Thursday, June 27, 2013

It's Gordon Keith Week on MTC!

Well, I was going to put this off for awhile, but I see that I cannot.  The Observer is forcing my hand.

We'll kick off the celebration with a link to The Observer's piece on him in their "People" issue, together with its rather  .  .  .  intimidating image.  Gordon has to be one of the the somberest-photographed funnymen I can recall.  Think Mark Twain's stern portraits.

The Secret Sage

There will be at least two more pieces on Gordon to follow this one, so you may want to hold your Gordon STDs for a bit.

But if I know you, you won't.

In the meantime, I found the Observer's short piece to be quite, well -- observant.

We know of Gordon's LHO obsession -- but I'm moved to wonder if the foundational link isn't driving through Dallas in convertibles.

73 comments:

  1. Given my writing schedule, Gordon Keith week may last more than a week.

    As always, all threads are open to all topics.

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  2. I've been waiting for you to do this piece (now series) for a while now, Plainsman. Looking forward to reading it, soaking it in, and commenting. I have some HSOs on Gordon. Some very positive, some on the negative side of the ledger.

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  4. I have no idea what LHO means.

    I like Gordo. Unlike some commenters here, I think he actually is pretty smart. He certainly offers interesting insights on humans. And by interesting, I mean he agrees with me a lot.

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  5. James, LHO = Lee Harvey Oswald.

    We humans usually do find others who agree with us as being smart and/or interesting.

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  6. Since you haven't actually posted an article on Gordo to read/comment on, and have left the door open for other topics...

    I'm sorry if I'm beating the RW/GW thing to death, but I've got an obvious but already coming to fruition observation. Perhaps coming to fruition faster than some of us, me included, thought would happen.

    Namely, both GW's and RW's blogs (and in GW's case, podcast) are already dying. Now that GW addressed RW's 5 part deconstruction of himself (GW), there is little comment activity; and what of it there is, is no longer passionate. Now that RW has written his piece on RaGE's demise and its follow up, his site, as well, is barren of comments when compared to both RaGE pieces and the BaD moves to The FAN post. I think he'll most likely get some more interest when/if he posts up tomorrow morning his "scoop" on another show supposedly in danger of moving or being fired. Other than rumors and sensationalism pertaining, at heart, to The Ticket (even the RaGE story really is a Ticket story; it's about Greggo; and without The Ticket, there is no Greggo and no interest in the story), the rest of RW's offerings (i.e., ones where he generates the story/topic/idea, and not it being generated for him) have thus far received rather low numbers of commenters. In many cases, single digits.

    End Game. I'm almost certain that GW's newfound media empire will not last past Halloween. Actually, if it makes it that far, I'd be surprised. RW will stick to it until the blog format is no longer the most common platform for such enterprises. For better or worse (sorry, I tend to think the latter) it is what he does; besides his ego wouldn't allow him to throw in the towel. And I don't mean that last sentence in a bad way. That's a part of persevering. However, unless he goes down the TMZ route and becomes the Perez Hilton of DFW media happenings, I believe he'll mostly be writing to an ever-dwinding and already small set of followers.

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  7. As Gordon's hand picked successor, I support this topic for the week.

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  8. Good, now that the nonsense of shuttering the place is aside we can carry on. Seriously Pman if you get slammed with work or fam put up a minimal post with something like this.

    "Due to unforeseen circumstances beyond our control this blog is now on Autopilot. Please be advised spam will not be tolerated. Be nice or get out. And Sports. Thank you and have a good good day at your local MTC."


    I can tell you one thing I gained through the last week's drama. I found shaggybevo. I should have paid closer attention, but in the midst of BaD I made the mistake of assuming Shaggy was an admin, owner or other luminary from over there. Thanks for the correction. I can see it is a hang out for Longhorns. That was a find for me. TYVM. I sat up reading a thread based upon the premise that women say and do the darndest things. Hmm, where have I heard that from before? 180+ pages of tales that should be read by any male child on the verge of putting a ring on her finger.

    Gordo. Sometimes I feel sorry for his teachers back in the day. More on him later.

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  9. Just read the Observer piece. Either the writer has fallen for Gordon's bit of always saying he is single, when we know he is married, or the Great Gordo may actually be split-up from the wife. I hope it's the former and not the latter.

