Tuesday, May 12, 2015
Confessors React to the Jeff Catlin AMA
Men and women, it's been quite a couple of days putting this together and getting Cat's answers posted. I know many of you will have some steaming hot STDs on what he had to say, and this is the place for it.
The RULES OF THE CONFESSIONAL are not suspended. Use your inside voice for your reactions.
I'm still at work and I've been skating close to the edge in managing this AMA while trying to serve my masters here on the Plains. Your comment might not show up for awhile.
I can imagine Cat standing in front of an enormous picture of a Marconi and delivering that wonderful line from George C. Scott's opening address to the troops in "Patton": "All right, now, you sons-of-bitches, you know how I feel."
I may come back later and add to this post with my own reactions. Until then, let's have yours.
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It's pretty clear he's in denial about a number of major station issues. Pretty ironic the newest ratings news broke in the middle of this. Also funny that he said when he gets tons of negative feedback on something (TC) but disagrees with it, he defers to the ratings. Well, the mid day ratings are continually declining. Second guessing yourself now?
ReplyDeleteThanks Plainsman and thanks Baghdad Bob, I mean Cat.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate Cat's time and you putting this together, Pman. I just don't know how he thinks TC is "good and good enough to do midday tickers". Maybe he's a good guy and he's fun to be around, maybe he works hard, but I just don't see how his work can be described as good. He may have talent, but I don't hear any on-air talent. I guess he's part of the gang and that's what matters most.
ReplyDeleteInteresting that Cat didn't shy away from strongly disagreeing about Corby or Rhyner. Didn't sidestep; just said he disagreed, and I respect that. And it's not just because he's going to blindly support any of his employees, as he readily acknowledged TC has room for improvement.
ReplyDeleteAgree or disagree with Cat's take on some things, or with his decisions, I respect the heck out of him for doing this.
I wish he'd taken the low road regarding Whitt, though ;)
I think we all really appreciate him taking the time to do this, even if there was nothing earth shattering revealed. That being said, some of these answers or "defenses" were simply unacceptable. Oh well, it's hard not to hold him accountable for some of these decisions now that they're in writing.
ReplyDeleteGood work Cat, Good Work Pman, Good Job Everybody high five!
ReplyDeleteI'm excited about the legit hold your butt announcement!
Loved it and was refreshing and reading all day. Glad I'm not busy at work today. oops.
ReplyDeleteBut they only thing I regret is there not being a questions about carrying press conferences especially Garret or Jones ones that are worthless. I thought this morning after the cut off about a stream questions and was very happy to see some in there being a Tennessee resident for the past 8 years.
Just wish we knew if the press conferences were a mandate from someone or if he enjoys them and stuff.
What I can gather from this: Either this head-in-the-sand viewpoint is sincere and that's why the Ticket is tanking, or he knows that it is but he isn't going to confirm it here.
ReplyDeleteThe "TC is good" and "Mike is fully engaged" were just laughable opinions.
But hey, if he disagrees he can just go the ratings to prove he's right. Oh...wait.
Having read all of Cat's responses, I have to give him ENORMOUS kudos. Doing a Q&A like that can really be a no-win for a guy in his position, and he handled it very well. But just like he admitted a bias for The HardLine (and also inexplicably has one for TC), I have a similar bias/fondness for Cat.
ReplyDeleteFor those who weren't listening back in the '90s when Cat was still "just" a producer, but I can tell you from personal experience he was always extremely helpful and cordial to me back when I was running hardliners.com (the first show-specific website related to The Ticket, which ran from 1996-99). During the Green Bay road trip when Gordo got arrested, Cat was e-mailing me pics they were taking, specifically to post on the site. Neither me nor my page were ever officially authorized or sanctioned by The Ticket, yet Cat always treated the site as if it were. He's just flat-out a GMF.
-- Sideshow Bob
Total props to Cat for engaging in this Q&A, no matter what you think of his answers, how many times do you get the person in charge of your favorite radio/tv show, or favorite team or anything you may follow to answer your questions. And not just give you lip service, but actual thought out answers with real emotion and meaning to them.
ReplyDeleteMy personal listening habits have changed in the last year. I've totally laid off terrestrial radio and moved to Pandora/Amazon music in the car, in part due to having a young kid who likes music much more than guy talk radio (hey, we do what we have to, to keep a 3 year old happy in a car seat) I still have my tune in segments like Muse in the News, E-Brake, WTDS. And I tune in for special segments like BunB yesterday or good interviews or Corby stories, but I just dont listen from 6a-7p like I used to.
