Wednesday, October 2, 2024

Bee-otches of the Day: KOMP and KXTE Radio in Las Vegas


Names: KOMP and KXTE
Ages: KOMP: 58, KXTE: 38
Occupations: radio stations
Last Seen: Las Vegas
Bee-otched For: saying "Good Riddance" to Green Day



Christ, I'm getting old.

It's been 30 years since I was a 13-year-old lad watching MTV when I saw the song " Longview " video by a new band called Green Day. The group's major debut album, "Dookie", was a 1990s cornucopia of polished punk rock that has stood the test of time.

In those 30 years, they had their good hits with the ballad "Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)" and the blockbuster "American Idiot" album. They had their low points, too, like the follow-up to "Dookie", "Nimrod" (although "Brain Stew" would become a rock radio standard with or without "Jaded") and the experimental "¡Uno!", "¡Dos" and ¡Tre!" albums. Their current offering, "Saviors", has been called one of their best albums.

If you want to hear any of their new album or even their classics in Las Vegas, you're SOL.

Two of Sin City's radio stations, active rock KOMP 92.3 and KXTE X107.5 "Xtreme Radio" have pulled the iconic punk band's music from their playlists because of comments made by lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong at a recent concert at Oracle Park in San Francisco. Armstrong, who was born in nearby Oakland, voiced his anger over his hometown baseball team, the Athletics, moving to Vegas by calling the city a "shithole" on stage. 

No word on if the band's opening act, Rancid - also from the Oakland area - is still on those stations' playlists. On stage, guitarist Lars Frederikson attacked A's owner John Fisher because his family makes money off of the backs of Bay Area people only to abandon them. Fisher, whose net worth is $3 billion, is the son of Donald and Doris Fisher, the co-founders of the Gap clothing brand. Fisher, a Republican, has owned the A's since 2005 and is considered one of the worst owners in sports. The team finished with a 69-93 record this past season.

For decades, Oakland had the A's, Raiders football, and Golden State Warriors basketball teams. The Warriors, who played in the aging Oakland Arena, moved to the Chase Center in nearby San Francisco five years ago. The Raiders moved to Vegas in 2020 and now play at Roomba-shaped Allegiant Stadium. 

The big elephant in the room for Oakland was its stadium and arena. Oakland Coliseum opened in 1966 and has long been considered one of the worst stadiums in sports. As a matter of fact, the Raiders moved out of Oakland for Los Angeles from 1982-1994 only to return. The Coliseum was one of many cookie-cutter multipurpose stadiums built in the 1960s, '70s, and '80s, along with The Kingdome in Seattle, Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh, and Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. While most cities successfully replaced those embarrassing relics of late 20th century America, Oakland failed miserably to replace the Coliseum, noted for its design flaws. 

When the A's played their last game in Oakland recently, Fisher wrote a letter apologizing to their fans. Fisher blamed the city of Oakland for not pulling through in building a new stadium which would have kept the A's in town. However, many in the community and even a few in the sports business all agreed that Fisher is a man of multiple excuses. He could have financed a stadium with his own money but chose to abandon his hometown because another town was willing to build his stadium for him, free of charge.  

The proposed Las Vegas ballpark is scheduled to open in 2028 on the site of the soon-to-be-demolished Tropicana Hotel and Casino. The stadium, which some people joke about looking like the Sydney Opera House, will only seat 33,000. If it's built, it will be the smallest stadium in Major League Baseball next to the Tampa Bay Rays' Tropicana Field. Until then, the A's will be playing their home games at a minor league ballpark in Sacramento, where the team will simply be known as the A's.

After Armstrong's verbal bitchslap of Vegas, the programmers of KOMP and KXTE - a former affiliate of Howard Stern's - decided to punish him by doing the same thing country stations did to the Dixie Chicks when lead singer Natalie Maines trashed Dubya on stage years ago: dump their music. KXTE midday jock Carlota confirmed the purge on her show last week. On the station's website, they detailed some of her anti-Green Day speech, stating that what Armstrong said was "inflammatory" and "crossed the line". Carolta even pointed out that the Raiders were only worth "a billion or two" while in Oakland, but are now worth over $6 billion. 

KOMP announced the ban on their Instagram page. KOMP 92.3 has pulled any and all Green Day from our playlist. It’s not us, Billie…it’s you. #vegas4ever, said the statement.

In the radio ratings, KOMP is in 11th place with a 2.8 share while KXTE is at a 2.2 in 16th place, its lowest book in months. KXTE made headlines last year when they temporarily flipped to a hot talk format with Stern clones loading up the schedule, including the godawful Grand Rapids-based Free Beer and Hot Wings Show. The format was a ratings bust and it returned to alternative rock, a format it had since 1996. 

Not all Vegas stations have banned Green Day; IHeartMedia's classic rocker KYMT 93.1 The Mountain still has the band on their playlist. 

Radio stations banning artists and certain songs from their playlists are nothing new. It even happened before the days of rock 'n roll when the BBC in England banned certain tunes because of everything from sexual innuendo to product placement. The Kinks' "Lola" was originally banned until lead singer Ray Davies flew from New York to London to rerecord the line "Where you drink champagne and it tastes just like Coca-Cola". The Beeb had him replace the name of the beloved soft drink with "cherry cola".  Throughout the 70s, some American radio stations banned certain songs all because of various reasons, such as The Buoys' "Timothy" (cannibalism), Billy Joel's "Only The Good Die Young" (sacrilegious), and Chuck Berry's sole #1 hit, "My Ding-A-Ling" (guess). Let's not forget that when MTV played music videos, they heavily edited some songs- even more than some radio stations- and banned some music videos. Madonna's "Justify My Love" was banned for being too racy and it shot to #1 on the pop charts. 

Remember during the pandemic when "WAP" by Cardi B. and Megan Thee Stallion went to #1 on the pop charts? Interesting to note that the song was not a huge hit on Top 40 radio. Maybe it was because of the fear that if radio stations played it, even the edited version might have gotten them a fine from the FCC. Just my guess. You never heard of any announcements from any radio station that they had banned "WAP" because 1) it would make them uncool and 2) it would have made people buy more records. 

IMHO, KOMP and KXTE are nothing more than attention whores and they think that banning Green Day will help their image. In reality, I think most true rock fans have abandoned terrestrial radio long ago for SiriusXM, Spotify, and other areas of digital radio. As someone who grew up in a part of Michigan where the radio sucked ass, I'm entitled to my opinion on whether or not I want to listen to crappy radio or not. I'm a grown man who doesn't need someone to tell me that this band is bad because they badmouthed my hometown or they did this or that. Let's remember that Ted Nugent had a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old girl in his 30s decades ago and classic rock stations still blare his music. Creed's Scott Stapp threatened to kill President Obama and many rock stations still play "Higher". Phil Anselmo of Pantera screamed "white power" at a concert a few years ago and stations still play his music. And yet, Green Day is bad because Billie Joe's hometown baseball team moved away and he's bitter about it. 

Personally, I think every town in America has its problems. I grew up in Elk Rapids, Michigan, a beautiful town. But, there are buildings across from the Village Market that are run down. I know one of them was or is inhabited by a child molester I worked with in high school. Ditto with nearby Traverse City. Recently, Michael Moore wrote about an encounter he had with actor James Earl Jones several years ago. Moore told Jones that he now lived in Traverse City and Jones told him that TC was racist. Back in the 1940s when he was a teenager, one of his teachers took him and his classmates to a nice restaurant in town. As he was sitting down, a staffer at the restaurant told Jones, "No colored people will be served here." 

Yes, this shit happened in Traverse City, a town that's far, far away from the Mason-Dixon Line. After all, the town is 92% white, and in the surrounding areas, racism is everywhere. Hell, I have family that live on a farm up north and they're HARDCORE racists. I'll never forget a convo with them where they compared President Obama to failed Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. When their little butt buddy Drumpf freed him from jail, I didn't know whether to laugh my ass off because of what they said, or cringe because of what he did to the people of Detroit. 

Last year, I was on Facebook when someone posted that the band Trapt was playing a show in Kalkaska, over by Traverse City. I posted about how their lead singer, Chris Brown (no, not the douche who beat up Rihanna) was a racist and the average rock fan has abandoned him and his band. I even posted a video where they're playing a small bar and the place only had a few dozen people. Regretfully, a few folks poured Hatorade all over me, bitching that people in Kalkaska should be excited that the band behind "Headstrong" was coming to do a show in their town of 2,000. 

Folks, this is why I started this site. It was because when I was a teen, I felt like I had no place at the table. I wanted to go to concerts and other things that involved going to Detroit. Instead, I got stuck living in a place where you had to be over 21 to do anything remotely exciting. Hell, some people call Traverse City "Tragic City" because a few years ago, a study proved that the town had the highest amount of alcoholics in the state. Not only that, I fondly remember when the former mayor Jim Carruthers was arrested for drunk driving. 

Because of this, there's a part of me that wants to call northern Michigan a place loaded with racist, drunk losers. I don't mind visiting, but I don't want to live there, especially since I read that the average person in TC only makes $33,000 per year and I make WAY more than that here in Grand Rapids. Now, is somebody going to ban me from going up there? Not really. But, I hope someone will think about what I said and hopefully, they can make positive changes.

Personally, I don't think Billie Joe meant to truly hurt the people of Las Vegas. However, I think he should clarify his remarks about calling the town a "shithole". Kinda like how when John Lennon said that The Beatles were "More popular than Jesus" some sixty years ago, people went ahead and burned their records. He then said that he wasn't knocking God and apologized. However, there was one Christian that he offended and it sadly would bite him on the ass. That man was Mark David Chapman. In Billie's case, he should say that he didn't mean to hurt the people who call Vegas home and that his statement was directed at billionaires like John Fisher, who cares more about his personal wealth than the people who made him wealthy. 

Until he makes that clarification, people in Sin City will think that he's the American Idiot.

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Sunday, September 29, 2024

Bee-otches of the Day: Ronald Reagan worshipers


Names: various
Ages: various
Occupations: various
Last Seen: everywhere
Bee-otched For: kissing Reagan's ass



Thanks to my job, I go to bed a wee bit early. 

