Wednesday, July 18, 2012

WARNING -- Marginal Tickety Post: My Brush with Southwest Airline History

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The only connection of this post to The Ticket is The Musers' immersion in all things Southwest Airlines today.  Just a brief encounter with the history of this great American company.

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A few years ago, Mrs. P and I attended an evening function sponsored by my employer at the time.  We were seated at a  table with one of my employer's leaders.  His companion for the evening was a very attractive woman of indeterminate age -- maybe late fifties, early sixties, hard to tell.  She was beautifully dressed, and extremely gracious and charming.  A lovely southern lilt to her voice  We chatted briefly but non-memorably.  I had never seen her before -- or so I thought; I never learned her profession or affiliation; and I did not recognize her name.

But I thought:  OK -- this woman is someone.  There is something about her.  I'm not good with names, terrible, in fact, but I resolved to remember hers.  I told Mrs. P on the way home of my hunch that this woman was notable in some unusual way -- I thought perhaps she was a prominent local benefactress -- and that I was going to look her up on the electric computer internet.

I did so.

Her name is Sandra Force.

She was one of Southwest Airline's first 17 employees, a flight attendant.  Those employees, most of whom continued to work for Southwest well past their financial need to do so, did quite well, as The New York Times reported in 2006 in an article that prominently featured Ms. Force:   On Some Flights, Millionaires Serve the Drinks.

But that is not where she has been most prominently featured.  Remember the early days of Southwest, where  the FA's were dressed in hot pants or miniskirts and boots?  Did you like that outfit?  So did Esquire, especially on Ms. Force, who was featured on its February 1974 cover:


And there is my brush with Southwest Airlines history, and the charming Ms. Sandra Force.




54 comments:

  1. ...and just as they reach the most important part of the broadcast from the flight simulators, they get cut off abruptly and go to commercial.


    oops, now they're back

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  2. It seems like Blankenship is gone from Cumulus Dallas. There's a job posting for a Chief Engineer here:

    http://www.dfwradio.com/Jobs.aspx

    And Blankenship was listed as the Chief Engineer in an old job posting here:

    http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=brett%20blankenship%20chief%20engineeer&source=web&cd=5&ved=0CF4QxQEwBA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdocs.google.com%2Fviewer%3Fa%3Dv%26q%3Dcache%3A8ZMJhrPLJXYJ%3Awww.dfwradio.com%2FLinkClick.aspx%253Ffileticket%253DP%25252Ft4r71pPQw%25253D%2526tabid%253D483%2526mid%253D1679%2Bbrett%2BBlankenship%2Bchief%2Bengineeer%26hl%3Den%26gl%3Dus%26pid%3Dbl%26srcid%3DADGEESh51MkEaG_OLa6Mnt1Tcl54sCiTALcZm5rO_L0tN_29VmHAXduyIgfGdlVA0qTwJ2CJYAde_oYNGbEvK3_LiEsq_97gfl4RiYbwpv9F6yvltsxeMDft7HaHvIU_7HZKYniJYVEx%26sig%3DAHIEtbRJcfWI-bIlYAPDL3JuwPYVoRCj5g&ei=KNAGUOzRGeHW2AXQr4WcBQ&usg=AFQjCNHylhqhJ3kyF_J4me-wpC63T6dggg

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  3. wellisn'tthatspecialJuly 18, 2012 at 7:40 PM

    I just listened to the JKidd bit over at the Unticket. All I can say is: wow, pretty harsh. There's no way Gordon Keith would've done that if JKidd was still a Mav. Nope. Gordon, like most of his ilk, only picks only on those not around, those he knows will not fight back (for whatever reason, which could mean the other party absolutely doesn't give a shit and Gordon knows it, a la Jerry Jones, Cuban, and Wade Phillips), and those he knows he can bully with little or no consequence. Typical Gordon Keith. My wish is that someone with even a modicum of philosophical, sociological, or psychological background would begin doing a Gordon Keith imitation. Too bad there's no one at either The Ticket or its competitors that has that sort of background. Sorry, Jake "Z" Kemp doesn't count. The kid has neither the chops nor the stones (nor the wont to lose his job, or at the very least make his life up there miserable, I'm sure) to pull off such a thing. A P1 can dream, though.

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  4. (1) I had to leave the channel after George's flight instruction. How was the rest of the show?

