WELCOME TO THE 2023 BEE-OTCH OF THE YEAR!
Well, 2023 is almost over. As some of you have noticed, I've only published three BOTDs this year. The reason is that I decided to play by the Warner Bros. Handbook and take tax write-offs on all my unpublished works. I'm now worth hundreds of millions of dollars!
All kidding aside, I had a busy year at work and didn't have much of a home life thanks to having an elderly father who lives with me and doesn't see eye-to-eye with me politically. So. I do the bulk of my work on my cell phone. Things can be tough when your WPM suffers a nose dive when you can only use one finger at a time. Speech-to-text? Meh. I'm not a fan of heavy amounts of editing.
Well, we've tallied the amount of buzz we've gotten from those three BOTDs. Without delay...
For decades, Bynum has shown West Michigan how not to run a successful radio station. When he ran 640 WMFN, the R&B station had zero ratings and eventually was forced to give up the station's lease. Eventually, 640 moved to the Chicago area and now airs a Spanish format. Several years ago, he was handed 10,000-watt 1680 WPRR and its low-power translator at 102.5 after his boss, Bob Goodrich filed for bankruptcy. He flipped the station from its successful progressive talk format to - you guessed it - R&B for 600-pound black women with Type II Diabetes. The station - now christened 102.5 The Ride - has zero ratings and even worse, is breaking the law. Under the Federal Communications Commission's guidelines, 102.5 is a translator that MUST simulcast with a full-powered station. 102.5 is set to rebroadcast WPRR's programming. But for most of this year, 1680 has been airing in a separate format. Even 1680 is breaking FCC regulations by not airing any legal IDs. The straw that broke the camel's back for Bynum is the fact that The Ride now broadcasts from Wyoming's aging Rogers Plaza, a shopping mall that has seen better days. I visited on a Saturday night not long ago and the place didn't have even ten people inside. It wouldn't shock me if The Ride had fewer listeners than even that.
In July this past year, the Grammy-nominated industrial metal band was scheduled to play at Grand Rapids' Upheaval Festival, but canceled at the last minute. On their socials, the band released a statement claiming that the event's organizers did not provide them enough space to set up their equipment. As a result of the snafu, the organizers moved a 16-year-old DJ from the local stage to ITM's slot on the main stage. Concertgoers expecting to hear their hits like "Blood", "Whore" and "The In-between" instead were handed some kid who dropped the first two minutes of popular rock songs. I stood in the merchandise line and there weren't many people watching the kid, who wasn't talented enough to play Upheaval's sister festival, Breakaway. Speculation had it that Maria Brink wanted more space for her costume changes and her wishes weren't granted. Sad, considering that years ago, the band toured the country in a beaten-up old van. Maria was a young single mother who worked hard to provide for her young son. Now that they're one of rock's major bands, they put money over their fans, especially in rock-friendly West Michigan. Sad, since they used to be one of my favorite bands. Not anymore.
AND, THE 2023 BEE-OTCH OF THE YEAR IS...
The summer of 2023 was musically dominated by country music and Jason Aldean had one of the biggest hits of the season with the controversial "Try That In A Small Town", a song that went to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. The tune - which Aldean did not write - was an attack on those who rob and vandalize their communities. The music video showed footage of looting and robbing while Aldean and his band played in front of a courthouse where a black man was lynched in 1927. Many - like myself - felt that Aldean's song, along with the botched banning of Morgan Wallen which led to his surge in popularity, and Oliver Anthony's surprise #1 hit "Rich Men North of Richmond" is giving people the message that it's OK to be an angry white conservative. And sadly, country music is their soundtrack.
**RANT MODE** I'm a straight white male who hates country music with a passion, who busts his ass off at work ten hours per day, and has never voted Republican in his life because I have a brain. I get pissed that because of the bullshit that's out there, people have a misconception that Drumpf is the good guy but Biden ain't because of his son's problems. Since Biden took over the White House, the economy has improved, inflation is down, gas prices are down and unemployment is low. Recession? Don't think about it.
I know Joe ain't perfect. He's not as progressive as Bernie Sanders, who should have been president. But Biden's an upgrade over Drumpf, whose policies have severely hurt women by beefing up the Supreme Court with the intent of overturning Roe V. Wade, which he was successful with. He was ignorant regarding COVID-19 and raised taxes on the middle class, like me.
Granted, Biden needs to care even more about the middle class. Nobody should have to work 40 hours and then have to turn around and do a gig job because they can't afford the rent, even for a modest house. He needs to start taxing the wealthy and make them pay for a lot of the shit they got us into. Also - and I don't give a fuck what people say - he needs to spend our money on our problems instead of spending it on Israel and their asshole dictator who got them into war. Sorry, not sorry.
Over twenty years ago, I was introduced to the music of Johnny Rebel on Howard Stern's radio show. To me, his music reflects on how fucking idiotic country music always has been. I grew up HATING country music because it was everywhere in northern Michigan. I was a rock guy, through and through. Yet, the inbred douchebags who all moved up north to get away from the colored folk in Detroit had several stations to choose from.
What sucks is that thanks to the corporations that run the music business getting bigger and greedy, you see the country everywhere. They know that country fans aren't all that bright. On the other hand, if you want a local, true blue active rock station on the dial, you won't find one in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, or San Francisco. As a matter of fact, of the top ten radio markets in America, only Philadelphia has an active rocker. But, WMMR plays its fair share of crusty classics.
