A home for those who love almost everything about The Ticket (1310 AM, 96.7 FM, Dallas-Fort Worth), and who would like to discuss -- respectfully and fondly -- their thoughts on how (and whether) to eliminate the "almost."
Great to hear Rich Phillips on The Invasion yesterday. I’ve missed some of his other recent fill-in appearances. At first, I wasn’t quite sure it was him. After listening for a bit – he didn’t chime in right away when I tuned in – a couple of inflections caught my ear and after a few minutes, I thought – that’s the man.
He sounded different. Some of it is probably the passage of time, although his voice had no traces of advancing age. Different (better) equipment than when he was on the air, maybe. I don’t think it was anything deliberate, but his sound now is not as barky, more expressive, smoother, warmer. Less scary.
Google Gemini reports that he is currently a real estate agent at Rogers Healy and Associates, although I think it has recently joined Compass. Yeah, here he is:
https://www.compass.com/agents/rich-phillips/
If the schedule ever needs a personnel adjustment, he’d be a first-rate host and I think he’d fit in pretty well with any other voice. Probably more money in flogging houses, though. Looks like his portfolio is close to top-shelf.
Always loved me some Rich Phillips, and it was great to hear him today.
I cracked up in the car when whoever was reading the do-it-yourself ad copy for Crest Infiniti called Gordon "Gordie." Maybe there's an inside joke there I've missed, but when Gordon heard the final mashup of what were undoubtedly his and the Crest guy's separate recordings of their chummy dialogue, he must have plotzed.
He is still the voice of SMU football and basketball and has said on his FB page he has no desire to go back to a day to day radio gig. He is also recovering from a fairly serious leg injury after a fall which has slowed him down a bit.
Remember when Pman's comment would've kicked off a fire storm from DZ and Ticket factions? No more. It's all faded away. In pretty short order, at that.
The NP Empire that was going to provide a living wage for all wayward ex pat Ticketeers (then Freakers) and a slew of new and exciting shows hosted by your neglected heroes never materialized. Despite the deep pockets of The Investors, The Dream Team, and the Jasmines and all the rest, subs, for a long while now have been stagnant at best. No growth. Just a slow, frog in the pot, decline. If you've listened to the CdS 75 part Ticket/Freak Copiumfest, then you know none of this was the plan. Freak AM Drive, baby. They were the lynchpin. They were who the station was actually going to be built around. Not Rhyner. The whole thing had been in the works for nearly a year before DnJ walked into a Cumulus meeting room and D began talking "non-negotiables." Danny and Sirois have tried their best to conceal how everything was conceived, who was involved, and when. But they've done a poor job obsfucating the obvious. Anyone with half a brain saw, at least in retrospect, what was going down. The sudden labor vs management tack. The daily exultation of content creating and the future of media/entertainment. All the while, purposely steering a chunk of their audience towards an us vs. them dichotomy. We (and by extension, you) are the good guys, the little guys; they, the bogeymen. Then the long vacay. Then the non-negotiables. Then The Dream Team. Then the court case. Now. Well, look no further than the comedy routine. Didn't have to be this way. None of it. The Musers' heir apparents, like Sirois, threw their powder into the deeps. Oh the places you'll go.
The Ticket? Sure, it's easy to say they were the actual winners. They got rid of malcontents who were actively working against the station/parent company, fomenting dissent amongst listeners and fellow employees. Additionally, they shed two large salaries and the attendant benes, replaced them with two much lower salaried company men who are just happy to have a seat at the table. . . . and for all intents and purposes, kept the machine rolling -- at least where ad rev is concerned, which is everything. Prima facie, Cumulus won. In the bigger picture. Don't kid yourself, they didn't. And the listener? Absolutely lost.
The Ticket is now a lesser station. It's been hollowed out in the middle, its morning anchor, its bedrock, is not what it once was. How could it be? Its difference maker ran out of ideas years ago. Rehash after rehash. Now no longer willling to take things to the edge for fear of ostricization, at least; career suicide, at worst. It was his taking things to the precipice that made him stand out. The other two have 1-1/2 feet out the door, and it shows. Specially Junez.
10-3. I won't go into personalities, only performance. There is no, zero difference between TT and The FAN between the hours of 1-3pm. None. Indeed, I'd go as far as to say that if anything The FAN is better. For example, the craft beer fad faded years ago. Excepting a few mainstays, most local breweries have either closed or on their way out. Very few if anyone wants to hear about such a thing. Excepting THL and DnM, named segments are merely segment killers (timewasters) to cover up for a lack of compelling content. This is especially the case when your show is 2 hours long and you have several non-sports related, named segements. TSS, to quote CdS, sounds like a 2 hour Ticker. Replete with the most always lame attempts at humor a la Tickers. In sum, 10-3 is mid AF. Didn't have to be that way. Shouldn't have.
