Train Station and Other Extremely Quick Hits

--  George DiGianni is doing a show featuring (among other things) genital herpes with a Dr. Cockerell.

--  George can make fun of himself.  His GenoStim ads now feature drops from his show, and today he remarked in the course of the keep-locker-rooms sanitary discussion that he always goes home to shower because, among other reasons, "I don't want to see a bunch of swinging sausages."  Then he paused; then said he was waiting for his engineer/op to make it into a drop.

--  Kevin Turner with Tickerman duties today.  The Mitchell Kerasik Watch is on hold.

--  A commenter on the last thread observes:  "From the comments made prior to and during the letter of suggestions from a listener that Corby read, it's pretty obvious that Rhyner doesn't care for listener input or opinion, period. Which leads me to believe that if he is aware of this site, he must loathe it." 

I think this is probably correct.  Of course, we would all like our favorite hosts to like us.  Even though this site is mostly highly supportive of The Hardline and worshipful of Mike R's legend, it's the slice that doesn't fall under the "mostly" part of the pie that probably rankles.  And who could blame him or any other Ticketarian who doesn't like MTC?  Would you like someone commenting on your job performance every few days, slicing and dicing your every inflection, and anonyously to boot?  No.  So I've never introduced myself to any Ticket host and probably will keep my distance from the larger specimens of that group for the forseeable future.

--  So, are we about to experience another Greggo eruption?  There is some suggestion that he has been mysteriously absent from RaGE the last couple of days.  Dare I type those legendary words: 

Where's Greggo?

 

 

More George DiGianni Talk

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If you follow the comments, you will know that in response to the prior post a Confessor called attention to George DiGianni's apparently rather shabby treatment of an elderly guest on his Train Station Fitness Show yesterday morning.   Check it out HERE. I was surprised at the commentary about George this called forth, so I thought I'd make it a topic.  One of the comments reports that a bird told him that this thread has received some attention from Ticket luminaries.

Yes, this is probably the most ink George DiGianni has had under any name. I'd be surprised if it doesn't drive his listenership up by a dozen or so souls for the next week or so, as this site's massive audience tunes in to see what all the fuss is about.

I have been listening to The Train Station Fitness show for quite awhile. The foregoing comments are accurate. I am not knowledgable about fitness matters, but I am skeptical of much of the supplement-based, anti-med-establishment advice the show offers, as well as the rather extreme dietary proscriptions. And yep, George can be a bully.

Let me throw out some positive things:

(1) He keeps his show on-topic. And when I say that I mean not only does he try to guide his guests to emphasize the announced theme for the show, but he also does not over-promote his own services. He mentions them, but the Train Station Fitness Show is not an infomercial. By its own lights, it is substantive and informative.

(2) He has helped Bob Sturm become less doughy many, many times (including presently, I think), and I believe that other Ticket hosts, including (if I recall correctly) Craig Rosengarden and George Dunham, have used his services to good, if perhaps temporary effect.  (My unhappy thoughts on Bob's promos may be found HERE.) 

Mark Followill is something of a disciple and was George's guest a couple of weeks ago. He's kept up with most of George's advice (although George berated him for eating bananas during distance running events! -- too much sugar) since first consulting him. I'm sure that if you had the discipline to do what George says, you'd look and feel better. But man, he's tough on both diet and exercise.  I suppose that's what it takes.

(3) I once heard a guest on his show who I thought could benefit a friend of mine. I forgot the name and dropped George an email. He responded promptly and politely with her name and contact information.

(4) He played along perfectly with a Hardline prank on Michael Gruber, calling him to berate him for the stitched-together Train Station promos Grubes would put together.

So George is certainly a piece of work, a highly-disciplined and tightly-wound piece of work. He may be wrong on the science and medicine, but certainly if you don't mind shopping at -- well hell, I have no idea where you would buy the narrow range of unprocessed foods of which he approves -- and burst training, and, yes, some "supplements" now and then, and -- ewww -- a good thorough "cleansing," you would probably look and feel better. You'd be miserable, unless you were Mark Followill, but you'd look and feel better.   Despite his anti-med-establishment stance, you can't deny that less sugar, and more and proper exercise, will do you good.

And, as a couple of Confessors have noted, it's pretty interesting local-sourced radio first thing on the weekend.

George, since you've taken it in the shorts here, let me at least steer people to your websites:

http://georgedejohn.org/

http://21daybodymakeover.com/

We should at least tune in next week to see if he addresses the granny incident.  And to see if Bob Sturm finally gets cleansed.

Ladies and Gentlemen: George DiGianni

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FKA George DeJohn, Inventor of the

21-Day Full Body Cleanse,

Currently Being Experienced by Bob Sturm

for the Ninth or Tenth Time



June 2, 2012

8:57 p.m. -- Random thoughts while waiting for Yu v. C.J. (My Fox Sports SW in HD is currently unavailable on Time-Wanker.  Anyone else having that problem?)