I don't know. Maybe it's the angry young man inside me that society will put shit on a pedestal while talent goes by the wayside. I even cringe knowing that even rock radio is making that same bullshit mistake since as of this writing, Staind's latest single is on top of the rock charts. Of course, their lead singer, Aaron Lewis is a whiny Republican. So is Scott "I'm going out to kill Obama" Stapp of Creed. I almost threw Avenged Sevenfold into the list for lumping Hillary Clinton with Vladimir Putin in their video for "The Stage". However, I see that lead singer M. Shadows has come out in support of Black Lives Matter and has voiced his angst against Florida governor Ron DeSantis.
You see, I have a friend who has a rare disability. It's so rare that the medicine needed to help her is outrageously expensive. For over 30 years, her parents have fought in court, urging the government to help people like her. As a matter of fact, her case made headlines when she was a teen. One time, a strange man called her family in the dead of night, telling them to drop their case.
Recently, her father - who happens to be a lawyer - went to Circuit Court in Ohio to urge them to allow free medication for her, but the case was denied. Now, the family is planning to take the case to the Supreme Court. Of course, with a Republican majority, I will expect that if they hear her case, they'll spit on her. And sadly, if that's the case, she's already told me that she'll move abroad.
Seriously, I wish that people would understand world history. In 1929, we ended up in a Great Depression because the wealthy had way better treatment than the working class. Fuck, we didn't have a minimum wage, social security and a 40-hour workweek. Thanks to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, it all became reality.
The funny thing is that because it's a big tent party, there were many Democrats who hated FDR. One that comes to mind was congressman Willis Robertson, the father of douchebag preacher Pat Robertson. Not only did Willis opposed The New Deal, which Jumpstarted the US economy, he was a vicious opposer of Civil Rights. By the time FDR died in office, not only was the Great Depression over, but World War II ended, too.
FDR wanted to create a second Bill of Rights, but died in office before it could be passed. JFK was our next president, but he was assassinated. Granted, LBJ put a man on the moon and passed the Civil Rights Act, but he shipped our men to Vietnam to be slaughtered. To the Greatest Generation, the Democrats were their heroes. But to their children, they were Satan. Nixon got us out of 'Nam, but Watergate tarnished the Repukes' reputation.
Sadly, the media made a mockery out of Jimmy Carter. He inherited a weak economy that Nixon and Ford created. Then, 1980 came, and people wondered what America would really be like if a celebrity became president. They felt that if Reagan could successfully run California, then he could run America right.
Well, the brainwashing went into full effect. Taxes for the wealthy went from 70% to under 20%. The illusion was that jobs would be created. Instead, jobs were shipped elsewhere. Reagan told striking air traffic control workers to get back to work and employers were given the freedom to bust unions.
But one thing Reagan did was he eliminated something that kept Americans intelligent: the Fairness Doctrine. If you had a radio or TV station and you had a conservative giving a viewpoint, you had to have a lefty giving a counterpoint. But in 1987, that was abolished thanks to Reagan's FCC. Thanks to Reagan, he paved the way for the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin and others to spew their stupidity on AM radio.
Even worse, Bill Clinton, a Democrat, signed the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which allowed for more corporate control of the media. In the 2000s, Air America was launched in hopes of bringing quality left-wing talk radio to millions of Americans. However, they signed a deal with Clear Channel, who ended up sealing AA's fate by dumping its programming on their stations after Bain Capitol - operated by senator Mitt Romney - purchased a stake in CC. In the end, AA went bankrupt.
Sadly, there's hardly any true blue progressive talk radio stations on the radio anymore. Here in Grand Rapids, as mentioned, WPRR 1680 Grand Rapids was given to Tyrone Bynum. In Detroit, 1310 WDTW was sold by Clear Channel to a Spanish group. In very leftist Ann Arbor, Cumulus' 1290 WLBY flipped to conservative talk despite a two share on a weak signal. Hell, even northern Michigan had a lib-talker in 750 WWKK. However it was sold to Roy Henderson, who flipped it to a simulcast of then-country WLDR 101.9 Traverse City. Just like all of his other stations, Henderson ran 750 into the ground and is now silent.
As I'm typing this on Christmas Day, 2023, I'm watching "It's a Wonderful Life". It's a great movie with a happy ending, though it's bothersome that the humble townspeople bail out George Bailey while Potter escapes unscathed. Of course, Saturday Night Live fixed the problem nearly 40 years ago.
So, why can't we have nice things? Simple: stupid people. We've long a mentality where if someone is a celebrity, they need to be worshipped. Reagan was a celebrity and so is Drumpf. On the other hand, Biden's just a politician. Repukes love stupid people and the Democrats aren't far behind, especially with what happened in 2016 when they fucked over Bernie Sanders. Of course, Hillary had to be their choice because she pees sitting down. Fuck the fact that she voted for the fakes wars BusHitler started and the fact that she sold out her party when she took bribes from those fighting against universal Healthcare.
The system is broken, folks. It's up to us to fix it. I hope that in my lifetime, we'll never have another Repuke as president. Even more, the Democrats need to stop being sellouts to the right. They need to stop being a big tent party and start listening to We The People.
2024 should be interesting.
---
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!
No comments:
Post a Comment