    (2) I've only caught a bit of Rhads and Followill filling in for The Hardline. I'm asking myself -- would I listen to this over the competition if this were the full-time drive show? Tentative answer: Yes.

    I realized that I hadn't punched RaGE in in a very long time, so did so yesterday (ESPN had the Rangers).

    Richie/Greggo/Sybil/Armen -- I've heard RaGE segments in the past that I thought were OK and even more than OK, but when I tuned in yesterday, it sounded like the air had gone completely out of the thing. Richie was barely present and sounded defeated the few times he chimed in. (Admission: In fairness, I didn't listen for long, so this impression should not be taken as a descriptionn of the show from stem-to-stern or on a daily basis. I may just have caught non-Richie segments.)

    Rhads and Mark: Rhads has an aversion to dead air and so the show has kind of an old-fashioned sound to it, not as conversational as your typical Ticket fare, but I like it.

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  5. Plainsman, I wonder if the reason why they sounded less than normal has anything to do with the fact that the chemistry is changing because Richie is dating Sybil. I would think something like that would be banned, for the sake of it changing the outcome of their production, but I heard them referencing a couple of days ago about how Sybil was staying at Richie's house. I figured, I guess the cat's out of the bag, at least publicly and not a rumor. I think it's definitely not good for their show to go on in that manor. Greggo is very fragile and who knows what this does to him. Apparently things like that don't matter to Richie, otherwise he wouldn't even attempt to be dating Sybil.

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  6. Hard to say. Again, yesterday's listening was the only RaGE exposure I've had in a long time so it may have been atypical.

    Aside from whether a workplace romance has an effect on the presentation, stuff like that tends to be dicey from a company liability standpoint. If things go south in the relationship followed by things going south for one or the other party (usually the female) in the workplace -- hello, civil rights lawyer.

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  7. I tried listening to Elf and the girl earlier this week and I could only listen to part of one segment. Truly terrible.

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  8. I've known for quite some time that I can only take Rhads in small doses, and I'm coming to the conclusion that I'm the same with Followeezy. They both have overpowering voices, which is great for basketball or baseball play-by-play, but there's not a lot of letting the game come to them. Mark has an aversion to dead air that's not quite as strong as Rhads', and when you put them together, it's a lot more in your face than your typical Ticket show. I wouldn't be a Rhads/Weezy P1 if it were a regular thing.

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  9. OMG, Dan just said he wasn't sure how long the Hardline's suspension was going to last!

    Plainsman, have you heard anything???!!!

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  10. RAGE continues to be awful. I tried giving them a listen this week, switching back and forth between them and Rhads/Foll and I couldn't even take another hour after hearing them spend every segment trying to break down the Dez Bryant arrest in 50 different ways.

    They must've somehow managed to lose even more listeners on a week where the Hardline is on vacation.

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  11. There was a reason why Rhadigan lost the PBP job for the Rangers:

    He is vanilla, banal and uninteresting.

    I can listen to Doocy, David Moore, even when JJT filled in, but Rhads makes me either listen to a podcast or tune in to NPR when he is on.

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  12. RaGE is awful. I tuned in last week for a few segments. After Sybil pronounced "computer" as "compooter" and "suppose" as "pose" (the latter for about the 5th time), I had to punch out. I'm sorry, but she's an idiot. Okay, we kinda knew that when she took up with Richie Whitt. You'd think that after working on "The Hard Lie," Whitt would be a bit more conscientious about what to and not to do where being a partner of the Hammer is concerned. I guess not. If memory serves, Greggo stated in Whitt's article that he believed one of the major issues going on at The Ticket and with The Hardline in particular, was that he felt he was being pushed out of the driver seat by Corby's ever increasing amount of airtime and even influence over Rhynes. Now you tell me where Sybil belongs in that picture...

    Bottom line is--with or without Sybil--it's not a very good program. You have a wannabe shock jock who thinks himself much smarter than he is and is in no way a leading man, his rather unintelligent girlfriend/sidekick who adds nothing, and a "remember back in the old days" partner who is not a lead dog, is a follower, and who always needed (and still does) guidance and quite frankly, a daily flow chart to function as a somewhat reasonable human being...much less a competent and compelling talk show host.

