On This, Our 400th Post, We Republish a Possible CTO Encounter

Hard to believe.  I looked up and this is my 400th post.  Thanks to all Confessors and fly-bys for continued growth and ever-improving content -- because the best stuff is usually in the comments these days. 

A couple of Anonymi and I have been kicking around what we view as promotional inattention to The Little One.  This has gotten under someone's skin, and I think I know whose skin it is, and I think that skin is not paired with Ben, but instead resides at The Ticket's plush new digs, but it doesn't matter.  He provides some excellent information in the following somewhat dyspeptic comment to the last post:

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The "CTO's" aren't going to spend thousands of dollars advertising as long as the Ticket is still #1 M25-54. and guess what? They're still #1 M25-54, by a long shot. the Fan has hurt KESN's ratings more than they've hurt the Ticket's ratings.

Lack of capital investment? Stop by the 4th floor of 3090 Olive and you'll see capital investment.

And as for the signal, let's remember something. 1310 sold in 1994 from Bonneville to Cardinal Communication for 3 million dollars. Cardinal sold out to SFX a year later for 8 million
(http://www.thefreelibrary.com/SFX+BROADCASTING+TO+ACQUIRE+KTCK(AM)+IN+DALLAS.-a016601127)   And then it sold to Susquehanna for about 14mil in May of 1996.
(http://www.allbusiness.com/company-activities-management/company-structures-ownership/7226952-1.html)    98.3, a crappy FM siganl sold a few years back for 16mil+.
(http://www.radiobroker.com/)

To get a 'good' FM signal, or a significant upgrade to an AM signal would require in the 10's of millions of dollars. Check that broker's site for an understanding of pricing of stations. And realize that any station that has a decent signal will probably have decent billing. And with common BCF multiples of 5-8, the CTO's aren't going to pay 50-80 million let's say, for a better signal when KTCK is billing just fine with the crap signal they've got. Not to mention that to buy a better signal, you've got to have someone willing to sell a signal. Why would Clear channel, CBS or anybody else sell them a better signal? And as for other signals in house, flipping 570 and 1310 would kill 570 and whatever billing it has. And 96.7 is a halfway decent signal north of town, and it sucks south of town. It's 104.1 slightly closer to town.

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A few reactions:

(1)  Thanks very much.  Great info, I've always wanted a compact history of The Little One's transactions, and there it is.   And I'm a freak for all that radio inside stuff, too, although not in any media business myself.  I think I mentioned that awhile back I shopped around for a radio station to buy (not in a major metro) and got a little educated on this stuff and found that there was this amazing fanatical radio techno-financial subculture out there.  Very cool and fun.  Our Anonymous benefactor here is, I'm pretty sure, a Ticket guy, as no mere Confessor would have any interest in defending the CTO's lassitude with such conviction.   And, I think, a pretty solid and credible Ticket guy, wouldn't you say so, AP?

(2)  No one -- not me, not any commenter -- has said that the CTO aren't spending money on The Ticket.  We all know about the move announced a year-and-a-half-ago and the shiny new studios.  Although to hear the hosts talk about it, those studios are somewhat less desirable for The Ticket than for other Cumulus properties who will be billeted there.  Yeah, it's a "capital investment," albeit not allocable entirely to The Ticket, but it is 100% irrelevant to the point I and some commenters were making, which related to investment in reaching more ear buds and how people find out about it.   Don't get me wrong, it's great that there's going to be a technical upgrade -- although it sounds like a lot of the old equipment that didn't work so hot on Maple has been hauled over there.  But that equipment could be manufacured by Tag Heuer and it won't bring in one additional listener or retain one straying P1.

(3)  Also 100% irrelevant:  Amounts paid for The Ticket broadcast property.  Our point has to do with a new playing field for sports radio in DFW in the future, a field that is being prepared for planting by The Fan, and not The Ticket.  No one doubts that The Ticket is valuable.  No one doubts that its ratings are presently strong (also 100% irrelevant to our point).  The question is not what was paid for The Ticket in 1995 or 1996 -- over fifteen years ago when The Ticket had no competition. 

And by the way -- it is misleading to suggest that those purchasers were paying solely for the 1310 signal, as though the Ticket talent and format pounded together by Mike Rhyner and other founders  had nothing to do with it.   The Ticket went on the air on January 24, 1994 (an early Happy Birfday to all), and by the time of the SFX transaction in 1995 it was already the number one station among males 25-54.  

And the question is not whether The Ticket's talent overcomes the rotten signals to achieve dominant ratings in the here and now.  The question is what happens five years from now when the present talent has been on the air for (in some cases) over two decades, and some of it may have moved on.  And the listener demo is trending in the other direction.  What then?  Will you have done anything for your brand other than beg long-time talent to stay on?   Will people think to tune you in because you're The Ticket and not because they like Junior, or Mike, or Bob?

(4)  100% irrelevant:  The purchase price of a new FM signal.  No one here has suggested that Cumulus buy a new stick for The Ticket, and this site has never done so.



(5)  Not 100% irrelevant is the information about signal swaps.  But pretty close to 100% unpersuasive.  Either 93.3 or 96.7 would be an immediate material improvement in the Ticket signal.  Stations swap signals with some frequency in metro areas.  The Score in Chicago has done it several times, improving its coverage area and signal strength every time, even taking over the long-time news-talk signal for NBC in that market.  You know what they pay their talent there, talent that doesn't come close to The Ticket's?  Huge.  Mike North (no longer, but in his heyday):  Well over a million dollars a year.  (I sure as hell hope Mike R's deal is somewhere well north of altruism.)  The point:  Swapping signals has been real darned good for The Score and its talent.

But let's look closer to home -- much closer to home.   In March 2010, 96.7 was KPMZ, Ron Chapman's "Platinum" 60's-70's station.  One day, listeners were startled to learn that Citadel Broadcasting began simulcasting WBAP News/Talk 820 on 96.7.      So the first point to make is:  signal swaps are easy.

The second point to make is:  Why is Cumulus committed to continue to simulcast WBAP on 96.7?  820 AM is 50,000 watts and clear-channel omnidirectional at night -- a blowtorch.  And it's talk.  It doesn't need an FM signal.  (Neither does The Ticket -- it just needs a growed-up signal, irrespective of the variety of modulation.)  

As for 96.7's signal coverage, it's plainly better than 104.1 for DFW-area listeners.  Citadel thought highly enough of it to plop WBAP in there.  Don't rely on me or Anonymous -- see for yourself:  Compare 104.1 signal coverage (http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=KTDK&service=FM&status=L&hours=U) with 96.7 signal coverage (http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=WBAP&service=FM&status=L&hours=U)).   Improvement is obvious.  And, let's face it -- where are The Ticket's listeners? 

But if you long-suffering Confessors really want to dream, take a look at 93.3 KLIF-FM "i93":  http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/pat?call=KLIF&service=FM&status=L&hours=U).  How is i93 doing, by the way?  (I'm serious -- I really don't know if it's a worthwhile format in this market, or just more of the same you can find on a half-dozen other stations.  Someone tell me.)  If i93 is still a ratings-suck, then it's still a strong swap candidate, too.  Replace those billings with excellent and creative programming on 104.1 and/or 1310.

