THE 2024 BEE-OTCH OF THE YEAR!
2024 is winding to a close and it's time to award the Bee-otch of the Year.
For 25 (!!!) years, we've awarded those who are total morons. Now that we're an occasional feature as opposed to daily, we looked at the page views each Bee-otch of the Day got and determined who was the most deserving of Bee-otch of the Year.
In past years, we've awarded BOTY to the likes of George W. Bush, Drumpf, and the douchebag radio executive who ran the late, great KLQ into the ground, Matt Hanlon.
So, who's turn is it to be BOTY? Here are the runners-up:
SECOND RUNNER-UP: THOSE WHO DIDN'T VOTE FOR KAMALA HARRIS
Yep, we know. We're getting four more years of Drumpf whether we like it or not. Americans got tired of high prices at the supermarket and the gas station, so they voted out someone who didn't have anything to do with the fact that gas prices were lower under Drumpf. In this BOTD, we talked about True Value Hardware's recent bankruptcy and how their owners, a private equity firm called ACON Investments blamed inflation for the company's demise. In fact, True Value had been struggling for years because it had been poorly managed since the 1990s and it went from being a cooperative to being scooped up by ACON, who also owns Igloo Coolers and Funko. We also touched on the demise of smaller, family-owned grocers to big box stores and Dollar General, plus Red Lobster's bankruptcy, which the owners blamed on their "endless shrimp" promotion. In fact, the real source of Red Lobster's problems all stemmed from when another private equity firm sold their buildings so new owners could rent them out for hefty prices. Renting costs more than owning, which was why Red Lobster was sold.
Simply put, I was trying to point out that years of corporate greed were the main culprit for high prices, and not Biden. In fact, I felt that he was the best president in my lifetime. Personally, I felt that another factor in Kamala's loss was the fact that men hated her. She didn't speak the language of the working-class hero, so they voted for Drumpf. He went to many small towns - like my birthplace of Traverse City, where he was three hours late because of him being interviewed by Joe Rogan - while Kamala pounced in most major cities and played to minorities.
If there's one person on the left who is right regarding Kamala's loss, it is Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who trashed the Democrats for not caring enough for American workers. As I'm typing this, I'm just learning that President Jimmy Carter had died at the age of 100. Sadly, he left office just months before I was born and my generation got fucked ROYALLY because of Reagan and his policies that gave the wealthy tax breaks and outsourced our jobs. If Carter defeated Reagan, I think my life would have been a billion times better today.
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RUNNERS-UP: TYRONE BYNUM AND ROBERT S. WOMACK
It's no secret that Grand Rapids is quite boring and predictable in terms of radio stations. But when only three companies own 95% of all the stations in town, well, there you go. It's too bad that the sole black-owned radio station in town, 102.5 The Ride is an absolute abortion.
Since we gave Tyrone and Robert the BOTD honors in February, Tyrone officially purchased the station, which is technically WPRR 1680 Ada, and low-powered translator station 102.5 from longtime owner Bob Goodrich, who filed for bankruptcy in 2020 due to financial problems at his GQT Cinemas. Bob's bankruptcy was pure karma for screwing over many of his loyal employees, such as station programmer and Southpaws host Darren Gibson and dozens of teens who all threatened to sue Goodrich because they were fired so his theaters could sell alcohol.
In February, a source revealed that Bynum and Kent County Commissioner Womack - who hosts a show on The Ride - threatened a hostile takeover of 97.3 The Heat, a non-profit, Latino-run hip-hop station. Chances were that the two would turn 97.3 into a simulcast of 102.5 The Ride. The problem would be that while WPRR is commercially licensed, 97.3 is not and any radio station with an "-LP" in their call sign is only allowed to be run by non-profit groups. But, since this is Tyrone we're talking about, he'll always find ways to get what he wants.
In this BOTD, we touched on Tyrone's record of shitty radio station management and the fact that most of the time, 1680 and 102.5 do not simulcast, which is a violation of FCC rules. The two did simulcast up until last month when 1680 returned to playing whatever Tyrone wanted with no station ID. At last listen, 1680 was a dead carrier. He's proof that he's not fit to own a radio station.