I don't have anything to add. I'm just throwing my thanks into the chorus of those who have already done so. Thanks, Cat, Pman, the little ticket, and Paul in um...
ReplyDeleteIf you expected any sort of "dirt" from Cat, come on now, that might have been a little unrealistic. BUT, I agree with with Rhinosaur, his defenses of Rhyner and TC were laughable.
ReplyDeleteGood on him for even doing this for us. Thanks to PMan for being such a gracious and excellent host.
BaD Radio ratings continue to drop while they continue to employ the same ticker guy & producer....not a coincidence. get rid of both & ratings will go up. I know I will start listening again.
ReplyDeleteWell, what can I say. . . .thank you, Cat, thank you, Pman. Like Cat said, there isn't another PD in the world who would take a night and half a day to answer 60+, unfiltered, unadulterated, questions from listeners. . . .more specifically, listeners who frequent some dude's blog. Tip of the hat, "we are not worthy" bow, and a knowing nod to Cat. And Pman, I can't say enough to you for doing this. You don't make a dime off this thing, and yet you took the time/energy to make this AMA happen. I give the same 3 tokens of admiration and thanks to you as I did Cat. Lastly, fantastic job on the questions, fellow Confessors. We showed our passion, knowledge, and smarts in fine fashion.
ReplyDeleteTo Cat's respones. . . .my general thoughts.
I'm a late 30 something D1P1. I've witnessed every change The Ticket has ever been through. I know The Ticket. I also work in a corporate setting. So. I have a more than solid knowledge of both The Ticket and how the corporate world works--and how one keeps one's job in said latter world. Therefore I, and as I'm sure most of you, knew going in that there were things Cat flat out wasn't going to be forthcoming about, things he perhaps wasn't going to give the answer he'd like to, and things he was going to give, by necessity, corporate-speak answers to. And in my opinion, he did just that. But not in all cases. Nevertheless, let me be clear, I understand it. You will not keep your job in that setting (and we now know just how much of the local Cumulus cluster falls under his umbrella. . . .it's quite substantial, which means so is Cat inre CTO-dom) if you in any way let others know where the bodies are buried. The majority of our questions were asking just that: where are the bodies buried (?). The man is not going to piss away a hard earned, successful career going out and out tell-all (overtly or between the lines) in a AMA. OK. Having pre-said all of that. . . .
Cat's info, what he could legally give, regarding ratings was interesting. If I read him correctly, the stream, etc., does count toward the ratings. Ratings are everything. They are what keeps him and the hosts employed. Therefore when we see the ratings rise, dip, level out, they mean a lot to the station. Thus earlier today when I read via a Barry Horn Tweet that The FAN beat The Ticket in men 25-54 in April, it's meaningful.
I have to think Cat's own "hold on to your butts" tease pertains to Summer Bash.
The answer that sticks out most to me--and again, it might very well be something he's not going to, can't if he wanted to deal--was his dismissal of any issue with Mike's role on/engagement with, THL. Obviously, if he can't say "yes, Mike's disengaged, it's a major concern, and we're trying to figure it out." But I do wish he would've at least obliquely addressed what surely on some level an issue. It has to be. As Pman pointed out in a follow up, the station's "leader" and his lead dog show (in attitude, and for over nearly two decades, ratings in the MOST coveted pm drive slot) has slipped by ratings increments substantially and for a sustained period now. My hope is that he's not truly tone deaf on this particular. If he is, then there's going to be trouble/major changes in the not so distant future. There will be, no doubt about it. At my workplace, which is large, I'd estimate that of the numerous listeners I know, 80% find Mike disengaged. I also play softball, indoor soccer, and hockey. Nearly every player on all three teams is a P1. Of them, 80-90% think so. And when you read the MTC, reddit, Facebook comments, the percentage is probably upwards of 95%. There is more than "something" to it. Cat, if you're reading these comments to your comments, I ask you to please take heed.
Again, thanks so much to Cat and Pman.
Many thanks to Pman and much respect to Cat.
ReplyDeleteWhat stands out most to me is the overall 'nothing to see here, all is well' theme that pervaded nearly every answer. I know he wasn't going to give a scorched earth TC like AMA, but I was hoping for a little more bite. Like some of you have already said, the Mike being fully engaged stuff has to come from either a towing the line-wearing the PD 'these are my guys' hat or a head in the sand point of view. If it's a head in the sand thing then man oh man The Ticket is going to be in a crappy place in a couple of years from now. His TC explanation was thin. I personally don't get the venom toward TC, but his Tickers are bad, and so for that reason alone I find Cat's thinking fuzzy. So prime midday hours are the training ground for a guy who has been at it for how many years now? Weird.
