OPEN THREAD: The Little One's Mavs Parade and Celebration Coverage

I didn't get to hear much of it --

a little Musers/Gordo;

about two minutes of Norm who seemed to be in some distress, actually conceding that he needed a break;

about two minutes of BaD featuring some very astute commentary from Dan;

and a little bit of The Hardline which for some reason I don't remember.  Must have been working or something.

So I'd be grateful for reviews of all the shows, what you liked/disliked; how you reacted to the hosts' reactions to this amazing, historical, dramatic championship; technical aspects of the coverage; the hosts' substantive sportsy commentary.

Heck, I'll even take Mavs talk.

OPEN THREAD: Draft Coverage

Wow, that is one dull topic.  But maybe we can have a spot of fun with it.

My employer has thoughtlessly demanded that I work from rising in the morning until turning in at night, so I've been unavoidably detained.  I know I owe you a PART 2 to that PART 1 of a few days ago.  I'll get to it.

So I'm giving you a cut-rate post and asking you to give the Nation your thoughts on The Ticket's draft coverage.

My cut-rate view:  It was excellent, as always.  I follow exactly one college football team, and if the players involved aren't from that team my interest is somewhat attenuated.  But during my normal listening hours, I listen to The Ticket's draft coverage as though it were a regular showgram.

I have two highlights, and one new element that I'd like to hear your views on.

The highlights, which I think most Confessors will agree with, are

(1) Bob Sturm's analysis.  I have no idea if he's right or wrong most of the time, but it sells me.  I especially enjoy it when he cocks his radio eye at a proposed pick, asking how that pick would fit into the selecting team's scheme.  Ooo, good point!

(2) Junior Miller's droll mini-summaries of the players selected.  Very funny.  More important, he's trying.  Rewarding the P1 for tuning in -- he cares enough about a quality presentation to give them something to anticipate.  I think it almost always works.

The DCC signal the drafting of kicker David Buehler
in the 5th round of the 2009 draft

OK, here's the wild card I'd like your views on:  Jean-Jacques Taylor's contribution.  I'll hold off on any major JJT STD.  I'll just say that (a) he's still damned hard to hear and understand if you have your radio -- expecially your car radio, which is fighting with tire and engine noise -- tuned to hear the normal radio voices at normal volume (which I've griped about on an earlier occasion), and (b) I make a special effort to make sure I do hear what he has to say.   For now I'll just say -- well, nothing.  I'd rather hear what you have to say.

Thanks for checking in during this quiet time.

Living La Vida Ticket -- PART 1

I’ve been kicking this one around for awhile.  It’s still not well formed so  it will meander somewhat more than is my custom, and that's some meandering.     I’ll leave you with a question which I hope will provoke some comments, and I’ll bounce off those comments for Part 2.

Most of the people who visit this site like The Ticket.   There is the occasional naysayer with a grudge of one kind or another, either against this site or a Ticket personality, or, on occasion, with The Little One itself.   Once in awhile, a commenter will take me or the Confessor Nation to task for taking it all too seriously, for, in effect, caring too much about what is, after all, just a sports/guy-talk radio station.

I blather on a lot about fairness in these articles, so let’s be fair to these critics:  Are they right?  What does it mean to be a P1?  Does it materially affect our lives?  Would we really miss it if it disappeared tomorrow?   Certainly the station encourages its listeners to listen every moment of every day.  Mike daily requires listeners to mill about the premises making sure that every radio is turned to The Ticket.

So I invite you to join me in an informal exploration of the impact of The Ticket on our daily lives; whether it is a positive or negative influence; and if your relationship with the station has changed over the years.

I believe that almost without exception – and perhaps without any exception – Ticket personalities deeply and sincerely appreciate the loyalty and enthusiasm of the P1.  They express it on the air.  Most pay some attention to email and Twitter exchanges.   The station spends an enormous amount of energy and cash staging free events that the P1 enjoys.  This site occasionally hears from station personnel, and on very rare occasions I’ll get a private email of comment, correction, or appreciation.

