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."
Monday, May 6, 2024
The Guy in the Last Thread Who Said This Thing Needed a Fresh-Up Was Right
The more I read the various comments and think about what's transpired over the past year or so, the more I think that The Freak had about the same combination of real radio talent and nice men and women as most talkers.
And in my storied career, which includes business, professional firms, academe, and even blue-collar elbow-grease work, convinced me at every stop that what made the difference between success and failure was management.
The Freak not only had poor management, it had none at all. And that was its main problem. Someone who would have gotten the hosts in a room to tell them what almost everyone else was hearing, or not hearing, on those shows and what they needed to do to fix it.
On another note: I watched, or tried to watch, the YouTube Dumb Zone entry filmed at something called The Meat Church a day or so ago. I thought -- okay, I'm not going to get some of this stuff at the beginning, but over the 2.5 hours they'll get to something recognizable, some entertaining Dan + Jake stuff. So I'd move the slider ahead a bit, and then a bit more, and then a bit more, and there was . . . not exactly nothing, but nothing that made any sense to me as entertainment to someone who might be considering investing a couple of hours listening to guys talking, or even subscribing.
(And who were all those people?)
I see they've now popped over 6K subscribers. There seems to be some thought that some of these represent, uh, inauthentic fans. But if they pay their money, I don't see what difference that makes. Maybe these guys are on to something, developing a Stern-like batch of insiderish friends-of-the-show that keep people subscribing to be a part of this cool J+D subculture, and if it's working for them -- damn, it's brilliant. That I didn't get it means absolutely nothing.
I broadly agree with your thoughts on management but would word it a different way, that is is nearly impossible for good people to overcome bad management.
Somebody was nominally in charge. Someone recruited these people. Someone got them contracts. At various points, it was suggested it was Sirois, Rhyner (doubtful) or B&S.
This was someone’s vision. We got it. Some kind of Seinfeld episode writ large- a station about nothing. Guy talk without the sports and designed to be broader & more accessible than just guy talk.
It was a vision & it didn’t work. Because the idea was bad & they didn’t have the people to execute it on the air or in management.
Feel for the people that lost their jobs, but this is the truth.
@ Inhouse: Of course, you're right. Somebody was in charge; someone authorized the expenditures, someone performed a human resources function, someone kept the lights on. I even recall there was a nominal station and/or program director -- but not on site. And perhaps, as you suggest, the founders themselves might be considered management under the circumstances.
What they didn't have, apparently, was a professional broadcast executive on-site who had the portfolio to "boss" the talent and correct, or at least improve, the vision you describe. Which vision seemed to amount to little more than "talking without a particular focus, except not sports, or only a little, and maybe a little more as time went on."
I believe TC (maybe it was Mike R?) said something about a woman at iHeart, who was sort of their cheerleader in getting the Freak started, who ended up leaving the company before they went on air. As a result, there was nobody in mgmt that was personally invested in making sure they had the resources they needed
Not saying the Dumb Zone is the best, but it's hard to take your opinion seriously when your previous posts told us how Ben & Skin and the new Ticket midday shows are actually good.
The SweetSpot is currently wasting air on a ridiculous baseball-centric hypothetical......the same ridiculous baseball-centric hypothetical they yakked about last week. They have a 2-hour show. This s-show of a topic got the check mark on the runsheet?! I understand an "Opening" segment to the program, but probably try not to make it an immediate punchout.
Wha?!?!?! You not a DF, bruh? The Boys say what they want! The f word never sounded so possible. Scro, our Boys are lit. Bangin' out the bangers. Edgelord edge of night cutting edge like the edge of a knife, my man. So hip to the trip. Shroomin' and BEWMIN"! Talking p'tics, dic pics, but none dat Ticket schtick. Naw, bruh. All A-game all-star natty for the 'ship quality jit up in this biatch. 420. Man you car smell funny. High high high. Say it 69 times. There once was a bruh from Nantucket who had such a.... whoa scro.... no puppet!
I know it is fun to talk about wild conspiracy’s about Phillip buying all the subs for the dumbzone. But they did list all of their subscribers names on one of their videos. Also 6k isn’t a massive number. It is decent but i don’t really see the benefit of doing that.
I'm inclined to think that the #s are legit. Agreed that they're not bad, but they're also not spectacular. To the tinfoil hats I'll say that creating dummy accounts is easy. So the name thing doesn't prove anything one way or the other.
The bill of goods that both Rhyner and TC spoke of pertained to the selling of the idea that they could do it all themselves and therefore command higher salaries. They were all so experienced, so successfull, and were bringing with them a large, ready for rockin' ad rev and numbers audience, that even a PD was somewhat a redundancy. As we found out about 3 months in, nothing could've been further from the truth, on all fronts.
The upshot is that while Plainsman is correct in saying they needed guidance to succeed, it was the very ones needing guidance who had no interest in being guided, who thought they were the ones they'd been waiting for. By the time iHeart attempted to stop the bleeding , it was too late. Moreover, and you can look at each hosts' reddit and X posts, and parting shot interviews, all of them thought managment wasn't letting them, ahem, say what they want. I'll go one further. This sentiment began across the board roughly months prior to the plug being unceremoniously (and rightfully) pulled.
And let's not forget what Julie, just last week on TDZ, had to say about her former job: I paraphrase, "I didn't want to do a 4 hour show. I wanted to do 3 hours. It's hard enough to come up with 3 hours of content every day and week and month, much less 4." She was not alone in thinking that way. This was the fundamental issue. Not a lack of solid management. They not only said what they wanted (for a year and change), they got what they wanted. Despite what they all claim, most (not all) hosts did not put in the hard work it takes to be a compelling voice. Here's the rub, and it's so simple but so damn difficult...... You have to be passionate, and I mean genuinely passionate about a certain thing or issue in order to do this job and do it well, which means to be compelling. Cavanaugh is. But about The Cowboys. Danny is. But about music. Showing up and bullshitting about nothing does not work. Radio, regardless of what some will tell you, is not at all like hanging out at Cheers, talking about the Cheeto shaped like Bess Truman's third leg.
Bottom line is that too many of the on-air, primary talent that did not have the passion for the work. A passion for local celebrity and a fat paycheck for a job where you circle jerk for a few hours a day, 5 days per week isn't. It's wanting a lot for doing a little.
That's the real story of what can aptly be described as the radio equivalent to the bust that was Tony Mandarich. No passion for what they were doing. Plus, spite will only get you so far. Especially when it's misdirected, and in many ways, fabricated.
the worst performing (again) of the three shows, is the lone survivor. And, on the heels of a week of both of them openly mourning the loss of their and their co-workers' jobs (did you see the sappy video?!), acting as if their fate was up in the wind. Just a couple of leaves floating, waiting for the atmosphere to lead them to their next landing spot.
I'm not sure I have a comparable for the radio career of these two guys. They truly are the Kris-Kris of on-air 'talent'.
It really is amazing. I don't know what they bring to the station that someone else wouldn't. I'd have kept the Downbeat over them. I can only assume its because they were under contract to iHeart before the Freak was a thing and due to Skin's involvement in the Mavs broadcast. I have always said I won't ever say someone doesn't have talent or skill but I do not get Ben and Skin at all. I have found them unlistenable at everyone of their stops.
I guess I could listen, but I haven’t. What are Ben & Skin doing? are they still doing a talk show or are they playing Nickelback in between riffing on the Mavs?
The why (and the reason I called this a few months ago) is because they have existing relationships for endorsement deals. Their one actual talent is selling themselves as pitch people. That is significant and attractive revenue for radio stations.
None of the other two Freak shows had anyone even interested in doing that, much less be good at it.
Ben and Skin win, again, because they play the game at a level that, for better or worse, is what gets them ahead.
But 100% agree the way they’ve presented this is really off-putting, even by their standards. As someone asked earlier - how will they explain this? If it at all suggests they didn’t know, wasn’t planned, unexpected - they are bald faced lying.
