In the Beginning . . .

.  .  .  there was Bob and Dan, and they named their show BaD Radio, standing for those selfsame Bob and Dan.  And God listened to the showgram, and he heard that it was good.  Mostly good.


And lo, the days were accomplished when Greggo came to depart from the Line of Hard and joined with Richie the Observer, and lifted BaD's naming bit wholesale to create RaGE, the Richie and Greggo Extravaganza.


And it came to pass that Scot Harrison and Jean-Jacques Taylor brought forth The Soul Patch on Sunday mornings, not because of any association of Soul with Sunday the Day of Our Lord, but because it described a facial feature possessed by both men, and also described a racially-prescribed cultural feature possessed by one of them, and was defined, according to Wikipedia, as follows:


"The soul patch (also known as a mouche) is a small patch of facial hair just below the lower lip and above the chin. It came to prominence in the 1950s and 1960s, when it was a style of facial hair common among African American men, most notably jazzmen. It became popular with beatniks, artists, and those who frequented the jazz scene and moved in literary and artistic circles. Jazz trumpeters in particular preferred the soul patch for the comfort it provided when using a trumpet mouthpiece."


But the prodigal JJT left the Patch of Eden, never to return, and was never heard from again, ever, in any medium, in any capacity whatsoever.


The Overlords who lived in the Clouds saw that it was not good for Scot Harrison to be alone.  So while he was sleeping, they removed a piece of him we are not allowed to name on this blog and crated Matt McClearin to join together with Scot and be his companion and helpmate.


And the Cloud-living Overlords named the resulting program "The Soul Patch," although Matt McClearin did not possess that certain facial feature or racial characteristic that would render the name in the slightest way sensible.


And the Confessor Nation commenced with a vast wailing and gnashing of teeth over the continued use of "The Soul Patch" to describe the Scot Harrison and Matt McClearin program.


And behold, after a process heretofore mysterious, someone had the idea to parody RaGE's ripoff of BaD, and renamed the Sunday show "Sunday MaSS" -- Matt and Scot Spectacular. 


All right, way too much Plainsmanian BS.  Here is Scot's account of the name change, offered as a comment to the last post, reposted here with his permission:

"We approached management about a name change right after the new year. The Soul Patch was so named for the obvious reason that both JJT and I have them. When he left it was generally agreed that in the interest of branding it would be better to leave the name the same. (despite the fact the Matt couldn't grow a soul patch if a gun was put to his head).

"We came up with the name after dozens of ideas were developed, reworked, and rejected. We asked for ideas from people we respected but eventually The Matt and Scot Spectacular or Sunday MaSS, separated itself from the rest - "testing" best among those who were consulted both inside and outside the Ticket studios as well as inside and outside of the radio business. 


"We accept the fact that many of you will hate it or at least dislike it strongly (as it was with The Soul Patch moniker), many will approve (so far the trend on twitter), and some who just want to have their weekend Ticket fix won't be bothered either way. We're just pleased that you guys care enough to discuss our goofy little Sunday morning show and that you would take the time to complain/compliment.


"So, triple fake Scot Harrison says pour one out for the Soul Peettcchh!! (off mic tribute:) Stay Hard Soul Patch!"




My thanks to Scot for permitting the reposting of his remarks, and for putting the process out there for comment.  Personally, I think it's a perfectly fine and clever name and should not be offensive to Roman Catholics, any more than broadcasting a sports show during normal churchgoing hours is in the first instance.  While the name gets mixed reviews, the Nation seems to be reacting pretty favorably to the show, as do I.  Some good stuff there.

*     *    *

They did not take my suggestion, which was this:  Have Matt drop the second "t" from his name, so we'd have hosts named Scot and Mat and call it the "Low-T Center," which would both describe the show and attract the growing number of sponsors appealing to the low-testerone crowd.

Thanks again to Scot H.

*     *     *

Follow Your Plainsman on Twitter:  @Plainsman1310

Email Your Plainsman:  ThePlainsman1310@gmail.com

DryDock Quick Hits

Been out of town and doing the Christmas thing with the fam, just barely keeping up with comments.

