A home for those who love almost everything about The Ticket (1310 AM, 96.7 FM, Dallas-Fort Worth), and who would like to discuss -- respectfully and fondly -- their thoughts on how (and whether) to eliminate the "almost."
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
June 5, 2012
7:52 a.m. -- Isn't it amazing how well Junior disguises his utter disgust at having to interview Hulk Hogan, Peter Gammons, and other notables imposed on The Musers?
I began listening less and less to The Ticket about a year and a half ago. Used to be a P1. Actually, I was a Day 1 P1, for real. I stopped being a P1 because the station became baser and baser as a whole. Not every host, mind you, but in general it felt more shock jock, Howard Stern than The Little One that had played such a huge role in my life.
The last 6 months have transformed me from a P2 to a marginal P3. I can easily see where one day I might stop listening all together. The station is more contentious than ever. The Hardline, once my favorite show, is now unlistenable: Rhyner's either all over the place or in some sort of La La Land and Corby is a pretty much insufferable guy. Danny, for me, represents what the Hardline used to be:edgy, funny, and yet grounded in sports with a little bit of local nightlife/good old days/guy talk. Even their once great music talk segments have now been denuded of any meaning, as they occur far too often. It's as if Rhyner has run out of things to say, and merely defers to the almost unsettling self-confident and know-it-all Corby. The rest of the shows, except Norm who lives in his own insular little sports and travel world, have become less user friendly and hardened. It seems that the move to Victory and all the problems that have happened has only furthered this.
I hear you loud and clear. I'm not quite where you are, but I'm getting close. I hate to say so and so is a jerk or whatnot, because let's face it, as much as I've always considered them a part of my 'family,' I only know their radio personas. So while Dan might come off many times as an ass over the air, he's probably a great neighbor, father, husband, and friend. Or maybe not. Who knows? I don't. Having said that, all I can go off is what I hear over the air. Lately I hear nothing but bitching and moaning from nearly all the hosts. To me, if there are persistent technical problems that are obviously affecting the listeners' experience then, yes, they ought to be addressed. But addressed in a professional manner and addressed only as needed; not every single time something happens; and addressed as petulant teenagers. A "we're sorry for the problems, we're working on getting them fixed, please hang in there, and we appreciate your patience" statement from time to time is all that is required. The hosts are letting these problems get to them and it's affecting their performance, and so, the listeners' experience. It's tough for me to listen to a bunch of grown men making very good money at jobs that I can only dream about incessantly complain about their situation. I understand that a part of it is an attempt to let the listener in on what's going on; to make us feel like we're on the inside, a bit; to show us that they have the same work related bitches that we all have; and that they are still the same old we don't give a rat's ass about anything guys, even though we've been number one for many years now. I get that. But at some point, and I think they've crossed that point, that which at one time felt like a genuine us vs. them stance, now has begun to ring a bit hollow.
Something that amazes me about the Hardline is that I listen even thought I probably disagree with the hosts on most non-sports topics. Faith, music, politics...all of it. But I still listen because it's entertaining. That's how I know I'm still interested....that I can still listen even though I disagree with them and not get mad.
I think it might have to do with the "Jesus likes to do X" "Baseball Jesus" and other fairly innocuous, yet obnoxious to some, glibly said things that pertain to religion...well, only Christianity.
I so very much wish that the Shaq and Corby Show would happen, and that way we could have a Mike and Danny Hardline. That would be total greatness. We'd have the Hardline the way it used to be before Corby and before Greggo went all pill popping coke snorting on us.
I had to turn the Hardline off today, and I think I'm probably going to take a leave of absence from the show for a while. It was brought on by their ridiculous knee-jerking about the Rangers ("I'm DONE with this team!", Corby exclaimed), but that's just the cherry on top.
I haven't considered myself a fan of that particular show for quite some time, but it's damn near unlistenable these days. I've been trying to figure out what I hate so much about it, and it all comes back to Corby for me. He's a blowhard. He's every bit a blowhard as Rhome and Hacksaw and Nestor and everyone they make fun of, he's just not constrained to sports like they are. Back in the day when he was a yuk monkey, his exposure was limited. Now that he's on every minute of every segment of every show, and now that Rhynes has given up and there's no Greggo to mitigate him, he's severely overexposed. And when he runs wild, it makes Danny and Mike both worse broadcasters, because they don't do anything to rein him in. I know you have a soft spot for him, Plainsman, but my patience with him is gone. I'm not saying I'll never listen to the show again, but my tolerance for stupidity is the lowest its ever been.