The basic point is as it was the last time I addressed this:  If you had a bucket of broadcast properties that included a monster numero uno Ticket format and talent, and were coming anew to DFW, you would never, ever, stick The Ticket on 104.1 and 1310.  Where would you stick it if you had the Cumulus stable of signal sticks?  Well,  that's where you should stick it now.

(6)  So the CTO isn't going to spend "thousands" (?????) of dollars on advertising while The Ticket is Number 1.  I suppose that's why you see so little advertising for Coke, Microsoft, Apple, Toyota, AT&T, and other market leaders these days.  Good lord, as Danny would say.  I love your station, and I love you, but tell your CTO buddies that brands require a little nourishment, a little love, to flourish and grow.

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So:  Great info, and I really do sincerely thank the crypto-CTO for checking in.  I'm serious.  It didn't touch our point but it was great stuff and I cordially invite you to continue to instruct Your Plainsman when I wander into error or plainly have no idea what I'm talking about.  But it seems to me that even with all this tasty info, my and commenters' suggestions that The Fan is doing some things that are elevating its profile in this market, and that its strategies can only assist it in competing with The Ticket in the long run (especially if those strategies are ignored and unmet by Cumulus), are entirely sound.

And finally:  Were you really inviting me to drop by the new studios for a visit? 

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Quick Thought, Maybe Not Worth a Post, But . . .

A commenter to the prior article noted that Greggo was on The Fan teevee show.  I responded that for all its broadcast lameness, The Fan is not giving up and is in there swinging.  (And it's not that lame, even.)  

An anonymous commenter wrote:  "The Fan is definitely not sitting around on their arse. I'm not a Fan fan (as they say), but the station and its, ahem, talent (OK, Elf and Josh are talented) are becoming more and more visible/present in the local sports scene. And doing it on very visible stages."

Yeah, that's right.   Now, it's not like The Ticket does nothing.  It does TicketStock.  It does remotes.  It does Fight Night and charity games.

But those are sporadic one-offs.  And they're directed primarily at people who already listen.   They don't compare with real honest-to-god systematic  advertising and always-visible promotion in the competition for new ears.

Someday, the CTO are going to regret the lack of promotional and capital investment in The Little One. 

Keeping up with The Fan is one thing.  The Fan looks like a well-financed (or at least splashy) local sports station compared to the "little" Ticket -- a locution Mike uses sarcastically, but which is starting to feel more and more accurate.  

The other -- I'm telling you, I know I am getting tiresome on this topic but this is not a small thing and is going to get bigger as time goes by -- is the appalling inattention to The Ticket's signal.  We've been hearing how it's going to get better for a long time.  Based on my systematic observation (i.e., driving around), it hasn't.   I haven't heard a compelling rationale for not giving The Ticket WBAP 96.7 FM.  (See detailed ramblings in this article from last year.) 

You can say that The Ticket talent kicks Fan arse all the way to ESPN-national-feed and back, and you'd be right.  But relentless promotion that is unanswered by Cumulus can't help but eventually have some effect.  A crack in the windshield, a foot in the door  .  .  .  .   

I'm not saying it's likely to happen soon, but when one competitor is moving and you're standing pat, and your hosts are aging, and your demo is aging, and whether you can even hear the station depends on the dew point in your vicinity on that particular day  .  .  .  .

Next thing you know, Ticket hosts aren't publicizing the latest numbers every quarter anymore. 




Abe's Gettysburg Address was more reliably broadcast than KTCK programming. 
And I think he had a sports bar.

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The Internets Are a Big Places

In checking my referrals this morning, I saw that I had a couple of people checking into the site coming from www.grubesismyleader.com.  When I followed the link back, I discovered an interesting discussion involving some of our fine regulars here.  I think this link will get you to the general vicinity, although I confess (of course) to some perplexity in navigating that site.  There are some quotes from past comments to these pages remarking on differences between this site and GIML.

Before I started this site I checked out GIML to see if it were a place I might like to park my STD's.  I concluded it wasn't, but not because the site wasn't a good site -- just wasn't my kinda spot, although it obviously was the kinda spot for a very large number of P1's who enjoyed the more rough-and-tumble aspects of Internet debating.  I'm glad GIML is around.  I'm surprised there aren't more Ticket-related sites, including more blogs like MTC.  It's like T4 said -- you go to the different sites for different purposes.  That's the kind of freedom the Internet has given all of us.

So today:  GrubesIsMyLeader, son of Friends of the BaD Radio Experience, I salute you.

Let's keep comments civil, folks.  My thanks.

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 Email:  ThePlainsman1310@gmail.com

JUNES: GET WELL SOON

That's not a wish.

That's a demand.

I Kinda Feel Sorry for That Guy from Structured Foundation Repairs, Inc.

As Confessors know, and as The Ticket's sales department either loves or hates, I listen to the ads.

Lately I've been feeling sorry for the guy who owns, and reads the ads for, Structured Foundation Repairs.  I think his name is Tom Kidd.

He sounds like a really nice guy, sincere.  I'm sure it's a great company with a fine product.  If you go to its website (http://www.structuredfoundationrepairs.com/) you will see all manner of testimonials, 5-star approval rating (although if you click on those five stars, there's no link, so the provenance of that rating is not clear), good works for the community.  (Although they have the same logo, the connection between www.structuredfoundation.com and www.structuredfoundationrepairs.com is unclear.)  And their foundation repair is probably terrific, backed by what sounds like a solid warranty.

But for years The Ticket has been a home-away-from-home for All-Pro Foundation Repair. 
It has a gigantic promotional footprint on The Little One.

Back in October 2010, I wrote this article ("Never Never No Never No No Never -- and I Mean Never -- Buy a House from a Ticket Host") in which I noted that Craig, George, Norm, Bob, Dan, and Mike all stated in an ad then running that they were "customers" of All-Pro, and I suggested that Ticket hosts must be cursed since they all seemed to have foundation problems.  Either that or those gents were victims of an incredibly unfortunate coincidence.   (Corby and Gordon, who did not confess to being All-Pro customers, were having terrible plumbing problems that Baker Brothers tended to -- note Baker Brothers' neat "we get it" comment to that article.)   This was the first time that I thought maybe someone at The Ticket might actually read this site, because not long thereafter the ads changed to remove the suggestion that Ticket hosts had bad foundations, and now they just say that all the hosts "endorse" All-Pro.  And, of course, many of them continue to appear on nearly every All-Pro ad.

And All-Pro has a very tight jingle ("the right solution for your home").

And All-Pro's ad features a professional announcer in addition to the host-endorsers.

And the All-Pro guys are University of North Texas alumni.

And there's a whole batch of them, a couple of whom used to be on the ads, sounding like a couple of frat guys with dirt-support engineering degrees.

And -- and surely this is critical -- All-Pro employs all methods of foundation repair, including some kind of exotic solid core pier, so that no matter how lopsided your crib may be from the subsidence in the earth's crust caused by the fracking operations just over George's fence, they can find some kind of gigantic tool to put it level again. 

