A home for those who love almost everything about The Ticket (1310 AM, 96.7 FM, Dallas-Fort Worth), and who would like to discuss -- respectfully and fondly -- their thoughts on how (and whether) to eliminate the "almost."
I've been able to listen more middays recently. After some uncertainty about Matt McClearin and the Bass/Mino pairing, I'm pretty much on board with both. McClearin seems to have toned down the weirdness, and Sean and Mino have settled into a fairly companionable groove.
There was a brief comment in the previous thread from a Confessor who seemed to be out on middays, thought I'd weigh in. Got no particular essay in mind on this, only that they both seem to be substantial shows, pretty sportsy if that's what you're looking for, and personalities that sound good through the headset.
I dont mind the new midday stuff because 1) I never liked Dan really and 2) I can’t listen to the radio as much during that time. 10-3 was always just catching it here and there. I think something that helped both midday shows is they are all big rangers fans, obviously Sean, and their engagement and excited during the World Series run helped get their show going.
What the pee drinkers fail to realize is that The Ticket is a sports station and not a lifestyle/socio-political format that also happens to cover sports. As bizarre as that sounds (how can one not understand Sports Radio 1310 and 96.7 FM is a, um, sports station is beyond me), it's what mostly drives the urine soaked engine that is the redditor/X faction. Funny thing is, this ilk has The Freak -replete with their once beloved Sirois and Julie- which fills the bill, and yet they will not support it. Then again, that's par for this particular set.
I don't miss Dan. He was second only to Corbie as radio kryptonite for me. I think Donnie and Matt are find though I don't listen as much outside of football season to them. I am not as much of a fan of the winter sports as I am Football and Baseball. I expect my listening time to mid days will tick back up once the Rangers start up but I have lots of podcast to listen to. None of which are the Dumbzone. I wish D and especially J success in their endeavors but that show isn't for me. It would be nice if we could all just move on from the snark and passive aggressive BS and have real discussions about things again.
I wonder if there was a certain amount of “strategery” by Catlin/bennet et al in their choices. McClarin said he kept in touch with the Cat, and here’s a guy with 5 day a week sporttalk experience, with some kind of ratings track record, who gets one of the 3 open jobs. 2 inexperienced (I.e. no solo not ticket ratings track record) guys get the other 2. But inertia is a hell of a thing. How many people listen because, as is pointed out above, it’s Sportsrsdio 1310 and 96.7 The ticket , and it gets plenty of listeners no matter who they put on. And Catlin et al could have hired the 2020s version of a Rocco Pendola, Bob Sturm or Dan McDowell. But if the p1’s hate Mino and Bass, who they know, what's their reaction if they hire someone like Jeff Ward from Austin, etc. how is an unknown out of towner acccepted by the p1’s? So they put on the safe choice. Knowing they can blow it all up a year down the line if the ratings suck. But as Welpton pointed out on Reddit, everybody remembers the Hang zone as this dominant force. While in reality they were rarely number one, and usually ranged anywhere from 2nd to 7th. Considering the double whammy that hit that place (norms retirement then THZ leaving) I have to believe they have to be ecstatic with their current ratings. Tied with KLNO for number one in February coming off the damage of last summer? They must be happy. And as a side note- I wonder what would have happened if that double whammy happened in reverse? Did THZ think they had the upper negotiating hand because Norm had just quit. If THZ leaves first, do they talk Norm into staying? Where’s the Time Variance Authority to get me to the alternative universes so I can see what happened there. C
I want to add to this reference of what i posted over there: The information about historical rating performance was not intended as "shade" (as it was referred to) in any way. It was to support my point about the fact being top 3 isn't, historically, a given just because you're a show on the Ticket. Hence the supportive idea that the two new shows deserve credit. THZ also ended on a five-month #1 run that was consistent with the rest of the station at that time.
As stated there. I was as solid a P1 of BaD and THZ, and I miss those radio productions as much as anyone.
Peter, no one in their right mind would think otherwise. Your intent was blatantly obvious. I said it before and I'll say it again: Often times (not necessarily) the company you keep is a direct reflection of you. The same can be said of your audience. "Often," not "necessarily." I'm not blaming Dan and Jake for some of their fanbase's apalling behavior. But there is something in their mien that attracts and engenders such piss poor actors.
Not sure. Was in Austin last week and heard Wards name mentioned.reminded me of him so he came to mind when I was trying to think of a spotsy hire cumulus could have made if they wanted to go radio guy w track record with Dallas and or Texas sports knowledge. C
Ed Wallace was right about Rhyner. Too bad it took him a year plus to apply his own sober analysis to himself. All that and Cat still knows talent. Nielsen doesn't lie.
I do appreciate all of you listening to our show and the Invasion in the wake of all the changes this past year. Obviously change is not the easiest for the P1s (that’s evident on these interwebs), but it’s been nice to hear and see the support over the past eight months or so.
We put all we have into our work and want to make the best product possible every single day. The experience has been absolutely enjoyable and we look forward to every next thing around the corner. While we may not be everyone’s cup of tea, we are never going to mail it in or half-ass things.
Anyway, we appreciate y’all being by the channel. Have a great weekend.
Fuckin' A, Sea Bass. Very cool of you to stop by. We have your's and Mino's back, brutha. Loving the Rangers talk. Loving the more sports centric program. The Ticket is, after all, a sports station. You guys and Monto are gelling nicely. And as Howard Jones is wont to sing, "Things will only get better." Don't listen to the pee drinkers. Just keep doin' whatcha do, playboy, and keep on chasin' that dollah.
Eh, buddies, it's TIIIIIIIME. People in the real deal know are saying 97.1 will soon flip to dance/EDM. This is not some WKRP bullshit Dali word salad. Carry out the plan of the day and mill about smartly.
Man, I don't know how I could have forgotten to mention the contribution of one of my fave raves, Justin Montemayor, to middays. I've liked him ever since he did weekends (and probably before, but don't recall exactly what his role was before he was paired with Mike "The Machine" Marshall). I'm hopeful he'll have an even larger on-air role as time goes by, but for now, his distinctive voice and cadence is a welcome and appealing contrast to the hosts'.
For 2 days this week, I tried to listen to 97.1 whenever I could. Really, just to say gave it a fair shot. All I can say is I found none of it compelling. I don’t know what they should do, but none of it works.
I saw online HZ has new studio digs or a new semipermanent setup or something. Maybe the podcast thing is the long play now. Obviously, that would make me wrong. We will see. I still don’t see me ever paying for it.
The commenter above is correct: word around legitimate radio circles is saying The Freak will soon flip to dance. As for details, I've none. We'll see. To this, if you take into consideration reddit and X comments and lack thereof by normally vocal hosts of late, something does seem to be up.
Related. If the at rhis point what appears to be inevitable occurs, has there in recent memory been a self inflicted, no reason on God's green earth to do it, wound of a public perception nose dive (when you were on top of your self created world), while burning bridges with decades long friends and forging alliances with those who view you as their, ahem, Ticket to a lucrative career of fame and fortune but will move on from you in a heartbeat than Mike Rhyner?
He went from being feted, fawned over, having a doc made about him, having a carte blanche open invite to have as much airtime as he he wanted on the number one station (that he created) in the 4th largest market in the US.... to a veritable punchline. I've never seen someone go so far out of their way to expose themself. Damn near pathological.
I am aware, Radio Knob (btw, no one is owned by "Audacity"). Do you too not think that if those within Audacy are talking about this that it's not "real"?
Too add, some of you might want to think things out a bit before hitting the Publish button. Playing the debunker and gotcha games more often than not will lead to a skinned elbow. Ouchie. At least Get Real's comment was half correct.
If someone at a competitor is talking about a competitor, no, I don't think that 'is "real" - I think that is gossip.
I too believe TF will get blown up sooner than later - I was just pointing out you were referred to a competing group, which IMO, is not a valid source on this topic any more than it would be someone from Cumulus telling you the same thing.
And, who says "ouchie" about an online discussion?
I say "ouchie." So there. Funny how the little things get under one's skin, live rent free in one's head. When management of A is openly discussing the impending demise of competitor B, it absolutely is valid. Now. Do you apply your line of thinking to TDZ Lawyer Roundtable? Recall, the roundtable where a group of lawyers openly mocked the opposing legal team in a case they were involved in. Just curious.
I have not listened to the roundtable, nor do I care. But if the content is what I assume it was, I'd guess that I would find a one-sided conversation to be just that, a one-side of the story. (they are just a couple of lawyers, after all)
Look, you started this by implying that discussions of the TF's future inside the Audacy walls as "real" - i'm simply responding to that with my opinion that talk is just gossip. My mistake was thinking you were asking for a reply when you ended the sentence with a "?" - my bad.
"Started it"? Started what? I made a comment and YOU responded with a snarky cocky sniff about The Freak's ownership. I in turn let you know that you missed my point. You continued, and I replied. We both stated our cases. But I guess you're unable to let things go. And with nothing substantive left to add, sign off with a passive aggressive, sophomoric sayonara, and end it with a juicy meme far past its best by date. Egos, they're helluva thing.
I was browsing some past threads from the early days of The Freak. Several Confessors thought that Richie Whitt seemed to have pretty good sources and was getting stuff right about the founding of the station.
Has he said anything lately about what's going on at 97.1?
Good call, Plainsman. I did a cursory search and can only find his SI articles (last one on 3/19). He writes on nothing other than the Cowboys and (oddly) the Patriots. His X account says nada on the local radio scene, and serves mostly to promote his SI pieces. He was correct about everything except Dan and Jake going to TF. Even so, Dan and Jake did leave TT roughly-ish (and I do mean roughly-ish) around the time he claimed they would bolt for TF. Having heard the "news" that DnJ have built a new studio, I'm thinking either they're going full bore with the pod, and/or they have struck a deal with iHeart or some other media entity that will allow for them to broadcast from their own studio a la many syndicated shows. (Hmmm. I wonder... maybe that's their end game?)
Whatever they end up doing, I'm thinking TF is no longer an option, if it ever really was in the first place. And whatever iHeart decides to do with the 97.1 frequency, barring a miraculous turnaround, I think TF format will soon be scrapped. If we're honest about it, the beginning of the end of TF was evident fairly soon after its launch. Sadly for us all, it's been disasterous. DnJ too saw this and proceeded accordingly while making and executing their exit plan from TT. You know what? And I truly mean this: I so very much wanted TF to be a real ass kicker. Man oh man did was I jazzed to hear a reinvigorated Rhyner do his thing, to once again be my leader. I was eager to hear what an unfettered Sirois would bring to the proverbial table. Toss in a Ticket that for the first time in over 20 years is forced to get it into high gear, and holy smokes what an electric time it would've been/would still be around here.
Instead of all that, we got a dumpster fire. The AM version of TDB isn't half bad and on occassions is outright good. But it's not enough, it's far too late in the game, and it has nothing to support it. B&S is a 4 hour infomercial for their brewery and other non-Freak endeavors. TSE is (being charitable here) unlistenable. From the 4 month long self-congratulatory circle-jerk to the dubious and ever changing founding narrative, I'm not going to rehash old ground regarding in what ways they dropped the ball. They were various AND sundry.
Would'ves, should'ves, could'ves. As the great Florida Evans exclaimed upon receiving the news that her husband, James, died: "Damn! Damn! Damn! Damn!" That's how I feel about TF. What a wasted opportunity.
As far as Cat knowing what he was doing with sweet spot, I surmise that he begrudgingly projected the dues-paying duo of Seabass and Mino as eventually deserving of hosting gigs (and also penance tokens for the loss of fellow dues-payers Balis and Sirois). However, in order to properly slot/hide them (2 hour, sports heavy, non-funny) he was forced to jump the gun and put them on a little earlier than he’d have liked.
I think they try hard, sometimes too hard. But they will save the station some cash and be fine as the baseball show of record. They just won’t be interesting until they relax. But I’ll listen.
