9.27.12 Hero of the Day: Scott Michael Trager

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Bee-otch of the Day honors are awarded Monday through Thursday, Bee-otch of the Week is awarded Friday on Chuck69.com.

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A SPECIAL HERO OF THE DAY!

 
Name: Scott Michael Trager
Age: was 46
Occupation: long-time news anchor, WWTV Cadillac, MI
Last Seen: Cadillac, MI
Awarded For: being one of the greatest news anchors in northern Michigan TV history
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If you live in northern Michigan, this will undoubtedly be a long week if you watch local TV.

Viewers of CBS affiliate WWTV 9&10 are shocked and saddened that long-time anchor Scott Michael Trager died suddenly Wednesday morning at the age of 46. In a market known for its revolving door, the fresh-faced anchor had been a part of the northern Michigan media landscape for over 25 years.

As of Wednesday night, the cause of his death has been not announced.

Trager's broadcast career started in the mid-80's at then-AC-formatted WLDR 101.9 running the overnight shift. He then crossed over to television, covering sports at NBC station WPBN 7&4. In 1990, Trager moved to WWTV where he helped to create its popular Friday night Sports Overtime with John McGowan and became its popular host of Michigan This Morning.

At 9&10, Trager was awarded two Emmys. One was for the production of the station's 50th anniversary special in 2004.

Recently, MTM expanded to 4:30 a.m. to 7 a.m. on 9&10, just weeks after 7&4 did the same. While 9&10 airs CBS This Morning from 7-9 a.m., MTM then moves to "sister" station WFQX Fox 32 during that timeslot. Trager hosted all four and a half hours.

As a northern Michigan native, I was shocked when I heard of Scott's sudden death. My thoughts go out to his wife and triplet children. He was a huge part of my TV diet growing up, and was very proud that he was still going strong up until yesterday. I know that I've been somewhat harsh on my criticisms of 9&10 in recent years, but when it came to their news department, they were nothing but top notch.

I know that we'll know more about how and why he passed in the next few days. I agree that his family deserves nothing but privacy and our thoughts during this very tragic time. Time heals all wounds, and over this time, I think more and more people will offer their love and support for such a talented and exceptional news man.

Thank you, Scott. Northern Michigan TV will never be the same without you.

---

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Bee-otch of the Day Archives can be seen on http://beeotchoftheday.blogspot.com!
Bee-otch of the Day is a production of Chuck69.com, Grand Rapids' site for Stern, politics and more!

9.26.12 Bee-otch of the Day: students at Ogemaw Heights High School, West Branch, MI

BECOME AN AFFILIATE OF T-SHIRT HELL AND MAKE SOME MONEY! Bee-otch of the Day honors are awarded Monday through Thursday, Bee-otch of the Week is awarded Friday on Chuck69.com. DON'T FORGET TO "LIKE" BEE-OTCH OF THE DAY ON FACEBOOK!   -------------------     Names: unknown Ages: 14-18 Occupation: students Last Seen: West Branch, MI Bee-otched For: trying to ruin the life of one of their own --- Of course, we all remember the 1976 movie Carrie - based from the Stephen King book - about the awkward teenager who used her demonic powers to seek revenge on her classmates after they spilled hundreds of gallons of pig's blood on her at the senior prom. It seems that many teenage girls could only wish they had that power in this sad society where teens get teased for just about everything and anything. Things only seem to get worse when the town they live in is a little out-of-the-way community of just over 2,000 souls. Whitney Kropp is such an example. A 16-year-old Sophomore at Ogemaw Heights High School in West Branch, about an hour north of Saginaw off I-75, this beautiful young woman has very few friends. Of course, the ones with no friends tend to be the butt of jokes and even worse, sick pranks. Earlier this month as school was beginning for another year, Kropp became elated when she learned that she was elected to Homecoming Court. But, it turned out to be a sick prank because apparently, the group of students who voted her in thought it would be cool if an unpopular kid got elected. Her classmates pointed at her in the hallways and the boy who was picked with her in the court dropped out. According to Kropp, her classmates told her that it was because nobody wanted to be around her. Whitney was sad and confused. In the report above, she even told TV station WNEM in Bay City that she even considered suicide. But, like many small towns do, they rally around their own. When news of Whitney Kropp's bullying went around, a Facebook page was created in support of her. Businesses stepped up; hair salons offered to do her hair for free. People are offering her free dinners, fix her nails and even dress her for the occasion. People are now going to pack the stadium at Friday's Homecoming game dressed in orange, Whitney's favorite color. Needless to say, Whitney is overwhelmed. Now, the young girl who was teased and made fun of at her school of just 800 students now has 75,000 fans on her Facebook support page. Businesses are still giving her freebies and a 68-year-old grandmother is nice enough to be her escort for the Homecoming game against Cadillac. The school is investigating the incident, but it's going to be extremely tough to determine who made the ballots or what motivation caused Kropp's name to be mentioned at all if she was so unpopular. If the people aren't caught, I hope to God that what they get in life will be much worse than any punishment they'll ever receive. Maybe instead of pig's blood, it'll be shit thrown at them. --- Got a Bee-otch to nominate? E-mail us @ chuck69dotcom@gmail.com. All suggestions (except for me) are welcome! Bee-otch of the Day Archives can be seen on http://beeotchoftheday.blogspot.com! Bee-otch of the Day is a production of Chuck69.com, Grand Rapids' site for Stern, politics and more!

