Quick Hit Time + BREAKING BREAKING BREAKING (Really Bad) -- 104.1 RIP

Nothing much Tickety on my mind lately.  A few observations to freshen up the thread:

(1)  Becca the New Traffic Twist does a pretty nice job.  I could do without traffic reports entirely, but they seem to be a staple of local radio, so there you go.  A couple of unusual pronunciations aside ("Jagwire," "tellpipe"), she seems pretty sound.  Always interesting to see whether a Traffic Twist will become a target (Barb Smith) or a tread-lightly-around tigress (Alexis Smith) or kinda one of the guys (Tara Artho) or hardly there at all (Julie Mac).    A belated welcome to her.

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(2) With all the Breaking Bad talk I thought it might be a good idea to check out The Fan.  Someday I need to do some kind of piece about Ben & Skin, but this isn't it.

I guess they are famous for knowing lots of athletes well enough to get them for interviews, which is really great if athletes are interesting interviews, not so much if they aren't.  Fortunately, some are -- Dirk -- but many, many are not.  Upon punching up 105.3, I hear them interviewing Derek Holland.  Now maybe Derek Holland is a really good guy to talk to, but he must have gotten beat up about his many bits, and brought low by the conclusion to the Rangers' season.  It was agonizing to hear, poor guy had nothing to say.  I confess that I did punch out on him for awhile, so maybe it got a lot better and if it did I apologize for what follows, but I punched back in in time to hear them begging him to be their color next-day interview for all Stars and -- was it Mavs or Cowboys? Sorry, I forget -- games, or maybe just home games.  (After extracting a promise from him not to speak with any other local sports radio stations, which he delivered.)  And he said OK and you'd have thought the Ben & Skin show had just won the lottery.   I have to assume they were not serious about this, but it was hard to tell.   If they were, then they just promised a lot of don't-listen segments.

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(3)  I find the growing Sean Bass controversy interesting.  I'm delighted he's pushed back in these pages.  More than one Confessor has criticized him over the past year or so, citing a dismissive attitude toward persons, including colleagues, who do not share his views on one thing or another.  Personally, I hadn't really noticed it, at least not to the degree that it would be off-putting.  So I listened for it, and I still didn't get a snotty vibe from Sean, no more than one gets from other of the more youthful hosts.  (He and I do disagree about the proper coverage of sites like this one, but that's OK, too.)  And he got a strong defense from a Confessor on the last thread who said hey, Sean and Jake know their baseball and hardly anyone else does, so good for them.  

I don't mind some intra-Ticket tension.  In fact, as little as I know about sports, even I can tell that some of the hosts don't think deeply about the sports they cover.  And The Shake Joint always has some really good, carefully-considered analyses.  I'm hopeful that The Pan-American Catman will pair Sean with some of his targets on a panel somewhere along the line.  

That would be innarestin radio.

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(4)  Spoilers aside, here's the problem with all the Breaking Bad talk.  This is a point I've been wanting to make and a Confessor beat me to it a couple of days back on the last thread:  This Breaking Bad obsession makes these guys look so  .  .  .  so  .  .  .  dull and common and fannish, and not in a fun sportsy way, but in a pedestrian Tiger Beat way.  Like they've got nothing going on, nothing else interesting to observe and comment on.  

Let's put it this way:  After the Breaking Bad binge we've all tolerated for the past couple of years, reaching near-Rolling-Stones levels as the series drew to a close, The Ticket boys should never, ever again make fun of Ty Walker for his Star Wars enthusiasm.

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BREAKING BREAKING BREAKING

Craig Miller just announced that 104.1 FM would stop broadcasting The Ticket effective close-of-day this Sunday.  Cumulus must have gotten its FCC issues squared away, which means both the death of 104.1 and the inauguration of Cumulus's management of 103.3's programming.

This is very bad news for Your Plainsman, Western Civilization, and  quite possibly My Ticket Confession.  Almost every minute of my listening of The Ticket since 2004 has been via 104.1.  I am listening to it now at a location that does not receive one hertz of 1310 AM.  The SportsDay app and iHeart are not good alternatives for me for a large part of my listening day, nor is the Internet stream.  

So look for lots more cheap reprints of good Confessor comments as main posts.

Oh, I can hear 1310 most of the time.  But it's just such an f-y by the CTO -- assuming they don't improve the Ticket signal in any way -- that I'm starting to wonder if it's time to stop rewarding the Dickeys' contempt for the Cumulus audience.

