EXCERPT: Cumulus Operating Manual, Volume Eleven, Chapter 7, Article IV, Paragraph 79

"79.  STAGED DROPS BY A CROWD.

"Drops artificially created by a crowd being directed by a host can be very effective and amusing.  They reinforce the idea of a 'station community' and remind listeners of the enthusiasm of other listeners for the station and its programs.  Hosts should 'be on the lookout' for opportunities to create such drops.  Likely opportunities may arise at remote broadcasts, station-sponsored gatherings, and even station-sponsored sporting events.  For maximum effectiveness, please observe the following procedures:

"(a) Keep the proposed language or reaction (laughing, yelling) simple.  Make sure that the crowd can be heard through the open mics at the particular function.  If possible, involve the entire group within mic range so that extraneous signal will not spoil the drop. 

"(b)  Don't laugh over the drop."

Are Any Confessors Going to Ticketstock?

Here's an Example of What I'm Talking About

Your Plainsman is not only a Hardline fan (who isn't?) but a defender of Corby Davidson.  In fact, this site was founded in part as a counterbalance to what I have called the Corby Sux School of Ticket Journalism.  It is true that this site has its misgivings about the OverCorby, as, it seems, do quite a large number of P1's.  On balance, however, I think Corby is a extremely talented broadcaster.  Seems to me that the proof is in the pudding -- with Corby stepping up after Greggo the Hammer's departure, The Hardline is as popular as it ever was, if not more.  In looking over my topic list, I see three items where I have in mind to write positively about Corby's contributions.  Some recent commenters have taken some shots at Corby for one or another perceived shortcoming, and they may be right.  But the 30,000-foot is that Corby does a real fine job on a number of levels; the Nation would miss him a lot if he weren't there. 

Yesterday, however, there was a segment that framed the issue of the OverCorby. 

Corby opened The Presentation with a tale about his iPod Nano.  It had gone missing, but Mrs. Davidson eventually found it on top of an outdoor fireplace (cue Masterpiece Theater music) where it had lain under the last-to-disappear of the layers of ice and snow from the Super Bowl Storm of 2011.  Of course, the iPod worked fine.  Nice story, entertaining back-and-forth during its telling, perfectly good segment.

Next -- What's on Mike's Mind?

Mike noted that Corby's story was timely because what was on his mind was a book he was reading about the development and marketing of the iPod.  The book is "The Perfect Thing:  How the iPod Shuffles Commerce, Culture, and Coolness" by Steven Levy. 

There was some discussion of Mike "coming around" on the greatness of the iPod family of products (although that may have come at the end of the Corby-Nano-fireplace story, don't clearly recall.)  Mike noted the work of "some Euro professor" on the subject of coolness.

But whatever was on Mike's mind about this book stayed in his mind, because at this point, Corby jumped in and jacked the entire segment.  He started talking and did not stop.  There was barely another offering by Mike or Danny until it was almost time to go to break.  And his remarks were not extremely enlightening.and, if I am recalling correctly, a continuation of his thoughts on the reliability (or not) of iPods.  There was nothing wrong with this speech -- but it wasn't what was on Mike's mind.

In Corby's possible defense:   Mike himself seemed not entirely prepared to proceed.  At one point he said that maybe the topic -- or perhaps it was only the subtopic of "coolness" -- should be put off to another segment.  Perhaps he was signaling Corby that he needed some support on this.  Hard to say, but it did occur to me that maybe Corby wasn't Corjacking the segment as much as he was rescuing it.

But mainly I wondered:  What was on Mike's mind as the Corjacking proceeded?  The book sounded pretty interesting.  I'll bet P1's would liked to have heard what Mike had learned about iPod history and philosophy.  Did he perceive that the segment which bears his name and promises the contents of his mind had escaped his grasp? If he did, what was his reaction to that? 

All right, all right, I know -- it is kind of ridiculous, and even unfair, to take ten minutes of broadcasting and put it under a scanning electron microscope like this.  But I thought it was a perfect miniature of the biggest complaint this site hears from P1's about Corby (next to his musical tastes).  

And it illustrates the point that I think must, in fairness, be made:  This is not just a Corby issue -- it's a Mike issue, too. 

Theater of the Mind:  Try to imagine a segment called "What's on Bob's Mind?"  Imagine Bob beginning to talk about some topic that had attracted his interest lately.  Imagine Dan jumping in about two sentences into it and talking nonstop.  What would Bob's reaction be?  I'm guessing it would not be silent acquiescence (although I am always willing to be corrected on BaD etiquette by their many Confessor fans). 

Corby's two-segment contribution on iPods didn't wreck the show -- I'm not even sure it wrecked the "Mike's Mind."   I listened; I heard nothing that made me want to punch out.  It was perfectly good content.  But it wasn't what was on Mike's mind, and it did strike me as a real-time illustration of how (1) The Hardline (which, to my ears, has been very sharp since drydock mainly owing to Mike's increased participation) can sometimes lose its balance, and (2) it s not really a Corby issue -- it's a show issue. 

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

I would ask commenting Confessors to maintain their equanimity in commenting on this STD.  (Christy -- you have your usual license to comment off-topic.)   Corby is one of the tallest lightning rods of The Ticket -- but please be respectful in your remarks.  The Hardline isn't the only enterprise that benefits from balance.  Many thanks. 