And yet, do you sometimes get the feeling that even they are overwhelmed with the obsession that some listeners exhibit?  Don’t you sometimes hear jeez, give it a rest in their voices?  I’m going to explore the relationship between the P1 and the hosts as human beings in an upcoming post, but the point I want to make here is that it’s not just grumpy commenters that exhibit occasional impatience with the intensity of some listeners’ enthusiasm for 1310 AM/104.1 FM.

The Ticket does play a big role in my life, and I would have said that even if I’ve never started this site.   It is the case that keeping this this site going has changed that role.   My need to come up with topics of interest to The Nation means I listen with greater care, scribble down things that strike me, and get by the channel during times when in my pre-MTC life I might have been spending my time in that most idyllic of states -- quiet burger reflection.

But for guys like me and AP and maybe a couple of others we hear from, following The Ticket has turned into a fairly time-consuming hobby.  This site started in 2009, and after a slow start where I was talking mainly to myself, I’ve averaged around 15-20 posts a month.   (I’ll never forget the Confessor who, after I’d been blog-silent for awhile and maybe would get a handful of hits a day, wrote to say how much he liked the site and how I should write more.  Got me going.)  I keep a list of potential topics.  Looked at it the other day.   Got about forty items on it right now.  A lot of them are stale; others look less interesting to me now than they did when I wrote them down.  Others are gigantic topics that would take me chunks of time I haven’t had the last few months.  (By the way – I do a general-interest blog that I neglect and that I have more than once thought of emphasizing at the expense of this one – to date, it’s decidedly the other way around.)    Others I realize I’ve done already.  For example, among my recent favorite moments on The Hardline are the Mike/Corby live spots for GumOut – but I did a piece on that last July [LINK]..     (But wait!   I just noticed something interesting in rereading that article.  Ooo, I’m going to save this one.  The only thing I can promise is that it will be another one of my Listening Too Hard entries.)  

A typical gathering of P1's

But let’s put aside my extra Ticket obligations, since they are atypical.  Here’s the extent of my devotion to The Ticket:   I begin listening right around 5:30 am, as Rich is finishing up his pre-Musers Ticker.  Mrs. Plainsman indulges my listening while we share the bathroom, as long as I turn on cable news before I leave.  I have a fairly long commute, and I get to my workplace almost two hours before the place starts hopping.   So I listen to The Musers from the beginning of the show until the 8:40 bit, which I’m going to hear the next morning anyway.  I’ll miss the last hour and change.   If I’m on the road during the day I listen to Norm and BaD, but unfortunately those opportunities are limited.  If I’m paying attention to the clock, I’ll flip on The Hardline sometime between 3:30 and 4, and listen as much as I can for the balance of the work day, on the drive home, and at home until I hear Mrs. Plainsman putting the oxen back in the shed.  I am fortunate to have an employer who lets me have a radio on in my work area. 

I should listen to the Top Ten to get some notion of what Norm and BaD are up to, but family duties, the other blog, and even writing these pieces invariably intrude.   I’ll strap on a radio and headset if I’m off for a jog or bike ride (although in general, I think it’s dangerous to listen to the radio whilst biking and I’ve pretty much quit that).   I listen as much as I can on weekends.  I don’t listen to podcasts; alas, I rarely even listen to clips on The (Incomparable) UnTicket unless it’s a big deal that a site like this should know about or something that AP has commended.  I don’t follow anyone on Twitter.   I only very rarely ever stream the station if I’m not in range of the sputtering terrestrial signal.

I’ve only been to a couple of remotes, and then only briefly to check in.  (Remotes are on my article-to-do list.)  Never been to a Ticket event.  Never called a show.  Never spoken to a Ticket employee other than once at a remote just to say a brief “thanks” before I left, which the host politely acknowledged.  Wait, I think I asked a Ticket Chick for a T-shirt once.  Don’t have any buddies or relatives who listen much at all. 

So there you have the extent of my average-guy devotion to The Ticket.  Four to six hours a day during the week, and probably two to four hours over the entire weekend.

