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
DeGianni went over last week's awful guest during the last half hour of his show last week.
ReplyDeleteHe tried to both justify his treatment of her and in odd ways apologize for the same treatment. Plainsman is talking about whether he'll revisit what happened; and if so, will be be a bit more contrite.
ReplyDeleteWe knew RaGE was going to do its best to be Hardline 2.0 when Greggo brought in Led Zeppelin's "When the Levee Breaks." And began to act like some sort of rock music savant (uh, hello Rhyner, anyone?). The dude hasn't an original bone in his body. From the tired unoriginal country witticisms that anyone from Garland or Blue Mound has heard since they were a child to pretending to be a home run hitting baseball prospect to dating/having sex with female celebrity x, y, and/or z to you name it...it isn't his or him, but he'll claim and act like it is. Some people are just like that. And when you consider that he's the biggest "draw" at The Fan, and when you consider not just his show's ratings but the station's as a whole, well, you begin to see the glaring problem with the entirety of the thing: it's what Plainsman says, an obvious and woeful lack of compelling talent.
ReplyDeleteTo add on: I'm not sure what The Fan can do to turn their fortune around. Other than becoming a part of The Ticket via a Cumulus-CBS sports merger (?). There doesn't seem to be a pool of talent from which to pluck compelling hosts. The only thing I can think of is to moneywhip local sports celebrities into working for the station. Who would those celebrities be? Beats me. No one is going to leave television for a full-time radio gig, so that rules out Babe, Dale (the part-time radio host, a la Dale at 1310 and 103.3 doesn't work), Doocy, and Rhads. Brad Sham's never leaving the Cowboys organization. And I have a feeling that several if not all The Ticket daytime hosts have been approached on some level by CBS...thus far to no avail. The sum of it is that I don't see how the station ever succeeds in this market. Barring the demise of The Ticket as we know it. Which, contrary to many on this site, I don't believe that'll happen anytime soon...soon as in the next 5-8 years. 5-8 years in radio time is an eon. If The Fan is still pulling the ratings it does now, this time next year (when it'll be nearly 5 years old), its days will be numbered.
ReplyDeleteIt's radio, for the most part it is made up of lifters and hacks. Originality and radio are rarely synonymous. Generally any bit you hear is going be derivative of something that has been done before on radio or tv.
ReplyDeleteI missed The Train Wreck Fitness Show this morning. Did George address last week's show?
ReplyDeleteListened to the beginning of the show. No mention.
ReplyDeleteSPONSOR STRONGARM ALERT: I only heard a few minutes of The Orphanage yesterday, around 11:25, and the boys were making reference to "their new best friend, Raising Cain's," and generally waxing insincerely and ironically effusive about that establishment.
ReplyDeleteBut I didn't hear what preceded that. Did the CTO put the smackdown on D&D for their two-segment unsponsored celebration of Chicken Express a couple of weeks ago (and where they expressed unconcern because RC was a Musers' thing)?
My stream has been down all this morning. The little animation box with the blue lights looks like it should be playing but nothing is coming through.
ReplyDeletePlayed other things on the laptop so I know it is not my speakers.
Anyone else having this issue?
Walked in to work a right around 2 p.m. and started the stream. There was M. Rhyner's voice advertising something followed by B. Sturm's 21 day thing. Then silence.
ReplyDelete2:11 - 2:13 A few more ads. Then silence.
2:26 - Ad for Turkey Hill Tea, silence.
2:30 - U of D ad; George and his Fogo ad, TX Harley, Freeman; then silence.
So I guess only the advertisements are coming over the stream.
2:30 - 2:33 More ads
Corbles and Rhnyes just issued a 6:10 heads up for the saying goodbye to someone. Anyone have a guess as to who's leaving the station and/or the show? Or perhaps it's a media friend of theirs? Again, any guesses out there?
ReplyDeleteMe: I say TC.
Awww, hell, damn, crap!!!!! The greatness of Doyle King is leaving. Damn you, Cumulus!!!!!
ReplyDeleteSTAY HARD, DOYLE KING!!!!!
ReplyDeleteThe Musers did their goodby to Doyle last Friday. Should not be a big surprise.
ReplyDeleteIt is on the UnTicket
I was going to comment last week on Corby's new bit while it was happening, but got sidetracked. This type of thing is what he does best, and he is great at interviews overall. I know the ratings say otherwise, but I really wish he were somehow relegated to that role.
ReplyDeleteDid anyone else get a little irritated with yesterday's tirade on how the lazy P-1 wasn't helping them find girls for Fight Night? I was more than a little irritated - I turned off the stream. Who does this guy think he is?
Unless he was doing a bit, in which case I'll dismiss it...it didn't sound like a bit though.
I was really annoyed by Corby's "our listeners are the laziest bags of shit" rant as well. I tried REALLY hard to write it off as him trying to shame people into finding them a fighter, but I could only take a few seconds of it before I had to get away from him. I believe the words I said as I was changing the station were something along the lines of "whiny blowhard". I've said it before and I'll say it again: Corby is best in small doses. He was great as a yuk monkey. He comes up with good bits and some funny songs. He's very good at community quick hits. He sucks as a majority part of the presentation.
ReplyDeleteWas that the Laddy sitting in with the Musers this morning?
ReplyDelete