And then I tune in to my own site and find absolute gold in the last batch of comments.  I was going to cobble together some drydock quick hits but I find that Anonymous and Shaggy have beaten me to the punch, reporting more thoroughly and authoritatively than I could.  I hope I have their permission to repost their comments for further inspection by the Nation.

My reactions will appear in a comment.

First, here's Anonymous, Parts 1 and 2:

STD ALERT!!!

Thoughts concerning Dry Dock:

Gordie and the Deuce: Funny and uncomfortable as all get out. Doocy laid out the blueprint on how to effectively combat Gordo's guerrilla warfare. Good chemistry, even better times.

Rhads and Followheezy: Solid. Rhads has become a better radio broadcaster. He doesn't yell into the mic nearly as much as he once did. Nor does he try too hard to Ticket schtick it up, again, like he once did. Followill was his usual bad a self. Sure, he's going to give us a glass is (more than) half full view of the Mavs, but I think we can all understand why. His Cowboy talk has been chock full of HSOs, and that's a good.

Black and Quack: I agree with Plainsman where Dick Hicks is concerned. He's a consummate pro. Yes he can grate from time to time, but overall his HSOs are on point and fearless. Donnie Doo, I cannot say the same. The man is overexposed. There's been WAAAAY (to use one of his annoying traits) too much airtime for our man Donnie Doo. Between BaD, Cowboys post, fill in for the morning drive, and B&Q...it's much too much. I like Donnie, but he's a one trick pony. While it's evident that he's been working really hard on his football knowledge (especially draft history, personnel from other teams, etc.), he just doesn't add anything meaningful to the conversation on a regular basis. He finds an obvious or emotion based point and keeps ramming it home, over and again. And even when he has a really good point, again, he won't relent, he won't move on; he applies it to everything, or he keeps returning to it. The CTOs need to curb his on air time. He doesn't need to be involved with so many shows. No one else up there is, why him? I can appreciate his work ethic and industry, but like Nell Carter used to sing: "Gimme a break, I sure deserve it."

Soul Patch: Why they were tapped to do morning drive is beyond me. Poor decision. It's not a bad show, but it's not strong enough to fill those shoes. Heck, they had basically run out of content by the end of their allotted time. Scott H has a pleasant voice and fairly good sports chops. For the life of me, I'll never understand why the show is named after a spot of (passe) facial hair. I don't understand a mid-late 40-something with multiple piercings, but hey, whatever floats your boat. Like I said, he (and the show) ain't bad. Matt McClearin is an entirely different animal altogether. Wow! I mean, from the prom, the teenage bride, the UFOs, the notion of sex, love, conception, and being well-adjusted, the wearing a kilt, mooning your family, and not realizing the when you don't wear underwear your junk will be showing as well, and finally, the Christmas fisticuffs with his brother over him sticking an olive in his bro's ear while trying to squeeze the juice out of it (hello Freud!)... while his mother is crying. Again, Wow! An odd duck for sure, and I'll leave it at that. (I'm sure he's a nice guy, but nice guys can be weird, too.)

CDS: When the Bros Sirois talk sports, I listen. I think they are the true up and comers around The Little One. What I dislike is their infatuation with their own sense of humor. When they go into schtick, especially extended schtick, it's overkill. Because they're brothers, they both sound similar. Furthermore they both speak very rapidly (something they need to temper). And when you have two people who sounds a lot alike, speak rapidly, and constantly finish each others thoughts/talk over each other, radio chaos ensues. They need to work on this. It's when they get too "cute" for too long that this most usually occurs. I wish they 'd be more sports oriented. I think that by doing so, they're star would rise faster. Don't get me wrong, they can be funny. But, like their rapid speaking, temper it; find the golden mean. Oh, and I know that Mike works for Norm, so I see where it comes from, but they are guilty of "Over Norm." You don't need to do your own Norm drops or imitations at every turn. While they can be funny when well placed, they get stale when repeated time and again. Besides, no one can hold a candle to Gordon in that regard.

