away with that since the translator isn't the main signal. I'm sure the same goes for cable et all. If there is no language in the contracts which permit a TV station whose main signal has shot craps to use it's cable provider as the MAIN provider than WRC-TV may find itself in court. Just my own opinion. Anyone else out there want to comment? Alvin G. Lawton (10/29/09) When I was a kid, I used to drive to the Carroll Island Shopping Center and watch the Bengies Drive-In movies for free with high school buddies, but back then they didn't transmit the audio on AM or FM so we just went for horror flicks since you didn't need to hear what was going on! LOL I wonder if that's possible today. Both the AM & FM signals would easily be receivable from that parking lot and the screen used to be easily viewable. But I've not been there in quite awhile. I bet they've put up barriers and now you can only hear the movie and NOT see it! :-) (10/29/09) Sacramento- Jury Awards $16.57M to Radio Contest Survivors. Philly-based Entercom to appeal. www.sacbee.com (10/29/09) In the Washington area, after sunset I get a station in North Carolina at 830 KHz much more often than WCCO Minneapolis, and I wish I could get WCCO more often, if just to hear the negative temperatures, and what date they expect the lakes to freeze enough for ice skating. I guess once WNYC in New York moved to 820 it was open season on 830. Also, is it true that WJLA is going to feature a PAP smear during the February Sweeps? -- Carl in Olney (10/29/09) Could the #1 rating of "Meet the Press" when WRC's channel 48 transmitter was off the air be the beginning of the eventual end of over-the-air TV in those parts of the U.S. with significant penetration of Cable and satellite carriage. Other thoughts on this? -Unsigned Corporate Suit (10/29/09) www.newyorker.com - In 2008, half the people who watched the Fox News Channel were over sixty-three, which is the oldest demographic in the cable-news business, and, according to a poll, the majority of the ones who watched the most strident programs, such as Sean Hannity’s and Bill O’Reilly’s shows, were men. All that chesty fulminating apparently functions as political Cialis. Fox News shows should probably carry a warning: Contact your doctor if you have rage lasting more than four hours... (10/29/09) Enough with the tuning into Bengies Drive-In in Northern Virginia. If Bengies is following the rules, you shouldn't be able to hear their flea-power transmitter at 100 feet outside their Baltimore location. When you tune 830 AM at night in this area you will probably hear WCCO in Minneapolis. (10/29/09) Four months after the capacity crowd turned out for the world premiere, the AFI Silver Theatre (www.afi.com) presents an encore screening of EVERY OTHER DAY IS HALLOWEEN - the documentary on the career of Dick Dyszel (Count Gore De Vol, Captain 20 and Bozo The Clown). Since that screening the doc has screened in Cleveland, Baltimore, Florida and at San Diego's Comic Con. See it once more next Monday night - tickets are only $5.00! (10/29/09) There are a non-trivial number of AM stations that broadcast with more transmitter power at night than during the day. Under the rules these days, new Class B nighttime proposals on frequencies with only Class B stations on them need to protect the groundwave service of adjacent-channel Class A stations, not add detectable interference to other co- and adjacent-channel Class B station groundwave service areas, cover a substantial part of the community of license (by area or population), and be at least 250 watts. New proposals on frequencies with Class A stations must also protect the skywave service areas of those co-channel Class A's. The proposed facilities need not have anything in common with the daytime facility (location, power, whatever). Regards, Dave Loudin (10/29/09) It's not surprising that WUSA 9 is in essence attempting to rile up a Redskins boycott. They don't really have anything to lose since they carry few if any Redskins games most seasons. So there's no real potential advertising loss to them, and possibly more gain if lots of Skins fans jump on the Anti-Snyder bandwagon and maybe get interested in their last place news. Can you imagine what the late Glenn Brenner would be saying if he were around regarding the $10 training camp fiasco, the ticket broker deal, the Joe Gibbs fiasco, the parking scam, the paper bag ban, and now the media ban to interview tailgaters (among other things)? I honestly think someone should sit Daniel Snyder down and force him to watch "The Band That Wouldn't Die". Even Bob Irsay, who shouted obscenities at reporters on live local TV never pulled any of these stunts! By the way, for the record, it's not really accurate to say Redskins TV ratings are up just because of a Monday Night Football appearance. You could probably make that claim for ANY NFL team who appears on MNF or SNF. Overall, Skins TV ratings are down this season. Finally, lets end the sports arguments with something funny, the late Glenn Brenner at his best... For the Baltimore fans, I tried to find a WBAL 11 clip of the late Chris Thomas, but sadly none are available. Ironic that the area's 2 funniest sportscasters both died of brain tumors. (10/29/09) Re: "THIS JUST IN FROM CNN!!!!..." That was an awful long way to go for a lame joke. Still, it was better than the latest update on the Senators leaving town 38 years ago. (10/29/09) Rob Heckman isn't working anywhere. He still lives in Baltimore and is on Facebook. (10/29/09) 830 AM Experiment, but in a different location!!!! It may be weak but will i be able to hear the Bengies Drive-in theater Movie Audio from GMUniversity Braddock road Campus??? At all?? (10/29/09) Allbritton Communications to launch new news website, to replace wjla.com and news8.net in the spring www.wjla.com (10/29/09) "THIS JUST IN FROM CNN!!!!!" ---You know what's missing from the mailbag? Ability to play sounds...like crickets chirping for this cat turd of a joke....You lose, you get nothing...Good day, sir! --ThatThingIsMightier.....Larry King, WEBR, and DX'ing (There...made my post mailbag criteria compliant) (10/29/09) I did some fact checking, and whether you like Joe in Essex or not or his claims about The Baltimore Colts, he's at least right on the fan support. The Senators were not supported in DC ever. At least The Colts were for many years. The notion that because there are more baseball games than football games = better fan support is, well, plainly stupid. That would make every single MLB team more popular than every single NFL team. Obviously that is not true. By the way, I went to MLB.com and NFL.com too. You may disagree with his opinion about the numbers, but his numbers are correct. It seems as if a couple vocal Senators fans are using the shout louder, insult better, and you'll be believed approach to proving their point, basically the Rush Limbaugh method of persuasion. Sorry, not working. (10/29/09) The station covering WTRI is almost certainly WWKB. Keep in mind that skywave propagation does not switch on/off instantly at sunset/sunrise. There's an approximately two-hour period after sunrise where skywave starts to fade out and a similar period before sunset where skywave starts to fade in that are called critical hours. Some stations have to change facilities during these hours in order to avoid interfering with a Class A station's groundwave service (WTRI used to have a critical hours operation.) Local examples are: WAVA (12kW/9.8kW), WUST (20kW/3kW), WACA (5KW/1kW), and WKIK (1kW/250w). That reminds me, the reason the new WAVA operation was a lot stronger in adjacent frequencies up by Rockville or Gaithersburg is not only because of more transmitter power, but also because the transmitter is now in Bethesda. Regards, Dave Loudin (10/29/09) THIS JUST IN FROM CNN!!!!! Justice in Washington DC - A seven-year old boy was at the center of an Arlington County courtroom drama yesterday when he challenged a court ruling over who should have custody of him. The boy has a history of being beaten by his parents and the judge initially awarded custody to his aunt, in keeping with child custody law and regulation requiring that family unity be maintained to the highest degree possible.. The boy surprised the court when he proclaimed that his aunt beat him more than his parents and he adamantly refused to live with her. When the judge then suggested that he live with his grandparents, the boy cried and said that they also beat him. After considering the remainder of the immediate family and learning that domestic violence was apparently a way of life among them, the judge took the unprecedented step of allowing the boy to propose who should have custody of him. CONCLUSION: After two recesses to check legal references and confer with the child welfare officials, the judge granted temporary custody to the Washington Redskins Football Team, whom the boy firmly believes are not capable of beating anyone. (10/29/09) Here's the link to Brett Haber's commentary on the Redskins ownership which aired on last night's 9 News Now broadcasts. www.wusa9.com (10/29/09) Someone ought to tell Joe in Essex that repeating the same nonsense continuously just makes him look ridiculous. That's his game. He comes up with some lamebrained unsupportable statements and beats them to death until everyone is fed up. He never addresses cogent points (some of which have included citations to sources) that are brought up in response to his blather (mostly because he can't). His latest nonsense, that the Senators move in 1971 was just about poor attendance, was so simplistic as to be laughable and proves again that he is clueless. What his latest rant boils down to is that the Colts move was a bigger deal than the Senators move (notwithstanding much greater total numbers of people that saw the Senators) because a bunch of drunken, old farts like to get together and hoist a few to Johnny U. Real persuasive, Joe. (10/29/09) I don't think Mike in Fairfax is being fair to Pollin and Czaban when he suggests that they are primarily criticizing Cerrato. What that implies is that they are withholding criticism of Snyder because he owns the station. I really think they have been as equally hard on Snyder. Czaban, in particular, has ripped Snyder's management of the team for years, not to mention the FedEx Field fan experience and Snyder's other foibles. Maybe they don't engage in the name calling of Snyder that WJFK does (but that is pretty juvenile any way). On the substance, however, I believe that they have been equally, if not more, harsh in their denunciations. (10/29/09) I have a theory that WJFK's rise in ratings will be short lived. A bad Redskins team = good ratings for 106.7 as a democrat in office = higher ratings for Rush Limbaugh. Once WJFK reaches March and April what are they going to talk about? None of their hosts really know sports as a whole. (10/29/09) (DH's response) Bill Lord is simply shilling for news ratings from a bunch of ogling males with their pants down by the ankles and he's using the Post's Paul Farhi as his shameless hack. (end) When you phrase it like that, the only thing missing is the Greaseman providing the voiceover {poot! poot! poot!