An Anonymous Perspective on the Greggo, Richie And Sybil Smackdown (GRASS)

This is too good not to highlight for Confessors.  From an Anonymous commenter to the last post, I offer the following.  Yes, it could be made up, I could be a sap.  But it's not sensationalistic, it has the ring of truth.  Best, it gives us a very helpful framework for considering both Greg's and Richie's account.  Bosses change, and what was OK one day might not be OK the next.

Accounting for everyone's claimed shock at their sacking.

It basically tells a story of the inmates running the asylum, sponsors stopping by for a look-see, but those who stick around sometimes thinking they're more inside than they really are.  Result:  breakdown of professionalism and discipline.  Sometimes no choice but to get out the brooms, which CBS eventually determined to do.

Here's the comment from Anonymous, who has my thanks:

Talked to a buddy of mine today who is in the industry. No he doesn't work for any of the sports stations. Nor does he work for Cumulus or CBS. But the insight and bits of scuttlebutt he gave me were interesting so I thought I'd pass them along.

Ratings and RaGE. Whitt has always maintained that it's advertising dollars that matter, not ratings. Well ratings don't matter as much as we think and so they're not the end all be all measure of success. Buddy says that's partly true but it's a bit misleading. The 2 go hand in hand. Without ratings sponsors will eventually look elsewhere. CBS is big enough to keep finding clients willing to give them a shot, but the bigger clients usually leave as soon as their contract is up. Most of RaGE's sponsors were on the nickel and dime plan and the few that remained for a long period of time ended up being friends of the show, which can and from what buddy says in a few cases did become problematic. Wanting special favors, access, deals, and stuff like that. 

Also told that from what he's heard for months now, way before the firing went down, that this move had been in the works for a long time. Long before Whitt's Nov. 15th Greggo Armageddon that he writes about. Kinda like the ads, RaGE and the management before Spittle and the receptionists and everyone else had all gotten way too close. It was an unprofessional and unproductive work environment. Everyone was having way too good of a time, but in their own ways. Everything was OK'd and permitted by the 2 regimes prior to Spittle. The proverbial other way was looked on just about everything for every member involved. So when Whitt says his relationship and all the rest was approved by management he speaks the truth. But that was the problem. You can't have such a permissive work place and still think it's going to end well. When you have people like Williams and Whitt, guys who will take advantage of a situation, though one obviously in a much different and disturbing way than the other, and such an anything goes work environment the outcome won't be good and it wasn't. After re reading Whitt's last two blog posts and looking at the Twitter material it's very obvious that my buddy while maybe not in the direct know, does know enough to have the gist of the heart of the matter. Some of that Twitter material and some of the things said are the sorts of things that any properly or sanely run work place steers well clear of. Unless you want HR involved in a nanosecond.

Basically Spittle was brought in to clean up and clean house. That meant RaGE. Buddy says he's heard that there will be more changes but nothing mind blowing like The Ticket and The FAN merging or the whole thing going national. Spittle is most likely watching each show closely until around mid July and at that time see who if anyone needs to be replaced by new talent.

Thanks again, Anonymous.  Although you neglected to pass along what your pal said about this site's and its readers' immense influence on the DFW sports/guy radio scene.

*     *     *

CONFIDENTIAL TO RICHIE WHITT:  Richie, I'm sure you're too busy to visit some of your favorite websites, but in case you swing by here:  You have got, got, got to get rid of the charcoal background to your comment section with its black typeface.  Or get rid of the black typeface and go to white.   Why make your readers any more sour towards you than some of them, at least, are already inclined to be?

Let me know if you need a consult on cultivating a highbrow online community of readers.  

BREAKING: THE END OF RaGE? or THE END OF RaGE!

Confessors, I'm in the middle of my work day and can't write much.  Two comments to prior post have advised that (1) Greggo tweeted that he has been terminated, and (2) Richie/Sybil have been removed from The Fan website.

I have NOT confirmed these items.

Tell us what you know, and your very politely expressed reaction.

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.

A "Where's Greggo 2013" Inventory

We're not hearing much of substance other than from the frantically tweeting Girlfriend, so I'm going to give this one solid posting and if there aren't any developments I'm going to move on, main-topic-wise.  (Comment section always open for RaGE/Greggo/Fan talk.)

What to write about?  How about a listing of all current theories, some of which overlap, and many of which are not mutually exclusive.  (An annoying way of saying "it could be a combination of several of these things.")   And it may be none of these things.  These are not in order of likelihood, just the order they're coming to mind.  Let's get to it.

(1) He is sick, perhaps hospitalized.

(2)  He ran into trouble with Fan management over his absence relating to Chris Kyle's funeral.

(3)  He's angry about The Prank.  (RaGE Prank on Greggo)

(4)  It's a bit to draw attention to the station and RaGE.

(5)  Management is preparing to make some changes at the Fan or RaGE that he's unhappy about and he's pouting.

(6)  The Richie-Sybil relationship and perhaps a growing role for Armen has resulted in a diminished role for Greggo and he's feeling that the same thing is happening to him there as (he believes) happened on The Hardline (not his fault, of course).

(7)  The Richie-Sybil relationship and perhaps a growing role for Armen has resulted in a kind of ganging up on Greggo and as the most experienced radio hand on the show, he resents it.

(8)  The Richie-Sybil relationship has created an intolerable and almost indescribably icky and eeeeeww-inducing sexual tension that has eroded whatever professionalism RaGE was starting to develop.

(9)  He's fallen off the wagon.

(10)  The station is in major upheaval up and down the line and it's just all too much for the Hammer, who's getting out while the getting's good.

(11)  He's been suspended, possibly fired, for misbehavior that hasn't been publicized.

(12)  He's a petulant childish jerk who can't stand even the tiniest slight to his real or imagined importance to RaGE.

(13)  He's a major radio talent who is undeservedly taking abuse from the less-talented Richie and Sybil.

(14)  It's time, buddy; it's time.  Greggo's chief addiction is to self-featuring drama, and he can't go for more than a couple years without writing himself another one, so he's off the reservation for no reason that any of us would find rational.

In happier, but less focused, times.

*     *     *

 

Twitter:  @Plainsman1310

Email:  ThePlainsman1310@gmail.com



October 30, 2012

1:10 pm (10-29-12):  Hey  .  .  .  did I miss something, or am I not listening enough?  I'm sitting here trying to avoid doing my job, and the only thought that pops into my head is:  I can't remember the last time I heard Casey Millen on the joint.  Is he still engaged in sportsy broadcasting on The Ticket?  Or, as Confessors never tire of reminding me, am I a bad P1 for (a) not listening enough, or (b) not knowing what news there is to know about Casey Millen?  Is he still up-and-coming?

5:45 am:   I don't care about seeing Obama's Columbia transcript.

I would, however, like to see Jason Garrett's Princeton transcript.