Can't wait for p.m. drivetime BaD. A foretaste of the future perhaps???

Well put, Anonymous. 
Here is Shaggy's offering:

The Soul Patch really has got nothing. As generic as it gets. Today was my first time listening to them for a moderate length of time, and it wasn't good. They are exactly what other stations across the country come up with by trying to copy The Ticket's sports talk/guy talk formula. And it's nearly always bad.

Agree about Cirque. I also think they have something, but they are way too schtick-y. They are an almost exact carbon copy of Ben & Skin when they were on The Ticket. They would constantly be laughing at their own and each others' jokes, but they werent all that funny. I think B&S have grown a lot, but they do still suffer from thinking they're a lot cooler and funnier than they really are.

Gentlemen Confessors, you have my thanks.  I'll get the comments underway

*     *     *

Follow Your Plainsman on Twitter:  @Plainsman1310

We Interrupt This Nosy and Apparently Endless Series on Mike's Employment . . .

.  .  .  for a nosy article on someone else's employment.

Namely, Casey Millen's.

At this point, Confessors are probably aware that Casey made some highly personal and highly critical remarks about Matt McClearin on the Tee Box that apparently took Craig Rosengarden by surprise, although having given Casey the rudder his options may have been somewhat limited.  You can hear it here: (LINK).

While we're on the subject of the UnTicket, I am reposting a comment left by AP which for some reason failed to appear in the comment section to the Open Thread on "Tell a Friend about The Ticket Month."  If you are interested in this topic, there are some good comments on it back there, two articles back.  Here's AP:

I reposted it at The Unticket for two reasons:

1) I wanted to know if I'm just being a prude, or if what I heard was really that bad. The answer appears to be a bit of the former and a lot of the latter.

2) McClearin deserves to hear what was said about him.

I'm not fan of McClearin's radio work for various reasons, but he certainly does not deserve a shot like that. I'm actually a bit disappointed that Craig didn't dump the comment. He was however on remote and may not have been familiar with McClearin or his situation (Matt is 30+, this is his second marriage, and he married his current wife 2-3 years ago when she was 18).

Weekends at the ticket basically serve as the farm system for cultivating new talent. For producer/board ops, there's Kevin Turner, Mike Marshall, Dave Wilson, and even Jason Killer Kellison on occasion. Ticker men in regular weekend rotation include Michael Krenek and Casey Millen. It's competitive environment in which one must bring their own twist to get noticed. If you've listened to the 'It's Just Banter' episode with Mike Sirois, you'll hear him talk about having to "up his ****" to get noticed - and his MadLib tickers went over well enough with other hosts and management that he was a "shoo-in" for Bacsik's seat.

The weekend ticker guys also try to bring their own twist to their work - both insert subtle jokes during their one-minute slots, and both also take opportunities to pop on air whenever possible. Millen's work is decidedly more shock-jock than Krenek's as of late though.

Krenek has recently gained acceptance with weekday hosts, garnering notice and 'praise' from Bob, Dan, Grubes and Tom during his fill-in work with BaD Radio last week. Millen is a reluctant favorite of the Teebox's, and the weekend edition of the SoulPatch uses him in limited on-air doses. I don't believe Millen has ever had a fill-in opportunity during the weekday.

Millen filled in as a host for a Teebox show a few months ago, and his work had a similar level of abrasion to the McClearin comment - borderline shocking, and not terribly funny 'jokes' delivered in rapid-fire succession (at least for my taste, and I'm pretty crass). Read into this what you will, but Mike Sirois was tapped to fill in the next time the Teebox was a host short, and Newbury + Jake also did a fill-in when both hosts couldn't make it. I haven't heard yesterday's Teebox offerings, but I'm told by a purported Millen fan that he was more muted this time around.

"Pretty sure I'm being fired next week" has been his twitter tagline for several months now.

