Already had three comments on the last article, and I'm pleased to see one of them was AP, so we'll be hearing what I'm about to write about on The UnTicket:
1310AM and The Stream went dark early early this morning, and Those Who Muse So Gently were not happy about it. I haven't heard all of the on-air references to Cumulus technical incompetence over the past few weeks, but this one was a sizzler.
In fact, it sounded like it was Ripped from My Ticket Confession. Junior spoke eloquently about signal swapping, and how a competing station was getting two powerful signals, and The Ticket was supposed to stay number one against that with their two cruddy signals, which are only intermittently on the air. Longtime Confessors will reall that this site has been howling about signal swap almost since it began.
There was mention made of bolting The Ticket. I'll come back to this.
And then George -- of all people, George -- singled out a particular individual, although no names were used. He said to this person -- SHOCKING! -- "You stink." Later on, he graduated to "You suck!" I don't know which of the three called him an "idiot." I don't know who this knucklehead is, but it's someone who has had some hegemony over The Ticket, or perhaps Ticket technical matters, only in the past year -- and reference was made to this person screwing up last year's Super Bowl broadcasting. (Perhaps it's this Brett Blankenship guy.) They even suggested that this "idiot" was protected by some higher-ups for some reason.
It was the most angry I have ever heard a Ticket host, including Mike R.
Oh, yeah, and right after this rant, some broadcast from an entirely different station cut into an advertisement, and we all had to be puzzled by this for a little while. (It did not sound like sports-talk to me -- it sounded like it might have been WBAP.)
As usual, The Musers had the courage to make a gag out of it -- saying that they felt safe in ripping management because they weren't on the air anyway.
Hey, a SweetJack commercial!!
A commenter has expressed the view that a Muser will be leaving the showgram sometime in the coming year. That would not shock me. It also would not shock me if The Musers have a plan to leave the station entirely sometime in the future, as a group, as their contracts expire. Unlike Mike and Corby, they started with their show at the same time, did they not? Which would mean that their contracts all might expire at the same time. They would have to wait out their noncompetes, if they even have noncompetes, and they would wait for all three of them to get clear of their employment contracts, and then they'd all re-assemble at a competitor.
I'm sure that all the hosts feel a strong attachment to The Ticket and an emotional connection and commtiment to their colleagues. But Cumulus has not shown either respect or support to them in recent years. It was either Junior or Gordon who said it this morning, and once again I don't have the exact words, but it was to the effect that Cumulus's serial screwups, invisible promotional support, and inattention to the signal are going to come home to roost, the implication being that these deficiencies would result in an outflow of broadcast talent.
Frankly . . . wouldn't break my heart.
Would I have to change the name of this site?
I dunno, the CTO seems to think that "The Soul Patch" still makes sense for a coupla really white guys.
Quick question: Is there any media reportage in either of the major area newspapers? Is anyone else writing about this?
I won't be able to listen much today. Please let us know what you hear.
Only caught the aftermath on the drive into the office this morning, but this could easily qualify as a top 5 meltdown, especially since those who muse so very gently aren't apt to let fly with behind the scenes issues. As far as packing up and displaying their wares elsewhere....can't imagine it would happen over this...when the ratings dip below whatever radio ratings mendoza line there is out there I will consider what to do with my radio dial while the musers wait out their non competes..
ReplyDeleteEither things will be sorted out by Cumulus ASAP and decisively, or we're going to see, or rather hear, our friends at different stations (ESPN and The Fan) sooner rather than later. I'll bet anything not so clandestine conversations with said stations' hosts (ex-pat Ticket employees?) have been going on for some time now. 2012 might not bring the end of the world as predicted by the more apocalyptic minded interpreters of the Mayan calendar, but it might be the end of The Little One as we know it.
ReplyDeleteI've now come around to believing that Cumulus couldn't give a rip about The Ticket. The "funny" thing is, it's your last line about The Soul Patch that seals the deal for me. If the CTO was really invested and thus cared about the station, they wouldn't let two white beyond white generic guys name themselves after a small patch of facial hair that's been out of style for years - except by those who think of themselves as rebels and have lived their lives in small, isolated towns (think Footloose). And they wouldn't abide station management either not caring enough to change it or actually thinking it's OK. Yeah, it's a small thing, but to me it represents the larger issues that have been bubbling over for a long time now; issues that have now spilled over the pot and onto the floor.