I think there’s a couple of people (including only the tip) upthread who make good points I can agree with. I’ll highlight what I think were the issues, in no particular order. 1. Mgmt- once Kerri Kleber left (she who greenlighted it) they didn’t have a corporate cheerleader who had a stake in their success or failure. They were orphans. 2. The PD. Rhyner spent a week as PD of the Ticket before they realized you can’t spend time getting a station off the ground AND do another job at the same time. I think the KZPS PD was in charge for a while, but successfully launching a new station is a full time gig. By the time they hired the new guy, listener perception had hardened and listeners were launched. 3- the positioning. KT said last week on Twitter I think that “we say what we want” was a corporate directive. That slogan is great for a hot talk station, awful for a sports focused station. 4- the air staff hired. A lot of the staff have talked in last few weeks about how great it was to work with their friends. Some of my friends suck at radio, I want to work with talented people, not friends. And while some of these folks have sports talk talent, they were poor choices for a hot talk format. 5- the clock. I’d argue that the lack of a PD focusing on the station manifested itself in their clock. Which was a music based clock with breaks at top and bottom of hour. That left poorly selected talent struggling to fill 23 minute long segments with bad topics. A hot talk station only should have been talking MAJOR sports events. Super bowls, Teams sold, etc. but here you hired a whole staff of former ticket employees (sans k ray and Cavanaugh) and had them talk sports way more than they should have. 6- sales- every major advertiser on the Freak was already an advertiser on either the Ticket or the Fan. Or KEGL for Nen and Skin clients. They had zero local success at getting their own clients to buy in. Their sales were down 30-40 in year one, and were on pace to lose the same percentage YOY in 24. That’s 6 million in losses. Which leads to… 7. Salaries. Sirois claims he doubled or tripled his KTCK salary by going to the Freak. But with great compensation comes great responsibility. If you’re making salaries comparable to Ticket hosts, and they’re first in the market and your 20th is that sustainable? There’s a reason Greggo Craig and Gordo lived in a house off greenville in early ticket days. No one made crap and it was cost savings. Id have more respect if they’d left for the same money but the chance to succeed as a host, as opposed to the money grab look we saw. And those big salaries cost them. When you’re throwing 300k to Rhyner here, 150 -200 for Sirois and Danny there, 100k for Julie, etc, the iheart nut is a lot bigger. And the runway is a lot shorter. When there’s that much salary money on the line, I understand pulling the plug after 18 months. I could go on but won’t. Just as the Ticket is imitated for stations wanting to succeed, the Freak is going to be taught by radio consultants as a “this is what not to do” case study. C
Not trying to be provocative here but I think someone's departing. And I think it might be a shocker. Pure gut feeling on my part that's almost guaranteed to be wrong. Still, there's seems to be something in the air or rather on-air of late. My guess: a Muser is making a major personal announcement. That Muser, in my estimation, is International Chirp Chirp. Just to be clear. I got no inside info, no nothing. Merely a presentiment based on the last couple of years.
"Not what you think." Well. What would we think of at this time of the year? Summer Bash? I'm betting it's one of two things: Another re-alignment of the lineup or some new station-listener fandango that's basically a rehashed version of something that's already been done. I can't see anyone bolting right now. The former could be it. Maybe Cat/Bennett think that last book wasn't an anomaly. Maybe they're going to fiddle with the midday. Hell. Maybe. MAYBE. A lost sheep, a prodigal son is returning home and will become a new midday cohost.
This is a very interesting listen now -- minute 17 when they start with the whole "Contestant" shtick, and not even Jokingly present Dan as a possible option for 3-7....his quips and one-liners are very telling now.
I've always thought the moment Dan was told he wasn't going to PM Drive but Bob was is the moment he began plotting his exit and some sort of revenge. I also 100% believe the move was to TF PM Drive, and that was the reason for TF lineup shuffle. Rhyner was going to hang on a bit but soon leave for his protege Dan to carry on the Rhyner Way. But the station was a flop and it became evident it wasn't long for this earth. At that point they got serious about the pod and since have done their best to emulate the things TT does/has done. While I wish them well, I don't think it will work out in the medium run. At some point they're going to have to stop emulating and referring to (directly or otherwis) TT and start being their own thing, wholly. I don't think that's going to happen because they have the same issue TF had: no one with real authority to tell them X isn't working, do Y.
I 100% agree that Dan was super PO’d he didn’t go to afternoon drive. I further would say Dan was the driving force behind almost leaving the ticket with Bob before.
Not only Dan getting slighted for AfternoonDrive - - -add on the Pandemic causing Jake's promotion to take a dive/re-structure. Somewhere - there's a Ticket Fan Fiction on if they had brought both Bob and Dan to DriveTime -- promote Jake, add Donnie and Sirois to 12-3 - - -make Blake Norms producer....maybe someday we'll get the real reason on the BaD split. A couple Feb 2020 decisions set so much in motion....but also a Pandemic put those on hold til 2022....Dingu, Sirois.
*as an aside - some current faves - DJ, Monty, Lando, Baldy, TravSam...hell - EA - they're here bc of the those departures.
I get not getting a promotion bumming you out, but I’ll never get Dan going to the hardline. Look at Bob and Dan pre-shakeup. Who would get the promotion? Bob simply works harder lol. Bob is/was a bigger name. He writes, does work for Troy, etc. he prob would have insisted on eating dinner during CQH anyways.
The idea you would take the 2 named hosts from the #1 rated midday show & move them to PM drive with the guy that at one point worked with him is not far fetched.
It’s a 3 host show today.
There was a provision in Dan’s contract that gave him a raise if he was moved to AM or PM drive. (Probably in Bob’s contract too but we don’t have that).
DeepNight Roster - 1am = Corbs, Davey, Donnie, SeaBass, Mino, Matty. Corby and Davey are definitely picking their moments. They should be leading but are taking a backseat to the drunkards....and probably why there is no Georgie or Gordo, who might have stayed. As for the others - even including Donnie because man...he will take something and just run it into the dirt....but the buzzed Matt, Sean, Mino are all trying to do a Pile On - and probably inevitable its MattyBeers - - this just does not sound like funtimes radio.
After the amount of schitte they caught about the heat and the size of the crowd last year, not surprised they decided to take it inside. And the House of blues event showed there’s clearly a subset of listeners willing to buy tickets for ticket events. C
TDZ has joined a podcast network in Austin called Washed Media. Looking at their roster, Washed Media consists of several shows labeled as "spin offs," hosted by the same guys who do the main the show, Circling Back, and several other shows which haven't posted new episodes in a long time. It appears Circling Back and Brunch are the stapes. In their "About Us" section, the network says it appeals to postgrads and millennials aged 24-35.
I know nothing at all about podcasting networks, but I doubt they provided the money for TDZ to build/rent a brand new studio, whatever that word means in this context. I can't imagine they have deep pockets.
Wow, these guys really were/are flying blind on all this. Incredible. There is no chance Jake doesn't regret the entire situation already, but in five years? Woo boy.
So are postgrads and millennials going to dig a host approaching the early retirement age who’s into Hitler, porn, and pot, and is known as “the naughty Ben Franklin”?
I continue my confusion over why I should care about a podcast network. I guess there may be a dedicated sales guy trying to get ads for things like athletic greens or squarespace or whatevs. Maybe it prompts 100 Austin bros to download an episode or two.
There is no plan. The plan was to do PM drive at the Freq, but it was the Freak & by the time D&J could do it, neither iHeart nor possibly them had any interest.
Way to go. Best job you ever had & you pissed it away on fake sanctimony and hubris.
"Keep icing the puck waiting for a job at the Fan." B I N G O. That's exactly the plan, In-House. One of the creep-os who comments always reminds TDZ fans that DnJ aren't who or what you think they are, and that those you've been convinced, and have convinced yourselves, to be "enemies" are not. I've come around to thinking that that commenter might be correct. At least to some important degree. I've also come around on the theory that the minute Dan was left in the dust so to speak, remaining middays while Bob was bumped to pm drive, that was when all of this kabuki theater began.