Regarding McClearin, I'm fairly certain that his co-host regularly surfs this blog and was aware of what was said before the audio was reposted. While coming out of a break during Tuesday's SoulPatch, Matt introduced himself as "the intelligent one" ... Scot quickly replied with "and I'm the enthusiastic one." (Scot'll work in a subtle reference or two on you based on things he's read here).

One last note - some of the posts complimentary of Millen's work here and on the unticket seem to be written by Millen himself. The Plainsman is very gracious about letting the anonymii remain anonymous, so I can't make the claim with 100% certainty, at least not for this site.

Thanks, AP. 

My quick and not-deeply-considered takes:

(1) Casey has some on-air gifts, but he's the most nakedly ambitious of the Ticket JV.  Maybe not the most ambitious, but he is least successful in hiding it.  It's why I occasionally refer to him as The Perpetually Up-and-Coming Casey Millen.

(2) When he's playing it straight, he can be good when given some air time.  He's glib, he's intelligent, and he tries to find interesting things to say.  Too bad about that catastrophic-lack-of-judgment thing.

(3)  I have no information on whether or not he's been fired.  If he was on the Tee Box Saturday, sounds like he survived.  I don't like to see guys fired for one horrible moment, although there are some levels of horribleness beyond which one cannot survive.  This one is bordeline, but on balance I think I'd try to handle this internally if I were Cumulus HR.

(4)  Casey has posted here under his own name a couple of times, not offensively.  Always happy to hear from Ticket guys.

(5)  I have suspected Casey of posting anonymously on his own behalf, and I actually caught his significant other doing so with a suspiciously laudatory post about the lad.  I outed her somewhere along the line in these pages, but wouldn't be able to find it now.

(6)  I am in agreement with some of the commenters to the last Open Thread who offered thoughts on what the JV will do to try to get noticed.  Some are more skillful at insinuating themselves onto the air than others.  Casey tends to come across as very aggressive and  brassy, as though he can hardly wait for an opening or an invite, and when it comes he practically bursts with schtick.  It's not that the content is bad, it just has calculated written all over it.  I bend over backwards to try to be fair to the junior guys, who have a tough row to hoe for not a lot of financial reward, and Casey is not an untalented guy.  Just too obviously eager.  If he survives this, I wouldn't be against giving him another fill-in shot somewhere.

(7)  Having said this, the McClearin thing was pretty awful.  Nothing to add to what has already been said about that.

(8)  However  .  .  .  why?  Why would a political guy like Casey have been moved to issue such self-damaging observations?  Let's think about this for a couple of minutes.

Matt has posted very kindly here on occasion, which the Nation appreciates.  He seems to have supporters (generally, I'm one) and those who are less enthusiastic (AP).  I have to say, however, that I have always found him a little  .  .  .  discomfiting.  Just a little  .  .  .  curious somehow.  I don't want to overstate this, because, as I say, on the whole I think he's working out well on The Soul Patch.

The whole young-wife thing, when it got big play on the station when he went to her prom (I believe they were afianced at the time) and when they were married, struck me as really kind of  .  .  .  man, I can't even think of the word for it.  Kind of an eewwww moment.  I really want to keep out of the personal lives of the Ticket guys (Norm's recent marriage a happy exception), but this was all over The Ticket, so fair game.   Yeah, yeah, we guys all yuk it up about getting younger at that position, but I really had to wonder about all that teasing.  I asked myself why he let this happen; I asked myself what the future Mrs. McClearin thought about all of it.   I don't want to be uncharitable -- maybe he felt that this is what his bosses wanted to do, so he had to go along with it; maybe he thought any pub is good pub.  And it wasn't in unusually bad taste by The Ticket's notably flaccid standards, just more or less male joshing.  But it made me wonder about him a little.

Then there was the close encounter with the aliens.  I'll pass on commenting on this except to say that it was certainly consistent with the archetypes of these types of account.   Another emotionally-charged, unusual personal experience by a not-yet-prominent guy on the station that got a lot of airtime.  Hmmm.