I did not hear Mike's musings about starting another radio station.  But I think that remarks like that are quite significant.

Now, for those who think -- not without some jusification -- that some on this site, and perhaps even Your reasonable Plainsman himself -- are being alarmist, let me say the following:

I DO NOT THINK MIKE IS ABOUT TO QUIT.  I DO NOT THINK HE IS ASSEMBLING AN INVESTOR GROUP TO BUY ANOTHER STATION.  I THINK HE WILL BE WITH THE TICKET FOR QUITE SOME TIME, MOST LIKELY UNTIL HE RETIRES FOR GOOD.  IT'S NOT A SURE THING, BUT THE ODDS STRONGLY FAVOR IT.

It's not what he said, but that he said it, that is significant.  This site and Confessors have speculated, I think with quite reasonably, that the CTO has come down hard on public trashing of Cumulus.  Since then, we've heard two floutings of that rule:  (1) The Hardline talking about fixing the remote trucks, and (2) Mike's musings on starting a new station -- a competitor to his employer.

I know he's the Old Grey Wolf, and thank God for it.  But if we needed any further evidence that there are titanic struggles going on behind the scenes, this is it.  Mike could not care less about Cumulus edicts.

Things may be calming down after Jake's suspension, but we haven't heard the last of host dissatisfaction with Cumulus's treatment of The Ticket.

Here's the deal:  Radio is a tough, tough business.  I studied up on it some years ago and decided not to get into it.  It's tougher now.  To make money in it, you have to watch your costs.  I appreciate that.  But when you have amazing talent who have single-handedly created a ratings juggernaut, you can't treat that channel like it was some generic pop-rock flop.  

I am guessing that part of what is happening here is that the move to Victory has accelerated Cumulus's attempted assimilation of The Ticket into a corporate policy into which it does not fit.  I am guessing that there is resentment of The Ticket's success and uniqueness among the traditional radio management types, and they're flexing their management muscles to bring our sports/guy-talk heroes into line.  We'll show them how to succeed in radio!! 

It's crap, of course, and Mike and the others know it, and they know that they're being big-timed by ignorant suits.  They're still working out what they can do about it.  Again, I hope our guys have strong agents and lawyers.

9:09 p.m. --   Tried to listen as much of the channel as possible today.

George DeJohn - TeeBox handoff:  The topic was NYC Mayor Bloomberg's  ban on large sweetened drinks, and George made reference to some policy that would make him "bang my head against the wall."  Craig said something like "I'd like to see that" and chuckled,  and I thought George might check out at that point, but he soldiered on.  TeeBox sound -- there has got to be something that they do on that remote that they don't do on other remotes, because Rick's and Craig's voices simply sound dreadful.  It's like someone loosened something in the mics.  Sorry to rag on TeeBox audio on remotes, but there's something going on there that needs to be fixed.  (Not related to Victory move -- it's been this way for quite some time.) 

A couple of very snarky references to the Joe Morgan show.  I didn't note where I heard them, but at least one of them was on Cirque.   The JM shoe is indeed a massive punchout.


9:20 p.m. -- Laughed out loud several times during The Orphanage today.   The bit on cruising Knox City in Danny's buddy's '57 Chevy Bel Air hardtop had me laughing out loud in the new Conestoga.  (Yes, I traded the Jeep SRT8.) 
9:54 p.m. --  I was in 104.1 territory this afternoon.  It faded in and out from time to time.

10:25 p.m. --  Just checked my hits.  Whoa, through the roof the past several days.  Many thanks to everyone who has checked in.  Thank You for Shopping at My Ticket Confession.

May 29, 2012

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7:40 a.m. -- Playing around with something different.  With my time availability dwindling and likely to dwindle further, I'm going to try to get quick hits up from time to time for whatever interest they may have, but mainly to provide a continuing and occasionally refreshed forum for those who care enough to leave a comment.

The usual articles and thought pieces will continue to appear as I'm able to get to them.  I invite anyone with a hankerin' to write a piece to drop me an email, and, of course, I will be pirating emails to generate content for this space either anonymously or credited (with permission only). 

In any given day, there may be added material that will be headed by the time it was posted, thrown up as things occur to me.

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I was out of town over the weekend.  Did The Orphanage comment on last week's technical disasters (I understand they had some technical challenges of their own)?

Did George DeJohn and the TeeBox have a real handoff on Saturday?  (The prior weekend the handoff was torpedoed by the worse TeeBox transmission quality ever, and the week before that, I 1think, was the George D-Craig R tiff.)

Does anyone have any information on Greg Williams's medical condition?

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1:35 p.m. -- We hear from folks who think I'm (and some commenters are) overblowing the whole Ticket technical crisis.  Entirely possible they're right.  The show does manage to go on, mostly.  

