June 14, 2012

7:10 a.m. -- Doyle!

7:42 a.m. -- Non-Ticket note:  The gig took me to Beverly Hills this week.   Stayed at the Beverly Hilton, where Whitney Houston's and John Edwards's careers came to an end, and, I suspect, many more got started.  (Cue Vivaldi music.)    I had a couple of hours to kill so I walked north about a mile to a historical site I always wanted to visit:  810 North Linden Drive, where, on June 20, 1947, a sniper put four .30-caliber slugs into the head of Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel while reading the paper.  Ben reading the paper, not the sniper.

810 North Linden Drive, where Siegel was living with Virginia Hill, played by Madonna in the movie

Before, arguably better-looking than Warren Beatty

RIP

Apologies for the non-Ticket content.

8:24 a.m. --  Has any show mentioned the death of Teofilo Stevenson?  He was the one international fighter deemed Muhammed Ali's potential equal, but he never went pro.  http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/13/sports/teofilo-stevenson-cuban-boxing-great-dead-at-60.html?ref=obituaries

10:15 a.m. --  So I'm driving to the airport at 4:40 Tuesday morning listening to the rebroadcast of The Top Ten, and I hear T.C. say that he wished that the media would cover The Ticket and its internal goings-on just like The Ticket does with sports.  I don't have the words quite right, but that was the gist of it.   I found that surprising coming from T.C.

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Email Your Plainsman:  ThePlainsman1310@gmail.com



More Drydock Quick Hits from Confessor Doug -- Part 2

I was going to wait a few more days before I posted the rest of Confessor Doug’s blasts, but there seemed to be a Rich Phillips thread developing from his last post, so I thought I’d better get this into print.

Before I get to them, just a note on private emails:  I love them, love hearing from the Confessor Nation.  Give me good guidance of what’s of interest, and they frequently contain information I lack from my own listening over the past few years.  Unfortunately, my time is very limited.  I sometimes work six or seven days a week, I have a long commute, and there’s always Mrs. Plainsman who needs my time and attention back at the old sod house.   As much as I might like to engage in a private back-and-forth, my blog time – and I have another non-anonymous blog that is being severely neglected as this site has started to get some traction – must unfortunately be devoted to what goes onto the site. 

However, if you have some thoughts to share, please do feel free to contact me privately.  I may not have time for a point-by-point response, but if I think your thoughts are well-stated and interesting, I’d be delighted to post them – but only with your permission, which Doug was kind enough to grant in this case.  And, as I mentioned a few articles ago, I might just invite frequent posters to offer a guest blast now and then.  (Although my own topic list is growing and, alas, is in some cases somewhat stale.)  

Many, many thanks to anyone who writes.  If you have information for me that you would prefer that I keep confidential – I’ve had a couple of those the past year – I will honor that.

Herewith, the balance of Doug’s recent musings.  And thanks again, Doug.

     -- Plainsman

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Doug on Rich Phillips and Jean-Jacques Taylor

I know you [addressing Your Plainsman] like him, but Rich Phillips has been a Ticker Guy for 15 years for a reason. I actually love his Tickers. They're informative, to the point, and provide just a touch of snide commentary, but to me, as a host he just doesn't have it.  I feel like Rich isn't secure enough with himself to be a solid host at a station that is known for ball busting. Every playful hypothetical directed towards him is shot down without any sort of delay or suspension of reality. Yes, we understand that Dan doesn't dress his daughters up as the 1995 Indians every time Albert Belle has a birthday. They're playing radio. But Rich doesn't mess around. He has a sort of aggressive defensive demeanor that isn't becoming of a Ticket host. Oddly enough the only guy his chemistry works well with to me is Donovan, but I think that speaks more about the talent and flexibility of Donnie Doo.

JJ Taylor is new. I haven't listened to him enough to have a solid opinion on him, other than he seems like the type to say something shocking because his job is to write content worth reading, whether or not he believes it. But since he's new, he doesn't take the mic with the command he should. It seems like he keeps waiting for a subject to be kicked to him.

Doug on Doyle King

I’m tired of Doyle segments. Now that he knows the bit, he tries too hard to be Doyle. He said some time back that because he was on The Ticket he got way more voice over work. So I imagine he sees dollar signs whenever the Musers ask to do an 840 with him (or maybe Doyle does the asking). I liked it when he was an organic nut job. Now it seems too forced.

Doug (a Professional Copywriter) on Some Recent Ads

I love the ad posts you do (naturally) [hey, thanks!] because since I started listening to The Ticket and its ads when I was 11, I grew an affinity to radio ads. It pains me that I’m currently at a job that doesn’t do radio, because it’s my favorite medium, and one that is so frequently screwed up. The two that kill me right now are:

The In Touch Credit Union spot with the woman and Aubre (but I want to say his name in the spot is Jeff). The spot starts with the guy saying he wants to have a talk and the woman, hopeful, saying “is this what I think it is?” and surprise! They’re both alking about In Touch Credit Union! Then the guy says “so let’s do it!” The girl: “I already did it.” Guy:  “glad we had this talk.” Are you kidding me? No conflict, no payoff liner, no attempt at humor or any point of interest. Why even pay for two voice actors? Awful.