6:27 am:  I liked George's sports talk this morning about trading Romo.  Not because I think it's a good idea, but because it was at least creative and he had some sound reasoning behind it.  And it was not the same two or three points we've been hearing since the post-game show, and which we all knew in advance because we all saw the game and all the other games and we all think the same thing about this team.   I've got a Cowboys HSO that's been perking for awhile that is much less credible than George's.

And it was nice to hear George chip in with some independent sports thinking.

8:23 pm:  Got an odd question for you:  I was checking my referring sites, and one of them was a Yahoo search page where someone had searched for "Greg Williams absenteeism The Rage".  Has he been away lately?  I wasn't aware that there was any issue relating to his attendance in recent months, not since his battle with throat demons a year or so back.  Not that a Yahoo search is evidence of anything, but thought I'd ask.

Oh. My. Frackin'. Gawd.

This may not be worth a separate post, but twelve hours later, I'm still shaking my head.

Last evening I saw the most appalling few seconds of video it has ever been my misfortune to view.

Can you guess what it is?

You got it on the first try!

It's the "Chariots of Fire" advertisement for RaGE.

Richie, Greg, Sybil, Armen, and a guy or two I don't know, running around on a football field and crashing into one another with the "Chariots of Fire" theme playing in the background.

The distance shots are in slow motion and quickly cut away from.  You can't really fix on anyone's face.

The close-up shots are also slow motion and quickly cut away from.  You can't really fix on anyone's face.

The running and crashing-into-each-other shots are shot so  .  .  .  You can't really fix on anyone's face.

It's around 20 seconds and they cut away so frequently that  .  .  .  You can't really fix on anyone's face.

So the point of doing a visual ad thing for a personality-based program is  .  .  .  ?

Let's play Fun with Adjectives:  amateurish, ineffective, embarrassing, ill-conceived, irrelevant, cheap-looking, thrown-together, desperate.

There is only one part of RaGE I would want to embrace, and they didn't even manage to employ her charms to advantage.

They decide to do a TV spot, and this is the best they can do.  Fake enthusiasm, fake camaraderie, and no indication of what these running-and-jumping-and-crashing people actually do.

Don't believe me?

Jaw-Dropping RaGE Ad

It's over.  It's got to be over.

In the Beginning . . .

.  .  .  there was Bob and Dan, and they named their show BaD Radio, standing for those selfsame Bob and Dan.  And God listened to the showgram, and he heard that it was good.  Mostly good.


And lo, the days were accomplished when Greggo came to depart from the Line of Hard and joined with Richie the Observer, and lifted BaD's naming bit wholesale to create RaGE, the Richie and Greggo Extravaganza.


And it came to pass that Scot Harrison and Jean-Jacques Taylor brought forth The Soul Patch on Sunday mornings, not because of any association of Soul with Sunday the Day of Our Lord, but because it described a facial feature possessed by both men, and also described a racially-prescribed cultural feature possessed by one of them, and was defined, according to Wikipedia, as follows:


"The soul patch (also known as a mouche) is a small patch of facial hair just below the lower lip and above the chin. It came to prominence in the 1950s and 1960s, when it was a style of facial hair common among African American men, most notably jazzmen. It became popular with beatniks, artists, and those who frequented the jazz scene and moved in literary and artistic circles. Jazz trumpeters in particular preferred the soul patch for the comfort it provided when using a trumpet mouthpiece."


But the prodigal JJT left the Patch of Eden, never to return, and was never heard from again, ever, in any medium, in any capacity whatsoever.


The Overlords who lived in the Clouds saw that it was not good for Scot Harrison to be alone.  So while he was sleeping, they removed a piece of him we are not allowed to name on this blog and crated Matt McClearin to join together with Scot and be his companion and helpmate.


And the Cloud-living Overlords named the resulting program "The Soul Patch," although Matt McClearin did not possess that certain facial feature or racial characteristic that would render the name in the slightest way sensible.


And the Confessor Nation commenced with a vast wailing and gnashing of teeth over the continued use of "The Soul Patch" to describe the Scot Harrison and Matt McClearin program.


And behold, after a process heretofore mysterious, someone had the idea to parody RaGE's ripoff of BaD, and renamed the Sunday show "Sunday MaSS" -- Matt and Scot Spectacular. 


All right, way too much Plainsmanian BS.  Here is Scot's account of the name change, offered as a comment to the last post, reposted here with his permission:

"We approached management about a name change right after the new year. The Soul Patch was so named for the obvious reason that both JJT and I have them. When he left it was generally agreed that in the interest of branding it would be better to leave the name the same. (despite the fact the Matt couldn't grow a soul patch if a gun was put to his head).

"We came up with the name after dozens of ideas were developed, reworked, and rejected. We asked for ideas from people we respected but eventually The Matt and Scot Spectacular or Sunday MaSS, separated itself from the rest - "testing" best among those who were consulted both inside and outside the Ticket studios as well as inside and outside of the radio business. 


"We accept the fact that many of you will hate it or at least dislike it strongly (as it was with The Soul Patch moniker), many will approve (so far the trend on twitter), and some who just want to have their weekend Ticket fix won't be bothered either way. We're just pleased that you guys care enough to discuss our goofy little Sunday morning show and that you would take the time to complain/compliment.


"So, triple fake Scot Harrison says pour one out for the Soul Peettcchh!! (off mic tribute:) Stay Hard Soul Patch!"




My thanks to Scot for permitting the reposting of his remarks, and for putting the process out there for comment.  Personally, I think it's a perfectly fine and clever name and should not be offensive to Roman Catholics, any more than broadcasting a sports show during normal churchgoing hours is in the first instance.  While the name gets mixed reviews, the Nation seems to be reacting pretty favorably to the show, as do I.  Some good stuff there.

*     *    *

They did not take my suggestion, which was this:  Have Matt drop the second "t" from his name, so we'd have hosts named Scot and Mat and call it the "Low-T Center," which would both describe the show and attract the growing number of sponsors appealing to the low-testerone crowd.

Thanks again to Scot H.

*     *     *

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It’s Not Too Early to Ask Some Hard(line) Questions – Part 4(a)

Some Confessors are tired of this series.  Sorry.  There will be two more after this.  This one will address a topic everyone seems to want to comment on, so here goes. 

The consensus, with which I agree, is that listeners want Mike to re-up; that Mike wants to re-up; and that Cumulus will probably get the job done.   In fact, I think it’s overwhelmingly likely that Mike will sign a new contract.  

[For those of you who believe there is no chance Mike will leave and/or have no interest in a hypothetical to the contrary, stop reading now and spare me the comments asking why I'm wasting my time and yours on this.]

 But let’s play a little what-if. 

What if Mike decides he’s had enough, that he has enough bank, and it’s time to – hell, I have no idea what he’d do if he weren’t broadcasting.  I also agree that it seems inconceivable that he would move to a competitor.  Hard to catch lightning in a bottle; even harder to pour lightning from one bottle into another.  

But never mind about the circumstances.  Let’s assume Mike doesn’t return.  Whence The Ticket?