That doesn’t strike me as a crazy Ticket-listening schedule.  I listen when I can and when the time is otherwise unchallenged by much of any other activity.    I’d like to know how you guys (and Jonaessa, and Christie, and all distaff Confessors) listen to The Ticket.  I’d also be interested in your thoughts not on The Ticket’s content, but on how you feel about the time you spend with it. 

I’ll conclude next time with some thoughts on how the P1 relates to The Ticket, and whether the Ticket-geek accusation has some truth to it.

VOICE OF THE NATION: Campout Open Forum

Fresh on the heels of my exhaustive analysis of the clues that resulted in a triumphant correct guess for the campsite published at 7:56 yesterday morning, for which I am claiming priority (changed immaterially later in the day, but that's not important now) -- boy, talk about grasping for scoreboard -- I need a couple days off.

Mule Lip Bar, Mingus, Texas
(Thanks to Confessor James)

Loved the last two days of broadcasting.  Let's have your views.

--  Funniest moments.

--  Interpersonal dynamics.

--  Mike R's woozy retirement talk.

--  Obsessive campground guessing.

Lots of stuff there.  Gotta love The Ticket.  Thanks for checking in on my campground quest the last couple days.

I Was Wrong About Lake Mingus -- Next Guess

Corby gave a description of the private property they were on during the Pool Party.  His description does not match the landforms around Lake Mingus.  So Lake Mingus was wrong.

Here are the new clues:

Lake is 110 acres.

There are animal pens, oil wells, hay fields, savannah-type meadows.

If one attempted to swim across the lake from the campsite, one would encounter a "thicket" of trees.  There was some debate about how far this was.  Mike thought it was nowhere near a mile -- Corby thought it was further.

There are the new clues.

Pass the beans, please.

I'm still intrigued by two of the earlier clues:  the 7:32 sunrise, and a nearby town with a bar beginning with the word "Mule."

So I'm still scouting the Mingus metro

If you check the map, go north about two miles and a little to the east, and you will find Lake CB Long.

There is a privately-owned CB Long Ranch in Palo Pinto county.

There are also oil wells in Palo Pinto county.

Turning to Google Earth, we find open fields adjoining the lake -- savannah-like, to my eye.

If you zoom in on the lake and scout the area near the shore, just south and west of the easternmost bulge of the lake you will see a single boxy structure.  Cabin-like, to my eye.  I believe that the straight part of the shore at that point is the C.B. Long Dam.  There is a road crossing the northern lobe of the lake, but I don't thnk it's a dam.

Google Earth does not have a scale on it that I can find, but Google Maps does.  A square mile is 640 acres, so a 110-acre lake is about .17 square miles.  A square mile is 5280 feet squared, or about 4.7 million square feet.   .17 times 4.7 million = 806,000 square feet, or about 900 feet on a side. 

Regrettably, Lake CB Long is not square, so forget all of those calculations.  However, if on Google Maps you place the lake next to the scale (sized to show a linear mile) and try to imagine whether you could get 5 Lake CB Longs -- scrunched into an appropriate shape -- into a square mile, it's imagineable.  Especilly if the part of the lake north of the road crossing it (which looks rather murky -- the lobe, not the road) is excluded.

Returning to Google Earth:  If you imagine the campsite somewhere near the eastern edge of the lake (remembering the location of the possible cabin) and look directly across, you will see a peninsula that has on it some trees -- to my eye, a thicket.   (A thicket on the Ticket, if you will.)  It is nowhere near a mile -- maybe between a third- and a half-mile.

I cannot find much information about the C.B. Long Ranch, except in this memorial article about a ranch foreman who passed away in 2008:  http://www.texashuntfish.com/app/journals/19716/The-Passing-of-a-Great-American-Cowboy.  (Steve Holub, sounded like a wonderful guy -- foreman there for 50 years.)  If you read it, you will see that one of the chief products of the ranch is -- hay.

So there's my new guess:  The southeast quadrant of Lake CB Long.

Having been wrong the first time (but close, I still think), I won't scoreboard myself this time around.  Mike V would have nothing to do with a loser like me.