There's also another commenter. and it might be the same person as the one mentioned above, who always poses the question to DZ fans, "What are going to do in a year and change when Jake is working for his family business and Dan is doing pm drive in Bowling Green, Kentucky?" With this latest info (H/T RealPinstripeBunk), that scenario seems even more plausible than it already did.
Super interesting times around this market, for sure.
I assume there are successful podcast network models Washed Media aspires to emulate. For now, though, if you still must pay for each individual podcast, it seems like the primary benefit is some exposure to "similar" audiences, which should be good, but what if they unsub from the original and sub to you, or your subs bail for the other. Seems like the whole point of a network is you get all the content for one "low low price." I assume there's some back office things Washed can do for them? And of course, they're listed on the webpage. I don't know. It's not clear to me yet, but I'm sure it will make more sense soon.
LOLall you want, but that is where things have gone. Nothing is free anymore. Now P1s are no longer rewarded for making The Ticket what it is. Now the tier system applies to listeners. Any of you who think that this is going to backfire on them and cause an uproar and a loss of listeners is a fool. To quote a thin-skinned, Midwestener: "It's the way it is." It started with the 30th anniversary bash. That worked out quite nicely for them. So here is the logical conclusion. Moving forward there will be all skate, plebe gatherings like TicketStock and maybe GnO (those seem to have faded out), and everything else will be a pay for access deal. The more you pay, the more access you get. I hate this. This is the antithesis of what The Ticket was founded upon and what made it successful. But this is where everything, not just The Ticket, is going. If you don't think we now live in a soft caste system, you're either fucking blind or are a part of the socio-economic strata that has no problem paying and therefore doesn't give a shit.
So how does the affiliation with Washed Media affect the Kingston plot to spend all of this money to form their own podcast network with all of the Freak castoffs?
while wondering what happened to your capacity for critical thinking -- assuming it ever existed.May 9, 2024 at 3:41 PM
1. It's not a "plot." What do you think that term means, snark lord? 2. How would it affect Kingston and the rest of the investment group's endeavor? Answer: In no way. TDZ can leave the network at any point.
If Kingston and others are investing in TDZ, of which I've no idea, I don't see how them being a part of a podcasting network would somehow preclude further involvement. Indeed, I'd think a from all signs fledgling network would welcome such a thing. FWIW.
Might mean nothing, might be legit. There is the sentiment floating around that as soon as The Mavs playoff run ends, soon thereafter so too does B&S's. Seems their contract has certain stipulations that must be seen through. It also seems that B&S, no matter what one thinks of their talent, are rather business savvy.
Yep. Checked it out. The Boys will fit in just fine. They are amongst likeminded souls. Millinnial Dan and Gen Z Jake. Like his mentor, Mike Rhyner, Dan is in the process of becoming/already has become everything he's ever made fun of. And Jake. Well, this is his wheelhouse. Honest to goodness they made the right move. Skateboard Men, unite!
Wow, um, that was something else. Frat scro bruhs living out that Old School / Swingers life. HONEST ABE hit the bull's eye: "They are amongst likeminded souls." The lot of them have that late 90s into the early 00s aesthetic down pat. I'm thinking the next movie watching party is either High Fidelity or Being John Malkovich or Pulp Fiction. This all keeps getting stranger by the day.
Yes. That was my point. Gen X Dan acting, dressing like a Millennial; and a noticeably puffier Millennial Jake in the role of the Gen Zer. Maybe he'll readopt his old Ticket nickname (given to him by I believe Rhyner), Jake Z. It's all shaping up to be quite something else. Corn is popped. Puppet discrimination is in full effect.
Good lord. The Ticket can succeed and so can some that leave and do their own thing. So much binary thinking on this site. It's almost as if D&J committed the ultimate sin and might never be forgiven. Again, we will all think differently about The Ticket when the Musers are gone and that thread of continuity all the way to the beginning of the Little Ticket is broken for all eternity. Lots of fond discussion and reference to Jake and Dan this past week. It's almost as if the plug being pulled on the Freak has freed up The Ticket to actually recognize the contributions of D&J. I think it is a good strategy by the Ticket to reincorporate drops with D&J and stories. Adds to the legacy and lore. I wish both The Ticket and D&J success.
Oh my. Do you know what an o p i n i o n is? Do you understand the concept of people having different opinions?
Next time, before you hit Publish, look in the mirror. The very thing you accuse others of engaging in, you yourself have led the way. The name alone, bud, tells the story.
Ratings come out on Monday. Last month the Fan beat the Ticket by a tenth of a point. Anybody have predictions on this month?
My only prediction on this is one I feel VERY confident in making. It’s like how washing your car causes dirty rainstorms. My prediction, The Freak will see a nice little bump in the ratings. Not huge, but enough for the whiny losers to claim “see, they just killed it too early”. C
Hey, c'mon guys. Mike is REENERGIZED! He said so in all his post 3-2-1 and you're done sychophantic puff pieces, er, I mean interviews. Don't tell me you weren't amped on the juice he brought every. single. fuccin. day. I know I was. This pod's gonna be fire flame lit! If Washed ACTUALLY wants to succeed AND get insta cred, it best sign this HSO beast of a sooner rather than latet octogenarian!
Now didn't I tell you my babies that old Dr. Johnny Fever was coming back? Why even gigglin' Grubes threw shine at me, as if I didn't know what I was talkin' bout. Didn't ya, Gruber McDoober. 'Member that? I sho do, my baby. Let's not forget KTel. Ya sho nuff showed me. Naw my rocka rolla, I dropped the needle but ya shouted over the music. I knew, you didn't. Ya'll don't like my style? Deal with it. I know my shit, babies. Told you what was going down and it did. Even told you the new Venuses was same as the old ones. Know what? They are. Now you know I know mine. So listen up and listen good, babies. Some new hot jams about to release. Some y'all gonna be crowin', some y'all gonna be groanin'. Two smash hits gonna splash, my babies. Woo wee! I'm tinglin' like a bitch! Mr. Plainsman gon' haffa do a refresh every 15 once this number one with a bullet drops! My babies!
Claiming this as a correct prediction is like Greggo with Bob Hope not making Christmas back in the day. We all knew that eventually he'd be correct, but he was still wrong 90% of the times he claimed it.
This is, um, dumb. As in not funny the late 90s called and wants its irreverant, nothing matters, everything's commercial, John Cusack angst ridden, Gen X circle jerk back.
Thought the target demo was 20-35 for this outfit?
Awaiting Peter's day part breakdown, but here's the cume:
Ticket at 3.7 (up .1) #10 The FAN 2.3 (up .6) #20 KEGL 1.3 (static). #29
Those day parts are going to be interesting.
One thing I've heard, and I'm not the first to report it, is that B&S are playing out the string contract-wise. It's why they are still on the air. What is known and not merely water cooler talk is that neither B nor S are doing their usual hard sell promo job. This in of itself is helping fuel the rumor that they're gone after the Mavs wrap up their season or soon after.
Just from the cume, it looks like The FAN most likely gained more ground on The Ticket (I'm assuming 10 - 3). They absolutely bounced further back than The Ticket (from this point forward there's no reason to include KEGL). As well, again from the cume alone, these numbers might be the new norm.
I continue to be a little perplexed by the ratings. I wonder if there is an issue the last 2 months counting streaming listeners. Or not. I don’t know.
Regardless, I was always a little suspicious of the ticket being the #1 overall rated station for a few months. It just seems… unlikely. Or not. I don’t know.
Sometimes the ratings are an outlier. Sometimes they are the start of a trend. Or not. I don’t know.
Peter's breakdown is up. Thanks, as always, Peter. It's pretty much a carbon copy of the last book. That is, excepting TSS. They are decidedly going in the wrong direction. A few more like this and you have to wonder if whether a tweak or even a flat out change will be in the air. I like Sean and Mino, but I have to admit that paired together they're too similar. Sean's pragmatism and unwillingness to go out on any limb makes him dull. When you're forever being told to calm down, it gets old. There's no passion. Mino shows more signs of life, but just by a hair. I think either would do well if partnered with someone else. Specially Mino. I hate to say this, but I'm not convinced Sean needs to be a host, period. He seems so afraid of being seen as in error or reactive/knee jerk, that he's sapped the life out of himself. Now maybe if he could find a way out of this ussue he'd blossom. I just don't know if he can.