9.25.12 Bee-otch of the Day: Justin Timberlake

BECOME AN AFFILIATE OF T-SHIRT HELL AND MAKE SOME MONEY! Bee-otch of the Day honors are awarded Monday through Thursday, Bee-otch of the Week is awarded Friday on Chuck69.com. DON'T FORGET TO "LIKE" BEE-OTCH OF THE DAY ON FACEBOOK!   -------------------   Name: Justin Timberlake Age: 31 Occupation: shitty pop singer Last Seen: who cares Bee-otched For: trying to bring MySpace back --- The man who knows what it's like to have his dick up Britney Spears' twat prior to her having two kids is polishing a turd. Yesterday, former 'NSync singer Justin Timberlake released a video announcing the re-launch of MySpace, the once-popular social network site that everybody used prior to Facebook and Twitter. Remember MySpace? It was founded almost 10 years ago by some doofus named Tom "not Beavis and Butt-head's elderly neighbor" Anderson that was pretty much the grandaddy of all social network sites. The individual sites were graphics-heavy and took forever to load. Even worse, you could hide under assumed names and bully the shit out of others. Then came Facebook, and it proved to be a more stable and user-friendly service than that of MySpace, which Anderson sold to Rupert Murdoch's NewsCorp in 2005 for nearly $600 million. However, thanks to Facebook, NewsCorp found MySpace to be no longer profitable and sold it to an investment group headed by Timberlake last year for only $35 million. In the mid-2000's, MySpace was in the top 10 of all websites on Earth. Now, it's #181. Now, Timberlake is going to redesign the once-popular site, as seen on the video above (and for the record, it's only gotten 301 views on YouTube so far) to make it even more modern than Facebook. Apparently, they're trying to make it have some of the things you'd see on all the other social networks (ie Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter) and some of the stuff the old MySpace has always had (like playlists). Look, I've always hated Justin Timberlake with a severe passion. I fucking hated the boy bands of the 1990's and still do. Yeah, he wasn't that bad in (ironically) The Social Network as Sean Fanning, but Jesus Mutherfuckin' H. Christ he sucks. I had a MySpace site under Rupert Murdoch (and still do, but it's been a long ass time since I even checked it out), and I hate the guy. So, why should I have a site under Timberlake? I know, I'm on Facebook and Twitter a lot these days, but that's life. Facebook is still the #1 website on the plant even though their IPO was a disaster. But at least Mark Zuckerberg never sang shitty pop songs that had 30 writers for 12 lines, nor did he ever wiretap a phone. Plus, at least as far as I know, nobody has created six fake Facebook sites blasting this site. :) --- Got a Bee-otch to nominate? E-mail us @ chuck69dotcom@gmail.com. All suggestions (except for me) are welcome! Bee-otch of the Day Archives can be seen on http://beeotchoftheday.blogspot.com! Bee-otch of the Day is a production of Chuck69.com, Grand Rapids' site for Stern, politics and more!

