The French word "bijou" is defined as a small jewel.
"Bijou" was also a common name for a cinema long ago, along with "Rialto," "Temple," and "State." My birthplace of Traverse City, Michigan, was fortunate to have its own Bijou recently.
And now, it's going by the wayside for a variety of reasons.
Recently, filmmaker Michael Moore announced that his eleven-year-old Bijou By The Bay Cinema had shown its last film. In a letter to those following his Traverse City Film Festival, Moore pointed out the reasons why the theater was closed. These include a faulty projector, construction on the Grandview Parkway, the need for better parking downtown, and uncertainty regarding the future of the film business.
Moore discontinued the Film Festival in 2022, although he reformatted the event to TCFF Tuesdays, in which he selected a special film to be shown at the TCFF's State Theatre downtown. Throughout the summer, the State seemed to be on a reduced schedule, mainly showing older films, which is odd considering that Moore claimed that last year's "Barbenheimer" phenomenon was a boon for the theaters. Currently, the State is only open on weekends and Tuesdays.
Some in northern Michigan have argued that Moore had been out of touch with Traverse City, which is why he closed the Bijou while the State—which used to be open 365 days per year—is only open part of the week. Some people on social media think that the State will soon close as well.
Moore and the TCFF have owned the State since 2006 after it sat dormant for a decade. The first movie was shown where the State sits in 1916 when it was the Lyric Theater. In 1923, the first Lyric was razed by a fire while the second Lyric burned in 1949. When it was rebuilt, the theater's owners decided to rename it the State, although it caused some slight confusion since there was another State just up the road in Elk Rapids (that State was renamed the Elk Rapids Cinema in 1960).
Throughout most of its history, Traverse City was a one theater-owner town. In the late 1920s, the W.S. Butterfield chain purchased the Lyric and eventually owned other theaters in TC, such as the Tra-Bay and the Michigan, all downtown. However, in 1984, Butterfield was sold to the Kerasotes chain. Immediately, there was a feud within the family since Butterfield had union projectionists and George Kerasotes only wanted scabs. As a result, the Kerasotes chain was split in two and GKC Theatres was born. Unfortunately, GKC's Traverse City operations were less than ideal. Since the scab projectionists lacked experience, when films started, sometimes the film itself would jam up in the projector or the middle of a preview off-frame.
Because of GKC, Traverse City was one of the last major cities in America to receive any updated technology concerning movie theaters themselves. For example, Traverse City did not get its first true multiplex until 1992 when the eight-screen Grand Traverse Mall Cinema opened. Until then, the area had three twin-screen theaters, including the State. Eventually, the mall cinema added a ninth screen. In 1996, GKC opened the sardine can-designed ten-screen Horizon Cinemas. At that time, the State closed.
The State sat abandoned for the next decade, with several failed plans, including stage productions and orchestra concerts. Moore ended up forming TCFF with author Doug Stanton to bring movies back to the beloved and restored theater in 2005.
So, why did Moore create TCFF? Well, it seems that GKC wasn't quite chummy with him. In 2001, Geroge Kerasotes died and his daughter, Beth, took control of the company. When it was announced that Moore was working on his 2004 film "Fahrenheit 9/11", Beth announced that she would forbid any of her cinemas from showing it because her father - the son of Greek immigrants - told her to respect the president of the United States of America, good or bad. But, since it was George who busted the projectionists' union in 1984, heaven forbid that a film that was anti-Republican be screened at any of her daddy's cinemas.
However, it did show at the Horizon. I was there, and it was packed. I waited HOURS to get in.
In the end, "9/11" was a box office smash, raking in $222 million. Moore was thankful that GKC did show it in TC, but other towns where they also had a monopoly—such as Alpena, Ludington, Big Rapids, Sault Ste. Marie, and others—weren't so lucky. So, he started TCFF as a middle finger to GKC.
A year after "9/11" was released and the same year the TCFF was inaugurated, GKC was sold to Carmike Cinemas for $66 million. Allegedly, many members of the Kerasotes family were angry with Beth for missing out on what would have been a cash cow for the company. TCFF bought out the State outright from Rotary Charities in 2007.
But there was one catch: they couldn't show current films.
When Carmike bought GKC, they kept the company going as a division. Since GKC was technically still in business, it was bad news for Moore. What happened was that when GKC shuttered the State in 1996, they placed a deed on the property preventing any future owner from showing first-run films. Companies forcing future owners to follow their edicts is nothing new. For example, many fast food restaurants force new owners not to reopen as competing restaurants. It's like a McDonald's becoming a Burger King. One notorious order concerns the ABC-owned cable network Freeform, which used to be Pat Robertson's Family Channel. Robertson sold it to Fox in 1997 and then to ABC a few years later. He ordered every future owner of the network to air his flagship show, The 700 Club. Of course, Freeform, an LGBTQ+-friendly network, is known for its humorous disclaimers before and after the show, including one that appropriately says, "Have a lawyer look over any contract before you sign it."
Despite the lack of newer films, the State did well under TCFF’s ownership. I saw the Australian film “Eddie” there a few years ago, and it played to a packed crowd. Yet, the State was likely the only cinema in the country playing it. Just because Traverse City is a small town doesn’t mean that its residents aren’t sophisticated enough for independent film.
Thanks to the success of TCFF and the State, Moore decided it was time to add another cinema. So, in 2013, he rented and renovated the old Con Foster Museum along the Grandview Parkway. The building was erected in the 1930s by FDR’s Civil Works Administration and named for Conrad Foster, a former manager of the original Lyric Theater who later became Traverse City's mayor. The museum had been vacant for years until Moore thought it would be a great home for a theater and a way to get around GKC’s edict.