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AND NOW, YOUR BEE-OTCH OF THE YEAR FOR 2024 IS...
Last January, the long-lowly Detroit Lions finally made the playoffs after too many decades of humiliation. During the NFC Divisional Game vs. the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, WOOD-TV 8 here in Grand Rapids suddenly lost its feed to NBC. The other Nexstar stations in the area—MyNetworkTV WXSP-15 and ABC WOTV 41—also went dark.
Thankfully, it was just five minutes before halftime, and I went out to grab a pizza. When I got back, the picture was pixilated with two audio feeds—English and Spanish—fighting with each other. I was thankful that I had an alternative way of watching the rest of the game.
I would flip back to WOOD-TV to see how they were handling the game. I noticed that at times, it would skip and during the time they were supposed to be airing local commercials, the NBC Peacock would be on screen changing color with the NBC chimes frantically playing every so often. It wasn’t until the game ended that everything returned to normal.
The cause of this snafu was that WOOD-TV hasn't had its master control in Grand Rapids in over 20 years. In olden times, if the station's feed conked out on them, they would use WDIV-4 Detroit as a backup. However, former owner LIN Television moved the station's master control to Indianapolis as a cost-cutting move. It happened so that during the game, there was a major wind storm in Indy that knocked out the majority of their stations (and as someone who has driven through Indiana during bad weather, I can vouch for that).
Today, WOOD-TV is owned by Nexstar Media Group, whose master control hub is at CBS affiliate WTTV-4 in Indy. It was formerly at WISH-TV 8, though when Nexstar purchased the assets of Tribune Broadcasting several years ago, they spun off WISH-TV because it lost CBS to WTTV. Today, WISH-TV is black-owned and carries The CW, which is majority-owned by Nexstar.
The Lions game snafu is another embarrassment to WOOD-TV, west Michigan's oldest TV station. It turned 75 years old this year and has nothing to celebrate. The station is still trying to shake off last year's controversy when several employees were fired in regard to a station memo from their now-former news director urging reporters to tone down covering stories regarding LGBTQ+ issues. Many staffers left WOOD-TV since, including long-timers like morning weather girl Terri DeBoer and anchor Emily Linnert. Even worse for WOOD-TV was the fact that they had a horrible weekend anchor in Amanda Porter, who had a knack for mispronouncing even simple words like "Pączki" (as "pass-key") and "deposit" (as "despot"). That, plus the fact that her delivery resembled a bad William Shatner impersonation made me wonder why the station simply can't air the weekend edition of the NBC Nightly News. At least Jose Diaz-Balart is a master when it comes to pronouncing Spanish terms. Amanda, OTOH, probably sucked her fair share of WOOD-TV management cock to get her job at the station. The only good thing I can say about her is that she recently departed the station.
Nexstar in general is a very shitty company. They own the majority of The CW and this past year, they failed at buying Detroit's WADL-38 from longtime owner Kevin Adell. Nexstar tried using their shell company, Mission Broadcasting to buy the station. The FCC approved the sale on the condition that Nexstar had zero involvement in day-to-day operations, so they balked. Not only that, but after being dumped on Paramount's WKBD-50, The CW ended up on WADL only to be dumped by Adell due to non-payment. The CW has since moved back to WKBD-50 while WADL-38 carries MyNetworkTV.
Unfortunately, WOOD-TV is the lesser of the news evils here in West Michigan. WWMT-3 is owned by ultra-right-wing Sinclair, Fox 17 WXMI carries stores from Fox "News", and WZZM-13 has no signal where I live, plus I can't stand Juliet Dragos. It's too bad Nexstar killed off WGN America for the shitty NewsNation channel, where Bill O'Reilly is a frequent contributor. Who watches that shit?
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Well, there you have it. Another year has come and gone. With Drumpf re-entering the White House on January 20, I'm sure we'll have plenty of fodder for the new year.
However, I'm happy to say that I'm working on a MEGA post that I hope will be up in a few weeks. I'm gonna spill some guts. That's all I'll say.
Stay tuned.
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