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Name: terrestrial radio
Age: 91
Occupation: entertainers and informers using radio waves
Last Seen: everywhere
Bee-otched For: still making bad decisions
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Age: 91
Occupation: entertainers and informers using radio waves
Last Seen: everywhere
Bee-otched For: still making bad decisions
---
As some of you know, when I was a boy, I wanted to be in radio.
As a teen, I would be out in my Dad's garage, trying to catch e-skips in his old Buick. It was always cool being able to listen to big city stations with playlists that put the butt rock of WKLT to shame.
But, reality hit hard, and Telecom 96 was passed. Even now at 30 years old, I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up.
The same goes to the hundreds of DJs Clear Channel let go last week.
In an attempt to save some bucks, the nation's largest radio station owner announced that they were eliminating a crapload of DJs - many of whom worked in their mid-sized stations - and replacing them with jocks from their Premium Choice network. Basically put, Premium Choice is a service where a jock from one market will pre-record some liners and syndicate them to other markets. For instance, here in Grand Rapids, CC's popular top 40 outlet, WSNX is live and local most of their dayparts. However, overnights come from a woman named "Nessa", who is based out of San Francisco Churban station KYLD. I'll betcha that many other CC outlets air Nessa's show, since it's all generic liners and calls.
In all, it's believed that Clear Channel will save some $40-60 million by canning their jocks. After all, they could use the money since it's rumored that they're in nearly $20 billion in debt. OK, so it's OK to can a bunch of jocks that probably made less than $30,000 per year and yet Rush Limbaugh gets paid $400 million and Ryan Seacrest gets $60 million. Yep, that's understandable.
But, it serves Clear Channel right, especially since they still owe Howard Stern millions for yanking him off their stations after the Janet Jackson nip slip incident after the 2004 Super Bowl. It shows that the company only cares about listeners who probably barely graduated high school, especially with the current "talent" that they have at the moment.
The good news is, is that there is a radio station in northern Michigan that's hiring. Problem is, you must be supposedly living under a bridge, unemployed, and most importantly of all, Madonna's brother.
Legendary top 40 station 106 KHQ's morning man, Josh Garber recently ran a contest where he would pay anybody $200 if they could spot Anthony Ciccone, the brother of the pop diva. A few weeks ago, it was reported that Ciccone was living under a bridge in Traverse City because he lost his home from being unemployed. He previously worked at the family winery in nearby Suttons Bay. However, it's also rumored that Ciccone had been dealing with severe personal issues, mainly with drugs.
While a (albeit heavily-edited) podcast revealed that KHQ's listeners were very supportive of both sides of the Ciccone family and the growing homeless population of Traverse City - a town famous for tourism and where middle class is only somewhat existent - a former employee of KHQ's owner took it on himself to attack the station for such a stunt. He created a Facebook page called "Shame On Trish MacDonald-Garber" and claimed that the station was exploiting the homeless for ratings. After all, it's Fall, which is an important time for radio ratings. KHQ is already the top CHR in northern Michigan.
Oh, and for the record, Josh and Trish are not related.
In this case, sadly, neither KHQ or the asshole who created the Facebook page are in the right. KHQ tried to use a supposed druggie-slash-Madonna's brother for fame and ratings and the Facebook page creator, an unpaid DJ at college station WNMC who humiliated me on a popular message board years ago, only heightened it. It's situations like these that make me happier that I have a smartphone with my handy-dandy Sirius XM app. Thanks, but as much as people hate Howard Stern, he's not low enough to pull stunts like this.
There you have it, folks. That's radio. Do you own a station and want me to work for you? Ya gotta be competitive. If you replace me with some voicetracked schlub from San Francisco, it's your loss.
But, in the words of REM, "if wishes were trees, the tress would be falling".
--- As a teen, I would be out in my Dad's garage, trying to catch e-skips in his old Buick. It was always cool being able to listen to big city stations with playlists that put the butt rock of WKLT to shame.
But, reality hit hard, and Telecom 96 was passed. Even now at 30 years old, I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up.
The same goes to the hundreds of DJs Clear Channel let go last week.
In an attempt to save some bucks, the nation's largest radio station owner announced that they were eliminating a crapload of DJs - many of whom worked in their mid-sized stations - and replacing them with jocks from their Premium Choice network. Basically put, Premium Choice is a service where a jock from one market will pre-record some liners and syndicate them to other markets. For instance, here in Grand Rapids, CC's popular top 40 outlet, WSNX is live and local most of their dayparts. However, overnights come from a woman named "Nessa", who is based out of San Francisco Churban station KYLD. I'll betcha that many other CC outlets air Nessa's show, since it's all generic liners and calls.
In all, it's believed that Clear Channel will save some $40-60 million by canning their jocks. After all, they could use the money since it's rumored that they're in nearly $20 billion in debt. OK, so it's OK to can a bunch of jocks that probably made less than $30,000 per year and yet Rush Limbaugh gets paid $400 million and Ryan Seacrest gets $60 million. Yep, that's understandable.
But, it serves Clear Channel right, especially since they still owe Howard Stern millions for yanking him off their stations after the Janet Jackson nip slip incident after the 2004 Super Bowl. It shows that the company only cares about listeners who probably barely graduated high school, especially with the current "talent" that they have at the moment.
The good news is, is that there is a radio station in northern Michigan that's hiring. Problem is, you must be supposedly living under a bridge, unemployed, and most importantly of all, Madonna's brother.
Legendary top 40 station 106 KHQ's morning man, Josh Garber recently ran a contest where he would pay anybody $200 if they could spot Anthony Ciccone, the brother of the pop diva. A few weeks ago, it was reported that Ciccone was living under a bridge in Traverse City because he lost his home from being unemployed. He previously worked at the family winery in nearby Suttons Bay. However, it's also rumored that Ciccone had been dealing with severe personal issues, mainly with drugs.
While a (albeit heavily-edited) podcast revealed that KHQ's listeners were very supportive of both sides of the Ciccone family and the growing homeless population of Traverse City - a town famous for tourism and where middle class is only somewhat existent - a former employee of KHQ's owner took it on himself to attack the station for such a stunt. He created a Facebook page called "Shame On Trish MacDonald-Garber" and claimed that the station was exploiting the homeless for ratings. After all, it's Fall, which is an important time for radio ratings. KHQ is already the top CHR in northern Michigan.
Oh, and for the record, Josh and Trish are not related.
In this case, sadly, neither KHQ or the asshole who created the Facebook page are in the right. KHQ tried to use a supposed druggie-slash-Madonna's brother for fame and ratings and the Facebook page creator, an unpaid DJ at college station WNMC who humiliated me on a popular message board years ago, only heightened it. It's situations like these that make me happier that I have a smartphone with my handy-dandy Sirius XM app. Thanks, but as much as people hate Howard Stern, he's not low enough to pull stunts like this.
There you have it, folks. That's radio. Do you own a station and want me to work for you? Ya gotta be competitive. If you replace me with some voicetracked schlub from San Francisco, it's your loss.
But, in the words of REM, "if wishes were trees, the tress would be falling".
Got a Bee-otch to nominate? E-mail us @ chuck69dotcom@gmail.com. All suggestions (except for me) are welcome!
Bee-otch of the Day is a production of Chuck69.com, Grand Rapids' site for Stern, politics and more!
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