The Freak: It Said What it Wanted . . .

REMINDER: "ANONYMOUS" POSTS WILL BE DELETED.

Why Are We Fighting? Mick, I Have No Idea

What are we to make of this fracas over The Fan ripping off The Ticket?  I confess (of course), I'm amused and puzzled by the whole thing.

I personally have not heard any of this thievery, but the accounts I've read from Confessors' comments is pretty persuasive that the Fan is nakedly copying more than a couple of Ticket bits.

Now, let's acknowledge that The Ticket itself may have been, um, inspired, in some cases, by historical bits from gag-based radio.  I personally don't know of any, but it would be surprising if some of those items don't have broadcast antecedents.  I don't think that's very important.  Clearly, The Ticket has owned the bits in question in this market for a long, long time, and their sound and structure must be counted as The Ticket's Own.

This has several aspects.

First, there's the copying itself.

My first thought was anticipated by a commenter to the previous thread, which is that this avalanche of plagiarism may be a deliberately provocative "mass bit" to get some attention, get The Ticket's goat.  If so, it must be considered a success.  Guy's Night Out, today's BaD Radio.  The Fan hasn't had that kind of publicity since RaGE and Greg Williams's perambulations kept us all fascinated by the slow, but inevitable, train wreck.

Second, there's The Ticket's reaction.

Is it wise to let anything about a station as seldom visited as The Fan get under the hosts' collective skin?  I suppose a little well-placed outrage isn't going to improve The Fan's fortune very much.  I'll confess (again), though, when Mike's Mind today was going to be about a current event, instead of checking out Cowlishaw and Mosely (or whoever was subbing for Matt today), I tuned in The Fan.  (It was a segment on Ben's, I think, trip with his family to a drive-in in Ennis.  Of some interest.)

On balance, though, I think I'd let it go.  It can't be a smart competitive move to rip off a rival with bits which, by all accounts, are hugely inferior to the original.

Third, and only tangentially related, there's the suspected invasion of this site by Fan operatives.

We have welcomed Kevin Turner here for a long time, and I personally continue to do so.  I find his contributions credible, and they're always restrained and within the spirit of the site.  As to various other non-named interlopers, I have no evidence other than anonymous accusations that The Two Gavins (Spittle and Dawson) are posting.

Gavin Spittle preparing to open his laptop to compose a comment
for My Ticket Confession

My self-interested reaction is to be somewhat flattered, on my own behalf and that of the Confessor.  I am encouraged in this by Anon 232 from the last thread, who wrote:  "Oh, and why, pray tell, would The FAIL mess around with MTC? Because, and this is a testament to you commenters and to Plainsman, they know the CTO and Ticket personnel DO pay attention to MTC."  While I know that what is written here is sometimes reflected in on-air adjustments, those influences are extremely minor and extremely rare.  (Other than the move to 96.7 FM, for which I still have not received a commission check.)  Some hosts fly by.  Cat checks in maybe once a quarter.  Some of he JV and off-air staff read it with some regularity, I think.  (Long ago I heard from a Ticket employee who said that in walking through the station he would see My Ticket Confession displayed on laptops.)  Most hosts -- no.  I think maybe two check it from time to time, the others only if someone emails them a link.  But The Fan guys?  Maybe more.  Kevin, certainly, and others looking for evidence of interest in their offerings.

Gavin Dawson fortifies himself for the burst of creativity
required for the drafting of a standout comment for
My Ticket Confession

(Side note:  I've noted in the past that the fact that  I so seldom hear from Ticket insiders via email -- really, pretty much never, maybe once every few months -- tends to suggest that whatever the intensity of the politics at the Ticket workplace, it's a tight-knit, loyal, satisfied group.)

Come to think of it, though:  Other than the occasional radio message board and Reddit, this site remains maybe the only regulated swap-meet for views on DFW sports radio.  Guess I should speculate more responsibly.

Self-interest aside, I've said it before:  If Fan enthusiasts want to be heard, I don't have any strong objections to that and won't unless they threaten to take over the comments, which they are far from doing.  As far as who the commenters might be  .  .  .  I will say that I haven't heard privately from anyone denying that Fan luminaries are posting here.   If I were one of The Two Gavins, though, I think I would let the speculation and accusations fly even if I weren't commenting.  As Oscar Wilde famously observed, "There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about."