Why Haven't Brian Wilson and Mike Love Sued . . .

.  .  .  Lute Riley Honda?  The jingle on the Lute Riley Honda ad is a direct copy of "Help Me, Rhonda."

By the way -- "Help Me, Rhonda" was the first Beach Boys song with Al Jardine on lead vocal.

Sorry for the not-very-Tickety post.

Let the Call go Forth

First, thanks to the Nation for filling in wint some good observations for the last few deays.

Second, a thought:

I've been listening since around mid 2004 but I still miss a lot of the inside references.  There are surely thousands of older and especially newer listeners who have questions about some of the bits, drops, references, gags, bits.  I've run articles where I ask my qauetsions, and someone always has an answer.  Sometimes we hear from insiders like Grubes who fill us in.

I've got a little list going for a new article, but why should I haves all the fun?

Not Christy

 So if you have a question about The Ticket's legends, myths, any inside stuff, drop me a private line and I"ll collect them and we'll get some of these things straightened out.

The email address is:  theplainsman1310@gmail.com.  Got a question?  Let me hear from you.

(And even if you don't have a question, if you have something you'd like to pass along that you don't want to put in a comment, feel free to contact me in this way.  Remember, however, that much as I would like to have a vigorous email back-and-forth with any of you via email, time just won't permit it in most cases.  It's why I don't do Facebook or Twitter for this site.  Thanks for understanding, and get those questions ready.) 

Let's Try This

I'll be out of town for a few days and won't hear the shows or be able to post much of anything.  I invite Confessors to get a chain of STDs going and I'll try to check in from time to time to direct traffic if need be.

For example, how are the Edmonton BaD shows going?

Will be back in a few with some new blast or other.

Thanks to all.

I Don't Know Whether to be Amused, or Terrified, or Thrilled

Theater of the Mind. 

Suspend disbelief for a few minutes, Confessors.

===========

It's three, probably more like four years into the future.

The United States -- indeed, the world -- is in grave danger.

The US is beset by enemies on all sides.  Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia have fallen to radical Islamists.  They are on the verge of declaring war against Israel, which would trigger the Israeli-US joint defense pact and draw us into a new world war.

al-Qaeda has enormous influence on the most radical elements in the Islamist governments in the Persian Gulf.  It has reached the point where Osama bin Laden has assumed operatinoal control of the overall conduct of anti-Western political operations.  The decision for war, or no war, is in his hands.

However, a secret US "black operations" unit within the CIA has penetrated one of the Bedouin tribes close to the al-Qaeda leadership.   The undercover operatives know bin Laden's location.  They have operational control of a Navy SEAL team that is prepared to breach al-Qaeda headquarters, at which time the black ops team will follow them in to provide critical armed tactical support.  Their aim:  to extract bin Laden to a secure Allied location.   At a crucial moment, the US team will call in air support and surgical naval bombardment.  If the operation is successful, it will achieve something no US unit has been able to accomplish since September 11, 2001, and, more important, end the threat of imminent war.

The security of the free world depends on the success of the US black ops penetration and extraction.

The black ops team is ready to pull the trigger.  They've been preparing this for months. 

It's T minus 30 seconds.

The tension is a physical thing, you can feel it on your skin.

So why do I not know whether to be amused, or terrified, or thriilled?

Because the US black ops team is made up entirely of formerly unemployed P1's who have answered those CIA ads now running on The Ticket.

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

OK, I've had my fun. 

Here's what I really think:

P1's, I can think of nothing more terrific than answering those ads and entering into the service -- probably pretty dangerous service -- to the United States of America.  Matters not whether you are currently between opportunities or already have a job.  I have to admit -- those ads sound pretty cool.  I have never served my country (so far) and it's one of the chief regrets of my life to date.  I hope some of you hear something in those ads that strikes a spark and that you check it out.  Let us know how it works out -- only if it's not classified, of course.  And be careful; after all, my little story aside, the world is a dangerous place.

Confessors: Report

Need a hand here, loyal and loquacious Confessor Nation.

I liked Ben and Skin on Saturdays on The Ticket.  Oh, sure, I'd bang my head on the steering wheel when they'd get into one of their endless self-referential hyper-irony loops.   And the problem of hosts sounding too much alike I came to call Ben-and-Skin Disease.  But their show was pretty good, they were smart and could be funny and they knew their sports-stuff, I thought.  The show had a very different sound which I found appealing (when I wasn't steering-wheel-banging-of-head).  I was sorry when they moved on.  I regret to say I have never heard one of their ESPN broadcasts.

(Also, I liked the little girl singing "Ben and Skin" to "My Darling Clementine," and the "Ben and Skin Show" guy doing that overdubbed lower-register vamp.)

I always thought Bob Ortegel was OK, whenever I was able to catch the Mavs.  But the fact is that Mrs. Plainsman is not interested in the Mavs and my evenings are usually spent on domestic interactions that do not allow even radio Mavs listening. 

So I have heard absolutely zero broadcasts with Mr. Followill and Mr. Ortegel and Mr. Skin.  (No, not that Mr. Skin.)