Thursday night, I was watching the tail end of Inside Edition on WOOD-TV 8 here in Grand Rapids. After the show ended, they aired a commercial for Kamala Harris, showing a young woman who had an abortion at 12 after being raped by her stepfather. She added on to the way too many reasons why I will definitely be voting for Harris.

However, as 8 p.m. approached, i noticed something was wrong with TV 8. They were supposed to air Law and Order: SVU at that time. But instead, they aired a documentary on Ronald Reagan produced by NewsNation. Both NewsNation and WOOD-TV are owned by Texas-based Nexstar. I went straight to bed and didn't waste my time. I woke up at 3:30 a.m. and WOOD-TV was showing that episode of SVU they pre-empted earlier, probably to please NBC and to throw a bone to fans of Mariska Hargitay. 

Now, granted, it seems fashionable nowadays to like the 40th president of the United States. After all, a recent indie movie about his life starring Dennis Quaid has done quite well at the box office, grossing over $26 million on a $25 million budget. Critics have panned the flick, saying it breaks itself from reality and history. The movie is also noted for its abundance of rightie actors, such as Jon Voight, Pat Boone, Kevin Sorbo, and Creed lead singer Scott Stapp, who plays Frank Sinatra. 

Despite bad reviews, audiences love the film. But chances are that many who have seen it are Repukes themselves and look to Ronnie as their spirit animal. But as someone born five months into his first term in office, I shake my head thinking about how my life could have been if he wasn't president.

When I was born, my father was a bus driver for the local school system in Elk Rapids, Michigan, and my mother worked as a secretary at a local machine shop. When I was about five, my mother lost her job. The company packed up and moved to southern Michigan because of Reaganomics. My mother ended up working the overnight shift at the Shell gas station down the street. There, she became friends with the manager, a heavy-set woman who also had significant financial problems. Fortunately, my mother found other secretary jobs, both in Traverse City. If she lost a job, the Shell station was her safety net.

However, at one of her jobs, she met her future husband. She also worked with the fat bitch at the Shell station to move into the top flat of her house. On May 18, 1993, my mother dragged me away from my Nintendo to live with the bitch. The place sucked. The kitchen had no working stove (we had to get a hot plate from KMart), the shower curtain only covered part of the tub because it was right next to where the ceiling sloped, and worst of all, there was no heat. I remembered having to go to my dad's because he had heat. 

In the 80s, Reagan championed shipping jobs overseas and busting unions. Because of him, my mother lost her job and so did hundreds of people in Elk Rapids. Because of him, I got stuck with a 6-foot, 300-pound whore who forced me to listen to Bonnie Raitt's "Luck of the Draw" album and the soundtrack to "The Bodyguard" while she was giving blowjobs to anyone who wanted one. Also because of Reagan, my mother traded my father in for an alcoholic douchebag who not only squandered her family fortune on a failed computer repair shop, but left her for another woman as well. Personally, I wonder if my parents would still be together if her shop in Elk Rapids stayed open.

When I was young in the 80s, Elk Rapids had a problem. A chunk of its downtown was abandoned, and the marina was up for sale. In 1986, beloved businessman Joe Yuchasz became the town's village president, or, in other words, mayor. Joe, who owned the Elk Rapids Cinema and Ye Olde Music Shoppe, was forced to move his music store to his theater's lobby because he couldn't afford the taxes. Under his leadership, Yuchasz transformed Elk Rapids from a town littered with "for sale" signs to a tourism boon. I visited Elk Rapids last spring, and the sole abandoned building I saw was the old T.J. Charlie's Restaurant, whose proprietors retired last year.

It's nice to see my old hometown flourishing, especially with mostly local businesses. The sole supermarket in town, Village Market, just celebrated its 50th Anniversary under Rick Young's ownership. Young also owns the adjacent gas station to his 15,000-square-foot store, one of only three in the town of 1,600 people. The EZ Mart/Mobil station is owned by Blarney Castle Oil, which is based in Bear Lake, 60 miles away. The Shell Mini-Mart is owned by Ohio-based True North Energy but was previously locally owned by Traverse City-based Schmuckal Oil. Most of the restaurants are locally owned as well. However, Elk Rapids has no fast-food chains. It used to have a Subway located in the EZ Mart, but that closed a few years ago. The Village might be one of the largest towns in the state without a McDonald's (the nearest one is in Acme, nearly 10 miles away). 

Aside from McDonald's, Elk Rapids has been known for crying NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) when big businesses want to come to town. Years ago, the village rejected Walgreens' proposal to build a store at Ames and US-31. The same goes for Dollar General, who wanted to build a location on Elk Rapids' east side.

But Elk Rapids—and other resort towns—have a huge problem: the lack of good-paying jobs. Homes in the village aren’t cheap, and because of this, it has become a factor in the closure of some restaurants. Two recently closed restaurants, Vasquez Hacienda and Elk Harbor Restaurant, have been repurposed as a liquor store and veterinarian clinic, respectively. Granted, ER does have Shorts Brewery, and it is close to Traverse City, but there are some factors that hurt the community’s image. One of them is the lack of 20- and 30-somethings in the area. The evidence is the fact that since the economic meltdown of 2008, Elk Rapids Schools has lost a great deal of attendance. As a matter of fact, Mill Creek Elementary is now a charter school. It’s sad considering that I remember it being built because Elk Rapids’ elementary school, Lakeland, was once overcrowded.

But, Elk Rapids isn't alone.

Recently, Suttons Bay voted 776-628 to demolish part of their school because the district is half the size of what it was 20 years ago. Today, only 600 students attend the village's school, situated in a town that's also around 600 people. Suttons Bay has the same problem Elk Rapids has: a lack of affordable housing. 

It's true that every town in America has its pluses and minuses and some situations are easier to solve than others. And usually, that problem can be solved with high-paying jobs. Tourism is nice, but when the biggest employers in town don't pay jack shit, then that employer may end up realizing that their loser jobs need winning wages. 

It's worth noting that the aforementioned Joe Yuchasz died last year at the age of 82. He willed his beloved Cinema to his niece and nephews, who then sold it to the nonprofit Chalfonte Foundation. Chalfonte was founded by Father Jim Meyer, a Catholic priest who, unlike far too many people in his occupation, supported gay marriage and Black Lives Matter. Yes, he was a liberal, as are the people now running his organization three years after his death at the age of 86. Chalfonte was founded to alleviate childhood poverty. Father Meyer's parents owned a home in Elk Rapids. When they died in the 1980s, Meyer decided to turn the house into a camp for children.

Since Chalfonte purchased the Cinema, they have shown the community that they are not Joe Yuchasz. Joe was known for waiting a month or two to show popular films after they peaked in popularity so he could get a one-week contract. Chalfonte, however, knows that there are many films where they can get a two-week contract in the first week of release. Recent examples include "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" and "Wonka." They also show classic films once per week; this month, it's the 1951 film "An American in Paris" starring Gene Kelly.

However, as I type this, guess what movie the Cinema is showing? Yup, "Reagan."

Now, when Joe was alive, he was known for listening to what the people wanted. He also mentioned that most of his audience was over the age of 50. When I visited the cinema last spring for a matinee showing of "Arthur the King," I was the youngest person in the building. It was just me and a bunch of elderly folks. One person even asked me if I knew how long the cinema had been in business (of course I knew—1940)! Obviously, the people who came to the cinema that afternoon were not from the Elk Rapids area.

There is a part of me that the new, old folks who now call Elk Rapids home never knew about—the once-good jobs the town had. And yet, they went and saw a movie about the reason why those jobs moved away. It's interesting to know that the Cinema's manager, Marianne Burrows, is a Realtor during the week. I have to wonder how she feels about the fact that in 2000, my childhood home was sold to a Detroit-area family who really wanted to have a good, full-time job up north. However, during the economic meltdown of 2008, it fell into foreclosure. It wasn't even a big house, either; it was only one floor, with three bedrooms, 1 1/2 bathrooms, and a pole barn in the backyard. The house next door also fell into foreclosure, and despite it being much bigger—two floors, four bedrooms, and two bathrooms—the bank sold it for just over $100,000.

On my father's bus route, he passed a TON of houses. Some of those were simply summer homes, and others were occupied by old folks. Some of the kids were dirt poor. One rumor I heard was that one of the families was so poor that our elementary school principal had to buy clothes for them. There were wealthy folks, too, including a family whose mother's family purchased the house for them.

Well, I grew up and entered the workforce. I wanted to be a radio personality when I grew up, but I threw that dream away. Why? Because I learned that there are too many radio personalities who were fired because even though they had ratings, the owners were all about the almighty dollar. I realized that you have to be a corporate puppet who pretends to like the artists you're playing. Not only that, I cringed knowing that local talk radio stations were all leaning to the right thanks to Reagan's FCC eliminating the Fairness Doctrine.

I finally got my first "adult" job in 2002 a year after I graduated from tech school. I spent that year washing dishes at a restaurant and stocking shelves at a convenience store. There were no real jobs up north. I had to move to Grand Rapids to make real money and live a normal life. 

The first ten years at my job were rough. I had to work with a Bosnian who bullied me and my boss was a bigger asshole. Thankfully, the Bosnian quit because his wife could no longer work and he couldn't afford to work there anymore. As for my boss, I had to face ten years of no raises. Instead, we got Dave Ramsey videos and visits from the bank, teaching us on how to save money. If we were lucky, we got a $25 Meijer card.

Things were so bad at my shop that a woman who worked for us who was anti-union told us that she wished we were a union shop. Some years before, there was a guy who also worked for us who talked to us about doing a strike. But, that never materialized because he ended up quitting. My father never worked a union job and neither did my mother. As a matter of fact, she told me that at her in-laws' machine shop, if someone came in with a union, they would be fired. Because her idiot husband gaslighted her into thinking that unions were the devil, she discouraged me from joining one.

Over the years, my boss treated my position like that of a fast food worker. I saw a lot of people sitting on their asses playing on their phones who made more money than me. However, my boss thought I was lazy despite wearing a drenched shirt. 