With them locked in, CAT is now free to groom the muser’s replacements which I believe will be the leapfrogging Monto, DJ, and Ham.
Two things amaze me. Nobody talks about Bob and Corby’s dynamic anymore. That seems to have gone down like medicine. And folks (I’m assuming P1’s) spending a staggering amount of time waiting for the Musers to retire. Rather than simply enjoying the Musers.
Because after several months as a duo and the addition of Davey and the several months after that they finally began to gel. Plus their numbers are excellent. I have a feeling if all three Musers would cease referring directly and obliquely to retirement (which they've been doing for a long while now), the speculation would quickly die. I think you can enjoy and wonder about the future of the The Musers at the same time. Meanwhile over at TDZ 55 year old Dan's talking about where he'd like to put his wiener. E. D. G. Y. Uh, yeah.
I have to agree about The Hardline. It sounds like Bob is actually enjoying himself, perhaps to his own surprise. I never thought he and Dan were wholly comfortable with one another the entire time they were together.
Not that they were not friendly with one anothoer or a good team -- they were both. But I always felt like Bob would sometimes hold back on BaD, not wanting to ignite the somewhat touchy Dan. I don't get that gestalt on this edition of The Hardline.
That’s a wild take. Bob the fundamentalist Christian is very clearly uncomfortable with every other sexual joke Davey makes, which happens in nearly every segment. I had to laugh when they were telling Bob he needed to see Poor Things. Oh to be a fly on the wall in the Sturm Household if that ever happened.
I guess we're listening to different shows. But let's say for a moment that you are correct, Bob is "clearly uncomfortable with every other sexual joke Davey makes," why would that mean that on the whole Bob is uncomfortable? Can't he, like a lot of folks regardless of their religious purview, find sexual humor to be uncomfortable as a particular, but easily move onto something else, not letting it bother them in the larger picture? Moreover, why only on "every other sexual joke"? Wouldn't they all make him uneasy if such jokes per se make him uneasy? Are you merely trying to be provocative, goading others into some silly back and forth? Weird.
Bob piled on right along with everyone else on the "Corby tugging on his dad" jokes so to say he's uncomfortable at every joke is an extreme exaggeration. I think Bob is comfortable in his faith and how he behaves but is mature enough to recognize other people are different. He knows where Davey is going, many times before Davey gets there, and seems amused a lot of the times even if he won't go there himself.
"Sheltered Bob." My man bares his ass from the jump. Have you spent time in one if the more dangerous, squalid parts if the world in order to get to know a child and his world so that you might better understand him in order to provide a loving environment that also respects the child's cultural upbringing? Yeah, bud, if that's sheltered to you, I'd love to hear your bona fides. Lay it on me, scro.
You know what, you're right. Adopting a child from a poor country means you now know all about pegging, salad tossing, nipple clamps, and Prince Alberts
He was a child, living at home under the rules and mores of his parents. He's also stated, explicitly, that he was instructed not to listen to all sorts of music that he went ahead and did anyway. He's a middle of middle aged man now. You're point being? Once more, try this on for size, it's far more in your wheelhouse: www.reddit.com/theticket
Oh, man. You really got me with that one, Luv. I guess I ought to turn off the autofill/correct, as oft times, if not vigilant, it creates grammatical errors. Still, you totally roasted me. I guess that in itself suffices for a lack of cogent argumentation. You win. In the future, please go easy on us. For some of us, English is not even our third language. Again, well played.
Here's an HSO for you that's going to get RIPPED. I think The Dumb Zone will fold its tent before The Freak. I mean The Freak as it is currently constructed. So there. Bite me.
Despite the doom and gloom, the very poor numbers, and all the I have it on good authority___, I don't think that's too much of an HSO. But be aware that TDZ's paid sub daily number just increased by something around the 300 mark. Their paid subs on the whole have remained fairly steady since September/October. Actual growth has been minimal, but again the numbers are holding steady. All this is positive in one sense, but in another COULD point toward future issues. Now I say it's not too much of an HSO because iHeart has invested a goodly amount of money in salaries, etc. on The Freak. I don't think it's out of bounds to think they will see the format through for at least another year. A year in the pod game is a long time. Many variables can and do change. So we'll see how things shake out. Once more. The fact that TDZ paid numbers have held steady is a a good sign but also might be an early indicator that growth might become a problem. Because as we all know, for example, $50k next year will hold less value than it does today. The old adage, grow or die. That is, unless they raise their monthly fees in a substantive way (which many successful Patreon/pay for content creators do), which in turn might cause friction between them and their base. Anywho. My 2 cents.
Same 12 posters on Ticket reddit. 8 are always Ticket negative, 3 positive, and 1 is so obssessed with Matt M in such a hate-love American Beauty way, you can see his micro peen boner impixelated. Same 8 posters on Dumb Zone reddit. All 8 have ingested so much pee that you have to imagine they appear jaundiced. That and not a one of them has an original thought. Aside: Difficult to do so when all you can think about are The Boys. Same 3 posters on Freak reddit. All three desperately and in some way admirably attempt to drum up attention for their pet cause whilst simultaneously try to grab the attention of KT and even, gasp, Sirois. And then there's My Ticket Confession. Around 20 posters. Six are total trolls. Two are certifiable to the point they're almost entertaining, one is a troll I'd rather not get into a debate with, as they appear to be a pro. Five are tinfoil hat "insiders." And the other six have mostly solid takes with some misses but are well intentioned.
For my money I'll take My Ticket Confession for $2000, Ken (ya know they told Blossom to take her talents elsewhere, yes?).
The Dumb Zone folks are trolls. The Freak folks bought into a snake oil salesman (Sirois). The Musers aren’t leaving for another five years. Those who want to debate their replacements are not the sort of folks I would want to read my eulogy.
To comment on the actual Little ticket they ran a promo for 30 years with the infamous Computer crying clip. I had hoped that loosing Jake, who I liked, along with Dan & Blake, who I did not like, would mean I never had to hear that or any of Computer's stuff again. All that made me so uncomfortable because it felt like Dan, Bob and Jake were just pushing the guy out there telling him they were his friends so they could laugh behind his back. i'd hoped it was gone for good. Maybe its just that promo. I wonder if they will bring him on the Pod.
It was only kind of a comment on the ticket as it turned out. I am currently experiencing the wonders of pneumonia, and still working from home, so I'm hopping my confessors will forgive me.
Is there something about publishing a comment on this blog that retroactively gives people congenital brain damage, or is the guy who talks about pee drinking on to something?
Within hours of any post I make, my bizarre stalker who has me mixed up with someone else has to formulate some sort of reply. This place has really gotten strange.
Musers are striking me as more energized of late. A bit more carefree. At least on George and Gordo’s sides. I’m liking what I’m hearing.
RagonkForce, look at that time stamp. This person is a drunken fool. Pay no mind to the troll. You're a valued member of the community. Keep on keepin' on, brother.
Men and women, I get to comments as quickly as I can, lately < once a day, and sometimes when there's a bunch I don't read them as carefully as I should. And sometimes when I do, I don't always perceive the subtext.
I don't generally like comments about Ticket guys out in public, but if they seem blah I'll let them slide. I completely missed any inferences relating to David Mino. I've taken all Mino-related comments down, with apologies to David and to offended Confessors.
For years there were basically one or two garden variety trolls, The MTC Grumpy Troll, and (affectionately) Shaggy/Surly. All of which would pop up for a week, tops, then go away (sans Shaggy, who used to be a regular contributor and not a real troll, but disappeared once TDZ went online). Then Sirois bolted and in some ways scorched earth his way out the door by dint of a drunken appearance on Gordon's Twitch channel --along with Julie and Danny departing, who did not follow Sirois's burning down the house lead-- which in turn began the "Greedy Cumulus, Boomer Norm Must Quit or Die, Cat and Craig "Tier System" Miller are Evil, and All Hosts Should Pay Employees Out of Their Own Pockets in Addition to Said Employees' Salaries Living Wage Movement." It was at that time that the already negative-ish leaning reddit/theticket page went all in on Ticket Hate, never looking back. It was also around that time the troll factor here at MTC began to get into high gear. Once The Freak was announced, their numbers skyrocketed. And when DnJ bolted, the ensuing court case materialized, and TDZ came to be, well, the roof was blown wide open and no effort to reshingle the thing has since been made.
From my count, I think there's 6 damn near full time trolls rolling strong. Though there's times I feel it might be more like 4 and 1 or 2 are using multiple writing styles. There's been several back and forths where I swear it was the same person having a troll war with itself. Was the damnedest thing I've ever seen in a comments section.
However many trolls actually run amok here, I'm hoping the trend will die off at some point in the near future.
I'm not entirely clear on how to distinguish trolls (I'm talking about MTC now) from people who simply dislike The Ticket a lot, or who love those rebel scamps Dan and Jake a lot.
Those views don't disqualify someone from commenting here. Is it that they say the same things over and over again, in the same way? Is it that their comments are left solely in order to provoke what used to be called flame wars?
I dunno. But unless they're hateful, vulgar, personal, or violate the Rules of the Confessional in some other way (including being just flat stupid, although I rarely delete based solely on that), or whose disrespect for Your Plainsman crosses the line into uninformed contempt, they can hang.
As long as The Boys have their Cult and its attendant Hive Mentality, rest assured, The Narrative is strong and the pee is being chugged. #IDontMeanToCriticizeAndImProbablyEvilForSayingThisButIThoughtTodaysPodWasntAsGoodAsYesterdays #LetsDoxThisPOS
The April Fool's Open is one of the two Ticket events I just don't get. I'm not a golfer so maybe that's why but I don't see the humor or the value in it. It seems like a bunch of golf bullies making fun of people who can't play their silly game. This and FIght Night I just don't get.
I'm a golfer and I enjoyed the first one quite a bit, but I have zero interest in this one because I don't care one iota about the people competing this year (except for HAM).
I mean, Detty? EA? Baldy? I barely know what those guys do there
C'mon, people. We've been telling you from the jump that this was the end game. Richie Whitt's sources (Sirois and Rhyner) are solid AF. Thing is, none of the parties involved planned on the mess that became DnJ's departure from TT happening. If it went as planned, they would've been on TF right when Whitt said they would. When his sources said they would. It's been delayed by a year and change. No big whup. But yeah, get ready and pop some corn. TDZ is heading to TF. Today was a little tease of what's to come. Should all be done and dusted by June 1. Mark it down. So many of you demand everything NOW, and if it doesn't happen NOW you think it was all bullsh. Sorry, but that isn't how shit works. Real life isn't a fucking scroll through your phone.
I don't know that DnJ to my beloved Freak is a done deal, but it was definitely nice to hear the Sports Humorist plying his craft on the airwaves with his leader today.
Oh Jimmy. Sweet, dear dear Jimmy. Point to where the bad man touched you. You'regonna love Trembling Hills. They'll take good care of you there. "My beloved Freak." Good one, Jimbo. Good one.
And in more other news, there's a juicy bit going around that Cumulus and Audacy might merge. The potential impact locally could be monumental. You'd have one company owning both The Ticket and The FAN, for starters. See below for more.
Gopher, I think you're talking about the DFW Radio Discussions board, yes? The URL is to an article on the RadioInsight site, which is a legit industry source of news, ratings, etc. But you're correct about there being some anti-Ticket bias on the Radio Discussion page. Though that bias is nothing compared to the hate The Freak receives. That stuff is darn near pathological in a few cases.
He asks in his latest Ticket ad "is 20 percent bonus plus 12 percent guaranteed a year is Too Good to Be True"? Seriously? Hint: any advisor that pushes "products" rather than actual investments e.g. stocks, ETFs, treasuries etc is a commission generating shill.