A number of commenters have expressed the thought that BaD would move to the Hardline’s slot, and Corby/Danny would – well, no one’s quite sure.   I don’t know if there is any evidence for this.   It does make some sense; I can understand why some think this is the natural progression of things.

I’m skeptical.

Put yourself in the position of the CTO who has to make a decision of what to do if Mike leaves.  He’s (could be a she, I guess) looking at his lineup and the ratings.  He sees a boffo Number 1 BaD in afternoons, and a boffo Number 1 Hardline in PM Drive.  Been that way for years.  Loyal audiences who love things the way they are.   He’s losing one guy on one show.  A real important guy, it’s true, but one who some would say is not even the dominant influence on that show, and one whose interest seems to flag from time to time.  I don’t agree with either of those as the show is currently conducted, but that thought is abroad.

Which is the least risky thing for the CTO to do? 

Possibility (1):   Uproot these two ratings-busters – half of the programming day – and hope that what would be new audiences (at least to some extent) for each show would stick with the new show in the time period in which they were accustomed to tuning in; put Corby (and Danny?) into what is (possibly unfairly) regarded as a less glamorous time slot, assuming that the only thing that happened was that they would just do a simple switcheroo, which is itself by no means certain.  That is, moving BaD to drive wouldn’t necessarily dictate that the remaining Hard Guys would be placed in afternoons.  And if they didn’t move Corby/Danny to afternoons, then they have to come up with a new show for afternoons, and figure out what to do with Corby, who is unlikely to be overjoyed at any move at all, with attendant political problems in-house.  And that same CTO may be casting a nervous eye at late mornings and wondering what Norm is thinking about his own retirement. 

Let’s think about these audiences for a minute.  True it is that many P1’s like both BaD and The Hardline and would be happy enough to listen to Bob and Dan and Donovan during drive.  But surely the daytime audience is not entirely congruent with the drive audience.    It’s clear from the commenters on this site that both shows excite some fairly negative feelings.  Some folks, who knows what percentage, have a clear preference between the two shows, and you’ll be asking those people to listen to a show they’re disinclined to like in the first instance.  I have heard that BaD has many female listeners – would they like a Corby/Danny show as much as BaD (if Corby/Danny settled there)?   And BaD is much sportiser than The Hardline – will the people tuning in to The Ticket looking for more pop-culture/guy talk after a hard day’s work enjoy SportsSturm as much?  Dan’s acerbity?  HOCKEY? 

And we haven’t considered the host’s own preference.  Bob has an admirable attachment to his growing family, and he’s making a name for himself as a hockey broadcaster – how would a drive assignment affect those things?  

You can brush off any of these considerations and possibly be absolutely right.  But remember, you’re a CTO.  You have to answer all of these questions in a positive way in order for this move to be comfortable.   

Or:

Possibility 2:    Find a replacement for Mike on The Hardline.  I tend to agree with those who say that a Corby/Danny-only Hardline would probably not work, much as I like both performers.   Impossible to find a replacement, you say?  Certainly – Mike is irreplaceable if you want the New Hardline to sound exactly like the Current Hardline.  But freshening up the sound of The Hardline and keeping these shows in place might well be preferable to our risk-averse CTO.

In this connection, let me hearken back to something I said about White Elephant Day.  I said I was listening for something and that I heard it.   What I was listening for, and what I heard, was Corby doing a very good job as the primary host for the morning show.   He was smooth, he put aside the naughty-undergrad persona, and he was entirely credible as a more mature-sounding broadcaster.  Bits were good.   I think Corby’s range is somewhat underrated and I think he could work well with any number of different types of partners, including one who wasn’t as tolerant (and encouraging) as Mike is of Corby’s snakier offerings.

One last thing:  RaGE hasn’t made a dent in The Hardline’s popularity.  But it’s still there.  We can think what we want about the quality of Richie/Greggo’s offerings, but our fictional CTO might think:   Which would be more likely to cause people to experiment with punching in 105.3:   Corby/Danny with some plus-ones or a new co-host, where Hardline-curious listeners would at least tend to stick for awhile, even if they didn’t fall in love?  Or BaD Radio plopped into Hardline country?

Don’t think about these questions as a listener – think about them as a CTO whose career is on the line.  

Under Possibility (2), who might join Corby and Danny?  I have a couple of candidates in mind, neither one of which the Nation is likely to endorse, but I’ll save that for Part 4(b).

*     *     *

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Had to Laugh in the Car at Something Greggo Said Today

Rhads and Followill were enjoyable enough, but it struck me that I hadn't checked out RaGE in awhile, so I punched over.  They were talking to some FANfan (their latest catchphrase -- at least I hadn't heard it before) who had won a contest and was sitting in on the show.  One of his interests was camping.

GREGGO:  Why would anyone want to go camping?

SYBIL:  You can go out in the woods and drink beer, not shower for three days.

GREGGO:  I can do that at home.

Dunno, just struck me funny.  Didn't listen for long, no other major impressions. 

Except that they're still around and not taking time off over the holidays.  I recall commenters predicting their demise well before now, but they're hanging on.

PS:  Question:  I thought I heard Rhads say that BaD was going to do some PM drive shows during the break.  Did anyone hear that or know what days that will take place?  Thanks.

*     *     *

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Weekends are Tough for The Hammer

An Anonymous Confessor passes along some Greg Williams tweets and offers a comment with some plausible speculation:

TCUWhiteTrash GREGGO
@tweetgrubes ...I can't believe you won't answer...it's Greggo...
23 minutes ago Favorite Retweet Reply


TCUWhiteTrash GREGGO
@CMCrume...they may think I'm the enemy..but I'm not...No ill will against any of those guys...I did great work there..and I love those guys


TCUWhiteTrash GREGGO
@Thehermesmeyers I do have a life...but in my recovery...I want to make things right with those guys..we went thru a lot.and had great times

After doing a little Tweeter dumpster diving (there's too much to post up here), it looks like Greggo has been reaching out to every Ticket host. On many occasions. It also looks like he might be having a conversation with Rhyner. If that's so, then, as far as I can tell, Rhyner is tweeting privately to Greggo, while Greggo seems to be tweeting publicly with Rhyner. This does seem to be the case. Unless Greggo is so out of it that he's tweeting as if Rhyner is answering his questions. I find that hard to believe. Don't know what the deal is, but I think somethings afoot, in the workings, or at the very least maybe a reconciliation of sorts is happening.

[Anonymous then clarifies that he believes that the "reconciliation" that is taking place is the "reconciliation" that is called for in the 12-step AA-tyhpe programs -- not a reassembling of The Hardline prior to Greggo's departure, which he acknowledges is almost certainly not going to happen.]