=========

One more thing:  This is of little probative value, and highly circumstantial, but:  After I emailed Junior this morning about my Lake Mingus guess, I heard no further discussion of P1's guessing.   If I was pretty close with Lake Mingus, one would not expect to hear that anyone had guessed correctly (or, in this case, close to correctly) even if the host didn't name the actual location, because after a bit a hundred souls or so might have checked in to Your Humble Site and seen the guess.  (And within an hour or so I'd thrown Lake CB Long out there as well, in the comments.)   Pretty flimsy, I know, but it crossed my mind.

Anyone Got Anything on Last Week's Ticket Broadcasting?

Sorry I've not been able to post new material lately.  I have a couple of items lined up, but since I was out of town last week, I thought I'd check to see if anyone had any blasts they'd like to offer.  Didh't hear a word of the channel, and it was rough, let me tell you.

Thanks to everyone who posted on the Voice of the Nation open forum.

Let the Call go Forth

First, thanks to the Nation for filling in wint some good observations for the last few deays.

Second, a thought:

I've been listening since around mid 2004 but I still miss a lot of the inside references.  There are surely thousands of older and especially newer listeners who have questions about some of the bits, drops, references, gags, bits.  I've run articles where I ask my qauetsions, and someone always has an answer.  Sometimes we hear from insiders like Grubes who fill us in.

I've got a little list going for a new article, but why should I haves all the fun?

Not Christy

 So if you have a question about The Ticket's legends, myths, any inside stuff, drop me a private line and I"ll collect them and we'll get some of these things straightened out.

The email address is:  theplainsman1310@gmail.com.  Got a question?  Let me hear from you.

(And even if you don't have a question, if you have something you'd like to pass along that you don't want to put in a comment, feel free to contact me in this way.  Remember, however, that much as I would like to have a vigorous email back-and-forth with any of you via email, time just won't permit it in most cases.  It's why I don't do Facebook or Twitter for this site.  Thanks for understanding, and get those questions ready.) 

Let's Try This

I'll be out of town for a few days and won't hear the shows or be able to post much of anything.  I invite Confessors to get a chain of STDs going and I'll try to check in from time to time to direct traffic if need be.

For example, how are the Edmonton BaD shows going?

Will be back in a few with some new blast or other.

Thanks to all.

A Rare Bob and Dan Post -- or, Get Ready, Christy

I have a 100% sincere question directed to listeners of the Bob and Dan show.  I was going to say "fans" of BaD, but I assume if you listen that you like the showgram.

The Confessor Nation is aware that I don't get to listen as often as I'd like, but today I did have occasion to be in my car around 2:30 so I tuned in.

Just in time, it turned out, for a big fracas between Bob and Dan.

I'm not taking sides here.  I just have two questions and I need to set it up as neutrally as I can.

I'm sure I"m not going to get this quite right, but it had to do with certain long-retired athletes being in good shape.  They had just concluded an interview with former Packer Donny Anderson.  Bob was going to make a point about -- I thought it was Roger Staubach, but maybe it was Herschel Walker.  He'd only gotten a few words out of his mouth when Dan interrupted.  I don't know whether Dan was correcting something, or teasing Bob for a misstatement, or what.

Bob took great offense, called Dan a jerk, there was some considerable back and forth, and Bob refused to finish his point.  Eventually they moved on, but I sensed that there was continuing discomfort.  Christy's comment to the last post suggests that she noticed some interesting facial expressions on the webcam.  After awhile, Dan brought the conversation back to the topic and apologized to his "best friend," and Bob was finally cajoled into finishing his point.

As I say -- I don't know if Dan was being a jerk, or Bob was being touchier than usual.  No position on Bob v. Dan.

Here are my questions for the BaD connoisseur as I continue my course of instruction in BaD Radio:

(1) Does this happen often?  When I was doing my BaD series way back when, I got the impression that there might be more, and more intense, on-air internecine squabbling on that show than on some of the others.

(2) Is this one of the things that BaD fans like about the show?  Should I be learning to savor these encounters?