I thought that The Hardline today was particularly good on the departure of Mr. O from the Mavs' broadcasts.  They were complimentary to Ortegel's many years of good service.  They were also quite gracious to Skin, I thought.   They could have been snotty about Skin, a Ticket refugee and current competitor, but they weren't.   In fact, in general, they thought the Skin/Ortegel color combo was working OK.    (And, later, they were  complimentary to former-colleague-and-current competitor Big Dick Hunter in his speaking-truth-to-power address to the Mayor and City Council about the Vick key-to-city disaster.)   It was another good Hardline day.

Here's my request to the Nation:  Did anyone out there listen to the Followill/Ortegel/Skin broadcasts?   What was your reaction to the whole thing?  I'd be grateful for your report.

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

Also:  I found it interesting that RJ Choppy -- Greggo the Hammer Williams's former broadcast partner -- emailed in during the discussion of Corby's invite to the Mav's game.   Obviously, Choppy was listening to The Ticket, not to his former pard.  (Who had let Choppy down, of course, with his claimed mismanagement of what must have been massive prescription meds.)

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.

WEBCAM QUICK HIT: Are You Digging Those Comments Running to the Right of the Webcam Pitcher?

One of the reasons I started this site.

TEAMBUILDING DINNER QUICK HIT: Is MTC on the Hate List?

The Hardline was discussing the "teambuilding dinner" held at Perry's last evening.  They mentioned that one of the topics on the table was their "hate list" of non-Ticket-Friendly entities, which, they said, included all media and Tom Gribble.

I hope that this site, to the best of Your Plainsman's knowledge the sole source for responsible Ticket journalism (including our eloquent Confessor commenters) and a stout defender of 95% of all things Ticket, was left off.

WEBCAM QUICK HIT: My Lord, with Corby's Hair Long, Parted in the Middle, and Smashed Down on His Head with the Headphones . . .

.  .  .  he DOES look like Ruth Buzzi!

Sorry, I don't know how to snag images off the webcam.  If anyone does and can grab one of Corby, pass it along and I'll copy it in here, with thanks.

Or, if anyone has any pictures of Corby looking like Ruth Buzzi.

PS:  Confessor triplespluscv  (many thanks!)  was kind enough to snag an image of Corby that gives you a bit of a flavor.  The head-on shot would show Corby's very nice part in the middle, which adds to the Buzziness of the look:

A Rare Bob and Dan Post -- or, Get Ready, Christy

I have a 100% sincere question directed to listeners of the Bob and Dan show.  I was going to say "fans" of BaD, but I assume if you listen that you like the showgram.

The Confessor Nation is aware that I don't get to listen as often as I'd like, but today I did have occasion to be in my car around 2:30 so I tuned in.

Just in time, it turned out, for a big fracas between Bob and Dan.

I'm not taking sides here.  I just have two questions and I need to set it up as neutrally as I can.

I'm sure I"m not going to get this quite right, but it had to do with certain long-retired athletes being in good shape.  They had just concluded an interview with former Packer Donny Anderson.  Bob was going to make a point about -- I thought it was Roger Staubach, but maybe it was Herschel Walker.  He'd only gotten a few words out of his mouth when Dan interrupted.  I don't know whether Dan was correcting something, or teasing Bob for a misstatement, or what.

Bob took great offense, called Dan a jerk, there was some considerable back and forth, and Bob refused to finish his point.  Eventually they moved on, but I sensed that there was continuing discomfort.  Christy's comment to the last post suggests that she noticed some interesting facial expressions on the webcam.  After awhile, Dan brought the conversation back to the topic and apologized to his "best friend," and Bob was finally cajoled into finishing his point.

As I say -- I don't know if Dan was being a jerk, or Bob was being touchier than usual.  No position on Bob v. Dan.

Here are my questions for the BaD connoisseur as I continue my course of instruction in BaD Radio:

(1) Does this happen often?  When I was doing my BaD series way back when, I got the impression that there might be more, and more intense, on-air internecine squabbling on that show than on some of the others.

(2) Is this one of the things that BaD fans like about the show?  Should I be learning to savor these encounters?

Am I Missing a Pun Here?

Gigantic headline on The Ticket's Super Bowl page:

Super Bowl XLV is in Our Town

and Our Guys are Hitten it  .  .  . 

Come on, guys.  I know it's a guy station and guys don't always spel gud, but really.

Cue the Masterpiece Theater music.

Is Dallas a Drag?

Ooo, I may get in trouble with the Nation for this one.

*     *     *

I was very struck by segments on three different showgrams -- The Musers, The Hardline, and The Orphanage -- that the nation is not going to have a positive reaction to the City of Dallas when it visits for the Super Bowl.

There were various reasons given.  One common theme was that downtown Dallas is nothing.  It was pointed out that pockets of enjoyable nightlife and retail are few and isolated.  In general, I got the impression from almost every host that they didn't think Dallas was much of a city, for all of its apparent belief that it's world class. 

I agree.

Even ESPN is making its home in Fort Worth.