ReplyDeletePlainsman, you would not be broken-hearted if talent and on-air personnel began to leave the Ticket? Why not? Do you not love the Little Ticket with all your heart and soul and do you not want to see it persevere as is forever?
ReplyDeleteAlso, hard to believe your predictions regarding contracts for those who Muse So Gently after your predictions on Mike's contract.
Nonetheless, your view point is appreciated and thought provoking. Keep it up, even if spares like me decide to disagree once in a while.
Adding on: If you neglect something long enough, it will break down and eventually die. We might be seeing the effects of long term neglect happening in front of our very eyes. I think one of the reasons they are so mad about the PPMs (in addition to the reasons they've already given, e.g., people's jobs, etc.) is that perception is everything in today's world. If because of these repeated major technical and managerial screw ups there are even a few PPM periods where The Ticket's ratings dominance appears to have waned/been lost, it could have dramatic consequences. Advertisers who were once exclusively on The Ticket might jump ship. Competing stations would no doubt take advantage of misleading numbers to say "the king is dead, come on over to our side." People just might do it. Like I said, perception is everything. If the perception (due to Cumulus idiocy) is that The Ticket is on the wane, then it might soon actually be on the wane.
ReplyDeleteI concur.
ReplyDelete@Anonymous:
ReplyDeleteRespectful disagreement welcome! And thanks for continued patronage of MTC.
The difference between Mike and the Musers is that Mike would not leave the comfort zone of The Hardline without Corby and probably even Danny, irrespective of his irritation with Cumulus. Also, he's around 15-20 years closer to retirement than any Muser.
I don't think any individual Muser would be happy about starting on a competiting station, just as Mike would not. But I think it's more likely that the Musers would leave as a group at the expiration of their contracts, wait out noncompetes (if any), and set up shop elsewhere. They don't have the same rancor with competing stations that The Hardline has, although they do take a gently musing shot from time to time.
Also, this is show biz. Old rivalries are put aside where money and ratings are at stake. I recall that Norm was no friend of The Ticket in the early days, but here he is.
Breaking News: Josh Lewin will be the Mets new play-by-play guy beginning this season. I take it he'll be leaving The Fan. And with all the disgruntled hub bub going on at The Ticket...and what could be a window for major revamps over at The Fan...just sayin'.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bbtia.com/the-clubhouse/2012/2/6/josh-lewin-to-the-mets.html
More:
ReplyDeleteIts true that our ears can't hear the PPM subsignal so its absence doesn't interfere with our listening experience.
But I will insist on a point I made earlier: This is not only about disrespect by CTO of The Ticket, it is also about disrespect of the P1. I've seen it in other markets: Broadcasting suits, business school types, guys with no operational background or insight, consistently think that listeners don't care about the kind of things the Confessor Nation and I have been writing about for the past month or so. Their view is that all we care about is fart drops and that we'll take whatever's riding on the signal on any particular day and like it.
Well, we may still like the our weekday heroes and their showgrams, but if we think that the Cumulus thinks we're stupid or don't notice the screwups and bad signal and malfunctioning hardware, or that we think it's just a bit, we may just be tempted to show them that we do care by voting with our ears and fingertips and give a station a try that seems interested in our listenership.
I don't think The Ticket is going to collapse in the next six months or year or two years. But with The Fan investing big time in prepping the market, and Ticket hosts talking about bolting, The Little One is suddenly looking frail and vulnerable.
The CTO don't get it? Send them this link: www.myticketconfession.blogspot.com
Mike is either 61 or 62, he's closer to 5-7 years from retirement, if even that far out. And let's not forget that Mike is a bit of a contrarian and agitator; so it wouldn't surprise me if he did move over to a competing station, just to give Cumulus the finger and say "I kicked their asses, and now I'll kick your ass for them."
ReplyDeleteAs to The Musers not taking as hard of shots at other stations as The Hardline goes, I think you must've missed the many many times Junior has fired off direct hits over the years. Junior can be brutal!