You know, I was wondering when these opinions were going to surface. I could not agree more. The snake needs to be tamed..or skinned. It's getting to be too much. He still has a place in the show, just in moderation. The snake turned up full blast starts to grind on ya after a while. I still like the Danny in charge role. He reminds me of my mother when I younger. I would pop off and say something questionable and she would respond with "Goood Lord".
It has been 7 years since I lived in DFW, and it was about 2 years ago, once I finally got a smartphone, when I started listening regularly via stream. In those 5 years was the Greggo blowup and blowout (pun intended). I can personally say that the Headline is not as good as it once was, IMHO. Mike is tamed and sometimes seems to be absent, and as many have expressed, full-time Corby is sometimes too much. While Danny seems to give good balance, I wonder if we would all feel differently if he was on air "full time" as a host?
But I also think: 1) Corby is and will grow as he matures. 2) I may feel differently because it is different, and we often don't handle change well.
This site has been a defender of Corby Davidson, but I have to say that while I did not punch out, I had a reaction identical to that of the magnificent birq.
Corby definitely jacked that segment. Mike is Baseball Jeebus, and he did not agree that the Rangers were not trying, but he was almost absent in that segment. (For the record, I'm with Mike on that -- there's no evidence that this team has quit.) And you know, as sure as SweetJack will will be looking for amazing bargains, that if/when the Rangers ascend again, Corby will be howling their praises in his typically hyperbolic fashion.
This site was started, among other reasons, because I was concerned about The Hardline -- the lack of balance, Mike's detachment. Personally, I do not think Mike is mailing it in, and I think he does care about the show. But he does need to assert control in situations where the OverCorby emerges, as it does from time to time.
And, as all of us who are concerned about recent developments at The Ticket must concede, the ratings are meaningful. The Hardline has the highest of the ratings on this highest-rated stations. So while many Confessors are unhappy with Corby, there is something to the old saw "you can't argue with success." I think the show would be better with More Mike, and More Danny as well, Corby is not turning off the demo.
The Hardline quite often talks about religion/faith. Especially lately--I can think of two long segments lately. Corby often talks about going to Church, and Danny and Mike will make snarky remarks about that. This week they brought up some Fellowship mega-church in Grapevine, and jake and Corby talked about the hot ass that goes there. Jake mentioned that he would go there because it was so funny, or somesuch.
Also there was lengthy discussion about church camps last week or so, and Danny and Jake in particular talked about how manipulative they can be.
We can only hope that the hosts read this site and at least know that there are some of us out here that are fed up with the current format, mainly for me...The Hardline. I think the reason why they're still #1 in ratings is because they have very loyal listeners and there's nothing out there to compete with them. It's definitely not fair to us listeners. After all, we're how they make money...by being P1''ss and listening non stop.
I don't know if they read this site, but Mike said something today that made me think he might, which would hugely surprise me.
Or was it Corby? Maybe someone can help me on this:
It had to do with one of their pleas to The (Incomparable) UnTicket to provide some tape that had been lost in the bungled move to Victory. Whoever it was said that they'd read something about The UnTicket having some problems recording programs going forward. I confess (of course) I haven't been reading The UnTicket itself much of late, but this site certainly has given some attention to The UnTicket's possible problems in snagging content as a result of the changes in the stream.
So I wondered if they might have read it here.
However, I would think that they read the ratings more carefully than they read this site, and attribute much greater significance to them.
I still enjoy The Hardline. It's entertaining. I'll quit listening when I'm not entertained. It has it's highs and lows but overall it's much better and much more unique than anything else out there. I don't just mean DFW because i've worked in many markets and there's nothing that compares to 1310.
The UnTicket has been frequently discussing potential problems with recording the stream, including this post yesterday:
"After all the years of helping P1′s re-listen, I think new audio will be hard to come by with their move to iheart radio. If someone has any suggestions or know of a way around it, let me know.
I believe it was at the end of CQH. It was Danny's prediction alone he said "Write It Down".