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  10. I guess RW can keep his blog viable by posting pictures of Sybil. At least until she drops him for some Uptown doucher.

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  11. @558
    I think Gordo got a divorce a while back.

    @Anon Ron
    Bingo. I have a feeling that shoe might be about to drop, sadly for RW, sooner rather than later. Once the office is taken out of office romances, it usually isn't too long before whatever danger and sizzle it had begins to fade.

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  12. I couldn't help laughing at that dumbass Corby today. He always gets pissed when Mike doesn't know who one of his stupid E-news characters are. Today hes talking about the Gandolfini funeral, and Corby didn't know who Tony Sirico was! Tony Sirico!! Paulie F-ing Walnuts...and DUMBASS Corby doen't know who he is! What a fraud!

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  13. Pretty sure Gordon is divorced.

    I like his column today about the over-discussed topic of courage.

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  14. What makes you all think Gordon's divorced?

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  15. There have been many on-air comments made over the past couple of years indicating that Gordon is divorced. Following internet leads suggests the opposite. Although I am curious, I respect his family's privacy.

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  16. Gordon is not divorced.

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  17. In a previous incarnation of his website, there was a link to his wife's business. When that went away, I presumed that they had gone their separate ways. But it's also possible that she was just being pelted by the baby-arm P1.

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  18. I'm so happy that things have calmed down to the point that I don't feel the need to peek over at the richie and greggo blogs. It felt like a waste of time even when it wasn't a waste of time.

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  19. A couple of years ago gordo being divorced was mentioned in a conversation I had with some friends. Later that week I noticed some language coming from him implying he was divorced. That Saturday he was on The Orphanage for Barktoberfest and I heard him hitting on some girl and she replied "you're wearing a wedding ring!" so who knows.

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  20. Barry Horn interview with Mike Rhyner in today's Morning News:

    http://www.dallasnews.com/sports/more-sports/headlines/20130628-mike-rhyner-the-ticket-gig-is-unique-but-sooner-or-later-someone-will-leave.ece

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  21. So Mike R is trying to shoe horn in on Pman's domain!

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  22. The big scoop RW has been teasing is that Russ Martin's contract ends Monday and that it looks like it will not be renewed. I was thinking that was the show in question. I don't know anyone who listens to it; and in my line of work, and in my friendships, I run across quite a diverse spectrum of people. Lots of fans of KISS 106 and KSCS and country (by far the most), a scant few FAN, lot's of Dittoheads, lots of Ticketheads, lots of KLTY and Christian radio listeners, and more and more satellite users.....that's what I mostly run into. I haven't heard anyone mention, much less talk about, Russ Martin since his downfall some years back. I recall someone commenting here sometime back that he did just fine in the ratings. I honestly can't imagine that being true. Then again, RW implied that he believes KEGL is going to flip formats. If that's so, then barring the signal becoming another Live 105, it would make perfect sense not to renew him, regardless of his ratings.

    I tried to listen to him a few times. But nearly each time I did, an ad was running or a song in lieu of talk was playing, The few times I did hear the show it consisted of a lot of silence and paper shuffling alternated with Russ sort of half-speaking in a strange cadence, his co-hosts giggling, and then the co-hosts parroting his odd speech pattern. It was awful radio.

    Perhaps DA or someone with more radio industry knowledge than I (which means any whatsoever) can let me know if I'm far off-base here: Is that sort of talk radio dying? The (mostly) FM lifestyle/guy talk that is the ilk of Stern and his imitators such as Russ Martin? Basically the 3-5 hour shock jock show that is many times nothing more than a radio strip club? It seems to me that it is.

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  23. Back in the day, the RMS was my go to punch when the Hardline went to commercial. Eventually that became RaGE, but now I'm back to RMS again. Apparently not for long.

    Russ is a funny guy, but if you take out the music and the moments of dead air when nobody says anything, his show would be 30minutes long.

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  24. @terry,
    I will have more time this weekend, but talk radio is severely aging. Over33% of todays talk audience is over age 65 and those under 18 rarely listen to radio period.

    There areis slightly over 650 sports talk radio stations nationwide and Cumulus (Lew Dickey) sees close to 1,000 stations nationwide in a few years. They intend to dump "general or politicalthe talk" and move to sports.