I arrived in Dallas in 2004.  I moved here because I love Mrs. Plainsman and Mrs. Plainsman's family is here and it's a great family and it was inevitable.  So at an appropriate juncture, we found jobs in the area and made the move.  We were living in a certifiably great city at the time, but I wasn't feeling too bad to leave it.  I'd lived there a long time and had experienced what it had to offer and could always go back to visit.  I had a vision of Dallas as vibrant, young, on the move, putting its money -- it has lots of money, doesn't it?  I mean Dallas and oil and money, right? -- to good use with exciting urban projects.

When I got here, I was stunned.  Compared to the other American cities I'd lived in  (East Coast, West Coast, Midwest), Dallas wasn't even close to being in their league.  And yes, a lot of it had to do with the wretched downtown, the decaying West End and Deep Ellum, the stark southern border and western borders that fall off instantly into poverty and junk, the incomparably ugly public buildings.  As noted, more strip clubs per capita than most anyplace else.  The view along many of our expressways is simply appalling.  I came to understand that local government dominated by the city council was a joke --  no city so constituted ever gets much done, and it does, it's so corrupted and compromised that it's a disaster in the making.  Dallas was a poster child for weak-mayor civic government.

And you know, even in its best parts -- it is really not an extremely attractive city.

Now, if I were a single guy with tons of free time on my hands to zoom from one island of reasonably cool stuff to another, I might feel differently.  It's not that there isn't good stuff in Dallas, it's that its almost randomly scattered about the place.  A couple of good museums.    Dallas is a restaurant capital as well, among the most if not the most restaurants per capita of any city in the US.  (In my judgment, many of the finest by reputation are overrated.)  But what's good about the city is almost random -- you can find good museums, restaurants, night life, architecture anywhere you go, but Dallas doesn't convey an identifiable singular urban experience.  It's entirely generic.  What cities do convey that experience?  Well, Fort Worth; San Antonio; Austin; and, I would argue, even Houston has a better brand than Dallas.

The city has many, many good people, and some gorgeous women.

But, and you must trust me on this, absolutely no more than elsewhere, and, like everything else about the place, and despite the evidence of that photograph, they're so scattered that even the pulchritude in this city is seriously diluted.

Ah  .  .  .  but Dallas has The Ticket.  It is no surprise that in resident surveys on what is best about DFW, a little light-bulb of a guy-based radio station consistently ranks at or near the top of the charts.  This is testimony to The Ticket's greatness, but it must also be counted as a serious rebuke to the city, that so many of its residents can't think of ten things better than a sports-talk station.   I am not entirely sure what I would do without The Little One to elevate my Dallas experience.

In discussing Dallas with others, I am always fearful that I would come off like a snob, so I don't talk much about my disappointment with the joint.  Which is why I was so startled to hear so many Ticket hosts believing that visitors were going to come away with a bad impression.  Yeah, they will, but it amazed me that these long-time Dallas guys believed that.

What do you think, Confessors?  Does Dallas have an inferiority complex?  Does it deserve to be mentioned alongside the great cities of our country?  Tell me what I need to do -- other than listen to The Ticket even more than I do now -- to get into the good things that Dallas has to offer, to learn to appreciate the place. 

I can be educated.

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."
_______________________________

* Scorching Ticket Disquisition

TORN FROM TODAY'S TICKET HEADLINES!! Let the Guessing Begin

In the words of Screamin' Danny Bacon:   

Now, this is fun.

Today on What's on Mike's Mind, the lads were going through their annual recollection of the early days of The Ticket.  There is something distinctly thrilling to today's Ticket listener about hearing Skip Bayless's first words over a transmitter that sounded as though it were designed by Marconi himself. 

Then, as they also frequently do, they turned to the shortcomings of Mr. Bayless, although Mike does acknowledge that his presence was critical to getting the venture off the ground. 

In light of what came just after I wish I had listened to this discussion a little more closely.   I did catch that he was speaking negatively of his former colleague Bayless, and (please correct me here, I don't have time to go back and listen to it on The (Incomparable) UnTicket) I think his point generally was that Bayless had bigger fish to fry, held himself apart from the station as a whole, never really warmed up to the enterprise, may only have been in it for the money, such as it was. 

And then, Mike said – and, as usual, I don't have the exact words, and if anyone wants to donate them from checking out The UnTicket replay, I'd be delighted to correct this – "There's only one person like that around here now."

Well, well, well, well, well, now isn't this lovely?

Mike doesn't pull back the curtain very often, but that was certainly tantalizing, was it not?

Who do you think he was talking about?

This is important to the P1 Nation and its Confessor subset.  We don't get stuff like this from a host very often.  If we could figure out who it was, well, then we'd really have something.  Probably some things would fall into place for us, stuff that puzzles us would no longer.  And our forecast for The Ticket's future might sharpen up some.

I have a couple of possible candidates, but I want to know what you guys – almost all of whom get to listen to the station more than I do – think he was referring to.  I'm certain your guesses will be better than mine.

And if a consensus candidate emerges – even if we are wrong – the fact that we think this may be the candidate will tell us a lot about how the station is presenting itself to the P1 Nation.

Now to aid our considerations I consulted Full Disclosure to see if I could find exactly what the issue was with Bayless, and that would help us compare with the current Ticket lineup.  Fail.  The firing of Skip Bayless by the Laddy occupies exactly one line, and there's scarcely a discouraging word about the guy, at least not in the part I reread tonight.

