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."
Wednesday, August 6, 2025
On Further Review . . . .
REMINDER: I WILL DELETE "ANONYMOUS" COMMENTS AND THOSE I FIND GRATUITOUSLY VULGAR, INSULTING, INCOMPREHENSIBLE, OR JUST GENERALLY ANNOYING, IN MY SOLE AND UNREVIEWABLE DISCRETION. GRIPES ABOUT CONSISTENCY WILL NOT BE ENTERTAINED.
When this whole Reddit business started, I didn't pay much attention.
Then someone mentioned that TC had said that he had "asked for assistance" I thought that had to do with the current controversy, so I said no, no request for assistance. (That phrase was from a Confessor paraphrasing, not TC's own words.) I looked in my emails to see if I had missed something, but no. I mentioned that I saw that we had an exchange in 2017, but I couldn't imagine what that had to do with who moderates the Ticket subreddit, so I didn't review it.
Now I am told that TC likely WAS referring to that exchange 8 YEARS AGO. So here's the story about that.
I posted something unflattering to TC that I heard from a source to whom I promised anonymity, as I always do. It did not pass along any internal email. I acknowledged the unfairness of anonymous hearsay in the post.
TC wrote me a one-line email asking who my source was. I can't quote from it for a reason that will appear below. Was this the "request for assistance"? Must've been. If it was, then TC is telling the truth about asking for my "help" or "assistance." Again, men and women, bear in mind that this was 2017.
Here is my entire response:
"T.C.,
"Thanks for your note. Sorry my response has been delayed. I wanted to give myself time to compose a thoughtful response to a fair request.
"I agree that there is unfairness to you of relying on email sources that may or may not be genuine and not disclosing the claimed identity of those sources. When I do, as I did in the September 14 piece to which you're referring, I bend over backwards to remind readers that that's what I'm doing and to read with that in mind. I also paraphrase and describe communications I sometimes (rarely) receive from claimed insiders in a manner aimed at disguising their claimed identities. And I believe I acknowledged that it was not fair to you and invited you to respond. I repeat that invitation. I'll even run your thoughts anonymously, if you'd like.
"In the piece in question, I had speculated entirely on my own -- absolutely no source other than what I hear on the air -- that maybe your colleagues do not regard you as a desirable co-host. And, as you know, many of my readers and sometimes I myself would like to hear less popping-on, although the more I listen to BaD, the more I realize that those guys frequently invite your participation, so that's not on you. The piece started out with an email I got from a reader reporting on a contentious discussion you had with Bob on BaD one day as a springboard for wondering where you stood at the station these days.
"I did not contact anyone at the station about that piece before or after I wrote it. When it came out, however, I heard from multiple sources that I'd hit the nail on the head. I cannot tell you who I heard from, but suffice it to say that I had, and still have, a high degree of confidence that these communications were genuine and accurate. Would not have passed them along if I hadn't. Among the items conveyed was that you'd been spoken to about your recent BaD participation.
"(By the way -- my piece did not say, as your email states, that the station was "buzzing about an email regarding my participation in the shows [you] work on." The buzzing was about the news -- unrelated to any email -- that management had addressed your BaD participation.)
"You're an interesting figure at The Ticket. A lightning rod, like Corby. Me, I'm on the fence. We all have our favorites; you're not one of mine, but neither are you among my least-favorite. I was quite serious in that piece that I would absolutely be tuned in to a T.C. solo show. There are aspects of your performance that I admire quite a lot -- you've made huge strides with your on-air performance from the earliest days when you got regularly abused by Tier 1 (I like your Tickers), and I admire your moxie in paying your dues with Bob and Dan to get where you are. I believe that many of my readers are irrationally critical of you. I think part of it is that they haven't gotten over your remarks on your departure for Florida, and part of it is that they're jealous that you had the guts to do what they all wish they could do -- make the sacrifices necessary to become a notable figure at the nation's greatest radio station. That's admirable, as is your bounceback after your return. It's turned me around on you to a considerable degree.
"But what comes through the earbuds suggests there is friction between you and some of your colleagues in various of Junior's Tiers. And, frankly, the likely reasons for it. The beauty of The Ticket is that it invites listeners in as friends, and when you do that you risk revealing the negative as well as the positive aspects of professional interactions. Whatever anyone thinks of you, man, you've made your mark at a place where it's almost impossible for newcomers to do so, and that's something.
"So: really sorry I can't comply with your request. I repeat that I will give you equal time, either attributable or anonymous, subject to my customary editorial discretion.
"Hey, Cat's obviously still tinkering with Sunday mornings. Why don't you make him a proposal"
TC responded obscenely, but I can't reproduce it here because his final sentence forbade me from publishing any of his remarks.
What any of this has to do with the current back-and-forth, I don't know or care.
And now you know . . . .
I'm wearying of this controversy and am close to deleting emails about it. The Ticket must be the only subject that is not subject to the jet-speed news cycle these days. Let's move on.
An increasing number of posters are recommending putting this site out of its misery. I'm thinking about it.
Jesus Christ. TC sent you a one line email asking you a question and you respond with an essay about why you think he sucks. He wasn’t asking you for your opinion on his on air performance. I would have responded obscenely too.
Ooooooo. What a burn! Now with your fingers, show the class how old you are.
Gotta be at least 5'2' to ride the ride, bub. Mini coaster for you. Buck up. You'll have a growth spurt soon enough. Well, if you stop eating all that cake.
The Musers the Podcast kinda sucks. It’s boring and vanilla and I find myself not even finishing most of the episodes. There, I said it and it feels good!
Appreciate the candor and disclosure, Plainsman. Still have no idea what to make of this bizarre turn of events. I keep going back to evidence. None has yet to be produced. The closest thing is the above email, which has no bearing on the accusations, and frankly is a total nothing burger. Relatedly, I'm also at a loss as to why Jake, TC, Sirois, and Danny would step their collective foot into it. There's nothing to be gained, other than to show anyone who cares that they, despite leaving TT on their own accord and going on to do their own thing, they seem incapable of moving on -- again, moving in from something they chose to leave.
Why would THz, CdS, IJB et al step into it? Metrics, pure and simple. Look at the number of people on Reddit who said they’d resubscribe to IJB for 5 bucks just to hear this episode. I’d bet that if the usual CdS+D listener level is X, this episode is 2X. People love ticket adjacent content. Even if all 3 of those shows know zero details and have zero proof of any conjecture, all 3 shows also have an ax to grind with either perceived or actual resentment toward Catlin, so they’re incentivized to join the dogpile. C But coming up, I’ll tell you why I’m not convinced this is real, next on My Ticket Confession.
It’s been a while since my time working for Cumulus (sold for the country stations, back when the sales staff was siloed into talk/country/sports). But Catlin never had an intern. During my time there, BAD was the only show with interns. An acquaintance who still works there has told me there’s no sign of a programming intern. That leads me to doubt the Catlin and his intern aspect. So let’s look at JC. Despite losing 2 linchpins of the station in THZ and Norm, the station has never been more successful in the metrics that matter to non-listeners, ratings and revenue. (For listeners it’s programming quality but that’s totally subjective, so yes I may agree w you that TSS may not be as good as BAD or THZ, but they’re also not underperforming enough to stop TT from being the top station overall in the whole market). So JC has one of the most successful stations ever in DFW radio history, based off a crap AM signal and a rimshot FM. Dudes been PD for 20 some years, has 5 Marconis on his mantle, and if he wanted could probably get a job at at any other talk or sports station in the country. The station has been wildly successful with zero Reddit interference before. So we’re to believe, with zero actual evidence presented, based on the assertion of one guy on Reddit that JC decided now, 30 years into the stations existence, 20 years into his PD time, NOW is the time to infiltrate a meaningless reddit subforum. To do what exactly? Downgrade Jake and Grubes accounts somehow? I’m sorry (norm voice) we’re either one of them even marginally active there? I remember seeing the very occasional Grubes response, but I may have never noticed a Jake post there. So did he or didn’t he? There’s been zero proof shown that it’s JC. Unless he was dumb enough to use his cumulus email, it’s going to be hard to show anybody is actually him. I’m sure we could all go to Gmail right now and get a Catman/bunch of numbers at Gmail email. Doesn’t make any of us JC. And if Catlin was stupid enough to use his Cumulus email, why not post a screenshot and provide the proof of your assertion. According to Reddit, they’re listening less and the station is failing. In reality, the station has never been this successful and listenership is high enough to keep them at or near the top of the ratings over the last 6 months, which (cowboys off season) is usually their weakest time. Absent some form of back-up or proof, I’m having a hard time taking one guys word that a successful major market PD is worrying about a Reddit subforum. C
I hope Cat sues Jake, TC, Dan, Sirois, Danny, Julie, Sam and all the other losers that jumped ship for Defamation! They should have known their place in realized they were as talented as they believe they were! You know who is talented? Sean Bass, Mino, Killer, Matt McClarin ect because they know their place and are loyal to Cat and the station. I hope those other talentless losers have fun cleaning toilets at McDonald’s. I hope we never hear from those ungrateful toddlers ever again.
