Thursday, August 28, 2014

Musings


Sorry I've been away.  A few notes from recent morning showgrams:

(1)  I haven't heard George as prepared or animated as he was last week when Craig was gone and he went off on a very animated rant in the 5:30 segment on high school bands.  Good to hear George excited about something.  Wished he'd packaged for a later segment, it deserved a bigger audience.  Probably made the Top 10.

(2)  I'm liking Gordon's contractor talk as contractor Randy Cody.  George is jumping in with some funny contractor talk as well.  The gag range tends to be somewhat limited, but it's a good bit.

(3)  I don't know why I found it interesting that Grey Goose Vodka is sponsoring the Dunham & Miller Open.  It's not a station sponsor, that I recall.  I guess it's not all that interesting -- but I'd think that one of the major advertisers on the station would sponsor the thing.  Is it tense when D&M Auto Leasing or All-Pro Foundation Repair or whoever calls up Sales and says, "Welp, almost time for the Open, let's talk about this year's sponsorship" and the Sales chick says "Uh, we've already sold that sponsorship to Grey Goose," and the old sponsor says, "Hey, that's my spot, how much you getting from Grey Goose?" and she tells him and he hangs up violently, indignant over the ingratitude.

Yes, I know, I know, it doesn't happen that way.  Don't leave comments telling me how stupid I am.

There have been comments lately on the surprising lack of sponsorship on the online broadcast.  And once in awhile you hear an on-air segment being sponsored by Your Mama.  Doubt it has much meaning to The Ticket's overall health, but maybe one of our radio insiders knows the dope.

(4)  Fight Night tonight.  George remarked this morning that one doesn't hear fight broadcasts on the radio today.  Junior riposted:  "You won't hear it tonight, either -- it'll be just three hours of screaming."  Which is a criticism many Confessors have about that broadcast.  Very difficult to tell what's going on, who's winning, anything.



However:  The careful student of The Ticket should pay close attention to such broadcasts.  In the same way that Ticket Round Tables can be revealing of inter-host relationships that you don't get during the normal broadcast day, the Fight Night white elephant broadcast teams also disclose some tensions and discomforts that aren't revealed during the shows.  I may listen while the Cowboys game is on, see if anything pops up.

If you go, drop us a comment with a report.  If you hear something interesting on the broadcast, ditto.

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ThePlainsman1310@gmail.com
@Plainsman1310

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Don't waste your time with ad hominem attacks on Confessors or name-calling or especially impugning the intelligence, motives, or writing style of Your Plainsman.  (Actually, writing style criticisms might survive if the comment is otherwise acceptable.  Recent hate mail has not been.)   Watch the cussing.  Comments may be rejected for tone.

37 comments:

  1. I listen on the stream as I have moved to VA. The lack of ads along with the "music" between segments is maddening. I never thought I would miss Ryker Dykes Auto Group ads but there you go. Also the stream drops much more often than it used to. Any ideas whats going on?

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  2. Coors Light was the previous sponsor of the D&M Open for the past couple of years. Since it wasn't a "normal" advertiser like All-Pro or D&M Leasing, I'm guessing that Coors Light just decided to put their money elsewhere for a while. The Open needs a liquor sponsor and the crack sales department went out and recruited Grey Goose.

    Oh, and Corby still sucks.

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  3. Norm just said "I am going to pre-introduce my next guest." That slays me! "Pre-introduce," "pre-say," etc. Love me some weirdo Norman Elizabeth HItzges.

    Totally onboard with your moderating the comments, Pman. Yes the number of comments have dropped a bit, but gone are the flame wars, wannabe logicians, and all the rest. When I think about it, perhaps the reason the quantity of comments have dipped some is due more to the fact that it's been pretty uneventful on The Ticket front. None of the hold onto your butts warnings came to fruition. Or if they did, they weren't really hotyb worthy.

    Don't know what's in the water, and maybe it's just me, but it seems like those Musers are at the top of their game right now. Gordo is still spouting out those moments of brilliance, but in a more, ahem, mature and, double ahem, restraint; Junes is on fire with both HSOs and his tasty, understated sense of humor; and George is as rock solid as he's ever been, but with more of an edge. Man, we sure are lucky to have those boys gracing the airwaves. Crap, I almost forgot the Georgio/Gordo ads! If I'm a client, that's who I want pitching my product, for sure. They crack you up, make the ad and thus the product memorable, are respectful of the product, and make you want to buy it. Pure gold.