Also it seems like the last week or two, the podcasts have gone back to "Economy size". For a while we were getting lengthy podcasts which have not been lengthy for all that long. I know I complained to the station before I discovered the confessional about 4 months ago. This sucks! Jake took care of us until his promotion. TC's been dropping the ball.
I'm drawing a blank on the guy's name, but somebody had a book signing at Barnes & Noble and the turnout was poor - so he complained (Twitter?) about what a sorry town Dallas was. Hardine was discussing that he must have a poor agent because they didn't know anything about. At which point somebody passed on to them that the book signing was promoted on The Fan. In the midst of the ensuing dogpile, Danny said "they will be gone in 8 months."
@Anon, 3:54PM - That would be most unfortunate, but his age and weight loss are both consistent with when IBD hits. Or maybe he just had some bad meatballs at his own wedding and he's in the process of filling in Bachman Lake (please forgive the spelling)
The ticket's own E-Grant has Crohns too, so he'd probably know best.
Looks like the Sanjay Gupta spot happens at 9:55 during a break. Completely unobtrusive.
ReplyDelete@Shaggy: True. It's really no worse than Brad Thomashch'shch Schportsch Bisch.
ReplyDeleteWhen I heard the Gupta commercial, I thought, "What was all the fuss about?"
ReplyDeleteI began listening less and less to The Ticket about a year and a half ago. Used to be a P1. Actually, I was a Day 1 P1, for real. I stopped being a P1 because the station became baser and baser as a whole. Not every host, mind you, but in general it felt more shock jock, Howard Stern than The Little One that had played such a huge role in my life.
ReplyDeleteThe last 6 months have transformed me from a P2 to a marginal P3. I can easily see where one day I might stop listening all together. The station is more contentious than ever. The Hardline, once my favorite show, is now unlistenable: Rhyner's either all over the place or in some sort of La La Land and Corby is a pretty much insufferable guy. Danny, for me, represents what the Hardline used to be:edgy, funny, and yet grounded in sports with a little bit of local nightlife/good old days/guy talk. Even their once great music talk segments have now been denuded of any meaning, as they occur far too often. It's as if Rhyner has run out of things to say, and merely defers to the almost unsettling self-confident and know-it-all Corby. The rest of the shows, except Norm who lives in his own insular little sports and travel world, have become less user friendly and hardened. It seems that the move to Victory and all the problems that have happened has only furthered this.
Wow. WTDS was a little tense today. It is totally apparant Dan does not care.
ReplyDelete@ Anon 12:53
ReplyDeleteI hear you loud and clear. I'm not quite where you are, but I'm getting close. I hate to say so and so is a jerk or whatnot, because let's face it, as much as I've always considered them a part of my 'family,' I only know their radio personas. So while Dan might come off many times as an ass over the air, he's probably a great neighbor, father, husband, and friend. Or maybe not. Who knows? I don't. Having said that, all I can go off is what I hear over the air. Lately I hear nothing but bitching and moaning from nearly all the hosts. To me, if there are persistent technical problems that are obviously affecting the listeners' experience then, yes, they ought to be addressed. But addressed in a professional manner and addressed only as needed; not every single time something happens; and addressed as petulant teenagers. A "we're sorry for the problems, we're working on getting them fixed, please hang in there, and we appreciate your patience" statement from time to time is all that is required. The hosts are letting these problems get to them and it's affecting their performance, and so, the listeners' experience. It's tough for me to listen to a bunch of grown men making very good money at jobs that I can only dream about incessantly complain about their situation. I understand that a part of it is an attempt to let the listener in on what's going on; to make us feel like we're on the inside, a bit; to show us that they have the same work related bitches that we all have; and that they are still the same old we don't give a rat's ass about anything guys, even though we've been number one for many years now. I get that. But at some point, and I think they've crossed that point, that which at one time felt like a genuine us vs. them stance, now has begun to ring a bit hollow.
Major props for the Unticket going on right now on the Hardline! Atta boys, dp and dywpp!
ReplyDeleteSomething that amazes me about the Hardline is that I listen even thought I probably disagree with the hosts on most non-sports topics. Faith, music, politics...all of it. But I still listen because it's entertaining. That's how I know I'm still interested....that I can still listen even though I disagree with them and not get mad.
ReplyDeleteWhen has the Hardline ever talked about faith?