"mobe dick" huh. Where does Plainsman say much less insinuate he thinks such a thing about TC? What a weird takeaway. Weirder still is why you would feel the need to make the comment. Dude was asked ad nauseam to show the correspondence between he and TC, he does and gets some ding dong like you beefing him. And for what? Because you prefer the written expression of a 7 year old (which is how you always come off). By the by, you used a comma. Thought you never used commas. Can't even get that right, can we.
Sorry again guys for the above outburst. I don't know why such things concern me. Guess I'm just not that intelligent, pathologically immature, and lack a real sense of self. Being insecure sucks. Note to self to do better or get help.
The least surprising thing to come out of all this is Mr plainsman refers to what he posts here as a “piece”. lol. I giggled every time he said it in the comically long reply. Er, I mean, in his comically long response piece.
I first heard of the great Cat Reddit takeover attempt here. But became curious and read what the Reddit sub had to offer. I thought it was nonsense. For all the reasons C- stated above. But then I watched the most recent Cirque. First one I've watched. (And I don't pay for any pods). It left me with a few thoughts.
One, yeah, it's possible Cat did it. Two, I really miss Danny Balis. And three, I'm so happy that Jake Kemp is no longer on the ticket. (They played a clip of IJB).
Danny seems convinced that Cat did what he's accused of doing. Ok. As a Ticket listener, who doesn't frequent the reddit sub, I really don't care.
Danny is a smart, funny guy. I wish he was still on the Ticket.
Jake is as bad or worse than he was before. Challenging a middle aged man to a fight? Pathetic. I'm happy I no longer have him as an option on terrestrial radio.
And finally, for those of you who take issue with Plainsmen's response to TC, he's a lawyer. Why use a few words when a few thousand will do? Cut him some slack. He was trained that way.
Still waiting for bkh to publish the receipts he said he had. He seems to have disappeared. I like Danny to a degree. But the fact that he's saddled himself with The Urban Attention Seeker, is unable to move on from a job he quit back in '21, and threw his hat into the Cat is Satan Stampede makes him rather unpalatable. There's a lot I could say about Jake, but none of it is positive, in the least. Besides, starting to get the feeling a few of the brave, betting on themselves, fightin' the man folks are about to be exposed. If half of what I've been told is true-ish, there's gonna be some disappearing acts.
I do not know what you call Mike Sirois' hair, but it is something old men in the 70s had, bald on top long and stringy on the sides. If he going for the creepy old perv look he's nailing it. Next he's going to roll up to Davey and ask for a hug.
It's called urban attention seeking. an extremely thirsty middle aged man, that one. That and regular drug use. Don't rush into the micro-dosing game, kids. Best be under the care of a mental health expert. Specially if you plan to get your drink on daily. Else you find yourself thinking X makes sense when in reality X is nonsensical.
I'm leaning that way too. That dweeb Catlin and their disdain for him seems to be the one thing in common with the ex-Ticket guys.
This thing he trying to pull off on Reddit really shows what a controlling arse he is. I'm sure him and his interns will flood back in here once they find there is a new thread to pollute.
I'm one of those people, KDF. Been saying since '22. Thus far I've seen not a damn thing to make me think otherwise. To be clear, this applies to all parties. Even the ones who are rarely if ever brought up anymore. So much lying, demonstrably untrue narratives, inconsistencies, etc. From Rhyner to Cat to Jake to Julie to Dan Bennett to Dan to Danny to Sirois to Cumulus itself.... no one comes out looking good. Perhaps the three exceptions are Ticket hosts. Bob, Donnie, and shockingly enough, Corby - who genuinely fought for Dan and Jake, believing they were acting in good faith; and who also had the stones to call out Rhyner for his hypocrisy.
11-2, not sure what you mean by "trying to pull off"? The moment ANYONE shows a SINGKE shred of evidence, I'll jump to the front if the Fire Cat line. Gonna soon be a week gone by and zilch receipts. At some point any reasonable person has to conclude it was a crock. Right now my $ is on BK being misled and going into crazy martyr mode, realizing he mihjt be getting or was duped, then disappearing. Cuz since Tuesday, as far as I can tell, he's gone AWOL
People acting like Elmer Wayne cares about Cat maybe/maybe not being on Reddit enough for it to be the downfall of The Ticket just makes me shake my head.
It's right up there with "The Ticket sucks now so why don't the ratings reflect that?"
Do I believe the absence of THZ/ Dan and Jake has made The Ticket worse. Yep. Am I, in any way, representative of 90% of listeners? Absolutely not. To me BaDD Radio (12-3 with Donnie plus Jake as Producer) was the peak period of TT, which means that Day 1 P1s think I'm crazy and that the real salad days were the Greggo Hardline era...
D1P1 here. For me, the Halcyon Days were from '94-'06. The best of those years being from '97-'04. Yes, that meant OG HL, but it was also peak OG HL.
As to the Cat/reddit business, I couldn't care less. He's the PD for f's sake. Wake me up if someone commits a crime. Besides, like 400 comments have already pointed out, not a single shred of proof has been offered. I mean, c'mon. If you're going to publicly accuse someone of something and rile a bunch of people up to the point that they're threatening the accused (including a former employee: note to Jake: that was pathetic), then you might want to also present proof backing your accusation.
Aside from TC, the rest of the gang wanted to stay at the Ticket, provided they were given a new contract with much higher pay. When that didn’t happen, they followed the Miami conman on a Pied Piper’s dream of starting their own form of the Ticket on a different station (and yeah, that includes Jake and Dan). When that didn’t work, it was, once again, not their faults but because they didn’t have the backing of suits (management at fault yet again). So it was time to rake in the cash via podcasts. When that began to falter, it was back to blaming the suits — Cat was responsible for malfeasance. There’s a pattern here to every member of the little gang’s thought process: it is always somebody else to blame. Not a single one of them has shown a moment of self-reflection. “Maybe I’m just not as great as I think I am.”
Absolutely—let’s clarify who was at the helm behind KEGL’s “The Freak” embarrassingly failed format launch.
The revival of KEGL as **“97.1 The Freak”** in October 2022 was spearheaded by **Mike Rhyner**, the legendary Dallas sports-radio personality who had co-founded **The Ticket (KTCK)** earlier in his career. He came out of retirement to anchor afternoons on the new format, and his return was imagined as the driving force behind the station’s rebranding to this hybrid “Hot Talk/Sports” concept, but the station was a ratings flop from day one ([si.com][1]).
In fact, Rhyner’s presence was so central to the new iteration that the station’s branding leaned into his on‑air persona—The “Freak” nickname and the rebellious vibe were a deliberate nod to his legacy and style. Billboards with his weathered face were posted all over the DFW area with the assumption quick ratings and sales success, but neither of those transpired. There were others on the station too, mostly unknowns compared to the "Old Grey Wolf", although even his long-standing appeal wasn't enough to overcome any of it. ([en.wikipedia.org][2], [dallas.culturemap.com][3]).
So, in short: **Mike Rhyner** was the originator behind KEGL's “The Freak” boondoggle of a format—bringing both the concept and the brand to life and quick death.
Let me know if you'd like more on how poorly the format was programmed or more on why it flamed out in record time!
[1]: https://www.si.com/nfl/cowboys/news/dallas-cowboys-radio-station-freak-eagle-mike-rhyner-ticket-news?utm_source=chatgpt.com "Mike Rhyner Resurrected; Cowboys Radio Competition ..." [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KEGL?utm_source=chatgpt.com "KEGL" [3]: https://dallas.culturemap.com/news/entertainment/kegl-the-eagle-freak-sports-radio-mike-rhyner/?utm_source=chatgpt.com "One of Dallas' last rock stations KEGL The Eagle flips to sports ..."
Totally loving your info and style, Chat. Bang on about Rhyner. Caveat: I've heard from those closer than adjacent that while it was all funneled through the Rhyner name and bona fides, the one who got him into it, who planted the seed was Sirois. From there, Rhyner floated it by B&S who in turn with Rhyner began to make shit happen. To this, Danny and Julie were in on the hustle from the jump. They all were. And yes, so too were Dan and Jake. Thing is, as we all know, The Freak was a disaster from Day Two. The Workin' Class Dogs needed The Freak to stay afloat for at least 2 years in order to get out of their contracts and wait out the NC. All they had to do was say they're weren't re-upping, as their contracts were due and wait out the NC. Instead, they got cute. It succeeded in part, but didn't get out of the NC in as far as working for another station goes. Wondering if they took that route because The Freak camp pushed the panic button and knew it needed genuine reinforcements ASAP in order to stay afloat. And when the dust settled, while Dan and Jake were allowed to do/monetize their pod, the NC stood and that was all she wrote for The Freak. Speculation, Inc. for sure. But like Norm and Mary, I'm just wondering.