Me too, but if I remember right last month they lost to the Fan but were in 2nd place. That was the whole Reddit controversy over Welpton supposedly throwing shade, where in reality he was rightly pointing out that until the last 6 months of their show, Dan and Jake ranged inconsistently from 1st to 7th in their demo. They were on a string of 1st’s when they quit, but I remember going back and looking at a bunch of his ratings posts. Often there seemed to be no rhyme or reason to THZ ratings. Station up, they may be up or down. Station down, they might be up. Really hard to find correlation some months. If Sweet spot can replicate THZ’s ratings range (so anywhere from 1-7th) I bet they’re happy. C
Wow. Both TT and TFAN fell iff the cliff. TF stayed put, TFAN falling to basically their numbers. Peter, I can't wait to see your breakdown of the dayparts. This is quite the, ahem, shocker.
Ticket compared to the others fared far far better. But compared to their numbers the past several years, not so much. Mavs, Stars, and Rangers are all in full swing, with the Mavs and Stars about to hit the postseason with high hopes. Rangers coming off a World Series championship and so far, barring a few bumps, doing fine. So the slow sports theory wouldn't seem to hold. I mean that across the board, not just for The Ticket. As 00110011 said, Peter's daypart breakdown should be most interesting. One final thing. These numbers comport historically way more than the numbers over the past few years for either The Ticket or The FAN.
The ratings are here: <a href="https://radioinsight.com/ratings/dallas-fort-worth/>Dallas/Fort Worth</a>
The Ticket has been #1 or #2 in this ratings measurement for quite a while now. This most recent ratings period it is tied with two other stations for 10th.
scoops is a Freq'r, and not part of The Cult. He's rather aggressive and has a lot of opinions on TT. None of them are positive. Don't know if this person is scoops, but the OG post happened about the same time scoops' latest reddit campaign kicked off. So who know and who cated. I hate that chicken shit ploy if claiming someone is someone else. Just like I hate the bullsh ploy of saying soneone is soneone else's lackey. scoops is wont to do the lattet. Specially where Peter and Cat are concerned.
Should have paid the boys!!! Dan and Jake’s goal is to destroy the ticket!!! If they say they still listen, they’re lying!!! The dumbzone is revolutionizing labor rights for all of southlake!
Sean and Mino just haven’t gotten any better, they flat out have not improved at all. If anything Sean has worn on Mino so much I think he has regressed. They are as milquetoast as possible. DJ and Monty are better hosts for god sake…
They're perfectly fine. It's sports talk on a -gasp- sports talk station. Guy Talk and bits all day are boring af. Go tead a book. Listen to Terri Gross. Listen to box wine and "hockey expert" Judo. Listen to a rich kid spoily boy talk labor rights and hoops with a selective horribly executed faux east coast accent. Bake bread. Play a round of I Spy with deez nutz. Just figure it out.
I saw a reference to a ratings “trend”. While I recall middays not doing great last month, this is the first book like this I recall for the ticket overall & it appears the Fan was down too. From time to time, there are months that are just outliers. Chalk it up to weird sample or bad methodology or both or neither.
You see it in political polling too. A poll will come out that is just different than the rest. Maybe it’s the one that is right & maybe it is just off.
I have always been suspect by KTCK being #1 overall but it was good to see as a regular listener.
The Sweet Spot really doesn't do much for me. I would have prefered true W.I.P in that spot but I get that Sean has been there a long time and has been a good soldier so he deserves to get a shot. I do listen more past noon than I did before D & J left. I am still out after 3 most days. The current Hard Line just doesn't interest me at all. Not to say any of it is empirically bad just not for me.
I would never say that anyone is not talented. I don't feel like I'm a qualified judge of that. I simply like what I like. I liked Sirois and I wish he was still on the Ticket, but many people here tell me he is not good at the job. Many people here will say that Dan was great, but I didn't enjoy him. The shows on the Ticket I don't care for aren't bad I just don't like them. I'm told German Chocolate Cake is the bomb but I don't like it either.
Jake's takedown of Cat without saying his name was great. Basically said he is a talentless hack that rose to a rank way above his actual ability. On another note you need to hurry because those 25% bonuses on your investments that you roll over from actual reputable LOW COST investment firms like Fidelity or Vanguard won't last forever.
Jake was promoted because he was by far the most talented and experienced person in the farm system. I don’t think Cat should get all that much credit for the success of Jake. It’s not like he pulled him from obscurity
what people forget is that while Jake was the obvious choice to get a move, the blow back on the PD for pairing him with Dan and not the Hardline was near atomic.
His call to blow up BaD and create essentially two new shows was overwhelmingly derided as "stupid", "dumb shit", "retarded", "insane", "disastrous", "clown show", and my personal fav, "typical Catlin", at the time, and yet ended up helping drive the station to its highest ratings in its 30 year history.
Jake certainly earned his place in all of this, but Jeff also equally is responsible because 99% of everyone else in his spot would have made a different choice and THZ wouldn't be the fine podcasting juggernaut it is today.
Jake's actions (and I didn't hear it, just assuming the above reference is accurate) are even more silly than the thing his feelings are all bent about in the first place (see Jake's tweet from the other day).
So Jake, who has one successful 3 year on air stint under his radio belt and has never EVER held a radio job outside of the Ticket thinks Catlin lucked into his job? lol. No, ROTFLMAO. If Catlin is lucky, so is Jake. So is everyone who works there. Jody Dean said it on Twitter a while back- stations like the Ticket, with its longevity AND success is a rare breed. We can quibble about exact dates, but KVIL’s hey day was late 70s to early 00’s. Generously what most people would say is the most well known DFW station lasted 25 years. The Tickets going on 30. There may be some luck and as always in radio a fair amount of being in the right place at the right time. But it also takes talent to perform and hold a job for 20 or 30 years. C
The decision to not move Dan to PM drive with Bob will always be the big what if in all of this. Maybe it was because Cat doesn’t think much of Dan; maybe it is because Cat wanted a stronger pairing for Jake than available alternatives; maybe he wanted to make sure the HL in PM Drive was in part Corby’s show rather than BaD Radio featuring Cobra.
In other news, I kinda wonder if the stream wasn’t captured in KTCK’s numbers last month. Or it’s an anomaly. Or it’s the beginning of a trend.
Or perhaps it's because the overwhelming majority of P1s (i.e., those who have zilcho to do with Ticket related sosh) actually enjoy Corby. As in enjoy him a lot. If you've ever been to any Ticket function, be it a remote, GNO, Ticketstock, Summer Bash, whatever, Corby is extremely popular. Snake chants are abound. Whle I don't care for the style of the commenter below, they're right about bubbles.
I have considered that it is likely Corby has a contract that dictates PM drive. That wouldn’t prevent a Corby, Bob & Dan Hardline. Dave Lane is a “host” & not yuck monkey or producer.
I can see someone argue that a Bob & Dan & Corby would be a bad fit given all the time that has passed since Corby was on Bad Radio.
The bubble dwellers who spout off on Cat's bona fides are the same pee drinkers who claim they'd easily pay $69.69 per month for TDZ, the same 5 weenie pinchers who comment on TF reddit, desperately trying to get a response from KT. Cat worked his way up the food chain. Did it through all the early on ownership changes, took a position (See: Bet. On. Himself.) in KC that at the time was not coming online anytime in the near future at TT, then did well enough that when said position at TT opened up, was brought in to do the job. And on the whole has done a pretty fucking amazing job. Missteps, sure. Who doesn't.
Thank you, Zulu, for sharing this URL. I've tried to tell so many of you that The Boys aren't who/what you think they are. Are they bad people? No. Not in the least. But they're not champions for The Working Man. Nor are they vanguard progressives on the front lines fighting against injustice, poverty, and reform. The Dream Team Legal Eagles they attached themselves to are even less these things than The Boys. There's a lot of money and potential money to be made and fame that brings more money and primo tail to be had in the I'm A Bliue Collar Benefactor Game than you'd think.
I have always wished THZ well, but paying for a podcast isn't for me. I watched the first half hour of this YT version, first I have listened to them in awhile. One thing that struck me was their bashing of the Ticket promos. I guess I don't get it. They left and started the podcast knowing that they would end up in litigation and had their law team at the ready for it. They were trying to win one for the little guy and that is admirable. But to bash the Ticket for their promos of saying it is free seems petty and bitter. They "won" the lawsuit and got to do their thing. I only put that in quotes because we really have no idea what the total outcome was except they got to keep doing the podcast. They should be happy and leave it at that. It makes them seem bitter for the choice they made. No one would know who they were if it weren't for the Ticket.
Jake is a rich kid spoily boy. Dan is bitter, thin skinned, and entitled. Like seeks like. TDZ, if it exists in two years from now, will be a once per week or thereof pod. A weekend warrior hobby thing a la IJB. Jake will be out of the media biz entirely, Dan will be idoing a terrestrial radio gig in a second or thitd tier market (no first tier station will touch him). They've bared their asses and continue to show their true colors.
Watched that vid. Very unlikeable trio. No way does that have legs. Petty and bitter. Small potatoes written all over it. If this vid 's indicative if TDZ's reg output the dude who keeps tagging DnJ's future employment probs more correct than not.
What a weird comment the day after this came out. This was a great video.. Prophets and Outlaws were awesome. https://youtu.be/2xGf_IDSruM?si=6xMn5xIZUPp8ZW_t
Thanks so much, Peter. Very interesting book. You're spot on regarding The FAN's ascendancy. It's been a steady, consistently numbered build up. To the point where any attribution to either the Rangers or Ciwboys would seem inaccurate. Kudos to everyone at The FAN. To The Freak side of things: Their numbers too are steady. Alas, their consistency at this juncture most likely points to imminent changes. Let's hope everyone keeps their jobs, but I doubt it.
As for The Ticket. The drop was rather steep and across the board. While The Musers and The Hardline retain their #1 positions, the margin between them and theur respective #2s has significantly shrunk. Unsurprisingly, 10-3 suffered the most.
My two worthless cents: None of this surprises me. Moreover, I don't think it's anomally, I believe it's the new reality if the local landscape that's been the case nationally for the past few years. That is, the end of the line for guy/sports talk, and the clear delineation between the two formats, which in turn split much of the listenership.
To me, this at least in part explains The FAN's steady, incremental, upward trajectory. I do wonder if Nielsen finally bumping DFW to the 4th largest market had an effect on how the ratings are derived and/or the number/diversity of the sample of listeners from which the data is culled/interpreted. But. Both The FAN and The Freak!s numbers continued to trend steadfastly, while The Ticket's did not. So there's that. In the final analysis, I believe the natuonal trend has made its way to the anomally of a narket, due to the singularity if The Ticket, that is DFW. A clear line if demarcation is being drawn between those who want mistly sports talj with a tad of guy talk mixed in, and those who want the inverse (or no sports at all). I also think this might shed light in the tribal, aggressive, zealousness if some on this site and reddit.
In sum, I predict The Ticket is about to get a lot sportsier. The Freak will soon undergo the changes we've all thought were inevitabke, and The FAN from this point forward will be neck abd neck with The Ticket. And Tge Dumb Zone will be a refuge for the guy talk criwd.
Meanwhile Ticket reddit is going bonkers. Celebraing the numbers and embracing the hate -all Cat's fault of course- like a 16 year old who just got laid for the first time. Cumming in 8 seconds yet thinking he's a stud. So yeah. The dumbest bunch of dipshits you've ever seen. I didn't know people could be that sheltered, stupid, and unaware how the world works. But there they are.
As Steven Milhauser once pointed out about the tragedy of Tom and Jerry : the cat only has to win once. The mouse can win and win and win, and nothing changes; his undefeated streak must run into perpetuity, without once falling short. Both are stuck in an existential nightmare.
Technically, 3 things. AM drive, PM drive, and the 6a-7p ratings. The vast majority of advertisers buy off the 6a-7p ratings, the drive time ratings drive the pricing in those dayparts, which are the most heavily bought. And the Ticket is still #1 6a-7p.