The Bijou was small, seating only 150 people. However, the cinema was an alternative to watching a movie in one of Carmike's cramped auditoriums. Nevertheless, Carmike had a trick up its sleeve.
In 2015, it was announced that Carmike was going to build a new 14-screen cinema at Buffalo Ridge, across the parking lot from the Horizon Cinemas. The theater, christened the Cherry Blossom, opened, and both the Horizon and Grand Traverse Mall Cinemas closed. The Horizon was transformed into the short-lived Lucky's Market—a Whole Foods knockoff—and is now Oryana Co-op. The Mall Cinema is now a Dunham's Sports store. The theater features an IMAX screen and something that came to Traverse City 20 years too late: stadium seating.
Shortly after Carmike opened the Cherry Blossom 14, it was sold to AMC for over $1 billion, making AMC the nation's largest theater chain. Even though AMC now owned the Cherry Blossom, the company decided that it wasn't worthy of the AMC name because it lacked several amenities most modern AMC locations had, like reclining seats. So, in the eyes of American Multi-Cinema, it wasn’t an AMC, but an AMC Classic. Although it was only a year old, it was outdated in AMC's eyes.
But there was some good news for TCFF. Because GKC and the two theaters that they owned had ceased to exist, both the State and Bijou were now permitted to show first-run films. Plus, TCFF had more advantages in its fight. For one, despite being an acronym for "American Multi-Cinema", AMC at the time was majority-owned by a Chinese conglomerate, Wanda Group. TCFF, on the other hand, was a local nonprofit that believed that going to the movies shouldn't cost consumers an arm and a leg. But the Cherry Blossom had its advantages, too, such as acres of convenient parking and stadium seating that was perfect for shorter people, like me.
And then came COVID-19.
Because they were owned by a for-profit entity, the Cherry Blossom had to reopen when COVID restrictions eased. Moore chose to keep his theaters closed for the health and safety of his customers and volunteers. However, some in the community scrutinized him for asking for donations to keep the bills paid even though he is worth millions.
Before the pandemic, the Film Festival itself was a boon to Traverse City, bringing in thousands of people annually. It was where "Borat" had its debut. It was where legends and current stars such as Madonna, Tom Morello, Kristen Bell, Gilbert Gottfried, Jane Fonda, Phil Donahue, Christine Lahti, Patton Oswalt, Susan Sarandon, and others were all given a place to shine in that small town of 16,000. It was where family films were shown on a giant, inflatable screen by West Bay. However, it was not without controversy.
During its first year, a woman created a right-wing alternative to the TCFF. It did not attract large crowds and was discontinued after one year. The festival itself had issues of its own. In 2018, Boston Light and Sound sued them for $160,000 because they claimed that TCFF had not paid them for the service they had provided. TCFF had paid BL&S to install projection and sound for their venues, but they countersued, claiming that BL&S's workmanship was shoddy at best. The lawsuit was settled a year later. Legendary film critic and author Leonard Maltin, who had appeared at the 2017 TCFF, criticized Moore for his lawsuit against the company. Rumor has it that Maltin is friends with BL&S's owners. Another controversy involved former TCFF executive director Deb Lake, who claimed that Moore had fired her after he had claimed that she had left of her own accord. Moore claimed that the TCFF board, not he, had fired Lake after 13 years at the helm.
Because of COVID-19, there was no Film Festival in 2020 or 2021. However, it did return in 2022, although things were a bit different. Instead of using nontraditional venues such as the City Opera House and Lars Hockstad Auditorium, they used the State, Bijou, and even the Cherry Blossom to screen their films. But sadly, it was the festival's final year.
In a statement, Moore admitted that the Festival had been operating in the red for years and finally broke even in 2022. In a statement, he said that he wanted to work on a new concept for TCFF, which was the current TCFF Tuesdays at the State and maintaining both theaters as a "year-round Film Festival".
However, there had been speculation that Moore himself wasn't even at his last festival. According to an alleged volunteer at the last festival, who wrote to the Northern Express, he was "micromanaging" the event from his home in New York City. Plus, he questioned the $1 million that was given to TCFF from COVID relief funds.
Bear in mind that TCFF is a year-round event, not just a week-long celebration of movies in the summer. Maintaining old buildings isn't cheap, you know.
Now, a new problem recently arose regarding TCFF, and that was indeed the Bijou's permanent closure. Moore stated that the projector broke down. Allegedly, the theater's projector was manufactured by Barco (Belgian American Radio Corporation), and many in the movie projection business have compared Barco projectors to FIATs. On a Facebook group devoted to movie theaters, one person claimed that his cinema used Barcos and they all broke down.
In 2016, the Elk Rapids Cinema (pictured above is its late owner, Joe Yuchasz, with Moore) went digital, like everyone else in the movie business. I fondly remember him saying that he "used the same people as the Film Festival" to make his $80,000 upgrade. Joe passed away early last year, and his family sold the Cinema to the nonprofit Chalfonte Foundation. Not long after the sale, the projector began having serious meltdowns, costing the Cinema over $16,000 in repairs and resulting in a few weeks of being closed. I've been in the booth, and their projector looks like a Barco.
According to one of those projectionists, Christie is the best brand money can buy. According to Google, they can run from $80,000 to $150,000, maybe even more. In a letter to its followers, the Cinema is considering a fundraiser to replace its faulty projector.
Yes, road construction is a pain, but this is Michigan, and it's necessary. The same goes for the Bijou's parking situation. There is indeed a parking lot across from the theater, but there's also a large fence in front of it that doesn't make things any easier. With the Parkway torn up last summer, it's no wonder why Moore had to keep it closed.