9.24.12 Bee-otch of the Day: The Dawson family

BECOME AN AFFILIATE OF T-SHIRT HELL AND MAKE SOME MONEY! Bee-otch of the Day honors are awarded Monday through Thursday, Bee-otch of the Week is awarded Friday on Chuck69.com. DON'T FORGET TO "LIKE" BEE-OTCH OF THE DAY ON FACEBOOK!   -------------------   Names: Leonard and Elaine Dawson Ages: 70, 69 Occupations: movie theatre owners Last Seen: Bellaire, MI Bee-otched For: running, but being unable to hide --- Here in Grand Rapids, we have it lucky. We have two big theatre chains when it comes to movies. The biggest of the two is the AMC Star Theatre on Alpine, which has 18 screens. Star Theatres used to be a Michigan chain until they were sold to Loews/Sony some years ago. Of course, AMC was once owned by Bain Capitol - Willard Romney's company - but is now owned by the Chinese. Thankfully, there's still four Celebration! Cinemas here in Grand Rapids, all owned by the Loeks family. Founder Jack Loeks started his first cinema in 1944, the Midtown, which grew to one of Michigan's largest cinema chains with locations in Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Lansing, Muskegon and Mt. Pleasant. Loeks was a true trailblazer in cinema operation, creating some of the first drive-ins, multiplexes and even the first megaplex in 1988 when he expanded his Studio 28 to 20 screens. Today, Loeks Theatres are now owned by his son John. However, being from notthern Michigan, it's great that there's still a local flavor when it comes to going to the movies. But still, I've never met Mr. Loeks in my life, and I probably will not. Growing up near Torch Lake, the closest cinema to me was the Elk Rapids Cinema in Elk Rapids, which was and still is owned by Joseph W. Yuchasz. If you ever arrived at the Cinema 30 minutes before the show, Joe would end up talking you to death. He's always been people oriented and it's one reason why after 40 years of Cinema ownership, he's still got it. In northern Michigan, the only major chains are Carmike - who own both cineplexes in Traverse City - and Goodrich, who own Cadillac's sole theatre. The rest are family-owned, like Bob Bahle's Bay in Suttons Bay and the group who own the newly-refurbished Garden in Frankfort. Even with the threat of the major studios abandoning 35 mm film production by next years' end and the ultra-high cost of going digital, I'd imagine that Joe, Bob and the Garden's many owners are doing just fine. There are exceptions, such as Bill Supernaw, who lost his Cinema III in Charlevoix last year after he defaulted on the cinema's mortgage. The other owner worth mentioning is Harry Clark, the owner of the Cherry Bowl Drive-in in Honor. Earlier this year, the owner of the family-friendly outdoor venue (nothing above a PG-13 is shown there) almost lost his life when a tree fell on him while clearing out branches from a snowstorm. Thankfully, his family stepped in and took over the theatre's operations while he was recuperating. Even Michael Moore stepped in, raising $3,000 to help the Clarks during a showing at his non-profit State Theatre in Traverse City by passing a collection plate around. Up until last week, the biggest local chain of northern Michigan theatres were owned by the Dawson family of Bellaire. They own the Bellaire Theatre in Bellaire, The Kingston in Cheboygan, the Gaylord Cinema West in Gaylord, the Petoskey Cinema in Petoskey and the Courtyard in Mackinaw City. For many years, I had the Dawsons in very high regard. I even met them at their flagship in Bellaire one afternoon, running the ticket and refreshment counters. It was 11 years ago and the film was Pearl Harbor. It was I think a few weeks after I got out of tech school and we had a nice chat about the movie biz and the fact that they were considering giving the Bellaire a second screen (and it became reality a few years later). I loved hearing the story about how they built their empire; in the late 70's, Len got injured on the job and successfully sued his employer. He used the money to buy the original Bellaire Theatre, built in the early 1940's. However, in 1988, a fire from a building next door spread to the Bellaire, burning it to the ground. Just six months later, the new Bellaire Theatre was built, complete with big city luxuries such as rocking chair seats and digital stereo sound. Eventually, the Dawsons purchased other cinemas in Gaylord, Petoskey and Cheboygan, expanding them, and eventually with the Gaylord and Petoskey cinemas, replacing them with newer theatres complete with more screens and stadium seating. But last week, people got to see a side of the Dawsons they didn't want to see: the fact that they've been lying to the government for years. A former manager at the Dawson's theatres revealed that they were milking their numbers. When attendance was up, they claimed it was down, WAY down. That way, they could use the money to buy houses, boats, cars, you name it. The manager had six years' worth of numbers that he presented to the IRS. Last week, it was announced that Elaine Dawson would plead guilty to tax evasion. So far, the IRS only has charged Dawson for one years' worth of tax fraud for 2006. But, if Dawson is charged for more years, this could mean that she'll be seeing steel for a long, long time. The Dawsons' children are also involved in the family business, and they have had their hands slapped by the IRS, too. If they can come up with six years' worth of 1040s, they'll be scot-free. At this point, the future of Bellaire Theatres is up in the air thanks to the Dawson's mismanagement. I thought these people knew better. Yes, owning big, comfy houses is one thing, especially in a lousy economy in the 2000's, but dammit, PAY YOUR TAXES! If a rich person doesn't pay taxes, should I skip paying them, too? The law's the law: you don't pay taxes, you go to jail. End of story. But hey! Maybe if those theatres shut down, Mr. Moore might show some interest.... --- Got a Bee-otch to nominate? E-mail us @ chuck69dotcom@gmail.com. All suggestions (except for me) are welcome! Bee-otch of the Day Archives can be seen on http://beeotchoftheday.blogspot.com! Bee-otch of the Day is a production of Chuck69.com, Grand Rapids' site for Stern, politics and more!

9.20.12 Bee-otch of the Day: Sinclair Broadcast Group and WMYD-TV Detroit

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Names: Sinclair Broadcast Group and WMYD-TVAge: 41, 44
Occupation: broadcast giant, Detroit MyNetworkTV affiliateLast Seen: Hunt Valley, MD, Detroit, MI
Bee-otched For: making people scream "I WANT MY COOLTV!"

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Oh, great. Another great TV network whose future's in doubt.

Late last month, all 32 of Sinclair Broadcast Group's stations dropped TheCoolTV, a music video channel that did something MTV used to do back in the day: play music videos. The independently-run channel's library spans from all the way back to the 1960's through today, and covers most modern forms of music, mainly pop, rock and even some country.

What makes TheCoolTV so unique is that their library's so deep that if you put it on right now, chances are that you'll see a video you haven't seen before, or even years. It might be a video you love to death, or one you totally hate.

Of course, TheCoolTV is not the first music video channel seen on your local TV station's .2 or .3s. Remember The Tube? Almost the same concept, although it was a more adult and gold-based channel. Since most people didn't have digital TV sets at the time, it bombed. Now that many, like myself have long since dumped cable and is just using an antenna, it's nice having a channel or two or three that shows stuff you won't see on cable anymore.