However, it was the 2000s, and people were lucky to have jobs. Some of my cousins had to move back in with their parents because they didn't have good jobs either. I didn't have that option because both my parents were in their second marriages and living in other states. By the time my boss finally retired in 2012, I was living off three nearly maxed-out credit cards while he was going on vacation every other month.

Thankfully, my life changed for the better when my company changed hands with my ex-boss's business partner. I got plenty of raises and my debt melted away. Part of it, too was that when my ex-boss was in charge, people were either retiring early or finding out that they could make more money doing something else. Also, it was 2013, and America was finally healing from 2008 thanks to President Obama's policies. 

Today, I'm much better off than I was 22 years ago in part because of policies created by Presidents Obama and Biden that have helped the middle class. Even better, the sole debt I have is my mortgage. Thanks to them, my bosses have to give me a wage to stay competitive against the competition. However, I do wonder what my life would have been like if Reagan hadn't been president at all. Chances were that I would have had a good-paying union job, better wages, better benefits, and more competition so if I didn't like the job I had, I could have gone across the street. Instead of trying to pay off credit card debt at 30 years old and living in a shitty apartment that caused embarrassment for me, I would have probably been able to buy a house and start a family. But because the media was busy trashing Jimmy Carter in 1980, I was stuck being told that no matter how hard I worked, I was a failure. 


My shop just happens to be just down the road from the old 36th Street GM plant in Wyoming. It was demolished during GM's restructuring 15 years ago. Now, after all those years, a new battery plant by German-based Benteler will soon emerge from the empty concrete meadows, employing 500. But being the Debbie Downers that they are, The Repukes are all crying because some of the battery plants being built here in Michigan are Chinese owned and the people bringing those jobs to the state are all Democrats like Governor Gretchen Whitmer. 

There's no doubt that the Repukes hate China to the point that they're trying to outlaw TikTok, though some argue that it will infringe on freedom of speech regarding the internet. But, guess who championed outsourcing of jobs in the first place? Why, it was none other than Reagan himself!

Thanks to Reagan, millions of American jobs were shipped out to countries where standards are much, much lower than here. Much of our clothing was now made in sweatshops. As a matter of fact, in 2012, a massive fire at a Bangladesh garment factory killed 124 and injured 200. The cause of the fire was exposed wires. Among their clients included Walmart. 

In the 1998 Michael Moore film "The Big One", he went to Nike's headquarters and talked to founder and CEO Phil Knight. Knight told Moore that Americans didn't want to build shoes. So, he went to his hometown of Flint, Michigan where people signed a petition to build a factory there. Moore showed Knight the video of Flintstonians telling him that they wouldn't mind making Air Jordans. Without saying a word, Knight stood up and walked out of the room. 

By the way, Knight is worth $38 billion. 

“The Big One” also jabbed at President Clinton for his weak economic policies that did nothing to help American jobs or the middle class. Although he did raise the minimum wage (Reagan did not) and balance the budget, in reality, he was the most conservative Democrat in the White House in the 20th century. I fondly remember that before he left the White House, too many companies were laying off workers.

True, Reagan left office in 1989 and he's been dead since 2004. But the fuck-ups he created while in office still survive. When he took office in 1981, the wealthy were paying 70% of their earnings in taxes. Today, some billionaires hardly pay a dime. In 1981, some unions protected American workers from crooked bosses. Today, that's only a pipe dream.

A few times a week, I take my dog to a park down the street from my house. There's a picnic area where a few homeless people hang out. Recently, a young husband and wife moved into the park. The wife is a cancer survivor, while the husband has had to deal with the fact that some of his family members are or were addicted to drugs. They had been living in his grandmother's house, but his family had them evicted because the grandmother was on Section Eight and the husband and wife were not. Then, they moved in with her sister, who had a small two-bedroom apartment in Grand Haven. However, her landlord threatened to raise their rent, so they decided to leave their baby with the sister while they were forced onto the streets. The husband works in a factory and makes $500 per week, while the wife is currently unemployed.

And to think that once upon a time, a family of four could make it on only the father's income.

I have a cousin who works for a temp agency, and he told me that America is evolving into a gig economy. Our family had three generations of dedicated school teachers. Today, we have none. I've heard the horror stories of teachers having to go to food banks because they live in poverty. Some even quit because they made more money as bartenders. I know of one person who teaches during the week and works at a small restaurant on the weekends, but she does it because she loves making her children smarter. The world needs teachers, and they deserve a living wage.

"thEY onLY wOrK 9 MoNThs a YEar!" 

True, teachers do have benefits and they do get paid year-round. But the pay sucks. My aunt was a schoolteacher for 30 years, but she had a husband that got paid quite well. However, I had another teacher who I remember working at a bakery during the summer. It depends on the situation and the town the teacher works. 

Look, my late friend, beloved Flint radio talk show host Dave Barber once said of the Republican Party that they only care about the peanuts while the elephants walk by. And that, my friends, is Drumpf to a tee. He wants us to feel that illegal immigrants are the biggest problem in America. His campaign is putting out stupid ads featuring people whose family members were murdered by illegals. So? Blacks murder. Are the Repukes going to put out ads telling people to support their local neighborhood KKK? Whites murder. Should we round up every last white person and throw them in jail? 

I'll tell you what the real problem is, and it's corporate America. When Reagan took office in 1981, the wealthiest man in America was a shipping tycoon named Daniel Ludwig, and adjusted for inflation, he was worth $6 billion. Back then, America only had 13 billionaires. Thanks to Reagan's policies and the protection they got from just about every president since him, there are now more than 700 billionaires in America. Today, the wealthiest man in America is Elon Musk, who is worth $272 billion, a lot of it from inheritance. It's also noted that Musk is butt buddies with Drumpf. 

Yes, even the Democrats aren't doing enough to combat excessive wealth. After all, Oprah is worth $3 billion and the man some cry about the Dems being too wealthy themselves, George Soros, is worth over $7 billion. Granted, it's nice that Biden and Harris are combating some folks, but then again, there's a lot that needs to be done to fight income inequality. 

If there's anything I'm happy about regarding the Democratic presidents in my lifetime, they've gotten more liberal. After all, Biden sat with striking GM workers not long ago, the first of any president. His office also cracked down and questioned monopolies like Facebook and other facets of social media. However, the Drumpf supporters have spun Biden's policies, claiming that inflation was his fault. In reality, when you only have six oil companies running gas prices and small towns losing their grocery stores all because there are fewer places to do a full week's shopping, well, there you go. 

You see, I give Michael Moore a lot of credit for exposing who Reagan really was in his movies. Not only that, on Larry King Live years ago, he apologized to the people of my generation and younger for voting him in, plus others who made things tougher. The fact that he was a Jebus freak weakened his image, especially when it came to the AIDS crisis in the 80s. He even allegedly said, "They that live in sin die in sin". 

What's sad is that in recent years, Moore has kept a somewhat low profile. He discontinued his Traverse City Film Festival and his State Theater no longer shows first-run films while his other cinema, Bijou By The Bay mysteriously closed earlier this year. Many in the Grand Traverse Area are wondering if there's anything truly wrong with Mike, though he still has a podcast, Rumble, and maintains a blog at MichaelMoore.com. However, he recently wrote a very thought-provoking article about James Earl Jones and why he was refused service at a Traverse City restaurant as a teen. I read it, and it does make me cringe about northern Michigan in general.

If I owned a TV station, I would show Moore's movies because people need to know the truth about Ronald Reagan. He hated the middle class and forced my generation to move back in with our parents. As a matter of fact, if Reagan ran for president today, the Republicans would consider him too moderate. At least early on in his presidency, he was pro-choice to ease poverty. 

But, what do you expect from a man whose full name, Ronald Wilson Reagan, had six letters in each name?

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Bee-otch of the Day is a production of Chuck69.com, Grand Rapids' site for Stern, politics and more!

CHUCK69.COM IS ALWAYS ON!

Sunday, September 22, 2024

Bee-otches of the Day: Linkin Park


Name: Linkin Park
Age: 28
Occupation: rock band
Last Seen: London
Bee-otched For: throwing away their legacy



The year was 1980. 

Saturday Night Live was becoming a reason to avoid the bars. Its cast members—especially Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi, who left a year earlier to film hit movies such as "1941" and "The Blues Brothers"—graduated to bigger roles in movies and TV. Hollywood knew that those three letters, SNL, led to box office triumphs.

At the same time, show boss Lorne Michaels was fighting a war with his bosses at NBC. The network was a distant third place in the ratings, and the show was constantly poking fun at the network and its president, Fred Silverman. The network and Michaels went into loggerheads over a Weekend Update story by Al Franken called "Limo for the Lame-O," where he attacked them for giving Silverman a limo to ride to and from work despite the network's troubles. The bullying from the network caused Michaels to burn out, so he left the show, with the show's cast members and writers following him out the door.

Since NBC owned SNL, one of the few shows they had with good ratings, they simply hired a new producer, Jean Doumanian, a new cast, and a new writing staff led by comedy veteran Mason Williams, best known for his work on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (which Michaels himself wrote for) and the 1968 hit song "Classical Gas." The results were disastrous. The ratings plummeted, and the show truly jumped the shark when cast member Charles Rocket uttered the F-word at the end of an episode. NBC fired most of the show's cast and writers mid-season, but it was too late. A writers' strike shortened the already horrific 1980-81 season.

Some say that NBC should have canceled SNL, but they still had faith in the franchise. They hired Dick Ebersol to run the show, and they retained two cast members from that dreadful season: Joe Piscopo and a mid-season addition named Eddie Murphy. For the next several years, many fans felt that it was Murphy who carried the weight of the show on his shoulders. He was SNL's breakout star, with characters such as Mr. Robinson, a parody of Mr. Rogers. As a matter of fact, Fred Rogers himself loved Murphy's impersonation of him. Of course, there was Gumby, Buckwheat, and yes, James Brown and his hot tub.