The Musers signed a 5 year deal, with great publicity, 2 years ago (maybe it was 3). I think was announced surrounding a Marconi Award.
ReplyDeleteI'd be shocked if Mike left for a competing station. Or any of the Musers. They built this thing from Day One, it was their idea and they went about making it happen all those years ago and building it into what it is today. Things may not be perfect for them but they're closer to the end than the beginning of their careers. I can't imagine they'd be willing to go somewhere else and help take down their own creation.
ReplyDeleteI think that if a Muser leaves, as predicted, it won't be to another station. Rather I think it will be to do something completely different with their life. The way Georgio's life's been going the last few years, and now with his epiphany of sorts, I'd put my money on him to leave.
ReplyDeletethe real kickballhead does not concur.
ReplyDeleteWhat you say makes sense, Anonymous, but I don't know if the Originals feel like this is the station that they built any longer. I think they see it less as the thing they nurtured as they do as some entity taken over by corporate jack wads who neither care about the product nor its progenitors. So I can see where they might bolt to stick it to the ones who ruined the thing.
ReplyDeleteOh no. Please tell me the Observer combox phenomenon of "I'm the real so and so, oh yeah I'm the fake so and so" is finding its way over to MTC. Please say it isn't so. I know those people think they're so darn clever and cool, and that might very well be the case, but please don't bring that stuff here. I beg of thee.
ReplyDeletethe real anonymous concurs.
ReplyDeleteThe Ticket will fade back into being The Little One soon enough. The Fan's presence is growing larger by the week. So's its audience. So's its budget and its already deep pockets. They're finally figuring out how to bottle The Ticket magic but also adding their own ingredients to the recipe. Bruce Gilbert is no dummy, he knows what he's doing. In two years from now, what I say will be the reality of the market. So, mark it, down that is. Soon enough The Ticket Day Oners (Rhyner, George, Junes, Gordo, and the rest) will get their wish: To once again be the underdog fighting the powers that be. In some ways they already are. Sadly the battle is against their own parent company. But it's a lot easier to fight when you're on top of the ratings than it is when you're not. And now, unlike the old days when you were battling 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the evening against fossilized local entities, not only are you fighting against stations that are dedicated to local sports and guy talk 24-7, it is now you who are in some respects the fossilized local entities. Interesting times up in this here b, folks.
ReplyDeleteThat is patently absurd. The Ticket still destroys the ratings, everything the fan has is physically painful to hear (worse than ben and skin, whose stints at the ticket are the only times I've changed the channel).
ReplyDeleteThe Fan doesn't even hold second place consistently.
Unless they lose key personalities AND a lot more people start to to enjoy hearing about the Cowboys chances for the Super Bowl in March, the Ticket will remain on top.
All this gloom and doom about the Ticket is just silly. You can not stop the Little Ticket. There is a reason the make up of the station has been the same for roughly a decade and a half: they don't try to hard, they don't beat dead horses and if you talked to them at a bar you would be talking to the same guy that is on the air.
ReplyDeleteGrubes is my leader.
I agree that the ticket is not going anywhere anytime soon. But, if the any of the current on air talent gets fed up with the situation and leaves, then all bets are off. Then you could see The Fan make up some ground on the Ticket, especially if any of the current talent wound up over there. I will say this about the Fan, if the Ticket did not exist, I would be a pretty regular listener of theirs.
ReplyDeleteSome of you are either aren't or are poor students of history. The Ticket ain't Rome, and Rome fell. I don't think some of you appreciate how fragile radio and radio markets have become. Some of what's been offered isn't ridiculous. Some of it is very plausible.
ReplyDeleteMan, I can't keep up with greetings to the new Confessor commenters. Many welcomes to darkiguana and the middle circle, and I don't believe I've shaken Tangent's hand, either. Thanks to all.
ReplyDeleteFor the record: I think everyone's a little right here, and I'm not just trying to please everyone. On the one hand, The Ticket As We Know It is going to survive the tech meltdowns. And it's going to survive it for a long time, measured in years. I think that's likely even if the ratings books reflect the massive signal screwups.