The other thing that makes me laugh. Welpton pointed out last month how THZ ranged anywhere from 1st to 7th n the ratings, only achieving consistent 1sts in their last year when the whole station was wildly overperforming versus their history. And yet when the Invasion ranks 5th and the Sweet Spot ranks 3rd, its sky is falling, Cat’s incompetence, Matt’s a pedo, Mino sucks, blah blah blah. Funny how a 3rd place 2 years ago was indicative of the Hang Zones brilliance as broadcasters. But now a 3rd place finish means the Ticket is doomed, so much that they may as well turn off the transmitter. C
C, the ignorance, the blinkered thinking, and the almost gleeful expression of vitriol by some is mind boggling. I just don't get it. Such buffoonery is usually relegated to college campuses.
(In Ed McMahon voice) you are correct sir! My bad, not paying close attention. Will be interesting to see if this is an anomaly or the start of a trend. It was spring break, which always messes up ratings, and I think the Musers were fine over a week. We will see in a month… C
reddit called. it wants its algorithm back. bruh. try again. try harder. try a great courses lecture on how the real world operates. hell, try to listen to that small, still, inner voice that you long ago, in childhood began ignoring that told you "this is wrong, stupid, perhaps unethical." stop being a dumbass. to paraphrase woodsy the owl who once told us in ad nauseam psas re: manmade forest fires: only you can prevent your own stupidity.
This might be the greatest fuck you dumbass retort in the history of thei interwebz. Or maybe it's a function of their being so many dipshit, blinkered, dumbasses out there that something that once would've been an obvious come back is now viewed as a brilliant rhetorical sit down and shut the fuck up retort. However you slice, dice, or interpret it (your hermeneutic key may vary), this particular breed of moron is zombie like in its modus and vivendi. Sad lot, these ones.
C = Cat as in fill in the letter on Xat. Anything posted that slightly hints at The Ticket not quite being what it used to be is met by C telling us how stupid we are all because Cumulus is infallible.
Oh and looky there, Trajan Troll, C responded to your correction like a good-faithed adult who understands how to carry on a conversation. Does your bilious little outburst still feel good? Feeling powerful, exhilarated even? Let's hope not. Let's hope this was a teachable moment for you and others who trade in such unpleasantness.
Very well written Sheep dream of androids. Many kudos. And C I herewith retract my vitriolic statement. Sorry guys I will reward my self no points. 25 percent bonuses on your investments are still good though right?
Just dollar cost average into index funds and ETFs. I don't work in the financial securities industry whatsoever as some have suggested, but have built a multi million dollar nest egg through low cost investing. By the way you can get FDIC insured CDs in the low 5 percent interest rate territory. Not bad relative to the last 15 years. If your time horizon is greater than 10 years I wouldn't hesitate just letting the S&P 500 and QQQ indexes ride
I don’t think k they’re infallible, but I do think a few random things. 1- content is subjective. Opinions are, well, opinions and I’m bothered by the definitive statements a la “this show sucks/that show was better” etc. One can think the “best” Hardline was Mike and Greg. Just realize almost no one under 35 knows who Greggo is, so if someone says they prefer the Hardline of Bob and Corby it doesn’t make them stupid. They just have a different opinion. 2- the Neilsen monopoly is the most jacked up measuring tool that a whole industry relies on. But for as effed up as it is, it’s also a level playing field for all. And things tend to even out over time. This could be the beginning of the end for the ticket. Or we may find out that this is a statistical wobble and TT will do well next month and everyone will scratch their head and ask WTH happened in March? 3- the hatred on reddit is kinda crazy. They’re over there sharing Bennetts email encouraging others to complain about Catlin causing the low ratings. But as Dan McDowell said in a recent episode, if he was negotiating with the people in his phone (assuming he means Bennett and Catlin) the deal would have been done. This deal got killed in some office in Atlanta. But saying “eff Jeff Catlin” is more satisfying then “eff some anonymous staff attorney in Atlanta”. Dont know if it was some staff attorney, their general counsel, some programming big wig, or Mary Berner herself, but this deal wasn’t killed locally. He’d just lost Norm unexpectedly, why would he not want to keep a show that was consistently high atop the ratings. 4-last one for now: almost every ad agency in existence buys based off a 3 month rolling average. Why I said it would be interesting to see what next month brings. Will the average be 1-2-5, or 1-2-1. C
I don't think Norm retired on his own terms, considering he is still trying to do a podcast and has stated how much he misses being on air. My guess is they were preparing to let Norm and his salary go in order to offer Dan and Jake a raise on their next deal. Even though Norm's ratings were always up and down over the years, I wonder if they still wish they'd have him doing 10-12 right now with all of the changes that ended up happening.
Someone on Reddit posted the email from Norm to Catlin and Bennett where he resigned. I’m friendly with a couple of their salespeople, they were told it was totally norms idea, that Norm was under contract but wanted to quit. Burnt out, tired of the commute, etc. C
I’m sure there are days he misses it. Like this week with the NFL draft and 2 teams in the playoffs. But he probably doesn’t miss it on that random June day where there’s no football news, the NBA and NHL have awarded their trophies and the only thing to talk about is 1 of the almost 200 games the Rangers will play that year. That’s part of why I’m now leaning to TDZ not going to the freak. If you can financially support your lifestyle on social security, savings and gambling winnings in Norms case, or on pod subscriptions for TDZ, both have the flexibility to vacation when they want, work when they want, not have to commute, and to talk about what they want when they want. Dan can record pods ahead of time and go see his daughter in college out of state without worrying about a corporate limit in your days off. Norm can talk about a trip for days, without being told by the PD to keep it yo a segment them get back to sports. There’s a freedom to doing what they’re doing. Now there’s also a cost. Last I looked the Tickets cume was 300k. TDZ has 2% of the Ticket audience. Makes me wonder how much of the D&J freak appearances were attempts to boost their sub count. C
Usually the hard core sports guy who does want to talk about cover 2, the sports better looking for some inside info along with the fantasy league player. You can throw the wannabe coach type in there too. They want sports opinions and don't want to hear Red Dirt Country talk, fart drops and pot references and Gordon. Especially when the local pro teams are going good. If the Cowboys are 6-10 and the Rangers 30 games out of first they may stop by the Ticket.
Contrary to what many on the sish believe, there are a lot more of those types out there than you might think. A lot more, in fact. The sports/guy talk with an emphasis on guy talk phenomemon is past its best by date. Things have returned back to the old mostly East Coast model of either sports with a bit of lifestyle talk thrown in or lifestyle with a bit of sports. TF should be faring far better. It doesn't because its talent isn't very good. Sorry, but 2-1/2 years on the numbers do not lie. TFAN is everybit as generic as it's ever been. But public appetites have allowed it to compete with and at times best TT. TDZ is taking TF route. Difference is that they are compelling. For now at any rate. TT is in an intetesting spot. What made them iconic is now fading fast. They don't have the talent pool to do what TDZ/TF does, but it's obvious that going in a far more sports heavy direction isn't something they're comfortable with, either. I don't believe this last book was an anonally. I contend it's the new reality. One that's been building up for some time now. To me, the monster numbers of the past 2 years made little sense. My gut tells me if the next book aligns with this one, expect to hear a marked uptick in sports segments, and inversely, far fewer lifestyle segments.
I've been able to listen more middays recently. After some uncertainty about Matt McClearin and the Bass/Mino pairing, I'm pretty much on board with both. McClearin seems to have toned down the weirdness, and Sean and Mino have settled into a fairly companionable groove.
ReplyDeleteThere was a brief comment in the previous thread from a Confessor who seemed to be out on middays, thought I'd weigh in. Got no particular essay in mind on this, only that they both seem to be substantial shows, pretty sportsy if that's what you're looking for, and personalities that sound good through the headset.
I'm in.
1-3 defines milquetoast
ReplyDelete#TheNarrative #TheCultIsReal #PerpetualAdolescence
DeleteName one memorable moment from Mino's broadcasting career
DeleteThe JV junior high debate squad called. It wants its pathetic attempt at a rhetorical ruse back.
DeleteYou know The Boys don't read this stuff, right?
#TheCultIsReal #HiveMentality #YouWillBeDisappointedSoonerRatherThanLaterTrustMeOnThis
I dont mind the new midday stuff because 1) I never liked Dan really and 2) I can’t listen to the radio as much during that time. 10-3 was always just catching it here and there. I think something that helped both midday shows is they are all big rangers fans, obviously Sean, and their engagement and excited during the World Series run helped get their show going.
ReplyDeleteWhat the pee drinkers fail to realize is that The Ticket is a sports station and not a lifestyle/socio-political format that also happens to cover sports. As bizarre as that sounds (how can one not understand Sports Radio 1310 and 96.7 FM is a, um, sports station is beyond me), it's what mostly drives the urine soaked engine that is the redditor/X faction. Funny thing is, this ilk has The Freak -replete with their once beloved Sirois and Julie- which fills the bill, and yet they will not support it. Then again, that's par for this particular set.
DeleteI don't miss Dan. He was second only to Corbie as radio kryptonite for me. I think Donnie and Matt are find though I don't listen as much outside of football season to them. I am not as much of a fan of the winter sports as I am Football and Baseball. I expect my listening time to mid days will tick back up once the Rangers start up but I have lots of podcast to listen to. None of which are the Dumbzone. I wish D and especially J success in their endeavors but that show isn't for me. It would be nice if we could all just move on from the snark and passive aggressive BS and have real discussions about things again.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if there was a certain amount of “strategery” by Catlin/bennet et al in their choices. McClarin said he kept in touch with the Cat, and here’s a guy with 5 day a week sporttalk experience, with some kind of ratings track record, who gets one of the 3 open jobs. 2 inexperienced (I.e. no solo not ticket ratings track record) guys get the other 2. But inertia is a hell of a thing. How many people listen because, as is pointed out above, it’s Sportsrsdio 1310 and 96.7 The ticket , and it gets plenty of listeners no matter who they put on.
ReplyDeleteAnd Catlin et al could have hired the 2020s version of a Rocco Pendola, Bob Sturm or Dan McDowell. But if the p1’s hate Mino and Bass, who they know, what's their reaction if they hire someone like Jeff Ward from Austin, etc. how is an unknown out of towner acccepted by the p1’s?
So they put on the safe choice. Knowing they can blow it all up a year down the line if the ratings suck.
But as Welpton pointed out on Reddit, everybody remembers the Hang zone as this dominant force. While in reality they were rarely number one, and usually ranged anywhere from 2nd to 7th.
Considering the double whammy that hit that place (norms retirement then THZ leaving) I have to believe they have to be ecstatic with their current ratings. Tied with KLNO for number one in February coming off the damage of last summer? They must be happy.
And as a side note- I wonder what would have happened if that double whammy happened in reverse? Did THZ think they had the upper negotiating hand because Norm had just quit. If THZ leaves first, do they talk Norm into staying? Where’s the Time Variance Authority to get me to the alternative universes so I can see what happened there.
C
I want to add to this reference of what i posted over there: The information about historical rating performance was not intended as "shade" (as it was referred to) in any way. It was to support my point about the fact being top 3 isn't, historically, a given just because you're a show on the Ticket. Hence the supportive idea that the two new shows deserve credit. THZ also ended on a five-month #1 run that was consistent with the rest of the station at that time.
DeleteAs stated there. I was as solid a P1 of BaD and THZ, and I miss those radio productions as much as anyone.
Peter, no one in their right mind would think otherwise. Your intent was blatantly obvious. I said it before and I'll say it again: Often times (not necessarily) the company you keep is a direct reflection of you. The same can be said of your audience. "Often," not "necessarily." I'm not blaming Dan and Jake for some of their fanbase's apalling behavior. But there is something in their mien that attracts and engenders such piss poor actors.
DeleteLove your work on The Ticket. Go Burn!
C minus: Is that the same Jeff Ward, Announcer, who did voiceover work for Ed "Wheels" Wallace at KLIF for years or another Jeff Ward?
ReplyDeleteNot sure. Was in Austin last week and heard Wards name mentioned.reminded me of him so he came to mind when I was trying to think of a spotsy hire cumulus could have made if they wanted to go radio guy w track record with Dallas and or Texas sports knowledge.