Then the Just Brakes ad. That script has been the same since I started listening. I’m sure you’ve heard it. It’s a phone call between a Just Brakes rep and a customer, yet you can hear them both clearly. Neither of them has a phone effect on their voice. And after 12 years (at least) don’t you think the message has become just a touch stale?

A Doyle King Sampler

"Hollywood" Matt Shannon has checked in with some links to Doyle King's fine work in other media ventures.  You can find them in his comment to this article on Doyle King and why he should be the permanent traffic guy. 

My Ticket Confession thanks Hollywood for his patronage and for providing Confessors with a little slice of the greatness of the Doyle King Experience.

Seriously -- Why Can't We Have Doyle King for Traffic Every Day? And I'm Putting Barb Smith and Alexis Smith in This Title So Google Searchers Will Find This Site, Even if They're Only Looking for Photos

Alexis Smith, Dallas Radio Traffic Twist, is a beautiful young woman.  And I like beautiful women of all ages.  In fact, a significant portion of traffic to this website consists of people looking for information on the Smiths, Alexis and Barb.  It only hurts my feelings a little bit.

And Barb is also a beautiful woman, in my judgment.  And she was very sweet to check in with My Ticket Confession following her departure from KTCK and let us know she was doing OK.  She is most welcome any time.  (Barb, how the blazes are you?  I'm here to tell you there are many listeners eager for news of you, so let the Confessor Nation hear from you.)

Actually, I think the Tickheads and Confessors who are seeking Barb Smith and Alexis Smith information  are actually looking for pictures.

And I like to drive traffic to this site, so I'm going to copy some pictures here, although I only know of one recent unadulterated picture of Barb, that is:

There are a couple of more purporting to be Alexis, whose image is apparently also a favored destination of Dallas radio aficionados, so they can enjoy this one:

Alexis does an admirable job delivering the mostly-irrelevant traffic.  In fact, she does such a good job that one tends not to pay the slightest attention to her, just as one does with most traffic reports.  Whenever I hear Alexis's voice, I turn my head toward it and see -- my radio.  Which looks nothing like her.  (Alexis, Confessors await your instructions, which I would be pleased to convey via the Comments section.)

But I come today in praise of Doyle King.  A Confessor must confess that, to the mainstream Tickhead, he is not as cute as Barb or Alexis:

But even when all he is doing is delivering the traffic -- no schtick, no call-outs for a Dallas sports team, no telling stories about his wild past -- he is still very entertaining to listen to.  There's just something about the music of that voice, slick and radio-polished though it may be.

So my question is:  Why can't we have Doyle every single day?  What does he do when he's not filling in?  Wikipedia reports:  "He currently serves as a traffic producer for Traffic.com, a Navteq company, and substitute traffic director at SportsRadio 1310 The Ticket as well as an occasional 'Plus One' show host on days when more prominent guests are not in studio."   I've never heard him as a Plus-One, although he may have done that in the past that I've missed.  And it is inconceivable to me that a "traffic producer" does anything whatsoever except wait to be called to fill in at The Ticket.

So, as lovely as the Smiths are, why can't we have Doyle King every single day?  He might be the only guy in Dallas who could make traffic an actual draw for the showgrams.

But he probably won't drive much traffic to My Ticket Confession.

Prediction: Jason Walker . . .

.  .  .  will never win an E-Brake of the Week.

I think we should all email the Hardline and demand that they interview Jason Walker to get his story, just like they did with Doyle King.

But I do wonder what happened to Ms. Smith.  Someone out there knows, someone who reads this blog.  Some anonymous source.  I fear it isn't a happy parting, which would be too bad.  She was good for a laugh now and then, if not for a coherent account of trouble on our roadways.  And she was a pretty good sport about the pranks. 

Perhaps she has joined the Obama administration.

All Right, I'll Bite -- Where Is Barb Smith?

Not that I miss her largely incoherent traffic reports, but I thought I would see something on the Internets about her absence or outright departure.  Nope. 

Anyone out there have a notion of what's happened to her?

If Ms. Smith is out, I see no reason that we should have to listen to anyone other than Doyle King.  This Jason guy whose last name I used to be able to remember is OK, if you're interested in traffic, but Doyle elevates useless traffic reporting to an art form, where one actually listens to the thing even though aware that it's probably a good hour-and-a-half behind the actual events on the roadway.  So if we have to have the advertising segments extended by useless traffic fibs, we ought at least to be able to enjoy being fibbed to by the magnificent Doyle.

What? He Needs a Holiday?

I've said it before , I'll say it again, and I"ll probably say it in the future:

When incumbent Barb Smtih is unavailable, there is no reason whatsoever that we should have to listen to anyone other than Doyle King doing the traffic.  I'm sure Jason Walker, or whoever it was this morning, is a decent chap, but if you want credible traffic it has got to be Doyle.

I mean, it's not like the guy needs a vacation.

Frankly, her e-brake value aside, I'm not sure there's a lot of reason for him not to do it when she is available.  I was driving towards a traffic situation she was attempting to describe one morning, and it was so garbled and unpunctuated I couldn't tell if the Tollway was open or closed.  I listened for the next traffic report and she hadn't improved.

Where's Doyle?

Why should we ever have to listen to anyone but Doyle King when Barb Smith is absent (as she ever more frequently is)?