Ben and Skin had been at 97.1 for years before TF dropped. Despite what anyone thinks, and despite their shitty ratings, Ben is a fucking sales genius and brings in more dough than any other show, pre Freak Eagle, Freak, and post Freak Eagle. That's why they're still there. The Mavs angle is a non starter, BTW. Skin is not an employee of iHeart when he's doing Mavs games. Just like Razor and Josh aren't Cumulus employees when doing Stars games on TT.
My favorite new theory, as suggested to me by a friend who is a P1, THZ sub and mod of another /r:
“This is all an elaborate hoax being pulled off by people who stood to gain the most from it”. He thinks the mod that wrote the initial post is being used as a “rube” (great word) to pull off a prank that would make Cat look bad.
Wild, but once you think about it for a bit it sure does answer a whole lot of remaining questions and explain a lot of unusual actions.
God I hope it’s true. So much better than that stupid Sirios painting bit.
This makes sense and it looks like they are taking a page out of Jerry's book, any publicity is good publicity. It is getting them clicks/views. The ones who stand to gain presumably got people to sub/resub to their pods. A week after all of this drama started and still not a shred of evidence.
Turning to current Ticket events: I am pleased with Donnie getting some recognition and getting the Master of Ceremonies gig for the State Fair. Nice to see a Native Son, getting his due.
This is embarrassing from all sides. The Ticket sucks, Cat sucks, the Dumb Zone and Sirois Circus all suck. I'm done with these spares...it's time to get aboard a new train. The Kelce Brothers - you have just gained a new listener!
What did Cat and The Ticket do? You have proof? No. You don't. So as it stands, it's only TDZ, Ticket reddit, Sirois and Danny, and TC that suck. But that was all a known known beforehand.
Did we? If true, allow me to quote Junior Miller: "I want that job." They really are approaching Stern like numbers vis a vis actual days spent on the job.
Who are these dipshits reading into Craig saying “maybe”, or reading into ‘clues’? They’re trolling you and this site and Reddit in a way too subtle to understand, I guess.
Again: the people who left and joined The Freak thought they were more talented than they were. Their desire was to be on the Ticket, and to get a raise. They didn’t. So they pouted and followed the Miami Conman to a lovelier pasture, which promised them more money and less sports. When Grubes was made to be the Easter Bunny and the bit was to find him, it was a direct parallel to Gordon dressing as Satan and going out on the town to ask people questions. Miami thought they could recreate the magic. Didn’t happen.
Since it’s Cowboys season, an analogy- the failure of the Freak was a combination of fielding a team of 3rd and 4th stringers against a Super Bowl (Marconi) caliber team, AND that team having no real identify. Were they run first, pass first, a physical or a finesse team, the Freak tried to be everything everywhere all at once. With TT you know what you’re getting. All sports and all that implies. They are, in my opinion, the best imaged station in the market and probably one of the best in the nation. Their promos hammer home the same points ( all sports all the time, your cowboys station, big name guests, your friends on the radio, etc) but are constantly refreshed so they don’t get stale (cough lone star 92-5, cough cough). I think TT has always understood their role in the market. They’re sports station number 1. The Fan is sports #2. The Freak was part hot talk, part sports, part personality radio. Which that hybrid might work in other markets where there’s not as many options. You can survive with a listenership of P3s, but you need to be in a mass appeal format and fill a niche. (See hot 93-3 for CHR, Ranch or Range for country, etc). When you’re going up against a sports station with non sports programming, and going up against a station with a ridiculous TSL length, they were never going to be able to live on a diet of P3s. Ty Then add in the stories of what people were paid (Sirois tripled his salary???) of the Freak owners had been smart they wouldn’t have paid all those people as if they were successful hosts when Rhyner is the only one who fit that description. C
FFM, you deserve a response. You are right about how you characterize your comment, if it's the one I'm thinking of (I don't have access to it anymore). I was reluctant to delete it.
However: You were responding, in order to criticize, a prior post in which the poster made a scurrilous, unsupported accusation against TC. You agreed that it was wrong for the poster to have done so. But in the course of your post, you repeated the scurrilous accusation, not in order to repeat the accusation, but in order to criticize it.
To have left your comment up would have revealed the very reason I deleted the previous post. If you want to resubmit the post without using the scandalous accusation against TC, I don't recall anything about the post that would have got it launched.
I heard from a reliable source that Cat was told about this whole thing and laughed. This source said that some well known podcast hosts planned the whole thing to drum up business for themselves. Curiously a well known redditor that handed the moderating reigns over to these podcasters has seemingly disappeared from the internet.
Not true, Sirois, I mean GyN. Remember when we figured out that Gypo Nolan and So Anonymous were you? Guess you forgot. Boozin' and dosin' will do that to you, thirsty one.
I guess IJB, THZ, and CDS (especially this one) will keep playing the hits to generate more interest. I guess it keeps the Redditors frothing at Cat and generating subs but at some point you have to stop dwelling on this. It's like being angry at an ex-girlfriend who you broke up with thinking you'd get a bigger, better deal and then constantly talking about how she wronged you. If Jake is wanting to fight Cat then good grief what a little bitch Jake still is. You're a dad with 2 kids. All this dumb stuff just solidifies not paying for their content was a good idea.
The anti-Cat and Ticket person is the same person, under different names. We all know this. It’s such old-hat. And we all know who it is. It isn’t anybody named Sam. It’s somebody who could get a sunburn in Miami.
Anyone want to explain the origin for the cat hate to begin with?
I remember Cat as being the PD that very rarely came on the air, and that he liked metal music. That’s about it. I remember when they did the Bob Corby announcement, was a big deal. The show was eh for a bit, then the addition of davey has made it pretty good. Idk anything else, but what is the real reason so many people are so happy to hate cat?
If you watch that Cirque from this week where Danny, Mike and Cash talk about the reddit takeover they do talk about their feelings on working for/with Cat, sometimes directly sometimes indirectly.
And then there's Jake, he's been even more to the point. They play some audio where he says "It'd just be really fun to see his little cu-- ass without him being my boss. Cause he's a little boy. I'd smack the sh-- out of you. I'm probably not supposed to say that." Then he issues the challenge to go on Fight Night with him.
Invent? You are showing your bias here. If you mean he assigned one host to another show and told the other host and the producer who already was an on air contributor that they were the show now. Yes, what an "invention".
Whether you like it or not, your accounting of how DandJ came to be is about as great a reduction as it gets. He literally came up with the idea of pairing them together. so, yeah, he "invented" it.
Invent? No. Had the good sense and intuition to pair them together and to encourage support staff with something to say to contribute? Yes. That's part of his job.
As to CdS II goes, we're talking about two guys (Cash doesn't count, he's a passenger with money, means, and access) who have little to say past banal and boring chit chat, who's chemistry -if that's what you call it- is based not on genuine mutual interests, but rather, on a shared form of envy, spite, and permanent state of grievance. It's on its last and final gasp of air. The offer nothing but dish and talk and insinuate shit on former bosses and coworkers that caters to a niche, shrinking on a weekly basis audience. It is a monologue in the guise of dialogue mostly centered around jobs they both chose to part ways with nearly a half decade ago. But they do it because it's the ONLY thing that will bring them attention. That will soon no longer be a viable source. No matter if they attempt to gin it up.
Jake. He's been a rich kid bully since high school LARPing as a social justice warrior. I cannot believe at this stage in life and considering what he's gone through with his son's health, his addiction issues, and taking the huge risk of leaving a rarest of birds, lucrative position to go it a new direction.... that this animates him, and in such a violent, puerile way. He sounds ridiculous. It's embarrassing to witness. But he has a golden parachute, always has Even more so since his wedding. He's no different than those he makes fun of, verbally threatens, and rails against.
In a way, more cringe is that while I have no definitive proof, it's pretty obvious by their styles (seen by years of Tweets), both Jake and Sirois go through phases of trolling MTC. They have for years.
New IJB is all about Peter. I hope he sues them. Question I keep coming back to is why are TC and Jake so invested in this? Exactly what is their stake? Prima facie, it would seem they have none. Only thing I can say is that things have a way of biting asses. If U were the IJB boys, I'd have a few concerns floating around in my not so subconscious concerning my words and behavior.