And of course, the biggest elephant in the room is the movie business itself. True, the Barbenheimer phenomenon helped the theater business, especially TCFF, but Moore is correct: Hollywood has not formally recovered from the pandemic, and its glory days just might be behind it.
Before the pandemic, when a movie was released, it was released in stages. When it was out its first week, it was called a first run. After a movie leaves most theaters, the studio would then release it to smaller "dollar houses" or second-run theaters. Finally, after the film officially leaves theaters, the studio would put it on home video for the world to own or rent. Later on, streaming would take over that role.
In olden times, if a movie went straight to video, it was guaranteed to be terrible. Usually, those films were made on a shoestring budget and starred a washed-up actor. Today, thanks to Netflix and other streaming services, people don’t need to go to a theater to see a good movie with top talent.
Nowadays, a movie will go straight to digital when the studio feels like it, even if it's still in the top 10 at the box office. Multiplex theaters could not care less, but it's bad news for smaller theaters that only want to book a film for a week or two and even worse for the aforementioned dollar houses. Here in Grand Rapids, the theater market is dominated by the Loeks family, who own Celebration Cinemas. At one point, they owned every multiplex in town except the AMC Cinema on Alpine (which used to be the Star Theatre, which was ironically started by Barrie Loeks, the son of chain founder Jack Loeks).
In 2008, Celebration Cinema purchased Cinemark's two theaters in Grand Rapids, both located at Rivertown Crossings and Woodland Mall. Since the Woodland location was between Celebration North and South, the chain decided to convert it into a hybrid second-run and indie theater. However, during the pandemic, Celebration decided to shutter the Woodland Mall cinema, stating that their lease with the Mall was up, plus the fact that it never broke even playing older films at $4.99 a pop. Woodland ended up with Detroit-based Phoenix Theatres, who renovated the cinema after years of neglect by Celebration. Pictures revealed that some of the theaters had a leaky roof, which caused mold to grow on the seats. Phoenix went ahead and remodeled the 14-screener from top to bottom, adding recliner seats and Dolby Atmos auditoriums.
Dollar houses were usually older theaters that catered to those who wanted to see movies for less money. Because the movies were older, the prints usually came from another cinema that had seen better days. I remember seeing "Ted" at the Woodland Cinema, and there was a sequence where I was afraid that the print was going to break apart in the projector since it was beaten to a pulp. Before the days of streaming, they served a purpose. Now that most films are on streaming services after their box office run, second-run cinemas no longer have a reason to exist.
Unfortunately, the studios are a huge problem. Take Warner Bros., as an example. They created controversy not too long ago when they shelved several films and took a tax write-off on them, including "Coyote Vs. Acme" in which the devilish Looney Tunes character finally sues the manufacturer of all those contraptions that were supposed to help him catch the speedy Road Runner. Some people claimed that the movie was well done and hilarious, plus it would have made its creator, Chuck Jones, proud. Sadly, while Warners shelved that film, they unloaded the abortion called "Joker: Folie a Deux" onto the general public. The first "Joker" was brilliant, but the idiots at Warners felt that the sequel needed to be a fucking musical with Lady Gaga as Harley Quinn. Not only did the movie cause Warners to lose $200 million at the box office, but on its second week of release, it got its ass handed to them by "Terrifier 3", a micro-budget horror film that not only made a good profit but also got decent reviews from critics.
In the 1940s, studios held a monopoly on movies. They owned the cinemas in major cities, and by the time movies were finally cycled into smaller towns, the prints were warped and scratched. This was why the smaller exhibitors banded together, sued the studios, and won. Because of this, the studios were forced to sell their cinemas, and the old Hollywood system was broken up. However, smaller, one-screen theaters were prone to showing older films.
For years, Yuchasz told me and all of his customers about how he booked movies. He seldom showed a movie during its first week because the studios wanted him to show their films on a two-to-six-week contract, but mostly for four weeks. With only one screen, it was cost-prohibitive for him, especially if the film flopped at the box office. So, he kept a list of movies he wanted to show. On Mondays, he would call the distributors to ask if a one-week contract was available. If the answer was "yes," he would book the film. He did show a small number of movies during their first week over the years—namely, the Shrek series—but considering that Elk Rapids is a town of mostly elderly people, he realized that they were not interested in driving to Traverse City to see a movie or in learning how to operate a streaming device.
However, the studios found a way to fuck over mom-and-pop movie houses.
In the mid-2010s, the studios banded together to announce that they would no longer release films in the century-old format, effective in the coming years. Instead, they were going strictly digital. Big chain multiplexes such as AMC and Regal had no problems making the conversion. But for small-town theaters, the studios all but gave them a death sentence.
Here in West Michigan, Celebration Cinema has had zero problems since it's a multi-million-dollar company. However, in my original stomping grounds of northern Michigan, several theaters had no choice but to create crowdfunding pages to urge their fans to help them invest in new projectors, even though they were for-profit entities. One cinema, Grayling's Rialto Theatre, even enlisted the services of longtime Detroit Piston broadcaster George Blaha—who grew up in Grayling—to make a video pleading to people to save the cinema, owned by the same family that started it in 1915, from closing. The Elk Rapids Cinema simply got an $80,000 bank loan to upgrade to its current projector and sound system.
Many cinemas in northern Michigan have followed Moore's model and are now nonprofit. Frankfort's Garden Theater, Benzie County's sole indoor cinema, became a nonprofit in 2018. Shortly thereafter, The Bay in Suttons Bay was taken over by a nonprofit after its longtime owner declared that he could no longer afford to keep it open. Today, nonprofit cinemas are located in Traverse City, Suttons Bay, Frankfort, Elk Rapids, and Harbor Springs, following the example Moore started with the Film Festival.