However, Murphy was so good on SNL that Hollywood wanted him ASAP. "'48 Hrs'," "Trading Places," and "Beverly Hills Cop" were box office smashes. In 1984, Murphy left SNL to pursue a full-time career in movies. The 1984-85 season of SNL was so bad that in reruns of the show, poorly reviewed sketches were replaced with earlier sketches featuring Murphy. In 1985, NBC announced that SNL was canceled. Lorne Michaels decided to return to the show, to the delight of NBC, now #1 in the ratings thanks to President Brandon Tartikoff and hits like Cheers and, suffice it to say, The Cosby Show.

Now, SNL is celebrating its 50th season. It's had its good years, and some years it would love to forget. It has launched the careers of many legends, while sadly, there were a few people who left this earth too soon due to the price of fame. Granted, every episode is loaded with hilarious moments and belly-busting laughs, but there are always a few sketches that end up being about as funny as watching grass grow.

Lorne's response? "The show doesn't go on because it's ready; it goes on because it's 11:30."

So, what does Linkin Park have to do with a 50-year-old TV variety show? Some critics exclaim that when Michaels first left SNL in 1980, it should have remained canceled, period. In the world of Linkin Park, some wished that the group would have disbanded on July 20, 2017.

It was on that date that lead singer Chester Bennington took his own life at age 41 by hanging himself in his own home. Bennington struggled with substance abuse and depression most of his life which started at age seven when he started doing sexual favors for a teenage boy in his neighborhood. The abuse continued until he turned 12 when his parents divorced. He was bullied continuously throughout high school and had few friends. He fell into the dark world of drugs, which followed him shortly before his untimely death.

Bennington joined Linkin Park in 1999, replacing the original lead singer, Mark Wakefield. A year later, the group released its debut album, "Hybrid Theory," which sold 32 million copies worldwide and featured the band's biggest hit, "In the End," which peaked at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100. Many of Linkin Park's songs reflected Bennington's personal life, such as "Runaway," "One Step Closer," and "Somewhere I Belong." In all, the band sold over 100 million albums worldwide and was one of the most successful rock bands of the 21st century.

When Chester Bennington died, Linkin Park decided to go on hiatus. Co-lead singer Mike Shinoda released several solo albums and produced for other artists. There were rumors that the band would reform with a new lead singer, though another rumor was that the group would simply tour with a rotating list of singers.

But now, LP is back. And they're doing something rare in the music industry: replacing a male lead singer with a woman.

A few weeks ago, the group’s website posted a strange countdown that was mysteriously taken down. Meanwhile, on her social media, Halestorm’s Lzzy Hale posted a video of herself playing “Numb” on the piano.

Now, the mystery has been solved. LP's new lead singer is Emily Armstrong, who is also the lead singer of Dead Sara, best known for songs such as "Weatherman" and "Heroes." Many critics have lauded Armstrong, who considers Iggy Pop and Janis Joplin as influences. One huge fan of Armstrong is Grace Slick, the legendary lead singer of Jefferson Airplane/Starship.

The band also parted ways with founding drummer Rob Bourdon, who left the band during its hiatus. He was replaced with Colin Brittain, a songwriter and producer who has worked with Papa Roach, Dashboard Confessional, and Avicii.

They announced that they have recorded a new album, "From Zero," which will be released on November 15. The first single from the album, "The Emptiness Machine," has gotten mixed reviews from critics and fans. Some applaud the fact that it has maintained much of the old LP sound and mixed it with something new: a duet between a woman and the group’s rapper, who actually sings on the track. However, the haters are complaining about the fact that a woman has taken Chester's spot and that she is not a great singer.

But only a few hours later, LP fans had a new reason to hate Armstrong. 

As it turns out, Armstrong is a devout member of the Church of Scientology, the religious cult founded in 1953 by former pulp comic writer L. Ron Hubbard. Many celebrities, like Armstrong, are members of Scientology, including John Travolta, Tom Cruise, and Bart Simpson's voice actress, Nancy Cartwright. Armstrong was also friends with fellow Scientologist Danny Masterson, the actor from That '70s Show who is now serving 30 years in prison for raping multiple women.

One of Masterson's alleged victims was Chrissie Carnell Bixler, the wife of Cedric Bixler-Zavala, the lead singer of the progressive rock band The Mars Volta. Both are former Scientologists. According to Chrissie, Armstrong and a "goon squad" of fellow Scientologists confronted one of Masterson's victims in front of an elevator, and a bailiff had to come to her rescue.

Bixler also labeled Armstrong as a homophobe because she was a true believer in Hubbard and his book "Dianetics." Bixler also pointed out that she left Scientology because of the fact that they, like other religious groups, have swept multiple sexual assaults under the rug.

But now, the plot thickens.

Chester's 28-year-old son, Jaime, attacked the band for betraying their fans' trust. On Instagram, he berated co-lead singer Mike Shinoda, saying that he "quietly erased my father's life and legacy" during International Suicide Prevention Month. The post also mentioned that neither he nor Chester's family was involved in choosing a new lead singer for LP and that he and Shinoda's wife are not even on speaking terms. Jaime even believes that Shinoda might have hired Armstrong as far back as 2019 or even 2017 when his father died.

Also recently, Chester's mother, Susan Eubanks, told Rolling Stone that she was also betrayed by the band's decision. She claimed that the band would notify her about any plans to reunite, but did not. She did approve the release of two shelved Linkin Park songs, "Lost" and "Friendly Fire", both recent hits for the group. Eubanks said that she did speak briefly to Shinoda and Joe Hahn, the group's turntablist, but nothing about reuniting came about. She claimed that she was not a fan of Armstrong's "screeching" and ran out of the venue as fast as she could. She also mentioned that Shinoda often made fun of him, and Bennington even threatened to leave Linkin Park several times.

A day after the younger Bennington attacked the band, he claimed that he was pelted with death threats from fans of the new Linkin Park. He also said that he would attend the band's 9/11 concert, which was given to him by a fan, and asked everyone to give him and his partner privacy.

In an Instagram post, without mentioning Masterson’s name, Armstrong acknowledged that he was her friend. However, as the trial escalated, her opinion of him changed drastically. She stated that she does not condone violence against women and empathizes with Masterson’s victims. Her excuse was that she always looked for the good in people.

Since the announcement of Armstrong joining the band, lead guitarist Brad Delson announced that he would not be with the group on its current tour, citing personal and family reasons.

It's no secret that there are a plethora of bands that have lost a lead singer due to death and still remained successful after their loss. AC/DC, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Alice in Chains all come to mind. It's rare in rock for a group to trade in their successful and beloved vocalist for a female, and some, like Against Me! and K's Choice (best known for their 1996 hit "Not an Addict"), have lead singers who decided to become transgender.

When LP announced their reunion, I was ecstatic until I heard about what Armstrong did. The fact that she would stand up for a monster like Danny Masterson just because they were siblings in a fake cult shows how sick she really is. Let's remember that the true voice of LP, Chester Bennington, was a SA victim himself. Replacing him with an enabler like Emily Armstrong was like Bush I replacing Thurgood Marshall with Clarence Thomas and Drumpf replacing Ruth Bader Ginsburg with Amy Cunty Barrett on the Supreme Court. 

I know. There's a world of rockers out there that have their reasons to be canceled. Jerry Lee Lewis married his 13-year-old cousin. During a concert in his homeland of England, Eric Clapton told all the immigrants in attendance to go home. In his 30s,  Ted Nugent had a relationship with a teenage girl. Scott Stapp of Creed made a video where he announced that he was going to kill President Obama. Ditto with Nugent, who hinted that he wanted to kill Obama by saying, "I'll be dead or in jail" if the 44th President was reelected in 2012. Let's not forget Chris Brown putting the smackdown on Rihanna. 

And guess what? Right now, there’s a radio station playing the acts that I just mentioned.

Other countries have the tendency to cancel artists who engage in illicit sexual assaults. Gary Glitter is in prison for years of SAs on underage girls. Here in America, you'll still hear "Rock 'n Roll Part 2" at many stadiums and arenas. Hell, the cable network TV One still airs The Cosby Show even though Bill Cosby drugged and SA'd many women.

Even with the controversy surrounding Emily Armstrong, "The Emptiness Machine" is now a top 10 hit on active rock and alternative radio. What's interesting is that many rock fans couldn't care less about Armstrong's connections to a cult or the insensitivity toward Chester Bennington or his family. For some, it's a banger and that's all that matters.

Rock music has always been a big tent in terms of politics and even religion. After all, it's well-known that leftist guitarist Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine is best friends with the aforementioned Nugent. According to Morello, he and Nugent only talk about music, not politics. Bear in mind that it was the right that tried to kill rock music in the 1950s by linking it to juvenile delinquency. Some even resorted to tearing down radio towers, and some stations tried to avoid playing Black music by playing the Pat Boone versions of popular R&B tunes. One TV station, KTEN in Ada, Oklahoma—which shoehorned all three major networks onto its schedule—threatened to pull American Bandstand from its schedule in the late 1950s. Allegedly, Ada is a very conservative town. Host Dick Clark told his viewers about KTEN's plan, and within days, the station had received more letters than the population of Ada itself, which was about 16,000.

Yes, conservatives cried when John Lennon proclaimed that The Beatles were "bigger than Jesus," so they burned their albums. They wanted to stop MTV and heavy metal acts and even tried to link them to Satan and suicide. In the 90s, Pearl Jam stopped making music videos because MTV censored the ending of their video for "Jeremy," where the protagonist, a young boy, put a gun in his mouth. One reason for MTV's absurd amount of censorship over the decades was that one of the largest cable operators during the 80s and 90s, TCI, was operated by an ultra-right-winger named John Malone. When he ran TCI, Malone threatened to pull MTV off his systems if they aired content he found offensive.

And yes, this is the same John Malone who now owns most of SiriusXM, Ticketmaster, Live Nation, Formula One, and until recently, the Atlanta Braves baseball team, which his Liberty Media spun off in a stock trade. Now 83, he's worth an estimated $9 billion.

It's worth noting that in the late '90s here in Grand Rapids, TCI pulled MTV and Comedy Central from its lineup. Allegedly, the local head of operations for TCI was unhappy with the content both channels—owned by Viacom—were pushing onto young people. I remember hearing that the deeply missed rock station 94.5 KLQ rented kiosks at local malls and put TVs in them so people could watch MTV. I would imagine that people bought DirecTV and Dish Network systems and canceled TCI in protest.