But sadly, TheCoolTV may soon face the grisly death of its predecessor.

Not only did SBG can TheCoolTV on all their subchannels, Detroit's MyNetworkTV station, WMYD-TV 20, owned by Granite Broadcasting, also canned the fledgling channel due to financial issues. SBG never revealed why they dropped the channel.

What might be more sad is that TheCoolTV now has more ex-affiliates than current: 56 ex vs. a mere 15 now. Most of their remaining stations are owned by LIN Media and Scripps. Thankfully, one of those stations is WOTV-41 here in west Michigan.

If LIN cans TheCoolTV, shame on them. I hope their owners can work something out to gain new affiliates and to show that music on TV is alive and well. Yeah, they might play a Justin Bieber tune or two, but they play a lot of other cool stuff that you'll never, ever see on MTV ever again, ever.

Maybe if TheCoolTV showed more pregnant 16-year-olds, they could gain a few more affiliates....

---

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Bee-otch of the Day is a production of Chuck69.com, Grand Rapids' site for Stern, politics and more!

9.19.12 Bee-otch of the Day: Mitt Romney

BECOME AN AFFILIATE OF T-SHIRT HELL AND MAKE SOME MONEY! Bee-otch of the Day honors are awarded Monday through Thursday, Bee-otch of the Week is awarded Friday on Chuck69.com. DON'T FORGET TO "LIKE" BEE-OTCH OF THE DAY ON FACEBOOK!   -------------------   Names: Willard Romney Age: 65 Occupation: president wannabe Last Seen: ?? Bee-otched For: proving that he won't be our next president --- Everybody's favorite flip-flopper won't make Obama the first Democratic president since Jimmy Carter to be a one-termer. It seems that everything that pops out of Mittens' mouth contradicts each other. A few weeks ago, he announced that he would save *part* of the Affordable Health Care Act, namely the rule that insurace companies can't dump one who has a pre-existing condition. This after months of promising everybody that he'd kill "Obamacare" altogether. Now, it's the leaked footage of the Republican front-runner who claims that 47% of Americans don't pay taxes. OK, so who DOESN'T pay their taxes? I sure do. Of course, he gave out some half-assed BS clarifying his claims. Please. I know that some frown on those who pay their groceries with a Bridge Card, but let's remember a few things.... I love the fact that so many big city schools are failing, and the majority of their students are black. Why are those schools failing those kids? I think it's simple: class sizes are too big and our beloved government's not doing enough to keep them educated. End result: these kids fail, and when they try to get a job, they're rejected due to a lack of education. No money = a Bridge Card in their wallet. Oh, and who loves to cut funding to schools? The Republicans. Oooooh! We can't have them union thugs teaching our kids! They're overpaid! Yeah, right. Kids, this is further proof why I'm voting Obama in November. I don't want a CEO running my country. I already have one running my state (poorly), and he sucks. Do you want black kids to succeed? Give them a good education. That way, they'll have money in their pocket, not a Bridge Card. Mittens, you're gonna get owned. --- Got a Bee-otch to nominate? E-mail us @ chuck69dotcom@gmail.com. All suggestions (except for me) are welcome! Bee-otch of the Day Archives can be seen on http://beeotchoftheday.blogspot.com! Bee-otch of the Day is a production of Chuck69.com, Grand Rapids' site for Stern, politics and more!