DeleteC
No. He died nearly a decade ago now.
DeleteEd Wallace was right about Rhyner. Too bad it took him a year plus to apply his own sober analysis to himself. All that and Cat still knows talent. Nielsen doesn't lie.
DeleteI do appreciate all of you listening to our show and the Invasion in the wake of all the changes this past year. Obviously change is not the easiest for the P1s (that’s evident on these interwebs), but it’s been nice to hear and see the support over the past eight months or so.
ReplyDeleteWe put all we have into our work and want to make the best product possible every single day. The experience has been absolutely enjoyable and we look forward to every next thing around the corner. While we may not be everyone’s cup of tea, we are never going to mail it in or half-ass things.
Anyway, we appreciate y’all being by the channel. Have a great weekend.
SB
Fuckin' A, Sea Bass. Very cool of you to stop by. We have your's and Mino's back, brutha. Loving the Rangers talk. Loving the more sports centric program. The Ticket is, after all, a sports station. You guys and Monto are gelling nicely. And as Howard Jones is wont to sing, "Things will only get better." Don't listen to the pee drinkers. Just keep doin' whatcha do, playboy, and keep on chasin' that dollah.
DeleteI add my thanks for the check-in, Sean. I was a little surprised at the Mino promotion (not yours), but it's working.
DeleteEh, buddies, it's TIIIIIIIME. People in the real deal know are saying 97.1 will soon flip to dance/EDM. This is not some WKRP bullshit Dali word salad. Carry out the plan of the day and mill about smartly.
ReplyDeleteMan, I don't know how I could have forgotten to mention the contribution of one of my fave raves, Justin Montemayor, to middays. I've liked him ever since he did weekends (and probably before, but don't recall exactly what his role was before he was paired with Mike "The Machine" Marshall). I'm hopeful he'll have an even larger on-air role as time goes by, but for now, his distinctive voice and cadence is a welcome and appealing contrast to the hosts'.
ReplyDeleteMonty's the tits. He's the real cane sugar in TSS. Oh yeah, btw TSS is a damn fine 2 hours.
DeleteFor 2 days this week, I tried to listen to 97.1 whenever I could. Really, just to say gave it a fair shot. All I can say is I found none of it compelling. I don’t know what they should do, but none of it works.
ReplyDeleteI saw online HZ has new studio digs or a new semipermanent setup or something. Maybe the podcast thing is the long play now. Obviously, that would make me wrong. We will see. I still don’t see me ever paying for it.
The commenter above is correct: word around legitimate radio circles is saying The Freak will soon flip to dance. As for details, I've none. We'll see. To this, if you take into consideration reddit and X comments and lack thereof by normally vocal hosts of late, something does seem to be up.
ReplyDeleteRelated. If the at rhis point what appears to be inevitable occurs, has there in recent memory been a self inflicted, no reason on God's green earth to do it, wound of a public perception nose dive (when you were on top of your self created world), while burning bridges with decades long friends and forging alliances with those who view you as their, ahem, Ticket to a lucrative career of fame and fortune but will move on from you in a heartbeat than Mike Rhyner?
He went from being feted, fawned over, having a doc made about him, having a carte blanche open invite to have as much airtime as he he wanted on the number one station (that he created) in the 4th largest market in the US.... to a veritable punchline. I've never seen someone go so far out of their way to expose themself. Damn near pathological.
“Legitimate radio circles” = the radiodiscussions.com DFW message board
ReplyDeleteIt might be. But I'm talking about within the very walls if Audacy, if you must know. Is that "real" enough for you?
ReplyDeleteTF is not owned by Audacity.
DeleteI am aware, Radio Knob (btw, no one is owned by "Audacity"). Do you too not think that if those within Audacy are talking about this that it's not "real"?
DeleteToo add, some of you might want to think things out a bit before hitting the Publish button. Playing the debunker and gotcha games more often than not will lead to a skinned elbow. Ouchie. At least Get Real's comment was half correct.
DeleteIf someone at a competitor is talking about a competitor, no, I don't think that 'is "real" - I think that is gossip.
DeleteI too believe TF will get blown up sooner than later - I was just pointing out you were referred to a competing group, which IMO, is not a valid source on this topic any more than it would be someone from Cumulus telling you the same thing.
And, who says "ouchie" about an online discussion?
I say "ouchie." So there. Funny how the little things get under one's skin, live rent free in one's head. When management of A is openly discussing the impending demise of competitor B, it absolutely is valid. Now. Do you apply your line of thinking to TDZ Lawyer Roundtable? Recall, the roundtable where a group of lawyers openly mocked the opposing legal team in a case they were involved in. Just curious.
DeleteI have not listened to the roundtable, nor do I care. But if the content is what I assume it was, I'd guess that I would find a one-sided conversation to be just that, a one-side of the story. (they are just a couple of lawyers, after all)
DeleteLook, you started this by implying that discussions of the TF's future inside the Audacy walls as "real" - i'm simply responding to that with my opinion that talk is just gossip. My mistake was thinking you were asking for a reply when you ended the sentence with a "?" - my bad.
have a great week, Carly.
"Started it"? Started what? I made a comment and YOU responded with a snarky cocky sniff about The Freak's ownership. I in turn let you know that you missed my point. You continued, and I replied. We both stated our cases. But I guess you're unable to let things go. And with nothing substantive left to add, sign off with a passive aggressive, sophomoric sayonara, and end it with a juicy meme far past its best by date. Egos, they're helluva thing.
DeleteI was browsing some past threads from the early days of The Freak. Several Confessors thought that Richie Whitt seemed to have pretty good sources and was getting stuff right about the founding of the station.
ReplyDeleteHas he said anything lately about what's going on at 97.1?
Good call, Plainsman. I did a cursory search and can only find his SI articles (last one on 3/19). He writes on nothing other than the Cowboys and (oddly) the Patriots. His X account says nada on the local radio scene, and serves mostly to promote his SI pieces. He was correct about everything except Dan and Jake going to TF. Even so, Dan and Jake did leave TT roughly-ish (and I do mean roughly-ish) around the time he claimed they would bolt for TF. Having heard the "news" that DnJ have built a new studio, I'm thinking either they're going full bore with the pod, and/or they have struck a deal with iHeart or some other media entity that will allow for them to broadcast from their own studio a la many syndicated shows. (Hmmm. I wonder... maybe that's their end game?)
DeleteWhatever they end up doing, I'm thinking TF is no longer an option, if it ever really was in the first place. And whatever iHeart decides to do with the 97.1 frequency, barring a miraculous turnaround, I think TF format will soon be scrapped. If we're honest about it, the beginning of the end of TF was evident fairly soon after its launch. Sadly for us all, it's been disasterous. DnJ too saw this and proceeded accordingly while making and executing their exit plan from TT. You know what? And I truly mean this: I so very much wanted TF to be a real ass kicker. Man oh man did was I jazzed to hear a reinvigorated Rhyner do his thing, to once again be my leader. I was eager to hear what an unfettered Sirois would bring to the proverbial table. Toss in a Ticket that for the first time in over 20 years is forced to get it into high gear, and holy smokes what an electric time it would've been/would still be around here.
Instead of all that, we got a dumpster fire. The AM version of TDB isn't half bad and on occassions is outright good. But it's not enough, it's far too late in the game, and it has nothing to support it. B&S is a 4 hour infomercial for their brewery and other non-Freak endeavors. TSE is (being charitable here) unlistenable. From the 4 month long self-congratulatory circle-jerk to the dubious and ever changing founding narrative, I'm not going to rehash old ground regarding in what ways they dropped the ball. They were various AND sundry.
Would'ves, should'ves, could'ves. As the great Florida Evans exclaimed upon receiving the news that her husband, James, died: "Damn! Damn! Damn! Damn!" That's how I feel about TF. What a wasted opportunity.
As far as Cat knowing what he was doing with sweet spot, I surmise that he begrudgingly projected the dues-paying duo of Seabass and Mino as eventually deserving of hosting gigs (and also penance tokens for the loss of fellow dues-payers Balis and Sirois). However, in order to properly slot/hide them (2 hour, sports heavy, non-funny) he was forced to jump the gun and put them on a little earlier than he’d have liked.
ReplyDeleteI think they try hard, sometimes too hard. But they will save the station some cash and be fine as the baseball show of record. They just won’t be interesting until they relax. But I’ll listen.
With them locked in, CAT is now free to groom the muser’s replacements which I believe will be the leapfrogging Monto, DJ, and Ham.
Two things amaze me. Nobody talks about Bob and Corby’s dynamic anymore. That seems to have gone down like medicine. And folks (I’m assuming P1’s) spending a staggering amount of time waiting for the Musers to retire. Rather than simply enjoying the Musers.
ReplyDeleteBecause after several months as a duo and the addition of Davey and the several months after that they finally began to gel. Plus their numbers are excellent. I have a feeling if all three Musers would cease referring directly and obliquely to retirement (which they've been doing for a long while now), the speculation would quickly die. I think you can enjoy and wonder about the future of the The Musers at the same time. Meanwhile over at TDZ 55 year old Dan's talking about where he'd like to put his wiener. E. D. G. Y. Uh, yeah.
DeleteThe hardline is an excellent show these days.
DeleteI have to agree about The Hardline. It sounds like Bob is actually enjoying himself, perhaps to his own surprise. I never thought he and Dan were wholly comfortable with one another the entire time they were together.
DeleteNot that they were not friendly with one anothoer or a good team -- they were both. But I always felt like Bob would sometimes hold back on BaD, not wanting to ignite the somewhat touchy Dan. I don't get that gestalt on this edition of The Hardline.
That’s a wild take. Bob the fundamentalist Christian is very clearly uncomfortable with every other sexual joke Davey makes, which happens in nearly every segment. I had to laugh when they were telling Bob he needed to see Poor Things. Oh to be a fly on the wall in the Sturm Household if that ever happened.
DeleteI guess we're listening to different shows. But let's say for a moment that you are correct, Bob is "clearly uncomfortable with every other sexual joke Davey makes," why would that mean that on the whole Bob is uncomfortable? Can't he, like a lot of folks regardless of their religious purview, find sexual humor to be uncomfortable as a particular, but easily move onto something else, not letting it bother them in the larger picture? Moreover, why only on "every other sexual joke"? Wouldn't they all make him uneasy if such jokes per se make him uneasy? Are you merely trying to be provocative, goading others into some silly back and forth? Weird.
DeleteBecause sheltered Bob doesn't even realize that the other half are sexual jokes.
DeleteBob piled on right along with everyone else on the "Corby tugging on his dad" jokes so to say he's uncomfortable at every joke is an extreme exaggeration. I think Bob is comfortable in his faith and how he behaves but is mature enough to recognize other people are different. He knows where Davey is going, many times before Davey gets there, and seems amused a lot of the times even if he won't go there himself.
Delete"Sheltered Bob." My man bares his ass from the jump. Have you spent time in one if the more dangerous, squalid parts if the world in order to get to know a child and his world so that you might better understand him in order to provide a loving environment that also respects the child's cultural upbringing? Yeah, bud, if that's sheltered to you, I'd love to hear your bona fides. Lay it on me, scro.
DeleteThat's a very poor attempt at a rejoinder, Liberty Bob.
DeleteYou know what, you're right. Adopting a child from a poor country means you now know all about pegging, salad tossing, nipple clamps, and Prince Alberts
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DeleteBob's parents used to mark out the SI Swimsuit Edition with a sharpie before he was allowed to look at it
DeleteHe was a child, living at home under the rules and mores of his parents. He's also stated, explicitly, that he was instructed not to listen to all sorts of music that he went ahead and did anyway. He's a middle of middle aged man now. You're point being? Once more, try this on for size, it's far more in your wheelhouse: www.reddit.com/theticket
Delete*Your
DeleteOh, man. You really got me with that one, Luv. I guess I ought to turn off the autofill/correct, as oft times, if not vigilant, it creates grammatical errors. Still, you totally roasted me. I guess that in itself suffices for a lack of cogent argumentation. You win. In the future, please go easy on us. For some of us, English is not even our third language. Again, well played.
