I Heard It on the Handoff

Danny Balis:  "We're [the Orphanage, with Dave Lane] going to do something today that the Hardline hasn't done in probably fifteen years."

Mike Sirois:  "Prepare?"

Loved it.

So we're not the only ones.

(Oh, yeah, the actual answer was:  Take calls.)

The Presentation -- Is Change in the Air?

This article is not about Mike's kidney stone, other than incidentally.

And, as I am inclined to do sometimes, I am going to jump to a conclusion based on extremely, extremely skimpy evidence.  Maybe not a "conclusion" -- maybe more of a  .  .  .  musing.

I got to hear a fair amount of The Hardline on Monday.  I was in my car and I quite literally sat up straighter in my seat as the Presentation progressed.

I heard two excellent, hard-core sports conversations between Mike and Corby, one right after the other.  One was about the NBA playoffs.  I think the other was Ranger-based, but my recollection is dimmer on that one.  The conversation was continuous, no dead spots where Danny had to jump in, interesting to listen to, and hard. 

I thought:  All right.  I haven't heard sports talk like this on The 'Line in months if not years.  Not jokey, apparently knowledgeable, straightforward.  As you know, I don't know a lot about sports, but it sounded genuine to me.  Could Corby and Mike have learned all the names and prospects and playoff permutations earlier in the day?  Could they have been reading off of a sportsy website?  I suppose.  It didn't have that feel to me, and I wouldn't have cared if it were.  

The one thing I noticed was that while Mike sounded "good" with respect to his cadence and content, his voice had that whispery, older-gentleman timbre that ausgang (I believe it was) and I began to notice popping up several months ago.  Must have had a rehearsal the night before, I thought.

I thought the entire show, all that I heard, was sharp and focused.  I thought to myself this is what Confessors have been asking for.  I did ask myself if I was just hearing what I wanted to hear, or sensationalizing what I perceived to be a better-planned show just so I'd have something to write about.  

It's possible -- but I don't think so.  I think there was a real effort there to beef up the content and dial back the chaos.  

Then, at the end of the show, we learn about Mike's battle with the dread kidney stone.  The guy must have been miserable.

Nevertheless, I thought Tuesday's show (of which I heard much less) was equally on track.

Do I think this means that The Hardline is moving back to a more thoughtful, targeted, prepped presentation?  Man, I have no idea.  I'm just saying I noticed it -- or thought I did -- on Monday and Tuesday.

While we're at it, let's keep a collective excellent thought for the Founder of the Feast, Mike Rhyner.  Hope he is back soon and energized for the tilt with Ben & Skin.

Which brings us to today's show with Corby, Danny, and Jake.  I thought it was excellent.  I have bored you all with my repeated insistence that when Corby is called upon to helm a show or take an active role on a different show, he really shines, shows that he's capable of leadership, planning, and a much more mature form of entertainment.

Unlike a commenter to the last thread, I thought Danny was equally good.  I confess (of course) to being a strong Danny partisan, including The Orphanage (which, ironically, begins with an image of a trainwreck).  He's one of the smartest guys on the channel, and I thought he was sharp and funny as usual today.  Several laugh out loud moments from them both.  

Jake had a gawdawful EQ going on his voice -- I understand he was broadcasting from the producer's perch, perhaps he left Danny's levels intact -- but his contributions were also appropriate and entertaining.  So I had zero problem with today's show and while I hope Mike gets back soon and broadcasts for another twenty, I will repeat what I've said in the past when we were puzzling over whether Mike was going to re-up last time around.  Assuming Danny wants to hang around and assuming they pay him what he's worth, Mike's departure would not require gigantic adjustments to PM drive.

But let me get back to my main point:  I do wonder if the prospect of new competition, other changes in the local industry, or the sense in the room  that The Hardline has kinda been loafing through its months of drivetime domination, has suggested to our Hard heroes a new seriousness of purpose.

Yah -- that's quite a thing to wonder based on two partial hearings of The Hardline.  You have plenary dispensation to say that I'm hearing things, those shows were just more of the same.  But yes, I did think I heard something, a little something between the lines, on Monday and Tuesday, and I liked it.

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Twitter:  @Plainsman1310

Email:  ThePlainsman1310@gmail.com

Todd Archer Reconsidered

I've posted and reposted a couple of articles criticizing The Ranch Report as dull and uninformative here and here.  I heard something today that changed my viewpoint.

Norm had The Musers' slot today and when Archer came on with TRR, he was sharp, engaged, full of opinions and information on The Cowboys.  Even kept me in the car at Kroger until he finished up.

What was the difference? 