If they want to do something about the sweet spot, it’s simply have Monty more involved. Most love him, and he’s good when he does talk. Make him more like a Danny producer.
WiP with Monty and Mino was a funny, crisp, compelling show, and I cannot fathom why it wasn’t transplanted to middays intact. My best guess is Cat finds Monty’s health issues worrisome and thinks he’s unreliable.
Surely he recognizes Monty has one of the biggest personalities at the station and talks basketball better than anyone. It’s weird. It’s a big self own, I think.
I went through Welpton posts and looked at the historic THZ ratings. Until the station went on its 2023 hot streak I don’t think it was as good as people think it was. If I can find my notes I’ll post them for comparisons sake. But here’s the first thing I notice. The Ticket is back in the lead, and the more you narrow the days and dayparts, the bigger their lead gets. (Side note- most major advertisers buy based off 6a-7p M-F ratings as that’s most listened to) To put it another way, as you take out weekend baseball, and weeknight games, the Fans ratings drop. Will be interesting to see what Catlin does to shore up middays. More Gordo? More jub? Forcing a dose of personality up Sean’s B-ass? C
The weird confluence of Ticket's 2023 and the drama surrounding other well-documented events created an influx of new eyeballs to the /r ratings postings.
It also created a new set of people who saw 2023 and just assumed The Ticket has "always been #1 across the board".
That's very true, Peter. All of it. Yet I do wonder if something will be done at least to 1-3 at some point sooner rather than later. CJK5H's suggestion seems to be the path of least resistance, and perhaps it would be the way to go. Hey, who knows, maybe an old familiar face will be brought in. A do-over of sorts. As previously stated, I really do like Sean and Mino. I know very well that both have great sport's chops, and, after all, KTCK is a sports station. But. When I listen to WiP, I hear a different Mino. He's engaged with Monty, who's not afraid to "say what he wants." Mino, in kind, feeds off Monty's energy. The same can be said with Sean when he and Jake cohosted The Shake Joint. Though it must be said that even then Sean always seemed to hold back out of fear of being called out or looked upon as someone not of the "sports smart set" (back then would've meant the data-centric types). Like I said, there's no doubt Sean has the sports acumen to succeed. But there's more to it than that. You have to put yourself out there; it goes a long way to show even a modicum of vulnerability. That's how an audience relates. That's how you become compelling. I truly hope he finds that sweet spot (rock me).
I wonder how much it chaps the ass of Rhyner, Sirois, Danny etc to find out their leaving actually caused the Tickets ratings to get better. Think you helped get ratings? Actually they did better without you, it’s like you were holding them back, LOL. There’s a Reddit thread right now wondering who might come back. Why would you want people with a proven track record of mediocre ratings back? Don’t get me wrong, I thought Donovan and Sirois would be the next Tier 1 show. But Mike couldn’t wait, and wanted to triple his money and go with the Freak. Now has proven he’s not a draw in PM drive, then not a draw in AM drive, why hire him again? C
Not sure that’s the impression I meant to give. But Sturm made it clear, him and Dan were offered double to go to the Fan and they (he?) turned it down to stay with the ticket. Bob said they knew by that point the Ticket would last for years, while the Fans future was an unknown. And there’s nothing wrong with wanting to triple your salary. But you also have to realize that when you start making Ticket level host salaries, while not making Ticket level ratings, you’re asking to be replaced. Frankly I’m surprised they didn’t try a retooling of some sort (Pugs? Richie Whitt and Sybil? Fish? JJT?) before they flipped back to rock, but I think that showed the systemic weakness of the whole kit and kaboodle. That there was nothing left saving but…the lowest rated show they had, Ben and Skin. That’s a whole nother WTF. C
In other news Greggo will be on Rhyner's Patreon podcast tomorrow. Might be a fun listen but I'm not going to pay for the privilege. https://www.patreon.com/YourDarkCompanion?
Rhyner is so f'n opaque it hurts. Another ratings (well, listener only in this case) grab. Wouldn't surprise me in the least if he tries to make a go of it with Greggo again, but this time in the pod format, perhaps a two or three times per week endeavor.
Every time Rhyner does something new, I think about his comments about Mike Fisher’s first radio show. He’d talk about how Fish had all these guests on that first show. Then, Fish would high five his producer and be congratulated for a great first show and he walked down the hall to the elevator to go home for the day, pushed the button, waited for the doors to open, got in the elevator & at that moment, Mike Fisher realized for the first time that he had to do it all over again tomorrow.
Rhyner has become, as Dan McDowell is in the process of becoming, every. single. thing. they. profess. to. loathe. about. the. industry. Ir's rather fucking amusing to witness, truth be told.
Got nothing much new to say except:
ReplyDeleteThe more I read the various comments and think about what's transpired over the past year or so, the more I think that The Freak had about the same combination of real radio talent and nice men and women as most talkers.
And in my storied career, which includes business, professional firms, academe, and even blue-collar elbow-grease work, convinced me at every stop that what made the difference between success and failure was management.
The Freak not only had poor management, it had none at all. And that was its main problem. Someone who would have gotten the hosts in a room to tell them what almost everyone else was hearing, or not hearing, on those shows and what they needed to do to fix it.
On another note: I watched, or tried to watch, the YouTube Dumb Zone entry filmed at something called The Meat Church a day or so ago. I thought -- okay, I'm not going to get some of this stuff at the beginning, but over the 2.5 hours they'll get to something recognizable, some entertaining Dan + Jake stuff. So I'd move the slider ahead a bit, and then a bit more, and then a bit more, and there was . . . not exactly nothing, but nothing that made any sense to me as entertainment to someone who might be considering investing a couple of hours listening to guys talking, or even subscribing.
(And who were all those people?)
I see they've now popped over 6K subscribers. There seems to be some thought that some of these represent, uh, inauthentic fans. But if they pay their money, I don't see what difference that makes. Maybe these guys are on to something, developing a Stern-like batch of insiderish friends-of-the-show that keep people subscribing to be a part of this cool J+D subculture, and if it's working for them -- damn, it's brilliant. That I didn't get it means absolutely nothing.
Continued success to them.
I broadly agree with your thoughts on management but would word it a different way, that is is nearly impossible for good people to overcome bad management.
ReplyDeleteSomebody was nominally in charge. Someone recruited these people. Someone got them contracts. At various points, it was suggested it was Sirois, Rhyner (doubtful) or B&S.
ReplyDeleteThis was someone’s vision. We got it. Some kind of Seinfeld episode writ large- a station about nothing. Guy talk without the sports and designed to be broader & more accessible than just guy talk.
It was a vision & it didn’t work. Because the idea was bad & they didn’t have the people to execute it on the air or in management.
Feel for the people that lost their jobs, but this is the truth.
@ Inhouse: Of course, you're right. Somebody was in charge; someone authorized the expenditures, someone performed a human resources function, someone kept the lights on. I even recall there was a nominal station and/or program director -- but not on site. And perhaps, as you suggest, the founders themselves might be considered management under the circumstances.
ReplyDeleteWhat they didn't have, apparently, was a professional broadcast executive on-site who had the portfolio to "boss" the talent and correct, or at least improve, the vision you describe. Which vision seemed to amount to little more than "talking without a particular focus, except not sports, or only a little, and maybe a little more as time went on."
I believe TC (maybe it was Mike R?) said something about a woman at iHeart, who was sort of their cheerleader in getting the Freak started, who ended up leaving the company before they went on air. As a result, there was nobody in mgmt that was personally invested in making sure they had the resources they needed
ReplyDeleteNot saying the Dumb Zone is the best, but it's hard to take your opinion seriously when your previous posts told us how Ben & Skin and the new Ticket midday shows are actually good.
