Friday, June 10, 2016

Slow Jamming with the Prez

Beatles Hot Wheels

In honor of the 50th anniversary of "Yellow Submarine" the Beatles have combined with Hot Wheels to make a Yellow Submarine Hot Wheel. But they're also making a bunch more.

Must. Have. This. Don't know what I'd ever do with them. My kids are too old to play with them now, but doggone it, they are cool.

How Big is the Bundesliga?

The Bundesliga is the highest German soccer league, and features teams like powerhouse Bayern Munich.

How popular are they? They just signed a record-breaking $5.3 billion (with a b) TV-rights deal.

Big Day in the Campaign

It started with this video...



Continued with this tweet by Donald...



Look at the number of retweets. Quite a few. Then Hillary tweeted this as a response...



And the internet exploded. Look at the retweet numbers there.

It's beginning to look like Donald has a pretty big fan base, but the anti-Donald crowd is much bigger. The question is--Will they show up to vote?

RIP Gordie Howe

Before Gretzy came on the scene, Gordie Howe was considered the greatest hockey player ever. The man played professional hockey into his 50s!

He passed away yesterday at the age of 88.

This is my only Gordie Howe hockey card. It came out during the 1971-1972 season. When the WHL formed in the mid-70s, Gordie jumped leagues. At one time, he was on the same team as two of his sons.

Here's what the greatest NHL coach of all-time, Scotty Bowman, had to say about Gordie: “I pick Gordie as my No. 1 all-time player. He played the longest. He was the toughest player of his era. He was the best offensive player and defensively he was used in all situations. He could play center, right wing, and defense. He could shoot right and he could shoot left. If you could make a mold for a hockey player it would be him. I never thought there was another player close to him.”

Thursday, June 09, 2016

Dan McNeil Leaves The Drive

Everyone could see that this day was coming. Here's the press release announcing his departure...

Hubbard Radio Chicago Vice President/Market Manager John Gallagher and WDRV Program Director Rob Cressman announced today the departure of Dan McNeil as co-host of its 5am-9am program, “The Morning Drive.” McNeil joined WDRV in February, 2015.

On the decision to step away, McNeil says, "It was an incredible chapter in my radio tour. I got to be a part of a terrific air staff... some really wonderful people. The Drive paid me go to movies, to take listeners to see AC/DC and the Who. I've been wanting to write a love letter to rock and roll publicly for years and I got to do it on one of the most sparkling classic rock stations in the country."

Hubbard Radio Chicago VP/Market Manager, John Gallagher, commented “Dan did a great job for us. His knowledge of sports combined with his passion for Classic Rock was an inspiration to our team. We expect that Dan will thrive in his future endeavors. He is a knowledgeable and talented radio host.

WDRV Program Director, Rob Cressman added “We look forward to what lies ahead for The Drive. Pete McMurray and the team have assembled a strong foundation. Our plans include a search for the chemistry and content mix that our audience has clearly requested. The considerable research and appraisal that accompanied the former incarnation of The Morning Drive will continue to determine where future opportunities exist to super-serve Chicago’s Classic Rock enthusiasts in the morning.”

Minitua Men, Episode 6

EP6 – Babe Ruth’s big bat, Stevie Wonder’s elevator tricks, Muhammad Ali minutia, Gravedigger races, Cubs nicknamed Little Eva and Bridget, and Rick’s brush with Michael Dukakis and Jim Belushi.

Click here to listen.

All-Star Game is Gonna Be Great This Year

Check out the leading vote getters, and the vote totals aren't even close...

The Score Sued for Text Spamming

I wasn't a regular listener of the Score until they got the Cubs, and I've never texted them, so I never got these spam texts. If I did, I probably wouldn't have sued. But someone did. From today's Tom Taylor column...

CBS is sued over unwanted texts from Chicago’s WSCR/670. The all-sports Score just had its best age 6+ PPM share ever, powered by the Cubs. But in a federal court in Wisconsin, attorneys filed a potentially costly class action suit on behalf of Elaine Bonin, alleging that the Score sent numerous unsolicited texts to her TracFone. She says she never shared her cellphone number with CBS, but somehow got texts from 67011 – the Score’s texting address. Those SMS text messages about Super Bowl scores and NBA Bulls games ate into her TracFone allotment of monthly time, she says. Since the suit alleges they were sent to Bonin’s phone using an “automatic telephone dialing system for non-emergency purposes,” it believes CBS violated the TCPA. The federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act is what iHeart ran into last year in a suit filed in Cook County, Illinois court – and which led iHeart to settle for $8.5 million (June 6 NOW Newsletter). In that case, the court granted class status and gave targets of unwanted texts by stations like Washington DC’s “Hot 99.5” WIHT until September 8 to file a “valid claim form.” That’s probably where Wisconsin’s Ademi & O’Reilly law firm wants to go – yielding fees for the firm, and discouraging other companies from supposed text-spamming.

Joe Scarborough Rants

He completely lost it this morning about Trump...a guy he has previously endorsed.

Mount Prospect store caters to adults who like to wear diapers

That's a real headline.

And that's my home town.

So proud.