}. (10/29/09) Fox 5 - They want to lose a lot more people than Val Johnson. They want to cut the engineers staff from 82 down to 40 and bring automation into every part of the building....bye bye to the old way of people putting news on the air.....all machines now. They have been without an engineers contract for over a year now. (10/29/09) If I may, I think this whole channel 7 showing an exposed breast for breast cancer awareness is a non-story. It's just a breast and theres is nothing at all sexy about a breast exam. (10/29/09) Dave's response: I'm sure there are guys who dress up as a doctor to give their girlfriend/wife a breast exam for sexual kicks..... The World Series won't even be center stage on WTEM/980 tonight for the game itself, never mind in the afternoon. The baseball will be bumped to WTNT/570 in favor of the Virginia Tech Hokies. Everett W. (10/29/09) Mr. McGilvray, rest assured, there will be no jokes made here. I just hope your report brief and to the point. As you say, it's a serious topic--there's no need to milk it. (10/29/09) "... I'm glad someone mentioned the withering criticism that Pollin and Czaban have been leveling at Danny and Cerrato. [Tuesday's] show was unrelenting and topped anything I've heard on WJFK. So the WJFK mantra that the sportstalkers on WTEM are in Danny's pocket is starting to ring very hollow." If you listened carefully, the main punching bag on that show was Vinny Cerrato who'll in all likelihood be out of the picture by next season and whose "Jim Zorn's our coach" rant on his own program got ridiculed by both hosts last week. Snyder knows full well that were he to give Czaban a pink slip, he'd only resurface on 106.7 The Fan soon afterward and start railing against the Redskins owner there - I can see the rival sports talker putting him on with LaVar and Dukes in afternoon drive and carrying his syndicated morning show as well. On a related note, it's a sad commentary on ESPN 980's priorities that World Series preview discussion on Sports Reporters yesterday was confined to a five minute segment starting around 6:01 PM - if there's a time of year when baseball deserves to be on center stage, it's right now. ESPN's Mike & Mike show (which tends to be NFL oriented) is rightly devoting the lion's share of its four hour timeslot to the fall classic and it only serves to underscore how divorced from reality WTEM's local programming is. I think it's a disgrace that not a single show on that station has seen fit to go to the phones regarding the Series despite the fact that both teams involved represent nearby cities and have many fans in the DC area. They can use the "too preoccupied with the Skins" excuse all they want, but I tuned in Arrington's program on 106.7 just hours before Monday night's game with the Eagles and they were taking the temperature of listeners regarding the Yanks/Phils matchup - so at least one sports radio station in town seems to have a clue. Mike, Fairfax (10/29/09) Just FYI Al McGilvray - If you tell people NOT to make breast jokes, you have now given them a subtle suggestion to MAKE BREAST JOKES. I wasn't thinking about making a joke until you said what you said. Mm. (10/29/09) Dave's response: There is no need to show a woman's naked breasts on air to provide breast cancer info. 7's news honcho Bill Lord is simply shilling for news ratings from a bunch of oogling males with their pants down by the ankles and he's using the Post's Paul Farhi as his shameless hack. I hope there's a job waiting in 7's PR department when Farhi gets his well-deserved canning from the Post. If Lord is serious about this, how about showing a pants-less man getting his prostate examined on the air. Maybe Lord could be the model. Sheesh..... NYSD: The Novelist, The Hostess and The Philanthropy Diva... www.nysocialdiary.com... Follow "Swimming in Quicksand" at www.caroljoynt.com (10/29/09) Please, folks - no jokes about female breasts on channel 7. Breast cancer is too serious a subject. Thanks. Al McGilvray (10/29/09) That probably was WWKB covering WTRI's signal. I know that back when WYRE was worth listening to, WGY would start walking all over it around 2:30 at this time of year. Not much you can do about it except go to internet radio. WTND is interesting; I'm glad to see somebody is willing to be a bit different. (And I never heard of an AM station that broadcasts with _more_ power at night: 5kW vs. 1 kW daytime.) Too bad nobody around here cares to try something different. As the slightly agitated person below pointed out, there are plenty of unused formats that would work, if anybody cared to try them. But somehow it's OK to just be boring and sound like 15 other stations on the dial... I'm down to just 3 presets I actually use on my car radio--2 FM (both non-comm) and 1 AM that only works at night. ~~CA in BC (10/29/09) Unfortunately, it'll be Doug Hill getting the breast exam. Paul (10/29/09) Congratulations to Barry Lee, who celebrates his 25th anniversary with WINC-FM this morning. A genuine "good" guy in the biz - -right up there with Johnny Holliday. I've had the good fortune to work with both gentlemen. Barry has indicated that WINC legend Joe Pasquale would join him on his silver anniversary show this morning. Best wishes to all of the afore-mentioned gentlemen. (10/29/09) Good job Joe in Essex! Easy win. Don't mind the haters and their silly inferiority complex. (10/29/09) Every station in this market caters to its listeners, just not aging hipsters like you. You don't put Fois Gras on the menu at McDonalds. No one will order it. Radio stations have to cater to their listeners to get them, and they want to attract as many as possible. Just because you don't like the stations doesn't mean they "suck". I have an idea that many more people would think a station your programmed would "suck", and it would have NO listeners and consequently no MONEY. Quit bitchin' about local radio and tune it out. You're never gonna find your ideal station unless you tune below 90.0 and listen to a crappy, non-profit small station with the wattage of a toaster or some streaming station that you and your other parent's basement dwellers can listen to. Wow, if my last reasoned response got your pissy, angry reaction, I can't wait to see what this does. (10/29/09) Where is Rob Heckman working these days ? (10/29/09) I was trying to tune in WTRI early this afternoon and was getting Air-America and was wondering if I was really getting WWKB out of Buffalo or had WTRI changed formats. I've noticed WTRI having transmitter issues lately and that's too bad. If that's the case, I hope all is fixed soon! If the station has changed formats again, too bad. Should the country format continue, I'd like to see the station move to 700 kHz. On a different topic and for what it's worth, a Chicago station (WNTD 950kHz) signed on with a nighttime format consisting mostly of a blend of traditional-style jazz, big band as well as a little 'mellow alternative'. I've listened tonight for some time and it's quite interstineg. Website is: www.avenue950.com. I think it could work if tried here. Wishful thinking here, but if 1260 were to be able to 'untighten' their highly directional signals, maybe this is a format they could try. Yeah I know 1500 would be ideal, but we all know it ain't happenin'. (10/29/09) For those who hate these mailbag battles, I suggest that Dave Hughes categorize the mailbag into local "Sports Radio/TV", "News Radio/TV", & "Political Radio/TV", etc. or even Washington & Baltimore categories like many other popular websites categorize their forums. I don't know what the logistics are to do that, obviously it would involve some money, but it seems like a good future plan to me Dave. For the record, Joe in Essex is not the only person who promoted the ESPN documentary by Hollywood director Barry Levinson, "The Band That Wouldn't Die" on DCRTV nor the only person who commented on the silly Senators comparison. Obviously, people must think I'm everywhere all the time 24/7. All of the responses, however, have not disputed any of the Senators attendance numbers or lack of fan support. The Colts obviously did not sell out a lot of their games the last 10 years in Baltimore and fan support waned toward the end, but if you look up the numbers, neither did many NFL teams around the league during that period, but they still drew significant