Am I Missing a Pun Here?

Gigantic headline on The Ticket's Super Bowl page:

Super Bowl XLV is in Our Town

and Our Guys are Hitten it  .  .  . 

Come on, guys.  I know it's a guy station and guys don't always spel gud, but really.

Cue the Masterpiece Theater music.

Is Dallas a Drag?

Ooo, I may get in trouble with the Nation for this one.

*     *     *

I was very struck by segments on three different showgrams -- The Musers, The Hardline, and The Orphanage -- that the nation is not going to have a positive reaction to the City of Dallas when it visits for the Super Bowl.

There were various reasons given.  One common theme was that downtown Dallas is nothing.  It was pointed out that pockets of enjoyable nightlife and retail are few and isolated.  In general, I got the impression from almost every host that they didn't think Dallas was much of a city, for all of its apparent belief that it's world class. 

I agree.

Even ESPN is making its home in Fort Worth.

I arrived in Dallas in 2004.  I moved here because I love Mrs. Plainsman and Mrs. Plainsman's family is here and it's a great family and it was inevitable.  So at an appropriate juncture, we found jobs in the area and made the move.  We were living in a certifiably great city at the time, but I wasn't feeling too bad to leave it.  I'd lived there a long time and had experienced what it had to offer and could always go back to visit.  I had a vision of Dallas as vibrant, young, on the move, putting its money -- it has lots of money, doesn't it?  I mean Dallas and oil and money, right? -- to good use with exciting urban projects.

When I got here, I was stunned.  Compared to the other American cities I'd lived in  (East Coast, West Coast, Midwest), Dallas wasn't even close to being in their league.  And yes, a lot of it had to do with the wretched downtown, the decaying West End and Deep Ellum, the stark southern border and western borders that fall off instantly into poverty and junk, the incomparably ugly public buildings.  As noted, more strip clubs per capita than most anyplace else.  The view along many of our expressways is simply appalling.  I came to understand that local government dominated by the city council was a joke --  no city so constituted ever gets much done, and it does, it's so corrupted and compromised that it's a disaster in the making.  Dallas was a poster child for weak-mayor civic government.

And you know, even in its best parts -- it is really not an extremely attractive city.

Now, if I were a single guy with tons of free time on my hands to zoom from one island of reasonably cool stuff to another, I might feel differently.  It's not that there isn't good stuff in Dallas, it's that its almost randomly scattered about the place.  A couple of good museums.    Dallas is a restaurant capital as well, among the most if not the most restaurants per capita of any city in the US.  (In my judgment, many of the finest by reputation are overrated.)  But what's good about the city is almost random -- you can find good museums, restaurants, night life, architecture anywhere you go, but Dallas doesn't convey an identifiable singular urban experience.  It's entirely generic.  What cities do convey that experience?  Well, Fort Worth; San Antonio; Austin; and, I would argue, even Houston has a better brand than Dallas.

The city has many, many good people, and some gorgeous women.

But, and you must trust me on this, absolutely no more than elsewhere, and, like everything else about the place, and despite the evidence of that photograph, they're so scattered that even the pulchritude in this city is seriously diluted.

Ah  .  .  .  but Dallas has The Ticket.  It is no surprise that in resident surveys on what is best about DFW, a little light-bulb of a guy-based radio station consistently ranks at or near the top of the charts.  This is testimony to The Ticket's greatness, but it must also be counted as a serious rebuke to the city, that so many of its residents can't think of ten things better than a sports-talk station.   I am not entirely sure what I would do without The Little One to elevate my Dallas experience.

In discussing Dallas with others, I am always fearful that I would come off like a snob, so I don't talk much about my disappointment with the joint.  Which is why I was so startled to hear so many Ticket hosts believing that visitors were going to come away with a bad impression.  Yeah, they will, but it amazed me that these long-time Dallas guys believed that.

What do you think, Confessors?  Does Dallas have an inferiority complex?  Does it deserve to be mentioned alongside the great cities of our country?  Tell me what I need to do -- other than listen to The Ticket even more than I do now -- to get into the good things that Dallas has to offer, to learn to appreciate the place. 