Imagine a Ticket where once DnM go off into that good night, THZ steps into AM drive. They hand it off to, say, Monty and fill in the host, who in turn hand it off to Donnie and Sirois, who then pass the baton to THL 5.0. In the interim, DnM to Donnie and Sirois and probably Monty as producer/3rd host (Norm retired months after the shakeup) to THZ to THL. That's what most likely was in the works.
Who's to blame. . . DnJ who never intended on re-upping because they were in cohoots with The Freak machinations? Cumulus for the way in which they handled the entire situation -- from Atlanta to Bennett and Cat? It really doesn't matter. DnJ lost the moment the OG iHeart execs who were instrumental in bringing The Freak to air were axed. Barring early success, TF was DOA. And unlike CdS's delusional recollection, TF was abysmal from Day One. Yes, DnJ had an intilal, short lived local yokel media lovefest. Not anymore. No more appearances or mentions a la Ticket or FAN hosts on the major local media outlets. Now. We get YT clips of things like The Routine. TT, on the other hand, is not what it was and its future is nowhere near as bright. Terrestrial radio IS on the wane. Their embracing, utilization, and implementation of more forward thinking modes of media IS still stuck in the mid-00s. Their flagship show IS sailling into port sooner rather than later with no successor of substance in the waiting. And its center IS cratering. The numbers are now showing this on a regular basis. Soon, the ad rev will follow suit. And that's when real issues arise.
We all lost. And it's looking more and more like few even care anymore.
As Kevin's Mom noted, my remark about Jake's talent and cursing Dan/lawyers before sleep didn't excite much response, not that I wrote it with that intent.
But I'm going to defend both anyway.
Yes, I do think Jake was and is talented. (Although . . . I am not a Patreon patron and don't know his recent non-stand-up work.) He has a great radio voice and cadence and is knowledgeable about sports. Maybe a little cerebral for a certain slice of KTCK listeners, but he's no more wrong or right than any other Ticket host, and I, at least, was entertained by his work. When he guested on other shows, or on his fill-in work before he got the full-time joint, my ears would keep listening when I heard he was going to be on. Weren't most of us unhappy when he and Dan decamped for The Dumb Zone and, many believed, the Freak? Of course one might not have agreed with this HSOs, and yes, there were passages where he would put one in mind of Gordon's Dylan, the Argumentative Teen. But even those occasional annoyances gave his radio work color and interest, much as do Corby's. Personally, I thought the guy was witty. My own view: He had it all -- smarts, knowledge, voice, facility, and even looks. And youth.
I have not closely followed -- actually, I've pretty much completely ignored -- the various post-Ticket perambulations of Jake, Dan, Sirois, Danny, MIke R, others. I recalled that when I last looked (a couple of years ago), The Dumb Zone's subs were in the mid-6000s, and when I looked before writing this comments the number was around 7300, so I thought -- okay, growing, good for them. But Kevin's Mom suggests, if I read her correctly, was that their subs are declining.
So I don't know how TDZ is really doing, or if that sub level is enough to cover expenses and provide them with an acceptable income. Or whether there are sponsors who can fill in some revenue holes. Or merch.
But it seems quite likely that they're doing less well financially than if they had stuck with the low-cost option of being a popular radio show on one of the most popular radio stations in the world.
And let's put aside money: The continued exposure and popularity that being on the Ticket brought him, and which could have launched him into other high-visibility and real-time influential sports broadcasting jobs, was pretty much extinguished when he and Dan absquatulated without follow-on national success in the medium they have chosen.
I don't think I'm alone in believing that Jake was strongly influenced by Dan and the cause-driven lawyers they hired. I don't picture him doing what he did by himself, or with less ideologically-motivated team members. They were eager to make legal and pro-labor points with the lawsuit and the NLRB proceedings that may, at the time, seemed to be a good trade for the Nurturing Biosphere. But even at the outset, he seemed kind of glum and more of a follower than a pioneer. And now he continues to toil in the backwaters of guy/sports commentary, with pretty much zero prospects for national influence.
Jake is smart. I don't know the man and it's presumptuous to speculate, but he can't be satisfied with the way things have turned out. I submit that doleful standup on what looked to me like a pretty pathetic Wayne's World netshow is Exhibit 1.
