Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Musers Quick Hit

+     +     +

From this morning's Muser showgram:

GORDON:  I was on "It's Just Banter" recently  .  .  .

JEREMY [under his breath but clearly audible]:  Why?

FERNANDO:  [Explosive cackle.]

SOMEBODY:  Be nice, Jer.

Ah, Ticket politics.  We try to read the clues on who are pals and who are not, who's just teasing and who's not.  

It's been awhile since any Confessor has mentioned IJB.  I got the impression that most readers liked the podcasts.  Those gents still turning out quality stuff?

*     *     *

Follow Your Plainsman on Twitter:  @Plainsman1310
Email Your Plainsman:  ThePlainsman1310@gmail.com

Sunday, August 26, 2012

Oh. My. Frackin'. Gawd.

This may not be worth a separate post, but twelve hours later, I'm still shaking my head.

Last evening I saw the most appalling few seconds of video it has ever been my misfortune to view.

Can you guess what it is?

You got it on the first try!

It's the "Chariots of Fire" advertisement for RaGE.

Richie, Greg, Sybil, Armen, and a guy or two I don't know, running around on a football field and crashing into one another with the "Chariots of Fire" theme playing in the background.

The distance shots are in slow motion and quickly cut away from.  You can't really fix on anyone's face.

The close-up shots are also slow motion and quickly cut away from.  You can't really fix on anyone's face.

The running and crashing-into-each-other shots are shot so  .  .  .  You can't really fix on anyone's face.

It's around 20 seconds and they cut away so frequently that  .  .  .  You can't really fix on anyone's face.

So the point of doing a visual ad thing for a personality-based program is  .  .  .  ?

Let's play Fun with Adjectives:  amateurish, ineffective, embarrassing, ill-conceived, irrelevant, cheap-looking, thrown-together, desperate.

There is only one part of RaGE I would want to embrace, and they didn't even manage to employ her charms to advantage.

They decide to do a TV spot, and this is the best they can do.  Fake enthusiasm, fake camaraderie, and no indication of what these running-and-jumping-and-crashing people actually do.

Don't believe me?

Jaw-Dropping RaGE Ad

It's over.  It's got to be over.


Friday, August 24, 2012

OPEN THREAD: Fight Night

+     +     +
 
I thought I was going to be able to hear most of Fight Night, but I only heard bits and pieces over the course of the evening as I drove from meeting to meeting.  Since I'm on record as not being a big fan of the event, and since I didn't hear it from beginning to end, I'll relegate myself to the comments.
 
Now this is supposed to be the most popular Ticket event, so let's hear from people who had a good time and enjoyed it, either live or broadcast.  Come on now, you gotta be out there, thousands of you went to the thing.
 


Wednesday, August 22, 2012

August 22, 2012

+     +     +
 
I liked Gordon's "Five on Five" segment on the Observation Deck this morning.  Punchy, funny, fast-moving, interesting.  Or maybe it was "Five for Five," I forget.  Either way, I liked it.
 
+     +     +
 
I cannot believe that Capital One is bringing back that incredibly odious "I'm calling everyone in America" ads to insult our intelligence.  Why anyone would want to move their money to an organization that would even pretend to employ an asshole of this galactic lack of appeal is a mystery.  Who engages in an activity -- cold-calling citizens to annoy them with some kind of unwanted sales pitch -- universally loathed by consumers. 
 
If you have your assets with Capital One, please move them elsewhere.
 

+     +     +
 
I'm a wimp.  I'm a weenie.  You can call me names if you do so nicely.
 
I don't like Fight Night.
 
I've written about it a couple of times, once really early when I had zero readers, but more recently and comprehensively here:  WEENIE ALERT.
 
If you don't want to click back, my basic point is that disaster is just around the corner.  I don't care about headgear, short rounds, the other "safety" features, it would only take one awkward punch or fall to paralyze or kill someone.  True, true, it hasn't happened in all the years they've been doing this, but their fighters are getting bigger and stronger.  It isn't the liability concern -- I'm sure the fighters have signed releases and The Ticket is insured for this.  It's the PR hit to the station if someone really buys it.
 
That piece is outdated in one respect.  Since then I recall satisfying myself that The Ticket had covered the regulatory legalities.  But in general I still feel the same way. 
 
There is one good thing about Fight Night:  It gives hosts who aren't fond of one another a highly-charged forum in which to interact awkwardly.
 
So I'll be listening, but I'll be disapproving.
 
+     +     +
 
On further reflection, Michael Krenek's departure signals the End of The Ticket.  
 