James, I'm with you. I also wish he'd taken the low road. I hope one day some Observer or other reporter does an expose into the RW story. I have a feeling it'd be fascinating in a sleazy/creepy sort of way. Kinda like that Russ Martin expose from years ago.
P-Man and Cat - Thanks for taking the time out of your busy schedules to put this together.
ReplyDeleteI have one takeaway from the AMA and it was Cat's response to why they don't do a better job of uploading show archives/podcasts to the Ticket site or Sports Day app. He stated - "So if we create show archives or create entire show podcasts of every show unfortunately and counter-intuitively, we remove a possible incentive to listen to the Ticket live and to give us ratings."
This seems incredibly short-sighted to me. Last Friday, I missed hearing the E-Brake. I was hoping it would be on the Ticket podcast feed/Sports Day app. It was not. I had to listen to it on the Unticket. A lot of P1s rely on them archiving their bits on the Sports Day app to catch up. On nights when there is a Stars game, NOTHING gets uploaded. Having a thorough archive helps grow interest in the station which in turn gets more P1s to listen to the station live. In this day and age, this should be a relatively cheap service which benefits everyone.
Uh, well, there's now some fan fiction up over at the reddit site about none other than Plainsman.
ReplyDeleteScroll down the comments. You can't miss it.
http://www.reddit.com/r/theticket/comments/35pnfk/all_you_need_to_know_about_the_insight_cat_is/
I do appreciate this being put together, it was a good read. I do however politely disagree with several of his opinions. Corby is pretty much a lightning rod on here and whether the comments are coming from the same 4 people or not I think Cat is too closely connected to the THL and his life long friend to see what we see. It will be interesting to see as time passes and Mike continues to fade away just how many people stick with THL, especially when Corby has pretty much been given the reins into perpetuity.
ReplyDeleteI'd also like to question just how in tune he/they are with what the listener wants. Greggo. I get that he has made some questionable decisions but so has Jerry Jones but he/they have no problem with beating the listener down with every single press conference he wants to have and you can't tell me that those have more people sticking around than not to listen to.
Some of the Reddit guys didn't like the format, but I thought it worked pretty well given the limitations of Blogger. In a traditional AMA you'd never have questions with all the observations accompanying them, and you wouldn't have the lengthier of Cat's responses. The format made for some scrolling, sure, but the numbering at least allowed responses and answers to be matched up without much fuss.
ReplyDeleteIt actually went better than I expected when Cat first proposed something for the site and we were batting around how we might make it work.
And hell, Cat hung in there for hours! When was the last AMA you saw that went that long?
So while the format had some real-time limitations, it surpassed the traditional AMA in some respects.
Agreed, Pdazzle. It's limitations weren't in fact limiting. Gotta say I'm with the majority on the Mike R tuned out dealio. Hoping like a hopping Hopi Cat's answer was a Hammer Time Can't Touch This one. Feline's are hella smart, so if Kit Kat of the Amerigo Vespucci's b really that blind, then he's either down to the last few of his 9, or he ain't no cat, or it's he and not da ladiez who b trippin'.
ReplyDelete---Hip hop body rocking doin' a do, beer drinkin' breath stinkin' sniffing glue.
New Numbers Breakdown:
ReplyDeleteInteresting trends going on......
BARRY HORN Follow @bhorn55
Sports media columnist
Published: 12 May 2015 11:53 AM
Updated: 12 May 2015 12:01 PM
The three-way radio Dallas-Fort Worth sports talk landscape remains bumper to bumper in the latest numbers released for the April ratings period.
In the holy demographic of men 25-54, which pays most of the bills, it was: the Fan 3.5; the Ticket 3.4; and ESPN 2.7.
In men 25-54 from Monday to Friday 6 a.m. to 7 p.m., when the high-priced local talent is behind the mike, it was: Ticket 4.2; Fan 3.9; ESPN 2.5.
Among all listeners regardless of age or gender, a ratings category that the stations disdain, it was: Fan 1.8; Ticket 1.6; ESPN 1.4.