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

I don't know what the evidence is for behind-the-scenes Rhyner communications with Greg.  Whether or not this is true, these Tweets are still fascinating.  They cannot be welcomed by Greggo's Fan colleagues or supervisors.  This cannot be a bit to gin up interest in RaGE.   While it may be a part of Greg's rehab -- and if so, we can only hope it's working -- it looks desperate, it looks like he's unhappy with his current surroundings and wishing that he could turn back the clock.  It's pleading; it's sad.  He might scoff at that, but that is the impression he's giving.  The fact that he's making these communications public, when every Ticket guy's email is on The Ticket's website, suggests that he wants listeners, not just his former colleagues, to know what's going on.  As I suspect he has done in the past, he seems to be hoping that his public will demand some kind of rapprochment with his old Ticket buddies of some kind.

More speculation, of course.  However, I would suggest that these Tweets are even more interesting when one considers:

(1) Mike Bacsik has popped up on The Fan.

(2) Mike's and Corby's contracts are up in February, I'm pretty sure.

(3) Richie Whitt is let go at The Observer for reasons remaining unclear.

(4) Don't laugh -- BaD Radio is humming along sans Bob -- at least, that's my impression -- and it is not beyond imagining that when he returns he might want to make some other changes in his life. 

(5) Cumulus has bought Citadel and has access to much better signals that are currently being seriously underused.

I agree with Anonymous, as he wrote in the comments to the last article, that the chances of a Hardline reunion are extremely remote.  At least on The Ticket. 

But I don't think it's going to far to say that matters are somewhat fluid at The Fan, and we're approaching decision time for a number of individuals at The Ticket as well.

And we'll be mulling these things over in greater detail in future postings.  In the meantime, as Harry Caray used to say, lemme hear ya.

BREAKING NEWS: Is It That (1) Richie Whitt Is Out at the Observer, or (2) the Observer is Getting Out of "Full-Time" Sports Reporting?

Thanks to Confessor Shaggy to alerting this site to Richie Whitt's farewell to The Observer, or its farewell to him.

Richie tees it up as the Village Voice organization "downsizing" by eliminating "full-time" sports.

This site has no idea whether this is the case, or whether, as less charitable minds might wonder, Richie's bosses got a little uneasy with him commenting on an industry segment (DFW sports radio) in which he is prominently employed, and writing about a team (Cowboys) that his station carries and whose game-day shows he hosts. 

Now I'll tell you right now that I don't find that to be a terrible conflict.  To the extent that it is, it is a disclosed conflict and readers and listeners can make up their own minds.

But there's something else:  He's become a little newsier himself than perhaps his editors are entirely comfortable with.  There was the Greggo blowup, and the widespread suspicion that he was anonymously commenting on his own stories hoping it would blow over.  (I know of no confirmation of this.)  That, if confirmed to his supervisors' satisfaction, would be tough to take, and his proximity to Greggo eruptions make him radio news in a way he hasn't been in the past, casting a somewhat fuzzy conflict into much sharper relief.

Well, maybe this will give him more time to keep an eye on Greggo.  Although I doubt that his Observer gig would ever threaten to make him wealthy, if he lost the Fan exposure, he'd vanish entirely.

All further evidence, if any were needed, that partnering with Greg Williams is a high-wire act.

I'm not a RaGE hater and I've defended Richie's Observer work.  I don't listen to RaGE often, I don't find it consistently entertaining, but I've found things to like about it from time to time.  I wish him well.

*     *     *

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*     *     *

SPECIAL TO GYPO NOLAN:  What can you tell us about this?

Final Observation on Greggo's Weekend Meltdown . . .

.  .  .  and then I'll put a cork in this topic for awhile, unless there's some news.

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

Let's put aside the content of Greggo's bizarre weekend Tweets.

Let's put aside whether his judgment as to the robustness of his employment approaches that of an armadillo deciding whether to cross a highway.

Let's put aside whether he should or should not be on The Fan's Sunday Cowboys coverage, and the reasons he is not.

Here's the true, ongoing problem with what he did this weekend:

It hurts RaGE.

When he reveals to the public how he feels about his employer and his on-air colleague and friend, and how the latter is starting to feel about him, listeners factor that knowledge into their judgment (subconscious or live) as to whether what they're hearing everyday on RaGE is sincere or fake, from both Greggo and Richie.

A display of false camaraderie doesn't give the listener a good feeling about what he's being sold.  The "family feeling" (all right, sometimes "dysfunctional family feeling") that the Ticket successfully conveys, and that RaGE has been trying to develop for the past year with all the on-air palsy-walsy, is destroyed.

Greggo's weekend poetry has greatly damaged his daily product.  You just can't hear RaGE the same way, knowing what Greggo has now improvidently revealed. 

*     *     *

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE

My thanks to Confessor ScottsMerkin for retrieving the following recent Tweets where Richie and Greggo try to laugh this off as a bit:

Richie Whitt  Since I'm getting so many inquiries re: @TCUWhiteTrash's supposed "firing" from Cowboys post-game show: 1. He was invited back before season and declined; 2. Remember, he has a twisted sense of humor; 3. You really think I have that kind of power?

Long post from Deck.ly Just now View on Twitter

more twitter

richiewhitt Richie Whitt
Yep, he's kidding you.> @pudgey7 I hope you realize you are nothing without him! Are you kidding me?
1 hour ago Favorite Retweet Reply »
richiewhitt Richie Whitt
Giggle. >@GaryBlain hy did you fire the greatest air personality, ever, from after game activity? You'd never have a rating w/o Greggo!
1 hour ago Favorite Retweet Reply »
richiewhitt Richie Whitt
Joking. Of course. >@mrolson is greggo joking about getting fired from pregame and postgame or did he really get fired
1 hour ago Favorite Retweet Reply » richiewhitt Richie Whitt
No. of Ed Hardy shirts I own: Zero. >@Ambien_Greggo Why was I fired? I haven't snorted coke off of one of your Ed Hardy shirts in weeks.
1 hour ago Favorite Retweet Reply »
richiewhitt Richie Whitt
You really fell for that, tough guy? >RT @ICscott: @richiewhitt you better hope twitter has this one wrong

and then from Greggo

TCUWhiteTrash GREGGO
Ok FAN FANS...here is the deal...I was just clowning around and goofing about being fired from Cowboys post game show..it was my decision...

TCUWhiteTrash GREGGO
...I was just having fun with the guys..in no way was I fired..just some of my weird ways of having fun...but...Elf was carrying a knife!!
1 hour ago Favorite Retweet Reply

TCUWhiteTrash GREGGO
...and in no way am I bitter...NOT THE LEAST...I did a cowboys post game for 16 seasons..just wanted a break..and chance to go to games....

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My response:

Not credible. Not in the least.

This is damage control, and a pretty sorry attempt.

What bottom-dwelling show does an intentional "bit" about internal discord?

They're moving from dirty-laundry-airing to listener-intelligence-insulting.

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Follow Your Plainsman on Twitter:  @Plainsman1310

Make MTC Your Source Today for Responsible Former-Ticket-Host Journalism and Breaking News re Same

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UPDATED 9-19-11 1:55 PM:    Greggo is on RaGE today and is, in fact, the first voice heard interacting with Josh and Elf.   So in the short run, at least, they're powering through this weekend's differences.