So yes, this is part of the reason why I don't vote Republican. Plus, I refuse to shop at Walmart in part because they refuse to sell any recording with the "Parental Advisory - Explicit Lyrics" sticker. What's insane is when I hear a conservative cry about liberals pushing cancel culture when in fact, it was they who started it centuries ago.

What's sad is that rock fans sure do like to fight one another. In one post regarding the LP fiasco, a man posted about how angry he was with Armstrong. But another man replied about how hypocritical he was because he wore a Pantera shirt on his Facebook profile. (For the record, Pantera lead singer Phil Anselmo has long been under fire for showing a Nazi salute during a concert honoring his former guitarist Dimebag Darrell Abbott and screaming "White Power!"). One person even attacked me by saying that I looked like I "drank the Kool-Aid." Ummm, they drank Flavor-Aid in Jonestown, Dumbass.

One of the most-damning comments towards Jaime Bennington was from a douchebag who proclaimed that his father was a loser for abandoning him by committing suicide. It reminded me of when Kurt Cobain died and my mother and her now ex-husband joked about his death. They would say things like, "Cocoa Bean! He's a dead Cocoa Bean!" And stupid jokes like, "What was Kurt Cobain's last hit? The floor." Like Cobain and Bennington, my mom's ex's daughter has dealt with depression for years and even tried to commit suicide multiple times. As a matter of fact, when her grandfather died, she couldn't attend his funeral because she was in the hospital after a suicide attempt. When she posted what happened on Facebook, her own father rudely responded with "See you on the other side."

Folks, mental illness is no laughing matter. Nobody should ever be shamed because they didn't have a happy childhood. In my ex-stepsister's case, her mother was a drunk, white trash loser who couldn't keep a job while her father was a homewrecker. She's dealt with health issues all her life, including asthma. She's never had a good relationship and like her mother, can't keep a job. 

Chester Bennington was proof that you can be a millionaire multiple times over, have a wonderful wife and loving children and it won't cure the trauma of your past. Harvey Weinstein was a successful Oscar-winning film producer. Yet, he went to prison for SAing dozens of women. One of his triggers involved his mother emotionally abusing him as a child for being overweight. Vince McMahon didn't have a happy childhood, either. He was abandoned by his father as an infant and lived in a rotting old trailer with his single mother, who married an abusive drunk. In the years ahead, he screwed over his father by buying him and his competitors out (which he warned him not to) and almost had the wrestling business to himself. For years, he SA'd many women and paid them hush money. 

You see, this is what happens when parents aren't positive role models in their lives. They fuck up and others get hurt. In a future BOTD, I will explain some of the shit that happened to me when I was young and the effect it had on me in my 40s.

Look, I'm not against Linkin Park reuniting. To me, it's like SNL in 1980. Now, don't get me wrong. There were highlights that season. After all, people like Gilbert Gottfried, Eddie Murphy, and Denny Dillon all went on to become respected stars. Emily Armstrong is a decent singer and an attractive woman. But deep down, she's someone who hurt others all in the name of a false prophet like Hubbard.

Funny how Grace Slick loves Armstrong. After all, she was the lead singer of a band that had three different names. There's a huge contrast between Jefferson Airplane and Starship. "White Rabbit"—which Slick wrote—was an attack on parents who criticized rock music for being pro-drugs, yet read stories like "Alice in Wonderland" to their children. But "We Built This City" was a steaming pile of horse shit. True, there's substance in the song. After all, it was inspired by the onslaught of live music venues that closed in Los Angeles in the 1980s. But the song's corporate rock vibe simply ruined its message.

As for Linkin Park, I agree with many fans that they should not have kept the name when they reformed. How about "Linkin Garden" or "Linkin Field"? If Starship had released "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" as Jefferson Airplane, I think the world would have laughed.

When I hear about Emily Armstrong, it takes me back to the story I told last year about Della Reese. My late uncle worked in the music industry, and one story that had been circulating for decades was that Reese, then an up-and-coming R&B singer, was in Detroit for a radio promotion. She looked at the playlists of the stations in town and was angered that none of her records were being played, despite being a Detroiter herself.

Her alleged response? "Whose cock do I need to suck to get played in this city?" One of the station programmers took her to his office and locked the door. Within a week, one of her singles was getting good airplay in The Motor City. 

If I owned a radio station, I would not play anything from Emily Armstrong unless she came to me and pulled a Della Reese on me. However, it wouldn't shock me if she did the same thing to the other LP members and others in the industry to get to where she is now. Aside from the brainwashing she received from Scientology, she probably has a few creepy crawlers to boot.

When it comes to the world of rock, in the end, credibility does matter.


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Sunday, August 25, 2024

Bee-otches of the Day: people trying to stop the adult entertainment industry


Names: various
Ages: various
Occupations: various
Last Seen: everywhere
Bee-otched For: wanting to take America from us


In the eyes of the religious right, what does the American family look like?

Is it a husband and wife with a child or two or more? Does the wife work, or does she stay at home all day because the husband makes enough to support the entire family on one paycheck? Is the wife allowed to even think for herself, or is she the type who responds with "Wait until your father gets home" when her children present her with even the most basic questions?

In the world of people like Harrison Butker, the Kansas City Chiefs kicker who made headlines with his moronic speech at a graduation ceremony where he told all the women that their degrees are worthless and that they need to marry a rich man, it is. He's one of the lucky few who can support a family on one paycheck. Of course, for many American families, two 40-hour paychecks aren't going to cut it. Some now have to work a few hours doing Uber or Grubhub to pay the bills.

For many Americans, the dream of even starting a family is all but dead. My grandfather was 26 when my father was born. He had a good job as a mail carrier while my grandmother was a school teacher. However, my father was 29 when he had me. My mother had a variety of jobs over the years, such as secretary, convenience store worker, and even owned a failed computer repair shop with her ex-husband. My father—like his mother—worked in the school system, but as a bus driver. 

Now, I am 43 and single like a Pringle. I was rejected in high school, and my prom date was a girl I absolutely hated. She was ugly inside and out. Thankfully, when I was away at school, someone introduced me to a place where a man like me can be a man: Deja Vu.

Yes! Deja Vu is the strip club that boasts about having thousands of beautiful girls and three ugly ones. Throughout my twenties, I went there once a month. Admittedly, I tried everything else throughout my life to meet and be with women elsewhere. I tried the bars, and most of the time, only other men wanted to talk to me and bore me to tears. One Black man even took me to his apartment, where he exposed himself in front of me. I've tried internet dating. However, most women in Grand Rapids seem to only like guys like me for my money and not much else.

And yes, I tried church and belonged to one for several years. But there were many reasons why I quit. One was that I dealt with a loser who refused to work and wanted me to give him $500. Another was that I found some horrible hypocrisy within the church itself. The pastor was seemingly pro-woman. After all, he was a board member of the local Planned Parenthood group and often explored the Bible to tell his flock that people often used it to bash women, gays, and people of color. But he would tell us that's not necessarily so. Well, as it turns out, the pastor was good pals with former Grand Rapids mayor George Heartwell, who helped sign into law in 2006 the city's unconstitutional strip club ban. IMHO, telling a woman that she can't be naked in front of a group of other men is just as bad as telling her that she can't have an abortion.

When the city outlawed strip clubs, they said that it would help clean up crime. Nearly twenty years later, it's worse, WAY worse. You can't turn on the six o'clock news without the anchor talking about another person being shot or a business being robbed. Last year, a Meijer near me was terrorized by a man stabbing customers. In that same store, another man had installed a camera inside a women's bathroom and spied on female customers. Even more frightening was that there was a mass shooting inside the Walmart near me on New Year's, which I avoided like the plague.

The funny thing is that Heartwell even mentioned that there's no link between strip clubs and violence. The local club owners even took the city to court, but the judges—all Republicans—ruled that the city had the right to develop its own local laws.

The 2006 law was the brainchild of Judy Rose, the longtime president of the Black Hills Neighborhood Association and a devout Christian. She was appalled that a new strip club called Showgirl Galleria had opened in Grand Rapids and flaunted the state's strip club laws. If you own a club and serve alcohol, your girls can only be topless, and your club can only serve patrons 21 and over. However, if you want full nudity and serve those 18 and over, then you can't serve alcohol. Well, Showgirl Galleria was two clubs in one. One side of the building was topless/21+, while the other side was full-nude and 18+.

One reason the law was passed was because when Rose challenged the city's laws, she received a large donation from an anonymous donor. It was rumored to be the DeVos family since Rose appeared in one of Dick's ads when he ran for governor in 2006. The law even made a DINO out of current Mayor Rosalynn Bliss, who joined Heartwell, another DINO, in signing the law.

Since the law was passed, Grand Rapids is now down to two bikini clubs while Showgirl Galleria has since been demolished for expensive condos. The only good thing that came out of all this is the fact that Judy Rose died five years ago.

You cannot strip in Grand Rapids, but you can obtain a gun from a church. Recently, New Chapel, a nondenominational church on 4 Mile Road in a plaza, raised some eyebrows when, during a Fourth of July raffle, they gave away an AR-15, the same gun used in mass shootings such as Sandy Hook and Parkland, plus, the gun used in the assassination attempt of New Chapel's lord and savior, Drumpf. According to the church's pastor, Joe Bevelacqua, John Adams believed that Independence Day should be a day celebrated with fireworks, barbecues, and guns. He also believes that Jesus wanted people to have personal protection, per Luke 22:35-37.

Recently, New Chapel announced that they had purchased the space in their plaza adjacent to their church for over a million dollars. The 36,000-square-foot section was formerly a Duthler's Family Foods Supermarket and is currently the Four Mile Showplace, which is used for events like gun shows and wedding receptions. New Chapel will keep its current space but plans to use it for youth ministry.

It's funny how there are people living paycheck to paycheck, while these assholes not only beg for money, but also give away machines that kill. If one of the winners of their AR-15s shoots another person, or if someone uses that gun to commit murder, the blood will be on New Chapel's hands.