So we are left with what little archaeology we have about Bayless, and we have to compare that with what little we know about the behind-the-scenes (and perhaps even the not-so-behind-the-scenes) behavior and attitude of the current Ticket team.   In your considerations, Confessors, bear in mind that Mike didn't limit his remark to hosts, or on-air guys.  Maybe he was referring to management.  Maybe to a yuk-monkey.  Or maybe to one of his on-air host colleagues.  Maybe he was referring to himself.  Riddle me that, if you will.

Voting for

Who at The Ticket does Mike Rhyner believe possesses the character, attitude, and relationship to his Ticket colleagues exhibited by inaugural Ticket host Skip Bayless?

is now  .  .  .  open.

Happy 17th Birthday to the Little One and the Magnificent Seven

The Magnificent Seven, present at the creation, being:

Mike "The Founder" Rhyner

Craig "Junior" Miller

George "For Some Reason, Called 'the Commander'" Dunham

Gordon "Gordon" Keith

Mike "Fernando" Fernandez

Steve "Cactus" Pryor

     and

Rick "The Immortal" Arnett

Thanks for everything, gents.



Someone Needs to Tell Me What to Think

I was in my jalopy early today so I heard the beginning of Why Today.   I forget how Greggo came up -- it wasn't by name, maybe Grubes played a Greggo drop, maybe there was a casual mention of the competition, and Mike took a direct shot,  saying something very close to:  "I already checked it out and he wasn't loaded, so there's no reason to listen." 

I chuckled.

But I wondered whether it is prudent for That Certain Hardline to take these shots.  (Confessors have reported others, some veiled, some direct.)   When I heard Mike's jab, my first reaction was to switch over and listen.  (With that particular jab, he implied that sometimes Greggo is loaded during the RaGE, which also would tend to make one curious to listen.)

I don't mind the sniping from a Hardline-content point of view.   My only question is -- is it good for the Hardline?  Doesn't it tend to elevate RaGE by acknowledging it as something worth sniping at?  Doesn't it make the back-and-forth  a kind of game that would tend to lead to curiosity about what RaGE is slinging?

I really don't know.  I think there may be some danger in treating RaGE as something that The Hardline is even noticing.  Anyone have any thoughts?

(PS:  My RaGE listening is rare and usually brief.  Depending on what one thinks about the cause of Hammer's endless laryngitis -- I guess I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt on that one, although Ticket guys clearly do not, nor did Jagger -- I've never heard him incoherent or obviously affected by anything.  Anyone out there heard anything during the RaGE showgram suggesting drug/alcohol/nacho abuse affecting Greg's broadcasting these days?  Personally, I have not, but if any of you heard anything peculiar (I mean other than Greg's inherently peculiar ideas) issuing forth from Hammer, please let us hear from you.  Come to think of it, there was the unexplained disappearance in the middle of Cowboys post-game show, but this was during the claimed laryngitis battle.)

Letters, I Get Letters: A Guest Article on Josh Lewin

Posting this in the ayem because I heard The Musers are going to talk about the Josh Lewin departure later today.

A few days ago I got an email from Confessor DallasDon.  I thought he had an interesting observation and he kindly gave me permission to post it,  Here's DallasDon:

===========

I would really like to see a discussion about Josh Lewin, more specifically the chemistry between Josh and Tom, whether that led to Josh's departure.

I saw about 150 TR games last year, and really liked Josh. More than Tom.

Did you ever notice when they were on the road, and they would banter about what they did earlier in they day before game time?

It seems they were never together!

Tom would say "I had lunch at ..." and Josh would relate similar stories, but I never heard them say "we went to the ...".

Quite a contrast to the Ticket hosts on the road. 

Just a thought, might be interesting to see if others picked up on that.


==========


Confessors seem to have a lot of STDs on Josh Lewin, so please let us hear from you.  I haven't heard much of the Lewin-Elfenbein show, but reports on that would be welcome as well.

For the record, I liked Josh as a Rangers broadcaster.  I did think the Josh-Tom chemistry was unusual, but I really got used to it and grew to look forward to it.

Thanks to DallasDon for permission to publish.


[Don't ask me why Blogger is screwing up my fonts.  If Google can rule the world, you'd think it could make an online word processor/publisher that was worth a poopoo.]

Junior Wipes Out!!

[Formerly titled, "Junior Craps Out!!]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ah, Growing Pains

"A home for those who love almost everything about The Ticket (1310 AM, 104.1 FM, Dallas-Fort Worth), and who would like to discuss -- respectfully and fondly -- their thoughts on how (and whether) to eliminate the 'almost.'"

Those are the words at the top of this site.

When I started this little venture, I was mostly talking to myself.   Maybe I'd get a couple of people hitting the site per day.   The very first comment I ever got was from That Nice Young Michael Gruber, to a post I had done about "The Internal Clock of the P1" remarking on how if the dedicated P1 punches out on ads, he has a feeling as to when he needs to punch back in to catch the last few syllables of the Ticker and then back to fun.  Michael provided information on how long those breaks typically last.