I oughta know.

The inventor of Gay/Not Gay

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ThePlainsman1310@gmail.com

@Plainsman1310

A Cat Flyby

Jeff Catlin does not regularly read this site, but he advises that he drops by every few months.  He was interested in the thread of comments prompted by the Sunday night show a couple of weeks ago featuring Ticket Chicks, and, in particular, the theme started by, of all people, Kevin Turner.  KT, you will recall, expressed outrage-by-proxy that long-time JVs were being passed over for opportunities to broadcast.

In the thread that followed, some Confessors pointed out that, in fact, some of the JV had, in fact, developed regular shows on The Ticket.

The Pan-American Catman dropped me an email, which he has generously permitted me to use, in part.  It is lightly edited at his request:

"Do you know how many so called 'JV'ers' have come to me to pitch me ideas for their shows in the last year  .  .  . and I am seriously thinking about this as to not miss-speak here. The answer is 0.  One guy has expressed interest in hosting over the holidays. But not one other person, team or group has come to me and said 'hey, give us a chance.'

"Do you know how many JV'ers have come to me to pitch me ideas on hosting a show in the past TWO Years?  The answer is one."

Thank you, Western Hemisphere Catman.  So it would seem that there is no general clamor among the showless JV to develop something for the air.

I'm sure that if he were queried, The Catman of the Americas would wish all Confessors a very Merry Christmas, or, depending on Cumulus policy on such matters, a very Happy Holiday.

MTC's own employee handbook permits the wishing of a Merry Christmas, and you all have been so wished.   Be blessed as your beliefs provide.  See you in a few days.

Notes from Camp

Ladies and gentlemen, my apologies for being away for so long. My work and household duties have escalated recently and my posts are, unfortunately, going to be few and far between for a while.  The commitments cut into both listening and writing time. I do keep an eye on comments and have appreciated most everyone's observation of the site's unwritten rules.

I have made a few notes from the last couple of weeks, some ticket-related, some not. Nothing too profound here, but maybe this will get some the threads kick-started:

          1.     Junior Miller:  "There are too many idiots in the world, and half of them are commenting on websites."  (Referring to comments to news items in the DMN.)

          2.     Both the Hardline and Musers have remarked on the fact that there seem to be lots of people hanging around Southern California who "aren't doing so well."  No kidding.  I have a lot of good feelings for California, having lived there with great pleasure for five years in the '90's (hence my fondness for Lee "Hacksaw" Hamilton), but it's a holy mess.  Decades of mismanagement (Democrat and Republican), have left the state broke.  Its legislature is a corrupt candy machine (Democrats are the problem here), devastating state taxes that are going higher, enormous public payroll, vast welfare benefits for illegal immigrants, it goes on and on.  The leading candidate for a catastrophic Detroit-style bankruptcy.  It's America's Greece.   Meanwhile, Texas still can't get free agents to come here.

          3.    Can we get a report on how Norm and BaD handled the camp?  I heard zero minutes of either show while they were in Oxnard.

           I actually like the travelogue aspects of The Ticket's travel to faraway places, yes, even Corby's stories.  I do wonder whether there is a whole lot of sportsy value to having all those shows out there, and at Super Bowls, and at playoffs.  Some take it more seriously than others.  I would think that Norm and BaD, broadcasting during daylight hours, would snag a relevant interview or two along the line. How was their time out there?

          4.     This site's deepest condolences to Mike Rhyner and his loved ones on his mother's passing.  She seemed like a sweet lady in her few interactions with the station, and Mike's voice took on a different tone when she came up.  One had the idea that one would mess with that woman at one's considerable personal peril.  RIP.