    As to Richie's and Sybi's relationship: On a superficial level, good for RW, she is attractive. But scratch past that wafer thin surface and yeesh a-mighty you have conflicts of interest, inappropriateness, and downright ickiness abound.

    @wellisn'tthatspecial:
    I see what you're saying. I don't quite get the Jake reference, though I agree with your parenthetical thought, assuming the thrust of what you said regarding him makes sense. I've heard Rhynes and George take a chunk out of Gordo from time to time: making fun of his pretentious, pseudo intellectual side. But I do take your point. It would be funny, if done well, for someone to have a character either obviously based on Gordo, or an actual Fake Gordo.

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  13. When you look at what's going on with these shows over at the fan, it's as if they are trying to fail. Elf sucks without Josh, this RAGE thing is a total clusterfail, and the morning show, well, they, uh, I don't know what they're about.

    My theory is that Bruce Gilbert is a double agent, that he's still employed by Cumulus and his mission is to make sure CBS never even remotely mounts a challenge against the Cumulus cash cow. Think about it, that's the only plausible explanation for the level of craptastic that is the fan.

    In the long run, the total lack of competition actually hurts The Ticket. The hosts have become bored and a little lazy. They win so easily without even trying anymore. Now it's really just a paycheck to them. Too bad...if they were challenged, I think they would re-energize.

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  14. God help me, Greggo still entertains me and I listen to RAGE for a segment or two every day, when Corby is telling us about his kicka@@ trip to Timbuktoo or why Roger Federererererererer is the greatest tennis player ever. I would not give RAGE a second thought if it were Richie Witt and some other spare. I find the very open, very on-air Richie/Sybil relationship to be very unprofessional and a train wreck waiting to happen.

    Although he's never done it as a formal bit, hasn't Mike offered up the Detached Unaffected Fake Gordon from time to time?

    Rhads and Followill don't bother me - it's what's on the Ticker when I turn it on. The downside of getting the Hardline back after their suspension is that Sighing Corby comes back.

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  15. Totally agree about Elf's show. When he had Josh as a partner, it worked. For the life of me I can't figure out why in the wide world of sports Gilbert hired the chick. It's a horrible pairing, it makes no sense, she sounds like a wife or girlfriend trying to show interest in her husband/boyfriend's hobbies instead of a knowledgeable sports analyst, and they seem to have zero chemistry. I don't get it, at all. Sure, replacing Josh was going to be tough. But you'd think they would've done a better job than this (?). Like their promos say "We're trying to suck less!" Notice how the suck still remains.

    The very very very on air and often talked about by Whitt relationship between he and Sybil is a freakin' disaster in waiting. Man that's gonna be ugly AND make for some beautifully awkward radio when it does come down. And you know damn well it's going to be Sybil breaking up with Whitt, so you also know that'll make it that much more of a thrill ride of embarrassments. Nothing against Whitt. I mean, he's a cruddy talk show host and seems kind of ridoucheulous, but I'm sure he's not some behind the scenes monster like old Russ Martin was. But hey man, if you're going to go commando scorched earth with your relationships like that, the fall back down to earth is bound to be a bitch.

    Would loooooove to see a Fake Gordo character!!!! I disagree with isn'tthatspecial. I think Jake could be the man for the job. The only thing is whether he wants to commit Ticket Career Suicide or not. Because I think at the very least Gordo would bite back with a vengeance. And as you can see by the latest Jason Kidd Reading Phonetically is Phun bit, Gordo can go pretty low and get mighty cruel. The best would for it to come from another station. Ben and Skin could make a real go of it. However I think they're buddies with him, so they probably wouldn't do it.

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  16. @ the latest Anonymous. That's a good point about why maybe there's not a Fake Gordo. Man, can you imagine the meeting about getting a Fake Gordo up and running, the poor guy's working on his material, all the same time, squirming in his pants because he knows he's gonna be outmatched in future retribution. Probably woulnd't be able to put out a good product, just thinking about what payback would seem like. That just makes me giggle thinking about it. Gordo could make a bit skit out of just that alone.

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  17. By and large, you don't hear a lot of hosts/yuksters imitating one another, do you? With the exception of Mike's growl, maybe. I am baffled by Corby's claimed impression of Scot Harrison, don't get it at all.