I'd like to hear Jake regularly on the radio/stream again, but what I really want is for him to be happy and bring his gifts to a brighter medium.
I would say I agree with your most of your take. I do think Jake is talented and I think while he believed in the altruistic nature of leaving and trying to break up the non compete stuff, he did it under the influence of Dan and the lawyers. That video where they announced their departure, he looked miserable. Who knows how much of that, if any, played into his drinking issues. Thankfully, he got that taken care of, but I would bet that he regrets leaving his "dream job". Agree that I hope he is happy and I do wonder if a bridge for him to come back to the ticket could be mended. As they say, time heals all wounds.
But as for the previous poster saying DNM are mailing it in like Rhyner, I strongly disagree with that. While they may not be peak musers, I think the shortened hours have energized them. Rhyner would flat out take segments off towards the end of his time. I don't see the two being equivalent at all.
The Ticket is now a lesser station. It's been hollowed out in the middle, its morning anchor, its bedrock, is not what it once was. How could it be? Its difference maker ran out of ideas years ago. Rehash after rehash. Now no longer willling to take things to the edge for fear of ostricization, at least; career suicide, at worst. It was his taking things to the precipice that made him stand out. The other two have 1-1/2 feet out the door, and it shows. Specially Junez.
10-3. I won't go into personalities, only performance. There is no, zero difference between TT and The FAN between the hours of 1-3pm. None. Indeed, I'd go as far as to say that if anything The FAN is better. For example, the craft beer fad faded years ago. Excepting a few mainstays, most local breweries have either closed or on their way out. Very few if anyone wants to hear about such a thing. Excepting THL and DnM, named segments are merely segment killers (timewasters) to cover up for a lack of compelling content. This is especially the case when your show is 2 hours long and you have several non-sports related, named segements. TSS, to quote CdS, sounds like a 2 hour Ticker. Replete with the most always lame attempts at humor a la Tickers. In sum, 10-3 is mid AF. Didn't have to be that way. Shouldn't have.
Imagine a Ticket where once DnM go off into that good night, THZ steps into AM drive. They hand it off to, say, Monty and fill in the host, who in turn hand it off to Donnie and Sirois, who then pass the baton to THL 5.0. In the interim, DnM to Donnie and Sirois and probably Monty as producer/3rd host (Norm retired months after the shakeup) to THZ to THL. That's what most likely was in the works.
Who's to blame. . . DnJ who never intended on re-upping because they were in cohoots with The Freak machinations? Cumulus for the way in which they handled the entire situation -- from Atlanta to Bennett and Cat? It really doesn't matter. DnJ lost the moment the OG iHeart execs who were instrumental in bringing The Freak to air were axed. Barring early success, TF was DOA. And unlike CdS's delusional recollection, TF was abysmal from Day One. Yes, DnJ had an intilal, short lived local yokel media lovefest. Not anymore. No more appearances or mentions a la Ticket or FAN hosts on the major local media outlets. Now. We get YT clips of things like The Routine. TT, on the other hand, is not what it was and its future is nowhere near as bright. Terrestrial radio IS on the wane. Their embracing, utilization, and implementation of more forward thinking modes of media IS still stuck in the mid-00s. Their flagship show IS sailling into port sooner rather than later with no successor of substance in the waiting. And its center IS cratering. The numbers are now showing this on a regular basis. Soon, the ad rev will follow suit. And that's when real issues arise.
We all lost. And it's looking more and more like few even care anymore.
I agree Jake, like Corby, isn’t everyone’s bag. As far as being no more wrong than anyone else concerning sports and prognostications go, that just isn’t true. Indeed, he gets far more wrong than right. This despite the booming voice and the supreme confidence in opinion. To the point where he often mocks those who deign differ in thought. In other words, he sells it well, but the product is usually faulty, not as advertised. What’s more, he rarely admits he got it wrong. He never apologizes to the mocked.
If you have the time, I cannot recommend listening to CdS’s multipart (still ongoing) series on TT and TF. As I said, the copium is off the charts, but easy to sift through. It’s not difficult to read between the lines and ascertain the truth of many matters. The entire Leave The Ticket Movement is laid bare. DnJ, while not the instigating party, were deeply involved from the onset. Long before they went on vacay, never to return. They all were: THZ, Danny, Sirois, Julie, and Rhyner. While they (and those at iHeart involved in getting it green-lighted) were very careful in who said what to whom in order to avoid legal issues, they all knew what was going down and what they needed to do to get out of their current situation and into the new one. All of it calculated. Perhaps none more than DnJ. Rhyner was right behind them with his feigning friendship, constantly getting airtime on TT to keep his name out there, to remind the P1 who he is and what he means to them…. All in service of bringing them to TF. All unbeknownst to his longtime colleagues, his supposed friends.
