Friday, December 07, 2018

RIP Pete Shelley

The former leader of the Buzzcocks and the man behind this memorable song...a song I played on WPGU many, many times. RIP Pete. He passed away yesterday...

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Art Institute Anniversary

The Art Institute turns 125 tomorrow, and they are celebrating by recreating a classic photo from 1893. Want to be in it?

Details are here.
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Alex on TV


Set your DVR. Eckhartz Press author Alex Burkholder will be on MeTv with Jon Hansen Sunday morning at 7:30am. They'll be discussing Alex's new book "Death of the Angels" which is about the tragic fire at Our Lady of the Angels school in 1958. I'll post the links to the video after it airs. (It also features fire survivor Richard DeVitto)
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Steve Rosenbloom Signs Off

Snarky Tribune sports columnist Steve Rosenbloom has written his last column.

Here it is.

He took the buyout from the Tribune and is retiring to pursue other things. Bummer. He was one of the only reasons I still occasionally read the Tribune.
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RIP Luis Valbuena

Sad news...


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The Grammys

From this morning's RAMP newsletter...the names of this year's nominees have been released...

Album of the Year:
Invasion Of Privacy, Cardi B; By The Way, I Forgive You, Brandi Carlile; Scorpion, Drake; H.E.R., H.E.R.; Beerbongs & Bentleys, Post Malone; Dirty Computer, Janelle Monáe; Golden Hour, Kacey Musgraves; Black Panther, The Album, Various Artists

Record of the Year:
"I Like It," Cardi B, Bad Bunny & J Balvin; "The Joke," Brandi Carlile; "This Is America," Childish Gambino; "God's Plan," Drake; "Shallow," Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper; "All The Stars," Kendrick Lamar & SZA; "Rockstar," Post Malone feat. 21 Savage; "The Middle," Zedd feat. Maren Morris & Grey.

Yeah, I know. Me neither.
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Looking for a New Oscar Host



Somehow I don't think they'll be taking this guy up on his offer...



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Highest Earning Radio Hosts

Radio Ink went through the Forbes list to provide the following...

Howard Stern made $90 million in 2018, according to Forbes. Stern was followed by the most-listened-to talk show host Rush Limbaugh who the magazine says took in $84.5 million.

America’s most-listened-to radio host reaches a monthly audience of 25 million on more than 650 stations. In the fourth decade of his career, Limbaugh released his first mobile app in January, giving a subscription boost to his digital platform Rush 24/7.

Ryan Seacrest came in third on the list with an estimated salary of $74 million. He was followed by Sean Hannity at $36 million and Glenn Beck at $8.5 million
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Thursday, December 06, 2018

Robert Mueller Holiday Cards

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Back from NYC

Enjoyed my trip to NYC with son #1. We got to do a bunch of stuff I wanted to do during the day (photos below), and then at night we went to see the Orbital concert that Tommy really wanted to see. Cool thing happened at the Orbital show, by the way. After it was over, two young fans came up to Tommy and said they were fans of his YouTube channel (he does music reviews). He was beyond thrilled at that. They asked if they could take a picture with him.

Here are my pictures from the trip...

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Goldy

The Cardinals got slugger Paul Goldschmidt from the Diamondbacks. Details here.

Gotta admit...not thrilled about that news.

He kills the Cubs, and will now get the chance to do it 18 or 19 times a year.
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The Russians Messed with Net Neutrality

I knew it! No way were there ANY Americans filing in favor of getting rid of Net Neutrality. Turns out, I was right. From Tom Taylor's NOW column...

FCC Chairman Pai admits Russian hackers filed a half-million Net Neutrality comments. It’s a “fact,” he says in a filing, that about 500,000 comments in last year’s Net Neutrality proceeding came from Russian email addresses. But there’s more. Democratic Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel says “As many as nine and a half million people had their identities stolen and used to file fake comments, which is a crime under both federal and state laws.” Believe it or not, there’s something called “FakeMailGenerator.com,” and Rosenworcel says “nearly eight million comments were filed from email domains associated with” that site. Republican Commissioner Pai was elevated to Chairman in early 2017 and wanted to erase away the Net Neutrality policy of his Democratic predecessor Tom Wheeler – which aimed to prevent broadband suppliers from favoring certain kinds of traffic.

To those of you who say, "Nothing happened after we got rid of Net Neutrality", I say "Just wait." That's what the telecom giants are doing. They are waiting. Getting all their plans in order. Using their unexpected inactivity to fight it again if necessary (it will be necessary).
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Monday, December 03, 2018

Rick in NYC

Taking my 5th ever trip to NYC today. The first four were more or less for business (two writing related, two radio job interviews). This time I'm taking son #1 for fun. We're going to see Tommy's favorite band Orbital in concert in Brooklyn tomorrow night.

Back in the office on Thursday. Back in the saddle on Saturday for this appearance with Chet in Orland Park.

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Minutia Men, Episode 116

EP116: Rick and Dave discuss assaulting Sasquatches, hang gliding horror stories, poo at McDonald’s, Rick’s brush with Swedish triplet Playmates, and this week’s interview is with Chicago Literary Hall of Fame Director/author Donald G. Evans.

Listen to it here.

By the way, I attended a theater production of "An Off White Christmas" last night in Oak Park, and it was tremendous. Don Evans was beeming as these talented actors performed his words.

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Our Lady of the Angels School Fire

Eckhartz Press author Alex Burkholder is featured in the current issue of Firehouse Magazine, discussing the 60th anniversary of the Our Lady of the Angels School fire. Alex sold copies of his book on Saturday at a sold out event (300 people in attendance) at a firehouse on the near West Side. Thanks so much to the many people who attended. Seems this fire has touched the lives of virtually all Chicagoans in one way or another.

You can read the article here.
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LIsa Dent is Back

From this morning's Robert Feder column...

Lisa Dent, one of Chicago radio’s best-known country music personalities, has moved up to middays on WEBG 95.5-FM, the iHeartMedia country station announced today.

Since June, Dent has been hosting weekends at Big 95.5. Effective immediately, she’ll be on from 9 a.m. to noon Monday through Friday.

“I am so excited to welcome Lisa Dent as midday host for Big 95.5,” Matt Scarano, president of iHeartMedia Chicago, said in a statement. “She brings an iconic presence to our team and will be a tremendous asset to our listeners, community and advertisers.”
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Office Mates

Is there a reboot in the works?


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WPGU

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Banning "Baby it's Cold Outside"?

I can see why there is a blowback against political correctness in this country. This story is a prime example of why people might think we're getting a bit too sensitive...

WDOK-FM (Star 102) Cleveland has removed a popular Christmas tune from its holiday playlist that was written in 1944, reports WOIO-TV. "Star 102" listeners raised concerns about the lyrics of "Baby It's Cold Outside," with some saying the lyrics send the wrong message in the #MeToo era. Afternoon host Glenn Anderson wrote in a blog post, "We used to play the song 'Baby It's Cold Outside,' but you're the Christmas Executive Officer at Star 102 and you told us it's no longer appropriate... I gotta be honest, I didn't understand why the lyrics were so bad... Until I read them."

Here are two versions of the song. One with Ricardo Moltaban, and one with Red Skelton. There is a role reversal on the second one. I get what people are saying about the #Metoo implications, but this really was intended to be a harmless little song.

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