9.18.12 Heroes of the Day: the friends and family of Matt Marker

BECOME AN AFFILIATE OF T-SHIRT HELL AND MAKE SOME MONEY! DON'T FORGET TO "LIKE" BEE-OTCH OF THE DAY ON FACEBOOK!   ------------------- TODAY, WE SALUTE SOME VERY SPECIAL HEROES OF THE DAY!   Names: various Age: various Occupation: various Last Seen: Elk Rapids, MI Awarded For: paying the ultimate tribute to its fallen son --- I know. I should be writing about the BS in Libya regarding that moron's anti-Muslim movie creating so much chaos. Heck, I should be writing about how people need to lay off Kate Middleton just because she showed her boobies in public. But, once in a while, I like to give back. As some of you know, I hail from a small town in Michigan called Elk Rapids, pop. 1,700. This small village sits in between three bodies of water - Grand Traverse Bay, Torch Lake and Elk Lake - and is probably one of the biggest towns within a 30-mile radius of Traverse City, 15 miles south of town. In Elk Rapids, you won't find any Golden Arches, just several eateries that are mostly locally-run that don't force-feed preservatives in their food. The town's only movie theatre has just one screen and uses 35 mm film and an old analog Dolby sound system. Instead of a 150,000 square-foot mega store run by billionaires, Elk Rapids just has a moderate-sized, family-owned supermarket that's been serving the community since the 1950's. Elk Rapids has grown in terms of industry in the past decade, partly due to the ever-expanding Short's Brewery, now the third-biggest microbrewery in the state behind Kalamazoo's Bell's and Grand Rapids' Founders. Yes, the town's sole hardware - down from three a decade ago - is a chain based in Flint and there's a Subway downtown, Elk Rapids is still a quaint alternative to the big city life that so many want to escape from. Like many small towns, Elk Rapids is a town that's not very inhabited by 20-somethings. Usually, when one graduates from Elk Rapids High School - home of the Elks - they go to the big city to escape the small-town life. But, its people will never forget its past. One of the nicest people in the town's history was Matthew Noble Marker, the one with the blonde dreadlocks in the photo above. The son of an insurance salesman, Marker battled ADHD growing up. But, he developed a love for cars and fixing them as well, earning the nickname "The Organic Mechanic". When he graduated ERHS in 1998, he got into the business of off-road racing. He even formed his own team, the Subaroots, named for the cars he raced with: Subarus. Like many who lived in the Elk Rapids area, I knew Matt personally. In a town that can be a mixed bag of nice people and people who you want to avoid like the plague, Matt was clearly one of the nicest people you'd ever meet. You can be the dorkiest person in town and Matt would still love you to death. I remember a bus trip where all I brought was a Walkman, and he was nice enough to lend me a pre-recorded tape of a Tool concert. But I think the fondest memory I have of him was when he forced the Elk Rapids Police Department to wash every car at Elk Rapids High School after he was suspected to have drugs in his car. He was clean, and the ERPD came with hoses and soap. I remember the last time I saw Matt; it was Harbor Days and I was up north for the weekend. I was in the lobby at the Village Market and he bumped into me with a six pack of an indie brew. He walked out with his girlfriend and a smile. That was it. On April of last year while racing in Washington state, Matt's Subaru crashed during a race, killing him. He died doing what he loved best: racing off-road in a car he souped up. Sunday would have been Matt's 33rd birthday, and his friends and family decided to honor his memory with a Guinness World Record. A whopping 357 people registered to have their Subarus lined up the village in hopes of breaking the record previously held by Subaru of America, who has the current record of 339 of their cars lined up in Illinois. It could take days until Guinness will reveal if the record was broken, but if it did, Matt would be up there smiling. Although I don't own a Subaru and I was unable to make the event, my heart does go out to the Marker family. In a world filled with stupid people, it's a shame that one of its nicest people was taken from us. I hope the record gets passed, making this one of the proudest moments in Elk Rapids history. ERHS 2000 --- Got a Bee-otch to nominate? E-mail us @ chuck69dotcom@gmail.com. All suggestions (except for me) are welcome! Bee-otch of the Day Archives can be seen on http://beeotchoftheday.blogspot.com! Bee-otch of the Day is a production of Chuck69.com, Grand Rapids' site for Stern, politics and more!