numbers of fans and made money and had a following. The Senators didn't for a variety of reasons & owners. There used to be lots of NFL blackouts back then. In fact, the Redskins didn't sell out every game at RFK during the last 10 years the Colts were in Baltimore either, at least not according to NFL.com but the Colts attendance was far worse I'll admit. And it was easy to find lots of games from that 10 year period where even the Pats and Bills drew 20-30,000, and as recently as 1996, the Bucs & Oilers had their entire seasons TV blacked out. However, 1498 people showing up at the last game at Griffith and a 30 year history of mostly last or near last place attendance or less than 10,000 a game is really a whole other kind of deal and makes this Browns, Raiders, Colts to Senators comparison just plain silly. Nobody talks about the Senators on Washington sports radio, not ESPN 980 or 106.7 THE FAN. The old Colts constantly get talked about on Baltimore sports radio and many old Colts and Orioles are on Baltimore sports radio stations. This "transient market" excuse is beyond lame. It's like saying the dog ate my homework. But I'll admit, both Senators teams had pretty bad owners and organizations, but neither of them were ever falling down drunk in a public live press conference on local TV/WJZ 13 and swearing curse words at reporters. And, c'mon, anyone who compares the Cleveland Browns fan support to the Senators is basically a buffoon! Finally, I noticed something odd about NFL.com. They don't keep NFL attendance numbers before 1970. I find that quite odd and it makes it difficult to prove the Baltimore Colts NFL record of consecutive NFL sellouts from the late 50's towards 1970. At any rate, even Bob Irsay never stated Colts attendance was his reason for moving. He blamed it on the eminent domain law the state legislature passed to seize the team and on the crappy stadium, which was in far worse shape than RFK when the Senators played there or even compared to RFK now. Art Modell never blamed the Browns move on fan support either & they played in the worst stadium in the NFL at the time with no hope of a new stadium. Al Davis blamed the stadium deal and thought he could make a fortune in LA but was wrong, and he didn't blame fan support either. However, both Senators owners blamed their moves on attendance and lack of fan support. Maybe you could argue Calvin Griffith would have settled for a new stadium where he got most of the profits, but Bob Short already had a brand new stadium and moved strictly from lack of fan interest and him losing money. There's your difference. Of course there are some diehard Senators fans out there (I think every single one has posted here on DCRTV this week!), but it's really difficult to argue against those attendance or money numbers. End of story for me on this topic. -- Joe in Essex PS: PPMs and WBAL....... I argued in the mailbag that WCBM 680 should go mostly ALL NEWS like at least 2 YEARS AGO and was laughed at! They had a perfect storm opportunity when they got Rush Limbaugh and blew it! They could have spent a few bucks and beat WBAL on both fronts, news and talk. And I know lots of people here like Jeff Beauchamp, but let's face it, every decision he made at WBAL towards the end was terrible and cost him his job. The first decision post-Beauchamp was an immediate success. Go figure. (10/29/09) /\ October 29 Messages /\ \/ October 28 Messages \/ Ah, come on DCRTV Dave I was serious about Doug Hill! Don't he and Count Gore share recipes? Will Ken Beatrice be coming back to WMAL? How about Tom Gauger mid-days? I've been wondering about Oprah. Is she not reported to be worth a $billion or so. Couldn't she hire someone to specifically take the food away when Oprah loses her willpower? I mean she really is hitting her all time high again. Does she still do health segments on her show? And when will her new line of super reinforced toilet seats be coming out? Are not the Spork Chunkies and Czaban roughly the same age. Why do the Spork Chunkies sound so mornic and jr. HIGH? 3 P.M. just ain't the same no more without the Don and Mike show. And what happened to Chad Dukes over the top laugh? Hey Michael Rudd channel 7 cameraman I copyrighted "Dreadskins" (10/28/09) I am SICK to fucking DEATH of reading how Radio HAS to suck! A radio fanbase is made up of LISTENERS who hear the commercials and if nobody HEARS the commercials THE SPONSORS LOSE OUT!!! What kind of fucking math do YOU use? DC Theoretical Algebra??? Radio is supposed to FILL A NEED and NOT ONE STATION is catering to the LISTENERS around here. You have to keep hitting presets to escape the bland disgustingly unimaginative drivel that swills out over the airwaves. Its a self fulfilling prophecy: The MANAGEMENT declares a format dead and the proof that it is so is the fact the THEY KILLED IT!!! You motherfucking numberwhores couldn't tell the difference between a 4 year old's birthday party and a circle jerk at a strip club. What the hell do YOU know about music except that YOU can't DANCE or MOSH to it because you have the Corporation Stick up your ass!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Donnie in MP3 land where your SUCKASS commercials DONT GET AIRED!!!!!!!! (10/28/09) The very important ratings period starts tomorrow and Channel 7 is gearing up for BOOB-LA-PALOOZA. "Never seen in Washington TV history. An ABC-7 News groundbreaking 2-day, 2-night event that could possible save your life. Starting Thursday at 5PM only on ABC-7 news. Viewer discretion advised." (10/28/09) There are no videos of Keith Olbermann in the mailbag because the truth isn't funny. Al McGilvray (10/28/09) I see others have the "Rush Limbaugh is a racist" discussion well in hand, so I will comment on matters of more local concern. Although I seem to mostly agree politically with WMAL's Chris Plante, as a radio show it's like sticking a dead fish in your ear. Simply not interesting. So now I listen to the grating but preferable voice of Laura Ingraham until I get to work and can stream Dennis Miller. People campaigned to get this show back? What the hell, man? as Stewie would say. Oh, and speaking of rotting foetus, how about the Washington Post redesign? It sucks this week just as much as it did last week. I believe the person ultimately responsible is Katharine Weymouth, Girl Publisher. And am I the only one who thinks the commercial sounds like "Charlestown! Racists and sluts!" ? In other news, Ted Kennedy, still dead. --- ThePenIsMightier (10/28/09) Will you former college jocks who did a semester on the campus alternative station just give it up! The New Riders Purple Sage, Joan Baez, and the Smithereens? Yeah, try and make that a viable commercial format. Commercial radio exists to make money. Consequently, they have to play music people actually listen to! Just give up bitchin' about commercial stations and accept them for what they are. You're never gonna have a station that exists in the top 10 playing music by the Afghan Wigs and The Reverend Horton Heat. Now, back to the 80's and early 90's with you!!! (10/28/09) [Regarding the previous post., "When is NBC4 going to broadcast their news in HD? - Dave's response: And "Meet The Press." It's an embarrassment....."] Doesn't NBC have some HD equipment at the Nebraska Avenue location?? And why does channel 7, who does have HD equipment, send out "inside Washington" in SD? Of course, Mark Shields is scary enough in SD so maybe that's the answer. (10/28/09) Last night wasn't the first time Jim Vance used the "s" word to describe Washington's NFL team lately, either. Can you say ticked? KOF (10/28/09) The large number of translator and non-commercial FM applications stem from two FCC filing windows: translators in March 2003 and non-comm FM in October 2007. A bit of background: Since 1994, the FCC has been directed to hold auctions to allocate licenses for new spectrum use. For the AM and FM bands, that has meant holding several rounds of auctions to finally get stations on long-vacant FM allocations (these were vacant for a reason - low-powered, low-populationed) plus opening short windows of time to file new and major change applications for AM (January 2004), FM translator (March 2003), and non-commercial FM (October 2007). (Note: new non-comm FM apps are a one-step process where commercial FM apps require creating an allocation first.) If an applicant managed to apply for a station or translator that did not interfere with any other application or existing operation, then he could submit a full application for a construction permit (CP). The remaining "non-exclusive" a pplications (the VAST majority) were grouped in a way that one application in the each group could file successfully for a CP. The members of a group had four choices: modify their application to eliminate overlap with others, enter into a settlement agreement with other group members to choose on their own who should "win", wait for an auction amongst the group members, or quit. Despite hopes to the contrary, the crank has turned pretty slowly - no auction for any of these three windows has been held. Modifications and settlements have been done, and, as you can tell, CPs are getting issued. Regards, Dave Loudin (10/28/09) [Dave, Why is this a story or headline? Who gives a crap about those 2 guys? And, can the junkies just please go away. - "Bickel & Michael On Losing Teams - 10/28 - WJFK's Eric Bickel and former Channel 4/ WRC sports anchor George Michael get quoted in a DC Post piece on the phethora of losing sports teams in the Washington market....."] Well, this is a radio and TV website. The Junkies have ratings, they aren't going aynwhere. Mike in Alexandria (10/28/09) When you've finally given up on 106.9 The Edge, go to www.wbcn.com and click on Free Form BCN. Sets heard today