ReplyDeleteDitto yours, with such a quip. See how that works? Refutation by analogy.
DeleteExactly. And never forget his bizarre fixation on "Smilin' Dan"
ReplyDeleteReplying to your own comment, eh. Sorry, chumley. Doesn't hang.
DeleteThe SweetSpot is currently wasting air on a ridiculous baseball-centric hypothetical......the same ridiculous baseball-centric hypothetical they yakked about last week.
ReplyDeleteThey have a 2-hour show. This s-show of a topic got the check mark on the runsheet?! I understand an "Opening" segment to the program, but probably try not to make it an immediate punchout.
Lemme guess. You prefer hearing about a 55 year old's masturbation routine for 20 minutes while costumed as a 22 year old "hacker." Gotcha down.
DeleteIs that what Dan is up to these days? Some people benefit from censorship
DeleteWha?!?!?! You not a DF, bruh? The Boys say what they want! The f word never sounded so possible. Scro, our Boys are lit. Bangin' out the bangers. Edgelord edge of night cutting edge like the edge of a knife, my man. So hip to the trip. Shroomin' and BEWMIN"! Talking p'tics, dic pics, but none dat Ticket schtick. Naw, bruh. All A-game all-star natty for the 'ship quality jit up in this biatch. 420. Man you car smell funny. High high high. Say it 69 times. There once was a bruh from Nantucket who had such a.... whoa scro.... no puppet!
DeleteBen and Skin officially back. How do I taste, scro?
DeleteBut can you skate? We're down a righty D. Got what it takes, ace? Are you properly equipped? Ready to go down on a shot? Gotta block, my baby.
DeleteI know it is fun to talk about wild conspiracy’s about Phillip buying all the subs for the dumbzone. But they did list all of their subscribers names on one of their videos. Also 6k isn’t a massive number. It is decent but i don’t really see the benefit of doing that.
ReplyDeleteI'm inclined to think that the #s are legit. Agreed that they're not bad, but they're also not spectacular. To the tinfoil hats I'll say that creating dummy accounts is easy. So the name thing doesn't prove anything one way or the other.
DeleteThe bill of goods that both Rhyner and TC spoke of pertained to the selling of the idea that they could do it all themselves and therefore command higher salaries. They were all so experienced, so successfull, and were bringing with them a large, ready for rockin' ad rev and numbers audience, that even a PD was somewhat a redundancy. As we found out about 3 months in, nothing could've been further from the truth, on all fronts.
ReplyDeleteThe upshot is that while Plainsman is correct in saying they needed guidance to succeed, it was the very ones needing guidance who had no interest in being guided, who thought they were the ones they'd been waiting for. By the time iHeart attempted to stop the bleeding , it was too late. Moreover, and you can look at each hosts' reddit and X posts, and parting shot interviews, all of them thought managment wasn't letting them, ahem, say what they want. I'll go one further. This sentiment began across the board roughly months prior to the plug being unceremoniously (and rightfully) pulled.
And let's not forget what Julie, just last week on TDZ, had to say about her former job: I paraphrase, "I didn't want to do a 4 hour show. I wanted to do 3 hours. It's hard enough to come up with 3 hours of content every day and week and month, much less 4." She was not alone in thinking that way. This was the fundamental issue. Not a lack of solid management. They not only said what they wanted (for a year and change), they got what they wanted. Despite what they all claim, most (not all) hosts did not put in the hard work it takes to be a compelling voice. Here's the rub, and it's so simple but so damn difficult...... You have to be passionate, and I mean genuinely passionate about a certain thing or issue in order to do this job and do it well, which means to be compelling. Cavanaugh is. But about The Cowboys. Danny is. But about music. Showing up and bullshitting about nothing does not work. Radio, regardless of what some will tell you, is not at all like hanging out at Cheers, talking about the Cheeto shaped like Bess Truman's third leg.
Bottom line is that too many of the on-air, primary talent that did not have the passion for the work. A passion for local celebrity and a fat paycheck for a job where you circle jerk for a few hours a day, 5 days per week isn't. It's wanting a lot for doing a little.
That's the real story of what can aptly be described as the radio equivalent to the bust that was Tony Mandarich. No passion for what they were doing. Plus, spite will only get you so far. Especially when it's misdirected, and in many ways, fabricated.
This went cocaine quick. But thank you for the paragraphs.
ReplyDeletehow do Ben and Skin play this?
ReplyDeletethe worst performing (again) of the three shows, is the lone survivor. And, on the heels of a week of both of them openly mourning the loss of their and their co-workers' jobs (did you see the sappy video?!), acting as if their fate was up in the wind. Just a couple of leaves floating, waiting for the atmosphere to lead them to their next landing spot.
I'm not sure I have a comparable for the radio career of these two guys.
They truly are the Kris-Kris of on-air 'talent'.
It really is amazing. I don't know what they bring to the station that someone else wouldn't. I'd have kept the Downbeat over them. I can only assume its because they were under contract to iHeart before the Freak was a thing and due to Skin's involvement in the Mavs broadcast. I have always said I won't ever say someone doesn't have talent or skill but I do not get Ben and Skin at all. I have found them unlistenable at everyone of their stops.
DeleteI guess I could listen, but I haven’t. What are Ben & Skin doing? are they still doing a talk show or are they playing Nickelback in between riffing on the Mavs?
ReplyDeleteThey are doing their “show” on you tube. Electric stuff that demands to be seen and heard.
DeleteThe why (and the reason I called this a few months ago) is because they have existing relationships for endorsement deals. Their one actual talent is selling themselves as pitch people. That is significant and attractive revenue for radio stations.
ReplyDeleteNone of the other two Freak shows had anyone even interested in doing that, much less be good at it.
Ben and Skin win, again, because they play the game at a level that, for better or worse, is what gets them ahead.
But 100% agree the way they’ve presented this is really off-putting, even by their standards. As someone asked earlier - how will they explain this? If it at all suggests they didn’t know, wasn’t planned, unexpected - they are bald faced lying.
I think there’s a couple of people (including only the tip) upthread who make good points I can agree with. I’ll highlight what I think were the issues, in no particular order.
ReplyDelete1. Mgmt- once Kerri Kleber left (she who greenlighted it) they didn’t have a corporate cheerleader who had a stake in their success or failure. They were orphans.
2. The PD. Rhyner spent a week as PD of the Ticket before they realized you can’t spend time getting a station off the ground AND do another job at the same time. I think the KZPS PD was in charge for a while, but successfully launching a new station is a full time gig. By the time they hired the new guy, listener perception had hardened and listeners were launched.
3- the positioning. KT said last week on Twitter I think that “we say what we want” was a corporate directive. That slogan is great for a hot talk station, awful for a sports focused station.
4- the air staff hired. A lot of the staff have talked in last few weeks about how great it was to work with their friends. Some of my friends suck at radio, I want to work with talented people, not friends. And while some of these folks have sports talk talent, they were poor choices for a hot talk format.
5- the clock. I’d argue that the lack of a PD focusing on the station manifested itself in their clock. Which was a music based clock with breaks at top and bottom of hour. That left poorly selected talent struggling to fill 23 minute long segments with bad topics.
A hot talk station only should have been talking MAJOR sports events. Super bowls, Teams sold, etc. but here you hired a whole staff of former ticket employees (sans k ray and Cavanaugh) and had them talk sports way more than they should have.
6- sales- every major advertiser on the Freak was already an advertiser on either the Ticket or the Fan. Or KEGL for Nen and Skin clients. They had zero local success at getting their own clients to buy in. Their sales were down 30-40 in year one, and were on pace to lose the same percentage YOY in 24. That’s 6 million in losses. Which leads to…
7. Salaries. Sirois claims he doubled or tripled his KTCK salary by going to the Freak. But with great compensation comes great responsibility. If you’re making salaries comparable to Ticket hosts, and they’re first in the market and your 20th is that sustainable? There’s a reason Greggo Craig and Gordo lived in a house off greenville in early ticket days. No one made crap and it was cost savings. Id have more respect if they’d left for the same money but the chance to succeed as a host, as opposed to the money grab look we saw. And those big salaries cost them. When you’re throwing 300k to Rhyner here, 150 -200 for Sirois and Danny there, 100k for Julie, etc, the iheart nut is a lot bigger. And the runway is a lot shorter. When there’s that much salary money on the line, I understand pulling the plug after 18 months.