When Moore announced that he was closing the Bijou, many on social media attacked him for his policies. One elderly woman even posted, "Less is Moore!" Some are now hoping that the State will follow suit and go dark.
Here's a question I would like to ask anyone who loves to pour Hatorade on Michael Moore: HAVE YOU SEEN ANY OF HIS MOVIES? Have years of watching Faux News and listening to Rush Limbaugh made you THAT fucking retarded that you have zero concept of how things actually work? Hell, I saw a movie that his main rival, Dinesh D'Souza made a few years ago called "2000 Mules" and it was a pile of horse shit. He showed people wearing gloves putting multiple ballots in ballot boxes. He and a bunch of assholes from Salem Radio were all crying that these people were from a group designed to make Biden the winner of the 2020 election. Hey, Dinesh! 1) By law, people legally cannot vote multiple times. They will get caught. Seriously. 2) Those multiple ballots could have been from family members and friends of those dropping them off. There's no law against that. And 3) People were wearing gloves not to hide their fingerprints, BUT THEY WERE PROTECTING THEMSELVES FROM FUCKING COVID!!! YOU MADE THIS MOVIE BECAUSE DRUMPF PARDONED YOU. AFTER ALL, YOU BECAME A CONVICTED FELON. AFTER ALL, YOU MADE ILLEGAL CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS! DO AMERICA A FAVOR AND MOVE BACK TO INDIA YOU FUCKING COCKSUCKER!
You see, I've been a fan of Moore's since I was young. One of my fondest childhood memories was watching his short-lived, but brilliant NBC series TV Nation. When I grew up and moved to Grand Rapids in 2002, I decided to see his superb flick "Bowling For Columbine". That horrible tragedy occurred when I was a Junior in high school. I remembered the impact it had on me and the fact that because of an abundance of caution, we all went into the school gym after rumors were spread of a bomb threat at my school. Seeing the film and watching Charleton Heston walk away from Moore after he gave him a picture of a little girl who was murdered in his hometown of Flint, Michigan. It shamed me that I grew up not horribly far from where Heston grew up in the small town of St. Helen, Michigan.
I was in Traverse City on vacation when "Fahrenheit 9/11" was released and had to see it. I did have some respect for Dubya during the terrorist attacks that day but became skeptical because the wars he started all had nothing to do with the attacks. The movie simply taught me that you do have a right as an American to hate and criticize the president. I spent many years on Chuck69.com giving Dubya the BOTD because of his pro-war policies, plus the fact that his tax cuts for the wealthy screwed over working-class people like me.
One of the best things Moore ever did was, years ago on Larry King Live, tell a young caller that his generation needed to give my generation a sincere apology for screwing them over. When I was in my 20s, I had to endure years of no raises or personal growth. Much of it was due to the spoiled baby boomers who voted for Reagan because they hated being in long gas lines. Even today, adjusted for inflation, my parents made way more than I do now.
I've seen every Moore film except for "Roger & Me" and "Canadian Bacon." "The Big One" opened my eyes to why the Democratic Party has been ineffective for years. It explained that even Clinton didn't have much love for the middle class, either.
However, many criticize that when 2007's "Sicko," his attack on America's for-profit healthcare industry, had far less money than "Fahrenheit 9/11," Moore pointed the blame at the fact that just days before the film arrived in theaters, his distributor, Lionsgate, was bought out by a doctor who was anti-universal healthcare. As a matter of fact, "Sicko" opened in half as many theaters as "9/11." But it was profitable.
"Capitalism: A Love Story" from 2009 was made for $20 million, but only grossed $17 million at the box office. A year after its release, its distributor, Overture Films, closed down. Many felt that the reason the film was a disappointment was because people were simply burned out from hearing about Dubya's disastrous presidency.
For his next major film, 2015's "Where To Invade Next," Moore worked with an unnamed company that would eventually become the indie giant, Neon. In the movie, Moore discussed that many of the freedoms that other countries have are because of us, the American people. And yet, we Americans don't have what they have, such as universal healthcare, paid work leave, and healthy school lunches. However, it only grossed just over $4 million due to a lack of promotion and the fact that Moore fell ill with pneumonia and lead poisoning when he should have been promoting the film.
Moore's last film to date was 2018's "Fahrenheit 11/9", released by another tiny indie, Briarcliff Entertainment. That movie was designed to trash Drumpf and his multiple problems. It was released to more theaters than any of Moore's films, but it only grossed $7 million at the box office.
When "11/9" bombed, one person claimed that much of the film was all things the general public already knew. The film touched on the fact that too many times when Senator Bernie Sanders took the lectern while campaigning, the news media would turn to a Trump rally where he would not take the stage for 20 minutes. The news networks—MSNBC, CNN, and especially Fox News—did their best to censor Sanders and his pro-middle-class message. Just before he died in 2018, former MSNBC host Ed Schultz revealed why he was fired from the network. He proclaimed that the channel's president, Phil Griffin, wanted him to stop talking about Sanders, but he refused. Moore showed that the corporate-owned networks simply wanted nothing to do with Sanders because they all feared that he would raise their taxes if elected president.
It's been six years since Moore released a film, though he claims he's in the middle of making one, as I type this. Obviously, that means a lot of time away from his post at the TCFF and more time in New York and wherever he needs to be to produce it. Another question is which company would be interested in releasing it? Obviously, Disney is a big, fat no. Warners released "Roger and Me," though that company is definitely right-leaning these days. Paramount? Meh. Sony? Ditto. United Artists released "Bowling for Columbine," but they're now owned by Amazon. And yes, the Weinsteins—especially Harvey—are pretty much out of the film business these days. Besides, they co-produced 'Capitalism,' and Moore sued them for back payment. So, that bridge has long been burned.