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  18. I only caught a little bit of Elf and Jane Slater, couple of segments, so would like to give it more of a spin sometime, but what I heard was not good. Too bad; I liked Elf on weekends and he and Josh Lewin were getting some traction, but I don't think BaD has much to worry about.

    Interesting that none of the commenters here mention the 103.3 ESPN competition. (Including me.) Aren't its ratings slightly better than The Fan's? Does anyone ever sample its wares? I tuned in briefly yesterday afternoon and heard an bizarre show with -- I didn't catch any names, but in checking the schedule I guess it was Colin Cowherd with some other guy. Whoo, awful, awful, awful.

    I agree with those Confessors who have argued that the astonishing weakness of the opposition has something to do with the occasional flaccidity of the Ticket shows of long-standing. Tough to keep that fresh after so many years, but even tougher when there is not chance one that any of the competitors' crummy shows will ever make a dent.

    Which, to be fair, also strongly suggests that talk-radio talent is a lot harder come by than one might imagine, and that The Ticket has four shows that features people with that talent is a tribute to good decisionmaking in the past. (Long past, now.)

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  19. Don't mean to go off track but.....

    Enjoy

    http://network.yardbarker.com/olympics/article_external/backyard/meet_michelle_jenneke_hottest_hurdler_ever/11247010?refmod=backyard&refsrc=foxsports

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  20. Everyone does a Mike R. impression. Many of them do a Junes-mocking ("oooooohhh"), plenty of them make fun of Bob's voice and tendencies ("and again..."), a few make fun of Dan's whiny voice. There's been a lot of Craig Rosengarden pokes lately too ("I'm done. Let's tahk gahf."

    I'd say Corby, George, Donovan and Gordo are the only ones who don't really get poked at in this way.

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  21. True, Shaggy, but those are one-offs and brief phrases. There aren't really any big-length impressions of anyone on the show with the possible exception of Greggo, and those are receding pretty quickly into the past. I can't think of any, anyway -- contrary instruction always gratefully accepted.

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  22. That should have said "bit-length."

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  23. Gordon does a killer "Norm on coke" exaggerated impression, btw.

    I used to listen to Josh and Elf quite a bit, but since Josh left, Elf really struggles. He's just so frenetic, he needs to really lay off the caffeinated drinks. And it's beyond me why he continually throws out the yiddish colloquialisms in Dallas, Texas.

    Plainsman mentioned that 103.3 doesn't get much mention here. I think one reason is because 103.3 runs some national shows. Another is because they don't have near the turnover that fan has so there isn't as much that's new to evaluate. But I think another reason is that the fan now has Greggo and Bruce Gilbert and even Elf, all from The Ticket. And while 103.3 just slowly motors along doing their thing, I think it's perceived that the fan is trying to supplant The Ticket(as ridiculous as that sounds). But the biggest reason is that everyone slows down to rubberneck the trainwreck that is the fan. That's a morbid curiosity with the fan that 103.3 just can't sate.

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  24. Plainsman care to disclose your new comment deletion policy?

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  25. @12:38 Anon:

    Gordo's coked up Norm is funny as all get out!

    I think your points about the fascination with The FAN and the decidedly non-interest in ESPN are pretty solid. I'd also add that 103.3 can be a rather difficult signal to get in certain parts of Dallas. Especially the downtown/East Dallas/White Rock/Lower Greenville areas. As crappy as The Ticket's am signal is, ESPN's fm signal is worse in those areas (as well as in some of the suburbs).

    As to Elf's Yiddish: There is a huge Jewish population in Dallas. Certain areas of the city (e.g., the part of North Dallas that extends from Preston and NWHighway to 635 and over to 75) are heavily populated with Jewish people. Moreover, it's a fairly tight knit community that supports its brethren. Besides, Elf is Elf, and that's what he does.

    I've no idea what Plainsman's editorial policy is, but I do like the way the monkey wrench throwers are now being dealt with by earnest commenters: ignoring them, acting as if they didn't post a thing. Once they no longer garner the attention they crave and are thus unable to trigger the chaos they desire to create, they get bored and move along. Good job by all.

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  26. (1) Heard BaD interview Wash today. Rolled my eyes at the interminable oral essays preceding most of the questions, but Wash was tremendous. Heard Bob say "love it" under his breath during one of his answers, and their follow-up commentary was great.