Here's the Monday-Friday breakdown of the ratings by show:
The Musers (Ticket) 6 a.m.-10 a.m.: 5.9
G-Bag Nation (Fan) 10 a.m.-3 p.m.: 5.1
Norm Hitzges (Ticket) 10 a.m.-noon: 3.8
Mike & Mike (ESPN) 5 a.m. -9 a.m.: 3.8
The Hardline (Ticket) 3 p.m. -7 p.m.: 3.7
New School (Fan) 6 a.m. -10 a.m.: 3.3
Ben & Skin (Fan) 3 p.m. -7 p.m.: 3.1
BaD Radio (Ticket) noon - 3 p.m.: 2.8
Afternoon Show (ESPN) 3 p.m. - 6 p.m.: 2.5
Fitzsimmons & Friedo (ESPN) 11 a.m.-3 p.m.: 1.7
The Herd with Colin Cowherd (ESPN) 9 a.m. -11 a.m.:1.5
On Twitter:
@bhorn55
yeah umm, I have kind of been busy recently and I missed the Q&A. Been sitting here postponing washing off the filth of corporate hdqts reading this. I find it interesting the Cat mentioned going by our P1 outposts. That he took the time to sit here and answer questions, that the Pman took the time to coordinate this and you dirtiest of P1s stuck around all morning is remarkable if not unheard of. Pretty damn cool all around.
ReplyDeleteHockey is still here bitches!
So yeah add me to the chorus of thanks for putting up with us and doing this.
Confessors, I appreciate your gratitude. I won't lie to you -- this took a lot of back and forth with Cat on how to make this work, and a lot of furtive cutting and pasting then recutting and repasting of comments. And correcting typos.
ReplyDeleteAnd a day of watching my "pending comments" listing so I could immediately send Cat's almost 70 posts on through.
But I also won't lie to you about how much I enjoyed doing all of these things (viz., very much).
We won't likely see anything like this for quite some time so I was honored Cat contacted me. I hope most people at least found it of interest, even if they take serious issue with Mr. Catlin. After six years, I've learned to shrug off the irreducible minimum percentage of sneering grumblers about what I -- we -- do here.
I do have some thoughts on the body of work, but I'm going to let them simmer a bit.
ReplyDeleteIn the holy demographic of men 25-54, which pays most of the bills, it was: the Fan 3.5; the Ticket 3.4; and ESPN 2.7.
In men 25-54 from Monday to Friday 6 a.m. to 7 p.m., when the high-priced local talent is behind the mike, it was: Ticket 4.2; Fan 3.9; ESPN 2.5.
Among all listeners regardless of age or gender, a ratings category that the stations disdain, it was: Fan 1.8; Ticket 1.6; ESPN 1.4.
Very confusing. The headline reads 105.3 wins the 25-54 group, yet KTCK leads the daypart, 6a-7p. Where is 105.3 picking up points?
I join the chorus of "thank you's" to both Pman and Cat. Very cool on both your parts. I also thank Pman for using my question. It was really neat to not only see it up there, but also for Cat to respond in a somewhat detailed manner.
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to hearing your final analysis, Pman.
On the whole Cat's answers were what I thought they'd be. After all, many of our questions deal with in-house, sensitive subject matter. What I was looking for was a bit of between the lines bits and pieces. Excepting the Richie Whitt answer (which was pretty obvious where he wanted to go with it), he was careful in his wording, so there wasn't much to extract. Then again, I'm never the smartest guy in the room, so perhaps someone out there read more into his answers than I. If so, I'd like to hear your thoughts, for real.
I have to agree with most of you that Cat's HL answers were lacking. While I wasn't expecting him to affirm that Mike's disengaged and that it's become the Corby and Danny Show, I was hoping he'd at least acknowledge that in some ways both Mike and THL show has changed. Instead it came off as, again to echo others, more head in the sand/nothing to see hear move along than honest opinion. However, if Cat really does feel that way about Mike and THL, and when you put it in perspective with ratings that are nowhere near what they used to be, then what remains is a sort of disturbing picture. So I have to think he was being a company man. You don't get to where he is by being clueless. Now you can become clueless by resting on your laurels all fat and happy. But Cat oversees many stations, so his view isn't myopic. So, again, I'm thinking he was wearing his company man hat.
I have to say the AMA went better than I expected and was well organized. Thanks to Cat and Plainsman for the time and effort involved in this. Many thanks to the Confessors for the great questions. I felt the same as most about the TC ignorance and the oblivious efforts of most shows past the Musers. in his defense, those are close friends to him and Rhyner gave him a job at a great station in the first place. Someone asked how they could get better ratings than the Ticket...I wonder if they have significant better ratings in the pm and that's counted obviously. Shoutout to Sideshow Bob...we met once before at a Musers show appearance at Zanata here in Rockwall one morning some time back.
ReplyDeleteEd Carter = EXTREMELY tired bit.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I'm very appreciative of everyone's time involved in this, I'm fired up. I realize a lot of this was not putting anything damning on the record about his employees, but it was beyond hypocritical to say how important ratings are and not acknowledge what is causing the repeated decline. Employee performance and certain employees are hurting the ratings Cat. Wake up and make the necessary changes otherwise you wont be around long enough to have another one of these with us.