The site first came to more general attention when Barb Smith departed.  Someone called my articles to her attention and she was kind enough to comment to let us know what was up with her.  Some of you put out the word on other sites, and a lot of folks discovered us.  (I still get traffic to those posts -- and, of course, people looking for information on Alexis Smith.)

Since then, the hits have gradually increased.  I don't know what happened, but sometime several months ago I must have hit some critical mass of daily hits, because the site really took off.  I'm sure I don't get a tenth the hits of The (Incomparable) UnTicket, but an increasingly respectable number.

But the best part, for me, is not the traffic -- it's the terrific group of readers who have taken the time to leave thoughtful, funny, informative, observant -- and, frequently, critical -- comments.  Christie, P1 Steven, Doug, cancer monkey, Anonymous B, James, T4, shaggy, and many more, including a number of readers who prefer not to give themselves a name and post simply as "Anonymous." 

But it's not just the number of commenters.  It's that almost without exception, they've gotten into the spirit of the site, keeping things light, respectful, and literate.  It's made this site a fun place to come and stretch out a little.  It's fun for me and it brings people back to the site.  And, as we have seen, at least some Ticket personnel drop by for a look now and then.  I wonder if they would do so if this were just another Corby-sux flame chamber.  I really do try to make sure that the site is fair to The Ticket, acknowledging what is superior as well as stuff that irritates.  I sense that commenters have internalized that gestalt and the comments exhibit both praise and criticism.   I can't tell you how much I appreciate the tone that almost all commenters have taken.

Almost.  Lately we've had an exception or two.  Name-calling, mostly. 

I let it go for awhile, hoping it would subside.  There seems to one Anon in particular -- and I could be wrong as to there being only one -- who is not playing well with others.  A shame, too, because he portrays himself as a semi-insider and frequently favors us with what appears to be fairly sound information.  But he seems unable to correspond without some kind of rancorous epithet.

Won't have it. 

So, much as I dislike doing it, I'm going to have to start policing this kind of stuff.  I've deleted a few Anon comments from the past few posts and will be doing more bud-nipping in the future.  I'm not going to make any rules.  Just read the site and jump in with -- as the heading says -- your fond, respectful impressions.  And, as always, feel free to veer off onto your own tangent -- off-topic comments are not off limits here.  If you feel strongly about something, it's OK to sound off with some heat.  Just stifle the ad hominem stuff, please. 

So when you sit down to unburden yourself of your latest cogitations on The Ticket we all mostly love (but you don't have to love it to visit, or to comment), just pretend that while you're composing, that "Masterpiece Theater" theme is playing in the background.

Again, my heartfelt thanks to everyone who visits the joint, and especially to those who take the time to share their thoughts.

[I'll leave comments open for a short time on this post if anyone has any reactions, but I'd prefer to move ahead with the bidness of this site, so I'll have a new blast up soon.]

Why Can't Jake Dislike the Rolling Stones?

The Hardline ganged up on Jake Kemp yesterday for not liking the Rolling Stones.

When it was all over, my feeling was that The Hardline may have lost that argument.

It wasn't that Jake seemed too young and callow; it was that The Hardline seemed too old and out of touch.  (On this single topic, that is.  The C-Nation is aware that Your Plainsman strongly favors The Hard Ones in general.)  Oddly enough, the oldest soul present seemed to be Corby.

The Stones are in my wheelhouse, and they're far from my favorite group.  Some wonderful songwriting, but to young ears the recordings are a cliche.  White guy trying to sound black and look andro.  Druggy, gutbucket guitar.  Music has indeed moved on, for better or worse.  I like the Stones just fine, but it actually surprises me how popular some of the Sixties/Seventies acts remain to the current music-buying generation.  That attests to the strength of the music, but it's unsurprising that a guy in his twenties finds it entirely passe. 

Consider:  When was the last time the generation raised on the Beatles, Zep, and Stones put on a Little Richard or Chuck Berry record?  Those records sound tinny, the instrumentation is thin and undistinguished.  It's great, historical, spectacular music, but it's now been done to death and not much fun to listen to other than as a curiosity.

So by all means, try to educate Jake on the greatness of the Stones (and I acknowledge their greatness).  But if he's not convinced, it's not his problem.

My Ticket Confession Congratulates Rabid P1 James Hairston

On yesterday's Hardline, our boys congratulated and spoke with longtime ardent P1 James Hairston. from Jesuit  Unfortunately I missed the middle part of the segment, so I'm not sure if he committed, got a scholarship, or what good thing has happened to him, but the upshot appears to be that he will be attending LSU and stands a good shot at the kicker position there.  If anyone can sharpen up that description, please do comment and set me straight.

The Hardline described James's longtime devotion to The Ticket, hsi frequent zany appearances at Ticket events and live shots.  In the phone interview, he stated that when faced with a critical kick -- and what kick isn't? -- his invariable mantra is:  The anus is on me.  Excellent.

James, if you're a Confessor, check in and let us know what's up.  In the meantime, accept Your Plainsman's congratulations and best wishes, in which I am certain I am joined by the Confessor Nation.



Quick Sunday AM Question

I only caught a few minutes of the Sunday AM show today.  It sounded like Cirque.  Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I thought that Jean-Jacques Taylor was taking a shot at that slot. 

Anybody know what's up with the Sunday AM showgram? 