ThePlainsman1310@gmail.com

@Plainsman1310

Notes from Camp

Ladies and gentlemen, my apologies for being away for so long. My work and household duties have escalated recently and my posts are, unfortunately, going to be few and far between for a while.  The commitments cut into both listening and writing time. I do keep an eye on comments and have appreciated most everyone's observation of the site's unwritten rules.

I have made a few notes from the last couple of weeks, some ticket-related, some not. Nothing too profound here, but maybe this will get some the threads kick-started:

          1.     Junior Miller:  "There are too many idiots in the world, and half of them are commenting on websites."  (Referring to comments to news items in the DMN.)

          2.     Both the Hardline and Musers have remarked on the fact that there seem to be lots of people hanging around Southern California who "aren't doing so well."  No kidding.  I have a lot of good feelings for California, having lived there with great pleasure for five years in the '90's (hence my fondness for Lee "Hacksaw" Hamilton), but it's a holy mess.  Decades of mismanagement (Democrat and Republican), have left the state broke.  Its legislature is a corrupt candy machine (Democrats are the problem here), devastating state taxes that are going higher, enormous public payroll, vast welfare benefits for illegal immigrants, it goes on and on.  The leading candidate for a catastrophic Detroit-style bankruptcy.  It's America's Greece.   Meanwhile, Texas still can't get free agents to come here.

          3.    Can we get a report on how Norm and BaD handled the camp?  I heard zero minutes of either show while they were in Oxnard.

           I actually like the travelogue aspects of The Ticket's travel to faraway places, yes, even Corby's stories.  I do wonder whether there is a whole lot of sportsy value to having all those shows out there, and at Super Bowls, and at playoffs.  Some take it more seriously than others.  I would think that Norm and BaD, broadcasting during daylight hours, would snag a relevant interview or two along the line. How was their time out there?

          4.     This site's deepest condolences to Mike Rhyner and his loved ones on his mother's passing.  She seemed like a sweet lady in her few interactions with the station, and Mike's voice took on a different tone when she came up.  One had the idea that one would mess with that woman at one's considerable personal peril.  RIP.

          5.     Several commenters have taken the opportunity of Mike's occasional absences to note how good Corby can be when he has responsibility for running a presentation. He's also on good behavior with other hosts.  This site has mentioned this on several occasions.   More than one person has observed that perhaps Corby's excesses are encouraged by the kind of chemistry he has with Mike. I got an e-mail from Confessor N:  

"Perhaps it's just me, but me and some of my real good P1 friends all find Corby with anyone other than Rhyner actually very good, crisp, funny and more likable.  It started last week with Corby manning the ship when Rhynes suddenly left Oxnard for his mom's illness.  I thought his chemistry with Craig, Gordon, Dan, Donny, the Commander et al was great.  Then Friday it clicked for me when Rhynes was out for the funeral  - I like Corby leading with Danny in the co-pilot seat and Jake as the on mic producer.  The chemistry is much more free-flowing.   I respect Rhynes but it is clear to me now that he gives this thing the 'cruise control'/'I don't give a damn' vibe."

I think that's right.  He knows he's untouchable, nearing the end of his reign, and feels little obligation to incentivize Corby or Danny.  Although I will say, once in a while the last few weeks, it has seemed to me that Mike, while clearly tired from his schedule and the emotional drain of his mother's passing, has generated some pretty strong segments.

          6.     Greg Williams's blog:  Seems like there's not much to it any more -- song lyrics, definitions, and recently a TMI post from Jenn on "what Greggo's really like" that didn't exactly flatter the guy.  Apparently they are moving, which, she reports, will make it hard to keep the blog up to date (although it seemed like they weren't actually moving, just planning for a move).

           7.     Gordon is 100% correct about the Geico Old MacDonald's spelling ad.  The joke about spelling "cow" is completely wrong and unfunny because it misses the real joke that the Geico ad writer apparently misremembered.  Bet I can find it  .  .  .  yup, took me about 12 seconds:

A Hoosier, a Kentuckian and a West Virginian were on a Hollywood TV quiz show. The host asked them to complete the sentence: "Old MacDonald had a ..." The Indianan said, "Old MacDonald had a carburetor." "Sorry," said the MC. "That's incorrect." "Old MacDonald had a flat tire," said the Kentuckian. "Wrong," said the host. "Old MacDonald had a farm," said the West Virginian. "That's correct!" shouted the MC. "Now for $200,000, spell farm." The West Virginian thought hard and then spelled carefully: "E-I-E-I-O."

The Geico ad should either have had Old MacDonald spell "farm," which he then spells "E-I-E-I-O," or spell "cow" and spell that the same way but not preceded by C-O-W.  Anyway, it's a bad ad.  In fact, all of the Geico ads that use the "well, did you know .  .  . " format are weak.