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

If you don't know what that headline means, first thing you do, you go back and read the prior article, which is here:  BREAKING NEWS: Is This the End of Greggo?  

Read the comments to that article as well.

Next, consider a Richie Whitt Tweet unearthed by an Anonymous commenter late last night: 

"richiewhitt Richie Whitt
Bull. Ess. >RT @TCUWhiteTrash: Wish I was welcomed at Frankies today..but the other hosts have made thoughts know...being fired hurts..."

So clearly, Richie and Greggo are at odds.

How serious is it?  Will hands be shaken and all forgiven by showtime?  Or will Greggo's pathetic public poor-pitiful-me-the-Fan-guys-won't-let-me-play performance over the weekend persuade the CBS/Fan suits that they need to act before The Final Meltdown?

So we count down to 2 PM, unless there is a prior announcement.

Now, of course, this site is not a "source" for anything.  But we've got some helpful Confessors here who keep us advised of more-or-less reliable industry scuttlebutt and what the Internet is revealing.   You got it, bring it here.  You can also write me at ThePlainsman1310@gmail.com.

Comments:  (1) No (or only very mild) profanity.  (2)  Stay on the right side of the fuzzy line between criticism and personal attack.

And again:  This site's current editorial position is that when Greg Williams is present and audible he hasn't been bad on RaGE, and on occasion has been very good; it would like to see RaGE continue with a healthy and responsible Greggo, at least through Mike Rhyner's contract negotiation; it does not find Richie Whitt a terrible sports-talk host, although not a particularly compelling one.  And finally, it hopes that Greg is well or gets well, and stays that way.

Thank you for shopping at My Ticket Confession.

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Follow Your Plainsman on Twitter:  @Plainsman1310

A COUPLE OF QUICK HITS: (1) Paynj and (2) Croak

(1)  Mike's Continued Interest in Unusual Animal Habits.   We have already had occasion to remark on one of the most bizarre moments in recent Ticket history --  Mike R's reference to Green Tail Shiner.  (You need to listen to the links in the comments if you don't remember this -- I mean, Mike was at his out-there best.)

Today, he referred to a canine activity, presumably theoretical, called a "paynj."  I'm spelling it phonetically -- like "pain" with a "j"-sound on the end.  (So why not spell it with an "i"?  So as not to associate it with "pain."  I hope we've cleared that up.)

How did this come up? you may well ask.  Grubes was replaying some old account of how Corby's parents used to wake him up when he was a boy by sending his dog into his bedroom, whereupon said cur would leap upon the slumbering MiniSnake and proceed to (bleep -- presumably, "hump") him until he woke up.  This recollection was the cause of well-earned hilarity, and then, apropos of nothing, Mike makes reference to something called a "paynj."

This perplexed everyone, until someone, I think Danny, suggested that Mike was giving a name to the way a dog would perform a haynj (phonetic) -- because a dog has paws (starting with a "p") and not hands.  Got that?  What it had to do with waking up the adolescent Corby is shrouded in the mists of radio lore.

But shouldn't it be "pawj"?

(2)  Greggo's Lost Cords.  Flipped over for a spot of RaGE today.  Greg's voice had almost completely disappeared.  All he could do, when I was listening, was whisper.  I didn't listen long enough to tell if he was coherent. 

Did anyone hear an explanation of this?

So maybe he was yelling at the TV all weekend.  Doesn't a radio host with a history of vocal problems have some kind of obligation to care for the pipes?

Recent commenters have suggested that Greggo's Tweets are spiraling towards unhingedness.  

Richie Whitt must be fighting carpal tunnel in both hands as he keeps his fingers tightly crossed at all times.

A Few Quick HIts

(1) I hadn't tuned in to RaGE in awhile, so after Mike and Corby did their "how will the Cowboys do" review, I flipped over for a segment.  They were conducting a roundtable on "What did you like most, least/most surprising/etc." about training camp.  Greggo was actually pretty sharp, making some very pointed observations about Montre Holland's poor condition upon arrival at camp.  Richie and Armand were OK, Sybil was of no value.

(2) I caught just a minute or two of RaGE later on.  Richie informed Mickey Spagnola that they were going to call his segment "Cowboy Confidential."  I'm not saying Richie is influenced by this site, but I suggested that a revamped and improved Ranch Report be called (among other suggestions) "Cowboy Confidential" on February 10, 2010 and again on August 18, 2010.  (The latter was just a reprint of the former.)

(3) I was interested in The Hardline's agitated discussion today of the failure of Cumulus to attempt to syndicate them in some other Texas metro areas.  This site has suggested that Cumulus should be leveraging The Ticket's popularity via syndiation,   A couple of commenters have thrown out some reasons why syndication is not in the cards, but it is apparent that at least the on-air insiders ain't buying any excuses.  (Could have been a bit.  The Ticket didn't syndicate when Mike was a part-owner, either.)  The Hard Ones specifically linked syndication to generating some additional cash, at least enough to get Danny a chair where the spring isn't boinging him in the ass.

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Follow Your Plainsman on Twitter:  @Plainsman1310

A Disturbance in the Blogosphere

Those Confessors who are weary of Greggo/Richie/RaGE stories are hereby given plenary dispensation to skip this article.

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

Whenever this site's hits go stratospheric as they did today, it's a sure bet that some much more popular site has linked to us.  This was the case today, where Richie Whitt in his "Whitt's End" column in the Observer linked to my essay "Is Richie Whitt Good for Greggo?" of a couple of weeks back, which was generally favorable towards RW.  The reference in the "Whitt's End" column was to a anonymous Confessor who suggested (stated) that Richie had been been fired from both DFW newspapers, which RW denied both in a comment to the MTC article, and in today's column. 

I have no idea who did what to whom in the Richie/Greggo/DFW Radio Community intrigue.  A different anonymous commenter to that article offered what he claimed to be a genuine insider's account of what went down with the former Hardliner Mr. Williams.  It isn't malicious and to me it has the ring of truth -- you have to know something about the players involved even to make this stuff up -- so I thought it might be of interest to that portion of the Nation that does not pay much attention to the comments.    Please bear in mind that this is anonymous, not sourced, and not verified by me.  [NOTE: I've edited it for clarity.  You can read the original in the comments to the second link above.] 

"I am a 1st hand observer on this ordeal from WAY WAY back. Richie was keeping his literary relevance writing 'where's Greggo' stories'. His last set of highly read/commented Greggo stories were brought about from the John Clay Wolfe experiment.

"[Wolfe] had gotten sideways with Fan's [Program Director] Tom Bigby, and left for KEGL with his [Saturday] car show. [Wolfe] had made it crystal clear that he wanted to replace Russ Martin's void on 105.3.