DeleteHere's an HSO for you that's going to get RIPPED. I think The Dumb Zone will fold its tent before The Freak. I mean The Freak as it is currently constructed. So there. Bite me.
ReplyDeleteDespite the doom and gloom, the very poor numbers, and all the I have it on good authority___, I don't think that's too much of an HSO. But be aware that TDZ's paid sub daily number just increased by something around the 300 mark. Their paid subs on the whole have remained fairly steady since September/October. Actual growth has been minimal, but again the numbers are holding steady. All this is positive in one sense, but in another COULD point toward future issues. Now I say it's not too much of an HSO because iHeart has invested a goodly amount of money in salaries, etc. on The Freak. I don't think it's out of bounds to think they will see the format through for at least another year. A year in the pod game is a long time. Many variables can and do change. So we'll see how things shake out. Once more. The fact that TDZ paid numbers have held steady is a a good sign but also might be an early indicator that growth might become a problem. Because as we all know, for example, $50k next year will hold less value than it does today. The old adage, grow or die. That is, unless they raise their monthly fees in a substantive way (which many successful Patreon/pay for content creators do), which in turn might cause friction between them and their base. Anywho. My 2 cents.
DeleteSame 12 posters on Ticket reddit. 8 are always Ticket negative, 3 positive, and 1 is so obssessed with Matt M in such a hate-love American Beauty way, you can see his micro peen boner impixelated. Same 8 posters on Dumb Zone reddit. All 8 have ingested so much pee that you have to imagine they appear jaundiced. That and not a one of them has an original thought. Aside: Difficult to do so when all you can think about are The Boys. Same 3 posters on Freak reddit. All three desperately and in some way admirably attempt to drum up attention for their pet cause whilst simultaneously try to grab the attention of KT and even, gasp, Sirois. And then there's My Ticket Confession. Around 20 posters. Six are total trolls. Two are certifiable to the point they're almost entertaining, one is a troll I'd rather not get into a debate with, as they appear to be a pro. Five are tinfoil hat "insiders." And the other six have mostly solid takes with some misses but are well intentioned.
ReplyDeleteFor my money I'll take My Ticket Confession for $2000, Ken (ya know they told Blossom to take her talents elsewhere, yes?).
Fuccin a dude. Took a swim in the other 2 sites. Youre dead fuccin on. Zactly what you said. Funny shit man.
DeleteThe Dumb Zone folks are trolls. The Freak folks bought into a snake oil salesman (Sirois). The Musers aren’t leaving for another five years. Those who want to debate their replacements are not the sort of folks I would want to read my eulogy.
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DeleteI’m just here to see how long before this comment is deleted.
DeleteMe, too. I’m shocked it’s still up.
DeleteNo shit, Poor. You're better than that. This right after correctly identifying the DZ Hive Troll.
DeleteAnnoyed to have to have complied. Don't bait me, Confessors. The consequences could be serious.
ReplyDeleteTo comment on the actual Little ticket they ran a promo for 30 years with the infamous Computer crying clip. I had hoped that loosing Jake, who I liked, along with Dan & Blake, who I did not like, would mean I never had to hear that or any of Computer's stuff again. All that made me so uncomfortable because it felt like Dan, Bob and Jake were just pushing the guy out there telling him they were his friends so they could laugh behind his back. i'd hoped it was gone for good. Maybe its just that promo. I wonder if they will bring him on the Pod.
ReplyDeleteIt was only kind of a comment on the ticket as it turned out. I am currently experiencing the wonders of pneumonia, and still working from home, so I'm hopping my confessors will forgive me.
DeleteMy apologies to the Confessor. I don’t believe I’ve ever been untoward on this blog. But it is not my blog. So the rules are the rules.
ReplyDeleteBut I wasn’t wrong.
Kill fascism at every corner.
As Faulkner once said, “Ode to a Grecian Urn” is worth a thousand dead old ladies.
ReplyDeleteIs there something about publishing a comment on this blog that retroactively gives people congenital brain damage, or is the guy who talks about pee drinking on to something?
ReplyDeleteNo. “ Kill fascism at every corner.” is totally normal for a blog about a sports radio station.
DeleteFascism thrives while you’re looking for entertainment, Zulu.
DeletePolitical lecture guy is insufferable guy.
ReplyDeleteWhen RagonkForce stands tall as the voice of reason, it is time for deep reflection.
ReplyDeleteWithin hours of any post I make, my bizarre stalker who has me mixed up with someone else has to formulate some sort of reply. This place has really gotten strange.
ReplyDeleteMusers are striking me as more energized of late. A bit more carefree. At least on George and Gordo’s sides. I’m liking what I’m hearing.
For the record: I am not your stalker . No idea who that guy is.
DeleteRagonkForce, look at that time stamp. This person is a drunken fool. Pay no mind to the troll. You're a valued member of the community. Keep on keepin' on, brother.
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ReplyDeleteI'm not Kevin, either. Just want to m make this clear.
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ReplyDeleteYeah, both those posts need to go. That’s just shitty behavior.
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ReplyDeleteMen and women, I get to comments as quickly as I can, lately < once a day, and sometimes when there's a bunch I don't read them as carefully as I should. And sometimes when I do, I don't always perceive the subtext.
ReplyDeleteI don't generally like comments about Ticket guys out in public, but if they seem blah I'll let them slide. I completely missed any inferences relating to David Mino. I've taken all Mino-related comments down, with apologies to David and to offended Confessors.
Close watch here wasn’t needed very often until the Freak and the latest lineup shake up. Lots more (or one) trolls.
ReplyDeleteI saw a spike when usernames became required.
ReplyDeleteFor years there were basically one or two garden variety trolls, The MTC Grumpy Troll, and (affectionately) Shaggy/Surly. All of which would pop up for a week, tops, then go away (sans Shaggy, who used to be a regular contributor and not a real troll, but disappeared once TDZ went online). Then Sirois bolted and in some ways scorched earth his way out the door by dint of a drunken appearance on Gordon's Twitch channel --along with Julie and Danny departing, who did not follow Sirois's burning down the house lead-- which in turn began the "Greedy Cumulus, Boomer Norm Must Quit or Die, Cat and Craig "Tier System" Miller are Evil, and All Hosts Should Pay Employees Out of Their Own Pockets in Addition to Said Employees' Salaries Living Wage Movement." It was at that time that the already negative-ish leaning reddit/theticket page went all in on Ticket Hate, never looking back. It was also around that time the troll factor here at MTC began to get into high gear. Once The Freak was announced, their numbers skyrocketed. And when DnJ bolted, the ensuing court case materialized, and TDZ came to be, well, the roof was blown wide open and no effort to reshingle the thing has since been made.
DeleteFrom my count, I think there's 6 damn near full time trolls rolling strong. Though there's times I feel it might be more like 4 and 1 or 2 are using multiple writing styles. There's been several back and forths where I swear it was the same person having a troll war with itself. Was the damnedest thing I've ever seen in a comments section.
However many trolls actually run amok here, I'm hoping the trend will die off at some point in the near future.
I'm not entirely clear on how to distinguish trolls (I'm talking about MTC now) from people who simply dislike The Ticket a lot, or who love those rebel scamps Dan and Jake a lot.
ReplyDeleteThose views don't disqualify someone from commenting here. Is it that they say the same things over and over again, in the same way? Is it that their comments are left solely in order to provoke what used to be called flame wars?
I dunno. But unless they're hateful, vulgar, personal, or violate the Rules of the Confessional in some other way (including being just flat stupid, although I rarely delete based solely on that), or whose disrespect for Your Plainsman crosses the line into uninformed contempt, they can hang.
More pee drinking talking, I say
ReplyDeleteAs long as The Boys have their Cult and its attendant Hive Mentality, rest assured, The Narrative is strong and the pee is being chugged. #IDontMeanToCriticizeAndImProbablyEvilForSayingThisButIThoughtTodaysPodWasntAsGoodAsYesterdays #LetsDoxThisPOS
DeleteOK, ^^^^ is a little bit humorous.
DeleteThe April Fool's Open is one of the two Ticket events I just don't get. I'm not a golfer so maybe that's why but I don't see the humor or the value in it. It seems like a bunch of golf bullies making fun of people who can't play their silly game. This and FIght Night I just don't get.
ReplyDeleteI'm a golfer and I enjoyed the first one quite a bit, but I have zero interest in this one because I don't care one iota about the people competing this year (except for HAM).
DeleteI mean, Detty? EA? Baldy? I barely know what those guys do there
EA seems to be the new universal butt of the host jokes.
DeleteHe’s the new TC for sure.
DeleteDan is on the Freak talking right now…brief mention of the ticket and DZ so far…
ReplyDeleteIf the Freak had Dan on to take away listeners from the April Fools Open…it worked over here!
ReplyDeleteC'mon, people. We've been telling you from the jump that this was the end game. Richie Whitt's sources (Sirois and Rhyner) are solid AF. Thing is, none of the parties involved planned on the mess that became DnJ's departure from TT happening. If it went as planned, they would've been on TF right when Whitt said they would. When his sources said they would. It's been delayed by a year and change. No big whup. But yeah, get ready and pop some corn. TDZ is heading to TF. Today was a little tease of what's to come. Should all be done and dusted by June 1. Mark it down. So many of you demand everything NOW, and if it doesn't happen NOW you think it was all bullsh. Sorry, but that isn't how shit works. Real life isn't a fucking scroll through your phone.
DeleteI don't know that DnJ to my beloved Freak is a done deal, but it was definitely nice to hear the Sports Humorist plying his craft on the airwaves with his leader today.
DeleteOh Jimmy. Sweet, dear dear Jimmy. Point to where the bad man touched you. You'regonna love Trembling Hills. They'll take good care of you there. "My beloved Freak." Good one, Jimbo. Good one.
DeleteOK, bud.
DeleteEA is a star...so glad he is getting exposure. TC was too thin-skinned.
ReplyDeleteYes, EA is *way* more likeable than TC.
ReplyDeleteI agree to be clear. EA is over confident and a fun guy. TC was over confident and a thin skinned bitch.
ReplyDeleteLike attracts like. TC, Dan, Jake, Blake. Thin Skinned, Inc.
DeleteLet's see EA capture a wild boar
ReplyDeleteLike everything with that one, he cheesed it. EA does nothing by half measure and cheesing isn't a part of his DNA.
DeleteIn other news, DFW is now officially recognized by Nielsen as the 4th largest market.
ReplyDeleteAnd in more other news, there's a juicy bit going around that Cumulus and Audacy might merge. The potential impact locally could be monumental. You'd have one company owning both The Ticket and The FAN, for starters. See below for more.
ReplyDeletehttps://radioinsight.com/headlines/267205/latest-on-audacys-new-owners-and-a-potential-cumulus-media-combination/
There is a bit of anti Ticket bias on that board. Some of the frequency moves suggested there don't make a lot of sense.
ReplyDeleteGopher, I think you're talking about the DFW Radio Discussions board, yes? The URL is to an article on the RadioInsight site, which is a legit industry source of news, ratings, etc. But you're correct about there being some anti-Ticket bias on the Radio Discussion page. Though that bias is nothing compared to the hate The Freak receives. That stuff is darn near pathological in a few cases.
DeleteI was and you are right. They were talking about it on RadioInsight.
DeleteIt's still a good source of local radio news.
He asks in his latest Ticket ad "is 20 percent bonus plus 12 percent guaranteed a year is Too Good to Be True"? Seriously? Hint: any advisor that pushes "products" rather than actual investments e.g. stocks, ETFs, treasuries etc is a commission generating shill.
ReplyDeleteRatings should be out today. Pete's post on Tuesday or Wednesday
ReplyDeleteCurious about 1-3….
