Sparky

Sparky Adams was a leadoff hitter for the Cubs in the 1920s. Sparky isn't known so much for what he did as a Cub, but for whom he helped the Cubs acquire.

Read his story here.

SNL

Not a bad opening bit on SNL this weekend...

Torches and pitchforks

Read this story and tell me that we shouldn't all be getting our torches and pitchforks and heading to Wall Street...




Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s investment bank, survivors of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, are set to pay record bonuses this year.

“Wall Street is beginning to resemble Clark Gable as Rhett Butler in the film ‘Gone With the Wind’: ‘Quite frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn,’” Paul Hodgson, a senior research associate on compensation at the Portland, Maine-based Corporate Library, said in an e-mail. “It doesn’t seem as if even political threat, disastrous PR, envy, rising unemployment rates and home repossessions is enough to get any of these people to refuse the bonuses they have ‘earned.’”

The only thing they've earned is jail time for nearly crippling the entire world's economy.

Dick Biondi

Robert Feder posted a nice piece about Dick Biondi on his Vocalo blog today.

You can read it here.

I worked with Dick for ten years. Let me tell you, he's one of a kind.

Rupert's death wish

I re-read this story a few times to make sure I wasn't misunderstanding the plan. It appears that Rupert Murdoch is saying that he will soon block all of his entities from Google searches. This, he feels, will make people more likely to pay for content.

Okey doke. Good luck with that. Nice knowing ya, Rupert.

Farid is the problem

From this morning's Tom Taylor column at Radio-Info.com...

Citadel's discussing Chapter 11 with its lenders...one dealmaker predicts "an event" in the next 30 days, even though D-Day from the 4th Amendment to its credit facility is January 15, 2010. That guy says "nobody wants this to drag into Christmas and New Year's, and I expect an event soon." Citadel's supposed to have "at least $150 million of available cash as of January 15" and that's just not going to happen. CEO Farid Suleman's attempting to negotiate the best possible deal with lenders - and possibly a commitment to keep his job.

Yes, by all means, make sure the guy that personally drove the company into the ground retains his job. Sheesh.

Trying to Fix the News Business

From this morning's Daily Finance...

Imagine being asked to solve a problem so difficult that the smartest people you know have been trying to figure it out for months, even years, without getting anywhere. Now imagine doing it with one metaphorical hand tied behind your back.

That gives you an idea of the challenge Steven Waldman faces in his new job as the Federal Communications Commission's designated deep thinker on the future of media. As a special adviser to Chairman Julius Genachowski, Waldman will be asked to assess the health of the news business and come up with recommendations for improving it -- without exceeding the agency's relatively narrow charter.

Sounds like an impossible job, but I give them credit for trying.

Media companies want easing of ownership rules

This seems to be an argument these guys will just never give up on. The media giants want the FCC to ease the rules so they can get bigger again.

Details are here.

The good news is that nobody wants to "help" them now. Lawmakers are apathetic and the FCC seems opposed.

My question is this: Why isn't Wall Street opposed? Didn't they see what an abysmal failure it was to get too big? How could they possibly make the same mistake all over again?

Simple. The stock price will go up temporarily, they'll make money and get out, and everyone involved in the industry will have to live in the wreckage.

Cubs through history

This week's Cubs through History at Just One Bad Century ties some incredibly unlikely things together: Gangsters Dion O'Banion and Hymie Weiss, Harry Caray, and Holy Name Cathedral.

Read it here.

Father Knows Nothing

I just posted my latest "Father Knows Nothing" column at NWI Parent. This week it's called "Misunderstood Lyrics," and it features a priceless contribution from my middle son Johnny.

You can read it here.

Sammy is that really you?

He looks more like Ricky Ricardo in this picture, but it's actually Sammy Sosa at an event in Las Vegas.

Do steroids bleach your skin too?

Chicago Radio Spotlight: Bill Gamble

I just posted my latest Chicago Radio Spotlight interview. This week I talk with long time Chicago program director Bill Gamble. He talks about the two radio stations he is programming now (US99 and Fresh FM) along with some of his previous stops on the Chicago radio dial.

Read it here.

The 11/3 Project

This is unbelievably brilliant.

The 11/3 Project

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

Sesame Street is 40!

Their 40th season kicks off on Tuesday.

That's hard to believe.

Look at this picture. Big Bird is aging well, but Elmo apparently needs to be propped up.

This should be good

The Onion and Comedy Central are teaming up on a new show.

Details are here.

Don't buy this car

This is a Honda Odyssey. Same color and model as mine.

The transmission just went out. The bill is $5000.

You read that right: $5000.

