Friday, May 11, 2018

A Quiet Place

From the brilliant mind of former Brandmeier producer Guy Bauer. I remember these days well...

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Ivy Fowler

Dexter Fowler and his wife SWEAR it's not a Wrigley tribute. My dog Ivy disagrees...


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Trump May Have Just Started a War

The first impact of pulling out of the Iran deal is being felt, and may already be leading to an Iran-Isreali war. From this morning's Washington Post...

Since 2012, the Israelis have allegedly launched more than 100 strikes on supposedly Iran-linked positions in Syria. It’s necessary, they argue, to keep Iran away from their borders and stop the flow of weapons to Hezbollah, Iran's Lebanese ally.

But the existence of the accord seemed to help stave off the worst. Iran threatened retaliation last month after an Israeli strike killed seven Iranian soldiers, but it had never directly struck back against Israel — at least not until after Trump’s announcement.

Now, without the involvement of the United States, said Ian Bremmer, the founder and president of the Eurasia Group, a political consultancy, “it is more likely that we see military strikes.”

Bremmer told Vanity Fair that “the Iranians have not responded, and I am sure a part of the reason for that is that they don’t want to give the Americans any reason to leave the deal. Now that they have done so, I assume that the gloves are off for the Iranians, and it makes mutual military escalation between the Israelis and the Iranians much more likely.”

And it gets worse...

A flare-up between Iran and Israel also isn’t the only — or even the biggest — threat. Last weekend, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif warned that his country might restart suspended elements of its nuclear program in the face of new American sanctions. “We have put a number of options for ourselves, and those options are ready including options that would involve resuming at a much greater speed our nuclear activities,” Zarif told Margaret Brennan on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

And we did this for what reason again? Because Iran would get to pursue nuclear weapons ten years from now? Oh, OK. This is much better.
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New WBEZ lineup

Robert Feder has a great piece today about the plans for WBEZ's new emphasis on local journalism.

Here is the full schedule of the new lineup.
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Net Neutrality Officially Ends June 11

From this morning's RAMP newsletter, Democratic FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel issued her own strongly worded statement against this move, that read...

"Today, the FCC gave notice net neutrality protections will be taken off the books on June 11. This is profoundly disappointing. The agency failed to listen to the American public and gave short shrift to their deeply held belief that Internet openness should remain the law of the land. The agency turned a blind eye to serious problems in its process -- from Russian intervention to fake comments to stolen identities in its files." Rosenworcel continued, "The FCC is on the wrong side of history, the wrong side of the law, and the wrong side of the American people. It deserves to have its handiwork revisited, reexamined, and ultimately reversed. I raised my voice to fight for Internet freedom. I'll keep raising a ruckus to support net neutrality and I hope others will too."

And check this out. Have you heard that AT&T gave Michael Cohen a huge pile of money to "lobby" Donald Trump? The guy who made that ridiculous decision for AT&T is the same guy who led the charge against Net Neutrality. Read all about that here.
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Thursday, May 10, 2018

Little Tommy Kaempfer

Son #1 just walked in the door and said "I have just finished the last college class of my lifetime." Graduation is on Sunday. A great Mothers Day present for Bridget. Congrats little Tommy Kaempfer.



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Deadpool Apologizes to David Beckham

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100 Homers

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Minutia Men, Episode 93

EP93 – Rick and Dave discuss exploding urine, ear roaches, Danny DeVito Day, Kerry Wood’s 20 strikeout game, and Rick’s brush with Mr. Blackwell.

Listen to it here.
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Weezie

With a name like Weezie it's easy to underestimate Entercom COO Weezie Kramer. I got to know her about two decades ago when I was working at WJMK (with John Landecker) and Weezie briefly came in and ran the show as our station general manager. I recently was going through my old career paperwork (Bridget asked me to get rid of some of my old boxes), and found a bunch of memos from Weezie (and to Weezie). They were all very civil and encouraging. (I had three other GMs during my time there, and none of their memos would qualify for either of those adjectives).