ReplyDeleteMe too, but if I remember right last month they lost to the Fan but were in 2nd place. That was the whole Reddit controversy over Welpton supposedly throwing shade, where in reality he was rightly pointing out that until the last 6 months of their show, Dan and Jake ranged inconsistently from 1st to 7th in their demo. They were on a string of 1st’s when they quit, but I remember going back and looking at a bunch of his ratings posts. Often there seemed to be no rhyme or reason to THZ ratings. Station up, they may be up or down. Station down, they might be up. Really hard to find correlation some months. If Sweet spot can replicate THZ’s ratings range (so anywhere from 1-7th) I bet they’re happy.
ReplyDeleteC
They were due to be released at noon today. So far, nothing, which is unusual. Hopefully, they'll be out before the end of the business day.
ReplyDeleteThey’re out. Oh boy.
ReplyDeleteWow. Both TT and TFAN fell iff the cliff. TF stayed put, TFAN falling to basically their numbers. Peter, I can't wait to see your breakdown of the dayparts. This is quite the, ahem, shocker.
DeleteTicket 3.6
DeleteFAN 1.7
Freak 1.3
Ticket compared to the others fared far far better. But compared to their numbers the past several years, not so much. Mavs, Stars, and Rangers are all in full swing, with the Mavs and Stars about to hit the postseason with high hopes. Rangers coming off a World Series championship and so far, barring a few bumps, doing fine. So the slow sports theory wouldn't seem to hold. I mean that across the board, not just for The Ticket. As 00110011 said, Peter's daypart breakdown should be most interesting. One final thing. These numbers comport historically way more than the numbers over the past few years for either The Ticket or The FAN.
The ratings are here: <a href="https://radioinsight.com/ratings/dallas-fort-worth/>Dallas/Fort Worth</a>
DeleteThe Ticket has been #1 or #2 in this ratings measurement for quite a while now. This most recent ratings period it is tied with two other stations for 10th.
Due to vacations I won’t have the data to post for a bit. When I do, I will. Promise.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the heads up, Peter. Enjoy your vacation.
DeleteGotta let Cat figure out how best to handle this. I gotcha.
DeleteWrong URL, bruh. Try reddit/theticket or reddit/thedumbzone. Next time, try harder, smarter. #TheNarrative #TheCultIsReal #GroupThink #TheBoysAtentWhoYouThinkTheyAre
DeleteHey scoopsMcC, I mean The Spin Zone. You know neither Dan nor Jake nor Blake see your handiwork. Sad little clown boy that you are.
Deletescoops is a Freq'r, and not part of The Cult. He's rather aggressive and has a lot of opinions on TT. None of them are positive. Don't know if this person is scoops, but the OG post happened about the same time scoops' latest reddit campaign kicked off. So who know and who cated. I hate that chicken shit ploy if claiming someone is someone else. Just like I hate the bullsh ploy of saying soneone is soneone else's lackey. scoops is wont to do the lattet. Specially where Peter and Cat are concerned.
DeleteShould have paid the boys!!! Dan and Jake’s goal is to destroy the ticket!!! If they say they still listen, they’re lying!!! The dumbzone is revolutionizing labor rights for all of southlake!
ReplyDelete#Justice4Southlake #DragonDiscrimination #TheBoys #DanWorksMorningsInErie2025
DeleteSean and Mino just haven’t gotten any better, they flat out have not improved at all. If anything Sean has worn on Mino so much I think he has regressed. They are as milquetoast as possible. DJ and Monty are better hosts for god sake…
ReplyDeleteThey're perfectly fine. It's sports talk on a -gasp- sports talk station. Guy Talk and bits all day are boring af. Go tead a book. Listen to Terri Gross. Listen to box wine and "hockey expert" Judo. Listen to a rich kid spoily boy talk labor rights and hoops with a selective horribly executed faux east coast accent. Bake bread. Play a round of I Spy with deez nutz. Just figure it out.
DeleteFor f's sake, here we go again. Enough. You idiot stick trolls. On both sides.
DeleteGotta admit Statutes has a little something and is onto something.
DeleteThier sports talk IS the problem. They are as generic as it gets...
ReplyDeleteI like The Sweet Spot. I enjoy their baseball centric talk.
DeleteI saw a reference to a ratings “trend”. While I recall middays not doing great last month, this is the first book like this I recall for the ticket overall & it appears the Fan was down too. From time to time, there are months that are just outliers. Chalk it up to weird sample or bad methodology or both or neither.
ReplyDeleteYou see it in political polling too. A poll will come out that is just different than the rest. Maybe it’s the one that is right & maybe it is just off.
I have always been suspect by KTCK being #1 overall but it was good to see as a regular listener.
We will see what the next book brings.
The Sweet Spot really doesn't do much for me. I would have prefered true W.I.P in that spot but I get that Sean has been there a long time and has been a good soldier so he deserves to get a shot. I do listen more past noon than I did before D & J left. I am still out after 3 most days. The current Hard Line just doesn't interest me at all. Not to say any of it is empirically bad just not for me.
ReplyDeleteI get what you’re saying. But people shouldn’t get their jobs in broadcasting for being good soldiers. They should get them for being talented.
DeleteSean and Mino are talented. They earned the shot and thus fat are faring well.
DeleteI would never say that anyone is not talented. I don't feel like I'm a qualified judge of that. I simply like what I like. I liked Sirois and I wish he was still on the Ticket, but many people here tell me he is not good at the job. Many people here will say that Dan was great, but I didn't enjoy him. The shows on the Ticket I don't care for aren't bad I just don't like them. I'm told German Chocolate Cake is the bomb but I don't like it either.
DeleteI'd love a Bob and Donnie PM drive.
ReplyDeleteOne week later. Jake is now on TF. It's happening. Get ready.
ReplyDeleteJake's takedown of Cat without saying his name was great. Basically said he is a talentless hack that rose to a rank way above his actual ability. On another note you need to hurry because those 25% bonuses on your investments that you roll over from actual reputable LOW COST investment firms like Fidelity or Vanguard won't last forever.
ReplyDeleteJake us a rich kid with a rich kid wife. Like seeks like.
DeleteJake may need to remember Cat promoting him and helping create THZ
ReplyDeleteJake was promoted because he was by far the most talented and experienced person in the farm system. I don’t think Cat should get all that much credit for the success of Jake. It’s not like he pulled him from obscurity
DeleteAwful analysis.
Deletewhat people forget is that while Jake was the obvious choice to get a move, the blow back on the PD for pairing him with Dan and not the Hardline was near atomic.
DeleteHis call to blow up BaD and create essentially two new shows was overwhelmingly derided as "stupid", "dumb shit", "retarded", "insane", "disastrous", "clown show", and my personal fav, "typical Catlin", at the time, and yet ended up helping drive the station to its highest ratings in its 30 year history.
Jake certainly earned his place in all of this, but Jeff also equally is responsible because 99% of everyone else in his spot would have made a different choice and THZ wouldn't be the fine podcasting juggernaut it is today.
Jake's actions (and I didn't hear it, just assuming the above reference is accurate) are even more silly than the thing his feelings are all bent about in the first place (see Jake's tweet from the other day).
So Jake, who has one successful 3 year on air stint under his radio belt and has never EVER held a radio job outside of the Ticket thinks Catlin lucked into his job? lol. No, ROTFLMAO.
DeleteIf Catlin is lucky, so is Jake. So is everyone who works there. Jody Dean said it on Twitter a while back- stations like the Ticket, with its longevity AND success is a rare breed. We can quibble about exact dates, but KVIL’s hey day was late 70s to early 00’s. Generously what most people would say is the most well known DFW station lasted 25 years. The Tickets going on 30. There may be some luck and as always in radio a fair amount of being in the right place at the right time. But it also takes talent to perform and hold a job for 20 or 30 years.
C
Ding ding ding Kake. People forget so quickly how scrutinized cat was for the change up.
DeleteThe decision to not move Dan to PM drive with Bob will always be the big what if in all of this. Maybe it was because Cat doesn’t think much of Dan; maybe it is because Cat wanted a stronger pairing for Jake than available alternatives; maybe he wanted to make sure the HL in PM Drive was in part Corby’s show rather than BaD Radio featuring Cobra.
ReplyDeleteIn other news, I kinda wonder if the stream wasn’t captured in KTCK’s numbers last month. Or it’s an anomaly. Or it’s the beginning of a trend.
perhaps Corby's contract prevented him from being moved from the cushy PM drive slot
DeleteOr perhaps it's because the overwhelming majority of P1s (i.e., those who have zilcho to do with Ticket related sosh) actually enjoy Corby. As in enjoy him a lot. If you've ever been to any Ticket function, be it a remote, GNO, Ticketstock, Summer Bash, whatever, Corby is extremely popular. Snake chants are abound. Whle I don't care for the style of the commenter below, they're right about bubbles.
DeleteI have considered that it is likely Corby has a contract that dictates PM drive. That wouldn’t prevent a Corby, Bob & Dan Hardline. Dave Lane is a “host” & not yuck monkey or producer.
DeleteI can see someone argue that a Bob & Dan & Corby would be a bad fit given all the time that has passed since Corby was on Bad Radio.
The bubble dwellers who spout off on Cat's bona fides are the same pee drinkers who claim they'd easily pay $69.69 per month for TDZ, the same 5 weenie pinchers who comment on TF reddit, desperately trying to get a response from KT. Cat worked his way up the food chain. Did it through all the early on ownership changes, took a position (See: Bet. On. Himself.) in KC that at the time was not coming online anytime in the near future at TT, then did well enough that when said position at TT opened up, was brought in to do the job. And on the whole has done a pretty fucking amazing job. Missteps, sure. Who doesn't.
ReplyDelete#CatKnowsWhatWorksFarFarMoreThanYou
#JakeTakesOverHisFamilysBusinessOctober2025
#DanBeginsMorningDriveShiftInCuyahogaFallsJanuary2026
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oV6e7uO-sms
ReplyDeleteI liked HZ a lot I can’t make it more than a few minutes with this. Is this what the DZ is now?
Thank you, Zulu, for sharing this URL. I've tried to tell so many of you that The Boys aren't who/what you think they are. Are they bad people? No. Not in the least. But they're not champions for The Working Man. Nor are they vanguard progressives on the front lines fighting against injustice, poverty, and reform. The Dream Team Legal Eagles they attached themselves to are even less these things than The Boys. There's a lot of money and potential money to be made and fame that brings more money and primo tail to be had in the I'm A Bliue Collar Benefactor Game than you'd think.
Delete#LivingWageForThoseWhoActuallyLiveOnTheMargins
#TheyAren'tTheDroidsYouThinkTheyAre
#EnjoyTheContentButUnderstandWhatYou'reEnjoying
#HiveMentality
I have always wished THZ well, but paying for a podcast isn't for me. I watched the first half hour of this YT version, first I have listened to them in awhile. One thing that struck me was their bashing of the Ticket promos. I guess I don't get it. They left and started the podcast knowing that they would end up in litigation and had their law team at the ready for it. They were trying to win one for the little guy and that is admirable. But to bash the Ticket for their promos of saying it is free seems petty and bitter. They "won" the lawsuit and got to do their thing. I only put that in quotes because we really have no idea what the total outcome was except they got to keep doing the podcast. They should be happy and leave it at that. It makes them seem bitter for the choice they made. No one would know who they were if it weren't for the Ticket.
ReplyDeleteJake is a rich kid spoily boy. Dan is bitter, thin skinned, and entitled. Like seeks like. TDZ, if it exists in two years from now, will be a once per week or thereof pod. A weekend warrior hobby thing a la IJB. Jake will be out of the media biz entirely, Dan will be idoing a terrestrial radio gig in a second or thitd tier market (no first tier station will touch him). They've bared their asses and continue to show their true colors.