Even worse, I attended a service at New Chapel several years ago. Long story short, I was still attending that one church whose pastor was buddy-buddy with Heartwell. However, he retired, and a new pastor, who was openly a lesbian, was installed. My mother moved from Arizona to be closer to me and attended this church with me. Well, when the pastor uttered "our mother, who art in heaven..." during the Lord's Prayer, she was instantly offended. She told me that she no longer wanted to go there, so we were on the hunt for a new church.

My mother's boss at the time—a Drumpf supporter and a total bitch—just happened to attend New Chapel and loved it. So, she told my mother about it and suggested that we go there. On a cold winter day when the roads were slick and icy, we went there. Needless to say, the service was typical megachurch fare, starting with 30 minutes of dopey, repetitive soccer-mom CCM that was practically a crossbreed of Coldplay and George Beverly Shea. It was then followed by a sermon by the pastor's wife. During the sermon, the audience was hooting and hollering, screaming "AMEN!" and "HALLELUJAH!" At times, I felt like I was in a Pentecostal church. I wasn't crazy about New Chapel, and neither was my mother.

After that horrible experience of slipping and sliding up the Beltline to attend that abortion of a megachurch, we visited one more church, Encounter Church on Kalamazoo Avenue. Granted, it was a little better. True, they begin their services with the usual coterie of WCSG-esque melodies and then a sermon performed by their pastor, Dirk Van Eyk, who acts like Pastor Jeff Difford from Young Sheldon if he were a 12-year-old boy.

Now, I'll give Dirk some credit. Sometimes he said that he didn't care who you are—man or woman, Black or White, gay or straight, Democrat or Republican—you were welcome at Encounter. Not to mention that some of his sermons were actually pretty good. But sadly, the church has that Debbie Downer aspect. At the end of one of his sermons, he said, "I'm sure that some of you who are currently using your phones to read today's Bible passage also use them to see things you shouldn't be seeing."

But Encounter does have one dark secret that I didn’t know about until maybe a month or two after I started attending. Even though, on the outside, they are a nondenominational megachurch, they’re actually owned by the ultra-right-wing Christian Reformed Church. It doesn’t say this at all on their website, but I’ve talked to a few of their parishioners to confirm it.

There were multiple reasons why I quit Encounter, and their CRC affiliation was one of them. Another reason was the pandemic. By the time it ended, my father and I had bought a house, and he told me that no one should ever force religion on me, not even my mother. She still watches Encounter's services from home, and as far as I know, she still gives them money.

Some of my longtime readers might be asking, "if you're against religion, why do you go to church?" Well, this is what happens when you have family that tries to push you into going. My mother wanted me to get baptized and she got her wish. However, every time I'm having a bad day at work, I think about that asshole ho annoyed me and tried to defraud me out of $500. Plus, there was a man from the church who I identified as gay who friended me multiple times on Facebook and filled my news feed with drawings of young, naked men. I think about the preachers who begged for money and cried that pornography was bad while violence was OK. Sorry, but I have my priorities straight. I'm at that point where if you even think about trying to get me to go to your church or follow your religion, I'm not interested. Years ago, I even attended a few Catholic churches out of respect for my cousin, who ended up estranged from my family. At one of them, there was a protester with a bullhorn screaming about how the church hurts people. Boy, did I want to join him.

So, if you want to get me to be a part of your stupid ass house of child molestation and hypocrisy, please do me a favor and suck my dick and go away. Besides, Jesus hung out with prostitutes.

It's no secret that moralists have been trying to eliminate pretty much anything they view as ungodly for centuries. In the 1930s, it was cannabis, with films like "Reefer Madness." Fast-forward to the 1950s, and there were anti-gay films like "Boys Beware," which was remade a few times. And in the '60s, adult magazines were the target, with dreck like "Perversion for Profit" and "Pages of Death." Both films were produced by sectors of the Catholic Church and Charles Keating, a convicted felon who defrauded many people out of their life savings during the Savings and Loan scandal of the late '80s. 

The funny thing was that "Pages of Death" was hokum at its best. The 27-minute film from 1962 - which was lost for years - was about two detectives solving the rape and murder of a little girl, who was discovered on a dirt road. It turns out that the girl was murdered by a teenage boy who was addicted to the nudie magazines of the time, as well as horror stories that he bought from a variety store. In the film, the detectives discovered the magazines and other paraphernalia by searching the boy's personal rec room without proper permission.

However, in "Perversion For Profit," released a year later, they reveal the type of magazines the boy was looking at. Like Playboy, the majority of the nudie mags did show T&A but hardly any pubic hair. They talked about slides you could get through the mail. For all intents and purposes of research, I Googled "1960s nude slides," and yes, some of them did feature full-frontal nudity, but no hardcore sex.

Movies like 'Pages' and 'Perversion' both wanted to paint an ugly picture that their view of kitschy early 60s smut would lead to child abuse, homosexuality, and other forms of immorality. When I was 12, my parents divorced. My mother had everything my Dad did not, like cable TV, the family VCR, my Super Nintendo, and access to a downtown area where I could grab a slice of pizza or go to the movies. My Dad knew he had to compete since he only had four channels and our VCR was the outdated Betamax. Since my 'rents had split custody of me, visiting Dad kinda sucked. So, he knew he had to do things Mom wouldn't let me do. And one of them was to buy me Playboy Magazine.

When I was 14, I visited my uncle's apartment. He had magazines that made Playboy look like The Old Farmer's Almanac. Thankfully, my father was there to tell me what the models were doing in Club was what couples did in real life. Eventually, I would watch my first porno movie and since then, I've seen a whole lotta things that were far more explicit than 1960s nudies. 

And guess what? I've never killed or raped a little girl. 

Sadly, the war against women’s bodies goes back further. In the 1960s, Floyd Bloss owned several successful adult movie theaters in West Michigan, including the Burton Capri here in Grand Rapids. However, he was targeted by the morality police, who all wanted him gone for good. So, he hired a lawyer and won his case. However, he was broke from all the legal fees, so in 1965, a projectionist at his Battle Creek cinema offered to buy a portion of his theaters for $8,000. That 22-year-old man was Harry Mohney.

For the next five years, Bloss and Mohney opened more theaters, including a drive-in in Durand that was very profitable. The locals nicknamed it the "Durand Dirties" for its fare of X-rated films. However, in 1970, Bloss sold his share of their company to Mohney after his daughter, Debbie, was murdered in their Battle Creek theater. After the sale, Mohney—who grew up in a house with no indoor plumbing, was abandoned by his father at age nine, forced to leave home at age 16, and worked odd jobs until he started working for Bloss—was now worth over $2 million. With competition from home video in the ’80s, Mohney converted his theaters into full-nude strip clubs as Deja Vu. Today, Deja Vu has over 200 locations worldwide, and Mohney—now 81—is a billionaire.

It's funny how everything seems to be connected, considering that one of Deja Vu's flagship locations in Lansing was recently involved in some controversy. Republican Michigan state representative Kornelius "Neil" Friske was recently arrested for chasing an exotic dancer he invited to his home in Lansing with a gun and firing a few shots at her. He has not been charged yet, but his actions could result in felony charges.

Friske (ironically pronounced "frisky") represents the 107th District, which serves Charlevoix and Emmet Counties, plus portions of Cheboygan, Chippewa, and Mackinac Counties, or a giant chunk of the deep northernmost Lower Peninsula and the easternmost portion of the Upper Peninsula. His family owns Friske Orchards, a giant farm market located in the farming town of Atwood in northern Antrim County, 12 miles south of Charlevoix. Friske's is a definite boon to Atwood, whose other businesses include a hardware store, a tractor dealership, a golf course, and a smaller farm market, Royal Orchards. The town, which is unincorporated, has no post office and lost its gas station over a decade ago, leaving the 33-mile drive between Elk Rapids and Charlevoix with just one gas station, the Eastport Market Marathon in nearby Eastport. Atwood did have a small supermarket, Spartan-affiliated Atwood Shopping Center, which operated from the 1920s until the early 1990s. Most recently, it was an antique store.

During a recent conference, Friske maintained his innocence despite fellow lawmakers on both sides calling for his resignation. He recently lost his seat in the local primary to Parker Fairbairn.

Neil is the son of Richard Friske, who was born in Poland and fought for the Nazis in World War II. The elder Friske was also a Pentecostal minister and even donated to David Duke's 1999 run for 1st district of Louisiana congressman. He helped manage George Wallace's presidential run in 1968 and was a notorious opponent of Civil Rights and school desegregation. He supported everything from religious right policies to abstinence-only education. He served one term as a state representative in 1971-72. Richard Friske died in 2002, and his family has owned the property ever since.

In 2020, Friske Orchards made headlines when they announced that they would not require face masks inside their market and that they would sue Governor Gretchen Whitmer because of her mandate. However, the state dismissed their suit, claiming that there was no legal standing. Because of the family's stance on COVID-19, the Health Department of Northwest Michigan called Friske Orchards "an imminent danger to public health."

Friske Orchards is now owned by Richard's grandchildren and still operates under their evangelical philosophy. They're closed on Sundays, and if you visit their website, they'll implore you to find Jesus. They even have a link to Samaritan's Purse, a charity run by Franklin Graham.

I've been to Deja Vu so many times that I know strippers have morals, too. It's strange but true. One of their codes of conduct is that they shouldn't go home with customers. Years ago, there was a dancer at the Vu in Kalamazoo who got fired for going home with a customer. Allegedly, he paid her—a struggling single mother—$100 to spend the night at his place. He returned the next day because she left her purse at his house.

From the sound of things, old Kornelius paid the lady to stay at his place, which is just down the street from the Lansing Deja Vu. Since many of the girls there are MSU students, they tend to be young and naïve and willing to do anything for money, especially if the customer is wealthy. This may turn out to be a damning case for Friske, a man whose family was built on so-called "family values" but lacks any.

If it were true that Friske solicited the girl for prostitution, it could harm not only Deja Vu's reputation but also that of the entire strip club industry, which has been the victim of attacks for decades. Many who have fought against strip clubs have spread many untrue stigmas regarding the industry, including that most of the girls are prostitutes and some are victims of human trafficking. Yet, the people who attack strip clubs and other facets of the adult entertainment industry have their own problems.