The story I’ve consistently heard is that before the TT moved to total line ratings ( where AM, FM, and streaming are all combined in one ratings entry) Richie Whitt would consistently lie or negatively spin TTs ratings by not including streaming. In other words, he’d post that the Fan beat TT - simplified he’d say Fan had a 3.1, TT had a 3, ignoring that TT stream had a 2. Welpton who is into tech, new media, etc had a Reddit account and was authorized by JC to extract the pertinent ratings and post them to combat Whitts misinformation/spin. Why Jake and TC have it out for Welpton is beyond me. He’s about as innocuous a guy as there seems to be in TT world. Of course, he is a guy who hasn’t burned bridges and toasted any chance of a future radio career, so maybe that’s why both sides of it’s just childishness hate him. C
Jake got piss-faced at Barry Switzer's house, and Corby bailed him out of what might have been a career-ending matter.
TC left, on his own accord, KTCK, to be the big-man at a smalltime station in Florida. When that didn't work out, the evil Cat gave him back his job at the most important radio station in the fifth largest media outlet in the nation.
Let's ignore for a while that you disregarded my thoughts on TC leaving and then coming back, because Cat allowed for that.
It's called tenure.
Jake wasn't an on-air personality when he went to Norman with Corby. He was a twenty-something guy who didn't bring in ratings. He could have been fired immediately, with cause. When Corby got drunk on the air, or Davey did, it is because they had clout. Jake did not.
I know that's 'unfair' to a lot of people. But if you're the best at your job, whatever your job is, and you've been doing it for decades, the consequences are a bit more loose.
As Dan once said: It's called The Way It Is.
So to leave the Ticket on your own accord, which Jake absolutely did, and then to blame the guy in charge, who offered you a contract extension, don't go crying to the masses when it blows up in your face.
Jake being drunk at Switzwr’s house was not on the air. So what are you actually talking about? Jake should have been fired for getting drunk on a Saturday night?
Getting drunk at your house on a Saturday night is perfectly fine. Getting drunk at Barry Switzer's house while representing your company is a completely different issue.
Actually it was discussed at a Campound late night sesh. Get your shit straight. Obviously you are Jake. See how this works, genius? Nope. You don't. Lemming. Didn't get the memo, did we. They lied then moved on. They don't care about you.
Actually, it was discussed on The Hardline. Corby played a prank on Jake, saying he'd knocked over some of Switzer's memorabilia / wore his Championship ring. It was a joke, of course. But it was a prank to keep Jake aware of perhaps his alcoholism.
So I guess these guys have embraced going full Richie Whitt at this point of their careers. Play the Ticket card/Break Glass In Case of Emergency to drum up attention and an audience. Never go Richie Whitt
You, madame and/or sir have solved the equation. Let us not forget the Whitt trajectory. Oh yeah buddy boy, it's coming.
Allow me to add to your success by saying that it's to my understanding the reason Peter W was brought into the mix is because of his posting ratings and providing analysis/perspective of those ratings on the reddit site OBVIOUSLY meant he was INFILTRATING . And who else but Cat would FORCE him to do so or lose his job???? Funny thing is, you'll never hear a mea culpa from any of these fuckos. Naw. It'll be just like every single time Jake gets something wrong, which is every third minute, just ignore it. Never say a thing. Never happened.
Genuine questions: Do you honestly think that it gets under someone's skin to say "Hi, ___"? Do you find a sense of satisfaction in doing it? Finally, whose butt buddy are you? You seem to know a lot about butt friendship. OK, bonus query: Does it take 1 or 2 hands worth of fingers to count out your age?
I was waiting for this. So, I want to make it clear:
I am perhaps two years older than Jake and TC. I am not an attorney. I have no background in RTF. I've never been on Ticket airwaves. I don't know a single person at the Ticket. Jake's contract offer, now public for anybody who looks it up, is more than I make. I don't know the Plainsman. I don't know anybody in radio. I'm not a corporate shill or particularly interested in the inner workings of corporations. I am more liberal than anybody on The Ticket, and would usually always side with the worker over a hegemonic company such as Cumulus.
What I do have is common fucking sense.
It embarrasses my entire generation how these idiots have acted like victims to issues they created.
They dug a grave and thought, "Wait a minute! I'm not lying in this." Or lay or lie or whatever the case is.
I feel like you. Just move on and do something to improve your podcast to bring in listeners. Constantly trying to egg on Ticket Reddit makes you no different than Mike Fisher, Richie Whitt, and any of the other has beens that flamed out against the Ticket. It's tiresome that they keep going back to something from over 2 years ago and relitigating it again and again. But I get that finding new content can be hard for someone working with Dan.
This. But fon't forget to add Rhyner snd Julie into the mix. Those two. Julie? Meh. Her 15 is long gone, never to return. The Oak Cliff Conman. Oh, buddy. Now if these thirsty scruhs really wanna get some eyeballs and subbies, well, they'd go down that goldmine shaft. None of them have anything to do with him anymore. All they'll say, imply, is they're just no longer in touch. Oh buddy. Won't say, insinuate a fuccin thing. Not, Miami Vices, not 58 yr old Baby Daddy, not Wannabe Kaufmann, and not Points for Sex. Why? Oh buddy. Buried bodies. Now that's a story we can't let see the light of day, can we Boys. Omerta buddy. The jig would be up.
If I were these Boys, I'd perma steer the micro and meta towards creating actually compelling, original content and real brand growth, get as far away and distance as quickly as possible from the path they've chosen to try and drum interest. Else some grave digger gonna get busy. Oh buddy. None 'em want that. End game shit.
Puzzle solved. You are the 1st one to put the pieces together in the correct order. You obviously are inner. Now let's see if either you or another is willing, able to unpack.This is the turn of events I've been anticipating.
I have a long comment to post. It will come in multiple parts. However they appear here, please read them in sequence; Part 1, Part 2, etc.
ReplyDeletePlease refrain from posting until I can get the whole thing up. Thanks
PART 1:
ReplyDeleteWhen this whole Reddit business started, I didn't pay much attention.
Then someone mentioned that TC had said that he had "asked for assistance" I thought that had to do with the current controversy, so I said no, no request for assistance. (That phrase was from a Confessor paraphrasing, not TC's own words.) I looked in my emails to see if I had missed something, but no. I mentioned that I saw that we had an exchange in 2017, but I couldn't imagine what that had to do with who moderates the Ticket subreddit, so I didn't review it.
Now I am told that TC likely WAS referring to that exchange 8 YEARS AGO. So here's the story about that.
I posted something unflattering to TC that I heard from a source to whom I promised anonymity, as I always do. It did not pass along any internal email. I acknowledged the unfairness of anonymous hearsay in the post.
TC wrote me a one-line email asking who my source was. I can't quote from it for a reason that will appear below. Was this the "request for assistance"? Must've been. If it was, then TC is telling the truth about asking for my "help" or "assistance." Again, men and women, bear in mind that this was 2017.
Here is my entire response:
"T.C.,
"Thanks for your note. Sorry my response has been delayed. I wanted to give myself time to compose a thoughtful response to a fair request.
"I agree that there is unfairness to you of relying on email sources that may or may not be genuine and not disclosing the claimed identity of those sources. When I do, as I did in the September 14 piece to which you're referring, I bend over backwards to remind readers that that's what I'm doing and to read with that in mind. I also paraphrase and describe communications I sometimes (rarely) receive from claimed insiders in a manner aimed at disguising their claimed identities. And I believe I acknowledged that it was not fair to you and invited you to respond. I repeat that invitation. I'll even run your thoughts anonymously, if you'd like.
"In the piece in question, I had speculated entirely on my own -- absolutely no source other than what I hear on the air -- that maybe your colleagues do not regard you as a desirable co-host. And, as you know, many of my readers and sometimes I myself would like to hear less popping-on, although the more I listen to BaD, the more I realize that those guys frequently invite your participation, so that's not on you. The piece started out with an email I got from a reader reporting on a contentious discussion you had with Bob on BaD one day as a springboard for wondering where you stood at the station these days.
"I did not contact anyone at the station about that piece before or after I wrote it. When it came out, however, I heard from multiple sources that I'd hit the nail on the head. I cannot tell you who I heard from, but suffice it to say that I had, and still have, a high degree of confidence that these communications were genuine and accurate. Would not have passed them along if I hadn't. Among the items conveyed was that you'd been spoken to about your recent BaD participation.
"(By the way -- my piece did not say, as your email states, that the station was "buzzing about an email regarding my participation in the shows [you] work on." The buzzing was about the news -- unrelated to any email -- that management had addressed your BaD participation.)
PART 2:
ReplyDelete[Continuation of my 2017 email to TC.]