          8.     However, Gordon and George are entirely wrong on "The Girl from Ipanema," a wonderful bossa nova pop song.  The English lyrics were originally meant to be sung by a man, not a woman (Astrud Gilberto having made it famous), which accounts for the gigantic grammatical blunder "she looks straight ahead, not at he" when sung by a woman -- should be:  "she looks straight ahead, not at me," sung by a man.

          9.     Love George, we all love George, but he has apparently graduated to dropping 100% of his g's on present participles and gerunds (-ing words).  I swear, one morning a few days ago it sounded like he was deliberately workin' at droppin' all those g's.  I wish he wouldn't.  It makes him sound hickish, which he's not.  Maybe it's his increased C&W profile, he's got to use some kind of backcountry patois to keep it real.

          10.    Matt Garza has a tiny brain.

          11.     While we're on the subject of Ticket word usage:  Is The Ticket the last bastion of the overuse of the word "awesome"?  It was bad enough when this perfectly lovely, evocative word was devalued back in the Bill-and-Ted's-Excellent-Adventure days, but it seems to me that the language has finally moved on with the exception of George Dunham and BaD radio.  Sorry, man, every time I hear someone on the station use that word (and it's not just those guys), I think -- you know, this station really needs to get out more.

          12.     It has been pointed out that the signals (1310/104.1) have been sucking more than usual lately, probably because of the hot weather. That's not an excuse. The best station in the country shouldn't be hostage to North Texas summers.  Just more evidence of how really bad these signals are.

          13.     Johnny Manziel is a sociopath.

          14.    Caught a little bit of Ben and Skin one day, only about ten minutes.  This is not a general Ben and Skin opinion, only observation about the tiny slice that I heard.  I want to give those gents a fair shot, and that just can't be done by flipping over for the odd segment.   They had some Ranger talk about "overpaying" players (Elvis Andrus was on the griddle at that particular moment) that did not make any sense to me in the context of a free market for players and widespread information on their current skills.  (I think that was Skin but cannot be certain.)  

We are very fond of Kevin Turner around here, but during my short time of listening I caught a very unfortunate remote segment that only lasted about 35 seconds that ended with Kevin asking some group of people how many were ovulating.   Could not figure out what the bit was supposed to be about at the outset, and, whatever it was, it cratered almost instantaneously and B&S seemed somewhat startled to have the show tossed back to them.  Sorry, KT.  I promise I'll get around to giving B&S the benefit of a sustained listen one of these days.

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Hope to see you all soon.

LATER:   Just saw this post.  Blogger has once again defeated my efforts to make the thing look nice.  Sorry for all the inconsistent margins, fonts, spacing.  

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Wednesday, August 7, 2013 BONUS:  Today's Ticket Traffic Twist Julie Mac, who looks like she sounds:

Cheap Thread-Refreshing Tease

Is it possible to have a Scorching Ticket Disquisition (= STD, for newcomers) about Ben & Skin?

I'm developing one.  But it needs some seasoning.

After almost two weeks, what are you all thinking?   Those of you who are punching out on Corby or The Hardline generally (and anyone punching out on the last hour of BaD), how are things looking up the dial there?   Send us a dispatch.

Ben, Skin, Brandon, KT, and My Post-Op Drug-Influenced Recovery and Review

OK, here's the deal.  I went under the knife this morning.  All well, not life-threatening.  Thanks in advance for your good wishes.  Mrs. Plainsman has ordered me not to email as I recuperate whilst drugged.  I don't think she cares if my blog work is narcotics-influenced.  But I've got nothing to do except to listen to Dallas-Fort Worth Sports Radio.  So you may be getting lots of little observations of varying coherence over the next few hours.

And right now, I'm listening to Ben and Skin's inaugural showgram.

I haven't heard Ben and Skin since their weekend Ticket show.  But it doesn't sound like the show I remember.

These guys are talking very fast, very animatedly.  I am recalling a much more relaxed presentation those several years ago.  Haven't yet heard any Ironic Observation on the Just Previous Ironic Observation.

I missed the Derek Holland interview (and a brief clip sounded interesting, where DH reports that he's still DH-like, even sang a little song),  Now they're talking to Dirk and it's a real nice conversation.  Greggo can sneer at their strategy of endearing themselves to athletes, but this is pretty good stuff.  I'm waiting for their actual sports talk -- looks like one more segment with Dirk.

They’re running CBS Sports Minutes reported  by Jim Rome.

Now they’re talking to some old-timey-sounding sports guy but I missed who it is.  [LATER:  Mike Fisher.]