I can be educated.

I’m Not Sure I Want an Answer to This Question

What does “Bloody pants means I love you” mean?

It’s the tag line to the ad for the Stars-sponsored blood drive and an appearance by BaD Radio to promote it.

First of all, am I hearing it correctly?  (I’ve only heard it in my car at low volume, so it is not beyond imagining that I’ve got it wrong.)

I thought it must be a pop culture reference I was missing, a movie line or something, but nothing comes up via Google.  Then I thought maybe it was a Ticket inside thing with which I was unfamiliar, but I haven’t seen or heard any other reference to the phrase.

I am hopeful that someone can convince me that this is a whole lot less vulgar than it sounds, and that it bears some reasonable relationship to convincing people to engage in the altruistic act of giving blood.

Otherwise, it’s close to a recent low for The Ticket.   I hope I’m wrong and that someone will take me severely to task for misinterpreting this.  I hate to write negative things about The Little One, I really do.  So Confessors, have at me.

Urgent Message to Ticket Engineering Czar

The Norm +1 with Jean-Jacques Taylor this morning has been a really good show.  They make a very listenable team.  The best I've heard JJT yet.
However, he presents Ticket engineers with a serious problem.

Norm, like most of the Ticket hosts, has a voice that pierces the spitguard and gets clearly into the mic in all registers.  This is a matter partly of his voice's natural timbre, and partly a matter of projection.   Which is to say that Norm, like pretty much every one of the Ticket hosts, has a natural talent for the medium, and devotes professional attention to the sound of his voice.

JJT, through no fault of his own, is not a radio talent and doesn't have the training to project his voice.  In fact, his voice is "soft," comes from back in his mouth and arrives at his lips somewhat muffled.

He also frequently speaks way too quickly, spitting out short syllables and then drawing out certain vowel sounds.

The result is that when you have Norm tuned in at a volume that is pleasant to the ear, JJT cannot be heard or clearly understood.  This isn't a problem when you're listening with phones or in a quiet room, but it's a real problem when the Ticket is on in the background or in a vehicle.  (This isn't just a Norm problem -- it was also a problem when JJT was on with Donovan and Rich, and it's a problem on the Sunday morning showgram.)  This may just be a matter of level -- "more Jean-Jacques," as it were.

This is not discretionary -- The Ticket may have scored a real coup in retaining JJT's services -- I need to hear more but so far I'm liking it -- but the station absolutely must find a way to make him audible and understandable at normal listening levels.

Normathon-athon

So, what do we all think about the Normathon?   A great cause and it's wonderful that he does it.  In fact, The Ticket does a lot of fine charity work that I should have remarked on in the past.  A hearty "good job."



In fact, I doubt that Norm finds it all that arduous to do 18 hours.  He's a professional talker, and he talks and talks and eventually he stops.  I didn't hear very much of it this year, unfortunately, but what I heard was interesting.  I liked the interview with Randy White.  I just wasn't able to stay by the channel much of Monday, unforch.

As far as Norm as a general propposition is concerned:  Great, great broadcaster.  Always interesting to listen to.  Like the way he interacts with his producers.  Mike S makes a worthy on-air companion.

I'll just get off one short blast, and then let you all tell me about the Normathon, or Norm generally -- or Rich Phillips, or Corby D, or Dan M, or the Geminid meteor shower, or whatever you want to comment on.  The short blast is:  I'm not sure Norm is an extremely astute observer of the sports scene.  He knows an awful lot about many sports, but sometimes his opinions leave me scratching my head.  In the first place, he seems to hold contradictory views simultaneously -- was Wade Phillips a bad coach, or was he an OK coach because he once went 13-3?  Norm seems to hold both views.  In the second place, his picks don't seem to me to be particularly accurate.  (Anyone know how he does on the ponies?)   I'll tell you what I'd like to see:  Norm picking against Craig Miller and George Dunham in their weekly picks. 