But the commenters here and to the site that T4 directs us to (see comments to this post), including a well-known local broadcaster, makes the same point I made a week or so ago -- when things go bad and good people start to leave, everything suffers.  Not just the ability to stick plug A into port A, but morale, initiative, the desire to do well, the desire to come to work every day.  It shows in the product, and, eventually, it will show in the cast of characters who emerge on the air.

Can We Get a Report on Today's Mix 'n' Mingle Between George DeJohn and the TeeBox?

Was able to hear a little of the Train Station Fitness Show but wasn't near the channel at 8 AM.  Can we get a witness?

Junior Wipes Out!!

[Formerly titled, "Junior Craps Out!!]

This one's a little stale, sorry.  Actually, more than a little.

Readers will know that Craig Miller is one of this site's fave raves.  I won't go over his many merits at this time.  Suffice it to say that Your Plainsman appreciates his analytical approach to SPORTS and his dry sense of humor.  I"ve been surprised in the last couple of months to have received some Junior blowback -- some find him sarcastic and thin-skinned and superior-seeming, and there's some truth to that, but those outbreaks are rare and don't sppreciably move the needle for me on the Junior baconometer.

But he said something a few weeks ago that has required that I conduct an agonizing reappraisal.

I don't recall how it came up, but the subject was -- toilet paper.

I was astounded to hear Craig say that he preferred the very softest of toilet papers.  I believe he may even have mentioned Charmin. 

Why would he say a thing like that?  Maybe it's all those rough bike rides on those skinny little seats  .  .  .  .

It was also rather disturbing that neither George nor Gordon upbraided him severely for this.

Men, Junior being one -- true men, real men, I mean -- do not use Charmin.  They use Scott or other more manly, less  .  .  .  girly, less  .  .  .  liquid toilet papers.  In fact, Scott is really the only TP choice for a man, at least since Sears quit publishing catalogues.

Mrs. Plainsman and I were dining once with another couple some years ago and this very subject came up.  Who knows how.  The other man and I were Scott men.  The ladies, Charmin.  We guys said almost the same thing, simultaneously -- when required to use Charmin under extreme duress, we felt unclean even after using the reams of Charmin required to accomplish the task.

So I would implore Junior to reconsider his preference in this regard. 

At a minimum, arrange a consult on the topic with George DeJohn, who knows a thing or two about cleansing.

Now I Can Die

I heard Rick Arnett and George DeJohn talking romance (not with one another) on The Train Station Fitness Show this morning. 

Actually, as odd as that sounds, it was pretty good.  I mean, they're right that:

(1) You should continue to date your wife.

(2) Spouses should avoid complacency about their health and appearance.

Hard to argue with that. 

While We're on the Subject of Absolutely Baffling Ticket Host Product Endorsements . . .

In the previous article I painstaking analyzed the All-Pro Foundation Repair and (to a lesser extent) Bakers Brothers Plumbing ads in which almost the entire galaxy of Ticket stars convert their apparently ramshackle houses into a nice endorser’s paycheck .

Today, I heard an ad that made my brain freeze, as though a Zen master had posed an insoluble dilemma that brought all the conundrums of the eons into a single concentrated point originating from SportsRadio 1310 The Ticket.

It was Bob Sturm’s ad for the 21-Day Full Body Cleanse.

Phrase after phrase, my neurons violently resisted the assimilation of what I was hearing.

Before I get to a point-by-point exegesis: the 21-Day Full Body Cleanse is a program offered by the Ticket weekend host of The Train Station Fitness Show, one Mr. George DeJohn.  You can find more information about it here.

George DeJohn, host of The Train Station Fitness Show,

Saturdays at 7 AM on SportsRadio 1310, The Ticket

If you visit that site, you can both see and hear a testimonial by Bob. By the way, I am a regular listener to The Train Station Fitness Show on my way to work at 7 a.m. on Saturdays, and I urge you to get up early and tune in as well.  I’m serious. It’s a fun show and George is a fascinating host. (And it is followed by the excellent TeeBox with Rick Arnett and Craig Rosengarden, who always engage in a jousting mix/mingle with George, and the TeeBox leads you quite naturally to The Orphanage with non-orphans Danny Balis and Dave Lane at 10 am.)

There are three things in Bob’s radio ad that make my brain tiny:

(1) Bob begins his testimony by stating that he goes for the 21-Day Full Body Cleanse when “I’m feeling a little doughy.”

Say, now there is one damned fetching image for you.

Bob Sturm, “doughy.”

That is, having about his person unwanted weight which puts one in mind of “dough.”

Look at this man. Fix his image in your mind. (Ignore the spare hand growing from his elbow. It belongs to Dan McDowell. I hope he grows on me, too.) Now close your eyes and imagine him “doughy.” I’m sorry, eventually you will have to open your eyes and rejoin a world that has been introduced to the concept of “doughy Bob Sturm.”