What about Structured Foundation Repairs?

No celebrity endorsers.  No host reading copy.  Just Tom.  And, recently, little daughter Kylie, whose fee is probably fairly modest.

Only one guy.

No announcer.

No jingle.

No suggestion that SFR has more than one kind of pier.  (Although Tom offers the same lifetime transferable guarantee as All-Pro.  By the way, what is a lifetime transferable guarantee?  If you sell your home and transfer the guarantee, and then you die, does the warranty expire?  Does your buyer have some stake in keeping your ass alive after you've stuck him with your defective sinking dump?)

And the guy is an Aggie.

So I'm trying to imagine the Ticket account person visiting Tom there at Structured Foundation Repair, trying to sell him some time.  And I'm wondering how it goes.  I mean, Tom has got to know that APFR is spending an  ungodly fortune both for the time and for the goodwill of those enthusiastically endorsing hosts.  Mostly, I'm wondering if The Ticket is such an incredible promotion machine, especially when so many hosts jump on to endorse the sponsor, that Structured Foundations had to do something just to stay in the foundation-repair consciousness of uncounted heads-of-household for whom The Ticket hosts speak gospel.  (I'm one, but don't tell Mrs. Plainsman.) 

So I'm thinking:  Tom probably has a damned fine product and no one with a sweet daughter like Kylie is going to screw me on my foundation repair, should I need one.  And All-Pro is probably already completely swamped with P1's hoping to take advantage of the free engineer's report -- and mind you, it's an independent engineer -- a goddam $500 value! -- if you sign up for the All-Pro deal on that visit, which, correct me if I'm wrong, renders the engineer's report 100% worthless.   

So I'm thinking that Tom and his crew are highly incentivized to come out very promptly and give me a good deal and make me a happy, non-slanting homeowner.

Therefore, I'm proud to announce that effective immediately, My Ticket Confession is endorsing Structured Foundation Repairs, Inc.  

A Perfect Ending to a Perfect Day

Aren't all Ticket days perfect?

The Hardline had just finished its final segment.  The 6:50 ads were coming on and I reached over to punch over to Underground Garage on Sirius XM until Jake Kemp's 7:00 p.m. Ticket Top Ten comes on around 7:18 or so.    How many times do you need to hear Mike's identical daily farewells to the P1?   The show was over, right?

I pulled up.  Of course not.

What, I wondered, would that Nice Young Michael Gruber have cued up for us after the Hardline Theme today?

And then it struck me -- I've only been listening now for almost eight years, so y'all probably caught on to this a long time ago -- those slices or archival gold that he runs after Mike signs off are not only welcome repeats of good stuff from the past, but it keeps you tuned in through another couple of SweetJack joints and the Ticket All-Pro Foundation Repair Chorus Mass Endorsement Oratorio.   Turns a sponsor wasteland into something you purposely leave turned on.

A spot of genius, that.

Not only are the replayled bits usually fun, but they frequently answer questions listeners have about where certain inside references come from.  I didn't know what "Stand back, Burrito" meant until Grubes played the original bit at 6:59 back a few months ago.

And yesterday there was an extra reward:  A rare mention (although not the original) of one of the most mind-melting concepts ever slung on terrestrial radio, by one Mike Rhyner:  Green Tail Shiner (originally reported here), my obsession with which will doubtless someday destroy me, and this site along with it.

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Master Jake

I did something rather enjoyable last Friday evening, sitting around the campfire with Mrs. Plainsman. I read Jake Kemp's Master's thesis: "U.S. Newspapers and the Adoption of Technological Innovations."

I did not hear this, but apparently he appeared on a segment a couple of weeks ago where the topic of his graduation from the Master's program (M.A.) at the University of North Texas came up. And he took a spot of teasing in these pages. Jake has been a friendly presence on this site from time to time and I'm on record as admiring his work on the Ticket Top Ten.

In sending it to me, Jake warned me that it contained a fair amount of acadamese, apparently a requirement in presentations of this type. But I found it extremely interesting and well done. He examined the processes that took place in a number of newspapers throughout the country as they struggled to come to grips with the explosion of the Internet as the public's source of news -- in particular, how to construct, and what resources to devote to, their own web pages. He conducted dozens of interviews which he has digested and synthesized into a thesis. I can't do it justice here, but he uses it as a petri dish to examine how companies deal with "disruptive technologies."

This is not Jake Kemp.
However, he did take the photograph.

I don't know what Jake wants to do with his life, but he's off to an impressive start.   The CTO should keep an eye on that chap.  He's not just banter.

It's Not Too Early to ask Some Hard(line) Questions -- PART 4(b)

January is Rhynerrific!

In my last installment, I opined that if Mike were to depart a month from now, The Hardline and BaD Radio would stay put and they would try to find a replacement for the OGW. You can still argue about that in the comments if you want, but today's topic is: If The Hardline survives, who might replace Mike on The Hardline?

Get your tomatoes, eggs, and brickbats ready. This is going to take awhile; it's actually three articles in one, so grab a bev and settle in.

[And please, trolls: I know Mike's exit is unlikely. We've said it now for weeks. This series is based on the assumption that Mike's contract nonrenewal, however remote the possibility, would be an extremely disruptive event that merits the attention of this single-topic site. So I would be most grateful if you would refrain from advising us on how we're wasting our time. And this article is going to be real, real long, with lots of words, so if that shuts you down as well, this would be an excellent time to click on http://www.grubesismyleader.com/. Sorry to be snarky, but really, trolls -- topic-selection and article-length are off the table for the time being. However, it remains entirely proper to opine that my views are unsound.]

As I also wrote, it is not possible to "replace" Mike if you want The Hardline to march onward sounding exactly as it does now. He's one of a kind so let's just admit to ourselves that The Hardline without Mike will be a different showgram. So when you think about your own candidates to fill that slot, think about who might put on a good presentation with Corby/Danny/Grubes/Ty and not about how to salvage The Hardline's current sound.

And I'm trying to be a little realistic, although you may find my choices so unlikely as to be just the opposite. The candidate has to be someone who is available. I don't care if our candidate comes from The Ticket or elsewhere but he must at least be someone who is on site or hirable.

I have two candidates in mind:

Candidate 1:

Although Mike's seat is a huge prize (and an even bigger challenge to the successful candidate), I don't think it's necessary that it be filled by an established radio bigfoot. There will be a built-in audience for the show, and if consistent quality and interest can be established early on, The Hardline should survive relatively undiminished, especially given the weakness of the competition. So:

I like Scot Harrison. Like him a lot. I know that a significant percentage of Confessors are not crazy about The Soul Patch but since its early days with Jean-Jacques Taylor and through a plus one or so before being teamed with Matt McClearin, Harrison has gotten fairly good reviews. No, not everyone likes him, thinks he's got a bag of nothin', just some generic radio pipes, etc. To my ear, there's a real warmth to those pipes. And they seem to be attached to some brains. Knows enough sports, and if he had a full-time gig he'd probably be even better on that score. (His current full-time gig is with American National Bank of Texas, where he's been for approximately 2 years.) If I'm guessing right from his LinkedIn profile, it looks like he's in his mid-to-late forties. (6-7 years from beginning college at A&M to graduation from UT Arlington in 1989, so if he were say, 24 or 25 when he graduated, he'd be 46-47 now.)