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  4. I love that I don't know about these ads. Thanks to a P1 on reddit I have recently started recording the Ticket with Dar.fm and then downloading the shows to RSSRadio to listen9podcast style). The downside is that I am always an hour or two behind. Upside is no commercials and skipping Bad Radio sports interviews.
    It has been a nice trade off.
    PS
    I've been streaming since the very early 2000's since moving from Dallas to Austin.

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  5. CUMULUS! THE POWER OF RADIO!

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  6. George is my leader, but he was off base on his high school band rant. I just graduated a high school band student - and a drum major to boot. I've learned more than I ever wanted to know about how high school band works.

    The thing is - the band is in a competition just like the football players are. They work all season on a show that gets graded, and bands go to state competitions just like football teams do.

    The one thing I really wanted to say to George - take the parents of the band, cheerleaders, and pep squad out of the stands on Friday nights and see what you've got. Particularly if the football team is not good.

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  7. Listening to Fight Night.

    Great to hear Rich Phillips again.

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  8. The stream is a mess. I had to go to an actual radio to hear fight night @7:45.

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  9. Attention Catman or any Ticket employee who can pass info along to the Catman: Everyone loves the Fake Michael Irvin so I propose start making him a regular bit. But he wouldn't have to just talk football. He might comment on the Rangers, local news, or whatever comes to his mind. But the point is...we need more of him. The board ops play drops a lot more than they used to and when George does him, other hosts will literally laugh so I know it's not just me that has a soft spot for him. Let's get this thing going.

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  10. Did anyone hear Corby ragging on Rhyner for sitting on his rear end and not doing anything? I just heard it on EBotW. It sounds like he's over-reacting in an attempt to draw attention away from someone else's laziness. I wonder who that could be?

    The more I listen, I'm thinking the lack of Reagor/Dykes and Progressive ads is worth the generic music. I don't mind Jennifer Wild. She sounds like your bored neighbor who has too many nannies and an absent husband.

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  11. Attention, Corby! Attention, Mike!

    Longhorn fans don't turn out for North Texas State. They never have. I thought the college football blowhard and his plus one would know that.

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  12. "Recent hate mail has not been."

    The Pman is getting hate mail? That's just wrong.

    I have to admit Fight Night is not high on my listening priorities. It's ok, but not a big deal if I miss it.

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  13. Is it just my imagination, or was the Fight Night recap/segment not nearly the big player it has been in years past? Anybody out there attend it? If so, what was the scene like? Usually each show gushes over the turnout. Again, it might be my imagination, but it seems like that aspect, too, wasn't played up like in years past.

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  14. I'm not sure where you got the idea that Texas fans don't show up for UNT. There will most likely be 100,000+ in the stadium tomorrow night.

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  15. cactus, it has finally dawned on most of the people who apparently loathe this site or The Ticket that posting scurrilities is a waste of time because they will remain unread.

    Some, however, seem still to get some kind of hedonic benefit out of advising me of my numerous shortcomings. I've got one guy in particular, who gives off a whiff of being a Ticket insider, who can't stand me or you (Confessors generally, not just you, cactus) or this site and who posts a thorough breakdown of the errors, weaknesses, inconsistencies, and downright awfulness of my posts. This little Muser post? You wouldn't believe how stupid it really is!!

    The good news is that his pattern is distinctive so now it only takes me three or four seconds to recognize and delete them, or about one two-hundredth of the time it took him to compose them.

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  16. I heard the Corby-Mike spat on the E-Brake. Our attention had been called to it by a Confessor. That probably happens (Mike wandering off into checking Ranger Box Scores or the like) more than we realize.

    I caught some of the BaD 15-on-15 yesterday about an episode shortly after Dan McDowell's arrival at The Ticket where he had undertaken some challenge to catch Major League fly balls. Rusty Greer was involved but I didn't hear the beginning so don't know exactly who was doing what. Bob's commentary was interesting -- Bob had been on The Ticket for a longer time, Dan was a new arrival, and they marked his successful ball-catching exploits as some kind of watershed event in Dan's "acceptance" by -- well, I'm not sure who. Colleagues? Listeners? I wish they'd do more of these historical things, at least to the extent they weren't lost in the Incompetent Move to Victory Park.