included Joan Baez, Beach Boys, 2Pac w/Dr. Dre, Ry Cooder, Smithereens, Yardbirds, and New Riders of the Purple Sage. Sounds not unlike 102.3 in Bethesda, many years ago…Mike in Frederick (10/28/09) Who could this "corporate partner" of WMAL be? Thompson Creek, Ric Edelman? I don’t think it is sedation dentistry, AT&T, Charlestown Races & Slots, or any of the hospitals that advertise. Hey, maybe your mole was talking about The Heritage Foundation, or The Republican National Committee! (10/28/09) Dave's response: Oh please please please God let it be the Heritage Foundation! Ha ha ha..... Dave, I think NBC and Discovery Communications already have some sort of relationship. Dateline is airing on both Investigation Discovery and TLC. Marc (10/28/09) I don't really need political operatives to start posting clips of nutty Glenn Beck or nutty Keith Olbermann, thanks. I actually own a television set of my very own. If I don't watch that childish shit there, why would I watch it in the Mailbag? And if I was the kind of mindless fool who does watch it there, why would I need to rewatch it here? (10/28/09) If you want videos of "nutty" Keith Olbermann in the mailbag then provide them, or post links to them. There, your problem is solved. (10/28/09) Dave, Why is this a story or headline? Who gives a crap about those 2 guys? And, can the junkies just please go away. - "Bickel & Michael On Losing Teams - 10/28 - WJFK's Eric Bickel and former Channel 4/ WRC sports anchor George Michael get quoted in a DC Post piece on the phethora of losing sports teams in the Washington market....." (10/28/09) Dave, you have a zeal to know the Washington Times, always contrasting it to the Washington Post (which you also have issues with). When the Times circ was increasing during the newspaper-subscription downturn, you always added, "but that's just one-sixth (or whatever) of the Washington Post's subscriber base." OK, true. But I was surprised at the news in the story you linked that you didn't highlight. Yes, it's TWT spin, but the numbers are the numbers. Plus, there's a comment about the TWT radio show that you overlooked. The story says, among other things, "About 26 percent of Times home subscribers in 2009 have renewed their subscriptions with a two-year commitment. Revenue from single-copy sales of the daily paper grew more than 17 percent in the past year. And The Washington Times National Edition - a weekly publication mailed to customers nationwide - reported a healthy increase in paid circulation from 41,000 in early 2008 to 53,000 in September. The Times' "e-edition," which delivers a digital replica of the print edition to subscribers' e-mail inboxes, also increased from 1,337 subscribers to 4,297 - a gain of 221 percent. The Times' Web site, which offers its signature revolving 'story cube' and other interactive features, has seen traffic increase by 400 percent since the revision of 2008. The Times' syndicated morning drive talk radio show also has earned growing listenership nationwide. Launched in June in partnership with Talk Radio Network, "America's Morning News" is anchored by Times columnist John McCaslin and broadcast news veteran Melanie Morgan and is now heard in more than 50 markets, including Los Angeles, Denver, Washington, Boston, Indianapolis and San Francisco. It airs on AM 570, WTNT, in the nation's capital." So the show DOES air in some other major markets, something you speculated earlier wasn't the case, although I'm not sure those affiliates have any substantial listenership. The story then concludes with this bothersome bit of PR: "The three-hour program showcases breaking news, interviews with major newsmakers and exclusive investigations from a state-of-the-art studio located just 25 feet from The Times' newsroom and its 175 working journalists." As I contended earlier, it's no use to promote how close they are to working journalists when none of the Times journalists they speak with appear to be in the newsroom during the broadcast! They all call in. Christian (10/28/09) Dave's response: Still, to have a major daily newspaper with 67,000 paid subscribers in a market of almost 4 million, that's just plain pathetic. Didn't the paper have 100,000 a few years ago? The rating for the TWT morning show on WTNT was 32nd last time I checked. Also quite pathetic. There's no question that the DC Times wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Mr. Moon's ongoing subsidy. Ditto with Mr. Anschutz's money backing the DC Examiner..... Re: The Price is Right....good to know that CBS-TV is cutting back the same way CBS radio is doing. About the "depression" remark and the recent talk about old local sports teams, well it could be much worse..."..My goodness..the city of Baltimore is in a severe depression right NOW !! Help us !! So many people out of work !!! Its terrible here !!! If things don't improve for charm city..we may lose the Colts..perhaps even the Orioles too....really soon !!..." The late Randy Blair on WJZ's channel 13 Eyewitness News in November 1982. I have this on tape !!! (10/28/09) I think Jim Vance hit the nail on the head last night during the 11P.M. news. As lindsay was getting ready to do her thing Vance said "the redskins suck" now what else we got for sports news??? Sorry everyone is to busy arguing about baltimore and the old senators. The real problem is D.C. and their shitty football team. that’s what seems to be dominating the local airwaves lately on both Radio and T.V..... M/bethesda (10/28/09) It's getting pretty hard to find Mailbag posts related to Washington Area Radio and Television. It is nothing but Right Wing Nutjobs and Left Wing Nutjobs, and the never ending Baltimore-Washington sports argument. I give up. (10/28/09) Am I misreading the PPMs or does WCBM fair a lot worse against WBAL using this system as opposed to ratings books? Howie (no fan of either station) (10/28/09) Dave's response: It seems to me that righty talkers like Baltimore's WCBM and DC's WMAL have fared poorer since the PPMs started. WBAL-AM has done better because it's taken on more of an all-news stance, particularly in mornings. If it were to go all-news 24/7, it would probably echo DC's WTOP and go straight to the top of the Baltimore PPM heap. Most certainly if it were to get on FM..... Dear Dave: As much as I like baseball discussions, this recurring back and forth regarding the Washington Senators is getting tiresome given that this is a discussion board for DC and Baltimore area radio/television/newspaper happenings. For the person who is investing a lot of time and effort on the thesis of little-to-no interest in the Senators or that baseball in DC is somehow inherently inferior vis-a-vis other MLB cities or other sports, or to validate a personal negative opinion about the Nation's Capital, may I suggest two web sites to post your thoughts: the Washington Nationals page on the Ballparkguys.com site (www.ballparkguys.com), and the Washington National Fan Forum (nationalsforum.net). I think you will find enough people there who will glad to discuss this subject with you. Dave, I know this is your site and you can manage it any way you want, but the tit-for-tat stuff with respect to sports, politics, or whatever is changing this site from a freewheeling exchange of interesting chat about the industry to a back-and-forth schoolyard who-can-scream-the-loudest-or-get-the-last-word-in-without-needing-to-sign-my-name forum with the only requirement that any comment include some reference to radio/television/newspapers. I'd like to think we're more grown up than that. Otherwise, Dave, still a great site! Sincerely, Joe Kasell (10/28/09) You lefties really need to do some research before you post your assinine Fox News posts. Shep Smith was the jackass there - not the reporter. The reporterette said they had extended offers to the Corzine campaign but no one bothered to come on to give their side. Maybe Shep wouldn't have run with the Christie interview given the lack of representation from the other side, but what is FoxNews going to do when one side refuses to come on to answer questions, not interview the other major Gubernatorial candidate? Hell, Comrade Obama won't even appear on Fox News, why would Corzine? (10/28/09) You know we're in a depression when The Price is Right Showcase is a free CBS Television City tour and free tickets to see David Letterman! And I think the guy already lived in the LA area, so basically they're just flying him to see Letterman! Oh, he got an HDTV set and a hot tub too, but they priced the whole showcase at $28,000! Sounds fishy to me. (10/28/09) When is NBC4 going to broadcast their news in HD? (10/28/09) Dave's response: And "Meet The Press." It's an embarrassment..... I went to plenty of Senators games as a kid, going back to when RFK stadium was called DC Stadium. And I can conclusively say that Joe in Essex doesn't know what he's talking about. Fact is, the Senators overall attendance was at least twice that of the Colts or Browns because of the number of games played. Not to mention that, unlike football, baseball isn't sold out to season ticket holders so it isn't all the same people going to the games. So for Joe to say that more people were upset when the Colts or Browns moved than when the Senators moved is just plain illogical, not to mention completely unsupportable . Guy, like many folks over 45, I lived the loss of the Senators, so don't tell me it wasn't a big deal. What a blowhard............. On another subject, I'm glad someone mentioned the withering criticism that Pollin and Czaban have been leveling at Danny and Cerrato. Yesterday's show was unrelenting and topped anything I've heard on WJFK. So the WJFK mantra that the sportstalkers on WTEM are in Danny's pocket is starting to ring very hollow..................... (10/28/09) "It's