ReplyDeleteI really don't want to pile on The Hardline as we may have done lately, but Jeebus wept:
ReplyDeleteI'm running an errand. E-News. Yes! Another Letterman segment! This time with the greatest human who ever lived, Howard Stern! Clips played -- Dave barely even on them, and Stern 100% unfunny. Corby practically plotzed with amazement at the comedy genius in evidence.
Thankfully, I arrived at my destination, did my biz, came out. Maybe 25 minutes had passed. Radio comes on. STILL TALKING ABOUT LETTERMAN.
When Tim Cowlishaw has more entertainment value than The Hardline, that day's broadcast has failed.
Yea Cat, your tickerman who you claim is "good" has been really enjoyable arguing with Sirois about coughing on air. Thanks
ReplyDelete@10:17 am
ReplyDeleteStumbling, stuttering and not finding the commercial copy is one thing.
Coughing on the air is one of the first things taught in broadcast school. Know where the cough button and/or on-off switch for the mike is.
Sirois gave it to him pretty good, too. The party in question acted like he could not help it and kinda bowed up to Sirois.
I am sure we will hear this again on Friday at 7:55 am and into perpetuity in drop form
Believe it or not, there are P1s out here in this world who: (a) do NOT despise TC on the air, (b) do NOT think Mike is always disengaged or dominated by CorbDanny, and (c) have NOT noticed any marked decline in the quality of THL from Greggo's departure to the present day. I am confident I am NOT alone in this.
ReplyDelete@The Tricky Kid: I very much concur with your thoughts about Cat's answer about not creating full-show archives/podcasts. Clearly, Cumulus has made a business decision that full-show archives or podcasts are not worth it financially, but it is also clear that the management at other popular sports talk stations in other large radio markets have made the exact opposite decision. Those folks run for-profit radio stations too, so they must see value in it -- enough value to outweigh "remov[ing] a possible incentive to listen to the [station] live."
In any event, THANK YOU to Mr. Catlin and Pman for doing the AMA, it was awesome!
Yeah his comments on posting full segments or episodes was pretty disappointing to me. Its not a matter of it not being profitable it's a matter of him or someone at cumulus figuring out how to make it profitable. The segments posted on the podcast are even edited down to less than a full segment.
DeleteIt's completely illogical to think a listen can hear every segment during the day so they are effectively keeping at least 100s of P1s from hearing all the programing that the on air talent produced.
hold onto your ears
ReplyDeleteRe: Mike and his "disengagement". Corby and Danny don't bring out the best in Mike. I'm the same way. Certain people just cause me to clam up and stop wanting to engage in the conversation. Mike should fight through it a little better for the sake of his career, but I see Corby's Type-A domineering, controlling, attention-seeking personality, kind of taking the steam out of Mike. Cat should work on fixing those types of chemistry issues, or they should NOT have matched these two up in the first place. Corby did the same thing to Chris Arnold on the air, why was there no "gut instinct" that he would do the same to Mike? Why didn't Mike object?
ReplyDeleteTangent,
ReplyDeleteWhy would Mike? Think about it. He helped start this station, worked his ass off/was fully engaged for over 10 years. In the meantime his marriage fell apart, his kid went off to college, and he rediscovered his true love, playing live music. He's now getting paid a very handsome salary and monies from appearances and commercial/product endorsements. He also drives new cars for free, getting a new one every year or so. He lives the bachelor life of a monied 30 year old in a high rise downtown building, goes to any concert, sporting event, event in general for free--and with prime seating. A lot of vacation days and money to go wherever he wants, and in style. I could go on and on.
But here's the cherry on top of it all: He only has to show up for work. His "prep" consists of seeing something on t.v. or the internet that momentarily or otherwise interests him. He then gives what's tantamount to an 8th grader's book report for 3 minutes. And even this book report is "helped" along by his coworkers. So often times it's really a 1-1/2-2 minute report. A report based solely on how it makes him feel. The rest of his work day consists of listening to his coworkers talk. And talk. And talk. And talk. He chimes in when he's "feeling it." "Feeling it" here usually pertaining to music or some silly "boobs" type of talk. Sure there are days when he's more tuned in. But mostly not. Mostly it's just as I described.
Therefore, from Mike's POV, exactly what's the problem? None. He can do this until he's 140 years old. Why fight through anything? He's not, and there's no reason for him to do so. Specially when his boss sees no, takes no issue, whatsoever.