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  25. I really only tried to listen to Russ Martin once and the entire segment was him reading the ingredients off of a can of tea, and then him and his cohorts laughing about it. I wish I were making that up.

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  26. Anyone know what the schedule looks like for next week? Is only BaD out on vacation, or are other shows too?

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  27. I think it's only BaD. But I thought I heard Jake say that he was going to Europe next week. Or did I mishear that?

    The Shake Joint was pretty good today. I'm still not sold on either Jake or Sean as either hosts or a show that could fill the void when (and it is when, not if) one of the main shows calls it a day (however that transpires). I'm sure they as individuals and as a show need more time. But as things stand, I don't think they're ready for primetime just yet. Both hosts need to learn how to tame their cases of I Need To Be Right All The Time-itis. And that, I believe, comes with wisdom; which in turn comes from experience. Thus I'll keep giving TSJ the benefit of the doubt for some time to come.

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  28. Yeah Jake is gone for two weeks to Europe. I think he leaves on 7/4. Perhaps all the shows will be off the 4th? They've started doing that the last year or two.

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  29. @DA Interesting stuff, as always. 1000 sports stations, huh? I don't doubt it. I'm thinking that more of these stations and shows will not be Ticket-iike in nature. My feeling (and this is totally on the gut level) is that the interest in analytics and the view of sports that it engenders is the direction sports talk radio is heading. With few exceptions, it seems that the guy-sports-talk that The Ticket (from what I can tell) created and has greatly benefitted from has not worked so well in most markets. Which, of course, makes The Ticket that much more special. It truly is singular. This, however, means that most markets desire hardcore sports talk. Due in part to the rise of analytics (thank you, "Money Ball"), today's even casual fan is much better informed than he once was; he demands more out of talk/analysis than what used to pass for generic sports talk. A "take" no longer suffices. Therefore the Jim Romes and Dan Patricks of the world are a dying breed. So what we'll have are stations/shows that are caller-driven with an emphasis from the hosts on the analytical side. That way, the caller feels both smart and that he has learned something; and the host(s) are still required to be great communicators, but also they themselves must now "bring it." It would seem that the 2+ hosted show would still remain intact; one expert in the latest analytics, the other a more traditional host, and perhaps another who is more guy-lifestyle-talk oriented.

    Does any of this ring true, anyone?

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  30. Corby left the show after What's on Mike Mind today.

    Let the speculation begin!

    (I hope all is well)

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  31. Darn, shoulda checked twitter first. Close family friend passed away. Best wishes Corbily.

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  32. With T.J. at the helm, perhaps the most disjointed, wheels off E-news ever.

    For those of you who need context - sorry, there isn't any. It was a ship without a rudder.

    In other words . . . radio gold.

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  33. @terry
    I think it boils down to the local audience. What do they want to hear? I can see some parts of Tobacco Road wanting Race Week all the time with a nod to football in season. What is MaS talking up down there in Birmingham? I expect it is a large serving of SEC and all things Bama. I suppose Houston, Austin and SA are some better comparisons around here. It really got down to chemistry of hosts among themselves and with their audience. It works or it doesn't. It was the same sports talk as here, but with an emphasis on their teams. No Gay or Not Gay, no GBL, no Homer Call, maybe a few mentions of local doings, but not much of it. And callers, oh yes, lots and lots of those. I heard a rendition of the 2 minute drill out of Houston when I lived in that region. You do know who ruined that at The Ticket don't you? Why that would be us. We stopped having sports points. We refused to be responsible. The same threat that Jub hangs over us on Friday mornings came true with the Hardline. We stopped being responsible and it disappeared. They get tired of our shtick too.

    On Gordo. I don't know if he is married or not. I do recall is wife's photo bidness link on his page. It seems that he is a private person in that part of his life. I don't blame him one iota.

    When Craig interviewed his dad for Father's day and he told of the moment of enlightenment of his son when he admitted that HS was merely a stage for him, a captive audience, that sums up my understanding of him as well. All the world's a stage. Except regarding his own life concerning us as an audience. There he gets his own personal audience of humans. When he talked of creating a persona of an oil baron and company, mimicking family members on the ride back to Texas from Mississippi and all the tales of HS. It is obvious to me that he has unknowingly or not developed the skills that make him who he is.