But if Cumulus neglect of Ticket promotion and broadcast quality continues, it will only be measured in a few years. The Middle Circle is correct about the fragility of broadcast property popularity.
Think of it this way: Did you hear hosts talking last week about speaking with younger sports fans about the Cowboys? Their entire life of sports awareness has been spent during years when the Cowboys were mediocre. They have no particular romance with the Cowboys.
Now think of younger listeners entering the demo. They're seeing The Fan on TV, they're seeing Fan billboards, they're going to a Fan sports bar, and they can hear The Fan it anywhere in the metro and beyond. Those younger listeners have no reason to prefer The Ticket as an original proposition, and might get started with The Fan and stick with it, instead of developing a loyalty to the Ticket guys who've been at it for a couple of decades.
This won't (and hasn't) resulted an overnight reversal in the ratings fortunes of The Ticket and The Fan, but it is wrong to think that advertising, promotion, and quality control means nothing to listeners, especially new listeners with no inbred love for The Ticket.
So, as I say, both schools of thought here have some merit: The Ticket ain't going away soon, but failure to build on success (leveriging, if you will) -- indeed, what seems almost to be an insulting lack of attention -- means that it will go away sooner than it has to.
Wild thought: There is a CTO somewhere who is jealous of The Ticket hosts. This reminds me of Jerry Krause, GM of the Chicago Bulls, who believed he did not get sufficient credit for the six championships. He figured that the Bulls could continue to be champions without Jordan and Pippen owing to his superior general managing.
Wrong.
While the technical glitches and such suck and can be fixed what cant be fixed is the mentality of management. Rhynes and the guys started a little tiny sports station years ago with the hopes of making it big and bringing in piles of cash. Well they suceeded but they sold out. The only way to make what they did was to sell to a bigger radio conglomerate. When they chose to sell they new they would have to deal with different management who didtn get the original purpose of the ticket. It is what it is, they all get paid big bucks and also get to deal with the dumass CTO's as well. Its all part of the game. I dont feel bad for a single on of them. They are all successful businessmen that have been paid large amounts of cash. If they truly despise management, leave and start a new station again. These guys can survive on their names alone, they dont need the little ticket anymore, it needs them
ReplyDeleteOn a different note, did anyone hear the announcement about Goose on Norm's show today? I missed it. And I'm curious as to what it might be. Goose was named head writer of the DMN sports section last year. If he's gone, that will mean the last 4 people in that position left it within a year's time.
ReplyDeleteHas anyone been listening to The Fan of late? I have, and I've noticed some subtle changes. The one that stands out most is Greggo. He's taken on a more prominent on-air role. He's coming on other shows. He even was on Sunday morning before the Super Bowl. Also, if you follow him on Twitter, you've noticed that he pretty much cease and desisted with the all caps lunacy punctuated with cramming X, Y, or Z up your butt. Perhaps after all that weirdness last year with the constant and public begging for friendship with his ex-Ticket colleagues, the long absences, and the odd voice issues (just to name a few), Gilbert/CBS higher ups said "Enough. Either get it together and become a solution or get out." And perhaps for the first time in his radio career, he realized this was not only for real, but also that the world would move on without him. Whatever the case is, by all appearances, he's on his game right now.
ReplyDeleteRhyner ain't going nowhere. The Courage Boys ain't going nowhere. Stop predicting all of this nonsense!!!
ReplyDeleteWhat about you, Ghost of Richie Whitt? Are you going somewhere, else? Fingers crossed!
ReplyDeleteWoulda loved to hear the meltdown, but alas I don't rise that early..here's the deal boys, The Ticket can do what they do..(Sportstalk)..but they (Fail/Espn) still can't do what the littlest one does. I had to listen to a bit of B+S yesterday when the Ticket ran out of line up near Ardmore, and this is coming from a fan of B+S when they were fill-ins on KTCK, their horrible at real life talk. The Ticket can handle the loss of one or two day one-ers, but i can't see anyone leaving. Remember what the wise man said: Better to stay with the devil you know.
ReplyDelete@anonymous: Just re-listened to Goose's interview today. No mention of an "announcement," unless it happened at some other point in the show.