not uncommon for someone in Bmore to call in & wanna talk about the Orioles or Colts of the 1960s-70s on 1 of the Bmore sports talk stations. How often does that happen on WTEM or 106.7 The Fan w/ the Senators?". As I pointed out previously, the transient nature of the DC area population coupled with the fact that it's been nearly 40 years since the Senators left means that former fans of that team probably comprise only a very small fraction of the sports radio audience. You rarely even hear callers reminiscing about the Sonny Jurgensen/Sam Huff/Bobby Mitchell era with the Redskins on 980 or 106.7 despite the fact that the first two have been in the radio broadcast booth for years. I actually think a compelling documentary could be made regarding the persistent efforts by some dedicated people over a 33 year period to return the national pastime to the nation's capital - not that there was a Senators equivalent of the Baltimore Colts Marching Band, but local baseball fans had their hopes brought up and shot down enough times during those years to fill a 500 page novel. Not only that, but there are unsung heroes like Bill Collins who just haven't gotten their due credit. The episode of DC's City Council nearly blowing the whole thing after MLB had announced the relocation of the Montreal Expos to Washington couldn't possibly make for boring viewing (not with Marion Barry involved). While the story of the Chicago Cubs and their long suffering fans has been told countless times and is well known around the country, the rich baseball heritage of Washington, DC is largely unappreciated. The film could begin with that Senators finale at RFK back in '71 where fans displayed anti-Bob Short signs and stormed the field prematurely so that the game had to be forfeited to the Yankees. In addition to Phil Wood, a number of media and sports figures could be interviewed and provide anecdotes and commentary - Charlie Brotman, Maury Povich., Tom Boswell, George Will, Tony Roberts (who broadcast that final game at RFK), Warner Wolf and Frank Howard are some of the names that come to mind. Perhaps the documentary's hypothetical producers could even dig up some old footage of the late Post sportswriter Shirley Povich describing what it was like to watch Walter Johnson pitch, since I'm guessing that the majority of viewers would have no idea that one of the game's all time greats once played here and there were actually World Series appearances back in the day. Mike, Fairfax (10/28/09) Has anyone else noticed the huge increase in religious non-commercial FM and FM translator applications & stations in the last 2 years? Most of them are pre-Obama administration by the way. I was just checking Virginia today and there are like 4 full power religious non-commercial FM construction permits. Meanwhile, in and around DC/Baltimore, the FM dial has been flooded with religious programming on translator FM stations all over the region. Liberty University has quite a few translators in Virginia, while in Maryland, it's the Hope Christian Church of Marlton, New Jersey that has flooded the FM dial. Was there a deliberate preference by the Bush administration's FCC to give out all these FM stations to religious groups or really did just almost no one else apply for the frequencies? I have to admit, I'm left scratching my head wondering how so many stations could be given out to so few voices and so many of the same right wing groups just in time for the post-Bush Obama Democratic revival. I'm not normally a conspiracy theorist, but it does seem a bit suspicious and certainly at the very least odd both in the groups chosen and the timing. Anyone else notice this? (10/28/09) Concerning Layoffs at WMAL: Who are they going to layoff? They have a minimal sales force, one production person, The IT guy who does nothing seems to be bullet proof (he's busy watching soccer), engineering staff does triple duty, minimal air staff, etc. If they fire any but one, they stop functioning. So to fire 2/3, they might as well shut their doors. (10/28/09) Why doesn't D.C. have an adult-oriented rocker that appeals to men 25-54? Perhaps because that music appeals mostly to whites these days. The percentage of whites in the metro area has been dropping for decades, while the percentages of Hispanics and Asians here have been rising. The teens and young adults in those groups seem to favor hip-hop and pop over rock, but I don't know if that's true for their older peers. Rock may not have had anything resembling broad cross-cultural appeal for decades. The Edge's narrow playlist smacks of desperation, sacrificing variety for familiarity. Dave's suggested format would compound the problem, even though the format would be great for a listening perspective. It would appeal to a small segment of the demographic, those who love music for its own sake, but would probably find few casual listeners. If that format would survive in this market, it would likely be on a small WRNR-type independent. (10/28/09) Dave's response: Plus, there are sooooo many different variations of the rock music genre these days that it's hard for a station to touch on enough "sub-sections" to attract a broad audience without alienating other rock fans. There must be a half dozen variations of the "alternative" format - alone. I hear it all the time - rockers who love Led Zeppelin but hate AC/DC. Or love the Cure but hate Depeche Mode. Rockers, like me, are seeking their own "niches" via satrad, the internet, and via their iPods - and not via broadcast radio..... And the Cleveland Browns won their last SuperBowl and/or football championship when? Uh huh. And therefor their fan support died off too like the Senators? Nope. I'm comparing fan support, not different sports. Face it, this is a lop-sided comparison even with a college grading curve! LMAO Finally, the NFL should give out a yearly award for craziest NFL owner & call it The Robert Irsay Award. This year it would clearly go to Daniel Snyder. Last season, close call, possibly Al Davis. (10/28/09) Why do we get constant videos of Glenn Beck and FOX News in the mailbag, yet no ridiculous videos of nutty Keith Olbermann? Can we get the mailbag a little more fair and balanced video-wise please? There's certainly lots of faux news going on at MSNBC daily, that's for sure. (10/28/09) (From DCRTV's Classified Ads:) Executive Level Radio Promotions... -Candidate will work at a Maryland PR/Media agency and create radio and online promotions for clients. Minimum of 5 years in radio promotions or radio sales, or with an agency that performs radio/online promotions. -Position includes proposals, daily client interaction, budget management, radio station negotiations, copywriting, liaison with station promotion/programming/sales departments, follow-up with stations and recaps and final reports. -Must have extensive knowledge of social media, the latest trends in radio promos and the industry. -Candidate *must have Arbitron and Tapscan skills along with MS Office Suite, Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Audition. Unique opportunity to work either as an hourly consultant or FTE with benefits. *Please send resume to staffing@a-quire.com for review, thank you! www.A-Quire.com (10/28/09) ".... WMAL's former local corporate partners ......" What is a corporate partner? A sponsor? (10/28/09) What does that mean? "one of WMAL's former local corporate partners" …? (10/28/09) Those ratings are a pretty scathing indictment of the local music industry. Not having an all-news station on top, a lot of cities have that. What gets my goat is a public station in the top 5, 2 public stations in the top 10, and the highest-rated rock station in the market plays no current material. Pathetic! The long-time new rock station is getting pulled down by their morning show, nad has been doing so. When are they going to learn? (10/28/09) This just in: Shep Smith apologizes on-air for lack of balance in Faux Nooze reporting: Will the last honest man at Faux please turn out the lights on your way out the door? (10/28/09) Dave's response: Not that there's anything wrong with that..... Note to unsigned "are you a fan of" accuser. Am sure I could name many more racists on the right side of the aisle and what they said than you but this is a media site and the subject was Rush Limbaugh (heard locally on WMAL). It's so typical of someone losing an argument that they attempt to divert attention away from the Viagra smuggler/ Oxycontin addict who was the person being discussed . . . ACH (10/28/09) Is that true... Men 25-54 the Edge does not even show up? Guess the rumor of a programming change there may happen sooner than later. (10/28/09) Dave's response: I don't get it. A well-programmed adult-oriented rocker would be welcomed by many DC area listeners who are men 25-54. But Citadel clearly doesn't have a clue. How about a good mix of deep cut classic rock (Stones, Beatles, Zeppelin) and a sprinkling of cool alternative classics (U2, Cure, REM). With a few well-closen current tunes and some local "personality." And a minimization of the hard stuff. Most of us don't want to again hear the "crap" we listened to in high school (apologizes to Paul "Kodachrome" Simon), so ditch the Foghat and Alice Cooper..... One of my most reliable sources confirms that one of WMAL's former local corporate partners is in the process of laying-off 2/3 of its staff effective Friday... Unsigned Corporate Suit (10/28/09) "How many Senators fans traveled around the country to protest the Senators move? How many "Save Our Browns" Dog Pound type rallies were there over the months after the Senators left town? Were there Senators fans showing up in other MLB stadiums on their own dime to protest 13 years later like The Baltimore Colts Marching Band? Uh huh, I thought so, there ya go. I think we can put this puppy to bed. It's a really lop-sided comparison." 