I'm sure either Neon, Briarcliff or even A24 might give Mike another chance. If he is indeed making another film, I have an idea of what the main topic needs to be: how fucked up the media is.
Now, if the topic of "Will Michael Moore ever read this article?" comes up on one of those online betting sites like Fanduel or BetRivers, I'm 99-point-infinity-9% sure he doesn't give two shits about me. But, if he ever did read my blogs, I do wish that he'd make a film about how evil and corrupt the media truly is. It would talk about how the FCC used to create a level playing field between broadcasters and consumers. They forbade any entity from owning both a newspaper and a radio and/or TV station in the same area. They had the Fairness Doctrine which ordered newscasts to be fair and balanced and made viewers and listeners think for themselves. They only allowed entities to own one TV station, one AM station, and one FM station in any given area. Plus, entities were only allowed to own a handful of stations.
The Fairness Doctrine was a godsend to African Americans, especially in the South. Jackson, Mississippi’s WLBT-TV was owned by the Lamar Life Insurance Company, which had ties to the KKK and several white supremacy groups. After years of protests and censorship by WLBT, the FCC revoked the station’s license in 1970 and handed it to a group of local citizens of various races, who turned the troubled station into a voice for all those in the Jackson area. The FCC even ordered all TV sets from 1964 onward to have UHF tuners since many TV markets—even major cities like Austin, Texas, and Toledo, Ohio—only had room on the VHF band for one or two stations, forcing the Big Three networks to shoehorn their shows into certain towns. Some markets like South Bend, Indiana, and Huntsville, Alabama, were “UHF islands” where VHF stations were not allowed. Thanks to the old-school FCC, they opened the spectrum so more people could have access to more popular network shows. Think of it: if the FCC had acted sooner, people in Birmingham, Alabama, might have been able to watch The Beatles’ performances on The Ed Sullivan Show.
However, the shit started to hit the fan because of one man: Richard Nixon. He appointed a number of new Supreme Court justices, and in 1973, they became the reason why you can't say certain words on TV or radio. In 1974, a father from New York City was driving with his 15-year-old son and was listening to WBAI, the Pacifica-owned station in the city. They were playing George Carlin's "Seven Dirty Words" track uncensored, and he complained. However, Pacifica fought the FCC, claiming that Carlin's routine was protected under the First Amendment. The case made its way up to the Supreme Court, which then sided with the FCC.
Thanks to Reagan, in 1987, he repealed the Fairness Doctrine, calling it unnecessary. What he did was pave the way for right-wing talkers like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and others while liberals were silenced. Nine years later, Clinton made things worse with the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which virtually abolished the limits on how many stations one entity could own. Today, there are many areas where only three companies own over 90% of the radio stations in a town. In some areas, like Toledo, only two companies control all the stations.
But things were only going to get worse. After Janet Jackson's infamous Super Bowl Halftime Show nip slip, the FCC jacked up indecency fines to over $100,000, causing TV stations and radio stations to tone down their content. It was also a major reason why Howard Stern moved his radio show from terrestrial radio to Sirius in 2006.
However, some broadcasters have found ways to circumvent the FCC regarding ownership. Which area is a shining example of this? Yep! Traverse City, Mike's stomping grounds, and my birthplace. NBC affiliate WPBN-TV 7&4 is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, a publicly traded company headed by David Smith, whose father, Julian Sinclair Smith, founded the company in 1971. The Smiths privately own Cunningham Broadcasting, which owns TC's ABC affiliate, WGTU 29&8. Since Sinclair and Cunningham are two separate companies in the eyes of the FCC, they permitted the two to operate together under the Up North Live branding when Sinclair purchased 7&4 in 2013. As it was, the previous owners, Barrington Broadcasting, used a firm called Tucker Broadcasting to "own" 29&8.
Ditto with WWTV 9&10, the market’s CBS affiliate. The Iacobelli family has owned the station since 1988, but in 2007, they took control of the local Fox affiliate, WFQX Local 32. On paper, WFQX is owned by Cadillac Telecasting, which is owned by a family friend in Arizona.
Because of this, Traverse City now has fewer media choices than even Marquette, a market long dominated by WLUC-TV 6, once the only television station in the western Upper Peninsula for decades. Granted, neither 29&8 nor 32 had great news departments. Also, at one point, 29&8 was partially owned by Pat Robertson's son, Tim.
Even worse, Sinclair is noted for its right-wing bias regarding news. 9&10's not much better, especially since last year, they hired Christina Aguayo, a woman who was fired from a TV station in El Paso for kissing State Attorney General Ken Paxton's ass in an interview. Thankfully, she left 9&10 last summer to return to Texas to work for a company more suited for a brainless cunt like her, Salem Media. Word has it that things have gotten rotten for 9&10, especially with the station's immense turnover and swirling rumors that they are planning to move out of their mausoleum-style building off 131 in Cadillac after only being there for a few years.
Same thing with radio. When I was up north a few weeks ago, I was shocked at how many religious stations now dominate the dial. However, it's a problem everywhere else, too. Corporate media has shown that it does a poor job of running radio stations, to the point that they end up selling or donating them to religious groups like K-Love. But in a way, it's karma for turning into a cookie-cutter industry that puts profits over quality.