9.17.12 Bee-otch of the Day: Federal Communications Commission

BECOME AN AFFILIATE OF T-SHIRT HELL AND MAKE SOME MONEY! Bee-otch of the Day honors are awarded Monday through Thursday, Bee-otch of the Week is awarded Friday on Chuck69.com. DON'T FORGET TO "LIKE" BEE-OTCH OF THE DAY ON FACEBOOK!   -------------------   Name: Federal Communications Commission Age: 78 Occupation: federal regulators of the media Last Seen: Washington, DC Bee-otched For: not being tough on duopolies --- A long, long time ago, the National Hockey League only had six teams. Naturally, NHL rules stated that each owner could only have one team. But, one man bent the rules. James Norris was the owner of the Detroit Red Wings. Despite being one of the most-legendary owners of the NHL, he might have been one of the most-unfair. In 1944, longtime rival Chicago Blackhawks owner Fredric McLaughlin passed away, and his estate sold the team to team president Bill Tobin. However, it was later discovered that Tobin was nothing more than an owner in name only. Norris was the true owner of the Blackhawks; he was also the owner of Chicago Stadium, the 'Hawks' home. The result was that between 1944 and 1958, they only made the playoffs two times. The Blackhawks were the laughing stock of all hockey. Norris died in 1952, and eventually, the Wirtz family - who still owns the team today - gained control of the franchise. Today, no major sports league allows one owner to own two teams. True, they don't have issues with somebody owning, let's say, a baseball team and a hockey team at the same time, but if the current owner of the Red Wings, pizza tycoon Mike Ilitch were to do the same thing to the Blackhawks' current owner Rocky Wirtz and use him as a puppet, there could be stiff penalties and both the Red Wings and Blackhawks would end up chastised. Sadly, the case with television is different. In 1996, the Federal Communications Commission loosened their rules on media ownership. Now, one company could own two AM stations, six FMs and two TV outlets all in the same area. But, it all depended on how many stations there are in the area. In the case of television, the two TV station rule only applies to stations in bigger markets, like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Detroit. In the Motor City, CBS owns CBS station WWJ-TV 62 and WKBD CW 50. The duopoly is legal because one station is in the top four ratings and one isn't. If one company were to own, let's say the CBS and NBC affiliates in the same market, it would be illegal since they would overly control the market share of the televised media in the same region. Even here in Grand Rapids, we have a triopoly with LIN Media owning NBC station WOOD-TV 8, WOTV 41 (ABC) and WXSP, which airs My Network TV. Even that's considered legal, since WOOD-TV's their only property that covers the whole area. WOTV only covers the southern portion of the west Michigan market and WXSP is a bunch of low-powered stations. But some broadcasters are using the James Norris example to get their way. Take Granite Broadcasting for an example. They have duopolies in Duluth, MN and Fort Wayne, IN. In Duluth, they own KBJR-6 (NBC), but operate KDLH-3 (CBS). In Fort Wayne, they own WISE-33 (NBC) but operate WPTA-21 (ABC). The company that "owns" WDLH and WPTA is Malara Broadcasting. Rumor has it that Malara is nothing more than a shell company for Granite, since their SEC filings are made at the same time, plus the fact that WDLH and WPTA are their sole properties. Even that influence is made in northern Michigan, where I'm originally from. Five years ago, local Fox affiliate WFQX-33 (now at 32 thanks to the digital changeover) was sold from New York-based Rockfleet Broadcasting to Cadillac Telecasting, which is actually owned by a 69-year-old man from Sun City, AZ named Alexander Bolea. Cadillac entered a Shared Services Agreement with Heritage Broadcasting, the parent of CBS affiliate WWTV 9&10. Oddly enough, Iacobelli owns a lot of property in the Grand Canyon state. Coincidence? Maybe. Not long after WWTV and WFQX's merger, NBC affiliate WPBN 7&4 merged with WGTU ABC 29&8. WGTU is owned by another Arizonian, Ben Tucker while that station is operated and WPBN is owned by Chicago-based Barrington Broadcasting. WGTU was previously owned by Max Media, which was partly owned by the family of televangelist Pat Robertson. For years, WWTV and WPBN were the leaders in northern Michigan in terms of ratings, while WGTU and WFQX were the laughing stock. The latter never had decent newscasts and even WGTU lost top-rated syndicated shows like Live! With Regis and Kelly, Oprah, Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! to both WWTV and WPBN. True, the SSA deals gave WGTU and WFQX overall better quality in terms of on-air image and even newscasts, their programming started to suffer. While WPBN/WGTU tend to reach out to the female crowd with Oprah-produced Dr. Oz, Dr. Phil, The Doctors and Rachael Ray, WWTV/WFQX tends to suffer programming-wise, even though both stations are the homes in northern Michigan for Live!, Ellen, Anderson and The Peoples Court. Then again, 9&10 has always had the top news department in northern Michigan, and the ratings prove it. But that's the problem with only two station owners in town. Not all the most-popular syndicated fare is aired. Just ask Maury Povich and Jerry Springer. Yep! Neither one of their shows air in northern Michigan, and apparently, neither Barrington nor Heritage are interested. Previously, Fox 32 aired Maury but when Heritage took over that station's operations, they demoted it to the wee hours of the morning, namely 3 a.m. They also aired Jerry in the past, but it was canceled when Rockfleet owned it. However, while the switchover was occurring, Fox 32 added on more infomercials and even worse, The 700 Club. Previously, that show aired on 29&8 but dumped it when Barrington took the station over. Now, instead of knowing who the babydaddy is, TV viewers in northern Michigan can give Pat Robertson their life savings or else they will rot in hell. Even though northern Michigan's full-powered stations only have two operators, there's still two smaller stations in MyNetworkTV affiliate WLLZ-12 and independent WMNN-26, which airs a mix of news, movies and old TV shows on their three subchannels. But, there's no Jerry or Maury there, either. WLLZ does air Family Guy, American Dad!, My Name is Earl and How I Met Your Mother but they also air crappy old shows through once-promising classic TV network RTV such as The Adventures of Black Beauty and The Campbells, which was a Scottish TV series from the 80's. So, thanks to the FCC's botched duopoly laws, people in northern Michigan don't have a lot of choices when it comes to syndicated programming (the fact that both companies re-broadcast each station's sisters on their .2 channels don't help, either. Thanks to that, there's no station up north carrying the likes of MeTV, Antenna TV, TheCoolTV, This TV and other neat channels that make cable worthless). Hell, even MARQUETTE's programming choices are better than that of northern Michigan's these days! Twenty years ago, it was just WJMN-3 (CBS, a simulcast of WFRV-5 Green Bay) and WLUC-6 (which carried both NBC and ABC). Today, WJMN is on their own and WLUC is full-blown NBC while ABC is now on WBUP-10. WLUC also has Fox on 6.2, and they even have Jerry and Maury. There's even The CW on WBKP-5 and WZMQ-19 has MyNetworkTV, ThisTV, Antenna TV and MeTV. Phew! Oh, and WLUC is owned by Barrington. Sad. I find it pathetic that programming-wise, northern Michigan is now the laughing stock of TV in the whole state of Michigan. They can't watch Springer but they can watch an old billionaire beg for money with a Bible in his hand or a 30-minute infomercial for a fucking pillow. What might be funnier is that only two secular stations in Michigan carry The 700 Club. Yet, northern Michigan is the only market left in the state not carrying either Springer nor Maury. I'll betcha it's because their excuse is content reasons. Personally, if I had a kid, I'd rather have my young kid watch two lezbos wrestle in Jello over an old man telling another man to become a Muslim so he can beat his wife. Personally, I think the only thing people in northern Michigan can do is write to the FCC to do an investigation. I think there's major problems with these duopolies and it's causing TV viewers to have less choice. For a mid-sized TV market, northern Michigan is an abortion. But hey! Dr. Oz taught me how to poop better! --- Got a Bee-otch to nominate? E-mail us @ chuck69dotcom@gmail.com. All suggestions (except for me) are welcome! Bee-otch of the Day Archives can be seen on http://beeotchoftheday.blogspot.com! Bee-otch of the Day is a production of Chuck69.com, Grand Rapids' site for Stern, politics and more!