Saturday, August 18, 2012

[Hit the Sounder] BREAKING NEWS: Michael Krenek Moving On

I did not hear this, but can only assume it was announced during The Orphanage.  [CORRECTION:  Confessor advises it was at the top of Cirque.]    A commenter to the previous post posted this:

Another employee leaves for greener pastures. Well, it wasn't too hard to see that one coming. Not just for Krenek, but for anyone up there who wants a career that doesn't consist of forever being a scrub, or a jver at best. The cool thing is that Krenek, like a few others, has used The Ticket as a springboard to hopefully a nice career as a host in sports radio or even tv or whathaveyounot. Good on Krenek. He did it by letting the game come to him, having (and I'm sure practicing) good chops and sports knowledge/points, and by being a team player. Unlike some of the fellows up there, Krenek gets how to do these things, and more crucially, the importance of them. Congrats, Krenek, and I'll be listening in via the miracle of the internet as often as possible.

If it turns out I've been had, I'll take this down, but thought I would get it up for those swimming by.  I have no additional information at this time.  [CORRECTION:  He is taking a job at a station in Grand Junction, Colorado -- on air and available via Internet.]

I'm hopeful Krenek will drop by and fill us in on some details, as he has been known to visit and sling a comment from time to time.

Always thought Krenek was one of the solid performers up there, good sense of humor, but wasn't the type to drop in uninvited.  Truly wish him the best.

Previous post has only been up since last night, so check it out if you haven't been by since then.:

The Song of Tyrone


Friday, August 17, 2012

The Song of Tyrone

+     +     +
On Wednesday, I heard the Musers' beachside interview of drifter/homeless/panhandler Tyrone.  You can hear it here on the Incomparable UnTicket.  Its riches are hard to describe, it must be heard.

I am conflicted about things like this.

By "things like this," I mean (mostly) Gordon and Corby interviewing people who are -- how can I put it?   These interview subjects are not all the same.  Some are just less fortunate.   Some are afflicted.  Some are addicted.  Some are  of well below average intelligence.  Some have a poor grasp of English.  None of them has asked to have his or her words broadcast to the metro and disseminated worldwide online.

So part of me doesn't like the ambush wireless mic/recorder interviews of the drunk black man or the thickwit white girl.  

But I gotta tell you:  On Wednesday morning, the other part of me just about drove off the road laughing at Tyrone's rap about drinking, his teeth (or absence of), and, of course, women: his preferences and an unexpectedly bitter conclusion to one particular encounter.

There was melancholy, too -- a four-year-old daughter he has never seen.

So I'm conflicted.  Not sure where to land on this one.   Unfortunate, unwell, and inarticulate people are out there.  A lot of us never encounter them.  A lot of us would prefer not to know they exist.  I'm not saying that Gordon/Corby are performing a public service, but I am saying that it's not necessarily unfair to target people who look like they might provide a unique interview experience.  (Now in this case, of course, Tyrone approached them for a handout, which he eventually got, so they didn't necessarily seek him out.)

I'd prefer, though, that they not be antagonized, subtly ridiculed, and badgered with schtick.  That happens, and it's cringe-inducing when it does.   But that didn't really happen in the Tyrone interview (we'll put aside Gordon's serial attempts to get him to sing, which he finally abandoned), so maybe that's why I'm not feeling all that hostile toward the exploitation of the inarticulate as I write this Friday evening.

Or maybe it's because it was hilarious.

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Happy Birthday, Mike R

On this day in 1948, Babe Ruth died.

Two years later to the day, Baseball Jesus was born.

A respectful happy birthday to the rock upon which Dallas sports radio is built.


Friday, August 10, 2012

A Quick Thought on Originality and Corby

My time and ability to be by the station has been limited lately.  Sorry that new posts have been few and far between.  Hoping that will ease soon.

The prior batch of comments contains some interesting reports on Fan filching of Ticket bits, some of them of long-standing and not even that frequently heard on the station any longer.

I thought of this when I was able to catch about an hour of The Hardline today.  I heard Corby's new bit, Bad Follow-Up Question Guy.  (I don't have that quite right -- it wasn't "Bad," was it?  Someone here will remember.  Yeah, maybe it was.)  He was interviewing a Cowboy hopeful, a second-year guy, I think, whose name I did not catch.  Corby was doing a legitimate interview, the guy was responsive and cooperative, but after every response, Corby would throw in a complete non-sequitur, sometimes a random remark, sometimes a question, would pause for a moment, and then would go on to a legitimate question.  The guy eventually caught on and chuckled some at what he probably figured out was a bit.

I'm not a big fan of Ticket ambush interviews, but I gotta say that I laughed at this.  Corby's non-sequiturs were masterful, and delivered with just the right offhanded lack of emphasis.

This made me think about the comments we had on RaGE swiping old Ticket bits.

Corby came up with a successful original bit.  Why can't RaGE?