Next:  On-air friction with David Newbury, with Newbury seeming to get the worst of the reaction to it.  Numerous Confessors noticed it and commented on it in these pages.  Result:  McClearin up, Newbury down, perhaps a little unfairly in the latter case.  (FWIW at this point, I thought Matt was a little manic on those weekend shows with Newbury.  He's calmed down on Soul Patch and it's better work.)

And now, Casey Millen rather angry with him.

Where am I going with this?  Nowhere in particular, except to say that Matt seems to have a talent for getting noticed, which is not necessarily a bad thing.  He's skillful at it -- taking all of the foregoing into account, has anyone out there formed a strongly negative impression about him, based solely on what you hear on the channel?  (And not about what you might know about him off-hours?)

Can't speak for The Nation -- I have not.  But some of his colleagues apparently have.   I don't keep track of seniority among the JV, but my working theory here is Matt has leapfrogged some of the JV, and it has caused some resentment. 

Rambling, sorry.  But we don't get the curtain pulled aside at The Ticket very often, and when it happens, Your Source for Responsible Ticket Journalism has to get something up fast.   There's some sizzlin' inside baseball going on here, and I'm hopeful some Ticket Inside Baseball Jeebus can fill us in.

In the meantime -- Casey and Matt, you guys take care.

*   *   *

Follow Your Plainsman on Twitter:  @Plainsman1310

OPEN THREAD: World Series Wrap-Up

I tried to listen to as much Ticket as I could Friday and this weekend, didn't catch as much as I would have liked.  A little Diamond Talk, a little Orphanage, a little Soul Patch.  I'm liking the Soul Patch, Matt McClearin is growing more comfortable by the week.  I'm also finding that I like listening to Danny Balis talk sports on those too-rare occasions when he turns his attention that way.  I didn't listen to much Diamond Talk this year -- bedtime -- but I may have to make that effort next season.  Good stuff, and I didn't notice some of the Newberry mannerisms that have gotten some adverse commentary here. 

In general, I thought the coverage was about where I hoped it would come out -- informed, calm, non-accusatory, balanced, big-picture.  Put responsibility about where it probably belonged (mostly pitching) without going ballistic. 

I especially liked the commentary from the likes of Mike R that we had focused on the Rangers' "story" to the near-total exclusion of the Cardinals' "story," and that had been our mistake.

So I gots nothing too profound here.  Feel free to offer sportsy baseball commentary as well as Ticket commentary, and if you have a thought on the TV coverage, that would also be welcome.  Here's a very mild one:  I've never thought much of Tim McCarver, going back a long time.  His observations have always seemed generic and obvious to me, but I guess we could have worse color guys.  Contrary to some of the Ticket hosts, I thought A.J. Pierzynski gave the Fox presentation a needed jolt.  Yeah, he looks kind of spiky, and I hear he has been voted putz-of-the-year or something by MLB players, but I thought his observations were fresh.

We haven't heard any of The Ticket's regular programming apres-Series as of this posting, so please return and post your thoughts on what our weekday warriors have had to say as the broadcast week gets underway. 

Me, I'm getting ready for The Ticket's "unofficial" Cowboys pre-game show.  (They've started to call it that on promos -- I wonder if The Fan complained to someone about that.)

*     *     *

[PS:  There seems to be some controversy over whether Danny B has received some kind of formal appointment as "weekend program director."  Anon D says no, it's a bit; a couple of other commenters seem fairly certain that it has happened.  Can anyone shed any light on this?]

Hits way way up the last few weeks.  My gratitude to the Nation.  The party's only getting started.

As always, don't worry about jacking the thread.  If you've got something else on your mind, let us hear from you.  You can also email me at ThePlainsman1310@gmail.com.  I am not case-sensitive.

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Follow Your Plainsman on Twitter:  @Plainsman1310

Big Weekend?