    There is a reason why he won the emergency break this week. There is a reason why Alexis remembers Jub slamming him into the wall. He is the arsonist that Jub and Junior have named him. He loves to stir it up, light a match and run off to a safe distance to watch the conflagration. Can you imagine being a teacher of his?

    I like him. He exasperates me and I want to smack him upside the head and I would pay good money to see Jub do just that, but I would miss him if he ever decided to take his talents elsewhere.

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  34. I've been away for a few hours but wanted to note Corby's exit and ask the Confessors to keep a good thought for him, whatever it was. Per Twitter (thanks, Shaggy) we find out that a family friend has died.

    Our condolences to Corby, his family, and the loved ones of the deceased.

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  35. Terry: Some speculation abounds that when Rushbo's contract is up at the end of the year with Cumulus he will end up on a CBS station here in Dallas. Flip KEGL to Rush radio with all of the rest of the syndicated talkers ending up there. Odd man out will be Mark Davis stuck at KSKY.

    Time will tell.

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  36. Once again The Teebox had tech problems and weren't on the air after the mix with George.

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  37. Did I really type T.J.?

    I meant T.C., of course.

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  38. @Gopher,
    KEGL is a Clear Channel station, not CBS Radio. CC already has 5 FM stations in the DFW cluster and cannot add another one. CBS has 5 FMs too, but there really is not one to flip to talk since even their Spanish-language station does much better than The FAN.

    @Terry,
    I'll try to take your thoughts in order.

    1- Dickey believes that there will be 1,000. He has said it on record a few times to Radio Ink magazine. A quick search will lead you to his comments. The deal with CBS Sports Radio is to assist in the development. Remember, NBC also has a sports radio network, but since Comcast does not own radio stations, their penetration is miniscule. Stations will flip to sports in order to gain a team's braodcast rights, and this greater ad revenue due to the stable content of sports.

    2- While there still be major markets with area-specific stations with hosts, the shareholder goal is for those to go away, just like on the music side where playlists are made from the corporate office and there is no DJ in market #118, just a voiceover. Sports radio has become the morning newspaper for many, so hiring award winning sportswriter/columnists is now the standard. Where CBS has a cluster of stations they have put local sports on FM and leave their national CBS Sports programming on an AM band.

    3- Caller-driven radio will still remain on as a daily show in select markets, but I think those shows are banal.
    How ESPN works with Paul Finebaum on his show which debuts this fall will tell how dead caller-driven is. The Deep South and college towns all across the country will keep a caller-driven show because local advertisers want it as much as the fan base.

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  39. DA: Thanks for the correction.



    When does the city of Dallas sell WRR to Jerry or Cuban and get out of the radio business? :)

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  40. It is Sunday, 3:18 pm e.s.t. and there is no Ticket Sports Radio thing, just some national feed. I listen on many, but not all, Saturdays. But never before onSundays. Is this normal? I thought I heard ads for Sunday shows, or is that only in the morning? Or am I on the wrong iHeart channel...

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  41. Rhyner talks to DMN: http://www.dallasnews.com/sports/more-sports/headlines/20130628-mike-rhyner-the-ticket-gig-is-unique-but-sooner-or-later-someone-will-leave.ece

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  42. Brief interview, but interesting. I don't think Mike is going anywhere soon. Ron Chapman broadcast into his 70s, so why not Rhynes?

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  43. I'm pretty sure that after The Shake Joint, Sunday programming is all genero-national.

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  44. Even when I worked at 1310, one of things I always found intriguing about 105.3 is that they rolled local on weekends all the time.

    Young voices, live and local. Very intriguing. They still roll that way on weekends, aside from having to carry the NASCAR race on Sundays.

    It was always really defeating to me that on Sundays we would go 8-11, followed by the Joe Morgan show/network all day long.

    I get that they didn't want to pay anybody, but I know I would have been happy to have worked for free for a couple hours on Sunday afternoons. Probably not what the P1 would have wanted, but I have to feel that me and some other weekend guy hosting a show on Sunday would have appealed to the P1's senses more than network.

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  45. I just might tune in to WTDS today.

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  46. @Plainsman

    Any reason in particular?

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  47. @KT
    Gagreed. I've thought that so many times, and especially now that Ticket Sunday afternoon are CBS Sports radio...CBS owns Sundays in this market!