Earlier, we mentioned Charles Keating and his anti-smut films. He made them with the Catholic Church, who fought long and hard to hide the facts regarding their abuse of alter boys and Native Americans for generations. In a 1979 episode of Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, the gang confronts a fellow teen who exposes them to adult magazines. Of course, Bill Cosby was a regular at the Playboy Mansion and did go to prison for a short time for one of his many sexual assaults. In the 1990s, I attended the youth ministry at New Hope Community Church in Williamsburg, MI. Their youth pastor, John Clark, was hellbent on telling teens that sex was bad and thinking about sex was a sin. Well, he started his own church, West Side Community in Traverse City and embezzled $500,000 from the ministry. Before he could be investigated, Clark committed suicide by shotgun just before Christmas in 2019.

And then, there's Ronald Brown, the puppeteer who was one of the stars of a 1980s Christian children's show, Joy Junction. The most notorious clip of the program showed Brown and his puppet, Marty, discussing his friends looking at "dirty pictures." In the end of the segment, Ronald and his puppet agreed that "dirty pictures" were bad and cited a vague Bible verse about fleeing from wickedness.

Over a decade ago, Brown was a subject of an investigation because of a chat room post where he said that he wanted to murder children. The police investigated his trailer and discovered hundreds of pictures of child pornography in there. In 2013, Brown was sentenced to twenty years in prison. Once he leaves prison, Brown - who made a living entertaining children - will have to register as a sex offender.

Now, the adult entertainment world ain't perfect, either. The aforementioned Harry Mohney spent three years in prison for tax evasion in the early 90s. He didn't want to help fund a government that was hellbent on destroying him. Ron Jeremy - once one of the most-revered stars of adult cinema - allegedly raped a woman a few years ago. However, his case was thrown out of court because he now has dementia. Linda Lovelace allegedly did her scenes at the gunpoint of her husband. The list goes on. 

The sad truth is that religion is nothing more than mind control. I really don't want someone who is worse off than I am telling me how to get to Heaven. My philosophy on faith is the same as Pixies: if man is five, then the devil is six. And if the devil is six, then God is seven. Nobody's perfect. If I pay a cute girl $30 to sit on my lap, I shouldn't be shamed for it. Hell, I'd rather see that $30 go to her than it going to a preacher who's going to use that exact money to go to the same strip club that he preaches against.

Look at what's going on in several states such as Texas and Louisiana. They're now forcing people to use their drivers license to access adult websites. Even worse, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing several websites, such as PornHub. According to Paxton - who made headlines after he hired his mistress to be one of staffers - the sites don't do enough to guard themselves from underage viewers. Simply put, he's making it tougher - even for adults - to access adult content online. 

Let's not forget that recently, Louisiana governor Jeff Landry ordered all classrooms in the state to display the Ten Commandments, a direct violation of the separation of church and state. So far, several families have stood up to the governor, and the ACLU is on their side.

What might be more embarrassing is that Louisiana ranks 47th in education in America. A recent caller to The Howard Stern Show spoke about her experience living there. She spoke about putting her children in daycare, and in their guidebook, they spelled "children" as "childern." She complained to the daycare's owner, who claimed that the spelling was correct. She even had to use a temp service to get a job, and the person there asked for her "résumé," but pronounced it "ree-soom."

But what was even more frightening regarding this poor woman’s experience living in Louisiana was the fact that her child’s second-grade teacher was also a Pentecostal minister and told her class that the world was coming to an end. In addition, corporal punishment is practiced at the school, and she was saddened to see her child come home with red hands because the teacher smacked them with a ruler.

Meanwhile, in Oklahoma, the state superintendent has ordered all public schools to have Bibles and teach from them. Clearly, this is nothing more than a weak-sauce attempt to force the right's sordid views of Christianity onto the American people, especially children. The same goes for several other states, like Florida, which are now forcing children to learn from the curriculum PragerU, created by far-right-wing radio talk show host Dennis Prager. Among the things Prager teaches is that slavery taught Black people basic skills to prepare them for life. Nope! It taught them that as long as a white guy was whipping the crap out of them, they'll get their dinner.

You see, this is why I vote Democrat. I don’t want to give my taxes away to the wealthy. I don’t want to be 50 years old and working at Walmart because my job shut down due to right-wing lunacy. I don’t want the Supreme Court to become even more right-leaning than it currently is. If there’s another pandemic, I want the entire country to shut down, not make it a state issue. And of course, I DON'T WANT THE GOVERNMENT TO TAKE AWAY MY FUCKING PORN!!!

I understand that the right is adamantly trying to not only criminalize pornographers and those who view their works, but they also want to force America to become a Christian nation. The ultra-right-wing Heritage Foundation published a proposal called Project 2025 that would not only do all this, but also eliminate America's laws protecting the environment, women's rights, and reform laws that affect the LGBTQ+ community. Word has it that if Drumpf is elected president, he will allow Project 2025 to act as a template for his lawmaking.

Because of all this, I am happier knowing that President Biden dropped out of the race. During his presidency, more Americans are getting good jobs that pay well. Also, he stood up to corporations by standing with unions. However, he is in cognitive decline and knows that it's time to pass the torch to someone younger who can get the job done. True, Kamala Harris is not perfect. As attorney general of California, she prosecuted cannabis users even though she smoked pot herself. But, I feel that she is more progressive than Biden and can beat Drumpf in a cage match.

In a future BOTD, I will talk more about the importance of the adult entertainment industry. In the meantime, remember, kids: this country was founded on the principle of freedom from religion. If we end up as a society that forces religion on its citizens, our founding fathers will be spinning in their graves.

As a closing thought, here's a question for those on the right: How would you like it if the government were run by Muslims and they outlawed the sale of bacon?

Could happen.

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Bee-otch of the Day is a production of Chuck69.com, Grand Rapids' site for Stern, politics and more!

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Sunday, February 11, 2024

Bee-otches of the Day: Tyrone Bynum and Robert S. Womack


Names: Tyrone Bynum and Robert S. Womack
Ages: 62, 58
Occupations: lawyer, Kent County Commissioner
Last Seen: Grand Rapids, Michigan
Bee-otched For: attempting a hostile takeover


The saga of the radio douchebag known as Tyrone Bynum just won't end.

Last year, we handed BOTD dishonors to the asshat who operates urban AC WPRR 1680 and its low-powered translator at 102.5 - operating as The Ride - for running an illegal operation. Under FCC rules, 1680 and 102.5 must be simulcast 24/7. But, 10,000-watt 1680 has been airing an oddball mish-mash of random classic urban tunes for about a year with no commercials and another FCC no-no, no legal station IDs.

We also ripped Bynum a new one because The Ride's new studio is located at Rogers Plaza, the Grand Rapids area's most-dead shopping mall and the butt of many, many jokes. You could say that it is more embarrassing than the rickety parking area at Rivertown Crossings. If you want to hear some of those jokes, BTW, just listen to the old Chris Rock routine of "Every town in America has two malls: the mall white people go to and the mall white people used to go to."

Well now, we've heard from a reliable source that Tyrone, along with fellow radio prick and Kent County commissioner Robert S. Womack - who has a show on The Ride - attempted a hostile takeover of 97.3 The Heat. The 49-watt urban station is owned by the non-profit Empowerment Radio Project, which is run by Jose Flores. Word has it that Flores knows a few folks from the FCC and is now threatening to report WPRR to them.

But, there's one problem: Tyrone does not own WPRR. 

According to my source, Bynum has been leasing the station, formerly liberal talk Public Reality Radio from longtime owner Robert Goodrich who filed for bankruptcy in 2020. Goodrich was marred with poor business decisions, such as firing station programmer and Southpaws host Darren Gibson because of his lack of support for 2016 presidential nominee Hillary Clinton due to the screwjob the Democrats put on the more progressive candidate, Bernie Sanders. Goodrich also made headlines for firing all of his minor employees at his movie theaters so he could start selling liquor. In the end, Goodrich lost the GQT movie theater chain his father started in 1930, which is now owned by several private equity firms.

Goodrich - now in his 80s - also lost his home and now lives in a small townhouse off of East Paris in Kentwood. But somehow, he still has WPRR, which he's leasing to Bynum, who is also his personal lawyer.

If WPRR is fined for Bynum's idiotic bullshit, sadly, Goodrich might be the one slapped with the fine. Why, you might ask? Look no further than Traverse City. 

A few years ago, a similar situation occurred between a radio station owner and another entity that was leasing his stations. The renters broke an FCC law but it was the owner who paid for their snafu.

The owner was Roy Henderson, who owns WLDR 101.9 Traverse City, WBNZ 92.3 Frankfort, WLLS 99.3 Beulah, and WWKK 750 Petoskey. He used to own 100.7 Bear Lake and WMTE 1340 Manistee, but he lost those stations due to them being silent for too long.

With a partner, Henderson started WKLT in Kalkaska in 1979, then at 97.7, 6,000 watts, and a top 40 format. With northern Michigan being overloaded with CHRs, Kilt 98 was a ratings dud, even with Michael O'Shea as one of their jocks. In 1981, WKLT flipped to country, but ratings did not improve. 

Obviously, Henderson had nothing to lose when he flipped WKLT again a year later to a format that was successful in larger cities, but not up north: album-oriented rock. Now known as 98 Rock, the station's ratings rose and two years later in 1984, Henderson sold the station for $250,000 to Langer Gokey, a wealthy Pepsi bottler from Minot, ND.

Henderson took the money and ran off to Texas where he started a chain of successful stations that played Texas-style music. He also bought tiny, small-town stations that made little - if any - profit and moved them to larger cities, which made him millions.

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 was a blessing to deep-pocketed broadcasters like Henderson. He could buy up more radio stations and he was eying one of the fastest-growing in America: the one he abandoned years ago, Traverse City. While he was investing in Texas, WKLT's new owners boosted their signal by moving 97.7 to 97.5 and expanding their power from 6,000 to 32,000 watts. They even purchased 98.9 WJML in Petoskey - a station that once creamed WKLT in the ratings in its short lifespan - and flipped it to WKLZ, a full-time simulcast of WKLT. Henderson was jealous of KLT's success and growth. So, he felt that buying up a ton of lackluster signals in the Grand Traverse region - plus a 100,000-watt heritage station in the area - would boost his ego.