ReplyDeleteFor what it's worth:
ReplyDeleteJon Pinch,Executive Vice President and Co-Chief Operating Officer of Cumulus Media, Inc., jon.pinch@cumulus.com
@normalguyguide
ReplyDeleteThanks for the update. I could swear that I heard Norm say that Goose had an announcement to make during his mix with the Musers.
A firm man-hug to Ghost of Richie Whitt and Josh's Broken Groin. Welcome to My Ticket Confession, and please stop by often.
ReplyDeleteWe had a huge jolt of new readers a couple of days ago, as a couple of UT and Aggie fan sites linked to us. Hope to see them again soon.
Found this on the DFWradio.net boards:
ReplyDeleteRe: Josh Lewin
« Reply #1 on: Yesterday at 10:42:22 PM
"He's been wanting to leave for months. He's 'too good' for radio from what I hear. TV people are classy in his book, radio people are not. Don't know him, just what I've heard from insiders.
Re: Josh Lewin
Reply #2 on: Today at 12:20:10 AM
"He probably got tired of being talked over by that Effinbaum guy.
Good luck to him."
Okay, this has been bugging me for awhile...in the new outro announcement, it sounds like Conrad says, "Broadcasting live, from the new MetroPCS Mothership at Victory Plaza, HARD by the AAC"
ReplyDeleteWhat word is he saying that sounds like HARD? It doesn't make sense.
Wouldn't that be great if all of The Ticket hosts were to leave(after non-competes or whatever)and went a station that plays music wanted to get in the sports talk business and had a signal to use? They could probably name their demands and I'm sure it wouldn't take long to be back on top. I know, I'm living in dream land, but most of us don't know what happens at The Ticket and just speculate anyway. That's all I'm doing. Also, wouldn't it be a little strange is someone, say Cumulus, who owns multiple stations as it is, bought The Ticket, and sabatoged it as it was and really pissed all of the hosts off, in order to bring them down. Granted this would costs lots of money to do, but so far, nothing else has worked for taking them down. I know I don't like listening to them bitch all of the time. That tends to turn me off. Maybe it's working if that would be the case.
ReplyDeleteOK, back to the real world!
Shaggy, he's saying "hard". It's a Rhynerism (not really, but he's the only one I've ever use it) that means close or immediate.
ReplyDelete"Hard" is an early Ticket-ism used first by The Hardline and then adopted by the rest of the Day Oners. Its original meaning is akin to loyalty to the station and to being a GMF (Good Mother You Know What). Gordon, but of course, took the term to another level or twenty by applying it in a seedy way to often times non-seedy things. In other words, he did what he does best: he used the term to sexualize anything and everything. I believe Conrad is in some bizarre way using the term equivocally in the spot.
ReplyDeleteI hope Grubes stays!
ReplyDeletewww.grubesismyleader.com
@ Shaggy: "Hard by" is an idiomatic expression that is old-fashioned but still in use -- kind of like "heave to and trice up," those kind of genteel phrases that Mike R favors. Been around for decades if not centuries. Nice to see him continue to keep them in circulation.
ReplyDeleteOMG: I guess I missed something. What are you referring to? Is Grubes mulling over some other job opportunity?
ReplyDeleteNobody is leaving.
ReplyDeleteThanks for clearing that up for us, Anon. You've set our minds at ease.
ReplyDeleteCraig Miller spoke directly to the stream problems today, he "pulled the curtain back" to let the P1 in on the problems. For an entire WEEK the signal was not encoded, and it will reflect as a 0.0 for the ratings that month. Feelings regarding how much it sucks were expressed, and how other stations will spin this to say that they finally beat the Ticket.
ReplyDeleteThey also spoke to how when people predict their demise, and the Little Ticket always bounces back.
Would anyone really try to spin a 0.00? And even further, would anyone buy that? I'm no radio expert, but if a station went from #1 to 0.00, it would lead me to believe it was a mistake somehere.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to leave this link right here...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theunticket.com/pulling-back-the-curtain-musers-explain-the-2012-encoding-snafu/
Thought someone might find this interesting. Numbers see skewed tor a wider listening day/week, but they are out there.
