Bee-otch of the Day: K-Love

In this podcast, King Chuck talks about...

*Legendary alternative rock radio station 89X is rumored to return to the Detroit area airwaves. However, there's also a rumor that because of the time the announcement will be made regarding the future of 88.7, that it might be a format that's synonymous with Detroit. 

*Two Milwaukee stations, AC B93.3 and legendary alternative rocker WLUM 102.1 are being sold to K-Love for $4 million. The two stations are currently co-owned by the family of NFL Hall of Famer Willie Davis.

*102.1 was alternative for over 30 years. It had been rhythmic top 40 for 15 years beforehand, but a horrific tragedy persuaded Davis to flip it to alt-rock in 1994.

*K-Love has a history of buying up rock radio stations and flipping them to their format. In some cases, the stations were the sole radio station in a major market playing any new rock.

*Like most other non-profit radio stations, K-Love begs their listeners for money. The big market purchases they have made are testament to how much they are worth.

*One reason for low ratings on rock stations are the lack of new, current rock on their playlists. It leads people to listen more on the internet and satellite radio.

*Chuck touched on the Gokey family, who owned six radio stations in northern Michigan. Of the six they sold off, three ended up with religious broadcasters. One of them picked up K-Love's Air 1 format, and their ratings suck.

*Chuck reveals why he gets angry when he sees a WGRD/Free Beer and Hot Wings cup every time he goes to Van Andel Arena. 

*In the end, the corporations that own radio stations do nothing to keep their listeners, which is why they move over to satellite and internet radio. This is why they sell their stations to firms like K-Love.

Bee-otch of the Day: Meijer

On this podcast, King Chuck talks about...

*Midwestern retailer Meijer is in trouble over an incident where a 16-year-old male employee with autism was arrested for "stealing" $110 worth of food. The items were set aside to be thrown out due to them being expired.

*While the boy was being arrested, the store manager and the cop were laughing and carrying on at him. Chuck pointed out that anybody can be a victim of profiling, which is why he'll never go to Rivertown Crossings in Grandville ever again. 

*The Meijer family is worth $16 billion and the company grosses $20 billion annually. And $110 is a big deal to them.

*Meijer founder Hendrik Meijer was a progressive who fled the Netherlands and their sweatshop factories. His son, Fred was modest despite being extremely wealthy. Chuck explained that both would be spinning in the graves if they saw what happened to the boy.

*This is not the first time Meijer had screwed over people with disabilities. Chuck knew two people who worked there and they were treated horribly. 

*Chuck compares Meijer and Walmart. Even though Walmart has acted more conservative than Meijer, Meijer gives more to the Republicans. 

*The local TV stations in Grand Rapids have given little attention to the Meijer controversy. Chuck thinks it's because they're in bed with them. Things will only get worse if the FCC approves the Nexstar/TEGNA merger.

*People online said that they'll shop smaller stores than Meijer out of protest. Chuck said that the lesser of all evils sometimes can be as evil.

Bee-otch of the Day: Comcast

In today's bite-sized podcast, King Chuck (along with his trusty dog) talks about...

*Television giant Tegna is being bought out by Nexstar for $6.2 billion. The owner's of both companies are hoping the deal will pass through Trump's FCC. 

*If the deal is approved, WZZM-13 and WOOD-TV 8's news departments could merge, creating less choice for local news in west Michigan.

*NBCUniversal - owned by Comcast - is spinning off its cable channels, including MSNBC, which is being renamed MS NOW - My Source for News, Opinion, and World. Chuck thinks it's a stupid name.

*Chuck talks about how he's happy that MSNBC is being sold off, especially how they treated Keith Olbermann and Ed Schultz. 

*Chuck thinks that corporate media is why Trump is back in office.

Bee-otch of the Day: northern Michigan radio

In this podcast, King Chuck talks about...

*The current northern Michigan radio ratings are out, and despite 106 KHQ and Lite 96's towers collapsing, both stations did well.

*KLT won big time while the former #1, WTCM-FM was tied with Big Country 102.9 at #2.

*Chuck talked at length about WTCM Newstalk 580 and Rock 105 and 95.5. This had to have been 580's worst book in ages, especially with their hosts bowing to Trump. Chuck thinks that 580's problems are karma because they should be Traverse City's Detroit Tiger affiliate. But, their general manager, Chris Warren claims that if they took off shows like Mark Levin, they get complaints.

*Chuck goes into a rant about baby boomers and how they ruined his generation. 

*Chuck explains why Chris Warren is Ross Biederman's successor at Midwestern Broadcasting and not Ross's own children. 

*Rock 105 and 95.5's ratings have slid every book in the past two years. Chuck claims that the station should have paid Smitty a better wage. Allegedly, he makes more money bartending than as a DJ and programmer. 

*Chuck thinks that Rock 105 doesn't play enough new rock, plus, some recent #1s on the rock charts never got regular airplay on the station. Yet, they play the new Linkin Park a bit too much.

*Another problem that Rock 105 has is that their jocks - except for Cartman - are all over 50. Two of them are alumni of Detroit's WRIF. Of course, Rock 105's co-owner was a WRIF executive. 

*President Trump is giving out $50 million in aid to the recent ice storm in northern Michigan. Chuck is scared that Trish MacDonald-Garber will get some of that money to rebuild her towers. He talked about how her father screwed over his employees, paving the way for her to create a toxic workplace. 

*Chuck wonders why The Bear still exists.