In 2000, Henderson bought WLDR from longtime owners Don Wiitala and Dave Maxon for $3.6 million, the biggest price for one single radio station in northern Michigan. Henderson also bought several other stations, such as 1210 AM in Kingsley, a station that despite being a 50,000-watt flamethrower, was daytime only to protect WPHT Philadelphia. 

Henderson also planned a giant multi-use project called the Covelly Broadcast Centre at the corner of Front and Park in downtown Traverse City. He demolished several buildings and put up a foundation. However, he butted heads with the city commission over building height and even threatened to sue them. He even tried to move the long-troubled Bear Lake station to Bellaire, but the FCC didn't allow it.

And then, 9/11 hit and it gave Roy an excuse to abort the Covelly project. He blamed a lot of people for his problems. One finger was pointed at Ross Biederman, the owner of Midwestern Broadcasting (owners of WTCM, WCCW, Z93, and KLT) and Radio Centre. Roy wanted Covelly to be taller, but the city commission complained that it was too tall. Feeling that the city was in bed with Biederman - whose father, Les, founded WTCM and NBC affiliate WPBN 7&4 - Henderson flipped WLDR from its decades-old AC format to country as Sunny Country 101.9.

Biederman's WTCM-FM 103.5 had ruled the radio ratings roost for many years. Henderson even took one of WTCM's top jocks, Ryan Dobry to handle middays at WLDR. However, WTCM still came out on top of the ratings heap. Even worse, Dobry and the rest of WLDR's jocks all quit due to bounced paychecks and a toxic workplace that Henderson inflicted on his staff. Rumor had it that Henderson threw staplers and even computer monitors at his staff. At that time, Henderson put his botched Covelly project - basically a hole in the ground with a fence around it - on the market for $5 million. It sat abandoned for years until the city forced Henderson to sell it to the highest bidder. He got $2 million.

Not long after the mass exodus at WLDR, Henderson hired market vet Dan Stevens - the former night jock at WCCW - to handle mornings, programming, and even sales at the station. I chatted with Dancin' Dan a few years ago and he told me that under contract, Henderson was supposed to pay him $28,000 plus benefits. Instead, he was paying him $22,000. He knew that he had to cover his ass, so he recorded himself arguing with Roy and his British wife, Susanne. Well, it was enough for a judge to rule in favor of Stevens, who was awarded $25,000.

Over the years, Henderson had his fair share of legal problems and people who simply avoided him and his stations like the plague. He installed an HD transmitter for WLDR so he could air more programming, such as smooth jazz and oldies. He even used WLDR's signal to retransmit the programming on his Bear Lake station, which aired a conservative news-talk format that featured Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Don Imus. Word had it that he slapped on a banner on his stations' studios across from Tom's West Bay telling fans of those shows that they now needed an HD radio to hear them. Well, that didn't sit well with WTCM, and eventually, Henderson had to knock it off. Rumor also had it that Henderson forced electronics stores to carry $100 tabletop HD radios. Obviously, all they did was collect dust on the shelves.

It's worth noting that the Bear Lake station at 100.1 FM is now silent, and so is another Manistee area station Henderson bought, WMTE 1340. In WMTE's case, the previous owners sold off the transmission site. Henderson couldn't secure a new site and its license was deleted by the FCC due to inactivity. As for 100.1 - whose call signs over the years included WRQT, WZTU, WSRI, and WCUZ - the station never had a stable life, no matter the owner. When it was AC-formatted WRQT in the late 80s, it was silenced due to tax trouble. When it was 80s-centric classic hits Star FM in the late 90s, it lasted only a short time due to its lack of profitability. It was silent most of the time Henderson owned it, save for its short-lived talk format and when it simulcasted WLDR. A few years ago, Henderson finally sent 100.1's license back to the FCC after the station's tower's owner, Roger Hoppe - who himself owned 100.1 in the early/mid-90s as WZTU 100.1 The Storm - reported him to the FCC because he did not pay him tower rent for two years.

Speaking of the West Bay studios, with few people working for Roy, it became very neglected. In 2015, a water main in the building broke, forcing WLDR off the air. Word had it that Roy shut the heater off to save on his bills. Reportedly, Henderson was forced to toss most of the station's equipment because it was water-logged. 

Also during the 2010s, Henderson would have his non-WLDR stations off the air without telling the FCC. One brave soul reported him regarding 99.3, only to have Roy lie to the Commission by telling them what commercials aired during the time in question by his station's programming supplier, Westwood One. Often, if you listened to WLDR's top-of-the-hour ID, you'd hear Roy's other stations bunched in to make the FCC feel that all of them simulcasted each other. On the outside, Roy wanted everyone to feel that he was almighty and powerful. Instead, he was in dire need of help.

Roy owned several houses in Texas, Michigan, Connecticut, and even England, where his wife was born. He allegedly stopped paying his taxes and he had to sell them to pay them off. Henderson even lost the transmitter site for WLDR, which was sold in a Sheriff's sale to Jerry and Sheryl Coyne, whose Blarney Stone Broadcasting owns Grayling-based rock station WQON/Q100 and sports-talker 101.1 WGRY. 

In 2018, Blarney Stone worked a deal to help Henderson by operating his stations. Under the Local Marketing Agreement (LMA), WLDR rebranded from 101.9 The Bay to simply 101.9 WLDR. Meanwhile, 99.3 simulcasted Q100, and 92.3 repeated WGRY as Up North Sports Radio.

Things seemed to be hunky dory in the beginning until the FCC slammed Henderson with yet another fine. This time, it helped to expose how neglectful Henderson really is. In the 2010s, 99.3's 50,000-watt transmitter had a failure and it could only pump out a few hundred watts. With no money to fix the transmitter, Henderson kept 99.3 silent most of the time. Since 99.3's signal could not reach Traverse City, the Coynes installed a small transmitter on their WLDR tower without FCC approval. Apparently, the engineer at Alpena country station WATZ - also at 99.3 -  was flustered at the Traverse City area 99.3 bushwhacking at the Alpena 99.3's signal.

By the way, WATZ is owned by Roy's sworn enemy, Ross Biederman. 

Because of this, Roy evicted the Coynes from their LMA. Within days, they moved WLDR's format to 94.5 Mackinaw City and 106.3 Thompsonville as North FM. They also moved their Traverse City studios to Building 50. North FM was a ratings flop, so they ended up relaying Q100 while WGRY's sports format moved to 1210 and 101.1 Traverse City and 1110 Petoskey. 

Henderson took the Coynes to court, which was all done virtually during the pandemic. The Coynes alleged that Henderson violated the contract because 99.3's signal was not at full power. All sorts of vitriol was put on Henderson because of his mismanagement. 

However, Henderson had his excuses. He told the judge - and even the FCC - that he hasn't been in the involvement in managing his stations for years because he had a heart attack several years ago. He now lives in Cascade Township - just outside Grand Rapids - in a townhouse over by the Walmart there. According to Henderson, he moved to GR to be close to his son, Ward, who now works in real estate. 

(Interesting fact regarding Ward: when Roy traded 1210 for AM 750 in Petoskey, he assigned 750 with the call sign WARD. On the other hand, 1210 was given WJNL since it now simulcasted 1110 WJML Petoskey. Oddly enough, WARD and WJNL were once the call signs of what is now CBS-owned independent tv station WPKD channel 19 in Pittsburgh, formerly a dual CBS and ABC affiliate in Johnstown, PA. Long-hampered with a poor signal and competition from far-superior Altoona CBS affiliate WTAJ-10, the station moved to the Pittsburgh area in the 1990s. Being a move-in expert, Henderson might know a thing or two about the station and its unique history.)

To make a long story short, after the judge read his verdict, the results were made confidential. But, he also had to report to the FCC, who made the results public. Simply put, he told Roy that he needed to buy the transmitter back if he wanted WLDR to broadcast ever again. Right before the verdict was made, Roy started broadcasting WLDR from the station's tiny relay tower on top of its West Bay studios with an oldies format. With a meager 800 watts, the station was only heard in Traverse City proper. He also re-signed 99.3 (now WLLS) and 92.3 WBNZ back on the air with various formats, such as adult standards and even an all-over-the-road rock format ala Q100.

Last April, all of Henderson's stations in northern Michigan fell silent due to financial distress. If the stations do not re-sign back on the air until then, the FCC will automatically revoke their licenses. Now, if WLDR, WARD, WBNZ, and WLLS all leave the air forever, the good news is that it could be a game-changer for the northern Michigan FM dial. The bad news is that if Henderson either A) allows his stations to be silenced forever or B) sells them all off (and he ain't gonna get a million bucks for sure), it's likely that it will probably go into the hands of a religious group like K-Love or the dolts who now own the old WFUR-FM 102.9 here in Grand Rapids, Bible Broadcasting Network.

(And in the "Don't Know What You've Got 'Til It's Gone Department", I used to trash WFUR for sounding boring and ancient. BBN's programming is just simply horrible.)

Coincidentally, guess who just lives down 28th Street from Roy? None other than Bob Goodrich. Maybe the two are good friends. 

If the world could ever learn anything from the Bob Goodriches, the Roy Hendersons, and the Tyrone Bynums of the world, it's NOT how to run a successful business. Gaslighting, lying and backstabbing are no ways of treating others. I've worked for many people in my lifetime and the company that I work for now is the sole employer I've ever had where I'm paid a decent wage, have good benefits, and haven't had my hours cut to make way for an asshole who can't wipe his own ass. I wanted to be a DJ growing up, and I'm happy I never got behind a microphone in my life knowing how idiotic radio station owners are.

If Bob Goodrich gets fined for the shit Tyrone's been pulling for years, it will be karma for putting his trust in the hands of someone who should not be trusted. He left the left in Grand Rapids voiceless. Judging by the ratings, 102.5 The Ride has few, if any riders.

As Trent Reznor sang, "Bow down before the one you serve, you're gonna get what you deserve."

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