"When [Wolfe] left, he wrestled up Greggo, got Whitt to give them some Observer ink, and got the Greggo thing rolling again streaming online. This caught [Clear Channel's] attention, and [Wolfe, Clear Channel, and Greggo] made a deal to do a sports show on 1190 afternoon drive to compete with Hardline.

"[Clear Channel] put the barrier up of 90 days of 1 hour noon shows, to test [Greggo's] sobriety.

"Note: When [Wolfe] was on The Fan, Bigby refused to let [Greggo] co-host [Wolfe's Saturday] show, and the first KEGL show [Wolfe] did, [Greggo] was co-host and slammed The Fan and Bigby on 97.1 open mic. Said 'Tom Bigby is an idiot, The Fan is a bunch of losers, and I would NEVER EVER work for a bunch of talentless losers like the crew at 105.3.'

"30 days later, [Greggo] had the job on 105.3 The Fan. Bigby caught wind that [Wolfe] was going to use 1190 air to prove Bigby a fool, and the vet CBS programmer stole [Wolfe's] trick pony [Greggo.]  Without [Greggo's] splash, the terrible rated 1190 experiment was a bust.

"It was [Wolfe], that brought Greggo back from dead, not Whitt. I was there, I watched the whole thing unfold [play by play]. Whitt was a patsy for Bigby, and Bigby hired Greggo as a defensive maneuver against the 1190AM show that was being designed in the backroom. Bigby's plan worked, but didn't chink the armor of the Hardline. Would [Wolfe]/Greggo been different? From what I witnessed, yes."

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

So there you have it, a purported inside account.  Is it accurate?  Dunno.  Who might our anonymous insider be?  Dunno that either.  I will say that my recollection is that Greg negotiated for quite some time with John Clay Wolfe over money and their failure to make a deal for the (possibly to-be syndicated) Greg/Wolfe show was what sunk that deal.  That's not inconsistent with what our anonymous commenter says, but it does but a slightly different spin on things.  It is also hard to imagine that Whitt had no role in promoting the RaGE idea to CBS, given his relationship with Greg.

Anyway, if the Sportatorium link brought you here for the first time, hope you will have a look around and stop back from time to time.

Some Interim RaGE Thoughts

This is not the Richie-Greggo post I promised last time out.  It'll be up soon, I promise.

FIRST INTERIM RaGE THOUGHT:

Commenter Anon D posted a comparison of the Hardline and RaGE ratings for the last little while.  I'm cutting and pasting his stuff:

They haven't made ANY dent in the Hardline's ratings. None. Zero. Zip. Nada.
Here's the monthlies, Men 25-54, 3-7p.
July Ticket 7.7 #1, Fan 1.8, 27th
Aug Ticket 7.9 #1, Fan 2.3 18th
Sep Ticket 8.9,#1, Fan 2.6,17th
Oct Ticket 9.7 #1, Fan 3.3, 12th
Nov Ticket 9.2 #1, Fan 4.3 6th
Dec Ticket 7.7 #1, fan 2.9 13th
Jan Ticket 8.4 #1, Fan 1.8, 27th
Feb Ticket 7.7 #1, Fan 1.7 22nd

As you can see, even the Fan's increase due to the playoffs and WS didn't hurt KTCK, due to the overall increase in sports listening (in other words, to paraphrase Rhyner, even the marginal p-3 found themselves listening to more sportsradio at that time)
And if you want a fun game- name 21 other stations that appeal more to men 25-54 than the Fan. Ticket and ESPN, 4 rock stations, a couple of country stations, a couple urban, 4 hispanic stations, you're still only at 14. Couple of news or talk, couple odds and ends (KERA? KEOM?), you're still only at 18. That's because stations like KISS and i93 (that appeal to teens) and KVIL (that appears to soccer moms) are more popular with men aged 25-54 than KRLD-FM.

The Fan thought they'd come in and take some of that big Ticket audience. And all they've managned to do is erode ESPN's numbers. (Down from a 4.1 Tie for 8th in July to a 2.6 and 17th in Feb for 3-7p. Down from a 3.7 to a 3.0 in M-F 6a-Mid.

Thanks once again to Anon D, this was absolutely terrific information, nicely digested.  Amazing stuff, astounding that RaGE, for all its publicity and presence of Greg Williams, has done absolutely nothing in almost a year.  (I have no idea whether it's doing better than what it replaced, which would at least be something -- I'm sure Anon D or some other hip commenter can enlighten us.)

Several readers have suggested that RaGE can't last long in its current configuration.

Here's my view -- it will last at least until February 2012, when,, we have surmised and Mike Rhyner has hinted, his Ticket future will be set.  If he departs (I think this unlikely, but the possibility has been floated), RaGE will soldier on, because the calculus of drive competition would have pretty drastically changed.  105.3 knows that Corby has a love/hate relationship with the P1 and might well have the RaGE hang on to see if Mike R's absence might shake loose some listeners.

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

SECOND INTERIM RaGE THOUGHT

Since we're on a RaGE roll here, I've tried to tune in.  Today wasn't a bad day to do so, as I'd already heard the Cubs fan thing on Gordon's segment on The Musers and there was too much hockey talk.  When I spent some time on RaGE, I listened closely to see if I could identifiy what it was that was so frackin' weird about it.

I found it.

Whenever anyone other than Greggo is talking -- usually Richie -- that person uses the word "Greggo" constantly in his or her own remarks.  This gives the impression that the speaker is (1) calling for Greggo to pay attention and (2)to  respond to the speaker.

I never noticed it before.  I invite you to tune into RaGE and listen to it for 10 minutes and count the number of times you heard the word "Greggo."  Compare that to normal human conversation, including conversations you hear on The Ticket; listen to how often (seldom) a speaker uses the names of the other people in the conversation.

It's disconcerting.  It's uncomfortable to listen to. It has to be some program regulation that is designed to remind us all that good old Greggo is present -- which would be helpful for flyby listeners, of which there are probably a lot -- and will be heard from soon. 

It absolutely has to be intentional.  Otherwise, it's just goofy.  Or pathological  Actually, it's goofy and pathological anyway.

RaGE -- One Year In (Almost)

I’m jumping the gun a little here, but after the last article, had RaGE on my mind.  The article you’re reading now started out in an entirely different direction, so I’ve hacked that out and will run it as the next article in a few days, also RaGE-related.

It seems impossible that RaGE has been on the air for almost a year, but it began its assault on The Hardline (and the last hour of BaD, not to mention WTDS) in May 2010.  The consensus among correspondents to this site seems to be that it has not been a success, at least by comparison to our heroes on The Hardline.  I have not checked the ratings, but I gather it has not made a significant dent in The Hard One's popularity. 

(Can anyone give us a report on whether RaGE and The Hardline are up or down?  I gather that The Hardline is still number one by a mile in the target demo in PM drive, but is there any evidence of even slight RaGE impact?)