"You're an interesting figure at The Ticket. A lightning rod, like Corby. Me, I'm on the fence. We all have our favorites; you're not one of mine, but neither are you among my least-favorite. I was quite serious in that piece that I would absolutely be tuned in to a T.C. solo show. There are aspects of your performance that I admire quite a lot -- you've made huge strides with your on-air performance from the earliest days when you got regularly abused by Tier 1 (I like your Tickers), and I admire your moxie in paying your dues with Bob and Dan to get where you are. I believe that many of my readers are irrationally critical of you. I think part of it is that they haven't gotten over your remarks on your departure for Florida, and part of it is that they're jealous that you had the guts to do what they all wish they could do -- make the sacrifices necessary to become a notable figure at the nation's greatest radio station. That's admirable, as is your bounceback after your return. It's turned me around on you to a considerable degree.
"But what comes through the earbuds suggests there is friction between you and some of your colleagues in various of Junior's Tiers. And, frankly, the likely reasons for it. The beauty of The Ticket is that it invites listeners in as friends, and when you do that you risk revealing the negative as well as the positive aspects of professional interactions. Whatever anyone thinks of you, man, you've made your mark at a place where it's almost impossible for newcomers to do so, and that's something.
"So: really sorry I can't comply with your request. I repeat that I will give you equal time, either attributable or anonymous, subject to my customary editorial discretion.
"Hey, Cat's obviously still tinkering with Sunday mornings. Why don't you make him a proposal"
TC responded obscenely, but I can't reproduce it here because his final sentence forbade me from publishing any of his remarks.
What any of this has to do with the current back-and-forth, I don't know or care.
And now you know . . . .
I'm wearying of this controversy and am close to deleting emails about it. The Ticket must be the only subject that is not subject to the jet-speed news cycle these days. Let's move on.
An increasing number of posters are recommending putting this site out of its misery. I'm thinking about it.
Jesus Christ. TC sent you a one line email asking you a question and you respond with an essay about why you think he sucks. He wasn’t asking you for your opinion on his on air performance. I would have responded obscenely too.
Delete@Jimbo Exactly!
DeletePretty clear the inside source here for years is Jeff Catlin and/or his lackey, Peter Welpton
ReplyDeleteAlso pretty shitty to protect a boss that has engaged in illegal behaviour from a potential HR violation against a minimum wage worker.
ReplyDeleteSo you are helping a boss fuck with a part time employee. Very compassionate of you Mr. plainsman. This really shows your character.
ReplyDeleteYou three are morons. Actually, you're all the same person. Pathetic. The hard on for Peter is the chef's kiss.
DeleteSam?
The only person for a hard on here is The Plainsman for Cat!
DeleteOoooooo. What a burn! Now with your fingers, show the class how old you are.
DeleteGotta be at least 5'2' to ride the ride, bub. Mini coaster for you. Buck up. You'll have a growth spurt soon enough. Well, if you stop eating all that cake.
L8R
Why do you have to take shots at Grubes like that?
DeleteInteresting how this suddenly died on the vine on reddit. Gee. Can't begin to fathom why.
ReplyDeleteThe Musers the Podcast kinda sucks. It’s boring and vanilla and I find myself not even finishing most of the episodes. There, I said it and it feels good!
ReplyDeleteOK.
DeleteAppreciate the candor and disclosure, Plainsman. Still have no idea what to make of this bizarre turn of events. I keep going back to evidence. None has yet to be produced. The closest thing is the above email, which has no bearing on the accusations, and frankly is a total nothing burger. Relatedly, I'm also at a loss as to why Jake, TC, Sirois, and Danny would step their collective foot into it. There's nothing to be gained, other than to show anyone who cares that they, despite leaving TT on their own accord and going on to do their own thing, they seem incapable of moving on -- again, moving in from something they chose to leave.
ReplyDeleteAll a big head scratcher to me.
Why would THz, CdS, IJB et al step into it? Metrics, pure and simple. Look at the number of people on Reddit who said they’d resubscribe to IJB for 5 bucks just to hear this episode. I’d bet that if the usual CdS+D listener level is X, this episode is 2X. People love ticket adjacent content. Even if all 3 of those shows know zero details and have zero proof of any conjecture, all 3 shows also have an ax to grind with either perceived or actual resentment toward Catlin, so they’re incentivized to join the dogpile.
DeleteC
But coming up, I’ll tell you why I’m not convinced this is real, next on My Ticket Confession.
It’s been a while since my time working for Cumulus (sold for the country stations, back when the sales staff was siloed into talk/country/sports). But Catlin never had an intern. During my time there, BAD was the only show with interns. An acquaintance who still works there has told me there’s no sign of a programming intern. That leads me to doubt the Catlin and his intern aspect.
DeleteSo let’s look at JC. Despite losing 2 linchpins of the station in THZ and Norm, the station has never been more successful in the metrics that matter to non-listeners, ratings and revenue. (For listeners it’s programming quality but that’s totally subjective, so yes I may agree w you that TSS may not be as good as BAD or THZ, but they’re also not underperforming enough to stop TT from being the top station overall in the whole market).
So JC has one of the most successful stations ever in DFW radio history, based off a crap AM signal and a rimshot FM. Dudes been PD for 20 some years, has 5 Marconis on his mantle, and if he wanted could probably get a job at at any other talk or sports station in the country. The station has been wildly successful with zero Reddit interference before.
So we’re to believe, with zero actual evidence presented, based on the assertion of one guy on Reddit that JC decided now, 30 years into the stations existence, 20 years into his PD time, NOW is the time to infiltrate a meaningless reddit subforum. To do what exactly? Downgrade Jake and Grubes accounts somehow? I’m sorry (norm voice) we’re either one of them even marginally active there? I remember seeing the very occasional Grubes response, but I may have never noticed a Jake post there.
So did he or didn’t he? There’s been zero proof shown that it’s JC. Unless he was dumb enough to use his cumulus email, it’s going to be hard to show anybody is actually him. I’m sure we could all go to Gmail right now and get a Catman/bunch of numbers at Gmail email. Doesn’t make any of us JC.
And if Catlin was stupid enough to use his Cumulus email, why not post a screenshot and provide the proof of your assertion.
According to Reddit, they’re listening less and the station is failing. In reality, the station has never been this successful and listenership is high enough to keep them at or near the top of the ratings over the last 6 months, which (cowboys off season) is usually their weakest time.
Absent some form of back-up or proof, I’m having a hard time taking one guys word that a successful major market PD is worrying about a Reddit subforum.
C
I hope Cat sues Jake, TC, Dan, Sirois, Danny, Julie, Sam and all the other losers that jumped ship for Defamation! They should have known their place in realized they were as talented as they believe they were! You know who is talented? Sean Bass, Mino, Killer, Matt McClarin ect because they know their place and are loyal to Cat and the station. I hope those other talentless losers have fun cleaning toilets at McDonald’s. I hope we never hear from those ungrateful toddlers ever again.
ReplyDeleteIt’s not defamation when it’s all true.
DeleteGlad you're not my lawyer, Phil. Show the proof. Don't have any, do ya. Chump. Call daddy.
DeleteYou're bad at this, Fisty.
DeleteIt's absolutely defamation, regardless of the verity of the claim, if no compelling evidence is given. Truly hope you aren't an actual lawyer.
Deleteplainsman, you rewrote mobe dick to a one line email from the ticket employee you think is retarded?
ReplyDeleteI now see that Jimbo posted a similar sentiment.
Delete"mobe dick" huh. Where does Plainsman say much less insinuate he thinks such a thing about TC? What a weird takeaway. Weirder still is why you would feel the need to make the comment. Dude was asked ad nauseam to show the correspondence between he and TC, he does and gets some ding dong like you beefing him. And for what? Because you prefer the written expression of a 7 year old (which is how you always come off). By the by, you used a comma. Thought you never used commas. Can't even get that right, can we.
DeleteSorry people. I did it again. Popped off without thinking things through. My apologies to Plainsman and to all Confessors.
DeleteJimbo is as dumb as I am!
DeleteThe posted email is absurd in length. It is overkill to cover pertinent questions that came out
ReplyDeleteDon’t worry. I’ll drop a comma on you dweebs.
Sorry again guys for the above outburst. I don't know why such things concern me. Guess I'm just not that intelligent, pathologically immature, and lack a real sense of self. Being insecure sucks. Note to self to do better or get help.
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DeleteThe least surprising thing to come out of all this is Mr plainsman refers to what he posts here as a “piece”. lol. I giggled every time he said it in the comically long reply. Er, I mean, in his comically long response piece.
ReplyDeleteYou wasted brain cells on that one, huh. Touch grass, son. If you were even 1/16th as clever as you think you are, you'd almost be literate.
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ReplyDeleteI first heard of the great Cat Reddit takeover attempt here. But became curious and read what the Reddit sub had to offer. I thought it was nonsense. For all the reasons C- stated above. But then I watched the most recent Cirque. First one I've watched. (And I don't pay for any pods). It left me with a few thoughts.
