Mind-Loss Check -- CORRECTION

OK, Confessors.  I need to know if I'm losing my mind.  Let me know if any of you have heard this.

The Ticket is running a promo where Norm says something like:

"The Cowboys now have ten days to meticulously prepare for [short pause] Geno Smith."  Then Donovan laughs and says "Oh, yeah," something like that.  A reasonably funny observation, Norm sells it with a "wait for it" pause, and a sensible reaction from Donovan.

This morning on my jog listening to the Teebox, I heard the same promo, except it sounded like they'd edited it to substitute "the Giants" for "Geno Smith" -- no pause.  Just a declarative sentence.  But still followed by the same Donovan explosive chortle -- which now makes no sense.

But I am thinking I may have one or both of those promos wrong.

Please advise.

And if I've heard this correctly, why change the promo?  Because no one's heard of Geno Smith?

Have a fine holiday weekend.

CORRECTION:  I am in fact losing my mind, or my hearing.  I heard the promo again on "Work in Progress" this morning (another bad title -- why do the JV sometimes select self-critical titles?), and they did not edit out "Geno Smith" -- the entire phrase is "Geno Smith and the Giants."  Just heard "Giants" the time when I thought they'd edited it.

So never mind, and enjoy the redhead.

"I contact the Plainsman at ThePlainsman1310@gmail.com.  So can you!"

NEW MTC FEATURE: Bit or Not?

Confessor Brad Gilbert somewhat anticipated this topic in his comment to the last post so thought I would go ahead and throw it up here.

Every once in a while you will hear something on The Ticket that will make you go "hmm, is this sincere or are they (or "is he") doing a bit?" 

The most recent puzzler is the series of ads featuring the hosts claiming to be P1s, swearing that they listen all the time and even identifying some favorite segments.

There are several possibilities here:

It could be sincere, more or less, in its entirety.  It would not be hard to believe that hosts tuned into the station during their listening time, in the car, doing whatever it is they do when they can also be listening to the radio.

The first thing that struck me as odd was Mike's statement that he simply had to tune in to the 8:40 bit everyday.  Had some trouble picturing Mike up that early, and if so, targeting that particular segment.  Still, made some sense.  Could be we are supposed to take it entirely seriously.

It should come as no surprise that Dan is the one most obviously lying -- in a way intended to be amusing, of course, and it is.  His first clue is actually somewhat sly, as he identifies the Muser segment in question as "Gordon's [not 'Gordo's] Corner."  This is clever – it is just the most subtle hint that he is pretending to know about a segment that he in fact never listens to as evidenced by getting the name just a little bit wrong.  In the one I heard this morning, he describes Junior's "Top Five/Bottom Five" lists as the most important thing ever on radio.

Bob gets into the act by expressing uncertainty as to whether Gordon has an Observation "Deck" or "Desk."

And yet we have Norm, George, and Craig more or less playing it straight in their claims of actually listening to the station.

Yes, I know this is a repeat. 

So what we're left with is a promotion that pretty much undercuts itself.  With Bob and Dan being funny, it calls into question whether all of the lavish mutual admiration is sarcastic.

This really isn't intended to be a criticism; I get a kick out of the commercials, and Dan's remarks are amusing.  But the schizophrenic message robs the spot of any kind of persuasive power. 

On balance, though, I think the ad was intended to be sincere and that we are intended to believe that the hosts tune in to one another with regularity throughout the listening day.  So while the spot is not effective in conveying this message, my vote on this one is:

Not a Bit.

Where's Conrad?

It doesn't have the same ring to it as "Where's Greggo?" but I'm curious nonetheless.

Did he finally weary of reading all of that smirking promo/liner copy with the centuries-old gags?  I actually had on my stale list of articles to write that Conrad had the hardest job at The Ticket.

Who's the new guy (if he is a new guy, and not just filling in for Conrad on sabbatical)?

I'm still scrambling out here on the plains on post-vacay catch-up, but trying to re-immerse myself in The Fabulousness That Is The Ticket.

I did have to chortle at one of the comments while I was gone.  I didn't get to hear any radio last week so can't comment on T.C. Fleming's fill-in date for Gordon, but one Confessor remarked that Craig seemed beaten down by the whole thing.  I would love to have heard that.  Da Joonz has a way of letting you know his feelings about someone in a very subtle way.  I remember this particularly with the The Great Peter Gammons Experiment.  If you had just seen a transcript of those interviews, you wouldn't have thought anything amiss, but there was something about the sound of Craig's voice that said why do we need to be talking to this guy about Texas stuff, especially since half the time Gammons was on his treadmill or hiking the Urals or something while supposedly devoting his attention to the interview.  Always a fun listen.

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ThePlainsman1310@gmail.com

@Plainsman1310

The Ticket Won't Likely Have Much More to Say About that "Domestic Violence" Sign at the Oddly Plural Scruffy Duffies . . .

.  .  .  because, incredibly, it is still running that "I miss you, baby -- but my aim is getting better" Conrad promo.

It Seems a Little Strange to Me

The Hardline is making fun of the lack of promotion for its trip to Chicago.

But really -- there's something very odd about this.  I can't put my finger on it, but I kind of get the feeling that this Chicago trip is the CTO tossing The Hardline a bone.  The Musers go on this cool and imaginative Texas bus tour, which is being promoted with a production-value ad.  The Hardline, the show claiming to be The Ticket baseball show of record, featuring a baseball deity no less, doesn't go to spring training.

The Hardline's Chicago trip is almost invisible.  I've heard one promo, and it's a zero-production-value rant by The Hard Ones -- just heard it again as I'm writing this -- about the lack of promotion.  Not only lack of promotion, but lack of logistical support for the trip itself.

Maybe it's a bit.  But it doesn't have that feel to it.

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Men and women, I'm completely booked, sorry for the lack of coverage lately.  Thanks to all for providing content via comments, especially information about the Morning News sports-broadcasting bracket.

I'll try to get back with something better soon.

June 3, 2012

8:47 p.m. --  That promo about the guy in the crane going up there to listen to The Ticket is shameful.  I only heard it once.  Maybe they've pulled it already.

In fact the promos generally are getting more vulgar and less clever.  I'm sort of embarrassed for the station.  It sounds like they were drafted by Gordon Keith, when he was 14.