1. I was at an Expos-Phillies game at the Vet in 2002 where several dozen Washington fans came up and carried banners referring to the Expos as the future "Senators"; one of those banners was hung up on the 700 level in center field. So it did happen. 2. You're comparing baseball with football -- different sports. 3. If the Colts or Browns had been as poor for as long as the Senators were, decades and decades of not even coming close to contention, chances are they wouldn't have had that kind of following. So shut up with your smugness. -- Vincent in Triangle (10/28/09) ACH - Are you a fan of former Klansman and Democrat Senior Senator Robert Byrd? Or former President Jimmy Carter who called Obama "boy"? Or Vice President Biden who called Obama "very clean"? Or is your race hustling business only applicable to conservatives? (10/28/09) I wrote this afternoon concerning the odd situation; signs vs. WTEM voices. Now here is this; voices.washingtonpost.com (10/28/09) /\ October 28 Messages /\ \/ October 27 Messages \/ Now that Keith Garvin's gone, wonder who will be taking his place on the weekends..Wonder if they'll keep with the one anchor each morning or go back to the two anchor format..And if indeed FOX5 plans on going with the anchors manipulating the teleprompter, what's the plan when they do their "stand alone" reports?. Will they just shoot them from the waist up so the audience won't see the foot controls?.. (10/27/09) RACIST RUSH: "Little boy" "Man Child" and "Halfrican" to mention just a few are all code names since Limbaugh can't use the N word or he'd be off the air. His listeners--many of them racists themselves--know this and revel in the namecalling. Limbaugh has called the President "little boy" on both October 27, and also October 23 just this month. He has used the term "Man Child" or "Little Man Child" not just on October 27, but on June 18, May 21, and August 27. Halfrican has been used many times as has many other terms. There are many ways to criticize a President but Mr. Obama will be 50 next year so these terms are rather stupid. By the way, can anyone recall one derogatory name Rush Limbaugh ever used for the last President of the United State. Not one? How about Cheney? Okay, guess both of them were perfect. ACH (10/27/09) ACH…..you were called out. As I said out of context, and in fact, downright lie. To poster who clarified..sincere thanks-WOW (10/27/09) I'm sure a couple people here were passionate & truly outraged about The Senators move, but let's face it sports fans, the numbers of Senators fans & facts just ain't shakin' your way. You have to go back to 1943 to find a Senator's season where they even barely topped the A.L. average attendance & many of the rest of the years were half the average or mostly just dead last. And that's both Senators teams, new stadium & old. The funniest thing is the most outraged people are arguing just for the sake of a Bmore vs. DC fight & never even went to a damn game! LMAO! Anyone who's read any Senators history knows the only reason DC even got a 2nd Senators franchise was because Congress threatened to step in, not the fans. It's not uncommon for someone in Bmore to call in & wanna talk about the Orioles or Colts of the 1960s-70s on 1 of the Bmore sports talk stations. How often does that happen on WTEM or 106.7 The Fan w/ the Senators? There's probably more Orioles talk on WTEM than Senators talk! How many Senators fans traveled around the country to protest the Senators move? How many "Save Our Browns" Dog Pound type rallies were there over the months after the Senators left town? Were there Senators fans showing up in other MLB stadiums on their own dime to protest 13 years later like The Baltimore Colts Marching Band? Uh huh, I thought so, there ya go. I think we can put this puppy to bed. It's a really lop-sided comparison. (10/27/09) Isn't strange that these two apparent contradictions have played out in the last two days? Numerous news reports, especially Steinberg's blog in the Post, describe how fans were ordered to take off shirts mocking Snyder and Cerrato, fans who were directing non-obscene chants towards Snyder's box were told by security that they would be ejected from the stadium, and some guy in a concession line was threatened with arrest for refusing to turn his shirt inside out. Yet hosts on his own WTEM, his own station, have been relentless in their criticism of Cerratto and Snyder. Kevin Sheehan and Laverro have been fair but they are pulling no punches. But at 4 pm Polin and Czaben have been way over the top and easily match their competitors over at WJFK who on occasion have been borderline obscene. How is that Synder gets away with the infringement of the right to free speech and yet allows his own employees to ream him a new one on the radio? Is it possible that he is so clueless that he does not know what is being said on his own radio station? (10/27/09) Hey Dave, got to love NBC4! On News4 today, the live newsroom shot included a good view of a refrigerator, can the lunch room be next? It also appears that the Meteorologists have been evicted from the Weather Center, things must be real bad. This is all quite sad given that NBCWASHINGTON should be the second most important NBC bureau (after New York) as D.C. is the political (and now financial) capital of our nation. They just seem to be loosing class and style…..rapidly. I sure just hope these are the birth pangs of a HD broadcast. -Dan in Falls Church (10/27/09) Dave, I was glad to see your RANT about "guy talk". Good for you. Talk radio in general has become a vast wasteland(...thanks Newton Minow...). For those of us lucky enough to have been around for a while...the memories of radio intensifies when compared to so much of the crap that passes for "talk" these days. Sports has taken an unfortunate turn with the downward spiral of the Redskins...although I agree with you that many of the show hosts are good at what they do and not hard to listen to. The political talk is an abomination...WMAL is the worst offender. It seems like a 24 hour cycle of the same crap over and over again, with some of the most dysfunctional people I have ever heard. This kind of radio is neither informative nor entertaining. (...although I have to admit that I do enjoy the prospect of Plant's head exploding right in the middle of the broadcast, and most days he sounds as if he's right there...). We lost good, entertaining, local radio for this? MW (10/27/09) Is this mind-numbing debate about attendance at Redskins/Colts/Ravens/ Nationals/Senators/Orioles games EVER going to end? Talk about beating a dead (and boring) horse. (10/27/09) For you thin skinned leftists who make a living off the race hustling business and tolerate former Klansman, and senior Democrat Senator Robert Byrd, here is another whopper from a former Democrat President of the United States. - JIMMY CARTER: Around the world. And I think it already has sent a wave of approbation and admiration in many countries around the world, just knowing that this black boy who grew up with just a loving mother and grandparents -- and that was about all he had to start with -- does now have a chance to become the nominee of the Democratic Party for president. August 2008 (10/27/09) While FM band scanning today, I came across an incredible sequence of radio that, quite frankly, I consider to be the worst pile of hypocrisy and bullshit I’ve heard all year. I came across 93.9 FM, WKYS, Washington, DC, in the middle of a commercial. A woman is counting off “1001, 1002, 1003..” and says this is the number of times they’ve played the new Whitney Houston song. She continues by ranting against pending legislation in Congress that would, in her words, take away money the station puts into the community by requiring them to count the number of songs by artist and song! Oh horrors! “We’d have to write a program to do that!” This legislation, she says, is “putting black-owned radio out of business” and extols listeners to visit realityradioonline.com and sign the petition! Reality Radio Online is a commercial for Radio One’s “founder and chairperson,” Cathy Hughes, and her crusade against H.R. 848, the Performance Rights Act. Radio One also owns WKYS 93.9. Let’s examine what valuable contributions 93.9 KYS makes to the community. Here’s what followed the commercial for the so-called “Radio Reality” business: A commercial for the Washington Wizards basketball team. Call TicketMaster now! A commercial from some loan sharks called “Cash Point” that offer car title loans. “What’s crackin’, homey?” A commercial for a training operation that offers, among other skills, training in “building maintenance.” A commercial for Radio One comedy shows at Howard University. Just call TicketMaster now! “Size matters!” Oh god, no. It can’t be true. But, yes, it is: a very offensive commercial for a penis enlargement product called “prolicksis.” “Let’s give it up for trees!” Is this a public service announcement? No, this is a commercial for Kaiser Permanente, a health insurance company, touting how they save trees by keeping medical records in digital format rather than printing them out. A commercial for a Hip Hop music awards show on BET. Call Comcrap now! Another commercial for Radio One comedy shows, just call Ticketmassa now or visit KYSDC.com. Finally, a song. If this is the kind of community service that Cathy Hughes and Radio One offer to the African American community in the District of Columbia and surrounding areas, then she and her company deserves to be put out of business. First we have a laughable argument that counting songs is going to bankrupt them. Then, they demonstrate their true agenda with blatant, self-serving