The full broadcasts/show archives thing confused me too. Which is where I sort of was going with my question(#44 for those following at home) which catman skipped, offer a premium service for P1s that want to pay, unfiltered stream, full show archives, whatever else they can think of. I've supported various youtube shows and podcasts via patreon and I'm more than willing to do the same for the ticket who I spend the majority of my day listening to. I've never bought a product that I heard advertised on the ticket but I'll give them $10 a month or something similar for extra features.
ReplyDeleteBut I guess there could be an issue with the fcc and an unfiltered stream, but who could ever know that.
And looking at my question to cat, I guess its not really a question but I was hoping he'd take it and explain why it is or isn't possible.
I noticed that question was skipped also.
DeleteYou're making a lot of assumptions about Mike in that post. How do you know he doesn't enjoy working with Corby and Danny?
ReplyDelete"Why didn't he object?"
Don't you think, that of all people on that station, he has the most input on who is co-host is? If Corby was 'forced' on him and he was unhappy, he's had plenty of chances to leave.
The worst crashes happen when the captain does not recognize or acknowledge an problem exists. If Cat is telling the truth (questionable) then the Ticket is going to auger in and crash, hard.
ReplyDeleteDid I miss something. I did not think the Adam Sandler song was funny at all. Certainly not as great as Corby and Mike made it out to be. I'll be glad when Dave finally retires. Love Dave, but tired of hearing about it on THL.
ReplyDeleteWowee. I flip on THL today and what do you know, ENews leads off with YET ANOTHER LETTERMAN SEGMENT. Does he realize what a non-entity Letterman is? It's just asinine and out of touch.
ReplyDeleteI got so frustrated that I went over to B&S. Guess what? They were horrible. But I'll say this: they were doing an open line segment and lo and behold, every call was from some 20s sounding dude who very enthusiastic about the station and mentioning the ratings. Oh. And B&S did not shy away from the ratings, either. Kinda like DnM and THL used to do. But haven't done in at least a year and a half.
Open letter to Cat. If you're reading these follow ups, please pay attention to what we're saying about THL and your station. Please do. I know from your answer session your duties at The Ticket are only one aspect of your job. I also am fairly sure that your Ticket duties do not take a higher priority over and above the rest of your duties. Indeed, I'd go as far as to say The Ticket probably resides somewhere in the middle of that hierarchy of priorities. But that it's number one sentimentally. But I'm telling you, this time next year you're going to find yourself running a station that, excepting the morning show, will be running 2nd and 3rd--depending on the time of day--to your other sports station and your competitor. In less than 2 years, it'll be 3rd across the board, again, sans the morning show, assuming no one has left the show. Which IMHO is a big assumption because I think that's coming, soon.
Get off the sick (i.e., head out of the sand), Cat. Fix this thing. It begins and ends with THL. Your way, our way, is through it.
We've got about 8 more Letterman nightly shows left so it wouldn't surprise me if they devote a show a day to each one.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
Delete@122pm +1. Only thing I'd add is that in addition to all of that, his full time job IS his real love, playing live music.
ReplyDeleteWhat a life. I wished I had it. Like you said, who can blame him.
P-man: this might be worth another post rather than comment. I'll let you decide. The anti-TC rhetoric is so tired, I just had to chime in on this. So here's my comment/post:
ReplyDeleteI am not a huge TC fan, but good Lord the comments here are getting old.
Here’s the way (I’m sure) Cat is looking at it:
1) ratings are the be-all end all in this business
2) there is no bad publicity
3) TC is a polarizing figure who has several golden drops, lots of on-air content potential, and the P1s talk about him constantly
Given these 3 items, why would Cat take TC off the air? Outside the main hosts the guy is the most talked about person at the station by a million miles. As a PD, what’s not to love?
Who cares if he screws up constantly and coughs into the microphone? With every single flub, we talk more and more about him. Ragonk was the best thing that’s happened to the station (before the campound) for months.
If you guys really hate this dude so much, the best thing you could do is STOP talking about him! GET OVER IT people!! He’s a golden goose as long as the drops keep coming and the P1s keep complaining about him.
You guys need to get over the Letterman thing.
ReplyDeleteWhether you are a fan or not, he WAS a big deal. He paved the way all night time entertainment talk shows. The segment is call e-news, so yeah, Corby is going to discuss what is topical.
Or I guess they could talk more Brunce Jenner/Kim K. Yawn.
Couldn't disagree more bubba. He sure appears to be impacting ratings for norm and bad. People say they're tuning out because of him and the numbers back that up.