I agree with you to a point regarding J being influenced by D, at first. That video he and Dan made right after it was made public they had left the TT absolutely showed a glum (your term), even confused Jake. However, once the excitement of being part of (a pawn, really) in a possible historic labor law case came to be — along with the atta boys that were coming in fast and furious from the all the right people — he leaned in hard. Does he now go to bed cursing lawyers and Dan? Dunno. He, unlike Dan but like Julie, has a golden parachute courtesy of his own family, his wife, and his wife’s family. So I’m not sure if he’s too terribly bothered by any of it. Then again, The Routine might say otherwise. It’s gotta be tough to no longer be the belle of the ball. Make no mistake about it, he isn’t. Those days are gone.
If I had to place a wager on bedtime tears, I’d lay it on Dan. And if you listen to the CdS Ticket/Freak series, I’d bet the house on Sirois. . . . when his head hits the pillow, at 3am in a panicked sweat, and when he fires out of bed around noon.
KM, I think you are spot on about Sirios being the one who regrets the whole thing the most. He saw the potential for a tier 1 host gig by helping sell the idea of the Freak and went all in. Had he stayed a couple months when Norm decided to hang it up, he probably is on with Donnie today. That is assuming his coke habits didn't get him an early Hammer-like exit.
Oh yeah. Definitely. Between the delusional claims of his two shows on TF being a too high brow grade of comedy and insight for the mostly farts are funny, let's talk Cowboys audience and spinning fantastical yarns about said show's and TF's impact and their legions of loyal devotees. . . in his more sober moments, he sometimes explicitly but mostly strongly implies, that if there was a path back he'd jump at it. Danny, not so much. That's one bitter, blaming others, at times outright angry dude. Perhaps I'll put together a long form post on what you learn about others when they discuss a particular subject for hours on end with no interlocutor in sight, only a fellow traveler cum enabler.
Have you checked the wrong-right record of Ticket hosts lately? I didn't claim that Jake was unusually perspicacious about sports, only that, while smart, he was run-of-the-mill when it came to sports-panel predictions. But that's not why I listen to The Little One. I listen to be entertained, and Jake entertained me.
That's fair enough. But the frequency of inaccuracy vis-a-vis his sports analysis and attendant predicted outcomes - and his mocking, dismissive attitude towards those with differing opinions - is startlingly high. Specially when a pervasive attitude of supreme certitude is factored in.
Man, I’ve seen the criticisms of Jake and stand up on Reddit but was putting off watching any of the clips. I put It off because I figured It’d be hard to watch. I finally watched the one posted here. Gosh lol. The bits are hard enough but then TC laughing at every sentence is so bad lol.
dan and jake both led each other down that path. one would not have done it without the other. the non compete, corp warfare, us vs them was all bullshit to give some sort of cover why they left TT. the answer is simple, bc they were going to the freak. always was the plan. the podcast was plan b
Ticket Reddit bans people for commenting on segments that are on The Ticket! I'm banned for commenting on the community quick hits segment on the comments about UT football game. Truly remarkable. That mod is a POS
Great to hear Rich Phillips on The Invasion yesterday. I’ve missed some of his other recent fill-in appearances. At first, I wasn’t quite sure it was him. After listening for a bit – he didn’t chime in right away when I tuned in – a couple of inflections caught my ear and after a few minutes, I thought – that’s the man.
ReplyDeleteHe sounded different. Some of it is probably the passage of time, although his voice had no traces of advancing age. Different (better) equipment than when he was on the air, maybe. I don’t think it was anything deliberate, but his sound now is not as barky, more expressive, smoother, warmer. Less scary.
Google Gemini reports that he is currently a real estate agent at Rogers Healy and Associates, although I think it has recently joined Compass. Yeah, here he is:
https://www.compass.com/agents/rich-phillips/
If the schedule ever needs a personnel adjustment, he’d be a first-rate host and I think he’d fit in pretty well with any other voice. Probably more money in flogging houses, though. Looks like his portfolio is close to top-shelf.
Always loved me some Rich Phillips, and it was great to hear him today.
I cracked up in the car when whoever was reading the do-it-yourself ad copy for Crest Infiniti called Gordon "Gordie." Maybe there's an inside joke there I've missed, but when Gordon heard the final mashup of what were undoubtedly his and the Crest guy's separate recordings of their chummy dialogue, he must have plotzed.
