Wednesday, May 30, 2012

May 30, 2011

3:37 a.m.--It appears this site (that is, Your Plainsman) may owe an apology to The Dancing Bear at First Base, one Ty Walker by name, who an Anonymous commenter reported had been suspended for Tweeting a Jeff Catlin email.  I had my suspicions, since I could find no Internet reference to this having taken place.  And if this report was wrong, then apologies are also owed to the CTO as well.

But they're still screwed up.

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8:09 a.m. -- Cannibalizing from some of my later-last-night comments:

Because of the existence of message boards and sites like this one, there are lots of ways Ticketarians could communicate dissatisfaction to listeners, not to mention through their own Twitter accounts and blogs. But there wasn't much of that, and I almost never heard discouraging words from Ticket guys behind the scenes.  That suggested to me that employees felt loyalty to The Ticket and, perhaps derivatively, to Cumulus.

But now, we do hear a lot of public grumbling in different forums and on the air.  This suggests that Cumulus and local Ticket management no longer inspire that loyalty.  /What we're hearing from hosts and JV has job-losing potential all over it; it follows (to me) that the conditions that gave rise to the previous loyalty must have changed, and changed dramatically.

Conclusion, as if you didn't know if you were a faithful reader of Your Plainsman's speculations: Things are much worse at The Ticket than they were even six months ago, so bad that the risk calculus for Ticketarians has changed.  Grumblers may risk the loss of a paycheck or two, or even a job. But the grumbler gains something, too -- he's embarrasses a management that for the last six months has done little but embarrass him and his professional colleagues. Worth it? Not it things are cool; maybe, if the grumbler thinks things are headed off the rails anyway.

So it's not the content of the grumbling that is of the greatest interest -- it's that Ticketarians think it things have gotten so bad (and believe me, it's not limited to catastrophic remotes, crappy Internet feeds, and bungled hardware/software implementation in the studio, although that would be enough) that they want to risk telling the P1 about it.

And by the way -- if you accept Danny's invitation to contact the CTO, send them the link to this site.  They can start here (http://myticketconfession.blogspot.com/2012/05/apocalypse-sometime.html) and work their way forward.

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2:40 PM -- NUMEROUS REPORTS THAT JAKE KEMP MAY HAVE BEEN INVITED TO RELAX AWAY FROM THE TICKET FOR A WEEK. 

See comments below for possible/likely reasons for this generous offer by the CTO.

I'll be by the station if I can, but if anyone can confirm, please post.

30 comments:

  1. Ty WAS suspended but it was a couple months ago. They briefly brought it up on the Hardline afterward, and intimated it had something to do with Ty making some ill-advised tweets but no other info was given.

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  2. It happened before the move because it was regarding Diamond Talk not being on the air after a World Series game. This happened probably 9-10 months ago.

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  3. I do regret the misimpression that I helped to foster.

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  4. This site would be a lot more informative and easier to read if you wrote in a more straight-ahead style. I'm all for having fun with language, but I have no idea what this post says. Stop trying to write like Rhyner talks!

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  5. I remember the suspension, and it was over Diamond Talk not being on after a World Series game. Which basically shows you that the ineptitude of management can be traced back prior to the Victory move. And which is telling.

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  6. Frank:

    www.grubesismyleader.com

    Thank you for shopping at My Ticket Confession.

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  7. Random but after the Tom Grieve show tech meltdown today Dan said something like "We may have a real station if we could get some working technology here... But just don't tweet about it..." Maybe the CTO has told the hosts to censor their tweets...

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  8. Of course the CTOs said something about it. No company in their right mind would allow for its employees to behave in such a way, no matter how justified the employees might be.

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  9. I'd say there's a pretty good chance Jake got suspended or worse.

    He engaged a Cumulus exec via twitter last night:

    His original extremely sarcastic tweet to @MikeMcVay (which he deleted at some point today) said something to the effect of "hey mike, things are going great at KTCK since you guys bought us".

    McVay's response: "@NotJackKemp @tc1310 Thanks man! Jeff Catlin is one of the best PDs in America... Hell, North America"

    (He obviously didn't get the joke)

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  10. Is Jake not on BaD today?

    Also, there's a lot of buzz going on at the site that T4 and others have been posting links to. Mostly how the stream issue doesn't seem to be plaguing the other Cumulus Victory stations, only The Ticket. That and how either a firing or a leaving might be imminent. Stay tuned folks, there's definitely some major turbulence in the jet stream today.

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  11. yep, no Jake.

    Grubes was also engaging McVay and identified himself as a former KTCK board op. McVay blocked him.

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  12. Jake's been in SF since Friday. He can probably stay a couple extra days if he wants thanks to that tweet

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  13. I thought he returned yesterday?