    (2) Seems to me I did a post on Elf's ethnic flavoring awhile back. Let's see . . . yeah, here it is: http://myticketconfession.blogspot.com/2009/09/mark-elfenbein-very-unique-broadcaster.html

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  27. I haven't listened much but it seems like Elf and the girl stutter through segments. It almost sounds like they aren't very prepared to talk sports or they just don't know that much about sports.

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  28. I went back and looked at some of my old posts. I find that I thought at the time that The Fan's moves would make more of a dent than they have. I wrote that both RaGE and Elf/Josh both needed a lot of improvement but I thought that the latter, at least, would get some traction and make more of a dent middays. Wrong.

    I caught more of RaGE today and was again struck by how subdued it seemed. I'm sure it's dispiriting to throw everything possible at The Hardline and still be greeted with dismal ratings each book.

    Greg W was at least animated. And he hasn't fallen off the edge in quite awhile, so maybe he's settled in to a routine that at least keeps him reliably broadcasting. Wonder if consideration has been given to replacing Richie/Sybil with a stronger radio presence to pair with him.

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  29. Okay, I expect to get slammed but here goes.

    RaGE is better than Rhadigan and Followill. Maybe it is because I expect so much more during the 3:30 - 7:00 hour. Or it could be that Rhad's voice reminds me so much of Dan's; whiny and nasally. IDK.

    That being said, I think the the problem with RaGE (don't listen a whole lot to the other shows, catch Elf every now and then) is that it is too "contrived". It seems (Richie in particular) they try to ham it up and Richie argues the opposite just to fill air-time. Maybe that's radio but don't make it so obvious. Let it come to you, aka the old grey wolf.

    One example of the "contrived": The 6:40 bit with Gina (jina) Miller. They will be in the middle of a topic (sometimes good) when a siren goes off and Richie starts "TV time, TV time, when we come back......". Why don't they just build around this segment? Finish off the topic at hand, go to break, announce the upcoming Gina (jina) segment and go on?

    The new has worn off the toy and no one is surprised that you are going to be on some TV show at 6:30. Quit the f'n siren and finish the damn'd segment(s), which at times is/are good.

    Now I am going out back and piss in the wind (with all apologies to JJW).

    PS: two words: Michelle Janneke

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  30. And consider this: You know that RaGE knows their best chance to gain new listeners is when The Hardline goes into dry dock. Think about what a kick to the groin it must be to also know, by now, that they never do when given the opportunity. In fact, none of the shows do. My final analysis on The FAN is that CBS must really be partnering with Cumulus in the realm of sports radio. That there must be some merger of sorts in the offing. Else, why in the world would they keep beating a dead horse? Why would they keep spending money, lots and lots of money, on billboards, t.v. ads, their own sports bar, and their own t.v. show? Unless they're keeping the flame afire because they're building up to something major. Something like The Ticket becomes The FAN or both The Ticket and The FAN become interchangeable sister stations; where you find. say, games on the am dial and shows on the fm. Or something along those lines. Other than that, for the life of me I can't fathom as to why, after now what, 4 years of utter failure despite all that money spent CBS would keep the ship afloat. Why? My last word is this: We shouldn't look to Mike R or any other host for a heads up or a whiff of this sort of thing happening. (Yes, I recall a few weeks ago Mike's Facebook posting. And I also recall his almost immediately playing it down.) Why? Because those guys no longer have a hotline to the top, much less what's really going on behind the curtain. We'll know pretty much when they know.

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  31. It's funny. I used to think Followill would've been the perfect replacement for Greggo. But after having listened to him with Rhads, Dick Hicks, and some others, I no longer feel as such. He's unable (for obvious reasons) to objectively talk about the Mavs. He reminds me of Mickey Spagnola during an old Ranch Report segment. And in a way, he's still stuck back in a late 90s Ticket time warp. Which at first was cool, but now it's a bit like hearing the same story from your uncle for the umpteenth time. It kinda loses its teeth if you know what I mean. Still a great story, but like a Hendrix record, you don't want to hear it every day, lest you grow tired of it. I love old Follywell, but I enjoy him more when he's doing what he does best, doing play by play for the Mavs.

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  32. I forgot that Norm has done a fake Gordo a few times.

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  33. Jean Jaques Taylor was on 103.3 this morning. I don't listen enough to know if this is a regular thing now or something new after he got booted.