ReplyDeleteWeird that he uses his fake radio name for his real estate career
ReplyDeleteYeah, not cool to use fake names and fake Errol Flynn imagery.
DeleteHe is still the voice of SMU football and basketball and has said on his FB page he has no desire to go back to a day to day radio gig. He is also recovering from a fairly serious leg injury after a fall which has slowed him down a bit.
ReplyDeleteThat is too bad. He and Donnie are really good together. I don't hate Matt as some one here do but I enjoy Donnie with Ritch or Mikey more.
DeleteThe red swings hard.
ReplyDeleteYour new AI girlfriend?
DeleteYour mom
Deleteliquor in the front poker in the back
DeleteThe Mustang was supposed to be a visual pun for SMU football broadcaster Rich. Stretch.
DeleteDoes anyone know if Collectors Firearms does the right thing? If so, how do you know?
ReplyDeletethey gave my granmama 220,000 when she only needed 19,000 for a new car thats doing the right thing
DeleteGot my email read on Letters from Listeners last Wednesday. About dropping off my daughter at college. Kinda neat. (Put that on my bragging montage.)
ReplyDeleteET P1
I WISH MY BALLS WERE BIGGER!!!!
ReplyDeleteSaw this on DZ Reddit - Jakes 'tight 5'
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/HPUTX_ZJAVE?is=JZ_eAKdM0g12N_kP
43:30 mark.
Not sure what'd be worse - crickets, or having Ragonk as your over-laugher.
That's just sad, embarrassing. Oh the edginess. Um, yeah. You are who the company you keep.
Deletethat's more embarassing than having a second pair of readers on your head!
Deletethat sure does sound like tc's laugh
DeleteRE: Jake's stand-up:
ReplyDeleteHe must curse Dan and lawyers every night before dropping off to sleep.
A guy that talented should not be so joyless.
You sure about all that talent?
DeleteWhy would he curse Dan and lawyers?
DeleteAre you serious? Abject, meet disaster.
DeleteLove the Musers. Legends, the best. But, picks w/ P1s is the worst segment on the Ticket. Give them another 30 minutes off over this time kill.
ReplyDeleteuh paul in uhhh....
ReplyDeletethis is jub's contribution
Pt1
ReplyDeleteRemember when Pman's comment would've kicked off a fire storm from DZ and Ticket factions? No more. It's all faded away. In pretty short order, at that.
The NP Empire that was going to provide a living wage for all wayward ex pat Ticketeers (then Freakers) and a slew of new and exciting shows hosted by your neglected heroes never materialized. Despite the deep pockets of The Investors, The Dream Team, and the Jasmines and all the rest, subs, for a long while now have been stagnant at best. No growth. Just a slow, frog in the pot, decline. If you've listened to the CdS 75 part Ticket/Freak Copiumfest, then you know none of this was the plan. Freak AM Drive, baby. They were the lynchpin. They were who the station was actually going to be built around. Not Rhyner. The whole thing had been in the works for nearly a year before DnJ walked into a Cumulus meeting room and D began talking "non-negotiables." Danny and Sirois have tried their best to conceal how everything was conceived, who was involved, and when. But they've done a poor job obsfucating the obvious. Anyone with half a brain saw, at least in retrospect, what was going down. The sudden labor vs management tack. The daily exultation of content creating and the future of media/entertainment. All the while, purposely steering a chunk of their audience towards an us vs. them dichotomy. We (and by extension, you) are the good guys, the little guys; they, the bogeymen. Then the long vacay. Then the non-negotiables. Then The Dream Team. Then the court case. Now. Well, look no further than the comedy routine. Didn't have to be this way. None of it. The Musers' heir apparents, like Sirois, threw their powder into the deeps. Oh the places you'll go.
The Ticket? Sure, it's easy to say they were the actual winners. They got rid of malcontents who were actively working against the station/parent company, fomenting dissent amongst listeners and fellow employees. Additionally, they shed two large salaries and the attendant benes, replaced them with two much lower salaried company men who are just happy to have a seat at the table. . . . and for all intents and purposes, kept the machine rolling -- at least where ad rev is concerned, which is everything. Prima facie, Cumulus won. In the bigger picture. Don't kid yourself, they didn't. And the listener? Absolutely lost.