This got me thinking about whether Greggo or anyone on RaGE could even have performed that bit if it had been given to them.  I don't think so.  Oh, they could have tried it, but it would have fallen completely flat.

Why?  Because of Corby's unique talent for manufactured sincerity.   He gets his share and more of ballbusting by readers here, some of it accurate (although sometimes overheated, in Your Plainsman's view), but this is a true gift, and I don't intend this opinion as damning with faint praise.  It's what makes him the best interviewer on The Ticket.   Who else on Dallas sports radio could have drawn superstars like Shaq or impossible interviews like Parcells into some really great radio?

I hadn't intended this entry as a celebration of Corby, although I'm always glad to be positive about The Little One.  My point started out to be that it isn't just bad decisionmaking that keeps The Fan down -- it's a major talent gap.   I've said it, we've all said it in one way or another:  In the words of an early commenter on this site, The Ticket is lightning in a bottle.  Whether the assembly of the host lineups throughout the day was brilliant on the part of the station's founders and early managers or merely fortuitous, we should enjoy the hell out of it while we can.

*     *     *

I'll try to catch The Train Station Fitness Show tomorrow to see if George Di addresses last week's much-remarked-on interaction with his somewhat addled guest.

*     *     *

Follow Your Plainsman on Twitter:  @Plainsman1310
Email Your Plainsman:  ThePlainsman1310@gmail.com

Sunday, August 5, 2012

More George DiGianni Talk

+     +     +


If you follow the comments, you will know that in response to the prior post a Confessor called attention to George DiGianni's apparently rather shabby treatment of an elderly guest on his Train Station Fitness Show yesterday morning.   Check it out HERE. I was surprised at the commentary about George this called forth, so I thought I'd make it a topic.  One of the comments reports that a bird told him that this thread has received some attention from Ticket luminaries.


Yes, this is probably the most ink George DiGianni has had under any name. I'd be surprised if it doesn't drive his listenership up by a dozen or so souls for the next week or so, as this site's massive audience tunes in to see what all the fuss is about.

I have been listening to The Train Station Fitness show for quite awhile. The foregoing comments are accurate. I am not knowledgable about fitness matters, but I am skeptical of much of the supplement-based, anti-med-establishment advice the show offers, as well as the rather extreme dietary proscriptions. And yep, George can be a bully.


Let me throw out some positive things:

(1) He keeps his show on-topic. And when I say that I mean not only does he try to guide his guests to emphasize the announced theme for the show, but he also does not over-promote his own services. He mentions them, but the Train Station Fitness Show is not an infomercial. By its own lights, it is substantive and informative.

(2) He has helped Bob Sturm become less doughy many, many times (including presently, I think), and I believe that other Ticket hosts, including (if I recall correctly) Craig Rosengarden and George Dunham, have used his services to good, if perhaps temporary effect.  (My unhappy thoughts on Bob's promos may be found HERE.) 

Mark Followill is something of a disciple and was George's guest a couple of weeks ago. He's kept up with most of George's advice (although George berated him for eating bananas during distance running events! -- too much sugar) since first consulting him. I'm sure that if you had the discipline to do what George says, you'd look and feel better. But man, he's tough on both diet and exercise.  I suppose that's what it takes.

(3) I once heard a guest on his show who I thought could benefit a friend of mine. I forgot the name and dropped George an email. He responded promptly and politely with her name and contact information.

(4) He played along perfectly with a Hardline prank on Michael Gruber, calling him to berate him for the stitched-together Train Station promos Grubes would put together.

So George is certainly a piece of work, a highly-disciplined and tightly-wound piece of work. He may be wrong on the science and medicine, but certainly if you don't mind shopping at -- well hell, I have no idea where you would buy the narrow range of unprocessed foods of which he approves -- and burst training, and, yes, some "supplements" now and then, and -- ewww -- a good thorough "cleansing," you would probably look and feel better. You'd be miserable, unless you were Mark Followill, but you'd look and feel better.   Despite his anti-med-establishment stance, you can't deny that less sugar, and more and proper exercise, will do you good.

And, as a couple of Confessors have noted, it's pretty interesting local-sourced radio first thing on the weekend.

George, since you've taken it in the shorts here, let me at least steer people to your websites:

http://georgedejohn.org/

http://21daybodymakeover.com/

We should at least tune in next week to see if he addresses the granny incident.  And to see if Bob Sturm finally gets cleansed.

Saturday, August 4, 2012

MTC Congratulates the Teebox

+     +     +
I'm not a golfer but I've always gotten a kick out of the Teebox.  Not just in anticipation of a Craig Rosengarden malapropism; it's a cool listen at work on Saturday mornings, 8 to 10.  Craig and Rick Arnett, a Ticket pioneer, have a nice easy manner, and like Rich Phillips and NASCAR, because of the skill of the broadcasters I find myself listening with some interest to talk about a subject I care nothing about.