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  17. DA: Thanks for the interesting info. You have written pretty authoritatively in the past about the decline in terrestrial radio; I don't recall if you predicted its likely marginalizaation, but some commenters have done so. I was very surprised at the very low percentage of people who listen on one or another stream. Do you expect that to change a lot in the foreseeable future?

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  18. Shaggy,

    As of Friday afternoon the game was not a sell out. Corby and Mike used that as an opportunity to kick Longhorn Nation in the nuts. As if they needed an excuse.

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  19. Plainsman,

    According to a Cumulus engineer, the crazy music playing on the stream has actually been another Cumulus technical problem, not a result of unsold spots.

    Apparently it took them weeks to figure out the problem and it's supposed to be fixed Monday.

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  20. Plainsman, the biggest thing I know is that Cumulus put more $$$ into rdio and its app and seems to move from iheart. If you stream, it does not make $$$.My long term talk, since 2012, was that CBS was going to sell its radio division to Culumus so that Lou Dickey could extend his debt service. Those who have PPMs and listen on a stream still don't matter in terms radio although Barry Horn still cuts/pastes about a “key demographic”. Most of us listen digitaly and it is hard to monitize still.

    In 2014, I also talke about my dislike of TC and how shady he was about working the Final 4 under a false credntial which he was not working for and his other issues still illustrate his laziness.

    The Dan/Clay Travis bit was funny to me since Clay Travis easily blogs about his Cumulus failed deal and according to him, while be the highest rated sports radio show in the USA, Cumulus only offrered him a raise of $5K/year.

    http://www.tennessean.com/story/money/2014/08/26/clay-travis-leaving-hl-radio-show-zone/14635495/

    He does not need Cumulus since he has FOX money and had NBC radio money for a recorded weekend show,but his sob story to the Nashville minions is funny.

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  21. If that is the case, then all hail Lew Dickey, the Jerry Jones of radio.

    P1Rick

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  22. It was Dan being accepted by the Musketeer hosts. Specifically THL. Even more specifically, Mike. Or the guy who back then used to be called by all hosts and callers, "Rhyner"--the man's actual surname. That definitely was a watershed moment for Dan and BaD. Prior to it, BaD, at that time a new show, was looked at by both the other hosts and listeners as carpetbaggers of sorts. Bob had been around for a bit hosting evenings, some weekends, etc. He had already gotten the lay of the land and understood to let the game come to him, that he was along for the ride and just enjoy it. Dan was brand new. If you think Dan's sense of humor and mannerisms and whatnot are odd to off-putting now, well you should've heard him then. Not being used Dan being Dan and Dan not used to the Musketeer Ways and Means Committee, well let's just say he was looked at askance from most everyone at the station. Ditto the listener. For whatever reason, the Rusty Greer Challenge changed all that. The moment he took off his shirt, he got the "knowing nod" from Mike, the listener softened his/her position on him, and the other hosts fell in line with their leader (Mike). It was sort of BaD's point of departure for their success.

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  23. Any fill-in day without Cirque is a wasted day

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  24. Re: UT vs. North Texas

    Capacity: 100,119

    Attendance: 93,201

    All shows will probably mention it, but Corby and Mike will make a big deal out of it.

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  25. @1058
    I too wonder why CdS wasn't a part of today's lineup? After spending my entire Labor Day listening, I've come to the rather easy conclusion that CdS is by far and away the best of the JV shows. Didn't used to be that way, but it definitely is now.

