i♥, Likely RIP

iHeartRadio is in serious trouble.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/iheartradio-parent-warns-it-may-not-survive-another-year-2017-04-21-121035436

Unlike some recent speculations by visitors to this site on Cumulus's looming demise, this looks like the real thing.

It seems unlikely this would mean the disappearance of the iHeart streams and other services.  A Chapter 11 bankruptcy, if it happens, means restructuring, selling off assets, and the like -- those assets don't just disappear.

I will leave to Confessors who do more streaming than I do (all of them) to comment on whether it matters to them if the iHeartRadio app for Ticket monitoring lives or dies.

Got a New Phone with Salty Battery. So Which App is Best: iHeart or SportsDay TALK?

I Heart Confessors!

Got a special holiday treat for you.  Confessor Brad Gilbert has responded to the call for volunteer posts with a great bear-trap story and invitation for comments.  My thanks.

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Before I begin, a little background on myself may be in order. I began listening to the Ticket as a 18 year-old just out of high school, back in the days when Rocco “like the Beatles” Pendola was on mid-days, movie watching was still a sport, and people were being Sturminated late-nights. I pretty much listened all day while working different jobs that allowed the radio to be on. But, in 2005 I moved up to MI and was stuck listening to the generic sports talk offered up in Metro Detroit. While I managed to get through it, nothing was ever the same.  

But then along comes Twitter, and I begin to see posts about the Hammer and how he was doing after being fired from the Ticket. Whoa! Not what I was expecting. So, as I begin to search the Internet, I find out that you can listen online to the Ticket via its website. This eventually led to smartphones and apps. Now, I listen through iHeart Radio. Even when I am in my vehicle, I plug my phone into a portable speaker to listen. All of that leads me to this story, and I wonder if it has ever happened to anyone else out there:

As I was listening to the Hardline one evening in my car, Corby and Danny were going back and forth on some subject. To this day, I cannot remember what exactly they were talking about due to the shocking nature of what came next.

I am getting ready to walk into Blockbuster to take back some DVDs and I grab my phone to listen via the speaker on the smartphone. It is at this moment, while I pass a female in the parking lot, that Danny blurts out something about females and that certain “time of the month,” and a “used female product.” I have never seen someone stop as fast as she did to stare me down dead in my tracks. The Hardline in particular has taught me that when listening to the Ticket in public, I am better off using my earphones. This is probably one of the reasons why I don’t listen to the Hardline as much as I once did.

Has listening to the Ticket, either in public, home, or the office, ever caused an embarrassing situation for you?

 

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Email:  ThePlainsman1310@gmail.com

Twitter:  @Plainsman1310

 

 



Put That Damned Mutt to Sleep

The Ticket stream is drying up.

I hope you all noticed a comment from T4 in Rockwall a couple of posts ago:

"Concerning the TuneIn app, I took this from the DFW Radio Forums: 


"http://boards.radio-info.com/smf/index.php?topic=211872.0

"In short, the TuneIn app will apparently not be carrying The Ticket after a certain time and will be carried on the iHeart app."


Confessor Shaggy responded that that is "awful, awful" news.

Shaggy, it's worse than you think.  The day is coming when iHeart will be your sole app for The Ticket.

I don't get much industry info, but I did hear from someone I would classify as an industry guy, who reported that the culprit here is only one-foot-three.

Yep, you have SweetJack to thank for the shrinking Ticket listening area.  Actually, a little further down on that message board that T4 linked to, you'll see this, which confirms the information I received:

"It has to do with SweetJack.  The deal requires Clear Channel to start promoting SweetJack while Cumulus goes onto iHeartRadio.  My understanding is that SweetJack hasn't been completely rolled out yet.  The original plan was that Cumulus would go onto iHeartRadio around the same time Greater Media arrived.  Then, they said it would be sometime this month.  I guess they're technically still on schedule, but I was under the impression it would be closer to May 1."

There are two horrifying things there:  (1) The deliberate, knowing reduction by Cumulus of the ability of P1s to hear The Ticket, and the CTO's apparent lack of any concern for Ticket listeners.  (2) The possibility that SweetJack "hasn't been completely rolled out yet."

Watch this space.  I've got an STD in the oven.