    In terms of compensation, don't they still have a board op working? They're still paying CBS something to carry the syndication, is it that much less than carrying their own talent? It would seem like a good investment for the newer shows to get airtime and get some, any kind, of momentum, and keep your homegrown talent working and refining.
    Back when Elf was on the Ticket, he did Sunday afternoons, right? Or am I flipping my Saturdays and Sundays?

    Speaking of callbacks and scattershooting, a "where are they now" about the Hot Spot?

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  48. I think Elf did Sunday mornings. It was his departure that eventually led to MaSS.

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  49. Werewolf of FriscoJuly 1, 2013 at 2:57 PM

    thdricI agree completely about the desirability of local weekend programming on the Ticket. The national feeds are boring and robotic... It the Ticket rolled out more JV programming on the weekends, I probably wouldn't be surfing the other local stations/Sirius Radio.

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  50. Nice one PMan. Just heard it. Happy 4th!

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  51. Josh's broken shoulderJuly 1, 2013 at 3:06 PM

    You made the big time Plainsman, Jake Z just gave MTC a bday shoutout during WTDS.

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  52. Congratulations and four hearty huzzahs, Plainsman. Thanks for four years of providing a voice for us Ticketheads and Ticketchicks. Here's to another four!

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  53. Well now, made WTDS bdays. And got a full mention!

    Here's to four more.

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  54. Anybody know the time on unticket of the Jake bragging montage? Thought it was at the end of the show but maybe now.

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  55. It's not on the Unticket archive page. It happened at 11:06 or so, and the Shake Joint recording cuts off at 11:00.

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  56. Many thanks to Jake for passing along the glorious news of this site's fourth anniversary on Monday's WTDS. Very nice of him.

    And thanks to each of you for Shopping at My Ticket Confession.

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  57. Speaking of Jake, That Shake Joint Thang continues to impress. I did not get to hear the whole show on Sunday, but I really enjoyed Jake's deep-stats breakdown of Yu's pitches, and Sean's accompanying observations.

    While TJS gets pretty good reviews from the Confessor, several have decried know-it-all-ism of both Jake and Sean. Myself, I don't hear it. At all. I'm not sure what the critics are looking for here. I expect hosts to have opinions, but I don't expect them to say "but I could be wrong" after each of them. I expect them to defend their views when challenged. I don't hear a whole lot of thin-skinnedness between the two of them, either.

    I'm happy to listen to other views on this, but I really think it's a polished presentation that doesn't get under my skin on any level.

    Whether it could be a daily show with, for example, Norm's retirement -- I dunno. I don't see why not, just like I don't see why Cirque du Sirois could not transition to a daily show. It may not be your favorite show, you may not look forward hearing it every day, but in terms of professionalism, broadcast skill, filling time, preparation -- why not?

    I haven't been tuning in to Ben & Skin at all. I need to do that, give that team + KT a chance now that they've had some time to get their legs under them.

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  58. PS: I am not predicting Norm's retirement. With BaD's re-upping, seems to me the joint has gotten a shot in the arm and they're going to keep that team together as long as they can. Norm may get more vacation or other consideration, but does anyone sense he's readying himself for retirement?

    The JV shows-in-waiting will have a long wait, so when we look for the "next guys to leave," that group probably harbors the best candidates. As little as I would like to see that.

    Yeah, let's hear more JV experiments on Sunday afternoons, why don't we?

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  59. Norm almost surely won't go willingly.

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  60. Carlos Leal struggling with Tickers today.

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  61. Congrats on 4 years, Plainsman. From watching countless blogs go by the wayside, I know how hard it is to keep one going with regular contributions.

    I've been coming here since the beginning of 2010 (around the time of "where Barb" but I don't think that's what led me here) and looking back it's pretty funny that the discussion topics haven't really changed at all. In the beginning, it was all about the same issues with the Hardline, the same issues with Corby, the same "issues" with Gordon, etc.

    I'll have to go listen to yesterday's WTDS... did they say anything more than just that it was the 4th anniversary?

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  62. Well, Plainsman, if you want a prime example of Jake's need to be always right and inability to listen to different views, look no further than the Mavs segment he and Sean did today. It reminded me of when Newbury used to dress down McClaren. I have nothing against Jake. Why on earth would I? But I don't like his style. At all.

    Do yourself a favor, Plainsman, and listen to the above mentioned segment. If don't find his attitude objectionable, or at least unpleasant, then bully for you. But you might glimpse something that at least some of us find rather off-putting. For my money, Jake, on the whole, is off-putting.