9.13.12 Bee-otch of the Day: Pat Robertson

BECOME AN AFFILIATE OF T-SHIRT HELL AND MAKE SOME MONEY! Bee-otch of the Day honors are awarded Monday through Thursday, Bee-otch of the Week is awarded Friday on Chuck69.com. DON'T FORGET TO "LIKE" BEE-OTCH OF THE DAY ON FACEBOOK!   -------------------   Name: Pat Robertson Age: 82Occupation: SatanLast Seen: Virginia Beach, VA Bee-otched For: proving that it's time for him to retire --- From its humble beginnings in 1966 at a small UHF TV station in Hampton Roads, VA,  The 700 Club has been television's leading Christian TV program. It began as a telethon where station owner Pat Robertson told his viewers that if 700 people could donate $10 each, it would be enough to keep the station on the air. Pat's speech worked, and soon, tiny WYAH-TV became a flourishing station. Soon, Pat's media empire grew, and in 1972,The 700 Club became syndicated. Over the years, the program became one of the most-controversial in television history, especially for its far-right politics. Robertson even became known for his moronic rants; alongside the late Jerry Falwell, he proclaimed that the events on 9/11 were caused by liberals, feminists and gays. Insensitive comments are what Robertson's known for, and on Monday, he didn't make any exceptions. On his daily segment Bring it Online where viewers submit questions to Robertson about faith and other issues, a viewer named Michael asked Robertson what his feelings were regarding his abusive wife. His reply: "Well, you can become a Muslim and beat her". Sadly, his co-host, former Miss America Terry Meeuswen (who is probably only one of maybe three or four women in that contest's history to *actually* do anything after they've retired their crown) found Robertson's comment funny. Even worse, Robertson later proclaimed that even though Scripture condones divorce, maybe they can move to Saudi Arabia so he can beat her. The sad thing is that people actually watch this old prick and think that he's Jesus. The truth is, is that he's breaking Biblical code by ignoring that verse in the book "it's easier for a camel to go through a needle than for a rich man to go to Heaven". He's easily a billionaire and doesn't admit it. Why? Simple: he loves it when poor people give him money, especially after they show those retarded stories that show people giving to The 700 Club and becoming better off financially and spiritually. Folks, I have a story to tell. This involves a man who donated to programs like The 700 Club and others. This man barely graduated from high school and fell into the hands of pill-popping in the 1970's, screwing him mentally. He never married not did he have kids. Some years ago, he decided to give what was part of his already-meager paycheck to televangelists because in his mind, you give God $10 and you get 100-fold back, right? Well, he's wrong. He lives in a small trailer and up until recently, had a crappy job. However, he lost it as part of management restructuring. Now, he's blown through his retirement and lost his unemployment as well. And yes, this is true. Why? This is a member of my own family we're talking about. You see, folks, Pat Robertson is a fraud, plain and simple. For him to tell people that Muslims are wife beaters show how peanut-sized his brain is. I'll betcha that 99% of all Muslims don't beat up their wives. I know, The Bible says "put no Gods before me", but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't respect others' faiths. Maybe we should pray that Pat's wife carry around a baseball bat at all times. --- Got a Bee-otch to nominate? E-mail us @ chuck69dotcom@gmail.com. All suggestions (except for me) are welcome! Bee-otch of the Day Archives can be seen on http://beeotchoftheday.blogspot.com! Bee-otch of the Day is a production of Chuck69.com, Grand Rapids' site for Stern, politics and more!