    Remember about a year ago he go booted because of some tweets/altercation (not sure which)but back on the airwaves.

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  34. Was able to catch some Cirque today. I'm not a big fan of scams, but the one they pulled on Kevin Turner was pretty good, even if he kinda half-figured it out while it was happening.

    If you didn't hear it: It had to do with his filching of a $50 gift card for Desperados that had been left for Junior Miller (and others, but it was Junior's he filched) in a gift bag from a sponsor. KT then took Mike S to Despserados and lived large on the card. The Desperados guys were in on the scam and pretended to think that KT was Junior, took his picture with the proprietor, and posted it on FB and Twitter identifying Kevin as Junior. Junior then called him up and gave him some grief for liberating that card -- a pitch-perfect performance by Junior, not too angry, just mildly pissed that his gift bag had been breached. KT's defense was that since Junior had left the station for the day (maybe the weekend), someone else would have rifled his goody bag if he hadn't. He offered to pay Craig the $50 back ("and more" -- I LOL at that).

    But I did end up feeling sorry not just for Kevin but for all the JV who are victims of these scams -- even this one, perpetrated by Mike S, one of his fellow JVs.

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  35. HAHA Don't feel sorry for us Plainsman. I think part of working up there, is knowing your place and also having thick skin.

    I always have my guard up and I sort of sniffed out the prank, but as i'm on the phone with Junior i'm thinking "what if he really is pissed". It is kind of a lose lose situation, but it's all in good fun.

    I have a ton of defense, but the bottom line is that I did actually take the gift card out of a bag that clearly had his name on it. He was definitely gone for the weekend and all of the bags that were left up there had definitely already been sifted through by others, but I think it really was a pretty bad thing to do on my part.

    It was a good, well thought out prank and it was definitely successful, because I had shake voice and an accelerated heart rate.

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  36. Is there anything as delicious as Ticket Shake Voice? I think not.

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  37. My given name is AnonJuly 22, 2012 at 8:09 AM

    @ East Texas P1

    JJT was never suspended from the Ticket. He left the Morning News to go to ESPN Dallas. The tweet came when he was at ESPN.

    Now I want wings for dinner.

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  38. I believe Given is correct on all counts.

    I don't follow a lot of sports journalism outside The Ticket, but it seems to me that JJT has made some bad career moves. Leaving DMN/Ticket, moron Tweet (if I recall correctly, he claimed at the time, as did Anthony Weiner, equally unbelievably, that he had been hacked). Just fell off the map there when his star was rising. But maybe he's been around more prominently than I'm aware of. I was liking the Soul Patch with him and Scot Harrison when he disappeared.

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  39. JJT is one of the worst sports writers I've ever had the displeasure of reading. I'll give you an example of one of his columns:

    Tony Romo's pass to Miles Austin was a mistake. You can't make that pass.

    Awful.

    JET Terry should've been made a counter offer. Wrong on Cuban's part.

    Ridiculous.

    ....And that about sums up all of his DMN columns. A generic sport's thought sentence followed by a punctuator. All spaced out as such that the column takes up enough space to make it appear that JJT actually wrote a proper column. Akin to a student squeezing in the margins as far as possible without it being too obvious and using creative spacing at the head and foot of each page in order to cut down the amount of actual work to be done. That's JJT in a nut shell for ya. But yeah, I need me some wings and a lil' something something on the side...

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  40. KT is lucky he didn't get fired. He stole from a coworker and his defense was laughable and stupid. I'm embarrassed for him.

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  41. My given name is AnonJuly 22, 2012 at 2:34 PM

    @ The Plainsman

    Not sure how you could call leaving the DMN for ESPN Dallas a bad career move. Newspapers are a dying breed and ESPN has spent lots of $ the last few years hiring everyone they can from the DMN sports department. JJT, Richard Durrett, Calvin Watkins, Todd Archer, Tim McMahon...

    I still want wings.

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  42. Given, you may have info about JJT's national ESPN exposure that I don't know. If he has not replaced what he had a year or so ago with a national gig, then my reasoning goes:

    Going from a featured columnist in the only DFW/North Texas daily and a weekend show and frequent fill-in duties on the most popular local radio station by a miles, to zero print exposure, a nothingburger ESPN outlet, and a reputation for terrible judgment and a coarse attitude towards women (but not wings) by issuing that Tweet -- mm, yeah, I'd say that was a downward career arc.