I could go on but won’t. Just as the Ticket is imitated for stations wanting to succeed, the Freak is going to be taught by radio consultants as a “this is what not to do” case study.
C
K Ray was also an ex-Ticket employee. I would pop up whenever she was mentioned on air. Pretty sure you can guess why.
Delete930am major station announcement - per corgi & genX "it's not what you think" hhhmmm
ReplyDeleteAnyone care to hazard a guess as to the MAJOR station announcement tomorrow?
ReplyDeleteMusers Retirement. Just kidding. I think….
DeleteNot trying to be provocative here but I think someone's departing. And I think it might be a shocker. Pure gut feeling on my part that's almost guaranteed to be wrong. Still, there's seems to be something in the air or rather on-air of late. My guess: a Muser is making a major personal announcement. That Muser, in my estimation, is International Chirp Chirp. Just to be clear. I got no inside info, no nothing. Merely a presentiment based on the last couple of years.
DeleteGagreed, Giggles. But I'm thinking it's Bob. Thinking Bob is going national and in the biggest and most visiblest of ways.
DeleteBob signed a new contract and posted on Twitter and everything. Not saying he couldn’t leave, but makes me think not.
Delete"Not what you think." Well. What would we think of at this time of the year? Summer Bash? I'm betting it's one of two things: Another re-alignment of the lineup or some new station-listener fandango that's basically a rehashed version of something that's already been done. I can't see anyone bolting right now. The former could be it. Maybe Cat/Bennett think that last book wasn't an anomaly. Maybe they're going to fiddle with the midday. Hell. Maybe. MAYBE. A lost sheep, a prodigal son is returning home and will become a new midday cohost.
ReplyDeleteMeaning Danny if Corby and Dave talked about it? I wasn’t listening so going by what was said above.
Deletehttps://www.theunticket.com/major-station-announcement-bob-takes-rhyners-place-jake-to-tier-1-2-10-20/
ReplyDeleteThis is a very interesting listen now -- minute 17 when they start with the whole "Contestant" shtick, and not even Jokingly present Dan as a possible option for 3-7....his quips and one-liners are very telling now.
I've always thought the moment Dan was told he wasn't going to PM Drive but Bob was is the moment he began plotting his exit and some sort of revenge. I also 100% believe the move was to TF PM Drive, and that was the reason for TF lineup shuffle. Rhyner was going to hang on a bit but soon leave for his protege Dan to carry on the Rhyner Way. But the station was a flop and it became evident it wasn't long for this earth. At that point they got serious about the pod and since have done their best to emulate the things TT does/has done. While I wish them well, I don't think it will work out in the medium run. At some point they're going to have to stop emulating and referring to (directly or otherwis) TT and start being their own thing, wholly. I don't think that's going to happen because they have the same issue TF had: no one with real authority to tell them X isn't working, do Y.
DeleteI 100% agree that Dan was super PO’d he didn’t go to afternoon drive. I further would say Dan was the driving force behind almost leaving the ticket with Bob before.
DeleteNot only Dan getting slighted for AfternoonDrive - - -add on the Pandemic causing Jake's promotion to take a dive/re-structure.
DeleteSomewhere - there's a Ticket Fan Fiction on if they had brought both Bob and Dan to DriveTime -- promote Jake, add Donnie and Sirois to 12-3 - - -make Blake Norms producer....maybe someday we'll get the real reason on the BaD split.
A couple Feb 2020 decisions set so much in motion....but also a Pandemic put those on hold til 2022....Dingu, Sirois.
*as an aside - some current faves - DJ, Monty, Lando, Baldy, TravSam...hell - EA - they're here bc of the those departures.
The well known bang to hype ratio of major station announcements is well known.
ReplyDeleteI get not getting a promotion bumming you out, but I’ll never get Dan going to the hardline. Look at Bob and Dan pre-shakeup. Who would get the promotion? Bob simply works harder lol. Bob is/was a bigger name. He writes, does work for Troy, etc. he prob would have insisted on eating dinner during CQH anyways.
ReplyDeleteThe idea you would take the 2 named hosts from the #1 rated midday show & move them to PM drive with the guy that at one point worked with him is not far fetched.
DeleteIt’s a 3 host show today.
There was a provision in Dan’s contract that gave him a raise if he was moved to AM or PM drive. (Probably in Bob’s contract too but we don’t have that).
This is not far fetched
DeepNight Roster - 1am = Corbs, Davey, Donnie, SeaBass, Mino, Matty.
ReplyDeleteCorby and Davey are definitely picking their moments. They should be leading but are taking a backseat to the drunkards....and probably why there is no Georgie or Gordo, who might have stayed.
As for the others - even including Donnie because man...he will take something and just run it into the dirt....but the buzzed Matt, Sean, Mino are all trying to do a Pile On - and probably inevitable its MattyBeers - - this just does not sound like funtimes radio.
Thursday night is usually the big one. Bedides, The Musers have an even bigger one come 8am.
DeleteBig announcement was summer bash but not summer bash “Summer Chill” because it is indoors.
ReplyDeleteAnd tickets will be for sale on TT website at 10AM this morning.
ReplyDeleteAfter the amount of schitte they caught about the heat and the size of the crowd last year, not surprised they decided to take it inside. And the House of blues event showed there’s clearly a subset of listeners willing to buy tickets for ticket events.
ReplyDeleteC
I said it was one of two things. It was. Another reskinned fandango.
ReplyDeleteNostradamus over here
ReplyDeleteI do my best, CJK5H (cocky sniff).
DeleteWell, that's the last time I listen to my gut! Damn. Could I have been more wrong? No!
DeleteTDZ has joined a podcast network in Austin called Washed Media. Looking at their roster, Washed Media consists of several shows labeled as "spin offs," hosted by the same guys who do the main the show, Circling Back, and several other shows which haven't posted new episodes in a long time. It appears Circling Back and Brunch are the stapes. In their "About Us" section, the network says it appeals to postgrads and millennials aged 24-35.
ReplyDeleteI know nothing at all about podcasting networks, but I doubt they provided the money for TDZ to build/rent a brand new studio, whatever that word means in this context. I can't imagine they have deep pockets.
Wow, these guys really were/are flying blind on all this. Incredible. There is no chance Jake doesn't regret the entire situation already, but in five years? Woo boy.
DeleteSo are postgrads and millennials going to dig a host approaching the early retirement age who’s into Hitler, porn, and pot, and is known as “the naughty Ben Franklin”?
ReplyDeleteDamone: Now three, act like wherever you are, that’s the place to be. “Isn’t this great?”
ReplyDeleteI continue my confusion over why I should care about a podcast network. I guess there may be a dedicated sales guy trying to get ads for things like athletic greens or squarespace or whatevs. Maybe it prompts 100 Austin bros to download an episode or two.
ReplyDeleteThere is no plan. The plan was to do PM drive at the Freq, but it was the Freak & by the time D&J could do it, neither iHeart nor possibly them had any interest.
Way to go. Best job you ever had & you pissed it away on fake sanctimony and hubris.
Keep icing the puck waiting for a job at the Fan.
"Keep icing the puck waiting for a job at the Fan." B I N G O. That's exactly the plan, In-House. One of the creep-os who comments always reminds TDZ fans that DnJ aren't who or what you think they are, and that those you've been convinced, and have convinced yourselves, to be "enemies" are not. I've come around to thinking that that commenter might be correct. At least to some important degree. I've also come around on the theory that the minute Dan was left in the dust so to speak, remaining middays while Bob was bumped to pm drive, that was when all of this kabuki theater began.