I'm thinking perhaps JJ was at one of the playoff games and not available to host this morning, which I could probably confirm for myself if I just picked up a Dallas Morning News.  Or visited http://www.dallasnews.com/.

But it's easier and more fun to ask you guys.  Besides, its slick out there.  Cold, too.

=======

Speaking of the Sunday morning show, I was able to listen to a little of Elfenbein/Lewin this past week.  Didn't make a strong impression either way.  They seem to have solved some of the technical problems with the show, but Elf still sounds really dry and denatured for some reason.  Content was OK, didn't grab me but didn't repel me, either.  Anyone have any reactions to that show?

Josh Lewin (2d from left) in

full semiformal regalia

My Ticket Confession

Your Plainsman tries to be fair.  Sometimes this consists of taking shots at some of the showgrams and some of the hosts.  As ardent listeners, the stuff that stands out for us is the stuff that irritates, even though most of it is great.

I don't know what happened today.  I've been a little logy lately, under the weather, and kind of had that la-de-da sensibility that comes from mainlining DayQuil.  Maybe it was because I'd had a good meeting with one of my numerous bosses.  Maybe it was because I'd knocked off work early for no good reason.  Maybe it was because a checkout lady at the supermarket insisted -- even after I denied it -- that I was a well-known national television figure.  Swear to Jah.

Whatever it was, I have this to say:

I thought The Hardline was incredibly good today.

I smiled, I laughed, I cackled, I chortled.  The highlight was when they announced some giveaway of tickets to a cowboys-of-color rodeo.   Almost drove off the road during that exchange.   All of the hosts were on their game, all were funny, the coarseness was kept to a minimum.  The "Tom Sawyer" E-News segment also stopped me down.  The Joel Jenista reminiscence was perfect.

Your Plainsman (among others) gripes about Hardline show nonprep, vulgarity, over-Corby, Mike R's early retirement -- but jeez, these guys (and Danny "Wool Hat" Bacon and that Nice Young Michael Gruber) are pretty incredible broadcasters.  I thought about that scene in "The Fugitive" where Harrison Ford is keeping just a few scrabbling steps ahead of the train wreck that's advancing on him -- that's The Hardline at its best, and it was at its best today.

Despite the fact that all of us (cowardly, anonymous) media experts have a list of stuff we'd like to fix, The Hardline is an astounding radio showgram. 

That, among other admissions I sprinkle in here from time to time, is My Ticket Confession.

I’m Not Sure I Want an Answer to This Question

What does “Bloody pants means I love you” mean?

It’s the tag line to the ad for the Stars-sponsored blood drive and an appearance by BaD Radio to promote it.

First of all, am I hearing it correctly?  (I’ve only heard it in my car at low volume, so it is not beyond imagining that I’ve got it wrong.)

I thought it must be a pop culture reference I was missing, a movie line or something, but nothing comes up via Google.  Then I thought maybe it was a Ticket inside thing with which I was unfamiliar, but I haven’t seen or heard any other reference to the phrase.

I am hopeful that someone can convince me that this is a whole lot less vulgar than it sounds, and that it bears some reasonable relationship to convincing people to engage in the altruistic act of giving blood.

Otherwise, it’s close to a recent low for The Ticket.   I hope I’m wrong and that someone will take me severely to task for misinterpreting this.  I hate to write negative things about The Little One, I really do.  So Confessors, have at me.

Got a Question; Actually, a Question and Then a Little PS Question

OK, Cowboy season over.

At the beginning of this season, the national consensus was that the Cowboys had top talent, some depth, and were favored to make a strong run to a championship of one sort or another.  Although blown out in their final game in last season's playoffs, they finished strong during the regular season (especially the defense) and won a playoff game, yay.

Turns out, they sucked.

They sucked for a variety of reasons.  Phillips sucked.  Players with strong 2009s sucked in 2010.  There was a dinstinctive lack of on- and off-field nonsucking leadership among the elite players.  Coaches, oh yeah, they sucked too. 

Now that the whole season has sucked, however, I'm hearing things like "the talent was overrated" and "we've got to draft at [name any one of a half-dozen positions] because we have no depth and our starters suck."

In other words, the pre-season expert conseusus has completely turned around, and those same experts (and Cowboy fans who agreed with them) are now saying exactly the opposite.   Now mark:    They're not saying that the players just sucked in the course of playing their 2010 games -- they're saying that the talent level sucked from the outset.  

I don't propose to argue this one way or the other.  Here's my Tickety question:  Did anyone at The Ticket predict anything like this?

This is a sincere question, and not one intended to be critical.  There's no reason for the Ticket experts to have had any insights that the national experts didn't have.  I'm only curious as to whether anyone at The Ticket -- anyone, hosts, producers, weekend guys, Alexis, board ops, the Ticket Mouse -- saw this coming.  I'm not sure whether to count guys like Mike R who seem simply to dislike the Cowboys.  (Or am I wrong about that?  I may be.)  Yeah, I think we can count Mike R -- what was his pre-season outlook?  Was there a discouraging word from anyone up or down the broadcast day?

I don't get to hear Norm or BaD very often, so don't know their pre-season views on the Cowboys.  I have a dim memory that maybe Dan McDowell was skeptical. 