And they’re rolling out DeMarcus Ware at 4:30.  [LATER:  Fun interview with him.]

Next is a segment called “The Other Part of the Paper”—non-sports stories.   Apparently some guy – they later identified him as an intern -- named Brendan – they later identified him as Smith -- is going to report on these stories, and I can’t believe it but they managed to find yet a third guy that sounds just like the two of them, especially now that they’re talking faster.  They’re talking about a bobcat sighting.   Needs some fine-tuning.  I'm resisting the thought that this may be Community Quick Hits.

Unusual jazz piano trio background music, kind of nice.  In fact, all of the background music is quite unusual.   I was so  intrigued by it, I found myself listening to the music and not the talking.

I’ve been listening for an hour and I haven’t heard an actual Ben and Skin segment.  I’ll tell you, I’m very startled by the near-manic pace of the segments.   Trying hard to have a goodo time.  Opening-night jitters?  Or a deliberate move to a new style of broadcasting?  I would appreciate if one of you familiar with their more recent work would report on whether this is a different sound for them.

You know  .  .  .  the show sounds just like this.

 Oh oh.  Oh oh.  Someone  -- I have no idea who – said “My favorite segments are the one where all four  of us (B, S, KT, and Brendan Smith) are talking.”  Through my drug-induced haze, I can’t tell if he was kidding.   Confidential to Ben and Skin:  I hope so.

Hmm.  Looks like a fairish amount of rap flavoring.

OK, here we go.  Ranger talk.   One thing I can say about it is that it is definitely Ranger talk.  I’m getting a Yahoo Sports Radio vibe.

I want to get this posted and let you guys have your say.  Small sample size but  .  .  .  man, there is just not much distinctive about the sound of this show.  I’ll look forward to a future shows when they’re not leaning on the interviews – four so far -- wait, five, looks like they're going to wedge Jon Daniels in before 6 PM – and talking about putting the show together.  (Or maybe the show will rely heavily on interviews all the time.  That would be unfortunate.)  As I sign off, they’re playing the intros they’ve created for Emily Jones, Tim Cowlishaw, and others.

And – I swear – they all kinda sounded the same.

Hey, listen -- this show deserves a more thoughtful review than this.  Really.  I don't want to be down on these guys after one show, it's not fair and the opening show isn't going to be representative of the day-to-day performance.   So take this drug-addled rambling for what it's worth.   

WAIT:  They're giving KT a shot for the next segment, can't sign off just yet.  He teased news about Beyonce and Barbara Walters.  I'm resisting the thought that this might be E-News.

Time for more narcotics.

And to check in on The Hardline.

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Twitter:  @Plainsman1310

Email:  ThePlainsman1310@gmail.com

(1) This Time, a Real Congratulations and Best Wishes, and (2) Lest We Forget

First, Kevin, an honest-to-god and not-pretend congratulations and wishes for every success at The Fan.  Yesterday, of course, I was guessing, although when I thought back to that weekend Ticker vacancy I'd seen a few days ago, I had a pretty strong inkling.  Now we know, and now I offer a hearty digital handshake and old-man slap on the back.

Although this is a Tickety site, we do survey the sports-talk radio horizon, as it says next to my little picture, so who knows?  You know that Confessors, perhaps even I, will write about the new giant-slayers offered by The Fan.  I hope you earn a blog with commenters every bit as loquacious and well-behaved as those who are gathering here.

And now, Confessors, back to the business at hand.

Many of you -- not all, but many -- have yearned for the day when The Fan was going to get some pitching in there to give you an alternative to The Hardline with which you have become increasingly annoyed and punching-out-on.   The OverCorby, Checkout Mike, Uberkuhl Danny, endless commercial breaks, many things have excited your ire.  Will there be enough of you to make a dent in The Hardline's ratings with your migration to Band S?

Many Confessors are doubting that Ben and Skin are the answer.  I recall their Ticket show with residual fondness, something I'd keep on the radio when it came on during Saturday errands.  Yes, I did weary of the Ben and Skin and Moebius Endless Self-Referential Conversational Loop from time to time, but it could be fought through.  Same with Ben & Skin Disease (sounding too much alike).  I didn't heard one second of their show on ESPN so don't know if they got cured of either of those things -- from what I'm reading, guess not.

But some of you are looking forward to it and are going to give it a fair shot.  Good.  No doubt I will give it a listen as well.