DeleteThere's also another commenter. and it might be the same person as the one mentioned above, who always poses the question to DZ fans, "What are going to do in a year and change when Jake is working for his family business and Dan is doing pm drive in Bowling Green, Kentucky?" With this latest info (H/T RealPinstripeBunk), that scenario seems even more plausible than it already did.
Super interesting times around this market, for sure.
I assume there are successful podcast network models Washed Media aspires to emulate. For now, though, if you still must pay for each individual podcast, it seems like the primary benefit is some exposure to "similar" audiences, which should be good, but what if they unsub from the original and sub to you, or your subs bail for the other. Seems like the whole point of a network is you get all the content for one "low low price." I assume there's some back office things Washed can do for them? And of course, they're listed on the webpage. I don't know. It's not clear to me yet, but I'm sure it will make more sense soon.
ReplyDeletelol, charging $30 for Summer Bash
ReplyDeleteLOLall you want, but that is where things have gone. Nothing is free anymore. Now P1s are no longer rewarded for making The Ticket what it is. Now the tier system applies to listeners. Any of you who think that this is going to backfire on them and cause an uproar and a loss of listeners is a fool. To quote a thin-skinned, Midwestener: "It's the way it is." It started with the 30th anniversary bash. That worked out quite nicely for them. So here is the logical conclusion. Moving forward there will be all skate, plebe gatherings like TicketStock and maybe GnO (those seem to have faded out), and everything else will be a pay for access deal. The more you pay, the more access you get. I hate this. This is the antithesis of what The Ticket was founded upon and what made it successful. But this is where everything, not just The Ticket, is going. If you don't think we now live in a soft caste system, you're either fucking blind or are a part of the socio-economic strata that has no problem paying and therefore doesn't give a shit.
DeleteSo how does the affiliation with Washed Media affect the Kingston plot to spend all of this money to form their own podcast network with all of the Freak castoffs?
ReplyDelete1. It's not a "plot." What do you think that term means, snark lord? 2. How would it affect Kingston and the rest of the investment group's endeavor? Answer: In no way. TDZ can leave the network at any point.
DeleteTry harder. Be smarter. Better, just stop it.
If Kingston and others are investing in TDZ, of which I've no idea, I don't see how them being a part of a podcasting network would somehow preclude further involvement. Indeed, I'd think a from all signs fledgling network would welcome such a thing. FWIW.
DeleteMight mean nothing, might be legit. There is the sentiment floating around that as soon as The Mavs playoff run ends, soon thereafter so too does B&S's. Seems their contract has certain stipulations that must be seen through. It also seems that B&S, no matter what one thinks of their talent, are rather business savvy.
ReplyDelete... and they shall inherit the earth
Deletehttps://x.com/circlingbackpod/status/1788581730321879453
ReplyDeleteSheesh.
Yep. Checked it out. The Boys will fit in just fine. They are amongst likeminded souls. Millinnial Dan and Gen Z Jake. Like his mentor, Mike Rhyner, Dan is in the process of becoming/already has become everything he's ever made fun of. And Jake. Well, this is his wheelhouse. Honest to goodness they made the right move. Skateboard Men, unite!
DeleteJake got called little buddy in it. That was odd.
DeleteIf the Jalen and Jacoby "set" doesn't tell you everything you need to know about them, then all I can say is try not to drown in the Kool-Aid.
DeleteWow, um, that was something else. Frat scro bruhs living out that Old School / Swingers life. HONEST ABE hit the bull's eye: "They are amongst likeminded souls." The lot of them have that late 90s into the early 00s aesthetic down pat. I'm thinking the next movie watching party is either High Fidelity or Being John Malkovich or Pulp Fiction. This all keeps getting stranger by the day.
DeleteHonest Abe: Is Millennial Dan a joke because Dan is older than me & I sure as hell am Gen X.
ReplyDeleteYes. That was my point. Gen X Dan acting, dressing like a Millennial; and a noticeably puffier Millennial Jake in the role of the Gen Zer. Maybe he'll readopt his old Ticket nickname (given to him by I believe Rhyner), Jake Z. It's all shaping up to be quite something else. Corn is popped. Puppet discrimination is in full effect.
DeleteGood lord. The Ticket can succeed and so can some that leave and do their own thing. So much binary thinking on this site. It's almost as if D&J committed the ultimate sin and might never be forgiven. Again, we will all think differently about The Ticket when the Musers are gone and that thread of continuity all the way to the beginning of the Little Ticket is broken for all eternity. Lots of fond discussion and reference to Jake and Dan this past week. It's almost as if the plug being pulled on the Freak has freed up The Ticket to actually recognize the contributions of D&J. I think it is a good strategy by the Ticket to reincorporate drops with D&J and stories. Adds to the legacy and lore. I wish both The Ticket and D&J success.
ReplyDeleteIt's not a sin. It was just really, really stupid.
DeleteOh my. Do you know what an o p i n i o n is? Do you understand the concept of people having different opinions?
DeleteNext time, before you hit Publish, look in the mirror. The very thing you accuse others of engaging in, you yourself have led the way. The name alone, bud, tells the story.
Wonder why they didn’t do the washed announcement with their 4/20 announcement? Or wait and do it together
ReplyDeleteIs Sean Bass at the Campound? Not only have I not heard him on air, I haven’t even heard his name mentioned.
ReplyDeleteYes, Sean Bass is at the Campound this week.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteRatings come out on Monday. Last month the Fan beat the Ticket by a tenth of a point. Anybody have predictions on this month?
ReplyDeleteMy only prediction on this is one I feel VERY confident in making. It’s like how washing your car causes dirty rainstorms. My prediction, The Freak will see a nice little bump in the ratings. Not huge, but enough for the whiny losers to claim “see, they just killed it too early”.
C
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
DeleteHoly shit, Rhyner trying to charge $10 for a podcast he couldn’t be bothered with for years
ReplyDeleteyou saw that on Instagram, I have a question.
ReplyDeleteWhy are all his posts co-signed with a Becca is a pen name? Is she his publicist or the feed him apple sauce lady?
she is a P1 promoted to .... ladyfriend
DeleteI got the name for a reason. Send me your money and I’ll maybe do 1 podcast a month
ReplyDeleteHey, c'mon guys. Mike is REENERGIZED! He said so in all his post 3-2-1 and you're done sychophantic puff pieces, er, I mean interviews. Don't tell me you weren't amped on the juice he brought every. single. fuccin. day. I know I was. This pod's gonna be fire flame lit! If Washed ACTUALLY wants to succeed AND get insta cred, it best sign this HSO beast of a sooner rather than latet octogenarian!
ReplyDeleteNow didn't I tell you my babies that old Dr. Johnny Fever was coming back? Why even gigglin' Grubes threw shine at me, as if I didn't know what I was talkin' bout. Didn't ya, Gruber McDoober. 'Member that? I sho do, my baby. Let's not forget KTel. Ya sho nuff showed me. Naw my rocka rolla, I dropped the needle but ya shouted over the music. I knew, you didn't. Ya'll don't like my style? Deal with it. I know my shit, babies. Told you what was going down and it did. Even told you the new Venuses was same as the old ones. Know what? They are. Now you know I know mine. So listen up and listen good, babies. Some new hot jams about to release. Some y'all gonna be crowin', some y'all gonna be groanin'. Two smash hits gonna splash, my babies. Woo wee! I'm tinglin' like a bitch! Mr. Plainsman gon' haffa do a refresh every 15 once this number one with a bullet drops! My babies!
ReplyDeleteIf you ever wondered.
Nobody remembers, much less cares, about anything you've written here
DeleteYou do, baby.
DeleteNope, no clue
DeleteClaiming this as a correct prediction is like Greggo with Bob Hope not making Christmas back in the day. We all knew that eventually he'd be correct, but he was still wrong 90% of the times he claimed it.
DeleteWhen you say so much, but nothing at all, it’s not hard to be “right”
ReplyDeleteIts a trick as old as prophets isn't it? Say something vague enough often enough and you'll be right one day.
DeleteIs that as annoying to write as it is to read?
ReplyDeleteIn ya head, babies. Ear worm. Tune in, turn on, my babies. Hot blooded!