Only Scot Harrison image I could find other than the hat picture

He has a mature sound about him, and to that limited extent he would fill that portion of Mike's function as the stable, guiding host. (Although Mike claims he doesn't want to be viewed in that way.) But he also has a sense of humor and could deal with Corby the Snake and Danny the Merchant of Hip as well as making sure The Hardline occasionally makes its way to some sports topic. I think he could roll with the established spirit of The Hardline.

He's got a solid background in local sports media: Again, according to LinkedIn: From 1989 through 2003, he worked in radio and television production: KWCS, Wise County, Texas; KIKT/KGVL, Hunt County, Texas; KRLD, Dallas/Fort Worth; Jeff Watts Productions, Fort Worth, Texas; Metrosports Communications, Arlington, Texas. From 2003 through 2008, he owned and operated Game Winning Productions, a "broadcast production company engaged in sales, marketing, and production of sporting events on radio."

So we're not talking about elevating an amateur here when it comes to moving him into Mike's chair. Wherever he came from, he's a credible, market-knowledgeable guy with an adult presence who seems to have sports/guy/pop-culture chops and could roll with Corby and Danny. Don't hold those golden pipes against him.

And here we have to detour just a bit to make a point that applies to Candidate 2 as well: I have expressed the thought in the past that Corby is more versatile than he is given credit for. He doesn't have to be The Snake at all times; he can sling a much more responsible but still entertaining radio persona. If I'm right that Harrison might take show prep a little more seriously than Mike now does, I think it would do Corby's game a world of good. I wouldn't worry about Corby chafing under a more disciplined regime. I think he might even welcome it and in my view he has the talent to adapt to it. The same analysis applies to Danny, who is also a more responsible broadcaster than he'd like to let on; runs his own show as a host and it's pretty good. The point is that we don't necessarily need to think about a Hardline where Corby and Danny themselves don't change, adapt, work hard to sustain The Hardline's success.

Candidate 2:

OK, get ready.

First, another detour.

For almost a year I've been teasing the Nation that I have been harboring an incendiary STD about BaD Radio. I'm not just trying to be provocative with the following proposal, even though I acknowledge that it is very unlikely of realization. I truly believe it would be a good solution to the problems created by Mike's departure.

Confessors will recall that I did that three-parter on BaD in August 2010. At that time I concluded that it was a good show, I could listen to it, but that I was having some trouble warming up to Dan McDowell. In addition, it seemed to me that Dan and a lot of the rest of The Ticket somehow held one another at arm's length -- that he was "on, but not of," the Little One. I promised the Nation that I would keep listening since I wanted to be fair to Dan and because I heard and continue to hear from so many Confessors who were and are big fans of Dan and BaD.

So I did try to listen more.

Before I began writing this column, I went back to review everything I'd written about BaD and its hosts. Comparing that to my more recent listening experiences, I stand by all of it, with a major exception I'll describe in a moment. I'm sorry, I really am sorry, but Dan McDowell continues to make BaD Radio an at-best-average listening experience for me. The interrupting, the tendency to name-call-not-in-a-joshing-way, the belittling of staff. They're bits, you say? Maybe. But they're bad bits.

I have notes from a show on February 28 of last year that sums it up: Bob had packaged a LeBron segment. When he got to it, he started to make the point that maybe LeBron is not a go-to guy at the end of big games, or games in general. You would have thought that Bob was arguing that Dan's mom was on food stamps or something, because Dan interrupted almost immediately with a counter-argument that was (i) to my ear, and to Bob's, completely irrelevant to Bob's point, (ii) really loud, and (iii) intemperately expressed. He called Bob an "idiot" twice, I believe. (Might have been more -- I punched out after two.) Awful. Then there was an episode -- damn, where are those notes? my memory may be slightly off here -- where Ralph Strangis was on the show supposedly to tell the story of some of his rockier times. Well, you could forget that; it turned into a What's-on-Dan's-Mind segment. Complete chaos; what got teased never got broadcast. Ralphie was barely allowed to speak. Punch. Out.

And, as Danny B has said: Dan "bogs crap down." I've punched out on more than one occasion when Dan employed his frequent debate tactic of restating someone's point in an absurdly exaggerated fashion, and then attacking that. The old straw-man tactic. Stops the show in its tracks. Dan's Confessor defenders, for whom I have great respect, have argued that Dan must interrupt and be extreme to keep Bob from droning on for hours on end. Ain't buying it. Dan frequently interrupts before a speaker completes a single sentence.

The above notwithstanding, I am not even close to being a Dan-hater. In one respect, I find that I have gradually become a fairly enthusiastic Dan fan: He's really quite a good sports analyst. He's not Mr. Numbers like Bob, but he's an extremely intelligent guy -- one of the smartest at The Ticket -- and isn't afraid to think originally or to go with the evidence of what he sees before him, however unexpected it might be. And I think he does see things clearly, never drinks the Kool-Aid. When he's sports-talking, I find that I like it and like him. I've heard him call in to shows to talk after some sports event, and always found it very worthwhile, interestingly expressed, with a healthy dose of creative thinking. Dan has one quality that alone makes him a worthwhile listen when he's being serious: He's fearless. That's not a small thing and I've come to admire him for it.

Here's where I come out on Dan: Lots of skills for a sports-radio station, the voice you can get used to, and a much-better-than-average sports talker.

But there is one thing he is not: A Sports Humorist.

Yeah, I know, lots of people like the uber-cynical, sarcastic, smug style of commentary, and if you do then you'll like Dan. That's fine, I'm not going to tell anyone they shouldn't like Dan. And humor has got to be one of the most subjective emotions. For me, the guy's patter has never given rise to sensations of amusement. My problem, then, is not so much with Dan as a sports-talk host, where he's actually quite good; it's Dan's competing unfunnily for attention with Bob and the resulting bog. He's a real good broadcaster; he's just not a real good broadcast partner.

Unfortunately, that leaves us (me) with a problem because Dan is supposed to be the Sports Humorist.

But what has all of this to do with Mike's empty chair?

You probably see where this is going.

I warned you this was going to be wild.

If Mike R leaves The Ticket, it will be time to break up BaD Radio.

Send Bob to The Hardline, create a new afternoon show around Dan with Dan as the alpha sports guy on the show. That is, don't replace Bob with a sports-talker bigfoot, just find someone Dan can tolerate. Or don't replace Bob; I'd be OK with DaD Radio (Dan and Donovan). This would allow Dan to develop and exercise his broadcasting strengths as a principal host, actually elevating his stature at The Ticket. (I told you I wasn't a Dan-hater.) In addition, this would be a way of moving a strong performer to The Hardline without entirely uprooting the afternoon show. I understand that reviews of Dan were mixed during Bob's absence with the adoption. While I missed Bob, in some ways I found those shows more enjoyable than BaD, the bickering and snideness no longer a factor. If he knew the show were his, I expect that some of the tentativeness and insecurity we may have heard during Bob's absence would evaporate. In any event, finding Dan a radio pal is not our job today.