Did some research on it after we got the most outrageous bill I've ever gotten in my life, and found out that the transmission is an issue with Honda Odysseys from 2002 and 2003 (we have a 2003), but that Honda has refused to issue a recall. Someone is trying to put together a class action lawsuit.

Just warning you.

He's baaaaaack

Looks like Mel Karmazin is coming out of his bomb shelter. From Tom Taylor's column this morning...

"Sirius XM to launch 'the most aggressive brand marketing campaign in our history.' It starts the week of Thanksgiving and Mel Karmazin teases it but won’t snitch on the marketing message. He says “the ads will be very noticed….you’ll see them a lot.” That should end a period when Karmazin’s troops were conserving their off-air marketing dollars, even as consumer confusion about the merger of the two rivals continued."

I worked for Mel's company for ten years (when he ran Infinity/CBS). During those years he spent exactly zero dollars on advertising. Didn't believe it worked. I always thought that was hilariously ironic. His whole business was based on selling advertising, and yet, he didn't think it worked. Instead, he didn't worry about ratings, he just kept cutting costs to make sure the bottom line was still attractive to Wall Street.

Guess he's finally cut all that he could cut (except himself, of course.)

Sights & Sounds

This week's Sights & Sounds at Just One Bad Century includes the sight of Mr. T singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" and the sound of Willie Smith and Nate Oliver singing a song about the 1969 Cubs.

See it and hear it here.

Weezer Snuggie

It's getting a little more difficult to market a new record. Got to hand it to the boys in Weezer for getting creative...

Glenn Beck attack

He wasn't attacked by those evil Americans that don't like him. He was attacked from within. From Tom Taylor's column at Radio-Info.com this morning...

"Glenn Beck is stricken with appendicitis during his radio show.This time Beck left his Premiere-syndicated radio show during the program itself, and was taken to a hospital for immediate medical attention. He missed his usual Fox News Channel gig yesterday (no surprise), and presumably won’t be back to his radio show for a couple of days."


Cross your fingers. Maybe we'll get another crazy hospital YouTube video...

Getting mad at the right people

Are you mad about the economy?

Are you mad about the deficit?

Get mad at the right people. These guys.

Jack Ruby

Night Club Owner.

Convicted Murderer.

Cubs Fan.

The Yankees

All I can say is, thank God the ten year streak of no championships is finally over for those long suffering Yankees fans.

Nobody knows the trouble they've seen. Nobody knows their sorrow.

Holy Mackeral

It's great to have Robert Feder back.

Check out this blistering column about WGN program director Kevin Metheny (photo). Someone leaked his memos to Feder. The guy (Metheney) sounds like the fictional jerks I created in $everance.

Wow, just wow.

Wall Street Warns Against Regulation

These Wall Street guys are deserving of every bad thing that is written about them. This is a pretty good take on things from Bloomberg's Susan Antilla...

"If you sift through position papers of financial trade groups, there’s a lot of noise about the need for regulation. But read far enough and you hit that paragraph that explains why the writer’s constituents don’t need to be overseen with serious diligence.

And then, inevitably, you will meet with that foreboding warning that regulation will threaten innovation. In a “Dear Senator” letter published by the Financial Services Roundtable on July 8, politicians were warned that a proposed agency to protect consumers would “jeopardize the safety and soundness of many firms and stifle innovation by requiring firms to offer ‘plain vanilla’ products.”

I, for one, am willing to take my chances. Bring it on with your threats to force plain-vanilla investments on consumers. Wall Street, if you really want to frighten us, you need to do better than that."

Christopher Walken does Poker Face

Not Dead Yet

This study has some rare good news for radio...

A Nielsen analysis of a media use study conducted by the Council for Research Excellence (CRE) found that 77% of adults are reached by broadcast radio on a daily basis, second only to television at 95%. This study, in which consumers were physically observed consuming media throughout the day, found that Web/Internet (excluding email) reached 64%, newspaper 35%, and magazines 27%.

In a deeper analysis of audio media titled “How U.S. Adults Use Radio and Other Forms of Audio,” Nielsen found that that 90% of consumers listen to some form of audio media per day. The 77% who listen to broadcast radio surpass the 37% who listen to CDs and tapes and the 12% who listen to portable audio devices. Broadcast radio also continues to play a major role to all ages, with almost 80 percent of those aged 18 to 34 listening to broadcast radio in an average day.

It's like a pep-talk for the entire industry. Thanks Nielsen.

Himes & MacPhail

Every Wednesday at JOBC we tell a Tale from a Bad Century.

This week we tell two: the sordid tales of Larry Himes and Andy MacPhail.

One of them didn't think we needed Greg Maddux anymore. The other one lived up to his last name.