ReplyDeleteThis is, um, dumb. As in not funny the late 90s called and wants its irreverant, nothing matters, everything's commercial, John Cusack angst ridden, Gen X circle jerk back.
ReplyDeleteThought the target demo was 20-35 for this outfit?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwKLqlDsLs0
Did the ratings come out today? If so, anyone have 'em? I can't find them in any of the usual places.
ReplyDeleteAwaiting Peter's day part breakdown, but here's the cume:
ReplyDeleteTicket at 3.7 (up .1) #10
The FAN 2.3 (up .6) #20
KEGL 1.3 (static). #29
Those day parts are going to be interesting.
One thing I've heard, and I'm not the first to report it, is that B&S are playing out the string contract-wise. It's why they are still on the air. What is known and not merely water cooler talk is that neither B nor S are doing their usual hard sell promo job. This in of itself is helping fuel the rumor that they're gone after the Mavs wrap up their season or soon after.
Just from the cume, it looks like The FAN most likely gained more ground on The Ticket (I'm assuming 10 - 3). They absolutely bounced further back than The Ticket (from this point forward there's no reason to include KEGL). As well, again from the cume alone, these numbers might be the new norm.
I continue to be a little perplexed by the ratings. I wonder if there is an issue the last 2 months counting streaming listeners. Or not. I don’t know.
ReplyDeleteRegardless, I was always a little suspicious of the ticket being the #1 overall rated station for a few months. It just seems… unlikely. Or not. I don’t know.
Sometimes the ratings are an outlier. Sometimes they are the start of a trend. Or not. I don’t know.
Ratings up:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.reddit.com/r/theticket/s/2HnREhJ8gd
Peter's breakdown is up. Thanks, as always, Peter. It's pretty much a carbon copy of the last book. That is, excepting TSS. They are decidedly going in the wrong direction. A few more like this and you have to wonder if whether a tweak or even a flat out change will be in the air. I like Sean and Mino, but I have to admit that paired together they're too similar. Sean's pragmatism and unwillingness to go out on any limb makes him dull. When you're forever being told to calm down, it gets old. There's no passion. Mino shows more signs of life, but just by a hair. I think either would do well if partnered with someone else. Specially Mino. I hate to say this, but I'm not convinced Sean needs to be a host, period. He seems so afraid of being seen as in error or reactive/knee jerk, that he's sapped the life out of himself. Now maybe if he could find a way out of this ussue he'd blossom. I just don't know if he can.
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome.
DeleteIf they want to do something about the sweet spot, it’s simply have Monty more involved. Most love him, and he’s good when he does talk. Make him more like a Danny producer.
ReplyDeleteI say give him the show. He’s a lead. Sean and Mino would be fine in supporting roles.
DeleteWiP with Monty and Mino was a funny, crisp, compelling show, and I cannot fathom why it wasn’t transplanted to middays intact. My best guess is Cat finds Monty’s health issues worrisome and thinks he’s unreliable.
DeleteSurely he recognizes Monty has one of the biggest personalities at the station and talks basketball better than anyone. It’s weird. It’s a big self own, I think.
I went through Welpton posts and looked at the historic THZ ratings. Until the station went on its 2023 hot streak I don’t think it was as good as people think it was. If I can find my notes I’ll post them for comparisons sake.
ReplyDeleteBut here’s the first thing I notice. The Ticket is back in the lead, and the more you narrow the days and dayparts, the bigger their lead gets.
(Side note- most major advertisers buy based off 6a-7p M-F ratings as that’s most listened to)
To put it another way, as you take out weekend baseball, and weeknight games, the Fans ratings drop.
Will be interesting to see what Catlin does to shore up middays. More Gordo? More jub? Forcing a dose of personality up Sean’s B-ass?
C
The weird confluence of Ticket's 2023 and the drama surrounding other well-documented events created an influx of new eyeballs to the /r ratings postings.
DeleteIt also created a new set of people who saw 2023 and just assumed The Ticket has "always been #1 across the board".
That's very true, Peter. All of it. Yet I do wonder if something will be done at least to 1-3 at some point sooner rather than later. CJK5H's suggestion seems to be the path of least resistance, and perhaps it would be the way to go. Hey, who knows, maybe an old familiar face will be brought in. A do-over of sorts. As previously stated, I really do like Sean and Mino. I know very well that both have great sport's chops, and, after all, KTCK is a sports station. But. When I listen to WiP, I hear a different Mino. He's engaged with Monty, who's not afraid to "say what he wants." Mino, in kind, feeds off Monty's energy. The same can be said with Sean when he and Jake cohosted The Shake Joint. Though it must be said that even then Sean always seemed to hold back out of fear of being called out or looked upon as someone not of the "sports smart set" (back then would've meant the data-centric types). Like I said, there's no doubt Sean has the sports acumen to succeed. But there's more to it than that. You have to put yourself out there; it goes a long way to show even a modicum of vulnerability. That's how an audience relates. That's how you become compelling. I truly hope he finds that sweet spot (rock me).
DeleteI wonder how much it chaps the ass of Rhyner, Sirois, Danny etc to find out their leaving actually caused the Tickets ratings to get better. Think you helped get ratings? Actually they did better without you, it’s like you were holding them back, LOL.
ReplyDeleteThere’s a Reddit thread right now wondering who might come back. Why would you want people with a proven track record of mediocre ratings back? Don’t get me wrong, I thought Donovan and Sirois would be the next Tier 1 show. But Mike couldn’t wait, and wanted to triple his money and go with the Freak. Now has proven he’s not a draw in PM drive, then not a draw in AM drive, why hire him again?
C
Ratings went up largely because KTCK held onto its listeners while the overall audience exit from terrestrial radio accelerated.
DeleteWanted to triple his money? What an entitled weirdo.
DeleteNot sure that’s the impression I meant to give. But Sturm made it clear, him and Dan were offered double to go to the Fan and they (he?) turned it down to stay with the ticket. Bob said they knew by that point the Ticket would last for years, while the Fans future was an unknown.
DeleteAnd there’s nothing wrong with wanting to triple your salary. But you also have to realize that when you start making Ticket level host salaries, while not making Ticket level ratings, you’re asking to be replaced.
Frankly I’m surprised they didn’t try a retooling of some sort (Pugs? Richie Whitt and Sybil? Fish? JJT?) before they flipped back to rock, but I think that showed the systemic weakness of the whole kit and kaboodle. That there was nothing left saving but…the lowest rated show they had, Ben and Skin. That’s a whole nother WTF.
C
In other news Greggo will be on Rhyner's Patreon podcast tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteMight be a fun listen but I'm not going to pay for the privilege.
https://www.patreon.com/YourDarkCompanion?
Rhyner is so f'n opaque it hurts. Another ratings (well, listener only in this case) grab. Wouldn't surprise me in the least if he tries to make a go of it with Greggo again, but this time in the pod format, perhaps a two or three times per week endeavor.
DeleteZero chance I put together 2 to 3 podcasts a week. You’ll be lucky if you get 2 a month. That’s how I roll.
DeleteWhat a tremendous fall OGW has taken. "So Sad".
DeleteEvery time Rhyner does something new, I think about his comments about Mike Fisher’s first radio show. He’d talk about how Fish had all these guests on that first show. Then, Fish would high five his producer and be congratulated for a great first show and he walked down the hall to the elevator to go home for the day, pushed the button, waited for the doors to open, got in the elevator & at that moment, Mike Fisher realized for the first time that he had to do it all over again tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteRhyner has become, as Dan McDowell is in the process of becoming, every. single. thing. they. profess. to. loathe. about. the. industry. Ir's rather fucking amusing to witness, truth be told.
DeleteYour username is great
DeleteDoes anyone get rhyners Instagram posts? Why are they all the start of a post and not finished? Lol like is there somrwhere that shows it all?
ReplyDeleteIt's merely him trying to be enigmatic. Ir in his parlance, a mystery guest. In short: pathological immaturity.
ReplyDeleteNew post + red.
ReplyDelete