Pt 2
ReplyDeleteThe Ticket is now a lesser station. It's been hollowed out in the middle, its morning anchor, its bedrock, is not what it once was. How could it be? Its difference maker ran out of ideas years ago. Rehash after rehash. Now no longer willling to take things to the edge for fear of ostricization, at least; career suicide, at worst. It was his taking things to the precipice that made him stand out. The other two have 1-1/2 feet out the door, and it shows. Specially Junez.
10-3. I won't go into personalities, only performance. There is no, zero difference between TT and The FAN between the hours of 1-3pm. None. Indeed, I'd go as far as to say that if anything The FAN is better. For example, the craft beer fad faded years ago. Excepting a few mainstays, most local breweries have either closed or on their way out. Very few if anyone wants to hear about such a thing. Excepting THL and DnM, named segments are merely segment killers (timewasters) to cover up for a lack of compelling content. This is especially the case when your show is 2 hours long and you have several non-sports related, named segements. TSS, to quote CdS, sounds like a 2 hour Ticker. Replete with the most always lame attempts at humor a la Tickers. In sum, 10-3 is mid AF. Didn't have to be that way. Shouldn't have.
Imagine a Ticket where once DnM go off into that good night, THZ steps into AM drive. They hand it off to, say, Monty and fill in the host, who in turn hand it off to Donnie and Sirois, who then pass the baton to THL 5.0. In the interim, DnM to Donnie and Sirois and probably Monty as producer/3rd host (Norm retired months after the shakeup) to THZ to THL. That's what most likely was in the works.
Who's to blame. . . DnJ who never intended on re-upping because they were in cohoots with The Freak machinations? Cumulus for the way in which they handled the entire situation -- from Atlanta to Bennett and Cat? It really doesn't matter. DnJ lost the moment the OG iHeart execs who were instrumental in bringing The Freak to air were axed. Barring early success, TF was DOA. And unlike CdS's delusional recollection, TF was abysmal from Day One. Yes, DnJ had an intilal, short lived local yokel media lovefest. Not anymore. No more appearances or mentions a la Ticket or FAN hosts on the major local media outlets. Now. We get YT clips of things like The Routine. TT, on the other hand, is not what it was and its future is nowhere near as bright. Terrestrial radio IS on the wane. Their embracing, utilization, and implementation of more forward thinking modes of media IS still stuck in the mid-00s. Their flagship show IS sailling into port sooner rather than later with no successor of substance in the waiting. And its center IS cratering. The numbers are now showing this on a regular basis. Soon, the ad rev will follow suit. And that's when real issues arise.
We all lost. And it's looking more and more like few even care anymore.
im still trying to imagine dnm going off into that good night. they are mailing it in just as hard as rhyner.
ReplyDeleteNo one mails it in as hard as Rhyner. He's the king.
DeleteAs Kevin's Mom noted, my remark about Jake's talent and cursing Dan/lawyers before sleep didn't excite much response, not that I wrote it with that intent.
ReplyDeleteBut I'm going to defend both anyway.
Yes, I do think Jake was and is talented. (Although . . . I am not a Patreon patron and don't know his recent non-stand-up work.) He has a great radio voice and cadence and is knowledgeable about sports. Maybe a little cerebral for a certain slice of KTCK listeners, but he's no more wrong or right than any other Ticket host, and I, at least, was entertained by his work. When he guested on other shows, or on his fill-in work before he got the full-time joint, my ears would keep listening when I heard he was going to be on. Weren't most of us unhappy when he and Dan decamped for The Dumb Zone and, many believed, the Freak? Of course one might not have agreed with this HSOs, and yes, there were passages where he would put one in mind of Gordon's Dylan, the Argumentative Teen. But even those occasional annoyances gave his radio work color and interest, much as do Corby's. Personally, I thought the guy was witty. My own view: He had it all -- smarts, knowledge, voice, facility, and even looks. And youth.
I have not closely followed -- actually, I've pretty much completely ignored -- the various post-Ticket perambulations of Jake, Dan, Sirois, Danny, MIke R, others. I recalled that when I last looked (a couple of years ago), The Dumb Zone's subs were in the mid-6000s, and when I looked before writing this comments the number was around 7300, so I thought -- okay, growing, good for them. But Kevin's Mom suggests, if I read her correctly, was that their subs are declining.
So I don't know how TDZ is really doing, or if that sub level is enough to cover expenses and provide them with an acceptable income. Or whether there are sponsors who can fill in some revenue holes. Or merch.
But it seems quite likely that they're doing less well financially than if they had stuck with the low-cost option of being a popular radio show on one of the most popular radio stations in the world.