I have heard some good things on RaGE and noted them from time to time, but on the whole I would have to agree with most Confessors that it's just not a very good presentation.   Confessors have suggested numerous issues, and I've got a few more:

          (1) Richie Whitt just isn't a compelling radio voice or personality.  He’s knowledgeable, but his voice is flat and dry and he is not particularly droll.   I don’t find him an offensive radio presence, just a colorless one.

          (2) The show spends too much time jabbing Greg, and not enough talking sports, which means that the only reason for Whitt to be on the show -- his sports knowledge -- goes to waste.  I don’t listen enough to know if there’s much in the way of interesting guy talk or pop-culture talk.  Whenever I turn in, there seems to be a sports theme, but it develops the Ben-and-Skin Disease of self-referring asides and conversational loops.  By at least attempting to talk sports, perhaps they’re trying to address a criticism one hears (but not from me) about The Ticket from time to time -- not enough sports.  Fine -- but get on with it.

          (3) Greg too often sounds pretty unhealthy.

          (4) RaGE tries to make Greg bear the weight of the presentation, and he just doesn't have the chops for it.   PS:  Could it be that his voice troubles are a result of doing a five hour show where he's expected to do quite a bit of the talking?

          (5) The other hosts patronize Greg, and it shows.

          (6) Attempts to copy The Hardline are doomed to failure, and the hosts know it, so the attempts are without conviction and fall flat.

          (7) Three persons with not-terribly-distinctive radio characters (Richie, Armen, Sybil) plus one distinctive radio character (Greg) does not add up to two distinctive characters.  Instead, they try to generate interest by frenetic talking and patently artificial jollity.  A Confessor or two mentioned this in comments to the last article, and I think this is the show’s biggest problem.




Sybil Summers.  Hey, why not?

Having said all this, I personally don't find RaGE all that horrible to listen to, and I've noted segments that I thought were very good.  But since there's a choice to listen to something much more interesting from start to finish, RaGE barely gets any of my listening minutes.  I don't doubt that should The Hardline disappear tomorrow (and not replaced by something good), I'd probably tune in to RaGE, or maybe 88.1 The One KNTU-FM, Little Steven's Underground Garage on Sirius-XM 25, or maybe road noise.

If I had to offer one piece of advice to RaGE -- and you know how much my advice is treasured in the DFW radio community -- it would be:  calm down and speak to one another like normal human beings having an ordinary conversation.  You don’t challenge The Hardline by doing the same things that The Hardline does.  That would be easy, and, as we have seen, it hasn’t worked in the past.  The Hardline succeeds (in addition to the innate talent and personalities of its hosts) because the shows present themselves as conversations between guys – not as shows that are scared to death of dead air and unplanned content.  That takes a special kind of talent and experience.  Greg might have had the knack at one time and I suspect he still does, but until they stop treating the poor guy like a Chatty Kathy doll who must be constantly goosed to keep the whole thing afloat, they’ll continue to sound ordinary, and The Hardline will steamroll them in every book.

========

As always, no limits on the subject matter of comments.  However, the next article will focus solely on the Richie-Greggo relationship, so if you want to remark on that, why don’t you hold those thoughts for a couple of days.   Focus on the show overall – if you can’t wait, no problem.  Blast away.

And, as always, contrary views appropriately expressed are welcome.  I’d love to hear from some RaGE fans.

The Rage of Mike Rhyner

I haven't rambled in awhile.  On this Super Bowl Sunday, I find myself with some time on my hands.  Always a dangerous thing.  So I'm going to ramble a bit.

One of the reasons I started this site was because I was worried about the Hardline.  That was back in mid-2009.

Most Confessors know the recent history of the Hardline -- years of toil, growing success, spectacular success, Greg Williams's departure, flirtation with some plus-ones, settling into simply doing without Greggo -- and continued spectacular success.

Recently, The Hardline and BaD have faced a new competitive threat in the form of a revived 105.3 The Fan.   Both competitors feature former Ticket guys, including Greggo against The Hardline, the show starting an hour earlier than Mike and Corby hit the air.  There are Confessors out there who follow the ratings more closely than I do, and I'm hopeful we can have a report later in 2011  My own feeling is that any ratings comparison is going to be meaningless until at least 6-9 months out, since some listeners will switch out of curiosity for awhile but eventually wander back.  It will take awhile before any meaningful trend may be discerned.  And, as various Confessors have noted, the holiday/drydock ratings are probably not very meaningful.

More than most of the showgrams, it seems to me, a "wave theory" may be applied to The Hardline.  It goes through cycles where it's sharp, followed by a period of time when it seems to descend into a kind of funk.

Galvanic skin responses of a group of 20 Confessors listening to
The Hardline over a four-year period.

The period following Greg's departure was good.  In those months the show was still finding its way but it was solid, dramatic radio as we all tuned in to see if and how they would sustain the high-wire act.  As it turned out, they sustained it pretty well.  The increased role of Danny Balis was a very positive development, and the show was funny and sharp.

To my highly-subjective ears, the graph headed south around mid-to-late 2009.   I started this site in June.  The issue, for me, was one of balance. 

I wrote about my concerns in a five-part series one year ago this month.  I identified a number of issues, but chief among them was balance.   The Corby/Danny axis was overwhelming Mike, and good as those guys are, it was too much juvenalia.  (By the way:  That series concluded not-very-presciently with the radical suggestion that Mike Bacsik should join the showgram -- it's hard for Mrs. Plainsman to keep my crystal ball clean in a sod house.)

Ironically, by the time those articles appeared, I thought that The Hardline was actually on an upswing and through, oh, summer 2010 I thought The Hardline had returned to form.  I had my usual issues with vulgarity but those are largely personal; most of the Confessor Nation does not find even the raunchiest Hardline material very troublesome.  That aside, however, I thought things were going pretty well.

Come fall, however, I thought the showgram once again seemed to run out of gas.  Whenever I get that feeling, I ask myself whether it's just me needing a change, or if there really is a difference in the show.  One of the interesting things about doing this site is that as it has gained readers and I hear from them, is that I can compare my own impression to theirs.  Since this site discourages what I call the Corby Sux School of Ticket Journalism, Confessors weigh in with thoughtful views on the showgram and have proven to be an excellent reality check for my own listening.   As it turns out, I got the same feeling from the Nation -- lots of Corby, Mike checked out.

I found this odd because with the Rangers in the World Series, one would think that Mike would be energized and engaged.  He was -- about the Rangers, and during playoff/World Series time.  But that temporary enthusiasm did not seem to pay off for the show as a whole.  The New York City trip, for example, never really got off the ground for some reason.

So in the latter part of 2010.  I found myself punching out more, exasperated at the OverCorby, wondering what was on Mike's mind after 4 PM since he himself so rarely reported on it, awkward real-time show prep, the usual Hardline struggles.  Of course, by that time the Richie and Greggo Extravaganza had hit the air, so I sampled that from time to time (and, in general, found it wanting but with the occasional bright spot). 