          5.     Several commenters have taken the opportunity of Mike's occasional absences to note how good Corby can be when he has responsibility for running a presentation. He's also on good behavior with other hosts.  This site has mentioned this on several occasions.   More than one person has observed that perhaps Corby's excesses are encouraged by the kind of chemistry he has with Mike. I got an e-mail from Confessor N:  

"Perhaps it's just me, but me and some of my real good P1 friends all find Corby with anyone other than Rhyner actually very good, crisp, funny and more likable.  It started last week with Corby manning the ship when Rhynes suddenly left Oxnard for his mom's illness.  I thought his chemistry with Craig, Gordon, Dan, Donny, the Commander et al was great.  Then Friday it clicked for me when Rhynes was out for the funeral  - I like Corby leading with Danny in the co-pilot seat and Jake as the on mic producer.  The chemistry is much more free-flowing.   I respect Rhynes but it is clear to me now that he gives this thing the 'cruise control'/'I don't give a damn' vibe."

I think that's right.  He knows he's untouchable, nearing the end of his reign, and feels little obligation to incentivize Corby or Danny.  Although I will say, once in a while the last few weeks, it has seemed to me that Mike, while clearly tired from his schedule and the emotional drain of his mother's passing, has generated some pretty strong segments.

          6.     Greg Williams's blog:  Seems like there's not much to it any more -- song lyrics, definitions, and recently a TMI post from Jenn on "what Greggo's really like" that didn't exactly flatter the guy.  Apparently they are moving, which, she reports, will make it hard to keep the blog up to date (although it seemed like they weren't actually moving, just planning for a move).

           7.     Gordon is 100% correct about the Geico Old MacDonald's spelling ad.  The joke about spelling "cow" is completely wrong and unfunny because it misses the real joke that the Geico ad writer apparently misremembered.  Bet I can find it  .  .  .  yup, took me about 12 seconds:

A Hoosier, a Kentuckian and a West Virginian were on a Hollywood TV quiz show. The host asked them to complete the sentence: "Old MacDonald had a ..." The Indianan said, "Old MacDonald had a carburetor." "Sorry," said the MC. "That's incorrect." "Old MacDonald had a flat tire," said the Kentuckian. "Wrong," said the host. "Old MacDonald had a farm," said the West Virginian. "That's correct!" shouted the MC. "Now for $200,000, spell farm." The West Virginian thought hard and then spelled carefully: "E-I-E-I-O."

The Geico ad should either have had Old MacDonald spell "farm," which he then spells "E-I-E-I-O," or spell "cow" and spell that the same way but not preceded by C-O-W.  Anyway, it's a bad ad.  In fact, all of the Geico ads that use the "well, did you know .  .  . " format are weak.

          8.     However, Gordon and George are entirely wrong on "The Girl from Ipanema," a wonderful bossa nova pop song.  The English lyrics were originally meant to be sung by a man, not a woman (Astrud Gilberto having made it famous), which accounts for the gigantic grammatical blunder "she looks straight ahead, not at he" when sung by a woman -- should be:  "she looks straight ahead, not at me," sung by a man.

          9.     Love George, we all love George, but he has apparently graduated to dropping 100% of his g's on present participles and gerunds (-ing words).  I swear, one morning a few days ago it sounded like he was deliberately workin' at droppin' all those g's.  I wish he wouldn't.  It makes him sound hickish, which he's not.  Maybe it's his increased C&W profile, he's got to use some kind of backcountry patois to keep it real.

          10.    Matt Garza has a tiny brain.

          11.     While we're on the subject of Ticket word usage:  Is The Ticket the last bastion of the overuse of the word "awesome"?  It was bad enough when this perfectly lovely, evocative word was devalued back in the Bill-and-Ted's-Excellent-Adventure days, but it seems to me that the language has finally moved on with the exception of George Dunham and BaD radio.  Sorry, man, every time I hear someone on the station use that word (and it's not just those guys), I think -- you know, this station really needs to get out more.

          12.     It has been pointed out that the signals (1310/104.1) have been sucking more than usual lately, probably because of the hot weather. That's not an excuse. The best station in the country shouldn't be hostage to North Texas summers.  Just more evidence of how really bad these signals are.

          13.     Johnny Manziel is a sociopath.

          14.    Caught a little bit of Ben and Skin one day, only about ten minutes.  This is not a general Ben and Skin opinion, only observation about the tiny slice that I heard.  I want to give those gents a fair shot, and that just can't be done by flipping over for the odd segment.   They had some Ranger talk about "overpaying" players (Elvis Andrus was on the griddle at that particular moment) that did not make any sense to me in the context of a free market for players and widespread information on their current skills.  (I think that was Skin but cannot be certain.)  