    If his ESPN duties include national TV that he did not have a year ago, then I would say your implication that he's done better for himself is probably right. I'm just going by my own (probably unreliable) JJT awareness, which has gone from frequent to nothing since he left The Ticket/DMN.

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  43. Oh, yeah, almost forgot: Interesting (maybe only to me) that last Monday's attack on Gordon via invasion of The Muser's presentation did not seem to have made the Emergency Brake (or is it Break?) of the Week.

    Of course, it didn't make The UnTicket, either, so looks like I'm the only one who found it fairly dramatic. Wrong again.

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  44. He got a pay raise to go to ESPN Dallas.

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  45. I concede that is a compelling reason to make a move.

    Just did a search. I see he has a column on ESPN Dallas. Anyone aware of regular national exposure for JJT -- that is, when the subject is something other than Dallas sports?

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  46. Plainsman, it does not matter.

    Print media is basically dead and those writers need to write somewhere and a .com website is where eyes are.

    Many beat writers for NFL teams left their local papers to work for ESPN. Most of the NFC and AFC South guys left their papers to write for and talk for ESPN. SI has a new connection with NBCSports Net for the same reason, especially since NBCSports is about to launch a radio portion too.

    Ray Ratto left the SF Chronicle last year for CBSsports.com and a Bay Area TV gig.
    Ann Killion also left the SF Chronicle too for CSN Bay Area.
    Monte Poole left the Bay Area News Group (SJ Mercury News/Oakland Tribune)

    Sam Smith took a buyout from the Chicago Tribune. wrote for "The Sporting News" for a bit to now write for the chicagobulls.com.

    The list goes on and on.

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  47. "Anonymous said...
    KT is lucky he didn't get fired. He stole from a coworker and his defense was laughable and stupid. I'm embarrassed for him.

    July 22, 2012 1:27 PM"


    Trust me, I feel really bad about it. I apologized to Junez and don't really know what I was thinking besides the fact that they were gone and the bags were there. Craig's bag wasn't the only one that was left over. There were quite a few in the sack and others had been nosing through there.

    In the end it's probably theft, but i'm not the only one who took something or has taken something that the hosts didn't receive or just declined to take home.

    Craig just didn't know about his bag, that's why I felt worse about it. I was under the impression that he saw it and just left it up there. It doesn't happen much with giftcards or t-shirts and stuff like that much, but it does happen a lot with food and it being left there for us to have. Ex. The Ace Cash Express Girl's "Better Than Sex Cake"

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  48. Give KT a break. this is truly no big deal at all. crap left for the hosts is left at the station all the time and they don't give a shit about some gift card for some refried beans and queso. T-shirts, beef jerky, albums, gift certificates, steaks, pizza, salsa....all things that are brought to the station and left.

    KT is right in saying that if that stuff was left for another 5 minutes, someone else would have grabbed it WITHOUT QUESTION. Happens all the time. And trust me, Junes isn't even upset about it...except to just flex his muscles at an underling who got caught with his hand in the cookie jar...as a big star is libel to do when some hazing is in order.

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  49. Yes, I can confirm that The Junez isn't upset about it. He was just going along with the prank that was initiated by Mike Sirois. He would have had no idea about the sack if Sirois didn't bring it up in order to execute the prank

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  50. Does Craig really spell Junez with a z? If so, that's straddling the border separating awesome and ridiculous. If not, he needs to start.

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  51. However it is spelled, I was pleased to see KT capitalize both "The" and "Junez." These things matter.

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  52. @12:50 AM Anonymous:

    Sorry for not responding sooner. That is interesting information and would certainly also help explain JJT's decisionmaking.

    You seem to follow this stuff: Does JJT have national broadcast chops? Either radio or TV?

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  53. JJT does not have national broadcast chops in the classic sense. He does however have the "throw out an HSO with a cooler-than-you delivery" thing nailed, so ESPN would be the perfect place for him.

    Almost caught up to live listening...

    Oh yeah, almost forgot. Ty Walker and Michael Krenek voluntarily killed their twitter accounts.

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  54. @AP

    I can't say too much, but you have no idea how deep this thing goes. It's a global twitter conspiracy.

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