(2) The ad and even the website are rather coy on what a “21-Day Full Body Cleanse” amounts to, but since this is a weight loss program, we may surmise that it has something to do with transporting material – dirty material, material that requires cleansing – from the inside of one's doughy body, to outside of it, thus subtracting it from one’s total weight.

This may be one of the downsides of an active imagination, but when I hear Bob extolling the greatness of the 21-Day Full Body Cleanse, all I can think of is what dirty cleansable effluvia Bob is expelling from his Full Body (and a doughy one at that) in order to achieve Cleansing.

And now that I’ve pointed this out to you, you won’t be able to, either.

(3) Bob says that the 21-Day Full Body Cleanse “stops all unwanted cravings” (apparently leaving the desirable cravings intact) and breaks unhealthful addictions. That’s a good thing, is it not? Well, yes – but then Bob says that he’s done it five times.

One of the benefits of being a mature adult male is that you can remember a bunch of old stale jokes. And the one that comes to mind upon hearing this particular bit of testimony is the one that goes: “It’s easy to quit smoking. I’ve done it twenty or thirty times.”

Which – and check me on this if my logic is impaired – means that the 21-Day Full Body Cleanse does not stop unwanted cravings at all – it merely interrupts them for 21 days. After which time you do what all dieters do, which is to reward yourself for your 21 days of denial and newly scrubbed innards by binging on Gordon Keith-endorsed Hostess Cakesters and both servings of the Real Deal at the Hardline-endorsed Texas Land & Cattle, where you celebrate your liberation from the once-daily 21-Day Full Body Cleanse shake – Bob says there’s just one shake a day – by consuming both the cattle and the land.

* * *

I like and admire Bob Sturm. I like the Train Station Fitness Show and I wish I looked like George DeJohn and had his pipes. I very much regret the dough that has accumulated longitudinally and latitudinally around the manly core of my being, my image appearing on the upper left of this page notwithstanding.

But I ask myself whether Bob’s eeewwww-provoking endorsement of a one-shake-a-day diet that must be purchased with considerable frequency to combat chronic doughiness through appalling-to-imagine emetic processes is penetrating the beer/SoCo Lime/JR’s Steakhouse-Grill/Sean Salisbury Twin Peaks/Ticket junk-food-remotes consciousness of the dedicated P1.

As I sit here at a bar, finishing my second martini, composing this article and watching Nebraska kick the living bee-jeebers out of Kansas State, knowing that I have an eight-piece all-dark Popeye's chicken dinner congealing out on my back seat, I'm thinking that if God had wanted us to engage in three-week cleansing programs on a regular basis, He would have -- hell, I don't have the slightest fracking idea.

MARCHING ORDERS (1): Go to Bed Now, and Tune in to The Teebox at 8 AM Saturday on SportsRadio 1310 AM, 104.1 FM, The Ticket

A real darned nice showgram, even if you're not a golfer, as I am not.

And you never know when Craig Rosengarden will issue forth yet another classic drop.

If you're really ambitious, and batshit crazy, you can tune it at 7 AM and hear the Train Station Fitness Show with George DeJohn.

Have a fine holiday, Confessors all.

As Long as We Have to Have Fight Night . . .

.  .  .  I have a few suggestions.  Yes, it's true I don't like Fight Night, but I had these gags kicking around, so thought I'd dig them out of the scrap heap. 

     --   Dr. William Boothe v. Dr. Gary Tylock

     --   The CEO of D and M Leasing v. the CEO of AutoFlex Leasing

     --   The battle of the Smiths -- Barb v. Alexis

     --   George DeJohn v. the KFC Double-Down Sammich

     --   Fake Jerry v. Real Jerry

The TeeBox Sounds Absolutely Terrible This Morning

The first radio program in history where the hosts gargle their entire conversation.

Of all the lousy audio we hear from remotes, nothing approaches the lousiness of this one. 

I'm not even sure how it is possible to make a broadcast sound like this.  It's not overdriven mics; it's not a phone line; it sounds like there's dirt in the cables.

George DeJohn was his usual resonant self, but during the handoff it sounded like NASA having a conversation with someone on the moon.

What Would It Be Like to be George DeJohn's Friend?

Would you be able to figure out whether the doctors you were hanging out with were medical doctors, or, you know, those other kinds of doctors he has on his show?

Would you wonder how he knows all those amazing things, such as that taking vitamin C tablets actually decreases the amount of vitamin C in your body?

Would you be dreading the 22nd day of your friendship, fearing that he would say "See, if you'd started on my plan 21 days ago  .  .  .  ."?

Would he introduce you to people as "My good friend, Mr. X"?

Would you be uneasy about the number of times he uses the word "cleanse"?

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Hey, I listen almost every week.  Wish I looked like George D.  Wish I were George D.