DeleteWatched that vid. Very unlikeable trio. No way does that have legs. Petty and bitter. Small potatoes written all over it. If this vid 's indicative if TDZ's reg output the dude who keeps tagging DnJ's future employment probs more correct than not.
DeleteWhat a weird comment the day after this came out. This was a great video.. Prophets and Outlaws were awesome. https://youtu.be/2xGf_IDSruM?si=6xMn5xIZUPp8ZW_t
Deleteas promised: https://www.reddit.com/r/theticket/comments/1c7zhto/march_2024_ratings_update/
ReplyDeleteThanks so much, Peter. Very interesting book. You're spot on regarding The FAN's ascendancy. It's been a steady, consistently numbered build up. To the point where any attribution to either the Rangers or Ciwboys would seem inaccurate. Kudos to everyone at The FAN. To The Freak side of things: Their numbers too are steady. Alas, their consistency at this juncture most likely points to imminent changes. Let's hope everyone keeps their jobs, but I doubt it.
DeleteAs for The Ticket. The drop was rather steep and across the board. While The Musers and The Hardline retain their #1 positions, the margin between them and theur respective #2s has significantly shrunk. Unsurprisingly, 10-3 suffered the most.
My two worthless cents:
None of this surprises me. Moreover, I don't think it's anomally, I believe it's the new reality if the local landscape that's been the case nationally for the past few years. That is, the end of the line for guy/sports talk, and the clear delineation between the two formats, which in turn split much of the listenership.
To me, this at least in part explains The FAN's steady, incremental, upward trajectory. I do wonder if Nielsen finally bumping DFW to the 4th largest market had an effect on how the ratings are derived and/or the number/diversity of the sample of listeners from which the data is culled/interpreted. But. Both The FAN and The Freak!s numbers continued to trend steadfastly, while The Ticket's did not. So there's that. In the final analysis, I believe the natuonal trend has made its way to the anomally of a narket, due to the singularity if The Ticket, that is DFW. A clear line if demarcation is being drawn between those who want mistly sports talj with a tad of guy talk mixed in, and those who want the inverse (or no sports at all). I also think this might shed light in the tribal, aggressive, zealousness if some on this site and reddit.
In sum, I predict The Ticket is about to get a lot sportsier. The Freak will soon undergo the changes we've all thought were inevitabke, and The FAN from this point forward will be neck abd neck with The Ticket. And Tge Dumb Zone will be a refuge for the guy talk criwd.
Sorry about all the typos. My fingers are far too fat (like my body) and my phone far too small.
Deletethank you for being the mouthpiece of the man or dan or whomever you bow down to - i like ratings
ReplyDeleteThe Boys don't give a shit about you.
Delete#StealthStockholmSyndrome
#Pretenders
#TheBigCon
Hey, Scoops,
DeleteMore pee drink talk please. It’s my fetish.
ReplyDeleteDo you know how to skate? Would you like to learn? I know a guy.
DeleteMeanwhile Ticket reddit is going bonkers. Celebraing the numbers and embracing the hate -all Cat's fault of course- like a 16 year old who just got laid for the first time. Cumming in 8 seconds yet thinking he's a stud. So yeah. The dumbest bunch of dipshits you've ever seen. I didn't know people could be that sheltered, stupid, and unaware how the world works. But there they are.
ReplyDeleteAh too bad...
ReplyDeleteAs Steven Milhauser once pointed out about the tragedy of Tom and Jerry : the cat only has to win once. The mouse can win and win and win, and nothing changes; his undefeated streak must run into perpetuity, without once falling short. Both are stuck in an existential nightmare.
ReplyDeleteOnly two things genuinely matter: AM and PM drive. The streak lives.
ReplyDeleteTechnically, 3 things. AM drive, PM drive, and the 6a-7p ratings. The vast majority of advertisers buy off the 6a-7p ratings, the drive time ratings drive the pricing in those dayparts, which are the most heavily bought.
ReplyDeleteAnd the Ticket is still #1 6a-7p.
The other thing that makes me laugh. Welpton pointed out last month how THZ ranged anywhere from 1st to 7th n the ratings, only achieving consistent 1sts in their last year when the whole station was wildly overperforming versus their history. And yet when the Invasion ranks 5th and the Sweet Spot ranks 3rd, its sky is falling, Cat’s incompetence, Matt’s a pedo, Mino sucks, blah blah blah. Funny how a 3rd place 2 years ago was indicative of the Hang Zones brilliance as broadcasters. But now a 3rd place finish means the Ticket is doomed, so much that they may as well turn off the transmitter.
C
C, the ignorance, the blinkered thinking, and the almost gleeful expression of vitriol by some is mind boggling. I just don't get it. Such buffoonery is usually relegated to college campuses.
DeleteActually the Ticket was #2 from 6am to 7pm
Delete(In Ed McMahon voice) you are correct sir! My bad, not paying close attention. Will be interesting to see if this is an anomaly or the start of a trend. It was spring break, which always messes up ratings, and I think the Musers were fine over a week. We will see in a month…
DeleteC
lol check out March ratings last year. Spring Break has had no effect on ratings in the past. That’s straight from the Cat playbook
Deletereddit called. it wants its algorithm back. bruh. try again. try harder. try a great courses lecture on how the real world operates. hell, try to listen to that small, still, inner voice that you long ago, in childhood began ignoring that told you "this is wrong, stupid, perhaps unethical." stop being a dumbass. to paraphrase woodsy the owl who once told us in ad nauseam psas re: manmade forest fires: only you can prevent your own stupidity.
DeleteThis might be the greatest fuck you dumbass retort in the history of thei interwebz. Or maybe it's a function of their being so many dipshit, blinkered, dumbasses out there that something that once would've been an obvious come back is now viewed as a brilliant rhetorical sit down and shut the fuck up retort. However you slice, dice, or interpret it (your hermeneutic key may vary), this particular breed of moron is zombie like in its modus and vivendi. Sad lot, these ones.
DeleteC = Cat as in fill in the letter on Xat. Anything posted that slightly hints at The Ticket not quite being what it used to be is met by C telling us how stupid we are all because Cumulus is infallible.
ReplyDeleteOh and looky there, Trajan Troll, C responded to your correction like a good-faithed adult who understands how to carry on a conversation. Does your bilious little outburst still feel good? Feeling powerful, exhilarated even? Let's hope not. Let's hope this was a teachable moment for you and others who trade in such unpleasantness.
DeleteVery well written Sheep dream of androids. Many kudos. And C I herewith retract my vitriolic statement. Sorry guys I will reward my self no points. 25 percent bonuses on your investments are still good though right?
DeleteGood man, Trajan Troll. Now what say we talk of annuities? My portfolio is an abject disaster.
DeleteJust dollar cost average into index funds and ETFs. I don't work in the financial securities industry whatsoever as some have suggested, but have built a multi million dollar nest egg through low cost investing. By the way you can get FDIC insured CDs in the low 5 percent interest rate territory. Not bad relative to the last 15 years. If your time horizon is greater than 10 years I wouldn't hesitate just letting the S&P 500 and QQQ indexes ride
DeleteI don’t think k they’re infallible, but I do think a few random things.
ReplyDelete1- content is subjective. Opinions are, well, opinions and I’m bothered by the definitive statements a la “this show sucks/that show was better” etc. One can think the “best” Hardline was Mike and Greg. Just realize almost no one under 35 knows who Greggo is, so if someone says they prefer the Hardline of Bob and Corby it doesn’t make them stupid. They just have a different opinion.
2- the Neilsen monopoly is the most jacked up measuring tool that a whole industry relies on. But for as effed up as it is, it’s also a level playing field for all. And things tend to even out over time. This could be the beginning of the end for the ticket. Or we may find out that this is a statistical wobble and TT will do well next month and everyone will scratch their head and ask WTH happened in March?
3- the hatred on reddit is kinda crazy. They’re over there sharing Bennetts email encouraging others to complain about Catlin causing the low ratings. But as Dan McDowell said in a recent episode, if he was negotiating with the people in his phone (assuming he means Bennett and Catlin) the deal would have been done. This deal got killed in some office in Atlanta. But saying “eff Jeff Catlin” is more satisfying then “eff some anonymous staff attorney in Atlanta”. Dont know if it was some staff attorney, their general counsel, some programming big wig, or Mary Berner herself, but this deal wasn’t killed locally. He’d just lost Norm unexpectedly, why would he not want to keep a show that was consistently high atop the ratings.
4-last one for now: almost every ad agency in existence buys based off a 3 month rolling average. Why I said it would be interesting to see what next month brings. Will the average be 1-2-5, or 1-2-1.
C
I don't think Norm retired on his own terms, considering he is still trying to do a podcast and has stated how much he misses being on air. My guess is they were preparing to let Norm and his salary go in order to offer Dan and Jake a raise on their next deal. Even though Norm's ratings were always up and down over the years, I wonder if they still wish they'd have him doing 10-12 right now with all of the changes that ended up happening.
ReplyDeleteSomeone on Reddit posted the email from Norm to Catlin and Bennett where he resigned. I’m friendly with a couple of their salespeople, they were told it was totally norms idea, that Norm was under contract but wanted to quit. Burnt out, tired of the commute, etc.
ReplyDeleteC
I bet norm does miss being on air just because he did it so long, but I dont think a 10 minute podcast means he wishes he was still on air lol
ReplyDeleteI’m sure there are days he misses it. Like this week with the NFL draft and 2 teams in the playoffs. But he probably doesn’t miss it on that random June day where there’s no football news, the NBA and NHL have awarded their trophies and the only thing to talk about is 1 of the almost 200 games the Rangers will play that year.
ReplyDeleteThat’s part of why I’m now leaning to TDZ not going to the freak. If you can financially support your lifestyle on social security, savings and gambling winnings in Norms case, or on pod subscriptions for TDZ, both have the flexibility to vacation when they want, work when they want, not have to commute, and to talk about what they want when they want. Dan can record pods ahead of time and go see his daughter in college out of state without worrying about a corporate limit in your days off. Norm can talk about a trip for days, without being told by the PD to keep it yo a segment them get back to sports.
There’s a freedom to doing what they’re doing. Now there’s also a cost. Last I looked the Tickets cume was 300k. TDZ has 2% of the Ticket audience. Makes me wonder how much of the D&J freak appearances were attempts to boost their sub count.
C
D&J were on the freak for the subs without a doubt lol
ReplyDeleteWho are these people who prefer Shan and RJ over the Musers or the Downbeat? It truly boggles the mind!
ReplyDeleteUsually the hard core sports guy who does want to talk about cover 2, the sports better looking for some inside info along with the fantasy league player. You can throw the wannabe coach type in there too. They want sports opinions and don't want to hear Red Dirt Country talk, fart drops and pot references and Gordon. Especially when the local pro teams are going good. If the Cowboys are 6-10 and the Rangers 30 games out of first they may stop by the Ticket.
DeleteContrary to what many on the sish believe, there are a lot more of those types out there than you might think. A lot more, in fact. The sports/guy talk with an emphasis on guy talk phenomemon is past its best by date. Things have returned back to the old mostly East Coast model of either sports with a bit of lifestyle talk thrown in or lifestyle with a bit of sports. TF should be faring far better. It doesn't because its talent isn't very good. Sorry, but 2-1/2 years on the numbers do not lie. TFAN is everybit as generic as it's ever been. But public appetites have allowed it to compete with and at times best TT. TDZ is taking TF route. Difference is that they are compelling. For now at any rate. TT is in an intetesting spot. What made them iconic is now fading fast. They don't have the talent pool to do what TDZ/TF does, but it's obvious that going in a far more sports heavy direction isn't something they're comfortable with, either. I don't believe this last book was an anonally. I contend it's the new reality. One that's been building up for some time now. To me, the monster numbers of the past 2 years made little sense. My gut tells me if the next book aligns with this one, expect to hear a marked uptick in sports segments, and inversely, far fewer lifestyle segments.
DeleteSpeaking of Cat: New red and note.
ReplyDelete