ReplyDeleteI think it might have to do with the "Jesus likes to do X" "Baseball Jesus" and other fairly innocuous, yet obnoxious to some, glibly said things that pertain to religion...well, only Christianity.
ReplyDeleteI so very much wish that the Shaq and Corby Show would happen, and that way we could have a Mike and Danny Hardline. That would be total greatness. We'd have the Hardline the way it used to be before Corby and before Greggo went all pill popping coke snorting on us.
ReplyDeleteI had to turn the Hardline off today, and I think I'm probably going to take a leave of absence from the show for a while. It was brought on by their ridiculous knee-jerking about the Rangers ("I'm DONE with this team!", Corby exclaimed), but that's just the cherry on top.
ReplyDeleteI haven't considered myself a fan of that particular show for quite some time, but it's damn near unlistenable these days. I've been trying to figure out what I hate so much about it, and it all comes back to Corby for me. He's a blowhard. He's every bit a blowhard as Rhome and Hacksaw and Nestor and everyone they make fun of, he's just not constrained to sports like they are. Back in the day when he was a yuk monkey, his exposure was limited. Now that he's on every minute of every segment of every show, and now that Rhynes has given up and there's no Greggo to mitigate him, he's severely overexposed. And when he runs wild, it makes Danny and Mike both worse broadcasters, because they don't do anything to rein him in. I know you have a soft spot for him, Plainsman, but my patience with him is gone. I'm not saying I'll never listen to the show again, but my tolerance for stupidity is the lowest its ever been.
You know, I was wondering when these opinions were going to surface. I could not agree more. The snake needs to be tamed..or skinned. It's getting to be too much. He still has a place in the show, just in moderation. The snake turned up full blast starts to grind on ya after a while. I still like the Danny in charge role. He reminds me of my mother when I younger. I would pop off and say something questionable and she would respond with "Goood Lord".
ReplyDeleteIt has been 7 years since I lived in DFW, and it was about 2 years ago, once I finally got a smartphone, when I started listening regularly via stream. In those 5 years was the Greggo blowup and blowout (pun intended). I can personally say that the Headline is not as good as it once was, IMHO. Mike is tamed and sometimes seems to be absent, and as many have expressed, full-time Corby is sometimes too much. While Danny seems to give good balance, I wonder if we would all feel differently if he was on air "full time" as a host?
ReplyDeleteBut I also think:
1) Corby is and will grow as he matures.
2) I may feel differently because it is different, and we often don't handle change well.
Corby.....matures???? He's 42, or in Corby years, "He's 96 now!"
ReplyDeleteI guess I was thinking more about maturity of years as an on air host and not just a producer or yuck monkey.
DeleteThis site has been a defender of Corby Davidson, but I have to say that while I did not punch out, I had a reaction identical to that of the magnificent birq.
ReplyDeleteCorby definitely jacked that segment. Mike is Baseball Jeebus, and he did not agree that the Rangers were not trying, but he was almost absent in that segment. (For the record, I'm with Mike on that -- there's no evidence that this team has quit.) And you know, as sure as SweetJack will will be looking for amazing bargains, that if/when the Rangers ascend again, Corby will be howling their praises in his typically hyperbolic fashion.
This site was started, among other reasons, because I was concerned about The Hardline -- the lack of balance, Mike's detachment. Personally, I do not think Mike is mailing it in, and I think he does care about the show. But he does need to assert control in situations where the OverCorby emerges, as it does from time to time.
And, as all of us who are concerned about recent developments at The Ticket must concede, the ratings are meaningful. The Hardline has the highest of the ratings on this highest-rated stations. So while many Confessors are unhappy with Corby, there is something to the old saw "you can't argue with success." I think the show would be better with More Mike, and More Danny as well, Corby is not turning off the demo.
The Hardline quite often talks about religion/faith. Especially lately--I can think of two long segments lately. Corby often talks about going to Church, and Danny and Mike will make snarky remarks about that. This week they brought up some Fellowship mega-church in Grapevine, and jake and Corby talked about the hot ass that goes there. Jake mentioned that he would go there because it was so funny, or somesuch.
ReplyDeleteAlso there was lengthy discussion about church camps last week or so, and Danny and Jake in particular talked about how manipulative they can be.