So let's think about a Bob/Corby/Danny show. 

Large sports brain at top of image

Bob is pretty straight-laced; The Hardline would take on a considerably different tone with him at the helm. But it seems to me that he tolerates some fairly blue material on BaD without himself participating much in it. I don't think the Snake would have to be permanently caged. With Bob you have (1) a guy who knows Corby and Danny and, to the best of my knowledge, gets along with them, and they respect him; (2) a mature and strong counterpoint to the scamps Corby and Danny who could maintain that balance I'm always harping on; (3) a Ticket stalwart who is well-known to and well-liked by the P1's; (4) a guy who can bring in the listeners who want to hear serious sports talk, filling a notable Hardline weakness; and (5) a guy with a growing national profile. And, as I have said above, I think Corby and Danny are very capable of dialing back some of the snark, devoting some attention to show prep, and following sportsy things a little more closely. While this would put two guys in love with mic on the same show, I think Bob and Corby could work it out. It's a relatively low-risk move for our hypothetical CTO.



There you have it, my two candidates. Both with risks; both promising a very different Hardline and/or BaD.

So -- what would you do with The Hardline if Mike doesn't re-up? ("Stop listening" is an acceptable, but unhelpful, response.)

Danny and Corby respectfully await Mike's decision

Next and finally: Leveraging Mike.

A Very Happy and Healthy New Year to All Confessors

It's been a very gratifying year at My Ticket Confession.  Hits are up hugely and page views -- new readers checking out the archives -- are healthy as well.  The numbers may not be impressive in comparison with the listenership of The Ticket, but seeing as how it was me and about three other people in the early days, it's nice to have visitors.

In the last post's epic thread of comments on DryDock, I mentioned how healthy the hits were whenever that time of year rolled around.  That prompted a response from one Michael Krenek, who wrote: 

Your hits are up during dry dock because all of us Ticket spares are refreshing the site every 5 minutes to see if anything is written about us.

Krenek

#truth #hungryforfeedback

In addition to being hilarious, I think there's some truth there.  It had long been my assumption that Ticket hosts and CTOs get tons of email, in some cases hundreds a day, with reactions from P1's to Ticket programming, bits, hosts, features, everything.  And I would have thought that any views expressed on this site would be pretty much lost in that torrent of opinion and not much noticed by the varsity and JV and CTOs at The Little One. 

I'm less sure now.   Some time back I heard from a Ticket guy via email who mentioned that he sees MTC up on laptops from time to time.  Now here's Michael K's testimony.  And of course we have heard in "signed" comments this year from Grubes, Matt, Jake, Casey, and Jeremy (actually, haven't heard from Jer in awhile, that may have been further back in the past).  Also, I'm reasonably sure that one or more of our Anonymi from time to time are also station personnel.  On rare occasions I will hear via email from a Ticket guy with an "atta boy" or a correction or something like that. 

So somebody's checking us out at our favorite radio station.

But I'll tell you something, Confessors:  It's not me they're interested in -- it's you.   There have been some absolutely sensational mini-essays in the comments over the past several months that are well-written and thoughtful.  Sometimes I agree, sometimes not, but these are people who obviously care about the station and think about what makes it great.  In fact, I would put all non-troll commenters in that category; even the offhand comments are pungent and get at something true about the station.

Our readers are guys (and Jonaessa!) who spend an astonishing percentage of their lives listening to The Ticket.   I would think that Cumulo-Ticket guys would be very interested in the views of quality listeners like you, even if they think that Your Plainsman is looney tunes with his between-the-lines interpretations, guesses, speculations, and opinions, not to mention his unhealthy obsession with Green Tail Shiner.  

So:  Raise a glass to yourselves tonight, and have a safe and joyful New Year and 2012, with my continued Thanks for Shopping at My Ticket Confession.

*     *     *

Follow Your Plainsman on Twitter:  @Plainsman1310

Email Your Plainsman:  ThePlainsman1310@gmail.com

DryDock Quick Hits

Been out of town and doing the Christmas thing with the fam, just barely keeping up with comments.

And then I tune in to my own site and find absolute gold in the last batch of comments.  I was going to cobble together some drydock quick hits but I find that Anonymous and Shaggy have beaten me to the punch, reporting more thoroughly and authoritatively than I could.  I hope I have their permission to repost their comments for further inspection by the Nation.

My reactions will appear in a comment.

First, here's Anonymous, Parts 1 and 2:

STD ALERT!!!

Thoughts concerning Dry Dock:

Gordie and the Deuce: Funny and uncomfortable as all get out. Doocy laid out the blueprint on how to effectively combat Gordo's guerrilla warfare. Good chemistry, even better times.

Rhads and Followheezy: Solid. Rhads has become a better radio broadcaster. He doesn't yell into the mic nearly as much as he once did. Nor does he try too hard to Ticket schtick it up, again, like he once did. Followill was his usual bad a self. Sure, he's going to give us a glass is (more than) half full view of the Mavs, but I think we can all understand why. His Cowboy talk has been chock full of HSOs, and that's a good.

Black and Quack: I agree with Plainsman where Dick Hicks is concerned. He's a consummate pro. Yes he can grate from time to time, but overall his HSOs are on point and fearless. Donnie Doo, I cannot say the same. The man is overexposed. There's been WAAAAY (to use one of his annoying traits) too much airtime for our man Donnie Doo. Between BaD, Cowboys post, fill in for the morning drive, and B&Q...it's much too much. I like Donnie, but he's a one trick pony. While it's evident that he's been working really hard on his football knowledge (especially draft history, personnel from other teams, etc.), he just doesn't add anything meaningful to the conversation on a regular basis. He finds an obvious or emotion based point and keeps ramming it home, over and again. And even when he has a really good point, again, he won't relent, he won't move on; he applies it to everything, or he keeps returning to it. The CTOs need to curb his on air time. He doesn't need to be involved with so many shows. No one else up there is, why him? I can appreciate his work ethic and industry, but like Nell Carter used to sing: "Gimme a break, I sure deserve it."

Soul Patch: Why they were tapped to do morning drive is beyond me. Poor decision. It's not a bad show, but it's not strong enough to fill those shoes. Heck, they had basically run out of content by the end of their allotted time. Scott H has a pleasant voice and fairly good sports chops. For the life of me, I'll never understand why the show is named after a spot of (passe) facial hair. I don't understand a mid-late 40-something with multiple piercings, but hey, whatever floats your boat. Like I said, he (and the show) ain't bad. Matt McClearin is an entirely different animal altogether. Wow! I mean, from the prom, the teenage bride, the UFOs, the notion of sex, love, conception, and being well-adjusted, the wearing a kilt, mooning your family, and not realizing the when you don't wear underwear your junk will be showing as well, and finally, the Christmas fisticuffs with his brother over him sticking an olive in his bro's ear while trying to squeeze the juice out of it (hello Freud!)... while his mother is crying. Again, Wow! An odd duck for sure, and I'll leave it at that. (I'm sure he's a nice guy, but nice guys can be weird, too.)