commercials for superfluous crap such as sporting events, music awards shows, and stand-up comedy, and disgusting penis enlargement ads. I’ll leave it up to the reader to consider whether or not playing the same Whitney Houston song a thousand times constitutes “community service.” This is the worst thing I’ve heard on radio in a long, long time. Do these hypocrites think their audience is this stupid? Does their audience even care? -- Larry in Mount Airy (10/27/09) "RUSH LIMBAUGH RACIST QUOTE OF THE DAY: At 12:16, on WMAL the radio talk show host calls the President of the United States "boy." Code, but no translation needed." And apparently you feel no need to provide any context either. Geez I wonder why? These sort of post are just lame and tiresome. (10/27/09) "Code, but no translation needed. ACH" Brilliant junior! You isolate one word from a 3 hour program and then brand the person a racist. Is it any wonder this country is such a mess??? (10/27/09) I think it's pretty funny that Rush Limbaugh would ridicule anyone by claiming their "primary job, if you will, in life has been leisure." I'm pretty sure almost every adult in America will do more actual work this week than Limbaugh has done in the past 10 years. What a pompous, hypocritical, self-satisfied charlaton he is. And the suckers who fall for his spiel, pay his bills and encourage his hate-filled propaganda....? Don't even get me started. (10/27/09) RUSH LIMBAUGH RACIST QUOTE comments. In your world, the term "little boy" is okay, not even insensitive. So when Bob Griese said last week on ESPN that NASCAR driver Pablo Montoya was "out for a taco" that too would be okay even though ESPN suspended him for a week. And in your world, when golfer Fuzzy Zoeller also called Tiger Woods a "little boy" at the Masters and then followed it up with telling the tournament not to offer fried chicken or collard greens next year "or whatever the hell they serve" that's probably okay too. I guess in your little universe a viral internet postcard showing a photoshopped watermelon patch on the White House lawn is just a little joke. Not that a drug addled, three times married, out-of-rehab, sad, lonely, and rich, radio talk show host could ever have any racist thoughts, of course. ACH (10/27/09) Re: Gimme Back My "Guy Talk" A group of guys and myself are trying to capture the whole "guy talk" mentality, but in a much more multimedia-esque way. Check out razorstubbleguys.com. The site is still heavily in beta, but there's going to be lots more content going up, as well as podcasts and videos. It'll all be heavy on the guy talk subjects, but skewed at a slightly older audience. In other words, nothing overtly juvenile. Perhaps we'll make it to the radio someday, but for now we're more than happy with the Internet, social networks, etc. PS: You're already a "fan" of ours on Facebook ... thanks for that! We're not promoting the FB page or the Web site too heavily yet. Once we've got a few more things in place, though, we're going to go gangbusters with it. --- Woodsie (10/27/09) ["RUSH LIMBAUGH RACIST QUOTE OF THE DAY: At 12:16, on WMAL the radio talk show host calls the President of the United States "boy."] "Little Boy" is very different from "Boy". Rush was saying prior to this line that our President would rather play than take care of the problems of the country. His line went like this. "People are finally standing up to this little boy...this little man child president whose primarly job, if you will, in life has been leisure." (10/27/09) ACH- I’d like to know how the word “boy” was used, or did you take it out of context? I’d bet you did. Sensitive, thin skinned, balls in an uproar LIB. WOW (10/27/09) RUSH LIMBAUGH RACIST QUOTE OF THE DAY: At 12:16, on WMAL the radio talk show host calls the President of the United States "boy." Code, but no translation needed. ACH (10/27/09) Joe in Essex seems to think he knows a lot but consistently shows he knows very little. Regarding the environment locally generated by the departure of the Senators in 1971, I would recommend he try to find a copy of Shelby Whitfield's "Kiss it Goodbye." Joe will find that it was hardly a "whimper." A little education never hurt anyone, Joe. (10/27/09) If I'm not mistaken, the attendance at Baltimore Colts games had markedly declined by the time they departed for greener pastures in Indianapolis. That games ten years prior sold out is hardly relevant to the issue of the impact at the time the team moved. Our resident Baltimore sports guru likes to ignore that when throwing arrows at the Senators. (10/27/09) Does Don Graham Love Slate More Than the Washington Post? This story takes a look at just that: washingtonian.com. Plus, we've learned that one of Don Graham's children will start working at Slate soon. An excerpt: "Dahlia Lithwick is Ben Brad­lee’s kind of woman. She’s got the Yale undergrad and Stanford law degrees, the talent to pen brassy features about the Supreme Court, a sense of humor, and an eye for the jugular. Back in his day, Bradlee might have roped her into a beat on the Washington Post Style section alongside Sally Quinn. Lithwick doesn’t write for Style—you have to read Slate, the Washington Post Company’s online magazine. Covering legal affairs since 1999 and now also writing a serialized chick-lit novel, Lithwick is a Don Graham kind of woman. The Post Company head adores Slate. The Post in print is his albatross, a newspaper that loses millions; Slate represents his digital dream, with the potential to do great journalism and make a profit. “Slate itself is now a good business,” says Jacob Weisberg, the New York–based chief of the Slate Group. No one will provide proof, but word is that the magazine will make money this year. Slate is also a good place for Grahams to work. Washingtonian has learned that Laura Graham, 32, one of Don and Mary Graham’s four children, has been hired as director of product development and strategy. She will work out of Slate’s Arlington office. She becomes the second member of the third generation of Grahams to work at a Washington Post publication. Her cousin, Katharine Weymouth, is Post publisher and head of Washington Post Media." (10/27/09) Why Joe in Essex is permitted to constantly troll the board looking to stir up trouble is beyond me. But the plain fact is that the departure of the Senators was every bit a big of blow to Senators fans and the DC area as was the departure of the Colts, Browns or any other team for that matter. And he is absolutely wrong when he says there was no outrage. I was too young to remember the first Senators departure but the second one was a huge deal. Who can forget the fans overrunning the field in anger at the last home game, the signs denigrating Bob Short, the hanging of Short in effigy, the beer poured over Short's head the next season by a Senators fan at a game in Baltimore, Ron Menchine's passionate radio call of Frank Howard's final home run and his trashing of MLB for the move. Joe in Essex clearly wasn't there, has no clue of the atmosphere at the time and, like another poster said, likes to deal in bombast, not truth. (10/27/09) Folks, just a reminder, tomorrow morning in the 8:30 hour Sean Casey and Frank Luber from WCBM 680AM will be interviewing Tim Cox the founder of a new political party..Get Out Of Our House (GOOOH) If you’re in the frame of mind to clean house (Congress) Don’t miss this interesting and doeable political movement. This is a dynamic movement that is catching on nationally and would put fresh blood into the political move within the United States. God Bless America!!! (10/27/09) [snip] What's up with those one second teaser snippets they're showing in between the commercials on the Fox 5 10:00 news where the anchors are on the set chatting about stories they report later in the broadcast? [snip] They're ripping it off of ESPN's Pardon The Interruption where they show a few seconds of "off-air" chat between Korny and Wilbon between spots in the commercial breaks. PTI's been doing that for a while now. (10/27/09) Final point...... I actually enjoyed reading all the the Washington Senators nostalgia googled by people who never went to any games. I do like reading baseball history. I have to admit though, this fact that I did not know amazed me... The Washington Senators played the former Washington Senators who skipped town? And that's when only 1498 people showed up? That part I did not know and that's actually worse than what I originally thought! I think that kind of proves my point in a nutshell. Sure, there were a few people upset when the Senators moved, but comparing it to the Cleveland Browns, the Baltimore Colts, or The Oakland Raiders is just pure insanity. 