Contrary to speculation, it appears that Matt McClearin is going to continue to co-host with Scot Harrison on The Soul Patch for a third week.  At least, I think I heard that correctly -- the spot kinda crept up on me.  Please correct me if I'm wrong.

I believe I also heard Harrison say there was going to be a major SP announcement during the course of the showgram.

And we have sometime crypto-insider Gypo Nolan commenting in an earlier post that htere are going to be, as he put it, a "BIIIGG weekend shakeup" in the offing.

Yah, I know we've got the always-critical third Cowboy pre-season game, and the Angels in town, blah blah blah, but this is important. 

My pants are uncomfortable!!

Scrubs/Patch -- The Voyage Continues

Soul Patch sounds great to me today.  They've dropped the self-consciousness and reduced the on-air contributions from the production guys (except for segments devoted to them, like the very good "Bull Durham" segment).  I'm better able to distinguish between Scot and Matt.  A strong effort today

[NOTE:  LOVE, LOVE, LOVE THE PRODUCTION GUYS, KRENEK AND ALL THE REST, WITHOUT EXCEPTION.  ALL GREAT, ALL CAN HOLD OWN ON MIC.  HOWEVER, HARRISON WAS JUST INVOLVING THEM TOO MUCH LAST WEEK WHEN THE NEW TEAM NEEDED TO BE FINDING ITS OWN VOICE.  DON'T ANYONE BE GETTING YOUR FEELINGS HURT, NOW.]

I did not hear Scrubs last week or this, sorry.  Newbury is getting savaged by The Nation.  I have liked him in the past but must confess (of course) I haven't been by the channel for that show or Diamond Talk in awihle.   From recent comments:

I think I might know why the McClearin and Newbury pair were split up. Because Newbury is absolutely insufferably argumentative. My God, he won't let his partner get a word in edgewise. He's talking over him, interrupting him, telling him that he already knows his points before he finishes them and so dismisses them. It's amazing. And it's also annoying. Maybe Cat thought if he separated McClearin and Newbury things wouldn't be so contentious. If so, he was wrong. It's all on Newbury. He is a man who does not like to be disagreed with. Very uncomfortable radio, for sure.   -- Anonymous

It seems pretty clear to this listener that if Newbury does not respect his co-host, he's dismissive, smug, and a bit of an a-hole. Contrast his work with Sean or Ty where he has to defer to a guy with skins on the wall. Worse yet, when Newbury is working with someone he doesn't respect he tries to drive the bus. And that is a disaster. He's very knowledgable but he's a second banana (potentially a ver good one). But this is not a guy that gets you in and out of segments smoothly or generally can get thru a sentence without a few stumbles."  -- Another Anonymous

Newbury is definitely knowledgeable and has some insights that no one else on the station can offer. Well, since Bacsik's demise anyways. His opinions are generally good. But I do agree with the last two anons. He needs a talking to by the Ticket higher ups. -- Fozzie Bear

 Fozzie Bear sums up the consensus:  Newbury is a very solid sports guy, but lacks some broadcast/locution skills and, for lack of a better word, diplomacy.

Anyway, I'm really glad that The Nation is paying some heed to what The Little One is doing on weekends.  Some good stuff, some drama, and some exposure for the JV.

*     *     *

Follow Your Plainsman on Twitter:  @Plainsman1310

OPEN THREAD: Weekend Wife Swap

How did the Newbury/Anderson and Harrison/McClearin pairings sound to you?

I missed the former and am now listening to the latter.  It sounds to me like I thought it would -- the guys sound quite a bit alike, and the sonic brew is further confused by Casey Millen's contributions (invited by Harrison), who sounds quite a bit like Matt. 

But the content is good, if a little forced.  Harrison is very self-conscious about the wife-swap experiment -- he has several times referred to The Soul Patch overall as "mediocre," and is reviewing the program as it goes along.  I think I might have just played it cool and gone ahead and done the show without all the self-consciousness.

Having said that, I'd be willing to listen to a few more episodes of this combintation, see what develops.