Remember Air America? Well, it died a sad death, all because it inked a deal with Clear Channel (now iHeartMedia) to air its programming on various stations. However, Mitt Romney's Bain Capital purchased many shares of iHeart and ordered Air America off its stations. Here in Michigan, WDTW 1310 in Detroit went silent and was sold to a Spanish broadcaster. WPRR 1680 Grand Rapids' owner Bob Goodrich fired Program Director and Southpaws host Darren Gibson because he announced on the air that he would not support Hillary Clinton for President after what the Democrats did to Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. Not long after Gibson's dismissal, Goodrich—who ran for U.S. Representative in 2014 but lost to Republican Justin Amash—promoted afternoon host Tyrone Bynum to PD. However, in 2020, Goodrich was forced to declare bankruptcy due to financial troubles at his movie theater chain. Bynum was given full control of WPRR and eventually bought the station from Goodrich. WPRR is now an adult R&B station as 102.5 The Ride.
Even in ultra-left Ann Arbor, Air America fans got screwed over when iHeart sold WLBY 1290 to another right-leaning company, Cumulus. Bear in mind that Cumulus was the same company that made headlines when they banned the group formerly known as The Dixie Chicks because lead singer Natalie Maines trashed Dubya on stage. WLBY had decent ratings with Air America, especially for a station with a meager signal. Cumulus originally switched WLBY to business talk but is now a conservative talker with Dan Bongino, Matt Walsh, and Ben Shapiro.
Sadly, left-leaning talk has also disappeared from the airwaves in northern Michigan. Twenty years ago, Rick Stone owned two talk radio stations in Petoskey: WJML 1110, which carried Michael Savage, Dave Ramsey, and Neal Boortz, and WWKK 750, which aired Air America's programming as well as Ed Schultz and a few other shows from the Michigan Talk Radio Network.
However, 750's days as a talk station ended in 2007 when Roy Henderson made a deal with Stone to trade 750 for 1210 in Traverse City, which would give WJML a listenable signal in the Grand Traverse region as a simulcast with 1110. Henderson—who had zero luck with 1210, a station rife with technical difficulties—flipped 750 to a simulcast of his WLDR 101.9 in Traverse City. WJML told 750's listeners that some of their shows would move to the new 1110/1210 simulcast. In reality, Ed Schultz was the sole host that was heard in the daytime while most of the liberals moved to the overnight hours when 1110 broadcasted with just 10 watts and 1210 was totally off the air to protect WPHT 1210 Philadelphia. However, even Schultz himself was getting the shaft as eventually, he was only heard for one hour daily on WJML. Eventually, WJML canceled Schultz's show, leaving northern Michigan with no commercial progressive talk show host.
And guess whom WJML replaced Schultz with? Good ol' Alex Jones. With the demise of his career concerning his lawsuit from the families of the victims of Sandy Hook, I'll bet you that Rick Stone—who sold 1110/1210 in 2017 to John Yob, the son of Republican strategist Chuck Yob—has eaten plenty of crow. Today, all three stations—750, 1110, and 1210—are sitting silent, with the latter two currently for sale.
Due to the lack of media sources, people have limited options for discourse and opinions. Notably, Fox News was compelled to pay $787 million for disseminating falsehoods about the 2020 election involving Dominion Voting Systems. Jones was ordered to pay approximately $1.5 billion to the families of those impacted by the Sandy Hook massacre. Nevertheless, people have an inexplicable fascination with being deceived.
AFAIK, Moore was never sued. Why? BECAUSE HE TELLS THE TRUTH! He loves ripping the Repukes apart but does an awesome job of criticizing the Dems, too. He's a humble man who never chided away from his roots in Flint, Michigan. He's heartbroken that the town he called home is now a fraction of what it was thanks to Repukes busting the unions and forcing its citizens to drink polluted water.
Of course, he now calls Traverse City his home. He abandoned Flint because it's not coming back. Traverse City never had any huge auto factories or large skyscrapers except for the Grand Traverse Resort just north of town. He knows that it's an ideal place to raise a family and relax. But it isn't perfect.
Recently, when James Earl Jones passed away, Moore spoke about meeting the beloved actor a few years ago. Moore mentioned to Jones that he now lived in Traverse City, and Jones replied, "Traverse City is racist." In his autobiography, Jones, who grew up near Manistee, was with a group of fellow students and his teacher at a debate team meet in Traverse City in the 1940s. His teacher took him and his students to a nice restaurant in town. When Jones sat down, a voice told him, "No colored people will be served here." Because of this, Jones never thought positively of Traverse City again. Michael told him that the city is improving regarding race but still has a long way to go. In the article, Moore pointed out that there are areas in northern Michigan where Confederate flags still fly. He even pointed out the recent controversy where Traverse City High School students engaged in a fictional "slave trade" involving the few Black students who attend the school.
Also, in the article, Moore spoke about a restaurant in town where there are pictures of the minstrel shows that once occurred in town as late as the 1980s, complete with blackface. When he mentioned that, I wrote him a letter about a restaurant near Traverse City that I worked at as a teenager in the 1990s. In their break area, they had a photo album from the owner's family's old restaurant a few miles down the road. They even had minstrel shows with men in blackface in the 1960s. When my boss showed me the photos, her words were, "We had a lot of fun, but the damn NAACP shut us down!"
Racism, sadly, has long reared its ugly head in the North. I used to associate with people who used the n-word. My great-aunt and -uncle were among the many card-carrying racists in the North. They were farmers like the Friske family up the road from us in Atwood, whose German patriarch, Richard, fought with the Nazis in World War II and was a state representative in the ’70s who was a staunch supporter of segregation.
When TCFF purchased the State, downtown Traverse City did have a few abandoned buildings and a few botched developments that were never completed. If anyone knows anything about Traverse City, it knows how to fight back. When Grand Traverse Mall came to town in 1992, it lost JCPenney. However, Horizon Books moved across the street and took over the old building, creating an awesome experience for readers of all types. Today, downtown Traverse City is filled with unique businesses that sell just about anything. The Mall, however, is now half-empty and poorly managed by Brookfield Properties, which is selling off its malls one by one. These days, the only thing the mall has that downtown doesn’t is convenient parking and a carousel.