ReplyDeleteOne, yeah, it's possible Cat did it. Two, I really miss Danny Balis. And three, I'm so happy that Jake Kemp is no longer on the ticket. (They played a clip of IJB).
Danny seems convinced that Cat did what he's accused of doing. Ok. As a Ticket listener, who doesn't frequent the reddit sub, I really don't care.
Danny is a smart, funny guy. I wish he was still on the Ticket.
Jake is as bad or worse than he was before. Challenging a middle aged man to a fight? Pathetic. I'm happy I no longer have him as an option on terrestrial radio.
And finally, for those of you who take issue with Plainsmen's response to TC, he's a lawyer. Why use a few words when a few thousand will do? Cut him some slack. He was trained that way.
I did like Danny, he's got a great voice and really drove that episode.
DeleteBut when Danny was talking about Peter Welpton he called him Cat's "consigliere". More like Cat's bitch. Sorry u/peet2 but you can listen yourself.
Still waiting for bkh to publish the receipts he said he had. He seems to have disappeared. I like Danny to a degree. But the fact that he's saddled himself with The Urban Attention Seeker, is unable to move on from a job he quit back in '21, and threw his hat into the Cat is Satan Stampede makes him rather unpalatable. There's a lot I could say about Jake, but none of it is positive, in the least. Besides, starting to get the feeling a few of the brave, betting on themselves, fightin' the man folks are about to be exposed. If half of what I've been told is true-ish, there's gonna be some disappearing acts.
ReplyDeleteSTEEL TOED BOOT ABOUT TO DROP!
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DeleteSeems like it already dropped on your head. How old are we?
DeleteI do not know what you call Mike Sirois' hair, but it is something old men in the 70s had, bald on top long and stringy on the sides. If he going for the creepy old perv look he's nailing it. Next he's going to roll up to Davey and ask for a hug.
ReplyDeleteYou call it "Hey did you hear Sirois has hair now??? Maybe I should check out their Youtube to see it!"
DeleteThat's what he's thinking ^
It's called urban attention seeking. an extremely thirsty middle aged man, that one. That and regular drug use. Don't rush into the micro-dosing game, kids. Best be under the care of a mental health expert. Specially if you plan to get your drink on daily. Else you find yourself thinking X makes sense when in reality X is nonsensical.
DeleteI think that we are seeing that, as some said from the beginning, there are no good guys in all of this drama that has gone on the last several years.
ReplyDeleteI'm leaning that way too. That dweeb Catlin and their disdain for him seems to be the one thing in common with the ex-Ticket guys.
DeleteThis thing he trying to pull off on Reddit really shows what a controlling arse he is. I'm sure him and his interns will flood back in here once they find there is a new thread to pollute.
How can you be leaning that way if for you it's all on Cat thing. He's saying ALL parties stink, not one alone.
DeleteI'm one of those people, KDF. Been saying since '22. Thus far I've seen not a damn thing to make me think otherwise. To be clear, this applies to all parties. Even the ones who are rarely if ever brought up anymore. So much lying, demonstrably untrue narratives, inconsistencies, etc. From Rhyner to Cat to Jake to Julie to Dan Bennett to Dan to Danny to Sirois to Cumulus itself.... no one comes out looking good. Perhaps the three exceptions are Ticket hosts. Bob, Donnie, and shockingly enough, Corby - who genuinely fought for Dan and Jake, believing they were acting in good faith; and who also had the stones to call out Rhyner for his hypocrisy.
Delete11-2, not sure what you mean by "trying to pull off"? The moment ANYONE shows a SINGKE shred of evidence, I'll jump to the front if the Fire Cat line. Gonna soon be a week gone by and zilch receipts. At some point any reasonable person has to conclude it was a crock. Right now my $ is on BK being misled and going into crazy martyr mode, realizing he mihjt be getting or was duped, then disappearing. Cuz since Tuesday, as far as I can tell, he's gone AWOL
DeleteThis is the most who cares moment in Ticket history.
ReplyDeletePeople acting like Elmer Wayne cares about Cat maybe/maybe not being on Reddit enough for it to be the downfall of The Ticket just makes me shake my head.
DeleteIt's right up there with "The Ticket sucks now so why don't the ratings reflect that?"
Do I believe the absence of THZ/ Dan and Jake has made The Ticket worse. Yep. Am I, in any way, representative of 90% of listeners? Absolutely not. To me BaDD Radio (12-3 with Donnie plus Jake as Producer) was the peak period of TT, which means that Day 1 P1s think I'm crazy and that the real salad days were the Greggo Hardline era...
D1P1 here. For me, the Halcyon Days were from '94-'06. The best of those years being from '97-'04. Yes, that meant OG HL, but it was also peak OG HL.
DeleteAs to the Cat/reddit business, I couldn't care less. He's the PD for f's sake. Wake me up if someone commits a crime. Besides, like 400 comments have already pointed out, not a single shred of proof has been offered. I mean, c'mon. If you're going to publicly accuse someone of something and rile a bunch of people up to the point that they're threatening the accused (including a former employee: note to Jake: that was pathetic), then you might want to also present proof backing your accusation.
Don’t lose sight of what happened:
ReplyDeleteAside from TC, the rest of the gang wanted to stay at the Ticket, provided they were given a new contract with much higher pay. When that didn’t happen, they followed the Miami conman on a Pied Piper’s dream of starting their own form of the Ticket on a different station (and yeah, that includes Jake and Dan). When that didn’t work, it was, once again, not their faults but because they didn’t have the backing of suits (management at fault yet again). So it was time to rake in the cash via podcasts. When that began to falter, it was back to blaming the suits — Cat was responsible for malfeasance. There’s a pattern here to every member of the little gang’s thought process: it is always somebody else to blame. Not a single one of them has shown a moment of self-reflection. “Maybe I’m just not as great as I think I am.”
Poor is rich in intelligent, truth telling analysis.
DeleteI always wonder, was it Sirois (the Miami conman as you call him) or Ben & Skin that were behind the 97.1 move? I mean, those two still work there.
ReplyDeleteI honestly thought it was more Rhynes but I may be wrong
DeleteAbsolutely—let’s clarify who was at the helm behind KEGL’s “The Freak” embarrassingly failed format launch.
DeleteThe revival of KEGL as **“97.1 The Freak”** in October 2022 was spearheaded by **Mike Rhyner**, the legendary Dallas sports-radio personality who had co-founded **The Ticket (KTCK)** earlier in his career. He came out of retirement to anchor afternoons on the new format, and his return was imagined as the driving force behind the station’s rebranding to this hybrid “Hot Talk/Sports” concept, but the station was a ratings flop from day one ([si.com][1]).
In fact, Rhyner’s presence was so central to the new iteration that the station’s branding leaned into his on‑air persona—The “Freak” nickname and the rebellious vibe were a deliberate nod to his legacy and style. Billboards with his weathered face were posted all over the DFW area with the assumption quick ratings and sales success, but neither of those transpired. There were others on the station too, mostly unknowns compared to the "Old Grey Wolf", although even his long-standing appeal wasn't enough to overcome any of it. ([en.wikipedia.org][2], [dallas.culturemap.com][3]).
So, in short: **Mike Rhyner** was the originator behind KEGL's “The Freak” boondoggle of a format—bringing both the concept and the brand to life and quick death.
Let me know if you'd like more on how poorly the format was programmed or more on why it flamed out in record time!
[1]: https://www.si.com/nfl/cowboys/news/dallas-cowboys-radio-station-freak-eagle-mike-rhyner-ticket-news?utm_source=chatgpt.com "Mike Rhyner Resurrected; Cowboys Radio Competition ..."
[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KEGL?utm_source=chatgpt.com "KEGL"
[3]: https://dallas.culturemap.com/news/entertainment/kegl-the-eagle-freak-sports-radio-mike-rhyner/?utm_source=chatgpt.com "One of Dallas' last rock stations KEGL The Eagle flips to sports ..."
Totally loving your info and style, Chat. Bang on about Rhyner. Caveat: I've heard from those closer than adjacent that while it was all funneled through the Rhyner name and bona fides, the one who got him into it, who planted the seed was Sirois. From there, Rhyner floated it by B&S who in turn with Rhyner began to make shit happen. To this, Danny and Julie were in on the hustle from the jump. They all were. And yes, so too were Dan and Jake. Thing is, as we all know, The Freak was a disaster from Day Two. The Workin' Class Dogs needed The Freak to stay afloat for at least 2 years in order to get out of their contracts and wait out the NC. All they had to do was say they're weren't re-upping, as their contracts were due and wait out the NC. Instead, they got cute. It succeeded in part, but didn't get out of the NC in as far as working for another station goes. Wondering if they took that route because The Freak camp pushed the panic button and knew it needed genuine reinforcements ASAP in order to stay afloat. And when the dust settled, while Dan and Jake were allowed to do/monetize their pod, the NC stood and that was all she wrote for The Freak. Speculation, Inc. for sure. But like Norm and Mary, I'm just wondering.