The Scrubs and Patch have generated a surprising amount of interest among Confessors lately.  Have at it, Nation.

Has the Byron Anderson Experiment Come to an End?

Matt McClearin working with Scot Harrison on The Soul Patch this weekend.

AP's Excellent Adventure with JJT

We are all indebted to The (Incomparable) UnTicket, and this site is particularly indebted to one of its mainstays, the no-less-incomparable-for-being-a-natural-person AP.  He is a Confessor of long standing and frequent commenter, providing great information and opinion with a nice light touch.

Best, he has given this site permission to pass along his informative and entertaining account of the conclusion of Jean-Jacques Taylor's affiliation with The Ticket, as well as his own interaction with the redoubtable JJT and some JJT fans.  He also offers some tasteful commentary on the whole megillah.

My gratutide to AP for this contribution to My Ticket Confession.  It follows:

=====

Here's my understanding of events.  Sometime a few months ago (Christmas?), as part of the DMN [Dallas Morning News] partnership with the ticket, JJT became an on-air presence.  I think it started as a fill-in gig with a regular ticket host (Donny? Rich? I can't remember) that only lasted a few shows.

That then turned into a regular weekend gig with one Scot Harrison, who seems to be an acquaintance of the morning Musers.  I caught the first few shows, but thought it was rather light on comedic content so I only tuned in for the CDS [Cirque du Sirois] mix.  I believe it was around this time that you wrote an article about not being able to hear his voice clearly, Plainsman.

Another drydock opportunity presented itself when Norm went fishing, and I recall that Cirque du Sirois was originally announced as the fill-in show.  Being a CDS footsoldier, I was looking forward to it...but at the last minute, the Soul Patch was inserted.  I remember being quite upset with the programming decision, and I also remember wondering if JJT had "pulled rank" and asked for his show to fill in over CDS.  I think my rationale was that (A) Norm had mentioned CDS was going to fill in before he’d left on vacation, and a few promos may have run indicating this and (B) I tweeted Cash & Mike asking what had happened and I think they suggested I ping Cat [Ticket Program Director Jeff Catlin], which I did.  Around this time, I started wondering if JJT may have been angling for a career in radio.  [NOTE TO AP:  DID YOU EVER HEAR FROM CAT?]

JJT and Scot’s show (which was eventually named The Soul Patch) became a fixture in Elf’s old slot, and I started following JJT on Twitter as he’d now become part of the Ticket family.   I also started listening to their show on a more regular basis.  I noticed that JJT seemed to be using his Twitter account to promote his show by re-tweeting positive comments (and the occasional negative one as well).  I also noticed that JJT was a bit touchy over Twitter as well, as he’d call out his critics by writing things like “If you have less than 20 followers and 100 tweets, I’m not trying to hear what you’re saying” and then following up with “If you think I’m talking about you, then I am, if you don’t, then I’m not” (heavily, heavily paraphrased).

Another drydock took place a month ago, giving the Soul Patch another chance to fill in for Norm’s show for a week.  JJT went into Twitter overdrive, retweeting what seemed to be every show-related comment he would receive.  This is when I became convinced that JJT was trying to prove to someone that he was capable of attracting and growing an audience.  Some of his tweets were sports-related, and a few offered the level of insight he’d provide in his columns or on Norm’s show, but overall, I found the signal-to-noise ratio to be very low.  It’s tough to deliver content, context and/or comedy in 140 characters, but a few sports reporters do tend to pull it off.

On July 4th, the Hardline was doing what had to be the drunkest show they’ve ever done.  Corby had been working on his Scot Harrison imitation over the last few days, and he was mimicking a Soul Patch promo.  After Corby was done, he said something to the effect of “By the way, has he left yet?  Has that been announced? Are we allowed to talk about that yet?  He’s not? Oh.”  Two weeks later, JJT moves over to Sports Walmart (thanks Mike Marshall).

For kicks, I tweeted aloud the following a week after JJT had left:

Now that @JacquesTaylor has left the KTCK family for the dark side, I'm not sure why I (as a P1) should continue following him. Comments?