But before we get too enthusiastic about the possibility of an improved Hardline or a meaningful ratings nudge to Mike, Corby, and Danny, let's think back:

Don't think about what RaGE actually turned out to be -- think about what it started out to be:  A very, very heavily promoted, slickly-produced, well-planned show with a legendary former member of That Very Hardline During the Legacy Greatness Years who still had lots and lots of fans, paired with  a very well-known DFW sports writer and maybe the only one who worked in extended form, a big signal, network support, huge, really huge anticipation.  Later, they even got TV exposure and a saloon. Forget about how disappointing the actual product turned out to be -- think about the excitement at the beginning.

And for all that excitement and planning and promotion:  RaGE never,  not ever, not even at the outset when people might have been expected to check it out for awhile, had the slightest impact on The Hardline.  We have radio guys checking in to this site who can give us the details, but I do not remember the slightest burp in THL's ratings dominance or the margin of that dominance.

Are Ben and Skin, who debut with much less Fan-fare (sorry) and boasting likely to do better even if they are better than the Ben and Skin we've been hearing for the last half-dozen years or so?

[Side note:  Some time ago, and I mean well before the current changes, I heard from a local radio talent that he hated their show.  (Liked them personally.)]

Like everyone else, I'd like to see a more dedicated, mature, focused Hardline.  But Our Lads didn't bestir themselves to make improvements when RaGE hit the air and turns out they were right not to expend the additional energy.  Mike R saw better than anyone what was coming, and he correctly discerned  it to be nothing.

So while I will be investigating the new competition somewhere along the line, and wishing a good career move for our friend KT, and some meaningful shoving of The Hard Ones, based on past history I'm skeptical that we will see a ratings book that looks much different than the last several dozen.

You?

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Twitter:   @Plainsman1310

Email:  ThePlainsman1310@gmail.com

It's Kevin Turner

Think about it, Confessors.

The online scuttlebutt is that Ben & Skin are poaching some Ticket talent for their Fan show.  A Confessor to the last thread said that it was a young woman named Tara Artho who appears to have some Cumulus production duties.  Ms. Artho may indeed be moving, but I'm getting a rumble from the radio underground that it's a more familiar name.

Let's consider the Ticket JV:

Jake Kemp
T.C. Fleming
Ty Walker
Sean Bass
Mike Sirois
Mike Fernandez
Kevin Turner
Jeremy Moran
Killer Kellison
The Davids don't count
Danny Balis doesn't count
Tom Gribble

Maybe a couple I'm leaving out. Mitchell Karasik.

Every single one of these guys is very, very good at what he does, so don't any of y'all take any of this wrong.

Of that list, who has:

First, some producing/board/on-air chops, and

Second, the most to gain and the least to lose by departing The Ticket.

Jake's up-and-coming on the Station; Ty, Sean, Mike S, Mike F, Jeremy, Killer, Tom are all very established or already have shows, and a couple don't give off a producer vibe.

That leaves T.C. and KT.

T.C. has a lot of exposure already and, I think justifiably, believes that his day may yet come on The Ticket.

Leaving Kevin Turner.  Hardline whipping boy, all-'round scamp, and an insidious charm.  Lowest on the totem pole, least likely to find a slot for greater exposure.  Not to mention the fact that as I mentioned in a post a day or so ago, The Ticket is looking for a weekend Ticker guy.

Kevin, best of luck to you.  Hope you will drop by from time to time.

And if I'm wrong (imagine!) -- well, then, welcome back, KT!

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Twitter:  @Plainsman1310

Email: ThePlainsman1310@gmail.com

OPEN THREAD: Them Changes

Man, I had another article started, but I don't want to hex the mojo, know what I mean?

I don't have any new thoughts to share about Ben & Skin's contract situation.  I don't have any  new thoughts to share about the predicted demise of RaGE.  No new musings on the peripatetic Greggo.  Other than thinking that the half-hour I spent listening to the G-Bag Nation a few weeks ago was my most painful aural experience since they stopped using chalk on chalkboards, I don't have much to say about The Fan's overall presentation.  Since it is not possible for me to care less about ESPN, none of its changes, including Ben & Skin's departure, are quickening my pulse.  Nope, can't think of anything new to say about these things.

But I'll bet you can.

I'll get you started and I'm going to leave this thread up for a few days.  I think the rumblings are going to start getting closer to the surface.

I thought Ben & Skin were OK on The Ticket, and I know a lot of Confessors like them a lot.  I regret to say I don't think I heard more than ten minutes of their show on ESPN -- when I had discretionary radio time midday, I was building up my BaD listening hours.  My problem with them at the time was that while they were both really likable guys and the show was real sportsy, and they had a great intro, they spent way too much time commenting ironically on their own commentary, frequently getting stuck in a spiral of self-reference that brought the proceedings to a halt.  And the show suffered from what I came to call Ben & Skin Disease -- hosts that sound too much alike, a malady that I'm only now starting to get over on Cirque.  I am certain that a daily show probably required a more, shall we say, direct approach to broadcasting and if they pop up somewhere I'll be tuning in for a shakedown cruise.