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  63. 311: I accept your interpretation. But I would expect that Sean gave as good as he got. I will see if I can find it.

    Sean can be a little . . . touchy, but I don't find it objectionable. Can lead to good radio. We had an example just a little bit ago on today's Hardline. Mark F, sitting in for Corby dealing with his personal issue (in New Mexico, I gather -- I did not hear the latest explanation of the reason for his departure, but I gather there was one in the 6 PM hour yesterday -- good wishes from MTC) was giving his views on the Rangers. He mentioned that Diamond Talk had a different point of view, but he thought that Ron Washington was a good leader. (That's a very, very simplified version of what MF was saying.) Sean jumped in and spoke rather sharply in his defense, although frankly, I didn't think a defense was really necessary in light of MF's rather mild remarks. I was in traffic and didn't hear the denouement.

    As I say -- one doesn't want a steady diet of defensiveness, but it can wake up a sleepy show, as it did today.

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  64. Thanks to everyone for the Fourth Anniversary good wishes.

    Yes, I'm aware that there are quite a number of themes that tend to repeat themselves. But then, so does The Ticket. Do I ever think of calling it a day? Yeah, but then something comes along that grabs my attention, and I'm glad I have somewhere to go myself.

    I didn't have anywhere to go for civilized Ticket talk back four years ago, so I decided to create my own forum, see if anyone wanted to talk Ticket.

    And now, as sometimes happens, the master has become the slave.

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  65. Since the circumstances are unfortunate I "almost" feel a slight bit of guilt for pointing this out but the Hardline is night and day more enjoyable to listen to when Mike is fully engaged, not constantly being beat up and actually is given a voice in a segment. (Danny and Jake too) Hearing multiple segment, nerdy deep stat Rangers talk and NBA finance talk with Mark sure gives me good ol day syndrome of what the Hardline USE to be. Amazing how one person can drastically alter the dynamic.

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  66. If he doesn't out live us all, I'm pretty sure we'll hear Norm clutch his chest and keel over on-air. Dark, I know, but seriously, think about it.

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  67. @blergoyen

    I think he would actually be glad to go out that way. Right in the middle of talking sports. Thunk. Doing what makes him happy right to the very end. I seem to recall back when he was down in NO for the SB during the voodoo session the question came up about retirement and his question in response was "What else am I going to do? I would be talking sports for free with anybody that would listen if I wasn't here."

    He reminds me of a prof I had. Emeritus chairman of the history dept. First day of class, "Yes, I have read my reviews on RateMyProfessor. No, I am not going to retire. I have no life. When I die they can replace me." Some day the cleaning crew will find him slumped over in his big chair no longer able to goad undergrads into reading the material. It isn't morbid. I consider it a life goal.

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  68. @606
    Spot on, brutha. You hit upon something that's never talked about: that both Corby and Danny, though mostly Corby, dogpile and beat up on Mike so often now and for so long that it's made him on most days sort of a bystander. I'm sure it's something Mike himself isn't aware of or thinks is the case. Indeed, he seems to now embrace it; though when it first started happening (probably around 5 months before Greggo was fired--when Corby basically became the #2 voice, due to GW's incompetence), he decidedly refused to stand for it, at least on air. Over the years his authority has been eroded by means of the caricaturization, the cartooning, of the guy who used to go by the moniker The Old Grey Wolf. He's now, more often than not, a punch line whose only area of expertise is Ranger baseball and classic rock. And even those last bastions of authority are more and more joked away. So when someone does fill in for Corby, like Followill, the old captain of the USS Hardline, i.e., the way Mike used to be, steps to the fore. And what do you know. . . .we get one heckuva show.

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  70. I didn't see it as grandstanding at all. I think Corby handled the conversation quite well, even wondering aloud if he could have done anything different to help his friend survive. Particularly poignant IMO since he is the only member of THL known to stay in contact with Greggo.

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  71. Enough already slinky. It is so incredibly tired. We get it: you hate him. We all have our opinions of Corby, but that wasn't grandstanding. You are as over-opinionated as you accuse Corby of being. It was one of his best friends and he was trying to make a point that many people really need to hear. Get off his jock and let it go. Show some compassion and resume hating him next week.

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