ReplyDeletehttp://outkickthecoverage.com/the-top-rated-sports-talk-stations-in-the-country.php#.TzFwLCYAunA.twitter
On the encoding issue. Let whitt and the boys try to comment on it. Itll make em look dumb. The only way they could spin it is if the Fans actual ratings went up, and they wont, the ticket didnt lose listners to the Fan, they just wont record any listeners at all. so while the Ticket normally pulls what 7.0-8.0 and the Fan 2.8, this month may be The ticket 4.0 and the Fan will still be 2.8. And anyone who follows the local radio scene will know the truth anyhow.
ReplyDeleteJust listened to the segment. Good work and thanks for doing it, ap. Boy oh boy when they were talking about those who would stupidly use the skewed ratings to their advantage they were talking about one person...Richie Whitt. Something tells me that that guy is not well liked in the media circle. And from what I can tell if that is the case, it would be with pretty good reason.
ReplyDeleteRipped from the DFW-radio.net boards:
ReplyDelete"DavidEduardo
rimember
Online Online
Posts: 21991
Re: KTCK didn't Encode Signal ???
Reply #2 on: Today at 11:38:13 AM »
Quote from: zone_guy on Today at 09:28:37 AM
So, listening to The Ticket this morning, I heard the Musers announce that in there move to the new Victory Park Studios, their engineers DIDN'T ENCODE their signal for PPM. Apparently, it took them 2 weeks to realize the problem...UGH! So, for the first two weeks of the January 2012 book, they are going to have a 0.0! Yikes!
Reply: I checked the weeklies, which for January are 1/5 to 1/11 and 1/12 to 1/18, and the weeklies are "normal" within the range that this station wobbles. Further, the last week of Holida, ending the 4th of January, also has normal range numbers.
Sounds like they were encoded, but "making it seem" that they were not as an excuse to get listeners to "tell a friend" to listen and to openly discuss ratings.
Interesting. I'm going to check in with an Arbitron rep and see what they say."
*NB what follows are my comments on the above dfw-radio.net posting*
Didn't David Eduardo once work at The Ticket? His story doesn't sound right. But, if anyone has followed that site, they know that he's a pretty informed and seemingly well connected poster. Anyway, I thought his comment might be of interest.
Now The Hardline is doing the encoding explanation. They must be pretty darn worried that the fall out from this could be of serious consequence. Why else would they bother? Maybe they've gotten wind of The Fan (because let's face it, that's the other station[s] they're talking about--and specifically Richie Whitt, and perhaps even Russ Martin) having some sort of ad blitz that's about to hit the town? Although its a weird situation, it's a lot weirder for a station to talk/make a big deal about it. Am I the only one here who thinks this is an odd way of handling such a thing?
ReplyDeleteI'd guess they're going overboard to explain it for a couple of reasons:
ReplyDelete1) Advertising dollars. I'd imagine that the sales folk at the Ticket probably use their ratings dominance to prevent potential clients from advertising on other stations that have far superior signal coverage. Would you rather advertise your product/sevice on a 50,000Watt blowtorch that has very few listeners, or DFW's most popular station hands down?
2) The hosts are very clearly trying to have someone removed, and publicizing an act of incompetence like this one, an act that hurts the bottom lines of many employees may finally do the trick.
@rockyroad Seems pretty shrewd on their part since it gets guys like us talking about it. This will either be a big deal brought up in the media and other radio stations...or it will be nothing and they will credit the P1, enduring them even more to the station.
ReplyDeleteap and P2 in MI:
ReplyDeleteGood insight, guys. What you both say makes sense.
@davideduardo; The relevant period is the last two wks in Jan, not the first.
ReplyDeletePlainsman: The comment wasn't David Eduardo's. It was mine. I pasted his comment from a DFW radio board. Also, it looks like you posted a new article, but it isn't showing up on the homepage.
ReplyDeleteNow Mr. Eduardo has changed his tune. After having done some research.
ReplyDeleteDavidEduardo
rimember
Online Online
Posts: 21995
Re: KTCK didn't Encode Signal ???
« Reply #6 on: Today at 07:35:26 PM »
Quote from: DavidEduardo on Today at 03:01:09 PM
The latest news is that the encoding... or lack of same... was affected in a five day period at the end of Week 3 and the beginning of Week 4. The dates mentioned by the station talent's post are off, but there really appears to have been a period where no encoding took place. As far as Arbitron is concerned, it's the same as being off the air.