Which I have selected as the hook for this open thread.

A commenter on the last thread gave a very nice multi-part analysis on why he thinks RaGE may be in the decline-and-fall mode, and there was a report that The Hardline had stated in terms that The Fan was looking for a new afternoon drive show.  And there has been some suggestion in these pages that that show might feature Messrs. Rogers and Wade.

Now, as I said a bit ago, my recent speculations have crashed and burned, so I'm not predicting that this hypothetical will take place.  But I will ask you to assume that Ben & Skin replace RaGE and compete against the last hour of BaD, WTDS, and all of The Hardline (if they time the shows at The Fan as they do now).

Do you think you might switch your allegiance from The Hardline (or 2-3 BaD) to Ben & Skin even after the initial curiosity wore off?  Of course, we don't know what a Ben & Skin show on The Fan would consist of, but assuming that you are somewhat favorably disposed to B&S, do you think they would give The Hardline a run for its money?

OK, what if they kept Sybil?

Go.

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Email:  ThePlainsman1310@gmail.com

Twitter: @Plainsman1310

Speak to Us, Gypo Nolan

I said I was going to move on from Where's Greggo Talk, but did not anticipate the gigantic response to the last post.  Thank you, Google.

Thought I'd throw up a quickie just to freshen up the thread, which I think also set some kind of record for this site.

Gypo Nolan is an occasional Confessor who brings us some inside dish from time to time that has the ring of authority.  I'm thinking he's heard something about Greg Williams's situation and could fill it in if he feels able to do so.

I suppose we'll all be tuning in at 2 PM tomorrow.  A commenter to the last thread has promised us that Greg will be broadcasting.  And I believe everything that anonymous commenters say, especially when they sound like The Girlfriend.

In the meantime, what's the scuttlebutt on Ben and Skin?  Headed to The Fan?  Good move or bad?

See you tomorrow at 2.

Little Weak Jeremy and Anonymous – It’s Just Confession! (PART 2)

Hope you are enjoying the game and JJTaylor’s play-by-play on Twitter. 

Confessors Little Weak Jeremy and Anonymous continue their discussion:

Little Weak Jeremy’s Point 4:

So, reflecting on all I've said so far, my conclusion is that what makes the Ticket so special is not the knowledge of any one host, or even the comedy of one host, but the entire Ticket community working together to build a rapport and history that the listeners can appreciate and come to love more and more as they grow more familiar with these deep, long-lasting relationships that ALL the shows and hosts have with each other.

Anonymous’s Response to Point 4:

I couldn't agree with you more where your conclusion about the cohesiveness of the station is the key to its success. In fact, you sort of make my point about the "dangers" (that's too strong and really silly a term here, but I'm sticking with it) of the niche audience and where the station might be heading in the coming years. Just like you say, it isn't about the knowledge or comedy of one host, it's the entire thing that makes it special.

Little Weak Jeremy’s Point 5: 

So to say that CDS [Cirque du Sirois] would never be more than just a Ben & Skin, I'd have to ask you, what's wrong with Ben & Skin? And if Ben & Skin had been at the Ticket for fifteen years, don't you think they'd have become a part of this family too, over the course of compounds and campouts and Ticketstocks and EVERYTHING extracurricular that the Ticket does?

Anonymous’s Response to Point 5: 

There is nothing wrong, per se, with Ben and Skin. And there's nothing wrong, per se, with CDS. Personally, I'm not a fan of either show (sans BAS Mavs talk, at which they are very knowledgeable). The shows, to me, are much the same; and they are also much like the shows found on sports/guy talk radio throughout the country (all based on the Little Ticket, by the way!). BAS were a weekend show and that's all they were ever going to be unless one of the daytimers went away (and even that wouldn't guarantee BAS a spot); they knew this and that's why they left. Furthermore, even if they didn't move over to ESPN, they weren't going on campouts, etc. because those events are reserved for the mainstays. (They did perform songs at Ticketstock while at the station.)  So . . . CDS is in the same spot as BAS was, and I think you know where that's going - that is, if you agree with what I'm saying.

Little Weak Jeremy’s Point 6: 

As to not getting "that sort of humor" that prevails on IJB [It's Just Banter], I reply, what's more shocking: (1) anything Jake Z has ever said, or (2) the AVERAGE Gordo's Corner? I submit that unless you're a major curse-phobe, the answer is No. 2.