CDS: When the Bros Sirois talk sports, I listen. I think they are the true up and comers around The Little One. What I dislike is their infatuation with their own sense of humor. When they go into schtick, especially extended schtick, it's overkill. Because they're brothers, they both sound similar. Furthermore they both speak very rapidly (something they need to temper). And when you have two people who sounds a lot alike, speak rapidly, and constantly finish each others thoughts/talk over each other, radio chaos ensues. They need to work on this. It's when they get too "cute" for too long that this most usually occurs. I wish they 'd be more sports oriented. I think that by doing so, they're star would rise faster. Don't get me wrong, they can be funny. But, like their rapid speaking, temper it; find the golden mean. Oh, and I know that Mike works for Norm, so I see where it comes from, but they are guilty of "Over Norm." You don't need to do your own Norm drops or imitations at every turn. While they can be funny when well placed, they get stale when repeated time and again. Besides, no one can hold a candle to Gordon in that regard.

Can't wait for p.m. drivetime BaD. A foretaste of the future perhaps???

Well put, Anonymous. 
Here is Shaggy's offering:

The Soul Patch really has got nothing. As generic as it gets. Today was my first time listening to them for a moderate length of time, and it wasn't good. They are exactly what other stations across the country come up with by trying to copy The Ticket's sports talk/guy talk formula. And it's nearly always bad.

Agree about Cirque. I also think they have something, but they are way too schtick-y. They are an almost exact carbon copy of Ben & Skin when they were on The Ticket. They would constantly be laughing at their own and each others' jokes, but they werent all that funny. I think B&S have grown a lot, but they do still suffer from thinking they're a lot cooler and funnier than they really are.

Gentlemen Confessors, you have my thanks.  I'll get the comments underway

*     *     *

Follow Your Plainsman on Twitter:  @Plainsman1310

A Merry Christmas to All Confessors

Here's a  little gift for you, a very cool video passed along by David P.  If this doesn't tug at your sports heartstrings, check your pulse.

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=QNL0iMIMxvk&vq=small

A safe and happy holiday to all. 

     -- Plainsman

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).

*     *     *

Follow Your Plainsman on Twitter:  @Plainsman1310

 

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.

*     *     *

Follow Your Plainsman on Twitter:  @Plainsman1310

It's Not Too Early to Ask Some Hard(line) Questions -- PART 3

After ascertaining that we like Mike  (LINK) and that Mike wants to keep broadcasting (LINK), we were left with the question:  What does the CTO think?

[CTO ("Cumulo-Ticket Overlords") can be singular, plural, or a synecdoche (i.e., a singular indicating the plural, like "P1" to refer to all P1's).  It may take a singular or plural verb, as the spirit strikes me.  Some Confessors would prefer that I not use it.  Sorry.  I do care what the Nation thinks.  I don't mind criticism of this site's habits.  I just need some shorthand to refer to management generally.  I could say "management" but it's too .  .  .  generic and robotic.]

A rational CTO, one would think, would understand the centrality of Mike to the success of The Hardline, and, in some ways, to The Ticket as a whole, as he is its most prominent public face.  One would think that the responsible CTO would put aside his or her animosity towards Mike and make him a reasonable offer and secure his services for as long as possible.



Not the CTO

But that's not a certainty.

The first thing that's not a certainty is that the CTO is rational.  I'm not in the industry but some years ago I gave some thought to buying a small radio station and I started to follow industry news.  I was amazed at some of the absolutely idiotic personnel decisions that station and company management would make regarding on-air personnel, TV and radio.  The urge to fiddle with success to justify one's job, compensation, and self-image must be overwhelming, because time after time station and network executives would make on-air personnel changes that any casual viewer/listener could have told him/her were destined for catastrophe. 

Reminds me of sports, come to think of it.  I followed a football team once that hired the consensus hottest coach hire in the business, a guy everyone wanted.  Guy comes in and proceeds to put half the defense in positions they'd never played before (hyperbole), and instituted an offense that was absolutely guaranteed not to make first downs (not hyperbole).  You knew, you just knew, that this guy had been grossly overrated and he knew it, and was trying to overcompensate by making counterintuitive moves that he was praying would work out and would support his earlier genius press clippings.  Uh, no.

So while I have had more than one occasion to say nice things about the CTO (example: LINK ), it is by no means impossible that someone who hasn't had a career bump in awhile might be thinking that they will be the one to save Cumulus Mike's salary and start the dominoes falling among those damned high-and-mighty on-air guys who need to be taken down a notch or two anyway and who need to know that everyone is expendable, and with the resulting revolutionary programming changes for which I will take credit The Ticket will achieve even greater glory.  It can happen.  There are men -- and women -- out there who think this way.  The further they are away from day-to-day broadcasting, the more they think that way.   And the hell of it is, after they ruin a broadcast property, they find another job. 

Now, I think it is unlikely here.  The CTO have for the most part kept hands off the successful formula developed very early on in The Ticket's history (for which, I am guessing, Mike was something of a template).  But I have seen it happen in major markets with high-profile local programming.

That coach found another job too, come to think of it.  With the same results.

Here's another thing we don't know:

How big a pain in the ass Mike is to his supervisors.

We love the guy, but there comes a point even with the biggest stars at which insubordination tips the scales away from perceived value.  (See, e.g., Charlie Sheen.  Yes, I know 2.5 Men isn't as good or as popular without him, but the point is -- Charlie's gone.)

This site occasionally hears from persons who give some sign of being informed insiders, or with access to informed insiders, who say that the animosity between Mike and CTO is real.  But my very uninformed guess is that Mike's not near an asshole enough off the air to suggest the wisdom of nonrenewing his contract.  I doubt he talks much to any managers, including America's Catman, and while he may not listen to them, either, I doubt that the actual friction in the executive suite(s) is at a point where anyone is feeling the need to rid the joint of a temperamental performer.   They might prefer if he'd read the memos, but his failure to do so isn't killing camaraderie or morale.  It may be a bad influence on Corby -- Danny, I doubt, cares very much -- but that's like John Dillinger being a bad influence on Baby Face Nelson. 

And as we said last time:  Mike has toned down the badmouthing of management, and he's a very loyal and reliable broadcaster.  Sponsors like hiring him to do recorded and live spots.  (Those E. Smith ads are classics.)   The CTO is going to break bread with the guy, irrespective of their irritation with his acting as though they don't exist.

So where are we with our irresponsible and rude speculations?  We want Mike; we think Mike wants to stay; we assume the CTO wants him to stay.

A lot of verbiage for not-very-controversial conclusions.  But we have to ask.

What's next in our series on What's On Mike's Desk?  One of Confessors' favorite topics.

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Follow Your Plainsman on Twitter:  @Plainsman1310

I've Been Singing That Blasted "Norman, Oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo" Song For the Past Week.