However, this site has on several occasions noted that Teebox remotes were the worst-sounding show on The Ticket.  I won't repeat the detail, but the sound on their remotes was gargly and gravelly and hard to listen to.  Here are some early reports:

The Teebox Sounds Absolutely Terrible This Morning

Once Again, the Teebox Seems to be Broadcasting from Pluto

It never got any better, and I eventually quit mentioning it. 

The other day I thought I heard Rick say that they'd gotten some new equipment for their remotes.  I tuned in last week and my impression was that someone needed to get his money back, there was still a hedgehog in the gear somewhere.  But this morning they're broadcasting from a Park Place dealership in Fort Worth and it sounds great, studio quality.  So they must have gotten the toys installed.

It didn't seem right that they'd be so handicapped in their mix'n'mingle with George DiGianni.  Aurally, at least, they can now hold their own with him and The Orphanage.  Congratulations to them.

Friday, August 3, 2012

Quick Ratings Question for Knowledgeable Confessors

We've taken a passing interest in the on-air postings for positions with Cumulus and the stations.  There's the chief engineer slot, and they're also looking for an IT guy, sounds like.  Both sorely needed. 

We hear the Ticket guys griping about Cumulus corporate practices, and we've observed some ourselves, so it's amusing to hear these ads talking about what a fabulous place Cumulus is to work.  Maybe it is, but the contrast between recent events and the bubbly self-promotion of the ads is amusing.

Lately, we've heard i93 trolling for sales guys on The Ticket.  My question is this:  The ads state that i93 is the "third-most listened-to" station in DFW.  When I go to this site

http://www.radio-info.com/markets/dallas-ft-worth

I see a listing of stations with an "AQH%", but those rankings don't match up with the "cume" numbers, which I assume represents listeners.  Based on the cume numbers, KLIF- FM does indeed appear to be the third-most listened-to station, although down in the listings.

In fact, i93's "cume" is about triple The Ticket's.

Now, we all know that the 25-54 male demographic is the most desirable, and Thc Ticket rules there.  My question for a radio guy is:  how should we read these tables?  What is the relationship between the AQH% (and what is it?) and the "cume," and what is their relative importance to advertisers?  Why does The Ticket appear so far down on this list, if it is so dominant in the most significant demo?

Thanks in advance.

Thursday, August 2, 2012

And the Winner, Based on a Small Sample Size and Highly Subjective Taste, Is . . .

+     +     +

This site has remarked a couple of times on the frenetic George/Gordon Raising Cain's ads.  I think I heard them say that their promotional visit to the opening of the latest Raising Cain's resulted in the biggest one-day sales at an RC store, something like that.

In the comments to my post on Raising Cain's and chicken generally, Confessors weighed in on their local favorites.  My dark-horse favorite was regional chain Golden Chick.

But the biggest Ticket-fried-chicken-related shot was the multi-segment celebration by Danny and Dave on the Orphanage last Saturday on the greatness of regional chain Chicken Express.  I wasn't the only one who wondered whether this was going to cause a problem with the Raising Cain's folks, who must have poured a fortune into the George/Gordon spots and promotional appearances.  Danny acknowledged he'd received cautionary communications from P1's but brushed them off, advising that RC was a "Muser" sponsor.

I have now recently visited both a Golden Chick and a Chicken Express in the Cool Metro.


Chicken Express wins on:

     --  Overall store appearance, inside and out.
     --  Menu variety and layout.
     --  Cleanliness.
     --  Staff friendliness and efficiency.
     --  Store accessibility (more and better DFW-area locations)

Golden Chick wins on:

     --  Chicken.



Sorry, Danny and Dave.  The Chicken Express chicken was good, but the chicken pieces were not of the best quality (size and tenderness).  That would have been okay if the coating had distinguished itself, but it was thin and somewhat limp.  It tasted all right, but it did not have the heartiness and crispiness of Golden Chick, and the thighs (my preferred cut) were on the undernourished side. 

(I acknowledge that crispiness is not the be-all/end-all of great fried chicken.  KFC Original Recipe yields a positively soggy coating but its deliciousness makes up for it.)

I have learned that CE is opening a store on a thoroughfare I get to with some regularity, so I'm sure I'll be visiting again.  If the foregoing is unfair (again, no respectable critic would base a comparo on a single visit), I'll check back.

All topics open, as usual.

*     *     *

Follow Your Plainsman on Twitter:  @Plainsman1310
Email Your Plainsman:  ThePlainsman1310@gmail.com