Sorry, It's Just Quick Hits

Sorry I've been away.  It's going to continue for awhile.

I teased a coming Scorching Ticket Disquisition in the comments to the last thread.  This is not it.  I'm rethinking it.

I had heard something that made me a little angry but mostly sad and I shut off the radio and didn't turn it back on.  It was a Hardline segment a couple of weeks back.

But I found myself agreeing with one of the later comments on the last thread that there's been a lot of Hardline-bashing on MTC lately.  Too much, probably.  Mostly deserved, in my judgment, but yeah, I am getting a little tired of it.  Although THL seems to be bouncing back in the ratings -- not back to its previous lofty position compared to the competition, but doing better.  However, I have to agree -- while THL has its moments, and it's still my go-to PM drive diversion, overall it is a show in noticeable decline.

So I'm thinking crud-a-mighty, if the show is irritating me to that degree, what's the point of listening?  Who's going to be interested in a blog called "My Muser Confession, with Intermittent Mentions of Norm and BaD?  Not even me.

Having said all that, I decided not to pile on just yet.  And I'm not making any rules about "no Hardline/Mike/Corby shots," but let's try to find something else to talk about.

You can post about T.C. if you want, or Jake, but that's getting pretty tiresome too, unless you have a specific point to make.  I reserve the right to decide that something's just a naked shot or the same jamoke saying the same thing over and over and not worth the pixels.

So for now, I'll just quick hit some notes I've made over the past little while, some Ticket-relevant, some not very, some falling into the "listening/watching too hard" category, which tendency of mine seems to upset this site's Reddit critics.

(1)  For you Twitter followers:  Apologies once again for the hack.  I got infected through a message from one of the founders of this site's success, former Ticket Traffic Twist Barb Smith.  It was a message that some post about me or this site on a linked page was "nasty."  Although it was somewhat surprising to hear from Barb again, it was not a crazy thing to imagine considering the bile directed our way lately on Reddit and elsewhere.  So I took the bait clicked on the link.  And I'm guessing some of you did, too.  Thus completing the hack.

(2)  I love Gordon's Troy Aikman imitation when George's Fake Michael Irvin calls him up.  Very dry, very understated, very Troy-like.  Witty in an understated way, love it when Gordon gets less Keithly and lets the gag emerge from the character rather than the writing.   There are probably some interesting politics there, after Gordon's ill-advised interrogation of Troy on one of his call-ins that got him in trouble.  In any event, it's really good, as is George's Irvin.

(3) As if The Hardline didn't have enough trouble, it is the Musers' car-leasing pals at, of course, D&M Auto Leasing that have won the DealerRater Dealer of the Year Award in Auto Leasing.

(4)  WATCHING TOO HARD:    There's something disturbingly off about that Mark Cuban AT&T ad with the adorable Lily Adams (portrayed by Milana Vayntrub).  I don't think they shot that scene together.  He towers over her and doesn't seem to be looking at her when he's speaking to her, but instead something off in the middle distance.  Could be cue cards, I suppose.  But then at the end, where she tells him what a swell negotiator he is, they reach out to shake hands -- as if to establish, awkwardly, that they are having a real conversation in a single filmed scene.  But before they touch hands, the shot cuts away to behind and to the right of Cuban -- or is it?   It does look something like his profile, but it is far from clear.  Also, in the shots framed from directly in front of them, they're standing much further apart than they are in the shots from behind the Cuban figure.  I'm guessing they shot their parts at different times.  I need a hobby.  Other than this one.

(5)  LISTENING TOO HARD:   There's a Ticket ad where Conrad uses a word that gets beeped out, and the word is "assholes."  But they've screwed it up -- Conrad uses a long "a" before the beep is edited in, and then after the beep you hear the "s" sound.  The problem is that, if The Hardline is any indication, "ay-holes" is permissible, but "assholes" is not.  But the latter has a short "a" sound.  So it makes no sense to pretend to censor "ay-holes."  The beepout would only make sense if the first vowel sound you hear is a short "a."

(6)  George Dunham now mispronounces the names of two shows on The Ticket.  Norm Hitzges (George has said "Hitchges" for as long as I can remember, and I believe we have established that this is not a bit), and now he's calling Mike and Cash's show "Cirque de Sirois."  He's not the only one, but come on -- learn now to pronounce the names of the hosts and shows on your station.

(7) Gordon no longer maintains his blog.  I'm not sure when he quit.  But I clicked over to it the other day.  There's a nice photo of him after the "you are loved" screen.  Check out the threads.  Very interesting that he labels himself "writer, broadcaster," in that order.    And that fountain pen in one hand and some hard copy under his arm.  He's been writing!  And increasingly, I think that's the way he sees himself and where he sees himself ending up when The Musers pull the plug.  He was short-listed -- very short-listed -- for a Pulitzer for one of his News columns, and I'll bet he's thinking that journalism, not performance, is where he'll make his name for the ages when the Ticket run breathes its last.