The difference was that Norm was prepared and was himself interested in what Archer thought.  The Hardline, bless them, sleepwalks through these segments as thought they were sponsor-driven diversions from their own showgram, which they probably are.  Norm had questions ready to go, and they were specific and aimed at mining Archer's inside knowledge.  The result was an interesting interview and a showcasing of Todd Archer to good effect.

Lesson:  Segements, including segments with outsiders, and including repeating and scheduled segments, benefit greatly from -- this is probably going to get bleeped -- show prep.   Today's show suggested that my focus on Archer's indifferent performances was too narrow -- a little help from the hosts might bring his bit to life.

Hope everyone has had a Ticket and safe Labor Day.

A Tale of Two Showgrams

The past two days we heard the best and worst of The Hardline.

The showgram's coverage of the Ranger's bankruptcy announcement was amazing.  They had Chuck Greenberg on within hours -- great work by someone there, a producer, station management.  Possibly Greenberg's public relations people.  Doesn't matter.  And although I missed some of the broadcast, I thought I caught a bankruptcy expert on a little bit later on the same show (it might have been the end of Greenberg's interview, but it sounded like whoever it was was talking technicalities).  Great job, the interviews were good.  The Ticket and The Hardline at their best.

Then  .  .  .  yesterday.  You can't even call this a failed bit.  You could sense the train wreck coming from the second that Mike tried to introduce it.  They were going to be interviewing a bankruptcy lawyer, but Mike couldn't seem to read his name, and in any event he couldn't pronounce it.  Pronounced it several different ways -- Defoe, Dafore, Dayfoe.  Danny didn't know, either.  The next time Mike teased it, he got the guy's first name wrong and had to come back and correct it a little later.  Show prep, hmm.

Let's stop here for a minute.  Even before the interview, I'm thinking:  OK, what's happening here?  This isn't one of those lawyer "friends of The Ticket" who come on from time to time to offer informed commentary on specialized issues.  This is someone new.  Now, Ticket guys and Ticket management know lawyers.  In the first place, you can't avoid the damned things, and in she second place, The Ticket is a multimillion dollar business even apart from Cumulus, and those businesses usually have very capable lawyers clustered around them, although one would not expect The Ticket to be needing any insolvency counsel.  Mike and Corby probably had legal counsel the last time they signed Ticket contracts.  Is this a guy that someone at The Ticket invited to come on the showgram?  Was he recommended by one of Cumulus's corporate lawyers?  If so, you would think that the show prep would have included somebody knowing the guy's name and how to pronounce it.  And -- more importantly -- might have done a very brief pre-interview to see if the guy was ready for drive time.

But I had another thought, which may excuse The Hardline.  This lawyer might have been a gigantic P1 who called a producer or someone and begged to come on the show, claiming bankruptcy expertise.  (A professional can't buy any better advertising in this radio market.)   And The Hardline, being a generous and soft-hearted and definitely a P1-friendly bunch, said sure, we'd like to learn more about this bankruptcy caper.  Good idea.  So they wrote the guy's name down, and no one was quite sure how to pronounce it, and they slotted him in for a segment.  Had no idea what they were getting.  Poor Mike, underinformed, struggles through the teases.

Then the guy comes on, and he is an utter buster.  He sounded nervous.  His voice was radio-adverse.  He was unspeakably dull and slow (although knowledgeable enough).  Mike conducted the interview, and soon sounded like he would have preferred to be surrounded by a pack of consultants wearing Cubs paraphernalia.  I tried to imagine he and Corby and Danny and Grubes looking at each other, rolling their eyes, grabbing their throats, searching desperately for a way out of this segment which was in the process of single-handedly raising the drive-time ratings for 103.3 KESN by five points.  The guy droned on.  Mike manfully attempted to maintain interest.

Finally -- a new voice.  Corby.  He spoke very slowly, in an unaccustomedly low register, his voice dripping with contempt and disgust.  Well, sir, he said, this is a very technical area -- or words to that effect -- and then:  "but you've made it fun for us."   

At that point I pictured Danny and Grubes unable to contain their mirth, blowing bits of their earlier Taco Bueno repast out their noses and severing their optic nerves.  A perfect ending to a Three-Mile Island segment -- Corby going from delightfully abrasive, falling all the way through annoying asshole, and skidding to a stop at ungracious prick.  A very funny prick, but a prick nonetheless, and I'm a big Corby fan and defender.  An amazing performance:  this esteemed BK counselor had managed to focus a spotlight on everything that Confessors criticize about The Hardline and to undo their really superb work of the day before.

No one was saved.

The Musers could retire the E-Brake award on that segment.

God, I'd love to know the inside baseball on that one.