We are very fond of Kevin Turner around here, but during my short time of listening I caught a very unfortunate remote segment that only lasted about 35 seconds that ended with Kevin asking some group of people how many were ovulating.   Could not figure out what the bit was supposed to be about at the outset, and, whatever it was, it cratered almost instantaneously and B&S seemed somewhat startled to have the show tossed back to them.  Sorry, KT.  I promise I'll get around to giving B&S the benefit of a sustained listen one of these days.

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Hope to see you all soon.

LATER:   Just saw this post.  Blogger has once again defeated my efforts to make the thing look nice.  Sorry for all the inconsistent margins, fonts, spacing.  

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Wednesday, August 7, 2013 BONUS:  Today's Ticket Traffic Twist Julie Mac, who looks like she sounds:

Frozen Face Nipples

To pass a bit of your weekend time .  .  .  .

(1)  Is anyone else astounded/delighted/shocked by the fact that Gordon Keith is facing Bob Sturm in the Dallas Morning News DFW Sportscasters Bracket contest?  (DMN Sportscasters Bracket) As of this writing, the results are Gordon 51.65, Bob 48.35.  And does anyone think we will ever hear the end of it if Gordon, the least sportsy of the entire bracket, wins?  Or even if he doesn't?

Gentle Confessors, this illustrates something I suggest from time to time, but it bears repeating:  The fine stable of readers who comment on this site is not necessarily -- perhaps I should leave off the "necessarily" -- reflective of the Ticket fan base.  Now Gordon is a DMN personality himself, and he shows up on the teevee from time to time, so we may be getting a number of voters here who like Gordon from his non-radio work.

But even so, that he's gotten this far, and may win, reminds us that there are many media consumers out there who don't think bullying is the signature feature of Gordon's work, in fact, who like him a lot.  (Maybe the voters are doing a mass bit, but I doubt it.)  He and Corby by far take the greatest gobkicking on MTC, and, while Corby didn't make it out of the first round, he's probably also a lot more popular than someone whose only source of information on the popularity of Ticket guys is this site would think.  (Whoo.  Bad sentence.)   I would point to, uh, the ratings as proof.  It's not just the shaky competition.

(2) Cat must have lectured the programs on "managing the back end."  I am guessing this has to do with bringing segments smoothly to a close so Cumulus can pay for them with on-time commercials.  But does anyone know for sure what this phrase, sneeringly referenced from time to time by hosts and producers, means?

(3) CONFIDENTIAL TO KEVIN TURNER:

KT, KT, KT.

I have no idea of all the indignities to which you were subjected at The Ticket.

No one has disclosed to me the various humiliations you suffered at the hands of BaD, Mike R, and Mitchell Karasik.

The soul-killing tasks you were ordered to perform remain hidden to me.

But I believe I can say with a fairish degree of certainty that The Ticket never, ever required you to eat the beard clippings of a Dallas Cowboys rookie out of his lap.

Mmm.

Email:  ThePlainsman1310@gmail.com

Twitter:  @Plainsman1310

Ben, Skin, Brandon, KT, and My Post-Op Drug-Influenced Recovery and Review

OK, here's the deal.  I went under the knife this morning.  All well, not life-threatening.  Thanks in advance for your good wishes.  Mrs. Plainsman has ordered me not to email as I recuperate whilst drugged.  I don't think she cares if my blog work is narcotics-influenced.  But I've got nothing to do except to listen to Dallas-Fort Worth Sports Radio.  So you may be getting lots of little observations of varying coherence over the next few hours.

And right now, I'm listening to Ben and Skin's inaugural showgram.

I haven't heard Ben and Skin since their weekend Ticket show.  But it doesn't sound like the show I remember.

These guys are talking very fast, very animatedly.  I am recalling a much more relaxed presentation those several years ago.  Haven't yet heard any Ironic Observation on the Just Previous Ironic Observation.

I missed the Derek Holland interview (and a brief clip sounded interesting, where DH reports that he's still DH-like, even sang a little song),  Now they're talking to Dirk and it's a real nice conversation.  Greggo can sneer at their strategy of endearing themselves to athletes, but this is pretty good stuff.  I'm waiting for their actual sports talk -- looks like one more segment with Dirk.

