WELCOME TO THE 2016 BEE-OTCH OF THE YEAR!
In 1999, a little website was launched on a WebTV called "Bring Howard Stern to Northern Michigan" and not long afterward, it became this very site. (Of course, if you live in Traverse City these days, you can listen to Howard on Sirius and, well, he doesn't have a TV show anymore.)
Not long after, its humble webmaster (me) decided to launch a new feature called "Bee-otch of the Day" to dishonor those who are, well, fucking stupid. Today, we do Bee-otch of the Day M-Th and the Bee-otch of the Week on Friday. At the end of the month, we do the Bee-otch of the Month.
Now, it's the end of the year, and of those eleven nominees (one person was awarded BOTM twice), we get to choose the one who gets to be the Bee-otch of the Year.
11) January: Rick Snyder
The Michigan governor is still facing the heat for the fact that Flint residents still don't have safe drinking water. In January, it was discovered that the tainted water was now giving people Legionnaire's Disease. Thankfully, there have been a few folks - including Snyder's now-former Emergency Manager for the city, Darnell Earley who also fucked up Detroit's schools - who have been charged for the massacre and some believe that Snyder could face jail time.
10) March: Nike
That month, the shoe giant was under scrutiny because people stood in long lines at shopping malls to purchase $140 pairs of Air Jordan sneakers. Many of those crowds rioted in malls in mostly black communities. But that's Nike, a company that has long used black athletes to promote a shoe that only costs a few bucks to make. But when the name "LeBron James" is slapped on that shoe, the price goes up and the poor negro must have it to jump high.
9) June: Jan Crouch
Bitch all you want about all the good people who died in 2016, but there were some losers who bit the dust, too. Jan was one of them. The co-founder of the Trinity Broadcasting Network died in June at the age of 78 from a stroke. TBN has long been notorious for using the so-called prosperity gospel to trick the poor and old to donate to the network. Plus, the fact that Jan's granddaughter several years ago revealed that the network was hiding millions of dollars and even hid her then-13-year-old sister's rape.
8) May: Wendy's
The good news about 2016 was that many Americans - thank you President Obama - got raises and are doing well financially. The bad news? If you work minimum wage, you can see your jobs shrink, especially if you work at Wendy's. The chain announced in May that they were going to roll out ordering kiosks at their 6,500 locations in an effort to cut back on workers. Of course, we could only wonder if this would ever happen if Dave Thomas was still alive. Talk about square, like their burgers.
7) July: David Boelkes
If you're 22 years old and you've just opened a store in a busy shopping mall, call yourself an entrepreneur. But if you sell something that should only be available at an animal shelter, then you're an asshole. David Boelkes was just that when he opened up the ill-fated Barking Boutique at Grand Rapids' Woodland Mall. He sold dogs that were bred in puppy mills and charged customers big bucks for them. Thanks to public outcry and boycotts of Woodland, The Barking Boutique was shuttered only a few days after it opened.
6) December: Bob Goodrich
This long-time Grand Rapids movie theater mogul and radio station owner jumped a giant shark when he fired a dear friend of mine, Darren Gibson, who was the programming director at WPRR 1680/Public Reality Radio. According to Darren, he claimed that Goodrich fired him because of ratings, but Darren also claimed that ratings weren't a reason for his firing and a lot of it had to do with a closed door meeting that fellow PRR host Tyrone Bynum attended with several Democrats. Gibson had been critical of the Dems on his show, Southpaws for bullying superdelegates into voting for Hillary Clinton instead of Bernie Sanders to lead the Democratic nomination for president.
5) February: Townsquare Media
For many years, Eric Zane was a humongous part of the popular Free Beer and Hot Wings Show, which originates from rocker 97.9 WGRD here in Grand Rapids. However, Zane was abruptly fired from the station with no total reason given. Some speculated that he was fired for blasting Joel Langlois, the owner of the Deltaplex and Intersection, which have concerts sponsored by WGRD. The good news was that Zane wasn't unemployed for long and was hired to do mornings at another radio station. The bad news? It's sports gabber WBBL 107.3, the home of the idiot blabbermouth "Huge" Bill Simonson. Now, Zane has turned into his toadie. FB&HW have maintained their ratings while Zane is pretty much washed up nowadays.
4) March: Michael Grey
If there was any good news about Eric Zane arriving at WBBL, it's that Michael Grey - who had been WBBL's morning host - was shown the door. WBBL had long-suffered in the ratings and hiring Zane did bump up ratings a bit. However, Grey responded with a cryptic Twitter post: "A fish rots from the head down". Bear in mind that this is the same prick who almost ran WGRD into the ground in the early 2000s but was successful in doing the same for WKLQ several years later as those stations' programming director. He's back on the air, this time as the PD of a rock station in Helena, MT, KKRK.
3) August: Cumulus Media
After 28 years on legendary Saginaw rocker WKQZ - Z93 as its morning host, Joe Volk was let go from the long-running Joe and the Poorboy show. The station, nor Volk revealed the reason for being let go, which angered some long-time listeners. The station now has a new morning show, The Morning After. Volk's firing comes months after sister station WHNN 96.1 dropped classic hits/oldies for adult contemporary. The company also had legal issues with former morning hosts Johnny Burke and Blondie, who moved their show to the internet after being fired from the station. Bear in mind that Cumulus' stock is hovering over a dollar. Hint, hint.
2) September: Steve "Omelette" Normandin
For a decade, Omelette was the morning man at Traverse City quasi-classic rocker WKLT (97.5/98.9) where he enjoyed being on the #2 radio station in the market. However, he was let go by the station. claiming budget cuts. Sadly, O-Man was nothing more than a Howard Stern clone, ripping off his Whack Pack (as The Misfits) and even having an "Intern Show" on his website. He even exploited the homeless, namely Madonna's brother Tony, who has battled alcoholism and at one point was living under a bridge in Traverse City. Omelette's firing did get mixed reaction with some saying "good riddance" and others saying that they'll miss him. However, there are a few who DON'T like the new morning show "The Morning Trainwreck" which was basically their former afternoon show. Not long after Omelette's firing, it was announced that WKLT along with sister stations classic hits 94.3/92.5 The Fox and ESPN 105.5 were being sold to Jerry and Sheryl Coyne, who own another rock station WQON/Q100 and CBS Sports Y101 in the Grayling area. The deal is expected to finalize in February.
AND THE BEE-OTCH OF THE YEAR IS....
October and November: Donald Trump
Trump was the only Bee-otch of the Month... TWICE! Sadly, he came to Grand Rapids way too many times thanks to the fact that his education secretary, billionaire Betsy Devos is from the area. It's a sad thing that people think that 2017 will be a good year comparing to 2016, but watch out! Trump will start to wipe away the winning policies Obama achieved in his eight years and unless you're a part of the 1%, prepare to suffer. But hey! Don't look at me! I didn't vote for the guy.
A whole bunch of new Bee-otches will be introduced after the new year!
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Got a Bee-otch to nominate? E-mail us @ chuck69dotcom@gmail.com. All suggestions (except for me) are welcome!
Bee-otch of the Day Archives can be seen on http://beeotchoftheday.blogspot.com!
Bee-otch of the Day is a production of Chuck69.com, Grand Rapids' site for Stern, politics and more!
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