Your White Elephant Assignment

Not sure how much time I'll be able to spend by the channel tomorrow.  I'll appreciate careful reportage from the Confessor Nation.

I'm less interested in bits (although your reviews of indivdual performances are always welcome) than with listening between the lines to gather clues about relationships between the players: 

Who is tense with whom;

who makes a slighting reference about whom that doesn't seem entirely friendly;

what combo hits it off that you might not expect;

who is not enjoying the experience;

who takes advantage of (or squanders) a rare opportunity to shine?

Stuff like that.  As always, thanks.

We'll be back to irritating Mike very shortly, unless there is another Casey Millen eruption.

Query:  If something like the CMillen contretemps had happened on, oh, say, KDFW or KXAS, wouldn't The Little One be all over it?  Always depends whose ox is gored, I guess.  That's the nice thing about running a one-guy blog -- limited opportunities for scandal.

*     *     *

Follow Your Plainsman on Twitter:  @Plainsman1310

We Interrupt This Nosy and Apparently Endless Series on Mike's Employment . . .

.  .  .  for a nosy article on someone else's employment.

Namely, Casey Millen's.

At this point, Confessors are probably aware that Casey made some highly personal and highly critical remarks about Matt McClearin on the Tee Box that apparently took Craig Rosengarden by surprise, although having given Casey the rudder his options may have been somewhat limited.  You can hear it here: (LINK).

While we're on the subject of the UnTicket, I am reposting a comment left by AP which for some reason failed to appear in the comment section to the Open Thread on "Tell a Friend about The Ticket Month."  If you are interested in this topic, there are some good comments on it back there, two articles back.  Here's AP:

I reposted it at The Unticket for two reasons:

1) I wanted to know if I'm just being a prude, or if what I heard was really that bad. The answer appears to be a bit of the former and a lot of the latter.

2) McClearin deserves to hear what was said about him.

I'm not fan of McClearin's radio work for various reasons, but he certainly does not deserve a shot like that. I'm actually a bit disappointed that Craig didn't dump the comment. He was however on remote and may not have been familiar with McClearin or his situation (Matt is 30+, this is his second marriage, and he married his current wife 2-3 years ago when she was 18).

Weekends at the ticket basically serve as the farm system for cultivating new talent. For producer/board ops, there's Kevin Turner, Mike Marshall, Dave Wilson, and even Jason Killer Kellison on occasion. Ticker men in regular weekend rotation include Michael Krenek and Casey Millen. It's competitive environment in which one must bring their own twist to get noticed. If you've listened to the 'It's Just Banter' episode with Mike Sirois, you'll hear him talk about having to "up his ****" to get noticed - and his MadLib tickers went over well enough with other hosts and management that he was a "shoo-in" for Bacsik's seat.

The weekend ticker guys also try to bring their own twist to their work - both insert subtle jokes during their one-minute slots, and both also take opportunities to pop on air whenever possible. Millen's work is decidedly more shock-jock than Krenek's as of late though.

Krenek has recently gained acceptance with weekday hosts, garnering notice and 'praise' from Bob, Dan, Grubes and Tom during his fill-in work with BaD Radio last week. Millen is a reluctant favorite of the Teebox's, and the weekend edition of the SoulPatch uses him in limited on-air doses. I don't believe Millen has ever had a fill-in opportunity during the weekday.

Millen filled in as a host for a Teebox show a few months ago, and his work had a similar level of abrasion to the McClearin comment - borderline shocking, and not terribly funny 'jokes' delivered in rapid-fire succession (at least for my taste, and I'm pretty crass). Read into this what you will, but Mike Sirois was tapped to fill in the next time the Teebox was a host short, and Newbury + Jake also did a fill-in when both hosts couldn't make it. I haven't heard yesterday's Teebox offerings, but I'm told by a purported Millen fan that he was more muted this time around.

"Pretty sure I'm being fired next week" has been his twitter tagline for several months now.

Regarding McClearin, I'm fairly certain that his co-host regularly surfs this blog and was aware of what was said before the audio was reposted. While coming out of a break during Tuesday's SoulPatch, Matt introduced himself as "the intelligent one" ... Scot quickly replied with "and I'm the enthusiastic one." (Scot'll work in a subtle reference or two on you based on things he's read here).

One last note - some of the posts complimentary of Millen's work here and on the unticket seem to be written by Millen himself. The Plainsman is very gracious about letting the anonymii remain anonymous, so I can't make the claim with 100% certainty, at least not for this site.

Thanks, AP. 

My quick and not-deeply-considered takes:

(1) Casey has some on-air gifts, but he's the most nakedly ambitious of the Ticket JV.  Maybe not the most ambitious, but he is least successful in hiding it.  It's why I occasionally refer to him as The Perpetually Up-and-Coming Casey Millen.

(2) When he's playing it straight, he can be good when given some air time.  He's glib, he's intelligent, and he tries to find interesting things to say.  Too bad about that catastrophic-lack-of-judgment thing.

(3)  I have no information on whether or not he's been fired.  If he was on the Tee Box Saturday, sounds like he survived.  I don't like to see guys fired for one horrible moment, although there are some levels of horribleness beyond which one cannot survive.  This one is bordeline, but on balance I think I'd try to handle this internally if I were Cumulus HR.

(4)  Casey has posted here under his own name a couple of times, not offensively.  Always happy to hear from Ticket guys.

(5)  I have suspected Casey of posting anonymously on his own behalf, and I actually caught his significant other doing so with a suspiciously laudatory post about the lad.  I outed her somewhere along the line in these pages, but wouldn't be able to find it now.

(6)  I am in agreement with some of the commenters to the last Open Thread who offered thoughts on what the JV will do to try to get noticed.  Some are more skillful at insinuating themselves onto the air than others.  Casey tends to come across as very aggressive and  brassy, as though he can hardly wait for an opening or an invite, and when it comes he practically bursts with schtick.  It's not that the content is bad, it just has calculated written all over it.  I bend over backwards to try to be fair to the junior guys, who have a tough row to hoe for not a lot of financial reward, and Casey is not an untalented guy.  Just too obviously eager.  If he survives this, I wouldn't be against giving him another fill-in shot somewhere.

(7)  Having said this, the McClearin thing was pretty awful.  Nothing to add to what has already been said about that.

(8)  However  .  .  .  why?  Why would a political guy like Casey have been moved to issue such self-damaging observations?  Let's think about this for a couple of minutes.

Matt has posted very kindly here on occasion, which the Nation appreciates.  He seems to have supporters (generally, I'm one) and those who are less enthusiastic (AP).  I have to say, however, that I have always found him a little  .  .  .  discomfiting.  Just a little  .  .  .  curious somehow.  I don't want to overstate this, because, as I say, on the whole I think he's working out well on The Soul Patch.