And let's put aside money: The continued exposure and popularity that being on the Ticket brought him, and which could have launched him into other high-visibility and real-time influential sports broadcasting jobs, was pretty much extinguished when he and Dan absquatulated without follow-on national success in the medium they have chosen.
I don't think I'm alone in believing that Jake was strongly influenced by Dan and the cause-driven lawyers they hired. I don't picture him doing what he did by himself, or with less ideologically-motivated team members. They were eager to make legal and pro-labor points with the lawsuit and the NLRB proceedings that may, at the time, seemed to be a good trade for the Nurturing Biosphere. But even at the outset, he seemed kind of glum and more of a follower than a pioneer. And now he continues to toil in the backwaters of guy/sports commentary, with pretty much zero prospects for national influence.
Jake is smart. I don't know the man and it's presumptuous to speculate, but he can't be satisfied with the way things have turned out. I submit that doleful standup on what looked to me like a pretty pathetic Wayne's World netshow is Exhibit 1.
I'd like to hear Jake regularly on the radio/stream again, but what I really want is for him to be happy and bring his gifts to a brighter medium.
I would say I agree with your most of your take. I do think Jake is talented and I think while he believed in the altruistic nature of leaving and trying to break up the non compete stuff, he did it under the influence of Dan and the lawyers. That video where they announced their departure, he looked miserable. Who knows how much of that, if any, played into his drinking issues. Thankfully, he got that taken care of, but I would bet that he regrets leaving his "dream job". Agree that I hope he is happy and I do wonder if a bridge for him to come back to the ticket could be mended. As they say, time heals all wounds.
DeleteBut as for the previous poster saying DNM are mailing it in like Rhyner, I strongly disagree with that. While they may not be peak musers, I think the shortened hours have energized them. Rhyner would flat out take segments off towards the end of his time. I don't see the two being equivalent at all.
The Ticket is now a lesser station. It's been hollowed out in the middle, its morning anchor, its bedrock, is not what it once was. How could it be? Its difference maker ran out of ideas years ago. Rehash after rehash. Now no longer willling to take things to the edge for fear of ostricization, at least; career suicide, at worst. It was his taking things to the precipice that made him stand out. The other two have 1-1/2 feet out the door, and it shows. Specially Junez.
Delete10-3. I won't go into personalities, only performance. There is no, zero difference between TT and The FAN between the hours of 1-3pm. None. Indeed, I'd go as far as to say that if anything The FAN is better. For example, the craft beer fad faded years ago. Excepting a few mainstays, most local breweries have either closed or on their way out. Very few if anyone wants to hear about such a thing. Excepting THL and DnM, named segments are merely segment killers (timewasters) to cover up for a lack of compelling content. This is especially the case when your show is 2 hours long and you have several non-sports related, named segements. TSS, to quote CdS, sounds like a 2 hour Ticker. Replete with the most always lame attempts at humor a la Tickers. In sum, 10-3 is mid AF. Didn't have to be that way. Shouldn't have.
Imagine a Ticket where once DnM go off into that good night, THZ steps into AM drive. They hand it off to, say, Monty and fill in the host, who in turn hand it off to Donnie and Sirois, who then pass the baton to THL 5.0. In the interim, DnM to Donnie and Sirois and probably Monty as producer/3rd host (Norm retired months after the shakeup) to THZ to THL. That's what most likely was in the works.
Who's to blame. . . DnJ who never intended on re-upping because they were in cohoots with The Freak machinations? Cumulus for the way in which they handled the entire situation -- from Atlanta to Bennett and Cat? It really doesn't matter. DnJ lost the moment the OG iHeart execs who were instrumental in bringing The Freak to air were axed. Barring early success, TF was DOA. And unlike CdS's delusional recollection, TF was abysmal from Day One. Yes, DnJ had an intilal, short lived local yokel media lovefest. Not anymore. No more appearances or mentions a la Ticket or FAN hosts on the major local media outlets. Now. We get YT clips of things like The Routine. TT, on the other hand, is not what it was and its future is nowhere near as bright. Terrestrial radio IS on the wane. Their embracing, utilization, and implementation of more forward thinking modes of media IS still stuck in the mid-00s. Their flagship show IS sailling into port sooner rather than later with no successor of substance in the waiting. And its center IS cratering. The numbers are now showing this on a regular basis. Soon, the ad rev will follow suit. And that's when real issues arise.
We all lost. And it's looking more and more like few even care anymore.