Saw this item about Weezie this morning in Tom Taylor's NOW column. Congrats to her!

Entercom COO Weezie Kramer to receive the Conclave’s 2018 “Rockwell Award,” presented for “lifetime achievement.” Weezie went to the University of Kentucky and started working with the local Village Communications radio operation there. Soon she was in Chicago, as GSM of then-WFYR, and later a GM for CBS. She crossed to Entercom in 2000, became President of the Station Group in 2013, and CEO in 2014. Other recent Rockwell winners from the not-for-profit Conclave include Hubbard Radio’s Ginny Morris, NRG’s Mary Quass, Midwest’s Duke Wright, and (last year) AccuRadio’s John Gehron. The Rockwell Award’s named for radio pro and Conclave supporter Mike Rockwell. This year’s Summer Learning Conference is July 18-20 at the DoubleTree by Hilton Minneapolis-Park Place. More about attending Conclave 43 here.
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Sonic Boom

From this morning's Radio Ink...

Sean “Sonic” Leckie has been appointed as the new host for the afternoon drive show on 104.3 Jams (WBMX-FM) in Chicago. The new show will air weekdays from 2:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. CT, beginning Thursday, May 10. Leckie has been in radio for over a decade and was on-air in the San Diego market at KZBT, KEGY, and KHTS and also held roles at WWPW in Atlanta. Sonic is an active member of the community and has supported the Special Olympics for the past four years.

“Sonic brings a passion for music and drive to succeed to 104.3 Jams,” said Jimmy de Castro, Senior Vice President and Market Manager, Entercom Chicago. “We’re looking forward to having him take the helm of Chicago’s new afternoon drive show.”
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Wednesday, May 09, 2018

Kipper!

Have you listened to his podcast yet, radio geeks? It's made for you...


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This is why I can't stop sneezing


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Tickle Fight

During a bench-clearing non-brawl last night, Kris Bryant saw his old teammate Starlin Castro in the melee and did what anyone would do in that situation. He tickled him.

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Tuesday, May 08, 2018

Money to Democrats

Keep this in mind next time you hear the president ranting about the "13 angry democrats" who are investigating him. They have given a total of $77,000 to Democratic candidates. That's a lot, right?

Trump himself has given more than 4 times as much to Democrats (including Hillary Clinton) since 2000: $330,000

Not a witch hunt. Not partisan. Not tainted. Let the professionals do their job.

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Another Creep Revealed

How many of these guys are there? This time it's the guy who was investigating people like Harvey Weinstein, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. He's accused of physically assaulting multiple women. More of a Rob Porter than a Harvey Weinstein.

Schneiderman did the right thing by immediately resigning.

One person who is probably exhaling in relief is our president. Schneiderman was actively investigating him on multiple fronts.
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Free Kicks

I started up a brand new podcast today. It's called Free Kicks, and I co-host it with my friend Adam Howarth, who is the director of coaching for the IYSA. We talk about our mutual passion--the sport of soccer. We'll be posting it weekly. Thanks to Oppih productions and the Radio Misfits Podcast Network for giving us this platform!

Listen to it here.
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Monday, May 07, 2018

Did John Oliver Quit?

I hope it was just a bit. A really funny bit. But still just a bit. It's my favorite show on television.

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Lava

This is amazing. Even more incredible than movie re-creations...


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Worst Cubs-Cards series ever

Sooo happy I didn't stay up to see former Cub Dexter Fowler hit a walk off two-run homer in the bottom of the 14th...after former Cardinal Jason Heyward made a terrible error that allowed the game to go into extra innings in the first place.

Ugh.

On the other hand, maybe we can start selling our crying Cub shirts again at Just One Bad Century.
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Note for my fellow Chicagoans


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SNL Cold Open

Talk about a star-studded opening segment. Ben Stiller, Martin Short, Alec Baldwin, Scarlett Johanson, Jimmy Fallon, and of course, Stormy Daniels.

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