The whole young-wife thing, when it got big play on the station when he went to her prom (I believe they were afianced at the time) and when they were married, struck me as really kind of  .  .  .  man, I can't even think of the word for it.  Kind of an eewwww moment.  I really want to keep out of the personal lives of the Ticket guys (Norm's recent marriage a happy exception), but this was all over The Ticket, so fair game.   Yeah, yeah, we guys all yuk it up about getting younger at that position, but I really had to wonder about all that teasing.  I asked myself why he let this happen; I asked myself what the future Mrs. McClearin thought about all of it.   I don't want to be uncharitable -- maybe he felt that this is what his bosses wanted to do, so he had to go along with it; maybe he thought any pub is good pub.  And it wasn't in unusually bad taste by The Ticket's notably flaccid standards, just more or less male joshing.  But it made me wonder about him a little.

Then there was the close encounter with the aliens.  I'll pass on commenting on this except to say that it was certainly consistent with the archetypes of these types of account.   Another emotionally-charged, unusual personal experience by a not-yet-prominent guy on the station that got a lot of airtime.  Hmmm.

Next:  On-air friction with David Newbury, with Newbury seeming to get the worst of the reaction to it.  Numerous Confessors noticed it and commented on it in these pages.  Result:  McClearin up, Newbury down, perhaps a little unfairly in the latter case.  (FWIW at this point, I thought Matt was a little manic on those weekend shows with Newbury.  He's calmed down on Soul Patch and it's better work.)

And now, Casey Millen rather angry with him.

Where am I going with this?  Nowhere in particular, except to say that Matt seems to have a talent for getting noticed, which is not necessarily a bad thing.  He's skillful at it -- taking all of the foregoing into account, has anyone out there formed a strongly negative impression about him, based solely on what you hear on the channel?  (And not about what you might know about him off-hours?)

Can't speak for The Nation -- I have not.  But some of his colleagues apparently have.   I don't keep track of seniority among the JV, but my working theory here is Matt has leapfrogged some of the JV, and it has caused some resentment. 

Rambling, sorry.  But we don't get the curtain pulled aside at The Ticket very often, and when it happens, Your Source for Responsible Ticket Journalism has to get something up fast.   There's some sizzlin' inside baseball going on here, and I'm hopeful some Ticket Inside Baseball Jeebus can fill us in.

In the meantime -- Casey and Matt, you guys take care.

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It's Not Too Early to Ask Some Hard(line) Questions -- PART 2

A couple of weeks ago I started sticking my digital nose into Mike Rhyner's business.  It's going to get worse.

First thing we explored was whether we want Mike to sign on again.  You can read my timeless thoughts on this subject here.  I certainly do, and I think the sense of the Nation is that it does as well. 

But that's not important now.  Our next topic is:  Does Mike want to re-up?

For quite a long time, Mike's sometimes (?) adversarial relationship with the CTO would be hinted at on The Hardline.  About every presentation or two, something would inspire him to grumble "Won't somebody come in here and buy this thing?"  And it didn't sound like a bit.

And from time to time someone who sounds like they might have a spot of inside knowledge will leave a comment on this site suggesting that Mike's relations with the CTO are consistently less than rosy. 

But somewhere along the line, something happened to Mike's public dyspepsia about his supervisors.  I'm thinking it may have been the internal Cumulo-Ticket fallout to those sodden ruminations on the shores of Lake Mingus when Mike, transfixed by the flickering campfire and addled by his shot-o-beer-a-minute heroics, suggested that February might be his Ticket schwanz-song.   (Actually, I don't remember if that was the same night he did the beer-shot challenge.)

Whatever it was -- suddenly, it seemed to me, he started to keep whatever hostility he felt under wraps.  I don't recall any requests that someone come in and buy the station since then.  It's doubtful his attitude changed, but I just don't remember hearing anything about it, other than the occasional grumbling about balky hardware in the soon-to-be-abandoned Ticket studios.

The guessing seems to be that Mike wants to keep broadcasting with The Hardline, and I think that's right.  Probably not so much about money.  Probably did OK when the founders sold, but I sometimes wonder if he wishes he and the other founders had held on a few more years.  Probably makes some good coin -- oh, we'll be looking into this in a future installment,  you may be certain --  and he's got Petty Theft for some walking-around money.

Nah, I think that for all his curmudgeonliness and rare checking-out, he is strongly committted to The Ticket and The Hardline.  Consider -- Mike almost never, ever  misses a show.   In general, Ticket hosts are a hearty bunch, but I can't remember any shows Mike has missed due to illness.  He's had the odd family commitment, but on at least one of those occasions I think he switched duties with Craig to allow a midday getaway rather than to miss a day of broadcasting.

But I think the biggest clue to his intentions is his performance.  This site was started one day when I was worried about Mike's slipping interest in the showgram and how out-of-balance it had become a year or so after Greggo the Hammer's departure.  I started to write about it.   Turns out I wasn't the only one who perceived this; in the years since, many Confessors have said the same thing.  However, in the last year-and-a-half, it seems to me that Mike's attitude has changed.  He's much more involved in helming segments and in participating in the ones that Corby or Danny initiates.  He's just more there than he was for a long period of time.  The Hardline has been as good in the last six months or so as it has ever been.  He's working it.  He wants to continue.

We think of him as the "Old" Grey Wolf but he's not, very, as talk-show stars go.  Early sixties; heck, he's got a lot of years left, as long as the listener demo doesn't start dying off.   Another topic for another day, that maddeningly shifting demo.

And what else would he do?  OK, Petty Theft.  But coming in to do a four-hour stretch with pretty minimal show prep, sitting and talking, and doing a lot of listening to Corby -- is a pretty sweet shot.   Replacing that with -- sitting around?  Traveling?  Giving interviews (right)?  Nah.

There's something else:  As marvelous a radio presence as Mike is, he's less notable when he's away from The Hardline.  We've mentioned it before:  When he sits on on a pre-game, or even participates in a roundtable, he pretty much vanishes.  It's hard to imagine him risking an attempt to transfer chemistry he has with Corby and Danny (and Nice Young Michael and even Ty and sometimes Rich) to strangers on a strange station.

So yeah, I think he's going to listen when the CTO come calling, if they haven't already.

But what about the CTO?  Part 3 coming up.

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OPEN THREAD: What Happens When You Tell a Friend About the Ticket?

November was supposedly Tell a Friend About the Ticket Month. 

Whenever I ask a conversational friend whether they listen to The Ticket, assuming that he's male, I never get a response that they've never heard of The Ticket.  So telling them about The Ticket is usually unnecessary.  I usually get one of several reactions:

--  they're Ticket listeners and enjoy it.  Given it's healthy ratings, I'm surprised that this is the reaction I get least.

-- they don't listen to The Ticket because it doesn't have enough sports.  They split equally between FAN and ESPN.

-- They don't listen to The Ticket because it's too dirty.

What reaction do you get?  If, in fact, you proselytize for The Ticket.  As we all should.

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URGENT MESSAGE TO ALL CONFESSORS:  The circumstances of my employment have kept me away from the channel for the last few days, and that may continue for a little while.  I would appreciate if anyone hears anything of interest that they'd like to comment on, please do leave a comment here.  Sorry for being a little distant, and hope to be back with more blasts soon.

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Follow Your Plainsman on Twitter:  @Plainsman1310