They’re running CBS Sports Minutes reported  by Jim Rome.

Now they’re talking to some old-timey-sounding sports guy but I missed who it is.  [LATER:  Mike Fisher.]

And they’re rolling out DeMarcus Ware at 4:30.  [LATER:  Fun interview with him.]

Next is a segment called “The Other Part of the Paper”—non-sports stories.   Apparently some guy – they later identified him as an intern -- named Brendan – they later identified him as Smith -- is going to report on these stories, and I can’t believe it but they managed to find yet a third guy that sounds just like the two of them, especially now that they’re talking faster.  They’re talking about a bobcat sighting.   Needs some fine-tuning.  I'm resisting the thought that this may be Community Quick Hits.

Unusual jazz piano trio background music, kind of nice.  In fact, all of the background music is quite unusual.   I was so  intrigued by it, I found myself listening to the music and not the talking.

I’ve been listening for an hour and I haven’t heard an actual Ben and Skin segment.  I’ll tell you, I’m very startled by the near-manic pace of the segments.   Trying hard to have a goodo time.  Opening-night jitters?  Or a deliberate move to a new style of broadcasting?  I would appreciate if one of you familiar with their more recent work would report on whether this is a different sound for them.

You know  .  .  .  the show sounds just like this.

 Oh oh.  Oh oh.  Someone  -- I have no idea who – said “My favorite segments are the one where all four  of us (B, S, KT, and Brendan Smith) are talking.”  Through my drug-induced haze, I can’t tell if he was kidding.   Confidential to Ben and Skin:  I hope so.

Hmm.  Looks like a fairish amount of rap flavoring.

OK, here we go.  Ranger talk.   One thing I can say about it is that it is definitely Ranger talk.  I’m getting a Yahoo Sports Radio vibe.

I want to get this posted and let you guys have your say.  Small sample size but  .  .  .  man, there is just not much distinctive about the sound of this show.  I’ll look forward to a future shows when they’re not leaning on the interviews – four so far -- wait, five, looks like they're going to wedge Jon Daniels in before 6 PM – and talking about putting the show together.  (Or maybe the show will rely heavily on interviews all the time.  That would be unfortunate.)  As I sign off, they’re playing the intros they’ve created for Emily Jones, Tim Cowlishaw, and others.

And – I swear – they all kinda sounded the same.

Hey, listen -- this show deserves a more thoughtful review than this.  Really.  I don't want to be down on these guys after one show, it's not fair and the opening show isn't going to be representative of the day-to-day performance.   So take this drug-addled rambling for what it's worth.   

WAIT:  They're giving KT a shot for the next segment, can't sign off just yet.  He teased news about Beyonce and Barbara Walters.  I'm resisting the thought that this might be E-News.

Time for more narcotics.

And to check in on The Hardline.

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Twitter:  @Plainsman1310

Email:  ThePlainsman1310@gmail.com

(1) This Time, a Real Congratulations and Best Wishes, and (2) Lest We Forget

First, Kevin, an honest-to-god and not-pretend congratulations and wishes for every success at The Fan.  Yesterday, of course, I was guessing, although when I thought back to that weekend Ticker vacancy I'd seen a few days ago, I had a pretty strong inkling.  Now we know, and now I offer a hearty digital handshake and old-man slap on the back.

Although this is a Tickety site, we do survey the sports-talk radio horizon, as it says next to my little picture, so who knows?  You know that Confessors, perhaps even I, will write about the new giant-slayers offered by The Fan.  I hope you earn a blog with commenters every bit as loquacious and well-behaved as those who are gathering here.

And now, Confessors, back to the business at hand.

Many of you -- not all, but many -- have yearned for the day when The Fan was going to get some pitching in there to give you an alternative to The Hardline with which you have become increasingly annoyed and punching-out-on.   The OverCorby, Checkout Mike, Uberkuhl Danny, endless commercial breaks, many things have excited your ire.  Will there be enough of you to make a dent in The Hardline's ratings with your migration to Band S?