We can only hope that the hosts read this site and at least know that there are some of us out here that are fed up with the current format, mainly for me...The Hardline.
ReplyDeleteI think the reason why they're still #1 in ratings is because they have very loyal listeners and there's nothing out there to compete with them. It's definitely not fair to us listeners. After all, we're how they make money...by being P1''ss and listening non stop.
Corby was clearly being sarcastic with the "I'm done with this team" comment.
ReplyDeleteSarcastic? Hardly. He spent the rest of the segment explaining why.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if they read this site, but Mike said something today that made me think he might, which would hugely surprise me.
ReplyDeleteOr was it Corby? Maybe someone can help me on this:
It had to do with one of their pleas to The (Incomparable) UnTicket to provide some tape that had been lost in the bungled move to Victory. Whoever it was said that they'd read something about The UnTicket having some problems recording programs going forward. I confess (of course) I haven't been reading The UnTicket itself much of late, but this site certainly has given some attention to The UnTicket's possible problems in snagging content as a result of the changes in the stream.
So I wondered if they might have read it here.
However, I would think that they read the ratings more carefully than they read this site, and attribute much greater significance to them.
I still enjoy The Hardline. It's entertaining. I'll quit listening when I'm not entertained. It has it's highs and lows but overall it's much better and much more unique than anything else out there. I don't just mean DFW because i've worked in many markets and there's nothing that compares to 1310.
ReplyDeleteThe UnTicket has been frequently discussing potential problems with recording the stream, including this post yesterday:
ReplyDelete"After all the years of helping P1′s re-listen, I think new audio will be hard to come by with their move to iheart radio. If someone has any suggestions or know of a way around it, let me know.
stay hard UnP1′s"
Any word on Danny/Mike's prediction about the Fan being gone in 8 months?
ReplyDeleteDouble Fake: When was this said?
ReplyDeleteI believe it was at the end of CQH. It was Danny's prediction alone he said "Write It Down".
ReplyDeleteAlso it seems like the last week or two, the podcasts have gone back to "Economy size". For a while we were getting lengthy podcasts which have not been lengthy for all that long. I know I complained to the station before I discovered the confessional about 4 months ago. This sucks! Jake took care of us until his promotion. TC's been dropping the ball.
I'm drawing a blank on the guy's name, but somebody had a book signing at Barnes & Noble and the turnout was poor - so he complained (Twitter?) about what a sorry town Dallas was. Hardine was discussing that he must have a poor agent because they didn't know anything about. At which point somebody passed on to them that the book signing was promoted on The Fan. In the midst of the ensuing dogpile, Danny said "they will be gone in 8 months."
ReplyDeleteGreat Gordo is discussing above tweets now on the Corner.
ReplyDeleteFailure again on the remote
ReplyDeleteREMOTE FAILURE IN PROGRESS!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteTalk of broken promises. Maybe the sky is falling...
ReplyDeleteI BET RHYNER RETIRES ON MONDAY!
ReplyDeleteTHE HARDLINE STRUGGLES AGAIN AT REMOTE AS MIKE SUBTLY EXPRESSES HIS ANGER AND THE REST STRUGGLE THROUGH IT STOP
ReplyDeleteMIKE CONTINUES TO HINT AT BUT NOT EXACTLY EXPRESS DEEP DEEP FRUSTRATION WITH THE TECHNICAL PRODUCTION OF THE LITTLE ONE STOP
ReplyDeleteAnd now it's a total f**king mess during an interview with a member of the DALLAS COWBOYS!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI'll bet Mike is ready to fight!
Does Holland have Crohn's?
ReplyDelete@Anon, 3:54PM - That would be most unfortunate, but his age and weight loss are both consistent with when IBD hits. Or maybe he just had some bad meatballs at his own wedding and he's in the process of filling in Bachman Lake (please forgive the spelling)
ReplyDeleteThe ticket's own E-Grant has Crohns too, so he'd probably know best.
Surely there is not an orchestrated effort underway to get Mike to be the first pin that falls.
ReplyDeleteWe can make fun of the Fan but this is not big market radio.
FYI, there is talk of a Cumulus "protest" occurring in the SF Bay Area over their changes to their programming and staffing.
ReplyDeletehttp://richliebermanreport.blogspot.com/2012/06/breaking-listeners-revolt-against.html