You see, I was born in Traverse City. I was upset that my cousins in Detroit got to go to concerts and listen to kick-ass rock stations that didn't play Boston or Foreigner every 30 minutes. My home and school lives weren't perfect. In the 1990s, Grand Traverse Mall was the only cool place to be. I felt that nobody was listening to my generation.
After I left northern Michigan for good in 2002, there were aspects of the area that improved. The big one was TCFF's restoration of the State. Moore knew that many people in northern Michigan felt that they had no seat at the table, so he created one. The fact that the State shows $1 children's movies is great for parents who want to pay less money for tickets. Plus, the fact that they show good, independent movies gives the community an alternative to whatever quirky Marvel movie the Cherry Blossom is playing.
And yet, people still trash Moore online. They cry about the $6 million mansion he used to live in by Torch Lake. They love to post pictures of him and his former friend Harvey Weinstein. They call him a hypocrite, though they voted for a douchebag who rapes women and sucker the working class into thinking that tariffs and tax cuts for the wealthy are all a good thing.
The people of northern Michigan must remember that Moore likes to unite people and does so with the art of motion pictures. He wants people to get out of the house once in a while to see and experience Traverse City. He did not want to see Traverse City turn into a ghost town, especially after what the failed developers did to downtown.
True, TCFF did lose the Bijou. Some want the State Theatre to die soon, too. How I see it is simple: Tom's Food Markets closed its stores in Acme and Cherryland Center. Does that mean it's failing? No. Instead, it had to adapt. Besides, it just remodeled its Northport store. Oleson's once had three locations in Traverse City. It's down to two, plus it has closed stores in Cadillac and Manistee. But, it's still doing well, especially since it has a fairly new store in Petoskey, and its TC locations were both built around 2000.
The only thing about business that never changes is change. How many grocery stores do not have checkout scanners? How many radio stations still play vinyl records? How many movie theaters still use actual film projectors? How many gas stations do not have pay-at-the-pump options? We could go on.
The Bijou had its good points. However, it was small and not really designed to make a decent profit for TCFF. It wasn't even designed to be a movie theater in the first place. Still, Michael wanted to compete with Carmike and have a hand in the first-run movie market. Now that Traverse City has a modern megaplex, the State can do whatever it wants. If they want to show independent films, great. If they want to show the latest action flick from Marvel or DC, they can go wild.
Since I moved to Grand Rapids in 2002, Traverse City has demonstrated that it has some good qualities over my current hometown. Downtown Traverse City has far more retail than downtown Grand Rapids. Granted, there are arenas and a new soccer stadium being built downtown named after (surprise) Amway, but there are hardly any real stores in downtown Grand Rapids. The big plus, in my humble opinion, is the fact that the only place in Traverse City that's DeVos-oriented is the Ford/Lincoln/BMW/Mercedes dealership.
Another quality is the decent selection of independent cinema. I applaud not just TCFF, but also the Chalfonte Foundation for their wonderful operation of the Elk Rapids Cinema. When Joe Yuchasz ran the cinema, it was hardly as profitable as it is now. That was why when he died, his family did not want it. So, they sold it to a nonprofit organization that not only helps fight poverty but also promotes the arts. Recently, the cinema was one of only a minuscule group of theaters that showed the movie "Blitz" starring Saoirse Ronan and directed by Oscar winner Steve McQueen, who directed "12 Years a Slave". Although the movie can be streamed on Apple TV, it has to play in a minimal number of theaters to be considered for an Oscar. True, Celebration Cinemas does show indie films, but they lack the intimacy of a nice, classic cinema.
And yes, the Grand Traverse area has two strip clubs. One of them, Fantasy’s, is owned by Deja Vu and is full-nude. The other club, Rapid City’s Crossroads, is topless only. Grand Rapids outlawed nude dancing in 2006. At least if you’re a lonely man, you don’t have to drive 50 miles to look at a girl’s hoo-hah.
What's sad is the amount of stupidity I see in a lot of northern Michiganders, especially those who hate Michael Moore and want to see the State sit sad and lonely for many more years. They love to bitch about his mansion that he lost in the divorce and blah, blah, blah, waa, waa, waa. Folks, in the past 20 years, Michael Moore has done a hell of a lot more than a shit-ton of people for Traverse City. Hell, look at Roy Henderson. Not only did he help to take progressive talk radio off the air in northern Michigan, but he ran several radio stations into the ground, including WLDR 101.9. He spent almost $4 million on that station alone and down the street from the State, tried to build a building that was over the city's height limit. So, he decided to fight the city and lost. In the process, he left a hole in the ground at Front and Park Streets that he tried to sell for $5 million. After nearly a decade, the city got fed up and told Henderson to sell it or else pay hefty fines. He settled for $2 million and the property is now a Credit Union. Meanwhile, Henderson created a toxic work environment at WLDR where not only were employees' paychecks bouncing, but he was throwing objects at them, including computer monitors. His anger and money issues caused WLDR to lose many long-time staffers and reduce them to a satellite-fed jukebox with low ratings. Plus, he's lost several lawsuits, including the one where morning man Dan Stevens sued him for $25,000 for not honoring his contract. More recently, Henderson tried to sue Blarney Stone Broadcasting, to whom he lost WLDR's transmitter in a sheriff's sale because he wasn't paying taxes on it. BSB was leasing Henderson's stations from him to help expand their stations in Grayling, rocker Q100, and Up North Sports 101.1. However, BSB discovered that 99.3 in Frankfort's transmitter had a major malfunction some years ago and Henderson did not tell the FCC. Since Henderson was in violation of their contract because 99.3's signal was supposed to be 50,000 watts, BSB slapped a repeater for 99.3 on WLDR's tower, which wasn't approved by the FCC. As a result, the engineer for Alpena's WATZ - also on 99.3 - reported them and it was Henderson - not BSB - that got a $20,000 fine from the FCC. Henderson tried to sue BSB, but the judge ruled in favor of BSB. Since BSB owns the transmitter, Henderson does not want to do business with them. So for the past several years, WLDR has only broadcasted 800 watts with a short tower from its studio across from Tom's Food Market's West Bay location. The station is reported silent by the FCC for financial issues, though when I was up north a few weeks ago, it was on the air with a signal that didn't always stop on my car stereo's scanner. It was airing a mish-mash of adult contemporary classics with odd European tunes like Desireless' French language "Voyage Voyage" and Opus' "Live is Life". The music all sounded like it was coming from the right channel and the sound processing was incredibly soft.