Many Confessors are doubting that Ben and Skin are the answer.  I recall their Ticket show with residual fondness, something I'd keep on the radio when it came on during Saturday errands.  Yes, I did weary of the Ben and Skin and Moebius Endless Self-Referential Conversational Loop from time to time, but it could be fought through.  Same with Ben & Skin Disease (sounding too much alike).  I didn't heard one second of their show on ESPN so don't know if they got cured of either of those things -- from what I'm reading, guess not.

But some of you are looking forward to it and are going to give it a fair shot.  Good.  No doubt I will give it a listen as well.

But before we get too enthusiastic about the possibility of an improved Hardline or a meaningful ratings nudge to Mike, Corby, and Danny, let's think back:

Don't think about what RaGE actually turned out to be -- think about what it started out to be:  A very, very heavily promoted, slickly-produced, well-planned show with a legendary former member of That Very Hardline During the Legacy Greatness Years who still had lots and lots of fans, paired with  a very well-known DFW sports writer and maybe the only one who worked in extended form, a big signal, network support, huge, really huge anticipation.  Later, they even got TV exposure and a saloon. Forget about how disappointing the actual product turned out to be -- think about the excitement at the beginning.

And for all that excitement and planning and promotion:  RaGE never,  not ever, not even at the outset when people might have been expected to check it out for awhile, had the slightest impact on The Hardline.  We have radio guys checking in to this site who can give us the details, but I do not remember the slightest burp in THL's ratings dominance or the margin of that dominance.

Are Ben and Skin, who debut with much less Fan-fare (sorry) and boasting likely to do better even if they are better than the Ben and Skin we've been hearing for the last half-dozen years or so?

[Side note:  Some time ago, and I mean well before the current changes, I heard from a local radio talent that he hated their show.  (Liked them personally.)]

Like everyone else, I'd like to see a more dedicated, mature, focused Hardline.  But Our Lads didn't bestir themselves to make improvements when RaGE hit the air and turns out they were right not to expend the additional energy.  Mike R saw better than anyone what was coming, and he correctly discerned  it to be nothing.

So while I will be investigating the new competition somewhere along the line, and wishing a good career move for our friend KT, and some meaningful shoving of The Hard Ones, based on past history I'm skeptical that we will see a ratings book that looks much different than the last several dozen.

You?

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Twitter:   @Plainsman1310

Email:  ThePlainsman1310@gmail.com

It's Kevin Turner

Think about it, Confessors.

The online scuttlebutt is that Ben & Skin are poaching some Ticket talent for their Fan show.  A Confessor to the last thread said that it was a young woman named Tara Artho who appears to have some Cumulus production duties.  Ms. Artho may indeed be moving, but I'm getting a rumble from the radio underground that it's a more familiar name.

Let's consider the Ticket JV:

Jake Kemp
T.C. Fleming
Ty Walker
Sean Bass
Mike Sirois
Mike Fernandez
Kevin Turner
Jeremy Moran
Killer Kellison
The Davids don't count
Danny Balis doesn't count
Tom Gribble

Maybe a couple I'm leaving out. Mitchell Karasik.

Every single one of these guys is very, very good at what he does, so don't any of y'all take any of this wrong.

Of that list, who has:

First, some producing/board/on-air chops, and

Second, the most to gain and the least to lose by departing The Ticket.

Jake's up-and-coming on the Station; Ty, Sean, Mike S, Mike F, Jeremy, Killer, Tom are all very established or already have shows, and a couple don't give off a producer vibe.

That leaves T.C. and KT.

T.C. has a lot of exposure already and, I think justifiably, believes that his day may yet come on The Ticket.

Leaving Kevin Turner.  Hardline whipping boy, all-'round scamp, and an insidious charm.  Lowest on the totem pole, least likely to find a slot for greater exposure.  Not to mention the fact that as I mentioned in a post a day or so ago, The Ticket is looking for a weekend Ticker guy.

Kevin, best of luck to you.  Hope you will drop by from time to time.

And if I'm wrong (imagine!) -- well, then, welcome back, KT!