Anonymous’s Response to Point 6:

Shock value is not the issue here. The issue is finding it funny. While I'll readily say that Gordo can go way over the line and spew out garbage with no redeeming value other than, it seems, to see if he can annoy/get away with it, his brand of humor more often than not has some depth to it. From what I've heard of IJB, that isn't the case. I'm sorry, but "space is gay" was funny the first time or two; even the very first Ribby Paultz is still funny. But here's where the age thing rears its head.

Little Weak Jeremy’s Conclusion:

So, my point through all of this is that I think the Ticket will survive. Other stations may do a similar sports/guy-talk mix, but NOBODY goes above and beyond with the extra events, roundtables, and community-building exercises that the Ticket does all the time. This truly is a family, not just a collection of random hosts. I think when it comes time to add a new family member, it may take that new guy a little time to find his stride, but I have no doubt that the Ticket will continue even through the departure of the bigger names, if they keep the current model they have going right now. The family is all.

Anonymous’s Response to LWJ’s Conclusion:

I can't agree more with the first part of your summation. As to the second part, I hope that you're right. However, if The Soul Patch, giving Jake Z and TC a show, or the likes is any indication of where they're going, then I fear that you're, alas, wrong.

And that’s where things stood after Round 1.  Each followed up with one more comment each, which will appear as Part 3 in a couple of days.   Pretty good stuff, no?  Thanks again to Little and Anon.

*     *     *
Follow Your Plainsman on Twitter:  @Plainsman1310

Confessors: Report

Need a hand here, loyal and loquacious Confessor Nation.

I liked Ben and Skin on Saturdays on The Ticket.  Oh, sure, I'd bang my head on the steering wheel when they'd get into one of their endless self-referential hyper-irony loops.   And the problem of hosts sounding too much alike I came to call Ben-and-Skin Disease.  But their show was pretty good, they were smart and could be funny and they knew their sports-stuff, I thought.  The show had a very different sound which I found appealing (when I wasn't steering-wheel-banging-of-head).  I was sorry when they moved on.  I regret to say I have never heard one of their ESPN broadcasts.

(Also, I liked the little girl singing "Ben and Skin" to "My Darling Clementine," and the "Ben and Skin Show" guy doing that overdubbed lower-register vamp.)

I always thought Bob Ortegel was OK, whenever I was able to catch the Mavs.  But the fact is that Mrs. Plainsman is not interested in the Mavs and my evenings are usually spent on domestic interactions that do not allow even radio Mavs listening. 

So I have heard absolutely zero broadcasts with Mr. Followill and Mr. Ortegel and Mr. Skin.  (No, not that Mr. Skin.)

I thought that The Hardline today was particularly good on the departure of Mr. O from the Mavs' broadcasts.  They were complimentary to Ortegel's many years of good service.  They were also quite gracious to Skin, I thought.   They could have been snotty about Skin, a Ticket refugee and current competitor, but they weren't.   In fact, in general, they thought the Skin/Ortegel color combo was working OK.    (And, later, they were  complimentary to former-colleague-and-current competitor Big Dick Hunter in his speaking-truth-to-power address to the Mayor and City Council about the Vick key-to-city disaster.)   It was another good Hardline day.

Here's my request to the Nation:  Did anyone out there listen to the Followill/Ortegel/Skin broadcasts?   What was your reaction to the whole thing?  I'd be grateful for your report.

==================

Also:  I found it interesting that RJ Choppy -- Greggo the Hammer Williams's former broadcast partner -- emailed in during the discussion of Corby's invite to the Mav's game.   Obviously, Choppy was listening to The Ticket, not to his former pard.  (Who had let Choppy down, of course, with his claimed mismanagement of what must have been massive prescription meds.)

TORN FROM TODAY'S TICKET HEADLINES -- Who's the Twit Here?

[NOTE:  This post was re-edited 12-11-20 AM to cut out excess verbiage and unnecessary material.  All opinions, even the ludicrous ones, remain intact from original composition.]

First, a gigantic thanks to the incomparable AP for providing Your Plainsman with today's audio and some of the Twitter traffic on the C.J. Wilson contretemps. By the way, AP, that tweet about the other CJ looking at his phone waiting for a call was a real sweet stroke.

I don’t have any better theories about “what happened” than AP himself – I assume AP is a male – which he was kind enough to offer as a comment to my prior post. He writes:

“My take is that Junior was perhaps quick to burn the bridge between KTCK and CJ Wilson with his tweet, and that the fault probably lies with a handler situated between MLB.com and Fernando:

“CJ <-> Agent <-> Handler 1 <-> MLB.com <-> Handler 2 <-> Fernando <-> Musers

“I'm assuming that Handlers 1 and 2 are under the employ of MLB.com, and a game of 'broken telephone' ensued, leading to the accusations of lying by both parties.”