One more short blast:  Norm has got to be one of the hardest-working guys at the Ticket.  It's only a two-hour show, but his show prep is amazing (with his grundoons' assistance), he fills in all over the broadcast day, he does the Cowboy post-game.  And he did that great piece on the Cowboys' financial condition a couple of months back. 

So::  Two weathered Plainsman thumbs-up for Norm.  But think twice before you give him your money to play with.  Give it to him to donate to the wonderful causes he supports.

So let me hear from you, Confessors:  How was the Normathon?

Junior's 6:15 Cliff Lee HSO Was, as Always, Trenchant, but I Like My Cliff Lee Theory Better

Which is that Cliff Lee went to the Phillies because what he really wants to do, really, is hit.

How . . . White . . . Was It?

OK, Confessors, Your Plainsman doesn't ask much of you (although I suppose slogging through my prose can be something of a chore).

But I do have an assignment to hand out.  No math.

I am in San Diego and will not return until after White Elephant Day.  I'm hopeful that you will take a moment and drop a comment if you hear anything that you find interesting. 

I hope you will pay particular attention to what goes on between the words.  If you saw a transcript of a lot of these showgrams, you would never get a full picture of the relationships at The Little One.  White Elephant Day is a great day for testing theories, revealing animosities, and unearthing new stars given a chance to shine.  I applaud The Ticket for taking these kinds of chances.

So P1 Steven, Christy, Scott, Douglas, Anonymous A through F, and all other Confessors -- get by the channel, as Mike R would put it, and let The Confessor Nation know what you find out tomorrow.

PS:  Thanks to AP from the (incomparable) UnTicket for offering to supply Your Plainsman with segments.  I'm doubtful I'll have time to review any of the showgrams, but if something blows up you know I'll be tuning in to the site. 

Well, By Golly, Let's Get That White Elephant Thread Underway! I'll Start.

Geez, I didn't think that White Elephant Day would excite much of anyone, but several commenters to the last post or two have already mentioned that they have some STDs about it (Scorching Ticket Dish).

I never paid a lot of attention to it, although in general I favor it.  It's a way for The Ticket to expose some hosts that people don't hear to a larger audience, assuming that midday hosts end up doing one of the drive segments.  Got no problem with it as a promotional device.  Haven't given it a lot of thought.

The best part about it, from Your Plainsman's point of view -- that is, from the point of view of a guy who needs fresh material to write about -- is that it is an opportunity to test theories about the pecking order at the station, who likes/dislikes who, that kind of thing.   White Elephants and other wife-swap opportunities are, for example, one part of my General Unified Theory of Bad Radio, which is that Dan McDowell and the other guys kind of hold each other at arm's length.  This automatically makes the morning drive the one not to miss (George, Dan, Norm, Tom, and Ty).

As for the others:  The 12-3 Junior/Rich/Danny/Donovan show should be good -- in fact, that wouldn't be a bad permanent team.  PM Drive with Mike, Gordon, Bob, Mike Sirois and Donovan should be interesting for the Bob-Gordon dynamic.   I'm interested in the Gordon-Danny relationship at the station, but there are few too hints of its existence to base much of a theory on, not that that has stopped me before.

Unfortunately  .  .  .  I will be out of town and not able to listen to the stream next Wednesday, so I would invite all Confessors to keep careful notes and let this site have your thoughts.

Hey, by the way:  Why is it called White Elephant Day?  A "white elephant" is a possession whose cost of upkeep, space it takes up, and other costs do not justify having it, but its owner can't get rid of it for one reason or another.  Is is named after the "white elephant swap"-type parties, which it also doesn't resemble?

Have at it, friends.

Mark Elfenbein and the Larger Changes

I share AP's regret at Mark Elfenbein's departure from Sunday mornings for a midday gig at 105.3.

This site has had occasion to remark on Elfenbein's unique broadcast sound in this market.  I'll miss him on Sunday mornings.  He had a solid show and good chemistry with his guys.

However  .  .  .

