Friday, February 23, 2018

A tingling feeling


CNN Town Hall

I watched part of it, but kept flipping back to the Olympics.

Apparently I wasn't the only one. The CNN Town Hall about guns was a huge ratings winner. TV Newser has the details.

Born Live on the Air

I always say that my three boys were born live on the radio, but that isn't exactly true. I recorded their births live (on audio tape) and replayed it on the air. I also phoned in from the delivery room shortly after they were born.

A morning co-host in St. Louis has taken it one step further. She actually gave birth on the air.

I'm impressed.

Tiffany meets Oprah

This is what it feels like to meet your hero...

Thursday, February 22, 2018

Lee Kingsmill


"Safe Inside" author Lee Kingsmill has started up a blog.

Follow along with it here.


Lee is a gifted writer who really knows how to paint a picture with his words. Highly recommended.

Minutia Men, Episode 85


EP85: Rick and Dave discuss potholes, parents versus kids at election time, Olympic oddities, meanies yelling at our EPA director, girls playing baseball, and Rick’s brush with Bo Derek.

You can listen to it here.

Credit is Due

I watched Trump's listening session at the White House yesterday, and I must say I was impressed. He clearly didn't invite the most outspoken critics, but he did have people there from previous shootings, and he did appear to be listening to them. He even seemed sympathetic/empathetic. Then I saw his notes...(Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post)



Let's just say the sympathy/empathy thing doesn't come naturally to him. Still, I give him credit for at least pretending.

LATE UPDATE: I take it back. Watched the news today and now he's focusing on arming teachers and says he won't upset the NRA. He is who we thought he was. Credit revoked.

Social Media Beginning to be Responsible

Yesterday Twitter eliminated thousands of Russian bot accounts.

Today YouTube finally took down that ridiculous conspiracy video claiming the kids in Florida were actors.

Now tha we know for a fact that a foreign power is coming in to America to do stuff like this, the social media companies have the moral authority to act. Glad to see at least a few of them are doing it.

Paging Mark Suppelsa

When I heard that Sinclair would have to sell off Channel 9 in order to comply with FCC rules, I celebrated. I'm guessing Mark Suppelsa stopped in mid wood-chop somewhere up in Montana and said "What did I just hear?" Unfortunately, it doesn't mean what I thought it meant. From this morning's Robert Feder column...

Sinclair Broadcast Group plans to sell WGN-Channel 9 and stations in New York and San Diego to comply with ownership limits as part of its amended $3.9 billion proposed merger with Tribune Media, according to a filing Wednesday with the FCC. But that doesn’t mean it won’t be taking over “Chicago’s Very Own.” Even if Sinclair transfers the license for WGN, the company still plans to operate it (and the two other divested stations) under “shared services agreements” with separate licensees. “It’ll be one of those arrangements where, for all intents and purposes, they still own and run the stations,” said a former FCC staffer, who called it “a complete and total evasion of the rules.” In any case, Sinclair is expected to own Tribune Media news/talk WGN AM 720 outright. The controversial merger still awaits FCC and Justice Department approval.

Wednesday, February 21, 2018

Chicago Radio Ratings

From Tom Taylor's NOW column...

Chicago shows a total re-set from the Holiday book. iHeart’s AC WLIT tumbles (8.5-12.4-3.4). It’s one of a gaggle of stations tied for sixth place. New #1 is iHeart’s urban AC WVAZ (5.7-5.7-6.8, and #1 everywhere except #3-ranked mornings). Second is Hubbard’s recovered-from-Christmas hot AC WTMX (5.5-4.3-5.4 and a daypart #1 thanks to “Eric in the Morning with Melissa & Whip”). Third is Entercom’s newish classic hip-hop/throwbacks “104.3 Jams” WBMX (4.4-5.4-4.8). It’s tied for second in afternoons, and second at night and on Saturday/Sunday. Fourth for the week is Entercom’s news WBBM/WCFS (4.7-4.5-4.7, and second in mornings/third at night). The pack below that starts with Univision’s regional Mexican WOJO (3.7-3.3-3.5), and then comes that gaggle at a 3.4, with WLIT, sister CHR “Kiss” WKSC (3.1-3.2-3.4) and Entercom’s country WUSN (3.7-3.2-3.4). If you’re watching country, iHeart’s “Big” 24th-place WEBG moves 1.6-1.5-2.0. Nice post-Christmas bounceback for Hubbard’s classic rock “Drive” WDRV (3.0-2.5-3.3), which ties with Tribune’s talk WGN (2.7-2.8-3.3). WLIT sheds much of its Holiday-book cume (3.1 million to almost 1.7 million). New #1 cume station is hot AC “Mix” WTMX at just over 1.7 million.

He Lied to Lyle Lovett


Eckhartz Press author Brent Petersen ("Truffle Hunt") has a great blog worth checking out. I particularly like this new post, I Lied to Lyle Lovett. If you like behind-the-scenes celebrity tales, this is a good one. And I'm not just saying that because I'm (incredibly briefly) mentioned in it.

The kids in Florida are not actors

When the Sandy Hook massacre happened, and the parents became thoughtful and powerful anti-gun advocates, Alex Jones and infowars claimed the shooting was a false flag operation, faked to make gun owners look bad. He wasn't run out of the country on a rail, he became an informal advisor to President Trump.

When this latest school shooting happened, and the teenagers ended up being thoughtful and articulate, a YouTube video emerged calling the students actors, and FBI plants. (This has been promoted by Russian bots, and now has tens of thousands of views). This time, a Florida politician's staffer tried to use the video to say gun laws were not needed.

He was fired.

Let's hope we are learning from our past mistakes.

Sky News

Fox News is such a toxic brand worldwide that it's already banned in the UK for being fake/slanted news (really). And now that the owner of Fox News (Rupert Murdoch, photo) wants to buy the biggest cable outfit in Europe (Sky-TV), regulators are balking. Sky News is the biggest independent non-partisan news outlet in Europe.

According to Variety, Murdoch has to promise not to touch the editorial of Sky News if he wants to buy the parent company. Rupert's counter offer is that he won't touch it for ten years.

It's good to see that Europe has learned from what he has done to America.

Newsweek Publishes Expose About Itself

When you hire and fire writers, you live and die by the pen. Newsweek Magazine discovered that this week. There were layoffs, editors quit, writers resigned, and three investigative journalists looked deep into the company's finances to discover what was causing all the problems.

The Washington Post has the story.

Back in Town

I was out of town for the long weekend, skiing with my brother's family up in Michigan. Back in the office today. Ready to rock...