DeleteBen and Skin had been at 97.1 for years before TF dropped. Despite what anyone thinks, and despite their shitty ratings, Ben is a fucking sales genius and brings in more dough than any other show, pre Freak Eagle, Freak, and post Freak Eagle. That's why they're still there. The Mavs angle is a non starter, BTW. Skin is not an employee of iHeart when he's doing Mavs games. Just like Razor and Josh aren't Cumulus employees when doing Stars games on TT.
DeleteAlways figured it was Sirois underneath it all, the way he ingratiated himself with Rhyner for a year or two beforehand.
DeleteRhyner was crucial to selling the concept, but the idea came squarely from Miami.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite new theory, as suggested to me by a friend who is a P1, THZ sub and mod of another /r:
ReplyDelete“This is all an elaborate hoax being pulled off by people who stood to gain the most from it”. He thinks the mod that wrote the initial post is being used as a “rube” (great word) to pull off a prank that would make Cat look bad.
Wild, but once you think about it for a bit it sure does answer a whole lot of remaining questions and explain a lot of unusual actions.
God I hope it’s true. So much better than that stupid Sirios painting bit.
Nope, this is all on the biggest ego at the ticket
DeleteYeah. Sirois.
DeleteThis makes sense and it looks like they are taking a page out of Jerry's book, any publicity is good publicity. It is getting them clicks/views. The ones who stand to gain presumably got people to sub/resub to their pods. A week after all of this drama started and still not a shred of evidence.
DeleteAnd all but s coupla try hards who'll never get access have left the building. Useful idiots.
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ReplyDeletehello cat
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DeleteHi, BK.
DeleteTurning to current Ticket events: I am pleased with Donnie getting some recognition and getting the Master of Ceremonies gig for the State Fair. Nice to see a Native Son, getting his due.
ReplyDeleteThanks for bringing that up. Love The Great Donovan, a real throwback kind of guy.
DeleteCan we just get back to talking about how great the Sweet Spot is? We are witnessing Jordan in his prime and you guys are getting distracted.
ReplyDeleteGood to see you coming to your senses, Har. Finally accepting the fact that they won. Cool beans.
DeleteHell yeah. I'm all about choosing sides and taking blood oaths about local media.
DeleteWe know. Got anything else in your bag? Didn't think so.
DeleteJust some razor sharp folks in here firing on all cylinders.
DeleteThis is embarrassing from all sides. The Ticket sucks, Cat sucks, the Dumb Zone and Sirois Circus all suck. I'm done with these spares...it's time to get aboard a new train. The Kelce Brothers - you have just gained a new listener!
DeleteAnd you ain't one of 'en, Har. Not by a long shot. Give it up, little man.
DeleteTry The FAN. Better, DLL.
DeleteWhat did Cat and The Ticket do? You have proof? No. You don't. So as it stands, it's only TDZ, Ticket reddit, Sirois and Danny, and TC that suck. But that was all a known known beforehand.
DeleteDid we just hear correctly that the Musers will be on vacation next week? 4 weeks off/2 weeks on? Good schedule.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you want from them? Read the interview in Avid Golfer. We’re lucky to have them at all. They deserve what they have.
DeleteDid we? If true, allow me to quote Junior Miller: "I want that job." They really are approaching Stern like numbers vis a vis actual days spent on the job.
DeleteI'd like a pair of Diamond cut jeans from them.
DeleteCraig signed off by saying they'd be back on Monday maybe
DeleteCraig says that at the end of every show. It’s a joke.
DeleteYeah no shot. The point was there was no reference to being out next week
Delete*No shit
Deleteducking autocorrect
Who are these dipshits reading into Craig saying “maybe”, or reading into ‘clues’? They’re trolling you and this site and Reddit in a way too subtle to understand, I guess.
ReplyDeleteAgain: the people who left and joined The Freak thought they were more talented than they were. Their desire was to be on the Ticket, and to get a raise. They didn’t. So they pouted and followed the Miami Conman to a lovelier pasture, which promised them more money and less sports. When Grubes was made to be the Easter Bunny and the bit was to find him, it was a direct parallel to Gordon dressing as Satan and going out on the town to ask people questions. Miami thought they could recreate the magic. Didn’t happen.
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DeleteGoing hard there, Poor. Easy big fella. It's just radio.
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DeleteSince it’s Cowboys season, an analogy- the failure of the Freak was a combination of fielding a team of 3rd and 4th stringers against a Super Bowl (Marconi) caliber team, AND that team having no real identify. Were they run first, pass first, a physical or a finesse team, the Freak tried to be everything everywhere all at once.
DeleteWith TT you know what you’re getting. All sports and all that implies. They are, in my opinion, the best imaged station in the market and probably one of the best in the nation. Their promos hammer home the same points ( all sports all the time, your cowboys station, big name guests, your friends on the radio, etc) but are constantly refreshed so they don’t get stale (cough lone star 92-5, cough cough).
I think TT has always understood their role in the market. They’re sports station number 1. The Fan is sports #2. The Freak was part hot talk, part sports, part personality radio. Which that hybrid might work in other markets where there’s not as many options. You can survive with a listenership of P3s, but you need to be in a mass appeal format and fill a niche. (See hot 93-3 for CHR, Ranch or Range for country, etc). When you’re going up against a sports station with non sports programming, and going up against a station with a ridiculous TSL length, they were never going to be able to live on a diet of P3s. Ty
Then add in the stories of what people were paid (Sirois tripled his salary???) of the Freak owners had been smart they wouldn’t have paid all those people as if they were successful hosts when Rhyner is the only one who fit that description.
C
What the f? My comment contained no ad hominem or anything of the sorts.
DeleteFFM, you deserve a response. You are right about how you characterize your comment, if it's the one I'm thinking of (I don't have access to it anymore). I was reluctant to delete it.
DeleteHowever: You were responding, in order to criticize, a prior post in which the poster made a scurrilous, unsupported accusation against TC. You agreed that it was wrong for the poster to have done so. But in the course of your post, you repeated the scurrilous accusation, not in order to repeat the accusation, but in order to criticize it.
To have left your comment up would have revealed the very reason I deleted the previous post. If you want to resubmit the post without using the scandalous accusation against TC, I don't recall anything about the post that would have got it launched.
Cat has acknowledged internally that he was made a Reddit mod and that he also gave control to another Cumulus operative.
ReplyDeleteI heard from a reliable source that Cat was told about this whole thing and laughed. This source said that some well known podcast hosts planned the whole thing to drum up business for themselves. Curiously a well known redditor that handed the moderating reigns over to these podcasters has seemingly disappeared from the internet.
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DeleteNot true, Sirois, I mean GyN. Remember when we figured out that Gypo Nolan and So Anonymous were you? Guess you forgot. Boozin' and dosin' will do that to you, thirsty one.
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ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
DeleteMission accomplished.
DeleteI guess IJB, THZ, and CDS (especially this one) will keep playing the hits to generate more interest. I guess it keeps the Redditors frothing at Cat and generating subs but at some point you have to stop dwelling on this. It's like being angry at an ex-girlfriend who you broke up with thinking you'd get a bigger, better deal and then constantly talking about how she wronged you. If Jake is wanting to fight Cat then good grief what a little bitch Jake still is. You're a dad with 2 kids. All this dumb stuff just solidifies not paying for their content was a good idea.
ReplyDeleteThe anti-Cat and Ticket person is the same person, under different names. We all know this. It’s such old-hat. And we all know who it is. It isn’t anybody named Sam. It’s somebody who could get a sunburn in Miami.
ReplyDeleteBingo. Poor understands the sitch.
DeleteHi Peter
DeleteAnyone want to explain the origin for the cat hate to begin with?
ReplyDeleteI remember Cat as being the PD that very rarely came on the air, and that he liked metal music. That’s about it. I remember when they did the Bob Corby announcement, was a big deal. The show was eh for a bit, then the addition of davey has made it pretty good. Idk anything else, but what is the real reason so many people are so happy to hate cat?
If you watch that Cirque from this week where Danny, Mike and Cash talk about the reddit takeover they do talk about their feelings on working for/with Cat, sometimes directly sometimes indirectly.
DeleteAnd then there's Jake, he's been even more to the point. They play some audio where he says "It'd just be really fun to see his little cu-- ass without him being my boss. Cause he's a little boy. I'd smack the sh-- out of you. I'm probably not supposed to say that." Then he issues the challenge to go on Fight Night with him.
Didn't Cat invent Dan and Jake? - and even catch a boat load of crap for it and then later celebrated for being their creator?