I have also thought that Elfenbein is probably best in small doses.  A few hours of an all-Elf show a week was probably about right.  I wish him the best on his everyday gig (real estate biz must really be depressed), but if I were Fan management I'd look for a strong co-host for him, or at least a sidekick that will offset his somewhat spicy delivery.  He works well with other voices on the show, doesn't seem to have big ego issues.  [[SEE CORRECTION BELOW.]]

Could they have found an everyday slot for Elf?  If it were up to me, I'd ditch the Top Ten and install a nighttime host, and Elfenbein would have been perfect for that. 

Richie Whitt in his report suggests that Elf may have been ill-treated by The Ticket, as a second-class citizen weekend host not worthy of standing with the weekday guys in the recent 15th anniversary celebrations.  So there may have been some behind-the-scenes stuff that made it uncomfortable for him to stay, or easy to go.  Maybe some anonymous insider in the know will lift the veil for us.

I'd been meaning to talik about some of the larger changes at The Ticket, but I don't know exactly what's going on.  New studio; new signal.  Elf leaving.  And all those ads for new sales and technical guys.  Sounds to me like The Ticket is going through some behind-the-scenes stuff, some of it good for P1s, some of it bad. 

Some of it, of course, is natural turnover in the volatile world of local radio.   Well-regarded but poorly-paid second-stringers at the mic and at the board looking for a better living elsewhere.

The Fan is not sitting still.  So far its all-Ticket hiring policy isn't working out for it, kind of like the Bengals' Cowboy poaching.  But they're in there slugging, and somewhere along the line, somewhere during the broadcast day, they're going to strike a little gold.

Note that in the portrait above, that Your Plainsman is "scanning the sports radio horizon," despite the name of the site.  I've been switching channels more frequently lately, checking out the competition when I've wearied of some tired bit or overexposure of one host or another.  Anyone want to steer me in the direction of good sportstalk elsewhere, lemme know.

CORRECTION:  I didn't realize they were going to team Elfenbein up with Josh Lewin..  Wow, an all-Jewish midday on The Fan.  Interesting.  That might be a potent alternative to BaD Radio.  If you're tired of all the bickering over there, Josh and Elf might seem worth a listen.

ADDENDUM, 2:30 pm:  Looks like Todd Archer is also changing his affiliation to ESPN.   Todd's OK, but this is not an immense loss from a daily broadcast standpoint.  The question I have is -- what does it mean about what's going on at The Ticket or, perhaps more meaningfully, what's ESPN's management up to?  Guessing that they're tired of looking foolish in this market (although promoting Hammer to five endless hours of drive is unlikely to prove an inspired strategy) and going to spend some bucks to class up their output.

Howcum? Department

How can a station that takes a fair number of listener calls on-air have such a consistently terrible time actually making that happen?  

It's not limited to remotes.  In a meta-E-Brake today, we heard Norm struggling through uncompleted calls, and then voting for the E-Brake utterly failed when calls could not be connected to the hosts and to us.

If I were Jeff Catlin I'd be screaming at someone.  I don't know who.  It may be The Ticket equipment vendor; it may be the Cumulus tech maintenance guys; it may be the board ops, although for no reason at all I have a feeling that it's not the board ops.

I've listened to talk radio for years and I've never heard a station that so consistently fails to convey calls successfully to the air.  Just incredible.

Elf Quick Hit -- That Sound He Makes

[[This was drafted a couple of weeks ago.  I forgot to hit "publish post."  So this one's a little stale.  Sorry.  -- Plainsman.]]

One day a couple of weeks ago the Musers were teasing Mark Elfenbein about the promo he taped for the show since he appeared to endorse the concept of a fourth playoff game for the Rangers and Rays.  Elf called in to defend himself.  He re-ran the Musers segment on his show Sunday morning.

They got to talking about that ngyah-ngyah sound that Elf makes at the end of all his promos these days.  If I had to describe it, it is a sound of amused anxiety.  I thought sure I knew where he got that sound, but he didn't mention it, so I'll throw it out my speculation --

It's the sound the late Dom DeLuise used to make with some frequency.