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Twitter:  @Plainsman1310

Email: ThePlainsman1310@gmail.com

QUICK HITS: Heading to Ticketstock

A few topics as I load up the Conestoga and hang the "IRVING OR BUST" banner on it:

(1)  For your convenience, a couple of great links from Confessors on the last comment thread:

       An interview with Cumulus ultimate CTO Lew Dickey:   Lew Dickey Interview   I haven't listened to this yet but I'm going to and will have some further thoughts.

       Real nice article about some of our favorite JV (they're all our favorite!), with pics!:  JV Article

See below.

(2)  I don't have a problem with Scot and Matt lifting bits from The Ticket.  Show biz has always been about stealing bits.  So has business.  So has how we dress, the phrases we use, and everything else.  I am doubtful that the CTO has imposed a "do stuff like The Ticket" regime on our lads, but if they had it would hardly be an irrational strategy.  I do hope they find some creative variations -- "Community Tidbits" as a title is a little, um, weak.  (Maybe in Alabam you'd be better off with "Community Tide-Bits.")

As for Mike R's attitude:   The Confessor may be right that Mike is contemptuous of people who appropriate his mannerisms or lift bits from The 'Line or The Ticket.  I don't know.  And in general it is not a good thing to upset Mike.  But is it not very clear that he has very little influence at The Ticket these days?  He may be able to do what he wants, and thank Jah for that, but I doubt whether the CTO takes his disposition into account when making decisions on programming, personnel, scheduling -- anything.  I'm thinking Rich Phillips has more influence at The Ticket than Mike does.  You may think that is a good thing or a bad thing, but it's the thing.

(3)  Speaking of which:  On The Hardline yesterday reference was made to The Machine, Kevin Turner, and other JV, and Corby jubilated that this was the best possible time to be at The Ticket, or words to that effect (the context was one of general approval of these guys).  Mike replied that "things have never been worse around here" and "this is the worst it's ever been" (or WTTE), which I took as more of an overall Ticket comment and not necessarily directed at the JV (although he took a direct shot at KT).  What was interesting about this is that he repeated these phrases in one form or another at least a half-dozen times or so, but Corby and Danny seemed always to be talking over him.  He continued to repeat the phrase(s) as though he were hopeful of stimulating some reaction to his growling judgment that things were bad at The Little One.  But either because they weren't paying attention, or didn't want to get into it on the air, Corby and Danny did not respond in any way to Mike's repeated condemnation of the way things are "around here."  Anyone hear that and have an impression?

(4)  I really liked the article on the JV guys, but it depressed me a little since it contained more information on these fine chaps than you would get out of reading a year of this site.  I know, this is a commentary site and not a newsy site, different goals, reaction rather than reporting, but still made me feel pretty unnecessary.  So I'm going to go off and sulk for a bit.

See you at Ticketstock.

Train Station and Other Extremely Quick Hits

--  George DiGianni is doing a show featuring (among other things) genital herpes with a Dr. Cockerell.

--  George can make fun of himself.  His GenoStim ads now feature drops from his show, and today he remarked in the course of the keep-locker-rooms sanitary discussion that he always goes home to shower because, among other reasons, "I don't want to see a bunch of swinging sausages."  Then he paused; then said he was waiting for his engineer/op to make it into a drop.

--  Kevin Turner with Tickerman duties today.  The Mitchell Kerasik Watch is on hold.

--  A commenter on the last thread observes:  "From the comments made prior to and during the letter of suggestions from a listener that Corby read, it's pretty obvious that Rhyner doesn't care for listener input or opinion, period. Which leads me to believe that if he is aware of this site, he must loathe it." 

I think this is probably correct.  Of course, we would all like our favorite hosts to like us.  Even though this site is mostly highly supportive of The Hardline and worshipful of Mike R's legend, it's the slice that doesn't fall under the "mostly" part of the pie that probably rankles.  And who could blame him or any other Ticketarian who doesn't like MTC?  Would you like someone commenting on your job performance every few days, slicing and dicing your every inflection, and anonyously to boot?  No.  So I've never introduced myself to any Ticket host and probably will keep my distance from the larger specimens of that group for the forseeable future.

--  So, are we about to experience another Greggo eruption?  There is some suggestion that he has been mysteriously absent from RaGE the last couple of days.  Dare I type those legendary words: 

Where's Greggo?