Then came drydock.  I was pretty sure people were tired of reading about the same old Hardline issues so didn't quite know what, if anything, I was going say about it.

As it turns out, it was unnecessary.  To my ear The Hardline has been very good since the New Year.  A couple of Confessors have also noted that recent showgrams have been better.

The reason is not hard to discern.  As Mike Rhyner goes, so goes The Hardline.

Other than the occasional amusing cutting reference, The Hardline appears to have made no formal or structural response to RaGE at all.  That is, the showgram itself hasn't changed its personnel, segment organization, bits.  Wait, they restored the Trifecta, but that's about it.   (Confessor Anonymous B has perceptively asked whether this is a response to RaGE's "Dead and Gone" segment.  Quite possible, I would think.)  Good.  There's no reason to show concern over RaGE at this point by any kind of obvious tinkering with the showgram, and more important, it'd be dangerous to mess with a successful formula absent evidence that it had lost its punch.

But more to the point -- over the long haul, the success of The Ticket showgrams isn't driven by bits anyway.   It's driven by the desire of listeners to spend time with the personalities that the hosts project on the air.  When Confessors complain about The Ticket, it has rarely to do with content -- it has to do with liking or not liking the performance, personality, dedication, attitude of a particular host.

Mike Rhyner, in addition to being the driving on-air force behind The Ticket's founding, is its most distinctive voice, its guiding spirit, and, not coincidentally, a hypnotic radio presence, a font of aural charisma the likes of which is not to be found elsewhere in Dallas radio.  When he is serious about what he is doing, he absolutely commands the listener to keep his fracking mitts off the presets.

Lately, I've been hearing some of the Mike Rhyner that guided me to The Ticket in 2004.  I don't know if it's the new competition.  Wouldn't stun me if Hammer's presence up the dial had something to do with it, but dunno.   I can tell you that the first time I really sat up and took notice was a segment right after drydock when Mike was positively shouting into the mic, his voice a good register higher than normal, about his newly-found and freely-confessed man-love for the most unique-looking Blake Griffin.  We heard it again when he was recounting his personal encounter with Griffin at a booster luncheon.   (I've named Mike's revived passion "Racially Ambiguous Griffin Ecstasy" -- RAGE.) 

Whatever it is, we've heard more Mike lately.  You could see it on the Webcam.  Previous Webcam presentations have showed Mike looking about as uninterested as he sounded.  There on Radio Row, however, he was animated, sitting up, head always in motion, gesturing with arms and hands, always keen on what was being talked about.  And would the Nation agree with me that those shows this past week were pretty good?   Would you agree that they've been better since drydock than in the couple-three months before?

Notice that I've said nothing about Corby or Danny.   Got no problem with them at all.  (Or Ty, or That Nice Young Michael Gruber, for that matter.)   But the past few weeks have confirmed, for Your Plainsman, at least, that The Hardline rises and falls with the attitude and interest of Mike Rhyner.  Lately the showgram has once again attracted his attention, and life in DFW is the better for it.

This Was Not the Greggo Article I Intended to Write -- AN MTC STD*

The Greggo article I intended to write would have gone something like this (but, because I am Your Plainsman, much longer):

I don't remember why I switched over to The RaGE the other day, but I noticed something about Greggo.  Oh, he sounded fine.  Unimpaired.  He and Richie were talking about the recent Rangers trade.  Made sense.  In fact, Greg made the same point that Junior made the next morning – this means trouble for Michael Young.  Absolutely nothing unusual about the conversation.  Except for one thing.   While Greggo sounded like the old Greggo, something was amiss.  His voice was huskier than it used to be – hell, we're all a little older than we were in 2007 – but it also sounded like he had dentures that didn't fit.  Or he'd lost bone mass in his jaw.  Or his tongue was swollen.  His speech was really whistle-y and kind of wet, he had some trouble pronouncing some words (but again, not because of inorganic impairment).  It wasn't extremely obvious, it wasn't awful to listen to, but it was noticeable.  It was as though he'd grown very old all of a sudden. 

I don't know where I was going to go with that, just something that a Plainsman surveying the sports talk radio horizon should notice.  As I say, the segment was fine, Greggo just sounded like an elderly man.

Today, Mrs. Plainsman had sent me out to do some hunting and gathering and I had The Hardline on.   I was waiting for her call and I was dozing in a parking lot.  The Hardline was doing a segment on whether Corby was going to turn into The Snake by talking to some very young woman about anal bleaching.  Early-forties Corby talking to early-twenties woman about anal bleaching.  Now there's an image that sharpens the appetite.  At that point, Mrs. Plainsman called and instructed me as to her dinner preference and I escaped that segment without further injury.

When I came back and turned on The Ticket at 6:30, it was Ralph and Razor.  I like Ralph and Razor.  But it is fair to say that I have more interest in:

   --  the State of the Union Message,

   --  not only watching paint dry, which is a fairly dynamic process, but watching a sealed can of paint, or

   --  103.3,

than hockey on the radio.

So I switched over to The RaGE, still broadcasting at 6:30.

They were talking about the Texas Longhorn TV network deal.  And Greggo was on fire.  He knew his facts, and he not only had an HSO, he had an ultra-HSO that I thought he supported reasonably well:  That the deal might not only mark the beginning of the end of the Big 12, but the beginning of the end of the NCAA.   I don't recall all the details, but I recall that it made sense, and was actually somewhat visionary.   Now, you can agree with that or disagree, but it was real good radio, and Greggo sounded just fine.  It made me think about his hypothesis and other circumstances that pointed in the same direction.  And I care less about the NCAA than I do about Stars hockey on the radio.

Now I'm not going to start listening regularly to The RaGE.  I'm not advocating that anyone else do so.  But I gotta tell you:  When they went to break, I tried to remember the last time I heard a Hardline SPORTS segment that provocative.  Now, the Hardline guys are interesting, and they talk in an interesting way, and an amusing way, and I'm as addicted to the showgram as you are, and I think Greggo did them dirt.  But numerous Confessors have mentioned it:  Those gents do not do significant preparation for their show, not so's one could notice.  Oh, they mention show meetings.  What happens in them is not entirely clear.  They're talented enough broadcasters, every one of them, that they get away with it and it's great radio and I listen whenever I can for as long as I can.

And the fact is, Mike R's increased interest over the past few weeks has been noticeable,  leading to something of a renaissance for that showgram.  I had intended to call attention to it in an article, and probably will sometime.

But the point is – The RaGE isn't messing around.  There's some hard-core content there, content that someone has thought about for more than a quarter-minute before it is uttered on the air.   Several recent comments have noted Corby's apparent near-total unpreparedness for E-News and Community Q-Hits, and, defend Corby as I might, that perception is widely shared and difficult to shake.  P1's want to be entertained, and our lads do that quite well.  But if they think they're being shown disrespect, they may go shopping to that new mall up north on the dial.

Now, please excuse me while I Google "anal bleaching."
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* Scorching Ticket Disquisition