DeleteInvent? You are showing your bias here. If you mean he assigned one host to another show and told the other host and the producer who already was an on air contributor that they were the show now. Yes, what an "invention".
DeleteWhether you like it or not, your accounting of how DandJ came to be is about as great a reduction as it gets. He literally came up with the idea of pairing them together. so, yeah, he "invented" it.
DeleteInvent? No. Had the good sense and intuition to pair them together and to encourage support staff with something to say to contribute? Yes. That's part of his job.
DeleteAs to CdS II goes, we're talking about two guys (Cash doesn't count, he's a passenger with money, means, and access) who have little to say past banal and boring chit chat, who's chemistry -if that's what you call it- is based not on genuine mutual interests, but rather, on a shared form of envy, spite, and permanent state of grievance. It's on its last and final gasp of air. The offer nothing but dish and talk and insinuate shit on former bosses and coworkers that caters to a niche, shrinking on a weekly basis audience. It is a monologue in the guise of dialogue mostly centered around jobs they both chose to part ways with nearly a half decade ago. But they do it because it's the ONLY thing that will bring them attention. That will soon no longer be a viable source. No matter if they attempt to gin it up.
Jake. He's been a rich kid bully since high school LARPing as a social justice warrior. I cannot believe at this stage in life and considering what he's gone through with his son's health, his addiction issues, and taking the huge risk of leaving a rarest of birds, lucrative position to go it a new direction.... that this animates him, and in such a violent, puerile way. He sounds ridiculous. It's embarrassing to witness. But he has a golden parachute, always has Even more so since his wedding. He's no different than those he makes fun of, verbally threatens, and rails against.
In a way, more cringe is that while I have no definitive proof, it's pretty obvious by their styles (seen by years of Tweets), both Jake and Sirois go through phases of trolling MTC. They have for years.
New IJB is all about Peter. I hope he sues them. Question I keep coming back to is why are TC and Jake so invested in this? Exactly what is their stake? Prima facie, it would seem they have none. Only thing I can say is that things have a way of biting asses. If U were the IJB boys, I'd have a few concerns floating around in my not so subconscious concerning my words and behavior.
ReplyDeleteThe story I’ve consistently heard is that before the TT moved to total line ratings
Delete( where AM, FM, and streaming are all combined in one ratings entry) Richie Whitt would consistently lie or negatively spin TTs ratings by not including streaming. In other words, he’d post that the Fan beat TT - simplified he’d say Fan had a 3.1, TT had a 3, ignoring that TT stream had a 2.
Welpton who is into tech, new media, etc had a Reddit account and was authorized by JC to extract the pertinent ratings and post them to combat Whitts misinformation/spin.
Why Jake and TC have it out for Welpton is beyond me. He’s about as innocuous a guy as there seems to be in TT world.
Of course, he is a guy who hasn’t burned bridges and toasted any chance of a future radio career, so maybe that’s why both sides of it’s just childishness hate him.
C
Let us not forget:
ReplyDeleteJake got piss-faced at Barry Switzer's house, and Corby bailed him out of what might have been a career-ending matter.
TC left, on his own accord, KTCK, to be the big-man at a smalltime station in Florida. When that didn't work out, the evil Cat gave him back his job at the most important radio station in the fifth largest media outlet in the nation.
And yet Cat is the problem for them.
“ Jake got piss-faced at Barry Switzer's house, and Corby bailed him out of what might have been a career-ending matter.”
DeleteLolollollll!
Please explain how this could have been a career-ending matter. I’d love to hear it.
Lest you forget, Corby and Danny were all high as kites at a baseball game on TV and talked about it on air the next day.
They all talked on air about bringing weed to the campout.
They played drunk Danny audio every week. But yes please explain how Jake being drunk on a Saturday night could have ended his career
I'd be happy to.
DeleteLet's ignore for a while that you disregarded my thoughts on TC leaving and then coming back, because Cat allowed for that.
It's called tenure.
Jake wasn't an on-air personality when he went to Norman with Corby. He was a twenty-something guy who didn't bring in ratings. He could have been fired immediately, with cause. When Corby got drunk on the air, or Davey did, it is because they had clout. Jake did not.
I know that's 'unfair' to a lot of people. But if you're the best at your job, whatever your job is, and you've been doing it for decades, the consequences are a bit more loose.
As Dan once said: It's called The Way It Is.
So to leave the Ticket on your own accord, which Jake absolutely did, and then to blame the guy in charge, who offered you a contract extension, don't go crying to the masses when it blows up in your face.
Poor is obviously Peter.
DeleteJake being drunk at Switzwr’s house was not on the air. So what are you actually talking about? Jake should have been fired for getting drunk on a Saturday night?
Getting drunk at your house on a Saturday night is perfectly fine. Getting drunk at Barry Switzer's house while representing your company is a completely different issue.
DeleteActually it was discussed at a Campound late night sesh. Get your shit straight. Obviously you are Jake. See how this works, genius? Nope. You don't. Lemming. Didn't get the memo, did we. They lied then moved on. They don't care about you.
DeleteActually, it was discussed on The Hardline. Corby played a prank on Jake, saying he'd knocked over some of Switzer's memorabilia / wore his Championship ring. It was a joke, of course. But it was a prank to keep Jake aware of perhaps his alcoholism.
DeleteDude, I totally remember that.
DeleteSo I guess these guys have embraced going full Richie Whitt at this point of their careers. Play the Ticket card/Break Glass In Case of Emergency to drum up attention and an audience. Never go Richie Whitt
ReplyDeleteYou, madame and/or sir have solved the equation. Let us not forget the Whitt trajectory. Oh yeah buddy boy, it's coming.
DeleteAllow me to add to your success by saying that it's to my understanding the reason Peter W was brought into the mix is because of his posting ratings and providing analysis/perspective of those ratings on the reddit site OBVIOUSLY meant he was INFILTRATING . And who else but Cat would FORCE him to do so or lose his job???? Funny thing is, you'll never hear a mea culpa from any of these fuckos. Naw. It'll be just like every single time Jake gets something wrong, which is every third minute, just ignore it. Never say a thing. Never happened.
Peter is Cat’s butt-boy. Always has been.
DeletePeet3: thanks for adding to the conversation. You seem like an insightful fuck.
DeleteHi Peter
DeleteGenuine questions: Do you honestly think that it gets under someone's skin to say "Hi, ___"? Do you find a sense of satisfaction in doing it? Finally, whose butt buddy are you? You seem to know a lot about butt friendship. OK, bonus query: Does it take 1 or 2 hands worth of fingers to count out your age?
DeleteI was waiting for this. So, I want to make it clear:
ReplyDeleteI am perhaps two years older than Jake and TC. I am not an attorney. I have no background in RTF. I've never been on Ticket airwaves. I don't know a single person at the Ticket. Jake's contract offer, now public for anybody who looks it up, is more than I make. I don't know the Plainsman. I don't know anybody in radio. I'm not a corporate shill or particularly interested in the inner workings of corporations. I am more liberal than anybody on The Ticket, and would usually always side with the worker over a hegemonic company such as Cumulus.
What I do have is common fucking sense.
It embarrasses my entire generation how these idiots have acted like victims to issues they created.
They dug a grave and thought, "Wait a minute! I'm not lying in this." Or lay or lie or whatever the case is.
I feel like you. Just move on and do something to improve your podcast to bring in listeners. Constantly trying to egg on Ticket Reddit makes you no different than Mike Fisher, Richie Whitt, and any of the other has beens that flamed out against the Ticket. It's tiresome that they keep going back to something from over 2 years ago and relitigating it again and again. But I get that finding new content can be hard for someone working with Dan.
DeleteThis. But fon't forget to add Rhyner snd Julie into the mix. Those two. Julie? Meh. Her 15 is long gone, never to return. The Oak Cliff Conman. Oh, buddy. Now if these thirsty scruhs really wanna get some eyeballs and subbies, well, they'd go down that goldmine shaft. None of them have anything to do with him anymore. All they'll say, imply, is they're just no longer in touch. Oh buddy. Won't say, insinuate a fuccin thing. Not, Miami Vices, not 58 yr old Baby Daddy, not Wannabe Kaufmann, and not Points for Sex. Why? Oh buddy. Buried bodies. Now that's a story we can't let see the light of day, can we Boys. Omerta buddy. The jig would be up.
DeleteIf I were these Boys, I'd perma steer the micro and meta towards creating actually compelling, original content and real brand growth, get as far away and distance as quickly as possible from the path they've chosen to try and drum interest. Else some grave digger gonna get busy. Oh buddy. None 'em want that. End game shit.
Puzzle solved. You are the 1st one to put the pieces together in the correct order. You obviously are inner. Now let's see if either you or another is willing, able to unpack.This is the turn of events I've been anticipating.
Delete