Yeah, almost had to be something like that. Personally, I would not have been so quick to assume that Wilson was being culpably untruthful here. He may have realized right off that there was a screwup and even though he knew he was going to be doing calls that day, he tried to smooth it over by saying that he wasn’t scheduled to do radio that day. Covering for the various intermediaries AP identifies above. But he didn’t think fast enough, because that questionable attempt at diplomacy was quickly punctured when it emerged (via his own tweet) that he was going to do another Dallas show, Ben & Skin.

By the way – I haven’t heard whether he did do Ben & Skin later on. Anybody know?

Has Wilson ever been on the Musers? Does he have a past relationship with any other Ticket showgram?

So what are we to make of this dust-up? . A couple of thoughts.

(1) Fernando/Craig/Gordon May Have Overreacted Even if They’re Right that Wilson Was Being Mendacious. Quite aside from the right/wrong of this episode, was it prudent to make an enemy of Wilson so promptly and on the air? Without any further investigation?  Who is going to win when a local radio station, even one as popular as The Ticket, cheeses off a superstar for a team on the rise, a team where he has lots of pals who The Ticket would like to interview?

And this is taking place against a backdrop of intensified competition from at least one of the local competitors who would only be too happy to call up Rangers PR and say "You know, no one at this station has ever called one of your players a liar on the air."

Look:  I'm all in favor of integrity.  And, as noted elsewhere, we like it that our boys our fearless when dealing with the big shots, including their own bosses.  I'm only musing (!) that sometimes there is a price to pay for fearlessness, and maybe our lads will pay it here.

(2) Maybe There’s Something Else Going on Here.  Maybe this isn’t a Wilson/Ticket issue. Maybe Wilson is having issues with MLB. Or with Rangers PR. And this is his way of gigging that entity.

Or maybe there’s a long-simmering problem between Wilson and The Ticket not directly related to today’s FUBAR. Somebody knows. Somebody will disclose it to Your Ticket Confession, perhaps in confidence.

Or maybe he heard something on the station between the time he agreed to do the interview and this morning that didn’t sit well with him.

Or how about this? (Ooo, this is delicious:)  This was orchestrated between Wilson and Ben & Skin.   As noted, he’s appeared with them frequently, maybe they’re pals. Maybe this was a way to pwn The Ticket (former home of BS) and promote BS.  As Gordon has noted:  in the absence of evidence, the conspiracy explanation must be the correct one.  I was retracing Gordon's LHO Trail of Tears just the other day and I could have sworn I saw Greggo behind the fence at the top of that grassy knoll.

(3) How Important Is The Ticket?  Can you imagine any other outlet being stood up like that and doing anything other than smoothing it over, saying there’d been a mixup or technical problem, and they’d reschedule, and no one would be the wiser? Of course, the fact that The Ticket does not do things this way is one of the reasons we love it so much. And I’m glad they blew up – it’s fun for listeners and website journalists. But there was more than a touch of hubris in today’s proceedings. They called the Rangers’ (current) number 1 starter a liar because they think they can.

(4) How Much of What Happened Today Is the Result of Inter-Showgram Competition?  As you know, Your Plainsman enjoys the sport of listening between the words to figure out what goes on at The Ticket other than broadcast greatness.  It results in wild guesses and probably many wrong ones -- I've had certain people in the know tell me I'm right about a third of the time, and others tell me that I'm amazingly accurate, so who knows; all I can tell you is that I'm guessing.  Here's my guess about this one:

The Musers could not have been happy about being pwn’d by a big-time interviewee which would unquestionably carry with it the prospect of BaD and The Hardline snickering behind their backs. They had to call it out and deal with it right then and there in a way that gave them a victory of sorts.  They had to acknowledge it -- they had to turn disaster into broadcast gold, which they did, which is why Ticket connoisseurs like AP got in touch with me, and I'm writing a big article about it, and P1 Steven and Christy and Scott and Douglas and several flavors of Anonymous are going to comment on it, and take that, BaD and Hardline snickerboys.

I also have a feeling that the brunt of the natural (and healthy) friction between these big-time showgrams is frequently borne by the producers. Which accounts for Fernando feeling particularly abused by these circumstances.

One thing is bloody sure --

(5) We Haven’t Heard the End of This. So let’s get started. Comments open . . . 3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . . now.