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  14. Yeah, Jake was there yesterday. Just double confirmed at the UnTicket archives.

    Which is why it was extra strange that he's not there today.

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  15. Jake is in "detention hall" so says Rhyner on the air just now

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  16. D'oh, how did I miss that Jake was back yesterday...oh right, the stream.

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  17. It is painfully obvious that Hardline proper +1 have been in the principal's office today. Bet hard money that BaD is in there now after hearing their show today.

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  18. Ok I have read and read and i give up....CTO?

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  19. Sorry P1bdogETX. I try to remind folks from time to time that CTO stands for "Cumulo-Ticket Overlords."

    And STD stands for "Scorching Ticket Disquisition."

    And a hearty welcome to you.

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  20. Thanks and thanks again...LOL. I'm sorry I did not know this existed. great job and keep it up. This drama is better than any drama on TV. I love it.

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  21. My, take it for what it's worth, analysis: What you have here is a case of underlings and peripherals getting caught up in a game of 'let's impress our heroes.' This is a dangerous game to play. Because while they might garner the short term atta boy from their heroes (which includes Grubes, by taking his Tweeting lead), in the not so long run they might be setting back their careers in this business, if not severely hampering or killing them. The hosts can (well most can anyway-can a Donnie or even Dan?)get away with such outbursts with a "talking to" or some other disciplinarian action. The rest of the guys cannot, at least not for long. We're perhaps seeing that with Jake. And I'll bet more actions from the CTOs come down with every Tweet or comment from here on out. Once one person is disciplined, it only gets more severe and frequent from that point in time.

    Yes the 'atta boys' are great right now, but if those actions utlimately lead to firings and/or black balling/being deemed a problem/unhireable in the business, are they worth it? Because no matter how much of a bunker mentality/solidarity you have with your heroes, you ain't one of them. In short: you get yourself fired, you'll find yourself forgotten sooner rather than later...and that's not a knock on your heroes, that's just human nature. Tread carefully.

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  22. A lot of truth there. It's why I think things must be really bad that these guys would feel so crummy about their circumstances that they would ignore the risk you identify.

    And, as you say, they might see the Mikes (and even the Dans, Dannys, and Corbys) of the world getting away with publicly speaking truth to power from time to time and think they can do so as well.

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  23. A lot of truth there, last anon. Same with what Plainsman said following. To add on to anon's points, I also think you have many of these second tier personalities and side men getting way too much air time, thus getting way too big for their britches, and therefore believing they have cache that they decidedly do not have. It sure is getting nasty up there. Something's going to give. It's either going to be the CTO getting their collective S*** together in a hurry, or someone(s) is (are) going to be fired or leave on their own accord.

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  24. Wow, listening to the presentation today, I get the visual of them sitting there talking with 3 large men standing over them holding the mushmouth taser stick instructed to fire at the first sign of any shtick.

    What a restricter plate show! BaD will be interesting tomorrow.

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  25. Damn, I been in meetings for the past two hours, let's see if something busts loose here before 7P.

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  26. This is from Grubes, sometime today around 1 pm. So we know it's not a buzzed Tweet and I'm pretty sure Grubes isn't going off half-cocked when he makes these claims. What follows is very interesting:

    Michael Gruber ‏@tweetgrubes

    @rbfgnc @MikeMcVay Great for @allnews1067. Doesn't change the fact that KTCK is being systematically dismantled by Cumulus.
    Hide conversation

    Reply
    Retweet
    Favorite

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  27. I'll bet "It's Just Banter" this week is going to examine topics such as fly fishing, ideas for decorating that carriage house out back, and creative dishes employing mung beans. I'm sure the CTO downloading it will find it fascinating.

    Jake's been a good sport about this site, takes the brickbats along with the bouquets, and is a sometime commenter. I'm sure he's manfully taking his medicine, but can't help feeling for the guy.

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  28. I just texted back and forth with Jake and he informed me that the ball gag he's been contractually obligated to wear during IJB this week actually has a Ticket logo on it.

    Oh, and also that this internet thing has turned super gay.

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  29. I think it's pretty clear by now: CTO have said "knock it off, or else" (i.e., Yoooaah Fyuuuud - Trump style). Can't say I blame them. Can't say I blame the employees for being publicly upset, either.

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  30. Plainsman, I have a brief request for you - I'd like to catalog the incidents that have driven KTCK folks nuts over the last 5 months. Incidents like the transmitter not working because someone didn't refuel it, all the way down to producer's microphones sounding like they were originating from the great beyond. Would you mind creating a thread for this purpose? I think it would eventually prove to be quite useful.

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