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Name: northern Michigan radio stations
Age: various
Occupation: supposed entertainers and informers of the public
Last Seen: Traverse City, Petoskey, etc.
Bee-otched For: storm? What storm?
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A week ago Sunday, a big nasty storm ripped apart northern Michigan.
High winds, hail and lots of rain rattled huge chunks of the Traverse City area. Even governor Rick Snyder has declared a state of emergency for Grand Traverse County since even 11 days after the storm, some roads - like the ones leading into Glen Arbor - could not be driven on. Eighty to 100 MPH winds were even recorded for Leelanau County and thousands were left without power.
Obviously, the big TV news stations in town had their weather staff tracking the mighty storm. But however, radio was another story.
According to a friend of mine in Traverse City who used to work in radio, he went downstairs at his house with a small, battery-powered radio with him. He wanted up-to-the-minute storm updates, but all he got was music, commercials and voicetracked banter. Virtually no station in the Traverse City area warned their listeners about the storm as it was pounding the Cherry Capitol.
Angered, my friend contacted a friend of his who works at a radio station in TC, and he proclaimed that yes, all the stations in his cluster were all on autopilot during the DeathStorm. Talk about commitment to the community... NOT.
It reminds me on 9/11 when many of the radio stations up north were piping in CNN, Fox News, etc. Yet, the now-defunct 95.5/94.5 The Zone was voicetracked. I remember their midday jock, Kimberly Fox saying how it was a "beautiful day" while thousands of people were killed. In the nearly 14 years since that fateful day, radio up north has only gotten worse, and in many cases, much worse than Clear Channel/iHeartMedia, Cumulus and the like. Hell, there's stations that hardly have any staff, period!
What might be the SMH moment in this situation is that there's hardly any public outcry over the bullshit actions created by northern Michigan's radio groups. Maybe it's because many up north have abandoned listening to local radio altogether. Satellite and internet radio have such a better product that it's not funny. True, local radio has to air commercials and edit their songs to conform to FCC rules and regs, but they can make up for it by having a live jock in the damn studio warning Traverse City that they're about to kiss their asses goodbye. Open House Party can live another day. It's the duty of ALL radio stations to serve and protect their listeners.
The slogan for northern Michigan's radio stations should be "you're all gonna die".
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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!
Age: various
Occupation: supposed entertainers and informers of the public
Last Seen: Traverse City, Petoskey, etc.
Bee-otched For: storm? What storm?
---
A week ago Sunday, a big nasty storm ripped apart northern Michigan.
High winds, hail and lots of rain rattled huge chunks of the Traverse City area. Even governor Rick Snyder has declared a state of emergency for Grand Traverse County since even 11 days after the storm, some roads - like the ones leading into Glen Arbor - could not be driven on. Eighty to 100 MPH winds were even recorded for Leelanau County and thousands were left without power.
Obviously, the big TV news stations in town had their weather staff tracking the mighty storm. But however, radio was another story.
According to a friend of mine in Traverse City who used to work in radio, he went downstairs at his house with a small, battery-powered radio with him. He wanted up-to-the-minute storm updates, but all he got was music, commercials and voicetracked banter. Virtually no station in the Traverse City area warned their listeners about the storm as it was pounding the Cherry Capitol.
Angered, my friend contacted a friend of his who works at a radio station in TC, and he proclaimed that yes, all the stations in his cluster were all on autopilot during the DeathStorm. Talk about commitment to the community... NOT.
It reminds me on 9/11 when many of the radio stations up north were piping in CNN, Fox News, etc. Yet, the now-defunct 95.5/94.5 The Zone was voicetracked. I remember their midday jock, Kimberly Fox saying how it was a "beautiful day" while thousands of people were killed. In the nearly 14 years since that fateful day, radio up north has only gotten worse, and in many cases, much worse than Clear Channel/iHeartMedia, Cumulus and the like. Hell, there's stations that hardly have any staff, period!
What might be the SMH moment in this situation is that there's hardly any public outcry over the bullshit actions created by northern Michigan's radio groups. Maybe it's because many up north have abandoned listening to local radio altogether. Satellite and internet radio have such a better product that it's not funny. True, local radio has to air commercials and edit their songs to conform to FCC rules and regs, but they can make up for it by having a live jock in the damn studio warning Traverse City that they're about to kiss their asses goodbye. Open House Party can live another day. It's the duty of ALL radio stations to serve and protect their listeners.
The slogan for northern Michigan's radio stations should be "you're all gonna 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!
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