3 of those cities had proven fan bases for multiple decades & sellout crowds while the Senators never had a proven fan-base in modern times. If not for the President not being able to throw out the 1st pitch anymore, few people would have noticed except for Phil Wood and all of the people who've been frantically googling in response to my comments. Arguing that they were a bad team is sort of irrelevant because my original point was not that DC couldn't be a really successful MLB town. In fact, you could argue that Baltimore was not a great baseball town during the same last decade of the Senators as the Colts ruled Baltimore regardless of how successful the Orioles were. Finally, anyone can point out bad attendance years & games for any team as someone else pointed out, but it's virtually impossible to find any MLB team that matches The Washington Senators lack of support for so long a period of time (except other teams that have folded). And if anyone wants to dispute, I suggest you just pull one of the baseball almanacs, go through year by year just like I did. It's just a proven fact for a variety of reasons. I really don't think Barry Levinson could hunt down enough people to do such a movie like "The Band That Wouldn't Die" regarding the Senators even if he wanted to, nor would anybody probably watch it if he did. (10/27/09) Good day, all - We have two terrific interview programs coming up at The Q&A Cafe. I hope you will make it to both. First up is Simon van Kempen, one of the stars of "The Real Housewives of New York." It will be a chance to discuss the reality TV phenomenon from the inside, and maybe get some good "Housewives" dish. That happens on Thursday, November 12. In December we focus on a local success story and two of my favorite people, Sophie LaMontagne and Katherine Kallinis, owners of Georgetown Cupcake, to discuss the business of the cupcake business - another phenomenon. Their Georgetown "cupcakery" started a retail movement that has made Washington virtually the cupcake capital of America. That program is on Thursday, December 10 - practically the heart of the holiday season. Our new location is the Georgetown Ritz-Carlton. Enjoy the welcoming and cozy fire, the art, the beautiful brick architecture of this magnificent restoration. Seating will begin at noon, the program begins at 12:30, with a three course lunch. The fee is $50, all inclusive of soft beverages, food, tax and tip. To move things along we eliminated pay upon arrival. You will be presented a check at the table. We hope you like this change. Valet parking is available at a discount. For reservations, please call the Ritz directly at 202.912.4110. On New York Social Diary today, my column is about a recent night out with Shakespeare and some bare chested disco boys. Read it here: www.nysocialdiary.com..... Have a good week, Carol Joynt (10/27/09) Dave's response: Bare chested disco boys? Hmmm..... Looking to improve your radio listening experience? Run at top speed away from THIS product, then: www.parts-express.com. This is full of more shit than the inside of a pigeon. (10/27/09) Hey Dave, your rant about the sports talk radio in the area was interesting. I was just in Philly this past weekend and listened to quite a bit of WIP. I gotta say I loved it! They had this crazy format of actually talking sports! None of this how their weekends were or stuff about babes, their personal lives, or any loud and obnoxious rants. They just talked about the Phillies and Eagles and it was all listener phone calls. Good stuff! so much better than here. (10/27/09) Dave, Just wanted to let you know I’ve returned to radio with a Saturday morning co-hosted show based out of Steamboat Springs, CO (KBCR AM-1230) and available on the Internet at www.CariAndRob.info. We had our first broadcast last Saturday. We’ll be looking for other outlets in the coming months. I hope all is well back in DCRTV Land. Rob Douglas (10/27/09) I wondered why WJZ 13 is not advertising that their news is in HD. No HD logo or HD promotional spots. I've yet to hear anything, but I did miss the 6 & 11 newscasts last night. Have any on-air personnel even mentioned the HD news at all? I think I've figured out why they're not promoting it though. WJZ appears to only be doing the main studio shot and the weather & weather graphics in HD. This is unlike WBAL-TV, which rebuilt their entire set and is doing more kinds of HD shots. On WJZ, even the traffic report is not in HD and that's right in the same studio! It appears as if CBS has really done this on the cheap & quick. I would bet that Sinclair's FOX45 spent more money on their HD News upgrade than WJZ 13. WJZ doesn't even have any side graphics like FOX 45 when the shot is not in HD. Kind of a pathetic HD attempt if you ask me. (10/27/09) Note to the student who has a lot of questions but no answers. Radio advertising revenue last year was $17.9 billion in the U.S. from the13,000 plus stations according to the Radio Advertising Bureau. Newspaper advertising totaled $37.8 billion in 2008 according to Editor and Publisher. Both of the two mediums revenue has been trending lower. Online advertising, however, has been growing and last year passed radio with totals of $19.5 billion. (You do realize that an invoice for this research will be sent out on Friday, don't you?) ACH (10/27/09) If you are "new here", how would you even know someone is "consistently wrong"? LMAO The $100 million dollars from the State of Maryland is true. The original deal was $75 million towards the FedEx Field project, but there were cost over-runs on the roads projects. The Camden Yards project included infrastructure already built for Oriole Park + the Ravens $10 million contribution + the stadium costs. Obviously, The Ravens got the better deal, but this notion that the Redskins completely funded that shitty stadium on Monday Night Football tonight is a complete joke! They didn't. Infrastructure is part of overall costs. Also comparing 50+ years of near last place Senators attendance to several non-sellout Colts games, play off of not, is another nutty comparison, but obviously, DC is the home of our federal government so I guess you guys love the creative GAO accounting methods! (10/27/09) Regarding the coverage of the Senators' moves...the move of the original Senators came in late October 1960, and at the same meeting where the move was approved, the American League voted to give Washington an expansion team (as well as Los Angeles), so D.C. both "lost" and "gained" a team. This was the first expansion in modern baseball history. (If MLB had operated then as it does today, operating as a single entity, rather than the leagues operating autonomously, chances are Washington would have been put in the National League to lessen duplication with Baltimore, and the Houston franchise that began with the Mets in 1962 would have gone to the AL instead.) The second Senators move did get some national media coverage, because it left the town without baseball for the first time in the 20th century; opening day, with the president throwing out the first ball, had always been a harbinger of spring in the U.S. Having the nation's capital without baseball seemed unthinkable. Actually, Washington's sports heritage might have been entirely different if Calvin Griffith had kept his team in Washington. Instead, they became the Minnesota Twins, finished second to the Yankees in 1962 with a roster essentially the same as in 1960, then won the pennant in 1965 to break the Yankees' five-year stranglehold. D.C. Stadium (later RFK) would likely have drawn at least twice as much as it did for those dreadful expansion teams. After World War II, both the Redskins and Senators were perennial losers, and had baseball established itself as a winner first, D.C.'s sports culture would have shifted 180 degrees from what it became in the 1970s. -- Vincent in Triangle (10/27/09) Two things: The last major league baseball game played at Griffith Stadium was on a Thursday afternoon 9/21/61. The expansion Washington Senators hosted the former Senators, now the Minnesota Twins. The paid attendance was 1,498, as a previous poster pointed out. However, it should also be pointed out that in 1961, there was no "romance" attached to old ballparks, and Griffith wasn't being torn down - Howard University used it for their football team for a few more years. The new Senators lost over 100 games their first year. School had started, people were at work, and as I said, they weren't swinging the wrecking ball anytime soon. It's not hard to find other losing big league clubs in those days drawing puny crowds. When the Phillies closed Connie Mack Stadium in 1970, they drew 31,000 for the final game, at which many fans brought tools to dismantle sections of seats and attempt to take them home. That game was played on a Thursday night, and the place was scheduled for demolition shortly thereafter. The previous two games played at Connie Mack - the former Shibe Park - drew crowds of 1,055 and 1,186. The other thing is, yes, network TV news shows did indeed cover the last Senators' game in 1971. I was living in Kentucky at the time and watched news film shot of the crowds overtaking the field. There was no reason to cover the last game in 1960, since when it was played, the decision to move was not yet official, and minority stockholder Gabe Murphy was trying to block it. Calvin Griffith never lost a dime owning the Washington Senators, but he owned Griffith Stadium and wanted any new stadium to be rent-free, something the city wouldn't accept. He also had some issues with the demographics in Washington, famously telling a Rotary Club meeting in Minnesota: "Black people don't go to ball games, but they'll fill up a rassling ring and put up such a chant they'll scare you to death. We came (to Minnesota) because you've got good, hard-working white people here." If you're anti-Washington baseball - as it certainly appears the previous poster is - it's not hard to find things to hang your hat on. But if you're a competent researcher, you can find negative things about virtually any sports team, particularly losing teams. I'm still waiting to read how the citizens of the area were responsible for all those losses on the scoreboard. Bad clubs don't draw. That's an indisputable fact. (10/27/09) Did anyone else see channel 5 weird new bumper with the old 90s theme ? Mike (10/27/09) Real House Wives Typo - I think the guys name is Paul Wharton (10/27/09) What's up with those one second teaser snippets they're showing in between the commercials on the Fox 5 10:00 news where the anchors are on the set chatting about stories they report later in the broadcast? It's confusing and seems a bit fake and contrived. I'm sure that's what they really talk about during their too frequent commercial breaks. (10/27/09) /\ October 27 Messages /\ Jump to the Mailbag Archive Index.....