(8)  All-Pro Foundation Repair is once again claiming it is mathematically impossible for its piers to fail.  This gives me the opportunity to say once again how this concept terrifies me and to link to a post that is one of my personal favorites:  All-Pro and the End of the Universe

(9)  Can Applebee's possibly think that its bar menu has, or will ever, inspire rounds of friendly betting on bar-menu-related games, or that it can persuade consumers of it?

(10) I don't want to get to heavily into the Cowboys cynical signing of Greg Hardy, but I will share this one thought:  Smacking women around is really, really bad.  And something we should all be worried about and condemning.  But if you were a Niffle owner, wouldn't you be a trifle more worried about the fact that the victim testified that Hardy threw her on a bed covered with 30 loaded guns, "assault weapons and shotguns"?  The judge made him produce those weapons, which included a Tavor SAR, L1A1 Sporter, POF P-415, ISSC MK-22, SSAR SBS, ISSC MK-22, Highlander, Century Arms Inc. AK 149, Mossberg 590, and Benelli M-4.  I would be less worried about having hired another Ray Rice than a future Aaron Hernandez. 

There's just something about those old Chevy pickups.

(11)  Anyone else get sad listening to those Dallas Stars ads talking only about Tyler Sagan "putting the league on notice," etc.?  Putting the league on notice of what?  That the Stars only have one notable player and remain pretty much beneath notice as a serious professional franchise?

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The Ticket. Mark Cuban. Big Deal. No, I Really Mean, Big Deal.

Mark Cuban buying Cumulus is not such an odd idea.  It might be a bargain for him.

Richie Whitt is teasing a scoop for next week stating that something's in the work that will re-shape the radio landscape we've known for three decades.

My only clue the Cuban is involved comes from the mysterious Confessor known as Gypo Nolan, who made reference to October 28, 1962 -- the day the Cuban Missile Crisis was resolved.

I have no other scoops or clues and certainly no inside information.

But think about this for a minute:

As of today, the market capitalization of Cumulus is $585 million.  (That's the value of all its stock at the current market price.) 

It is nowhere near beyond imagining that Cuban could put an investor group together to purchase (or tender for) those shares, albeit at some premium to that price.  Or maybe just the Dickeys' shares.

Yeah, that's a lot of money. 

But folks, that is approximately how much Nolan/Greenburg paid for the Rangers ($385M cash plus assumed debt of $205M = $590M), outbidding a group of which Mark Cuban became a significant part.  There's a lot of money sloshing around among Cuban and his friends, money that could be put to work rehabilitating a mismanaged property bought on the cheap.

Although Cumulus stock is down slightly today, suggesting no rumblings of a buyout amongst those in the know.

I will point out to you, however, that Cumulus has been shedding talent like crazy around the country, and the general feeling is that the Dickeys overpaid for Citadel and other acquisitions and are now in some distress.

So it's not crazy to speculate that Mark Cuban may purchase Cumulus.

Wrong, maybe, in keeping with this site's track record, but not crazy.

 

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Is Mark Cuban Doing Something Amazing with The Ticket Today?

Our mysterious insider Gypo Nolan has made an oblique reference to something akin -- or of equal significance -- to the resolution of the Cuban Missile Crisis occurring today.

At first I focused on "crisis."  But perhaps it's "Cuban."

That's all I know.

But I like to get out front on stuff, even if I'm wrong.

Random, and Very Quick, Hits

(1)  Mark Cuban owes The Ticket, and particularly Craig, an apology.  The Ticket guys were saying what everyone else was seeing, which was that Lamar Odom was a discontented bust.  Right around the time of a Guys' Night Out in Frisco, Cuban gave an interview talking about what "idiots" the Ticket guys were, and singled out Junior as the "biggest" idiot.  Well, Lamar Odom is a discontented bust and Mark Cuban should man up and admit it.

(2) There seems to be a lot more hockey talk these days on non-BaD radio.  Yeah, I know the station broadcasts the games, but other than BaD, until recently the station ignored the Stars to the extent possible.  Somehow The Hardline was coerced into interviewing new owner Tom Gaglardi.   The Musers this morning did a rapturous segment on last night's losing effort (shootout).   Maybe it's because the Stars have crept into the decidedly non-elite playoff-eligible club.  Anyway, it seems there is suddenly more enthusiasm for the sport among showgrams that haven't touched it in the past.

(3) Listen up:  I thought Gordon's Joe Odom (Lamar's pop), yesterday's 8:40 bit and today's 6:40 repeat, was absolutely hilarious.  Funniest thing I've heard on the station in awhile.  Amazing vocal transformation.   Didn't find it offensive or racist.  But I was thinking:  OK, this bit plainly calls on stereotypes of older, possibly unemployed black men.  The accent; the language; the topics (gambling, smokes, women).  Is this the sort of thing that people who accuse The Ticket of racism are referring to?  As I say, I thought it was a fair bit, but it was pretty ethnic stuff.

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