*NB What follows is not David Eduardo* So now we know, as if we didn't before, that our heroes' ratings will be affected.
@Everyone:
ReplyDeleteI've been mostly away from the channel the past several days. Gigantic thanks to Confessors for great comments and news. And to AP for the Twitter boost. This Ticket Three-Mile Island event has driven incredible traffic to the site.
Hope to have a new blast up soon.
Why do some of you believe that the Musers were specifically talking about Richie Whitt? Why is he such a hated figure at the Ticket? When he worked for the Observer, every year he gave the best sports show award to either the Musers or the Hardline. Not sure why they hate him so much.
ReplyDeleteNorm just had his behind the curtain segment on the ppm encoding issue.
ReplyDeleteOff topic... I see the First Lady, doing a healthy eating thing in town. That alone is a power down for me due to personal politics, but she is doing something good, so no big deal. BUT, then in the background... bigger than life, is Rowdy, the biggest of all power downs!!!!
ReplyDeleteRyan B:
ReplyDeleteFirst off, and I know you didn't say this, I don't think I've ever read on this blog or by its commenters that Richie Whitt is hated. Whitt wrote several pieces in the Observer insinuating the demise of The Ticket as constituted/as the dominant sports station. One of his more infamous lines referred to a so-called "last supper" incident. I think you can easily infer his meaning. When both the Musers and The Hardline refer to so-called "last suppers" in mocking tone in their explanations of the encoding foul up (when specifically talking about others predicting their demise and how it only makes them stronger), it's pretty safe to assume that they are talking about Whitt. Furthermore, fairly or not, Whitt's expose and subsequent handling of the Greggo fiasco was not received well by The Ticket hosts. And then, oddly enough, soon after said expose, which was very much biased toward Greggo, Greggo and Whitt became co-hosts of their own show.
While you're right that Whitt at one time would praise The Ticket, once he was offered a show of his own, his tone changed (which is his right). You must also recall that The Ticket was very good to him. Whitt was given airtime and was mentioned in always a favorable light for years. He was even a Plus One when they were trying to find a replacement for Greggo (which one can only imagine it rubbed them the wrong way when he takes said ex on as a partner --some might say an opportunistic and even cynical move on Whitt's part. I think what also peeved off The Ticket and many of its listeners is that until things started to get a bit out of control (once again) with Greggo (as Whitt's co-host), Whitt regularly made annoying "just you wait see what's about to happen; I just had my contract renewed; etc." claims. In many of these claims while he would dutifully say that The Ticket kicked everyone's arse in the ratings, he would also give out skewed and rather, ahem, creative interpretations/readings of his own ratings. Again, all of this ceased after Greggo went off the deep end with unseemly and sad Tweets (that eventually ended up in a "Tweet War" between Whitt, Greggo, and others--that was disgustingly swept under the rug by insulting their audience). Soon thereafter the Observer shut down Whitt's blog and relieved him of his weekly column...and even that particular didn't make too much sense, as told by Whitt.
I'm not sure what your background knowledge of the relationship between Whitt and The Ticket is, but hopefully this sheds a little light.
Yeah, their anger in the past has always been more directed towards the DMN media reporting guy (can't remember his name right now since they seemingly abandoned media reporting a while ago). He continually predicted the Ticket's demise for years and seemingly found a way to twist good Ticket news into good news for a competitor regularly. Since he's now irrelevant maybe people just assume Richie is the only target left since he's the only "media reporter" that really talks about ratings.
ReplyDeletebarry honr is the DMN writer who regualarly took the ticket to task and wrote if its demise. Richie used to be respected in this market. I used to love his blog at the sportatorium. Once he got his radio gig, his radio head gto bigger and he basically shit on his readers at the observer. It was commented on daily how his writings were worse and worse and he basically started taunting his readers with brash over the top blogs and statements. He turned into a shock jock, just saying the most off the wall things he could (he still does this now). I dont wish hate or ill will or failure toward richie, I just dont prefer the Richie that he puts out in public now like I did the Richie of 4 years ago.