*Finally, Chuck presents a conspiracy theory regarding Rock 105's favoritism towards the new Linkin Park. It has to do with a story his uncle told him years ago about how a 1950s R&B singer got Detroit radio stations to play her music. Let's just say that a station programmer was indeed "Touched By An Angel".

Bee-otch of the Day: New Chapel Church

On today's podcast, King Chuck talks about...

*A Grand Rapids megachurch is in trouble because their former youth pastor was busted for molesting seven underage boys. That same church, New Chapel, received flack for giving out an AR-15 at a raffle.

*Chuck and his mother attended a service at New Chapel several years ago. Bad idea.

*On WGRD's Facebook page, somebody pointed out that the pastor wasn't a drag queen. Chuck says that places that churches have tried to outlaw, such as drag shows and strip clubs aren't a source of sexual assault, but church is.

*Chuck would rather clean up his dog's poop on Sunday over going to church. He even has a message to those who want him to come back to church. 

*Chuck's old church in northern Michigan has a satellite location in a movie theater owned by tax dodgers. The family is connected to others who were busted by two Michigan Attorneys General.

*One of the busted business owners by the AG claimed they were targeted because they're Italian. Chuck says that because you're different doesn't make you better.

*In the end, churches have done a poor job of being safe havens for people and they're loaded with people living rent-free in others' heads. 

Bee-otch of the Day: the media (will TEGNA and Nexstar merge?)

On today's podcast, King Chuck talks about...

*Nexstar, the owners of NBC affiliate WOOD-TV 8 in Grand Rapids are in talks of merging with TEGNA, who owns ABC WZZM 13, also in GR. Nexstar also owns ABC station WOTV 41 in Battle Creek. 

*Chuck explains why west Michigan has two ABC affiliates. Back in the early 90s, the two stations almost merged. WOTV has never been a success in the ratings. 

*If the TEGNA/Nexstar merger happens, Chuck predicts that both WZZM and WOTV will finally merge, but WZZM's news department will be dissolved. As it was, last week, many producers and behind-the-scenes people at WZZM were let go because TEGNA switched over to an automated system. 

*Not long ago, a shell company of Nexstar's failed to buy a Detroit TV station because Biden's FCC only would approve the deal if they proved that Nexstar wasn't financially backing them. Chuck thinks that with Trump as president, the FCC will work towards less competition, less voices and fewer jobs.

*Northern Michigan radio personality-turned politician Jack O'Malley is back on the Traverse City airwaves on WCCW 1310, aka "WTCM Gold". Chuck had a friend who knew Jack and he was a very toxic person at work and in real life. Meanwhile, a female jock at WTCM's sister station was fired to help make way for O'Malley's comeback.

*Interlochen Public Radio is suffering a $300,000 shortfall because of Trump's cuts to NPR and PBS.

*In all, Chuck proclaimed that voting conservative only leads to more media that doesn't put people first.

Bee-otch of the Day: Rupert Murdoch

In today's podcast, King Chuck discusses...

*The U.S. version of Britain's The Sun newspaper is reporting that Howard Stern will leave SiriusXM once his contract expires at the end of the year. Chuck reminds people that The Sun is owned by Rupert Murdoch, who also owns Fox News Channel. 

*Murdoch's media - namely the New York Post - have had a long history of trashing Stern.

*It is true that SiriusXM is losing subscribers. However, Yahoo reported that Stern only has 125,000 listeners. Chuck claims that the number is way off.

*Stern - who is on vacation until next month - did a surprise broadcast on Wednesday. He made no mention of the rumors, but he did announce that Metallica will have their own channel later this month. It will be on channel 42, displacing "The Sound", which was curated by Canadian rapper Drake.

*Today, longtime Stern fan and Photoshopper extraordinaire Doc Ivan made a post about The Sun's allegations that made perfect sense: the only person one could really trust in all this is Stern himself. He has four months to make an official announcement. At 71, if he retires, he retires.

*There's a fear that if Howard is yanked off SiriusXM, it will be politically motivated. The company is majority-owned by John Malone, a billionaire who is a major supporter of Trump.

*Malone is known for his conservative Christian views. Chuck told the story on how he almost screwed over the rock group Guns 'N Roses and helped made Pat Robertson very, very wealthy.

*Malone's former company, TCI Cable, yanked MTV and Comedy Central from west Michigan cable boxes for being too inappropriate for children. 

*Malone is on the board of Warner Bros. Discovery. Chuck thinks that he played a role in Cinemax discontinuing showing softcore flicks late at night.

*Among Malone's assets include F1 Racing and Live Nation, which owns Ticketmaster. He used to own the Atlanta Braves baseball team and the former CBS affiliate in Michigan’s western upper peninsula. 

*When told that Stern was leaving SiriusXM, President Trump trashed him, claiming that his downfall began when he supported Hillary Clinton in 2016. Trump was a former frequent guest on Stern's show. Chuck pointed out that Trump is in bed with some of the hate groups that clamored to get Stern off the air.

*If Stern's ratings are shrinking, it's due to him no longer having strippers or porn stars on the show. Plus, the fact that he swept Artie Lange under the rug and the fact that he's hardly used his studio since the pandemic have hurt his image. Having guests that don't relate well to his fans like Adam Levine and Scooter Braun (Justin Bieber's manager) have also alienated fans.

*In the end, if Howard retires, Chuck fears that he'll become a recluse like Johnny Carson.