One of the first few responses came from Jacques himself:
why don't do u do what u want to do instead of asking for advice#toughdecisions

A few P1’s took up the KTCK pitchfork and said they’d never listen to him because of his ESPN affiliations.  A few more seemed to take issue to my comment, notably:

TacoRobber  @ap_cdn @JacquesTaylor if a radio call sign is all it takes to stand between u and the best/rawest coverage in metroplex then I say unfollow
DocBrownsToilet:  @JacquesTaylor I enjoy the attitude you have toward those who would lob twitter grenades at ESPN. Such serious business.

(Note that I don’t have any issue with either of those people, and I tried my best to follow up with them, including JJT...I try not to be a standoffish tweeter!)

I still follow JJT (much like I follow Bryan Broaddus, Todd Archer, Mickey Spagnola and other non-ticket affiliates) for their Cowboy observations.  I still wish that JJT’s twitter signal-to-noise ratio would improve, though.

Norm eventually touched on the subject on air a week after JJT had left.  Apparently, Jacques had taken a month-long vacation from the DMN before he quit to go to ESPN.  His last drydock appearance on the Ticket took place during this time, well after drive-time hosts knew about his imminent departure.
This follows the trend of guys like Calvin Watkins, Tim McMahon and Todd Archer of veteran DFW sports reporters jumping off of sinking print-media ships to go to ESPN. 

The Soul Patch carries on with Scot Harrison and Byron Anderson, and a few loyal Soul Patch P1’s still listen as regularly as they did with JJT.  Goose Gosselin now takes JJT’s place as the opinion writer for the DMN.  I don’t know if Jacques will take an on-air role with ESPN; I haven’t seen anything to that effect yet.  He still seems to listen to the Soul Patch and from what I see on twitter, still maintains amicable relationships with Roy White (producer) and his former co-host Scot.

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Again, my thanks to AP.  

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What's the Inside on JJT?

Active Twitterati probably already know the answer to this, but I'd be grateful for some poop:

So here I am driving to work this morning (yeah, Sunday) and I hear the intro montage for The Soul Patch.  And as I'm listening, I keep hearing these rerefernces to "Anderson" along with the "Scot Harrison" references.

And sure enough, The Patch now features Harrison and one Byron Anderson.

What happened to Jean-Jacques Taylor?  I was really starting to admire not only this show, but JJT's work on The Ticket generally, sitting in with Norm, fililng in elsewhere, his call-in commentary.  It was on my short list of topics to write about.  Check that one off until I hear more of The (New) Soul Patch.

By the way, JJT's Tweeting like mad this morning while Harrison and Anderson are holding forth.

I always thought that a guy like JJT would be a great anchor personality forThe First Black Ticket.  I wrote about it here:  "WHO WILL CREATE THE FIRST BLACK TICKET", which had one of the more interesting sets of comments we've had.

Anyone have the scoop on Taylor and The Ticket?  Is he just no longer a programming regular, or has there been some JJT breach with The Little One (or has he signed elsewhere)?

Thanks in advance to The Nation for any info.  Sorry I'm behind the curve on this.  I wish I had the time to be a Newberg Report-type independent Ticket news clearinghouse, but alas, I have to depend on the kindness of strangers.  And looks like Twitter has a lot of that territory covered these days.

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OPEN THREAD: Ticket Coverage of the Rangers Tragedy

It's an open thread because on the day after I had very little time to listen to the radio.  What I heard seemed  pretty good.  There wasn't a lot to report on, but these guys managed to fill up an entire broadcasting day (I'm guessing -- every time I caught a few minutes that was the toipc) with reasonably coherent and interesting talk about this awful incident.

A special tip of the hat to The Soul Patch.  I'll be writing more about that show later, but I think it's got something.  Both Taylor and Harrison seemed to be trying to find some new angles and keep the discussion fresh without being disrespectful.

No such thing as off-topic.  Please comment on anything that's attracted your interest lately.

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