ReplyDeleteThank you Anonymous. That does clear things up for me. I left DFW for a while and came back just as Richie and Greggo were starting their show. I knew nothing of Richie and the Ticket's relationship.
ReplyDeleteI have heard a drop on his show of him saying, "I f-ing hate the Ticket.", so I did assume there was a bad relationship between them, just didn't know why.
Thanks again!
He still has his blog but the comments are moderated so don't know how many people are reading it.
ReplyDeletehttp://dfw.cbslocal.com/category/blogs/sportatorium/
@EastTexasp1, his blog sucks now, no one reads it because no one can comment on it. Ive read at other places where multiple people have tried to comment, and the moderator wont post them or delete them. Ive seen people on twitter ask him why comments wont post and its silence from him
ReplyDelete@Scott:
ReplyDeleteI agree with all of your comments. I rarely look at it anymore and have also tried to post comments, to no avail.
Ryan B:
ReplyDeleteYou're most welcome. The comments about Barry Horn and the DMN are also valid.
@ScottsMerkin
ReplyDeleteWhitt is the quintessence of hypocritical. He's so bleepin' "call 'em like I see 'em" and "full disclosure" when it comes to others. But when it comes to himself or his business, no can do. And please, everyone, I don't intend this to set off a barrage of RW sucks because he's X, Y, or Z comments; I'm only addressing ScottsMerkin's statement to the effect that RW doesn't allow comments on his CBS blog/won't address the issue.
Below is from a tweet Grubes sent out an hour or so ago. I guess The Little One didn't need to have every show pull back the curtain and whine about the possibility that they wouldn't be number one in the ratings for a week or so, after all.
ReplyDelete"Per Shoopy: Wow--we spot the competition 3 days in a broadcast week when for for all practical ratings purposes we were not even on the air...and they still couldn't knock us down. http://tl.gd/fta6jm · Reply
Report post"
I don't think they were whining. The curtain thing is about beating the other stations to the punch because if they did pass the ticket they would make a huge deal of it. A much bigger deal about it than the ticket does for kicking their ass monthly and yearly.
ReplyDeleteI don't think they were whining. The curtain thing is about beating the other stations to the punch because if they did pass the ticket they would make a huge deal of it. A much bigger deal about it than the ticket does for kicking their ass monthly and yearly.
ReplyDeleteAm I just imagining the lack of drops since the move? I'm guessing that is one of the things that they are "working on"? I'm really missing the well-timed drop that can stop the show down.
ReplyDeleteThere have not been as many drops since the move. Apparently getting the enco transferred properly was not 'critical'. Grubes has mentioned it a few times since the move. However since last Friday, there have been a lot more drops, at least on the hardline.
ReplyDeleteThe machine formerly known as the "Enco" is now dead. They're using a new machine, the "OpEx", which is far better suited for playing music. This is why you'll hear drops suddenly stop when Grubes tries to play more than one thing at once: the system simply isn't designed for that kind of usage. I recall hearing that they were trying to fix that with a software upgrade, though.
ReplyDeleteSeparate to this issue was the transferring of drops from the old Enco to this new beast. My best guess is that this process required exporting old drops, encoding them for the new machine, and then importing them one-by-one. From the sounds of things, it's a process that started with drop #1 and will finish with the final drop. Grubes and Jer asked for everything to be transferred, but I don't know if they specified a priority, so you'll hear things just magically appear with each passing day.
(By the way, I'm inferring all of this based on what I've heard over the air and read over twitter-tweets - folks in the know, please correct me where necessary)
Time for a new article or something, Plainsman.
ReplyDeleteI've got about 1,600 or so drops on my PC. I can only imagine how many were in the Enco. Again though, something that should've worked out months before they moved in.
ReplyDeletePLAINSMEN WTF WRITE SOMETHING THE P1 IS HUNGRY
ReplyDeleteWTDS was amazing today! Greggo as the Dallas version of Jackie "The Joke Man" Martling and a heaping helping of Fake Big Dick Hunter Gone Occult, Magic, And Porn Wild! I echo others when I say, "new material NOW Plainsman!"
ReplyDelete