ReplyDeleteIt's been over 24 hrs. Waiting on your thoughts about all this, Plainsman...
ReplyDeleteWow, new Ticker and Traffic music beds.....meh.
ReplyDeleteI guess we were "holding our ears" because of the new traffic/ticker music?
ReplyDeleteThe new traffic/ticker jingle/music is really jarring Not a fan.
ReplyDeletePretty anemic.
ReplyDeleteMy post-AMA question would be this: if you feel that way about podcast, eye., why is so much of the on-air time dedicated to re-airing segments? When I first started listening, Bob was on after the hardline Sturminating callers. I know it was a little rough finding a replacement after him, but Ferrell? Then you add in all the replays now on Saturdays, it's a punch out for me if I've already heard the segment once.
ReplyDeleteJust a thought.
P.S. The new traffic/ticker intro and bed is strange, but I'll give it a swim.
Mr. Colorado P1,
ReplyDeleteIt appears you are taking full advantage of the legality of a certain substance in your state. 1) Can you bring us some? 2) Have you been drinking the Cat's kool-aid?
On another note, has anyone noticed Mike's passive-aggressiveness, or just plain gressiveness? No, not that Mike, but Sirois. There was the draft thing with Norm, which at the time just seemed like a passionate disagreement between two sport talkers. But then this week, on Bewm In The House, he went off on Norm and his constant checking on email. Followed that up with him going off on TC for coughing on the air, and it makes me wonder a couple of things:
ReplyDelete#1 - IS working with Norm beginning to wear on him?
#2 - The TC thing makes me wonder if he reads this site regularly because it has definitely been brought up here, and the blow up was AFTER Cats comments here.
#3 - Is it all a big bit for their fill-in show to open with a confrontation?
Anon 8:46--Your statement doesn't disagree with mine at all. I'm just talking about the way Cat likely views it, and that constantly talking about TC only perpetuates the publicity. I’m not sticking up for the guy, I’m just tired of the same tripe over and over and of the free publicity he keeps getting from the complainers.
ReplyDeleteBTW, you are attributing WAY too much power to TC. You really think the sea-change we have seen in the ratings landscape in the last few months is because of him? There is just no logic to your statement. I've heard a few people say that there is a Nolan Ryan curse and the Rangers have had lots of problems since he left, therefore there must be a Nolan Ryan curse. If you believe either of these, I have a bridge to sell you…
TC just did a Periscope with Mike S. and Donnie Do during their break. It was pretty cool. Did anyone else get to see it?
ReplyDeleteCody, i missed it but tried to get there in time. I'll keep an eye out for it in the futures.
ReplyDelete@806pm
ReplyDeleteSo it's an either/or thing, huh? How about neither? How about something else? Letterman hasn't been relevant in nearly 20 years. You "get over it."
The maddening thing about it is that it's just more "this show's about us and for us" attitude from THL. Frankly, a lot of us, most of us it seems, are plain tired of it. So excuse me and others for expressing our displeasure.
Bubba,
ReplyDeleteI can say that TC has made me listen less to BaDD Radio and if many others feel that way, then that could impact ratings. I don't think that's the type of "publicity" a radio station dealing with falling ratings would want.
Don't worry T4,
ReplyDeleteTHL might not cover Letterman today since Corby will stress news from last night of another TV show which born in the 80's, became pop culture in the 90's and has needed to go away for the last decade.....
The Simpsons.
The Musers segment on the Bus Driver/Rock Star this morning made me realize how great that they really are on a regular basis. It was a throw-away 7:40am segment, but I enjoyed it very much.
ReplyDeleteBubba,
ReplyDeleteAre the ratings decline solely because of TC, no they are not. Is he impacting them? Based on what people say on MTC and Reddit, yes they are. Do you own the rights to the Margaret Hunt Hill bridge? If so, very interested sir.
Cat can't talk about it, doesn't mean I can't. The ratings issue is market wide with Neilsen with other stations suffering similar stories like the ticket. But the DMN doesn't have somebody that regularly dissects ( at a superficial level) other ratings phenomena. Like KEOM, which is inaudible in half the metroplex, beating out Mix and kvil in the chick demos. There are a ton of those type stories floating around the industry right now. So why y'all are convinced that the B&d ratings slide is all due to TC, there doesn't appear to be a correlation.
ReplyDeleteSame with mikes disengagement and Hardline ratings. I think you guys are seeing what you want to see. You think he's checked out , and attribute the ratings issues to that. While ignoring that he's pretty much the same guy he was 1-2 years ago, when they were atop the ratings.