9.12.12 Bee-otch of the Day: NBC

BECOME AN AFFILIATE OF T-SHIRT HELL AND MAKE SOME MONEY! Bee-otch of the Day honors are awarded Monday through Thursday, Bee-otch of the Week is awarded Friday on Chuck69.com. DON'T FORGET TO "LIKE" BEE-OTCH OF THE DAY ON FACEBOOK!   -------------------   Name: The National Broadcasting Company Age: 86Occupation: TV networkLast Seen: New York, NY Bee-otched For: not having their priorities straight... AGAIN --- Well, well, well, what do you expect from the same network that decided not to air a tribute to the 7/7 disaster during the opening ceremonies to the Summer Olympics? Yesterday marked the 11th anniversary of the horrific events that took the lives of nearly 3,000 people. It was a day that will always lives in our hearts and made us think about how important freedom is. It is now a tradition at 8:46 a.m. - the time the first plane hit the first World Trade Tower - on September 11th, to observe a moment of silence to honor those lost on that painful day. Most of the major networks, including CBS, ABC, CNN, Fox News Channel and a few others honored that day with silence, but NBC had other plans. At 8:46 a.m. yesterday, NBC was instead airing an interview between Samantha Guthrie and Kris Jenner about her boobs, and yes, Keeping Up With the Kardashians. That's right! Instead of honoring 7/7, NBC thinks that Tinker Bell himself, Ryan Seacrest talking to Michael Phelps was more important. Now, it's spitting on al-Quida's victims again but airing an unimportant interview about the most-useless family in American history. Kids, this is why NBC's Today Show has become the most-unwatchable morning news program on TV. They can Ann Curry for no true reason and worst of all, one of their correspondents is the daughter of the worst president in modern history. With Jenna BusHitler-Whore-gar's bullshit and their absolute ignorance towards the victims of 9/11 and 7/7, NBC's news division has done a wonderful job spitting in the faces of those whose lives were affected on those days. But then again, let's not forget who still owns part of NBC: General Electric, who manufactured a lot of the weapons used in the wars that followed 9/11. Although I'll admit that NBC Nightly News is one of the lesser of all the news evils out there, I'm quickly turning more and more into an ABC guy, especially for their weekend edition (here in Grand Rapids, WOOD-TV 8 doesn't air the weekend editions of Nightly News in lieu of a 60-minute newscast on Sunday and a godawful lifestyle show called Maranda: Where You Live on Saturday). Besides, I love the fact that they designed their newsdesk so when a female reporter sits down on the side, they show off their curves (damn does Ginger Zee have a nice ass). But seriously, NBC shot themselves in the foot again. When will it stop? I think that until they positively get their shit together, this is what we're going to get from them: fluff pieces over the things people TRULY want. The Kardashians can wait. Hell, if they were in the World Trade Towers while they were collapsing, the world would have been a slightly better place. Wait.... Too soon? Naaaaaah. --- Got a Bee-otch to nominate? E-mail us @ chuck69dotcom@gmail.com. All suggestions (except for me) are welcome! Bee-otch of the Day Archives can be seen on http://beeotchoftheday.blogspot.com! Bee-otch of the Day is a production of Chuck69.com, Grand Rapids' site for Stern, politics and more!

9.11.12 Bee-otch of the Day: Republican Party

BECOME AN AFFILIATE OF T-SHIRT HELL AND MAKE SOME MONEY! Bee-otch of the Day honors are awarded Monday through Thursday, Bee-otch of the Week is awarded Friday on Chuck69.com. DON'T FORGET TO "LIKE" BEE-OTCH OF THE DAY ON FACEBOOK!   -------------------   Name: The Republican Party Age: 158Occupation: right-winged jerkwads Last Seen: Washington, DC Bee-otched For: spin, spin, spin.... --- Well, it's better than nothing. Last week, the economic report was released, and the unemployment rate fell to 8.1% while 96,000 jobs were created. Many are still calling this one of the slowest economic recoveries in history, but people keep forgetting something: we're stuck with a do-nothing government. The Republicans and their beloved Congress cry that President Obama's not tough enough regarding job creation, but that's their problem. They claim that the only way to create jobs is to drill holes in the ground and to deregulate everything, even if it means bringing everything back to pre-Great Depression standards. Folks, the Repukes don't get it. Once upon a time, we had no minimum wage, children had to work, there was no overtime, no 40-hour weeks and no unions. All those ideas led us into Depression in 1929. Of course, FDR and his New Deal saved America, and this country was unapologetically Democratic. The Great Depression ended in 1940, only to get screwed over by a little something called World War II. Well, that ended, and the late 1940's through most of the 60's were pretty much happy-go-lucky. Yeah, the 1960's and 70's gave us Vietnam, but people still had money in their pockets. But then came Reagan and his tax cuts for the wealthy. Bush I also screwed people over on taxes, but Clinton left the White House with a surplus, only to have us screwed over because of the second coming of Bush. Let's remember something: Dubya wasn't even invited to the Republican National Convention in Tampa for one major reason, and it's because he squandered Clinton's surplus and gave much of it to the wealthy, unemployment skyrocketed, outsourcing skyrocketed, foreclosures skyrocketed, bankruptcies skyrocketed, and yes, he knew all about 9/11, which happened 11 years ago today. Sadly, people are brainwashed into thinking that the Democrats are nothing but giving poor black people money and nothing but. The truth is, they're really for making sure that the middle class is preserved and that big corporations are and remain regulated. If people voted Democrat this November and ignore the lies of the right, this country will rock hard than what it is now. Remember, if we swim together, we'll succeed. If not, we'll sink and die. --- Got a Bee-otch to nominate? E-mail us @ chuck69dotcom@gmail.com. All suggestions (except for me) are welcome! Bee-otch of the Day Archives can be seen on http://beeotchoftheday.blogspot.com! Bee-otch of the Day is a production of Chuck69.com, Grand Rapids' site for Stern, politics and more!