    Random thoughts while scattershooting about today's JV/fill-in shows:

    TSJ. I've been a big Jake supporter. He seems to be grooming for the Varsity. A natural replacement for either Norm or Mike--at some point in the future. Here comes the "but." But lately he's become, at times, damn near impossible to listen to. The "likes," "ums," and "I thinks" are so numerous, so ubiquitous, that they're the only thing I hear. (He even said "I don't know… "I think…." in the same sentence 4 separate times this morning.) What's worse is that he's reverting back to his old and I'd hoped forgotten habit of nearly shouting and/or blurting out every thought he has in a blast of what I can only call an overabundance of self-confidence. For such a sharp guy, one who knows his stuff, it's pretty unbecoming and makes for a difficult listen. I thought he'd gotten past being Jake Z/Space is Super Gay. I thought doing TSJ on a regular basis would've cured him of immature "tics" or habits. It seems not. I hope Cat or Dan Bennett pulls him aside and at the very least address the "likes" and the ADHD-like shouting/blurting delivery. He sounds like an teenager amped up on 12 too many energy drinks and a handful of Adderall. I know Jake is better than this.

    Sean, on the other hand, has gone from cocky-sniff, Mr. I Can't Be Wrong-I Must Have The Last Word-I Am Always Auditioning For A Job With The Rangers-My Views Are Enlightened And Progressive, to a well-balanced and thoughtful host. Whether it's being married and raising a small child and a newborn or whatever, he's grown up a lot. It comes through in a major way. He was a treat to listen to.

    IG. Good stuff. I like hearing Big Bob wax eloquently about the Dallas of yore. David is solid. The Nadel interview was good; nothing new, but still a good segment.

    Soccer Squad. I like Peter. I enjoy hearing him talk soccer. Past that, he sort of speaks out of his rear akin to Corby--except not in the superlative, cocky a-wipe way Corby does. Despite his inability to stand for any opinion that dissents from his own, Newbury is always insightful and unafraid to say what he means. Bruce is great when it comes to hockey, anything else, he espouses all the sports acumen of your average listener.

    TnT. Other than a few "ums" and some odd pauses, TC did a fine job. Yes he comes off as a jerk from time to time. But he's knowledgeable and, like Newbury, is insightful. In truth, TC surprised me today--in a good way.

    Ty was solid. The StarWars talk wasn't my bag, but it is his, so I gave him a pass on that segment. I think Ty is an excellent Tickerman, Diamond Talk cohost, and knows how to pick his spots. I don't know if I'd listen to a Ty-steered show. But who knows, with enough time, maybe I would.

    Overall, not a bad day. It still beats the crap out of what passes for interesting on the other 2 sports stations.

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  26. Could anyone tell whether the Musers' -- basically, George's -- 5:30 segment this morning on the four-day work week was a bit or a heartfelt opinion?

    I didn't hear much Ticket yesterday, but I did hear some of the Ty + T.C. show. Didn't punch out.

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  27. Yes, George often touts the 4-day work week. Not a bit.

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  28. I think George is serious about the four-day work week, in that I think he believes that's where we are headed eventually.

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  29. Just heard on BaD that the fox sports girl kaime was one of the victims of the mass nude photo hack. I Feel terrible for her.

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  30. Hold on to you're buts... for real this time.

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  31. Suggesting that perhaps some past butt-holdings may have been unjustified.

    Any clew in the misspelling of "butt"?

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  32. I can appreciate the need for this forum to be moderated but it sure does bring down the conversation. There's not much spontaneous commenting anymore and sometimes a subject will be out on hold for a couple of days, which I feel kills the momentum. I'm not sure why my last comment was not posted either as it was not rude or condescending to anyone. I really can't remember what it was about now...I think maybe an observation about a show, but that's kind of making my point. A conversation was potentially killed. Sorry for the semi rant, just wanted to state my opinion on how I feel the state of MTC has evolved.

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  33. T4, I don't recall any comment of yours that was not published. If it wasn't, it was either inadvertent or bad Blogger mechanics. Sorry.

    Moderating is a pain for me, too, but we were getting too many promos for Fan shows, too many trolls, too many people who seemed to loathe both The Ticket and this site and its proprietor. As I commented a few days ago, you should see some of the bilious communiques I've received.

    If some big news hits, as seems possible (I'm hearing from sources other than Gypo), I may turn off the moderation for awhile to let the love flow.

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  34. I have had some fairly reliable indications that butt-holding is in order, but no indication of why.

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  35. Testing time from submitting to posted time 10:33

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  36. Maybe you could suspend moderation for butt-holding events?

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  37. Maybe "the plainsman" could get over himself and take a little criticism, instead of overmoderating just to save his ego.

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