Maybe we are all wrong. And the guy is right that cat is about to get fired, Gordon is about yo leave to write full time, etc etc. but do much of this seems to be pure projection and speculation from people touching very small pieces of the elephant
Plainsman, where is your take? Please don't be PC...let us know how you really feel
ReplyDeleteFor those of you bitching about Letterman talk I'm curious how you feel about a second day of Ty Cobb talk. I couldn't give a crap about this story.
ReplyDeleteAnon May 14 at 8:43 AM:
ReplyDeleteI can assure you that my opinions are completely unaffected by any legal-in-CO activity that I may or not partake in:
1. No. That would be illegal.
2. No. I am extremely critical of Cat/Ticket for their unbelievably bad stream and for the decision not to ever provide full-show archives or podcasts.
Can someone point to a claim where the decline in ratings is 100% due to thomas chuck or disengaged michael? IMO they are likely small factors, but factors nonetheless.
ReplyDeleteSo the guy who likes to get drunk with his buddies at a campout, asks professional athletes questions that include references to female reproductive parts, and asks pregnant women how they will feed has declared that The Man Show was stupid and perpetuated male stereotypes.
ReplyDeleteAnom 1:53
ReplyDeleteHas/is the new way of collecting the Nielsen data playing into this?
How is the data actively collected now. The days of the paper log book are long gone I assume.
Actually, 153pm, THL's ratings began to taper off about a year and a half ago. The competition began to creep up considerably, even beating them during a few books. Not too mention that Russ Martin consistently beats THL. By the way, there was a time when THL would beat RMS, and this was during RMS's hey day--prior to his meltdown and run it with the law. There was a time when Rhyner would say on air how they kicked RMS's ass in the ratings.
ReplyDeleteAs to attributing BaD's slide to TC: Well, that's a very loud minority who inhabits the Twitter/reddit/MTC/Facebook pages-verse. Their ratings have slipped considerably due to a host combination that has, frankly, played itself out. Bob wants to be sports serious, Dan could give a rip unless there's a wonky narrative involved, and Donavan is at home either way, he just wants to keep a plum, easy peasy job. You basically have two shows going on at once. So you have listeners tuning in and out.
Speaking of KEOM: I miss Robert Bass. I also miss the all 70s format. Hearing Starship right after Firefall sucks the life out of me.
I'm late to the after-party, but here are my Cat thoughts:
ReplyDelete1) It was almost exactly what I expected. He shone some light on a few things and deflected on many others. Like others have said, he's got a job to do and has to run this thing and completely understands that he can't put whatever he wants out on a blog and expect to keep his job. He's savvy and knows what he's doing in this exercise. He's also a really swell dude for doing it in the first place. There wasn't a ton of insight, but it was cool to get what there was of it.
2) The formatting of the thing was a non-event. I had a window open with the questions and another with the answers. Scroll, scroll, problem solved. Could it have been better? Absolutely. Could it have been worse? You betcha.
3) He skipped 50% of my questions (#34) but I assume it was because he was doing his best to keep up with things. I was curious how the brass see the ratings picture and if they are freaking out, but oh well.
4) Is he in denial about THL or does he see way more behind the scenes stuff than we do and it comes across differently to us than him? Could be either, could be a bit of both. I agree that he did kind of blow off all the concerns about THL that were raised. That seemed pretty head-in-the-sand of him.
The new Ticker bed is terrrrrrrrrrible. I hated it when they changed to the "new" one 10-15 years ago, but I got used to it. I never liked, it, I just grew numb to it. I just hate the generic guitar rock beds that EVERY sports program of any kind uses. It's all SportsCenter's fault, but what are you gonna do about it? FSSW can't show a highlight without blaring faux metal behind it. I think that's why Rhads yells all the time.
I might have mentioned the numerous Letterman shows but I don't mind them one bit. I've been to NYC twice and went to the show each time. I'm also DVR'ing all remaining episodes because of his guest selection. If they talk about the remainder then that's good news in my eyes.
ReplyDelete@T4 in Rockwall - Yeah, I remember that. Musers did their show there one morning either last Summer or the Summer before. I'm old, and time all runs together for me. ("fine...fine" drop)
ReplyDeleteDon't worry. Most of us P1's make up the mid to upper "25-54" so I'm just glad I can recall that far back...:)
DeleteQuestion for Sideshow Bob:
ReplyDeleteYou're a bona fide D1P1, a friend of hosts, etc.
Do you see what others see (negatively) vis-a-vis The Hardline, and Mike being disengaged in general?
I think it'd be nice to hear your thoughts. Since you've been leaving comments the last few days (which is very cool).