Wednesday, June 08, 2016

Around the Publishing World (June 8)

At Chicago Author Solutions (a division of Eckhartz Press), we stay on top of happenings/trends in the publishing world to help out busy writers who are spending their time doing what they should be doing: writing.


1. Top Writing Tips
From that killer first line to dealing with writer’s block, children's author Chris D’Lacey shares his top writing tips

2. How to Write a Great Opening Line
It's probably more important not to have a bad first line, but it sure does help to have a great one. This article gives you tips on how to write one. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

3. A review of Writer's Digest
Writer's Digest often features reivews, but how many times have you seen a review of Writer's Digest? Here's one.

4. Productivity tips from superfast writers
Believe it or not, there are ways to make yourself write faster. There are two good tips in this article that I live by.

5. Tips for writing a book you'll love
And it's in the Huffington Post, so you know it's true. All snarkiness aside, there are some good tips here.

Baseball on the Radio

Look what happened in the Chicago ratings. The Cubs have propelled their new radio home. From Tom Taylor's Now column...

The combination of radio and Cubs baseball is a home-run for new affiliate “Score” WSCR, all-sports WSCR. Parent CBS transferred the Cubs from all-news WBBM to the Score starting this season, and the Score racks up its largest topline age 6+ AQH total-week PPM ever. Here’s one obvious reason – at night, WSCR improved from a tie for 17th place just two months ago to a third-place tie, and now an outright win, 7pm-midnight. (That’s with age 6+ AQH share.)

I'm one of those listeners. There's nothing I enjoy quite as much as sitting outside on a warm summer night listening to the Cubs on the radio.

Here's the rest of the Radio Ratings report...

Remember that since the Cubs shifted to the Score, WBBM no longer splits up its simulcast for baseball games. WBBM wins every daypart except nights, where it’s fourth. Second overall is iHeart’s urban AC “V103” WVAZ (5.8-6.1-6.1). Note that this book occurred before the sudden death of syndicated afternoon host and Chicago favorite Doug Banks. Third is Hubbard hot AC “Mix” WTMX (4.9-4.8-4.9). Then comes the Score at a 4.2. Tied for fifth are iHeart top 40 “Kiss 103.5” WKSC (4.0-3.7-3.9) and hot AC sister WLIT (4.9-3.9-3.9). “93.9 My FM” WLIT is third in middays. Aside from sports, the talk side includes Tribune’s talk WGN (3.8-4.3-3.7, and third in mornings). In the cume category, top 40 “Kiss” (2,180,800) cumes slightly higher than hot AC “Mix” (2,136,800).

Meat Clown

Thanks to "JFG" for this one, along with the caption "Does this meat taste funny to you?"

Tuesday, June 07, 2016

Ali's Last Photo Shoot

Muhammad Ali raised his fists one last time for a photo shoot a few days before he passed away.

If you'd like to see the photos, they were published today by The Sun.

Just found this video...George Carlin on Muhammad Ali.

President Obama To Appear on Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon

It's scheduled for Thursday night. This is sort of news that used to make conservative commentators apoplectic. "That's not presidential!" they would say. Kind of hard to make comments like that when your party is about to nominate Donald Trump.

Obama will probably make news during this interview. He's expected to endorse Hillary.

Buzzfeed Drops Ad Agreement Because of Trump

Buzzfeed had a $1.3 million ad agreement with the RNC, but dropped it yesterday because..."The Trump campaign is directly opposed to the freedoms of our employees in the United States and around the world and in some cases, such as his proposed ban on international travel for Muslims, would make it impossible for our employees to do their jobs.”

Details are here.

It's starting to happen. I think Trump crossed some sort of a rubicon when he started going after a judge presiding over his Trump University civil case because he was "Mexican," and then told his supporters to start calling reporters who give him a hard time about it "racists". So many layers of ick there.

A Tribute to a Great Career

What do you give to someone who has achieved all that Rich King has achieved in his incredible broadcasting career? Well, we gave him a framed cover of his Eckhartz Press book "Back in the Game" as a retirement present.

Best wishes to a great guy who we hope has a wonderful and fulfilling retirement. Thanks Rich for all you've done for us here at Eckhartz Press!

IMG_4260

Monday, June 06, 2016

Dan McNeil

Robert Feder has a great piece today about Dan McNeil. According to this article, it sounds like the folks at the Drive are "pulling a Zagorski". That's what I call it, anyway.

In my novel "$everance" the lead character is a morning DJ in Chicago named Zagorski. Zagorski's boss was doing everything he could to get Zagorski to quit, so that he would give up his severance. On the flipside, Zagorski was doing whatever he could to irritate the bosses into firing him, so that he would collect his severance.

Not sure if Danny is Zagorski-ing his bosses, but his bosses are definitely Zagorski-ing him. Read about it at the link.

A Joke The Youngsters Might Not Get

Thanks to "RH" for sending this...

Congrats to Johnny

Another Kaempfer boy has graduated high school. Congrats to my middle son Johnny for his big day yesterday...



RIP Muhammad Ali

How big was Ali in his hey day? He had a hit song written about him. Johnny Wakeland recorded this in 1975...