Folks, this is the person people in TC should be angry at: Roy Henderson, not Michael Moore. Moore has done a great deal of good for northern Michigan. Is he perfect? Of course not. At least he didn't screw people over with contracts like Henderson did. I understand that when his Benzie County stations went silent, Henderson lied to the FCC and told them that they were on the air, simulcasting WLDR, and WLDR included them in their top-of-the-hour ID. The only good thing I can say about Roy is that he had a massive heart attack a few years ago, and since he's 75, he may not be long for this world. I hope someday his family will sell his stations to someone—not a Jesuscaster—who cares about northern Michigan. I know that it won't be for the $3.6 million he splurged on it 24 years ago. Heck, WKLT was sold for a mere $400,000, and that was just for 97.5. Plus, he's had to sell off some of his homes due to alleged back taxes and now lives in a rented townhouse behind the Walmart in Cascade Township near Grand Rapids. Coincidentally, he lives just a few miles down 28th Street from another failed broadcaster, Bob Goodrich.
At least Michael knows what the future of the Bijou building should behold: a museum run by the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians. In his letter, Moore felt that the tribe was the best suitor for the building and a place that would teach people their history and culture. The city has said that there's a legal process in doing so, and it could take some time for it to happen. I agree with Mike that it needs to happen. I feel that if it becomes a reality, there should be a section devoted to how America and the Catholic Church once forced Native American children from their homes and into schools where they were horribly beaten, sexually assaulted, forced to eat spoiled food with maggots, and even murdered. Even more pathetic was that some of those schools were located in northern Michigan.
Folks, I started Chuck69.com 25 years ago as a wake-up call to northern Michigan. I got tired of having few places to go. When I was in high school, the restaurant I worked at had a karaoke party and I waited all night only to be told that I wasn't going up there because I had to be 21, even though the owner's son, who was hosting the party, allowed certain people to go up there like his cousin. Yet, my boss, Miss "The Damned NAACP Made Us Stop", made me work with a child molester who spent two years in prison for grabbing an eleven-year-old boy's crotch. Before that, he was babysitting a six-year-old boy and his mother witnessed him performing oral sex on him. However, due to sufficient evidence, the pedophile was set free. That restaurant, by the way, went out of business because the owners retired due to poor health and the fact that they were one of the lowest-rated restaurants in town on Yelp.
Sadly, Traverse City is sometimes called "Tragic City" because of the amount of drunk driving incidents and places where you have to be over 21 to enter. Even the former mayor of TC, Jim Carruthers, was arrested for drunk driving. If you're under 21 in a lot of places up north, you feel unwelcome. Not only that, it gives organized religion a chance to prey on them, like New Hope Community Church, just north of Traverse City. I listened to their youth pastor, John Clark, bitch about porn and sex being bad for you. Yet, this asshole left New Hope, started his own church, Westside, stole $500,000 from it and as he was being investigated, he took out a gun and blew his brains out.
I'm a member of several Traverse City-based groups on Facebook. When someone talked about the has-been 2000s rock band Trapt coming to Kalkaska to play at a small bar, I decided to post a few videos where they were playing in front of hardly anyone. I even brought up the fact that lead singer Chris Brown was a racist douchebag and had their social media accounts shut down because of his derogatory posts. But, the assholes of Kalkaska fought back because they're just like Chris Brown. All they care about is that the guys behind the 20-year-old rock anthem "Headstrong" are coming to town. After all, the people of Kalkaska are bigots, too. My former stepsister - who is bisexual - lives in the nearby Forest Area and was called a "dyke" in high school by a male classmate because she was holding hands with a female friend. She reported him to the principal. His response? "If you want to display this behavior this is what happens."
Bear in mind that Kalkaska does not have a movie theater. They did have the Kal Theater, which operated from the 1920s until the mid-20th century. It is now a carpet store. Nearby Mancelona is a lot trashier and they once had a cinema downtown, the Lona. It burned down in the late 70s after a drunk driver crashed into it. The downtown BP gas station is where the cinema once stood. Mancelona has had a long history of not having much for young people to do. When I was young, I remember hearing about many of the town's high school students being pregnant.
I know that many call northern Michigan "God's Country", but it's anything but. Michael Moore did something positive for the community, but there are jerks who all love to diss him because he's not racist, he's not homophobic, and most of all, he's not a Republican. He's a humble man with a humble heart who tried to prove to the world that northern Michigan cares about people who aren't white, Christian, nor straight. I hope that he can keep the State running and keep it as a place where one can keep seeing good movies.
The world needs people who make people want to come to northern Michigan, not avoid it.