I agree Jake, like Corby, isn’t everyone’s bag. As far as being no more wrong than anyone else concerning sports and prognostications go, that just isn’t true. Indeed, he gets far more wrong than right. This despite the booming voice and the supreme confidence in opinion. To the point where he often mocks those who deign differ in thought. In other words, he sells it well, but the product is usually faulty, not as advertised. What’s more, he rarely admits he got it wrong. He never apologizes to the mocked.
DeleteIf you have the time, I cannot recommend listening to CdS’s multipart (still ongoing) series on TT and TF. As I said, the copium is off the charts, but easy to sift through. It’s not difficult to read between the lines and ascertain the truth of many matters. The entire Leave The Ticket Movement is laid bare. DnJ, while not the instigating party, were deeply involved from the onset. Long before they went on vacay, never to return. They all were: THZ, Danny, Sirois, Julie, and Rhyner. While they (and those at iHeart involved in getting it green-lighted) were very careful in who said what to whom in order to avoid legal issues, they all knew what was going down and what they needed to do to get out of their current situation and into the new one. All of it calculated. Perhaps none more than DnJ. Rhyner was right behind them with his feigning friendship, constantly getting airtime on TT to keep his name out there, to remind the P1 who he is and what he means to them…. All in service of bringing them to TF. All unbeknownst to his longtime colleagues, his supposed friends.
I agree with you to a point regarding J being influenced by D, at first. That video he and Dan made right after it was made public they had left the TT absolutely showed a glum (your term), even confused Jake. However, once the excitement of being part of (a pawn, really) in a possible historic labor law case came to be — along with the atta boys that were coming in fast and furious from the all the right people — he leaned in hard. Does he now go to bed cursing lawyers and Dan? Dunno. He, unlike Dan but like Julie, has a golden parachute courtesy of his own family, his wife, and his wife’s family. So I’m not sure if he’s too terribly bothered by any of it. Then again, The Routine might say otherwise. It’s gotta be tough to no longer be the belle of the ball. Make no mistake about it, he isn’t. Those days are gone.
If I had to place a wager on bedtime tears, I’d lay it on Dan. And if you listen to the CdS Ticket/Freak series, I’d bet the house on Sirois. . . . when his head hits the pillow, at 3am in a panicked sweat, and when he fires out of bed around noon.
Don't know WTF happened there. Sorry. I somehow reposted part of my OG comment. Again. Sorry about that.
DeleteKM, I think you are spot on about Sirios being the one who regrets the whole thing the most. He saw the potential for a tier 1 host gig by helping sell the idea of the Freak and went all in. Had he stayed a couple months when Norm decided to hang it up, he probably is on with Donnie today. That is assuming his coke habits didn't get him an early Hammer-like exit.
DeleteOh yeah. Definitely. Between the delusional claims of his two shows on TF being a too high brow grade of comedy and insight for the mostly farts are funny, let's talk Cowboys audience and spinning fantastical yarns about said show's and TF's impact and their legions of loyal devotees. . . in his more sober moments, he sometimes explicitly but mostly strongly implies, that if there was a path back he'd jump at it. Danny, not so much. That's one bitter, blaming others, at times outright angry dude. Perhaps I'll put together a long form post on what you learn about others when they discuss a particular subject for hours on end with no interlocutor in sight, only a fellow traveler cum enabler.
DeleteHave you checked the wrong-right record of Ticket hosts lately? I didn't claim that Jake was unusually perspicacious about sports, only that, while smart, he was run-of-the-mill when it came to sports-panel predictions. But that's not why I listen to The Little One. I listen to be entertained, and Jake entertained me.
DeleteThat's fair enough. But the frequency of inaccuracy vis-a-vis his sports analysis and attendant predicted outcomes - and his mocking, dismissive attitude towards those with differing opinions - is startlingly high. Specially when a pervasive attitude of supreme certitude is factored in.
DeleteMan, I’ve seen the criticisms of Jake and stand up on Reddit but was putting off watching any of the clips. I put It off because I figured It’d be hard to watch. I finally watched the one posted here. Gosh lol. The bits are hard enough but then TC laughing at every sentence is so bad lol.
ReplyDeletedan and jake both led each other down that path. one would not have done it without the other. the non compete, corp warfare, us vs them was all bullshit to give some sort of cover why they left TT. the answer is simple, bc they were going to the freak. always was the plan. the podcast was plan b
ReplyDeleteTicket Reddit bans people for commenting on segments that are on The Ticket! I'm banned for commenting on the community quick hits segment on the comments about UT football game. Truly remarkable. That mod is a POS
ReplyDelete