I recall an interview with a pre-season analyst who puts out a detailed mathematical analysis of the teams in some kind of a magazine or yearbook or something.  I think the interview was on BaD Radio.  The analyst thought that the Cowboys would be last in the division.  (I recall that among the reasons he gave was the age of the offensive line.)  I don't recall BaD's reaction.

As I say -- I'm not saying that the Ticket guys are bad analysts -- I'm just wondering if someone at the station deserves a pat on the back as having seen things more clearly than the rest of us way back when.  Maybe the Sports Humorist?

==========

PS:  Isn't Greg Williams usually on the Cowboys post-game show?  He doesn't seem to be on this evening.  Anyone know if he's on vacation for the holidays?  Has he been on RaGE?

Have a fine 2011, all.

Joel Jenista, RIP

I remember where I was when The Hardline did their extensive interview with overnight board op Joel Jenista when he revealed his battle with Lou Gehrig's disease.  I was leaving downtown on the ramp to the Dallas North Tollway.  Sadly ironic, I thought, that Joel was facing a disease named after one of our greatest sports figures.

Here is what I remember of that interview.  I may be misremembering some of what was reported, and I will welcome correction from anyone with better recall.

Joel had suffered two choking episodes resulting from his increasing lack of control over his ability to swallow.  In one of them -- I don't know if it was the first or second, but I believe it was the second -- he was in very dire straits, and an overnight DJ from the sister station -- I don't remember what it was called at the time, but it may have been The Bone -- noticed his distress and rushed into the control room and administered the Heimlich Maneuver, likely saving Joel's life.  The DJ, whose name I have forgotten, was also in the interview (or was that a different segment? -- I'm sorry, my recollection is not firm on this point).  These incidents took place prior to Joel's disclosure of his illness.

Mike and Corby handled it beautifully, with sensitivity and even with a little humor, in which Joel participated and, I think, even appreciated.  My most vivid recollection of this interview was a remark he made about The Musers.  Since he was the overnight guy, he would be on the board when The Musers arrived to get ready for their show.  (He might have even worked the board for some or all of their show -- don't recall.)   I don't recall the circumstances, but he recounted some incident that was a result of his growing disability -- which he had not disclosed at that point -- and that Craig had teased him.  He took a fairly sharp shot at Junior in the Hardline interview, something to the effect that "Craig had to make a joke about it."  In the months since, I've thought -- you might know:  The Ticket finds a way to generate a bear trap Junior could not have had the slightest idea he was stepping into.

(This reminded me of a similar episode from my years in Chicago, when Walter Payton appeared in public clearly having lost a great deal of weight.  He repeatedly denied that he was in poor health.  A popular local sports anchor known for his playful sense of humor, Mark Giangreco, made some joking remark about it on the air, and shortly thereafter Payton's true condition was revealed.  Giangreco apologized profusely, but one had to have some sympathy for him (having taken Payton at his word), and I have some for Junior.  Shortly after his Hardline appearance, I recall a similarly tasteful interview with Joel on The Musers, and all seemed to have been forgiven.)

The Hardline interview concluded with Joel saying that he would work as long as he could.  It was a great segment.  Dramatic and inspirational -- and heartbreaking.

That's all I know.  Joel did work for quite awhile longer, and could be heard contributing on-air from time to time, not sounding much if any worse than he had on The Hardline.  Eventually those appearances ceased, and it became clear that his duties at The Ticket had come to an end.

The only confirmation I have on his death comes from a posting by VSBB on The UnTicket, which does not report the date of his passing.  And, as always, thanks to The UnTicket for bringing us the news.

I hope you will indulge me a brief musing on our relationship with The Ticket.

We love The Ticket.  The individual hosts and producers and Cumulo-Ticket overlords can drive us crazy from time to time, but we have come to feel that each and every one of them is a part of our lives, and they let us know that we are a part of theirs.  We care about them despite all -- that, indeed, is My Ticket Confession.  I'd wager that there isn't a single one of us who hasn't wondered from time to time how we would react of one of these stars suffered some horrible accident or was diagnosed with some fatal illness.  (I've worried in these posts about Greg Williams, not only his drug use but his gun collections and his sad family history; see Greggo . . . Hey, Greggo.)   What would become of our favorite showgram?  How would the nonstop-funloving Ticket handle it?

We didn't lose a big star, but we've plainly lost a great soul and a great, tough man.  (There is a temptation to call these battles "brave," but if anyone had a choice they wouldn't fight an awful battle like that one.)  He toiled in the backwaters of The Ticket -- that overnight gig must have been lonely, keeping the torch lit during the hours when the P1 Nation was tuned out.  But he soldiered on, and must have done it quite well.  We owe him a debt of gratitude for his yeoman service to the channel we love.

Perhaps tonight he is a star of a different sort.

I haven't heard mention of Joel's death on the station today -- I thought it might be reported on a Ticker, but nothing today during BaD's fill-in for The Hardline.  But I'm sure thatThe Ticket will handle it with respect and the proper attention to Joel's memory.

If anyone in the Confessor Nation knew Joel, or can correct my recollection or add to it, I'd be grateful if you would leave a comment.

Rest in well-earned peace, Joel.